CHAPTER ELEVEN: NEW YORK, THE PLACE TO BE !
3x20
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CASEY WILLOWS HAD ARRIVED AT THE OFFICE TO HER COWORKERS CHEERING AND BLOWING POPPERS AND WEARING PARTY HATS. "Happy birthday, Casey!" They had been cheering. Casey smiled as her co-workers had remembered her birthday and had decided to celebrate.
"Officially twenty-one, my fair maiden!" Garcia hugged the girl. "I can't believe you guys didn't forget." Casey said as she returned the hug.
"Well, Penelope wanted to do something special for you and Reid had remembered your birthday so... here we are." Morgan told and Casey looked towards, who gave her a nod and a tight-lipped smile. "You remembered." Casey stated, with a smile on her face. "Kinda hard not to forget. Eidetic memory." Reid reminded and Casey nodded, "Right."
Garcia looked at the girl. "Okay, you want a cupcake? The bakery I usually go to ran out of cake so we decided to just get cupcakes." She explained. "Yeah, sure." Casey nodded.
"So, you're officially twenty-one," JJ spoke, sitting against Emily's desk as she held a cupcake in her hands. "You celebrating by drinking tonight?" Casey shrugged, "Eh, alcohol's not really my thing, but... maybe. I'm thinkin' about it."
An hour later, Casey had been sitting at her desk, filing out some paperwork. She would be doing her second evaluation test since you needed to pass three tests to become an agent. (okay idk how the fbi works so this is how i'm gonna do it lmao)
Casey had studying until Hotch had called the team up to the round table room and Casey had strung along — since she was basically a part of the team. They had walked in on Hotch replaying someone getting shot in the head from security footage as everyone in the room walked in.
"Don't get comfortable. There'll be time to debrief on the plane." Hotch informed. "Where are we headed?" Reid asks. "New York." Hotch says.
"Five shootings in two weeks," Rossi stated. "It's about time we got the call." Casey stood as she looked over at her boss. "I want to take Garcia with us. Hopefully they'll give us access to their surveillance systems. Willows, I'd also like for you to travel with us, we'll need fresh eyes." Casey nods at Hotch. "Got it, boss."
"What do we know?" Emily asks. "All the killings are mid-day. Single gunshot to the head with a .22." Hotch informs. "Any witnesses?" JJ asks and Hotch shakes his head 'no'.
".22-caliber pistol's only 152 decibels. New York streets and subways are routinely well over 100. It could be people aren't even registering the gunshot until the unsub's already leaving the scene." Reid explains.
"They sound like mob hits." Morgan tells. "Except none of them have ties to organized crime." Hotch says. "Do they have any connection to each other?" Emily asks. "None they've found."
"How about communication with the police?" Casey decides to ask. "Has the unsub tried to make contact?"
"Surveillance cameras have captured video Of three of the murders. This is the latest." Hotch had showed the video onscreen once more. "That's the best image they have?" JJ asks.
"They're all the same," Hotch says. "He wears a hood and keeps his head down."
Emily continued, "This guy's bold. Crowded areas, broad daylight." Rossi looks ahead at the footage. "So they're completely random?" Hotch nods, "It seems that way."
"Son of Sam all over again." Reid comments.
The team had gotten to the jet and Casey had taken a seat over at the couch as Garcia had walked in the jet with Morgan following behind her. "How come I only get to travel with you guys like once every two years? I think Casey has traveled more with you guys than I do." Garcia told.
"Trust me, Mama, it can get old." Morgan says. "Oh, right, like the way that spa treatments in 5-star hotels can get old." Garcia stated.
"Remember the time we got on board and they hadn't chilled the cristal?" Emily joked, walking past Morgan. "Ooh, I almost quit the BAU that day." Casey smiles at the group as they joke.
"Okay, you know what? You guys can joke all you want, 'cause I am never leaving this plane." Garcia tells.
"The victims?" Rossi began, starting up their subject about the murders. "Each killed in a completely different neighborhood. Hell's Kitchen, Murray Hill, Lower East Side, Chinatown, East Harlem." Hotch listed.
"It doesn't make any sense," Reid spoke. "There's no common victimology, no sexual component, no robbery, no geographical connection. Do the police have any leads?" Reid asked Hotch.
"He's killing roughly every two days. The press is having a field day and it sounds like The mood on the street's getting pretty edgy." Hotch explained.
