Criminal Minds Goodbye halcyon days

**Goodbye halcyon days**

**Chapter 1**. The twilight cookie

**Summary:** After the death of Riley Jenkins, the Reid's family decided to move on in order to protect their little son, Spencer. Their new neighbors, the James, became a huge support for Diana and his son –Specially Aimee James. *Sets in season 1 and goes on [re-writing some chapters of CM] / Fluff with some suspense/drama – Reid/OC*

**Cast:** Aimee James [Danielle Panabaker]; Joseph James [Hugh Dancy]; Lara James [Diane Keaton]

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"**Beauty is in the heart of the beholder.**" _H. _

[_REID IS 6; JOSEPH IS 11; AIMEE IS 4_]

When the car stopped, Spencer couldn't wait to go out and see the new home. "Wait a second, Spencer." William Reid, his father, said to him, authoritarian. "First I'll check if it's the right house." When his father went out of the car, her mother, Diana Reid, turned back to see him. She was smiling to him, tenderly. All the worries he had seen reflected in her face weeks ago were fading away, replacing them for an expression of calm and peace.

"Our new home, Spencer." She sighed, a weary sound. They could hear William calling them from the entrance of the house. "Let's go, little man, the new adventure stars now." He took his packed bag –mostly full of books and his notes about impossible math's equations and jumped out of the car, looking up to see the whole house –it was old and the façade was covered by a lot of plants. He furrowed his brow; it wasn't what he expected to be.

As he thought, his bedroom was the smallest –his parents had the biggest and William needed a big room to work at home. The first thing Spencer did was looking through the window, he could see the house of their new neighbors –he hoped for having _mute_ neighbors, or at least not loudly persons, and prayed for a _none-existence-dog_, he hated them and the dogs hated him. Mutual hate was okay for him if that meant not having one too much closer.

Forgetting his wishes, Spencer turned back to unpack his little bag. The rest of his belonging –mostly clothes and, definitely, more books, had been packed in boxes and the moving company will bring them at the end of the afternoon. So he hadn't too much work for now, his books were already placed in the old bookcase and he achieved his notes in one of the drawer of the desk.

With the idea of helping his mother with the move, Spencer bolted down the stairs but before walked in the living room someone knocked the door. He stood up, looking at the main door of the house, confused. They didn't expect visits, _in fact_, they never expected them because no one ever wanted to drop by. In a blink of an eye, his mother was next to him ready to open the door. He saw her hand shaking in fear, her eyes flew open, horrified, and Spencer could hear her murmuring _it can't be possible, he can't find us, he doesn't even know_ over and over again before opened the door.

The door swung open, both of them, mother and son, couldn't hide their surprise –instead of the threat Diana expected, a middle-age woman stood there, dressed in a pink flowered dress, she was holding a lemon pie while smiling like today was the best day of her entire life. Her red hair was perfectly curled –not like Spencer's mother, Diana had abandoned herself long time ago and her long blonde hair looked _uncared_. "Hi!" She said, her lips parted to talk without fading the smile of her face –they're too much red to look natural. "Hi, family." She repeated in a noisy high voice. "I'm Lara James." For seconds, Spencer feared his mother would slam the door in front of her nose… But nothing happened –for his disappointment. "And these are my lovely children…"

Behind the woman there were two kids as Spencer could see. The older one was a boy -maybe he was at his ten, more or less; he had curly dark hair and got his mother's eyes –big, green, and deeper. Fortunately, he wasn't too much interested in his new neighbors –the boy was looking a leaf he had taken from the street, Spencer found it weird the way he concentrated in that object –he seemed captivated by the yellow color mixed a little bit with brown and green, his fingers touched the texture analyzing it, finding a lot of imperfection the mother nature had created in that leaf. "This is Joseph." Lara said, pointing at her son. "He's-He's really special. Say _Hi_ to our new neighbors, Joseph." But the boy ignored his mother. "He's shy." She excused, and her smiled turned bigger. "I brought you a lemon pie to welcome you." Then she extended the plate to them, excited.

"I'm allergic." Diana said, without thinking twice. That woman was giving her headache.

"You're allergic to lemons?" Lara asked, confused, taking back the pie. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know!" She smiled, nervous. "I asked Bob about the new family who was going to move on but… But he didn't say anything about your allergic. I'm really sorry! I'll make you my special chocolate cake!" As the excitement returned at her face, her eyes shined with something Spencer described as _madness_. "You'll love it!"

There was another kid, though, but her mother had no intention to introduce her. It was a little girl, who was next to her mother. She was grabbing her dress in a search for attention, but the woman was too much excited about the idea of making friends –Diana looked horrified by her presence. The little girl was fair-haired, she was wearing her hair in a two lovely burns, and had hazel eyes –no one could ever say Joseph and she were actually brother and sister, they looked too much different.

"What's your name, by the way?" Lara said, curios. "I'm Lara-_**Oh**_! I actually said that, right?" And she giggled –like a stupid seal, as Diana thought instantly. "Oh, hi!" William walked in at the hall to see what was going on, he blinked, confused, when saw the situation. "I'm Lara James, your new neighbor." She introduced herself again –for the third time. "I'm afraid my husband was indisposed to come to say _hello_, I'm sorry."

"Nice to meet you, Lara, I'm William Reid and they're my family… My wife, Diana Reid, and my little boy, Spencer." Diana clicked her tongue, disgusted, and she walked out feeling exhausted. Even he didn't want to be there, Spencer stood up looking at his new neighbors, fascinated. There was something really wrong in that family and he wanted to _know _what was. "Oh, did you do this?" He said, looking at the pie. Lara giggled and nodded happily.

