CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: OLD HABITS DIE HARD !

15x01

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IT HAD BEEN MONTHS SINCE THE WHOLE HOSTAGE SITUATION HAPPENED. Things were normal... but painfully awkward. Since then, Casey and Spencer kept their distance with one another.

It pained Casey but it was Spencer's decision that he wanted to forget and move on. It made things worse since she found herself lying to Marco more often. He didn't deserve it.

At the wedding, Kristy had told Matt she was pregnant and they were now expecting their fifth child. The team, minus Rossi, was currently at Luke's apartment, hosting Matt and Kristy's baby shower. Kristy was ready to pop at anytime now.

         As the shower continued, Spencer and Tara were conversing. "You would not believe how long it took me to pick out that baby rocker for them." Tara stated as she grabbed a few appetizers to put on her plate.

         "I wouldn't beat yourself up. You know, it's not easy to choose the appropriate gift in this case." Spencer stated. "Yeah, but I think my inability to choose stems from a recurring dream I've had since I was a kid. I'm at a birthday, and when a person finally opens their gift and sees it, they burst into tears." Tara tells.

        "Well, Freud would say that your dream represents a disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish." Spencer's cell buzzed as Tara points at him and says, "See? That's why that guy was a genius."

         Spencer checks his cell with a certain look on his face that Tara notices. "Everything okay?" Tara asks. "It's about my mom," Spencer stated. "She's in a full-time care facility, and she's really been struggling." Tara shakes her head sadly. "I'm so sorry, Reid."

         "It's okay," Spencer tells. "You know, you prepare for the inevitable, but it's still difficult to accept when things actually change. Makes you wish you could go back in time and make sure you made the right choices."

          As Spencer speaks, he gawks outside to Casey, who's talking with JJ and Emily outside. He's really referring to making right choices with Casey, making him wish he was never in prison in the first place, making him wish he was there to comfort her during her miscarriage, making him wish he knew of the miscarriage. If he could go back in time, he would do things so much differently. Differently to the point where it never affected his marriage. Where they would've still been together. But you know what they say. Everything happens for a reason.

        As Spencer and Tara continued their conversation, JJ, Emily and Casey were chatting outside. "So, Will is outside right now drooling all over your boyfriend's super-cool motorcycle." JJ told. "And so is Marco. He's thinking about getting a new one." Casey chimed in. "And even Erik, who by the way, can't ride one to save his life." She jokes.

        "Ugh! Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It's sexy, yet statistically stupid." Emily told and Casey nods in agreement. "Wait. Isn't that how you got here?" JJ asked.

        Emily immediately shakes her head, "No, no. Hunting serial killers is thrill enough for me. Besides, I had to pick up the cake." Both JJ and Casey nod in understanding. "It's a great cake, by the way." JJ comments.

        "I haven't seen Dave and Krystall yet." JJ points out and Emily and Casey exchange a glance. "It's not like him to be late."

         "No, it's not, although I'm sure he'll have a good excuse." Emily told. But she and Casey both knew what was really going on. Since the last interaction with Everett Lynch, the Chameleon, he was on a solo-man-hunt for the guy. And frankly, it was starting to worry both Emily and Casey.

         "You know, maybe one of us should check in, see how he's doing." Casey tells as she digs into her pocket for her cell. "Do you want me to?" Emily asks and Casey shakes her head, "No, I got it, it's fine."

          Both JJ and Emily walk away as Casey clicks Rossi's contact and tries his cell as she stands on the patio. She gets a response rather quickly. "Hey, Casey. I'm running late. I should be on my way to you guys, ASAP." The way he talks just lets Casey know that he's lying.

        "You know it's not in our jurisdiction." Casey starts and she hears Rossi sigh and give up, "I called. Captain Paige said she'd be more than willing to—"

         "Dave, I have been more than willing to give you a lot of latitude on the Everett Lynch case. I've been very lenient with you on this. But over the past six months, you have taken it upon yourself to conduct a solo manhunt for the guy. It just can't continue." Casey explained.

