Reid watched the familiar sights of Las Vegas pass by as Morgan drove the rental car along the streets of unconventional hometown. As they neared Las Vegas High School, the Nevada native felt his trepidation rise. Plenty of 'unforgettable' moments had happened during his high school years but very few of them were pleasant. Was it wishful thinking to expect that to change tonight? Reid was inclined to answer that question with one word - yes.

It was close to six thirty when they arrived at the high school. The parking lot was full and Reid felt clammy as his nerves increased. More people meant a higher likelihood of meeting up with his tormentors of the past, as well as more witnesses to any new humiliation. As Morgan pulled the car up to the curb in front of the main entrance, Reid thought briefly about asking the older man to park the car and come with him after all. Then, if nothing else, at least he knew one person would be on his side.

As quickly as the thought had come, his courage to actually ask the question faded away. He couldn't actually ask Morgan to hang out with him tonight. What would people think? What would Morgan think? Sure, Morgan had offered to accompany him tonight, but it was only because he was trying to look out for him. Derek Morgan was a protector. He felt it was his duty to protect those he felt were important in his life. Reid had often thought it came from the fact that Morgan had lost his father at such a young age. As the only male member of the family, it was natural for him to feel he had to be the man of the house. That he had to look out for his mother and sisters. As he grew older, that feeling just naturally grew to include his friends. It was Morgan's protective nature that had spurred him to follow Reid out to Vegas and even offer to come to the reunion with him. And, as touched as he was by the gesture, Reid also couldn't deny the disappointment that he felt. He wished the offer to meant something more - though he knew that his musings would remain nothing more than a wish.

Reid took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Sitting in the car wasn't going to accomplish anything. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he entered and made the traditional 'How have you been rounds, the sooner he could leave. Reaching out a shaky hand, he wrapped his long slender fingers around the door handle and pulled it. The door opened with a pop, and the heat from outside was stark contrast to the air-conditioned environment of the car. Reid took a deep breath and then climbed slowly out of the vehicle, letting his breath out slowly as he did so.

"I'll be here at eleven, Kid, unless I get a phone call telling me something different," Morgan said.

Reid glanced around quickly, hoping there was no one within ear shot. Though he knew Morgan was just confirming their agreement, Reid suddenly felt like a kid being dropped off for a school dance by his father.

~Except that I never went to the school dances and even if I had, neither parent would have been around. Dad had abandoned us by then and Mom - well even if she had been lucid enough to drop me off I would have never been able to count on her being lucid enough later to pick me up later, ~ Reid thought, even as he nodded in response to Morgan's words.

"Don't hesitate to call if you want to leave early," Morgan told him. "I mean it Reid."

"I will," Reid said, on the verge of asking Morgan to come with him just like he had been moments earlier. Like then, he didn't give into the urge.

Instead, Reid shut the door and turned away from the vehicle. Stuffing his hands into his pants pockets he slowly walked toward his old high school. There were few people outside right now, not that he expected there to be as he was a half hour late. Those who were outside at this point were smoking, or chatting with someone who was. None of them paid much attention to his arrival. He had already called Ethan on the drive over here and told him to go on in and that he'd find him and Eve when he arrived. As he neared the entrance, Reid found himself wishing he had taken Ethan up on his offer to wait outside for him.

Letting out a soft sigh, Reid showed his ticket to the person at the door and stepped into his old high school, feeling the same dread he'd experienced stepping through this doors as a kid return. Just like then, he felt so much younger than the people scattered, chatting in groups around the lobby. Reid scanned the crowd for Ethan and Eve, his friend having told him that they would wait for him in the lobby.

Before he spotted them however, he felt a hand clamp down roughly on his shoulder. Glancing over he recognized Rick Lambert, who had been the school's star quarterback while Reid had been in high school, standing next to him.

"Spencer Reid, you're the last person I expected to show their face here," Rick said. Reid could smell the alcohol on his breath and absently noted that the glass Rick held was half empty. "Still as skinny as ever, I see."

