I've never written any storyline on autism before for BBC Life on Mars UK fanfiction, so please bear with the episode groundwork as it develops - hope you enjoy chapter four! By the way certain typos will be used to represent Gary Hunt's retained baby babbling - you'll discover why in the dialogue of DCI Gene Hunt's son; please enjoy.
The amount of progress Gary Hunt was making with the help of his Manchester MENCAP autism support playgroup, still taking place at Crescent Special School was astounding in 1972. Now at seven years old, he could form small sentences and identify objects on his own - occasionally he'd ask Gene to teach him new words. The once unhappy vocally stimming boy was now an language and academic explosion, soaking in all the information he could process. DCI Gene Hunt was so proud - he'd wished his ex wife formerly Michaela Hunt didn't walk out on their autistic baby and remembering she blatantly didn't want a child with social communication mental handicap in the first place. DCI Gene Hunt had to push those memories from the Sixties aside in order to stay positive and communicative with his son, who was increasingly having good days, better than his father's favourite western film of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
And then again some days were bad and ugly.
Today was one of those days. Gary was refusing to eat his Nestle Gerber Junior Dinner baby food jar of sausage and vegetables with traces of strained bacon because he'd learned how to argue. Margaret Bannister informed the parents and carers that at certain ages, a child with autism spectrum disorder would often become obsessed with things - it was nearly impossible for them to let it go. Gary's new obsession was chocolate. But not just any old chocolate, it had to be very specific. They got to be Cadbury's Curlywurly, no Dairy Milks, Kit Kats or Yorkie bars. Just Cadbury's Curlywurly as he's seen DCI Gene Hunt, his father frequently dipping them into his coffee at the Manchester and Salford Police 'A' Division CID department. So while the brash talking Detective Chief Inspector was learning better communication and teaching methods, Gary Hunt suddenly had a mind of his own realising he was separate from his father and learning how to throw louder temper tantrums like the other kids to get what he wanted. Gene held the spoon up to the boy's lips "Eat up?" he suggested. Gary turned his head and stuck out his tongue. "Eat up, Gary? Eat up for Daddy?" Then he stubbornly crossed his arms "No bite. brrrrrrrr." he babbled. "Gary, use your words." DCI Gene Hunt tried to encourage. Sometimes the boy had a crazy language all of his own - while his twenty nine year old father was beginning to get used to and understand it, he didn't take that as a form of proper verbal communication. Gary just had to learn the English language. "Curlies" the boy said.
DCI Gene Hunt chuckled "No Curlywurly until you eat up." But Gary didn't see this as fair and he wasn't playing. He refused again and again to eat the baby food jar of sausage and vegetables with strained bacon. After a while Gene became slightly frustrated - the child was small and underweight anyway and not feeding him healthy food wasn't going to help his situation. Suddenly Gary wriggled free out of his highchair from the kitchen and stomped away. "Gary? Come to Daddy!" Gene called. But he hurried away into Gene's own bedroom during his break bid for freedom. Sighing heavily, the youngest senior ranking police officer got up to follow him and see where his heart for a CurlyWurly took him to on that quest. A loud thump coming from the wardrobe caused him to run a little quicker. "Gary?" he asked into the room. Gary had crawled into the wardrobe and was chucking pairs of loafer shoes out towards the door. "Hey, stop that! Come here, Gary." Gene said, watching the odd behaviour. But again like in the power struggle on food, Gary wasn't playing. He was really mad. Gary went to stand up, toddled over to the bedside cabinet table and kicked it. He batted the lamp clean off completely. Gene went forwards to restrain him safely, grabbing him before he got hurt known as "owies" to his baby, but didn't get to his child in time.
Gary picked up Gene's framed wedding photo from 1962 and threw it forcefully against the wallpaper.
