CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: INFECTED !

4x24
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THE LAST THING CASEY WILLOWS EXPECTED WHEN SHE WALKED INTO THE BAU WAS THE ARMY BEING THERE. Casey's morning started off normal and JJ called her in and let her know to not bring a go-bag, so she assumed the case was local. She had entered at the same time as Reid, Morgan and Prentiss did, the four all crammed in the elevator and arrived right in the smack middle of the army and everyone else freaking out.

"What the hell is going on?" Emily questioned. The four decide to go up to the conference room to see what's up and why everyone was in a haste.

JJ had been in the room, along with another woman that Casey didn't recognis. "Guys, this is Dr. Linda Kimura, Chief of Special Pathogens with the CDC." JJ introduced.

Casey nods towards the woman in greeting and everyone else greets her. "Hello, I'm sorry to meet under these circumstances." Dr. Kimura told. "What circumstances are those exactly?" Casey asks.

"We need to get started." Hotch stated and Casey looks over to see Rossi and Hotch walk in the room. Hotch had a sour expression written on his face. More so than usual.

"Last night, 25 people checked into emergency rooms in and around Annapolis. They were all at the same park after 2pm yesterday. Within 10 hours, the first victim died. It's now just past 7am, the next day, we have 12 dead." JJ explained as Casey read from the file in front of her.

"Lung failure and black lesions." Morgan read and suddenly had a thought. "Anthrax?" He guessed. "Anthrax doesn't kill this fast." Reid tells. "This strain does." Dr. Kimura informs.

"What are we doing about potential mass targets-- airports, malls, trains?" Emily lists and Hotch looks over at the woman. "There's a media blackout." He tells.

Casey's eyes widen and Emily asks: "We're not telling the public?" Morgan looks up. "We'd have a mass exodus." Casey looks at Rossi, who speaks next. "The psychology of group panic would cause more deaths than this last attack."

"Yeah, and if it does get out, whoever did this might go underground or destroy their samples." Reid tells. "Or if they wanted attention and didn't get it, they might attack again." Emily stated. "Yeah, doesn't the public have the right to know about that?" Casey asks, agreeing with Emily.

"If there is another attack, there's no way we'll be able to keep it quiet. Our best chance of protecting the public is by building a profile as quickly as we can." Hotch explains.

"What do we know about this strain?" Reid asks, looking at Dr. Kimura. "The spores are weaponized, reduced to a respiral ideal that attacks deep in the lungs. Odorless and invisible." She answers.

"A sophisticated strain," Rossi tells. "Only a scientist would know how to do that." Casey looks down at the pictures in front of her. "These lesions are doubling in size in a matter of hours."

"It's not the lesions I'm worried about," Dr. Kimura informs. "It's the lungs. We don't know how to combat the toxins once they're inside. And the reality is, we may lose them all."

"The remaining survivors have been moved to a special wing at Walter Reed Hospital. Our offices will become a small command center." JJ informs.

"We'll be working with military scientists from Fort Detrick." Hotch says. "General Whitworth is coming here?" Rossi asks, looking at the unit chief. "He's in charge of site containment and spore analysis. Determining what strain this is will help inform who's responsible."
"My team is in charge of treating all victims." Dr. Kimura says.

Hotch nods ahead at the two youngest members of the team. "Reid, Willows, go with Dr. Kimura to the hospital, interview the victims." Casey and Reid look at one another and Casey nods, "Got it, boss."

"Morgan and Prentiss, there's a hazmat team that will accompany you to the crime scene." Hotch then nods towards the table of little caps filled with pills. "There's cipro. Everybody needs to take it before we go."

"We don't know if it's effective against this strain, but it's something." Casey is handed a cap and grabs a cup of water from the table.

"This is really happening." Emily stated and Casey looks as Hotch speaks. "We knew this could happen. We've done our homework. We've prepared for this. This is it."

Once Hotch pops the pills in his mouth, Casey does the same and then sips from her cup of water. "Jin Dan. May you live 100 years."

So, Casey prepared and her and Reid went with Dr. Kimura to the hospital. Casey wasn't gonna lie, she was worried that this thing was gonna be a flesh-eating virus and once the public found out, there would be a huge frenzy. She just hoped that the team could figure it out and hopefully before the virus could break out.

