CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT: TARGET ACQUIRED !

6x17
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CASEY WILLOWS LOOKED THROUGH THE FILES AS THE TEAM HAD BRIEFED OVER A FAMILY ANNIHILATOR. Casey had taken time to notice the empty seat that belonged to Emily. She was showing up late all the time, she wasn't acting like herself anymore and it was beginning to worry Casey.

Garcia was now debriefing the team on the case. "Two DC homes torched, two families, on the same night, last night." She explained.

"I'm surprised it still hasn't hit the news. It's already mid-day." Morgan stated. "Yeah, all anyone's talking about is this storm that may or may not hit. I managed to find an online article about the fires written by this guy, Jeff Hastings, but no one's running with it." Garcia told.

"How strange," Rossi spoke. "They usually thrive on tragedy." Garcia continues: "Yeah, and it gets weirder."

"Ron and Lauren Cosenza and their 10-year-old son were found in the master bedroom of their home, each shot through the forehead. The gun belonged to the father." Hotch explained. "Murder-suicide?" Ashley asked.

"Well, it looks like Metro PD's investigation is going that way, but it's still the first 48. They want our help." Morgan told. "Kerry and Frank Fagan, like the Cosenzas, were found in their master bedroom from a suspected gas leak." Reid explained.

"It had to be massive to cause that. I mean, how does the news miss a house explosion?" Casey questioned. That didn't make any sense to her. "Any connection between the families?" Ashley asked.

"Only one," Garcia told. "A continent. Kerry Fagan was born in Germany, Ron Cosenza is from Italy."

"So, two of the five victims are from Europe. How does that help?" Morgan asked. "It doesn't. I'm just stating the facts, and the facts happen to be..." Emily had immediately walked in, interrupting Garcia. "Guys, I'm sorry I'm late." Casey stared up at Emily.

"You okay?" Hotch asked. "Yeah, it's just one of those weeks, I guess." Emily took notice of Casey as Casey began to study her. Sure, that probably wasn't polite but Emily hadn't been herself lately.

"I'm sorry. What did I miss? Arsonist?" Emily asked as she looked up at the screen. "One appears to be murder-suicide, the other a freak accident." Morgan told. "So why are we looking at it?" Emily asks.

"House fires are rare," Rossi said. "Add to that a few miles apart, within the same hour, kind of tips the scales of coincidence." Reid followed: "Yeah, if somebody did this, they're highly motivated and organized."

"And if he wants to strike again, he's got 72 hours before the storm shuts the city down." Hotch stands and leaves the room, indicating for the team to start heading out.

Casey takes bit to pack up and is one of the last people in the room along with Emily and Penelope. Garcia them approaches Emily before she leaves. "Hey." Garcia greets with a smirk written on her face. "Hey." Emily greeted.

"What's his name?" Garcia asks. "I'm sorry?" Emily furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "Oh, answering a question with a question. That's interesting." Garcia comments and Emily looks at her. "Stop it."

"Stop what, probing?" Garcia asks.
"Seriously." Emily stated.
    "I'm gonna make it my life's work to find out who this boy is..." Casey smirks at Garcia's probing but her smile begins to drop as Emily starts to get serious. "Stop. Just stop."

Normally, Emily would've probably gone along with it but it was obvious she was getting irritated with Garcia. "We have enough to worry about already, don't we?" With that, Emily leaves and Casey finishes packing up and stands next to Garcia.

"Do you know what's going on with her?" Garcia asks and Casey shrugs and lets out a sigh. "Must be a hell of a week." She stated.

Hotch splits off the team and leaves Casey with Rossi and Emily, to Casey's luck. After what happened with Emily and Garcia, Casey didn't want Emily to bite her head off with no warning, so she didn't even speak or joke around with her like they normally do. It was obvious that Emily was off, but Casey didn't know what was going on with her.

Rossi and Emily headed to the crime scenes and tried to figure out what was going on with this case, as well. They were heading back to BAU and made small talk in the elevator. "Garcia hasn't found any connection between the victims." Rossi spoke. "There has to be one," Casey told. "On paper they're perfect. Everything's clean. But what happened to them last night was anything but."

