Chapter Text
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PART 1: SUBTLETY
“Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.” - Guy Finley
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The doorbell rang, and it would be more than a lie to say it hadn't woken me up. I sat up slowly in my bed, wiping the dried spit on my cheek before I rubbed my eyes. God damn it, this wasn't a good start to my day off.
The doorbell rang again, and pre-empting what I would be asked to do, I got out of bed and put a bra on under my pyjama shirt and slipped on some sweatpants. If Kory hadn't answered the door the first time, she wasn't ready to go to work yet.
"Cait! Can you get that?!"
And there it was. I pulled my hair back and whipped it into a bun with one of the elastics on my wrist. "No problems!" I shouted back as I walked out of my room and down the stairs. "I'll just answer the door for the man you're supposedly 'just friends with' even though you talk about him all the damned time," I mumbled to myself, rubbing my eyes again in hopes I would look a little more human.
Considering the fact she was meant to introduce me to this new and temporary team of hers weeks ago, getting me to answer the door in my pyjamas was quite rude. Making a good first impression was important, especially when all of the people on her team were stupidly attractive. If it was any of the other members I would have worried a little more about dressing better, but it was the one Kory had already staked a claim on. Even if she didn't admit to it, it was easy to tell how much she liked him.
"Well hello there," I said as I opened the door. "You must be Agent Spencer Reid." He was tall, as seemed to be another common trait within Kory's team. Unfortunately for me, I didn't luck out with that obnoxious trait. The top of my head was barely any higher than his chin....
Dr Spencer Reid had multiple PhDs and had been with the BAU for thirteen years. He was highly intelligent, had an eidetic memory and could read 20,000 words a minute. Honestly, I wasn't surprised Kory had taken a liking to him. She liked the smart ones, and something as fickle as a dislike for touching people wasn't enough to throw her off the hunt.
"Uh, hi." He looked a little confused, which was understandable. I wasn't the person he'd expected to answer the door. Neither was I, to be honest. When Kory told me what was happening today, I'd also made the assumption that she'd be letting him in. "Um, is Kory-"
"She's just finishing her makeup upstairs. You're welcome to wait inside if you'd like." I backed away from the door so he had enough room to walk in before I closed it behind him. "I'm Cait, by the way, Kory's roommate even though technically I'm a tenant of hers since she owns this place. And I won't try shaking your hand, I know you're not the biggest fan of touching people."
The fact he didn't know who I was also annoyed me, because it meant she hadn't told her team who I was yet. That wasn't good for me, since I already knew everything about them. It wasn't just from her talking about them, it was from what I had access to. Files were an easy thing for me to get a hold of, and as soon as Kory told me she got the job, I did my due diligence to make sure they were good enough to be around her. It was hard to be sure until I met them all in person, but at least I knew this one was alright. At least he was so far.
"And I hope you don't mind dogs, although Kody isn't attacking you right now so I assume Kory's vested him up to trick him into being perfectly obedient," I told him. He gave me another confused look, which meant Kory hadn't told them about her dog either. Great. Maybe she hadn't opened up as much as I hoped she had.
"Vested?" He asked, but before I could give him an answer, Kory finally came down the fucking stairs with her service dog wearing his harness.
While she and Spencer talked, and definitely flirted more than they should, I started making a coffee. I didn't want to impose on them, but I also wanted to stay involved for as long as I could. It would be something I could use against Kory later. I was only involved in the conversation for a moment as Spencer double-checked the dog's name with me before turning his attention back to Kory. And then Kory's footsteps carried back up the footsteps, meaning I had to continue wearing a smile and acting like I was as energetic as I normally was even though it was before midday and all I wanted to do was die.
"So where do you work?" Spencer asked, an attempt at small talk that I would likely have to lead. From what Kory had told me about him, small talk wasn't one of his strong suits.
"FBI as well, I'm in Counterterrorism, the Analytical Branch," I answered, continuing to smile even though I didn't want to. "You like details though, don't you? So you would probably like to know that I'm in the Counterterrorism Analysis Section of my branch. And that I'm a technical analyst like your Penelope Garcia, except focused on terrorists instead of plain old murderers."
"You're not going in today?" He asked, noticeably looking at my current attire.
"Hell no." It would take nothing short of a current terror threat to drag me back to the FBI today. "I had to work a case over the weekend, I'm getting my two days off now even though I'm still on fucking call," I replied before I looked down at my clothes. They were a little dirtier than I'd thought they were. "I did know you were coming though, so I probably should have dressed a little better but... I haven't had any coffee yet."
"That's fair," Spencer replied, which put him in the right direction for me.
"Kody likes you..." I said as I noticed Kory's dog had yet to leave Spencer's side. Kory must have taken his harness off while I was making my coffee before. But then Spencer looked at me with yet another confused expression. "That's a good thing."
