CHAPTER SIXTEEN: NIGHTMARES AND MISSING CHILDREN !

4x06
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         THE TEAM HAD HAD A CASE LIKE THEY ALWAYS DID, THIS TIME BEING IN LAS VEGAS — REID'S HOMETOWN. The gang had been flying on the jet and debriefing before going down to the station. Reid had fallen asleep and everyone had taken notice due to the muttering in his sleep.

         "Reid!" Casey hit his leg with hers since she had been sitting right next to him. Reid had opened his eyes from his slumber and sat up, rubbing his face. "Sorry, I was dreaming." He says.

           Emily chuckles, "Ha, no kidding."

          "We found a 6-year-old boy who had been abused and stabbed," Reid tells and points over at JJ. "Your baby was at the crime scene. I was trying to get him out of there." Casey furrows her eyebrows and looks over at JJ, who he was talking to.

           "Sorry." Reid says at the tension.

           "It's okay." JJ shrugs.

          "You know, Reid, simple dream analysis... if there's a baby in your dreams, that baby's actually you." Derek tells. "I don't believe in dream analysis." Reid says. "I don't know," Hotch interferes. "It makes sense. The case we're working on and the case in your dream both involve children. Maybe your subconscious is telling you you want to sit this one out."

            Reid shakes his head. "I don't."

           "Well, maybe you're just stressed out about going home to Las Vegas. Did you tell your mom you're coming?" Emily asks and Reid looks around at his co-workers. "Why aren't we reviewing the case file?"

            Casey shrugs, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because someone fell asleep on the jet?" Reid smirks as he looks down at the file and Casey jokingly rolls her eyes at the boy in front of her.

            "All right, let's start from the beginning one more time." Hotch tells and Casey looks back down at the file in front of her and at the picture of the young boy attached to the file. "This is Ethan Hayes. He was five and two weeks ago he was abducted out of his own front yard." JJ informs.

            "Where were the parents?" Reid questions. "His mom just ran inside to grab her purse. When she came back, he was gone. She wasn't away for more than a minute or two. Police found his body exactly one week later in the desert. He was in a new change of clothes. His nails were clipped. His hair was combed." Casey furrows her eyebrows. The unsub clearly had a lot of remorse for the boy after what they had done to him.

            "That's a lot of remorse." Rossi said, as if he were reading Casey's mind. "No sign of sexual assault. The medical report suggests he was smothered. Unsub could see this death as merciful." Hotch reads.   

              Emily looks at JJ, nudging her head forward. "Who's the new boy?" She asks. "Michael Bridges," JJ tells, handing a picture to Emily. "Yesterday, he set out to walk by himself to a friend's house a block away. He never showed up."

             "Are we sure these cases are even connected?" Reid asked. "The unsub called each of the families." JJ tells. "But no ransom demand." Rossi thinks aloud. "Must've been more like taunts," Casey responds with. "He's telling them it's their fault that their child was taken."

          "Okay," Morgan begins. "So, we have an unsub who shows remorse and then projects his guilt onto the victims' parents."

          "And if we're lucky, six more days to find a boy before he's killed." Hotch informs.

           He had split up the group like he normally did — JJ and himself showing up at the home of Ethan Hayes, Rossi and Emily showing up where the previous body was found and Casey, Reid and Morgan going down to the morgue to examine the body found.

       Once the body had come out from the container it was entrapped in, the doctor began to talk about the autopsy and Casey couldn't help but notice Morgan and Reid were looking at her — probably shocked to the fact that she could handle a child's dead body in front of her.

           "There was no bruising around his neck or face. I'm guessing he used a pillow." The doctor told. "Was there any sign of a struggle?" Reid questioned, looking down. "No, but he would have been extremely weak." The doctor said and Casey furrowed her eyebrows. "Why's that?"

       "This is where it gets weird," He begins. "He was noticeably thin. And both his stomach and intestines were completely empty."

        "He was being starved?" Reid asked and Casey looks at him and then back down at the body. "It seems that way." Morgan looks at the man. "Okay, so, what's the weird part?"

        "I wanted to determine if malnutrition played a part in his death. So, I looked for evidence of starvation ketosis by analyzing some vitreous humor — the squishy part of the eyeball — and I couldn't find any ketone bodies there."

         "Meaning?"

         "He was getting nutrients somehow." Reid figures it out.

