"Theodore and the New Tugboat"

Summary: The Dispatcher makes a very surprising announcement to the tugs.

Theodore Tugboat and characters belong to original creators and to PBS.

Skylar tugboat belongs to me.

Chapter 1: And so it begins…

{After Prologue} One week later~

It was a bright and sunny Monday morning in the Big Harbor. All the tugs were waiting for the Dispatcher to begin the morning meeting. "Good morning tugboats," the Dispatcher began. "I have a special announcement for you."

The tugs all looked at looked at each other with excitement.

"A new tugboat will be transferring from her harbor to ours."

"What does 'transfer' mean?" Hank asked.

"Transfer," Foduck explained, "Means to move something, or someone, from one place to another."

The Dispatcher turned to Foduck. "That is correct." He continued with his announcement. "She will be –"

"She?" It was George that interrupted him.

"Yes George," the Dispatcher said. "The new tug is a girl tug and her name is Skylar."

"Skylar…" Emily breathed. "That's a beautiful name." She then asked," Will she dock here with us?"

"Yes Emily," The Dispatcher answered. "She has to, since she will be working with Foduck on his safety patrols. Speaking of which; Foduck, you will be escorting Skylar around the harbor. You will show her everything she needs to know about the Big Harbor."

The Dispatcher turned towards the other tugs. "George and Emily, you will bring in the giant container ship form outside the Harbor. Hank and Theodore, you two will move Brunswick barge and replace all of the worn out and broken dock bumpers. That will be all." And with that, the tugs all set out for work.

All except Theodore. He slowly followed Hank to Brunswick's dock.

"Do you think this new tug is big? Do you think she's grumpy or fun? Maybe she's…" Hank continued to ramble on and on about his questions about the new tug. Theodore had some questions of his own. Would this new tug be mean, like Oliver was? Would she tease him, calling him small or little tug, or a crybaby?

"Maybe she'll bump me really hard, and chase me around the Harbor." Old memories of Oliver started to pop up in his mind.

"Theodore? Are you coming or what?"

Theodore sped up his engine as he hurried to catch up with Hank. I'll have to avoid Skylar, He thought to himself. If she's in one dock, I'll move to another. If she goes left, I'll go right. If she tries to make fun of me, I'll just go away. I won't be bullied again.


Skylar the Valorous breathed in a deep breath of salty sea air. It had taken a few months, numerous eruptive storms, and various refill stops; but finally, she had made it to the Big Harbor.

"Ok…. Where do I go from here?" She stopped by the edge of the harbor and scanned her surroundings.

Two tugs were guiding a very large container ship in the harbor and towards its dock. The sun glimmered and gleamed of off the green paint of a green bridge that was stretched out from one end of the harbor to another. Multiple ships of various shapes and sizes were sailing along, hustling about their busy day. The whole place was filled with the sounds of friendly toots and honks and whistles.

To Skylar, it seemed like this was the happiest place on earth.

She was still taking in all of the scenery when a tug with a red hat came steaming towards her. His safety equipment was pinging and ponging, making all kinds of different beeps and sounds.

Skylar smirked and arched an eyebrow. "I'm 'gonna take a wild guess and say that you're the safety tug around here, the one I was told I'm working with." She said in a heavy voice that made the tug float back in surprise.

Skylar grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," She apologized. "I'm kind of a loud tug."

The tug then cleared his throat. "Welcome to the Big Harbor. My name is Foduck. I'm the official safety tug in the Big Harbor."

"I know, I just said that. And what kind of a name is 'Foduck? Four ducks? Uhh…for a duck?"

"Foduck." Said Foduck stiffly. "And my name is an important name."

"Ok, ok!" The last thing Skylar wanted was to upset the tug that she was supposed to work with. "Can you show me where the Great Ocean Tug and Salvage Company dock is? I'm supposed to meet someone named the Dispatcher?"

"You will be meeting him after I show you around the Big Harbor." Foduck turned and headed into the harbor. "Follow me please."

Skylar followed him into the Harbor. The noise level seemed to increase as she got deeper in the heart of the busy port.

"…And over here is the Oceanic institute, where Rebecca the Research Vessel lives. Near the Institute is the Fuel dock, where we tugs fill up with fuel."

"Uhhuh." Skylar was only half-listening to Foduck. As she glanced around a sudden friendly toot came from behind her, making Skylar "jump" a little.

Two tugs; one with a blue toque and another with a red baseball cap, who was pulling a brown barge, were excitingly floating up to meet her.

Well, the blue toque tug was. The other tug lowered his gaze, like he was purposely avoiding Skylar.

The blue toque tug whistled his friendliest whistle. "Hello! I'm Hank. And that's Theodore."

Skylar smiled. "How's it going Hank? Theo? I'm Skylar. You can call me 'Sky, for short."

Like Foduck, the two tugs floated back a little in surprise when they heard Sky's loud, booming voice. Theodore had backed the barge he was towing straight into a dock. "Ouch! " The barge cried. "Sorry" mumbled Theodore apologetically.

Skylar couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. Theodore glowered at her.

"We have a lot more to see before it gets dark," said Foduck. "You can talk to Theodore and Hank later at the dock." Skylar gave two blasts of her mighty whistle and proceeded after Foduck once more.

"Strange." Foduck mused to himself.

"What?" asked Skylar.

"Theodore loves making new friends. He's friends with just about everyone here in the harbor. It was almost like he was scared by your presence."

"You'd be scared out of you bumpers too if a tug the size of a cargo ship came barreling up to and bellowed out a great gigantic 'HELLO!' right at your face." Skylar pointed out. "I probably frightened the little 'fella. He'll warm up to me eventually. We're going to be good friends, I can feel it in my boiler."


