Author: TemporaryUniverse
Words: 3,392 (22,937 Total)
Disclaimer: ... ... ...Really?
ahoweel1993: That was quick. :P Reid would definitely get time off after this whole thing. Of course, he technically should be on leave right now, he's been missing for a year, but foxReid is more stubborn than humanReid and that's saying something. He can't really do much as a fox though, especially visit his mom, which is probably why Hotch didn't really force him to take time off.
Village-Mystic: While I don't really discuss the aftermath of that case much, I do think it would be interesting to read. It might be added to the list of outtakes that I'll be posting later (along with the scene where they tell Morgan, a conversation between humanReid and Hatfield, alternate endings, etc.)
Chapter 11:
The day after they got home from Ulysses was their paperwork day and everyone was filling out their reports on the last case, even Reid. The genius fox had to use a computer and it took him a much longer time than it normally would have. The team was still continuing their tradition of working together in the round table room.
Their Unsub was Tory Burks, a 26-year-old accountant who had been using the dating site to find women who he believed to be his fiancée and then strangling them to death when his delusional fantasy didn't play out. It was an easy open-and-closed case for the profilers, made even shorter because of the premature catching of the Unsub in the act by Reid and Lewis' quick action.
Reid went around the table, taking a break from his report and was wandering around trying to beg his friends to let him have their coffee. Unfortunately for the fox, they had already decided that they didn't need a hyper fox on their hands and were steadfastly refusing. Garcia wanted to but every time she tried to give in to the pleading animal, someone else would glare at her.
"Sorry, Reid, I don't think coffee is good for foxes," Chung joked. Reid glared at him and laid his ears flat. "Go on, I have paperwork to do." The fox stalked off angrily, but as soon as Chung refocused on his reports, the orange-furred creature spun back around. Reid slowly crept forward on silent paws until he was out of the agent's line-of-sight. The sly grin on the fox's face was disconcerting to anyone who might have seen it. Lewis noticed and bit her lip to contain her telling smile.
Without warning, Reid opened his jaw and let out a scream. Chung jumped out of his chair with a startled yelp, hand reaching for his holster reflexively. In a flash, Reid was up on the desk with his slender muzzle in the mug and lapping at the dark, caffeinated liquid. Lewis could no longer contain her laughter and Chung just stared stunned at the mischievous animal, who took a pause from his drink to give the agent a smug look. Chung finally shut his gaping mouth and shook his head disbelievingly.
Reid's scream had been loud enough that it drew the attention of everyone in the bullpen who watched the drama with amusement, though the more serious agents looked mildly annoyed. Hotch was wearing a miniature smile when he came back in from getting his own steaming, brown beverage. Rossi shook his head and Garcia started laughing outright. Chung sighed and sat back down, trying to hide his own small grin.
"Give me a heart attack, why don't ya." He muttered. Reid huffed in response and licked the last drops of coffee from the corners of his mouth.
3 months later…
Rossi was grinning at Lewis' joke as he flipped another burger patty on his grill. The entire team was enjoying a summer party in Rossi's backyard. Lewis was aiding Rossi in his cheeseburger endeavor, Hotch was bouncing Michael on his knee while JJ watched, Will and Garcia appeared to be debating Star Trek vs. Star Wars, and Reid was playing with Jack and Henry on the grass.
Both children had constantly asked where Uncle Spence was while he was still missing, but they didn't know the truth about the fox they were now throwing a ball, yet. Reid didn't seem to mind that he was chasing after a tennis ball, the only thing that mattered was that he was making Jack and Henry laugh as he pranced around them. Morgan was unable to come as he had taken Savannah and their son on vacation to Chicago.
The doorbell rang and Rossi went to get the door, leaving Lewis as master of the grill. Chung and his family had arrived. His daughter Amelia went straight over to Jack and Henry and they welcomed her with open arms. Chung's husband, Dustin, hadn't met the team yet, and so a lot of introductions took place. Soon, everyone was seated around Rossi's massive table and were laughing and wholeheartedly enjoying their food.
"Hey, Reid!" The fox looked up at Will curiously. "Star Trek or Star Wars? Garcia's a Trekkie, I think there are too many inaccuracies."
Reid snorted in amusement and looked pointedly at Garcia.
