CHAPTER NINETY-TWO: RECESS !

12x08

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       THERE HAD BEEN TALK WITHIN THE BAU THAT EMILY WAS BRINGING IN A NEW AGENT TO THE UNIT. And most of the team had already been gossiping about it in the office.

"Does anyone know when agent fill-in-the-blank is gonna start?" Garcia questioned Spencer, Casey, JJ and Luke as they were talking about it. "Because I cannot begin my detailed, rumor-based background check without a name." Casey snickered, "Rumor based, got it."

"You couldn't find anything out with all your super powers?" Luke asked, jokingly. "Oh, ha ha, newbie. It's not like I haven't tried. I checked with all the MES in other units to see if any of their agents are transferring over. Nobody knows diddley-squat." Garcia stated.

"Well, I feel like Emily's been poring over these resumes forever. I mean, the brass has to approve a new agent soon, right?" JJ told. "All I know is, whoever he or she is, they'd better be nice. That is the most important thing to me." Garcia tells truthfully. "To all of us." Spencer added.

"Amen," Garcia nods. "So whoever this well-qualified mystery person is, I say once they join, we change our name from The Magnificent 9 to The Awesome 9. Huh? It's perfect."

Spencer, JJ, Casey and Luke all exchange a look as Garcia tells the team what she's named them. They all begin to chip in in wonderment. "Maybe." "Well..." "Eh..." "I don't know."

"I'm declaring a dictatorship. You guys don't get a vote. Especially you, newbie." Garcia points to Luke as Casey chuckles. Casey wondered when she eventually gonna drop the charade of her hating Luke with a passion but she figured it was never gonna end any time soon.

Emily opened the door to her office and looked down at the team with Rossi trailing behind her. "Sorry, guys, no news, but we have a case." They both head into the conference room as Garcia gets a notification on her cell. "Oh, yeah, we do. This isn't good."

They all enter the conference room as Tara arrives right at the same time as them. "Any news on the new agent?" She asks in between JJ and Casey. "Radio silence." JJ stated.

"Let's get started." Emily pushes as Garcia hands each of the team members a file. "Okay, last night in Yakima, Washington, police received multiple 911 phone calls from the same neighborhood. They all reported a woman pounding on the door, screaming for help. She was hysterical. They received 5 calls in less than 5 minutes."

"Let me guess... not one person opened their door to help her." Rossi says as Garcia nods. "Sad commentary on our times, but understandable," Spencer tells. "A stranger at your door could be a ruse to get into your home to rob you."
JJ adds, "Or worse."

"All of the callers described the woman as being in her mid-20s and scantily clad. One even called her a prostitute. Said that a hooded figure grabbed her off the street, was driving a dark-colored car." Luke read off the file.

"So we have an abduction." Tara said. "It appears so, but that not the only reason they called us." Emily tells and Garcia follows, "Right, because when the local police were looking for the missing woman, they uncovered the remains of two female victims on the bank of a nearby creek. One was skeletonized, and the other was in a burlap sack. She'd been dead for three weeks."

"What's with the barbed wire around her waist?" Casey asks. "Her being Debra McDermott, 27, from Moxee, Washington." Garcia tells.

"Ran away from home at 16, multiple arrests for prostitution. Given the witness statements for the current missing woman, I'd say our unsub's got a type." JJ told. Luke looks up from the file. "Any idea on the skeleton?" He asks. Garcia shakes her head, "No, not yet."

"But her date of death is estimated to be three years ago." Spencer tells. "Three years and now three weeks? Why the pause in the killings?" Casey questions.

"We should look into recent local prison releases that match that timeframe." Emily tells Garcia as she nods, "I'll search that now."

"He could have been sublimating his urges by reliving the kills." Tara guessed. "Maybe he found a job or a relationship that satisfied him." Luke suggests. "If either went sour, that could have triggered his killing again." Spencer stated.

"The only thing we know for certain is we have two dead victims and a missing woman who's still out there." Emily stands up. "Wheels up in 20."

        The team headed up to the jet and began to debrief on their latest case. "The unsub's probably using burlap bags to easily transport his victims." Rossi told. "You know, burlap's an interesting choice. It could also be a forensic countermeasure." Spencer explained.

       "How so?" Luke asks.
       "Despite its strength, the natural fibers in burlap break down with groundwater, exposing the bodies to the elements, so decomposition happens sooner, and IDing the bodies would be harder if not impossible." Spencer explained. "So it's exactly what the unsub would want." Luke added.

       "By burying his victims, he's been able to go undetected for years." JJ told. "Which is probably why he went dormant for years. He figured he'd be safe, especially killing prostitutes." Casey added.

