I do not own Criminal Minds and my thanks to my sister Skye for being my beta reader.Chapter #23

Reid noticed Ashley was talking to someone at the vending machines and the way they were acting, they knew each other. And he had no doubt in his mind that it was about him and her past.

He went back into her room, taking the files with him as he sat down on the couch. He crossed his leg over his knee and just started going through the files, but he couldn't concentrate on them.

He reached for his phone, debating if he should call Garcia, have her tell him about Ashley's past, but he knew that would look like he didn't trust her. He let go of his phone and try to concentrate on his paperwork.

He heard something dropping on the dresser where he looked up to see Ashley setting one of the pop cans on the dresser.

"I got you a root beer," she said holding it out to him.

"Thanks," he said, taking it from her.

"Do you know when the doctor is going to get here to examine me?" He shrugged his shoulders, closing the files with one hand and setting his drink unopened on the floor by his chair.

"You know that you, JJ, and my mother are the only people call me Spence or Spencer." She looked at him, climbing on the bed.

"Ok," she said, not getting it. She set the elephant on her lap as her security blanket.

"Everyone else had called me Reid or Dr. Reid. Even when you introduced me to your friends, you always introduce me as Spencer Reid, not Dr. Spencer Reid. Why is that?"

Ashley stopped herself from shrugging her shoulders, "Considering we met in the NA meetings where you knew me just as Ashley and I knew just as Spencer. We didn't even know each other last names. I didn't know that you were FBI or even a doctor until we had our first date, a month later. I called you Spencer because that is your name. Honestly calling people by their last names without Mr. or Mrs. seems a little rude to me." He raised his eyebrows up at her.

"Really, why?"

"I don't know, but it just feels rude, kind of like farting in an elevator full of people, rude."

"And disgusting," he said.

"And as to not introducing you as Dr. Spencer Reid, knowing how my friends are, I have no doubt that they will bug you about getting free samples of Viagra or something. I wanted to save you from the embarrassment. You want me to start introducing you as Dr. Spencer Reid?"

"No, it is ok?"

"So is that is why it is hard for you tell me your story. I am not going to see you as Ashley Cassidy, a teacher, a singer, and my girlfriend. I will see you as a drug addict prostitute?"

"Sort of. You want the cold hard truth?"

"Yes please," he said, uncrossing his leg and then leaning forward.

"I know that if I tell you, you will be my boyfriend, Spencer Reid. But I do know that Special Supervisory Agent, Dr. Spencer Reid from the FBI will be listening to this and it will be one of your cases. So I am stuck between a rock and a hard place." Reid let out a sigh, leaning back in his chair.

"I'm sorry for forcing you to tell me. I'm sorry that if I seem to be the FBI agent instead of your friend. But I know when he attacked you, he had a gun, but he didn't kill you. And when he took a shot at me, he purposely missed me. He also said you were his. I also know what happened to your house is connected. I'm also connected to this as well."

Ashley looked up at him where Reid continued, "You already know this." She slowly nodded her head,

"I thought of that too, but I realized it was a coincidence. One hell of a coincidence. I didn't plan on ending that concert early. If that concert ended as planned, we all probably would be going out for drinks or something and then we would gone back to our own places. And I wasn't even scheduled to perform that weekend. I'm pretty sure that the idiot didn't plan on getting arrested. And I also didn't plan on asking you to spend the night with me. It was last minute and the only people that knew about it were us. As far as everyone else knew, I dropped you off at your place, the night before. You finished the case when you caught the bad guys; there was no fixed schedule in that. And I know sometimes you would leave the next morning, not on the same day. And you don't see every one of my concerts and I am not talking about the ones that you were called away. So it was one hell of a coincidence."

Reid pressed his lips, not really believing her explanation. He knew that she already realized it, but she didn't want to believe it. Still, he let it go. "Perhaps."

"So does this mean I should send the bad guy flowers for calling you away?" He looked at her, wondering if she was being sarcastic or not. Finally he shook his head no.

Ashley started playing with one of the ears of her elephant, not looking at him when she said, "Sometimes, I'm in awe of you," she started to say. "Not at your intelligence, PhDs, or even your job."

"Oh?" She raised her eyes up to meet up with his brown eyes.

"I'm in awe with you because you're still being so innocent and naïve despite the cases you do. I know that I don't know what kind of cases that they are, but I do know that they are serious and bad." She stopped playing with the elephant, but she still held on to it in her lap.

"Remember when we went to the park with Bailey?"

Reid laid back on the spread out blanket beside Ashley. He looked up at the blue sky. He heard Bailey snoring beside her.

"So what do you see," she asked as she moved her head closer to him. She handed him one of those gummy worms from the clear plastic bucket that was resting on her stomach.

"Cumulus clouds. The name comes from the Latin word for a heap or a pile. They usually form when warm, moist air is forced upward. As this air rises, it is cooled. If it is cooled below its dew - point temperature, condensation will occur. The size of a cumulus cloud depends on the force of the upward movement of air and the amount of moisture in the air," he started to say as he reached up and pointed to them.

"Ok," she said as she bit off the head of the worm. "I mean what do the shapes remind you of." Reid looked up at them.

"Cotton balls," he answered, looking at her. He could see the hesitation on her face.

Ashley shook her head no, "No, I mean when you were a kid, did you lie down on the grass and try to make out shapes of the clouds."

"Why?"

"Cause it is fun. Come on, give it a try. Use your imagination," she encouraged. Reid knitted his eyebrows together, studying the clouds as he chewed on his worm.

