Sixteen: I See Red.

11x18 | A Beautiful Disaster.

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Julia and Garcia made it a habit to have a sleepover almost every Saturday night. If they weren't called in, at least. Tonight, the sleepover was gonna be at Julia's place, they were gonna order takeout, watch rom-coms, gossip. You know, the usual.

         After work, Julia walked up to Garcia's lair door and knocked before opening the door to let herself in. "Hey, you ready to go?" She asked and Garcia nods. "Yes, yes, I am very very ready. I just have to grab my bag and head out the—"

         Suddenly, Garcia's phone on her desk rang and she sighs, "Oh, one sec." Julia nods at the woman in understanding, leaning against the door and looking around the room and really took in the decorations.

        Garcia's octopus mug on the table, trinkets and fidgets perched on her desk, photos of cute kittens and her colleagues. ('Very Garcia-like' would be how Julia would describe the room).

       "Hello? Yeah. Wh--" Garcia pauses and immediately drops the phone and turns around to Julia, who's confused when she sees a look of fear on Garcia's face. "What?"

Garcia exits the office all while explaining to Julia that someone had called her and informed her that Savannah had been shot and her and Morgan were currently in the hospital and they could bet that it had been the people who kidnapped Morgan about six months ago. Garcia had explained what happened to JJ and Reid and the four of them were quick out of the BAU to the hospital.

The hospital parking lot was now a crime scene since Savannah was shot right outside of the hospital. Lucky for her, in a way. Savannah getting shot served as a warning, or a message. And that wasn't fair to Morgan or Savannah or their unborn child.

When they arrived, Julia hopped out of the driver's seat and walked over to Hotch and Rossi, who were already at the scene. "We need all vehicular and pedestrian traffic stopped in a 10-block radius." Hotch ordered one of the officers before the rest of the team approached them.

"Hey, where you going?" Julia looked over at the tape, seeing Morgan trying to fight through one of the officers, holding him back. "Hey, let me through, that's my team over there! Get your hands off me. I'm FBI."

JJ quickly interjects with, "Hey, hey, he's an Agent. Let him through." With that, the officer lets Morgan go right ahead and join his team, silently cursing him as he approaches the remainder of his team.

"What the hell is wrong with them? Don't they know we're on this case?" Morgan questions and Garcia assures to him, "Yes, he knows. He just didn't know who you are. It's okay."

Morgan turns over to his superior, "Tell me you got something." Rossi nods, pointing towards the roof on the other building near the hospital. "A casing and a rifle up on the roof."

"This guy isn't sloppy. He's sending us a message." JJ tells.

"Garcia, we need to access the surveillance footage." Hotch tells the woman and she nods, "Of course. I'm on it." She heads on over to the hospital to do so.

Morgan turns to the agents once more. "What else we got?" He asks.
"That's it right now." Rossi answers.

"Where were you and Savannah standing?" Reid decides to ask and Morgan shakes his head, "We were standing right over there on the side of my truck. We were just talking. She was to the back and I was facing her. I was the one who was vulnerable. I was the easy shot."

Julia looks at the man in sympathy, "How's Savannah?" She decides to ask and Morgan answers with a simple, "She's in surgery." She can tell how worked up he is with the tears brimming in his eyes, worried for his wife and child.

"Come on, let's check in." Rossi offers and Morgan takes him up on it and looks at Hotch, Reid, Julia and JJ. "You guys got this?" He asks and Hotch nods, "Go."

As Julia watches the men walk back into the hospital, "I wish there was more that we could do." Julia sighs. "There's not much we can do." Hotch admits, and he was right. All they really had to go off of were the shell casing and what happened with Morgan six months ago.

"What about Morgan?" Reid decides to ask and JJ and Julia look at their boss, awaiting an answer and he shakes his head as he responds, "We can't have him on this. We can't, not while his head is running with a million thoughts."

Julia furrows her brows and crosses her arms as she looks at the man. "Hotch, forgive me if I'm being unreasonable, but this is his wife. He has every right to be a part of this as much as we are. We're all connected to Savannah."

