Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds nor do I own Dr. Spencer Reid though sometimes I wish that I did.
Attention: This is my first Criminal Minds fic. I haven't seen all of the season yet so I'm sorry if I messed up Reid. I was just thinking that Spencer seems to go into dangerous situtations without any problems ya'know so there has to be a reason for that. All mistakes are mine because this whole story was written in like 10 minutes. Sorry.
As a child, Dr. Spencer Reid was tormented. He was the youngest student at his high school graduating when he was only twelve years of age. The older students taunted him endlessly, he was too smart, too tall, too skinny, and too young to be in high school with them. The list goes on. People could find fault in any number of things that Spencer knew he couldn't control. That didn't stop him from wishing that he wasn't as smart, as tall, as skinny, as young, and as awkward. He knew that he would never change any of them things, because really they were way beyond his control, but you can't fault a kid for hoping now can you?
Since Spencer could never catch a break as a child, he decided that it would be in his best interest if he was able to defend himself. To do that he knew that he would need to take some kind of self-defense class because he couldn't learn how to defend himself on his own. He knew that with all of his knowledge of defense techniques, he didn't have the experience to back it up. If he applied something the wrong way then he would probably hurt himself or someone else seriously. He didn't think that he could do that. Spencer was able to talk his mother into allowing him to taking karate classes. She was reluctant at first; she didn't want to believe that he child could be hurt bad enough that he needed to defend himself.
He loved the classes. He loved the freedom they provided and the fact that he actually safe when he was alone. Being able to defend himself didn't stop people from beating him up, nor did it stop people from teasing him, but things got better people weren't nearly as mean as they were before. That probably had more to do with the fact that people never knew what Spencer was capable of rather them being intimidated by whatever skill he possessed.
