This story is my escape from a three and a half year writing rut, so I hope I don't disappoint.

I don't own Criminal Minds, or anything involved with the show - I'm just a diehard fan who has been marathoning the show non-stop for the past week.

Having just finished a particularly difficult case, Reid couldn't wait to get back to his apartment and go to bed. Not only had he pulled two all-nighters in a row (with the help of his trusty sidekick coffee), but once again, he had to watch a teenager die, suicide by cop. Though, in this case, it was suicide by doctor/agent.

After finally arriving home, he locked his door, double-checking that it was actually secure, kicked off his shoes and carefully set them beside the front door, went straight to his bedroom, and laid down. Not long after he shut his eyes, he fell right to sleep, feeling as peaceful as ever. This bliss, however, was extremely temporary. A few minutes later, he woke with a start, sick to his stomach, but he couldn't imagine why. From what he remembered, it was a very dreamless sleep, and he hadn't eaten anything out of the ordinary that day. The genius didn't have long to contemplate the thought, as he ran directly for the bathroom, knelt in front of the toilet, and no sooner emptied the contents of his stomach. Once he'd finished he sighed, flushing and balancing on the pads of his feet.

His mind was going faster than its' usual mile a minute, thinking of all the possible situations that could occur. If he called out of work sick tomorrow, Morgan would surely show up at his place on his lunch break to check up on him. If he went to the doctor first and was late to work as a result, JJ would question him, calling him 'Spence' and giving him that look she always gives him when she's worried. On top of that, Garcia would more likely than not hack into the doctor's computer system to find out the diagnosis. If he went to work sick, he'd need to constantly excuse himself to use the facilities, causing Hotch to get concerned and check on him, or worse, send him home early.

Sighing, he shook his head, trying to get rid of all the thoughts - he was being ridiculous. If anything, it was due to stress and a serious lack of sleep. Getting up, he made his way to the sink, washing himself up and brushing his teeth. He soon made his way back to bed, crawling under the sheets and uneasily falling back to sleep.

The next morning, he woke up feeling refreshed, and easily 100% better than he had the night before. Checking the clock, he noted that he had enough time to take a quick shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, stop for a coffee, and get to the office fifteen minutes early. Needless to say, this was perfect for him, as he could get a head start on his paperwork, as well as weed out any paperwork that may have somehow slipped into his pile.

He walked into the BAU that morning with an uncharacteristic smile on his face. He set down his satchel and made his way over to the coffee machine for a refill.

"Hey, Boy Wonder, aren't we cheerful this morning?" Garcia noted, ruffling his hair.

He smiled, picking up the coffee pot. "Thanks, Garcia. And Boy Wonder is...?" he asked as he filled his cup.

"You, of course, who else?" He shrugged. "Exactly! Now, if you'll excuse me, I know JJ is keeping pictures of our godbaby from me, and I'll be damned if that's going to last." she finished, taking off.

Reid walked back to his desk, setting down his cup and sorting through the folders. There seemed to be a pattern: every third one was a file he hadn't seen before - he knew Morgan had to be behind this. He pulled out the files, stacked them, and put them in chronological order. He grabbed a Post-It off of his desk, wrote 'Nice Try', put it on top of the folders, and set them in the middle of Morgan's desk. Satisfied with himself, he got to work.

When Morgan finally came in that morning, Reid stopped what he was doing and waited for his reaction. Walking over to his desk, he nodded toward Reid.

"Mornin', Pretty Boy," he said, setting his phone on the desk and pulling off his jacket. Reid held up his hand with a slight wave as Morgan looked down on his desk. "...What's this?"

"Next time you're going to slip your paperwork on my desk, don't make it completely obvious. At least put it out of a pattern, stack them the same, and put them in order of importance to match the rest."

Morgan shook his head, defeated.

"Come on, Derek, did you really think you'd get something past him?" Emily spoke, not looking up from her own work. She quickly glanced up. "Damn, Reid, rough night?"

"Hm?" Reid asked, raising an eyebrow. He'd thought he looked fine.

"You heard me."

"I slept fine, why?"

"Where do I start? There's bags under your eyes that make you look miserable, your hair is worse than its usual mess, your sweater vest is slightly askew, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say your socks actually match today."

He quickly went through the checklist in his head, analyzing himself. He felt his face and sure enough, puffy eyes. There's really no surprise there. His hand went up to his head - messy from when Garcia had ruffled it this morning (he disliked when she did that, but didn't have the heart or nerve to tell her otherwise). He quickly straightened his sweater vest and checked his socks: for the first time in as long as he could possibly remember, they actually matched each other, both purple with blue stripes. He grabbed his bag and dug through; hoping he'd left a sock in there.

"Oh, Em, leave the kid alone - we're all allowed a rough morning once in a while. At least he was in his usual early time."

Reid nodded to himself, knowing he'd made the right choice based on his late night analysis. After slipping on a sock he found after rummaging, he poured his sugar packets into his coffee, stirred, and took a sip.

"Good as new?" Emily asked with a smile. He nodded, getting back to his paperwork. Maybe his late night was, in fact, a fluke he simply needed to sleep off.

