Don't Own.

Please R&R

Enjoy!

…

"Please say yes Mama!" Both Penelope and Spencer turned to see Payton hurrying towards them.

Once he reached them he wrapped his arms around Penelope giving her a tight hug before looking up at her "Please say yes so we can go with Mr. Spencer and then we won't have to move around so much and I can meet my daddy."

Penelope, who was slightly in shock since she didn't know that Payton had heard them, hugged him back.

"Sweetheart I…we…it's just not that simple," she finally said.

"Why not?" Payton asked and his eyes started to tear up "Mr. Spencer made it sound easy. It wouldn't be any trouble would it?" he directed his question at Spencer.

Spencer hated to use Payton to get Penelope on their side but he wanted his friend back so he said "No it wouldn't be any trouble, I'd be happy if you came with me."

Penelope shot Spencer a glare as Payton looked hopefully up at his mother.

"Oh please Mama, I'm tired of always moving and I want to meet everyone you told me about, please say yes." Payton begged.

Penelope still looked unconvinced and tears began to roll down Payton's cheeks.

"Mama, I'm tired of you being scared all the time and always having to run away from the bad man," Payton's voice was almost a whisper "If Mr. Spencer can help us why won't you let him?"

"Oh Baby," Penelope said, tears coming to her own eyes she enveloped him in a hug "I'm sorry."

Spencer felt like he was intruding on an intimate moment as both Penelope and Payton hugged each other and cried. Spencer couldn't imagine going through what they had already been through. He imagined it must be a lonely life and knew it was natural for Payton to seek normality.

Penelope wiped a tear away and looked up at Spencer "Okay." She stated.

Spencer smiled at her "You'll come with me?"

"Yes," Penelope answered.

Payton jumped up with a shouted "Yes!"

Spencer laughed at that "Well if that's the case you guys better get packing, we'll need to leave soon."

Payton looked up at his mom for direction. "You heard him," Penelope said as she stood up "go get packing."

Payton gave her a wide grin and then hurried to his room.

Penelope looked at Spencer and then shook her head "I hope I don't live to regret this."

"I promise that you won't," Spencer said as he too stood up "Do you need any help?"

"I guess an extra pair of hands wouldn't be turned down," Penelope said and motioned for Spencer to follow her "By the way, why is the jet picking you up, I didn't think it was in the budget for the bureau to send the jet to pick up one agent."

Spencer laughed as he explained that another team had been dropped off at the Denver airport and that since no other teams had need of it, the Capitan was directed to wait for his conference to end.

…

They had just finished packing up everything they were going to need when Spencer's phone began to vibrate.

He looked down at the screen and saw that it was Hotch; he also realized that he had three missed text messages and 2 missed calls.

Spencer sighed, he looked over at Penelope and held up his finger to signal he only needed one minute and then they could leave.

Penelope nodded and headed in the direction of the bedrooms, bringing Payton with her to do one last check to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything.

Spencer pressed accept and answered the call "Hello."

"Reid?" Hotch asked from the other end "are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Spencer answered.

"Then will you explain to me why you skipped out on the second half of the conference, missing your speech, and why you haven't been answering your phone?" Hotch asked, his tone harsh.

"That's kind of hard to explain," Spencer said "something came up."

There was a short silence before Hotch's annoyed voice asked "What does that mean?"

"Listen Hotch, I need to get going if I'm going to catch the jet, I'll explain everything when I get back," Spencer said.

"Reid…" Hotch began a warning in his voice.

"I'm sorry," Spencer said knowing that his superior would not be happy with him "everything will make sense when I get back, I know you'll understand."

Before Hotch could say anything else Spencer hung up.

…

Once Spencer had cleared Penelope and Payton with the Captain, he ushered them out onto the tarmac.

"Whoa!" Payton exclaimed awestruck as they walked towards the jet. His eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open "We really get to fly on that?"

"Yep," Spencer said as he gestured for Payton and Penelope to go ahead of him when they reached the stairs.

He watched as Penelope raised her arm to grasp the handrail and realized that she was shaking.

Spencer placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently as Payton raced up the steps ahead of them.

She seemed to take comfort in the gesture because her tense body relaxed and with a heavy exhale she ascended the stairs, Spencer right behind her.

"This is just so surreal," she said quietly to Spencer once they were inside "I never thought I'd be boarding this plane again."

Spencer gave her a small smile "I'm glad you are though."

Penelope turned to him with a watery smile but before she could say anything Payton rushed towards them "Mama! This is so awesome, I'm so happy you decided that we could come."

Penelope discreetly wiped a tear away and tried to smile at Payton "I'm glad you're happy Baby," she said to him quietly "thank you for helping me make the decision to come. Now why don't we find a seat before the plane takes off?"

Payton grinned at her and ran to the bench seat, Penelope followed him. Spencer sat down in the single seat across from them.

