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Spoiler for 'Normal' (Season Four) and Chapter Five of this story.

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'A Force of Nature'

Chapter Eleven

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The next morning Daniel came into the living room after receiving an early morning phone call from his mother. "Spencer, I forgot to tell you about something."

"What?"

"I'm supposed to go over my parents' house today, and I completely forgot. My mom just called to remind me."

"That's not a good thing to forget, Daniel!"

"You're telling me! I would hate to have to try and explain to my mother why I didn't show up."

"I need to call Hotch. How long are you supposed to stay there?"

"Until tomorrow. I'm supposed to go over this afternoon, and stay for dinner and overnight and come back tomorrow afternoon. She knows I don't want to miss out on too much training. I called my coach about it, expecting to get an earful of Russian and she tells me she already gave me two days off when I told her about my visit two weeks ago. Spencer, I think I'm losing my mind. I can't even remember I talked to my coach two weeks ago about missing two days of training."

"Why are you missing training?" Garcia asked, as she came out of Daniel's spare bedroom.

"My mother just called to remind me I'm supposed to be spending the night at their house tonight. I won't be in town for practice today or tomorrow."

"Is Reid going with you?"

"I don't know; he's calling Agent Hotchner right now."

"Will your parents mind?"

"Are you kidding? My mother asked me on the phone if she might see that 'nice, polite F.B.I. agent that came over the house' again."

"Well, too bad I can't come along, sweetie," Garcia said, with a smile as she patted Daniel on the shoulder. "But I have to go."

Daniel laughed. "I'll try to get through the day without you there, Penelope."

"Oh, sure…"

Daniel gave her a kiss on the cheek and then hugged her. "Thank you for coming over last night and watching movies with us."

Garcia smiled and blushed and then indicated to Reid she was leaving. He stood by the door watching her walk to her car as he listened to Hotch on the phone. Once she was safely inside and backing down the driveway Reid shut the front door and locked it again. "Okay, I will. Thank you, Hotch."

"What did he say?"

"Basically he said you're stuck with me on your trip. He said it was up to you whether or not I stayed at your parents' house, but I would definitely be driving to and from their house with you."

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Approximately three hours after Garcia left Daniel's house Reid and Daniel were on their way to Delaware. They had made a quick stop at Reid's apartment for him to pick up some clean clothes for his go bag. The trip was making Reid more than a little nervous. "Daniel, would you please keep at least one hand on the wheel?" Reid said, as the two men drove toward the Harbor Tunnel Throughway.

"Spencer, would you please stop passenger seat driving? You sound like my mother, for crying out loud!"

"If you would keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention to the road a little more I wouldn't have to say anything."

"So you don't like my driving?"

"Daniel, I once rode in an SUV with Morgan while he drove it in a car chase. He scared the hell out of me and you're almost as bad."

"Okay, scaredy cat. Look, see? Hands at nine and three o'clock on the steering wheel. Both eyes on the road. Are you happy now?"

Reid sighed and said, "What did your mother say about me coming? You never did tell me."

"She said she hoped I wasn't planning on allowing you to stay at a hotel and I should bring you over the house."

"She didn't ask you why I was coming in the first place?"

Daniel sighed. "The only thing my parents know about my stalker is that someone sends me letters. They don't know the details. Therefore they have no clue about you and the others babysitting me 24/7. I just told her since I was going out of town the F.B.I. felt I should have some protection; and, fortunately she bought it."

"I'm sorry, Daniel."

Daniel sighed again. "So am I, Spencer."

Two hours later Daniel and Reid pulled up in front of his parents' house. The two men only got halfway up the driveway before the door opened and Daniel's mother came running out of the house. She enveloped her son in a hug and then scolded him for not calling or visiting more often. "Nice to see you again, Agent Reid," she said over Daniel's shoulder.

"You too Mrs. Meier-I'm sorry, Caroline!" Reid smiled.

"Where's dad?" Daniel asked, as he walked up to the house arm in arm with his mother.

"I sent him to the store for a few more groceries. After all, I have two young men to feed tonight and tomorrow morning. He'll be home soon. Come on in, Agent Reid."

Once inside the house Caroline directed Daniel to put his things in his old bedroom and directed Reid to her other son's bedroom to put away his bag. She then took him on a tour of the house and pointed out her sons' old tire swing and showed him where she kept all their old toys and children's books. She pointed out that someday she hoped to have grandchildren to play with all the old toys, which elicited a groan from Daniel. "Oh, Daniel keeps telling me he's only twenty-five and not ready and his brother is only twenty-one, and I keep telling him I'm not getting any younger, you know?"

Reid could only smile and nod at her words. He really wasn't sure what his own mother's thoughts on having grandchildren were, since the subject seldom came up during their visits. He wasn't even sure what his own thoughts were on having children. Daniel's father chose just that moment to walk into the house. "Hey, you're here! I thought that was your car out front."

