A/N I found a YouTuber and some others who got called a baby for liking Thomas, as I may have said before. If so, then it's a note for new readers of Autumn, who's 8 now. My FanFiction buddy said an 8 or 9 year old boy would be tall enough to reach a standard-gauge Sodor engine's eyes. Refers to Autumn comforting Luke, a narrow-gauge engine, last chapter. This chapter's set last fall. When she's 9, she can comfort a bigger engine as she comforts a narrow-gauge one now in the story.

Autumn's birthday had come. After a summer of A Day Out With Thomas and Kennywood vacation, along with all the summer stuff she did that was non-Thomas, she was a third grader. I'm 8 today, she thought. Mummy and Daddy got my Thomas party stuff for supper.

Autumn got home, but she was unhappy. Some kids on the bus were mean to her and called her a baby and then cry-baby, because she was all teary-eyed. Her dark curly head drooped and she wiped the tears falling from her puppy dog eyes with both hands as she walked in the door.

"K-kids w-were m-mean t-to m-me o-on th-the b-bus", she sniffled, wiping her nose. "T-They s-said "Y-You're au-autistic" a-and c-called m-me a-a b-baby b-because I-I l-like T-Thomas a-and cr-cry-baby.". Her words came out through boo-hooing.

As Autumn's party would begin with her birthday dinner, she went to her room after being told by her mother "You can come to me later, after your party, so we can talk." as she gave her daughter tissues and her father slipped her a hanky. Daddy stuck my favorite hanky of his in my pocket, she thought, wiping her wet eyes and face. Maybe he thinks I've got more tears than we got tissue for. She wiped her nose, then went into a daydream, floating away to her imaginary friends.

Autumn landed on Sodor and tearfully sang The Island Song. "K-Kids w-were m-mean t-to m-me o-on m-my b-birthday", she said, drying her tears as best she could.

Thomas, on a siding in Knapford after pulling a train, looked sympathetically at his friend. She climbed onto his running board and, after hugging his face, pulled out a fresh tissue, then went and wiped her tears.

"Go ahead and cry," he said. "Cry it out. I cry when someone's mean to me, so I know. I'm here and I can listen without judging you. I just want you to feel better. Is there something I could do to cheer you up?" The tank engine's crew returned and he told Autum, "I'm going to where the NWR and SR tracks meet.", then asked his crew, "Can we take her there?"

Thomas's crew agreed and Autumn rode to where the narrow-gauge line and standard-gauge one met. She finished her cry on the trip, drying her face and eyes of her last tears and blowing her nose. Her red face, red, puffy eyes and mound of wet tissues manifested the overwhelming emotion she let out. I didn't even need the hanky, she thought.

While Autumn was visiting the Skarloey engines, Peter Sam began to cry."I-I m-miss D-Duke," he said. He cried his eyes out, his face wet with tears.

Autumn climbed on his buffer beam, pulled out the hanky from her pocket and softly dried his tears. "There, there, Peter Sam," she said. She listened to him and tried to be present as she imagined how he must feel and tried to think of some way to inspire him, as she rubbed his cheeks and wiped his weeping eyes. Your tears are valid, so let it all out. I'm not here to rush your healing, just to wipe your pain away. Where did your old friend go?". She held the hanky to his eyes, letting him cry into it.

"H-He's b-being o-overhauled," Peter Sam sniffled as fresh tears poured from his eyes. "I-I'm v-very p-passionate a-and n-not a-afraid o-of e-emotions, s-so i-if I-I f-feel c-comfortable w-with s-someone, I-I sh-shall l-let m-myself g-go a-and c-cry. I-If I-I f-feel th-the n-need t-to, a-at l-least."

She said, as she continued to wipe his tears away, "Let tears fall like rain. You can cry as much as you want and I'll wipe your eyeballs. Tears don't scare me." She was overwhelmed with empathy for him. "Like me, you feel things deeply. I'm a sensitive girl, so I tear up easily."

Peter Sam's tears fell until his emotion was spent. Autumn dried his last tears away, dabbing his face and eyes until they were dry and gave him the inspiration she thought of. Thomas went back to his branch line and Autumn made her rounds.

When it was time for Autumn to leave, she found Thomas again and hugging his face, said "Good-bye."

Thomas replied, "Good-bye" and whistled as his friend went back home for her birthday party.

Autumn put her tissues in her wastebasket, then got ready for her party, ate her birthday dinner, including a piece of Thomas cake, opened presents and then played Pin The Coupler On The Tank Engine and such. After the party, her bedtime routine began.

Autumn's mother said, "I know you've heard words like autism and autistic in your life. They're not mean words exactly, but they're used to describe people's differences. We'll tell you more when you get a bit older. It doesn't have to be a bad thing, but sometimes people don't understand difference. Maybe those kids know about the link between autism and loving Thomas.", as Autumn got ready for bed.

Autumn's dad read her a bedtime story and she fell asleep, hugging her stuffed Thomas.

A/N I didn't know my job coach had a birthday the day I started writing this, but it just happened.