CHAPTER NINETY-SIX: DECISIONS MADE AND REGRETTED !

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⚠️ smut warning below!

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         CASEY HAD DECIDED TO GO INTO WORK WITHOUT SPENCER BECAUSE HE HAD TO GET HIS MOTHER ADJUSTED TO STAYING WITH CASSIE. She had taken the car since she knew Spencer wouldn't mind taking the Metro to work. She had currently been in the conference room alone since they had just gotten called in for a case.

"Hey!" Casey turns around and sees Tara greeted her with Luke and Stephen coming up behind her. "Welcome back, officially." Tara is the first to give the woman a hug. "Good to be back officially." She greets Luke with a hug next and JJ comes in as well as Emily and Rossi with Penelope trailing behind them.

           "Where's Spence?" JJ wonders, looking around the room to see the boy genius was nowhere to be found. "Oh, he had to make sure his mom was gonna adjust well with the new caretaker. He'll be a little late, but he'll be here." Casey told.

         Garcia takes a seat as well as the rest of the team and Casey keeps the seat beside her open for Spencer when he does come in. "Palm Springs, California. Playground to Hollywood, currently a horror scene. Enter one male torso, unidentifiable. If it wasn't for a woman who had some car trouble, no one would have ever even found the body. And the coroner on site said the dismemberment probably happened postmortem." Garcia explained.

       "Now, the 2004 torso murders here in DC are still unsolved." Emily told, walking towards the screens. "We profiled the unsub in that case, removed body parts as a forensic countermeasure to prevent IDing the victims. We figured he must have gotten locked up on another case." Rossi explained.

      "Now he may be back and taunting us. Any potential victims on the local missing persons lists?" JJ ask Garcia. "So far, there's been no reports of a missing male there in the last month." Garcia answered.

      "So, no missing persons and a chopped up body we can't identify. Is Robert Durst in town?" Tara questions and Casey looks over as she hears her husband respond and walk in the room. "Nope, he's serving seven years on a weapon charge. Sorry I'm late, guys." Spencer leans over to peck his wife on the lips before sitting down. "Traffic was bad."

     "Any ID on the torso victim?" Casey asks. "Uh, they don't have enough of him to do a query with the national missing and unidentified persons database." Garcia tells and Casey shrugs, "Yeah, makes sense."

     "He made a real effort to pull of permanent concealment." JJ tells. "Well, that could indicate a known link between the unsub and the victim." Tara figures. "Or he hoped to hide the fact that a killer had just arrived in town." Stephen adds.

     "It strikes me that he must be familiar with the area. I mean, you don't murder someone out in the desert and then bring the body back into a populated area." Emily told. "So the unsub was skilled enough to hunt, kill, dismember, and dispose of his victims, all within city limits." Spencer stated. "And escape without being seen." Luke added.

     "And his tradecraft was on point, too." Stephen told. "He brought an effective cutting tool and had a secure location or vehicle to do the deed." Tara shakes her head, "That kind of planning could indicate he's been fantasizing about something like this for quite a while."

       "And if the reality didn't live up to the fantasy, he'll keep at it until he gets it right. Wheels up in 30." Emily tells.

        The team nods altogether and before they leave, Spencer and Casey decide to get a cup of coffee before heading to the jet. Before they can make an exit, they hear a voice calling them. "Reid? Casey?" They turn and see that Emily is the one calling them. "Hey, are you guys good?"

       "Yeah. We're good." Casey nods. "Just a little frazzled." Spencer added and Emily gives a sympathetic smile to the two. "How's your mom? And Christopher?" Both don't respond and Casey awkwardly looks down at her mug. "You've both got your hands full, I'm sure."

        "I finally found an in-home nurse that knows what she's doing," Spencer told. "It's just we've had a little trouble coordinating our schedules."

        "Do you think you should be there to help ease the transition?" Emily questions and Casey hopes Spencer doesn't react to her question. Spencer, instead, shakes his head. "No, I think it's important that my mom learns to rely on Nurse Campbell."

       "She's your mother. If you need more time, take it." Emily offers. "Oh, all that I need is a comprehensive plan to help me balance being at home with her and doing my work here."
       "Then you should take the time to do that."
       "That's just the thing. By distracting my conscious mind with work, it will allow my subconscious mind to form a plan at roughly 10 billion times the speed." Spencer gives Emily a tight-lipped smile as he walks away and Emily turns her attention to Casey.

