It didn't take long for the other quarry workers to find out that Jane is George's ex-lover. While most of them now know and address her as Janelle, she still prefers to go by Jane. She's been promoted to Henry's driver after his old one, Karl, had to retire after being the LMS Black 5's driver for 35 years. It took her quite a while to get certified to operating steam locomotives, as she was only certified for diesel switchers, but after a month of training she finally got the hang of it. She and her fireman Aaron, both are quarry employees, now share the duty of operating Henry not just on their line, but on other freight services as well.
One quiet afternoon, Mavis and George had just finished the last of their local runs of ready-mix concrete. When they approached the old tramway leading to the quarry, they felt the ground shake slightly. The latter thought it was an earthquake about to happen.
"Did you feel that babe?" he asked his girl.
"The slight shaking? That's probably just us running through these crappy rails." Mavis replied, but George wasn't convinced just yet.
"It doesn't feel like running through loose rails, it feels like an aftershock." he retorted. Just then a general warning message transmitted on his cab radio.
"Sodor Geology Agency has reported slight movements of the earth. Possible earthquake imminent. Evacuate all establishments if necessary. All trains will be cancelled until further notice." it said.
Once they arrived at the quarry, the couple noticed a large group of workers idling about the yard. Henry was parked on a siding with the work train behind him. Jane got in touch with George over on the radio.
"We've been ordered to evacuate and they're doing a headcount before they board our train. Apparently, these tremors are signs of a big quake." she relayed.
"10-4 copy that. Let's hope no one's stuck inside the shafts." George replied as he stopped Mavis right at the entrance. As they waited for Henry's train to be filled up, the quarry diesel felt something trembling under her wheels.
"I think this is the quake!" she wailed. George rubbed her cab sides to ease herself.
"Whatever you do, we have to ride this out! Don't panic!" he reassured, afterwards the shaking stopped again. Just then, Jane tapped in on the radio.
"Bad news, six people are still unaccounted for. They're last seen on the northwest flank near the slate cutter!" she said. Not wanting to leave them behind, George accelerated Mavis forwards to rescue the missing workers.
"Woah babe, where are we going?!" Mavis asked, trembling in fear.
"We're gonna do a rescue mission! Six people are stranded by the slate processors!"
"If we get caught on a rockslide, it's suicide for us!" she raised her voice.
"Mavis, I'll risk for anyone and anything in this quarry. I can't do this without you." George said, trying to reason his girlfriend. Even though they're nearing the area, she caved in.
"Alright I trust you in this George." Mavis said with confidence. Upon arriving at the rescue site, they loaded up the 6 stranded workmen when the quarry shunter heard rocks falling from the flank of the mountain.
"ROCKSLIDE!" Mavis yelled, blowing her horn as loud as she can. George looked at the rocks falling from one of the slate formations. The workmen hung onto dear life inside the Class 04's cab as there was limited space for them. Dust was quickly creeping up to their area.
"Let's go!" Mavis wailed. George set her to notch 6 to accelerate out of the dust path without the risk of slipping her wheels.
"Hang on tight boys!" he told the workmen as they zipped across the line at nearly 75 km/h, way over the 25 km/h yard speed limit.
They left just in time as a big slab of the mountain fell onto the tracks where they stood seconds ago. Then the ground started shaking again, this time more intense as the quarry shunter struggled to keep her wheels on the rails. A while later, they've reached the rescue train where Mavis and George ushered the workers to run for the train.
"What about you two?!" one of the workmen said, concerned for his colleagues.
"Just bloody go!" George yelled, ushering towards the train. Once Henry started moving, he then turned to Mavis, "Now let's get the hell outta here." He put his engine on max throttle when she suddenly derailed; the quake had misaligned one side of the track they're on. Luckily, Mavis was still upright.
"Just leave me and save yourself!" she ordered her man.
"NO! I'M NOT LEAVING YOU BEHIND!" George firmly said. He then heard a crack coming from the rock formation directly on their left-hand side.
"If this is our last moment together, I just wanna say that I love you to the core, Mavis." George whispered, bracing into his control stand for the inevitable impact.
