Alright. This is another one of my AU stories.

You know how I am with my AU stories.

I'm completely out of control.

WARNING: AU, Morgan as a hunter, Spencer as a physically damaged boy who lives in the forest, Morgan/Reid, violence, abuse, maybe some gritty future smut, if you guys are nice

You're probably scared yet exhilarated to see what I've done with them now.

Not to worry.

Reid/Review/Enjoy!

Gubleronics

Distraught

Chapter 1: The Unknown Part

Derek trudged up the snowy slope with his bow in hand and his arrows in a quiver slung over his shoulder. He smiled as he saw his group of friends who were also hunters. He adjusted his hat as snow fluttered down softly and the wind whipped by quietly. His fingers were numb and his nose was unnoticeably red. He reached the top of the hill and grinned at them. "Ready to go?"

His friend Emily rolled her eyes. "Well, we would've been ready to go if you hadn't taken your sweet time walking up a simple slope."

JJ, his other companion, leaned an elbow on her shoulder with a sleazy grin. "Well, I don't know about you, but my fingers are itching to get hunting."

Aaron shoved her shoulder playfully. "Let's get going then!"

As children, they have all developed a love for hunting because they were all raised within the woods. Their strong, unbreakable friendship happened by a fate.

Garret was just there to tag along because Aaron brought him along. JJ and Emily didn't like him too much – he was too much of an alpha male and he was painfully, seriously, severely egocentric. It was a struggle to Derek to understand how Aaron, a person of modest honesty and strength, tolerate someone so childish and under grown. Garret may have been a good looking man with his sharp-boned features and his sharp green eyes with his closely cropped brown hair, but he thought too highly of himself, almost as if he were a god of some sort. He'd make a move on anyone who he thought would suit his liking. Every time Derek saw Garret in action, he saw himself as he was in college and high school, trying to get under every girl's skirts when they came to him. Derek never liked the way he was back then and he was lucky he changed.

Derek began to follow them further into the woods until he heard rustling and a pile of snow fell on top of his head. He brushed it off and quickly positioned himself at the tree branches. He narrowed his eyes in search of the animal…or so he thought that's what it was until he saw the bare, pale feet sticking out from underneath a leafy branch. He lowered his arms and frowned.

JJ walked closer to him and whispered, "What is it?"

Derek held up a finger to silence her and peered up at the pair of feet. "Is anybody up there?"

The feet slid its heels further into themselves and a pair of hands flashed out and held their knees.

Derek sauntered cautiously closer to the tree. "I…I won't harm you."

Those appeared to be the wrong words. There was a sharp snap and a thick branch flew from the tree onto his head. The feet adjusted themselves again, as if they were willing themselves to disappear.

Garret shook his head and rolled his eyes. "This is ridiculous," he pulled out his gun and shot the branch where the feet were residing and the branch snapped. The branch was hanging on by a thread.

"Garret, what are you doing?" Derek whispered sharply.

"Teaching you how to quit wasting time," he shot at the branch again and the branch fell away completely.

As the branch fell, so did a young boy. The boy wore nothing but a thin, worn shirt and torn, raggedy pants that stopped at his knees. Although he landed on his arm, he quickly regained his strength and pushed himself against the tree, his large, hazel eyes flashing with trepidation as his eyes darted from every single one of them. He shivered violently, making his hazel curls dance around his face and bounce off of his shoulders. His pink and full lips were tinting with blue and his sharp-boned features were scrunched up painfully with fear.

Derek put his bow away as pity covered his face and chest. He kneeled down in front of him with a sincere, concerned face. "Are you alright?"

The boy opened his mouth, but quickly closed it due to his fear.

Garret rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "We're wasting time. We need to get hunting."

"How about you go on, Garret, since you're so eager to continue?" Derek snapped.

Garret sighed and shook his head in annoyance. "Whatever. Tell me when you're done with forest boy here." He pushed through the crowd forming around the boy and ventured on by himself.

Derek's eyes flickered with apology. "I'm sorry about that. Do you…do you have a place to stay?"

The boy shook his head fervently as his hands balled into fists.

"Would you like to stay with us?"

The boy whimpered quietly as looked at them in growing fear.

"We won't hurt you; we'll take care of you. My name is Derek. Her name is Emily, her name is Jennifer, or you can call her JJ, and his name is Aaron. You don't have to be scared of us, alright?"

The boy looked down and nodded.

Derek extended an arm. "Can I help you up?"

The boy nodded and lifted his arm as he kept his head down.

Derek leaned down as he gently grabbed his arm and slung it around his shoulder, then lifted him with no trouble – the boy was very light and thin.

The boy removed his arm quickly and hugged himself as if he wanted to keep himself in one piece. He kept his head down.

"Do you have a name?" Derek asked gently.

The boy nodded.

"Do you want to tell us what it is?"

The boy paused for a moment then shook his head.

Derek nodded. "Alright; we'll be heading to camp not too far from here and be hunting for food even farther. Have you had something to eat?" Derek was scared to ask.