Hotch sighs, but he knows he can't let Morgan be a part of this. He'd learned his lesson with George Foyet. Morgan would be putting himself, the team and everyone he loves at risk if he were to let him stay on the case. He couldn't risk it.

"I understand that, but it's important that we do this for Morgan. I'm just wondering how he's going to take it." With that, Hotch walks into building, Julia betting he's going to tell Morgan he can't be on the case right now.

He leaves Julia, JJ and Reid behind and Julia looks at her colleagues and she speaks to them, "I apologize if I'm the only one on board here but... does anybody else think that this isn't fair to Morgan?" Julia understood both sides of the story. Of course, Hotch is speaking from personal experience and Morgan, he just want to get whoever did this. But it didn't seem fair.

JJ shakes her head, sadly. "We have no choice." Julia looks her way and narrows her eyes, "Yes, we do. We do have a choice. Morgan... he deserves to be on the case, right?"

Reid and JJ study Julia and wonder if she's being serious. (Which she is). What she's saying is completely absurd, but in a way, both JJ and Reid get where she's coming from and it's not like they necessarily agree with Hotch either.

Eventually, they'd gone into the hospital and the team was set up in a conference room at the hospital where Garcia was doing her work and the team was debriefing with what little they had. Tara had currently been donating blood for Savannah, Hotch was talking with Morgan and Morgan, well, he was off the case, as far as the rest of the team knew.

"So if security footage has no angles of the shooting or the rooftop, where does that leave us?" Rossi asks. "We're running facial recognition on everyone in and around the hospital to see if they match any loose ends from Morgan's abduction." JJ responds.

Julia's eyes trail over to the door as Hotch walks in. "How did he take it?" Reid asked and Hotch replies, "As expected." Julia wonders what 'as expected' is but knows it probably wasn't good.

"Sir, I know that when Morgan was on leave after his abduction, you encouraged him to stay away from the case." Garcia told and Rossi intervenes, "And let me guess-- he didn't."

Garcia continues, "We all knew in our hearts it wasn't over, and, look, we were right, so in an extra-curricular kind of way we kept sleuthing to see who was working with John Bradley." Julia nods with that, knowing she, Garcia, Reid and JJ were guilty of that. Doing as much digging as they could. Julia remembered her two month leave when instead of her relaxing, she stayed up, trying to find something, anything about the people that took Morgan.

"Before he came back to work, Morgan said that he'd found a connection between the men who held him at the cabin and the Montolo family." Hotch informed and Garcia went on from there, "Right. So, basically, we're dealing with a big crime family tree, of which Bradley was certainly a branch. And the Montolos had hired him multiple times."

Reid and Julia both look over Garcia's shoulders at her screen. "Did you scan the drawing?" Reid asked and Garcia nods as she points towards the screen, "Yeah, it's right here."

"So, has everyone been working on this?" Rossi asks.
"Yeah, basically."
"Kinda."
"Pretty much."
Reid, Garcia and Julia respond with as JJ nods along with that.

"Okay, with Morgan's research, plus our bad guys/gals tree here, we've cut all the legs off the evil table." Garcia tells and Julia looks at the family tree. "So like look-- you got assassin, mother, father, siblings, all deceased, one aunt in therapy for family trauma, and each line is like that."

"Montolo's line's the shortest of them all," Reid points. "The only living child of Chazz and Rosemary Montolo. Rosemary died when Giuseppe was just a boy."
"Yeah and then Giuseppe went to live with his family in Italy, and Chazz went off to build a criminal empire." Julia added.
"Looks like Chazz Montolo was killed last year." Rossi says, looking at the file in front of him.

"Yeah, in a bank fire in Germany. Got positive ID on the dental and fingerprints." Garcia nods. "One week after his son was murdered. What if that's not a coincidence?" Hotch wonders.

"So whoever poisoned the son also killed the father." JJ told.
"Or he faked his own death so we wouldn't suspect him of shooting Savannah or kidnapping Morgan." Julia suggests.

