The Dangers of Falling (A Criminal Minds Story)

I

I tried to control my jitters as I stepped into the elevator that would lead to my new office. This was the day I had been waiting for forever. I had trained for this. I could do this. I had finally made it to B.A.U. and I was not going to blow this opportunity.
I got off the elevator, clenching onto my cardboard box holding all of my personal belongings, looking around the spacious office where I would work for the next several years of my life. I suddenly felt underdressed, unprepared. My pants were a gross shade of gray, my blouse was too wrinkled, my hair looked stupid when I pulled it up. Everyone seemed so professional, bustling around the bullpen, talking to each other, laughing, seeming like they had been there forever.
I hadn't realized how long I had been standing there until a beautiful woman with big, blue eyes and straight blonde hair approached me. She smiled, sweet and inviting, and I smiled too, feeling welcome already.
"You must be Agent Miller." I nodded, shifting my box to one hand and sticking out the other. She shook it. "I'm Agent Jennifer Jareau, but most people call me JJ."
"It's so nice to meet you, JJ." I said, shifting the boxes back into both hands after letting go of hers.
"Come on, we can get that box down for you. I'm sure it's heavy." She led me towards the bullpen, walking quickly. She had clearly been working there for many years since she was able to call everyone by first name and locate where my desk was and who would be sitting nearby. I sped forward to keep up.
"So, Holland, are you excited for your first day?"
"Oh, please, call me Andy." I said as she stopped short at an empty desk. I placed my box down and sighed with relief, my arms immediately feeling so much lighter.
"Andy it is then." She smiled again. Her teeth were white and shiny. I wondered what she would be if she wasn't an agent. She was definitely pretty enough to be a model. "Let me give you the tour." She led me around the bullpen showing me the neatly organized desks and where everything was until she stopped again. Three people sat in front of me, talking to each other noisily, laughing almost too much.
An incredibly handsome man, very fit, a shaved head and almost no facial hair eyed me as we approached. He had a tattoo hidden under his form fitting gray shirt. I wondered what it was, but I decided that was best to figure out another day. He flashed me a confident smile.
"Hey, you're the new kid, right?" He asked. His voice was smooth and assertive. I laughed.
"I haven't been called the new kid in a while but, yes." He laughed, too. "Andy." He held out his hand and I shook it firmly.
"Derek Morgan. This is Emily Prentiss and Penelope Garcia." Garcia and Prentiss were very different in appearance. Prentiss was thin, with jet black hair and a cool sense of style, unusually pretty but beautiful nonetheless. Garcia had a very unusual sense of style, her blonde hair sticking out from all the directions. She was heavier than Prentiss and wore bright blue glasses that matched her strange flowered dress and bright green cardigan.
"She's so pretty!" Garcia whispered loudly to Prentiss, punching her playfully in the arm. "I told you she was going to be pretty." Garcia turned to me, smiling widely. "Welcome to the team, Princess."
"Thanks." I smiled. The day couldn't have been going better.
"Well, Andy still has some other people to meet and we have to get started soon, so see you all in the conference room in fifteen." JJ grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. I awkwardly waved goodbye. JJ brought me over to a desk where a man sat, no older than thirty. He was tall and lanky, his brown hair long enough to be neatly tucked behind his ear. He was good looking, but not striking in the way that Morgan was. This was a more hidden good looking, like a diamond in the rough. He was running his fingers through an old book, a copy of The Catcher in the Rye.
"The Catcher in the Rye, huh?" I said, and he looked up abruptly. He didn't question who I was, just looked back down to the book before looking up again.
"Have you read it?"
"Of course." I answered. "One of my favorites." His eyes perked up at this.
"Mine too. Did you know that Catcher in the Rye is actually read by a lot of serial killers? It seems to be very popular with them." He talked quickly, barely skipping a beat. "Mark David Chapman read it and so did Robert John Bardo. You know, he actually had the book with him when he-"
"Reid." JJ said, a tone of warning and half amusement in her voice. It seemed to shut him up, and he gave a shy and embarrassed smile. "This is Agent Andy Miller. She's joining the B.A.U. Andy, this is Dr. Spencer Reid."
"You're a Doctor?" I asked, which Reid responded to with a tight lipped smile and a nod. I gave him an unsure smile back.
"See you in ten, Reid." JJ said, pulling me along once more. I followed her into an office where two men sat, one behind a desk and the other in front of it. I had recognized the man behind the desk to be Agent Hotchner. I had seen him before during my training, but never this close up. He had never looked at me before. It made me somewhat unsettled.
"What can I do for you, JJ?" He asked, standing up. The other man turned around to face us. While Hotchner was tall and clean shaven, the other man was shorter and heavier with a graying beard. He seemed kind enough and his face was much softer than Hotchner's.
"Hotch, this is Agent Miller." Hotchner came from behind the desk and shook my hand.
"Holland, right?"
"Andy." I corrected with a smile. A faint grin played on his lips but his face was still serious as in set in stone.
"This is Agent Rossi." He introduced, and I shook the shorter man's hand. It was calloused and rougher than I imagined it to be as if it had been through a whole lot.
"Very nice to meet you." I smiled at him and he returned it.
"How are you settling in?" Hotchner asked, leaning back on his desk. "Have you met everyone?" I nodded.
"Everyone's great, Agent Hotchner. They're all very nice."
"Call me Hotch." He said. I nodded.
"Yes, sir."
"I don't mean to rush this, but we have to start now." JJ intervened. I nodded, following her into a conference room. There was a round table in the middle of the room, a small whiteboard in the corner and a large TV displaying the FBI logo. The walls were dark and there wasn't much light except for a few bright fluorescents in the ceiling and a window that showed the bullpen. I could see my desk from there, the box sitting on top of it, barely touched.
We were the first in the room except for Reid, which I found odd. He didn't seem the type to be punctual. It felt like he would be too caught up in a book to ever get anywhere on time. I sat next to him and watched him continue to read as everyone filed in.
"You forgot John Hinckley Jr." I said. He looked up at me suddenly as if he was confused that I was talking to him.
"What?"
"John Hinckley Jr." I repeated. "You were talking about killers who read the Catcher in the Rye, but you forgot John Hinckley Jr." He smiled, a real smile this time, and it felt infectious. I gave a small one back and stared down at the table.
"This is Brianna Price from Newaygo, Michigan." JJ displayed a photo of a young girl with curly brown hair and a nice smile on the TV screen. "She was sixteen years old when she was walking home from school and disappeared." JJ clicked a button on the remote and the photo changed.
I cringed, looking at the gruesome photo. Her hair was the same but her body was pale and bloody, turned upside down.
"She was found a week after she was taken behind the local library. She's missing her heart, lungs, and stomach and her throat was slashed."
"What was the cause of her death?" Rossi asked.
"Her heart." JJ answered.
"So what was the point of slashing her throat?" I added. "If he took her heart out first, it was unnecessary."
"This guy is going above and beyond." Derek said, shaking his head. JJ clicks the button again and the photo changes to a boy with bright red hair. He's smiling in the photo.
"This is Adam Carpenter, age seventeen. He had the same wounds as Brianna and was found in the parking lot of the high school. He was last seen with his friends going out for lunch."
"And they didn't see anything?" Hotch asked. JJ shook her head in response.
"He was taken ten days after Brianna but only held for five."
"Who knows what he's doing with all that time." Prentiss looked down at the file in front of her.
"He's progressing." I added under my breath.
"Did they have any drugs in their system when they were found?" Morgan asked. JJ shook her head again.
"He didn't drug them but only Adam showed signs of any struggle." JJ said.
Reid blinked."That's odd."
"What?" I asked, turning to him.
"If they showed no signs of struggle, he had to knock them out or drug them, anything that would have allowed an easy capture without fighting back. How many days had they been dead when they were found?" We all turned to JJ.
"Just a couple of hours."
"Maybe he kidnapped them, cut their stomachs out, weakened them, then cut their hearts out and slashed their throats before dumping them." Prentiss said.
"Look how messy those wounds are." Hotch added.
"He's clearly not a surgeon or has ever done this before. No medical background. It was sloppy." Morgan continued.
"It seems like he was scared to be caught. If he thought he had time, those wounds might not look too like that." I added.
"This town is small. The population is less than 2,000. It has to be someone who lives there." Reid said. JJ showed us another photo.
"This is Molly Sutton. She's seventeen and went missing after leaving school early eight days after Adam turned up."
"How long has she been missing?" I asked.
"Two days." JJ answered. Morgan, Rossi, and Hotch exchanged looks.
"We have to go now. If this guy is progressing in the way we think he's progressing, we don't have a lot of time until he kills her." Morgan said, standing up.
Hotch stood, too. "Wheels up in thirty."

