The next morning, once all their fires had been lit and their coal and water supplies well stocked up for the day, the other little engines chuffed out of the Depot and made their way towards the quarry- even Duncan and Sir Handel were unusually keen to get to work for once! But that was most likely because they preferred working in the quarry to being snowed in in the sheds again, having little to do except sharpen their tongues on the whetstone of confinement and cabin fever.

"I hope Luke's okay, Skarloey." Tutted Peter Sam in concern, his brows furrowed. "He's been really quiet since the fire… or at least, quieter than usual."

"Hm," agreed Skarloey, but, with little else to add to that, he remained silent. Peter Sam bit his lip, listening to his brother laughing over a quip Rheneas had made. Behind those two were Duncan and Rusty- the little diesel carefully helping Duncan to the quarry without inadvertently causing an accident.

"It's too quiet!" Grumbled Sir Handel, as they finally passed through the arch. "Where is he? He's usually gambolling along the line like a cheery devil this time in the morning!"

The others had to agree with him on that; it was way too quiet in here, like a ghost quarry. They couldn't even hear any explosions above them.

"Well, maybe Luke's still ill." Suggested Skarloey, and he heard Rheneas suddenly slam his brakes on behind him in shock.

"Luke's ill? Why didn't you tell us?" His brother asked- both concerned and panicked.

"It just slipped my mind, Rheneas. I was going to say something, but"-

"How could you forget about Luke?" Rheneas interrupted incredulously.

"I didn't forget him, Rheneas- I just forgot to say he wasn't well!" The older engine countered. Fortunately, a loud horn blast interrupted their squabbling before the two brothers descended into an argument.

"We haven't got time to stand to stand round here and argue amongst ourselves- we need to see if Luke's okay!" Rusty reminded them, to which they all murmured in agreement.

They looked around the quarry for their friend, but he wasn't in his usual tunnel, and he wasn't chuffing around the quarry either, either. This increased their concern for little Luke; and they doubled their efforts; checking the stonecutter, peeking under Merrick's station, checking all the sidings and every nook and cranny they could think of.

"He wouldn't leave the quarry, would he?" Questioned Peter Sam to Sir Handel, to which his best friend just glared.

"We've already made him leave before." Sir Handel pointed out. "Remember? We took him to the old Mid Sodor, and"-

"And he ended up rescuin' that idiotic generator." Duncan interrupted bluntly from behind them.

"That's not what I was going to say!" Argued Sir Handel. "I was going to say that Luke wasn't keen to go out again!"

"Except to rescue Smudger!"

Skarloey attempted to quieten down things before they got out of hand; but Duncan continued to resist. Peter Sam tried to intervene before things got out of hand; only this led to them all arguing, save for Rusty, who went to fetch Mr. Bailey, and Rheneas, who had heard a quiet chuffing noise from the tunnel leading up to the Upper Terrace- the one place everyone had somehow neglected to check.

Sure enough, he saw a pair of wide, frightened eyes staring out of the tunnel mouth. "Rheneas, why are they fighting?" A timid voice questioned softly.

"Don't worry about them, Luke. They'll work it out- they always do." The older engine assured kindly. "How are you feeling, old friend? Do you feel any better?"

"Worse." Luke sighed, still raw from the fight with Mr. Wilson the previous night, and from his second attempt at trying to end his life- which had again ended in him chickening out at the last minute.

"How so, Luke?"

Luke hesitated; uncertain as to how to admit to Rheneas how close he had been to throwing himself off Blondin Bridge last night; as well as the argument with his fireman that may have ruined their friendship for good.

Having not had much sleep last night, Luke was very tire; and as a result, he suddenly yawned, and through sleepy eyes, he saw Rheneas smile affectionately at the adorable action.

….

Later that day, Rheneas was bringing up some empty trucks to the Upper Terrace for Rusty and Owen. As he passed Merrick and started over Blondin Bridge, he gave a cheerful blast of his whistle, and a "Hello Merrick!"

