A/N: As I said in the summary, this is a continuation/sequel to my first Criminal Minds Fic: Who helps the outcasts. Hopefully if you are reading this you have already read that fic. This fic will cover Paris Reid, Spencer's younger half brother as he starts his new life in Virginia striving to become an agent when he grows up like his brother.

August 15th 2006

"We made sure you were on a direct flight so you don't have to worry about changing planes ok?"

"Thanks Uncle Eric," Paris said softly, looking apprehensively at the large terminal before him. He hated to fly, actually was terrified of it was the better phrase, he was especially nervous about flying alone.

"Are you sure you're going to be all right Paris?" Lori asked kneeling in front of him,

"That's right kid, it's not to late to change flights if you'd feel better with us going." Paris made a face and shook his head

"I'll be ok." He replied looking down the terminal again.

"Spencer is going to meet you at the airport, if you don't see him do not wander ok kid?" Eric gave him a look

"What, do I look insane to you?" Paris shot back with a grin. Lori reached forward and hugged him close

"I'm not ready to let you go." She whispered

"Empty nest syndrome Aunt Lori?" Paris asked with a sly grin, she responded by hugging him tighter

"Um, honey I think you're suffocating him." Eric spoke up,

"Janet at school is hard enough, but she's close, I'm not ready for Paris to be 2,000 miles from us!"

"2,452 miles actually" Paris said before thinking, he could see tears welling up in Lori's eyes and reached forward to hug her tight "sorry Aunt Lori, not helping huh?"

"It's ok Paris, I'm just going to miss you so much." Eric took her hand gently

"Honey, he's going to miss his flight, he still has to go through security." Lori nodded and reached over to grab Paris again kissing his cheek

"I love you,"

"Love you too Auntie Lori." Paris replied as she finally released him, Eric reached over and put a hand on Paris's shoulder leading him away

"I'll be right back, I'll make sure he gets through ok." The pair walked to the metal detectors. Paris froze mid step Eric looked at him confused "Xander?"

"They're not gonna make me take…" Eric saw where Paris was going and chuckled, before shaking his head

"I don't think you have to worry about that, you do have to take your shoes off pal." They reached the metal detectors and the guard instructed Paris what he needed to do, quickly Paris slipped off his watch, his glasses and his medical bracelet and with his wallet and cell phone put these into the basket while the guard waved the wand over him carefully.

"No carry-ons?" the guard asked looking at Eric

"Just this backpack." Eric replied stepping forward and handing it to the guard, he lowered his voice so Paris couldn't hear and showed his LVPD badge. "He's my nephew, going away to school in Virginia, his aunt and I got him a laptop for school but it's a congratulation gift that we want him to open on the plane. You can check the whole thing, just please don't let him see it."

"Going away for school huh?" The guard started "little young for college isn't he?"

"Preparatory school, but he could go to college now if he wants." The guard rubbed his chin thoughtfully as Paris looked back trying to figure out what the hold up was

"No problem, he's going to have to wait a few minutes while I look it through."

"Uncle Eric?" Paris called, panic quickly replacing his curiosity."

"It's ok Paris, they just have to check your backpack."

Paris settled down in his seat and watched as the other passengers boarded the plane. He felt his heart pick up speed as the time moved closer to the plan taxiing out, he hated flying, he was literally terrified of it. His anxiety was so strong that Leslie nearly had to cancel their half of the family vacation with Eric, Lori, and Janet to Disney World when Paris was six.

So Eric and Lori were extremely surprised that Paris hadn't minded taking the flight to Virginia alone. What they didn't realize was deep down, Paris knew he had to do this, and he had to do it alone.

Alone he had begun researching the schools, after of course finding information on private schools on the East coast. Finding that information had been a rare chance, he had found Leslie's old computer and had remembered that one of his favorite games was saved on the machine. Turning the system on and surfing around, Paris had found a word document labeled Private schools.

The more research Paris did, the more he came to realize that Leslie had been planning on moving them east as soon as his adoption papers were cleared. He knew she loved the ocean and water in general and wasn't fond of the desert, especially the heat that came with it. Her company was all over the country so a transfer would have been simple, but Paris couldn't believe she was willing to leave Eric and Lori, but it had to be true, she was looking at house listings, checking on the private schools.

One school had been highlighted in the computer, the Carlisle School in Virginia. But this school was at least four hours from the beach, which meant, Leslie had been willing to give up her beach home so that Paris could attend a school designed for him.

Though as Paris unearthed, she wouldn't have been completely away from the water given one of the houses on her list of properties was a house right on a small mountain lake in a town about an hour from the school called Penhook.

The house was still up on the site and Paris automatically understood why Leslie would have picked that house. He had felt a pit in his stomach wishing it had actually become theirs. It had three bedrooms on the second floor and a loft overlooking the first two floors, the master bedroom was huge and the other two bedrooms could have easily have served as a guest room and small office/library for the pair's master collection of books.

