CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO: IMMORTALITY !

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CASEY WILLOWS WALKS INTO THE OFFICE WITH A COFFEE IN HER HAND AND A SESAME BAGEL TO GO RIGHT ALONG WITH IT. As she enters, her cell phone begins to ring, causing the girl to have a little bit of struggle to answer the phone.

     Successfully, she answered the phone. "Hey, you." Casey greeted once she checked the Caller ID. "Hey, pretty lady." Her boyfriend, Sawyer, answered. "Whatcha doing?"

    "Just caught me walking into the office," Casey told. "What are you doing?"

     Sawyer answered, "Driving to the station. Just thought I'd call you to check and see if you were flying in tonight?" Casey thought and reluctantly answered. She remembered what was going on tomorrow. "Yeah, of course." She said.

     Sawyer paused as he suspected the hesitant voice of Casey Willows. "What was that in your voice?" He questioned. "What was what in my voice?" Casey furrowed her brows. "It quavered." Sawyer pointed out. "My voice did not quaver." Casey assured. "Uh, yes, it did. You better spill. What's going on? Are you not coming?" Sawyer asked as worry filled his voice.

     "No, after work, I'm going." Casey assured. "But... it's just..." Casey didn't know how to tell him why she was so nervous. "It's just what?" Sawyer asked as Casey made her way to her desk.

     "I'm meeting your parents." Casey told.

     After a couple of months, it was time for Casey to meet her boyfriend's parents. Apparently, he talked about the girl so much that his parents were eager to meet her. Casey being nervous was an understatement. She was freaking out inside.

     "So?" Sawyer asked.

     "So," Casey told. "It's a huge step for us. I haven't had to worry about parents liking me in years. I mean, what if they don't like me?"

      Sawyer laughs at his girlfriend, noticing how cute it was when she was nervous. "That is total nonsense. I swear, they're gonna love you. Rose and Ed are nice people."

    "Rose is a district attorney lawyer and Ed is a court judge — which actually explains a lot about you, good sir." Casey told.

     "Like I said, Rose and Ed are nice people," Sawyer said. "I swear, you have nothing to worry about, alright? And even if they don't like you, I'll make 'em like you."

     This makes Casey smile but her smile quickly fades once she sees Reid walk into the BAU and making his way over to the coffee machine. "Ugh." Casey groaned.

    "What's wrong?" Sawyer asked in curiousness. Casey looked over at Reid as she sat at her desk and examined the paperwork in front of her. "Mr. Hyde walked in disguised as Dr. Jekyll."

     Sawyer instantly knew who she was talking about. He knew about the argument and of course, took his girlfriend's side. "Aw, forget that little worm in a suit. Don't let him ruin your day today."

     Casey sighs as she nods. "He always does, with his face." Sawyer had immediately spoke. "Shit, hey, I gotta go." Casey nods, "Okay, I'll see you tonight, hopefully."

    "Don't let Dr. Jekyll go all Mr. Hyde on ya today," Sawyer told. "Love you, bye."

      Sawyer instantly hung up and Casey had come to the realization that that had been the first time that one of them said 'I love you'. Casey knew it was a slip-up, but he still said it. He said it to her. Casey smiled to herself a bit as she put her phone down. She looked down at the framed picture of Sawyer and herself on a trip to Tahoe. She smiled at the memory and was happy at the fact that another memory would be created with meeting his parents.

After a long day at work, Casey had been ready to head down to the airport to meet with Sawyer. As she grabbed her go-bag and turned her lamp off at her desk, she had gotten a call from an Unknown Number. Casey had hesitantly answered. "Hello?"

"Casey?"

"Detective Toderick?" Casey had recognized the voice of Sawyer's detective friend at the station.

"You need to get here. Sawyer was hurt on one of our cases."

Casey nearly dropped her phone. "Oh, my God."

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Casey had landed in Philly sooner than she thought and it was a relief for her. She immediately took a taxi cab to the hospital Toderick told her they were at. Casey arrived at the hospital and went straight to the receptionist. "Hi, hi. I'm here for, uh, Sawyer Gunthey."

"Relationship to the patient?" The receptionist lady asked and before Casey could answer, she thought about her answer. If she were to say 'girlfriend', they surely wouldn't let her in and say family only. So, she thought and remembered she brought her FBI badge. She swore she would never do this but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"It's... case related." Casey reached in her bag and held her badge out. "I'm Agent Casey Willows with the FBI." The receptionist lady gave a look to the girl and Casey looked over at her badge and realized that she was holding her badge upside down.