"Hey, wait, wait, wait," Garcia speaks and Julia takes a peek at her screen. "I only ran facial recognition on living people for obvious reasons, but this guy right here, walking out of the hospital, this guy, that is... that's Chazz Montolo." She has the photo side by side with the one on her screen.

"All right. Garcia, contact the city, get access to traffic cameras. Now that we know he's here, we can find out where he went." Hotch ordered and Garcia's cell begins to ring and she checks the caller ID.

"Oh, wait, Morgan's calling me. I told him I'd keep him in the know before I knew it was an order that he wasn't supposed to know." Garcia tells and Hotch nods, "All right. Reid, Julia, you guys talk to Morgan." Julia nods at the man beside her.

"JJ, you and Garcia track Montolo, find out who his accomplices are. He doesn't work alone. Dave, you and I will find potential witnesses who might have seen him on the property." With that, everyone leaves the room.

Julia sighs, mentally cursing Hotch for giving her a difficult job of needing to get a handle on Morgan. At least she had Reid and he knew how to handle him better than she did. Julia still felt conflicted, wanting Morgan to be a part of the case and Reid could gather that from a mile away.

         And so he was going to do something he never thought he would.

          Julia and Reid walked into the waiting room where Morgan was waiting and pacing in stress. He notices as Julia and Reid walk into the room.

         "Hey, buddy. You feeling okay?" Julia asks and all Morgan can do is look at her. To which, Julia turns to Reid and says, "I'm gonna take that as a no." Instead of Morgan responding, he chooses to ignore Julia's words and looks at them, "Were you with Garcia?"

         "Yeah," Reid nods and holds a cup towards him. "Here, I brought you a green tea. It won't make you as jittery as coffee."

         Morgan looks at the cup and then back at the two. "You two came instead of Garcia because you know I'd be able to read her." Reid and Julia look at one another and Julia nods, "You caught us." She shrugged.

         "And Hotch sent you here to see if I'm stable." Morgan continued to which Reid also nodded at that, "He didn't say that, but..."

         With that, Morgan looks at the two. "I don't get jittery." He puts the cup down on the table as Reid follows, "Usually you don't, but your carotid tells a different story. I've counted 10 heartbeats in the last three seconds. That's about 20% higher than your usual when you're under stress."

       "I know you're only trying to protect me, I get it, but knock it off," Morgan snapped. "I just want to know what you've learned."
        "And snapping at us isn't gonna do anything." Julia replied and looks at the man with crossed arms. "Look, I know you wanna find out who did this... believe me, I want you on this case, but..." Julia doesn't know what else to say.

         Reid senses the tension in the room and looks at Morgan, stepping forward. "You know, Morgan, when you first told me about Savannah, I'd never seen you like that. The decreased levels of central serotonin in your brain cause intrusive thinking."

       "When I finally saw you guys together, that's when I knew for sure. Your pupils dilated, your posture changed, and I saw you involuntarily reach for her hand. Science confirmed it. You've found the one. Do you believe that?" Julia looks at Morgan and then back at Reid. She smiles a bit, wondering if he himself believed in the science bit and silently praying he did.

         Morgan nearly choked on his words as she nods, "Yes."
        "Then believe this," Reid continued. "Our team loves you, and we are not going to stop until we find whoever did this. But we can only do that with a completely dispassionate and unprejudiced point of view. Paternal instinct is a deadly bias that we just can't risk. It's for your protection, Morgan, I swear." Reid assured to him and while he did so, Julia caught it. He'd let something slip.

        And Morgan caught it, too. Because his next words before the two walked out were — "The unsub is a father, isn't he?"

       Reid turned back in confusion. "Why do you say that?"
       Morgan walks up to him with furrowed brows, "'A paternal instinct is a deadly bias'? Those were your exact words."
       Reid had been caught and Julia looks his way as Reid gulps and tries to cover his tracks — "I meant..."

      "I know what you meant," Morgan cuts him off. "But that's what you said." And with that, Morgan walks out of the waiting room and Reid looks at Julia, who has an expression of confusion written on her face.

