Hey everyone. This is a quick prompt fic for a friend of mine. Her prompt (shortened down a little for you) was basically "Ten years ago, Spencer and Remy left their old lives behind to start a new one, together. Now, with Remy missing and his family being followed, Spencer turns to the only people who might be able to help him bring his husband home." Let me know what you think! Warnings for Mpreg and slash *grins*
This was the very last thing he wanted to do. Fingers curled around the steering wheel, Spencer stared up at the house that was looming in the distance. Who knew a house could seem so damn intimidating? The more he looked at it, the more he wanted to turn around and run away. Drive as far as he could in the other direction. He didn't want to go here, didn't want to see these people. He especially didn't want to ask them for help. But what real choice did he have? There was nowhere else to go. No one else that he could turn to; not for something like this. He had no other options. This was what was best for his family. This was his best hope for keeping them safe.
His eyes drifted up to the rearview mirror to yet again check the back of the van. Remy had bought them this black Nissan passenger van a few years back when their family really started to grow. They really needed the space it provided. It still stunned Spencer sometimes when he stopped and just looked at his family.
A little over ten years ago, Spencer and Remy had fallen from friendship to dating after a half-drunken night in bed had revealed feelings on either side. They'd woken up in Spencer's bed the next morning and, after a bit of talk, had decided to see where things went. Neither one had expected to find out just a month later that Spencer was pregnant. But neither one could find themselves being anything but happy. For Remy, it was no difficult choice to leave the mansion and the X-men behind. Since the Trial, since he'd been left to die in Antarctica, since his return to the mansion and his less than happy reception, he'd been adrift and aching, unsure of what to do or where to go with his life. This gave him a purpose and a place. It was just as easy for Spencer to make his decisions, too. He left the Bureau; he'd already seen too many times just what kind of things could happen to the family members of agents. That wasn't something he was going to let happen to his family.
The two were married in a quiet, private ceremony when Spencer was six months pregnant. They moved to a cozy, private house on the outskirts of Baltimore, close enough to still be able to see their friends from the BAU. The move was finalized and finished in just enough time for the birth of Summer Lynn and Margaret Mary. Two happy, healthy, beautiful little girls. The boys couldn't have been happier.
Being one of the rare males capable of getting pregnant, Spencer had always known that he'd have a family someday. It was a quiet want of his that he'd nurtured close to the heart. He was always nervous about it—no one knew better than him just how awkward he could be around children. To his surprise, he took to it amazingly well. It was so different when the children were your own. He still got nervous, but there were vast amounts of love to make up for it, and it always managed to work out.
However, he'd never expected his family to be quite this large. Just two years after the girls were born, their next two children came along; one born to them, and one brought to them. Just months before Tristan Eliot was due, the boys had a surprise visitor. Belle showed up at their house with a sullen eleven year old mutant orphan in tow, who had the ability to control and use the dark around him, both as a shield and as a weapon. He was the son of an assassin who had died to keep Belle safe and she had felt it her duty to find him a good home. For some reason, she hadn't kept him for herself. She'd brought him to them and requested that Remy apprentice the boy. Spencer and Remy hadn't even needed to think. They'd taken in the young man and never once regretted it. Though his looks gave him away as not being theirs—mocha colored skin, with black hair and dark eyes—they'd never once treated him as anything less than theirs. It took a few years for it to sink in for him that he wasn't just an apprentice, though Remy did train him. He really was a part of the family.
It was Benji's first Christmas there that Remy had brought home the next member of their family—a dog. A young, mixed breed puppy that someone had been getting rid of and that he couldn't resist. Spencer, despite his discomfort with dogs, found that he couldn't say no when his husband surprised them all with the puppy and he saw the absolute joy on the children's faces. So, their family had grown by one more. Though, none of them had quite expected this mixed breed little puppy to get quite so large. He'd gone from being able to fit in Spencer's lap—he always seemed drawn to Spencer, though a loud bark from him could still make the genius jump out of his skin sometimes—to standing so tall at his side. There was quite a bit of mastiff in his features, which accounted for the size, they figured.
