CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: NOT SO FAST !

14x07

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AS SOON AS THEY GOT THE CALL, THE TEAM HEADED TO DC AFTER AN UNSUB WAS SPOTTED. Casey, Emily, JJ, Matt and Chandler had arrived and the NYPD joined right alongside them.

        "Unit Chief Willows," A man steps up to Casey, since she was the unit chief. "Unit Chief Andrew Mendoza, Washington Field." He introduces himself.

        "SSAs Prentiss, Simmons, Arwen and Jareau." Casey introduces. "I appreciate you guys coming out. We need all hands on deck." Mendoza tells. "All right, Metro P.D. has back up on the way and we've set a perimeter. We got multiple eyewitnesses."

         Casey looks down at the man bleeding out on the concrete. "Is he gonna make it?" The EMT responds with: "Not sure, sir."

        "Mendoza, the eyewitnesses?" Emily asks. "Over here with the chief." Mendoza points and JJ looks over at Casey. "I'm on it." She tells, heading in that direction.

        "What about CCTV footage or security cameras?" Matt asks. "Well, these are gonna be our best bet." Mendoza points around the vicinity. "Matt, Chandler." The two men nod. "On it." Chandler tells as they both head in the same direction JJ is heading.

        "Dammit," Mendoza curses and Emily and Casey see where he is looking and it isn't good. The news always try to get a hit on stories. The media has always been just a bunch of bastards.  "Darcy, news crews."

        "This is the third machete attack reported within the last hour." Emily stated. "Yeah, we're talking about crowded city centers here, broad daylight, men and women. First two victims are in critical condition. And right now I don't know if this is an act of terrorism, a domestic fringe group, or some nutcase on a killing spree." Mendoza explains.

        "The first call came in a few minutes after noon?" Casey asks as her phone buzzes in her pocket and she pulls it out to check it. "Yeah. And every half hour since we've had another attack." Mendoza nods.

       "The first victim, Charles O'Neill just died." Casey informs the two. "Son of a bitch." Mendoza curses once more. "This manhunt just turned into a homicide investigation." Emily stated.

       "Yeah. How do you want to handle it?" Mendoza asks, turning to Casey. "First things first, I'm not the only one in charge here, Agent Prentiss here is my second-in-command. She makes the decisions, too. Second, we need detailed statements from any and all witnesses. And I want them vetted. Any and all personnel going in or out of the scene we need vetted. And pronto." Casey explained to Mendoza.

        "This guy sticks to pattern. We got less than minutes before he strikes again. Let's make it count." Emily finishes as the man nods in response to both women. "Got it."

          Casey starts a timer for thirty minutes on her cell since every kill had been every thirty minutes. As Casey had been getting ahold of the team, amidst the chaos, Mendoza and his own second-in-command, Chief Wagner stood with Emily and Casey.

        "FBI will run point." Emily stated. "And you put district on citywide tactical alert?" Mendoza asks Wagner and she nods, "Yes, I've got officers standing by. What should I say to the media?"

         Casey looks at Wagner. "Our focus is on protecting the public. Release a description of the attacker, but don't release as a motive or intent." Suddenly, Casey gets patched through to Garcia and nods to Emily. "Yes, I'm here."

         Emily and Casey walk away and take the phone call as Casey puts her cell on speaker. "Go ahead, Garcia." Casey tells. Garcia had currently been presenting the case to Spencer, Luke, Tara and Rossi.

        "As you all know, this is the third machete attack in the streets of Washington DC in the last hour." Garcia informs. "We've been asked to form a joint taskforce with the Washington field office. They need a profile. It's our job to get it to them." Emily tells.

       "What do we know so far?" Luke asks. "There are three victims... Charles O'Neill, Kary Karlsson, and Park Ji Sung. First victim, Charles O'Neill, has already died from his injuries. The other two victims are at the hospital in critical condition." Garcia explained.

       "Witnesses described our attacker as an African-American male in his late twenties to early thirties." Casey informs. "It says here he was wearing a white bandana over the lower half of his face. That's curious considering he's taking no other precautions." Tara stated. "Yeah, he's picked crowded city streets and heavily-trafficked thoroughfares. This isn't exactly someone who's afraid of being seen." Luke added. "Maybe it functions as a mask, a costume, a way for our unsub to distance himself from his actions." Spencer speculated.

