Haley (Criminal Minds fanfic/Spinoff in the Boss's Niece series)

Beyond Borders

Once I arrived to work, all I wanted to do was confront both Jake and Henry right away so that my conscience was clear for the day. However, Henry wasn't in. I overheard some agents talking in the elevator (I don't think "overheard" is the right word as they were right in front of me) and apparently Henry was suspended for about a week. Once he returned, Jake would be suspended as well.

I couldn't help but sigh when I heard this. At least I wouldn't have to face Henry right away. They just left Jake.

I walked into the office and my eyes landed automatically on Jake. He was at his desk doing some paperwork. His face was bruised, his lip looked swollen and his nose was indeed broken. He started to look up from his paperwork and suddenly, I was too worried to talk to him. I quickly scurried to my desk and sat down, keeping my head down, hoping Jake wouldn't come over.

"Hey Haley."

I looked up to see Martin approaching me. I felt relief wash over me. Yes Martin, please save me from this tension.

"Did you happen to take a peak into Brinson's office?" Martin asked as he sat on the edge of my desk. I was even more glad that he wasn't talking about last night. "There's a man in there and a whole team waiting by her door. You think we're getting replaced?"

I turned to look at Brinson's office to see that Martin was right. Even though she now had her blinds closed (probably from the rest of the team trying to eavesdrop) I could still see four people standing around her door, trying not to seem as awkward as they were.

"Well I hope not," I replied. "I kind of like this job."

"So do I," Martin replied. "Oh, door's opening! Look busy."

"I just got here, how busy can I be?" I laughed. It felt good to not feel as stressed as I was the night before. Maybe I could avoid addressing this whole issue for a while.

The door to Brinson's office opened and out walked an older looking man. They said something that I couldn't hear before the man turned to the team members and they walked towards our conference room. Brinson stood in front of us all, causing all the attention to be drawn to her.

"Meeting in the conference room in 5," she announced. "We have something very important to talk about."

"Uh oh," McBride said as she approached Martin and I. "That doesn't sound good."

"We're probably going to be replaced. I'm calling it," Martin said. I rolled my eyes at both of them and stood from my desk.

I was following the bickering two into the conference room when I felt someone grab my arm. My heart jumped for a moment and I turned, expecting it to be Jake holding on to my arm. Instead, I turned to see that it was Crew. I felt slight anger towards her, but then my brain reminded me that the whole thing between her and Henry might not even be real. At least, not on Henry's part.

Nope, I'm still angry.

"Dr. Reid...Haley...can I talk to you?" she asked.

I knew I should talk to her, tell her the whole thing between her and Henry might be fake. However, she could freak. She could get angry and say that I'm just jealous, or whatever 20-30 year old women do when they're angry about love and such.

And frankly, I just didn't want to tell her.

"After this meeting," I said, pulling my arm from her grasp. My voice was icy and I was almost surprised at how rude I sounded. I walked away from Crew before she could say anything else.

I settled in a seat next to McBride and Martin, with Jake sitting across the table from me. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact with me, too. Why was this stuff so hard?

"Team," Brinson said, pulling my attention back to the meeting. Brinson along with the man and the team were standing in front of the room. "This is SSA Jack Garrett. He is the International Unit Chief of the new team the Bureau is putting together."

"A new team?" McBride questioned. "No offense to you guys, but why does the Bureau need a new team?"

"It turns out," Brinson explained. "Our latest mission in London captured the attention of the Bureau. There are strange deaths happening all over the world, and not just to foreigners but also to Americans visiting foreign countries. And since this team is so busy here - "

"That's where we come in," Garrett continued. "This team will travel all over the world to places most people wouldn't even imagine going near unless there was a really good reason. We do the same thing all of you do. We profile, we observe, we save. Despite the distance we will be going, we hope to be working close to the BAU if need be."

A few of us chuckled at the joke and Garrett smiled.

"Let me introduce you to my team," he said before turning to address the four people standing behind him. "SSA Clara Seger, she's our Linguistics Specialist. Even though we will be traveling around the world to countries where a lot of their people barely speak English, not many of us speak a bunch of different languages. That's were Agent Seger comes in."

"I speak multiple languages and I'm still learning," the agent Garrett introduced as Seger said. "And, if I'm correct, one of you here is a proven genius so maybe we could work together."

Seger looked at me and winked. I chuckled and shook my head. Of course a lot of other agents in the Bureau knew who I was at this point.

"SSA Matthew Simmons," Garrett continued. "Our Special Ops agent and the muscle of the team."

Simmons smiled.

"Russ Montgomery, technical analyst."

"A man after my heart," Martin chuckled. Montgomery looked at Martin and gave him a thumbs up. I could tell these two were definitely going to get along well."

"And finally, SSA Mae Jarvis, our medical examiner."

"Sup?" Jarvis said with a smile. "It's great to meet you all."

"It's a nice thought to know that there's a team out there that's going to be helping out where we can't really go," spoke up Jake. His voice sounded as bad as his face looked. "We're swamped as it is."

The meeting ended there. While everyone got up and started talking and introducing themselves to the new team, I quickly jumped up from the table and tried to get out of there before I had to have an awkward encounter with Jake or Crew.

I was just out the door when Crew called, "Haley, I have to tell you something!"