Criminal Minds One Shots

Puzzle

Reid walked into the bullpen, coffee in one hand and a book in the other, only to notice that the desk they had recently just been tossing files on  was now cleaned off and organized, a wooden name sign with the name Charlie McDowell etched in gold lettering on it.

She had been there a week, and since they'd just gotten back from their fist case with her, it wasn't surprising it'd taken until now to get her a desk. 

The coffee mug with her name on it that matched everyone else's was full of a generic arrangement of pencils and pens, and there was a pad of post-it notes lined up next to it.  The keyboard and the mouse pad were also at right angles to each other.  There were a few papers and files in her basket, and a pile of case files on the desk in front of it, but nothing else.  No pictures or books or even a little doodad, like the kind Garcia always hoarded.

"Not much personality, here," Morgan remarked as he came up behind Reid and examined the desk as well.

"Are you sure she even had a chance to set up her own stuff?" Prentiss asked, also joining them.

"Yep, no coffee, remember?" Morgan said, picking up the coffee mug/pen holder with her name on it.

"Yeah," Prentiss agreed before glancing around to make sure no one was watching and then opening the drawers of the desk.

The top left and middle were full of rubber bands, paperclips, spare post-it notes and pens, a box of tacks, extra staples and the like, all neatly organized with drawer dividers.  Not much there, they all had that assortment of office supplies in their desks, and it didn't tell them anything new cause they could already tell she was organized by the appearance of the top of the desk.  The lower left drawer had alphabetically marked file dividers, though the only papers filed were her gun and badge certification paperwork.

Before they could get any farther, however, Hotch walked past and said they had a case, and Morgan had just slammed the left bottom drawer shut when McDowell came into the bullpen from the break room, slowing her pace when she saw all three of them suspiciously standing around her new desk.

"Admiring my name plate, I see?" she asked with a smirk before taking a swig of her bottle of soda.

They all stared back in silence before Prentiss took a step forward and asked, "How come you, uh, don't have any pictures?" throwing a thumb over her shoulder to gesture at Charlie's desk.

"The same reason you don't," she answered simply, a mischievous smile twitching at the corner of her lips.

"I--" Prentiss started to explain, but McDowell cut her off by adding, "And because I knew you'd all try to profile me, and like I said, I'm not about to make it easy for you."

"Oh, come on!" Morgan exclaimed in dismay, because she still had refused to tell them much of anything about herself, aside from the fact that her full name was Charlotte but no one was allowed to call her that. 

She was a meticulous, organized mystery who liked to tease them with everything they didn't know about her, and she had somehow also managed to bribe Garcia into not letting any of them see her file as they were soon to find out when Morgan's nosiness, Prentiss's curiosity, and Reid's desire to solve every puzzle presented to him were combined.