CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: ALASKA !

5x21
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       "WELL, ARE YOU GONNA CALL HIM?" JJ asked as she, Emily and Casey had been walking down the street with cups of coffee in their hands. The question had been to Emily and the question had been about a man from another unit that Emily had gotten along with over at their last case.

       Emily shrugged to JJ's question. "Maybe." She admitted. JJ groaned: "Emily." Emily gave a look to JJ. "Mick Rawson is an arrogant, oversexed, egotistical--"
JJ interrupts. "Hot British dude with a sexy accent, badge, and gun. Just your type."

      "You know what? I don't even get you sometimes." JJ says. Casey takes another sip of her coffee. "It wouldn't go anywhere." Emily says. "You don't know that." JJ tells. "I know our work schedules."
       "Okay, you know what? Will and I make it work." Emily rolls her eyes at JJ's comment.

       "That's 'cause he loves you more than life itself. Emily's perfectly fine being by herself. She doesn't need a guy." Casey added on and JJ gave the girl a look. "You know, you're not off the hook either." JJ told.

       Casey furrowed her eyebrows at JJ. "What's that supposed to mean?" She asks. "I see the googly-eyes you and Reid make and don't tell me that I'm wrong." JJ answers and Emily nods along: "Ooh, I thought I was the only one who noticed."

       Casey rolls her eyes at her co-workers. "Oh, please. Get real. Reid is my friend and my co-worker."

      "Denying her feelings now, is she?" Emily commented.

      "There are no feelings to deny! We're just friends!" Casey defends. "Yeah, just friends that like to look at each other like they're about to kiss." JJ taunts as Emily chuckles at her comment.

      "Okay, subject change starting now." Casey chuckled.

      The subject did, in fact, change when the two had spotted Penelope with lots and lots of shopping bags. "Oh, no." JJ sighs. Penelope approached them. "I know. I know. I know. Don't say it. But when you see what's in here... and it's not my fault. They were calling to me, I swear. And they were all on sale. And when you think about it, that means that I am helping the economy, which is more than I can say for you guys, 'cause no one else has bags." Penelope rambled.

      "Yeah, please tell me all of those aren't for my son." JJ says. "They're not." Penelope says. "Good." Penelope holds a small bag up. "This one is for Kevin." Casey closes her eyes: "Oh, Pen, it is so like you to go overboard."

      "What? It is my duty as a fairy godmother to spoil the child and since you're actually Henry's godmother, should you be doing the shopping?" Penelope questions. "I was kind of hoping to just give him a card with my name on it and $20 inside." Casey stated.

     "Henry is finally old enough to be fun when opening presents. I'm not taking them back. Give me my coffee and no one's gonna get hurt." Garcia looks at Emily. "Oh, uh, half-caf extra shot venti, two-pump nonfat, hold the whip caramel macchiato." Emily hands her cup to her.

     "Mm-hmm. Next stop, Xanadu." Emily and Garcia click their cups together Casey and Garcia do the same. JJ's cell phone beeps and she says: "Oh, wait. Uh... Xana-don't. Time to go to the BAU, ladies." All of the women take an exasperated sigh. "Never a dull moment." Casey sighs.

     "Maybe I should get a cat." Emily comments.

      The women arrive at the office and see Hotch, Reid and Morgan already at the round table. Rossi had arrived, too. His tie had been undone and everyone gave him a look.
"Sorry to ruin your night." Hotch tells. "What, are you working on wife number four?" Morgan asks.

      "I see you people way too much." Rossi comments and Casey chuckles at the man. "Let's get started." Hotch says.

      "All right, Anchorage field office is asking us to investigate a series of murders in Franklin, Alaska. There's three people dead in less than a week." JJ tells. "For a town with a population of 1,476, that's fairly significant." Reid stated. "It's their first murder investigation on record." JJ adds.

      "Who are the victims?" Rossi asks. "Uh, Jon Baker, a hunter. Dedaimia Swanson, a schoolteacher. Brenda Bright, the first mate on a fishing boat. There's a new victim every two days." JJ tells.

       "Any connections?" Emily asks. "Unfortunately, in a town this small, everyone's connected." JJ told. "Different kill methods. It says the first two victims were both shot with a rifle, but Brenda Bright was stabbed twice with an arrow?" Morgan read from the file.

        "Different victimology and MO. Are we sure it's the same guy?" Casey questions. "All three victims were found in heavily trafficked areas. The unsub wants them found sooner than later." Hotch answers.