          "Through an IV?" Casey guessed.

         "There were no marks to indicate that."

         "Any idea what else could it be?"

         "Honestly, I have no idea."

         Casey furrowed her eyebrows at the thought. How was the boy able to get the nutrients he needed if he was starved? The question ran through her head and it was on the tip of her tongue but she couldn't quite figure it out.

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Morgan, Reid and Casey had stayed overnight over the Bridges household in case they had gotten any information about the case. The three had stayed in the living room and Casey had fallen into a slumber on the couch. She had been sitting up but was also slouched against the couch, only holding a pillow for comfort. She didn't mind.

She had woken up abruptly due to someone yelling and Casey opened her eyes immediately, being a light sleeper. This had gotten Morgan up as well and he had rushed towards the light and turned it on.

Reid had been the one yelling in his sleep and shouting: "Get 'em off. Morgan! Morgan, get 'em off me!" Casey sat up and began to shake Reid awake. "Reid. Reid, wake up!" His eyes opened wide and Reid was startled at the fact that Casey had awoken him. Casey looked him the eyes. "It's me, it's Casey!"

"What the hell's going on?" Casey whipped her head around to the Bridges and saw that they had come down the stairs due to the screaming. Reid rubbed his face and sat up.

Morgan looked over at the couple. "Sir, ma'am. Everything's okay." Craig scoffs, "You wake us up screaming, you think everything's okay?" Casey sighs and looks towards Reid, who looked like he had still been recovering from his nightmare.

"I understand we startled you," Morgan said, changing up his tone. "And I'm sorry for that."

"You're the FBI!" Craig shouted and Casey had stood next to Morgan and looked up at the man in front of her. "We said we're sorry, sir."

"You're right," Reid spoke up behind Morgan and Casey. He ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. "I'm really sorry." He said and Casey looked at his tired eyes and how scared he looked. The dream he had must've really took a toll on him.

"Sir, please, go back upstairs and try to get some rest. It was just a misunderstanding. Everything is fine, I promise you that." Morgan told and the man took a look at Reid and headed back upstairs.

Amy, Craig's wife, had stayed in her spot and looked at Reid as he stood up. "Are you okay?" She asked. Reid looked down. "It was a dream. I'm really sorry."

"Was it about Michael?" She asked, mentioning her son. Reid shook his head. "No."

"I've been afraid to close my eyes," The woman had tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm scared I'll see him die."

Casey looked down at her watch and then back over to Reid, who looked like he hadn't gotten sleep in days. She felt bad at how scared he looked. Morgan had told the woman to go back upstairs and to try and get some sleep and he apologized once more for the disturbance. With that, Amy headed back upstairs, turning off a light behind her.

Reid sighed and sat back down at the couch. "I'm making everything worse." He said.

Morgan sits in front of the boy. "Reid... these cases get to all of us." He told. "I'm losing it in their living room. And I'm dreaming— I'm dreaming about dead kids and covered in leeches."

"What the hell is scaring you?" Morgan questioned.

"This boy's gonna die and there's nothing I can do to stop it." Reid tells and he looks as if he's at the verge of tears. Casey sighs, not knowing how she was supposed to make him feel okay.

Casey exhales, "Well, we're gonna make sure that that's not gonna happen. We're gonna do our job and we are gonna save that boy. I have faith that we will. And I don't really believe in that." She looked at her watch again and noticed that it had been two a.m.. "We should get some sleep." She leaned forward to Reid.

"And if you need anything," She began. "Morgan and I are right here, okay?" Reid nodded and Morgan had shut the lights off and Casey had fallen right back to sleep.

       The next day, Craig and Amy had decided to go to Ethan Hayes' funeral and Morgan, Casey and Hotch had been waiting downstairs for the couple and as soon as Amy hit the bottom of the staircase, a light switched. "I can't do this. I'm sorry." She said. "What are you doing?" Craig asked, stopping his wife. "I'm not going to the funeral." She told.

      "We talked about this." Craig told. "No, you talked. I listened." Craig looks ahead over at the agents walking towards them. "Please, tell her this is our only chance."
      "We feel like it's a viable plan." Hotch tells. "You're asking us to go to the funeral of a 5-year-old boy," Amy says. "We're going to watch them lower his body into the ground. And the same man who killed him has our son."

