Title: Chasing Ghosts 1/?

Summary: Reid's sister visits and everything changes

Warnings: Slashy overtones kinda Reid/Morgan

Notes: This is not part of my Las Vegas universe. This is a completely different AU. Thanks to Silentflux who continues to make me a better writer!

Rating: PG

The plane ride had been relatively quiet on the way back. Reid felt as if everyone was just waiting for him to break down -- there was that edge of anticipation in the air. Disembarkment was quiet except for the shuffle of feet and the opening and closing of the compartments. Reid didn't feel ready to face the gazes of the team, rather he shuffled off the plane trailing in their wake.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Reid's head snapped up at the hostile tone of Hotch's voice.

"Laurel?" he whispered in shock. Morgan, who was closest to Reid, apparently heard this and threw a questioning gaze over his shoulder at Reid before swinging it back to the front where Hotch was getting more agitated.

The woman didn't seem at all bothered by Hotch, which just made Hotch more frustrated. She seemed to be looking for someone in the back, craning her head, which was when Morgan got a good look at her. She was tall, but that was a given since she was looking over so many people. She wasn't exactly beautiful, more striking and severe than pretty, and her straight brown hair was pulled back accentuating her prominent facial structure. Morgan glanced back again at Reid and wondered briefly how Reid had been able to see the woman from his position. Reid suddenly started to move, forcing his way forward without apology.

Hotch's voice was tight and tense, "Identify yourself right now!" Morgan, who was following in Reid's wake, got a glimpse of a bent arm and knew that Hotch's hand was resting on his piece.

The woman's eyes met with Reid's and they were embracing -- hugging with excited murmurs. Hotch's hand fell from his gun but the tension ratcheted up a notch. Reid and the woman, who Morgan had already started mentally naming Gianto because she topped six feet, seemed oblivious to the tension surrounding them.

Finally, they pulled back to arms length. Gianto reached up and ran a hand lovingly over the angular planes of Reid's face with a startling familiarity. "Oh, Spencer. It wasn't your fault. That man," her eyes fall over his shoulder to an empty space, "was a bad man." Her voice turns cold and she continues to stare at the carpet, "He deserved to die." Reid glanced over his shoulder at the same place and stiffened, color leaching suddenly from his cheeks. Gianto reached into a pocket and pulled out a fist full of white powder. They turned together and faced that empty space as she stated clearly, "You don't belong here. Go away." She blew the white powder into the air and it seemed to fall in eddies that couldn't be explained by the air conditioning currents. Reid relaxed slightly and some color returned to his cheeks.

"Thanks, " he whispered quietly, but with the stillness of the group everyone heard. Elle clears her throat pointedly and they both jumped, a bit startled, suddenly becoming aware of their surroundings, or at least the team. "Laurel this is the team," he said, pointing in turn with the introduction. "Jason Gideon, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenway, Jennifer Jarue –JJ, and Aaron Hotchner." Without any of his usual nervousness at physical contact, he reaches out and grabs Gianto's hand. "Guys this is my sister Laurel." Reid, seeing their puzzled looks adds, "She's psychic." Which didn't clear anything up at all.

Reid's focus had already shifted back to Laurel so he didn't notice. Instead, the two siblings started to talk excitedly in a blur of words that over-lapped and were unidentifiable to everyone except them.

Slowly, the team seemed to process this bizarre information and recover from the shock. Suddenly, Reid went sheet white and took off at a run for the bathrooms. Gideon, who was just about to turn and follow, paused as Laurel spoke. "Leave him. He just needs some time to pull himself together." Gideon had to admit to himself that if he went in now, Spencer would probably only become more self-conscious. "Spencer has told me so much about you all. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person." Showing the first signs of apprehension, she bit her lip, "What's going to happen now?"

"What do you mean?"

A puzzled look flashed across her face. "He shot someone, what will happen next? Isn't there a protocol? Evaluation? Time off? He just shot somebody through the head."

Gideon frantically searched his memory but couldn't recall any chances that Reid might have had to make a call, and he highly doubted that Reid had told Laurel that in the two minutes that they were talking. "How did you know about that?"

Her voice seemed to drip with sarcasm as she said, "Psychic–he told me."

"Reid?"

"No. Phillip Dowd did." This seemed to shake the team even more. "His spirit is still hanging around. Usually do after a violent death for a few days. You just have to be pushy to get them to back off."

"You're seriously trying to say that you're a psychic?" Morgan couldn't keep the doubt from his voice.

Turning, she faced him an eerie smile on her face when she told him, "You of all people should be open minded -- you were old enough to still remember your Grandmother's hoodun."

Morgan took a step back. "I never told anyone about that." In fact Morgan hadn't thought about his grandmother's religion in over ten years at least. He really only had vague memories of drums and weird insense.

"No, you didn't. But she still looks in on you sometimes. Thinks you need to stop pussy footing around and get married, make some babies." The team's eyes fell on him and he held his hands up in a defensive posture.

