Take Your Dad to Work Day
A/N: Hello, everyone! Welcome to my very first attempt at a Criminal Minds case-fic! I hope I don't fail too horribly at this! I started writing this before the second half of this season, so Reid is still on a cane for part of the story… This is un-beta-ed, I apologize for any mistakes… Also, I have this all written out in advance, so you guys won't have unstable update times! Anyway, enough rambling; enjoy!
General Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure I'll only have to say this once: I do NOT own anything recognizable that may or may not be mentioned in the following chapters. For good reason.
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Chapter One: Eat Your Heart Out -or- Why We Should Think These Things Through
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Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That's the only proper basis for family life.
~Oscar Wilde
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William Reid looked around the busy office, feeling completely out of place. He really hadn't allowed himself to think about what he was doing until this point. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized that taking a week off from work and flying across the country to surprise his son at the FBI office in Quantico may have been an ill-conceived plan. But then, thinking ahead had never been his strong suit. It was too late now, anyway; he may as well find his son and get the initial shock over with now. "Excuse me," he called out to a passing agent, "Do you know where I could find Dr. Spencer Reid?"
The woman looked him up and down and then turned, pointing towards a group of desks. "His desk is over there, but he's not here yet. You can go over and wait if you'd like." She said politely.
"Ah- sure, thank you." William wandered in the direction of his son's desk.
None of the other desks were occupied either. It was fairly early, he reasoned. However, if he remembered correctly, Spencer had always liked to be punctual, or even early. William leaned against the desk, fingering his visitor's pass nervously and glancing over the desktop. Though he fought the urge to snoop inside his son's desk, he reasoned that could hardly be blamed for looking at what was in plain sight.
The desk was neat- cluttered, but in an organized manner. There were two stacks of folders, probably case files, William assumed. One corner of the desk was taken up by books, which didn't surprise him the least. There were general items one would expect to find on the desk of a government employee: papers, stacked shelves, folders, writing utensils, paper clips; but something stood out to William on the far end of the desk. Two small, silver picture frames. One was a photo of Spencer with two men William recognized, and four people he did not. He assumed this was the rest of the BAU. The other photo was of Diana.
William smiled wistfully at the photo, reaching out to touch it but pulling his hand back at the last second. She looked so happy in the photo. She sat at a table with a book, but she looked at the camera. It looked as though she was laughing. It must have been Spencer who took that photo; he was the only one that could consistently make Diana laugh. However, William was pulled suddenly out of his reverie by an unexpected voice behind him. "Excuse me, can I help you with something?" The voice was all-too-familiar and William knew it was time for face his son.
However, as he turned around, he certainly wasn't prepared for what he saw. His son was leaning heavily on a cane. "Spencer, what happened?" William found himself blurting out.
His son's expression turned from one of shock to anger. "What are you doing here?" He hissed, ignoring William's question.
"I- uh…" William found that he had suddenly forgotten everything he was going to say to Spencer. "Surprise?"
Spencer's eyes narrowed as he quickly closed the distance between himself and his father- much quicker than William though was entirely possible on a cane. Spencer dropped his bag on the floor and hooked cane of the arm of the chair, then turned away from William. "Come with me." He said quietly, heading for a door off to the side of the office.
William followed without a word, watching his son's ungainly walk with unease. However, hid didn't think health advice would be much appreciated right now. He entered an empty office and Spencer closed the door behind them.
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Reid couldn't believe it. How dare his father just show up out of nowhere? Didn't he understand that Reid didn't want anything to do with him? Or just how much damage he had done by leaving? Reid dew in a breath, dropped his belongings by his desk and told his father to follow him. He did not want to lose his temper, but if he did, he didn't want to do it in the open.
He limped towards an empty office, ignoring the nagging pain in his leg; of all the days for the wound to act up… He shut the door after William and leaned against it. He glared in his father's direction and waited for the man to speak. "I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, either…" William said finally.
When Reid didn't respond, William continued. "I- it didn't seem right to leave things the way we did in Vegas. I wanted a chance to explain… set things straight."
"You explained already." Reid said coldly.
"I also wanted to the chance to get to know you, and maybe spend some time with you." William said quietly, sure of what his son's answer would be.
"You had 18 years you could have spent with me, but you wasted them. I honestly don't care what you want. This time, I'm doing what I want, and what I want is to go back to work for you to go back to Las Vegas and leave me alone. Just like last time." Reid told him, the rage he had suppressed for so many years working its way into his voice.
William opened his mouth to speak, but Reid had already opened the door and was in the process of storming out, nearly knocking over Emily on the way out. Reid turned his attention to her, but when he realized who it was, his expression softened. "Sorry." He muttered before heading back to his desk.
Emily watched Reid go, bewildered. She had seen the young genius that angry only once before. She turned to the room he had just left and saw there was a man standing in there. He was tall and thin and looked to be about in his 50s. He looked incredibly familiar.
Shaking off the feeling that she knew the man standing, dumbstruck, in that room, she continued to her desk to put down her things and find out what was wrong with Reid. She found her young friend sitting at his desk, glaring down at a case file as though had personally insulted him. Glancing over at Morgan, who had arrived shortly before her, she found that her colleague was just as confused as she was. However, as the man from before ventured over to the desks, it seemed things were about to be cleared up.
Reid pointedly ignored William, but as soon as Morgan saw him, a look of surprise settled on his features. "Ah- Agent Morgan." William greeted the profiler quietly.
