Meredith puffed quickly down the track from Arlesburgh. She had a train of ballast stone for Thomas for his branch line that she was to deliver to him at Knapford. She wasn't running late but she was eager to finish her delivery so she could begin her evening passenger run. It took her a few days to recover from pushing Gordon up the hill. She was allowed to pull only passengers in order to give her axles a break, but today was her first day pulling goods trains once more.

She slid into Knapford yard, sparks flew up from her wheels as she braked hard. James puffed up to her with a smirk. "You decide to show off today, Mer?"

"Oh, no," Meredith said with a giggle. "I just got a little excited."

"It's fun sliding in, huh?" James pushed.

"Alright, alright." Meredith gave in. "It is pretty fun."

James laughed and gave Meredith's buffer a playful bump before he chugged along to his platform.

Meredith collected her coaches and refilled her coal bunker and water tanks and just as she was settling into her platform Gordon pulled up beside her with the express. "Evening, handsome." She said with a giggle.

"Oh, h- hello." Gordon stammered. "You're very cheery this evening."

"I'm just happy to see yo-" Meredith paused, her cheeks burning, her eyes darted around as if she was looking for something else to say. "I'm happy to be able to be fully useful again, that's what I meant."

Gordon smirked with a raise of his brow. "I see."

Meredith's cheeks grew even hotter and she laughed nervously as she struggled to hold the excess steam in. "You don't believe me?"

The big engine's eyes scanned the little white tank engine. He didn't believe her, so he paused for a little longer and then an idea flew into his funnel. "You're headed to Vicarstown, correct?"

"Yes?"

"Would you want to go together?"

Meredith nearly choked on her steam. "But… I can't keep up with you. You're too fast."

"I'll go slow." Gordon winked at Meredith and the tank engine's axles nearly folded.

"Okay." Is all Meredith could say. Her funnel fluttered as she impatiently waited for her passengers to finish boarding. What would she talk about with Gordon? The only time she had ever been alone with him for a length of time was when they shared a shed and all Gordon did was sleep. She wondered if this would be the best time to admit her feelings for him. The thought of that possibility made her footboards shake. What if he didn't feel the same? What if he did?

"You coming?" Gordon asked as he began to depart from the platform. Meredith didn't even hear the guard's whistle, but she set off with the big engine, her boiler felt as if it would burst from nervousness as they both chuffed away from Knapford.

The two engines drove along down the Mainline in silence through the first few stations. Gordon slowed enough to notice Meredith's red face as she puffed as hard as she could. She didn't want to make Gordon have to slow down too much so she did her best to be as fast as she could. "You can slow down, you know."

"No, I'm already holding you up enough." Meredith struggled to keep her breath steady.

Gordon sighed. "You're not holding me up. Slow down before you blow your safety valve."

Meredith glanced at the big engine and noted his stern expression. The little white tank engine reluctantly eased up and her face began to cool off. She kept quiet for a moment longer, but the anticipation was too much for her to bear. "Why did you want to travel with me?"

The express engine took pause then he smiled. "I wanted to spend some time with you."

Meredith's face ran red once more, but not from overworking her boiler. "But why?"

"I thought it would be a good way to get to know you better. We talk a lot but I feel like there's more to you than you let on." Gordon's voice was steady and confident, but he too was extremely nervous.

"Oh," Meredith said. "There's not much to me really. I've not even been conscious for a year."

"Hmm." Gordon pondered this. "What interests you? Do you have a favorite job?"

Meredith perked up. "I love picking up ballast cars from the little engines at Arlesburgh. They're all so sweet and Mike makes me laugh cuz he's so unnecessarily grumpy… kinda like you."

It was Gordon's turn to blush. This was the most Meredith had seen him smile and it made her feelings for him balloon. "I just have little tolerance for being silly. It's not useful."

"Yeah, you're kinda boring, but that's okay." Meredith grinned.

"I am not boring." Gordon huffed.

"You're a stickler, Gordon.There's more to life than being useful." Meredith laughed. They had just crested Gordon's hill and the tank engine let her brakes off and she flew down the hill giggling loudly. "You gotta live a little!"

Gordon caught up to Meredith who was beaming from buffer to buffer. "And how do you propose I do that?"

"Do what?" Meredith had already forgotten the conversation as she watched a small family of deer off the side of the track.

