CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: SOONER OR LATER, THE TRUTH COMES OUT !

14x15

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THE TEAM NEVER HAD DAYS LIKE THIS IN THE OFFICE TOGETHER, PLAYING POKER GAMES AND HAVING FUN. Everyone met up in the conference room, ready for some games.

The only person that hadn't been there was Rossi, but he was busy preparing for his upcoming wedding with Krystall. Casey'd given him a few days off to prepare for the wedding since it was going to be in a few days here.

Luke and Spencer had gotten back from the shooting range and Luke walked in with news. "You guys, you should have seen Reid. He shot a 100." Everyone is shocked to hear the news.

          "I'm sorry, I must be confused. This Reid... Spencer Reid... who's never passed his gun qualifications test... shot an 100?" Casey questioned. Luke nods, "Yeah, he qualified to shoot a possible." Spencer stands behind him, proudly of himself as Luke talks about him.

          "That's a perfect score. What, like 200 agents have made the wall of glory?" Matt asks as Casey takes a seat. "He hit everything. I mean, at one point I thought he must have two guns." Luke tells as he sits at the round table. "Maybe I did." Spencer shrugs as he takes a seat as well.

          Garcia walks in with a bowl full of candy. "Ok, I think this will work." JJ speaks up. "Wow, where have you been hiding those?" Erik chimes in, "Her unicorn mug probably barfed them up." He comments as Garcia smiles like a child.

          Things had been well for Erik and his family. It had been a few weeks since what happened with Mandy and Emma and they had still stayed over at his place for the time being until they were comfortable enough to move back to their apartment. Erik seriously didn't mind.

          Tara looks over at Luke. "So, Alvez, what did you shoot?" She asks and he answers with, "95."
          "Ooh, I shot a 97." Casey smiles. "Guess that means I'm better than you." She teases Luke as he playfully rolls his eyes at the woman. "What about you, Tara?"

           Tara scoffs as she chuckles, "Hundred, come on." Luke begins to shake his head, "No. No way. Okay. I mean, you're good, but you are not that good."
          "That's not what your daddy said last night." Tara jokes as Casey 'ooh's loudly. "Wow, Alvez. You need some ice for that burn?" She questions.

           "Someone have too much coffee this morning?" Erik questions to Casey, noting to her commentary today. "No, I just get like this when it comes to poker. And when it does come to it, the chief in me," Casey snaps her fingers. "Evaporates. Which means, the bossy filter and guard is down."

          "Makes me wish Hotch was like that when it came to us." Emily jokes. "Yeah, me too." Casey adds.

         Garcia smiles, "I am loving this time right now, but two days without a case, it feels weird." She stated. "It feels like we could be doing some of this waiting at home." Luke tells. "Yeah, yeah, Rossi stepped out." Tara points out.

        "Rossi's getting married in two days, and we're all still on the clock." Emily reminds. "Yeah, give the poor man a break. It's his sixth marriage." Casey jokes and she begins to take another sip from her coffee when JJ takes it away from her to limit herself.

          Since JJ and Casey had that mini-argument, things went sort of, back to normal. I mean, as normal as things could be. Neither of them had brought their argument to their coworkers and decided to keep it between themselves.

        "Guys, I feel like this is gonna be the hot seat." Matt throws his thumb over at Spencer. "Yeah, you do know he's been banned from every casino in Vegas, right?" JJ asks as Casey nods.

         Matt looks over at Spencer in disbelief. "Really?" He asks. "With a deck of 52 cards, the number of combinations is a factorial of 52. You simply need to calculate your outs and then your implied odds. Math is the basis of all card games." Spencer explains.

         "Yep, I'm the only person that's ever truly beaten him." Casey tells. "Yeah, well, we'll see about that today." Spencer raises his brows at the woman seated in front of him. And everyone looks between them as Casey raises her brows.

          "Ooh, Reid, are you saying you're up for a challenge?" Casey asks. "You've only ever beaten me three times." Spencer stated.
           "Five," Casey corrected and Spencer furrows his brows. "And sometimes I'd let you win."

           "I call ten bucks on Casey." Erik tells. "No way, twenty on Reid." Garcia chimes in.

          Tara begins to shuffle through the cards. "All right, ladies and gentlemen. Today's game's 5 card. Roll them out. The big blind is 50. The baby is 25."

         Emily nudges Casey beside her. "We are still playing poker, right?"

          It'd been over an hour since they started the game. The last three people left by process of elimination were Luke, Casey and Spencer. Casey had ultimately decided she was going all in for this and she glanced up at Spencer as she pushed over the candy used as chips.

