(Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or it's characters.)
Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter.
It's New Year's Eve! Yay! Time to party ;)
I knew I needed to update this story before 2018's over and I apologise for how long it's taken me. I fell a little
out of love with the story and it took me a while to pick it up again.
Thanks to everyone who has supported me this year in all of my stories, not just this one.
Reviewing takes a few moments of your time so please leave me some feedback, it's very helpful in terms of my improvement and this chapter has taken me months to work through.
Enjoy!
Previously: (summary of previous chapter)
"Are we going to the park?" Jack asked as he uncapped the milk and poured milk haphazardly into Spencer's bowl.
"If that's what you want, Jacko. Or we can go watch a movie." ...
"I'm Scott Gildersleve."
Jarvis blinked at the younger man which just made him laugh.
"You're probably wondering why I'm here," he chuckled. Scott leaned on the table, his chin resting on his palm. "I hope you received my letter." ...
Scott grinned. "Sure. Now if you remember anything about the... 'serum' call me. But I'm sure we'll create our own strain with the kid." ...
The plan was set in motion. It was only just beginning and weeks of careful preparation lay ahead but they were a step closer to their goal.
Debra stared at the new letter. She'd set it on her bed shortly after it arrived. It was addressed to her alright. Already open of course, but unread by her eyes. She leaned forward and ran her finger over the torn edge before her eagerness took over and she grabbed it between her broken nails.
She fumbled between the torn edges and pulled out the paper inside.
"Ain't you popular," her cell-mate sneered, peering at her from where she was squatting over the metal toilet bowl.
Debra ignored her as she unfolded the letter.
There's her name again; she admires the formality of the letter, something she could appreciate.
As she read her normally dull, flat eyes blossomed with interest.
"Ho, ho," she chortled when she got to the end. Her cell-mate flushed the toilet and hobbled back to her bed, not bothering to inquire about Debra's reaction.
It was a lot to take in. Mostly unbelievable to a woman as forward-thinking as Debra but with the promise of bail at her trial in 3 weeks how could Debra not at least try to believe in the other words.
"Spencer Reid," she mumbled. She read back through the paragraph and frowned thoughtfully. Twenty-seven-year-old genius and respected agent of the BAU, who had, or so she was supposed to believe, been 'age-reduced' and hence the small boy that landed on Debra's doorstep.
It wasn't possible. She shook her head and folded the letter back up, but as she sat there it did seem to grow in her mind.
He had been intelligent for such a young child. Debra thought back to the nasty tricks, some of which not even an adult could attempt.
A two-year-old? Debra's frown deepened. How on earth did a toddler cause her such trouble that an adult would struggle with?
The shampoo.
She reached up and felt the tufts of new hair that has sprouted from her raw scalp.
The more she thought about it the more the idea of an age-reduction became plausible rather than an actual two-year-old having committed crimes of an elevated manner against her.
Debra's tongue clicked on the roof of her mouth and she nodded.
There was no way that was an actual toddler.
"They're nerf guns, Spencer."
The smaller boy ran his fingers across the gun curiously. It was certainly a lot more colourful than his glock; he wasn't sure whether he liked it. It was much lighter too, and it had a distinct plastic feel as opposed to his cold metal glock that Aaron had locked somewhere.
"They're awesome, Uncle Sean! Can we keep them!?" Jack asked as he examined his own gun which was much bigger than Spencer's with several added parts. Spencer looked at the gun with a frown, why were people selling guns to children? It really wasn't something children should learn to control.
Sean grinned and let Henry pick between the last two guns. He picked the bright red and blue one, leaving Sean with the orange one. "Sure. I got them for you boys to keep here so whenever you come over you can use them."
Spencer bit his lip nervously before handing the gun back to Sean.
"I'll p'ay wid legos," he mumbled. Sean was quick to turn him back around.
"You can play with us. Me and Henry vrs you and Jack, and whoever's team wins get to pick our movie."
Jack looked up slack jawed at his uncle.
"How come Henry gets you on his team!"
"Alright then, me and you and Henry and Spencer."
It was Henry's turn to protest then. "But Sean!"
"Alright, alright," Sean said as he held his hands up in defence. He bent forward and gave Spencer his small gun back. "Fine me and Spencer will be on a team."
Spencer opened his mouth to argue as he tried to give the gun back but Sean called "ready!?"
Jack sprinted behind the couch and Henry darted after him their guns poised.
"Go!"
Spencer watched as Sean ducked under the coffee table.
"Go!"
He saw Henry and Jack poke their heads around the couch and he felt something soft smack his chest.
"Ow..." he murmured. He oooked at his feet where a vibrant orange bullet sat.
"Spencer's out!"
