A/N: Just a little reminder that will become relevant in a few minutes...at this point, events are taking place in 2008, which means that a certain Disney film involving amphibious royalty would not come out for another year.

When Prentiss and Morgan returned to the Sherwood precinct after investigating Flo's Diner, Prentiss spotted Reid pacing outside, looking upset about something. She approached him. "Reid, is everything okay?"

"What? Fine," Reid said distractedly. Prentiss nodded and started to walk away, then stopped short when Reid spoke again. "Garcia made one of her typical remarks before ending a phone call, and Hotch joked that he should have her drug tested."

"He…joked?" Prentiss repeated skeptically.

"I think he was joking? I don't know, it's Hotch, it's hard to tell with him."

Prentiss winced in sympathy. "Well, I can certainly see why you wouldn't find that funny." She paused. "You're…you're good, right?"

Reid reached a hand into his pocket, seemingly subconsciously. "You mean, would I pass a test? Yes. But…I really want to forget seeing Jessica Evanson…" He trailed off, not meeting Prentiss's eyes.

"Jessica Warner is fine," Prentiss said softly.

"I know. But Jessica Evanson is dead, despite everything her mother did to try to save her. Despite everything we did to try to save her. She might not have been my legal responsibility, but she was a real person who could have had a bright future ahead of her if she'd lived long enough to be deprogrammed."

Prentiss sighed. "We can't save them all. But that doesn't mean we stop trying."

"Of course not." Reid smiled sadly. "I appreciate the pep talk, but this isn't something you can talk away."

"Let me know if there's something I can do to help," Prentiss offered, heart aching for her friend.

"Thanks." Reid took a deep breath, pulled his hand back out of his pocket and led the way back inside.

On Halloween, when the team boarded the plane to return from central California, Prentiss sat opposite Reid. "So, you never answered my question. Are you considering having baby geniuses?"

"Ooh, baby geniuses?" JJ chimed in, joining them. "Spence, I didn't know you were seeing someone."

"I'm not," Reid replied. "And I'd need to address that before the 'baby geniuses' question."

"Okay, but if you were," Prentiss persisted. "Then what?"

Reid sighed, realizing the women weren't going to drop the subject. "I don't know. I'm not opposed to the idea of fatherhood in principle, but when you consider the genes that run in my family…I don't think any less of my mother for her illness, but it's not something I'd wish on anyone. Besides, I do have a kid already."

"Yeah, but you missed out on the first twelve years of her life," JJ argued. "Don't you want to know what those twelve years are like?"

Reid glanced at her stomach. "In twelve years, you can let me know."

JJ sighed, shaking her head at her friend's assumption that he would need her to tell him. Did he really think she wouldn't want him involved in her child's life? As soon as she got home, she needed to have a serious discussion with Will on the topic.

Arriving back at the apartment, Spencer found Jessica, Beth and Claire all gathered around Jessica's computer in costume: Jessica as Sleeping Beauty, Claire as Belle, and Beth as Cinderella. The trio appeared to be arguing about something. Spencer waved to get their attention, then signed. "Happy Halloween. You all make lovely princesses."

Beth gave him a suspicious look. "Not going to comment on the black Cinderella?"

"What for?" Spencer asked blankly. "There aren't any black Disney princesses for you to dress up as."

"At least you get it," Claire grumbled. "Everybody at school was giving her a hard time about it. So now we're trying to write a story about a deaf black asexual princess, since Disney needs way more diversity."

"The 1997 Cinderella may not be as widely publicized, but she exists!" Beth complained.

"Okay, but she's so obscure that you were the only one who knew about her, so we need more black princesses," Claire insisted.

"But now we can't decide if we should set our story in Africa or not," Jessica continued.

"There are black people outside Africa," Beth signed, gesturing to herself.

"But if we want to set this in a time when there were kings, queens, and princesses, weren't most black people living in Africa back then?" Jessica argued.

"That's a common misconception," Spencer replied. "There were in fact black people living on other continents during the Middle Ages. There's some debate as to whether Madragana of Portugal was a Moor or a Mozarab—"

"See?!" Beth interrupted, giving her friends a triumphant look.

"Why are you so opposed to setting the story in Africa?" Claire demanded. "Your parents are from Kenya!"

"But I'm American!"

