CHAPTER EIGHTY: ACE !

11x18

━━━━━━

        CASEY WILLOWS KNEW HOW TO KEEP HER CALM IN MANY SITUATIONS. Of course, she was a profiler, she had to be that way to assure others that everything was okay. But the minute Garcia told her, JJ and Spencer that Savannah was in the hospital because she was shot, Casey immediately rushed to her desk and grabbed her coat and bag and rushed out of the office with Garcia, JJ and Spencer right behind her.

The entire team was informed about what happened to Savannah and of course, made their way to the crime scene, which was luckily in front of the hospital she worked in. So all Morgan did was carry her in and the doctors took care of her. It just didn't make any sense to Casey for why she was targeted but she knew it had something to do with the men that tried to kill Morgan. This was a warning.

        The team had arrived in two separate SUVs and were met with Rossi and a few police officers. "We need all vehicular and pedestrian traffic stopped in a 10-block radius." Hotch informed one of the officers as everyone jumped out of the SUV.

      "Hey, let me through, that's my team over there!" Morgan shouts, getting everyone's attention as an officer is holding him back where the caution tape is. "Get your hands off me. I'm FBI." Morgan argued, pushing the man.

      "Hey, hey, he's an agent. Let him through." JJ told the officer and he let Morgan through the scene. Morgan walks towards the team, who are all in a circle as they look around. "What the hell is wrong with them? Don't they know we're on this case?" Casey could tell Morgan was furious, of course, she would be too.

      "Yes, he knows," Garcia said patiently. "He just didn't know who you are. It's okay."

       Morgan looked towards Rossi, since he was the first to enter the scene. "Tell me you got something." Rossi looks towards the roof of another building. "A casing and a rifle up on the roof." Rossi said as everyone looked in the direction he was looking.

       "This guy isn't sloppy. He's sending us a message." JJ told. "Garcia, we need to access the surveillance footage." Hotch ordered the technical analyst, as she nods. "Of course. I'm on it." She heads into the hospital.

       Morgan looks back at the team. "What else we got?" He questions. "That's it right now." Rossi said.

     "Where were you and Savannah standing?" Spencer decides to ask. Morgan points ahead. "We were standing right over there on the side of my truck. We were just talking. She was to the back and I was facing her. I was the one who was vulnerable. I was the easy shot."

     "How is she, Savannah?" Casey decides to ask, considering the woman was like family. Morgan sighs, tears in his eyes. She'd never seen him like this before, so defeated. "She's in surgery." He said.

     "Come on, let's check in." Rossi tells and Casey nods along, "Yeah, we should." Both Rossi and Casey try to get Morgan to head back into the hospital. "You guys got this?" Morgan asks and Spencer nods as Hotch responds with, "Go."

      Rossi, Casey and Morgan all head into a secluded waiting room, which they know Morgan may need right now. "Metro PD's gonna secure all the windows and have an officer placed in front of Savannah's room 24/7." Rossi stated, hoping to make Morgan feel better.

      "Thanks." Morgan says. It's evident that his mind isn't very clear right now and Casey can see it.

       Garcia walks into the room. "I got us a conference room down the hall to work in, and I'm getting access to the security cams right now." She informs. "That's good." Casey nods.

      "You guys need coffee?" Rossi asks the three in the room. Garcia and Morgan say they don't need any but to get through this, Casey nods — "I'll take one. Extra sugar." She says. "You got it, kiddo." Rossi says as he exits.

       Garcia and Casey watch as Morgan paces in the room. "Tara's donating blood in case Savannah needs more. It turns out they're the same type." Garcia tells. "Yeah, Vivian's with her, right now." Casey adds.

       Garcia's cell buzzes and it's then that Casey realizes Morgan is covered in his wife's blood. Her heart breaks as he looks at his stained hands but she can't say anything, fearing that maybe he may snap at her if she even dares to mention it. "That's JJ, who I'm return texting. She and Reid are looking at the footage to see if there's anything."

        Garcia makes her way over to a seat. "Hopefully you are officially caught up now and I will continue to do so. Come on, sit." She pats the chair next to her for Morgan. He shakes his head at her.

