CHAPTER SEVEN: SINGLE LADIES NIGHT !

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        CASEY HAD BEEN PLANNING THIS IN HER HEAD FOR MONTHS EVER SINCE SHE MOVED IN. A night dedicated to just the girls, a house welcoming party of sorts. Plus, since she was turning 30 soon, it was time for only last hurrah before she officially marked as old.

        Approaching the women at JJ's desk, Casey put her arms around Emily and Garcia. "Single ladies night, are we all up for it?" Casey wondered. "Any night with you ladies? Always." Garcia nods.

       "Single ladies night?" Tara asks, readjusting her spot at the edge of JJ's desk as JJ sat in her seat. "Is that some night at a bar? If so, I'm in."

       "Not quite, Tara." Casey said, throwing a finger up. "Single ladies night at my place. It's basically a welcoming party for single women for the night." Before JJ objects, Casey interferes, "Of course, JJ, you are included in this even if you are happily married. Leah's coming, too."

       "So... what will this single ladies night consist of?" Emily wonders. "Drinking booze, eating pizza, karaoke full of revenge breakup songs. That sort of thing." Casey lists and sees the look on everyone's faces. "Come on. It's been a long time since all of us had a night together. We deserve it after what we see on the daily. Plus, my birthday is coming up and it's my first one without..." There's a brief pause from Casey. "So, please please please!" Casey never ever begged. Until today.

       "Of course, I'm in. Anything for you, fair maiden. I shall provide the alcohol and we are responsibly drinking. Remember that. We don't want what happened with you and the newb to happen again." Garcia told and Casey furrowed her brows, "Nothing did happen. But responsibly drinking, I got it."

       Emily nods, "I'm in."
      "Same here." JJ smiles.
      "You had me at drinking, I'm in." Tara tells.

       Casey smiles, "Perfect. How's Saturday sound?" The four women nod.
       "Sounds good."
        "Yeah."
        "Mhm."
        "Oh, I can't wait!" Garcia shrieks.

After a long hard day of paperwork and workload, everyone had headed out after a long day. The women seemed to have left one by one, leaving only the guys on the team to be leaving shortly after.

Spencer had approached the elevator with Rossi as Matt and Luke followed. "Hey, did you hear the girls are having a single ladies night?" Luke began as he clung his bag over his shoulder.

"A single ladies night?" Matt asked, chuckling to himself at the name. "Yeah, apparently, Casey is organizing it at her house." Luke answered and the men look at him in confusion to how he would know about this. Luke sighs, giving in: "I got Garcia to budge about it without even realizing." He reveals as the rest of the men laugh.

"And it got me thinking. None of us guys have ever hung out together without the girls considering we're always outnumbered. So... I'm proposing a guys' night. All of us." Luke orchestrated and the men began to think.

         "A guys night?" Matt asked and Rossi shrugs, "It could be our way of celebrating Reid's first divorce." The senior agent puts a hand on Spencer's shoulder and the man frowns at him. "Too soon?" Rossi guesses and Spencer nods, "A little bit." Rossi shrugs then, "Yeah, take it from someone that's had three, it ain't no picnic. And if we're having a guys night, let's have it at my mansion."

        "Sounds good." Luke tells. "I'll check in with the missus. I'm sure it's all good." Matt nods. "Guys, I don't know." Spencer tells, causing all of the men to look his way in confusion. "I'm still kind of getting over Casey and that's hard to do already. Maybe I should just be alone for the—"

        Luke interrupts Spencer, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're coming with, Reid." He stated sternly. "We gotta get your out of your mopey state." Spencer looks down, contemplating what to do now. "Look, it's the least I can do to get you and I to be close again. Come on."

         Spencer thinks about about it for a minute and looks at the other men wanting him to say yes. "Okay, maybe for an hour." Spencer shrugged. "That's enough." Matt states as they all walk into the elevator one by one.

      "Clear your calendars for Saturday, gentlemen." Rossi tells.

