Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of their characters.
Chapter 1"They were in Jackson Mississippi, clearing out an old school building looking for a suspect who'd been kidnapping elderly women from local care facilities. They'd identified him as Wilhelm Ecclestone, a former chemistry teacher. Reid and Prentiss had taken the science labs knowing Spencer would be more likely to find all the potential hiding spots and any environmental risks. Fortunately for her, Prentiss was across the room when Reid found the man in a supply closet and before he could stop him the elderly man flicked the stopper off a vial and shook the powder all over them both.
"Biohazard! Get out of here" Spencer yelled, trying to avoid breathing in the powder as he backed out of the cupboard keeping his gun trained on the unsub.
A moment later he collapsed with overwhelming pain throughout his body most intensely in his bones, and the unsub ran escaping further into the school building.
Aaron came towards him.
"Stay back. It was a powder, it's still all over my clothes and we don't know if it acts through the skin" Spencer gasped. "Catch the unsub."
"It isn't safe to go back in after him until we have hazmat suits" Emily pointed out.
Spencer dragged himself out into the air and Morgan turned the fire hose on him the force of the water sending him sprawling across the ground, gritting his teeth not to cry out from the pain and humiliation.
"The ambulance is on its way" JJ reported. "They're bringing the hazmat kit."
Spencer groaned remembering the scrub down he'd received when he'd been exposed to anthrax. He didn't feel up to going through that again. He already ached all over.
-o0o-
Because he was lying on the ground curled up in pain and his wet clothes were stuck to his skin instead of becoming baggy nobody not even Spencer noticed that he was actually slowly getting smaller.
Aaron sent the others to guard the other exits to the building hoping the unsub had collapsed inside seeing as he must also have been exposed to the powder. "Don't allow him to get close to you or to open any containers in your vicinity. Shoot to kill if you have to he's already attacked one of our own and we don't want to give him the opportunity to release this in the open.
"It might already be too late" Morgan said looking at the multiple broken windows in the dilapidated old building. "This place would be impossible to seal up."
"Did any of you see any chemical drums or containers during my search?" Hotch asked.
"No there was nothing like that" JJ said.
"Just what looked like general cleaning supplies, but any container could've been used to hide the chemicals" Morgan said.
"The vial he attacked Reid with was only about the size of a nail polish bottle. They might not need to be gallon drums" Emily reminded them worriedly. There were lots of glass containers in the chemistry room." They all recalled how much devastation the tiny vial of anthrax could have caused, and how lucky they'd been to be able to prevent a widespread bioterrorist act. The day in Annapolis haunted them all for more than one reason.
"Maybe we should evacuate the surrounding area" JJ suggested.
"The powder is fairly heavy it won't have the dispersal area of anthrax" Spencer said, concentrating on the conversation in the effort to ignore the pain. "The stuff didn't even reach Emily and she was only ten feet away. He isn't likely to be able to use it in a bioterrorist attack from here, he'd need to introduce it into the air-conditioning somewhere."
The team breathed a sigh of relief both at the information and that Reid was well enough to contribute to their conversation.
The Hazmat team arrived and set up containment and decontamination tents and the others moved away to give Spencer a semblance of privacy as he bravely subjected himself to being stripped and having the top two layers of his skin scrubbed off. Aaron desperately wanted to stay with him as he was decontaminated then transported to the nearest hospital but the risk of the unsub escaping with a potential biological weapon was too great a risk to national security. He made sure that the ambulance crew were aware not to give Spencer narcotic based pain relief and turned back to his job. He knew Spencer would understand and even want him to stay on the job but it was still one of the most difficult things he'd done in years.
The pain began to subside while Spencer was in the ambulance and he was insisting that he was fine to return to the field if they'd issue him a hazmat suit by the time they arrived at the hospital.
"You can be more help here allowing us to work out what you were exposed to so we can work out a counter to it if he does attack" The leader of the hazmat team said bluntly. "I know you want to be out with your team catching this guy but we need a back up plan in case he escapes.
"Well at least it's definitely not anthrax this time. My lungs are fine" Spencer said.
"You've had anthrax!" the ambulance officer exclaimed.
"Um yeah that's a national secret. I can't talk about it. It isn't like me to blurt out classified information like that" Spencer said horrified with himself.
"It might be information we needed to know" the hazmat team leader pointed out.
