"Aaron, I want you to move in with me," Spencer said out of the blue. "There's no point of you keeping your apartment, as it's just a waste of money, not when there is plenty of room for your things here and besides, you are never there anyway at least not for the last few weeks."
It was Sunday and Aaron would be going back to work tomorrow, but that was still hours away as it was only the middle of the afternoon and the two of them had just finished having sex for like the sixth time just since they had woken up from their short catnaps and so both men's libidos were more than satisfied for the moment, although they knew that wouldn't last, which was fine with both of them.
"Alright," Hotch agreed calmly. "I was intending to bring that subject up with you before I left tomorrow morning for work, but you beat me to it. I'm going to be parted from you enough because of my work, and I definitely don't want to be parted from you when I'm home. Besides, I've been spending most of my free time over here for the last 3 weeks anyway and only went home to sleep, so it's the logical move."
"Good, we can start moving your things over whenever you're home a few at a time and perhaps, even bring some of your furniture or maybe put it in storage."
"I could rent a moving van, or U-Haul," Hotch mused.
"Don't waste your money," Spencer told him quite calmly, "you're forgetting that I have magic."
"What do you mean by that?" Hotch asked carefully.
"Just that for the furniture and most other things, I can shrink it down so that it fits in a steamer trunk, which will then go in the car and then resize it once we get it home and this way you don't have to waste thousands of dollars. However, anything electronic like a computer cannot be shrunk down as it messes with the sensitive electronics, so that it doesn't work properly afterwards. It should be okay shrinking something simple like a CD player, or stereo or simple kitchen appliances like a mixer, but for computers no."
"So if you can shrink most things down we could probably get everything to your place in just one trip instead of renting a U-Haul like I was imagining having to do," Hotch said, suddenly wishing that he had magic, as it seemed to make doing certain things much easier and less time-consuming.
"Yep, and I can even make the trunk, well not quite weightless as that would be too noticeable, but light enough to where it only weighs 5 pounds no matter what we put in it," Spencer said with a grin.
"What about the cameras that are placed in all apartment buildings?" asked Hotch. "It will seem suspicious if we don't have to make several trips or be seen moving furniture or carrying boxes out of the apartment."
"Again this is where magic comes in useful," Spencer said. "Not too long ago I found a neat little spell in a rather obscure book that will trick the cameras, so quit worrying."
"Well, it looks like you have it all worked out," Hotch said a slow grin coming onto his face.
"Of course," Spencer said loftily, "you expected anything else?"
Hotch stared at Spencer in amazement for a minute and then realized that his mate was joking when a grin appeared slowly on his face.
"You really had me going there for a few seconds," Hotch said chuckling.
"I believe you'll find that I have a very subtle and often surprising sense of humor," Spencer told him quite seriously before breaking out into laughter.
"Well, you're certainly in a good mood," Hotch said with a grin knowing exactly why he was.
"And why shouldn't I be?" asked Spencer with a raised eyebrow. "I've never been this happy in my entire life."
"I know exactly what you mean," Hotch said and he did, for he, like Spencer had never been as happy, as he was now, even though he loved his work. However, there was difference between loving your work and being happy in your personal life. "I've been meaning to ask you something, ever since I first saw this house, but it's more matter of curiosity, then anything else."
"What do you want to ask?" asked Spencer not reacting to the sudden change of subject.
"Well, I know you showed me this house when I first came into your life, but there appear to be quite a few rooms that are closed up, so really my question is just how many rooms does this house have?"
"Ah, that's an excellent question," Spencer said, "and the answer is 30 bedrooms, ten bathrooms, and several other rooms that are used for various things."
"Well, I knew this house was big, but 30 bedrooms?" asked Hotch trying to wrap his head around it.
"Well, yes, I suppose it is big compared to modern-day standards," Spencer admitted, "but you have to remember that the Potters are an extremely wealthy family and this house has been in their family for generations. You are not the first person to comment on how big this place is, but I just give people the logical explanation when they ask how we maintain it, since to most people it isn't just a house, but a mansion. I simply tell them that it's been in my family for a long time and the Potters unlike a lot of other families didn't lose their fortune in the stock market and so have no trouble maintaining the house. Now while this explanation is basically very true what I don't mention to other people is the way we maintain the house is that we use cleaning charms, and the rooms that aren't in use are magically sealed until they are needed. Really we're only using maybe 15% of the space that is available in this house. Each member of the family has a room to themselves, because as I said we have them to spare. Now I admit that we could move to a smaller place, but why when this one was already available and already paid for?"
"Alright, I understand that, but my question is why is this place so big? I would think something half the size would do just as well," Hotch said.
"Well, you have to remember what I told you about how big the Potter family has been in the past," Spencer said. "The Potters have always been very prolific, at least my branch of them and a lot of times they had 15 children or more since most of the time they married right after finishing wizarding school, which means 17 or 18, and also you must consider the fact that witches tend to be very fertile into their 50s and even 60s or at least the non-purebloods do."
Hotch looked truly startled at that and Spencer didn't blame him. "Witches are fertile for that length of time?"
"Yes, they are and it is believed that is the case because of the magic in our bodies," Spencer confirmed. "However, most of them have their children while they are young and stop by the time they are in their late 30s to early 40s. Most wizarding families don't have that many children, except some of the really rich ones like the Potters. Also some of the older families are now having trouble conceiving and are lucky to produce more than one or two children a generation mostly because of being inbred."