         Hotch looks at the woman. "If the man who took Michael is there, your presence might just startle him and he'll stand out in the crowd if he reacts a certain and we'll know that we've caught him." Hotch explains. "We're looking for anything that might draw him out." Casey adds on, next to him.

          "I can't watch them bury a child knowing that we're next." Amy sighs. "We feel like this plan has a reasonable chance of success."
         "What do you consider a reasonable chance that I will ever see my son again? 10%? Twenty?"
          "I can't give you numbers."
          "You could."
          "I understand if you can't do this," Hotch says and Casey picks at her fingernails in nervousness. "But if you can, we need to talk about who we're looking for."

           In a short notice, they had decided to go the funeral and plenty of people had gone to it. It almost surprised Casey on how many people there were here at the funeral. "There's a very full crowd here today, Which I believe is part of the natural outpouring of grief over losing someone so innocent. It is also a reminder that there is another boy out there who is in danger and need of our prayers. Let's take a moment and pray for that boy. For his safe return."

      Casey had looked around at the many faces. One of them could be the unsub. One of them could be the person that took Michael and in that moment, it was silent. Up until Casey could hear the slight whisper from Amy say: "He's here."

      The Willows intern girl looked around and her eyes couldn't help but glance over towards Reid and he looked as if he had a scared yet familiarized look on his face. "Reid," She asked. "What's going on?" She questioned. "I've been here before." He answered in a whisper and Casey furrowed her eyebrows. What did he mean by that? At the cemetery?

       Her eyes thwarted ahead and she noticed somebody, holding a phone up — as if he were filming the funeral. Prentiss and Rossi had taken it into their own hands and subtly moved over to the guy and Casey watched as they talked to him and took him away quietly so they couldn't disturb the funeral.

After the funeral, Reid and Morgan had gone down to the station to see the guy that Rossi and Emily had taken back with them. Casey had gone back with Hotch and Craig and Amy and they had parked in front of the house when Casey's cell began to ring and she had seen that it was Reid. She answered it as Craig and Amy had gotten out of the car.

"Willows." She greets. "He doesn't know details of the murder." Reid informed.

Hotch opens the car door but Casey grabs him and she looks at him. "You sure?" Casey asks Reid. "He assumes the boy was molested." Reid tells and Hotch gives the girl another look. "What is it?" He asks. "We have the wrong guy." She informs and Hotch and from his stern face, Casey could tell he was agitated. "All right. Thanks." With that, she hung up and Hotch got out of the car and Casey followed behind to tell Craig and Amy about the news.

"He's not the one. I'm sorry." Hotch told and the disbelief on the couple's face hit Casey. "You said it looked good." Craig said. "I was hopeful. I'm sorry." Hotch told.

       "But he was videotaping that funeral." Craig pointed out. "We do believe that he is a preferential sex offender. But he doesn't have Michael." Casey told as Craig had walked away. She couldn't blame him for how he was acting. He just wanted to find the bastard that had his son.

       "How many of these people are out there?" Amy asked. "More than you want to know." Hotch answered.

        The phone had begun to ring inside the household and Amy answered the phone as everyone else listened in. "Hello." Amy said.

         "Put the FBI on." The voice said. "I don't know what you're talking about." Amy told. "I saw them there at the funeral. Put them on!" Hotch put a hand on Amy's shoulder and assured that he would take the call.

       "This is Special Agent Aaron Hotchner." He said as he held the phone up to his ear. "You were trying to trick me. You were trying to lock me down but you arrested the wrong person."

      "Why don't we just slow down and talk?" Aaron asked as he seated himself down. "We only have three minutes."

        "No," Aaron began. "We have as long as we want."

         "That's not the rules."

         "Okay, you're right. Your rules." Casey exchange a glance to JJ as Hotch continued to speak to the unsub. "It was good of you to go to the funeral today. You must have really cared about Ethan."

       "I loved him," As Casey listened in, the voice had sounded distorted and changed. But it was almost as if it didn't sound like a man. "His parents didn't deserve him. I took good care of him."

          "Is that why you bought him the new clothes?" Hotch questioned. "They put him in those silly blue sneakers and lime green Oxford. He hated those!"

         Yeah, no man would pay attention to that kind of detail. Casey thought, coming up with a theory in her head.

