CHAPTER FIFTY: RUN BOY RUN !

⚠️ huge disclaimer, this chapter does regard a school sh00ting and descriptions of it! please read at your own risk!

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           IT WAS THE AVERAGE THURSDAY MORNING IN THE REID-WILLOWS HOUSEHOLD. Except this time, Casey wasn't in charge of breakfast and this morning, it was Spencer's duty.

          "Dad, the eggs are runny." Christopher complained as he made a face at his plate. (Believe it or not, Spencer insisted he do breakfast this morning).

          Spencer sighed, this was his second attempt with eggs and Chris just didn't like them. "Sorry, kiddo. This is why Mom does breakfast." Spencer takes Chris' plate back and putting the eggs back in the pan.

          "Babe!" Casey calls as she approaches the kitchen. "Yeah?" Spencer turns his attention to his fiancée. "Do you know where my white blouse is? The one I got the ketchup stain on? You were on laundry last." Casey stated and Spencer thinks to himself. "I put it in the dryer last night. It should be in the hamper." He tells.

          "I checked the hamper. It's not there." Casey sighs. Spencer thinks again and then snaps his fingers. "Check your closet. I hung it up for you." Casey smiles, "Thank you."

           With that, Casey trudges upstairs once more as Spencer tries to fix Chris' runny eggs and a few minutes pass by and Spencer places them back on the plate. "Here are your eggs. Hopefully they're better."

            It's not long until Chris finds something else to complain about. "Dad, you burnt the bacon," he holds up a piece of the darkened bacon. "From now on, just let Mom handle breakfast." Spencer chuckles and nods, agreeing with his son. "Sure thing, kiddo."

             Casey comes downstairs about a minute or so later and rushes into the kitchen. "Chris, bud, get your shoes on. We're already running late." Chris nods at his mom, "Okay, Mom."

             Spencer grabs Christopher's Star Wars lunchbox and hands it to the young boy, zipped and ready to go. "Here's your lunchbox. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a box of apple juice and sliced apples on the side."

             Chris arches a brow. "And?"
             Spencer looks ahead at the busy Casey and kneels towards his son. "And a cosmic brownie. Don't tell your mom."
             Chris smiles, "You should do lunches from now on, Dad." Spencer smiles to himself, feeling good about that at least and forgetting about the runny eggs.

             With that, Spencer and Chris head towards the front door and Spencer double-checks his leather satchel before pulling the strap over his head. "Keys. Keys. Where are my—" Casey turns towards Spencer, whose holding Casey's car keys up.

             "Keys," Casey finishes as she swipes them from Spencer's hand. "Thank you, my love." She smiles as she leans in to give Spencer a small peck on his lips. "Everyone ready?" Casey looks towards her two boys and they nod. "Okay, let's go."

              The first thing Casey and Spencer needed to do before heading to work was to drop Chris off at school. And so, they got into the carpool lane so Chris could just hop out of the car and head towards his classroom. But Spencer always insisted on hopping out of the car along with him to give him a giant hug.

             "Bye, bud. I love you." Spencer squeezes Chris into a big hug. "Love you too." Chris tells. "Learn something, baby. I love you!" Casey shouts from the drivers' side. "I love you more!" Chris calls. "I love you bigger!" Casey chuckles at her son's silliness as she watches him get to his class safely and then drives off so her and Spencer can get to work on time.

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A few hours had passed since Spencer and Casey got in and today had been a small paperwork day so Casey had been in her office for most of the time. She stood at the end of her desk, sitting through papers and files when there was a subtle knock on her door.

          Casey looks over to see Spencer. "Hey, you have a second?" He asks and Casey nods, "Sure. Close the door." As soon as Spencer goes to shut the door and close the blinds, he instantly wraps his arms around Casey's waist, his face digging into her neck and Casey smirks as she takes a break and holds his arms around her torso.

         "What's got you all riled up?" Casey wonders. "Just my lovely, lovely soon-to-be wife." Spencer admits and Casey turns around to face Spencer and places her arms around his neck. "You're touchy-feely today." Casey points out.

          "Yes. Why, do you not like it?" Spencer asks and falters his movements and tries to step away but Casey is quick to pull him close to her again. "Oh, no. I like it. I like it a lot." She chuckles as she pulls him in for a kiss.

           All of a sudden, there's another knock and Casey and Spencer move away from each other and Casey tells them to come in. Emily is behind the door and she opens it and smiles as she sees the two together. "Sorry, lovebirds. But we have a case. It's urgent."

Seeing the seriousness in her face, Casey and Spencer marched out of Casey's office and into the conference room, where everyone else was gathered. "What's up? What do we know?" Casey asks.