        This Saturday was gonna be an interesting one.

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Saturday was finally here. Since Casey had had Chris this week, she had sent him over to Isaac for the night. She had told everyone to come around 6:30 to get the party started. Casey had done the dishes, cleaned a little bit around the house and turned on her Bluetooth speaker to listen to some music before the rest of the girls came.

        Casey skipped through a few sad songs before heading to her party playlist. The song 'Truth Hurts' started playing as she poured some wine for herself and began to sip as she danced around the kitchen.

          It was at the moment that Tara and Garcia had walked in through the house and into the kitchen as Tara began to shout the lyrics with Casey and Garcia joined in as Emily, JJ and Leah all came in the kitchen soon after and joined in on the fun.

          When Casey had turned down the music, the women began to debrief about what they all brought. "So, I brought wine these little charcuterie palettes to make it seem all fancy-schmancy." Garcia had started.

         "I bought more wine," Tara stated, holding up a bottle. "Mostly because you can never have enough."

          "I bought the snacks." Casey said, laying the bowls of chips out. "Ranging from JJ's Cheetos to my Ruffles potato chips." Immediately, JJ grabbed the bowl of Cheetos for herself. "Pizza should be coming in about an hour or two." Casey also informed.

          "I brought my karaoke machine," Emily stated, noting the box she brought in and left in the living room. "I've never actually opened it but I know there's a lot of 2000s hits on there."

          Garcia furrowed her brows. "Didn't I get that for you for Christmas?" There's a long awkward pause from Emily and Casey then interjects. "Moving on."

JJ then continues, "I brought popcorn because Leah..." The woman motions to the younger woman next to her as she holds DVDs up. "Brought the movies." Leah finished and Casey's face drops. "Please don't tell me rom com."

Leah shakes her head, "Not rom com. These are more action packed. And all featuring strong women. Kinda like us." She chuckles.

"Alrighty," Garcia looks down at the glasses Casey left for everyone to pour some bubbly in. "Why don't we get started on the best night of our freaking lives?!"

Everyone poured their wines in the glasses and clinked together as they cheered and Casey turns the music up.

        Meanwhile, the men had their own things to do. Luke had decided he was going to pick up Spencer from his apartment and Spencer insisted he go without him and after thirty minutes of persuasion, Luke finally got Spencer to go with him.

        "Sorry, we're late," Luke said to Matt and Rossi the minute he and Spencer got there. "Practically had to drag Reid out of his turtle shell."

         "Don't apologize, party's just starting." Rossi told. He pours a glass of wine for the men and he has a poker table set up. "Here," Rossi hands them the glasses. "Tonight, we take a break from cases."

           Spencer takes a seat next to Matt at the poker table Rossi arranged. "I have a feeling Reid's gonna give us a run for our money." Matt stated. "Why bother setting up when Reid's gonna win this?" Luke joked. "You never know. Someone can beat him one day."

            Casey could, Spencer thought inside of his head. She always beat me. He remembered that tomorrow would be her thirtieth birthday. The first birthday since they both split. He hoped it'd be a memorable one for her, considering everyone forgot his.

            "Hey, man," Matt puts a hand on Spencer's shoulder. "How are you doing? I know things must be a little rocky considering the divorce." He stated. Spencer shrugged as he puts his drink down. "I'm dealing with it. I'm juggling a lot of the pros and cons about it. For instance, a few pros are greater freedom, room for growth, and an improved environment for children. However, some cons could be stress and financial challenges can complicate outcomes for the family." Spencer explained.

           "How's Chris doing with all of it?" Luke wondered. "It must be tough for a kid." Spencer nods, "He's starting to get used to it. Which... quite honestly, I feel like no kid should." He admitted and Matt nods understandably. He couldn't imagine what it must be like for the kids. He was lucky enough to have this great marriage with Kristy and sharing their love with their children.

           Rossi can sense the tension in the room. "Alright, we have time for therapy sessions after we have a few drinks in us. We're here for some fun. Now, who's drawing?"