          Spencer 'tsk'ed at her and Casey smirked at him. For a moment, it felt just like old times. And damn, did it feel good that things seemed normal between them.

         "Do you think the lady's bluffing?" Luke questions Spencer. "I know the lady's bluffing because she has a tell." Spencer tells, looking over at Casey as she scrunches her eyebrows forward. "No, I don't."

          Then again, they were married for two years and together for five. The man definitely knew she had a tell.

          Spencer pushes forward his candy. "I'm gonna go all in." He tells. "Oh, I like it. Live by the sword, die by the sword." Luke moves his candy forward as well. "I call."

        "All right, let's see 'em." Tara speaks, since she was in charge of the game. "Three of a kind, king high." Luke tells.
        "Perfectly respectable, but not getting it done." Tara moves on to Spencer.

         "Pair of kings, pair of 7s— oh, I'm sorry, three 7s." Everyone ooh's at Spencer as he smirks towards Casey. Casey swipes her tongue across her teeth as she looks over at Spencer. "Ooh, a full boat from the sassy Dr. Reid."

          Erik hands a $20 bill to Garcia, who's smiling.

          Casey shakes her head, "Wow, Reid. You've got it. You do. But too bad the day you win... is not today." Casey puts down her cards at the table and Spencer frowns as everyone exclaims as Casey had beat Spencer in a card game... yet again.

          Garcia hands the $20 bill back to Erik, whose smiling now. "Thank you."

         "Oh, a straight flush! That has to hurt." Tara tells. "Ah, victory is, as always, sweet. I'll be here all week, gentlemen." Casey smiles as she pulls back the candy towards herself.

         Matt looks over at Spencer, who says nothing. "Ah, Spence, don't get discouraged." JJ stated. "I think that Reid is speechless." Matt points out.

         "I guess I'm a better liar than you thought." Casey smirked at Spencer as he smirks right back at her as she collects the candy.

          Luke looks over at Tara. "Thank you for not letting me put Garcia's octopus mug in the pile." Tara nods as Garcia furrows her brows, holding said octopus mug. "What's that?" She asked. "Nothing." Luke answers.

           Emily had been on the phone while all of this was going on and when she hung up, faced the team with a distinct look on her face. "Oh, boy, don't look now." Tara comments and Casey looks at Emily as Emily says, "We've got a case."

          "Why didn't they just call me?" Casey asked.
          "They tried, you turned your phone off because you were too busy winning." Emily told and Casey makes a face, "Oops. I still won, though."

          Penelope, Casey and Emily set everything up, from files on the desk to Garcia working up the projector. "We're headed to Los Angeles where two murders in the last two days with the exact same MO have the authorities puzzled. The first homicide was yesterday following a hit and run in Eagle Rock." Emily explained.

"This man in a pickup rear ended this woman in a sedan, and then he got out of his car and he shot her." Garcia explained. "Twice in the chest at close range. He then fled the scene." Casey added.

"Cops thought it was a road rage incident gone wrong until today." Emily adds. "A few hours ago, a second shooting happened following a violent accident, this time in Reseda." Garcia informs. "Similar pattern, and the same driver according to eyewitness accounts. This time he's in the SUV. He T-bones the red truck. He survives the crash, and just like before, he gets out, he walks right up to the other car and shoots the driver."

"We've seen cases of symphorophilia before, where a suspect gets off on staging a crash, but none that involved a gun." Luke explains. "And given the fact that he's also the driver, I think it's more likely a case of autassassinophilia. It's an overlapping paraphilia in which an individual derives arousal or sexual pleasure from the thought of and or risk of being killed." Spencer explains himself.

"Makes me think the vehicles are important to him in some way, like they're a part of what he's trying to do or say." Matt tells. "Were any of the cars the suspect used reported stolen?" Erik asks Garcia, who nods. "Oh, yeah, both vehicles were reported missing prior to the accidents."

"We've got the makings of a thrill killer here." JJ stated. "A thrill killer at the start of a spree." Emily emphasized. "With two dead and our primary suspect at large, the jet's standing by." Emily decides.

"What about Rossi?" Luke asks. "I'll call him and give him the option if he wants to come with us, he's not obligated to. But I'll still leave the option to him. Like Emily said, wheels up... in 20." Casey finished.

          The team headed up to the jet and began to debrief about the case. "Okay, so our first victim, Andrea Hinojosa, was forty years old. She was a public defender for L.A. county on her way to a courthouse when the shooter collided with her." Tara started.

         "It says here Andrea was single, lived alone. She was well respected, a rising star in her office." JJ chimes in. "We should focus on disgruntled clients, angry family members." Emily stated.
         "I'm working on getting access to her client list as we speak." Garcia speaks over the monitor.

