Thanks for all the messages, I do love getting them! I'm glad you are enjoying the story :) Idril x

3. Dreams

Spencer Reid POV (thought I might see if I can write some of this from Spencer's POV, a little bit of a gamble but I thought I'd chance it :) )

Marley lay on my bed; her skin almost matching the ivory colour of the duvet. She was wearing the same clothes as the first time I saw her: Jeans and a tight, white t-shirt that clung to her curves. Her dark, wavy hair fell around her head, like a dark halo. Marley's beautiful brown eyes, so dark they almost merged with the black of her pupil, were full of a hazy lust that I had never seen before. Moving forwards I lay across her, feeling her body the way Morgan must have that first night. I leaned forwards to gently kiss those soft lips that moulded beneath mine, as the kiss intensified Marley's hands moved beneath my shirt to run along my chest. Desire burned within me as I moved to pull her top off her to reveal her beautiful body.

"Oh God Marley." I whimpered as I pulled her body closer.

"Spencer." She moaned, my name had never sounded as good as when she said it. "Reid." Hang on, she never called me Reid.

"REID!" I came to with Morgan standing over me, the biggest smirk imaginable on his face. "Case files boring you so you decided to make out with Marley in your mind?"

"No! I...um... I..." I looked around desperately for help but the others were all smirking at each other. "Marley was... she... needed help, she was..."

"Reid you are an awful liar! I doubt if Marley needed help you moaning out her name would get anyone anywhere!" Morgan looked like he was going to continue but Hotch sent him a withering look before commenting that we should go back to the case files. I tried to send him a thank you smile but he avoided all eye contact with me, in fact it was not until we were an hour away from our destination that Aaron so much as gave any kind of indication that I existed. All the while I'd been worried that Hotch would be furious with me for my inappropriate actions.

"She talks about you constantly." Aaron said as he sat down, looking around as if to check that no one was within earshot.

"What?" I asked, for a moment confused about what he meant.

"Marley, she likes you."

"We're... friends, I guess. I mean, we go to school together and... but the dream was really to do with...work." I finished feebly, my face probably matching the crimson of Emily's shirt.

"Reid, I thought we'd already established you are a bad liar." He gave me a rare smile. "Maybe you should ask her out?"

"Hotch are you honestly trying to set me up?" I ask, shocked by the sudden change in my boss.

"I care about you, Reid and I care about Marley and the two of you seem to care about each other. All I'm saying is you two would be good together." He stood up and made to leave before turning back. "Oh, and if you end up sharing a room with Morgan I'd think about something boring, like the periodic table, before you go to bed."

"The periodic table is actually very interesting; the entire universe is based on..." I began but Hotch was already walking away up the plane. I stared down at my phone, Marley's number staring up at from my contacts as I wondered if I would ever be brave enough to ask her out.

Marley Prince POV

"Marley." A little voice squeaked from beside me, as I came to I wondered vaguely how long he had been stood there. Reluctantly I opened one eye and fumbled for the night switch; Jack was stood there in his favourite pyjamas cradling Rooster against his chest. He looked like he's been crying and I felt awful for not noticing earlier.

"What's wrong Buddy?" I whispered tiredly.

"I had a bad dream. Can I sleep with you?" I nodded before pulling back the covers so he could climb in beside me. Jack snuggled as close against me as was humanly possible before wrapping his arms around me.

"What happened in your bad dream?" I whispered as I stroked his hair and tried to give him any comfort I could.

"The bad man came after Mommy." It took all my strength not to cry along with him at all he'd been through. I whispered what I hoped were comforting words; promising that it was only a dream although we both knew that it had happened and his Mom was never coming back. "Can we call Daddy?" He whimpered after a while. The BAU had been away for four days on a case in Alaska but Aaron called Jack every night to check on him. Spencer had called me several times as well, mostly to ask about school stuff but the conversations often went off on random tangents although I got the feeling that he never got to the point that he actually wanted to make. I looked at the clock to try and work out the time difference, it was three here so it must be eleven in Alaska, that wasn't too late.