He made it through the morning without any "interruptions" and was so far so good. He didn't feel anything until Morgan asked if he wanted to join the team for lunch. He quickly thought of his stomach, slightly nauseous.

"You know what? I've got a lot of paperwork to get through-"

"Pretty Boy, what are you talking about? Your pile's almost gone."

"Well, yeah, but I need to double-check... for mistakes?" He knew he blew it right then and there, wincing to himself.

"Mistakes, you? I'm getting you out of here; the office is making you delirious." Morgan wrapped his arm around the boy's shoulder, barely giving him enough time to grab his coat and bag before he led him out the door.

Reid tried not to make how miserable he felt show - he was, after all, at lunch with a group of profilers. The slightest wrong move would surely alert somebody. He knew he couldn't excuse himself to the rest room if he felt sick, because someone would definitely notice, tell Hotch, and get him sent home for the afternoon. The nausea seemed to subside and the usual fact-blurting Reid was present - until the food came. As the waitress reached over him to set the plates down, all the smells hit him. He drew a quick deep breath, closed his eyes, and sighed.

JJ nudged him, whispering softly. "Hey, Spence, you okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, just the smells getting to me. No big deal." He sat upright, looking at Rossi's plate. "Hey, did you know that -" he started, covering up how he felt.

"Something happened to someone interesting while they were eating exactly what Rossi ordered?" Morgan finished.

Reid sat back with a smirk. "Nevermind," he said, cutting into his burger. JJ looked at him, concerned, but shrugged it off. Of something were in fact wrong, he'd definitely tell her - he was like her little brother, after all.

After choking down his burger, he excused himself from the table, saying he needed to make a quick trip to the bookstore with what was left of his lunch break. He knew nobody would question him on that, nor would they want to accompany him. He picked up his satchel, left his money on the table, and left the restaurant.

"Is something wrong with Reid?" Hotch asked, looking around at the other agents. They all collectively shrugged.

"That case seemed to really get him," Rossi spoke up, "the kid probably just needs to get his head on straight."

Reid made it back to the BAU in the nick of time. The nausea hit again right as he arrived at his desk. He quickly set down his belongings, rushed to the bathroom, and emptied the burger from his stomach. The lunch tasted great going down, but horrible coming back up.

Garcia walked by the bathrooms, wrinkling her nose. She looked around, trying to figure out who was in there. She finally spotted Reid's satchel and mug at his desk. She quietly knocked on the men's room door.

"Hey, genius, are you okay in there?" she asked softly.

Spencer sat up, panicking. She knew he was in there, getting sick.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied, sitting up and hoping the dizziness and nausea would just go away.

"Don't you lie to me, Spencer Reid! I can hear you."

He bit his lip, thinking up a lie quickly.

"My lunch didn't agree with me, that's all. Listen, don't tell Hotch, okay?"

"Oh, you poor thing," she started, "you get yourself cleaned up, I'm going to leave some stuff at your desk. Don't worry, I won't tell Hotch, just be careful!" she said, rushing off.

He pushed himself up, flushed the toilet, and walked over to the sink. Glancing up at his reflection, he sighed. Prentiss had been right - he looked horrible. He washed his face and hands, did his best to look presentable, and walked out to his desk. He silently thanked Garcia for coming through, noticing the saltines, water bottle, and Alka Seltzer on his desk, as well as a small teddy bear holding a 'get well soon' sign. He'd have to thank her later. He put the teddy bear into his bag, downed the Alka Seltzer, and sat down, opening another file.

"Hey, Pretty Boy, find what you were looking for?" Morgan asked, sitting across from him.

"Hm?" Reid asked, thinking for a moment. "Oh, right, the book! Uh, no, they were actually sold out." He realized he was quickly getting way too comfortable with lying.

That night, Reid got sick again, twice. In fact, he got sick five times over the next two nights. This wasn't food poisoning or stress related, as he ruled out those symptoms quickly. He thought to himself... he had headaches, but no worse than his usual headaches. His back hurt, but he figured that was just part of the job. Of course he had the nausea, but that was a new discovery. He then went through several other possibilities, crossing off appendicitis, the flu, kidney failure, a bladder infection, and meningitis. He them came to the sudden realization of what it could be: he, Spencer Reid, was in fact pregnant.

Fear quickly set in for him as he did the math. His last encounter had been over three months ago, when the team worked a hard case and went to a bar to unwind afterward. He wasn't "gay", if someone wanted to label it, he was just experimenting. He knew he couldn't tell the father of the baby about this - hell, he couldn't tell anyone about it. Not even JJ. She'd hidden a pregnancy from the team for a while; surely he could do the same. By far it wasn't his wisest decision, but for the young, panicked genius, it was currently the best possible option, until he figured out what he was going to do.

He knew his first priority was to go to a doctor, but wasn't sure how to go about it without alerting the rest of the team that something was wrong. After thoroughly thinking it through in his head, he decided that the best choice was to go to the hospital well before work - that way nobody would know, since he wouldn't be late. He grabbed his phone and after a quick phone call, had an appointment set for the next morning. Who knows? His self-diagnosis could actually be completely off and it was nothing more than a simple stomach bug. He laid back on his bed, did his best to shut down his thoughts, and dozed off.