Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds :-)

A/N: To deal with the Spencer and Maeve situation, the latter will have turned fourteen in July instead of fifteen, even though she is a sophomore. Now, you can say: Sam! Just make her a freshman! Trust me: Maeve needs to be a sophomore for this. She isn't strictly there because of Spencer. Yes, Spencer is a chunk of her story-line (C'mon, have you seen the show?) and things will happen, but I just don't think a relationship between a twelve year old and fifteen year old is appropriate. (Twelve and fourteen is still risky, but I'm willing to try it since Maeve and Spencer will connect deeply prior) It's especially risky since a twelve year old normally shouldn't be dating, and it's someone like Spence who's still awkward with friendships. But I believe, I personally believe, that if he had made friends with older kids (like in this fic) he'd experiment with dating and other things he's exposed to in high school. (But more on that later)

Another thing, I know people are pissed because I made JJ pregnant in this story. I think it's an important topic, but it won't be for long until she has her baby. She's seven months along now, and I didn't want to be cliche and do the "Who's the father" thing.

Hazing is in this chapter. This is where things turn a little.

It's not like I didn't warn you guys of these things.

Reviews are fabulous, don't be afraid to do so!

Previously: Emily and Hotch get off on the wrong foot but unknowingly band together to stop Spencer from getting bullied. Penelope is planning a Halloween party to win Kevin's heart. Spencer connects with a sophomore named Maeve Donovan who shares his interests of literature. Diane doubts her boyfriend Bobby's love for her. JJ is a junior that's seven months into her pregnancy and Will LaMontagne is the father. New freshmen Ashley Seaver and Elle Greenaway want to be on the cheer squad that's been taken over by resident mean girl Cat Adams after Haley's death.

Chapter Four: Little to No Hope

Penelope got Spencer a little gift. She knew it wasn't much; just a stuffed animal, but she gave everyone stuffed animals; it was her thing. It was her a token of her friendship, or hopefully, the start of one.

Penelope had in her hand a stuffed kitten, which she was going to give to Spencer because, come on, he looked so adorable like a little kitten! She had slowly stood up from her table and took a glance around the cafeteria to find his face. She did find him, a smile slowly crossing her face as she saw the kid reading his book, without anyone bothering him. Good. She was about to approach the boy, until a hand grabbed her–

"Where are you going?" Kevin didn't sound controlling; mainly curious and naive, because he was most likely not listening to what he was saying. Penelope took her hand out of his gently, giving him a look.

"I told you that I was going to give this to Spencer," she says, holding the stuffed kitten, still keeping an eye on the eleven year old to see if anyone would even dare to hurt him. Kevin apparently tried looking in her direction, clearly confused.

"Who's Spencer? Is he new?" Penelope sighed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes on front of him. If he wasn't so cute...

"He's a potential friend, he was the one that was getting picked on, I was just telling you about it, with Hotch and Emily. Derek was the one who told me–"

"Oh, yeah yeah yeah," Kevin interrupted, quite rudely. "You were just telling me about the kid." Penelope pretended not to be phased, as she pressed her lips together in obvious annoyance, but she knew Kevin wouldn't have noticed.

"Right, I'm going now."

"Yeah, okay," he says dismissively. Penelope strolls over to see the boy engrossed in a novel, flipping a page after a few seconds, and then going on to another. She was sure that the kid was so focused that he hadn't noticed her approach him. After a while, Penelope spoke up.

"Hey Sugar?" The pain that Penelope felt when that little dear flinched and looked up to face her with wide innocent eyes; it nearly shattered her heart into pieces. Spencer was confused by the affectionate nickname, and was more confused by this girl's unique sense of style. It was so...colorful. How has she not gotten trampled over yet? Oh right, her name wasn't Spencer Reid.

"Y-Yes? Who are you?"

Penelope gave him a warm smile, trying to show him that she meant no harm. "My name's Penelope, and I wanted to give you this!" She held out the toy kitten for him to take it, and Spencer merely stares at it as if he expected it to blow up once he touched it.