       "Whatever the reason, I mean, it's all by design. This is somebody who wants to create a spectacle, maybe even send a message." Luke tells.
        "What, you think he's gonna reach out to the media like the D.C. snipers?" Tara asked.
        "Right now he's letting his actions do the talking." Spencer told.

        "Let's talk about the machete. I mean, that's a brutal weapon. You got to get up close. It's messy." Luke stated. "Well, from political uprisings to Jason Voorhees, the iconography is certainly vivid." Spencer told. "Maybe that's his point?" Garcia wonders. "But the anger involved in hacking a victim to death, it feels more personal than ideological." Luke said as Tara responded, "Like this is some kind of vendetta."

       "We have a ticking clock, and three primary questions. What does our unsub want, where is he headed next, and how is he selecting his victims?" Emily rehashes to the team and Casey nods, "To that end, Spence, I need you to work up a geo-profile. Luke, Tara, Pen, you're guys are on victimology. We have to figure out if these are victims of opportunity or if he's targeting them..."

       Mendoza gets both Casey and Emily's attention and Casey finishes up her last thought. "Or if he's targeting them specifically. We gotta go."

      "Found something." The two women begin to walk with Mendoza. "I was going over the 911 calls like you suggested. For this most recent attack, the first call was an anonymous male. He gave an address and a basic description of the attack, and then he hung up."

       "Did they trace the call?" Emily asks.
       "No, it was a burner phone, but that's not what got my attention." Mendoza tells.

       They go towards the police car both Mendoza and Emily getting into the car as Casey stands outside and leans her head in. "What am I looking at?" Emily asks as they focus on the GPS screen.

       "EMS call logs from this morning. Eyewitness accounts put the time of the third attack at 12:58, but the anonymous call came in at 12:57 on the dot." Mendoza tells.
       "A full minute before any other?" Emily asks.
      "That got me thinking. So I looked into previous incidents.The second attack, an anonymous call came in at 12:30. CCTV footage put the incident at 12:31. The first one..."

       Emily looks at the screen and answers this time. "Was at 12:05 according to witnesses, but the first EMs call came in at 12:03." Both Emily and Casey exchange a look as Casey discovers, "He's calling 911 himself."

       "How else do you explain somebody reporting the attacks before they happen?" Mendoza wonders.

        "Twenty-seven minutes." Emily told. "That's the time between calls. It's not roughly thirty every minutes. It's twenty-seven minutes on the dot."

       "And he hasn't deviated yet." Mendoza nods. "It's a signature. Twenty-seven minutes means something to him." Casey told. "And to stick to that schedule so carefully means that the timing of the attacks is as important to him as the victims themselves."

       "Also means that we only have 14 minutes left until the next attack, not 17." Casey realizes what Mendoza has just said and she checks her phone and shakes her head, "Crap."

After that, Spencer had met up with the rest of the team at the stationed tents to do more investigating and Casey and Emily had entered the tent and Spencer spoke to them about the info he found. "From Noma to Trinidad to K Street. In the broadest of terms, our unsub is jumping from wealthy neighborhoods to poor neighborhoods, then back again." Spencer explained.

"So he'd need transportation, something that would blend in regardless of the area, like a service van." Casey stated and Spencer nods, "And given the time it would take to get from one neighborhood to the next, find his victims, plan his escape, etc., it's clear that he knows the city as only a local would."

"So he attacks, abducts, attacks, abducts, and so on." Emily tells, pointing on the map in front of her. "Right now, our best option is to set up a series of roadblocks. At the very least, we can disrupt his movements - and maybe slow him down." Spencer explains.

"Where are we on time?" Casey wonders. "8 minutes, 53 seconds." Spencer answers and Casey groans at the amount of time they have. "Coordinate with Metro PD. Let's see if we can buy ourselves some time and get him in our rat trap." Casey tells.

Spencer leaves the tent as Mendoza comes in. "Willows, Prentiss, we need to start talking about possible motives. I've got officials in my ear worried that this could be some sort of act of terrorism." Mendoza explains. "I need to know if I should be setting off alarms."

