Part 16
Five months later
Spencer and Hotch had taken the day off to come see their new niece and two nephews instead of the twins they were expecting. The triplets had been born more than a month ago, but Hotch and Spencer had been so busy that they hadn't been able to take the time off to come see them, but then of course, they'd had to stay in the hospital for several weeks after their births just to make sure they were fine since they have been born five weeks early. As had already been stated on several occasions though werewolf pups tended to be pretty hardy, although some did die after they were born. They could be stillborn, but that happened only very rarely, unlike human babies.
Spencer and Hotch had been told that the doctors were amazed that they didn't have any problems and that lungs seemed to be fully developed considering they were five weeks premature. The doctors had speculated that perhaps, Blanche was more pregnant then her doctor had told her as the babies due date was only an estimation and it was often off by a few weeks as it was estimated by the time a woman remembered having her last menstrual cycle.
It didn't really matter for the triplets were healthy and that was all that really mattered in the grand scheme of things.
"They are so adorable," Spencer said, as he cuddled one of his nephews that had the beginning of reddish brown hair that was a mixture of his father's brown and his mother's red.
"Yes, they are," Hotch agreed with a grin as he cuddled the only girl.
The girl had the exact same shade of her father's and so did her brother, so it looked like this time only one of the babies got a mixture of the red hair that the mother had and the brown of the father.
"We certainly think so," Blanche told them with a smile. "It's a good thing that we have some of the local pack to help out though or we'd never manage it since taking care of three babies isn't for sissies."
"Packs stick together," Spencer said, as he kissed the little boy's forehead. "If they didn't, I doubt very much that either me or my brothers would have survived, because if they hadn't cared there's no way we would have."
"So are you planning on having anymore?" Hotch asked changing the subject.
"Yes, in four or five years of course, once these three have grown up a little, so that they're not so much of a handful," Brock answered, "and believe me, they are, even with the pack to help."
"Don't worry we know exactly what you're talking about," Spencer said with a smile. "Let's not forget that I helped raise you and your 5 brothers, so I know exactly how much work multiple babies can be."
"Which is why we're going to be glad to have you and Uncle Aaron babysitting whenever you're free to do so," Blanche laughed.
"I don't know when we'll be free, since we have eight children to raise ourselves," Hotch said.
"How's that going?" asked Brock.
"Pretty well," Spencer answered. "Like you we leave him with members of the local pack when we have to work and the people that take care of them know how to handle children that want to cause trouble."
"Seth still trying to cause trouble?" asked Brock.
"He's improved a lot," Hotch admitted. "Once he knew that we would punish him for misbehaving those incidents have diminished. I'm not saying that he still doesn't get into mischief or trouble sometimes, but usually it's nothing major."
"You just had to prove that you were the ones in charge," Brock suggested and both his brother and uncle nodded.
"That's exactly what we had to do," Spencer told the pair.
"Once his punishment was over we proved to him that we still loved him and I think that's the main reason that he's started to accept that we are the ones in charge. It's a good thing actually, because they're due to start kindergarten pretty soon and they actually should have started last year, except they didn't come into our care until recently."
"Yes, you can't have Seth misbehaving in class," Blanche agreed, "as he doesn't need the stigma of being labeled a troublemaker, as that kind of thing tends to follow you for the rest of your school career."
"Well, they should have started last year, but a lot of children don't start until they're six because their birthdays are in the later part of the year after the cut off date," Spencer said. "Seth knows that he will be punished if he misbehaves while he's in school, though if he was defending someone like his sisters then he wouldn't be, at least not by us, although the school administration might have a different view, like what happened with Blanche a few years ago."
"I'm glad it did happen or we might not have met," Brock said with a large sappy grin causing the other three people in the room to laugh.
"So am I," Blanche said, as she cuddled her other son in her arms.
"So how's it going, getting to know relatives you never know we had?" Brock asked Spencer next. Brock and his brothers had found out several months ago, that they had relatives that they had never known about.
"Okay," Spencer answered. "I haven't actually met most of them, since they are spread out all over the United States, but I have gotten to know the ones that live in Virginia, a little anyway. They were rather surprised to learn that they had relatives they never knew about, just like I was since I never knew my father had so many siblings until less then a year ago. All I knew was that he'd had one sister that disappeared years ago. It turns out she's been dead and has been for quite a few years and she is one of the few that never had a chance to have a family.
"She must have been really young when she died then," Blanche suggested.
"Yeah, she was only in her early 20s when she disappeared and we now know thanks to Garcia's research we found out that she was murdered, and her bones weren't discovered or even identified for years. All her family ever knew was that their daughter or sister disappeared, as by the time her bones were discovered my grandparents had been dead for quite a number years and her siblings were scattered to the four winds."
"That's so sad," Blanche's said and the other three people in the room nodded.
