CHAPTER FIFTEEN: CLUB LIC !

13x20

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         CASEY WAS WOKEN UP BY HER CELL PHONE BUZZING RIGHT NEXT TO HER ON HER NIGHTSTAND. Lifting her tired head off the pillow, she looked at the caller ID and saw that Leah🩵 was calling her.

Groaning, Casey pressed the 'accept' button and yawned as she spoke hoarsely, "Hello?" Leah sounded way too excited over the phone and had pleaded for Casey to meet her at the address to sent to her over text.

Casey furrowed her brows and pulled her phone away from her ear to check the time. 4:32am. Thanks, Leah. She thought before she went back to talking to her.

"Leah, it's four in the morning. This better be good because Spencer has Chris for the week and I need my beauty sleep." This was true, Spencer was on his sabbatical and had taken Chris for his week. Leah blabbered on and reiterated to Casey to meet her at the address she sent it. Casey groaned and said, "Fine."

With that, she got up from bed and got her clothes on, may as well get an early start. When she headed to her car, the sky was a bright blue, indicating the sun would be up soon. She immediately warmed up in her car and put the address Leah sent her in her GPS.

As soon as Casey had arrived, she had noticed another car pull up next to her and she noticed it was her brother that did so. Casey and Isaac locked eyes and Casey had hopped out of the car and Isaac mimicked her movements, getting out of his own car.

         "She called you too?" Casey asked and Isaac nodded, "Yup. This better be good."

          Both Casey and her brother walk into the building, led in from a long tunnel entrance as they opened the door. When they'd walked towards the light leading them in, Casey realized it was an empty club she'd walked into. High-top tables and chairs in each corner of the room, a sitting area towards the back for VIP. A stage where bands could perform if they wanted. It was a masterpiece. Leah was behind the counter, taking care of essentials but she nearly threw the box she was holding and gasped once she noticed her siblings in the room.

         "Oh, you guys are here!" Leah smiled and got out from the barrier to see her siblings and she motioned around the room. "I finally put in the funds and saved up enough and had a little help from Casey in the long run but... the club is finally here! Tada!"

         "And this was the building I showed you?" Casey asked, as she looked around impressed. "Yeah! Yeah! The owners leased it to me and it's finally mine!" Leah smiled as she jumped around in excitement.

        "Wow," Casey examined the room. It was everything Leah dreamed about and everything she wanted. "Wow. This looks amazing." Isaac nodded, "You finally did it." He went to hug his sister and Leah pulled away almost immediately, heading towards the bar.

         "And I figured, we could celebrate with a little cider, since I know you two have work in a few hours." Leah smiles as she holds up the bottles of cider and both Isaac and Casey take a seat in front of Leah at the bar.

        "How do 24 year olds do it?" Casey wondered to herself. And Isaac furrowed his brows, the way Casey often did. "Do what?" He asked. "Stay up all night? I think it's just a mom thing." Casey playfully swats her brother's arm as Leah motioned towards the bar and faced her siblings.

       "So... what do you guys think?" Leah asked. "I think it's great. I mean, you don't have to keep working at the diner, this place can pay the bills." Isaac stated. "What does Wes think?" He asks, mentioning Leah's long-term boyfriend now.

        Leah nods as she opens up the bottle of cider. "Wes loves this club idea a lot."
        "Of course he does. Clubs equal strippers." Isaac comments and Casey swats his arm again. "Isaac!" She scolds.

        "Well, unlucky for you, twin brother, there will be no strippers. Only cool bands playing every other Friday night." Leah pours cider in everyone's glasses as she continues. "Alcohol filled up to the brim. Everyone will want to come to Club..." Leah stops, trying to figure something out. And then both Casey and Isaac realize that Leah hasn't set up a name for the club yet. "Club..." Leah sighs, "Still trying to figure out a name for the club."

         "Do something cool that's gonna attract people." Isaac tells. "Well, no shit, dummy." Leah tells as Isaac sticks his tongue out in playful annoyance towards his sister.

