Disclaimer: I am not the creator or owner of Criminal Minds and/or the characters therein. I have no legal rights or financial interest in any of it.
Through the Eyes of a Child
"Uncle Pence, we need to talk!"
"Okay Henry," he replied, confused by the serious tone of his small godson's voice. He was supposed to be reading a bedtime story to the preschooler.
Henry crawled into his lap and put his hands on his face, rotating his cheeks around with his palms and causing Spencer to make silly faces. "Are you sad? Did you and Uncle Derek have a fight?"
"No! What makes you think we had a fight?"
"Well," Henry began in the most adult tone he could muster, "my best friend at school is Aiden. Aiden don't have a mommy but he's gots two daddies, and they act like a mommy and a daddy and my mommy says they are in love just like a mommy and a daddy. And Aiden's daddies hold hands, and kiss and do all that yucky stuff my mommy and daddy do . . ."
Reid wondered if this was how others felt when he started spewing statistics.
"And you and Uncle Derek remind me of Aiden's daddies but you didn't do no yucky stuff today at the b'que, but you did the last time you babysitted me and Uncle Derek came over to play, so I thought maybe you's broked and now you is sad," he finished triumphantly a serious look on his face.
Reid hugged his godson, smiling at the sweetness of the child. "Can you keep a secret?"
Henry's eyes opened wide as he nodded.
"Okay, well me and Uncle Derek are like Aiden's daddies, but that's a secret so sometimes we pretend that we're not. Do you understand?" Spencer didn't like the idea of lying to him.
The young boy's brow furrowed. "So it's like you and Uncle Derek have secret idensities?"
Reid managed to not laugh at Henry's adorable mistake. "Sort of, yeah. So do you think you can keep our secret?"
"Yes," he answered, "but I wanna secret idensity too," he pouted.
"Okay. The next time you, me and Uncle Derek spend the day together we'll create a secret identity for you. Does that sound good?"
Henry nodded happily, kissed Spencer's cheek and crawled from his lap into his bed. Reid picked up the storybook and began to read.
