Second Childhood
Part 27
28 July 2012
Spencer had been vaguely afraid that he would have another nightmare, this time of Garibaldi giving him a smack or worse, but instead, he awoke in the morning with no memory of any unpleasant dreams. He got up and followed a delectable smell into the kitchen, where Hotch was standing at the stove.
“You’re supposed to be resting and recovering, not making … are those chocolate chip pancakes?” Spencer asked, peering at the griddle.
“One last treat,” said Hotch. “Is Jack awake yet?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You want to go wake him up?”
“I’m awake,” Jack said with a yawn, coming into the kitchen too. “Chocolate chip pancakes? Cool! Thanks, Dad!”
“Jack, can you get the orange juice out of the fridge?” Hotch asked, and Jack carried the plastic pitcher over to the table. Spencer was allowed to transport the maple syrup which Hotch handed down to him from the cabinet shelf.
Hotch prudently waited until they were finished eating before he said, “All right, Jack, JJ and Henry are going to come over and pick you up soon.”
“Where are we going?” Jack asked. “And what about you and Spencer?”
“Spencer and I have to go to some very boring meetings before he can go see his mother,” Hotch said, which was the excuse that Spencer had come up with. “It wouldn’t be fun for you.”
Jack slumped in disappointment, even when Hotch said, “I think JJ wants to take you and Henry swimming. You can take the Ping Pong Pals, too, and teach Henry how to play.”
“I wanted to go with you,” Jack said. “And Spencer.”
“I know, buddy, and I’m sorry that you can’t come.”
“JJ? What about Will?” Spencer asked, and Jack chimed in, too. “Is Uncle Will coming?”
“He had to take a shift at the last moment. JJ sent me a text,” Hotch said. “Okay, Jack, let’s go get your swimming things so you’ll be ready when JJ gets here.”
Jack went along, slowly becoming resigned to having a active morning with friends instead of doing something boring with his dad.
Spencer began to carry the dishes a few at a time to the kitchen sink, sad that JJ wasn’t going to be there for his big moment. He only dropped one fork on his way and didn’t break anything, which was a relief, because he didn’t want to start his first day as an adult again with a time-out. He and Hotch finished at approximately the same time, and Jack flopped down on the sofa in the living room with one of his Cat books to wait. He didn’t have to read for long before the doorbell rang, and Hotch opened the door to let JJ and Henry in.
“Hi, Jack, ready to go swimming?” JJ asked cheerfully.
“Yeah,” Jack said.
“Let’s say good-bye to Spencer and then we can get in the car.” JJ came over to where Spencer had stood up. “I guess this is the big day, huh?”
“Yes,” he said, and threw his arms around her. Another last thing – he’d never hug her again in this body, from this angle. She hugged back. “Good luck, young Spencer. And good-bye.”
“Good-bye, JJ,” he said. “Thank you for everything.”
“You’re welcome. You are always welcome.” Her eyes looked suspiciously bright as she turned away.
Spencer reached out to hug Jack next. “Good-bye, Jack. Thank you for being my brother. I won’t forget you, and I’ll send you a postcard from Las Vegas.”
“Good-bye, Spencer,” Jack said, hugging back quickly and then letting go. “I’ll miss you.”
There was the slightest hitch to JJ’s voice as she said, “All right, boys, let’s go!”
Jack waved, then grabbed his bag and went out. Spencer said, “Good-bye, Henry,” but Henry only returned a casual, “Bye!” and raced after Jack. JJ gave him one last look and smiled bravely, then pulled the door shut. It suddenly seemed very quiet and very empty in Hotch’s apartment.
Spencer went into the bedroom, blinked away a few tears, then grabbed his go-bag and dragged it behind him as he came out again. “I need to get a few things from my apartment, and I can take these clothes along and wash them before I give them away.”
“Then let’s go,” said Hotch and texted the rest of the team to meet them there. Up in the bedroom of his apartment where he hadn’t slept for ten months, Spencer pushed his spare sets of child-sized clothing, including Boney, into his dirty clothes basket, then replaced them with adult-sized clothing and shoes and the case containing his old, adult-prescription glasses.
“Don’t forget a razor,” Hotch said, and Spencer put a hand to his smooth chin with a smile as he realised, “I haven’t even thought about shaving for almost a year now.”
He put his adult toiletries bag into the go-bag, then asked Hotch to help him gather up all the newspapers and magazines that arrived in the post since the last time he’d been home so that he could fold them in, too. They were almost the only thing in his apartment that wasn’t dusty. Because he was certain there’d be plenty of time for reading at the SHIELD base while they did their tests, he added a few favourite books, just in case. After a long moment of thought, he added his messenger bag as well.
The rest of the team met them there, and Spencer handed the keys to his car over to Morgan, who accepted them with a smile. “It’s so hard to remember that you were actually once big enough to drive, Pretty Boy.”
“Ha ha,” Spencer said.
“Come on, Baby Girl,” Morgan said to Garcia. “Anybody else want to ride in the Reid-Mobile?”
Rossi went over, but Emily stayed, and when Spencer got into the car seat, she sat down in the back next to him for the long ride. The closer they got, the more restless Spencer felt, and Emily, sitting on the back seat beside him, grinned knowingly when she saw him twitch. Finally, they were at the gate, with the guard coming out of the guardbox to check their authorization. Spencer said, “Hotch, you have to give him the project name and password.”
