Our Field Of Dreams Engulfed In Fire

That weekend, both Meredith and Addison were off on Saturday so they loaded the girls up in the car and drove to the mall to go shopping for Rowan. What they didn't factor in was how overstimulating the mall could potentially be for the little girl. As they walked through the mall, Rowan could feel herself becoming more and more overwhelmed as the seconds ticked by. Every noise was magnified for her and there were so many people that she felt like the walls were closing in on her. When a man bumped into her while walking by, Rowan had had enough. She dropped down to the floor in the fetal position and rocking back and forth while painful sobs left her lips.

"You and Aria keep going to the next store, we'll meet you there." Meredith kissed Addison quickly before she let go of Aria's stroller and knelt down next to Rowan. "Shhh it's okay Ro, I'm going to pick you up and we're going to go somewhere quiet so you can calm down." She carefully scooped the little girl up, her heart breaking as Rowan's sobbing intensified. The blonde found a quiet and isolated hallway and walked down it. Once they were far away from everyone else, Meredith sat down and placed Rowan next to her. "Too loud?"

"Yeah." Rowan sniffled and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "And too many people." She yawned and hugged her knees to her chest. "Sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" Meredith giggled softly as she looked at Rowan with a warm smile. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"You wanted to do something nice for me and I ruined it." Rowan cried. "I ruin everything!"

"Honey, you haven't ruined a thing." Meredith promised. "We just met you a couple of days ago so it'll take us time to learn everything about you. There's going to be hard times and they'll be good times. It's not your fault that you have issues with crowds and loud noises, but now that we know that it's something you struggle with, we can do things to help you. We want to help you Ro, will you let us?"

"Okay." Rowan nodded.

"Okay." Meredith smiled. "Do you want to try shopping or would you rather we go home and we can look online to see what you want to buy for your room?"

"Go home." Rowan admitted. "Thanks Mer."

"You are very welcome." Meredith stood up and held her hand out for Rowan to take. "Let's go find Addie and Bug, then we can go home."

"Find Addie and Bug, then go home." Rowan stood up and took a deep breath. "I'm ready." She took Meredith's hand and followed her out of the little hallway back into the busy walkways of the mall.

"I'm right here Ro, just squeeze my hand and breathe." Meredith said softly as she guided Rowan through the mall and found the Disney store where Addison and Aria were waiting.

"Ro!" Aria bounced happily in her stroller as she point at Rowan and giggled. "Miss chu!"

"I missed you too Aria." Rowan smiled and knelt down in front of the stroller. Meredith walked over to Addison and kissed her softly.

"She's okay, but she wants to go home." Meredith explained softly. "I told her that we can do some online shopping for her room."

"Okay, whatever will be better for her." Addison smiled and pressed a kiss to the back of Meredith's hand. "You okay?"

"I just wish that we thought about the fact that malls are loud and crowded." Meredith sighed. "The point of today was for her to be able to go on a crazy little shopping spree and all of us to get to know each other better, but instead she broke down crying after one store because she got overstimulated. All I want is for her to enjoy herself, not for us to make things worse by bringing her somewhere triggering."

"We didn't know, my love." Addison reminded Meredith softly. "We didn't know that the mall would be triggering, if we did we would have figured something out, but we didn't know therefore we were unable to figure something out ahead of time. This is a learning experience baby, we didn't make things worse on purpose but sometimes accidents will happen." She pecked her wife's lips. "We're still learning, just like Ro is still learning to trust us."