CHAPTER NINETY: AVOIDANCE AT ITS' BEST !

8x01

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      CASEY WILLOWS WAS ALWAYS AT HER BEST WHEN AVOIDING HER FEELINGS. Though it was never true, she'd like to believe it was. Since the night at Reid's, she'd been avoiding him as much as she could.

       When Emily announced her move to London, she quickly volunteered to go with her to help her move in. And Garcia went with her because, well, Garcia loved Emily and wanted to help her, too.

It had been a couple of weeks and Garcia and Casey had finally come back from London once Emily was settled in. They had arrived at the office and reunited with Morgan, who had been taking the month off since the last big case. He had decided to go with Garcia and Casey to London, as well. Garcia had bags and bags of gifts and she was explaining which gift was going to which person.

"Okay, you never gave your vote on who should get what." Garcia starts. "Give Reid the mug." Morgan decides. "Really? That means that JJ gets the double-decker bus?" Garcia questions. "I thought that was for Kevin." Casey tells.

"No, we're not talking right now." Garcia tells.
"Garcia, you guys were just talking—" Morgan tries and Casey looks his way. "Don't even bother, they're on and off." Casey tells. "Never mind then." Morgan shakes his head.

Garcia looks around. "Wait, where is everybody?" She asks. "Don't tell me they're still in Seattle." The team had been taking a case in Seattle, as you could so tell. Morgan points behind Garcia and Casey and sees JJ and Reid walking in.

"Hi!" JJ greets. "Hey! You guys are back!" JJ goes in to hug Casey and then Garcia. Casey tenses up as she sees Reid alongside her. The two haven't spoken in a while. Casey had ended up moving on the opposite side of Garcia so she wouldn't have to stand next to him. She watched his face grow sad and couldn't help but feel bad. But Casey didn't know how to approach the situation with him. I mean, it wasn't everyday you slept with your co-worker.

"How's Emily doing?" Reid asks, giving a fist-bump to Morgan. "Brilliant and lovely." Garcia speaks in an accent. "Her apartment's off the chain." Morgan tells. "You mean her flat. You have to take a shaky old lift to get to the top, but the view is brilliant." Garcia hands Reid the mug. "For my favorite bloke."

"Hey, I love it! Thank you!" Reid smiles and Garcia hands JJ the double-decker bus. "Thanks." JJ tells. "How was temporary duty?" Reid asks Morgan.

"Oh, it was around the clock. I thought I'd get a little more of a vacation, but..." Morgan shrugs. "Did you watch the Olympics at all?" Reid asked. "I did see a little track and field, but the Queen Bee and Ice Princess here, saw everything." Morgan points to Garcia and Casey.

"Ice Princess?" JJ asked.
"I did a little ice skating in London." Casey shrugged.
"She was like Tonya Harding on that ice." Morgan tells. "Well, I did get a lot of lessons as a child." Casey shrugs and then came to a realization. "Gideon really wanted me to be preoccupied when he went on cases."

"Emily is for real hooked up over there," Garcia changes the subject. "She sends her love. And tea of the month starts next week."

"Ohh. I miss her." JJ groans. "She misses you guys, too. She misses all of us." Casey tells. "Don't even get me started." Garcia tells. "Hey, how's the newb? Is she nice?"

Once Emily had left, Hotch had been looking for a replacement agent and found a woman by the name of Dr. Alex Blake. She seemed pretty cool from what JJ was saying and how much Garcia looked up about her on the plane ride home.

"Yeah, she is." JJ nods. "I'm just asking. Reid, do you know when she was recruited she was 24?" Garcia looks Reid's way. "I've guest lectured in her forensic linguistics class before." Reid nods. "Of course you have, 'cause she's a professor and an agent, which is so impressive." Garcia rolls her eyes. "Pen, don't be like that." Casey tells.

      "Really, she's great." JJ assures. "And driven, clearly. Berkeley grad, double major, like our fellow fair maiden here. Bureau star of the Unabomber case. And she teaches at Georgetown. When she's not doing that, she's SSAing at the Washington Field Office, and she's has her PhD. Does that mean I have to call her doctor?" Morgan and JJ give her a look. "What?! I did some research on her 'cause I couldn't sleep on the plane."

       Morgan and JJ looked Casey's way. "Don't worry, I lectured her for doing that." Casey holds her hands up in surrender. "And my point is, clearly, she is smart and capable, but is she nice?"

        Morgan clears his throat and Casey turns around and sees a woman behind Garcia. Garcia makes a face and Casey steps off to the side. "Oh, dear God, this is happening, where I talk and the person is behind..." Garcia whispers and turns around. "Me."

