Chapter 1 – Is it Hatred or pure Love deep down?
The work was getting harder over the years on the island of Sodor. It wasn't helping either that Sir Topham Hatt was ordering engines from the mainland to help out. Engines of all kinds had come and gone, but nothing really changed and the Fat Controller's fleet was getting more tired with every day passing by.
One very warm day in the middle of the summer season, Sir Topham Hatt was speaking to his engines at Tidmouth sheds. He explained that they will be helped out with another three locomotives from the mainland and that Thomas, Edward and Henry were to meet them and show them around the island. As the Fat Controller left in his blue car, the engines started to busily discuss and wonder about the three newcomers that were to come to their island.
"I just hope that there won't be another Spencer among them," Gordon said and rolled his eyes. "I couldn't stand if there were more engines bragging about how fast and how good they are..."
"Hopefully one of them is another tank engine like Thomas and me to help us with the shunting work," Percy said with hope in his voice and, looking over to his best friend, he could see that Thomas was the same opinion.
As they were all busy making plans and trying to guess the kind of engines that would come, there was one engine in particular that was staying silent and tried to process what he had just heard. That specific red mixed-traffic engine wasn't all too happy about the newcomers. It meant that maybe there was an engine among them that would take his work away and therefore make him shunt in the yards which he despised oh so much. James wanted nothing more than for everything to remain the way it was even if it meant that he and his friends had to work twice as hard. He decided that the best thing to get his thoughts off the news was work, so he headed straight to Knapford to arrange trucks. He hated that kind of work, but at least it kept his thoughts elsewhere and time went by faster that way as well.
The next day, James was assigned to double head the express with Emily so he would be busy until evening. He still thought about the previous day's news, but started to focus on his work as pulling the express was an important job. Meanwhile Thomas, Edward and Henry were heading for Vicarstown where they were told to meet the new engines. They arrived just in time to hear three loud and sharp whistles with different sounds echoing through the station and then they saw the new engines come into sight. Henry gasped at what he saw, Edward could just stare and Thomas, well let's say he wasn't very impressed, but rather displeased that there wasn't another tank engine. The three newcomers were indeed some engines that Thomas, Edward and Henry thought never would touch Sodor's rails. One of the new engines was each facing one of the Steam Team members. Thomas found himself opposite of a lovely, but shy looking, navy blue Caledonian Railway engine with grey eyes, soft features, blushing slightly which went really nice with her light pink lip colour and very noticable drivers, similar to Emily's. She reminded him of a young American actress called Jane Fonda he heard his driver talking about a while back and he had also shown him a picture of her.
Edward found himself facing one of the remaining engines of the Battle of Britain class. She was painted a lovely forest green, though Edward thought she looked a bit strange due to her sleek design but she had a very friendly smile on her face even though Edward knew she must have experienced quite a lot already. She had dark brown eyes with forest green eyeliner and beautifully shaped eyebrows complimenting her rosé-coloured lips, looking almost like Gina Lollobrigida.
And now Henry looked right into the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, an unusual mixture of dark blue on the outside, fading into a blueish grey with some golden flecks here and there. They belonged to a kkStB 306 Express Locomotive in shining Royal Blue livery with golden boiler bands and lining. She also wore make-up suiting her livery, decent, but still striking enough to stand out from the rest, reminding him of the girls in a calendar his crew once bought and brought home with them.
He had only seen the cover model and her name, face wise this new engine looked very similar to this woman called Dita von Teese, just a bit younger. She wasn't very big either, maybe about the size of Edward or James, but she had drivers that would make even Gordon envious and therefore quite fast and capable of pulling coaches at rather high speeds.
Henry's mind has been turned upside down and it slightly upset him, she looked like she came freshly out of the works and he thought, 'Oh great, another express engine, golden dome and boiler bands as well. From the looks of her she will be just as stubborn as James and Gordon together. Really, that's just what we need, three hot heads in the shed. But I could be wrong, I mean she only just arrived, so I could possibly be wrong...'
