(Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or it's characters.)
From One Leaky Roof To Another
Summary:
AU. Spencer Reid has had to relearn the word 'family' countless times in his short life. His newest family have no idea what kind of life Spencer Reid has led, but one thing is for sure; it wasn't a happy one. When Spencer vanishes the team search desperately through their youngest agents past. Garcia does some digging, she unravels secrets even Spencer didn't know about.
The title of this story is inspired by one of my favourite plays, 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' The main character explains why she had to be promiscuous and how having no family except her sister she had to "run for protection... from under one leaky roof to another leaky roof." Ah, Iove that quote so much, along with "put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings, and glow - make a little - temporary magic." They just remind me of Spencer's struggles in life. The whole leaky roof is a metaphor for going from one relationship to another and I wanted to use it in Spencer's case to show him going from one family to another. Anyway, I'll stop being an English literature student for a second and get on with the story.
This has been in my document manager for a while now and I thought it as high time to finally unleash it.
I'm not sure when the next chapter will come out, I'm still working on the whole plot and I'd like to get some more chapters done, but ahowell1993 insisted I publish ;-) and considering this chapter has been ready since last year I thought 'what the hell.'
Anyway, please review with your thoughts, and like I said, I haven't finished the plot entirely so if you have any ideas I'm open to them (but just so you know, I may not use them.)
This is an AU, you will discover why soon enough. I will add warnings to each chapter as they all vary. There will be implications of some things but I won't rate this M because there is nothing explicit I promise.
So, Warnings for this chapter are simply crude/suggestive language, a hint of neglect and a psychotic mother who does the unthinkable...ah I hope I haven't given anything away.
Enjoy.
Present
"Come on, Spence! Truth or dare?!" JJ insisted. Spencer rolled his eyes and sighed.
"I said I wasn't playing," he grumbled.
"Well, you are. And finish that beer," Morgan demanded. Spencer glanced at the pint glass in his hands, not wanting to take a sip considering he already felt the effects of alcohol bouncing through his system. Against his better judgment, he took a large gulp of the bitter liquid and raised an eyebrow at Morgan, seeing if he was satisfied.
"Pass," he said and the team groaned.
It took several more shots before Morgan deemed Spencer ready to join in.
"Truth or dare, Spencer, and you have to pick this time," Morgan insisted.
Spencer swayed a little and grinned cheekily.
"Truth. Lay it on me!" He laughed.
"Okay, okay," Morgan took another swig.
"Why do we call you Reid? We all know your name is Spencer Kirwin, so why do you call yourself Reid?" He asked with genuine interest.
"Is jus' a nickname," Spencer slurred, staring at the older agent through lidded eyes.
"Come on, I don't believe you!"
January 14th, 1983
William Reid shook his head at the social worker.
"No! No, you can't do that," he growled.
"I'm afraid we have no choice." Holly Worth; the social worker assigned to the Reid family, tried to keep her voice calm and gentle.
"Diana isn't that ill! She wouldn't hurt the kids!"
"That's not true. We saw the bruises, faded or not. And she's going to stop targeting Margo and Daniel soon enough. Spencer is at a huge risk. I have done my research too, Mr. Reid, and there are statistics to show that younger children are more likely to be targets of a schizophrenic parent," Holly informed him but William continued to shake his head.
"B-but... You can't just-just take them away!" He cried.
"You've had several warnings, Mr. Reid. With your work, Diana's out of control condition, and the clear signs of neglect and abuse in all three of your children, I believe, and I'm sorry to tell you this, that they would be better off with different families. Diana poses too much of a risk," she reached out and touched William's shoulder. "I understand that your wife is sick, but with the bruises on Daniel's wrist last week, we cannot afford to keep them in yours and Diana's custody... unless... unless you enlist her in a sanatorium and take the ki-"
"No."
"Of course, don't forget that his job comes before everything; including his kids," snorted the officer in the corner sarcastically. Williams fingernails bit into the arms of the chair.
"There is no other option. I promise you that we will try our best to give them a good life. We already have a family in line and willing to take Spencer. Margo and Daniel will be taken to a nearby children's home until they too are fostered."
William felt tears well in his eyes at the thought of separating his children.
"How long?" He whispered.
"Excuse me?"
"How long do I get to keep my kids? How long until you break my family apart?" He demanded. Holly gulped.
"You have two weeks. We will collect them on the 28th of January. And I warn you, Mr. Reid, if you try anything to prevent this, you will be charged and the children will be taken straight off you.
January 21st, 1982
Spencer tugged on his older brother's sleeve.
Daniel looked down from his Gameboy and ruffled Spencer's hair.
