Work Text:
Perhaps it was because Spencer was used to flying on the jet when he was working a case with the team, but regular air travel made him nervous. He had too much knowledge about the statistics related to crashes of commercial flights, and while it was rare it happened often enough for him to worry about it. Especially since Elle was the one boarding the plane this time.
Or maybe he just didn't want her to go.
No, check that. He definitely didn't want her to go.
Her silence on the subject kept him from bringing it up, though. They had a cheerful breakfast in his kitchen, and she tried to keep his spirits up. "You'll have your place to yourself again," she'd said after he refilled her coffee cup for the third time. "I'm sure it gets annoying to have to wait for the bathroom in the mornings."
He drove her to the airport as promised, and now they were waiting for her flight's departure to be announced. He wanted to give her something, some token. Jewelry seemed inappropriate, a book too impersonal. He was replaying last night in his head. It would be wrong and selfish to put expectations on her, to demand that she stay. They had separate lives, and he'd known that when they'd become lovers. He wasn't going to be so unfair as to insist that she do anything. No matter how much he wanted it.
"Would you stop looking like that?"
Elle's voice was gentle, and she reached for Spencer's hand. He had a really good poker face, but she knew his moods by now. He smiled at her sheepishly, intertwined his fingers with hers.
"Sorry. don't mean to...well, you know."
"What do you think, that you can get rid of me that easily?" she asked, and she lifted their linked hands so she could brush his knuckles with her mouth. "I'm not leaving you, I'm just leaving town. You'll come see me next. The dog misses you, if nothing else."
She wasn't just trying to buoy him up, she was saying it for herself too. There'd be other times after this, she had to believe that. She studied their linked hands, remembered the way he'd looked at her while he was making love to her. Reid had never been fragile, she'd always known that, but given the losses he'd experienced it was no wonder he was fretting over this. Her fingers squeezed his gently.
"So. You love me."
He smiled shyly, but he didn't quite look her in the eye. "You didn't know?"
"Well, there are a lot of things to love about me," Elle said. "Almost as many things as there are to love about you."
Then he did look at her, and the smile was a little wider. "Come here, you."
She was surprised, because public displays of affection weren't really his thing. But they both leaned in, and he gave her the sweetest kiss. "I'm gonna miss you tonight," he said when it was over. "I probably won't be able to sleep because the bed will be too big without you in it."
"You keep spouting that poetry at me, and I'll keep coming back. You'll never see the last of me."
"I like the sound of that."
Elle was still holding Spencer's hand when they announced that her flight was boarding, and she had to make her fingers release his one at the time. They'd put her luggage on the conveyor belt when they'd arrived. They both stood, and he studied her face earnestly. She smiled. He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers.
"Say it again."" She was the fiercest woman he'd ever known, and for all her flaws she was still the bravest. He hated to see her go, but knowing that she'd come back, had to come back, made the hole her departure would make a little smaller.
"I love you." As before, she whispered it, making it a gift only for him. No kiss. If she kissed him, she might neverleave. But she tugged his hair lightly, and that was just as good.
Elle made her way up the concourse, and she felt him watching her. When she was almost to the gate, she turned around and looked back. Spencer was still there. and he raised his hand in farewell. She waved back, then vanished from sight.
"I love you."
He said it even though she was gone, and his step was surprisingly light when he turned and began to make his way back through the terminal. He'd see her again. She'd never lied to him before.