CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT: ALRIGHT TO FIGHT !

12x04

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        SINCE VIVIAN HAD SENT IN HER LETTER OF RESIGNATION, EMILY HAD COME BY TO TAKE OVER FOR THE TIME BEING. She had currently taken over Hotch's office and Casey had gone up to greet her before going back downstairs to see her husband, spinning in his chair.

       "Yes!" Spencer cheered, tapping onto his desk rhythmically and he spun in his chair. Rossi approached him as did his wife. "Am I interrupting a private moment?" Rossi asked. "Someone's a happy boy." Casey teased.

      Spencer stopped spinning and looked at the two. "That was the director of the assisted care home where my mother lives."

      "And?" Rossi asks.

      "I kept quiet because I didn't want to jinx it, but there's a groundbreaking clinical study on Alzheimer's at Johns Hopkins next month, and I just found out that my mom's gonna be one of the participants. She got in."

      "She got in? That's great!" Casey smiled. Of course, she knew about the clinical trial and kept quiet for her husband but she was happy to know that she got in.  "That's great news, Spencer." Rossi nods.

       "It's huge," Spencer tells. "The program's called metabolic enhancement for neuro-degeneration, and results from earlier tests are hopeful, not just to slow the disease but to actually reverse it. Yeahhh!" Spencer cheered loudly, causing a chuckle to escape from his wife's lips.

        "I'm so happy for you, baby!" Casey smiled as Spencer stood up, peppering his wife's face with kisses and then pulling away almost immediately. "Sorry, sorry, I got a little, uh, little carried away, I just can't believe she got in."

         Garcia then approached the three. "Okay, it's customary that the lottery winner shares that mega-payout with the rest of the office."

       "Well, Reid's news is even better than that." Rossi tells. Garcia's jaw then drops. "Oh, my god. Are you pregs again?" Casey and Spencer immediately tell the woman, "No, no." Casey then speaks, "That may get him a little more excited that this."

       "Oh. I can't wait to hear then, but right now we got a case." Garcia admits and the three follow behind her as they go into the conference room.

      "Just spoke to Hotch. He's still on TDY but available for consulting if we need him." Rossi tells as he, Casey and Spencer all sit down.

       "Okay, so for those of us who kvetch about our AM commute, this will put it in perspective. This AM a Virginia State Trooper discovered a bag of dismembered body parts. They were with a homeless man's belongings. That homeless man then fled into the mountains."

       Casey's eyebrows furrow. "Wait, you're not talking about the—?" Emily interjects, "The Appalachian Trail." Both Spencer and Casey exchange a look with one another. Of course this was a case they remembered. The unsub was a pedophile, who's preference was younger boys but he had kidnapped two children, a boy and a girl and taken them into a cave near the Appalachian Trail. Casey and Spencer had remembered being on standby at the PD while the others were in the woods.

      "Am I, uh, missing something?" Luke asks. "We had a case in the same general area six years ago." Spencer reveals. "The unsub was never caught," Casey added. "Although, the bastard should've been."

      "That guy was a pedophile," Rossi tells. "Do the body parts in Virginia belong to a child?"

      "They do not." Garcia shakes her head. "Well, if there's a silver lining in this, that would qualify." JJ points out.

      "The trail does have some history. In the early 1980s, Randall Lee Smith killed two hikers there. He served 15 years, got released, then went back to the exact same spot and tried to kill two more people." Spencer explained.

      "Maybe there's something in the water." Rossi spoke. "And that is why I never go hiking." Casey nods.

      "Saving body parts is like collecting souvenirs, right?" Luke asks. "That's one possibility. It could also be a forensic countermeasure." Emily answers. "Or he's keeping them as trophies." JJ tells.

      "Well, homeless people often suffer from crippling mental illness. I mean, is it possible he stumbled across the body and then collected the limbs?" Tara guessed. "You mean like a hoarder." Rossi stated and Tara nods, "Yeah, maybe."

       "Compulsive irrational gathering of objects is a common psychosis among the long-term homeless." Spencer tells as Rossi's cell goes off and he checks it. "Flushing people out of terrain like this is tough. I mean really tough. We all know that Eric Rudolph evaded capture in this same wilderness for over five years." Luke explained.

      "Preliminary ME report..." Rossi holds his phone out as JJ and Casey peer over his shoulders to see what he's looking at. "The body parts came from at least five different victims."

      "Well, that settles that. The unsub didn't stumble on anything. He's serial." JJ spoke. "This happened less than 90 miles away. It'd be quicker to drive." Casey tells.

       "Our local ME isn't equipped to handle all this, so the body parts are being sent to the coroner here. Prentiss, you and Reid, you head out there. The rest of us will set up at the crime scene." Rossi decided for the team.

