CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE: STILL STANDING AND STILL KICKING ASS !

6x24

━━━━━━

CASEY WILLOWS HAD NEVER FELT SUCH PEACE IN HER LIFE ONCE SHE TOOK HER WELL-DESERVED VACATION. Who knew that all she needed was a month? Casey had spent time with Marco and talked to her therapist regularly — nearly every day. She felt refreshed. It was emotional, it was heart-wrenching. But she got through it.

A couple days being back home, Casey had been called in the office by Hotch. Bright and early, the sun hadn't even been out yet. Surely, the team had never been called in this early. Casey was happy to see the team up at the roundtable room. She started heading up the stairs as she heard their conversation.

"When's the last time he called a meeting this early?" Casey heard Seaver ask. "3 years, 8 months ago." Reid spoke. "And what happened?" Seaver asked again.

There was a pause before Reid mentioned: "Gideon left."

There's another pause. "Who's leaving?" Garcia asked and then she gasped: "Oh my God, is it Casey?"

As if on cue, Casey walked in the roundtable room. "I hope not, I just got back." She spoke, striking everyone's attention as she walked in the room with a bright smile on her face.

"Fair maiden!" Garcia stood up with open arms as she rushed over to the girl to give her a big hug. "Hey, Ace." Morgan smirked as he stood up, wanting a hug, as well.

"Hey!" Rossi and Seaver had decided to get a hug, too.
"We missed you." Garcia tells. "I missed you guys, too." Casey smiled and gave Reid a hug next. "Hey, Spencer." She said as she did so.

Casey pulled away as Rossi spoke to her. "How have you been?" Everyone had been waiting on the girl as she took a deep breath before she answered the question. "I know it's been a month and it's been rough, but I'm much more content and focused and I'm ready to come back to work and kick some ass."
"That's the spirit." Morgan chuckled.

Casey took her seat at the table and looked at the team with furrowed eyebrows. "Now, what's this about someone leaving?" She asked.

"Nobody's leaving." Morgan replied with as he sat back down in his seat. "Good," Casey nodded. "That would be pretty shitty news to come back to."

Hotch had walked into the room next. He had been the person they were all waiting on. "I appreciate everyone coming in early." Hotch tells and his eyes land on Casey as he nods at her. "Welcome back, Casey." Casey gave a small smile to the man and sensed that he had been stressing about something. "Good to be back." She said.

"What's going on?" Rossi asked, sensing the stress as well. Hotch took his seat and looked at the team. "The Director called a meeting last night to discuss budgets." Casey already knew this wasn't good. "They skipped over Strauss?" Rossi asked. "She's away." Hotch says.

"The Bureau is facing a lot of changes and this unit is no exception. Over the next few weeks, each of you is going to be asked if you'd like to stay with the unit." Everyone looked at one another. "Why wouldn't we?" Reid asked.

"There are other options for you out there." Hotch answered. "And while I want the unit to stay together, I understand completely if you want to see what the alternatives are." Hotch then looked at Morgan.

"Morgan, there's renewed interest in you from the New York office." Hotch turns towards Casey. "Willows, you as well." Both Morgan and Casey look at one another.

"Nobody's called me." Morgan tells. "Me neither." Casey adds on. "They will." Hotch tells.
"That doesn't mean I'm gonna go." Morgan says.
"Yeah, this is my home. Kind of my duty to fill this legacy that Gideon started." Casey replied with a soft chuckle.
"Oh, I know." Hotch nods.

"Are you staying here?" Seaver asked and all eyes were on Hotch. "It's my intention." He answers. "All I ask is if you are contacted by another division that you let me know."

Suddenly, Hotch's cell phone rings and he picks up. "Hotchner. Yes. Right. We can be there in 20 minutes." Hotch hangs up. "Virginia State police believe they've uncovered a serial killer. They need us at Zacha Road and Route 7 as soon as possible. Morgan, you and Dave get out there."

"What about this?" Rossi asked.
"We can talk about it later." Hotch tells.

Casey didn't like the idea of leaving the BAU. She had just got back, the BAU was her home. No way she would blow everything she's worked so hard for to go to New York when she knew the BAU was somewhere she knew since birth. No one could take that away from her.

