𝒍𝒙𝒙𝒊𝒙. through the hourglass

CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE: THROUGH THE HOURGLASS !


11x17

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SPENCER REID STRAIGHTENED HIS TIE ONCE HE GOT OUT OF THE CAR AS HE MUTTERED HIS BEST MAN SPEECH UNDER HIS BREATH. Casey had unbuckled Christopher out of his car seat and noticed her husband's squirrelly behavior. He kept telling Casey that this speech had to be perfect for Morgan and Savannah's wedding.

"Babe, your speech is gonna turn out great. I need you to stop being so tense. It's gonna make Morgan tense and me tense and then Savannah tense." Casey had a speech of her own to deliver since Savannah also asked her to be the maid of honor but she hadn't stressed about it like Spencer had.

"I know, I know. I just want it to be perfect. I mean, how many times is Derek Morgan gonna get married?" He asked, a chuckle escaping from his lips as he spoke. "Hopefully, only once. Help me get my dress out of the car?" Casey asked as she opened up the trunk to the car. "Yeah, sure."

Casey had joined Savannah, Garcia and a couple of Savannah's own friends in her room as she settled into her wedding dress while Spencer had joined Morgan, Hotch and Rossi.

The ceremony was a success to say the least. Everyone had sat at their designated spots for the reception. Of course, Savannah and Morgan were in the middle of everyone at their own table. Spencer had delivered his speech and as Casey said, it was great. He talked about how he never saw the day coming and how he knew he was in love with Savannah. Casey was now up next and had gotten everyone's attention as she headed up to the stage.

Casey held up a microphone to her lips as she began to speak. "Hello, everyone! My name is Casey, I am the maid of honor, friend of the groom and best man's wife." Casey listed and everyone chuckled. "Before I was the maid of honor to Savannah or the best man's wife, I was Derek Morgan's friend."

"When I first met Derek, I thought of three words. Working. Wild. Womanizer. The three W's, if you will." The crowd chuckled as Casey chuckled herself. "Derek was a different person when I first met him. But over the years, I have seen him grow in many ways. The minute he started talking to us about Savannah, I have to admit, I had my doubts. Derek Morgan had never been the type of person to fall in love at first sight. I mean, look at him." Another chuckle came from the crowd and Morgan lifted his arms up in a 'what?' manner.

"He was always the third wheel so to put it when it came to my husband and I. Derek always made jokes about how we spent years pining over one another and not doing anything about it. So when months went by and he kept talking about the woman next door and she smelt like, what she did when she would talk about her favorite subjects, I was annoyed. He would not stop talking about her. So one day, I finally said something. I said, 'why don't you just ask her out already?' It was then that I figured out that I became the Morgan in his relationship. So... the very next day, he did, ask her out that is. And soon enough, Savannah was in our lives."

Casey then turns to Savannah now. "Savannah, girl, you are the most amazing person in the entire world. I'm actually kind of bummed Morgan married you because I wanted a chance." Everyone laughed at that.

"But things turned out the way they were supposed to. I am so glad to be standing up here, congratulating the two on their marriage and after seeing its' growth over the past few years." Casey holds her glass of champagne up. "Savannah, Derek, congratulations. All the happiness to you and the love you're both carrying." Casey motions to the growing baby bump in Savannah's stomach. "To the bride and groom, ladies and gentlemen." Everyone claps at Casey's speech after she has delivered it and she makes her way back to sit with her husband.

The night continued and eventually Casey made her way to the dance floor with her husband as he ushered her to get at least a dance in. The last time they danced, Casey believed, was during their wedding at the BAU office. Casey smiled to herself at the memory as she held Spencer close in her arms.

Spencer and Casey had taken a look over at the happy bride and groom. Casey had taken notice of Derek's wide smile and how every so often, he touched Savannah's baby bump and involuntarily reached over for her hand. It seemed that Spencer had noticed it, too.

"I don't think I've ever seen him smile that big before." Spencer comments. "It's the smile of a happy, married man. You have that smile." Casey points out and Spencer smiles a bit to himself as he looks down so as Casey doesn't tease him for the smile. "I can't believe how this wedding turned out. You're seriously amazing, you know that, right?" Spencer reminded his wife, who mostly had everything to do with decorating the wedding.

Casey had wanted Savannah to be off her feet as much as possible for the wedding so she wouldn't stress out as much planning. Luckily, it took three solid months to plan the whole thing with Casey's help and with her friend, April's catering skills. Of course, Casey had wanted everything to be perfect for Savannah as the maid of honor. And once she took action in something, she took action in something.