"This is so cool," Payton said kneeling on the bench seat so he could look out the window. He turned his head to look at Spencer. "Thank you for letting us come with you Mr. Spencer."

"You're very welcome," Spencer said "I'm sure everyone will be excited to meet you."

A huge grin appeared on Payton's face "You really think so?"

"I know so," Spencer assured him.

A faraway look appeared on Payton's face and Spencer had a feeling he was dreaming about what it would be like to meet Hotch.

Spencer turned to look at Penelope and saw that she was again looking unsure, biting on her lower lip.

"Seriously," Spencer said catching her gaze and holding it so that he knew he had her attention "the team is going to be ecstatic to see you. We've all missed you so much and we never gave up looking for you, always hoping you would come back to us one day."

"Never?" Penelope asked.

"Never," Spencer repeated with conviction "you surely haven't doubted that have you?"

Penelope shrugged "It's just that I thought you guys would be mad."

Spencer sighed and ran a hand through his hair "I'm not going to lie, we were mad at first. None of us could believe that you had really left us and it hurt us to know that you would. But with time, with us being profilers and all, we realized that there must have been something really troubling you to cause you to leave us. We had all seen it in the way you had been behaving before you left and it just strengthened our resolve to find you."

Penelope looked sad "I'm sorry I put you all through that."

"I know you are," Spencer said, not an ounce of anger in his voice. "Before you told me your story I was upset but now I get it. I know you wanted to come back to us and I'm sure once you explain that to everyone they will understand too."

Penelope sighed "Thanks Reid."

Spencer just nodded; he could see that had calmed her down some. She was still noticeably a bit worried but Spencer could sympathize with her, he had a feeling she too was thinking about Hotch and how he would react.

Truthfully Spencer wouldn't want to be in her position.

Then the plane began to rumble to life and Payton hurried to stare out the window.

"We're moving! We're moving!" he called out excitedly, pressing his face as close to the glass as he could.

Both Penelope and Spencer shared and amused look.

…

It was two hours into their flight and Spencer had moved to the table. He was working on an overview of the last case he and the team had been on. He needed to finish it before they reached Quantico so that he could hand it into Hotch.

Penelope had fallen asleep shortly after they had taken off. She was now lying curled up on the bench seat with Payton by her feet reading a comic.

Spencer was immersed in his work but looked up when he felt a presence near him.

Payton was standing next to the table with his comic book in one hand "Can I sit with you?" he asked.

"Sure," Spencer said, quickly putting away his papers, Payton didn't need to see any of the details.

Payton smiled and climbed into the seat across from Spencer. He placed the comic book on the table between them and looked over at his mom. "I finished reading my comic and I'm bored but I didn't want to wake Mama up."

"I'm glad you didn't," Spencer said honestly "she seems very tired."

"She doesn't sleep well," Payton said "she's always worried about the bad man coming and taking me away."

Spencer sighed sadly; he was again struck by how much Penelope had gone through. "Well you guys won't have to worry about that anymore."

"Good," Payton said "'cause I don't want Mama to have to worry ever again."

Spencer smiled at him. Payton really seemed like a great kid.

"So," Spencer said looking down at the comic book and noticing that it was also about the Avengers "you like superheroes huh?"

Payton nodded enthusiastically "Uh huh, I like Capitan America the best. Mama even took me to see the movie for my birthday."

"That sounds fun," Spencer said "did you like it?"

"Yeah!" Payton said "It was the best movie ever, there was so much action and the Hulk was really funny."

Spencer grinned "Do your friends like superheroes too?"

Payton frowned and then looked down "I…I don't have any friends," he said quietly and Spencer felt horrible for assuming he did. "I'm home schooled, I tried to make friends on my soccer team but the other kids don't like me. Mama said it's just because they don't understand but it really hurts my feelings when they gang up on me."

Spencer knew how Payton felt. He had been made fun of for most of his childhood because he was different. He hoped with all his heart that they would be able to sort out this Lynch thing quickly so that Payton and Penelope could finally have a normal life.

"Your mom is right," Spencer said "Kids can be mean, especially if they don't understand something such as being home schooled but when we get to Virginia you and your mom will be able to start over, and Payton I promise you it gets better."

Payton nodded but the joyous smile was gone from his face.

"When I was a kid my favorite superhero was Iron Man," Spencer stated trying to engage the boy and bring back his cheerful attitude and was pleased when Payton gave him a slight smile.

"It's because he's smart right?" Payton asked.

Spencer frowned, Payton had hit the nail on the head and he wondered how the boy could have possibly known that.

When Spencer didn't answer right away Payton continued. "Mama always said that you and the team were like superheroes, and you were the smart one like Tony Stark."

"Ah," Spencer said "well yes that is why I liked him. What else did your mom tell you about us?"

"Well she told me that all you guys were like a team of real life superheroes and that you work hard to catch the bad guys so that everyone else will be safe. Is that really what you do?"