       "Jon Baker's body was left exposed to the elements, but the two women were buried under mounds of trash. Why?" Emily asks. "It could be a sign of remorse," Reid told. "Cover their bodies so he doesn't have to face the reality of what he's done."

"Or he thinks that the women are trash and he's just placed them where he thinks they belong." Morgan tells. "Well, we can't be sure of anything yet. Franklin is an isolated fishing community that's been hit really hard by the current economy. Add to that a series of unsolved murders and everyone's on edge." JJ stated.

       "The local sheriff's out of his depth and Alaska hasn't handled a serial investigation since Robert Hansen in the eighties. We'll fly out tonight. Everybody can sleep on the plane. Garcia, I need you with us."
        Garcia looks at the man in confusion. "Sir?"
        "I've tasked a satellite uplink and it's your job to keep us connected."
        "Yes, sir."

"This town's already on the brink, And if this pattern continues, we've only got another day until the next murder. Let's finish this fast."

The team went on the jet and packed all of the clothes that could keep them bundled up traveling to a place like Alaska. They were currently debriefing over the case. "This guy's all over the map. Crosses sex and race boundaries. He changed his kill method. It says to me he's disorganized." Emily stated as Casey had been walking back to them, a hot coffee in her left hand for Penelope and hot cocoa for herself.

"Yet there weren't prints at any of the crime scenes, and he isolated his victims." Rossi added. "Wearing gloves and making sure there aren't any witnesses — that's a no-brainer. But what concerns me is the evolution of the kills." Morgan told.

      "Evolution?" JJ asked. "Well, he started with easy prey. Jon Baker was in his mid sixties. It's relatively low-risk for a first-timer. Dedaimia Swanson was in her early fifties. She wouldn't be that difficult to overpower." Morgan explained.

       "But he didn't have to overpower either one of them. Both victims were shot." Reid added. "Which is my point exactly. He killed them both from a safe distance. But Brenda Bright was younger, more athletic. She would have been able to put up much more of a fight, so why not shoot her, too?" Morgan told.

        "That supports the disorganized theory." Hotch told. "Maybe he didn't get what he wanted from his first two victims. Brenda Bright was an attractive woman. He used an arrow, but he didn't shoot her with it. He stabbed her. I think we all know what that means." Rossi told.

       "If he's disorganized, it could be a teenager that we're dealing with." Casey adds. "What makes you think that?" Morgan asks. "Well, think about it: alpha males are more organized. Teenagers go through with the kill, they don't think about how organized they have to be. They just do it." Casey explained and everyone began to take into consideration of what she said.

      "When we land in Anchorage, there'll be a float plane to take us to Franklin. When we get there, Morgan and Prentiss work the crime scene. We need to know exactly how he ambushed his victims. Reid, Willows and Rossi, the bodies, find out what you can there. JJ and I will work victimology. And, Garcia, town records. Find us something we can use." Hotch grouped them up.

        "Of course, sir," Garcia told. "I should let everybody know that reception in the area is unreliable at best. I'm giving everybody satellite phones for communication and I've already preprogrammed all your digits into speed dial. Guess who's lucky number eight."

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       The team had taken the plane to Franklin and were greeted with a car to take them to station. A man had been standing outside of the station. "Agent Hotchner?" Hotch nodded. "Yes, sir." The man put his hand out. "Sheriff Rhodes." They introduced one another.

      "I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you all could come. The people here are really starting to act up. I'm afraid our little town's a bit of a powder keg." Rhodes told. "Where would you like us to set up, sir?" JJ asked.

      "You see, there's not much room at the station because that's also the post office. But I have made arrangements for you to work out of Carol's tavern, which is right over there." The team thanked him.

       "Small town, huh?" Casey mutters as they head back to the car. "Oh, yeah." JJ nods along.

       Reid, Rossi and Casey all headed the morgue in the town. They were greeted with the morgue conductor. "Sheriff asked me to keep everyone on ice till you got here. Still, I can't believe someone from Franklin would be capable of this." The man stated.

      "What convinced you she was stabbed with the arrow instead of shot?" Reid questioned. "Upward angle at the point of entry. He would have had to been shooting from beneath her." They walked into the room where the bodies were being kept.