The boy… nodded.

Derek had a deep feeling that whatever it was he ate it was a living thing, most likely an animal. It was most likely that he ate it raw. He nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

During the walk to the campsite, Emily whispered to him, "What are we going to do with him after this trip is over?"

Derek shrugged. "I guess I'll keep him and see what I can do to find where he lives – if he remembers where he lives. Maybe even get him some clothes. There's not much more I can do."

Emily peered at the boy out of the corner of her eye. "Well, whatever happened to him it looks like he went through hell to survive it."

Derek nodded in sad agreement. "You got that right."

They kept the boy at the camp and warned him to stay put until they came back, then arrived back at the camp with a cooler of fish and other animals by nightfall, quite surprised to find the boy was still there in his protective fetal position.

Derek was busy skinning a bunny when the boy finally said something. "S-Spencer."

Derek looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Is that your name?"

He looked down and nodded.

Derek turned to him fully and leaned his elbows on his knees. "Well, I need to ask you some questions, Spencer."

Spencer looked fearful. "You won't tell him I told you anything, w-will you?"

Derek narrowed his eyebrows and frowned. "Tell who?"

Garret chuckled to himself. "Quiet and crazy."

Emily smacked him upside the head angrily. "Shut up, Garret. You have no idea what he's been through."

Spencer shut his eyes and turned his head away into his shoulder. "I've said too much. He'll hurt me. He'll find me and he'll hurt me. I'll get punished."

"Who is 'he', Spencer?" Derek prodded carefully.

"F-father. He doesn't want me talking to anybody. He doesn't like people. He doesn't like me," he looked up, shaking violently. "If he doesn't like me, he won't like you. Not at all. He won't like you. I will get punished." He hid his face back into his shoulder and began to cry silently.

Garret set his skinned fish on his lap. "Well, I guess that's it then. We'll have to take him to the loony bin."

"I'm not doing that," Derek growled, his eyes still set on Spencer.

"Look at him, Derek," Garret said, pointing his knife in Spencer's direction. "The boy's positive he'll get "punished" by his own father. He's living in trees, Derek! He's got no father to go home to. He probably doesn't even have a home! Now look at us, trying to take care of some retard. I'm not dealing with this."

"Then go home, you asshole! Nobody told your ass to come down here and nobody said that you had to deal with him! You're not the one taking him home!" Derek shot back. He took a few intense breaths as he closed his eyes to calm himself. He opened his eyes and clenched his jaw. "You can either take your ass home or you can stay here and man up."

Garret rolled his eyes as he set his fish on the tree stump he was sitting on and crossed his arms. "I'm taking a walk."

"That's great, Garret. Grow a pair when you come back," Aaron murmured.

Garret glared at him hotly and set off.

Spencer sat quietly, folded into himself. Father's going to come…he'll hurt them first and hurt me the most…I don't want him to come…I want to stay here with them…I don't want him to come and hurt me…

"Spencer?"

Spencer turned his head to peek at Derek.

"I'm sorry. Garret's just being a little stupid, but he'll get his act together. Can you…tell me a little about yourself? Just one thing; you don't even have to tell me your age."

Spencer unfolded himself from his shell slowly and hugged himself protectively. "I can read 20,000 words per minute," he said quietly.

Derek looked taken aback as he raised his eyebrows. "Wow, really? Are you some sort of genius or something?"

Spencer automatically nodded. That always used to be the question asked back when Father didn't punish him. He looked down as tears spilled over his cheeks. "I ran away," he said, his voice being barely audible.

"Form home? From your father?"

"He's not my father; he's a monster," Spencer said angrily, barely noticing the words that rolled out of his lips. He quickly covered his mouth and looked down. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"That's alright," Derek said gently. "It's alright to blame your father for whatever he did to you. Do you know where he is right now? Where do you live?"

"No!" Spencer said quickly, his head shooting up. "You can't take me back there! He'll hurt me! He'll tell you lies and hurt me!"

Derek stood up and made his way over to him with an outstretched hand. "I'm not taking you back home, Spencer. I just need to tell the police where he is when we return from our trip."

"He'll lie to them. He'll get away and tell them I'm ill. I'm not." Spencer said softly.

Derek kneeled in front of him and got a good idea at what his father was doing to him by the look of his legs and arms – ugly, blue, black, and purple bruises covered the pale, milky skin. Some of them were recent. The strange thing was that there was nothing on his face. Derek felt an overwhelming pity and sorrow for him. "Can I hug you, Spencer?"

Spencer looked startled, but nodded.

Derek caught him in a tight, humble, and warm embrace and he shed a few tears of his own. "We're here to help you, Spencer. Your father won't ever find you and hurt you again," he stated, his voice nearly thick with tears.

Spencer slowly responded to the hug and buried his face into his broad shoulder. It's been so long since he felt the warmth of a hug…. "Do you promise?"

Derek nodded. "I promise."

AN: Pretty long, but still good, right?

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