         Leah then looks towards the oldest sibling in the room. "Also, Casey, since you provided most of the funds, I'd like to ask for you to be my partner in all of this?" Casey's brows raise in shock as Leah asks her. "Partner?" She questions.

          Leah nods, "Yeah, you don't have to do anything much since you already have the BAU and everything but I want the club to feel like yours just as much as it feels like mine." Casey shakes her head towards her sister. "It's not necessary, Leah. This is your club. I'm just providing the funds. But if you need a partner to help short-time when I'm not busy, which... will probably be never... I'm your girl." Casey smirks.

         "Well, then, in that case..." Leah holds her glass up, as do her siblings. "I propose a toast to Club..." She pauses. "Soon to be named!"

           As Casey takes a sip of her cider, her cell buzzes and she sees that it's Garcia calling her. "Hold on. Duty calls. Sorry, guys."

          Surprisingly, it hadn't been Garcia calling about a case, but rather calling about personal time off. It was never like Garcia to do that, so this must've been pretty serious. Garcia had explained to Casey that she was going to be going to San Quentin, attending the parole board hearing for Jesse Wilson, the drunk driver who killed her mother and stepfather twenty years ago. Of Garcia's many stepbrothers, only the youngest, Carlos Garcia, will also be attending the hearing, making a victim impact statement on behalf of the entire family, all who are determined to see Wilson remain behind bars for the entire twenty-five years of his sentence.

          Of course, Casey gave her the time off, seeing that she needed it. After congratulating her sister for her milestone, Casey had decided to go into work early today after getting to her coffee shop for a caffeine IV. She headed into the office around 6:30, which at around this time, the team was called in for a case.

           Emily had arrived shortly after, going to Casey's office and telling her the rest of the team was already there for the case. Since it was local, they had time to be ready. Emily commented that everyone was over at the kitchen area, making all of the coffee run out.

           Emily had looked outside and noticed a member missing. "Where's Reid? On sabbatical?" She asked and Casey nods, "Oh, yeah, he, Chris and his mom decided to take a trip down to Paris. I think it's good for him. He's trying to still maintain a relationship with his mom and Chris." Casey explained.

        "That's good and you're not at all worried?" Emily asked and Casey scoffed, "Are you kidding? My ex took our kid to Paris for a week. The house all to myself, sleeping in. Life's great." Casey looked at this as a good thing, it'd give her a break from A) not needing to see her ex for thirty days and B) time away from being a mom for just a week or two.

         But Emily read Casey like a book. "You're worried, huh?" She asked.

         "Are you kidding?" Casey exhaled, feeling a weight off her shoulders as she admitted, "My ex took our kid to Paris for a week. I've been calling nonstop to make sure everything's okay."

         Of course, when Spencer had asked permission from Casey to take Chris on a trip, Casey told herself that she didn't need to freak out but she'd never been away from Chris before while he was in a different freaking country. It was a mother thing, of course, she'd freak out a little bit.

          "Well, I'm glad Spencer's taking that time off. After this case, you have a month off, right?" Emily asks, reminding Casey of her own sabbatical. "Yup. And I'm gonna be spending most of that time, sleeping in and relaxing. And of course, teaching the seminars you set up for me. Which, thank you, by the way." Casey told Emily and of course, the woman nods. "It's not a problem." Emily had known Casey and Spencer to be ones that didn't like sitting out and doing nothing.

            There's a knock at the door and Casey is surprised to see Garcia standing there. "Hey, I thought you'd be halfway to the airport by now." Casey told as Garcia walks into the office.

           "My chariot awaits. And by chariot, I mean Lyft driver named Chuck. Just letting you know that the tablets and the files are at the ready. I just need you to press play on the bip-bee." Garcia explains and Emily furrows her brows, "The bip-bee?" Garcia nods, "That's what I call the remote, the bip-bee." Casey then counters in, "Hm, I've been on this team for ten years and I have never heard you refer to the remote as 'the bip-bee.' But, thank you."

        Garcia nods and then looks at Casey. "And thank you for giving me the time off. I know it's really busy right now, and, you know, boy wonder off doing his thingamajig." She explains. "Reid's having the time of his life, spending time with his son during a required sabbatical. If anyone besides him deserves time off, it's you." Casey explained.