"Our unsub is on a spree. He's only killed one victim so far, but the manner in which he did it was selective, personal." Emily tells.
"You said that the violence here has been deliberately sensational, the desire for this unsub to be seen speaks to someone on a mission." Mendoza stated.

Casey nods. "Yes, but there's been no mass casualty event, and the targeted selection of his victims fights against the broader idea of terrorism." Mendoza shakes his head. "They're not mutually exclusive." Emily shakes her own head. "No. But look, he could be cutting his victims' heads off, killing them instantaneously, but he's not. He's leaving them suffering and bleeding on the ground. Yes, he's angry and he's motivated, but if this was political, why call 911?"

Casey figured it out as Emily put it on the table. "He's giving them a chance to survive." She stated.

"Agents, my men have found something." Wagner comes rushing in to announce to the unit chiefs. Wagner, along with a few police officers, walk the three over to a spot on the concrete or a bandana left on the ground. "This matches the suspect's bandana." Casey looks to her right at the parking garage their unsub could be in right now.

"We should clear this garage. He may have a vehicle or be looking to boost one." Mendoza tells.

"You two take the south entrance." Casey orders a few police officers. "Chief Wagner, your half takes the north." Casey, Mendoza and Emily walk to the stair access and pull their guns out to be ready for anything.

The three head up the stairs to the parking garage but nothing prepares them for the gunshot they heard above them. When they first heard it, Casey climbed up the staircase as fast as she could and she found a man with a gun in his hand, standing over a man that fit the description, unconscious on the ground.

"Hands up!" Mendoza orders and the man holds his hands up in the air. "I got him. I shot him, the machete killer." The man tells. "Drop your weapon." Emily orders. "Do it now." Casey orders as well and the man puts his gun down.

Wagner and the other officers come from another direction as Casey goes over to the unconscious man. "We need an ambulance here, now."

An officer begins to arrest the man. "I saw him trying to break into that car. He had on... he has on the green jacket. They said on the news. And the machete. He has the machete."

          Casey checks the man and she already knows that this was the machete killer. She closes her eyes and looks at Mendoza and Emily. "It's not him." She stated sadly.

         "Wait, it's him, isn't it?" The man questions.

         "Dammit!" Mendoza curses.

         "It's him, isn't it? He's the machete killer, right?" The man questions.
         "No, he's not." Casey breaks the news to the man and shakes her head at him. "And what the hell were you thinking?"
         "Get him out of here!" Mendoza tells the officers.

         Casey leans back and she crowds over the innocent man's body and feels as if she's partly to blame for him dying. She wanted to release the description of the killer out to the public. And this wouldn't have happened if she didn't. She shakes her head and knows there's nothing else she could do except to catch this son of a bitch.

          When they've taken care of the scene and took a step back, all of the chiefs had met up again back in the tent to discuss what they should do next. Chandler had joined alongside them after finding out what had happened.

        "An unarmed man was just shot. I'm asking, how do you want me to proceed?" Wagner questions. Casey stands with her arms crossed and quite frankly, she doesn't wanna do anything for the fear of taking another person's life.

        "Be transparent," Mendoza answers. "Explain that the shooter is in police custody and that's it's an evolving situation."

        "The whole city is watching. We get this wrong, there could be a riot. People in the street—" Wagner tells and that's when Casey interrupts her. "Then don't get it wrong. Until this is over, we need DC residents to stay inside, share any and all information they have with the authorities and only the authorities. Not the public. That's it." Casey answers sternly and turns around.

          This was the first time she'd gone through something like this as unit chief. She steps away as Wagner steps outside as Chandler goes to check on Casey.

         "Willows, you alright?" Chandler asks and Casey shrugs, "It's my fault." She answers. "I told the police to release a description of the suspect. I should have waited until we knew more. An innocent man died today because of me. And maybe it's because I'm team leader that I feel this way but God, I wish I didn't."