The plane is large, large enough that everyone can sit in their own little areas. Emily and JJ insist that I sit with them while Rossi, Morgan, Reid, and Hotch all sit by themselves, listening to music or studying the case.
"It's your first day and we're already halfway to solving this case." Emily smiled, two coffees in her hand. She holds it out for me, but I shake my head.
"Thanks, but I don't drink coffee." At this response, JJ looked up from the case.
"You'll learn." She said with a laugh. I shyly took the coffee from Emily as she sat down next to me. I took a cautious sip, cringing at the bitter taste. Coffee was never my thing. My sister was the one who usually insisted we keep it in the house, but if it was up to me, I wouldn't ever go anywhere near it.
"Tell us about you, Andy. Where are you from?" Emily asked, turning to me, placing the file down in her lap.
"I'm from Queens. I have a younger sister. My favorite color is blue." I said, not sure of what else to add. My life wasn't special or interesting.
"Are you single?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure the boys would love to know that one." JJ added under her breath and they both laughed.
"I am single, yes." I said with a laugh.
"Good to know." Emily responded, giving me a sly smile. I smiled back, laughing to break the awkward tension.
"I'm gonna go see what everyone else is up to." I announced, standing up and heading over to where Reid was seated. I sat opposite him, watching him read, not wanting to bother him.
"You need something?" He asked, using one hand to trace the book up and down with each page.
"No." I responded flatly, looking out the window. We sat in silence for a few minutes before he put his book down.
"What do you do for fun?" He finally asked, and I looked up at him. He seemed somewhat bothered, but nice enough to strike up a conversation.
"Sorry?"
"Well, you have to have a social life outside of work, right? What do you like to do for fun?" I shrugged, not sure what to say. I hadn't done much since I had gotten into the training program. My only friend was my sister and it wasn't like I had time to pick up any hobbies.
"I like movies," I offered, unsure of what to say.
"What kind of movies?" He asked.
"All kinds of movies."
"Did you know the first feature length film in America was called 'The Birth of a Nation' and was all about the KKK?" I scoffed.
"Not those kinds of movies." Reid smiled at this, and I watched as JJ approached us.
"We're landing in fifteen, so let's talk." She told us and we stood up and headed over to where Hotch and Rossi had already gathered.
"Okay, this case is going to be difficult because we do not want this girl to be killed. We have to work even harder and faster than we ever had before." Hotch started, and I waited for him to continue. "JJ, Reid, you guys will stay and do Victimology. I need a profile as fast as we can possibly get it or we'll be too late. Prentiss, Morgan, Miller, you all go talk to the parents of each of the missing kids. Rossi and I will head over to the crime scenes." He stopped talking but everyone stayed silent, only nodding, so I nodded, too. This would be one hell of a day.