        Emily raises her eyebrows, wondering how Casey is doing with everything. "I've tried to tell him to take more time off. He's insistent that he can balance both." Casey tells. "And how are you doing with all of it?" Emily asks Casey.

"Better than the last month has been, for sure. We've been, uh, going to counseling and it's been helping." Casey told. Emily nods, "That's good. If you need anything at all, not what Spencer needs, what you need, you can always call me or talk to me."
Casey nodded at the woman, "Thank you."

With that, she headed to the jet, sitting on the couch as her husband sat at the armrest of the couch as they began to debrief over the case. "The victim in the dumpster was Paul Mastriano, 28-year-old real estate agent. When he didn't come and pick his daughter up and take her to school yesterday morning, his ex-wife immediately contacted the Palm Springs police department. I'm sending you the deets now." Garcia told.

"We can rule out the DC torso case. He only killed prostitutes." Emily told.

"How did the ex-wife ID this victim? There was only just a torso, right?" Casey questioned and Penelope nods, "Yeah, she had his DNA profile when they did a genealogy study together before they broke up last August."

"So they were married seven years, had a six-year-old daughter. Did the wife say why they divorced?" JJ questions. "No, but let me look at records," Garcia tells. "Well, he had a domestic abuse complaint and two DUIs last year." Casey nods, "That'll do it."

"Could the wife have had something to do with the murder?" Luke questions and nods his head towards Rossi. "Didn't your buddy, Judd Ray, barely survive a hit his wife put on him?"

Rossi nods, "Yeah, she hired a hit man. But this, I mean, I've had cases where husbands dismembered their wives, but rarely is it the other way around." JJ added, "And she came in to ID him. In those cases, the guilty spouse didn't want law enforcement to know that their other half was dead."

"It says here he was last seen at a strip club about a mile away from where his body was found." Stephen tells, reading off the file. "Well, a lot of creeps and criminals run a place like that." Tara added. "We'll have to check that out." Emily nods.

"This story is blowing up on the news, this guy gotta know we found the body." Luke told. "It could cause him to accelerate." Spencer added.

"Penelope, any similar cases in the area?" Emily questions. "Well, I can check ViCAP and neighboring states." There's a pause on her end. "Jeepers. Another body, and by body I mean torso, was just found 10 blocks from the original one."

"Was it found in a dumpster?" JJ asks. "Uh, no, pedestrian spotted it in a parking lot." Garcia answers. "It could be an acceleration, or the unsub was interrupted." Casey figures.

"We are 20 minutes out. Notify Chief Bailor to leave the body and crime scene undisturbed until we get there." Emily ordered and Garcia nods before she hangs up. "Consider it done."
"JJ, why don't you, Tara, and Luke go to the newest disposal site. Dave, Stephen, find out what you can about the first victim from the club. Casey, Spencer and I will go to the Palm Springs PD and talk to the chief. He's got his hands full." Emily splits the team up.

        Emily, Spencer and Casey arrived to talk to the chief, who was more stressed about this case than anyone. "We're very sorry about the officers you lost." Emily expresses her condolences to the chief. "Worst thing in the department's history. But right now we have to focus on this case." told the chief.

       "I've got a conference room set up for you right over here with everything you've got so far." Spencer speaks up with a question. "Any ID on the second victim yet?" He asks as soon as an officer hands something over to the chief. "No," he answers. "But I've got 50,000 residents worried we have a serial killer on our hands."

      "Is that the first victim's ex-wife and daughter?" Emily nudged her head towards the door with a woman, holding her face with her hands and her daughter playing with her doll on the ground.

       The chief nods sadly. "Madison was supposed to see her dad yesterday." He tells. "Do you mind if we talk to them?" Casey asks and the chief lets them go ahead and speak to the woman.

        When they first enter the room, Spencer goes first, Casey behind him and Emily behind her. He waved at the girl at the ground. "Hi." He greeted as if there was nothing wrong.

       The woman drew her attention to the people in the room. "Oh. If you're from social services, I haven't told her yet." The girl looks up at the agents. "Are you gonna take me to my daddy now?" Casey's heart broke because she hadn't been aware of what happened with her dad. "No, not yet, honey." Casey had decided to answer.

       "Actually, we are from the FBI." Emily clarifies to the woman quietly. "What's FBI?" The girl asks but Spencer decides to distract her from the question and crouches in front of her. "Whoa! That is a cool doll. What's her name?"

