CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: VIGILANTE !

⚠️ trigger warning for kidnapping, torture of electroshock and cutting, may not be suitable for everyone!

━━━━━━

THE COURTHOUSE
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
HOUR 01. JENNIFER JAREAU

"Case Number 5737. The State VS. Cassandra D. Willows. Present the case." The judge speaks then, "First witness up to the stand."

          Jennifer Jareau is the first to step up. She swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They proceed as they begin the case and a lawyer stands in front of the entire jury.

         "Agent Jareau, you currently respond to acting unit chief, Agent Willows, correct?" The lawyer questions and JJ nods, "Along with Consecutive Unit Chief Emily Prentiss, sir."

         The lawyer starts, "You've known Agent Willows nearly her entire life, correct?" JJ nods, "Since she was a teenager."

        "Have you ever known to Agent Willows to be reckless in her position as unit chief?" The lawyer asks and JJ admits, "No, I have not known Agent Willows to be reckless in her position as unit chief... at least until recently."

        "But her as an agent is a different story." The lawyer tells. "Objection, relevance." Casey's lawyer speaks up next. "Are you going somewhere with this, Mr. Duvall?" The judge questions the lawyer. Duvall nods, "Yes, your honor."

         JJ then nods, "Yes, there have been a few times where Agent Willows has been... reckless but there are good reasons for that—"

         "Good reasons?" Duvall questions with a scoff in his voice. "Over the years, Agent Willows has jeopardized her part on this team multiple times. Back in 2008, she had chased a suspect down, shooting at him as an agent in training, who shouldn't have even been in the field. In 2010, she walked into a hostage situation without a Kevlar vest on and just last year, Director Linda Barnes fired her for professional misconduct. The list can go on."

          JJ remains calm. She knows these lawyers are just trying to do their job, like they were but it was hard to bite her tongue at a time like this. So, she spoke carefully.

         "Casey Willows has always had her reasonings for doing the things she's done. Were some of them questionable? Sure. But if we're reiterating back to how she was as an intern versus how she is as unit chief, you've got a long list here but we should be focusing on her current situation rather than her past situations. Your honor." She speaks respectfully.

         "I'll take it."
         "Agent Jareau, you and your BAU team had staged a man hunt on Damion Brambilla, correct?" Duvall questions.

         "After he, Angel Romano and Chandler Arwen had murdered Agent Willows' sister, Lenora Ryleigh, we knew we had to take a step back in order to search for Damion Brambilla." JJ explained the situation.

         "But Agent Willows wasn't going to stop until she had Brambilla in her sights."
         JJ nods, "She had no choice but to."

         So, how the hell did they stumble onto another situation such as this one?

          Let's recap:

━━━━━━

It had been about a month since Casey had gotten Chandler Arwen thrown in prison. She'd taken that time to heal up from her injuries she succumbed to and spent time planning.

Nowadays, she spent most of her time at the shooting range. Kind of like right now. She had hit the target multiple times in the exact same spot. She reloaded and shot again.

She took a deep breath and looked over her scores. Better than last time, she thought.

Back at the office, Emily had been on the search for Casey. She had just gone back to work this week and so far, she was nowhere to be seen. It was often now. "Hey, where's Casey?" Emily asked JJ, Luke, Matt and Spencer all at JJ's office.

"Million dollar question of the day." Luke stated. "She's at the shooting range." Emily then has concern written all over her face. "That's the third time this week since she's been back."

         "It's only been a month since what happened with Chandler and well... she's not resting until Damion's gone, right?" Matt wondered and JJ nodded sadly, "Yeah."

        "How's Chris been?" Emily nudged her head to Spencer. Spencer looks at the woman and sighs, "Casey's taken him out of school for the time being. Doesn't want him leaving her sight."

        "Is he with her?" Emily asks. "No, me." Spencer stated. "It took a lot of convincing for that to happen, too." It really did. Since what happened, Spencer had assumed that maybe his son maybe felt smothered from his own mother and maybe time and peace to himself. "He's in Garcia's office."

With that, Emily told Luke to head over to Garcia's office with her and sure enough, Garcia was on her laptop as Chris was drawing pictures with crayons in the chair next to her.

Garcia noticed as Emily and Luke walked in. "Hey." She greeted. Chris smiled at the two that walked in and Emily had returned the smile to the little boy. "Hey. Uh, Luke, why don't you take Chris to the vending machine?"

Luke shrugs and he nods at Chris. "Come on, kid." With that, Chris hops out of the chair and joins Luke to go to the nearest vending machine. All the while, Emily closes the door behind them and it's just her and Garcia in the room.

Emily walks over to Garcia and knows what she's about to ask and hopes Garcia can go along with it. "What's up?" Garcia decides to ask and Emily takes a deep breath before continuing. "I need you to do something for me."

As Garcia and Emily talk, Luke and Chris found the vending machine down the hall and Luke had paid for two cans of pop and a bag of mini-muffins and Ruffles chips for Chris.

Luke fished out the cans from the vending machine and the two had walked over towards a nearby seating area. "I heard you haven't been going to school." Luke started the convo with Chris as they walked over and sat down.

Christopher shrugged, "Only because Mom took me out of it. I don't know when I'm going back. I wanna go back soon though. I miss my friends."

Luke understood what Chris was going through but the boy also had to understand why his mom was keeping him out of school — even though it seemed a little extreme but Luke knew that if he were to say that, Casey would ballistic on him. "You know your mom is just—"

"Trying to protect me, I know." Chris sighs. "Dad keeps telling me that. And I guess it's cool I don't have to go to school everyday. Plus, I have a badass scar that the chicks are gonna dig." He nods and Luke furrowed his brows at the little boy's comment about his scar. "What? My mom says that word all the time."

Luke chuckles at the boy. "I'll let that one slide." He looks at the boy's head. "But you are right. Your scar is kinda badass. Makes you look tough."

Chris shrugs as he pops a chip in his mouth. "It's what I was going for." He chuckles with Luke.

All of a sudden, Casey is walking into the office from the elevator and Chris speaks up as he sees his mother. "Hey, Mom!" Casey snaps her head up and sees Chris with Luke and walks over to them with furrowed brows. "Hey, kiddo. Aren't you supposed to be with your dad?" She wondered.

"I was with Auntie Penelope in her lair and Uncle Luke decided to stop by the vending machine with me." Chris told as he walks over and looks up at his mom. Casey looks up at Luke for confirmation and he nods at her.

With that, Casey sighs, "Okay." Casey ruffles her son's head and sadly notices the gash in his forehead once more. "But afterwards, you go back to Auntie Pen's lair, okay?" Christopher nods and Casey leans down and kisses her son's nose.