Hotch did so, and the guard leaned down and peered into the car, smiling a little when he saw Spencer.
“And the car behind us belongs to us, too,” Hotch added.
“Yes, sir,” the guard said. “Go to Entrance B, that’s around the back of that building there, and I’ll let Dr Kapoor know you’re here.”
He lifted the barrier so they could all drive through, and while they drove around, Emily said, “Did they seriously name you Project Mustardseed? Like from the New Testament?”
“I suppose,” Spencer replied, but he was too distracted by the thought of what was going to happen in just a few minutes to engage in any kind of meaningful conversation about growth or faith. He could barely wait until Hotch had parked and turned the engine off before unbuckling himself out of the car seat – which he would never need again! – and scrambling eagerly out of the car.
Entrance B was a regular door at the side of a much larger loading entrance. It was locked, and they had to wait for Dr Kapoor and another guard to open it from the other side. “Agent Hotchner! Dr Reid!“
“The rest of the team wanted to be here, too,“ Hotch explained as they went in. “I hope that’s not a problem.”
“Oh, not at all, there’s plenty of room,” Dr Kapoor said, sweeping one hand out to indicate the warehouse-sized chamber. The re-aging machine was in the middle, a kind of tube-shaped structure poised on long articulated legs over a huge mat. There were steps leading up to a platform on one side, with a control board visible, and on the other side of the machine was a loading crane, which Spencer supposed was for the pigs and other test animals. Other scientists were coming in, too, but kept mostly on the opposite side of the machine.
“Well, uh, I guess if you’re going to watch, just make sure you stay outside the circle,” Dr Kapoor said, indicating the marking on the floor. There were also cameras set up on tripods just inside it. “I wasn’t expecting an audience, so we don’t have any chairs, I’m afraid.”
“Hotch, can you help me get this off?” Spencer asked, holding up his splint.
“Sure,” said Hotch, and carefully undid the velcro straps. Spencer’s arm felt floppy and weak without it, and there was still a bit of pain when he reached to undo his watch, so he extended his other arm to Hotch, too. “Can you take my watch off?”
“Did you bring some bigger clothes?” Dr Kapoor asked. “I don’t think we have anything here, we didn’t exactly bother to dress the pigs.”
“Yes, I have some,” Spencer said, and with Hotch’s help, he got into what he’d already decided would be a good outfit to wear during the change, one of his favourite button-down shirts, and a pair of plain underpants without Cats on them that he had to hold up with his left hand. Had he ever really been big enough that they fit? It seemed so long ago. Finally, he placed his old glasses on top of his go-bag. “All right. I’m ready.”
“Can I have one last hug?” Emily asked quickly, and Spencer gave her one. She lingered for a moment with her arms around him. “I’m kind of sad to be saying good-bye to little you, but I’m happy you’ll be back to your old self again, too.”
“Yeah,” Spencer said. “Thanks so much for everything you did for me.”
“Hey, stop hogging the kid,” Morgan said. “I want a hug, too.”
Emily let go, and Morgan got his turn. He didn’t say anything until Spencer said, “Thank you, Morgan, for everything,” and then he just quietly said, “Yeah.”
“Me, next,” Garcia said, enveloping Spencer and lifting him off his feet. “Good-bye, my half-pint hero, my baby Bucky –“
“Garcia!” Spencer squirmed even more when he thought he heard Dr Kapoor repeat the two words in amusement.
“—my junior genius, my cutie patootie – ”
“Garcia, would you stop, you’re making me want to puke,” Emily groaned.
“—my undersized and overbrained friend,” Garcia finally finished, and Spencer spluttered, “Overbrained?”
He was aware of Dave, Morgan, and Hotch, all laughing and shaking their heads.
“For your size, I meant,” Garcia said. “So sorry, I didn’t mean it negatively! It just came out! Sorry, sorry. I’ll get used to calling you Junior G-man again. Or maybe Senior G-man now. No, wait, that sounds like senior citizen. How about –“
“Garcia, just call me Spencer. Or Reid,” Spencer said.
“Okay, I can do that. Spencer. Reid. I’m shutting up now.”
She stepped back, and Spencer turned to Rossi. As they embraced, Spencer whispered, “Thank you, Nonno.”
Rossi let him go, smiling slightly, and then it was Hotch’s turn.
“Thank you for taking care of me,” Spencer said quietly. “Thanks for … for being my dad.”
He could say it now, now that the time was over, now that it would never be official.
“You’re very welcome, Spencer,” Hotch replied. “Thank you for trusting me.”
Spencer finally let go, and they both wiped tears from their eyes. The others pretended not to notice until the moment was broken by Dr Kapoor asking, “Anybody else you want to hug?”
Spencer looked around the circle, but since the only person left was Dr Kapoor himself, he shook his head, then took off his child-sized glasses and handed them to Hotch.
“All right, then, let’s make that one big jump for man size.” Dr Kapoor grinned at his own joke and led the way to the stairs. Spencer followed eagerly and look down while Dr Kapoor turned the cameras on and started all the other sensors. Inside was the circle of blue light that he remembered.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Dr Kapoor said, and Spencer jumped without hesitating.
