Criminal

New Beginnings

The sun is shining in Virginia, and I feel myself wishing that I could stay outside for a while. The air is crisp, as it gets in the fall, but still warm enough that there's no need to even wear a jacket. The BAU feels like a fresh start, like the first day of school when you were a kid. I stand in front of the building with a backpack and a lunchbox like a six year old version of myself going to kindergarten for the first time.
I step into the building and run smack into a tall lanky man with glasses. He looks up from the giant stack of papers he's holding, spilling all over the ground. "I'm so sorry m'am" he says, still distracted by the papers scattered on the slightly dingy looking carpet. "Don't worry about it" I say, going into help fix his stack of papers. With the papers all aligned again, he looks up at me, "Thank you, uhm is there something I can help you with."
I hold out my hand, trying my best to look capable and confident. "Shay Foster, I'm the new special agent." My confidence is waining. I twirl the end of my wavy blonde hair, suddenly wishing I would have styled it a bit more. The man's eyes grow wider with clarity. "Ah" he shakes my hand. "Dr. Spencer Reid, it's nice to meet you. From what I hear, your credentials are impressive. Actually we are about to start debriefing for our next case right now, if you'd like to join us." Wow, straight to business, I see.
Dr. Spencer Reid bringing up my credentials only worsens my first-day anxiety. I do have quite the impressive resumé for being twenty-three. I graduated top of my class in high school, majored in forensic psychology, of course, and graduated suma cum laude at Brown. And yet, I still feel totally unqualified for the job. Brushing off all of my overthinking, I follow Dr. Spencer Reid into a sort of board room and see a room full of people who look even more intimidating than I thought they would. I get introduced to all the agents I will be working with, Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan, Penelope Garcia, and Jennifer Jareau (who says she prefers to be called JJ).
Once I take note of all their names, knowing I'll forget them all multiple times, I find an empty seat. The one who I remember called himself Derek Morgan looks at me. In fact his eyes linger on me a little too long to not be a stare. He's very attractive, It doesn't take a doctorate degree to see that. I can feel my cheeks heating up, so I grab one of the files and start looking through it.
A man with a pensive look on his face walks in, and I immediately straighten my posture as a reflex. He introduces himself to me as Aaron Hotchner. Then he digs straight into the case. "Alright guys, the case we are looking at today comes from Los Angeles, California." He pushes a button on a remote and a slide of pictures come on. Evidence. What is it with these people? I kind of thought I would at least get trained before I saw a bunch of pictures of crime scenes. Agent Hotchner continues. "The person we are dealing with is a sexually motivated serial killer." Reid cuts in. "From the pictures it looks like he targets mostly blonde women with the age range of late teens to early thirties." Great. My first case and the killer we're working with is targeting me in different fonts.
After the debriefing, we are all released to get ready to get on the jet in three hours. I walk over to my desk and feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around to see Derek Morgan. "Hey, I saw the look on your face in there." He looks down at me with an empathetic look on his face. "I know this is your first time working on a case, so you're probably anxious. Anyways, I just wanted to say that the team has your back. We take care of each other at the BAU." His words are so comforting that I drop my shoulders a bit and exhale. "Welcome to the BAU by the way." He says with a warm smile on his face. I think I might like it here after all.