"So some of the older families marry their cousins and no matter how distant that eventually catches up with them," Hotch summarized and Spencer nodded.
"Some of the older families believe in keeping their bloodlines pure and that means not marrying a half blood or muggle-born and definitely not a muggle or a Shifter. In order to be considered even remotely pureblooded to some families you must have at least four generations of witches and wizards on either side of your family, without throwing anybody who is not into the mix and for some of the older families you need many more generations then that to be considered remotely pureblooded. However, thanks to that policy not only are they dying out their magic isn't as strong as it once was. The reason that the Potter magic has stayed strong is because we have always had a more liberal marrying policy. Most of my ancestors have married other witches and wizards, but occasionally one turns out like me and that's bisexual and have even settled down with their own sex. Some of my ancestors have even married muggles and not a witch or wizard at all, but as I said thanks to that policy our family magic has stayed strong. I'm not bragging when I say that the Potters are some of the strongest magic users of the last five generations at least."
"Yes, didn't you tell me a couple of days ago that your dad was a muggle and your mother a witch?" asked Hotch.
"I did," Spencer agreed, "and let me tell you as well that it is pretty unusual for every child to inherit the magic when just one parent has it, and yet all my brothers and sisters did."
"Don't you think that it might have something to do with the fact that your mother was a strong witch and so were most of your Potter ancestors?" asked Hotch. "It makes sense that how strong a witch or wizard is in magic would have a lot to do with just some or all of your children inheriting it if they marry a Normal or a Shifter."
"I never thought about it that way, and it's never been proven one way or the other, but it makes sense and is as good an explanation as any," Spencer said. "Yes, I think I will accept that explanation, as the one that makes the most sense until proven otherwise. It's always been known that every magical person in this world has different magical strengths, some are really strong even if both their parents are muggles, while others are much weaker. In fact muggle-borns and half-bloods tend to be stronger in magic then purebloods and it is believed that is because they are not inbred."
"Yes, that really makes complete sense," Hotch admitted after thinking about it for several minutes, "because no matter what those purebloods believe you can't keep marrying your cousin no matter how distant and not expect consequences, one of which is not being able to have children easily and also the weakening of their magic."
"I'm not going to worry about those families that luckily, aren't that prevalent in America, although I hear they have much more influence in England, where the Potter line originated," Spencer said.
"Yes, you did mention that after you had told me about magic that your line was originally British and that you might have relatives over there," Hotch said.
"I would love to discover if I really do have any relatives over England, but there is plenty of time to do that as both of us are quite young," Spencer said. "At the moment, it's more important to strengthen our relationship and also be here for my siblings, Leah and Liya only have two more years of schooling before they graduate, but the rest of them have many more years then that, especially for Hudson and Bronwyn because they don't even start their magical education until next year."
"So, it's common practice to not send magical children to school until they reach 11?" Hotch summarized.
"Here in America, we have tutors," Spencer begin to explain. "Once a child first shows magic it is registered with our government and a tutor is found for them, one that matches with the child personalitywise, because as you know children learn much better if they're encouraged in the proper way and every child is different. Back when we lived in Vegas we had a tutor, from the first time we showed magic and she served the whole family. She taught us everything we would need to know so that when we started school at 11, so we would be well prepared and even though she was originally there for me since I'm the oldest, eventually she started working with all of us. A lot of magical children are home taught and Isadora tutored us and this continued until we reached 11, even Hudson and Bronwyn, even though they were only seven when we moved here, but then they learned how to read and write by the time they were five, simply because they were so intelligent, like I am. Just so you know the tutoring system doesn't apply to purebloods, as they would never accept the help to educate their children. Our family is considered half-bloods because our father was a muggle even if the Potter were originally pureblooded, so in our case it does apply. I miss Isadora sometimes, but she wanted to stay with her family in Vegas and by the time we moved here to Virginia, Hudson and Bronwyn already knew most of what they needed to know and were reading and writing really well, so in my free time I made up the slack, which is another reason I took the summers off."
"So who looked after them while you worked?" asked Hotch more curiously than anything else, as he know that Spencer would never leave his young brother and sister alone to their own devices, especially not when they had first moved here and Hudson and Bronwyn had been only seven. His mate was far to intelligent and responsible to leave a pair of 7 year olds by themselves.
"Oh, there is a magical babysitting service," Spencer explained. "This service is made up entirely of witches and most of them have either just come of age and are still looking for jobs, or are older woman whose children are already grown and out on their own, but want to earn a few extra Galleons. There's also a few women who are in their 20s and 30s and not married. In any case, I normally request the same babysitter every time since I know and trust her to look after Bronwyn and Hudson and mostly I get Annabel unless she's already babysitting another family's children, especially since I pay extra."
"So you get the same lady mostly every time, and you pay extra to make sure you do," Hotch summarized and Spencer nodded.
"Believe me, Annabel and the service she works for makes quite a tidy sum off me, as there is a yearly fee for the service itself. Now while this fee isn't really much, as it's only 20 Galleons a year, whoever is babysitting, usually Annabel, gets around fifty to sixty-five Galleons per time, simply because I'm gone sometimes for 16 hours and sometimes for even longer at a time. I even set aside one of the guestrooms on the second floor for whoever the babysitter is so that they can sleep when my siblings do. Once Bronwyn and Hudson start their magical education the babysitting service will no longer be necessary, because they will be 11 and that is considered adult enough to look after themselves while I work."
"So where do magical children go to school?" asked Hotch.