The first floor had its own office space a large stone fire place in the family room which Leslie would've loved and the cellar was a furnished basement. The house was right on the lake and both the master bedroom and the loft over looked it. The kitchen was perfect size for Leslie to do all her cooking experiments and so much space all around that Paris knew he could've persuaded his mom to let him get a dog, a big dog for that matter.

Knowing that his going to this school was what she wanted for him, Paris did all he could to get in. He retook the IQ test with support of his brother, he began applying and bugging the school to send him the application and the biggest thing of all he begged his brother take partial custody of him, even though that proved to be the easiest part of the entire situation.

That had also been the most important part, the Williamsons had been fighting Paris's caseworker for months nearly a year and she wasn't budging. If Spencer hadn't agreed as a blood relative to take custody of Paris, he wouldn't be going to Carlisle. As long as Paris was considered a foster kid he wouldn't be able to go to any school outside of Nevada, even though the Williamsons had been trying desperately to adopt him which would have changed everything. But with a blood relative stepping forward, Paris was instantly taken out of the foster system and the Williamsons and Spencer agreed to joint custody to get Paris out of the system.

And now here he sat, on a plane, as it prepared to taxi out, taking him to Virginia to be with his half brother and attend a school his mom, his real mom not his birth mom wanted him to be at.

The flight attendants went down the aisle making sure everyone's seats were fastened and seeing how nervous Paris was, she paid especial attention to him and would so throughout the flight.

When the plane had finally taxied out, Paris held his breath as the plane began its trip down the runway before taking off into the clear sky. Positive he was going to regret this decision, Paris leaned over and looked out the small oval shaped window, looking down at the city he had called home for his entire life.

It was actually kind of cool and as the plane went higher, the city became harder and harder to see, for a second Paris wished he had a nighttime flight. He had never seen Vegas from high up at night before and knew it would be a great sight.

Once the plane had leveled and the seatbelt light disappeared, Paris was offered a soda by the stewardess and told he could use electronics now.

Curious as to why Eric had told him he couldn't look in his backpack until he was in the air, Paris reached under his seat and pulled his bag out. He slowly unzipped the main compartment unsure what he was going to find. Needless to say, he was shocked to see a laptop computer, he couldn't help the 'cool' that slipped out as he turned it on.

It was instant start up and once it had gone to the log in screen, Paris grinned and clicked the image of a chess piece.

The usual programs were on the start up screen and Paris had been about to click on the games icon when a folder caught his attention. 'Paris, read first' it was labeled and Paris used the touch pad to open the folder.

Inside were a few photo and video documents, but it was the word document that was titled 'Me first'. Taking a deep breath Paris opened the file. It was a note from Janet, typed in pink and purple font and in a cursive style.

'Paris, I knew you'd learn to follow directions eventually glad you didn't get distracted by the game icon, but before you start whining, I loaded all your favorite games on here and they are all in your CD slip case. Dad wanted me to type this up for you. Hopefully while you are reading this, Nevada is far below you and the rest of the country is out in front. If there is no one seated next to you, put this computer on the seat and reach into your backpack, if someone is sitting there, figure it out, you need to get something out of your backpack.'

Really confused, Paris did as Janet instructed, no one was seated next to him, so he gently lay the laptop on the cushion and reached into his backpack. His fingers brushed up against a pair of headphones, brand new noise canceling headphones from Bose. A grin swept over his face as he admired them for a second, before putting them on and opening his computer again.

'Ok, now stop admiring them and put them on…are they on? Good, plug them in.' Paris rolled his eyes and did this.

'Now, your mission if you should choose to complete it is as follows. Minimize this document and open up the first video document next to this…' Paris raised an eyebrow and kept reading 'kid, what I told you, minimize this sucker already, at this rate you'll be in Virginia by the time you figure this out. I thought you were some super genius kid what happened to that IQ of what, 183?'

Paris minimized the document and double clicked on the video labeled simply 'watch me next.'

It took only a second to load in windows media player and when it did, Paris clicked on the play button on the laptop itself.

Eric and Lori were seated on the front step of their house, it was dusk, the sun was just starting to set…Paris's favorite time of day. Janet must have been holding the camera, because he could hear her giggling in the background, right near the microphone.

"Hi sweetie!" Lori called

"See you found your computer Xander," Eric added

"We wanted to give you a gift as a way of saying congratulations on not only making it into Carlisle, but for how much you have grown up in the last few months. Not just with your decision to go away to school, but the fact that you allowed your true potential to show, something that we are very proud of and your mom would be and is very proud of you for. Leslie knew the minute she saw you that you were a special kid and your happiness and success was all she ever wanted."