"I love you too George, you'll always be in my heart forever and always." Mavis whispered back, shutting her eyes as the rock cliff fell, dispersing debris directly at the path of the quarry couple.
The earthquake had just lasted for 20 seconds but it took another 35 minutes for the dust to clear from the quarry site. It looked like a warzone with rocks covering up nearly half of the complex, sheds destroyed, machinery and buildings damaged, and Mavis and George were nowhere to be seen. The rest of the workers were all on board Jane's train while those who took refuge in the office building were all alive, save for some minor cuts and bruises. Once Henry's driver saw the carnage behind them, she called George.
"George, can you read?!" Jane frantically called Mavis' driver on the radio, to which there was no reply. She called 5 times, all of which had no answer. She then called the SSRC to report the situation.
"Mayday, mayday, mayday! We're reporting of a rockslide here at Anopha quarry. An engine and her driver have gone missing and are probably buried under the rocks! We need recovery equipment on our location, over!" A moment later, an SSRC dispatcher replied to her.
"Negative on that. Our recovery equipment is in use over at Knapford. Multiple reports of civilian casualties and we're way too underequipped to rescue everyone all at once."
"Damn it!" she muttered. She and Aaron thought of another way to rescue Mavis and George when Henry spotted something that might help them.
"Hey Jane, y'all can use this excavator up here!" he pointed out. Jane looked out of the cab window and sure enough there's a large mining excavator sitting in the side collecting rust.
"Great, now who's gonna operate the damn thing?" Jane then asked.
"If that thing's got a key in its ignition, I'll give it a shot." Aaron volunteered, climbing down the green tender engine's cab. He was able to get it started and slowly made his way back to the rock buried quarry. Jane reversed Henry back towards an unaffected part of the yard to check on the other survivors. Once Aaron made it to the rockslide, he noticed something black sticking out of the debris – it resembled that of an exhaust stack.
"You guys, I may have found the two." he relayed to Jane and the others on the radio. He started to dig out the area where the black object was sticking out. The pile of rocks was quite deep but once he uncovered the black object, Aaron was horrified.
There was Mavis, lying on her side. Her engine cover had been damaged substantially, sideplates broken open, and her exhaust stack bent. She was facing away from the entrance so Aaron dug out where her front may be. After unearthing that part, he discovered the Class 04's face had been damaged, with oil leaking out of her nose and she was unconscious. Jane and a group of workmen arrived on scene, thinking of the worst-case scenario.
"Is she still with us?" Jane asked, fighting back her tears. Aaron placed a hand on her face to check if he can feel any warmth.
"She's here, but it's getting cold. We have to get her to the works fast." he announced. Surprisingly, Mavis cab wasn't as bad of a shape as the rest. But when Jane opened the door, she saw a sight much gruesome than when Aaron first saw the Class 04.
"Oh my god, I don't think he made it!" she gasped, putting her hands in front her mouth.
There inside the cab was George's seemingly lifeless body. From the looks of his injury, he may have been crushed by the control stand, which was out of place. Two workers removed the control stand out of the way and were able to extract Mavis' boyfriend out of the cab. He was bleeding everywhere, he had multiple broken ribs, a broken face, a dislocated leg, and his pulse was also losing quickly. They immediately called an air ambulance and a few minutes later, he was flown to Crovan's Gate Medical Center – the largest and most medically advanced hospital in all of Sodor.
Afterwards, they hauled Mavis out of the rock pile. Since their breakdown crane had most likely been buried also, Aaron used the excavator's bucket to push the battered diesel onto a lowboy flatbed car, trying his best not to hit her face. He then let another workman do the digging duties as him, Jane and Henry set off for the dieselworks in Vicarstown.
"Let's just hope the lines have not been seriously damaged." Aaron sighed.
"I just hope the scenes we're about to go is not as bad as I feared." Jane added.
. . .
Within an hour after the earthquake, rescue teams scattered across Sodor to rescue survivors, clear debris, and recover any bodies. News circulated across radios, TVs, and social media sites that a magnitude 5.5 quake had rocked the island. The epicenter was determined to be under the city of Douglas in the Isle of Man, and the shockwave travelled through the fault line lying right in the middle of Sodor from Tidmouth to the western edge of Vicarstown. The fault line extended all the way towards Newcastle, on the northeastern side of Britain.