"Well, a lot are homeschooled as I told you, but there are four major schools and dozens of little ones that train magical children. The four major schools at least in this part of the world are Hogwarts, which is located out in the middle of nowhere in Scotland, then there's Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, which is in France, Durmstrang Institute, which is located in Scandinavia and the Salem Institute located right here in the USA in Massachusetts. All these schools can each accommodate hundreds of students, but as I said they'll also many tiny schools dotted around the world and most can't handle more than a hundred students sometimes a hundred and fifty.
"My siblings, all except the two youngest still go to a school up in Las Vegas and the beginning of term is in September. It is a year round school that only gives you two weeks for Christmas and two and a half months in the summer. You are considered fully qualified after you complete your N.E.W.T.s at the end of your seventh year."
"What about college?" asked Hotch.
"Some magical folks do end up going to college or complete their degrees online like I did, but you don't really need a college education for most wizarding professions, except perhaps, for lawyers.
"Not doctors?" asked Hotch shrewdly.
"Actually they are called healers and no, no college required because you get the training you need at the actual hospital you apply to for their healer program," Spencer replied.
"So when you told me you were a doctor in training..." Hotch began.
"I did not lie, I just didn't tell you that the training to become a healer is taken care of by whatever hospital you are accepted to after applying," Spencer said. "Now if I really wanted to I could still get a muggle medical degree even if it would take me several years to do that, but I don't really see the point of it, when I'll never be a doctor in the nonmagical world. So when are you going to introduce me to your team? I'm eager to meet them after all you've told me about them."
"I want to be selfish and say never and keep you all to myself, even though I know that's not practical," Hotch replied, pulling Spencer closer to him. "In any case, it will be a few months at least as I want to keep the team guessing, as to who my mate really as they have been placing bets ever since I turned 30 a few months ago. They all knew about my connection and that you were in the same city. I had no idea until I met you, as to whether you would be male or female as it doesn't matter if a Shifter believes they swing one way, as it could turn out that his or her mate is the exact opposite."
"So what you're saying is if you didn't really know what sex your mate would be your team wouldn't know either and they've been placing bets on whether it would be male or female," Spencer summarized.
"They have, and also there are various other bets, like how long it would take me to find you, but I don't think any of them betted on me discovering you this soon as it is only three months after my 30th birthday.
"I'm almost glad that my sister was nearly, raped. Don't get me wrong it would've been a totally different story if she actually had been and my rage would have known no bounds, but you probably wouldn't have come into my life at least not so soon if it wasn't for that incident."
"Believe me, I understand what you're trying to say," Hotch said immediately getting what Spencer meant. "You're saying that you're glad your sister was able to escape, but also happy that I just happened to be in the area when the incident occurred and that I bought her home since this is where the two of us met."
"Precisely," Spencer agreed. "I'm glad my sister was able to get away from her attacker, even if Alex didn't really mean any harm and just got a little enthusiastic."
"He might not have meant any harm in the beginning, but he does need to learn that no means no and not playing hard to get," Hotch said emphatically. "When Liya told him no, he should have stopped right there, but he kept trying his best to get her to agree and force himself on her. There is a very fine line between innocent petting and forcing yourself on a woman and Alex crossed that line in my opinion. When your sister told him no, then he should have listened, because even though she was able to get away, she will be suspicious of any man, except for her brothers that approach her in the future and she might never heal from that, but then everybody is different so there's no saying for sure."
"She will probably be a little wary and suspicious around men until she gets to know them," Spencer admitted, "but she's tough and she knows how to take care of herself with and without magic so I believe she'll be fine. I think a little wariness and suspicion around strange men is a good thing personally, even if my sister had to lose a little of her innocence. So when do you want to start packing up the stuff at your place and bringing it over here?"
"Not today, though possibly tomorrow after work, if the team isn't immediately called on a case out of town. If we are called out of town I'll make sure I phone you to let you know and perhaps, you can do my apartment while I'm gone as there is an extra key on top of the doorframe, as that way it's done and I can just let the apartment go."
"I really need you there, because I have no idea what you would want to bring over here, sell or just throw way, so I'll just wait for you to return and we can do it together. While you're gone though, I think I'll go to the wizarding shopping center and buy a trunk that can hold more than it looks like on the outside so that we really can do it all in one trip and get it over with."
"Alright, we'll do it one day after I get home and that way it's over and done with and then we can truly start our lives together," Hotch agreed immediately. "With your help it shouldn't take more than a few hours to pack everything up and bring it here. Some of the stuff I have can be given to charity or just thrown out, but I would like to keep most of my furniture because who knows if it will come in useful or not and it is still in good shape."
"We can put any furniture in one of the spare bedrooms, or even the basement where all the junk from centuries of Potters living here is stored."
"What no attic?" Hotch teased him and Spencer laughed.
"There is one and there's a bunch of junk stored up there as well, but I really don't feel like going up there and putting stuff that we might need in a place where we won't have easy access to it. Besides, its dirty, dusty and hot and although all these things could be corrected with a little magic, the basement is just easier to store stuff that we might need again in the near future. Besides, I'm sure we can find a place for at least some of your furniture as there are plenty of unoccupied rooms in this house."
The two of them continued to discuss it for a few minutes before they got back to what they had been doing earlier as their libidos were demanding to be satisfied right there and both men were more than happy to comply and spent the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening making love only taking breaks for food and to use the bathroom.
