And you must bear your neighbor's burden within reason
And your labors will be borne when all is done, and nobody, nobody knows
Let the yoke fall from our shoulders
Don't carry it all, don't carry it all
We are all our hands in holders
Beneath this bold and brilliant sun

-"Don't Carry It All" by the Decemberists


Alex jumped as a wadded-up piece of paper bounced off the back of her head. "What the fuck, Emily, what was that for?" she said, twisting around in her chair to glare at her roommate.

Emily was sprawled out on the floor, her homework in piles around her but every textbook left closed. "I've been trying to get your attention for the past twenty minutes," she complained. Alex tossed the crumpled paper back at her. "Thank god you're an academic type, you'd never make it in athletics." Alex picked up an eraser and chucked it, bonking Emily in the nose. "Hey!"

"What's so important that you needed to get my attention?" Alex asked. "Is there someone on fire? Are you bleeding?"

"No, I'm just bored," Emily said. "Can we please get out of here?"

Alex frowned. "And go where?" she said, gesturing towards the rain tapping on the window. "You really want to go outside in this?"

"Honestly, I would go anywhere," Emily said.

"You can go," Alex shrugged, turning back to her homework.

Emily scrambled up from the floor. "Please?" she said. "Coffee. Let's get coffee. I'll pay. Please, I just need to get out of here."

Alex paused. "Seriously?" she said.

"Absolutely serious," Emily said. "I'm so tired of sitting around in here."

"Have you even started your homework?"

Emily glanced down at the piles on the floor. "Yeah, sure," she said. "I've...opened a book." Alex raised an eyebrow. "Don't start with me, Miller."

"I'm not starting anything," she said, raising her hands in surrender.

Emily rolled her eyes. "We'll pretend you weren't about to lecture me about the importance of the junior year GPA for college applications," she said.

"Well, since you brought it up-" Alex started to say. Emily crumpled up another piece of paper. "All right, all right. Never mind." She looked down at her Russian textbook, and then sighed heavily. "Fine. Let's go get coffee."

"Thank you!" Emily said as Alex closed her book. "Let's go, let's go, let's go. I'm going stir crazy."

Alex switched off her desk lamp and dug around in her side of the closet for her trusty rainboots. Today was the kind of day for practicality over any kind of fashion sense; leggings and one of her older brother's oversized tee shirts were a better choice than a cute dress.

Emily, on the other hand, had gone back to full punk, and was busy touching up her eyeliner in the mirror on the back of the door. "We can't get dresscoded on weekends, can we?" she asked.

"Not as far I know, but if it happens to anyone it'll be you," Alex said. She grabbed her raincoat off its hook, and after a moment picked up a book from her desk. "Come on, let's get this over with." She locked the door behind them and dropped the key in her pocket.

Their RA was in the common room, lounging on the couch with her laptop. "What's up, nerds?" she said, biting back a yawn.

"Hey, Elle," Alex said. "We're going to get coffee."

Elle sat up, looked at the window, and looked back at them. "Seriously?" she said. "What's wrong with you? It's disgusting outside."

"I don't know, it's Prentiss's idea," Alex sighed.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Elle said, turning back to her laptop.

Alex made her way down the stairs, Emily clomping behind her, but she stopped at the doors to pull her hood over her head and tuck her book inside the safety of her coat before they went outside. It had been raining all day, the sky gray and gloomy and the temperature dropping dramatically from blistering humid heat to just a warm thick mugginess, and the puddles forming in the pathways threatened to blur together and flood.

They made the walk to the student union, bursting through the glass double doors into the bright cheery warmth. "Okay, okay, you might have been right," Emily said, closing her umbrella. "Wow, the rain is really gross."

"Is this the part where I'm allowed to say 'I told you so'?" Alex said as she pushed her hood back. She glanced around. "But I mean...I guess it was a decent idea. It is nice to get out of the dorm. And I can use some caffeine."

"Get whatever you want," Emily said. She pushed her damp hair back from her face as they got in line at the register. "What do you usually do on weekends? Stay inside and do homework?"