Spencer nodded, he wasn't sure if he would call them superheroes but he understood why Penelope would explain it to Payton that way.

Payton lowered his eyes and stared at his hands "Sometimes…" he began his voice barely a whisper, a hurt expression showing across his face "I wonder why my dad, since he hunts down bad guys, why he never came and saved us."

Spencer tensed and his heart went out to the kid.

"Payton, look at me," Spencer told him.

Payton looked up, his eyes watery.

"Please believe me when I say that if your father had known where you and your mother were and if he knew you were in trouble he would have come. He would have brought you back home with him and made sure that Ly…the bad man could never hurt you again."

"Really?" Payton asked.

"Really," Spencer confirmed.

Payton bit his lip before asking "Do you think my dad will like me?"

Spencer again nodded. He knew Hotch would be shocked to find out he had another kid and it might take him a while to get used to the idea, but Spencer knew that once he had Hotch would want to get to know Payton. Spencer couldn't see the Unit Chief being annoyed by or angry at the little boy…now Penelope on the other hand, Spencer wondered how Hotch would act towards her. "I'm sure your dad will be pleased to meet you once he gets over the shock of it all of course."

Payton smiled "I hope so," he said and then yawned unable to hold it back.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Spencer asked.

Payton looked like he was going to object but then he yawned again and reluctantly nodded. He curled up in his seat and closed his eyes. A few seconds later he asked Spencer "Will you wake me up before we land? I want to look out the window."

"Of course," Spencer said.

"Thanks…" Payton mumbled and then he was asleep.

Spencer felt touched that the boy trusted him enough to sleep in his presence.

…

"Payton, please be careful on the stairs," Penelope asked as she watched her son run towards the door of the plane.

Payton slowed down "Yes Mama," he said and grabbed the railing as he exited the plane.

Penelope walked to the door and looked out at the familiar tarmac. Her shoulders slumped for a moment and she took in a deep breath of fresh air. "I wasn't sure about this before," she said quietly to Spencer "but standing here now…somehow it just feels right." She turned to her friend, her expression revealing her gratitude "I don't know how I could possibly thank you."

Spencer leaned a bit closer to her "Just promise me one thing? That you'll never run away again."

Penelope wrapped her arms around Spencer's shoulders and hugged him tightly "You have my word," she said.

She gave him a soft smile as she pulled away and followed Payton down the stairs.

They picked up their luggage and walked to the Airport's garage where Spencer had his car waiting.

"We'll head to the BAU first," Spencer told them "the team will still be there so we can explain everything and figure out a safe place for you guys to stay until Lynch has been caught."

Penelope bit her lip but nodded.

…

Spencer, Penelope and Payton stood outside the glass doors of the bullpen. No one had noticed them yet but they could see Emily and Derek chatting at Emily's desk, as well as the Unit Chief in his office talking to someone that they couldn't make out.

Penelope gulped, she had the urge to turn and run the other way, not believing she could really go in there but a comforting hand on her shoulder grounded her.

…

Aaron sighed as he hung up the phone. He shook his head and took out his blackberry to make a note about going in to see Jack's principal. His son had been caught smoking outside the school, again.

"Having a rough day?"

Aaron looked up and smiled when he saw Dave standing in his doorway. The older man stepped inside his office and closed the door behind him.

"What's it been?" Aaron asked raising a brow at his friend "two, two and a half months, and you're already bored?"

"What?" Dave said in mock hurt "a friend can't drop by every once in a while to say hello?"

Aaron gave him a skeptical look.

"Okay fine," Dave muttered "It seems that retiring for the second time is even less exhilarating than the first time."

Aaron chuckled.

"So what has you looking so displeased…well more than normal that is?" Dave asked.

Aaron sighed again "Jack, it seems like he can't stay out of trouble."

"Ah," Dave said "the rebellious years."

"And I thought they would never come," Aaron stated "foolish of me I know."

Dave just shrugged "They will pass."

"Let's hope sooner rather than later," Aaron responded.

"So, how have the team been?" Dave asked, turning to the window to look out at the bullpen.

Aaron sighed again "They're okay. I doubt they would have taken your leaving so well if it hadn't been for Prentiss' return, but I do think they are still adjusting. I mean, just earlier today Reid skipped out on a conference he was supposed to speak at. Which as you know, even though he dislikes going to those types of things, is highly unlikely of him."

When Dave didn't respond Aaron looked up and frowned "Dave, did you hear me?"

As Aaron took in Dave's expression he noticed that his friend's eyes had widened and he had a disbelieving look on his face.

Dave turned to him as Aaron stood up to see what had caught his friend's attention. "I think I know what caused our resident genius to skip out on that conference." Dave stated before he turned and headed to the door.

Aaron followed him and was in for the shock of his life when he found what awaited them in the bullpen.