He remembered how the de-aging machine had compressed him, squeezing him down as though he were in a black hole. This machine was completely opposite, stretching him out to the limits of the blue light, blowing a bubble out of him as though he were gum, pulling him like pizza dough or taffy until he thought he would rip in a thousand places at the same time. And then he was falling, and landing, and everything hurt, and there was something like gravel in his mouth, knocking against his teeth.
Spencer rolled over and spit the tiny pieces out. What were they? When he was sure he’d got them all, he peered closer. Were those … teeth? But he still had his! And then he realised – they were baby teeth, all of them, even molars, no doubt forced out by the re-aging process. He sat back in relief, running his tongue around his mouth, then grinned. And then he remembered. The re-aging process! He looked at his arm. The bruise from the break had disappeared, and when he rubbed it, he thought he could feel the tiniest bump on the bone, but no pain. His hand, his arm, his whole body was adult-sized!
Spencer sat back and inspected his left knee. No scars. So the machine had really just aged the cells he’d had, it hadn’t simply rewound the de-aging process. Fascinating. He got to his feet, noticing that his “growing pains” were already fading, and checked the rest of himself. His shirt fit. His underpants fit. He rubbed his face and felt stubble under his fingertips.
“It worked!” he called, and his voice sounded strange in his own ears. More adult. He’d never be a baritone like Hotch, but his voice was definitely lower than it had been when he was a child. “It worked!”
His team was just a blur, but he could hear them clapping. Spencer tried to bounce, but the mat was not a trampoline, so he simply jumped off and moved joyfully towards the others. It took him a few strides before he realised what he was doing, and then he happily exclaimed, “Look, Hotch, I’m skipping! I can skip!”
“You sure can, buddy,” Hotch said. When Spencer heard the laughter in his voice, he realised he was still acting like a child, and sheepishly stopped, then tried to walk the rest of the way with something approaching dignity. As he got closer, he could see that Hotch was holding something out.
“Here are your glasses,” he said, and Spencer took them. He put them on, and the smiling faces of his team came into focus, all of them close to or just below his eye level. No more craning his neck to look up at them!
“My, how you’ve grown,” Rossi said, and Garcia gave him a little punch in the arm. “I wanted to say that!”
“Welcome back, Pretty Boy,” Morgan said, and then they all took turns congratulating and embracing him. Garcia pulled out her phone and took a picture of Spencer, and a security guard appeared almost instantly at her side. “No pictures of the machine.”
“I wasn’t taking a picture of the machine, I was taking a picture of Dr Reid,” she protested, and showed him. “See?”
“Part of the machine’s in the background,” he said. “Delete it.”
“That? That could be part of anything,” Garcia snapped, but she deleted the photo, then turned so that the machine was at her back, and tried again. Spencer turned his face and grinned broadly at her phone.
“Is that better?” Garcia asked, extending her phone for inspection.
“Better,” the guard said. “Just don’t take too many.”
Garcia sighed, but Spencer saw her wait until the guard had turned away before she started pressing the button again. He had the distinct feeling that her phone angled down towards his bare legs more than once, and suddenly wished he had a pair of trousers on.
“See, I told you the machine would work! Now stop shoving me, I just want a closer look at the test subject,” came a loud voice from the other side of the room. Spencer looked over, and wasn’t surprised to see that Dr Sakenfeld was alive and well, and accompanied by his own guard, who was preventing him from getting any closer.
Dr Kapoor came over, looking very eager, and asked, “Can we get started on the tests now, Dr Reid?”
“Yes, of course,” he said, then indicated Dr Sakenfeld. “Is he going to be observing?”
“Nope,” Dr Kapoor said. “He did his part, he got his reward of getting to watch, and now he goes back to his cell while the rest of us get all the fun.”
If Spencer had any sympathy for the man, he would have grimaced at the thought of the cell, but he didn’t, and so he merely turned back to his friends.
“Take all the time you need to visit your mother and do what you have to do,” Hotch said. “We’ll see you back in the office when you’re ready.”
“Thanks,” Spencer said, and without thinking, he added, “Oh, by the way, I think I might need a new prescription for my glasses, and I’ll definitely need new contacts as well.”
Hotch said, “Well, make an appointment at your opthalmologist, Reid. You’re an adult now.”
Spencer blinked, then sheepishly realised what he’d done, and grimaced in chagrin.
The others either smiled or laughed outright, and Morgan clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Pretty Boy. It took you a while to get used to being a kid, it’ll probably take you a while to get used to being an adult again.”
“Yeah,” Spencer agreed.
It was a weird feeling, seeing them all turn to leave, especially Hotch, but as Spencer had just been reminded, he was an adult now, and he didn’t need a substitute dad or even Bony at his side. It didn’t stop him from wishing for a friend, though, just for a moment. But then he straightened up to his full height, picked up his bag, and followed Dr Kapoor in the other direction.
+++++
“Dr Reid?” Dr Jesson exclaimed in surprise as they met in the reception hall. “You’ve grown -- you’re back!”
“Hi, yeah, um, I’m back.” Spencer smiled awkwardly and squirmed a little under her scrutiny. “How’s my mom?”
“She’s doing very well to-day.” Dr Jesson hesitated, then said, “I felt so bad for you, the last time you were here.”
“It was pretty awful,” Spencer admitted. “I hope things go better this time.”
“I think they will. Your mother will be so happy to see you. She’s been wishing you’d come to see her more often, despite all your letters. She’s in the day room now, you can go on in.”
