The First Day at the BAU

"Nobody is ever going to take me seriously!" – Lamented Reid, nervously twirling a longish brown lock of hair between his trembling fingers. – "I mean: look at me! I look like a teenager playing dress up in his grandfather's closet! They will all laugh at me! Or worse: beat me up!"

Gideon had to suppress his laughter; it wouldn't do for the boy to think he was mocking him. In reality, he simply found the young man's insecure rambling immensely endearing.

He placed his right hand on the boy's shoulder instead to steady his flailing arms. He knew of course that Reid didn't like being touched but luckily: the friendly pat from his mentor seemed to calm him slightly nonetheless rather than worsen things further.

"Listen, Spencer. You have nothing to worry about, all right? You'll find that our team is like a family; nobody is going to tease you there. And Hotch and I will be with you all the time in the beginning."

"But-"

"Spencer: do you trust me?"

"I…" – Reid closed his eyes and leaned back, resting his head against the worn leather seat of Gideon's battered, ancient Jeep Cherokee. Jason Gideon, as senior profiler of the Behavioral Analyst Unit of the FBI could, of course, afford a newer, better car anytime, he just couldn't see why he should bother: he normally only ever used it for getting to and from work or to go birdwatching out into the untouched nature. Neither of these required a prestigious sports car, in his opinion.

"Do you?" – The older man gently pressed and patiently waited until his protege tiredly opened one eye and scooted a bit sideways to be able to look at him.

"Yes, of course, Gideon, you know I do. Otherwise I wouldn't even be here. If I didn't trust you, I'd still be at Caltech, working on my fourth doctorate, like I was planning originally." – Judging by his tone, at that precise moment he wasn't so sure he had made the right decision by moving from Vegas all the way to Virginia and enrolling at the FBI Academy in Quantico.

"And do you trust Hotch?"

Reid pondered on that question for a while. It was okay though: trust didn't come easy for the young man and he also wasn't in habit of making unfounded statements. But when he finally answered, it was with complete honesty and determination.

"He helped me a lot during my time at the Academy with all my… difficulties. And he never once made fun of me. Yes, I do trust him." – He nodded, neglecting to mention that most of the help from both the older agents consisted of getting him out of having to complete the more physically demanding parts of his training program in the first place. Namely anything that required strength, stamina or the ability to shoot with a real weapon and actually meet the target. Really, anything that made an agent…

"Then why are you afraid?" – Asked the older man, effectively cutting off the frightened youngster's dark thoughts, preventing them from turning even more self-loathing; at least temporarily.

Reid sighed, and sat up straighter.

"There are others in the building, Gideon, not just members of your team-"

"OUR team, Spencer. You're part of it now."

"Fine. Our team then. But there are other agents who are all stronger, faster and better than I am. I think even a newborn kitten is better than me… That's why I'm afraid. I've been bullied my whole life."

Gideon knew the boy was right: he had indeed been bullied his whole life. It made his blood boil whenever he got the mental image of a small, scrawny and scared Spencer Reid trying and failing to outrun his much bigger and stronger tormentors. What kind of sick eighteen-year-old can hurt a tiny eleven-year-old child? And to think that said child hadn't even had a supporting family to help him through it all…

"I will never let that happen to you, ever again. I swear that as long as I'm around, nobody will as much as look at you the wrong way and get away with it." – He promised sincerely.

"And when you're not around…?"

"I will be. And Hotch and all the others too. It's gonna be fine; you'll see." – The youngest agent ever couldn't seem to find words to that, so, taking that as his cue, Gideon gathered his things and unbuckled his seat belt. – "May we go inside now?"

Reid looked for a second or two like a deer caught in the headlights but made Gideon immensely proud by squaring his shoulders, taking a deep breath and replying:

"Yeah. Let's get this over with."

It would be all right, he knew. He had his mentor right there beside him. Gideon had promised he wouldn't leave him after all and the man always kept his promises.