The three had decided to go and talk to one of the victims, a teenage girl and she looked deathly sick. Casey almost kept her distance and she relied on the cipro she took before she left.

       "Hi, Abby." Dr. Kimura greeted to the girl as they walked into her hospital room. "You feeling any better?" The girl shook her head. "Okay, this is Agent Reid and Miss Willows from the FBI. If you can, will you talk with them?" Abby nods.

       "Abby, I'd like to try to do a memory recall exercise with you to take you back to the park, if that's okay." Reid tells and Abby nods to his words. "I need you to close your eyes." Abby closes her eyes.

        "Yesterday afternoon, you rode your bicycle to the park. How did the sun feel on your skin, the breeze through your hair? Can you describe for me what you heard and the people that you saw?"

         "It was warm, windy," Abby's voice was hoarse. "There were guys... football. Kids... I see free..." The girl stops for a second. "Me seen fee me." Casey and Reid exchange a glance in confusion. "Free knee. Sin knee."

         Dr. Kimura looks at the girl. "All right, Abby. That's okay. You just rest now, okay?" The girl has a fearful look in her eyes. "Me mock fee key me free." Dr. Kimura shushes her and assures her to rest.

         With that, Reid, Willows and Dr. Kimura leave the room to discuss. "What's causing her aphasia?" Reid questions. "The poison is infecting the parietal lobe, impairing her speech. Some of the other patients displayed the same symptoms shortly before they died." Dr. Kimura informs.

        "None of the drug combinations are working?" Casey asks. "The only thing that's helping them right now is the morphine." Dr. Kimura tells.

         The people that were infected by this had started to get worse. Many more people began to die due to the strain. Another had just died and Dr. Kimura had left the room since she had just been in there — a man had just passed.

        "Thirty-eight year-old high school history teacher. Leaves 2 kids behind." Dr. Kimura informs Reid and Casey. "17 out of 25 dead." Reid states.

         "This strain is duplicating every 30 to 45 minutes. It's poisoning the lungs, causing massive hemorrhaging and organ failure." Dr. Kimura tells and Casey begins to think long and hard about what she studied in college before joining the academy.

          "Extreme bacterial amplification," Casey muttered to herself. "Whoever created this had to at some point go to the trouble of testing it." She says.

          "What do you mean?" Dr. Kimura asks.

          "Think about the way scientists work their way up to human testing. They start with rodents like mice and rabbits, then advance to larger animals and then at some point, they do a very small trial run with people. There's no way this was his first human test run." Casey explained.

         "We would have heard about a previous anthrax attack." Dr. Kimura states but Reid shakes his head. "Not if it presented itself as something else." He told.

          Reid and Casey decide to try and call the team to let them in on what they had just discovered. "Hey, how did you figure that out?" Reid asks the girl before dialing the number. "I was a Chem major in college. Best in my class." She tells.

         To their luck, Reid had gotten a hold of JJ. "Hello?" Reid spoke. "Uh, Reid, Willows, you have me, Rossi, and Hotch." JJ spoke up.

        "Kimura made some calls. It turns out that two days ago, two people in two separate Baltimore ERs and one person in a Philadelphia ER, slipped into comas and died suddenly. Now, the COD on all of them was meningitis. Doctors didn't test for anthrax because the illnesses presented themselves as meningitis, but we think it can be caused by anthrax." Reid explained what had occurred moments ago.

       "Did they show symptoms that we're seeing now-- the lesions?" Rossi asks. "They wouldn't have if the bodily functions expired as quickly as they did." Casey informs. "How quickly?" Hotch asks. "All dead within three hours of being admitted." Casey tells.

     "But the first patient died yesterday at 10 hours." Hotch said. "Here's the thing-- if they inhaled a higher concentration of the strain, it would cause a quicker death. Organ failure without exterior physical symptoms." Reid tells. "What are their names?"

      They had given the names and found out that they had all gone to the same bookstore and they had all been affected and that bookstore was where they had the test run. Abby had been the longest survivor of the infection. Only four victims were now left. But there was another problem they were running into — what to tell the families of the victims. They couldn't exactly tell them about them getting infected by the anthrax, that would cause a frenzy and that was what the team feared.