Casey flipped the badge over and the woman looked at her and said: "Room 721." With that, Casey rushed there but not before saying 'Thank you.' to the woman. Casey examined the room numbers before landing on Room 721 and she quickly opened the door and seen Sawyer sitting up on his hospital bed as a doctor was checking out his back. Every bad thought that was in Casey's mind about how she thought she would see him, unconscious or maybe lifeless exited her mind once she saw him sitting up, breathing and alive. She sighed in relief and smiled to herself.

"Sawyer." Casey breathed out and Sawyer looked his girlfriend's way in disbelief. "Casey." He put a smile on his face and Casey immediately rushed over to him and gave him a hug as tears streamed from her face. "You're okay. When Toderick called me, I thought you were- I didn't know what to do." Casey told.

"I'm okay." Sawyer assured. Casey pulled away and pushed Sawyer in the chest. "Jesus Christ, do not scare me like that again, you dumbass." Sawyer touched his chest and said: "Ouch."

"What's it look like back there, doc?" Sawyer asked, turning his head over to the doctor. "You're looking pretty good here, man." Casey took a look at Sawyer's back and seen a bandage on top of a gunshot wound. "This is good?" Casey asked. "Be grateful the bullet wound was in my shoulder and not through my head." Sawyer told. "Not funny." Casey glared.

        Detective Toderick and Sheriff Brown had walked in the hospital room. "Sam." Sawyer greeted and Casey waved at him. "Gunthey," Sam nodded over at Casey. "Nice to see you again, Willows."

        "Well, thank you for calling me." Casey told, holding onto Sawyer's arm. "Yeah, Hitchford moved him out of the way in time." Sheriff Brown told. "Seriously, kid, you could've been killed."

        "Well, I didn't. This is nothing." Sawyer said and suddenly, groaned in pain as the doctor cleaned the wound. "Ah." Casey rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "Nothing my ass." She said.
         Toderick nodded, "What she said."

      Suddenly, another man walked in with a cup of coffee in his hand. "Gunthey. Are you good, man?" He asked. Sawyer nodded, "Yeah, man. I'm good. Thanks for pulling me out of the way in time."
      "You would've done the same thing for me, man." The man told.

       Casey looked over at her boyfriend as she pointed to the man who walked in. "Who's—?"

      Sawyer looked in between his girlfriend and the man. "Oh, Agent Casey Willows, Officer Darryl Hitchford, my partner. Got me out of the way in time." The man held his hand out for Casey to shake.
      "Pleasure, I've heard a lot about you."
      "I'd say the same thing, but I haven't heard a single thing about you." Casey said.
       "That's just like Gunthey, man." Hitchford chuckled and Sawyer shrugged.

      "You get the fingerprints off that gun?" Sheriff Brown looked at Officer Hitchford. "That's gonna be hard, sir." Hitchford shook his head. "Yeah, he was wearing leather gloves." Sawyer nodded.

      "Well, the gloves act as a protective covering for the wearer's prints, the gloves themselves can leave prints that are sometimes unique like human fingerprints. It shouldn't be too hard." Casey explained and then came to the realization, "Wait, why don't you have fingerprints? You don't know who shot you?"

       "It's this guy we've been trying to get for a while." Sawyer said. "The Philly Butcher." Toderick told.

      "M.O.?" Casey asked, getting into profiling mode.

      "He shoots our vics and cuts off the bodies, only leaving their torsos. The arms and legs are always found buried next to the victims." Toderick explained.

      "Arms and legs... what about heads?" Casey asks.

      "We haven't found any. That's the strange part." Sheriff Brown says. "And victimology?" Casey asks.

      "Mostly men, late thirties-early forties. No connection, though." Toderick told.

       "We were on our stakeout when one of our rookies we took with us made the mistake in trying to stop him, Sawyer pushed the guy out of the way and he got shot." Hitchford explained to Casey.

       "Luckily, Hitchford made sure I stayed intact." Sawyer told and the man nodded.

       "So, this guy is still running around Philly?" Casey asked.

       Toderick nodded, "Unfortunately, so." He looked over at Sheriff Brown. "Think we'll need to call the BAU in?" Sheriff Brown shrugged, "We may need to."

