[Criminal Minds fanfiction] Time will show
Title: Time will show
Rating: PG
Genre: Missing Scene
Characters: Spencer Reid, Dave Rossi, Derek Morgan
Spoilers: 4x07 Memoriam
Warnings: none if you saw the episode
Summary: He had wanted to know the truth. Can he deal with the repercussions to his family now that he had uncovered it?
All characters are property of CBS, Jeff Davis, Edward Allen Bernero and sadly not mine. I just play with them a little and then hand them back to their owners.
Special thanks to my dear friend Sarah for all her help and encouragement and being my beta. Thanks to everyone who read and/or reviewed one of my others stories.
“A belief is not true because it’s useful.” Swiss philosopher Henri-Frédéric Amiel
“What makes you think Gary Michaels killed your boy?”
Propped up with his arms on the table in the interrogation room Reid was looking at Riley’s father, Lou Jenkins, waiting for an answer to Morgan’s question.
Even though it was pretty much proven that his father hadn’t killed the Jenkins’s boy, the young agent was still very determined to get to the bottom of the story.
There had to be an explanation for the bloody clothes and his dad’s behavior during the interrogation. Maybe his father played a part in killing Gary Michaels, despite Mr. Jenkins claim a few moments ago that he had done it all alone.
But that just couldn’t be the truth.
William Reid had done something. Of that Spencer was sure. He just had to get it out of the kid’s father. But that proved to be rather difficult since their suspect seemed to be constantly lying, which resulted in his growing anger.
“He admitted it,” Lou now responded, his gaze lowered to the table’s surface.
“You beat a guy with a baseball bat, he’s gonna admit to a lot of things. How do you know he was the right guy?” Derek asked further.
When Riley’s father answered, his voice was low. “I know.”
Frustrated, Reid straightened up and stepped away a few feet, partially turning his back to the two men, only vaguely noticing that Jenkins was looking at him while continuing, “He approached another kid in the neighborhood.”
That triggered a flashback with Reid, the same one he had gotten when he had discovered Gary Michaels’ file on the floor of his hotel room: A dark-haired man wearing glasses approaching him at a chess table in the park.
Still not able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together he slowly turned around again while he heard his fellow agent asking, “And how do you know that?”
“I was told by a concerned party,” came the reply.
“Who, another parent?” Derek wanted to know.
The young agent’s flashback of the bespectacled man was clearer now than it had ever been. And he got the feeling that the kid Jenkins was talking about had been him.
While Spencer was distracted by his thoughts, their suspect stated,”That’s all I’m gonna say on the subject.”
Ignoring that, Reid slowly took a few steps forward and asked in a low voice, “Who was it?”
“I told you, that’s all I’m gonna say on the-“
“Who was it?” the genius interrupted him forcefully, bending forward into the older man’s personal space.
He didn’t get an answer because the door opened and Detective Hyde appeared in the frame. “Agent Reid?”
Turning around angrily at the interruption, the young profiler ordered with his finger pointed at the cop, “Do not interfere with this interrogation, Detective, this is not your case anymore!”
Instead of answering, Hyde stepped aside, revealing none other than Diana Reid.
“Spencer, it was me,” she told him calmly and William appeared next to her.
Both Morgan and Jenkins were watching them and the black agent was as shocked by that statement as his teammate.
The young man stared open-mouthed at his parents, stunned by what he had just heard. For a moment he felt like he had to sit down before his knees would give out.
Even though he was standing behind his friend, Derek could see that, so he quickly got up and approached Spencer in case he had to catch him.
But the other profiler pulled himself together and managed to get out a whispered, “What?” His slightly sleep-deprived mind seemed to be completely empty and he couldn’t grasp the entire meaning of his mother’s confession.
Detective Hyde cleared his throat to end this uncomfortable silence, but it was Morgan who got in action. He moved to stand next to Spencer and suggested, “I can finish this one on my own here, you know.”
Coming out of his shocked state, the young profiler turned his head to look at his friend, then nodded and his gaze went back to his parents.
“I realize we have a lot to explain to you, Spencer,” his father said.
“You can take my office, it’s the one down the hall,” Hyde offered.
William nodded his thanks and both he and Diana turned around to leave with Spencer following them out of the door, passing Rossi in the hallway. The senior agent watched them sorrowfully as they entered the detective’s office, before he motioned for Morgan to step out of the interrogation room when he saw the puzzled expression on the other man’s face.
“What was that about?” Derek asked him confused.
“Detective Hyde seemed to have foreseen our arrest of Mr. Jenkins. He called Reid’s father who apparently got his wife out of the sanatorium and came here. They were in the observation room with me and watched the whole questioning before deciding to step in,” Rossi informed him. “Apart from that my guess is as good as yours.”
Both agents glanced at the three people in the office, their view partially obscured by the closed blinds. While Morgan went back into the interrogation room to question their suspect further, this time assisted by the detective, the senior agent pulled out his cell phone to call their superior.
“Hotch,” his team member answered it.
“It’s Dave. How’s JJ?” Rossi asked.
“Still in labor. How are you doing over there?”
“We’re gonna come home in the next few hours.”
Surprise could be heard in Aaron’s voice as he asked, “You solved the case?”
“Yeah, we did. Gary Michaels’ murderer is in custody. It was Riley Jenkins’ father.”
“So Reid’s father wasn’t involved at all.”
Rossi took a moment to answer. “Well, that’s not clear yet. But according to Mrs. Reid, she was.”
“What?” Hotch asked in disbelief.
“Apparently she told Jenkins that Michaels was approaching another child in that neighborhood,” Dave explained.
“Reid?” his superior asked.
“Could be. He said that he knew that guy when he showed us the file, but he wasn’t sure.”
After a moment Aaron wanted to know, “How’s he taking all that?”
“Relatively good considering everything that happened. He’s talking to his parents right now and I have a feeling, that there’s more to that story.”
“All right, keep me posted,” Hotch said.
“I will. Bye.”
“Okay. Bye.”
Rossi closed his phone with a sigh. Then he turned around and went back to the observation room, but not before casting one last look at the Reid’s.
The senior agent had been shocked by seeing his young teammate confronting Lou Jenkins with such force. For a moment he had thought about getting the agent out of the room. When Detective Hyde had entered with William Reid and a blonde-haired woman whom he had guessed to be Spencer’s mother, Dave had been surprised, but hadn’t said anything. The four of them had watched the questioning until Diana had suddenly murmured, “No,” and had left the room, followed by William, Hyde and Rossi himself.
He hoped that the genius had made the right decision to investigate Riley Jenkins’ death - and subsequently Gary Michaels’.
