CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: ANGELS !

9x23

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SO MANY THINGS HAD GONE WRONG IN A SPLIT SECOND. Wrong place, wrong time. Casey knew that her gut was in the right on this one. It always was. How did still manage to face danger when her gut had repeatedly told her not to?

        She should've been standing right there. It should've been her. Oh, God, it should've been her. It was beginning to turn into a blood bath. And Spencer Reid was right in the middle of it.

The bullet shot out and hit him through the neck. He landed on the gravel with a hard thud. Shots were fired through the air. Casey blinked hard, trying to think that her mind was playing tricks on her. He was only trying to help Blake. He was only trying to help Blake. He was only trying to help Blake. He was helping someone, it's what he always did.

Casey tried to fight through Morgan's and JJ's grip on her as she tried to get to him before he could bleed out. Morgan had eventually loosened his group on the girl, leaving only JJ to hold the girl back. Morgan swiped the boy's unconscious boy away from the crossfire and pulled him to a safer area with Blake.

"Spencer!"

How did they get themselves into that mess?

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CASEY GROANED ONCE SHE RECEIVED THE TEXT THAT THE TEAM WAS NEEDED FOR A NEW CASE. They had just gotten home. The girl was ready to put her feet, watch some Friends, maybe even cuddle up with her fiancé a bit. But, no, the job was more important.

So, Spencer and Casey had arrived at the same time as Blake had. "This again?" Blake sighed. "You miss another flight to see James?" Spencer asked, curiously. "Worse," Blake said. "He came here. He's cooking and watching "House Hunters" without me. You know, he'd better not try to make an offer again." Blake mutters that last part to Casey and Spencer, since they were the only ones that had known what happened between them.

The three walk over to JJ, Rossi, Morgan, Vivian and Garcia, who were all talking to one another. "So, we get Henry to bed, and, you know, we're about to finally have some alone time with mommy and daddy, and... you guys know the rest." JJ tells.

"Ah, trying to dust off the old cobwebs." Morgan joked as Garcia hit him on the shoulder. "Inappropriate!" She scolded. "What?" Morgan chuckled.

"Seriously, though, how long has it been?" Garcia asked. "Too long," JJ answered. "But, it's hard, you know. With kids around and stuff." The woman looked towards Casey, who she thought who oblige with her. "You get it."

"Actually, Spencer and I have been doing pretty good in that department." Casey reveals, winking towards her blushing fiancé. "Casey..." He says, wanting her to stop before she goes any further in their sex life.

"Oh, come on! They didn't think that you had it in you when we first started dating." Spencer chuckles and then realizes Casey was telling the truth once no one else laughed. "Seriously?" He raised his arms in defense.

"Lemme guess, that's what you guys were doing before coming here, right?" Garcia asked. "We were actually doing some wedding planning, thank you very much." Casey told. "Isn't the wedding a week from now? You're just now planning?" Vivian asks.

"Well, we wanted something small. With just family and friends, only. Mostly friends because the only family that's gonna be there is his mom. And we just wanna get it over with. And we're ready for it." Casey told. "A week from now, that's crazy to think." JJ stated.

It was crazy to think. Having to look after Christopher and work cases caused so much distraction in their lives that they barely had time to plan for their wedding. So, they decided to go with something small. Maybe it would be in the comfort of their own home, lights surrounding them, a small chocolate cake with sprinkles on it (Spencer's choice). It was small but... well, it was enough for them.

"Anyways, do we know what the case is?" Blake asks. "Not yet," Vivian told. "Hotch just said to drop everything and get back here."

Garcia continues the conversation as she looks at JJ. "You you need some private adult time. I'll watch Henry. No bad guys, no kids, in that order. Go to Mexico. Or the Maldives, maybe."

"Cruise?" JJ asks. "Yes! Exactly. A cruise would be perfect—" Garcia tries to continue but JJ cuts her off. "No, no, no. Matt Cruz." The eight turn over and see Hotch walking with Cruz to the conference room. Hotch looks at his team. "Let's get started."

