VI

I left the house just after six thirty, rubbing my eyes as I pushed open the apartment door and ran down the steps. As my feet hit the pavement, I let out a long yawn and fished my headphones out of my bag. I plugged them in and threw on a random playlist, blasting it loudly in hopes it would help wake me up before I arrived to meet Hotch.


I hummed to myself as I walked down the road, smiling slightly at the thought of going back. Even though I knew Reid would be there I still felt excited. Work, despite being a bit of rollercoaster lately, was my happy place. It gave me an opportunity to let go of my thoughts and focus on something else for a change.


As I arrived at the main road I scanned the traffic. Once it was clear I crossed, jogging to the other side before the cars started up again. As my foot touched the other side of the pavement I heard the sound of a horn honk. I looked back, narrowing my eyes as I saw Morgan's vehicle zoom past. I smiled again, adjusting the bag on my shoulder as I continued onwards.


It'd be nice to see them again. After talking with Morgan and later Hotch I felt better about seeing everyone else. Aside from Reid I knew they'd accept me again, even if I didn't necessarily deserve it.


Once I got to the far end of the parking lot I cut through, scanning the various cars that drove around me. I smiled at some of the driver's, raising my hand politely as I moved in between stalls to stay out of harms way. Eventually, I made it across, letting out a heavy sigh as I looked up and saw Hotch waiting outside the front door. I ran up to meet him, watching as he slowly looked up from his phone once I got up the last step.


"Good morning," he nodded.


"Morning."


"Sorry about the last minute text last night," he replied as he pulled open the door. He motioned me to go first, following behind as we entered the building.


The second I stepped inside I sucked in some air. While everything looked the same, things felt different. I bit my lip, staring at the elevator just ahead with anticipation. I couldn't help, but think of all the times I rode it. It sounded stupid, but even I couldn't deny how much I missed that stupid contraption.


Hotch placed his hand on the small of my back, motioning me towards a set of double doors towards the left. Together we pushed through, walking down a series of hallways I'd only walked through a handful of times. As we rounded the corner I heard his phone ring from his pocket, causing him to sigh and stop.


"Hotchner," he quickly looked at me, before staring down at his feet, "yes, of course. I'm just showing a new employee to her department and I'll be right up. Go ahead and deliver the profile without me. I'll be there soon." He hung up, pocketing his phone again before continuing his stride.


I followed behind, quickly moving to catch up to him. I thought about asking what the call was about. Even though I no longer worked in profiling I still couldn't help but wonder.


He stopped in front of a door, knocking a couple of times before adjusting his tie and letting out a sigh.


"Are you okay?" I asked. He seemed weirdly tense, like, even more than usual.


"I'm fine," he responded.


"Yeah, okay," I rolled my eyes.


He turned to face me, giving me a stern look. At that point I knew my sassy nature needed to stop. Hotch wasn't just a friend anymore, he was a superior.


"Sorry," I whispered.


The door swung open. A disheveled middle aged man appeared, his dark eyebrows knit together in annoyance as he looked between us. The second he realized it was Hotch he let out a groan and turned on his heel. "Oh good it's you, hello."


"Hello Cooper," Hotch responded flatly.


He turned back around, pointing in my direction. "This the fresh meat?"


I scrunched up my face in confusion, looking at Hotch who merely closed his eyes and nodded.


"She looks like a child," he scanned me curiously.


"I'm twen-"


"Doesn't matter," he shook his head, tossing his hands into the air as he turned back around. He wandered over to his desk, sifting through a folder of papers. He mumbled under his breath, licking the edge of his thumb as he flipped over one of the sheets and grabbed the one behind it. He brought it towards his face, narrowing his eyes before walking back over and shoving the paper towards me. "Fill this out. Amy's about to pop that little sucker out of her hoo-ha any day now so I need you to start ASAP."


"Uh," I gave Hotch an uncomfortable look, which he returned almost immediately.


"Cooper," he sighed.


Cooper raised his hand, silencing Hotch almost immediately. "Favour paid."


Hotch rolled his eyes, causing me widen my own. I remember Hotch mentioning how eccentric this guy was when we talked on the phone. I figured that just meant he was kind of weird, maybe more of the quiet type like most of the other people I knew in this line of work. This though, was unexpected. Despite his obvious age, the man acted like a child, interrupting everyone to speak his mind way too freely.


"I'll leave you to it then," Hotch responded. He turned to face me, flashing me an uncomfortable smile before fishing a badge out his bag and handing it off to me. "I got you reinstated and transferred into the system. If there are any issues feel free to call." He eyed Cooper as he said the last part.


"Sounds good," I nodded. I clutched the badge tightly in my hand, smiling as I noticed the familiar portrait. It was the same one from my first day.


"In regards to last night," Hotch cleared his throat, "we may need you to swing by the station again later to get a formal report."