"I...I don't know if I can take this–"

"Nonsense, sweetie, I give this to all the freshmen." Spencer just couldn't let it go, he couldn't trust her after the past incident he had in the cafeteria, although his gut was telling her that she was safe and had motherly instincts. After all, he's made friends with Maeve. Too bad she wasn't here today.

Penelope frowned, "I want to be your friend." Now, she sounded hurt. She knew she was overly sensitive, but he deliberately wasn't taking the kitten, even Hotch took her gift, and he was well...cynical, which she knew was an understatement.

"What's your motive?" The boy murmured so quietly that Penelope almost hadn't heard him, and she really wished she didn't. It hurt that he was so distrustful of others, no doubt due to severe bullying he had no choice but to endure on his own.

Penelope sighed and began to explain. "One of the people who defended you the other day...I'm really good friends with him." Okay, that wasn't the complete truth, but she knew she had to get him to trust her, the kid was skittish and terrified enough as it is, "I didn't do anything to stop those bullies like he and Emily did...So I wanted to give this to you." Inside, Spencer felt this rage building up in his fragile body, and he wanted to feel guilty, for feeling this way toward someone who was being so sickeningly sweet, he hated being babied. Plus, a stuffed animal? Sure people were older than him but he didn't need to be reminded of it 24/7, his eyes flashed at her.

"I don't want your pity," he snapped lowly, "I've suffered enough, so please leave me alone now. For your sake and mine, I don't want anyone to hurt you for being seen with me." Penelope was taken aback, and she tried to hide the hurt from her voice,

"It wasn't pity," she says softly, pretending not to be bothered by the way Spencer snapped at her, "I just wanted to be your friend..."

"Don't!" Spencer snapped again, "You'll end up being hurt!" Penelope swallowed a dry lump in her throat, she eyed the book that he was reading with welled up tears in her eyes. She looks at him and says,

"I like Doctor Who too..." Then she ran off, refusing to cry in front of the twelve year old. Spencer watched as she ran off, he knew that he probably made her cry, he tried so hard not to feel guilty about it. He felt, however, that it was for the best. He couldn't stand to see someone so sweet suffer if she stood by his side.

It was bad enough that Maeve was his friend and was probably going to regret talking to him.

He was still alone.

The bleachers on the football field were great for people to actually watch sports, but it was used more for people to avoid their problems, or to avoid class, or it was to avoid the people. Either way, Penelope Garcia had now become a new visitor to the bleachers, and was thankful that no one else could see her breakdown like this. Penelope let the tears escape, the ones that had been threatening to fall since her confrontation with Spencer in the cafeteria.

She wasn't really crying because of pain she felt; it was because of trying to imagine Spencer's pain. So cold, so sad, so miserable. It wasn't like Hotch's coldness, at least he had the seniors or Derek to turn to, or even herself once or twice, Spencer had no one. From what she could observe, he had the comfort of his books, but she knew herself that only books could do so much. She knew as a person, that people needed people. Social interaction was important to her, which was why she remained bubbly and cheery; because she doesn't want to lose closeness to a person.

She tried putting herself in Spencer's shoes, and she couldn't help but speculate that the little boy was a lot more troubled than he had let on. He seemed like the type to conceal his own emotions by using his intellect, much like a defense mechanism. Although it was none of her business, she felt his home life wasn't good, as she found him staying at the library after school which didn't go unnoticed by her. She saw the way his face would drop when the librarian announced that she was closing up. He dragged his feet home, and she noticed nobody was outside waiting for him, not even a parent.

How? How does someone go through their life day by day feeling so alone?

She couldn't do that.

"Hey baby girl, what's up? What are–Penelope?" Derek now stopped his casual flirting with her once he saw the state she was in, he had rarely called her by her first name unless something was seriously wrong. He had known something was wrong when she was not the first person to greet him by the door of their Spanish class that they had together, and he heard from other people by asking around to find out where she was. Luckily, he had found her in time, "Penelope, what's wrong? Cutting class isn't you at all." He immediately sat next to her on the bleachers and put his arm around her shoulders, his eyes growing in concern.

