CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN: COLD SHOULDER !

7x02

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         CASEY WAS IN NO MOOD TO FACE EMILY, JJ OR HOTCH TODAY FOR THE CASE THEY WERE CALLED IN FOR. In the elevator, she knew she was bound to run into Emily and JJ so she took her phone out and began to act like she had been on it. Sure enough, she was right. They were walking together.

      Internally, she was hoping that they would just pass by her but that wasn't the case. "Hey, where were you? I wanted to do brunch." JJ asked but Casey couldn't even be bothered to look up.

     "I was busy this weekend." Casey said, glancing up for only a second. "Well, do you maybe wanna catch up next weekend?" JJ asked.

      Casey looked up and saw Reid was walking ahead of her, preoccupied with his own stuff. She knew he was also ignoring Emily and JJ. "I'm actually busy all month." She caught up with Reid. "Hey, Reid." She greeted and Reid turned his attention to the girl beside him. "Hey." They both stopped what they were doing and got coffee before they headed to the roundtable room.

      Meanwhile, JJ and Emily stood in defeat. "She hates me, too." JJ told. "No, it's me," Emily spoke. "She's mad at me." Emily knew that Reid's anger was directed at JJ and Casey's was directed at her. JJ had just been a common reason for her.

Casey and Reid arrived at the round table room and went over the files in their hands as they sat next to each other. Morgan had been in the room as well as Emily and JJ. Rossi and Garcia had walked in the room next, talking about cooking.

"Maybe you should show a Disney film and stick with burgers." Rossi told and Garcia sighed and Morgan joined in on the conversation. "You know, Rossi, you could always give Penelope a cooking lesson."

"Oh, my gosh, that would be amazing!" Garcia smiled. "That would be like-- that would be like the Iron Chef meets the BAU. And we could do it at your house."

"I don't have a house, I have a mansion." Rossi told. "So you've said a thousand times." Casey joked.

Hotch walks in the room finally and looks towards Garcia. "All right, let's get started." JJ noticed the remote to the screen in front of her and pushes it towards Garcia so she can take the floor. Garcia smiled and took the remote in her hands.

"All right, mes amis. You are jetting to Durant, Oklahoma, because in the last three days, two women have been found dead after being sexually tortured and then blinded with a sulfuric acid solution. Abby Elcott is our first victim. 19-year-old art student. She was headed to campus for an advanced drawing class. She'd been missing for two days. Same goes for our second victim, Beth Westerly, 17. She had just finished her coffee shop shift and was on her way to a bar method class." Garcia explained to the team.

"Both low-risk victims." Emily pointed out. "And physically similar." Morgan added. "How close are the two abduction sites?" Rossi asked. "5 miles apart at bus stops," Garcia says. "Abby's cell was found near one, Beth's scarf near the other."

"Where are the dump sites?" Reid asked. "One in an alley, the other in a field." Garcia answered. "So he stapled their eyes open, then he blinded them." JJ snuck a glance over at Reid, who had refused to look her way.

"It's about power and control," Morgan said. "Maybe he didn't want them to watch while he hurt them." Reid adds in on the convo. "Or it could be about shame." Casey looks towards the group. "Perhaps the unsub is disfigured himself. Blinding the victims leaves them helpless, lost, totally dependent." Reid nods with Casey. "It may be a manifestation of how he sees himself in this world."

"It is a form of enucleation, just without the scalpel." Emily says. "His face is the last they see before darkness." Rossi says. "Garcia, come up with a list of jobs that would give the unsub access to sulfuric acid. The rest of us, wheels up in 30 minutes." Hotch ordered.

Reid and Casey sat next to each other on the jet, no surprise there from Emily or JJ. The team debriefed over the case and Hotch split the team up. Reid and JJ were paired, as was Morgan, Emily and Casey.

Morgan, Emily and Casey had to check the alley in which one of the victims had been found. The car ride on the way there had been awkward, only Morgan and Emily made small talk and Casey only joined in on the convo once. Emily kept trying to talk to her but she just ignored her. They met with the detective on the case, Detective Bonner. After introductions, they headed down the alley.

"So what do you have, Detective Bonner?" Morgan asked. "Beth's body was found over there." Bonner pointed.

Morgan turned to both Emily and Casey. "You smell the urine?" He asked. "I thought that was air freshener." Emily joked and turned over to Casey, maybe hoping she'd laugh at her dumb joke.

She didn't.

"There's drugstore food everywhere." Morgan pointed out. "It's a homeless corridor." Emily said. "Abby was found in a shantytown as well." Bonner said.

