CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: MIRROR MAN !

10x07

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SPENCER AND CASEY HUDDLED OVER AT CASEY'S DESK AS THEY SCANNED THROUGH CASEY'S LAPTOP OF LOCAL DAYCARES. "I don't know, none of them... are... calling to me." Spencer told, taking a sip from his coffee mug.

"What about that one?" Casey pointed to one of the daycares she recognized and Spencer almost immediately shakes his head. "No way." He told, adamantly. "Oh, come on. That's the one I used to go to when I was little." Casey stated. "And you were messy for about half of your life before we met," Spencer stated, to which Casey shrugged at the fair enough response. "Furthermore, we should be looking into other options for Christopher."

JJ, Kate and Garcia had seemed interested in the couple's conversation as they walked past and overheard. "What's going on with you two?" Kate asked curiously.

"We're looking at daycares for Christopher to go to when we're on cases." Spencer answered. "Wait, I thought Edith was watching Christopher when you guys were on cases." JJ furrowed her brows.

Casey sighed, "She was," lifting her mug to her lips as she continued: "Until she talked to us a couple of weeks ago and told us that planning on moving back to California."

"What?" The three women all asked as Casey shrugged in a 'whatever' manner. "But you guys had a plan," Garcia interfered. "That was always the plan, right? She can't just dip out on you guys now."

"She doesn't mean to," Casey told, excusing the behavior. She had spotted this from a mile away — I mean, she was a profiler, after all. She knew this was a long time coming from her grandmother. "It's just... she's homesick. And she misses California and her friends. She misses all of it and the woman doesn't have that long to live, you know. Our biggest problem is trying to find someone who could look after Chris when we're on cases."

"Well, Will and I can take him in." JJ offered almost immediately. "Will kinda likes being the nanny for the kids anyways. Plus, my neighbor wouldn't mind either while Will's working."

"And I'm sure my Chris wouldn't mind watching your Chris," Kate also offered. "Meg always talks about wanting a baby around now and Chris kind of does everything I say." Kate jokes.

"Or you could take him here," Garcia told. "Where he's safe and happy and away from danger and will always be with me in the lair. I'll get some toys and just put him in the corner and let him have at it."

Spencer and Casey looked at the many suggestions in front of them and were honestly, very grateful. They definitely needed some backup while dipping their feet in the water for new horizons for their child. It would help if he was somewhere more familiar.

"All of those suggestions sound great." Casey tells and looks at her fiancé, trying to read his face and see what he truly thinks of these suggestions that were being handed to them. "I don't mind. That actually would be helping us out quite a lot." And truth be told, Spencer didn't mind. He did feel a little iffy on Garcia's offer but I mean, these people were his and Casey's friends, he wouldn't be opposed if they were going to be watching Christopher while being away on cases.

"I'll talk to Will about it." JJ nods. "And I'll talk to Chris." Kate tells. "And I can talk to..." Garcia realizes she doesn't need to this by anyone. Maybe Hotch, but it was her lair. "Myself. Because it's my office and I said so."

Suddenly, Garcia's phone buzzes and she groans as she reads the message. "Alright, my fine furry friends, get your boots on. We got a case." Garcia tells.

        The team headed upstairs to the conference room where Hotch told Garcia to start. "Local teenager, Tara Harris found murdered inside her home last night." Garcia introduced the case.

        "Looks like a blitz blow to the forehead, then the unsub stabbed Tara before slitting her throat." JJ pointed out on the photo. "And he didn't stop there," Hotch told. "He then used her phone to upload that image to all of her social media sites."

       "He staged a selfie?" Casey asked. "Eerie."
       "Tara took a lot of her own selfies," Spencer stated. "Maybe the unsub's creating images to mock her."

       "Maybe he's got something against vanity. A typical teenager tends to focus on ideal things like that everyday." Vivian explained. "Which could mean he has self-image problems." Kate figured. "He feels ignored in his everyday life." Spencer added.

       "What if it was Tara that ignored him?" Rossi asked. "This could be his retribution for rejection." Casey nodded in agreement. "I agree, the kill does seem a little extreme." She commented.

       "All I know is if this guy's into selfies, we've got a larger problem on our hands. They're all the rage these days." Garcia told. "I know. CNN even does a column dedicated to selfies of the week." JJ stated. "Social media at its' finest. 'We don't care about who dies and global warming, we care about how you look and what you wear.'" Vivian mocked.

