CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: REID'S DADDY ISSUES !

4x07
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THE NEXT MORNING HAD BEEN FILLED WITH EMILY'S GRUMPINESS OVER HER HANGOVER AND MORGAN AND CASEY TRYING TO WIN ONE LAST SLOT BEFORE LEAVING. Casey noted at how bad Morgan was at the winning.

       Emily had come up behind the two. "Morgan, can you-- please, can you-- my head." She said. Casey was right about her being grumpy during a hangover. "My bad. Sorry. You know these things are rigged, right?"

       "Or you're just really bad." Casey shrugged, drinking from her coffee cup and Morgan blinked, turning his head to the girl. "Don't make me smack you." Casey shrugged and smirk tugged at her lips, "Do it, I dare you."

       Emily took a spot next to Rossi on the couch down at the lobby. "Late night?" Rossi guessed as Emily pinched the bridge of her nose. "I hate Vegas." She commented.

       "Come on, Prentiss. How can you hate Vegas? This is a grown folk's playground." Morgan said, looking around.

        JJ had walked towards the group. "Anyone seen Reid?" She asked. "I know he stayed with his mom last night." Morgan informed. "Well, he should be here by now. He knows the departure time." JJ turned her head over at the slot that Morgan and Casey were just at.

       "That thing still has credit on it." She was about to press the button when Emily spoke up.
"JJ, I swear to god—"

       JJ looked at her. "What?" Rossi points at Emily as she's not looking and signals to her that she's grumpy, making faces of how she was acting and causing JJ, Morgan and Casey to laugh.

"Oh, here he comes right now." Casey looked towards the entrance and spotted Reid, coming in through the doors. "What'd you do? Sleep through your alarm?" Morgan questions and Reid jogs up to them. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting."

"Hotch is already at the airstrip," JJ told. "How fast can you pack?" Reid looks at the group as Emily and Rossi stand up. "Actually, I'm gonna stay for a couple of days."

"Is everything all right?" Rossi asked. "Yeah, I just, um-- I haven't seen my mom for a really long time, so I'd like a few more days." Casey studied Reid's body language and could sense that something was off.
"You sure?" Morgan asked and Reid nodded; "Yeah." The group exchanged glances with one another. "Okay, take a few days. Do what you need to do." Casey said a small goodbye to Reid and walked behind Morgan, Emily and Rossi.

          They had reached the parking lot where their vehicles were at and Casey couldn't help but keeping looking over her shoulder and thinking if she needed to go back to discover what was going on with Reid and maybe help him out with whatever he needed help with.

Morgan couldn't help but notice what was going on with Casey and how weird she was acting. He decided to approach her and ask her what was wrong as she looked over her shoulder once more. "You okay, Ace?"

Casey turned her attention to Morgan and then looked behind her shoulder again and sighed: "Yeah, I just... I can't stop thinking about Reid."

Morgan raised his eyebrows and smirked, "Really?" Casey made a face and shook her head at the man's immature thoughts. "No, not like that, you weirdo." Morgan chuckles at his own thought.

      Casey sighs, "I just... I'm worried about him. He seemed off, like his head wasn't even screwed on right. Tell me I'm not the only one who noticed." Morgan looked like he was deeply thinking about this and Reid did seem a bit off.

"Hey," JJ spoke up, getting the two's attention. "You guys coming or what?" Morgan turned back to Casey. "You go, I'll stay. I think I should." Casey insisted. "Casey—" Morgan tries but Casey shakes her head. "I'm staying." She tells.

        Casey looked ahead at the group. "You guys go ahead. I'm gonna stay behind with Reid." Emily walked up. "Are you sure?" She asked and Casey nodded, "I'm positive." She had begun to walk away when Morgan had decided to catch up with her.

       "You don't think that you're just gonna stay behind by yourself, do you?" Morgan asked and Casey looked at him. "You don't have to stay, believe me, I can do this myself—" Morgan interrupted her. "Nah, you could use the company."

       "Count me in," Both Casey and Morgan turn around and spot Rossi walking towards them. "I'm worried about the kid, too." With that, JJ and Emily had said their goodbyes with the three and had left and met with Hotch had the airstrip.

       Casey, Morgan and Rossi had headed back to the hotel and knew that Reid was still staying in the room they had been staying in before. They decided to chill out in the room, eating and watching TV and waiting for Reid to get back since he wasn't in the room when they entered.

       The three didn't even pay attention as the door opened up. "What are you guys doing here?" Casey looked up and saw that Reid had come in along with a box of what looked to be files. "Hey, what's it look like we're doing?" Morgan questioned as Casey drank out of her soda.

      "Uh, breaking into my room and watching Days Of Our Lives." Reid nodded towards the TV. "Young and the Restless." Rossi corrected, grabbing the remote and pausing the show.