"I was treated by Dr Kimura. She'll have all the details. And the rest of my medical history too" Spencer replied.
"Pity we don't have time to call her in instead of taking you to the local hospital."
-o0o-
Unfortunately the abandoned school had been the target of vandalism and there were too many ways to get out of the building for the team to man them all in time. The unsub was able to get to his car and though Morgan gave chase trying to shoot out the tyers as the others hurried to their own vehicle they lost him. They called the station to put out a BOLO with the warning that he'd attacked one of their agents with a powder, and had Garcia try to find him on traffic camera's. The area was old though and the camera's hadn't been replaced since hurricane Katrina so unless the unsub was stupid enough to head straight for the nearest highway or shopping district their chances of catching him that way were low. A second hazmat team secured the building and with nothing else that needed doing urgently the team hurried to the hospital to check on their youngest member.
-o0o-
"Family of Spencer Reid" the doctor called.
"Yes", "That's us" the team said all standing up.
"Who's his next of kin?" The doctor said taken aback.
The team looked towards Hotch. "I hold his medical proxy" Hotch said stepping forwards.
"Ate you his parent or guardian?" The doctor asked.
"He's a twenty nine year old federal agent. He doesn't have or need a guardian" Hotch replied confused. "Why are you asking for a guardian?"
"Then we have a mistaken identity. The boy in there couldn't be older than fourteen or fifteen." The doctor replied.
"We're here for Supervisory Special Agent Dr Spencer Reid. He was brought in by ambulance following an attack by an unknown chemical an hour ago" Hotch said firmly. The team could see the strain of holding in his anger but to a stranger he would have appeared calm.
"That's him. The boy identified himself as Dr Spencer Reid of the FBI" the doctor admitted. "Perhaps you should come and talk to him yourself and get to the bottom of this. He appears in perfect health other than insisting he's so much older than he appears to be."
"Lead the way" Hotch said. "Wait here while I get to the bottom of this. JJ call Garcia and get her to send the hospital copies of Reid's ID and medical proxies."
"Hotch what's happening?" Spencer said as he saw his boss and lover enter the room. He forced himself to keep their interaction professional in front of the doctor.
"Spencer?" Aaron exclaimed in shock.
"Did you catch the unsub?" Spencer asked.
"What happened to you? Are you okay?" Aaron asked.
"The unsub Hotch? Did you catch him?" Spencer repeated.
"No he got away. Now answer my questions. Are you alright?" Aaron asked agitatedly.
"Apart from feeling like I have hairline fractures in every bone in my body I'm fine. The doctor said he couldn't find anything wrong with me but he's treating me like an unstable mental patient" Spencer complained.
"You look like a teenager" Aaron said stupidly.
"What do you mean I look like a teenager? Come on Hotch you're not making sense" Spencer said frustrated.
Aaron sighed unsure how to explain this. "Come with me" he said holding his arm out to help his lover out of bed. He led him into the bathroom and over to the mirror steadying him as he stumbled.
Spencer looked disbelievingly at their reflections.
Instead of the six foot one, twenty nine year old man he was used to seeing in the mirror there was a five foot nine teenager standing next to his worried looking lover.
"What on earth?" Spencer shakily reached out to tough his reflection. He recognised his younger self but had no idea how this could be real. The fact that the reflection moved smoothly as he did so and his hands encountered the cold surface of the mirror helped to convince him this couldn't be a prank.
"I look fifteen" he said blankly.
"Fifteen? Are you sure. I would have thought you would have been taller at fifteen" Hotch said.
"I'm sure" Spencer replied. "Eidetic memory means perfect recall of the way I looked at any given time in my life. I didn't exactly enjoy being fifteen the first time around" he added bitterly.
Aaron looked at Spencer fondly. "You're not alone this time Spencer. I'm here for you and the rest of the team will be as well. We'll get through it together."
Spencer turned and hugged the older man rising to his tip toes to plant a soft kiss on his lips.
Hotch froze.
"I know I know no public demonstrations of affection" Spencer said laughing misjudging his partner's reaction. "We're in the bathroom Aaron. Nobody's likely to come barging in here to catch us. They probably think you're helping me shower or something."
Hotch blushed from the memories of the two of them showering together in the past but felt deeply uncomfortable even nursing a slight erection in the presence of the teenaged Spencer and turned away hurriedly and left the room.
