No greater team than a family

Disclaimer: *Sighs* I wish these gorgeous guys remotely belonged to me.

A/N: Whew, it's been a while since I've been here! Well, this is the new work I was tentatively exploring…I'm very two-minded about it, but nonetheless, I'm excited to see where this will take me! Please review, as I'd love to see if I should probably just quit while I'm (relatively, kinda, sorta) ahead! Lol!

NOTE! This is an AU story.

Hope y'all enjoy!

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"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family…whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." –Jane Howard

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Morgan POV

There were few joys greater in life than taking the mickey out of one Spencer Reid.

SSA Derek Morgan grinned at his favorite genius, enjoying the fierce blush that painted his alabaster skin as Elle Greenway continued the teasing that he so ruthlessly started. To his credit, the kid took every jibe in good spirit, even getting so comfortable around them as to retaliate, and he would never admit to it, but Derek simply basked in the playful banter they had between them. It was something special, coming from the prodigy of Einstein, and Morgan took great pride in being the one to bring out that side to Reid that he normally kept hidden under multiple layers of maturity.

"What is it this time?" JJ's voice drifted over to the bull pen. The blue eyed blond shot Reid a pitying but affectionate look, ruffling his hair as was often customary of her.

"My lack of a romantic interest," Reid informed her, smiling lightly through his embarrassment, and Jennifer turned a stern look on Morgan and Elle.

"Stop harassing him," she chided them, almost indulgently.

Not one to let a perfectly good opportunity to tease go to waste, Morgan immediately pouted. "Why do you always take Reid's side?" he asked mock petulantly.

JJ smirked at him. "Why do you and Elle continuously gang up on Spence?" she retorted quickly, clearly not expecting an answer.

"Because Reid's an outsider and Morgan and I have known each other for years," Elle blurted unthinkingly.

The atmosphere in the bull pen instantly dropped ten degrees.

JJ's eyes shot to the other agent's, not quite masking the shock in her bluer than blue eyes. Morgan was filled with equal parts anger and disbelief too, and even Elle couldn't seem to believe the words had come from her mouth.

The worst reaction came from Spencer; absolutely nothing.

Not outwardly, at least. The minute jerk of his shoulders, as though he'd taken a physical hit, the slump in his posture and the hurt in his wide brown eyes, were more than enough of a reaction for Morgan.

They always teased unthinkingly, but Elle had crossed an invisible line that time. Though he knew her last intention was to hurt the genius, Morgan was intensely irritated at her lack of a mental filter; he'd spent all this time trying to coax Reid out of his shell, convince him that he was part of this team and this family, and Elle had just quite possibly destroyed all that progress. She looked stricken at her own callous remark, and JJ looked just about ready to take off both their heads.

Before she could, however, Reid's ringing phone suddenly interrupted them.

"Hello?" Spencer answered his phone softly, the pain even evident in his voice. JJ shot them both daggers as Spencer kept his eyes on the floor. However, it wasn't JJ's wrath he was paying attention to, and maybe if he had been, he would have missed what happened next.

Whoever was on the other end of that call, obviously had some effect on the young doctor. Reid immediately straightened, almost as though he were conditioned to do it, and after listening to the other person speak for several moments, Spencer's entire face paled dramatically. His skin was so porcelain to begin with that it seemed unlikely he could get paler, but the genius's face was positively ashen but the time he got off the phone. His hands were shaking slightly, and before Morgan could ask if he was okay, the kid stood up.

On legs that were about as steady as a new-born colt's, Reid gathered his stuff quickly, shoving them into his messenger bag without explanation.

"Spence, wait, don't…" JJ tried to speak, but she was cut off by Hotch's voice, drifting over to them from his office.

"Reid." They all turned to look at Hotchner, and it didn't take a profiler to figure out that the man had seen the entire interaction. Stern eyes roved over Morgan and Elle, before they softened and turned to their youngest agent. "Would you come see me in my office for a minute?"

