Second Childhood
Part 11
28 October 2011
Athough it wasn’t quite dark yet when they landed, Spencer was still on Oregon time, and although he remembered getting into JJ’s car, the next thing he knew, Henry was looming over him, poking him in the cheek.
When he saw that Spencer was looking at him, Henry demanded,“What’s your name?”
“Hello, my name’s Spencer,” he replied, yawning and sitting up. He must have fallen asleep in the car yet again – his younger body demanded so much sleep! Now he was in a sleeping bag on the floor of Henry’s room. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Henry.”
“Hi, Henry, nice to meet you.” Spencer looked at the cast on Henry’s right arm and felt a sickening pang of guilt. Henry saw him looking and waved it proudly.
“My arm got broke,” he announced, not seeming to remember that Spencer had been involved.
“I’ll bet that hurt,” Spencer remarked, feeling relieved, ”but the cast will keep it safe until it heals.”
“Uh huh,” Henry replied.
“Henry, are you getting dressed?” Will appeared in the doorway. “Hey, good morning and happy birthday, Spencer.”
“Oh.” He’d forgotten. “Thanks, Will. Um, have you seen my glasses?”
“I think JJ put them over here,” Will said, checking the nightstand beside the bed. He found the glasses and handed them to Spencer.
“Thanks.”
“My dad,” Henry said, as though warning Spencer off.
“It’s Spencer’s birthday to-day,” Will said. “Tell him happy birthday, Henry.”
“Happy birfday, Spencer!”
“Now get dressed,” Will said, indicating a set of clothes laid out neatly on the floor. “Then you can have breakfast.”
“I’d better get dressed, too.” Spencer got up and saw that JJ had changed him into his pyjamas the night before, instead of simply taking his jeans off the way Hotch always did. He looked around and found his go-bag, then rooted through it for a set of clothes that weren’t too dirty even though they’d been already worn at least once that week. With his father’s help, Henry got dressed, too, and when they went downstairs, Spencer noticed that Will kept hold of Henry’s good arm.
Spencer made a quick trip to the bathroom, and also saw that there was now a nightlight that hadn’t been there before, plugged into the socket over the sink. He felt both grateful and slightly ashamed as he made his way to the kitchen.
“Happy birthday, Spence!” JJ exclaimed as soon as she saw him. “I made chocolate-chip pancakes to celebrate!”
“Pancakes, yummy!” Henry cried, sitting down at the table.
“Thank you, JJ,” Spencer said, and sat down as well. JJ took the platter out of the oven where it had been keeping warm and brought it to the table. As she started to place pancakes on Spencer’s plate, Henry reached over to grab them. “My pancakes!”
“Hey, Henry, it’s Spencer’s birthday, not yours. The birthday boy gets the pancakes first,” Will explained, trying to pry the food out of Henry’s fist.
“No, that’s okay,” Spencer said, seeing how Henry had mangled his breakfast.
“Sorry, Spencer,” JJ said, and put new ones on his plate. “Henry, that was not nice. Now say sorry to Spencer.”
“Sorry, Spencer,” Henry mumbled, then stuffed a pancake into his mouth. “Yum!”
“You can at least have the syrup first,” Will said, holding Henry’s hand away from the jug as Spencer poured. Then Will took the jug and poured a smaller amount onto Henry’s plate.
“Oh, delicious!” Spencer took another bite. “I’ve never had chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast on my birthday before.”
“It’s a tradition in my family,” JJ said, obviously pleased that he liked them, then smiling over at her partner.
“When my birfday?” Henry asked.
“November twelfth,” Will told him. “That’s fifteen more days.”
“When your birfday, mommy?”
“July twenty second, sweetie,” JJ said.
“When Daddy birfday?”
“February sixth,” Will said. “But don’t worry, we’ll have chocolate chip pancakes on your birthday.”
Once breakfast was over, and Will had started to wash up, JJ said, “Hey, Spence, I can throw your stuff in the wash if you want to get it out of your go-bag for me.”
“Sure,” Spencer replied, and went upstairs. JJ followed with a laundry basket, and Henry came to see what they were doing. When he spied Spencer’s underwear, Henry said, “That mine!”
“No, Henry, this is Spencer’s. Yours are in the drawer over there,” JJ explained patiently.
“No, that mine!” Henry insisted. He lifted up a pair and pointed to the picture on the backside. “My Cats!”
“It looks the same, sweetie, but Spencer’s are bigger.” JJ retrieved the underpants and put them back in the basket. “Come here, look in the drawer. Your underwear is still here, see?”
“Maybe I should get another brand,” Spencer suggested. He hadn’t been in favour of the Sword-Swinging Cats underwear from the start, but he’d worn them because there hadn’t been any choice. “Then they won’t get mixed up in the wash.”
“I’ve got a laundry marking pen, I’ll just write an S on yours. Plus we can always check the tags for the size. They won’t get mixed up,” JJ said.
Spencer sighed. He should have thought of getting something different the last time he was out shopping with Hotch, but it hadn’t occurred to him until now.
“Write on mine, too!” Henry demanded.
JJ smiled tolerantly down at her son. ”I’ll put a big H on yours for Henry.”
“Right now!” Henry demanded.
“Just let me get this in the machine first.”
