Loved and Lost / Emily Prentiss

Chapter 1

Christina woke up to the sound of her phone ringing. Even half asleep, she knew what that meant.

A new case.

Christina was a member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. She had been working there for almost two years now, and for the most part, she loved her job. Her co-workers, agents Jason Gideon, Spencer Reid, Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau (JJ), technical analyst Penelope Garcia, and even her boss, Aaron Hotchner (Hotch), were Christina's closest friends.

Since Christina was a little girl, she dreamed of having a job that involved saving lives. In that sense, the BAU was her dream job - they did that almost every day. Still, being an FBI agent meant seeing some pretty heavy shit. And, more tragically, being on call 24/7 meant a full night's sleep was never promised.

Christina groped around blindly, eventually locating her phone and poking aimlessly in the general vicinity of the green button.

"Good morning, JJ," Christina drawled into the phone, her eyes still shut. She hadn't even bothered to check the caller ID - JJ was always the one to call her about a new case. She, JJ and Garcia had their own little trio - no boys allowed. They had a tradition of going to bars or clubs together whenever they had a Friday or Saturday night off, and their favorite activity was lying to cocky, desperate men about their jobs. Christina could hold an impressively long conversation about consulting when she hadn't consulted a day in her life.

"Good morning, Theis," chuckled a mocking voice. Christina's eyes fluttered open. It was not, in fact, JJ on the other end of the line.

"Morgan," Christina chuckled back, her own voice returning back to normal. She and Morgan got along instantly upon meeting - they had the same sense of humor, which Hotch frequently reminded them wasn't work-appropriate, but Christina had caught him smiling at their jokes on more than one occasion.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of - " she checked her watch, "-being woken up at 8:53 am?" Of course, she already knew the answer.

"New case. JJ's about to brief us. How fast can you get down here?"

"20 minutes," Christina replied, throwing her covers aside and sliding out of bed.

"Hotch says make it 15."

"Well, you can tell Hotch-" Christina began playfully.

"15 minutes, Theis," she heard a much sterner voice say. She recognized it as belonging to her boss. Though Hotch had a cold demeanor, Christina was never really fazed by it, and she treated him just as she did the rest of the team. Still, she knew better than to step on his toes too much.

"You heard the man," Morgan chuckled before hanging up.

Christina scrambled to shower, get dressed, and drive to work in time. Getting ready quickly was one of the many skills she had mastered since joining the BAU. She made it to headquarters with two minutes to spare, and proudly strutted into the bullpen towards Morgan and Reid, who sat atop their respective desks, eyes glued on Hotch's office door. She was surprised they hadn't begun the briefing already.

"13 minutes 17 seconds," she declared, coming up behind Morgan and sticking her watch in his face. He smirked and rolled his eyes, playfully shoving her arm away. "Wait, were you guys seriously waiting for me to start the briefing?"

"Actually, JJ was ready to brief us 2 minutes and 27 seconds ago, but some woman I've never seen before is with Hotch in his office," Reid answered. "Oh, and good job. New record," he said, pointing to your watch and smiling at you. Reid was the closest in Christina's age to the team, the two being only one year apart. Even though she and Morgan loved teasing him, she could listen to Reid recite random facts for hours. She forbid him from sitting next to her at the movies, though, because he had talked so much during Pride and Prejudice that she hadn't been able to retain a single word.