Prentiss' daughter

3

The first weeks were kind of bland. No cases, just some consults and a lot of paperwork-Maria needed a lot of help with that because technology did not agree with her. Hotch ended up clearing her for a gun, but she wasn’t too keen on carrying it, which the team was trying to convince her otherwise. “How do you expect to work for the FBI and go in the field without a gun?” Derek groans. “Because-leave me alone,”

“I'm still jealous you got cleared for the gun first try. I had to take Morgan's gun on the field to get cleared,” Spencer grumbles from Marias chair while she sits on her desk. “The nanny had a gun and taught me to use it when I was five,” Maria pouted and when the raised eyebrows occured, she groaned, “I was born and raised in rural Italy. I was told if the cops saw me with a gun, shoot a bird and say I was getting dinner,”

“I had no part in that,” Emily makes clear as JJ steps in, her hair flowing behind her. “Briefing in five,” She says in passing and Maria’s eyes pop, “Does this mean my first case?” She asks. “Indeed it does,” Spencer states, standing and offering his hand to Maria, which she takes when she hops down.

Emily is the first to notice the unusual gesture and when the two start walking to the conference room side by side, rather than Reid staying a few steps behind like he does with everyone else, the rest of the present team notices. “I don’t think either of them have realised,” Penelope whispers and Emily spins around, “None of that, hush,” She whisper yells before spinning around and stalking after her daughter to the conference room. 

“I’ll write up the betting sheets tonight, one for when Reid and Maria get together, and one for if Prentiss shoots Reid or not,” Rossi chuckles. “I call after four cases,” Morgan says while Penelope smirks, “I’m calling three,” Rossi shrugs before they enter, “They’re young and horny, I’m calling one,”

“Well, whatever you’re calling, it’s two. Two dead cops. Shot down by an automatic assault rifle after checking on a house explosion that killed at least one resident. He was DOA, the other remains seem to be his daughter,” JJ states.

“Terrorists?” Maria questions and Emily continues with, “Maybe sex trafficking? It’s close to the border, could be someone trying to send a message,” Rossi shakes his head, “The message consisted of two gunned down cops, a father and his daughter. Nobody in that town is safe,”

“We need to be cautious of the locals,” Hotch says, “They’re scared and anxious. Ready for revenge,” Maria tilts her head in acknowledgement, “Can you really blame them?” She mutters.

The flight was quick and so was the team. While JJ spoke to the police and went to give a briefing, Maria, Spencer, Rossi, and Emily stayed to look through the scene. Once Spencer and Rossi had explained the makings of the explosion, Maria hummed, picking up a cinged carton of cigarettes, “A smoker,” Maria tuts and when the three turn to her and see the box, she looks at them with raised eyebrows, “Whoever did this, knew them so well, that they knew he’d walk through that door with a lit cigarette,”

They walk around to Morgan and Hotch, “This wasn’t terrorism. It was personal,” Maria states and Morgan and Reid go on to explain the risky rage killing. That was when it was revealed the overkill’s son was dating the blown up daughter.

It was later on that they all received a call from the morgue about the second body not actually being human. “They stuffed a pair of jeans with raw chicken?” Derek asked- already tired of the case. “Well, about 60 percent of chicken genes correspond to a similar human gene, so if they’ve taken biology, I can see thought in their attempt,” Maria hums.

“I thought you said you didn’t spew random facts,” Morgan groans and Maria shrugs while Emily chuckles, “She does, but not randomly. Trust me, you might run away screaming if she started voicing the random facts in her head,”

Maria shrugs at the terrified glances from the team, other than Spencer who just looks curious. “I’m beginning to wonder if Hotch hired you just to challenge my intelligence,” He states and before Maria can respond, Hotch steps in to give some more information, “There’s a video,” Was all he said and Garcia pulled it up on their monitor from across state lines and the moment it was on, Maria mumbled, “It’s an execution,”

And there was no doubt about it being an execution style shooting. 

“This is a teenager with a goal,” Maria states and Spencer nods, “We’re looking for a white male in his late teens,” Maria’s mind clicks instantly at his statement, “Jordan isn’t a captive. The boy is playing hero,” She says and everyone is out the door.

Against her advice, Jordan was messaged and bam, there was a teen girl trauma in a police station being used as bait for a lovesick boy with an assault rifle. It was her first case and while most were saying she was doing well, she nearly screamed her head off when Reid stepped out with no vest.

“You’re a damn fool,” Maria growls when Spencer comes back inside. She had grown to appreciate his company and could easily call him a close friend. They often went to get coffee or to pick out books together.

So seeing him so close to unprotected possible shooting, she reserved the right for what she did next. Morgan let a low whistle out as Reid grabbed the back of his slapped head. “Mar,” He whined and she grumbled, stepping away. 

“You deserved it. Lucky you, she did it before any of us could,” Derek says and Reid grumbles.

On the flight back, it was decently quiet. Aside from Hotch calling Hayley and Spencer scanning over the same page in a book multiple times before slamming it shut. “Did you have to slap me?” He asks and everyone silently watches in fear for the boy as Maria slowly closes her own book and turns to him with a deadly glare. “Did you have to take off your vest to walk up to an assault rifle? No, but some things are meant simply to cause fear for others to cause pain in turn,”

Spencer doesn’t know what to say and nobody else does either, all going silent and continuing on with previous activities. 

“You’re buying breakfast tomorrow, by the way,” She adds-referring to when she picks him up for work and they stop for donuts and coffee. Spencer-knowing her was now in the clear- releases a breath of relief, “I’ll buy lunch, too,”