CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: RANDOM COFFEE FACT !

5x06
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      DUE TO FOYET STRESSING HOTCH OUT, HOTCH HAD DECIDED IT WAS BEST FOR MORGAN TO TAKE OVER AS UNIT CHIEF. Temporarily, at least. Casey could sense that Morgan was feeling uneasy about this, having doubts, she would've, too.

      Emily, Garcia, JJ, Reid and Casey all stood watching as Morgan and Strauss were having a conversation. "So, did anyone explain why Hotch is stepping down?" Penelope asked in curiousness.

"All Morgan said this morning is that it's happening. And it's business as usual." JJ told. "So, we're just supposed to move forward without any discussion?" Emily questioned. "After Foyet, I think we'd have to be ready for anything." Reid spoke.

The five watched at they continued their discussion and Hotch had stepped in the convo as well.

"Did Hotch decide this or was this one of Strauss's ideas?" Casey asked. "I'm guessing it was Hotch's. You've seen how he's been for the past few cases." JJ told and Casey shrugged in agreement. She guessed Hotch just needed to clear his head for a while.

Morgan had looked ahead towards the team and called them, "Guys, grab Rossi." They made it the round table and JJ had begun to present the case in front of them.

"This is Megan Chertow and her friend Bina Sukarto, both 17, found two nights ago in a parking garage, carotids severed." Casey looked down at the case in front of her as JJ continued. "This is John O'Heron, 61. He was found dead in a wooded area four days ago, blunt force trauma to the head."

"Different MO." Rossi stated.
"And completely different victimology." Emily added. "Must be randomly killing anybody he sees." Casey said.

"How are the cases linked?" Rossi asked. "Their eyes have been removed." JJ told and Casey sucked through her teeth as she looked at the pictures. "Oh, he's an enucleator." Reid spoke. "There's a name for this?" JJ asked.

"It's a rare subset of criminal behavior, But there have been case studies of assaultive enucleators." Hotch explained. "The overwhelming majority of them suffer from diagnosed mental disorders." Emily told. "And they're usually males, lack social skills, their kills are disorganized and sloppy." Reid added on.

"The typical enucleator gouges the eyes out, but he doesn't normally take them with him." Morgan told. "This guy did?" Casey asked. "We need to figure out why." Morgan nods subtly.

"There are noticeable shifts from the first to second murder. He goes from killing in seclusion to a public place." Rossi said. "And he escalated from one victim to two." Hotch added. "What concerns me most is there's less than 48 hours between the murders. That's why I chose this case." Morgan told.

"And from what we know about enucleators, they're almost always multiple repeat offenders." Hotch said. "Exactly," Morgan agreed. "Which means, he's going to need to kill again soon. All right. let's meet on the plane in 30."

The team reached the jet, all seated and discussing the case. "The color of all the victims' eyes are different, so that probably doesn't factor in to victimology." Emily told. "It's more likely what he sees in the eyes. Case studies show that most enucleators suffer from delusions." Reid tells.

"They hear voices and see things in people's eyes." Morgan tells. "Usually something evil," Rossi speaks. "They're driven to enucleate to destroy the Devil."
"It points to someone who may have been institutionalized and recently released." Hotch told. "I'll have Garcia start looking." JJ nods.

"All right, so talk to me," Morgan spoke. "What makes these attacks so different?" Hotch begins, "With victim one, there were multiple blunt force strikes to the head-- a more personal kill."

"He disposed the body, so maybe that's a, uh, forensic countermeasure?" Casey guessed and look over at Reid, who had assured that she was correct with a swift nod.

"The next murders seemed less personal, more opportunistic." Rossi said. "I think we need to look at why the first victim was bludgeoned and dumped." Morgan told. "Perhaps the unsub knew him." Reid inferences and Morgan nods and looks over at the team, ready to split them up.

"Prentiss, I want you to go to the disposal site, see if you can figure out why he was dumped there. Rossi, you and I are gonna go to last night's crime scene." Morgan continued but JJ interrupted him. "Actually, uh, the girls' families asked to speak to our team leader."

Morgan looked over at Hotch and seemed to have forgotten that he was the leader in this moment. "All right. um... okay, in that case, Rossi, you can handle the crime scene with Hotch. JJ, you're with me and Willows, Reid, I want you to get into John O'Heron's life, see if anything at all points to a personal motive."

Reid and Casey nodded to one another, seeing as they have worked well together before, they could still do it.

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Reid and Casey arrived at the station and were greeting by a— "Phil Brantley, appreciate you all coming." The man approached and shook Casey's hand. "Agent Willows, this is Dr. Reid. The rest of our team will be coming in later." Casey greeted as Reid hopped through with his crutches and found a spot to sit at.

Casey is given a file, as is Reid and Casey looked up at the map in front of her on the board. "Okay, here's where the first body was found, just  outside of town. And last night's murders were here. And that's about twenty-two miles apart." Brantley explained.

"That's unusual." Reid spoke, looking towards Casey. "What?" Brantley asked. "Serial killers usually have a smaller kill zone." Casey said, remembering what she had studied in her head.

Reid's cell phone began to ring and he grabbed his phone out of his pocket. "It's our technical analyst." He informed. "Hey, Garcia, you're on speaker phone."

"So, I looked up recently released mental health patients who have a history of eye gouging, eye assault, and other gross things you can do to eyes and sockets. And there's no bingo for Okie City residents." Garcia informed.

"Are there any other recent attacks involving assaults on eyes?" Casey asked. "There's one 9 months ago. He's not your guy 'cause he's in jail." Garcia told. "We'll call you later, Garcia." Casey said. "10-4, breaker breaker."