"Yeah, for sure. Just call when you need me."


Cooper let out a loud, exasperated sigh. "Alright Hotchner, out of my office."


I blinked, watching Hotch's jaw clench as he left without another word. After he was gone I looked back at Cooper who strode towards the door, closing it quickly as he shook his head and wandered back to his desk to sit down. "What?" He asked, immediately noticing my gaze.


"Am I safe to assume you and Hotch aren't the best of friends?" I asked curiously.


He snorted. "Yes, you are. Man's a total buzzkill. Always coming into my office, demanding things. Looking at bodies isn't a piece of cake you know? It takes time." He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest.


"I'm aware," I responded.


"Yeah, well, he isn't," he pointed to the door angrily, "and while you're in this office we don't talk about him."


"Why?"


"Because he's bad juju," he responded matter of factly.


I couldn't help but laugh, watching as he held back a smirk and turned back to his desk. He rifled through a couple more papers, organizing them into a couple of different file folders before pulling a pen out of his lab coat pocket and tapping his chin with it.


"You seem rather, uh," I paused to think, "I don't know how to put this without making you sound like an asshole."


He swivelled his chair into my direction, giving me a suspicious grin. He opened his arms out to me and shrugged. "I've been called worse. Go ahead."


"Okay," I blinked, slightly taken aback, "well, uh, you seem rather douche-y?"


"Ha!" He threw his head back.


"What I mean is t-"


"What you mean is that I'm not like most government employees, correct?"


I nodded.


"Well you'd be right," he stood from his chair, tucking his hands behind his back as he slowly walked over to me. "This job is hard. I'm sure you understand seeing are you're a returning employee."


"How'd you know that?" I asked. I thought Hotch said nobody would know.


"It's my job to know, kid," he smirked, "and while I approve of you getting some while on duty I have to ask, why'd you come back?"


I felt my face grow hot. I couldn't believe he knew that. Did the whole building know? "What do you mean?"


"Hotchner said you after you got fired over the hanky-panky you left to go to Interpol," he took a couple of steps away, pacing slowly around the room as he spoke, "last I checked that gig pays a shit ton more than this dump."


Even though this guy was definitely not what I was expecting I kind of liked him. His honest personality, despite being annoying, was also somewhat refreshing; a nice change from all the seriousness upstairs. As he walked across the room I watched him move, noting the way held his hands tightly behind his back, tapping his fingers to the beat of his steps as he stared directly at me.


"Interpol was fucked," I responded. I figured if I could swear in front of anyone, it'd be him. The second I did, he smiled, nodding his head. "Like, the second I got there my soul died."


"Government jobs will do that to ya, kid."


"I know," I sighed, "I didn't expect it to happen so soon, you know?"


"The death of the soul has no time limit," he recited.


"Is that a quote from something?" I raised my brow.


"My mouth," he replied, "just now. Feel free to use it, but give me credit. I don't respect people who steal quality content."


I snorted. This guy was way more than eccentric.


"Listen, I know I'm no Hotchner, but I still run a tight ship. I expect you to do your best. A lot of the staff here don't and while I'd like fire every single one of them I can't. We're running short on bodies," he paused to laugh, "get it? You know like-"


"I get it." I rolled my eyes.


He cleared his throat, "anyway, if you can show your worth I'll keep you on full time. Sound fair?"


I nodded.


"I like you, kid. You're not fake. Most people come in here trying to act impressive." He stopped walking and gave me a warm smile.


"Thank-you?" I couldn't help, but feel taken aback. The man was definitely somewhat of an enigma, acting brash, yet somehow endearing at the same time. It was hard to understand him, but I figured as time went on the confusion would settle. He seemed like the kind of guy who you'd consider an open book, someone who'd reveal themselves easily so getting to know him shouldn't be too hard.


He stood in front of me again, shoving his hand into the air between us. "I'm Dick Cooper, by the way." I pressed my lips together, holding back laughter. Apparently he could sense it, since almost immediately after he rolled his eyes and shoved his hand into the pocket of his coat. "My name is Richard, but only call me that if you want to get fired."


I coughed, holding my hand over my mouth as I forced myself not to laugh as I nodded.


"Also I retract my previous statement, I like you less."


I opened my mouth, flashing him a fake sad look. "Awe, Dick, no!"


"Awe," he mocked, throwing his hand out again, "now shake my hand before I regret ever doing that awful profiler a favour."


I laughed, taking his hand in mine. I gave it a tight squeeze and shook. I figured he was probably the kind of guy who liked a respectable handshake. "I'm Isla Rafferty," I responded.


"Riff-Raff," he said.


I looked at him, confused. "Huh?"


"I like nicknames," he smiled, "first names get complicated and last names are too formal; ergo Riff-Raff."


"Ah, I see," I nodded, staring wide eyed.