        "Aren't you supposed to be on a plane back to DC?" Reid asked. "Aren't you supposed to be hanging out with your mom?" Casey questioned back.

         Reid wiped his nose and Morgan nudged his head over to the box that Reid had put down and asked: "Riley Jenkins?"

        "No, it's not-- that's actually not why I'm here." Reid said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Reid. Come on, man. Who do you think you're talking to?" Morgan stands up.

          "Yeah, you can't exactly out-profile the profilers, or in this case, future profilers, Smartie." Casey told, standing up next and she cut the jokes out and turned serious. "Look, I know this has been eating at you. Let us help." She insisted.

         "Maybe together, we can find out who killed him." Rossi nodded in agreement, standing up next. Reid took a deep breath and knew that arguing wasn't gonna get him anywhere. Casey, Morgan and Rossi were gonna stay anyways no matter what.

         "I think I might already know." Reid told. "So, tell us about the suspect." Morgan encouraged. "Truth is, I don't know anything about him," Reid said. "He's my father."

          Casey's eyes widened. She knew that Reid's father wasn't a part of his life — considering the relationship he had with her uncle. But she never knew that he would accuse him of something as serious as this.

           Reid had pulled out the files from the box and laid them out on the bed. "Before we go down this road, you need to be sure." Rossi spoke and Casey nodded, "He's right, this is a serious accusation, Reid. I mean, what if he didn't do it?"

          "My mind is sending me signals. I can't ignore them anymore." Reid told. "Mixed signals," Rossi corrected. "That's what the subconscious is all about, you know that."

           "Reid, your dad left you." Morgan told. "You take it to the Freudian Extreme, you could say that he killed your childhood." Rossi nodded, "Could explain a dream in which you see him as a murderer."

         "I've come this far, I'm not going back." Reid told and Casey knew that he was stuck deep in a hole that he was not going to try and dig himself out of until he found out the truth. "Well, then," Casey began. "Let's get started."

Morgan, Rossi and Casey each grabbed a file as Reid began to explain the case to them. "Riley was six at the time. His father, Lou Jenkins, was supposed to pick him up from t-ball practice at four. But he got delayed at work, prompting Riley to walk the 3 blocks home. When his mother got home in the early evening, she found him dead in the basement."

"So, the offender came to the house after the boy arrived home." Rossi tells. "Or picked him up on the way there where he coaxes Riley into the basement where he sexually assaults him." Casey theorizes. "The boy's mouth was taped shut."

"Symbolic," Reid said. "The unsub fears riley will talk, panics, weighs his options..." Morgan knew where Reid was getting at and finished, "Decides to make certain that he'll never talk."

"He finds a knife in the fishing gear under the stairs, stabs Riley nine times in the chest, stuffs him behind the washing machine." Rossi reads out. "So, the unsub's a white male in his late 20s to early 30s." Reid tells. "Means we're looking for a man in his 50s." Rossi finishes off.

"Likely knew the boy," Casey told. "Maybe been to his house before. A neighbor or something." Reid looks down at the maps and has a look upon his face. "Reid, what is it?" Morgan questions. "My family lived less than a half mile from the Jenkins'." Reid informed, causing Casey to look up and this was only proving a lot to Reid's theory.

Rossi looked at Reid. "Do you think your dad knew the boy?" Reid shrugged and rubbed his temple in discomfort. "I don't know. My memory's lack of recall just reinforces how little I knew about him."

Casey looks at Morgan and Rossi and knows that she has a to say before they do and she knew Reid wasn't gonna be ready for it. "Reid, we are going to have to track him down. You know that, right?"

"We should talk to my mother first, neighbors. Get their impressions." Reid tells. Casey knew that he wasn't ready and that he was gonna need time for this. And she respected that.

"Reid," Rossi sat up. "I don't need to tell you that this signature was need-based and sexual in nature. The man we're looking for is a pedophile. So, I'll ask you again. Are you sure you want to go down this road?" Casey and Morgan both looked at Reid and the look on his face said that no matter what, he was gonna find out the truth.

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Casey, Reid and Morgan all decided to firstly talk to Riley Jenkins' father, who had been working down at a construction sight in Las Vegas and Reid had been explaining what might've happened to Riley with his father.

        "It's just a theory, Mr. Jenkins." Reid said. "You must be out of your damn minds." The man told. "We're trying to get some new facts." Derek assured.

        "Well, you're hell and gone from facts if you think Will Reid killed my son." The man says, looking at the three. "So, you were friends?" Reid furrowed his brows as Casey crossed her arms.

       "Who the hell are you to come here, asking this?" The man began to walk back to his truck when Reid spoke, "I'm his son."

        The man's demeanor completely changed once he realized that his William Reid's son was standing in front of him and asking questions about his dead son.

        "Spencer?"

        Reid nodded.

        "Spencer, a g-man? How about that?" He walked back to the three. "I don't understand." He shook his head.

