Hide n' Seek Chapter 1
"Okay, Rossi and Reid you take the back, Prentiss and Morgan you take the barn out back, and JJ and I will take the front." Hotch ordered his teammates, as they all dispersed to their instructed positions.
"Everyone ready?" Hotch asked into his earpiece. "Ready" resounded five times through the sound waves, alerting the team that they could now proceed to clear the house and barn.
Rossi looked over at Reid as they began to enter the back of the house and cleared the kitchen. Rossi pointed down a set of stairs. "You take the basement, and I'll continue forward to the front of the house." Reid nodded as he began to slowly make his way down the stairs. His gunned pointed in front of him with his flashlight underneath so he would be able to see as he descended down into the basement.
Upstairs, the team systematically cleared the house, with shouts of clear being heard through their earpieces at random intervals. JJ and Hotch came back downstairs after they found nothing in the upper portion of the house, meeting with Rossi in the living room. "Did you find anything?" Hotch looked to Rossi, questioning him. "No nothing, if you didn't know, you would never have guessed that a serial killer lives behind these walls".
"Where's Reid, wasn't he supposed to be with you?" JJ looked around trying to spot the awkward doctor. "I told him to take the basement, he was supposed to clear down there and see if he could find anything that would lead us to this bastard." Rossi responded.
Hotch frowned, thinking that Reid should have already been done clearing the basement, talking into his mic Hotch asked "Reid, did you find anything." Hotch let out a breathe of relief as he heard the returning response. "Yeah, I think I found some interesting things here about our guy, it looks like I'm standing in a scientist's lab. I'm surrounded by what looks like chemicals and gases." "Okay, Reid come on up and we'll let our crime scene techs take a look through the place." " Sure thing Hotch, I'll come up in a minute I'm just going to turn off the bunsen burner over here in the corner." replied Reid. "Reid, Reid! Don't touch anything, we don't know what it will do! Hotch shouted down the mic, trying to prevent the accident prone Reid from getting into any more trouble. There was static silence coming through the mic, before BOOM! the entire house shook with what seemed to be an explosion coming from the basement.
The three agents rushed towards the basement, wanting to get to their team member to see if he was okay. As Hotch descended the stairs, he was greeted by a wall of purple smoke, not knowing what it was Hotch put his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from breathing in the fumes. Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, he looked around scanning the room for a glimpse of the lanky doctor. Spotting a part of a converse sneaker poking out behind a work table, Hotch rushed over trying to get to Reid to check him over. What he did see when he reached the spot had him stopping in his tracks. Rubbing his eyes to make sure that the smoke wasn't making him see things, Hotch looked back down seeing the exact same thing. A brown-haired toddler was lying there in a pile of the doctor's clothes. Hotch reached down picking up the toddler, as the toddler opened up his eyes revealing large brown doe eyes.
"Hotch, what happened? Why awe you picking me up, why am I little? Why do I look like a toddlew?" Reid started to panic, breathing heavily and tears started to stream down his face. "Shh Reid, it's okay it's going to be alright, it looks like the gas somehow converted you to a child." Hotch soothed trying to calm down the panicking toddler in his arms. Hotch turned around turning shocked eyes on Rossi and JJ who were behind him. Rossi and JJ looked back with equally shocked faces, mouths wide open not knowing what to make of the scene in front of them. Hotch looked back down at his young agent when he felt the toddler begin to tremble in his arms.
Coughing and trying to speak between breathes, Reid looked up at Hotch "I'm sowwy… cough… Hotch… cough cough…I didn't…cough… listen to you…cough." Reid stopped talking as a coughing fit took over and he couldn't seem to catch his breath. Hotch rubbed the little boy's back, trying to calm him down and get him to breathe easier. "Reid I'm not mad at you, it was an accident, something that we couldn't foresee happening. Now let's get you outside and away from all this smoke." Hotch said, turning around and making his way upstairs away from the heavy smoke and whatever else was in that room. Rossi and JJ breaking out of their stupor followed behind Hotch, looking at each other with equally shocked faces.
Once they got outside, Hotch made his way over to the two black SUVs parked out in front of the house. Stopping to open the back passenger door, Hotch proceeded to place Reid on the back seat. Reid sat there wearing only an oversized t-shirt, as he looked up at his team mates that had gathered around the open door. Hotch turned around, threading a hand through his hair as he began to pace in front of the SUV trying to figure out what he was going to do next. He never had to deal with a situation like this and he was unsure of how to proceed. As he made another pass in front of the truck he spotted Morgan and Prentiss run over from the direction of the barn.
