Serre-Moi Fort; Hold Me Tight

You had me at "Hello"

"We don't meet people by accident. They are meant to cross our path for a reason."

Rossi POV

A few months had passed since Prentiss left for Interpol, and we were still looking for a new replacement. No matter how many people were interviewed for the position, none of them seemed to be right for the spot. It's never easy letting someone new in, not after we had all grown so close. It was hard to imagine having someone else on the team. It had been just the 7 of us for almost 5 years. I never liked change, but sometimes change can be good.

I had finally sat down for dinner after a long day when I got a call from Hotch saying we had a case in Seattle. Instead of going to the BAU, he wanted us to meet him at the jet. To our surprise, the team and I were the first to arrive. Normally, Hotch was always there first. 15 minutes had passed before he had showed up, but when he boarded, there was someone else with him.

"Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Alex Blake. She will be be joining our team."

"Nice to meet everyone" Alex said with a smile.

"David Rossi. Nice to meet you" I said lending my hand out to shake.

"Since this case is urgent, we will be debriefing on our way there" Hotch said as he was sitting down.

After learning as much as we could about the case, Reid broke the silence.

"So Alex, what did you do before?"

"Well when I wasn't at the Washington field office, I was a linguistics professor at Georgetown."

Her and Reid continued to talk about the history of the English language for the rest of the flight.

When we landed, we split up and covered all the crime scenes. Within an hour we were all back at the sheriffs office to start working on the profile. For some reason, I couldn't help but stare. Every time we were all sitting around the table trying to figure out who the unsub was, all I could focus on was her. Whenever she was in the room she was what all my attention was focused on. Maybe it was the way that she wasn't afraid to jump in or the way her smile lit up the room. God that smile. I couldn't help but smile back every time I saw her. I would never tell her this of course because she was married. As much as I wanted to tell her how beautiful she was, I wouldn't. I know how important it is to try to keep a marriage together. I was taken out of my thoughts when there was a tap on my shoulder.

"Hey. Hotch wants us to go to the M.E.'s office. Another body was found." Alex said looking down at me.

As soon as my eyes met hers, I smiled. It would be nice to spend time with just her. The car ride was silent, but it was a good silence. Even though we had only known each other for a few hours, it felt like we had known each other for a lifetime.

We were only at the coroners for about 15 minutes until we got a call saying they had a break in the case. After that, the rest of the case went by smoothly and we were able to head home within a few days. Something about spending that time with her, even though we were working, felt right.

Alex POV

We had just gotten back from Seattle and I was exhausted. Not only was it my first day, but we had a case that wasn't easy. The unsub killed over 6 women, and he had used his son to convince them to come back to their house. By the time I had gotten home, it was already 10 pm. I was ready to just got to bed, but to my surprise, James was home from work.

"Hey. How was your first day? I heard you didn't have an easy case."

"The unsub used his own son as bait to get the women's attention. It's never easy when kids are involved. He made Ridgeway look like a saint. But everyone on the team is very nice and the transition wasn't as hard as I had thought it would be."

To be truthful, it was hard, but the one person who made coming back to the bureau easy was Dave. He made me feel welcomed on the team without even saying anything. Well, he hadn't said much to me while we were there, but you don't always have to talk to make someone feel welcomed. Every time we made eye contact, he wouldn't look away. Instead he would give me a smile that could melt any girls heart. I know I shouldn't be thinking like this because after all I am married, but I couldn't help but smile just thinking about him.

"When you meet someone special, you'll know. Your heart will beat more rapidly and you'll smile for no reason."