never grow up, criminal minds

072. family time

"Clary." The girl wakes up to somebody gently shaking her. "Clara."

She groans, blindly swatting the hand away. She turns over in her bed, burying herself further into her comforter.

"Clara, come on, baby." Spencer talks in his normal volume, ditching the whisper. "Baby, wake up. I made breakfast."

"You mean you burnt breakfast." Clara grumbles, sleep evident in her voice.

"I actually think I did pretty good this time." Spencer says. Clara hums, not believing him. "Look, you have to get up if you still want to go to Matt and Kristy's baby shower."

"I thought you only had a baby shower for the first baby. Who celebrates kid number five?" Clara asks.

"It's a new baby. The fifth baby is just as important as the first one." Spencer says.

"Says the man with one child." Clara says.

"And so you take up all of my importance." Spencer says, scratching her head.

"Can't I just wait to eat there? At least the food will be good." Clara says.

"I didn't burn anything." Spencer says, whining a little. "Well, I-- okay, some of the bacon is burnt. But no smoke alarms went off."

Mittens meows as she presses on Clara's back.

"See, Mittens wants you up too. Get up. At least come eat cereal if you're so scared of my cooking." Spencer tells her, walking out of the room.

+++

"You would not believe how long it took me to pick out that baby rocker for them." Tara tells the two Reids as they grab some of the food options.

"I wouldn't beat yourself up." Spencer says, getting a handful of grapes. "You know, it's not easy to choose the appropriate gift in this case."

"Yeah, but I think my inability to choose stems from a recurring dream I've had since I was a kid." Tara says. Clara nibbles on a cookie as she listens to them. "I'm at a birthday, and when a person finally opens their gift and sees it, they burst into tears."

"Freud would say that your dream represents a disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish." Spencer says.

"See? That's why that guy was a genius." Tara says. Spencer's phone beeps and he takes it out. Clara looks up at him, immediately noticing his frown. "Everything okay?" Tara asks.

"Uh..." Spencer hesitates, glancing at Clara. The girl understands the look in his eyes, it meaning he doesn't want to say something in front of her.

"I'll go get another cookie." Clara says, walking away.

"Somebody wanna cut me a piece of cake?" Clara asks, walking up to Penelope and Luke.

"It's right over there." Luke nods to the cake.

"I know, but I'll totally butcher it. Nobody's taught me how to cut a cake properly. Well, a circle cake." Clara says.

"Okay." Luke chuckles, walking over to the cake.

"How are you doing, my sweet girl?" Penelope asks, playing with Clara's hair.

"I'm okay, Aunt Pen." Clara promises. She sees the concerned look in the woman's eyes. "I swear."

"I believe you. I believe you." Penelope assures. "Both from believing you, but you and your dad both seem... lighter, you know? Not so tired, a little more smiley. I've missed that." She brushes the girl's cheek.

"Uh..." Clara lets out a shy laugh, feeling her cheeks heat up. "Yeah, me too." She mumbles, biting into her cookie.

"Here you go." She turns to Luke as he holds out the plate with a slice of cake on it.