No Other You

Chapter One

The building at Quantico was bigger than she imagined and she suddenly felt so tiny and insignificant as she stood there, readjusting the strap of her bag. Pulling herself together, she took a deep breath and stepped through the doors, showing her ID badge to the security before approaching the front desk. “SSA Aaron Hotchner?” The woman nodded softly and then picked up a phone, giving the young, copper haired agent the chance to control her nervous breathing once more. She looked around, noticing all the passing people in suits and how professional they all seemed compared to what she was used to now.

“Doctor Cooper?” She jumped a mile in the air at the sound of the deep voice speaking her name. The slender woman spun around and took a deep breath, smiling and nodding as she brushed the strands of red hair from her eyes.

“Ellery, please.” She swallowed hard, mentally telling herself to get it together. She was a professional and her probation days were far behind her. “You must be Agent Hotchner.” She subtly wiped her clammy hand on the jacket folded neatly over pale arms and held it out to him.

“Everyone calls me Hotch. Glad you could make it today, I know it was a little sudden.” He had a firm handshake that helped settle her nerves a bit.

“I’d already moved to the city.” She said simply with a nonchalant shrug, following him as he began to move through the corridors of the bureau.

“I wish your transfer could have happened under less sombre circumstances, but this case has come up and apparently you already have connections to this un-sub.”

Ellery nodded her head slowly. “Yeah, he was in Chicago just over a year ago.” She confirmed, all hope suddenly fading from her for a flicker of a moment.

“You were fairly new in the field back then, right?”

“Second case after I graduated from the academy. It’s stuck with me ever since.”

“Understandably. Hopefully this time we’ll be able to catch him.”

They stepped into a spacious room where agents were seated around a large table, discussing something whilst staring at a smart board. Their voices fell silent when the stranger walked in and Ellery swallowed nervously. “Team, this is Doctor Cooper. She’s just transferred from our Chicago field office to join BAU here with us.”

“Ellery?” She spun around at the shocked voice, the familiarity of it making her jump slightly before the large smile broke out on her face, despite the factors that had brought her here.

“Spencer.” She stepped forward to give him a quick but awkward hug, letting out a startled laugh as his arms very briefly wrapped around her back before letting her go again. “Wow, I completely never realised when you said you worked in Quantico! I-” The sound of someone clearing their voice caught her attention and stopped her chatter.

“You two know each other?” The blonde woman asked with a curious expression on her face and a smile twitching at her lips.

“Er, yeah. In fact we worked together last summer on a research paper over at our old alma mater. We have a psychology professor in common.” Spencer Reid was the familiar face that calmed Ellery’s nerves, but after that second of interruption, she quickly remembered why she was there.

Everyone seemed to have a moment of confusion dance across their faces before the more muscular man spoke up, his fingers brushing over his facial hair before standing to his feet to greet her properly. “Small world. Derek Morgan.”

“Jennifer Jareau, but everyone calls me JJ.”

“Dave Rossi.”

“Well, now that those introductions are out of the way should we get to work?” Ellery needed to face this whilst her nerves were steeled.