CHAPTER NINETEEN: BROTHERS HOTCHNER !

8x23

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       IT HAD BEEN A FEW WEEKS AND CASEY HADN'T TOLD THE TEAM YET. She and Spencer wanted to wait for the right time to tell them. So, for now, they kept it to themselves and Casey was still processing the fact that she was bearing a child now even though it was probably the size of a peanut.

       The team was currently on their way to Manhattan for a new case that involved Hotch's brother and people dying from odd drug overdoses. Hotch was already in Manhattan visiting Beth so the rest of team, along with Strauss, was heading there now.

"This is more than product tampering. This is mass murder." Morgan told. "Overdosing certainly seems like a hard sell now." Rossi stated. "How is he taking out experienced partiers and non-drug users at the same time?" Strauss asked.

"He has to be dosing his victims without their knowledge somehow." Blake told. "It's definitely a randomized set of killings, as well." Casey added.

"Ecstasy can be made in pill, powder, and liquid form. It wouldn't be that hard to slip something into someone's drink or to convince them the pill they're taking is safe." Reid explained. "So even regular users might not know they're being dosed until it's too late." JJ adds.

Strauss continued, "Why kill in such a graphic manner?" JJ shrugged, "Well, he gets off on the spectacle. It's not just about the victims with this guy. It's about the witnesses. He incites fear."

"Which means the unsub is desperate for attention and he wants all eyes on his work because he craves recognition." Blake added on. "He'll be paying close attention to the media, then." Rossi stated. "It allows him to relive his crimes."

"You know, the medium of his kill is interesting. He's picking a drug that's known for its euphoric effect. It's like he wants to take that happiness away." Reid told. "Well, it can't be a coincidence that the majority is victims are known drug users. He's taking the law into his own hands."

"But what about the two who were clean?" Blake furrowed her brows. "Linda Heying and Erik Sullivan's families insist they never touched the stuff."

Casey looks down at the file and pictures in front of her and sighs, "Either the victims are good at hiding the truth or the unsub's killing for another reason." Rossi nods, "We should take a closer look and see how they're connected."

They finished debriefing on the jet and were separated into different groups. JJ, Casey, Morgan and Reid had all gone to the club where the latest victims were. Casey had looked around on the dance floor and watched as the victims were put in zip bags. The victims were kids, teenagers. She couldn't help but think of their families and how they'd react to their children. She shook her head at the thought and met up with Spencer, who had finished talking to a kid that had survived.

Morgan and JJ had come up behind her as Spencer approached the three. "The delayed onset of the drug caused the dealers to OD themselves." Spencer told. "That explains why the victims boiled, the higher the dose, the higher the heat." Morgan adds. "Maybe it's designed that way?" JJ asks, looking towards Casey.

"According to the ME report, the ecstasy was cut with a high volume of methamphetamine." Casey nods and Morgan had dialed in Garcia to the conversation. "Go for greatness." She started.

"Hey, baby girl. I need you to run a search on delayed onset MDMA. Methamphetamine mixtures. See if you can find anything about--"

"Whoa." Garcia interrupts.
"What?" JJ asks.

"Double whoa to the oh whoa power." Garcia says.
"Pen, people are dying here." Casey comments.

"There's a drug called para-methox... ish..." Garcia was having trouble of pronouncing it. "Para-methoxymethamphetamine?" Reid finished off for her.
"Yes. What you just said. PMMA for short." Garcia says and Casey looks her boyfriend's way. "Of course you know the word." She says and Reid smirks a bit.

"It just hit the international market. Its street name, which I'm not making up, is Doctor Death. So coined because the drug keeps killing people. Apparently it's produced with such a huge percentage of meth, it masks the effects of the ecstasy until the user's already taken too much." Garcia had explained.

"MDMA costs more to make than methamphetamine, so it's common practice to mix the two in creating Ecstasy in order to maximize the profit margins." Spencer explains. "Like watering down liquor, except in this case, the water kills you." JJ states.

"So is this PMMA coming straight from the manufacturer, or is our unsub altering the drug supply to make it more lethal?" Morgan questions.