"Why did you—?" Julia cuts herself off when she sees the guilty look on Reid's face. Julia's eyebrows unscrunch as she looks at him and uncovers — "You did that on purpose."

Reid walks out of the room, following Morgan, leaving Julia wondering why he purposely gave a clue to Morgan. But it didn't take a genius to know that he'd done that for Julia. Even if she herself didn't know it. And it was something he hadn't done before, putting his job on the line for her. A woman he still barely knew. But he'd do it over and over again if it meant to side with her on anything.

         Later on, JJ and Garcia had discovered with security footage that it was Chazz Montolo had gone over to the payphone in the hospital and was the one who informed Garcia what happened to Savannah.
 
       He also left behind a message. A small piece of paper where the payphone was. How does it feel? Do you see red? I see red. Was all it said.

         JJ had finished hanging it up on the board in the conference room and Hotch noticed JJ's demeanor guarded and tense. "Are you all right?" He asked and JJ sighed and admitted to her boss, "I showed it to Morgan."

        "What did he say?" Hotch asked and JJ shrugged, "Same as us. It's a taunt."
        "That's all?" Hotch asked and JJ nodded, "And I'm sorry. I thought it would help."

         Hotch shakes his head, "It's okay." He then looks at Julia. "Where are we with the motels and the SROs along the bus route?"
       "Mostly cash transactions and faceless tenants. Nothing solid." Julia tells.
        "I'll get the Washington field office to canvass the area." With that, Hotch leaves the room.

       "Why leave a note so seemingly on the nose when every other action has been calculated for maximum pain? It has to mean more than simply 'I'm angry'. It's a clue or a symbol. It means something to Morgan and I think Chazz knows that." Reid explained. "You think so?" Julia asks.

       "Well, he wants to drive Morgan to exact revenge." JJ stated. "How do you think he's doing?" Rossi wonders.

       "Well, after the physical and emotional stress of six months ago, and now this? The guy's a saint." JJ told. "And despite what he's been handed, he handling it a lot better than I would." Julia added.

       "He passed his return evals." Rossi responded and Reid shakes his head, "Yeah, but we wrote the questions. He knows exactly what to say."
       

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         As they begun to do more and more digging on what they could, a doctor walked into the room. "Where's Agent Morgan?" Julia looks at Hotch as he furrows his brows, "He said you were calling him."

The doctor shakes her head, "No." Garcia then chimes in, "Well, then where is he? He wouldn't just go off on his own." This was bad. If Morgan was nowhere to be seen, this was not good at all.

"Garcia, pull up security footage of the emergency entrance," Hotch ordered. Garcia did so and the footage caught Morgan leaving the building. "Let's go." Hotch, Rossi, Julia and JJ left the building, trying to follow after him in time but he was gone right when they reached the entrance.

Hotch called Morgan, but Morgan wouldn't say anything, as expected. The one thing Hotch thought about was how Morgan called Hotch by his first name.

They'd arrived back inside the conference room as Hotch announced to the rest of the team, "He's gone."

"GPS has him heading north about a mile away from the hospital and then he stops. Why would he stop?" Garcia questions. "He probably threw his phone out so we didn't have a way of tracking him." Julia said.

Garcia shakes her head in fear. "No. No, no, no. That guy's trying to kill him. He's walking into a trap." Julia looks around at her team, knowing Morgan had to have been in deep shit right about now.

"Morgan never calls me Aaron. Why would he start?" Hotch questions, still in questioning from the call.

"What else did he say?" JJ asked. "That of all people, I should understand." Hotch answered. "He was talking about Foyet." JJ told, mentioning the man that killed his ex-wife.

"Yes. But he mentioned that earlier. Why would he bring it up again?" Hotch questioned. "He wanted you to relate to his rage and back off?" Rossi wondered. "Maybe wanted you to remember how you felt?" Julia guessed.

"Is there any other relevance to Foyet?" Tara asked. "He attacked in my home. Maybe Morgan subconsciously let that slip." Hotch stated.

"Yeah, but Morgan's house isn't red." Garcia reasoned. "Yeah, but he's renovated a lot of houses over the years. What if it's one of those?" Reid said,
giving Garcia something to search and Julia looks over as she did so.

