Returned

Chapter 8

Spencer watched as their three captors were loaded into the back of a SWAT van. Chris was muttering to himself while Tommy and Peter stayed quiet. Strauss was there, assuring the team that the three of them would have death penalties to make sure they couldn't harm anyone again.

"We had another team look into Chris' past, along with his brother, they had two friends who seemed to be planning this ever since Reid killed Phillip Dowd." Strauss explained, watching as the SWAT van drove away.

"As long as they're all dead." Rossi said, a cold tone in his voice. Strauss patted his shoulder and walked off to check on things with the station. JJ, Emily and Garcia had already left, them having minimal injuries and JJ needing to get back to her family. Hotch was leaning against the ambulance door next to Morgan as they were both getting looked over.

"We're all gonna need a lot of time off." Morgan said with a sad chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Strauss will give us a few months," Hotch looked over to where Spencer was sitting, "Spencer will probably get a little longer." Morgan nodded in agreement.

"I'm proud of him." Morgan almost whispered, a small smile coming onto his face.

"Me too, he's tougher than he looks." The unit chief matched Morgan's smile, looking over at the youngest agent.

"I'm gonna go see how he's doing." Morgan announced, walking over to Spencer. Hotch watched as Morgan slipped an arm around the young agent. He smiled at them as Morgan's head rested on top of Reid's. Aaron felt proud of both of them and walked off to find Strauss and Rossi.

"You okay Spence?" Morgan asked, his hand playing with the shorter hairs on Reid's head.

"I'm fine." Spencer kept his gaze ahead, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"You don't have to lie to me, you know that kid?"

"Of course Morgan, it's just... I hated seeing what they did to you guys. This mess was my fault anyway, you guys shouldn't have been dragged into it." Morgan's fingers lifted Spencer's chin up, making the younger man look at him.

"Spencer, none of this is your fault. You didn't ask for this and you never saw this coming, none of us did." The older man have Spencer a small smile before Reid wrapped his arms around Morgan's neck, engulfing him in a tight hug. It took Derek by shock but he responded quickly, wrapping his arms around Spencer's waist and pulling him close.

"Thanks Morgan." Spencer mumbled against Derek's neck.

"I love you, kid." Morgan half whispered as they pulled away, Spencer grinning before Derek was pulled into an uncoordinated kiss. Morgan smiled against Reid's mouth, returning the kiss before pulling away after a few minutes.

"I love you too, Morgan." Spencer gave the older man a small smile as he hugged him again. They didn't pull away until they had to head back home.

Hotch, Rossi, Morgan and Reid all jumped into an SUV, letting Strauss drive. Rossi was upfront, talking about what they'd missed while they'd been gone, Spencer was in the middle of the backseat, his head resting on Morgan's left shoulder while Hotch was looking out the window. Spencer sighed before feeling his eyes start to shut and it wasn't long until he was fast asleep on Morgan's shoulder.

0_0

5 months later

Spencer watched as the team laughed and joked with each other. A lot had happened to them, and he was finally glad they were able to celebrate something good. Chris, Peter and Tommy were long dead, the team and Strauss made sure of that. It had been a hard few months but they were all doing better, especially Spencer.

"Come on, Spence, open your present." JJ urged the younger agent on as the other team members all drank and ate. Spencer stood up from his position on the floor to grab his present from under the tree, his being the last one under there.

It was a medium rectangular box. Not very deep but it was quite wide. He carefully tore the wrapping paper off, neatly tearing off strips. He could feel his eyes welling up with tears as he finally unwrapped it. The frame was pure black but that wasn't what caught Spencer's attention. In the middle of the frame, there was a picture of the whole team with the tag line 'Family'. He let a tear fall as he looked at the smiling faces in the picture and felt an arm wrap around him.

"I'm guessing you like it." Emily said from across the room, sitting on a couch next to Rossi.

"I.. I love it, it's beautiful. Thank you guys." Spencer sniffled, smiling at the picture.

"We thought we'd let you know subtly that we are your family, Spencer, and we all love you," Penelope eyes Morgan playfully, "some in a different way but still, we all care about you, don't forget that boy wonder." Penelope spoke, stroking a hand through Reid's hair.

Spencer stood up, placing the photo on the fireplace, smiling at it as he ran his finger over the frame. He sat down, listening to his friends talk and joke, joining in on a few occasions. Reid knew that things were different, he knew that some things were going to stay with him for life, but he also knew that he had support, people who cared who him, people who loved him, and that was all that mattered. Sure, he may flinch at certain things and they can't take certain cases but they knew and understood that trauma this extreme wasn't something that he could just get over. Spencer knew they cared for him, more than most things and...

Spencer knew he had found his family...

At last.

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Sorry this took so long, but writers block and all that jazz.

Buttttt, this series is now finished...

I really hoped you enjoyed it and I'm sorry that this one isn't as long as my other one.

I'd like to thank My good friend Allison (an Instagram friend) for supporting me through the first book and a little through this one.

I may start a new series but who knows yet 🤷🏼‍♀️

Feel free to check out any of my other books

Thank you all so much for reading my story, I'm kinda sad that this series has come to an end but, there's always hope for more.

Jay