A/n my thanks again to all who have reviewed. Please continue the feedback and suggestions or comments, as it helps me to be a better writer.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from CM. No copyright infringement is intended.
Lisa Reid heard the door slam and knew her mother had come home. She went to the heat register next to her desk and opened it. She could hear the angry voices of her parents from the living room directly beneath her.
It was an old house, and because of the way the original furnace had been installed, in the summer time Lisa could listen to her parents talk, or more often argue the way they were now. It never occurred to them that she could do this, and that was just fine with her.
She went back to her computer and continued her homework. She pushed a piece of long brown hair out of her face and behind her ear. Her hazel eyes were large, and when you looked at her it was easy to believe she could be bullied, but Lisa was stronger than most people thought.
Her ears perked up when she heard her mother mention Senator Black. His granddaughter was a student at her school. Her kidnapping had been frightening. If it could happen to Suzie Black, it could happen to any of them. The principal had finally announced that afternoon that FBI agents from something called the BAU had found Suzie.
"…Will! Do you know how embarrassing that would have been if I didn't use my maiden name? Thank God for women's lib."
"I don't know what you want me to say Maggie. How was I supposed to know that the Senator would call in a favor at the BAU? Anyway, there must be a lot of people out there with the last name Reid."
Her parents were really loud today. It sounded like boring politician stuff though, and Lisa was about to close the register and turn on her I pod, when she heard her mother say something interesting.
"… I saw him; he looks a lot like you Will, the same eyes, same hands. He's some kind of boy wonder at the bureau, a genius or something. Why did you tell me he was dead Will?"
Lisa waited to hear what her father had to say to that accusation. Why would he tell her mother someone was dead and why did mom say this person looked like her dad? Her father finally spoke again, and this time Lisa had to strain to hear him.
"Spencer is a freak, his mother is in an institution with paranoid schizophrenia. I couldn't let Lisa come in contact with him, who knows what his mental state is like. I'm surprised the FBI hired him."
"That doesn't change the fact that you lied to us about him. And by the way Will, he looked pretty healthy to me."
"That's because you don't know anything about schizophrenia, his mother was lucid once in a while too, but that didn't mean she was healthy."
Lisa heard his voice rising and knew they would soon be screaming at one another, again. Why was he talking about someone named Spencer and his crazy mother anyway?
… I know a little something about that disease; you don't pay attention to anything I tell you about my work. We led the fight for that new law to better regulate mental institutions, and my staff did all of the research for the bill. If your son had schizophrenia then I -"
"Keep your voice down Maggie, Lisa is right upstairs, I don't want her to know about him."
Lisa had been kneeling next to the register and this revelation knocked her back on her backside. Her dad had another son!
That couldn't be right, the only son that her dad had was her little brother, but he'd died four years ago right after he was born. Lisa still missed him even though she'd been too little to go see him in the hospital.Her Dad had never been the same after that; all her parents did was fight with each other.
… I think you should tell her, she has a right to know that she has an older brother. You know how hard it was when we lost Brian…
"Stop it Maggie I don't want to talk about him!"
"I don't care what you want; we have to deal with this."
Lisa shut the register; she couldn't listen to them any more. She stood up and went back to her laptop. Why didn't her dad want her to meet her brother? She sat down and signed onto the internet, and went to Google. What had her parents said, his name was Shawn… no Steve… no it was Spencer. She typed in his name on the search engine and hit enter.
An article from the Boston Herald came up on the screen. There was a picture of an older man and a young guy that kind of looked like her dad. He had the same eyes, and he had the same color hair that she had. The other guy was shaking Spencer's hand and the younger man didn't look to happy to be there, he looked like she felt when she had to stand up in front of the class and give a book report or something.
The article said he was the youngest person to ever get his first PHD at Harvard. So he wasn't a real doctor he was one of those fancy doctors that taught school and stuff. He sort of looked like a college professor. He was really cute.
It couldn't be right.
She reached out and touched the screen in front of her, as though she could touch Spencer too. What if her mom was right and it looked like she was. She didn't know she was crying till the tears hit the key board in front of her. What was she going to do now? She wanted to get to know her brother, but what if he didn't want to know her. Maybe he already knew she was his sister and he didn't care.
