Puzzle Pieces

by Spense

Usual disclaimers apply - don't own, don't sue.

Chapter One

Dr. Spencer Reid grimaced as he checked his watch. It was early Tuesday morning following the long Labor Day weekend. He'd spent the long holiday weekend out at Jason Gideon's cabin in the woods of Virginia. Well, not Gideon's anymore. It was Reid's now, and had been for awhile.

After Gideon has so precipitously left the BAU, and the only explanation was a letter addressed to Reid, nobody had heard from him again. Or so they thought. But Reid had had one more piece of correspondence from Gideon. This was in the form of a deed for the land and the cabin that sat on it, which had been legally filed to change ownership to Dr. Spencer Reid, and sent to Reid's own attorney. No letter, no explanation, nothing. Just that Reid now owned property. Property that held strong memories and ghosts.

Reid hadn't told anybody. He hadn't even wanted to think about it for the longest time. It wasn't until he started playing chess again that he decided he'd better come out to see the place, make sure that the caretaker was checking on things, and . . . lay the ghosts to rest. In fact, he found that he had enjoyed it. There were no ghosts, just a quiet retreat.

Now, whenever possible, he came out here, adding personal touches and making the place his. And it was truly his now – not Gideon's. Reid's books, and all his clothes. The simple log furniture he picked out. The stained glass lamps that cast a soft glow. His favorite pictures and books that he'd brought out to the new refuge. Reid had grown to love it for the retreat it was, not for the haunting reminder of Gideon. Gideon no longer haunted the place – it was Reid's living retreat.

He wasn't sure why he didn't tell anybody, but he really didn't feel that he needed to explain. He'd grown a lot as a person in the past years, and although the team didn't seem to get it, others did. His sponsor to Narcotics Anonymous, the head of the FBI, certainly did. And after some concern, he had realized that this was not a retreat for Reid to 'use', but rather a retreat from the tough work they all did.

Needless to say, it had been a great weekend – quiet and revitalizing, but he'd better hustle now, or he'd be late for the briefing and that would not be good. The team still tended to call out the cavalry when he did something out of the ordinary.

Locking up, he hurried down the fieldstone steps, and hopped into his ancient car. If he hurried, he could just make it.

It seemed like everybody was running late this morning. The first day following a three day weekend made this no real surprise, but still. Reid also wasn't used to driving in, unusually he took the metro. But Reid had left way too late from the cabin to drop the car at home, so he'd just have to fight traffic tonight. He generally avoided that at all costs. The metro gave him no stress and lots of time to think. But not today.

The crowd was heavier getting into the building and through security as well. Barney, the long time security guard at the entrance he used didn't even have time to greet people by name the way he normally did. He just processed them through quickly in order to not get too backlogged.

Reid hustled across the lobby and waited with the mob at the elevators. By the time he got on, he was finding the atmosphere odd as well. Everybody seemed subdued. He wasn't sure why, considering they'd had a great, bright, sunny, three day weekend. But then he caught a fragment of quiet conversation from the back of the elevator.

" . . . Who?"

"Don't know. All I know is that we lost an agent this weekend."

"What department?"

"Don't know."

Well, that would account for the mood, Reid thought. The news about losing an agent tended to move with lightening fast accuracy around the building, while the details took awhile to be officially released. If it wasn't in one's own department, the location and name could take awhile.

His stomach tightening, Reid fished out his phone and checked for messages. Surely somebody would have called him if it had been one of their team . . . He noted with relief that there were no messages. Good. It wasn't one of the BAU. But still, the loss of any agent wasn't good.

Lost in his thoughts, he almost missed stepping on of his floor. Blinking, he realized that the full elevator had moved on, and that his floor was a morgue. There seemed to be nobody moving in the normally busy hallways. There was always support staff moving about, agents hustling from place to place, but instead, the place was empty.

"Huh." Reid looked around bemused, shrugged, and walked into the empty BAU offices. Stopping just inside the door, he looked around, and saw nobody. There were signs of life. The computers were on at both Derek's and Emily's desks, as well as multiple half empty coffee cups, and the lights were on in Hotch's and Rossi's offices, but again, even the support staff was gone. The rest of the office look like a bomb had hit it. More half consumed cups of coffee were on desks, paper and files littered the floor and every desk in sight, and file boxes were open and discarded all over the place. It looked like an emergency had taken place. Why hadn't they called him? He felt like he was in the Twilight Zone.

Looking up, he could see silhouettes of shapes in the BAU conference room. It looked like everybody was there. Humming the Twilight Zone theme under his breath, and still more bemused than worried, Reid headed up the steps to the conference room. The crash of glass breaking behind him made him spin around, his messenger bag bumping his back with the force of his spin.

Darlene, Strauss's assistant was staring at him, her face white. At her feet, a shattered coffee pot. Reid blinked in surprise. He hadn't even heard her come in behind him. Whatever was going on seemed to be important, so he just gave her a tight smile and a half wave and slipped quietly into the BAU room.

The room was absolutely packed with bodies. Far more than was normal for the 10am briefing. This looked like everybody associated with the BAU department. The normal suspects, the BAU team its self, were in their normal places at the table. But ranged around and in every available space, were representatives of other teams, Anderson and the rest of the support staff, all the technical and document analysts that worked with them, and many other familiar faces that supported the team.

