Disclaimer: Criminal Minds and all its characters belong to CBS. I own nothing. Feel free to read and review, but please don't copy.

AN- The backyard roller coaster idea came from youtube. Check them out some time if you have a chance.

The song Hotch sings is "Good Night" from the Beatles' White Album.

Previously on Criminal Minds- Spencer stared sadly at his father figure. "Tan, tan we talt (talk)?" he timidly asked.

The Talk

Aaron nodded. "Of course we can Spencer" he replied, patting the spot beside him. "Come sit with me and we'll discuss whatever you'd like."

Spencer toddled over and climbed onto the couch beside his father figure. Nervous about Hotch's reaction to what he was about to say, he hugged his Ewok and blankie tightly. "I ummm, I" he stammered, struggling to think of the best way to begin. "I, I…"

"I'm sorry Spencer" Aaron broke in, smiling at the little boy's WTF expression. "I shouldn't have spanked you when I was angry. I should have left the room and then dealt with you once I'd calmed down."

Spencer scowled. "You shouldn't have panted me at all." He corrected. "I'm not a tid, membew?"

"I remember. However…"

"No, no howevew! I'm not a tid and you shouldn't tweat me lite one!" Reid adamantly stated. "I know I'm little and tan't do evewyfing by myself lite I used to but fat doesn't give you the wight to punish me lite a tid when I do somefing you don't lite."

"I didn't punish you because I don't like you jumping on the bed. I spanked you because jumping on the bed was dangerous and you could have gotten hurt." Hotch explained. "And because you copped an attitude with me when I was talking to you."

"Same fing" Spencer muttered grumpily.

"It's not and you know it." Aaron tossed back.

"Whatevew, it doesn't mattew anyway." Reid huffed. "The point is you have to top tweating me lite a child. I'm an adult and I demand to be tweated lite one."

Hotch massaged the back of his neck as he mulled over what the boy was saying. It was pretty much the same spiel Morgan and JJ had given him earlier and as much as he didn't like it, he knew they were right. So he pushed the father part of his brain to the back and said, "Okay".

"No, you…wait otay? You'll do it?" Spencer questioned, shocked by how easy things were going. He'd expected more of an argument.

"Yes, I will." Aaron answered. "But it probably won't happen overnight. You're going to have to be patient with me. It's going to be hard for me to stop several weeks' worth of habits."

"I tan do fat." Spencer conceded, grinning at thought of finally being treated like an adult again.

Aaron reached out to hug the boy but quickly drew his hand back. Adult Spencer had never liked being touched. Hotch sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"Awe you otay, Hotch?" Reid asked, staring up at his frowning friend.

Aaron nodded. "Yes, I was just thinking." He replied.

"You'we not finting(thinking) bout we, we, going bat on ouw deal, awe you?" Spencer inquired.

"No, I gave you my word and I intend to keep it." Aaron promised. "It's just not easy for me to squash the father side of me when it comes to certain things; like the hugs and rocking you to sleep and you snuggling into my side at night and…"

"You mean, you're not going to hug me ow tiss me goodnight or anyfing?" Spencer anxiously asked, hugging his security items a little tighter.

Hotch forlornly looked at his youngest. "No, I won't do any of that." he reluctantly agreed.

"But, but I want you to." Spencer admitted. "I lite it when you guys do fat tind of fing. I don't want you to top fat."

"I don't understand. I thought you wanted to be treated like an adult." Aaron said, the confusion clear in his expression.

"I do but I jut mean I want to be able to mate my own decisions and be punished lite an adult intead of a tid." Spencer clarified.

"Oh" Aaron stated, feeling relieved that he wouldn't have to give up as much as he thought he would. "So what you're really saying is you want to be treated as both."

"Yes" Reid responded, nodding his head.

"How we will be able to discern which way to you wish to be treated at any given time?" Hotch questioned.

"Easy, you tan tweat me lite a tid 'cept fow at wort but you have to allow me to mate any decisions fat pewtain to me." Spencer replied.