Casey then heads to the bullpen and Chris watches as she walks away. "My mom's gonna be okay, right?" Chris asks and Luke stands with Chris and honestly doesn't know how to answer the kid. "I sure hope so, kid."

Meanwhile, Emily and Garcia were having a discussion of their own. "You want me to keep a tracker on Casey's phone and car?" Garcia questioned and Emily nodded, "I just want to be sure that she's not gonna do anything reckless. Right now, since her month break, she hasn't done anything too crazy, but you never know when it's gonna happen. No one needs to know except for us."

Garcia nodded, it would make sense why Emily needed to have a tracker on Casey's cell and car. She remembered when Emily had gone off on a mission to get Ian Doyle and it ended with her faking her death. Garcia could not bare to have that happen with Casey.

Suddenly, something pops up on Garcia's computer and she mutters, "Oh, God." Emily looks over her shoulder and questions: "What's that?"

"Uh, Casey had me look into a lot of Damion Brambilla's credit cards in case he was spotted. He just used his card to check into a motel." Garcia explained. "He could be setting this up. There has to be something bigger at play here." Emily explained.

"Should we gather the team?" Garcia asks and Emily nods, "Yeah, I'll take care of that."

Garcia sighs as Emily leaves the office and she hopes that this will end whatever's going on and they can stop Damion Brambilla once and for all.

THE COURTHOUSE
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
HOUR 02. PENELOPE GARCIA

"After settling in on Damion Brambilla's sights, what was the next action taken, Agent Garcia?" Duvall started in with his questions for Garcia.

"Then, I set up the board and we talked to the team about what we found." Garcia answered, nearly shaken from being interrogated. "All without the presence of your unit chief?" Duvall questioned.

"Well, Agent Prentiss was there, I also relay info to her as well." Penelope told, truthfully. "Should Casey— I mean, Agent Willows have been there? Sure. But it was best decided by Agent Prentiss that she not be present."

"And then Agent Willows sought out that info and went after him? Not very unit chief like. It's the reason you're all here today." Duvall told.

Penelope looked gobsmacked at the man in front of her. "Wait, is this what we're talking about here? Whether or not she's 'unit chief-y' enough to be the unit chief? This has nothing to do with that. With all due respect, sir, but if you were in Casey's— I mean, Agent Willows' shoes, you'd do everything for your loved ones. And that's just what Case— Agent Willows, was doing."

━━━━━━

Emily knew it was gonna be tough to lead everyone into the roundtable room without Casey noticing. She was in her office, doing her own rounds while Emily gathered everyone up through the other side of the entrance.

Should she have kept this from Casey? Absolutely not. But she knew that if Casey knew what she knew, she would've taken matters into her own hands.

So, when everyone gathered up and Emily closed all of the doors and blinds, Matt looked around and asked. "Is there a reason we're meeting without Casey?"

Emily nodded towards Garcia, "Yes. Damion Brambilla has been spotted. Garcia found that he spent a card pay on a nearby motel by the name of Ted Homen."

But little did Emily know, her trying to hide this from Casey did nothing. Because the woman ended up hearing the entire conversation and group chat outside of the door. She didn't even mean to but when she realized her team wasn't anywhere to be found, she automatically drew suspicion towards the conference room.

She'd heard the discussion about Damion Brambilla and how the motel setup seemed too easy and that he would've chosen this to throw off their tracks. Where would he have gone to make sure he couldn't have been found? Then it hit Casey. His grandfather's mansion. But Rossi before had said that that was too easy, too. But if he was doing his scheming there, the motel was just to cover his tracks. She was right all along.

But the team hadn't known about the mansion. She could go in there and tell the team right now all about it. But this was her fight. And though, she was known for doing the most stupid shit, this had to have been the stupidest by far.

So, she headed to her office and thought over her plan. And she finally knew what she was gonna do.

            Starting with leaving behind her gun and badge. This was her fight. She couldn't have her team get more involved in this than they already were. Besides, Damion Brambilla sought vengeance for her and only her.

           Casey grabbed her other things and took one last look at the conference room before heading towards the entrance of the bullpen and leaving. She thought about saying a goodbye to Chris before doing that, but she knew it was gonna be harder to leave if she did.

            Casey went towards the elevator and went home to gather all of the things she needed for this mission. She changed into something more comfortable and suitable for this and went into the safe she had in her closet. Her extra gun, grenades, AR-15 rifle with extra bullets were all locked in the safe and for the first time, she was pulling them out. She vowed to only pull these out if necessary and for a vigilante like her at the moment, it was necessary.

            Gathering everything up and lucky enough she'd taken one of the FBI issued SUVs, packed everything up in the car and got into the driver's seat, ready to go.

             She sat there for a minute or so, contemplating this every decision she was making at the moment. Was Damion Brambilla really worth all of this trouble? Angel Romano was dead and Chandler Arwen was locked up? Is it supposed to end like this? With a battle between herself and Damion Brambilla?

              Casey had had enough of the crap of Damion Brambilla. He'd crossed all of the lines. He was the reason things were what they were. He'd taken so much from her. And she was done with it. So, if no one else was gonna do anything about it, she was gonna take matters into her own hands.

              Casey opened up the compartment of the mirror and something fell out of it. She looked to see what it was and it was photo of herself and her son. He was the reason why Casey made all of the decisions. To not only benefit herself but to benefit him, as well. Christopher was the only thing she knew she was living for at the moment. And he was almost taken away from her. Again. And that wasn't gonna happen again.

             So, she grabbed the photo and put it into her pocket so she had something to remind her why she was doing what she was doing.

            Casey had put the keys in the ignition and started to drive and where she was going was gonna be far. But it was a matter of time, Damion Brambilla was gonna be taken down. And Casey Willows was the one to do it.

             After the gathering, Spencer had been looking for Casey and he couldn't find her anywhere. All he wanted to ask was who was going to be taking Chris home tonight. So, he had gone to Emily's office where JJ and Emily were currently in at the moment.

           "Hey, have you guys seen Casey anywhere?" Spencer wondered and JJ answered, shaking her head. "Nope." Emily nudged her head towards Spencer. "What's up?"

          "I was just wondering if maybe she was taking Chris home tonight or if I was. And I can't find her anywhere." Spencer told. "Let me call her." Emily offered and Spencer shook his head, "I've tried. I'm just getting voicemail from her."

         "She in her office?" Emily wondered. "No, it was the first place I looked." Spencer stated.

          Emily stood up from her desk. "Don't panic. I'm sure she's around here somewhere." She told.

           Everyone had wondered where Casey could've gone since she was here just about an hour ago, last they checked. After about thirty minutes, everyone gathered up again.