But he was a dream with the kids and he adored Spencer, which fit Remy's needs perfectly. He'd gotten the dog as a way to watch out for his family when he had to travel. Travel wasn't a constant thing, but it did happen. While he was gone it helped Remy feel a little better to know that he had a bit of extra protection around the house. Spencer always rolled his eyes at that, but he said nothing. Just as he said nothing when, a few years later, Benji came home with a stray kitten following at his heels who, for some reason, wouldn't leave, no matter how many times they put him out. By the end of the week, they were calling him Watson and their family was one little kitten larger.
So, their family had grown quite a bit by then. Summer, Maggie, Tristan, and Benji, Mycroft, and now Watson. Spencer was happy, happier than he'd ever been, and so was Remy. Spencer put himself on birth control, figuring that their family was large enough by then.
Three years later, Mikayla Grace was born. Two years after that came Cordelia Ann. And then, just two months ago, the birth of their final daughter—Joya Margot.
This was it, Spencer had told Remy when he was pregnant with Joya. This was enough. Five pregnancies and seven children was more than enough for any one person. When they delivered her, the doctors stayed in and tied things off, making sure that Spencer wouldn't ever be able to carry another child. And they were happy with it. They were content. Their family was large, so much larger than Spencer had ever expected it would be. Seven children, a dog, a cat, and a pet frog.
Benji was seventeen now, Summer and Maggie were ten now, Tristan was eight, Mikayla was five, Cordelia—Dee—was three, and Joya just months old. It had been ten years since the two had left their old lives behind. Ten wonderful, happy years.
Then fate decided to drag them back into it.
Remy had gone on a business trip to do a security consultation down in Baton Rouge. While down that way, he and Belle had gotten together. Spencer knew that because he'd spoken to Belle two weeks ago, the day after Remy was supposed to have been home. She'd seen him, she said, and he'd been fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. Spencer had checked with the client as well and had been assured that Remy had been there, done his job, and then left. Only, when Spencer finally broke down and called Penelope, asking her to run a check for him, there were no records of Remy ever getting on his flight home. There was no footage that day at the airport of him, either. There were records that showed him checking out of his hotel but after that it was as if he'd vanished off the face of the earth.
For two weeks now Spencer had been searching. He'd called up his friends, pleaded for their help. Though the team wasn't together anymore—Dave had retired again, Derek was heading his own team now with Garcia and JJ still there, Aaron was now training at the academy, and Emily was overseas—none of their combined efforts had been able to find Remy. It was like he'd up and vanished.
Then, Spencer had started to notice something. He'd thought he was just being paranoid at first. Who wouldn't be paranoid with their husband missing? Only, he wasn't the only one to notice it. Benji came home from the store one day and pulled Spencer aside to let him know that he'd been tailed. They were being watched.
Over the past ten years Spencer had mostly stayed away from the Bureau. He occasionally did consultations but not all that often. His family kept him busy. However, he wasn't so far out of the game that he couldn't see what was right in front of him. Remy was missing, unable to be found by any Bureau resources, and now they were being followed? Someone was after their family. Judging by the level of skill in all this, it was someone powerful, and he doubted they had anything good in mind.
There was only one thing that Spencer could think of to do. One thing that he could come up with that might be able to help find his husband and save his family. He and Remy had talked before about what to do in the case of an extreme emergency. This certainly qualified.
In the middle of the night, Spencer gathered up his family and everything that they would need and loaded them into the passenger van. He left a single playing card on a clip on the fridge—a sign for Remy, if he came home, to let him know where they were. Then, using Benji's abilities with the dark to help shield and steer them, they slipped past the guard on the house and out of the city.
That was how Spencer found himself here, pulling up to the home of the very people that he'd always sort of hated. He could still remember, clear as if it happened yesterday, just how upset and tired Remy had looked when he'd showed up at his apartment all those years ago. How beaten down he'd been from the life he'd lived at the mansion. He remembered how much the people here had hurt Remy with their anger and mistrust, with their accusations and their jokes they probably thought were funny. Remy felt so much deeper than people gave him credit for. Things that they'd probably thought were innocent teasing had actually hurt the man inside. The light that had always been in Remy's eyes, the one that Spencer had fallen in love with back when they first became friends back in college, had been almost completely dimmed. And these people were largely to blame for that. Over the years, Remy had forgiven them. But a part of Spencer never had.