"Sure we can." I leaned over to grab my cell, the glare of the screen nearly blinding me in the half light of the night light. After a second to get used to it I began scrolling through my contacts to find Aaron. He picked up after the second ring, his voice sounding urgent and panicky, he had obviously worked out what time it was here and realised I would only ring in an emergency.

"Marley? Marley is Jack ok?"

"He's fine; he just had a bad dream and wanted his Dad." Aaron paused for a minute and I heard him exhale a shaky breath, obviously still trying to get over the moment of blind panic when he believed something awful had happened to the most important person in his world. "Aaron?"

"Yeah, I'm here, put him on." I pressed the phone to Jack's ear who had been watching me nervously, desperate to here from his Dad. Jack talked tiredly to his Dad for a little while, explaining his dream while I gently stroked his hair. After a little while, however tiredness got the better of him and he just lay there listening to Aaron on the end of the line. When I was sure he was asleep I took the phone back to check that Aaron was ok after hearing about his son's dream.

"Aaron, you ok?" I whispered, hoping desperately not to wake Jack again.

"I know this is a lot to ask but can he sleep with you tonight?"

"Aaron you honestly think I'd chuck him out after that? Give me some credit." I felt slightly stung that he even needed to ask that of me but tried not to take it too personally as he was worried for his son.

"I know, I'm sorry." I could hear him moving around on his end and someone yelling out. I caught the words 'plane', 'dream' and 'Spencer' but had no idea what was going on.

"Everything ok?"

"Yes, Morgan's just being Morgan. Do you want to talk to Spencer?" I smiled, feeling the heat burning my cheeks and made a small noise of ascent. There was a few seconds of static as the phone changed hands before the familiar comfort that came with Spencer's voice filled me, dimming the anguish I'd felt earlier.

"Hey. How's the case going?" I whispered tiredly, settling back against the pillow. The little question was enough to keep him going for ages, his passion for his job practically palpable in the air. We talked for a little bit, the conversations getting weirder and weirder the more tired I got until I took Jack's idea and just lay there listening to Spencer's monologue. His velvety voice soothing me into a blissful unconsciousness.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I woke up early with Jack still curled up against me, the phone lying by my head on the pillow. I'd have to hope that all the talk about radiation and cancer was mistaken. I picked up the phone and was about to dial Spencer's number before realising that it was around four in the morning there and it was probably not the best idea to wake up the young genius when he was barely getting any sleep as it was. Rain was battering the window across from the bed causing Jack to stir beside me but he didn't wake up. I lay there for a while just staring around my room; it was cream like most of Aaron's house but I had tried my best to make it my own. There was an orange and pink stripy rug on the floor by my bed which was covered in a brightly coloured patterned comforter, there was a book shelf full to bursting with books of all descriptions beside my bedside table and across from that a desk with my second hand laptop and Spencer's book on it. My favourite part of my room was the wooden corkboard above my bed which was filled with special items: pictures of my family, friends and even my Hotchner boys, Jack's picture and my class schedule to name but a few. Whenever I couldn't sleep or felt down I would just lie there and looked at all the important things I had in my life.

"What's for breakfast?" Jack mumbled beside me.

"Good morning to you too!" I laughed as I helped him untangle his legs from the covers. "I think we could have something special; maybe even... pancakes!" He let out a small squeak of excitement before jumping out of bed and racing down the stairs before I could even pull myself out of my warm cocoon.

The day passed with relative ease, it rained all day so we played a multitude of games inside. It was well passed Jack's bedtime and we were playing a rather strange version of hide and seek that Jack Hotchner had made up and involved us creating a huge tent with every duvet in the house around the dining room table, when the door opened.

"Daddy!" Jack screamed as he appeared from behind the sofa and threw himself towards the door.

"Carefully buddy." Aaron smiled down at his son as gave the boy a one armed hug to keep him away from the person on his right who was still only half in the house. Aaron helped the person in before closing the door. It took my mind a second to get my head around what I was seeing but after a second the horror dawned on me; Aaron holding up Spencer who was leaning heavily against the older profiler, his leg in a bandage and his face covered in bruises.

"What happened?" I yelped as I ran towards the two of them.