           "So, I checked up front. Casey clocked out two hours ago. Records show she was checked out at around 6:17." Erik explained. "Two hours?" Emily repeated in disbelief. "I thought she was in her office this entire time." JJ stated. "So did I."

          "I'm gonna try her cell again." JJ stated as she stepped away with her cell phone. "How come she didn't tell anyone where she was going?" Luke wondered. "Maybe we're reading into this too much," Tara stated. "Casey probably went home. I mean, after all she's been through. I'd go home early."

         "Yeah, but she'd tell us. I know she would." Emily stated. "Tara's got a point, though. We're probably freaking out about nothing." Rossi told. "There's just... something wrong about this." Emily told, she felt it all in her gut.

          "Uh, guys?" Matt spoke from upstairs in her office. He had been in there, deciding to see if maybe Casey left anything behind, Emily's orders. "You might wanna see this."

         When everyone gathered in her office, Matt held up her badge and gun. "Her badge and gun?" JJ asked. Everyone knew what this meant.
        "Why would she leave her—?" Garcia wondered and then she paused, coming to the realization that Emily did the exact same thing when she left. "Oh, no."

After that, of course, everyone was sent into a panic. Garcia had been sitting at the roundtable, looking for that tracker and Casey's whereabouts. Everyone had gathered around the roundtable.

"Spence, it's gonna be fine. We're pulling out every stop to try and find Casey." JJ assured the man, who paced. He developed that little quirk from his ex-wife.

"Okay! I've got the ping on her phone right now." Garcia told, hoping for good news. "Ping?" Matt asked. "I had Garcia track her phone and car down in case something like this happened." Emily stated.

Suddenly, Spencer's cell phone rang and he picked it up and revealed, "It's her— It's her!" He announces. He answered it and immediately put the call on speaker. "Casey?"

Casey was currently driving down the highway road and she knew she needed to call her team and assure to them that she was okay. What she had to do.

"Is the team there?" Casey starts and Spencer looks around, like he's double-checking and nodded, "Yeah, yeah, we're here."

With that, Casey spoke. "I need you guys to stop looking. I know where he is but I need to do this myself."
"Casey—" JJ tries.
"He only wants me. I'm not gonna sit around and wait until he comes to find me and hurt me some more."

"Casey—" Erik tries this time.
"I have to do this. So let me do this. I have to go. Tell Chris I love him. And that I'm sorry."

"Casey, don't do that." Spencer tells the woman and with that, Casey speaks: "I'm sorry." Tears are streaming down her face as she hangs up and throws her phone out of the window.

Back at the BAU, Spencer takes the phone off speaker and holds it to his ear. "Hello?" He shakes his head as he places his phone on the table. "Damn it."

"She stopped." Garcia points out. The red dot moving before has stopped moving. "Or she threw her phone out the window." Luke pointed out.

"Why would she do that?" Garcia questioned in utter disbelief. "So that we don't find her." Rossi told.

"Casey, what did you do?" Garcia muttered.

THE COURTHOUSE
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
HOUR 03. EMILY PRENTISS

"And that's when Agent Willows decided to go by herself on this suicide mission?" Duvall questioned Emily on the stand.

"Chancellor, with all due respect, Agent Willows had a lot of emotions piling up after the loss of her sister. She believed she was doing something she thought was logical." Emily defended.

"And do you agree with her actions?" The man asked and Emily takes a breath before speaking again. "I've been where she's been. I can't be hypocritical and tell her what she was doing was wrong. Because I've done the same thing. And she lost me in the process. But I didn't want to lose her like that. Not the way she lost me."

"And back in 2011, you... faked your death?" Duvall asked. "Objection, relevance." Casey's lawyer speaks again. Duvall shakes his head. "Withdrawn." He faces the agent at the stand again. "What happened after that, Agent Prentiss?"

Emily continued, "We believed Agent Willows had confiscated anyway of contacting us. We tracked her cell phone by a gas station down the road."

━━━━━━

Luke, Rossi, JJ and Emily had gone down the gas station where Casey's cell was found as Garcia, Tara and Spencer were on the phone call on Emily's cell. "Casey's phone was found here. Must've thrown it out after talking to us." Luke stated.

"Casey didn't take her car. She took an FBI issued SUV." Rossi followed. "She must've known you were gonna try and track her car and phone down." Luke nods to Emily.

"Why doesn't she want anyone to find her?" Garcia questioned in frustration. "She doesn't want us getting involved," Emily said. "When I went after Ian Doyle by myself, I had to act like I had nothing to lose. She has to act the same way."

"So, she's going after Damion Brambilla. No protection, no backup. What is this, a suicide mission?" Tara wondered.
"It's exactly that. That's why she spoke like that, like she had nothing to lose." Spencer stated.
"Why would she do that?" JJ asks.

"I don't know, but we need to find her before she does something reckless." Emily told, hanging up on Tara, Spencer and Garcia.

"Too late for that." Rossi comments.

Meanwhile, Casey was an hour down the road and had finally reached where she needed to be at. She parked down the street from the abandoned building. It looked tattered at the edges. It lost its' baby blue color from from before. It was an inch away from being condemned. Holding on and closing in on itself.

Casey reloaded her gun and placed it into her sock and grabbed her rifle, loading the extra bullets into it. Her blade was located into her other sock and she knew she was ready to go.

Entering in from the large backyard, she looked around at the dirt patches. Most of them were bigger than others — body shaped dirt patches. Casey should've known he took after his father soon after she killed him. Either this was the work of Damion or Angel. Her bet was both.

Casey held her gun up as she quietly and carefully entered the house through the creaking already open back door. The windows were all still blown out and the house reeked of mold growing on mold.

Every time she turned a corner, she held her rifle pointed ahead before stepping forward. She looked around. It looked vacant but there was evidence of old prescription bottles in the corner and burnt cigarette butts, some old, some new. Yeah, they were here.

Casey had heard a car pull up before she could check upstairs. So, she decided to hide towards the kitchen, standing with her rifle in hand to hear him enter. Surprisingly, he had someone with him. A skinnier guy.

"That should throw them off our tracks. We got time to plan." Damion spoke. It had been a while before she heard him speak. "Back's killing me, man."

"Take another pill." The man told. "Nah, I've already used up like five pills in one day. Gotta lay off that shit." Damion stated. "Besides, I gotta stay up just in case. She's hunting for me, gotta be ready for it."

There's a pause. "Clint, you think you can go get me a beer?" The man replies, "Sure." Casey hears footsteps approaching her and so she steadies her gun and as soon as she sees someone, she fires the rifle.

All of a sudden, Clint is screaming in pain on the floor and holding his arm with his now bloodied hand. "What the hell?!" Casey had ducked behind the wall, just in case Damion was ready to come after her next.