        The men looked at Casey. "Willows, you wanna do the honors?" Casey nodded, knowing it needed to be done. "Sure." As the rest of the men walked out of the room, it had left Casey and Sawyer in the room.

       "Looks like we may need to reschedule that dinner with my parents, huh?" Sawyer jokes and Casey smiles at him before he looked away and Casey snuck a glimpse of him and remembered the last thing he said on the phone to her. Why didn't he mention it? He had to have known he slipped up? Why wasn't he talking about it?

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Casey had called Hotch and told him the details of the case and that they should start heading there soon. Casey had gotten news from the morgue about the torsos and one she got news about the team getting on the jet and debriefing over the case, she asked Garcia to add her onto the call with the team because she had the new information that was vital. Soon enough, she was connected with the team through the computer.

"Willows." Hotch spoke as everyone had noticed the girl on screen. "Hey, guys." Casey waved at her team. "How's Sawyer? Is he okay?" JJ asks the girl and Casey takes a deep breath and nods, "He's still breathing. Doctor told him to take it easy the next few days." She informs.

"Well, you know all of us are here if you need anything." Morgan tells the girl and Casey nods, "I know, thank you."

"Garcia said you found out more details about our case?" Hotch asked, changing the subject. Casey nods as she looked at the file in front of her, "Yes, I do. Sam Wendell was discovered as one of our victims due to fingerprints and they're still trying to figure out who the other body belongs to. Our unsub cuts the arms and legs off of our victims, but we're assuming that he takes the heads with them." Casey explains.

"Could be keeping 'em as some sort of trophy." Morgan said. "Very sadistic." Casey heard Emily say. "So, he shoots the victims before getting them and cutting their body parts off." JJ tells. "He gets them on the ground so they don't fight back." Rossi tells.

"They end up fighting back, though," Emily says. "Look at the ligature marks on the neck."

Casey nodded, "Yeah, he strangled Sam Wendell with a barbed wire. Could be a tactic for how he's getting the heads off."

"He would have to put a lot of hard work into getting the head off. He would have to kill them antemortem so they wouldn't fight back." Reid says.

"Morgan, Rossi, go to the morgue, see what else you can find. JJ, Reid, the crime scenes and Emily and I will head to the PD and meet Casey there." Hotch explains.

Casey nods, "See you guys when you get here."

Emily and Hotch arrived at the PD and Casey had led them to the room they would be working in. The two examined the pictures and Hotch spoke with the Sam Wendell's wife as Casey got her boss and coworker food as they began to discuss the case. After finishing their food, JJ and Reid had come back and discovered that the unsub was burying the body parts with his bare hands and Morgan and Rossi came back and discovered that the heads were cut off postmortem due to the jaggedness of each body.

Emily stood up and examined the pictures of the bodies. "Why them?" She questioned. "He could just so easily take down women but men are his main priority, why?"

"He could be looking for power." Morgan theorized. "Perhaps someone didn't give him that growing up." Hotch tells. "And someone could've triggered that very recently." JJ says.

Casey looked outside over at the entrance to the police station and noticed Sawyer walking in the building with his arm in a sling and Toderick and Hitchford walking behind him. "Sawyer?" Casey questioned as she stood up and Sawyer seemed to find the room.

"What are you doing here?" Casey questioned, approaching her boyfriend. "You should be at the hospital resting."

"Believe me, we told him that." Toderick told. "He wanted to come back, find the son of a bitch." Hitchford nodded as the three walked in the room and Hitchford had seen the pictures and shook his head. "God, this guy is sick."

"Agents Hotchner, Prentiss, Morgan, Jareau, Rossi and Dr. Reid, this is Officer Darryl Hitchford." The man shook Hotch's hand since he had been in front of him. "Transferred from Milwaukee." Hitchford told.

"Sorry we have to meet under these circumstances." Hotch tells. "Ah, I've heard about you guys from Mr. Congeniality over here." Hitchford tosses his thumb over to Sawyer, who rolls his eyes. "You really think you could catch this guy?"

Everyone glances at one another as JJ speaks, "We have hope."

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A day had passed and another murder occurred, this time the unsub changed his victimology, this time murdering a woman and he had carved in the torso: 'Tick Tock'. A message for the BAU. As the team had been debriefing over the murder, Casey had been in an opposite room, Saywer's office and changing his bandage.

"Does it still hurt?" Casey asked. "Not as much anymore." Sawyer shrugged. "Good." Casey told. Sawyer noticed the silence and decided to try and open his mouth and talk to Casey about what he said getting off the phone yesterday.

