Paris took a deep breath and followed the attendant through the gate and into Ronald Reagan National Airport.

As a minor he was accompanied by the attendant until he was picked up by the adult meeting him.

"Now," she started "who is meeting you?"

"My brother," Paris answered

They had moved past the gates and out to the baggage claim where Paris grabbed his large rolling suitcase and his body-bag size duffle bag. The one year he had attempted to play hockey had required such a bag for all the equipment. Paris had found it hilarious that he could actually stuff himself inside the bag and be quite comfortable.

Inside both were just the essentials. Most of Paris's belongings had stayed in Nevada, mainly because there was no need to bring it all and secondly from what Spencer had told him, his apartment was not very large.

To Paris he had become a divorced couple's kid with a custody agreement in effect between the Williamsons and Spencer, only both sides were on much better terms.

During the school year Paris would live at school, except on the few long weekends during the year that he would return home, his home in DC with Spence that is. To save gas Paris decided that unless it was an absolute must, he wouldn't ask to come home that often though Spence assured him that it wasn't a big deal.

Thanksgiving was a week off from school so back to Vegas Paris would go. This coming holiday, Spence was going to, same with Christmas, because it was their first Thanksgiving and Christmas together as a family. Christmas break was two weeks long so Paris would stay the full two weeks, but Spence was only staying a few days. Because of the long Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, Carlisle did not have a February break, but rather a two week spring break.

But for right now it was summer and Paris had just about a month before his first semester at Carlisle School would begin and just two days to get settled with his brother, before they drove the four hours to Carlisle for his face to face interview with the administrators and headmaster, tour of the campus, meeting with the faculty, and evaluation.

Paris was about to become the second youngest ninth grader the school had welcomed and the youngest student to ever board at the school. Which was one of the reasons for the interviews even after he had been accepted to the school, the administration wanted to be sure that he was emotionally ready enough to live at school.

Dragging his suitcase, Paris scanned the crowd looking for his brother. Sighing at all the blurry faces, Paris reached into his pocket for his glasses. Since the fire that had nearly killed him, his eyesight had gotten much worse, to the point where anything further than a few feet away blurred together, even with his glasses on it was only a minor improvement.

His heart picked up speed as he scanned the crowd and failed to see his brother, maybe the times had gotten messed up, no way Spence would forget what day he was coming, they both had eidetic memories, impossible to forget stuff. What if the team had been called away on a case and no one would be there to get him?

All these thoughts were running through Paris's head, setting off alarms in his body, when

"Paris!" panic melted away as Paris heard Spence calling him. Through the thick crowd, Paris could see his brother, waving and carefully pushing his way through the crowd.

The attendant leaned down and pointed as Spencer

"You're brother?" Paris nodded "I'm going to have to check his ID, its policy. What's his full name?"

"Spencer Reid." Paris answered, grinning at his brother as he came closer.

"Sir I just need to check you're ID."

Spence gave Paris a half grin and pulled out his wallet which Paris knew contained his FBI badge. He showed it and the attendant did a double take.

"Well that will certainly do" she replied smiling at the brothers

"Thank you for looking out for me." Paris said

"It was my pleasure," she answered "good luck at your new school"

"Thanks again." Paris replied as Spence took the duffle bag while Paris dragged his rolling suitcase.

"Have a good flight?" he asked as they headed through the airport to the exit, Paris shuddered

"I hate flying." He whispered "but Aunt Lori and Uncle Eric got me a laptop so it distracted me for the flight."

"Well that's a good thing." Spencer gave him a grin "but you know Paris when you become an agent, especially with the BAU you're going to have to fly."

Paris made a face

"Don't remind me." he replied, he thought it over "can't I be one of those agents that drives everywhere?"

Now Spencer chuckled

"I don't think it works that way. But don't worry you get used to it and it becomes like second nature." Spence paused as they made their way towards the car-park trams "do you know why you're afraid of flying?"

Paris shook his head

"Nope…never figured it out. Mom thought maybe I was subconsciously remembering my time in the NICU in the incubator and associate that with being enclosed in a plane. But there was no real basis for me to be afraid, I just don't like flying, anytime we watched a movie with a plane I'd close my eyes even if it was supposed to be funny, like that movie Airplane. As long as I didn't focus on the fact they were in a plane, I could enjoy the movie." He paused "and to be truthful it only got worse after September 11th, it was the Christmas break after that we went to Disney I was so scared in the weeks leading up mom almost canceled our part of the trip. This was the first time I've been on a plane that I didn't feel a pit in my stomach."