Emily checks her cell phone as it beeps and lets out an aggravated sigh. "You okay?" Rossi asks and Emily sighs, "People text like it's not as intrusive as a phone call." Rossi and Casey exchange a glance. "You know, you haven't had a vacation in a while. Weren't you talking about Italy?"

"My mother extended her trip there. It wouldn't be much of a vacation." Emily told. "It's a big country." Rossi says. "Not big enough." Emily comments and Rossi smiles. "Well, think about it." Emily thinks, "I will."

The elevator lands to the BAU. "And pick a place where that thing won't work." Rossi told Emily and Casey smiles and she heads back to her desk over by Reid, who's at his desk and drops her bag down, making Reid jump.

Reid looks up at the girl, who noticed this. "I'm sorry." Casey apologizes. "I thought you were in there." Reid told, motioning his head over to the room. "Are you okay?" Casey asks. "Yeah, I'm... I'm..." Reid sighs. "I'm sure these victims overlap somehow. Garcia pulled their phone numbers, but so far I can't find anything."

Casey wasn't talking about the case. "You just jumped." She told. Reid looked like he was ignoring her and stopped speaking to her but Casey felt like an idiot standing there and spoke again as she remembered the text Reid sent her. "Reid." The man looked up at her.

"Talk to me. What's going on?" Reid dropped his head and began to think. "You said you'd tell me eventually." Reid tried to find the right words for it next. "I've been having these really intense headaches lately."

"Have you seen a doctor?" Casey asked. "Yeah, a few. None of them have been able to figure it out." Reid told, sitting up a bit. "Oh. I'm... sorry. Does anyone know?"

Reid looks up at the girl and simply says: "You."

Casey looks at him. "I won't tell anyone." She says. "I know," Reid says. "They'd just worry. Not that you're not gonna worry, but they'll just make me feel like a baby. You know?" He chuckles a bit.

"Ah, believe me, I know that feeling all too well. It sucks being one of the youngest here. Because if anyone knows anything about that... it's me." Casey smiles. She was glad that she had Reid to relate to with this type of thing. Being the youngest on the team surely didn't help with everyone treated them like they were kids.

"How about you?" Reid asks. "I'm good." Casey nods.
"You're biting your nails again. You only do that when you're stressed." Reid notices. "It's just a bad habit." Casey told.

Reid looks up at the girl and gives her a look. A look that says 'I know you're hiding something' and Casey sits at her desk and caves in. "Okay, you got me. I think they're something up with Emily. I don't have enough proof yet, but... there's something off. And I've been... stressing over it for the past few weeks. And maybe I'm going crazy, I don't know. But... there's something up with her."

"You're not the only one that thinks so." Reid says, looking at Emily as she walked past the two. Reid had suddenly figured out the connection and headed upstairs to the round table room and Casey followed.

       "I ran the victims' phone numbers. They never contacted each other, but there is a common number between them." Reid told and looks straight at Garcia. "Give it." She told. "Uh, 703-555-0118." Garcia did her magic. "Byron Delaney, his wife, Grace died last summer, children grown. What do you know? He's British."

      Morgan stands from his seat. "Garcia, send me the address. I'll grab Prentiss." He says. "I'll come with, too." Casey told and followed Morgan out as they grabbed Emily.

     In the car, Casey sat in the back as Emily and Morgan spoke. "So what's your take on these guys?" Emily asked. "They're contradicting themselves, exposing bodies but then going through all of this to hide it." Morgan told. "Do you think they wanted us on the case?" Casey asks.

     "Us, the BAU? Why would they?" Morgan asks. "Ego. Control. Some kind of agenda." Emily listed and Morgan shook his head. "I don't think we're even on their radar, Prentiss. Do you?" Emily began to think and shook her head. "You're right. Why would we be?"

      The trio arrived at the address and took notice. "You sure this is it?" Morgan asked. "Maybe nobody's home." Emily figured. "Well, Garcia never got an answer." She said as she unbuckled her seatbelt and she opened the car door and started to go around when all hell broke loose.

     "Prentiss, Willows, get down!" Morgan yelled and suddenly shots were being fired at the team. Casey ducked and hid behind the car and Morgan and Emily did the same thing. Casey looked and saw that there were people in white masks. Casey grabbed her gun and began to shook but the three were outnumbered.

