Nine-year-old Danny turned around, ready to call for his mother or his aunt but stopped short when he didn't see them. Actually, he didn't see anything he recognized. The last thing he really remembered was watching his mom, aunt, and sister all look in one of the many shop windows they had walked past that day. He also remembered turning away from the scene and seeing a puppy across the street. He had stood on the edge of the sidewalk and when people started moving across the street, he had walked with them. The nine-year-old had ran after the puppy so he could pet it.
He had managed to catch up to the owner and pet the small dog. The only problem with his plan was that he didn't think before he did it.
Danny shivered and pulled his coat tighter around his small frame. Virginia was cold this time of year. The nine-year-old wished they had visited during the summer.
Blue eyes looked to the side where a large building stood. His eyes locked on a sign but he couldn't make out the words. He hadn't been taught them in school yet. Danny watched men and women walk in and out, wearing nice suits.
Rubbing his arms, Danny contemplated venturing into the building. The bitter wind picked up in speed and made Danny shiver again. Carefully, Danny walked up the steps and entered the building. Much to his pleasure, inside was nice and warm. The boy's shivers began easing from his body. The ebony-haired nine-year-old walked to the side and stood in a corner, rubbing his arms to warm up faster. Danny's pale skin almost immediately began regaining its healthy tan color.
The nine-year-old, as he became more comfortable in the warmer atmosphere, began thinking of what to do to get back to his mother.
He had been taught to stay where he was until someone found him but outside was cold and the sun was setting outside. The women had been out shopping all day.
Danny had also been taught police-men were good people to get help from if he was ever lost.
Looking around, the raven-haired child searched for an officer or anyone not intimidating. Not intimidating would do for him as well.
The child spotted a security officer sitting behind a desk, checking people in and giving some people badges that had the word 'visitor' on it. As Danny began walking over to the desk, he stepped in front of a dark-haired man staring at his phone. The man ran into Danny, tripping some. The child let out a squeak as he was clobbered over.
"Wow there!" The man yelled and caught himself before he sent him and the child sprawling across the floor. Danny jumped back a few paces, staring up at the older male with a hint of fear. Looking down, the adult finally took notice of the figure standing in front of him. Recognizing the fear, he bent down to a crouch.
"Hi there. I'm Agent Hotchner. What's your name?" The man asked, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly.
Danny debated with himself. "My mommy said not to talk to strangers."
Hotchner cracked a small smile. "It's good that you listen to your mother. Where is she?"
The blue-eyed child shrugged. "I don't know. I'm lost."
The agent's smile vanished. He began running through things he could do.
Option 1) Take the child to the police department.
Option 2) Have Garcia track down the child's mother.
With much consideration, Hotchner decided it was easier to ask Garcia to track the boy's mother down. She would do it much faster than the Quantico Police Department and probably would make the boy feel so much safer with her lively and caring personality.
"If you trust me, I can help you find your mother." Hotchner said, holding out his hand.
Danny looked at it with a tilted hand. He hummed in thought for a few minutes before hesitantly reaching out and taking the agent's hand. Hotchner smiled again and stood up fully, closing his hand around the smaller one.
He turned around and began leading the ebony-haired child towards the elevators. The others of his team were going to wonder why he was back so fast, as he was going home. But once they knew a child was involved everything would be made clear and they'd be more than willing to help in the 'case'.
Hotchner led Danny to the BAU's office. As expected, Derek, Emily, JJ, and Rossi gave him surprised and slightly exaggerated looks as he entered, all assuming he came back for some case file or other such document. The exaggerated expressions were wiped away when they saw Danny holding their leader's hand.
"Shouldn't you be on your way home, Hotch? And who's the kid?" Derek asked curiously, staring at the boy.
"This is Danny. I was on my way out when I ran into him. He can't find his mother and I figured Garcia could track her down." Hotchner answered.
"Don't you have a date with Haley tonight?" Emily asked, sharing a look with the others.
At that, the unit chief shifted nervously. Danny, silent as ever, looked between the adults curiously.
The others shared a look again with humorous, knowing smiles.