       "It's all I can do to keep Meg from posting them," Kate said. "I mean, don't people understand the dangers of putting their lives out there like that for everyone to see?"

       "If everybody's doing it, the unsub only has to look to the Internet for a sea of potential new victims." Spencer said. "Unless Tara was just a one-off, this could be personal. What makes you think it'll go serial?" Morgan decided to ask.

      "Show him." Hotch looked at Garcia as she presses a button on the remote. The unsub had posted the photo of her dead body to her account. "He posted this?" Casey questioned. "He issued a taunt." Morgan said.

       "He thinks he's just getting started." Hotch said.

        With that, the team began their investigation at Quantico. Hotch had debriefed with the team and then sent Morgan, Spencer and Casey to Tara Harris' home — the crime scene.

         Once they arrived, there had been a plethora of new stations parked outside of the home. Casey had given the front seat to Spencer as Morgan drove to the crime scene. They parked right outside the house and were immediately interrupted by a newscaster, trying to get their attention.

       "Agents, can you tell us what happened here?" The newscaster asked but the three decided they had more important business to take care of.
       "No comment." The three replied as they walked away.

       As the woman continued her questions, Casey couldn't help but groan. "Jesus, do any of these people have a heart?" Casey questioned. "They're the news, Ace. They're bloodthirsty for another story they can get their hands on." Morgan stated.

       The three walk towards the entrance of the house and are met with a woman standing in front of it. "Agents, I'm Detective Dawn Rosenburg." The woman held her hand out for them to shake.

      "SSA Derek Morgan, this is SSA Casey Willows and Dr. Spencer Reid." Casey shakes the woman's hand and Spencer waves at the woman. "What can you tell us?"

      The woman leads the three into the house and Casey immediately starts to look around and study the home. Antiques everywhere, no messiness. It was like you couldn't tell if people stayed here or were gone often.

      "On paper, Tara Harris seems like the average high school student. Not all that impressive grades, but heavily involved in social media." Rosenberg explained.

      "Our technical analyst is looking into that." Morgan assured as Rosenberg nodded, "Yeah. She has our entire IT Department tasked with trying to take the picture down off the web. You probably already know." Morgan nods as Casey responds, "Yeah, the internet is forever." Spencer began to look around the home as they spoke.

      "Looks like the assailant got into the open window, then headed upstairs to Tara's bedroom." Rosenberg stated as Morgan dug his phone out of his pocket to call Garcia.

      "How did the unsub know where she lived?" Spencer asked himself but it was loud enough for Casey to hear. "Well, with the amount of times she posted on social media, she was bound to also post her location." Casey explained.

       "Boom for your boo." Garcia greeted as Morgan finally got her on the phone. "Yeah, baby girl, did Tara's photos have GPS markings in their electronic footprints?" Garcia answers, "No, but she may as well have sent an e-vite to the unsub. She regularly checked in at a foursquare location which she tagged at her home named Harris Ranch."

       Spencer looks at his fiancée, impressed that her guess was pretty much correct. "Told ya." Casey smirked.

      "Did she mention anything online about her parents being away?" Spencer asked. "Uh..." Garcia paused as she looked through. "She said they grounded her, left with the car. Looks like she was asking her subscribers to send her video ideas, ways to wreak havoc while they were away."

      "Can you figure out who had access to Tara's check-ins?" Morgan asked. "Yeah, but there may be too many to sort." Garcia said. "Oh, come on, now, you're my miracle worker, Penelope. I know you can do it." Morgan encouraged and Casey could practically hear the smirk on Garcia's face. "Oy, don't write checks that bounce back."

        With that, Garcia hung up and Casey had decided to go upstairs to get a look at the crime scene as Morgan and Spencer briefed with Rosenberg.

        Casey looked at the shattered mirror on the carpet in Tara's room. The cracks in the mirrors made Casey look at her own reflection in the mirror. As she looked deep within the mirror, she had her mind on one thing once she noticed it. Casey washes her face and grabs a rag near the sink and dries her face and once she does, she looks up and sees someone standing behind her and she gasps and the next thing she knows, the person smashes her face against her mirror and Casey heard the mirror shattering echoing in her ears and she falls backwards and her vision is blurred as she lands on the floor and before she falls unconscious... she gets a good look at her captor that takes off his mask.