~~~The Wizard and the Shapeshifter~~~
"Well, you're certainly in cheerful mood," Gideon said coming out of his office when he saw Hotch emerge from the elevator bright and early Monday morning, with a spring in his step, which was rather unusual.
Hotch didn't answer, but he knew that his body language was practically shouting at anybody with a modicum of observational skills that he was extremely happy, although his facial expression was unchanged from what it normally was.
"I am," Hotch finally answered not elaborating.
Gideon studied him and noticed that Rossi's protégé looked truly relaxed and he could only think of one explanation of why that was, especially since he remembered a conversation he'd had with Hotch not to long ago.
"Somebody has been having sex recently," Gideon commented and was disappointed when Hotch refused to lower his eyes or blush, though he should have known that making such a comment would not make the younger man blush for he didn't get embarrassed about much at all really and definitely not easily.
Hotch simply raised an eyebrow at Gideon and went to his desk pretending to ignore one of the leaders of the BAU.
"So, what's her name?" asked Gideon persistently.
"It isn't a her," Hotch finally gave in, if only because he knew Gideon as well as the other three members of the team would keep pestering him until he did Morgan in particular.
"Alright then," Gideon said amiably. "What's his name?"
Hotch looked up in surprise for Gideon's opinion about same-sex relationships was well-known and he had never expected for his superior to be so relaxed about it.
"What?" asked Gideon trying to pretend like he didn't know what Hotch meant with his look but added after a moment, "Alright, as you know normally I am against same-sex relationships, but I do realize that your situation is a little different. I realize that you don't really have any choice in who your mate is and that you can't ignore your instincts just to make me happy, so all I want from you is for you never to share the private details about your relationship, although I would like to meet this fella at some point."
"Oh, you will, maybe in a few months," Hotch said with a grin, "as I intended to keep him to myself for as long as possible."
"I can certainly understand that," Gideon said with a chuckle trying not to think about two men having sex as he didn't want that image in his head thank you very much.
"His name is Spencer Reid," Hotch said sharing the basic details, but keeping the fact that Spencer and his family were all witches and wizards to himself for not only would he never be believed, he would probably be committed to a loony bin. "He has seven brothers and sisters. I rescued one of his 16 year old sisters from her boyfriend who just got a little too enthusiastic and was trying to force her into having sex. Liya kneed him in the groin and broke his nose and managed to get away on her own, and I just happened to be in the area driving around when I almost ran her down."
"You didn't arrest this boyfriend?" asked Gideon looking furious.
"That was really no point and Liya agreed, saying that he had just gotten a little too enthusiastic and didn't know how to take no for answer but that he hadn't really meant any harm. I disagreed, but no laws had been broken and he was only 17, so there really wasn't any point. She told me that she has no intention of going back to him and I believe her for she has quite a bit of fire in her, and she isn't one of those types of women that will take that kind of thing laying down and give some boy another chance to go to far. Apparently all the Reids have been taught how to defend themselves and I guarantee that being kneed in the groin will make Alexander think twice about making an issue of it. She also punched him in the nose and probably broke it."
Gideon smirked in satisfaction at this.
"I suggested that she invest in some mace or pepper spray," Hotch added.
"Good advice," Gideon said approvingly.
"When I mentioned it to Spencer at that first meeting he seemed to agree and said that he would look into it. When he says he's going to look into it he will as he's very protective of his siblings, because apparently their mother died in a car crash in Las Vegas where they were all born, and the father took his own life, from a broken heart less then a year later, although by the time that happened Spencer was 17 so he became his siblings legal guardian."
"That's a lot of responsibility for a 17-year-old," Gideon commented.
"He was up for it," Hotch promised, "Spencer is very intelligent, a genius really and if he wasn't already in training to be a doctor at one of the local hospitals, he'd make a good member of the team, despite the fact that he's only 20. In any case, his parents will left him in charge of his brothers and sisters if they happened to die before they were all grown."
"What about money though?" Gideon asked. "It takes a lot of money to support that many children and get them a proper education and all that."
"That's one thing that the Reids don't have to worry about," Hotch snorted. "I asked Spencer the same thing and he explained to me that his mother's family the Potters are quite wealthy, being one of the very few families that didn't lose their money when the stock market crashed, and as the only remaining child that was still alive his mother Diana inherited everything, which of course, passed onto her children. Each one of her eight children had a trust fund set up for them from the minute they were born and they could all live very well off the interest alone. However, none of those trust funds have been touched, as that was just a drop in the bucket and Spencer has been paying for everything out of the Potters main account for the last three years. Spencer is one of the most sensible and well-rounded individuals I have ever had the pleasure to meet, especially considering how young he is. He refuses to let any of his siblings spend extravagantly and I've heard him tell them more than once that just because they have money and didn't have to struggle to make a living was no reason to show off. He told every single one of his seven siblings that the minute most people found out their family had a lot of money all the crazies would come out of the woodwork and try to find ways to get large chunks of it for themselves and he wasn't going to allow that to happen."
"You're right, he does sound extremely intelligent and sensible," Gideon agreed. "Did he ever go to college so since he graduated high school at 17? He would have to if he was training to be a doctor."
"He went to a small private school in Las Vegas where he and his family are originally from, but thanks to his parents deaths he never had a chance to get the full college experience, though he did get a degree online and passed with flying colors. Taking care of his seven siblings, although it's mostly the younger two who are 10 now is a full time job even with the help of a babysitting service when he has to work," Hotch said.
"So you said he's in training to be a doctor but he never went to college," Gideon said.