"Spencer...stuffed kitten...didn't want it..." She began to explain the whole exchange between her and Spencer, and saw his eyes flaring each time she mentioned him snapping,

"That scrawny white boy did what?" Derek was now comforting a crying Penelope, something he had seen way too often. He understood, though, since he always took the time to listen to her, as he knew how much of a sensitive person she was, with a heart made of pure gold.

"Derek...he's all alone, he has no one...He's kind of like Hotch, but...Hotch has friends. Did you notice those bruises? He's getting his ass kicked everyday...I'm not crying because he snapped...I'm crying because he's in pain and I don't know how to help..."

"Shh, baby girl, breathe." He consoles her gently, enveloping her in a hug, "I know it hurts, but if he doesn't want help–"

"No!" She shouted, pulling away from him, "I won't accept that, he needs love! He needs affection! If he's been starved from that for so long then..." She cuts herself off, exasperating a sigh, "I don't want him hurt...I just want to give him a hug, you know?"

"That's what I love about you, Pen," Derek says softly, "You're such a good person. That's why you're one of my best friends, you're not crying for yourself, but because of other's sadness, and I find that beautiful."

"He needs someone," Penelope sobbed, resting her head on Derek's shoulder as she cried. All Derek could do was offer soothing words and reassurances while rubbing her back in circles.

They never went to Spanish class that day.

Wait, so she's not evil?

Wait, he isn't a heartless asshole?

These thoughts have plagued both Emily and Hotch; as their eyes had met a lot more during the classes that they had together, which were English, Trigonometry, and Science. All of them were listed as honors or AP classes, as the two were both on the honor roll. Hotch was surprised that she was; at first, with her attitude and her possible deteriorating mental state; but then he realized that all of those goons in their classes together were the same way, she was just as moronic and selfish as them.

But then he realized he wasn't so sure about that last part after Emily stepped in to assist Spencer, by kicking those two morons in the groin, and normally Hotch would say that such behavior was uncalled for and childish, but he felt like they deserved it.

Plus, it really turned him on.

It was an odd thought.

Things seem to get from interesting to perhaps, even more interesting, when their AP biology teacher decided to include lab partners. It was very cliché, a boy and a girl being paired up together to hopefully ensue a wondrous yet sappy romance, resulting in a marriage by the end of the year. Stuff like this made Emily and Hotch want to vomit.

"Mr. Hotchner and Ms. Prentiss," the science teacher said, "Why don't you two work together?" Emily snorted. It was a fact that the entire school saw how she and Hotch defended Spencer, did it make some teachers think that they were friends? Or even some stupid power couple that saved all the bullied kids to help the community like those superheroes on TV?

Whatever. She'd work with him, it's not like she had a choice in the matter.

At first, they did not speak to each other for the first ten minutes on their assignment together. They were filling out their worksheets separately, one ignoring the other. It wasn't until Emily was getting flustered by the minute, with the constant hair twirling and the fact that she hadn't moved her pen in over three minutes.

Wait, why was Hotch keeping track of that?

"Need help?" Hotch knew that he shouldn't have spoken up when Emily turned to face him with an icy glare.

"What makes you think I'd need your help?" she sneered at him, with her eyes as daggers.

Hotch pretended not to mind, as he shrugged his shoulders and answered truthfully.

"You're twirling your hair, it's a sign of nervousness...and you look stumped, to be fair."

Emily crossed her arms, making herself look so damn immature and childish, "Well I'm not 'stumped', as you put it. I don't need your help, I'm not as dumb as you think I am." Hotch now directly confronted her, his eyes had left his worksheet and fell on her,

"I never said that, but I can see that your back to your old self." Well, damn. Emily was finding herself to believe that Hotch wasn't as cowardly as she initially thought.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

Hotch put his pen down.

