CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: REID'S NEW HAIR !

5x22
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        IT WAS A ROUGH, HECTIC MORNING FOR CASEY WILLOWS. She had woke up from JJ calling her, telling her that the team had a new case to attend to and Casey looked at the clock and realized she had been late to work. Last night had been a rough night, she must've been drinking and she forgot to set her alarm clock. She didn't even remember drinking last night until she saw the bottles below her feet. There had only been two, it wasn't much.

       She had scrambled to get ready and headed to the local coffee shop she liked going to in the morning before work.

        Casey had figured since she was already late for work, she might as well get coffee. Unfortunately, she couldn't because the line was literally taking forever because of an indecisive woman who couldn't order. Casey decided to skip out on the coffee and drove to the BAU and zoomed her way into the building and to the roundtable she went.

"I am so sorry I am late," Casey apologizes as she enters the room. "I woke up late for starters, and some indecisive woman couldn't decide what she wanted at the coffee shop and— whoa." Casey took a pause as she took her seat next to Reid.

The boy looked at the girl in confusion and Casey was giving him the same look. He got a haircut. His hair hadn't been too his shoulders anymore, it was shorter and shaggy.
"Since when did Harry from One Direction start working here?" Casey questioned.

     "What's One Direction?" Rossi questioned.

       Casey responded with laughter and took notice that nobody else was laughing. "Man, you guys are old. Boy band, have a bunch of songs, no?" Everyone else just looked confused. "I give up."

        "Anyways, what did I miss?" Casey asked. "Not much, just debriefing." JJ answered. "What do we know about his MO?" Hotch continued.

"That's why we were invited in," JJ told. "The abduction sites are pristine." Morgan continued, "And there's no DNA besides the victims', and there's no sign of forced entry or a struggle."

"And the victims aren't reported missing until two or three days after they're abducted." Emily added. "Two or three days... women like this don't just vanish without somebody noticing." Rossi told.

"Yes," JJ followed. "Which is why I asked Garcia to dig into their lives." Garcia walked into the room next. "And when I took a look at their online activity, I could easily see how the unsub is doing it." Garcia clicked on the remote to the projector.

"Social networking sites." Emily answers. "Yeah. Facebook, Twitter. You name an online life-sharing time suck, the victims were on it. And if you look at each of their last posts, they say kind of the same thing... going out of town, going on a business trip, going on a vacation. But when you look at the time and date stamp of each of these, cue the "Twilight Zone" music, because they were all posted the morning after each of them went missing." Garcia explained.

"The unsub posted them." Casey stated. "Social networks are an easy way for an unsub to target his victims. These women were especially open. They posted everything from what they were having for dinner to where they were going on dates." Reid told.

"So, this unsub friends his victims and then uses that as a cover once he takes them." Morgan tells. "That means he can hack into their accounts so he's excellent with computers." Emily adds. "Definitely profiles as patient and organized. He's obsessive enough to remove all forensic details, but also patient enough to wait two months before abductions." Reid tells. "He can afford to be," Casey tells.
"I mean, he gets three days to do whatever he wants to these women."

"That means we need to assume these women are already dead," Hotch tells. "The question is what he does while he has them."

Hotch had told everyone to meet on the jet and as everyone began to get ready to leave, Casey looked as if she was going to say something to Reid but she kept stopping herself. Morgan had been noticing it.

Casey had finally gained the courage to say something before Reid walked out of the room. "Hey, Reid." She started. "You know, I'm really digging the new hair." Reid gave the girl a tight-lipped smile, "Thanks." Casey looked as if she was going to say something else but she immediately walked off and that made Morgan follow beside Reid so he could speak to him next.

"You finally rendered her speechless, pretty boy." Morgan smirked and Reid gave the man beside him a confused look. "What?"

"She obviously wants a piece of those smarts. And it's all because of the new hair." Morgan told and Reid furrows his brows and looked ahead at Casey walking away.

He couldn't really think of anything to say, he never looked at Casey in that way and he was sure she never looked at him in that way. But he couldn't help but let his mind wander at the possibility of that. But instead of looking into it further, he shook it off.

Reid decided to follow with: "Shut up." Reid walks off and Morgan chuckles, "Go get 'em, tiger."

The team had made their way to the jet and began to debrief the case once more. "So, if this unsub is using social networks to find his victims, can't we use that to find him?" Morgan asked. "Yeah, if these women each had 100 friends following them, then the unsub would pop up on each of their lists, right?" Emily considered.

"Uh, the detective in charge, John Fordham, he looked into their groups. Everyone checked out." JJ told. "Social networking sites are surprisingly insecure. Facebook recently tried to update all their privacy settings, and in doing so, they made everybody's profiles viewable." Reid said. "I'm surprised you know that, considering you're not much of a, uh... internet geek." Casey told.

"Can somebody explain to me the appeal of these sites?" Rossi looked at a piece of paper in front of him. "'Eating sushi tonight. Yum.' 'Boss is keeping me late at work. Grr.'" The team began to chuckle as Rossi read the messages. "Whose life is so important that we'd be interested in this kind of detail?"