Henry went downstairs with her, keeping hold of her free hand, and watched as his mother put the basket in the laundry room. As soon as she picked up the marking pen, though, Henry urged her back up to his room. Spencer thought he might help out by starting the machine, but he couldn’t reach the controls, so he went into the kitchen to get a chair from the table.
“What’cha doin’, kiddo?” Will asked from the sink.
“Just thought I’d help with the laundry,” Spencer said, dragging the chair in front of the washing machine and opening the lid. There was already a load inside, so he started to remove it, one handful at a time, and piled them on top of the dryer. Suddenly at his side, Will reached in and gathered up all the remaining clothes.
“You’re –“” Will hesitated, then changed what he was about to say --“a guest in our house. Guests don’t have to help with the laundry. Not to mention it’s your birthday. You should go get your shoes on.”
“I’ve been dealing with washing machines for years, Will, I won’t ruin anything,” Spencer said, knowing that Will had wanted to say something about his age, or his size. Taking advantage of Will packing all the wet things into the dryer, Spencer transferred his own clothes from the basket to the washer. “Plus, JJ came over and did laundry for me when I got shot, so this is kind of like repaying the debt.”
“Well, neither of us have been shot,” JJ said, coming back in. “And does Hotch let you help with the laundry?”
“He lets Jack and me carry some of the dirty stuff down to the laundry room, but he does everything else,” Spencer admitted, watching Will lift the detergent down from the shelf above the appliances, and realising he wouldn’t have been able to reach it without climbing on top of the washer.
Will put the correct amount of detergent into the machine, shut the lid, set the controls, and pressed the button. Seeing that there was nothing left to do, Spencer got down off the chair and reached to take it back, but Will had already lifted it up. Defeated, Spencer went in search of his shoes.
Everybody congratulated him at work that day, and when everybody had arrived, Garcia produced a cake with thirty candles. Spencer was glad to see she hadn’t stopped at five.
“If you can blow them out with one breath, then your wish will come true,” she said, lighting them up. “I’ve placed them all close together so you should be able to manage it.”
Everybody sang the happy birthday song, and as soon as they’d finished. Spencer took a deep breath and blew. When he had to inhale, however, one last flame continued to burn, and he had to give it a second puff.
“Oh, dear, I hope your wish wasn’t to be re-aged soon,” Garcia said. “’Cause it won’t come true now.”
“I didn’t make a wish,” Spencer said.
“And it’s just a silly superstition,” Emily said. She was sitting at her desk with her foot propped up on an extra chair. “What kind of cake is that? I hope it’s chocolate.”
“Red Velvet,” said Garcia, cutting the first slice and putting it on a paper plate. “Except I didn’t realise until it was too late that I was out of red food colouring, so it’s more like Brown Velvet. Here ya go, Spencer.”
Spencer carefully took the plate and reached for a fork.
“Doesn’t matter the colour, it’ll still taste good,” Morgan said.
“Well, just for that, my luscious Brown Velvet Man, you get the next piece,” Garcia simpered, and handed it over. Morgan didn’t bother with a fork, just leaned down and took a bite from the top.
“Ummm, what did I say?” he said.
“It’s excellent, Garcia,” Spencer agreed.
When Garcia had given everyone in the circle a piece and they were all happily eating, Spencer realised someone was missing. “Garcia, don’t forget Ally.”
“Is she here?” Garcia glanced around, but Spencer had already spotted her at her desk. He put down his half-eaten slice and trotted over.
“Ally!” he said. “Come have a piece of cake!”
Ally looked up from her Arabic primer. “Thanks, but I don’t usually eat sugar.”
“But it’s my birthday,” he reminded her.
“Oh, well, twist my arm.” She awkwardly wriggled a bookmark into place using her right hand, and Spencer said, “No, you can stay here, I’ll bring it to you.”
“Private jet and now my own personal waiter? I should transfer into this unit permanently and forget all about arson,” she said. “Just a little piece, though.”
Garcia cut a slightly smaller piece. Spencer carried the plate across the bullpen and presented it to Ally. “Bialeafiata!”
“Shukran,” Ally replied.
After an awkward moment of hesitation, Spencer gave in and asked, “What does that mean?”
“Seriously? You can wish me a bon appetit in Arabic, but you don’t know shukran?”
“From the context, I could assume it means ‘thank you,’ but it could also mean, ‘the same to you,’ or even something like ‘this looks delicious,’” Spencer said. “But the truth is, I only know four words in Arabic and bialeafiata happens to be one of them.”
Ally smiled. “And what are the other three words?”
“Salam, inshallah, and jihad.” He noticed that Ally wrinkled her nose at the word jihad, but he’d only been telling the truth. It wasn’t his fault that everybody in the world knew the word jihad now.
“Well, shukran means thank you, so now you know five words.”
“Cool! Shukran, Ally!” Spencer went back to his desk in time to hear Morgan ask, “Guys, did you hear that? Reid just admitted he doesn’t know everything!”
Everybody laughed, and Spencer told him, “There are lots of things I don’t know.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Well …” Spencer stopped to consider exactly what he should admit to first, and the resulting pause made everybody laugh again. Then Hotch tossed his empty plate into the nearest wastepaper basket and strolled away to his office, and that was the signal for everybody else to drift back to work as well.
+++++
29 October 2011
The next day, JJ surprised them all at breakfast by announcing, “It’s good weather, and Will’s got a day off, so why don’t we go out somewhere?”
“You have somethin’ in mind, cherie?” Will asked.