"I'm sorry your wife is allergic to lemons." William blinked, confused by her words, but couldn't say anything about it. "Oh, ah, these are my children by the way." She said pointing at Joseph first and then to the little girl. "Joseph James, my little genius." She caressed his head, messing his hair. "He has an IQ of 170."

"Really?" William said, with a proud smile in his face. "Spence has an IQ of 187." Lara made a face, looking at the little boy behind his father. She was clearly disgusted about it. "And who's this lovely girl?" He asked, bending down to see her. "Look at those pretty eyes…" Her cheeks blushed and tried to cover her face with her mother's dress. "She's adorable."

"Her name is Aimee." Lara said, not adding this time any information about her IQ. "I'm sorry but I have—I have stuff to do at home." She smiled at William, shyly. "Taste the pie, it's really good… I really hope you like it." She flipped with her flowered dress and instantly her children followed her like little ducks follow their mother duck.

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[_REID IS 23; JOSEPH IS 28; AIMEE IS 21_]

He was reading the book for the fifth time –he blamed himself for not bringing more books when he knew perfectly she had the skill of being always late, when someone covered his eyes with its hands. His nose smelled an essence of fruits –strawberries, peaches, mixed with something he couldn't totally describe, recognizing immediately who was the person behind him. "What are you reading, Doc?" Without asking for it, the hands moved to the book, uncovering his eyes again. "It seems pretty boring."

"It's not." He said, complaining about it. "_The map of time_ by _Félix Palma_, it has some errors about the time traveling but the author had done a good documentation about Jack, The Ripper, and it's really interesting how he changed the story of Mary Kelly."

"Who?" She asked, landing her head to the right without caring at all.

"Mary Kelly, the last prostitute Jack The Ripper killed." The girl furrowed her brow, aghast. "I can lend you the book if you want."

"No, please." She whispered, rolling her eyes. "Never mind, Doc," A big smiled replaced the perplexed expression of her face. "I called you for a reason." There was a plenty of reasons why Aimee would have call him, but Spencer was afraid his birthday was the winner of all of them. And that wasn't something good –not coming from her. "But first, your verdict, Doc." For the first time, Spencer saw she was carrying a paper bag with her –a really little one, he couldn't think about something _that_ little to be inside. Aimee extended the bag to him with a big enthusiasm smile in her face. "I call it: The ultimate cookie of Aimee James."

Indeed, there was a cookie on the inside. He took it, afraid. "You did this?" There were some bad fixations the girl had taken from her mother, but cooking to forget the worries was the worst, without a doubt. Lara James, the mother of Aimee, was a good cooker –his palate salivated when he remembered Lara's lemon pie; but her daughter had a gift to create the most awful food in the world. "I'm not hungry right now… I'll taste it at home and I'll tell you if it's good or not."

"**Now**, Reid." She insisted, half-closing her eyes. "Joseph had asked for you lately, I told him you were pretty busy to visit him." He bit the cookie, expecting to die immediately, but what he found surprised him… it wasn't _too bad_. "Do you like it?"

"There's too much sugar… But it's not bad." Before he could react, she took the cookie back –tasting it by herself. Reid made a face –she didn't even taste it before… He was his guinea pig for sure.

"Ugh, yeah… Too much sugar… This is the _Twilight_ of the cookies."

"The _what_ of the cookies?" Reid asked, confused about the terminology.

"Nothing to care about, Doc. Believe me." She giggled, happily to know he stilled be Spencer Reid.

"What did you say about Joe? Did he ask for me?" The waitress came at that moment and Aimee ignored his question to ask for a cup of tea, he didn't want anything else but asked for a coffee when Aimee insisted.

"A tea and a coffee then." The waitress said, looking at Spencer with sweet eyes. She was looking for attention, a simple smile would be enough to encourage her to do the next step but Reid focused again on his book –ignoring what was going on. Aimee bit her lip, feeling sorry for the lovely waitress. "I'll be here in a minute."

"Thanks." Aimee smiled to her and when the waitress rushed off quickly, she leaned forward to be closer to him. "How's JJ, by the way?" She asked, mischievous, and the boy looked up forgetting the book instantly.

"What about her?" He responded with a question, nervous. Reid paused, and then added as afterthought. "There's nothing between JJ and I, I told you before." Aimee shrugged her shoulders, knowing that wasn't the entire truth. She didn't meet Jennifer before but she knew Spencer enough to say when the genius was feeling something for someone. The waitress came, cutting in their conversation, bringing the tea and the coffee. She waited five or six second before went away, hoping for a word of the boy –but at that moment, Reid was looking at his phone. "I'm sorry." He said, showing his phone to Aimee. "Work. I have to go."

"Okay." She said, like it didn't matter. Reid stood up, glancing out at her, believing there was _something wrong_ with the situation. But he hadn't time for this, not now, not when there was a case to solve. "Wait, Reid, please wait." He turned back; Aimee had gotten up from the chair. "Can you hug me, please?"

He stepped the distance in a few seconds and pulled her into a warm hug that Aimee returned. "Is everything okay?" He asked, worried.

"Yeah, it is." She said, closing her eyes to enjoy the moment before draw apart.

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**Hello! This is my 1st CM fic! Don't be bad with me3! Anyway, English is not my first language… Sorry if there's a lot of grammar mistakes DDD:**

**Reviews & feedback is welcome! ;) **


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Criminal Minds, Romance, Suspense