THE NEWS
Chelsea carefully smudged the shadow under her mime's chin and eyed it critically, she'd spent all her classtime and several study halls over the last week working on this project. The moment she'd started the charcoal drawing she'd known this was going to be the most important piece she'd ever done. Just yesterday Miss Paola had declared it her best yet. At the end of the month they'd finish assembling her portfolio to send to art school.
She'd finally convinced her father to allow her to apply on the condition that she take several business electives over the summer break. He had guaranteed her that she would thank him both when she was making her way as a starving artist while waiting for her big break and needed to make every penny count, and later, when she was selling her work for millions of dollars and could understand what her agent and business manager were telling her.
She was debating whether or not to add a bit more detail to the face when the door opened behind her - sometimes it was so hard to tell when a piece was done - she looked over her shoulder to see two police officers standing there, 'huh,' she thought, 'I wonder which one of the jocks got in trouble this time?' They crossed the room and whispered to the teacher. 'This is wrong, they always just come in and say who they want.'
The teacher looked at her, walked over to her. Chelsea swung to face the officers, "What is it? Is it Mom? Dad? What's wrong?"
"Chelsea, these officers need to speak to you out in the hall."
"No, tell me what's wrong. What happened?"
"Miss, we're sorry to have to inform you, your parents were in a car accident this morning. They're in the hospital. If you'll come with us, we'll drive you over there."
She struggled to keep her knees from collapsing beneath her, "How bad?"
"We really don't have any details, Miss. All we can tell you right now is that they're both in surgery."
The teacher placed her hand on Chelsea's shoulder, "Go, dear, Janie can take care of your things; right, Janie?"
Janie thrust Chelsea's purse over her shoulder and responded, "Yes. Of course. I'll put everything in your locker, and get all your homework and bring it to the hospital on my way home. Just go."
She saw Miss Paola start to spray the fixative on her mime as the officers led her from the room. 'I guess it's done.'
&
Reid walked into the bullpen with some trepidation, it was ten o'clock on a Thursday night and normally they would have gone straight home from the airport, but Garcia had called the plane saying that he needed to come to the office first. She'd refused to explain, but had told him it was urgent, not a word she used lightly. She'd asked Hotch to come as well.
He looked behind him, as the rest of the team trailed behind him, ostensibly to catch up on paperwork, but he knew there would be no paperwork done tonight, they were here to support him. Just knowing that they'd all stand behind him like this gave him a warm feeling inside, but it wasn't quite enough to dispel the anxiety caused by Garcia's unusual behavior. He saw Hotch tilt his head towards the bullpen, signaling the others to wait there, as he and Reid passed through heading to Garcia's office.
They didn't get that far. Somebody, probably Morgan, who'd been in the other car, must have called Garcia from the parking lot, because she came down the hall to meet them. "Reid, I -- I probably should have told you this while you were on the plane, but I didn't know how. I still don't know how." Reid paled, Garcia looked like she was about to burst into tears. Garcia was very emotional, but usually she was happiness personified, Reid began to panic, whatever she had to tell him must be pretty bad.
She looked at Hotch, pleading in her eyes. He stepped forward and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Penelope, it's okay, just tell us what happened."
She nodded and took a deep breath, she turned to face Reid, "Your father and stepmother were in a serious accident this morning. They both made it through surgery but the doctors have induced comas to prevent injury from brain swelling, they'll probably be in the hospital, then in physical rehab for at least six months, maybe a year." Reid began to breathe a little easier, he hadn't seen his father in close to sixteen years, since just before his eleventh birthday, and hadn't even known the man had remarried, much less ever met his second wife, and while he didn't wish him ill (at least not since Emily had given him a figurative smack upside the head and made him think about what his father had been like before he'd left) there was no love lost there. This was hardly the life-altering news he'd been dreading.
