I do not own Criminal Minds, I only borrowed Derek and Spencer to play with Sophia for a while. She was lonely.


Derek sprang up and out of bed on high alert. Quickly grabbing his gun from the nightstand, he made his way down the hall from his bedroom to the sound of the scream. He made his way down to the room, and peered inside. What he saw took his breath away.

There in the very pink and frilly canopy bed was a tall, pale skinny man with a small girl wrapped in his arms crying softly. Spencer looked up at Derek, making eye contact. He motioned for Derek to be quiet and to stay by the door. Derek wanted nothing more than to go scoop up his daughter and husband and hold them tight, but he didn't. He trusted Spencer.

"Vavoy?" a little voice asked. Derek smiled; of course she would choose to call Spencer the Klingon word for daddy. He remembers their first day with her.


5 months earlier

"So, I have two daddies now?" the girl asked, still somewhat hiding behind her social worker.

"Yes, Sophia you do" Derek responded, dropping to one knee so he was at her level.

"So, what do I call you? Daddy 1 and Daddy 2? That's what Dr. Seuss did when he had two things. He called them Thing 1 and Thing 2. Did you know that Dr. Seuss isn't really his name, he made it up! He wasn't even a doctor, not even a paper doctor like you" Sophia said pointing at Spencer. She was getting excited and stepped out from behind her social worker.

Now Spencer dropped to her level right next to his husband with the biggest smile on his face, "Well you are correct, Dr. Seuss's real name was Theodore Geisel, and yes he wasn't a doctor. You are very smart, did you know that Sophia?"

Sophia shied a little from the compliment, "No, I just like to read. Reading is perfect."

Derek knelt in awe at how much this six year-old really was the perfect fit for them. She was absolutely made for them, as they were for her.

"Yes, reading is wonderful" Spencer agreed.

Sophia switched back to the names once more, "So, I like Thing 1 and Thing 2 but you guys aren't Things, your people, and people aren't Things."

Now it was Derek's turn to speak up, "You are right again Baby Girl." Sophia giggled at the nickname. "Why don't we come up with special name for me and Spencer?"

"Spencer and I" both Sophia and Spencer corrected. Causing Sophia to giggle again.

"Oh, boy. Not you to my little Pia" Derek said with a smile. Sophia smiled even brighter and Spencer was all smiles as well.

"Ok, so I have my name Sophia, and nicknames you guys can call me. Now you guys have names Spencer and Derek and now I need nicknames to call you." Sophia reasoned. "Like I can call Derek daddy or dad cause his name starts with the letter D. But I'm stuck in Spencer cause what do I do with the letter?"

"Well, does it need to be the letter S? I know many ways to say dad. We can say it in Yiddish, French, German, Greek, Chinese, Korean, Swahili, Hawaiian, even Klingon." Spencer responded. Derek had to smile at Klingon; his Pretty Boy really was a nerd, not just a genius.

"Klingon? You speak Klingon?" Sophia was almost screaming with excitement.

"Yes, I do. Did you know the word for daddy is vavoy?" Spencer responded, the smile on his face could not grow any larger.

"Vavoy, vavoy, vavoy! I will call you vavoy." Sophia announced.


Derek smiled at the memory. His little Pia had really wormed her way into their hearts and lives. She was their angel, their life now, and it physically hurt to hear her voice so weak like he just had.

"Vavoy?" the soft and weak voice called out again.

"Yes, pumpkin." Spencer softly responded.

"That wasn't real right?"

"No, honey. It was just a dream. Do you remember what I said about dreams?" Spencer asked, still using his soft and gentle voice.

Sophia nodded against his chest, "Dreams say what they mean, but they don't say it in daytime language."

"And do you remember what Godwin meant by that?" Spencer prompted.

"That dreams are our minds thinking, but sometimes we can think it's scary because our minds don't know how to say what they want any other way." Sophia said raising her head from the comfort of Spencer's chest.

"Very good, now let's figure out what your beautiful and brilliant mind wants to tell us." Spencer said, "Do you remember what happened in your dream?"

"I saw my mommy" Sophia began. Derek's heart ached, at hearing that weak and hurt voice yet again. "She was in hell. The fire was all around her, and I couldn't help. I was stuck. Why would they put her in hell? Why?" New tears began streaming down her face, "Why?" She asked once more.

"Oh Pia, look at me. Do you think your mom is in hell?" Spencer said in a soft but serious voice.

"No… but she was."

"No pumpkin that was a dream. Remember dreams sometimes don't speak our langue so we have to think about them a little harder. You understand right?"

Sophia nodded, "So Mommy's not in hell?" Spencer shook his head. Sophia continued, "Well then where is she? She's not here and she's not in hell."

"Sophia, you are a smart little girl. Where do you think she is?" Spencer prompted.

"Heaven" her voice barely above a whisper answered.

"That's correct. Your mom is in heaven right this minute." Spencer smiled down at his daughter.

"But how do you know? I can't see her there. If you can't see her there, you don't know either!" Sophia yelled.

Now Derek stepped in, "Baby girl, I know you're sad but we don't yell at people, ok?"

Sophia nodded, then turned to Spencer, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright; I know you didn't mean it. Now why don't I show you that I'm right?" Spencer turned to Derek, "Can you go get us three cookies from the kitchen, Der?"

"Of course, hold on." Derek ran out of the room and returned with three chocolate chip cookies Garcia had made them yesterday.

Spencer took one cookie, "Sophia look at this cookie. You see it right?" She nodded, and he ate the cookie. After he swallowed he continued, "So now I ate the cookie. Where is it?" Sophia looked at Spencer funny, "Where is the cookie, pumpkin?" he asked again.

"Um in your tummy." Sophia said more as a question than an answer.

"How do you know?" Spencer questioned. Derek smiled. He understood where Spencer was going with this.

Sophia looked a little confused but answered, "When you eat something it goes down to your stomach."

Spencer smiled. "But how do you know, you can't see the cookie inside my stomach."

"But it's there; it has nowhere else to go. Just cause I can't see it in your stomach doesn't mean I don't know it's not there." Sophia was getting a little worked up.

"Exactly. Just like you can't see the cookie in my stomach, I can't see your mom in heaven, but you know the cookie is there, just like I know your mom is in heaven."

Sophia smiled, "I know she's there too."

Tears began falling from her eyes again, Derek spoke up this time, "Hey Pia, come on I think there's a cookie here for you." Derek held out the cookie. She ate her cookie as Derek ate his.

"Alright, it's late. Gotta get you back to bed." Derek said.

"Can I sleep with you guys, Daddy? I want to cuddle."

"Of course, come on. I know that I can't sleep unless I cuddle vavoy." Derek smiled picking his daughter up into his arms, while Spencer blushed.

"Vavoy is the best cuddler in the whole wide world!" Sophia announced. Derek smiled, he never thought his life would end up like this, snuggled in bed with his best friend and the cutest little girl, but he wouldn't trade it for the world.


"Dreams say what they mean, but they don't say it in daytime language" Is a quote from Gail Godwin, an American writer that I absolutly love. Please go read her stuff, she is awesome!