"She has me convinced. No one knew that stuff and that sounds just like something that Gamma'd say." Which was true, the woman had been incredibly old fashioned having seven children and hoping for similar numbers from hers. He had no doubt that if she was still alive she'd be hounding him about why he hadn't gotten some woman pregnant.

Turning back to Gideon she said with absolute certainty, "Check your phone. Steven called he got accepted into the graduate program at UCLA."

Gideon frowned but pulled out the phone listening intently to his voice mail. "She's right," he whispered. "He didn't even tell me that he was trying for that." Morgan couldn't believe it. Gideon's poker mask that had stood against some of the most deranged people in history had fallen and showed his shock.

There wasn't a person there that would have claimed to believe in psychics even five minutes ago, but after that evidence, not one of them could claim with certainty that it wasn't true.

Reid appeared looking wan and pale but much calmer. All anyone could think of on the plane was falling into their bed, but in the face of these revelations and Reid's past, everyone was wide awake. They insisted on a late dinner so that they could visit and talk about what had just happened.

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They ended up at a 24 hour pizza joint. The pizza was fresh and hot if not frighteningly greasy. Everyone watched the siblings conversing quietly before Hotch finally voiced what everyone was thinking. "Psychic? How does that work?"

Laurel pursed her lips remarkably the same way that Spencer did before launching into a lecture and hit the question head on, facts and lecture voice firmly in hand. "The field of parapsychology, or the study of Extra Sensory Perception or ESP, was founded largely by Joseph B. Rhine in the early 1920s. The field is largely divided up into four categories: clairvoyance-the knowledge of the past or future, psychokinesis-the ability to change or affect the solid environment around them, telepathy-the reading of present situations, minds and thoughts, and psychokinetics- the ability to affect the minds and thoughts of others or spirits. Of course there is quite a bit of over-lap in both techniques and abilities, and there are those whose ability doesn't fit into one particular category. In my experience, everyone has had a moment or two in their life where they feel psychic. Their minds or bodies are more receptive and in tune with their surroundings.

"I'm currently doing a genetic study on psychic abilities in families and hopefully locating the genes involved. Women seem much more likely to display strong psychic abilities, and I believe this is because the gene for it is dominate and on the X chromosome. I have what is referred to as a shogun gift-- lots of little gifts and abilities. Pre and post cognition, telepathy in world events and actions of people close to me, some medium talent and psychometry." Spencer wasn't talking, and his stomach seemed to recover since he was making inroads on his second slice. He wasn't really paying attention to what Laurel was saying, he was more interested in the teams reactions to her words.

Elle seemed disbelieving to the point of disgust her aura swirled with puces and chartreuse, but Gideon was more open minded -- he didn't seem any different from his usual intrigued state. Spencer suspected that he'd had some brushes with ESP before. Morgan looked preoccupied like his was thinking about something else, the past maybe from the way his aura was spiking around his head. JJ's aura was a psychedelic swirl of colors and Spencer doubted that she even knew what she was feeling. Hotch's aura was the most troubling. Outwardedly he didn't really seem upset, a little stiff, obviously somewhat negative, but his aura was a different matter. It was a maelstrom of negative emotions. Spencer realized that Hotch was actually afraid. He wasn't sure what Hotch was hiding that he was fearful of, maybe the powers themselves or what they could reveal, but it was the predominating emotion, a sickly ghost gray that seemed to wash him out completely in places.

Everyone's faces were slack with shock. "I'm unusually sensitive right now, and I have existing information on you, which made the reading hot, and easier to do."

"What do you mean you're unusually sensitive?"

"I've found that most women with strong talent also have a corresponding peaks in their ability in relation to their menstrual cycle. Just like their sense of smell increases with pre-menstrual so does their abilities; however, I've been unable to determine scientifically why."

"Oh. So if psychic powers are genetically linked as you claim, does Reid have powers?"

Reid cleared his throat loudly and starred at Morgan in reproach. "I can, in fact, see auras."

Scrutiny of Laurel turned to scrutiny of Reid. "Really?" JJ asked.

"Oh yes. It's not very helpful most of the time, and the closest field it falls into is telepathy. There isn't a way to test for this ability though, which leads to little credence or validity to those that do have it."

Laurel jumped in, sensing his discomfort, "One of the things I actually do in my work is help to defraud those that claim to have psychic powers and extort money from others." This effectively turned the conversation away from Reid, who shot Laurel a grateful smile.

Eventually, the group disbanded, and Reid was informed that he had a three days leave and then a psych eval before going back into the field. Those days served to create distance from the bizarre evening and no one mentioned it to anyone else. Everyone meant to pull Reid aside and ask more questions, but as time grew further from the encounter, it seemed more and more like a weird dream that had no bearing on the present. Cases continued to go by, and eventually months passed with no one talking about it. The subject was officially shelved. Until Reid's past came back again.