Disclaimer: Criminal Minds and all its characters belong to CBS. I own nothing.
Previously on Criminal Minds- Picking the youngster up, he settled the toddler on his hip and headed for the door. It was time to have some fun.
CM
"Okay Reid, remember our cover." Morgan instructed as he walked onto the enormous playground with the toddler.
"Yes daddy" Spencer replied with a smirk.
"Cute, kid" Derek muttered, rolling his eyes. He gazed around the deserted playground checking out all the different kinds of equipment and then turned to the boy he was holding. "So, what do you want to do first?"
"Go to Tawbuts." Reid immediately said.
"The swings it is." Morgan said, heading towards one end of the playground.
"Not wings, Tawbuts." Reid corrected, pointing back the way they had come.
Ignoring the toddler, Morgan went over to the green and blue colored swing set and sat the young boy in one of the baby swings. Grasping the chains, he pulled the swing back a little before letting it go with a small push.
Yelping, Spencer hurriedly grabbed a hold of the front of the swing. "Top the wing!" he yelled, kicking his feet in an attempt to stop the swing's motion.
Derek quickly caught the chains, stopping the swing midway through its arch. Kneeling down beside his nervous friend, he worriedly asked, "What's wrong, man?"
"What's wong?" Reid squeaked. "You put me in a death twap, fat's what's wong! Did you know fat two hunwed fousan childwen each yeaw awe weated in emew, uh, ER wooms for paygoun injuwies? Ow fat fifteen childwen die in paygoun at-ci-dents? I tould fall out of fis and…"
"Calm down, Reid. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise." Morgan assured the youngster.
"But, but…"
"No buts Pretty Boy. You are perfectly safe in that swing. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about." Morgan said. Seeing the boy's skeptical expression, he sighed. "Let me ask you something." Getting a nod from the younger agent he continued, "Would Hotch ever do anything to endanger Jack?"
"No, of touwse not!" Reid shouted. "How tould you even ast somefing lite fat?"
"Give me a chance, kid. I'm getting there." Morgan assured, grinning at the wary look on the toddler's face. "Tell me, what did we help Hotch build in his backyard a few months after Jack was born?"
"A wing set" Spencer reluctantly admitted.
"You got it!" Derek crowed, ruffling the tiny boy's hair. "Now if that swing set is okay for Jack, then this one should be just fine for you. Right?"
"Well" Reid hedged, nervously staring at his hands.
"Look at me Reid" Morgan ordered. He waited for the boy to raise his head and look him in the eyes before speaking. "Nothing bad is going to happen to you as long as I'm here. Okay?"
"Pwomise?" Spencer whispered.
"I give you my word." Morgan replied brushing the toddler's bangs out of his eyes. "Now what do you say we try this again?" Getting a hesitant nod, the young man pulled the swing back just a bit before letting it go with a gentle push.
At the toy factory
Hotch, Rossi, and Prentiss silently made their way down the long hallway on the top floor of the decrepit building. Coming to one of the two doorways, the three agents took up positions in front and on either side of the door.
Hotch nodded to the others before reaching out and pushing the door open. Gun trained straight ahead, he stepped inside the large office followed closely by Rossi and Prentiss. After a thorough search of the room yielded no sign of the missing madman, the team strode out the door and headed towards the room at the end of the hall. They paused halfway there as the sound of laughter reached them. Exchanging curious glances, the three agents soundlessly crept up to the door and quickly took up their positions. Hotchner silently counted to three and then reached out and slowly opened the door. Walking inside, the agents were shocked to find their suspect sitting in a bean bag chair smirking at them.
"Bout time you got here." Wasden crowed, picking up the huge bowl of popcorn in his lap and setting it beside him. "I mean, you guys got here over an hour ago. How do you ever get the bad guys at that rate? If you walked any slower, you'd be going backwards."
"Marion Wasden, you are under arrest for the poisoning of five people." Hotch declared, keeping his gun trained on the young man. "Stand up and keep your hands where I can see them."
