Wheels Up

Go Let It Out

Penelope had never been good at awkward silence.

She tapped her foot and stared at the ceiling in what seemed to be the longest elevator ride of her life.

She cleared her throat. "Feeling better Elle?" She finally said into the silence.

"Yes. Thanks." Elle replied. Penelope nodded, then retreated back into silence.

"Nice weekend Spencer?" She asked next.

"Fine. Thanks." He answered.

Silence.

"Good. Good. All good stuff." She said. Both Elle and Spencer ignored her, staring at opposite walls.

Since Elle had been discharged from the hospital, Spencer had been avoiding her, then Elle had become irritated with this, and so they hadn't spoken a word to each other in days. In fact, this was the closest they'd been.

"Alright this is, this is ridiculous. Will you please just talk? I can only handle a very minimal amount of awkward silence and we are way way past that. So please, just talk to each other?" Penelope finally burst.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened, and Elle walked off.

"Nothing I can do if she's being like this." Spencer shrugged.

"Me? Me? I'm being like this?" Elle snapped, swinging back round to face him.

"Maybe let's take this down here." Penelope said, guiding them both to her office rather than having a face off in front of the whole floor.

"You're the one ignoring me!" Elle said.

"Which is exactly what you asked for!" Spencer replied. Garcia stared at her fingernails, examining them like they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"Because you told me you felt nothing towards me!" Elle shouted back.

"What were you expecting, Elle, huh? For you to just rock back up and me to what, have been waiting for you for 5 years? You walked away, you did this." Spencer spat.

"I didn't have a choice." Elle said.

"There's always a choice!" Spencer yelled, and started to storm towards the door.

"You don't get it!" She screamed, which stopped him.

"Don't I? Don't I? Elle, do you really think you're the only one on this team to have nearly died? You have no idea what any of us have been through, because you left." Spencer replied, back in the room.

Garcia winced at all the yelling, and worried for her computers, not convinced a screen wasn't going to get smashed.

"So what, it's always going to come back to that, is it? The fact I walked away 5 years ago, because that was what I needed?" Elle said, exasperated, and falling back to sit on a chair.

"What about what I needed?" Spencer asked. "What about me, what I felt?"

"Right yes my bad, should've been more accommodating and made YOU feel comfortable while I coped with my trauma." She scoffed, the sarcasm shining through.

"We were together Elle, you could've at least-" He was cut off.

"No we weren't! We weren't together! We were sleeping together, sure, but you refused to acknowledge me at all at work? And now, now 5 years later you suddenly start claiming you love me?" She shook her head.

"I was new to the team, I didn't wanna risk anything by sleeping with a co-worker!" Spencer replied.

"Right, so you putting you're career ahead of me was fine, but me putting my, my health, my sanity, ahead of you is the be all and end all? Make it make sense." Elle asked, her voice sharp as a knife.