“Yes, I thought we could go to this corn maze I heard about,” she said.
“Oooh, a corn maze!” Spencer exclaimed, surprising not only Will and JJ, but also himself with his enthusiasm. He also caught the look that Will gave JJ, which clearly said, I thought there was supposed to be an adult in that little body.
JJ grinned and went on. “There’s also a kids maze, a playground and a farm animal section for Henry, and we can take a picnic.”
“Picnic!” cried Henry.
“I’ve never been to a corn maze, but I’ve always wanted to go,” Spencer said, trying not to kick his legs with excitement.
“Don’t they have those where you’re from?” Will asked.
“I’m from Las Vegas, and yes, there are corn mazes in Nevada. We just … never went.” Spencer didn’t explain, and thankfully, Will didn’t ask.
“Then this will be a fun treat for all of us,” JJ announced.
JJ’s idea of a picnic was the same as Spencer’s, stopping at the local store for various salads, drinks, and cookies, then at Subway for sandwiches. Lots of other families were taking advantage of the good weather to visit the corn maze, too, so they had to get in line to pay. At the ticket booth, they got a brochure, which Will read at a maddeningly slow speed.
“Kids maze first, then the farm animals?” Will suggested.
“Animals!” Henry agreed.
“May I see the brochure?” Spencer asked, and when Will handed it over, he quickly glanced through. “There are three mazes, the biggest one would definitely take too long for Henry, but could we do the intermediate one?”
JJ and Will looked at each other and shrugged. JJ said, “Sure, why not? One of us can carry Henry if he gets tired.”
As they went through the intermediate maze, JJ said teasingly, “Do you think there’ll be a minotaur in the middle?”
“The story of Theseus and the minotaur was a myth,” Spencer told them eagerly. “Actually, there’s no evidence of a labyrinth underneath the city of Knossos, and there was never a half-man, half-bull. However, the legend of the labyrinth could have come from a system of caves on the south side of Crete, or from the palace of Knossos, which was large and complicated, with many levels, stairs, and rooms,” Spencer said.
“Sounds like every government building I’ve ever been in,” Will said, and JJ laughed.
There were scarecrows with pumpkin heads in some of the dead ends of the maze,. Henry was a little nervous at seeing the first one, until JJ poked the scarecrow in the chest and squeezed its arm so that the straw filling rustled. Then he wanted to run ahead and grab every scarecrow, but Will insisted that Henry hold his hand so he wouldn’t get separated from them. When JJ reached out for Spencer’s hand, however, Henry ran back, Will stumbling along behind him, and told Spencer firmly, “My mom!”
“Sorry, Spence,” JJ said. “It’s a stage he’s going through.”
“I know,” Spencer said. “It’s okay, I don’t need to hold hands. I’ll stay right behind you and not run off.”
Finally, they reached the end point, which was not a minotaur but a platform where they could climb up for a good view of everything around them. There were jack-o-lanterns on every step, and one in each corner, and Spencer saw lights inside them that could be lit when it got dark. He would have liked to have seen it all in the dark. But now, barely tall enough to see over the railing, Spencer took a good look at each quarter of the maze in broad daylight, then announced, “I know the quickest way to get us out now.”
“Okay, then we can go see some animals,” JJ said brightly.
“Giraffe?” Henry asked. The night before, his bedtime stories had included a book about animals at the zoo. “Tiger?”
“Definitely no tigers, and no giraffes. There might be cows, horses, things like that,” Will said.
“There’s a picture of a child and a goat here in this brochure,” Spencer added. “And a donkey.”
“Does it say anything about pony rides?” JJ asked. “My family took me to a corn maze once when we were kids, and I got to ride a pony around a big field.”
“Yes, there are pony rides,” Spencer said. “And hayrides, too.”
“Well, Henry will probably need a nap after lunch, so I don’t think we can do everything,” JJ explained, which was okay with Spencer, because he didn’t see the point of hayrides anyway, and he wasn’t sure about pony rides, either. What if the pony reacted like Mudgie had? Thankfully, JJ went on to suggest, “Let’s see the animals first.”
Henry was delighted with the goat, and every other animal that was on display, even chasing the two chickens. Spencer stayed far away from the huge cow and everything else that was bigger than he was, and had no interest in chickens or goats, but happily stroked the large black and white rabbit. It had sniffed Spencer once, then turned its head away, but otherwise showed no signs of behaving like Mudgie. In fact, it was the complete opposite of the dog, patiently laying there and enjoying the attention, and Spencer thought it would probably let him cuddle it without kicking or biting. It was so soft that he wanted to pick it up and nuzzle it, feel its fur against his cheeks and nose, and Spencer was just about to gather it into his arms when something pushed against him.
“My bunny!” Henry insisted.
“The bunny is for everybody to share,” JJ told him. “Everybody can take turns petting the bunny.”
“I’ve had my turn, go ahead, Henry,” Spencer said, and moved off with a mental sigh. He almost wished he had a soft, gentle rabbit to come home to at the end of each day, but who would take care of it while he was away? Emily had a cat-lady in her apartment building who was always ready to pounce on Sergio whether Emily was away or not, and Garcia helped out, too. But as far as Spencer knew, there weren’t any bunny-ladies, or bunny daycare like there was for dogs, and especially not where he lived. Plus, he didn’t even live there anymore, not since he’d been de-aged, and he couldn’t imagine Hotch saying yes to a rabbit when he already had Jack and now Spencer to worry about. He turned away from the animals and put them out of his mind.