"Hi, dad," Daniel smiled, hugging his father and taking the bags of groceries from him.

"Agent Reid, good to see you again," Alex said, extending his hand. Reid shook his hand and smiled. "So what have you been talking about since you got here?"

"Mom's desire for grandchildren."

Alex sighed. "Caroline, for crying out loud! Daniel just got here. Can't you wait to bring that up?"

"No," she said, walking into the kitchen. "Bring the groceries, Daniel!" Once in the kitchen she pulled a head of lettuce and some tomatoes and shredded carrots out of the bags. "Here, make the salads," she instructed, handing the items to her son.

"What are we having for dinner, mom?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs, with garlic bread. It's all with low salt, though. Your father baked a peach pie for dessert, low sugar of course. Is that okay with you, Agent Reid?"

"Its fine, Caroline. Thank you."

"Mom, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you call him Spencer. I do."

"Do you mind if we call you by your first name?" Alex asked.

"Of course not," Reid smiled.

A short time later the four were sitting down to dinner. Reid couldn't help smiling as he observed the easy banter between Daniel and his parents. He got along fine with his own mother, and was even starting to get to know his father a little now, but he couldn't remember a time when he had sat down to dinner like this with his own parents. He had been taking care of himself for longer than he really cared to think about. "What are you smiling about, Spencer?" Daniel asked.

"You and your parents. It's great watching the three of you."

Alex laughed. "You should see us when Daniel's brother Mark is here. Then we really have fun. One or the other of the boys always ends up smacking the other one upside the head." Reid laughed out loud.

"That's not true, Spencer. We don't fight at the table. We wait until after dinner and then we wrestle around on the living room floor or something. We try not to knock things over and break them, but it occasionally happens."

"Yes, like last Christmas when you knocked the tree over," Caroline commented.

"Mom, that was not our fault. You know it was lopsided to begin with. I barely touched it and it fell over."

"Well, if you hadn't been messing around in the first place…"

"I don't get to see Mark very often. We had to play around a little."

"Did you know your brother was seeing someone now?" Alex asked.

"Yes, he told me when I talked to him on the phone yesterday. She's a member of the ASU volleyball team."

"Well, at least one of you has a girlfriend," Caroline said, as both Daniel and his father rolled their eyes. She turned to Spencer. "Do you have a girlfriend, Spencer?"

"Mom!"

"I was just asking. You don't mind, do you Spencer?"

"Uh, no. Actually I just met someone new. So you probably can't really say she's a girlfriend, but we are planning on seeing each other."

"That's good. Now if we could just get this one over here going, we'd be doing fine."

"Mom, you know what my coach said about that. And I just don't have time anyway."

"That was before the Olympics. Besides your coach doesn't know everything, and you can make time." She turned to Reid. "What do your parents think about your job, Spencer? They must worry about you."

"I guess they do. My dad keeps track of everything I'm doing, and my mom basically tells everyone she has a perfect son."

"Oh, that's sweet! Do you have any brothers and sisters?"

"No, I'm an only child."

"How long have you been in the F.B.I.?" Alex asked.

"Almost six years with the BAU where I am now. Before that I worked with a mentor for a while. He asked the Bureau for an age exception because at the time I was under twenty three, which is the minimum age for the F.B.I."

"That long? You look so young!"

Reid smiled. "I'm twenty-eight right now."

"And he has six college degrees," Daniel added. "Three of them by the time he was eighteen years old."

"You're kidding! Really?"

"Spencer's a genius, dad. He graduated high school at age twelve, has a 187 I.Q. and he reads like 20,000 words a minute. He read all four 'Twilight' novels in one night at my house."

"What are your degrees in, Spencer?" Caroline asked.

"I have PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering; and I also have B.A.s in Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy."

"The BAU-that's profiling, right?" Reid nodded. "The PhD subjects help you with that?"

"Sometimes they do, yes."

"Amazing. It sort of makes my two degrees pale by comparison," Alex said.

"And my one," Caroline chimed in.

"And my I'm not quite finished with the first one yet," Daniel grinned. He looked at Reid. "And, I think I've completely embarrassed you by bringing this up, Spencer. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm fine. It's cool."

The meal continued in the same fashion, and Reid found himself feeling completely at home. Once they had eaten dessert Caroline decided it was Daniel's job to clean up and finish the dishes. When Reid offered to help she said her son could handle it on his own and insisted Reid come into the living room and sit down. He sat and talked to Daniel's parents while Daniel remained in the kitchen. When he was finished he came into the living room and flicked some soap suds at Reid. "So, what are we going to do now?"

"We're going to watch home movies of you and your brother, and then we're going to watch 'Casablanca'."

"Oh, come on mom! Not the home movies!" Daniel groaned.

"Yes, the home movies."

