never grow up, criminal minds

025. day of the dead

"Thank you." Penelope says as she opens the door for Spencer and Clara, the man carrying grocery bags. "Okay, just put everything on the counter and I'll put it away later."

"I like your altar." Spencer says.

"Thank you." Penelope shuts the door. They walk over to the kitchen and Spencer puts the bags down. "Yeah, there's still a lot to do before the party next week, and... I'm scared. I've never had the whole team here before."

"Why are you doing a Day of the Dead theme?" Spencer asks.

"Well, uh, my stepfather's family always made a big deal of it in Mexico, and my name is Penelope Garcia, after all, so..." She shrugs. "Hey, could you check my refrigerator and see if I have enough hot sauce?" She asks Spencer. He goes to the fridge and opens it.

Clara watches Penelope take her glasses off and put fake blood on her cheeks.

"You have some jalapeno sauce here next to this jar of eyeballs." Spencer says, taking both items out. "But I think you're gonna need more depending on which guacamole you plan on making." He looks up at her. "You okay?" He frowns.

"You didn't even flinch." Penelope says. "JJ's right. I told her I wanted to go scary this Halloween, and she just laughed at me. And she said I don't have a scary side."

"I'm sorry. If it makes you feel better, you probably do." Spencer says.

"Really?" Penelope asks.

"Yeah. The building blocks of the human personality are complex, varied, and multi-faceted. It's essential to one's mental health to want to express these hidden personalities, and it's a fact of nature that everybody has one."

"Everybody? You have one?" Penelope asks him.

"Oh, absolutely. Yeah." Spencer nods. Clara snickers, shaking her head.

"Okay. Okay, I want to see it." Penelope says. "I want to see Dr. Spencer Reid's hidden personality."

"Uh-- you, uh-- right here? Like right now you want to see it?" Spencer asks.

"I have fake blood running down my cheeks right here, right now." Penelope puts her glasses on.

"I wanna see it." Clara grins.

"You-- I don't know if you should." Spencer says.

"I'll take my chances." Clara says, sweetly smiling at him.

"Okay." Spencer says. "Once you see it, you can't unsee it." Clara rolls her eyes.

"Okay." Penelope whispers.

Spencer lowers his head, his hands resting on the back of his neck and he lets out a deep grunt making Clara give him a weird look. He lifts his head and holds his hand out.

"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, did that guy just fire 5 shots? Or did that guy just fire 6 shots? You're gonna have to ask yourself a question. Do you feel lucky, punk?" He asks, dragging the "punk" out. "That was Clint Eastwood, in Dirty Harry."

"Oh." Penelope nods.

Clara immediately starts to laugh.

"I mean, I know it's not as effective as my dominant personality, but I feel like there's--"

Penelope's phone chimes.

"Hey, look, we gotta go." Penelope says, cutting him off.

"These eyeballs. Do they need to be refrigerated--"

"No. Let's go."

"You're weird." Clara giggles at her dad as he grabs her hand.

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