      "When is someone gonna let me know they're gonna be okay?" Morgan questions to himself and Garcia stands up and faces him. "I totally feel you. You're not alone in this."

     "Just stop," Morgan tells the woman in front of him. "Please just stop. I can't take your blind optimism right now. It's not helping me. Just stop."

     Casey looks at Garcia as she is taken aback by Morgan talking to her like that. "Uh, Garcia, why don't you go to the conference room? Look at the footage." Casey gives her an out as Garcia nods and decides to leave.

       The minute Garcia is out of the room, Casey looks at Morgan. She knows that she can handle Morgan outbursts better than Garcia could.

       "Look, I get that you're stressed out right now with everything going on, but don't take it out on her. She's just trying to help." Casey tells. "We all are."

       Before Morgan can interject, Hotch walks into the room and closes the door behind him. Casey knows what's about to happen but she doesn't want to leave. "What's up? What do we got?" Morgan asks as Hotch steps closer and in front of Casey.

     "You can't investigate this." Hotch stated and Morgan is pissed off. Casey can tell as he tilts his head and asks, "Excuse me?"

     "You're a material witness in your wife's shooting and a target. And not just tonight, but for the past six months." Hotch reasons but Morgan doesn't wanna hear any of it.

      "Hotch, how can you, of all people, ask me to sit this out? You didn't back off when Foyet attacked your family." Casey looks at Hotch and suddenly realizes that the team has always used that against him. That she has used that against him. They all have when family was in danger. Casey can tell by Hotch's disgruntled look that he's unfazed by it but the hurt in his eyes tells her otherwise.

       "And how did that turn out?" Hotch reminded Morgan.

       Morgan's face stiffens and he realizes what he has just said. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I can't sit down and do nothing." Casey understands both sides. But when Morgan didn't have a clear head, it was dangerous. Dangerous for him and for other people involved.

      "Your job right now is to be a husband and a father." Hotch tells. Casey doesn't say a word. There's nothing to say since Hotch is saying it all.

     "Hotch, please. I have a skill set that can help find this son of a bitch." As Morgan practically begs, it makes Casey think if Spencer had fought like this for her. Or if she has done it for him. But she knows that even through the toughest of times, their heads are clear enough to solve their own disappearances, near-deaths and kidnappings. Morgan wasn't like that, he was different from both Spencer and Casey.

      "No," Hotch stated. "You're off the case."

      Casey knows what's coming. Morgan doesn't say a word to Hotch or Casey as he exits from the room, slamming the door open and throwing his arms against a rack in anger as he throws something across the room.

       Hotch and Casey both head to the conference room after what happened with Morgan and everyone is already in there — minus Tara. "How did he take it?" Spencer asks and Casey sighs as Rossi hands her her coffee. "Let's just say not lightly." She responds. "It was as expected." Hotch nods.

      "Sir, I know that when Morgan was on leave after his abduction, you encouraged him to stay away from the case." Garcia tells Hotch. "And let me guess -- he didn't." Vivian starts. "After going through something like that, I wouldn't rest until I found out who did that to me."

      "We all knew in our hearts it wasn't over, and, look, we were right, so in an extra-curricular kind of way we kept sleuthing to see who was working with John Bradley." Garcia told.
      "Before he came back to work, Morgan said that he'd found a connection between the men who held him at the cabin and the Montolo family." Hotch said.
      "Right. So, basically, we're dealing with a big crime family tree, of which Bradley was certainly a branch. And the Montolos had hired him multiple times." Garcia informs as Spencer leans over Garcia's shoulder as he points at her laptop. "Did you scan the drawing?" He asks. "Yeah, it's right here."

      "So, has everyone been working on this?" Rossi asks curiously at the team. Garcia, JJ, Casey and Spencer nod altogether with their responses.
      "Yeah, basically."
      "Kinda."
      "Pretty much."

       "Okay, with Morgan's research, plus our bad guys/gals tree here, we've cut all the legs off the evil table. So like look-- you got assassin, mother, father, siblings, all deceased, one aunt in therapy for family trauma, and each line is like that." Garcia tells as she points to the family tree on her laptop.