“Thanks.”
At the doorway, Spencer hesitated for a moment. Would she recognise him? But then he told himself firmly that there was only one way to find out, and went over to her. “Hi, Mom.”
“Spencer!” His mom glanced up in delighted surprise. “It’s been so long … is that really you?”
“It’s really me,” he said, taking in all the little differences from the last time he’d seen her. “I just wanted to visit you. Like you said, it’s been so long.”
“I was just thinking of you, and now here you are,” she said. “Come on, sit down and tell me what you’re up to.”
I’m up to six foot one again, Spencer thought facetiously, but bit it back and asked instead, “Actually, Mom, can I give you a hug first?”
“A hug? Why?”
“Just because,” Spencer said. “Because I had a bad dream last night and I just want a hug.”
“Bad dreams? That’s what comes from working for the government,” his mom said, but she stood up and embraced him. When she let go, however, the timing felt right, and he didn’t feel deprived of the close contact. His craving for a mom hug had been completely satiated.
“Do you feel better now?” his mother asked.
“Yeah. Thanks, mom.” He stepped back and glanced around for a chair, then pulled one over. “Actually, it’s been so long I wasn’t sure you would recognise me.”
“Oh, Spencer,” his mom said. “I’ll always recognise you. How could I not?”
That simple question, combined with the memory of what had happened the last time he’d visited her, should have been enough to bring tears to his eyes, but somehow, it didn’t. He just smiled in relief until she gave him a funny look.
“I’m just happy you still know who I am,” he explained.
His mom gave him a more searching look. “Does this have something to do with that dream?”
“Yes, a little, but it’s over now. It’s okay. Mom?”
“Hmm?”
“Tell me about what I was like when I was a baby. Did I cry a lot?”
His mom stopped to consider. “You could be fussy if you got bored, but you certainly weren’t a colicky baby or anything like that. You seemed pretty happy to me as long as you had something to concentrate on. That’s why I read a lot to you, and showed you my books. Once you learned how to talk, you used to talk all the time, asking questions, thinking things through out loud, but you only really cried if you got hurt. Why do you want to know?”
“Oh, I was just thinking about being a child, and children in general.”
His mother narrowed her eyes just a little and leaned closer. “Anything you want to tell me … in general?”
“In general, I haven’t even met the right girl yet,” Spencer admitted. How could he, when he’d spent the last ten months of his life as a five-year-old boy? Although, he thought briefly, that could change now that he was back to his normal age.
“She’d have to be pretty special to be worthy of you,” his mom said with a smile.
But Spencer didn’t want to talk about prospective girlfriends, and not just because there weren’t any -- yet. “Tell me more about when I was young. Did I have nightmares?”
“I don’t think so,” his mother said. “Whenever you told me about your dreams, they sounded more like adventures than nightmares.”
So all his nightmares and all the crying had been mostly due to the stress and the emotions of having been de-aged, then. He hadn’t had any nightmares since he’d been re-aged. He hadn’t even missed Boney. Of course, it had only been a few days, but now Spencer was hopeful for the future. Then he thought of another question. “What was I like when I was around four or five?”
“Oh, like I said, you were happy and curious and you talked a lot. You liked to tell everybody what you were learning. That changed …” his mother’s voice trailed off as she tried to remember. “Maybe about the time you went to school? I don’t know. Maybe some of the other children told you to shut up once too often.”
“Yes.” Spencer remembered that it hadn’t only been other children.
“You learned how to read so early, and then you tried to read every book in the house, even if you didn’t quite understand them yet. Your father tried to put some of his law books on the top shelves, but you’d climb up and pull them down so you could read them and ask me what it all meant. Nothing more interesting than what you weren’t allowed to have!”
They shared a smile, and then his mother went on, ”He’d come home and see that some of the corners were bent from where they’d fallen, and then he’d get mad. He boxed up a lot of them and put them in the attic. I never hid my books from you. I used to read to you as much as I could. Those were wonderful times, weren’t they, Spencer?”
“Yes,” Spencer said. “Those were the best times. Mom, if I get a book from your room, will you read to me again?”
“Sure, why not?” his mother replied.
Spencer got a book and sat down next to his mother, leaning his head on her shoulder and thinking about how much he’d wanted exactly this at Thanksgiving. After a few pages, however, he realised quite suddenly that this need had also been satisfied and that he didn’t want to be read to anymore. He lifted his head up, and shifted ever so slightly away, and to his relief, his mother stopped after one more page.
“My throat is dry. I need a drink,” she announced.
There was a water cooler over to one side, and Spencer filled two of the plastic cups from the tray on the nearby table. He gave the yellow one to his mother, and kept the green one for himself. His mother drank most of it in one go, and while she was sipping the rest, Spencer said, “Would you like it if I read to you now, Mom?”
“Of course, Spencer,” she agreed. “I love to hear your voice, and you almost never make a mistake. I should take you to some of my classes next time, show my students how it’s done.”
Smiling, Spencer lifted up the book and began to read. Everything felt back to normal now; he was an adult again in both mind and body. His second childhood was over. He should check whether the team had been called out into the field again, and fly out to join them – but not before getting that postcard for Jack.
He didn’t know if he’d ever find the right girl, he didn’t know if he’d ever have children, but if it happened, he knew he wanted to be a father just like Hotch.
