When Liv faced a loss that would rewrite her entire life, she stepped away from her work. A year and a half later, she returns to the BAU in search of normalcy; so she can finally move on. On a new team, Liv is immediately thrown into the game of ca...
✺✺✺ Thirteen: The Perfect Way To Piss Olivia Tate Off
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The BAU was quiet on days of filing. Most of the time, this would lead for the whole team, including Liv, to slowly be growing anxious for another assignment. The free time got old, fast. This time, Liv was soaking in the moments until they were called away once more. Something about the last case had worn her down.
May it have been her irrational decisions, a near brush with death, or Hotch's stern talking to, she didn't know. Maybe all. But she was deeply entranced with the files on her desk, and didn't even chime into the witty banter of her teammates around her. Perhaps it was the knowledge that Hotch had a clear view of them all from his office that made her want to keep her head down, whatever that meant.
She eyed her empty coffee cup from her seat, deciding at once that a third cup, in fact, wasn't too much. She mindlessly scooped up Derek's as well along the way, having heard multiple times how he truly believed there was no such thing as too much caffeine. Liv was busy stirring in Splenda when Penelope walked into the break room.
"Good morning gorgeous."
"Good morning." Liv smiled back. She had set down a sparkly pink coffee cup that was empty, which Liv took the note to refill without a word.
"Oh, thank you!" Penelope said in response, picking up the steaming cup and holding it to her face in admiration. She leaned against the counter, looking as if a cup of coffee was not the only thing she had come for. "Hey, so the other morning, did I get it right?"
"Huh?" Liv shot her a confused look. She now sipped her coffee too, finding that she had gotten it near perfect that time. Just the right sweetness.
"When you were late to the case review," She nudged with a cheeky smile, always being the one for gossip. "Was there a guy?"
Liv let out a light laugh, finding amusement in the girlish interest Penelope took in her. She shook her head as they both walked out of the break room together, wanting to give Derek his cup of coffee back sooner rather than later before it grew cold. "Trust me, if I had a man keeping me up all night, I'd have a lot less problems."
Liv turned abruptly at Derek's desk, stopping at a large body standing beside it. She just barely stopped her coffee from spilling before she looked up at it, her laugh from before quickly dying in her throat. "Hotch." She nodded, lying to herself that he hadn't heard a word. He stood there with his hands in the pockets of his suit, looking at her blankly as she set down Derek's coffee on his desk. As she did so, she could see the smile Derek was trying to kill.
She sunk back into her seat at her desk quickly, pretending to be all ears for whatever Hotch had come around to say. As her chair slid back, she heard a crunch.