"Clint?!" Damion yelled. "You good, man?!"
"Stupid bitch is here! She shot me!" Clint yelled back.
"Yeah, I know!"

Suddenly, there's a brief silence and soon as Casey peeks her shoulder over the wall, shots are fired towards her but luckily she dodged them and she begins to shoot back. Damion had been firing with a gun of his own and this had begun to turn into a brawl of gunfire.

As Damion tried shooting towards her, Clint was stumbling towards his friend to shield him. Casey pulls something out of her pocket and clicks it open. She got a flash-bang grenade and threw it their way.

"Move!" Damion yelled and all of a sudden, the room erupted in smoke. Casey moved positions and darted in towards the smoke. She only found Clint and placed her boot on his chest. "Where's Damion?" She questioned.

            Casey then heard a clink sound and turned, only to be met with a gunshot to her bulletproof vest. She hit her head on something hard and her vision blurred. She could only make out Damion's figure standing above her before everything went black.

             When Casey came to, she was somewhere she didn't recognize and she was tied up. Her hands were strapped down to the chair arms with belts, as were her legs. She looked around and she blinked a few times. It looked like she was maybe in a basement of some sorts.

            In front of her, Damion sat in front of her, leaning back in his chair with a beer in his hand. "Look who's awake." He spoke and to Casey, it sounded distorted almost. Then, it went back to normal when he spoke again. "You miss me?"

         Casey looked around and blinked away from the bright light that was burning her eyes. How hard did she hit her head? "Where—?"
       "—Are we?" Damion finished for Casey. "You should recognize this place. I brought you here all the time, remember?"

         Walking down the stairs, an angry looking Clint glared at Casey as he stood next to Damion. He had his arm wrapped with what looked to be tablecloth and it wasn't helping him at all since his arm seemed to be bleeding through it.

        "You good, Clint?" Damion asked. "Yeah, I'm alright." Clint answered.

        Damion looks at Casey. "Time for you to explain. Why were you following me? I mean, you just kinda made my job a little easier, you were next on my list anyways." He pauses. "How's your little sis doing?"

         Casey begins to struggle through the binds to set herself off on Damion but of course, it was no use. "Wow." Damion chuckled evilly. "You really don't leave well enough alone, now do ya?"

       "What do you want from me?" Casey questioned. "I think you know what I want." Damion told. He looks at the woman, leaning to her level. "Where is he?"

        There's a long pause. "Who?" Casey asked. She knew exactly what he wanted. Antonio. But unlucky for him, he wasn't going to get answers. 

        "Don't play dumb with me. Antonio. Where is he?" Damion questioned.

          Casey made a vow that day she got Antonio into protective custody. She was never ever gonna give that information. Over my dead body, she'd say. Damion was going to get nowhere.

         "If you want an answer, you're just gonna have to kill me." Casey stated. Damion huffed in frustration and sucked his teeth as he stood up. "Then, you give me no choice." He turns to Clint, whispers something to him and Clint holds up some sort of stick.

          Damion holds up the stick. "I'll get an answer out of you. Eventually I will. For now..." He clicks it on and Casey knows what it is. A electro stick.

          Damion holds it towards Casey and Casey feels the shock through her body as he continues. If this was his form of torture, Casey had to fight through it. She knew that she could do it. She's been through worse before. Especially with this man. She prayed it'd be over though and soon. And that her team was on their way.

         As that was going on, Emily was currently in her office, making every call she could, trying to get more reinforcements down here as much as they could. Suddenly, Rossi walked into her office as soon as she got off the phone after a hasty argument.

          Emily looks up at Rossi. "What's up?" She asks. "I think I know how we can find Casey and Damion." Rossi told.

           "I'm listening." Emily tells. "Have we ever thought that the Ken doll might know something?" Rossi asks and Emily furrows her brows and then figures out who Rossi's talking about. "Chandler?" Rossi nods and Emily asks, "Do you think he does?"

"He might." Rossi shrugs. "This was just a big ploy to him. He was doing a job Damion ordered him to. He may know something."

With that, Emily grabs the phone on her desk so she can make some calls. "Alright, I'll have him be entered into our interrogation rooms. He hasn't been sent back to London for his arrest yet. Something about delays."

Before Rossi can walk out, Emily stops him. "Also, Rossi..." Rossi pauses and Emily continues, "Bring Reid with you."

THE COURTHOUSE
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
HOUR 05. DAVID ROSSI

"So what happened when you and Agent Reid went to go interview ex-agent Chandler Arwen?" Duvall questions Rossi on the stand. The man doesn't bother answering him right away.

David Rossi was always the type to be unbothered by situations like this one. And it wasn't that he was unbothered by them, he just thought these types of things were always pointless.

       "I believe I asked a question, Agent Rossi." Duvall told and Rossi looks up. "And I already know my answer, sir." He straightens himself.

        "Dr. Reid and I went in to go interrogate Chandler Arwen to see if he had any idea where Agent Willows could've gone to find Damion Brambilla."

       "And how did that go?"

       Rossi thinks back at the previous events of him and Spencer interrogating Chandler. "It didn't turn out so well." He answers simply.

━━━━━━

         Rossi had told Spencer numerous times to not let anything Chandler said it did affect him in any way and that Rossi should do most of the talking.

         Before they entered the room to chat with Chandler, Spencer left behind all of those worries for Casey outside of that room. This man was not going to read him like a book. And he wasn't gonna let him.

          So, as soon as they were ready, Spencer swung the door open and as soon as both Spencer and Rossi entered the room and closed the door behind them, Chandler chuckled. "Well, this is gonna be interesting."

        "Agent Rossi, Agent Reid, how pleasant it is to see you again." The man said and there's a slight pause as they stand in front of Chandler, leaning back in his chair comfortably. "How's Casey?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Rossi told, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Chandler read their body language quickly. "She sent herself on a suicide mission." Rossi stated."Know where she's headed?"

Chandler shrugged, "Don't know. We moved around a lot of spots, Damion and I. Especially after you shot down Angel and Thomas."

"We can chat about your pity party later. Right now, our unit chief is missing and you may know where she's headed." Rossi stated.

"Yeah, but she's not only your unit chief. You lot care about her. She's practically like a daughter to you and this one..." He looks towards Spencer, who has a scowl on his face and walks in a circle, rolling his sleeves up. "I don't even know where to begin. You know, she's definitely still in love with you, right?"

"She denies it but the bitch—" Suddenly, Spencer had slammed Chandler into the table, face first and Chandler yelled, "Ow! My nose!" He turns his head to the side as Spencer grabs his arm and holds it behind his back.

"How about you stop wasting our time and just tell us where she's heading?" Spencer questions.
"Ow!"
"Or you can just sit here in pain while Reid here twists your arm some more. Literally." Rossi has no problem with that.