Spencer spun his wife around and Casey thought to herself as this happened. "Yeah, I know. But I do wanna say one thing and it stays between us — our wedding was totally more amazing." Casey half-joked. Of course, Morgan and Savannah's wedding was perfect as can be but she loved the outcome of her and Spencer's wedding, decorating in under a few hours. Of course, she was biased, because it was her wedding and it was special to both her and Spencer.

"Oh, absolutely." Spencer nods as he pulls Casey back towards his body. She chuckled as she wraps her arms around him and they both turn over to Penelope dancing with Christopher and Henry, bouncing around even to slow music. Penelope didn't seem to mind, bouncing right along with them.

Casey smiled at the sight, nothing could top just how content she felt in this moment in time.

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Six months had passed since everything with Morgan happened. Derek and Savannah's wedding, Christopher turning three years old, no big cases in a while. Today, Morgan was coming back from his six month break with spending as much time with Savannah, prepping for the baby and healing from his own trauma from being taken.

So, the team, well, mostly Garcia, had wanted to have a surprise 'welcome back' party for Morgan. Of course, Morgan requested not to have one but Garcia being stubborn as she is wanted to throw one behind his back.

Savannah waited with Tara, JJ, Vivian, Garcia, Casey and Spencer as they all were waiting for Morgan to come through those doors. And when he finally did with Rossi, the team in the room shouted: "Surprise! Welcome back!"

         Morgan looked around the room. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, you didn't." He stated, looking towards his wife. "Not my idea, babe. I was outnumbered." Savannah tells.

       "How long has this been in the works?" Morgan asks as he makes his way around to Savannah. "Oh, two weeks. You didn't suspect?" Savannah asks and Morgan shakes his head, "I, uh, had no idea."

      "That's good. A certain amount of cluelessness is nice in a husband." Garcia comments and Casey smiles as she jokes, "Tell me about it." Spencer frowns, which causes Casey to lean in to kiss him on the cheek and to lightly smack his butt. "Okay, hush up." Morgan tells Garcia as he leans over to give her a hug and kiss on her temple.

      "Amen to that. A woman is entitled to her secrets, especially from a profiler." Tara tells. "Well, this profiler may not be changing any diapers, but I will tear up some diaper cake." Morgan tells and the women in room all turn their attention towards Morgan. "Oh, you look like a diaper changer to me." Rossi says.

      "Yes, you will be changing some diapers." Savannah says with attitude as the women in the room all begin to gang up on Morgan when he suddenly holds his hands in surrender at the bickering. "Ladies, I was joking, I was joking. Look, baby, I was joking. It was a joke."

      Morgan leans in to kiss his wife on the lips and Casey tossed her thumb towards Spencer behind her. "Seriously, I think this one changed more diapers than I did and he's the germaphobe." Spencer nods at the comment. "Guilty as charged." He says. "If I can do it, you definitely can."

       "Did you guys decide to see what the gender is yet?" Garcia questioned. "We decided we wanna be surprised. I'd like to hear what you guys think it's gonna be though." Morgan tells as he begins to cut into the cake.

         "I, for one, think it's gonna be a boy," Casey starts in. "Think about it, a mini Spencer Reid's already running around, why not give him his mini Derek Morgan best friend?" 

        "And if it's a girl?" Vivian asks as she holds a plate, waiting for cake. "Then a mini gender-swap Casey Willows will be best friends with a mini gender-swap Derek Morgan." Casey concludes. "Good way of thinking of it, Ace. And as much as I love my godson, I don't want him setting foot near my daughter if I do have one." Morgan told as Casey rolls her eyes as she chuckles at Morgan.

        "Oh, hush." Savannah playfully swats at Morgan with her hand at his chest. "She's not dating until I'm dead." Morgan tells.

         After ten minutes of conversating, Hotch had told the team that they had to get ready for a case. Parents were dead and then a child abduction. Savannah had left and the team had luckily finished the cake after they debriefed over their case and headed to the jet.

        Hotch had finished getting off the phone with the PD and he walked to the seats and sat right next to Casey on the jet. "Ronnie Brewer is still missing. Both parents' eyes were filled with sand and glued shut."

      "Mr. Sandman, bring me a nightmare." Rossi comments. "This is a well organized unsub," JJ pointed out. "He managed to kill both parents, perform a complicated ritual, and successfully abduct the boy."

      "JJ's right. It's a lot of moving parts for one person to orchestrate. Could we be looking at a team?" Morgan asks. "This is reminiscent of the killing of the Clutter family in 1959, also in Kansas. That crime was perpetrated by two ex-cons working together." Spencer explained.

      "The 'In Cold Blood' murders." Rossi stated. "But wasn't that a robbery gone bad? It's unrelated." Casey said. "Well, assuming Ronnie Brewer was the ultimate target, why risk entering the home at all? I mean, wouldn't it be simpler just to grab the kid on the way to school?" Tara assumes.