        The girl picks up her doll and fixed up her crazy hair. "Sally," She tells. "She has the same hair as you." A chuckle escapes out of Spencer's mouth as Casey laughs. "She's not wrong." Casey motions to her husband's crazy mop of hair compared to the doll's.

      "Do you mind if my colleagues, Dr. Reid and Agent Willows take Madison to get a snack and we can chat for a few minutes?" Emily asks and the woman nods and looks at her daughter. "Maddie, you be a good girl and you get something nice and you come right back, okay?"

      Madison nods as Spencer stands up. "Yes, Mommy." She takes her doll and Spencer steps aside, "After you." He then lets his wife go after the child through the doorway and Madison looks up at Casey. "What's FBI?"

       "Well, we're kinda like the police." Casey answers. "How?" The girl asks and before Casey can come up with a proper answer suitable for an eight year-old, Spencer interferes, "Let me ask you this... have you ever had a peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich?" He asks.

       Madison makes a face. "Eew!"
       "Yeah, eew." Casey agrees.

       After getting Madison a snack, Casey watched as Spencer had bonded with the little girl. He showed her a couple of magic tricks, since those were his strong suit, all the while the two kept dodging her questions about her dad and changing the subject every so often.

       Watching Spencer with this little girl made Casey's heart warm. And it made her begin to wonder if maybe they were ready to add one more edition to their little family. The counseling seemed to be helping their relationship, they were managing things with his mother and Chris, but then again, adding a baby to the crazy mix would not bode over well. Maybe in a couple of months she could talk about it then? She couldn't help it. Watching her husband be so good with kids was a green flag for her. And God help it, maybe she wanted more.

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        To make a long story short, the team believed that their unsub is devolving but showing more of his true colors: that he is gay, that the murders are meant to scare the gay community, and that he had long harbored a kill fantasy but had been able to redirect that sense of control in some other method in his life, perhaps that control in a personal relationship. They discovered that their unsub was named Mark Tolson.

        So here they were, Emily, Casey, Spencer and JJ in an SUV on their way to their unsub's place while Stephen, Rossi, Luke and Tara went to the boyfriend's. Garcia had been giving them info. "Mark's parents broke up when he was six. According to family court records, his dad would take him to the butcher shop, where Mark had to chop carcasses while Dad drank. And Mom retained full custody, and Dad didn't bother to see him after that."

       "Well, that makes sense, and Mark's behavior reeks of abandonment issues combined with a psycho-sexual thrill derived from butchering. He's a mix of Gacy and Dahmer." Tara commented.

       "Mark must have had a long-simmering desire to kill that he sublimated by controlling Bill." Spencer added. "Until Bill was out the door, threatening to fill for divorce. That had to be the trigger for the first murder." Casey followed.

       "The discovery of the torso must have scared Bill back into Mark's arms." JJ stated. "But it was only temporary. No matter how frightened Bill was, he knew Mark wouldn't change." Stephen added. "That's why Mark escalated to overkill and started displaying bodies in more public ways." Luke said.

       "The more indecisive Bill was about getting back together, the more Mark tried to force him back home with fear." Emily told. "They started out as rage kills but evolved into a more extreme form of coercive control." Spencer stated.

       "A final rejection highly increases the risk of death to the partner in cases like this." Tara finished as they pulled up to the address.

        They rushed in and arrived just in time before Mark could kill Bill. Casey kicked down the door first and shouted, "FBI!" Spencer followed behind her, "Drop it and show me your hands."

        Mark gave up, dropping his weapon and holding his hands as they arrested him. Casey had the pleasure of doing, wrapping the handcuffs over Mark's wrists as Emily went to console a frightened Bill. "It's okay. It's over. You're okay." She told, taking the tape off his mouth.

       "Oh, my God. He was... oh, my God." The man cried. "Is there someone we can call for you?" Emily asks and the man nods.

       "We're still married," Mark spoke as Casey began to handcuff him. "You can't say a word to them. They'll never prove anything!" Casey pushes down on his handcuffs, causing them to be tight and Mark groaned in pain. "Oh, did that hurt?" Casey questioned with feign concern. "Good." She pushes him out, reading him his Miranda rights as she takes him and pushes him in the back of a police car.

        After the arrest was made, Casey had met with JJ and Emily and asked where Spencer was since he wasn't with them. Emily pointed back towards the building and saw Spencer in front of the building, looking down as he looked like he was contemplating something in his head. Casey always knew that when he got like that, he was overthinking.

