Chapter Text
you’ve never understood the phrase, “love at first sight.” you thought it was ridiculous and impossible. how can you fall for something without knowing anything about them? what’s so damn good about them that you just so happened to love them without the slightest hesitation? it was dumb and stupid and you just didn’t have the time to entertain the thought of it.
until it happened to you.
you can clearly recall the moment it happened, the emotions you felt rushing through you as you stared into his dark eyes glaring down at you. you felt total happinesses, sadness, excitement, disappointment, love, hate, heartbreak, and so much more that you at that moment, you let out a: “well, I'm fucked.”
you were on a mission, one that quickly became one of your all time favorites- well, before you met him it was one you hated. you along with sam, bucky, and wanda were sent to investigate an old hydra’s hideout. steve had heard a rumor and sent the four of you to investigate.
though before you left you told your father it wasn't worth the time and effort. it was just a plain rumor, something that steve shouldn’t even considered. but steve rodgers wasn’t called captain america for nothing. so with a bratty pout and many uncalled whines, you left the comfort of your home to search for this so-call hideout. and by the third day you were ready to call it quits. there was nothing here for you; there was no hide-out, no useful information, and definitely no hydra!
however, there were going to be two dead avenger bodies if sam and bucky didn’t cut out their annoying bickering. you loved them, you really do but their constant back and forth pointless arguements were leaving you highly irritated. at this point, you were ready to call steve and yell at him for leaving you with two immature children. you were ready to go home to your luxurious and soft king size bed and forget about this stupid mission.
“what’s this?” wanda’s question interrupted your daydream. glancing her way, you see her squint her eyes at the monitor in front of her. she was watching some footage clint took from one of hydra’s hide-out.
without saying anything, you made your way towards her. standing behind her, your attention was caught by the group of men ransacking the abandoned place. yet that wasn’t what caught our attention, it was what the men were wearing. the vest they had on, had three bold white letters that clearly said: FBI.
of course, you didn’t think they were fbi agent, yet again you weren’t positive either. ever since the whole ‘hydra took over s.h.i.e.l.d” two years back, you second guessed yourself. something you blamed s.h.i.e.l.d. entirely. you were never one to doubt yourself in anything; for heaven sake, you were ____ stark.
so after the whole thing, you took extra cautious in doing and saying everything. though that didn’t apply to your family: the avengers. you knew they would never break the deep trust you had for one another. for example, when steve finally located his long time “dead” best friend, it was your father who he went straight too and asked for him.
and after finding out the horrible truth of what bucky had done- or should you say the winter soldier had done- your father went against his hatred and anger, helped out bucky and Steve. because what’s the kind of man your father is, one who trust his friends and one that wants to peace in his life; not for him but for you.
he didn’t want to fight against you, because he knew that you would want help out bucky. despite knowing what he had done. that was the person you were: sweet, kind-hearted, gentle, loving, compassionate, and more. you wanted to help those who were lost and in need; and that was who bucky was- a person who was lost and in need.
again wanda’s question broke you of your thoughts, “what should we do?”
and once again you turn your attention to the screen, noticing that the men were well-trained... too well-trained to be fbi agent. you didn’t know what kind of training were required for them, but you sure as hell knew it wasn't anything these men went through.
“think cap will lash out on me if i hack into the fbi?” you asked.
wanda didn’t have a chance to reply when sam and bucky came back from picking up your food, “who’s going to hack into what now?”
“___ planning on hacking the fbi,” wanda reply, not bothering towards the boys.
bucky scoffed, shaking his head as he gave you your plate of chinese’s food: “i don’t think that’s a good idea, doll.”
“just because you can’t doesn’t mean I'm can’t,” you scowled at him, though your eyes held a teasing glint to them.
bucky threw you a playful glare, “i can but i don't want to,” he replied and sam rolled his eyes: “you’ll get caught within the first few seconds.” this time, when bucky’s glare it wasn’t playful nor did it held a certain tenderness that was only meant for you.
ignoring the boys bickering. “i wonder,” you trailed off staring back at the screen; which wanda had paused and the words fbi stared right back at you.
sam took one good look at your famous ‘i’m-about-to-do-something-that’ll-piss-off-steve-and-fury’ expression and snorted: “twenty dollars you can’t do it under thirty minutes.”
