CHAPTER NINETY-ONE: TARA !

12x07

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         CASEY HAD WALKED INTO THE CONFERENCE ROOM WHEN SHE NOTICED EVERYBODY UPSTAIRS. "Hey, what's going on?" She asks and then notices a photo of Tara and her brother, Gabriel on the screen.

"What's Gabriel doing on the screen?" Casey questioned as Garcia's jaw dropped. "Apparently, he's in town." Spencer informs his wife. "Let me guess, looking for money?" Casey guesses.

Garcia slams the remote down on the table. "Come on, even the new guy? He knows? How come I was the last one to know?" Casey had come to the conclusion that Garcia found out about Gabriel and was finally telling someone about it.

"It was an experiment. She wanted to time how long you could keep a private conversation private." Spencer informs. "And you made it..." He checks his watch. "Twelve hours."

Luke has a sly smirk on his face as he looks at Garcia. "Damn. I had you down for six."

Garcia looks around at her team, who has betrayed her. "Okay, you know what? You guys, I thought you were my friends. But you suck. You all suck." Garcia begins to march out of the conference room. "Especially you, new guy. But then you always suck. Newbie." She grunted as she exited the office.

Spencer approximately waited three seconds before looking at his team. "I had fourteen hours. I think I win, right?"

"Not so fast, my love. Emily and I had eleven hours." Casey told as she gives a high-five to her boss. She then looks back at her husband. "I can give you a little consolation prize, though." Casey smirked and Spencer pulls his wife over to him by her waist. "You know, I think I'd like that." Casey smirked as she kissed him right on the lips.

"Alright, lovebirds," JJ spoke. "We don't want another meeting about sexual harassment, now do we?" Casey shakes her head as she rolls her eyes. "Oh, hush."

Things between Casey and Spencer were getting better slowly. In the last few weeks, they've only had one fight, which they ended rather quickly after realizing that Chris was in the room. The team hadn't been aware of their constant fighting because they had done all they can to prevent anyone from asking about it, so when they were mad at one another, they did small things but since things were getting better, they started showing more affection. But the team had known better. They knew it was only a matter of time before Spencer and Casey could come to one of them if they needed, but they weren't gonna meddle just yet.

Tara's reunion with her brother lasted shortly because the man she had met with at a local coffee shop kept claiming he was her brother when in actuality, he wasn't. He was a man claiming and hellbent that he was Tara's brother, Gabriel. But Tara had never seen this man in her life. She knew that something was up and eventually got the team involved.

As Tara and Spencer walked through the bullpen after keeping the man who claimed her was Gabriel in one of the interrogation rooms. Emily, Garcia and Casey had approached the two. "We can hold that man for 24 hours. After that, we need to either charge him or let him go." Emily informed Tara.

"Is Gabriel answering his phone?" Emily follows and Tara holds the cell phone up in her hands. "This is his phone. His contacts, his emails. Look at this. He was in the Capitol Hill District. And look at the time stamp. He's been in my backyard a month and he hasn't told me." Tara told.

"Does your father know?" Casey asks curiously. "Maybe. I mean, I have to speak to him." Tara tells. "Albert Lewis Body Shop. He's listed, right? I'll bring him in." Spencer told Tara and placed a hand on Casey's forearm before he left to go and get Tara's father.

Emily looks over at Garcia as she's handed the cell phone that's Gabriel's in a plastic bag. "Okay, process that and break it down. Casey, you join her in on that."

"Aye aye." Garcia nods.
"You got it, boss." Casey adds as she follows behind Garcia.

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Tara had sent in JJ to talk to Gabriel since Emily and Rossi both decided that Tara would not be sent in to talk to him. The man had sworn up and down that he was Gabriel. Tara's father was brought in and he had informed Tara of a man her brother was staying with by the name of Carl Brubaker.

The name was brought over to both Garcia and Casey as Garcia dug deep in her laptop, both sitting over at Casey's desk. Tara and Luke were on the phone with them, heading over to Carl Brubaker's address.

"Okay, here's what I can tell you about Carl Brubaker. He does in fact live in the city, and the GPS on Gabriel's phone has been consistently there for the last month." Garcia informed.

"So he had been staying with him like my father said." Tara stated. "Maybe he still is but our unsub got ahold of his phone somehow." Luke told. "With my brother, it's never that simple. Something else is going on." Tara said.

