CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE: DOUBLE DATES !

11x02

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CASEY WILLOWS NEARLY WALKED INTO A DOOR THIS MORNING. After realizing she was constantly texting Lennox almost every single day, she made a habit of texting her while walking around in the office. She was walking into the bullpen today and nearly smacked the front of the glass doors with her heads — had it not been for Spencer telling her to pay attention before she rammed into the door.

       Luckily, she hadn't. She'd made a mental note to stop texting while walking. And she realized she did it so much, she didn't even realize that Vivian had made it back from her sabbatical.

So here she was, texting Lennox and talking to her about her new school. She had decided to resign in Virginia with her foster parents — even if they were 'pains in the ass' according to Lennox.

      "Hey, earth to Bride of Einstein!" Casey's head perked over to Morgan. "We still on for double-date night with Spencer and Savannah tomorrow night?" He questioned. Casey put her phone down and she nods, "Yes, yes. We have it all planned. Kate's gonna look after Chris and we'll meet you at the restaurant."

       "How is Kate doing, by the way?" Vivian asks as she walks into the room with Rossi. "She's doing great, having fun being a mom to a baby again. Here's a picture of little Dakota as we speak." Casey holds her cell up as she shows Vivian, Rossi and Morgan the photo of Kate's daughter.

"Oh, she's adorable!" Vivian smiled as Morgan looked at the photo. "Dakota Callahan, huh?" Rossi nods, "Good name." Casey smiles, "It should be, Dakota's my middle name. I'm practically this baby's godmother."

"Speaking of godchildren," Morgan spoke. "How is my little man, Chris, doing?" He asks. "He's doing good, Spencer and I have been trying to look for daycare centers for him while we're gone on cases... but we haven't gotten anywhere."

Vivian sips her coffee from her mug and speaks, "I can't believe that little stinker's about to turn two." Casey sighs as she widens her eyes. "I can't either. He needs to stop growing." Casey practically whines, not wanting to see her son's transformation from infant to toddler to teenager any time soon. "Better hold on to him as tight as you can." Rossi comments. "They grow up faster than you think." Casey shakes her head at him and chuckles as Spencer and the new recruit, Tara Lewis walk in.

Dr. Tara Lewis had interviewed to join the team when they were looking into the Montolo case a few weeks back. Casey had met the woman the very next day when she went to work and thought she was already awesome.

"A bizarre coincidence, right?" Tara started off as she walked into the room. "What's a coincidence?" Rossi asks, already wondering what they were talking about. "Tara's mom went to the same elementary school as the Truck Stop Strangler's mom." Spencer answered.

Casey's eyes widen at the sentence. "Okay, that's a little creepy somehow." Morgan comments. "But very interesting." Casey adds. Tara nods, "Yeah."

Vivian approaches the woman and Casey just now realizes that Tara and Vivian haven't even met yet. "I believe we haven't met yet, Vivian Hudson." The woman shakes Tara's hand. "Dr. Tara Lewis. I've read a lot into your detective work. Your article about the Alicayah Webber and the Highway Butcher is just immaculate and spontaneous with ease. It's what made me consider joining the academy." Tara explained to Vivian, who smiled, "Well, I don't mean to brag..." She chuckled.

Hotch then walked in the room with Garcia. "Don't get comfortable. The plane's waiting for us." He said. "Whatever happened to 'hey, how are you?'" Casey asks as Spencer stands next to her as she had already gotten out of her seat.

"Ten minutes ago, there was a poison gas att*ck on a city link commuter bus in Los Angeles. Ten confirmed dead so far." Garcia explained. "Do we know what it was?" Tara asks. Garcia shakes her head, "Hazmat just got on the scene."

"Chlorine gas was used recently in Syria. Maybe it's connected." Morgan stated as they headed down the steps through the bullpen. "It also reminds me of the attack on the Tokyo subway. Religious cult members carried plastic bags of sarin and punctured them with umbrella tips." Spencer told.

"That was 1995," Rossi said. "It could be a 20th year anniversary event."

As they exit the doors, Hotch speaks, "We'll find out." And they head through the elevator.

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After the case had finished, the team had been back on the jet. The case had finished with a little girl saying goodbye to her dad as he had been arrested in front of her. Casey, of course, took it to heart.

So, here she was, getting rest on the jet on the couch with Spencer. He was leaning on one side of the couch and she was leaning on the other, a blanket perched on top of her as she tried to get some rest and Spencer reading one of his science books, a hand perched on Casey's covered thigh as he had just finished with the book.