“sam, don’t encourage her.” bucky commented while wanda laughed softly, knowing the type of person you were; you already made up your mind.
the smile that lit your face at sam’s challenge, blossomed into something dangerously beautiful. “fifty says i’ll do it under twelve.”
bucky and wanda shook their heads at the bet between the both of you. anways, it wasn’t so much for a bet. they knew at the end of the day, sam was going to be fifty dollars short.
after shaking sam’s hand, you got right to it. you knew you could hack easily, but you wanted to see what the fbi was all about. it wasn’t often someone betted you to hack into it. and if steve and fury somehow caught wind of this, well you’ll blame it on sam and his bet. easy as that.
meanwhile at the behavioral analysis unit, technical analyst penelope garcia stared at her computer with shock and awed. she sat there frozen as alarm rang loudly through her lair, informing that somehow someone had successfully hacked into the fbi.
which was highly impossible, because it was the fbi. their system was great and ontop of that she had added her personal boobies-trapped and she made it impossible for anyone to break through.
and yet, somehow... someone... somewhere manage to do just that. break into her indestructible traps. and they did it with ease. as if it didn’t take her days to come up with the perfect system to protect the fbi database.
yet with all of those traps set up by the fbi and her, what terrified her wasn’t the fact they managed to hack but how they did it. their technique was so, for lack of better word: lazy, unhurried, fearless; if they weren’t afraid of being discovered or cared about the consequences. it showed confidence in their skills and knowledge; something tells her this wasn't their first time hacking into a government's database.
the absolute audacity this unsub had, didn’t give her any face to catch them. they didn’t give her time to start typing away, because after the first three minutes of her beautiful supposedly indestructible system detected something was wrong they were out. and the only thing that was left were nine words that had her jumping out of her chair and running towards her boss’s office with such urgency she ignored everything and everyone around her.
she ignored those who yelled out her name in confusion and worried, ignored the heavy foot steps that followed her as she stormed in her boss’s office because those nine words would forever haunt and mark her as a failure; you’re too slow, you don’t have anything I need.
unit chief ssa aaron hotchner was in the middle of a conversation with his colleague and long-time friend when penelope came bursting through the door; eyes wide opened, heavily panting, mouth closing and mouthing. the fear in her eyes had him jumping out of his chair towards her.
suddenly his office became packed with this team, questions were thrown as she tried to conjured enough courage and strength to inform them what went down. without warning, she opened her mouth and words come flying right out yet no-one, not even dr. spencer reid was able to caught a single word she had said.
stopping her rant, “penelope,” hotch yelled, his tone sharp and impatient. a tone he rarely ever uses with her. though it was rude, it made her stop. “breathe,” his tone was kinder, softer, coaxing her to take a second for herself.
she took it, took the second to take in a deep and long breath breaking exhaling it through her nose. with one look at her boss’s dark eyes, her own because teary with regret. “t-they... I-i don’t know.... I can’t find a single-... they were there then they weren’t.... sir, I--”
“penelope,” taking another deep breath. “sir, someone hacked into the system.”
silence; a heavy, dreadful, long silence followed right after her words.
his dark eyes glared at her, his brows furrowed with confused and anger: “what did you say?” hotch added in a tone of command, one that he often used with murders and unsub.... never with his team and especially never with her.
she did her best to meet his glare, but she couldn’t and there wasn’t possibly someone out there that would be able to meet the intensity of it. “someone hacked into the system and left a note,” her voice meek and afraid.
once again the room was silent; they stared at her at loss of words. who in the right mind would ever hack into the fbi? especially with someone like aaron hotchner.
answer: someone who was never met aaron hotchner, but will.