That evening, after work, all the tugs headed home for the Great Ocean Tug and Savage Company dock. Theodore hid himself between Hank and Emily. He peeked between the two tugs and saw Skylar talking with the Dispatcher. "And how was your tour of the Big Harbor?" the Dispatcher was saying.

"I had a blast! Everyone is so nice and friendly. Well, except for that Guysborough 'fella. Anyway, this harbor is almost set up like my old one so I'll have no trouble finding my way around here."

The Dispatcher was pleased. "Very good, you will immediately begin your safety patrols with Foduck in the morning."

Hank floated up to Skylar. "Do you want to go first for storytelling time?"

"For what?"

"Didn't you have storytelling time back at your old harbor?" George asked.

"Uhh- no."

"Storytelling time," Emily explained," Is when we all gather around the dock and tell each other stories about our day or our adventures."

Skylar thought about this for a moment. "I did meet a pod of Orca whales out on the ocean. Would that count as a story for storytelling time?"

"Oh, yes!" the tugs exclaimed as they all huddled around Skylar to hear her story.

Theodore quietly slipped back towards his dock. He wasn't in the mood for storytelling time. All he could think about was meeting Skylar for the first time.

The way her large, blue police hat had blocked out part of the sun. She was as huge as George, but as tall as Foduck. Her eyes had that mischievous look in them, like she was here to make trouble. He remembered how loud and booming her voice was when she had said hello to him and Hank, he remembered how she had laughed at him when he had accidentally bumped Brunswick into the dock. Her laugh, he noted, sounded a lot like Oliver's laugh.

Theodore felt as if someone was watching him. He looked around and saw that Skylar was watching him a little while she was telling her story.

Theodore glared at her and looked the other way.


Bright and early the next morning, Skylar began her safety patrol with Foduck.

It was an easy job. All they had to do was inspect the docks, check the incoming ships for any damage, make sure nothing dangerous was floating around, and alert any outgoing ships of stormy weather. "Everything looks good. No emergencies today." Skylar said. "True," Foduck said. "Everything might appear calm now, but we must always be prepared for things to go wrong. You never know when an emergency might happen."

That was another thing about Foduck. He always took his job very seriously.

Bet he's never had any real fun other than this job, Skylar thought sarcastically.

She spotted Theodore a few yards away hurrying past them.

Skylar whistled her friendliest whistle. "Hey Theo!"

Theodore looked straight ahead, speeding up his engine.

Skylar looked puzzled. "Weird."


Skylar was refueling at the fuel dock when she saw Theodore sailing by.

Again, she whistled her friendliest whistle and bellowed," Hey, hey Theo! How's work coming along?"

Theodore was so startled he almost flew out of the water. With a rev of his engine, he zoomed past Sky before she had a chance to blink.

"What was that all about?"


Around the mid-afternoon, Skylar and Foduck were making their way back to the GOTSC dock and wouldn't you know it there was Theodore smiling and laughing with Hank.

With a vroom of her engine, Skylar set off to talk to Theodore. She hoped he was ok. Clearly, there was something wrong with him. She just wanted to know what was up and help him out with his problem, get to know him some more, and even be his friend-

The minute Theodore caught her eye, his face turned to pure horror. Bolting out of his dock, he ignored Hank and Foduck's cries of concern.

Skylar poured on a little extra power. For a small tug, he sure was fast. He easily zig – zagged around the other ships while she dodged by other passing ships trying to keep up with him, just barely squeezing past a large cargo ship and the edge of Willy's Island. She caught a brief glimpse of Theodore turning left a bit past the Harbor marker buoy.

Just as she rounded the corner, Theodore called back, "Just leave me alone Oliver!"

Skylar slowed down a little. Who was Oliver? Why did Theo call her that?

It suddenly hit her like a wave. The terrified looks, the angry scowls on his face, the hurt look in his eyes- she knew what was wrong.

She followed Theodore, keeping her distance, to a small sandy beach cove.

There he was, huddled up in the right corner eyes squeezed shut, trying not to shake so much. Skylar gently floated towards him. "Theo?" She said in a soft voice.

Theodore didn't answer.

Skylar carefully floated up next to him. "Theo," she began. "Do I remind you of someone?"

Again, no answer.

You called me 'Oliver." "Was he mean to you?" she asked gently.

Theodore opened up his eyes. His sad face said it all.

"And did he call you names and tease you and bump you really hard that it hurt a lot? "She continued.

"Yes, he did." Theodore answered in a small, surprised voice.

"I've met a lot of tugs and ships who were mean like that. I never knew why didn't like me, but I refused to believe the mean thing that they said about me. Theo, whatever nasty words that this Oliver guy called you they are not true. I see a tug whose nice and kind to everyone he meets. So whaddya say we start over and be friends?"

Theodore was silent for the longest time.

"You take your time with this. And I won't call you 'Theo if you don't want me too." Skylar turned towards the coves entrance. "Come on," she said. "Your friends are pretty worried about you." She started to head out.

"Skylar?"

Skylar stopped and turned around.

Theodore smiled his brightest smile. "I'd like it if you would call me 'Theo. And I'd like it even more if we can be friends?"

Skylar grinned from bumper to bumper. And together, the two tugs headed for home, knowing in their engines that this was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.

A/N: YES! FIRST CHAPTER IS UP! I'm just so excited! Please bear with me, I'm new here to , and my writing isn't exactly New York Times best seller, but hopefully as I write more, my skills will improve. Please let me know what you think about the story in the reviews section, criticism is helpful.

Some of the TNT chapters will be within the episodes of the show, other chapters will be about whatever stories I make up, Skylar info will be posted on my page. And with that I bid you all a good day.