       Morgan and Emily began to shoot as well. Emily had gotten a good shot at one of the unsubs and as soon as they turned the corner, the other unsubs were gone and the one Emily shot was dead.

       The three called the reinforcements and Hotch and the rest of the team and began to investigate. "Well, this is one story that's not gonna get buried." Morgan said as they stood over the unsub's body. Casey had taken his mask off with her glove. "He's just a kid. He can't be more than 25." Casey told.

      "A kid with an assault weapon isn't just a kid anymore." Morgan told as he kneeled. "Four rounds total. That one's yours. You hit his femoral artery." Emily sighed, "He was dead and they knew it. Bet he didn't bargain on that when he signed up."

      "He's got two shots to the head and then one in the wrist. Why the wrist?" Casey asked. "To make sure he can't return fire?" Emily assumed. "He was dead before his head hit the sidewalk." Morgan shook his head and examined his wrist. "Guys." Casey looked at what Morgan was looking at.

        "He's got a tattoo, at least what's left of one. They blew a hole through the tattoo because we could have ID'd him." Morgan told. "And we could've ID'd what they were, too." Casey followed. "So they're confident we can't ID his face or prints." Emily stood.

         Back at the BAU, everyone arrived back and Reid had been trying to figure out what the unsub's tattoo was on his wrist. "Reid, you got anything?" Morgan asked. "The damage is pretty extensive, but luckily some of the tattoo remains." Reid said.

       "Seaver, get the victim's photo out to the press." Hotch looked over at Ashley as she began to call. "I think I know who dug the hole," Garcia followed the team. "The journo told me to follow the money, like straight up, that's what he told me, so I did. It turns out The Gazette is owned by a multinational global conglomerate... oil, new technologies, shipping, air and ground transportation, all of which employ the services of one company... CWS." Garcia explained.

        "Clear Water Securities?" Hotch asks. "You know them?" Rossi asks. "I've come across them. They're a private counterintelligence group out of Geneva." Hotch tells. "Ron Cosenza, Byron Delaney, Kerry Fagan all worked for CWS." Garcia listed.

        "How long ago?" Casey asks. "Seven years." Garcia tells and Hotch tells Seaver to hang up the phone. "Do we have a problem?" Rossi asks. "Well, CWS does." Hotch says and Reid backs up in his chair and announces: "Got it." He had drawn a picture of a four-leafed clover. Emily had taken notice of it and excused herself to use the restroom.

       Casey and Garcia had both taken notice of Emily's behavior and both began to discreetly follow her to the bathroom. Emily had been getting off the phone with someone. "Are you okay?" Garcia asks as she enters. "Yeah, you left abruptly out there." Casey notices.

      "Oh, uh, yeah, I'm good." Emily told and Garcia approached her. "I'm not a profiler, but you—" Emily looked at the girl and snarked: "Don't start."

       "Hey." Casey spoke, beginning to defend Garcia to Emily. "Look, I don't know what's going on with you but you need to lose the attitude. And you can snap at me all you want, but don't take it out on her, she's just trying to help." Casey snapped back at Emily with the same tone Emily was using at the moment and Emily realized how harsh she was being and her face softened as she looked at Garcia.

        "I'm sorry," Emily apologized. "I'm... I'm gonna be all right." Garcia nodded, "Okay, I'm just really worried about you. I think the flu is going around." She joked and then her face dropped. "Are you pregs?"

        Emily began to laugh. "No, no. No, I'm just... I'm not sleeping. I'm having this nightmare. It's a recurring nightmare. I— There's a hill, and there's a little girl on top of the hill. She's like six years old, dark hair. And she's just dancing in the sun. But somehow I know that she's waiting for me, so I start to walk up the hill... but the hill gets steeper and steeper, and by the time I climb to the top, the little girl's gone. And I look everywhere for her, and when I can't find her, I start to panic. And I panic because I know what's waiting out there for her. I know what the world can do to a girl who only sees beauty. Like you."

       Garcia smiles and Emily looks at Casey. "And you." Casey smiles, as well. "Somehow you... you guys always make me smile. And I don't think I've ever thanked you for that." Everyone is distracted when Ashley walks through the doors. "Uh, Hotch needs you in the SCIF." She told.