Spencer seemed to be thinking something over intently, he helped Paris load his duffle onto the tram and the brothers climbed aboard.

"Some people believe that we inherit our fears from our parents." Paris looked up at Spencer quickly "mom's deathly afraid to fly."

"She…she is?"

"Very much. Now I'm not saying that's the reason you're afraid, but it might have something to do with it, it could be all genetic or it could be subconscious too."

"But you're not afraid are you?" Spence shook his head. They had reached Spencer's car and got off the tram. As Spencer loaded Paris's suitcase and duffle into the trunk Paris watched his brother, knowing he had purposely not answered him.

When they were settled in the car and driving off towards Spencer's apartment, Paris finally spoke up

"what are you afraid of? If you're not afraid of flying?"

Spencer gave him a slight grin

"You promise not to laugh?"

"As long as its not like a fear of bunnies or something like that."

"The dark."

Now Paris stared at his brother

"The dark?" he repeated "but I thought grownups weren't afraid of the dark…I thought that was just kids and we outgrow it."

"Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't." Spencer paused "but there's nothing wrong with being afraid of things. Even if you never grow out of your fear there's nothing wrong with that. I may never stop being afraid of the dark, you may always be afraid of flying."

"So even conquering your fear, that doesn't help?"

"Again, sometimes it does. Do you feel that you could fly on the space shuttle now that you've conquered a commercial aircraft?"

Paris thought that over for a moment, chewing on his thumb a bit, before shaking his head

"No, I think I might be a little calmer on a regular flight, but I still feel kind of sick even thinking about it."

"One step at a time I guess." Spence replied "on a positive note the FBI jet goes much faster so your time on board is considerably less."

Paris sighed

"That's still to long for me and really that doesn't make me want to fly anymore than before."

The first thing that caught Paris's eyes when he followed Spencer into his building was the elevator. Instantly the fear that he had only mildly felt on the plane washed over him. His whole body began to shake and Paris felt his chest tighten.

Luckily Spencer was moving towards the stairs not the elevator. Spencer turned to look back at him when he realized his brother wasn't following.

"Paris?"

"Please tell me that's busted." Spencer looked to where Paris was staring apprehensively

"Elevators too huh?"

"Closed spaces." Paris repeated "but you know oddly enough…I wanted to go on Tower of Terror when I went to Disney. Go figure."

"Don't worry, it works, but I hardly ever take it." Spencer smiled "I'm not to crazy about them myself." Paris couldn't help the grin that washed over his face.

Spencer hadn't been kidding about the small size of his apartment. Standing in the doorway, Paris could see pretty much the whole place, and in every spare space there were books, notebooks, and more books.

"Is that a copy of Aristotle's the Poetics?" Paris asked "a hard cover!" he wandered over to the bookshelf and started to reach for it, but hesitated. He hated when his own books were pulled from an order, cautiously Paris looked back at Spencer who was grinning

"Contains the original text." Paris's eyes went wide as he took the book down and carefully opened it up.

"You…you cant read ancient Greek can you?"

"Not fluently, but I've been studying a few words."

"Could you show me?" he paused "sometime maybe?"

"I'd be happy too," Paris nodded his thanks and looked back over the bookshelves

"You have a lot of 14th and 15th century pieces here."

"Mom's influence." Paris turned to look at his brother quickly and Spencer remembered just how little Paris knew about their mother. "She was a professor of 15th century literature."

Paris' grin widened a bit

"That's so cool."

"Feel free to take any of these out to read."

"Are you sure?"

"I trust you Paris."

"Thanks Spence…that…that means a lot, not a lot of people would trust a kid they don't really know." The words slipped out before Paris could stop to think "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it the way it sounded." He hung his head

"Hey, I told you in Vegas, we're both going to have to get used to this and its going to take some time." Spencer paused and put Paris's bag on the couch and Paris had to chuckle at the tiny TV that probably only got three channels he knew his brother wasn't home much because of the BAU. "I was hoping to have your room all set before you got here, but apparently there was a delay with the shipment. It should be here tomorrow at the latest." Paris raised an eyebrow

"My room?" he asked

"Regardless of you being at school most of the time you're going to be here sometimes aren't you?" Paris nodded "well you cant live on my couch." Paris followed Spencer down the narrow hall three doors were at the end, the one on the left was obviously the bathroom and the one that was slightly ajar at the very end was the largest of the rooms, and that wasn't saying much.