"We've just been informed that there is a lockdown over at one of the schools in DC." Garcia tells. "SWAT has already been called. They're on their way there now." Emily nodded.

"The two of our suspects have already been identified as Gerry Hasek and Walter Reynolds, 19 and 20." Rossi stated, holding up the file in his hands of the two's criminal records. "They definitely don't have any trouble showing their faces to the cameras." Luke nudges his head towards the screen of the cameras of the places they've robbed before.

          "Teenagers going after elementary schoolers? What the hell is their motive?" JJ wondered.

          Spencer nudged his head towards Garcia. "What school is this?"

"Shepherd Elementary on 4th Street." Garcia answered and the minute she said that, Spencer and Casey froze and then exchanged a look.

"Shepherd?" Casey asked.
"Are you sure?" Spencer asked.
Emily noticed their tension and then questioned: "What's wrong?"

There's a long pause and Casey looks at the team and pulls her cell out of her pocket as her heart pounded out of her chest. "Christopher goes there." She informed. And that's when hell broke loose.

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The school was shut down and Christopher's substitute teacher was lying on the ground after being shot in the chest. Surprisingly, she was still alive, just weak. Most of Chris's classmates hid under the tables, crying their eyes out and sniffling as the bad guys had taken refuge in their classroom.

One of the bad guys had been shot in the leg by one of the officers and his friend dragged him to their classroom, where he shot Miss Reiner and found the first aid kit.

The first thing Chris knew was to not show fear. The last time he'd gotten kidnapped, he learned quickly to not react. Christopher wasn't that scared. Of course, he may have been a little scared but he knew his parents had to have been on top of this. They just had to have been.

Christopher looked over at his classmate, a young girl, Sarah. "I'm scared." Sarah said, her knees up to her chest and her face red from all of the crying she was doing. Christopher looked around and whispered towards Sarah. "Don't worry. My mom and dad, they'll find us." He told.

"How?" Sarah asked. Christopher checked to make sure the bad guys weren't listening to them. "They're FBI agents. Super spies. They know what to do."

Christopher looked at the men and took a deep breath, hoping his parents were going to be there soon.

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The minute Casey heard that news, her heart dropped down to her stomach. Knowing her kid was at that school, that she dropped him off there this morning, she had to go and get him out of there. So, she marched towards those elevators, Spencer right behind her.

"Casey, Spence, you guys can't get involved." Emily argued as she followed behind them with Erik, Matt and Rossi.

Casey pushes on the elevator button multiple times. "Screw the damn protocol, Emily." Casey stated. "I'm going down there and I'm going to get my son out of there."

When the elevator doors open, she begins to head in when Erik grabs her arm, stopping her from going as he says: "You know you can't."

Erik lets go of Casey's arm and she sighs as she looks at Emily with broken eyes. "I promised," She started. "I promised myself the day he was born that nothing, and I meant, nothing... would happen to him so long as I could help it. He's been through so much. I know I can't do this, but I also can't just sit here. I can't." She shakes her head.

"We can't." Spencer agreed as he put a comforting hand on Casey's shoulder, to remind her she wasn't alone in this, that this was also his son in there.

Emily looks at the two. "I understand just how frustrating it is for you two, but—"
"Do you, Emily?" Casey questions. "Is that your kid in there?" She takes a sharp breath and looks at the woman and changes her tone. "I'll work from here. Please. I need to do something."

Emily and Rossi give each other a look. Emily's reminded of everything that happened with Damion Brambilla and if she gets into trouble again, this time it won't be a slap on the wrist. She then contemplates before deciding. "Fine," Emily starts. "But if the minute go south—"
"I won't go AWOL," Casey assures. "I promise."

After heading back to the conference, Garcia is sitting at the table and speaks. "We just received the CCTV footage from the classroom." In the class, the team sees Christopher, knees pulled up to his chest.

"Oh, my sweet boy. He must be so scared." Casey nearly sobs, seeing her child in the class. Garcia swallows the gulp in the back of her throat, watching her godson in the class and suddenly worrying and Luke places a hand on Garcia's shoulder in comfort.

"This must be the teacher in the corner here." Matt points out as he points to the corner of the camera. "She looks like she's moving." Tara points out. "So, they haven't killed her. But they've injured her." Erik said.

"Anything on Gerry Hasek and Walter Reynolds?" JJ questions and Garcia nods, "I scrounged up all the dirt I could find on them."

"Gerry Hasek, 19, has a juvie record for aggravated assault and battery." Rossi read from the file in front of him. "Walter Reynolds, he's been at this a while. His juvie record dates back to when he was eleven years old." Erik says.

