Chapter Text
1x03
“Won’t get fooled again.”
The elevator chimes as Rose waits rather impatiently to be allowed out, tight spaces were never her thing, but this elevator felt especially small, as though it knew she were coming and decided to make her even more racked with nerves. Her sister had arrived before her at the FBI BAU unit which she hoped was a blessing, maybe she’s already mentioned I’d be coming and I can avoid one of those awkward introductions where no one really knows what to say. Rose was still in shock her request to complete her training here was accepted, it was practically impossible, it’s because of your sister and her smooth talking not your actual skill and ability, she thought but her thoughts were interrupted by the realisation she had to actually leave the elevator now. She adjusted her pencil skirt and made sure her white box dyed hair hadn’t decided to do that cute little thing where it gets tangled in her pendant necklace and seriously pissed her off. She’d straightened it extra thoroughly this morning, if she was entering an official FBI building for the first time, she needed to look like she had her shit together.
Working in the FBI hadn’t always been her dream per say, but these past few years, she’d follow her sister anywhere and that lead her here. She obviously was passionate about profiling and the phycological aspect of why these serial killers acted upon their impulses and what brought those impulses. She was just, still hesitant on where she’d go when the internship was over. Don’t get ahead of yourself, one step at a time.
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A slim blonde-haired woman greets Rose almost as soon as she steps out of the elevator, “Hi, I’m agent Jareau, call me JJ, I’m the Communications Liaison for the FBI’s behavioural analysis unit. I’ve already met your sister and she’s with the rest of the team right now. Everyone’s extremely nice and of course I’m always around if you need me, apologies for speaking so hastily but as you can imagine, time is of the essence around here.” Rose finds herself just nodding along, trying to catch up to the agents fast paced speaking and walking. The glass doors that lead into the official office allowed Rose a minute of time to see everyone before being formally introduced, “The don’t know you’re coming so I’ll quickly introduce you and then take you to hotch.” She herself seems out of breath when they reach the doors and paused to give a reassuring smile to the young trainee. “You’ll be fine.”
“Agents, this is Rose Greenaway, she’ll be interning with us as part of her formal training in the FBI academy for the next twelve months, This is Agent Derek Morgan” The man who stepped forward to shake her hand was unarguable gorgeous and flashed her a smile that she assumed brought many women to their knees, “Then we have Dr Spencer Reid, wouldn’t recommend arguing with this one, he knows everything.” JJ whispers the last part and the women share a friendly smile before Rose turns to assess the young man in front of her as she’s sure he does the same. He offers a small wave and lack of prolonged eye contact or physical contact, hm interesting She thought though knew better than to immediately start profiling her potential future co-workers. He was extremely cute however she was sure he got that a lot, he was easy to underestimate which Rose could relate too. Either way, he seemed nice. “You already know Elle, Penelope Garcia, our technical analyst is probably hiding out in her lair, you’ll meet her soon. Agent Gideon who I’m sure you’ve heard of, and all that leaves is Hotch.” She makes sure to look as friendly as possible and shake Gideons hand with the utmost respect, she is after all familiar with him. Elle gives her a reassuring smile, as does everyone as she makes her way to Agent Hotchners office. She has no doubt that they’ll quiz Elle on who she is once she’s gone. But that’s Elle’s problem.
Rose knocked on the door once and immediately heard a low yet stern voice tell her to entre. Agent Hotchner was wearing his suppose permanent scowl as she entered, it made her want to run as far away and her ballet flats could carry her. Get a hold of yourself, you’ll face much more terrifying men In this placement her mind assures her.
“I take It you’re Rose Greenaway, I faxed your request when it initially came through” – straight to the point, fair enough. He offers her a seat.
“Yes agent Hotchner”
“Your file states you’re required to attend at least 2 cases a month with our team and will be spending the rest of the time here working on case files and alongside miss Garcia. You report to me and follow my instructions carefully. When out on the field you’ll be required to stay with either myself or Agent Gideon unless told differently is that clear?”- He doesn’t leave her time to respond. “If I tell you to stay back, you stay back. Obviously you’ll need experience in actual profiling so when an idea comes to mind regarding a case, voice it, we can’t read minds miss Greenaway.” He’s telling her things she’d already been briefed on but by the look on his face, he knows, and doesn’t care. “If when your training is complete and you've taken the necessary classes, you decide you’d like to continue working with us as an official agent, we’ll evaluate your performance then and decide if the department is for you. Any questions?” With that he leans back in his chair from his uptight, leant forward statue and gestures for Rose to speak.
