I changed the summary, it goes with the story a bit better, I think. There's a bit of a time skip. It's not much, just a few days so Reid can see his mom. Enjoy!
.o.O.0.O.o.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Morgan asks for the 23rd time, if Reid remembers correctly.
"It's a little late to go back now, Morgan." They were standing in front of Bennington Sanitarium, and they've been standing there for about seven minutes, just looking in through the glass doors.
They already checked into a hotel, deciding to just stay for the day, maybe longer if Reid feels like it, and had gotten something to eat before coming straight to the sanitarium. Morgan didn't comment that Reid had barley eaten his food, just pushed it around, knowing that he was nervous about the visit. Reid went to the bathroom while they were waiting for the food to arrive to splash water on his face. Just because he doesn't remember anything about his mother, doesn't mean his body doesn't. Morgan remembers that Reid had said once that when he actually did visit his mom, he would get nauseous and it would get worse until he actually saw her.
"Come on, let's get this over with."
Reid starts walking towards the building, Morgan right behind him, his nerves making his hands shake slightly. Morgan got to the door first and opened it, letting Reid in first. Morgan took care of checking themselves in and making sure everything was ready while Reid just looked around, feeling a sense of familiarity with the place, even if it wasn't doing anything good for his nerves and stomach.
Before he knew it, they were standing in front of the door to the day room, Watching Diana Reid read in her chair, placed by the window. Morgan stays off to the side, sitting in a chair placed in the hallway, and Reid sends a thankful glance towards him, not sure if his voice would work at the moment and not wanting to try it. Morgan just nods and takes out his phone, starting to text someone, but glancing at Reid every now and then.
Reid steels his nerves and walks into the room, a few patients glancing at him before going on with what they were doing. He stops a few feet in front of Diana, his stomach finally calming down, but still feeling on edge.
He clears his throat, "Um… Hi Mom…"
She finally looks up from her book and her eyes widen in surprise, the book dropping from her lap when she stands to take him into her arms. Reid stands there in shock for a moment, not knowing how to react. His arms feel like they move on their own when they start wrapping themselves around Diana, hugging her back. He barely registered the wetness on his cheeks or on his shoulder, only feeling a sort of completeness with this woman, his mother, in his arms again.
He can hear her mumbling something and shifts a bit until he could make out that she was saying "I told them you would come back. I told them…"
He doesn't know why, but that just made his cheeks even more wet, his vision blurry.
Morgan looks back into the room, smiling when he saw them hugging, and he can feel his eyes prickling with tears when they pulled back, both with wide smiles and tears trailing down their faces. He goes up to the nurse's desk, asking for Diana Reid's doctor. He'll let them catch up while he gets an update from the doctor, wanting to get an update on how she has been doing these past months. He felt bad that he wasn't able to keep up with her, but at least Rossi stayed with her, everybody else too busy and not really wanting to be reminded about Reid's disappearance.
"Are you Derek Morgan?"
"Yeah, thanks for coming down, Doc." He shakes hands with the doctor before each take a seat by the wall where a line of chairs were for people waiting for their loved ones. The day room where Diana and Spencer Reid were to be found is still in view, and the doctor glances at them, a small smile pulling at his lips.
"I'm glad that she gets to see him again before anything happens." A line appears between Morgan's eyebrows, showing his confusion, and the doctor elaborates, "Before Spencer was… taken, Diana's health wasn't so good. We told Spencer and he said that he would come out soon, but before he could…" He trailed off, both men knowing what happened.
Morgan notices that he calls them by their first names then realized that this man works with her almost every day; some bridges are bound to be built, especially with people as interesting and unique as the Reids.
"Her health started going down and it went even faster when he didn't come that day. Once we got word about what happened, we were worried that she would just keep getting worse, but she proved us wrong. Diana didn't get worse, but she didn't get better either. We're not even sure what's making her sick, but we do know that, basically, her body's giving out" The doctor, Dr. Tran, gives off a sigh and looks to the room, watching Diana talk to Spencer as they sit across from each other, their hands laced with each other's.
"Do you think she's going to get better now that Spencer's here?"
"I don't know. The only thing we can do now is just keep an eye on her and try to figure out what exactly is wrong. I had blood sent in to a medical specialist and those results haven't come back yet."
Morgan nods his head, wondering if he should tell Reid this or just wait.
'Of course you should tell him. It's his own mother' A voice rings through his head, 'But if you tell him then that could just make him even more worried and that won't really help with his recovery.' Another voice argued.