       "Listen, don't worry about us. We know how important this is to you and your family." Emily tells Garcia and Garcia nods, "Carlos is determined that Jesse Wilson serve out his whole sentence."

       "Carlos is the youngest of your stepbrothers?" Casey asks. "Yeah. He was thirteen when it happened." Garcia answers.

        Emily then looks towards Garcia. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay out there?" She asks. Garcia smiles, "Yeah. I'm staying with Carlos at the house, and then I'll be working remotely with you guys here, my family here."

       "About that, it's not too late." Casey stands. "We can get a temp. If you need to spend some time out there—" Garcia shakes her head, "Pish posh. I'm nothing if not the queen of multi-tasking in the kingdom of taking care of business." Both Casey and Emily nod in agreement, "True."

       "Okay, well, you have a safe flight. You let me know when you land." Casey tells and Garcia nods, "Okay." She sends her goodbyes to Emily and Casey and the two women gather everyone up into the conference room to present the case.

        "The CDC needs our help. Garcia will be taking some personal time, but she will work her magic from the West Coast. Even during her time away, she can't bear to be without us." The rest of the team sit down as Casey pressed the button on the remote. "Last night, Clayton Osborne, 45, of Arlington, Virginia, died after spontaneously bleeding out. He lost nearly 50% of his total blood volume."

       Rossi starts, "This comes just 24 hours after Serena Logan, 35, a loan officer at a bank, also died from massive blood loss."
       "What could cause abnormal bleeding like this?" JJ wonders. "A viral hemorrhagic fever, like Ebola, or perhaps exposure to some type of chemical." Tara explains.

       "Well, if the CDC's calling us, they must suspect bioterrorism." Matt tells. Casey scoffs and comments, "Been there, done that, never wanna do it again." She says referring to the time her and Reid were exposed to anthrax nearly ten years ago.

        "Yeah, they didn't want to speculate, but we can't rule that out." Emily stated. "Well, biological weapons have been called the poor man's atom bomb. I mean, the unsub could have weaponized some sort of virus or bacteria or toxin." Luke explains.

         "Whatever it is, we don't know if these victims inhaled, ingested, or handled it." Tara told. "Besides the obvious, I can see why the CDC is nervous. Last night's victim was a civilian analyst for the defense intelligence agency." Rossi points out.

         Luke nods, "Yeah. The DIA assesses military intelligence information for the joint chiefs, the secretary of defense, and even the White House."

       "Were these two targeted or just random victims?" JJ asked. "All we know is we have two highly unusual deaths in just two days." Emily stated.

       "JJ, Rossi, the CDC is sending a team from its epidemic intelligence service to the Osborne house. Go see what they can tell us. In the meantime, we will be working this case from our own backyard." Casey explained.

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          After solving the case, just a week later, Leah was ready to open up her club. Of course, Casey wanted Leah to feel a little supported there so she invited the team for the club opening. After Leah cut the ribbon, she opened it up and the first customers she had were from the BAU.

         Everyone was preoccupied with their own things, Tara, and Matt playing drinking games with Leah's boyfriend, Wes, Rossi had been talking with Casey's dad and Will over at the jukebox as JJ, Emily, Casey and Isaac sat at the bar with Leah in front of them, pouring them drinks.

         "Club LIC?" JJ wondered, since that was the new name for the club. In big, bold, glowing blue letters outside, 'CLUB LIC' was up for everyone to see.

         "Leah, Isaac, Casey," Leah tells like it's so obvious. "LIC."

        "You couldn't have come up with a better name?" Casey asks. "Would you have preferred ICL? Or CIL? or CLI, 'cuz that one sounds an awful lot like—"
        "Okay! Okay! LIC." Casey tells. Isaac shrugs as he takes a sip from his beer. "That'll attract people."

        JJ looks around the area. "Leah, the club looks absolutely amazing." She compliments. "Thank you for coming. It's a little dead in here right now." Leah notes to the only five customers, sitting around and talking as music played.