       "There wasn't much left. Forest got to him first. I found urine on the remains." Casey furrowed her eyebrows. "Urine?" She asked. "I thought it was from the animals who scavenged his body, but I got the lab results back this morning." Rossi looked down at the results. "The urine was human. Is he marking his victims?"

      "Only found it on Jon," The man told. "Both the women were clean." Reid looked down at the results as well. "Jon was shot three times. The unsub grazed him twice and then hit him in the head. Dedaimia Swanson was only shot once." Reid told.

      "The first kill shows hesitation, uncertainty. He wasn't confident taking the terminal shot." Casey told. "Still going with your teenager theory?" Rossi asked the girl. "Maybe." Casey sighed.

      "It was either accidental or spur of the moment, but the second kill, he only needed one shot. He's progressing quickly." Reid followed. "Were you close with the victims?" Casey asked the man.

      "An occupational hazard when you're the only doctor in town," The man told. "I delivered Brenda. Never thought I'd outlive her." Reid looked down at the bodies to get a closer look. "Look at the cuts on her torso." Casey kneeled next to him.

      "They're shallow and non-penetrating." Reid told. "Not necessary for the murder." Rossi said. "You know what? These were made postmortem. He's playing with the bodies, experimenting with his methodology." Reid stood up again and helped Casey up next.

       "Someone incapable of remorse." Rossi told. "We're dealing with a psychopath." Casey stated. "Have you determined whether or not she was raped?" Reid questioned. "I didn't even think to look." The doctor admitted.

       Later on in the night, everyone had regathered and began to discuss what they had all discovered here in the town. They had seated themselves in the tavern, warm under the fire. Casey covered herself with a small blanket, settled on the couch with the rest of the team. Casey was sitting next to Reid - both being on separate sides of the couch.

      "He's already experimenting with his victims. He violated Brenda Bright with an arrow." Rossi started. "And he's inciting panic. People who have lived here most of their lives are packing up to leave." Morgan told.

      "Can you blame them? We have a psychopath whose hunting ground is a town of 1,400 people." JJ told. "Most of them grew up learning to kill animals and start fires." Reid added. "It sounds like your basic survival skills." Rhodes told. "No, they're hunting skills. Think about it. The marksmanship, the urine-- it makes sense." Rossi told.

      "The urine makes sense?" Casey asks. "It's a hunter's trick. You urinate downwind to keep the animals away." Rossi nodded. "He tried to preserve Jon Baker's body so it would be discovered intact." Hotch said.

      "All right, so we've got a psychopath with hunting skills who knows the routines of everyone in town. How are we supposed to keep everyone safe?" JJ asked.

      "Sheriff, I suggest you institute a curfew until we have the unsub in custody. Nobody out after dark." Hotch suggested to Rhodes. "I'll have one of my deputies patrolling around the clock." Rhodes told.

      "Garcia, how's it coming with town records?" Hotch asks. "I've run everyone who's been printed through CODIS. Nothing's come up so far. I'm gonna pull an all-nighter, finish going through the town records. Should have background checks by sunrise." Garcia explained.

     "Good," Hotch says. "The rest of us should get some sleep, start fresh in the morning." Carol, who owned the tavern, came in the room. "I've got four of the upstairs rooms available." She said.

      "Uh, four?" Reid questioned.

      "Come on, that's the best we can do," Rhodes says. "Your team is double the size of my department. I'll see you in the morning." Rhodes begins to leave. "Good night." Hotch says and then looks at the rest of his team. "It looks like we'll have to double up."

     "I'm not sleeping with Reid." Morgan told and Reid looks at him with confusion written on his face. Garcia raises a hand to Morgan and grabs his hand. "Dibs." She smirked.

     "Wait, if you two are sharing..." Casey sits up and looks at Garcia and Morgan. "And you two and you two—" Casey's eyes avert to Emily and JJ and then to Rossi and Hotch. "Then—" Suddenly, her eyes go back to Reid next to her and she realizes she's going to have to bunk up with him. "Seriously? Why do I always get stuck with him? No offense."

       Fortunately, the two had been blessed with a room with two separate beds. There had been a lamp in the middle of the beds, dividing them. Reid had been sitting up in bed, finishing a chapter of the book he brought with him. Casey had been tossing and turning but she just couldn't sleep for the life of her. Suddenly, she spun over to the lamp and Reid's side of the bed and decided to ask the lingering question she had for him.

