Disclaimer: If I owned Criminal Minds, do you think I would have taken hours out of my life to transcript the last half hour or so of last week's episode so I can have it to read in the middle of math class when I start getting really bored? I think not.
A/N: All right, so I'm so bad with names that I had to rip one from Law and Order. Imitation's the highest form of flattery, right? Right? RIGHT?
Lost Soul
Spencer Reid walked down the street in the cold, his thin frame casting a pale reflection on the darkening sky. One by one, the street lights flickered on, warning him that the hour was late. But if anyone knew this, it was Spencer.
He had already been to the place he called home once that night, and the result had been less-than desirable. His father, his horrible, brute of a father, had reprimanded him for coming home late and told him to never come back. In reality, Spencer had been home before he had to be, and his father was drunk.
Spencer was used to this. It happened more and more often these days. Every day, his father would become increasingly more violent, and would hit harder than ever. But Spencer never complained. Why would he? He had nowhere else he could go.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. There was one place where he was always welcome. But Spencer being Spencer, never liked to intrude. And that is why, as he walked up the front steps to the house, he did not ring the doorbell or knock on the wood door. No, he simply eased himself onto the nearby swinging seat and curled up in a ball against the cold night air.
The next morning
The teenage girl who lived in that house was awakened the next morning to the sound of her mother yelling.
"Alexandra Cabot, you get your butt out of bed and down here now!"
Alex shot straight up, head nearly colliding with the ceiling as she vaulted off the top bunk of her bed and ran downstairs, still in her pajamas.
"What?" She yawned sleepily and ran a hand through her mussed hair. Her mouth stayed open as she spotted Spencer sitting at the kitchen table, shivering slightly. "Spencer, what are you doing here?"
"Apparently, he's been here since last night." Alex's mother said, as if it was Alex's fault the boy had spent the night outside.
"What? Are you insane? It was freezing last night!" Alex's shocked gaze fell on Spencer, who was staring at the tiled floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Come on, we'll talk as I get ready."
She turned on her heel and headed back up the stairs, reluctantly followed by Spencer. Once they were sufficiently beyond her mother's earshot, Alex continued her rant.
"Spence, why in the world would you stay outside all last night? Did something happen with Jerald?" Jerald, Spencer's father, was one of Alex's least favorite people in existence, simply because of the way he treated Spencer.
Spencer nodded slowly, still staring at the ground.
"He kicked you out, didn't he? Ooh, I'm gonna kill that guy one of these days, I swear..." Alex picked up a brush and began to violently pull it through her tangled hair. "But Spence, why didn't you call me? Or, like, ring the doorbell or something? you know you're always welcome here. Hell, I think my mother would adopt you if she could."
She moved on to rooting around in her dresser for clothes. When Spencer didn't respond, she stopped and turned to him.
"Spence? Why didn't you tell me?"
When Spencer finally answered, his gaze was still fixated firmly on the blue carpeted floor.
"I...I didn't want to be a burden."
Alex stopped dead where she was.
"Spencer, get it out of your head that you are ever a burden to me, you got that? You keep thinking like that and you're gonna end up dead, you hear me? You're like a little brother to me. You don't turn your back on family. So, if this ever happens again, call, ring the doorbell, sneak in through the window, do something, all right?"
Spencer nodded.
"Good. I don't want to hear about you sleeping out there in the cold again, you hear?" She paused, scanning the room for something as her gaze fell on the boy sitting on her bed clad in only his school clothes of a sweatervest and polo shirt with slacks. "Speaking of which, is that all you were wearing?"
Spencer nodded again, knowing what was about to come.
"Spencer! That's it, you're never leaving my sight. Period." Alex dug through a pile of clothes on the floor. When she didn't find what she was looking for, she moved on to a drawer after drawer as Spencer observed. "Where the hell is that thing?"
"Did you try the closet?" Spencer suggested timidly, seemingly knowing exactly what his friend was searching for.
Alex stopped desecrating her sock drawer and looked up.
"No. Why would it be there. That would make sense." Nevertheless, she headed over to her walk-in closet and stared at one of the shelves. "Well, I'll be damned. Here it is." She yanked a light grey sweatshirt bearing the emblem "Las Vegas High School Lacrosse" out of a pile and tossed it at Spencer, who put it on, glad for its warmth. "Better?"