       "The origin of 'nice' is 12th Century Middle English, meaning foolish or stupid. I hope you're referring to the modern use of the adjective." The woman told. Casey looks down as the woman talks to Garcia. "You must be Penelope. I'm Alex Blake."

       "Nice to meet you," Garcia tells. "Really, actually nice in the nicest of ways nice." Morgan approaches the woman and holds a hand out. "I'm Derek Morgan." He introduces himself and Casey takes the obligation to introduce herself as well. "Casey Willows, pleasure to meet you."

      "Welcome back, both of you." Alex tells the two. "How was Seattle?" Casey asks. "The unsub made Ridgeway look like a saint. He even used his own kid to bait the victim." Alex explained. "Well, we've seen that before. No doubt we'll see it again." Morgan says.

        Rossi walks into the building. "Don't unpack." He tells. Hotch walks in behind him. "Garcia, the files." With that, the team walks into the roundtable room. Casey watched as Reid took a seat and looked over at the open seat next to him, hoping Casey would take it like she always did. Except this time, she took the seat next to JJ. Why was she avoiding him?

      "A few hours ago there was a prison transfer to the county hospital in Abilene, Texas." Strauss hands the team the files. "The ambulance crashed and the prisoner escaped. He's wearing the EMT uniform, and he's armed with the guard's weapon." She explains.

       "Aren't the U. S. Marshals on this?" Morgan asks. "Yes, they are, but they need your help because this is what they found inside." Strauss tells. "The EMT and the driver died in the accident. The guard, however, suffocated."

      "What's on his mouth?" JJ asks.
      "It was sewn shut." Strauss reveals.
      "Mm, nice." Casey speaks, sarcastically.

     "So the prisoner is The Silencer." Alex says. "Or this guy's a copycat." Rossi adds. "Forensics confirmed it's the same unique double-knot ligature he used in all 3 murders." Hotch tells.

     "His last known victim was in 2004 and he was never caught." Reid tells. "So he didn't go dormant by choice. He was locked up." JJ added. "Well, why not just escape? If he hadn't sewn the guard's mouth shut, we would never know it was him." Morgan tells. "He wants us to know he's back." Casey says. "We've got his face. What's his name?" Alex asks.

      "John Doe," Hotch answers. "He was pulled over in '04 for a traffic violation. No registration, no tags. He carried no ID." Alex looks down at the file. "No way he did eight years for that."

      "They searched the car and found a gun with a silencer." Hotch informed. "A silencer? He was practically telling them who he was from the git." Casey told. "And no one made the connection." Rossi added.

       "It's a federal offense, carries a 30-year minimum sentence. But it was actually what he did inside that guaranteed him life without parole." Hotch says and JJ looks at the file. "He killed two men while inside." Reid adds on, "And never said a word."

      "He spoke with his fists." Alex says. "Remaining silent for 8 years takes a hell of a lot of self-restraint." Morgan tells. "Maybe it was a conditioned response." Reid tells and he sneaks in a glance of Casey as he speaks.

       "Garcia's gathering all the files from '04. We'll catch up on the plane. Wheels up in 30." With that, the team heads off.

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       The team had soon found out who they were dealing with and delivered the profile. The unsub was leaving messages in the sewn victims' mouths. They were trying to decipher if it was some kind of code.

       Casey and Reid still hadn't talked. The whole reason Casey was avoiding him was because she didn't know what to say to him. What could she say? And Reid just wanted to talk to her. To have a conversation with her. He had thought about that night almost every day. She haunted all of his memories.

       Reid had decided that he was going to talk to her. Maybe it wasn't the best timing but he knew that if he didn't talk to her, she'd never make the move herself. He had seen that she was standing by herself near the fax machine and began to speak. Casey's eyes widened and she tried avoiding eye contact with him at all costs.

     "Casey, I wanna talk—" Reid tried but Casey had grabbed what she needed and tried to head back to the place they set up at. "I should get these to Hotch. He needed these." She walked in the opposite direction and Reid began to follow her.

     "Casey, don't—" He was now behind her and he followed her in the room. Luckily, no one was there. "Can we at least talk about this?"

      "Talk about what, Spencer?" Casey questioned. "How we slept together, how we had sex? Is that what you wanna talk about?"

       "Yes!" Reid tells. "That's exactly what I wanna talk about!"

       "Well, I don't!" Casey says and runs a hand through her hair and takes a deep breath and begins to speak in a more calm manner. "It just... it wouldn't work out."

       "What wouldn't work out?" Reid asks. "Us!" Casey tells. "We're different! We're opposites! You're clean, I'm messy. You're smart, I'm... decent." Reid looks down as Casey looks his way. "What? Do you think I'm... I'm ready to start a relationship? We aren't meant to be, Reid."