          "Willows, you had a duty to inform the public, above all else. You are not responsible for this. Don't think that way. There's no way you could've assumed that a kid with a gun was gonna try and play hero." Chandler tells. "It wasn't your fault." Casey looks up at him as Chandler places a hand on her shoulder in comfort and Casey can't help but feel warm under his touch. It felt electrifying. She looked up at him with her ocean eyes meeting his and for a moment, it felt like it was just the two of them.

            The moment was interrupted when Spencer walked into the tent and they had been the first thing they noticed. His jaw nearly dropped and he gulped once he saw the two together. He couldn't be jealous... but he knows that that should've been him standing with Casey and comforting her, not this British brawn. And that British idiot should know not to make moves on his w— ex-wife.

            Chandler removes his hand and Casey looks at Spencer. "What have you got?" She asks, wanting to draw away from what Spencer had just seen so as he doesn't make a scene.

          "Vic-Victim's name is Peter Salah." He hands to file to Emily. "He's heading into surgery right now. He's in critical condition. Peter's twenty-four, single, works down the street as a handyman. He was on a job all morning, headed out to get some piping to finish a work order. The keys to his car were in his pocket."

          Emily puts the file down. "Okay. I want a full search of all the surrounding buildings. Our unsub was here. And we have less than five minutes."

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            Luke, Garcia, Rossi and Tara had concluded that their unsub had been working with a partner and the team had delivered the profile to the acting officers. And after doing so, Emily and Casey walked back into the tent to see if JJ, Spencer, Matt or Chandler had any news.

         "Anything?" Casey asked, holding the tent open for Emily to walk into as well. "No," JJ told. "Garcia's monitoring EMS calls, but they're late." Emily shrugs, "Maybe our roadblocks are working."

          "If our unsubs stick to pattern, they've likely already abducted their next victim. The question is where would they take them?" Spencer wonders. "Well, what would make the biggest splash?" Matt asks.
        "Well, if they continued heading north cycling between rich and poor neighborhoods, they have a couple of options, but Columbia heights has been in the news lately." Spencer explains.

          JJ nodded; "Yeah, I read about that. Residents are upset about some of the efforts to gentrify the neighborhood." Matt agrees, "Yeah. They're trying to turn the area around Height's Park into luxury condos."

        "Well, that would would fit with their mission statement. Maybe that's their endgame." Chandler figured. "We've got units canvassing these two blocks, but nothing here near the park." Spencer added.

        Casey thinks for a minute before saying her sentence. "I'm gonna call Luke." She announces. It had been a few weeks since she had suspended him but this could be his chance to redeem himself here. "I'll have him meet us there with a couple of plainclothes officers." She grabs her cell as she exits the tent.

          "I thought he was suspended?" Chandler asks the rest of the team. JJ, Emily, Matt and Spencer all look at one another. "Casey believes in second chances. That's just the type of person she is." Emily stated. "Yeah, with some people." Spencer commented under his breath.

            After that, JJ, Luke, Casey and Spencer had gone to the area near the park and Luke had found absolutely nothing so far. "They're late, but there's no way they're not showing up, not once they've finally got everyone's attention." Luke stated.

         "Still, what's their endgame?" JJ wondered. "I mean, they aren't trying to get away with this, otherwise they would have taken more precautions."

         "It feels like they're prepared to die, like the Vegas or the Orlando shooters, either in a hail of bullets or suicide by cop." Luke tells. "Well, that's likely true for the dominant, whose sense of agree..." Casey's cell begins to ring and she picks it up once she sees it's Garcia on the other line. 

        "Hey, Pen. Whadaya got?" Casey wonders. "I just intercepted a 911 call. There's been another attack." Garcia informs.

         The four stop in their tracks and JJ asks, "Where?"
        "Right there. Right where you are." Garcia tells and Casey looks around. There's no sign of any crowding or anyone with a machete.

          A woman screams, causing everyone to shoot a look towards a woman across the street, covered in blood. "Help! I need help! Somebody!"

           The four begin to run across, almost getting hit by a car as they make their way over. A couple of officers had heard the call and followed right behind.

          "Are you hurt?" JJ questions. "No, the parking lot. A man. Hurry!" The woman tells as they rush towards the scene. Casey grabs her cell as she runs and dials the medics. "This is SSA Casey Willows. I need an ambulance immediately. We're in a residential parking lot on 16th, 700 block. Hurry." She hangs up as Spencer and JJ begins to help the injured man out.

