FRATERNIZATION | DEREK MORGAN (ON HOLD)

NINE

Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Theresa smiled as she saw Gideon walk down towards their desks. He made his way over to Reid and picked up a chess piece before announcing,

"Check. Checkmate in three moves."

"What?" Reid looked down at the chess board in confusion, causing Theresa to crack a smile as she placed the coffee down on his desk before walking over to Derek's and doing the same.

"Thanks, darling." Derek cracked a smile as he looked up to Theresa, watching as she blushed at the nickname.

He let go of a small chuckle as she continued to make her way around peoples desks to leave them all a coffee. It was something that she started back when she was an intern, mainly to impress everyone and to distract them from the fact that she didn't talk unless addressed, for the most part it worked.

"You know, you'll beat him when you start learning." Derek tossed his paper to the side and glanced over to Reid before looking back at Theresa.

The man allowed his eyes to flicker up and down her momentarily, the skirt that she wore complimented her body nicely. His tongue ran over his bottom lip as his mind began to race thinking about the girl.

"Learning what?" Reid scrunched his face up in confusion.

"To think outside the box." Derek leant forward at his desk, trying to clear his mind of the thoughts currently inhabiting it.

Theresa placed her hand on Reid's shoulder in a comforting way. Reid looked up to her with a hopeful smile, wanting her to show him his next move. The brunette nodded and picked up a chess piece, moving it across the board.

"Question for you." Elle announced as she walked down the stairs and towards the others.

"Shoot." Derek nodded.

"The footpath killer. Why did he stutter?" Elle questioned curiously.

The brunette sat down on the edge of Reid's desk, her hands resting on his shoulders as she listened to the conversation. She knew that there wasn't actually any logical reason for the footpath killer to stutter, but she wanted to see if Elle could figure it out.

"Come on, Elle, we've all asked him and he won't say." Derek paused. "He won't even tell his favourite girl over there." He playfully pointed to Theresa. "He wants us to figure it out."

Everyone in the BAU knew that Gideon and Theresa were close, although they didn't exactly know why. She remembered when she was a intern, a few people made up rumours that's he was sleeping with him to get a better job. Gideon pretty much instantly shut down the rumours, which Theresa was more than thankful for.

"Well, okay." Elle took a step back. "I'm up for a challenge."

"Good, because these go to you." JJ as she placed the files down on Elle's desk. "Special Agent Jennifer Jareau, JJ if you like."

"Elle." She smiled, shaking JJ's hand.

"Greenaway. Highest number of solved cases in Seattle three years running." JJ nodded, she already knew about all the agents that worked at the BAU. "Speciality in sex offerer cases."

"Not bad." Elle nodded, looking around to see if anyone else was impressed by what JJ had said, but they all seemed pretty distracted by their own work.

Theresa took a sip of her coffee as Reid moved another chess piece, she shook her head, and moved it back, causing him to look up to her with furrowed brows. He wanted to crack the art of playing chess so that eventually he would beat Gideon.

"Well, I'm the unit liaison. My speciality is untangling bureaucratic knots. You'll probably be taking to me a lot, my door is always open. Mostly because I'm never in my office. So just call me on my cell, okay? We'll talk." JJ announced as she began to walk away. "Good morning, Tessie."

"Morning." Theresa smiled back sweetly, offering JJ a small wave, she was the first person to address her this morning.

"BAU team, can you meet me in the conference room, please? I need to show you something." Hotch questioned as he made his way towards the conference room.

Everyone instantly stood up to make their way towards the conference room. Reid had linked his arm with Theresa's and smiled towards her. Now that he knew she wasn't upset with him and that she had a reason for not talking, he could protect her in a way he never could before.

"It's from the Phoenix office, Bradshaw College in Tempe. Six fires in seven months." Hotch explained where the video that they were going to watch was from.

"Who recorded it?" Gideon questioned curiously.

"A student with a digital camcorder." JJ responded. "He was watching the fire in the building across from their dorm. The other person you'll see is the room mate, 20 year old Matthew Rowland." She clicked okay on the video.

Theresa watched carefully as the two boys recorded the fire from their dorm. For some reason they seemed sort of excited that there was a fire. That was until they gasoline was poured under their door.

The brunette shifted in her seat, she hated watching videos of people dying. Derek placed his arm around the back of her chair, in hopes to comfort her, although he knew it wouldn't work.

She watched as Matthew caught fire, screaming for his friend to put the fire out. He dropped the camcorder and rushed to put Matthew out, although it would be no use.

The burns that Matthew would have received alone would be enough to kill him. It didn't matter if the fire was put out or not. Nobody comes back from burns like that.