"I see a duck," she said.

"Where?"

Ashley pointed up to one of the clouds in the sky, "You see there is the bill, the head and there is the tail," she said, tracing the cloud with her finger. Reid tilted his head to the side, trying to see it. He shook his head no.

"Have you ever used your imagination when you were a kid," she asked as she rolled on her stomach. She placed the bucket in between them. He shook his head as he sat up. Ashley sat up in an Indian style position, taking another worm.

"Ok, take a look at those people, tell me a story about one of them," she pointed to the other people in the park. "Pick one person and make up a story." He turned around still seated, looking at them.

"That guy over there with a jean jacket." She nodded yes, seeing an older man sitting on a park bench, reading a folded newspaper.

"The way he is sitting, leaning forward tells me that he is concentrating, most likely on a crossword puzzle, but he is showing signs of early Alzheimer. That is why there is a woman, probably his daughter sitting on the other bench over there, pretending to read, but she is keeping an eye on him," Reid started to stay.

"No, no, no," Ashley said, stopping him. "I forgot that you are a profiler, you know how to read people. Have you ever had any fun when you were a kid," she asked.

Reid shook his head no, "Not really, my dad signed up me to a baseball team when I was a kid before he left. Then my mom got sick," he started to say when he felt his hand being touch.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up painful memories for you. I thought that since we were here in a park, it is a beautiful day. Bailey is here with us and he is not barking mad at you or anyone else." He nodded, placing his free hand over hers.

"It's ok. It is a good idea to have a picnic here. But I guess I don't have much of an imagination," he said. They heard Bailey making noises behind them.

"Bailey, no, get out of there," Ashley said as she turned around. Reid turned his head around, expecting to see her dog getting into the leftover food. But instead he was playing with the strap of his messenger bag.

"No, bad dog, let go," she ordered as she pried the bag away from him. Soon it was a tug of war with Ashley and Bailey at either end of his bag.

"Bailey!" The dog let go where she fell backward, landing on her back while the contents of his bag spilled out.

Meanwhile Reid tried not to laugh, but failed miserably. "Are you ok?" He asked once he was able to compose himself.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm sorry that he got to your bag," she said. Reid gave her his hand where she took it.

He pulled her up, "I'll replace it," she said. Reid took his bag, examining it.

"He didn't do any damage to it." Ashley helped him picking up his books, pens and such off the ground. Reid put everything back, where he looked around the area again.

"Did you see a hardcover book," he asked.

"Was it grey and had black lettering?"

"Yeah," he answered as he looked up seeing Bailey holding the book in his mouth with his head cock to the one side. Reid tried to take the book, but the boxer took off.

"Give that back," he said, chasing after him. It was her turn to start laughing, but she didn't bother to hide it.

Reid chased the dog around in a large circle in front of him where Bailey skidded to a stop, turning around to face him. Reid grabbed the book with both hands and try to pried out it out of him, but Bailey pulled back as if they were playing a tug of war. Reid pulled up the book where Bailey stood on his hind legs.

Finally Bailey let go and Reid almost fell backward, but he managed to stay standing. Bailey barked a few times, wanting to play.

"Spencer," she called out, tossing him a tennis ball. Reid caught it and threw it out to where Bailey chased after it. Ashley watched the two of them playing fetch with each other.

"When you were playing with Bailey, you had this look that I have only seen on children when I do the birthday parties."

"What look?"

"Of having pure fun, not worrying about your problems or anything like that. Just being a kid. I still wish that I had my camera."

"You do, on your cell phone."

"I do? Really?" Reid nodded yes, making a mental note to teach her how to use that.

"I know that you had to grow up fast when you had to take care of your mom. You didn't really have a childhood, you really didn't have a chance go out and have fun. And when you were in school at such a young age, you didn't really make any friends, right?" Reid nodded yes. "And I am going to guess that you don't do this now when you are with your family. He shook his head no, picturing him and Morgan watching clouds.

"I'm afraid that if I tell you what happened, that innocence will be gone and it will not come back," she explained as she held the stuffed elephant close to her.

"I'm afraid that if I tell you that this will be over," she said, waving her finger between them.

Reid was about to object, "Do not tell me it won't because I know you will look at me differently afterward." Reid leaned back, thinking of another way to approach this.

"Does Harry know what happened?"

"Yeah and so does Darcy."

"Darcy," he asked, hearing that familiar name again.

"Yeah, Darcy Edwards, he is one of my best friends. He was the one that I was talking to at the vending machines. Good news is that I didn't blow up my house."

"Oh," he said, knowing that she was trying to change the conversation. Except if this Darcy knows about the accident, he might know what really happened.

"He was there when it happened." Reid thought of pursing the conversation, but he decided not to. Right now, he had to figure out of who this Demon person was and why Ashley was terrified of him.

"So Harry and Darcy know what happened. I can't speak for Darcy, but I know Harry cares for you and protects you. I don't see him showing any pity on you or feeling sorry for you." Ashley nodded in agreement, smiling.

"That is what Darcy said. He knew and he is not disgusted or disappointed with me."

"And you believe him, don't you?" She nodded yes.

Reid pushed himself up off of the chair and sat down beside Ashley where she didn't move away from him.

"Do you or do you not want to tell me, yes or no," he asked her point blank range. She nodded yes.

"Would it help if I start the story, tell you what I think happened and you can tell me if I am right or wrong?" He waited in a few moments in silence before Ashley nodded yes.