"It's a joint FBI-NYPD Taskforce?" Rossi asks. "Kate Joyner heads up the New York field office. She's running point on the case and called me directly." Hotch had looked directly at JJ as she was focused on the window. She was usually in on the conversation, but she looked like she had a lot on her mind.
"JJ, would you tell them we're ready to go?" Hotch asked. JJ nodded and walked towards the front of the jet to inform the pilots. "Right."
"Kate's starting to butt heads with the lead detectives and wanted a fresh set of eyes." Hotch explained. "Joyner, I know her. She's a Brit, right?" Morgan asked. "Well, dual citizenship. Her father's British, her mother's American. She was a big deal at Scotland Yard before coming to the Bureau." Hotch explained the woman out.
"I heard she can be a little bit of a pain in the ass." Morgan stated. "Probably why she and the lead detectives are bumpin' heads." Casey nodded along.
Hotch shook his head and everyone had looked towards him. "I didn't think so." He stated. "You know her?" Emily asked. "We liaised when she was still at Scotland Yard." Hotch nodded.
"And she's good?"
"I think we're lucky to have her."
The team had been cleared for takeoff and so they flew to New York and headed down to the field office at NYPD. Casey stood close with JJ and Garcia as they walked in and a woman began approaching the team, looking straight at who Casey thought she had been looking at — and that was Aaron Hotchner himself.
"Is it just me or does she look exactly like Haley?" JJ muttered over to Garcia and Casey and Casey nodded in agreement. "No wonder they got along." Casey muttered back.
Guaranteed, the woman looked exactly like Hotch's ex-wife, Haley. Casey thought that she was Haley as soon as she walked in.
"Kate."
"Aaron. How have you been?"
Garcia, JJ and Casey all exchange a glance due to the looks that Kate and Hotch had given to one another. "Well, thank you." Hotch nodded and motioned to the team.
"This is my team. Kate Joyner — this is David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia, Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid and our intern, Casey Willows." Casey nodded at the woman, given her a subtle wave.
"Thanks for being here," The woman said. "Anything that you need, just tell me. Please don't stand on protocol."
"What can you tell us about the city's surveillance system?" Garcia's asks. "Um, it's run by the NYPD. It's still in the infant stages. It's been rather controversial, American privacy laws. Um, but they've had some success." Kate informed to Garcia.
"And I'll have complete access?" Garcia asked. "They're already expecting you." Garcia smiled at the woman as she had her assistant lead her into a different room.
"I'd like to get a map of the borough. I want to do a comprehensive geographical profile of the area in order to ascertain the unsub's mental map before it's clouded by our own linkage blindness." Reid explained out.
"I see you brought your own computer." Two men had approached the team and one of them made the comment. "Yup, who needs Google when you got Spencer Reid?" Casey commented, ruffling Reid's hair and making him slightly blush.
"Detectives Brustin and Cooper," Kate introduced. "I'll let you do the introductions."
"You caught the first shooting?" Rossi asked. "They've all been in different precincts." The younger detective spoke. "It wasn't until the third murder that anyone even made the connection."
"I guess this is where we play nice and ask you what you need." Brustin said.
"I'll let you all figure out what that is. I just ask that you run everything back through me. It's been my experience that having one butt on the line is enough." Kate explained. "Yes, ma'am." By Brustin's response, Casey felt the tension in the case.
"Can I have a word with you in private?" Kate asked, looking towards Hotch. "Sure," he nodded. "Excuse me." The two walked away and JJ, Emily and Casey all looked at one another and JJ looked confused. "They, um... liaised when she was at Scotland Yard." Emily informed to JJ, who nodded. "Of course."
"Probably did more then liaise." Casey commented, causing Morgan to lightly slap her in the head jokingly.
Reid had approached the younger detective, who had been Detective Cooper and Casey had been standing next to Emily as they looked around. "Hey, so, uh, what's your partner's problem?" Reid asked.
"Uh, well... well, by the fourth murder, the FBI was brought in. Good, we can use all the help we can get. But, uh, all of a sudden she's taking meetings with the mayor and calling in you all without us knowing anything about it." Cooper explained and Casey could see why Brustin was irritated with her. I mean, she didn't blame him but they had a job to cover.
"We're only here to help," Emily informed. "Think of us as a resource." Cooper nodded and blinked as he said, "Okay. Profile me." Emily blinked back in confusion.
"What am I thinking?"
Both Reid and Casey sharing a knowing look before looking at Emily, who laughs. "It's never gonna happen."