"Actually, there aren't that many outright errors in Star Trek, just certain implausibilities." Hotch quoted. The fox blinked at him in surprise and he smiled. "Morgan thought it was funny." Reid huffed in a manner the rest had come to interpret as laughter.
Suddenly, the tone of a ringing cellphone interrupted the conversation. Hotch apologized and left the table to answer it. When he came back minutes later his face was grim, but he said nothing and forced his grin back on. No one mentioned it, though everyone wondered.
Hours later, the party had moved inside and the four kids were nearly asleep. Dustin and Will, sensing that the BAU team would need to talk, both took their respective children home, Will volunteering to take Jack as well. They gathered in the large, neatly decorated living room, Reid nestling on the couch between Hotch and JJ. The TV was turned on and a movie begun to play, but no one payed attention to the screen.
"Hatfield didn't check in with his probation officer this morning. They're still trying to find him." Hotch reluctantly began. The reaction was immediate, the cheerful air that had been present was sucked out of the room in a split second. It was replaced by a mix of anger and helplessness, all attention was turned to Reid who hid behind JJ's arm. "That wasn't the reason I thought we should talk, though, at least, not now." The Unit Chief continued. "Reid?" The fox peeked out. "I'm not sure exactly how to say this, but I know that you have always been a private person, but we know your Ātmā. It's only fair if you know ours."
"We're basically a family already, right? Makes sense to me. The only thing that doesn't is why we never did this sooner.," Garcia said. Everyone smiled at her sincerity, it was very much their tech goddess' outlook on life. "So, who starts?" Reid stared at his friends, overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness.
Chung's quiet voice surprised them all. "Goose. Specifically, a Brent Goose." Then he grinned. "That actually felt really good."
"Rabbit." JJ was quick to be next. "The lop-eared kind." It wasn't hard to imagine JJ as a cute bunny.
"Iguana," Rossi continued, somewhat sheepishly.
"That's so you, Dave." Lewis laughed. "I'm an African Grey Parrot. Incredible creatures really. Did you know that they're one of the most intelligent bird species on the planet and can understand and speak over 1,000 human words?"
"Now you sound like Boy Wonder." The fox whined and looked mildly offended at Garcia. "It's not a bad thing!" She quickly amended. Reid raised an eyebrow. "Alright fine, fine. I think I have you all beat, sorry. River otters have the cutest little faces ever."
Then it was Hotch's turn. He froze for a second, at first it had seemed easy to share, he remembered when he told Haley it just popped out, but now the words were stuck in his throat. He gazed around at the faces of his team and their content expressions filled him with a sense of belonging. "Panther." He stated simply, the smile coming naturally to his face as the animal in his chest settled. This was what it felt like to be a family, to have a bond deeper than blood forged by hardship, heartbreak, and persistence.
He felt something nudge his elbow and glanced down at the fox. Reid's brush wagged slightly and Hotch lifted a hand to scratch his large, black ears.
"Fall asleep there, Aaron?" Rossi joked. Hotch looked up to see five sets of eyes fixed on him. He blinked in surprise, he must have been stuck in his thoughts for quite some time. "Something on your mind?"
"We really are a family, aren't we?"
Reid had fallen asleep on Rossi's couch while the human team members chatted. As a fox, he never slept for more than two hours, it seemed, but he made up for it by taking a lot of naps. He woke up later, disoriented and wondering where everyone else was. Rossi was seated next to him on the couch, reading a thick novel and sipping water.
"We didn't want to disturb you, so I told Hotch to let you sleep and you could come with me to work. Mudgie's still locked in the guest room upstairs and he should be fine staying there for a night. You're welcome to stay here or I could probably find another bed for you." Rossi answered the fox's unasked question. Reid nodded to show he understood, yawned and stretched before settling back down on the still warm fabric of the sofa. Truth be told, he was relieved that he wouldn't be with Jack. He would never forgive himself for putting Hotch's son in danger if Hatfield decided to try and get him back.