The End
Part 26
Return to Criminal Minds page
Spencer had been vaguely afraid that he would have another nightmare, this time of Garibaldi giving him a smack or worse, but instead, he awoke in the morning with no memory of any unpleasant dreams. He got up and followed a delectable smell into the kitchen, where Hotch was standing at the stove.
“You’re supposed to be resting and recovering, not making … are those chocolate chip pancakes?” Spencer asked, peering at the griddle.
“One last treat,” said Hotch. “Is Jack awake yet?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You want to go wake him up?”
“I’m awake,” Jack said with a yawn, coming into the kitchen too. “Chocolate chip pancakes? Cool! Thanks, Dad!”
“Jack, can you get the orange juice out of the fridge?” Hotch asked, and Jack carried the plastic pitcher over to the table. Spencer was allowed to transport the maple syrup which Hotch handed down to him from the cabinet shelf.
Hotch prudently waited until they were finished eating before he said, “All right, Jack, JJ and Henry are going to come over and pick you up soon.”
“Where are we going?” Jack asked. “And what about you and Spencer?”
“Spencer and I have to go to some very boring meetings before he can go see his mother,” Hotch said, which was the excuse that Spencer had come up with. “It wouldn’t be fun for you.”
Jack slumped in disappointment, even when Hotch said, “I think JJ wants to take you and Henry swimming. You can take the Ping Pong Pals, too, and teach Henry how to play.”
“I wanted to go with you,” Jack said. “And Spencer.”
“I know, buddy, and I’m sorry that you can’t come.”
“JJ? What about Will?” Spencer asked, and Jack chimed in, too. “Is Uncle Will coming?”
“He had to take a shift at the last moment. JJ sent me a text,” Hotch said. “Okay, Jack, let’s go get your swimming things so you’ll be ready when JJ gets here.”
Jack went along, slowly becoming resigned to having a active morning with friends instead of doing something boring with his dad.
Spencer began to carry the dishes a few at a time to the kitchen sink, sad that JJ wasn’t going to be there for his big moment. He only dropped one fork on his way and didn’t break anything, which was a relief, because he didn’t want to start his first day as an adult again with a time-out. He and Hotch finished at approximately the same time, and Jack flopped down on the sofa in the living room with one of his Cat books to wait. He didn’t have to read for long before the doorbell rang, and Hotch opened the door to let JJ and Henry in.
“Hi, Jack, ready to go swimming?” JJ asked cheerfully.
“Yeah,” Jack said.
“Let’s say good-bye to Spencer and then we can get in the car.” JJ came over to where Spencer had stood up. “I guess this is the big day, huh?”
“Yes,” he said, and threw his arms around her. Another last thing – he’d never hug her again in this body, from this angle. She hugged back. “Good luck, young Spencer. And good-bye.”
“Good-bye, JJ,” he said. “Thank you for everything.”
“You’re welcome. You are always welcome.” Her eyes looked suspiciously bright as she turned away.
Spencer reached out to hug Jack next. “Good-bye, Jack. Thank you for being my brother. I won’t forget you, and I’ll send you a postcard from Las Vegas.”
“Good-bye, Spencer,” Jack said, hugging back quickly and then letting go. “I’ll miss you.”
There was the slightest hitch to JJ’s voice as she said, “All right, boys, let’s go!”
Jack waved, then grabbed his bag and went out. Spencer said, “Good-bye, Henry,” but Henry only returned a casual, “Bye!” and raced after Jack. JJ gave him one last look and smiled bravely, then pulled the door shut. It suddenly seemed very quiet and very empty in Hotch’s apartment.
Spencer went into the bedroom, blinked away a few tears, then grabbed his go-bag and dragged it behind him as he came out again. “I need to get a few things from my apartment, and I can take these clothes along and wash them before I give them away.”
“Then let’s go,” said Hotch and texted the rest of the team to meet them there. Up in the bedroom of his apartment where he hadn’t slept for ten months, Spencer pushed his spare sets of child-sized clothing, including Boney, into his dirty clothes basket, then replaced them with adult-sized clothing and shoes and the case containing his old, adult-prescription glasses.
“Don’t forget a razor,” Hotch said, and Spencer put a hand to his smooth chin with a smile as he realised, “I haven’t even thought about shaving for almost a year now.”
He put his adult toiletries bag into the go-bag, then asked Hotch to help him gather up all the newspapers and magazines that arrived in the post since the last time he’d been home so that he could fold them in, too. They were almost the only thing in his apartment that wasn’t dusty. Because he was certain there’d be plenty of time for reading at the SHIELD base while they did their tests, he added a few favourite books, just in case. After a long moment of thought, he added his messenger bag as well.
The rest of the team met them there, and Spencer handed the keys to his car over to Morgan, who accepted them with a smile. “It’s so hard to remember that you were actually once big enough to drive, Pretty Boy.”
“Ha ha,” Spencer said.
“Come on, Baby Girl,” Morgan said to Garcia. “Anybody else want to ride in the Reid-Mobile?”
Rossi went over, but Emily stayed, and when Spencer got into the car seat, she sat down in the back next to him for the long ride. The closer they got, the more restless Spencer felt, and Emily, sitting on the back seat beside him, grinned knowingly when she saw him twitch. Finally, they were at the gate, with the guard coming out of the guardbox to check their authorization. Spencer said, “Hotch, you have to give him the project name and password.”
