A Long Way From The Playground

CHAPTER 4

TIME SKIP 5 YEARS (Manhattan, New York)

Living in the city has its perks, like being able to walk to almost everything you could possibly need. The downside? Trying to figure out how the hell i'm gonna be able to pay for my apartment on my own. Kira decided to pursue her dream of traveling the world and who was i to stop her. I graduated from the academy and have been working with the FBI in New York for the past 3 years and I love it more and more everyday. I lock up my apartment on my way to the office when I see an embossed card in my mail bin, flipping it over there's no return address and I'm skeptical about opening it. Pulling out my blade I slice the top open and pull out the contents. I drop my knife on the floor when I see the fancy lettering. You are cordially invited to the celebration of marriage between Aaron Hotchner and Haley Brooks on the 23rd of June 1990. Ceremony to begin at 11 am food and drinks to follow. I feel sick to my stomach at the thought of even trying to go to their stupid wedding, how could he even think about inviting me? I shake my head and stuff the envelope into my bag, bending down to pick up my knife that I dropped and turning to walk out of my building. Outside, I slip my black sunglasses on and start walking towards the office, weaving in and out of the crowds of the city, 'hopefully it'll only take me 15 minutes to get to the office this time' i think to myself. As I approach the office I see 2 black suburban's pull up outside the side entrance, ignoring the commotion, I unclip my ID card from my bag and swipe it before heading to the metal detector's. In my peripheral I notice a small group of people entering the building, there's an older gentleman maybe in his late 50's, another man who looks to be my age, a scrawny little kid who and Aaron Hotchner. Wait, Aaron Hotchner?! Oh fuck. I scramble to get myself situated grabbing my bags off the belt before making my way towards the elevators.
"Ms. Andrews! You have a package in the mailroom, please don't forget to grab it on your way out later okay?" Martin, one of the security guards yells to me and I wave back.
"Don't worry Marty, i won't forget this time. I'll probably send one of the girls down to grab it for me later anyway, I gotta run, new case! Bye!" I yell back. Reaching the elevators I slam my elbow into the up button 3 or 4 times hoping that it would show up faster, the last thing I want to do is have Hotchner bump into me. The bell dings and the doors open, I press the button for the 17th floor and hit the door close button sighing in relief that nobody else decided to get on. When the elevator finally stops on my floor, I step off and walk down the hallway towards our bullpen.
"Yo! Ryles! Wait up!" I turn my head seeing my partner Sam running towards me.
"Good morning Sam, what disgusting fact do you have for me today?" I ask as I continue walking towards my desk.
"Mornin' I don't have a fact but I do have a message for you, Chief Weigner wants you in his office asap, it sounded important." Sam says playing with the bottom of his tie.
"Ah shit, its probably because i forgot to type up my case report from yesterday, but it wasn't my fault, those idiotic trainees need coddling and I'm not the type to fucking coddle you know that." I say dropping my bag on the floor next to my desk. I pat him on the shoulder and walk towards Weigner's office preparing myself for the verbal beat down I'm going to get. Walking up to his door it's already open, I knock on the door frame before sticking my head inside the office.
"You needed me sir?"
"Ryleigh Andrews, I've got good news and bad news for ya, which did ya want first?" He says glancing up at me from under his glasses.
"Uh bad i guess sir"
"Bad news is you're losing an agent on your squad, Greenaway is being transferred to sex crimes in Quantico, Virginia. Damn shame cause she was a good agent here which means you'll be training a new agent understood?" He says handing me a thick Manila folder.
"Wow, it's a shame, i agree. Elle was a good agent and will be sorely missed. Is this the file on the new agent sir?" I ask thumbing through the paperwork
"Yes, and they should be here soon. Which brings me to the good news, that last case your squad worked on got the attention of the BAU, apparently they need your paperwork to close a case of theirs . I don't know, didn't ask too many questions. It came directly from the higher ups. But they should be here soon. You'll hand your files over to an agent Jason Gideon i believe his name is, he's their chief. So grab your squad and their paperwork and put it together for them. You've got a new case for when you're done with that bureaucratic shit." He says laughing and shaking his head.
"Yes sir, anything else?" I laugh with him. He shakes his head and gestures towards the door. Taking that as my cue to leave I pulled the door closed behind me and headed back to the bullpen. I whistled loudly in the bullpen to get my squad's attention before hearing the elevator bell.
"Yo anyone who worked that serial case with me. I need your paperwork now, not in an hour, now. And then I need Sam, Hector and Isabel to get these up on the conference room board. We've got a new case and no time to spare. Uhh someone also grab Tess from tech please? We will need her on the case too." I say before grabbing my paperwork from the desk drawer. One by one the team hands me their paperwork before heading off to the conference room.
"Excuse me, are you SSA Andrews?" I hear from behind me
"Yeah sadly that's me what can i do for you?"
"SSA Jason Gideon from the behavioral Analysis Unit, I'm here about the paperwork from your last case." He says shaking my hand
"Nice to meet you, here everything you need to close it should be here. If it's not lemme know? I gotta brief my team but it was nice to meet you, anything else can get run through Chief Weigner K? I say turning around to head upstairs.
"Ellie..?"
I ignore it and keep walking feeling like a walking panic attack.

Short Hotchner POV
Excuse me, are you SSA Andrews?" Gideon asks
"Yeah sadly that's me what can i do for you?"
"SSA Jason Gideon from the behavioral Analysis Unit, I'm here about the paperwork from your last case." He says shaking her hand. It's her there's no doubt about it, after all these years who would've thought she was only a few hours away, running her own team in the big apple. She sounds so powerful and confident now.
"Nice to meet you, here everything you need to close it should be here. If it's not lemme know? I gotta brief my team but it was nice to meet you, anything else can get run through Chief Weigner K?" She says before turning to walk away. I step to the side of Gideon and take a one in a million chance.
"Ellie...?" She doesn't even seem phased and continues walking.
"Ellie? I thought her name was Ryleigh Hotch?" Derek asks, giving me a curious look.
"If I'm right, that's Ryleigh Elenor Andrews. Hence the 'Ellie' nickname." I say shaking my head. "I just don't know why she didn't respond to it this time, she always used to."
"Who was she Hotch?" Gideon asks
"The one that I shouldn't have let go.." I say, shaking my head and walking away. I turn my head back to the conference room , hoping we make eye contact, but she just turns back to her team.

1473 words
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A/N
So so so sorry about this, Wattpad for some reason deleted my other chapter and that's why it was mislabeled. This is the actual chapter 4 and because a couple of you already read through chapter 5 I'm going to be reposting it so you technically get 2 chapters today.
I'm also publishing my books on Ao3 just in case.
Thanks for your support!!
Stay safe and healthy friends xx