CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: LIKE UNCLE, LIKE NIECE !

15x03

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           ABOUT A FEW WEEKS PASSED AND CASEY WILLOWS WAS CLEARED TO GO BACK TO WORK. She was so ready, she was the first one in the office. She sat at the round table in the conference room, waiting for the rest of the team to get their for their new case they just received.

          "You're back." Casey turned around and saw that Spencer was in the doorway of the room. He sounded happy almost. "H-Hi," Casey stood up, nearly knocking the chair backwards as she faced Spencer. "Ooh! Hi. Yeah, I, uh, I thought I'd get in early."

          Hesitantly, Spencer and Casey locked in an awkward hug but it was a good kind of awkward hug. Per Spencer's request, they were taking things slow. They've given each other enough space for the past few weeks, which was needed after Casey's breakup with Marco and Spencer just needing the space.

           But right now, things were really good on their front. No arguments, no problems, just Spencer and Casey being... Spencer and Casey.

            "I'm happy to see you." Casey tells Spencer and when Spencer hears the words coming out of Casey's mouth, he can tell they're very genuine. "I'm happy to see you, too." Spencer smiles and it takes everything in Casey for her knees not to buckle at the sight.

             Suddenly, a chirping voice comes into the room. "Casey, oh, my god, oh, my god, oh, my god." Garcia enters the room as Spencer moves a bit so Garcia can give Casey her welcoming hug. "My sweet, gentle, fair maiden of a boss. Oh, my god. Look at that. Look at you. You're here! Hi!"

             Behind Garcia had been Rossi, going in to welcome Casey with a hug as well. "We missed you, kiddo." Rossi tells as pulls away from Casey. Behind Rossi is then Luke, who greets her with a hello and a hug. Tara is next right afterwards. "So good to have you back." Casey smiles, "Great to be here."

            JJ already welcomes Casey with open arms. "Hey, there." Casey gives the woman a hug. "Missed you a bunch." JJ smiles. "Missed you, too." Casey says as JJ pulls away.

             Erik is behind JJ and he hesitantly stands at the doorway and Casey narrows her eyes at her friend and he smiles and walks in to give Casey a bone-crushing hug. "You scared me, man." Casey takes a breath as she pulls away from the hug, "I scared me, too."

            After that, Emily had greeted Casey. She was the only person she'd seen when she got into the office so Emily and Casey exchanged their greetings then. "We did discuss you maybe easing back into things slowly." Emily tells Casey.

           "And I'm fine, Emily, really, better than I've been in a while. I even brought a permission slip from my doctor." Casey assures and Emily sighs and looks at the young woman in front of her. "Promise me, no jumping out of helicopters, nothing reckless."

            Casey thinks on this, "Only as a last resort." Emily narrows her eyes at the young woman and Casey assures one final time, "I promise. You have my word."

           "So what have we got?" Rossi starts the team on the case as Casey takes a spot in between JJ and Spencer. "Well, the two mail bomb deaths we've been monitoring in Ohio and Kentucky, third one just happened in Memphis." Garcia explains.

           "We aren't monitoring anymore. This case is now our top priority." Emily informs. "Two victims are Rhonda Kirkman and her daughter Sophia, but unlike Joseph Ainsworth and Sheila Stecher, both of these sweet souls have survived." Garcia continued.

           "Apparently, that blast wasn't as strong as the others. Mother and daughter are in critical condition, though." Emily stated.
          "And we still don't know how these bombs were sent?" Tara questions. "None of the traditional mail carriers sent any packages to the victims on the days of the attacks." Garcia tells.

          "There could be a good chance he dropped them off himself. Got away before anybody could see anything." Erik suggests.
          "Well, that'd be a significant deviation from the traditional MO of a mail bomber. Most don't get anywhere near their victims." Spencer explained.

          "And I wonder why the third bomb didn't pack the same punch." JJ stated. "Device malfunction, maybe?" Luke nods, "That would be my guess. Guys like this don't usually dial down the violence, they escalate."

          "Well, if this latest bomb was less powerful, hopefully we have more forensic evidence to sift through." Tara tells.  "What I'm worried about is a pissed off unsub. He botched this one. We can be damn sure the next attack will get the job done and then some." Rossi tells.

          "Unless it was purposefully botched. Maybe that's why Rhonda and Sophia survived. They could be the possible targets." Casey thinks.

          "Kristy's on mandated bed rest, so Matt will stay behind and consult by phone. His military experience with munitions should be helpful, as well as Erik's US marshal experience, of course." Emily assures. "For the rest of us, wheels up in 10."

