Lots of drama in this chapter, and a bit of harsh language.

Chapter Nine

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The next day was bright and clear - not at all the type of day where one expects their life to completely derail in a train wreck.

The team was getting ready to leave, but taking their time about it. Morgan and J.J. had just returned from an early morning run in nearby Denny Park and an agitated Rossi spotted Blake in the hotel's café enjoying a coffee and doing a crossword in the paper when he went looking for Spencer.

"Morning, Blake. Have you seen Reid?"

"I think he went back to his room to finish his packing."

"Thanks. Hey, is everything okay with him this morning?"

Alex looked up, puzzled. "Sure, I think so. Why?"

"No reason."

"Morgan said Reid was upset last night. Is it about Maeve?"

"Something like that," Rossi said. Blake looked sympathetic, and for half a second Rossi thought about confiding in her. He would have liked to talk about this with someone who wasn't torn between being both friend and team leader, but more importantly, she would be someone for Reid himself to open up to. Blake didn't baby him as much as the rest of the team, but Rossi knew she and Reid were good friends. Remembering their conversation about Gideon, Rossi pondered for a moment that Blake and Spencer's friendship was in some ways similar to what Reid had had with his mentor: intellectual, but close for all that. But in the end, he couldn't. He had promised Reid that telling the team was his call, and Dave was not about to go back on his word and risk either their currently precarious relationship or the team. "Look, I'll talk to you later," he told Blake. "I'm going to track him down."

"All right. Let me know how it goes."

"Yeah…"

Ironic how things could turn out sometimes.

-x-

Rossi got to Reid's room just as the other man was about to leave.

"Uh… good morning," Reid greeted him quietly, eyes not meeting his.

"Can I come in?"

Reid nodded hesitantly and moved out of Dave's way, putting down his go-bag on a chair.

"Can we talk about last night?" Dave asked.

"I'd rather not."

"I know it must be hard for you, knowing that you'll never meet your mother - "

"Hard?" Reid demanded, suddenly angry. He started pacing. "You think it's just hard? It's devastating, even crushing! Once again I've lost someone who might have loved me before I even had the opportunity to get to know them. Not to mention my brain thrives on information, and now there's a huge, gaping chasm that's part of my very own life," he cried, poking a finger sharply into his chest, "And it will never, ever be filled! And when I think that I only missed my chance by a few measly years… It eats at me! It's been gnawing away at me every damn night and day since I found out!"

Dave didn't stop to think - when he took in his son's glittering eyes and hoarse, wobbling voice, he reached out and embraced his son in powerful bear hug. But when a startled Spencer tried to pull away, Dave made a huge mistake. Whether it was frustration or rejection or yet another reminder that his son was different from how he might have raised him, or even simply his own grief at realizing he would never get to share any of this with Carolyn, something snapped inside and he swore. "Goddamnit, Reid! Why in the name of Christ are you so fucking skittish all the time?"

Reid's eyes went wide and he stepped back. Staring at the way his son was gaping at him, as if he'd suddenly slapped the kid, the true horror of what he'd done made his stomach drop like he'd gulped down a lead bowling ball. "Shit, shit. Reid, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" he apologized frantically.

Reid swallowed hard and pointed to the door. "Could you please leave now? I'd like to be alone for a few minutes before the team has to leave."

"Please, Spencer, I didn't mean to make it sound like - "

"Please go," Reid ordered and pointed again.

"I am sorry," Dave pleaded.

Reid didn't say anything and so Rossi reluctantly left. He went to Hotch's room and knocked on the door. When the other man opened it, Rossi simply said, "Aaron, I screwed up bad."

-x-

"It doesn't sound that awful," Hotch said, handing his friend a coffee made from the room's coffee-maker.

"Aaron, you don't get it. He's so sensitive right now, especially to any thought that he might be a disappointment to me. And our words," Dave shook his head. "I can't explain. They have so much more behind them now. We've been dancing around each other for weeks, picking apart each one, weighing them, examining them, trying to guess what they really mean." He scrubbed his face tiredly with his hands. "Jesus, this… I think I just knocked us right back to the beginning with this, if not further."