         "I'm sorry I didn't tell you that—"
         "You want to know what worries me the most?" Casey interrupts. "I think you didn't tell me because you weren't sure how to lie to me."

           Casey takes a breath and speaks calmly again, "Dave, I just want you to make the right decisions. After the year I've had, I don't want to see anyone else go through the same thing. Anyway, now really isn't the time to discuss this. We'll talk about this later."

           With that, Casey hangs up on Rossi and it met with another Rossi approaching her. "Hey," Marco greets and sees Casey's worked up face. "You okay?" Casey shrugs, "Yeah, it's just... Dave. This last case with Everett Lynch has really set him off. I just want him to know he's not alone."

           "He knows that," Marco tells. "You just got to give him time. You know how stubborn my uncle is." Casey sighs, "Yeah, I think he got that from mine." She jokes as Marco pecks Casey's lips.

            Things between Casey and Marco had been normal to say the least. Maybe too normal. Casey wondered if maybe she continued to stay with him, maybe she'd feel more day by day, but days and months just felt... blah now. She liked Marco but he never made her feel the way Spencer made her feel. And now, it was really starting to get to her a lot more recently. Especially since she wasn't really on speaking terms with Spencer.

           After Rossi had come back and everyone had gone to the office to finish up some work, Casey and Emily had found something out that made them both exit their offices and to go to Rossi's to chat.

          "Did you make a formal request for an expanded air and ground search of parks in Baltimore County?" Emily started as soon as she and Casey entered to chat with him

          "Yes, I did, but—"
          Casey interrupts Rossi. "But nothing. That request needed to go through my office and Emily's office. So now's the time we need to talk. And we need to talk now."

         Suddenly, Garcia walks in. "Dave, you were right. They just found another body." Casey and Emily exchange a glance and look to Rossi. Maybe he had some right to make that request.

        After setting everything up, they gathered the team together for this presumed case. "This deceased gentleman is John Doe #2. He was found about an hour ago deep in the woods of the Ellis Pines Regional Park." Garcia started.

       "Might be harder to tell with John Doe #1, but with #2 here, it's pretty clear animals didn't tear off his skin." Luke points out. "There's no question we're dealing with an unsub wrestling with violent sexual impulses. However, neither the staging of the bodies nor the removal of their torsos' skin speaks to the same manifestation of lust violence expressed in Everett Lynch's previous kills." Spencer explains.

       "That manifestation is evolving, and I think it started the moment he thought about cutting off my face." Rossi tells as he approaches the screen.

       "But he didn't or couldn't because he had at least enough control over himself to understand that killing an FBI agent would bring the full weight of law enforcement down on him." Matt points out.
        "Our original profile of Lynch didn't indicate any sexual fluidity, and without that, I don't see how we'd be able to shift his victimology from women to men." Tara explains.

        "Also, why would our guy go from burning his victims trying to make it look like an accident?" Erik asks. "And now he's just leaving them somewhere where they can be obviously found?" Luke questions.

         "Yeah, it doesn't really sound like the same case we were dealing with beforehand with Everett Lynch but right now, I don't want any of us to presume anything about this case. People are dying and we need to put some bastard away for good." Casey explains.

        "Right, as Casey said, no presumptions until we figure out what's really going on. So, Casey, Spence, I'd like you to walk the crime scene at Ellis Pines." The two adults exchange a glance to one another at their pairing but the glance doesn't last very long.

         "Matt, Luke, Baltimore County is sending a new pathologist in. I need you to coordinate with whomever that is. Tara and Dave, focus on victimology. JJ, Garcia, Erik, look into anything at all that can help us. Whoever we're dealing with here is still clearly on the hunt." Emily groups up.

          Spencer and Casey look at one another since they're grouped with one another. Well, this should be interesting.