Reid felt the heat rise in his cheeks recalling that Rick and some of his buddies would know exactly how skinny he had been back in high school.

"Hi, Rick," Reid said, trying to force himself to sound calm. "How have you been?"

"Not bad. Working with my Dad at the family sporting goods store. Good steady job that keeps my kids in private school instead of the public school system. I try to do right by them even if I only see them every other weekend. What about you? What are you doing these days?"

"Working for the FBI actually."

"FBI, huh? What are you doing, working as an analyst or something?"

Before Reid to counter the misconception another familiar voice spoke up.

"Agent Reid, fancy meeting you here," Parker Dunlevy said as he joined the two of them.

"Agent huh?" Rick responded, looking Reid up and down. "What did they do, waive the physical requirements for you? You don't look like you'd be able to handle an arrest any more than you could have tackled me in high school."

Both Parker and Rick shared a laugh at that. Reid again scanned the lobby for Ethan, wanting to find a way to escape.

"Yeah, I was surprised myself when I caught up with Spencer in LA a few years back. Who knew they let twelve year olds into the FBI? It reminded me of a son with his father on 'Take your kid to work Day' when I met him and his partner at my art gallery. But what about you, Rick? I thought by now I would've heard your name linked with one of the pro-teams."

"Things didn't turn out the way I wanted. Knee injury my junior year of college kept me from continuing," Rick replied, a trace of bitterness in his voice.

"That sucks man. You were great back in high school," Parker commented.

Thankfully, Reid spotted Ethan and Eve across the room at that time. Excusing himself, he slipped out from between the two men and started across the lobby.

"Yeah, well I guess some of us can't catch the lucky breaks," Rick commented.

"You mean like Spencer there? Who would have thought the little nerdy guy from high school would make the tabloids with this little television starlet I had my eye on."

Parker's voice faded into the symphony of other voices as Reid made his way through the crowd. As he neared Ethan and Eve Reid realized there was a third person with the couple. Though she was older now, and had put on a bit of weight, there was no mistaking her smile. Time may have changed Alexa Lizben, but Reid had to admit she was still one of the prettiest women at the reunion, though the person he had his eyes on nowadays was quite different from her.

"Spencer, glad you could finally make it! Was wondering if you were going to back out on me," Ethan said, as Reid joined the group.

"No, I just lost track of time," Spencer told him.

"You remember Alexa, don't you?" Ethan said, gesturing to their old classmate.

"Yeah, I remember her. You're looking good, Alexa. Time seems to have treated you well." Spencer began feeling like the temperature in the room had risen a few degrees. He had tried hard to avoid her after the incident on the football field but there was no way to avoid her right now without coming off as rude. He only hoped his face wasn't turning pink.

"Why thank-you. I guess running after three kids will keep one in shape," Alexa replied.

"Three kids? I'm sure they keep you busy," Spencer commented.

"That they do. Alex, he's my oldest, is ten and quite the adventurer. He loves sports, especially basketball. Lily is a bundle of energy. She's two and will get into anything she can if you don't keep your eye on there. My middle boy, Daniel, is eight but in the same grade as Alex much to his older brother's displeasure. He's like a sponge with knowledge though, and devours books. He sure doesn't take after either of his parents when in comes to school. I worry about him more than Alex." Alexa paused, taking the time to catch Reid's eyes with her own. "He actually reminds me a lot of you, Spencer."

Reid saw the unspoken apology there in the depths of his childhood crush's blue eyes. He nodded slightly, letting her know that he understood. It didn't erase the hurt of what had happened in the past, but at least she recognized the wrong in what she had did. Knowing that eased the pain of those memories, even if it was just a little.

"Here you go, darling," another male voice said. A tall dark-haired man with a tailored suit had joined them and was handing a glass to Alexa.

"Thank-you," Alexa replied, accepting the glass from the man. "Darren, I want you to meet another one of my classmates, Spencer Reid. Spencer, this is my husband, Darren Witiker."

