CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: GABBY !

9x16

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        IT WAS RARE WHEN SPENCER AND CASEY HAD COMPANY, ESPECIALLY WITH THE NEW BABY. But tonight was one of those nights that they needed company over. So, they had decided to invite the team over but everyone had been busy — all except for Blake and Vivian.

          The two were invited for dinner and they had poke for dinner. Spencer had cleaned up once everyone was finished and had gotten the wine out. He also had the task of changing Christopher and getting him ready for bed while Casey kept their guests company.

         "Vivian, I'm gonna need you to be real honest with me, right here, right now." Casey spoke to her coworker. "Is there something going on between you and Hotch?"

         Vivian had thought the question to be the most absurd question she's ever been asked. "What? That is ridiculous! Are you hearing this?" She looked over to Blake, who raised her brows. "Spencer, are you hearing this?" Vivian questioned to the man walking around, cleaning things up.

         "Believe me, I hear it all the time." Spencer says, hearing back to the nursery. "Casey's got a point," Blake spoke. "We see the googley eyes you and Hotch make to each other when you think no one's looking." Casey motions towards Blake, who's agreeing with her.

        "There are no googley eyes." Vivian tells.
        "Oh, there are so googley eyes." Casey says.

         Vivian signs before thinking: "Okay, well, if you must know... we did have dinner a couple of weeks ago."

         Both Casey and Blake are shocked by this news as Blake nearly spits her drink out and Casey's eyes widen. "What?!" She asks.

        "Not together together, no, Jack was there. But he invited me to dinner at his place with both of them since I was doing nothing on Valentine's Day." Vivian shrugs. "Ooh!" Casey cheers like a teenager. "But it was just as friends. As coworkers!" Vivian explains.

        Both Casey and Blake share a look as Casey sneakily says: "Mmm. Okay." Vivian looks at the two. "Though, I will admit... he is charming, attractive, funny, sexy."
        "Okay, gross, he's like my dad, TMI." Casey tells.
        "But 1) he's my boss and 2) he just went through a breakup." Vivian finishes.

         "Vivian, I swear I will get you guys together. Just watch me." Casey says. "But I thought people weren't allowed to date in the BAU." Blake says and then Casey points towards Spencer who is still listening to the conversation and points to Casey. "Forgive me, I forgot whose house I was at." Blake jokes.

       "Viv, he likes you. You just gotta ask him out." Casey says, also cleaning up a bit now. "Aren't you supposed to wait for them to come to you?" Blake questions.

       "Well, I ran five blocks to find him when I realized I had feelings for him and that's how we got together." Casey says, taking a sip from her wine glass.
        "Well, technically, I initiated it and you said you
didn't—"
         "Zip."

         "Oh," Blake speaks, suddenly checking her cell and Casey's cell buzzes on the counter and now everyone is checking their phones. "Sorry to cut this party short but, uh, duty calls."

          After Edith had come, the couple had left with Blake and Vivian and had immediately found themselves on the jet as Garcia debriefed the team via video call of the new case. "It is now 3 hours and counting since 4-year-old Gabby Hoffer was abducted from her cousin Sue Walsh's car."

"Why would anyone leave a little girl alone in a car at night?" JJ questioned. "Especially in an unlocked car. From what they said, she only kept the door a crack?" Casey asked.

"Sue told local authorities that she was a couple blocks from her house, she didn't want to wake Gabby up, she was in and out of that mini mart in under 4 minutes." Garcia explained.

"That's a pretty tight window of opportunity. Whoever took her must have been stalking them." Morgan assumes.
"Is there a history of child abductions in this area?" Blake asks. "No, but the local registry shows a high concentration of sex offenders. We have no time to waste." Hotch stated.

"We do have an eyewitness, but his recollection's limited to a dark van that he saw pull up next to Sue's car." Garcia told. "That's pretty vague. So we don't have a color or know who was driving." Rossi tells. "Are their surveillance cameras on the premises?" Vivian asks.
"Yes, there was one camera, it's in the store, and it's ancient, but the footage is being sent to the lab right now for enhancement." Garcia says.
"SSA Canning is on scene with the southeast regional CARD team. They're conducting neighborhood and roadblock canvasses. We all know what to do. If this is a stranger abduction, we've got fewer than 24 hours to bring Gabby back alive." Hotch explains.