"We will take care of Danny. You go have fun." Rossi said as he stood from his seat. JJ glided over to where Hotch and Danny stood and made a teasing shoo-shoo gesture to the dark-haired man.
Hotch rolled his eyes before turning to the ebony-haired child. "I have to go now Danny but my team is going to watch you. This is Agent Jennifer."
JJ stretched out one hand for Danny to take with a smile. "Just call me JJ."
Danny released Hotch's hand and took ahold of the blonde's with a smile. "I'm Danny."
JJ smiled at him before looking at her boss. "See you tomorrow, Hotch."
The unit chief saluted before walking away, a small smile gracing his features. JJ turned around and led the blue-eyed child over to the other team members. She stopped in-between Rossi and Emily and began introducing her friends.
"This is Agent Rossi. That's Agent Morgan and that's Agent Prentiss." JJ introduced, pointing to each adult as he said their name.
"Call me Derek, kid." The former cop said, smiling.
"I would prefer to be called Emily." The dark-haired woman stated, waving.
"Just Rossi." The oldest member said plainly, a quirk of a smile on his lips.
Danny waved at each of them, showing all his white teeth in a smile at them.
At that moment, Spencer slowly walked up, nose deep in a book. Every few seconds he flipped the page, eyes quickly reading over the words and memorizing them.
Derek grabbed Spencer's shoulder as he was about to walk past him. Startled, the genius looked up and at the people he knew. His eye's fell on the nine-year-old's, who stared back up at him with cobalt blue eyes.
"Uh… W-Who's he?" Spencer asked, pointing at the child. Rossi snorted under his breath while Emily shook her head humorously at the situation.
"I'm Danny!" The boy said excitedly, waving. JJ smiled down at the sweet sight.
While Spencer contemplated what to say, Derek shook the genius's shoulder. "Well this is Dr. Spencer Reid. You can call him Spencer though."
"Ok!" Danny chirped.
Spencer closed the book and set it on his desk. "May someone explain to me why a child is here?"
"He's lost. We're going to have Garcia track his mom down." Rossi explained.
Spencer looked at them silently. "If you're going to track his mother down, shouldn't you get him to Garcia..?"
"We were getting there." Emily waved off, still smiling humorously.
"You were going to talk to Garcia about something, right?" JJ asked, earning a nod from the genius. "Then you could take Danny!"
"Reid Effect." He replied quickly, crossing his arms uneasily.
"Who knows? Maybe Danny's the exception." Rossi said before turning to the black-haired child. "Spencer's going to take you to a nice woman who's going to help find your mother, ok?"
Danny shrugged. "Ok."
Spencer, seeing as he had been volunteered to take the child to Garcia, began to silently walk towards the office doors. Danny quickly fell in step with the genius and took ahold of his hand, like he had done the last two agents. The nine-year-old did not notice the way Spencer squirmed at the gesture.
While they watched the two walk away, Emily and JJ silently cooed while the two men either clapped silently or laughed quietly to themselves.
The walk to Garcia's office was quiet. Danny hummed to himself while Spencer's brain scrambled to find some information to make the kid like him, therefore making his job easier. At least the nine-year-old hadn't started crying like most small children.
As they entered the dark room, Garcia perked at the sound of the door opening. She gasped in pleasant surprise when she saw the small child standing beside Spencer, holding his hand.
"Oh my gosh! Who's this cutie?" The tech-wiz asked, bending forward to look more closely at the child.
"I'm Danny!" The child repeated for the fourth or fifth time. He didn't seem exaggerated by the repetitiveness and was excited at meeting so many interesting people in one day.
"Well Sweetie, I'm Penelope! Why are you here?" Garcia asked.
"We need you to find his mother." Spencer stated simply.
Garcia gasped. "Danny, are you lost?!"
Danny nodded plainly.
The hyper blonde quickly turned to her computer and her hands whizzed across the keyboard. "I am on the case! What's your last name, Sweetie?"
"Fenton!" Danny chirped, looking over her shoulder. Spencer stood behind both of them and watched the progress as well.
