Hi everyone!

Sorry this update has taken so long, we are currently selling our house so things are a bit crazy here at the moment but I'll try to keep updating regularly.

Hello to everyone that has started following this story, please feel free to leave a review and tell me what you think so far.

Thanks to pechika, dextolan, sherryola, DS2010 and guest for reviewing the last chapter, I love hearing what you all think.

Please keep reading and reviewing! Thanks!

WARNING : spanking in this chapter!

Chapter 7

10 years ago:

Garcia had done a search through Paul's life and found very little except for some recent doctor visits, nothing seemed weird about that but Hotch couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. Oh well, he thought, if there's something wrong I'm sure mom will eventually tell me or ask for help. Ever since his father died, Mary had been a different person; she no longer took any nonsense from anyone. She was always so controlled by his father that now she wouldn't let anyone take that power away from her again.

Aaron sat in his study finishing off some work, out of the corner of his eye he could see Spencer sitting on the sofa reading. Spencer was reading a book about pyramids that he had found on the bookshelf and every so often he would spout a random fact to Hotch.

The next time Hotch looked up Spencer was gone. "Spencer?" He called but got no response so he quietly got up and listened for anything that would give the toddlers location away. Hearing a noise in the kitchen he smiled and stuck his head around the door to see what he was up to.

"Spencer Hotchner!" He exclaimed as he spotted Reid balanced on the bench looking through a cupboard "what are you doing up there?!"

Spencer jumped when Hotch yelled and grabbed onto the cupboard door to keep from falling. "I just wanted a snack" he sniffed as Hotch lifted him down and put him on the floor "I thought you might like a snack too, it was meant to be a surprise" he said quietly not daring to look up and see Hotch's angry face.

"Time out" Hotch said simply picking him up again and sitting him in the corner "you know what you did was dangerous and you could have been really hurt" he explained

"That's not fair!" Reid cried as he faced the wall

"Two minutes" Hotch said walking out of the room with his heart still beating a mile a minute just thinking about what could have happened.

Spencer sat in the corner and fumed at Hotch, how dare he put him in the corner like a child! He didn't do anything wrong, he was just trying to help himself instead of disrupting him while he was working, what was the big deal? He was tempted to get up and walk away but he knew that would make Hotch even madder so he stayed there and waited.

Hotch made sure he was calm before he went back into the kitchen. "Come here Spencer" he said taking a seat at the table.

Spencer couldn't hide his anger as he went and stood in front of his boss and he stared up at him defiantly and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I didn't do anything wrong!" He started

"Yes you did, you should know better than to climb on the counter. You could have fallen and cracked your head open or broken a bone" Hotch said

"I know what I'm doing! I know I need to be careful! I'm not a child!" He yelled

Hotch leaned closer to the boy so he was looking him in the eye "that's enough with that attitude young man. Unless you want to spend the rest of the afternoon in the corner?"

Spencer couldn't help himself "THAT'S NOT FAIR...OW!" He yelled as Hotch gave him a swat on the butt

"Time out for your attitude this time" said Hotch as picked him up and placed him back in the corner "when your time is up I expect your attitude to have changed, understand?"

"Yes sir" Spencer replied quietly

Hotch hated to have to discipline him but Spencer had to learn that he couldn't put himself into situations where he could get hurt. After two minutes Hotch returned to the kitchen and could see Reid's small body shaking as he cried quietly in the corner.

"Come here buddy" he said kneeling down next to him. Spencer stood and looked at Hotch for a minute then fell into his outstretched arms and cried.

"Shhh, it's ok" Hotch said as he rubbed Spencer's small back and tried to calm him down. "It's all over now, ok" he smiled as he felt Spencer nod against his chest and slowly stop crying.

"I'm sorry daddy" he said meekly

"I'm sorry too" started Hotch "I don't want to spank you but I need you to listen when I tell you not to do something, ok?"

"Ok"

"Good man" praised Hotch "now I'm nearly done with my paperwork and then I was thinking we could go to the park?"

"Ok"

Hotch sat Spencer in his booster seat and gave him two cookies and some juice "can we invite the others?" He asked Hotch

"Sure, I'll send them all a text and see who's free"

An hour later they arrived at the park and found Rossi with Mudgie, Prentiss and Garcia waiting for them "hi honey bun" said Penelope as Spencer raced over to her and gave her a hug

"Hi Garcia" he smiled

"Hi Mudgie!" He exclaimed giving the dog a pat

"What sound we do first? Swings? Slide?" Garcia asked happily

"Swings!" He shouted running over to the play equipment

Garcia and Reid were having a competition to see who could swing the highest, Hotch smiled as Spencer squealed with delight as Rossi pushed him higher and higher. It was great to see him having fun like a real child.