Casey awoke from her nap once he did and he looked into her crystal blue orbs and smiled gently to her. "How do you manage to look so beautiful even after taking a nap?" He asked softly and Casey shrugs a bit as she rubbed her eye with her knuckle. "It's kind of a gift, I guess." Spencer smiled at the hoarseness of his fiancée's voice.

Tara had thrown a small chuckle their way as she walked through the aisle with a fresh cup of coffee in her hand. "A little light reading?" She asked Spencer. "If you can call it light." Casey said, a chuckle escaping from Tara's lips.

"Just, uh--I'm revisiting an old favorite." Spencer said as Tara had taken a spot in the seat right next to the couch near Casey. "I take it you prefer Jung to Freud?" Tara assumes. Spencer nods, "Oh, absolutely. I feel like Freud gave Jung too hard a time for his interest in the paranormal. Speaking of which, what do you think of Synchronicity?" Spencer asks Tara.

"It's my favorite Police album." Tara answers, causing Casey to laugh at the joke from her. "No, I mean, uh, events that seem significantly related but have no discernable causal connection," Spencer sits up a bit. "The fact that your mom and the Truck Stop Strangler's mom were in the same elementary school class really got me thinking."

"How so?" Tara asks. "I don't know. It's not odd that they were in the same class. What's really strange is that one would have a child who grew up to be a serial killer, the other would have a child that grew up to be an FBI profiler and that the two of you would meet someday." Casey thinks to herself and nods. "That is a funny coincidence, isn't it?"

Tara nods, "Yeah," She thinks for a moment. "So, what's the take-away?"

"I don't know," Spencer stated. "Maybe the events in our lives were set in motion a long time ago." Casey now sits up a bit as her fiancé speaks. "There's an old Buddhist saying that, when you meet your soulmate," He glances at Casey as he says this. "Remember that the act to bring you together was 500 years in the making. So, always appreciate and be kind to each other."

Spencer couldn't help but look right at Casey as he spoke about soulmates and Casey smiled and even blushed at the thought. Casey always felt that Spencer was her other half, even if she didn't know it at the time. She'd like to think that maybe in some parallel universe, maybe 1,000 years ago from now, she'd like to think that he still would've been hers and she would've been his.

"That's lovely." Tara smiled, noting to the looks the couple gave each other subtly.

"There's a corollary for friends. When you meet a true friend, you'll be bound together through space and time for 500 years," Spencer looked towards Morgan's seat as his voice went lower as he stuck his tongue to the corner of his mouth in thought. "Which means..." He sat closer to both Tara and Casey. "In the year 2200, I'm gonna get Morgan back for that practical joke he played on me last week."

Casey chuckled, remembering the joke that Morgan played on him that was originally Casey's idea in the first place. Morgan super glued Spencer's coffee mug to the table in the conference room and Spencer finally got it out but in the process, spilt coffee all over his sweater.

"Bring it, pretty boy," Morgan spoke, wiping the smirk off Spencer's face and he went back to reading his book. "I'll be waitin' for you." Spencer looked back at his book and leaned back into his spot. "I'll be there."

Casey couldn't help but laugh at the scene in front of her and Tara looked over at Casey. "Are they always like this?" She asked. "Welcome to the team, Lewis. But fair warning, when playing practical jokes, you do not wanna get in the middle of these two." Casey pointed in between Morgan and Spencer.

"Don't think I didn't forget you, Ace." Morgan spoke again, causing Casey's jaw to drop and sit up from her spot. "I didn't even do anything!" She then kicks Spencer lightly. "How do always manage to suck me in your guys' prank war?"

"Like you said five years ago to be exact, by association." Spencer stated and Casey scoffed as Tara looked at the team, knowing that she was definitely gonna fit in.

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Since they had a case, Morgan, Spencer, Casey and Savannah had to reschedule and push their double-date back to the week after. Spencer was getting Christopher ready for bed by telling him a story. Tonight, instead of reading it, he'd be acting out 'Goodnight, Moon'.

       So, here he was sitting on ground, with hand puppets in his hands and tired out of his mind after all the acting he'd been doing. "Alright, that's enough for tonight." He panted and Christopher had jumped right on top of his dad, knocking the wind right out of him. "Oh!"

       "Again! Again!" Christopher shouts and Spencer grabs his son and tickles him to no end. "Alright, kiddo, it's time for bed." Chris groans and Spencer speaks again, "I know, I know but good sleep improves your brain performance, mood, and health. Not getting enough quality sleep regularly raises the risk of many diseases and disorders." Spencer told, even if the one year-old didn't quite understand what his dad was saying yet, all he heard was mumbo-jumbo but Spencer was glad that someone else could listen besides his fiancée.