"No offense, but we've had five murders. Hope it gets better than that." With that, Cooper walked off as Emily raised her eyebrows at him.
"Em, I think he liked you. That looked like flirting." Casey told, although she could never pick up on romance cues that well. "Yeah, I know." Emily nodded.
"How do you figure?" Reid asked and Casey turns over to him. "Oh, Reid, there are still some things you have to figure out in that big brain of yours." Casey heads towards the door. "You guys want coffee?" Emily and Reid both nod and Emily looks over at Reid and taps him on the chest as they watch Casey walk out the door.
"Now, that was flirting." Emily tells and Reid turns red.
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Casey had guessed that the entire city felt on-edge since the murders — even the detectives. Casey had been helping Reid out with the geographical for a day up until another murder had turned up the next day. She had joined Hotch and Joyner at the scene.
"Uniforms are rounding up witnesses. It doesn't seem like anyone got a clean look." Detective Cooper told. "It's over in a flash," Morgan said. "He's probably gone before anyone even realizes what's happening."
"Is this what it felt like during the Son of Sam?" Joyner asks. "First, we realized that if the violence was truly random, there was almost no way of stopping it. It seems like these people have figured that out." Detective Brustin told.
"From the placement Of that camera, odds are the only view they're gonna get is the back of his head." Morgan told and Joyner looked over at the man. "Let's not be too quick to decide what we do or don't have."
Casey's eyes widen and she tightens her lips as Joyner had thrown sass at Morgan and walked away and Brustin had noticed, as well. "Whoo, the Duchess of Work has spoken." Brustin comments.
The girl walked away, joining Rossi as Morgan had a small talk with Hotch. The unsub had left a tarot card and left it to let the FBI know that he knew they were there, looking over the case since he hadn't left anything behind before.
The team makes it back to the NYPD where the newscasters, reporters and photographers had been piled up. They walk towards the offices towards JJ, Emily and Reid. "What have we got?" Hotch asks as the enter.
"The latest shooting." JJ tells as the video plays onscreen of the previous victim getting shot. "This was the previous murder." Emily shows the first murder the team had seen before they left for New York.
"Okay, do you see anything weird here?" Emily asks. "He sprints off in one and walks calmly in the other. It's two entirely different demeanors." Morgan says. "Could be that he was alone in the first murder and in broad daylight with the second murder." Casey guesses. Rossi shakes his head, debunking Casey's theory, "No, six kills in, his behavior should be set."
"Look at this," Reid leans over. "Garcia, are you still there?" Garcia's voice chirps up, "Would I ever leave you?" Casey smirks at her words.
"Okay, check it out. I did a digital perspective analysis rendering on the shootings where we have footage. Now, the first two are inconclusive, but the last two, I found something tres weird." She explains. "Your calm walking type, he is about 6'1. But your sprinter, he's like 5'9, 5'10, tops."
This had definitely changed everything. "We've got more than one unsub." Hotch stated. "So, we have more than one unsub. What does that tell us?" Rossi asks.
"Most teams stick together. Uh, NG and Lake, The Krays. Bittaker and Norris. They don't usually kill separately." Reid explained. "Think it could be some kind of gang initiation?" Casey asks.
"Gangs will kill you if they encroach on your territory, not random people all over the city." Emily tells Casey, who nods. "Right."
"I'll coordinate with the gang taskforce, make sure we have an overview by morning." JJ stands up, beginning to walk away. "Do you think we have enough for a working profile?" Joyner asks. "Broad strokes." Rossi says.
"Dave, you, Willows and Reid talk to the agents here. Morgan and Prentiss, brief the police when each shift comes on duty tomorrow." Hotch ordered.
"I think we should get out on the streets." Morgan voices. "I brought you here to create a profile." Joyner says. "Which we can give In the morning and then they can share it with the afternoon shift." Morgan says.
"We've allocated every extra man we have," Joyner tells. "This is New York City. It's not like a few More people is going to blanket the city."
"I understand it's a long shot, but these guys, they hit at mid-day. We could target ingress And egress to particular neighborhood. Position us near express stops — 14th, 42nd, 59th—" Hotch interrupts Morgan. "Morgan, it's not your call." He reminds.
Casey saw how Hotch had always been very defensive when it came to Joyner. If it had been any other person, he would've agreed with Morgan but he stood by Joyner no matter what. Hotch and Morgan exchange a glance before looking away from one another.