Gordon chuckled. "How do you suggest I 'live a little'?"

"Could stay out late watching the stars, take a goods train to somewhere you've never been. Play a game of hide and seek with Donald and Douglas. That's my personal favorite. Those two are insanely good at hiding. It's the only time I don't hear them argue." Meredith said with a playful smile. "I also like to watch people at the stations. They're so fascinating. The way they walk, the way they interact. They can actually touch each other. I've yet to see a baby person but I've been looking."

Gordon laughed quietly. The two engines continued on down the line. Gordon listened as Meredith went on-and-on about people and their quirks, the mini engines, even Daisy's snoring. He never once interrupted her. Just listened and smiled. When they had arrived at Vicarstown the passengers disembarked and Meredith noticed a couple as they walked by. The woman's belly was large and round. The little tank engine had never seen that before. She leaned towards Gordon. "Why is her belly so big?" She whispered.

Gordon peered at the woman and watched as she ran a gentle hand over her swollen stomach. He chuckled. "She's pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Meredith raised her brow. "What does that mean?"

"It means she's going to have a baby."

"You mean there's a whole other person in there?" Meredith's eyes grew wide.

"Sort of. A very small, incapable human. For a good period of their lives humans depend on their parents to survive. They take years to get to a point where they can work and be independent."

"That's crazy." Meredith watched as the pregnant woman waddled away with her partner. Her hand interlaced with his. The tank engine suddenly felt sad. "I wish I could do that."

"Have a baby?" Gordon was puzzled. Why would she want a baby?

"All of it." Meredith puffed forward a little after she was uncoupled from her coaches. She stared up at the moon as it slowly climbed higher in the sky. "I want to know what it feels like to have freedom, to make my own decisions. I want to know what coffee tastes like. Or cake. I want to be touched, hugged… kissed."

Gordon was uncoupled from the express. He watched Meredith stare off towards the Vicarstown bridge. His boiler bubbled nervously, but he inched forward until he could see her face again. "Meredith?"

"I like you, Gordon." Meredith said suddenly. "A lot. I'm not sure how to describe it. Obviously I've never felt it before. I just know that I didn't want what couples like that have until I started getting to know you. Now it's all I think about."

Gordon was lost for words. He was more nervous than ever, but he also felt like he could take on a streamlined engine in a race around the mainland and win.

Gordon and Meredith were on their way back to their sheds. Meredith was quiet. She felt so silly telling Gordon how she felt. He hadn't said a word to her since, but what she didn't realize was Gordon was simply figuring out a way to express his feelings back. The big engine wasn't very good with words and he didn't want to say something foolish, but he knew the longer he waited the more he risked hurting Meredith's feelings.

The two engines arrived just outside Tidmouth. Gordon would be going to the sheds while Meredith would have to continue onto Arlesburgh. He didn't want to say goodbye. They both stopped and Gordon bit the inside of his cheek as he quickly thought of what he could do to let Meredith know how he felt. He stared down the track towards the sheds and his face lit up as he had an idea. "I'll be right back." Meredith watched in confusion as Gordon raced away towards Tidmouth Sheds.

Meredith was still waiting at the turn off. It felt like she had been there for ages when she saw a light. Shortly after she heard Gordon's whistle in the distance. She looked ahead and saw the big express engine come around the bend before he slowed to a halt right in front of her. "Hi." Was all Meredith said.

"Hi." Gordon replied with a gentle smile. "I'm not all that great with words, so I figured I could just show you how I feel."

"How do you mean?" Meredith cocked her boiler to the side.

Gordon's eyes darted all over Meredith. He inched closer, his brow lowered in thought. He and Meredith were nearly the same buffer-height. She was only slightly shorter. Her smoke box was also closer to the front of her footboard. He pondered for a moment longer before dipping his buffers downward, then lifted her up only slightly as he managed to plant a full but brief kiss on her lips.

Meredith was frozen in place as Gordon backed away. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head while her pistons puffed out an excessive amount of steam. Gordon chuckled which snapped Meredith out of her stupor. "What was that?"

"My confession." Gordon stated plainly. He didn't show it, but he was fighting the warmth trying to accumulate in his cheeks.

Meredith smiled the biggest smile Gordon had ever seen. Her face was bright and warm as her boiler bubbled furiously. She didn't know what to say. All she could do was keep smiling.