"Okie dokie just let me turn the boob tube off first." Wasden replied as he flicked off the TV with the push of a button and tossed the remote to the side. Standing, he grinned over at Rossi. "Game shows, you gotta love'em."
Ignoring the comment, Rossi quickly cuffed the young man's hands behind his back and started walking to the door, pulling the younger man with him. "Let's go, Wasden" he growled.
"Alright, alright, I'm going." Wasden grumbled, adding under his breath, "Geez, somebody got up on the grumpy side of the bed this morning."
Hotch radioed Officer Simons and after giving directions to their location, ordered the officer and his men to search the location for evidence before following the other agents and their prisoner out the door. It was time to get some answers.
At the playground
Morgan smiled as he watched Reid happily bouncing across the small suspension bridge on his way to the twisty pipe slide. It had taken a while for the kid to realize that he was safe but once he had, there had been no stopping him. Reid had run from one piece of equipment to another giggling as he tried out each one. Morgan couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his friend this happy. He wished he could let the little boy play the rest of the afternoon away. Unfortunately, he knew they would have to leave the busy park soon. They'd been getting stares for the past hour and he was sure it wouldn't be long before somebody starting questioning what a black man was doing out here with a little white boy. And while he had no problem putting someone like that in their place, he didn't want Reid's day ruined by some bigot. Seeing the toddler waving at him from the top of the stairs, Derek quickly walked over and positioned himself in front of the slide. "Okay kiddo, slide down" he hollered.
Nodding, Spencer plopped down at the top of the slide and pushed off. He slid around and around before shooting out the bottom right into Derek Morgan's waiting arms. "I wanna do fat again!" he squealed.
"One more time then we've gotta go. We're starting to attract attention." Derek advised as he set the little boy on his feet.
"Otay" Reid replied. Turning, he ran towards the stairs. Just as he reached for the rail something big crashed into him from behind sending him tumbling to the ground.
"Spencer!" Morgan yelled, racing over to his fallen friend. Shooing the German Shepherd that had pounced on Reid away, he knelt down beside the toddler. "You okay, kid?"
Reid slowly sat up, grimacing at his skinned hands and knees. Noticing the small crowd that was gathering, he launched himself into a very surprised Morgan's arms, wailing at the top of his lungs.
"Hey, what's wrong, Spencer? That dog didn't bite you did it?" Morgan asked as he cradled the crying toddler.
"Twowd" Reid whispered before looking up at his friend and loudly stammering, "Da-ddy doggy kn-knoted me down and and I huwted my knee!"
"Mister, I'm so sorry. The leash slipped out of my hands and Brutus got away before I could catch him." A lanky teenage boy explained as he trotted up to the profilers. Squatting down beside the two, the black haired teen looked down at Reid. "Brutus didn't hurt the little guy, did he?"
"No, Spencer's okay. He just skinned his knees a little bit." Derek replied, pulling the toddler closer as the large dog padded nearer. Feeling the tremors going through the tiny frame, he quickly added, "Listen kid, my son is fine. Your dog didn't hurt him. Please take him and go. He's scaring Spencer."
"Sure mister" the teen said. Standing he turned and began to walk away. "Sorry" he called over his shoulder.
Morgan waited for the boy and his dog to leave the playground before standing with Reid securely in his arms. He carried the still crying toddler to the nearest bench and took a seat. Taking a hold of Spencer's pants leg, he carefully rolled it up above the boy's knee. "That doesn't look too bad." He told the sniffling youngster. "We'll go back to the hotel and I'll fix that up in no time."
"Otay" Reid agreed, holding up his hands.
Grinning, Derek picked the toddler up and then stood. Turning, he almost ran right into a furious looking man and his wife. "Excuse me" Morgan said. He stepped to the side to walk around the couple only to find an arm blocking his way. Glaring at the man in front of him, he huffed, "You got a problem?"
"Yeah, I got a problem alright." The young preppie growled. "You're my problem. You wanna tell me what you're doing with that white baby, boy?"