        Casey, Seaver and Reid were ordered to stay behind and to set up their boards. "The only reason we have this case is because of an accident." Seaver spoke. "You know the odds of that?" Reid asks and Seaver and Casey exchange a look. "Is that rhetorical?" Casey asked.

       "Combined with the chance that this is his first time dumping bodies." Reid tells. "You think he's working alone?" Seaver asks and Reid turns the question to Seaver. "What do you think?" Seaver shakes her head. "Unlikely."

       "I agree," Casey told. "It's high-risk to move one body out of the state, but two? No, this unsub had help."

       "Paige was abducted months after having Jake in captivity and he traveled with both, which means he's criminally sophisticated. It seems more like an organized operation as opposed to an individual offender." Reid explains. "Then he's probably done this before." Seaver says.

       "You think there are more victims out there?" Casey questions. "Impossible to say until we figure out how those two were targeted." Reid says. "Leave it to us three to figure out why." Casey sighs as she looks at the pictures on the board that she tacked up of the victims.

Hotch and a woman named Andi Swan had showed up to help with the case. The team worked with her before but that had been when Casey was a teenager and Seaver hadn't been with the team yet. "Do you know who did this?" Seaver asked after they had finished debriefing with Andi Swan about the case.

"I've been two steps behind an organization that abducts college kids throughout the US." Andi told. "How long have you been tracking them?" Casey asked. "Three years. But this is the first time there's been an identifiable body." Andi stated.

"Do you think this is their work?" Reid asked. "It's definitely their type. Stressed-out, vulnerable kids." Andi nodded. "They're all from good families, making them low-risk for abduction." Seaver said. "Young innocents are worth more money." Reid continued. "And they're harder to lure, so they hold on to them for a longer period of time." Hotch stated. "How many victims are they holding at once?" Casey asked.

"That's hard to say," Andi answered. "But from what I can tell, there's a lot of turnover." Hotch nods, "Customers don't want to see the same faces twice."

"We don't think they travel with more than a handful of victims at one time." Andi said.
"They hunt all over the country." Seaver said.
"All they need is a car." Casey adds.
"They might be low-tech, but they're organized." says Hotch.
"And profitable." Reid told.

"The rumor is that they hold events for two days in metropolitan areas and then they disappear." Andi said. "What kind of events?" Reid asks. "Where top-paying customers can do things like this and worse to the victims." Andi answers. "It seems impossible to trace." Reid tells.

"We study their behavior. They're not a good breed, but they're still human. They make a few mistakes. We've also recently established an undercover unit." Andi explains. "Wait, how can you infiltrate them?" Reid asks. "Yeah, wouldn't one of your agents have to commit a crime to be accepted as a customer?" Casey follows the question.

"Exactly," Andi said. "That's why we can't pose as buyers. The entire system is set up to protect the customers, but there's no way we can trace them from that end."
"Your agents go in as targets." Seaver stated. "Do you have anybody under now?" Hotch asks.

"Locally a few. They're still establishing the backstories." Andi said and Hotch nodded, "They might be able to help." This could be their way into solving this and catching who's responsible.

As they had been going over everything, Andi Swan had discovered one of her undercovers had missed her last two check-ins. Hotch and Andi had gone to the undercover's apartment and Seaver, Casey and Reid stayed behind to go over all of the missing coeds.

     "Here are the missing coeds since 2009." Garcia said, handing Seaver, Casey and Reid a stack of files. "Wow." Seaver said. "That's a lot of missing people." Casey commented.

     "Okay, uh, we still need to narrow this down. Let's look at last-known locations. Maybe there's an overlap." Seaver said. "They're from all over the place." Garcia says. "These guys hunt in target-rich environments." Seaver says. "Right. Clubs, malls, that kind of thing." Garcia nodded.

      "What are Morgan and Rossi finding?" Reid questioned. "Uh, a lot of mud on the car and the victims." Garcia says. "Mud? Did it rain here?" Reid asked. "No, not here. South. Morgan has a theory that based on the gas mileage, they must have filled up within 70 miles of the accident." Garcia explained and Reid nods, "Gotcha. How many gas stations you find?"

       "Forty-two." Garcia says.
       "How'd you narrow that down?" Casey asked.
       "I didn't." Garcia said.
       "Why not?" Reid asks.
       "I didn't have any more parameters."
       "Never stopped you before." Reid shrugged.