"Disney already did an American princess with Pocahontas," Jessica pointed out. "And they've done China and Arabia too. They haven't done any African princesses."

"Fine, our princess can be Swahili," Beth agreed sullenly. Honestly, if her friends really wanted to be supportive, the least they could do would be to actually take her opinion into account.

"I've got some books on East African history, if you want to do some research," Spencer offered.

Jessica shook her head. "Dearest cousin, there is this wonderful invention called Google."

"All right." Spencer left them to it.

Jessica was surprised and slightly intrigued when she saw Spencer's message informing her that the team was off to Vegas. "Do you think you'll get a chance to see your mother?" she asked.

It was nearly an hour before Spencer responded. "Hopefully."

Jessica cast about for something else to say. "Tell her I say hi."

"I will."

Jessica set down her phone and absently scratched Bianca's ears. Although she'd met her Aunt Diana several times now, she still didn't feel as if she had an actual relationship with the woman. They might be biologically related, but she didn't really think of Aunt Diana as family. And yet, she knew Spencer cared deeply for his mother. So if Spencer was family, shouldn't that make Aunt Diana family? Jessica felt a sudden urge to reach out to her aunt and try to build a relationship.

Unfortunately, that was problematic when they lived on opposite sides of the country and Aunt Diana didn't have a cell phone. Jessica pondered the problem for several minutes before remembering that Spencer wrote daily letters to his mother. Jessica decided to start writing some letters of her own—maybe not daily, but regularly.

Dear Aunt Diana,

Today, it occurred to me that it's been more than three years since I found out about you and Spencer, and I still barely know you. I know that Spencer holds you in very high regard, and he has told me some stories about you from his childhood, but I want to learn about you from you. What do you like to do? Did you always want to be a teacher? Were you and my mother ever close? If so, why did you lose contact?

I don't know what Spencer's told you about me, so I'll tell you a bit about myself. I love animals. I want to become a biologist and study them. I also like reading, although I prefer fiction rather than the massive textbooks that Spencer seems to read for fun. I don't really like cars, after what happened to my parents. I think I might be the only person in my year who isn't excited to get a learner's permit when I turn sixteen. Which will happen on January 20th, by the way. Not that you have to get me anything, I have no idea if you get the chance to go shopping often. But if you do, I'd love another stuffed animal.

Anyway, I hope you'll send me a reply and tell me a bit more about yourself.

Love,

Jessica

When Jessica learned that Spencer had stayed in Vegas to look into a case from his childhood, she started spending her spare time in Garcia's office, curious to know how things turned out. Eventually, Garcia hung up her phone and turned to Jessica, an odd look on her face. "Does Reid talk about his father much?"

"No, why?"

"Because he seems disturbingly certain that his father is the killer, despite a total lack of hard evidence."

Jessica wasn't entirely certain what to make of that. "I know he's always harbored a grudge over his dad abandoning him, but I really have no idea if there was any more to it than that."

Garcia grimaced. "Well, now I get to dig through his dad's life to figure out if he's a pedophile."

Jessica winced…and then a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Do you think that sometime, you could maybe look through my mom's past and see if you can find anything about what happened between her and Aunt Diana?"

"Sure," Garcia agreed readily.

Surprisingly, Garcia found the answer to Jessica's question in the course of her digging into William Reid's past. "Oh boy," she muttered, the color draining from her face. She glanced at Jessica, debating whether or not to actually share what she'd found.

Jessica looked up. "Did you find something?"

Garcia sighed; Jessica had asked, so it was only fair that she receive her answer. "Yes, sweetie, I did. But you're not going to like it."

"Yeah, he googled me. That makes up for everything," Reid said sarcastically. "I'm gonna go get some air."

"Wait, Reid—" Garcia began.

"Too late, baby girl, he's gone," Morgan informed her.

"But I also found out what happened between his mom and Jessica's mom," Garcia protested.

"Unless it pertains to this case, I think it would be best to save that for another time," Rossi replied.

"Well…no, it doesn't," Garcia admitted. "At least, we don't think it does…"

"He's learned just about all he can emotionally handle right now," Morgan insisted. "The truth about his mom and Jessica's mom can wait. In the meantime, I've got another name for you to look up: Gary Brendan Michaels."