Ever since the beginning of their case in Vegas, Spencer had wanted to know the truth about what happened all those years ago. Now that he was about to, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
Sitting on the office’s couch, he leaned forward as he listened to his mother’s explanation. She was seated on the visitor’s chair in front of the desk, facing him, while William was leaning against a wooden piece of furniture to her right.
“I’d seen him around; at your ball games, the park... You used to play chess there, do you remember? You played with him once,” Diana told her son.
“Gary Michaels?” Spencer asked.
“I didn’t know that was his name back then, but it wasn’t unusual for you to play with other adults. And you’d win, too.” Diana smiled fondly at that memory.
The young man looked down, processing that information.
He had been right when he had said that he knew the man on the picture in the file. And that guy had been a child molester.
So he hesitantly asked after a moment, “Did he do something to me?”
“Oh no, god no. It never got to that point. But when I saw the way he looked at you, I knew what he was. I could just tell.”
“A mother knows,” Spencer recalled.
“Yes,” she said.
“So you told Riley’s dad.”
She nodded.
“Two nights later, Lou called the house. He was agitated. He said he needed me to meet him. So I did. He drove me to a house a few streets away and we waited in the car. After some time a man came out to take out the trash. Lou asked me if it was him and I confirmed it. Then he told me the man’s name was Gary Michaels and that he had a history of ‘doing things to kids’ as he put it. When I asked him how he knew it, he simply told me to go home, refusing to tell what he planned to do. He left the car, took a baseball bat from the loading space and went into the house. I sat there, I couldn’t move. It was like a dream, that paralysis in the face of something terrible.”
His mother shook her head and looked down, clearly getting upset now.
“What happened after that?” the young agent gently asked. She cleared her throat but didn’t answer.
William leaned down to her. “It’s okay, Diana. Go on.”
Spencer felt a little uncomfortable seeing that gesture.
But it seemed to help because she looked up at his father and continued in a low voice, “At some point I found myself walking towards the house. The nearer I got, the faster my pace was until I was almost running. Then I entered cautiously and in the kitchen I found Lou… He still clutched the baseball bat in his hands and… on the floor, there was Gary Michaels laying in a pool of blood… his blood. I think I shouted at Lou what had he done and started to walk over to him when I slipped in the blood and fell. He helped me up. When I looked down I saw that there was blood on my hands and clothes... And the rest?”
She paused und unconsciously rubbed her face before saying, ”Oh, it’s all dark after that.”
Now it was Spencer who lowered his gaze, knowing how horrible that event had been for his mother.
“You came home,” William supplied and looked her in the eye. While moving his head to glance at his son, he continued, “She couldn’t talk at first, but eventually I came to understand what had happened. And I knew that nobody could ever know.”
Spencer shot his mother a quick glance then stated, “So you never told anyone.”
“No, she could have been implicated… And I had to protect her.”
Recalling what he had learned the last few minutes the profiler suddenly got the flashback of his father burning the bloody clothes and he made the connection.
“You were burning her bloody clothes,” he said, looking at Diana.
She nodded, as did his father who stated, “But the knowing, you can’t burn that away. It… changed everything.”
Swallowing, his son asked him, “Is that why you left?” He wanted to understand the reasons for his father’s departure.
“I tried to keep us together, Spencer, I swear to you. But the weight of that knowledge was… was too much.”
Diana looked up at his husband almost guiltily, before turning her attention to her son to see his reaction.
After a moment of not knowing what to say, the agent looked his father in the eye and suggested, “You could have come back.”
The older man lowered his head while Spencer added, “Could’ve started over.”
Finally he was able to say what he wanted to all those years since his dad had left. A part of him had been hoping that William would come back while another one never wanted to see him again.
Making eye contact with him, his father replied, “I didn’t know how to take care of you anymore. When I lost that confidence, there was no going back.”
Spencer swallowed and looked down. His anger had disappeared, leaving only sadness behind.
Everything that had happened the last few days was starting to catch up with him and he felt a lump in his throat. He heard his mother saying, “What’s done is done. At least now you know the truth.”
Fighting the tears that were slowly forming in his eyes, the profiler managed to get out with a shaking voice, “I was wrong about everything, I’m sorry.”
Out of the corner of his eyes he could see his mother looking at him with concern.
Keeping eye contact, William moved to sit next to him on the couch after a moment and said, “I am too, Spencer.”
The agent nodded in acceptance and blinked back the tears, trying to compose himself again while his father added, “And I hope that one day you’ll find it in yourself to forgive me.”
They sat there in silence for a while, lost in thoughts, before William asked, “So what happens now?”
That caught the profiler off guard. The last few days he had been trying to pin something - anything - on his father and now that it turned out he had known of Gary Michaels’ murder, Spencer wished it wasn’t the case. And he realized that he never had really thought that far ahead.
The young man was still far from being able to forgive his father, and he wasn’t sure that he ever could, but he didn’t want to see him go to jail. Even more so because William had also protected Diana.
“I don’t know,” he answered softly.
And he really didn’t.
Because of Lou Jenkins’ arrest, the case had become official now. So he had to find a way to keep his parents’ name out of it.
Shifting his gaze to look through the office’s door Spencer saw both Morgan and Rossi standing in the bullpen area.
The young agent got up and said, “I’ll see what I can do.” Then he left the room and joined his teammates, sitting down at a desk with them following suit.
“So what was that all about?” Morgan asked rather directly.
Reid took a deep breath before he answered that with a question, “What else did Jenkins tell you?”
Surprised, Derek replied, “He confessed to have driven to Michaels’ house where he had beaten him to death with a baseball bat. Then he had buried the body.”
“He wasn’t alone as he claimed,” Spencer told them. “My mom was with him in the car. He asked her to identify Michaels.”
If it had been different circumstances, the genius would have thought his colleagues’ momentarily speechlessness to be funny.
“She remained in the car when Jenkins went into the house,” he continued, “but after a while she followed him inside and found Michaels lying dead on the kitchen floor. She slipped in the blood and got some of it on her clothes.”
“Which were burned by your father,” Rossi concluded.
Spencer nodded. Now he knew what his father had meant when he had told him he wouldn’t want to go down this road. He didn’t regret that he wanted to know the truth though, only the repercussions of his actions.
“That makes your parents’ guilty of accessory to murder,” Morgan reminded him unnecessarily.
“Is there any way to keep that from getting official?” Reid asked directly, looking at his superior with pleading eyes.
Dave stated, “Well, we don’t have any evidence incriminating either one of them.”
“This is only gonna work if Jenkins won’t say anything about that either,” Derek interjected.
Spencer got up. “Is he still in the interrogation room?”
When his friend nodded, he went down the corridor with his teammates following him after a moment.
The young agent opened the door and entered the room with Rossi closely behind him, while Morgan stayed behind in the hallway. Before either of the agents could even begin to talk, Lou’s gaze was on Spencer and he stated, “They told you.”