        "Hey," Casey spoke up behind him and he turns towards his wife. "Emily and JJ told me you were over here." Spencer nods and sighs as he sits down in one of the chairs outside the building.

        "Can I ask you something?" Spencer looks up at his wife and Casey gulps and nods, hoping it's not a question she can't answer. "Sure."

        Spencer thinks for a second. "Tell what you've been thinking." Casey furrows her brows in confusion. "What I've been thinking?" She wonders what he means by that.

       "About the situation with my mom," Now this is something she can't answer without hurting him but he continues, "About everything you've been wanting to say to me about her but for some reason, I don't listen to you. And I wanna listen to you now, so... have at it." He tells her, giving her permission to say what she's really been thinking about the whole thing.

        Casey sighs, wondering if he really and truly wants to hear what she has to say or if he's just trying to pick a fight. She's hoping it's the first option. "My honest opinion?" Casey asks, stuffing her hands in her pockets.

        "It won't hurt me, if that's what you think it's gonna do." Spencer assures. "I just need to gain a little perspective."

        Casey wonders where to start. She hates that she's been keeping it all inside but here's Spencer, telling her to tell him what she's been feeling for a while now and for a second, her mind comes up blank but she remembers all the times she's felt alone and felt like she didn't have a say.

         She sighs again and looks Spencer in the eye. "I've always thought it was a horrible idea." A weight is lifted off her chest. "I mean, everything that's going on with Chris and her and us. Adding her into the mix was... a bad idea. But I went through with it because I love you and I will always love you. Are you having second thoughts?" She decides to question.

         Spencer furrows his brows. "About her staying with us?" He asks and then nods after Casey nods at him. "Yeah." He grabs his wife's hand in front of him. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you before. I was too selfish and I'm trying not to be now."

       Casey can really tell that Spencer's trying. He's trying to give everyone 100% of his time and now he knows that maybe he shouldn't be making decisions for a while or else he'd live to regret them.

      "Well, I'm glad you understand now." Casey smiles a bit. "Let's go home."

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        The team flew back and Spencer had decided to take a few more days off of work. Within two days, he was planning the trip like there was no tomorrow. Casey figured to stay behind to go back to work while Spencer took care of this.

        The next two days were filled with Spencer's planning and learning to readjust with Cassie in the home. And then the rest of the night was filled with silence. Spencer would be leaving tomorrow to go to Houston.

        Casey and Spencer laid in bed, Spencer doing his usual thing, reading a book before he goes to bed while Casey had just been laying in the bed, doing nothing, attempting to fall asleep but she couldn't.

        After about an hour of tossing and turning, Casey finally looked at the ceiling in defeat. This grabbed Spencer's attention. "Something wrong?" He asked.

        "Just can't sleep." Casey sighed. She looks over at her husband and turns towards him. "Whatcha reading?" Spencer holds his book up. "Ah, War and Peace. In the original Russian. For the millionth time." Casey chuckled, as did her husband. "I can't help reading it. It helps me sleep." Spencer admits.

         Casey looks up at her husband, resting her head towards his lower torso. "Hey." She said, getting his attention. "What you were talking about with your mom after the case... that wasn't just a... rhetorical question or a 'what if?', was it?" Casey decides to ask.

         She'd been thinking about what she admitted to him about Diana staying with them. Casey worried and wondered if her response was too much for Spencer to handle since it was about his mom and how sensitive he was to the topic.

         Spencer raises his brows. "Well, technically, a rhetorical question is a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer. What I was asking was for you to tell me what you thought about it all. I wanted to factor in your thoughts about this because I wanted to take your feelings into account. That wasn't a 'what if?' question." Spencer had explained and Casey nodded along.

         "My point is... I think you're right and maybe I should go get her into a facility that could take care of her while we're gone. Which is why I'm going to Houston in the morning to talk to her doctors, see what I can do." Spencer told and Casey sighed at her husband and grabbed his hand with hers and interlocked their fingers together as she kissed the back of his hand. "You're doing the right thing, y'know. Whether you think so or not." Casey assured.

         Spencer bent down a little to kiss his wife and before he could pull away, Casey grabbed him by the back of his neck and kissed him a bit more passionately.

         Casey felt as Spencer had dug into the kiss deeper and tossed his book aside and got more comfortable under the covers.