"His psychiatrist dubbed him as a dysfunctional sociopath." Luke tells. Tara draws attention to the screen. "Hasek is injured. You see that?" She tells. "Yeah, there's footage of that." Garcia pulled that footage up.

"An officer shot Hasek before Reynolds killed him on the spot. It looks like Hasek hesitated to shoot the officer, meanwhile, Reynolds didn't even hesitate." JJ said.

"So, Walter's our dominant unsub and Gerry's our submissive." Emily tells.

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There had been at least twenty minutes and Emily, Luke and JJ had gone down to the school and Spencer had fought to go with them and reluctantly, Emily agreed. He'd been more clearheaded than Casey at the moment. It reassured Casey that Spencer would be at the scene.

Casey had been in the roundtable room and watching the live CCTV footage from the screen. She hadn't taken her eyes off the screen since she had sat down. Rossi had noticed this. He stood at that doorway, doing the same thing. Until he decides to make his presence known.

"You know, sitting here and watching the footage isn't gonna stop if something happens to Chris." Rossi points out as he takes a seat next to Casey. The woman looks at the man and shrugs, "I know. But I'd rather keep an eye on him."

There's a pause when Casey thinks to herself. Things so much more simpler this morning. She shakes her head as she remembers, "This morning, we were in a rush. It was a normal day. We had a normal day. A normal morning. What if that's the last—?"

"No," Rossi sits up and points at her. "You can't think like that, Casey." He then points to the screen. "That little boy, if he is every ounce of his mother and father, he's strong, he's smart and he's so brave. With what he's gone through, he knows what to do, he pays attention to stuff. And you know why?" Casey shrugs and Rossi looks at the woman. "Because he has a mother that pays attention to stuff."

Suddenly, Rossi's cell phone rings and he picks it up. "It's Emily." He nudges Casey to calls everyone else up to hear this. Matt, Erik, Tara and Garcia soon join them as Rossi then speaks to Emily. "Emily, you got us all here." He announces.

               "We're about to call Hasek and Reynolds. We're gonna try and bargain a deal with them before we go into deeper options." Emily decides. She puts her cell right next to the phone they're about to use to call Hasek and Reynolds.

It takes about three rings and Casey can see on the CCTV footage that Reynolds contemplated on picking the phone up. "Yeah, who's this?" He starts.

           "Walter Reynolds, this is Agent Emily Prentiss with the FBI." Emily starts.
            "The feds?" Reynolds scoffs and the team can see on the screen that he turns to face Hasek for a moment.
           "Walter, what's it gonna take for everyone to walk out of this school alive?" Emily asks and Walter replies with, "This school did nothing good for me. Or Gerry. Everyone here treated us like garbage. If anything, we're saving these kids from a lot of torment."

           "Okay, the last thing you are doing is saving these kids, Walter. You're harming them. We're trying to figure out solutions for this will end peacefully." JJ told.
          "We ain't harming no one!" Walter argued.
          "Walter, how about we make you a deal? These kids walk out of this school and we get you whatever you want and need." Emily decides.

           Walter contemplates this for a moment. "A doctor for Gerry for starters. And two plane tickets to Hawaii. But before you get those... I want my sanity back. And that is long gone. And if you can't get me those things," He laughs to himself like the psychopath he is. "Well then, every last kid in this joint is gonna die." There's a pause as he holds his gun up. "Starting with this one..."

            Suddenly, there are shots fired from the school building and Spencer starts lunging towards the building after Walter hangs up and JJ, Emily and Luke begin to run towards the man to stop him.

            "Spence!"
            "Spencer!"
            "Reid!"

            Emily and Luke pull him back before he goes to do something stupid and Spencer tries to fight against them. "I need to get in there!"

As Spencer continued to fight, Casey quickly told JJ that Walter didn't shoot at anyone. He just shot at the drywall to scare the team. "Spence! Spence!" JJ stood in front of him. "They didn't shoot at him. They weren't shooting at anyone. They were bluffing! Casey and Rossi just told me that. It's okay. It's okay."

Spencer stopped fighting and yanked Luke off of him as he decided to take a moment and a breather. He overreacted and wasn't as clearheaded as Emily thought. But of course, he reacted like a father would. His kid is in there and he's terrified. He figured that maybe by being here, it would settle Casey and her nerves about Chris being in the building. But he worried and right now, they had to keep their heads down and follow with whatever they could to get those kids out of there.

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Rossi, Matt, Erik and Tara had gone down to the school since Emily stated she wanted backup for this. And of course, the order was for Casey to stay behind with Garcia. But she wasn't sure just how much of this she could take. So, she knew what she had to do and she had to go down there now.