"I don't know what to tell you, Dave. All I can say is that learning how to get past a disagreement with your child is part of being a parent. If you really want this, stick with it. Being a father is as much about persistence as it is about anything else."

Dave snorted. "Thanks for the pep talk."

Hotch shrugged. "What can I say? Words don't do a lot of good in situations like these."

"I'm sorry, Aaron. I really am very grateful. And what you said makes a lot of sense."

"But thinking about what you have to do next sounds like an uphill slog and you're not looking forward to it."

"You got that right."

Aaron smiled. "Welcome to fatherhood."

-x-

Normally the team flew out of the smaller King County International at Boeing Field when leaving Washington state, but today there was some sort of problem and so they were leaving from Seattle-Tacoma International, and that meant a slight delay as air traffic was heavier at the bigger airport. Hotch gave them some free time to stretch their legs and poke around the gift shops before they left, and Morgan caught up to Reid at the food court area.

"Good book?" he asked his younger colleague who was deep into what looked like a textbook on evolution.

"Very," Reid said, not looking up, but it wasn't with his normal too-engrossed-to-pay-attention expression.

"So… how you doing this morning?"

Reid glanced at him suspiciously. "Fine. Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

"Uh huh."

"No need to sound sceptical, Kid. I was just wondering, well, the Bureau is playing some guys from NCIS in a baseball game and - "

"No," Reid said curtly, and pointedly went back to his reading.

Morgan was surprised; after the home run the kid had hit last time, he hadn't expected Reid to turn down the offer, and certainly not so unequivocally . But hey, he was a smooth-talker, and you don't get people on your side by giving up, so he tried again.

"C'mon Reid, you know you want to."

"I am actually incredibly and positively certain that I don't."

"Now, you know if you don't agree, I'll have to get Baby Girl involved."

Reid's head snapped up. "And she'll do exactly what?" he demanded sharply.

Morgan blinked, a little nonplussed; this was definitely not going the way he'd thought it would. "Well, she might have to talk to little Henry…" Derek left it hanging there, so that the genius could fill in the blanks.

"Excuse me? Did I hear you just threaten to manipulate my godson in your efforts to bulldoze me?"

For all that the team made fun of Reid's occasional burst of temper - Garcia compared it to a puppy nipping at your ankles - a truly angry Reid was actually much more impressive. Perhaps it was the intense concentration of that monumental I.Q. coming to bear behind his eyes, but a startled Morgan actually found himself a bit thrown off his game. "What? Wait, no!"

"Leave me alone, Morgan. I don't want to play in some ridiculous baseball game."

He should have left it, but the older profiler didn't want to admit defeat. "Reid, Reid, Reid, you know I'm not going to take no for an answer - "

"Yes, you goddamned well are, Morgan," Reid barked, not only swearing but interrupting. "Because that's the only answer you're going to get! And thinking otherwise is not only disrespectful, it's demeaning! Quite frankly, I am sick of this team just presuming they can get me to do whatever they want if they harass me long enough or tell me I haven't got a say in my own life. Now, I've said no and that's the end of it!"

"Man, what is your problem this morning?"

"To give a specific answer, I would need more precise time parameters, but right now it's you."

"I only asked if you wanted to play baseball, I'm not mugging you for your internal organs. So what's the big deal?"

"You did not ask. Asking implies actually listening to, and then respecting, the answer."

"Geez, Kid! Seriously, what's got your shorts in a bunch? You know you had fun the last time."

"Jesus, Morgan, what kind of profiler are you? I did NOT have fun. It brought back a lot of bad memories. And yes, while I felt some euphoria and relief when I hit that ball because I was happy I didn't end up looking like a total failure in front of the entire team yet again, not to mention Will and Henry - and oh, by the way, thank you ever so much for inviting them; tell me, did it even occur to you for a second how badly I would have felt if I hadn't hit that damn run - but whatever little pleasure I got out of it - and it was little - was subsequently coloured by the fact that not only was the person I most wanted to know about it killed before I could tell her, the entire team was at that moment being stalked the Replicator."

"You can't blame that on me!"