        "Aun' Kate comin'?" Christopher yawns, holding his stuffed giraffe in his hands as Spencer sits next to his small frame on the bed and runs a hand through his curly locks that Chris inherited from him. "Yeah, she should be coming tonight," Spencer checks his watch. "Any minute now. But I need you to be a good boy for me and sleep, okay? It's important to."

        Chris sighs and gives a signature look that he most certainly inherited from his mother. "Okay." He turns to his side and Spencer kisses him on the head. "Goodnight, kiddo." He says. "'Night, Daddy." Chris utters.

      Spencer turns off the lamp next to his bed and turns the nightlight on as he closes the door behind him. "Spencer, is he down yet?" Casey asks from the bathroom. "Uh, yeah, he should be." Spencer walks into the bathroom and sees Casey in a sky blue satin criss-cross dress with a slit running down and exposing her knee. The sky blue color had matched with his tie. She was currently putting on some light makeup.

     "Wow," Spencer spoke as soon as he walked in. "What?" Casey asks and notices how Spencer's eyes trail her body and up and down. That's exactly what she was expecting. "I can't believe how lucky I am." He admits as Casey smiles and faces towards the mirror.

      Spencer comes up from behind her and holds her tiny frame with his arms. His chin rest on her head as they look at one another in the mirror. "Look at us." Spencer spoke. "Look at us." Casey repeated. "Soulmate material, huh?"

      Spencer begins to laugh and pulls away from the girl to check his watch. "Kate should be here any minute." He said. The two turn the bathroom light on and Casey goes to grab her phone from the counter and checks her most recent message as Spencer is fixing his tie in the mirror Casey insisted they should put in the living room.

      "Oh, no!" Casey speaks, gathering the attention from Spencer. "What?" He asks as concern rushed to his face. "Kate said the baby got sick so she can't watch Chris tonight." She says. "Oh, no." Spencer repeats back, guessing those words were just more suited for the moment.

      Casey sighs in disappointment. "We're gonna have to cancel." Before she even has the chance to message Kate back and then message Morgan that they would be cancelling on them, there's a knock on the door.

      Spencer furrows his brows as he goes to answer it and is greeted with Casey's half-sister, Leah. "Leah, what are you doing here?" He asks. "Leah?" Casey asks as the woman waltzes right in.

       "Sorry, I'm late. I would've totally been here earlier but my usual store didn't have the cider I wanted so I'm settling with Martinelli's for the night, a box of movie theater popcorn and I brought the classics to choose for the night. He's Just Not That Into You or One Day, take your pick." Leah holds DVDs up in front of her and earns a very confused look from the couple.

        Leah then gathers up their confused looks to only answer one thing. "You forgot, didn't you?" Leah asks. Casey's eyebrows seem to furrow even more. "Our rom-com movie marathon? You said we'd do it this week."

       Casey then remembers the promise she made to Leah a few weeks ago. They'd started making it a habit to watch rom-coms together at each other's houses, making fun of the decisions made by the main characters and their love interests, telling each other how corny it all seemed and how this was certainly not like real life. Of course, Casey disagreed with some points, considering she had a fairytale ending with Spencer Reid.

      "Oh, that was tonight," Casey scrunches her face up. "I'm so sorry. I double-booked." Leah shakes her head. "No worries."

       "Daddy?" The couple hear Christopher from his room. "I'll go check on him." Spencer offers, since his son just called his name.

      As Leah begins to pack her things up, she notices Casey's dress. "You're all dressed up. What's the occasion?" She decides to ask.

      Casey takes a deep breath. "We were supposed to go on a double-date with Morgan and Savannah. Our friend was supposed to watch him but now we have to cancel so I guess we'll get our movie marathon tonight. Those reservations were so hard to get." Casey groaned.

      "Which reminds me, I gotta call Morgan to let him know—" Before Casey can press 'call', Leah speaks up: "I can watch him." Leah volunteers.

       There's a long pause and Spencer had walked out of the room after calming Chris down from being scared of the dark as he heard it. The couple exchange a look to each other and then back to Leah. "You wanna watch Christopher?" Spencer asks.