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          It was already nine o'clock and Casey was more drunk than anyone in the room. Of course, everyone was pretty drunk but if we had to range by who was the most drunk to who was the least, the list would go Casey, Tara, Garcia, Leah, Emily and JJ.

         After all laying on the ground with pillows and blankets surrounding them and letting Ocean's 8 play in the background, Casey continued to sip on her wine as she ranted on and on about her divorce. "Am-Am I wrong for choosing divorce Reid? I-I mean, I think it's the best decision I can make for-for me." She slurred.

       "If you think it is, sure." JJ stated, tossing a popcorn into her mouth as she slumped on the couch. "Guys, the room is spinning. Why is the room spinning?" Garcia questioned as she laid flat on her back on the couch. "Because you and Tara drank more than any of us. And Casey's a lightweight that likes to talk." Emily stated, honestly as she leaned her head on the opposite side of the couch Casey was laying on.

         Garcia looks at her empty glass she's holding and frowns, "Oh. That makes sense."

        "Who's the most drunk right now?" JJ asks everyone in room and almost everyone raises their hands haphazardly. "Okay." JJ sighs.

         "Dude," Leah begins to chuckle, kicking her feet and leaning against a pillow on the ground. "Tara's so drunk that she didn't even raise her hand." She points and sees that Tara has passed out next to Garcia, holding her empty glass.

         "Is she even alive?" Garcia asked, lifting her head up in concern. JJ leans over to feel Tara's pulse and Tara then snores loudly. "I think she's fine." She assures.

         "I mean, I have been in love with him for a long long long time but he broke my heart by lying to me. And I hate liars." Casey continues her tangent as she drinks more wine.

        "You think that stems from your daddy issues?" Emily asks and Casey thinks about it and nods, "Definitely."

        "I should open up a bar," Leah tells. "I'm getting nowhere as a waitress. A bar. A bar would be nice." She slurs as she sips from a straw.

         "And I'm turning 30 tomorrow. 30!" Casey shouts. "And I've already had my first divorce."
        "You think there's gonna be more?" Emily asks.
         Casey gives a look to Emily. "Have you met my commitment issues? Those also stem from my daddy issues." 

       "My stomach is way too full for anymore of this pizza," Leah tells looking down at the left crust on her plate. "But I'm gonna go get another slice." She lifts herself up. "Don't come crying to us when you're puking your guts out later." JJ tells as Leah heads towards the kitchen.

       Deciding to sit up from the couch and place the bowl of popcorn on the table, JJ lifts herself up and takes Casey's glass out of her hands, places it on the table and holds her hands out to the woman. "Get up."

        Groaning, Casey takes JJ's hands and struggles to stand up. "Get up. No more moping." JJ tells and Casey stands up off the couch when Leah comes in with the karaoke machine in her hands.

       "Karaoke anyone?"

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         Spencer had, of course, expectedly, beat Luke, Matt and Rossi over and over and over at the poker games. This last round was a crazy one, Rossi thought he'd almost had him but Spencer had won with a pair of aces in hand and told the men that a pair of aces only results in an approximate 59.97% showdown win probability.

The men heard the doorbell ring and Rossi went to go and get it. When he came back, he wasn't alone. "Reid, you got a guest." Behind him had been Isaac, holding a sleepy, sickly looking Chris in his arms, who was in his space pajamas.

"Isaac?" Spencer almost immediately stood up. "What are you doing here?" He asks, approaching them.

"Chris threw up," Isaac said. "Nothing major, he just has a bad case of the flu." He assures. "I can't get ahold of Casey or Leah. And Casey said you would be here if it was an emergency and I couldn't get ahold of them." Isaac explained.

"He must've gotten the flu from school," Spencer said as he had Isaac hand Chris over to him. "Hey, buddy. You feeling okay?" Spencer asked his son softly, placing the back of his hand on Chris's burning forehead. "I want Mommy." Chris murmured as he leaned his head on his dad's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do." Isaac told and Spencer shook his head, "No, it's okay." He tells and looks over at Luke. "You think we can make a pit stop at Casey's place?" Luke then nods, "Yes, of course."