"So, our unsub hunts and travels through the areas unnoticed, blending in with his surroundings." Casey revisits the file. "This guy's either homeless or appears to be." Morgan tells. "He most likely has a car, to get them from the abduction site to here." Bonner says.

"Just because you're homeless doesn't mean you're carless." Morgan tells. "It could explain why he chose high-risk victims at first." Emily suggested. "They were all around him." Casey added.

Bonner had decided to meet the three back at the PD and Emily tried joking around with Casey, trying to get some type of normalcy back. Emily paused and looked at Casey and decided to speak to her without the jokes and such. "Casey, if you're still pissed at me, I don't know what I can do but I wanna help..."

Casey turned around and took a deep breath. "I'm not pissed at you." Emily scoffs, refusing to believe that. "I'm not. I just... " Casey tried to calm herself down. "Em, you don't know what I went through when you were gone. Every single night, after that night, I went to your apartment. I bawled my eyes out every day, sometimes I'd go to Reid's just so we could cry together."

Emily could see why she had been ignoring her these past few weeks. She'd gotten used to her being dead. "I went to a therapist three times a week, I wanted to drink again and you know how much I struggle with alcohol. You do realize what I went through was hell, right?"

"And I understand—"

"No, you don't!" Casey argued.

"Casey." Morgan tried getting in the middle of the argument, trying to stop it. Casey refused to look Morgan's way and stared into Emily's soul and held up her hand towards Morgan. "Stay out of this, Derek. This is between me and Emily."

Casey continued, "I was alone. I lost you and that hurt. Do you know how alone I felt after that? I started putting my own job in jeopardy!"

"Casey—"

"I'm not finished," Casey was angry and she needed to let this out to Emily. "You lied to me. You, Hotch, JJ, you all did. Do you know what that's like? The only people who I cared about and depended on, lied to me." Casey took a deep breath. "So, yeah, maybe you were right. Maybe I am pissed." With that, Casey walked back into the car and the rest of the ride to the PD remained in silence.

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        A day passed by and another killing had struck. Rossi, JJ, Reid and Casey went to check out the latest crime scene together. "Again, he's disposing in an area frequented by homeless people." Rossi stated as they looked at the body in front of them. "It's equidistant to the last two dump sites." Reid added.

Casey and JJ knelt down in front of the body and JJ put her gloved hand on the victim and checked out her mouth. "He burned her tongue with the chemical this time." JJ said. "So, he removed her ability to taste. Different from the MO." Casey told.

"Why would he do that?" Bonner questioned. "Historically, this kind of torture was used to prevent someone from revealing a secret." Reid said.

JJ stood up. "Maybe she offended him." She assumes. "I wonder what that's like." Reid comments and Casey looks up at Reid and sees JJ's reaction to the comment — slightly offended herself.

Rossi ignores the bitterness between them and continues on. "Her lips are extremely chapped." Rossi said. "She was probably forced to repeatedly participate in some sort of kissing fantasy." Reid told. "And when things go awry, he takes the offending sense away." Casey holds a hand up and Reid helps the girl stand up.

"He tortured her in these clothes, which means the eighties are essential to his delusion." Reid told. "Maybe that's when this rejection occurred and he held on to the clothes all these years." Rossi added. "And now he's attacking girls who remind him of women from that time." JJ told.

"He's fixated on her type and remakes them fit his fantasy." Reid tells, looking down at the body. "But why start now?" Casey asked. "Something probably triggered it, and instead of dealing with it, he's acting out." JJ answered, looking towards Reid - directing her comment at Reid.

       "Maybe he had a reason to act out," Casey spoke up almost immediately. "Maybe a trigger." She glares JJ's way and with that, Reid — slightly grateful Casey defended him, walked away and the team had their profile.

Before the team could go and give their profile, Casey had been in the opposite room getting ready and grabbing her files in her hands. JJ walked in the room and Casey didn't bother to look at her. "Hey, Case?" JJ asked and Casey didn't look up but answered with: "Yup?"

JJ looked outside the door before lowering her voice. "Do you know why Reid's mad at me, by any chance?" She asked and Casey looked at the woman and then outside at a busy Reid. Casey shrugged, "Don't know, don't care. He seems fine to me."

Casey continued and JJ sensed the tension. "Are you mad at me, too?" She questioned. "You're not the real source of my anger, but you're a close second or actually, third." Casey figured.

"Third?" JJ asked. "I'm pissed at Emily and at Hotch, too. You all lied." Casey told.