           With that, everyone else heads to the jet for the case and shortly begin their debrief. "Rhonda Kirkman and her daughter are still in the ICU." Emily starts with informing as Garcia then pops in on the monitors.

          "Friends, packaging received from the latest bomb had US postage, but curiously, no cancellation marks." Garcia informs. "Well, the unsub put them on just to make them look legit." Luke tells. "So it's what we theorized. He's hand delivering the bombs." JJ adds.

         "Risky business exposing yourself like that. Most bombers are cowards who do their dirty work from the shadows." Rossi tells. "You know, there's something else missing that we usually find with this type of killer, a manifesto, some sort of cause they wish to espouse. Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, Timothy McVeigh, bombers tend to be fanatics driven by extreme ideologies." Spencer told.

         "Victimology's also tough on this one. Garcia, still nothing to connect the victims?" Erik asks. "They are homosapiens on the planet earth, but besides that age, race, ethnicity it's one big mash up." Garcia tells.

         "Well, they had one thing in common, the unsub wanted them all dead." Tara stated.

          Emily looks to Casey and nods so she can handle the groupings. "Tara, you, Erik and Luke go take a look at the latest crime scene. Spencer and I'll head to the hospital. Dave, Emily and JJ will set up with local law enforcement once we land." Casey tells and she looks up at Spencer in front of her, who quickly glances away.

           Casey tries her best to hide her smirk and immediately stops when she sees that Rossi just witnessed the small interaction between her and Spencer. Task at hand, task at hand, Casey reminded herself.

Spencer and Casey both arrived at the hospital to chat with Rhonda's mother and father, in the waiting room, waiting for news on their daughter and granddaughter. After they spot them, Spencer decides to greet them.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kirkman, I'm Dr. Reid." The man starts and Casey pulls out her badge to show them who they were. "I'm SSA Casey Willows. We're with the FBI."

"The doctors said you'd be coming." Mr. Kirkman tells and Casey nods at the man, "We're very sorry about what happened to your daughter and grandchild. I can't imagine what you must be going through right now." Mrs. Kirkman nods at the woman, "Thank you."

"We know that this is a difficult time, but—"
The older couple straightens themselves. "No, no, ask your questions. Neither one of us has had much sleep, though." Mr. Kirkman informs. "Flights were all booked so we drove down from Michigan." Mrs. Kirkman nods. "Yeah, straight through the night."

"Do you have any idea who might have done this?" Spencer wonders. Mrs. Kirkman answers, "Not at all. Everybody loves Rhonda. She didn't have an enemy in the world."

Mr. Kirkman has a look on his face and it's only a look that every parent sees. Casey draws attention to it. "Mr. Kirkman?" She asks and the man sighs, knowing his looks were caught as well as his behavior.

"My wife cuts people too much slack. Rhonda's got an ex you need to check out."
"Fred."
"No, these people need to know, Laura. Randall Gilman. Rhonda divorced that SOB last summer, and when she got custody of Sophia, he said he was gonna make her pay."
"That's not what he meant by that."
"No, no, exact words. Make her pay."

Casey and Spencer exchange a look at this interaction. A doctor then walks in the room. "Excuse me, Mr. and Mrs. Kirkman." The two turn their attention the man. "Rhonda's still in surgery, but if you want to see your granddaughter for a few minutes, come with me."

Fred and Laura stand up in their seats and follow the doctor behind. Spencer and Casey decide to follow as well and walk into the room where Sophia is unconscious in the hospital bed, one grandparent on either side of her.

"Please find who did this," Laura practically begs. "Please." Casey nods at the woman, "We will do everything we can." She assured.

Emily checked with Randall Gillman but he had a solid alibi and no motive to kill the other victims. Spencer, JJ and Casey were beginning to work on a geo-profile with Luke.

"So, it looks like this resists traditional geo profiling." JJ points out as Spencer stands in front of the board. "Attack sites are often like spokes emanating from a single hub, but that isn't the case here. It's more random, scattershot. I think the unsub lives in a different part of the country altogether." Spencer explains.

"That might be why he's reluctant to mail his packages. He's out of his element." Luke tells. "Well, that and he's also sadistic. He wants to watch his victims die with his own eyes. But what was it about Rhonda and Sophia that made his plans go awry. It went well the first time, why do a different dose?" Casey questions.

An officer walks in the room with Laura Kirkman behind them. "Agents?" Everyone in the room turns their attention to Laura. "I went to the post office to pick up Rhonda's mail and—"

She hands a card to Luke and he looks it over. "What does it say?" Casey asks. "'Your presence is requested at the funeral of Rhonda Kirkman. Fun and games to follow.'" Luke recites.

