Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds; no copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: Thanks again to all those who continue to stick with the story. I enjoy hearing from all of you.
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Allie shuffled slowly down the hardwood stairs. She had told her family that once she'd stored her things in her room, she would talk to them.
She thought about Spencer, alone in some hotel room in a town where he didn't know anyone but her. She should be with him, instead of here in her family home. She was closer to him than she'd ever been to any family member.
She reached the bottom of the staircase and turned into the living room. Her mother rose when she entered. "Sweetheart, I'm so sorry for what happened with Spencer. Nobody meant to be rude to him. I think everybody was just so surprised, they didn't quite know what to say."
"So there will be no more surprises, I'm going to tell you about Spencer Reid." And she did. She told them about the boy genius, always in school with children much older than him. She told them about the boy who had few friends and was isolated by his intellect. She told them about the boy whose father left him to care for a schizophrenic mother and take on adult responsibilities at the age of ten. She told them about the boy who was bullied and beaten in school. She told them about the boy who graduated at twelve and was in university by thirteen.
She told them about the man, who was barely a man, putting his mother in an institution at eighteen. She told them about the man who had three doctorates and was let into the FBI at barely twenty-one when the regulations said twenty-three. She told them about the people whose lives he saved when he put a bullet into Phillip Dowd's forehead. She told them about the man who had been kidnapped by an unsub, who'd been beaten and tortured and asked to choose people to die. She told them about the man who was asked to choose a teammate to die while a madman played Russian roulette with his life. She told them about the man who was drugged repeatedly but managed to keep his wits about him and send a message to his team. She told them about the man who killed his captor, battled drugs in the aftermath of the kidnapping and continued to suffer the effects of PTSD.
She told them about the man whose father came looking for him to get a bone marrow transplant for a son he'd had with another wife, a bone marrow transplant he willingly gave, saving the boy's life. She told them about the man who stood by his little brother through numerous changes in the boy's life. She told them about the man who saved his little brother from a killer.
She told them about the man with the eidetic memory who could read twenty thousand words a minute. She told them about the man who knew something about every subject under the rainbow. She told them about the man who could count cards and do magic tricks. She told them about the man with twinkling eyes, a radiant smile, a terrific sense of humor and a terrible sense of fashion. And she told them that she loved him.
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Reid sat in his hotel room staring at the walls. This wasn't the first time he'd sat in a hotel room alone. With his job, he did it quite often so he was used to it. In those times, though, he usually had a case to occupy his mind. He hadn't expected to be alone in this hotel room, in this town. He thought Allie would be with him. At least she was occupying his mind.
Had he overreacted, he wondered? What was one expected to say in response to what he had revealed. He just hadn't wanted Allie to fight with her family over him. Tomorrow was the start of the reunion activities. If the rest of the weekend went like tonight, they were in big trouble.
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Joan Graham came out of the kitchen after setting the coffee to brew. Lloyd and Charlie were in the living room reading the paper. Dylan was doing some reading for school. Chelsea was in the shower and Marion was knitting in the sunroom. Allie's door was still closed. Joan had knocked on it earlier but Allie said she didn't want to get up yet. She had to do something, Joan thought, going into the purse that Allie had left in the entryway and taking out her cell phone. She looked at the menu and pressed speed dial.
Reid had just come out of the shower and was towel drying his hair when his cell rang. He looked at the call display and smiled. "Good morning, beautiful."
"And good morning to you too," said a voice he didn't recognize.
"Ah, who…who is this," Reid asked nervously?
"Well, not beautiful, obviously," the voice laughed. "It's Joan Graham, how are you this morning Spencer?"
"Oh, Mrs….Mrs. Graham," Reid said, looking down at the towel wrapped around him as if she could see him. "I…I'm fine and you?" He squinted his eyes shut. That was brilliant conversation Einstein!
"Well, I've had better nights. I'm sorry things got off on the wrong foot yesterday. I really hated hearing my daughter cry herself to sleep."
"I'm sorry for leaving the way I did. What I said was probably shocking to everyone. I realized when your family started asking me questions that Allie hadn't told you about my childhood. I just didn't want Allie to argue with her Dad over me."
"Well anyway, she told us last night and today's a new day," she said brightly. "Perhaps we could start fresh. Would you join us for breakfast?"
"That's very kind of you," Reid replied. "Is it alright with your husband?"
"Of course, it's fine with him, we'll see you shortly then. Bye for now." She closed the cell phone saying, "Well it will be fine with him when I tell him."
Reid got out of the SUV and headed for the front door of the Graham house and was about to ring the bell when the door opened and he was unceremoniously pulled into the entryway by Joan Graham. Reid started to speak but Joan put a finger to her lips. Lloyd, Charlie and Dylan appeared from the living room while Chelsea and Marion appeared at the kitchen door.
"Allie, dear, I really think you should come and have some breakfast," Joan yelled up the stairs.
"I told you, I don't want any breakfast," was yelled from somewhere on the second floor.
"Allie, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, I do not like to be spoken to through walls and doors. If you have something to say come out and say it to my face."
The group could hear some stomping going on upstairs and then, loudly; "I…said… I…don't…want… any… break…" the speaking stopped abruptly as the young woman appeared at the top of the stairs, seeing the assembled group for the first time.
Reid looked up the stairs and saw his Allie. She had no make up on. Her shaggy mop of brown hair was going in every conceivable direction. She wore his old terrycloth robe, open, that fell almost to the floor on her. Beneath that was one of his old Harvard T shirts and on her feet she had mismatched socks. She was beautiful.
Dylan snickered, "Geez sis, you look…"
"Utterly breathtaking," Reid completed as Allie raced down the stairs, the robe flying behind her like a cape or angel's wings.
"Hi Honey," she said throwing her arms around Reid.
"Hi, you okay," he asked, looking into her eyes.
"I am now," she stated, smiling her most radiant smile.
"She's right about one thing," Dylan added, "Guy's got no sense of fashion if he thinks broom Hilda there is breathtaking," at which point his father cuffed him on the head. "Ow, what'd I do?"
"Come on, let's go into the breakfast room and leave these two alone," Lloyd said, shepherding the family out of the entryway and winking at his daughter as he passed.
Reid held Allie at arm's length, "Why do these things never look that good on me," he said, eyeing the woman in front of him.
"They do look good on you Sweetie, but they look better off you," she winked, pulling him toward the breakfast room.