Garcia took another deep breath before delivering the life-altering news, "Your -- your --" she cleared her throat and tried again, "You have a sister, she's in the conference room." Reid felt his legs buckle, felt Hotch's hands grab his arms to keep him from falling. He leaned against the wall.
He didn't know how much time had passed when he lifted his head from between his knees, he felt Hotch's hand on the back of his neck and the other on his shoulder, he'd seen Hotch do this for victims and witnesses at crime scenes, 'keep 'em conscious if you can.'
He raised his hand to let Hotch know it was okay to release him. He straightened, but kept his back braced against the wall. Reid quickly went over the facts in his mind, due to a genealogy project in fifth grade when he was seven, he knew his father had no other living blood relatives, if the girl was here, they must want him to take care of her, so her mother must not have any relatives either, at least not living in the area. The girl would have told the social worker if she had other relatives. But was she even old enough to tell anyone if she did? She couldn't be a baby, Garcia would have said if she was a baby. He didn't have a clue how to take care of a baby.
He looked at Hotch, knew he'd run the facts as well, probably while he was sniffing his knees trying not to pass out. "I'm responsible for her."
Hotch looked him in the eye, said what he knew Reid needed to hear, "Only if you want to be."
"I want to be." He had no clue how to take care of a child, but it didn't matter, he'd learn whatever he needed to, she was family.
&
Inside the conference room, Chelsea Reid looked out into the bullpen as lights came on, two men and two women walked in, she looked at the men and instantly decided neither was her brother since one was black and the other was too old, Penelope had told her and the social worker a little about her brother, surely she would have mentioned if he was black, and she had said her brother was only twenty-six, the youngest BAU member ever, probably the youngest agent ever. So, these two must be Derek Morgan and Agent Rossi and the two women would be JJ Jareau and Emily Prentiss.
She knew her brother was a profiler, whatever that was, and that he traveled a lot, and apparently he was very smart because Penelope had called him her favorite genius and if he was the youngest person to ever be an FBI profiler it probably wasn't because of his good looks. She wished she'd asked Penelope for a picture, she probably could have gotten one from the database. And Penelope had assured the social worker that her brother wouldn't even hesitate to take her, and that he and the team would make arrangements for her when he had to travel.
She really hated the thought of turning some poor guy's life upside down, but she didn't have anywhere else to turn. She'd thought about applying for emancipation and trying to live in her house alone, but the enormity of the situation had quickly overcome her. She knew she didn't know the first thing about living alone, taking care of bills, balancing a checkbook, what to pay when, what if something broke? Who would fix it? Hell, she'd never even gone grocery shopping alone. She needed somebody to help her. She needed somebody to take care of her.
She'd mentally run through all her friends: Maybe she could stay with Janie, but Janie was pretty sure her parents were headed for divorce, another kid in the mix sure wouldn't help things. Sandra's dad was an alcoholic and gave her the creeps, so she didn't want to stay there. Kelly's mom had to work two jobs to pay the girls' tuition and slept on the sofabed in their one-bedroom apartment so Kelly and her little sister could share the bedroom, no way she could ask them. Danielle rarely even saw her parents, they both had full-time-plus jobs, sixty, seventy hours a week, her parents probably wouldn't even notice if she just moved in, but she was going to need rides to and from the hospital, and then the nursing home/rehab center. She'd gone through every girl in her class, and none of them would really work.
During the four hours she and the social worker had been waiting for their return from California she had decided she really liked Penelope, and if her brother had friends this cool, he must be a pretty great guy. She'd started to feel more at ease the longer they'd talked. But now that he was actually in the building and they were just minutes away from meeting, her nerves had started up again. She hoped she didn't throw up, that wouldn't make a very good first impression.
The social worker patted her hand, Chelsea looked at her and started packing her textbooks into her backpack. She hadn't actually gotten any homework done, but the social worker seemed to be pleased that she was trying. She watched the door expectantly, Penelope had gotten a phone call a few minutes ago, and had gone out to meet her brother, break the news. Apparently he hadn't known about her either. She silently wondered what other secrets her parents had kept from her, from them.
