Chapter Text
I know what I did was wrong.
Make no mistake I wouldn’t ever take it back. I did what I had to do to live. I had a family to protect. Every con I ran in the beginning was for Jason’s family. You probably have never heard of Jason. He was a sweet boy with mischievous hazel eyes a smile that melted hearts.
Jason’s tale actually begins on October 9, 1981. It’s not his own birthday, no, this is the day his little brother was born. A tiny, pink, squirming, screaming, brother. As soon as Jason first held that seven pound ten ounce bundle of deep brown eyes and honey colored hair, he knew he would do anything for his baby brother. He would sail seas and move mountains to please his brother. His parents named him Spencer William Reid. Their household was never the same again.
Spencer had these eyes, they were a perfect chocolate color and looked as if he understood everything you said, even at one month old. He didn’t make noise though. He could scream and cry with the best of them, but if he was happy, he would sit and stay silent. This caused dispute, their father thought it was unnatural and something was wrong, their mother claimed he was just waiting until he had something important to say. It wasn’t until his second birthday that he finally spoke.
“Mom, can Jason read my bedtime story tonight?” there was complete silence at the dinner table. Dianne smiled her all knowing mother smile.
“Of course, Spencer,” and they both started eating again.
Later that night as Jason sat in Spencer’s bed, Alice and Wonderland open on his lap, he looked down at his brother. Those soulful brown eyes were turned on him and the small face smiled serenely.
“Why don’t you ever talk?” Jason asks.
Spencer shrugs, “I’d rather listen, I’d rather learn than talk,” He says and looks pointedly down at the book. Jason gets the hint and starts reading again.
Over the next four years Jason quickly realized that his little brother was extraordinary. He only talked when he had something important to say or ask. But Spencer knew things. He remembered everything he read and he would ask questions that their parents had trouble answering.
All through elementary school he was teased and picked on. But Jason was always there to pick up Spencer’s spirits and make him laugh.
Two weeks after Spencer’s tenth birthday their father leaves. There is never really an explanation, but he doesn’t ever come back. No letters, no calls, not even a child-support check. At age fourteen Jason has to find odd jobs around the neighborhood to get money for survival.
Two years later Spencer graduates high school. They struggle to make ends meet. At age sixteen Jason begins to pick-pocket for extra spending cash.
Another year, Spencer has a PHD now and is getting money from being published. But their mother is in Bennington and they still are tight for cash. Jason is a seventeen year old burglar.
Spencer now has two PHDs and Jason beginning to think that being a criminal is the only way he can support his family. He isn’t even eighteen yet.
On Spencer’s fifteenth birthday he gets a call from his brother. He knows that something is wrong with Jason. But he doesn’t pry because he knows when not to ask questions.
At age nineteen Jason Daniel Reid only existed on paper. From that day forward the man named Jason answered to Neal Caffrey.
That’s right. I am Jason, that is my story.
Once I became Neal Caffrey I did my best to keep Jason a secret. I still paid the Bennington bills and Spencer’s education was all funded by Jason’s bank accounts. Most of the money I made from cons was put into that account and I fixed it so when Spencer turned twenty-one he could access it. Not even Kate and Mozzie knew about it.
I knew on my twenty-seventh birthday that Peter Burke was going to catch me. I just didn’t know how much he knew. My brother was already in the BAU and I was damned if I was going to let my brother go down because his education was funded by me. So I didn’t touch Jason’s life anymore. I stopped all contact with Spencer, and didn’t visit mom.
I was constantly looking over my shoulder, waiting for someone to pop out with evidence that would ruin my brother’s happiness. I didn’t relax until Peter caught me;
And arrested Neal Caffrey.