He needed their help, though. There was nowhere else he knew to go. For the sake of his husband and their children, he would do whatever he had to. Even work with these people. Besides, there was one person here that Spencer trusted. The only person that Remy had maintained any contact with. The one who had hunted them down two years after Remy left just to make sure that Remy was okay. It was to him, mostly, that Spencer was going now.
The children were pretty much asleep when Spencer finally brought the van to a halt near the front door of this giant house. They'd left a little after two a.m. and it was an almost four hour car drive, making it just shy of six. While their house usually rose and started around six thirty or seven, the car ride had worked to keep all the kids asleep. Luck of luck, even two and a half month old Joya stayed asleep the whole trip.
Benji, however, woke the instant that Spencer turned the car off. The kid was almost as light a sleeper as Remy was and he woke just as alert as Remy did. His dark eyes immediately found Spencer's in the early morning light that filled the car. Spencer made a small gesture at him to let him know to stay quiet. "I don't want to wake everyone up right yet." He said softly, sneaking a look at his sleeping family. "Will you stay with them while I go to the door? I won't go inside without you guys."
"Go ahead, Dad." Benji murmured back in that slow drawl of his. His accent was there, though it wasn't as thick as Remy's was. He had no problems with his 'yous', nor did he use near as much of the broken French and Cajun like Remy did, but his 'th' still often came out with the 'd' sound to it, or minus that 'h'. Then again, so did most of the kids.
The 'Dad' had only come in the past few years and it still thrilled Spencer a little to hear it from the teen. Reaching out, he patted Benji's arm, gave him a soft smile, and then looked at the other kids one more time before climbing out of the van as quietly as possible.
Someone had seen their arrival; they'd been buzzed through the front gates without having to even press the speaker button there. So it wasn't any real surprise when the door opened before Spencer even reached it.
The person who answered the door wasn't someone that Spencer recognized. Then again, he hadn't known a lot of the people here while Remy was here. Remy had mostly kept Spencer away from anything involving the X-Men. Even before the Trial, he hadn't trusted them enough for that. "Not enough to put y' at risk." He'd told Spencer. "An Remy aint giving dem de idea dat dey're gonna have some contact in de Bureau now dat dey can use. Dere aint no reason dey need to know about y'."
"Can I help you?" The guy holding the door asked politely. He looked close to Spencer's age, somewhere in his thirties, with short cut blond hair and blue eyes that were both curious and cautious.
Spencer smoothed his hands over the front of his sweater and tried to keep them steady. "Is Logan here?" Please, please, let him be here. If he had Logan with him, the rest of it would seem easier. He'd be more sure that they'd be safe, that no one could turn them away.
"I think he's down doing his morning workout right now." The guy said, with just enough hesitation for Spencer to easily figure out that 'morning workout' translated to 'training session'.
"Please." Spencer said, swallowing his pride. "I know it's early, but it's extremely important. Can you get him, please? Tell him that Spencer's here. He'll come."
The guy hesitated only a moment longer before stepping back and holding the door wide. "Come on in. You can wait where it's warm while I go get him."
But Spencer was already shaking his head. "My family's out in the van and I'd rather not leave them. Just…just send him outside, please?"
That earned him a strange look. Then the guy nodded. "Sure thing. I'll be right back."
Spencer made his way back over to the van while he waited. It was a good thing, too, as he could see when he got close that Benji was twisting in his seat, reaching into the back. Just as Spencer got back to the driver's door, Benji was straightening back in his seat with a fussing Joya in his arms. He looked up as Spencer opened the door. "I think someone's a bit hungry."
He held his arms out and easily took the swaddled bundle. Cradling her in the crook of one arm, he used his other hand to better tuck the blanket around her. It wasn't extremely cold, but there was an early morning chill in the air. He smiled softly down at the bleary brown eyes that peeked up at him. Of all the kids, Joya looked most like him with brown hair and brown eyes. Summer and Maggie both had brown curls, but their eyes were red irises with white sclera, while the other three looked like spitting images of Remy. Up until Joya, the running joke amongst their friends had been that the kids looked like Spencer had almost nothing to do with them. But little Joya, she looked so much like him, and Remy had adored that about her from the minute she was born.
Humming softly to soothe the little fussing noises she was making, Spencer swayed a little in place, sneaking a look back to make sure the others were still out. Luckily, they were. The only one that looked awake was Mycroft. The dog had risen up from his spot on the floor—they'd taken a seat out of the van to make a spot just for him to lay—and he was looking around him briefly before he laid his head back on Mikayla's lap.