"Paris you don't know this, but before you were born, Leslie was going through a rough time. We have decided together that if you are old enough and mature enough to go so far from your comfort zone for school, then you are old enough to hear this. You know of course your grandmother died of breast cancer just two years before you were born, but what you don't know is how depressed Leslie became afterwards. It was not a good time for your mom those years Xander, she was going downhill fast, and we weren't sure what to do, she stopped fostering, took herself off the list. Leslie was planning on moving to Cape Cod just to get away. She found a house on the web and was all set to move."

"I didn't think that that was going to help her and I knew we wouldn't be able to help her so far away." Lori spoke up, smiling at the camera

"And then, two days before she was going to put money down on the house, she got a phone call from her social worker friend Erin Lowe. A baby had just been born four months premature and needed an experienced trustworthy foster parent and Leslie was the first and only person she could think of who she trusted. The mother had given up custody of the baby right before going into labor and so aside from the nurses the baby had no one, not even a proper name. Leslie wasn't ready Paris, not ready to open her heart up to someone, but her friend insisted she at least come in." Eric added

"All babies need to be held and touched, it helps with development and is especially true for premies, so Erin asked if Leslie could just come in and hold the newborn, give him all the attention she could so he would at least have a chance to survive."

"Knowing that was true, Leslie agreed and went into the hospital as a volunteer, nothing more."

"When your mom walked into the NICU she instantly felt drawn to you, she knew you right off the bat and could barely wait to hold you, even if it was just in the palm of her hand, because you were still to small to be held in her arms. It took all of two seconds Paris for her to decide that you belonged with her. It was love at first sight honey she couldn't take her eyes off of you." Lori said softly, a tear rolling down her face.

"Paris, we never told you how lucky you were to have survived. When we first met you, a few days after you were born you were the tiniest thing any of us had ever seen. Barely bigger than my eyeglass case, you were in an incubator and on a ventilator. But you were a fighter, you were determined to live and you did just that, you proved all the doctors wrong."

"What you also don't know Paris is just what you did for your mom. You saved her Paris, just by surviving; you brought her back from depression, she was feeling worthless and useless, it was a subconscious feeling because she couldn't save Aunt Beth, but you showed her that she was needed, better than any of us telling her she was needed, sometimes grownups need to see something for it to be true and this is what you did for your mom. You both needed each other and you both survived because of one another. You were Leslie's world Paris her whole world and we wanted you to know that. She would be so proud of everything you have done and everything you will do."

"We know you feel like you're betraying Leslie's memory by going to your brother. But you are not, get that thought out of your head right now. If Leslie had known what we know now she would have used it to get you further than before. She wanted you to go to a good school and onto a good college, she wanted you to embrace your intelligence and not ignore it or be ashamed of it and by accepting your brother you are doing just that, you are allowing yourself to take the first steps to reach your goals."

"We wanted you to hear all of this because you needed to hear it and Janet suggested it would have a bigger impact on you if we did it this way as opposed to us sitting you down and lecturing you, she figured you'd be less likely to tune us out." Paris chuckled at that and rubbed his eyes a bit.

"We love you Paris wherever you live and whatever you do that will always be true, you are our nephew. When you get to Virginia call Uncle Eric's cell phone and let us know you got there safe and let us know what you think of your new computer. Remember it's not just for school work it's to have fun with too."

"Every now and then you forget that you're a kid, don't forget that ok? You are a kid, so act like it!"

The video faded out, with Eric and Lori waving at the camera and as Paris clicked the video closed, he sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a poker chip, Leslie had given it to him as a good luck piece when he was five and on his way to kindergarten it was from Excalibur.

Before his FBI phase, which turned out to be more than just a passing phase, Paris had been enthralled by King Arthur, knights, and medieval things in general. So on top of the toy swords, dragon stuffed animals, crowns, and other things that made up the Arthurian legends, Leslie added the poker chip from Excalibur. She had reminded Paris he couldn't go to his first day dressed in plastic armor and carry a plastic sword and shield, so she gave him the poker chip that way he had something from his knighthood collection, but was something that he could simply keep in his pocket.

Paris had outgrown the knight stuff a few years later, but kept most of the trinkets aside from the plastic toys, including his poker chip.

Now he looked down at the poker chip in his hand, the image of King Arthur's sword and the casinos namesake designed on one side and the name Excalibur on the other.

"Love you mom," he whispered before putting the chip back in his pocket. Sighing and daring to look out the window, Paris shuddered and turned his attention back to the laptop and the CD case that held all his computer games.

A/N: Just to let you guys know, the updating on this fic will be as often as I can, however it will not be every week, but I promise it will not be months between updates. There will be connections with actual episodes in this fic in the future, including the Fisher King episode which will take the most prominence. Hope everyone enjoys!