        "Our second victim, Paul Burke, was something of a rolling stone. He's been an Uber driver, a handyman, and most recently, a construction worker." Matt told. "He was headed to a job site when our shooter smashed into his truck and then shot him." Luke explains.

        "That was the video you sent me." Rossi speaks and Tara nods to him, "Yeah."
         "Hitman, doing the job and not bothering to clean it up. Don't hitmen usually do that?" Erik questions. "There's a possibility he could be." Casey figures. 

         "Garcia, did Paul Burke and Andrea Hinojosa ever cross paths?" Spencer questions. "Yeah, it's still too early to say. Andrea had a lot of clients and cases that took her all over Los Angeles. Paul did, too, but his digital footprint isn't as strong as his peers'. Lucky for you guys, I eat digital footprints for breakfast. I'm ronkin' and tonkin' on this, so if there's a connection, I'll find out." Garcia answers.

       "Thanks, Penelope. Hate you, kidding." Casey smiles at the monitor. "Love you, mean it." With that, Garcia hangs up the call.

       "Well, the unsub must have been stalking them. He knew their routines, targeted both Andrea and Paul on their way into work." JJ figures. "Yeah, it's interesting. These victims likely didn't even see him coming until he smashes into them. And then after he's done so, incapacitating them, he walks right up to the car, so, what, they can see him pull the trigger?" Tara wonders.

       "First he scares them, then he punishes them." Rossi follows as Luke continues, "A guy this bold, this cold-blooded feels like he's out for revenge."

        "I agree. We've got a lot to sort through." Emily tells as Casey nods at her. "Okay, Tara, Matt, go to the first crime scene. Dave, Luke, Erik, you'll head to the latest crime scene. JJ, Emily, Reid, and I will set up at the local PD and go through the numerous eyewitness statements. If this guy sticks to the pattern, he'll strike again today. We can't let him. And we won't." Casey explains.

         When they arrived, they almost immediately met with the detective when they were setting up. A man walks in the room and Casey recognizes him, "Detective Murad. I'm Unit Chief Willows. We spoke over the phone. My second in command, Agent Prentiss and these are agents Jareau and Reid." Casey introduces.

          Murad looks at both JJ and Spencer. "Pleasure. Nice to see you both again." He tells. "It's like I told you on the phone. We've had hundreds and hundreds of calls of possible eyewitnesses, but it's impossible to know who's for real, who's crazy, and who's just looking for attention." He explains.

         "Were there any accounts that stood out due to detail or specificity?" Emily questions. "CCTV footage has been on the news. A librarian in Silver Lake recognized the shooter. Claims he stole his car and threatened him with a gun." Murad explains. "And there's a waitress that I just spoke with. She's pretty sure that she served the shooter yesterday."

         "We'd like to talk to both of them." Spencer told. "Well, Ximena, the waitress, is still here. I'll get you the contact info for the librarian."

         Casey nods, "Thank you." Detective Murad walks out. "Spence, JJ, go talk to Ximena. I will reroute Matt and Tara to the library to speak with the librarian." Casey decides as she pulls out her cell to call them.

After Tara and Matt talked to the librarian, they discovered that their shooter had been reluctant about killing. Spencer, JJ and Emily were chatting about the task at hand when Casey walks in with her cell on.

"Hey, Penelope. You're on speaker with the beauties and the brain." Casey starts as she sets her cell down. "Fam, ok, I have been doing some digging, and I have discovered a rare and beautiful artifact like the teeth of a baby raptor. Six weeks ago, our first victim, Andrea Hinojosa, had a phone conversation with our second victim, Paul Burke. It only lasted a few moments, but this is the only connection we have because they don't live in the same areas, they don't frequent the same cantinas, nothing, nada." Garcia explained.

"Could it be someone associated with one of the cases Andrea was working?" Spencer asks. "It could, but Paul's never been arrested. He's not listed in any court filings or police reports." Garcia explains and Casey feels someone nudge her and it's Detective Murad.
"We need you." He tells and Garcia speaks up, "Oh. Oh, I heard that. Is that a lead?" Casey grabs her phone. "Thanks, Garcia." She hangs up as follows Murad as well as Emily, JJ and Spencer do.

"We've located the vehicle stolen outside the library last night. Rampart division found it in a residential neighborhood. We're keeping our distance." Murad explains as Casey looks on the map onscreen.

"All right, Dave, Erik and Luke are closest." Emily tells as Casey makes the phone call to get them over there.

"And we've got units in the area. How do you want us to handle this?" Murad questions to Casey. "With caution. He's armed. And if he's threatened, he's gonna get violent." Casey tells.