Garcia asked a few more questions to narrow results before noticing she needed more coffee. With an apology and a promise to be back quickly, the blonde was gone.
That left Danny and Spencer alone in the dark office.
The child looked up at the genius, head tilting to the side. "What book were you reading?"
Startled, Spencer looked down and stared into Danny's curious blue eyes. "Uh… It's called Gone with the Wind."
Danny smiled. "Cool! I'm reading a book in The Magic Tree-House series!"
Spencer nodded his head, lips in a thin line. "I heard that series is good…"
"It is! The brother and sister go into whatever book they want! They go back in time and go on missions!" Danny said excitedly, bouncing excitedly in his spot.
Spencer nodded, waiting impatiently for Garcia to come back.
"What's your book about?" Danny asked, interested in what the older would say.
Robotically, Spencer began going into detail about what his book was about. He began simplifying it when he saw the kid's completely blank face. Much to the genius's surprise, Danny continued to ask questions about what he was reading. It turned into a full on conversation about different books they've read which turned into ever changing subjects. The two could barely finish one conversation before another was started. They both eventually sat on the ground, still conversing.
Both males had tendencies to go off into rants; Spencer about different trivia facts and Danny about whatever they were talking about, but not necessarily facts.
The two never noticed the time fly by.
Derek stopped in the doorway when he saw Spencer falling into one of his intellectual rants while Danny tilted his head to the side, listening with interest everything being said. The former Chicago cop had never seen anyone so young be so interested in something Spencer was talking about.
The black male waited for a pause in the conversation before interrupting. "Hey Danny."
Spencer and Danny both whipped their heads to Derek, surprised. They had not heard the agent approach the room.
"We found your mom. She's here to pick you up." Derek informed.
"But Garcia never came back." Spencer said confused.
Derek snorted. "Yeah cause when she saw you two she didn't want to interrupt and found his mom on Rossi's laptop."
Spencer muttered an 'oh' before finally getting up. Danny followed his lead and the three ventured to the main room of the level.
An orange headed woman was talking to the other agents. She brightened immediately upon seeing her son with the other two agents.
"Danny!"
"Hi Mommy!" Danny said, jogging the rest of the way and wrapping his arms around the woman's waist. The mother immediately hugged back.
"Don't ever run off again, alright Danny?" She said, pulling away and cradling her baby's head.
Danny nodded. "Ok!"
The woman got up off the ground again before nodding to the agents. "Thank you for watching him. We'll be going back to my sister's now."
"Wait!" Danny said, pulling from his mother. He jogged over to Spencer and gave him a hug. "Bye Spencey!"
Startled, the genius froze before very hesitantly wrapping his arms around the child. "Bye Danny."
As Danny pulled away, Spencer motioned for him to stay still. Quickly pulling out a pen and small sheet of paper, the genius wrote his address on the sheet before he handed it to the boy. "Write me a letter, ok?"
Danny brightened. "Ok!"
The black-haired boy rushed back to his mother and bounced by her side. The woman nodded to Spencer with a smile before leading her son away.
As Spencer got up from the ground, the other's gathered around Spencer. He returned their stares, confused. "What?"
"We told you he was the exception to the Reid Effect." Rossi said.
Who thinks I need to get a life? I do~! *raised hand*
Kadzait (my imaginary friends (and crush)): *raises hand as well* You really do need to get one.
I know.
This lovely one-shot was for my buddy TomgirlBre, who wanted to see some little Danny/Reid action! THIS IS FOR YOU BUDDY!
Kadzait: Get on with it. You have to do a one-shot for your other buddy (dang, she's got a lot buddies on here... Why can't Kodi make friends in real life?) Skymuse. I think you said it was a YJ/DP x-over.
Right... -.-'
Thanks to anyone who favorites or follows this story (or me) and leave a review if you want! Honestly, I don't care if you do or not. But if you're planning on leaving a flame... Go. Go now. I don't tolerate mean words that hold no value and are completely empty whatsoever. *big bright smile*
Hope you enjoyed~! Also, sorry if any characters are off. I'm not a genius (I'm not even in high-school yet) and Reid can be a hard character. XD