Spencer nodded, a bit more comfortable despite the fact that the sweatshirt was two sizes too big for him.
"Good." Alex pulled another sweatshirt out of the pile, this one a dark blue color with a gold wildcat advertising the school's championship soccer team of which she was the co-captain, and pulled it over her head. "I don't suppose you know where my sweat pants are, too, do you?"
Spencer jerked his head in the direction of a blue gym bag. Alex picked up it and rifled through it until she found the object in question.
"Sweet. Have I ever told you you rock?" There was a pause as she shoved the pants back in the bag. "But that doesn't change the fact that you're never leaving my sight."
"But what about classes?" Spencer protested desperately.
"I'll be talking to my guidance counselor and telling her that I'm doing a research project on you for psychology. She just loves research papers." The last sentence was dripping with sarcasm. "And you're coming to practice with me. Period. End of story. No further discussion."
"But-"
Alex held up one finger, signaling for him to be quiet.
"No. No protesting. That's what's happening, deal with it." With that, she picked up the gym bag and slung it over her shoulder as she headed out the door and down the stairs. Spencer raced to follow.
Sometime later at school
Alex grumbled angrily under her breath as she walked down the hallway from the guidance office, Spencer in tow.
"I can't believe she wouldn't let me go around with you." She complained, "Who would have thought that she would actually check with my teacher to see if I'm really doing a project..."
Spencer refrained from commenting that he had thought of that and let her continue with her rant.
"Well, all I have to say is, if you get killed because I wasn't around to protect you, I'm suing. End of story."
They continued down the hall in silence for a ways before they came to the staircase where they had to separate.
"Well, I suppose this is it." Alex commented, still annoyed.
"Yeah..." Spencer looked down the hallway forlornly.
"Well, if any of those bastard trumpets give you any grief, you tell me and I'm gonna beat the crap out of them with their own instruments." Spencer had to stifle a giggle at the look on the girl's face.
"All right," he agreed, picking up his flute case from the floor where he had set it down.
They stood there in silence for a moment more as the warning bell rang.
"All right, I'll meet you here after this period and I'm walking you to your next class, you got that?"
"Lex, you're in my next class."
"Oh." Alex paused. "Right. Well, in that case, I'm walking you to our class. Don't wander off, you hear?"
Spencer nodded, looking increasingly more nervous as the second ticked by.
"Lex..."
"Yeah?" Alex followed Spencer's gaze to a clock mounted nearby. "All right, all right, go scamper off to class so you won't be late."
Spencer shot her a grateful smile as he began to power-walk down the hall to the auditorium. As Alex watched him go, she couldn't help but suppress the urge to run after him and hug him.
After school
Spencer met Alex at her locker minutes after the final bell of the day tolled.
"Hello," she greeted him. "Nice to see you're still alive and well."
"Are you still bitter about what the guidance counselor said?" Spencer asked, knowing the answer full well.
"No," Alex replied sarcastically, "I'm totally chipper, can't you tell?" She slammed her locker shut with a bit more force than was really necessary for the task. "Arg, and now I have to go coach a group of people who don't particularly want to be here. Wow, this is shaping up to be a really great day."
The two friends headed down the hall and two flights of stairs in silence. It was broken finally by Spencer as they passed the boy's soccer team loitering by the athletic office.
"You know, Lex, I'll be fine by myself if you want to just go to practice..." He didn't bother to continue as he received the death glare his friend was sending to him.
"No chance in hell." She snarled. "Do you really think I'd allow you to A) walk home in the cold by yourself and B) get the snot beaten out of you again by that jackass you call a father? I think not."
They continued the rest of the way down to the soccer field in silence. Once they were there, Alex pointed to a bench and dropped her bags near it.
"Sit there and study or do whatever it is you do. We'll be done in two hours." With that, she joined the rest of the team in the center of the field for warmups.
"All right, guys, Keira's not here today, so you're stuck with me for the next two hours. I apologize in advance." She greeted them. "All right, Sandra, lead stretching."
A girl named Sandra stared at her in utter shock.