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         The team had set up where the crime scene was. Luke had collected up some search dogs for the scene and later on, Tara and Luke had been attacked by a man who they believed was the unsub. They had taken him into custody where Emily and Luke would be questioning them. Spencer had eventually met up with them at the crime scene and they had discovered another man that had been killed by the unsub and they reached the conclusion that their unsub had killed the man before they finally got him.

         They were right outside of a gas station while JJ and Casey were gathering up details of the victim and had come back outside to tell Rossi and Spencer.

        "The victim's name is Howard Walker. He was picking up pizza and beer for the family dinner." Casey told the two.
"We're a half mile or more from where Lewis and Alvez apprehended the unsub." Spencer pointed out.

       "It's a long way to transport the victim if he doesn't have a vehicle." JJ tells. Spencer's cell had gone off and he went to go and check it and stepped away from the team as he picked up a call.

      "Well, we disrupted his normal routine. He may have been forced to take Walker elsewhere." Rossi told and suddenly, his phone had gone off as well. "We're only, what, a couple hundred yards to the treeline?" JJ asked. "He may have dragged him there.

      "Well, we'll search the area, bring the dogs back in." Rossi checks his phone. "Lab results. DNA in that muzzle we found, it matches one of the original five victims." JJ sighs, "The unsub must make them wear it."

        As Rossi and JJ continue to talk, Casey can't help but notice her stiff husband. His back facing towards her as he had began to finish getting off the phone. Once he hung up, Casey spoke up. "Hey," She said and Spencer looks at his wife. "You okay?"

       Spencer has a look on his face and he lets out a very unconvincing, "Yeah." This causes his wife, JJ and Rossi to give him a very unsure look and this causes Spencer to give in. "No," He tells. "That was the Las Vegas police. I guess they found my mom wandering around a casino near her living facility. She didn't know who she was or how she got there."

      "Is she okay?" Casey asks and Spencer nods, "Yeah. They put her on the phone. She sounded normal, just obviously embarrassed, you know, by all the fuss." 

      "You should go." Rossi suggests to Spencer. "I can't do that. We're right in the middle—" Rossi interrupts Spencer.
"Hey. We'll be fine here. Go."

      "Rossi's right, Spence. This is a priority." JJ nods and Casey nods right along with them and she knows that if she encourages Spencer to go and see his mom, he'll go and see his mom. "We'll be fine. Okay? You go and see her. She needs you." Casey assured, grabbing his hand.

      Spencer nods, taking in his wife's words. "Okay. Thanks.
I'm gonna go to the M.E.'s office and grab something for Prentiss, but I'll leave first thing in the morning and spend a day or two."

     "You take all the time you need." Casey assures, pecking him on the lips and squeezing his hand before he goes. "All right. Love you." Casey nods at him, "Love you, too."

      As he goes to take one of the SUVs back, Casey turns to Rossi and JJ. "Has it been like that for a while now?" JJ wonders. "A lot more recently. Ever since the Alzheimer's, it's one thing after the other. Which I don't mind. At all. I'm just worried about him." Casey reveals.

       Ever since he found out his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Spencer had been trying desperately to send her rehabilitation clinics so that they could find a cure and help her get better. He'd been doing the same thing with Christopher and his doctors, trying to send him to wellness camps at his age and getting advice from doctors and taking it way too literally. Casey loved him, of course, but she worried about his own health — mentally and physically and what this was bringing him. Of course, she worried about him but he was lighting the candle at both ends and she didn't know when he was going to stop eventually. It worried her, wondering if he ever was going to. It had been one thing after the other and it made her wonder if he was doing this to prevent him from having some type of condition or disease and trying to make it go away. But he didn't understand that it wouldn't just go away like that. She hoped that maybe seeing his mom would hopefully relieve him in a way.

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       After catching their true unsub, Spencer had stayed for the remainder of the case. Casey had finished packing up her desk for the night and looked at her husband. "Hey, doc? When do you leave?" She wonders.

      "Tomorrow morning at 7:00." Spencer tells and before the two can join hands and walk together, Spencer's work phone on his desk begins to ring.

       "You go ahead. I'll meet you at home." Spencer tells Casey. "You sure?" She asks. "Yeah, I'm sure. Go ahead." Spencer nods. "I'll see you at home, love." She blows a kiss towards her husband as he cheekily smiles at his wife before picking up the phone.

         Casey had taken the car home, knowing Spencer always preferred the Metro back. She arrived back at home, talking to Leah for a few minutes before saying goodbye. Casey had tried getting Christopher to bed since he was jumping up and down like a monkey but failed at doing so.

          And of course, tonight was his dad's night to put him to bed. And soon enough, Spencer had arrived back at home just fifteen minutes after she did and when they said their hellos, it was evident Spencer's mind was full. But Casey left it alone until he went to go put Christopher to bed.