"Spencer?" The fox glanced up, curious at the use of his first name. "You know that conversation we had in the Kansas station? I couldn't help but notice something and I'm not sure that anyone else has. If they have, I don't think that they've said anything, but I will. What happened to your paw?" Reid pretended not to know what he was talking about and glanced down at his left foot. "The other one, Spencer." Reid tucked it under himself hiding the ring of faint but thick scars that were barely noticeable under his fur. He started to tremble, reliving how he had received them. Rossi set his book aside and cupped Reid's cheeks with his hands, forcing the fox to meet his eyes. "It's okay if you don't tell me right now, I just want you to tell someone. Aaron, JJ, me, even Lewis or Chung if you want to. Promise me you'll do that?" The fox dipped his head in reluctant agreement. Rossi let go of his face and ruffled his fur gently. "Alright, I'm exhausted, kiddo, so I'm going to go to bed. You need anything?" Reid shook his head no. The older man stood up, stretched, and groaned before giving the animal one last pat and heading upstairs.
Reid curled up tight on the couch, trying to ward off unwanted memories, but failing miserably.
One year, five days before…
The fox ran through the forest, a blur of orange dodging behind trees and weaving around the underbrush. His paws ached but he wouldn't stop, couldn't stop, because that would mean he had to go back. He stumbled a little as he skidded to avoid a thorn bush, but quickly regained his balance and continued. Soon, he was fighting for breath and his muscles were burning. It had been a long time since he had exerted this much energy. He allowed himself a pause, judging that he had traveled a far enough distance. A quick scan of the area for any sign that he had been followed revealed no such thing. He sucked in a few deep lungfuls of oxygen. Once he was no longer panting as heavily, the animal began to trot at a more relaxed pace. The patches of sky that could be seen through the canopy were gradually becoming darker, indicating the falling night.
He wandered a bit further into the woods, admiring the world surrounding him that he hadn't seen in far too long and was now a completely different experience than when he had been human, before attempting to find a place to hide. He finally discovered a small burrow formed by an exposed tangle of tree roots and squeezed his way underneath. He curled up with a happy sigh, he was free.
Reid woke up a few hours before dawn broke, but stayed in his temporary den until the sunlight dappled the leaf corpses on the ground. He stretched and yawned before padding out and looking around. Choosing a direction away from where he had arrived, he started walking, occasionally startling at the noise of a squirrel overhead or sudden birdsong, but eventually growing used to them and they faded and blurred into the background music of the forest.
Suddenly, a clanging snap disturbed the peace, followed by the pained scream of the fox. Reid bit off the sound immediately, but a few whimpers still escaped him as he pulled at his paw. His panic was making it difficult to process, so far the only thing he was able to realize was that he couldn't move his right foot, and every try sent a new wave of agony up his leg on top of an already unbearable, throbbing pain.
When the shock dissipated, he was finally able to comprehend his situation. He had unwittingly stepped into an old bear trap which had sprung closed on his leg and was slicing into the skin and flesh. Blood seeped from the wounds and trickled down to his paw. All of his hopes of getting back to the team were crashing down around him, accompanied by the physical pain from the monstrosity holding him captive. He gave another tug at his paw but it was futile and only served to cause him more injury.
He closed his eyes and, ignoring every instinct in his body that begged him not to, he screamed, letting the desperate sound echo for miles of wilderness. He did it again and again, letting everyone and everything within range know that he was there, including Hatfield and Jamie. Dying here alone was not an option, even if it meant going back into hell.
The younger scientist found him lying miserably on the ground about a half hour later. He could have cried when the man slipped a leash and a muzzle on him before prying open the trap, but was honestly too exhausted to even move. Jamie carefully wrapped his injury and picked the fox up. Reid half-heartedly squirmed, wishing he could still get away, but resigned to his fate.
They reached the lab within two hours, and Jamie cleaned and bandaged the horrid wounds before returning the orange-furred animal to his cage.
The scars healed, but Reid never forgot how close he had been to home.
Present day…
It was a Monday the day after their party, meaning the team was forced to go into work in the morning. Luckily no cases came in that required them to travel, but there were plenty of consults and other paperwork that had piled up over the weekend. Reid spent much of the day with Garcia in her lair, helping her on the computer.