"Welcome to the 21st century, Rossi," Casey commented. "I expect you're not all-too familiar with it yet." Rossi put the paper down beside him and looked at Casey. "Excuse me?"

"Well... since no one's gonna say it: you're not hip, old man." Casey told and Rossi raised his eyebrows at the girl. Morgan had an expression on his face that told Casey 'Ooh, girl, you in trouble'. "'Old man'?" Rossi questioned. "I'm plenty hip." Casey chuckled at Rossi.

"I don't know. I guess that's the running joke, right?" Morgan told. "I mean, nobody is. But we'd all like to believe there's actually an audience out there that wants to follow our every move. You know, some sites actually have a GPS feature built in. You can tell exactly where someone is every time they post a new comment." Morgan explains.

"This is telling us how he's finding them, but it's not telling us how he's getting into their houses." Hotch stated. "At the very least, I believe that he has copies of their keys. Dorris Archer had a home security system installed, but the disable code was entered at 1:56 AM. So, he knew that, too. He also found a way to deal with her dog. A german shepherd she adopted from the pound last year went missing the night that she did." Reid told.

"All right, so this guy's gotta be in and out of the house way before the night of the disappearance. He comes up with some ruse, talks his way inside, then once he's familiar enough with the house, he knows he can come back and kidnap them without disturbing anything. He's gotta be coming up with something." Casey explains.

"What about the people who come into your house that you don't consider a threat? Home repair guys, dog-walkers." Rossi lists. "Yeah, Detective Fordham looked into that, too. No one even came close to being a killer." JJ stated.

"Okay, Morgan, Willows and Prentiss, start with the last abduction sites. See if anything point to his MO. Dave, you, Reid and JJ go back over the women's lives. Start with their friends on the social networking sites. If this is how the unsub is finding them, maybe they're connected to him without even realizing it." Hotch groups and as soon as they landed, everyone separated.

Morgan, Emily and Casey arrived at the first crime scene and as they entered the home and put their gloves on, Morgan walked over to Casey. "Hey, Ace?" Casey turns over to Morgan. "Hmm?"

      "What do you think of Reid's new hair?" Morgan questions curiously and Casey shrugs, "I like it. Why do you ask?"

       "You just... seem to have a... slight interest... since he cut his hair. I mean, you haven't stopped staring at him and it's like your trying to find the right words to say to him and you can never seem to get them out." Morgan tells.

      Casey scoffs after she pieces together was Morgan is assuming. "Oh, please, Derek. If you're insinuating what I think you're insinuating—"

     "Then, I'm insinuating correct information," Morgan told and he smirked; "You like Reid."

     "What? No, I don't!" Casey said, her voice going a little high. "Your voice just went high." Emily tells and Casey's face goes red. "And your face is going red." Morgan points out.

      Casey exasperates a sigh out. "Okay, maybe I think Reid has gotten... a little cute since he cut his hair but you didn't hear me say that and if I find out that you told him, I will crush you. You hear me? I will crush you."

      "Alright, Willows. Dang." Morgan holds his hands up in surrender. "Just so you know, I think he feels the same way." Casey looks up at Morgan. "Hey, I said he was cute. I didn't say I liked him. There's a difference." Casey stated.

        "I know, but I'm just saying: he might like you." Morgan tells. "Sure, whatever floats your weird boat." Casey says as she follows Emily upstairs.
        Emily looks at the girl as they go. "He's right, you know." Emily tells. "Not you, too." Casey sighs.

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       After going through their own profile and discovering that their unsub had been posting the murders online and killing them on a livestream, JJ had had a press conference where someone had figured out their profile and Hotch had been informed by Garcia that the unsub was currently going live.

      "He's going live." Hotch informed as he walked into the room. Garcia sent over the feed on the computers and Casey watched from the computer over with JJ, Reid and Detective Fordham. She leaned over as she watched the footage.

      "Look at the way he's moving. He's not slow and deliberate. This guy's pissed." Rossi stated. "All right, what do we see? Determining markers." Hotch says. "A one-story cottage." Reid pointed out.

       "It could be anywhere." Fordham says. "Is there a number on the house?" Morgan asked. "No, and he's already at the door. Garcia." Hotch starts. "He's using twice as many proxy servers." Garcia tells.

       "Wait, this window here on the bottom... is that the chat room?" Emily points to the screen. "Uh-huh." The woman on the screen is unaware of the man in her house. She's in her kitchen.

       "He's completely changed his MO. It is way too early. There's too much light. What happened?" Morgan questioned. "Someone asked the wrong question at the press conference." JJ stated.

       The unsub was approaching closer to the woman. "Oh, my god, turn around. Just turn around." Emily muttered. "Maybe she can fend him off." Morgan assumes.

     "New kitchen appliances. Can we track them through work orders?" Reid asked. "No, he'll be gone by then." Casey tells.

