SPENCER
4 days. 4 long and difficult days. I wasn't sure how much longer I could go without Cassidy. She laid in her hospital bed, still asleep. The doctors reassured me that she'd wake up soon, but the more days went by, the more I started to lose hope.
That was until I felt movement. At 3:45 AM, on the 4th day, I woke up when I felt the bed moving. Opening my eyes, my heart raced when I watched as Cassidy's hand twitched. Her eyes were still closed, and it was clear that she hadn't woken up yet, but each finger on her right hand twitched, allowing me to feel a tiny bit of hope for her.
CASSIDY
Since I discovered that JJ and Spencer were engaged, I had woken up in my bed 3 times. And each time, I jolted out of bed in a sweat, my forehead burning as I tried to calm down my breathing. I kept having the same reoccurring nightmare.
I scoffed as I walked into the BAU, my shirt tightly tucked into my pants. I was having nightmares within a nightmare. Oh how I wanted to scream and shout, releasing all of my pent up anger, but I couldn't. There was a reason why I was living this specific nightmare.
"We have a case." Hotch announced as we all looked up at him.
Everyone stood up and walked up to the conference room. The images on the screen looked familiar, and I instantly felt sick.
The jet ride was difficult...to say the least. When we weren't talking about the case itself, JJ and Spencer were looking through their wedding folder, talking specific details. I tried to look away. I tried to focus on something else, but even when I was looking at the case file in front of me, my gaze drifted over to Spencer and JJ, who couldn't keep their hands away from each other. The sight of JJ placing kisses on Spencer's cheek made me physically sick. I could feel the nausea building up.
Feeling the contents of my stomach slowly coming up, - although I don't remember eating - I exited my seat and calmly walked to the bathroom of the jet. I shut and locked the door, quickly bending over so that I could empty my stomach contents into the toilet. As much as I hoped that my vomiting would be semi-private, I knew I was in the small toilet of a semi-large jet, and my co-workers might have heard some of what I was doing.
After flushing the toilet, wiping my mouth and washing my hands, I exited the toilet and immediately felt all eyes on me.
"You alright, Cassidy?" Emily asked as she and the rest of the team looked at me.
"I probably ate something that didn't agree with me." I chuckled, lying. Luckily, I was able to hide my true answer from all of the expert profilers that I was surrounded by.
"If you need to take a break, just let me know." Hotch offered. I nodded, trying to remain calm.
When we landed, we split up and went to our designated locations. Hotch and Rossi went to the police station. Morgan and Emily went to the M.E. JJ, Spencer and I went to the crime scene. Being paired with them created a knot in my stomach. No matter how many times I tried to breathe and calm down, the nausea wouldn't go away. All I could really do was wait it out.
———
After days of investigating, we had a solid lead. We had come across a 36-year-old white male, Callum Green, who had been left at the altar by his then fiancé, Sophia Wallis. Add to that the stressor of his mother cheating multiple times on his father when he was in high school and the trigger of his mother finally divorcing his father so she could marry the man she had been cheating with.
We had gone to his home, where he had led another pair of victims. The woman had a gun to her head and the man had a knife to his throat. Every single gun that didn't belong to the unsub was being aimed at him.
JJ put away her gun and slowly inched toward the unsub.
"Callum. Hi. Look at me." JJ put her hands up, showing him that she wasn't going to try and hurt him.
"Back away!" He yelled.
"Callum, my name is JJ. This man right here, is my fiancé, Spencer." JJ held Spencer's hand, Callum releasing a laugh. I continued to feel sick, seeing JJ and Spencer so in love with each other.
"You better watch out, Spencer. She's going to leave you at the altar, just like Sophia left me!" Callum scoffed.
"No, Callum. I won't. Because I love Spencer. He means everything to me. When he's happy, I'm happy." JJ tried to defend herself, but remembered where she was. She was trying to reason with a murderer.
"We know what your mother did, Callum. We know that she cheated on your dad when you were in high school. She did it multiple times. We know that she recently divorced your dad and left to marry the man she cheated on him with." I moved forward, helping her. I put my gun away, just like JJ had. She pulled out her gun again when she saw me trying to reason with him.