        Garcia then appears on the monitor in front of them. "Crime-fighters, I've ID'd our abducted woman. Her name is Cheryl "Cherry" Rollins, 25, of Yakima, Washington, and you were right, she's a working girl." She informed.

      "How'd they ID her?" Tara asks. "One of her friends reported her missing, and I matched a 911 call that mentioned a very distinctive and eponymous tattoo on her decolletage. That means she has a tattoo of cherries on her..." They know what Garcia is saying and Rossi speaks,
"Yeah. We got it."

        "Garcia, send us everything you have on Cherry Rollins, and tell the Yakima PD that we'll need to talk to her friends." Emily orders and Garcia nods, "Copy." She hangs up.

        "Two out of his 3 victims are known prostitutes, so it speaks to his lack of social skills." Tara stated and Emily split the team up. "When we land, Tara, head to the dump site, JJ, Alvez, talk to the ME, and the rest of us will set up at the local PD."

         The rest of them had been Emily, Rossi, Spencer and Casey and when they'd gotten to the Yakima PD, they were immediately greeted with the head honcho in charge of the PD. "Agent Prentiss, I'm Captain Ferreri. Thanks for coming in." She tells as they walk through the doors.

        "Of course. This is Agent Rossi, Agent Willows and Dr. Reid." Emily introduced as they follow her to a secluded room. "Well, it turns out that friend of Cherry Rollins doesn't want to come in to talk." Ferreri tells.

        "Probably allergic to police stations." Rossi guessed. "We'll go out and find her."

        "Sure thing. In the meantime, we'll set you up in here." Ferreri leads them to a conference room for them to get do their investigating in. "We'll need to see your files on all the women reported missing from the area." Emily tells the woman.

        "Well, 'reported' is the key word." Ferreri tells. "And what do you mean by that?" Casey questioned, curiously. "A lot of the time their own family members don't report them gone. Most of the missing are runaways, transients, drug addicts. They don't leave much of a paper trail." Ferreri explains.
        "We'll take what you have." Rossi tells.

         "If he was hiring his victims before killing them, we need to figure out how they were hooking up." Emily told. "Well, most of the prostitution arrests happen up on North First Street." said Ferreri. "Nowadays, prostitution is very much an online industry. Who needs a pimp when you have Wi-Fi?" Rossi stated and Emily followed, "Yeah, but he was probably smart enough to avoid using the Internet smartphone apps that leave a trail."

       "Could he be using a burner phone and a stolen credit card to hire call girls?" Ferreri questions. "It's possible." Spencer interjects as Emily decides to call Garcia and she had immediately answered. "Garcia, are you there?"

       "Yes, on every level of consciousness. How may I serve?" Garcia questions. "Do Cherry Rollins or Debra McDermott have their own websites advertising their services?" Emily asks.

      "Probing into the belly of the beast now. And... oh, there are a lot of enterprising women, but I don't see anything for Debra or Cherry. I am finding a zero frills listing of local women available for, quote, 'no strings attached sex'."

      "Are they on it?" Casey questions. "Maybe. It's gonna take a second, though, because these women all use nicknames, and most of their photos are only showcasing certain body parts." Garcia tells.

      "Let us know if you find anything." Emily told. "Roger that." Garcia hangs up as does Emily.

       Spencer looks at Ferreri and speaks, "Captain, tell us about the creek where the bodies were found." Ferreri shrugs, "Wyler's Creek. It's isolated, had an unexpected flash flood three days ago."

      "That's probably what unearthed the two bodies." Rossi suggests. "I'd like to set up a coordinated search grid for the creek and surrounding area." Emily told Ferreri, who nodded, "I'll get my people on it right away."
       She walks out as Emily nodded back, "Thank you, Captain."

       Rossi and Casey then face both Spencer and Emily. "Are you thinking he dumped Cherry at the creek already?" Rossi questioned Emily. "I hope not." She answers.

       "She's been missing less than 12 hours. We don't know how long he keeps victims before killing them." Spencer stated and Emily continued, "But we do know she was in fight-or-flight mode when he caught her." Casey nods, "Let's just hope that adrenaline is keeping her alive."

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        After finding out from Cherry's friend what the car looked like that took her and the copious amount of bodies being found at the lake, along with a day or two passing, they could still find nothing. Garcia had found a group called the 'True Believers' that their unsub may have been a part of and was currently doing some digging on that.

          Casey had gone to go and get her and Spencer some coffee when she had arrived back to find him on the phone. "You're in Houston, at the Anderson clinic. We moved there last month, remember? Yeah, in Texas." Casey had immediately figured out he was on the phone with his mother.