         So, Luke had decided to drive Spencer and Chris back to Casey's place. Luke had tried to call Garcia or anyone else so that they could get a warning about them invading girls' night. Spencer had a sleeping Chris in his arms with his bag of stuff in the backseat that Isaac gave to him before they all left. Spencer had refused to let go of his sick son, knowing he needed someone right now.

        "Can't get ahold of Garcia or anyone else." Luke informed, putting his phone down. "They must be having some fun." Spencer stated. "Least someone is." Luke chuckled but Spencer hadn't. He just continued looking at his sleeping son, thinking about the times he'd watch Casey sleep in his loving, doting way he did. He'd opted for watching Chris do it now, since Chris and Casey practically look alike since Chris was born. Casey would still disagree with that and say Chris looked more like Spencer.

       Luke sighed, knowing this conversation was bound to happen at some point. "Look, I know things have been a little weird considering how you found me and Casey a month back but I'm gonna spend the rest of my life assuring to you that nothing happened. I swear." He told.

       There's a pause as Spencer looks Luke's way. "I believe you, Luke. I do." He thinks about what he's about to say and almost doesn't say it but once he sees that Chris is for sure asleep in his arms based on his breathing, he decides to unveil the truth. "But... Casey told me while I was in prison, she was developing feelings for you."

        Luke looks Spencer's way almost in disbelief at the sentence that just came out of Spencer's mouth. "Those feelings have gone away now thought and I know that you wouldn't do that to me or my marriage, even if it has fallen in shambles now." Spencer said sadly.

         "I just... keep thinking that maybe you would've treated her better than I did in years. I didn't mean for us to be distant or for things to be weird... but... I don't know, I needed some time to process that." Spencer explained, feeing a weight come off his chest.

          There's a moment of silence before Luke decides to speak. "Even if Casey initiated it, I would've never done that to you. Or Chris. Or Casey herself. That's all in the past now."

          It's in that moment, in a brotherly way of doing it, things were okay were Spencer Reid and Luke Alvez. Was it really that easy for two guys to get over their problems that fast? No, seriously, as the author, is it?

         "I'm sorry things have been weird." Spencer tells. "Hey, man, no hard feelings." Luke places a hand on Spencer's shoulder.

          "So, do you think they're gonna be partying when we get there?" Spencer asked. "Knowing those women, they're definitely partying the night away." Luke comments. "I mean, what do you think they're all doing right now? Painting nails, gossiping about boys?"

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           The women of the BAU were currently doing karaoke altogether. Garcia, Tara and Leah started off by sharing the mic and Casey had then completely and drunkenly taken over the whole show with a hairbrush in hand and sunglasses perched on her nose as she danced in an oversized tee and underwear around on the furniture.

           The women were all currently shouting the lyrics of 'Oops, I Did It Again' by Britney Spears but Casey was blowing the women all away as she danced around the entire house. Casey had been singing her heart out and as the song was beginning to come to an end, Casey had gotten up on the couch and stood in front of her audience, whose mouths all dropped, not at Casey, but at the men who walked in.

           Casey didn't seem to notice Spencer and Luke even walking in, let alone her son stirring in Luke's arms, considering she wasn't facing the door. She continued finishing up the song, acting as if she was the attention-seeking singer at a concert. "Oops, I did it again! I played with your heart, got lost in the game! Oh baby, baby! Oops, you think I'm in love! That I'm sent from above! I'm not that innocent!"

            Once she finished up the song, she lost her footing and fell backwards off the couch and everyone gasped as this happened and luckily, Spencer was standing right there so he ended up catching her, hands and arms wrapped around her back and stomach.

           Casey turns over to has caught her and smiles widely. "Spencer! Hiiiiiii!" Casey says drunkenly and wraps her arms around him.

