A/N – yes, this story ends in a half-sentence. I've written these two pages over a year ago and I have no idea what I wanted to say next.
It's one of those team nights that Gideon never takes part in. Dinner and movies. Usually a comedy, because it can't be too scary (unsubs are for work, Garcia said), nor too romantic or girl-centered (the men would be bored). And for a nice night out, a tragedy simply isn't the solution.
Some nights, though, they just sit and talk, or play board games. Sometimes they play silly games, like truth or dare. Tonight is one without a movie. They just talk and discuss anything that isn't unsub.
Reid is still a little awkward and tends to ramble, but it's gotten better in the eleven months he's been with the team. Currently, they are discussing ethics. It revolved around alcohol and blame, mostly. If a parent is addicted to alcohol and abuses a child when drunk, what should happen after the parent stops drinking?
Reid's statement, that if the child wants to go back or stay, he or she should be able to, hints at something else.
"Reid – were you –" Hotch asks softly. He was sitting next to Reid, and his voice is low enough to avoid overhearing.
Reid frowns, and when it dawns on him what Hotch means, he shakes his head. "No, why do you think that?"
It's genuine enough, but Hotch has doubts. "You sounded as though you spoke from experience," Hotch elaborates, the question still slightly present in his voice.
Reid gives Hotch a penetrating look. "I may have gone to high school at ten, but my childhood wasn't that much different from yours."
And to everyone else, it would have been an assurance. To everyone but Hotch.
Because Hotch's childhood.. it wasn't exactly something he would wish on anyone.
To Hotch, it was a damnation.
Hotch doesn't tell anyone about what Reid had said, not even to Reid himself. This is mostly because he doesn't see what good it would do, and because he knows Reid wouldn't want him to. Surprisingly enough, it doesn't really matter to him that talking to Reid about it would mean admitting he's also been abused as a child.
But the way Reid had practically said 'if you're not abused, nor am I' was also interesting. Reid was drawing parallels. Hotch was pretty sure Reid also meant: I don't want to talk about it, nor do you. I'm over it, so are you. I don't want to publicly acknowledge I have been abused, nor do you.
Hotch also recognizes Reid's words as a challenge. Because Hotch could have interpreted them in three ways: 1) Reid was lying, had been abused, and thought Hotch wasn't; 2) Reid wasn't abused and thought Hotch wasn't abused, either; or 3) Reid was abused and also recognized that Hotch had been abused.
His respect for Reid went up a notch. Because Haley didn't know. Gideon didn't know. And the others didn't, either. Dave Rossi knew, although he'd never acknowledged it.
And Reid knew.
There were instances when Hotch could have talked to Reid about it. After the ER in Des Plaines, when Hotch had kicked the crap out of Reid and Reid said that Hotch kicked like a nine-year-old girl. The Fisher King case was another one. That one actually gave Hotch a major clue. He'd always assumed Reid's father had been the abuser. Now he suspected it might have been Reid's mentally ill mother.
During the case with the bank robber who made people strip, Reid gave Hotch a look full of understanding now and then. It wasn't pity, just silent acknowledgement. Near the end of the case, Hotch nodded back once.
They didn't speak of it, but that wasn't necessary.
Hankel came and went, and "I knew you'd understand" meant more to Hotch than to the other team members.
After Chester Hardwick, on the way back,