"Hey, Spence," he said in an animated voice.
"P'ay?" Spencer asked, unable to get the 'l' to roll off his small tongue. He bounced a little and almost lost his balance.
"I'm kinda playing my own game. Sorry," Daniel said and Spencer's bottom lip trembled. "Go ask Margo," he added quickly.
Spencer pouted as Daniel returned to playing with his toy and so he toddled over to his older sister who was flicking through a magazine.
"Ma'go," he called. The girl peeked over her magazine at her little brother and she rolled her eyes. She'd already played a game of hide and seek with him and every time he had jumped out from his hiding spot within seconds and insisted on playing again. She'd finally managed to escape when Spencer fell in love with a ladybug he'd found crawling on one of the plants by the door, but he was back once again for another round of hide and seek.
"What do you want?" Sighed the 6-year-old and Spencer's small smile fell.
"Wanna p'ay wid you," he said. Margo set down her magazine and moaned loudly.
"I'm reading," she groaned. Spencer's face lit up and he hastened to the edge of the couch and looked up at her with big puppy dog eyes.
"Wead to me?" He asked, biting his lip eagerly. Margo glanced at her pink magazine and exhaled deeply.
"This is for girls," she pointed out, tapping the princess on the front. Spencer looked at her blankly. Margo knew she had to think of something else to distract him and she caught sight of Daniel's national geographic magazine lay on the table. She grabbed it quickly, threw it at his feet and readjusted her hold on her own magazine.
"There, now you can read to yourself," she grumbled. She looked at him for a moment and gave him a reassuring smile. She felt bad for turning down his cute little face, but she had more important things to do than waste time playing hide and seek with a 16-month-old. Spencer looked down and picked up the glossy magazine. He frowned at the words and tried to decipher what they said.
He glanced at his brother and sister who were in their own worlds and he hurried off to his bedroom to look at the magazine.
He tripped on his way and landed before his father's office. The door was ajar and he peeked inside.
William had a half drunk scotch on his desk and a pile of paper in front of him. He was slowly going through them, using his pen to add things. He sighed and took a long swig. He glowered at the suddenly empty glass and reached behind him for the bottle. As he did, he saw a set of big hazel eyes watching him and he froze.
"Spencer," he growled and the small boy squeaked in fear.
"What are you doing!?" He demanded as he rubbed his forehead.
"I p'ay," Spencer mumbled, standing tall so as not to disappoint his father. He may have still been considered a baby, but he knew what his father expected of a good son.
"Go play somewhere else. You know you're not allowed in here," he chided. Spencer wiped the tears from his face and nodded.
"Sowwy, Daddy," he whispered.
"What's that in your hand?" William questioned, his gaze fixating on the comic. William often forgot how young his son was and Spencer had to work hard to understand him.
He looked down at the comic which he was sure was now his because his sister had given it to him so he held it close to his chest.
"Mine," he said.
"Show me."
Spencer trembled and handed the magazine to his father.
"It mine, Daddy," he insisted. "Ma'go gave to me," he explained as best he could.
William thumbed through the pages and shook his head.
"This is not yours, Spencer," he dropped the magazine into his draw and Spencer knew he'd never see it again. Tears welled up in his eyes.
"Get out. Go to your room, or play somewhere else. I do not wish to see you in my study again."
Spencer didn't need to be told twice. He stumbled from the room and burst into tears. William slammed the door behind him and muttered something about ungrateful children.
Spencer ran to the only safe place he could think of. He pushed open his mother's door and scrambled onto the bed beside her.
"Hey, Baby. What are you doing here?" Diana asked, setting her book down and smiling at her son. She was in one of her lucid moods and Spencer collapsed into her embrace, tears soaking into her top. Diana's smiled dropped and she kissed Spencer's head. She knew from experience that toddlers could be emotional, but Spencer wasn't an average 16-month-old who banged around blocks and pointed at bright colours, so something must have happened to make him so upset.
"Whats wrong, sweetie?" She soothed, rubbing his back gently.
"D-Daddy yell at me," He sobbed. Diana sighed and pressed her lips to his forehead.
"Don't listen to that grumpy old man," she mumbled. Spencer looked up at her and she wiped away his tears.
"Wead to me?" He asked. Diana smiled and pulled out a book of love poems.
"Always."
She opened the book and cuddled Spencer close to her and in a position so he could read too. As she read he watched the words and matched what she said to each line. He sighed and pressed himself against her with a soft smile imprinted on his face.
Present
"Okay, okay," chuckled Morgan as Emily laughed at his secret desire to bake spotted dick. "It's a pudding!" He insisted.
"Yea right!" Spluttered Garcia. "I didn't know you swung that way, Hot Chocolate!"