Hotch did so, and the guard leaned down and peered into the car, smiling a little when he saw Spencer.
“And the car behind us belongs to us, too,” Hotch added.
“Yes, sir,” the guard said. “Go to Entrance B, that’s around the back of that building there, and I’ll let Dr Kapoor know you’re here.”
He lifted the barrier so they could all drive through, and while they drove around, Emily said, “Did they seriously name you Project Mustardseed? Like from the New Testament?”
“I suppose,” Spencer replied, but he was too distracted by the thought of what was going to happen in just a few minutes to engage in any kind of meaningful conversation about growth or faith. He could barely wait until Hotch had parked and turned the engine off before unbuckling himself out of the car seat – which he would never need again! – and scrambling eagerly out of the car.
Entrance B was a regular door at the side of a much larger loading entrance. It was locked, and they had to wait for Dr Kapoor and another guard to open it from the other side. “Agent Hotchner! Dr Reid!“
“The rest of the team wanted to be here, too,“ Hotch explained as they went in. “I hope that’s not a problem.”
“Oh, not at all, there’s plenty of room,” Dr Kapoor said, sweeping one hand out to indicate the warehouse-sized chamber. The re-aging machine was in the middle, a kind of tube-shaped structure poised on long articulated legs over a huge mat. There were steps leading up to a platform on one side, with a control board visible, and on the other side of the machine was a loading crane, which Spencer supposed was for the pigs and other test animals. Other scientists were coming in, too, but kept mostly on the opposite side of the machine.
“Well, uh, I guess if you’re going to watch, just make sure you stay outside the circle,” Dr Kapoor said, indicating the marking on the floor. There were also cameras set up on tripods just inside it. “I wasn’t expecting an audience, so we don’t have any chairs, I’m afraid.”
“Hotch, can you help me get this off?” Spencer asked, holding up his splint.
“Sure,” said Hotch, and carefully undid the velcro straps. Spencer’s arm felt floppy and weak without it, and there was still a bit of pain when he reached to undo his watch, so he extended his other arm to Hotch, too. “Can you take my watch off?”
“Did you bring some bigger clothes?” Dr Kapoor asked. “I don’t think we have anything here, we didn’t exactly bother to dress the pigs.”
“Yes, I have some,” Spencer said, and with Hotch’s help, he got into what he’d already decided would be a good outfit to wear during the change, one of his favourite button-down shirts, and a pair of plain underpants without Cats on them that he had to hold up with his left hand. Had he ever really been big enough that they fit? It seemed so long ago. Finally, he placed his old glasses on top of his go-bag. “All right. I’m ready.”
“Can I have one last hug?” Emily asked quickly, and Spencer gave her one. She lingered for a moment with her arms around him. “I’m kind of sad to be saying good-bye to little you, but I’m happy you’ll be back to your old self again, too.”
“Yeah,” Spencer said. “Thanks so much for everything you did for me.”
“Hey, stop hogging the kid,” Morgan said. “I want a hug, too.”
Emily let go, and Morgan got his turn. He didn’t say anything until Spencer said, “Thank you, Morgan, for everything,” and then he just quietly said, “Yeah.”
“Me, next,” Garcia said, enveloping Spencer and lifting him off his feet. “Good-bye, my half-pint hero, my baby Bucky –“
“Garcia!” Spencer squirmed even more when he thought he heard Dr Kapoor repeat the two words in amusement.
“—my junior genius, my cutie patootie – ”
“Garcia, would you stop, you’re making me want to puke,” Emily groaned.
“—my undersized and overbrained friend,” Garcia finally finished, and Spencer spluttered, “Overbrained?”
He was aware of Dave, Morgan, and Hotch, all laughing and shaking their heads.
“For your size, I meant,” Garcia said. “So sorry, I didn’t mean it negatively! It just came out! Sorry, sorry. I’ll get used to calling you Junior G-man again. Or maybe Senior G-man now. No, wait, that sounds like senior citizen. How about –“
“Garcia, just call me Spencer. Or Reid,” Spencer said.
“Okay, I can do that. Spencer. Reid. I’m shutting up now.”
She stepped back, and Spencer turned to Rossi. As they embraced, Spencer whispered, “Thank you, Nonno.”
Rossi let him go, smiling slightly, and then it was Hotch’s turn.
“Thank you for taking care of me,” Spencer said quietly. “Thanks for … for being my dad.”
He could say it now, now that the time was over, now that it would never be official.
“You’re very welcome, Spencer,” Hotch replied. “Thank you for trusting me.”
Spencer finally let go, and they both wiped tears from their eyes. The others pretended not to notice until the moment was broken by Dr Kapoor asking, “Anybody else you want to hug?”
Spencer looked around the circle, but since the only person left was Dr Kapoor himself, he shook his head, then took off his child-sized glasses and handed them to Hotch.
“All right, then, let’s make that one big jump for man size.” Dr Kapoor grinned at his own joke and led the way to the stairs. Spencer followed eagerly and look down while Dr Kapoor turned the cameras on and started all the other sensors. Inside was the circle of blue light that he remembered.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Dr Kapoor said, and Spencer jumped without hesitating.