Meanwhile at Crovan's Gate hospital, Mr. Taylor and Darcie were with George in the emergency room. He's currently in a coma with a myriad of hoses connected to him – blood transfusion, IV fluid, and oxygen. His injuries were temporarily cleaned and stitched. The doctor then came to speak to the manager.
"Here's his X-Ray and CT scan results." She started, pointing towards the image. "So he's broken 4 ribs all on the left, puncturing his left lung, his right arm, leg and pelvis also broke and there's a 30% chance he's gonna have amnesia once he wakes up as his skull was hemorrhaged." she explained.
"When will he get surgery?" Darcie piped in.
"If his blood pressure becomes normal tonight, then by tomorrow noon, we'll start procedure on him."
While George was pending for surgery to repair his broken down body, the case with Mavis is more dire. Her engine may be in decent shape for a rebuild but her chassis was a different story; miraculously, the only thing that went unscathed was her alternator, which was the only thing that keeps her alive. The workers at the dieselworks did everything they can to fabricate and procure the Class 04's destroyed sideplates, traction motors, engine casing, and cab, however they simply don't have the expertise to rebuild a badly bent locomotive frame.
Normally, rebuilding a frame requires everything stripped out of the locomotive. But since Mavis is a non-faceless engine, her rebuild requires the removal of all parts except her face plate and alternator. She'd have to be hooked onto a 'life support prime mover' to keep her alternator charged up until her engine has been rebuilt.
"We have no choice but to relocate her to a BR maintenance shop at Liverpool for her frame rebuild. The engine rebuild we can do that here, but we've never done a frame rebuild, or we risk losing her altogether." one of the diesel mechanics explained. Jane, Aaron, and Henry were there to hear the sad news.
"Assuming the rebuild went smoothly, will she be able to retain her memories?" Aaron asked. The mechanic shrugged.
"At her state, she would've been damaged beyond repair. Luckily, her engine wasn't all battered up, she might have a chance to run again like before but in terms of memories, to be honest I really don't know." A crane operator loaded Mavis' seemingly lifeless frame onto a lowboy together with her life support equipment. Vince would be taking her to Liverpool, coupled up behind his intermodal train.
"You think she'll pull through?" Jane asked her fireman, watching the BR Class 70 pull away with Mavis in tow.
"I know she would." Aaron replied, "What did they do to deserve such fate?"
"They saved 6 stranded workers by the slate shaft. One of them told us that George told him to leave them behind while they tried to clear other areas." Jane continued.
"Let's pray they both recover." Henry sighed. Jane and Aaron simply nodded in agreement.
. . .
It took a month for things to return to normal on Sodor. In total, 14 people died while another 150 were seriously injured in the earthquake. Aftershocks still rock parts of the island near the fault line but were not as strong as the initial one.
Mavis' absence meant the quarry had to bring in Nia and Percy again, with Toby acting as the primary engine. George had also been cleared from hospital after his successful operation. Even so, he's still not medically cleared for work since he still must heal his ribs, left arm and leg. Jane paid a visit at his house to tell him about Mavis' situation, as well as checking in on him.
"How are you holding up dude?" she asked.
"I'm getting better, I just hate the idea of sitting down all day because of my leg." George sighed.
"Yes, you don't wanna exert too much though. My friend told me it took her nearly 3 months before she ditched the crutches when she got hit by that bus. And it doesn't help that your arm is shot as well." Jane pointed out.
"How's Mavis doing?" George brought up the subject of Mavis' condition. "Is she alright?" Jane knew she had to tell her ex-lover everything that's been happening to the Class 04, since she had the contact with the dieselworks crew.
"She was sent to a shop in Liverpool to get her frame rebuilt." She started, "It was completely shot, save for the alternator, so right now as I speak, she's on a life support system. The dieselworks guys have contact with the Liverpool shop and last time I spoke to them, Mavis' chassis is all rebuilt and they noticed her eyes twitch a little, indicating that she's conscious. They also said she'll be heading back to Vicarstown in a few days' time." she explained to George. All he can do now is wait until she returns to the dieselworks.