"We had to—" Casey interrupted JJ. "I understand that.
But that can't erase what we all had to go through. You all knew and you didn't even bother to tell any of us." Casey took a deep breath. She couldn't go off on JJ, when it wasn't really her fault that they had to keep it a secret. Plus, she had already gotten mad at Emily a day before. "Anyway, let's not talk about this now. We have a case to figure out."

Casey grabbed her files.

"Casey—"
"I have work I need to do." Casey began to walk out of the room and JJ turned towards the girl as she was walking out.

"You know why I think he's mad at me?" Casey turned back around. "He wasn't able to detect any micro expressions in the hospital that night."

Casey furrowed her brows at the woman, "Really? That's what you think this is about?" Casey knew the real reason and for JJ to think it was about that was ridiculous.

"It's not?" JJ asked.

Casey scoffed. "Go ask him yourself. I'm not your messenger." With that, Casey walked away and joined the team to deliver the profile.

Afterwards, she had overheard the heated argument between Reid and JJ and Reid revealed the real reason why he had been mad at her. He had even used the fact that he almost started talking dilaudid again to JJ. Now, he had a right to be mad at her but he didn't need to bring that up. Reid had begun to walk out but JJ stopped him and Reid gave her a 'what?' look. "I'm sorry." JJ told. "It's too late, all right?" Reid began to walk out and headed towards the front doors. "Reid." Emily called but Reid wasn't listening.

Casey puts her files down. "I should go talk to him." She volunteers. Both JJ and Emily speak up and this just sets Casey over the edge. "No! Right now, I am the only one Reid will talk to. So, both of you, just stay where you are. Stop ruining everything."

       "Casey—" Hotch tries sternly.

       "And I don't even wanna hear from you." Casey pointed and with that, Casey went outside to check on Reid. He had been sitting on the steps to PD, taking time to himself. Casey sighed as she saw him sitting by himself. "Reid." The man turned his head over and realized who it was but remained in his same spot.

Casey made her way down the steps and took a seat next to him. "I know you're frustrated with her, but you can't use the fact that you almost started taking dilaudid again because of her." Casey told.

"Why not?" Reid asked. "You used the fact that you almost started drinking again because of Emily." Casey shrugged and remembered what she said to Emily during the argument with her. "Fair point."

"Trust me, I am angry with them right now and how they handled Emily and I know how you were when all of it happened. All we really had was each other, right? Well, that's not gonna stop happening. So, we'll handle all this when we get home. Okay?" Casey took a deep breath, trying to make Reid feel better somehow.

"How do you always know what to say and I'm smarter than you?" Reid asked. "Girls are way smarter, no matter the IQ." Casey chuckled.

"Okay, 175." Reid smirked a bit, looking towards the ground. "Hey, 187, it's still pretty high." Casey furrowed her brows at the man. After the brief intermission in their convo, Casey took a thought.

"Hey, Reid? Have we ever given much thought to the stereotype of our unsub?" She asked and Reid furrows his brows at the girl. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he could come off as harmless if he had a disability." Casey stated. Reid began to think of it the way Casey was thinking. "Gives him more of an advantage. We kept assuming there was something wrong with the physical composition but we never have much thought to the mental state."

"175 still dumb?" Casey asked. "Never said it was." Reid told and he and Casey made their way back to the team to tell them they had a break in the case.

The unsub was discovered as Cy Bradstone and Reid and Casey predicted right on the disability theory. Another girl had gone missing and they had discovered that he kidnapped his niece and he had be trying to relive some type of teenage fantasy that he had with her mother - who had been married to his brother. There had been a dance and his niece had worn his mother's old homecoming dress and that triggered something in Cy, hence the reason why he had her. The mother, Lila, had told everyone that she had been uncomfortable around Cy her entire life. He had recorded all of the women and what he did them - even to his own niece. Luckily, they had the man in custody and he revealed that his niece was still alive and revealed the location to her, as well.

The jet ride home had been awkward and filled with silence. Emily talked to Reid and they came to some sort of understanding. Casey had been next on her list and Emily headed over to her. Casey was currently going through her paperwork. Emily sat in front of her.

"Hey." Emily greeted. Casey didn't look at her at all. "Hi." She responded with. "I heard Mr. Bradstone wants to watch the tape." Emily said. "Yeah?" Casey asked and Emily nodded, "Yeah."

"Maybe he just needs proof to accept what happened. He wants to confirm it." Casey shrugs. "Oh, well, that explains why I'm going to Rossi's tomorrow night. I want to see if he really can cook. You coming?" Emily asked.