"He did take online courses to become one," Hotch pointed out calmly with a straight face, as this was not quite the truth, but he couldn't exactly be completely honest, "and he completed four years of education in less then two because he is that intelligent. He's only an intern, not a full doctor and apparently the other doctors accepted his online grades because he's doing quite well for himself and not just sitting idly around being bored. His siblings are still going to the same boarding school in Las Vegas, even though they now live in Virginia and the term starts again pretty soon."
"Why did they move here Virginia anyway?" asked Gideon more curiously than suspiciously. "Why not just stay in Las Vegas?"
"They needed a change," Hotch explained simply and also completely truthfully, "just like I did several years ago when I stopped being a federal prosecutor and went to the FBI Academy here at Quantico. Spencer told me that there were just too many memories for them to continue to live in that house after their parents deaths as all of them were grief stricken and getting extremely depressed and Spencer figured that they needed a change of scene. The house they are living in now has apparently been in the family for generations and it was also a wedding present from his grandparents on the Potter side to his parents. He told me of how they spent a great deal of time there for at least two weeks to a month in the summer every year where they got away from Las Vegas and his father away from his job. Spencer know that the house was more than big enough for all of them with rooms to spare and he discussed it with his siblings who all agreed that getting out of the house they had grown up in was a good thing. He said the most affected by their parents deaths were Hudson and Bronwyn, the twins who are now 10 years old, but then they were only 7, while the others were older and understood death better then a pair of 7 year olds."
"Yes, that makes sense," Gideon said after a moment. "Sometimes a change of scene is just what a person needs after a loved ones death and to lose both parents so close together well it was likely the right decision. Besides, who knows what kind of path the youngest two at least would have gone down if they hadn't gone away from all that sorrow and grief. That kind of heavy grief can effect you, especially when the friends of your parents keep telling you how sorry they are for your parents deaths and also being surrounded by all your parents things isn't very healthy either, especially when you are only a child and you don't understand why two people you love are suddenly not there anymore. Older children are more equipped to handle the death of a loved one, but not someone that young."
"Well, Natalie was only three years older which means she was 10 when they died, but the next oldest are Chance and Andrew another pair of twins who were 12 at the time, and finally Leah and Liya, twins again and who were 13 when it happened and then Spencer himself who was 17
"Three sets of twins?" asked Gideon in astonishment. He knew that it was theoretically possible to have more than one set of twins with the same mother and father just that it wasn't very common.
"I felt the same way you do now when I first found out and Spencer told me that his family tree is quite heavily loaded with twins, mostly fraternal, not identical. Of course, his family tree is also loaded with quite a lot of females as well, so that might have something to do with it since it is rumored that fraternal twins are the result of a woman ovulating more than one egg at a time. None of Spencer's twin siblings are identical, although his two twin brothers are so close to being identical you would swear up and down they were except for the fact the color of their eyes is different. If it wasn't for the fact that one has blue eyes and the other has golden brown like Spencer's you would swear that they were. The two youngest also look very similar and if it wasn't for the fact that they are the opposite sex you would also swear that they were identical as well, because they are the same height, have the same body type and also the same hair, nose, chin, cheekbones and eye color. Some of those attributes might change in a few years, but right now they really do look very similar to this each other with the same facial features and body types."
"So when did you meet this Spencer Reid?" asked Gideon.
"Almost three weeks ago," Hotch admitted. "I would've liked to have kept it from you for a little while longer, but I guess I was so happy that my body language betrayed me."
"So I'm assuming that you went through a get to know you stage before you actually got to..." Here Gideon paused, not willing to continue, but Hotch knew exactly what he was talking about and so he nodded.
"We did and I left the option up to Spencer as to when we took our relationship to the next level and he surprised me when he agreed to go there after only a little over two weeks. I figured it would take him at least a month, maybe two before we got there, but he told me soon after we had met, that Potters usually fall once and fall hard, so even though he's a Reid he does carry Potter blood thanks to his mother."
"I suppose the fact that we haven't had to go out of town in the last few weeks has helped you and him get to know each other faster," Gideon mused. "You met him at a good time, because we've only had one case and that was local, so that you could be home with him every night."
"Believe me, I've spent more time over at his house than I have in my own apartment over the last few weeks and in fact Spencer just asked me to move in with him and his brothers and sisters and I immediately agreed to it, as being away from him while we're out of town for work is going to be hard enough. Besides, there's no point of me paying for an apartment if I'm going to be spending all my free time over at his house anyway and now that we have bonded we really shouldn't be separated more than is necessary because of our jobs."
"If you need help moving I'm sure you can get the team to help you," Gideon suggested.
"Don't worry I've already got it covered," Hotch promised calmly. "Spencer and his siblings have already offered to help and I'm going to hire a U-Haul. A lot of it is either going to be given to charity, sold or put in storage, as a lot of my furnishing just don't fit the style of Spencer's house. I suggested that Spencer do it if we got called on a case, but he told me that he needed me there because he wouldn't know what I wanted to keep or what to put up for sale."
The two continued to chat and the other two members of the team trickled in slowly as it got closer to 9 o'clock and when they did Gideon immediately went back to his office after promising Hotch that he wouldn't mention what he had been told to his teammates and Hotch thanked him getting started on the paperwork that he had come in early to do, but had gotten distracted by talking to Gideon.