"Good to meet you, Spencer." Darren said, holding out his hand. Spencer shook the extended hand as Darren continued speaking. "Spencer Reid? Your father wouldn't happen to be William Reid would he?"

Reid stuffed his hands nervously into his pants pocket, and shifted his weight slightly at the mention of his father. "Yeah, he is, actually," Reid forced himself to say, trying to keep any sound of bitterness out of his voice as he spoke. He hadn't spoken with his father since he had looked into the Riley Jenkins case, despite his father having made several attempts to contact him.

"I work with William at Wieder, Kirschenbaum & Moore. He speaks of you often. He's very proud of you. I can't count of how many times I've heard him tell people his son is the youngest agent in the history of the FBI."

Reid wasn't sure how to respond to that. Somehow, knowing that his father had bragged about him to co-workers but not bothered to stay in contact with him for seventeen years just made the anger he often felt when thinking of his father flare brighter. What right did William Reid have to brag about the son that he had abandoned?

Ethan, who knew about Reid's feeling toward his father, noticed how uncomfortable his friend was and decided to take the attention from him. "I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I'm hungry and the food on that buffet sure did look good. Why don't we all go grab something to eat?" he suggested.

There were murmurs of agreement all around the little group. Ethan looped one arm around Eve's waist and placed the other arm across Reid's shoulders as he led the group toward the gymnasium. Reid didn't protest the action. In fact, if it wasn't for Ethan's arm across his shoulder he probably would have given into the urge to bolt out the front doors.

The gymnasium was tastefully decorated in the school's colors. Reid had a hard time reconciling the space as being the same location as all of his not so fond memories of PE classes. The bleachers had been folded back against the walls to provide more room and murals of the Vegas skyline had been draped in front of them, expertly disguising metal. The buffet and drink table had been set up in front of one of the murals, the catering company's staff busy at work keeping food on the table and serving the drinks. A DJ had set up at the far end of the gymnasium, and hits of the earlier '90's were currently heard above the mindless chatter of the guests. Music that Reid hadn't heard since he was in high school. Tables had been set up along the other two sides of the room, leaving an area in the middle open for dancing. Each table had a balloon center piece, with small floating candles flickering in a glass container around the base. Above them, streamers crisscrossed one another.

"They did a nice job with the decorations," Eve commented from the other side of Ethan.

"Yeah, I guess they did. Not that I really care about that kind of thing. I came here for the food. I hope it tastes as good as it looks," Ethan said as they made their way toward the line forming at the buffet table. The comment earned him a playful poke in the ribs from Eve.

"Is food all you men think about?" Eve asked.

"Food is one of the four basic survival needs for humans. That in itself makes it important," Ethan responded.

"You know even though it is one of our basic survival needs, humans can actually live four to six weeks without food. The duration is actually dependent on factors such as body weight, genetic variations, other health considerations and the individual's hydration levels. Without water the longest someone can survive is about ten days. In fact, other than oxygen, water is the most important compound that our bodies need," Reid said.

Ethan glanced over at Eve. " Now do you understand now why it's always been a competition with this guy? No matter what, he's got to try and one up me."

"I wasn't trying to . . ." Reid started to protest. He trailed off when he noticed the amused smile on Ethan's face.

"It always was easy to get you to go all apologetic," Ethan said lightly, removing his arm from Reid's shoulders and mussing the younger man's hair.

Reid smiled at the lighthearted teasing. In a way, Ethan reminded him of Morgan since both his co-worker and Ethan seemed to take great pleasure in baiting him. They never had malicious intent though, and their teasing was always good natured, which was probably why Ethan's broad smile and Eve's light laughter didn't bother him. Even the unfamiliar sound of Darren's chuckle didn't affect Reid.

