"Good morning, Agent," the CIA agent greeted.
McDowell glanced up. "No."
"I believe the proper response is 'good morning'," he enunciated.
"No."
"Yes, but--"
"No," she repeated a third time before turning and walking away.
Baffled, he called after her, "Agent, if I could perhaps just have a word," but she kept walking.
She hadn't been pleased about being forced to work with the CIA--old rivalries from her time with Virginia PD that Garcia had unearthed and been threatened for revealing--but they had a mole so they turned to the BAU to profile who it might be.
However, this particular agent was trying to get on friendly terms with all of them, which is not something McDowell tolerated any time, much less early in the morning. The heels of her combat boots thumped on the linoleum tiles as she walked through the doors separating the hallway from the control room for various missions. The rest of the team glanced up when she came over, looking more sullen than usual.
"Who pissed you off this time, Rookie?" Morgan teased, sipping from a to-go coffee.
"You're getting up there with Agent Friendly back there." She jerked a thumb, and a sneer, over her shoulder to illustrate.
"You can never have too many friends," Rossi remarked. Sarcastically, of course.
Reid came over, silently handing McDowell a cup of green tea before addressing the rest of the team: "Hotch just spoke with the director. He got us access to the breakroom footage so we can analyze that."
"Perfect," McDowell said, but her tone implied it was everything but. She turned and walked up the steps to the mezzanine, where the conference room they were using was.
Even with green tea, her anti-morning mood didn't start to fade until at least noon, and then the appearance of Agent Friendly, as they had so taken to calling him, immediately reversed it.
"Agent McDowell, is it?" he approached her with a broad smile but a tentative glance.
"What?"
"I've been assigned to go over the personnel files of the people in question with you," he said.
"Am I incapable of doing it myself?" she asked.
Hotch shot her a warning glance, and she restrained a groan before begrudgingly resigning, "Lead the way, Agent."
"Crowe."
She glanced at him. "I'm sorry?"
"My name, it's Crowe." He flashed her a grin.
McDowell resisted the urge to face-palm. This guy had a crush on her. Wouldn't Reid just be thrilled.
YOU ARE READING
Criminal Minds One Shots
FanfictieA collection of story blurbs containing cut material and alternate scenes from my book Unknown- A Criminal Minds Fanfic but also some random Criminal Minds stories featuring the members of the BAU and the character Charlie McDowell. Not all stories...