      "Garcia, give us something." Hotch tells. "I'm stateside now. I'm almost to Idaho. I just need more time." Garcia tells. "You're not gonna make it." Hotch says. "Yes, I will. I will. I—" The unsub is attacking the woman.

       "Just let her find them, she's close." Casey tells, siding with Garcia. "Forget the unsub. Can you run a trace on everybody in the chat room?" Hotch questions to Garcia, completely ignoring the fact that Casey had just spoken to him. "I can't do both, sir. Let me do this." Garcia pleads. "Hotch, just let her find them!" Casey shouts.

       "Garcia, tag the viewers. That's an order." Hotch ordered to the woman and she had done so and the woman was dying in front of their eyes as the unsub had choked her out — finishing her off and everyone watched in defeat. It was all they could do, watch.

       Casey leaned on the table, her hands in front of her on the table as she leaned backwards and she had suddenly, hit the table with her fists and she turned away from everyone and held her anger. They had it — but Hotch didn't listen to her. Garcia shut the feed off.

        "There was nothing we could've done." Hotch told his team and Casey spun around to the man. "We could've. If you had just let her finish the search." Casey argued. "We couldn't have." Hotch told.

         "Oh, because you're the leader, you say so?" Casey snapped. "You just know what's best for everybody, is that it?"

        "Casey." JJ tried.

        "Someone just lost a wife, a daughter, a mother. And you just let that happen. You didn't stop it." Hotch could tell that there was something more deeper than what occurred just moments before. Casey was still angry and this had been the first time they had said words to one another in a while. It wasn't the way Hotch wanted it to go, but it was what it was.

        "Take a walk, Willows." Hotch said, calmly.

        "Kid," Morgan spoke. "Go."

        With that, Casey walked out of the office.

        It had only been a day after what happened. Casey was taking a break as everyone else had been figuring out the case. Everyone understood, no one argued. They all knew she needed it after what happened. Casey had sat on a bench that was right near the station. She had been taking time to herself — she was on a case, maybe it wasn't the best idea, but Hotch said take a walk. Well, she needed a breather before heading back in.

"Hey." Casey looked up and saw that Reid had been standing over her with two cups of coffee in his hands. Reid noticed how puffy and red her eyes looked. "Hey." Casey greeted. Reid sat next to her and handed her a cup. "I figured you could use this."

Casey grabbed the coffee from his hand. "Thank you." Reid and Casey sat in the silence. Reid was trying to think of a fact to say to her to make her feel better but even in his genius brain of his, he couldn't find one to fit the moment.

Suddenly, she spoke and he didn't have to think anymore. "I've been... meaning to... talk to Hotch. For a while. I didn't think that's how it'd go." Casey started.

"But every time, I try... to talk to him. It comes out in a yell. Because I'm so... angry at him. And I'm not only angry at him... I'm angry at my mom. But she's not here so I can't really be mad at her." Casey continued as she sniffled.

"I've known Hotch since I was really little. I've only ever gotten this mad at him at least once. I was nine and I had this really important talent show thing. It was FBI-related, surprise, surprise. I wanted him to come and see it. But he had the job. And he didn't make it. I was angry at him for a week until he decided to have a day off to spend with me. He brought me cookies. But with this... this can't be fixed with cookies." Reid looked at her with a confused expression written on his face.

"Reid, he was with my mother," Casey said. Now, it made sense. Why they weren't talking, the utter silence after what happened to Casey with Adam. Casey felt betrayed. No wonder she felt the way she felt. "They were having an affair. And he never told me about it. I grew up with him as a father and he never said a word. He's a total stranger to me now."

"So, to answer your question from before... that's why I'm not speaking to him. I need... more time." Casey told and the two were back in silence and finally, Reid found a fact that could maybe make Casey smile because he hated to see her cry.

        "You know, vending machines are a bigger threat to humanity than sharks?" Reid asked and Casey struck him a confused look. "What?" She sniffled, wiping her nose. Reid nods, "You're twice as likely to be killed by a vending machine than a shark, according to the New England Aquarium." Casey stared at Reid for a second before bursting out into laughter and Reid began to laugh, as well.

        "Hey, you didn't want coffee facts anymore." Reid holds his hands up in surrender. "I never said I didn't want coffee facts anymore. I just wanted something different other than coffee facts for just that one day." Casey told. "Well, you got something different." Reid chuckled and he stood and stuffed a hand in his pocket.

         "We're gonna need you back in there," Reid said. "Just forget about what happened for a minute and do the thing you love doing. We couldn't save a person before... but we can prevent it from happening again." Casey takes a deep breath and stands up next.

"Let's get this son of a bitch." Casey stated.

In the end, they had found the unsub successfully and Morgan and Prentiss had taken him down and saved another person from getting killed.

not me doing this episode just because of boy band reid🕺
and
not casey getting nervous around reid 👀

anywayssss
thank you for reading!!
i loved writing for this

also ik 1d technically didn't form until 2010 but oh well we'll pretend that they were already formed🕺🕺

i love you all!
last episode of s5 will be coming up next!
-mya <333