         "What are you guys doing here?" JJ asks, curiously. "Chris got sick. He wanted Casey." Spencer stated, finding this clingy and lovey Casey strange as she wrapped her arms around him and her head laid on his chest. Spencer then turns over to Luke. "Can you take him upstairs?" He asks and Luke nods, understandably. "Yeah."

        "Woo!" Casey cheers. "Yeah, as you can see we've been, uh, drinking." Emily stated. Casey had drank more than anyone in the whole night and Tara and Garcia were probably still the most drunk as Leah and Emily were cutting themselves off and JJ was almost fully sober by now since all she had was wine earlier. "Yeah, I can tell." Spencer raises his brows as he looks at Casey, staring up at him. "You-You got pretty eyes, pretty boy." She hiccups.

         Spencer looks at the rest of the women, trying to get Casey off of him, no matter how much he actually enjoyed this. "How much has she been drinking?" He asks.

       "She had wine, then Tito's, then more vodka." Leah told and Spencer's eyes widen. "I'm sorry, what?" Casey giggles, "Just-just a little bit. I deserve it! I'm almost 30!" Casey tries making her way over to the stairs and falls right at the first step. Everyone gasps as she does so and Leah goes over to Casey. "Casey, you good?"

        "My son needs me." Casey said into the floorboard. Leah looks over at Spencer as she tries to lift Casey up off the ground, indicating she needed help. "Here," Spencer had easily helped her up and Casey had gone back to holding onto Spencer and leaned all of her body weight on him. "Maybe it's time for bed for you."

         "But Chris needs me!" Casey told and Spencer had assured to her, "Luke's got him. It's time for bed." Spencer had lifted Casey up bridal style and she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her head into his shoulder. "I love Luke!" Casey cheered as Spencer shushed her, going up the stairs.

           Spencer had found Casey's bedroom as Luke had come out of Chris's room and decided to open the bedroom door for Spencer to let Casey in. Spencer muttered a small 'thank you' to Luke as he walked into the dark room. He lays Casey down on the bed and turns on her bedside lamp and Casey scrunches up her face. "'S Too bright." She slurs.

          Spencer turned around and had seen as JJ came up with a glass of water, assuring to him Casey would need and she handed it to him before leaving and Spencer had Casey drink out of the glass of water. Spencer had remembered all of those times Casey had gone out with their colleagues and would come home drunk. It was only a handful of times it had happened. The usual routine was that Spencer would stay by her side the entire night while some old school film played in the background as she tried to sleep it off.

           Spencer noticed the TV in her room and found the remote by her bedside table and began to find a channel only playing early 1930s films, something she liked. Thirty minutes passed and Spencer sat in the work chair she had in her room and he was watching the film with her when he noticed she was getting sleepy. Casey finally passed out around 11:23 and Spencer stood up from the chair and pulled up the covers and to her upper body.

             Casey had turned her head towards Spencer and looked up at him with those crystal blue eyes he loved. "Spencer..." She muttered and Spencer turned his attention to her, raising his eyebrows but Casey had closed her eyes and fell into a deep slumber.

             With that, Spencer turned off the lamp and left the door a crack as he exited.

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          When Casey Willows woke up this morning, she had the fattest hangover known to mankind. She sat up in her bed and sipped out the water from her glass on her bedside table. She furrowed her brows, wondering how the hell she ended up in her bed.

           The last thing she recalled was when Leah had suggested karaoke and everything was a bit fuzzy after that. Casey had gone to the bathroom before going downstairs and as she looked down, she'd seen her colleagues on the ground surrounded by pillows and blankets. Even Luke was there. When the hell did he get here last night?

Casey shrugged it off and headed towards the kitchen and saw cupcakes on the counter. Only one had a candle in it that hadn't been lit yet. She furrowed her brows and realized these weren't here before.

The front door opens and Casey looks towards it and sees Spencer coming through the door. He closes it behind him quietly and heads to the kitchen and sees Casey standing there. "Hey." He said.