"I didn't even know he renovated houses." Julia said as Garcia pulled it up. "Wow. Morgan was busy. He has 8 properties. He started renovating in 2001 right after 9/11."

"I remember him saying he didn't know what else to do with his frustration. He thought tearing down walls would be a good start." JJ told. "He wanted to restore them so he could control something." Reid added.

"Could Montolo know about these houses?" Tara asked. "It's public record, so probably. Uh, let's see." Garcia said. "Morgan uses a service to rent out the properties. Here's one that's been rented for a while to a... C.R. Joseph."

"C.R. Joseph, C.R. Joseph, C.R..." Reid whispers to himself and then comes to a realization, "Guys, Joseph is the English translation of Giuseppe. What if "C" stands for Chazz and "R" for Rosemary?"

Rossi looks at Garcia. "Do you have an image of the property?" He asks and Garcia nods, "I can find one." And first photo that pops up is a beautiful home with a red door. I see red. "Let's go." Hotch tells as Garcia announces that the addresses were sent to their phones.

They'd cramped up in one vehicle, all clad in their FBI vests. Rossi and Hotch in the front, Tara and JJ in the middle and Julia and Reid in the back of the SUV.

Hotch drove as fast as he could to the property and while they were almost there, they'd gotten an incoming call from Garcia. "Go ahead, Garcia." Hotch started.

"I've got Morgan." Garcia announced and Julia turns towards the front of the car as Morgan voice patches through, "Are you all there?"

"Yeah, we're here. Are you alright?" Hotch asked and Morgan responds, "He's got a gun with two bullets." Julia softly gasps as she hears the gun cock and she tries to stop the tears from forming in her eyes.

"Listen to me," Morgan begins. "I made a decision tonight that led me to this." The gun clicks. "This is my fault, you understand? No one else's. And if this is how it ends... it was meant to be." Julia shakes her head, not wanting to hear anymore as she clasps her hands over her ears as much as she can.

She barely listens to Garcia's response to him as someone grabs one of her hands and she turns towards the window to avoid the team to see her crying. Reid had been the one to grab her hand.

"Promise me you'll look after Savannah and my baby." Morgan's voice cracks as he begs and Garcia is calm as she respond with, "Of course we will, but so will you."

In an instant, a gunshot fires.

Hotch asks Morgan's name but gets no response, urging himself to step on it as he puts his foot on the gas. They're at the residence within two minutes and Julia's gut fears that when she walks in that house, she'll see Morgan's dead body. And that is the last thing she wants to see.

All Julia can think about is her last real conversation with him — and how she wanted that to be a better experience than her telling him that him snapping at her and Reid isn't going to do anything. And Julia hopes to God that when she walks in, he'll be okay.

And somehow, her prayers are answered. Because the team walks in with Morgan standing over Chazz with a gun to his head and lowering it before he can shoot him. Julia takes a breath of relief she doesn't realize she was holding as Hotch arrests him.

They had him in custody. And now, the rest of the team rushed back to the hospital, learning that Savannah was going to be having a c-section and the last thing they needed is for Morgan to miss the delivery of his baby.

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The team sits in the waiting room for Morgan, sharing laughter and jokes as they wait for the news. Luckily, they'd gotten Morgan there in time for the birth of his baby and now they were just waiting for him to come out with the verdict — boy or girl.

Garcia, Reid, Hotch and JJ all voted boy while Julia, Tara and Rossi voted girl. And as they sat there, chattering away, Julia looked over and saw Morgan walking out of the waiting room with blue scrubs.

Morgan walks towards them, containing his smile before he finally cheers, "It's a boy!" Despite having opposing answers, everyone cheers for Morgan nonetheless, Reid and Garcia quickly attacking Morgan in hugs and love as they clap for him.

        Julia smiles as Rossi hugs the man in celebration and Morgan goes around the circle, hugging him and congratulating him and when it's Julia's turn, she gives him the tightest hug you can imagine.

