CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE: SICK DAY !

⚠️ mentions of puke and sickness!

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CASEY WILLOWS ABSOLUTELY HATED THROWING UP WHEN SHE WAS SICK. She hated feeling the bile in the back of her throat, puking up the contents of her stomach in the toilet. And here she was doing exactly that.

Hunched over the toilet, only wearing a oversized tee and underwear, puking over and over as her husband held her hair back behind her, rubbing her back soothingly telling her to let it out. Casey cried over the toilet, repeating over and over, "I'm sorry, Spencer. I'm sorry."

Continuing to rub her back, Spencer shushed her and shook his head. "Hey, stop apologizing. You're sick. It's normal." Casey rested her elbows on the toilet seat and sobbed into her hand. "No, but I'm gross and germy. And you hate germs." Spencer pulls some of her hair behind her ear, trying to shush her. "I don't hate your germs." Spencer tells, trying to make her feel better.

Casey wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. "I think I'm okay now." Casey sniffles as she flushed the toilet and Spencer helps her stand up and they slowly make their way over to their bedroom.

"Told you you shouldn't have eaten that leftover pork." Spencer said in a 'told you so' manner. "I was hungry!" Casey groaned as Spencer led her gently into bed and tucked her into their bed.

Casey had gotten a good old case of food poisoning after eating leftover pork they had in their fridge. Little did Casey know, the pork wasn't cooked all the way through. And so, she's been puking her guts out for two solid days now.

          Spencer cups Casey's face into his hands and tsked. "You're still burning up." He points out. "I am never ever eating anything from that Thai restaurant ever again. I don't ever get sick." Casey speaks as Spencer grabs Casey's glass water beside her bed and tilts the straw over to her so she could sip out of it. "Well, you're sick today."

After Spencer puts her drink down, Casey begins to cough a little bit and Spencer brings the trashcan up by the side of the bed in case she needs to puke again. Casey shakes her head and puts her hand on her chest to breathe properly.

Spencer's cell begins to go off and Casey sighs, knowing what it's about. "Seriously? We get called in for a case when I'm in bed dying?" Spencer looks over at his wife. "Technically, I got called in for a case. You're staying home because you're sick."

Casey sniffles as Spencer pats Casey's thigh over the covers to make a few phone calls. In about fifteen minutes, Spencer comes back, getting ready for work as Casey's lying in bed. "Isaac's gonna spend the night here for a few days so he can look after Chris and you can rest." He informs.

Casey sighs, "So not fair." Spencer sits beside her in the bed. "What's not fair is your 102° fever." He tells. "Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital?"

The woman shakes her head, adamant against it. "I just need bed rest and fluids. That's all." She assures. Spencer sighs, going to pat Casey's thigh over the covers again. "I'm sorry I have to go."

"You have to do your job, I get it." Casey shrugs and then looks over at the table next to her. "I still don't understand why I need a bell?" She holds it up. "It's just in case you need something from Isaac while I'm gone. More water, if you need to puke again or have your trash-bag changed." Spencer lists. "And you know, replacing lost fluids and electrolytes is the most important treatment for food poisoning. Eating saltine crackers can also help replace electrolytes."

"Is it bad that I want you to call off work?" Casey asks. "I want to, I still can." Spencer offers but Casey shakes her head. "No, it's okay. I'd feel guilty if you weren't a part of a case."

Spencer goes in to lean into Casey for a kiss but she pushes him away. "Nope, I still got puke breath." Spencer sighs as he backs away. "That's probably for the best." He settles with holding her hand instead, interlocking their fingers together and deciding to kiss her warm skin on the back of her hand.

"Now, you gotta go." Casey tells. "Go save someone and kick someone's ass." Spencer chuckles and stands, giving one last 'I love you' and goodbye to Casey, telling her to get some rest.

          With that, Casey had taken a day, trying to sleep her sickness off. Isaac left her alone and Spencer texted Casey a few times, asking her if she was okay. She had only gotten up once in the middle of the night to puke but she felt better after she had done so.