"W..will she still be able to remember me?" he inquired. Jane let out another long sigh.
"That's something even the diesel mechanics couldn't give a definitive answer. She may have lost her memories altogether or she's gonna have trouble remembering all of them." she said, patting George's good leg. He looked down on his feet and sighed deeply.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know Jane," George sighed, "What if she doesn't remember me? What if she didn't pull through? Or what if she-" Jane placed a finger on George's lips to stop his rambling.
"Hey," Jane said, "George, look at me." Her brown eyes met George's own, gazing with genuine concern.
"Don't overthink, okay? Mavis is a tough engine, she'll pull through. I know you wanna help her remember in case she has trouble retaining memories, but please allow me to help you with this. The scars from our breakup are still here," she placed her free hand on George's chest. "Did you really think you could fool me that you've genuinely forgiven me just by saying 'I forgive you'?"
George shook his head. "I suppose not. You are really good at reading people's minds."
Jane smiled, "You may not realize this, but I still love you, not in the way before obviously, but more of what we had as best friends in college."
George's eyes were already moist, so were Jane's, but she continued.
"It was you who helped me realize what true love is. When I started dating Martin, it hit me like a freight train that he really is the one for me. That we're not meant for each other because you belonged to Mavis. I kept asking myself all the what ifs on our relationship, if I had viewed you as a potential husband instead of the best friend I came to know and love. B-but all that's behind me now dude – you love Mavis, I love someone else, and…I-I forgive you too George, for everything." She finished.
There was a long pause, then George hugged Jane as hard as he can. Even though she's already married, she let her old habits of being affectionate to George take over her. She caressed his back soothingly – George loved that feeling and works every time he's down and blue. Then she let him cry on her shoulder, encouraging George to let it all out. She also cried as well, feeling relief wash all over her soul. He really does love Mavis so much. And I'm glad she's able to reciprocate that love to him more than I ever can.
The two stayed in each other's embrace for what felt like hours when Jane's phone rang, vibrating inside her pocket like crazy. She pulled out from George, who was done crying, and got her phone.
"Excuse me for a sec." Jane said as she went outside to answer her phone. George fidgeted anxiously, watching Jane walking back and forth on his porch. He couldn't hear the conversation, but he could make out something big happened, judging by her gasping gesture. When she went back inside, she gave George a knowing nod.
"I've got some good news and better news." Jane said.
"What is it?" George asked.
"The good news is that Mavis had just arrived earlier today. What's even better is that by tonight, she's fully repaired and ready to roll." George went speechless at hearing the news.
"Alright dude, the sooner we leave, the sooner you'll get to see her!" Jane chuckled.
They went to Vicarstown operating BoCo since his driver was out sick and he's due for his regular maintenance. When they arrived at the dieselworks, they saw a black figure parked inside the shop. It was Mavis, all rebuilt and ready to go. She's only asleep as the mechanics had to put her on green water once they reassembled her parts; this wears out once she's filled up with diesel and started up again.
"She's all rebuilt ground up from the frame to the engine and cab. She's conscious though, we checked all her oil and pressure gauges, it's all good." the diesel mechanic shared. After he refueled Mavis' fuel tank, George and Jane went to inspect the repairs done to the quarry diesel.
"I wanna start her up." George offered but Jane stopped him.
"You can't climb yet because of that leg, dude. I'll start her up, she'll most likely wake up with me." Jane insisted as she climbed aboard the cab. Using her spare master key, she put it on ignition and pressed the engine startup button. A loud idle rumbled inside the shop and a while later, Mavis was all awake.
"Ahhh!" she yawned, "I felt like I slept in ages!" George was standing in from of her, and he can't help but smile wide to see his girl in working order again.
"Hi Mavis, my sweet black rose!" George hugged the BR Class 04. Mavis was taken aback by his gesture. When he pulled out, Mavis looked at him with a confused gaze.
"Uhm…. hello there, have we met?" she asked. Jane's fear of Mavis losing her memories may have been true after all.
Uh oh, I knew this was gonna happen. I just hope her memory loss is not as bad as I initially thought. she thought to herself.
A/N: By far the longest chapter of this fic, and the longest chapter all time!