Hotch knew he would have to be careful about what he told the others about Spencer and his family for there was no way he could let slip that they were magical as they would surely think that he was ready for the loony bin if he did and he wouldn't be able to blame them for it either. Besides, he would never betray Spencer's secret like that, and it wasn't like this secret was dangerous, so he would have no trouble concealing it from those that didn't need to know. Now he appreciated more than ever the fact that sometimes the government enacted a need to know basis, as they kept a lot of secrets for the sake of national security, that the general population didn't need to know about and this was no different.
~~~The Wizard and the Shapeshifter~~~
"So, Hotch man you look happy," Morgan finally commented, several hours after he had arrived at work.
"I am," Hotch said not volunteering any further information.
Morgan studied him for a few moments and then ventured a guess. "You found your mate, which is why you're so happy you're almost radiating it despite the fact that you're doing boring paperwork."
Hotch just smirked at him not verbally replying, which confirmed Morgan's suspicion.
"So how long ago was this just over this past weekend? Or longer?" asked Morgan.
Hotch didn't answer him and pretended to be involved in filling out a form.
"Oh, he's been very happy for at least the last three weeks, but today he's even happier than what's been normal for him lately," Rossi commented coming out of his office. "If I were to guess, which really isn't a guess at all, I would say that he met his mate about three weeks ago, but that they just cemented their bond over the weekend."
Hotch shot Dave the patented SSA Hotchner glare making the older man grin at him for he knew with that look that he was indeed correct.
"So is it a he or a she and are they a Shifter or a Normal?" Morgan asked.
There's nothing normal about Spencer Reid, Hotch thought smirking to himself, and I'm not just talking about his magical abilities.
"It's a he, and he's a Normal by the name of Spencer Reid and yes, I met him almost three weeks ago." Hotch went on to recount the incident with Spencer's sister and he was happy to see that the other members of the team were just as outraged at what Alexander had nearly done just as Gideon had been earlier that morning.
"So you said he has a sister does he have any other siblings?" asked Rossi.
"Seven of them all together," Hotch answered causing both Morgan and Rossi to look absolutely amazed.
"Eight children what parents have eight children in this day age?" Morgan sputtered.
Hotch shrugged and said, "Just so you know three sets of those are fraternal twins. A girl and a boy who are the youngest, two girls who are the oldest after Spencer, and two boys. Then there's also a single sister in between the two boys and boy/girl twins. Believe me, I was just as amazed when Spencer introduced me to them, but he said that the Potters have been known to produce a lot of fraternal twins over the last six hundred or so years, and that was his mother's maiden name."
"But supporting that many children..." Morgan said. "I mean I only have two sisters, but I know how hard my mom worked at two different jobs in order to support us after my father was murdered."
"Don't worry there is plenty of money in the family as the Potters are quite wealthy and are one of the few families that didn't lose their money when the stock market crashed in 1929. Since Diana Reid, Spencer's mother, was the last of this branch of the Potters she inherited all her parents money when they died, which came to Spencer when she died in a car crash several years ago, his father following less than a year later from a broken heart. Also Diana had plenty of money even before her parents passed away, as she had a fairly large trust fund according to Spencer anyway and his father was also an attorney and a very successful one from what Spencer has told me, so money is one thing they don't need to worry about."
"So why don't you tell us what you know about him?" Rossi suggested and Hotch complied repeating what he had told Gideon earlier about how Spencer and his siblings had grown up in Las Vegas originally, how after both their parents had passed away they have needed a change and how Spencer who was nearly 18 and had been in charge of his father's and mother's funeral.
"After that they decided together to move here to Virginia since the house they are now living in was a wedding present from the grandparents on the Potter side to his mother and father. He didn't want his siblings to be surrounded by all the memories without their parents there and it especially affected the two youngest who were then only 7, so he felt moving to a different location was the best thing for all of them. Spencer wanted to go someplace where there were still memories of their parents, but where they weren't surrounded by their things every day or all the people who had known them who thought nothing of saying how sorry they were at their parents deaths either not realizing or not caring that young children don't need to be constantly reminded that two people they had loved were no longer with them. Of course, it affected all of the Reids to different degrees, but most of them were old enough to understand what death meant. Besides, we all know what sly and thoughtless little innuendos people can make when they don't realize or just don't care that young ears are listening."
"Yes, you're right," Morgan said slowly. "It was bad enough for me and my two sisters when my father passed away, but we were not as young as..."
"Bronwyn and Hudson," Hotch supplied.
"Unusual names," Morgan commented before he continued with what he had been saying. "I mean I was 12 and my oldest sister was 15 while my younger one was 10, when our father was killed and truthfully it was still hard as all the cops my father had worked with came and offered their condolences, which were very sincere, unlike some peoples and at least once they did give them they dropped it and never mentioned it again. I remember spending a lot of time along with my sisters at our aunt's house since my mother was working so much and she helped us work through our grief."
"Spencer told me that moving was the right decision as getting away from the people that had known them helped all of them a great deal, but especially the youngest twins. Spencer told me that once they got way from all their parents associates and friends and the house that they grew up in with so many memories, that things slowly started to get better for all of them, because they weren't reminded of their parents constantly."
"So when do we get to meet this young man that you've been telling us about?" asked Rossi.
"As I told Gideon when he asked not for at least a few months, as both of us need time to settle into our relationship," Hotch said.
"So are you still keeping your apartment or have you moved in with him?" Morgan asked causing Rossi to chuckle as he had been thinking about asking the same thing, but Morgan had beat him in actually voicing the question.