      "Well, the abduction of the child from a place of presumed safety must be an essential part of his ritual." Hotch stated. "Who knows? Maybe the killer had a score to settle with mom and dad, too." Rossi told.

      "The sealing of the eyes could indicate remorse. He didn't want them to see what he was doing to their kid." Vivian spoke. "Then why not just kill them immediately?" Morgan asks. "Would've been easy if he had remorse on the family. Doesn't make any sense why he didn't." Casey comments. "He must have a reason for rendering the parents functionally blind first." Vivian adds.

      "You know, the sand in the eyes could be a purely symbolic gesture," Spencer spoke. "The Sandman was a mythical character who would sprinkle magic dust in the eyes of children while they slept."
      "Yeah, but I thought he was a benevolent figure, a bringer of good dreams." Tara said.
      "Not always. In one version of the myth, he would actually pop the eyeballs out of kids to use as food for his own offspring." Spencer explained.

      "Jeez, I stand corrected." Tara comments. "How is it that when you talk about stuff like that, it's even more grosser than any of our cases combined?" Casey questions and Spencer shrugs at his wife and Hotch sighs.

      "All right, when we land, Dave, you and JJ go to the crime scene. Reid, Willows and Lewis to the ME, and Morgan and I will get set up at the precinct." Hotch orders.

      Once they landed, Tara, Spencer and Casey all headed to the ME in Wichita and to Casey's surprise, it was the same ME coroner that worked there the last time they were in Wichita. "Good to see you again, Dr. Reid, Agent Willows."
     "Nice to see you." Spencer greets. "Been a long time." Casey adds.

     "Again?" Tara inquired, curiously. "Yeah, we had a case here four years ago." Spencer told, reminding Casey of the case filled with turbulence and tornadoes. "The tornado guy. That was one for the books." The ME stated. "Indeed it was." Casey adds, remembering it like it was yesterday.

     "So do we have a COD on the victims?" Tara asks as Spencer examines the bodies. "Mr. Brewer's was massive blood loss from a severed trachea, most likely a thin-bladed serrated knife." The ME told.

     "And Mrs. Brewer?" Casey asks, nudging her head towards the woman's body as she walks over to her. "Her skull was fractured. Some type of blunt-force trauma." The ME told as Spencer, Tara and the ME followed towards Mrs. Brewer's body.

      "It's highly unusual for a killer to use different weapons on different victims." Spencer stated. "Speaking of unusual, take a look." The ME nudged his head towards the microscope behind Spencer as he readjusts it as he looks into the lens.

      "Corneal tissue samples from the eyes of each victim. Mr. Brewer's on the left and Mrs. Brewer's on the right." The ME told. "Mrs. Brewer's has many more macrophages." Spencer spoke and then had both Tara and Casey take a look for themselves. "That's right. It's a natural immunological response to a foreign substance."

      "Huh. The white blood cells in Mr. Brewer's sample are completely normal." Tara points out.

       "Hold on. Rewind. Can someone explain it in English please for what this means?" Casey questions aloud. She knew she wasn't the smartest person in the room but she'd still like to be kept in the loop.

      "Plain English -- his eyes didn't react to the glue." The ME told and Casey nods as Tara responds with, "Plainer English -- he was already dead when it happened."

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        Ronnie Brewer's body was found on Prairie Creek Road and Morgan had confirmed himself that it was. Since then, Morgan couldn't seem to get that thought out of his mind as he and Spencer sat in the room by themselves.

       "The glue our unsub used is sold practically everywhere, so we can't isolate point of purchase. A mineral analysis from the sand, however, indicates that it came from the Seneca River in upstate New York." Spencer explained and once he turned over to Morgan, he realized he wasn't paying attention. At least Morgan would chime in with a sarcastic comment or at least pretend he was listening, but he looked focused and didn't say anything.

       Spencer kept his head turned to him and decided to ask, "You okay?" Morgan's head perked up and he nods, "Yeah." Spencer was aware that that was a lie. Morgan had been so caught up in the last six months, recovering from what happened. Spencer had pulled a chair closer to Morgan and at in front of him.

      "Morgan, we're gonna find the people who tried to kill you." Spencer assured but Morgan seemed more zoned out. "He was in his pajamas," Morgan said. "Ronnie Brewer. Out there by the side of the road, he was still in his pajamas."

       Spencer looked down, realizing this was more about Morgan's paternal instinct weighing in on his job now that he was about to be a father. Spencer went through that before and after Christopher was born. And so did Casey with Christopher and even Lennox. JJ when Henry was born. And even Hotch when Jack was born, too. It was only a matter of time before Morgan felt that way too.