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          The drive to Ellis Pines Park was awkward to say the least. The only time Spencer and Casey talked was about the case and there wasn't really much to go on with that, anyways.

            They had parked and the two realized they had to go down a hill to meet with Captain Paige regarding the latest crime scene. Casey rarely ever went on hikes enough so her coordination was definitely clumsy to walk down a stupid hill. She muttered to herself about steep the hill was when the hill had had enough and made her step towards a slippery step.

          "Whoa!" Casey exclaimed, making Spencer turn quickly in front of her as he caught her from falling down the hill or on top of him. "Ohh! I got you." Spencer said as he wrapped his arms around Casey and she wrapped her arms around him and they stopped quickly.

          They then realize the predicament they're in and Casey backs away a bit. "Sorry." She tells as she tucks a hair behind her ear. That had been the closest they'd been in a while. Spencer couldn't help but stare as they both steadied themselves up.

         "Agents!" The two look over towards Captain Paige. "The crime scene is right this way." She tells. Both Spencer and Casey exchange a glance as they both start heading towards the crime scene and following the captain.

        "I have to say, there's not a lot of differences between this dump site and the last one we found." Paige told. "They do appear to be similar. Especially with how the skin is cut off." Casey told. "Right?" The captain asks. "Well, don't let me get in your way." She tells as she walks away.

       "Not exactly a place you stumble upon at random. Our unsub's gotta be familiar with a location like this." Casey looks around and Spencer nods in agreement, "Intimately. He feels safe here. There's privacy. He could take his time, potentially come back to revisit the victims."

        Casey notices how Spencer puts a distance between her and himself. Guess he really was serious about giving her her space. "But so far, everything we know about Everett Lynch places him and his various aliases pretty firmly in the Southern United States." Casey explains.

        "Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas obsessively following in the footsteps of his mother, Roberta." Spencer points out. Casey shrugs, "It doesn't mean he hasn't spent any time in the state of Maryland."

        "Just another thing that's distinctly off-pattern, you know, like the way that he disposed of this body. Everett Lynch has never shown a desire to revisit his victims. That's why he burned them and took their faces." Spencer explained

        "But then why take the skins? Why change his MO when he's made cutting the faces off his signature?" Casey wonders. "If we're really thinking that this could be a new unsub, who's compelled to revisit and relive?"

        "That's a good question and one that needs to be answered by building a whole new profile, not by transposing Everett Lynch's." Spencer tells. "Well, from your mouth to Rossi's ears. He's hellbent on this." Casey told.

And Casey was right, Rossi was hellbent on believing that Everett Lynch was capable of these murders. It was the icing on the cake when they discovered their unsub was using the same websites to lure his victims just like Everett Lynch did.

The very next day, another body was discovered in the same general area and both Spencer and Casey went to go check it out. "A ranger spotted him from the road. Now, I mean, if this guy just carried the body a few more feet over there, it would be out of sight." Paige stated.

"As if he'd planned on disposing of the body somewhere else in the park, somewhere similar to his previous dump sites, but then at the last moment, changed his mind and left it here." Spencer explained.

"We stepped up our patrols of all the parklands in the county. Maybe he sees one of us rolling by and decides this place will have to do." Paige told.

Casey turns over to Spencer, as he has that look on his face, it's the look he gets when his gears are turning. "You thinkin' something, Doc?" Casey asks. "You asked me earlier why he would take the skins if he also planned on coming back to visit. I think he wasn't sure which he preferred until now." Spencer told.

"And holding onto those trophies is working for him. So why waste time? What he really needs is to get back out there and hunt for more." Casey told.

"But I thought taking trophies has always been The Chameleon's thing." Paige stated and she then begins to scold herself. "Sorry. I know I'm not supposed to call him that."

"Not so much, but your point is well taken," Spencer said. "This doesn't feel like an unsub who's evolving, more like one who's just gotten a real taste for what he needs and is about to go on a feeding frenzy."