"Hotch, what the hell happened. We heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the house when we were clearing the barn. Is everyone okay? Where's Reid?" Morgan questioned as he came upon the gathering of agents around the vehicle. Hotch stepped forward placing a hand on the dark agent's shoulder, hoping to calm him down before he let his anger take over and scare Reid. "Morgan calm down, yes there was an explosion. But no one got hurt, it's just…." Hotch paused not knowing how to explain the unusual situation to the agent. "It's just what, what happened?" Morgan demanded getting riled up again as he thought of all the horrible things that could have happened. Hotch sighed not being able to think of another way to explain the situation besides telling it straight. Hotch pointed over to the open door of the SUV "Reid has seemed to have been turned into a toddler when he inhaled the fumes from the explosion, he was the one in the basement when the explosion happened and got the brunt of whatever chemicals were in the smoke."
Morgan stepped over to the open door and staggered backwards when he spotted a little boy sitting in the back seat with a mop of brown haired that stopped at big brown doe eyes that looked up at him with tears shimmering in them. The toddler was wearing an oversized shirt that appeared to be Reid's and was trembling slightly. "Wow, I never thought I would see the day where Pretty Boy actually became a boy." Morgan chuckled slightly. Reid looked up at the muscled and agent, and tried to give the best glare he could. Morgan laughed aloud at the sight of the toddler trying to glare down the grown agent. "Don't try to hard kid, you just look like a disgruntled kitten when you do that." Reid's lower lip began to tremble at the response as he looked down at his lap.
"Morgan, stop teasing Reid" Hotch glared at his agent, looking around at the others that were still gathered around the vehicle. "Now, we need to get Reid checked out to make sure he wasn't harmed when he inhaled all of that smoke. So JJ, Prentiss and I will take him to the hospital while you Morgan and Dave will stay here and wait for the crime scene techs to arrive so we can know what exactly was in that basement." Hotch looked around at all of the agents making sure that they were going to follow his orders and not protest. When no one said anything Hotch sighed and scrubbed a hand across his face, trying to gather the strength to deal with such an unusual situation. "Okay let's get to it then" he ordered after he opened his eyes and let his hand fell back to his side. Hotch walked over to the driver's side while Prentiss headed towards the front passenger seat and JJ made her way towards Reid. Gathering him up in her arms, she sat in the back seat with Reid sitting in her lap and she pulled the seatbelt around the two of them. JJ cuddled Reid close, rubbing a hand up and down his back trying to comfort the still trembling toddler.
CM
Pulling up in front of the local hospital, Hotch found a parking spot up front and stopped the vehicle. Getting out of the vehicle the agents began to make their way into the hospital, Hotch and Prentiss leading in front, while JJ brought up the back carrying Reid.
Hotch made his way over to the front desk, speaking to the nurse behind it. "Hi, I am need to have my… uh… son checked out by a doctor, there was a slight fire at our house and he inhaled a lot of smoke." Hotch explained. "No problem, just fill out this paperwork and you will be called back to a room soon, where a doctor will look over your soon." The nurse said while handing over a clipboard. Hotch nodded and thanked the nurse as he made his way back to the waiting room where JJ and Prentiss were sitting with Reid still sitting on JJ's lap. Hotch frowned as he looked over at his once fiercely independent agent, now seeking comfort from his colleagues. He shrugged it off when he rationalized that Reid probably was still spooked about what happened this morning and probably didn't want to be left alone. Walking over to sit next to the female agents, Hotch explained that they will be called back soon to be seen and that he had to pretend that Reid was his son so that the nurse wouldn't get suspicious. Hotch settled back in his chair, starting to fill out the forms with the information that he already knows about Reid.
Ten minutes later, a nurse came to the door of the waiting room and called for a Reid Hotchner. Hotch stood up and leaned over to take Reid from JJ, but the little boy tightened his hold on the blonde agent and buried his head into her shoulder. Hotch sighed and said "Okay Reid you win, JJ can come with us." JJ stood up with Spencer in her hold and began to walk over to the nurse at the door. Hotch looked back at Prentiss who was left sitting in the chairs. Prentiss waved Hotch forward stating that she was going to wait there for Morgan and Rossi to show up.
After they were led back to a room to wait for a doctor, JJ sat up on the examination table with Spencer while Hotch took a chair that was in the corner of the room. JJ leaned down and whispered in Spencer's ear as she rocked him back and forth "Spence you're okay, you know we wouldn't let anything happen to you right." She felt the boy nod against her shoulder as a little voice rose up from the toddler "I know JJ, but I tan't tontwol what this body does. My mind knows that I shouldn't be stared but my body won't listen. " Spencer sighed lifting his head off of JJ's shoulder to look her in the eye. "This baby body has a mind of its own". Spencer shifted around so he was facing forward and could look around the room. Seeing all of the scary instruments in the room, he cuddled further into JJ, knowing that she would protect him.