“Yes, they did.” Reid approached him and sat down across the table, while Rossi decided to let the young agent handle it and kept standing at the door.
“Believe me, I never intended for your mother to get involved. I’m sorry for what happened as a result of my mistake.”
When Spencer only nodded, Riley’s father continued knowingly, “You want to keep your parents out of the case.”
“There’s no evidence against them except…” the agent began.
“Except my testimony,” Lou finished. Reid nodded again.
“I kept it secret all these years and if Diana hadn’t come forward herself, you still wouldn’t know about it. So don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. No one else should suffer because of it. You have my word.”
“Thank you.” Reid got up and started to leave when Jenkins spoke up again. “Spencer?” The agent turned around.
“I don’t regret killing this bastard. It saved a lot of kids’ lives.”
‘Including yours’ was left unsaid, but Reid understood.
When the profiler left the interrogation room, William and Diana were waiting for them along with Morgan.
Rossi addressed Reid’s parents, “You’re free to go.”
They both looked at him in surprise and their faces lit up. “Thank you, Agent Rossi.”
“You have to thank Lou Jenkins,” their son interjected. After a moment he suggested, “Dad, why don’t you take mom back to Bennington?”
His father looked at him, understanding that this meant more than a simple question.
“I’ll stop by later,” Spencer added.
William nodded at Reid’s teammates and then left with Diana.
The young profiler looked at their retreating backs thoughtfully before the agents started the necessary paperwork.
After they bid their farewell to Detective Hyde, they made their way to the Fountain View Hotel to get their bags and check out.
On the way to the airport they briefly stopped at the sanatorium.
When Spencer came out again, he looked exhausted but much more relaxed than he had had since their arrival in Vegas.
At the airstrip they boarded the plane and settled in for the flight back to Quantico. Rossi and Morgan sat opposite each other with Reid across the aisle from them.
The young agent stared at the table in front of him, finally having time to sort through his thoughts and emotions. What he had learned the last few days had changed some things.
Spencer had readily believed that his father could be a child molester and murderer. A man who would leave a ten year old child to take care of its schizophrenic mother could be a lot of things. It was easier to believe that than facing the fact that he had just left them.
Now he knew some of his father’s reasons and could even partially understand them.
But knowing and understanding didn’t mean forgiving. The hurt still sat too deep for that.
Spencer couldn’t just ignore the last 17 years. He couldn’t erase the memory of William packing his suitcase and walking out of the door without looking back.
Morgan had been right when he had accused Spencer of trying to pin something on his father. The young profiler wanted him to suffer as he had suffered; he wanted some sort of revenge.
It had been odd seeing William again after so many years. Spencer always thought about what he wanted to say if he were to meet him again. But when they had entered the office where his father worked, he hadn’t been sure if he really wanted to see him.
He hadn’t been able to fully control the hostility he had been showing toward his dad - and to some extent hadn’t even wanted to.
In the end he had to realize that he had drawn the wrong conclusions. And his only excuse was that he hadn’t known all the facts as he did now.
Spencer was glad that Morgan and Rossi had stayed, because he wasn’t sure that he would have gotten to the bottom of this without their help.
But more importantly he was grateful for his teammates’ supportive presence.
He glanced at his fellow agents. Morgan had his eyes closed and was listening to music while their superior was reading a book.
Rossi looked up to meet the younger man’s gaze. “How are you doing?” he asked concerned, having kept an eye on the other agent for the last few minutes without him noticing.
“I was wrong,” Spencer simply said.
Dave leaned forward and replied, “How could you have known? You were a little kid when it happened.”
“I should have picked up on the hints my dad was trying to give me.”
Morgan, who had listened to them talking, took up his headphones and entered the conversation. ”You only had pieces of the puzzle, Reid. You thought your father was hiding something, so you kept digging in the past.”
With a tiny smile ghosting across his face the young agent replied, “And he did.”
After a moment Dave asked, “Would you really have stopped if you had figured out the clues?” He was looking the other man in the eye.
“I… I don’t know. If I had, I at least wouldn’t almost have sent my father to jail,” Spencer answered.
“So you regret going down this road?”
Breaking eye contact for a moment to think about that, Reid replied, “No, I don’t. We found out who had killed Riley Jenkins.”
Morgan recalled, “You said you may have known Gary Michaels.”
“I used to play chess at the park when I was a kid. He came up to me once. After that I hadn’t seen him again.”
“So your mother watched him approaching you, put two and two together and told Lou Jenkins.”
“A mother knows,” the young man quoted Diana with a smile.
“And your father covered it all up, possibly with Detective Hyde knowing about it, and it had been buried in oblivion,” Rossi concluded.
“Until I started uncovering it again,” Spencer added. After a pause he spoke up again, “I’m sorry.”
His teammates looked at him in surprise. “For what?” Morgan asked.
“For being stubborn and confronting,” the young agent answered with guilt in his voice.
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Dave stated with a smile.
Feeling the corners of his mouth lifting, Reid agreed, “Yeah, it did.”
Getting serious again, his superior reminded him, “And you have your answer now.”
Sighing, the young man replied, “That doesn’t make it any easier. And neither does finding out that my father lived only a couple of miles away all the time and never tried to make contact again.”
Glad that Spencer was opening up a bit, the senior profiler just nodded encouragingly for his teammate to go on.
“My mom, she… asked my dad to take me with him, but he refused. I always thought that it somehow had been my fault that he left.” Reid looked down at the table in front of him.
“No, it wasn’t.” Dave waited until the young man was looking at him again before he continued, “The only one at fault was Gary Michaels.”
Though he wasn’t entirely convinced, Spencer nodded slowly, before he turned his head to look at the dark sky outside.
Taking that as a sign that the conversation was over, Rossi picked up his book again and Morgan put his headphones back on. They both couldn’t understand why someone would just leave a ten year boy behind in the custody of his schizophrenic mother, no matter what had happened.
When they landed at the airport, the three agents got their bags and put them into the trunk of the waiting SUV. Reid got in the back as usual while Morgan took the driver’s seat with the senior agent next to him.
After a quick stop at Quantico where Dave got out to take care of the necessary paperwork, promising to join them later, the two profiler drove to the hospital.
While Morgan tried to find a free parking space, Spencer entered the building and made his way to the reception to ask for the number of JJ’s room. He could already hear Garcia and Prentiss talking from the hallway.
Standing at the open door, he took in the scenery, more than ever thankful to have his colleagues who were like a second family to him. He knocked and briefly hesitated to step in, asking, “Is there room for one more in here?”
Everyone was turning their heads to look at him and he was happy to see smiles on his friends’ faces, even Hotch’s usually stoic one.