Casey blinked, trying to erase the memory from her mind. She hadn't thought about that day in a really long time. Seeing something like this made her remember, especially since it was similar, in this case.

The girl took a deep breath and noticed Morgan and Spencer walking in through the reflection of the mirror. They stood where Casey stood. "She never saw it coming." Spencer stated and soon noticed as Casey picked at her fingernails. Something she stopped doing.

"You okay?" Spencer felt like he often asked if she was okay, which seemed to be almost all of the time. But Casey, truthfully didn't mind when he asked. Spencer placed a hand at the small of her back and noticed that she zoned out for a minute. He looked at her and she looked right back at him. "Yeah, just... give me a minute."

Casey walked out of the room. Both Morgan and Spencer had looked at one another, knowing how this had an effect on the girl. Casey just had to take a quick breather before going back in the room. She wanted to pull herself together and she knew she couldn't associate something like this with something like that. And even though she wanted to alone, Spencer had found himself standing next to her until she kept herself together. He waited until she had the courage to go back in that room — in hopes to get justice for that girl because Casey was always like that. She always made sure the victims had their justice. And she was gonna make sure this guy couldn't commit another murder on her watch.

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After talking with a kid and a man that were last seen with Tara, they discovered that one of Tara's friends had deleted photos of himself on his page. But the reason he deleted them wasn't because of Tara, it was because of a story. Something about a guy called the Mirror Man, who photoshopped pictures of Samuel Clemens in an eerie fashion and if you had a photo like that, you're dead.

The team connected with each other back at the conference room as Garcia and JJ wanted to discuss what they had found over a lunch break. "So the unsub's putting these images on people's selfies." JJ told.

"Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. A devilish version of him, anyway. Interesting choice. The unsub must have scholarly ambitions, or at the very least, he's educated." Spencer explained.

"Well, the story on the Internet is that if you get a picture like this one, you're on the killer's hit list." JJ stated as Garcia nodded in agreement, "Yeah, it's creepy pasta." Everyone looked at Garcia, like she created the slang herself and all of the adults in the room wondered what it meant.

"Oh, it's Internet slang," Casey clarified. "It's a shared story that expands as others contribute to the lore." Now, everyone was giving Casey a questionable look on why she knew that. "Someone has to stay updated on the modernized lifestyles we inhabit today as millennials." Casey told, almost realizing immediately that she was pretty much the only millennial in the room.

"Sounds like an urban legend." Morgan told. "Yeah, or a bastardized Bloody Mary." Vivian added. "Yeah, same principle, just with a new technological twist." JJ said.

"So the altered selfies appear random. How do we figure out who the unsub is targeting next?" Kate asks. "It's a long shot, but if the victimology is personal, the next victim may be someone connected to Tara. We should check to see if any of her friends or family received doctored images." Spencer explained as Casey handed Spencer of their shared cup together. She was trying help him break through with his germ thing by doing smaller actions first to make him comfortable. He had asked her to do this.

"In the meantime, can you figure out who photoshopped these images?" Rossi asked as he took a bite out of his burger. "Not yet. Whoever this guy is, he's posting to the users' own accounts."

"Well, even someone with minimal hacking skills can get around a password." Morgan told. "The original photos had GPS tags, but the modified ones are missing that metadata." Garcia explained. "Maybe he's using a cloned cell phone?" Vivian assumes. Spencer figures as he hands the cup back to Casey. "The unsub's trying to make a name for himself."

"Well, 'selfie killer' is already all over the social media sites, and some late night talk show hosts have even taken on the mantle." Garcia explained. "Yeah, well, an ice bucket challenge this isn't," Kate commented. "So what's his end game?"

"Fame."
"Fear."
Casey and Spencer both said simultaneously and locking eyes as they both had said something and smirked at one another as they did so.

"Probably both," Hotch told. "He's a sadist and he's enjoying the panic he's creating."
"Gotta stop him before he creates more." Vivian comments as Hotch looks her way, only glancing away before she realizes he's looking.

Soon enough, another body was found, this time the weapon of choice was a nail gun and he had nail gunned a hashtag behind their victim's car seat and the unsub had posted another selfie and the unsub was calling themselves 'The Mirror Man'. After delivering the profile, Casey had walked into Morgan's office and realized he was on the phone, looking a little distraught.