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There had been a suspected person in the name of Dr. Nichols. He had talked about anthrax and warned the community of an attack but everyone doubted him. Morgan had pulled Reid and Casey out of the hospital and decided to take a visit to his home. They all stood at the front of his house and they had cleared the house for any attacks.

"This guy just had people over for a charity event last month." Morgan informed Reid and Casey. "We should probably take a look around anyway." Reid tells. "Yeah, that'd be best." Casey said and the two walk and Casey stops as she sees Reid behind her, looking down at his hand. "You good?" She asks and Reid nods, "Yeah."

As they looked around in his yard, Morgan's cell began to ring. Casey looked to see another part of the home and figured that the place might've already been clean. She walked towards the room and the first thing she noticed was that the air was blasting.

Casey looked on the ground and noticed Nichols's body and then over to her right and saw white powder on the floor and she knew that this was not good.

"Willows?" Reid asks, following behind Casey and Casey shouts: "No, wait, Reid, don't come any close—" But it was too late. Reid was already in the room. "Damn it."

Reid's eyes widen as soon as he saw the powder and had overheard Morgan calling his name and Casey's name and he had no choice but to quarantine himself and Casey up since they were both just exposed to the anthrax.

"Morgan, get--get back!" Reid shouts, locking the door up as Morgan approached the transparent door. "Get back! Get out of here!"

"What are you doing? What's wrong?" Morgan questions. "Morgan, just get back!" Casey yelled. Morgan was confused on what was going on. "Believe me, get back." Reid tells and Morgan shouts: "Reid, open the door!"

Reid looks up at his friend and says: "I'm sorry." That's when Morgan noticed the powder on the floor and knew that this had entirely gone wrong for both Reid and Casey.

Soon enough, an ambulance showed up as well as Hotch and some of the army, as well. Reid and Casey were stuck in the room and watched through the window as Hotch approached the front of the house and Reid had took it upon himself to call Hotch from inside and put it on speaker.

"What are you doing?" Casey asked.
"Calling Hotch." Reid answered and suddenly, Casey saw Hotch reach for his pocket and he picked up the phone.

"Reid, Willows." Hotch spoke. "Hotch, I really messed up. I should've waited, I'm sorry." Casey apologies. "Willows, we need to get you and Reid out and to the hospital." Hotch said.

"No, I'm staying right here." Reid told. "No, you're not, Reid." Morgan argued. "I'm already exposed. It's not gonna do me any good to stop working the case." Reid told. "I agree, I should stay, too." Casey tells.

Reid shook his head at the girl. "No, you should get to a hospital. I can do this myself—" Casey immediately interrupted Reid. "Well, you're not. We're working on this together." She looked outside and then spoke on the phone: "We're gonna stay, Hotch."

"Out best chance is to stay here, see if there's a cure and to figure out who killed Dr. Nichols." Reid said and there is a brief pause and Casey knows there is a discussion between the men going on.

"We're gonna get a suit and mask into you right away." Hotch said. "Don't bother, it's not gonna do us any good. We're already infected." Reid answered. With that, the phone call ended and Casey looked over at Reid as he began to look through cabinets.

"What do you want me to do, Reid?" Casey asks. "Look for a cure, see if he's written it down somewhere and find it from anything, it could be something you would never suspect would be the cure." Reid explains and Casey nods, "Got it."

As Casey searched and searched, she could feel this virus attacking her body and she swallowed the lump in her throat as she looked around.

Reid got back on the phone with Hotch and Casey overheard the conversation as Reid had put the phone on speaker.

"Reid, Willows, what do you see in there?" Hotch questioned. "I see cages filled with dead animals. I see signs of a struggle, probably before Dr. Nichols was murdered. Equipment's missing. There's a large desk. Clutter all over the surface. But in the corner..." Reid walks over to the desk. "A smaller desk. It's organized, functional."

"Two different work spaces?" Morgan asks and Casey looks down. "Two sets of handwriting. It's like me and Reid both work here."

