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The team was all standing around the body, they couldn't believe what they saw. The crime scene coroner draped the sheet over the body. Everyone stood there peering down in disbelief. Reid came in last, dreading what he was going to see. Morgan walked Garcia in after Reid entered.
"Are you sure?" Garcia asked Hotch, her eyes tearing up.
"It's Gideon," Hotch told her. Reid turned and walked out the door, his eyes filling with tears, Mae followed after him to make sure he was alright. Reid looked at her and a tear fell down his cheek. Mae didn't say anything, she just pulled him into a tight hug.
Rossi watched the coroners wheel the body out of the cabin. Reid stared at the ground as they wheeled the body into the van, Mae stood next to him and he clutched her hand tightly. She could hear Hotch talking to someone on the phone but she couldn't make out exactly what he was saying.
JJ and Mae looked around the cabin, looking for clues.
"So you guys hadn't seen Gideon in 8 years? He didn't say goodbye or anything?" Mae asked.
"He left Spence a letter," JJ said, "the way to love him was to let him be," she said.
"Sounds intense," Mae commented.
"More like passionate," JJ corrected her.
"He has that reputation, I guess that's what it takes to be one of the godfathers of the BAU," Mae said.
"Yeah he was a legend," JJ agreed.
"I was excited, he was teaching this class and I signed up. But he only lectured twice," Mae said.
"Because he found the footpath killer and came back to the unit," JJ told her. "There was always a method to his madness, maybe because he followed his heart."
"So he retired and got into these birds?" Mae asked.
"Well birds have always been his thing, I'm not sure why," JJ said.
Mae walked into the room where Garcia had set up.
"That's the slowest I've ever seen you type," Mae commented.
"Snooping into Gideon's spending habits makes me feel like a creep," Garcia said.
"Yeah, well try looking through his bedroom," JJ said when she walked into the room.
"You win," Garcia said.
"There was newspaper, a few days worth of clothes, and hotel soaps," JJ told them.
"He always did that! He's collect them and put, like, money and gum and make these little bags and keep them in his car, give them to the homeless," Garcia said proudly.
"Tells us he's been traveling," Mae commented.
"A lot, according to his plastic, mainly down the east coast," Garcia said.