"Hi?" Casey asks, wondering why he's here. Spencer places a bag on the table and then looks at Casey as he furrowed his brows and purses his lips. "You don't remember last night, do you?" He asks.

           "No—?" Casey thinks back to last night and suddenly remembers Spencer carrying her to her room. "Oh, my God, we didn't have sex last night, did we?" Spencer's eyes widen almost immediately. "No, no. Nothing like that. You really think I would do that to you?" He asked, sadly. "No, I would've. I would've jumped..." Casey's eyes widen as she realizes what she's saying. "Anyone's bones if I was drunk." She corrects herself.

            Her headache pounds even more. "Seriously, how much did I drink last night?" Casey questions. "According to JJ, a lot." Spencer told as places two aspirins in front of her and fills up a glass of water for her take. Casey does so as Spencer tells her what happened.

            "Isaac came by Rossi's and Chris was running a fever—" Before Casey can ask, Spencer beats her to the punch. "He's fine, it's just the flu. But Chris wanted you so me and Luke brought him back here where we were greeted with you singing a very drunk rendition of that Britney Spears song you like."

           Casey pinches the bridge of her nose and shakes her head. "Mm. Yeah, I remember that, now. Sorry if I was so... clingy." She wants to have a better word for it but that's the word that comes out. Spencer chuckles and shakes his head. "It's okay."

           Casey decides to change the subject. "Chris is okay, like he's okay-okay?" She asks. "Yeah, I'm gonna take him tonight since it our week. If that's okay." Casey nods, "Yeah, of course."

           Casey turns to Spencer as he pours some coffee into a mug for her. "Thank you... for, uh, taking care of me. It wasn't your job, but you still did it." Casey told. "Of course," Spencer nodded and thought for a second and smiled to himself. "It's what friends do." Once he says the word 'friends', Casey realizes that they're okay. That things between them were okay and normal. She had no idea what happened last night for him to come out with that but she settles for it, not wanting to pry into it.

           "I, uh, wanted to give you something." Spencer pushes the bag on the counter towards Casey. Casey furrowed her brows as she reaches into the bag and pulls out an old 'Reebok' shoe box that had collected a bunch of VHS tapes of old films Casey recognized. There was a whole stack of them. Casey smiles as she looks down, "Are these Gideon's old tapes of those movies he used to watch?" She asks.

            Spencer nods, "Yeah, I, uh, recently did some digging in our old storage unit from when you moved in and I just found them. I figured you would want them since they were yours to begin with." He tells. Casey smiles, "Thank you." She gives him a side hug and he returns it.

              The two look at each other for a minute before Spencer looks away and up towards the ceiling. "I should, uh, get Chris ready to go. We should be going soon anyways. You gonna be okay here?" Spencer asks before he exits the room.

         Casey nods, "Yeah. Yeah. I got my girls." She assures. "And I guess Luke." The two laugh.

          Spencer almost takes a step out before he turns back, "Oh, and one more thing," He starts and Casey faces him. "Happy birthday." Casey smiles at him, "Thank you." Spencer gives her a smile before leaving and Casey turns towards the counter.

           Casey grabs the cupcake with the candle in it and lights it with the lighter right next to the box. Casey lights the candle up and looks down at it as she makes a wish. As she closes her eyes and thinks, she blows out the candle. I wish things could work out in the end. She thinks to herself, not knowing if she was talking about Spencer or her life as it is now.

          She was 30 now, but when she was 19, she would've never expected her life to turn out this way at her own expense. It was self-sabotage, something she was cursed with since the day she was born. Even at 30, her mindset remained the same since 19. She was alone. And that's something she was always grateful (but regretted) so often.

CASEY IS 30 NOW HOLY COW🥳
it's just like yesterday she was just turning 21😭
figured it'd be fitting since my birthday is coming up soon hehehehehe

anywayssssss
thought the team could use a chapter without a case lol

casey with her cupcake😭:

anywaysssss thank you for reading!
i love you all!!!
-mya </3