"I'd like to join you in the profile if that's not stepping on your toes." Joyner tells. "No problem." Rossi says and Hotch tells Emily to start up the videos and the height-difference between the unsubs again.
At the end of the night, they arrived at the hotel they were staying at for the night and Emily had taken notice of the late edition that had been talking about the murders.
Casey looked up and noticed JJ's beau sitting over at one of the chairs and before she could speak, Reid had beaten her to it and JJ turned to see Will standing up. "Will." She walked over to him.
"Hey, took a shot and flew to D.C., but that didn't work out. I figured a train ride to New York was only a few more hours." Will told and both Emily and Casey exchange a glance and wondering why he had shown up.
"Detective." Hotch held his hand out to the man as Will had shaken his hand back. "I'm sorry for showing up like this. I know you're working." Will turned back to JJ. "But, um... I can't stand you being on this case and me not being there. Not with what's going on."
Casey furrowed her eyebrows. "'With what's going on'?" Casey asked. "Is there a problem?" Hotch asks, following Casey's question.
JJ smiled to herself a bit before turning around to her co-workers and her smile plastered on her face and she says: "I'm pregnant."
Casey's face drops and her eyes widen and a smile is now on her face. "Oh, my God! JJ! Congratulations!" Emily smiles as she gives JJ a hug. "This is great news, congrats!" Casey gives a hug to JJ next.
"How long have you known?"
"Uh, about two months, I think?" JJ says.
Hotch shakes Will's hand. "I've asked JJ to marry me." Will tells and Casey gasps and JJ turned to Will and said his name. "We're working out some kinks." JJ gives a hug to Reid as Will says this. "We'll, uh, give you both some privacy." Hotch says. As he begins to walk away, JJ speaks to him as Emily, Reid and Casey gives their congratulations to Will, as well, since he was going to be a father.
They give one last "congrats" to JJ as they give the two their privacy. Casey had been genuinely happy for JJ and Will to having a baby. They deserved to be happy with one another. She looked over at Reid and remembered his crush on JJ back when Elle and Gideon were still at the BAU. She remembered the "supposed date" they went on that her uncle told her about and thought about JJ's pregnancy and how Reid must've been handling it.
"Hey," Casey spoke as they had arrived at their rooms in the hotel and Reid turned over to her. "Are you okay?" She asked. Reid nodded and shrugged, "Yeah, yeah, just tired is all." He said.
"Well, a good night's sleep will fix that up. See you in the morning." Casey smiled, heading into her room which was right across from Reid's and closed the door, changed into her pajamas and dozed off to sleep as soon as she had hit her bed.
The team had gotten up at 7am sharp and headed down to the NYPD and had finally given the profile to the department. And right in front of them, within two hours, another shooter had gotten another random person at the same platform. The police weren't even on the scene and the shooter was gone.
"We could've had that guy." Morgan spoke. "Even if we were on that platform, odds are he would have moved on to somewhere more isolated." Joyner said.
"Maybe, but it was worth taking a shot." Morgan told. "We had every available man on the street." Joyner told. "And I suggested to you that you use this team."
"Morgan, second-guessing doesn't do us any good right now." Hotch told. "Hotch, how am I supposed to look these cops in the eye and tell them that we're actually here to help them?" Morgan was getting pissed as the anger had risen in his voice.
"We're here to present a profile. That's what we need to do." Hotch stated. "I said to put us At express stops - 14th, 42nd, 59th and that's exactly where they hit." Morgan argued.
"It's not your place to have this discussion."
"My place?"
"You need to back off."
"We got seven bodies, man."
"Which is exactly why We need to stay focused." The tension was high between Morgan and Hotch.
"Focused," Morgan raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Joyner. "From where I'm standing, all your focus is on her."
What Morgan had said was out of line and Casey knew that as she watched the scene unfold. The girl had stepped up behind Hotch and looked at Morgan carefully. "Morgan, take a walk." She told.
"Willows—"
"I-I think you should take a walk." She told and Morgan had walked away, choosing not to pressure into anymore conflict. Casey looked over at Rossi, who had motioned to the girl that he was going to take care of it.
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After that, the team had found out that there was one more unsub — meaning that there were three unsubs now. Joyner decided to have the team out on the streets the next day. Casey had been back at the precinct with Rossi and Reid when the rest of the team had gone out but the three had arrived at the scene where Detective Cooper had ended up getting shot by one of the unsubs and Emily had shot the unsub and had gotten him down. Emily had stated that she didn't need to shoot him because he had stopped and waited when he could've gotten away. Emily said that he had no ID and that he was weirdly calm and the team had finally come to the conclusion that this had been terrorism.