"Yeah, pretty much," she said. "That, four hour long ballet classes, and I kept getting stuck with weekend shifts at the library, so…"

"You need to live a little," Emily said. "Get out more. There's more to life than homework and books."

"Where would I be going?" Alex asked dryly. "This isn't Rome, Emily."

"Oh, trust me, I know," she said. She poked her lightly. "It's your turn. Order."


"Do you need any help?" Penelope asked.

Spencer raised himself up on his tiptoes and dropped his letter through the mail slot. "I've got it," he said, dropping back on his heels. The rubber sides of his shoes popped, pulling away from the faded canvas.

"Who are you writing to?" she asked.

He closed the little door. "Family," he said shortly. "What about you? Do you write letters to your family?"

"Not really," Penelope said. "I mean, yes, sometimes, but usually I just call. I'm supposed to call my grandparents at least three times a week. I would text, or at least email, but my grandparents aren't exactly tech-savvy, so it has to be a phone call."

A lump unexpectedly rose in her throat. She hadn't thought much about home in the past week, she'd been too busy, but now she suddenly missed the little yellow townhouse, her grandfather's little rose garden and her grandmother's pancakes on Sunday mornings.

Spencer tilted his head. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said.

"Can we get coffee before we go back?" Spencer asked eagerly.

"Yeah, sure," she said, sliding her hands in her pockets. "Maybe it'll stop raining by the time we walk back."

The coffee shop was almost empty; most likely other students were hiding in the safety of their dorms instead of braving the rain. But she immediately recognized the two girls sitting at a corner table. "Hi!" Penelope called. She grabbed Spencer by the wrist and dragged him behind her.

"Hey, you two," Alex said. "What're you doing out here?"

"I had to mail my letter," Spencer said.

Emily tucked her dark hair behind her ear. "Where's your dad and the rest of the ducklings?" she asked.

Spencer frowned. "Our dad?"

"Hotch didn't want to go out in the rain," Penelope said. "And JJ and Derek are at their sports practices."

"Well, go get some coffee and come sit with us," Emily said, pulling out the empty chair next to her. "Keep us company. I'm trying to get Miller to be more fun, she just wants to stay home and read books."

"Reading is fun," Spencer objected.

Alex smiled. "See, this is why you're my favorite," she said. Spencer brightened.

Emily slid out of her chair, her empty mug dangling from her hooked fingers. "I think I need more caffeine," she said. "Come on, you two. Coffee time. Alex, you need anything?"

"I'm good."

Penelope gazed up at the black chalkboard menus, scanning the neat white lettering. Usually her grandmother didn't let her drink coffee. She could hear her now- you'll stunt your growth, Penny, have a hot chocolate or tea instead- but her grandfather always let her have sips of his coffee, the way he liked it, strong enough to thin paint and softened with only a little bit of sugar.

Her vision blurred.

"Okay, Penelope, your turn, what do you want?" Emily asked. "You strike me as a latte girl. Do you…" Her voice trailed off. "Are you okay?"

She wiped at her eyes. "I'm fine," she said, her voice wobbling.

"I don't think you're fine," Emily said. "Are you...uh, don't cry. It's okay."

"I'm not crying," she sniffled.

Emily took her by the shoulders and turned her around. "Go sit with Alex, I think she'll be better at this than me," she said. "What do you want? I'll get it for you."

"I don't know!" she wailed.

"Okay, okay, go, I'll take care of it," Emily said, giving her a push back towards Alex.

She trudged back to the table. Alex rested her chin in her hand as she read, her book propped open on the table, but she glanced up as Penelope sat down. "That was fast," she said. She paused. "Hey, are you okay?"

"My grandmother doesn't let me drink coffee!" Penelope burst out.

Alex blinked, startled, and closed her book. "Okay," she said slowly. "Can you elaborate a little bit?"

Penelope sighed. "So my grandmother doesn't let me drink coffee because she thinks it'll stunt my growth, but my grandfather lets me drink his coffee when he's not looking, and like...it's not good, but it's a really nice gesture and it always makes me think of him," she said.

Alex scrunched up her face, looking up at the ceiling for a moment, and then relaxed. "I see," she said. "I think you're homesick."

"Is that what this is?" Penelope said. "I hate it. It sucks."