"I'm hoping to be home late tonight... I know. Okay." Casey could only assume Morgan was on the phone with his new girlfriend, Savannah.

Casey only met the woman once after her and Spencer had run into them on a date. She immediately hit it off with her and told Morgan on the side not to screw this one up.

"Hey. I love you." The suspicions were true as Morgan finally hung up the phone and took a deep sigh. He was about to put his phone down when he realized Casey was standing there and finally put it on his desk. "What?"

"I actually don't know what I walked in on but you owe that woman." Casey told. Morgan sighed, "Savannah and I were planning to take a vacation and we got called in for work. Work. It always seems to get in the way. There's gotta be some kind of balance."

"Morgan, you both save lives for a living. If anyone understands our crazy hours, it's her. And besides, you always do this when it comes to women." Casey told as Morgan raised an eyebrow at the woman. "What do you mean?" He questioned. "I mean, you always put the work before the woman. Work before Woman. That's should be a banner you hang on your wall. Maybe even your Twitter handle." Casey explained.

"Okay then, Ace, since you're 'such an expert' on relationships, having been in three for the last five years, what do I do?" Morgan questioned. Casey had glare at the man for the three relationships comment but it washed away once she got down to business. She definitely been waiting for this moment for a while.

"Stop making big plans. Commit to something you can actually make happen. It's the littlest gestures that go the longest ways. And that's coming from me. Trust me. When I'm sad about something or unfocused, Spencer always makes me hot cocoa, no matter the weather. He always gives great massages and asks if I'm okay and if he could get me anything else and when I'm mad at him, he doesn't leave me alone, he fights for me. Even when he's not being so delightful. My point is:" Casey realizes she's getting off-track. "Do something to delight her."

Casey stopped as Morgan pondered in thought. "And don't screw it up with her. She's the best damn thing that ever happened to you." Morgan shakes his head and throws his arms. "How do you and the kid do it? Honestly and truthfully, how? I mean, you balance work, having a kid and still managing time for each other. I don't get it."

Casey thinks about this herself. She never honestly truly realized just how good she had it with Spencer. Their time management skills were something every couple would kill for. Including Morgan.

"I don't know, we just do. We're still... learning as we go on. Trust me, it's not always easy for us as we make it seem. But Savannah... that girl's gotta be worth it." Casey persuades to Morgan as he sits back in his chair.

"You know, Ace, I'm starting to think you got a thing for my girl." Morgan joked. "Damn, what gave it away?" Casey feigns before a smile appears on her face in a joking manner.

"Now, come on, Garcia needs us." Casey tells, pulling Morgan out of his chair.

After trying to figure this guy out, they get a call from Rosenburg that the unsub had struck again. Hotch, Rossi, Spencer and Casey arrive at the scene. "Daniel Osbourne, recent high school graduate, worked at Bethesda Fashion Square." Rosenberg explained.

"That confirms our mall theory." Rossi adds. "There's no indication he knew Tara Harris, but he did follow Alexander Chase online." Hotch and Casey both kneel in front of the body. "Nail gun again. Looks like this unsub has found his weapon of choice." Spencer tells.

"Look at his face," Hotch says. "This is mutilation." Casey looks at the man. "Definitely a lot of overkill on this guy. Tara Harris and Alexander Chase didn't have as much as this." Casey told.

Hotch had decided to call Garcia. "Point me toward the perp."
"Garcia, I need you to check on Daniel Osbourne's social media activity. Does anything indicate the same kind of vanity as seen in the other victims?"

"Mm... nothing so self-involved..." There's then a long pause. "His last post was a taunt to the Mirror Man, though." Hotch nods, "All right, thanks."

"Apparently the unsub didn't like Daniel's mocking tone." Rossi commented. "So he silenced his heckler." Hotch added. "This could point to a devolution in the unsub's psyche. He's no longer interested in murdering people as an example of how great he is. He's murdering those who make fun of him." Spencer explained.

"We should definitely rethink the age we profiled." Casey said, looking down at the body in front of her. "Good point, Casey. This is almost tantrum-like." Rossi told.

"This unsub could be a teenager." Hotch agreed but Casey shook her head. "There's no 'could' in this. This unsub is a teenager."

