Criminal Minds Fanfic

Chapter 2

Her hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway as Penelope Garcia strides towards the glass door, into the bullpen. She passes the empty cubicles towards the one office with it's lights on at 5:20 AM.

"Hotch?" Penelope chimes, tapping her knuckles on the open door.

"Come in Garcia," Hotchner replies. "What is it?"

"Lauren Miller will be here soon sir," Garcia says.

"Right. As soon as she arrives bring her to my office," Hotch pauses, reaching for a file. "Also, notify Rossi when she does arrive."

"Of course," Garcia says, backing out of the door.

"Garcia?" Hotch asks.

Garcia swings her head around the door. "Yes?"

"Could you brief her before the rest of the team arrives? I want her to be able to start right away," Hotch says, not looking up.

"Certainly," Garcia retorts. "But-- wouldn't somebody like JJ or Rossi be more qualified than me?" She asks, her voice slightly uneasy.

"I want you to do it," Hotch says, looking up from the file. "Show her that not everything about this job is dreary. She's young, great at what she does and highly spoken of by all her superiors. I don't want to scare her away."

"Right," Garcia says, shutting the door behind her.

***

Lauren lays her briefcase down on the conveyor belt and takes off her shoes. Harold, the security guard who has been there since Lauren was the intern for the director, takes the photo ID from her hand and scans it. Lauren steps through the metal detector and puts her shoes back on as they slide through the scanner.

Harold hands her the ID. "When you become an agent you won't have to go through security everyday," he smiles. "You just show us the badge."

Lauren smiles back, grabs her briefcase and gives a teasing salute to Harold as she walks to the elevator. Harold salutes back and laughs to himself as he scans another ID.

Lauren stops in front of the elevator, she presses a button and waits. The doors slide open and three people push past her. She gets in and presses the floor number. Just as the doors begin to close, a scrawny looking man starts scurrying towards the door, Lauren presses the door open button and he slides in. He mumbles a thanks and turns to the button panel.

"Same floor," he remarks. He leans against the opposite wall and stares at the doors. "First day?" he asks, shortly after the doors close.

She nods, staring up at the floor numbers. Lauren looks down in the reflection of the elevator doors, trying to look at the man standing beside her. He wears a light blue polo shirt and black tie under a knit sweater vest. He has a tan, brown satchel slung across his shoulder.

He notices that she's staring and a smile creeps on his lips. Lauren's face blushes and she spends the rest of the ride figuratively smacking her forehead. 'Great, Lauren, way to make an idiot of yourself.'

The elevator glides to a stop and he waits for her to leave first. Lauren turns to the left, trying to hide the obvious blushing from passers-by. She finds the slip of paper she had scribbled notes on while talking to the woman on the phone: PENELOPE GARCIA.

***

Garcia sits in her chair in front of her computer monitors, twisting a sparkly pen in her hands. There is a knock on the door and a woman with dirty blonde curls, long eyelashes, and a fuchsia blouse stands in the doorway, her face a slight red.