Alex laughed. "Yeah, it does," she said. "Trust me, I still remember my first year here. I was so miserable. I called my mom every day my first two weeks, absolutely bawling, and then begging her not tell my dad because he'd just tell me to come home." She reached over and patted Penelope's hand. "You'll feel better soon once you start adjusting, I promise. Staying busy will help."

"I can stay busy," she said. "I signed up for eleven extracurriculars."

"Okay, that might be too busy."

Emily set down a large cup and a cake pop down in front of Penelope. "Hope you like it," she said. "Feel better?"

"Maybe not better, but I've been diagnosed with homesickness."

"Oh, shit, that sucks," Emily said.

"Don't you get homesick?" Alex asked.

Emily rolled her eyes. "I've moved six times back and forth across Europe, if I got homesick for anything I wouldn't survive," she said.

Alex tapped her phone screen and looked at the time. "When are Derek and JJ done with their practices?" she asked.

"Four, I think," Spencer said, jabbing the end of his straw on the table in an effort to pry off the wrapper.

Alex pulled it off for him and handed it back. "Maybe we can all do something fun," she suggested. "Get your mind off things."

"What can we do?" Emily asked. "It's disgusting outside and we can't go anywhere."

"Let's have a movie night," Alex suggested. "I'll text Dave and James, see if they want to join us too." She picked up her phone and frowned. "Who changed my name in the group chat to 'mom friend Miller'?"

"It was Emily's idea," Penelope said immediately.

"I'm changing your name, then," Alex said. "Penelope, help me change it."


The door banged open and Hotch bolted upright. "What the fuck?" he gasped.

Derek leaned in the doorway, his football bag dangling off his shoulder. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were sleeping," he said. "You haven't been answering your texts."

Hotch pressed his palms over his eyes. "Because I was asleep," he said. He fumbled blindly for his phone. "Thirty-seven missed texts?"

"Welcome to the group chat," Derek grinned.

Hotch scrolled through the messages. "You woke me up to tell me I missed texts about a movie night?" he said, yawning. "That's it?"

"Well, the girls want to have it up here in our common room," Derek said. "Alex and Emily said that their RA wouldn't care about having boys on their floor after designated hours, but their head teacher would."

"Yeah, Strauss would freak out," Hotch said. "And Gideon won't care." He yawned again. "Yeah, yeah, tell 'em it's fine, I guess."

"Oh, good," Derek said. "I already told them they could. They should be here any second now." He slapped the doorframe lightly. "I'm gonna go shower. Practice kicked my ass today."

Hotch waved him off dismissively. He still wasn't quite awake, but according to his phone he'd been napping for at least an hour. Might as well get up.

He heard the footsteps on the stairs and winced. Yeah, going back to sleep was definitely out of the question. "Hotch!" Emily bellowed. "Did you get our texts?"

"I got them, I got them," he called back, wandering out of his room towards the top of the stairs. "Movie night. I got it. Can you guys not drip water everywhere?"

"Sorry," Alex said, peeling her raincoat off gingerly. "It's still really gross outside."

She draped her coat over the banister; Emily shook out her umbrella in gleeful abandon and propped it up against the wall. "Penelope is grabbing stuff from her room, and JJ just got back from soccer," she said. "They'll be up in a little bit."

"Yeah, Derek just got back from football, he's taking a shower," Hotch said, frowning. "Spencer? You okay?"

Spencer squinted up at him. "Uh-huh, why?"

"You're drenched," Hotch said. "Don't you have an umbrella or a coat or something?"

Spencer looked down at himself. He wore a red pullover hoodie, the frayed cuffs hanging over his hands, and it was soaking wet, the hem hanging past his hips. "It doesn't really rain much in Las Vegas," he said, pushing the hood back. His long hair was damp too, curling at the ends.

"That's a fair point," Alex said. "Go get changed and hang that up to dry."

Spencer bit his lip. Hotch wondered if he had anything to change into. "Here," he said, unzipping his dark blue hoodie. "You can wear this instead."

"Thanks," Spencer said, surprised. "I'll be right back."

He darted down the hall to his room, water dripping in his wake. "That kid is falling apart," Emily remarked.

