Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds. If I did, I would not be so bored in here.
A Wolf in Reid's Clothing
"Agent Hotchner, we need to talk."
Aaron Hotchner raised his head from the paperwork and if he wasn't a strong man in his forties he would have recoiled. Like one of those plants who shut down when you touch them. Dr. Hernandez was one of the nicest people in the world with her patients, sure; but she could vicious when she was upset.
"Seriously Sir, I can't do this for another second!"
She was clearly upset.
"Ok. Have a seat."
Hernandez took the seat right in front of him and closed her eyes, as if she was ready to blow up like a pipe bomb in front of him. She reminded him of Haley when angry at him.
He'd choose psychopaths over angry women any time, but seeing as there wasn't any choice he used his best talking-to-domestic-violence-victim voice. "Is there anything wrong, Doctor?"
His voice and the sureness he would listen to her seemed to calm her down, because she sounded more controlled when she said. "Like you asked, I talked to your team about the Georgia case. All of them showed up for the evaluation. You asked me to put extra attention to Jennifer Jareau and Spencer Reid, so I did. I scheduled a second appointment."
"Two weeks ago. And you told me Jareau was suffering from PTSD, but would be ok."
"Yes Jareau is probably fine by now; I want to talk about Special Agent Doctor Reid." She retorted and laid a bunch of papers in Hotchner's table in a mildly violent move. He could see a photograph of Reid; his eyes fixed somewhere far away from the camera, clipped to the top file. "I never had to deal with him directly before and nobody had bothered to tell me he is my psychologist buddy!"
"Dr. Reid has a BA in psychology, but he was always trusted to go through the psych evaluations." Hotch chose attack seeing as defense wasn't working that well. Dr. Hernandez took a deep breath.
"I know and I am sorry I sound like a mad woman. I've been working for the FBI for years and I've seen people go through horrifying things, so I tried to get to Dr. Reid by the regular process. Only that obviously didn't work with him and I went to his file-" She made a motion to the papers on the table. "- to figure out why. He entered the FBI when he was 21. He is a prodigy, which changes everything, therefore I tried another approach, but nothing, absolutely nothing, works with him."
Her eyes grew a little wider than the healthier. "He's driving me to the wall Agent Hotchner, I'm serious here. I've already had five sessions with him and you'd expect he'd run out of answers or something."
"Reid has been sarcastic with you? Maybe verbally violent?" Hotch asked in a matter-of-fact tone. The times he had seen Reid, the kid hadn't been any of that. Nothing to justify Mr. Hernandez's desperation. He had been just...disconnected.
"No, Dr. Reid is the best patient I ever had." She answered pursing her lips. "That happens because he read all my books, and apparently every book in psychology in the planet no matter how obscure it is and he pretty much knows textbook answers to all of my questions. Realizing that, I changed my method for the tenth time, and failed again."
"How so?"
"Look, I am not ashamed in the slightest to admit that Dr. Reid is smarter than me." She waved her hand. "So let me tell you: He knows things. He knows what I want to hear and he gives me just that. In all my years in the FBI no Agent was ever abducted and showed so minimal sings of PTSD. Moved on so fast and at the same time had these small traumas just so I don't feel useless."
"So, you don't think he's ready to go back to work?" Hotch asked trying to clear things up.
"I think Dr. Reid must be going through severe PTSD. I don't see him only inside my office you know? I'll give you a tip; take a look at him when he thinks you aren't watching so you'll see what I mean. But what I have the obligation to tell you is what he gave me right?" She sighed, "Concerning his evaluations he is a hundred percent fine and healed."
"What's your personal opinion about him Dr Hernandez?"
"My personal opinion is that I quit him." She said quickly. "I came here to tell you that. I don't care if they fire me, I can't understand him. Do you have any idea of how frustrating it is to have someone fooling you like you are a three year old and manage to look bored while doing it? And I only realized he was playing me by the 4th session. In normal cases we can convince the person to want to be helped, but in Dr. Reid's? He'll get help when he wants it. I can't tell him anything he doesn't know. So I quit, I'm tired of being treated like an idiot Mr. Hotchner. I have more pressing evaluations, with people who actually want to be helped." With that she got up, maybe to show how busy she really was.
"We wouldn't fire you because of Dr. Reid; I don't think anyone could beat him in a battle of wits. I'm sorry I put you in this situation."
"It's not your fault Agent Hotchner, but thank you." She gave him forced smiled and disappeared out the door.
Hotchner pulled Reid's file closer to him and opened it absent mildly while getting up to follow her out. In the picture he had really short hair and looked even younger. He really had been 21 at the time, barely not a teenager. He opened it and the academic record was right on, too many BAs and doctorates, honor parts in projects and research, special invitations to seminars or closed groups of recluse content.
Still he felt like Reid had never used his brain for anything, but helping others or entertainment. Because that was Reid, always on the sidelines. Even when he was saving the day he never tried to be the center of attention. Because Reid is awkward and gangly, too tall, too bright and too shy. He raised his eyes from the folder to the real-life Reid standing by the coffee table.
He had been back to work since Hotchner couldn't actually force him to stay out when the psychologist had cleared him, and physically he had been fine. There was no pressing case, only paperwork, and unlike the others Reid could do paperwork extremely well. He could sum up a text precisely in a minute, and therefore spent most of his time around the coffee machine.
Hotch always saw him as a child prodigy, they all did. No one actually saw him as a full grown male, unusually smart who could use that gift from his own benefit. Who could deceit people so easily they were lucky he never tried it with them. It was hard to imagine that coming from Reid, but looking at him back then, it didn't sound that farfetched.
Reid's hair was messy. Messier than usual, it was all tangled and falling in front of his eyes. That didn't seem to bother him at all because his eyes were lost in some point that Hotch, and maybe even Reid himself, couldn't see. That's one of the reasons Hotch would have been impressed if Reid had had any violent reaction to the evaluation, the kid just wasn't confrontational.
When you are a profiler you profile without even really wanting.
For example, Hotch knew Reid would turn himself off in any conversation that got too trivial, not because he was conceited, but because it didn't interest him. He would often try to pretend he was paying attention, but it was no surprise he lived inside his own head so much, it was a big place to cuddle in.
Reid's lost look wasn't his usual thinking mode, though. It was actually lost. The BAU youngest scratched his left arm again and again on the same spot. On the skin hidden on the crook of his elbow.
If Reid wasn't accepting help they'd have to wait and see how this was going to work out. He just hoped the kid would get better soon because Reid was always the lamp who lit up the room, with his young self and innocence.
All Hotch saw these days was a wolf in Reid's clothing.
Deciding he needed to take his chances, he walked out of the hallway. But instead of going to his office, he went to Gideon's.
I know, I know: sucky ending. But I just think Hotch would never do something dramatic about the situation Talking to Gideon, who is closer to Reid sounded like the only thing the guy would do AND I had a writer's block. But oh well, this is it. Just a little thing I had in my mind.