One evening, Thomas and Emily were enjoying a lovely evening together and were just coming back to the yards. Only a few days ago, Thomas had remembered the times he met Daisy and Mavis and became inspired to wait for a female steamie to come for him.

But as they approached the yards, they saw James idling all by himself. He didn't look too happy. Thomas and Emily came closer, but he didn't seem to take notice.

Then they saw a familiar face that they had not seen for a great while. Molly came through the yards, wearing a neutral expression. She wasn't happy, sad or upset. She just looked normal and straightforward. She looked over to James and Thomas watched. Molly's eyebrow raised slightly, but then he saw her frown and huff annoyingly at James and she steamed noisily away. When Thomas looked at James, he saw him look very sad all of a sudden. Thomas wanted to just leave him and let him idle with his pouty ways and nothing else, but suddenly he and Emily felt very sorry for James. He seemed exceptionally sad.

"James? Are you alright? What's dampening your spirits?" asked Thomas. James said nothing and tried looking away.

"Come one, no secrets. Don't spend the evening feeling like this," said Thomas.

"There's no point in feeling good tonight, not when you have no one else to keep you company but yourself," grunted James.

"Please, James. We know you have struggles, but you shouldn't let them beat you down," said Thomas.

"James…I saw Molly pass by you with a certain look," said Emily. "Was it something she, or you said?"

"No! Now leave me be!" huffed James.

"James, don't hurt yourself like this. If you have a problem, please tell us about it, and no hiding," said Emily. "And is Molly any part of this?"

James almost answered no, but Thomas cut in. "We saw Molly look at you, James. What is wrong?"

"What did you do, James, and what part does Molly have in this?" asked Emily.

James wanted to refuse this question, but looking at the serious and to-the-point expressions the two engines had, he could see there was no way out of this. His friends would have found out sooner or later anyway. He had to reveal his secrets, so he took a deep breath and spoke up.

"I confess… While you two were building your relationship all those years ago…I was doing exactly the same thing," he said sadly.

"You…you had a relationship too?" asked Emily.

"Yes…with Molly," said James.

Thomas and Emily held their breath for a moment. They had not heard anything about this, or expected anything like it.

"You loved Molly?" asked Thomas.

"It is very true," said James. "Years ago, I did love her, just like you two love each other. When no one else knew, I was a very happy engine with her in my life…but after what Gordon and I did to you, Emily…I lost her forever. The main reason I've been so vain for quite a while is because I lost her…my light in the dark."

Thomas and Emily were most surprised. They never did think that James of all engines would have had a relationship. With his vain behaviour and self-centered manners all because of his red paint, they didn't think that he would have any chance of having a significant other. Emily knew James didn't have many friends with the behaviour he demonstrated and felt like he should be blamed or be told "Serves you right," or "I told you so," after losing Molly…but as she thought a little more, she put herself in James' boiler and could feel sheer loneliness and misery in him. Maybe he behaved so vainly over the years because he used to be full of love, then it was taken from him in a tragic, discomforting way. He needed help and he was going to get it.

Emily spoke up again. "Oh, James," she said with pity. "I'm so sorry to hear all this. You must have been so lonely for quite a long time…But we're going to help you."

"How?" asked James.

"Please tell us about your relationship with Molly. If we can learn everything that happened between you and her, we'll get a clear image and hopefully, we can bring you and her back together somehow. Be brave, James…like I was when I told Thomas why I changed my ways."

James felt quite nervous when he heard this. He turned quite red in the face with shyness, but as he looked at the engine couple, he could see their kind expressions and desire to help him. Although he had rough dealings with these two engines, as well as the rest of the Steam Team in the past, if he had any chance of expressing his feelings and possibly seeing Molly again, he would take it.

"Very well," he said at last. "I shall tell you all about Molly and me, and our lives together." So James began…

*sigh*...so yeah, it's been a while hasn't it? Well the reason behind that is we had a lot of other stuff to do, hence the nearly a month gap between my last story. For those who were expecting the first chapter to be longer, I'm sorry, it was originally going to be much longer but I decided to make this first part a prologue/cold opening instead, just to give you guys something because I really didn't want to go a whole month without posting anything. As for the next chapter, where the story really begins, hopefully you will see it next week at the latest. So please tell us what you thought of this prologue in your reviews and I'll see you guys next chapter.