FRESH FACES — THE PROLOGUE
❪ WELCOME TO THE BAU ❫
❝ I am thankful for nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family, and dreams that turned into reality. ❞

( just to be clear : we know this timeline isn't accurate, it's an au )

   DEREK MORGAN LEANED BACK in his chair surveying the desk which had housed him for years. The usual clutter sprawled across it was absent. It was slightly unnerving to the man who was used to files being lazily and haphazardly tossed about with overdue paperwork shoved somewhere in a drawer where Hotch hopefully wouldn't look. The BAU bullpen seemed empty and quiet for the first time in years, gone was Reid's incessant rambling about this or that astrophysicist, even Anderson was nowhere to be found. What would become of their little family? Morgan wondered. He knew they had a few cases to train their new mentees, but after that?

The only thing that reflected the teams' existence was the fact that they were all sprawled about the room. Every so often, one of them would sigh quietly. Hotch was absent from their family gathering and Derek wasn't sure if his presence would make things better or worse. The air was already tense and everyone was slightly on edge. JJ was pacing, occasionally glancing up at the door. Emily was subconsciously chewing at her cuticles. Reid sat in front of the daily crossword puzzle, taking longer than his usual eight minutes to solve it. Rossi seemed unphased but someone who knew him well, or a profiler (the team just happened to be both) would pick up on him twisting his signet ring, his only nervous tic. The worst had to be Penelope Garcia, who decided to fill the silence by talking about everything and anything that popped into her mind.

"You guys are gonna call me every day, right? Promise. Promise you'll call every day," she rambled. "And Rossi! You have to host family dinners twice a week. If you don't, I swear I'll cry right now." While anyone who didn't know her would assume that she was kidding, everyone in the room knew she was serious.

"Sure, Penelope," Rossi nodded, smiling tentatively. The bubbly blonde let out a sigh of relief and for just a moment it was silent. Emily was the one to break the silence.

"You guys know I love you, right?" she asked, her voice shaking. "'Cause I know I can be pretty closed off, but I need you to know that I love you and I'm gonna do everything I can to keep in touch."

Morgan wasn't one for sentiment (at least he wouldn't admit he was) and before Reid could start bawling he knew he had to say something. "Wow. Death might've softened Em up a bit." That seemed to break whatever tension was brewing and it felt like old times as JJ scoffed and Penelope let out a laugh.

Emily, still somewhat emotional, simply flipped him off. "Screw you, Morgan."

A knock sounded at the glass door leading outside of the bullpen. "Hey, am I interrupting something?" Carter asked, poking her head in.

"Carter!" Emily beamed at her new protege. "Come in, meet the rest of the team!"

Ever the profilers, the team began sizing her up. Reid's eyes went straight to her bookbag, that day's crossword hanging out of it, completed. "Hi," Carter said, waving to the team. Morgan extended his hand to shake hers, only to be met with a shake of her head. "The number of pathogens shared during a handshake is staggering," she began by way of explanation, before Reid cut her off.

"It's actually safer to kiss." he finished, in awe. "That's Derek Morgan, he still doesn't believe me about handshakes."

"And you must be Spencer Reid!" Carter exclaimed. She had clearly been anticipating this meeting for quite a while. "You're like, my idol."

"Word on the street is you're even smarter than Pretty Boy, Carter," Morgan said, smirking. "You can't be more than 22. Reid joined the Bureau at 24."

"I'm, uh," Carter said shyly. "I'm 20, actually. 2 PhDs, speed-reader, eidetic memory, IQ of 187. So in those terms, I'm as smart as Dr. Reid. But I don't think intelligence can be accurately quantified."

   "So how come you're the one with the mini-Spence, Emily?" JJ asked.

   "Oh, you'll see," Emily replied, smirking. Em was confident in her abilities when it came to picking the next, well, her. A lot of thought had gone into selecting this next generation of BAU agents, especially considering their jobs were extremely dangerous and would potentially save lives. Emily had not taken her selection lightly and she was more than happy with the end result.

   "Ok, let me guess who's who," Carter grinned at the rest of the team. "You've got to be Ms. Penelope Garcia, the goddess among men at the BAU. Between us," Carter leaned toward her, whispering, "You're the only one they can't survive without."

   "And you must be JJ! Emily's told me all about you! I can't wait to get to know you better," Carter laughed, going in for a hug.

