Author: Ren Kayashima

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I really hate that I have to do this. I do not own Criminal Minds. The title and its characters belong to CBS and its original creator.

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Prologue:

Spencer Reid was not a normal child. He was the son of a lawyer and a former literature professor. At a young age, he tested at the gifted level and from the point on, he lived an awkward life full of trials and tribulations of a young genius. It was from such events that he grew as a person, and what ultimately led to his successful career with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit.

At eighteen he found himself walking around Ceaser's Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. Guilt weighed down on his brilliant mind after he forced his mother into a mental home. He wanted her to be safe, and the home seemed like the only option. She was now under the care of a brilliant doctor, and that was all Reid needed to know. After all, he couldn't trust his mother in the hands of just any medical professional.

With his mind preoccupied with thoughts of his mother, he hardly paid attention to where he was going. His walk was casual, slow, and his feet simply took him through the main lobby of the hotel/casino. There wasn't much that he at eighteen could do in Sin City. He couldn't gamble, he couldn't go into the bars, and he didn't have the money or the enthusiasm to shop in designer clothing shops. Not that he could put off an Armani suit like male fashion models could.

As his mind ventured to possibilities unknown, he didn't see the young woman walking his way. She had long dark brown hair with streaks of sun bleached strands which she had pulled into a ponytail. She wore a pair of black plastic rimmed glasses so that her grey eyes could see without hindrance. She wore a simple purple tank top, light blue jean shorts, and cheap purple flip flops. An olive green messenger bag rested on her shoulder and had a red cross on the flap.

She was looking around nervously, as she walked around. She looked over her shoulder as someone shouted at the concierge for services not rendered. It was in that moment that both Reid and the young woman collided.

It took Reid a moment to register what had just happened. He looked around for the source of his short lived imbalance. He looked down at the ground and found the woman sitting there looking at a broken flip flop. A small contemplative frown formed on her lips and she picked the flip flop up and examined it.

"Cheap piece of crap," she muttered she tried to create a temporary fix and gave up when the sandal remained ruined.

"Are you okay?" Reid asked wondering if he had injured the girl in any way.

She looked up at him and smiled. "Peachy," she answered. "I'm not hurt, but I'm now in need of new sandals. Preferably, ones that don't cost five dollars."

Reid held out a hand so that he could help her up. He estimated her age to be around fifteen. She stood a full head shorter than him which wasn't unusual for him. At six foot one, he was a tall young man.

"I'm sorry I- I wasn't paying attention," he stuttered as the girl dusted the non- existent dirt off her shorts.

She looked up and smiled at him. "No harm no foul. I wasn't exactly the most aware of my surroundings myself," she said looking around once more.

"Are you lost?" Reid asked looking around with her.

"I got separated from my brother. I'm not quite sure how he managed to do that," she answered.

"Maybe I could help you look for him," Reid suggested ready for a minor distraction. There was only so much guilt a person could take. Maybe helping this girl find her brother would distract him, if only for the time it took to find him.

She studied him and raised an eyebrow as she debated his offer. "What's your name?" she asked as she maintained eye contact with him.

"Spencer Reid," he answered with a casual lift of his hand.

"Brooklyn Taylor, but you can just call me Brooke," she stated mimicking his gesture but added a slight flick of the wrist.

"Where did you see your brother last?" Reid asked as Brooke pulled her intact flip flop off. He grimaced slightly at the thought of bare feet on the linoleum that everyone walked on.

Brooke started walking towards a small souvenir shop, causing Reid to jog in order to catch up with her.
When he was a kid, he only remembered entering the shop once. "I last saw him at the Roman statues," she said after barely dodging a man in a business suit as he rushed off to parts unseen. She twisted on the balls of her feet and glared at the man as he briskly walked off. "People aren't very nice here."

"Welcome to Vegas, land of the self-absorbed and forever greedy," Reid stated nonchalantly with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

Brooke snorted as they entered the store. She carefully moved out of the way as two little boys came running out of the shop on a mini tirade. A tired mother squeezed past the two with an "Excuse me," and chased after them.

"You're a master of the understatement," Brooke said looking around. "Shoes, shoes, where are shoes," she sang quietly.

"So are you here in Vegas on vacation?" Reid asked hoping to figure out just where this girl had come from.

"Sort of," Brooke said as she headed towards the back of the shop where some sandals hung on the wall. "My brother is looking at the college here. My aunt brought us here, so that he could look at it."

Reid looked at her face. She seemed bothered by the idea of her brother going to college in a place like Vegas. "You don't want him to go to school here?"

"It's his choice when it comes to the school he wants to go to. I want him to stay in the Bay Area, but I'm not going to tell him he has too."

"That's where you live?"