        "That's what happens starting with clubs. You get a few faces here and there but then a whole crowd will come in in no time." Casey assures.

         Rossi walks over to the group by the bar. "Will and your dad are having a great time over at the jukebox." He tosses his thumb over and Casey nods, "Sounds like Dad."

          The Willows-Ryleighs siblings cringe as they watch their father dance... like a dad. "If he could just stop doing that god awful dance—" Leah comments as both Casey and Isaac burst into laughter and try to immediately cover it up when Will and James start walking over to them.

         "Where's Spencer tonight?" James asks Casey. "You mean, your favorite ex-son-in-law?" Leah comments and Casey rolls her eyes playfully. "He's busy, Dad. He's got a life of his own that doesn't involve me." James throws his arms up in surrender. "Thought I'd ask."

            Casey's cell phone rings and she checks the caller ID. "Speak of the devil." Leah guesses. "I still don't understand how he does that." Casey tells. "I gotta go take this."

           Casey walks away as she answers her call form Spencer. JJ and Emily raise their eyebrows at one another, reading each other's minds.

          Tara, Matt and Wes head toward the bar where everyone else is. "So, Casey's gonna run this bar too?" Matt asks.

          "She's not gonna run the bar, she's just gonna be my partner in all of this. Half goes to her, too. And maybe most of it is going to Chris's college fund." Leah told. "By the way, where's my girl, Penelope? I thought I'd be seeing her tonight."

            Everyone that knew exchanged a look. When Garcia was in San Quentin, she had told the parole board to let Jesse Wilson go and carry on his days as a free man. Carlos was not happy about this and now he'd completely stopped talking to her. Garcia asked for a few more days off after that and of course, Casey gave that to her.

           "She, uh—" JJ began to answer but she's interrupted. "She's here!" Garcia announces with a bright smile on her face with Luke right behind her. He was her ride to the club.

         "Garcia!" Leah announces as she heads out to give her a giant hug. "Hey!"

         Meanwhile, Casey is finishing up her phone call with Spencer. She was actually talking to Chris now, who was just talking her ear off about this experience in Paris. He didn't remember going when he was younger so it was cool experience he had to remember now. And of course, since he was in school now, Casey also made sure Chris remembered to do his homework. Of course, Spencer already made sure of that.

         "The Eiffel Tower. Yeah, I've seen it, bud. It is beautiful." Casey smiles as she hears her son banter on and on. He finally yawns and that's indicating that he's too tired now. "You be good for you dad, okay? I'll see you home in a few days. I love you." Chris tells his mother he loves her, too and Casey hangs up the phone, reminding herself that everything is okay.

           When she turns around, she's faced with Penelope and Casey smiles at her as she gives her a welcoming hug. "Pen." When Garcia pulls away, she grabs Casey's hands and says: "Thank you for those extra few days off. I owe you a lot."

           Casey shakes her head, "Don't worry about it, Pen. You know you got us." She reminds the woman and Casey looks towards the rest of the team. "Now, I'd like to propose a toast with the glasses of champagne my sister decided to fill for us. Thank you, by the way."

            Everyone grabs a glass from the counter and holds it up. "A toast to my wonderful little sister for making Club LIC possible." Leah opens her mouth to say something but Casey interrupts her before she says anything, "And please don't say anything about me helping out because this is all you." Leah closes her mouth and shakes her head at her sister.

            "To Club LIC." Casey announces and everyone follows with that, "Club LIC!"
            "What's 'LIC'?" Luke mutters over to Matt, who shrugs in response.

GUYS ONE MORE CHAPTER AND WE ARE DONE WITH SEASON 13 and then we're gonna get serious and dark😈

i lowkey don't ever follow the episodes spencer isn't in so this is just kind of a filler with leah opening the club, yk sibling bonds😁

casey, leah and isaac watching their dad dance like:

anywayssss
thank you for reading
i cannot believe we're almost at 10k views😭😭
and this book came out just 20 DAYS AGO???
i love you all
and thank you so much for your support!
-mya </3333