Reid threw down his book, got to his feet and leaned across the table to yell at Morgan. "No, but I can blame you for this whole attitude of getting me to do things because 'it would be good for me'. Who the HELL are you to know what's good for me?" he spat out. "Am I a child? Are you going to keep me dessert away from me until I finish my vegetables next? Or is it that you're trying to teach me to fit in and conform with 'normal' people?"

Morgan jumped to his feet as well, pissed off now. "No, I just thought I'd try and teach you how to have a little fun! Looks like I was wasting my time!"

"Oh, so you're saving me now, is that it?" Reid sneered. "Attack of the Extrovert Ideal once more! Well, I thank you ever so much for making me your charity case. It's not arrogant and small-minded of you at all to assume that all the things I do, I only do because I don't know any better, and I'm just waiting around for someone to show me the right things to do to pass the time."

"No, it's just that your things are - "

"What, boring? Stuffy? You know, just because - much like a small child - you need constant external stimuli due to an inability to entertain yourself, doesn't mean that's true of everyone! I happen to think that a person can be more than acceptable as a human being without having to hit a ball with a stick!" With that, Reid scooped up his book and started to stalk off, but Morgan grabbed him by the arm.

"Hey, Reid - " was as far as he got before Reid roughly pulled away from him.

"Why does everyone on this damn team think they get to push me around? If I don't want to do something, I don't have to do it, and is it such an unthinkable crime to expect people to respect that?"

Stunned by the hurt and rage in his friend's voice, Morgan watched him walk away.

"What was that all about?"

Morgan turned to see J.J., Blake and Rossi standing there (as well as a good-sized crowd of strangers). J.J. was the one who had asked the question, but it was Dave that Morgan confronted.

"You tell us, Rossi."

"Why are you asking me?"

"He might have wigged out on me, but he was already upset about something. And he was upset when I saw him leaving your room last night."

"You know, Reid's right," Rossi told Morgan. "Maybe you are a little too fond of this whole big brother act you've got going."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Morgan asked.

Rossi couldn't help himself; he knew what the problem was and that it had nothing to do with Morgan, but the pain and fury and guilt over not being able to protect Reid when he was younger goaded him on in the face of Derek's implied accusations. "Perhaps it means that he's getting a little ticked off at being ordered around like he's some five-year-old tag-along whose big brother is forcing him to go along with his latest scheme. So what's the story, Morgan? Do you get off on playing the saviour or does it just make up for feeling inferior to his brain?"

"HEY, don't put this on me!"

"Why not? I'm not the one he blew up at!"

"No, you're just the one who had him crying in your room and now he's saying things like we 'push him around' and 'if I don't want to do something, I don't have to do it'. So what's the story there, Rossi?"

Rossi didn't bother asking what Morgan was suggesting - he could read it from Morgan's tone. Lunging for the younger man, he threw the first punch and took Morgan right on the cheekbone. Before either knew what was happening, they were locked in a brawl. Rossi was vaguely aware of J.J and Blake trying to pull them apart and angrily demanding they stop, and he caught airport security racing towards them from off to his left, but he didn't care. All the pent up emotions he'd endured over the last two months - hell, over the last thirty-two years - were erupting and he was helpless against the onslaught.

Suddenly Hotch was there. "Dave! Dave, for God's sake, get the hell off of him!" the man bellowed as he yanked Rossi off their co-worker. Security had Morgan, but when Hotch flashed his badge they decided to wait and see how the chief Fed handled his people.

Hotch didn't even bother asking for an explanation. He nodded to the security guards to let Morgan go and told J.J. and Blake to take him somewhere till everyone cooled down. The next thing Rossi knew, he was being dragged off towards the bathrooms so Hotch could clean him up. It was there, while he was putting some wet paper towels on his emerging shiner, that Hotch's phone rang.

"What is it, Reid?"

Dave was immediately alert, but he could only hear one half of the conversation.

"What?" he heard Aaron ask. Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay. Look, I'll be there in a minute. I know, I know. Yeah, it's okay." Hotch hung up.

"What's going on?"

"Reid just got a call from his Dad - uh, his other Dad."

"I know who William Reid is, Aaron. What's happened?"

Hotch sighed wearily. "Someone at Hughes, McCauley and Broadbent has leaked your story to the news media."

"Damnit!"