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         Rossi, Erik and Luke had cornered the shooter but in the end had to kill him before he could shoot back. He kept saying he "had to do this", that he had to keep killing people and that they didn't understand. The man had given the name of his wife to them and the address of where she was at. Emily and Matt had gone down to that address and found that the man's wife was killed and tied to a chair.

         They believed that their shooter was coerced into killing these people, so he wasn't their true unsub. Basically telling Mark that if he didn't do what the unsub told him to do, he'd kill his wife, which is why Mark started the killing spree, to save his wife.

          They had found another possible victim and brought him for questioning since he'd crossed paths once or twice with all of the victims. Charles Sturgess was involved in a case Andrea Hinojosa tried nearly eight years ago. She was the lawyer. And they had concluded that the defendant was their unsub and apparently, was crazy.

          Garcia had worked hard to find the case and eventually she did. "Found the case in question. Our unsub's name is Casey Allen Pinkner, and he's a piece of work. He spent the majority of his misspent youth in and out of the system. He tried to go the straight and narrow in his early 20s, took some odd jobs, but Casey has a problem with the drink, as we all saw, and it finally caught up with him." Garcia explained.

         Someone named Casey with a drinking problem. Ain't that a coincidence. Casey thought to herself.

       "Garcia, where is he now?" Emily asks. "I can tell you he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served eight. He was released four weeks ago. And I'll try to find his last knowns." Garcia tells.

       "Now, Casey's defense was that this whole thing was the result of a game of truth or dare gone wrong, and that this mystery man in the bar was really at fault. Now, we think that man was Mark Zabel." Emily explains.
       "Oh, and I can tell you via credit card receipt that that bar in question Mark frequented." Garcia informs.

       "At the time of Casey's trial, Mark never came forward, so the cops never pursued him as a lead." Matt told.

       "Casey's been planning this for a while." Rossi told and the Willows woman had enough. "Okay, can we refrain from calling this guy 'Casey' because to be honest, it's really freaking me out." Casey commented.

       "When we questioned him, Charlie recognized Paul Burke as the jury foreman, so maybe that's why Andrea called Paul, to warn him that... he was out." Matt almost said 'Casey', but was earned a look from his unit chief.

       "Jury rosters in Los Angeles county are sealed. That's why we couldn't find the connection between Paul and Andrea." JJ figures. "So Andrea was his lawyer, Paul the jury foreman, Charlie the eyewitness."

       "So, he's going after everyone involved, everyone that helped put him away. And this is his exact revenge." Casey told.

       "We need the names of everyone who could have been in that courtroom." Rossi speaks as Garcia tells, "Compiling and sending now."

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        Casey and Spencer were currently on their way to pick up anyone involved in the case. Originally, JJ and Spencer were supposed to go together but JJ ended up going with Emily. They were both currently on the phone with Garcia in car as Casey drove.

       "Garcia, any luck with Judge Hamilton?" Spencer questioned. "No. We've reached everyone else involved. She won't pick up. I'm pinging her phone." Garcia pauses. "You guys are close."

       "Maybe the judge is his endgame. I mean, he knows we're on to him. Time is limited. He's going in on the one person that locked him up and threw away the key." Casey figured.

        Spencer nodded, "During sentencing, she wanted to throw the book at him, said he needed to take responsibility for his actions. That would have incensed him."

      "Oh, she just pulled over." Garcia speaks as Casey looks forward across the street from where they were and found her car. "That's her. That's Judge Hamilton. Turn around." Spencer tells Casey and she nods, "Hold on."

        Casey screeches the tires as she pumps the gas and floors it to catch up. Judge Hamilton starts getting away and she ends up being blocked in from a garbage truck with Spencer and Casey behind them.

         Pinkner shoots towards them as they both get out of the car and Casey starts chasing after him after he shoots again. They follow towards them and are led to a store where Pinkner took the judge.

        "Everybody out!" Spencer announces as Pinkner fires the gun in the air, holding one of the store workers. Everyone begins to stampede out of the store as both Spencer and Casey hold their guns up to the man.

        "FBI. Put your weapon down. Now!" Casey tells as she aims her gun towards the man. "You put yours down!" Pinkner yells. "That's not gonna happen." The woman tells the man.

        "Melissa, take it." Pinkner orders the judge. "Take it!" He screams as the woman takes the extra gun out of his pocket. "I'll kill your daughter. You know I will. Point it at them. Now!" The judge hesitantly points the gun at the agents.

        "I'm not gonna ask you again. Put it down! Put them down now!" Pinkner yells at Spencer and Casey and the two share a look and Spencer decides for both of them, "It's okay." He puts his gun down. "Spencer—!" Casey tells. "Just put it down." He tells, not wanting to agitate the man more.