The glass shattered everywhere into shards on the maroon carpet. Gene's heart froze - time stopped. He didn't keep the monochrome photograph as a reminder of what failed, but as a intermittent hope that Michaela Hunt would realise her mistake and see all that he's done for little Gary. "Mama?" Gary pointing confused. Gene wondered where he got that particular word from, was it from the kids at the MENCAP autism support playgroup as he heard them? But his autistic son couldn't understand what it meant - that he didn't actually have a mother? "No, Gary!" DCI Gene Hunt gasped breathless from the shock of having to grab quickly and the broken objects cluttering up his maroon carpet. "Daddy." But Gary hated that answer instead crossing his arms and repeating himself.
"Mama?" pointing to the older woman in the wedding dress.
"No I'm daddy, your mam walked out on us years ago."
"Tttttssshh, mama?"
"Words, Gary."
"Warren has a mama." he replied.
"Lots of kids do... but you're special because you've got just a Daddy."
"Mama, gone?"
The words chilled DCI Gene Hunt to the core, he'd never expected to hear a cynical view like this coming from his baby. Gary practically grew up without a mother, what was the big fascination with mummies now? How could little Gary miss something he never had? "But you have daddy whose also a copper and that's good fun."
Gary screamed, kicking his feet - the crying commenced; they were headed for a full blown tantrum now. Gary screamed his demands for a Curlywurly; wringing his hands, bawling, kicking and squirming full works of not being in control. It wasn't until he smacked his own father out of sheer frustration after reaching his hand up. Shocked and stunned, DCI Gene Hunt watched his son throw himself on the floor as he begged for a Curlywurly. He got down to Gary's level "I don't know why you're so fascinated by mummies - she failed you and you will never have a mummy! Get that fact through your head, Gary!"
"Mama, babababa!" babbled Gary.
"Daddy was nothing more than a prize because I'm a police officer catching villains and she used me..."
DCI Gene Hunt listened to his son Gary's baby talk, his secret language that not even his father could decipher in cryptography on notes criminals sent to him. It all got too overwhelming, so he decides to place Gary down in his cot for a bit of quiet time "I think you need some quiet time to take a nap." he whispered softly.
When his son was safely in his cot, Gene ran downstairs to the hallway rotary telephone and dialled on the phone.
"Sammy boy? I really need you." sending an emergency request for his to be Detective Inspector.
Within minutes DI Sam Tyler reported to the Hunts in his blue Rover P6 2000 V8 as if he was an ambulance driver. He'd left Salford and Manchester Police asking DC Chris Skelton to cover his caseloads as he could hear Gary's reverberated screams from upstairs in the nursery pierce through the blue front door. "Okay, brief me in full. What do I need to know?" Gene stated "My baby's just being a pain in the arse, when I said Daddy couldn't give him a Curlywurly until he ate a few spoons of his lunch." summoning Sam Tyler upstairs, he became stunned by the mess in his Guv's bedroom. "Gary, what's going on?" He picked the seven year old baby carefully up by his underarms as Sam approached the screaming toddler, he was good at talking desperate criminals down from hostage situations using just negotiation and words. Like in a year's time at the Manchester Gazette newspaper headquarters when a crazed ex World War II solider held the editors and Jackie Queen (Gene's feisty newspaper reporter friend) hostage in an office without any air conditioning.
"CURLIES!" shrieked the thwarted seven year old toddler.
Gene could hear his son still shrieking for a Curlywurly request. DI Sam Tyler almost came from the future as he was streets ahead of his other colleagues apart from DCI Gene Hunt, DC Chris Skelton and WPC Annie Cartwright in the predecessor of Greater Manchester Police. Gene could only watch through the doorframe as Sam sat down on the bed with little Gary on his lap, the tiny boy still cried endlessly until DI Sam Tyler rocked him back and forth; patiently waiting for the shrieking to die down into wretched sobs. "Gary, sweetie. Talk to your uncle Sammy. Use words, tell me what's the matter?" he gently eased.
"Ma-ma-ma!" little Gary gasped out reaching out for DI Sam Tyler from his cot.
"What about mummy?"
"Kids... m- more words..."
"Kids has mamas..."
"The other children have their mummy? Well that's alright, Gary. Don't feel jealous of them just because they have something you can't get. Be a happy little boy, know why? Because you have DCI Gene Hunt as your daddy. He loves you to heaven and earth; so, so much."