   "Oh!" JJ smiled, surprised, before returning the hug. "What exactly has Emily told you about me?" She glanced warily at the dark-haired woman.

   "Oh, nothing important. She told me your favorite snack is Cheetos, so I brought you some!"

   "Thank you, sweetheart!" JJ graciously accepted, still nervous about the information this 20 year old genius might have on her. Lord knows there were more than enough horror stories Emily could've spilled to Carter.

   "Ok, next, I'm assuming Sir Aaron Hotchner isn't here, so you must be Mr. David Rossi! It is an honor to meet you sir. I never thought I'd end up face-to-face with one of the men responsible for creating the BAU, but now that I have, I just have one question for you," Carter said, quite seriously.

   "Shoot, kid," Rossi encouraged, leaning forward in his chair.

   "Would it have killed you to get a woman to help y'all out? I just know most of your problems at the beginning were because you only had men," Carter said, before bursting out laughing. "I'm just messing with you, sir. I know I probably shouldn't be, but I just couldn't help it."

   "Well, you're lucky I've got a sense of humor. I need it to deal with these fools all day long," Rossi laughed along with her.

   "Oh! Morgan!" Carter exclaimed, pointing at him. "I have something for you, hang on." Carter rummaged through her book bag, finally pulling out a small plastic card. "I know I don't know you, but Emily told me you like hockey and I may seem like a nerd but I was actually decent at hockey in college, so I bought a couple hours at the ice rink. We could go together or you could bring whoever you want, up to you," she said, suddenly shy.

   "Carter," Morgan said, obviously touched. "This is so sweet, thank you. Once we get some time away from the Bureau I'd love to go with you. I warn you though, I haven't been on a rink in some time."

   Carter's beam returned to her face as she handed Morgan the small card and walked over to Emily, sitting on the floor next to her chair. "You know what, I think I'll join you down there," Emily said, ruffling Carter's hair and plopping down on the floor next to her.

   "Sucker!" Carter leaped into Emily's vacant chair, and kicked her feet up onto Emily's desk.

   A young woman entered the room without a word, drawing attention from the two ladies. Morgan raised his eyebrows as he watched her scan the room as she walked around it, picking up a picture of the team and examining it. "Um. Hi!" JJ greeted somewhat politely and urgently as she approached the young woman who simply glanced at her over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

   "Good morning." She greeted back before turning back to the picture and putting it down gently.

   JJ looked back at the team who were somewhat dumbfounded by her confidence. Making eye contact with Morgan, JJ raised an eyebrow. He shrugged as he watched the younger blonde observe her surroundings.

   All the agents (excluding Rossi, who already knew her) were slightly on edge. After all, this girl had just seemingly wandered into the office. But Morgan wasn't too concerned. It was a secure FBI building. Frankly, she didn't seem too threatening.

   Obviously she did some type of exercise; a gym bag was slung over her shoulder and her hair was damp and slick. Morgan thought he saw a pair of goggles where the zipper wasn't quite closed.

   Rossi knew Aphrodite quite well, after all, her father had helped him create the Bureau. Because of this, he also knew that if he ruined her entrance, he'd never hear the end of it, so he let her play it out.

   JJ cleared her throat and the blonde faced her again, this time with a raised eyebrow. "Um Hi. Yes." JJ smiled politely, using all her years of communicating and liaising to inform her next move. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

   The blonde paused for a moment, thinking over something, before she smiled politely. "A black coffee."

  Carter snorted as JJ's face fell and she watched Morgan stand up, slightly intrigued by this girl. "Kid, who the hell are you?"

  "You know what, that is honestly the first smart question you've asked. I'm Aphrodite-"

   "Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of  love, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation." Reid interrupted and Aphrodite nodded in agreement while pointing at him.

   "Yeah, her. But I literally hate that name so you will call me Roe. Spell it, R-O-E." She paused scanning the faces of everyone and raised her eyebrows, "I see no one taking notes."  Penelope jumped, a little intimidated by her presence, and went to search her bag for a pen and paper. She was stopped by Rossi who grabbed her wrist and shook his head gently.

   "Anway, I guess you would better know me as Hotch's apprentice, mentee, whatever. I went to Harvard and got my undergraduate there and went straight into the FBI academy. So are there any questions? No? Great. Now that black coffee?" Roe finished leaving everyone slightly stunned and in a trance. JJ moved from her place in the middle of the pen to the coffee pot and poured her a cup.