But he didn't get to finish his next thought because at this point the Fat Controller stepped out of the coach pulled by the Austrian newcomer and went to face the six engines. "Ladies, those are three of the engines of my railway. They are here to show you around the island and introduce you to the others later that day. The blue tank engine's name is Thomas, in the middle you have one of my mixed-traffic engines, Edward, and right here at the platform, that's Henry. We are honoured to have such a fine selection of mainland engines and also some great pieces of history here on Sodor and we hope that you will like your stay and prove yourselves really useful!"
"So now you know our names, what are yours?" Thomas asked and put on a smile.
"Well, my name's Tangmere, but where I come from everyone calls me Tina," said the green Battle of Britain class engine and smiled at the Steam Team members.
"I- I'm Calissa, but please call me Cally, I sort of like that better," stated the navy blue CR Single shyly and looked to the ground before her, blushing.
"My name is Sandy, but if you like you can also call me by my second name, Edita, even though not a lot do and I hardly respond to it, but I will listen to it at some point. They often refer to me as one of the Orient Express locomotives which my class and a few of my other relatives used to pull before World War 1. Sadly I'm the only one remaining of my class... my sisters didn't survive either World Wars apart from Sissi, my younger sister under the number 310.23. Well, at least we feel like sisters to each other though I haven't seen her for decades," the Austrian engine said with a small hint of a foreign accent, having a slightly sad look on her face, her light blue eyes wandering over the faces of Sodor's welcoming trio.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Edward said with a grim look, remembering the wars himself.
"I think it's time to show you around now, right? I can't be bothered to sit around here, doing nothing for ages." Henry broke the silence but he quickly regretted his words as he realized how rude he must have sounded.
Still, he wasn't sure why the controller gave him the job of tour guide for a day, he would've been much happier doing his usual routine. He felt sorry for the Austrian engine though, it must've been awful to have seen both World Wars and have next to no family left as a result. He had to admit though, she was pretty, and therefore probably just as vain as James.
So each of the residential engines set off with the one they were facing to show the females around the island. Thomas took Cally along his branch line, Edward was showing Tina his branch line and Henry went along the coast and express line with Sandy. He was still so struck by what he had just heard that he either couldn't say much or nothing at all. Henry was blushing lightly when Sandy looked at him with those blue eyes of hers. Even though she was smaller than him, she was easily keeping pace along the route they took.
As they were nearly done with the "sightseeing", Henry took Sandy to Brendam to show her the new harbour and took her to the track end where she had a great view of the setting sun. The royal blue express engine smiled brightly as the salty air caressed her face. There were no oceans back home so being able to get near the sea was always a real treat for her and she remembered how she had been going to Italy on a few occasions. The day had been pleasant so far despite Henry's previous rudeness. He'd shown her all of his favourite places on the island and the breath taking sunset was a perfect way to end the tour. However Henry had been quite shy throughout, perhaps he wasn't used to meeting someone new?
"I hope I can come here more often as long as I'm here," she said in Henry's direction.
He smiled at her then said, "Since there are more and more people visiting Sodor, moments like this got very rare."
"Well, we girls are here to help out, I hope there won't be too much work for you all anymore," Sandy answered before they slowly started to make their way back towards the sheds.
When Thomas, Edward and Henry returned to Tidmouth with the new engines in the evening, the others started muttering and exchanged curious glances. The three newcomers introduced themselves once more and then the residential engines in the sheds started to ask questions about their impressions of Sodor and what their jobs back on the mainland were. Though Tina spoke most of the time, Cally also tried to converse with the others.
Sandy hardly got a word out though as she noticed a red mixed-traffic engine staring at her, his face clearly showing the rage he was trying to hide desperately and his golden eyes literally boring into her. She raised an eyebrow questioningly, but the other engine simply disappeared into his berth with a cloud of smoke.
'How dare someone like her come to Sodor?! How could the Fat Controller, of all engines that are out there, get someone that reminds me of…?! But no, I rather not remember this. It won't help us, it will only cause trouble, I can see that already…' his raging went on in his mind with him grumbling in his berth, hiding from the others.
Sandy was really confused, she had done nothing wrong. Why was he so angry?
'Hm… he clearly seems to have a problem with me and I want to find out what it is. But somehow he reminds me of myself when I was freshly out the works and would snap at anyone near me because I didn't know better,' she thought.