Twenty minutes later, a short female doctor walked in the room. She was looking down at her notes when she looked up over her glasses saying "So this is little Reid Hotchner, what seems to have brought you in here today?" Hotch spoke up from his place in the corner, "There was a small explosion at our place and it seems that Reid here inhaled quite of bit of smoke." The doctor's eyes widened at the word explosion, but she quickly schooled her expression and got to work examining the young boy. She listened to his breathe sounds and looked up his nose and down his throat with her scope. "Well there doesn't seem to be any soot in his mouth or nose, so that's a good sign but just to be on the safe side I would like to monitor his oxygenation levels for an hour." The doctor explained as a nurse came in to place a probe on Spencer's finger and hook him up to the monitor.
While Spencer and JJ were occupied with the nursing that was fussing with him, Hotch made his way over to the doctor. "Excuse me Dr. uh.." "Dr. Kilgar, Mr. Hotchner" the doctor responded, looking up from her notes to eye Hotch. "Yes Dr. Kilgar, do you mind if we talk outside I just have a few more questions for you." Hotch asked while walking over to the door and holding it open for the doctor to follow through behind him.
Outside in the hall, Hotch explained the entire situation to the doctor pausing to allow the doctor digest all of the information. Now that the doctor understood the whole situation, Hotch made sure that Reid was fully healthy and that the de-aging process didn't do any permanent damage. The doctor explained that although she has never dealt with a situation like this before, Reid seemed to be as healthy as any other two and half year old. Hotch let out a sigh of relief when he heard that chemical had de-aged Reid didn't seem to leave any lasting damage for the youngest agent.
Back in the room, Spencer sat in JJ's lap as a nurse fluttered around them, making sure that the probe on his finger was secure and that she was getting a good reading of his oxygen levels. Spencer squirmed in JJ's lap as his bladder made itself known to him. He didn't want to have JJ take him to the bathroom, and the bed was too high up for him to get down by himself. Spencer sighed, resigning himself that he would just have to wait for Hotch to return so he could ask him to take him to the bathroom.
JJ frowned as she felt Spencer squirm more and more in her lap, since she had Henry JJ could spot the potty dance from anywhere and she would bet her next paycheck that Spencer needed to go to the bathroom. JJ turned Spencer around to look at her and asked "Spence, do you need to go to the bathroom.?" Spencer sighed wringing his hands in his lap and trying to look anywhere but at JJ. He nodded his head, not trusting his voice to speak.
JJ took the probe off Spencer's finger and swung him off the bed setting him on his feet. As soon as Spencer was standing, the pressure in his bladder became more pronounced and before he knew it, he felt a warm liquid spreading down his legs and onto the floor. Spencer looked down at the floor, ashamed that he had just had an accident in front of one of his colleagues and it had to be JJ no less! JJ sighed seeing the wet spot growing on the floor, she knelt in front of Spencer and lifted his chin so that she was looking in his eyes. "Spence, it was an accident, it's okay it happens all the time to little boys." Spencer wouldn't respond just letting tears fill his eyes. "Spence, it's fine I'm just going to get the nurse so we can get this cleaned up and maybe find some clean clothes for you okay?" Spencer nodded letting his eyes fall back to the floor, not wanting to look at JJ.
JJ used the call button on the side of the bed to call the nurse to bring in some supplies to clean up. The nurse bustled in armed with a mop and towels, as well as wipes, pull ups and pajamas. JJ took the wipes, pull ups and pajamas from the nurse and took a hold of Spencer's hand leading him into the bathroom, while the nurse cleaned up the room. Inside the bathroom, JJ cleaned Spencer and took off his wet clothes. By this time tears were streaming down the young child's face and he was trying to hold his hands in front of him, so that JJ wouldn't see. "Ah Spence, you know that I have a young boy at home you have nothing that I haven't seen before." JJ soothed reaching over to grab the pull up and pajamas from where they were laying on the ground. When Spencer saw what was in JJ's hands, he began to shake his head back and forth saying "No, I don't need those. I'm potty trained it was just an accident. I don't need them." "I know Spence, but the hospital only has pull ups for kids your size, they don't have any underwear. So you are going to have to wear them until we can get to the store to buy you some real clothes." JJ explained carding a hand through the toddler's hair to try and get him to calm down. Reluctantly Spencer allowed JJ to dress him in the pajamas and pull ups, trying to let his mind go anywhere else but inside that bathroom.