As Spencer begins to twist harder, Chandler finds himself defeated. "Okay! Okay! I'll tell you."

Spencer lets go of him and Chandler takes a breath, holding his broken nose. "Damion's family, they had a lot of land somewhere. About an hour down the road. On Fisherman's Ranch. That's one of the lands. That's all I know."

With that, Rossi and Spencer glanced at each other and they had what they needed.

THE COURTHOUSE
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
HOUR 09. SPENCER REID

"So, you and Agent Rossi had gotten information out of ex-agent Arwen by force?" Duvall questioned. Spencer was leaned back in his seat, completely unfazed by everything.

Despite his healing bruises and cuts on his face and black eye. It would probably explain why he was wearing sunglasses inside. "Sounds about right." He answered.

There's a long pause and Duvall is confused about Spencer's nonchalantness. "By force, Agent Reid." He reminds and Spencer nods, "Mhm."

"You broke Chandler Arwen's nose, sir." Duvall repeats and Spencer nodded, "And I'd do it again if it meant going to find Agent Willows."

"She knowingly went to go find this man and I ran the probability of her survival and I knew it wasn't good so I went to Chandler Arwen and I knew he wasn't going to give me any answers so I went a different route."

"Alright, Agent Reid." The lawyer said, hearing enough.
"Doctor." Spencer corrects.
The lawyer turns back at Spencer. "Excuse me?"
"You called me Agent Reid? It's Doctor."

━━━━━━

         Meanwhile, Damion had been trying to get answers out of Casey. And the man wasn't getting anywhere except for shocking her. He had finished a long shock and when he was done, Casey looked up at him.

        "Is that all you got?" Casey pushed and Damion scoffed. "You are just too damn stubborn. Always have been. I see that quality hasn't changed. Years ago, you would've given me the answer in a second flat."

          Casey shook her head weakly. "No I wouldn't have." Damion kneels down. "But you did last time. Am I right? You were willing to blow your whole cover if it meant just spending a little more time with me, right?"

          "Well you wanna know something?" Damion looks her in the eyes. "I wish you didn't. Every damn day. I wish you never blew your cover because it would've meant that we would have worked. I wish you would've stopped me from following in his footsteps."

           Casey wished things could be different. But if they weren't, she would've never had the life she had now. A life in the FBI, as unit chief, as a mother. "You know, I wanted to. I just..."

          "You had a job to do." Damion finished. "And you cared about it more than being with me." That much was true. At the time, Casey cared about her job and only her job. She never saw kids or marriage in her future. Something she could've had with Damion but chose not to. She was scared of the future.

          "That's not true." Casey denied. "It's not?" Damion questioned. "You kill my dad, take my little brother away and that's not true?"

           "There's not a day where I wish things wouldn't be different." Casey admits. She thought about it sometimes, having that life with Damion. With a few kids, at a house with a wrap-around porch, being happy. But that was a fantasy. This was real life and Damion had no trouble reminding himself about that.

          "But they're not different, are they?" Damion reminded Casey and so, he stood up and pushed the stick towards Casey again and shocked her once more.

           He stopped when Clint came running down the stairs. "Damion!" He said and the man turns to him. "Just listened to the police scanner. We got some company at the Fisherman's Ranch. Her team."

            Damion turns to Casey. "I thought you said you were doing this by yourself. No one was following you."
            "No one was. I'm doing this by myself."

            "That son of a bitch, Arwen." Damion cursed. "We gotta get down there. Serve them as a warning. You'll be lucky we don't shoot any of your precious teammates." Clint threatens Casey, who struggles against her binds. "Wait. No. Please! Wait!" She worries.

             But it's too late they've already left and the team is making their way to the Fisherman's Ranch, which is about twenty minutes from where they are now.

             Luke, Tara, Rossi, Erik, JJ, Emily and Reid had all arrived with police officers and FBI vests clad on their chests. "Luke, Tara, we'll take the front. Rossi, Erik, you guys take the back. JJ, Reid, you take the shed." Emily ordered and everyone headed their separate ways.

              JJ and Spencer took the shed and when they arrived, they found it creaked open. They entered inside but found nothing so far. Spencer looks outside and furrows his brows as he goes to the entrance of the shed.

           "I'm gonna try over outside. You scope out the rest of the shed." Spencer told as he heads outside. "Spence, wait!" JJ called but Spencer already made his way outside. Things never went good when they split up.

THE COURTHOUSE
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
HOUR 09. SPENCER REID
CONTINUED.

             "And you decided to split up?" Duvall questioned. "I'm sorry, but an agent within reason such as yours, shouldn't have even been on the field. You were searching for your ex-wife, the mother of your child, you're gonna say you had a clear head?"

            "I did." Spencer argued.
            "Clearly, you didn't," The lawyer argued back. "So what else happened after that?"

            "If Agent Willows was allowed to go and find me after I was abducted by Benjamin Merva, there wasn't anything saying I couldn't do the same thing. We weren't changing the rules. This was our unit chief we were talking about." Spencer told.

           "But she's not only the unit chief to you, right?" Of course, he would've used their marriage against one another. "This has nothing to do with it and you know it." Spencer told.

━━━━━━

              Spencer had gone through the corn field and felt a sudden sense of deja vu. The scarecrow was enough to send shivers down his spine but he had to put a brave face on if it meant that he could find Casey. He held his gun up, along with a flashlight to find his way through the fields.

              He looked down at the ground and found that something shiny caught his eye. Spencer knelt down as he put his flashlight towards the ground and picked up what he found. He examined it and blew the dirt off of it and he furrowed his brows once he saw what it was he was holding.

             An angel with horns and wings.
             One of the pins.

             All of a sudden, Spencer felt something whack him upside the head and his knees hit the ground and he grabs his head at the throbbing pain. He drops his flashlight and gun and he squints up to see two figures standing above him.

             Since it was dark, he couldn't get a good look at them and nor could he because as soon as he tried to look up, he was hit over the head again and everything blacked out.

             Damion and Clint worked to drag Spencer to the vehicle they had parked among the woods so no one would see it. And tossed him into the truck and thankful enough he was unconscious. They had fired some shots and threw flash-bang grenades that Casey had in her SUV to throw them off to serve as a warning.

"Everyone here?" Emily questioned as she rushed back to the entrance with Luke, Tara, Erik and Rossi. "JJ?" Emily called and the woman had rushed back. "It was clear at the shed." She said.

"Where's Spence?" Emily asks. JJ furrowed her brows. "I thought he came back. He's not with you?" Everyone shook their heads no.

All of a sudden, some yelling is heard and a car is rushing by fast. "Help!" The team could recognize that voice anywhere. "Spence! Spencer!" JJ called and everyone began to run towards the car.