And of course, Garcia quickly saw this and protested and decided to step in front of her. "Wait, where are you going?!" Garcia questioned. "I'm going down there to get my son." Casey stated.

"That's a big nope. Prentiss gave me specific instructions to not let you leave." Garcia argued. Casey took a huge sigh and looked at the woman in front of her. "Pen, I'm asking you politely right now, get out of my way."

"Nope." Garcia shook her head and Casey tries to move to the left and Garcia follows her. And then she tries to move to the right and Garcia follows her once more. And then Casey does a zig-zag move and gets Garcia off her path and quickly goes past her and down the stairs.

"Hey!" Garcia shouts and Casey shouts back as she heads to the doors. "I'll take blame! I promise!"

So, Casey had taken one of the SUVs down to the school with a FBI vest clad on her chest and the intention to basically rescue her son from imminent danger. When she got out of her car, the first person to notice her was JJ. "Casey?" She asked.

            Emily immediately turned around but before she could lecture her, Casey interrupted her. "I know, I know, I'm not supposed to be here but Em, that's my kid in there. That's our kid in there." She motions to Spencer as she grabs his hand.

            Emily knows she can't stop her. She knows that it's no use and she also knows that if she tells Casey she can't do this, she knows that she'll do it anyways. So, she says: "Take the east wing with Rossi and Matt, we'll take the south end." Casey nods, "Okay." She squeezes Spencer's hand and then goes with Rossi and Matt.

Meanwhile in the classroom, Hasek is struggling to breathe and Reynolds paces. "What are you gonna do, Walt?" Gerry questions as he winces in pain. "I don't think they're taking me seriously, man." Walter told.

"You know what I would do?" Gerry questions. "Take a kid, make them realize just how serious I am. Maybe shoot 'em right in front them." Walter thinks this out and he nods, "Not a bad idea, Gerr." With that, he looks around the kids and scares them as he waves his gun around.

               Gerry then finds his target. The young Sarah, sniffling on her knees and she looks at the man, scared. Christopher keeps a close eye on the man as he clenched his jaw in anger. Gerry scoffs and stands before he then swiped at Sarah's arm and grabs her and she screams. "Stop screaming!"

             "Let her go!" Christopher then grabs the man's leg and Gerry then draws his attention to Chris as he kicks his leg out to get Chris off. "Stupid kid!" He finally gets Chris off his leg and he then aims his gun at Chris, who holds his arms up in surrender.

            "I'll go with you! I'll go with you! Just let her go! My parents, they're FBI agents! They'll get you whatever you want! Just don't take her." Christopher pleads, knowing he'd rather do this than have Sarah get hurt.

            Walter looks at the boy and scoffs. "Your parents are feds?" He questions. "It'd explain why the kid had balls to grab you." Gerry joked. "We shoot the kid, we have the feds on us. We can use him as a hostage. Better yet, scare the parents out of their damn mind."

             Walter contemplates this idea. "Smart." He then yanks Chris up. "Come on, kid. Gerry, I'm gonna get you some help. Okay?" Gerry nods as he opens the door, holding Chris by the back of his shirt and holding his gun up to the young boy as they walk through the school halls.

             Christopher took in his surroundings, trying to find someone to help him out of this. I mean, at least his status as the FBI kid was keeping him alive. As long as he could get everyone out safely, that was enough.

              And it was like a miracle when Walter had let go of Christopher to look outside at the cop cars and the feds lined up, ready to take action. Walter was so fixated on the outside, so Chris looked around at his closest exit and took the opportunity to run.

              His parents always told him that if things were bad, to always run. And so, he did. Quick and fast.

              "Hey!" Walter yelled as Chris ran through the halls of the school. "Help!" Chris yelled. "Help!" He banged on the lockers and tried to search for help. He turns a corner and before he turns another, Christopher is grabbed and he looks over and finds that his dad was here to save the day. He covers his mouth and tells him to keep quiet.

               "Kid? Where are ya?" Walter questions and once he turns the corner, he's met with a very pissed off mother and FBI agent, holding her gun up to Walter.

              "FBI. Don't. Move." Casey warns.

              Walter laughs like a maniac and he then points to Casey. "Let me guess, you're the mother. Yeah, kid gave me the same stink eye you're giving me now. Only yours is just slightly more intimidating."

               "Drop the weapon. Now."

               Walter looks at the woman and he shakes his head. "All I wanted was my sanity back. That was all I wanted." Walter holds his gun up to his head but Casey shoots him in the torso and he lands on the ground with a thud. She shoots the man again for good measure and he's down on the ground.

