It was summer again on the island of Sodor. Thomas had just returned from a months long trip around the world and with him he brought a lovely little tank engine called Nia. She was a very kind engine who was eager to learn and participate. Meredith had only interacted with her a handful of times, but she liked the brightly painted engine. Though her focus was drawn more to Gordon than anything else. She was nearly caught after their first night together when Sir Topham Hatt noticed her damaged buffers. She gave a poor excuse of being knocked around in the storm but miraculously the fat controller and Victor at the Steamworks seemingly bought it.

It was a particularly hot and humid day on the coastline. Meredith was out at Harwick when Ryan pulled up with a goods train. "Did you happen to see my brake van back at the shed, Mer?"

Meredith pondered for a moment then shook her boiler. "No, sorry. You could always try Knapford. They should have a spare brake van. Or perhaps Oliver will lend you Toad."

"Oh! That's brilliant," Ryan bounced a little on the rails. "I'll go find Oliver. Bye, Mer-Mer."

"Later, Ry-Ry!" Meredith giggled.

"Your little nicknames are so disgustingly sweet." Flying Scotsman teased as he pulled up with the coastline express.

"You're just jealous you don't have a nickname." Meredith retorted. "Other than 'that asshole'."

Scotsman snorted. "Hah hah."

Meredith once again paused to think. "Ohhh! How about Scotty?"

Flying Scotsman frowned. Meredith took that as a no and pressed on. "Perhaps Fly? Or maybe… Man."

"You're very bad at this." Scotsman said flatly.

"You just don't believe." Meredith pouted. "Have a little faith, big boy."

"Now that one I like." Scotsman said with a wink.

Meredith rolled her eyes. "Of course you do you perv. Hey, have you seen Gordon? He was supposed to meet me earlier and he never showed."

"Not since this morning. He did seem a little out of sorts, though."

"Huh… I wonder what's up with him."

Out on the Mainline, Gordon was trudging along with the express. He felt extremely ill and could hardly manage to pull himself and his coaches forward. Even blinking made him feel like he was going to wretch the water from his boiler. He struggled up his hill and when he reached the top he felt a horrid pressure in the back of his throat. "Ohhhh dear." He groaned as he coasted down to the other side. Gordon reached the bottom and had to stop. He couldn't do it. He tried, but he couldn't get himself to move anymore. Gordon worked to take deep breaths hoping it would help, but each breath out felt more and more like it would be accompanied by a huge mess.

Further down the line coming towards Gordon, Nia was happily chugging along with a goods train for Knapford, but when she saw Gordon stopped on his line she became worried. "What're you doing, Gordon? You look awful."

"I feel awful." Gordon said slowly. He took another breath and his boiler flipped and bubbled. He couldn't hold it back any longer. He hurled up hundreds of gallons of hot, sooty water all over the line. Nia gasped.

"Oh no, Gordon!"

Gordon moaned in discomfort, his eyes watered from the force of the purge. He managed to get a few recovery breaths in before another wave of sludgy water forced its way out. Gordon's driver had radioed Sir Topham Hatt from Gordon's cab and Edward was on his way with the breakdown train. "Ohhhh, the indignity." Gordon sighed. His boiler was empty at this point and he could no longer build steam.

Edward rounded the bend with Judy and Jerome to gather Gordon. It's not often the big engine required being hoisted onto a flatbed and Gordon was certainly not pleased about the prospect of being lifted into the air. "Can't you just shunt me?" Gordon protested as the workmen tightened the leads to lift him up.

"Sorry, Gordon. Sir Topham Hatt said you needed to be taken by flatbed." Edward said, his tone apologetic.

Gordon huffed, but said nothing more.

"You ready big guy?" Jerome said excitedly.

"Hmph."

"Alright! Judy, let's get him up!" Jerome said.

"Together now." Judy pipped, and the two cranes gathered all their strength to lift Gordon off the tracks. It took them a moment to get the hefty engine high enough to be dropped onto the flatbed, but they managed. Unfortunately, the drop wasn't so gentle and it rattled Gordon's empty boiler.

"Sorry about that." Judy said as she secured her hook once more. "It's been a while since we've lifted an engine as big as you, Gordon."

Gordon simply moaned in response as his tender was loaded onto a second flatbed behind him. Then he remembered something. "What about my passengers? Who is to take the express?"

A perky whistle sounded off over the hill and James glided in beside Edward not long after. "Did somebody say they needed an express engine?"

"James? But you're not big enough to pull the express!" Gordon was fuming at the idea of his express being hauled by a small engine.

James rolled his eyes as he switched tracks and backed up to the coaches. "For a relatively young engine, you're pretty forgetful, Gordon." James teased. "Don't you remember when Sir Topham Hatt had me run the express and said that I'd pull it should you be unavailable, hmm?"