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There had been a kid that Garcia found on her laptop that had practically idolized the Mirror Man, wasn't working the nights of the murders, had a job where he had access to nail guns, had a juice record and went to the same high school as Daniel Osborne. His name was Connor Holt.

Hotch decided to send JJ, Kate, Vivian and Casey down to pick up the boy from his house and take him for questioning. Morgan had decided to do the questioning as the women stayed behind to investigate the life of their suspect.

Casey looked around. Everything about the Mirror Man was up on his walls. He definitely did his research on urban legends. JJ had noticed something and immediately got the other women's attentions. "Hey, guys?" JJ started.

"Yeah, what is it?" Kate asked as JJ held a paper in front of her. "Look at this. It's a poem about the Mirror Man." Casey leaned over Kate's shoulder as she scanned through the paper.

"Well-authored," Kate commented. "This guys knows his iambic pentameter." As soon as Casey read on, she and Kate both noticed it. "Wait a minute." Casey furrows her brows as she takes the paper from Kate's hands. "You see it, too?" JJ asks. "What is it?" Vivian questions.

"Yeah, he switches syntax, the grammar's messy, then he used an emoticon?" Kate questions. "Yeah, that's the same person writing this. Nothing else points to this level of immaturity." Casey told. "Connor wasn't the only one developing the Mirror Man legend." JJ added as Vivian pulled her cell out. "I'll call Rossi." She informed.

Connor had given in and told Morgan who he may have thought the unsub was. His friend, William Pratt, a junior who's parents died in a car accident the year prior. The team all met back at the BAU as they split off into groups. Rossi and Vivian would be going to the high school with Rosenburg, JJ, Kate, Morgan and Casey were going to the mall and Spencer and Hotch were going to the aunt's house.

As soon as the three women arrived at the mall, with Casey's near reckless driving, they immediately saw William running away with his weapon in his hands. The four had jumped out of the car almost immediately to chase him down.

The boy grabbed an innocent person and held the nail gun to her head. "FBI! Drop the weapon!" Casey yelled. "Put that weapon down!" Morgan yelled next. "Let her go, William." Kate shouted as all four had held their guns up.

"Stay back. I don't want to hurt her, but I will." The boy said. "And then what? You hurt her, we hurt you. Is that what you want?" JJ asked.

The boy pauses. "All right, where's Connor? I need to see Connor right now." Morgan stared the boy down. "Connor's back at our office. You put that nail gun down, we'll take you right to him."

William shakes his head. "No, you're trying to trick me." He said. "This is no trick, William." Casey told. "No, you're lying!" William shouted. "We're here to help you, William, okay?" JJ decided to put her gun in her holster. "Connor, your aunt, we're all just here to help you."

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?" William asked. "That's entirely up to you." Kate told.

Soon enough, the news showed up, disrupting this interrogation session with William. This was not a good time for news stories. A newscaster and a man with a camera are almost close to standing near William.

"They're giving him an audience." Kate said. "Get back! Get back! Go!" JJ yelled. "What the hell's the matter with you?! Go!" Casey shouted next.

William had turned around to face the camera and without hesitation, Casey saw in his eyes that he was about to commit another murder — this time on national television. Casey had taken matters into her own hands and decided that she needed to do something about it. So, as soon as William fired the nail gun, she shot the boy in his back.

Morgan called in for a medic as JJ put pressure on the victim's neck and Kate cussed out the news station. Casey would've done the same thing had it not been for her shock that he had shot a kid. She had that look in her face, Morgan noticed. The look of guilt.

"Casey..." Morgan tried as Casey stared at the boy, blankly. "I shot him." She said, the sentence sounding real as she said it. She was in shock of what he did, almost disgusted with herself for doing it.

With the guilt in the back of her mind, she went into the ambulance with the boy, looking down at him with fear in her eyes that he would die. Morgan had sat up in the front of the ambulance and called in a favor once they reached the hospital — aka his girlfriend's help.

Once they arrived at the hospital, both the unsub and victim had gone into surgery. JJ, Morgan and Casey had been in the waiting room for almost a couple of hours, waiting for news. Casey had kept Spencer in the loop for what was going on over text and Morgan had for Hotch, as well. So it was no surprise when the two men showed up to the hospital.

