The silence on the other end of the call was deafening.

If I knew my sister – and trust me, I did – she had something to say about the bombshell I'd just dropped in her lap. Though I made myself keep packing, I felt my heart skipping beats as I waited for her to say something... anything, at this point.

"I'm sorry, you're what?" Aubrianna finally laughed in disbelief; on instinct I rolled my eyes in the direction of her voice. As I stuffed the last of my clothes into one suitcase I grabbed my phone off the bed and took it with me into the bathroom, snagging my next suitcase on the way.

"I'm moving to Virginia tomorrow," I repeated, and again my sister snorted in response. "Why is that funny to you?"

"Aria you've done some crazy shit before, but I mean... why the hell are you just dropping everything and moving three thousand miles?"

As much as I hated to admit when my sister made a good point, she did ask the one thing that'd been going through my mind over the last month. The nerves and anxiety I'd been pushing down came back to the surface and I took a shaking breath, focusing on trying to fit my hair dryer into my nearly-full suitcase instead of the panic threatening to overwhelm me. Again.

"I was offered a position with the BAU. That doesn't -"

"With the what?"

"I - it's the BAU. Behavioral Analysis Unit. I already told you that."

"I thought you said it was the FBI –"

"It is the FBI. It's just a division of it, Aubri. I told you this last week -

"Yeah, I know, I know," she huffed; I could feel her eyeroll from Colorado. "I just – I don't get why this is so sudden. You're in school for psychology and you're dropping everything to join the FBI –"

"Job offers like this don't just happen. Like, even after graduating I wouldn't just get handed a position."

"And that's not setting off any alarms?" she pointed out; again my stomach turned with my unease and I sat the phone on the counter, leaning over the sink to stare at myself as a wave of panic crashed through me.

I could see how wound up I was. I hadn't slept in over 24 hours – hardly at all the last month – and it was beginning to catch up with me. It felt like I'd been holding my breath the last thirty days, only catching it briefly as snippets of the unbelievable truth popped up: the plane ticket confirmation, the hotel reservation, even my transfer from the University of Washington to University of Virginia had been taken care of. Almost immediately, though, I'd go back to waiting for the other shoe to drop with bated breath.

I was wound so tight, trying to hold myself and all my anxiety together that I was about ready to snap in half.

Aubrianna had been pretty pissed when I'd called her late last night to fill her in, especially when she found out I'd known for a month. Honestly, I hadn't said anything to her until now because I'd been expecting everything to fall through. With the flight in just a few hours, though, it seemed like everything was aligned to put me in Quantico tomorrow. Jason Gideon was certainly a man of his word.

"It's not," I told her, keeping the worry out of my voice as I tried to convince both her and myself that was true. Finally I put myself back to packing, trying to keep myself busy. Idle hands are the devil's workshop, I could practically hear my mom quipping at me. It was force of habit to keep myself occupied and right now I was thankful for that annoying phrase being ingrained into me.

"So some guy says he's with the FBI, and tells you he'll give you some dream job with this elite group if you uproot your entire life... you're the super smart mind college kid and you're telling me this all checks out?"

"He's not just some guy, Aubri. It's SSA Jason Gideon," I deflected, ignoring the second half of her question as I wrangled the last of my bathroom essentials into the overfilled suitcase. "He's like, forerunner of the BAU. He basically created the team. My school bent over backwards to get him to speak for just an hour. The auditorium was standing room only. He's a legend."

"And out of all the other wannabe FBI trainees in that packed room, he singled you out," she pressed; I barely stifled a sigh.

"It's not like he just closed his eyes, pointed a finger, and picked me out of the blue," I told her, beginning the serious fight of trying to get the damn suitcase shut. Aubrianna huffed and asked pointedly,

"Okay, then how did he end up picking you?"

"Now," Agent Gideon said, pressing his fingers together as he turned to face the group behind him. "Can anyone tell me why my team immediately dismissed the victim's husband as a suspect?"

The room exploded with hands eager to impress the legendary profiler in front of us. As they began to throw out their theories, I leaned closer to study the pictures. After a few moments, I put my hand up. After a minute or so of shooting down the incorrect answers being thrown out, Agent Gideon pointed to me and I sat up a little straighter.

"Could you tell us the date the murder took place?"

He quirked a smile, intrigued by my question, and nodded.