"Just for a moment the other day," he started off, remembering the events of the cafeteria as they flooded back into his mind. "I had thought that you weren't as selfish as you made yourself out to be, turns out I was wrong." Emily was glaring as Hotch picked up his pen and began to work like what he said wasn't cruel. She wasn't going to let him get away with this so easily.

"...And just for a moment the other day I didn't think you were a callous sociopath." Hotch had tried to not attract attention, because he felt like in no time that he was going to start shouting at her.

"Then why did you defend him?" He found himself getting angrier and irritated, as did she.

"Why did you?" She countered back, she refused to back down. She watched as Hotch took a deep breath with his jaw clenched tight. He glared at her before saying, "Because he's some kid. It was the right thing to do. I'm not some monster as you perceive me as, though there are days where I feel like I am, but that's none of your business!" Emily glared back at him, before nodding in approval before saying,

"Same," Hotch was now confused by that one word she said, in which way was it the same? She had no idea how he felt, since she didn't know him, since she judged him. He was about to say something, but Emily cut him off, "I did it because it was the right thing to do. I'm not as selfish as you think I am." Now, everything was beginning to click. Nodding with understanding, he went back to his work, she did the same. After a while, he felt someone lightly tap his shoulder, he faced the direction of where it was coming from, which was from an almost vulnerable looking Emily.

"I'm sorry," she said, looking at him, not glaring, "Can you actually help me with this?" Finally. Hotch was waiting to see a trace of vulnerability on her face for a long time, wanting to see her break because she was so unbearably annoying. Something changed in Hotch's heart, when her voice was breaking; pleading was more like it, it tugged at him. Now that she finally showed a little bit of vulnerability, he was supposed to be happy! But no, this was pity, he took no pleasure from the fact that her wide brown eyes looked so insecure.

Hotch glanced over at her paper to see what the problem was, "Organisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry." Emily quickly wrote the acquired information down quietly, with no snarky comment back. Instead, she gave him direct eye contact, and damn it, it hurt Hotch to see her looking like a wounded bunny as she said, "Thank you."

She seemed so modest and grateful, but she looked so guilty, as if she felt bad for all of her judgments made on him. Hotch felt the same way too, As maybe this girl wasn't bad as he originally thought, and that she wasn't selfish. That's when Hotch realized he was feeling something warm in his heart, it made him remember that he even had one.

He didn't like it one bit.

I'm right behind you, baby girl..." Derek said, eyeing the small boy that was sitting in the same seat as yesterday in the cafeteria. Penelope had noticed that he was reading a different Doctor Who book, although she swore he was at the beginning of the other one yesterday. Penelope took a deep breath and said, "I don't know. What if he snaps again?"

"Then, I'm sorry. It's his loss. You tried everything, and if he doesn't want your friendship, it's on him." Penelope sighed and rubbed her temple with the palm of her hand. She was so entirely grateful for Derek coming with her to befriend Spencer, she reminded him endlessly that he didn't have to, but his response was, "What kind of best friend would I be if I didn't help my baby girl out?" Penelope laughed for a minute before a thought came into her mind,

Why isn't Kevin helping me?

She brushed that thought to the side and proceeded to approach Spencer, as he burying his small face into the novel as usual. Derek was following her, behind her through all of this. She took a breath when she got at his table,

"Spencer," Penelope said, appearing slightly stiff. Spencer put his book down and stared wide eyed at Derek before looking at Penelope again and saying,

"What I did to you was so wrong...but please don't make your boyfriend beat me up...I'm so sorry, Penelope."

Oh, god... his eyes...

Penelope was right, was Derek's thought. This kid had it bad, so so bad. She wasn't kidding or exaggerating when she said that this kid was in pain. His eyes said it all, there was no light, there was no hope, it was like the life was sucked right out of him like a vacuum cleaner. This was because of years and years of torment by cold-hearted, jealous people. Derek's presence was now reminding him of those bullies with his build; and he honestly meant no harm. He was here for moral support, for Penelope, but now he understood why Spencer was so defensive, now he understood why Spencer snapped at her. He was trying to protect her.