"Tara, I can agree with you on that. There's something iffy about all this." Casey nods. "What are you thinking?" Garcia asked, looking at Casey. "I think this is more bigger than we realize."

Suddenly, Spencer walks towards the two as he makes his way over to the board set up near his and Casey's desks. "Guys, we're being set up." He spoke, causing Casey to look his way.

"What do you mean, Reid?" Luke questions. "The face in the driver's license photo displays perfect facial symmetry, I mean perfect, beyond what the human genome can produce. The picture's a computer-generated forgery." Spencer explained, approaching behind Casey as they both look over Garcia's shoulder to what they're doing.

"Yeah, but who would hack into the DMV and plant a fake—?" Casey and Spencer locked eyes and from that look alone, they knew exactly who they were up against. "Oh."

"Alvez, step on it." Tara told and they hung up.

"You don't mean...?" Garcia begins, facing towards the two.

"Scratch is back." Casey told. "And this time, he's got Tara's brother." Spencer added.

After discovering that Scratch had taken Gabriel, the team knew what they were up against. Peter Lewis AKA Mr. Scratch was back.

The team regathered as Tara went to go talk to her father. Emily walked through the doors of the office, "I've placed protective details on Hayden and Joy, Will and the boys and Christopher along with Casey's father and siblings. We need to assume that Mr. Scratch is targeting this entire team." Emily informed.

Casey nodded, content with the fact that there was protection from danger from her son, siblings and father. It was content to Spencer as well. It was sad that they couldn't protect them themselves but it was enough for now until they found Tara's brother.

"You know, that could be why he had Gabriel screaming out my name. He wants us to know that he knows I'm part of the BAU now." Luke told, noting to the fact that when they thought they found Gabriel, they instead ran into a recording that proved Scratch had Gabriel of Gabriel screaming 'Luke!' on a loop. Scratch left behind three photos as well of Gabriel.

"Isn't his M.O. to drug his victims and make them hallucinate?" Emily asks. "Then he evolved. He's taking these victims with multiple personalities and brainwashing them with someone else's memories." JJ told.

"So he took Tara's brother and did God knows what to get him to spill his life story, and then he planted those memories in the guy downstairs. The more memories he has, the stronger the identity he can create." Luke tells. "He must have put Gabriel's whole life inside of Desmond." JJ said.

Casey leaned back as she faced the screen. "I'm sick of this bastard being in front of us. Hasn't he hurt this team enough?" Casey questions. "Clearly not." Rossi comments.

"Well, the good news is we have a list from before. Patients with disassociative identity disorder Scratch might target next." Garcia informs.

"Okay, cross-reference those against missing persons. The rest of us need to figure out how to deprogram the unsub safely. He's still our best lead to Scratch and Gabriel." Emily stated.

"It's the pictures that are baffling. Scratch left them out specifically to call our attention to them." Spencer tells, noting to the pictures that were found of Gabriel at that address.

"He's a math genius. He likes us to solve his puzzles, which usually tend to lead to bigger traps." Luke suggests but Spencer shakes his head. "But it's the configuration that's strange. The pictures are obviously of Gabriel at different ages, but normally one would arrange them in chronological or reverse chronological order. 15, 11, and 32 is a pattern that he wants us to see."

"Not us," Rossi spoke. "Tara. It's a pattern he wants her to see."

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Spencer, Garcia, Casey and JJ had decided to debrief the video that was found of Gabriel calling for Luke. "Pause the video." Spencer tells Garcia. "Zoom in on the wrist, Garcia."

Spencer notices the rope tied around Gabriel's wrists in the video. "That rope, it's called shibari. It's an intricate form of BDSM bondage. The last time Mr. Scratch needed BDSM gear, he used a fake name. My name, actually, to buy it." Spencer told.

"I'm not even gonna ask how you know that. How do you know that?" Garcia tells. "Pen, I'm gonna tell you what I often tell myself, don't ask questions that have answers you can't handle. And trust me, you can't handle the answer." Casey tells.

JJ scrunches her face up as Garcia groans, "And I am so finding a hammer to bash my head in so I can forget I heard that."

"Why'd you tell her that?" Spencer questioned Casey and she shrugged, "She asked!" Casey was now beginning to see why Spencer and her's identities were stolen to buy things from BDSM shops.

