𝑂𝑛𝑒.

        Melanie never knew peace, though if you were to ask her, she'd say she did.
 
    Insomnia plagued her the majority of the nights she'd spent in Virginia. She'd only been settled for a week, but that was a week's sleep that was already lost. Most people wouldn't know any better, though. It wasn't like anybody knew her well enough to notice. After all, she wasn't here to socialize. She was here to work.

    Her bedroom was silent aside from the clock on her nightstand that continued to tick melodically. Tick-tock-tick-tock.

    Each second that passed turned into minutes which then turned to hours until it was time for her first day on the job. Surely a full night's rest would have been in her favor, but Melanie figured that her mind was sharp enough. She had been waiting years for this exact moment, anyway.

    Much to her dismay, her body was unable to remain as awake as her mind could. She sluggishly trailed into the bathroom, rubbing her eyes in synchronized circles until her vision was splotchy and unfocused. She turned the shower valve to the left and waited impatiently for the water pouring down on her bony shoulders to turn ice cold. This wasn't her favorite way to wake up in the morning, but considering that she never slept in the first place, she figured this should be just fine.

    As she stood in her closet and glossed over her very little clothing options, she decided on black slacks and a deep maroon sweater with three-quarter sleeves. Melanie wanted her watch to be on full display on her wrist for her first day of work. Despite her lack of interest in most material treasures, wearing a good portion of her finest jewelry would make her appear much more confident than she would otherwise.

The drive to FBI headquarters proved to be more pleasant than Melanie imagined. The traffic created by commuters allowed her to remain focused on that rather than the bustling anxiousness that began to peck at her brain the moment she entered the large pristine establishment.

Ding.

The shiny silver elevator doors, allowing Melanie to step inside.

She took in a deep breath in a final attempt to calm herself down. Her grip tightened on the brown satchel that hung from her right shoulder. This was it. This was the moment that she'd spent years working towards, and now that she was finally here, the surrealness of the situation began to set in.

It was easy for doubt to consume her mind, but it was even easier for Melanie to disregard it. She was ready for this. The only question pending on her mind was whether or not her team would make her hidden agenda any easier for her. After all, she had only ever met with Aaron Hotchner and David Rossi prior to her being committed to the bureau. The rest of the team was an absolute mystery to her.

Melanie wasn't the type to dwell on what other people thought of her, but this stood entirely differently. She wanted to mesh well with her teammates. She needed to.

"Wait, wait, wait!" A blonde woman's voice echoed, the clicking sound of her pink heels clicking with each step she took while sprinting for the elevator. "Hold the door, please!"

Melanie extended her arm just in the knick of time, holding the door open for the woman who wore a surprisingly colorful outfit for the establishment that they stood in.

The woman straightened her bright blue blazer and readjusted the butterfly barrettes in her hair, sending a side-eye to the woman standing beside her. "I apologize, I'm just a bit frantic this morning. There's a new person joining my team today and I haven't been able to find any information on her besides her name! Hotch speaks highly of her, but what possible reason could there be for her file to be sealed so tight that even I can't get into it?" she spoke with a single breath. "I just hope she's nice. Sorry. Hi. I'm Penelope Garcia," she beamed, holding her hand out for the other woman.

An amused smile spread on Melanie's face as she took Penelope's hand into her own, shaking it firmly. "Melanie Lamont. It's nice to formally meet you, Penelope," she spoke through a smile that she attempted to conceal.

Melanie had never seen a smile drop any faster than that of Penelope's at this moment. "Oh, dear," her voice trailed. Her arms draped around Melanie's shoulders, pulling her into a firm hug. "Are you a hugger? I hope you're a hugger!" she exclaimed, rocking her new coworker back and forth before she released her from her grasp. "Had I known it was you, I would've given you a proper welcome. So, welcome!"

Melanie laughed softly to herself, an action that reassured Penelope as the embarrassment of the situation began to set in. "Thank you, I'm more than excited to be here," she kindly replied. Her eyes dropped to Penelope's feet, finally assessing the heels she was wearing. "Are those Jimmy Choo's fuschia sandals?"