It didn't last very long because Clint began to shoot out the window and everyone had dodge his bullets. Everyone began to shoot at the car but had gotten nowhere with it. JJ squinted as the car became smaller and tried getting the license plate number. "D3M02–" Those were all she had gotten. "Damn it!"

Not only had Casey had now been in Damion's clutches, Spencer had been too and the team had just wondered what the hell went wrong.

━━━━━━

           When Spencer came to, he didn't even register the bag over his head. He brought his right hand up, attached with his left hand, duct-taped together and pulled the bag off, taking a breath after taking in his own surroundings.

            He had been laying on some sort of thin blanket and he was still in his dress shirt and slacks. The only thing that had been off of him had been the FBI vest.

             Spencer looked around and on the other side of the room, he had seen Casey, unconscious, hands duct taped together, ankle attached to a chain. "Casey." Spencer almost says in a register, like he's trying to make sure she's real.

            "Casey." He says a little louder this time and he tries to crawl over to her and tries to ignore the pounding in his head but before he can reach over to her, he realizes his ankle is chained up as well. "Casey!" He calls, finally and Casey stirs awake.

              Casey shuts her eyes tightly and opens them to adjust to the light. When she sees who is in front of her, she thinks she's dreaming. "Spencer?" She asks, almost as if she's trying to make sure he's real. "Spencer." She crawls over to him as much as she can. "Oh my God."

They collide with each other and first thing Casey does is try to hold his hands. "Are you okay?" It's the first question out of Spencer's mouth. "How did you get here?" Casey questioned.

"I got caught," Spencer stated. "Are you okay?" He asks again and Casey doesn't even know how to answer that. "I guess." She answers.

Spencer stands up and goes towards the walls. He's read up on fake passages through walls and doors before. "Where are we?" He asks. "His grandfather's abandoned mansion. Surprised it's still kicking." Casey said.

As Spencer tries to figure out some subtle way out of here, they hear the basement door open. "Stop. Stop." Casey tells and Spencer stands tall as Damion and Clint make their way down the steps.

Damion spots Spencer and speaks, "Well... look who's awake." He points to Spencer as he looks at Casey. "One of your friends?" He stops himself. "No, no, wait, let me give you one better. Ex-husband? Yeah. Read up on a marriage announcement along with a baby announcement. The ex thing explains why you guys don't live together." Damion explains.

He looks at Casey. "You certainly got busy." Damion approaches Spencer and punches him in the gut, knocking him to the ground. "You see, Spencer here... he got in the way. Decided to split up with your colleague, JJ, was it? And he didn't even see what was coming. Kinda his fault for snooping." He kicks Spencer in the stomach twice after that.

Clint chuckles as he sees Spencer getting kicked like a dog. "Poor Christopher," Damion comments. "Both of his parents kidnapped and left for dead."

"If you lay a hand on him, I will—" Spencer threatens, but this gets another blow from Damion to the face this time. "Jeez. I wish I didn't have to do that, but man, you got a mouth. Get that from her?"

Casey steadies herself on his knees. "Damion," She tries but speaks weakly. "Just let him go."

"You know, I think I should show him a little thing called respect." Damion grabs the back of Spencer's hair as he speaks and unlocks his chains. "And it can go both ways. So, Spencer, I should go and show you—"

As Damion begins to drag Spencer towards the stairs, Casey finds strength and begins to yell. "No, no! Stop! Let him go!" She struggles against the duck tape and even tries to pull off her chain as much as she can. "Please! Don't! Please! No! No! No!" She begs. "I will give you whatever you just please don't hurt him! Please."

Damion stops in his tracks as he sees that look in Casey's eyes. "You're begging?" He questions. "I'm the one you want, not him." Casey told truthfully.

"Well, since you pleaded so nicely." Damion drops Spencer and looks at Clint to lock him back up and he does so. "Guess today's your lucky day, Spencer."

With that, Damion unlocks Casey's chain and grabs her by her hair and hauls her upstairs. "Ow!" She screams.
"Casey! Casey!" Spencer tries as he struggles against his binds and the chain. "No! Just take me! Take me! Please!" He begs as he hears Casey scream. Clint holds a gun to him, trying to stop his yells and he knows he'd be no use to Casey if he was dead so he shut up.

Damion pulls the electro stick out and zaps Casey, trying to get more answers out of her. All Spencer can hear is her screams and feels helpless as he listens.

Why didn't he just stay with Jennifer? Why did he have to be curious and look? But in all seriousness, he felt better knowing where Casey was. The question was how the hell was he gonna get himself and Casey out?

━━━━━━

The team had to refrain from telling Chris about both of his parents going missing. But the boy figured it out himself. He knew something was wrong when his dad didn't come back from their little field trip.

Now, the team was all hands on deck, wanting to find the bastard that took their team members. Since they had had the first five numbers and letters in that license plate JJ read off, they figured it was gonna be easy to find that vehicle in no time.

When they had been debriefing over that, Emily had gotten a call on her cell and answered it immediately when seeing that it was Cruz calling and he informed her to come down to the bullpen immediately.

             So, Emily, Rossi and JJ went to go check it out and they were met with Cruz at the doors and Detective Reagan, to their surprise, the glass doors standing in between Cruz and Reagan. "Cruz? What's going on?" Emily wondered as soon as she saw Reagan.

           "Detective Reagan showed up. Needs to talk to a higher up of the BAU team that isn't me." Cruz told. "This can't wait?" Emily questioned. Cruz shook his head. "He's insisting."

           With that, the agents stepped out of the bullpen to speak to Detective Reagan. "Detective, all due respect, we have two agents missing. We don't have time for threats or shenanigans."

          "You can consider one of the shenanigans being your unit chief, Agent Prentiss." Reagan told. "Agent Willows has inserted herself into the investigation, as well as you have."

           "We haven't inserted ourselves into anything, we're trying to find our unit chief." JJ stated.
           Emily speaks up next. "When we find our agents and we will, we can discuss matters later. Right now, you need to let us do our job."

           Reagan looks at the three agents and scoffs. This wasn't what he came here for. "I'm calling a hearing. Soon as this is all over." He tells as he heads to the elevator.

         "And we'll be ready for it." Rossi comments as the elevator closes behind Reagan. "A trial can wait. Right now, we need to find Casey and Reid." Emily said, getting JJ and Rossi's focus back on finding their team members and friends.

━━━━━━

           Another day passed. Casey knew that much from the dark. Deciding to tie them up to chairs, with the backs of the chairs facing each other, Damion and Clint knew that if they fell asleep, Casey and Spencer would most likely plot to get them out of the pickle they're in.

          Casey had spent the hours trying to sleep the agony off, resting her head down when Spencer spoke up. "Casey. Casey." He tried quietly and that stirred Casey a bit. "I've-I've got a plan. I can distract him. You run and go get help."