Casey shrugged, "I don't think I'll be able to make it. Emily knew there was no point in making small talk. She had to come clean with her and to talk to her. Her smile faded and Emily sat up.

"Look, Casey, I know you're mad at us because we didn't tell you what really happened, and I understand that.
But I promise you, we had no choice." Emily took a pause. "You mourned the loss of a friend. I mourned the loss of six."

Casey looked up for a brief moment. "Yeah, well, we weren't dead so I bet that eased your mind." She commented and looked back down.

"What's it gonna take for you to forgive me?" Casey remained silent. "Come on, Casey. Talk to me."

Casey sat up now. "You wanna talk?" She closed the file and dropped it in front of her. "Let's talk." Casey sat in the same position Emily was in.

"Emily, I grieved for seven months. And I was finally beginning to accept that you were gone and then, you— you come back and it's like all of that grieving was for nothing. I was grieving for somebody that was still alive this entire time. It's gonna take some getting used to." Emily looked down and realized what Casey had been saying.

"And I want to forgive you, I really do. But... I need time. Time to accept that you're here and you're not dead. And I want to know that you respect that." Casey really did need time to accept the fact that Emily was alive and that it would take Casey some getting used to. And Emily understood that. "I do."

Casey nodded, "Thank you."

"Are you gonna go to Rossi's tomorrow?" Emily asked.

Casey looked over at Reid. "We'll see." She answered as she looked back at Emily.

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The next day, Casey decided to dress a little fancy to go to Rossi's. She had no idea if Reid was going and hoped that maybe he would change his mind and would go. Yesterday, she messaged him saying: 'I'll go if you go'. There had been no response from him so she had decided to call him.

Casey had only gotten his voicemail but she decided to leave him a message. "Hey, it's Casey. Uh, I'm just letting you know, I'm going to that thing at Rossi's fancy mansion. So, if you do decide to show up, I'm gonna be there, so you won't be alone if you do decide to go. Hopefully you change your mind and I'll see you there. Okay. Bye." With that, Casey left the message and headed to Rossi's mansion and turns out, he was actually a pretty good cook.

"Cooking is the most sensual art form. And these are my paints." Rossi said, looking at his stove. "So your hands must be brushes." Garcia says. "Don't interrupt." Rossi points at Garcia.

"Uh, no one told me this was gonna be a cooking class. I just came here to eat." Casey commented. "What did I say about not interrupting?" Rossi questioned, making Casey shut up instantly.

"Now, in a pot of boiling water we cook our spaghetti until it's al dente, firm to the tooth. Here you go. Everybody pass it around." Rossi hands a noodle over to nearly everyone. "See? Feel the texture. There we go." Casey slurps the noodle in her hand.

"Now... in a large pan, we fry up our pancetta. Keeping a sharp eye that the edges are crisp." Rossi says. "But careful not to burn the onions." Hotch added. "Bravo, Aaron!" Rossi cheers. "We saute until translucence."

Rossi's doorbell rings and Casey looks towards the door. "I'll get it." She smiles and headed to the door and opens the door and is greeted with Reid, who's dressed in a black blazer and has a bright blue striped shirt under. "Hey." Reid greeted.

"And just when I thought you wouldn't show up." Casey smiled and lets him in through the door as he had a bright smile on his face.

"Look who showed up!" Casey announces to everyone. "Sorry I'm late." Reid says. "Yeah. And this is why I cook alone." Rossi comments and Reid joins in with the group, standing next to JJ and Casey could tell on her face that she hoped there was no bad blood between them.

"So, uh, when do we get to drink the wine?" Emily asked. "Almost there." Rossi says. "Okay, we start at the beginning. You eat what you cook, I'll supervise, but we're gonna do this all together, just like a family."

"Okay, now?" JJ asks, holding up her glass.
"Now." Rossi smiled.

Everyone held up their glasses. "Uh, Casey, are
you—?" Rossi asks, looking at the wine glass in her hand. "Oh, it's a little wine. I can take it if only one glass." She assured to everyone. Casey handled any alcoholic beverage well if she just limited herself so she did. Plus, she was with her friends and she knew that they would help her out in time of need.

Casey clinked her glass with everyone in the group and felt happy, spending time with her family and that was all she really needed right now.

hey, lovelies!
this chapter lowkey sucked but oh well
thank you for reading!
i hope things are going well for you guys
lowkey feels like everything's falling apart recently
but
guess who's going to prom??? i'm really excited lol
i'm not excited for this school year to end tho :(
anywayssss
casey & reid protection squad <3
-mya <3333