"You don't even know the half of it," Hotch said.

"Is he still not sleeping?" Alex asked.

"Nope," Hotch said. "And he-" He paused; he could hear JJ and Penelope on the stairs. "I'll tell you later."

Penelope burst into the common room, her arms laden down with brightly colored pillows and blankets. "I have more if we need them!" she said.

"More?" Hotch repeated.

"She does, trust me," JJ said, dumping her armful on the floor. Her long blonde hair was wet from her shower and smelled strongly of floral conditioner. "You should see our room."

"You can't have a movie night sleepover if you're not cozy," Penelope said.

"Wait, wait, wait, this isn't a sleepover," Hotch said, raising his hands. "Gideon might not care, but Strauss certainly will."

"Don't worry, Prentiss and I will leave on time," Alex said. "We won't get anybody in trouble."

Five different phones buzzed simultaneously; Penelope checked hers first. "Dave and James are on the way over," she said. "Do we need to wait for them to start?"

"Oh, we can go ahead and put in the first movie," Alex said.

"Wait a minute, the first one?" Hotch said. "How many movies are we watching?"

Alex shrugged. "We can probably go through two before we have to call it a night," she said.

Emily plopped down on an armchair. "Don't freak out, Dad, it's not a school night," she said.

"I'm not freaking out," he frowned.

Spencer ran back into the room, Derek at his heels. "Hey, baby girl, I got your text, I-" He stopped. "You told me to bring more pillows and blankets, but I think you've got enough."

"Oh, no, you can never have too many," she said, busily setting up her nest in the middle of the floor.

Derek rolled his eyes and handed Spencer a pillow and a soft ivory blanket with a satin edging. "Here, pretty boy, you take these," he said.

"What am I supposed to do with them?"

"Get comfy," Derek said. Spencer set the pillow and blanket down in the corner of the couch.

Hotch's frown deepened. "Spencer, what's wrong with your shoes?" he asked.

Spencer paused and looked down at his feet. His left shoe was torn in half, the canvas upper completely torn away from the rubber sole. "Oh," he said. "I hadn't realized." He sighed. "I'll just tape them back together."

"What do you mean, tape them back together?" Emily asked.

He unlaced his shoes and took them off carefully; today his left sock was pink striped and his right was solid orange. "Like my last ones," he said. "They'll last a little longer that way. Maybe I can find some gaff tape instead of duct tape. Gaff tape has a cotton backing instead of vinyl. Did you know it was invented by a cinematographer?"

"No, I didn't know that," Hotch said.

He caught Alex's look of concern and he shrugged at her. But before anyone could press Spencer further, Penelope bounced up from her nest on the floor. "There!" she said. "Perfect. Absolutely perfect. So what movie are we going to watch?"

"I think you get first pick," Alex said.

"I pick Frozen," Penelope said immediately, and Derek groaned.

"Seriously?" he said. "You're going to make us watch Frozen?"

"It's a good movie!" she defended. "And Alex said I got to pick first!"

"Ooh, don't drag me into this," Alex said, sitting down on the couch.

Derek huffed impatiently. "All right, fine," he said. "Let's watch a princess movie."

Hotch took the other armchair, giving into another yawn. Derek, JJ, and Penelope piled into the pillow and blanket fort on the floor; Spencer climbed up on the couch next to Alex. The dark blue hood swallowed him up like a cocoon, but at least he looked a little better now that he wasn't wearing his soaking wet sweatshirt.

He eyed Spencer's sneakers out of the corner of his eye as the movie started playing on the common room TV. There was no way possible that those shoes could be fixed. The left one was far past saving, and the right shoe was almost unwearable too.

"So this movie was loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, but Walt Disney tried adapting the story into a film as early as 1940," Spencer said. "The episodic nature of the-"

Penelope turned around, her finger to her lips. "Sh! It's starting!" she said.

"Have you even seen Frozen, Spence?" JJ asked.

He frowned. "No," he said. "But I-"

Penelope flapped her hand at him. "It's starting!" he repeated. Spencer scowled and leaned back against the couch, pulling at the soft blanket he'd borrowed from Derek.