          Casey wasn't able to look at Spencer but if she were, she knew that there would be determination written all over it. "He wants me," Casey told. "Just... me. You've got to get out of here. And when you do, you get help. Send an entire army here."

        "No, no, I'm not leaving you." Spencer immediately disagreed with that plan. There was no way he was gonna leave Casey, especially with all that they've been through already in the day.

"It's better if you do. He'll hurt you." Casey told. "Like how he's hurting you?" Spencer questions. "I can take it." Casey told. "You think I can't?" Spencer questions the girl. Casey shakes her head as she feels the tears streaming down her face and she lets out a sob of hopelessness.

      Spencer hears the woman crying and tries, "Casey." Casey shakes her head, "We're never gonna get out of here." Spencer hates hearing her talk like that. "Hey, hey, don't talk like that." He tries.

        "We're stuck here." Casey says, reaching her breaking point. "We're not stuck here," Spencer tells. "We just have to figure something out. We always do."

        Spencer paused, trying to think of something that wouldn't make Casey cry, something to get her mind off of the situation. Something that will help Casey, even if it's for a second and he finally thinks of something.

        "Do you remember our honeymoon at the Bahamas?" Spencer starts. "The beach, the waves." Casey sniffles as she listens to where Spencer may be going with this. "Do you remember when I woke you up around 5am just to watch the sun rise on the beach?"

        Casey thinks back to that early morning. It was the most peace she'd felt ever. "It was so peaceful and calm. And we grabbed our blankets and just sat on the sand? You cried just because of how beautiful it was." Spencer retold the story and Casey thought about it, the happiness she felt on that beach, with the man that she loved.

       "And then I started laughing because the seagull almost flew straight into that nest you call your hair." Casey spoke and Spencer speaks, "That was traumatizing."

         Spencer finally hears something he didn't think was possible in a situation like this one. Casey laughs. She chuckles at remembering the story. And Spencer feels accomplished enough to know that he got Casey to laugh at the memory.

        "We had a lot of good times together, didn't we?" Spencer said and Casey nodded, "A lot of good, lot of bad. We still got through it." Spencer agreed, "Yeah."

         As they spoke, Casey hadn't even noticed that her hand had reached for Spencer's behind her. But Spencer noticed. And it comforted him to know that they were together in this moment in time and it hurt to know that Damion was outside of that door, ruining the moment in his mind, living rent free.

          That next morning, the two had been attached to the chains again, either of them being on the other side of the room. Spencer had stood up and finally took notice of the barred up window. He went to it and the latch to open it had been broken. If he smashed it, it would immediately get their attention, too so he knew that wasn't much of an option. Plus with the bars in front of it, he'd get nowhere.

         Spencer then noticed the windowpane. Changes in temperature cause glass to expand and contract, and when this is done at different severities across the glass with the edges and centres changing in opposite directions, the pane is put under stress which can cause it to break. So, if he pulled at the windowpane, by peeling it off, he could get somewhere with it.

        "Spencer?" Casey looked towards the window, pulling herself up off the floor. "Spencer? What are you doing?" He was so focus on this windowpane.

       "I'm thinking that if I chip away at the panel, I can get us access out. Or at least to call for help." So, Spencer did that and when he finished peeling it, he carefully lifted the glass up and pushed through it as it landed on the grass in front of it.

         Casey stood up, seeing as Spencer may have gotten them a way out. "Do you see anything?" She asked. "A patch of grass, trees." Spencer told.

         Suddenly, the two heard the creaking of footsteps upstairs and went back to their original spots. Spencer hoped and prayed that maybe they wouldn't notice the window or breeze coming in.

         Then, the door opened and Casey sat in her spot as Damion and Clint had come downstairs. "Morning." Damion greeted.

         Clint had tossed a water bottle in Spencer's direction and before Clint could give Casey one, Damion stopped him and stood in front of Casey. He kneeled down, pulling Casey's blade out of his boot. He'd taken it from her when he trapped her down here.

        He flashed the blade out in the open, as if he was taunting Casey with it. "You still aren't gonna tell me, right?" He asked. Casey knew where this was going and she knew in her heart what she had to answer with, "No."

        That's when Damion sliced at the Casey's left arm and she screamed at the pain lingering. "Stop!" Spencer yelled as he fought against the chain trapping him.

      "Where is he?" Damion questioned as Casey grabbed her arm. "I'm not gonna tell you!" Damion cut her again at the same arm and she screamed once more.

       "Stop it! Stop! Stop it!" Spencer yelled as he fought against Clint's holding him back. "Stay down!" Clint tells.

       "Tell me!" Damion grunts at Casey.
       "No!" Casey yelled and he cut at her arm again.

        Suddenly, with his strength, Spencer shoved Clint down and grabbed Damion by the neck holding him and trying to snap his neck but Clint had grabbed the blade off the ground and stabbed Spencer in the back with it and he yelled in pain as he let go of Damion and that's when Damion kicked him in the gut and continued to kick him like a dog.

         With that, Clint and Damion had gone upstairs after the mishap, slamming the door behind them and Spencer had immediately gone to rush to Casey's aid.

Hours or so had passed and Damion and Clint hadn't bothered to come in the basement since the last mishap. It definitely had gotten darker.

         Spencer had taken his dress shirt off and practically wrapped the whole thing around Casey's bleeding arm. He didn't care if he was shirtless or not as long as he could tend to Casey's wounds. It hurt Casey though, seeing those bruises on his stomach from being kicked.

          He had reached far enough to Casey's side and rested his back along the brick wall as Casey rested her head on Spencer's lap. Spencer occasionally tucked Casey's hair behind her ear and they sat in that silence for a while.

          They had been sharing that water bottle and they only had a little bit left. They used most of the water for Casey's cuts.

         They sat in that deafening silence for a while. Honestly, Casey could slept like this. As long as she felt safe with Spencer around. She could.

       "We're never gonna get out of here, are we?" Casey wonders aloud. Spencer hates the fact that she could be right. The chances were a million in one. "They're gonna find us," he decides to say. "They will." He knew their team, he knew they had to have been on their way.

       "Spence?" Casey asks.
       "Yeah?" Spencer asked.
       "Can you give me some... stupid fact about... dirt or something?" She always did need his voice to help calm her down.

        Spencer thought about what he could say. He didn't want to just live off of some random fact about nature. He had to give her something to hold onto. So, he went with: "You know, in about 127 days, 17 hours and 14 minutes and about eight seconds, it's Christopher's sixth birthday."

        Casey smiles to herself. It's a small smile but it's enough for Spencer. "He's almost six. That's so crazy to me."
       "I know, me too." Spencer tells. "And we're gonna live to see him grow and blow out his candles, okay?"

