A/N Sophie's birthday. She could be as young as 12 or she could be older, as I vision her at least 11, when I created her.
The day was Sophie's birthday. Today, I get my birthday train, the girl thought.
Sophie had her breakfast, then her parents finished getting ready for her party. She watched the younger kids, especially Imogen. The time for her party drew close and Linus went past with her birthday train. He let out his whistle. Sophie and her friends, who arrived just after Linus went by, went about with the party. Sophie took Patrick outside after the party and cleanup and Imogen lay on the sofa for a nap, then joined them after.
The siblings went trainspotting and found Linus sad on a siding, his crew on break. Sophie hugged his face and said, "Let it all out, if you need to." Patrick and Imogen sat on his buffers as Linus began to cry, sobbing and sniffling. His face was wet with tears
Imogen patted Linus's buffers, then began sobbing loudly. "M-Me s-sad 'c-cause y-you s-sad. S-So m-me cw-cwy."
Sophie pulled out a handkerchief from Imogen's backpack and handed it to the littler girl, saying "Wipe your eyes.", then took her own hanky out of her pocket and began to softly dry Linus's tears. "There, there, Linus. I wish I could wipe your sadness, so I shall wipe your eyes.". She listened attentively to pick up on his cues and understand how he felt, as she gently rubbed his cheeks and wiped his eyes. "I'm here for you, to wipe your tears away.", then she turned to Imogen and held the hanky Imogen was dapping tears away with and told the littler girl, "Blow."
Linus cried more, letting out another sob as fresh tears welled up in his eyes. He sniffled again, hard, coughed as he choked on his sobs and hiccupped. He gasped and gulped, shaking with sobs, as his tears poured, not once stopping as Sophie comforted him.
She said, as she continued to wipe his tears away, "Cry it out. I'm here for you, just to dry your eyes. Feel how you feel.". She provided reassurance, but tried to not be overbearing, pushy and intrusive, just offer empathy and compassion, patiently listening and supporting her friend, offering attentive and practical comfort as she pressed her hanky to his eyes, letting him sob into it and wiped all his tears away as best she could, except when she had to help Imogen blow her nose.
Linus sobbed endlessly until he had no more tears to cry. Sophie dried his last tears away, wiping his cheeks and eyes dry of tears, then put her sodden hanky away. Imogen dried her cheeks and eyes with her hanky, then blew her runny, completely stuffed up nose.
Linus said, "Scarlett's dead. Katrina sent me a letter." As he said this, Sophie put Imogen's hanky into the younger girl's backpack and they went home.
The family went through their evening and so the day was over.
A/N In reference to another story in this fic, the Autumn request I did last month had her last name as Lawrence by the requester, but I already had her last name as Dalten, due to a previous request. Other than a shape for my start of summer chapter, which takes place in the June part of summer, I don't take requests for Autumn now. The 11th birthday request covers the rest of her summer, like the 4th of July, so I'm not taking requests until after I write her 11th birthday.