"Hey, Rheneas," Replied Merrick. But for some reason, the crane didn't sound very cheerful. This was out of character for the normally friendly and sleepy crane; and this made the old engine frown.

"Merrick? Whatever's the matter?" Rheneas asked gently, braking to a halt in the middle of the bridge. Unease fluttered in his smokebox like a flag in the wind as Merrick looked around him in alarm before he turned back to Rheneas.

"Listen, Rheneas, have you spoken to Luke at all today?" Asked Merrick in a cautious hiss.

"Uh, yes, I have," Rheneas briefly recounted his conversation with Luke to the uneasy crane, "No one else has spoken to him today though- he seems to be hiding from us today."

Merrick's face turned ashen; which only puzzled Rheneas even more.

"He… he hasn't told you?" Merrick asked, his voice trembling. It was then that Rheneas finally noticed that the young crane had bags under his eyes- and his smokebox ran cold. Merrick NEVER looked exhausted. Between Luke's strange behaviour and Merrick's alarm, he was beginning to put two and two together.

"You mean… he…?"

"Luke attempted to commit…suicide." The red crane finally managed with a raspy voice, and 'Gallant Old Engine' gasped, unable to believe what he had just heard.

….

"Luke attempted to commit…suicide."

The echoes of Merrick's voice swirled in Rheneas' s funnel long after he returned to the Lower Terrace and collected some trucks filled with stone.

'Oh, how could this happen?' he thought in dismay.

They knew that Luke was in great pain, but he never thought someone as dear and sweet as Luke would be willing to take his life- and in such a violent manner, too. The fact he actually attempted to…no, he couldn't even bring himself to conceive the scenario. As he backed down on some trucks, he heard someone shouting at him.

"Hey, those aren't yours, Rheneas! I'm meant to be taking that stone to the transfer yards! You've got empties today!" An irate Sir Handel chuffed up alongside him. "What's gotten into you today? Mr. Percival said you're on empties until lunch break!"

"I'm sorry, Sir Handel." Rheneas replied quietly….and he suddenly realised his cheeks were unusually moist and his vision had become blurred. Mortified, he tried to blink his tears away before Sir Handel noticed; unfortunately, this reflex only drew attention to himself.

Sir Handel was uncannily observant when he needed to be.

"Gee, Rheneas, I was just reminding you what trucks you were pulling," Said the blue engine, stricken with guilt and alarm. He racked his funnel, wondering how on Earth he had managed to upset Rheneas like that. Usually only Peter Sam would take badly to that tone, and that was on a bad day. But Rheneas was a tough old engine. What had gotten into him?

But before the older engine could say anything in lieu of explanation, he heard a third and familiar voice say;

"What's going on here?"

….

Skarloey misread the entire situation, and he thought that Sir Handel had been picking on Rheneas. He told the younger engine off for bullying, before looking at his brother.

"Are you alright?" Skarloey asked, noting with concern that his younger brother looked unusually close to tears.

Rheneas felt really bad for Sir Handel; who merely skulked off, muttering under his breath about Skarloey being a busybody.

Normally Rheneas didn't stand for anyone calling his brother names; but in this case, he made no attempt to get Sir Handel to rectify his attitude.

For buffer's sake, no I'm not!" Rheneas burst out through sobs threatening to bubble to the surface. "I appreciate you're just looking out for me, Skarloey, but I'm not crying because of what Sir Handel said! He didn't even do anything to me- he was just telling me I took his trucks by mistake! Why must you make things worse?"

He hadn't really meant that, not at all; but he was disturbed and shaken by the revelation Luke attempting suicide and he hadn't wanted to watch Sir Handel get falsely accused of making him cry.

However, Rheneas's remark hurt Skarloey's feelings. He had only intended to help Rheneas; not upset him.

Without another word, Skarloey chuffed away to talk to Sir Handel, leaving a tearful and heartbroken Rheneas in his wake.