"It's where I've always lived," Brooke answered as she picked up a pair of black sandals.

"So are you looking at colleges in the Bay Area?"

Brooke looked at the price and pulled out her wallet from her bag. She glanced at Reid before pointing towards the cash register. He held his arms out in a lead-the-way gesture and followed her.

"I don't need to," she answered as she paid the cashier and subsequently slipped the flip flops on. She looked up at him and noted his confused look. "How old do you think I am Mr. Reid?"

"Fif-fifteen," he stuttered. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at her.

"You're two years off. I'll take it as a compliment," Brooke answered. "I'm seventeen."

"But doesn't that mean you're a senior in high school?"

"Age does not necessarily delegate what grade you're in," Brooke laughed. "I graduated high school five years ago. I just finished my master's degree in psychology and sociology last year."

Reid looked at her as she moved towards the exit. "What college do you go to?" he asked.

"Stanford University," Brooke answered

"Does that mean you've taken classes under Dr. Albert Bandura?" Reid asked.

"You know who Bandura is?" Brooke asked surprised. A psychology major? she thought.

"Everyone who studies psychology knows about Dr. Bandura and his Bobo doll experiment," Reid answered. "He's one of the best psychologists out there."

"You mean the only one that is still alive. The best have pretty much died. There's Piaget, Skinner, Watson, Freud," Brooke listed as she counted on her fingers.

"Watson scared little children using the idea of classical conditioning," Reid stated horror stricken. Watson's study was considered unethical now. Invoking fear in little babies using a simple learning method.

"Poor baby Albert," Brooke shook her head sympathetically. "Maybe, not Watson, but there's Pavlov."

Reid nodded. Pavlov's experiments were crucial to defining classical conditioning. The two of them left the shop and Brooke began looking around once more.

"What does your brother look like?" Reid asked. Seeing as he had no idea who to look for, a general description would be useful.

Brooke turned to him and held her hand up so that it was just above his head. "Your height, brown hair, grey eyes, blue shirt, tan shorts, flips flops," she listed.

What? He thought. She had spoken so quickly he only heard a blur of words.

When Brooke cleared her throat, Reid mentally shook away his thoughts and continued searching. "If you had gotten separated from your brother, where were you supposed to meet him?"

"The Venetian, but I have not a single clue where that is," Brooke replied walking towards the exit. "I don't suppose you do?"

"It's down The Strip," Reid answered as he pointed which way they needed to go. "So what do you want to do as a psychologist?"

"I want to help people, but I won't be able to do that until I finish my doctoral degrees. At least then I'll be an adult. I present my Psychology dissertation in a little less than six months. The problem will be getting the people to take me seriously."

"It happens to me too," Reid nodded. He had his Ph.D. in Mathematics, but it was hard trying to convince some of the greatest minds in Mathematics, that his research and math was correct. At first they looked on in disbelief. A seventeen year old managed to find a solution to a problem that they themselves had been working on for years.

Brooke snorted once more. "Really? You're a child prodigy, working on not one but two doctoral dissertations?" she asked sarcastically.

Reid frowned slightly hurt by her words. "I'm working on two right now, but I have one in Mathematics," he said matching Brookes stride so that he didn't get too far ahead of her.

Brooke stared at him and her eyes widened in shock. "You aren't kidding," she muttered. She looked up hope filled her eyes. "So you're a genius too right?"

"Well-"he began but Brooke place a hand on his shoulder.

"Just say yes please," she pleaded. She had been hoping to find someone who had grown up being the social outcast, the nerd, the geek, the one who messed up the grading curve. "Do you know how hard it is to find someone your own age, who is actually as smart, if not smarter than you?"

Reid focused on her and nodded. "Yes, I do."

Brooke squeezed her eyes shut in slight embarrassment. "Right, of course you do," she playfully smacked herself on the forehead. "Stupid genius."

Brooke let out a small groan as she watched people make their way out of casinos and into the next one on their list. Some came out looking like winners, while others looked like they had just woken up from a very rough night on the town.

"When I found out we were coming to Vegas, I thought 'hey, maybe I can learn to play poker. Not'. There's nothing to do here if you're underage."

"They have shows," Reid said.

"We saw a pretty cool magic show yesterday," Brooke nodded, "I don't know, I'd rather be back in my room reading a good book. Unfortunately, I didn't bring enough. What brings you to Vegas?"

"I live here," Reid answered. "I go to Caltech, but I had to take care of some things."

"Oh a SoCal academic. Do you go to the beaches?"

Reid shook his head in disdain. He hated the beach.

"Too bad, the beach is kind of nice down there," Brooke said while whipping the sweat off of her brow. She turned her gaze up to him. "I really appreciate this."

"I wasn't doing anything. Actually I was just walking around so that I could think."