He remembered how the de-aging machine had compressed him, squeezing him down as though he were in a black hole. This machine was completely opposite, stretching him out to the limits of the blue light, blowing a bubble out of him as though he were gum, pulling him like pizza dough or taffy until he thought he would rip in a thousand places at the same time. And then he was falling, and landing, and everything hurt, and there was something like gravel in his mouth, knocking against his teeth.
Spencer rolled over and spit the tiny pieces out. What were they? When he was sure he’d got them all, he peered closer. Were those … teeth? But he still had his! And then he realised – they were baby teeth, all of them, even molars, no doubt forced out by the re-aging process. He sat back in relief, running his tongue around his mouth, then grinned. And then he remembered. The re-aging process! He looked at his arm. The bruise from the break had disappeared, and when he rubbed it, he thought he could feel the tiniest bump on the bone, but no pain. His hand, his arm, his whole body was adult-sized!
Spencer sat back and inspected his left knee. No scars. So the machine had really just aged the cells he’d had, it hadn’t simply rewound the de-aging process. Fascinating. He got to his feet, noticing that his “growing pains” were already fading, and checked the rest of himself. His shirt fit. His underpants fit. He rubbed his face and felt stubble under his fingertips.
“It worked!” he called, and his voice sounded strange in his own ears. More adult. He’d never be a baritone like Hotch, but his voice was definitely lower than it had been when he was a child. “It worked!”
His team was just a blur, but he could hear them clapping. Spencer tried to bounce, but the mat was not a trampoline, so he simply jumped off and moved joyfully towards the others. It took him a few strides before he realised what he was doing, and then he happily exclaimed, “Look, Hotch, I’m skipping! I can skip!”
“You sure can, buddy,” Hotch said. When Spencer heard the laughter in his voice, he realised he was still acting like a child, and sheepishly stopped, then tried to walk the rest of the way with something approaching dignity. As he got closer, he could see that Hotch was holding something out.
“Here are your glasses,” he said, and Spencer took them. He put them on, and the smiling faces of his team came into focus, all of them close to or just below his eye level. No more craning his neck to look up at them!
“My, how you’ve grown,” Rossi said, and Garcia gave him a little punch in the arm. “I wanted to say that!”
“Welcome back, Pretty Boy,” Morgan said, and then they all took turns congratulating and embracing him. Garcia pulled out her phone and took a picture of Spencer, and a security guard appeared almost instantly at her side. “No pictures of the machine.”
“I wasn’t taking a picture of the machine, I was taking a picture of Dr Reid,” she protested, and showed him. “See?”
“Part of the machine’s in the background,” he said. “Delete it.”
“That? That could be part of anything,” Garcia snapped, but she deleted the photo, then turned so that the machine was at her back, and tried again. Spencer turned his face and grinned broadly at her phone.
“Is that better?” Garcia asked, extending her phone for inspection.
“Better,” the guard said. “Just don’t take too many.”
Garcia sighed, but Spencer saw her wait until the guard had turned away before she started pressing the button again. He had the distinct feeling that her phone angled down towards his bare legs more than once, and suddenly wished he had a pair of trousers on.
“See, I told you the machine would work! Now stop shoving me, I just want a closer look at the test subject,” came a loud voice from the other side of the room. Spencer looked over, and wasn’t surprised to see that Dr Sakenfeld was alive and well, and accompanied by his own guard, who was preventing him from getting any closer.
Dr Kapoor came over, looking very eager, and asked, “Can we get started on the tests now, Dr Reid?”
“Yes, of course,” he said, then indicated Dr Sakenfeld. “Is he going to be observing?”
“Nope,” Dr Kapoor said. “He did his part, he got his reward of getting to watch, and now he goes back to his cell while the rest of us get all the fun.”
If Spencer had any sympathy for the man, he would have grimaced at the thought of the cell, but he didn’t, and so he merely turned back to his friends.
“Take all the time you need to visit your mother and do what you have to do,” Hotch said. “We’ll see you back in the office when you’re ready.”
“Thanks,” Spencer said, and without thinking, he added, “Oh, by the way, I think I might need a new prescription for my glasses, and I’ll definitely need new contacts as well.”
Hotch said, “Well, make an appointment at your opthalmologist, Reid. You’re an adult now.”
Spencer blinked, then sheepishly realised what he’d done, and grimaced in chagrin.
The others either smiled or laughed outright, and Morgan clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Pretty Boy. It took you a while to get used to being a kid, it’ll probably take you a while to get used to being an adult again.”
“Yeah,” Spencer agreed.
It was a weird feeling, seeing them all turn to leave, especially Hotch, but as Spencer had just been reminded, he was an adult now, and he didn’t need a substitute dad or even Bony at his side. It didn’t stop him from wishing for a friend, though, just for a moment. But then he straightened up to his full height, picked up his bag, and followed Dr Kapoor in the other direction.
+++++
“Dr Reid?” Dr Jesson exclaimed in surprise as they met in the reception hall. “You’ve grown -- you’re back!”
“Hi, yeah, um, I’m back.” Spencer smiled awkwardly and squirmed a little under her scrutiny. “How’s my mom?”
“She’s doing very well to-day.” Dr Jesson hesitated, then said, “I felt so bad for you, the last time you were here.”
“It was pretty awful,” Spencer admitted. “I hope things go better this time.”
“I think they will. Your mother will be so happy to see you. She’s been wishing you’d come to see her more often, despite all your letters. She’s in the day room now, you can go on in.”