"I am planning on moving in with him, as he just asked me to yesterday and no I don't need help moving for his siblings have already volunteered. A lot of the stuff is either going to be given away or put in storage in his basement," Hotch answered immediately, surprising both Morgan and Rossi with his immediate response to Morgan's rather nosy question.
Hotch chuckled at them and said, "I didn't see any reason to try to keep it from you since I knew you would see my change in attitude just like Gideon did earlier this morning and I knew that you would keep pestering me until I told you what you wanted to know, so I thought it was just easier to give in and tell you so you would leave me alone."
"So is this happiness going to be a permanent fixture in your life now?" asked Rossi boldly and Hotch actually chuckled again.
"You should be able to answer your own question without having to ask me since you're the one that knows the most about the Shifter race of anybody on the team, because of the things I've told you over the years," Hotch said.
Rossi thought about all the information that Aaron had given him about Shifters in general and wolf Shifters in particular over the years, concluding that now that his protégé had found his mate and the bond had been accepted and cemented over the weekend that Hotch would indeed be in a good mood most of the time, even if most people wouldn't know it, except for those that knew him best.
"What about children?" asked Morgan having come to the same conclusion that Rossi had for he knew that if he was getting sex on a regular basis, especially from the one that he was meant to be with he would certainly be in a permanent good mood. Unfortunately, he wasn't a Shifter, although he did have some Shifter blood, but then many people did, so it wasn't in the least unusual.
"We can always adopt," Hotch said with a shrug, "and Spencer seemed in favor of that idea when I mentioned it."
"Whoah! You two are already talking about adopting!" Morgan exclaimed impressed.
"Well, we both wanted to know if either one of us wanted pups," Hotch explained calmly, "a few years down the road of course. For right now that's all it is, a discussion that was to determine if we wanted pups in a few years, but since we both do I can see us both putting our names down on every list there is and even then I know there's no guarantees and you know what I mean. Our job isn't exactly the safest out there, and our application might be denied just because of the danger involved in my work, or even because we're both the same-sex and even though it's supposed to be illegal to discriminate against someone for that reason it still happens far to often."
"Think positively instead of about all the things that could go wrong," Rossi told his friend and Hotch nodded, although he couldn't help but think about all the stuff that could go wrong when they did try to adopt in a few years. "I'll be happy to be a character witness if necessary."
"Thanks, Dave," Hotch said gratefully.
"You're welcome," Rossi assured his friend.
The three men returned to their paperwork and Hotch for his part had trouble concentrating which wasn't normal for him, but he couldn't help but think about what would happen when he got home. He was looking forward to it, to going home to his family more than he ever had to his apartment or to Haley for the brief time they had been married, as both his apartment and the house had lived in when he had been married to Haley had just been places to sleep, but not really place he considered home since he was hardly ever there. His marriage to Haley had been a mistake he knew that now and that he never should have given into family pressure, but that was now in the past and he couldn't be happier with Spencer, so it was best not to thing about his failure of a marriage.
As soon as five o'clock rolled around, Rossi came out of his office and Morgan rose from his desk heading for the elevator. For once Hotch didn't stay behind to do any paperwork and also rose from his desk joining his two teammates in the elevator just before the doors closed.
"Impatient are you?" Rossi teased him and Hotch simply looked at him and his expression said clearly that that should be obvious.
"I wonder why?" Morgan added with a sly wink at Hotch as the elevator descended.
"Alright, that's enough you two," Hotch cut off anymore comments. "Let me lay down some ground rules before this goes any further. One: when you do meet Spencer you're not to tease him about our relationship, as he is still basically very shy in that area and you will ruin any chances of getting close and becoming friends with him if you don't get to know him before you start teasing. Two: There will be no teasing about my relationship at work, as I'd like to keep it as quiet as possible and no not because I'm ashamed of it, but because other people would be nasty about it just because they are against such relationships. It wouldn't matter that I'm a Shifter with a true mating gene that activated when I turned 16 or that I didn't have any say in the matter, as to who my mate would be or what sex they were. Now while those kind comments wouldn't bother me my relationship is private and not anybodies business, they would bother Spencer and he's bound to visit me here in the office sometimes."
"So, you just want to keep your relationship as low-key as possible," Morgan said who was certainly able to understand that point of view as Hotch was just trying to protect the man he loved from peoples unsolicited and unasked for opinions, most of which would be nasty and uncalled for, not that that would stop people from being rude or getting into Spencer's or Hotch's personal space in order to tell them exactly what they thought about two men being in a relationship, whether or not their opinions had been asked for.
"Alright, I won't tease him until we get to know each other," Morgan promised and Rossi nodded in agreement.
"Good, thank you," Hotch told his two teammates gratefully. "Once you get to know him you'll see how much you both have in common with him as he would have made a good member of the BAU despite being only 20, because he really is extremely intelligent. He reads more and faster than I've ever seen anybody read and his house has a large library with thousands of books. His memory is also eidetic and I know I don't need to explain to you what that means."
"He never forgets anything he reads, or sees," Rossi said looking impressed despite himself. "Now there is a very rare talent, as not many people have it."
"He knows something about almost any subject you can imagine, because as I said he reads a great deal, especially while his siblings are in boarding school for nine months of the year," Hotch said. "He is constantly adding to that library of his and the few books I own will fit right in. I also might add that he's read every single one of your books, Dave and could quote you back any page you liked out of any of them word for word," Hotch added with a grin.