“Spence, hi,” JJ greeted, using her nickname for him.
“Welcome back,” Hotch said.
Reid nodded at him, and then looked at the baby in the media liaison’s arms. “Wow,” he breathed.
Shaking hands with Will, he continued, “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” the proud father replied.
The blonde agent looked at Spencer and asked, “How is it that I just went through fifteen hours of labor and you look worse than I do?”
Not wanting to talk about his personal problems right now, Spencer brushed off her concern by saying, “You’re ridiculous. You look beautiful.”
Then Jennifer and Will shared a meaningful look and the cop stated, “Well, I could sure use, uh, some coffee. Anyone else?”
He got a “Sure” from Hotch and so he offered, “My treat.”
Garcia and Prentiss followed the two men out, leaving Reid alone with his colleague and her baby.
“You’re okay?” JJ asked worried as the young man stepped closer.
“Yeah, yeah. You?” came the quick reply.
Not really buying it, but letting it slip, she answered, “Yeah, yeah. You’re sure? Cause there’s something I need to ask you, but it can wait.”
Surprised, Spencer wanted to know, “What is it?”
JJ glanced at her child while telling him, “Will and I were talking and - “she lifted her gaze to his face and continued, “we want you to be Henry’s godfather.”
The profiler was momentarily stunned by the trust this question showed. While he was stuttering, not sure what to say, JJ asked him, “Would you like to hold him?” And without waiting for an answer she simply put the baby in her friend’s arm.
Any resistance that the young man might have had melted away when he looked into the little face. He forgot all his thoughts for the moment, simply relishing the feeling of the baby in his arms, silently vowing to be there for that child no matter what. He wouldn’t leave Henry like his father had left him, not if he could help it.
“If anything should happen to us, it’s up to you and Garcia to make sure this boy gets into Yale,” JJ told him.
“Wow, Yale. Yale,” Spencer said in a low voice, not taking his eyes off the baby. “You wanna go to Yale, Henry? That was your godfather’s safety school.”
JJ chuckled at that, glad to have lifted her friend’s spirit.
“Don’t worry, I can get you into Caltech with one phone call,” Reid continued in a conspiracy-like whisper and a genuine smile appeared on his face.
He briefly looked at JJ, silently thanking her, then back at Henry, with the young mother watching them.
So no one saw Morgan approaching and leaning against the doorframe until the agent said grinning, “Now that’s a sight.” He was glad to finally see Reid smile again.
“Hey,” JJ greeted.
The visitor walked over to the bed. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” she replied.
“Where have you been?” Spencer asked, looking up at him.
“Garcia stopped me in the hallway. She’s totally excited to be a godmother and already started to make plans.” The three agents share a smile at that before Reid carefully handed the sleeping baby back to its mother.
Derek looked at his wristwatch and addressed JJ, ”We better let you get some sleep now. See you tomorrow.”
It had been a long day for all of them and even though he might have appeared to be sleeping on the jet, he hadn’t been. Instead he had thought about the events of the last few days.
He headed toward the door, and looking at the other profiler he said, “Come on, kid.”
Spencer’s gaze lingered at Henry’s face for a moment longer, and then he turned to go. “Good night, JJ.”
“Good night, guys,” the blonde agent replied.
The two men walked down the corridor to the hospital’s exit, meeting Rossi on his way in, and then they headed to the SUV on the parking lot and got in. Morgan put the keys into the ignition and turned on the engine. Seeing that the other man seemed to be withdrawn again, he asked softly, “Are you okay?”
Reid turned his head to him and answered, “Yeah, it was just an… overwhelming day.”
“I can imagine,” Derek replied and slowly eased the car into the traffic.
Looking down at his lightly clasped hands laying in his lap, Spencer admitted, “You were right.”
His friend gave him a quick glance, encouraging him to go on, which he did.
“I was trying to get back at my father.”
Morgan wasn’t surprised by that. He had known it all along but he was glad that the other agent was ready to admit it to himself and others. “I know,” he said.
Spencer sighed. “And even though I know the truth now, I’m still angry at him.”
They stopped at a red light and Derek turned around to face his colleague. “Look, Reid, no one’s gonna fault you for wanting a little revenge. Seventeen years is a long time for anger to build up. It won’t go away over night, as much as you might want it to.”
When the young profiler just nodded unconvinced, Morgan continued, “Give it some time. Even your mind can’t handle all that in just a few hours.” He was glad to see a small smile appearing on Spencer’s face.
“I guess you’re right,” the other man agreed.
But Derek also noticed how exhausted his friend was, understandably so due to the nightmares, which had to have increased even before the team had flown to Las Vegas. Because it wasn’t like Reid to fall asleep on the plane when they were discussing a case.
The light went green and Morgan concentrated on the traffic again. “You know, you got me worried there for a while.”
Spencer looked up in surprise. “Why’s that?”
“You let your anger take over the investigation and you blocked out any reasoning. I thought we had to put you on the sideline,” Morgan explained.
“I’m sorry.”
Derek put an assuring hand on the other agent’s arm. “It’s okay, kid.” Purposefully changing the subject, he continued, “But, you see, I’m still not clear on one thing.”
“And that is?” Reid asked.
“Do you believe in dream analysis now or not?” the older profiler replied grinning, referring to the conversation they had had a few days ago in the missing kid’s bedroom.
Shaking his head, a chuckle was Spencer’s only answer, before he leaned his head back against the seat’s headrest and looked out of the car’s window.
He thought about what his father had said to him. ‘I hope that one day you’ll find it in yourself to forgive me.’ Reid wasn’t sure if he was ever able to, but he would try.
Morgan saw that his friend was lost in thoughts again, so he stayed silent. At first he had thought that the reason for Reid’s dreams had been the fear not to be able to find the missing kid in time that the man had clearly harbored.
But after the young profiler had confessed to have that same dream since he had been a child, the black agent had followed a hunch and had asked a detective to look through old murder cases that involved children as victims.
The cop had found Riley’s file, which had perfectly fit his friend’s description. Though there had still been the possibility that their genius had just read an article about the murder and had memorized the details.
Never would he have thought that Spencer’s parents had been indirectly involved it in, let alone that the other man had been in danger of ending up like the Jenkins’ kid had.
Looking over at his colleague, he was surprised to see him sleeping peacefully and he had to smile. He wasn’t sure if Spencer would be able to give his father a second chance after everything that had happened.
Time would show.
“Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be outraged by silence.” Swiss philosopher Henri-Frédéric Amiel
A/N: I know that the psychiatrist's name is not Sarah Daniels. When I wrote the story I didn't think to check for her name and none was given in the episode so I just made it up. I later found it out when I got the DVD box but I didn't wanna change it as it's kind of an homage.
