Chapter Text
The BAU was quiet for once, there were no cases that needed solving, no interpersonal conflicts waiting to bubble to the surface, just the sounds of clicking as the team caught up on paperwork that had been neglected while the team had been busy. Hotch got in first as always, followed closely by Rossi and Morgan. Rossi was clearly nursing a hangover from the team dinner the night before, just slightly on edge compared to normal. The rest of the team had trickled in over the course of the next half hour, with Garcia entering last (it’s hard to tell when she actually got here, considering her ‘sanctum’ is separate from the bullpen).
Unfortunately, Garcia was wearing an apologetic look and carrying her tablet when she entered Hotch’s office. Emily spotted her and began drinking her coffee with more haste as she went to notify the team that the tranquillity would soon come to an end.
“Hey,” Emily leaned against JJ’s desk, speaking loudly enough that both JJ and Morgan could hear her, “Garcia just went to talk to Hotch.”
JJ began to perk up at the idea of office, well not gossip , but information, before realizing what the implications meant for the hope of getting off work early. She sighed and began gathering her things, shooting a look at Morgan, who looked like he would rather be anywhere else at that moment before moving to gather Reid from the coffee pot.
Soon enough they were gathered at the round table as Garcia explained the latest case to them.
“This next one takes us to sunny Los Angeles,” Garcia starts passing out the tablets (and the physical file for Reid), “there’s been a string of fires in abandoned buildings”
“I’m not seeing any victims?” Rossi asked while looking throught the file.
“There’s no deaths yet,” Garcia put stress on that last word, “but a firefighter was injured on scene, nothing serious but after that the fires have gotten worse.”
“Worse?” Reid was already done with his file, now leaning back in his chair.
“More frequent and more dangerous” Garcia explained “LAPD sent this to us directly. Sounds like they’re worried what’ll happen if they escalate”
“They should be” Hotch started to rise from his seat, “wheels up in 30.”