“um no agent Hotchner, I think I’m alright thank you” He looks almost disappointed she hadn’t had anything to add, maybe I should start listing my credentials and studies she thought but again something about the way he’s studying her suggests those mean nothing to him. She stands and moves to leave the office but hesitates when she hears him call her back, “Hotch is fine, is miss Greenaway how you’d like to be addressed?”, She pauses and considers that for a minute, Greenaway is technically her last name but if she wants to show she cares about this job beyond just following in her sisters footsteps, she needs to not be immediately associated with her.
“Miss Clarke is fine” He nods along to that, and by the looks of it he’s happy to hear she’d rather be addressed as something other than Greenaway, maybe he’s profiling her already. Or maybe she’s profiling him.
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“Pipe bombs” Gideon says as the pictures from the crime scene are passed between each of them. Rose can’t help but feel excited, and obviously horrified but still… can’t blame a girl. She looks over each picture, trying to look like she actually understand what she’s look at. Though the BAU doesn’t just catch serial killer using knives and guns, that’s more of what she expected, this isn’t her field. Sex offenders and predators, she could work with, bombers not so much.
You’re an trainee in a room full of profilers, make an impression. “Couldn’t have been sent through the mail, too much risk of it blowing up the wrong person in the wrong place.” She says following Dr Reids explanation that the bombs would be triggered by a slight movement. It was a simple thing to say, yet she felt proud at voicing her thoughts. This “Unsub” had to have targeted this man specifically, “strange way to commit an act of terrorism” Hotch says as the thought came into her mind. Thank god, terrorism really isn’t my thing. The others discuss a little more before JJ enters stating that news of the bombs has gotten out. It doesn’t take a profiler to know that news of bombs immediately causes panic, panic that they don’t need right now.
Suddenly, another explosion occurs right on live television, as if things couldn’t get worst, Rose thought. That seems to have made up Hotchs mind because he instructed the others to meet at the air strip in 20. Rose realises right as he goes to leave that she doesn’t know is this is one of the two cases that she’s expected to be involved in, yes it’s her first day, but she’s ready and willing to go. “Sir!” – She catches him right out of earshot of the others. “Miss Clarke this is a bombing, something your file suggests isn’t your field of study” – “I’m aware of that sir but” “Stay here, keep in contact through Garcia, we’ll let you know if we need you” With that, he’s gone.
Apparently the disappointment is written on my face when Elle comes out next, “Hey, don’t be disheartened, first day relax, get comfortable and ill get you a souvenir” She says with her knowing smile reserved only for her younger sister before heading off to god knows where. Unwilling to see anyone else’s pity, Rose sighs and heads towards Garcia’s office before it hits her. Hotch read my file. Well great.
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Rose knocked tentatively on Garcias door, despite wanting to go with the others, she hoped her and Garcia would hit it off. “Enter oh privileged one -” Rose cautiously enters the room, “-for you have been proven worthy of the great Garcias- Oh! Oh! Hello.” Garcia spins on her chair and looks shocked when she’s met with an unfamiliar face, she rips off her earpiece and straightens herself out as if to act more professional. Rose just stands with her eyebrows slightly raised and hands tugging on a loose thread of her jumper as the two women look at each other, great, thought Rose, she hadn’t been expecting me.
“You must be Rose” Never mind she had been expecting me.
“I apologies for my admittedly weird introduction, I’m Penelope Garcia, the technical analyst for the FBI’s Behavioural analysis unit. Call me Garcia honey” The awkward tension seems to have broke and Garcia beckons the young intern in for a hug. “You are quite pretty, I have to admit I love the dye job but you don’t look much like your sister”
She’s used to this, Her sister was taller and slimmer. Rose had cut her hair shorter and dyed it a silvery white colour before her final year of high school and her facial features were softer, she had a sharp jawline but other than that her lips were relatively full and she found her top lip to be more pronounced and fuller than her bottom. Her button nose has a bump on it from where she'd broken it during the physical side of her training and her bone hadn't healed evenly. Her eyes were predominantly blue yet they had brown in the centre of her pupil wish she admirably loved. she's used to people thinking she'd younger than she is. “Not biologically related” She clarifies whilst moving a plush octopus from the chair beside Garcia onto the desk so she can sit. “Ah I understand, I see you’ve been dumped into my little lair with me, well fret not little Rosie we have much to talk about before we’re called upon.” All Rose could do was laugh despite the fact anyone calling her “little” or “Rosie” would usually bring anger from being patronised, she found nothing but kindness in Garcia’s words. Maybe this won’t be so bad Afterall.
