Trapped in my head

Chapter 52

Flashback to when Meredith was three years old

"I'm home!" Tom yelled as he opened the door to their small apartment. Closing the door behind him he dropped his bag onto the couch and took off his jacket just as David came around the corner from the kitchen, a sleepy little girl in his arms.

"Hey Baby!" he said, walking over to Meredith and gently taking her into his arms. "I missed you soo much today." Tom said, stroking Meredith's curly blonde hair as she leaned into him, laying her head on his shoulder as she was sucking on her pacifier.

"Guess who made a friend today." David said proudly after giving his husband a quick peck on the lips. "Oh Mer! Did you make a friend today?" he asked, looking at her, not really expecting her to react. Meredith didn't talk that much yet which was rather normal for autistic toddlers who reached certain milestones later than other kids. She did know a few words but both of them knew that she didn't like communicating by talking that much yet. But they were talking to her, reading her stories, and asking her questions to improve her communication skills as they were confident that she would eventually start talking more. Until now she would communicate by making certain gestures or signs and that was okay for now.

"She did! We were at the park and as Meredith was climbing on the big climbing scaffold a four year old girl named Carla approached her and started talking to her. And later she even shared her crackers with Meri." David said excited, continuing with setting up the table for dinner.

"Wow I'm so proud of you." Tom said, placing a soft kiss on her little forehead. "You smell so good baby." He said, smelling her hair. "She already took a bath earlier and until you came we were listening to the audiobooks that Dr. Parker recommended." David continued as they now sat down, Meredith in her highchair. It was obvious that she was completely exhausted as she could barely keep her eyes open. A few days ago they had figured out that Meredith liked to eat carrot sticks and very small pieces of potato as this was the only thing she seemed to be willing to eat nowadays. They had already come to know about Meredith's special needs when it came to food since she was pretty picky about what she would eat.

Sleepily the little girl grabbed a piece of potato and shoved it into her mouth starting to move around in her chair as she was chewing it. "Is it good?" David asked a little anxiously, praying that she wouldn't spit it out again. She hadn't eaten much besides the crackers today so that he hoped that she would eat a little bit more now. Meredith just nodded her head, taking another piece.

Letting out a breath of relief both men kept observing her during dinner while talking about their day. Ever since they had adopted her one year ago they had to meet new challenges on a daily basis but Meredith was for sure the best thing that ever happened to them. In the beginning as they had decided to adopt an autistic two year old they had been terrified as they had no idea how to take proper care of her. But they had found a psychologist, Dr. Parker, who was specialised on children with special needs and had helped them a lot over the past year, teaching them how to communicate with her and how to help her practise her skills as well as finding out about her passions and comfort activities.

Meredith was a very quiet kid. She was shy and didn't like crowds and people she didn't know. But only one week after they had taken her in she had started to accept Tom and David around her for longer periods of time. The first few days she had always started to cry as one of them had picked her up or placed her on their lap so that it had been a relief when she had started to accept them and later on even seek their closeness.

By now she loved being close to them, cuddling, sitting on their laps or just being carried around all day as it comforted her a lot.

After dinner they cleaned up the kitchen together before David picked Meredith up again. "Let's go brush your teeth and then bring you to bed." He said as Meredith practically fell asleep on his hip. Arriving in the bathroom David sat down on the closed toilet seat, Meredith standing in front of him as he prepared her toothbrush. "Do you want to do it yourself or do you want me to do it?" he asked.

After a few seconds of consideration Meredith pointed at herself and took the toothbrush from him, starting to slowly brush her teeth. David knew how much she hated the taste of the toothbrush although they had tried their best to find one without any flavour. After just one minutes she took the brush out of her mouth and held it in front of her dad. "Just a little bit longer okay?" he said, gently stroking her beautiful hair as the little girl continued to brush her teeth, starting to walk around in the room in circles. David just watched her with the brightest of smiles on his face. She was for sure something special.

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Ten minutes later Meredith was already fast asleep in her big toddler bed. They had gotten her a larger bed on purpose to make sure that she would have enough space since she rolled around a lot at night and they were scared that she would fall out.

Both David and Tom were standing above the bed, looking down at their sleeping daughter. "She's so perfect." Tom whispered, his hand on David's back. "She is. The most perfect little human ever." David replied, smiling, not moving away his gaze. "I am so glad that we decided to adopt her. I am grateful every single day." Tom added after a few seconds of silence, tearing up slightly.

"Are you crying?" David asked, chuckling quietly. "Shut up." Tom said, wiping his eyes. "Come on let's go back to the living room. I still have to get a revenge in scrabble." He said, leaving the room, David closely behind.

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In the middle of the night Tom woke up as something brushed against his shoulder. As he opened his eyes he spotted Meredith in front of their bed with her baby blanket tucked under her arm, sleepily rubbing her eyes as she could barely look above the bed. "What are you doing here baby?" he asked quietly, sitting up. Without saying anything Meredith sticked out her arms, signalling him that she wanted him to pick her up. Carefully lifting her onto the mattress Tom placed her right in between himself and David where she cuddled herself into her small blanket, immediately falling back asleep.

"Good night princess." He whispered, placing a soft kiss on her head before going back to sleep as well.

End of flashback

Hope you liked this slightly different chapter!! In the next one we'll be back to the present day.