"April 11th, 2003."

With a quick nod, I dove back into my laptop, typing furiously. A-ha! Waxing gibbous; my own theory checked out. My hand shot back up so fast I actually winced at the pain in my shoulder. I was the only hand going up at this point; instantly Agent Gideon turned and pointed at me again.

"I take it by that look you're pretty confident in your answer."

"Yes sir," I promised. "The husband wasn't considered a suspect because his clothes were mostly dry, and the eye witness testimonies wouldn't be credible."

Agent Gideon's expression fell from amused to curious in a heartbeat. He blinked twice and a slow smile curled over his lips. He turned and made his way towards me, eyes sparking with an excitement that sent my heart racing even faster than before.

"You're absolutely right," he said, surprise clear in his voice. "How on earth did you come to that conclusion?"

All eyes were on me now, and I shrunk just a hint in my seat as I rattled off my explanation.

"Well, the photos of the husband being arrested by local police show his hair and clothes are dry, but it was raining that night. There was fresh mud at the door and then evidence someone left through the bedroom window. That means the husband would've had to leave through the window and then run around to the front of the house and come inside – he would've been muddy and soaked. His shirt was hardly wet, and there was almost no mud on his shoes. It's much more likely that someone entered at the front door and then left from the bedroom window. That, and when you take into consideration the moon was in waxing gibbous that night, there's no way it would've been bright enough for witnesses to see details of who left the window. They wouldn't be credible."

The room was painfully silent; Agent Gideon hadn't moved since the moment I started talking. Once I'd finished, though, the smile on his face morphed into a wide grin.

"What's your name?"

"I - it's Aria. Aria DiMaggio."

"Miss DiMaggio, thank you for that excellent insight."

Though Agent Gideon quickly moved on to finish the walkthrough he was presenting, I couldn't focus. My mind was racing; he'd looked genuinely impressed. Agent Jason Gideon was impressed with me. I didn't pay attention to the rest of the presentation, feeling like I was on a whole 'nother plane of existence as we were dismissed from the assembly.

"Miss DiMaggio," Agent Gideon called from behind a wall of students. I paused and turned instantly, genuinely surprised he'd singled me out again. "Would you mind waiting? I'd like to have a word with you."

With a curt nod, I parked myself on one of the risers and settled in to wait. Almost half an hour passed before the lingering students were ushered out of the auditorium. I stood as Agent Gideon approached me and offered a nervous smile.

"I'm starving," he told me, rubbing hand hands together and motioning for me to follow him out of the auditorium. "Do you know any good diners around here?"

"So in short, Miss DiMaggio, you're working on your degree in psychology?" Gideon mused, taking a thoughtful sip of his milkshake.

"Yes, basically. Along with forensic meteorology as a double-major," I confirmed, taking another bite of my chicken. "And please, call me Aria."

"Aria," he continued, tapping a finger on the side of the glass. "I'll admit you're not the first to get the answer right. Others have pieced it together, some look it up trying to be clever, but you're the first I've had that made mention of the waxing gibbous."

"It, uh, it's honestly just a habit," I admitted, shrugging my shoulders and trying to keep my voice from shaking. Even after eating and chatting I was still so nervous I could hardly hold still. "My skillset doesn't really come into play with most forensic things but I always check the weather and the skies. They hold a lot of answers people don't think about."

"No one thinks of the moon," he agreed thoughtfully, smile quirking at me again. I quirked one back as I turned to look up at him.

"I do."

He chuckled to himself, and we both fell into compatible silence as we focused on our meals. Only after I'd taken my last bite – and all his milkshake was finished up – did he turn to look at me again.

"Why are you on this career path?"

I propped my chin in my hand to give his question a few moments of thought. And, y'know, to try and compose myself and push the jitters aside.

"When I graduated, I had no idea what I wanted to do. My mom and dad each had a career path laid out for me and I just... It didn't fit with what I wanted. Their desires didn't match mine at all and I needed a fresh start. So I figured: this is my life, not theirs. I need to do what I want."

"Good for you," he said, genuine smile warming me to my core. It was still a sore spot in my heart – and my relationship with my parents. I'd always been rebellious with them but ignoring what they wanted me to study had been a real blow to them.

