Spencer sat in the middle of the floor, flipping through one of his father's law books. It was a large, hardcover book that he really wasn't supposed to be reading.

Spencer's stomach growled, as their food supply had run out the day before. Well, they still had some food, but nothing the 3 year old could get by himself. His mother rarely remembered to feed herself, let alone her son, and William was gone most days and nights, so the little boy was tasked with feeding himself with whatever he could find in their kitchen.

Apparently, today was one of the days his father actually came home. The door slammed open, startling the young boy. "Spencer! Get your ass over here right now!"

He scrambled to get to his father, book abandoned, before coming to a stop with his head down in front of the tall man. "Spencer. I just found something very upsetting in the mail."

He looked up curiously and saw a large manila envelope in his father's hands. "What is it?"

"These," he started, pulling papers out of the envelope, "seem to be the results of some sort of IQ test..."

A few weeks ago, his mother was having a good day and decided that his intelligence should be tested. He didn't really see the point in it, but she insisted. They hadn't told his father.

"Is bad?" he asked, unsure about why his father was so angry.

His father stomped forward, grabbing the boy's chin in a bruising grip. "Yes it's bad you freak!" He spat. "Not only did you and your batshit mother spend my hard earned money on this stupid test, it also confirmed that my aready unwanted child is a freak of nature!"

Spencer was crying now, both from the pain from his father's grip, and the mean words being spewed at him. "I sowwy!"

William pushed the boy down to the floor. "Yeah, you will be sorry when I'm done with you."

With that, he began beating on his son. He punched him, kicked him, and did everything he could to injure the poor boy. He yelled insults at him while doing it. "You're a Freak! A Mutant! You disgusting, unwanted, piece of shit!" He landed a particularly hard kick to the boy's stomach. "Why did my son have to be so fucking weird! Why couldn't you be normal! We should have aborted you when we had the chance!"

His father eventually finished, leaving Spencer a bruised and bloody mess on the floor. William looked down at the boy with an utter look of disgust. "You know what, I'm done with you. I don't want a piece of shit freak son like you anymore."

"I sowwy! I sowwy dada! I be better!" He pleaded, wiping the blood from his nose and looking up with wet eyes at his father.

He ignored the boy, pulling out his phone and dialling a number. He put the phone up to his ear and waited for a moment. "Colby? Yeah, It's William." He began walking away from the battered boy as he spoke. "I heard you were looking for a toy..."

"Thank you ma'am for coming in to speak with us." Morgan said to the woman at his desk. She was the sister of one of the victims, and had come in to give information on his life.

"No, thank you agent. I just hope you can find him before he gets hurt." She responded, voice strained.

He walked the small woman to the exit. "Have a nice day, ma'am. I'll keep you updated if there are any developments."

"Thank you. Have a nice day, agent." She walked out of the door and out of sight.

Morgan sighed. Interviews with family members were always emotionally taxing. He just hoped the case could be solved before any of the victims were killed. He walked back into the bullpen, finding JJ also having finished her last interview.

He approached her. "Hey JJ. Are Prentiss and Rossi back yet?"

"No, but they should be here any minute. Probably stopped to grab the team coffee."

As if on cue, Prentiss and Rossi stepped into the bullpen, carrying two carriers filled with drinks. "We got coffee!" Prentiss sang when they got to the other two profilers.

JJ and Morgan both quickly grabbed their coffees. "Oh you two are lifesavers." Morgan said. "Did you find anything at the abduction sights?"

Rossi sighed. "No. Nothing useful anyway. You guys?"

JJ and Morgan both shook their heads. "Nothing that we didn't already know. But it did help reinforce that these victims were really smart."

Prentiss nodded along with the conversation while placing the drinks down on her desk. "Oh Morgan, we got Spencer a hot chocolate!" She said, holding up a smaller drink.

"Oh that's great. I'm sure he'll love it. He seems to love anything with chocolate in it." He chuckled.

"Good, good." She responded. "Has he been doing okay today?"

"I'm about to go check on him actually. He wasn't very happy about being separated from me..."

"I'm sure he's doing fine with Hotch." JJ said from beside him.

Before he could respond, Hotch exited the round table room with a crying Spencer in his arms, and quickly made his way into his office, shutting the door behind him. "Or not..." JJ said quietly.

Morgan went to go after the two, but was stopped when Strauss came out and put a hand up for him to wait. She wore a very worried look on her face which made Morgan even more concerned.

Before he could ask her why he was waiting, Hotch came back out of his office without Spencer. He carefully shut the door, before leaning his head on it and closing his eyes to collect himself. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, turning to the rest of his team. "I want everyone in the round table room."

Everyone quickly made their way to the briefing room, except Morgan. Morgan was frozen in place, looking at his superior's undone pants. Hotch followed his gaze, and upon realizing he never fixed his pants, redid them quickly. Morgan was about to demand answers when Hotch said sternly, "Round table room. Now."

He grumbled but followed the order nonetheless. When he got there, everyone was in their seats already. Morgan didn't sit down. He was fuming.

"Hotch what the hell was that!"

Hotch ignored him. "Someone was able to decipher the code." He said, tossing Spencer's work down on the table.

The others grabbed it and started reading it over, eyes widening as they went. Morgan didn't even look over at it.

"Man, stop dodging the question! Why were your pants undone!" He practically yelled.

The rest of the team, who hadn't noticed that detail before, quickly looked over to Hotch. The Unit Chief's stern mask fell slightly, revealing a sad and tired face.

Hotch all but slumped down into a chair. "Morgan, please calm down. Spencer tried to, uh, give me... oral." He cringed at the word. "He tried to pleasure Strauss as well, but he didn't know how..."