        "Well, maybe when you're good enough to bring Michael home, you can tell his parents what he really likes."

          "No," The voice said. "He's never coming home. I saw that so-called mother. She looked right at me. She knows he sleeps better with me."

          Amy grabbed the phone out of Hotch's hands. "I don't know who you are, but please give me back my son! Please. I'm begging you. I'll do anything. Just don't hurt my baby. Please!" She begged.

     "Your time is up." With that, the voice hung up.

     After that, everyone regrouped back at the Bridges' household and listened to the recorded conversation more than once. Craig and Amy had walked in the room and Hotch signaled to JJ to stop the recording.

      "Would it be possible for us to work in private for a while?" Hotch asked. "He was at the funeral. I told you." Amy told.
       "He was at the funeral, and you arrested the wrong man." Craig added on.

       "I don't think it is a man," Reid chirped up. "Did you hear the way she described the clothing? She said the blue shoes. Lime green Oxford. A male wouldn't reference specific details like that." Casey nodded, "I think Reid's right. A man wouldn't pay attention to those kind of details." A part of Casey kicked herself in the head. She had a fear of being wrong when it came to a question she had to answer and if she got it wrong, it was the end of world for her.

        "She talked about what the child wanted. How he slept. How she took care of him. She said, 'I loved him'." Morgan added on. "A male unsub would have emphasized the competition, not the care giving. He would have talked about how he was smarter than the FBI, bragged about not being caught." Reid responded.

        "We could have been looking at both men and women..." Rossi shook his head, "The statistics are overwhelming. Women abduct newborns. Men take children."

          Hotch had dialed in Garcia's number and she answered on the other line. "Garcia." He began.
"I'm right here, sir."

         "Will you run the license plates the police gave you and find any that might be registered to a woman?"
         "That would be..." There was a pause. "Zero."

       Amy furrowed her eyebrows. "How's that possible?" Reid looks down at the file in front of him. "Transcript almost reads like she's been institutionalized."
       "You mean she's crazy." Craig guessed.

      "She described herself as being "locked down", not "arrested" or "put away. " Plus, most mental facilities are very rigid about the amount of phone time they allow per day. I think her talking about only having three minutes isn't her rule to us. It's what she's been institutionalized to think of as normal." Reid explained and Casey began to see it in a light.
       "Hey, Garcia, can you get records of women released from mental institutions this past month or maybe will still be in them... if that's possible?" Casey questioned. "She most likely has some trauma in her case file... possibly the death of a child." Rossi added on.

       "I'm sorry. I can't do that," Garcia tells. "To protect patient privilege there's no central database. I could hack each hospital individually, but even then, most diagnoses are kept separately by the different doctors."

       "I think I might have a way." Reid speaks up.

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Casey had decided to join Reid on the trip to his mother's hospice but decided to keep her distance so as to not disturb Reid and his mother.

        Reid had spotted his mother and Casey noticed how he seemed to be keeping his distance before going up to her. "Dr. Reid," Casey looked up and saw that an older-looking man had been coming towards Reid and he shook his hand.
"Your mom didn't tell me you were in town." He said. "She doesn't know I'm here." The man's eyes thwarted to the unrecognizable female next to her Reid.

"Oh, this is Casey Willows, here on business. She's an intern at the BAU, where I work." Reid introduced and Casey shook the man's hand. "Casey, this is Dr. Norman, my mother's doctor." Casey nodded, "Pleasure to meet you, sir." The doctor nodded back at her, "Likewise."

Reid continued, "Uh, we're working on a case and I actually thought you might be able to help us." Dr. Norman nods, "Of course."

"You've read about the recent child murder and second abduction?" Reid questions. "Yes." Dr. Norman says. "We think the person responsible is a woman. She would have been institutionalized. But we believe she may have been released within the past few weeks, just before the first abduction."

"What can I do?"

"I'm assuming you have a good working relationship with the administrators at other hospitals. I know no one can open their files. But if you wouldn't mind just giving them the profile, that would be a tremendous help." Reid hands him the file and Casey looks around the room as Reid had taken care of everything else. Dr. Norman looked down at the file. "She's delusional, fueled by grief, very well might have lost a child of her own, probably around the age of five."

Dr. Norman looks up at the two. "I'll see what I can do." He smiles assuringly and Casey smiles back, "Thank you."
He walks away and Casey looks over at Spencer and then towards his mother, who had been writing in a notebook. Reid looks at her and then back at his mother.

