PROLOGUE:  COFFEE SHOP !

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       CASEY WILLOWS WAS CURRENTLY HAVING AN AVERAGE TUESDAY MORNING. She had gotten up early, did her morning run, headed back to her dorm, changed into her regular clothes and went down to her favorite coffee shop.

      Since Gideon had left, Casey had continued her education at UC Berkeley and was soon to be finishing it up. She had graduated two years prior at the age of seventeen (almost eighteen) and was now living an adult's life. The twenty year-old was studying hard and would soon be going off to the FBI Academy, in a couple of weeks here. She would soon be back home in Virginia.

     Now, finding a place back home — that was gonna be hard. Perhaps she could stay with Emily again until she was stable on her feet. But she wouldn't want to intrude on staying at her apartment, but maybe Emily wouldn't mind.

     Casey had currently been sipping on her coffee and looking for apartments to live in back in Quantico. She had to look for one soon before she would show up back home, homeless. Her eyes had stared down at the cost of a one-bedroom apartment and she sighed, wondering if moving back was even a good option.

       She must've been staring hard at the paper ads because she hadn't seen who had walked into the shop just moments ago.

    "Casey?" The girl snapped her head up at the sound of her name, her eyebrows furrowed and as soon as her eyes made contact of the person calling her, she smiled.

    "Dr. Reid." She said.

        Casey had recognized Dr. Spencer Reid, the man who was with her the night she'd found two envelopes addressed to the both of them from her uncle. Despite her feelings of him unintentionally stealing her time away from her uncle, she wasn't gonna lie, she had major crush on him back when she was sixteen but a couple of years had passed and of course, she grew to push those feelings away because of her irritation towards the man and plus, he was a bit older than her so nothing could really happen.

       And besides, she'd seen a new side of him since finding out Gideon had left, Reid texted her a few times, telling her that if she needed anything, he'd offer his services whenever she needed it. How could she dislike him after that?

Casey had stood up in her spot and went for a hug but then stopped when she remembered — "Oh, sorry. Forgot you had that germ... thing." Reid shook his head and smiled at the ground. "Oh, it's okay."

Reid didn't know what to say to Casey as he looked at her. Now thinking about it, they didn't really have much in common. The only thing they could really relate to was that they confided in Gideon.

"So, what brings you here? You wouldn't come all the way to California just for a cup of coffee, would you?" Casey chuckled.

      "We, uh, we actually have a case here." Reid informed, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear. "Oh, I think I know what you're talking about. Is this about those murders in the clubs?" Reid nodded, "Uh, yeah, actually. You've heard?"

        "It's all over the news. Are you guys close to finding out who did it?" Casey asked. "Uh, actually, not yet. I think the rest of the team is taking care of it back at the police station, though." Reid informed and Casey nodded, "Well, good, if anybody can solve anything, it's you guys." She smiled to which Reid gave a small smile back.

         "How are you... doing?" Casey asked.

       She had known about a lot that has happened to him in the past year. Ever since he was taken by Tobias Hankel and drugged and he ended up getting addicted to the drug that Tobias injected in him. Casey saw that Gideon had worried for him but he didn't do much about it — neither did the rest of the team. She figured that they probably just didn't want him to lose his job, but she believed that they still should've helped — and maybe she should've, too.

        "I've been, uh, doing... average, I guess. I've been a bit lethargic recently, but I guess that's just the price of the job." Reid said and a woman had called his coffee order — that Casey noticed involved a lot of sugar — and Reid had grabbed his coffee and decided to sit at the table that Casey was now sitting at.

       Casey could tell that Reid had been meaning to ask a question — but perhaps he didn't know how to word it. He had this gleam in his eye that Casey could read from a mile away and finally, he asked it.

"Have you, um, have you— heard from Gideon, at all?" There was the question.

Casey looked down at her mug and ran her thumb down the cup and tapped it with her index finger. "No," She answered. "Not since we found the letters."

"Makes you think." Reid said.

Casey furrowed his eyebrows.

"Why did he only explain himself to us? I mean, we're not the only people that he left." Reid stated and Casey nodded.

Maybe it had been the fact that Casey and Reid had previously been abandoned by their fathers when they were younger and that they counted on Gideon as their father figure after everything they went through.

"All he left were two letters." Reid repeated.

Casey rested her head on her knuckle. "And a key." She said, causing Reid to look up at her in confusion. She never mentioned anything about a key that night.

"When I went back home after that, there was an envelope in my mailbox. He left me the key to our old apartment. Said that it was mine if I wanted it. But... if I go back, it'll be like walking into that crime scene again." Casey remembered that night she had gotten a call about Gideon committing a crime and that his college friend, Sarah, was murdered in their apartment and it was all Frank Breitkopf's doing. Casey had been taken by Breitkopf along with Tracy Belle and that had been a little over a year ago now.

Casey motioned to the papers in front of her. "That's why I've been looking at apartment ads. I'm coming to Virginia. I'm starting at the FBI Academy in a couple of weeks here." Reid nodded at the girl and smirked a bit. He remembered Gideon always saying she was going to be working with him one day. "That's great. Congratulations." Casey smiled, "Thanks."

She looked down at the ads in front of her. "So, what should I do? Where should I go?" Casey asked. Reid tightened his lips and sighed, "Well, I say you find one you think would be good for you and then sell your old apartment and if you can't find one, maybe try giving the old apartment a chance?"

Casey sighed, "Maybe I should just have you make all of my decisions for me from now on." Reid's cell phone began to ring and he immediately picked it up and it had been Prentiss calling for him and telling him to meet her at a new crime scene.

"I should get going. Good luck at the academy. Many people under the age of twenty-one normally don't get to attend the FBI Academy but for you, I'm guessing they made an exception." Reid said. "Yeah, but it mostly hard work, I guess." Casey told.

Reid nodded at the girl and began to walk away when Casey stopped him, "Hey." Reid turned to her. "Tell everyone I said hi — and that I'll be joining that round table soon." Reid chuckled a bit, grabbed his jacket and walked out of the coffee shop and Casey smiled to herself.

Casey had decided that she would take his advice. She went to go and visit her old apartment and decided to put it up for rent. She had found an apartment that was right next door to her old one and moved in immediately afterwards.

This was where her story would soon begin . . .

hey, lovelies!
hahahahha this is shit but it's new and it's improved i guess!!
this was a pretty small prologue but it's just a little scene between casey and spencer
i love you all
thank you for reading!!
-mya <3