         Spencer sighed tiredly as his mother spoke to him. "Absolutely. A nap sounds like a really great idea." He turned his head and noticed his wife in the room. "Why don't you get a little bit of rest and I'm gonna call you back later, okay? All right. I love you."

          With that, Spencer hung up and Casey handed Spencer a very needed coffee cup. "Was that your mom?" Casey asked, but already knew the answer. Spencer nodded and looked down at the ground. "She was confused. About where she was and she was convinced that her friends had been kidnapped. She wanted us to investigate."

          Casey's face faltered. "I'm sorry." She tells. Spencer continues to look down at the ground before turning to his wife and glancing at her once. He didn't want her to see him sad, but it was already too late for that. She knew he was. "This was my biggest fear, you know, about getting her into the clinical trial. I think she's getting a placebo." He tells.

         Casey sighs, knowing this isn't what he wanted. Of course after what happened with the previous clinical trial with his mother, he contacted another one despite Casey's protests for him not to do it. It was why they'd been fighting a lot.

       "But you said she was getting better." Casey said. "She was. Or I... I was... I don't know, I was fooling myself into thinking that. Maybe I wanted to believe it so much that I was experiencing the placebo effect, too." Spencer told and Casey sighed. "Is there anything I can do?"

      Spencer shrugged, "I don't know." He admitted. It hurt her when he said that. Casey felt useless in front of her husband. She knew that this was one of the reasons they kept fighting all the time but she still loved him despite all of the issues they've been having for the past month and a half. She wouldn't have even wished this pain on her worst enemy.

      "Come here." Casey said quietly as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. Realizing he desperately needed a hug from his wife, he pulled her in closer and wrapped his long arms around her waist, caging her in.

        The warmth of her body comforted him the way it always did and it made him feel like everything was gonna be okay. And even in the uncertainty of it all, all he wanted to do was hold his wife. Spencer closed his eyes and spoke into her shoulder. "I think I should go see her again, in Houston."

         Casey took a deep sigh, not wanting him to go but she knew she couldn't beg him to stay either. Was it selfish of her to think that he was spending way too much time trying to help his mother? Yes, it was. And was it selfish that she wanted him to stay? Maybe. But she knew that at this time, they couldn't argue about it and she knew she had to do what she kept doing this whole time, stay in his corner. Even if it hurt her, she would stay in his corner, taking in all of his pain, merging it with hers.

         So, even when she wanted to say, 'When are you gonna give yourself a break from this crap? Don't leave. Stay here with me and we'll make do. For once, stop trying to fix everything.' She ended up saying, "You do what you can."

        Casey pulled away and cupped his soft face with her hands and pecked him on his lips. "But I'm going with you, this time. You deserve to have somebody with you. To support you. And I made that promise that once I became your wife that I would do that."

        For once, Casey pushed all of her negative feelings aside and took in the brunt of it all. She knew that Diana Reid was the only other woman Spencer loved besides his own wife. Of course he wanted to do everything he could for her. She'd do the same for hers. And who knows, maybe if she goes with him, it'll fix whatever's going on between them.

         But the one thing Casey wished for more than anything was that Spencer would try and put in more effort in 'fixing his marriage' like he tried with attempting to 'fix' his mother and son. And she held onto the hope that maybe soon he'd come to his senses.

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        After Spencer had gone through the records of the members of the 'True Believers' group, he gathered the team together and announced what he found. "Going through the Baldwins records, I found three customers who for years bought supplies on a regular basis. That all abruptly ended around the time of Wendy Baldwin's disappearance. The first is Bertram Foley."

       "Garcia, what have you got on him?" Emily asked. "The Foley ranch raises horses and grass-fed cattle, and Mr. Fo... no, it's not him." Garcia pauses for a moment as Casey furrows her brows. "How do you know?" She asks.

       "I don't mean to be unkind. I'm sure he could do all kinds of nefarious things, but he's the spry age of 80 and in a wheelchair." Garcia told.

       "Let's see, next up we have Fred Haven." Spencer listed next as Garcia dug through the rabbit hole of wonderment. "Fred Haven. 35 years old, was the owner of the Haven Orchards and Apple Farm."

       "Was?" Rossi asks.
       "Yeah. The bank foreclosed on it one month before Wendy went missing."
        "Well, if Haven was having money problems, that could have been the stressor." JJ tells. "Okay. He and his wife filed for divorce soon after." Garcia added. "That could have been the trigger." Luke suggests.