"And if a decision is reckless or dangerous?"

"Fen you punish me lite an adult" Reid finished, looking smug.

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "I'm afraid I can't do that." He regretfully told the boy.

Spencer's smile morphed into a scowl. Why not?" he demanded, his bitchface coming out full force.

Hotch had to fight back the urge to grin at the miffed kitten look that was being leveled his way. It was just too cute! Knowing Reid would not appreciate that thought, the father, keeping his expression neutral, instead said, "Spencer, how do I discipline the agents under me?"

"It depends. You jut tall us in youw office to talt if it's a minor 'fwaction.(infraction) Sometimes, you mate us tate a walt to tool off ow send us in 'nofew(another) woom to…" Spencer stopped, eyes widening as realization hit him. "You, you, you've been using time out on us?!"

Aaron chuckled. "I guess you could call it that." He agreed. "It's the one technique they showed us at training that works well with all the agents. They didn't call it time out though; it was called diffusing the situation."

"It's a time out." Reid insisted.

"That it is." Hotch replied. "Just do me a favor and don't tell the others that. Going into the next room to calm down sounds more grown-up than a time out."

Spencer eyed his father figure angrily. "Twit joting.(joking)" he demanded. "I'm sewious."

"Alright" Aaron calmly answered. "Look I understand your wanting to be treated like an adult and I promise I'm going to step back and let you make some of the decisions but the disciplining is a different story. The only adult punishments I know are related to the office and those won't work. I can't make you take a day off or write you up or give you an inbox full of paperwork to keep you busy. We're going to have to think of something else."

Reid huffed but nodded his head. "Otay" he grumpily responded. "I fint we should mate a lit(list) of 'ceptable dis'plines then."

"I think we can handle that." Hotch told the tiny profiler. Seeing the youngster fisting his eyes, he smiled. "Let's sleep on it and start first thing in the morning."

"O *YAWN* tay" Spencer mumbled.

Aaron ruffled the boy's hair before hesitantly asking, "Is it alright if I pick you up and carry you over to the rocking chair?"

Spencer raised his arms in response.

Smiling, Aaron scooped up his son, shuffled over to the well-worn rocking chair, sat down, and slowly started to rock, softly singing as he did. "Now it's time to say good night, Good night, sleep tight. Now the sun turns out his light, Good night, sleep tight."

CM

True to his word Aaron took Spencer back upstairs after breakfast and the two went to work on the new improved set of Reid's Rules. They spent all morning sequestered in their bedroom making and revising consequences for various infractions. After a quick lunch and a nice long nap, the duo went right back to it. What Hotch had assumed would take an hour at the most turned into an almost all day affair thanks to Spencer. The tiny profiler insisted they thoroughly explore every possibility no matter how remote. And the list of consequences was revised over and over again until the senior agent was ready to explode. Finally after a ton of debating and arguing, the chart of rules was complete. Setting their finished project on the dresser, father and son tromped down the stairs for supper.

CM

"Nana! Nana!" Spencer hollered, running over to a smiling Mrs. Morgan. "You help me and Henwy tate a baf?"

"Of course I will Sweetie" Fran answered, palming the little boy's cheek.

"Yay!" Reid and Henry cheered, bouncing up and down.

Mrs. Morgan extended her hands. "Come on boys! It's bubble bath time!" she exclaimed. Taking the two excited tots by the hand, she quickly led them out of the room.

Emily stared after the trio. "What's going on?" she asked. "Since when is Reid okay with a lady seeing him in the buff?"

Hotch sniggered. "Since we needed a distraction." He answered. Getting confused looks, he added, "Spencer wanted me to go over the new rules with you but we didn't want Fran to overhear. This was the only way we could think of to get her out of the room without raising any suspicions. Needless to say Spencer wasn't any too happy about it."

"I can imagine." JJ said, snickering at the thought of the expression on the boy's face.

"Me too" Morgan agreed. "He's going to be blushing so hard mama will think he has a fever."

