only human ― s.r.

2.1

"Everyone, gather 'round, I've got some news!"

The team pretended they hadn't had their eyes glued to the door seconds ago — talking about being too obvious, am I right?

None of them saw the blonde woman following Hotch out of his office. She somehow managed to make herself even smaller and disappear completely behind him. She had played out the possible scenarios of this day many nights in her head, thinking about surprising everyone with either crashing in through the window or doing some backflips, but now that the day was actually there, she just wanted to bathe herself in a tub of quicksand.

"Oh god, which one of us is it?" Penelope asked. Derek had texted her about Hotch's suspicious behavior as detected by Reid.

The duo always shared everything; whenever one found something that the other should know about, they shared it. Derek was Penelope's emergency contact for everything and, of course, vice versa.

Aaron raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"Which one of us is going to get the chop because if it's me," she said, "please tell me now or you'll have to get me physically removed from this building."

Spencer, Emily and Derek looked at her with puzzled looks.

"No one's going to get the chop," Hotch said. Whatever that meant.

Garcia exhaled and said, "Oh, okay, then it wasn't even that bad. That's a good thing, guys. It's all good."

Not paying attention to her nervous banter, Hotch took a step aside. "You guys remember Special Agent Brown?" He asked.

Spencer was the first to realize what was going on. He caught eye of blonde strands of hair appearing from behind, then a pair of green eyes sheepishly trailed up at the team. His jaw almost dislocated and dropped to the floor. Honestly, he couldn't believe his own eyes.

Skylar stepped forward, her hair bouncing with every step she took. It was shorter by a few inches, Spencer realized. Back in New York, her blonde hair had reached down to her elbow, but now it was only as long as to the start of her shoulder bones.

Her body was different, too. Her hips seemed wider, her waist was smaller and her cleavage bigger. She must've taken up on a lot more training; the muscles on her arms stretched out the material of her blue suit. Spencer could tell it was a tailored one, too.

Derek was the first one to end the stunned silence. "No freaking way!" He exclaimed. "Of course, I remember," he said and lifted his hand up in a high-five. She gladly obliged.

"Then I must've really meant something to you, Morgan," Skylar answered. "I feel flattered."

How Spencer had missed her voice. Texting wasn't the same as talking, but none of them had felt like making the first move. Hearing and seeing her now made him feel all kinds of things.