A/N This is an idea I had of my own for Autumn and decided to use as my winter months story about her. Once I got requests for holiday/seasonal things, I decided to post the chapter at the relevant time of year. I'm doing something that's an Autumn/Jessica crossover in my next chapter. Now, this OC fic has 2 timelines in it, my main Thomasverse timeline because Autumn's daydreams are in an alternative version of that in AOAMIA chapters, but she can cross timelines and the non-AOAMIA chapters are from the Tales timeline, as there about OCs in my fics with Tales in the title. I have her in my trainsona's story, which is in its own timeline, in a chapter I shared with FFF only, but will publish later. And with my next OC chapter, it's a JTBFE chapter, so it's in my Tales timeline. The Select in the title of this fic refers to crossover timeline (in the event I have any OCs there, as my engine crew characters there might be considered a sort of OC) and my trainsona timeline characters being left out and staying in crossovers or my trainsona's story. I created this fic to revive my OC Autumn and tell the backstories of my Tales OCs or otherwise explore them in ways my Tales don't allow. Autumn's cry comes from a Quora description of the hardest cry of your life. The foghorn thing comes from a book character, a girl who loudly blew her nose when she couldn't stop crying and someone said "There goes the foghorn."
Autumn was in her room. One of the school bully's gang rode her bus and today, the bully rode with his crony and the bully made her his victim. Because she had sensory overload due to the bus being loud, the bullying put her in flight mode and then she had a meltdown. Boo-hoo! Her wailing sobs came so hard, she could barely catch her breath. Her head was pounding, throbbing with pain. She grabbed a tissue from the box she brought to her room to wipe her burning, tear-wet eyes and wet face, then loudly blew her runny, stuffy nose. Her chest was tight and her body trembled from how hard she cried. She felt defeated and knew she'd be dehydrated and exhausted from her cry and wailing. The world didn't make sense, so she turned her weeping eyes, blurred by her huge tears, to her toy Thomas. Better wipe my eyeballs, she said inside. She landed on Sodor and blew her nose again. I sound like a foghorn, she thought.
Even in her overwhelmed, emotional state, Autumn knew she was on Sodor, so The Island Song played in her mind. Thomas was near enough to speak to the girl.
"What's the matter, Autumn? I wish you weren't so unhappy," he said. He tuned in, to pick up on her values now and listened attentively. "I'm here for you, so cry it out. Emotion's part of life, so wipe your eyes right here, because I can handle seeing it. I'm not uncomfortable with emotion. I don't like having to stifle my emotions, so I shall let you express yours. Let it all out and then you'll feel better. I want you to cry if that's how you feel and then after you cry it out, cheer up and enjoy life again. I see something really made you unhappy. Tell me what it is when you can. You seem too overwhelmed now to do so." and smiled his cheer up a friend version of his cheeky smile.
Autumn wailed some more, soaking the whole box of tissues with wiping all her tears away as best she could and blowing her nose. "Had to wipe my eyeballs and all that. I get overwhelmed with emotion and then I'm in tears, can't stop boohooing. I dry my eyeballs because of the sting of tears. It provides relief from the burning. Blowing my nose prevents build-up of gunk, providing a measure of pressure relief and comfort.". Her face was all red and her sore and swollen eyes were flame-red as well. "I've had a good cry and now I feel better," she said, drying her last tears away and blowing her nose. She smiled and hugged her friend. "I cried all my unhappiness away. Just a bad day, sensory overload and the school bully was mean to me after school, as to what made me ugly cry."
Thomas said, "Want a train ride? I shall take you down my branch line on my next train.", as he took on coal. The tank engine's crew did what they had to do for that to happen.
Autumn made her rounds on Sodor after her ride, seeing all the other engines that were her friends. She saw the sun getting low in the sky, so she went to the shed, to say good-bye to Thomas.
Henry was in the shed, feeling ill. Another engine, visiting Sodor, was rude to Henry.
"You useless experimental engine! You're a worthless waste of steam and you shouldn't even exist, because you're just so ill!"
Henry froze at first and then began to cry.
"Cry-engine!" said the visitor.
Henry's crew weren't there, but Gordon pulled into the shed after pulling the Express and his driver saw Henry in tears, sobbing and sniffling, after Gordon was ready for the night.
As Henry's friend's driver, he asked, "Dry your tears or not? I can if you let me, but I don't know if you want me to see you cry."
"Dr-Dry m-my e-eyes, G-Gordon's dr-driver," Henry said. Every word was another loud sob. He blinked his streaming eyes, his face wet with thick tears.
Gordon's driver climbed on Henry's buffers. "There there, Henry," he said, taking a cloth from his pocket to dry Henry's tears. He rubbed his engine's friend's cheeks and wiped his tear-filled eyes. "Let it all out." He tuned in to Henry, listening attentively to discern his values and pick up on his cues.
Henry cried more, letting out another sob as fresh tears welled up in his eyes. He was very sad and upset, his feelings wounded and said, "Th-That v-visiting e-engine w-was v-very r-rude t-to m-me wh-when I-I'm v-very i-ill. I-I h-hurt i-in m-my h-heart." He sniffled again, hard, coughed as he choked on his sobs and hiccupped. He gasped and gulped, huge tears pouring from his eyes not once stopping and let his friend's driver comfort him more.
He said, as he continued to wipe the tears away, "You can cry to me without judgment. I've got caring and compassion, so I accept how you feel. Your emotion's valid, so go ahead and cry. You've got the right to feel sad and cry. I'm here for you in your unhappiness, not to fix your mood, just to wipe your eyes and comfort you until you feel better.". He pressed the cloth to Henry's eyes, letting him sob into it and wiped all his tears away as best he could.
Henry sobbed and sobbed, weeping non-stop until he could shed no more tears. His friend's driver dried his last tears away, wiping his cheeks and eyes until they were dry. Henry smiled, feeling better and Gordon's driver left the shed with the sodden cloth as Henry fell asleep.
As that was happening, Autumn was also not feeling so well suddenly. She was feverish, achy and didn't feel so good. Her nose became stuffy and runny and she coughed and sneezed. She pulled out her handkerchief and blew her nose, burbling into it. It took 5 times filling and refolding the hanky before the burbling subsided.
She said, "Good-bye Thomas.", hugging him. Then, she left as he whistled after saying his good-bye.
Autumn got home, threw out her cried in tissues and got a fresh box for her room, took care of her hanky, told her parents she had the flu, had some soup and then went through her bedtime routine and fell asleep with her cuddle Thomas.
A/N The visitor knew about Henry somehow, how ill he was. I only had a confirmed flu when I was very young, but I just felt like showing Autumn with it. She came to Sodor with that tissue box she emptied with her cry and her hanky, which is for when she's got no tissues she likes accessible, so she had to blow her nose in her hanky when she got sick and then get more tissue back home.