"Mr. Morgan, I think you should tell him." Morgan's head snaps to the doctor, surprised that he was able to tell what he was thinking about, "Even if he isn't… all there, it's still his mom and he should know. If her condition gets worse then he'll be prepared for it, he'll know how to deal with it." He nods his head, thanking the doctor. "I just realized; why don't you already know this? I've told Mr. Rossi this a while back and I thought he would've told the rest. Your team, I mean."
"I… I don't know." He honestly didn't. How come Rossi didn't deem this bit of information important enough to tell them? He would definitely call him after they were done here; he had to give Hotch an update anyway.
Dr. Tran's name is called over the intercom and he dismisses himself with one last look at the subjects of their conversation. Morgan is left there to his thoughts, the air around him suddenly suffocating. Luckily, Reid pops up beside him and Morgan has to fight down the urge to jump.
"Do you want to see her?" Morgan just nods, ignoring his red, puffy eyes as he leads him into the room. "Mom, I don't remember if you ever met him, but this is Derek Morgan, he works in the BAU with me?" His voice elevates in the end, making it sound more like a question than a statement.
"Yes, we met once, when you made me fly on one of those horrid airplanes. You're one of the government people trying to take away my Spencer." Reid's outcry of 'Mom!' was ignored.
"I'm not trying to do anything bad to Spencer, Ms. Reid, I promise you." Even with her red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, she still looked as fierce and protecting as she did the first time Morgan saw her, "I would never do anything to hurt Spencer, he's my best friend."
Reid slightly flushes at this and his mom smiles, "Please, call me Diana. Ms. Reid makes me sound old." Morgan smiles and nods, happy that she doesn't think of him as a threat to her only child. "I was just telling Spencer about when he was little; would you like to join us?"
Morgan hesitates, feeling like he was invading on his friend's life, but the reassuring smile Reid gives him is all the encouragement he needs to stay, though still feeling like he didn't really belong there.
"Sure, thank you."
"Of course. Okay, where was I…?"
"You were explaining how I was around Halloween." Reids says and Diana nods her head, grabbing his hand again.
"Yes, thank you Spencer. As I was saying, you were always excited for the whole Halloween thing, even though it's not a real holiday. But I always went with you when you wanted to go trick-or-treating…"
.o.O.0.O.o.
A tall, brown-haired man walks through the glass doors of Bennington Sanitarium, moving to the desk and quietly talking to the woman before nodding and walking down the hallway, looking into the occasional room. He comes to a halt once he reaches the day room, watching three figures talking to each other. He can see the back of the two men, but he can clearly see Diana Reid, talking amiably to the others, occasionally gesturing with her hands.
He slowly walks up to the small group until he could see who the two men are. The one with the dark-skin was one of the agents he recognizes from when he was accused of that whole Riley Jenkins incident a while back, God bless his soul. Once he saw the other person, his jaw went slack.
"Spencer?" Suddenly, three pairs of eyes are on him, two of them surprised and one confused.
"William, what are you doing here?" One of the surprised people, Diana, asks.
"I was in the area and I thought I should check up on you, see how you're doing. I didn't know you had visitors." He looks at his ex-wife, but he could still feel Spencer's confused look on him. He turns back to his son, "Um, Hi Spencer." William had gotten news about what had happened and now that his son was right in front of him, he felt surprise, but mostly relief. Relief that his son was alive and well. He felt the urge to just go up to him and hug him, but repressed it, not knowing how he would react to it. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm good… How are you Dad?" He glanced at Morgan and his mom, finding surprise on their faces. He was surprised himself, but once he saw William's face, it just registered in his mind, and he could feel a headache slowly making its way into the front of his skull.
He was on a rocky road with his father, the conversations short and awkward, not knowing how to act with each other. They were slowly getting better, but that was still quite a ways to go. Reid had apologized for the whole Riley Jenkins incident and his father forgave him, knowing that his memories had just misled him.
"Reid, you remember him?" Morgan asks before William could reply.
"A little… I recognize his face and it just kind of clicked when you called him William." He nods towards Diana and looks back at the now confused Mr. Reid.
"What do you mean 'you remember him'? Why wouldn't he remember me?"
"Were you told about what happened to me? When I was taken?" Reid slightly rubs at his temple, the headache making a dull pain pulse throughout his forehead. No one seemed to notice except Morgan whose gaze stayed on him for a moment before moving back to William.
"Yes, of course. I couldn't function for weeks after they told me and I've been worried since. You have no clue how relieved I am that you're here now and well." Reid smiles slightly, feeling happy at those words, knowing that his father actually did worry and care about him.