“Thanks.”
At the doorway, Spencer hesitated for a moment. Would she recognise him? But then he told himself firmly that there was only one way to find out, and went over to her. “Hi, Mom.”
“Spencer!” His mom glanced up in delighted surprise. “It’s been so long … is that really you?”
“It’s really me,” he said, taking in all the little differences from the last time he’d seen her. “I just wanted to visit you. Like you said, it’s been so long.”
“I was just thinking of you, and now here you are,” she said. “Come on, sit down and tell me what you’re up to.”
I’m up to six foot one again, Spencer thought facetiously, but bit it back and asked instead, “Actually, Mom, can I give you a hug first?”
“A hug? Why?”
“Just because,” Spencer said. “Because I had a bad dream last night and I just want a hug.”
“Bad dreams? That’s what comes from working for the government,” his mom said, but she stood up and embraced him. When she let go, however, the timing felt right, and he didn’t feel deprived of the close contact. His craving for a mom hug had been completely satiated.
“Do you feel better now?” his mother asked.
“Yeah. Thanks, mom.” He stepped back and glanced around for a chair, then pulled one over. “Actually, it’s been so long I wasn’t sure you would recognise me.”
“Oh, Spencer,” his mom said. “I’ll always recognise you. How could I not?”
That simple question, combined with the memory of what had happened the last time he’d visited her, should have been enough to bring tears to his eyes, but somehow, it didn’t. He just smiled in relief until she gave him a funny look.
“I’m just happy you still know who I am,” he explained.
His mom gave him a more searching look. “Does this have something to do with that dream?”
“Yes, a little, but it’s over now. It’s okay. Mom?”
“Hmm?”
“Tell me about what I was like when I was a baby. Did I cry a lot?”
His mom stopped to consider. “You could be fussy if you got bored, but you certainly weren’t a colicky baby or anything like that. You seemed pretty happy to me as long as you had something to concentrate on. That’s why I read a lot to you, and showed you my books. Once you learned how to talk, you used to talk all the time, asking questions, thinking things through out loud, but you only really cried if you got hurt. Why do you want to know?”
“Oh, I was just thinking about being a child, and children in general.”
His mother narrowed her eyes just a little and leaned closer. “Anything you want to tell me … in general?”
“In general, I haven’t even met the right girl yet,” Spencer admitted. How could he, when he’d spent the last ten months of his life as a five-year-old boy? Although, he thought briefly, that could change now that he was back to his normal age.
“She’d have to be pretty special to be worthy of you,” his mom said with a smile.
But Spencer didn’t want to talk about prospective girlfriends, and not just because there weren’t any -- yet. “Tell me more about when I was young. Did I have nightmares?”
“I don’t think so,” his mother said. “Whenever you told me about your dreams, they sounded more like adventures than nightmares.”
So all his nightmares and all the crying had been mostly due to the stress and the emotions of having been de-aged, then. He hadn’t had any nightmares since he’d been re-aged. He hadn’t even missed Boney. Of course, it had only been a few days, but now Spencer was hopeful for the future. Then he thought of another question. “What was I like when I was around four or five?”
“Oh, like I said, you were happy and curious and you talked a lot. You liked to tell everybody what you were learning. That changed …” his mother’s voice trailed off as she tried to remember. “Maybe about the time you went to school? I don’t know. Maybe some of the other children told you to shut up once too often.”
“Yes.” Spencer remembered that it hadn’t only been other children.
“You learned how to read so early, and then you tried to read every book in the house, even if you didn’t quite understand them yet. Your father tried to put some of his law books on the top shelves, but you’d climb up and pull them down so you could read them and ask me what it all meant. Nothing more interesting than what you weren’t allowed to have!”
They shared a smile, and then his mother went on, ”He’d come home and see that some of the corners were bent from where they’d fallen, and then he’d get mad. He boxed up a lot of them and put them in the attic. I never hid my books from you. I used to read to you as much as I could. Those were wonderful times, weren’t they, Spencer?”
“Yes,” Spencer said. “Those were the best times. Mom, if I get a book from your room, will you read to me again?”
“Sure, why not?” his mother replied.
Spencer got a book and sat down next to his mother, leaning his head on her shoulder and thinking about how much he’d wanted exactly this at Thanksgiving. After a few pages, however, he realised quite suddenly that this need had also been satisfied and that he didn’t want to be read to anymore. He lifted his head up, and shifted ever so slightly away, and to his relief, his mother stopped after one more page.
“My throat is dry. I need a drink,” she announced.
There was a water cooler over to one side, and Spencer filled two of the plastic cups from the tray on the nearby table. He gave the yellow one to his mother, and kept the green one for himself. His mother drank most of it in one go, and while she was sipping the rest, Spencer said, “Would you like it if I read to you now, Mom?”
“Of course, Spencer,” she agreed. “I love to hear your voice, and you almost never make a mistake. I should take you to some of my classes next time, show my students how it’s done.”
Smiling, Spencer lifted up the book and began to read. Everything felt back to normal now; he was an adult again in both mind and body. His second childhood was over. He should check whether the team had been called out into the field again, and fly out to join them – but not before getting that postcard for Jack.
He didn’t know if he’d ever find the right girl, he didn’t know if he’d ever have children, but if it happened, he knew he wanted to be a father just like Hotch.
The End
Part 26
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