never grow up, criminal minds

057. new look

Clara is lying in Spencer's bed, staring at the ceiling. Spencer got called away to his first case since being back which means Clara's without him for at least a day if not longer. She's supposed to go to the BAU to be with Penelope, nobody allowing her to stay home alone -- not that she wants to.

Clara sighs as she gets up and opens Spencer's closet, looking through his shirts and sweaters. She grabs a cardigan and takes it off the hanger, carrying it back to her room. She stuffs it in her already packed bag, looking around for anything else she needs.

Clara jumps when her phone starts ringing, clearing her throat and quickly calming herself down.

"Hey, Aunt Penny." She answers.

"Hey, my sweets. Are you are on your way here?" Penelope asks.

"Uh, almost. I just finished packing, I'm about to leave." Clara says.

"Okay. Are you sure you don't want me to send Anderson to pick you up? I'm sure he wouldn't mind. If he doesn't listen to me, I'll get Emily on the phone." Penelope offers.

"No. No, I-I'm fine. The subway is okay." Clara assures.

"Okay." Penelope mumbles, unable to stop herself from being nervous for the girl's safety. "Do you want me to stay on the phone?"

"No. No, Pen, really, I'm fine." Clara tells her.

"Okay." Penelope says, sighing. "Be safe."

"Yeah." Clara sighs, the two hanging up.

Clara stuffs her phone in her pocket and puts her light jacket on. She grabs her bag and turns all the lights off when she passes them.

Clara walks out and triple checks that the door's locked before leaving.

"Maybe he'd finally let me get a dog." Clara mumbles to herself.

+++

After an anxiety ridden ride on the subway, Clara finally gets to the BAU and goes to Penelope's lair.

"Hey." Clara greets.

"Oh! Oh, my precious girly!" Penelope brightly grins. "Yeah, she's here. She's safe." She tells whoever is on the phone, Clara assuming it's Spencer or Emily. "Oh, sweetheart, how are you?" Penelope gets up and hugs her.

"Fine." Clara mumbles. Penelope kisses her on the head as she pulls away.

"I took the liberty of ordering pizza." Penelope points to the box. "Figured you might hungry."

"Yeah, thanks." Clara weakly smiles.

Penelope resumes talking about the case and Clara gets a piece of pizza.

"Okay. You guys will know anything as soon as I do." Penelope says, going to hang up.

"Wait, wait, wait, Garcia." Spencer quickly stops her. He grabs the phone and takes it off speaker, walking a bit away from the team. "Hey, can you... just make sure she eats, okay? She-- I mean, I don't think it's necessarily intentional avoiding, but with her PTSD it's kind of in the back of her head unless she's absolutely starving. And-- and try to help her sleep, too, if you can. I know between her and work, you--"

"Reid, Reid, hey." Penelope stops him. "You already gave me a whole list of instructions. I got her. You know I got her." She assures.

"Right. Yeah. Okay." Spencer mutters.

"You wanna talk to her?" Penelope asks, glancing back at the teenager who is typing on her phone, the half remaining piece of pizza held between her teeth.

"No. No, I-I mean, I do, but I'm sure she's tired of my mother hen behavior. Or-- or father hen, I guess. I don't know. I just-- let her call me." Spencer says.