"I'm not exactly well. I am in the physical sense, but not mentally." Reid starts, not really looking at anyone in the eyes, "The guy who took me, Christopher Thomas, somehow gave me amnesia, making me forget everything in my life, even my name. He told me that I was his son and that I was in a car crash, which was why I couldn't remember everything." Everybody's eyes were on him and he could tell that Morgan was memorizing his every word, having not heard the whole story yet, and probably going to tell the rest of the team at some point. "I didn't question it, not even when we moved to Maryland from Virginia, when he made me dye my hair, when I wasn't allowed to talk… to anyone…"
Reid suddenly felt really stupid. How could he not question something like that? Out of all the times they took the long way around town just to avoid the police station, or when he made him wear a hat and sunglasses while crossing the state lines when that police car had pulled them over for speeding, he didn't think just once that there was something weird about all of this? Especially the part about how he had magically come out of that car crash physically unharmed while his 'mother' was so tragically killed that his own 'dad' couldn't speak of it.
He didn't realize he was crying until he felt his mom's hands on his face, brushing away the few tears that had leaked, and his dad's hand on his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.
"Ah, sorry… I don't know what came over me…" He wipes at his eyes, letting out a humorless laugh, "God, I've been so dumb…"
Nobody had questioned him or brought it up again, but the rest of the visit was still pleasant, but the looks Morgan kept sending him were getting kind of annoying, and his headache –bordering migraine- wasn't helping anything. He got some memories back as well, from when he was little and his father was still with them; it was a sad moment to learn that his dad had left them because he wasn't able to take the stress of knowing what his mom had seen all those years ago. Reid truly believes that he's a good man; he just wasn't strong enough to take on something like that. Some memories were good and some bad, but at least he was remembering who he is, who he used to be.
"Do you have any Advil on you?" Reid asks once they were back in the rental car Morgan had gotten and were back on their way to the hotel.
"Yeah, I think so… Here." He hands Reid the small travel bottle he always keeps on his person, keeping his eyes on the road.
Reid opens the bottle and takes three out, dry-swallowing all of them, and leaves the bottle on the center console, mumbling thanks.
"So, how are you feeling?"
"I feel tired and my head hurts." He thought about what he just said and sighed, "Sorry Morgan, I don't mean to snap at you. I'm just really tired."
"It's fine; it was a stressful day for you. I'm just glad that nothing too bad happened."
'Nothing too bad' meaning the near panic attack Reid got when he had remembered a particularly frightening story from his childhood, but he wouldn't explain what it was. They had decided that it was getting late and they went their separate ways, William saying that he wanted to talk to Diana for a bit longer before leaving.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Morgan asks after a moment of silence. He knew that Reid didn't have the best of childhoods, but if talking about it would help his friend, then he would listen.
The car fills with silence and Morgan takes that as a 'no' until Reid starts talking, his voice hesitant and small. "I… was at my house, I guess, when I was younger." He takes a deep breath, "My mom was having an episode, I think. She was running around the house, locking all the windows and doors, closing all the blinds, and yelling about the government taking something away. It's a little blurry. I was trying to get her to calm down, but it was like she couldn't even see or hear me! She turned to me and started shouting at me, saying that I wasn't 'her Spencer.'" Reid stops, rubs at his eyes, and takes another deep, shaking breath.
"You don't have to continue if you don't want to." Morgan says, looking at Reid for a moment before turning back to the road.
Reid just shakes his head and continues, "She dragged me down the hallway by my arm and pushed me into a closet, locking it. I started yelling, trying to tell her that I was her son, that the government didn't take me away, but she was already gone. I could hear her rampaging through the house, breaking things. I wasn't let out until a few hours later, after she had calmed down."
Morgan was at a loss of words. He had no clue how to respond to that so he just settled with an "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. It's in the past, it's not like I can do anything about it now. At least I know that she's getting the help she needs." Morgan places his hand on Reid's shoulder and keeps it there for a moment, offering as much comfort as he can while driving.
They get to the hotel and order off of the room-service menu, not really wanting to go out again, and Reid goes straight to bed afterwards, Morgan staying up to make a call to Hotch. He tells him everything that happened today except the part about Reid almost having a panic-attack and the memory. That would stay between them.
.o.O.0.O.o.
So, you get a bit more of a backstory. Reid's making some progress. I'm actually kind of proud of this chapter and the last; I don't know why, but they just feel well-written to me.
If you see any mistakes, please tell me about them! I'm trying to make this as understanding as possible with the weird plot I have going on with it.
Please review, they encourage me to write!
