He noticed the fear first. First thing as his eyes traveled across the office, so much more relaxed and seemingly...normal looking than before at their last meeting. So much like the man he had been years ago albeit with a bit more age to his eyes. Casually looking against Spencer's wide brown ones, somehow feeling a good tug of guilt against his gut. He would really need to apologize for earlier, the words already formed silently against his head even while the man offered the other a tired, weary humored kind of smile. The kind he might've given long ago, the kind the younger profiler may have seen during that trip to the muesume the two had shared all that time back.
In all honesty it wasn't hard for Gideon to profile Spencer right then and there. Already and still so very good at it; noting the color choices of wardrobe after a glance, the nervous edge and the obvious hole of grief in the air. If it was a shock for Reid, well, that would have been the last thing Gideon had meant for. Another tug of guilt, more at his short-sightedness; the intention of losing his name almost just to avoid this sort of situation.
"Hey, Spencer." Still in that tired sort of voice, the smile remaining all the same. Speaking more as if the man he was, as if to an old friend. The irony not lost against his own eyes. "Well...you've got a nice office. I hear you're still working at the BAU too." Pride. Well...he couldn't help that much.
He found himself, after recovering from the first break down, to be unbelievably proud...and yet. At the same time returning to reality with a very bitter taste in his mouth. His own delusions taking him by the throttle; him struggling to understand every day. It was true any other man with so much less knowledge would probably be lost completely--but somehow this gave him very little comfort. Ashamed and above all else deeply frustrated. Spending as much time as he could on his own, pacing across the halls for some sense of small clarity. Of forgiveness or sense or something...riddled in memories and struggle and the reality around him to show how lost he really was. Because it was just as Reid had thought himself; this was not the natural order of things. He was not supposed to come to Reid and offer him more burdens along his path--it was supposed to be Reid who turned to him. And he, whether now or in the past or future, he was supposed to be the one to look out for him. Leave him with at least that much to hold onto; and look where things had landed the both of them. Something Gideon was unwilling to a very large extent to accept. Unwilling to pull onto one of the very few people he still cared for.
Right now all casual warmth and hoping on some kind of sense of normality they once shared. Finding himself the one to ease the tension, as had always been, should always be; to maybe give Reid a chance to gather his thoughts and collect away from all those fears the man was sure he was feeling.
Maybe at least for now--he could give Reid that much. At the very least that much to keep onto.