        As Emily walks out with a small smile on her face, Casey can tell that something is still up. This had nothing to do with nightmares. Casey had only been a profiler for almost four years now and she knew when friends of hers were acting suspicious. But somehow, Casey just couldn't figure out what was wrong.

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        After the meeting in the SCIF, the team had discovered that their unsub had been Ian Doyle. They had found out a lot of information about this man. He was on everyone's list. All of the files had been locked and the key was thrown away. A day had passed and another killing had occurred.

      Casey knocked on Hotch's office door and entered and was met with Emily and Rossi and Hotch. "Metro got held up. Double homicide on K and 9th. They want us to take a look." Casey explained to her unit chief.

      "Doyle?" Hotch asks. "Vic's apartment looks like a black market forger." Casey says. "The other victim?" Emily asks. "A woman, 30s, no ID, outside his door." Casey said and Emily spoke: "I'm coming with you."

      "Take Morgan with you." Hotch told and Casey nodded as they headed outside the door. They arrived at the crime scene and Casey examined the dead man in the apartment.

      "This guy took two in the chest. He went quickly." Morgan told and Casey stood and looked at the woman's body next and Emily stared down at the woman. "One straight to the forehead." Morgan said. "The holes were made by a .45."

      "So, she comes to the door, and he shoots her. She didn't stand a chance." Casey said. Emily wasn't saying a word. "This has to be the work of our guy. She might be on our list." Morgan told. "We should run her prints." Casey nodded. "I need some air." Emily excuses herself and Morgan looks ahead as she leaves.

      "You know what's up with her?" Morgan asks. Casey sighs and shakes her head. "Hell of a week." She tells and follows Morgan outside of the building and both see Emily throwing up near a fence.

      "What did you do, pull a Whisky Pete's?" Morgan asks. "Uh, I don't know what that means. But if it involves getting vomit on your boots, then, yeah, I'm guilty." Emily tells as she wiped her mouth. "What can I do?" Morgan asks. "You need a soda or anything?" Casey asks.

       Emily thinks, "I live 10 minutes from here. Can we just swing by? 'Cause I think I got it on my pants, too." Morgan and Casey look at one another. "Hotch wants us to get back." Casey says. "I know. I'll be really quick, I promise." Emily tells and with that, the three head to her apartment.

        Morgan and Casey wait as Emily heads inside and changes her pants and boots. They waited for a good ten minutes before Emily came back and the sun was already gone. They headed back to the BAU where Hotch was already delivering the profile of Ian Doyle.

        "It's not often that we know a subject's name, and in this case, knowing Ian Doyle's identity doesn't give us very much. He's known to a select few, and those who know him well either work beside him or they're on his list. Two or three of his victims worked for cws and were responsible for his transport to north Korea."

       Casey stood near the doors as Emily and Morgan had watched Hotch deliver the profile. She crossed her arms as she watched everyone and her surroundings. "There were seven operatives on the mission altogether, and the remaining five have been warned. All the federal and international agents responsible for tracking him down are now on his list of targets. We'll find Doyle the way we find any other offender... by studying his behavior."

       As Hotch continued, Emily began to walk without anyone noticing her. But Casey had as she exited the doors and little did Casey know... that was going to be the last time that she would see Emily Prentiss for a while.

hey, lovelies!
i'm so scared yet excited for the next episode!
BRUH THAT HURT TO WRITE THAT LAST SENTENCE😭😭😭

also
as y'all have probably seen on my message board
there is some personal stuff going on in my life and honestly idk when i will get the next update in but yea just know it's some personal shit going on and the whole freaking news was involved man it's that bad . but if i don't update, that's a reason why.

i just want to say thank you to the ones that checked up on me around this time, i really needed it and i appreciate y'all so much❤️

also
i've been seeing some comments about this recently and imma just clear it up now
maeve is NOT going to be in this story
ik ik the headaches lead reid to maeve and whatnot but it's gonna be a little different in this story
i got some tricks up my sleeve ;)

anyways thank you for reading!
i love you guys and i am so grateful for all of y'all!
-mya <3