CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: NOVELTY !

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        TODAY WAS VIVIAN HUDSON'S FIRST DAY ON THE JOB. She was usually used to doing this now, taking over for agents and detectives on maternity leave. Since she took a step back from the detective job, it was easier to do it this way when she missed the thrill of the job. So taking over for Casey and Spencer seemed like a piece of cake.

        The woman took a deep breath as she looked at the building in front of her before she entered the building. In a way, she felt like she belonged but she knew she had to earn her way to the top. She walked outside from the elevator and then soon realized that she was joined by Derek Morgan and Jennifer Jareau.

       "Morning, Agent Morgan, Agent Jareau." Vivian greeted. "Detective Hudson," Morgan said. "Or should I also say — Agent Hudson."

       "Oh, well, I haven't made my way up to Agent yet. I have to train for this kinda stuff." Vivian told. "Even if you're already experienced at it?" JJ asked in curiousness.
"It's just protocol," Vivian told. "For now, I'm assuming it's still Detective?  And please, call me Vivian, we will be spending some time together anyways."
       "Well, Vivian, you may as well get used to us as Derek and JJ." Morgan tells, getting a chuckle from both JJ and Vivian.

       "Up here, my pretties, we're ready!" Garcia announced to the three downstairs front the roundtable room. With that, the three headed up to the room where Vivian was greeted once more.

        "Everyone, you remember Detective Hudson." Hotch told and Vivian shook Rossi's hand as well as Blake's.
"Happy to be here." Vivian smiles. "Alright, let's get started." Hotch nods towards Garcia as they all take their spots at the roundtable.

         "A couple of weeks ago, in Tennessee, a young girl was reported missing. Susan Gregory, 14. Her father decided to call in reinforcements after a couple of weeks." Garcia explained.

         "Only thing they found on her was a hat." Morgan tells. "And some dried blood." JJ added.

        "After that discovery, authorities confirmed the possibility that she was dead. Her father then started doing digging and is convinced his daughter didn't just go missing, she was killed." Garcia stated.

        "Now, dad's going door to door, doing his own investigation." Blake tells. "Disturbing the peace." Rossi comments.

        "Now the authorities want us to stop him from doing so, but I think we have a case here." Hotch nudges his head for Garcia to continue. "Another girl in the area has also gone missing. Daphne Vera, 7."

       "We normally don't take child abduction cases." Vivian stated. "Only when the abduction will lead us to our next unsub. Wheels up in 30." Hotch informs.

        On the jet, everyone sits as they debrief over the case. Morgan had gone over to the coffee machine to grab himself a cup and he looks over the file in his hand as he walks back to the team. "Why did Sam Gregory start his own investigation?" He questions.

       "To catch his daughter's killer." Vivian stated. "Yes, but why was he so sure his daughter was killed?" Blake asks. "She could've run away."

       "Susan didn't have a history with that," JJ debunked. "She got along with her family well. She was a well-loved child from all these pictures we've seen here."

       "The dried blood and the hat," Rossi looks at the picture of the hat that had been found. "She was probably getting away and the hat fell off."

       "Well, they found it under a secreted area. An area that someone lured her in." Morgan tells. "They found the blood in there as well." Vivian added.

        "It was a wide pool of blood from all of the pictures of the blood covered sheets." Blake tells and she looks up at Hotch. "Could she have been targeted?"

        "By the way it's scoped, yes." Hotch nodded.

        JJ looks down at the photo that was sent in of Susan. She was a happy kid. The woman sighs as she looks down at the picture and shakes her head, "Who could do that to a child?"
        "A sick son of a bitch, I'll tell you that." Morgan added.

        "When we land, Blake, Morgan, I want you guys at the crime scene where the blood and hat were found. Rossi, JJ, I'd like for you to go to the Gregory home and speak to Susan's father. Hudson and I will go to the PD and speak to the detective that's has been in contact with Susan Gregory's father, Detective Graham." As soon as Hotch separates the groups and says the detective's name, he has earned a quick turn from Vivian Hudson.

        "Peter Graham?" She asks in curiousness. "You know him?" Hotch asks. "We worked together," Vivian shrugs. "Briefly." Morgan and JJ exchange a look of uncertainty and it seemed like Hotch caught onto it, as well but wanted to focus on the task at hand.

So they landed and the team went their separate ways. Vivian and Hotch had arrived at the PD and Hotch had immediately spotted the detective, who was preoccupied with talking to his other detective colleagues. "Detective Graham." Hotch held a hand out and shook the man's hand.
"Agent Hotchner." He had then noticed the woman behind Hotch and immediately smiled. "Vivian Hudson."

"Peter, it's good to see you again." The two exchanged a hug, which nearly catches Hotch off guard, even if his face remains stiff. He studies the two, wondering if maybe they had a past of some sort.

"How are you?" Detective Graham asks. "I'm good and yourself?" Vivian asks back and Graham shrugs, "Well, been better. This case has wired me out. Right this way." The man shows them to a different room and the first thing the two notice is the board full of papers and pins and strings and mugshots.

"You've certainly been busy." Hotch comments. "This isn't us," Graham tells. "This is Susan's father, Sam." Vivian looks around at the board. "He's done all this research?" She asks, her eyes not leaving the board.

"He's been pinpointing all these men and some haven't even committed a crime a day in their lives. Eventually, we had to tell him to stop and just let us do our research." Graham explains. "He gave you everything he researched, I'm assuming?" Hotch asks. "You bet," Graham answers. "If you need anything, feel free to ask."

With that, Graham left and as Vivian looks at the files in front of her, Hotch can't help but catch a glimpse of the woman before going back to the files in front of him. "Didn't know you two were close." He says, searching through files.