         Casey had changed into her pajamas soon after. A t-shirt tank and a pair of pajama pants and had currently been waiting and reading in bed until Spencer finally came into their room and closed the door behind him.

       "How was he?" Casey asked. "Out like a light." Spencer tells as he sits on the bed, his long legs on the floor as he pulls his shoes off, revealing his mismatched socks and Casey closes the book and plops it down beside her. "Come here." Casey made her way across his side of the bed as she pulled his body closer to her, his back pressing against her chest as she took his jacket off and began to lay soft kisses on his back.

       Casey continued to kiss him, trying to comfort him in the best way she could. "What are you thinking about?" She decides to ask, noting to his somber look. "About my mom," Spencer reveals sadly. "She didn't get into that trial."

       Casey stops the kissing and pulls away from him. "I thought she did." She wondered and Spencer turned his back only slightly to her. "Budget restraints," Spencer admitted. "The study had to randomly reduce the number of participants and my mom's name was drawn."

     "Oh, I'm sorry, baby." Casey said sadly, wrapped her arms around his neck and to his chest and held onto him. "Well, you can still go to Vegas. Spend more time with her." She tells, kissing his head.

      "It's important that I stay here and try and find something else." Casey had known where this was going and just wanted him to stop and take a break. "There's a study coming up with Paul Stanfield at the Anderson clinic in Houston..."

      Casey continued her kissing, going to his neck and to his shoulders. "Mhm." She mumbled, trying to disinterest him immediately with her lips. She began to keep kissing at his neck, knowing that his soft spot was right there.

     "And I have a good feeling about this trial. And I've been looking into some for Christopher, rehab facilities and they help with chemotherapy treatment and—"

       This was when Casey finally had enough. She had been way too patient with Spencer and now this was eating her alive. She just wanted one night where they didn't just talk about clinical trials, what to do and how to access cures and prevent what was happening to his mom and Christopher. She didn't want to think about it for one night but it was evident Spencer did. She pulls away and groans, "Jesus, Spencer." She lays on the bed, facing away from him.

      Spencer's confused at what he did and furrows his brows, facing towards his wife. "What? What's wrong?" He places a hand on her hip and draws himself closer to her.

       Casey takes a deep breath, knowing she overreacted about this. She decided to push her feelings down for the night and hopefully they could just go away and they'd move on and never talk about it. "Nothing." She tells.

      Spencer gets closer to Casey, his breath on her stomach, resting his chin on his hip. "Tell me what's wrong." He pushes. "It's nothing." Casey answers.

     "Casey—"
     "I said it's nothing, Spencer." Casey snapped, hoping that Spencer could just get the hint but it was obvious that he didn't. "Talk to me." He tells and makes her face her body to him. "Hey, we haven't lacked in communication in a while and we're not about to start again."

       Casey realized that they now talked about their problems and that they were open to one another and if Spencer wanted her to be honest, honest is what he would get. So, Casey sat up and so did Spencer on the bed.

      "Spencer, I get that you wanna help your mom and Christopher... but... you're lighting the candle at both ends. You have to realize, you can't... fix everybody." Casey tells and Spencer looks down, knowing where the conversation is headed. "I know." He tells.

     "Do you, Spencer? Because you have been stressing yourself out with your mom and Chris and finding places that could 'fix them'. These trials... you're making them guinea pigs." Casey admitted and Spencer shook his head, not looking his wife in the eyes. "Don't put it like that— like they're toys." He says.

      Spencer turns away as Casey tries to continue. "What I'm saying is that maybe you need to give it a break. Christopher is getting as much help as he can with all the doctor visits. The doctors say he's looking good. And your mother— she's a grown woman who has accepted what's happened to her."

      Spencer then turns to Casey. "So you're telling me to-to give up? On my mother? On our son?" He questions, his voice raising slightly.

     "I'm not telling you to give up. But there is not much you can do besides what all of the doctors are already doing." Casey reminds. She knows that the doctors are doing what they can and with Spencer being the know-it-all that he is, he wants to help too, in other ways.

      Casey tries to go and hold his hand but Spencer shakes her off and stands up, facing Casey. "I can't believe you'd say that. It's like you're giving up."

     "I'm not giving up. I'm being reasonable. You can't spend the rest of your life, nursing everybody back to health. It's physically impossible." Casey told, her voice raising now.

     "You have no idea what it's like to worry about your family. You hardly had anybody before I came into the picture, remember that. You have no idea what this is like." Spencer had finally snapped.

       Casey looked up at her husband, feeling like a small child that just got reprimanded. She's in shock of what just came out of Spencer's mouth and she can't believe he even said that to her. She hasn't been this dumbstruck ever since he called her a tramp nearly five years ago. The fact that he said that she had no idea what this was like made her stomach churn. She actually did know, but he never bothered to ask for her opinion on anything anymore. He assumed she'd just go with the flow but she always tried to make it obvious that she didn't.

