Unwanted:

AU. Spencer is almost eighteen and unwanted by his father. What type of life is William willing to cast him off into just to be rid of him?

Yes...I'm alive. I'm just really tired - stress on really. I've actually started to write the story "Left Behind" but I don't really like it. I'm about five chapters into it but I'm having my doubts about it. So when this little story line popped up in my head I just had to get the first chapter out. I don't know if it will ever come to fruition, but if it does I was thinking it would be something along the lines of Hotch/Reid slash.

Enjoy.

Spencer's slippered feet whispered down the hallway as he tried to make his way to bed as silently as possible.

The sun was making its presence known on the horizon and the young man, just a few months shy of eighteen, was supposed to be in sound asleep in bed. But instead of obeying his father's orders like he should have, the teenager feigned sleep when his housekeeper came in to check on him at his bedtime and snuck off to the patriarch's expansive library.

Once he had gotten there, he lit the one small candle on a golden stick that he had brought with him and perused the thousands of titles perched on the shelves. He had barely gotten beyond the first row of books at eye level when his arm were overloaded with the written word. The brown-eyed boy carried his precious load over to a maroon velvet chair and snuggled down into the cushions that padded it. He then perched his candle on the table next to him and set his stack of books on the floor. After adjusting his legs, he positioned his chosen story in his lap just right, so that the moonlight spilling through the floor to ceiling window would illuminate its words.

After that, Spencer had gotten lost in the books he had chosen. He read through his pile with ease, for he had the ability to read at a speed that was second to none. So when he had finally pulled his eyes away from his last adventure and saw the dark blue sky fading to a pale pink he knew he was in trouble.

Knowing that time was of the essence and that his father's household would soon be up and about, the youth hurriedly put the books back in their rightful place. When the final tome had been returned to its home, nestled in between the covers of two others, he grabbed the candlestick that was now covered in melted wax and slipped out the doors into the hallway he found himself in now.

Up ahead of the young man was the final stretch he had to breach before reaching the stone staircase. Unfortunately, his father' office stood in the way of his goal, and it was obviously occupied; for the door was slightly ajar, allowing a slit of dim light to spill through the opening.

Spencer slowly crept forward, carefully lifting each foot up off the ground to prevent his slippers from scraping against the floor. The harsh voice of his father infiltrated his ears as he cautiously approached the oak door.

"…it's all her fault. I'm squandering my money keeping her in that cozy nunnery. You would think those women would take her in as part of their Godly duty but no…I've got to pay them to take care of her crazy ass. It's not my fault she's losing her mind. My parents and I didn't sign up for this when we initialed that marriage contract. I guarantee you that if my father had known that there was a history of peculiar behavior in her family he would have never promised me to that woman. Now our family fortune is practically gone and the only solution to restoring the wealth that was once associated with the Reid name is to marry Sylvia," William lamented to whomever else was in the room with him.

Spencer paled upon hearing his father's rant about his mother. His mom, who he loved with all his heart and soul, had been sent away almost eight years ago now.

As a young man of ten, Spencer could tell that something was wrong with her. Her emotions were in a constant uproar. She'd go from happy to frightened at the drop of a hat. When she played with him and take him on "fantastic adventures" out in the woods or inside the keep, she'd shift from acting like everything was make-believe to real. There were many instances of her squirreling him away in a hiding spot as they waited out the imaginary invaders.

William, whom had become extremely embarrassed by his wife's erratic behavior, decided that it was in his image's best interest to send her away. Without even letting his son say goodbye to the mother he held dear, the man sent Diana away to a nunnery that was leagues away from their home, not caring that his son woke up one morning to a house now devoid of love and warmth.

"Well, my friend, I do have some good news for you. After carefully analyzing the wording on the marriage contract I think I've found a loophole that will allow you to dissolve your current union and free you up to join with Sylvia," came the confident voice of Lou, William's lawyer.

The eavesdropping teen paled at Lord Riley's words.

Sylvia was a lady from a few towns over that had been visiting the house more and more lately. She was incalculably wealthy and had taken a liking to his father. William, a man that could smell money in a pile of manure, had been eating up her attention. He'd have the widowed woman and her children come over on the weekends and entertain them from dawn till dusk. They'd go riding, play croquette out in the yard, bow hunt, swim down in the pond, and have picnics out in the sun. Never once did William ask Spencer to join them on their excursions. In fact, after his initial meeting with Sylvia, in which she sneered at his appearance and his bumbling introduction, Spencer never had any contact with the woman and her family.

There was a brief pause before William commanded, "Don't leave me in such suspense, you rogue. Out with it!"

"Look here," the man said, rustling papers in the process. "Right above your signatures, it states, 'of sound mind and body.' Look…you both acknowledged it."

Spencer could practically hear the gears turning in his father's head while he tried to work out what the other man was saying, and being the genius that he was, the smart boy knew exactly where the lawyer was going.

"So? It was true! We were both completely sane at the time," William retorted.

"Were you?" Lord Jenkins asked.