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Maybe she had spoken a little soon. Garcia was nice, but damn she could talk. Rose had already been quizzed on her past, to which she answered vaguely whilst still making it out as though she was sharing a lot more. Something she was used to doing. There was something about Garcia that made her just want to expose all her secrets and cry on the beautiful woman’s lap. She managed to resist though, wouldn’t be the best for her first day.
Garcia had also quizzed her on her love life, an admittable sore topic for Rosie, though not for the reasons Garcia probably presumed. She’d jokingly hinted to Dr Reid being available which Rose brushed off with an awkward laugh. If there was one thing, she was sure of it’s that in her time here, no matter how short or long that may be, she did not plan on fraternising with any men especially those on the team. Garcia seemed to understand well enough and let it go.
After some time, Garcia had to step out to deliver a package to Morgan, who she was unaware was still in the building. She wanted to go to him, to help, but strict orders were to stay with Garcia. But then… If Garcia was with morgan, technically she should be too. Excitably, Rose hopped up from her slouched position and headed to where she presumed Morgan and Garcia would be.
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She hesitated behind the door, “Ouch. That's what my father said.” With that she knocked. Both of them turned to look at her as she entered, eager to skip any awkwardness she jumped straight into why she was there. “I’d like to help, if that’s alright.” Morgan looked slightly impressed, maybe it was her slight show of boldness, he looked to Garcia before shrugging, “Come on in kid, I'm about to teach you something, so pay attention” She couldn’t conceal the excited smile that crept on her face, but schooled it as she approached the bomb fragments. “Oo it’s like school.” Both women shared a smile as they stood together listening to Morgan. “Look, how these things are put together can tell you how the unsub thinks.”
“You sound like Gideon.”
“Ok, ouch. You think its bull? Ok... All right. You see that section of pipe? Yeah That right there used to be part of the cap. It screwed onto these threads right here. But, see, here's the thing- it had to be done very carefully because even if one tiny grain of powder goes onto those threads while he was working, that little bit of friction would have ignited the bomb. Boom! Boom! Boom! See you later, unsub. Now, he didn't have to use a powder that fine. He didn't have to use threaded caps, and he didn't even have to use a steel pipe, and it would have been a whole lot safer if he hadn't. But the bomb wouldn't have been nearly as deadly. So, what does that tell you about our unsub?” Rose dug for something to say, “he’s one sick puppy” Garcia offered. “He didn’t care about the danger to himself as long as he could confirm the victim would die.”
Morgan definitely looked impressed now, “Good, this guy’s goal wasn’t to scare, or vandalize, or make a political statement. It was to kill. Plain and simple. Kill.” Roses face showed clear fear now, that she was certain off, and Garcia’s appeared to show the same.
Garcia made her way past rose playing some game on her phone that made an incredible annoying sound. Rose was going through some of her coursework needed for her placement, she had to document each case she was involved in whilst interning under the BAU and in the end Hotch needed to go through it all and sign it off that she’d met and done everything she says she has. It was a lot of paperwork, which she didn’t mind, in fact she found paperwork comforting, reading and writing were big strong suits of hers. However, she knew Hotch did, so she was extremely appreciative of his agreement to take her on and made a mental note to buy him a gift bag or something before she left.
Rose perked up when she heard Morgan mention a signature, “Signature's the thing that they get off on, like a flourish You know, a certain kind of pipe, a certain mix of powders, even cases that aren’t directly linked to sexual desire have an aspect of arousal, these Unsubs get aroused knowing they’re leaving their mark.” Rose recounted without looking up from her paperwork or stopping writing for that matter. Morgan looked at her with startle and noted her fast but precise handwriting, this kid was like Reid only with writing. “Christ kid, I forgot you were in here-“he quickly recovered “but um yeah you’re right Like the Unabomber he always used something wood in his bombs.” He had both Garcia and Roses full attention once again.
“I mean, I don't know. These guys, they think they're artists or something, so they sign their work.”
“And you think by putting these last pieces together, you might find the signature?”
“Yeah. See, sometimes the design itself is unique, so once we do put it all together, we can compare it to other exemplars in our evidence database and see if the bomb was built by somebody we may have already come across. What?”
Garcia was holding a piece that had supposedly come from the bomb, once again Rose was left looking between her paperwork and the bomb fragment trying to appear as though she knew what the hell it was. “If there was another piece like this...”
“No, I tried that. It doesn't fit.”
“No, it could have been part of a longer rod that fit through the top and went all the way through.”
“Tetris.”
“Damn it.” Morgan let out an exasperated sigh, he’d figured it out.