Jessica was still staring into space, trying to process the revelation, when Garcia nudged her and excitedly announced that JJ was in labor. Jessica joined JJ's escort to the hospital, but it wasn't enough to take her mind off of what she'd learned.

Eventually, Hotch sat next to her in the waiting room. "Do you want to talk about it?" he offered.

"I just can't believe my mother would do that," Jessica signed, somewhat dazed. "I…that…that doesn't sound like her. At all."

Hotch sighed. "From what I know of Reid's parents, I'm willing to bet there's a lot more to the story than what went down on paper."

"I sure hope so, because going by what Penelope found, I got the distinct impression my mom was the bad guy in that story." Jessica swallowed. "I really wish I could just ask her about it…"

Hotch awkwardly patted her on the shoulder, not quite sure how else to make her feel better.

"You're angry that I left," William stated. "And you're right to be."

"I've got a kid who's deaf and I've never let that drive me away," Spencer retorted.

William's eyes widened in surprise. "You have a kid? I have a grandkid?"

"No, you don't," Spencer snapped. "Mom's sister Vivian had a daughter, and when Vivian and her husband died, Jessica became my responsibility. You had already left by the time Jessica was born, so she's not even your niece."

"You're…you're raising Vivian's kid?" William said, an odd look on his face.

"Yes," Spencer confirmed, glaring at his father.

Inexplicably, William burst into laughter. "Well, I guess Fate does have a sense of humor."

Spencer frowned, bewildered. But before he could say anything further, Morgan knocked on the door. Spencer joined him in the main room, where Morgan informed him of the death of Gary Michaels.

"He's right, you know," Rossi commented after the sheriff left the room. "We don't have to run this print."

"Of course we do," Reid objected. "Whatever Michaels did, he deserved a fair trial."

"Reid, you wanted to know if your father killed Riley," Morgan said quietly. "All signs point to 'no'. You got what you need."

"What I need is the truth," Reid retorted.

Morgan took a deep breath. "Reid, if this print belongs to your dad, do you realize what that means?"

"It means that he's a murderer."

"It means he'll go away for a long time, for what may have been the most fatherly thing he ever did for you. Gary Michaels was a pedophile. You were a kid. You do the math, it's not hard to see why your father would have killed him."

"If he thought I was in danger, he should have gone to the police."

Morgan sighed. "All right, let me ask you this: what if it were Frank?"

Reid frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"What I said. What if it were Frank we'd found in that grave? What if it were Jessica who might very well have been saved by a bit of vigilante justice? Would you arrest your father for that?"

"What—I—"

"Can you look me in the eye, and tell me that when Jessica was kidnapped, there wasn't the slightest part of you that wanted to murder Frank with your bare hands?" Morgan pressed.

"…I wouldn't have actually done it," Reid said quietly.

"You sure about that? You didn't exactly get the opportunity," Morgan pointed out.

Reid wavered uncertainly.

"You hate your father for abandoning you. I get it," Rossi said softly. "I won't pretend to understand his reasons and I sure as hell don't approve. Nor am I condoning vigilante justice. But if this print matches, you won't be sending your father to jail for abandoning you. You'll be ruining his life for the crime of protecting you. Can you live with that?"

Reid was silent for a long time. At last, he slung his bag over his shoulder and headed to the door. "Let's get back to Vegas."

"Are we running the print?" Rossi prompted.

"What print?" Reid said blandly.

They had just finished packing up the case files in the Vegas precinct when both William and Diana Reid walked in. "Spencer, they were my clothes," Diana said.

Spencer gaped, and William shot Diana a worried look. "Can we discuss this somewhere more private?" William asked.

Captain Hyde graciously granted them the use of his office, and Spencer warily followed his parents inside. Once the door was shut, Diana explained the whole story of how Lou Jenkins had murdered Gary Michaels, and her unintentional role in the crime. William then took up the story to explain how he'd covered it up, and why he'd eventually left.

"What's done is done," Diana said quietly. She turned back to her son. "At least now you know the truth."

Spencer swallowed, tears in his eyes. "I was wrong about everything. I'm sorry."

Diana pulled Jessica's letter out of her pocket. "There's one more thing you deserve to know the truth about. You and your cousin both."

Spencer sniffled and looked up. "Vivian?"