               Casey kicks the man's gun away from him and gets on her knees and kneels towards his ear and whispers, "You have no sanity. You have no emotions. And I feel sorry for you." With that, Casey stands up, looking down at the man as he groans in pain from being shot.

            "Mom!" Christopher calls and Casey turns her head and the light of her life is running towards her and she kneels down as the young boy runs into his mother's arms. "Christopher!"

             Casey holds onto her son for dear life, kissing the side of his head and mumbles, "Oh, you're okay." It was more like she was reassuring herself than Chris. Rossi called a medic for the man, he and Matt had stood and waited for the medics to arrive.

            "You're okay." Casey tells the young boy and he pulls away to face his mother as Spencer then approaches them. "I got the bad guy, just like you and Dad." Christopher told and Spencer kneels down on the ground and Casey looks at her son's face and smiles, "Oh, and I'm so proud of you. I'm so so so proud of you."

             Casey holds her son once more and Spencer holds both of them as Emily arrives on the scene and JJ and Luke had arrested Gerry and gotten him to the medics as well and got the kids out of the classroom safely.

              This mess was finally over.

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          After all of that, Casey and Spencer brought Christopher back to the BAU, where everyone had sat in the roundtable room, Chris surrounded by all of his favorite snacks and drinking a blue slushee that turned his teeth and tongue blue. Everyone looked like they were enjoying Chris's company as he sat with his dad and told the story about he was defeating the bad guys in a storytelling way.

          Casey stood outside of her office as she watched her son talk with his hands and telling stories to the team, making them laugh. She smiled, seeing him be okay and getting to tell his own story.

          "Looks like Christopher's doing okay." Emily spoke from beside Casey, standing with her and Casey nods, "Yeah, he is."

            There's a long pause and Casey's heart breaks for a moment. "I was so close to losing him today. If I had been a second late—"

          "You weren't," Emily reminded her. "You taught him well. You and Spencer. He knew what he had to do and he protected all of his classmates."

          "But he's six," Casey looks at Emily with tears in her eyes. "Six years old, he shouldn't be needing to defend himself. He's just a kid. Going through what he went through. Cancer, his dad going to prison, dealing with his grandmother with schizophrenia, his mother going to jail, the falling out with his grandfather, getting kidnapped. I vowed that that kind of stuff would never happen to him."

          Casey looks down and decides to tell Emily what she's been thinking about for a while. "Which is why... I'm thinking of quitting."

          Emily's eyes widen. "What?"
          "I'm just thinking about it, I don't know for sure but..." She looks back at her son. "I think it's easier for me if I just be... there for him. I told myself I wasn't gonna be the next Gideon or the next Hotch. Never being around, forgetting I have a kid. I can't do that. I can't lose him and he can't lose his mother or his father. I'm doing this for him."

           This was news. Casey thinking about leaving the BAU? Now, those were words Emily never thought she'd hear come out of Casey's mouth. "But you—"

          "Always wanted this. I know. But... I have to be willing to sacrifice everything for him." Casey knew that when she had a kid, everything would be about that kid. And she knew that this was a sacrifice she was willing to make for him. "That's what I knew I had to do when I was pregnant with him. That's why I knew the day he was born that I would do anything for him. And even if that means quitting my job for him... so be it. And right now, I'm just thinking about it. I don't know if I want to so soon."

          Emily knows she can't tell Casey to stay and she knows this is for the same reason Morgan left, the same reason Hotch left. They had families and they were willing to sacrifice everything for their families. If the epic cost was the job, it seemed like they were willing to give it up. And right now, after what Casey went though, she had a right to think about it.

          "Well, no matter what... I'll support your decision." Emily tells and Casey nods at her, thanking her for understanding. "Thank you."

         Emily looks ahead at the roundtable. "Right now, you should go spend time with your son." So, Casey nods and decides to do just that.

          Casey walks into the office and Chris jumps out of his dad's arms and rushes towards his mom as she picks him up and holds him close and tight.

hey lovelies
writer's block is a bitch
but i'm here now hehehe
rewatching so many episodes of grey's anatomy and supernatural has lowkey helped

me because i know that casey's story is gonna need to come to an end soon but i keep pushing out publishing chapters so i can hold onto her a little bit longer:

but ofc my spencer reid writing days will not be over i'm literally planning two other spencer fics after this lmao

soooo
this next chapter is a big one and i'm pretty excited for it so yessss
any big guesses on what the next chapter is gonna include? it's not their wedding (not yet anyways lol)

i love you all
and thank you for reading!
-mya </3333