CHAPTER FORTY: ONCE UPON A TIME !

5x17
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      FOR THE LAST FEW NIGHTS, CASEY HADN'T GOT MUCH SLEEP. This person sending her flowers had her at the edge of her seat and had her drinking more coffee than usual. That's why she had clutching hard onto her mug as JJ had told them about the new case.

    "Her name was Tanya Hill. She was twenty-nine, a bartender. Found two days ago in Edgewood, New Mexico. She's the fifth woman in over six months to be found dead in a ditch off the I-40 and I-25." JJ explained. "All were manually strangled. None were sexually assaulted." Hotch informed. "Well, maybe the act of strangulation is what gets him off." Morgan suggests.

      "Where were they abducted from?" Emily asks.
"All over." JJ answers. "Well, they're not just crossing state lines. These cities are hundreds of miles apart." Morgan adds.

       "That's a lot of bodies," Rossi comments. "Why is it taking so long to be invited?" Hotch continues. "We haven't been invited. We found this on HSK database." Casey looks at the file. "Well, a lot of police departments won't want this problem." She says, following with a yawn.

       "The geographic profile shows that only one of them has it," Reid starts. "They just don't know it yet." He stands up. "How do you know that?" Rossi asks. "Because he has a comfort zone..." Reid stands in front of the group. "Based on the direction he was heading when he dumped the bodies. All five cases point to our unsub heading to Edgewood, New Mexico." Reid explains, looking at the map. "And now so are we." Hotch says and walks out of the room.

        Casey lets out another yawn. "Tired, Willows?" Rossi asks. Casey looks at him with a grumpy look on her face. "What gave it away?" She asks with sarcasm. "Haven't got much sleep. Maybe I'll get some on the plane."

      "What's keeping you up at night?" Morgan questions, raising his eyebrows. "Nothing, I just... can't sleep." Casey shrugs and she walks out of the room. Everyone shrugs, thinking that all she needed was a few hours of sleep.

The team got on the jet and Hotch had sent Casey, Rossi and Reid over to the crime scene. "So, she was abducted 32.9 miles West of here, which means if they drove the speed limit, they got here in 30 minutes or less." Reid explained, looking at the ditch below them.

"So, how long's it gonna take you to get in that ditch?" Rossi questioned. "Get in that ditch?" Reid asked. "I got shot in the knee, remember? My doctor said I'm not allowed to do any climbing. Why can't Casey do it?" Reid complained, pointing over to the girl.

"One, I'm a lady. Two, it's a ditch." Casey told and Reid sighs and looks over Rossi and Casey before going down. "New boots, huh? Italian leather?" Rossi looks down at his shoes. "Yeah, what can I tell you?"
"I'm guessing the same for you, Casey?" Reid asks.
"Prada." Casey corrected.

Rossi looks around. "So, uh, from here I can be seen by any passing vehicle." He states. "And I can't." Reid says. "So, she was dumped at night. No cars can see it." Casey added. "Must have." Reid says.

"He drives up, dumps the body. Job done, he leaves." Rossi says. "I don't think so." Reid says. "What do you mean by that?" Casey asks. "All five victims were found posed in the fetal position with their right arm palm-up, left arm palm-down." Reid explains.

"Remorse?" Rossi asks.
"Or staging." Reid suggests.
"To look like what?" Casey asks.
"Like they're asleep." Reid says.

"You have any ideas why?" Rossi asks. Reid paused and thinks for a moment before deciding: "No." It's obvious that he's confused, Casey's the same.

"Well, I guess there is a first time for everything." Rossi tells and begins to walk away from the two. "Hey, Rossi, I'm gonna need a little bit of help getting out of this ditch." Reid tells but Rossi just keeps walking away. "Rossi?" Casey asks but Rossi keeps walking. "Rossi!"

Casey looks down over at Reid and sighs. She reaches her hand out to him. "Come on."