"Ah, gee…"

They had a very pleasant evening; and Spencer laughed out loud at parts of the home movies Alex and Caroline had shown him. He had looked over at Daniel to see him shaking his head and rolling his eyes, but with the smallest hint of a smile on his face. The love between him and his parents was obvious to Reid. Even though he knew the story probably could never have really happened, Reid also found himself really enjoying 'Casablanca'. He was doing a much better job of just enjoying what he was watching or reading, he thought, and not dissecting things for complete accuracy as much as he used to.

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"I think my mother is ready to adopt you," Daniel laughed the next afternoon, once he and Spencer were on their way back to Georgetown. That morning Alex had made them all ham and cheese omelets with hash browns and toast. He had bemoaned the fact he couldn't eat the hash browns himself and had made his own omelet with an egg substitute. Once again Caroline had decided it was Daniel's job to clean up and had refused to allow Spencer to do anything. In addition she had insisted they eat lunch to before they left on their trip back, and also provided them both with containers of leftover spaghetti and garlic bread to take home with them.

"I'm sure she thinks I need a little fattening up. My own mother says I'm too thin. She blames it on all the coffee I drink."

"You do drink a lot of coffee, Spencer. And, you put way too much sugar in it when you do."

"Are you going to start about my sugar again?"

"You do use an awful lot of sugar, Spencer. I don't know how you can even taste the coffee sometimes."

"Can you just drive without critiquing my sugar intake, please?"

"You expect me to drive 150 miles without talking?"

"No, but you can drive 150 miles without picking on me about how much sugar I put in my coffee."

"Fine. Pick out a CD and put it in to drown me out then." Reid shook his head and looked through the collection of CDs Daniel had brought along. He picked out 'Man of Colours' by Icehouse and inserted it into the CD player. Soon the beautiful vocals of Iva Davies filled the car and Daniel commented, "Good choice. Didn't think you even knew who they were."

Reid shrugged. "The album cover and the title looked interesting. It sounds like I made a good choice."

"Definitely."

A little over ninety minutes and two CDs later Daniel noticed Reid had stopped talking. He looked over to see him looking intently into the passenger side mirror. "Daniel, pull into the next gas station we come to, please."

"Why? We don't need gas, Spencer."

"Just do it, please." Daniel looked at him strangely, but complied when he spotted a gas station a couple miles later. He pulled off the highway and into the station, and then up to the accompanying convenience store at Reid's direction.

"Spencer, what are we doing here?"

"Stay here," Reid instructed, as he climbed out of Daniel's car and shut the door behind him. He walked across the gas station property and over to the end of a short concrete wall separating the station from the property next door. He peered around the end of the wall and looked to see if the vehicle he had been keeping an eye on for at least the last half hour was still around. He sucked his breath in quickly when he saw the tan sedan parked in a space at a fast food restaurant. 'Maybe they're just hungry,' he thought to himself. He shook his head. "No," he said aloud. "They're following us." He flipped open his cell phone and quickly hit a speed dial button. "Hotch, it's Reid."

"Is everything okay?"

"No, we're being followed, Hotch."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Where are you, Reid?" Reid quickly gave their location to Hotch, and then headed immediately back to the car once the call ended.

"What's going on, Spencer?"

"I'm not sure, but I think we're being followed."

"What?"

"I've been watching a car behind us for over half an hour now. When I asked you to pull in here that same car pulled into the property next door."

"Oh, my God! That probably means they know where my family's house is. What about my parents? They could be in danger. We need to turn around and go back!"

"No, Daniel!"

"What do you mean no, Spencer? We're talking about my family here!"

"Calm down, Daniel. Hotch is sending the local police over there right now. JJ is going to call them and let them know they're coming. Alex and Caroline will be fine."

"What do we do then?"

"Hotch is sending some backup. He said we should just stay here until help arrives."

"Who is it? My stalker?"

"I don't know. It could be Carriol."

"Out here? In public? In the open?"

"Okay, I admit it, it doesn't seem likely."

"Wouldn't Customs or the F.B.I. or somebody know if this guy came back into the country?"

"Only if it was under his own name. More than likely he's using a fake name and a phony passport."

"Great. I don't want to just stand here, Spencer."

"I know, I know. Go inside the store. I'll stay out here by the car."

"What do I do in there?"

"I don't know, Daniel! Buy us a couple of cokes and some potato chips or something." Daniel looked at him strangely before doing what he asked and going inside the store. Reid walked away from the car and toward the wall he had been standing by earlier. Once again he looked around the end of the wall and spotted the tan sedan still parked in front of the restaurant. Whoever the occupants were they had not remained in the vehicle.

Daniel came out of the convenience store carrying two fountain drinks and a plastic bag containing two bags of chips, two apples and a two candy bars. He opened the car door and set the drinks down in the cup holder and laid the bag down on the front seat. He closed the door and turned around, stopping in his tracks when he saw two unfamiliar men standing right in front of him. "Hello, Daniel," one of them said.

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A/N: I couldn't resist having a little fun with Reid and Daniel and his parents.

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