Gordon sighed. He did remember, he just didn't like the idea.

"Furthermore," James continued as he began to pull away. "I'm not that much smaller than you."

Gordon remained stoic. He wasn't going to acknowledge James' silliness any further. He watched the red engine drive away with his coaches and cursed James. "Whenever you're ready, Edward." He finally said quietly.

Edward gave a cheerful peep and started towards the Steamworks. "Bye, Nia!"

"Bye, Edward! Bye, Gordon! I hope you feel better really soon!" The orange tank engine beamed as she puffed away for her delivery.

It took longer for Edward to deliver Gordon to the Steamworks. The big engine was extremely heavy and Edward had to puff his absolute hardest to keep him moving. By the time they arrived Victor and the workmen were waiting patiently at the open bay doors. "Hello there, my friends. I hear Gordon had a bit of a boiler purge?"

Edward chuckled. "That's a bit of an understatement, Victor."

"Stop talking about it already." Gordon grumbled. If he had any steam his cheeks would be fiery from embarrassment.

"Don't worry, my friend. We'll clean out your boiler and see if we can find the problem as soon as possible." Victor reassured with a smile. He didn't even flinch at the sound of the little crane, Kevin, colliding into an iron press behind him.

"Sorry!" Kevin called. Victor's smile disappeared.

"We'll take it from here, Edward." Victor said sternly and Edward was uncoupled and steamed away.

Gordon was miserable as he was lifted off the flatbed and onto an extra strength gantry. He kept wincing and whimpering while the men cleaned out his boiler. He didn't like being touched by people. Not even his driver or fireman laid their hands on him more than they had to. Gordon didn't pout often, but his face at that moment would've put James to shame.

Victor noticed Gordon's sullen expression and puffed over with Kevin to check on him. "What's the matter, Gordon?"

"Ohh, I just don't like being fiddled with by humans." Gordon's voice was low. He didn't want to offend the workmen.

Victor chuckled. "I completely understand. Just be patient and they'll finish up in no time at all."

Gordon let out a long, drawn out sigh before shutting his eyes and forcing himself to drift off to sleep.

Meanwhile, at Brendam Docks, Donald and Douglas were being coupled up to cars of parts imported in from North America. Donald was at the head of the train while Douglas was placed to pull up the rear. "Ready when you are, Donnie!"

"Aye!" Donald laid on his whistle and the two set off towards the Steamworks..

Surprisingly, the twins remained rather quiet for the first part of their journey. The heat of the day was setting in and they were both red in the face as they trudged ahead. "Ugh, I've not felt heat like this in years." Donald hissed as they came to Gordon's Hill.

"Aye," Douglas agreed, condensation trailing down his forehead and cheeks. "Makes me miss the snow."

"That's the truth, Dougie." Donald said. They began to descend the hill on the track where Gordon was ill. The mess had not yet been cleared and the twins were completely unaware of the slippery danger at the bottom of the hill as they barreled straight for it. Donald noticed the tracks were shinier than usual, but when he realized it was liquid he tried to apply his brakes, but the muddy water caused his wheels to slip off the track and Donald plowed face first into the ballast stone and dirt.

"Donnie!" Douglas couldn't avoid crashing himself. The cars yanked him off the track and he slid on his side right into the treeline. "Augh… dammit. Have ya lost yer mind, Donald?"

"Ugh, my wheels slipped you bampot." Donald cursed at his brother. "There was somethin' slippery on the track."

Douglas groaned and cut his eyes. "Leave it to you to make such a mess of a simple delivery."

"Oh, I don't want to hear it from you." Donald scowled. His boiler and smoke box ached, but he was too cross at his brother to care. "Just shut yer trap before I knock you off your bearings."

"You've already went and done that." Douglas retorted. "My wheels are all sorts of cocked because of your poor driving."

Donald opened his mouth to spit more insults at his brother but he stopped when he saw Meredith coming round the bend with her coaches. "Mer! Meredith! Over here!"

Meredith screeched to a halt when she saw the mess of an accident the twins got into. "Oh my god, are you two okay?"

"We're alive, that's all I can say of it." Douglas grumbled.

"Someone's made a slippery mess of the track and my wheels lost their grip." Donald said, his anger quickly replaced with sadness and shame.

"Oh no." Meredith said. She bit her lip as she looked at the mess of shattered cars, spare parts, and the two damaged engines. "I'll be back as quick as possible with help." She then steamed off, her pistons pumping as hard as they could.