        "Where's Haven now?" Emily questions. "Uh... oh... he's serving 7 to 9 years at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac." Garcia debunks the theory of this man being their unsub.

       "Who does that leave?" JJ asks. "Last up we have Kevin Decker. Customer records show him at the store every week." Spencer informs Garcia as she digs again.

       "I got a John Decker. He owns a small farm next to the Baldwin store. Oh... his son, Kevin, is 28 years old." Garcia tells. "The father's name sounds familiar." Luke says, looking around the room. "What do we know about them, Garcia?" Rossi asks.

      "Father and son both live on a farm. Wife Susan Decker died in childbirth. Oh, snap. John Decker is a member of True Believers." said Garcia.

      Luke nods along, "That's right. He was inactive. Probably because the group was more mainstream Bible study and less fire and brimstone." Casey adds, "He might have felt they weren't righteous enough for him and took matters into his own hands." She assumes.

      "We need an address." Emily told Garcia and she followed with, "Sending it."

      "Reid, Casey, find Lewis, get back up to the creek in case he shows up there." Emily orders the couple as they nod and head out to the creek.

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        After finishing up the case, the team had been flying back home on the jet. Casey knew that her and Spencer had to talk to Emily about getting time off so they could go to Houston to see Spencer's mother. So, they decided to do it over a cup of coffee with Emily on the jet.

        Casey had gotten herself a cup as Spencer brought one over for himself and Emily. Casey figured it was fitting since this was him wanting to go to Houston. Approaching their boss, Spencer spoke, "Coffee?"

        Emily smiled, "Oh, you are a lifesaver." Both Spencer and Casey sat in front of Emily, Spencer couldn't quite figure out how to start this. Emily could read their faces from a mile away. Something was off. "What's going on?" She decides to rip off the bandaid.

          Casey looks over at her husband and grabs his left hand with her right. "Uh, Spencer needs to, uh, tell you something." Casey tells, starting off as best as she could. Emily directed her attention to the second youngest member of the team and he speaks, "I need to take some time off." Casey looks from her husband back to Emily as she nods, "Okay. When?" She asks.

        "As soon as we get back." Spencer doesn't beat around the bush. "I normally wouldn't do this, especially with everything we have going on and the new agent, but it's my mom. I don't think the clinical trials are helping her." Casey notices as his eyes begin to glisten.

        "Spence, I'm so sorry." Emily tells truthfully. "I need to see for myself what's happening in Houston, and, you know, talk to the doctors, try to figure out what's next." Spencer told, slightly gripping on his wife's hand. Casey could tell he's getting worked up about this.

       Emily nodded, "As you should." She then turns to Casey. "I assume you'll be taking time off as well." Casey nodded back, "Yeah."

       "Listen, we'll be fine. You both take as long as you need." Emily advices as both Casey and Spencer nod. "Thank you." Spencer said and Emily wasn't done. "I have one condition. I need you to check in every day, no matter what. I need to know you're okay. That you both are."

        Spencer and Casey nod again and Spencer blinks his tears back. "It's understood." But Casey can tell he's not able to hold them back any longer by the way his breath hitches and his voice breaks. "I don't... I don't know how to fix this."

         To Emily, that's a sentence she's only heard at least once, but to Casey, it was something she was hearing everyday.

         Casey held his hand up with her as they intertwine together and she kisses the back of his hand and holds his hand in her lap, curling up next to him. Emily reached to grab his other hand in comfort as Spencer held her hand as well.

         And even though, it was gonna be a tough time for the two, they knew they had their team to hold them up when they couldn't do it themselves. And these next few weeks were gonna prove just that.

me because the originals are next and ik what they entail:

just know that this is the face i make when i type out: 'hehehehehe😈'

these originals are gonna give me whiplash deadass

anywaysssss
i was watching s12 and i realized this is the trauma season for reid besides s2 but i was also thinking that emily's trauma season was s6 and hotch's was s5
soooo i was thinking what would casey's trauma season be so far??? i wanna say maybe s5 or s10 butttt i'm more leaning on s14 because of what i have planned hehehehehe
come up with your best theories on that hahaha

alsoooo
i posted this on my message board
but in honor of the third adaptation of this book coming out soon due to me almost finishing this one, i wanna make it big and loved just as much as this one was when it came out (i literally got 1k reads right after publishing it) one of my greatest memories fr

butttt i wanna do that by having soooo many graphics that i had made and other people have made soooo pm if you wanna make a gif or a banner or a manip of spasey, literally anything is greatly appreciated and will be loved!!

anywayssss
this was kind of sad one and lil bit rushed buttttttt
oh well
thank you for reading
and i love you all
-mya </3