"Dada, bad big boy!" exclaimed little Gary.
"No, Daddy's not bad. Don't say that darling."
"He... t-old... me..."
"Well how about I talk to Daddy about that, okay? Did it make you scared? Sad?"
"Yes, yes..."
"Let uncle Sammy tell you something. Daddy's one of the greatest men out there. Do you like the doctor Prose? Well Daddy is even better than him, he always gets results when collaring criminals though I don't necessarily agree with his methods. Daddy loves you with everything that he is, alright? You'll understand that someday." reassured the Detective Inspector.
"Why- W-h-at angry, mrksaqhijyc?"
"What did you say, sweetie?" asked Sam Tyler.
"Why dada are angry with me?" answered Gary Hunt uncertainly.
"No, no, no... you've got the wrong idea, he's not angry with you. Daddy's angry with himself, and he shouldn't be. But he is. It hurts him - he gets owies inside because his childhood was dodgy. You know when you get a boo-boo? What does Daddy to make it all better?" prompted Detective Inspector Sam Tyler.
"Dada, make bandage and kiss it." pointing to his father's new partner.
"That's right, Gary! Daddy puts a bandage on your boo-boo and he kisses it to make it all better. Sometimes you have to do that for him, okay? He needs you. But show him your love and that you care about him. It will make things better."
"Where is mama?" asked Gary Hunt.
Sam looked up to his tearful Guv. Gene sat down with the pair and picked up the wedding photograph. "See this picture?" DI Tyler asked the toddler boy. "Do you know who that is? Who is that?" beaming into a sunny smile. He pointed to a teenage Gene. "Dada!" Gary giggled, hiccupping from his tears "That's right, Gary! That lady right there is Mummy."
"Mama?"
"But your mummy is immortal inside a picture. The other kids have their mummies with them, but you have a special version. Because pictures can live inside frames, staying with you all the time. You can think of her to the park, at the playgroup and sleep sweet dreams of her." Sam tells the little seven year old and cheers him up finally.
DCI Gene Hunt wiped his face with a handkerchief. How did DI Sam Tyler know how to prevent an autism meltdown? Feeling slightly jealous of his Detective Inspector but majorly grateful, he stroked Gary's hair "Is that why you were so upset today?" he asked with a strained high pitched voice. "And you didn't know how to tell me?" Gary looked up to him and gazed looking at his face. "Didn't know how to say?" the Detective Chief Inspector admitted. Gene Hunt leaned forwards pulling his child into a big hug. Gary clung on to him tightly. "Now Gary, say you're sorry to Daddy." DI Sam Tyler encouraged. "When you make a mess, you say sorry and help tidy up." Gary pulled back a bit "I sorry Dada." he whimpered sheepishly as Gene squeezed his tiny hands. "Daddy's sorry too, Gary." The little boy slid off his father's lap wordlessly to pick up each of the pairs of loafer shoes he'd threw, lining them up perfectly back in the shoe rack inside the large brown wardrobe.
"It's all right, Guv. The MENCAP autism playgroup may tell you about the tantrums and teach you how to prevent it, but every case of the spectrum is different and when that moment hits; it's just parent or caregiver and child," said Detective Inspector Sam Tyler "Don't beat yourself up, you'll get better at this. It's okay to ask for help; even though there is lots of stigma against autism."
"I said some horrible things to my baby..." admitted DCI Gene Hunt when he got caught up in his child's tantrums.
"Guv, you don't know what your Gary was saying in his secret baby talk; he could have been overwhelmed." Sam continued the dialogue "Even daddies make mistakes they're not proud to admit. Your baby will be alright, he loves you." as Gary pretends to play doctors and nurses with his father, remembering about having his owies made better.
DCI Gene Hunt went into the garish 70s kitchen to clear up the abandoned baby food and just maybe give Gary a Cadbury's Curlywurly.
Gary happily accepted the chocolate offer as his father went to wash up patterned dishes lain inside the kitchen sink.
The pair stuck by each other for a long time until it was Gary's bedtime - that was the only time Gene broke apart from his little boy.