Unfortunately, the addition of Alexa's light laughter - despite in being neither malicious or long lasting - caused past memories to come to the forefront of his mind. He could picture Alexa standing there , holding a camera. The football team, lead by Rick, laughing and taunting as they pointed. Alexa's laughter had haunted him since he was eleven because he had cared about her opinion at the time; even though she was six or seven years his senior, just like the rest of the senior class. The humiliation he had felt at being tied naked to that goal post had doubled when he had realized she had been taking pictures.

~Does she still have those pictures? ,~ Reid thought, a feeling a panic rising in him.

"Don't go borrowing trouble, Kid."

Morgan's words from the night before brought him a measure of calm. That was in the past. Tonight, Alexa had been friendly toward him. He just needed to focus on that and not the past. Besides, he had moved on from Alexa long ago. These days there was someone else occupied Reid's thoughts , and he knew that person would never act as Alexa had. Knew that if he had been there back then, Reid would have received the help he had desperately begged.

"Ethan, be nice to your friend," Eve admonished as the little group joined the end of the buffet line.

At Eve's comment, Ethan looked over at Reid and took in his friend's expression. "Hey, c'mon Reid, you have admit it's funny – don't be embarrassed," Ethan motioned toward Reid's blushing cheeks.

"R-right, of course. You know me." Silently, Reid cursed his memory for being so accurate that he could have physiological responses to an event that had happened over a decade ago.

Morgan had returned to his hotel room after dropping Reid off at the reunion. He now lay on top of the bed, ankles crossed and hands behind his head. The TV was on, but Morgan wasn't paying attention to it. His mind was instead preoccupied with thoughts of Reid.

Morgan had sat in the car watching Reid until he had disappeared into the high school. Even then, he had wanted to get out of the car and follow the younger man. Wanted to be at his side to make sure no one did anything to upset the younger man - intentionally or not. Reid often took things too seriously and his open heart meant that his feelings were easily hurt. That sensitivity was one of the things he loved about the younger man.

Despite his advice to Reid that he not go borrowing trouble, Morgan found his mind coming up with all kinds of things that could possibly go wrong tonight. All of the scenarios involved Reid's feelings getting hurt and Morgan having to comfort him. He wouldn't even let himself entertain the thought of the kid being physically hurt. And though he didn't want to see him hurt, Morgan couldn't deny he wouldn't mind the opportunity to comfort Reid.

~I never should have insisted that he come out here. I should have kept my nose out of his business. If anything happens . . . well that'll be on me. He wouldn't be here if I hadn't insisted that he needed to go to his reunion.~

Morgan glanced over at the clock on the night stand - 7:01. Four more hours until he would pick Reid up. Four mores hours of worrying without any idea of what was going on. Was Reid enjoying himself? Was he enjoying catching up with Ethan? Or was Reid sitting somewhere alone contemplating if he had stayed at the reunion long enough for Morgan to feel satisfied that he had faced his past?

"I can't just lay here doing nothing. I'm going to drive myself crazy," Morgan said quietly, as he sat up on the edge of the bed.

There was nothing he could do at this point but wait until it was either time to pick Reid up or the kid called asking him to pick him up early. The thought of crashing the reunion crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it like he had been all evening. Reid would never forgive him if he did that.

~Reid's a trained FBI agent. He wouldn't appreciate me thinking that he needs my protection at his high school. He can take care of himself and besides he's at a high school reunion. It isn't like he's walking onto a train with an armed psychotic, or being tortured and drugged by a guy with three personalities, or with a fanatical religious leader who is participating in a stand-off with the FBI. He'll be fine even, even without his gun. Not that I would mind shooting some of those idiots for what they did to him, ~ Morgan thought as he got to his feet, the weight of his back-up piece in his ankle holster a familiar comfort.

Morgan walked over to the room's small desk and grabbed the key to the rental car and his hotel key card and slipped them into his pocket. He was in Vegas and he might as well take advantage of it. He had brought some money with him, and spending time in the casinos had to beat driving himself crazy alone in his room.

~And who knows, I might just get lucky tonight, ~ Morgan thought as he stepped out into the hallways and pulled the door shut behind him.