It's Vivian's turn to look up at Hotch now. She goes back to the files, as well. "We've known each other for years," She states. "He was there for me in a time where I needed it. We just go way back."

Hotch couldn't help but feel a bit suspicious of the relationship that was known between Vivian and Graham. He didn't intend to find out but he couldn't help but feel a bit confused on how they knew each other.

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Once seeing it for themselves, the team was on Hotch's side with this newfound relationship between Vivian and Graham. They had come up with conspiracies in their head about them — maybe they slept together? Maybe they were in a relationship? They knew they had to focus on this case and found out some things. Sam's wife and also Susan's mother had left the family. She couldn't take Sam's investigating. They had also spoken to Daphne Vera's parents, who just wanted their daughter to come home safe.

A couple of days with no leads had gone by. The team had been unaware if this case would be a cold one or if they were going to continue with it. They had no more bodies to lead on with and they were planning on leaving and going until a young girl had run in — beads of sweat running down her face and limping in, confused.

Vivian was the first one to notice her and approached her. As she gotten closer, she recognized the girl to be Lindsay Gregory — Susan's younger sister.
"Lindsay?" Vivian asked.

The girl looked at the woman and held a book in front of the woman. "I know who it was."

The book consisted of the plan to kill Susan, the hatch where she was held in was sketched on a page. A picture of her on another page and then a lock of her hair was taped inside the book. Sam had earlier pinpointed his neighbor — Ralph Wilson.

The trick was to get into his home with a warrant. Eventually, they had decided to go in and were persistent on it. They had broken down the door and investigated the home. It was dark and cold and it looked like it was all clear. He had known they were coming for him — so he left. As they scanned the room, Hotch and Vivian had come across the body of Daphne Vera in the basement underneath the floorboards.

The day they had found Daphne Vera was the day her father had an important surgery for a car pileup that nearly damaged the streets and he was currently performing surgery on the mayor. The ER was packed. Hotch knew he had to wait and couldn't just go in and tell Vera about his daughter being dead while he was doing a surgery. Vivian, on the other hand, thought differently.

"Hudson, can I speak to you for a moment?" Hotch questioned once she insisted on walking into the OR to tell the man about his daughter. He had pulled Vivian into a different room.

"What are you trying to do here?" He questioned. "What do you mean what am I trying to do here?" Vivian looked confused. "Vera is in the middle of performing a surgery, you just want to drop the news that his daughter is dead right then and there?" Hotch asked.

"Someone should tell him," Vivian says. "He can't waste three whole hours thinking his daughter may possibly be still alive. Now I'm sorry if this is how you want to take care of this confrontation but it would be better to do so like this and not have him find out a whole day later on the news."

Hotch paused before studying Vivian's expressions and then decided to ask: "This isn't about Vera, isn't it?" The woman had enough of the discussion and decided to leave before she could explode.

Of course, Hotch had waited to tell the man about his daughter. And when it seemed hopeless to find Ralph Wilson, it was like a miracle had been answered because a day later, his body was found at the bottom of a cliff. It seemed to be his own doing because there had been no evidence that anyone pushed him.

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On the jet ride home, Vivian had been seated by herself as Rossi, Morgan, JJ and Blake had been having a discussion and playing cards — definitely missing the presence of Spencer and Casey — but were glad that they could finally win a card game with neither of them at the table. Since one of them always won.

Hotch had been getting coffee and noticed Vivian sitting by herself, staring out the window, seeming preoccupied in her mind. He looked her way and decided to sit in front of her. She noticed the man but didn't look his way at all. Hotch looks down and then decided that he wanted to figure her out. So he decided to open to her to why he wanted to handle the situation the way he handled it.

"I lost my wife," Hotch speaks, causing Vivian to look his way. "I lost my wife... and sometimes, the truth can break us in moments it can't. I couldn't let Vera know about his daughter during his surgery. It would've distracted him and it would've been bad for his work and his colleagues. I couldn't let him know." He admitted.

Seeing Hotch open up the way he did about his wife made her realize why he did what he did. And he didn't understand her just yet and why she didn't want to follow through with the plan. She knew he didn't understand her and hearing him speak about his wife also gave her the opportunity to open up, as well.

"I lost my husband," Vivian started, catching Hotch's attention. "Car accident. I was on a case..." She looks down for a bit as she speaks. "Nobody told me until I got back from my case. Two days later. It was Graham who told me. He was a close family friend of my husband's." That now explains the relationship. "And I wish someone told me then. And I wouldn't have cared if it affected my work. I just wish someone told me then. So, I wanted Vera to know because he deserved to know."

"It's okay for us to be human sometimes." Vivian tells, making Hotch realize that she was right and that she was also hinting at him. He nods at her words and looks her way. He realizes that he hasn't taken a sip of his coffee and decides to hand his cup over to Vivian.

As Hotch does this, the team sees this action being taken — actually, Morgan does. "You guys seein' what I'm seein'?" Morgan asks, which turns heads. "Hotch actually bonding with someone that's new?" JJ asks. "That's a first." Blake says. She looks and realizes she didn't get that kind of attention when they first met. "Huh." Rossi comments, making a mental note to talk to Hotch later.

"Something tells me that she's gonna be around for a while." Morgan comments.

hey lovelies!

novelty definition : the quality of being new, original, or unusual.
(i thought that was interesting because i'm writing from a new perspective that isn't casey's lol)

anywayssss
sorry about no casey and spencer in this chapter but i thought it would be interesting to get to know vivian
(we'll know about her more soon!)

alsooo
sorry this felt so rushed but we are going back on episodes starting the next chapter
next chapter: gatekeeper

thank you for reading!!!
i love you all!!!
-mya </3333

also have y'all seen that 90s show???? it was so good and so nostalgic from the OG show omg