"Twenty bucks says bath time doesn't last fifteen minutes." Dave tossed out.

"Nobody's stupid enough to take that bet." Will replied. "We all know that bath will only last as long as the bubbles and that's not long at all."

"Then we better get started. I promised Spencer I bring you all up to speed while he kept Fran busy." Aaron told the others. Picking up a stack of stapled papers, he swiftly passed them out. "This is Reid's list of choices and consequences. Please keep them somewhere safe for reference."

Morgan glanced through the long list. "Pretty Boy agreed to spanking being on here?" he questioned, surprise coloring his voice.

"Yes but only in extreme situations." Aaron replied.

"No cookies, no desserts, no Legos" Garcia ticked off. "You are really hitting him where it hurts."

Hotch smiled. "Those were actually Spencer's idea." He corrected. "I don't think he fully realizes how hard it's going to be for him to do without those."

"I hope he never finds out." JJ muttered.

"Me too" Will said. "I wanna see the kid happy for a change."

"We all do." Dave concurred.

"And we will." Penelope assured. "These are just in case. I'm sure we won't need them."

"I hope you're right." Emily grumbled. "I'm tired of watching a sad, scared, angry, sick, or upset Reid."

"Amen to that" Dave seconded. "The kid's had more…" The buzzing of a cell phone drowned out whatever else he was going to say. Sighing, the senior family member pulled the device out of his shirt pocket and flipped it open. "Rossi…Matt! Good to hear from you!...No, its not too late to call…I'm sure…hang on let me put you on speaker." He punched a button on his cell and set it on the table. "Okay kiddo, we can all hear you."

"Hi" a timid voice called over the phone.

"Hey Matt, how's it going?" Morgan asked. "Is your new family treating you alright?"

"Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Young are really nice." The preteen replied.

"So things are going okay then?" Aaron questioned.

"Yes sir" Matt answered. "My new family is okay so far and Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Barker come and visit at least once a week."

"What about your brother? Do you still see him?" Dave inquired.

"Uh huh, Dennis transferred to a college closer to me so he could check on me every day. He brings my sister Penny sometimes too. She's really funny. I even saw Jessie one day. Dennis and Penny had taken her to therapy and they brought her by to see me before they took her home." Matt related. "It's been good."

"But" Rossi prodded, knowing there was more by the tone of the boy's voice.

"It's nothing." Matt said a little too quickly.

"Matt" Aaron called in his father voice. "What is it?"

The preteen sighed. "When I went to my therapy appointment last week, Adam was sitting in the waiting room. Mrs. Young had dropped me off and left at my request so I had no choice but to sit in the tiny room with Adam staring at me." Matt explained. "Turns out m-Ms. Pringle finagled my appointment time from one of the receptionists and had Adam scheduled after me. I, I changed therapists. I've had the same one since I was four and I had to change because, because, she, she…"

"Easy Matt, easy" Rossi calmly said.

They heard Matt take a deep breath. "Sorry" the boy apologized. "It just bothers me that I lost another person close to me because of her."

"I know kiddo." Dave replied. "And I'm…"

"Is fat Matt?" Reid asked as he bounded into the room.

"Hi Dr. Reid" Matt greeted. "I was hoping you were there. I have something I need to ask you about…in private."

"Otay" Spencer agreed. He picked up the cell, turned off the speaker, and held it to his ear. "I'm weady. What is it?" he asked, walking out of the room.

CM

Spencer toddled back into the room a little while later. "I lite Matt. He's nice." He said, handing the phone to Rossi.

"Yes he is." Dave agreed. "It's just too bad he got stuck with that witch Pringle."

"Yeah, but thankfully, he's safe now." Emily stated, smiling as something caught her eye. "Ummm, Hotch? I think it's a certain someone's bedtime."

Aaron looked over at his son. Seeing Spencer struggling to keep his eyes open, he strode to the couch and scooped his sleepy little boy up. "Come on buddy. Time for bed." He whispered.