Chapter Text
Day 1 - Secret Sevice Unit, Washington D.C.
Apart from a slightly different room layout, and a seemingly nicer kitchen than theirs, Emily couldn't observe a big difference in the offices of the Secret Service when Tyler Chen lead them towards a spacious corner.
"I set up what you asked for on the phone," he said in their general direction, gesturing towards the boards, "Do you need anything else?"
Emily watched Hotch shake his head.
"No, is Agent Ev-" he started, before a female voice interrupted him. With raised eyebrows, Emily looked over to the woman coming out of the office, pocketing her phone.
"Look who the cat dragged in," she directed at Hotch, smirking. To her surprise, she watched as her boss' lip twitched in what was suspiciously close to a smile. Now that was unusual. She had never seen that woman before.
"Surprised they let you work somewhere you can't shoot your way out or blow something up," Hotch gave back dryly. Emily's eyebrows disappeared further under her bangs, and she exchanged a surprised look with Morgan. It was rare to see Hotch smirk, was he actually bordering on flirting? The blonde only chuckled.
"Maybe I will start again, just to annoy you," she said, crossing her arms, "But my track record has been fine the last years."
Agent Chen, who had busied himself with the boards, threw a dirty look her way. "She's crushing cars now," he muttered under his breath. He only earned a lazy smirk from what Emily assumed to be his boss, before the woman shrugged.
"As usual, my team loves my subtle way of doing things. I'm assuming this is yours?"
Her eyes glided over the BAU unit, and when hers met Emily's, the brunette couldn't help but give her a small smile back. She had met a lot of different people on their assignments, and from the first few seconds, the agent in front of her fell into the 'easy likable' category. What would come later was always a game between guessing, profiling and circumstances.
Hotch nodded, introducing them. With every name came a nod from the other woman.
"And this is Alexandria Evans, head of this Secret Service Unit."
Alexandria huffed a little at the mention of her full name.
"Alex is fine, or Evans, whatever you prefer. It's nice to meet you, I'm glad you're here," she gestured towards the corner, "If you need anything, please tell me, or Tyler. If I'm not here, he is responsible."
Hotch, back to his usual behavior, furrowed his brows. "When is the next gala?"
Giving them a somewhat exhausted look, Alex held up four fingers. "Friday night at six. We're already running out of time, I'm guessing?"
Judging from the three dead politicians, Emily would argue Alex was right. Reid, who had followed the whole exchange with mild interest, nodded.
"From the previously targeted events, the probability he choses this one are quite high. Unless there is another gala with domestic and foreign diplomats at the same time, or within the next week in DC," he added. The blonde agent looked at him.
"No, that's the only one," Alex shook her head, gesturing towards the people in the room, "The next big thing isn't for another three weeks. We have five people prepping right now."
Hotch gave her a questioning look. "Only five?"
Alex didn't give away if the question offended her in any way.
"For strategy and logistic right now, yes, me excluded. The teams who will secure the gala are not here, they come in for the briefings. I have tech, two agents for communications, one for administration, and Tyler."
That made sense, Emily thought to herself, five people weren't able to secure a building for a gala, but five working in the background could be enough. Hotch nodded.
"We may need to alter your security strategy based on what we find, we should coordinate our investigation with your preparation," he said. Crossing her arms, Alex hummed in agreement.
"No problem. Do you want to do that with me, or should I give our updates to Agent Jareau?"
Emily couldn't help herself as her eyes wandered to her colleague. She was surprised to realize JJ had been looking at her already, but her head had snapped away with the mention of her name.
Oblivious to them, Hotch shook his head.
"The two of us can coordinate that."
She might've only imagined it, but there was an amused twinkle in Alex's eyes. The secret service agent nodded at the suggestion. A voice next to Emily steered the focus away from the two unit heads for a second.
"Excuse me Ma'am, where can I set up?"
It was one of Emily's favorite things to watch people's reaction to Penelope Garcia, and Alexandria Evans didn't disappoint. Despite the fact she had at least acknowledged her in introduction, the other woman's eyes lit up with wicked interest when she looked at Garcia.