   Roe gratefully gulped her coffee down and met eyes with Hotch, who was leaning against the door. The rest of the team followed Roe with their eyes as she walked towards Hotch, joining him at his post. Without looking the two fist bumped as Roe set down her now empty cup. "I see you've all met Roe." Hotch spoke professionally and they all nodded, still starstruck. The duo simultaneously raised their eyebrows at the group before turning around to speak somewhat privately.

   Rossi simply said, "figures," and pushed out his chair. Grinning, he made his way over to Roe. "Good to see you again, kid. Glad we're on the same team, wouldn't wanna go up against you."

   "Thank you, Agent Rossi," the shorter girl said professionally, extending her hand towards him.

   "Don't be ridiculous," Rossi said, leaning in for a hug. "Your father's one of my best friends. Call me Dave. The rest of you," he said, turning towards the everyone else, "will call me Agent Rossi." He took his seat again, this time leaning in to Carter. "I always wanted a cool nickname, you seem like you'd be good at those," he whispered. "You don't have to call me Agent Rossi if you have something better."

   "Oh! Ok," Carter said, and Rossi could almost see the gears turning inside her head.

   "So, did I do good? I wasn't too confident, or, pardon my language, sir, douchey, or anything?" Roe whispered urgently to Hotch, her confident demeanor slipping away. Hotch nodded with a proud smile causing the blonde to let out a sigh of relief.

   They once again settled into a comfortable silence, though for Penelope, it was perhaps not too comfortable. She drummed her fingers on the table and tapped her foot on the ground incessantly. "Babygirl," Morgan attempted to console her. "What are you so worried about?"

   "I hate profilers," the blonde woman sighed, turning to face him. "I just really want you guys to like--"

   "Marcus! Hi my name is Marcus Paul Wilkins and I'm here on time!" A boy shouted as he burst through the doors.

   "Is that who you really want us to like, dollface?" Morgan asked, bemusedly watching Marcus trip over Emily, straighten himself out, and then stride over to Penelope.

   Penelope was no longer listening. "Paulie," she squealed, pulling him into a hug. "Everyone, this is Paulie!"

   "Marcus," he corrected, blushing. "It's Marcus."

   "Paulie," Penelope continued, ignoring him. "This is everyone, plus Carter and Roe."

   "Hi, Marcus," JJ said, warmly. "I'm Jennifer Jareau, but most people call me JJ. Penny hasn't been able to stop talking about you for weeks."

   At that, Marcus grinned. "It's so nice to finally meet you," he said, extending his hand. "I feel like I know all of you already. Especially...," he trailed off, turning towards Derek, who was eyeing him with a mixture of amusement and caution. "Um," Marcus stuttered, trying to think of the right thing to say to his mentor's dearest friend. "I, uh. I. Um," he continued, sticking his hand out, still hoping to salvage this exchange somehow.

   Derek, grinning, bypassed the boy's outstretched arm and pulled him into a man-hug, complete with aggressive back-slapping. "It's good to meet you, kid," he said, pulling away. "But I swear to everything holy if you even think of hurting my babygirl's feelings, you're in for a world of hurt," he lectured.

   Marcus shook his head violently. "Sir, I would never," he assured Derek, with more than a little panic in his voice. Carter laughed from across the room, a bright sound which she stifled when Roe shot her an admonishing glance from her post next to Hotch.

   A red-haired girl with a small smile on her face  was the next to walk through the door. "Um," she said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Hi, everyone." Spencer got up to welcome his mentee in.

   "This is Maisie MacCallan," he announced, placing his hand on the small of her back to usher her in the room. "She's one of the most talented and smartest young women I've ever met." Maisie's cheeks heated, turning the same red-orange color as her hair.

   "Wow," Morgan raised an eyebrow. "High praise from Pretty Boy Reid, Maisie. You must be quite something."  Morgan and Maisie exchanged the first handshake of the day, much to Reid's dismay.

   "How many times have I told both of you that handshakes transmit germs more efficiently than any other form of greeting?" he complained. "No one ever listens to me."

   "Oh no, Pretty Boy, I listen to you, I just like handshakes and don't care all that much about germs," Morgan grinned at Maisie, glad to have a new audience for making fun of Reid.