         Casey shakes her head as she decides to follow Spencer's lead and put her gun down on the ground as Spencer does the same. "Down! Melissa, pick them up. Pick them up! Go, go!" Pinkner orders as Melissa grabs the guns and tosses them behind her.

        "Please, don't hurt her." Melissa pleads with Pinkner. "I didn't call them. I have no idea how they found me."

       "Do not move." Pinkner orders the agents and yells at the store worker he's holding hostage. "Lock it down!" She presses a button and suddenly, the gates go down, locking Spencer and Casey in with the unsub and two hostages.

      "Please, just let my daughter go." Melissa begs and Pinkner looks over at the woman. "Melissa, we haven't finished our little game."

        Casey sighs as she exchanges a look with Spencer and thinks, "Why is it always us?"

        The sun eventually had gone down, Casey could tell by the clock in the store. It was already past seven. Melissa duct-taped Spencer's arms together as well as Casey's arms together.

         As Melissa taped Spencer's arms, he whispered to her, "Don't worry, it's gonna be okay." And in a way, that comforted Casey to hear.

        Pinkner rushed Melissa. "Hurry up. Get over here." He turns to the woman as she stands next to him. "This is all your fault. I told you. I told you it was an accident, that Mark was the one who forced me to do it, but you wouldn't listen. You just sat up there looking smug and superior."

         Casey looks over at Spencer as they both overhear the conversation.

        "You think you're so much better than me, but you're not. You're just as capable of hurting someone as anybody is. Well, here it is, Judge... your moment of truth." He throws the scared store worker to the ground and hands a gun to Melissa. "Shoot her, or I'll kill your daughter."

        "Come on. She's got nothing to do with this. She's not a part of your agenda. Just let her go." Casey tries to persuade Pinkner as he aims his gun at Melissa, "Shoot her!"

         "Casey, listen to me. You have no reason to hurt her. Just let her go." Casey tries to get Pinkner to stop. Pinkner puts his gun down and walks towards Casey and kneels in front of her. He grabs the back of her head as he grabs her hair. Spencer watches the man carefully. Pinkner speaks, "I wasn't talking to you." Casey glares in his face as he lets her go.

         "Get up! Now!" Pinkner tells the store worker and he grabs her and throws her towards the merchandise, breaking some glass near Spencer.

          Spencer looks over and Pinkner aims the gun at Spencer now as he threatens, "Do not move!" Pinkner looks at Melissa again. "New deal." He hands the gun to her again as she takes it hesitantly. "Now you need to kill one of these two."

         Casey and Spencer look at one another. This wasn't their end. It couldn't have been. And Spencer knew Casey would sacrifice herself before he would die, she's done it before. And Casey knew Spencer would rather let himself die than for Casey too, he's done it before. This wasn't the end. They had to have known that.

         "Who's it gonna be?" Pinkner questioned as Melissa aims the gun towards the middle of both of them. "Please. I don't want to do this."
        "Focus, Melissa." Pinkner tells.
        "Please."
        "Judge, you got to decide. That's what you do, right? Decide life or death with a flick of your gavel?"

         Without even thinking, Casey decides to tell the judge, "Choose me." Spencer looks over at Casey like he's crazy and immediately speaks up. "No, choose me." Spencer spoke. Casey looks over at him.

         "Spencer, don't be stupid. Christopher needs you." Casey tells, reminding the man of their son, who couldn't afford to lose both of his parents.
         "Yeah? Well, he needs you, too." Spencer argues back with Casey.

         Suddenly, the telephone in the store begins to ring and Spencer looks up at the man. "Answer it." He looks over at him. "Casey, answer it."
        "Shut up!" Pinkner yells. "Pull the trigger!" When the phone continues to ring, Pinkner pulls the phone cord and the phone stops ringing and Casey squeezes her eyes. There goes their chance at getting out of here.

         Then, Casey thinks. In that moment, she thinks, what would Uncle Gideon do? It's what she always asked herself when she was in situations like this. And luckily, she thought fast. She looks at Spencer and then gets on her knees to speak to Pinkner. "Casey," she speaks. "If Melissa won't play, I will." Spencer looks at the woman carefully as well as the man.

       "Truth or dare. That's your game, right? I'll play." Casey tells as she begins to stand up and Pinkner aims the gun at her. She hopes she's making the right decision here and she can tell by the look on Spencer's face, he's hoping the same.

        "Melissa, the weapon. Now!" The woman gives the weapon back to Pinkner and Spencer begins to speak to him, maybe to get through to him. "Casey, I know what it's like, to be wrongly accused, sent to prison for a crime you didn't commit."