The day went by slowly and without any incident other than when the ever clumsy Reid knocked over Rossi's outbox stack and a half hour had to be spent to reorganize the papers and files into their proper order. The senior agent grumbled irritably the rest of the day, but snapped less when he read the paper that Reid gave him detailing his flashback the night before. Human and fox eyes met in a silent communication of sad pride and
Finally, five o'clock came around and the profilers packed up to head home. Reid hid behind Chung as they left, trying to avoid Garcia who had knitted him a rather gaudy sweater and was attempting to force him into it. Eventually, Chung betrayed the fox, holding him still while Garcia wrestled the sweater on. It was a bright pink and blue thing that clashed with his flame-red fur and he looked desperately up at the others, pleading for help. No one dared to interfere with a determined Garcia, though, and so Reid was left to traipse through the building, evidently uncomfortable.
The rest of the team were going to a bar, but Hotch needed to pick up Jack from a friend's house and Reid elected to go with him so that he could get away from the over-affectionate hacker for a while. Once in the car, the fox tried to wriggle his way out of the hideous yarn contraption, but only managed to get himself stuck in one of the sleeves. Hotch spent a good five minutes watching him struggle unsuccessful and trying to not burst out laughing before finally pulling over to take pity on the canine. Reid shoved the thing as far away from himself as possible.
They reached their destination, Hotch parking in front of a neatly manicured lawn that sloped up to a small, but cozy looking house. He cracked the windows so that Reid could stay in the car, then he stepped out of the car and went to get Jack.
Reid watched the door open and the father accept the invitation to come inside, so the fox settled down in his seat. He sniffed at the fresh air that was blowing in through the open window, enjoying the cool breeze and the scents it brought with it. He wrinkled his nose as the sour tang of cigarette smoke wafted in. He growled and sat up so that he could see through the glass, immediately locking eyes with a man staring at him from across the street who was leaning casually against a grey truck. He froze, the man was carrying a rifle and brought his cigarette to his lips to take a puff. Reid went into panic mode when the man breathed out the smoke and started to walk towards Hotch's car. The fox scrambled over the gear shift to get to the driver's seat and used his claws and teeth to unlatch the door and jump out. His heart was somewhere in his throat, preventing him from making any noise, and the organ felt like it was pounding at a physically impossible million beats per minute.
He raced across the lawn and had barely gone three feet before a sharp sting on his shoulder had him yelping out loud. He tried to twist away, but it was only a couple of seconds before the tranquilizer began to take effect. The world shifted and blurred, leaving him tripping over his own feet as his sense of balance was lost. He collapsed on the ground, struggling to keep his eyes open and was able to see a pair of black combat boots stomp to a halt beside him before he sank into unconsciousness.
"Daddy!" Jack was staring through the window and Hotch made his way over to see why he was so distressed. His heart stopped as he saw an unfamiliar man lifting up a limp orange form and carrying it away, getting into a dark grey pickup and driving off. Hotch was immediately racing out the door and telling his son to stay in the house, the family of Jack's friends looked bewildered, but at that moment, Hotch couldn't care less. He was out the door and clambering into his own car in under thirty seconds, and didn't bother to buckle his seat belt. He snatched up his phone and started the vehicle simultaneously and speed dialed Rossi. The other man's greeting was cut off by Hotch's deceivingly calm voice.
"Dave, someone took Reid." He was tailing the truck now, but it was getting further and further away. Cars honked at him as he tried to get through the traffic at a speed far above regulation. An SUV pulled out in front of him and he had to slam on the brakes to avoid a crash. He pounded the steering wheel and his horn blasted.
"Where are you?" Rossi got straight to the important questions, skipping the typical frantic reaction. Hotch told him as he watched the pickup turn left at a light. When he got to the same intersection, the traffic light was red. He cursed, wishing he had sirens in his personal vehicle. The truck disappeared into the city as it rounded another corner.
"I lost him. He's gone." He told Rossi quietly. The senior agent didn't reply, but what wasn't said was just as telling. They had once again lost their young genius.
A.N. Uh-oh. I sort of didn't have this in mind when I first started writing, but some loose ends needed to be dealt with. I'm really, really sorry (I lie. I am not sorry in the slightest). Also, that was a lot of time-jumping for one chapter, I am sorry about that, at least.
Fun fact(s): Foxes are omnivores, they eat insects, berries, fruit, and small prey animals (reptiles, birds, or rodents). This is part of the reason they are so successful in adapting to an urban habitat. While primarily scavengers, they will hunt and cache any surplus food, storing it for later. Foxes are thought to have strong immune systems because of the regular exposure to rotten meat when they scavenge in an urban environment.
