I do not own any rights to CBS or Criminal Minds, I am just a fan, writing fiction.

Also, (and I am so so sorry for this) This story is severely in progress, so I will probably continue to change things big and small in past & future chapters, like I am about to with this chapter right now :(

I sat in the passenger seat of the car of my teacher, Ms. Oakland. My leg bouncing I thought, why didn't Aunt Annie pick me up, please don't let it be the arthritis. She'd had it in her back as long as I can remember, but it had never been too bad, Annie was always the most reliable one in the family; That's why mom named her my legal guardian when she died last year from skin cancer. Though lately, Annie's back was getting worse, the other day she could barely get out of bed, and now she didn't show up at school to pick me up.

"We're here," Ms. Oakland pulled me out of my worried trance, "is it alright if I come in with you, I just want to make sure everything is okay."

I nodded, we got out of the car and walked up to the door; I pulled my key out of my bag and slipped it in the keyhole. When I opened the door I froze. There was Aunt Annie lying at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh, Jessie, I'm so sorry," Aunt Annie looked so upset in her hospital bed.

"It's not your fault, you slipped on the stairs and got a concussion."

"Because of the-"

"The arthritis isn't your fault either," I told her.

She sighed, "I know, I know, but now who is going to take care of you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Jessica, I'm your great aunt, who now is going to need assisted living; the state won't let me keep you."

"But there's no one else," I said, "everyone in our family is either too poor, crazy, or a junkie."

"I know."

A few days later we met with my case worker, Claire.

"Okay, so Jessica, what can you tell me about your dad?" She seemed like she hadn't even read my file. How many times would I have to go over this.

I kept calm, even though I was annoyed, "Not much, he left me and my mom when I was six," I knew that sentence like it was a script, "he was a lawyer, he and my mom met when she was waitressing in Las Vegas."

"Well, what is his first name?"

"William."

She started typing into her computer, "Okay, and how do you spell your last name again?"

"R–e–i–d."