      "Yeah, I really don't mind." Leah tells. "Isaac may be an expert with kids but I am just as experienced. I've come across a few at the diner, too. I swear, I really don't mind. Plus, it gives me some bonding time, you know." Both Spencer and Casey are hesitant with this. Leah and Isaac very recently came into their lives and they didn't want to drop their kid off with them just because of relation. They'd feel bad if they did that.

        "Are you- are you sure?" Casey asks. Leah nods, "I'm sure. Besides, I think you two deserve a night of fun." Both Spencer and Casey look at one another and nod. "Okay." Casey says and before they know it, they're already putting their coats on.

        "Um, Chris gets scared of the dark easily, so just check in every now and again with him. If he calls out, just read to him. Reading supports cognitive development."
       "And if you get hungry, we have plenty of leftovers in the fridge. Help yourself to anything."
       "You can watch TV but just make sure it's really really quiet or it might wake him up."
       "We'll be back by 10:30."
       "Bye!"

       So, Spencer and Casey had arrived at the restaurant. They'd arrived right on time for their reservation and were soon met up with Morgan and Savannah. They were currently finishing up dinner while Morgan was spewing out a story of their previous prank war.

        "And then, Pretty Ricky, over here decided to stop my music by using a recording of himself screaming in my ear. I still don't know how you did that." Morgan tells and Spencer interferes, "Like I always say, a magician never reveals his secrets. And I only did that because you gave my number out to the press and everyone just spam called me nonstop."

        "And I also got back at you by thinking Garcia was calling you — but it was just more screaming — only because you shook my soda up and I opened it and it went everywhere." Casey told.

         "Oh, so you're a part of this prank war too?" Savannah asks. "I don't know how I even got in it. It started with these two." Casey points to Spencer and Morgan. "Sounds like you guys try to have fun even with the bad stuff going on." Savannah tells.
         Casey shrugs, "We try."

       There's more conversation going on and Savannah stands up at one point. "Uh, I think I'm gonna go to the restroom. Casey," The woman looks up at her. "Can you join me? I, uh, need a, uh..."

       Casey holds a hand up and shakes her head as she puts her drink down. "Say no more, I gotcha." Casey pecks Spencer on the cheek and squeezes his hand as she whispers, "I'll be right back."

       The two women make their way into the empty bathroom. "Alright, I have pads or tampons, which one do you—?"

      Savannah cuts her off. "I actually don't need anything," She says. "I needed to talk to you because I am freaking out. And I've been freaking out all night."

     The woman faces the mirror and Casey puts her essentials back in his purse. "Okay, girl, what's wrong?"

     "I may have blurted out to Derek that I love him," Casey's eyes widen a bit. "Tonight. Before we left." Casey smiles a bit. "You said I love you to him?" She asks. "Yes," Savannah says. "And I'm freaking out about it." Casey furrows her brows. "Why?"

    "Because..." Savannah pauses as she looks down in thought. "When you say 'I love you', it gets real. The relationship, next steps. And I usually suck at this part." Casey understood that. Probably better than anyone else. "Morgan and I were neighbors before this whole thing started. I mean, what was it like for you and Spencer when you guys got together and someone said I love you?"

     Casey thought about it for a moment and chuckled to herself. "Well... I actually blurted it out to him too when I was getting on an elevator. He didn't even say it back."

     "Derek didn't say it back either." Savannah told, Casey concluding that that may the reason she was freaking out. "Seriously, what's it with guys not saying it back?" Casey asks. "We really do put in a lot of effort, don't we?" Savannah states more than questions. "Right." Casey nods.

     "Anyway, when I said it, I was scared out of my wits as soon as I did. And I had that thought too. I thought maybe we were getting too serious, that maybe I wasn't the girl for Spencer or wondering if we were moving too fast."

      "But what you have with Derek... that's special. I mean, trust me, the guy doesn't love that easy. I guess what I'm trying to say is that... even if you're scared, there's a chance Derek is too. And the guy's never scared. But you've got him in the end. And yeah, it's gonna be scary but... you just gotta ask yourself if you're ready." Casey explains to the woman with the best of her ability.

     "Wow," Savannah says. "You're good at that." Casey shrugs, not knowing where she gets that from and she lets out a laugh. "You and Spencer just seem to have the whole relationship thing down. I want something like that."

     "Um, you have something like that," Casey reminded. "And hey, at least you and Derek are taking it one step at a time. Spencer and I moved in together eight months into our relationship. And had a kid a year into it."

     "And now you guys are getting married." Savannah concludes and Casey pauses and her heart leaps. "Yeah." She said, sorta somberly.