         Within minutes, Savannah was rolled out in a wheelchair with the baby in her arms. "Oh, he's beautiful." JJ compliments as she looks over Savannah's shoulder. "Congratulations to you both." Hotch tells as he shakes Morgan's hand.

          Morgan had taken the tiny baby in his hands and introduced little Hank Morgan. They were still coming up with a middle name but they'd find it eventually.

          "Uh, Derek?" Julia speaks and the man looks her way. "Would you mind... if I..." Julia makes grabby hands at Morgan towards the baby. "Oh, I don't mind at all. Savannah?" Morgan asks, wanting his wife's permission before doing so and Savannah nods as Tara and JJ talk to her.

          Julia holds her arms out carefully as Morgan hands her the baby. "Mind his head." Morgan tells, hands hovering under Julia's protectively. "Morgan, it's not the first time I've held a baby. I have a niece and nephew."

          Julia smiles down at baby Hank, making faces at him. "Hello, munchkin! I'm... I guess I'm your aunt, Julia." Julia sniffles, looking down at the baby. As Julia coos at the newborn, JJ had nudged Reid, who kept a steady eye on the scene. Julia had been too wrapped up in the baby to notice but everyone seemed to be smiling at the scene with Julia. Her bubbly persona just seemed to be better with babies than people. Even Hotch was smiling at the scene.

"Aren't you just the cutest thing in the whole world?" Julia smiles widely as the baby's eyes close in sleepiness and even though he's a newborn, he smiles a bit.

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Derek Morgan's journey at the BAU was officially coming to an end. After everything that happened, Morgan had decided to leave, to spend time with his family, to be there for his family. And being in this job... it was too big of a risk to take. Especially after what happened with Savannah.

And it made sense to Julia. She completely understood why Morgan was leaving because if she were put in that situation, she'd be the same way.

To her surprise this morning, Morgan was at the office, possibly reminiscing on the good times he's had here before he left. Julia realizes that maybe this is her time to say goodbye to him before he officially leaves, considering she hadn't seen him since she heard the news.

Julia approaches him with a smile on her face and crossed her arms and Morgan noticed her as she walked up to him. "How you feelin'?" She began and Morgan stood from his seat. "Honestly," he began. "Pretty damn good."

"I, uh, heard the news," Julia starts. "And I wanted to hear from the source himself. You're leaving?"

Morgan nods sadly at the woman. "Yeah. I, uh, I want to be in his life. After seeing what being on the job did to my dad, to Hotch, to Savannah, I—" Julia stops him there with a small smile. "You don't have to explain yourself," she says. "I'm happy for you. It's sad that you're leaving, sure, but... it's a good thing. We're really gonna miss you around here."

Julia sighs, trying to hold her tears back. "And I told myself I wasn't gonna cry today." She chuckles as she wipes under her eyes despite the tears not showing yet.

With that, Morgan decides to pull the girl in for a hug and the tears that threatened to come out were now streaming down her face. "I'll miss you, too, Sunshine." Morgan says and pulls away from the hug and looks at her. "I'll come and visit every once in a while."

"Oh, I expect you to." Julia tells with a teasing smile on her face.

Before Julia can say goodbye, Morgan stops her. "One more thing," he starts. "Uh, don't give Reid too hard of a time." Julia furrows her brows. "He's kinda got a thing for you."

Julia chuckles as she shakes her head in disbelief. "What?"

Morgan blinks at the woman and raises his brows with a smile on his face. "You're telling me you haven't noticed?" He asks.

What the hell did he mean by this?

"What? No." Julia tells, her eyes wide and cheeks flushed over this news.
Morgan chuckles, "Don't tell him I said anything."

Morgan begins to walk away, presumably to Garcia's office because he hadn't said goodbye to her yet, and Julia is left confused. "Wait! Morgan! What did you mean by that?"

"Morgan!"

And the man walks away with a laugh from the eager woman, wanting answers.

goodbye morgan:(
per usual i cried watching the episode ✌️😗
i swear that's always the episode that gets me

but hello prentiss! :)
i'm so excited for the next chapter hehehe
thank you for reading
i love you all
-mya <33