When he was tired of the swings Spencer decide he wanted to play fetch with Mudgie. The toddler couldn't throw the ball very far but the dog loved it anyway.

"Maybe you should get him a puppy Aaron?" Laughed Rossi as they sat on the grass watching the boy and the dog

"I don't think so Dave, what would I do with it when we are out of town?" He laughed

"Oh I could watch it for you!" Offered Garcia "every little boy needs a puppy!"

"Thanks Garcia but no, Spence can get into enough trouble all by himself without an accomplice" Hotch said telling them about Spencer's climbing adventures earlier that day.

All of a sudden a man raced out from behind a tree and grabbed Spencer and took off running toward the car park

"DADDY!" He screamed over the man's shoulder. Mudgie took off growling and barking and trying to grab the man's leg as he ran towards his car. Just before he reached the car park, Mudgie grabbed his leg and the man fell backwards and dropped Spencer as he tried to kick at the dog.

The others were there instantly, Emily ran to Spencer and picked him up checking him for any injuries as Hotch and Rossi pinned the man down and Garcia was already on the phone to the police station.

Spencer grabbed Emily's shirt and buried his face in her shoulder as the shock of the near abduction sunk in and he started crying. "It's ok honey, I got ya, you're ok" she said as she rocked him and rubbed his small back "shhhh shhh shhh" she murmured

"Why were you trying to take my son?" Hotch growled

"I don't know" the man said stupidly "let me go"

Hotch had to stop himself from knocking the man out "the police will be here in a minute and I'm sure they will want to speak to you"

"Get your stupid dog off my leg" the man demanded shaking his leg trying to dislodge Mudgie, the dog just growled and kept his grip

"If you lay still he won't hurt you" Rossi said angrily "when the police get here then he'll let you go"

As soon as they saw the police car, Rossi called Mudgie off and he and Hotch hauled the man to his feet.

"I've got him Hotch, go to Spencer" Rossi said

Hotch approached the two women who were trying to calm the crying child, "Spencer" Hotch said quietly "come to daddy"

"Daddy!" Spencer cried practically throwing himself into Hotch's arms. "It's ok now, you're safe" he said softly cuddling Spencer to his chest and rubbing his back.

Hotch spoke briefly with the police and then Rossi went to the police station with them to give a detailed statement and the others all went back to Hotch's house.

Spencer was still shaking when they got home; it scared him to realize how vulnerable he was now. There was no way he could defend himself from a grown adult, all the kicking and struggling he did today had no affect at all on the man that had grabbed him.

Garcia sat on the sofa with Spencer in her lap while Hotch made a pot of coffee for everyone. "My poor little snuggle bunny, it's ok now you're home and safe" she said as she cuddled him.

"How you doing Spencer?" Emily asked as she came into the room carrying a hot chocolate for him

"I'm ok" he sighed "I just don't like feeling helpless"

"I know honey, but don't worry we'll look after you and maybe we should employ Mudgie as a guard dog" she smiled

By the time Rossi returned Spencer had fallen asleep on Garcia's lap. "What happened Dave?" Asked Hotch

"The usual, they have arrested him and they believe they will be able to link him to 3 other kidnapping cases"

"Well Good!" Declared Garcia "that should keep him away from any more sweet little angels"

"Let's hope so" Hotch agreed

That night was a restless one, about an hour after Spencer went to bed, Hotch was relaxing watching a movie when Spencer came running into the room crying and flew into Hotch's lap.

"What's wrong Spencer?" He asked as Spencer grabbed hold of his shirt and buried his head in his chest and cried.

"I...I...had a nightmare!" He sobbed "the man took me and you couldn't catch him"

"Oh buddy" Hotch said wrapping his arms around his son and kissing his forehead "it's ok now, you're safe. I promise he can't get you"

Spencer just sobbed until he fell asleep in Hotch's arms. That was the start of a long night for them both. Aaron took Spencer to bed with him but the nightmares didn't stop, every couple of hours Spencer would wake up crying and and clutching onto Hotch until he fell asleep again.

A/N: I feel like this chapter ended weirdly but my brain is a bit overloaded at the moment so please bear with me. If anyone has any ideas or things they would like to see happen in future chapters please let me know, thanks for reading and reviewing!