"Do I have to?"
"No. Sorry about that. Ashley, you're up." Alex mentally slapped herself for forgetting that Sandra, while a great defensive player, didn't like to be the center of attention.
"All right, girls, hamstring stretches." Ashley took her normal place in the center of the circle. As they stretched, as usual, they talked. Only this time, the conversation went someplace different than usual.
"Who's that little kid over there?" A girl by the name of Jen asked. "Is he a pervert or what?"
Alex's face burned red.
"He's anything but." she snapped. "That's Spencer, and he's like my little brother, so I don't want to hear anyone talking smack about him, you got that? And that doesn't mean you can do when I'm not listening, either." The last comment was directed to two of the mid-fielders who were whispering something to that effect.
The rest of practice didn't go all that well for the majority of the team, as was to be expected when the person leading you is in a bad mood. After a full half hour of Indian sprints1, Alex was considerably happier. Of course, the same couldn't be said for the rest of the team, who left grumbling about how glad they'd be once Keira came back from Florida.
"So, you have a good practice?" Spencer asked when Alex approached him.
"Oh, spectacular." she responded dryly as she shot a stream of water into her mouth. "Best one yet. Can't wait for tomorrow. How was your studying, or whatever?"
"You know, educational." Spencer smiled, pleased that he had made something of a joke.
Alex smiled back, glad that he was happy.
"All right, my mom should be here soon. We should probably head over to the parking lot." As she spoke, Alex picked up her bags and offered a hand to Spencer, who took it.
"So," Alex commented as they walked. "It's rather chilly. Good thing you're not going to be sleeping outside tonight, eh, Spence?"
Spencer nodded as he stared at his feet.
"You know," Alex continued, "I tried to convince my mom that you should stay with us for a while, but she seems to think you'd be better off with your parents. If you can call them that."
Spencer remained silent.
"But she did say that if you get kicked out again, she'll be talking to the police and you'll be hanging out with me a lot more often. Like, all the time." Alex blew a stream of warm air out through her mouth, watching as it combined with the cold to give off the impression of someone smoking.
Spencer looked at her fearfully. Alex picked up on his expression and quickly edited her statement.
"But don't worry, she won't do anything until then. But believe me, she wants to. She wants you out of there just as much as I do, Spence. We can't stand seeing you get hurt, especially by the people who are supposed to protect you. It's just not right, Spence." She trailed off, watching two members of the boy's soccer team kicking a ball back and forth a little ways off.
They stood there in silence until a car pulled up, which Spencer recognized as belonging to the Cabot family. The two high school students dropped their bags in the trunk before climbing into the back seat.
"So," Mrs. Cabot said once they were settled. "Did you have a good day at school?"
"Spectacular." Alex responded, crossing her arms over her chest and staring out the window.
"Spencer? How about you, honey?"
"Well, I did learn about the second World War, but I disagree with the way it's being taught. You see..." At this point, Alex tuned out, just thinking about the boy sitting beside her and all the things he had to deal with. Before she knew it, they had pulled up at Spencer's house.
"Bye, Alex. Thank you very much for the ride, Mrs. Cabot." Spencer stood outside the car, about to close the door.
"Any time, dear." Mrs. Cabot stated warmly. "And if there's anything you ever need, don't be afraid to ask, all right?"
"All right." Spencer didn't make eye contact. "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah. Bye." Alex once again had to repress the urge to go running after him as he made his way up the front steps and hug him. She watched him open the storm door, then the main door slowly, as if he was reluctant to go inside.
Eventually he did, and the doors closed behind him. Yet, Alex and her mother sat there a while longer, watching, waiting for the small boy to come running back out, asking if he could come home with them.
But he didn't.
Eventually, the car backed out of the driveway and started slowly down the street. As Alex turned in her seat, gazing intently at the house her friend had disappeared into, she couldn't help but wonder what would become of the poor lost soul that was Spencer Reid.
1 - For those of you who don't know what Indian sprints are, essentially they're a coach's torture method. You start out running in two lines, then the two people in the back have to sprint up to the front. Once they've gone, the next two people go and so on and so forth. Trust me, doing it for a full half hour is pure torture.