With that, they head up to the conference room, to their respective seats. JJ and Cruz meet, it had been a while since their last encounter — when JJ and him were taken. "How are those ribs?" Cruz questions the woman. "It still hurts when I laugh. You?" JJ asks. "The scars impress the ladies." Cruz jokes as JJ sits down.

"I hope you don't mind, Ms. Garcia, if I took the liberty of having the much less talented version of you in my office load the case details." Cruz tells. "Oh. Yeah. Sure, no problem." Feeling odd, Garcia sits down.

"A good friend of mine, Sheriff Peter Coleman, down in Briscoe County, Texas, reached out to me about a possible case. He's a former Texas Ranger, he's a good guy." Hotch nods as Cruz explains. "He read about our work on The Silencer case two years ago. He asked for a consult."

"What do we have?" Blake asks.

Matt presses on the remote. "Abigail Jones. prostitute. She was found in a dumpster last night."

"What's that on her wrists?" Morgan asks, looking at the photos on the screen. "It's, uh... It's..." Cruz presses on the remote but it begins to malfunction on him. He looks back at Garcia. "Uh, would you mind?"

Garcia stands up. "Thank you, Jesus, Buddha, and Allah. I like to cover my bases. You have to squeeze it." She presses the button with no malfunction at all. "Rope burns." Rossi stated. "Which goes hand in hand with the visible lacerations on her back." Casey points out. "There's also a gunshot wound to the back of her head, execution style." JJ adds.

"It's a conflict in MO," Spencer stated. "The cutting and restraining, point to a sexual sadism, but the gunshot wound ends the torture too quickly for a sadist."

"Is that the only victim?" Vivian asks. "There's Hannah Kelly, another prostitute, killed six months ago, dumped one jurisdiction over." Cruz stated. "Forensic countermeasure." Blake told. "Smart enough to separate the victims so we won't tie them together."

"And practical, too." Cruz told. "The body was left in hooker row, where they pick up their Johns, which brings us to our first victim, Lucas Wagner, killed 11 months ago. Multiple arrests for soliciting a prostitute. He was found outside of a crack house where some of them lived."

"He takes a paying customer and drops them where the girls live. That sends a message that nobody's safe." Morgan tells. "Tell Sheriff Coleman we're on our way." Hotch said.

With that, the team heads onto the jet. Casey sits on the couch as Spencer sits on one of the armrests next to her and the two hold hands as they look over the case. "Ballistics matched one gun to all three shootings. So, the same unsub killed one John and two prostitutes." JJ stated. "At least he keeps it in the family." Rossi comments.

"Maybe the John's a friend of the unsub, someone he picked up prostitute with." Blake figured. "Or the John was at the wrong place at the wrong time." Vivian theorized.
"Well, once he kills his friend, it makes it easier to kill the prostitute." Morgan says.

"That would explain why there's no sexual assault on the victims. It's not about rape for this unsub, it's about torture." Spencer explains. "I mean, that kinda fits, but it just feels like we're missing something." Casey added.

"What we're missing is whether this guy's a sadist or not." Rossi told. "A gunshot to the back of the head throws everything off."
"We're presuming he's using the gun to end things, but it could be part of the psychological torture." Hotch tells. "'I'm gonna cut you, and if you flinch, bang'." Spencer thinks. "Torture over." Casey added.

"Okay, so let's go with that for a second. There were 5 cuts on Lucas Wagner, 9 on Hannah, 12 on Abigail. He's escalating his torture." JJ points out. "Sadists definitely do that."

"And they get deeper with each victim." Blake tells. "That's right. The first cuts were experimental in nature, and the latter ones were about maximum infliction of pain." Spencer stated. "What if this is vigilantism?" Vivian questions. "He's punishing these women and their Johns to clean up the streets." Morgan then inquires, "But why take so long to do it? Three victims in 11 months? That's a substantial cooling-off period."