Rating: PG
Genre: Missing Scene
Characters: Spencer Reid, Dave Rossi, Derek Morgan
Spoilers: 4x07 Memoriam
Warnings: none if you saw the episode
Summary: He had wanted to know the truth. Can he deal with the repercussions to his family now that he had uncovered it?
All characters are property of CBS, Jeff Davis, Edward Allen Bernero and sadly not mine. I just play with them a little and then hand them back to their owners.
Special thanks to my dear friend Sarah for all her help and encouragement and being my beta. Thanks to everyone who read and/or reviewed one of my others stories.
“A belief is not true because it’s useful.” Swiss philosopher Henri-Frédéric Amiel
“What makes you think Gary Michaels killed your boy?”
Propped up with his arms on the table in the interrogation room Reid was looking at Riley’s father, Lou Jenkins, waiting for an answer to Morgan’s question.
Even though it was pretty much proven that his father hadn’t killed the Jenkins’s boy, the young agent was still very determined to get to the bottom of the story.
There had to be an explanation for the bloody clothes and his dad’s behavior during the interrogation. Maybe his father played a part in killing Gary Michaels, despite Mr. Jenkins claim a few moments ago that he had done it all alone.
But that just couldn’t be the truth.
William Reid had done something. Of that Spencer was sure. He just had to get it out of the kid’s father. But that proved to be rather difficult since their suspect seemed to be constantly lying, which resulted in his growing anger.
“He admitted it,” Lou now responded, his gaze lowered to the table’s surface.
“You beat a guy with a baseball bat, he’s gonna admit to a lot of things. How do you know he was the right guy?” Derek asked further.
When Riley’s father answered, his voice was low. “I know.”
Frustrated, Reid straightened up and stepped away a few feet, partially turning his back to the two men, only vaguely noticing that Jenkins was looking at him while continuing, “He approached another kid in the neighborhood.”
That triggered a flashback with Reid, the same one he had gotten when he had discovered Gary Michaels’ file on the floor of his hotel room: A dark-haired man wearing glasses approaching him at a chess table in the park.
Still not able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together he slowly turned around again while he heard his fellow agent asking, “And how do you know that?”
“I was told by a concerned party,” came the reply.
“Who, another parent?” Derek wanted to know.
The young agent’s flashback of the bespectacled man was clearer now than it had ever been. And he got the feeling that the kid Jenkins was talking about had been him.
While Spencer was distracted by his thoughts, their suspect stated,”That’s all I’m gonna say on the subject.”
Ignoring that, Reid slowly took a few steps forward and asked in a low voice, “Who was it?”
“I told you, that’s all I’m gonna say on the-“
“Who was it?” the genius interrupted him forcefully, bending forward into the older man’s personal space.
He didn’t get an answer because the door opened and Detective Hyde appeared in the frame. “Agent Reid?”
Turning around angrily at the interruption, the young profiler ordered with his finger pointed at the cop, “Do not interfere with this interrogation, Detective, this is not your case anymore!”
Instead of answering, Hyde stepped aside, revealing none other than Diana Reid.
“Spencer, it was me,” she told him calmly and William appeared next to her.
Both Morgan and Jenkins were watching them and the black agent was as shocked by that statement as his teammate.
The young man stared open-mouthed at his parents, stunned by what he had just heard. For a moment he felt like he had to sit down before his knees would give out.
Even though he was standing behind his friend, Derek could see that, so he quickly got up and approached Spencer in case he had to catch him.
But the other profiler pulled himself together and managed to get out a whispered, “What?” His slightly sleep-deprived mind seemed to be completely empty and he couldn’t grasp the entire meaning of his mother’s confession.
Detective Hyde cleared his throat to end this uncomfortable silence, but it was Morgan who got in action. He moved to stand next to Spencer and suggested, “I can finish this one on my own here, you know.”
Coming out of his shocked state, the young profiler turned his head to look at his friend, then nodded and his gaze went back to his parents.
“I realize we have a lot to explain to you, Spencer,” his father said.
“You can take my office, it’s the one down the hall,” Hyde offered.
William nodded his thanks and both he and Diana turned around to leave with Spencer following them out of the door, passing Rossi in the hallway. The senior agent watched them sorrowfully as they entered the detective’s office, before he motioned for Morgan to step out of the interrogation room when he saw the puzzled expression on the other man’s face.
“What was that about?” Derek asked him confused.
“Detective Hyde seemed to have foreseen our arrest of Mr. Jenkins. He called Reid’s father who apparently got his wife out of the sanatorium and came here. They were in the observation room with me and watched the whole questioning before deciding to step in,” Rossi informed him. “Apart from that my guess is as good as yours.”
Both agents glanced at the three people in the office, their view partially obscured by the closed blinds. While Morgan went back into the interrogation room to question their suspect further, this time assisted by the detective, the senior agent pulled out his cell phone to call their superior.
“Hotch,” his team member answered it.
“It’s Dave. How’s JJ?” Rossi asked.
“Still in labor. How are you doing over there?”
“We’re gonna come home in the next few hours.”
Surprise could be heard in Aaron’s voice as he asked, “You solved the case?”
“Yeah, we did. Gary Michaels’ murderer is in custody. It was Riley Jenkins’ father.”
“So Reid’s father wasn’t involved at all.”
Rossi took a moment to answer. “Well, that’s not clear yet. But according to Mrs. Reid, she was.”
“What?” Hotch asked in disbelief.
“Apparently she told Jenkins that Michaels was approaching another child in that neighborhood,” Dave explained.
“Reid?” his superior asked.
“Could be. He said that he knew that guy when he showed us the file, but he wasn’t sure.”
After a moment Aaron wanted to know, “How’s he taking all that?”
“Relatively good considering everything that happened. He’s talking to his parents right now and I have a feeling, that there’s more to that story.”
“All right, keep me posted,” Hotch said.
“I will. Bye.”
“Okay. Bye.”
Rossi closed his phone with a sigh. Then he turned around and went back to the observation room, but not before casting one last look at the Reid’s.
The senior agent had been shocked by seeing his young teammate confronting Lou Jenkins with such force. For a moment he had thought about getting the agent out of the room. When Detective Hyde had entered with William Reid and a blonde-haired woman whom he had guessed to be Spencer’s mother, Dave had been surprised, but hadn’t said anything. The four of them had watched the questioning until Diana had suddenly murmured, “No,” and had left the room, followed by William, Hyde and Rossi himself.
He hoped that the genius had made the right decision to investigate Riley Jenkins’ death - and subsequently Gary Michaels’.
