𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙾𝚍𝚍𝚜 | 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚒𝚍

Coming Together Again

"𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘐 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥."

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The first time Aitana saw Emily Prentiss well and alive, she turned went into ugly-crying mode in about a minute. She had tried to keep herself calm and use her words to express what she felt seeing a friend she thought died...but it all went south the moment she saw Emily in the conference room. She may as well have been her nephew Logan when he went into a tantrum. Incoherent words and sobs is how she greeted Emily. And hugs. Many, many hugs were given. Emily was kind enough to let her go through the different phases of her emotions but by the end of things, Aitana was still embarrassed she'd come undone like that.

The team was just happy that it seemed like everyone was coming back like before. Aitana had a long and serious talk with Hotch on her first day back at the BAU regarding her future. While the team had been suspended, Aitana had taken care of filing through the cases that had been sent to the BAU. She organized them as much as she could being on her own and now that everyone was back, they were going through them. Aitana was doing it "officially" as a profiler only. That was what she was being paid for until she graduated.

Hotch reminded her that she didn't have the obligation to perform any liaison duties until then, but Aitana insisted that it was what she wanted to do. She was determined to keep both sides of the job. But in the meantime that happened, all corresponding liaison files would be coming in through Penelope first — officially. Aitana thought it was fine, Penelope wouldn't mind sharing the duties outside of the official terms anyways. She'd already made it clear how much she missed her liaison partner. Everything seemed to be falling into place...until it wasn't. Nobody said anything whether or not it affected them directly, but they all saw and noticed. It was little things, sure, but nonetheless things they saw.

"So you finished the course?" Emily asked JJ DJ their way to the conference room.

JJ was ecstatic as the upcoming case would be her first as an official profiler on the team, finally shedding the probationary period. "Mm-hmm. And completed my case rotation!"

"Hotch says he's never seen a rookie profiler analyze and write up cases as well as you."

JJ blinked in surprise. "He said that?"

Emily chuckled. "Yeah. Well, after all the cases you presented over the years, I'm not surprised."

"Morning!" Aitana waited for the pair by the bullpen entrance. "Garcia is waiting for us in the conference room."

"Great," Emily said.

The elevator doors dinged open and Spencer came out in a hurry. He was already late but seeing who was blocking the way made him want to run right past them.

"Hey, where have you been?" JJ called when they noticed him coming. "I wanted to do brunch this weekend."

Spencer didn't afford her any look as he skimmed through a book in his hands. "I had to deal with some stuff with my mom."

"Morning," Aitana greeted him, "Have you—"

"I'm sorry, I need to find Garcia." Spencer went right past her without so much of a glance in her direction.

"Okay..." Aitana bit on her bottom lip as she watched him practically zoom through the bullpen to head on up the steps for the conference room.

"He hates me," JJ's remark pulled Aitana back to her and Emily.