The tension in the room suddenly increased as Morgan's look turned to one of anger. Reid also looked angry but concentrated completely on the folder in front of him. Emily was still confused, she looked from Morgan to Reid to William, who she still couldn't identify, and back again. It seemed as though the tense silence would go on forever, but JJ suddenly broke in on the group. "We have a case, it's pretty bad and- am I interrupting something?" JJ asked, looking from person to person.
Reid abruptly stood up, snatched up his cane, and headed for the briefing room. JJ turned to watch him go before speaking when he was out of earshot. "What's up with Reid?"
Emily looked expectantly at Morgan, who seemed to know what was going on. After a moment, he spoke. "This," Morgan gestured towards William, still glaring. "Is William Reid."
With that announcement, Morgan left. JJ and Emily looked on William with surprise for a moment before they, too, left the bullpen. William watched them all disappear into the briefing room before slumping into Reid's desk chair. That could have gone better…
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Hotch and Rossi were already positioned around the round table when Reid stalked in, looking incredibly pissed off. Exchanging glances with Rossi, Hotch opened his mouth to ask what was wrong when Morgan came in, also looking none-too-happy. He was followed closely by JJ and Emily, who didn't look very pleased either.
Morgan and Prentiss sat down at the table with Reid, Hotch and Rossi, and JJ took her place in front of the screen. Glancing around at his subordinate's faces and seeing a range of emotion from anger to disappointment, Hotch felt the need to speak up. "What happened?"
No one spoke for a long minute, but then Reid raised his hand and pointed down into the bullpen. Hotch and Rossi both turned to look and saw William sitting at Reid's desk. Hotch's eyebrows knit together in confusion, but Rossi nodded slightly in understanding. "William Reid."
Hotch's head snapped back in Reid's direction. He remembered the way Reid's judgment had become… clouded the last time he had dealt with his father; not that Hotch really blamed him. "Are you going to be able to concentrate on the case?" He asked the younger man.
Reid nodded slightly, not meeting Hotch's gaze. "Reid." Hotch said more sharply.
"I'll be fine!" Reid snapped.
No one said anything, surprised by the young profiler's harsh tone. "I'm sorry. I'll be alright." Reid said more gently. "He'll leave soon, anyway."
After a moment, Hotch nodded and then looked over at JJ, prompting her to begin the briefing. However, before JJ had the chance to speak, Garcia came bustling in, laptop in her arms. "I am so sorry, my babies were giving me some trouble, but I've worked my magic on them and I assure you they are back in action and ready to track down our latest sicko." She said in a rush, sitting down at the table and opening her laptop.
JJ smiled a little at the tech before switching immediately into her briefing mode. "There have been three murders right here in D.C. The first took place two weeks ago and the second exactly one week later. The third was earlier this morning, which is when the head detective immediately put in for our help." JJ brought up two pictures on the screen.
The two men in the pictures looked very similar. They both had dark hair and dark eyes. They were both of lean build and wore glasses. They looked to be in their early 30s.
Pointing to the first picture, JJ began to explain. "The first victim, Marcus Whitman, was found beaten to death on a Friday morning in an ally in a bad neighborhood not far from here. The second victim, Daren Lorry, never came home last Thursday and was found dead the following morning about a block from the first murder. This morning's victim hasn't been identified yet, but he was found outside the emergency room of a small hospital near the other two dump sites."
"Emergency room?" Rossi asked, slightly confused. "A sign of remorse?"
"Ah- no, I don't think so. He was definitely dead when he was left there." JJ told them. "And there is evidence that, while the first victim was killed in the alley, the last two were killed somewhere else and left in the open."
"He keeps leaving bodies in higher risk places. He's evolving very quickly." Hotch observed.
"Was there any other connection between the murders besides appearance and cause of death?" Morgan asked.
"Two things… all the victims' hearts have been cut out, cut into pieces and left scattered around the victim." JJ put two different pictures up on the screen.
The pictures were of the first two victims, chests opened and bloody pieces of what must have been their own hearts around them. Garcia quickly looked away from the screen; it wasn't her job to look at things like that. Everyone else's eyes widened slightly. Reid recovered first, looking back at his teammates. "The heart is very symbolic. In most cases when the heart is taken, it's an indication of cannibalism or a ritualistic killing, but in this case, the heart was returned to the victim in pieces…"
"A definite indication of anger." Emily said.
"Perhaps symbolizing a broken heart?" Rossi suggested.
"What was the other connection?" Hotch asked JJ.
"A piece of paper was found stuffed in each of the victims' hands. This is what they all said." JJ brought up a final picture of a wrinkled slip of paper with a message scrawled across it.
"Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That's the only proper basis for family life." Reid read aloud. "That's Oscar Wilde."
Everyone glanced rather conspicuously at the young genius. The irony was not lost on them. Reid shifted uncomfortably before Hotch broke the awkward silence. "Okay, Morgan, Rossi, you two check out the first crime scene. Prentiss and Reid, you two take the second. JJ, you and I will meet up with the head detective at this morning's scene."
"I'll start digging through the lives of victims one and two and see if I can find any connections." Garcia chimed in.
"Good. Let's go." Hotch said, standing up from the table.
With their orders, the rest of the team stood up and headed out.
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A/N: And there it is. Chapter one! Hoorah! …Okay, there'll be more in a couple of days. Review if you'd like, it would make me very happy…