FBI profiler turned firefighter, Anastasia Valdez, moves to Los Angeles for a fresh start after the loss of her fiancé. A career switch plus moving across the country make for a great conversation starter.
or
In which fires aren't the only thing ig...
!! characters from criminal minds are mentioned but you dont need to watch the show to understand this chapter
After getting punched in the arm by Anastasia, Buck thought it was a great idea to workout with her to see if her FBI and firefighting training was drastically different from what he's been doing over the years. What he didn't expect was for her and Tatum to normally go on long runs on trails. "Why are we running in the woods, you psychos?" Buck hunched over, because Tatum finally slowed down for water, and he looked at Anastasia who was slightly panting, but overall seemed unfazed.
After pouring out some water for Tatum, Anastasia drank some herself before explaining, "It's safer than running on the street and we don't have to worry about dodging people. I took him to a park once and kids kept running at him to pet him."
Buck nodded in understanding and reached out for her water since he mistakenly left his in his car. "You realize we have to run back for all those miles, right?" Buck heaved. "I could really go for a burrito right now."
"How about we make it through the run first? Tatum can slow down if you need him to." Anastasia teased, rubbing the back of the Rottweiler's neck while looking up at Buck.
From the way Tatum was panting and looking up as well, Buck thought it looked like he was laughing at him for not being able to keep up. In his mind, Buck was having a conversation with him. "I'm okay, just got caught off guard at the end." Buck stated. "I'm ready to g—"
Buck was cut off by Anastasia's phone ringing, and when she looked at the caller ID, it was obvious that she wasn't expecting the call. "Hey, Prentiss."
"Hey Valdez, you still work with the LAFD, right?" Emily asked, getting right into why she called. Anastasia confirmed the statement, not wondering why they were asking unless,
"Don't tell me you have a case here."
Though she talked to her old team often, hearing Emily Prentiss' voice, the now Unit Chief of the BAU, was a little weird considering how busy they get. "Unfortunately we do, and we're headed there now. There's been a string of murders with the same MOs, but they never connected them because they happened in multiple jurisdictions. Your department dealt with one at a restaurant, but the unsub messed up and no one was injured, thats why we didn't think this was serial. Are you able to meet soon?"
"Um, I'm kind of in the middle of a park forest right now, but I can be back in the car in 20 minutes." Anastasia stated, but it came off as a question because she wasn't sure. Usually she was the one chasing the bad guys, so to be the one getting questioned about what happened was out of her element.
When the call finally ended, Buck and Tatum looked at Anastasia expectedly. "That didn't sound normal."
"My FBI team's coming here, and I think we're all witnesses."
× × ×
After getting back to the car, the team ended up explaining everything, so when it came time for the next shift, both Bobby and Anastasia had to explain what was happening. The team has been around a serial arsonist before, but usually they just put the fire out and let the LAPD deal with it. But everyone knowing that the FBI was in town put a lot of people on edge. "Is this real life? First the Corona and now there's a serial killer burning people alive?"
"Hopefully both end soon. Being away from my kids with all of this going on is stressing me out." Hen commented.
With every call about a fire, the team was hoping it didn't have anything to do with the case because even though they wanted this person to be caught, they didn't want to see any bodies. In general, finding people that didn't survive was hard to handle, but knowing they were intentionally trapped and murdered was harder than knowing they were just unfortunately not able to get out in time.
Fortunately, most of their calls were smaller like car crashes and cats in trees. About halfway into their shift, they finally got a call about a fire at a small family restaurant, the MO they were supposed to look out for. Unlike the last one, this restaurant fire actually killed people and the doors were locked, preventing most people from getting out. After putting out the fire, part of the BAU team, JJ, Luke, Emily, and Matt, finally came to do their own investigation. "I will say, I missed the Valdez and Alvez duo." JJ commented when the team saw Anastasia take off her helmet.
"And I did not." Anastasia jokingly replied. When Luke Alvez joined the team, it was a sort of inside joke that he and Anastasia were basically partners in crime just because their last names sounded familiar.
"Do they know how many bodies?" JJ was looking over to the front of the building where everyone was carrying out black bags and putting them under a tent.
On the side, a safe distance away from the now charred building, were other restaurant customers and workers, trying to look around and identify their loved ones who didn't make it out. "I saw like twenty when we finally got the doors opened. He's attacking during the day and perfecting his technique to go for more people. If he keeps evolving, it's possible he might leave the family businesses for bigger chain restaurants."
"Well, we're delivering the profile later today. We'll give it out to all the fire departments, so you guys won't be in the dark." Luke stated.
Anastasia nodded and looked over to her new team who was spread out, either helping pack up or tend to the bodies. "You know, this really isn't what I meant when I said you guys should come visit soon." She joked as a way of trying to lighten the depressing mood. "I'll let you guys get to work to catch the bad guy."
"Go fight your fires, Valdez."
"Shut up, Alvez." Anastasia sang as she subtly flipped him off. The interaction making the mood less intense with their brother-sister-like banter. "Buckley, wanna help me with this hose?" Anastasia batted her eyelashes, poking her hip out with her back now facing the FBI agents.
Looking up from his task on the side of the firetruck, Buck turned to Anastasia while she still held a small smile on her face. "Do I have to?"
"Do you want your burritos or not?"
"Okay, that's just evil."
lmao i didnt know what to do for filler chapters for the 3month timeskip but i wanted a lil bau so might as well 😹 they probably won't be in the next chapter as long so that's gonna be like all bonding time with Anastasia & buck
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