"I'm looking at instructions on how to boil lab-grade broth, sterilize lab equipment and transfer spores. He has a partner, maybe even a protege. Go back to the BAU, try to figure out who this partner is."

With that, Casey saw Hotch hang up and leave and Morgan stayed behind for the youngest members of the team.

Casey had noticed as Reid had dialed Garcia's number and she greeted with: "Hey, Reid." Casey looks up. "'Reid', wow, no, uh... no witty Garcia greeting for me?" He asks.

"I can't be my sparkly self when you and the fair maiden are where you are." Garcia told and Reid looks over at Casey and then continues. "Garcia, do you think you can do something for me?" He asks. "Anything." Garcia answers.

"I, uh... I know I can't call my mom without, uh-- without alerting everyone at her hospital." Casey looks at Reid and then looks back down at the book she's examining. She realized that this was probably a private conversation so she looked as if she was interested in the book she was investigating.

"What do you need?" Garcia asks. "I, uh... I need you to record a message for her in case anything happens to me." Reid told. "Oh, nothing's going to happen to you. You and Casey are gonna... brilliantly find out who did this and we're gonna treat this strain." Garcia said with hope in her voice.

"I hope you're right, but if you're not, I just-- I really want to make sure that she hears my voice." Reid said. Garcia paused, "Okay, just, uh, give me a second." There is a brief pause and then Reid continues. "Are you ready?" "Ready."

"Hi, Mom," Reid began. "This is Spencer. I just, um... I just...really want you to know that I love you and—" Reid's voice cracked and Casey knew that his eyes were welling up with tears. "I need you to know that I spend every day of my life proud to be your son."

Casey puts down her book and comes to the realization that she unfortunately has no one she could contact and say one final goodbye to. Reid finished up the message and Garcia wished the two luck before Reid hung up.

Reid noticed the girl slumped in the corner and leaned down and Casey looked like she was stuck in her thoughts. "You okay?" He asks, kneeling to her level and Casey shrugs and Reid looked back at the girl and sat where she was sitting. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"I have no one to say goodbye to," Casey stated and she couldn't believe the words that escaped from her mouth. But it was true, at least, to her, it was. "No one." She said. "My mom's dead, my dad's in prison and my uncle Gideon... he's... gone."

"If we die tonight, my tombstone will read: 'Here lies Casey, she worked hard'." Casey stated and Reid looked at the girl. He felt bad for her but she still had family that cared for no matter what... it just wasn't the same as blood, but she could make her own family. She had that with the team.

"That's not gonna happen." Reid assured. "And how do you know that?" Casey asked and Reid exhales. He didn't know the future and he couldn't promise her, but he had to say something.
"Because we're gonna get out of this alive." He hoped.

If Casey could, she could've reached for Reid's hand in reassurance. To know that she wasn't going through this alone calmed her in a way.

"Dr. Reid, Miss Willows." The two look and stand up and see Dr. Kimura in a hazmat suit. "You look nice." Reid joked. "I haven't been in this outfit for a while." She said.

"How are-- how are the patients doing?" Casey coughed. "Let's worry about you two." Dr. Kimura told. "I actually-- I feel fine." Reid told. Casey shrugs, "I feel okay, too."

"Okay, if you feel any pain, I could give you something." Dr. Kimura assures. "No, I-- I'd rather not take any pain medication." Reid speaks for himself. Casey watches, she didn't feel in pain. In fact, she felt fine.

"We can at least make you feel more comfortable." Dr. Kimura tried but Reid made it clear that he didn't want any narcotics. Dr. Kimura then looks over at Casey. "Miss Willows, are you okay?" She asks. "I'm... I feel fine. Coughing here and there, but..." Casey coughs once more. "I'm okay."

"Okay," Dr. Kimura continues. "Would you like any pain medication?" Before the girl can even answer for herself, Spencer spoke for her. "No, she doesn't." Casey immediately looks his way. "You heard her, she's fine." Spencer didn't want to admit it, but he didn't want Casey, the youngest member of the team to turn into him when it came to drugs.

Casey nods at the woman reassuringly. Dr. Kimura nods, "Okay, tell me how I can help." Reid looks around. "I think the cure for this strain is in here somewhere." He tells.