Shooting their superior a grateful look, Spencer grabbed his stuff and made a bee-line for Hotch's office. As soon as the door closed, JJ laced into them.

"What were you thinking, how could you even say that to him?!" she snapped, glaring icily. "Teasing is one thing, but you two have taken it too far this time."

"I didn't think," Elle mumbled, to her credit, still looking horrified with herself. "I didn't mean to hurt him, I would have never…"

"Yeah, well, it doesn't matter," JJ stopped her with an annoyed huff. "You did it." She turned her angry blue eyes to Morgan, who was still trying to figure out what had happened with that phone call to make his Pretty Boy lose his cool like that. "You! Fix this!" the blond agent snapped out before storming away, presumably to her own office.

Elle bit her lip, glancing at him half hopefully, and Derek knew she wanted to know precisely how they were going to go about fixing this one. Morgan racked his brain, coming up empty.

They had really put their foot in it this time.

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Reid POV

Dr. Spencer Reid, though he would constantly try to argue the point, was a certifiable genius. Between his qualifications- plural- his eidetic memory, and his ability to read 20000 words a minute, nothing much in the way of logic got past him. Sure, he often got confused when Elle was being sarcastic or when Garcia was joking around, but logic? Logic was his best friend since he was a child.

Which was why it was difficult to fight with the logic presented to him; the irrefutable fact that he was an outsider to the BAU. No matter what they'd been through since he'd been here, he was still obviously not part of the team, and Spencer wasn't going to pretend that the knowledge didn't hurt him. He'd come to the BAU for this reason entirely; because he'd heard stories of how the team was more of a family, and he'd ached for that sort of a working relationship ever since he was a lonely child getting bullied by everyone who correctly thought of him as different. He ached for what he'd thought he'd found in...

He jerked from his thoughts as his phone rang. He answered it numbly, not even bothering to check the caller ID.

How he wished he had thought to check the ID. Oh, Hindsight, what a cruel mistress you can be…

The first sound out of the caller's mouth, the first syllable reaching Reid's ear of that ever distinctive, gruff voice, had him straightening his back instinctively, as though the man himself were standing right in front of him. Without preamble, he explained his reason for calling, and Spencer felt his face tingle as the blood rushed down to his feet.

Snapping his phone shut as soon as the call came over, Reid switched into default mode, shakily standing and packing his things away. He needed to leave, right that second…

"Reid."

Spencer looked up to see Hotch silently rebuking his colleagues before turning a sympathetic face to him.

"Would you come see me in my office for a minute?"

Reid nodded quickly, allowing gratitude to seep into his eyes as he locked gazes with his boss. Hurrying up to Hotch's office, he tried to think of a story to tell his boss, for why he needed a week off. The truth, though tempting, was just…just out of the question.

"Reid, listen to me…"

"Hotch," he interrupted his boss, feeling badly for interrupting the man who was simply trying to make him feel better, ever the father that he was to the whole team. "I…I just, I need to take a…um, I need to ah, take a few days personal leave," Reid stuttered out, daring to meet the senior agent's gaze head on. "I have some things I need to take care of."

Hotch looked surprised, keen eyes scrutinizing him. "Is everything okay?" he asked shrewdly, his eyes narrowing slightly as he contemplated Reid's request.

Spencer swallowed hard before nodding slowly. "I just need to…to just take care of some…some things," he repeated vaguely, not wanting to lie to the man as much as he needed the next week off.

Maybe Hotchner had seen the desperation in his eyes, or maybe the man had simply trusted that Reid would speak up if he needed help, but whatever it was, made the normally imposing man nod with a slight smile. "Okay," he consented in a gentle voice, one that he seemed to reserve especially for his family, and for the team when they were having a more intense discussion. "That's okay, Reid. Take the time you need, and give us a call if you need anything from our side."

Nodding gratefully but unable to speak with the horrors of that phone call still ringing in his mind, Reid backed out of the older agent's office. Without turning to look at the agents in the bull pen, without saying a word to JJ or Gideon or Garcia, Reid strode out of Quantico.