"N-no, he's right," Spencer explained, wiping tears from his eyes. "I-it's a B-Britisssssh puddin'," He slurred, breathing alcohol breath on Morgan's neck as the team continued to laugh. "It's made witthhh uhhhh... suet! An-and dried fruit!" He relayed in triumph.
"Alright, you guys have laughed it up. Now it's Reid's go," Morgan said quickly to try and move the conversation on.
"Uhh... truth!" Spencer gasped before giggling at the sound of his own voice. Rossi shook his head. He hadn't seen Spencer giggle like that since he was 8.
"Damn, if you'd of said dare I would've made you try Morgan's spotted dick," Garcia blurted before throwing her head back and cackling at her own crude joke.
Morgan blushed a deep crimson but Spencer just frowned in confusion.
"How izzz eating a pudding a-a dare?" He stammered and Rossi patted the confused kid's back meaningfully.
"Okay, I got one for Reid," Emily said, shimmying closer into their circle.
"Aw!" JJ whined.
"You got to pick last time and you asked who he first kissed," Emily grumbled and JJ pouted and crossed her arms.
"Fine," she quipped.
"Okay...hmmm I got one! How did you get those scars on your hands?" Emily asked and everyone's eyes fell on Spencer's hands which he held up curiously and stared at himself. Rossi edged forward. He'd known the kid the longest and yet he'd never had an answer.
"These?" He asked, tracing the long scar on his right hand that traveled from the tip of the underside of his thumb, wrapped around the digit and wriggled down his wrist; the rest was hidden by his sleeve. He opened his left hand where the skin across his palm was stretched and of a lighter shade than the rest. The scar was more profound on this one, trickling down his arm and wrapping around his wrist like offending fingers gripping him.
"Yes, those. Unless you have others..." Emily said quietly. Spencer looked at his hands and then up at the team and smiled.
"It was a fire," he said.
"When?" Rossi demanded.
"Uh-Uh, It's Hotch's go now. I answered-"
"Spencer, when?" Rossi insisted. Spencer gulped and appeared to sober up a little.
"I don't remember."
January 23rd, 1982
Diana checked on Spencer who was sleeping in his crib, his teddy bear in his clutches. Diana shook her head sadly.
"You're not my son," she mumbled. She uncapped the gasoline and drizzled it over the carpet. Spencer mumbled in his sleep and turned onto his side. Diana paused and watched the baby. Her foggy mind broke with clarity.
"My baby?" She asked herself.
No, he's not yours, the voices said and she nodded in agreement, continuing to pour the potent smelling liquid across the pale green carpet. He killed your son, hissed the voices and Diana smacked a tear away.
"He will pay," she whispered. She closed Spencer's door quietly and heard her other children chattering in the front room. William was in his study. She watered the hall carpet and the kitchen and the bedrooms.
William stepped out of his office and frowned at the water trailing along the hall; he got into the front room where Daniel and Margo were watching TV.
"Have you two been messing around with water?" William sighed. His children glanced up and shook their heads in fear.
"It's not water."
The three of them looked up at the door where Diana stood with a matchbox.
"Diana. What are you-"
"Shut up!" She screeched.
"T-that's not my son!" She growled and Daniel hid his face.
"I am, mom," he murmured.
"Not you!" She covered her ears and smacked her head harshly as the voices got louder. "I know you replaced him," she spat, motioning to the end of the hall.
Will looked at his wet socks and the smell of gas finally hit him.
"What did you do?" He Hissed.
"I'm sending him back," Diana purred. She lit a match and the voices egged her on.
"NO!" William shouted, but it was too late; the floor exploded into flames. Daniel and Margo lept off the carpet, screaming for their father to help them. Diana watched the flames devour the hallway, creeping up to her youngest child's bedroom where he was sleeping unaware.
"DIANA!" William yelled. She continued to stare at the fire.
"He'll be with God soon," she mumbled, a tear trickling down her cheek.
"Daddy!" Margo cried, watching the billowing smoke fill the room.
William snapped his attention back to his children who were huddled on the sofa, their arms around each other as they sobbed helplessly. William looked from the window to the spreading fire and without thinking he grabbed the small coffee table and threw it into the window. He ducked down as glass sprayed into the air, peppering the floor with tiny crystallised dust.
"OUT!" William screamed. He grabbed Daniel's arm and guided him to the window, Margo grabbed his hand and followed him through the smashed window.
"Diana! Get here!" William ordered. Diana looked around at her husband and swallowed thickly.
"What have I done?" She whispered. William grasped her arm, uncaring to the feeling of skin burying under his nails.