"Hey," Sawyer spoke. "I-I know I said something before I left the call... and I didn't even realize that I said it until I left—"

"You said what?" Casey asked, playing dumb. "I said... those words. The words." Casey acted like her memory had been refreshed as Sawyer spoke. "Anyway, I— uh, I want you to know, I didn't mean to scare you with them. I mean, I didn't mean it, not that I didn't-didn't mean it, I mean, like, I know you said we shouldn't take it too fast—"

"Sawyer—" Casey stops him from speaking. "It's forgotten. Okay?" Sawyer nods, "Okay." To be honest, Casey was kinda hurt that he took his words back but what was she supposed to say? 'Don't say you didn't mean it because I wanted you to mean it'?

Once she helped clean his bandage, Sawyer decided to speak to Morgan and Hotch, since they said they could help him with a cognitive to see if he remembered anything significant about the unsub. Casey went into the room that they were in and Casey sat down in a seat and sunk in it with her hands on the her face and stress creeping in her head.

"What's up with you?" Emily asked, seeming to notice that her and Casey were the only people in the room. Casey rested her head on her hands. "What do you mean?" She asked. Emily raised her eyebrows and gave her the 'you know what I'm talking about' look and Casey gave in.

Casey took a deep breath and took a look outside before looking down as she spoke. "Before I got here, Sawyer called me and before he left, he said 'I love you'." Emily looked at the girl. "It's the first time he's ever said it. It was a slip up. And Sawyer addressed it and basically said he wasn't trying to scare me away so... he took it back."

"Rookie mistake." Emily joked. "I agree," Casey chuckled. "And I... so desperately wanted him to say it. I did. And some part of me is glad that he takes it back... but..."

"Some part of you wishes he didn't." Emily figured out and Casey nodded, "Yeah. That." Emily looks at the girl before thinking about. "Think about it this way, his intentions weren't to hurt you. He just didn't want to scare you away. And maybe he was waiting for the right time before he actually said it to you. I wouldn't worry about it. I think he really does like you." Casey chuckled, "Yeah, he does, doesn't he?"

It was times like this that Casey was reminded of the fact of how much she missed Emily when she was gone. Emily had give her the space and the time that she needed and the fact that she was respecting it made Casey realized that she missed the relationship they had.

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        Sawyer had finished his cognitive interview and couldn't remember much about the unsub. He stayed in the office while the team was calling up Garcia to find anything else they could. He was stressing about everything and him telling Casey he loved her but taking it back was top of the list.

        Reid had been printing some more files and noticed Sawyer's worried face. "You seem stressed." Reid profiled. Sawyer looked his way and scoffed. "I'm fine," He said. "Doesn't really concern you." Reid looked down and Sawyer took a breather. "Sorry, but it doesn't."

        Sawyer looked Reid's way and remembered all of the things Casey said about him before - about he was a good listener and how he always seemed to have good advice. Sawyer looked him up and down before asking: "You a good listener?"

         Reid stopped in his tracks and looked at him. He looked like he really needed to talk to someone. "People say I am." He shrugged. Sawyer asks, "Can I ask your advice on something?" Reid walked towards him as he shrugged again. "Depends. On what?"

       Sawyer looked ahead and sighed, "It's about Casey. I know you two aren't on the best of terms right now, but you know her better than anybody." It was the truth, besides Hotch and Rossi, Reid knew Casey better than anyone. He nodded at the man, "Okay."

       Reid looked at the man and paid attention as he spoke. "The other day, getting off the phone, I accidentally said 'I love you' to her and then, I talked to her about it like an idiot and told her I didn't mean it and now I'm afraid she thinks I don't love her and that's not true - I mean, it's not, I don't think it is. But... Casey... she says it doesn't matter but I can see it on her face, it does... and now I'm blabbering like an idiot because I'm stressed and anxious that I messed stuff up with her. I mean, we've been together six months now, one of us should've said it by now, right?" Sawyer rambled on and on.

       "You said those words to her?" Reid asked, looking down. It had been over two months since the mishap with Casey. He didn't know they were in that stage of their relationship - hell, he didn't know if they were still going on at first but Casey always talking about him at work to JJ confirmed they still were.