          Pinkner scoffs, "Yeah, right. You went to jail?" He questions and Spencer nods. Pinkner shakes his head, "I'd like to see that, pretty boy." Casey speaks up, "He's telling the truth. He was." Pinkner begins to walk towards Casey, walking in a circle around her. Spencer sees he's distracted so he finds the glass on the floor that was knocked off and subtly tries to bring it into his hands.

         "Okay. Agent..." He waits for the name.
         "Willows." Casey tells.
         "Agent Willows," he speaks. "Truth or dare?"
          Casey decides, "Truth."

         "If I think you're lying or stretching the truth in the slightest, I'll kill him." Pinkner aims his gun towards Spencer. Casey nods subtly in understanding. She hates it, but she knows she has to.

         Pinkner starts with their game, "You ever shoot anybody before?" He asks and Casey nods, "Yes, I have."
        "You enjoy it?"
        "No," Casey tells. God, no.

        Pinkner backs away from Casey a bit and aims the gun Spencer's way as he fires it right near Spencer's head and yells: "Liar!" Casey flinches after seeing Spencer have a close call with death. Her heart dropped to her stomach after he fired the gun.

       "No, you psycho! I'm not lying. Okay, I'm not lying. The people I shot I had no choice, but I did not enjoy it. I didn't. You asked, and I told the truth, I would not butcher that if my life was on the line here. I told you the truth." Casey told.

       Casey takes a breath and looks at Pinkner. "Now, it's my turn. Right? That's how this game's played. We take turns." She nudged her head in front of him. "So, truth or dare?
       Pinkner puts his gun down steady and decides, "Truth."

      "What's it gonna take for all of us to walk out of here alive, for this to end peacefully?" Casey tries to negotiate with the man. He goes back to aiming the gun at the woman. "I ain't going back to prison." He doesn't answer and decides  that's it's his turn now.

      "My turn," Pinkner tells. "Truth or dare?" Casey keeps her breathing steady as she decides, "Truth."

       "I want you to say something you're afraid to say, that you'd never tell anybody. And you better make it good, 'cause if it's not, it's gonna be the last thing you ever say. What's it gonna be?" Casey doesn't know what to think on the spot. I mean, how does she answer that question? More importantly, what would she say that would make this all end peacefully?

       Casey thinks of something, just anything that she knows is the truth. "My marriage ended because it was my fault." Casey started.

       "Boring," Pinkner shoots Melissa in the leg and aims the gun back at Casey as Melissa yells in pain. "Next!"

       Casey thinks of something else. Something she hadn't even spoken of since the divorce. Since everything. And she didn't even tell Spencer this. And this would be the first time he was hearing it. "I, uh, I was going to have—" Casey sniffles a bit as she thinks back. "I miscarried and I never told my husband about it."

        At this, Spencer looks up at the woman with heartbroken eyes and his heart drops to his stomach, questioning if this was a lie or if this was true. He even asks, "Is that true?" Casey can't even bare to look at him. It is. And he never knew until now.

       "Wrong!" Pinkner yells. "Come on, you can do better than that."
       "Casey—" Casey doesn't even know if he's talking to Pinkner or herself but Pinkner aims his gun and yells: "Shut up!"

       Pinkner pushes Casey to the ground and she nods, "Ok, ok, ok." The man aims the gun at Casey. "Last chance. Something you would never say aloud, not even to your partner here. Your deepest, darkest secret. Impress me or I kill him." Casey bites her lip as a tear falls from her eye. She thinks of the one thing she knows she would never ever admit out loud. The one thing she swore she'd take to the grave.

       "Come on!" Pinkner pushes.

       Casey holds it together and she looks at Spencer.

       Now or never, right?

       "Spence, um..." Casey tries to throw a comforting smile his way. If this would be the last time they'd talk, she'd rather be looking into his eyes when she admits her truth. And sooner or later, this truth was bound to come out. She just didn't want it to be in this way. In this moment. "Um... I..." She needs to say it. She has to say it. Otherwise, she's still lying to herself. And goddamn it, she just can't do it anymore.

       "I still love you."

        Casey notes to his heartbroken eyes, eyebrows raises, the stubble on his face, along with his messy hair and crazy socks. If she was going to die today, this would be the way she'd want to remember him forever. She wishes she didn't spring this on him. But the truth needed to come out.

        "I mean, not a day goes by that I-I don't want to still be with you. I'm still in love with you and I was gonna keep that hidden forever. Because I am way too damn stubborn to ever say it out loud." Casey admits as tears form in her eyes. Spencer's paying attention to her every word. "But... but things happened and things got complicated and my feelings were complicated."

