CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE: A FRIEND IN NEED !

6x19

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AFTER ASHLEY'S GRADUATION, THE TEAM HAD DECIDED TO GO BACK INTO WORK. Being as supportive as she was, Casey went to Ashley's graduation. She knew what it was like to not have blood family to be at somewhere important but no one could show and relating to Ashley a lot, she decided she should go.

It had been Casey's first case back at work since the funeral. She took the most time off out of everyone on the team. Reid had been a close second. They'd often spend their days off together.

Hotch and Rossi walk into the room. "Congratulations, Agent Seaver." Seaver turns around and shakes Hotch's hand. "Thank you." She says.

"Who made the cupcakes?" Rossi asked as he gave Ashley a fist-bump. "I did." Garcia announced.

"Thank you all for coming to my graduation. It meant a lot." Seaver thanked. "Of course, we wouldn't have missed it for the world." Casey gave Seaver a side hug as she finished up her cupcake.

"Let's get started." Everyone sat in their seats. "Okay, we're going to Portland, Oregon and it's not for a Dead Moon concert." Garcia told and Casey looks at the file in front of her.

"So, Jay Johnson, a DJ, was cutting through an alley on his way home after leaving a club when he was bludgeoned by a pipe and then stabbed thirty-one times. His watch, his cell, and his computer were stolen. That was two days ago. Now, early this morning, Karen Heywood, a 30-year-old nurse, she died during a home invasion. She was stabbed forty times, but first she was bludgeoned with weapons of opportunity." Garcia explained.

"Eight different ones, to be exact." Morgan points out on the file. "That's too many weapons for just one person. Were there multiple killers?" Casey questioned. "There was a left- and a right-handed killer according to the ME report." Garcia told. "Yeah, but eight different weapons." Rossi sighs.

"So we're looking for a group." Morgan assumes. "Yeah, it seems that way," Hotch tells. "And the left-handed wounds were deeper than the right."

Reid looks down at the file. "Maybe a woman was involved?" He assumed. "Or a weak man." Ashley thinks and Casey gives the girl a fist-bump for her comment.

"Anything taken from the house?" Hotch asks. "According to a neighbor, just some random stuff... a computer, some jewelry, a framed picture of a lily." Garcia listed. "And pawnable items," Morgan says. "What do we have, serial-killing crooks?"

"Sounds like a musical." Rossi added. "Similar victimology... young professionals killed 3 miles apart." Hotch says. "Is there a gang situation in Portland?" Seaver questions. "Minimal," Reid tells. "This seems more like desperate people in need of quick cash."

"Why kill them if it's just for the money?" Ashley asks. "That's what we have to find out." Rossi says. "And we've got eight hours till nightfall. Let's go." Hotch announces and the team heads into the jet.

          Casey is seated over at the couch as she looks through the file. "So both victims around the same age and killed at night." Hotch says. "One in an alley on the way to his car, the other in her home after coming from the grocery after work." Rossi added.

          "There's extreme overkill in both." Morgan points out. "Overkill usually implies a personal relationship." Ashley says. "Or it could mean that the victim represents someone for whom the killer has extreme anger towards." Casey says.

          "These unsubs are night owls, stalking and killing other night owls." Rossi tells. "And they're also disorganized," Reid points out and Casey looks over at the man. "In one, they subdued their victims by hitting them with a pipe found at the scene, and in the other they used a knife, followed by seven other items found in the kitchen."

           "A doorstop, even a ceramic cat." Ashley tells, holding up a picture of the weapon. "Well, they got creative." Casey comments. "All of this just to steal?" Ashley asks.

           "When a gang mentality sets in, unsubs become more capable of heinous acts." Rossi explains. "It's still odd," Ashley says. "The incidence of robbery is so low in this area."

          "That's why I started working a geographical profile," Reid started and pulls out a map. "First things first, I factored in journey to crime distance. If you look here, you'll see that this area of Portland is well within the expected 5-mile radius. I also factored in distance of decay." He explained.

           "What does distance have to do with decay?" Ashley asks. "It's how geo-profilers measure relative probability of an offender traveling outside his comfort zone." Rossi says. "Unsubs prefer to stay in an area that they know well." Hotch added. "Like you'd commute to work or to the gym." Morgan says. "The closer the crime scenes, the greater likelihood it is that the unsub lives or works nearby."