Casey gets a call from Matt, explaining to his unit chief that they found something for their profile. They'd gone back to the BAU to chat. "Okay, our John Doe #3 has been identified as Gregory Broder. He's an architect from Atlanta, Georgia. He was looking for love, in what we now know is really the wrong place, the dating website Date Craze. He wasn't communicating with them through the website directly. Instead, he used cloned accounts on direct messaging apps." Garcia explained.

"But it's odd he'd choose this dating site when he could easily stalk his victims on any social network." Tara stated. "Why would he evolve every aspect of his MO except how he solicits his victims online?" Emily questions.

"He might be holding onto one habit to make sure he gets my attention." Rossi tells and everyone goes quiet once they hear the sentence come out of his mouth. Casey raises her brows in surprise and looks at Rossi. "Your attention?"

"Dave, do you think it's possible that this raw emotion that you have for Lynch could be distorting the lens you're using to interpret the behavior here?" Spencer questions. "No," Rossi immediately defends. "My gut and years of experience tell me that Everett Lynch is behind all of this."

Casey nearly scoffs at the man and this gets Rossi's attention. "Something the matter, Willows?" Rossi questions and Casey shakes her head, "No, not at all." She speaks as she sucks her teeth. "It's just... uh, I said the same thing to myself... right before my sister died. Because I wasn't careful and I made a lot of assumptions and people died." Casey worried that Rossi was turning into her when it came down to the solo manhunts on men who've terrorized them. And Casey was hopelessly praying this situation wouldn't be the same for Rossi.

Seeing the tension was thick in the room, Spencer spoke up again, "I think there are times we all can lose sight of bias and the doctrine of chances. We're presented with an unsub that demonstrates an extreme sexualized violence, so it's inevitable to think that it's got to be Lynch. Now, what are the chances? But that's actually our own bias putting forth a false presumption." He explained.

"Don't you think these profiles are clearly differentiated by the autopsy evidence? I mean, Lynch can't cut like a surgeon. Now, why go to the trouble of using sodium thiopentol?" Matt questions.
"You factor that in with the recklessness at the last dumpsite, and it gets easier to piece together the motivations of a very different unsub than Lynch, someone more like an Edward Gein, a guy who was so uncomfortable in his own skin that he craved to possess a new one, literally." Luke explains.

"And that pathology can manifest itself in somebody with a physical deformity or who suffered a scarring injury, somebody who's obsessively self-conscious about his own physical appearance." Erik adds on to that.

"What if Lynch has taken on a partner, like he did with Grace?" JJ wonders. "No," Rossi was certain. "I don't think so. Grace was an exception. She's his daughter, but he only partnered with her for expediency. He's really a solo act."

"Which would mean we are dealing with two separate and distinct cases here." Spencer told. "I agree," Casey spoke, getting everyone's attention. "So, Dave, I'd like you to keep your focus on the Everett Lynch case. Grace and Roberta will arrive in DC tomorrow. The rest of us, we need to turn our attention to a doctor, most likely a surgeon, who lives and works somewhere in Baltimore County." Casey inevitably decides.

She hates that she's made this decision, but it's the best thing that has to happen. She could talk to and handle Rossi later. Right now, a killer was on the loose, possibly two, and they had to take care of it quick and soon.

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Rossi had discovered the unsub cutting the men's skin off had been Dr. Hurst, the autopsy specialist, who had known Roberta Lynch and her son, Everett. Everett Lynch had learned a lot from Dr. Hurst, so he picked up a lot of tendencies from him and that's why the cases were so similar. Now, they were onto something else.

"Dave, talk to me, what the hell is going on?" Casey questions as she and Spencer are in a vehicle, kevlar vests strapped tightly to their chests as they head to their designated address.

"Look, forget about Dr. Hurst. They've got him in custody. We just need to make sure the US attorney's office is completely locked down." Rossi explains.