"I've known for a while that I wanted to pursue behavioral analysis, but more importantly I wanted to help people. I wanted to give people the support they needed to make the same decisions I was. I wanted to be that shining light in someone's darkest moments. So I picked psychology to start with. Parents both hated that, they think it's pseudoscience."

"And what do you think?" he asked, though from the smile teasing over his lips I knew he could read my answer. He tossed a few bills on the table – more than enough to cover our meals – and led the way out of the diner.

A true grin came over my face. "I love it. With my whole heart. Every day, I know this is what I'm meant to do. And the further I got into psychology the more I could start getting into the behavioral analysis side of things. Profiling and psychology go pretty hand-in-hand and, turns out, I've already taken most of the basic classes I needed for criminal psychology and behavioral analysis so I just jumped on that train whole-haul and I haven't looked back since."

"What made you pursue forensic meteorology, exactly?" Gideon mused, both of us shivering down into our jackets. Even though the rain had taken a break, the Seattle summer night still carried a chill. "In all my years in this job, I've only met one other person in that field."

"My big brother. Jude," I said, nostalgic smile coming over my face. "He got me hooked on everything up there. Weather, clouds, stars, planets... Jude's passion infected me. One of my professors brought up forensic meteorology. I was already minoring in atmospheric science, and most of my classes overlapped for the major so I just went for it."

"Your brother sounds like a great person," he commented; my heart tightened a bit and I nodded in agreement.

"He was."

Understanding washed over Gideon's face; it made sense to him now, and I was glad I didn't need to elaborate. We both stayed silent on the stroll. We found a relatively dry bench at the edge of campus and settled down, watching the students mill around us. After a while, once twilight was beginning to fade, he turned to me with a curious expression swimming in his dark eyes.

"Do you have family here in Seattle?"

"No. My parents, sister, and her kids are in Colorado."

"What about grandparents? Aunts? Uncles?"

"I've got an Uncle in Colorado, a grandpa in New York, and then my MiMi and Papa in Italy."

Gideon nodded slowly, and the smile on his face widened just a bit more.

"Have you ever been to Virginia, Aria? It's truly beautiful this time of year."

"No," I told him slowly, heart beginning to beat a little faster. I didn't need to be a profiler to piece together what he was getting at. There was just no way. No way he could –

"I think my team needs someone like you," he said point-blank. Though I'd been hoping for it, the surprise that sparked through me was still exhilarating. "Someone that thinks of the moon and puts her trust in herself, no matter the cost. I want to bring you to Quantico as an intern to the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI."

Thankfully, Gideon let me have my few moments of shocked silence. I stared up at him in an absolute daze, unable to really believe I'd just heard what I had. Finally, the words in my heart made their way up to my brain and I spluttered out,

"You – you're not serious." When he nodded eagerly, everything short-circuited again. "I don't – how can – you can't just offer me a position like that. Can you?" Again he simply nodded, eying me with a bemused smile. "Why? Why me?"

"It's not often that I come across someone that resonates with me as much as you do. In fact, I've had this feeling about other things, other people. And the few times I ignored it, I regretted it. The few times I followed the feeling, it's turned out to be some of the best decisions in my life. It would be a mistake to go back to Quantico without trying to bring you with me."

I still couldn't muster a literate answer. Instead, I just stared blankly up at one of my idols – who had just offered me the job I'd been pursuing since I was ten – convinced this was the most realistic dream I'd ever had.

"What do you say, Aria?"

"Yes," I breathed, before my brain even knew what I was saying. Gideon grinned and held out his hand to me.

"Welcome to the BAU."

Aubrianna was quiet; I could practically feel her wheels turning. I busied myself with the ongoing fight with my suitcase zipper, cursing under my breath until she finally asked,

"You resonate?"

"Really?" I huffed, finally slumping against the bathroom counter the moment I got the zipper pulled all the way around. "That's what you took away from all of that? Aubrianna I'm being serious here –"

"I know, I know," she said quickly, cutting me off before I could launch into a rant. "Look. You're good at what you're passionate about. And I'm not saying that you don't deserve a break like this. I just – I worry. It's hard enough having you in Seattle. Now you're going off to Virginia all by yourself with a stranger and –"

"Hey, hey, I know you're worried," I cut in gently, smiling to myself as I hauled the suitcase out of the bedroom and depositing it beside the other one. "But I need you to trust me. I trust Agent Gideon, and I mean, he's already taken care of everything. He even left me a prepaid card to use for food and stuff during the trip."