She slapped her laptop shut and jumped up off the chair. She threw herself on to her bed and cried. That was it, he had to know she existed, and he stayed away because he didn't want a little sister around. He was a big shot FBI guy and he probably had a girlfriend and everything, He didn't need her! She was glad he'd stayed away, big brothers were a pain. At least that's what her friend Kim always said, but Lisa noticed how happy Kim was every time Jerry paid attention to her. She always bragged that he would beat up on anyone that tried to her hurt her.
She flipped over on her back and wished that Spencer was there to keep David from picking on her at school. She thought about that for a good ten minutes imagining Spencer riding up on a white horse with armor shining in the sun and a sword at his side. He would unsheathe the sword and tell David to unhand her. He would tell the boy to leave her alone from now on or he would answer to the FBI. Then he would help her up onto the back of the horse and take her to his house, where she would get to eat lots of French vanilla ice cream while he told her all about his life, and what it was like to be an FBI agent and a doctor. He would listen to her tell him all about her life, and he would explain why he hadn't come to see her.
That's silly Lisa and you know it, he's not here because he doesn't want to be.
She wanted to cry again, but she held back the tears, they couldn't help her now. She didn't want to explain red eyes to her parents. She decided just to write all about it in her journal and maybe that way she could figure out what to do.
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"W-what did you say?" Reid asked, and Morgan didn't like the look on his partners face. It was one he'd never seen before, not even in the days of Spencer's rehab. He wondered if the young man were going to faint, his face was so white, he looked like a corpse.
Why did you just make that comparison?
"Sweetie I'm sorry I -" Morgan watched Garcia try to make it better, but Reid cut her off.
"No!" He backed away his hand pulling away from JJ's. He stumbled at bit over the rug lying in front of Morgan's front door. He hit the door back first and stood there stunned for just a moment. His eyes were wild, wheeling in his head like a spooked horse.
"Spence…" JJ said, holding out a hand to him. He looked down at it, then back at Garcia. Morgan flinched at the rage in the young man's face. It changed him, made him into someone that Morgan didn't recognize. A shiver of fear raced up his back, not for himself but for what his partner might do next.
"Spencer, listen to me, it's going to be okay." JJ said quietly. She didn't flinch when Reid turned his icy rage on her.
Abruptly and for the second time in twenty four hours, Spencer turned and left. JJ followed him out the door.
Morgan shut the door behind them that JJ had left open, and said without turning around. "What have we done mama?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JJ beat Spencer to the driver's side of the car and got in. She wasn't about to let him drive that SUV. He got in the passenger side without complaint, and slumped down in the seat, refusing to look at her. At least he was safe there. He couldn't hurt himself while he was with her.
Wait Jennifer… did you just think he could hurt himself?
She didn't want to think that way, but God knew the man had been through so much and now this. She felt angrier than she ever had at Garcia and Morgan, why couldn't they leave well enough alone. It wasn't fair.
She started the car and pulled away from Morgan's home. "Spencer, talk to me please." She risked a glance at him; he was grey faced and old looking. He'd aged years in just five minutes. She suddenly wanted to go back to Morgan's, get Garcia to find his father's address, and then go find Mr. Reid. She knew exactly what she would do to the man if she found him.
"Spencer…baby… please don't shut me out. I can't take it again." He didn't move or speak and for one terrifying moment she thought maybe he had willed himself to die. Then she saw his chest rise. Thank God.
"I hate him," he said so softly she almost didn't hear him. His voice was that of the ten year old boy he'd been when his father deserted him and his mother.
She flicked her eyes over to him once more. He didn't look at her; he just rocked in his seat hunched up with his arms hugging himself as if cold. He looked like he had the first time she visited him in rehab.
She pulled the SUV off to the side of the road and engaged the emergency flashers. "Spencer… talk to me. Come on… stay with me. Baby… its Jennifer… look at me! Look at me! She repeated making her voice snap like the crack of a whip. He looked at her. "That's right baby, we're going home, just talk to me, don't shut me out.
"I hate him," he repeated, this time his voice was the voice of the man he was, but somehow it frightened her more. She put the car in gear and kept his attention with nonsense talk till they made it home.
She had to lead him into their house like a child. He went to their bedroom, and dropped onto the bed and into a sleep so deep, she couldn't wake him when she went into check on him.
She went back into the living room and picked up her phone. Morgan had already tried to call her, but she'd ignored him. She opened the phone and hit the speed dial.
"Yeah, it's JJ," she said, when the person on the other line answered.
"No… everything is not okay, he needs you. Please… just come see him … I'll explain when you get here. Okay, thanks I'll see you soon… Bye.