"Dey're okay." Benji said, though he knew Spencer could see that for himself. Gesturing towards the house with his chin, he asked "What's up?"
"The one who answered the door is going to get Logan for me. He's here."
That had Benji relaxing a little. "Good."
As if their talking about him had summoned him, the front door was yanked open and Logan came hurrying outside. One look and he was hurrying towards them. The worry was easy to see on his face. He knew they wouldn't be here unless it was an emergency. Spencer stepped away from the van to meet him halfway. Logan didn't even wait that long to ask "What happened? Are you guys okay?"
Spencer moved right up to his friend and twisted Joya to the side so that he could step into the hug Logan immediately pulled him into. Over the years, Logan had stopped by a few times. Ever since he found Remy he'd refused to just let him go. Logan was a part of their family. "I tried calling you, but it went straight to voicemail." Spencer said as he pulled back.
"I lost my phone on the last mission." Logan's eyes shot over to the van and then back to Spencer, sharp and intense. "What's going on, kid?"
He didn't sugarcoat it or try to beat around the bush at all. Not with Logan and not over something like this. "Remy's missing." He said bluntly. There was only a slight catch in his voice, quickly shoved down. "He didn't come home from his last job. It's been close to three weeks now, Logan, and I can't find signs of him anywhere. We were being watched, too. Just the past few days. But they were following us, watching the house. I had to have Benji use his powers to help us slip out this morning. I just, I'm sorry, but I didn't know where else to go or what to do."
"Don't be sorry, Spencer. You did right, comin' here. We'll find him." There was such confidence in Logan's voice. It gave Spencer something to latch on to; something to help hold him together.
A soft whine from Joya brought the attention of the adults back to her. It had Spencer rocking slightly and Logan straightening up. "C'mon," He said. "Let's get you guys in where it's warm. We aint gonna figure things out standing out here."
This was one of those moments that Spencer was glad the kids were heavy sleepers. In a house full of people, they were all quite used to noise, though they had their quiet moments. They were all also used to being picked up and moved if they happened to fall asleep somewhere. Logan easily scooped up Dee and Mikayla with only minimal disturbance. Benji gathered up Tristan in his arms, settling the boy on his hip. Tristian didn't stir, just buried his face in against Benji's neck and stayed sleeping. But Summer and Maggie, they had to wake. They didn't have much of a choice. The girls didn't seem to mind, either. They woke pretty cheerfully, a trait they most definitely didn't get from Spencer, and both of them lit up at the sight of Logan. "Grumpy!" Summer called happily, scrambling at her belt to unhook herself.
Tristan had been the one to start the nickname 'Grumpy' for Logan. All because he'd heard Remy teasingly call Logan a grumpy grandpa one night. From then on, Grumpy was what Tristan called him, and it had stuck around. Logan pretended to grumble over it sometimes, only managing to reinforce the title, but they all knew how much he enjoyed it. The gruff, grumpy feral doted on the kids.
"Hey, peanuts." Logan said with a smile. He Dee back a little on his hip to make room for first Summer and then Maggie to slip in and give him a quick hug.
Spencer grabbed the diaper bag and slung it over one shoulder before reaching in and detaching the car seat, turning it into a simple infant carrier. A quick click of the tongue brought Mycroft and Watson out of the van. Mycroft immediately went to Spencer's side, leaning against him in that way he had, while Watson came out and circled lazily around Benji's feet. It was amusing sometimes to see just how much the grey cat would cling to Benji. Then again, it wasn't anywhere near as much as the way Mycroft would cling to Spencer.
"Follow me." Logan told them. "We can go in to my office. There's space to talk and for the pups to play."
"You have an office?" Benji teased him.
Logan mock-growled at the teen. "Watch it, bub. I'm a respectable teacher now."
"Dieu help de children, den."
Together, the group made their way inside, and a small bit of Spencer's tension eased. He wasn't alone in this. For all his friends help before, they had their own lives, their own jobs, and they weren't the sharp team of profilers they'd used to be. But Logan—he was family. He would care just as much about getting Remy back as Spencer did. He wouldn't stop until the Cajun came home.