Once they land, the team takes separate vehicles. One vehicle having Morgan, JJ and Blake while the other vehicle has Hotch, Spencer, Vivian Rossi and Casey. Garcia is on the phone, debriefing them about Gabby's life.

"Garcia, where are Gabby's parents?" Blake questioned. "Away, but not together. They're divorced. Mom, Kate, is coming back from a Caribbean cruise with her new boyfriend. And Doug, Gabby's bio dad, is a long-haul trucker who is on the road. And this is where bad turns to worse. Dad has a history of drug problems." Garcia explains away.

"Since Gabby's under 5 years old and her father's whereabouts are unknown, statistics say he's more likely the offender than the stranger abduction." Spencer told. "He could have been the one who stalked them and grabbed Gabby." Casey nods.

"Morgan, you, Blake and JJ head over to Sue Walsh's house. See if any of the neighbors have seen Gabby's father lurking around." Hotch ordered.
"All right. Got it." Morgan tells.

The vehicle that Hotch, Rossi, Spencer, Casey and Vivian were in pulled up to the mini mart where Gabby was last seen. Agent Canning had been at the scene already, with her agents.

"Five hours and 23 minutes since Gabby was taken. Witness pulled up to pump number 2 here, saw the van parked there. Blocked his view of Sue's car. Said the brake lights were on." The woman told as she led them over to the car.

"The driver could have kept his foot on the brake while someone else used the sliding door to grab her." Hotch thought and Vivian looked his way. "You think there may be a partner involved?" She asks. "It'd be smart to use a partner out in the open like this." Hotch added.

"We have 9 registered sex offenders within 3 miles. Sometimes they work in tandem. We have teams going door to door now." Canning informed. "That's good, cover your bases. But it's the ones we don't know about who are the most dangerous." Rossi told.

"What's the word on the parents?" Casey asked curiously. "Mom and boyfriend, Rodney are confirmed off CONUS. They'll be at the PD soon." Canning told and Casey nodded to her words.

"We have any location on the biological father yet?" Vivian asks. "Still not answering his cell phone. It's not pinging off any towers, either." Canning says. "So he shut his cell phone off. That's odd for a trucker." Vivian tells.

"Unless it's a countermeasure," Spencer starts. "The dark van could have just been a transport vehicle to get Gabby to his truck."
"You're thinking he waited for the opportunity to take her?" Canning asked. "He has motivation given that he lost custody." Casey shrugs at the possibility. "We should check rest stops for his truck as well." Hotch nods. "The problem is interstate 59 is just 3 blocks away, and it goes to Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia." Rossi stated.

"We've got the borders covered," Canning says. "Nobody's getting out of here without a fight." Casey nods at the woman's words. "Damn, right."

"Agent Canning, can you get video footage for us from a 5-mile radius? We need to see if there's any video of this dark van coming or going." Hotch tells. "Not much hope there," Canning says, disappointingly. "Katrina took out a lot of the security and traffic cams. They haven't been replaced."

Rossi turns towards the mini mart. "Is Sue inside? We need to talk to her." He asks. "An agent drove her home and is staying with her in case there are any ransom demands. She's a wreck. Not sure you'll get anything new." Canning informs. "Excuse me."

Hotch turns towards the team members with him. "All right. Dave, you and Reid stay with Canning's people. If Gabby was a victim of opportunity, then the unsubs didn't have a plan and they could still be in the area. Casey, Vivian and I will go to the police station and interview Kate and the boyfriend."

Like she always did, Casey squeezed Spencer's hand before leaving him and headed towards the SUV they were taking towards the PD.

Vivian had talked to Rodney while both Casey and Hotch took the opportunity of talking to Gabby's mother, Kate — who was a wreck, to say the least.

"Well, you're the best at finding kids," Kate spoke, her eyes full of tears. Hotch stood in front of the woman as she paced while Casey sat on the couch in the room, hoping to get Kate to take it easy — but she was failing at doing that, frankly.

Kate turns back to Hotch. "You're gonna find Gabby, right? God, just tell me something, 'cause right now all I can tell myself is I never, ever should have left her."

"Kate, blaming yourself isn't going to do anything," Casey tried. "What's happened has happened. But we need you to calm down and we need you to help us. We need your help."