Ever since the beginning of their case in Vegas, Spencer had wanted to know the truth about what happened all those years ago. Now that he was about to, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
Sitting on the office’s couch, he leaned forward as he listened to his mother’s explanation. She was seated on the visitor’s chair in front of the desk, facing him, while William was leaning against a wooden piece of furniture to her right.
“I’d seen him around; at your ball games, the park... You used to play chess there, do you remember? You played with him once,” Diana told her son.
“Gary Michaels?” Spencer asked.
“I didn’t know that was his name back then, but it wasn’t unusual for you to play with other adults. And you’d win, too.” Diana smiled fondly at that memory.
The young man looked down, processing that information.
He had been right when he had said that he knew the man on the picture in the file. And that guy had been a child molester.
So he hesitantly asked after a moment, “Did he do something to me?”
“Oh no, god no. It never got to that point. But when I saw the way he looked at you, I knew what he was. I could just tell.”
“A mother knows,” Spencer recalled.
“Yes,” she said.
“So you told Riley’s dad.”
She nodded.
“Two nights later, Lou called the house. He was agitated. He said he needed me to meet him. So I did. He drove me to a house a few streets away and we waited in the car. After some time a man came out to take out the trash. Lou asked me if it was him and I confirmed it. Then he told me the man’s name was Gary Michaels and that he had a history of ‘doing things to kids’ as he put it. When I asked him how he knew it, he simply told me to go home, refusing to tell what he planned to do. He left the car, took a baseball bat from the loading space and went into the house. I sat there, I couldn’t move. It was like a dream, that paralysis in the face of something terrible.”
His mother shook her head and looked down, clearly getting upset now.
“What happened after that?” the young agent gently asked. She cleared her throat but didn’t answer.
William leaned down to her. “It’s okay, Diana. Go on.”
Spencer felt a little uncomfortable seeing that gesture.
But it seemed to help because she looked up at his father and continued in a low voice, “At some point I found myself walking towards the house. The nearer I got, the faster my pace was until I was almost running. Then I entered cautiously and in the kitchen I found Lou… He still clutched the baseball bat in his hands and… on the floor, there was Gary Michaels laying in a pool of blood… his blood. I think I shouted at Lou what had he done and started to walk over to him when I slipped in the blood and fell. He helped me up. When I looked down I saw that there was blood on my hands and clothes... And the rest?”
She paused und unconsciously rubbed her face before saying, ”Oh, it’s all dark after that.”
Now it was Spencer who lowered his gaze, knowing how horrible that event had been for his mother.
“You came home,” William supplied and looked her in the eye. While moving his head to glance at his son, he continued, “She couldn’t talk at first, but eventually I came to understand what had happened. And I knew that nobody could ever know.”
Spencer shot his mother a quick glance then stated, “So you never told anyone.”
“No, she could have been implicated… And I had to protect her.”
Recalling what he had learned the last few minutes the profiler suddenly got the flashback of his father burning the bloody clothes and he made the connection.
“You were burning her bloody clothes,” he said, looking at Diana.
She nodded, as did his father who stated, “But the knowing, you can’t burn that away. It… changed everything.”
Swallowing, his son asked him, “Is that why you left?” He wanted to understand the reasons for his father’s departure.
“I tried to keep us together, Spencer, I swear to you. But the weight of that knowledge was… was too much.”
Diana looked up at his husband almost guiltily, before turning her attention to her son to see his reaction.
After a moment of not knowing what to say, the agent looked his father in the eye and suggested, “You could have come back.”
The older man lowered his head while Spencer added, “Could’ve started over.”
Finally he was able to say what he wanted to all those years since his dad had left. A part of him had been hoping that William would come back while another one never wanted to see him again.
Making eye contact with him, his father replied, “I didn’t know how to take care of you anymore. When I lost that confidence, there was no going back.”
Spencer swallowed and looked down. His anger had disappeared, leaving only sadness behind.
Everything that had happened the last few days was starting to catch up with him and he felt a lump in his throat. He heard his mother saying, “What’s done is done. At least now you know the truth.”
Fighting the tears that were slowly forming in his eyes, the profiler managed to get out with a shaking voice, “I was wrong about everything, I’m sorry.”
Out of the corner of his eyes he could see his mother looking at him with concern.
Keeping eye contact, William moved to sit next to him on the couch after a moment and said, “I am too, Spencer.”
The agent nodded in acceptance and blinked back the tears, trying to compose himself again while his father added, “And I hope that one day you’ll find it in yourself to forgive me.”
They sat there in silence for a while, lost in thoughts, before William asked, “So what happens now?”
That caught the profiler off guard. The last few days he had been trying to pin something - anything - on his father and now that it turned out he had known of Gary Michaels’ murder, Spencer wished it wasn’t the case. And he realized that he never had really thought that far ahead.
The young man was still far from being able to forgive his father, and he wasn’t sure that he ever could, but he didn’t want to see him go to jail. Even more so because William had also protected Diana.
“I don’t know,” he answered softly.
And he really didn’t.
Because of Lou Jenkins’ arrest, the case had become official now. So he had to find a way to keep his parents’ name out of it.
Shifting his gaze to look through the office’s door Spencer saw both Morgan and Rossi standing in the bullpen area.
The young agent got up and said, “I’ll see what I can do.” Then he left the room and joined his teammates, sitting down at a desk with them following suit.
“So what was that all about?” Morgan asked rather directly.
Reid took a deep breath before he answered that with a question, “What else did Jenkins tell you?”
Surprised, Derek replied, “He confessed to have driven to Michaels’ house where he had beaten him to death with a baseball bat. Then he had buried the body.”
“He wasn’t alone as he claimed,” Spencer told them. “My mom was with him in the car. He asked her to identify Michaels.”
If it had been different circumstances, the genius would have thought his colleagues’ momentarily speechlessness to be funny.
“She remained in the car when Jenkins went into the house,” he continued, “but after a while she followed him inside and found Michaels lying dead on the kitchen floor. She slipped in the blood and got some of it on her clothes.”
“Which were burned by your father,” Rossi concluded.
Spencer nodded. Now he knew what his father had meant when he had told him he wouldn’t want to go down this road. He didn’t regret that he wanted to know the truth though, only the repercussions of his actions.
“That makes your parents’ guilty of accessory to murder,” Morgan reminded him unnecessarily.
“Is there any way to keep that from getting official?” Reid asked directly, looking at his superior with pleading eyes.
Dave stated, “Well, we don’t have any evidence incriminating either one of them.”
“This is only gonna work if Jenkins won’t say anything about that either,” Derek interjected.
Spencer got up. “Is he still in the interrogation room?”
When his friend nodded, he went down the corridor with his teammates following him after a moment.
The young agent opened the door and entered the room with Rossi closely behind him, while Morgan stayed behind in the hallway. Before either of the agents could even begin to talk, Lou’s gaze was on Spencer and he stated, “They told you.”