   "Sorry Spence, but I feel the same way," Maisie agreed, glad to have a new friend to ramble to. "Anyways, sir, wanna hear a Dahmer fact?"

   "Call  me Derek, and sure kid, fire away."

   "Ooh! Ok so when he was a kid, he was super interested in animal bones," the red-head started, speaking in the same manner that Spencer often did when he was excited about something, "and when he was 10 asked his dad (who was a scientist) what would happen if he put a chicken bone in bleach. His dad then showed him how to clean and preserve animal bones in bleach, which, as I'm sure you know, is how he cleaned and preserved his victims' skulls."

   "Not only did his father show him how to clean the bones," Reid added, unable to help himself, "but he actually heavily encouraged Dahmer's interest, thinking he had found a scientific passion to pursue."

   Morgan let out a laugh. "I can't believe there's two of you," he said, still laughing. Maisie blushed again, grinning sheepishly.

   A boy with healthy, dark hair strutted into the room. He wasn't smoking a cigarette, but he might as well have been. He exuded teenage stubbornness and rebellion, with a healthy dollop of who-gives-a-fuck. He was clearly in his mid-20s, but the attitude suited him. Naturally, Rossi got up to claim him.

   As Rossi made his way over, the agents whose mentees had arrived asked them if they had any insights about the boy. Each agent knew there was something easy enough for their mentees to quickly pick up on that was actually relevant, a rarity in this stage of the process. Excluding Marcus, who wasn't a profiler, the mentees all came to relatively the same conclusion. A red bull in one hand and a bag of gummy worms in the other, this boy was dying to be seen as an independent adult while still clinging to his youth.

   "Maybe his childhood was stolen from him in some way," Carter whispered to Emily. Maisie and Roe whispered something along the same lines to Reid and Hotch, respectively.

   Noticing their nods and conspicuous glances, the boy cleared his throat. "Can y'all stop profiling me now?" he asked, his Georgian drawl spilling out of his mouth. "Anyways," he continued, "I'm Kolben, but y'all can call me Kolby. I thought there was supposed to be a rule against inter-team profiling?"

   "Well," Carter said, "technically we didn't know if you were part of the team or not, so it doesn't count."

Kolby sent the girl a blank look causing her to shift in her seat slightly. "Let's go over here," Rossi suggested as he took it upon himself to separate Kolby before he said something that could be considered offensive to his new team. It was vital that the team got to know him first before they jumped to conclusions based of their profile of him.

"Sup bitches." A voice sounded throughout the room and Garcia's eyes widened in surprise. It was not a normal greeting from a person — a new one at that but as she looked at who spoke she understood why. The girl was tall and slightly pale, her complexion reminded her somewhat of a vampire although she would never say that out loud.

JJ stood up, somewhat embarrassed and ready to scold the young woman in front of her. "Jade you can't just say that to people."

Jade's eyes moved towards JJ and she shrugged as she popped the bubblegum in her mouth. "I just did."

Derek snorted unattractively as he watched the brunette obviously not give a shit. "I like her." JJ sent Morgan a look as if warning him to which he promptly shut his mouth.

The brunette eyed him suspiciously before taking in the rest of the team. "Question:who here works out on the regular?"

The young faces of the crowd all looked at each other in confusion before Marcus shrugged. "I move my hands a lot." Kolby stared at the boy with raised eyebrows causing him to think over his words. Once realizing how it could have come off he quickly tried to back pedal, "N-no, not l-like that."

Jade rolled her eyes as she looked back at JJ who was apologizing profusely to everyone — mostly Hotch and his unwavering look. "I'm bored. These people are boring."

Carter frowned as she looked at herself then met the eyes of Emily who shook her head. "You're not boring Carter."

Yes you are Jade mouthed as she made eye contact with Carter who dropped her jaw in surprise. JJ grabbed Jade's shoulder's as she stood behind the girl. "Guys this is Jade."

"Don't make eye contact with me." Jade simply stated as she moved to sit at JJ's old desk. Spencer raised his eyebrows at JJ who was whispering shouting Jade's name. Once she realized that there was no use she looked back at the team and sighed. "Yeah. That's Jade!"

A few minutes passed by and it looked like no one else was coomg, despite someone obviously missing. "Morgan." Hotch called out to the older man who seemed undisturbed by the fact that his mentee has yet to show up — making offically them late. "Where is your mentee?"