"She was a whore! A slut! A bitch! She ruined my life and destroyed her marriage. She ruined my father!" Callum sobbed, still holding the gun to the woman's head.
"Why would you shoot the women and stab the men? Wouldn't you do it the opposite way?" I asked, my heart racing.
"I shoot the women to end them instantly. They don't deserve to live a second longer than they have to. I stab the men because they can die slowly. They can remember that they didn't do anything to stop their wives from cheating as they draw their last breath!" Callum smirked.
"Here's the thing, Callum. None of the men and women that you killed did anything wrong. None of the wives cheated on their husbands. They were happy married couples. Why not go after the two people you're truly mad at?" Emily asked.
"My mother moved away with her new asshole of a husband. I don't know where she is now. As for my dad, he was paralysed in a car accident. He's suffering enough." Callum rolled his eyes.
"Callum. Please put the gun down. Let the couple go. We can help you track down your mother. We can find out where she is, and help you get revenge for ruining your family!" I smiled, inching closer to him.
"Bullshit!" Callum yelled.
"Cassidy, stop. We can't offer that to him!" Hotch whispered to me.
"He doesn't need to know that, Hotch." I shook my head.
"Callum, look at us. You have 7 guns being aimed at you. All of those guns are being held by FBI agents. If you put the gun down and let the couple go, we can help you find the woman that hurt you so many times!" I offered.
"R- Really?" Callum asked.
"Yes. Now put the gun down, slowly. Push it over to me." I calmed down, watching as Callum did what I said. He put the gun down and pushed it over to me, releasing the couple in the process. Spencer, Derek and Emily helped the woman get to safety, while Rossi, Hotch and JJ helped get the man to safety, leaving me to arrest the man in front of me. I continued to aim my gun, just in case.
As I bent down to retrieve the gun and get it further away from Callum, I heard three gunshots and within seconds, I could feel something small make impact with the left side of my body, somehow getting between the straps of my bullet-proof vest. Before my hand could grab the gun that he had thrown, the impact from the bullets and thrown my left arm and the left side of my body backward, causing my right hand to throw the gun that I was holding away. I rolled onto the floor for a few seconds before I ended up on my back, feeling the blood oozing from the wound in my side.
I yelped out in pain before hearing a few more gunshots, this time the unsub falling to the floor. Through my blurry vision, I could see Hotch and Derek rushing up to the unsub's body, while I could see Spencer, JJ, Emily and Rossi rush up to me. Trying to breathe, I coughed up a lot of blood, feeling some of it land on my cheeks and near my eyes.
"It's okay. It's okay." I could hear Spencer and JJ hovering over me.
"We got you. You're gonna be okay." JJ tried not to panic as she held her fingers to the wound, watching as I kept coughing up blood.
"Just stay with us, okay? Stay with us and keep breathing." JJ insisted.
"Cassidy's down. She's been hit. We need an ambulance now!" JJ spoke into her comms system.
"No! No! No! Cassidy! Stay with us, Cassidy!" Spencer started panicking. I could feel my eyes closing, the sound of a heart monitor loudly ringing in my ears.
"CASSIDY!" JJ and Spencer yelled as my heart beat slowed down and it became harder for me to breathe.
My eyes flew open, my breaking shallow and my pulse thready. My hands were shaking and I could feel the sweat dripping down my forehead. I moved my head and looked around, seeing my surroundings. I was in a hospital bed. There were monitors and loud beeping.
I could see someone sitting beside me on a nearby chair. Looking to my right, I saw Spencer peacefully sleeping on the chair, his hair a mess from the pillow that someone must have gotten from the apartment. His left hand was holding the pillow to his head, his right hand gently holding the wedding folder against his body. He had clearly been looking at it before he fell asleep.
A smile appeared on my face when I could see who's names were on the folder; Cassidy and Spencer.
My gaze immediately went from the wedding folder in Spencer's hand to my left hand, tears of joy escaping down my cheek as I saw my beautiful engagement ring safely wrapped around my finger.