Unexpected Legacy [Criminal Minds]

[1] Unexpected

November 2009

"Do you have Agent Hollis' file for me?" Erin Strauss asked, looking up from the paperwork she was working on when one of her assistants knocked on the open door.

"I do, ma'am," the assistant replied as she entered the office, glancing down at the paper-clipped Manila folder in her hands before looking back up at the Section Chief for the Behavioral Analysis Unit.

"Thank you," Erin said, extending her hand out for the file. "Just hand it to me. That will be all."

"You're welcome, ma'am," the assistant said, leaving Erin alone to look at the file that she had just been given.

Erin Strauss opened the file that belonged to Doctor Rowan Hollis, a young agent that had caught her eye, along with many other eyes, whilst she was in the FBI Academy. She was an impressive agent at only twenty-four years old.

Having been overseeing the Behavioral Analysis Unit for years, she learned to look over every file and read through every footnote. As such, Erin noticed the marks about Agent Hollis' rebellious streak that other section chiefs missed while they had been caught up in the reports of Hollis' prowess.

An agent with a minor rebellious streak wouldn't have just been enough for Erin to want to have her on the team to test the patience and leadership skills of Aaron Hotchner, the BAU's Unit Chief. No, this agent was something else, and Erin was going to confirm it for herself with this new file on Doctor Hollis.

"Well... this was not what I expected," Erin mused to herself when she looked at the birth certificate that took quite a while to be found. It was the state's original copy, from before Doctor Hollis had been adopted when she was a child, and the birth certificate changed.

The father was listed as Aaron Hotchner. Erin could feel the gears in her brain turning. This was unprecedented, to allow an agent onto a unit where a parent was also involved. It often created conflicts of interest. It made things too personal.

But this could be exactly what Erin would need to uproot Agent Hotchner from his position of Unit Chief. He had been a pain in her side politically for years. Now would be a time to create an impossible situation that would make it so that she can prove the flaws in his leadership.

That is if he was to find out this information about Doctor Hollis. Erin knew she couldn't volunteer this information. Her own career could be on the line if the people higher up than her knew that she had intentionally allowed this to happen for this reason.

This was why she had to search for this information discreetly and quietly. It had been noted in a footnote that Doctor Hollis' marksmanship was similar to when Agent Hotchner had been a sniper before joining the BAU during her firearm training. Having been around profilers for so long, Erin looked long and hard at the image of the two agents, and something had clicked. It was then she started asking questions.

Though they weren't questions that would raise any alarms. Just general questions about the background of this agent. This led Erin down the discreet rabbit hole that led her to the information she has now.

She set the file down and picked up the landline phone on her desk to input a few numbers. There was someone she needed to alert before she put in the approval for a new agent being in the BAU.

"Agent Hotchner, may I have a word with you?"

~~~~~

"Alright, thank you, ma'am. Goodbye," Aaron Hotchner said before hanging up the phone, glancing up at the man standing in his doorway. He placed his hands folded on his desk, sighing.