        "Was William around your house often?" Casey questioned, speaking up. "The occasional barbecue, that sort of thing." Mr. Jenkins said.

        "Was Riley around on these occasions?" Spencer questioned. "Why are you doing this?" Reid tugged his lips in a neutral fashion. "I need to know." He told. "Take it from someone who does know, he was a good man." Mr. Jenkins assured.

        Morgan looks at Reid and then back at the man. "Thanks for your time." Morgan and Casey began to walk away but Reid didn't stop there.

       "Where is he, these days? My dad?" He questioned and Casey had stopped as he asked the question to Mr. Jenkins.

         "It's been years, but he's probably still at that same firm in Summerlin." Casey furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Reid. "He's been in town this whole time?" The man shrugged, "Far as I know."

         Reid turned and began to walk away. Hearing this news must have hit him like a ton of bricks. Casey didn't know how he felt but if she found out that her father stayed in the same town after abandoning her, she'd go ballistic.

          "You know Summerlin?" Morgan asked the boy. "Yeah," Reid said. "It's like 9 miles east of here. Off the 95. He was ten minutes away and never let me know." Casey looked at Morgan and the three got back in their vehicle and they picked up Rossi to go down to Summerlin.

         Casey could practically feel Reid's anxiousness, causing her to become anxious as well. The four had approached the front desk. "Can I help you, gentlemen?" A receptionist asked, approaching them behind the desk.

       "Yeah." Reid answered and he could figure out what to say. His mouth was open but no words came out and that was when Casey decided to step in. "We'd like to speak with William Reid." She told.

        "Is he expecting you?" The receptionist asked.

       Rossi pulled out his FBI badge. "I don't think so." He answered. "He's in a meeting right now. Why don't you have a seat and I'll tell him you're here." The receptionist told and Casey said a simple 'thank you' as the woman walked away and she looked over at Reid, who now seemed a bit fidgety and Morgan noticed it, too.

        "You okay?" Morgan asked him. "Yeah. No--yeah— I-I'm going to go to the bathroom." He walked away from the three, leaving them to deal with it.

       Morgan turned to both Casey and Rossi. "I've never seen him like this before." He admitted. "Seventeen years is a long time to go between visits." Rossi stated and Casey nodded in understanding. She understood what Reid was going through, not quite, but she knew what it was like to grow up without a father. And that had been a reason she didn't want to get into just yet.

        "Not long enough. The kid's still angry." Morgan said. "Yeah, I'm starting to get that." Rossi agreed and Casey remained silent.

         Suddenly, a man had come out of his office and handed the receptionist a file and made eye contact with the agents in front of him. Casey pictured him different. He expected him to look like Reid — or for Reid to look like him. He looked completely different from Spencer.

         "You from the FBI?" William asked and Rossi nodded, "Yes, sir." He flashed his badge out. "Mr. Reid, I'm Agent Rossi. This is Agent Morgan and this is our intern, Miss Willows." Casey gave a nod to the man.

         "This wouldn't be about the city council investigation, would it?" The man asked. "No, sir, this is more of a, uh... personal matter." Casey told. "It concerns your son." Morgan nodded and William gave a look of disbelief.

         "My son? Did something happen?"

        "That's what we're trying to find out."

        Casey turned and saw that Reid had gotten back in time and Casey had felt the tension as Spencer had just reunited with his father.

        "Hello, Dad."

        William had led the four into his office and Casey sat down at a long arm chair and felt uncomfortable with the energy in the room. Rossi had sat beside the girl and Morgan and Reid chose to stand.

        "You don't look like me anymore," William said, looking up at his son and Reid raised his eyebrows and his hands were placed into his pockets. "You used to. Everybody said so."

        "They say some people look like their dogs, too," Reid spoke. "It's attributed to prolonged mutual exposure. Elderly couples, also. They unconsciously mimic the expressions of people they've been around their whole life. So, it kind of-- kind of makes sense that I wouldn't really look like you. I haven't seen you in twenty years." Reid explained and Casey looked down at the ground to avoid eye contact with anyone.

         "So, are you in town on work?" William asked, changing the subject.

         "We're just wrapping up a case." Rossi stated. "A 5-year-old boy was abducted and murdered." Morgan said. "I read about that. Uh, Ethan Hayes, right? That's terrible." William said.

         "That case got me thinking about Riley Jenkins. You remember Riley Jenkins?" Reid questioned and William nodded at his son. "Of course."

         "I've been having dreams about him for a really long time. But when we came back here for this case, it jogged something and the dream changed. I saw his killer and he was you."

        "Interesting dream."

       Reid raised his eyebrows at his father and sent him a sort of glare as William smiled at him.

      "You don't seem all that surprised." Casey stated, studying his facial reactions. "I stopped being surprised by Spencer's mind a long time ago." William said.