"Morgan, you, Casey and Reid talk to anyone working the streets last night and see if they saw something useful." Hotch ordered and Casey nodded.
"Dave, Vivian and Blake, go to the coroner's office, see what you can learn there, and JJ and I will go to the station with the sheriff and start interviewing friends and family."

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Casey was paired off with Morgan and Spencer and had also brought an officer with them to help them around town with any sightings. They had arrived to a parking lot to a bar and got out of the car, ready to walk in.

"Not too many spots for working girls to go to, so this'll be your best shot." The man told walking towards the entrance with the three. "And you turn a blind eye to what goes on in here?" Spencer asks.

"Agent—"
"It's Doctor." Casey corrected.
"Excuse me?"
"You called him 'agent' but it's 'doctor'."

"My fault there. Doctor, we only got one bar around here. Monday night's karaoke, Tuesday's line dancing, and the girls are discreet. Can't hardly tell the professionals from the locals who just want to get their drink on. Not to mention, we shut this place down, then what?" The man explains. "The devil you know kind of thing." Morgan nods.

Once they walk in, they see the bar is kind of slow and not many people are in. Nighttime's probably when their best customers are in, Casey assumes. The first person that catches Casey's eyes is a platinum blonde woman behind the counter. The woman had noticed the four immediately. "Deputy." She greeted.

"Dinah, these three are agents from the FBI." Casey holds up her badge as the woman looks at the three strangers carefully. "You mind answering some questions?"

"Don't know much, but sure." The woman that Casey now knows as Dinah, answers. "We're trying to find out more about a woman named Abigail Jones. Did you know her?" Spencer asks.

"Why you all asking about Abby?" A man sitting down at the bar asks. "You knew her?" Casey questions and the man nods. "When was the last time you saw her?" Spencer asks.
"Last week. Same bat time, same bat station. She's all right, ain't she?"

"No," Spencer answered. "She was killed a couple of nights ago." The man in nearly in shock. "Killed? God almighty."

Casey looks at the man. "How well did you know her?" She asks. "Used to flirt," The man answers. "You know. She always said I couldn't handle her. She was right. So I'd buy her drinks. She liked when I buy her drinks."

"Was she that kind of girl?" Morgan asks. "Party girl, maybe?" Dinah shakes her head, "It was hard to tell when she was loaded or not. I mean, she was always off. Like she had her own song goin' on in her head."

"Mack the Knife." At the opposite side of the bar, another woman had hung her head low and spoke in a quiet voice, but it had gotten everyone's attention. Dinah looked the woman's way, almost like she targeting her with her eyes.

Morgan walked over to the woman who hung her head low as Casey had decided to distract her with asking her questions. Dinah kept looking over as they talked and Casey kept trying her best to make sure Dinah couldn't watch the conversation go on. And she kept doing so even with Spencer and herself talking to the woman.

After that, the four walked out of the bar, getting the answers they needed. Casey couldn't help but feel skittish in the town around her. It was odd, she never had these type of feelings towards the towns they stayed in for a case. Casey kept the gut feeling to herself and prayed that it would go away soon after.

A day later, the woman who was quiet in the bar was then found dead in the woods. Spencer, Rossi and Casey had arrived right on time with the sheriff before any of the officers could disturb the crime scene like they were doing right now.

Casey almost immediately jumped out of the car. "Hey!" She shouted, trying to stop them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing?!" Spencer shouted. "Do not disturb the crime scene." The sheriff ran in.

"Well, we took a bunch of pictures just like you ordered us to." One of the officers spoke. "I ordered you not to touch a damn thing." The sheriff said through gritted teeth.

"We need to look at this crime scene undisturbed. Do you mind not standing there? Thanks." Spencer told, looking towards the crime scene itself. "Yeah, can everyone just stand back about five steps? We don't need everyone in this. Thank you. Jesus." Casey muttered the last part under her breath as she got a good look at the crime scene.