        Sawyer nodded, "Yeah. Did I screw it up with her?" Reid looked down and thought. "Well, if I were you, I'd tell her the truth. About how I was feeling. About what needed to be said. My true feelings. It's Casey, she'll understand. She always does and always has. That's the type of person she is. Yeah, maybe she's hurt, but the point is: you have to make it up to her." As he spoke his words, he thought of Casey and wondered if he was even saying the right thing at all.

       "How do I do that?" Sawyer asked.

       "Prove it," Reid said, simply. "Prove you... love her." He muttered the 'love' part quietly.

       Sawyer looked at the man. "You know, you should probably take your own advice, worm boy." Reid furrowed his brows at Sawyer, slightly in fear that he figured out his... crush? On Casey. He didn't know what to call it.

      "Make it up to her," Sawyer told. "You're her best friend. Before you guys got into that argument, she used to talk about you all the time. Said you were her best friend." Reid looked Sawyer's way in disbelief. "She did?" He asked. "Yeah." Sawyer nodded.

       Reid looked his way and realized that maybe he was harsh on Sawyer the last time he'd seen him. "Sawyer, I want to apologize... for-for hitting you and acting... the way I was acting." He was acting jealous but he couldn't say that. "I'm just... I was looking out for her." He was protective of her. Sawyer shakes his head,  "No hard feelings, dude. You just wanna look out for her. Just try and make it up to her."

         In a shockingly turn of events, Spencer made up with Sawyer — maybe he could make up with Casey next.

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After delivering the profile, Hotch had tried to communicate with the unsub through the news anchor airing for the unsub to see. Suddenly, the phone began to ring and it was him, wishing to speak to Hotch and the BAU team. "We got a call on the hotline. It's him." Sheriff Brown told.

The team was say around the phone as Sheriff Brown, Sawyer, Hitchford and Toderick joined in. Hotch looked at his team as they all nodded to him to answer the phone as it ran. Hotch held his index finger up to his lips, in dictation for everyone to be quiet as he answered. "Hello, this is Agent Aaron Hotchner. To who am I speaking to?"

There was breathing on the other side of the line until a disguised, deep voice revealed themselves. "You made a mistake." The voice told.

"I'm sorry?" Hotch asked.

"You shouldn't have exploited us to the world. Now, I have to go and kill more people." The voice told.

Hotch looked at everyone. "We don't want you to do that." He said.

"Inspiring words," The unsub told. "Try better next time." The unsub took a deep breath before speaking again. "Ryan Sanders and $500,000."

"I'm sorry?" Hotch asked.

"My next victim is Ryan Sanders, but if you send me $500,000 in cash, I let him go." The unsub negotiated. "You expect us to believe that?" Hotch asked.

"I am a man of my word, Aaron Hotchner." The unsub chuckled eerily. "I can't get you $500,000 right on the spot." Hotch tried.

"How about this?" The unsub took a breath. "If you don't get me $500,000, not only does Ryan Sanders die, someone from your team will, too." Everyone looked at one another as Hotch couldn't find words to say to that. His words were aggressive.

"Sir—"
"Don't try and negotiate with me, Aaron Hotchner!"

"The BAU team, residing in Quantico, Virginia." The unsub started. "Aaron Hotchner, a man who can save everyone, but couldn't even save his own wife." Everyone looked at Hotch as he spoke. "How tragic, but not as tragic as the story of Emily Prentiss." Emily was taken aback as the unsub then attacked her. "Had to fake her own death to save her coworkers, would they even do the same for her?" Emily looked down as he continued.

"And the sweet Jennifer Jareau, who helped stage her death yet she probably cares more about her damn kid than doing her job. Go back to being a liaison, I think people liked you better that way." JJ scoffed as the words were being spoken about her.

"David Rossi, genius author and one of the BAU founders, how's your partner Jason Gideon by the way?" Rossi looked over at Hotch as the words were spoken.

"Or his niece, traumatized and finds her love in alcohol, Casey Willows," Casey's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach as everyone looked her way. "Who inherited his expertise in the criminal psyche yet unable to diagnose the autistic leanings of the very insecure Dr. Reid. Maybe he can make money counting cards in Vegas." Everyone looked Reid's way, who threw a confused look at everyone as he was trying to figure this unsub out. "And token Derek Morgan wants to be taken seriously but he is just a pumped-up side of beef." Morgan scoffed at the words.

"Don't think I don't know. Someone will die if I don't get $500,000. And that blood will be on your hands." The man calmed himself down and went back to the convo. "You have eight hours. Or someone will die."