There was a small pause in conversation. I glanced around the room, fully realizing how messy it was. There was paper everywhere, sheets on the desk, pinned to the walls, balled up on the floor. Alongside the far wall were a couple of pictures of Cooper with various people, along with his degree's which sat in a line up top. I wandered over, ignoring his curious gaze as I took a closer look at some of the pictures. A lot of them were with who I assumed to be his kid. He was tall with dark hair that matched Cooper's with lots of freckles. They were both smiling, holding beers in their hands as they sat in what appeared to be a baseball stadium.


"That's Micheal," he pointed, "he's alright."


I chuckled.


"I know you're interested in getting to know how cool I am, but we've got work to do."


I turned to face him, nodding my head as I glanced down at the sheet in my hand. "I'll fill this out?"


"Yeah, take my desk. I'm gonna go to the exam room next door and prep the body you found last night." He pointed towards the door with his thumb.


I frowned. I guess Hotch told him.


"You good to do that or should I call someone else to take the job?"


I rolled my eyes, holding back a smile. "I can handle it, Dick."


"Good," he gave my back a rough smack before walking over to the door and opening it up. "Be quick. I know you're probably all nervous with your first day jitters and whatnot, but the sooner we do this the sooner I can go home."


"You're quite the influence," I retorted, walking over to the desk. I pushed aside a couple of papers, setting mine in front as I sat down.


"Yeah, well, nothing like getting called in on a Saturday to babysit," he sighed.


I scoffed and grabbed a pen from my bag. I heard him laugh and leave the room. I looked up at the closed door, shaking my head. While his personality concerned me a bit, I couldn't help, but feel better about my decision. He seemed like the kind of guy I could be myself around, which given the events over the last few months, might actually be a good thing.


As I filled out my paperwork I tapped my foot anxiously. As much as I wanted to do my job the idea of seeing that girl's body still made me nervous. Even though I saw her just hours prior, I couldn't quite remember what she looked like. My brain was so foggy when I called dispatch that I didn't even bother to take a good look at her injuries, so who knew what state she was in.


When I finished I swallowed hard, scanning the room one last time before standing from my seat and throwing my pen in my bag. I grabbed the form, debating for a second whether or not I should take it with me. I figured he'd want me to leave it, so I did, tossing it on top of the rest of his files before walking next door and knocking. When I didn't get an answer I opened the door, watching as Cooper shot me a look.


"What are you knocking for?"


"I don't know," I shrugged, "I didn't want to be rude."


"Pfft, rude to who? The dead girl?" He pointed to the girl on the exam table.


I felt my heart beat quicken as I saw her face. She looked way younger than I remembered, her skin now fully translucent under the light above. I took a couple of steps in, griping the strap of my bag as I bit my lip and walked to Cooper's side, scanning her curiously.


"There's a hanger over there with some coats," he pointed towards the left side of the room, "there's gloves on the desk beside it."


I nodded and walked over, throwing my bag on one of the hooks before throwing on a fresh lab coat. I smoothed out the sleeves, smiling to myself. It felt kind of nice to be back in one. It'd been so long I almost forgot what it felt like to actually look like a proper doctor.


"C'mon, hurry up," Cooper called impatiently.


I turned to face him, giving him a dirty look as I grabbed a set of gloves and threw them on. I snapped them against my wrist and walked over, adjusting them to fit my fingers.


"I already conducted an external examination," he grabbed a clipboard on a table behind him, flipping the page over before nodding his head and throwing it back. He leaned over her body, pointing towards her neck, "she was obviously suffocated given the bruising around her throat." He mimicked a hand over her throat, his fingers slightly matching up to the bruising.


"Did you find any biological evidence?" I asked.


He shook his head. "I don't know if Hotchner told you, but this isn't the first body this guy's offed."


I scrunched up my face at his choice of words, shaking my head.


"There's two others. They both died of asphyxiation like our girl here, but the other two were also sexually assaulted. We found traces of semen, but there wasn't a match."


"He probably didn't get the chance to rape her," I responded with a sigh, looking over at her sadly, "when I was out in the alleyway I think he saw me and ran off before he got the chance."


He made a popping sound with his lips as he looked towards the body. "Makes sense I suppose," he mumbled.


"Do you know much about the profile?" I asked.


He laughed. "You and I both know profiling isn't in our skill set, Riff-Raff. Well, maybe your's, but not mine."


I let out a defeated sigh. "Fair point." Even though I knew that part of my job was over I couldn't help, but feel like it'd help. If I knew more details about the case I could determine more of a motive. All I knew so far was that our unsub was young and devolving, which meant he probably wasn't much an experienced killer.


"I know you're up there in that head of your's, but I need you back here," Cooper said, "we still need to do an internal exam before boss man comes back for answers."


"Right," I shook the profiling thoughts out of my head, "sorry, let's do it."


