Reid enters the bullpen early for his first day officially back at work. He feels uneasy. It's Valentine's day and as expected when he gets to his desk there on top on his in tray is the customary brightly coloured envelope decorated with sparkly bits and glitter, 'Spencer' emblazoned on the front in deep purple ink.

"Wow," Emily gasps seeing him handling the envelope with all the care and attention of a bomb disposal expert, "that's something."

Reid nods, smiles but remains silent.

"You've got one too." Derek comes up behind her, very closely so his voice is in her ear.

"What?" she jumps.

Laughing Morgan holds up his own decorated envelope, different to Reid's, but still identifiable as from the same person.

"Under your purse" Reid offers politely.

Emily rifles under where she'd dumped her things and pulls out a yellow envelope. Glitter and sparkles covering the front, her name written in cursive with the same purple pen.

"Oooh, Garcia." The answer dawns on her finally.

"Baby girl went all out this year." Morgan grins.

"Sure did my little chickadees," Penelope smiles her way into the bullpen making her way over to Reid with impressive speed.

He sees her coming, knows what's about to happen and braces himself.

"Thanks Garcia, it's-" he doesn't get to finish, the rest of his sentence is pushed out of him in a gush of air as she practical picks him up out of his chair and hugs him.

"Welcome back! We've missed you sooo much."

He loves Garcia, truly, but can't help but notice there's been a definate shift in their relationship since recent events. She was the first member of the team, outside of Hotch and Gideon of course, to learn about his mother and she surprised him by not only keeping his secret, but also not forcing him to talk about it. It was after that case Reid realised there's something uniquely calming about talking to Penelope. He sensed she understood him in ways others simply couldn't. Like during the Nathan Harris case. After confessing to once feeling the same denial as Mrs Harris over his mom's condition she'd kissed her fingers and placed them to his forehead, a very maternal yet subtle gesture. He'd appreciated it because he sensed what she had really wanted to do in that moment was grab him and hug him and plant that kiss on him herself, but held back because she knew he wouldn't want that. Her quiet acceptance of him, of his fears, is what encouraged him to go against his instincts and open up, be willing to share more of himself with her in the future.

There is no such restraint happening now though. Last week when she along with Emily met him outside the hospital Garcia had grabbed him, sobbing, which made him cry too, but then he couldn't blame that on her, he cried a lot that night. Garcia's always been more demonstrative than most people, but since then, since his kidnapping she's been extra handsy, like an aunt at a family reunion. Only the reunion is dragging on, looking to never end. He doesn't mind it. Much. He just has to remember not to instinctively flinch away everytime she's in reaching distance, but then he only tends to do that when strangers try to touch him and Penelope definitely isn't a stranger. Neither is Hotch or Gideon, Morgan or JJ for that matter. In fact the FBI shrink he's seeing to get his clearance back for field work has suggested he try and take something positive from his kidnapping experience, so Reid has decided to take that. He's learning to except hugs from friends. Whoo. Unfortunately Garcia had so far taken that acceptance to mean each and every time she sets eyes on him, which since the entire team are grounded still is happening a lot, though Morgan assures him it will only last until things go back to normal, meaning work, cases and of course - time.

"Hey baby girl let our boy breath." Morgan laughs and pulls her away.

Hearing the words 'our boy' has Reid hitching a breath. Tobias' father had kept calling him 'boy'. Each and every time he hears Spence or Pretty boy or kid out of one of his friends mouths now he finds himself analysing the meaning, wondering how and when the names he was so used to at school changed from freak and braincase and geek to terms of affection instead of aversion. By having his mind opened to see this now seems like an especially cruel joke. Whereas before Tobias he'd been aware that his team accepted him, liked him even despite his oddities, he still kept them at arms length, afraid if he let the immature, less developed side of his personality show then maybe being a genius wouldn't be enough for them to want to keep him around. Now it's like his own mind is trying to hurt him, make him see what he's soon going to lose, make him feel the pain of that loss so clearly it'll destroy him even before they discover the truth.

"Reid?" Emily's concerned voice breaks through his thoughts.

He looks up quizzically.

"You alright there kid?" Morgan's crouched beside him, trying to look none conspicuous and not draw attention despite the odd position.

Reid blinks, he doesn't know when that happened. "I'm fine."

"You zoned out, like you couldn't hear us." Emily points out.

That's the thing about profilers, they miss nothing and when they know they're onto something, like a dog with a bone they're unwilling to let go until they have their answers. Privacy and secrets are foreign concepts in the BAU, no matter what anyone claims.

"I'm sorry." He says honestly. It's all he can think to say. "What were you saying?"

"Hotch wants us all in the conference room." JJ announces walking above them on the gangway, not noticing what she's interrupted.

"Well I was saying how great it is to get our boy genius back." Garcia gushes. "But I guess celebrations will have to wait."

Reid swallows in relief, partly because finally he isn't the main focus of attention and a case means it'll hopefully remain that way for a while.

.

"You think he's ready?" Hotch asks Gideon, watching the team from the briefing room windows.

Getting no instant response Hotch turns and looks around to find Gideon staring at a folder.

"What?"

"Reid, I'm worried it's too soon for him." Hotch steps away when he sees the team making their way up the stairs. "Morgan called last night, said he had another absence seizure."

Reid hadn't put up much of fight over Morgan staying with him for a few days. That alone worried Hotch, but when he visited his apartment Monday evening he hadn't expected to be told Reid had experienced a seizure. Not the same as the one he suffered in the shed, the one a result of being knocked to the floor which lead to cardiac arrest. This seizure was apparently normal for someone with a minor head injury like Reid's. He'd not seen the live version like Gideon, only on the recording they'd taken from Hankel's computer, the one only Hotch had watched in full after Garcia burned it to disk for him, before loading the original into a sealed and locked file only ever to be accessible by her or himself from the FBI's main database down in the basement.

"He'll be fine. Getting back to work is what Reid needs."

"Jason, putting asside any emotional issues, he suffered a serious head injury a week ago and is still suffering symptoms." Hotch can't quite believe what he's hearing.

"I thought the hospital said he was fine?" Gideon voice strained, finally takes his gaze away from the folder.

"They said he was lucky-"

"And these seizures, they're normal for someone with a head trauma likes Reid's?"

Hotch huffs, eyes rolling, "Yes, but -"

"Look," Gideon smiles, lips thinning into a curl, "It's mid-week, assuming he's cleared for field work soon we won't be back out on cases until Monday at the earliest, that's enough to time to get settled back in." Gideon dismisses, completely ignoring his point.

"And if he's not ready?" Hotch pins him with a hard glare.

"He will be." Gideon nods, keeping the smile, turning his full attention back to the open file.

Hotch opens his mouth to refute, something he should have done before they got to this stage, but the team walks in and though they're not in the field yet it doesn't stop them consulting on cases, so as soon as seats are taken it's back work as usual. Watching Spencer shyly take his, the others trying but failing not to make it obvious their worried about him, Hotch just hopes Gideon's right. For everyone's sake.