The team went back to the precinct to talk about their new profile with these unsubs. "So how does this work?" Morgan asks Reid. "The murderers simulate a bombing. From there they station someone to watch and gauge Police response time." Reid explains.
"At which point they know when to bring in a second bomb." Casey guesses as Reid nods, "Correct."
"The goal is always to take out the first Round of civilians, followed by a second wave of emergency responders." Joyner added.
"It's crazy, but it's ingenious. They get a practice run and if someone catches the shooter, they think they just have a murderer. The cell isn't compromised." Reid explained.
"It's Lo-Fi," Joyner says. "Smartest way to plan for a terrorist event." Hotch continued, "Creating panic ensures that they see the most urgent response times short of a bombing."
"So there's been seven different shooters?" JJ asks. "And we've only caught three, one of them being dead." Casey tells.
"Having followers do the shootings would ensure they're willing to kill or be killed for the cause." Rossi says. "It fits the profile, there is something larger at play. It's similar to gang initiation."
"Especially if they're home-grown. They haven't had a chance to prove themselves." Hotch said. Reid turns back to the map. "I think they're targeting points of entry. All of the murders have taken place near a bridge or a tunnel."
Casey nodded, "Yeah, I wrote 'em down. Holland Tunnel, Midtown Tunnel and the Manhattan Bridge." She stated.
"If bombs went off, emergency response would shut down any ability to get in or out of the city. It's like people would be trapped on the island." JJ told.
"Keep in mind, it's still a theory, just like any profile." Hotch told and Morgan's cell began to ring and he picked it up, putting it on speaker. "Talk to us, Garcia."
"We got a problem," Garcia began. "I went through and checked all 4,468 cameras. They hacked into the surveillance system. They've got footage of every crime scene. They've been watching since the beginning."
Casey paused, "Well, that's not good." She crosses her arms.
"How could we not have caught that?" Hotch asked. "They were smart. It wasn't system-wide. You had to check each camera individually." Garcia informed.
"And this is from every crime scene?" Emily asked. "I'm afraid so," Garcia told. "They hacked into one camera at every scene." This was not good, definitely not good at all. "Thanks, Garcia." Morgan hung up the phone.
"So much for theory." Rossi says.
The team takes a pause before continuing.
"We need to hit the ground running." Joyner says.
Emily rushes to grab her coat. "I'm gonna head to the hospital. I'll check on Cooper and brief Detective Brustin." She informed.
"Good," Hotch tells as she walks out. "Dave, will you go talk to the commissioner and Morgan, you brief Homeland Security, take Willows with you." Casey nods at her boss. "Got it."
"JJ and I will talk to the Port Authority police." Reid decides. "Kate and I will go talk to the mayor and we'll meet back here as soon as possible." Hotch says. "One advantage that we have right now Is that they don't know we know they're watching." Joyner reminds.
The team had gone their separate ways. Hotch and Joyner had headed over to their SUV to go and talk to the mayor as decided, Emily had briefed Detective Brustin and went to head back to the department in the SUV she was in, Penelope had been getting picked up in an SUV as well to go back to her hotel for the night, JJ had met up with Will and decided to both leave for the night since Hotch didn't need everyone on the field and they went in an SUV as well, Rossi unlocked his SUV and headed inside, Reid had decided to go and brief the Port Authority police without JJ and got in his SUV and Derek and Casey had both gotten into an SUV to go and brief the Homeland Security.
Everyone had gotten into their vehicles and suddenly . . . a black SUV had blown up and was engulfed into flames.
hey, lovelies!
this felt rushed but oh well
i actually enjoyed writing this one lol
BRO WE ARE ON S4 NOW BABY LETS GOOOO
IM EXCITED FOR S4 HONESTLY
and no, spencer and casey will not be happening yet, it is called an EXTREME SLOW-BURN for a reason lol
anyways
thank you for reading and i love you all
and i can't believe we are almost at 10k whattttt
thank you all for your support!!
and if i haven't recommended it already, please read -vxnilla 's spencer reid fic "ADORE YOU"
she recently just finished it and it is one of the most amazing books i've ever read, i love you wifey
😫🤞
anyways thank you for reading and ily all
s4, here we come!
-mya <3