"It is, but that kind of thing happens all the time as there are a lot of predators in the world and Spencer's distant aunt appears to just had the bad luck to run into one," Hotch said. "It's sad, and tragic, but also a fact of life, unfortunately."
"Was her murderer ever caught?" asked Brock.
"No, I'm afraid not, at least not from what Garcia could find and if she didn't find any evidence the person being caught then they never were. Of course, it's very possible that the file exists where the person was caught is still on paper in some police station file room, since it happened back before everything was on computers." Reid said shaking his head, "but the likely possibility is that the police never found who did it and might not have had very many suspects either. Perhaps, if the murder had happened today the person who did it would have been found simply, because technology has advanced quite a bit since that happened and it's often easier to track somebody like that down using it then it was way back when it happened. The BAU didn't even exist back then as they weren't formed until the 70s."
"Why don't we talk about something more pleasant," Blanche suggested.
"Of course," Brock agreed with a smile. "So, Spence, are you going to try to meet some of your other relatives in other cities?"
"I don't know, I haven't decided," Reid admitted. "They know I exist, as I wrote each of them a letter and a copy of the data that Garcia found. I also sent him my phone number and my email address and most of them haven't replied back and in fact, it's possible they just threw the package out."
"Give them time," Hotch advised calmly. "You probably shocked the hell out of them you know and they might very well be deciding what to do about it if anything and if they don't contact you, then that's their loss, although I know that will hurt you. There has to be a reason that they all just practically abandoned their family so long ago and didn't even try to keep in contact with their younger brother and therefore, be part of yours and your brothers lives. It's very possible that they did try to keep in contact and then they lost it for one reason or another, which was easier to do back then, especially over long distance and in any case, we'll likely never know unless some of them tell us."
"You're right," Spencer agreed, "they've only had about three months or so after all. I'm sure that they're probably investigating my claims or at least some of them probably are."
"You let me know, if anything changes," Brock requested and Spencer nodded.
"I will," Reid promised.
"So when are you actually going to go see Jason and Lexi's new pups?" asked Brock.
"Sometime in the next month or so," Hotch answered. "Seeing the three pups that you and Blanche had was a lot easier, since you live in the Virginia area, but Jase lives out in San Francisco and it's not as easy to take a few days off and go see him and Lexi and their four pups as it is to take just the day off and come see you and Blanche."
"We will through," Spencer said, "in a month or so as Aaron said. We do have a right to personal lives, even if we do work a great deal and although both of us hate to leave the rest of the team shorthanded, sometimes it just has to happen. We're not machines after all, and we can't work all the time as we need time to decompress."
"Everybody needs time to relax," Blanche agreed, "to forget about their job, or whatever is causing them to be so tense all the time. We humans are not machines that can work all the time without some time off to rejuvenate in between."
"If Strauss had her way she'd have us working every day of the week," Hotch snorted.
Both Brock and Blanche knew all about Erin Strauss and what a bitch she was.
"Luckily, for us, she can't do that due to the laws that are in place to save people from exploitation, which of course, includes government employees," Spencer said.
The four continued to chat, for a few minutes, before Hotch and Spencer finally took their leave to head back home.
~~~Spencer and Aaron~~~
Three months later
"Can I help you, sir?" asked the guard as a tall man with dark brown hair and golden brown eyes entered building where the BAU was located.
"Yes, I'm looking for Spencer Reid?"
"What's your name, sir?" asked the guard. "And what is your business with Dr. Reid."
"My name is Anthony Reid," causing the guard to look startled.
"Ah, so you're a relative of Dr. Reid's then," the guard said thinking that Anthony did indeed look a lot like their own Dr. Reid, although the likeness wasn't exact of course.
"Yes, I am," Anthony answered
"Well, sir, I can have you escorted upstairs once I call and see if Dr. Reid wants to see you," the guard said.
"Oh, he'll want to see me," Anthony said with confidence.
The guard eyed him suspiciously for a moment, then picked up the phone and pushed a couple of buttons before placing the receiver to his ear.
"Yes, we have a man down here who claims to be a relative of yours Dr. Reid." The guard listened for a moment then said, "His name? Anthony Reid." The guard listened again. "Yes, sir, I'll have someone escort him right up."
The guard put down the phone and said, "You have been cleared to go up. I'll have one of the guards escort you."
"Thank you," Anthony answered politely, as the guard handed him a visitor's pass.
A guard came towards Anthony and gestured towards the elevator. "This way, Mr. Reid."
Anthony strode towards the bank of elevators and the guard pushed the button for the correct floor.
The elevator rose up slowly and after just a couple of minutes it stopped and the doors opened. "Dr. Reid is right over there," the guard pointed at a desk where a young man with hair the color of his own was working.
Anthony began to walk towards the younger man who looked up the startlement clear in his expressive golden brown eyes, before his expression became neutral once more.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you, I'm Spencer," Reid introduced himself rising from behind his desk and extending his hand to be shaken.