Penelope's eyes lit up as she looked down at her heeled shoes, admiring the mesh bow attached to the toe of them. "First of all, I love your accent!" she squealed, referring to the slight French accent that Melanie hadn't been able to fully shake. "And as a matter of fact, yes they are! How'd you know?"

Melanie panicked. She didn't know anything about shoes, she'd only recalled seeing similar looking shoes on a billboard advertisement on her way to work this morning. "Oh, um," she paused, cursing her lack of sleep on her newfound inability to come up with an excuse. "Splurging on shoes is one of my guiltiest pleasures."

Lying on her first day on the job probably wasn't the best move to make, but she hoped that this lie wouldn't come back to bite her.

Garcia nodded and held her purse in front of her, smiling towards the elevator doors that opened to reveal their floor. She was glad to know that the new recruit was, in fact, nice.

"Here, come with me!" Garcia said as she led her new colleague into a busy room full of badged employees. She raised her hand and motioned towards an open office door. "Seems like Hotch kept his door open for you. Good luck."

Nervousness crept up Melanie's spine as she made her way up to the man's office. She knocked twice and waited for a faint come in before she entered. Her new boss was sitting at his desk with an elegant black suit on, his short back hair was intricately combed into place. Judging by his demeanor, odds were that he wouldn't be the easiest to get close to. But, he was the one in charge. She would need to defy those odds.

"Agent Lamont, it's nice to see you again," Hotch's facial expression remained still as he stood from his desk and gave Melanie a firm handshake with a nod.

"Thank you for having me, sir. It's truly an honor," Melanie replied, putting on her best attempt to conceal her accent.

Hotch hung onto her words for a moment too long, forcing a pit into Melanie's stomach. Was her American accent that bad? To rid her of the embarrassment that was about to set in, Hotch shook his head, taking a manilla folder into his grasp. "The honor is all mine. Your file is extremely impressive. Fluent in four languages, BA's in psychology and sociology, and you remained at the top of your class all throughout your stay at the academy."

Melanie nodded, a proud smile on her face. Though she knew that she was one of the most skilled agents of her age, hearing it from someone of a higher authority always felt nice. "Thank you."

A corner of Hotch's lips pulled upwards in the slightest as he nodded, almost as if he wasn't used to the act of smiling. That was something to note, though Melanie was unsure why that was. Melanie couldn't help but contemplate if the job was so horrible that he'd lost his joy over it.

"I know you haven't gotten the chance to settle in, but if you're ready, my team is waiting in our conference room to start debriefing our next case," Hotch said flatly as he stood up from his seat.

Melanie nodded and rose to her feet. "I'm ready."

Suddenly, a man appeared in the doorframe of Hotch's office. He knocked twice before sticking his head inside. "I've got a few coffee orders from the conference room. Can I get you anything, Hotch?" the man paused and adjusted his eyes to look at Melanie. "I can take yours too if you'd like."

"Oh, no thank-"

"Thank you Anderson, we'll take two," Hotch responded.

Anderson nodded and went on his way towards the coffee pot. Melanie turned around in surprise, the look on her face evidently conveying her confusion.

"You didn't sleep well," Hotch simply put it. "You didn't realize my intentional error earlier. You have BA's in psychology, sociology, and philosophy."

Melanie pulled her lips into her mouth before mouthing the word 'oh'. "Well, uh. Thank you."

Hotch nodded, grabbing a few files on his desk before exiting the room. "Of course."

Melanie followed him to a room where six people sat, their eyes skimming numerous files that Penelope handed out. Melanie read the expressions of each individual as she approached them, their eyes either widening or squinting in the slightest. Well, only one of them squinted.

"Good morning, everyone. I'd like for you to meet our new recruit: Agent Melanie Lamont," Hotch announced into the room as he took a seat in one of the remaining empty chairs.

Melanie took a seat in the remaining lonesome chair. The room greeted her with gratitude, though she knew she would have to track every teammate later on and formally meet them one-on-one. For now, she attempted to memorize their names. Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, Derek Morgan, and Spencer Reid.

