I do not own Criminal Minds ABC does. I do own the OC.

Nightmares from the past

By: Snake D'Morte

The whole team was traveling home from a case, Morgan was listening to music on his phone, JJ was reading something on her laptop, Emily was sleeping, Hotch was working the paperwork, and Rossi was reading a book he had found.

And Reid was having a nightmare but that did the rest of the team not know yet.

"Hmm Clara!" Reid mumbled in his sleep and started to toss and turn.

This continued for the rest of the flight and more and more of the team started to notice the distress that was in the young doctor's voice.

And just before they landed Reid bolted up.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO CLARA!" he screamed before falling down again panting like he run a marathon or two with tears running down his flushed cheeks.

"Who's Clara?" JJ asked as she sat down beside the crying Reid.

"It was just a bad dream," Reid said "Nothing else."

And for the time being thinking that it had been just a bad dream and all of them had had that.

But when Reid started to look even paler than he normally did, and bags under his eyes started to look like garbage bags, the team grow worried.

But Reid just said that he was fine, and that he had had a few nightmares but it was nothing he couldn't handle self.

In the end it was a case that broke the young man, and broke him it did.

The case had been about a man who had been drowning young girls, because his daughter had been drown in an accident.

Something with this case had made Reid very uncomfortable and he had had to leave the room when they were looking for clues on one of the bodies.

They were back in the yet and flying home, Reid was fast asleep but not peacefully no he was tossing and turning and whimpering about Clara again.

Suddenly Reid sat up crying.

"Where am I," he said with a childish voice

"Reid you are on the FBI yet," Hotch said and looked worriedly on the young man.

Reid nodded and looked even more scared.

"Is this because of Clara?" He asked

"No why would it be?" JJ asked

"Because I killed her?" Reid said and the tears started to grow bigger.

"What!" Morgan yelled which caused Reid to start sobbing too about how sorry he was and he curled up into a ball, more or less begging Morgan not to hurt him.

Rossi got an idea and turn to the young man.

"Spencer how old are you?" he asked ignoring the weird looks from the rest of the team.

"I am eleven years old," Spencer answered

The team stared at him.

"Who is Clara?" asked Emily

Spencer bit his lip and looked at them with big scared eyes.

"You not going to put me in prison right?" He asked

They nodded and JJ sat down beside him and stroked his long hair.

"Nothing bad is going to happened to you Spence," she said "So who is Clara, a friend?"

"Clara was my cousin, I killed her, she was just seven years old," Spencer whispered.

The team looked at each other, could their Spencer really have killed a child when he himself was a child, sure they had all seen what children could do to each other and killing was one of them, but this was Spencer Reid the baby brother of the whole team.

Hotch who saw Spencer as his second son sat down on the other side of Spencer.

"Hey Spencer, my name is Aaron," he said softly "Could you tell me what happened to Clara that make you think you killed her?"

Spencer nodded.

"I was supposed to watch her," He said "We were down at one of the lakes near her house, me and my mom was visiting my uncle and aunt. I told Clara that I was going to read my books and when she was done playing in the sand she was to come to where I was sitting. I don't think she remembered what I said."

Spencer looked down at his hands.

Hotch rubbed his back soothing and asked him to continue with the story.

"I kind of forgot about the time," Spencer said and started to shake, he didn't stop shaking till JJ hugged him and whispered soothing words in his ear. "When I looked at the clock I saw that I had been reading for over two hours and that Clara had not come to find me. I started to look for her and I couldn't find her on the sand so I looked down at the lake and I… I…"

There he stopped because he couldn't continue for the tears and sobbing, he cling to JJ so desperate.

It took a while before he had calm down enough to tell them the rest.

"I found her laying there in the water," he said "I tried to get her up but she was too heavy. I ran to the grownups and told them, but it was too late. She had been dead for nearly an hour. My uncle yelled at me and called me a murder and then he beat me. I killed Clara."

And with that said Spencer broke down completely he curled up in a ball shaking from the sobbing.

The team looked at the crying young man, how could anyone say that to a child?

They soon saw that Spencer was going into a full blown panic attack, and they didn't know what to do! Both Hotch and JJ tried to calm him down but every time they tried to touch Spencer he would nearly scream in fright and curl up even more.

"I can't breathe," He suddenly whimpered

JJ and Hotch tried to help him but he would just flinch away scared.

In the end it was Morgan who know what to do.

He sign for JJ and Hotch to let him sit beside the panicking Spencer, and when he had sat down he turn to his friend.

"Hey Kid," He said softly "My name is Derek, and I will help you okay."

Spencer nodded just slightly and with that Morgan lifted the young man up into his lap, Spencer tried to get free but Morgan held him firmly to his chest so that Spencer could feel Morgan breathe.

"Okay Kid, calm down," he said "Breath with me, in out in out."

After a few seconds Spencer started to breathe with Morgan and he slowly calm down.

"Spencer listen to me," Morgan said after letting Spencer sit beside him instead of on his lap. "Your uncle was wrong, it was never your fault that Clara died. It was an accident nothing else. You were eleven years old just a kid yourself."

Spencer looked at the team and them all told him the same thing.

"You are all so nice to me," He said and yawn. "I like it, no one is nice to me at school."

And with that said he curled up in ball and fell asleep again this time more peacefully then before. He had never felt this safe in years.

And he was still asleep when they landed an hour later.

Hotch looked down at the you man he saw as a son and did what every dad would do and picked the sleeping Spencer up and carried him first to his car and then to the spare bed room in his house and tucked Spencer in there with one of Jack's stuffed toys.

"Good night Spencer," he whispered when he closed the door a bit.

In his sleep Spencer smiled.

THE END

A/N: I have been where Spencer was, but I was in my teens and it was not my cousin. I had a friend that was bit younger than me. And One day we or I was walking my dog and she was walking with us. The dog I had at the time loved to swim in the sea so we was down at the sea and when I was done with that part I told my friend that I was just up the beach sunbathing with my dog and that she was to come there when she was done with whatever she was doing. After a while she had yet come and I was starting to get worried and when I looked for her I couldn't find her. Luckily for me she had not drown but that was what I thought at that moment and I was really scared. It turn out that she hadn't listen to me and thought that I had walked home without her so she just walk home, while I was panicking about where she was!