never grow up, criminal minds

055. statement

Spencer is sitting by Clara's hospital bed, holding her hand and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles to comfort her while she's unconscious. She had been asleep earlier and while Spencer stepped out to get her some snacks, she had woken up from a nightmare, panicking. The nurses were unable to calm her and so they sedated her.

They immediately got an earful from Spencer, the man insisting it's wrong to sedate anybody, especially a minor, ranting about how they need the parent's consent to do anything to the child, with the probable exception of an emergency.

Spencer had time to calm down after the nurses left, choosing to just silently comfort his child. While he's still annoyed she got sedated, he's thankful she's able to get more rest, even if she'll wake up groggier than she would without the drugs.

Spencer looks up at the gentle knock on the door. He watches it open, expecting to find a nurse, but relaxes a bit when he sees Emily.

"Hi." Emily softly greets.

"Hey." He mutters.

"How's she doing?" Emily asks.

"She was sleeping and woke up, freaking out. They sedated her." Spencer says.

"Sedated her? You couldn't calm her down?" Emily asks.

"I wasn't in here. I thought it would be safe for two minutes to go to the vending machine." Spencer huffs, rubbing his face out of frustration.

"It's not your fault." Emily assures. "How's she holding up aside from that?"

"I don't..." Spencer shrugs. "As okay as a fourteen year old girl who watched two out of three of her best friends get brutally murdered can be. How okay do we think that is?"

"You need sleep." Emily notes. "Same rule for babies goes for traumatized teenagers: you sleep when the kid sleeps."

"I wish. I'm too worried." Spencer says.

"Okay, well... we do need to talk." Emily says, sitting on the other side of Clara's bed. "You ran off without any of us."

"I was still smart enough to put a Kevlar vest on. I didn't go in completely blind." Spencer says.

"Look, you technically didn't defy any orders... because I couldn't get ahold of you in order to give them." Emily says.

"Part of the point. Plus, talking and driving is very dangerous, anyway, so." Spencer remarks.

"You're not being severely punished, but you are being punished and when you return, you will be on a short leash."

"Return?" Spencer asks.

"Mm-hmm. You will spend the next 90 days teaching. No field work, no cases, maybe we'll call you for a consult occasionally. That's your punishment. Now, you can see it as a punishment like the director does or you can see it how I see it. Which is you being able to stay back with Clara to help her heal... or start to heal, at least."

"Thank you." Spencer says, his voice quiet.

"Mm-hmm." Emily nods. "I would've done the same." Spencer nods. "The police are getting impatient, it's been two days already. They need her statement."

"I thought we got control of that." Spencer says.

"We did. We can be the ones to take her statement, but we need to give it to them since it's their area and one of their own was killed." Emily says. "We can't wait too much longer. If we do, they'll just come barging in and that'll only stress her out more."

"Emily, come on, look at her." Spencer frowns, glancing at the unconscious girl. Dark circles are under her eyes and even in her sleep she looks fragile enough to break if they were to tap her too roughly.