She was brought back to reality by Henry letting off steam beside her. Sandy jumped a bit but relaxed again as soon as she remembered where she was. She suddenly felt another unfriendly glare and looked in the direction it was supposed to come from. It was Gordon, looking quite angry and about to start throwing bad words at her. Sandy rolled back a few meters to get out of the danger zone.
"Eh, Gordon, is there something wrong?" Henry asked, looking at the big blue engine.
The others stopped their chatter and all looked in Gordon's direction.
"She!" he glared at Sandy again, "she won't be taking my express! I know an express engine by the look of their wheels and shape. She's one of those and she will certainly NOT take MY express from me and on top of it all she's blue too!" by now, he was almost yelling.
"Yikes, calm down, Gordon. No one said Sandy will take your express. She has orders to follow as you have too. Whatever work will be assigned to her, she will have to do it, no matter what kind of work it is," Edward said in an attempt to calm the big engine down.
This worked, but only to a certain degree, Gordon was still glaring at Sandy and wouldn't stop until he was too tired to keep his eyes open.
As it got late, the engines started going to sleep, one by one. Cally and Tina chose their spots in the shed before Sandy could even react. Cally was settled between Thomas and Edward and Tina was just backing up between Gordon and Henry so the only berth left for Sandy was on the far right, next to James who still seemed to hold back pent-up anger. She slowly backed up next to him and glanced in his direction. James narrowed his eyes at her and then quickly looked to the other side.
'Can I never have my peace, not even in my berth? I mean what's she still doing here anyways?! Ha, I'll talk to the Fat Controller tomorrow, he has to send her back from where she came, or I will leave!' his hateful thoughts were slowly dying as he drifted off to sleep.
Sandy decided that it was best to just wait until the next day and see if he would talk then to find out what made him that furious. She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep though all she was dreaming of was that certain red mixed-traffic engine… and his amazing golden eyes!
The next morning, Sandy woke up when the sun started to rise. She blinked a few times, yawning, and then looked over to the others who were still sleeping. Immediately, she noticed that the engine who had been sleeping next to her was gone. Since her crew had already arrived and was preparing her for her first job, she asked them if they could leave the shed early to be on time for the job. Secretly she wanted to go and look for the red mixed-traffic locomotive she still didn't know the name of, but of course she couldn't tell them. It was still very early in the morning and the Fat Controller had already informed the crew, but not her about her job so they knew what it was and agreed to make a good first impression, appearing early at the station.
Since Sandy was new to the island, she took the chance and asked workmen about the engine she was looking for every time she had to stop at a signal. They told her that he had gone down the mainline and also advised her to wait for him at Knapford station where she would have to go anyways for her first job. Sandy thanked them and went off to Knapford to see if she could find who she was looking for there. As she reached the station, she saw the Fat Controller talking to one of the conductors on platform one so she decided to ask him as it was his railway and he knew all his engines and their schedules.
"Sir? I'm sorry to interrupt but..." she started out and waited patiently for Sir Topham Hatt to turn around and react to her.
"Yes, Sandy, what's the matter?" he asked her, wondering why she arrived that early. "It's still time till you will need to get on your first job."
"Well, I wanted to ask who that red mixed-traffic engine is and why he doesn't speak?" she returned a question.
"Oh, you probably mean James. But I can't really tell you why he's not talking. Normally he's very talkative." the Fat Controller answered, wondering what had gotten into James as well.
"Mmh... James… I do like that name. Oh, pardon me, but do you maybe know where he went this morning? I wanted to ask him why he was so angry yesterday and was literally trying to stare me down," was Sandy's next question.
"He went to fetch some trucks from Vicarstown, should be back any minute actually," the controller told her. "But I can't tell you either why he's angry."
"Thank you, sir! Do you mind if I wait for him right here?" Sandy pleaded with a bright smile.
"No problem at all. Since the others aren't out and about yet anyways, you're not blocking anyone's way so you can stay here. Besides, you need to be here for you first job anyways in a bit," he said with a smile as well.
