Retribution, A Spencer Reid/Criminal Minds Fanfic

Chapter 72. Quiet Conversations

The doctor took Melinda into one of the unoccupied bedrooms.

Reid and Ana tried to follow him, but before they could enter he closed the door with a decisive click and a parting thought. Listen in, if you wish. But do NOT interfere. And do NOT tag along where I take her. You have my word your child will come to no harm in my presence. And I will tell you everything I discover about her afterwards.

The young parents gave each other uneasy looks, but didn’t object. They had a feeling to do so would have been a gesture both useless and disrespectful. A bit like questioning the wind, or the ocean, or Mother Nature herself. There was too little common ground for them to debate the doctor’s means or methods. He was beyond them.

They retreated to a corner of the sofa. Resuming their seats, their hands crept together, twining fingers and wondering if their daughter was beyond them as well.

xxxxxxx

The doctor cradled Melinda in his arms, gazing down into her amber eyes and letting her inspect him in return as much as she wished. They were getting acquainted, paving the road they would take together with trust before venturing forth upon it. To an onlooker they would have seemed to be nothing more remarkable than a grandfather…or perhaps great-great-grandfather…holding the latest addition to his family.

But the semblance of something ordinary stopped there. Beneath the surface they were uncommonly extraordinary.

Slowly, with the lightest of touches, the doctor explored the images and experiences drifting through Melinda’s mind. He let himself sample her feelings and thought patterns. He traveled her short journey in this world. He looked through timelines and convergences that might impact her…or had in the past.

She in turn tugged at his emotions and challenged his abilities without once exhibiting resistance or rebellion. She was exploring him, too, but there was too much for her to absorb. So she settled on the wonderfully perfect images of Partly Him, Partly Her and Beautiful Him. Like the bed Goldilocks had chosen in a tale her mother had yet to read her, they were j-u-u-u-st right.

She gave a tiny sigh of contentment.

The doctor had been most concerned with the power that had injured Hotch’s psyche. However, when he’d felt the burst of energy as Melinda lashed out at Bescardi, he’d realized that Aaron’s damage was nothing in comparison. In Aaron’s case, no action had been taken to provoke the child. It was simply the aftereffect of her passage through his mind. She hadn’t meant to hurt him and was, as yet, unaware that she had.

So…that is where we start. The ancient eyes closed. Come with me, little one. There is something I must show you.

He used the images he’d preserved during his hours with Hotch. He placed them before Melinda, creating an animated progression from a psyche whole and happy to a psyche burned and in pain. He debated the wisdom of showing her more. When he sensed comprehension in the child, he decided to risk it.

The lesson MUST be taught, or Aaron will fall prey again. She loves him too much to leave him alone right now. But with understanding, with knowledge, she might love him enough to consign herself to living outside his mind.

The doctor showed Melinda the effects of what such damage, left untreated, could do to Hotch. When he finished, he showed her what Beautiful Him was like now. Pale. Silent. Still. Not the warm, affectionate, welcoming presence she associated with him.

It took some time, but in the end, the doctor thought the child grasped the lesson he was trying to teach, to illustrate with psychic portraits of Aaron. Pictures of cause and effect. Pictures from before and after his contact with Melinda.