Wait, did he just call him Penelope's boyfriend?

"I'm not her boyfriend and I'm not going to beat you up," Derek said, keeping his voice down, "My name's Derek, I'm a friend of Penelope's." Spencer gave him a shy little wave. Spencer immediately knew what this was all about, but introduced himself anyways to be polite.

"I'm Spencer," he says, now his attention is on Penelope, "I'm really sorry that I did that to you...You're just...so nice. I couldn't imagine what would happen if the jocks at this school picked on you."

"From now on, we couldn't imagine what would happen if the jocks picked on you," Derek says seriously, "They're not gonna mess with us, and they're not going to mess with you. We've got a whole freaking army that's ready to back you up. You got that, Kid?" Spencer looked a little doubtful at first, until he made direct eye contact with the two–that looked so much like a couple–and saw that they weren't kidding. He nodded slowly, and Derek gave him a smile, "Great, now take the damn stuffed kitten. Penelope worked hard on that." Spencer raised his eyebrows in surprise as he took the stuffed kitten.

"You make stuffed animals?" Penelope smiled at his curiosity.

"Yep! My mother taught me! Friends?" And finally, Derek and Penelope saw a ray of hope on Spencer's face in the form of a smile as he said,

"Friends."

"Spencer!" That giggly voice that Spencer knew well after only a day made him smile. Derek and Penelope watched as Maeve Donovan trotted over to sit across from him in the cafeteria. "Did you miss me? I was rather sick...I'm sorry." Derek and Penelope saw the way Spencer blushed. Maeve noticed the two juniors just then. "Oh, hello. I'm Maeve Donovan." She stuck her hand out for Derek to take, which he did. " Derek Morgan." When they let go, she held it out for Penelope, who shook her head.

"Hugs is what I go for!" She says cheerily, wrapping Maeve in a hug. "We can all be friends, no?"

"It's nice to know Spencer has other friends he can count on," Maeve said with a chuckle. "Any friend of Spencer is a friend of mine."

Spencer felt he can hold on a little longer.

A high pitched whistle spread throughout the park.

"C'mon you freshman sluts!" Cat shouted through a bullhorn, with dark intentions ahead. She remembered doing this as a freshman. She remembered Haley yelling through the bullhorn as she was tied up against a tree in the park with Lindsey. But now, the ones being tied up were Ashley and Elle, amongst what those two could assume, were other freshman girls. All of them were looking horrified that this is what it took to get into the cheer squad. What was even more depressing is that people from the school stood by and watched, some even found it amusing.

"You want some of this?" Lindsey asked with a smirk, as she got a pitcher and made sure it got into Elle's mouth. She used her other hand to pour the alcohol into the pitcher. Elle choked when the bitter taste entered her throat, but Lindsey wasn't letting her spit it out. "Swallow, it! Don't spit it up you whore!" Elle swallowed the alcohol, it's taste burning the back of her throat. Ashley was crying as she was next, swallowing the alcohol reluctantly.

Cat didn't care. She was longing to do this to someone now. She finally got her chance when those gullible freshmen wanted a place in her cheer squad. They wanted it? That was fine. But they had to fight for it. If they have to take a hazing for it, then that's what you did. "...We're just getting started! Don't cry you freshmen babies! You're weak!"

She faced Lindsey. "Cut them loose." Lindsey did so, bringing a pair of scissors so the girls were no longer tied to the tree, falling into the ground from exhaustion. Cat wasn't having any of it. "No, no, no! We didn't say you can rest, you little bitches get up! Get up!" She yelled through the bullhorn while the girls groaned and stood up, their footing awkward.

"I hate her sometimes..." Alex whispered to Jason and David about Cat, with a shake of her head as they watched the hazing go down. "Wasn't she a freshman three months ago?"

