never grow up, criminal minds

047. questions

Clara rushes out of her room, knowing she's already late for school.

"Oh, Clary. Hey, I wanted to talk to you." Spencer says.

"Oh, God, please don't be the Linda problem again." Clara whines.

"It's not." Spencer rolls his eyes. "If I can make it, I want us to both to be home tonight. Talk some more stuff out."

"Uh... do I have a choice?" Clara asks.

"No." Spencer shakes his head.

"Then have an excellent time at work and, please, get a case." Clara says. "I'm late. I'll see you later." She grabs her bag and phone.

"Okay. By--" Spencer flinches as the door slams shut. ""Bye, dad."" He mimics in a quiet, high pitched voice. "Bye, honey. Love you."

+++

Spencer ended up going on a case, but told Clara to be home that night since he was getting home at a reasonable time. He picked dinner up on the way home, grabbing some food from her favorite Italian restaurant.

The two sit at the table, both eating their meals.

"Do we really have to talk?" Clara asks.

"Clara..." Spencer sighs.

"We're doing kind of decent. That's better than nothing." Clara says.

"But it's not great." Spencer says. "I'm glad you're not dodging me every possible chance, but you're still dodging."

"I'm a teenager. We dodge." Clara says.

"Clara." He gives her a look.

"Fine." She grumbles. "You're first this time." She sighs.

"Are you still having trouble in school?" Spencer asks. "With... with everybody and my incarceration?"

"Most of them forgot about it after two weeks while you were in prison." Clara says. "Only a few kept it going until half way through that second month. Now that you're out, most of the school has let it go. Sometimes there's a couple annoying kids that give me weird looks. The only teacher that still sucks is the gym teacher, but he was a prick before anyway."

"Do you want to change schools?" Spencer asks.

"No. No, I'd rather be the daughter of somebody who went to prison than the new girl." Clara says. "Besides, Erin, Izzy, and Luke aren't bad. They were there for me the whole time. Though Izzy's mom doesn't seem to like our family very much anymore."

"I'm sorry, Clary." Spencer frowns.

"She's always been uptight. She... she was one of the ones who believed the whole thing." Clara says. "Erin and Luke's parents were cool about it, though. I don't think they believed it, but even if they did, they were nice, like usual."

"Good." Spencer says, nodding, relieved she wasn't outcasted by everybody in her life. He knew her friends and the team were all there for her, but he didn't know every extent of how her school was treating her or her friends' parents.

"My turn." Clara knocks him out of his thoughts. "Are we ever gonna talk about prison?"

"Talk about it how?" Spencer asks.

"What happened in it." Clara shrugs.

"No." Spencer immediately denies. "The only one who will ever know is my therapist and the team already knows a few things. Kid or not, you're never learning."

"Why?" Clara asks.

"Because you don't need to know." Spencer says.

"You make me tell you about my traumatic experiences, all of my fights." Clara points out.