~Orion Montgomery~

February had slipped away, much unlike the smile that refused to leave Orion Montgomery's face. No matter how much her friends teased her about it. It was early March now and Orion was hard at work, laboring away in front of the forge. She had a small commission for a simple short sword, for the purpose of display, which she was working away at.

The buzzing in her cargo pants pocket caused her to pull the pommel, which glowed a dull red, away from the power hammer where she was shaping it. Orion set it down on her anvil to cool while she tried to wipe her hands off before answering the call.

"Hello?" She hummed, grabbing a water bottle and taking a quick sip.

"Hey, Orion." Spencer's nervous voice responded.

Orion's brow pinched, wondering why he sounded like that. "Ah, SSA Dr. Spencer Reid PHD, to what do I owe this pleasure?" She smiled, hoping the familiar greeting would put him at ease, and make him blush.

Spencer cleared his throat in what she could only assume was embarrassment and she swore she could hear snickering in the background. "Um, are you busy right now?"

Now that was definitely strange. He knew she was working on a short sword, and had been for the last five days. "Not particularly. I've got the pre-form just about hammered out and done. What's going on?"

"We, um, we might need your help on our current case." Spencer admitted. He was working a local one right there in DC, they'd started two days prior.

"What?" Orion frowned in confusion, moving out of the workshop and into the office. Offering a wave to Marlow who was going over business emails. "What could I possibly help you with? Other than beating people up." Marlow snorted and she shot him a small glare.

"Well, it turns out all five of our victims were street racers who were killed after winning some kind of big race." He explained, still sounding nervous.

"You want me to race again." Orion realized. "Spencer, I haven't hit the street since I nearly got myself killed when I was eighteen. That was nine years ago!"

"But you still know how to, or did you win all three races on Valentines Day by luck?" Spencer reminds her and she lets out an only slightly annoyed groan.

"Spencer-" She started before being interrupted by a voice she didn't recognize.

"Miss. Montgomery, we understand that we're asking you to put yourself in a dangerous situation. However none of our agents have the skillset to pass as a legitimate street racer in order to single out our Unsub. Reid's assured us that you are more than capable." She blinked in surprise at the stern and serious male voice. Had she been on speakerphone?

"Wait, Hotch, you know her last name?!" Yet another voice called out in shock.

"Not the time Morgan." Spencer groaned.

"You told Hotch about your girl and not us!" Morgan protested.

"You got to talk to her for five minutes!" Spencer argued.

"Okay, okay, you two can argue later." A female voice butted in.

"Fine." The two men grumbled and Orion couldn't help but chuckle.

"So, you want me to try and attract this Unsub's attention by winning races?" She got back to the point of the phone call.

"If you're willing. The bureau is willing to supply you with a vehicle confiscated from an arrested street racer." Who she assumed was Hotch confirmed.

"You do realize that there are many illegal races that go on every night in DC right? Do you know which one you're looking for?" Orion asked, already grabbing her belongings and heading out to sit in her car.

"Unfortunately we don't. The assumption is that our Unsub is jumping between different race groups." Rossi spoke up.

"Are they racing for slips?" Was Orion's next question.

"What?" Chorused multiple voices.

"You mean Pink Slips?" Spencer asked. "When the winner gets the losers car?"

"Yes, that's the most competitive form of street racing, or at least it was when I was in it. Racer's usually customize their cars themselves so losing their car would be like losing their most prized possession." Orion explained.

"Garcia, can you see if our victims had new cars showing up right before being killed?" Hotch requested of someone Orion couldn't see.

"Your wish is my command. Looking for extra cars..." It was silent for a second. "Two of the victims put cars up for sale hours before they were killed. Uuum, oohh! And two others had new cars registered under their names. Previous owners unknown. No idea for our last victim, if he did, he was killed before he got the chance to do anything about it." The bright and cheery female voice informed the group.

"So they are racing for slips." A strong female voice concluded.

"And every time the Unsub loses his car he snaps." Morgan finished.

"Orion, how fast can you be ready to pick up?" Spencer asked.

"An hour at the most." Orion grabbed her keys and stuck them into Robin's ignition, the mustang roaring to life.

"Great, I'll meet you at yours. Drive safely please!" Spencer requested.

"Oh come on, Spencer. You know I always do." She teased him.

"I understand that your control over the vehicle is much higher than average and I would trust no one else more than you when driving, but that doesn't mean I won't worry. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimates that approximately 13 car accidents occur in the United States every second." Spencer told her seriously.

"Spencer, I will be just fine. See you soon." Orion chuckled light heartedly.

"Bye." With that he hung up and Orion hit the road. Consciously remaining firmly on the speed limit and no faster purely because Spencer had asked her to drive safely.

