Pausing only to grab a tall glass of iced water from the break room, Reid half-ran back to the room he'd left her in, then found himself frozen once more outside the door. Peering through the cracks in the blinds, he stared at her. Although a lot of people had said when he was younger that he'd looked a lot like his father, as he'd grown older, he had thought about how he'd begun to look more like his mother. Of course, he had his father's eyes and colouring but the sharp, yet delicate structure of his face and stature were almost entirely owed to his mother. Yet it seemed his half-sister had inherited those exact same traits, including a sophisticated and creative intelligence Reid had always thought was purely his mother within him.

Taking a deep breath, Reid opened the door, causing the poor girl to jump out of her seat. She'd put away all the files he had taken from the bag and laid out in front of her again when he left. Rather, she was threading her fingers through one another; twisting them so fiercely Reid was surprised she hadn't broken them already. "I brought you some water."

"Thank you," she mumbled, almost as quiet as he was. When he settled the water down on the counter, she snatched it up almost immediately and gulped down about half of it. "Have you been checking up on who I am?"

"Yes," he admitted, half-ashamed.

"I understand why you would have had to do that," she quirked a small smile, peering through her thick glasses. "I did break into the FBI after all."

"That was very stupid of you," he felt it his duty to both admonish her and praise her when her smile dulled. "But also rather intelligent. We'll have to make sure we increase our security for the next visits we arrange."

"I'm flattered," Roxie smirked at his confused expression. "What? Not every girl gets the change to rattle the FBI."

"I err… wouldn't make a habit of it if I were you." Despite how logic dictated he should respond to her break in, Reid couldn't help but be impressed. Apart from her frantic confusion towards the end, she seemed to have remained calm throughout the entire event. "Look, Roxana…"

"Roxie," she said, quickly. "Everyone calls me 'Roxie'. No one calls me 'Roxana'."

"Ok, Roxie," he spoke slowly. "Er… why did you come here?"

Her smile vanished quickly, and she took another long gulp of water. "I… I didn't even know about you until about a week ago. I found your file on Papa's computer when I was editing some photographs."

"My file?"

"I'd never seen it before, and I found it by mistake. It was a locked file under my Papa's documents, but I think he'd forgotten he'd left it unlocked. It had, basically, everything about you. Newspaper clippings, birth certificates, photographs and school reports."

Reid's stomach twisted a little, knowing his father had been checking up on him all these years. He wasn't happy or relieved like he thought he might be when he learned his father had kept a continuous interest in him all these years. More like disgusted. Too cowardly to come and knock on his door, instead he'd tucked Reid away in some little corner on his laptop and desk drawer where his new family wouldn't find them.

"I really wanted to know more," Roxie mumbled. "But I didn't want to ask him – I knew he'd be reluctant. After all he'd…" She halted for a moment, looking unsure as to what her next words would be, but Reid just waved her on. He truly was on the verge of not caring anymore. "Well, I… I got into his office when my parents weren't home and looked around. I then found all these files… where…" she paused for a moment, words catching in her throat, looking almost traumatised by what she was about to say next. "He'd been comparing us to you. I knew he always had high ambitions for us – he always pushed us academically – he put us on a vigorous reading schedule, introduced us to music and got us into all these clubs. But he was trying to make us into another you."

Roxie's face had creased wretchedly, and she looked on the verge of tears. Unable to look at Reid, she turned away and tried to hide her face against her shoulder and behind a long fringe of hair. "I also found out your parents had been married. You know he divorced her four months after he met Mama. Two of those months they were seriously dating. He cheated on her. I don't know if he ever told her about you, but I don't think he did. Mama's a very family person. She wouldn't leave you out of the picture. Or your mother."

Reid felt a little sick watching the poor girl cry. Reaching into his pocket for some tissues, he took some out of the pack and slid them across the table. Carefully, she took them and wiped her cheeks and eyes under her glasses. "I'm sorry…"

"No, Roxie, none of this is your fault," Reid said quickly. "It's his. He's the one who made mistakes."