"I'll stay over here, you go talk to your mom." Casey told and she decided to take a seat and pulled a book out of her bag so she could start reading.

It actually took a couple of minutes to find the book since her bag was so messy. She was sure Reid would have a heart attack if he saw her bag. Crumpled papers, notepads almost ripped in half, empty snack bags thrown in there. It was like a trash bin, in a way. God, I've gotta clean this soon. Casey thought as she scrounged in her bag.

Casey had looked up and watched as Reid approached his mother and had already begun to talk to her. She looked down at her book she pulled out when Dr. Norman had come back and spotted Casey at a seat. "I'm sorry. I talked to the heads of nine different hospitals. There's no one who matches your description." He tells, handing her the file.

"Crap," Casey mutters and then looks up at the man. "Thank you, anyways." Dr. Norman continues, "You know, if this person has an axis-1 condition, her release wouldn't be as important as whether or not she keeps to her medications." Casey kept that in mind. "All right. Thank you. Again, thank you very much."

Casey locked eyes with Reid and shook her head and Reid sighed but his mother continued to speak to him and he had that look on his face. The look he had when he was doing deep thinking. He excused himself from the conversation and stood up, rushing towards Dr. Norman. "Doctor, would it be possible for a woman to convince herself that a random five-year-old child's actually her own newborn?" He questions.

"If her psychosis is strong enough." Dr. Norman told. "And if they'd stopped taking their medication?" Casey asked. "Absolutely." Dr. Norman nodded and both Casey and Reid locked eyes with one another once more.

Reid nodded, "Thank you. Thanks." He quickly pulled out his phone and dialed Hotch's number as Dr. Norman walked away. "Hotch, I'm pretty sure I know why the medical examiner was so confused. I think she's breastfeeding them."

After that, the two had been heading back to the Bridges' home when JJ had called to inform them that they had a name and an address and that they would be heading there now. Casey and Reid had quickly gotten their vests on and parked right in front of the address and spotted that the team had already been there.

Casey grabbed her gun and got out of the car, following Reid into the house. Casey had checked around in the room and everywhere else. "Clear." She spoke aloud once she hit the last room and in front of her had been a door that was closed and not open like the other room doors were.

She exchanged a glance with Reid and nudged her head towards the door. Reid stepped in front of her, taking charge to the door. He looked at the girl and she nodded, signaling that she was ready. Reid had saw the lock on the door and quickly but slowly unlocked it and opened the door a crack and said into his dispatcher, "We've got Michael! We've got Michael!"

Casey put her gun back into her holster as Reid opened the door and the boy engulfed Reid into a hug and Reid grabbed onto him. "I got ya." Reid says and in the end, Casey knew that a family would be reunited today and that the woman responsible would be arrested and she would get the help she needed.

As she watched the child be reunited with his parents, she felt eyes on her and noticed that it had been Reid. She gave him a smile and a swift nod and looked away as Morgan was approaching him.

     She waited a couple of moments and saw that the family was on their way home and Casey smiled. This was a good day. "Hey." Casey looked over and saw Emily and JJ walking towards her. "Hey." Casey smiled.

      "So, uh, we're leaving in the morning. You up for some gambling tonight?" Emily asked and Casey thought, "I am, but just so you know... I'm a pretty competitive person when it comes to casinos." Casey told.

      "You win?"

      "I always do." Casey smirked.

      "I knew you were gonna be fun once you turned twenty-one." Emily told, draping an arm over Casey as Casey smirked back at the woman.

       That night had been a night that would forever be locked in Casey's memories. A time where they didn't have to worry about another case rolling through and that Casey could bond with the rest of her co-workers. Cracking jokes all night and Hotch even smiled at some of them. After a big dinner, Casey had fun down at the casinos with Morgan and Emily. She wished that Reid and Penelope could be in on all of the fun. Casey just wondered how Reid was coping with his dreams and how he was doing.

       Perhaps she would find out in the morning.

hey lovelies!
in honor of getting 2k followers i updated lol
i also updated because i had time lol
tomorrow is officially the last day of school for me and i am pretty stoked and hopefully i'll update more during the summer haha
i love you all, thank you for reading!
next chapter is memoriam
hecka excited :)
-mya <3