She then hands a photo to JJ. "This was enclosed." It was a photo of Rhonda near her car. So they had concluded that this bomber watched his victims and their every moves.

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A little while later, another bomb had exploded, meaning their unsub was accelerating. And another victim died, meaning he'd fixed the hiccup he had with Rhonda and Sophia. Spencer and Emily had also figured out that the connection here wasn't among the victims but among the pool of surviving loved ones.

So, Spencer conducted an experiment where he compiled photos of the loved ones of the victims so Fred and Laura Kirkman can point out where they might know some people from. They picked out three of the victims, saying they'd met on a cruise the month prior in Canada. They had all rented a car together to drive around the countryside. So, the loved ones of all five people that rented that car, all suffered through the bombings — that being the connection.

Tara also discovered that 10 miles north of where they were currently at, a shed was blown up and inside was a male cadaver in a bright yellow dress and wearing red sunglasses. The unsub dressed him up as a surrogate and blew him up in a shed.

Then, they had discovered the unsub dropped off a package to Sophia's room and Luke had caught it in time but then realized this was only a warning. A countdown that was meant to scare them. They also realized that Laura had chatted with the unsub as well, she was unaware that she had until she recognized the box.

Spencer, Casey, Erik and Emily were all currently watching the footage they'd gotten from the hospital. "He came out of Sophia's room. He's got to be our guy." JJ points out. "He was right there." Erik shakes his head.

"Laura already ID'd him as the man who sat and talked with her in the waiting room." Emily told. "She'd never seen him before?" JJ asks. "Nope, not here, not in Canada." Emily shakes her head.

"If the unsub's goal all this time has been to punish and eventually kill Rhonda and her daughter, he just had his best chance to finish the job. Why didn't he take it?" Spencer wonders.

"The same reason he made their initial bomb less lethal. He wants them to survive in order to suffer, to string out the pain. It can serve out as a warning." Casey explains.

"Why only them, not the other victims?" Erik questions. "We're missing something." Spencer adds, thinking the same thing as Erik.

Emily looks at the three. "Well, Dave's about to start his cognitive with Fred Kirkman. Maybe we'll find some answers there."

With that, Emily and Casey go to a separate room where Rossi is having his cognitive interview with Fred. "You rented a car in Montreal and you left right away." Rossi started. "Yeah. Everybody wanted to go see the leaves changing." Fred told.

"Did you stop along the way?" Rossi questioned. "Yeah, lots of times. Everybody had to get out and take pictures." Fred nodded.

"Well, where did you stop for lunch?" Rossi asks. "A little mom and pop type place off by itself." The man nods.

"Now, picture the man your wife talked to at the hospital. Is he there? Could have been an employee or someone else who was having lunch." Rossi tells the man but Fred shakes his head, "No. Uh-uh."

Rossi then changes the subject. "All right, um, after lunch, then what, you drove back to return the car?" Fred nods, "Yes, I was nervous we'd be late getting back to the cruise ship."

Rossi exchanges a look with both of the women as he goes to sit down next to Fred. "Were you feeling anxious about that during lunch?" Rossi questions but Fred shakes his head again, "No."
"Then what happened to make you start worrying?" Rossi asks.

"I don't know," Fred tries to think hard. "Uh Wait, I remember now. This other guy that was with us, we were practically back to Montreal, maybe 10 minutes away, uh, he made us stop and take another picture."

"Other guy, as in Colin Ainsworth?" Rossi asks.
Fred shrugs, "Yeah, I guess that was his name, yeah."
"What did Colin want to take a picture of?"
"It was it was just this house. There was tape around it."

"Tape?"
"Yeah."
"You mean police tape?"
"Yeah."

         "I didn't pay that much attention, but this guy, this Colin, he He said the place was famous." Fred tells and Rossi looks back at Emily and Casey, who usher him to talk outside. "Let's take a little break, Fred." Rossi tells as he walks out of the room to follow Emily and Casey.

        "You're right, they would have gone right past Manner Street." Rossi told. "That has to be it." Emily nods. "I don't understand." The officer on the case questions. "What's Manner Street?"

        "A couple of months ago, Canadian police found eight bodies in the basement of a house on Manner Street. They were all poisoned. The homeowner rented a spare room to pensioners and people on disability, killed them, and kept cashing their government checks." Casey explains and Emily goes to call Garcia about their discovery.

       "What happened to the guy?" The officer asks.

        "When the police zeroed in, he blew himself up in front of his house using a homemade explosive." Rossi added and Emily quickly came back after chatting with Garcia. "Garcia's on it. We need to find out everything about the people connected to that case The killer, victims, friends, and family."