      "Montolo's line's the shortest of them all," Spencer pointed out. "The only living child of Chazz and Rosemary Montolo. Rosemary died when Giuseppe was just a boy." Garcia nods, "Right. And then Giuseppe went to live with his family in Italy, and Chazz went off to build a criminal empire."

       Rossi looks down at a file. "Looks like Chazz Montolo was killed last year." He says. "Yeah, in a bank fire in Germany. Got positive ID on the dental and fingerprints." Garcia says.

      "One week after his son was murdered," Vivian stated. "That can't be a coincidence." Hotch thinks for a moment, "Vivian's right," He said. "What if that's not a coincidence?"

      "So whoever poisoned the son also killed the father." JJ told. "Or he staged his own death so we wouldn't suspect him of this. Could be trying to avenge his son's death." Casey stated. "Yeah, but why Savannah? Why not kill Morgan?" Vivian asks.

       Garcia starts in again before anyone could respond to Vivian. "Hey, wait, wait, wait. I only ran facial recognition on living people for obvious reasons, but this guy right here, walking out of the hospital, this guy, that is... that's Chazz Montolo." Shivers descend down Casey's spine.

      "Garcia, play the footage." Hotch orders as Garcia does so. "All right. Garcia, contact the city, get access to traffic cameras. Now that we know he's here, we can find out where he went."

        Garcia's cell rings and she shakes her head. "Oh, wait, Morgan's calling me. I told him I'd keep him in the know before I knew it was an order that he wasn't supposed to know."

       "All right. Reid, you and Casey talk to Morgan. JJ, you, Vivian and Garcia track Montolo, find out who his accomplices are. He doesn't work alone. Dave, you and I will find potential witnesses who might have seen him on the property."

         Casey nods to Spencer, hating the fact that she got put on Morgan duty since she was just around him and he wasn't a delight the last time she did. Spencer and her decide to take turns at separate times to talk to Morgan. Casey ended up pulling the short straw of going first, which was probably a better idea. Seeing that she could be too stubborn when she was pushed to a limit and Spencer was always calm, cool and collected. That's why they worked best as a couple — they were different from one another.

          Casey had walked into the waiting room, seeing Morgan still pace. She knocks on the doorway as she enters with her nearly-empty coffee in her hand. "Hey." She greets. Morgan faces Casey. "Have you seen Garcia?" He immediately asks, not returning a simple 'hey' back.

"Uh, she's working on something right now." Casey tells as she makes her way over to the seats. "Sit." She nudges her head towards the seat next to her. Morgan shakes his head, not wanting to take a seat at all.

Casey takes a deep breath as she taps the styrofoam cup in her hands. She tries to find a way, a way for him to know that he's not alone in this. Casey had always known that her and Morgan were alike in many ways. She always had the comfort of knowing she wasn't alone in a traumatic situation as this one was.

"Do you remember when Spencer got shot in the neck?" Casey started and Morgan continued to pace. "How much of a wreck I was? How scared I was—?"

Morgan pauses his footsteps, facing the woman sitting down. "Can you stop trying to relate to me, please?" He spits out, causing Casey to look at him in shock that he's saying that. "It may work on families of victims but it's sure as hell not gonna work on me, so just... knock it off."

Morgan goes back to pacing and Casey almost had the right mind to just shut up right then and there but she wasn't gonna let him push her down like that like he always seemed to when he got in mood swings like this one.

"What I was trying to say before you rudely interrupted me..." Casey spoke, standing up in front of him. "Was that... I don't fully understand what you're going through, I don't. But I understand an extent of it. Because I was terrified when Spencer was taken to the hospital. But you helped me through it. You stayed with him, you assured to me that he was gonna be okay. So, I'm trying to assure to you that Savannah's gonna be okay. And I am trying to be there for you, but you're making it impossible." Casey stated.

"I don't need anyone to be there for me!" Morgan snaps. "I didn't need anyone either, but you were still there," Casey told. "And you may not wanna hear it but I just don't want you to feel like you're alone. Talk to us. We're there for you."

Suddenly, there's a soft knock on the doorway and Casey looks over to see Spencer holding a cup and nudging his head towards the outside of the waiting room for Casey to go. And Casey figured it may be best for her to do so. She didn't want Morgan to feel worse than he already did.

