Broken Goods - Criminal Minds - Spencer Reid

A Family Unit

"Spencer!" I yelled up the stairs, drying off my hands on the tea towel. "Are you both ready yet?"

"Almost!"

I smiled and shook my head, walking back to the kitchen.

On my way, I habitually looked to the mantelpiece at the wedding photo taken a year and a half prior, noting again that Penelope had done a marvelous job with my hair and makeup, even I looked passable in the Halloween inspired get-up.

Next to that picture was our first picture with Nicholas, a two-year-old with dark brown waves and shining blue eyes, taken on the day that we had picked him up to bring him home.

The adoption process had taken up a collective ten months, which we could have timed better giving that we were looking into the process and fees while also preparing for a wedding but it had all been worth it in the end.

He'd been living with us for five months and things were going swimmingly.

Spencer had immediately taken to the role of dad and doted on the boy, he'd been eager to spend weekends shopping for what we'd need months in advance before we had even been approved.

He had taken to Nicholas nearly immediately upon setting eyes on him, as we attended the Adoption Activity Day taking place after our home study had been accepted, he had been sat in a play area, plunking away at a toy piano like he was a mini Beethoven.

Although we kept ourselves open during the day and kept our minds open, Spencer's heart seemed pretty set on Nicholas and after a couple of days of deliberating we contacted our caseworker to put in an inquiry about him.

The wait for a response was excruciating and every ping of a phone or new email turned us into anxious messes.

We hadn't been this nervous since the home study, even though we both knew that there was nothing to be too anxious about.

Sure, there were perhaps some things that could pose a minor issue like Spencer's hectic work schedule and the nature of his job, but we were candid with everything on the agency profile and managed to pass, which lead to better nights of sleep.

As we waited, we would receive little packets of information about Nicholas, which was when we learned that he was suspected of being autistic and thus we had to discuss between ourselves and with the care worker if we still wished to progress forward with the adoption should we be picked.

Luckily, we could afford for me to leave my barely there shifts at work to focus on being a fulltime carer if needs must.

We thought for sure that our chances were squandered after the conversation and went back to sleepless nights of fretting and overthinking.

The afternoon we received the phone call to say that our report had gone through was one of the best days of our lives, many tears were shed and many tight hugs were given.

We'd been accepted.

We were going to adopt an adorable boy into the Reid family if we still wished to proceed.

The period between starting the one on one meetings with Nicholas and having him finally move in with us flew by and before we knew it, we had the tiny plinks of a plastic piano filling our days.

"You're going to be late!" I yelled from the kitchen just as thunders of footsteps came downstairs.

"Sorry," Spencer said, sounding out of breath and holding a grinning Nicholas in his arms, "I couldn't find his other shoe and by the time I had he'd taken one of his socks off, so that was another battle."

I laughed and pressed a kiss to each of their cheeks, "A little troublemaker already."

"He must get that from you."