There was still time before lunch for them to go to the little children’s playground. Spencer would rather have sat down somewhere and read a book, but JJ encouraged him to go down the huge tube slide with Henry. The tube slide would have been big enough for JJ or even Will to accompany their son, but he went with Henry anyway. At least Henry didn’t try to push him out of the way and claim ownership of the tube for himself. Instead, he shrieked happily, grabbed Spencer’s hand, and cried out, “Again!”
There were several children there already, and after a few times, Henry got bored with waiting in line, and went to the climbing frame. Spencer followed more slowly, and when one of the swings became free, he ran over and grabbed it. He’d always liked swinging. Now he started to pump, to get up high, but he’d barely gone back and forth three times before a male teenager ran in front of him. Spencer just had time to think Oh, no! when the boy grabbed his ankles and pulled. Spencer flew out of the swing and slammed into the ground flat on his back.
He lay there for a moment, unable to breathe. He was vaguely aware that Will was there, speaking, but he couldn’t understand anything except the need for air. In his increasing panic, he flopped onto his side, and breath rushed back into his lungs.
“Uhhh,” he said, and then, because of the pain in his back and the aftermath of the panic, he started crying <i>again</i>!
“Spencer, here, it might help if you pulled your legs up a bit,” Will said, helping Spencer curl into a loose ball.
JJ came running up as well. “Spencer?”
“I don’t think anything’s broken,” Will reported. “He just got the wind knocked out of him, is all. All right, everybody, move back, he’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
“It was a distraction,” JJ said. “A couple of women are screaming that their purses were snatched by other boys at the same time.”
“I’ll see about it,” Will said. “You stay here with him? He’ll get up when he’s ready.”
“Yeah.” JJ squatted down where Spencer could see her, and Will went away. Henry came to his mother’s side.
“Spencer sick?” he asked.
“Spencer’s a little hurt,” JJ replied, reaching down to smooth Spencer’s hair away from his face. “He’ll be okay in a minute.”
Henry gave Spencer’s knee a few hard pats, then ran around and bent over to kiss his ear with a loud smack that made Spencer recoil. “All better now.”
Eventually, Spencer sat up and reached out for JJ, wanting a hug and reassurance. She gathered him up, rubbing his back gently with one hand, and found a nearby bale of hay to sit on. “You’ll be okay, Spencer, you’ll be fine.”
“Couldn’t … breathe,” he gasped, trying not to cry anymore. He was really starting to hate crying.
“I know. It’s scary when you get the breath knocked out of you, isn’t it? But you’re okay now.”
Henry had climbed up the back of the hay bale and now he put both hands, even the one with the cast, on Spencer’s shoulder and pushed. “My mom! My turn!”
“No, Henry,” JJ said firmly. “It’s still Spencer’s turn because he’s hurt.”
But Henry pushed again. “My turn!”
“Henry, no.” JJ was using her FBI voice now. “Spencer’s turn.”
Spencer detached himself slowly from JJ and scooted over to sit at her side. She put one arm around his shoulders, even when Henry immediately crawled into her lap and clung there like a koala on a tree. Spencer wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand, then leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his abdomen in an ineffective attempt to still his body’s hunger for more contact. He wanted to go home. He wanted Hotch.
After a minute, Henry got bored with hugging, and ran to the climbing frame, calling for his mother to come watch.
“Are you feeling any better?” JJ asked.
“Uh huh,” he said.
“Did you hit your head or get hurt anywhere else?”
“Huh unh. I’m okay.”
Henry called again, and Spencer added, “You can go play with him. I’ll just sit here.”
JJ went reluctantly to her son, glancing worriedly back at him as she walked, and positioned herself so that she could see both of them. Spencer sat there, wishing he didn’t have to share her hugs with Henry, wishing he could have her all to himself for as long as he wanted. He wished Hotch were there. And while he was wishing, he might as well wish his mom were available, too, and well enough to hold him and read to him. He closed his eyes, focusing on Tristan and Isolde, reciting it to himself and remembering his mother’s voice.
A hand on his shoulder startled him into another flash of panic.
“Hey, Spencer, you awake? You all right?”
He blinked. It was Will, only Will.
“Oh, yeah, I’m all right,” he said. “I’m awake. I was just thinking.”
JJ came up, leading Henry by the hand. “Are you feeling better now, Spence?”
“Yeah,” he said truthfully. His back still ached a little, but most of the pain and the panic had ebbed away.
“Did you find the kids who did this?” JJ asked Will.
“Nope, but we reported it to the local police, and found the purses in a ditch by the parking lot. Looks like they grabbed the cash and dumped everything else. Spencer wasn’t the only distraction, either, the one boy shoved and grabbed a couple of other kids, too, and then his buddies took advantage of everybody looking somewhere else.”
“That was a pretty bold ruse.”
Spencer spoke up. “Do the police want to talk to me? I remember what the boy looked like, I could work with a sketch artist and give them a picture so they can find him.”
Will hesitated, then said, “No offense, Spencer, but I don’t think they’d trust your statement because of your, um, age. I know I wouldn’t, if I were dealing with your average five-year-old.”
He was right, but it still made Spencer feel disgruntled.
Seeing his face, JJ tried to lighten the mood a little. “Well, now that all the excitement’s over, how about we have our picnic?”