         "No, no, no, no. Don't move. Don't move, okay?" JJ tells the man and Luke looks up at the woman who got their attention. "Hey, did you see who attacked him?" He asks.

         "It was a man, African American." The woman tells. "Which way did he go?" Luke asks. The woman points, "That way."

          JJ looks at Luke and Casey. "You two, go. We're fine." JJ assures and Casey nods at Luke. "Let's go. Officers, you're with us."

         The four begin to run down the block to chase the man down. After running towards another street, they find that their unsub has gotten away in a vehicle. Before Casey could curse, they had found that their other unsub had gone through another way.

          Casey ran towards the gate with Luke and Luke opens it as they trail through it with guns in hand. They snuck their way through, Luke following behind Casey and Casey found a trail of blood.

           They finally find the unsub, crushing a cell phone with the heel of his boot. "FBI, don't move!" Luke announces. "Put your hands in the air drop the weapon now." The man drops his machete to the ground and Luke goes to put the handcuffs on the man.

          They brought him back to the tents for questioning. Emily had approached both Luke and Casey since they were the ones that brought him in. "Nice work." Emily complimented.

         Luke nods, "Yeah, thanks. We tracked him from the parking lot."
       "They split up?" Emily asks.
       "Yeah, this one ran. The other one drove off. I'm starting to think that wasn't part of the plan." Casey told.

        "We've got uniforms canvassing the area. Upon contact, this suspect surrendered. No fight. He's got no ID. He hasn't said or asked for anything." Luke told.
        "But he gave himself up." Emily said. "Yeah," Casey nods. "We profiled these guys as confrontational and statement-driven. The fact that he surrendered makes me think he must be the submissive in the partnership."

         "How do you want to do this?" Luke asks. "We need to get him talking, see if we can get him to give up his accomplice." Emily stated.

         "I can do it alone." Casey offered.
         "You sure?" Emily asks.
         "I think he'll respond to someone less authoritative than his partner." Casey told.

          With that, Emily and Luke walk away and Casey tells the officer waiting with the man to give them a moment for interrogation. The man, right off the bat, looks like he's got nothing to say to Casey.

        "I'm Casey Willows. I'm with the FBI. You can call me Casey. And your name?" The man doesn't answer. "You have a name, right?" She questions. "If you don't have one, I can settle for calling you 'jackass'."

        Casey takes a breath as she sits down in the seat in front of the man. "What about your partner? Where'd he go? He just took off and left you behind. Left you holding the machete. If that were me, I'd be... pretty pissed." She sees she's not getting anywhere at the moment. "I can help you, you know. There's still time to do the right thing. I know this wasn't your idea. And that this isn't what you really want. You're not alone in this."

        Suddenly, the man begins to count down, looking towards the running clock outside of the room. Casey looks over and gets agitated and stands up to grab the clock outside and smashed in right in front of him.

        "I don't know what you're trying to play here but this is not a game." Casey told.
        "No, it isn't, Casey."

       The woman leans against the table. "What is your name?" She questions. "Tick tock, Casey," he responds. "Tick tock." Casey walks out, needing to take a break from this man's taunt.

 
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          Rossi and Garcia had found a connection with the victims and found out their first victim worked as a bouncer at a bar and outside of that bar, a man named Tom Wells was stabbed. He had two older brothers, James and Marcus and they currently had Marcus in custody. Turns out, they had called 911 when he was stabbed and it took the EMTs twenty-seven minutes to arrive.

           After Casey had questioned him, she'd discovered that when she mentioned Hallridge University, the college Tom went to, Marcus grew defensive from that point on. And that's when they knew that James would be going to that college and taking another life there.

           So, part of the team with a few officers and Mendoza had gone around the school's campus to move the kids indoors and to get them to safety. Mendoza and Casey had gone to one area, leading everyone indoors when suddenly, a girl's scream caught their attention.

         James had grabbed a young girl and held the machete to her neck. Casey approached closer with her gun in hand. "Stay back!" James yelled. Emily asked for a status report but neither Mendoza or Casey answered. They were more focused on getting this girl to safety.