"It's not as bad as it looks, can we sit down before I tell you. My leg hurts." He admitted looking slightly sheepish. Without another word Hotch and I helped him over to the couch, all the while Jack looked on worriedly. Spencer let out a small groan as he lay back against the cushions, the small sound was enough to tip my frayed emotions over the edge and tears began to stream silently down my face. Spencer leaned over and gently wiped the glistening drops from my face with his thumb.

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

"Its ok, I've been through much worse before."

"I don't think that's helping, Reid." Aaron whispered as I let out a little sob, I couldn't help it, seeing him like that cut me up inside. Jack who had been watching from the sidelines moved forwards and sat beside me to give me a cuddle.

"Don't cry Marley." He whispered as he snuggled against me.

"Jack why don't you pack up all your toys while we have a grown up chat. I'll conveniently look over the fact that you're still up." Jack nodded and gave me a final squeeze before getting off a heading into the dining room to start the massive tidy up job. "We were chasing the unsub through the woods." Aaron began as soon as Jack was out of earshot. "We were split up and when we found him he had already found Reid."

"He jumped me from behind." Spencer continued the story, all the while his head stayed down so his hair obscured our view of his face. "I... I tried to run but I trip, did that to my ankle." He pointed down to his bandaged foot. "Don't worry its only sprained. And then...then he proceeded to beat the crap out of me until Morgan showed up." He laughed mirthlessly; I leaned across and gently pushed the hair behind his ear so I could see his face.

"Spence, it could have happened to anyone." He said nothing, instead yawning and feigning tiredness.

"He could have concussion so they want us to wake him up every two hours to check." Aaron stood up and grabbed his keys off the coffee table. "I'll go pick up some of your stuff, Spencer." He tenderly put a hand on Spence's shoulder in a Fatherly gesture before taking Spence's keys from his jacket and going to speak to Jack, warning him that he had to be tucked up in bed by the time he got back.

After Aaron left I helped Spencer up the stairs to the guest bedroom, where he sat down heavily on the bed. I wanted to comfort him in some way but nothing that came into my head sounded remotely helpful. Spencer looked so broken that all I wanted to do was hug him but I knew that probably wasn't the best idea. Instead I just sat next to him, hoping my mere presence would comfort him. Aaron eventually returned with a small bag of Spencer's things. He said nothing but once again laid a comforting hand on Spencer's arm before leaving to find Jack. I helped Spencer undress despite his mumbled protests. I couldn't help gasping as I stared at his uncovered chest, the bruises marring the otherwise perfection that was Spencer's body; they were huge, ugly wounds that had needed stitches in some cases while others were covered in gauze. I gently ran my fingers across each one, memorising the patterns. Even without an eidetic memory I would remember Spencer's ravaged body for the rest of my life. He squirmed uncomfortably and I looked up to see his eyes filling with tears.

"It wouldn't have happened if I was like Hotch or Morgan." He whispered as he quickly wiped away his tears. "I'm weak."

"You are many things Spencer Reid; a doctor three times over, the cleverest person I've ever met and the nicest but no one ever has the right to call you weak. Especially not you. You're strong Spence, now stop this silliness or I'm going to make tonight even worse then it will be. My questioning can be brutal my friend."

"I'm sure it will be." He agreed quietly, he obviously hadn't believed a word I'd told him but I knew that one day I'd make him see it. It would be my life's work.

"Come on then, lets see what sexy pyjamas Hotch bought you."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The rest of the evening passed relatively quietly. After I helped Spencer dress I sat on the bed watching one of the Star Trek DVD's Hotch had found in his apartment, then I sat and read him one of the Margery Kemp books that Hotch had also bought over. When it was time for bed Hotch and I agreed a rota for the evening's wake up calls. Hotch, ever the gentleman, agreed to go first.

At four in the morning my alarm made the hideously shrill beeping noise that I had come to hate over the past few weeks. I staggered out of bed and across the hall to Spencer's room. I sighed, he looked so peaceful even with the bruises that scarred his face and I hated having to wake him up. He groaned but opened one eye to look at me.

"I'm ready for the inquisition."

"What's your name?"

"Spencer Reid and Hotch has already done that one. I thought they were going to be brutal?"

"I was going to be nice but I'll play it brutal if that's what you want. Who is the prettiest girl you've ever seen."

"Easy, you."