       Garcia looked at both Casey and Reid and began to walk off. "I'll be right back." She almost dropped the rest of the files but Seaver had caught them. "Thanks, Reid." She said as she handed them over to Reid.

        Rossi and Morgan had arrived back at the BAU as well as Hotch and Andi. They had been waiting on Rossi and Morgan as they were going over the missing undercover, who's name was Renee.

       "Renee's done a lot of homework. These people have all been to clubs over the weekend and vanished within three days, including this morning's victims." Reid explained. "So why didn't she share her theory?" Ashley asks. "She's a perfectionist. I'm sure she wanted to gather enough intel to prove it." Andi answered.

       "Using the club as a template, there are potentially 63 others who were taken by the same offenders." Reid tells. "There's no way to know which ones are still alive." Andi crosses her arms. "Andi Swan." Rossi greets as he walks in the room.

       "How you been?" He asks. "Better," Andi says as she shakes his hand. "Thanks for helping out." Morgan looks at the woman next and shakes her hand. "Nice to see you again, Andi."

       "What'd you find?" Hotch questioned. "We tracked the driver to a gas station outside Culpepper." Rossi started and Morgan continued, "He used a pay phone to call another one in the same town."
        "So they're close."
        "And careful."

       "What's their budget on location?" Morgan asks. "Not much. They pay cash, no questions asked. Security's top priority." Andi answers. "So this guy's found a place to hold, what, a dozen victims?" Morgan asks. "So we're looking for a secluded spot in rural Virginia. Well, that shouldn't be hard to find." Rossi says, noting at his sarcasm.

       They had spent over hours trying to figure it all out. "I thought traffickers concentrated in port cities." Rossi asked. "International ones do, unfortunately, domestic traffickers abduct all over the country." Andi says.

       "It doesn't seem like they stay in one location long after an abduction." Reid points out. "They move quickly and efficiently." Andi says. "My guess was in a nondescript car, and until this morning that was just a theory."

       "They've lost their driver now, so they're in jeopardy." Reid says. "They realize they have to be more careful now, could cause them to go into hiding." Casey says. "It's all about survival for them. They'll move out tonight." Rossi adds.

       "But they've got customers and victims lined up. They don't want to lose the money." Hotch says. "And their location hasn't been compromised yet." Seaver stated. "Who knows where they're gonna end up?" Andi sighs.

       "Based on Reid's theory, we need to see if Renee had been to any clubs before she disappeared." Morgan looks up at Andi. "She went to the local clubs. She'd report back if anyone suspicious approached her. We followed the leads, nothing panned out."

       "What was the last club?" Morgan asks. "Scotty's in Georgetown," Andi says. "If they find out she's an agent, she's dead." The team looked at one another and knew they had to get this done and they had to find the people responsible.

       Casey had decided to take a brief intermission to go and get some more coffee in her cup. She was heading back to the office when she had seen Emily's portrait. She could've gone another day without having to look at that. It reminded her of the fragile state she was in for a month and how long it took her to get mourn and grieve.

Casey remained at the spot and stared at the portrait. Someone had approached her and she hadn't realized who it was when they did. "Hey, kid." Casey looked over and saw Rossi and he was looking at the picture like she was.

"Hey." Casey said and Rossi and the girl stood in silence until Rossi spoke again. "You're probably tired of this question, but... how are you?" He asked.

Casey looked at the man and shrugged. "I'm doing better. When I took my vacation time, I did a lot of thinking. And there was... a lot of emotions. But I've fully filled my five stages of grief. All I had left was acceptance. There will always be some part of me that doesn't accept. But now I do. I just really miss her." Casey stated. To tell their truth, there would always be a part of her that wasn't going to accept the fact that Emily was dead. But she had come so far and that was enough. She was letting Emily go.

Rossi wrapped an arm around Casey and Casey's head was now on Rossi's shoulder as he held her. "We all do, kid." He told. They stood there for a moment up until Rossi had spoke again.

