Spencer Reid | Oneshots

Defining Family ☁️ (PG)

Summary: Spencer finds out he's a dad... to a twelve year old girl. Your twelve year old girl, who just broke into the FBI.

Rating: PG

Content Warning: Arguing, secret/unknown family, lying, surprise child, single parent

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Theoretically, my job should have prepared me for almost any stressful situation. Over 10 years of working for the FBI, I'd experienced some of the most distressing, painful, mind-numbing situations that a person could even begin to comprehend. I'd been beaten, drugged, and tortured to the point of literal cardiac arrest, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened the morning that a little girl knocked on the glass doors of the Behavioral Analysis Unit.

For all intents and purposes, it had been a completely normal day. On some level I had heard there would be a group of middle schoolers from local schools coming to visit the headquarters, but I'd also been told that they wouldn't be making their way through our offices. I distinctly remembered that because I would have come prepared, considering the last time I'd seriously interacted with children that age was when I was seven, and they'd had a tendency to shove me in lockers back then.

But when I heard the soft rap of tiny hands against the glass, I turned to find a a young girl staring straight through the room, with her eyes landing on me with a curious tilt of her head. I turned to look behind me, sure that there must be a reason she looked straight at me instead of any of the other people wandering in the bullpen.

There was no one behind me, but luckily, there was someone closer to the door. JJ must have spotted the girl before she even knocked, because she swiftly made her way over. But as soon as the hinges swung open, the girl took a step forward under her arm.

"Is Dr. Reid here?" she asked.

... What?

JJ and I looked at each other, her implicitly asking me for permission while I desperately tried to beg her for help without actually vocalizing the sheer panic I felt inside. Because I definitely did not know this small child, and I had no idea what she could possibly want with me. And, as this job made me painfully aware, it was never a good sign when someone took an interest in me.

"... Yes, he is."

Unfortunately, either my message went unheard, or JJ chose the pity and intrigue for a child over me. The girl looked pleased, albeit a bit nervous as she kept glancing at me, clearly aware of who I was but pretending not to for some reason. She was a bad liar, but most kids her age were. I knew I was.

She tried to lower her voice so that I wouldn't hear, but my mind was so focused on the conversation taking place that it would have been impossible to turn it off.

"May I speak with him?"

"... with... Dr. Reid?" JJ clarified, also looking over to me just in time to see me turn back to my desk.

Something deep inside my gut, a feeling I'd never experienced before, warned me that trouble was coming. There was a vague familiarity and emotional response I couldn't put a name to— something akin to an instinct.

The only problem was that I had no idea why I was scared of a child. It wasn't that she could physically hurt me, considering her stature was significantly smaller than my own, but instead the feeling that she was about to open the Pandora's Box that I wasn't even aware I was carrying in my hand.

"That's correct, ma'am."

She sounded so familiar, and so alien at the same time. Like the first time you see your childhood home after it's been renovated for another family. Like walking back into your elementary school and seeing that it isn't nearly as big as you remembered it being.