        She holds it together and she sees that Spencer is, as well. "I'm sorry. But you should know. You deserve to know. After everything I've put you through, hell and back, you deserve to know." Spencer gives Casey a small yet comforting smile and that's enough for her.

         Pinkner chuckles, ruining the moment and Casey has almost forgotten about the fact that she's about to die. And that there was a gun to her head. "Hot damn," Pinkner comments. "That's what I'm talking about. Now those are some last words right there." He holds the gun at Pinkner. "But not good enough to save your life."

         Casey awaits for the bullet to puncture her skull but then something happens. Pinkner is shot and he lands on the ground and drops his gun. Casey furrows her brows and widens her eyes once she sees that Spencer had shot him, grabbing the extra gun from under one of his socks.

          The two exchange a glance as they both take breaths of relief and Casey realizes something. She told him the truth. He knew. And she admitted everything out in the open to him.

           No words are exchanged between them as Spencer removes the duct tape around Casey's wrists. When she turns to face him, there's love written all over Spencer's eyes and what she doesn't realize is that there's love written all over hers.

           There's so much Casey wants to say to Spencer and there's so much he wants to say to her but in that moment, there's nothing. Rossi, JJ, Tara and Matt had entered the building to get them to safety and out of there.

           Casey had tended to Melissa to get her help for her leg and getting her into an ambulance as well as the store worker.

         Casey stood with Rossi as she watched them being brought into an ambulance and when they were taken care of, she saw Spencer over by a police car, getting his hand wrapped up since the glass cut him from cutting through his own duct tape to retrieve his gun. She stared over at him for a moment and then back to the ambulance and never realized how grateful she was for the breeze in the air until now.

        There were four things she didn't realize as she turned towards the air. The first being Spencer looking over at her after she had just looked away and how much he just wanted to speak to her about what happened. But what could he say? How could he say it? Would he wait for her to say something? Would he leave it be and pretend it didn't happen? I mean, he was done with her, right? Right?

        The second was that Rossi noticed how off Spencer and Casey were being more than usual. And that since he was getting married, he took a piece of advice from their own marriage book. Don't wait. But even though he wasn't present for what happened in there, he had a hunch about it.

         The third was that her secret was going to change their relationship and she didn't know if it was bad or good. I mean, she was still with Marco. Girlfriend of the year, right? She began to worry about how he was gonna handle it or if she was even going to tell him at all. She worried for Spencer. Because she knew now she had feelings for him and she admitted it and now that was all she wanted with him and he wanted it too. But would things be more different now?

          And forth thing was that the truth hurts. And by God, it fucking hurt.

━━━━━━

           Today was the big day of David and Krystall's wedding. Everyone had been chatting, having a ball and making drinks.

         Matt brought his wife, Kristy with him for wedding, JJ brought Will, Henry and Michael and Erik had even brought Mandy and Emma along for the ride since he knew they needed to get out in the open at some point after what happened with them. Lisa, Luke's girlfriend unfortunately couldn't make it, so he joined Emily, Penelope, Spencer and Tara in single numbers.

          Casey brought Christopher and obviously brought Marco, who also brought Giulia, since he was Rossi's nephew and he was obviously unaware of the hostage situation. Casey kept telling him she was fine and things were okay and whatever and Marco chose not to push it.

           Casey was standing with Marco as he chatted with his uncle and while he did that, looked over at where Spencer was sitting with Luke, Tara and Penelope and she looked down, realizing she might've been staring for too long. So, she looked away. But the minute he did, he looked over at her, noticing just how radiant she looked in her red dress. She always did look good in red. They still hadn't talked since the hostage situation. And they didn't know if it was going to stay that way.

          The music began to play and the ceremony began to start. Krystall walked down the aisle with her daughter at her side, surrounded by their family and friends. Casey thought back to her wedding day with Spencer and how perfect things were. She wondered if she could get that again with Marco. He was the one she chose after all. But as time slid by, she wondered if maybe she loved the idea of him. Maybe he was a distraction from her feelings. And that wasn't fair to him.

         The reception portion of the wedding started after Rossi and Krystall were officially married. Rossi had wanted Emily to speak at his wedding so of course, she did.

        "When Dave got engaged, he pulled out all the stops. Some of you might not know this, but he proposed to Krystall in our elevator at the FBI, which was perfect. If she said no, he could just go back to work and she had a built-in escape. But she said yes, and here we are." Emily smiled. "Of course, our good friend David Rossi has been here before. This isn't his first rodeo, as they say. Strangely enough, though, he has never been to an actual rodeo." Everyone laughed as she made her speech funny.