Standing on his tiptoes, Reid could just see between the shoulders of what appeared to be two giant security officers. From his limited vantage point, Reid could see Hotch and Erin Strauss at the front. They appeared to be just wrapping up their remarks, as everybody began to gather their notepads, pens, tablet computers and phones.

Reid put his head down, and maneuvered through the chaos of larger bodies with the ease of long practice. Having entered high school at age 12, and college at age 14, and not attaining his full height until many years past that made him a pro at getting where he needed to be, and not getting stomped on doing it.

Knowing that he would have to explain his tardiness, together with the unusual intensity and vibe around the room, Spencer felt the knot in his stomach grow. Bad enough to be late, but something was very clearly wrong. Fighting his way to the table, where the BAU team was still seated, and intently talking, Spencer finally managed to push his was to the group.

"Ah, guys? What's going on?"

The response to his simple question was so dramatic to be almost funny. Garcia spun to look at him, dressed even more flamboyantly than usual (something had really upset her, Spencer thought absently. Adding color and accessories was Penelope's way of dealing with chaos), paused for a second, her eyes huge, then screamed.

Reid blinked and stepped back in surprise. The sound was loud, and Garcia's hand was up over her heart in shock, the other covering her mouth, her eyes even bigger than usual as she stared. Reid looked over his shoulder, his heart racing in alarm, wondering what the problem was. Not seeing anything behind him, and more confused than ever, Reid looked tentatively back. Gut reaction was to fade into the woodwork in order to be 'safe', but this was the FBI headquarters and the BAU. He was safer here than anywhere on earth. What was happening?

Heads turned all over the room. Hotch, Rossi and Strauss looked up from the documents they'd been looking at in alarm.

Nearer to Reid, Morgan had leapt to his feet. "What the hell?" He came charging over to Reid, causing him to take another cautious step back at the sight of the big man bearing down on him. He never been afraid of Morgan, but this was a new side of Morgan, from the steely look in his eye.

As Reid stumbled over a chair, Morgan grabbed him hard by the shoulders. "What . . .? How . . .? Not funny!" Morgan finally stopped yelling and just shook the smaller man, then gave him a tight hug, then shook him again.

Spencer's head was spinning by the time JJ's calm voice enticed Morgan to let him go. JJ put a hand on Reid's arm, tears streaming down her face, as Rossi and Prentiss drew Morgan away. Now Reid was scared. "JJ . . . ? Are you okay?"

She just nodded, and wiped her eyes, smiling. "I'm fine, Spence, really. But are you okay?"

Strauss and Hotch had managed to clear the room of all but the team, and were staring at him with the same shocked look that was on everybody else's face.

Reid looked around, now well and truly freaked out. "Ah, I'm fine. But you guys are scaring me," he finished plaintively.

Morgan exploded. "WE'RE scaring YOU?" He was looking around for something to hit. The look on his face caused Reid to step back again.

"Everybody! Sit. Down." Hotch commanded sharply. The tone of voice worked. Everybody moved back to the table except Reid.

"I'll be right back. I need some coffee," Reid said tentatively, edging for the door.

Rossi sighed and got in a word before Morgan could explode. "Kid, just do us a favor. Sit."

"Ah, okay." Reid slipped out of his messenger back and sat, carefully making sure he had a quick escape. He'd decided that everybody had completely lost their mind. Garcia was still staring at him, her expression of shock not changed by one bit. He smiled tentatively at her.

"Reid," Hotch said sternly, "Where have you been?"

Reid looked at the team leader, startled. "At my cabin."

Rossi's eyebrows lifted. "You cabin? What cabin?"

"All weekend?" Hotch asked expectantly.

"Ah, yeah." Reid's eyes flitted across the team. "Gideon left me his cabin. I often go there on weekends."

"Ah, geez," Morgan groaned, shaking his head.

Prentiss just was slack-jawed in disbelief. "Since when?"

Hotch cut through all the reactions. "You're saying that Jason Gideon had left you his cabin, and you've been going there. And that you were there all weekend."

The seriousness in his voice scared Reid. "Yes, Sir." Something was really wrong, and it was serious. It sounded like Hotch was trying to nail down a timeline. He wondered what he was going to be accused of. Whatever it was, he didn't have an alibi. He'd been by himself all three days.

"When did you leave?"

"Friday, right after work."

"Have you been home to your apartment since then?" Hotch asked.

"No, Sir. I left the cabin this morning and drove straight here."

"Good Lord," Rossi muttered, almost under his breath, as Hotch and Strauss exchanged glances.

By this time, Reid was too intimidated to even ask what was going on.

"Reid," Hotch began again after taking a deep breath, clearly steeling himself. When he spoke, his voice was gentler. "Your apartment building exploded at 1:20am Saturday morning. It burned to the ground. There was a body found in your unit. The assumption was that it was you. The build was right. DNA tests are to be concluded later this week, but it was just considered a formality."

Reid looked at him in stunned silence. After a moment, he began, "You mean . . . ?"

Morgan answered the unspoken question. "Yeah, kid. You've been dead since Saturday morning."