Derek lazily laid back in his chair, not concerned in the slightest. "He'll be here."

The team seemed to not believe him and Hotch sighed as he took his place at the front of the team. They were all a little surprised knowing how Derek acted, he was always on top of things — so for his mentee to be late was something that wasn't expected. "We have to get started." Hotch pointed out sternly and Morgan shrugged, not concerned. "Go ahead."

Hotch paused for a moment, eyeing the man before letting out a sigh. His eyes moved over to Garcia who was clutching the case folders in her hands, nodding slightly at her. Instead of moving to hand them to the team she looked at Marcus who was still embarrassed from his slip up earlier. "Sir Paulie -"

" -Marcus "

"Paulie." Penelope insisted as she stood over Marcus who just looked at her helplessly. "This task i'm about to give you is probably the most important one apart of this whole process."

Maisie furrowed her eyebrows, "Wouldn't that be catching the unsubs?" Penelope turned her head to the young redhead with a eyebrow raised.

"Are you questioning me?" Notcing the looks everyone was shooting her and seeing Derek shake his head rapidly while mouthing no she was able to take a hint. There was more than one reason Maisie was picked to be Spencer's prodecesser — and it wasn't just because of how smart she was.

"No." Maisie responded hesitantly and Penelope smiled victoriously before turning back to Marcus. "Hand out the cases with care. Put your heart into it, pretend your giving away a baby. Because these are just as important as babies."

Marcus furrowed his eyebrows as he took the iPads that Garica was handing to him. "I'm supposed to treat the ipads .... like babies?"

Garcia nodded and Marcus shrugged as he stood up, muttering under his breath about how that was ridiculous — but did so never the less. "Does that mean I'm having your baby?" Jade asked once he got to her and Marcus froze, a blush coating his neck and face. JJ hit Jade on the shoulder as she smirked at him and once the Ipad was safely in her hands, he scrambled back to Garcia.

"You did good young padawan." Garcia reassured him as she got ready to present the case. Before anything could be said the doors to the room started admitting noise. Everyone looked back to see a tall, lanky boy who looked slightly out of breath trying to push open the doors. "It's pull!" Garcia stated and he seemed not to be able to hear them as he kept trying to push open the doors. Everyone started shouting and making different actions in hopes of helping where Hotch and Roe exchanged a look of slight disbelief.

Jade seemed be over this as she stood up and stormed to the doors — opening it and hitting the man in the stomach in the process. "You dumb ass, it's a pull door." The man, who was hunched over and slightly out of breath smiled up at her. "Thanks scary vampire girl."

Her eyes blinked in surprise as he composed himself and made his way into the room, tripping over his own feet. JJ went to catch him but he was able to save himself in the last second. "Whoops. All good." Taking in the room the boy nodded in respect. "This room is sick."

"Bro, you still say sick?" Carter asked Brady, who nodded and pointed at her.

"Good catch. I'll say dope instead."

"No, sick is better. Please don't say dope."

The man, Brady, made his way over to Hotch — stopping in front of him and patting his shoulder. "Sup, bossman?" Looking at Roe who was standing next to Hotch he sent her a wink, causing the blonde to look at him in surprise. Hotch looked at the hand resting on his shoulder with an unimpressed look and then back at Brady, who got the hint and was quick to remove it.

"I'm going to sit down." He suggested weakly and Hotch nodded.

"I think that's a great idea. Probably the best one you've had since you've walked in."

Brady nodded and muttered a quiet yeah as he made his way to Derek who was quick to hand him the iPad. "Guy's. This is Brady Preston." Everyone muttered a greeting to the boy who proceeded to drop the Ipad causing him to wince. Brady was quick to pick it up and smile at everyone once he checked over the screen. "It's fine! No cracks."

"I feel bad for that baby." Carter stated and everyone chuckled at that, Kolby even letting one past his lips. Brady furrowed his eyebrows but shrugged it off as he looked down at the screen.

"Now that Agent Preston over here has joined us. I want to officially welcome everyone to the BAU."

— payton and asta love y'all
OKAY HI! sorry it's taken literally like a month to get this out but ya know, COVID makes everything a little crazy. asta and i love these characters and we are super excited to write them and grow with them. PLEASE DO NOT BE AFRAID TO COMMENT. as a writer i know i personally love comments so seeing them makes my heart happy. I can promise it won't be another month before the first official chapter is published.