My sister let out a heavy sigh so I added jokingly,

"I really doubt he'd go through what he has if he was just planning to kill me. Forensically it would've been a lot easier to off me at the park, or –"

"Aria that's not helping," she huffed, but before she could snap at me I heard crying start up in the background. "Shit. It's past the kids' bedtimes. Wyatt's fussy."

"Tell them Auntie Aria says hi and I love them," I requested, smile curling over my face as I flopped onto my bed, studying the ceiling as I heard my sister scoop up my nephew.

"Say hi to Auntie," she cooed; I heard a sniffly "hi Aunnie" and then more whimpering. "Okay. Look, I trust you. You know I do. If this is what you want then I know there's no stopping you. So… just try not to get killed or kidnapped or something and call me when you get to Virginia."

Despite the buzzing nerves and uneasiness, the panic in my chest eased up just a hint as tears stung my eyes. Knowing that at least my sister would be supportive made me feel better; I had someone in my corner.

"Thanks Aub-stopper," I teased, wiping the tears away that had spilled over. She groaned at the childhood nickname. "Love you."

"Love you too, goober. Get some sleep."

As we hung up and the silence of the night settled around me, the small comfort Aubrianna had given me was already at war with the rest of my emotions. Again.

Was this a stupid idea?

Was I making a mistake, moving cross-country on a handful of uncertainties? What if this was just a pipe dream? What if I didn't really have a job waiting for me? It was just an internship, after all. What if I wasn't a good fit? Was I willing to be almost 3,000 miles from my family – further than I already was – without anything solid to go off of?

I grabbed my phone and flipped it open, then pulled up my contacts. Jason Gideon stared back at me as my thumb came to rest on the 'call' button. This was insane. I was uprooting my life on a whim. I was throwing away all I knew in the chance that this was the break I'd been looking for. In the hopes that somehow this wasn't all a dream and for once, a good thing was actually happening to me – no strings attached.

All the reason to do it.

It had been five years since the last time I spoke to Jude and I could still hear his voice crystal-clear in my head. Even now I could picture him with me packing my bags, more excited than I'd be. This is the chance of a lifetime, Aria! What the hell else do you have to do, huh?

The smile crept back onto my face; I snapped my phone shut. Maybe this was a mistake, sure. This was definitely crazy, but like my big brother always said, what was life without a little chaos?

There are a few things to keep in mind as you read and as the story progresses:

-I try to follow the episodes accurately but, for the sake of including Aria, some interactions and situations have been adjusted accordingly. It's not gonna be an exact copy of CM. I've mapped out Aria's storyline all the way from S3 to S14 (working on S15 as we speak) so believe me when I tell you this has had a lot of thought go into it to make it as close to CM as possible without being an exact copy.

-Though I do follow most of the scripting for the show, I cut a lot out that isn't relevant to Aria or my own story arc. I'm not out to transcribe the show so some moments may be left out or skipped over for the sake of chapters not being 50k words. If somethings confusing, I recommend watching the episode it's based off of first to see if that helps with the progression.

-If y'all have never tried to write a CM fic, let me tell you that it's a pain trying to follow the 'timeline' of a season. I do my best by basing the date off the air date of that episode. If a date's mentioned in the episode (or one near it) I try to play off that as well. Just keep in mind that some things might not match up with the show because, chronologically speaking, time is made up and dates don't matter in the CM universe so I did my best to patch it together.

-Some major story arcs have been changed (namely the Maeve and Savannah storylines) to accommodate my own storyline for Aria and other OC's into the show. Many themes have remained the same but events are shifted, people are replaced, and a few things have been omitted completely. I've replaced them with my own story arc, but if that's a sensitive point and something that might bother you, just a heads up.

-The situation with Aria and her ex is based off some (not all) of my own experiences with my own ex. I actually started writing it out per my therapist as a way to work through what I went through, and as it became a full-fledged thing I worked it into Aria's storyline as well. It may be triggering for some readers (tags are listed for warnings) and I'll be sure to list the warnings in the beginning of the applicable chapters.

Thanks so much for reading all this. I hope you truly enjoy this story, and please feel free to reach out to me with any questions, comments, requests, or complaints.