Autistic Spencer Reid

Chapter 12

Sorry it's been so long, I've had exams and haven't had a chance to write, but I'm back!

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"I'll take him home, can you let Hotch know please?" Morgan asked, gathering Spencer's things and tapping Spencer awake. He'd been sleeping about 20 minutes at this point but everyone still had work to do before the end of the day so neither Emily nor Morgan had much choice in the matter. If it were up to Morgan he'd stay there with Spencer sleeping against his chest all day.

"Yeah sure, he doesn't look like he's slept for weeks, or eaten. You might want to make sure he eats something before you leave," Emily walked out, leaving Morgan and Spencer still sitting on the floor.

"Come on pretty boy, let's get you home and fed, then you can sleep." He tapped Spencer a few more times before he roused and blinked awake. Although, you couldn't really call him fully conscious. His eyes were unfocused and he was mumbling whilst trying to lay back down to sleep.

"Boy genius, I will carry you out of here like a child if you're unwilling to walk yourself." This jolted Spencer awake and he tried to scramble to his feet to get going as fast as he could.

"Not so fast, you're going to be dizzy in a second and fall. Come back please" Morgan had a smile on his face and Spencer walked back over in defeat.

Derek slung Spencer's bag over his shoulder and put his other around Spencer's waist, supporting his increasing weight as he started to slide downwards towards the floor.

"I've got you, come on, sit on the edge of the desk and when you feel more stable we'll walk to my car. I'll drive you home, make some food and put you to bed." Spencer began to protest but Derek just put his finger up and raised his eyebrows.

"Okay, you don't have to though. Thanks," Spencer stared intently at the floor, he hated having to need people.

"Let me know when you're ready to walk and we'll get going," Derek perched next to Spencer watching to make sure he wasn't going to faint.

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Emily knocked on Hotch's door, waiting for a sound of approval to enter.

"Come in," Hotch sat at his desk with files and paper spread around him. They weren't given a case today so they all had needed to use that time to catch up on any overdue or unfinished paperwork.

"Hey Hotch, Reid needs to go home, I think he's all caught up on his paperwork but I thought I'd just check in with you first," Emily didn't really want to share too much with Hotch as she didn't want him to think that Spencer wasn't ready to come back to work. 

Hotch frowned and opened his mouth to say something, quickly closing it and looking back at his desk. The hesitation wasn't missed by Prentiss and she stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Is everything okay, sir?" Emily questioned, she would normally let this go but it was very rarely that Hotch hesitated this obviously.

"Is Reid okay? It's been a very stressful week where a lot has come to light. I'm not saying he was hiding it from us, but he didn't exactly willingly share everything, it was forced out of him. I worry about him, does he not think he can share these things? Does he not think we would accept him because he's autistic? Did he think he wouldn't be allowed in the field or would be restricted if he told us he was having health issues? It's been months, why didn't he say anything?" Hotch's frown was getting deeper and deeper the more he went on, letting everything off of his chest after clearly holding it all in for so long. He finally looked up to Emily and saw her look of sympathy and surprise, she hadn't expected him to be so open and vulnerable so quickly. She also hadn't known that he was so concerned about it.

"Honestly, I don't know. He doesn't seem to be talking to anyone except for a few brief conversations here and there. I think he may have been ignoring any health issues and hoping they'd just go away, you know how he is. But Morgan will be taking him home so hopefully he'll open up a bit," Emily tried to be reassuring but she'd never had to comfort Hotch before and didn't really know what would work.

"Okay, thanks. And he's fine to go home, I wouldn't stop him from doing that, he's here before most of us and leaves after we do most days anyway. May I ask why he needs to go home though?" Hotch tried to make it seem like he wasn't too invested but it was eating away at him not knowing what had happened that would mean that Reid and to go home, it's not very often that it happened afterall.

Emily shifted in her seat a bit, uncomfortable about sharing what had just happened with Spencer. She didn't really like the idea of sharing such a vulnerable side of Reid, or possibly have his professionalism questioned. But it was Hotch, and she knew that he had helped Spencer when this had happened a week ago.

"He, um... He had a meltdown. People were constantly asking him if he was okay, whether he was feeling better, and I think it just got a bit too much for him." Emily had tried to keep the explanation brief, but once she'd started talking it was like she didn't want to stop, her worries and concerns spilling out. "He'd been really jumpy and agitated today so I had asked if he was okay, Morgan later told me that Reid had been asked this many times already this morning, but I didn't know that otherwise I wouldn't have asked. I didn't mean to cause it, really. But he just worries me so much. He's losing weight, he looks like he hasn't slept in weeks, whatever the heart thing is, it's been worse this week, which he said means that it's flaring and that it's normal. But I don't know how to help him, and he won't talk to anyone..."

Emily trailed off realising she had been ranting for a while. She looked up to her boss and saw the same look of sympathy she'd given him earlier.

"Prentiss... Emily, it's not your fault that he had a meltdown. I've done some research and from what I can tell it's not just one thing that causes it, it's a build up of many things. Someone compared it to a glass filling with water and one final drop causing it to spill over. It's not your fault. I think we all need to talk to him, he can't keep going on like this anyway, he needs to know that we're there for him. I'll speak to him myself first and see where to go from there. Thank you Emily." Hotch looked back down at his files, signalling for Emily to leave.

"Thank you sir, I'll let Reid know that he's okay to go home."

Emily walked out of Hotch's office and pulled out her phone, sending a quick text to Morgan to let him know that he was fine to take Reid home.

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Thank you for reading, let me know if you have any suggestions!