Spencer was confused for a moment until he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror and realised what must have happened. "Fuck" he swore uncharacteristically sinking to the floor and burying his face in his hands. "What's going to happen to us?"
He sat there until the rest of the team came looking for him. Hotch had explained to them what had happened but none of them had really believed him until they saw the distressed teenager for themselves.
"What the Hell?" Morgan shouted.
"Spence?" JJ asked falling to her knees beside the boy. "Are you alright?"
"If being deaged fourteen years can be considered to be alright then I'm just peachy" Spencer replied snarkily.
JJ didn't take offence knowing that Spencer only resorted to that level of sarcasm when he was trying to hide how upset he was. "Oh Spence" she said pulling him into her arms, hesitating just a moment when her hands touched the bare flesh of his back reminding her that he was in a hospital gown.
"Can one of you go to the motel and get him some dry clothes?" she asked.
"Derek and I will go" Emily said dragging her colleague out of the bathroom. She knew Reid would be mortified breaking down in front of either of them but next to Hotch JJ had the best chance of comforting him.
"It's going to be okay Spence" JJ said rocking him gently as he began to cry.
"How can it be okay? This is going to ruin everything" Spencer sobbed.
"No it won't Spence. You'll see. We'll get through this together and it could wear off in a day or two and this will all seem like a funny dream."
"And what if it doesn't?" Spencer asked refusing to be comforted by false hope. "We don't know anything about what he did to me let alone how to come up with a counter-reactant."
"Then you've got something nearly everyone secretly wishes for at some stage of their lives. A chance to do things over, to be a kid again and make different decisions" JJ said trying to get her 'little brother' to see the positive side of the situation.
"I never wished for that" Spencer replied. "I wished I could go back in time and save Elle and Gideon from themselves" 'and Tobias' Spencer added silently. "But I never wanted to be younger than I was."
No JJ realised, Spence probably spent most of his life wishing he was older than he was. He'd suffered most of his life from bullying and harassment due to his age.
-o0o-
Finally Hazmat had cleared the building and they were able to go back in. "There are several bodies of young women in the basement" one of them reported looking sick. "They've been dead at least a couple of days."
"Young women?" Morgan asked surprised.
"You think he's been trialling the chemical he used on Reid? That these could be our missing geriatrics?" Emily asked.
"At this stage anything's possible. They were found here in the unsub's hideout but we may have to use DNA to know for sure" Hotch said. "It's unlikely that fourteen young women could have gone missing in this area as well without us hearing about it. We'll act as if they are the women we've been looking for until we find out differently. If it is them hopefully their bodies will be able to reveal what has happened to them."
"And how they died" Rossi said.
"You think that his experiment killed them? Reid could be in trouble" Morgan exclaimed.
"We don't know that yet and even if they were killed by the experiment, Reid's in the hospital being monitored for side effects. These women weren't. I'm sure he'll be fine" Rossi said looking anxiously at Hotch.
"I'll call the hospital and tell them to keep a close eye on any new side effects developing" Morgan said pulling out his phone.
"Standing here speculating isn't going to get us any answers" Hotch said leading the way into the building and down to the basement.
"Those hazmat guys were lucky they were wearing breathing apparatus" Emily complained. "Some of these women have been dead for weeks."
"Most of them have had their throats' slit" Morgan said relieved.
"There are a lot more women here that we were expecting. Contact Garcia and get her to look for more women who've gone missing in the last two months. Don't restrict the victim's ages we already know he can change the age someone appears to be" Hotch ordered.
Emily was grateful to have to go upstairs to get phone reception.
"Is my baby genius all right?" Penelope asked.
"We're at the school, we've found more than a dozen bodies so can you expand your search to all missing women anywhere near here?" Emily said. "The doctor's couldn't find anything wrong with Reid other than being a teenager. He's a bit upset as you'd expect him to be. JJ's with him at the hospital, she said she'd call if he took a turn for the worse."
"So missing women within 100 miles. Do you have anything to narrow the parameters?" Garcia said beginning her search.
"Well we know he can manipulate the age of his victims, and I came up to call you after we found the first room of bodies so no include them all" Emily said.
"I'll send you the information as we get it. Garcia out" Penelope said.