"You think Lynch is gonna make an attempt to break Grace out?" JJ questions from the office where her, Emily, Tara and Penelope are currently at.

"Yes. He's disguised as her new lawyer, a guy named Arthur Terrell." Rossi informed. "Matt, Erik and I were just at Terrell's house. We didn't find any connection to Lynch or his daughter." Luke chimed in.

Rossi continues, "Look, I'll explain everything once we're sure that Grace is locked down and Lynch is locked up."

"Even though she's being guarded by US marshals, if Lynch is well-disguised, he'd certainly have the element of surprise on his side." Spencer told. "He would, but he'd still need to shoot his way out of that building." Tara adds.

"He's not gonna give up easily. He's a chameleon. He blends in. One wrong move from someone, he's targeting them in an instant." Erik adds. "If Grace has been in on this from the start, then Lynch has had more than enough time to map an escape route." Matt thinks.

An escape route? Oh boy, here we go.

"Hey, I think it's happening. There's just been reports of "shots fired" at the US attorney's office." Garcia informs everyone. "They're already on lockdown then." Emily tells. "Penelope, we need to scramble HR and have DC Metro police cordon off a 4-block radius around that building." Garcia nods, "On it."

"I'm almost there." Rossi informs.
"Right behind you, Dave." Luke adds.
"So are we," Casey tells and warns, "Hold on." As she steps on the gas.

As they head down there as quick as they can, Emily informs Spencer and Casey to head towards the parking garages to corner them in. It put Grace and Everett Lynch by the First Monument Bank and the DC Trade Plaza.

Finally, Casey parked in front of the parking garages. They both almost immediately get out of the car and look around. Rossi, Matt, Luke and Erik are nowhere to be found.

"All right, we can't wait for backup." Casey decides as she takes her gun out of her holster. "I'll cover this one." Spencer nods, "I'll take the parking garage at Piedmont and 10th." He begins to head in that general direction as Casey holds her gun up, walking through the parking garage.

She cuts through the garage, taking in her surroundings when she sees a man and a young woman head towards a van. She immediately recognizes them, holding her gun up.

"Stop! Everett Lynch, FBI!" Casey yells. The man and woman both stop, facing her. "Drop your weapons and place your hands on your head. Now!"

Everett Lynch holds his hands up in surrender. "Okay! Hey! Take it easy. Gee, lady, there's no reason to gun down a daddy in front of his little girl. Right?" The man puts the gun on the ground.

"All right, kick it over. Kick it over!" The man does as Casey orders and Casey looks at Grace. "All right, Grace, you, too. Come on. Drop your backpack and let me see your hands."

The girl shakes her head, almost scared and Casey looks at the girl, "Grace, I'm not gonna ask you again. Grace!" Suddenly, Grace's moves are quick and she pulls out a gun and Casey almost doesn't even see it.

As soon as Casey's gun fired, Grace's did and suddenly, Casey sees that Grace is still up and standing and that she's the one in pain as she lands on the ground from the blow.

Grace's bullet hit Casey at the side of her stomach through the vest and she lands on the ground, the pain of being shot made her remember well what it felt like.

Casey's vision is blurry but she soon sees Everett Lynch and his daughter getting away. She stares up at the parking garage ceiling as blood pours from her wound and she coughs up blood, nearly praying for a quick death as memories fly by in her brain.

This wasn't how she was going to die?

Was it?

first of all, i just want to say:
MERRY CHRISTMAS ! 💚❤️🎄

second of all,
first chapter of the last act!
woohoo! 😁

third of all,
why tf was the ending of this episode so stupid like jj- girly- why are you reaching for the gun and not paying attention to their every move??? what😕

and fourth of all:

me bc of what's gonna happen in the next chapter hehe🤭
so exciteddddd

anywayssss
thank you for reading
love you all
have a great holiday!
-mya </333