The frantic woman calmed for a minute and looked towards Casey and then back to Hotch. "Anything." She said. "Tell us about Gabby." Hotch started.

As Hotch and Casey dealt with Kate, Vivian was talking to Kate's boyfriend, Rodney and she had asked the same question to get a bit of insight on Gabby. "She's just about the sweetest little girl you've ever met." Rodney told.

"And how long have you been seeing Kate?" Vivian asked curiously. "Almost a year," Rodney answered. "She's the best person I know. Nearly eloped on that cruise, but we wanted Gabby there for it."
Vivian nods at the man. "Have you ever known Gabby to just wander off with anyone?" Rodney immediately shook his head. "No."

"A stranger?" Kate asked as soon as Hotch had asked the next question. "No. There's just no way. I warned her too much about that."

"What about with someone she knew?" Casey asks.
"Like who?" Kate questions.
"Like her father, perhaps?"
"Doug?" Kate scoffed. "He hasn't seen her for almost a year."

A thought then seemed to cross Kate's mind. "Oh, God," She said. "Oh, God, you think that man took my little girl?"

"Do you know where Doug is right now?" Hotch asks. "He's on the road, somewhere." Kate told. "Oh, God, he did it, didn't he? He swore that he would get back at me for leaving him and he's finally done it."
"We don't know that." Hotch said calmly.
"But that son of a bitch is your number one suspect, isn't he?" Kate questioned.

"How would you get in touch with him if it were an emergency?" Casey decided to ask, trying her best to ignore the woman's questions given the frantic state. "He has two cell phone numbers," Kate answered. "One is personal and one is a company road one for emergencies."

The woman reached for her cell phone and handed it to Hotch as he called Garcia to track the number.

Hotch looked towards Casey almost as if to say: 'stay with her' and he left the room. Kate continued to pace as she mumbled to herself. Casey almost didn't know what to do as an agent but she knew what to do as a mother. "Kate, why don't we sit down?" She asks.

Kate shakes her head. "I can't sit down knowing my baby is out there somewhere, possibly with Doug. Oh, God, if he hurts her—" Casey stood up and calmed the woman down and finally getting her to sit down.

"Kate, believe me, if I were in your shoes, I would be just like you right now. I know you're scared and I know you're worried about Gabby. But what you need to do is have a clear head for her. It'll help you find her." Kate had taken a deep breath and looked at the woman, who she now realized was holding her hand. Kate noticed the ring on Casey's finger.

"Do you have any... children?" Kate asks. Casey smiled in response, "A boy, three months old." Kate looks down. "And if he were to go missing?" She asks. "Like I said, I'd be freaking out, too." Casey replied.
           "Three months," Kate spoke. "I remember when Gabby was three months. And one day, you're gonna blink and they're gonna be five. And then you'll blink again and they'll be 16. And then again and they'll be out of the house." Kate thought and looked towards Casey. "A word of advice?" She begins. "Don't ever let 'em out of your sight."

           Hotch had called Casey out of the room and informed her that they had information about the vehicle Gabby was taken in and the man who owned it was a man named Ian Little. And soon after, Reid and Rossi had found out a truck that belonged to Gabby's father and he was picked up by a minivan — which was owned by Ian Little.

          They had caught the guy and his appearance was strange. He had third degree burns all over his face. Once he was taken into the station, Kate had noticed through the window and walked out of the room to see what was going on. "What is he doing here?" She questioned. "What the hell happened to his face?"

        "You know him?" Hotch asks. "Yeah," Kate nods. "Doug used to buy drugs from him. Do you think Ian helped him take Gabby?" Hotch looks at Casey and Casey walks towards the interrogation room where both Rossi and JJ are watching him.

       "What's his story?" Casey asks as she crosses her arms.
"Claims he hasn't seen Gabby in months but admits, that he picked up Doug on Sunday." JJ informs. "Smart to admit it, since we've got his mug on surveillance cameras." Rossi adds.

      Blake soon joins the three and winces at the sight of the man. "Ooh, that's gotta hurt. Those look like second- and third-degree burns." Rossi nods, "He hasn't had proper medical attention." Casey scrunches her face as she looks at the screen. "Looks infected, almost."

     "Says he was trying to light his gas grill and he left the propane on while he went back inside to get matches. He returned, struck the match, and it blew up in his face." JJ informed the three. "What an idiot." Casey comments.

