Chapter Text
['Passion is the genesis of genius' - Galileo Galilei]
***
"It's finally over!" Ivie gleefully said, before slumping to the cold concrete below.
Honestly, she wasn't quite sure where she had ended up. Her team was doing a sweep of an abandoned warehouse along the London river bank when their suspected perpetrators fled. Almost forty-five minutes later her adrenaline had been completely drained from the chase.
"You climbed that wall like it was on your route to work, damn newbie."
Ivie had to look up to see the head of her team because at this point she was so tired that she was actually lying on the floor. She was a pretty, tall-ish woman with dark yet shining eyes and thick dark hair flowing to her shoulders with a secure block fringe that Ivie was convinced was glued to her forehead.
"What can I say... maybe if my parents were going to get so mad at me for climbing trees they shouldn't have named me after a plant that climbs. Anyways what should we do now, boss?"
"Please... I... ugh, we need to get these guys into the interrogation rooms stat."
"Yes boss" Ivie said with a chuckle, knowing the formality annoyed the one in charge, as she peeled herself off the floor.
Despite no words being said between the pair Ivie could tell that her boss was rolling her eyes as they walked away from the scene with the two suspects in tow.
"Please just call me Emily, now come on let's go"
***
Ivie Evans was a little startled when she woke up in a slightly unfamiliar place. The 28-year-old from the south of England was, almost laughably stereotypically thirsty for a cup of tea (english breakfast tea of course). Considering the circumstances, having a dream about one of her first cases with Emily was quite fitting. Maybe it was because Emily had been oh so gracious and given her the key to her old apartment near Quantico (with strict instructions that she could use it for as long as it took her to find somewhere else), or because she was the one who gave Ivie a referral to the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI. Honestly, it probably would have been weirder if Emily hadn't appeared in her dreams. She knew that today was the day of her interview but the sky seemed a bit lighter than she was expecting, crossing her fingers she turned to the clock that sat next to the bed.
"Less than an hour, oh shit"
Scurrying to put on clothes she had luckily remembered to put out the night before and grab all the documents she needed, Ivie rushed out the door, heading straight for the garage. Almost tripping on the steps, she rushed into the underground garage of the apartment complex and then realised, she couldn't exactly remember what the rental car she had been given looked like. Still partially running she just pressed the unlock button of the car key hoping it would make a loud noise or flash the lights to catch her attention.
"Aha! Red 2009 Honda Civic, god what an ugly car"
Accidentally opening the passenger door instead of the driver's door and definitely not forgetting what side of the road to drive on, she started the car and drove out of the apartment complex. Almost running several red lights she, unbelievably, made it to the FBI headquarters in time.
***
Reid wasn't supposed to be at work this early, but his brain had other ideas. There was a case file for consultation that had been nagging at the back of his brain since he read over it yesterday, so he decided to come in early. He had grabbed a coffee from a small coffee shop that was open 24 hours just around the corner of the FBI headquarters and was now on his way back to the bullpen to have a few quiet hours before the others came into work. The lift doors were slowly closing as he reached them, swiftly shoving his satchel between them to catch the doors he made his way inside
"Sorry, hi" he said with his usual small wave to the girl in the lift.
He noted she was about 5"6 with reddish brown hair past her shoulders, wearing a slightly more formal suit than would normally be seen for a field agent. It didn't seem that unusual to him, but his mind was a little preoccupied, mentally writing up a case file.
"Uh, good morning! which floor do you..?"
Picking up a British accent, he became more intrigued by the person he was sharing the small metal box with. Considering where they were, the accent was a little strange but not unheard of, Reid knew that there were a lot of consultants from almost every country that helped keep the FBI up to date on current affairs.
"Six please.... oh you too?"
It was a little weird that she was going to the BAU's floor, but before he could say anything she did.
"You're... Doctor Spencer Reid, right?"
"Yeah... How'd you know?"
Now that she had turned to look at him he clocked her sapphire-like blue eyes following him as he moved, their colour shifting from a pale sky shade to a dark navy. 'Eyes are the window to the soul' - William Shakespeare; was a quote that came to mind, he did wonder if it was because she had a British accent though, and not purely because of her eyes. Looking at her properly he suddenly realised that he recognised her.
"Ah, from photos Emily showed me of you guys. She misses you all by the way, I think she gave me some things to give you all. Shit, I left them in the flat." Her eyes widened as she covered her mouth.
Reid let out a small chuckle, "You're Ivie, right? Emily's sent us pictures of you guys with London landmarks."
He asked Emily about her once, curious about the person who was seemingly becoming her new best friend, or at least that's what he told himself. Reid saw a soft smile appear on her face when she learnt about Emily sharing the pictures with the team.
"Yep, that's me, Ivie Evans. Nice to finally meet you, Doctor Reid." She gave him a small smile and a nod towards him. Emily had told her about his general aversion to handshakes one time when they had been talking about what they'd done before Ivie was placed on her Interpol team.
"Thanks for telling me about the pictures actually, now I've got more blackmail material! She'll probably say that it's only because she looked good in them, but I'll take it."
Chuckles from both of them echoed around the silver box as the lift slowed, the voice announcement signalling that they had made it to the 6th floor.
"Well, have fun in the meeting," Reid said as he held open the glass door into the BAU's office for the brunette to pass.
"Ah, a gentleman and a genius. Thank you, Sir Reid." Ivie laughed at her random formal statement.
"Agent Hotchner's office is the first one at the top of the stairs, good luck I'm sure you'll do great!"