"How?" He asked, so I walked over to scratch Kody's nose. I could not wait to spend the day on the couch with the dog.
"Because Kory trusts this dog more than she trusts any person in her life. Get on the dog's good side and you'll get on hers."
Spencer shook his head. "I don't-"
I didn't have the patience for this right now. "You don't drive this far out of the way to pick up a work friend, especially not with coffee bought for the person you're going out of your way to pick up."
The smile on his face faltered slightly, and it just made my smile grow. At least my expression was genuine now, because seeing the way his cheeks went pink was exceptionally entertaining. If what was going on between them was this obvious to me, how obvious was it to the rest of their team of literal behavioural analysts?
"I thought it was fair," he said as if anything he could say would cover up the truth. "She still drives me to work everyday and-"
"You live on her way in," I stated what Kory had told me on more than one occasion after I'd pointed out that she rode in with Spencer but not with me when we lived together. Although she said that was mainly because she didn't know when she would be flying out on a case and she didn't trust me driving her car. It's not like I could blame her for that distrust, I had a talent for getting into car accidents. They weren't usually my fault, I just seemed to have a magnetic aura for idiot drivers and that had driven my insurance up to astronomical rates.
"Well that's what she said but now that I've come here I know picking me up adds an extra eleven minutes to her commute," he said. No way. She'd been lying to me about this. Oh, this was perfect ammo. "That's not really on the way, so it seems fair I come and pick her up today and still get her a coffee."
I furrowed my eyebrows as I read his body language. He really didn't understand what her going out of the way to pick him up and drop him off every day meant. "God, the both of you are so damned oblivious..." And he was meant to have an IQ of 180-something-something.
"Okay, we good to go?" Kory asked as she ran down the stairs, her satchel over her chest.
"Yeah," Spencer replied as Kory's eyes flicked over to me. There was a hint of possessiveness in her eyes, one that I'm not sure she even knew she was conveying. Oblivious fucking idiots.
"She wasn't flirting with you, was she?" Kory asked, a warning eyebrow raised at me.
"No," I groaned as I took a step away from Spencer. Although, I did need to defend myself a little better here because flirting was my usual form of communication. "We both know who I have eyes for, and it isn't your little doctor."
Kory's cheeks flushed pink as she took hold of Spencer's arm and forced him down the hallway to the front door. Well, this was just proving my theory perfectly. There was no way she would be able to deny it now.
"Your little doctor?" Spencer asked as I started laughing. God, he really had no idea.
"She's just being a dick, you can ignore her. I usually do," Kory said as she gave him one final push out the front door.
"Uh, bye Cait!" Spencer shouted back into the townhouse. How nice of him.
"Bye Doctor!" I shouted back before the front door slammed shut. Well, that was certainly one way to wake up this morning.
Now, as for what else I would be doing to pass the time, I had the choice of drinking the coffee I'd made or going back to bed...
"Well, Kody, should I do something of note today or go and rot in bed?" I asked, to which the German Shepherd laid down on the floor. "Good choice."
I put the coffee in the fridge and walked up the stairs. No sooner had I clambered back into my warm, comfy bed, did my phone ring.
The ID was one I really didn't want to see, but if it was ringing then it was probably important.
"What is it O'Neill?" I answered the phone call from my unit chief. If she wanted me, then something was going down.
"There's been a bomb threat made on the White House, a bomb has gone off downtown at a bar as a warning. We need you to come in to work on a task force between us, military, police..." Well, fuck. I suppose you were meant to be careful what you wished for.
I immediately jumped out of bed and went to my built-in closet. "Any other FBI units?" I asked, just out of curiosity. Knowing who I would need to work with was of utmost importance as it would dictate how much caffeine I would need to consume.
"BAU. Headquarters will be in their office, but I'll get you to work from yours, alright?" She didn't seem overly impressed by the fact the headquarters would be the BAU instead of Counterterrorism, but that wasn't my problem. "You still have that friend in the unit?"
"Yes, Agent Thompson. She's on her way in now," I answered, looking at the dismal choice I had for clean clothes. Today was going to be spent washing clothes between shows on the couch. God damn it. How was I meant to make a good impression on the BAU when all I had left were wrinkled second-rate outfits? Fuck. "Do we have any theories for who might be behind the attacks?"
"Theory at the moment is Al-Qaeda, but the BAU might derail that entirely depending on what they do with their profiling." Liv O'Neill was a very impatient woman, so it was not surprising that she simply wanted this over and done with as soon as possible.
"Alright, well I'm getting ready now and I'll be in as soon as I have a coffee made." I said as I pulled out some black pants and the only half-decent button up shirt I had clean. Why did it have to be brown? Why did I even own a brown shirt? Damn it.
"Alright, get ready to be briefed as soon as you walk in."
So much for a fucking day off.