"Yeah. Anyway, the story is supposed to come out tomorrow. Hughes is trying to stop them by threatening legal action over privileged information and client confidentiality, but the media doesn't want to give up the story."

"Are you kidding? It's a barely a human interest piece! Who's going to risk a lawsuit for that?"

"Well, apparently it involves the relatively famous David Rossi - "

"Fuck."

"And the FBI, so that makes it more of a lucrative ratings draw."

"Of course." Rossi whipped out his phone. "Look, I'll call Amanda."

"What's your editor going to do?"

"I've got contacts in the publishing world and they've got contacts with every wanna-be-writer in the media world, maybe they can do something. At the very least, my publishers aren't going to want any publicity for me that they aren't in control of."

"Meanwhile, first things first. We have to go talk to Reid, and we have to hurry. He's buying a ticket for the first flight to Vegas right now."

"Vegas?"

"His father thinks he should come down so that they can talk to Diana together before she hears the story on the news. Reid's terrified that all of this is just going to reinforce her delusions and set her back after all her recent progress."

"Shit! Just gets better and better, doesn't it? Right, let's go find the kid!"

Hotch grabbed his arm and held him back for a minute. "Dave, we should tell the team."

"Aaron, no! I promised him!"

"Dave, even if you keep the story from breaking, this is affecting us as a group now."

"Give me till tonight, Aaron. If I can't get it done, we'll call the team in early tomorrow and I'll explain everything."

"Dave…"

"Christ, Aaron, you were the one who told me to stick with it! Are you really going to screw up my chances with Spencer now?"

"We've got a job to do, Dave. I'm not going to let this get in the way or break us apart from within."

"No, but only telling half the team Emily was alive falls in the safety range of secrets, I guess."

"That was different - "

"Save it! I've got to go talk to my son."

-x-

They found Reid at Concourse B, at the gate for Southwest Airlines. He was already in line to board and was talking on the phone.

"How could you let this happen?"

Rossi came up to him. "Spencer?"

"I don't care how reputable Karen's firm is. Obviously it wasn't reputable enough," Reid said, still speaking to whoever was on the phone.

"Spencer, talk to us," Rossi repeated, reaching out to grab the man's arm, but pulling back at Reid's glare.

"Look, just pick me up at the airport. I'll be there in a couple of hours." Reid hung up. "Don't bother me, Rossi," he said to Dave. "This is not a good time."

"Listen to me, I'll fix this somehow."

"Do whatever the hell you want," Reid said, moving forward with the line. "I've got to think of my Mom right now."

"I know. But wait for me to call first, all right? Maybe you won't need to tell her."

Reid's shoulders slumped; it had been a long time since Rossi had seen the kid so defeated looking. "I've got to tell her. Get it stopped, don't get it stopped, I can't keep worrying she's going to stumble onto it sometime before I can talk to her." He handed the woman at the counter his ticket and went through the gate.

Rossi raised his voice to be heard over the chattering of the other passengers. "I'll do this for you, I promise!" he called out to Reid.

Reid stopped and looked back while people filed around him, annoyed. "Dave, it doesn't matter."

"It does. I know you have to tell your Mom, but neither of us needs the rest of the world poking their big, fat noses in." A collection of little old ladies in t-shirts advertising Bellagio's casino shot him a glare. "Do I look like I'm talking to you, Mrs. Kravitz?" he asked the one woman, who did indeed look a lot like the nosy neighbour on Bewitched.

"Hmph!"

"And a good day to you, ma'am. Don't spend all your chips at the bar." He turned to Reid again. "I told you that you'd call the shots, and I meant it. I'll do everything in my power to make sure that happens."

Reid said nothing, only nodded sadly as if he appreciated the sentiment but didn't believe it would happen, and went to board his plane.

-x-

As he waited for takeoff, Reid took out his phone to send a quick text to Morgan before the flight attendant could tell him to turn it off. "I'm sorry. It wasn't you. I'll explain later."

Then, after a long moment's hesitation, he sent one to Rossi. However, all he could say was, "I'm sorry."

But he wasn't sure exactly what for.

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Short and sweet: Thanks again to all my wonderful readers, and a happy Mother's Day to all you Mums out there.