CHANGES UPON RETURN : HEADCANON 001
the thompsons noted several distinct differences in their son after his return, over a year after his initial kidnapping. there were physical changes as well as emotional, but all were concerning alterations to these mostly relieved parents. PHYSICAL . 1) ATTIRE . from before, laddie had been a boy of sweatshirts, plain t-shirts, and other variations on athletic garb. he disappeared in a grey sweatshirt, dark jeans, and converse from his own yard, and his parents figured that they would find him, alive or dead, in those same clothes. this was not the case. their son returned in the same jeans an converse . . . but everything else had changed. sweats and athletic wear were gone from the boy’s preference, replaced by t-shirts for bands no eleven-year-old should listen to, an a military-looking jacket that the thompsons could only guess were given to him by his captors ( although the police could find no sign ) . 2) ADORNMENT . the clothes where one thing, but these were another. first was the earring. the thompsons could not fathom why their son was attached to the piercing of his ear, but looking at the sons of laddie’s newly beloved emerson family, they assumed it derived from them, and as some level of hero-worship. the first time laddie had a meltdown at home was due to the removal of his other new accessory : nail polish. the thompsons chose this as the place to dig their heels in, and laddie would not be permitted to paint his nails again until he was old enough to drive, his parents would explain. EMOTIONAL . 1) QUIETNESS . laddie had not been a soft-spoken boy, never had been since he was old enough to speak. however, once he was returned to them, he very rarely spoke. at the beginning, they would attempt to coax him out, but, with a therapist’s help, they came around to the fact that this is how he is now. 2) LANGUAGE . the thompsons were vastly surprised by certain things their son had picked up, especially in terms of the way he speaks when he chooses to do so. he had developed a slightly more crass way of speaking ( that faded a little over time ) -- and, even, bits of an actual language. laddie knew more spanish than either of his parents did upon his return, and he even chose to take multiple courses in it as he grew older. 3) RELATIONSHIPS . and, of course, laddie arrived home with more emotional attachments than he had left with. the first, and most difficult for the thompsons to adjust to, was that with the young woman star. all they knew about her is that she was kept by the captors in much the same way laddie was, and that they had formed a strong bond -- they could never have come to the conclusion that star was going to move close to their home on the outskirts of the city to be near their son. quickly, laddie began spending more time with star than he did with the thompsons, and the parents did their best to involve this woman in their lives through their confusion. laddie’s other pertinent attachment was to the whole of the emerson family, which was easier for the thompsons to digest. these were his saviors, after all; this was the family that had brought the boy and woman they found to the police station; this was a family of a surly but well-intentioned grandfather, a passionate and loving mother, and two sons that laddie adored implicitly. laddie was invited over for all family holidays with the emersons, and it almost became as if he was their third son. through all of the changes in their son, however, the thompsons were mostly just overwhelmingly glad to have their boy back, and to watch him grow and experience the world while safe. and even though laddie would never be able to explain to them what had happened to him while he was gone, or what he was taken by or became, he was glad to be back with them.