&
Reid placed his hand on the doorknob of the round table room and took a deep breath. He felt Hotch's and Garcia's reassuring presence at his back and was grateful. He concentrated on smiling as he opened the door, the poor kid had probably been passed around from stranger to stranger all day long, he wanted her to trust him right away. Again he wondered how old she was, he'd been ten, almost eleven when his father had walked out, so as much as the thought hurt, if his father had remarried immediately after the divorce she could be as old as fourteen, maybe even fifteen.
He stepped through the door and froze, he felt his heart thud in his chest, "How -- how old are you?"
The girl -- young woman, he corrected himself, stood up to greet him, "Sixteen."
Reid closed his eyes for a moment and allowed the pain to wash through him, then swallowed it and approached his sister, "Sorry, 'bout that, it's just I was afraid you were going to be little," he held his hand up at about waist height. He forced a smile, "Sometimes I don't do so well with little kids." Later he would allow himself to deal with the fact that apparently his father had abandoned him when she was born.
Reid gestured with his hand for the girl to sit back down and took the chair next to her. Hotch and Garcia took chairs as well, he noted Garcia looked confused at his behavior - he didn't think she knew how old he'd been when his parents divorced, but Hotch did - and Hotch had that look of fatherly concern about him that he sometimes got. Reid nodded his head just enough so Hotch would know he was taking this all right.
"I'm D -- Re -- I'm Spencer, Spencer Reid, this is my friend Aaron Hotchner."
He turned to the social worker, "I assume I'm the only relative in the area and you want me to take --" he turned back to the girl, smiled to try to take the sting from his words, "I'm sorry, Garcia didn't tell me your name yet."
She smiled back, Penelope had warned her that he wasn't very good with meeting people outside of work, and he definitely looked as nervous as she felt, maybe more, but thankfully she'd never been shy, "It's Chelsea, Chelsea Reid."
"Thanks." He turned back to the social worker, "I assume you want to know if I'm willing to take Chelsea? I am. Of course."
Hotch broke in, "I assume you have paperwork Reid will need to fill out?"
"Yes, quite a bit, I'm afraid. Since the FBI does pretty extensive background checks before hiring someone, I've been authorized to turn over temporary guardianship this evening, but we'll have to do our own background checks, interviews and a home inspection, before making it long-term. The requirements for fitness as a guardian are different than for the FBI."
Reid smiled naturally for the first time, "So, I take it you care more about whether I know how to clean the fridge and mop the floor than whether I can shoot straight and drive fast?"
She smiled back, "Exactly, there's some overlap, such as whether you have a criminal record, and the ability to maintain employment, that's why I can let you take Chelsea home tonight, but I'll have to do a home inspection and get personal references as quickly as possible. Since we had time tonight I've already done a personal reference interview with Penelope, she gave you a glowing recommendation.
"Chelsea and I have already gone over her thoughts on the matter, she'd like to give this a try and since you're willing to take her, we can just do the minimum now and go over the details tomorrow?"
Reid nodded, "Right. So what do I need to do?"
Hotch nodded to Garcia, "Why don't you take Chelsea out to meet the rest of the team, while Reid and I look over the paperwork with Miss --" he looked at the visitor's badge the social worker was wearing, "Hammerstein?"
"Sure." Garcia stood up and moved next to Reid, she pressed a quick kiss to his temple and moved some papers in front of him, "I filled out leave papers for you, I didn't know how long you'd want, so I put you in for a week on vacation, I figured you'd need at least that long to get Chels settled in and make arrangements for your parents' care. You and Hotch just have to sign, you're entitled to twelve weeks under FMLA and since you never take any time off, you have eighteen weeks personal leave and vacation time accrued, so if you want more you'll just have to call in and let me know."
"Garcia, you're a lifesaver."
"Don't you forget it, Sweetness."
Chelsea stood up and followed Garcia out to the bullpen.