Evolution, a Spencer Reid/Criminal Minds Fanfic

Chapter 7. A Different Shade of Friendship

Hotch didn't know he'd been holding his breath. But when Reid's anxiety ebbed and he beamed a big smile at J.J., the Unit Chief exhaled, feeling the tension drain from his own body. Looking at Rossi, he saw a similar reaction.

"One down. Three to go." Hotch turned back to J.J. "What do you think'd be easiest on Reid: one on one, or a team meeting?"

J.J. was staring at the doctor, shaking her head in the small, nonstop way that denotes stunned disbelief. But she still had a faint smile. That was the most important thing to Reid.

"J.J.?" Hotch tried to break her out of her shocked trance.

"Huh? What?"

"What's your vote on how we tell the others? Or should we tell them at all? J.J.!"

"Uh...yeah...sorry." She tried to refocus, but couldn't stop the head shake. "Guys, Hotch...I have no idea where to go with this." She turned and looked down into the bullpen. Morgan seemed to be working. Prentiss stared openly. J.J. wasn't the prescient one, but even she could see that Prentiss was probably wishing for a pair of binoculars so she could read lips.

"I think if you don't tell Prentiss soon, we'll have to put Reid into protective custody. And she'll still find a way to get at him."

The others followed J.J.'s gaze. Morgan bent even closer to his work. Prentiss, the queen of confrontation, met the group head-on and went them one better. She sat up straighter and raised her eyebrows in challenge.

"Clearly, she's waiting for an invitation." Rossi projected his best stern look. Prentiss wasn't impressed; she crossed her arms and stood up.

"Kind of hard to take her without Morgan. Not when they're three feet apart." Hotch glanced at Reid and J.J., and made an executive decision. Opening the office door, he stepped out onto the catwalk. "Morgan, Prentiss...a word."

Morgan looked up cautiously. Prentiss was bounding up the stairs almost before Hotch had finished speaking. She brushed past him, scanning the faces around the room for any hints. Morgan followed more slowly, but looked just as curious.

"So what is it? Where've you been, Reid? What's been going on for the last few days, huh?" Prentiss always moved faster than the world around her. She was the type to stand in front of a microwave and scream at it to 'hurry.'

"Reid's been having some medical evaluations done." Hotch began, but remembered the scare J.J. had suffered, envisioning the possibility of terminal illness. "Nothing physical. Just...testing...for some other stuff." He hoped that would put them at ease right from the start. He was wrong.

"Oh, my God, Reid." Prentiss brought her hand to her face, much as J.J. had done at the prospect of cancer. "Your mother. Oh, no. You didn't inherit...You're not..."

Morgan looked tragic. "Kid,...no..."

Great job circumventing unnecessary worry! Hotch kicked himself. He vowed the next time something like this came up, he'd just blurt out the facts. Then he realized there was no chance of something like this ever coming up again. Ever. In a million years.

J.J. stood by Reid and took his arm.

"Not like that either." Her voice was soft and serene and did more to quell anxiety than any explanation. Drawing on her support, Reid spoke.

"I'm not crazy. Actually, they did do a few tests for that." He was spurred on by Morgan's concern and Prentiss' impatience. "It turns out I have some kind of...different...abilities." Silence. "Weird things I can do because my brain is...well,...weird."

"Say what?" Morgan's eyes flicked from Reid to Hotch and back.

"He's got ESP." Rossi decided to cut through the drama and lay everything out. "He can do things, know things, science can't explain."

"Say what?!" Morgan's communication skills took a nosedive.

"You mean like see-the-future and move-stuff-without-touching-it kinds of things?" Prentiss actually looked excited.

"As far as we can tell, he sometimes knows what people are thinking, and he can pick up information by...touching...things." Hotch tried to put the least alarming spin on Reid's talents he could.

"Oh, wow." Prentiss' eyes sparkled with interest. "This is gonna be one strange, wild ride from here on out, isn't it?!" Reid ducked his head, glad when J.J. gripped his arm harder. Prentiss sounded a little too eager. He wondered if visions of Atlantic City were indeed fueling some of her enthusiasm, as J.J. had predicted.

But everyone forgot about Prentiss' potential plots when Morgan closed his eyes, and, chanting a heartfelt "No...no...no...," pushed his way out of the crowded office onto the catwalk and disappeared from view.

xxxxxxx

Silence followed Morgan's precipitous departure. Reid looked as though he'd been punched in the heart. As the others moved closer to him, offering the comfort of company, Hotch noted that Morgan hadn't gone down the stairs. He would have been visible crossing the bullpen if he had. So he has to be in my office. Hotch was in pursuit within seconds.

Sure enough, he could see Morgan pacing behind the slatted blinds on his office windows. He went in and closed the door...vigorously...catching Morgan's attention.

"You better have a good reason for what you just did, Agent." Hotch's voice was the soul of ice. "You know what they call people like Reid? Sensitives. He's more vulnerable and more in need of support than ever before in his life. You know this team is his family. What are you so afraid of that you'd treat a family member like that? As though you can't stand to be in the same room with him?" Morgan looked even more shocked than he had at Reid's announcement. Then he rallied at the Unit Chief's attack.

"Hotch, what's he gonna do now? How's he gonna have any of the things he wants, he's been dreaming about since I've known him?"

"Explain." Hotch's tone told Morgan it better be good.

Morgan took a moment to gather his thoughts, to find a way to verbalize them when he'd never done so before; they'd always lived an unspoken existence in his heart.

"Hotch, do you remember the first time you and Haley brought Jack in for everyone to see?" Morgan saw the shift in his leader's eyes as the memory took him. "You were holding this little, tiny thing in your arms. You looked scared, man. Terrified. But you also were the most purely happy person I've ever seen, before or since, in these walls." Morgan moved nearer, spoke forcefully, but quietly.

"You should've seen the look on Reid's face. He wanted what you had: a family; a woman who loves him. He wants to be a father someday. How's he supposed to do any of that now?" Morgan went to one of the leather chairs facing Hotch's desk and dropped into it.

"It was hard enough for him before...when he was just too smart. Now? Now he's so out there, that he's never gonna find common ground with anyone. Hotch, he's gonna be alone for the rest of his life. Forever. And if he didn't know it before, he sure as hell knows it now."

Hotch sat on the edge of his desk, facing Morgan. He rubbed his forehead and considered the speech he'd just heard. It hadn't worked out for him and Haley, but Morgan was right. He'd been the happiest man in the world for a time. He wouldn't trade that for anything. The memories were his forever. Just as they would likely be denied Reid forever. Hotch raised his head and looked Morgan in the eye.

"Right now Reid thinks you can't even be near him, let alone be his friend and teammate. What I'm hearing is you're just worried about him. Am I right?"

"More than worried, Hotch."

Hotch held up a hand. "I get it. But I need to know if you can still work with him; still treat him like part of the team?"

Morgan nodded. "Of course I can. But how do I help him now? I've tried to show him how to fit in and how to talk to girls and...all kinds of normal stuff. How can I show him how to be a normal guy now?"

"Sounds like you've been setting yourself up to be his teacher." Hotch's voice lost its aggressive edge. The Unit Chief softened.

"Maybe it's time to just be his friend."