Ineffable - S.REID

33

・゜゜・．A MONTH LATER  .・゜゜・

"You sure you'll be okay?"

"Spence I've managed this long, i'll be fine I promise," Clara replied, trying desperately to hide any ounce of pain within her voice. He handed her a fresh hot water bottle, which went straight onto her uterus, as she curled up on the couch under the thickest blanket they owned. The pain wasn't anywhere near how awful it had been before her surgery, where it rendered her practically immobile, but the constant stabbing cramps were not ideal for their type of job. The few periods that she had after her surgery were nowhere near as bad as this one was so she just presumed that it would be a slow process of getting better but he had been adamant that she return to the doctor just in case something was wrong.

He crouched down at her head, face almost level with hers, as he tucked the hair that had fallen out of her messy updo behind her ear. "Do you need or want anything else before I go?"

Clara paused for thought, just double checking that she already had everything she would need for the undoubted day on the couch. She couldn't see anything missing from her collection of water, snacks and pain killers so instead looked back at him with a subtle yet mischievous smile. "Yes," she whispered and just as his brow furrowed in concern, she lifted her head from the cushion and connected their smiling lips together.

He chuckled within a sigh as she placed her head back on the pillow, her cheeks dusted in pink as the usual stomach flipping emotions fixed through her veins. "Will you let me know if the doctor says anything?" he asked as he stood, picking his bag up off the floor.

"I will," she responded softly with pain furrowing her brow as yet another wave of intense stabbing fluctuated through her uterus and to her back. As he pulled on his jacket, he could not help but glance at her and wanted nothing more than to be able to take the pain away completely. He hated seeing her in pain, all hints of sunshine and joy wiped from her face just because of a biological process. He had researched it independently, hoping that he would find something to help, but all research had frustratingly come up empty. "Don't forget your coffee," she called just as he reached for his set of keys on the entryway table. He smiled to himself as he walked into the kitchen to collect the takeaway mug of coffee he had poured whilst making her hot water bottle. She couldn't even see the coffee from the living room, yet knew he would have forgotten it.

Her gaze remained fixed on the tv screen as she watched one of her favourite movies so she did not witness the look of adoration and the hesitation to say something else with his usual goodbye. After deciding that it probably wasn't the time, he left and locked the door behind him as he knew she was likely to fall asleep within the next few hours.

As she heard the lock twist, Clara shuffled herself on the couch into a comfy position and pulled up the hood of his jumper to grasp onto any aspect of comfort that she could as the pain reached new levels. She folded herself over, hot water bottle wedged between her stomach and legs, seeking out the brief relief of pain it would give. In those five minutes of pain relief, she managed to let herself drift into a three hour long nap until she was rudely awoken by the usual stabbing in her back.

-

The case which the BAU took whilst Clara was off lasted a week and a half. So by the time that he sent her a message that he was getting on the plane home, she was all done with the pain and feeling somewhat refreshed after six days of being holed up at home. To pass the time, Clara drifted into her studio and picked up where she had left off on her current painting that she was hoping to give Garcia for her birthday. She had complained about how the back walls of her office lacked colour on so many occasions that Clara felt it necessary to put the most colour possible into the painting that she had designed to fit perfectly in one of the gaps on the walls.