Animals Your Soul Will Guide
Summary: Also known as "Three Things That Had Nothing To Do with Reid Adopting a Cat." Nope, nothing at all. Bittersweet fluff. Same universe as 'All That is Not Mine.'
Genre: Family
Setting: Late season 8, early season 9. Title inspired by 'The Great Estates' by Freelance Whales. Listen while reading for extra feels.
1. Henry asked.
"Uncle Spence, you should get a cat."
Henry swung his feet back and forth, gripping the edge of the desk as mandated while staring wistfully at JJ's office door. She was wrapping up a meeting with Hotch and had allowed her firstborn to wait with Reid, on the condition that they both were on their Very Best Behaviour.
"Oh yeah? Why is that?" Reid responded, half-distracted by the file he was flipping through. Fortunately, this one did not contain any crime scene photos, so he could continue working with a child present.
"'Cause Kyle Collins has a cat and I can't play at his place no more cause his dad's auspicious."
"Suspicious?" Reid corrected distantly, turning a page.
"Some kinda spicious." Henry affirmed, swinging his feet higher and chewing on his lip.
He circled a number of dates in the credit card history for Garcia to follow up with. "I thought you wanted a puppy for your birthday."
His godson let out a huffy breath, as though he'd been over that topic recently.
"Mommy doesn't like dogs."
2. Will was Allergic.
Maybe it was petty.
Alright, it was completely and totally petty. Pettiness defined.
After a few years, he liked to think that he was over his crush on JJ. But it didn't help that the man she had eventually chosen shared a name with Reid's father. Will was so smooth, so effortlessly cool, so action-oriented; everything Reid was not.
He had plenty of respect for Will as a father to Henry and a husband to JJ. But as a person, he couldn't help nursing the tiniest grudge.
The realization came on one of those bizarre cases where the BAU collaborated with Metro PD, while Reid and Will were investigating a suspect's house. The place was a mess. It had either been abandoned for days or their suspect took serious offense to vaccuuming. Either way, when they entered the living room Will began to sneeze uncontrollably, holstering his gun and bracing himself against a doorframe until the attack passed.
"Allergies?" Reid commented, eyeing claw marks on the furniture and long hairs dusting every flat surface.
"Yeah. Usually it's not s'bad, but this guy must have three of the damn things." Will sniffed, rubbing his eyes. "Let's get this over with. I can't stick around a cat house."
Reid made an appropriately sympathetic noise and filed the information away.
3. Loneliness.
JJ, of course, had Henry and Will.
Hotch had Jack and Beth.
Blake had her husband.
Garcia had Kevin or Sam or whatever was actually going on there.
Morgan had Savannah and Clooney.
Rossi had a dog, whose name escaped him at the moment.
At the end of a grueling case, when wheels hit tarmac and he came home to a dark apartment, Reid had a pad of stationary and two copies of The Narrative of John Smith.
And didn't that just ache.
He'd been on his own for years, but after M- after everything, he'd had a new appreciation for companionship in an otherwise solitary life.
Not one for stereotypes, Reid didn't want the become the male equivalent of a cat lady. Still, the idea of having something there when he came home at the end of the day; something as independant, clever, and occasionally antisocial as himself...
The next Saturday afternoon, Reid found himself wandering into an animal shelter. Purely on a whim. He hadn't intended on walking out with a grey-striped tabby that was a tad on the mangy side. Nevertheless, when he locked amber eyes with the sulky feline, he smiled. Then he caught a glimpse of the nameplate on the cage and the decision was made for him.
A few hours later, Reid's apartment became a household as he brought home Schrödie the cat.
Although his eidetic memory mainly retained visual information, Reid was certain he'd remember Henry's cry of delight for a long time.
Yeah, the cat's name is Schrödinger. I'm usually a dog person, but a cat seems to fit Reid so much better.
Review with a prompt if you'd like more Reid and Henry godfatherly goodness. There's a thing or two in simmering in my mental crock-pot at the moment..
Don't write the story. Live the story.