Chapter 2:

Dr. Spencer Reid had just boarded his plane for Maine. Today, Monday, Reid would normally be at work; either working in the field or at BAU Headquarters, but today was not a normal Monday. Reid thought back to the phone call that had him changing his entire routine.

FLASHBACK…

Spencer Reid had just drained the last of his coffee and put the cup in the sink. He grabbed his satchel from the kitchen counter and was about to walk out of the apartment, before his phone started ringing. Reid pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Reid speaking," he answered, like it was any other phone call that he ever had.

"Hello," a female voice greeted on the phone. "Am I speaking to Dr. Spencer Reid?"
Reid nodded. "This is Dr. Reid."

"Good morning Dr. Reid," the voice said on the line. "My name is Greta Stone, I'm calling from Child and Family Services in Maine."

Maine? Reid couldn't recall if the team had any recent cases having to do with Maine. Maybe this is a consult? "How can I help you?"

Ms. Stone was silent for a couple of moments. Reid allowed her that time to collect her thoughts. "The situation I called you about is… delicate." Reid continued to wait. "Before I can get into that though, I must ask you Dr. Reid, have you spoken to your father recently?"

My father? What does he have to do with this? "I haven't spoken to my father in over ten years," Reid stated coolly. "If you are looking for him, I do not know where he is."

"I've already been in contact with Mr. Reid. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite as helpful as I thought he would be."

All right, this obviously had nothing to do with the BAU. "What exactly do you want Ms. Stone?" Reid snapped.

"I'm calling because of a particular case that has landed on my desk," Ms. Stone stated. "Police were called to the scene by multiple neighbors who had heard the commotion. They witnessed a mother stabbing her daughter, who had been trying to run away from her."

"The girl involved in the incident, Carrie White, survived the incident. She was taken to the hospital to have her wounds treated. Currently, she is in a group home. Carrie's mother, Margaret White is currently in police custody and is awaiting trial. The prosecution feels that what the police witnessed and evidence that they have will be enough to make this go quickly. Even without Carrie's testimony, Margaret will be convicted without any trouble."

"It seems that this case is pretty much closed," Reid pointed out. "I don't understand what sort of help I or my father could have offered you."

"Carrie is in need of a home," Ms. Stone explained. "Margaret White was married to Ralph White. Mr. White died in some sort of accident doing construction around his home, and since neither he nor Mrs. White had any other family, it seemed that Carrie had no family. Until recently, everyone believed Mr. White to be Carrie's father."

"Believed?"

"This is the delicate part of the situation that gets delicate," Ms. Stone explained. "Some of Carrie's stab wounds were so severe, she needed a transfusion in order to save her life. While she was in the hospital, the staff checked their records. According to their records, Carrie's blood type doesn't make sense if she were Mr. White's daughter. During an investigation, it seems that your father, Mr. William Ried, was in Maine while representing a client's interest in a construction site Mr. White had been working on at the time. When I called Mr. Reid, he explained to me that he did have a brief affair with Mrs. White during that time, which would have been when Carrie was conceived. When Mr. Reid had found out that Mrs. White had a child subsequently after that, he states that Mrs. White assured him that Carrie was her husband's child."

"I had explained to him that Carrie couldn't be Mr. White's child, and asked if he would come to Chamberlain and take a DNA test to be sure. He refused; he wouldn't even acknowledge the possibility that Carrie was his daughter and kindly told me he did not want to get involved."

Typical, Reid thought furiously. At the first smell of trouble, the man runs; he did the same thing when he walked out on his sick mother and him, he did it in this situation. Now this girl is probably stuck in the foster care system while his father isn't getting his shit together. "Tell me what you need me to do and I'll do it."

PRESENT…

Once Reid had said that statement, the rest was history. As soon as he had gotten off the phone with Stone, Reid called Hotch and tried to explain the situation as quickly as possible. Hotch was quite understanding and gave Reid three weeks to get all of this sorted. Reid knew that Hotch would explain it to the team; he felt extremely grateful that he had such a great boss and team that would explain all of it.

Now he's on this plane, taking this DNA test since he is his 'father's' closest relative. Reid already decided that if the DNA came up positive, and this girl, Carrie, ended up being Reid's newly discovered sister, he would be taking her with him back to Quantico. He couldn't in good conscious leave her in this situation if there was something he could do about it.

Reid opened one of the books that he had packed into his satchel, hoping to make this flight go faster.

Carrie walked into the bedroom that he shared with the other girls in the group home. As she walked towards her bed with her shoulders hunched, she could hear the other girls, giggling and saying things about her.

"What a loser," one girl said.

"Yeah. Look at her stupid clothes."

"She's so creepy. Just like that psycho mother of hers."

"With a daughter like her, I can see why she tried to kill her. She should just kill herself…

Carrie grabbed her bag and ran out of the room, just barely holding in the tears that threatened to fall. No matter where she was, either in school or in this new home, people were always so mean to her. Even her mama tried to hurt her. Why couldn't they all just leave her alone? Carrie let her thoughts run as she jogged over to the park. When things were too difficult to deal with, either at school or at home, Carrie would sit on a bench in front of a pond in the park; it was Carrie's favorite place in the park. It was tranquil; birds would come over there. The greatest part about this place was that no one else seemed to come here at all- at least not when Carrie was ever there. This was especially true about Carrie's tormentors; Carrie had never seen any of them there.

Carrie found her favorite green bench and sat. Carrie watched as the ducks on the water. Carrie looked at her watch, 10:50 AM. Ms. Stone from Child Services said that her brother's flight would be coming in closer to 2PM. Supposed brother, Carrie thought angrily to herself. She still wasn't sure she believed Ms. Stone; it was hard to believe that her mother had fornicated with another man while she had been married to her daddy. That would obviously mean that her mama cheated on her husband. She still couldn't believe it; it was a sin.

But why was it so hard to believe? Her mother had tried to kill her? Killing is a sin isn't it? Maybe mama was another whore of Babylon, just like she accused every other girl in town of being. Maybe this was God's punishment for her. But then… is he punishing me as well? Carrie didn't know, but she hoped not.

After Carrie was released from the hospital, the social worker on her case told her that Ralph White, the man she thought had been her father, wasn't really her father. That some other man who she didn't know could be her father. But since he couldn't be here, the man's adult son would come so they can have a DNA test to confirm that they were siblings. Ms. Stone said that if it was a positive match, Carrie could live with her brother; apparently he's sort of officer. Carrie hadn't been paying much attention at the time; the news that mama might have had an affair while she was married seemed much pressing. At first, Carrie couldn't believe it; didn't want to believe it, but now it just might be a blessing in disguise.

Who ever Carrie's supposed brother was, he didn't live in Chamberlain. If Carrie went to live with him, she would never have to see Chris Hargensen or Sue Snell or any other person who was ever mean to her again. Carrie could leave them all behind, and if she went somewhere else where they didn't know her, she could start over. And who ever this brother of hers is, maybe he won't be like mama; maybe he won't hurt her. A warm feeling of hope appeared. Carrie sighed. Of course, this only matters if she was related to this person that was coming. Carrie checked her watch. 1:30 Already? The plane should be coming any minute. Carrie got up from her bench and walked back to the group home.