Jennifer took initiative of the room and pressed a button on a white remote that showed graphic crime scene photos on the TV that hung on the wall. "We've been called to Los Angeles to investigate a home invasion homicide that took place last night. Gregory Everson, 56, was beaten with a GSW to the head. His wife, Colleen, was equally beaten and raped repeatedly."

As Melanie flipped through an unclaimed case file on the desk, she looked up at JJ through furrowed brows. "Repeatedly?"

The blonde nodded. "That's what she reported."

"Wait, she survived this?" Prentiss perked up.

Hotch's demeanor was still and cold. "He chose to keep her alive for an intentional witness."

A male with messy brown hair leaned backwards in his seat, his hand resting on his chin as he thought to himself. Melanie noted him as the squinter being that he was the only agent who hadn't greeted her as warmly as his counterparts.

"Was she able to identify him?" Spencer asked.

"She said he was white with mean eyes and repulsive breath," JJ answered.

"That narrows the search down by very little," Melanie said, a few of her new teammates snickering in response.

The team continued to discuss the details of the case and their theories for why the LAPD was so desperate for their help. Following the short meeting, the team found themselves gathering their go-bags and lugging themselves onto the private jet that belonged to their team.

Melanie found the jet ride to be relatively quiet other than the small conversation that was made when they first boarded. She felt out of place, but she wasn't entirely uncomfortable.
The sound of a clanking board game interrupted her thoughts. She turned her head to find the squinter (Spencer Reid) in front of her, a self-proclaimed genius who easily upheld that statement.

"Do you play?" he inquired, laying out a brown and creme chess board and placing the pieces in their correct locations on both sides of the board.

Melanie nodded, watching attentively as he set up the board in less than twenty seconds. "I competed in tons of tournaments as a kid."

"Did you win?" Spencer's concentrated gaze left the chess board to meet her eyes. His pupils were constricted and still, the amber highlights in his irises grew brighter in the golden light seeping in from the jet window.

"I always win," Melanie shrugged, taking her first move; provoking the doctor to continue the game.

"Well, unluckily for you..." Spencer paused for a brief moment to make his well-calculated move on the board. "I've attempted to play through every permutation of moves on a chess board which is exponentially large as one could imagine. With an average of forty moves per chess game, I've come to realize that every match I play is a simple variation of the exact same thing."

Melanie's lips curved upwards into an enthused smirk and her eyebrows raised in surprise as she came to realize that it was impossible for Spencer Reid to not be absolutely brilliant at everything he had ever attempted.

Spencer felt an unexpected familiarity with the woman who sat before him, one that he couldn't quite explain. It infuriated him that he couldn't remember where he knew her from or if he had ever known her to begin with. As someone with an eidetic memory, the possibility of him forgetting something at all was slim to none; prompting him to believe that he might have mistaken her for another.

The two agents sat in comfortable silence, the only thing that either of them could hear was the sound of their own intense inner monologues. Neither of them had ever played with someone as skilled as the other.

She moved her piece before she responded to his earlier statement. "Aggressive opening, patient mid-game, inevitable checkmate," Melanie nonchalantly spoke, reciting the strategies that any good chess player would have.

"Precisely." Spencer replied, his voice low and hoarse as he made his next move. "I see checkmate in two."

Spencer's fingers traced the seams of his blue cardigan sweater and ran his free hand through his shaggy hair, an amused smile forming over Melanie's cerise tinted lips.

"I see it in one," Melanie spoke at a low volume as she moved her piece. The genius's face contorted in confusion, his eyes still glued to the chess board.
 
Although the persistent doctor wasn't ready to accept his hearty defeat, the corner of his pink lips pulled upwards into a satisfied smirk. "How– How did you do that?" Spencer spoke with intrigue, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the table.

"Can't say," Melanie smiled. "A good magician wouldn't ever reveal her secrets."

Morgan laughed from across the aisle as he leaned against one of the leather seats, his hand nudging Spencer's shoulder. "Guess you've finally met your match, huh, Reid?"

"Yeah." Reid's nose crinkled slightly, his enticing gaze traveling to meet his new favorite opponent before he replied. "I think I have."

Notes.
thank you for reading <33 it means so much to me.