Ineffable - S.REID

47

・゜゜・．A MONTH LATER .・゜゜・

Clara and Spencer had both gotten to the BAU before everyone else after the call from Hotch. They hadn't a clue as to how that had happened, as a few people lived closer than they did. So, whilst waiting for everyone else, they sat at their opposing desks and played a quick game of chess together online. Spencer won, as usual. She just enjoyed the process of the game and trying to guess what his thought process was, she didn't really play to win. The game had been perfect to waste the time, as by the time they finished everyone had travelled in and were collected in the circle table room.

As she stood, her head filled with black splotches and she stumbled just slightly. "You've gone really pale," Spencer commented in pure concern as he stopped at her side, watching the flickering of her unfocused gaze.

"Yeah I just got a wave of dizziness," she responded whilst the feeling left, the black dots disappearing completely.

"Did you eat today?" he asked as they began the walk to the circle table room, purposefully taking the shorter route up the stairs instead of the longer back route that they usually used for extra chat time. She nodded her response to his question. "What about your iron tablets?"

"That's gotta be it," she responded after a brief hesitation, not remembering if she had taken them with her breakfast that morning as usual. She had been distracted and her usual routine disturbed by the smashing of a mug. She took iron tablets at the recommendation of her doctor as she had said that her iron was low and wanted to get on top of the levels before her next period, which would undoubtedly make it worse. "I have some in my bag, I'll take them on the plane."

As they walked into the circle table room, he reached into the very front pocket of his bag and pulled out two packaged iron tablets that he had stolen from her supply, for moments exactly like this one. She smiled gratefully as she took them, her verbal thanks were interrupted by Garcia's hastened explanation of the case ahead of them.

-

Their plane trip to the case was so long that within the first half of it, they had gone through all the files and  all they could for the case before landing on the ground. They were in the usual case limbo on the plane, sometimes it lasted hours and other times it was only a short period of time. This time though, it was such a long period of time that Spencer and Clara started to play poker.

"What's the point in even playing him, surely you lose all the time?" Morgan commented, having removed his headphones as he noticed the two betting with pretzels.

"I do win sometimes," Clara shrugged.

"Only when I let you," he commented, looking up from his cards and directly into her eyes.

She smirked softly, gaze meeting him as she replied, "That's what you like to think."

"I know what cards you have, Ara," he responded to prove his theory. Her brow crept up onto her forehead and her expression turned expectant yet she had a look in her eyes that worried him ever so slightly. "You have three of a kind, king high."

She chuckled through her nose, brow remaining to be raised, "Do I?" Morgan, at the tone of her voice, whistled through his teeth and felt the tension between the two rise to such a level that he was actually rather interested in their little poker game. He wanted to see if she could actually beat the genius.

He nodded, "I'm certain."

Clara, momentarily dropping the charade, looked defeated as she set her cards face down onto the table. He placed his down too, displaying them proudly and went to collect his price of pretzels. Just as he was about to swipe them all, she grabbed his hand and flicked over her cards. His pair of kings and three sevens had nothing against her straight flush. Morgan laughed as Spencer started at her cards in disbelief, unable to figure out how she had gotten such an advantage. "How?"

She shrugged and took her winnings whilst he watched with a slightly squinted stare. "Slide of hand beats your card counting ability every time," Clara replied at a teasing whisper, meeting his gaze with the softest of smirks on her lips.

Morgan cleared his throat to interrupt the staring with too many hidden meanings, laughing as he spoke, "Do you guys want us to clear the plane?"

-

Clara and Spencer had sprawled onto the bed of their hotel room, with a bag full of takeout from the nearest shop. As she unpacked the food and dug into her order, feeling rather ravenous as it was quite late in the night, he took off his suit jacket and hung it on the back of a chair. He took off his tie, leaving the top button undone and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to expose his forearms completely. As he leant over to pick up his box of food, she could not help but stare until he caught her. She, from then on, stared down at her food as she ate and did not see his struggle with the chopsticks until something green flew out of his pot and landed on the abandoned carrier bag left on the sheets.

"Did you know that experts credit Confucius with the advent of the chopstick? He equated knives with acts of aggression."

She laughed softly, "Is that the long form way of telling me you can't use chopsticks?"

"It's like trying to forage for dinner with a pair of number two pencils!"

Clara, whilst holding back a fit of laughter (she was exhausted and anything would be hilarious), stuck her chopsticks into her container of spicy noodles. "Pass them here?" she asked and he soon did so, watching as she looped a hairband around the end and made them slightly easier to use. He took them back and for a moment struggled still but with the help of the hairband, he somewhat managed to finally get a bite of the meal. "I can't believe I've known you this long and never knew you couldn't use those." 

He shrugged, "At least I can still surprise you."