      "There are certain criteria we consider when looking at this type of suspect. You fit parts of that profile." Rossi continued and William raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Me?"

      "We just want your cooperation." Casey stated.

      "My cooperat—" William scoffed. "You're not actually saying you think I killed Riley Jenkins?"

      Reid looked at his father, not keeping his eyes off of him. "We didn't say that."

     "Good, 'cause that's absurd," The man says.

     "We'd just like permission to look through your computer, access your records." Morgan stated. "And what would you be looking for exactly?" William sat up. "You want access to my files? Get a warrant."

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      Reid knew that they couldn't get a warrant so he had called up Garcia to let her dig through his files anyways. Afterwards, he had informed to Casey, Rossi and Morgan to let them know that an envelope was dropped off at his door, giving them another suspect.

"Was the envelope dropped off at the front desk first?" Rossi questions, looking through the pictures of the mugshot of the guy in the name of Gary Michaels.

Reid shook his head, "Nope, it went straight to my room." He said. "So, they knew what room you were in." Casey said, looking over Rossi's shoulder at the file. "I do have to admit, the timing of this is a little suspicious." Morgan added on.

"Yeah. An hour after I see my father, we're handed another suspect?" Reid said, knowing the timing was weird. "You think you knew this guy?" Rossi asked Reid. "I don't know. I think so, but I'm not sure. I--I--no, I don't know." Reid said, sounding unsure.

"Exposed himself to a minor." Rossi read out this guys' file. "Precursor to molestation and murder. We should take a closer look at this guy." Casey told.

Morgan's phone had begun to ring. "It's Garcia." He informed and answered, putting her on speaker. "Yeah, talk to me, baby girl."

"I'm not interrupting boy/Casey time at Crazy Horse 2, am I?" Garcia asked. "You know that's not my thing. I'm more for in-room entertainment." Morgan played along.

"I can't help you but I do give good phone." Garcia said, making a smile appear on Casey's lips.
"Let me hear what you got." Morgan smirked.

"Reid, we've been all up in your father's business." Garcia said. "What did you find?" Reid asked, listening in.

"Well, let me tell you first what I did not find. No kiddie porn, no membership to illicit websites, no dubious emails, no chat room history." Garcia listed.

"What about his finances?" Reid asked.

"We went back 10 years," Hotch's voice perked up. "No questionable transactions that we can find."

"Well, he did buy a ticket to see Celine Dion six months ago, but I think we can overlook that." Emily's voice rang through the call next.

"He's smart," Spencer said. "Is it possible he kept things under the table?" He asked.

"Well, of course. But from what we can tell, Reid, he doesn't fit the profile." Hotch admitted. "We can tell you other things about him, if you want to know." Emily said.

Reid swallowed a lump in his throat before continuing. "I'm listening." He said.

"He's a workaholic, he actually logs more hours than we do. He makes decent money, but he doesn't spend a lot of it. He has a modest house. He drives a hybrid. He doesn't travel much. He stays away from the casinos. Um, and according to his veterinary bills, he has a very sick cat." Emily explained and Casey was beginning to think that he wasn't behind the murder of Riley Jenkins.

"He appears to spend most of his free time alone, he goes to the movies a lot, and he reads. And from his collection of first editions, it seems his favorite author is--"

"Isaac Asimov," Reid interrupted. "I remember that one."

"He does have one other major interest. On his home computer, he's archived, like, a ka-jillion things on one common subject." Garcia told.

"What?" Reid asked, awaiting the answer.

"You, kiddo," Garcia told, making Reid raise his eyebrows. "He's got, like, everything that's been published online. Every article you've been quoted in, pieces you've written for behavioral science journals, He even has a copy of your dissertation."

Rossi looked at Reid. "He's keeping tabs on you. That's saying something."

"Yeah, that he googled me," Reid said. "That makes up for everything. I'm going to get some air." He began to walk away. Casey could sense that he didn't really want to forgive his father and he was looking for someone to blame.

"You guys still there?" Morgan asked on the phone. "I thought we were giving him good news." Garcia sighed. "What else can we do?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, look up a name for us, if you would." Morgan spoke, looking back at the file. "Gary Brendan Michaels."

Emily spoke up, "You like this Gary guy for the Riley murder?" Rossi sighed, "Somebody does." Casey then spoke up next, "A file was dropped off at Reid's when we went to go see his dad." She informed.

"A tip?" Emily assumed.

"Possibly," Casey told. "We won't know until our goddess, Miss Penelope Garcia, will figure it out." She joked.

"I'll keep you posted, my lovelies!" Garcia said, hanging up and Morgan closed up his phone and sighed, "Maybe we should go and find Reid." He says.

"Actually, let me," Casey volunteered. "I'll look for him." Morgan and Rossi look at one another. "You sure?" Morgan asks and Casey nods. "Yeah." She walked away and began to look for Reid.