Oh, perfect-
"No, everyone has three lives!" Sean yelled, grabbing Spencer's arm and pulling him from the rain of soft rubber bullets.
Spencer sighed as he got a better grip on his gun.
He drummed his fingers patiently on the table. The visitors around him were mostly women. Mothers, daughters, and friends he supposed. The other men seemed to be family. But not him, this was strictly business.
The inmates started piling into the room. Most looked happy. The inmate he'd come to see did not share this. She stormed through the door like a burst of thunder and spotted him.
She sat down nonchalantly and huffed before picking up the phone. He followed the action, pressing the receiver to his ear.
"Hello," he said.
"What do you want?"
"Debra I assume?"
"You signed up for visitation; you know who I am. Who are you?"
The man gave a small smile and pursed his lips.
"You got my letter, I hope?"
Debra paused then. She stared at the man with scrutiny.
"I did," she mumbled. "Both of them."
"Good, Good," he said slowly. "That's good."
"What accent is that?" she grunted, eying the smartly dressed young man. "It's not from the states."
"Well spotted," Scott said sarcastically.
"If you want my trust I want full disclosure."
"I'm from Essex."
"Great Britain?" Debra asked.
Scott nodded. "England. Near London if that helps."
"I don't need to know the exact location."
"Alright. Can we return to the subject of the letter?"
Debra leaned in a little closer to the window then as Scott pushed away his annoyance. She glanced over at the guards before she muttered. "You know that little shit? The one that put me in here? And this...this Spencer Reid? You realise I'm a woman of logic; your story... it certainly borders on the unbelievable, Mr... uh-"
"Just call me Scott. And to answer your first questions: not personally, no. But I know people who do know of the 'little shit' you're referring to. Who also want 'revenge.'"
Debra smirked momentarily before her brow creased. "How can he piss off so many people? He's a toddler."
"Ah." The man smiled. "That's where you're wrong Miss Whinton. Spencer Reid is full of little secrets."
"How did you two win!?"
Henry was still pouting as Sean and Jack collected the bombardment of Nerf bullets off the floor.
"Because Spencer is an awesome shooter," Sean replied simply.
"Yea, he actually is," Jack added with clear surprise in his voice.
Spencer shrugged. All that practicing with Hotch had clearly paid off. He'd landed two bullets on Henry (after all of the 'three lives' were used up' while Sean had taken Jack. In fact, Spencer didn't realised how much he'd missed his gun, though he did not miss having to actually use it. That was his least favourite part of owning a gun, the fact it could and had killed.
Henry folded his arms. "Well... well-" he grumbled, looking for the right words. "He has Sean! And I don't want him to pick he'll just make us watch Star Wars."
Sean chuckled. "We'll be watching whatever me and Spencer want. And I think someone's a little jealous."
"Am not! Spencer's just... Spencer's weird."
"Hey," Sean snapped. Henry dropped his arms and shuffled around apologetically.
"Spencer's probably a spy," Jack said and Spencer and Sean laughed.
"Or a secret FBI agent," Sean added with a chuckle. "Undercover to keep you two on your best behaviour."
Spencer giggled nervously. When was Aaron back?!
"FBI, hands where I can see them!"
The mother dropped the knife so suddenly that Morgan nearly shot at her. Her husband lay unmoving on the floor.
The rest of the team trailed in slowly, guns raised.
"I was protecting them!" the mother cried, motioning to the children cowering behind her. "They're my kids!"
"No, they're not," Hotch said calmly. "Now let them go."
The woman shook her head. "No, no, they are mine, they really are, I promise. I'm not letting them go," she sobbed and then her face twisted with anger. "Not again!" she snarled.
"Just let them go. They are not your children. Your children drowned three months ago."
"No," the mother whispered.
"Yes. We can talk about this, about them, but first let the kids go."
The woman looked down and then back at the kids. Hotch kept his gun trained on her.
"I-I was protecting them," she mumbled, motioning to her dead husband. "He w-was gonna hurt them... like...like the first time."
Hotch lowered his gun and stepped forward, beckoning his team to follow.
"Don't you have children?" the woman asked.
"Three boys actually," Hotch replied. The woman stared at him as a tear slid down her face. "And I would do anything for them. All of them."
"Me too," the mother said. She pressed her lips into a smile and moved aside to let the kids go. JJ and Morgan holstered their guns and pulled the children away.
"Thank you," Hotch said.
He gently cuffed the mother as she cried quietly for her dead children. He couldn't bring himself to imagine what she must have been feeling; how she made other parents feel; he just wouldn't imagine his own kids in such a way.
It was time for him to go home.