          It had been the next day and there was finally a moment where she woke up due to a knock on the door and it had been Isaac behind the door. "Special delivery." He announces, holding a tray.

          Casey sits up a bit and checks her alarm clock on the nightstand, revealing it's five o'clock in the afternoon. "Chicken noodle soup, Gatorade and saltine crackers, per the doctor's orders." Isaac tells, placing the tray right in front of Casey and she takes a breath, sniffling. "Thank you." She tells.

        "Jeez, how many tissues are you using?" Isaac asks, noticing the wadded tissues of dried snot on the bed. "Not enough," Casey mentions. "It's keeps leaking like a faucet." She blows her nose into an already used tissue, making Isaac grimace in disgust.

        Casey looks into the tissue and makes a face. "Why do I always look?" She questions.
  
         Isaac exits the room for a minute and goes to get some gloves and a trash can. He cleans up Casey's bed, every so often checking in on Chris, who's watching TV and playing with his toys.

        Once the tissues are discarded, Isaac notices Casey take a few sips of her soup. "Thank you for watching Chris for me." Casey tells Isaac as he sits on the bed. "Yeah, of course. I enjoy it. I already had a few days off from the school, so... a distraction is nice." Isaac admits.

        Casey furrows her brows. "Why?" She decides to ask.
Isaac gulps, looking and picking at the fabric of the blanket. "Um... today's Mom's... birthday." He reveals, causing Casey's eyes to widen. "Oh, God." She mutters. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea." Casey grabs Isaac's hand and he shakes his head.

       "I decided to take a few days off so I know how to deal with it, you know? Leah's got her boyfriend and... I don't really know what I have." Isaac shrugs. Casey finds herself relating to her brother, knowing what it's like to be young and lost. She's been down that route plenty of times to know.

        Casey clears her throat, "Isaac," She starts. "You're twenty-three years old. About to be twenty-four. You have your whole life ahead of you to find what you need. It took me about half my life. And now I'm almost... thirty years-old and I have just about everything I need right now." Casey takes a pause at the realization of her age. She's been told plenty of times her entire life that she's an old soul and it's weird to think that she's a pretty old soul now.

       "You have time to figure stuff out. And things with your mom... that pain... it's never gonna heal. But what you can do is fight to keep going. Your mom would want that." Casey thought to herself, knowing that maybe her mom and Isaac and Leah's mom are watching out for their children below, comforted in know that they all have one another now.

        "And here I thought your husband was the smarter half of you two." Isaac jokes, causing Casey to chuckle a bit.

       A couple of days had finally passed and of course, Casey was still getting over her sickness. She'd like nearly two times a day and it eventually subsided to one puke a day. Spencer had called as often as he could and spared the gory details of the current case to Casey.

       Around the night Spencer was supposed to come home, Casey had decided to send Isaac back to his house so he could get some proper rest and assured him that she was okay enough to look after her son. Casey had even decided to hop in the shower and brush her teeth to get that puke smell off her breath. She had to at least brush three times before she could finally stop smelling it.

        Isaac had already put Chris to bed before leaving and Casey had been in her own bed, reading and trying to find a way to eventually fall asleep. It seemed like she was never gonna sleep and suddenly, small footsteps headed towards her open door. "Mom?" Casey sat up and saw her son in space pajamas, rubbing his tired eyes.

       "Yeah, bud?" Casey asked. "What's going on?" Christopher looked at his mom. "I-I had a bad dream." Christopher admitted and Casey gave him a solemn look. "Oh, come here." She ushers him over to her and she sits up fully.

        Christopher climbs on the bed and into his mother's arms, laying down in her lap on his side. Casey began to rub and slowly pat his back as she comforted him. "I get bad dreams too." She admitted.

         Casey stayed sitting up, holding her son in her arms and rubbing his back to assure him that he was okay and that Mom was there to help him until he fell right back to sleep. This seemed to soothe Chris, slowly making him fall asleep.

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         The case was a tough one. Of course, the ones with kids always were. And now that Spencer had a kid, those kinds of cases took more of a toll on him. He knew what the parents were feeling when told their child was gone. He hated the looks on their faces.

