Chapter Text
"Alright baby girl she's gonna be here any minute, what have you got?"
Derek is sat on Emily's desk in the bullpen, eyeing the elevators every 30 seconds as Garcia opens her tablet to pull up her notes.
"Right my lovelies, Agent Y/L/N, very young, like give our boy wonder a run for the crown young."
Spencer perks up at this, abandoning the paperwork on his own desk to join the rest of the team. "Who's this?"
Garcia throws a knowing look to Morgan before turning to Reid. "Rossi let it slip there's a new agent joining the BAU only she's not just an agent."
Derek gestures for her to keep going with her research.
"Right okay, so Agent Y/L/N, 24, born in Nova Scotia, no known family, crazy genius-sorry Reid- but she's like super duper smart. Graduated high school at 13, undergrad by 15, masters at 16, she did law school in a year and a half and had a PhD by 19."
Spencer shoves his hands in his pockets, straightening his shoulders. "I had my first doctorate by 17, and two more by 21."
Emily looks at him the way you'd sympathize with a jealous toddler. "She went to law school though Reid. Skipped that and she would've been tied with you."
Garcia nods. "Mmhmm and get this, as far as I can tell from her files, no eidetic memory. The IQ of 182 and 17,000 words a minute was a help I'm sure but still. She just made these degrees her bitch au naturale."
Spencer goes to speak again but Morgan puts up a hand to stop him. "We know kid. You've got an IQ of 187 and you can read 20,000 words per minute. She's not even here yet and you're worried about losing your ranking of smartest in the unit."
"I wasn't jealous." He mutters to himself, crossing his arms.
"No one said you were sweet cheeks. Anyways, here's where it gets super funky. She gets her PhD, and is immediately swept up by the Canadian government. Goes through basic training, then what looks like specialized training for Intel and then at 21 she completely disappears. There are files but they're so sealed even I can't get in. I mean I could if I tried super hard, but I don't wanna start a war with Canada over me being nosey when I'm sure I can pull it from Rossi myself."
"What brings her to the BAU?" JJ asks, taking a sip of her coffee.
"David Rossi sent me an invitation." Everyone jumped, no one having heard the elevator ding to alert them of your arrival. You move your briefcase to your left hand and stick your hand out. "Agent Y/L/N, but you already knew that. It's nice to meet you Ms. Garcia." You shake her hand, Penelope too shocked to register the fact that you already know her name. "I wish I could do full introductions now but Agent Hotchner is expecting me, though I suppose there's not much more for me to tell you that you don't already know."
You go to walk up the stairs to Hotch's office, nearly bumping into Reid. You grab his elbow to steady yourself, and he grabs both of your arms to stop yourselves from knocking over. "Excuse me, Dr. Reid." You walk away briskly, trying to ignore the tingling in your fingers and on arms where your skin had met.
Garcia seems to snap back, but Reid is left staring at the space where you had just been standing. "Okay so I know how I know all that, but how does she know all that?"
"Dr. Y/L/N, pleasure to see you again." Hotch sticks out his hand across his desk, shaking yours before sitting back down. He gestures to the chair across from him to take a seat.
"It's good to see you too. I have to admit I was a little shocked at the invitation from Rossi."
"He seems to be quite a big fan of yours. He tends to have a master plan for everything, though he rarely shares all his moves with me. I am however glad that you accepted the position. I've gone over your files, and you seem like a great fit for our team. A temporary basis for now of course, but I don't predict there being any issues."
You nod along, trying not to think too hard on what Dave might be up to.
"A desk has been cleared for you in the bullpen, it's just across from Dr. Reid so I hope you can block out the sound of pages turning every ten seconds."
You give a soft, polite laugh. "I'm sure I'll manage."
Hotch stands, sticking his hand out again to shake, and you rise to take it. "Take this time to get settled in, we don't have any active cases at the moment so you aren't being thrown into the action right away. If you have any questions feel free to direct them to Agent Prentiss, you two have had similar training so I'm sure she'll be able to help you best."
You shake his hand again, thanking him before grabbing the bag from beside you and leaving his office. You try to bite back a smirk as the team tries to quickly disperse and act like they weren't staring through the window. You place the briefcase down on your new desk before heading over to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee.
Opening the cupboard, you grab the first one you see before you hear someone clear their throat.
"Hi, sorry, me again. I just wanted to give you the heads up that that's Reid's favourite mug, he's sort of particular about that sort of thing." You glance from Garcia, to the mug, then over to Reid just in time to catch him staring at the pair of you before shooting his gaze back down to the papers in front of him.
"Thanks for the heads up." You put it gently back where you found it and grab a plain grey one from beside it.
"I'm Penelope Garcia by the way. But you knew that. Just like how I know who you are Special Operative Dr. Y/N Y/L/N."
You grab the milk from the fridge, splashing some in before returning it. "Just Y/N is fine, really."
"I'm sorry I'm probably being super weird, I'm just trying to figure out how a highly trained Canadian operative ends up at Quantico working for the United States government."
You pick up the mug, chuckling before taking a sip of the coffee. "Long story." You leave it at that, and head back towards your new desk.
Most of your first day is spent filling out paperwork and going through old case files to get a better sense of how the team operates. Hotch officially introduces you to the team, connecting names and faces that you don’t have the heart to tell him you already know.
Sitting at your desk, you can feel Dr. Reid staring every now and then, but you stop looking up due to the scarlet flush that rips through his cheeks any time you do. He doesn’t actually speak to you until you’re both heading for the elevator at the end of the day.
The both of you are stuck standing in a semi-awkward silence after you push the button for the main floor. Grabbing the lip balm out of your bag, you pop the cap off and go to apply it.
"You know lip balm is a petri dish for bacteria, and although it's recommended to throw them away after one year of being opened people keep them for an average of two and a half years before they get discarded." You stop with the tube resting just on your bottom lip looking at him out of the corner of your eye before capping it again.
"Gross." He nods, adjusting his satchel bag and facing forward again. The doors open, and you both head towards the front doors and end up walking the same direction. Awkward.
"I, uh. I take the metro." He motions towards the entrance to the subway.
"I walk. It was nice to meet you Dr. Reid." You turn to walk away and out of the corner of your eye see his hand come up to wave before he lowers it back down and makes his way into the subway tunnel.
You like to walk wherever you can, weather permitting. Maybe it comes from walking everywhere growing up, and when you were in school you didn't have the time to work to buy a car so you just simply kept walking. It's nice to have the time to yourself, let your mind wander. When you drive, you only get a short time alone while going from place to place. An added bonus is that not many other people walk, so you rarely have to spend time commuting with people. So imagine the surprise when you approach your new apartment building to see Dr. Spencer Reid standing outside holding a bag of groceries and juggling his keys.
Reaching around him with your own key, you unlock the door and hold it open enough for him to go in.
"Hey than-" He looks shocked to see you, blinking a few times as if to check if you’re actually there. "You live here?"
"As of 4 days ago, yes." Walking to the elevator, you brace yourself for yet another awkward ride with the Doctor, pressing the button for your floor. "What floor?"
"3, thanks." Great. You live on the same floor as my coworker. Because that's not weird. You both get off on the third floor, and he shoots you a questioning look.
"Looks like we're neighbours. Rossi found this place for me, said it was close to work."
He nods. "How do you know him? You said he invited you to the BAU, but how did you two meet before? I didn't think he's ever been to Canada other than the case we just had in Ontario."
"I don't think he has. We met in Italy." You turn and unlock the door. "Have a good night, Dr. Reid." You’re quick to step through the threshold before he can ask anything else.