"I will show you if you don't call me Ma'am. Deal?" She winked, and Emily could feel Garcia beside her blush a little, before she nodded and shot a quick "Deal" back to her.
Alex gestured for her to follow. After three steps, she turned enough to look at Hotch. The expression on her face looked like feigned innocence.
"Before I forget, you remember Henley? She wants to talk to us in…," she checked her watch, "ten minutes in my office."
The unit chief threw an exhausted look her way. "You know I don't do politics on my cases."
Alex shrugged. "With this case, we all have to. I don't like it either."
Alex decided quicker than in most cases, that Penelope Garcia was her new favorite person. She watched as the technician inspected the set up, shifting some of the monitors, before she pulled a keyboard from her bag and plugged it in.
"Is there anything else you need?" she asked. Garcia's head whipped around, seemingly confused to still see her standing there.
"No Ma-Agent Evans," the blonde answered, shaking her head. Without looking, her fingers were already typing, a series of code running over two of the monitors.
"Great, have fun?" Alex said, not entirely sure there was something else to say, "I'm next door, if you need me."
Sending her a quick, but borderline uncomfortable smile with her still being here, Garcia turned back to her work. Making a mental note about how the technician did not like to be monitored, Alex slipped out of the room, smiling to herself. When she saw the figure of her boss' boss walk down towards her, she immediately stopped. Great. Just when I had five seconds of fun.
She looked through the office for Hotch, just to find him already staring at her. Giving him a sign, she stood up a little taller to meet Jessica Henley half way. The other woman preferred a short hand shake and followed her into Alex's office without too many words.
Seconds later, the BAU chief stepped in. He wore the same frown on his face as as earlier, when she had mentioned this meeting.
Great, great, great, Alex thought to herself. As if this wasn't bad enough.
And as if Henley owned Alex's office, she strutted over to the small corner, sat down onto the only armchair and mentioned towards the couch. The fact that this couch was tiny enough that her arm and leg was touching Hotch's seemingly didn't concern her. Alex tried for a thin lipped smile. Henley didn't smile back.
"It's…well I wanted to say good, but I would prefer the word interesting and hopefully efficient to see you two working together again. How long has it been?"
Alex avoided looking at Hotch, taking over the answer. "Eight years."
Humming lowly, Henley crossed one leg over the other.
"I'm sure I don't have to tell you how delicate this case is, Agent Hotch?"
The tension that radiated off of him would have been notable to Alex even without the close proximity. She could feel herself grinding her teeth. Henley was used to getting exactly what she wanted. And Hotch besides her didn't look like he wanted to play that game.
"We handle all our cases with the utmost discretion."
Oh good Lord. The flinch around Henley's mouth was not the start of a smile, that was for sure. She leaned forward, fixing her gaze on him.
"No press release without my approval. This is a case of national security, and it will be treated accordingly. I know there is a killer to catch, and I want you to catch him fast, but I cannot endanger those diplomats and their families."
And the facade you're holding up, Alex added in her head, but refrained from jumping in. She liked her head where it was.
"With all due respect," Hotch continued, to which Alex internally added a 'which is not that much', "their lives are already in danger."
Henley finally leaned back, a satisfied but fake smile ghosting over her lips. "That is why it is essential, you do your job to catch a killer, and Agent Evans does hers to protect the people at the gala. Have I made myself clear?"
She granted Alex a look, who waited on Hotch to agree.
"Yes."
"Agent Evans?"
Alex nodded, a headache brewing from biting down onto her teeth so much. "Of course."
Getting up first, Henley watched as they followed, still impossible close next to the tiny couch.
"Keep me posted, please. I expect an update every night until the gala."
With those words, she strutted out of the office, leaving the two of them behind. For some seconds, none of them moved.
"Alexandria-", Hotch started, but she turned around with a raised finger, wiggling it in front of his face.
"Stop calling me that."
He sighed deeply, finally stepping away enough to give her some breathing space.
"You knew this would happen," he stated more than asked. Lowering her hand, she nodded.
"Had the pleasure of working with, or rather for her, for the last years. I know how she is. And she has a point, and you know it. Even though it might be driven by the fact it's election year, and her husband is running. Again."
