"as soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen"
[Winnie the Pooh]

If there was one thing Jodi McCoy knew how to do, it was cram.

More specifically, take tasks that would normally take an hour, like getting ready in the morning, and fit all of it into a maximum of twenty minutes.

It was how she had managed to survive the american foster system as a child (it came in handy when she forgot to do chores), it was how she made it through high school as an immigrant teenager with a Scottish accent so thick no one could properly understand her because she was brought over from Scotland by her foster parents, and it was how she made it through the required standard training to get into the FBI.

Completing an invincible tasks was her specialty.

Which was exactly why Jodi was so comfortable with waking up forty minutes before having to officially be at the office for her first day on the Behavioral Analysis Unit, even after factoring the bus timing in.

So, while she hummed quietly to herself under her breath, Jodi all but danced off the bus, her black Dr Martens landing in a puddle the moment they hit the ground. With only a slight waver in her balance, she continued on towards the front door of the building. Her cross-body bag swung back and forth from where it was draped diagonally over the green blouse she had chosen to tuck into a black pencil skirt that ended a few inches above her ankles.

Jodi tapped her fingers lightly against her thigh, smiling sweetly at the woman in front of her as she was handed her badge and gun for the very first time. "Thank you very much," she beamed.

The woman in front of her just nodded and told her which floor she was meant to arrive at, and then which office she was to report to.

Nodding once, Jodi continued humming softly to herself as she moved over to the waiting area seats and gracefully unlaced her boots and quickly switched them for a nice pair of much nicer, newer boots of a similar make. Then once she'd tucked her well worn boots back into her bag on top of two changes of clothes (she'd been advised to have a grab-n-go bag ready as soon as possible) she stood up and hummed her way over to the elevator.

"Kiss me extra tender," she murmured to herself, swaying slightly in place as she pressed the correct button on the wall. Then she moved to the center of the box. "Hold me extra tight, 'cause I'm savin' your sweetness for a special night."

With her heart hammering in her chest with nerves, Jodi tried her best to focus on the lazy guitar rhythm playing in her head. She kept her eyes closed, changing to silently mouthing the words until the doors opened in front of her.

The open floor plan in front of her was a maze of folder-covered desks and rolling chairs, each giving unintentional information about the person who they belonged to. But she paid no mind to that just yet, only smiling at those around her in order to save her judgment for their personalities, rather than their living space.

She switched back to humming softly out loud as she walked across the carpeted floor, knowing that the three agents within the same desk unit would more than likely be on the team she was joining, since they hadn't stopped watching her since the elevator doors opened.

The person closest to her was a blonde women with the physique of a soccer player and with a pageant girl smile. She was on the taller side, even though Jodi knew she was still much taller as she stood at 5'11.

The dark skinned man behind her was all muscle, and was dressed the most casually out of the three, in just a plain green tee-shirt and dark pants. He had dark hair cropped close to his scalp, and looked to be roughly the same height as herself in the heels she was wearing. Even though he had a serious expression on, she could easily see the joker behind it.

The final person was also male, though he was clearly the youngest. Dressed like a wannabe college professor, he was roughly the same height as the other man but more than likely half his weight. His straight sandy blonde hair was tucked behind his ears in the most adorable geeky fashion she'd ever see in her life.

What kind of genes did I miss out on in Scotland, Jesus, she thought to herself.

But wanting to keep her composure and refrain from collapsing into a puddle of nerves, Jodi just offered the three a trio of tiny smiles before carefully making her way up the staircase to Agent Gideon's office, where she'd been told to check in at.

The door was open, and as she finished mouthing the words to Elvis Presley's Pocketful of Rainbows, she smoothed down the front of her skirt, internally frowning at the feeling of one hard leg vs one normal, she knocked twice on the frame next to her head. "Agent Gideon?" She asked politely, poking her head inside.

The balding light-haired middle aged man at the desk on the far right looked up at the sound of her voice, and nodded. "You must be Agent McCoy?" He guessed accurately, standing up with one arm fixing his suit jacket while the other extended itself to her as she stepped into the room.

"That would be me," she smiled, lightly shaking his hand. "You can call me Jodi, though, if you'd like."

"I'll keep that in mind," he smiled kindly. Then he gestured to the chair to her left. "Please, sit."

She did as instructed, bag resting on her lap while still hanging over her shoulders. "So, I'm going to take a wild stab and say you have some questions you want to ask me?" She questioned, the corners of her lips twitching into a brief smile.

"Just a few general ones, yes," he nodded. "So I can confirm a few things." He pulled a file out of a desk drawer and opened it. "You transferred from...the child crimes unit; why?"

Jodi maintained her composure, but cringed at the memory of the last case she'd worked. "I'm sure you've seen a lot of horrifying things, Agent Gideon. I have as well, and I can handle that...but I'm tired of staring at the bodies of bloodied and beaten children, and children being sold for something they shouldn't even understand yet."

"I can understand that," Gideon nodded softly. He flipped to another page in the file. "And you studied psychology and criminology at Harvard?"

"PhD's in both, and a bachelors in forensic sciences, sociology, and religion studies," Jodi nodded, grinning slightly to herself. She was still tapping the beat of Pocketful of Rainbows against  her thigh. "I spent a lot of time on cartography for fun when I was a teenager, as well."

"Well, you will definitely be an asset to our team," Gideon hummed. He flipped open to another page. "So it says here, that your father is—"

"—I don't talk about that or him," Jodi interrupted him firmly, the words leaving her mouth before she could catch herself. She immediately covered her mouth with both hands, cringing. "Sorry. I mean to say that I haven't had any kind of communication with him since the...since the incident listed in my file. I go for a psych-eval every six months with a Bureau assigned psychologist, and they check for signs of anything related to my PTSD as well as for schizophrenia, and so far there have been none. I assure you, Agent Gideon," she finished with the smallest of smiles. "I have my previously crappy mental state well in hand."