Part 12
Part 10
Return to Criminal Minds Page
Athough it wasn’t quite dark yet when they landed, Spencer was still on Oregon time, and although he remembered getting into JJ’s car, the next thing he knew, Henry was looming over him, poking him in the cheek.
When he saw that Spencer was looking at him, Henry demanded,“What’s your name?”
“Hello, my name’s Spencer,” he replied, yawning and sitting up. He must have fallen asleep in the car yet again – his younger body demanded so much sleep! Now he was in a sleeping bag on the floor of Henry’s room. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Henry.”
“Hi, Henry, nice to meet you.” Spencer looked at the cast on Henry’s right arm and felt a sickening pang of guilt. Henry saw him looking and waved it proudly.
“My arm got broke,” he announced, not seeming to remember that Spencer had been involved.
“I’ll bet that hurt,” Spencer remarked, feeling relieved, ”but the cast will keep it safe until it heals.”
“Uh huh,” Henry replied.
“Henry, are you getting dressed?” Will appeared in the doorway. “Hey, good morning and happy birthday, Spencer.”
“Oh.” He’d forgotten. “Thanks, Will. Um, have you seen my glasses?”
“I think JJ put them over here,” Will said, checking the nightstand beside the bed. He found the glasses and handed them to Spencer.
“Thanks.”
“My dad,” Henry said, as though warning Spencer off.
“It’s Spencer’s birthday to-day,” Will said. “Tell him happy birthday, Henry.”
“Happy birfday, Spencer!”
“Now get dressed,” Will said, indicating a set of clothes laid out neatly on the floor. “Then you can have breakfast.”
“I’d better get dressed, too.” Spencer got up and saw that JJ had changed him into his pyjamas the night before, instead of simply taking his jeans off the way Hotch always did. He looked around and found his go-bag, then rooted through it for a set of clothes that weren’t too dirty even though they’d been already worn at least once that week. With his father’s help, Henry got dressed, too, and when they went downstairs, Spencer noticed that Will kept hold of Henry’s good arm.
Spencer made a quick trip to the bathroom, and also saw that there was now a nightlight that hadn’t been there before, plugged into the socket over the sink. He felt both grateful and slightly ashamed as he made his way to the kitchen.
“Happy birthday, Spence!” JJ exclaimed as soon as she saw him. “I made chocolate-chip pancakes to celebrate!”
“Pancakes, yummy!” Henry cried, sitting down at the table.
“Thank you, JJ,” Spencer said, and sat down as well. JJ took the platter out of the oven where it had been keeping warm and brought it to the table. As she started to place pancakes on Spencer’s plate, Henry reached over to grab them. “My pancakes!”
“Hey, Henry, it’s Spencer’s birthday, not yours. The birthday boy gets the pancakes first,” Will explained, trying to pry the food out of Henry’s fist.
“No, that’s okay,” Spencer said, seeing how Henry had mangled his breakfast.
“Sorry, Spencer,” JJ said, and put new ones on his plate. “Henry, that was not nice. Now say sorry to Spencer.”
“Sorry, Spencer,” Henry mumbled, then stuffed a pancake into his mouth. “Yum!”
“You can at least have the syrup first,” Will said, holding Henry’s hand away from the jug as Spencer poured. Then Will took the jug and poured a smaller amount onto Henry’s plate.
“Oh, delicious!” Spencer took another bite. “I’ve never had chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast on my birthday before.”
“It’s a tradition in my family,” JJ said, obviously pleased that he liked them, then smiling over at her partner.
“When my birfday?” Henry asked.
“November twelfth,” Will told him. “That’s fifteen more days.”
“When your birfday, mommy?”
“July twenty second, sweetie,” JJ said.
“When Daddy birfday?”
“February sixth,” Will said. “But don’t worry, we’ll have chocolate chip pancakes on your birthday.”
Once breakfast was over, and Will had started to wash up, JJ said, “Hey, Spence, I can throw your stuff in the wash if you want to get it out of your go-bag for me.”
“Sure,” Spencer replied, and went upstairs. JJ followed with a laundry basket, and Henry came to see what they were doing. When he spied Spencer’s underwear, Henry said, “That mine!”
“No, Henry, this is Spencer’s. Yours are in the drawer over there,” JJ explained patiently.
“No, that mine!” Henry insisted. He lifted up a pair and pointed to the picture on the backside. “My Cats!”
“It looks the same, sweetie, but Spencer’s are bigger.” JJ retrieved the underpants and put them back in the basket. “Come here, look in the drawer. Your underwear is still here, see?”
“Maybe I should get another brand,” Spencer suggested. He hadn’t been in favour of the Sword-Swinging Cats underwear from the start, but he’d worn them because there hadn’t been any choice. “Then they won’t get mixed up in the wash.”
“I’ve got a laundry marking pen, I’ll just write an S on yours. Plus we can always check the tags for the size. They won’t get mixed up,” JJ said.
Spencer sighed. He should have thought of getting something different the last time he was out shopping with Hotch, but it hadn’t occurred to him until now.
“Write on mine, too!” Henry demanded.
JJ smiled tolerantly down at her son. ”I’ll put a big H on yours for Henry.”
“Right now!” Henry demanded.
“Just let me get this in the machine first.”
Henry went downstairs with her, keeping hold of her free hand, and watched as his mother put the basket in the laundry room. As soon as she picked up the marking pen, though, Henry urged her back up to his room. Spencer thought he might help out by starting the machine, but he couldn’t reach the controls, so he went into the kitchen to get a chair from the table.