       Casey feels her voice growing hoarse again as she speaks. "I'm trying so hard to believe that." She admits.
      "Then, believe it." Spencer follows with.

       Suddenly, Casey lifts her arm up and almost begins to unwrap the shirt to looked at the cuts on her arm. "Don't." Spencer told, attempting to wrap her arm back up. Casey listens to Spencer and she puts her arm down.

        The silence becomes them again and soon enough, Casey can feel herself beginning to try to sleep again. But the door opens and they hear the creaking of footsteps approaching them.

They don't even bother to move from their positions. At least, Spencer doesn't and Casey sits up from her spot. When Damion sees them, he pulls out something from his pocket and he reveals a gun, aiming towards Casey, which makes Spencer immediately switch his position in front of Casey. He'd rather get shot than Casey right now.

"Casey, get up." Damion says, still holding the gun up. "No." Spencer tells. "Shut up, man. This doesn't concern you." Damion tells. "Now get up or your little baby daddy here dies and your son's next."

Slowly, Casey assures to Spencer that it's okay and he moves out of the way as Clint unlocks her from the chains and Damion pulls her towards the stairs and up the stairs. Clint stays with Spencer to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

Damion drags Casey outside and takes her far into the woodsy part of the neighborhood. He takes her pretty far and Casey wonders if that was the last time she was ever gonna see Spencer again.

He holds a flashlight towards Casey and she realizes where she's at. He tosses a shovel her way.

Damion holds the gun up to her chest. "Dig." He tells.

"What?" Casey asks.

"Are you deaf? Dig. Now." Damion tells as he cocks the gun.

Slowly but surely, Casey grabbed the shovel and began to dig. It took a few scrambles for her realize that the reason she was digging was because she was digging her own grave and she turned to see a big wooden block, human body shaped. She was digging her own grave. He was gonna bury her alive.

When she had dug deep enough, trying to pass time and stall him by digging even further than six feet, Damion recognized what she was doing and grabbed the shovel out of her hands and tossed it aside and grabbed her to follow him towards the wooden block.

He opens it and Damion nudges his head at Casey to the wooden block. "Get in there."
"What?" Casey can't believe what's happening. "Get in it!" Damion yells and he drops the gun and flashlight as Casey begins to fight against him.

"No! No! Help!" Casey screams. "Shut up!" Damion threatens.

Suddenly, they hear something in the woods and shouts, along with dog barks and waving of flashlights. "Damion Brambilla, FBI!"

Seeing as they had gotten Damion's attention, Casey grabbed the gun off the grass and held it up with her uninjured arm and she spoke, "Damion."

When he turned, Casey blinked as she shot him right between the eyes. He landed on the ground with a thud and so did she and the flashlights came closer to Casey and she heard the familiar dulcet tones of her teammates and she made of their figures in the dark.

When they arrived, Casey waved her arms up and dropped the gun. "It's me! It's me! It's Casey!" She tells.

"Casey." She notices as Rossi and Emily put their guns in their holsters. "Where's Spencer?" Matt asks and Casey looks at him. "In the basement. He's locked up. Damion had the keys. His buddy, Clint is with him right now." Luke fishes the keys out of Damion's pocket as he, Matt, Erik and JJ head towards the house with a few officers behind them.

Emily looks at Casey carefully. "Are you okay?" Casey nods before turning to shake her head and she lets out sobs as she grabs onto Emily and just cries into her arms.

When Luke, Matt, Erik and JJ had arrived at the abandoned house and down the basement steps. They had found that Clint was suffocated with the chains used to chain up Casey and Spencer. Spencer looked at the group and they immediately knew that he had to do what he had to do.

So, they brought him up the stairs and out of the abandoned house where Casey and Emily were walking to already and when both Spencer and Casey saw each other, Casey immediately went to hold him a hug and Spencer wrapped his long arms around her waist.

They had just been through hell. And they were suddenly to safety. They were okay. They were gonna be alright. They were gonna live to see another day.

And then eventually a trial room.

THE COURTHOUSE
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
HOUR 10. CASSANDRA WILLOWS

"And it was over. Just like that." Casey sat in that courtroom, showing the bruises she endured during her time of being held captive for three days.

There was pained sadness written on her face. After everything she went through, she shielded herself from feeling it all at once. It was what she was best at, dissociating from it.

When she spoke, the courtroom wasn't as angry and bashful towards everyone they've spoken to today. Everyone was debriefed and argued that Casey had been through so much in the span of three days. They were more remorseful for Casey and felt for her. Anyone could feel pity for the victim in a situation like this one.

But Casey wasn't a victim, she was a damn survivor.

"Miss Willows. Do you remember what happened after that?" Duvall wondered. His sarcastic tone had gone away and was replaced with a more serious tone.

Casey shook her head. "Not much," she said. "I was taken to the hospital... and that was it."

"Agent Willows, if you by chance missed the shot and didn't kill Damion Brambilla, what would've occurred?" Duvall wondered.

Casey looks at the man. "I don't have to think about that." She admitted. "If I didn't kill him, he would've been still after me and I would've still been looking over my shoulder. I would've kept shooting until he was dead."

After the jury had concluded their meeting, the trial resumed and the judge spoke. "Will the defendant rise?" Casey stood up with her lawyer, waiting for anything. She was ready for any punishment they were going to hand her.

The judge takes off his glasses. "It's come to my attention that the defendant, Cassandra D. Willows was fighting back Damion Brambilla in self-defense. What has the jury concluded?"

"We find the defendant... not guilty."

"That settles it," The judge tells. "Agent Casey Willows, you are to take a two month break from active duties. As for you, Detective Reagan, you've wasted my time. Court adjourned." With that, he bangs his gavel and Casey feels the sweetest relief imaginable.

After that, the team headed back to the BAU office in the roundtable room and when everyone else had gotten there, Casey didn't even need to say anything. She thanked everyone in silence for sticking by her side throughout all of this. It was all over.

Everyone was to take a two-month break from duties. And when they were to return, they would be rejuvenated and good as new. Casey wanted a refreshed team when she got back. And after all they've done for her, they deserved it.

So, Casey grabbed her son's hand and they headed through the elevator. Anderson would be driving them home tonight. And by then, Casey knew... maybe things would be alright.

lemme just tell you that it was so hard making damion such an evil guy when i casted james lafferty as him like bro

WHY AM I ALWAYS CASTING HOT VILLAINS😭

anywaysssss i'm aware of how super long this is
butttt we're getting a bit of a shorter one next chapter hehehe
letting you know now it's a spasey centric chapter hehe🤭

y'all because i just said that:

butttt we're almost done with originals AHHH

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