The Fat Controller left and went into his office while Sandy stared down the mainline and soon caught a glimpse of something red approaching the station before a whistle echoed through the air, announcing the arrival of an engine. Sandy shuddered, her frame vibrating because of that wonderful sound. Then James slowly pulled into the station, a grim look still plastered on his face. Sandy didn't quite notice the blush that had formed on her cheeks as she looked at James, admiring his flawless paintwork.
He had nearly passed her completely when the train came to a stop. The Austrian express engine decided to play with fate and begged her crew to back her up to switch tracks to face James by saying she wanted to talk to him. When his gaze met hers, his jaw dropped and he blushed lightly for a second but he regained his composure rather quickly.
"Get out of my way! I have a job to finish!" he snapped at her.
"I'm sorry, but I won't talk around it so, why are you that angry with me, I didn't do anything?" Sandy asked straight out.
James had already opened his mouth for an answer, but then decided to say nothing. Instead, he slowly began to move forward again, approaching Sandy in hope she'd back up and switch tracks once more. But his hopes were in vain, she stayed in place stubbornly. The trucks behind James though, now not paid any attention, were making a plan to play a trick on him once more. They suddenly started to push him forward, right towards Sandy who now had a shocked expression on her face as she had noticed what they were up to.
"You stupid trucks, stop that!" James yelled at them, but to no avail.
His driver applied his brakes, but that didn't help much either. The train was heavy, very heavy and it was hard to stop it once in motion. Only moments earlier Duck had left him as he had acted as his back engine over Gordon's hill.
'Damn that new engine! Wherever she turns up, she causes trouble, I knew it!' James' mind literally screamed.
Sandy's driver had meanwhile thrown her into reverse to avoid damage to his engine, but wasn't aware that this was a dead end track and crashed right into the buffers behind her.
"Oh verdammt!" was all she could say before her eyes darted back only to see James struggle against the trucks that were still pushing him on.
Since he had been a good 300 meters away from Sandy when he started approaching her and the set of tracks they were on descended slightly, the trucks were able to push him that hard that he actually gained some speed and the slow reaction with applying his breaks didn't help it either. Sandy closed her eyes, preparing herself for the pain that was sure to come if the his crew wasn't able to get control over the trucks in time.
Luckily, pain never came. Instead, she felt something warm and soft against her lips, causing her to shudder once more. As she opened her eyes, she saw James backing away from her, blushing furiously and glancing to the back in anger, shouting rude insults at the trucks. She couldn't help but blush as well as she just noticed what had happened, slightly biting her own bottom lip, trying to savouring the taste.
He then looked back at her, baring his teeth and shouting, "You're to blame for this! If you hadn't been here, this wouldn't have happened!"
But Sandy was in thought so she didn't hear him, 'As strange as this was, so good it felt. My god why am I even thinking this?! I don't even know him and he didn't say a nice word to me since I arrived either.'
'Why did the Fat Controller even have to get those mainland engines and then a troublemaker like her on top of it?! But, strangely, her lips were so soft and... Oh damn it, focus on your work, not on that, that...' his thoughts trailed off as he noticed her blush in embarrassment, making his anger melt at least a small bit. 'Hm, I shouldn't have been so rude to her. She actually didn't do anything to me apart from her looking like that god-damn awful engine I once knew. I have to admit, she actually seems pretty nice. But still she's in my way when I try to finish my work!'
A bit more collected and with a calmer voice, James asked, "Can you move out of my way now? Unlike you, I have work and need to finish to take on my next job."
Sandy's crew looked her over quickly to make sure she hadn't been damaged, then moved her forward, switching tracks to get back to the station platform to await orders, leaving her still highly embarrassed. James meanwhile had left the trucks in the siding where they belonged and then went to the station as well to wait for further instructions as he was told to do so after his first train, the small accident from before still playing in his mind.
'Stupid me, why didn't I pay enough attention to my trucks? I mean I should already know they cause trouble whenever they get the chance to. Seems like I just caught myself being distracted by that new engine. She's a passenger engine, which means she probably will cause more trouble, like taking my passengers from me. They surely want her to pull the coaches, not me. Of all the things I feared, this is the worst! She'll take away my job and then the Fat Controller will make me shunt in the dirty yards again! Bleh…' his anger started to build up again while he made his way to the platforms.