"Let's get back on track so we can all forget this conversation. Maybe Scratch did the same thing with Carl Brubaker. It could give us another location Scratch is hiding at." JJ stated. "Garcia, can you run financials?" Casey asks and Garcia nods, "Yes, I will. And my search of possible DID patients/potential victims is going to give us a much needed break."

When she finally gets something, Garcia speaks, "I know that name."

Garcia had confirmed that the man claiming he was Gabriel was Desmond Holt, who was diagnosed with DID after his mother died and his stepfather began to make him play Russian Roulette. When Desmond had been asked to recognize his other identities, he went into a dissociative break for six months and knowing that this could be a possibility with trying to get Desmond to recognize that he was portraying a man who already had an identity of his own, they had to give him what he wanted. A conversation with Tara and her father.

After getting Desmond to break through, Tara had gotten Desmond to release his portrayal of Gabriel by calling him 'Desmond'. He'd given the address for where he was taken and where Gabriel was taken.

So, the team had been getting ready to go with SWAT to the address. Casey tightened her vest as the team began to head to the elevator. "I'll coordinate from here. GW emergency's on alert. The director wants a report if you catch Scratch dead or alive." Rossi informs the team.

"Will do." Emily nods. As the team begins to head to the elevator, they waited for Tara as she spoke to her father for a brief minute. Casey didn't want to eavesdrop on their private moment as they spoke.

Tara had entered the elevator and they were quiet for a moment before Tara spoke up, "Thank you."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting tired of losing to this rat-faced son of a bitch." Emily told. "He's not gonna take anyone else away from us, not on my watch. Am I clear?"
"Hoo-ah." Luke comments.
"Crystal, boss." Casey nods.

The elevator doors open as Emily starts again, "Let's go to work."

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The team arrived at the address Desmond told them and looked around, following closely with SWAT. "Clear!" Luke announced as Casey looks around with her gun in her hands. "Wait, hold up." Spencer looks up at the ceiling and speaks, "That doesn't belong."

"Lewis, Alvez, second floor. Reid, Casey, JJ, open that up, but don't disable anything until you get my go-ahead." Emily tells and JJ and Casey nod as Spencer looks into the panel control.

As Spencer looks into it, Emily speaks into her mic. "JJ, Casey, we found him. What do you have on your end?" She questions.

"We found a power source. If we cut the right wire, it should shut down the vise." JJ informs. Spencer looks around the control panel and lifts it carefully as he finds a true source and furrows his brows at what he sees. "These aren't fuses, they're gun shells." He tells. "It's a decoy. The gun isn't loaded."

"Scratch wouldn't do this to scare us. He's always one step ahead. There's more to this than a decoy." Casey tells the two. "Guys, look for another trigger." Emily tells through their mics.

Spencer lifts up another source that he is unaware has unlocked another clue like a game. Emily then talks into her mic again. "Reid, what is Exodus, chapter 8, verse 24?"

"It's one of the plagues of Moses. 'And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace. Throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.'" Spencer tells.

"It's above us!" Emily yells.

"There's a redundance switch somewhere. It's going off." JJ tells. "Is there any way we can get it to shut down for a second?" Casey questions as her husband looks through it.

"We can interrupt it if we bypass the correct fuse." With a sudden spark, Spencer knows that's it's gone off. "All right, this will only delay the trigger for a few seconds."

"All right, go, go, go, go go! Get him off of there!" JJ shouts into her mic and in the other room, the area they were stepping in is shot with nails that could've killed them instantly.

Of course, they didn't catch Scratch because he'd gotten away in time before anything else could be explained about the why. But in the end, Tara had reunited with her brother and her brother also reunited with their father.

And it was only a matter of time before Scratch was gonna come back and do more harm to this team and they were not ready for that.

this was a pretty short one omg
kind of a filler bc i love tara🫶

sooo i did some counting and we are approximately five chapters away from the main storyline of s12🥲
and seventeen chapters away from "as it was" ending-
crazy to think that this book is ending soon, feels like a part of me is also ending😭

casey: "don't ask questions that have answers you can't handle."
garcia and jj:

anywaysssss
any theories you guys have about what may happen??? theories about the originals i'm gonna put up soon???? i would love to hear everyone's intel on all of it! i love hearing them and knowing what i know hehehehe

anywaysssss
thank you for reading and i love you all
-mya </3