It was late into the evening by the time the twins were hoisted onto flatbeds to be taken to the Steamworks. They were dented, scratched, and scuffed, the both of them refusing to speak to each other. There was still a lot of work to do at their accident site. The tracks had been severely damaged and the goods cars were splintered all over the ground. Sir Topham Hatt was supervising the cleanup and tasked Meredith with bringing the twins to the Steamworks, a task she was more than happy to complete.

She puffed along the line, Donald and Douglas still refusing to speak to each other or Meredith. The little tank engine didn't take it personally. Instead she watched as the sun slowly descended behind the horizon. It was still scorching out, but at least with the sun no longer bearing down on the island, the heat was more tolerable.

Meredith finally came to the Steamworks and the twins were quickly loaded off their flatbeds as they grumbled angrily to themselves. Meredith started to leave when she heard a familiar voice coming from the back of the Steamworks. She creeped forward until she saw Gordon talking with Victor, his boiler was no longer blue, but just bare metal and she gasped. "What happened?"

Gordon jumped, accidentally knocking a worker off his footboard. "Meredith? What're you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that." Meredith said sternly as she drew closer. "What happened to your boiler?"

"Gordon had a little bit of a leak in his smoke box. We had to open his boiler up to repair it." Victor stated. He was curious as to why she seemed unusually worried.

"Oh, well I've brought the twins for you." Meredith said quietly. She could tell Gordon was fine, but she had a pain in her own boiler seeing him like that. "You may need to sedate them because they're not very happy."

Victor chuckled. "That's not at all surprising."

"Yeah," Meredith cast a worried glance to Gordon who gave her a gentle smile. She could tell he was tired so she decided not to linger any longer. "I suppose I'll get going. Have a good night."

"Bye," Gordon said, his voice sounded strained. He watched Meredith leave and his smile quickly faded. This did not go unnoticed by Victor.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh," Gordon looked down. "No, nothing."

Victor raised his eyebrows. He didn't believe the big engine. He was then hit with a sudden realization. "You know, a few months ago Meredith came in with some damage to her buffers. She claimed it was caused by the storm."

Gordon looked to Victor, his eyes narrowed. "What're you implying?"

"Oh, nothing really." Victor said with a slight cock of his body. "It's just, I couldn't help but notice your front buffers were slightly buckled from underneath. That couldn't possibly be related, could it?"

"Absolutely not." Gordon insisted sternly. "I'm insulted you would even suggest so."

Victor began to back away, he could tell Gordon was irritated, but he wasn't done prodding at the express engine. "There was also extensive damage to her undercarriage. Damage that could've only been caused by her being intimate with a rather large engine. I suppose that's unrelated as well, hmm?"

Gordon cringed. Victor had figured them out. "I- I-"

"Oh, Gordon. I'm more upset you let her try to hide it than the fact that it happened." Victor said. "While it's unsafe to even participate in that kind of behavior overall, the dangers are heightened greatly because of your difference in size. That's why Sir Topham Hatt forbids it altogether."

"To be honest… I wasn't even aware she had that other damage, Victor." Gordon said shyly.

Victor shook his boiler in disapproval. "I know you don't want to hear this but I highly suggest you keep your relationship with Meredith strictly platonic. It's what's best for both of you."

Gordon felt a heavy weight in his boiler. He knew Victor was right, but he loved Meredith. Though he also didn't want to hurt her or get her into trouble with Sir Topham Hatt. "Okay." Is all he could say.

Victor started to back away when he thought of something else. "And another thing: if you're going to be intimate, maybe wait until she's uncoupled from her train beforehand."

"What?" Gordon raised his brow.

"Her rear coupling hook was practically pulled right from her buffer." Victor said with a laugh. "I guess someone was a little too eager, hm?"

"Yeah." Gordon said quietly. He flattened his brow. He had never been with Meredith while she was still coupled to a train. Then, the realization struck him like a large locomotive at full steam. He grit his teeth as his entire frame bristled with rage. "Scotsman."

Another one bites the dust! I've not much to say with this one, but I do theorize that engines have more complex biomechanics that simply aren't delved into. It's been demonstrated that they can taste and smell, they also can tell when they're damaged so they can probably feel some level of pain. This also implies they can feel *ahem* pleasure as well. Also when they move their bodies in the later seasons it shows they have control over their mechanics. (a detail I wish was a constant part of the show, not just the newer seasons. It definitely helped make the engines more lifelike and expressive) I figure they can move on their own, but are held down by the need of a fireman to shovel coal and keep their fireboxes hot. I see their drivers as more of a supervisor to make sure they don't completely lose control and keep on task, for the most part at least because let's face it, sometimes engines can be easily distracted. Anywho, I could go on and on about their physical complexities and my ideas of that nature, but I won't keep you! Don't forget to read and review and give it a follow!

Much love;

Mixxie