      "Oh, that doesn't make sense. Propane dissipates. It would take serious flames to curl around and burn behind his ears." Rossi tells. "Who gets those kind of burns who doesn't go to the hospital?" Blake questions. "Someone who has something to hide." JJ answers.

       Hotch had decided to go in the interrogation room and interrogated the man until he asked for a lawyer. He had come back out with no such luck and had sent a search party out towards river. In a plastic bag, they discovered — to their surprise — Doug's body.

        Kate had insisted on talking to Ian, since they had gone way back but JJ and Casey had informed the woman that she most likely wouldn't be able to speak to him. Sue had soon come into the room, crying and asking for forgiveness for what happened to Gabby. They had a minor argument until Blake had called both JJ and Casey out to tell them about the new info they just received.

      "The mini mart video's back from the lab. I've looked through the whole thing. Sue's story holds up." Canning told as she scans through the computer to the time Sue arrived. "Fast-forward to Sue's arrival at 10:03 p.m. Cashier was the only one inside until then."

      "Hold on. Let me rewind." Blake says, noticing something. "Right there--" She points towards the window where a sign is covering the upper half of the outside but the lower half you see, "Is that Sue's shirt?"

       "Hmm," Casey mutters. "She didn't mention walking to the door and then turning around." JJ looks forward now. "How long before she actually goes in?" She fast-forwards. "Two minutes later."

       "Maybe she was worried about leaving Gabby alone in the car." Canning assumes. "Well, there were plenty of places to park right in front of the store. She chose the side. No windows, no lights." Casey told. "She told us she didn't want the lights or the noise to wake Gabby up." Canning stated.

       "Right, but as a woman, especially one with a small child, safety comes first. It's instinctual to find a quick, well-lit journey from your parked car to the door." JJ explains, backing Casey up. "It could have been a trial run." Hotch says. "We see that in inexperienced criminals who need to build up their nerve."

      Hotch dials Garcia's number into his phone. "Wait a minute. You thinking she did all of this?" Canning asks. "It's possible." Casey answers.

      "Go." Garcia answers. "See if there's any recent contact between Ian Little and Sue Walsh." Hotch tells. "Scanning Slime-ball's cell now. Not a lot of repeat numbers. Okay. Oh, there are dozens of calls to and from this number, though, and I'm gonna cross-check it with Sue Walsh's home." There's a pause. "We have a match. Yeah. They talked. They talked."

        Rossi and Blake had decided to pull Sue from the room so she can give her formal statement while JJ and Casey had decided to ask about Sue to Kate. In the interrogation room, Sue had revealed that she was seeing Ian in secret and that Kate didn't know about it. They had also discovered a cut on her hand she hadn't disclosed before.

          Coming up with an idea, Hotch had decided to take Vivian back to Ian Little's interrogation room to talk to him with his lawyer present. "We want the truth from your client." Hotch spoke.

        "What are you offering?" The lawyer questions. "That depends on whether he fully cooperates." Hotch answers.
"My client did not kill Doug Hoffer. He only disposed of the body."

       "Prove it, and the AUSA has agreed to plead him from murder to accessory after the fact." Vivian tells.
       "He knows who did it." The lawyer tells.
       "That's hearsay, it's not proof." Hotch adds.

       Ian looks down before deciding to cooperate. "She cut her hand when she hit him with that candleholder. They were arguing by the front door. Doug went in to go get Gabby out of bed. Sue picks up this candleholder and hit him really hard with it. It sounded really bad. It was heavy glass and it broke when she hit him again. Her blood was all over." Ian revealed and both Hotch and Vivian look at one another before Vivian decides to leave the room to go and tell the rest of the team to check Sue's home.
        Ian was telling the truth. Sue had hid the candleholder in a shoebox in the closet — thinking she was too smart to get caught.

        After being informed on the candleholder being found, Vivian had decided to go and pay Sue a visit in her interrogation room. "Did you find Gabby?" Sue asks, playing victim. Vivian had seen it in her eyes what she couldn't see before.

      Vivian places a folder in front of Sue, crossing her arms. "What do you think?" Inside the folder, Sue found, we're photos of Gabby. "Are we gonna find her?"