Orion barely stopped to drop her purse on her sofa once she got to her apartment. Heading straight for the shower. Not wanting to meet Spencer's work family while smeared with soot and sweat and smelling of smoke. She scrubbed herself as fast as she could before jumping out and hurriedly drying off.

Throwing on some professional looking clothes and putting a different outfit into a duffel bag. They wanted her to street race, which meant she was going to have to look the part too. She hoped she didn't give Spencer a heart attack when he saw the outfit. People thought she looked intimidating just as she was, but in an outfit like the ones she used to wear out to races... she was often called the Tempest of The Night for a reason. 

Orion locked up her apartment quickly and made her way down to the front entrance to meet Spencer. While standing on the sidewalk, she could have sworn she saw someone familiar standing at the buss stop a block down. She didn't get a chance to look closer as a black SUV pulled up at the curb in front of her. The window rolled down to show Spencer in the passenger seat and a woman with coffee brown hair behind the wheel.

The woman let out a long low whistle as Orion climbed into the backseat. "Wow, Reid... how did you score such a beauty?" She seemed to tease the young genius.

"Emily." Spencer shot her an exasperated look.

"What? I'm Emily by the way, nice to finally meet the girl that's got Boy Wonder's head in the clouds." Emily grinned at her as Orion shook her hand before buckling in.

"Nice to meet you too." She chuckled. "I assume you already know my name?"

"Oh yes." Emily nodded as she pulled back into traffic, heading to the precinct they were operating out of. "Reid gave us a bunch of random facts about you, which we attempted to build a profile of you with so we could figure out who you were. Though I don't think any of us got it right. And heads up, our tech analyst will probably do a full background check on you. She does that with everyone, so don't take it too personally."

"Noted, thanks for the warning." Orion nodded.

It was silent for a minute before Emily spoke up again, Spencer seeming very nervous in the seat in front of Orion. "So Reid tells us you could wipe the floor with Morgan-"

Orion burst out laughing. "Well I'm glad you've got so much confidence in me, Spencer."

"You could!" Spencer insisted.

"I've never even met the man, but I remember you telling me he's the main muscle of the team." She hummed.

"You have martial arts training and hammer metal all day every day." Spencer pointed out.

"That doesn't mean I can wipe the floor with him." Orion argued.

"I've got ten on you." Emily slipped in with a wild grin.

"I'm not getting arrested for fighting a federal agent." Orion insisted.

"There'd be no arrest if it was on friendly terms." Spencer said light heartedly.

"Fine, I'm not beating up your teammates." Orion rolled her eyes at him with a smile.

They pulled up at the precinct and Orion chuckled when Spencer insisted on still opening the door for her.

"Thank you." She hummed giving him a quick peck on the cheek before following after a smirking Emily into the building. Becoming very aware of the glances from the police officers when Spencer slid his arm around her waist, pulling her close to his side.

They reached the room where the rest of Spencer's team was and four pairs of eyes turned to her. "Guy's," Spencer cleared his throat. "This is my girlfriend, Orion."

"It's good to finally meet you all." She greeted the team with a small smile.

"That's Morgan, JJ, and Hotch. Rossi you've already met." Spencer put names to the faces around the room. Each person nodded or smiled and waved.

"Wait, hold up." Morgan raised his hands. "First of all, what do you mean 'she's already met Rossi?' just how many people know more about her than me?!" He sounded mildly offended, although the slight twinkle in his eye as he stared at Spencer gave away that he was mostly teasing.

"Just Hotch and Rossi." Spencer admitted with a shrug.

"Okay, and second, we were under the impression that you were Japanese." This time he pointed at Orion looking for answers.

"Yeah, I'm actually a bit confused on that too." Emily raised her hand as though in a classroom.

"I'm Canadian, actually." Orion smirked at the raised eyebrows she was getting. "But I did spend three years in Japan."

"What were you in Japan for? If you don't mind me asking." JJ spoke up.

"Well-" Orion began, but was interrupted by Morgan's phone ringing. The man quickly pulled it out and answered the call, which immediately connected with the speaker in the middle of the conference room table.

"Hey Babygirl, you got something for me?" Orion's eyebrows rose significantly. Spencer had told her a bit about each member of his team, so she'd heard about Garcia and Morgan's infamous flirting and nicknames, but actually hearing it in person was entirely different.

"Oh, my Chocolate Thunder have I got something for you!" A spunky female voice came though. "I know I probably shouldn't have, but I couldn't help myself. I promised Reid I wouldn't pry her number from his phone and find out who put that pep in his step, and it has been killing me. But! Since the cat is now out of the bag, I may have done a little digging!"

