Untouchable

Penelope (S3E9)

"Did you speak to Dr. Priya?" Spencer asked the minute Lydia entered his apartment.

"Yes. And you talked to Hotch?"

He nodded, watching her pace around the living room. "Lydia... It's going to be fine. Frankly, we need you now more than ever. He's not going to send you away."

Lydia had finally come to terms with the fact that acting like she hated the BAU was a huge lie. Saying that it was unhealthy for her or that she wanted to try out something new was just to cover the fact that she was hurt. And she'd acted rashly. But now, it was November, almost a full year since she'd quit.

"What if the team doesn't like it?" Between sentences, she was biting down on her lips, making them turn white from loss of blood flow. "I was... God, why was I so stupid? I disappeared for months with no word because I was scared to talk to them. They should hate me."

"No one hates you," he argued, standing up to stop her. "You need to calm down. Tomorrow, you're just going in to talk to him. That's it. Don't worry about the job for now."

She tried to listen to him, but she was still jumping with uncontained energy. "But I do worry about the job! I... I really want it back."

"I know. I know. And you deserve it. He'll see that. Just start out slow."

Slow... slow... What was she thinking? Hotch could never trust her again. Even if he did forgive her, unannounced quitting doesn't make for a devoted worker. She'd really gone and screwed everything up.

~ ~ ~

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, when she arrived in his office the next morning, Hotch didn't say a word to her and instead pointed to something on his desk. Approaching her normal seat across from him, she realized it was her old badge.

If Spencer had told him ahead of time that she wanted to speak about her old job, she was going to kill her boyfriend. But Hotch... sometimes he just knew what you were thinking.

"You'd take me back after everything?" she finally asked. "Really?"

"There is one condition to it," he admitted, barely batting an eye at her confusion. "I want you to take the gun qualifications test. At this point, you get yourself into so much trouble that I'd much rather you have a gun on your belt."

Hesitantly, she nodded, biting back a smile. "Yes, sir."

"We have one new team member you should meet," he continued, getting up. "After we schedule your test, I'll start calling you in again to consult."

Lydia could barely speak, not expecting the conversation to go by so quickly. "Okay, great."

"How's the teaching thing going?"

"I'm set to start at the university in January," she told him. "And don't worry, I've already spoken to everyone I needed to about conflicts with this job. Everything should be fine."

"I'm glad," he said, genuinely, leading her out of his office. Once outside, they ran into someone walking out of Gideon's old office. "Ah yes, Dave, meet Lydia Ambers. She was a forensic contractor for the team. We're discussing taking her back on for cases. Lydia, meet David Rossi."

Lydia smiled at the older man, reaching a hand out politely. "Nice to meet you. And actually," she turned to look at Hotch once more, "it's Dr. Lydia Ambers, now."

"Wow," Rossi mumbled. "You didn't tell me there was another child genius on the team."

Hotch looked absolutely blown away. "You didn't tell me you graduated, Lydia. That's absolutely amazing."