Please Don't Go (The Story of Us Book 3)

Chapter 10- The New Normal

When Amanda Hotchner very first joined the BAU, she wanted to be just like David Rossi and Jason Gideon. To the 17-year-old, they were the end all be all of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Not only had they created a new unit after years of hard work, but they had also convinced the director to believe in the inexact science of profiling and Amanda loved that. Her whole life, reading people was easy. She could tell so much about a person's life with just a single glance and she thought everyone could. That's why, once she realized that everybody's father didn't hit them, she grew confused on why nobody ever tried to help them.

That's where Kristen came in. The first time they played their heartbreak game was after someone had been mean to Sean. Amanda was fiercely protective of her brothers at the time so she wanted revenge and she plotted it with Kristen. Kristen had been fascinated by how Amanda could gather so much about the kid that had done it without even speaking to him and that's when Amanda realized the truth. Her ability to read people was just another thing that made her a freak.

But then she met David Rossi and she didn't feel like a freak anymore. She felt like she finally knew where she belonged and she wanted to go down in history with the greats who had founded the BAU.

When she stepped foot in the BAU for the first time, back when it wasn't a floor of agents but just a small room that barely fit the three of them and two ancient computers to work with although at the time they were new. Back then she knew with absolute certainty that she would run the BAU someday. Then she found out Aaron had joined the academy and left. Suddenly, that dream seemed so far away.

Now, here she is, leading Unit Chief of the BAU in a happy and now public relationship with her first love. Both things required a bit of adjustment. After Amanda had revealed their relationship in LA, the team left the following morning. Amanda and Spencer acted exactly how they normally acted on the jet. They sat across from each other, both reading whatever book tickled their fancy that day, occasionally looking up from said books to make a comment about them.

The rest of the team watched them, coming to the conclusion that they could not be in a relationship. They were simply too normal to be in a newly public relationship. With this in mind, they left the jet and headed up to the 6th floor to do their paperwork for the day. When the elevator opened, they revealed Garcia who was anticipating their arrival. Amanda was the first off the elevator making her way to her friend. "So, I wanted to be the first to tell you if Derek didn't text you last night about it. Spencer and I are dating, we have been for almost a year now. Please don't make a big deal about it."

This causes the team to pause. Revealing the relationship to them was one thing if it was false information but everyone knew that Garcia wasn't exactly good at keeping secrets something which was showcased with her loud gasp and even louder question. "You and Spencer are together and you didn't tell me?" Spencer shakes his head and moves to Amanda's side, balancing on his crutch and looking at Penelope.

"We didn't tell you because we weren't telling the rest of the team either. Amanda just told them last night."

"Why last night?"

"Because we went to a club and saw Lila," Spencer begins.

"And she started flirting with Spencer when she didn't even ask about his injury so I told her off. The team heard and I decided keeping it a secret was dumb because the person he didn't want to know about it was Aaron and he didn't seem to care that he thought we were sleeping together past being able to use it against me. Not that it really worked." That got Garcia's attention placed on Hotch. He managed to deflect onto Emily who placed the attention on Derek.

It took the team a few weeks to adjust to the idea of their two resident geniuses being in a relationship just because of how normal they acted around each other. About the same time that they finally came to terms with the relationship, Strauss stopped bugging Morgan about his new position. This made things run a lot smoother in the unit. JJ, Amanda, and Derek would go through the stack of files to determine priority and when they found one, they would be able to work it right away.