The following morning Meredith nearly leapt from her shed. She wanted to get to Knapford as quickly as she could so she could see Gordon. Her mind raced as fast as her wheels while she flew down her line. She didn't even acknowledge Donald and Douglas who both tooted a greeting to her. She kept on moving and left the twins behind feeling rather puzzled.

She chuffed into Knapford, then slid right into her coaches with a thunderous bang. Meredith winced. She couldn't see behind her, but she had bumped her coaches right off the tracks.

"Woah, Meredith." Thomas pulled up to the little white tank engine who was blushing like mad. She felt silly. "Are you okay? Why were you in such a hurry?"

"I uhh," Meredith looked everywhere but at Thomas. She noticed Gordon had stopped short of his platform. He had caught the tail end of her accident and looked worried. She looked away from the big engine and sighed. "I just wasn't paying attention."

"Well I guess I'll go fetch Judy and Jerome and get your coaches back on the track." Thomas said. He was irritated at Meredith for being so careless with such lovely coaches, but he could tell Meredith was sorry and he didn't want to make her feel worse.

Meredith stood by as she watched Judy and Jerome hoist her coaches back onto the tracks. They sustained more damage than she had expected and when Sir Topham Hatt heard of the accident he came into the yard to inspect the scene. "What happened here?" He said as he looked over the coaches. Their windows were shattered. The front coach's axles had buckled and the side panels were caved in.

"I'm so sorry, sir." Meredith said shyly. "I came in a little too hot."

"Oh Meredith." Sir Topham Hatt ran a hand over his bald head. "You need to learn to control yourself. Now your train has to be cancelled because you have no coaches to pull."

"She can pull a couple of my coaches, sir." Gordon puffed up and passed a quick smile to Meredith who returned it, but only briefly. James and Philip had pulled up beside Thomas. They were all shocked to hear Gordon offer up his express coaches.

The fat controller stroked his chin in thought then sighed. "I suppose it couldn't hurt for her to borrow two of your coaches while hers are being repaired. Thank you, Gordon. That's very thoughtful of you." He turned to Meredith who was trying to not gawk at Gordon for too long. "Please be careful, Meredith. I know it was an accident but there's workers and engines all over this yard. You could have seriously hurt someone, or yourself."

"Yes sir." Meredith said while she dipped her buffers sadly. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, just don't let it happen again." Sir Topham Hatt called to Thomas and Philip. "Take two of the express coaches and shunt them to Meredith. I'll add another train to Gordon's schedule to make up for the lack of room."

Thomas and Philip exchanged a confused glance but did as Sir Topham Hatt said. James peered to Meredith who was slowly chuffing towards her platform, her boiler lowered in embarrassment. He noticed Gordon kept pace with the little engine and saw the big engine looked… concerned. The red engine scrunched his nose. "Hmm." He knew something was going on between the two, but what?

"There's something strange going on between Gordon and Meredith, Henry." James said as he waited for Salty to finish shunting his goods train at Brendam Docks.

Henry was just uncoupled from his own train and was moving onto another. The big green engine was confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean Gordon seems to favor Meredith. She has to be the only engine on the entire island that he has never yelled at. And then this morning he offered up his coaches for her to use after she crashed into hers." James huffed.

Salty had just shunted James's train to him and laughed. "Argh, maybe the big grump has found himself love."

"I wouldn't say that. She's a nice engine, James." Henry said with a toot of his whistle. "It's not like Gordon has never helped another engine before. Maybe he's just going easy on her because she's a new build."

James knew this to be true. Gordon has been helpful in the past, but he wasn't convinced that Gordon's behavior towards Meredith was motivated purely by kindness. "Well I don't like it. It's unfair of him to favor her over us when we've all been friends with him longer."

Henry gave a half-hearted smile. "I really feel like you're overthinking this."

James pouted, but said nothing more and Henry departed the docks towards Vicarstown. James watched Henry leave. His cars had already been coupled but he was too busy fuming. He was determined to get to the bottom of Gordon's favoritism even if that meant going straight to Sir Topham Hatt himself.

Evening all! Finally another update. I'm sorry about the sudden mushy shift, I'm gonna try to keep it as minimally fluffy as possible, but I'll admit this chapter was a bit self-indulgent. Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed and don't forget to follow, favorite, and review! I appreciate all the feedback and hope y'all continue to enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it!

Much love;

Bumble