        "Miss, look at me. Look at me. You're gonna be okay." Mendoza assures. "James, you know this is not the way to do this." Casey told. "Let her go."

        James didn't move and that's when Mendoza stepped up. "Listen, man, I want you to take me, all right?" Casey snapped her head towards the man. "Mendoza!"

       He takes his jacket off and ignored Casey. "I'm FBI. A fed. I'm the guy you want. Okay?" He puts his gun on the ground next. Mendoza steps closer to James. "You want people to pay attention, right? Let her go. Come on, brother. Let her go. Take me.

        That's when James shoved the girl aside and grabbed Mendoza offering himself to him. "James!" Casey yelled. "FBI, get out of the way." Emily shouts, coming out of nowhere. "Get out of the way."

          Mendoza tries to get out James' grasp but the machete carves into his skin and he yells in pain. "James, put down the weapon. Now!" Casey shouts.

          Emily steps in now. "We have you surrounded. This is over now." James shakes his head, "No, it ain't. You gonna feel what it's like. You gonna feel what it's like to watch someone you care about bleed to death in front of you."

          Emily and Casey exchange a glance, not knowing what to do. "We waited minutes and no one came. No one. Do you know what that's like? Huh? To be powerless? You think he's got 27 minutes?"

           Casey puts her gun in her holster. "James, what happened to your brother was a tragedy. Mistakes were made. And those people that made those mistakes have to live with them for the rest of their lives." Casey tries approaching more closely but James points his machete at Casey to get her to stay back.

          "No! No. It wasn't a mistake. And it wasn't an accident. The system worked exactly like it was built to. Tom did everything right, and they still let him die in the street." James sobbed.

          Emily nods, "You're right. It's not fair and it's not equal, and that has to change. But we can't control what happens around us or to us. We can only control how we respond." Emily holds her hands up in surrender. "Look, I don't want to shoot you."

          Casey looks over to see that the news crews have arrived. "Do you see those news crews over there? They're here for a story. A story you're gonna give them. A story you'll be able to tell, so that we make sure that what happened to your brother never happens again." Casey assures to the man.

            Both Emily and Casey exchange a glance with Mendoza and with his strength, he elbows him and when James goes to swing his machete at Emily, she blocks his machete and punches him in the face as Casey goes to check on Mendoza.

          Tara and Matt had been watching and had rushed over, Tara holding her gun up to the man and Matt arresting him.

         "I need a medic. We've got a man down." Casey shouts into her mic. Emily joins alongside her. "You're gonna be fine. We've got you. Help is coming." Emily assures.

         "You can't tell from my face how much this hurts, right?" Mendoza cracks a joke. "That was really stupid about what you did, man. But hey, at least you left the saving to the women." Casey joked herself.

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Mendoza was going to make a breakthrough with his injuries and after the case, Casey had offered to go out for drinks but everyone on the team had been busy. Emily wanted to check in with Mendoza, JJ and Matt wanted to go home to their families, Rossi went to go see Krystall, Tara told Casey she'd think about meeting up later, Luke had paperwork to finish up and Spencer had wanted to go home to see his son. That only left Garcia and Chandler, who had both taken Casey's offer.

(That was until Garcia had backed out and made up some excuse so it gave Chandler and Casey some alone time).

So, after that, Casey and Chandler had gone down to Club LIC to get a few drinks. Chandler had pointed up to the TV above as he finished munching on peanuts and Casey drank from her whiskey. Casey and Emily had been on screen, delivering news about catching their unsub.

This had brought Leah and Isaac attention at the bar. "Looks like your DC's newest celeb, sis." Isaac stated. Leah begins to wipe down on the counter. "We gonna have to worry about the paparazzi coming around here? Invading us and us saying 'no comment'?" She teases.

And that's when her siblings notice her latest guest, who've they seen with her a few times now but she'd never introduced them. Casey takes this opportunity to do so now. "Chandler, my brother and sister, Isaac and Leah. Isaac, Leah, this is Chandler, my coworker."