        Eventually, the girl began to search and search and finally found him, sitting by his lonesome and playing at the casino and he was winning. No surprise there. Casey decided to approach him. "Hey." She greeted.

       Reid didn't look up from his screen but spoke, "Hey." He said back.

      Casey sat next to him and looked at down in front of him as he continued. "Wow, you are really good." She complimented. "Remind me to go gambling with you, smartie."

      The boy shrugged, "It's all simple mathematics. They all run on random number generators." Casey sighed, "Of course, it does." She looked at him and realized that he was avoiding eye contact with her. "You're probably really tired of hearing this question but... are you okay? Like, really?" She asked, not wanting to bug him but she wanted to know about his well-being.

       Reid shrugged once more and stopped messing with slot. "I don't know." He admitted. Casey bit the inside of her cheek in anxiousness. "I know what it's like." She said.

      "And I know that you're trying to find out what really happened and... you're just blaming the person that you feel's responsible. And you know it's probably not their fault but you still choose to blame them, anyways." She explained, thinking about her own experience.

      Reid had stopped what he was doing. "You sound like you know." He stated.

      Casey had shrugged next. "Take it from somebody who hasn't seen their dad in over ten years."

      "Really? Do you know where he is now?"

      "In Roanoke. Roanoke River Correctional Institution." Casey told, causing Reid to stop everything he was doing.

She nodded, "Yeah. It was practically a life sentence. He was doing everything he could to make ends meet. And that included bank robbery and there had been a family there and he thought he was shooting at the dad... but it was the kid. They ruled it out as manslaughter." She explained.

       "I visit the grave every single year on the anniversary of that boy's death. He was ten when he died and he had his whole life ahead of him." She realized that Reid was looking at her now. "I haven't seen my dad since I was twelve. He writes and he sends birthday cards and Christmas cards, but I don't write back. He ruined his life and he might as well have ruined mine. And I... choose not to talk to him in fears that he might... try and ruin my life again."

      Reid was speechless. Gideon never told anyone about this. (Except for Hotch and Rossi, but they were the only ones that knew.) "I didn't..." He tried to sputter out.

      "It's okay," Casey assured. "I thought that Gideon would've told you, though. You were his favorite member of the team, after all." She said and suddenly started digging into her bag for something when a pack of cigarettes fell out of her bag and she quickly grabbed them off the floor.

       Reid was shocked but showed no emotional evidence of it. "You smoke?" He questioned. Before Casey could answer, he continued. "You know the life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers? You could easily—"

       "Die, I know." Casey finished and showed his the pack, which was full and looked like one had just been taken out of it. "It's still full." Reid furrows his eyebrows. "A couple of nights after I turned twenty-one, I bought a pack of cigarettes and I wanted to try it and I lit one and I hated it. I guess I never got rid of the pack."

         "Why?"

         "I never clean out my bag." Casey said. The girl was actually really messy, like before stated. "I'm actually trying to convince some of my college friends to stop smoking but they never listen." She said, assuring to Reid that she didn't smoke.

         "You should suggest hypnosis. They've had-- there's been a lot of success in..." A realization hit Reid in the face and Casey looked at him and could tell he was thinking as she stuffed the pack of cigarettes in her bag. "What?"

       Turns out, Reid's big thought had been trying hypnosis to recover his memory back to the night Riley died. Casey had volunteered to sit in with Reid as he was gonna go through this.

       Casey had seated herself in a chair in front of him but away as the session start. The woman in front of him that would be helping him with this sat in front of Reid as he laid on the couch and closed his eyes.

        "I want you to hold my wrist in your left hand. And if you should feel any fear, I want you to squeeze, do you understand?"

        "Yes." Reid nodded as he held onto the woman's wrist and closed his eyes.

        "Go back to the night you were just telling me about. You're at home, in your room. You can't sleep because your parents are arguing."

         "He's coming in." Reid spoke and Casey watched. "Who?" The woman asked.

"It's Dad."
        "What about him, Spencer? What is he doing?"

        Reid softly spoke and breathed out, "I don't want to be here."

        "Okay. It's okay, Spencer. Take us to where the light is. To the next morning. The sun is coming up. Where are you, Spencer?"

        "My mom," Reid began. "She's at the window. She's thinking. She's been crying. She saw him."

        "Who?" The woman looked back at Casey as Casey bit the inside of her cheek in anxiousness. "Your father? Do you talk to her?"

        "No. No, I wanna-- I wanna see..." Spencer said and Casey noticed that his grip on the woman's wrist tightened. "What is it, Spencer? What are you seeing?"

        Spencer looked like he had been having a nightmare he wanted no part in. "That's enough. Get him out of there." Casey spoke. "I need you to leave this location now, Spencer." The woman said and Casey immediately rushed over to the couch. "Wake him up." She told.

       "I'm going to count backward from five," The woman said and she began to count backward. "And wake."

