The Axiom Of Equality [SPENCER REID]

PROLOGUE
december 2011, katherine

In the eyes of the public, CBS reality, Agent Rossi's catalogue of true crime novels, and twenty-three future Netflix originals, the BAU is a team of highly specialised behavioural analysts. It is a team on which your place is usually scouted from other areas in the FBI or State Bureaus. It is a life of travel and private jets and case-of-the-week serial killers.

And that's all true — for several members of a much larger department. In fact, Katherine was scouted from her job at the Georgia Bureau Of Investigation. But she wasn't shoved into a seat at the round table, or pulled onto a cross country flight on her first day.

No, most of the other people at the BAU are desk agents. Case files come across their desks, or a contact from previous cases gives them a call on a personal cell (it always helps to have connections in law enforcement), and they summarise a quick profile. Three or so a day. A family homicide in California, a particularly brutal rape in Oregon. Single crimes, unlikely to go serial. Anything creeping towards more drastic goes to Jennifer Jareau.

The rest of the job is paper work. Surprisingly, a lot of law enforcement is. It's seeking warrants, getting autopsies rushed through, and forwarding things on to the correct contact that some random cop in Wisconsin can't find the number for.

That's Katherine's life. It'd be just another desk job with unlimited coffee and casual Fridays if she wasn't in the same office as The Experts (like, emphasis on the thee) in her field.

One: there's her boss, stoic and scary Aaron Hotchner, who she can't tell likes her or hates her. Evidence for the former: she's never late, she makes him a coffee if they are alone (a rarity) in the office together in the mornings, and she's been at the BAU long enough to be so good at her job that she hands out advice to others on her level — not only that, but they seek her out for it. Evidence for the latter: she hasn't seen him smile, she spilt his black coffee once, and he partakes in exclusively professional conversation. Conversation is a strong word, besides.

I need you to sign this.

I approved your request for next Friday off.

I liked your work on the St Clouds case.

Two: there's Jennifer Jareau. Probably the most approachable of the lot. Anything out of Katherine's depth goes to her. And even when Katherine is slamming a thick file on top of a mountain of other thick piles, JJ takes it with a smile and asks how her weekend was.

Three, four, five: Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss, Penelope Garcia. Acquaintances, at most. There's an air of arrogance about them; each morning they pass through the room to the round table like the desk workers and mail workers and cleaners are invisible. But when they're caught in the lift together, they remember Katherine's name, that she has a cat, and are always happy to joke about three safe subjects: the bad coffee, the scary boss, and the early mornings.