        "Let's see if I can get some more from Fred." Rossi tells as the three then walk in, closing the door behind them and Rossi sits beside Fred to carry on where they left off. "Ok. Let's get back to the house."

        Fred closes his eyes as he recites what happened. "He didn't say anything. All he wanted was his damn picture. He had a regular camera, not one of those those phone things, so he needed one of us to take it." Fred explains. "Laura said she'd do it."

         "Your wife took a picture of Colin?" Rossi asks and Fred nods, "Yeah. Damn near broke her ankle doing it, too." Rossi furrows his brows. "How?"
         "The lawn was all overgrown, and she tripped over a clump of grass."

          Rossi looks at the man very carefully. "Now, this is very important, Mr. Kirkman. I want you think very hard. Was there anybody else there?" The man tries to think hard but he opens his eyes and nods at Rossi. "Wait. Wait, there was somebody, off by himself, on the other side of the yard, standing next to a car. He was staring over towards Laura."

        "Towards Laura or at Laura?" Rossi asks.
        "Not right at her. He was staring down, like where she was walking."
        "Where she tripped? Yes, where she stomped on the— it was a bouquet of flowers."

         Casey then furrows her brows and then decides to ask, "Mr. Kirkman, do you remember your wife was wearing that day?" Fred furrows his brows, "Wearing... um," It hits Fred like a truck. "A yellow dress."

           Like the male cadaver in the shed.

          Rossi, Emily and Casey leave the room to go and chat with Laura. "Rhonda and Sophia were never the ultimate targets. He's after Laura." Rossi stated and they look around to see Laura but she's nowhere to be found.

          "Where's Mrs. Kirkman?" Emily questions and no one can seem to give a straight answer.
          "Well, this isn't good." Casey comments.

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          Laura was nowhere to be found, not at the hospital, not anywhere in the vicinity. And she wasn't answering her cell either. "Mrs. Kirkman was supposed to be in police custody. What the hell happened?" Emily questions as JJ and Erik walk in with answers.

        "Miscommunication during shift change." JJ informs. "Apparently, the unsub posed as a doctor to lure her out, said she needed to sign some forms at the hospital." Erik added.

          Casey's cell rang and she quickly picked it up when she saw that Garcia was calling her. "What is it, Garcia?" Casey asks. "I think I got the who, but I don't have the where. I looked into everybody involved in the Manner Street murders, and nothing interesting has come up until I got to the final victim, Sally Baker. What's interesting about her is she's a total blank. Why is she a blank? Turns out Sally Baker's not her name, but Audrey Mattson."

         "A fake name?" Erik asks. "Why, was she in trouble?" JJ wonders.

        "Eh, more like getting out of trouble. Thirty years ago, she falls in love with this guy, Karl Blair. Karl is a total drunk, he's an abusive stalker. She tries to get away from him, the system fails her, so she has to change her name, go underground, move up to Canada. Karl Blair profiles too old to be our unsub, though. But their 26-year-old son, Shelby does not. According to child services, he did everything he could to try to protect his mom, but unfortunately, he inherited his father's violent nature and he's been in and out of jail. Here is his most current mug shot." Garcia explains as she sends it over.

        "And we don't have Shelby's address?" Emily questions. "No, that's the only thing I haven't been able to figure. He was born in Texas, but he's been a drifter his whole life." Garcia adds and Casey nods, "Okay, thanks, Garcia. You're the best."

         "The mother he adored and tried to protect ended up murdered anyway. He must have brought the flowers to commemorate the spot." Spencer pieced together.

         "Only to find a group of lookie-loos using the tragedy as a backdrop to a photo op, trampled his flowers, and continued on their merry way." JJ told.
          "So he found out who they were and decided to give them a dose of the same pain with their own loved ones. You hurt my family, I hurt yours." Erik figures.

            Casey then decides to take a quick call. "This is Agent Willows. I need to speak with the security detail at the Kirkman crime scene ASAP." Casey furrows her brows and she hangs up the phone when she finds out something.

          "What is it?" Emily asks.
          "They've been trying to contact the officer guarding the crime scene for the past 10 minutes. And he isn't responding." Casey tells.

           "Alright, you guys go. We'll hold the fort here." Erik tells, motioning to him and JJ to stay behind as Emily, Casey and Spencer go to crime scene.

          Before they get ready to exit, Emily stops Casey before they set foot out of the PD. "Are you sure you want to—?" Casey immediately speaks, "Emily, not really the time to negotiate right now. I'm fine. Let's go." With that, the three leave and get their FBI vests on and head to Rhonda's place.