"You think he's fresh out of an asylum?" Brantley asks. "Either that or he's been held somewhere and he's now free." Casey tells. "We've seen eye assaults before, you know, bar brawls, rage, domestic abuse cases. But nothing like this. What the hell's he doing with the eyes?" Brantley questioned.

"Well, there's a possibility he could be collecting them as a trophy of some sort." Casey told. "They wouldn't keep long as trophies," Reid spoke up and Casey looked towards him. "Eyes are 80% vitreous humor, which is essentially water. After a few hours, they begin to get cloudy and wilt."

"Any other theories?"
"There have been cases where after enucleation, Mental patients have... consumed the eyeballs." Reid told and Casey furrowed her eyebrows and scrunched up her face. "Ew." She said.

"Are you serious?" Brantley asks and Reid unfortunately nods his head.

        It had been quite a bit of time and Casey helped herself to some coffee and had even gotten a cup for Reid. Casey had a lot of things on her mind, Reid could tell. She swirled her finger around the rim of her coffee cup and looked as if she were zoning out and she bounced her leg up and down in her anxiousness.

       It wasn't long before Casey then spoke, which was what Reid was waiting for. "Hey, Reid?" Casey asked and Reid looked up. "Yeah?" He asked. "What are your thoughts on Hotch stepping down?" She asked. "You think it's a good idea?"

     Reid shrugged, "Well, I think it makes it look like he's falling apart to Foyet. Anything to get his guard down for sure." He studied her face. "Why? Do you not think it's a good idea?" Reid asked.

     Casey looked up and immediately shook her head. "Oh, yeah, no, it's a good idea. Hotch should do what he believes is right. Personally, I wouldn't be doing what he's doing but... he's him and he makes his decisions. I'm just stressing out for him, so..." Casey fidgets with her cup.

    Reid looked at the girl and furrowed his brows. "What would you be doing out there? If you were him?" Casey thought to herself before softly scoffing.

     "I'd be trying to find that son of a bitch. And it wouldn't matter how long it would take. Because I wouldn't stop until I found him." It was true. Casey would never stop. If she were in Hotch's shoes, she'd be doing whatever she could to save and protect the ones she loved.

Casey picked her cup and drank her coffee and Reid looked at the girl. She looked nervous and deep in thought. His eyes then thwarted over to her cup of coffee, which was almost gone. Maybe she needed a distraction for a minute... and Reid did the only thing he believed he could do, talk.

"You know the first coffee cup dates back to 800 AD?" He asked, taking a sip from his cup and Casey looked down at her cup and furrowed her eyebrows. "Really?" She asked.

Reid finished his sip and nodded, "Yeah, uh, legend has it that 9th-century goat herders noticed the effect caffeine had on their goats, who appeared to "dance" after eating the fruit of the Coffea plant. A local monk then made a drink with the produce and found that it kept him awake at night, thus the original cup of coffee was born." He explained.

Casey softly smiled to herself and Reid slightly smiled, content that he put a smile on her face, even if it were small. "You know, I like when you have your little rambles." Casey admitted.

Reid raised his eyebrows. "You do?"

"Yeah," Casey nodded. "They're comforting, in a way. Makes me forget about the bad stuff for a minute." Reid smiled and held his cup to his lips again. "Well, you looked like you needed a random coffee fact." He told. Casey smiled, "Thanks." He nodded back at her.

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         To make a long story short, the team made a discovery that their unsub was keeping the eyes and that there had now been another victim. JJ, Reid and Casey stayed behind talking over things with Garcia.

        "Hey, Garcia. So, we have the list of local doctors, but we need to back it up one step." JJ told. "Where shall I splice, my pretties?" Garcia asked.

        "Give me a list of all doctors who've had infractions like malpractice suits." Reid tells. "Got it, bouncing your way."
        "Uh, narrow it down to eye specialists. Here could be someone with a degree that would know how to do this as carefully as he did." Casey tells. "Whoo, that's still a lot of names." Garcia says.
"We'll chip away when we know more." Reid says.

       "Hey, wait, before you hang up, how's my Morgan doing?" Garcia questioned. "Fine." Reid says. "I know the man is fine. How's he holding up as head honcho?"

      "Well, he's stressed, but he's on top of it. So, your man-candy's doing pretty good." Casey has. "Speaking of which, there is something you could do for him." JJ spoke.
      "Name it."

      JJ had relied on Garcia to get an office set up for Morgan. Strauss was right about one thing... a good leader needed an office. Morgan kept on refusing but if Garcia were to take care of it, there'd be no point in stopping her if he were miles away.

      It was a stressful case, but in the end, they caught their unsub and found the eyes he was keeping in his fridge. He was a man who had done taxidermy and used the eyes for the animals that were stuffed. Hotch had caught him and he didn't bother to wait for backup. They headed right on home and Garcia had finished up Morgan's office to which he welcomed.

      As for Foyet, still no luck for Hotch. In a way, everyone just had to hope they would find him soon.

hola mi lovelies!
i finally updated lol
ik it's probably really boring rn with me going episode to episode so i added in a little sum sum for spencer and casey lovers with that lil scene lol

ALSO
WHEN I SAY EXTREME SLOWBURN... I MEAN EXTREME SLOWBURN Y'ALL
y'all need to be patient🧍‍♀️

anyways thank you for reading!
hopefully you enjoyed!
the performer is next!

chapters may be rushed butttttt oh well anything to get through the book lol
this season is gonna be CRAZY
-mya <3