━━━━━━

JJ, Vivian and Garcia had discovered that Chazz Montolo had gone over to the payphone and was the one who informed Garcia what happened to Savannah. He also left behind a message. A small piece of paper where the payphone was. How does it feel? Do you see red? I see red. Was all it said.

JJ had finished hanging it up on the board in the conference room and Hotch noticed JJ's demeanor guarded and tense. "Are you all right?" He asked and JJ sighed and admitted, "I showed it to Morgan."

"What did he say?" Hotch asked. "Same as us," JJ said. "It's a taunt." Hotch furrowed his brows. "That's all?" He asked and JJ nods, "Mm-hmm. And I'm sorry. I thought it would help." Hotch shakes his head at her. "It's okay."

"Where are we with the motels and the SROs along the bus route?" Hotch decides to ask and Vivian decides to answer this one. "Mostly cash transactions, faceless tenants." "I'll get the Washington field office to canvass the area." Hotch walks out of the room. "I have mutuals there that can get us better access, I'll come with you." Vivian nods to Hotch as they both leave Rossi, JJ, Casey and Spencer in the room.

"Why leave a note so seemingly on the nose when every other action has been calculated for maximum pain? It has to mean more than simply 'I'm angry.' It's a clue or a symbol. It means something to Morgan and I think Chazz knows that." Spencer explained away.

"Well, he wants to drive Morgan to exact revenge." JJ stated. "How do you think he's doing?" Rossi asks. "Well, after the physical and emotional stress of six months ago, and now this? The guy's a saint." JJ told.

"He passed his return evals." Rossi points out. "Yeah, but we wrote the questions. He knows exactly what to say." Spencer stated.

"Morgan wouldn't go... too far, though... would he?" Casey questioned. "How do you think I would feel if it were you and Christopher on that table?" Spencer asks, looking down as he says that and Casey nods, "Right."

Casey wouldn't know what to do if she was in Morgan's shoes. It terrified her, the thought of losing a family member and becoming someone she hardly recognized. Seeing red. It made her think... could she have had that rage built inside of her? What would drive her to that point of being angry enough to push her team away and to take care of it herself.

Casey pushed the thought out of her mind. She thought about what happened with Adam Brody and his sister and how she dealt with her own return after all of that. Of course, they were dead and it eased her mind to know they weren't coming back. Unfortunately, Morgan didn't have that luxury with him being taken. His assailant was still around.

The team had regathered in the conference room and had tried to dig as deep as they could with Chazz Montolo's history. A doctor had come in and asked, "Where's Agent Morgan?" She questioned and Casey furrowed her brows as she turned over to Hotch. "He said you were calling him." He said. The doctor shook her head, "No."

"Well, then where is he?" Garcia questioned. "He wouldn't just go off on his own." Hotch looks towards Garcia's laptop. "Garcia, pull up security footage of the emergency entrance."

On the footage, they saw Morgan rushing out of the hospital and Morgan, Rossi, Vivian, JJ and Hotch had rushed down to the entrance and were met with nothing.

They soon arrived back and Hotch shook his head, "He's gone." He told. "GPS has him heading north about a mile away from the hospital and then he stops. Why would he stop?" Garcia questions as Casey looks intently at the screen, she's seated next to Garcia.

"He got rid of his phone." Hotch told. Garcia shakes her head. "No. No, no, no. That guy's trying to kill him. He's walking into a trap." Garcia tells. "My God, what is he doing?! He's running into a suicide mission!" Casey freaks out next, running a hand through her hair.

Casey couldn't even think clearly, knowing that Morgan was coming face to face with his own death. He was like a brother to her. It made her upset at the fact that he was putting his life in jeopardy when he had Savannah and his baby to think about. Casey felt Spencer put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She couldn't imagine him ever doing this, risking his life for revenge. He wasn't the type of person to do that. Casey grabbed his hand with hers, telling him she was grateful he did that.

"Morgan never calls me Aaron," Hotch starts. "Why would he start?"
"What else did he say?" Vivian asks.
"That of all people, I should understand." Hotch told.

"He was talking about Foyet." JJ said, reminding those who were in on the case nearly six years ago about the man who murdered Hotch's wife.