      Spencer looked down at his wife and realized the words that just came out of his mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He never ever got like that with her. And he hated how he spoke to her just now.

     Casey shook her head and scoffed at her husband, standing up from the bed. "Casey... I—" Spencer tried but Casey obviously had none of it. Casey grabbed her pillows from her side of the bed and headed towards their door.

     "What are you doing?" Spencer asked.

      "I think I'm gonna sleep in the guest room tonight, leave you to your thoughts." Casey told as she opened the door.
      "Casey, I didn't mean it. Casey—"

       Casey didn't bother to listen. She opened the door to the guest room and slammed it shut, hoping that she didn't just wake her son up.

       Casey had never gotten into a bad argument like this with Spencer before. Maybe one other time but she had never ever had to sleep on the couch or the guest room. Usually, that was the guy's job but she needed to get away from Spencer for the night. She might just kill him.

        The woman had turned towards the bed, thanking herself for putting a throw blanket on the bed. She placed her pillows down on the front side of the bed and gathered the throw blanket over her body. She laid her head down on the pillows and took a whiff of the air.

        The smell of pumpkin and fresh daisies reminded Casey of Lennox. She wondered how the girl she and Spencer almost adopted was. It had been a while since they heard from her and a while since she had heard from them. They figured it'd be better for Lennox to move on as best as she could and with everything going on with cases and Spencer's mom and Christopher, life was getting in the way. Which was understandable and it was nobody's fault. But Casey missed the girl dearly.

         Casey's eyes filled with tears and she let out a few soft cries, turning away from the door. How could Spencer have said all those things to her? She started this, it was her fault. So many things ran through her mind. Blaming herself, blaming Spencer, blaming the world.

        Spencer stood outside the door, listening as Casey let out her quiet sobs. His heart broke hearing her, but he knew he took it too far. He stepped away from the door and to their room, keeping the door open in case Casey wanted to come back.

It's been a few hours since Spencer and Casey had gotten into their fight at 10:51pm. It was now 2:07am and neither one budged. Spencer had been tossing and turning in the bed all night, feeling empty just like Casey's side of the bed was. It felt wrong to be trying to sleep without her by his side. Spencer sat up, contemplating for moments and stared at the door next to their room. He knew what he said was bad and that he did need to apologize.

So, Spencer stood up, grabbing one of his sweaters from his dresser as he put it on and walked towards the door with his heart in his hand. He closed his eyes and took a breath, knowing this could go one of many ways. He hesitantly knocked on the door, hoping he didn't just wake her up but truthfully, Casey couldn't sleep either.

Her body had faced away from the door and she kept attempting to sleep but couldn't. "Casey? Are you awake?" Spencer whispered as he opened the door. Casey hummed at him and opened her eyes.

Casey felt the bed dip and she turns her head towards him before turning back and making sure he didn't see her tear-stained cheeks but he did, because he ended up crying earlier, too.

Spencer had started by grabbing Casey's hand and holding it, rubbing his thumb up and down her knuckles. "I'm sorry about what I said." He begins. "I didn't mean it. And I know that I have to take a break but the truth is, if I do take a break, I'm worry about what's gonna happen if I do. I mean, what if Christopher has a seizure again? What if my mom gets worse?" Casey looked down at their joined hands, trying to see it in a way he did.

"I'm just exhausted and I'm tired and I know that's not an excuse but it's the best I can come up with right now because I'm tired and I can't fall asleep without you by my side so please... just come back to bed with me. Please." Casey heard as Spencer practically begged her to come back to bed. He sounded like he was near tears again.

Casey sits up on the bed, resting her elbows on each side of her her hips and puts a hand on Spencer's chin, forcing him to look at her. She gives Spencer a look as she sits up on the bed and stands. "I'm still mad at you." She admits. "But I will do this because I still love you and I can't sleep either." She picks her pillows off the bed and Spencer smiled a little to himself as he followed behind her. "I'd rather go to bed angry than not have you in my bed at all." Spencer tells as he closes the door behind him and into their bedroom.

Spencer closed his door behind him and joins his wife in bed, holding her tightly around him and Casey does just the same, holding him even if she was mad at him.

She knows that in the morning, they'll eventually have to talk about it but right now, all they can do is just stay in each other's arms. Sometimes, it was alright to fight and you can go to bed angry, but Spencer and Casey knew that they needed to talk about it. Eventually, they did.

me because ik it's only gonna get probably worse from here:

hehehehehe had to add a lil ✨angst✨ in there😁
i love you all
thank you for reading!!!
-mya </3