"Anthony, but you can call me Tony," Anthony said shaking Reid's hand.
"If you'll follow me Hotch has offered to let us borrow his office so we can have some privacy," Reid said.
Anthony followed Spencer towards an office that was all the way across the bullpen and up a couple of steps until they reached an office door which Spencer knocked on and then entered.
Inside was a tall dark haired man sitting behind a desk working on a stack of paperwork. Tony stiffened as the man's scent hit his nostrils as he knew immediately that this man was also a werewolf.
The man rose from behind his desk as Spencer introduced him. "Tony, this is my mate Aaron Hotchner, Aaron this is Tony."
Tony relaxed and shook the other man's hand and said, "It's nice to meet you."
"You as well," Hotch said politely with a slight smile. "I'll leave you two to talk."
"Oh, I don't want to throw you out of your office," Tony protested.
"I could use a break from the endless paperwork," Hotch said with humor lacing his voice. "Take as much time as you need," Hotch added. "I'll be visiting Dave, until you're done."
Hotch walked swiftly towards his office door and left.
One say what alone, Tony said, "That was incredibly nice of him."
"Aaron is a nice guy," Spencer said gesturing to the sofa that was on one side of Hotch's office. "Why don't we sit down."
The two of them sat on opposite ends of the couch and just stared at each other for a moment.
"You know I was wondering if any of the relatives I just found out about they recently were going to respond to my letters," Spent began candidly, "as it has been six months after all. I realize however, that a lot of people would probably believe it was some sort of practical joke."
"That's exactly what I thought at first," Tony admitted, "although it seemed a little bit too elaborate for a practical joke, so I did my own research and looked you up on the internet."
Reid nodded as that made sense.
"I found quite a lot of information on you, mostly about all you've accomplished, although I was surprised to learn that you were member the FBI, the Behavioral Analysis Unit."
"So are a lot of people when they find out," Reid admitted with a little smile. "I know I don't seem the type at all to be a member of the FBI, especially as young as I am, but it's all I've ever really wanted. Jason Gideon recruited me, as he was at Caltech where I went to college, lecturing. He questioned my teachers, and learned that I'd been there since I was 13 and had several degrees, so he knew that I would be a great asset to the BAU. I might've wanted to be part of the BAU, but I still had to really think about it as I had my six brothers to think about, all who were underage at that time."
"I never knew your father," Anthony admitted. "I knew about him from my father who was one of your dad's older brothers, but my father never told me much about his brother and said that he was back in Las Vegas as far as he knew."
"I've been wondering over the last few months, ever since I found out that my father had a lot of brothers and sisters why his siblings never tried to stay in contact with him. Yes, I understood that even the youngest of them was 10 years older than he was, but they still could've tried to keep some form of contact. I never knew that my father had any siblings, because he never mentioned them except for one sister that disappeared."
"My father often talked about his youngest brother and how he thought about trying to track him down, but as far as I know he never did so," Anthony said.
"I'm pretty sure he didn't, for I can't see your father not contacting his brother and learning that he had a family not coming by and introducing himself at least, although I suppose my father could have forbid him to do so," Reid said. "Actually, that would have been exactly like my father since he could be very vindictive and I never even knew I had any aunts and uncles, except the one sister that I met when I was four."
"So you're just learning that you had other relatives," Tony said and Spencer nodded.
"Just within the last six months," Reid confirmed. "Keenan, the pack Alpha mentioned it after Aaron and I took in the eight children of Donna McCoy who was originally Donna Reid before she got married. Her father was another one of your dad's brothers by the name of Rick."
"So you took in eight werewolf pups," Tony said and Reid nodded.
"It's a bit crowded at my place, simply because the house was big enough to house me and my six brothers, but eight children is a bit much, but still we're managing so far. In fact Aaron and I were just discussing building on, so that there will be more room. There is no way I or Aaron could turn Keenan down and not take them in since technically, they are related to me and I was the only Reid that he knew how to contact. Besides, Aaron and I had told Keenan and the local pack Alpha Dolf to be on the lookout for a few werewolf pups that had lost their parents as we wanted to adopt them, since we both love children, but can't have any of our own, but we never expected to be taking in so many."
"So how did you manage to track down so many of your relative once the pack Alpha and Las Vegas told you your father had brothers and sisters you never knew about?" asked Anthony curiously. "I'm not saying it would have been impossible for you to do so, but it would have taken you months or even years to track down what happened to your father's siblings."
Reid grinned and said, "Most people don't have a secret weapon, but I did."
"What secret weapon?" asked Anthony curiously.
"Her name is Penelope Garcia, and she's the technical analyst for the BAU team and she's also one of the best computer hackers I've ever met and if she couldn't find anything on the relatives I had I guarantee you no one could, as it wouldn't have existed. I know my way around a computer system, but I'm not half as good, as she is and it would've taken me a lot longer to track down the information that she found for me, and I doubt very much that I would have found some of the stuff that she did."