       "Based on my algorithm, the unsubs either live or work in the area." Reid tells, pointing at the map. Hotch splits the group apart — Reid and Seaver going to the crime scene, Casey and Morgan to the store where the last victim was found and Hotch and Rossi head to the last crime scene.

         Morgan and Casey had found out that there was only a man swatting at figures that weren't there and acting very unusually, like he was being followed. They had informed Rossi and Hotch. A day later, another murder had occurred and the person that lived below had heard the unsub talking to himself — making the profile get a little bit more easier to figure out.

         Casey sat in the corner with her arms crossed as the team gave the profile. "We believe our unsub is a white male paranoid schizophrenic who suffers from hallucinations. Since schizophrenic breaks usually occur in your early 20s, we believe he's around this age and that he lives nearby."

         Casey looked over at an uncomfortable Reid as Hotch delivered the profile. It must not have been easy for Reid to hear considering his mother was a schizophrenic.

         "We think this unsub is hypervigilant, and in this condition, he's unable to travel very far from his home." Hotch says. "He kills at night and is extremely violent. During the day, he's most likely a loner. Someone in this state probably can't keep a job. We believe something happened to our unsub in his childhood. Childhood voices are telling him to kill, or he's misinterpreting them as doing so." Rossi tells and Casey watched Reid as he began to fidget.

          The girl made a mental note to speak to him after the profile delivery.

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          Casey walked over to Reid as he was filling up a coffee cup for himself. He was aware of Casey's presence but didn't look at her. "You know, that profile kind of makes it sound like schizophrenia leads to serial killing." He told, grabbing napkins rather aggressively.

          "Reid, we didn't mean it like that." Casey told. "You know, my mom has schizophrenia. There are many different types." Reid sniffs a little. "I know." Casey nods. "Catatonic, disorganized... just because someone suffers from inability to organize their thoughts or they can't bathe or dress themselves, it doesn't mean they'd stab someone in the chest thirty times postmortem."

           "Reid, what's really going on?" Casey asked, getting herself a cup of coffee. "Our unsub's hallucinations aren't fractured like a typical schizophrenic. They're vivid and clear, leading me to believe that we're missing an important variable. Rather than making crazy conjectures, I think we should be trying to figure out what it is." Reid explained.

           Casey looked at Reid as he stared at the ground in silence. She wanted to make Reid feel okay. She hated seeing him so low. She looked down at her coffee cup and suddenly got an idea.

"You know, the word 'espresso' means 'pressed out' in Italian." Casey told and Reid looked up at the girl, realizing she was trying to make him feel better. "Uh, Marco taught me that one. Espresso is made because you're forcing boiling water through pressed coffee grounds." Casey explained.

Casey leans against the counter as she stands next to Reid. "Listen to me," She starts and Reid nods. "I know this is a scary age for you. It's when schizophrenic breaks happen. Have you talked to anybody about it? Besides me, I mean?"

"Emily." Reid softly says.

Casey looks towards the ground and then changes the subject a bit. "Have you seen a doctor?" She asks.

"They all say I'm fine."
"Then why don't you believe them?"
"Because predicting one's chances of developing a genetic condition are like finding a penny in an ocean. I have terrible headaches. I can't sleep at night. I can't focus on our cases. I only read five books last week."

"You're also depressed about Emily and I get it... I'm on the same boat. We all are. I miss her every day." Casey sighs. "But if your mind was splitting, do you really think you'd be able to figure out that this team is missing a variable?"

"I'm just speculating that we are." Reid says and looks up at Casey. "I need to prove it." Casey nodded, "Okay, then you do that. But the moment you are wandering around the streets aimlessly, that's when I'll be worried about you." She jokes.

The two look down and realize that their fingertips are nearly touching one another and they look at one another and Reid smiles a bit as he looks back down. It was almost as if he was avoiding the eye contact with Casey. At any moment, if he looked at her, maybe he'd pull his hand away. And this felt nice. He didn't want the feeling to go away.

"You know when anyone says someone really funny, I laugh a bit. And I look around to see if you think it's funny, too. Even when you're not there, I still look around for you." Reid stated and suddenly, something happened to Casey.

Butterflies were flying in her stomach.

Reid and Casey stared at one another and Casey realized she was almost inching towards him and pulled her hand away. Reid cleared his throat and Casey ran a hand through her hair after realizing what she was she was doing.

