Chapter Text
Following after the stoic dark-haired man that as of a few minutes ago became your new boss, he stopped in his tracks in front of a lacklustre brown door and opened it. There was already a name on it, something with a lot of J’s…
Leaning against it, he let you pass into what was now your new office. It wasn’t really anything to rave about. The fact that the only windows in the entire room were faced out into the hallway, almost made it feel like a little cave, a hiding spot, the shutters being drawn just amplified the feeling. The walls were beige and the furniture plain and dark. It was a blank canvas, a fresh start.
“This is it,” agent Hotchner nodded politely, “and you can of course make it your own however you’d like.”
“Oh, it’s fine, really,” you moved to brush your left hand over the desk, your lips curled up at the feeling of the smooth, cool surface. Your right hand was still buried deep within your pant pocket, playing lightly with the small round rock that resided in there. It was usually cold to the touch, but your fingers had been glued to it for the last hour, so now it almost radiated heat like a small sun. “Maybe it just needs a little plant or something, a succulent maybe? Something that doesn’t need a lot of care… or light…”
“Oh, and I’ll make sure the nametag on the door is changed by the end of the day,” he gestured and glanced over his shoulder at it.
“Sure, it’s no rush,” you waved your hand in front of you, “I mean, it’s just a sign.”
Biting your lip, you turned around to take in the new space once again. This was gonna be like a second home with the long hours you already knew this job entailed. But it felt good, there was a sense of calm and security when you looked around. It just felt right.
“So, you know where your office is now, you know where mine is,” you turned to look at him, “David Rossi’s office is right next door to mine and the rest of the team, except for our technical analyst, have desks down in the bullpen and the roundtable room is just to the right in there, down in the corner.”
“Alright,” you breathed out, trying your best to absorb the information, “I hope it won’t take too long for me to remember where everything is.”
“It’s okay, I know the building is big, but you’ll get the hang of it in no time.” Gesturing for you to follow him back out of the room, “I think that’s about it,” he extended his hand to you, “welcome to the team agent Y/l/n.”
Giving it a firm, short shake with your left hand, you smiled “thank you, sir.” Then let go and cast your vision down, avoiding his gaze, “oh,” you noticed, “I think I left my jacket in your office.”
“Well, then you can walk me back,” he started to move, keeping his pace slow so that you could follow along.
Holding the big glass doors open for you, he called the attention of a couple standing by one of the desks, bickering, “oh, agent Y/l/n, this is SSA Derek Morgan and Emily Prentiss.”
“You’re the new liaison?” the man you’d guess was Morgan asked, moving closer and reaching out his right hand to shake yours.
“Yeah,” trying not to think too much about it, you let go of the small stone and reached out your hand, “I am,” giving his hand a quick shake, “I know I have some big fills to shoe, um, I mean big shoes to fill.” Quickly shaking the slight embarrassment off, you blushed and then caught the woman’s hand, “uhm, let me start over, hi, I’m Y/n Y/l/n.”
“Hi Y/n, it’s great to have you join the team,” Prentiss chuckled.
“I’m excited to start!” you retracted your hand and instinctually covered your left palm over your right, giving it a light squeeze and then softly tracing your thumb over the faded scars in a self-soothing manner, “and it’s a pleasure to meet you, really, I’ve heard loads about you both.”
“All good I hope,” Morgan smirked.
Elbowing him in the rib, Prentiss joked, “yeah, HR probably warned her about you.”
“Hey, I have never and will never date a co-worker, always been a rule of mine never to date a woman with a gun. Good thing for me that there are so many without.”
Rolling her eyes at him, Emily turned her attention back to you, “I don’t know about Rossi, but if you hang around for a moment, you might be able to catch Reid once he gets back from his coffee run.”
“Sure, I’d love to meet him, just let me grab my jacket real quick,” you turned and disappeared up the stairs.
Once you returned, now in possession of your outerwear, Morgan grinned, leaning against his desk, “Y/l/n, you can wait at pretty boy’s desk over there, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Your eyes followed the nod of his head over to see the cluttered desk he was referring to, stacks of old books and post-its littered everywhere, “Oh, okay, sure!”
Carefully sitting down in the chair, you couldn’t help but notice the content of the books. It was like he had one book for each number in the dewy decimal system, no two were the same genre.
“So, Y/l/n,” Emily looked over the screen that divided the two workspaces, “you’re fresh out of the academy?”
“Do I really look that green?” you sighed.
“Ah, it’s not that bad, trust me. Sorry, not to profile you or anything, it’s just kinda radiating off you, with the way that you keep looking around.”
“I’m guessing it can be hard to turn off?”
“Yeah…”
“It’s fine, might take a bit for me to get used to working with people who are basically mind readers, but it’s fine, I don’t mind it.” Hugging your jacket a bit closer to your body, you cracked a few knuckles on your right hand and came back to her question, “but, yeah, I am pretty new, I guess, but trust me I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t any good. Not having a life outside of school and work occasionally pays off. That and being a kiss ass to all the instructors,” you joked light-heartedly.
Just then, a man balancing a few to-go coffee cups came through the doors and sauntered over toward you all.
Turning his head, Morgan smiled and stretched his arm out to retrieve one of the beverages, “speaking of no life outside of school and work, pretty boy, come meet Y/l/n, the new liaison.”
Handing a cup off to each of his co-workers, the messy-haired man slowed his stride as he laid his eyes on you.
Your eyes widened slightly at the sight of him. He wasn’t exactly what you’d expected. Couldn’t be much older than you, but then again, those puppy dog eyes did give him an innocence that made him stand out in this environment. To be completely honest, his sharp features made you think that he had just come back from a photoshoot and not the coffee shop. Okay, focus, you’ve just met this man, you cannot be attracted to your new co-worker.
“Hi, you must be Reid. Oh,” shooting up, you took a step away from the table, “sorry I’m sitting at your desk, they said it was fine. I swear I didn’t touch anything.”
“Um, it’s okay, I…” he stammered, blinking hard for a moment, “I’m doctor Spencer Reid.”
“Y/n Y/l/n, it’s great to meet you,” you inched closer to him, reaching out your left hand.
Looking down at it he licked his lips and gave a polite smile, “uh, hi, welcome,” but didn’t move to grasp your hand. Looking over at Emily to see if you’d done something wrong, her quirked eyebrow made you slowly retract your fingers.
“Don’t take it personally, he’s a germophobe,” she informed.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” you felt the heat rise in your cheeks, “I’ll remember, I promise.”
“It’s fine,” he blinked.