Derek stopped in front of the wall that held all the pictures of their comrades who had fallen in the line of duty. Recently, it had been Emily's picture up there, staring at him in reproach. Her picture had gone up within hours of her 'death'. And yet, here it was, one week after Erin had left them, and still her picture was not up on that damnable wall. Reaching out, he touched the empty space where she should be staring out at him from, and he curled his hand into a fist. It was hard not to punch the wall, not to give in to his anger.
He felt someone come up behind him, and he turned to see Reid. It looked like he hadn't slept much in the week since her funeral, in the week they had found that they couldn't move on without her. She had been more like a mother to their team than he had realized, and it hurt to know that she was gone. "She's not coming back, Derek. She really died."
"I know, I know. I just don't know why her picture isn't here yet."
A soft cough had them both looking over at Rossi. Derek felt his lips purse a little as he looked at the man. There was something about his grief that didn't feel right to him, and he narrowed his eyes. "She didn't want to be remembered that way. And I don't think we could bear walking past her picture every day, thinking about how we failed her."
"I suppose. Did you keep her chip?" Reid cocked his head to the side imperceptibly, something Derek knew he did when he was profiling someone.
"No, I let her children bury it with her." He looked down and to the left, which Derek knew was one of his tells, and the hackles on the back of his neck suddenly stood at attention. "At least, at least she'll have some closure, once the bones are identified as his."
They both nodded in tandem. "Well, I have some work to catch up on," Derek replied tonelessly, quirking one eyebrow at Reid, hoping he would get the message. The tiny dip of his chin told him that he did, and so Derek turned on his heel and made his way over to his office. Heavily, he sat behind his desk and buried his face in his hand.
"She's alive."
He looked up into Reid's brown eyes, noticing the sad look there. "I know, kid. I could tell just by the way he reacted. But I'll bet you dollars to donuts that her picture will be up there tomorrow." Reid nodded as he took a seat in the chair in front of his desk. "So, where do we go from here? I mean, Baby Girl is nearly inconsolable. She thinks it was her fault that she didn't catch that monster before he had hurt us again. I guess Erin was confiding in her, telling her a little bit about her struggle, and that really humanized her to Penelope."
Reid sighed. "At least Rossi gets the opportunity to see the love of his life once more. Now Maeve is becoming the ghost of a memory to me." His lips turned down in a frown and Derek reached across the desk, holding out his hand. It didn't take long for Reid to clasp it, letting the tears fall. "I still miss her, Derek. So much."
"Curtis stole a lot of precious things from us. We need to avenge her and make everything right. And that includes bringing Erin Strauss home." Reid nodded and squeezed his hand, a tiny smile flickering across his face. "Let's go check out her office. Maybe we can get some clues from there."
"They haven't packed it up already?" his friend asked in surprise.
"No. I thought I heard Rossi mention something about her kids coming by next week to do it." Standing, he went over to his door. "Coming, kid?"
"Right behind you, Morgan." Together, they went over to where Strauss's office was, peeking in the door. The outer office was already stripped bare of any personalization, and Derek frowned a little. "I thought you said…"
"It wasn't like this yesterday." As he watched, a thin, mousy, woman bustled out of Erin's inner sanctum. "Excuse me, what's going on here? Agent Rossi told me that Chief Strauss's children were planning on taking care of her office sometime next week."
The woman set her box aside and looked up at him. "Agent Morgan. I'm glad you're here. Erin left behind some things that she wanted you to have. And you're Dr. Reid, right?" He nodded. "Good, there's something here for you, too."
"I'm sorry, but who are you again?"
"Oh, sorry, I'd forgotten that no one here knows me. I'm Eleanor Prince. Your Director asked me to take care of things here, since that's what I'm good at." She smiled at them before sashaying back inside Erin's office.
Derek followed her, not really trusting her to be alone in that private space. A lot of the personal touches that had made the room Erin's were already missing. Her diplomas were off the wall, the pictures of her family missing from the shelves. "Where's her tree?"
"The bonsai? Agent Rossi wanted that, so I gave it to him. I figured it would help him deal with being separated from her." There was something about the way that she said those words that further cemented Derek's resolve to find out what was happening in the situation. "So, just give me one more second here."
Reid joined him, standing close as Eleanor dug through the boxes, obviously looking for something she felt was important. "Do you need any help?" the younger man asked and she shook her head vigorously. "Are you sure you know what you're looking for?"
"Yes, Dr. Reid." Her voice was sharp and Reid made a face at her back. "See, here they are!" She held out two legal sized envelopes towards them. "This is what she wanted you to have," she said softly, her face relaxing into a sad expression.
"Thanks," Derek said gruffly as he took the envelopes, turning on his heel. "Come on, Reid." Together, they left Erin's office and he stalked back over to his own office, plopping down in his chair and leaning back to look at the ceiling.
"Are you going to open your package from Strauss?" Reid asked as he took a seat, slipping his finger beneath the seal and starting to open it.
"I suppose." He pulled out his knife and made quick work of the seal. Blowing into the envelope, he held it open and pulled out two pieces of paper. Her delicate, beautiful, writing stared up at him and he sighed, wishing she was in the room, reading her letter to him. "I got a letter."
"I got a key."
"Really? To what?" He looked up from the paper, and saw Reid holding up a shiny silver key.
"I have no idea. She didn't leave me any sort of explanation. This is really weird, Morgan. Even for her. Do you think she came back here, after she 'died' and set this up for us, do you?"
"Reid, we aren't even sure if she did survive. All we have to go on is the fact that we think something is up due to the fact that her picture isn't on the wall and Rossi is acting really suspicious. This could all be a wild goose chase."
"But after Emily, we have to explore every option. We're not going to let them lie to us anymore. That wouldn't be fair to us or to her and her memory." The ferocity with which Reid spoke startled him and he nodded slightly, once more reaching out and patting his hand. "We have to get to the bottom of this."
"And we will. I promise you that." Reid nodded once and then reached out to clasp his hand. "Reid?"
"We're making a solemn oath. Neither of us rest until we find out the truth of what happened to Erin Elizabeth Strauss." Derek nodded and then shook his hand firmly. "Until we find the truth."
"So say we all."