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To keep the case short, Tanya was found dead and the killer had kidnapped a woman in front of her daughter. Her daughter had been at the station and she was worried for her mother. They had discovered the killer to be Wade Hatchett, a man who was looking for a companion for his daughter and the woman he had kidnapped, Nancy Campbell, had been more suitable. He had just wanted his daughter back since she was going to be put on the foster care system due to him being deemed unfit because of a neglect of a minor. She was staying with a woman whom the team had found dead when a body turned up on the highway.

Some of the team had showed up at Lynn Clemons' house, the woman whom let Wade's daughter stay with her. Jody had been coming up the driveway and Casey peeked out the window. "Willows, go get her. She might respond to you well. Don't mention anything about her father or Lynn Clemons. Just get her in the house." Hotch ordered and Casey nodded, going to the front door.

"Hey, Jody." Casey greeted. Jody stopped in her tracks. "Who are you?" Jody asked. "I'm Casey." She introduced. "Where's Mrs. Clemons?" Jody asked, a little hesitant to why a random woman was coming out of her house. "Well, I'll tell you inside, okay?" Casey says, leading her into the house and shutting the door behind her.

"Jody." Hotch approached her. "What's going on?" Jody asked. "We're helping the police, and we're trying to find your dad. Do you know where he is?" Hotch asked. "No." Jody shook her head.

Hotch gave Emily a look and Emily stepped up next. "Hey, Jody, can we go play in your room?" Jody pointed towards a door and began to walk towards it. "It's right here." Casey and JJ followed behind Emily to Jody's room.

Casey noticed how the girl's room looked. Full of drawings, everything tidy and neat. Books on shelves, neat bed. Emily sat on Casey's bed and Casey had taken notice of the paintings on the walls. "Did you paint all of these yourself?" Casey asked. "Mm-Hmm." Jody nods.

"It looks like they're sleeping?" JJ asks. "Yeah," Jody says. "The King tucks them in, just like my daddy does for me." Casey takes notice of one of the paintings. "Is this your mom here, this one?" Casey asks. "No. That's The Queen." Jody tells. "Who's that?" Emily asks.

"She's the one that The King tried to take home to the castle, but she didn't make it." Jody explains. Emily, Casey and JJ all exchange a look. "What happened to her?" Emily asked.

"Her carriage broke down and he had to leave her behind to save The Princess." Casey nods in understanding to the girl. "Ohh, there's a lot of queens here." JJ says. "They all look different." Jody looks at JJ. "They are."

"What happened to this one here?" Emily points to a painting. "She was dirty," Jody says. "The King said, 'how do you expect to give my daughter a bath If you can't even take one yourself?' I like that story." The three women exchange a look once more.

"Do you make up all these stories?" Casey asks. "No. My daddy does. I like painting them." Jody answers. Emily takes notice of an unfinished painting on her desk in front of her. "Well, this story isn't over yet, is it?"
"That's what my dad said." Jody said.
"He did?" JJ asks.
Jody nods, "Today, we were eating pancakes and he said she was perfect."

Emily then gets a quick idea, "Hey, would you like to meet a queen?" Jody's face lights up. "Yeah."

Their plan was to get in contact with Wade through Jody. He was parked outside of her house. He had been using a walkie-talkie to get ahold of him through his radio. "Daddy? Daddy, are you there?" Jody spoke. The team waited for a moment, but hearing that it had been his daughter, Wade spoke. "Hi, baby."

"You need to tell me the rest of the story." Jody spoke. There's a pause. "Well, the lonely king and the queen are at the castle." Wade tells. "To pick up the princess?" Jody asks. "Well, the guards are in the way." Guards represented them — agents.

Emily whispers in the girl's ear, telling her what to say. "Will you let the queen talk to them?" Jody asks. "They won't listen." Wade tells. "But I want to see her. Will you let her go so she can hold me? You said that she's perfect, that she's the one. She wants to live in the big castle with me." Casey had reminisced of herself at that age. Jody was probably around the same age when her dad went to prison. She knew this feeling all too well. And Jody... all she wanted was a mom — hell, it's what she needed.