“What’cha doin’, kiddo?” Will asked from the sink.
“Just thought I’d help with the laundry,” Spencer said, dragging the chair in front of the washing machine and opening the lid. There was already a load inside, so he started to remove it, one handful at a time, and piled them on top of the dryer. Suddenly at his side, Will reached in and gathered up all the remaining clothes.
“You’re –“” Will hesitated, then changed what he was about to say --“a guest in our house. Guests don’t have to help with the laundry. Not to mention it’s your birthday. You should go get your shoes on.”
“I’ve been dealing with washing machines for years, Will, I won’t ruin anything,” Spencer said, knowing that Will had wanted to say something about his age, or his size. Taking advantage of Will packing all the wet things into the dryer, Spencer transferred his own clothes from the basket to the washer. “Plus, JJ came over and did laundry for me when I got shot, so this is kind of like repaying the debt.”
“Well, neither of us have been shot,” JJ said, coming back in. “And does Hotch let you help with the laundry?”
“He lets Jack and me carry some of the dirty stuff down to the laundry room, but he does everything else,” Spencer admitted, watching Will lift the detergent down from the shelf above the appliances, and realising he wouldn’t have been able to reach it without climbing on top of the washer.
Will put the correct amount of detergent into the machine, shut the lid, set the controls, and pressed the button. Seeing that there was nothing left to do, Spencer got down off the chair and reached to take it back, but Will had already lifted it up. Defeated, Spencer went in search of his shoes.
Everybody congratulated him at work that day, and when everybody had arrived, Garcia produced a cake with thirty candles. Spencer was glad to see she hadn’t stopped at five.
“If you can blow them out with one breath, then your wish will come true,” she said, lighting them up. “I’ve placed them all close together so you should be able to manage it.”
Everybody sang the happy birthday song, and as soon as they’d finished. Spencer took a deep breath and blew. When he had to inhale, however, one last flame continued to burn, and he had to give it a second puff.
“Oh, dear, I hope your wish wasn’t to be re-aged soon,” Garcia said. “’Cause it won’t come true now.”
“I didn’t make a wish,” Spencer said.
“And it’s just a silly superstition,” Emily said. She was sitting at her desk with her foot propped up on an extra chair. “What kind of cake is that? I hope it’s chocolate.”
“Red Velvet,” said Garcia, cutting the first slice and putting it on a paper plate. “Except I didn’t realise until it was too late that I was out of red food colouring, so it’s more like Brown Velvet. Here ya go, Spencer.”
Spencer carefully took the plate and reached for a fork.
“Doesn’t matter the colour, it’ll still taste good,” Morgan said.
“Well, just for that, my luscious Brown Velvet Man, you get the next piece,” Garcia simpered, and handed it over. Morgan didn’t bother with a fork, just leaned down and took a bite from the top.
“Ummm, what did I say?” he said.
“It’s excellent, Garcia,” Spencer agreed.
When Garcia had given everyone in the circle a piece and they were all happily eating, Spencer realised someone was missing. “Garcia, don’t forget Ally.”
“Is she here?” Garcia glanced around, but Spencer had already spotted her at her desk. He put down his half-eaten slice and trotted over.
“Ally!” he said. “Come have a piece of cake!”
Ally looked up from her Arabic primer. “Thanks, but I don’t usually eat sugar.”
“But it’s my birthday,” he reminded her.
“Oh, well, twist my arm.” She awkwardly wriggled a bookmark into place using her right hand, and Spencer said, “No, you can stay here, I’ll bring it to you.”
“Private jet and now my own personal waiter? I should transfer into this unit permanently and forget all about arson,” she said. “Just a little piece, though.”
Garcia cut a slightly smaller piece. Spencer carried the plate across the bullpen and presented it to Ally. “Bialeafiata!”
“Shukran,” Ally replied.
After an awkward moment of hesitation, Spencer gave in and asked, “What does that mean?”
“Seriously? You can wish me a bon appetit in Arabic, but you don’t know shukran?”
“From the context, I could assume it means ‘thank you,’ but it could also mean, ‘the same to you,’ or even something like ‘this looks delicious,’” Spencer said. “But the truth is, I only know four words in Arabic and bialeafiata happens to be one of them.”
Ally smiled. “And what are the other three words?”
“Salam, inshallah, and jihad.” He noticed that Ally wrinkled her nose at the word jihad, but he’d only been telling the truth. It wasn’t his fault that everybody in the world knew the word jihad now.
“Well, shukran means thank you, so now you know five words.”
“Cool! Shukran, Ally!” Spencer went back to his desk in time to hear Morgan ask, “Guys, did you hear that? Reid just admitted he doesn’t know everything!”
Everybody laughed, and Spencer told him, “There are lots of things I don’t know.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Well …” Spencer stopped to consider exactly what he should admit to first, and the resulting pause made everybody laugh again. Then Hotch tossed his empty plate into the nearest wastepaper basket and strolled away to his office, and that was the signal for everybody else to drift back to work as well.
+++++
29 October 2011
The next day, JJ surprised them all at breakfast by announcing, “It’s good weather, and Will’s got a day off, so why don’t we go out somewhere?”
“You have somethin’ in mind, cherie?” Will asked.
“Yes, I thought we could go to this corn maze I heard about,” she said.