      Hotch had come in the room next and held one of Gabby's photos up to Sue's face as Vivian leaned down to her level. "Kate trusted you with the care of her child." Anger filled her voice. "You were responsible for this little girl. You not only failed her and Kate, but you failed yourself."

       Hotch soon followed with the act. "You had a duty to protect her, and you failed, miserably. What happened to Gabby is all your fault. You know nothing about what it takes to be a mother. You're pathetic."

      Vivian watched as Sue slowly fueled with anger and then hit Hotch across the face and had quickly inserted herself between them and had slowly but surely handcuffed Sue to the table as she screamed.

       Soon, the team watched the woman calm down from outside of the interrogation room. Vivian had handed Hotch a tissue to help with the cut on his chin that he received from Sue. "Oh, thank you." Hotch said. "And thank you for helping me in there."
        "Don't thank me. Thank my daughter. When she was teenager, she had fits that looked a lot like that." Vivian told.

        Casey had looked over and then back at her fiancé and raised her eyebrows at him as she motioned towards the scene.

       "Talk about taking one for the team." Rossi stated, looking towards Hotch. "What was that all about?" Canning questioned. "If she's a predisposed female offender, a major indicator is uncontrolled rage when challenged. I'd say she passed the test." Hotch explained.

       "She has no criminal record, no history of violence." Canning told. "They're very good at concealment." Vivian tells. "Usually, when you undergo some type of trauma, that's what happens." Casey stated.

       "They're also the rarest type. They go after young children in their care, and their offenses can be sadistic, brutal, sometimes bizarre. The blunt force trauma that killed Doug says that she has serious violence issues. Something must have triggered that rage." Rossi stated.

       "Whatever it was, I'm afraid of what that means for Gabby." Vivian tells. "I know Sue is not gonna talk to us, but maybe she would talk to Kate." Reid suggests.

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       To keep the long story short, they had let Kate talk to Sue and discovered that Sue was molested as a child by Kate's father. That was what triggered her rage. They had discovered that Sue had gone on a forum where she had found a way to get rid of Gabby permanently without killing her. And so Sue had sent Gabby to a woman who "took care of troubled children". They had soon found the woman to be named Michelle Fader and arrested her and her sleazeball of her husband.

        Casey and JJ had found a room and opened the door to discover three children watching television. Casey looked down and noticed one of the children had been Gabby. "I've got Gabby!" Casey announced. "And there are other kids back here." JJ added.

       Casey knelt down to the children's level as well as JJ. "Are you guys okay?" Casey asked the children. "Can you take me home now?" Gabby questioned, with pleading eyes. "Of course, honey." Casey says and looks over to Spencer, who had decided to join the two with getting the kids out.

        The team was then met with a heartfelt reunion between Gabby and her mother. "Mama!" Gabby called and Kate immediately rushed to her daughter and picked her up and held onto her for dear life. "Oh, my sweet baby! Ohh!" Kate smiled. "I missed you, mama." Gabby smiled.

         Casey watched the heartfelt reunion and leaned on her fiancé's shoulder as he held her. Kate looked towards Casey as she held her daughter again and mouthed: "Thank you." Casey smiled in response.

        "JJ... you okay?" Morgan asks, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder and grabbing everyone's attention. "They don't have anyplace safe to be." JJ said, noticing the other children. "It's not ideal, but they'll be in foster care until they find a family." Blake says. "Yeah, but how many more kids like that are out there?" Rossi asks. "That's a good question." Hotch tells. "A horrifying reality to think about." Vivian adds.

        "I don't even wanna think about that." Casey shivers at the thought. "Right now, all I'm thinking about is the one we got at home. I can't wait to see him again." Casey admits and Spencer smiles, "Oh, after this one? Yeah."

       Morgan holds his phone up towards the family. "Hey, sweetness, thought you might want to see something." He says to Garcia on his cell. "What?" Casey then hears Garcia's heart practically melt once she sees the scene. "Oh, ho ho ho. I needed that."

a lil more of hotch and vivian were shown yes
you're welcome
figured we're always getting spasey content and not enough of hivian

but speaking of spasey content, i made a bit of a playlist:

it was long overdue but
it's filled with songs i associate with spasey in any shape or form, if you guys want a song on there, feel free to comment here!

anywayssss
thank you for reading!
-mya </3333