Spencer knew that in this job, you had good days and you had bad days. Today had been the worst day. The sound of the gunshots and Hotch's broken sob as they'd been fired, still rang in his ears. They'd all heard it, the broken goodbye, the last moments of Haley Hotchner's life. She'd died at the hands of George Foyet, the Reaper, a serial killer who they'd been after for years, who'd always stayed one step ahead of them, until today. He'd waited on them, on Hotch, after killing Haley. He'd assumed Hotch would be too devastated to fight back, he was wrong. Hotch had beaten him to death with his bare hands.

A shooting pain through his hand, brought him back to the present. He was in his car, on his way home, and had been gripping the wheel so tight his knuckles had turned white and seized up. They'd gotten Hotch and his son Jack to Hotch's apartment and stayed for a long time, Derek and Rossi had still been there when he'd left. Spencer just wanted to get home, to see Elizabeth, he knew she was fine, but after Haley… he just needed to see her, to hold her close. It had been over a year now since she'd come into his life, and sometimes it still seemed too good to be true. The light ahead turned yellow and he tapped the brakes, he'd been going well over the speed limit, in and out of traffic in his haste to get home. If it hadn't been for the knee injury and the cane, he would have practically ran from the car.

"Liz!" he called, dropping his bag and keys to the floor, not really caring where they hit. "Liz!" he called again.

She came around the corner from the direction of the bedrooms, and he quickly took her in his arms, holding her, stroking her hair. Her arms wrapped around him, and he felt the first bit of release he had all day.

"Spence, what's wrong?" she asked, sounding panicked, making him realize the anxiety that was coming off of him in waves.

He led her over to the couch, and sat down, bringing her down beside him.

"Haley was shot and killed by Foyet today."

"Haley.." her face was blank for a moment, then recognition flooded her features, "Hotch's ex wife? Is Jack…"

"Jack is fine he was hiding in Hotch's office."

"Thank god," she said, reaching out and covering Spencer's hand with her own. "Poor Hotch, I can't imagine what he's going through,"

"Rossi and Derek are with him now, I wish there was more we could do, but this isn't something you can just bounce back from."

Liz wrapped her arms around him again, resting her head against his chest.

*POV CHANGE*

Liz sat her laptop down on the bed in front of her, typing in the address of one of those people search sites in the bar. She knew it wouldn't do any good, he wouldn't be that easy to find, but she was desperate and extremely worried. Spencer's teammates had become like family to her in the past year, she was worried about Hotch, and Spencer had been through so much, she knew someone who could help. She typed the name in the bar, she had no address or anything, so she had a ton of results to sift through. As she scrolled, her mind focused on Spencer, she'd almost lost him again, this time to an anthrax attack, he'd been shot in the leg, and then there had been Riley Jenkins, the boy in the dreams that had haunted him, he'd thought his father had killed him. He'd been wrong but the situation had left him a changed person.

She shut her computer, her search unsuccessful. The next morning she knocked on Garcia's office door, who opened it without any of her normal quips, gave Liz a small smile and quick hug. Haley's death had affected everybody.

They talked for a couple minutes before Liz got to the point of her visit.

"I need your help finding someone." she said.

"Easy, peasy, who am I looking for?"

"Jason Gideon"

"That may not be so easy. Why are you looking for him?"

"I think he should know about Haley."

Garcia booted her computer up, "This isn't just about Haley and you know it."

"No, it's not, he won't open up, and I'm worried, Gideon is the only person I know he'll talk to."

Garcia was typing rapidly. "It's like he's dropped off the face of the planet, you can't just drop off the face of the planet, not my planet anyways."

"He was in the FBI, unfortunately he knows how to disappear."

She was still typing fervently. "Ha! Guess who renewed their license three months ago?" she said writing an address down on a notepad.

"Garcia, you are amazing," she said grabbing the paper, the address was near Washington D.C. and Liz knew she could be there in a couple hours. "I'm going,"

The house was small, and a car was out front which gave her hope. She parked on the side of the street and as she headed up the walk, she saw a discrete movement at the curtain. She knocked and waited, the person who answered was not Jason Gideon.