Everyone in the room winced and glanced apologetically at Orion who shrugged. Emily had warned her that this was likely to happen.

"Garcia-" JJ attempted to stop her.

"No, I know, but oh my god am I glad I did!" Garcia just kept right on going. "Orion Genevieve Elspeth Montgomery, that is like, like the coolest and most dreamy name ever! And you'll never guess what this absolute badass of a woman does for a living! She's a swordsmith! I took a peek at her website and am literally drooling over these portfolio pics! I had no idea I needed a display sword in my life, but now I do and I don't care that the custom ones are hella expensive! They're worth every penny!"

Orion can't help but smile, especially when she looks over at Spencer and sees the absolute embarrassment on his face, which he is trying to hide behind one of his hands. He looks as though he wants to melt and be absorbed into the ground below him. It's adorable how it should be her that's embarrassed, but instead it's him feeling it for her.

Chuckling softly, Orion grazes her knuckles over the back of his free hand. To which he immediately turns his hand to grasp hers, weaving their fingers together.

"Garcia, um-" Mogan is immediately interrupted.

"I'm not done! Let's see, she's 27 and has a very wealthy family, like we're talking old money rich. Two brothers, wonder if they're just as legendary as she is and are either of them single? Grew up in Victoria, Canada, huh, I though you said she was Japanese? Oh, but she lived in Japan for three years training under Master swordsmith Goro Yamada. Interesting place to study, but if you want to be the best you should learn from the best I guess. Wait, what's this?"

There was a pause and the clicking of keys could be heard over the speaker.

"There's a police file from when she was in Japan." Orion went tense at the mention of that. "Oh, oh no, it says she was a witness in the-"

"Garcia." Spencer's voice was sharp, seeming to startle everyone in the room. "I think that's enough digging on Orion."

Garcia was silent for a few seconds as everyone stared at Spencer in surprise as he gently rubbed his thumb over the back of a very tense Orion's hand.

"...Hey Reid..." Garcia greeted nervously. "...She heard all of that, didn't she?"

"We did try to stop you Garcia." JJ sighed. Sending Orion a sympathetic glance.

"I, I am mortified." She replied flatly. "I'm so sorry! I swear I didn't mean to, but I can't help myself! Reid is too sweet and precious and I needed to know that you weren't going to hurt him. Which I know is no excuse, but this I what I do all day and-"

"Miss. Garcia, it's quite alright." Orion gently cut off her rambling apology. "I did the same thing to my little brother when I found out he had a girlfriend."

"Oh my god, Hello!" Garcia exclaimed excitedly. "Hello gorgeous badass woman, who I totally approve of by the way Boy Wonder!"

Spencer was blushing and had his head in his hands again. "Can we get back to the case please?" He asked, turning to Hotch almost pleadingly.

The serious looking man smirked slightly but nodded, turning to Orion "I assume you already know that you'll be wearing a wire and we'll have surveillance close by in case anything happens while you're at these races."

"Yeah, I understand the basics of undercover. Just don't have the training." Orion nodded.

"You know this crowd better than any undercover agent we have available, so you're more likely to be able to pull this off." Hotch acknowledged with a nod.

"Fair enough." Orion agreed.

"How long do you need to get ready? The officer's have a few cars for you to choose from waiting in the garage."

"For me getting ready, not that long, but I'll need a partner. Under normal circumstances I could handle my own at a race meet, but I'm not a profiler. Plus, if I need to be racing for slips to get this guy's attention, I need someone to be able to drive the second car. There's no guarantee we'll hit the same meet he does on the first try." Orion explained, seeing their curious faces.

"I wasn't going to send a civilian in on her own anyway." Aaron agreed.

Orion nodded and turned to Spencer. "Are you okay with being my partner? 'Cause, no offense to your team, but you're the only one I'd be comfortable with having an arm around me to fend off the creeps that are guaranteed to be prowling."

Spencer stiffened at the mention of random guys trying to get handsy with her. "Yeah, yeah I can do that. I just don't think I'd really... blend in much." Spencer mumbled.

"Oh yeah, the cardigan will stand out like a sore thumb." Morgan teased.

Orion nodded with a sigh. "As much as I adore your fashion sense, we'll need to take you shopping before we hit the streets."

"Shopping?" Spencer frowned.

"Do you really think I have anything that will fit you?" Orion raised her eyebrows at him as his cheeks flushed slightly with color.

"Well then it's a good thing we've got plenty of time before night falls." Emily grinned. "If you don't mind Orion, I think I know the perfect place where we could get the kind of stuff he needs."

"Right, Prentiss, Reid, you two and Orion head out to get that sorted. We'll try to narrow down the meets for tonight from here." Aaron instructed, causing everyone to spur into action.