A couple had been victims to a drug overdose in front of their daughter and were discovered that the drug had been involved in white wine. Sean, Hotch's brother, had offered to help and although Hotch was against it, he put a wire on him as he went to his workplace to see where they were organizing the drugs and why they were being put in wine bottles? After figuring out that Sean's girlfriend had died due to the wine, he freaked out and ran off, leaving his phone and wire behind. They had caught Fang, one of Sean's bosses and another bartender woman. One of the big bosses, Peters and he was killed in a crash but the real cause of death had been because of PMMA. And now the unsub was now angry.

The agents were talking to Fang and the bartender and Casey had noticed Hotch, sitting by himself and he looked in deep thought. Maybe he was worried for his brother? She walked in the room and made herself known.

"Still no word from Sean?" Casey asked and Hotch looked at the girl and he shook his head softly. "We'll find him, I'm sure if it." She assures.

"How does a guy who has everything going for him make one self-destructive choice after another?" Hotch questioned and Casey looks down, in deep thought of her own decisions. "And then when it seems like he's gonna get his act together, it all falls apart again."

"Were you two ever close?" Casey asks in curiousness. "He was in first grade when I was sent off to boarding school. I was the screw-up making bad choices. But at a certain point, I realized I could either continue to do that or I could get my act together. But this doesn't seem to occur to Sean."

Casey looks down at her hands as she speaks. She'd never heard much about Hotch's past. She just knew the man sitting before her, not his old self who apparently made all the bad decisions. "You know, it takes a lot of decisions to be made until you make the right decision. And believe me, speaking from personal experience, I've made a lot of bad decisions. It's just gonna take time for Sean. And he'll get there, eventually, he will. Right now, all he needs is help." Casey explained and Hotch nods.

Suddenly, Garcia pops up on the monitor. "Hello, my pretties. I have seen the wizard and he granted my wish. Erik Sullivan and Catherine Hatchitt both withdrew money from the same ATM on the day that they died. That ATM is located in a bodega two blocks from the Edinburgh. What you want to bet that's where they bought their wine?"

"Good work, Garcia." Hotch compliments. "We'll send Morgan and Reid." Casey was already walking out as her boss spoke. "Already one step ahead of ya."

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Garcia had found the unsub and had figured out that it was a man, who was getting revenge on Jim Peters and everyone that surrounded him because of his own daughter overdosing. Morgan and Reid had caught him and he was taken into custody.

        The team had been cleaning up the room as Strauss walked in. "Thank you." She had hung up the phone she was on. "That was the Canadian drug agency. They closed down operations at their airport."

       "That's a relief." JJ told and Hotch looks towards his team. "Now Sean can come out of hiding." Rossi nods, "He's exonerated. That's something." Hotch sighs as he walks out of the room.

       "Sometimes, I can never tell if he's happy, sad, relieved, content, disgusted. He never shows any emotion, you guys ever notice that?" Casey questions. "That's Hotch for ya." JJ chuckles.

       "Well, I don't know about you all, but I'm exhausted," Strauss yawns. "I'm gonna head back to the hotel and take a bath." Blake speaks up. "I could drive you. I'm heading that way." Strauss nods, "Thank you, Alex."

       "So I'll see everyone on the jet tomorrow." Strauss smiles at the rest of the team and Casey smiles politely at the woman as her and Blake walk off.

       Casey and JJ both look over at Rossi as his heart eyes are in place and the two look at one another before Casey speaks, "Rossi and the Big Boss, huh?" She jokes. "Pardon?" Rossi questions.

      "I mean, seriously, could you be any more obvious?" JJ asks. "I think I preferred you before you were a profiler." Rossi tells. JJ laughs, "Really?" Casey shakes her head in a joking manner as she continues to clean up.

Casey was ready to go to her hotel room for the night. She was ready to meet up with Spencer, kick her feet up and just get some rest after this tiring day. But what she didn't know was that this night was about to get a whole lot crazier. And a whole lot sinister.

oh lordddd
not ready for this next episode😭😭
anywayssss
thank you for reading!
i love you guys🫶
only one more episode in s8 to goooooo
-mya </3