The room opposite the bathroom was smaller, but not by much. Spencer pushed it open and gestured for Paris go enter. It had obviously been used as an office before and still had a desk, but its openness explained why the living room looked so overcrowded and packed. Spencer had cleaned out his office so Paris could have his own space, there was enough room for his stuff and the bed that was on its way.

I'm sorry its not much. With the bed in here its going to be even smaller so I apologize for that."

Paris felt his chest tighten as he turned to his brother

"You didn't have to do this for me…and please don't apologize. I'm the one that should be apologizing." Spencer raised an eyebrow and Paris wondered for a moment if that was what he looked like when he did the same thing.

"Why should you apologize?"

"For dumping me on you, you didn't have to say yes but you were obligated too. I mean I didn't exactly give you a choice to not only let me come here, but I mean you took custody of me even though you didn't have too."

"Hey, I wanted to Paris I'm only sorry it took so long for us to figure things out. I don't just mean your caseworker, everything." He paused "and as soon as we found out, I knew I had to do everything I could to make sure we were a part of each other's lives, once I knew I had a little brother I couldn't just forget that fact." Now Spencer grinned "even without an eidetic memory." Paris returned the grin slightly "but I need you to trust me. Especially when you're at school, I need to know that you will trust me enough to let me know if something is wrong. I don't want you to ever feel like I've forgotten about you, even if the team is on a case I want you to know you can call me and leave a voicemail if I don't answer I'll call you back as soon as I can. Ok?"

Paris nodded slowly he could feel his chest getting tighter and felt his eyes tearing up, at first he wiped them away, embarrassed. Spencer unsure how to handle this patted his shoulder

"Your talking about what Mrs. Mason said, while you guys were in with the judge, before I went in for the co-custody hearing."

"You heard that?"

"That's one thing Uncle Eric forgot to warn you 'bout, I've got really good hearing. I heard her tell the judge that it wasn't in my best interest for you to take custody of me 'cause you'd be just dumping me off at a boarding school."

"I cant believe you heard that." Paris shrugged "but you're right she did say that. But"

"But Uncle Eric brought up the fact that I want to go to Carlisle and that it should be my decision."

Spencer nodded

"Which it should be." Spence paused "so what exactly do you like to eat? I haven't had a chance to go shopping, so whatever you want for dinner we're going to have to get."

Paris grinned wide

"Spence, you said you trust me right?"

"Of course." Spencer started "why?"

"How about I make dinner. Les….mom taught me to cook and I'm pretty good, I make a mean spaghetti and meatballs."

Spencer nodded

"Sounds good to me, there's a market down the street, we can get what you need."

The sound of Paris's voice woke Reid from his deep sleep. It took him a moment or two to register the sound, attributing it to the neighbor's obnoxious cat next door. Just as he was about to roll over and go back to sleep a ear piercing scream erupted in the apartment sending Reid flying out of bed with a jolt, reminding him that just a few feet down the hall his little brother was sleeping.

He threw on his robe from the foot of his bed and bolted down the hall to the family room where Paris's temporary bedroom was.

Paris was still asleep, but he was obviously having a nightmare. His body thrashed and twisted around and amongst the screams Reid could see tears streaming down his brother's face.

"Paris, Paris, wake up!" Reid called shaking Paris's small shoulders "Paris its Spencer wake up."

Paris did not wake up, at least not right away, he whimpered like a puppy that had been beaten and pulled his knees up to his chest, curling into a tight little ball that jumped with fright when Reid touched his shoulder again.

"I'm sorry," Paris whimpered "so sorry, Grant…mom…I'm sorry, please forgive me I didn't mean it any of it…mom, mom please come back."

"Paris!" Reid called a little louder. That did it, Paris's face which had been deathly pale only moments before flushed with color as his eyes opened slowly. Reid saw the panic in his brother's eyes for a few seconds as he tried to get his bearings. "X?" Reid whispered, calling his brother's nickname and for a quick second Paris's breathing became labored and raspy, his arm felt as if it was on fire and his heart felt like it would leap out of his chest in revolt.