"Haley did the same thing," David defended. "It was bound that Cat was going to do it too."

"Haley didn't shove alcohol down her throat," Alex spat out in disgust that David was okay with this. "Cat is demonic, she's doing this for pleasure."

Jason rose an eyebrow. "And Haley didn't? C'mon, Alex, even you knew how she was."

"Air raid!" Cat screamed at the top of her lungs. Lindsey blew the whistle as all the girls got down on the concrete floor as quick as they could. "That was horrible you slut girls, you freshmen sluts! Get back up and let's run it again!" Her voice boomed throughout the park. "Air raid!" Lindsey blew the whistle again and the girls repeated the action.

"If we were in World War ll we'd be dead because of you stupid freshman bitches. Get up, get up, get up!" Cat yelled at maximum volume.

"Freshman hazing?" Alex, Jason, and David turned around to see Derek, followed by Penelope, Spencer, and Maeve. The trio of seniors nod.

Jason took one look at Spencer and knew what could happen. "Hide."

Spencer's confused. "What?"

"If they see you, they're going to torture the hell out of you," David explained calmly, trying to help. "Hide." Spencer does so, hiding between the three seniors, two juniors, and one sophomore so he wouldn't be easily seen.

"I'm David Rossi, by the way."

"...This is Alex," Alex says, introducing herself with a smile on her face. The kid was pretty adorable.

"I'm Jason." Jason didn't know why, but he felt a wave of protectiveness towards the child prodigy. Maybe that's why he asked him to hide in order to avoid being humiliated by Cat and Lindsey.

"Nice to meet you..." Spencer said, trailing off as he watched the freshman girls getting flour dumped all over them. "I don't understand..." He admitted.

"You've never heard of hazing, have you Spencer?" Maeve said sadly, looking at those poor freshmen girls that were being sprayed with ketchup and mustard. "It's so degrading." She pauses, choosing carefully what to say next. "Cat used to be friends with me," she bit her lip. "Actually...we were best friends in middle school." Everyone turned to listen to Maeve's story, things just got interesting for them. This was usually how it started. Maeve cleared her throat and continued. "Cat used to be so nice. But then her dad, he's just..." Maeve trailed off, not knowing what to say next.

"We know," Alex said to her, while secretly wondering how they didn't know that Maeve was her former best friend. "Don't explain any further, please."

"Suffer sisters! Suffer!" Cat shouted at the freshman girls, almost sounding—gleeful. "Woohoo!"

Derek sighed at Cat taking pleasure of the girls suffering. "She's fucking insane, I swear."

Penelope corrected him. "Demented."

"Why was she pouring alcohol down their throats?" Spencer asked curiously, but Maeve did something that surprised him. As he was about to ask more questions that would only upset the teenagers, Maeve ruffled his hair and hugged him. Spencer was not used to physical contact, and everyone else seemed surprised by the action, too. Spencer willingly hugged back, not knowing what to do really. Her hair smelled like strawberries. She didn't know why she hugged him, it was in the moment as if foreshadowing something bad happening.

Yes—that's what it was. Maeve suddenly had a vision when Cat was hazing those girls. She just looked at Spencer, who's been bullied mercilessly, from what she's heard, and would be so upset if he were humiliated in that way. She hoped to god that it never happened to him.

Ashley looked directly in the face of Lindsey from the floor with fear in her eyes with what she could possibly do next. Lindsey came back with a new bag of flour. "Welcome to high school, sweetie." And that's when she dumped the flour all over Ashley.

"Can we all go somewhere else, please? I don't want to watch this. I don't want him to watch this." Maeve was referring to Spencer. Maeve looked like she was near tears, and Spencer wanted it to go away so he sent a pleading look to his...friends? He guessed so.

They do what she asked in silence.

Yes, for the hazing scene, some dialogue was borrowed from one of my favorite movies, 'Dazed and Confused.'

Again, please review!