"Well, shall I start here?" Dr. Kimura motions towards the table. "Dr. Nichols is a former military scientist, which means he's most likely secretive and most likely a little paranoid. He would have protected the cure and probably would have hidden it from his partners. So look for something innocuous, something you would not suspect." Reid explained.

"No luck..." Casey coughs into her arm. "So far, I could use a bit of help." Normally, she could think and function straight but this strain was practically killing her from doing her job.

Reid's cell phone began to ring once more and both Reid and Casey coughed before Reid answered the phone. "Hello." Morgan's voice pitched up through the phone. "How's it going in there, guys?"He asks.

"I've seen better days." Reid told.
"Ace?" Morgan asks.
"Don't ask." Casey tells.

"Well, you got me and Garcia." Morgan tells and Garcia speaks up: "Hey, guys." Casey coughed and cleared her throat afterwards. "Reid, Willows, stick with me." Morgan spoke.

"Listen, Prentiss and Rossi don't think the partner was a coworker. Can you tell us anything else about him?" Morgan asks. "I... I've already been through everything." Reid admitted. "There's nothing more for us to look through." Casey added.

"Come on, now, guys, I know you're not thinking straight but the Reid and Willows I know wouldn't stop looking." Morgan told. Reid jogged over towards the near desk and Casey staggered behind.

"All right, all right. I see a, uh, a framed photograph of Dr. Nichols teaching. I see a binder with syllabi. Course assignments, going all the way back to the 1970s." Reid informed. "All right. so he kept a scrapbook of himself as a professor. That tells us that he values himself as an educator."

"A teacher," Casey thought and cleared her throat as she jogged over to the main table. "I saw something earlier. I didn't-- I didn't make a connection to it or to the partner, but he has a study on anthrax." Casey explained, showing the papers to Reid.

"He has an annotated bibliography, table of contents. It's formatted like a thesis and has writing in the margins in red ink." Reid tells. "Like the way a teacher grades a paper." Casey added.

"Now, Nichols wouldn't have let just anyone in here, but he may have opened his lab for educational purposes, as a teacher." Reid nodded, seeing where Casey was going with this.

"So the partner must have appealed to him as a student. Nichols is helping him with his thesis." Morgan figures out. "I--I can look up local PHD students." Garcia speaks up. "Yeah, check the sciences. Biochemistry, microbiology." Morgan tells.

"Uh... cross-checking with names of former employees or customers with grievances At the bookstore," Garcia pauses for a second. "Nothing, my doves."

"Listen to this. 'This country is woefully unprepared. Every household should have a 2-month supply of cipro. Hospitals are in need of bio-safety level 4 decon wings.'" Reid reads from a paper. "That's verbatim to what we heard from Nichols. The partner's adopted Nichols' views as his own." Morgan stated.

"The chapters are on setting up triage and mobile emergency rooms. I don't think this paper was written by a science student. It's about city preparedness and response." Reid explains.

"Let me see." Casey coughs and examines the paper. "No, there's no way. Garcia, check with students in the social studies-- public policy, urban planning, something."

Garcia's keyboard clacking is heard and then there is an answer. "Hot to trot. There's a Chad Brown, school of public policy at U of M, matches a Chad Brown, former employee at the book front." Garcia stated.

"That's gotta be him." Morgan agreed. "Totally," Garcia nodded. "He's been in the doctoral program on and off for 5 years. Nix on a steady job, was slapped with a restraining order from his former girlfriend and has been arrested and released twice at protest rallies in DC. I'll tell Hotch."

With that, Garcia was gone and Morgan was left. "Guys, you did real good. Now get the hell out of there." He told. "Bye." Reid hangs up and Casey lets out a loud cough.

Casey coughs into her hand and feels as if she's hacking up a lung. I guess it was worse that I thought. Casey thought in her head. She didn't realize how bad it really was until she looked in the palm of her hand and saw the blood.

"Reid..." Casey said in a hoarse voice and he looked at the girl. Her eyes looked dead and blood coming from each of her nostrils along with her mouth. He saw the blood in her hands and before she knew it, she was on the ground, struggling to breathe.