“Yes, they did.” Reid approached him and sat down across the table, while Rossi decided to let the young agent handle it and kept standing at the door.
“Believe me, I never intended for your mother to get involved. I’m sorry for what happened as a result of my mistake.”
When Spencer only nodded, Riley’s father continued knowingly, “You want to keep your parents out of the case.”
“There’s no evidence against them except…” the agent began.
“Except my testimony,” Lou finished. Reid nodded again.
“I kept it secret all these years and if Diana hadn’t come forward herself, you still wouldn’t know about it. So don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. No one else should suffer because of it. You have my word.”
“Thank you.” Reid got up and started to leave when Jenkins spoke up again. “Spencer?” The agent turned around.
“I don’t regret killing this bastard. It saved a lot of kids’ lives.”
‘Including yours’ was left unsaid, but Reid understood.
When the profiler left the interrogation room, William and Diana were waiting for them along with Morgan.
Rossi addressed Reid’s parents, “You’re free to go.”
They both looked at him in surprise and their faces lit up. “Thank you, Agent Rossi.”
“You have to thank Lou Jenkins,” their son interjected. After a moment he suggested, “Dad, why don’t you take mom back to Bennington?”
His father looked at him, understanding that this meant more than a simple question.
“I’ll stop by later,” Spencer added.
William nodded at Reid’s teammates and then left with Diana.
The young profiler looked at their retreating backs thoughtfully before the agents started the necessary paperwork.
After they bid their farewell to Detective Hyde, they made their way to the Fountain View Hotel to get their bags and check out.
On the way to the airport they briefly stopped at the sanatorium.
When Spencer came out again, he looked exhausted but much more relaxed than he had had since their arrival in Vegas.
At the airstrip they boarded the plane and settled in for the flight back to Quantico. Rossi and Morgan sat opposite each other with Reid across the aisle from them.
The young agent stared at the table in front of him, finally having time to sort through his thoughts and emotions. What he had learned the last few days had changed some things.
Spencer had readily believed that his father could be a child molester and murderer. A man who would leave a ten year old child to take care of its schizophrenic mother could be a lot of things. It was easier to believe that than facing the fact that he had just left them.
Now he knew some of his father’s reasons and could even partially understand them.
But knowing and understanding didn’t mean forgiving. The hurt still sat too deep for that.
Spencer couldn’t just ignore the last 17 years. He couldn’t erase the memory of William packing his suitcase and walking out of the door without looking back.
Morgan had been right when he had accused Spencer of trying to pin something on his father. The young profiler wanted him to suffer as he had suffered; he wanted some sort of revenge.
It had been odd seeing William again after so many years. Spencer always thought about what he wanted to say if he were to meet him again. But when they had entered the office where his father worked, he hadn’t been sure if he really wanted to see him.
He hadn’t been able to fully control the hostility he had been showing toward his dad - and to some extent hadn’t even wanted to.
In the end he had to realize that he had drawn the wrong conclusions. And his only excuse was that he hadn’t known all the facts as he did now.
Spencer was glad that Morgan and Rossi had stayed, because he wasn’t sure that he would have gotten to the bottom of this without their help.
But more importantly he was grateful for his teammates’ supportive presence.
He glanced at his fellow agents. Morgan had his eyes closed and was listening to music while their superior was reading a book.
Rossi looked up to meet the younger man’s gaze. “How are you doing?” he asked concerned, having kept an eye on the other agent for the last few minutes without him noticing.
“I was wrong,” Spencer simply said.
Dave leaned forward and replied, “How could you have known? You were a little kid when it happened.”
“I should have picked up on the hints my dad was trying to give me.”
Morgan, who had listened to them talking, took up his headphones and entered the conversation. ”You only had pieces of the puzzle, Reid. You thought your father was hiding something, so you kept digging in the past.”
With a tiny smile ghosting across his face the young agent replied, “And he did.”
After a moment Dave asked, “Would you really have stopped if you had figured out the clues?” He was looking the other man in the eye.
“I… I don’t know. If I had, I at least wouldn’t almost have sent my father to jail,” Spencer answered.
“So you regret going down this road?”
Breaking eye contact for a moment to think about that, Reid replied, “No, I don’t. We found out who had killed Riley Jenkins.”
Morgan recalled, “You said you may have known Gary Michaels.”
“I used to play chess at the park when I was a kid. He came up to me once. After that I hadn’t seen him again.”
“So your mother watched him approaching you, put two and two together and told Lou Jenkins.”
“A mother knows,” the young man quoted Diana with a smile.
“And your father covered it all up, possibly with Detective Hyde knowing about it, and it had been buried in oblivion,” Rossi concluded.
“Until I started uncovering it again,” Spencer added. After a pause he spoke up again, “I’m sorry.”
His teammates looked at him in surprise. “For what?” Morgan asked.
“For being stubborn and confronting,” the young agent answered with guilt in his voice.
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Dave stated with a smile.
Feeling the corners of his mouth lifting, Reid agreed, “Yeah, it did.”
Getting serious again, his superior reminded him, “And you have your answer now.”
Sighing, the young man replied, “That doesn’t make it any easier. And neither does finding out that my father lived only a couple of miles away all the time and never tried to make contact again.”
Glad that Spencer was opening up a bit, the senior profiler just nodded encouragingly for his teammate to go on.
“My mom, she… asked my dad to take me with him, but he refused. I always thought that it somehow had been my fault that he left.” Reid looked down at the table in front of him.
“No, it wasn’t.” Dave waited until the young man was looking at him again before he continued, “The only one at fault was Gary Michaels.”
Though he wasn’t entirely convinced, Spencer nodded slowly, before he turned his head to look at the dark sky outside.
Taking that as a sign that the conversation was over, Rossi picked up his book again and Morgan put his headphones back on. They both couldn’t understand why someone would just leave a ten year boy behind in the custody of his schizophrenic mother, no matter what had happened.
When they landed at the airport, the three agents got their bags and put them into the trunk of the waiting SUV. Reid got in the back as usual while Morgan took the driver’s seat with the senior agent next to him.
After a quick stop at Quantico where Dave got out to take care of the necessary paperwork, promising to join them later, the two profiler drove to the hospital.
While Morgan tried to find a free parking space, Spencer entered the building and made his way to the reception to ask for the number of JJ’s room. He could already hear Garcia and Prentiss talking from the hallway.
Standing at the open door, he took in the scenery, more than ever thankful to have his colleagues who were like a second family to him. He knocked and briefly hesitated to step in, asking, “Is there room for one more in here?”
Everyone was turning their heads to look at him and he was happy to see smiles on his friends’ faces, even Hotch’s usually stoic one.