It took all his willpower not to look back.

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Morgan POV

As soon as he walked past them, Morgan stood up, ready to apologize profusely to the younger agent even though he hadn't actually said much. When Spencer kept walking, going straight out of the office without even a backwards glance at them, Derek knew that something was very wrong.

"Give him some time to cool off," Elle suggested quietly when Morgan made to go after Reid. Remorse tearing her pretty features, the other agent sighed. "We can apologize to him tomorrow."

Frustration burning his insides, Morgan crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What in the hell were you thinking, Elle?" he reprimanded her, his tone a shade harsher than the gentle one he normally used for his co-workers. "You know that's a sore spot for Reid."

Elle opened her mouth, about to explain, when JJ's voice came across her.

"Conference room in 10," she announced irritably, barely making eye contact with them. Morgan wondered idly whether he should call Reid and tell him they had a case, but he quickly decided against it. Somebody else could tell him; the kid probably wouldn't answer Morgan's call.

They gathered in the conference room, Reid's absence not going unnoticed.

"Where's the kid?" Gideon asked, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked around, as if he expected Reid to jump up from under the table or behind a chair. "Does he know we have a case?"

"Reid's taken a few days personal leave," Hotch announced as he walked in. A few days? Something indefinable crushed Morgan's chest, making him deflate at the knowledge. He'd been under the impression that the genius had taken the rest of the day off, but taking personal leave…had they really cut him that deeply?

"We're gonna take the case without him?" Garcia asked, frowning in disappointment. He could see the concern in the TA's eyes and he felt glad that she had saved him from having to ask. Hotch contemplated the thought for a moment, chewing on it absently.

"He asked for a few days, and I want to give him that," he said firmly. Garcia looked down at the table, a troubled expression on her face. JJ looked equal parts concerned and frustrated, while Gideon simply looked thoughtful. Morgan knew his own face was doing little to hide his own troubled and despondent thoughts, but all he could care for at that moment was how wrong this whole case was going to feel, with them missing one of the most important parts of their team. Thanks in large part to them, Reid had no idea what a valued member of the team he was; not only for his amazing intelligence and intellect, but also for the inherent light he seemed to bring into the BAU. For all they had seen and tackled together as a team, as a unit, as a family, Spencer had always managed to retain that air of innocence. It was that very quality that lifted their heavy souls, somehow cleaned them, absolved them of the horrors of their jobs. He stopped the job from consuming them all and his absence weighed on Derek like an anvil.

"We have ten dead bodies over the past three months, in New York," JJ started, switching to a more professional demeanor. Morgan straightened, trying to get his head back in the game. "All the victims' physical descriptions match up, and each of them suffered the same fate; blunt force trauma to the head, and subsequent death. They were all found with a brand on their left shoulders, administered post-mortem. NYPD thinks it's the work of a serial killer…"

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Reid POV

Reid was many things, but haphazard wasn't usually one of them.

He barely gave any thought to what he was throwing into his bag; if he had been any less distracted, he may have been horrified at the way he was shoving clothes in his suitcase, without any thought to folding them neatly the way he normally did.

But he was distracted, and he did not stop carelessly cramming things away.

Though he'd told Hotch that he needed a few days, Spencer wasn't entirely sure how long he was going to be gone. This was a time-sensitive matter, one he had an obligation to tend to. Making a split second decision, he locked his apartment and power-walked the few blocks to the bank.

He was in luck; there was no queue to follow, but there were still enough people that he wouldn't particularly stand out. He went straight to one of the cashiers, hiding his nervousness behind a cool mask.

"Good afternoon Sir," she smiled cheerfully at him. "How can I help you?"

"Good afternoon," he forced a smile on to his face. "I need to close my account and withdraw all the funds in it."

"Okay," she nodded amiably, "and what is your name and account number?"

"The name is Matt Gray, and my account number is 2-6-6…"

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