"We should, uh—"
"Go."
"Yeah."

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Reid, Morgan and Casey had all gone to a church where the unsub had been spotted last and were told that he was looking for an exorcism. Soon enough, the unsub struck again. This time someone older than the predicted age. Reid, Morgan and Casey went to check it out.

"This victim's a lot older than his other ones, guys." Reid pointed out as they looked at the body. "She must represent something to him." Casey noticed the numerous stab marks on the woman's body. "Maybe his mother who had him exorcised. Now that he can't get one, he's taking his anger out on a surrogate." Morgan explained.

"Did the EMTs try to save her?" Casey asked. "No." Agent Colbern answered. "Why?" Casey kneels down. "There's a body imprint next to her." She points and Reid kneels along with her as he notices. "Why would the unsub lie down next to a person he's just killed?" Morgan asks.

Reid had come to a conclusion. "He slept here." He looks at the body and examines. "Look at the number of stab wounds." Morgan nods, "There's gotta be over 50 of them."

"71." Reid answers, causing the three to look at him. Of course, he had the answer.

"Do you know how physically exhausting it would be to stab someone seventy-one times?" Reid says. "It's hard enough to stab someone ten times, but seventy-one... he'd be completely worn out."

"He's accelerated wound counts, which means he does it intentionally." Casey tells. "But why?" Colbern asks. "Wait, that's it. If you add the increased number of stab wounds and the fact that he slept here to the vivid hallucinations and the unexplainable onset of stuttering, you get the missing variable. This guy's an insomniac." Reid figures out.

"Just as adrenaline makes a person love the feeling of killing, once it leaves the body it makes them tired." Morgan tells. "He does this all to sleep?" Colbern questions. "The insomnia is what makes the hallucinations so clear, and sleep is the only release that he has from them." Casey added.

Reid, Morgan and Casey had explained what they had discovered to the rest of the team and Garcia did her magic and found out that their unsub had been Ben Foster. They arrived at his address and he was on the run. The team secured the area and had seen something that looked suspicious in one of the houses. Hotch ordered the team to check it out.

It was a good thing they had because Ben had been there, holding a weapon to children. Casey held her gun up to the scared man. Hotch and Reid had done the same thing and so did the rest of the team. "Ben, drop the knife." Hotch ordered.

"Don't shoot me." Ben begged. "Ben, we're not gonna shoot you, but we do need you to put down that knife, okay?" Reid approached closer, putting his gun in his holster. "All right, where are the other people in this room, Ben?" Ben pointed behind Reid. "Right there. You see 'em?"

"Right here? Were they there for the exorcism?" Ben nodded at Reid. "Mm-hmm. I didn't kill them, though. I didn't do it. And I'm not lying!"

"Ben, they're dead and they can't hurt you anymore." Hotch told. "They can't?" Ben whimpered. "No, Ben. Your mind is playing tricks on you. Once you get help, it'll all stop." Morgan assured. "All you have to do is put the knife down." Casey added.

Ben started speaking to the demons in his head and admitted: "All right, I killed you. I set the fire."

Morgan assured the man, "Ben, listen to us. It's okay. We're gonna get you a doctor's help. I promise you that." Ben shakes his head. "No. The... the only way that you can help me is if you do it... if you kill me."

"Ben, that's not true." Reid tells and Ben looks Reid's way. "Listen, the only way we can help you is if you take that knife and put it down, okay?" Ben looks at Reid. "Are you sure that'll work?"

"Oh, I'm sure of it. Put that knife down, okay? Take that knife and put it down and everything will be fine, okay?" Reid assures.

"Okay." Ben lets the children go and they run outside, following Ashley.

Before Casey knew it, Ben started running at Reid with the knife and acted quick, shooting Ben in the chest and he landed on the ground in pain. "We need an ambulance." Reid announced.

The team looked at Casey carefully. "You okay?" Hotch asks the girl and she nods. "Yeah." She says and her eyes thwart over to Reid. "You okay?" Reid nodded, "Yeah, I'm okay."

hey, lovelies!
guess who's back from camp and on spring break!!
finally updated lol
also
casey and reid back at it with their coffee facts <3
bruhhh
im kinda sad with how my gifs came out i wanted them to come out better- if someone could make me a new gif for each season that would be great😭
anywaysss
thank you for reading!!
love you all and happy easter!
-mya <3333