"Is this the hot guy you were telling me about?" Leah whispers not so nonchalantly. "Leah!" Casey scolds as Chandler breaks out in laughter.

"Sorry." Isaac apologizes for his twin's behavior. "Nice to meet you, Chandler. Do carry on." He grabs his sister by the shoulder and pushes her to go and mingle with other people instead of embarrassing their older sister at the bar.

"You think I'm hot?" Chandler teases and Casey scoffed with a blush creeping on her face. "So does Garcia!"

Chandler watches as Casey fiddles with the straw in her drink. Chandler decides to admit his own truth to make Casey feel better. "You know, I do think you're a fairly attractive person too." He tells, taking Casey aback a bit. "What's that nickname that Penelope calls you 'fair maiden'? Gotta say, she's right about that." He tells, looking down now.

"Why, thank you." Casey tells, heart racing now.

She takes a sip from her straw and for a moment or two, Chandler and Casey maintain eye contact and then Chandler speaks again, "I don't know how I haven't noticed this before but... you have the most beautiful blue eyes. They're like... staring into the ocean." He stated.

Casey grows even more red and faces away from him. "Thanks." She tells.

She turns her head and notices her sister, chatting with a few friends and mouthing: "He's cute!" Casey rolls her eyes at her sister and the rest of the night carried with conversation.

Chandler had offered to drive Casey home and they continued their conversation from the bar to the car. They had been driving back to Casey's house as they'd done so. Chandler had parked and the two got out of the car to head to the porch.

"So, you were in the army?" Casey asks, impressed. Chandler nods, "Yeah, back in 2008. Left around 2010 when my mum was ill. Then, got started working towards Interpol and here I am."

The two walk slowly up the stairs to continue their conversation that they didn't want to end. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Casey asks facing towards him and they both stand in front of the door. Chandler shrugs, "I guess I am."

The two stand there for a moment and the two have now gone from looking into each other's eyes to each other's lips and to each other's bodies. Chandler takes this opportunity to lean in and Casey finds herself doing the same.

Until she pulls away and Chandler looks down in sheer embarrassment. "Um..." Casey mumbled. "Sorry." Chandler apologizes as he steps back for misreading the situation but what he doesn't know is that Casey isn't trying to misread the situation.

"No, no, trust me." Casey shakes her head almost immediately. "I want to kiss you. Really, I do. But..." She takes a deep breath. "I just recently got divorced and it's... still fairly new. I just... yeah."

Chandler nods in understanding. "I'm sorry, I completely understand." He can't help but stare at the woman again and then decides that maybe he should leave. "I should go... jump off a bridge or something." He jokes.

"Hey." Casey grabs his hand. His hand was warm. A deep contrast than what she used to deal with. She pulls a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm not ready for a relationship." She admits. And it was true, she wasn't. And after Spencer, she couldn't do that to him. Having him witness some type of relationship between her and another person in the BAU.

"But... I'm willing to take it slow. Because I do like you. It's just... you know, I have a son and it's just... everything's a little... complicated." Casey told, expressing a little interest into Chandler.

Chandler nods, because he is very interested in her as well. In all honesty, this wasn't a part of the plan. But if it meant to have a little fun, who was he to deny his own right? He nods at the woman, "I get it. We can take it slow."

Casey smiles, "Great." The two exchange an awkward goodnight and Casey heads into her house as Chandler begins to get off the porch.

But the more Casey thought about it, it never hurt to have a little fun during all of it. When she opened her front door to stop him, he was still standing there and Casey could see it in his eyes that he had the same idea.

"Oh, what the hell?" With that, their bodies clashed as well as their lips. Her hands roamed from his shoulder to his hair and gave it a quick tug as his hands roamed from her waist to her ass to pull her to him.

Casey practically pounced on him, legs around his waist and she leaned against his lips, kissing him roughly and passionately. She slammed her door as they headed upstairs to Casey's bedroom and well... you should know by now what happened.

hey lovelies!
guess who's fucking sick ahaha😞
i hate it here
buttttt hey
i updated at least

also i know you guys may hate chandler and whatever right now buttttt

if evil why hot? 🤭

also guyssss
we have one more chapter until we reach this big arc i have planned hehehehe

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