Autistic Spencer Reid

Chapter 5

Whilst researching Spencer had come across lots of information about ODD and CD, including the contributing factors to both. The behaviour of an adult who has ODD or CD was a lot harder to find out but from researching the child's behaviour he could deduce what would be expected when the child became an adult.

The team gathered in the conference room again to share what they had all discovered. 

"Mr and Mrs Johnson were quite reserved and didn't share a lot about Michelle, but it seems like she doesn't have any problems in school. Her grades are steady and she regularly goes out with her friends to football games and coffee shops, she also hosts a few study groups before exams. She seems to be trying really hard to reach her goals. Her parents did say that they hadn't really spoken to her much in the past few weeks though, and they haven't heard from her brother since he left when he turned 18" JJ explained.

"But they did mention that Frederick has a friend's house up near the mountains that he visited loads before he left, and that he could be there," Emily continued.

Hotch turned to Morgan and gave him a slight nod to share what he had discovered since their last meeting.

"Well, both Michelle and Mary started a placement in the same school and had only been there a short time. I think that this may be intentional by the unsub, he probably went there when he was younger," Morgan voiced.

"I think that's extremely likely. From my research, both ODD and CD tend to influence a child quite a bit. The child has temper tantrums, becomes defiant to any requests and that turns into aggression. ODD can be seen through the disagreements with teachers, parents and peers and this causes the child to become unliked and isolates them, resulting in them lashing out more frequently. CD, however, typically involves repetitive and persistent violations of the rights of others, destruction of property and theft. If neither of these are managed quickly then it would result in antisocial personality disorder. From what I've seen, there's a big indication that the unsub has developed antisocial personality disorder. With this disorder, the people around him would definitely have seen it. The unsub likely has a criminal record, and probably has an incident with animals in his juvenile record. He would have truanted during his school life and has likely experimented with substance abuse, which may have contributed to his criminal record. I'd start there," Spencer concluded. 

Spencer has started happy stimming whilst explaining what he'd found, but his tag on the back of his shirt was beginning to scratch him, and the fabric of the chair was irritating the backs of his arms. He tried reorganising his limbs so he was sitting on one of his legs, it didn't look comfortable but it provided some pressure he desperately needed.

He didn't want to become overwhelmed again so he took a few deep breaths. He was already exhausted from his meltdown a few hours earlier, maybe he hadn't given himself enough time to recover. His knee started bouncing up and down and he started fidgeting with his hands, the anxiety of knowing something was about to happen in front of his teammates just exasperated his stimming. He knew he was spiraling now, he just had to get out of there. The lights were buzzing and he could hear the water cooler just outside the door. The mumbling of voices from around the table were becoming more muffled.

He abruptly stood up and walked out of the room. He was squinting now and he placed the headphones from earlier onto his head, he was still attempting to prevent this from going any further. 

Morgan stood and made an attempt to follow Spencer, worrying about his friend. Hotch reached out and cupped Morgan's elbow, showing him that he didn't need to go after Spencer. Morgan sat back down but had a concerned look on his face.

"He'll be okay in a bit, just give him time," Hotch said.

"Why, what happened? What did I miss, nothing happened. I don't understand," Emily began to panic at the thought of something happening to Spencer that she wasn't aware of.