"I'll be checking in with you around the times of the psych evaluations, but other than that—" He closed the file and slid it back into his desk "—Is there anything you want to share with me before I take you out to meet the team?"

Jodi shifted nervously in her seat, the tempo of her taps increasing. "I'm not sure if it's included in my file, it should be...but my right leg is a prosthetic from just above the knee and down. It has been since I was 13, and I've been through all the necessary physical and mental therapy for it, and am capable of running short distances on relatively flat terrain, but the point is that I have a handle on it."

"Sounds good," Gideon nodded slowly. "All I ask is if there is a situation where you need to run, check in with a doctor to ensure everything is okay."

"Sounds good," she nodded, pursing her lips dramatically so she somewhat resembled a duck. "I can work with that, I guess. Will I have an assigned partner?"

"We all work as a collective team," Gideon shook his head lightly as he stood up. Jodi took it as a cue to stand as well. "But I'm debating on assigning you to Doctor Reid, now that I know about your leg. He's not overly handy with a gun, which reports state you clearly are. The two of you can look out for each other...I hope I'm not overstepping by suggesting it."

Grinning as she followed him out of the office and back out to the main floor, Jodi nodded her head and tucked her ginger hair behind her ears. "That sounds good to me...I'm honestly just glad you didn't decide to kick me out of here immediately."

"As long as you can do your job, I don't see why I should have to."

"One last question, Agent Gideon; am I allowed to wear my boots? I put heels on in case it was uniform, but with my leg it's easier—"

"—wear what's comfortable for you," he assured her. "As long as it's formal wear we couldn't care less."

She beamed at him and switched her shoes again.

A blonde woman had joined the two — the College Professor had disappeared — she was heavier set than the other blonde woman with purple glasses and wild colours streaked in both her hair and clothes, dimpled cheeks pulled into an excited smile.

"Agent Jodi McCoy, this is the Behavioral Analysis Unit; Agent Derek Morgan—" The dark skinned man offered her a polite smile and nod as he shifted his weight from one leg to another "—our Liaison, Agent Jennifer Jareau—" the soccer player girl shook her hand and smiled sweetly while murmuring a just call me JJ "—Tech Analyst Penelope Garcia—"

"—I'm loving the boots," the other blonde girl beamed. "Where'd you get 'em?"

"Online, where else?" Jodi grinned back at her. "You know, G, there's some supernatural force that's telling me we're going to get along great." She shot the girl a wink, letting out a soft laugh when she returned the favor.

"You know there's no actual supernatural kind of anything behind friendships," a factual male voice spoke up from behind her, and Jodi turned to face it. "It's probably just a powerful cocktail of Oxycontin, dopamine, and serotonin from the compliment she gave you about your boots."

Jodi smiled at the now slightly awkward expression of the nerdy boy she'd seen earlier, watching as he stopped next to Agent Morgan, who immediately reached over and gave his head a light shove forwards in a manor she noted to be brotherly.

Agent Gideon was already rolling his eyes, though there was a slight fondness to the action. "That would be Doctor Spencer Reid."

Jodi extended a hand to him, and he stared at it for a brief moment, looking almost uncomfortable.

"He doesn't do handshakes," Morgan explained with a small chuckle, folding his arms over his chest.

Jodi allowed her hand to fall, though she kept the smile on her face. So he's a germophobe...I'll keep that in mind.

"The number of germs spread in a handshake is so high it's actually safer to kiss," Doctor Reid hummed, then flushed a bright pink after realizing exactly what he'd said. "Not that I'm implying that I — no, I'm not saying that I want to—" he cut himself off, pulling the corners of his lips in awkwardly. "I'm going to stop now."

She laughed softly and tucked her hair behind one ear, trying no to laugh in order to refrain from burying him with more embarrassment. "That's cool, is there anything you do instead?" She asked curiously, briefly shifting her weight from her left leg to her right in order to adjust the way she was standing. She could tell they'd all picked up on it. "High Fives? Elbow bumps? Fist bumps? Morse code with your eyes?"

"I can do elbow bumps," Doctor Reid nodded slowly.

Grinning proudly to herself, Jodi ignored the surprised looks — she guessed most people were offended by his brutal honesty — and just extended her elbow out to him, and chuckled again when he awkwardly bumped it with his own. "Sweet," she beamed at him.

"I may be assigning her as your official partner, Reid," Gideon hummed, expression brutally calculating. "Let you take care of each other out in the field."

"You're a crap shot, too?" Morgan guessed jokingly, but she could see the look of mild offense on Doctor Reid's face.

"Nope," she chuckled, pointing her right leg out. "I just can't run. This baby—" she pulled up the ankle of her skirt slightly so that even through the nylon, the metal that had been shaped to look like a normal right leg was visible "—got me a lifelong excuse to not play dodge ball in high school PE."

Each of them looked surprised, but quickly masked it and chuckled at her.

"I take it you also hated PE?" JJ guessed, smiling slightly up at her. "You and Spencer will get along great, then."

"We're glad you were able to get here so quickly," JJ hummed quietly. "We were assigned to a case only an hour ago and decided to wait for you and brief here instead of on the plane...he's been nicknamed the Boston Shrapnel Bomber."

A/N: what do you guys think of Jodi so far?

I'd also like to start this off by saying that I am not an amputee, and have no inside knowledge to what it's like to live as one. If any of you are, I'd love nothing more than for you to feel comfortable messaging me some information you feel comfortable sharing, and helping me shape Jodi's character to give her and people in a similar situation the proper representation they deserve.

Thank you for reading!

Hannah, the author.