Smile | Aaron Hotchner

Chapter Three

general pov

The team were all sat in the briefing room, waiting for Hotch to arrive. He'd told them that he needed to speak to them, but nobody was aware of any cases, so they didn't know why.

"Thank you all for coming in. I need to speak to you all about some changes that will be happening within the BAU," he said, catching the teams attention.

"What's going on? Did something happen?" Morgan asked, a concerned look on his face.

The same thoughts filled the minds of each of the agents. Was Strauss trying to get Hotch to step down again? Or trying to get one of them to transfer?

Sensing their worries, Hotch carried on talking.

"Don't worry, this has nothing to do with Strauss. We have a new agent joining us. She was previously a detective with the Pittsburgh Police Department, where she earned a reputation for being one of the best," Hotch explained.

The team exchanged glances with each other from around the table. On one hand, they were anxious about having a new agent joining them. But on the other hand, they didn't want to form an opinion on her before she even got there.

"What's her name?" Garcia asked curiously.

"Skye Freeman."

After asking a few more questions, Hotch, Rossi and JJ all returned to their offices, while everyone else went to their desks in the bullpen.

"Right, let's do this," Garcia said, as everyone crowded around her and her computer.

"Do what?" Reid asked, genuinely having no idea what was going on.

"Oh my innocent genius, you can be so dumb sometimes. We're trying to see what we can find out about a certain Skye Freeman," Garcia explained with a sigh.

"Are you sure you should be doing that? You could get in trouble with Hotch, or even worse, Strauss. Plus I'm sure she wouldn't want us digging through her life before she's even met us," Reid tried to reason with them.

"First of all, trouble is what landed me with this job. Second of all, don't tell me you don't want to at least know something about the person that you are going to be working with for hours each day," Garcia argued.

"You know, you could always just ask her," a voice said from behind them.

They turned around, and a look of panic flashed over their faces as they saw an unfamiliar woman stood there.

"I'm the new agent, Skye Freeman," she introduced herself, chuckling slightly.

"I'm SSA Derek Morgan, this is technical analyst Penelope Garcia, SSA Emily Prentiss and SSA Dr Spencer Reid, and the others are in their offices," Morgan said, as they each took it in turns shaking Skye's hand.

When she got to Reid, he kept his hands in his pockets and shook his head, causing her to look at him in confusion, whilst putting her own hand back by her side.

"He doesn't like to shake hands," Prentiss explained, and Skye nodded, still slightly confused.

"SSA Freeman?" Hotch questioned, appearing behind her.

"Yes sir," she said, turning to face him.

"I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner. Welcome to the BAU," he said, shaking her hand. "We can finalise the paperwork in my office now."

She nodded, following him up the stairs and into his office, before both of them took a seat.

Skye and Hotch finished filling out some forms, and he told her a bit more about the way the BAU operates.

"Is that your son?" She asked, gesturing in the direction of a photo frame on the desk.

"Yes it is, his name's Jack," Hotch answered, a small smile crossing his lips.

"He's so cute," Skye said, and he nodded in agreement.

She was about to say something else, when there was a knock at the door, and JJ walked in.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we've got a case," she said.

"That's fine. Agent Jareau, this is Skye Freeman, our new agent. Agent Freeman, this is Jennifer Jareau, she's the communications liaison for the team," Hotch introduced them.

"Nice to meet you," Skye said, standing up to shake her hand.

"You too. I'm sorry we got called in on a case on your first day," she said, smiling sympathetically.

"Speaking of cases, how do you feel about joining us on this one agent?" Hotch asked.

"I'd love to," Skye answered.

"Ok, well I'll see you two in the briefing room, I just need to go and get the others," JJ said, closing the door behind her.

"Here's your gun and badge. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me at any time," he said, as Skye took her new belongings from him.

"Thank you sir," she said smiling at him.

For a hint of a second, she swore she saw him smiling back at her, but then it was gone.

Hotch stood up, holding the door open for Skye, and she walked through it before following him to what she assumed was the briefing room.

"Dave, this is SSA Skye Freeman, Freeman this is SSA David Rossi, and I believe you've already met the rest of the team," Hotch said, before taking a seat.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Agent Rossi, I'm a huge fan of your books," she said, shaking his hand, before also sitting down.

"It's nice to meet you too, and please, call me Dave," Rossi said.

For the next ten minutes, JJ briefed the team on the case, and they started to see what they could find out about the unsub from the crime scene photos.

"Wheels up in ten," Hotch said, before going back to his office.