       "Hey, Reid?" Casey asked. Reid looked over at the girl. "Yeah?" He asked. Casey took a deep breath. "After what happened to me... to us... why didn't you come and visit me more? I mean, you only came to visit me once. And it wasn't even that long. I mean, Morgan, Garcia, they all came to visit, all the time. Why didn't you?" Reid looked as if he was hesitating on what to say. He didn't know how to answer her question.

Suddenly, he decided to just say it. "I didn't know if you wanted me to." Reid told and Casey looked at him.
"Of course, I wanted you to." She said. "You were the only other person that understood what I was going through. You were. And I wanted you there. I waited. I just wanted to talk to someone. Someone who could understand."

Reid looked at the girl. "Well, then, why can't you just talk to Hotch?"

Casey knew. She knew that everyone had known that the two currently weren't on speaking terms. But Reid had pushed a button. Instead of going off and telling him that it wasn't his business, Casey just spun around on the other side of her bed, her gaze leaving from Reid. "Goodnight." She stated.

It had been at least two hours and Casey was getting rest. But something had woken her up. She stirred awake and spun around - noticing that the lamp was turned off and that Reid had finally gone to bed. She was woken up to the sound of someone yelling for help. "Help! Help! Please! Somebody come help here!"

Casey turned the lamp on. "Reid? Reid. Do you hear that?" She asked but there had been no response from Reid. She had decided to go and check it out herself. She took a lamp light with her and put her robe on. She had gone downstairs and heard the yells coming from outside. Casey looked down at the couch and noticed Penelope's phone and her computer had still been sitting out in the open.

"Help! Help! Someone is hurt! Please!" Casey rushed outside and took notice that the yells belonged to Penelope. She looked around and saw Penelope kneeled next to a dead body and tears streaming down her face. "Penelope!" Casey shouted and she looked around. "Stay here, I'll get help!"

      Casey got help and now the team was standing outside as they waited for the body to be held at the morgue. Rhodes had identified the man as Hotch, Emily, Rossi, Reid and Casey had all stood in front of it. "His name's Craig Ramey. Fisherman."

     "Morgan and I met him this morning. He was packing up to leave." Emily told. "He's accelerating his schedule. We should have had another day. Why change that?" Reid questioned. "Ramey was pretty vocal about wanting to get out of town. If the unsub knew that, he could have struck early to prevent his target from getting away." Emily stated.

      "There has to be more to it than that. He brought the body to the tavern we're staying at." Rossi told as Casey kneeled over the body. "He's telling us that he's not afraid of us. He's gaining confidence." Hotch added. "He switched to a hunting knife." Rossi told, kneeling next to Casey and Reid examined the body as well.

     "Looks like a jagged edge." Casey identified. "There's more physical damage, too, like he was cut open," Reid pointed. "I won't know until Dr. Johnson does an autopsy, but I'd be willing to bet he took a piece of the victim with him." Reid told and Casey scrunched up her face.

     "What kind of piece?" Hotch asked. "It's hard to say, but judging from the location, I would guess liver or spleen." Reid told. "Nice." Casey sarcastically commented as she stood up.

     Morgan had approached the team once the body had been taken to the morgue. "This guy's taunting us. He's one step ahead." Rossi told. "I think you're giving him more credit than he deserves. It's like Emily said on the plane, he's all over the place. The victimology's inconsistent, the methodology's evolving, The first kill was sloppy, hesitant, and unplanned." Hotch explained.

     "It was an accident, but it triggered a sexual response. He got off on it." Emily told. "And he knew then and there he had to kill again. He learned how to get the job done more efficiently." Morgan said. "Yeah, but why the organs?" Casey asked.

      As if on cue, Reid approaches the team. "Consumption typically indicates a desire to keep the victim with them. He's having trouble letting go. We're probably looking for someone with severe abandonment issues." Reid explained.
    "It'll be light soon. Let's get everybody together and go over what we know." Hotch told.

      The team had given the profile. Hotch went down to the school to get info on anyone who could possibly fit the profile. And suddenly, they had one. Joshua Beardsley, the son of Carol, who owned the tavern. At that point, he was a high suspect, so they locked him for the night.

      Casey, JJ and Reid had been working on the background profiles Garcia set up since they had decided to give Garcia space after what happened the night before. Emily had walked in the room. "Hey, what are you guys working on?" She asked.