"Yes," Hotch spoke. "But he mentioned that earlier. Why would he bring it up again?"

"He wanted you to relate to his rage and back off?" Rossi wonders himself. "You did go rogue on Foyet when he had Haley and Jack. Maybe he wants to remind you of what happened. Why he's doing what he's doing." Casey explained.

"Is there any other relevance to Foyet?" Tara asks. "He attacked in my home. Maybe Morgan subconsciously let that slip." Hotch thought.

"Yeah, but Morgan's house isn't red." Garcia said. "Yeah, but he's renovated a lot of houses over the years." Spencer stated as his grip tightened on Casey's shoulder when he made a revelation. "What if it's one of those?"

Garcia had dug into the properties on her laptop and a few came up. "Wow, Morgan was busy. He has eight properties. He started renovating in 2001 right after 9/11." Garcia explained.

"I remember him saying he didn't know what else to do with his frustration. He thought tearing down walls would be a good start." JJ told. "He wanted to restore them so he could control something." Spencer said. "It's always been the one thing he's always been proud of." Casey added, crossing her arms.

"Could Montolo know about these houses?" Tara asks. "It's public record, so probably," Garcia says as she types into her laptop. "Uh, let's see. Morgan uses a service to rent out the properties. Here's one that's been rented for a while to a... C.R. Joseph."

"Joseph, C.R. Joseph, C.R. Joseph, C.R..." Spencer mutters to himself before a lightbulb goes off in his head. "Guys, Joseph is the English translation of Giuseppe. What if 'C' stands for Chazz and 'R' for Rosemary?"

"Do you have an image of the property?" Rossi asks. "I can find one." Garcia says and instantly, she finds one and the red door certainly gets their attention. Everyone immediately knows this is the house.

"Let's go."
"Address on your phones."

━━━━━━

The team had crowded into an SUV together. Rossi and Hotch at the front, Tara and JJ in the middle and Casey and Spencer in the back. Vivian had offered to stay with Garcia to look after Savannah and the baby since there wouldn't be space in the car for her.

As they drive to their destination, Hotch's cell rings and he answers it. "Go ahead, Garcia."

"I've got Morgan." Garcia informs, causing Casey to widen her eyes at the news. "Are you all there?" Morgan's voice patches through.

"Yeah, we're here. Are you alright?" Hotch asks.

"He's got a gun with two bullets." Morgan informs, a strain on his voice as he speaks. "Listen to me," He sounds like he's about to break. "I made a decision tonight that led me to this." Casey is brought back to the day Haley died. The similar circumstances.

Casey's grip tightens on her husband's hand as she listens with tearful eyes.

"This is my fault, you understand? No one else's. And if this is how it ends... it was meant to be." Casey shakes her head. This wasn't the end. Not for Derek Morgan. And if he dies tonight, she will spend the rest of her life feeling what he did. Seeing red.

"Don't say that." Garcia speaks. "Morgan, the team is almost there. Hold him off. Fight it." Vivian speaks as she also listens in.

"Promise me you'll look after Savannah and my baby." Morgan sobs.
"Of course we will, but so will you." Garcia says.

All of a sudden, a gunshot echoes and Casey jumps, flashbacks come back like a mosquito to a lightbulb as Casey turns her head away so as to avoid anyone noticing her tears. Her grip tightens on Spencer's hand, she's sure her knuckles are white.

"Derek? Derek?" Garcia questions. "Derek, are you there? Derek!" Vivian asks.

Hotch speaks up next. "He's not dead." He says.
"Hotch—" Rossi tries. "Until we see a body, he's not." Hotch argues and Casey is sure to see tears forming in his eyes.

Casey nods, wiping her own tears and they had finally arrived at their destination. Hotch and Rossi are the first to enter the house, followed by the rest of the team. Hotch has given Chazz Montolo over to the police and Morgan is alive, despite what they heard over the phone.

Spencer and Casey stand near Morgan. Spencer rubs Morgan's arm soothingly to let him know that he was okay. Casey then takes the opportunity to hit him across his chest. "You bastard!" She shouts as she does so.

"Ow! What was that for?" Morgan questions.