Looking back up at him, Roxie cast a weak smile for a second, before ducking her head again and draining the glass. Her fingertips dripped from the condensation gathering around the rim. "Can I ask… what happened between you and Papa?" he spoke warily. "I know it might not be pleasant…"

"It's not pleasant," Reid said hardly, but softened his voice deliberately when Roxie's eyes began pooling again. Normally, he'd divert this conversation away in another direction unless Morgan had given him some drinks first, but the desperation that was squirming inside the poor girl was tragic to watch. "Up until I was six we were good. I mean, my mum was… ill but those days she was stable."

"Stable?"

"My mum's a paranoid schizophrenic," he said quickly, watching Roxie's eyes widen in the way that most people's did when he told them about her. "She was good at keeping on her meds and she didn't have many episodes. It was unusual when she did. Then when I turned seven, everything… didn't change overnight, but went downhill. She had more episodes and they changed her medication, but they had really bad side effects. It affected her concentration really badly and slowed down her brain. She was a teacher at the local university so this was really bad for her – she kept going off the pills for days at a time so she could continue teaching people. But sometimes when she was off them she'd forget to take them again and none of the doctors would prescribe her anything else." Reid had never told anyone this part about his mother's descent before, much less about how it contributed to his parent's separation. Divorce, he reminded himself, his parents were divorced. Strange how she had never told him about that. Maybe she'd just forgotten.

"Dad… honestly, he did try to help her for those final two years we were together. He looked after her and me, but I could see how it affected him. Most nights he hardly slept I think out of pure worry for her more than anything else," he twitched uncomfortably. "I remember his career suffered – he'd be working erratic hours in his office and home. I think, he came to resent her as someone who held him back and… maybe even me too." Looking up from his hands, he saw Roxie watching him with her mouth agape. He realised how clinical he must have sounded. It had always helped him in the past whenever he did speak about him. "He left a few months after I turned nine. I never saw him again."

"Son of a bitch," Roxie breathed quietly, too shocked to even be troubled over her use of profanities. "What… he… I don't understand… why would he…?"

"Because he couldn't handle it, Roxie," Reid said simply. "He didn't want us anymore when we turned too much for him to handle so he left. It's nothing more simple than that."

Too exhausted to take this in much longer, Roxie groaned and slumped back into her chair, energy drained from her body. Running a hand over her eyes, she worked her way through a yawn, whilst Reid watched her sadly. A suddenly feeling of self-disgust overwhelmed him at making her so upset. "Look, I'm sorry."

"Why?" Roxie looked up at him, slightly confused. "You said it yourself. He made the mistakes, not us." She flashed him a quick, genuine smile, before looking away again and sighing. "God this is one big pile of shit isn't it?

"It really is," Reid smiled gently. "Did you, imagine this meeting would be going like this?"

"I don't know what I imagined it would go like," she shrugged. "I just thought it would go as it would."

"You're brave," Reid remarked quickly. "Flying halfway across the country to meet a half-brother you've never met, knowing nothing except your father has never spoken to him since he was ten."

"I needed to meet you," Roxie said simply. "I needed to heart what really happened from you and not from him. I couldn't trust him after I found all that out."

"That seemed fair. I'm sure you have more questions than that though," he asked carefully, feeling a little warmer when she smiled.

"I think I did want a chance to get to know you better," Roxie smiled. "Though perhaps in a less… interrogatory environment."

"Sounds good," he croaked, twining his hands together to try and hide the fact that they were sweating. "I… err… have to finish work, but we can go out to dinner tonight? You can wait here if you like."

"Thanks, but, if it's okay with you I'd prefer to get back to my motel. I'd rather not spend more time in here than I had to," Roxie flashed him a tight, but knowing smile, which Reid had to bite back a grin at. "Plus, I kind of want to change."

"Ok. Tell me your address and I'll pick you and your stuff up before six. I'll get out of work early so I can take you back."

"Ok… wait... my stuff?" Roxie looked at him oddly. "Why will you be picking up my stuff?"

"Because I can calculate the likelihood of crime at any motel rate in this city within five minuets and it will worry me really badly if I don't have you at my house where I can make sure you aren't being attacked. And since your stupid enough to break into the FBI and get caught I can calculate an extra risk factor in there too," Reid grinned at her outraged expression. She couldn't seem to get a single protest out. "I am a genius, Roxie.