Alex gave him a pointed look, to which he only raised an eyebrow again.
"I still don't like it."
Unable to suppress rolling her eyes, Alex stepped towards the door. "No one does. Will you be able to follow her instructions?"
Hotch gave her an almost amused look. "Unless it interferes with my investigation? Yes."
Shaking her head slowly, Alex opened the door. She had expected it to go something like this, but it still managed to stress her out. She gave him a defeated look.
"If you decide it does, please tell me beforehand. This is my career on the line as well."
Aaron Hotch did his best to not ignore, but not to watch Alex while his team around started on victimology. Eight years. Long time no see, he mused to himself. Not that he had ever forgotten the woman who had used a hand grenade to save both their lives, the piercing hazel eyes he sometimes woke up to think about, and one of the only woman who got him to loose his composed self once or twice in his lifetime. In front of people. No, he hadn't forgotten. Not to mention that Alex, despite the years, had treated him as if no time had passed, no matter she was now head of a unit, as well as him. Besides that, she was exactly as beautiful as he remembered her to be. Damn that woman.
"He changed genders," Morgan threw in, bringing Hotch back into reality. Crunching his nose, Reid tapped on the photos in front of them.
"That's unusual."
Emily looked at Alex. "Unless this is not about who he kills, but what. Which positions did these people hold?"
Looking at the pictures, the agent hummed. "Different departments, but all worked for the government. This one," she tapped on the body that had been found on the side of the road, "had diplomatic status, he worked in foreign relations. The others were in financial stability and education, without a diplomatic status."
Emily looked at the others. "This might have nothing to do with thee people but the fact they worked on Capitol Hill."
Furrowing his brows, as he focussed on the names in front of him, Hotch crossed his arms.
"They weren't that high up the chain," he muttered, looking at their individual ranks. Alex shook her head.
"No, but high enough to alert Homeland when they went missing for two days. All of them worked on projects that were at least confidential. However, every project there is kind of confidential. I don't think this might be important. At least when you consider they weren't working on anything related."
Reid went over to the white board, scribbling down a few facts about the three victims.
"Male and female victims, all working for the government, confidential but unrelated projects. Ranks that justify an alert when they go missing. Did they know each other?"
The gazes turned back to Alex. The blonde cocked her head at the younger agent.
"Well, everyone does there, but we didn't find any instant connection."
"We will have Garcia take another look at it," Hotch said, making Alex's head turn to him. She squinted her eyes.
"She should be cautious with that. I'm aware of what she does, and we do not want that kind of attention, not even with this investigation," Alex said in his direction, deliberately not looking at the others. Refraining from grinding his teeth for the second time that day, he nodded slowly. Of course Garcia would be cautious, she always was. Was there something else the Secret Service didn't want them to know? This investigation had just started, and he was already tired of politics. As always.
"She will be," was all he said, realizing this was neither the place nor the time to discuss this. He felt Dave's gaze burning into his back. Alex responded with a nod, her eyes softening a little bit.
"If this is about their position as governmental employees, could this be terrorism? Domestic or foreign?" Emily chimed in, apparently having decided to ignore their little silent exchange.
Hazel eyes met dark ones and he watches as Alex shook her head.
"No, that's what we thought, too. But there is no connection between the victims and anything foreign, besides one working in Asia a lot. There was no group claiming responsibility or any announcement lately," she answered, leaning against the desk, "We never fully exclude it, but it's highly unlikely."
Reid made a few more notes on the white board, before turning back. "I think that's all we're going to get right now," he mumbled to himself. Nodding, Hotch turned to his team.
"JJ, get Garcia on these victims. We need to see the last abduction sides, or where we think they disappeared. Can we see all of them?" he addresses Alex. The blonde nodded, moving quick enough to tell Hotch she was glad to do something about this. He held back a smile.
"It's three buildings. You split up, I get you a ride?"
Hotch nodded and watched her as she strolled over to Tyler and her team.
He rather felt than saw Dave lean in and whisper "Oh this is going to be interesting."
With the last of his restrained, he held back from throwing him a dirty look. He knew Rossi would only chuckle about it anyway.