"Don't scare us like that again, you idiot! You have a wife and a baby that need you! As well as your team by the way. And if you ever pull a crazy stunt like that again, you call me, remember that." Casey reminded herself that whenever her and Morgan were paired together on cases, crazy shit happened.

"Come on," Hotch told Morgan. "You got a baby that needs delivering."

With that, the team made their way back to the hospital and made it there just in time for Morgan to be there for the birth of his baby.

━━━━━━

Casey stood closely to Spencer and Vivian stood close to Hotch as the team all debated and bet on if Morgan and Savannah were having a girl or a boy. Casey stood by the boy tangent as well as Spencer, Garcia, Hotch and Rossi. Tara, JJ and Vivian disagreed, thinking it was gonna be a girl. Tara and Rossi had money involved in the bet and so did Casey as a matter of fact, with JJ.

A couple of hours passed but the team stayed, wanting to hear the news of the little boy or girl and how Savannah was doing. Soon enough, Morgan had come out, wearing scrubs and everyone faced their attention to him and he had a content smile on his face as they awaited for the news.

"It's a boy!" Morgan announced and everyone instantly cheered. Garcia, Spencer and Casey were the first to rush in for a big hug and Morgan ended up hugging everyone individually.

Tara handed Rossi twenty bucks as JJ handed Casey thirty.

Once Morgan made his way to hug Casey, she comments, "Mini Spencer and Mini Morgan it is!" She smiles and she is happy to see the smile on Morgan's face again.

Soon enough, Savannah had come out on a wheelchair to introduce the baby boy to the team. "Oh, he's beautiful!" Casey says. "He looks just like you and Savannah." Spencer nods, putting an arm around his wife's waist.

Casey holds her arms out, making grabby hands as she asks, "Can I hold him?" She asks and Savannah nods, "Of course." Savannah holds the baby up as Casey bends forwards to pick him up out of Savannah's arms.

"Gentle— gentle, Ace!" Morgan tells.

"Morgan, I have a son. I know to be gentle with a newborn." Casey tells and she has the baby fully in her arms now. "Hi!" She says in a small baby voice. "Hi, little guy! Oh, you're just the cutest thing ever!"

Spencer smiles at the sight with Casey holding a baby, reminding him of when Christopher was born. Casey turns her head over to husband. "Can we make another one, please?" Casey questions to Spencer and he's almost taken aback that's she's asking in front of the team, putting him in the spotlight.

"We'll talk about it." Spencer assures. "I can settle with that for now." Casey smiled as she looked back down at the baby.

Of course, maybe in the future, it would be better to have a baby but as of right now, with everything going on with Christopher and Spencer's mother and Lennox being gone, maybe now wasn't the best time. But Casey hoped that eventually things would get better and soon enough, they'd have another one running around. This time, she wanted a mini Casey and frankly, so did Spencer.

The next few days were filled with many visitors to the hospital here and there. Spencer and Casey had decided to go and visit frequently.

When Spencer and Morgan had exited the room to go to the cafeteria, Casey stayed with Savannah and the baby. Casey looked at the baby in the incubator since he was a month early and held his tiny hands with gloves. "Oh, he's got a tight grip. I don't even think Christopher had that." Casey comments.

"Derek keeps fangirling about that." Savannah laughs, sitting up in her bed. "Have you guys discussed names?" Casey decides to ask.

"Ah, well, Derek wants to name him 'Hank' after his dad and I told him that that was perfect. It kinda suits him." Savannah tilts her head towards her son. "Little Hank..." Casey smiles. "And for the middle name..." Savannah starts as Casey looks over at her. "We, well, mostly me, decided on... Spencer."

Casey's heart warmed at the name. "Hank Spencer Morgan. Oh, Spencer's gonna love that." She says. "Derek wants to keep it a surprise until the birth announcement comes out so don't tell him just yet, but... yeah." Savannah smiles.

"Now, don't worry, when this happens a second time, years from now, you better guarantee we're naming our baby girl after you." Casey laughs as she responds with, "You know, Casey's a gender-neutral name." Savannah shrugs, "Yeah, well, I want my daughter being named after a woman that I admire. A lot." Savannah tells, making Casey smile even more than possible.

"You know, Savannah, if you wanna run away with me like right now, I'll pull the car up and we'll be out of the state by sunrise." Casey joked as Savannah chuckled.