Before he could hang up, Casey stepped up and spoke to the unsub herself. "And what if we succeed? We kill you, then?" She questioned, pushing his buttons.

"Agent Casey Willows, I am immortal. No one can stop me." The unsub said. "Tick, tock." With that, he hung up.

        Casey looked around at her team; this unsub knew more than they intended. He knew about Haley's death, JJ's son, Emily's staged death, Casey's trouble with alcohol, he knew everything. And it scared the team. How?

        Hotch had called some reinforcements and told Sheriff Brown to get Ryan Sanders and his family at the station so they would be protected. "What do we do, Hotch? That son of a bitch profiled us." Morgan questioned.

       "Why would he do that?" JJ asked.

        "To show us how smart he is." Casey answered.

        "Often times the best profilers are the unsubs themselves." Reid told. "Reminds me of that case we took in Connecticut years ago." Morgan nodded at Reid, "Eerily."

         Hotch had the team rebuild their profile and had Garcia run the DNA found on Sam Wendell's body. When this had all been going on, Toderick had gone to visit Sawyer in his office and then found that he wasn't there and found a note on his desk and immediately rushed to the room the team was in.

       "Willows." Toderick called. "Sawyer's gone." Casey furrowed her brows. "What do you mean, he's gone?" She asked. "He left this for you." Toderick handed Casey the note and Casey read it.

       "'I realized that what I said I didn't mean. I do love you. And I'm going to prove that right now. -Sawyer'" was what it said.

       Casey shook her head. "No, no, no, no." She muttered. "What is it?" Emily asked. "He knows where he is." Casey turned around to her team. "And he didn't tell us?" Morgan asked. "What is he doing?" Toderick asked.

       "He's protecting us," Casey stated. "He's trying to protect us by going after him."

       This was true enough, Sawyer had gotten word where the unsub was residing at and where they could find him. So, he left to go and stop him.

       Garcia had called Hotch up and Hotch answered. "Garcia, did you run the DNA we found on Sam Wendell?" He asked. "Why, yes, sir, I did," Garcia told. "That DNA belongs to a Freddie McIntyre. And his story, it's not a happy one. Freddie's father left him and his mother died from cancer - Freddie had no family so he bounced around foster homes a lot." Casey heard the clacking on her keyboard. "He finally found a family - he stayed with them until he turned 18 but... this is the creepy part. The family he stayed with... was the Hitchford family."

      Everyone stopped in their tracks. "Hitchford as in...?" Emily asked.

      "Officer Darryl Hitchford that works in the police station you're currently at? Yes." Garcia answers. "Oh, my God." Casey clasped a hand around her mouth in shock. "That son of a bitch." Sheriff Brown muttered.

       Sawyer had been in a vehicle and alongside him - had been his partner — Darryl Hitchford, who unbeknownst to him, knew the unsub.

       Darryl had given the coordinates to the warehouse that the unsub was at. Darryl had gotten word from "someone" and Sawyer wanted to go with him. After hearing that this guy knew stuff about his girlfriend, he knew he had to defend her, protect not only her, but her team as well.

       The two had arrived at the warehouse and went in, holding their gun steadily. "You check there, I check here." Darryl nudged his head and Sawyer nodded, "Alright."

       Darryl stared at his partner, head tilted as he put his gun down. Could Sawyer Gunthey be a threat? Maybe he was. "Hey, Gunthey?" Darryl asked.

      Sawyer looked at him. "Yeah?"

      Darryl pointed his gun at Sawyer and shot him the same shoulder.

      Sawyer landed on the ground due to the blow and he held onto his arm in pain as his gun was kicked away by Darryl as he approached him. "Maybe next time, do a background check on your partner." Darryl told as he kicked Sawyer in the stomach.

Casey had been trying to get ahold of Sawyer over and over as Sheriff Brown had found coordinates to the warehouse. Overhearing, Casey began to head towards the entrance but everyone began to follow her. "Willows. It is way too dangerous for you to go. You're one of his targets. SWAT is on their way, now." Hotch called the girl.

"I don't care," Casey told. "SWAT won't be there in time. So, screw it. Screw all of that. Sawyer is with the damn unsub - Hitchford will lead him right there."

"Casey—" Rossi tried.

"I'm not letting it happen." Casey stated.

Before she could leave, Reid had taken the opportunity to stand in front of her to make sure she didn't leave. Casey glared up at the man. "Get out of my way, Reid."