Brooke eyes grew an extra size. "Oh, no, did I interrupt some really great idea that you were going to test?" she asked. She watched him and slapped a hand over her mouth. "I did, didn't I?"

Reid shook his head with a small smile. "How did you manage to lose your brother?" he asked easily changing the subject.

"I didn't do it on purpose if that's what your insinuating," Brooke stated crossing her arms. "He probably went chasing after some girl."

"He would actually do that?"

"Given the change any teenage male would follow a pretty girl, rather than walk around with their twin sister."

"He's your twin?"

"Triplet, but- well," Brooke stopped walking as she tried to come up with a proper explanation. Reid looked at her as she bit her thumb nail. "You see, I'm a triplet. I have two brothers and they're identical twins, whereas, I'm their fraternal triplet? I'm only here with Blair, so at the moment the triplets have been broken down to twins. I think."

"I get it," Reid said.

"You do?"

He nodded and continued walking. "I still don't see why your brother would abandon you."

"He's a seventeen year old guy," Brooke answered as if it was obvious. Maybe to her it was, but Reid found himself lost in her logic.

"I'm eighteen," he said.

"Yes, but, you are a genius," Brooke explained. "Thus, putting you into the category of a socially awkward introvert."

Reid's face creased in emotional pain. She hit the nail on the head with that statement. He rarely left his apartment back in Pasadena the labs of Caltech. As they approached the Venetian, Reid heard someone shout Brooke's name.

A guy came running up and from his attire, Reid had deduced that this was Brooke's missing brother.

"Hey Brooke, I'm going to go with Brittney to the Stratosphere," he said pointing his thumb behind him to show a blond woman waiting. "I'll catch you at the MGM for dinner. Okay?"

"Who's Brittney?" Brooke asked he face taking on several worried features.

"She's this chick I met. I'll see you later."

"But- I- ah," Brooke tried to speak, but she couldn't find the right words. She let out a helpless sigh and her shoulder sagged. "Now what?" she moaned.

"I can show you around Vegas," Reid suggested. The minute he thought about walking away, thoughts of his mother came back.

"You don't have to do that Dr. Reid," Brooke said. "I'll just find my way back to the hotel and watch some TV or something."

"It's not a big deal," Reid said. "You can call me Spencer."

"Are you sure?"

Reid nodded. Brooke pulled out a deck of cards from her bag. "I don't suppose you know how to play poker do you?"

0o0o0o0

Spencer and Brooke sat on a hotel mattress and each held five cards in their hands while party sized bags of m&m's rested beside them. The two had returned to Brooke's hotel room so that Reid could teach her how to play one version of poker. Brooke let out a groan and dropped her cards on the bed. Reid put his down to reveal a Royal Flush.

"Why do I keep losing?" Brooke questioned picking up his cards. "I'm almost out of m&m's."

"I never lose," Reid replied.

Brooke gathered the cards up. "So why are we still playing?"

"Why are you here with your aunt?" Reid asked.

"Because I live with my aunt," Brooke said avoiding his eyes. She started to pick at her fingernails.

"You don't live with your parents?" Reid may not have been living with his mom for a few years, but he couldn't imagine not growing up with her.

"Nope, just me and my aunt," Brooke slid off the bed and grabbed some of her brother's clothes that were scattered around the room.

"What about your brothers?" She had at least two brothers, but from her statement, they didn't live with her.

"Blair lives with my mom, and Brian lives with my dad, stepmom, and younger brother." She sat back down on the bed and looked at the ground as she swung her legs back and forth.

Reid frowned. So her parents were divorced, and she didn't like talking about her family. "Why do you live with your aunt?" he was hoping for one more piece of information, and he got it.

"It's a quiet lifestyle, perfect for someone going to college," Brooke answered simply. She reached into her bag of chocolate treats and popped a few of the morsels into her mouth. "Do you have a job?"

Spencer smiled slightly at Brooke, and she smiled back at him. He didn't know that by bumping into Brooke on the day he put his mother into a home that he would also be gaining a long-term friend.

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Author's Note: So this is the rewrite of the prologue. It's a lot better than the first version if I do say so myself. Anyway, some information about the names mentioned earlier. Albert Bandura is a psychologist who is responsible for shedding light on how children learn by example. Piaget was the first to theorize the children develop in a specific sequence of stages from birth to adolescence. Freud is one psychologist that many people know about. He proposed the ideas behind basic dream theory. Skinner is the man who proposed Operate Conditioning as a way of learning as well as a system of reinforcement instead of the use of punishment. Pavlov is best known for his work with Classical Conditioning, in which through a series of steps he conditioned a dog to salivate every time it heard a specific sound.

Anyway, Hope you enjoy the new prologue.

Ren

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