“Spence, hi,” JJ greeted, using her nickname for him.
“Welcome back,” Hotch said.
Reid nodded at him, and then looked at the baby in the media liaison’s arms. “Wow,” he breathed.
Shaking hands with Will, he continued, “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” the proud father replied.
The blonde agent looked at Spencer and asked, “How is it that I just went through fifteen hours of labor and you look worse than I do?”
Not wanting to talk about his personal problems right now, Spencer brushed off her concern by saying, “You’re ridiculous. You look beautiful.”
Then Jennifer and Will shared a meaningful look and the cop stated, “Well, I could sure use, uh, some coffee. Anyone else?”
He got a “Sure” from Hotch and so he offered, “My treat.”
Garcia and Prentiss followed the two men out, leaving Reid alone with his colleague and her baby.
“You’re okay?” JJ asked worried as the young man stepped closer.
“Yeah, yeah. You?” came the quick reply.
Not really buying it, but letting it slip, she answered, “Yeah, yeah. You’re sure? Cause there’s something I need to ask you, but it can wait.”
Surprised, Spencer wanted to know, “What is it?”
JJ glanced at her child while telling him, “Will and I were talking and - “she lifted her gaze to his face and continued, “we want you to be Henry’s godfather.”
The profiler was momentarily stunned by the trust this question showed. While he was stuttering, not sure what to say, JJ asked him, “Would you like to hold him?” And without waiting for an answer she simply put the baby in her friend’s arm.
Any resistance that the young man might have had melted away when he looked into the little face. He forgot all his thoughts for the moment, simply relishing the feeling of the baby in his arms, silently vowing to be there for that child no matter what. He wouldn’t leave Henry like his father had left him, not if he could help it.
“If anything should happen to us, it’s up to you and Garcia to make sure this boy gets into Yale,” JJ told him.
“Wow, Yale. Yale,” Spencer said in a low voice, not taking his eyes off the baby. “You wanna go to Yale, Henry? That was your godfather’s safety school.”
JJ chuckled at that, glad to have lifted her friend’s spirit.
“Don’t worry, I can get you into Caltech with one phone call,” Reid continued in a conspiracy-like whisper and a genuine smile appeared on his face.
He briefly looked at JJ, silently thanking her, then back at Henry, with the young mother watching them.
So no one saw Morgan approaching and leaning against the doorframe until the agent said grinning, “Now that’s a sight.” He was glad to finally see Reid smile again.
“Hey,” JJ greeted.
The visitor walked over to the bed. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” she replied.
“Where have you been?” Spencer asked, looking up at him.
“Garcia stopped me in the hallway. She’s totally excited to be a godmother and already started to make plans.” The three agents share a smile at that before Reid carefully handed the sleeping baby back to its mother.
Derek looked at his wristwatch and addressed JJ, ”We better let you get some sleep now. See you tomorrow.”
It had been a long day for all of them and even though he might have appeared to be sleeping on the jet, he hadn’t been. Instead he had thought about the events of the last few days.
He headed toward the door, and looking at the other profiler he said, “Come on, kid.”
Spencer’s gaze lingered at Henry’s face for a moment longer, and then he turned to go. “Good night, JJ.”
“Good night, guys,” the blonde agent replied.
The two men walked down the corridor to the hospital’s exit, meeting Rossi on his way in, and then they headed to the SUV on the parking lot and got in. Morgan put the keys into the ignition and turned on the engine. Seeing that the other man seemed to be withdrawn again, he asked softly, “Are you okay?”
Reid turned his head to him and answered, “Yeah, it was just an… overwhelming day.”
“I can imagine,” Derek replied and slowly eased the car into the traffic.
Looking down at his lightly clasped hands laying in his lap, Spencer admitted, “You were right.”
His friend gave him a quick glance, encouraging him to go on, which he did.
“I was trying to get back at my father.”
Morgan wasn’t surprised by that. He had known it all along but he was glad that the other agent was ready to admit it to himself and others. “I know,” he said.
Spencer sighed. “And even though I know the truth now, I’m still angry at him.”
They stopped at a red light and Derek turned around to face his colleague. “Look, Reid, no one’s gonna fault you for wanting a little revenge. Seventeen years is a long time for anger to build up. It won’t go away over night, as much as you might want it to.”
When the young profiler just nodded unconvinced, Morgan continued, “Give it some time. Even your mind can’t handle all that in just a few hours.” He was glad to see a small smile appearing on Spencer’s face.
“I guess you’re right,” the other man agreed.
But Derek also noticed how exhausted his friend was, understandably so due to the nightmares, which had to have increased even before the team had flown to Las Vegas. Because it wasn’t like Reid to fall asleep on the plane when they were discussing a case.
The light went green and Morgan concentrated on the traffic again. “You know, you got me worried there for a while.”
Spencer looked up in surprise. “Why’s that?”
“You let your anger take over the investigation and you blocked out any reasoning. I thought we had to put you on the sideline,” Morgan explained.
“I’m sorry.”
Derek put an assuring hand on the other agent’s arm. “It’s okay, kid.” Purposefully changing the subject, he continued, “But, you see, I’m still not clear on one thing.”
“And that is?” Reid asked.
“Do you believe in dream analysis now or not?” the older profiler replied grinning, referring to the conversation they had had a few days ago in the missing kid’s bedroom.
Shaking his head, a chuckle was Spencer’s only answer, before he leaned his head back against the seat’s headrest and looked out of the car’s window.
He thought about what his father had said to him. ‘I hope that one day you’ll find it in yourself to forgive me.’ Reid wasn’t sure if he was ever able to, but he would try.
Morgan saw that his friend was lost in thoughts again, so he stayed silent. At first he had thought that the reason for Reid’s dreams had been the fear not to be able to find the missing kid in time that the man had clearly harbored.
But after the young profiler had confessed to have that same dream since he had been a child, the black agent had followed a hunch and had asked a detective to look through old murder cases that involved children as victims.
The cop had found Riley’s file, which had perfectly fit his friend’s description. Though there had still been the possibility that their genius had just read an article about the murder and had memorized the details.
Never would he have thought that Spencer’s parents had been indirectly involved it in, let alone that the other man had been in danger of ending up like the Jenkins’ kid had.
Looking over at his colleague, he was surprised to see him sleeping peacefully and he had to smile. He wasn’t sure if Spencer would be able to give his father a second chance after everything that had happened.
Time would show.
“Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be outraged by silence.” Swiss philosopher Henri-Frédéric Amiel
A/N: I know that the psychiatrist's name is not Sarah Daniels. When I wrote the story I didn't think to check for her name and none was given in the episode so I just made it up. I later found it out when I got the DVD box but I didn't wanna change it as it's kind of an homage.