Ivie let out a small sigh of relief as she walked towards the steps, turning back over her shoulder to look back at the guy she had only seen through photographs and got to know in tidbits of conversation: not to mention the fact that he was a lot cuter in person, fluffy hair and all. Her nerves had been significantly reduced in the short time she'd spent with him, Emily was right about the fact that he could defuse any situation.
"Thank you, I guess I'll see you later maybe?"
And with that, she calmly made her way up the steps and knocked on the door of the person who would hopefully be her future boss, so wrapped up in nerves that she didn't even realise that she never told Reid why she was there.
***
"Well, how'd you sleep last night?"
Penelope Garcia the technical analyst and SSA Derek Morgan were making their way to the bullpen to see everyone, who should just be making their way into work, currently being grilled about her lack of sleep by the buff agent she wasn't particularly paying attention to the conversation, wondering if there was a way to sleep without the fear of nightmares.
"I've tried everything, trust me"
Looking down at the cup in her hand Derek raised an eyebrow.
"Babygirl, have you tried not drinking coffee?"
"This is tea. It's herbal, no caffeine. What else you got? Better be a good answer." Putting his hand in the air as if he was waiting for an idea, Derek stalled, and the silence continued, "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Arriving at the doors of the office the two met SSA David Rossi and SSA Jenifer Jareau, though everyone called her JJ, they were already wrapped up in a conversation of their own.
"I know, surprised me too." the oldest agent said mainly at JJ.
"What? What surprised you?"
Penelope was not the biggest fan of either surprises or secrets, maybe this was not the greatest line of work for that, but she had an incredible ability to stay positive about almost anything. Sure, most of the time along with cute animal pictures to balance out the horror of the images she had to see daily, but everyone has their way of coping. She knew that if Rossi and JJ were discussing this so openly it wasn't anything that needed to be kept from her.
"Hotch talked to Emily" JJ replied.
"And?"
"She doesn't want to come back, although..." At this point Penelope had inserted herself between Rossi and JJ, eyes boring into Rossi to make him continue his sentence.
"Why? She loves us..."
Before the tech specialist's question could be answered Reid approached the team. Without thinking, he automatically picked up on the sound of Garcia's heels approaching and found himself shifting his attention to the glass doors of the office, so he had heard the group's entire conversation as they entered the bullpen.
"For what it's worth, Hotch is interviewing someone who knows Emily."
"He is?" the team's attention was all suddenly shifted to Hotch's office, although the blinds were closed, answering JJ's question, it did not help them figure out the identity of the mystery interviewee.
"How many candidates does that make now?" Derek only pondered not especially expecting an exact answer.
"This one makes lucky number 10." The oldest of the bunch stated.
"WHAT? See, this is what happens when I don't sleep. I miss things. Who is this person? Are they nice? Why is that the first question I always ask?"
***
While the rest of the team was outside trying to catch a glimpse of her, Ivie was inside Hotch's office. She noticed the pictures scattered around the room, the boy in them must be his son. His name was Jack if she remembered correctly. Emily had gotten quite attached to the little guy, she was attached to everyone in the BAU team really, she talked about them all the time: showing photos, telling stories, displaying little trinkets from them around her house.
"Sorry the office isn't usually filled with case files, our section chief is overseas and we're down an agent."
Hotch's sudden apology startled Ivie a little, but she assumed he was just making small talk.
"Ah yeah, Emily mentioned one of your agents transferred to Boston. I think?"
"She decided to teach full time."
"Alex Blake right? I heard she's a very good lecturer, I bet the students are happy. It's not so great for you guys. If it gives me any points I can promise to not become a lecturer?"
The man released a small chuckle before rummaging around on his desk for what she assumed was her file and application.
"Well, you've been noted as an analytical team player, who thinks unorthodoxly, has excellent firearm skills, a wide range of general knowledge and is described as a jack of all trades. Of course, I've heard this from Agent Prentiss, but she also gave me evidence to back up all of her claims. Overall, I think you'd be a great asset to this team"
Ivie was a little stunned, she wasn't expecting this to go all that well. She wasn't even entirely convinced that a British national was allowed to apply to a US Federal institution when Emily told her about the position. Quickly she was going to have to come to terms with knowing way more about this team than they did about her, but hopefully, it wouldn't be too weird.
"Wow I-, are you sure that's it? I don't need to like to discuss visas or anything?" Her mind was struggling to keep up with what was happening.
"Don't worry about visas, it'll all be sorted for you. Your work under the chief of the London Interpol office and impressive merging of the UK's, Serious Organised Crime Agency into the National Crime Agency, not to mention your numerous undercover operations, has convinced me that you're ready to be a part of the team."
"But are you-" Just as Ivie was about to question Agent Hotchner for a second time the door to the office burst open
"Sorry, I know I'm interrupting."
"Uh Garcia, this is Agent Ivie Evans. She'll be joining the team from now on."
Garcia had been mentioned a lot to Ivie, and this time not just from Emily but also from some contacts she had in the coding field. She sure did look like the embodiment of sunshine, and she would have to ask at some point how on earth she managed to survive in heels like that, day in, day out.
"Hello, oh my gosh I know you! Sorry Hotch, He's at it again in Bakersfield."
A soft smile crept up Ivie's cheeks yet again, she'd looked up to Emily since she was taken under her wing. It was nice to know that in some way the feeling was reciprocated.
"I'll be right there, I'm not sure how much you know about this case but we've been consulting and this is the third victim. Do you have a go-bag?"
"I mean I didn't want to jinx the interview by bringing it up here with me, so I left it in the car, just in case." Ivie awkwardly scratched her neck.
"Good to hear, let's move to the conference room and I'll introduce you to the team."