Author: mystic
Title: Education
Rating: FRT
Type of Pairing/Relationship: GEN …but it's RHPS related so if you are offended by slashy-goodness you may want to skip
DISCLAIMER: Criminal Minds and its characters are in no way mine, and, assuming you don't count my borderline obsession with it, I have absolutely notta to do with the show or CBS or anything else related.
Summary: Okay, I was really bored so here it is the other of the two ideas for a silly fluffish fic involving Reid and RHPS.
And as with it's predecessor if you don't know RHPS it probably won't make much sense.
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This was not a place one would expect to find Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid. Yet, here he was with this motley group of people… and enjoying it. The idea of Reid in any social situation was odd enough given his self-admitted awkwardness, but what was most surprising was the glowing smile plastered on his face and the free-rolling laughter that accompanied it.
This was one of Reid's few solaces, one he took care not to share with his co-workers. He didn't often indulge in such things, but he knew he needed it from time to time.
People who thought Spencer Reid was wound so tight he could launch a small satellite if he were ever to let go would have had quite a shock. He knew how to relax, admittedly he was almost eighteen before he found his outlet and then it was unintentional. He'd been working on a thesis proposal for his sociology doctorate studying subcultures and their ritualistic behaviors. Research and curiosity had led him here, well not "here" but to this environment, this counter culture.
At first he'd been horrified; he thought he'd prepared himself with his research. He knew most of the rituals and the variations of them, but seeing them so enthusiastically acted out and being physically a part of them was mesmerizing and somehow thrilling. Needless to say his first experience here left a lasting impression- just as it had for thousands of others.
What most fascinated him though were the feelings he felt afterwards, the calmness and warmth. Of all the possible responses, familial ones had not been in his expectations, nor had he come across anything similar in his research. Part of his brain filed facts away cataloging and preparing them for academic use, while another more sensitive part was reveling in the sheer contentment it left him with. He hadn't felt that relaxed in… months… years…
The analytical part of Reid's mind, once given back control, had started the why's and how's of his experience. Given that he was treating these people as a subculture all their own it made a certain amount of sense that the group would take on a tribal family feel such as those found in Native American or African cultures.
But why?
What brought the eclectic hodgepodge of people, whose paths would otherwise never have crossed, together?
Reid had mulled that question over for days, weeks actually, before he gave in and returned to the scene (as it were). This time he was able to push past the surprise and raucousness of his surroundings to play his necessary role as observer.
On that second visitation a glimmer of an idea began to form- one that would take one more such outing to complete, and several more to bring to fruition. But he knew if he was correct he had more than just his thesis.
After his third trip, what had started as a glimmer became a blinding torch. Family- pure and simple, that was the answer. These people came here and shared humiliation that all had been through- no wonder they called it "initiation", it truly was an initiation into an extensive ever growing non-judgmental, if unconventional, family clan. It didn't matter who you were, your social class, age, education, orientation, whatever you were you were accepted.
More and more during his university days he'd found himself 'here', whenever he was having problems focusing, problems with his peers, problems with his mother's health. In many ways he thought he owed his sanity- such as it was- to this place and these people. Which was why, now 24 and a profiler with the FBI, he still found himself being drawn to the theatre on occasion. He wasn't 'cast' and generally stayed on the side lines, still he got what he needed from it- comfort.