He smiled, rolling over a tray full of tools. "Also, because you rudely interrupted me," he smacked his tongue to the roof of his mouth, shaking his head as he peeled back the sheet covering her body. "You should probably know she's got some bruising around her inner thighs, as well as her stomach," he signalled to both spots with his pinky.


I narrowed my eyes, examining their purplish hues. "These aren't fresh like the ones around her throat."


"I know," he replied, he moved his hand towards her left wrist, lifting it up to show me, "she's got ligature marks on her wrists and ankles too."


"So he was keeping her somewhere." I grabbed the wrist from his hand, rubbing it with my thumb.


"Looks that way," Cooper sighed.


"And the other bodies were like this too?"


He shook his head. "The first two didn't have those," he pointed to the wrist.


I bit my lip, thinking about what exactly that meant. If he was devolving that typically meant the unsub got more careless, but right now this guy was doing the opposite. He was getting bolder, changing his MO. I dropped the wrist gently and gave her body a quick once over with my eyes.


"Hey," Cooper snapped.


I looked up, blinking.


"No profiling, we got a body to dissect."


I let out a heavy breath, knowing he was right. As much as I wanted to look into this guy's head that wasn't my job anymore. I was here to examine, to provide the physical answers to help further answer the mental ones.


"You know your choice of vocabulary is very gross," I responded.


"I work with the dead, what do you want me to do, sensor my self expression?"


"No, but you could be a little more sensitive," I raised my brow.


He threw his head back, erupting in a chorus of fake laughter before abruptly stopping and glaring my direction. "As much as I appreciate your honesty, and really I do, it's refreshing, I need you to stop talking to me and start using those hands so I can get out of here and sleep before I ultimately have to drag my ass back here tomorrow." He pushed the tray of tools towards me.


"Yeah, okay," I sighed, "let's get this over with."


"Aye, that's the spirit!" He clapped his hands together and rubbed them excitedly.


We spent the next few hours conducting the autopsy. Cooper watched as I started cutting, slowly inspecting the insides as I was taught to do. We determined her insides were squeaky clean, showing no signs of foul play other than a high alcohol content, which wasn't necessarily surprising.


Cooper rambled the entire time, talking about thing after thing. For a while I tried to keep up, replying to various remarks to properly engage, until it eventually became too hard to focus. At that point I just let him talk at me, nodding my head every so often to appear like I was actually listening. His voice, while quick witted and slightly nasally, somehow didn't bother me. It reminded me of white noise, something you'd play in the background to put you to sleep.


"Okay, well, that's done," I sighed, finishing the last stitch. I threw the tools on the tray gently and peeled off my gloves. Despite the sweat coating my hands the rest of me felt cold, causing me to shiver as I threw them in the trash.


Cooper followed suit, balling them up and doing an overhand shot straight in. He raised his hands triumphantly as he smiled over at me.


"Amazing," I responded sarcastically.


"Alright Riff-Raff, get out of here," he shooed me towards the door, "go home and get some sleep and come back same time tomorrow." He took a couple of steps forward, ushering me out.


"Um, excuse me I need my stuff," I stomped forward, giving him an unimpressed stare as I saw him retreat back. I threw my coat into the laundry bin before throwing my bag over my shoulder. "I left the paperwork you gave me on your desk."


"Perfect," he smiled, "now go."


"Jeez, alright, I'm going." I shook my head and reached for the door. Before I could grab it though it opened for me, bumping my side as it did. I groaned, taking a step back as I clutched my hip and looked up to see Reid and Morgan on the other side. "Fuck, that hurt." I groaned.


The second Reid saw me he closed his eyes, letting out an unimpressed sigh. Morgan chuckled, clamping his hand on my shoulder as he strode past and made his way over to Cooper.


"Cooper," Morgan nodded his head at him.


"Ah Morgan, my second favourite BAU member next to Riff-Raff," he smiled.


All of us collectively looked at him, raising our brows.


He pointed to Reid, ignoring our confused stares, "you're the other office canoodler?"


"Oh, my god," I moved my hand from my hip to my face, feeling my face grow increasingly warm.


"Um, uh," Reid stuttered.


"Dr. Cooper, we're here to look at the body," Morgan stated sternly, "not to meddle in the personal lives of others."


I looked at him, mouthing a quick thank-you once I saw that Cooper turned around to throw on a fresh pair of gloves. "I'm, uh, gonna go," I pointed towards the door.


"You don't have to tell me everything you do you know?" Cooper responded.


I rolled my eyes, sucking in a heavy breath as I brushed past Reid. The second our arms touched I felt a spark of electricity run through me. I tried not to make it seem like a big deal, but I couldn't help, but let out a small gasp, which I'm more than positive he heard. I swallowed hard and walked through the doorway quickly, clutching my bag as I basically sped walked the whole way home in embarrassment.

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