"He's escalated his cuts. They're not only bigger--" Rossi was interrupted by Reid. "Cutting was done postmortem. It was the gunshot that killed her." The sheriff looked towards the body. "How can you tell?" He asks. "Based on the lack of blood flow and scar tissue. If she were alive when this was done, there would be a lot more blood on her back."

"Which means this wasn't S&M. This was symbolic. But symbolic of what?" Casey questioned. "Can you smell that?" Spencer asked as Casey began to sniff and suddenly she smelt it. She almost thought it was Spencer at first, since that was his favorite scent. "Lavender."

"That doesn't grow in these parts." The sheriff stated. "It's mainly around her legs." Casey pointed out, leaning down now. "Why would he do that?"

"Reid, can you look into it? We can't trust the coroner to follow through." Rossi stated and Spencer stood up, helping his fiancée up right afterwards. "Yeah." He nods.

"We need to deliver the profile." Rossi tells.

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Once they delivered the profile, they had discovered Mack The Knife to be a principal at a school in Briscoe County, who was going to meet with Tabitha, the girl from the bar but she had died. He had had S&M sessions but there was no way he could've killed these people. Their profile then switched onto Preacher Mills, a man from the town that had given JJ the "heebie-jeebies" meeting him. The lavender around the legs had been used for religious reasons and the profile was pointed onto Preacher Mills. They later on discovered that their unsub was not Preacher Mills but someone else and now Preacher Mills was running off.

They arrived at Preacher Mills' home but he was not found there as expected. They had then showed up to El Lobito's Diner where Preacher Mills' vehicle was seen. Officers along with Morgan, Blake, JJ, Casey and Spencer had showed up, FBI vests on and ready to help Preacher Mills out of his funk of being framed.

They had all gotten out of the vehicles and looked towards the officer who found the man at the diner. "He's been in there a good 5 minutes now. I haven't seen any movement yet."

"What about patrons?" Spencer asks. "Uh, it's closed." The woman answers. "How many entrances?" JJ asks. "Two, it looks like."

"The question is, is he alone?" Blake asks.

"Guys, I've got movement." The deputy stated, pointing his gun towards the diner. "We should move in now, sheriff."

"Actually, we're better off establishing the perimeter first. Then we can open up a line of communication." Spencer tells. "All right, agreed. We need to get around--"

All of a sudden, shots are fired and the sheriff is shot to the ground. Spencer urges for Casey to hide behind one of the cars with Morgan and JJ by her side. She takes her gun out, ready to shoot. "Shots fired! Shots fired!"

Casey begins to shoot towards the diner but not before ducking back down quickly. Casey notices Blake trying to help the sheriff and Spencer notices her in the line of fire.
"Blake!" Spencer shouts, trying to get the woman to safety.

But then, it happens.

Casey watches as it does.

So many things had gone wrong in a split second. Wrong place, wrong time. Casey knew that her gut was in the right on this one. It always was. It should've been her. It should've been her. Oh, God, it should've been her. It was beginning to turn into a blood bath. And Spencer Reid was right in the middle of it.

The bullet shot out and hit him through the neck. He landed on the gravel with a hard thud. Shots were fired through the air. Casey blinked hard, trying to think that her mind was playing tricks on her. He was only trying to help Blake. "Reid!" Morgan shouted.

"Spencer!" Casey practically shrieked as she tried to fight through Morgan's and JJ's grip on her as she tried to get to him before he could bleed out. Morgan had eventually loosened his group on the girl, leaving only JJ to hold the girl back. Morgan swiped the boy's unconscious boy away from the crossfire and pulled him to a safer area with Blake.

Casey looks towards the unconscious man and shook her head, thinking that her eyes were deceiving her. No, she thought. He isn't dead. She turned towards the crossfire and shot through the doors out of anger.

Spencer Reid was down and Casey Willows wasn't giving up without a fight.

that unfortunately felt very very rushed but's it's wtv
anywayssssss
so excited that we're almost on s10
one more episode to go!
-mya </3333