Walking back out into the hospital room with a dry Spencer in her arms, JJ saw that Hotch and the doctor had returned from their discussion in the hall. Hotch looked over as JJ entered the room, his eyebrows raising when he saw that Spencer was changed into different clothes, but seeing JJ's imperceptible head shake he didn't question it. Dr. Kilgar spoke up then "I have full confidence that Reid is going to be fine and that the explosion didn't harm him in any way. I will let you guys go home now, but if Reid starts coughing more or has more difficulty breathing bring him back in, okay?" Hotch stood up gathering their jackets "We will, thank you for checking Reid over." Hotch said shaking the doctor's hand. Glancing back to make sure that they didn't leave anything behind, the trio made their way out of the door and towards the waiting room.
Entering the waiting room and spotting the other three agents over in the corner, Hotch made his way over to them. "The doctor said that Reid's going to be fine and the explosion didn't leave any lasting damage." The other agents relaxed, relieved that their youngest member was going to be fine. "Now Rossi and I will go back to the police station and smooth over the situation, while the rest of you head back to the hotel." Hotch ordered. The group of agents split up then dividing themselves into two different vehicles.
On the way to the hotel with Morgan driving and Prentiss in the front passenger seat, JJ sat in the backseat with Spencer in her lap again. Hearing a grumble coming from the youngster's stomach, JJ called out "Hey Morgan, can you stop at some place to eat someone's getting hungry back here. Spencer blushed not realizing that his stomach was that loud. Morgan laughed "Gotta stop for snack time, do we pretty boy?" "Morgan stop, it's lunch time and kid's aren't used to putting off eating like we are" JJ scolded. Morgan looking chastised, nodded and pulled into the next food place that he saw.
Stepping out of the car, JJ handed over Spencer to a surprised Morgan. "I'm going over to the Target across the street and grabbing some things that we will need. You and Spence can go inside and order food for all of us. Emily do want to come with me?" JJ asked, looking over to the raven-haired agent. Prentiss nodded and smiled, patting Morgan on the shoulder "Have fun in there, baby-sitting the two year old. As the two female agents walked away, Morgan stood there stunned not knowing how he just got left alone with a toddler. A loud grumbling sound broke him out of his stupor, looking down at the brown-haired child in his arms he laughed " I guess we better get some food into you before your stomach decides to rebel."
Back in the department store, JJ and Prentiss had split up deciding to divide and conquer the list of items that JJ decided they needed . JJ went to the toddler section and started picking out clothes that would fit Spencer. After selecting a few outfits and pajamas, JJ grabbed a few packages of socks and underwear off the shelves. Sighing she went over to the diaper section, she knew that Spencer would protest but until they were sure that he was fully potty trained JJ decided to pick up some pull ups and wipes just in case. Meeting up with Prentiss at the checkout counter, JJ looked over seeing that her comrade was successful in her mission to find all of her supplies. Prentiss had found a car seat as well as picking up some juice boxes and cookies. Seeing a cute floppy dog on the way out, JJ decided to add it to the cart as well.
After dropping off their purchases in the SUV, the girls made their way into the fast food restaurant in search of the boys. Spotting Morgan they made their way over to where he was seated, JJ frowned as they got closer not seeing Spencer at the table. Walking up JJ exclaimed "Morgan, where's Spence did you lose him already?!" "Chill out JJ, I didn't lose the rugrat he's over there in the play place. I thought it would be good to allow him to run off some of that energy." Morgan said pointing over to the indoor playground that was next to the tables in the restaurant. "Well I'll go over and collect him them, Emily and I are ready to go" JJ said as she made her way over to the children's playground. Not seeing Spencer running around with the other children, she walked further into the play place looking for the mop haired child. Spotting his pajamas, JJ made her way over and stopped in her tracks when she saw what he was doing, cooing over the boy's cuteness. It seemed that Spencer conked out in the midst of playing as he was curled up inside one of the plastic tubes fast asleep. Crawling in beside him, JJ gathered the toddler in her arms and made her way back to the table.
Cleaning up their table, Morgan and Prentiss looked up to see JJ approaching with a fast asleep Spencer in her arms. "Looks like he really did get all of his energy out, I guess it's time to go back to the hotel" Morgan said grabbing the takeout food and car keys from the table. Outside, stopping to set up the car seat and strapping Spencer in, the agents were on their way back to the hotel.
Back at the police station, Rossi and Hotch looked up as a young police officer rushed in waving an envelope in his hands. "Sirs, a message just got dropped off addressed to you guys. It's about the explosion that happened this morning." Rossi and Hotch looked at each other rushing over to see what the message had to say.
AN: And I am going to leave it there for some suspense. Don't worry Garcia will be making an appearance soon in the next few chapters. Also warning you now I don't know how often I am going to update this story.