"So you had this Penelope Garcia find the information for you," Anthony said and Reid nodded. "I'm going to have to meet this woman."
"I'll be happy to introduce you," Reid promised, "and to the rest of the team to if you like."
"I like that," Anthony said. "I also need to introduce you to my family."
"I would like that," Reid said. "Sure I know all your family names, from what Garcia dug up for me, but that's different from actually meeting them."
Anthony was one of the few that'd had 20 children, and that was only because he had found his mate in his early 20s and she was also a werewolf who tended not to have as much trouble giving birth or even carrying a pregnancy to term like a lot of humans did. This, of course, was not always true Donna, being a case in point, but still for the most part werewolf women gave birth easily.
"So I'm assuming the reason you're contacting me now is you have finished having me investigated," Reid told Anthony looked surprised, but then nodded.
"Don't be so surprised," Reid told Anthony with a slight smile. "Having a stranger investigated that claimed to be related to you, is what I would do if it was me. There are a lot of kooks in the world, after all and if there wasn't I, Aaron and the rest of the team would be out of jobs."
"Well," Anthony said with a smile coming to grace his lips. "You did surprise me, although I should have known that you would figure it out, since really it's the only logical conclusion. I knew that there were quite a lot of Reids out there, although they're not all necessarily related to our family, but when I got your letter I was shocked."
"I can well imagine," Reid said, so dryly that it took Anthony a moment to catch the humor in his tone and smile.
"Anyway, after I leave where the letter several times it also the information you sent me and I discussed it with my wife and we decided to have you investigated after I found all that information about you on the Internet. The investigator found out a lot more about you then I had on the net."
"Well, I'm glad you did," Reid said, "as I've been wanting to get to know some of the relatives I never knew I had until six months ago. I visited one old man named Garret Reid in a rest home that's in the Virginia area and also met some of my relatives that actually live close by, but not any of the ones that live in other cities until you showed up. I was beginning to feel that all my relatives I sent letters to had just thrown them out without reading the information they had or after they did thinking it was some kind of hoax or con. I'm glad I was wrong about that at least way you are concerned, as for the others we'll just have to wait and see if my letters have any impact, although I realize that they might not."
"Well, my wife and I decided that I would contact you once the investigator I hired finished looking into your background and that I could start the process of getting to know you."
"Which is going to be about a long and slow process since I'm so busy with my job and with the eight children that Aaron and I adopted, but that doesn't mean I don't want to do it it just that it won't be fast."
"Well, anything worth doing is worth doing thoroughly," Anthony said and Reid nodded in agreement. "We need to get to know each other and once we do we need to introduce each other to our families."
Reid nodded in agreement again. "My brothers are spread all over the country except for the two that decided to remain in the Virginia area, one is in San Francisco, two stayed in Philadelphia where they went to college and the last of them moved to Chicago. Two of them are mated and have pups of their own that were just born very recently."
"Well, that's really nice," Anthony said sincerely. "I would love to meet them, sometime."
"They want to meet you to and the other relatives they never knew they had until very recently, but that won't happen for awhile. Why don't you tell me some about your family?" Reid suggested changing the subject and Anthony nodded and complied.
It turned out that out of Anthony's 20 children about half of them were mated and he had numerous grandchildren, which Reid had known thanks to Garcia, however, he listened to Anthony tell him all about his numerous family from his perspective and realized that a personal viewpoint was different from just finding information on a computer. As Anthony talked it was clear that he was very proud of all of his children and doted on his grandchildren.
The two continued to chat for a few minutes and then Reid said, "Perhaps, you could come to dinner at my place or maybe a restaurant so we can talk some more."
"I would like that," Anthony said pleased at the invitation. The two men shook hands and exchanged phone numbers and agreed to contact each other as frequently as time allowed and after that we escorted Anthony to the elevator and wished him farewell after saying that he and Hotch would see him at dinner so long as the team didn't have to go out of town.
"So how did your meeting go," Hotch asked me as soon as Anthony was gone.
"Fine," Reid promised him with a smile. "The three of us are going to do dinner, either at a restaurant or at home tonight so long as we don't have to leave town for work."
"That sounds good," Hotch agreed. "I'm glad that someone finally showed up from your family. Perhaps, you can get to know Anthony better and through him the rest of his family."
"We promised to keep in touch and to introduce each other to our families," Reid said, "so yes, we will eventually get to that point."
Hotch nodded and watched as his mate headed back to his desk in the bullpen which also had the rest of the team that were curious to what the meeting had all been about.
Hotch watched with a slight smile as his mate fended off the team's curiosity, expertly and then headed back to his office to get restarted on the endless paperwork that the government seemed to require.