"Of course we -," William cut himself off, "…oh…I see…"

Spencer's stomach sunk like a brick.

"Exactly. Was she really sane at the time? Who's to say she was lucid when she signed the contract? Certainly not you and her parents are no longer around to argue her case. Hell, William, she may have been slowly going crazy the whole time you've been married. And suffice it to say, she is no longer of sound mind…making the whole contract void if you ask me. Even if someone contested that approach they can't deny that when she promised to be faithful to you she was of sound mind and body – she isn't anymore. In her current state she can't possibly be held to a contract that hinges on her sanity," Lou explained, the glee for his friend apparent in his voice.

"You're a genius, Lou!" the lord of the manor gushed. "This is the best news I've heard in weeks."

"I thought you'd say that."

"Pour us a round in celebration. You know how I like it."

The clatter of glass leached into the hallway as the lawyer poured two draughts of cognac. Moments later the clinking of two glasses was heard by the young boy. "Ahh, now that is what I call an excellent breakfast," William laughed.

A moment of silence, in which a distraught Spencer contemplated leaving in order to get back to his bedroom undetected, enveloped them all. The boy was just about to tiptoe past the door when his father's voice picked up again.

"Now, just tell me how to get rid of the final stone around my neck and we'll both be living in the lap of luxury once again," William said offhandedly.

"What do you mean?"

"Sylvia won't marry me as long as Spencer is a part of household," he explained.

Freezing his foot in mid-step, Spencer planted the appendage back down on the ground and listened once again.

"So build a shack out on the lake and let him live there."

"I wouldn't have brought up the subject if it was that easy. She wants him out of our lives permanently. Her kids are to be our only kids."

"Oh…I see. Well, surely you've got some idea of what to do with the boy."

"Short of having him killed, not really."

The comment was so surprising to the young man that he had to shove his fist in his mouth to strangle the cry that was fighting to be released from his throat.

"Come now, William, I know he is just as strange as his mother, but you can't do that."

"I know…he is my own flesh and blood…though you wouldn't know it by talking to him. Hell, I'm ashamed to admit that he's mine. He is so strange. He'd live his life with his head stuck in a book if I'd let him. Shit, he's the reason why I'm contemplating cleaning out the library and burning all the books out on the back lawn. I mean, he's gotten so lost in reading that he knows nothing about holding a normal conversation or socializing with people. For the love of God, he won't even shake hands. Now tell me, what type of man doesn't shake hands?"

"Not the type of man that the people of our station will accept. It's no wonder that he's never even courted a girl."

Getting worked up, William's nasally voice started to rise. "Fuck, don't get me started on how he interacts with women. I've been trying to find him a wife for the past four years and I have yet to find a family willing to put up with his eccentricities! Not one mention of a pre-contract. Not one patriarch willing to let him court his daughter. Let alone him not even mentioning his want to find a wife. Every time I bring up the fact that he needs to get married to carry on my family name the boy goes red in the face and skitters off to his room. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was a fairy."

"Don't even say that!" Lou chided his friend.

"Well what type of hot blooded young teen isn't the least bit interested in the opposite sex?" William queried. "I blame his mother, you know. She's the reason he's so odd. If she hadn't of exposed him to all those fanciful tales, taken him out in the fields to write poetry, and pretended he was the girl she could never conceive he would have been an entirely different man. And hell, he even looks like a girl. Sometimes I swear if he'd put on a dress and let his hair grow just a few inches longer he'd be a woman, albeit flat chested, but a woman no less. God…it's all my fault, I suppose."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I wasn't home enough to monitor the boy's activities. If I hadn't of been so busy with work I'd have made sure he was getting exposed to all the things a gentleman should learn. I would have taught him how to be tough – how to be a man. Now…now I'm stuck with a fragile wisp of a kid that no one could ever want…no one could ever love...not even me."

Out in the hall, tears were cascading down Spencer's face. He'd always known that the man had disparaged his existence but until now he had never realized how much his father hated him.

"Why don't you try to marry him off?"

"You idiot! Weren't you listening to a word I said? There are no families out there that are even a little bit willing to give him a chance. The best thing that I can think of is to throw him out when he turns eighteen. But then I run the risk of our friends seeing him begging in the streets for food and looking down on me for not taking care of my own kin."

Lou was quick to reply. "I didn't mean marry him off to a woman."

"What are you talking about?"

"Look, you know as well as I do that there are plenty of men out there that have…uh…peculiar tastes. Why don't you find one of them and set up some sort of an arrangement?"

"You're saying I should promise my son to some bugger?

"No…I'm saying you should put your ear to the ground and find out if there are any men out there looking to add a supple young man to their household staff. You could market him as 'help,' and contract him out permanently. And you know what? Those feminine looks that you abhor could really help out in this endeavor. Shit, you might even be able to make a profit. Some of those types of men are so starved for flesh that they'd pay for it."

Spencer's eyes were wide with worry at the route this conversation had taken. Was his father really willing to sell him off to get rid of him? The youth got an answer to his question moments later.

"Where can I find a man like that?"