      Reid's eyes snapped open and he began to freak out, as you would do so from a nightmare. "Reid. It's okay. It's okay. It's me, it's Casey. It's okay, Reid." She repeated to the boy and he grabbed onto her hand to hold it. "It's okay." She assured. "What happened? What did you see?" She asked, looking down as he breathed out.

After that, Reid had decided to take visit to his mother's care facility and he had just finished explaining what had happened there to Morgan and Casey.

"She's not stable, Reid. You can't put stock in what she says. I don't need to tell you that." Morgan told. "And I don't need to tell you this is textbook," Reid said. "Father reroutes compulsion to molest away from his own son to a surrogate."
"The woman thought Riley Jenkins was an imaginary friend until you told her otherwise." Morgan continued. "The mind's way of suppressing memories she doesn't want to face." Reid told. "You're losing objectivity of the subject here, Reid." Casey spoke up and Reid stopped in his tracks.

"I'm not trying to say I know what happened. Or how my dad's involved, but my dad's involved." Reid was not giving this up. "Don't you think that blaming him and pinning him as the murderer of a six year-old boy is a little too much, though?" Casey asked and before Reid could response, he fixed his gaze on something else.

Riley Jenkins' father was leaving the station and he had seen the three as he walked out.

"What's he doing here?" Reid questioned.

The three had decided to enter the police station and decided to ask if they can take William Reid in for questioning. "You got no evidence." The detective stated.

"A suspect can be detained for questioning for 48 hours, regardless of evidence." Reid told. He was sitting down as Casey and Morgan stood behind. "I'm not in the habit of ruining people's reputations on a whim." The detective said.

"Where's your captain? I want to talk to your captain." Reid pried. "Talk all you want," The fete told. "This is a local murder, and your authority ends at the state line." Casey looked at Morgan and then at Reid, wondering how the hell they were gonna prove what Reid wanted to prove. They looked like headless chickens roaming around.

"Look..." The detective stood up from his seat. "Why don't you just head back over to the fountain view And have a couple of drinks by the pool and think about this."

"I have thought about this."

"The guy's your father."

"What's your point, detective?"

"Maybe you're here to work out some other issues?" Reid stood up and Casey furrowed her eyebrows as Morgan stepped in next.

"Okay, listen, detective. Look, we would consider it a personal favor if you helped us out with this. We just want him on his heels." Morgan explained and the detective sighed before giving in. "You've got 24 hours." Morgan nodded, "I appreciate that."

Reid walked out of the room, passing by Casey as Morgan followed him out and Casey following suit. "Reid." The boy stopped in his tracks and looked at Morgan. "You gotta keep your head, man."

"He just agreed to it. It happens all the time." Reid stated. "You know how these guys are. They just want to feel like they're the ones in control." Morgan explained and Reid had walked away from the conversation.

Morgan took a look at Casey. "I'll go talk to him." He said and Casey nodded as he began to follow him.

Casey's cell began to ring and she checked the Caller ID and saw that it was Garcia who was calling her. "What's up, Pen? What have you got?" Casey asked.

"So, this Gary Michaels you asked me to track down seems to have peeled himself right off the grid."

Casey furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean? Like, he skipped town?" She asked. "Feels it," Garcia said. "Maybe he took a new name, too. Everything in his name laps from non-use in the year after the Riley Jenkins murder."

"Maybe he didn't want to be around for the investigation. Which rules him out as a suspect even more." Casey stated.

"In addition to the indecent exposure wrap, he also had some lewd behavior, trespassing."JJ's voice perked up on the line.

Casey's eyebrows stitched together. "Trespassing?"

"At a nursery school." JJ told.
"Hard to believe the cops never pegged this guy as a suspect." Agent Jordan Todd spoke up. She must've been there for more of her training, Casey assumed. JJ would be popping that baby out sometime soon, anyways.

"Any other avenues to find him?"

"You betcha," Garcia spoke. "They swabbed him in '85 for the exposure beef, So I'm sending up balloons through vicap and codis."

"If he's offended again over the past 20 years under a different name..."
"Which, considering his type, he probably has..."
"He will pop up somewhere."

"Garcia, have I mentioned you're a genius?" Casey said, smirking a bit. "You're just figuring that out?" Garcia asked and Casey could practically see her smile over the phone.

Before Casey could hang up, she heard wincing over the phone and stayed to listen in and Garcia seemed focused on this, as well. "What's with the wincing?" Garcia asked and Casey could only assume that it had to be JJ. "You okay?"

"Fine." JJ assured.
"Are you sure?"
"I noticed this earlier." Todd spoke.
"Earlier? How often?"
"Um, in the last hour. I'd say every 10 minutes."
"JJ, Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Because I'm not due for another 3 weeks."

Casey furrowed her brows again. "What's going on?"

"Newsflash! JJ's in labor!" Garcia announced. "Oh, my God, what?" Casey questioned, her face brightening up.