         Once he settled into the covers, Spencer cups his wife's face with his hands as his tongue enters the inside of her mouth and their tongues explore one another's.

          It's been a while since they've been so intimate with one another after everything that's happened. The last time this happened was when they went to counseling and it was quick considering it'd been a while. They almost forgot the way the other's body moved. But this time, it was more slow and sensual but even through the slowness, they both could tell how needy the other was.

         Spencer had then gotten on top of his wife and making one swift move of pulling her underwear down and flinging them somewhere across the room and her gets the flap through this boxers to get his already erect dick out and presses it to her entrance. "I love you." He tells Casey, giving her another kiss on her lips. "So much."

        "I love you, too." Casey breathes out, caressing his soft face. Spencer doesn't bother to remove the shirt she's wearing as he slides into his wife with ease.

        And for once their sex isn't as crazy as it usually is, this time, they're making love. The way they've needed it for a long time.

         Casey wraps her arms around her husband, pushing into him just as much. She tugs at his hair and scratches at his back. The way his face looks right now is heavenly but the way Spencer is looking at her right now, looks like he's looking into the face of an angel.

          He snakes a hand down beneath the covers, finding her clit and rubbing her so she can climax with him. Casey begins to make most beautiful noises like he hasn't heard them before.

          Casey wraps her legs tightly around him as she feels herself getting close and Spencer groans, sinking in even deeper and making no attempt to pull out this time, continuing to rub the bundle of nerves until he feels Casey's body shake beneath him and she orgasms.

         Spencer collapsed on top of Casey's body, still inside of her, both breathing hard.

         Once they finally catch their breaths, Spencer props himself on his elbows, looking down at his beautiful wife and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Hi." He says.

          Casey smiles hazily at him, "Hey." Spencer looks down at the mess that he's created and sits up a bit more. "I'll be right back."

          Before he can leave, Casey sits up and grabs his bicep. "No, don't leave. Just cuddle." She tells sleepily. "I can't leave a mess between your legs." Spencer chuckled. "I'll be right back. I promise."

          He fixes himself back into his boxers and puts on a shirt before he goes ahead to the bathroom to get a rag to clean Casey up with.

          When he arrives back, Casey's passed out on the bed. Of course, sex would be what she needed before bed. Spencer smiled to himself, almost regretting his decision that he'd be making tomorrow. He didn't want to to leave Casey but he knew he had to get his mother's medicine.

         And the best part about it was that the person giving him the medicine also managed to snag medicine for Christopher as well. It'd help with treatments and pain after chemo. He'd talk to Casey about it when he got back and if she didn't want to go through with it, he'd throw it away and stick to just taking Chris to his appointments.

          Casey let it slide with his mother but this was her son, she definitely had a say in what goes in his body.

          Spencer had done his best to clean Casey off between her legs and settled himself back into bed, turning off his lamp beside his bed and wrapping his arms around his wife, holding her as he fell into a deep slumber.

           The next morning, Casey had woken up after hearing movement in their bedroom. She tossed her hand over to try and find Spencer in the bed, only to be met with a cold bedside. She opens her eyes and finds he's not there.

            Casey furrows her brows but he walks into the room. "Spencer?" She asks and Spencer looks at Casey. He didn't think she would be awake. "Hey. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Spencer tells.

           Casey checks the clock and it's 5:32am. "You're leaving already?" She asks. "It's twenty hours away from here. Gotta get a head start."

          "Okay," Casey settled back into bed, going back to bed. "Just call when you get there."

         Spencer looks at his wife and smiles. "I love you." He tells. "Love you, too." Casey's eyes are closed and she smushed her lips together for him to kiss her before he left and he gives her a peck before deciding to head out.

          With that, Casey went back to bed, Spencer was gonna go to Houston to talk to his mother's doctors and things were gonna be good. Casey smiled as she went back to sleep, knowing deep down that everything was gonna be okay.

     If only the poor girl knew what was gonna happen next.

Y'ALL
we finally made it to the now
put your seatbelts on from here on out😭
we boutta get crazy

and ofc i had to give y'all smut before it happened it's boutta be a while before y'all get that again😭😭

anywayssssss
i didn't write my best bc i watched this episode with tears streaming down my face el oh el🤭

actual footage of me writing and publishing every day and night:

my lack of sleep concerns me at times

anywaysssss
any theories from this point going forward?

i love you all
thank you for reading
try not to hate me for all the pain i'm boutta put y'all through😅
-mya </3