With the gun positioned at Maeve's jugular Diane Turner screamed at FBI agent Spencer Reid, "You lied!" Although her ego allowed her to believe his words, his lips didn't lie. The kiss he returned was unconvincing, which is why she attempted to kill him, but because of their struggle over the gun was only able to hit his arm.
"I didn't, Diane, I offered you a deal and you can still take it: me for her. Let me take her place." Reid's training and experience allowed him to negotiate calmly, but internally he fought escalating desperation that made him want to lunge at the suspect holding the love of his life hostage just a few feet in front of him.
"You would do that?" she asked desperately, almost sobbing, tears streaming down her face as she continued to hold the gun on Maeve.
"Yes," he responded without hesitation.
"You would do that for her!" Diane sobbed.
"Yes," Reid replied again.
Despite the terror of the situation and her tear-filled eyes, a sudden calm crossed Maeve's face as Spencer offered his life for hers.
"Thomas Merton," Maeve said locking eyes with Spencer.
"Who's Thomas Merton?" Diane panted and pressed the gun closer to Maeve's neck.
"He knows," Maeve answered. "He knows," she repeated calmly. "He's the one thing you can never take from us." Maeve knew that Spencer loved her and that everything that had just transpired was his attempt to save her life. She also believed there could be only two outcomes if Spencer gave himself up for her. In only one she would die, but in both Spencer would. She knew that the only way to guarantee his survival was to give her life for his.
Realizing that she would not get what she wanted Diane immediately raised her weapon, "No," she declared, aiming the gun at her own head, side-by-side with Maeve's.
"Wait!" Reid cried out as Diane pulled the trigger, killing herself and Maeve.
Spencer Reid's fellow agents of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, Alex Blake, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Derek Morgan, and David Rossi, looked on in horror. Equally horrified, their leader Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner felt a sudden painfully deep empathy for Reid so strong that it was as if he had been stabbed in the chest. It had only been three years since the George "The Reaper" Foyet murdered his wife Haley. They all lowered their weapons, but frozen in the shock of the scene before them they did not move.
Reid collapsed to the floor, shattered. He started to move forward on his knees towards Maeve's body, but stopped a foot away from her legs, weeping inconsolably. Aaron Hotchner stepped forward behind Reid and placed his hand comfortingly on the younger man's shoulder. His own voice edged with emotion Hotch said softly, "Go ahead, Reid."
The others gathered close as Reid knelt next to Maeve's body, reached out and lifted her right hand, encircling her slim wrist in his long fingers. Her skin was still warm as Reid pressed his fingers into her ulnar artery. As expected, she had no pulse. Reid continued to hold her hand and weep silently. He couldn't bear to look at her lifeless face with her head surrounded by a growing halo of her own blood and that of her murderer.
It was only minutes before a crowd of other agents, investigators and members of the coroner's office began to fill the room. Reid was oblivious to their presence, but his BAU colleagues knew that they had to allow the others to do their work. Hotchner nodded at JJ and Rossi, who stood closest to Reid.
JJ got down beside Reid, gently touched his shoulder above the wound on his arm and whispered, "Spence, we have to go now."
He turned to JJ, who had always been like a sister to him, his eyes shimmering and his face wet with tears, and in a barely audible rasp said, "I can't."
JJ glanced up at Rossi who immediately knelt down and took Reid's and Maeve's hands between his. In a quiet, fatherly tone he said, "Reid, you have to go, but I'll stay here with her, OK? You need to go out now." Gently he separated Reid's hand from Maeve's. Hotch stepped in and helped JJ lift Reid, who did not resist, to his feet.
Rossi stayed behind with the investigators while the other members of the BAU team ushered Reid out to the ambulance that had been waiting for him. Hotchner directed the others to give their reports of the incident, and stayed with Reid while a paramedic assessed the gunshot wound to Reid's left deltoid.
Due to a combination of the cold night air and the physical and emotional trauma Reid began to shiver violently. The paramedic retrieved a wool blanket from inside the ambulance and draped it over Reid's shoulders.
"I'm OK. I'm OK. I'm OK, " Reid repeated through his chattering teeth. His mind was racing, he couldn't concentrate, and his head was beginning to throb in rhythm with his pounding heart. Suddenly he pitched forward and vomited on the dark pavement behind the ambulance. Mortified, he turned away from Hotch and started to walk away, but was too exhausted, disoriented and anxious to go further than the other side of the ambulance. The paramedic started after him, but Hotch raised his hand motioning for him to stop and told him he'd bring Reid back. Still trembling Reid stood on the sidewalk facing away from the scene clutching the old wool blanket while he choked back sobs and tears streamed down his face.
Hotch moved in front of Reid and grasped Reid's shoulders as he said, "Reid, listen to me. I know you know that you are experiencing completely normal reactions for the victim of a very violent crime." Reid looked up and made eye contact with Hotch listening intently as he continued, "I also know that it is much different to know that and to process it intellectually as a professional than to be…" he paused briefly so his own voice wouldn't break,"…the victim of this kind of crime." Aaron Hotchner was often perceived to be reticent, some would even say cold and distant, but this case struck him so close to his own experience and with someone for whom he felt a personal, filial, responsibility that he could not just wait to allow the others to say the things that needed to be said. "Now, please, come back and sit down," he finished and directed Reid back to the open rear of the ambulance.
Of the others it was JJ who returned to Hotch and Reid first, her face etched with sorrow and concern for her colleague and friend as she watched the paramedic wrap gauze bandage tightly around Reid's upper left arm. As Hotchner walked away to give his statement JJ stood in front of Reid, who continued to shiver. When the paramedic stepped away to retrieve an IV kit, JJ reached down and pulled the blanket together in front of him, a practical and caring gesture. Reid leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her, seeking the comfort of physical contact that he learned to value more after his abduction, subsequent drug addiction and recovery, and the tragic (though temporary) loss of Agent Emily Prentiss. In her embrace Reid's shivering became less violent, but once again he began to weep and JJ hugged him tighter and willed herself not to cry too.
"Excuse me, but I need to set up this IV, and we need to get him to the hospital. A surgeon needs to close that," the paramedic said motioning towards Reid's arm. Blood had already started to seep through the bandage.
Reid and JJ broke their embrace and JJ helped Reid climb up into the back of the ambulance. As the paramedics set up the IV, pulse oximetry, and cardiac monitoring JJ stayed with him in the ambulance.
Just as the paramedics were getting ready to close the back doors of the ambulance Hotch, Blake, and Morgan approached. JJ got up to go talk to them and Reid reached up and grasped her arm. "Please don't leave me," he whispered.
She reached down and squeezed his hand, "We won't, Spence, I promise." JJ asked the paramedics to wait just a few minutes, so she could talk to the others.
At the back of the ambulance JJ told Hotch, Blake and Morgan that Reid's gunshot wound was more than just a graze and required surgical closure. They said the investigators wanted to talk to Reid, but Hotch put them off saying he was in shock and therefore in no condition to give a statement.
"Stay with him," Hotch said to JJ. She nodded and climbed back into the ambulance.