"I also heard you were with my nephew," Rossi spoke. "How'd that go, by the way? He treating you well?" Casey looks at Rossi and pulls away from the hug and gives him a look. "Your nephew is just fine, he would never hurt me." Casey nods. "Oh, I'm not protecting you, I'm protecting him. You heartbreaker, you." Casey laughs at Rossi's joke and the two head back in the office when they receive more info on the hideout from Garcia.

It had been located as a Rehab Center which was now an abandoned factory in the middle of nowhere. They had their location.

So, they saved the day, so to put it. They had arrested over 18 people, Renee was saved and Morgan was hurt, but he would manage, he was a big guy. There had been an accident where the getaway driver was shot and only a girl was found in the vehicle.

She looked scared, older, but there had been something off about her. Rossi had taken her over to one of the police cars. From a distance, Casey could tell that Hotch and Andi were questioning something. She pulled her gun out of her holster once she looked at the girl's hands and saw a gun in hers that she had been trying to hide. She was the leader of everything. And Casey had realized just by looking at her.

"Dave!" Hotch called and began to rush over.

The girl raised her gun at Rossi but Casey had her aim and shot her, killing her instantly. Casey knew she had no other choice because if she didn't make that move, Rossi would be dead. Rossi looked over at the girl that saved him and she looked his way, putting her gun down and walked towards him. He looked at Casey in gratitude.

Hotch and Andi made their way over. Hotch asks Rossi if he had be alright and then looked down at the girl and realized that Casey had done it. "Casey," He said and Casey looked at the girl. "Are you alright?" She nods, "Yeah, I'm alright." She nodded.

Casey took a deep breath and realized that maybe it had been right for her to do what she did. After all, Rossi wouldn't be here if she didn't make the move she made.

━━━━━━

The team made their way back to the BAU to pack up. The entire car ride, Morgan had been complaining about his arm. They walked into the room as Reid had been taking the pictures down and noticed Morgan. "What happened to you?" He asked.

"That guy was huge." Morgan sighed. "Seriously." Reid looked at Morgan. "You should start working out." Reid joked and both Garcia and Casey smiled. "Oh, you got jokes now?" Morgan questioned and Reid, Garcia and Casey started to chuckle.

Seaver looked down at the files in front of her and she had an upset look on her face. "What is it, kid?" Rossi asks and Seaver sighed, "We only rescued seven victims today. What about the rest of these?"

"It never ends." Rossi says. "But today I think we did good. Especially Miss Congeniality over here with her badassery today. First day back, too." Morgan says, looking towards Casey and it put a smile on her face. "Hey, I can't just sit still and look pretty, now can I?" She joked. "If we weren't so exhausted, I would toast us." Garcia says.

"Good work, everybody." Hotch said and everyone turned to face him. He had his briefcase with him and he looked like he was ready to go home. "Go home and get some rest. Nobody needs to come in till 9:00." Hotch paused and looked back at the team. "... 30."

Garcia furrows her eyebrows, as well as Casey. "We were supposed to talk ab-- has he ever left before us?" Garcia asks. "Add that to my list of things I never thought I would see." Casey comments.

"Baby girl, I don't blame him." Morgan says, looking towards Garcia. "It's been a long-ass day." Rossi looks towards the team. "Well, you heard the man. Go home."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Morgan says. "Hey, is anyone hungry?" Reid asks, looking towards Casey and internally hoping she would say yes. "Famished." She nods. Reid then looks towards Seaver to make it look like he wasn't so desperate for just Casey to go. "Starving." Seaver smiles.

"What are we all hungry for?" Casey asked. "There's this super good Indian restaurant. It's a little ways away, but it's open 24 hours and they have amazing chicken tandoori." Reid says. "All right." Seaver nods. "Sounds good." Casey smiles.

As Casey had gone through that elevator with her co-workers, she didn't expect the next time she'd be coming into them, another surprise would be coming to her. And not in the way she'd think.

GUYSSSS
WE HAVE FINISHED S6!!!!!!
damnnnn idk why it took me so long to finish s5 but it took like less than a couple of months to finish s6-
ANYWAYS
WE ARE NOW IN S7 AND IM TERRIFIED
I HAVE SO MANY THINGS PLANNED AND I FINALLY GET TO EXPAND MY IDEAS OUT TO THE PUBLIC AND I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!
you guys know what's coming next😉
love you all!!
praying for y'all 🙏
-mya <33333