Hotch didn't bother paying attention. He'd seen the movie a million times; when he left campus to stay with his aunt and uncle for the two weeks between the end of the St. Thaddeus summer camp sessions and the beginning of the new school year, it was all that Sean would watch. Well, that and the sequel.

"Okay, wait, I don't understand," Emily said. "Did the rocks just kidnap that child and his baby reindeer?"

"Not exactly, they kind of...well, now that you mention it. They might have kidnapped Kristoff."

Hotch fiddled with his phone while the movie played, only half paying attention. Across from him Alex opened her book, chewing idly on her thumbnail and curling her legs up underneath her. Occasionally his phone buzzed with updates in the group chat from Dave and James.

Suddenly Penelope whipped around to stare at him. He nearly dropped his phone. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he said.

"Are you singing along?" she asked.

"No," he said. "Absolutely not." His phone vibrated. "Hey, James and Dave are here. Who's going to run downstairs and let them in."

"Nose goes!" Derek said, and Penelope and JJ followed suit quickly. "All right, Spencer, that's you."

"What if I don't want to?" he said.

"Too bad, you lost," Derek said, grinning at him.

"Hotch didn't play."

"I don't count," Hotch said. "Go on." Spencer sighed and climbed down from the couch. As soon as the sound of his footsteps faded away he got up. "Hey, Alex? Can I borrow you for a second?"

"Hm?" she said absently. "Yeah, sure."

She set her book aside. "Derek, can you come with us?" Hotch asked.

Derek got up from the floor and Hotch led them down the hallway. "What's going on?" Alex asked.

Hotch opened the door to Derek and Spencer's shared dorm room. "We need to talk," he said.

"About what?"

Derek flipped on the lights. "So, just by looking in here...which side is mine and which side is Spencer's?" he asked.

Alex looked around, and Hotch saw recognition dawn in her dark eyes. "Oh my god," she said. There was such a sharp contrast- Derek's belongings tossed around on his side, the posters and photos, his cozy bed heaped with pillows and blankets; Spencer's single blanket and pillow, his school shoes set neatly on the floor, his half a dozen well-loved books arranged on the shelf.

"Yeah," Hotch said.

Alex stared, her hand falling absently against her throat. "That's it?" she said.

"That's it," Derek said. "Well, not even. The pillow is Hotch's and the sheets are mine. He didn't even have those."

"Everything he has, he carried in his backpack," Hotch said. "Don't even bother looking in the drawers. There's nothing there but a couple of pairs of mismatched socks."

"You're fucking kidding me," Alex said. She walked around in a slow circle, bewildered. "He doesn't...there's no clothes, no knickknacks." She looked at Hotch. "There's no pictures of his family. Has he said anything about his family?"

"He's mentioned his mother," Hotch said. "He said that she was the one who lied about his age on his application, but the way he was talking made it sound like he was the one who submitted his application himself."

"Hold on, hold on," Derek interrupted. "He lied about his age?"

Hotch shifted his weight. "I promised him I wouldn't say anything," he said. "But I...he's not ten. He's nine."

"Nine?" Alex repeated. "You are fucking shitting me, Hotchner. He's only nine years old?"

"He'll be ten in October," Hotch confessed.

"Holy shit," Derek said.

Alex pressed her fingertips to her temples. "So you're telling me that Spencer is nine years old and might have lied in order to move across the country for school?" she said.

"That's, uh...that's what it looks like," Hotch said. He'd promised Spencer he wouldn't say anything, but it was such a relief to tell someone else instead of worrying on his own.

"Do you think he ran away?" Alex asked. "Do you think his parents know where is? Does he even have parents?"

"I don't know," Hotch admitted.

She exhaled slowly. "He wrote a letter the other day," she said. "I don't remember the address, and he didn't say who it was for. Maybe he was writing to his family."

"Maybe," Hotch said, but he didn't sound convincing even to himself. "We'll just have to watch out for him. Keep a close eye."

Alex nodded. "God knows nobody else has," she said.

"Hey, guys! Dave and James are here and they brought pizza."

Hotch ushered them out of the room; Derek flipped off the lights. "Not a word," he told them. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that he was lying."