Diana nodded. "As I said before, I went off my meds while I was pregnant with you. At first, Vivian was fully supportive. She was so excited to be an aunt. But then one day…I don't remember exactly what happened. I had an episode, and I lashed out at her. And just like that, her attitude changed. It didn't matter to her that I was going to go back on my meds as soon as you were born. She knew my disease would only get worse with time, and she was adamant that I shouldn't be around you unsupervised. Yes, your dad was still with us at the time, but he couldn't be home 24/7. Vivian suggested that she adopt you, and she'd let us have regular visitation rights. We refused. We both wanted to be parents so badly, we weren't about to give you up for anything. So Vivian took us to court."

"She took you to court?" Spencer repeated, shocked.

"She tried to sue for custody of you," William chimed in. "The judge ruled in our favor. But I didn't trust her to let it go. Not after all she'd done to try to take you away from us. So, after a considerable amount of arguing with your mother, we took out a restraining order against Vivian. Vivian left town after that, and we never heard from her again."

Spencer swallowed, wiping at his eyes. "I-I don't know what to say."

"She was only trying to do what she thought was best for you," Diana continued. "You make sure Jessica knows that. I've forgiven Vivian, though I wish things had turned out differently."

Spencer nodded slowly, still reeling.

William sat next to Spencer and gently put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry for everything. But I know you'll turn out to be a better parent than I was."

Meeting baby Henry went a long way toward lightening Spencer's mood. Jessica was happy to meet the baby too, but the topic of her mother was never far from her mind. When the cousins got back to their apartment, she was fully prepared to bring up the subject, but Spencer beat her to it. He dropped his bag by the couch and gave Jessica a very serious look. "We need to talk."

"Penelope told you what she found out about our parents?" Jessica guessed.

Spencer blinked in surprise. "No, actually, my parents told me what happened. What exactly did Garcia tell you?"

"That my mother tried to sue for custody of you, the judge ruled in your parents' favor, and your parents took out a restraining order against her. Apparently, she was so convinced your mother wasn't fit to raise you that she actually tried to take you away."

Spencer sighed and sank onto the couch. "It wasn't quite that simple. She initially talked to my parents about adopting me and letting them be in my life. She only took them to court after they refused. And…I'm not entirely sure I blame her. She got worried after my mother 'lashed out' at her during an episode. She was afraid my mother would one day do the same to me."

A horrible suspicion formed in Jessica's mind. "And…did she?"

Spencer stared at the ground, swallowing uncomfortably. When he finally looked up, he looked both exhausted and sad. "I always knew it wasn't really her. I never held it against her."

"Did she ever…hurt you?" Jessica asked warily.

"Just a few bruises on thankfully rare occasions. It was never anywhere near as bad as what kids did to me at school."

Jessica swallowed nervously. It sounded to her like her mother had been very right to worry, but given Spencer's fierce loyalty to his own mother, she didn't think he would appreciate her saying so.

Spencer sighed again. "I know what you're thinking. I know my mother wasn't fit to raise me. Honestly, I wish your mother had been around to take me in and get Mom the help she needed. If I'd had any idea there was a relative out there that might be willing to help…but that's in the past now. I don't hate your mother for what she tried to do. And my mother asked me to tell you that she doesn't either. She knows your mother was only trying to look out for me."

Jessica grimaced. "And I'm glad to know she didn't just arbitrarily try to steal her own sister's baby. When Penelope first told me that, I was kinda hoping your dad would turn out to be guilty, because then I'd know Mom was right to be worried. You've always made it clear how much you love your mother, I just couldn't imagine that she would actually…"

"Most of the time, her delusions made her want to protect me, not hurt me," Spencer assured. "And luckily for her, she never remembered it afterwards. She thought I was just clumsy, and I never corrected her."

"It must have been awful."

Spencer shrugged. "It was what it was. I had plenty of bigger problems to worry about."

Jessica frowned in thought. "If things had gone differently, you could have essentially been my big brother."

"If things had gone differently, your mother might never have moved to Boston and met your father," Spencer pointed out.

Jessica's eyes widened. "I exist because our mothers had a massive falling-out over you," she realized, disturbed.

"If enduring the childhood that I did means that you got to be born, it was worth it," Spencer stated. He pulled Jessica into a hug, which she readily returned.