"No, no, no. Because Reid needs us right now." JJ stated. "Nuh-uh, you need you, right now. Don't worry about Reid, we've got him. You have that baby, okay?" Casey assured. "Gotta go!" Penelope announced to the girl. "See ya!" Casey hung up the phone.

Under all of the dead ends that they were encountering in this moment, Casey was glad that something good was coming out of this case and that JJ would soon have a child that Casey would have to occasionally babysit.

          After that, Reid had his father in for questioning and they had been standing outside the interrogation room. "You still think he did it?" Morgan asked. "Why shouldn't I?"

         "Well, for one thing, Gary Michaels fits the profile. For another, he fled town after Riley's murder." Morgan told. "He's a better suspect than your dad, Reid."

         "He's a convenient one. Someone slipped the file under my door, Morgan. What am I supposed to think?" Reid told.

         "Don't you think this is just your unprojected anger towards him for leaving when you were a kid?" Casey asked, crossing her arms. "I mean, all I know is that I suspected my dad was a murderer, I'd be blaming him, too."

        "Well, your dad was one so you know what that's like." Reid stated, making Casey raise her eyebrows in shock. She was completely thrown off-guard by his comment.

          Rossi noticed the tension between the two after Reid's comment and decided to change the subject. "Maybe they're trying to help." He said. "Maybe they're trying to protect him." Reid told, still looking at his father through the glass. "You're talking about someone helping to cover up the murder of a child. Who would do that?"

        "Do you rember how resistant Detective Hyde was when I asked him to bring in my father?"
        "So, what? You're accusing a cop now?"
        "It was a police file."
        "It was a very old police file. Anybody could have accessed it."

         Casey remained quiet as the conversation continued. "He told me to go back to the fountain view, have a drink by the pool, and think about things." Reid told and Morgan shook his head. "You can't possibly still be mad about that."

        "I'm not mad. I'm confused. I never told him we were staying at the fountain view." With that, he entered the interrogation room and began to talk to his father.

━━━━━━

William had admitted that he knew who killed Riley and it had been Gary Michaels, who had also been dead after the murder. He had been beaten and buried and hidden. But Reid wasn't going giving up and he wanted to find out who killed Gary and he was so determined to think it was his father and Casey knew that it was gonna kill him if he didn't find out the truth. The prints had come back and the prints had belonged to Riley Jenkins' father and now they had brought him for questioning.

Casey and Spencer were in the interrogation room and Casey decided to have a go at asking him the questions that needed to be asked.

"Who else was with you?" Casey asked, folding her hands out in front of her and looking straight at the man. Reid was standing behind her as she was sitting down. "No one." Lou Jenkins answered.

"So, you're saying you killed Gary Michaels by yourself, all alone." She stated. "That's right." Lou nodded. "And William Reid wasn't a party to this?" Reid asked. "No." Lou told. "You're lying."

"I'm not lying."

Reid leaned forward in a threatening manner and grit his teeth, looking straight at Lou. "He was burning bloody clothes. I saw him." Reid confirmed.

"What makes you think Gary Michaels killed your son?" Casey questioned. "He admitted it." Lou said. "You beat a guy with a baseball bat, he's going to admit to a lot of things. How do you know he was the right guy to aim for?"

"I know," Lou said and as soon as Reid was growing tired of this, Lou said something that made him stop in his tracks. "He approached another kid in the neighborhood."

"And how do you know that?" Casey asked as Reid turned out with realization in his face.

"I was told by a concerned party." Lou said. "Who? Another parent?" Casey asked. "That's all I'm going to say on the subject." Lou told.

"Who was it?" Reid pried.

"I told you that's all I'm going to say on the sub—"

"Who was it?" Reid questioned, more threatening this time. The interrogation room door opened and entered Detective Hyde. "Agent Reid?"

Reid turned towards the door. "Do not interfere with this interrogation, detective. This is not your case anymore." He told but immediately stopped once he saw his mother right behind Detective Hyde, making him straighten up his posture.

"Spencer, it was me." Diana admitted and Casey's eyebrows furrowed and she saw that William had been standing behind his ex-wife and Reid and Casey looked at one another and for a brief moment, they knew that Reid would soon find out the truth.

Diana had explained to her son about what happened the night of Gary Michaels's murder. It was indeed Lou but Diana was a part of it as well. Lou had encouraged her to go home but she went anyway, which explained her bloody pajamas. Reid understood that his mother was just trying to make sure the same thing that happened to Riley wouldn't happen to him. She was trying to protect him.

Reid had finally figured out the truth about what happened and the settling started. He finally knew about what happened and it was time to go back home.

The four had taken the jet back home and Morgan and Rossi had finally gotten some sleep on the jet and the only ones left away had been Casey and Spencer. The two had sat away from each other up until Reid had come up to her.