Emily reluctantly returned to the basement crime scene. "There are fourteen bodies, all dissected in some fashion" Rossi reported.
"Dissected like cut up for easier handling and potential burial or like autopsied" Emily asked.
"He's removed all the internal organs, it looks almost surgical.
He could be looking into the effects of the deaging reaction." Hotch said thoughtfully. "I'll speak to the examiner about it. If this thing has an effect other than making Reid look younger then we need to know."
The M.E. arrived and they explained the deaging incident and that they thought these bodies might have been earlier experiments. "We'll need DNA identification on all of them and a list of any previous health problems and abnormalities" Hotch ordered. "Until we catch the unsub these bodies are the best chance at finding out how our agent has been affected."
"You mean to say someone has actually come up with a fountain of youth that honestly works?" the M.E. asked astonished.
"We don't know if it's permanent yet, or what the side effects might be. If these women have been subjected to the same chemicals as our agent then any information you can give us about their health immediately prior to death could be vastly helpful" Hotch replied.
"We'll get back to you on that as soon as we can" the M.E. promised. "With an agent affected not to mention fourteen victims this just became our top priority."
"Thank you" Hotch said sincerely. "We'll try not to pester you too much for information while you work."
-o0o-
Morgan dropped off Spencer's go bag and he immediately took it into the bathroom, emerging a few minutes later fully dressed with his pants legs rolled up so he didn't trip.
"You look like a kid dressed up in his father's clothes. You're going to have to buy some smaller stuff" Morgan said amused, snapping a picture.
"That could be a very bad idea if whatever did this suddenly wears off" Spencer replied. "Speaking of which I need to get some braces to hold my trousers up. I don't want to suddenly gain 40 pounds while wearing a belt tight enough to hold up these" he added gesturing to his pants with one hand making Morgan realise he was using his hands in his pockets to hold them up.
"You think it will wear off?" Morgan asked.
"More hope it will than expect it to" Spencer replied. "But if he had a product that could permanently and predictably deage a person ten years without killing them, it would be worth an absolute fortune. The beauty industry would have been swarming around making him all sorts of offers if there was even the slightest rumour of him developing something like this. He wouldn't be hanging around in an abandoned building attacking random FBI agents. And wouldn't he have used it himself before now if it was safe to use?"
"You have a point" Morgan agreed. "But what if he was still trying to iron out the kinks?"
"That's my worst nightmare. What if I never get older than this or if I keep getting younger?" Spencer asked.
He pushed the bell to call a nurse.
"Can I help you with something?" The nurse asked smiling at Morgan.
"You can bring me the paperwork to sign out" Spencer said bluntly.
"You haven't been cleared by the doctor" the nurse objected.
"Hence why I need the sign myself out against advice paperwork" Spencer said dryly. "The only reason the doctor wants to keep me is because he's curious, he said I'm in perfect health. I promise I'll come back if anything else happens."
"Hotch isn't going to be happy you're signing yourself out" Morgan reminded his friend.
"Hotch will live with it. There's nothing wrong with me" Spencer retorted. "Besides we're sharing a room, he can keep an eye on me."
Morgan winced. "You're sharing with me for the rest of the case Reid."
"Whose decision was that?" Spencer asked hurt.
"The team's decision. It isn't appropriate for you to share with Hotch like that. We didn't want to cause unnecessary stress" Morgan replied sympathetically. "I'll take you back to the motel."
"You'll take me to the station so I can get back to work" Spencer demanded.
"You can't go back to work looking like that" Morgan protested.
"What's wrong with the way I look? I'm appropriately dressed" Spencer asked.
"You look like a kid dressed up in his father's clothes, no I take that back his grandfather's clothes" Morgan said teasing to lighten the situation.
"Well I haven't actually been turned back into my fifteen year old self. I definitely have all my memories since I was fifteen and they are no less clear than before that age" Spencer replied. "I'm still capable of doing my job, and there's no reason to keep me here. The doctor said I'm in perfect health. I understand I won't be allowed in the field but I can still be useful."
Morgan sighed and gave in, more because he wanted the kid where the team could keep an eye on him in case something else went wrong. Spencer was a victim and he didn't want the unsub kidnapping him to experiment on too.
A/N: I am Australian and write in Australian English which results in many words being spelled differently than American English. I am aware this can be annoying and apologise for your frustration.