Casey had been in the middle of pacing once she noticed the two arrive. Casey immediately wrapped her arms around Spencer, embracing him wholeheartedly. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. "I'm glad you're okay." He muffled into her shoulder. Casey nearly burst into tears once he asked that. "I shot him." She said and soon noticed Hotch, standing with Morgan and JJ.

"Hotch, there should have been another way. That should not have happened." Casey said. "Kate filled me in. She said the shot was clean." Hotch told and looked over at JJ and Morgan. "How's the victim?" He asked. "No word yet," JJ said. "On either of them."

"What about you?" Hotch asked, looking at Casey. "I shot a kid on national television, Hotch." She said. "You shot a serial killer. And if you hadn't, the hostage wouldn't be in surgery, she'd be dead. You did the right thing." Hotch assured and Casey looked at the people around her as they nodded reassuringly to her.

Casey took a deep breath. A part of them saying that eased her mind, a bit, she guessed. Of course, those thoughts didn't stop once Hotch and Spencer left to take care of things with the case. Spencer didn't want to leave but Hotch suggested they do so.

There had been another thirty minutes of waiting. The three were all sat in their chairs, all tired from the waiting. Casey had nearly fallen asleep on Morgan's shoulder had it not been for Savannah finally coming in with an update.

The three immediately stood up once she approached them. "How are they doing?" Casey asks. "The female victim is coming out of surgery now and the surgeon expects her to make a full recovery. And the boy, he lost a lot of blood and there's some nerve damage, but he'll survive." Casey took a deep breath. That definitely eased her mind then, the boy surviving.

If he died, her conscience and guilt would've been on her ass for years and years on end. Casey looked up in relief, happy to know that the boy was alive, as well as the victim.

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Once the case was finished, Casey and Spencer headed on home and fell into a deep slumber. That very next day, both Spencer and Casey had decided to decorate the house for Christmas. It wasn't as great as decorating for Halloween, in Spencer's opinion, but he knew he had to expose his son to a Christmas environment as well as a Halloween environment.

Spencer had been decorating the tree as Casey had been making a cranberry and popcorn garland for the tree. She had been awfully focused on the damn thing, Spencer noticed when she stopped replying as he went on and on about the history of Christmas and how important it was to water your Christmas tree in detail.

The man turned around and sadness washed onto his face. He wished that Casey didn't feel so guilty. Even if she was trying to hide it like she wasn't, Spencer read her like a book. He then decided to do something he knew would cheer her up.

Spencer had made her a cup of hot cocoa with six marshmallows inside of it and put the caring boyfriend charm on. He told Casey to take a break with the garland and handed her a cup of hot cocoa to which, Casey happily accepted. He stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them and he could definitely feel the knots in her back as she took a sip of her hot cocoa. "Are you okay? Can I get you anything?" He asks.

"Nope, this is all I need." Casey sighed and Spencer stopped massaging her shoulders and decided to take a break himself, plopping himself next to Casey on the couch, an arm perched over her shoulder and he placed a kiss right on her temple.

"You're still thinking about that kid, aren't you?" Spencer asked. Casey took a deep breath and shook her head as she thought about him. "He's a seventeen year old kid. And I shot him. How am I supposed to live with that?" Casey asked, putting her hot cocoa down on the coffee table in front of them.

Spencer had often found himself in Casey's shoes. He hated when he could relate to the outsider, a kid that just needed someone to see them for who they were. He knew how Casey was feeling and it hurt him to see her sad. "Believe me, I've been where you've been. It's not an easy feeling. But you saved somebody. And he didn't die. He's still alive." Spencer tried looking at the bright side and thought about what Casey would say to him if he were in this situation. He knew that maybe it wouldn't have helped, but the effort was something he wanted to put in.

Casey shook her head and looked down at her hands. "Every time, there are kids involved... I think of Christopher." She admitted. "And I think about what he would be like at that age. Seven, ten, fifteen years old. Would he be like you? Would he be like me? Would he be someone we don't even recognize?" She paused. "Would he ever be capable of something like that?"