Morgan looked from Hotch to Strauss, and then back to Hotch. "Well you stopped him, right?!"

"Of course we did." Strauss answered for him.

Morgan's anger dissipated, leaving only confusion. "Why…why the hell would he try to do that?"

Strauss looked at Hotch, who looked conflicted on something. Eventually he grabbed the decoded message from the other profilers and held it out to Morgan. He didn't take it. "Hotch, man, I don't care about the case right now!"

"Just look." He said tiredly.

Morgan eventually took the paper from him. He read it over, mouth dropping open. "He… Spencer did this?" Hotch nodded mutely. "I mean… I realized he was smart, but good god… he's a genius!"

Hotch smiled sadly. "Yeah, well he doesn't like being called smart."

Morgan looked at him with a concerned, questioning face. "He tried to… pleasure us… so that we wouldn't tell you he solved the code. He freaked out when we said he was smart."

"What! Why? Nothing's wrong with him being smart! I don't care if he's the smartest person in the world or the dumbest. It doesn't matter!"

"I know, Morgan. That's what we told him."

The others, through this whole discussion, sat silent. They all looked devastated that Spencer would do and think those things. JJ spoke up. "He was probably punished for being smart..."

Hotch slowly shook his head. "Probably, but he also mentioned that he was sold to Hobbs because he was smart..."

As much as Morgan wanted to discuss that more, he wanted to see his son first. "Okay, okay. Well I want to go talk to Spencer before we get into that..."

Hotch stood. "Of course. I told him to lie down in my office." He turned to the rest of the team. "Everyone else, I want you to work with what Spencer was able to get from the letter."

Morgan and Hotch then left the room, leaving the team to work. When they entered Hotch's office, the first thing they saw was the couch, empty with only Jack's blanket crumbled at the side of it.

Before they could even wonder where the boy was, they heard a small whimper, and looked towards the sound to see Spencer huddled between the wall and a filing cabinet, in an upright fetal position.

The two older men carefully approached the child. "Spencer..." Morgan said quietly.

Spencer looked up slowly, obvious tear tracks on his small face. He looked at Morgan first, then Hotch, back to Morgan, and finally landing on Hotch again. He started tearing up, and showed a face of clear betrayal. "Y-you told h-him?"

Hotchner sighed. "No, Spencer I-"

But he was cut off by a loud sob. "You promised y-you wouldn't tell h-him! Y-you promised!"

Spencer was crying hard now. Morgan quickly made his way over, wanting to pull his son into a hug to calm him. But when he reached out his hand, Spencer violently flinched back from the hand, as if he thought it would strike him.

Morgan pulled his hand back as if he was burned. "No, I'm sorry! I can be better Derek! I promise! Please don't send me to a new Man! I can be good! I can make you feel good! Just don't send me away, please!" Spencer cried, cowering away from Morgan.

Spencer calling Morgan 'Derek' instead of 'daddy' was like a knife to the agent's heart. "Spencer, baby, you're not going anywhere. It's okay. I'm not mad."

The crying child looked up at him, studying his face for any hint of a lie, and finding none, he quietly asked, "Why? I'm a bad boy… I'm a freak..."

Morgan had tears in his eyes at this. Behind him, although he wouldn't admit it, Hotch was also tearing up. "No, baby you're not a freak. You're an amazing, beautiful, and smart little boy."

"Nooo..." Spencer whined at the word 'smart'. "Not smart! Not smart!"

"Yes, Spencer, you are smart. You're my little genius. Nothing is wrong with that. I'm actually really happy that you're smart! It's a good thing!"

Spencer shook his head harshly. "Nuh uh. Smart is bad!"

At this point, Morgan was sitting cross legged in front of the boy, and he reached out and gently placed his hand on his son's leg. Spencer flinched, but when nothing bad happened, he looked at the hand, almost as if he was perplexed as to why the touch didn't hurt.

"Baby, who told you that being smart was bad?"

"Old daddy..." Spencer whispered. "Mommy got me tested. Dada wasn't happy I was smart… He hurt me real bad…" He started sobbing again, which went on for a good 2 minutes before he was able to continue. "Then he sent me to the Man… I don't want to go to another man! I wanna stay with you! I'm sorry I'm a freak Derek! I-I-I'll be better I promise!"

Morgan couldn't take it anymore. He reached forward and pulled Spencer out of his hiding place and into his lap. "Baby, you're perfect the way you are. You aren't a freak, and I will never get rid of you. You're stuck with me." He said jokingly. Spencer giggled slightly through the tears. "Your old dad was not a good man. He should have never done that to you. But you don't have to worry about it with me. Okay?"

Spencer pushed himself away from his dad's embrace, and looked him in the eyes, searching for any hint of deceit. After a minute, he threw himself back into the older man's chest. "Th-thank you daddy… I love you..."

Morgan kissed the top of his head. "I love you too my little genius."

They stayed like that, Spencer cradled in Morgan's lap, rocking gently and soothingly, for a long while. At some point the boy's breathing had evened out, and he slept with his thumb in his mouth and head against his father's chest.

Eventually, a knock penetrated the comfortable silence. JJ poked her head in the room, and smiled at the cute display. "Is he okay?"

Morgan sighed and gently petted his son's hair. "He will be."

JJ nodded sadly before looking to Hotch. "We're all ready to head out to the address on the note. Are you coming?"

"I'm coming." As he stood he turned to the father and son. "I assume you will be staying here?"

"Yeah, I'm going to stay with Spencer. Be safe."

Both Hotch and JJ nodded, before exiting the room. Morgan remained where he was for another few minutes, before carefully transferring the sleeping child to the couch. He draped the blanket over him, before quietly exiting the room.