Passing
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
They never talk about Elle.
Reid noticed it first. He's ninety-five percent sure that the others have too—they're all profilers, after all; it's their job to notice—but they never talk about Elle Greenaway. They didn't talk about her in the quiet moments after she left, they didn't talk about her as Emily came in and gradually took her place, and they don't talk about her now that Emily's gone too.
It's strange. They'll talk about Gideon [even though he left three years and eight months ago], sometimes to marvel at his brilliance, more often to ponder his reasons. They'll talk about J.J., whom they all still go out of their way to see when their free hours, precious as they are, line up perfectly. They'll talk about Emily, whose death has left something inhumanly raw in its wake, whose absence reminds them all that they've lost yet another beloved family member. And now and then they'll even talk about Jordan Todd, who was only there during J.J.'s maternity leave. [It's mostly Morgan who brings her up in conversation; they've struck up a friendship of sorts by now.]
But they never talk about Elle, and Reid can't tell whether it's because they still can't understand why she did what she did, or whether it's because deep down inside, they've always understood all too well.