      "Hotch asked if we'd go through Garcia's background profiles, try to find a link between Joshua and the four victims." Reid explained. "You find anything?" Emily asked. "They all had hunting licenses." Casey stated.
      "Needle, meet haystack." Emily sighed. "Yeah, we need the big guns."

      "Ripped and ready to rumble." The four looked over as Garcia had spoken. Garcia had taken a seat between JJ and Casey. "Uh, maybe you should sit this one out." JJ recommended. "No, Jaje, I'm okay." Garcia assured. "You sure?" Casey asked.

       "Let's put this bastard where he belongs," Garcia told. "That's my girl." Casey said. Garcia looked at her laptop and then looked up. "Joshua Beardsley?"

      "Yeah, we think he's our unsub." JJ told. "No, he's not." Garcia stated. "He fits the profile," Reid said. "Abandonment issue triggered by his father's recent death." Reid continued but Carol had walked in the room at the wrong time. "Uh, Reid--" Emily started. "Experimentation with animals—"
      Casey hits Reid on his arm. "Reid!" Reid held onto his arm. "Ow."

      Carol looked at the team. "You arrested my son?" She questioned. "We brought him in as a precaution." Emily told. Carol walked away, disgusted.

      "I'm telling you, it's not him." Penelope told. "What makes you so sure?" JJ asked. "Because the unsub ran away from me." Penelope said. "Of course he ran, he knew you were FBI." Casey told.

      "But Joshua knows I'm a techie. He knows I don't carry a weapon. If he was the unsub, I'd be dead right now." Garcia reasoned.

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        Later on in the night, Carol had been discovered dead at her home, which proved that Joshua wasn't the unsub. Joshua had been released and Garcia had discovered a close friend to Joshua that could be the unsub. Casey's teenager theory had been proven correct.

        A boy named Owen Porter, who was being abused in his home. Hotch and Reid had arrived at Owen's home as Rossi, Morgan, Emily and Casey had began to try and chase Joshua and others down because they had been going after Owen.

        They had ended up at the docks and the harbor and Owen was cornered in a boat. Hotch, Reid and Rhodes had ended up arriving at the place at the right time as Joshua and the others. And so did Rossi, Emily, Morgan and Casey.

       "Are you kidding? You're outnumbered and outgunned. Who do you think has the higher ground here?" Joshua questioned. "I'm pretty sure we do!" Rossi shouted and the four held up their guns. The others had put their guns down as Joshua still held his up. "No, no. What are you-- what are you doing? We can still take him!"
       "It's over, Joshua."
       "He killed my mom."
       "I know, and I'm sorry."

       Joshua was about to shoot the boy but Casey immediately fired her gun and shot Joshua. She knew it wasn't gonna kill him, but it was definitely going to stop him. "You shot him?" The man, Brenda Bright's friend, grabbed Joshua. "He'll live." Casey told and everyone looked at her.

       The team's job had been done and they were ready to get back home. Casey had packed her bag up and sat on the couch at the tavern. "Hey," Emily spoke and Casey looked up at her. "You okay?" She asked.

       Casey smiled assuringly, "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay,
I'm—" The girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You know I had to- I had to shoot him, right? I mean, he was gonna shoot Owen, so..." Emily looked at the girl. "Yeah, yeah, I know." She nodded.

       "If he had died from me shooting him, that would've been the second person that I killed. The first person... was Adam." Casey told and she looked down at the ground. Emily sensed that Casey needed to talk to someone right now and so she sat next to her. "You had to do what you had to for good reason. Who knows what would've happened if you let Adam live? But you're strong, you got through it, you always know how. Don't think your actions make you evil. They don't." Emily assured.

        "Sometimes, we have to do the wrong thing in the world to make things right." Emily told.

        Casey began to think. She was still recovering from what happened with Adam. It had been challenging at times. It had been two months already since it all happened. Some day were good and some days were straight shit.

        Casey stood up along with Emily and helped her with packing. "Hey, without you... we wouldn't have even known if this kid was a teenager or not. How did you figure that out by the way?" Emily asked.

         Casey shrugged, "Intuition," She nodded. "You pick up a few things after a while. I don't know, maybe Reid's rubbing off on me." Emily chuckled at the girl.

hey, lovelies!
thank you for reading!!
i know i haven't updated in a while!!!
alsoooo
two more episodes and we're done with s5!
jesus this season is literally taking forever lol
s6 is gonna be a movie bruh
got a few ideas hehehe ;)
love you all
-mya<3