       "I'm sorry, kid, I, uh, I don't know, man. Six months on the sidelines. I guess I still have a few blisters where I used to have callouses." Morgan told.

       Spencer shook his head lightly. "I don't think that's what this is." He said. "Oh, no? Then what is it?" Morgan asks.

      "You're about to be a dad, you know?" Spencer spoke as softly as he could to Morgan. "You have to expect the world to start to feel different. It came at me like a wave when Christopher was born. Things became different once he came into the picture. And it gets scarier... I know that much."

"It just feels so hard," Morgan sighed. "Not as in difficult. Literally hard. Like asphalt is hard. Like pavement."
"And children are soft." Spencer said and Morgan nodded at his words, "Yeah. Defenseless."

"That's why every day we try to make this world a little safer." Spencer said. He had to admit, before Christopher was born, he of course, was scared and didn't know how to recover from cases like these ones. It took time for him to realize that he could shield Christopher from the bad of the world, but what he could do was make it just a bit safer every day for him.

"If there's one thing I'm sure of, is that you and Savannah are going to be great parents." Spencer smiled a bit and Morgan looked at Spencer and joked, "Charge by the hour, Doc?" The two chuckle softly.

"How do you and Casey do it? I mean, you're surrounded by all the bad in the world. You're telling me it doesn't affect you?" Morgan questioned and Spencer looks down. "Truthfully, it does. And it does, a lot. But Casey and I, we do what we can do best and that is just doing our jobs. As parents and profilers."

Morgan nods at Spencer. He never would've thought he would be going to Spencer Reid for dad advice. And truthfully, Spencer never thought that either. Morgan was glad to have had people that understood the whole dad shebang. Hotch, of course, understood it with Jack. Then came Spencer with Christopher and then Rossi with his surprise daughter. He was the only one that didn't have a kid until now and he couldn't be anymore thrilled. He was glad to have people who understood it around him.

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In the middle of the night, another child abduction occurred and this time, the mother was left alive while the father was killed and the child was abducted. After delivering their profile, Spencer and Casey had discovered an hourglass perched at the crime scene that wasn't in the victims' houses beforehand. They then discovered the sand from the hourglass were human bone and tooth enamel.

Spencer and Casey had been in the conference room, looking through the file of the case and the phone had rung and Casey picked up once she realized Spencer wasn't gonna answer it. "Hello?" Casey asked.

"Hi, there." Garcia spoke over the phone. "Uh, I was trying to call Hotch, but it kept going to voicemail."

"He's still at the hospital with JJ. What's going on?" Spencer asked as Casey took a seat. "Okay, I did what man chocolate asked. I got this list. There are certain things that should never exist, and one of those is this depressingly long list."

"Does anything specific jump out at you?" Spencer asks curiously. "Aside from the horribleness of it all, no." Garcia admitted. "You know, send me all the police, hospital, and child services transcripts associated with the cases." Spencer told and Casey furrowed her brows at her husband.

"Everything on all of them?" Garcia questioned. "Yeah, I'll print out hard copies here." Spencer shrugged. "Okay. You're gonna need a forklift, and I hope you're using recyclable paper, but... on its way."

"All right. Thank you so much, Garcia." With that, Spencer hangs up and stands from his seat and Casey turns to him as he begins to walk away. "Don't forget about what I said about you stretching yourself too thin! You're thin enough!" Casey shouts as he walks out of the room.

Casey sighs as she stands up from her chair. "I gotta go get him coffee." She says to herself.

      In the end, Spencer had found someone through one of the files that Garcia sent over. They were in the middle of saving the child victim when they had found out that a little boy Spencer found was taken and his mother was had died if kidney failure but she was never claimed. Tara and Casey had discovered the hourglass dust had been her ashes. Rossi and Morgan had saved the little girl that was taken and in the end, had to kill Patrick Sorenson, their unsub.

      Casey was happy the case ended as went as it could and had gone back to the BAU to do some paperwork. Afterwards, she couldn't wait to go home and sleep the whole day off with her husband beside her. But what they didn't know was that the night was about to get a whole lot crazier and not in a good way.

i physically can't take the fact i have to write for this derek's departure episode next😭 i keep telling myself that i did it when emily 'died' and jj left but it's NOT THE SAME BECAUSE THEY CAME BACK💀

also i decided to include a little bit of derek and savannah's wedding since WE WERE ROBBED OF THEIR WEDDING WTF

me because i can't do this:

i'm just being an overdramatic bitch that's all lmao

i feel bad for rushing this but it's whateva
anywayssss
thank you guys for reading
i love you so much
and i cannot believe we have about five chapters of s11, then s12 and then onto the third adaptation of this series lmao
-mya </3333

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