"You can't go, Casey," Reid said. "It's way too dangerous out there. It's a bad idea and you could get hurt."

"You know, other times, I'd listen to you but frankly, I'm tired of your talking." Casey tried to leave but Hotch's booming voice stopped her. "Willows. You're not going and that's final."

Before Casey could make a break for it, she looked Hotch's way. "You went after Foyet when he had Haley, you tried, so why shouldn't I?" With that, Casey had pushed Reid aside forcefully and rushed to one of the SUVs outside and made her way there.

"Casey!" Emily called.

Knowing that they couldn't turn their backs on her, they followed behind her - but she had been a little faster than them.

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Casey Willows had been the fastest driver in the world. She had gotten an FBI vest on and checked the perimeter before going inside, holding her gun tightly and upwards towards any targets. The warehouse was dark but light enough. It didn't help that it was dark outside. Casey squinted her eyes as she looked around.

"Sawyer?" Casey muttered out after hearing groaning sounds. A light turned on, overhead over Sawyer. He was tied in a chair, bleeding from his head and the gunshot would now forming in his shoulder. "Sawyer!" Casey called as she rushed over to him.

"Casey." Sawyer mutters out as Casey unties him. She looked at her boyfriend, who looked like was in obvious pain. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God." Casey muttered out as she touched his face. "I'm okay, it's just a flesh wound."

Casey spoke into her mic. "We need a medic here, now." She stated and tried to help Sawyer up. "Step aside, Agent Willows."

Casey looked over and had seen Hitchford pointing his gun at her. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he had been crying.

The woman thought about her actions carefully and put her gun in her holster to try and get Darryl to be on her good side. She held her hands up in surrender. "Darryl," Casey spoke softly. "You know you don't wanna do this. I know you're doing this for Freddie. I know you wanna protect him. But how long can you protect a serial killer?"

"He's my brother," Darryl stated. "I'll protect him 'til I die."

Casey looked at the man as she now stood in front of him, diagonally moving sideways as Darryl kept his gun pointed at her and she was giving Sawyer a way for him to run out of there. "Darryl," Casey told. "Just put the gun down." She tried but Darryl shook his gun towards Casey. "Is it all worth it? For it all to lead up to this moment? To betray your own partner? The station? You don't wanna do this." She tried to reason with him ... but it wasn't working.

"Yeah," Darryl told. "I do."

Darryl had pulled the trigger.

But the bullet didn't hit Casey.

It hit Sawyer, this time in the chest.

Sawyer ran and jumped to save Casey from getting shot. He landed in front of Casey on the ground and his body was on hers. "Sawyer!" Casey practically screamed. Casey held onto Sawyer's hand.

She didn't even notice Darryl's gun still pointed at her.

She didn't notice him approaching her and aiming the gun at her head.

But before Darryl could take the shot, he was shot in the leg and then in the arm and he landed on the ground in pain, his gun was thrown away from him.

Casey looked over at the entrance and saw Reid standing there, his gun in his hand. He saved her. The team arrived behind him. Once Hotch saw him and Casey on the ground, he immediately spoke in his mic. "We need a medic here quickly."

The team rushed over to the two. "Officer Gunthey, stay with us." Hotch told and Sawyer spat the blood out of his mouth and groaned in the obvious pain he was in. Casey looked at Sawyer and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm gonna... I'm gonna put pressure okay, so it's gonna-it's gonna hurt for a second, okay?"

Sawyer groaned in pain. "I know, I'm sorry. Someone please call an ambulance!" She shouted. "The medics are on their way now." Emily told.

"Casey." Sawyer looked up at the girl.

"Yeah?" She asked, tears filling up in her eyes. Sawyer touched the side of Casey's face as tears brewed in his eyes and he coughed, more blood spilling out.

"I-I... love—" Sawyer tried to get out.

Casey shook her head and shushed him, knowing what he was about to say. "I love you, too." She said.

"Just stay with me, okay? Stay with me."

mannnn
listening to "only love can hurt like this" while writing that last part did not help lol😭😭
anywayssss
wow
i seriously loved writing for this one-
like it's not an original idea but it's something lol

also some parts were stolen from that one episode in criminal minds in s1 lol

alsoooo
is sawyer gonna die? is he gonna live?
we shall see in the next chapter👀

also this chapter was super duper long i apologize for that one lol
-mya </3