SSAIC Aaron Hotchner was amazed at few of humanity's propensities, after all, he tended to stare into the darkest of human nature on a daily basis. It was, however, starkly refreshing to see the lighter side humanity had to offer.
For instance, it was almost flooring to see a grown man seem so happy over Jell-O. The contagion of it then infecting his son Jack into a giggle-fit over the jiggle-dance Reid made his red Jell-O perform was priceless. Reid truly was a magician, it seemed like.
Years ago, almost seven, when Reid had first joined the BAU under Gideon at the time, Hotch had gone with Reid to interview the victim of a young mother. Hotch had made the grueling mistake of letting Reid distract the woman's young son. That had been a glimpse of 'the Reid effect'. Not more than a sentence in, he had introduced himself as 'Dr. Reid' and the boy was bawling. He fumbled with a magic trick, and the boy apparently along with a classic fear of doctors had added insult to injury by being afraid of magicians and clowns.
Hotch recalled swooping in to fix it, reuniting the child with his mother after the darkest parts of the interview were over, and that look on Reid's face… the kicked puppy look as he asked, 'What did I do wrong?'
It was laughable, now. Seeing him here like this with Jack, it was remarkable how much the young man had grown. Though, to be fair, Reid always just had a knack for making an awkward vibe contagious to anyone outside of the BAU. That was, after all, 'the Reid effect'.
"Spencer, you shouldn't play with your food." Aaron smiled, he couldn't help but tease him a little. Much like whenever Reid would launch film-casings throughout the office he'd have to say something to at least pretend he wasn't just as amused as the others swarming Reid's desk.
Reid obediently bit into the spoonful before smiling back triumphantly. Once he was sure Aaron wasn't paying attention, he started moving the spoon so it looked like he was bending it to Jack's young eyes.
Jack gasped when he stopped and showed the spoon was just fine. "Woooow! Daddy did you know he's a magician?"
Aaron raised an eyebrow, "Of course." He approached Reid, "Spence it's time for your antibiotics if you're done playing."
"Never." Reid smirked, Aaron leaned in to kiss him gently before pulling back, he rubbed Jack's hair before picking him up.
"Come here, champ. Want to come with me to get something out of the kitchen?"
Jack nodded eagerly.
He was amazed at how pliable children were, every day Jack showed him just how great of a son he was. He had already adjusted to Spencer's presence after the first two weeks. Jessica even managed to adjust to that. At first it was broached as 'an injured colleague' but Jessica didn't have to be a profiler to realize exactly what that was really about. No, at first she was a bit distant, but she was adjusting. She knew it wasn't an affront to Haley, and as much as she hated to admit it- Spencer was damn good with Jack.
No, the hardest part was with the team. More specifically, when Morgan tried showing up to Reid's apartment only to hear that he hadn't come back yet. When Morgan pieced it together, Hotch was sure he was going to hear one of those father speeches that Haley's parents never gave him. The kind that starts with holding an ice-pick threateningly and mentioning just what would happen to him if he broke Morgan's little boy's heart. Of course, Spencer was anything but a little boy let alone MORGAN'S. But he respected the feeling, he was just as protective of Reid as Morgan if not more.
He filled a plastic glass with water and handed it to Jack, deposited on his shoulders, "Hold this for me, will you?"
Jack nodded happily, some of the water splashed onto Aaron's shoulder expectedly. He used his hands to quickly unlock the child safety cap before pulling out two horse-pills of Vancomycin. He recapped the bottle before putting it on the opposite edge of the sink, well out of reach of Jack. He hoped that this would give Spencer enough time to finish his Jell-O, after all… Vancomycin wasn't sensitive to the stomach and Reid really did have a limited diet at the moment.
Those limits included liquids, gels, and highly processed foods like purees. Reid had said off-handedly that he didn't want the others to see him eat until he was off of baby-food. He had no idea where the weight was coming off of Spencer, but Aaron had seen how dismayed the brunette had been when exiting the bathroom exclaiming he had lost five pounds.
Aaron, Jack adorning his shoulders, reentered the living room where Spencer was parked on the couch. He was leaning over slightly, and looked up to spot Aaron before straightening back into the sofa.
"Here you go." Aaron didn't comment to ask if Spencer was uncomfortable. He knew all to well that he was. After being stabbed several times in the abdomen he was acutely aware of just how hard it was to get comfortable and stay that way. Particularly when it felt like there was a hole burrowed inside. He never really described the ordeal in any great details, but he saw the same antsy shifting in Spencer and doubted his assertions were incorrect. "Want another pillow?"
"No, I'm good." Spencer smiled, "Wouldn't mind a hand up though." Obediently he tongued the pills and swallowed them with the help of the glass of water. Aaron extended one hand and pulled Spencer up in one smooth motion. "Thanks."
"Where are you headed to?" Aaron raised his brow.
Spencer merely eyebrow-shrugged toward the bathroom, "The lavatory."
"Daddy what's a lavatory…?"
In a crawl of a saunter, Reid headed to the bathroom, arm trailing the walls to keep balance, and Aaron just hoped Spencer wasn't about to lose his lunch. "It's another word for bathroom." He took Jack off his shoulders before picking the dishes up and returning to the kitchen.
"Oh." Jack spun his arms around before looking back at his dad. "Can we watch a movie?"
"Sure, which one do you want to watch?" Aaron made his way to the DVD case, keeping his mind on the time and how long Reid was taking in the bathroom.
"How about Aladdin," Spencer suggested, "Do you know about Aladdin, Jack? He had a magic genie who helped him woo a princess."
Jack smiled eagerly, "Yeah that one, that one!"
Aaron rolled his eyes and shook his head, where DID the Reid effect go? "Aladdin it is."
"Aaron, why don't you come with me to make some popcorn?" Reid suggested once Aaron had deposited the DVD into the drive, the TV now showing opening previews of other animated blockbusters.
"Alright…" The two headed to the kitchen, Reid with a bit of a head-start was much slower moving than Aaron though.
Once inside the kitchen, Spencer put both his hands on the sides of Aaron's face pulling him in for a fierce kiss before he opened one of the cupboards and reached for the popcorn on the bottom shelf. Aaron wrapped his arms around Spencer's waist protectively as he snuggled into the crook of Spencer's neck and planted a wet kiss.
"Morgan called, he was wondering how I'm doing and all. Do you think it would be okay if I went into work tomorrow to pick up some files or something? You know, proof of life for the others? I promise it'll be a half-day at longest…"
Aaron paused in his assault on Reid's neck to contemplate, "It would have to be, you're not really clear to drive. I can drive you in, in the morning, and then for lunch take you back, but I have a condition."
Reid nodded, "And what's that?"
"No actual working. You can check in with the others, but you're on leave for more than physical reasons. Technically you're supposed to wait to clear your psych eval before you can even start on desk work."
"Fair enough, leaving before lunch would be perfect… I don't want them trying to force-feed me…" He cringed, just thinking of his stomach stretching made him ache, "And I really don't want them seeing what I'm reduced to eating. Ugh, this is horrible."
Aaron resumed planting soft kisses on Spencer, "Understandably." He opened the microwave, taking one arm away from Spencer, his right arm still draping his hips.
Spencer slid the bag of popcorn into the microwave and hit 230 before Aaron closed the door and Spencer hit start. "Did you know that the average bag of popcorn has…"
"Reid…"
"What…?" Spencer turned to look at Aaron expecting him to say, 'Stop' but was pleasantly surprised when his lips were met by Aaron's instead. That was probably the best way of being told to shut up he'd ever received.
TBC.