Reid woke up and finds himself in a place only vaguely familiar, but thanks to his eidetic memory he knew he was in Rossi's house, and that settled him a bit. The sun was shining quite a lot, filling the room despite the curtains in front of the windows. If he had to guess, Reid would peg the time at about noon, though he was disoriented enough he couldn't be sure. It was strange, like being in a coma (he'd been in one once, he was not pleased to have a near repeat) and he was trying to regain his mental bearings. The house was quiet, but it was also huge. He'd have no idea if Rossi was around until he checked.

It took a few minutes for Reid to get out of the bed, clueing him into the actual condition of his body. He was stiff, he felt like he'd barely eaten and he was thirsty. He wondered what had happened since the last time he could remember. Carefully, he made his way downstairs, moving through the hallway he had only been through once before (that he remembered, at least) and towards the stairs.

He heard movement, the sound of kitchenware as he got there. He wasn't sure what to make of it when he ran into an older woman he'd never seen before cleaning the kitchen.

"Oh, Dr. Reid, You're awake!" she exclaimed in accented English. Italian accented English if he wasn't mistaken. "You sit down and I'll fix you something real quick. David said you haven't gotten much chance to eat lately, and I believe it! Skinny as a twig you are." The woman chattered on as she made Reid a sandwich and heated up some sort of lasagna dish, and Reid managed to get out of her that he'd been out of it for nearly a week, that he'd been on medical leave and had a cascade of visitors consisting of his team and Henry, Will and Jack, and that Rossi was already aware of his being awake and had apparently texted saying that everyone was coming as soon as the workday was over. Reid could see why Rossi kept this woman around- she sure knew how to multitask, and multitask well. After he was finished eating and the woman left, it was a difficult few hours trying to flex and stretch his muscles without causing himself injury. Eventually he gave up and instead went looking for something to read to occupy his time. Reid was very grateful when the team arrived.

"It's good to see ya like yourself again pretty boy." Morgan said as Reid greeted them as he usually did- whilst surrounded by seventeen or eighteen books he'd picked up from Rossi's bookshelves. Reid was only temporarily incapacitated by Garcia and JJ's bear hugs as he put the book down.

"It's good to feel like I'm myself again," Reid replied with a weary smile.

"So no more 'assimilations'?" Hotch asked, and Reid shook his head. The others began to sit down in the chairs around them as Reid spoke, none of them too far and all of them seeming to want to be within an arm's distance of him.

"I don't think so. The last thing I remember before the final assimilations, Paisley had projected herself into my dream and was talking to me."

"She projected herself to talk to you? Are you sure it wasn't just, you know, a dream?" Rossi asked. Reid shook his head with a touch of annoyance.

"I'm quite sure, and there is more than enough evidence that dream projecting is an actual phenomenon. In fact-"

"Reid, as fascinating as that is, could we just get back to the dream?" JJ asked, not unkindly, shooting a glare at Rossi. Reid nodded.

"Right. So she said she wanted to help at least one person. I think she's beginning to understand, but well... she is still a child. She said she'd 'let me go' soon and I think that's why I was assimilating for so long."

"She was rushing the process so you'd be yourself sooner." Prentiss said, speaking slowly as she thought about it. "She wanted to help you the way she thought was good, but because you probably pushed it she realized she would have to make it go by faster." Reid nodded.

"Wait, it would have taken even longer if she hadn't?" Garcia exclaimed in shock.

"I would say so. She did give me a lot of 'assimilations' to do, and it took time to see those worlds play out, to be those people. It was a unique experience I hope to never have to deal with again, though I'll likely be dealing with it for a long time now." Reid looked at his team- his friends, his family- very seriously. "Now... we need to talk about what I saw. I have no doubt some of those things I saw were possible, if nothing else. I'm... worried. There was a lot of pain in our future. We have the power to stop it, or at least to control the damage, but we need to be honest with each other. We need to tell each other our secrets."

"What, like right now?" Prentiss asked, looking more than a little alarmed.

"There's no time like the present, as I was very aggressively reminded." Reid responded matter a factly. There was silence for a moment. "All of you, have to decide now, if you're willing to do this. How much do we trust each other? How much do we consider each other family?" He looked at all of them, and they looked back. Morgan and Prentiss looked uncomfortable, JJ and Garcia a little worried. Hotch was perfectly calm, and even seemed to be slightly pleased. Rossi seemed entirely unperturbed.

"I'm fine with it," Rossi said. "A chance to change a bad future... well it doesn't come around every day."

"No it doesn't," Hotch agreed. "I'll stay." the I trust my team going unspoken. Reid nodded to both of them and looked at the others.

"Oh Junior G-man, you don't even have to ask." Garcia said with a smile. JJ's smile was a little more uncertain, but it was there. She merely nodded, a hand going to squeeze Reid's leg. They all turned to Morgan and Prentiss. Both looked very uncertain, and Reid knew why this was. Prentiss was thinking of what he'd said, of Ian Doyle and what that could mean for their family. Morgan... Morgan was wondering if he could trust anyone that much.

"I already know," Reid said, causing both to look at him more than a little warily. "Not all of your secrets, certainly not, but enough. Enough to tell you we will not abandon you. That we are here for you and that you do not need to fear us. We can help. Together we can do a lot of good." He looked appealingly at them both, and then there was nothing but silence. Finally, Emily nodded, a sigh racking her body and a mutter of something unintelligible while Morgan just nodded, not really looking at anyone. His body was stiff and he looked uncomfortable, but he didn't leave, and that was enough.

"Anything specific you have in mind?" Hotch asked Reid now that that was settled. Reid sincerely thought about it for a moment.

"Emily should go first. She should tell us about Lauren Reynolds. But first..." Reid took a deep breath. "I should tell you about what I saw."

So this is it. No seriously. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF CREATING A SEQUEL.

I will tell you that they do listen to each other, that things do change for the better in some ways and for the worse in others.

Who lives, who dies, what happens- I'm leaving that to you. I'm sure you could all discover endings to satisfy you more than I ever could. So if it comforts you more to think that at that moment, Reid went on a rampage and killed them all, a suggestion given to me on how to end this by my boyfriend's brother, then you may do so.

I'm attempting something new for Rise of the Guardians based on a prompt, and I have been trying (and failing, mind you) to write a companion piece to Not A Perfect Mother. I've got a crossover that's never been done before (it isn't that exciting but it hasn't been done before that I can find) and about a ton of Code Lyoko fics to complete. I'm tapped out. I'll get back to Criminal Minds if I can, but don't expect that for a while yet. I've got a ton of other things I want to work on first.