[𝟐] 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 - 𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨

𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐄

IF YOU ASKED ME A YEAR IF I THOUGHT I'D BE THE UNIT CHIEF OF THE BAU, I'D THINK YOU WERE ON DRUGS. I always thought Hotch would be here until he died. I mean, he ate, slept, and breathed this job. I just thought he'd never leave.

Being the unit chief with Emily for Interpol taught me a lot about myself and my skills. I know I can handle this position. Especially with Emily by my side. I have no doubt in my mind that we are more than capable to lead this team to success. We did it once before, we can do it again.

Although, for the BAU, it's a little different. Emily and I need to be on the same page a lot more than we had to be in London. We typically are so I'm not too nervous about it. Because of this, we decided to have the same office. There was a dividing wall between Derek's old office and Hotch's that moved, so it's a bigger space. We're not on top of each other. We kept the couch here for Rosie if she decides to join us for some nights.

We did not have time for a warmup. We were able to increase the budget to add a new agent. We had resumes up to our knees to look through. There was already a large stack of files we needed to look through and a smaller maybe pile. We had already gotten to work. If we're trying to locate Scratch on top of everything, we need another agent as soon as possible.

So here we were. In our new office at the BAU. Tara knocked on the door and walked in with two different pots of flowers. "I come bearing office-warming gifts"

That was so sweet of her.

"Oh, that is so nice. Thank you." I smiled. She set one down on my desk and one on Emily's.

"So, how's it going?" She asked us.

"Weird." Emily replied. I nodded.

"Yeah?"

"It started with the I'm gonna hurl first day jitters, but now there's this. We were able to increase the budget to hire a new agent." Emily said. I was proud of us for that one.

"That's great." Tara spoke with a smile.

"Yeah. Anyway, what's up?" Emily asked her.

"I was just checking to see if we had a case." Tara said.

Surprisingly, we didn't at this very second. "We don't." I replied.

"We don't?" She asked.

"No, uh- I can double check..." I trailed off and saw Garcia walking through the halls. "Garcia!"

She walked in. "Ma'am."

"Please stop calling me ma'am." I let out and looked down. I think it's funny but it makes me feel way older than I am.

"We haven't been called in anywhere, have we?" Emily asked her.

"No. As of 9:27 eastern standard time, all serial killers have taken the day off. Maybe they went to therapy." Garcia replied. One can only hope.