“What? Did I mess something up?“ Garcia looked to Rose in panic, Rose couldn’t give her any reassurance so she looked to Morgan for classification.
“No. No, no, Garcia. You nailed it. I know who built this bomb. The guys doing life in federal prison.” Well that was certainly shocking.
Rose was about done with her paperwork for today when Dr Reid called in, “Office of supreme genius puzzle solver. Do you have a riddle for me?” Rose giggled at that and made sure to put on her own headset so she could hear the young doctor. “Hi doctor Reid” Reid took a minute to adjust, he’d forgotten she would be with Garcia, “Oh um Hi, Just Reid is fine, I found out Bale has been accessing the internet by getting around a fire wall that's set up on a prison library computer. The guy even has an e-mail address.” Rose listened intently. “sneaky bastard” Garcia commented, sharing a smirk with the girl beside her.
“Yeah. He's headed for the library right now, maybe to contact the unsub. Is there a way to possibly monitor his keystrokes while he's online?”
“I can send him a virus, but he'll have to open the e-mail for it to work.” “Let's do it.”
“What do you want in the subject line?” Rose thought for a minute along with Garcia and Reid, “Let's think.”
“Something that'll make him open it”
“Yeah. He's impotent. Something that'll make him feel in control.” Then it hit her, just the thing a guy like that would be interested in. “Move aside please, these types of guys are my speciality.” Garcia gave her a knowing smile and offered up her keyboard. Kinda sad how the most exciting thing Rose would’ve done today is come up with an ad for a porn site but what can you do.
“He's visited 6 p0rn sites in the past half hour.” Rose lets out a sound of disgust, she wasn’t against porn, but she was definitely against the idea of this guy watching porn. “Anything else?” Reid waited eagerly on the other end of the phone.
“Hold on He's posting to a message board. ‘Naughtyhobbies. Net.’ Looks like some sort of site for bomb enthusiasts. ‘To all my friends out there, beware. They are onto you.’”
“We need the names of everyone who's been on that message board in the past month.” With that, Garcia was off like a machine and Rose was more than happy to put aside her files to help in any way she could.
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Garcia had just finished setting up her lunch when the dreadful sound of work hitting the table made her look up. Morgan’s smug face looked back at her as he sat down.
“You ready to do some work?”
“Why not? I haven't slept this week. I might as well give up eating, too.”
“Oh, poor baby. Try not to let the tears hit the paper. Gets a little messy. Where’s blonde?” Garcia looks around for a minute, “um I think she went out for lunch, lucky her, getting to escape you.”
“Hmm I don’t know, she’d probably cry tears of excitement, in case you haven’t noticed that girl takes paperwork everywhere with her.”
“Leave her alone” she playfully shoves Derek’s arm, “she’s adorable, remind me to try set her up with Reid”
“sure thing, but right now, I got emails from Bale's account. Reid forwarded them to me.”
“What are we looking for?”
“Right now this guy Walker's in the wind, so we got to look at him from every angle, see if we can figure out his next move.”
“Signature behaviour. If walker got bomb-making tips from Bale, then maybe he got tips on staying clear of the cops.
“Ha! Somebody's been taking notes. “ “Medical school, schmedical school.” “Don't hurt yourself, Garcia.” Two laughed as they fell into a comfortable silence.
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Rose had returned back from lunch shortly after and didn’t hesitate to join Garcia and Morgan in looking though Bales emails. She’d even managed to spot an email that she felt stood out from the rest, it was advice from Bale to not be taken alive. Walker was going to take as many agents down as possible and they needed to get that information to Gideon immediately.
Rose and Morgan stood at his desk as he put Gideon on speaker, he motioned rose to speak, “we found an email Bale sent Walker 2 weeks ago. Listen to this,”
Morgan then went on to read it aloud. ‘my only regret is giving myself up. "And for what? To be stuck in a cage for the rest of my life. "Don't make my mistake. If they catch you, whatever you do, don't let them keep you.’
Rose waited for her sister to walk through the door before rushing to hug her, “I hear you’re the one that found the email that saved my life” she whispered into her sister’s ear. “Nah anyone could’ve found it.” Elle pulled away first, after a long day, Rose would have really liked that hug to last a hell of a lot longer. “Don’t sell yourself short kid, you did good, especially considering you weren’t on the field” Morgan approached from behind. She’d admit, spending time with Garcia and Morgan had been fun, they clearly loved each other and part of her wanted to be a part of that love the whole team seemed to have.
Everyone headed home for the night, and Rose was able to sleep peacefully knowing she’d helped in some way today. Her first case, she smiled to herself.
Bring on the next.