"I need to see you." Wade told. Casey looked at the team and Hotch had nodded at Casey. Casey had been in front of Jody as she looked through the window and Jody smiles, "Hi, Daddy!" Casey watched Wade carefully. "Hi, princess." Nancy had gotten out of the truck and Jody smiled once more. "She's so pretty, Daddy!"

"Now the king won't be lonely anymore." Jody told. "No and they're gonna live happily ever after." Wade stated. "Why aren't you coming, too, Daddy?" Jody asked since Wade hadn't gotten out of the truck. "You did a great job, Jody." Casey assures the girl.

"Are you going to the better place?" Jody asked and everyone looks at the girl. "What?" Emily questions. "Yeah," Wade nodded. "We're both going to a better place, princess. Close your little eyes, sweet pea." That didn't sound good.

Casey turns the girl over to shield her. "Hey, come here. Turn around." Casey watched as Morgan made it for the truck but he was too late. Wade shot himself. Casey didn't let Jody look outside. She wasn't going to move at all until Jody wasn't near Wade's body or wasn't in any sight of it.

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The team had been on the jet and on their way home. Casey had kept quiet the whole way home. Some of the team had been asleep and it had only been Morgan and Casey who were awake.

Morgan sat in front of the girl. "Hey, kid, you okay?" He asked and Casey nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I am. Just bothered that I only got five hours of sleep on the jet." She joked but Morgan could see right through the girl's lies.  

"Come on, kid. What's really bothering you?" Morgan asked and Casey sat up and took a deep breath. "Jody lost her mom and then her dad and the couple that was going to adopt her backed out. It's all over the news. Her life... it's gonna change forever. And she's gonna be alone. And she's... she's only a kid. It's just... it's not fair."

Morgan looked at the girl. "Her aunt saw the story." Casey's eyes widened. "She did?" Morgan nodded, "She came forward. She'd lost touch with Jody's mom over the past few years, but she's her only living relative and she wants to raise Jody."
"Really?" Casey asked and Morgan nodded. "That's great. That's really great." Morgan continued, "You know, Willows, when I think about the things we see on a daily basis, all the bad, I'm still amazed at all the good."

"Do you think it evens out?"
"I'd like to think it does."
Casey smiled at Morgan's words.

After the plane ride home and about two hours worth of paperwork, Casey finally went home and would try and attempt to get some rest. After all, she was the last one working in the BAU and she needed a good night's sleep.

Casey had arrived at her apartment and had taken notice of a box outside her door. It was kind of heavy so she had just assumed that it was a package for her apartment. She opened the doors to her apartment and placed the box on her counter and she had placed her jacket on the couch and placed her keys next to the box. She had taken the box over to the coffee table at her couch and as she got closer, she had smell something foul. On top of the box was an envelope.

To you, C.

She opened the envelope and her eyes widen as she had spotted a picture that was taken of her and Adam walking in front of her apartment building. Casey was freaked out enough already and looked at the box and hesitantly opened it.

A human heart was placed in the middle of the box and ten fingers were surrounded by the heart — decomposed with maggots coming out of them. The heart looked lifeless and Casey had immediately thrown the box and it had landed right side up.

Something obviously wasn't right about this, a freaking human heart was sent to her! Casey had no time to think and she grabbed her jacket and keys and got out of her apartment and the complex as quickly as she could and went to the only place that actually felt like home — the BAU.

DUN DUN DUN
ik this was short but i needed a
filler chapter for this lol
buttttttt
i'm excited
because these next two chapters are gonna be originals and they're gonna be CRAZZZZYYYY
i've been waiting for these chapters for a long time sooo i am excitedddd😁
anyways
thank you for reading!
see y'all next chapter😌
-mya <333

p.s. it's also the anniversary of the day i started watching criminal minds :)) i didn't know that a show could have such a big impact on my life like this. thank you all for the best year and i'm so thankful for the friends i've made on here because of this show. i love you all for making this fic possible💕