      Reid's heart breaks at hearing Casey say that. He thought what they had was a sure thing. "Can we at least try?" He asks in a small voice. "I don't... know." Casey tells, unsure of what to do.

     "Why?"

     "Because-Because... I just... Spence, I like what we have now. Our friendship, that's what I like. And we would ruin it completely if we dated. And if we broke up, how would we handle it?"

      "I imagine it professionally, I mean, 9 out of 10 people who work at the FBI are married and—"

      "Spence, cut the statistic crap." Casey groans and realizes what she had just said to Reid. "I'm sorry, I just... I'm a little overwhelmed."

       "Look, I understand..." Reid approaches the girl closer. "But it doesn't seem so bad to give it a shot."

       Casey backs up a bit. "If you understood, you wouldn't be asking me this right now." She says and looks around to make sure no one is listening in. "Look, us sleeping together was a one time thing. Okay?" She whispers. "It's never gonna happen again. So stop trying to let it happen."

      As much as Casey did like Reid, she knew she couldn't have a relationship with him. Maybe hurting him could push him away farther. She had trust issues, abandonment issues, she couldn't bring all of that on Reid. He deserved someone who didn't break like glass. Sure, he was just as broken as her but Casey knew that he deserved someone that wasn't so hard to love. And Casey knew that she was a hard person to love.

       The girl walked out of the room and wiped her right eye. JJ had noticed her coming out since she was about to go in. "Hey;" She noticed Casey's behavior. "You okay?" She asked.

       "Doesn't matter." Casey shakes her head. "I'm fine."

       "Are you sure, if you wanna talk—"
       "I said I'm fine." Casey snapped a bit and walked away, going outside the building to get some fresh air.

       Soon enough, after catching her breath, she decided to go back inside. She had caught JJ getting coffee and headed over to her. Casey needed someone to talk to about this and she knew that JJ probably would understand. I mean, she was in a similar situation with Will when they first met.

       "Hey, JJ, can I talk to you?" Casey asked. "And can I trust you to keep a secret?" JJ looks around. "Uh, sure." With that, Casey pulls JJ into a different room and shuts the door behind her as well as the blinds and looks at JJ.

       "Okay, I need you to swear, and I mean: swear that you won't tell anyone. Anyone. About what I'm about to tell you." Casey tells. "Okay, I swear." JJ nods.

       Casey looked around and knew no one was in the room but felt anxious. "How would you react if... I told you that... I... slept with someone from the BAU?" She questions.

     JJ raises an eyebrow and cuts to the conclusion. "Was it Reid?" She questions.

    "Say it was?" Casey tells, fidgeting with her hands.

    JJ raises her eyebrows again as she looks at the girl in disbelief. "Really?" She asks. "Yeah, I know." Casey tells and then realizes that JJ had guessed correctly. "Wait, how'd you know?"

    "Lucky guess," JJ tells. "That and you haven't been talking to each other." Casey shrugs at that. "Well, does this mean you guys are together now or—?"

     "No," Casey answers. "Maybe, I-I don't know." She shakes her head. "We went to his apartment after the wedding but we weren't gonna sleep together, that wasn't even the plan. Then we were bored and we started to play truth or dare and it was my turn and he said dare and one thing led to another and I kissed him." Casey explains.

      "Well, you gotta talk to him or else he thinks you ditched him." JJ says. "But I kinda did." Casey tells. "And that's why you need to apologize and make it right." JJ tells.

      Casey groans, "Ugh, I hate when you're right."

     "I'm just flattered that I'm the first person you told." JJ shrugged. "Of, course." Casey told.

     "Hotch and Rossi are like my dads so I don't wanna tell them, Derek would probably give me the wrong advice, Emily would never let me live this down and she's all the way in London and Garcia, you know Garcia, the woman that can't keep a secret to save her life," Casey listed. "The point is, you really think I should talk to him?"

      JJ nods, "Yeah."

     "I should've gone to Morgan." Casey shakes her head.

     "Hey!" JJ holds her hands up in defense. "If you don't want my advice, don't come to me for advice." She says. "Just... try and talk to him."

      "See, I can't really do that now because I've been avoiding him and we kinda had a spat. And I don't even know what to say." Casey explains.

       "Well, open your heart up. Let him in. Because he's important to you. And you're important to him and you two are the most important people to me in the world. And I'd hate to see you guys go to waste. Just try." JJ reasons.

      Casey begins to think it over. Maybe she should wait until to case ends to say anything. I mean, right now obviously wasn't the best time but she knew she had to follow with JJ's advice. She should have a reasonable convo with him. And maybe she could fix this. She knew she wanted to be with him but it was only a matter of time before she could fix everything.

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one more chapter after this, guys!!
-mya </3