Chapter 10

BAU Headquarters
Washington DC

That night Spencer went home and went straight to bed, exhausted. It wasn't until he stopped to shave the next morning that it hit him as he stared in the mirror. Not human, he thought. Not human. Not human.

Denial is a protective mechanism. Spencer decided to stop thinking about it and go get breakfast.

As it turned out William Reid was sitting in protective custody waiting to be deported. Since no one from Earth was willing to fight for him he was kind of stuck. A sticking that became stronger the moment the BAU reported that there might have been a third person on that ship.

The BAU was not going to be investigating it though. "Too close. Too personal." Emily said. "The Director is going to put another team on it along with the DIA. They'll let us know what they find."

"Thank you." Spencer replied. "I'd like to know for Mom's sake. It sounds like they were close."

"Of course. And they contacted the embassy on Governors Island. They said that they need to confirm identity before anything else. They want a blood sample from each of you and a passport photo from you and they said it would take about a week."

"All right."

"Penelope can take the picture and the CODIS lab said they would draw the sample for you."

At least that got a laugh.


William Reid was not good at standing up to interrogation. Three days later they were in the conference room looking at the skeletal remains of a body buried in the desert. "They're not getting the embassy involved just yet." Emily said. "These things take time."

"Did he say what happened?" Spencer asked

"They were fighting over what to do next. She was holding on to the gold. Her weapon wasn't working. He found a gun at the shelter. They fought. It wasn't complicated."

"I don't want to tell Mom until it's confirmed."

"Fair enough. You okay?"

"I think I always suspected he was guilty of something. I thought it was Gary Michaels. I guess I wasn't that wrong."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. He was never my father anyway."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Do we have a case pending?" Spencer really wanted everything to be normal for a while.

"I'll see what we have."

"Thanks."


They were away for four days on the case, this one notable for not being notable. When they came back Penelope met them in the elevator lobby and followed them in "Okay, you you remember applying for college when a skinny envelope meant rejection and a big envelope meant you got it?"

"Yeah?" Luke said. "Why?"

There were three big envelopes on Spencer's desk.

"Is that what I think it is?" JJ asked.

Spencer picked the first one up to look. It was heavier than it should have been. The front was plain and white, with a standard address label sent to Dr. Spencer Reid care of the FBI. The return address was a PO box on Governors Island, New York. On the back was a logo featuring a purple dragon, and a title in two forms of script. The English version said that it was from The Royal Government of Quadris. The not English one looked more than a little familiar.

Spencer swore he could hear his heart beating.

It was true.

It was real.

The rest of the team had been looking at the other two envelopes and over his shoulder. "Holy crap." Emily said.

"No shit." Matt replied.

"Open it Spence." JJ said.

"This script looks familiar." He said, touching the other writing on the envelope.

"Where have you seen it before?"

"I'm not sure." Spencer pulled the first envelope open. It contained a thick sheaf of paper, a thumb drive, a something hard in a cover and….a passport. "Did you know that passports only come in four base colors." He said. "Red, blue, green and black. White is reserved for temporary passports with special uses."

Emily took this one from his hand. This one was a pale, shimmery gray with the same purple dragon crest on the front. On the inside it looked more or less like every other passport, this one printed in English, French and that other script. And that was indeed his picture. "Read the letter." She said.

There was indeed a cover letter, on letterhead. Apparently they adapted quickly. "Dear Dr. Reid". Spencer read. "Thank you for contacting us. Our tests indicated that you are indeed the son of Lord Alrick Garron and Lady Dinana Garron. As such you are entitled to Quadraninan citizenship." His head was swimming. He passed the letter off to Emily. "You read."

Emily skimmed it over quickly. "So they sent you a passport for here, also an IGFP passport."

Penelope looked at the thing in the other case. It was a piece of metal, a little larger than a dollar bill, engraved in interesting ways, with a small square of some sort of black material embedded in it. "I bet this is it." She said.

"While travel on the planet Earth is still being negotiated your IGFP passport allows you to reside on any IGFP world, colony or station for up to fourteen standard day cycles without announcing your presence and beginning the visa process." Emily read. "Please note that the planet Eridniani and all ships, stations and colonies flagged under the Eridniani Protectorate are off limits to all members of the Quadranian Nobility at this time."

"Does that really matter?" JJ asked.

"It might include any embassies here on Earth." Emily replied.

"Good point."

Emily kept skimming. "Apparently they offer universal medical. They have a clinic up in New York if you need it or will send someone in an emergency."

"Keep that number." Dave said. "Knowing him."

"No kidding. They also offer a basic living stipend to all citizens and another one to members of the Nobility. They will be deposited in an account in the Royal Avalonian Banking System and you can access it from any RAB terminal."

"Somehow I don't think they're on the ATM network yet." Luke said.

"You also have the right to vote. A ballot will be sent to you. They sent you a video civics course in the format used on this planet that should be playable from any terminal. They also sent some basic cultural information."

"We might need to do a movie night on that one." Penelope said.

"Dry movie night." Dave replied.

"Yeah, but aliens!"

Emily quickly went over the rest of it. "This is all administrative stuff." She said. "Basically you have dual citizenship."

"Good to know." He said. This still didn't have to change anything. He could stick it all in his safety deposit box and forget it there. It wasn't like he was leaving the planet. "What about the next one?"

Emily opened it. It was also a bundle, with a sheet of metal and a passport. JJ opened it and grinned. "Oh my god Spence." She turned it so everyone could see.

Spencer leaned in to look and had to grin. They must have had a copy of his mother's passport on file and re-printed it. She was about twenty in that picture. "I don't think I have any pictures of her that young."

Emily skimmed back over. "It says her banking accounts are still active…same travel restrictions…they found her old medical records."

"There you go." Dave said.

"E-mail them and they will send a doctor to her to do an eval."

Spencer let out a deep breath. The one thing he wanted from all of this was help for his Mom. Hopefully they could do something and then he could put it all behind him.

JJ opened the third one and started reading. "Oh." She said.

"What is it?" Spencer asked.

"Your father. He's listing as missing, presumed killed."

"That's why he never came for you." Dave said.

"They haven't identified his body but they're currently working on three mass grave sites and they believe they'll find him there. I'm sorry Spence." JJ said. She turned a page and stopped. "Oh my god."

"What is it?" Spencer moved to look at the paper she was holding.

It was a picture of him.

No, it wasn't. It was an ID picture of someone who looked a lot like him, someone who wore an unusual tunic and his hair shaggy and glasses. In the next picture the same person was wearing a military uniform.

"At least now you know." Matt said.

"Yeah." Spencer wasn't sure how to process this. It was a lot better than William, at least there was that.

JJ kept reading. "They say he left his estate to your Mom, contact them to settle it, it's been long enough. Oh, they're having his papers translated and are sending them and the recordings of his lectures for you."

"Oh." Well, now there was something. Spencer found that he very much wanted to see those. You could tell so much about how someone thought from their work. "That's…that's good. I'll have to thank them somehow."

"You know you have to go tell your Mom now." Emily said. "But you don't have to tell her alone."