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A/n this is set right after "The Angel Maker," and is inspired by what Emily said to Reid: "he's very life-like."
Reid dropped his ready and messenger bags on the floor next to the front door and coded in the alarm. He noticed as he lifted his bags after making sure the door was locked, that the sun had almost set. He hurried into his room and set the bags near the dirty clothes hamper. He should stop to unpack the bag and repack it, but there was something wrong with him and he had to find out what it was.
He was very aware of his phone in his pants pocket. For a minute, he thought he should just ignore the feeling that something was wrong and just get organized for the next day. It was just a fluke, it wouldn't happen again. He pulled out the phone and looked at it. It seemed to call to him and he opened it… No, he wouldn't make that call. He tossed it on the bed and went to his ready bag.
His bag was half unpacked when he stopped and picked up his phone again. This feeling wasn't going to leave him alone till he talked to him. He dropped the phone into the jacket he grabbed from the closet. It was better if he just showed up instead of calling.
--
The lights in the little shop were blazing brightly out onto the street when he parked forty minutes later. The closed sign was up, so Reid went around to the back of the small building and knocked on the door.
"Whose there," a gruff voice tinged with a heavy German accent called out.
"It's me, Spencer," He answered.
There was silence for a minute and then Reid could hear German oaths issuing from behind the door, and over the sound of bolts being thrown back.
The door flew open and a small man with short, white hair, that resembled cotton candy and a full beard, peered up at him through coke bottle glasses. His face was as pink as a baby's and he was rail thin. His skin was un-lined, and normally he smiled brightly, but not that night.
"What do you vant Spencer…?" He stood in the doorway blocking the young man's way into his workshop.
"I need to see you. There's something wrong with me."
"Bah… you are - how you say - perfect. Go away and don't bother me. I am busy."
Reid put a hand on the door and the man scowled darkly up at him. "Don't make me dial that phone number Spencer."
"Please let me in…" Reid pleaded.
The man looked up at the tall, thin man in front of him and sighed. "Fine… Come in, but don't stay long. I must get this order out tonight."
"I won't I just need to talk to you and…" Reid trailed off when the old man grabbed his arm with surprising strength and yanked him in the door. He slammed the door and gestured to his work table.
The room was small with tools littering a table. There were arm, and legs, and heads all over the surface of the scarred work space. The dolls, in various stages of construction made the room look like a crime scene and Reid shuddered.
"Are you going to tell me vhat fly is in your bonnet, or do I have to guess?"
"Bee…" Reid said absently, still surveying the paint, and the glue, and more doll parts on the work table.
"Bee…" the man repeated. "What is this "bee?" He demanded.
"You said fly in my bonnet; it's supposed to be, 'bee in my bonnet.'"
"Yes, yes… so I mess it up. I am not here to get slang right. I am a doll maker. What do you vant?"
He said very impatiently.
"There's something wrong with me."
"What do you think is vong vith you?"
"I don't know… We had a case and Emily -"
"Ah yes… She is the one that you - how you say - think is smoking hot."
Reid felt his face getting very hot. "Yes, She said to me, in front of everyone after poking my cheek, 'he's so life like.'"
"So what, it does not mean anything."
"Yes it does, it means there's a problem. I need you to check and make sure. She wouldn't say that if she didn't think there was something not human about me."
"You waste my time on trifles, ya…"
"It's not a trifle. What if there's something wrong and they start to get suspicious."
"They are not getting suspicious. You are perfect… I should know - I made you that vey."
"But…"
"I vill show you and then you vill go home, ya."
He gestured to a chair and Reid sat down. The old man went to a cupboard and opened it. Inside there were flashing lights and monitors of the computer system the old man had built. It was so sophisticated that he had to keep it hidden behind lead-lined doors. Reid thought that Garcia would kill to get her hands on that system. The man picked up some tools and approached Reid.
"Now… just hold still, it vill not hurt."
He touched the base of Reid skull and a piece of it popped out and rose on invisible hinges. The inside looked like the computers in the cabinet with blinking lights and metal. The toy maker went to work with his tools while Reid sat staring at the wall, his mind blissfully blank for once.
--
"I told you there vas nothing wrong. You are perfect. All my tests prove it."
The toy maker's tone was gentler now that he was sure his finest creation was in top working order. He went around the chair to look Reid in the eye when he spoke.
"Vhy do you think you something is vrong."
"Emily said that to me, and I started to think that maybe I had done something to make her think that I was less than human."
"Spencer, you are the perfect marriage of biological and computer. I made you to do much good in this vorld and you have. I am very proud of you. If your friends think you are something more than you are then I say my vork is a success."
"Do you really think so?"
"Yes… your programming is perfect. Go back to your home and rest. You vill need your strength for the next case."
He put a fatherly arm around Reid and steered him out the door. "You vill go back and you vill be fine and no one vill be the viser. You have hidden very well so far and you vill continue to vork and help others. This is the reason for your creation. Do not let the little vords said in thoughtlessness get you down."
Reid smiled at his friend and creator, the only real father he had known. "I will…"
"Good, now go home so I can finish my vork."
THE END