━━━━━━

There comes a time when people decide to take time off from their jobs. Or they inevitably decide to leave it, simply because of a better offer, or maybe they don't seem to like their job as much or maybe they want to spend more time with family.

And in Derek Morgan's case, he had decided to send in his letter of resignation to Hotch, wanting to spend time with his own family.

Of course, Casey had seen this coming. A week ago, Morgan told both Spencer and Casey about this over dinner and in front of him, of course, express their happiness that he wanted to leave for the sake of his family but when they got home, were sad at the fact.

Now, it had been his last day at the BAU. JJ had already said her goodbyes to him and in the conference room, he noticed Casey, staring at the window and deciding to make his goodbyes over to her.

Once he made his way up to Casey at the conference room, Casey noticed someone come in and immediately wiped her eyes once she noticed it was Morgan. "Hey." She spoke, trying to mask the hoarseness of her voice.

"Hey." Morgan greets and hears Casey sniffle subtly but he was pretty damn good at his job that it wouldn't take a genius to know she was crying. "Are you crying?" He asks.

Casey immediately shakes her head. "No, I'm not. I got some... leaves in my eyes. It's really windy out there today." She makes up on the spot but Derek knows she's not telling the truth.

"Ace— "

Casey stands up and holds a hand to Morgan to stop him. "Before you speak," She starts as she approaches him. "Derek, I don't want you to leave, I really don't. And I know that sounds super selfish of me but... I know you have to and I'm happy for you. I really am." She says. "Because you're doing the one thing that I can't even bring myself to do." She looks around, tears forming in her eyes again. "It's just hard to say goodbye, you know?"

Morgan places a hand on Casey's shoulder. "You have always been one of the strongest people here, have I told you that?" He asks. "You've always been there for people and you were there for me even when I didn't want you to be." Casey smiles over the tears steaming down her face.

"And I know that one day, you're gonna take over this place. And you are gonna knock them dead." Casey looks at Morgan, tears forming in his eyes as well. "Make me proud, Ace." He says.
Casey nods, "I will."

With that, Morgan gives Casey a big hug and she feels herself squeezing him with her tiny arms around him, sad that he's leaving but happy for him and Savannah.

When Casey Willows had first met Derek Morgan, he was a wild, working, womanizer with the only agenda of hunting down the bad guys and kicking down doors. As Casey had gotten to know him over the years, he became a brother figure to her. Derek had always been very protective of Casey and he was one of the first people Casey told that she wanted to work for the FBI. Of course, there were times where they bumped heads, had prank wars against one another, had each other's backs, got into trouble when they were paired up on cases together. Hell, he was even the godfather to her son. Over the years, Casey knew him to be one of the strongest men she'd ever encountered. And it was about damn time he finally got a happy ending.

"I'm gonna miss you, Ace." Morgan tells.

"I'm gonna miss you, too, Derek." Casey says and finally pulls away. "And don't forget... play dates... every week when he's old enough to. Okay? And Savannah, I'm always there for her if she needs me." Morgan nods at the woman and smiles.

Morgan's head turns over to the bullpen and he sees Spencer, looking up at the two and walking away once Spencer notices. Casey watched as he does so and looks at Morgan.

"He's happy for you, he truly is. But you know how he is with change." Casey says. "Yeah, I know." Morgan nods.

The time had come where Derek Morgan had finally left the BAU. The team had been in the conference room, going over a new case and Spencer had stared ahead as he watched the man leave the building.

Casey had seen this happen and reached over for her husband's hand. "You okay?" She asks and Spencer nods and holds his wife's hand, "I'm okay." He tells and Casey takes a deep breath as she starts, "I miss him already, too."

i hate that with the amount of times i watch this episode i still bawl like a baby

here's a photo from the very first time i did watch it back in 2021

those are the tears of literal pain😭

anyways here's a meme to make you feel better

casey always be defending her girl garcia fr

anywayssss
now that the pain is out of the way
we have four more episodes left of s11 that i am writing and boom we'll be done with s11 and onto s12 :(

get ready for the rollercoaster of emotions because s12 is gonna hurt
thank you for reading i love you all :)
-mya </33