          When they arrive, they find a vehicle and Shelby standing in front of Laura with a camera set up and Laura is  tied to a chair right outside. Emily had taken Shelby's side to corner him as Casey and Spencer came up behind Laura.

         "Shelby Mattson, FBI!" Emily announces, getting Shelby's attention as everyone holds their guns up to the man. "Hands in the air now!" Spencer shouts. "Shelby, put the device down. You don't wanna do this!" Casey tells.

        "You come any closer and I'm gonna release this trigger." Shelby threatens, holding the device that controls the bomb. "I release this, none of us are going anywhere ever again. I swear to God!"

         So, Casey nods her head towards him and decides to call his bluff. "Go ahead." She tells and the man looks at Casey, dumbfounded. "What?"

        "Go ahead," Casey encourages. "Blow us all up, right now. Show us who's really the man." The man looks around and Emily and Spencer are just as shocked as him. Casey watched as the man dropped the thing he was holding and shot at Shelby once he tried to get away, killing him instantly.

        When he's down, Emily announces into her mic, "Need an ambulance now."

         Spencer turns over to Casey almost immediately. "You okay?" He asked. Casey nods, keeping her eyes on Shelby. "Yeah, I'm good." Spencer goes to untie Laura as Emily kicks away his device he had next to him. Casey knew what she had to do so she did it. She often reminded herself that now when things like this happened.

          Casey just watched as they took Shelby's body and put it in a body bag and took a deep breath. Suddenly, she felt a presence next to her and felt somebody grab her hand and squeeze it. She turned and had seen that it was Spencer that had done the action and she knew that he had done this, not only out of love but out of assurance. Assurance that things were okay and that Casey did the right thing.

           So, eventually, Spencer let go of Casey's hand and that's when they decided to go back to the hospital with the rest of the team to check in with the Kirkmans.

           They all watched as Sophia was awake and laughing with her grandparents when Rossi had announced, "Rhonda's also out of surgery. Doctor says they're both gonna be okay." Luke nods, "That's really great news." Erik agrees, "I'm happy at least one family gets to have a happy ending."

          Emily then turned to Casey standing next to her. "So, how did you know Mattson was bluffing?" She questioned. "Yeah, I wondered the same thing." Spencer agreed. "What if the device he was holding had been the actual detonator?"

        "'Fun and games to follow'," Casey quotes. "Shelby Mattson wasn't suicidal, he was on a mission. And if we hadn't shown up, it wasn't gonna end in Rhonda Kirkman's front yard." Casey explained. "Plus, I'm Jason Gideon's niece... of course I was gonna figure it out." She joked as everyone else laughs at her comment.

          "Like uncle, like niece." Rossi added.

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            The flight back to the BAU was a smooth sailing one. The cases that had happy endings usually were like that. When they'd gotten back, the only people that had been in the office had been Spencer and Casey.

Casey found this to be the perfect opportunity to give him his gift that she'd decided to get for him. She went downstairs as Spencer was cleaning up to go home when she approached him, handing him an envelope with a smile on her face. "Here."

Spencer furrows his brows in confusion as he grabs the envelope from Casey. "What's this?" He wonders. "Open it and find out." Casey tells as Spencer decides open the flap and once he sees what's inside of it, he's even more confused as he pulls it out.

"A key?" He questions.
"To the house," Casey clarifies. "You're the one who wanted to take things slow. Figured this would be the best way to start. But, of course, please use it in case of emergency or when Chris finally knows."

Spencer all of a sudden wants to say "screw taking things slow" and he wants to hold her and kiss her right here but he keeps his composure and just settles with staring at her with heart eyes. Of course, he just wants to keep his guard up but it's hard to do when Casey's really trying here.

            Casey can see the guard is up and all she wants to do is just kiss him. But she knows better and she respects Spencer's choice. "Spencer, I meant what I said," she starts. "And I know that's gonna take some time. But I just want you to know that I am here. And I'm not going anywhere this time. Okay?"

          Spencer looks at the key in his hand and then back at Casey. "Okay." With that, Casey smiles at him and calls it a night. She smiles to herself as she walks out of the office and she feels like a giddy schoolgirl as she walks towards the elevator.

hey lovelies :)))
well
their interactions were small
but they're interactions🤷‍♀️

@ spasey:

there will be plenty more to come especially with two originals coming up ahhhhh i'm so excited for these originals🤭

any theories???

anywaysssss
thank you for reading
love you all!!
(may be the last chapter of 2023????)
we'll see hahaha
-mya </333