      "Hey," He said and Casey didn't bother to look up from the book she was reading. "Hey." She greeted. "Mind if I sit?" He asked and Casey shrugged and Reid decided to sit in front of her anyways.

       The boy looked at the girl and sighed, "I'm... sorry for what I said back there. I, uh, I didn't mean to... mention... your father." He said and Casey looked up at him and shrugged it off. "Well, you weren't wrong." She stated.

       Reid shrugged at the girl. "Yeah, but I still shouldn't have said it." He said. "I accept your apology, either way." Casey assured.

       The boy continued, "Do you ever... think about seeing him?" He asked, causing Casey to look up from her book and she shook her head. "Not really, I just... I think I've gone so far without seeing him that I don't really need to. And I don't really plan on seeing him. And I'm gonna spend the rest of my life living with that." Casey explained. Spencer understood, nodding.

        Casey's cell beeped and she grabbed it and checked the message she received and smiled at it. "JJ had the baby. Healthy baby boy. She's naming him Henry." She told and Reid smiled at the news. "That's great." He said. "You wanna go visit the hospital when we land?" She asked him. Reid nodded at the girl, "Yeah, yeah, I'd like that."

         As planned, the two went to the hospital and Morgan and Rossi followed but decided to stay in the waiting room as the two went to go and visit. Casey had grabbed some flowers outside of the hospital and went in after they found JJ's room.

        "Is there room for two more in here?" Spencer asked as the two entered. "Hi." Casey greeted, smiling at everyone in the room, which had been JJ, Will, Penelope, Emily and Hotch.

"Spence, Case, hi." JJ smiled, sitting up. "Welcome back." Hotch greeted the two. "Oh, he's beautiful." Casey spoke softly, looking at JJ and the baby in her arms. "Congratulations." Spencer said, shaking Will's hand. "Thank you." Will told.

"How is it that I just went through fifteen hours of labor and you two look worse than I do?" JJ joked and Casey laughed, "No sleep." She said. "Don't be ridiculous. You look beautiful." Spencer said, looking towards JJ and Casey smiled at their brotherly-sisterly love.

JJ looked at Will and he had gotten the message she was sending him. "Well, I could sure use some coffee. Anyone else?" He asked, liking around the room. "My treat." Hotch, Emily, Penelope and Will left the room, leaving Spencer and Casey with JJ and the baby and they stepped closer to the woman.

"You okay?" JJ asked the two. "Yeah, yeah. You?" Spencer asked. JJ nodded, "Yeah, yeah, you sure? 'Cause there's something I wanted to ask you two, but it can wait." She said.

"What is it?" Spencer asked as Casey furrowed her eyebrows in curiousness.

JJ looked down at her son and then at Spencer and Casey. "Will and I were talking, and, um... we want you guys to be Henry's godparents." Casey's eyebrows raised and she looked at Spencer and he looked back at her. Casey had been okay with whatever and was glad to help care for the baby.

Casey knew why JJ chose her. The two were close, like sisters and Casey was one of the people who pushed her towards Will and told her to go for it. Without that, she probably wouldn't have had her son. She was thrilled that JJ chose her. And for Spencer, she knew that JJ and Spencer were like brother and sister and she liked the relationship they had.

"I don't even know-- I don't know--" Spencer spoke. "Here, do you want to hold him?" JJ offered and Spencer looked hesitant to do so. "It's okay. Here you go." JJ slowly and carefully handed the baby to Reid and Reid held him in his arms. "Watch his head. There you go."

"Hello, Henry." Spencer said softly to the baby and Casey's heart warmed at the sight of the scene in front of her. She was sure she had never seen Spencer hold a baby before.

          "If anything should happen to us, it's up to you guys and Garcia to make sure this boy gets into Yale." JJ stated.

"Yale. Yale? Do you want to go to Yale, Henry?" Casey smiled at the baby and looked straight at him, tears welling up in her eyes. "That was your godfather's safety school. Don't worry, I can get you into Cal-Tech with one phone call." He whispered, smiling at the baby in front of him.

Casey sniffled, which got the attention of JJ and Spencer. The girl never cried, she was a messy, hard-ass that was tough and took nothing from anybody and yet a baby makes her cry.

"Are you... crying?" Spencer asks.

Casey rubs her eyes. "No, I'm just... allergic to hospitals." She says and both Spencer and JJ chuckle at the girl and she wipes her eyes and looked down at the baby.

"Hi, Henry." She whispered. "I'm your cool godmother, Casey and this dork right here is your godfather, Spencer, but we're not together, I promise you that."

hey lovelies!
let me just tell you that re-watching the scene where jj makes spencer henry's godfather made me tear up 😭😭 anyways, thank you for reading even though this is literal shit but thanks for the love lol
also sorry for updating daily if it bothers y'all 😂
i love you all!
next episode — 52 pickup
-mya <3