Sean fed the boys dinner earlier after they'd insisted of staying up for their parents to get back. Despite his best efforts, after a warm meal and cozy pyjamas Spencer had drifted off on the arm of the couch, his legs falling onto the couch but the rest of his body clinging around the arm like a cat.
Sean cleaned up and found Spencer in his awkward position. He was about to move the kid when he saw Henry pressed into the leather couch, staring down into his hands, a miserable look on his face.
Sean made his was over, careful to avoid eye contact with his unpaid bills sprawled on the glass coffee table. He sat down and sighed, catching Henry's attention.
"Does Spencer always sleep like that?" Sean asked.
Henry looked over and smiled minutely. "Yea... mommy said that he's like a kitten and Spencer went bright red and said he wasn't a kitten. He thinks he's a lion sometimes but really he's just a kitten," he explained with his smile fading slowly as he spoke.
Sean chuckled. "Oh yea, I can definitely see that. He's a silly little guy."
"No," Henry mumbled and he frowned at Sean, "I didn't mean what I said. He's not weird... o-or silly. He's my brother. So he's cool like me and awesome like Jack... but don't tell them I said that!"
"I won't, Kiddo," Sean said with a laugh before he scooted closer. "But I didn't come here to talk about your brothers. I came to speak to you. What's got you down?"
"My dad's going soon," Henry said. Sean cursed under his breath for forgetting and smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. They sat under the TV's glare for a moment before Sean continued. "You know, bud, mine and Aaron's Dad left too."
Henry looked up with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Really?"
"Yea. And when he was gone I felt just like you." Sean made a sad face and Henry grinned.
Henry stared up at Sean with wonder.
"But you know how I got through it?"
"How?"
"My big bro." Sean wrapped his arm around Henry. "Your step-Dad. He took on the 'Dad' role and look at me now, I didn't turn out so bad, right?"
"Yea, right," snickered Jack as he zoomed past and shot randomly at them with his nerf gun.
"Hey! The games over!" Sean yelled with a chuckle. He grabbed his gun and shot back, nailing the young boy between the shoulder blades.
"You're not bad," Henry said quietly with a shy smile.
"See. Besides, you have Aaron AND your big bro Jack," Sean said and then he glanced back and found Spencer who was still snoozing. "And your little bro. So, I know you feel sad now, but you've got these guys to look after you."
Hotch and JJ got to Sean's at nine. Both were disappointed the flight had been delayed and that their boy's would be in bed, probably miserable.
They got to Sean's apartment and prepared themselves to carry three sleepy, cranky boys to the car and then drive home.
Hotch knocked and gave JJ a reassuring look as his brother fumbled with the lock on the other side.
Sean opened the front door and not a moment after he had done, a happy shriek filled the house when the boy's, who'd been watching from the couch saw who it was.
"It's past bedtime," Hotch muttered warningly to his brother who held his hands up in guilty surrender. Hotch just smiled and knelt down quickly just as Jack flew down the hall and landed with a dull thud in his father's embrace.
"Dad!"
"Hey, buddy," Hotch said, shucking his bag off his shoulder and wrapping his arms around Jack.
"Have you been good?"
"Yea, I finished all my work and homework and mom said I won't be behind my friends when I get back to school," replied Jack with a blinding grin. Hotch ruffled the boy's hair and patted his back proudly.
"That's my boy."
JJ shut the door and also let her go-bag fall to the ground. Henry pushed past Sean's legs and grabbed his mother's.
"I missed you, mommy!"
"I missed you so much, sweetheart!
"I had to do a ton of work!" Jack explained to his father. He rolled his eyes to emphasize the exhaustion of it all.
Jack walked over to JJ and Aaron watched as they hugged.
There was something missing, however.
He turned his head back and cocked it to the side slightly.
The little two-year-old he'd been looking for was stood anxiously in the doorway, his tender hands resting against the frame as he bit his lip.
"Do I not get a hug from you, buddy?" Hotch called. Spencer shifted uncomfortably and cast his gaze on Jack and Henry who were trying to be the first to tell JJ all about their week. Hotch motioned Spencer over with his fingers and Spencer reluctantly released the glossy wood and stepped cautiously toward Hotch.
Hotch pulled him into a hug and breathed deeply, grounding himself. He hated cases involving children, it hit much too close to home.
"Have you been okay?" Hotch asked and Spencer pulled back and nodded eagerly.
"Sean toot us to da pawk and I helped Haley with housewowt-"
"And we had a nerf gun fight!" Jack shouted above Spencer.
"Sounds awesome!" Hotch exulted as he hugged Spencer again who let out a yawn.
"I guess... it was," the toddler murmured. It was nice not to have so much to worry about.
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Have a great New Year's Eve! See you soon ;)