Little Boy Blue (Criminal Minds Fanfiction)

Chapter One: The Letter

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Hotchie! Happy birthday to you!"

The BAU team stands around Aaron Hotchner's office, singing loudly and quite terribly to their Unit Chief. Hotch actually cracks a smile at their horrible attempt of singing. "That was, uh, great, guys."

"Great?" Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia scoffs. "That was fantastic!"

"Baby girl," Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan says, "I think you're confusing 'fantastic' with 'horrible' again. That would explain why you thought that Camelot online game was so great!"

"You're hot but not hot enough for me to allow you to be rippin' on Camelot," Garcia retorts and the whole team laughs.

That is, the whole team but Reid.

Supervisory Special Agent Spencer Reid is lost in thought at the moment. His paranoid schizophrenic mother Diana had recently had a hard week with many hallucinations and Reid was worried about her. Even with his high IQ and genius mind, the youngest member on the BAU team couldn't do anything for his mother, and that plagued him without fail.

"Not hungry?" The media and police liaison Jennifer Jareau asks Reid, walking up to him holding out a piece of white cake with blue frosting sitting on a paper plate. "The cake's really good!"

Reid smiles weakly at his good friend. "No, not really, J.J."

"Just one bite?" J.J. asks. "I promise you'll like it."

"No, thanks," Reid says, sighing.

J.J. furrows her brow at the young genius. "Are you okay, Reid? You seem... off or something."

"Well-" Reid starts before he feels a hand slap him on the back.

"So, Pretty Boy," Morgan smiles at Reid, "no facts about birthdays? The first birthday cake was baked in 1654? Candles were first placed on a birthday cake to scare away evil spirits?"

"Actually, birthday cakes weren't introduced until the mid-1800s and birthday candles weren't put on candles to show how old the recipient of the cake is as we do today and definitely not to scare away bad spirits , but simply to shed light in a dark room," Reid says in one long breath, then adds, "but I don't really feel spouting off facts no one cares about anyways right now."

Morgan raises his eyebrows at J.J. and she shrugs. She mouths to Morgan, "Find out what's wrong," and creeps away to give the boys some privacy.

"Are you doin' alright, kid?" Morgan asks, sitting down Reid on the stiff couch in Hotch's office. "What's up with you?"

"It's my mom," Reid says finally after taking a long, shaky breath. "She's been having a tough time. I'm really worried for her."

"Oh, well, she's being given the best care she can get," Morgan replies.

"I know, but sometimes it seems like it's not enough," Reid says, running his skinny fingers through his brown hair as he always does when he's stressed.

Morgan sighs. Poor kid. He has to deal with so much. He never really opens up, either. So Morgan starts to do the one thing he knows will help: profile him.

Reid sits on that couch, slouched over. His elbows sit upon his knees, one of his hands rubbing his forehead, clearly stating he's stressed. His light blue sweater is crumpled and his tan pants are wrinkled, stating he got ready in a hurry, possibly being he overslept but also possibly because he'd been over thinking about his mother, and knowing Reid, it was probably the latter.

"Well, it won't do anything to sit here worrying about it," Morgan says. "It won't do a thing."

"That's the thing!" Reid exclaims, throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation. "I can't do anything to help her! Not a damn thing!"

Morgan raises his eyebrows. It wasn't like Reid to swear like that. "It's okay, Reid. Yeah, you can't do anything. So, all you CAN do is work really hard, write her, and visit as much as you can, alright?"

Reid nods slowly, staring at the floor.

"Reid, look at me," Morgan says. "Just focus on work and visiting, okay?"

"I know! You told me!" Reid yells, a little louder than he meant to.

J.J., hearing this, turns around and tilts her head at Morgan.

"Sorry," Reid says, shaking his head. "It's just-"

"Been really hard," Morgan finishes. "I get it."

"Sorry, I, uh, kind of yelled at you," Reid says.

"'Kind of'? You completely did!" Morgan laughs.

Reid laughs back. "Yeah, sorry about that, Morgan. I mean it."

"I know ya' are, kid," Morgan says, and gets up from the couch. "Know how 'bout some cake?"

*********************************************************

"Spencer? Where are you, Spencer?"

"I'm here, Mom! Right here!"

Diana Reid is sitting in her chair by the window in the Bennington Sanatorium. Her eyes scan the room looking for her beloved son, when he sits right beside her. The voices in her head scream at her, "He's not here! Why would he be here? He thinks you're just a crazy old freak! He HATES you!"

"No!" Diana screams, and she throws herself on the floor.

"Mom!" Reid yells. "It's okay! I'm here!"

Diana cries into the carpet and then she stops breathing.

"Mom?" Reid asks. Then he realizes she's not breathing. "Oh my God! Mom!"

*********************************************************

Reid bolts upright in bed. He's drenched in sweat. Reid puts a hand to his chest, trying to soothe his racing heart. The shaky breath Reid takes is hard to take in.

He runs his fingers through his hair and coughs. What a terrible dream.

He checks the clock. 1:33. YEAH, I WON'T BE FALLING BACK ASLEEP TONIGHT. Reid stumbles out of bed and flips on the light to the kitchen. Reid starts to brew a pot of coffee when he sees a blue envelope lying on his kitchen table.

Reid furrows his brow and walks over to the table. He picks up the envelope that bears the words, "To My Dear Spencie," written on it.

Reid shakily opens the envelope and takes out a blue letter with blue writing on it. He begins to read:

To My Total Genius Dr. Spencer Reid,

How've you been? It's been a while. Are you still as geeky and awkward as you used to be? My, you were. Anyways, let's get down to business (to defeat the Huns!)

I have your mom with me. And you know what? We're gonna' play a game. I'll send fun little puzzles like a scavenger hunt to your phone to solve. You always used to LOVE those. You'll solve those all by yourself and your team or else, well, mommy dearest will become mommy deadest.

Love, Little Boy Blue