“Oooh, a corn maze!” Spencer exclaimed, surprising not only Will and JJ, but also himself with his enthusiasm. He also caught the look that Will gave JJ, which clearly said, I thought there was supposed to be an adult in that little body.
JJ grinned and went on. “There’s also a kids maze, a playground and a farm animal section for Henry, and we can take a picnic.”
“Picnic!” cried Henry.
“I’ve never been to a corn maze, but I’ve always wanted to go,” Spencer said, trying not to kick his legs with excitement.
“Don’t they have those where you’re from?” Will asked.
“I’m from Las Vegas, and yes, there are corn mazes in Nevada. We just … never went.” Spencer didn’t explain, and thankfully, Will didn’t ask.
“Then this will be a fun treat for all of us,” JJ announced.
JJ’s idea of a picnic was the same as Spencer’s, stopping at the local store for various salads, drinks, and cookies, then at Subway for sandwiches. Lots of other families were taking advantage of the good weather to visit the corn maze, too, so they had to get in line to pay. At the ticket booth, they got a brochure, which Will read at a maddeningly slow speed.
“Kids maze first, then the farm animals?” Will suggested.
“Animals!” Henry agreed.
“May I see the brochure?” Spencer asked, and when Will handed it over, he quickly glanced through. “There are three mazes, the biggest one would definitely take too long for Henry, but could we do the intermediate one?”
JJ and Will looked at each other and shrugged. JJ said, “Sure, why not? One of us can carry Henry if he gets tired.”
As they went through the intermediate maze, JJ said teasingly, “Do you think there’ll be a minotaur in the middle?”
“The story of Theseus and the minotaur was a myth,” Spencer told them eagerly. “Actually, there’s no evidence of a labyrinth underneath the city of Knossos, and there was never a half-man, half-bull. However, the legend of the labyrinth could have come from a system of caves on the south side of Crete, or from the palace of Knossos, which was large and complicated, with many levels, stairs, and rooms,” Spencer said.
“Sounds like every government building I’ve ever been in,” Will said, and JJ laughed.
There were scarecrows with pumpkin heads in some of the dead ends of the maze,. Henry was a little nervous at seeing the first one, until JJ poked the scarecrow in the chest and squeezed its arm so that the straw filling rustled. Then he wanted to run ahead and grab every scarecrow, but Will insisted that Henry hold his hand so he wouldn’t get separated from them. When JJ reached out for Spencer’s hand, however, Henry ran back, Will stumbling along behind him, and told Spencer firmly, “My mom!”
“Sorry, Spence,” JJ said. “It’s a stage he’s going through.”
“I know,” Spencer said. “It’s okay, I don’t need to hold hands. I’ll stay right behind you and not run off.”
Finally, they reached the end point, which was not a minotaur but a platform where they could climb up for a good view of everything around them. There were jack-o-lanterns on every step, and one in each corner, and Spencer saw lights inside them that could be lit when it got dark. He would have liked to have seen it all in the dark. But now, barely tall enough to see over the railing, Spencer took a good look at each quarter of the maze in broad daylight, then announced, “I know the quickest way to get us out now.”
“Okay, then we can go see some animals,” JJ said brightly.
“Giraffe?” Henry asked. The night before, his bedtime stories had included a book about animals at the zoo. “Tiger?”
“Definitely no tigers, and no giraffes. There might be cows, horses, things like that,” Will said.
“There’s a picture of a child and a goat here in this brochure,” Spencer added. “And a donkey.”
“Does it say anything about pony rides?” JJ asked. “My family took me to a corn maze once when we were kids, and I got to ride a pony around a big field.”
“Yes, there are pony rides,” Spencer said. “And hayrides, too.”
“Well, Henry will probably need a nap after lunch, so I don’t think we can do everything,” JJ explained, which was okay with Spencer, because he didn’t see the point of hayrides anyway, and he wasn’t sure about pony rides, either. What if the pony reacted like Mudgie had? Thankfully, JJ went on to suggest, “Let’s see the animals first.”
Henry was delighted with the goat, and every other animal that was on display, even chasing the two chickens. Spencer stayed far away from the huge cow and everything else that was bigger than he was, and had no interest in chickens or goats, but happily stroked the large black and white rabbit. It had sniffed Spencer once, then turned its head away, but otherwise showed no signs of behaving like Mudgie. In fact, it was the complete opposite of the dog, patiently laying there and enjoying the attention, and Spencer thought it would probably let him cuddle it without kicking or biting. It was so soft that he wanted to pick it up and nuzzle it, feel its fur against his cheeks and nose, and Spencer was just about to gather it into his arms when something pushed against him.
“My bunny!” Henry insisted.
“The bunny is for everybody to share,” JJ told him. “Everybody can take turns petting the bunny.”
“I’ve had my turn, go ahead, Henry,” Spencer said, and moved off with a mental sigh. He almost wished he had a soft, gentle rabbit to come home to at the end of each day, but who would take care of it while he was away? Emily had a cat-lady in her apartment building who was always ready to pounce on Sergio whether Emily was away or not, and Garcia helped out, too. But as far as Spencer knew, there weren’t any bunny-ladies, or bunny daycare like there was for dogs, and especially not where he lived. Plus, he didn’t even live there anymore, not since he’d been de-aged, and he couldn’t imagine Hotch saying yes to a rabbit when he already had Jack and now Spencer to worry about. He turned away from the animals and put them out of his mind.