"Casey—" Reid coughed and tried to help the girl. "We've got her, Dr. Reid. I need medical in here, now!" Dr. Kimura told but Reid refused to leave her side. He had pulled Dr. Kimura aside and told her that he wasn't going to leave without her and so, both Reid and Casey were taken to the hospital in the same ambulance after they had been scrubbed to get to the hospital.

"How are you two feeling?" Dr. Kimura asks. Casey coughs into a tissue they give the girl and Reid speaks, "My throat's a little dry... but other than that, I feel..." Reid's words began to scramble, noting that the strain was getting worse for him.

"Driver, faster." Dr. Kimura tells and Casey and Reid both cough. Casey felt like dying, this strain was attacking her in a way she couldn't even breathe. Both Casey and Reid were separated and the other didn't know what the other was going through. Casey couldn't even speak and she had trouble breathing and eventually... she closed her eyes once a bright light shone over her.

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If you ever asked Casey Willows about the situation she went through, she could easily tell you that she thought she died for a moment. But once she opened her eyes, that was the total opposite. Casey blinked and saw that she was in a hospital room, IVs injected in her body and she was in a hospital gown.

That lump in her throat was gone and she felt better. As if the sickness was gone. Sleep always did help with sickness, according to Casey. She looked over and noticed Emily and Rossi in her room.

Emily looked like she had been resting uncomfortably and Rossi had been flicking through the magazine that was right next to Casey's bed. Once Casey stirred awake, the two didn't even move.

"At least look a little excited to see me." Casey spoke and the two immediately look up at the girl. "Hey." Emily says. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead." Rossi speaks and Casey blinked. "Is everything... good?" She asked.

"We got Brown," Rossi answered. "It's over." Casey nodded, "Thank God." Morgan had walked in the room, as if on cue. "Well, good morning, Ace." Morgan smirked. "I'm gonna get a doctor in here." Emily stood up and walked out of the room.

"You okay?" Morgan asks. "I'm fine," Casey answered and then realized that she hadn't seen Reid and immediately sat up. "Where's-Where's Reid? Is he okay?" She asked. "Hey, don't sit up so fast. He's okay. He's in the room across from yours."

Dr. Kimura had walked in the room and had checked on Casey. Morgan assured to Rossi and Emily that they should both go home and get rest and that he would take care of Reid and Casey. Dr. Kimura had done a check-up and walked with Casey around to see that she was indeed okay. Casey had her IV tube still attached so she walked around with her IV tube wheeled next to her.

And about an hour later, Reid was awake. "Look who's back." Morgan spoke as both Dr. Kimura and Casey walked in the room. "Look who's awake." Casey commented, walking in his room.

"Is there any more jell-o?" Reid's first question rang and Casey chuckled. "Hey." Reid greeted, looking toward the girl. "Hey." She said back. "Are you okay?" He asked her and Casey shrugged, "I'm hanging in there, I'm just glad you're awake." She answered.

      "What happened?" Reid asked. "You're gonna be all right, kid. And we got Brown. It's over." Morgan said. "How's Abby?" Reid asked Dr. Kimura. "She's on the mend. So are the three others. You were right about where to look for his cure." Dr. Kimura told.

"Why was Dr. Nichols making anthrax in the first place?" Reid asked and looked over at Morgan. "Yeah, why was he?" Casey followed.

"He was a brain scientist downgraded to working on the flu. Brown comes along asking for help on his thesis..." Reid nods, "Would have been more than happy to share his knowledge."
"There was no indication that Nichols had any idea what Brown was planning." Dr. Kimura speaks up next. "His strain and its cure are getting locked up in containment at Fort Detrick, with all the other bio-agents people don't know about." She tells.

"What else do they have locked up in there?" Morgan thought aloud and Casey shrugged, "Seven words: don't wanna know, don't wanna find out."

hey, lovelies!
Y'ALL WE HAVE TWO EPISODES LEFT UNTIL S5 IM SO EXCITED 🥳

morgan: what else do they have locked up in there?🤨
me: not covid, that's for sure😐

anyways, thank you for reading!
i'm trying to put as many moments as i can between reid and casey and there will be more soon — hopefully🤞
i love you all
-mya <3