"Just get out!" He pushed her towards the broken glass. Diana stumbled into the window and carefully stepped through; her hands shaking and her legs slicing against the shards.
William stared back into the house
I could leave, he thought. The fire had probably already gotten to Spencer room. William walked to the threshold and looked down at the burning hallway.
It would have been over quickly, he thought. He probably just... died before he could wake up.
His thoughts were cut short by a high pitched scream.
Daniel stared at his house, he clung to his little sister as she cried. Neither his father or Spencer had come out yet and he could hear sirens up the street.
Diana had fallen to the floor and was rocking herself.
She didn't notice when an EMT took her arm and gently pulled her to her feet.
"No! No, no, my son," she begged, pointing back to the house.
"Calm down, ma'am. We need to get you and your other children to the hospital."
"I can't! I can't!" Diana struggled against them as they led her into the waiting ambulance where Daniel and Margo were being treated.
"Spencer!" William yelled, batting away the flames uselessly. He heard crying from his son's room and gritting his teeth he battled through the flames and kicked the door open.
The crib was alight and Spencer was cowering in it, heaving on the thick air and crying in agony when the fire spat at him.
William could hear the sounds of firemen breaking through his front door.
"Hold on, Spencer. I'm coming," he promised, stamping out the flames. Spencer screeched out again and Will looked away from the expanding fire and focused on his son, who was reaching his tiny fingers out towards his father. He recoiled when a vivid tongue of orange licked at his left palm and curled around his little arm, like an offending hand grasping at him.
William reached out for the crib but howled in pain as his fingers also caught the flames.
"Fuck!" He yelled and Spencer's sobs grew louder; the child was practically hysterical, his head flicking from side to side as flames came at him from every angle.
"Sir, step back."
William whirled his head around and saw a fireman armed with a hose.
"My son!" William insisted.
"We'll get him, but you have to leave."
The firemen aimed the hose at the flames and William began to tremble when Spencer's crying abruptly stopped.
The night blurred into one for William Reid. The next thing he knew, he was sat on a gurney having his burns examined. Diana was in a psychiatric ward where her normal medicine had been amped up. As for his children; he had no idea where they were.
The doors opened to his room and he glanced up, a hazy expression on his face.
An officer and the social worker he'd been assigned entered, both of their expressions grim.
"Mr. Reid?"
He murmured something unintelligible and his mind drifted somewhere else until someone's fingers clicked in front of him.
"Huh?" Dazed, he looked up at Holly Worth who appeared very flustered.
"Mr. Reid, you must pay attention. I said that we're taking the children away immediately," William jolted from his daze.
"Wha- we still have two weeks," he gasped. The officer shook his head sadly.
"Your wife's condition was much worse than we initially determined. She tried to kill your son."
"Is-is Spencer...oh god," William had to swallow back bile as an image of his lifeless toddler flashed into his mind.
"He's alive," Holly whispered and William sighed in relief.
"Barely," the officer added angrily.
"What do my kids know?" William asked quickly.
"Daniel and Margo?"
"Yes!"
"They haven't been told anything yet. And in case you wanted to know, they're doing okay, they're being treated for smoke inhalation and minor cuts from the window," the officer explained.
"The couple who offered to take Spencer are still willing, even with everything's that has happened. They want him transferred, as soon as it's possible, to a hospital closer to them. We have staff from the Holland Brooks children's home who will take Margo and Daniel today."
William took a deep breath and pulled his hand away from the nurse, waving her away.
"You're still planning on splitting them up?" He grunted.
"It's the only way, William. Spencer has a great opportunity and Margo and Daniel will also get their chance. But going together will make their lives extremely difficult," Holly said.
"You're right. I want them to have a better life. You said that they don't know anything yet?"
"Yes...why?"
"I think it'll be better if they don't know the truth," William suggested.
"What do you mean?"
"I think you should tell them that Spencer died."
"What!?" The Officer blanched in shock.
"Hear me out. Like you said, Spencer needs a new start, he can't do that if he thinks he left something behind and if Margo and Daniel try to track him constantly, then they'll be a problem to both him and the system."
Holly stared blankly at William.
"I have never done anything meaningful for my son. Please, let me do this."
Okay, that's the first chapter. The story will be flicking between past and present so you can get a feel for the life Spencer had prior to the FBI.
Also, I know that Rossi hasn't known Reid that long, but this is an AU... so he has in this story. Bare with me, all will be explained in due course. I have basically given Spencer a whole new past life... Or more of a 'what is' as William and Diana are still his biological parents.
Like I said, all will be revealed shortly.
Thanks for reading. Please review and help get me motivated to write the next chapters.
See you soon!