Quickly he shook his head, he hated his favorite nickname now, it wasn't him anymore, Xander he could deal with, but X was dead…a ghost that continued to haunt him, for a few months now. It'll all be over soon X I promise, that had been the last thing Cramer had said to him…the last thing that Cramer expected Paris to ever hear and now it was, that was the last time he ever wanted to hear his nickname and any other time made his body remember death.

"Spence?" he whispered

"Are you ok?"

Paris lowered his head

"Yeah, I'm fine, nothing wrong."

"Paris, Eric said you'd been getting nightmares, but he said you've been doing better." Paris sat up and refused to look at his brother, instead he stared at the TV as if it would suddenly turn on and break up the conversation "do you want to talk about it? Sometimes it helps?"

"No…its not a big deal everyone gets nightmares…it was just typical nightmare stuff, monsters and crap."

"The way you were screaming I doubt that."

"They were ugly." Paris countered and Reid sighed

"and did they involve Grant and your mom?"

"It…uh…" Paris stumbled over the words "no, I." he put his head down "I don't want to talk about it. I'm sorry I woke you up."

Reid took a deep breath and stood up

"All right, but you know if you need to talk I'm here." Paris nodded

"Thanks Spence." Paris replied, at least that's what it sounded like, he had rolled over back onto the couch with his face plastered into the material.

Reid headed back to his own room and as he climbed back into bed the earlier conversation with Eric and Lori washed through his eidetic memory.

'Be prepared Spencer, the nightmares are back and to be honest, they are worse then before.'

'any idea why?

'Cramer, that sonuvabitch sent a detailed letter to Paris, apologizing for his actions and begging for Paris's forgiveness claiming he failed Paris and the others. He was apologizing for Paris surviving.'

'Eric,'

'I cant believe I ever called him a friend-'

'Eric!' Lori interrupted 'we got a hold of the letter before Paris could read it, but he saw the handwriting on the envelope and recognized it, and well, Cramer managed to commit suicide on Death Row, if that's not ironic I don't know what is. It was on the news so there was no way to keep it from Paris. Between that and the handwriting he put two and two together.'

'Anyways Spencer that alone would be enough to start Paris's nightmares, but the main thing is he asked to stop going to therapy completely.'

'How many times did you get him to go after the hearing?"

'twice, and after the second time no more.'

'Did he say why?'

'No' Eric replied 'and this guy was supposed to be the best in Nevada in Child trauma.'

'Let me talk to my supervisors they might have some suggestions of specialists out here.' Reid had replied looking across the living room at Paris who after speaking to his aunt and uncle had settled in front of his computer playing some kind of game.

'Good luck kid, good luck' Eric replied 'he needs to talk to someone, but he's refusing to talk to anyone, including us, we know he's starting to remember what happened to him, but he's pretending not to. Its frustrating because we know we have to help him, but not only do we not know how to, he wont let us.'

'Don't worry,' Reid had consoled 'a change of scenery might be what he needs and my whole team well be involved with him.'

'We know Spencer, we trust you. Call us after the meeting with the school on Friday let us know how you guys did.'

'Sure.'

'and Spencer, don't let him stay up all night playing on the computer. And don't let him goat you into buying him coffee, he has had enough of that thanks to Eric and the Vegas police department.' Lori added 'and don't forget he's allergic to penicillin, make sure he's wearing his medical bracelet, he doesn't like wearing it and pretends to forget abo-'

'honey, I think Spencer has this,' Eric intervened 'have a great night Spencer.'

Out in the living room Reid could hear muffled music and knew Paris was listening to something on his ipod, as way to fall asleep and Reid could only hope that it helped him in some way.

A/N: I know I said I wouldnt be updating this very often, but I knew I had to have at least two chapters up and at least bring Reid in. I was taking a shot in the dark regarding Reid's apartment, I mean its one of those things never described or mentioned. I had it pictured in my mind, it would be packed full of books and papers, probably a mess for the post part and would be small since he's rarely there. So hopefully this works. Next chapter will be up probably some time next week and I'm really proud of how it came out. Till then, Thanks for the two reviews I have received and thank you to those who have Favorited or added this story to their alerts. Take care!