Dave looked impressed again and knew he would now have to meet this young man, although he realized that would probably not be for several months at least and maybe longer, as he knew Hotch had been serious when he had said he intended to keep Spencer all to himself for at least the next few months and for that he could hardly blame his protégé since the bond between them was still very new and needed time to settle.
The elevator dinged once it reached the garage and when the doors opened the three man stepped out and said goodbye to each other and headed to their separate vehicles to head home, Hotch especially eager and with a spring in his step.
~~~The Wizard and the Shapeshifter~~~
Two years later
"Addison, I know this is going to seem a rather odd question, but Aaron and I really want children, we are considering adoption, but what I want to know, is there anyway for me to have them naturally with magic? I mean I've never heard of such spell, but that doesn't mean that one doesn't exist," Spencer asked his mentor.
Addison stared at his protégé, from his chair that was behind his desk in his office having expected something like this for sometime now, because he knew that Spencer wanted a family of his own and although adoption was an option he could understand the desire to have children of your own blood.
"There are a couple of spells that were invented a few years back," Addison said. "These spells will give a man an artificial womb and allow him to carry an embryo or embryos to term. As the time of the birth approach the man will develop a vagina, so that the baby can be born naturally."
"Is it reversible?" asked Spencer astonished at what he was hearing knowing that he would have to research this himself just to make sure that what he was being told was correct, even if he didn't believe Addison would ever deliberately lie to him.
"It is," Addison assured.
"So who created these spell you were telling me about?" asked Spencer curiously.
"Well, there was a man by the name of Daniel a few decades back," Addison begin to explain. "He and his wife desperately wanted children, but it turned out that the woman he loved was infertile. They tried to adoption and were turned down, so finally, Daniel, who was a very intelligent man decided to see if he could create his own charms that would allow a man to get pregnant. It took him months of effect as he had to do a lot of research, but finally he created two spells that he believed would work. He took his newly created spells to a healer that he knew and the healer was amazed believing that it would work once he had studied it. He told the man that in order for this spell to work he was going to have to extract some of his wife's eggs and he was also going to have to have some of his sperm as well. Unfortunately, Daniel and his wife had been told that not only was she infertile there was no way that she could carry a baby to term even with artificial insinuation, because of the Dragon Pox she'd had as a child. Now these two could have gone to IVF, since there is a magical adaptation of this muggle invention, at least here in the States, but it was very expensive and Daniel just didn't have the money, to do it that way and his wife was also unable to carry a baby to term or that would have been the perfect solution."
"So this Daniel created this spell because he didn't have the money for IVF and his wife wasn't a candidate for that likely because of the dragon pox she had when she was a kid," Spencer summarized.
"Yes, that's why since both Daniel and his wife truly wanted children and they had been turned down for adoption as I said. The muggles say that desperation is the mother of invention and I can definitely see Daniel being pretty desperate. In any case, that healer friend of Daniel's agreed to extract the eggs from his wife, and then take his sperm and create an embryo out of it. He then put the spells on Daniel after that embryo was created and inserted it into his artificial womb which had developed in the space of 24 hours. This was the first experiment of such a revolutionary technique created in order to have children and it worked to perfection, though that healer kept a very close eye on Daniel all doing his pregnancy, and as the time of the birth approached, even Daniel was amazed how he developed a vagina in order to give birth naturally. After such a successful experiment and the birth of their son, the healer wanted to write about the discovery in the medical journal promising to give Daniel full credit, which the man agreed to do so long as the healer promised that he would do the next child they wanted for free. He told the healer, that his wife and him had always wanted a large family, but until he had created those spells it was nothing more than a distant dream and in order to get his permission to place the spell in a medical journal he would agree to his terms or he would find another healer who would. He agreed to it immediately and even gave a wizards oath on it, because he recognized that this could revolutionize certain areas of magical medicine."
"You know this sounds like the perfect solution, but I think I'll look into it myself, before mentioning it to Aaron. Aaron is a very cautious man and he'll never allow me to have this charm placed on me unless he's sure it's relatively safe," Spencer said.
"Well, you did say he's a Shifter," Addison pointed out, "and you should know that they are renowned for being very protective of their mates and their children."
"Yeah, I know," Spencer admitted with a little smile as he thought of his mate. "That's one of the reasons I want to research this myself. Aaron's gone so much for work, that it should be easy to do my research without him finding out until I'm ready to tell him. If Aaron and I agree to go through with this will you do the spells?"
"Yes," Addison answered immediately. "You must really want children in order to even think about doing this."
"I do," Spencer answered, "and so does Aaron, which is why we were discussing adoption. Unlike in some families having children isn't about carrying on the family name. It's about having a little person that looks just like both of us to love, teach and watch grow, then once they are an adult who knows their place in the world and right from wrong, you can watch as they have the confidence to make their own decisions and their own mark in the world in their own time."
Spencer spoke passionately, but with conviction and Addison believed that if his protégé and his mate did have children that they would be loved and taught to be good people, unlike in some families where they were only born in order to carry on the family name or because it was expected. People who hated, were indifferent or disliked children shouldn't bother to have any of their own, but they often did anyway for one reason or another.
"Good, it will take me awhile to research this thoroughly," Spencer said. "So it isn't going to be done anytime in the next few months."
"Just tell me when you're ready to proceed, and I'll come over to your place," Addison offered.
"I will," Spencer promised.
The two continued to chat for awhile, before they went to do their rounds heading in opposite directions, but they both knew without it actually being spoken out loud that they would be discussing this again at some point.
~~~The Wizard and the Shapeshifter~~~