     Savannah notices this and dips her head down a bit as Casey looks down. "You don't sound so excited." She points out. Casey shakes her head, "It's nothing."

      "Come on, I just vented to you about me freaking out because I said 'I love you'. Spit it out." Savannah tells.

      In many ways, Casey had seen a bit of Derek Morgan in Savannah Hayes. Casey would like to think that Savannah was the Derek Morgan to her Spencer Reid. And that meant that maybe she should open up to her, considering that the men they were together with were best friends. And Casey had absolutely adored Savannah from the moment they met. And Savannah loved Casey just as much.

     Casey takes a deep breath before admitting what she decides to admit. "It's not that I'm not ready to marry him, I'm very ready to marry him. But I just keep asking myself: is he ready? I mean, I pushed back the wedding because I just thought he wasn't ready."

    "I thought you pushed back the wedding because you wanted a bigger venue." Savannah tells and Casey shrugs a bit, "Well, that was part of it but another part of it was because I was scared too. And I could put back the wedding as far as I could and still be with him, I was ready for that. But now I don't care about a bigger venue and I'm not scared anymore." Casey faces the mirror now. "I just wanna marry the man I love."

     "Well, express that to him." Savannah encourages. "Don't you think I've tried?" Casey questions. "Any time someone mentions marriage, or the words 'bride' or 'groom' or 'engaged' or 'rings' or 'wedding' or anything that has to do with one — he flinches."

      Savannah cocks an eyebrow up. "Flinches?"
     "Flinches!" Casey shouts. "Every time someone even brings up my ring!"

     "Is he scared of getting married?" Savannah asks. Casey rubs her forehead in stress. "I don't know," She tells. "It's just... we don't talk about it. Marriage is something we obviously have in the books, but we never have time to plan a wedding or anything because we're busy with work, Christopher, Lennox, his mom. It's just work after work and we never have time."

     Casey had been feeling this way for a while. She thought maybe if she pushed back the wedding, her and Spencer could eventually ease into it. But it's been almost two years now since he proposed. Maybe Will and JJ could make it work with waiting for so long but Casey wasn't ready to wait any longer to get married to him. Especially with all the close calls they've had with death. And nearly getting blown up very recently opened her eyes. She was glad she had Savannah to vent to about this since she'd been keeping it in for so long.

     "I just wanna be with him," Casey says and looks at Savannah. "There's no one else. Only him."

      Little did the two women know, Spencer and Morgan were having a very similar conversation back at their table. "She flinches?" Morgan questions.

     "Flinches," Spencer stated. "Every single time. There's just some limber part of my brain that thinks she doesn't wanna marry me or be with me. That has to be why she pushed back the wedding. It has to be. I mean, I'm already aware of her commitment issues subsided with her own daddy issues but I have those too, I would think that she would still want to be with me after all we've been through together. Especially since we have Chris."

     "Now, kid, you are reading way too much into this." Morgan tells. "Don't you think that maybe you just need to talk to her?"

     "You know, the average couple dates for 17 months before moving in together, lives together for 22 months before getting engaged, and then spends about 20 more months engaged before getting married. We've beat those odds by a lot because we did all too fast. Now, I'm wondering if maybe she's questioning things." Spencer explains.

      Morgan sighs, "I, for one, don't think she's questioning anything. I mean, have you seen the way she looks at you? It's like you just hung the stars, pretty boy. Just talk to her. You two may need to."

       For Spencer, it was the opposite. He thought that Casey was pushing back on getting married because she was scared. And Spencer was willing to wait and didn't want to push but all he wanted to do was spend the rest of his life with the woman he loves. There's no "too long" or "too short" length of time to be engaged — every relationship was different, Spencer knew that. But he couldn't help but wonder if maybe Casey was having second thoughts. And finally talking to Morgan about it helped a bit.

      Before they knew it, Savannah and Casey had come back and their conversations had gone back to being simple ones with each other. Morgan and Spencer had split the checks and the couples went back to their homes together, telling one another that they needed to do this more often.

      Casey fiddled with her ring a lot that night, knowing that her and Spencer were gonna have to talk sooner than later.

hey lovelies!
question of the day: which taylor swift album is casey?
i'm thinking 'red' but i'm also thinking 'folklore' but idk
but spasey is definitely 'speak now' coded

y'all because spencer and casey haven't gotten married yet:
also y'all the entirety of 'cardigan':

morgan & spencer @ savannah & casey:

anywaysssss lol
thank you so much for reading
more coming soon!! MWAHAHAHA
get settled in for the next chapter😈
-mya </333