        "But I digress. Penelope says that this was fate, that their marriage was in the stars. Dave and Krystall are twin flames, two souls that are always meant to be together." Emily explains. "Sometimes it takes time, sometimes it takes a parallel universe or something, but the thing about twin flames is that nothing can keep them apart."

          Marco grabs Casey's hand and smiles at her and she gives him a small smile back but from across the room, she's looking right at Spencer as Emily talks about twin flames. He looked at her in a way that made her feel loved, a way that gave her butterflies. A way Marco only ever made her feel one time whereas Spencer has made her feel this way multiple times.

          "They are a magic unto themselves. And together, they light the way for all of us." Emily explains. "To David and Krystall." She holds her champagne glass up as everyone else does as well. Everyone clunks their glasses with one another and the fun begins.

           Penelope and Luke are basically the life of the party on the dance floor as well as Matt and Kristy. Erik even shows off a few of his moves to Mandy as he dances with his daughter and gets Mandy out of her seat. All of the kids are going crazy on the dance floor and Marco busts some moves out with Christopher. Marco even manages to get Casey out on the floor even if she didn't want to at first but she decides to anyways.

          It's about an hour later that things cool down and everyone is slow dancing. Penelope and Luke have taken a break from their moves and start to slow dance on the floor. As well as Matt and Kristy, Mandy and Erik, JJ and Will and of course, Dave and Krystall.

          Christopher had crashed from a sugar rush of many caramel candies he and the other kids kept getting handed and was sleeping at one of the tables, with the other kids that also had sugar rushes.

           Casey had looked over to see where her son was and when she saw that Spencer was alone by the bar, she decided to head over to him. Maybe it was time for a talk.

          "Hey." Casey greets. And for a moment, she gets butterflies, like it's the first time he's looking at her. "Um... so I didn't get a chance to... say it back there, but thank you for saving my life, for the millionth time." She chuckles awkwardly.

        "You're welcome," Spencer tells. "You okay?" Casey nods, "Yeah. But Luke was right, though. Two guns, huh? How long you been wearing an ankle holster?" Spencer follows with, "Around the time I got out of prison." Casey nods at him, "Right."

          There's an awkward pregnant pause. "Look," Casey starts with. "So what I said back there, I, uh... I needed to say something that would get his attention, and I needed to say something that would get your attention. You know, so, I, uh, I just needed to throw him off balance and—"

         "Casey..." The woman looks at Spencer as he gets her attention. "Truth or dare?"

          The woman takes a breath and looks at him. "You know this game has always gotten us stuck in sticky situations... but... truth."

        "Did you mean it?"

        Casey pauses and she wants to say 'yes, I did' but nothing comes out. Instead, she tells him, "You tell me." He was the one that could figure out her tell. He was the one who knew what it was.

         As Spencer reads into it and before he could decipher her micro-expressions, Emily startles both of them as she comes up to them. "Guys, they're about to cut the cake."

         Casey speaks, "Uh, great. We'll be right there." Emily walks away and before Spencer can leave, Casey stops him, placing a hand on his chest, wanting him to stay there for a second so they can talk. "Spence... I..."

        So, Casey decides she's gonna tell him that she really does mean it and that she loves him but Spencer beat her to the punch, knowing that he doesn't want to push this relationship anymore. He's going to respect Casey's wishes, even if he wasn't aware that those weren't her wishes no longer. "It's okay," he assures. "Everything's okay."

         Casey furrows her brows, "Yeah?" She asks. "Yeah." Spencer nods.

         So, Casey nods at him and she walks towards Marco, to join him over by the cake and grabs his hand. Spencer watches sadly, knowing that this was the way it had to be. And that Casey would've wanted this. But the man didn't know that Casey considered it and she wanted to be with him. But like she stated before, things got complicated and he knew that he can no longer push this onto Casey anymore.

         So, the truth came out.

         But sometimes, secrets... are just better left unsaid.

THAT IS THE END OF ACT THREE!

well lovelies
y'all got your wish🤭
cuz wtf were they thinking having jj with her lil love confession🤨 this episode literally makes me so mad and ofc i was gonna change it up a bit for the sake of the story and the friendship between casey and jj

also lemme be so clear
I HAD NO IDEA THIS UNSUB'S NAME WAS CASEY UNTIL I FIRST WATCHED IT ON GOD
BY THAT POINT CASEY WAS ALREADY INVENTED😭

also
WE ARE FINALLY ON THE FINAL SEASON OF CRIMINAL MINDS🥹
we made it to the final show and i'm sad, yet excited yet shitting my pants, yk?
season 14 was whole roller coaster

me @ reid this episode:

anywayssss
theories for the next season?

thank you for reading
i love you all
-mya </333