         Spencer rubbed his eyes as he entered his apartment, dropping his keys on the table next to the door and his brown leather satchel next to the door. He looked around, seeing that Isaac was nowhere to be seen and that the apartment was clean.

          Spencer slowly headed towards the back of the apartment where him and his wife's bedroom was. The first sight he had seen was one he wanted to always replay in his mind. His wife, sitting up on their bed, holding their son, rocking him back and forth, rubbing his back and whispering assuring words to him.

           Casey had soon looked up, noticing the presence in the doorway and had seen it was her husband. "Hey." She smiled a bit. "Hey." Spencer greeted, walking towards his wife. The first thing he did was sit down and feel his wife's forehead. "You feeling better? You broke your fever." His hand then trailed to her arm.

          "I'm, uh, puking less... so, I'm feeling a lot better." Casey admits. Spencer nods and looks down at his son in his wife's arms. "What happened with him?" He decides to ask.

          "He had a nightmare, so he came in here. I told Isaac to go home since I was feeling a lot better." Casey tells. Spencer nods and it's quiet for a moment before Casey speaks again, "How was the case?"

          Spencer sighs, not saying a word, only looking at his son. Casey can only gather one thought. "Kids?" Spencer nods, looking down. "It was one of those tougher ones." He admits.

         Spencer sits more on the bed and begins to run a hand over his son's locks. "Sometimes, it just makes me wish we could... lock him up so he can never ever learn the bad of the world. I don't ever want him to experience anything that bad in his life. Ever." Spencer sniffles a bit. "He's my perfect thing. I don't ever wanna lose him."

         "I know," Casey speaks. "I don't either. But he's got us. And he's got you. Because you are... probably his favorite parent." She admits and Spencer shakes his head, a smile creeping up on his lips, "That's not true."

         "And why do you say that?" Casey asks.
         "Because he's not laying in my arms right now." Spencer tells.

          "You see his sleepy face?" Casey leans back a bit as she whispers. "That's the face of somebody that's safe. And he is safe. And he loves you with all of his heart. He's our perfect thing." Spencer nods, still running his hand through his hair.

         Eventually, Christopher's nose scrunches up and Spencer backs his hand away, in awe of his own creation. "I'm gonna go put him back in bed." Casey decides, trying to sit up and Spencer stops her. "Uh-uh. Last time I checked, you were still sick. Give me him." Casey sighs as she gently hands Chris over to Spencer.

          Despite being tired, Christopher wraps his arms around his dad, leaning his head on his dad's shoulder and wrapping his tiny legs around him. Spencer carried him over to his bed and turned his night-light on in case he got scared again.

         Spencer arrived back in their bedroom, seeing Casey settle down back in bed. Spencer walks towards the edge of the bed, then slowly crawling towards Casey on the bed. He finally makes his way to her, face-to-face with her, hovering over her. "Do I get that kiss yet?"

        "I brushed my teeth three times just so you could." Spencer smiled and gave Casey a kiss. He eventually got off of her and stood up to dress into his PJs.

         Casey watched as he got undressed, noticing his toned body muscles facing towards her. He had found himself in flannel PJ pants and no shirt, adding some glasses to his refreshed look after coming out of the bathroom. He had his back turned towards her as he was folding his clothes to lay them on his dresser for the next day.

          Casey had seen his back muscles flex as he'd done this, smiling to herself after finding herself staring. She couldn't help it, look at him!

          The Willows woman smiled as widely as she could, hiding her face in her book without drawing attention to herself. She couldn't believe she had this life with this guy.

        Casey Willows only ever considered herself lucky just a few times in existence, but one of those times she knew that forever and always that she was indeed lucky was when she ended up with Spencer Reid.
     

here's a lil cutesy one lol
this one's not really too much of an original, more like a one-shot blurb but yea
anywaysssss

me knowing what i have planned😁:

lmaoooo anywayssss
thank you for reading!!!
we are going to do an episode and then we're going straight to an original after the episode lol
already loving s12 hehehehe

i love you all!!
-mya </3