Manhattan

Chapter 2: The Interview

The team arrived to work Monday morning. "Who's that?" Penelope asked. Everyone looked at the young brown-haired girl coming out of the elevator. "Leah Harper, she just graduated from the academy." JJ explained. "What is she doing here?" Penelope asked. "She's taking Emily's place." "you know I hate change." "Garcia we needed an extra hand around here, you never know you might like her." Penelope just pouted.

Leah made her way to Aaron's office and knocked on the door. Aaron came to the door. "Oh please, come in." Aaron held out his hand. "I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner." Leah politely shook his hand. "You must be SSA Leah Harper." Leah nodded her head. "It's a pleasure to meet you sir." "It's a pleasure to meet you, please sit down." Leah sat and looked around. She saw pictures of drawings from what it seemed to be from a little kid then she saw a picture of Aaron and a little boy on the corner of his desk. "Is that your son?" Leah asked. "Yeah, his name is Jack." Leah smiled. Aaron picked up Leah's file and began to look through it. "Your professor speaks very highly of you." Aaron said. Leah nodded. "I think you'll be a valuable asset to the team." "Really?" Leah said in shock. Aaron nodded. "Your shooting at the gun range was above average and you were ranked highest in your class all four years of college. The Bureau would be very lucky to have you." Leah smiled. "Should we go meet the rest of the team?" Leah nodded in excitement.

Leah and Aaron walked out of Aaron's office and met the rest of the team down in the bullpen. "Everyone this is Leah Harper, she just graduated from the academy and is going to be joining our team." Everyone smiled and individually introduced themselves. "It's nice to meet all of you." Suddenly Penelope came running out of the briefing room. "Hey guys, not to ruin the welcome party but I need you all in here ASAP!" Everyone quickly gathered in the briefing room and sat down, pictures of two little boys came up. "This is Andrew Michaels, seven years old and Carter Macky, thirteen years old. They were both taken from they're homes in Detroit, Michigan Saturday night. The Detroit police discovered both bodies the next mourning on St. Clair beach." Penelope explained. "Any signs of sexual assault?" JJ asked. "The M.E. Hasn't got the test results back yet. You guys better go quick the Michigan state police is waiting for you." "Alright, wheels up in thirty!" Said Aaron. Everybody got up and went back to the bullpen to pack their things. Leah was heading out the door when she heard Aaron call her name. "Sorry this is so short notice, you can sit this one out if you'd like." Leah smiled and shook her head at Aaron. "I brought a bag just in case." "I see they warned you about us." Aaron joked.

Thirty minutes went by and the team met on the plane. Leah sat in the back away from everyone else. "Leah you don't have to sit back there, come join us." Said JJ. "Yeah we don't bite." Derek joked. Leah smiled, walked over and joined the rest of the team. As the plane was getting ready to take off Spencer came barreling in. "Hey sorry I'm late, I overslept." Said Spencer out of breath. "Here's the case file get caught up on it we have two hour flight." Aaron said as he handed the file to Spencer. "And Reid." Spencer looked up. "Don't be late again." Spencer nodded and silently reviewed the case file. Leah went to the back of the plane and sat next to Spencer. "Hey." She said. "You didn't bother telling me you were going to be working with us?" Spencer asked. "I didn't know until after our date was over." "You did even bother to tell me you were in the Academy." "I didn't think it was important." "Not important? We talked all about my job and the cases the team and I worked on and you never bothered to mention once that you were going into the same field." his tone started to become angry. "I'm sorry Spencer." Spencer didn't answer he just continued to review the case file. Leah got up and went back to her seat. As the rest of the flight went on Leah just stared at Spencer as he read the file in the back of the plane in hopes that he would look at her but he never did, he just analyzed the file over and over again until they landed.