The terrifying truth sunk into the couple as Casey said it out loud. This was probably one of their biggest fears. The love of their life being in the position William Pratt was in. Two dead parents and breaking out into a psychosis with no real endurance of societal norms. It hurt to think that their sweet angel of a boy could turn his back on them at any moment when he was older. The fear that maybe he would hate his parents going away on cases all of the time, or be mad at the world like Casey was for a long time. It was then that the two decided that they were never going to be like their parents. Their parents that drove them into the lives they had now. They vowed to never let Christopher ever feel the way they did when they were younger. They'd be there for him, every step of the way, encouraging him, being his biggest supporters. They loved the kid more than life itself. Maybe even each other. And even though they can't tell the future right now, they knew that Christopher was gonna be something great. He was gonna do something meaningful with his life. They'd seen the future, seeing how Christopher could be top of his class, doing the right thing — all because his parents were there to guide him, every step of the way. And Casey and Spencer both internally kept said promise.

The silence was loud but in that silence, it was like Spencer and Casey read each other's minds. They knew what the other was thinking and couldn't be more grateful that the other was on the same page. "He has us as parents," Spencer spoke aloud, disrupting the midst of the silence. "That should say enough."

Casey looked over at the framed photo on the mantle. The one Garcia had taken of them at Christopher's first birthday party and Casey stood up and grabbed the framed photo but took back her spot next to her fiancé back on the couch. "He is the most beautiful thing we've ever created." Casey comments and Spencer chuckles: "I know, right?" He rubs Casey's back and looks at her. "You know, I think he gets it from his mom." He said and Casey looked at Spencer in a 'no way' manner. "No, he definitely gets it from you."

"Let's just agree to disagree. This argument never goes over well." Spencer tells.

This was true.
Spencer and Casey actually got into an argument about this.

Casey looked around the messy apartment. Unopened boxes of ornaments on the ground, wrapping paper on the floor. Some presents already wrapped neatly under the tree. If their apartment wasn't messy before, it was now. It was like Christmas threw up in there.

"You think he'll understand Christmas?" Casey asks. "Usually, somewhere between the ages of five and seven kids begin to think a little more critically but considering the fact that is my kid and I'm pretty much a genius, I'd say he'd be a quick learner." Spencer explains logically. "He'll see presents and call it a day." Casey added.

In that moment, Casey had found herself staring into Spencer's chocolate doe brown eyes, noticing the crevices of gold in the middle around his pupils when his eyes were in the presence of the sun. "What's up?" He asked, leaning his head onto his knuckle, making his swoopy, messy, brown hair fall over his eyes.

Casey took a deep breath as she placed a hand on his chest. "I'm just glad... to have you." She smiled contently. "Ditto." Spencer told, mocking how Casey always seems to say that whenever she has the chance. She glares at him jokingly before going in to kiss him on his soft lips.

Their son's babbling is heard from across the living room and they see their son standing at his doorway, holding a bell in his hands that Spencer decided to give him. "Hey, love!" Casey smiles widely and holds her arms out. "Come here!" The baby boy rushes over to his mother and Casey picks him up off the ground and kisses his cute little chipmunk cheeks.

The sight warms Spencer's heart, happy that even when Casey's going through a hard time, she still has Christopher to always brighten her mood whenever she needed it. "You are getting too big already." Casey sat the baby in her lap and had suddenly gotten an idea as she spotted the presents under the tree.

"Why don't we have him open one present to get the feel for it? That way, we'll know if he'll be excited enough to see if we should only get him a few things." Casey told. Spencer shrugged, "I don't see why not."

With that, Spencer stood up and had handed Casey an already-wrapped present (that he had wrapped himself). Casey had handed the excited one-year-old the present and Casey had helped him open it and inside revealed a wooden car Spencer had carved himself. And lo and behold, Christopher was pretty excited.

HEY LOVELIES!!
one: thank you for reading this, i'm actually really proud of this one

two: spencer and casey will forever and ALWAYS be THAT couple period.

three:
really wanna write a double date chapter with spasey and savannah and morgan, which i most likely will go through

four:
i watched "i believe in unicorns" with natalia dyer and i cried

five:
PLEASEEEE DROP SONGS THAT REMIND Y'ALL OF SPASEY SO I CAN ADD THEM TO THE SPOTIFY PLAYLIST PLEASE AND THANK YOU🙏

six:
grimace shake ... didn't taste that bad

anywaysssss
i love you all
-mya </3333
PS HAPPY 4TH OF JULY STAY SAFE I LOVE Y'ALL