There was still time before lunch for them to go to the little children’s playground. Spencer would rather have sat down somewhere and read a book, but JJ encouraged him to go down the huge tube slide with Henry. The tube slide would have been big enough for JJ or even Will to accompany their son, but he went with Henry anyway. At least Henry didn’t try to push him out of the way and claim ownership of the tube for himself. Instead, he shrieked happily, grabbed Spencer’s hand, and cried out, “Again!”
There were several children there already, and after a few times, Henry got bored with waiting in line, and went to the climbing frame. Spencer followed more slowly, and when one of the swings became free, he ran over and grabbed it. He’d always liked swinging. Now he started to pump, to get up high, but he’d barely gone back and forth three times before a male teenager ran in front of him. Spencer just had time to think Oh, no! when the boy grabbed his ankles and pulled. Spencer flew out of the swing and slammed into the ground flat on his back.
He lay there for a moment, unable to breathe. He was vaguely aware that Will was there, speaking, but he couldn’t understand anything except the need for air. In his increasing panic, he flopped onto his side, and breath rushed back into his lungs.
“Uhhh,” he said, and then, because of the pain in his back and the aftermath of the panic, he started crying <i>again</i>!
“Spencer, here, it might help if you pulled your legs up a bit,” Will said, helping Spencer curl into a loose ball.
JJ came running up as well. “Spencer?”
“I don’t think anything’s broken,” Will reported. “He just got the wind knocked out of him, is all. All right, everybody, move back, he’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
“It was a distraction,” JJ said. “A couple of women are screaming that their purses were snatched by other boys at the same time.”
“I’ll see about it,” Will said. “You stay here with him? He’ll get up when he’s ready.”
“Yeah.” JJ squatted down where Spencer could see her, and Will went away. Henry came to his mother’s side.
“Spencer sick?” he asked.
“Spencer’s a little hurt,” JJ replied, reaching down to smooth Spencer’s hair away from his face. “He’ll be okay in a minute.”
Henry gave Spencer’s knee a few hard pats, then ran around and bent over to kiss his ear with a loud smack that made Spencer recoil. “All better now.”
Eventually, Spencer sat up and reached out for JJ, wanting a hug and reassurance. She gathered him up, rubbing his back gently with one hand, and found a nearby bale of hay to sit on. “You’ll be okay, Spencer, you’ll be fine.”
“Couldn’t … breathe,” he gasped, trying not to cry anymore. He was really starting to hate crying.
“I know. It’s scary when you get the breath knocked out of you, isn’t it? But you’re okay now.”
Henry had climbed up the back of the hay bale and now he put both hands, even the one with the cast, on Spencer’s shoulder and pushed. “My mom! My turn!”
“No, Henry,” JJ said firmly. “It’s still Spencer’s turn because he’s hurt.”
But Henry pushed again. “My turn!”
“Henry, no.” JJ was using her FBI voice now. “Spencer’s turn.”
Spencer detached himself slowly from JJ and scooted over to sit at her side. She put one arm around his shoulders, even when Henry immediately crawled into her lap and clung there like a koala on a tree. Spencer wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand, then leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his abdomen in an ineffective attempt to still his body’s hunger for more contact. He wanted to go home. He wanted Hotch.
After a minute, Henry got bored with hugging, and ran to the climbing frame, calling for his mother to come watch.
“Are you feeling any better?” JJ asked.
“Uh huh,” he said.
“Did you hit your head or get hurt anywhere else?”
“Huh unh. I’m okay.”
Henry called again, and Spencer added, “You can go play with him. I’ll just sit here.”
JJ went reluctantly to her son, glancing worriedly back at him as she walked, and positioned herself so that she could see both of them. Spencer sat there, wishing he didn’t have to share her hugs with Henry, wishing he could have her all to himself for as long as he wanted. He wished Hotch were there. And while he was wishing, he might as well wish his mom were available, too, and well enough to hold him and read to him. He closed his eyes, focusing on Tristan and Isolde, reciting it to himself and remembering his mother’s voice.
A hand on his shoulder startled him into another flash of panic.
“Hey, Spencer, you awake? You all right?”
He blinked. It was Will, only Will.
“Oh, yeah, I’m all right,” he said. “I’m awake. I was just thinking.”
JJ came up, leading Henry by the hand. “Are you feeling better now, Spence?”
“Yeah,” he said truthfully. His back still ached a little, but most of the pain and the panic had ebbed away.
“Did you find the kids who did this?” JJ asked Will.
“Nope, but we reported it to the local police, and found the purses in a ditch by the parking lot. Looks like they grabbed the cash and dumped everything else. Spencer wasn’t the only distraction, either, the one boy shoved and grabbed a couple of other kids, too, and then his buddies took advantage of everybody looking somewhere else.”
“That was a pretty bold ruse.”
Spencer spoke up. “Do the police want to talk to me? I remember what the boy looked like, I could work with a sketch artist and give them a picture so they can find him.”
Will hesitated, then said, “No offense, Spencer, but I don’t think they’d trust your statement because of your, um, age. I know I wouldn’t, if I were dealing with your average five-year-old.”
He was right, but it still made Spencer feel disgruntled.
Seeing his face, JJ tried to lighten the mood a little. “Well, now that all the excitement’s over, how about we have our picnic?”
Part 12
Part 10
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