"If he's lying about that, what else is he lying about?" Derek asked. He shifted his weight. "What's he been having nightmares about?"

Hotch froze. He hadn't even thought about that.

"Come on, you guys!" JJ called again.

"We'll talk about this later," he said quietly.

He tried to push his worry away as they rejoined the others in the common room. "Hey, there you are," James said, grinning at them. "We brought food!"

"How many pieces can we have each?" Derek asked eagerly. "Because I-"

"Had football, yeah, I can guess," Dave teased.

"Let Spencer go first," Alex said.

"All right, all right, we'll go youngest to oldest," Dave said. "C'mere, passerotto, what do you want?"

Spencer wrinkled his nose. "Passerotto?" he repeated.

"It means little sparrow," Emily explained, ruffling his hair. "It's a term of endearment for little kids. Go on, hurry up, we can't eat until you pick."

"What do we owe you for the pizza?" Hotch asked.

Dave waved his hand. "Don't worry about it," he said. "It's nothing. What are we watching?" He squinted at the image paused on the TV. "Which princess is that?"

"Wait, have you never seen Frozen?" Penelope asked. "Should we start the movie over?"

"No, no, I can catch up," Dave said. "It's fine."

Hotch went back to his armchair with a paper plate in his hands as JJ started the movie back up. Alex took her seat on the couch again, but she didn't open her book. Spencer sat beside her, chatting a quiet mile a minute, his place nearly untouched on his lap. Every so often she gently redirected his attention back towards eating.

When the first movie finished, they voted on a followup (Penelope lobbied for the sequel, but she was outvoted.) Derek and JJ made a run to the vending machine for candy and sodas, lugging them back with their arms full.

They were almost done with the second movie when Tara Lewis poked her head in. "Hey, Hotchner, do you have my girls?" she said. "I'm missing Jennifer and Penelope."

"We're here!" Penelope said. "We'll be down soon, I promise."

Tara raised an eyebrow. "It's movie night," Hotch shrugged. "And you know Gideon won't care."

"That's true," Tara said. "Ladies, come right down when you're done, okay?"

"We will," JJ promised.

Hotch leaned back in his armchair, his chin resting in his hand. He had to admit, it was kind of nice. This sort of thing never happened in his first two years at St. Thaddeus. He hadn't exactly made friends- plenty of acquaintances, and he and Derek got along really well, but he never found himself in a specific group.

"Who gets to pick the movie next week?" James asked, tossing a handful of skittles in his mouth.

"We're doing this again?" Hotch said.

"Yeah, why not?" Derek said. "Oh, man, have you guys seen Hereditary?"

"We're not watching scary movies!" Penelope protested.

"Why not?"

"They're scary!"

"That's the whole point," JJ said.

"We should start with Midsommar," Emily said. "Now that's a good movie."

"It's a good movie, but I don't know if I ever want to see it again," Alex said. "I think I'm good with just the one time."

"The reviews were really good," Spencer said sleepily. He was curled up beside Alex, his cheek pressed against her arm, and he hugged the borrowed ivory blanket to his chest. "A24 has really been doing well creating modern horror films."

"Have you seen any of them?" Alex asked.

"No, but I've read the synopses."

"Definitely not the same," Derek said. "But I think we should start with Hereditary."

"No! I'll have nightmares!"

"Fine, we'll balance it out with something less scary."

"I get to pick it!"

"You just picked this one."

"Fine, we'll make a schedule and rotate."

Hotch grinned. It was nice. It really was.


Author's Notes:

So we have a lot of cuteness, and a little angst!

This fic is a super slow burn, but I hope you're enjoying it anyway! Next chapter will be more exciting, I think, but I really had fun writing about the kids having a movie night. (And movie nights quickly become a recurring theme with these kids!)

But there's definitely a lot of shit coming up for poor baby Spencer.

Special thanks to xGoldentigerlilyx, ItsEmilyFreakingPrentiss, sweetkid45, Lady Lunera, Cat, ferret54, and a guest for reviewing!

My tumblr is themetaphorgirl if you'd like to chat, or read some minifics and drabbles about the boarding school babes!