A/N: Before the chapter I just want to reply to some questions asked in reviews. Several people have asked if I will be delving into Gordon's back story and looking further into the family tree. The answer to that is: Yes. Once I have written a few fun, casual stories I will start to experiment with an actual story to follow, but I do have a few ideas already for what I want to do.

For this chapter I decided to write a Thomas and James story since it's one of my favourite dynamics of the entire franchise. This one will also introduce a railway series exclusive character, so people who have only seen the TV show will not know who they are. Just a heads up. Anyway, enjoy.

Home Alone

"Now boys, I want you all to behave yourselves while Henry and I are out buying the camping gear," Gordon told his youngest 3. Thomas and James were currently playing a videogame and Percy was finishing his homework.

"Sure, dad," replied James as he rapidly pressed the buttons. Gordon watched them. He didn't feel comfortable leaving them in the care of James. He had asked Edward, but he was busy working. Toby had to take care of Henrietta. His brother lived all the way in England. He had considered asking BoCo but he worked the same shifts as Edward.

"Now remember, if you need to call us, don't hesitate to do so, you have my number just in case right?"

"Don't worry dad, we'll be fine," said James before jumping up and yelling. "TAKE THAT!"

"Oh man, that's not fair," sighed Thomas.

Gordon watched the three, trying to remember if he was forgetting anything. "I should be back in an hour or so, if you feel hungry there's food in the fridge, but don't eat too much. Feel free to go to bed early. Also that console had better be switched off by the time I get back. And don't forget-"

"Relax dad, it's just an hour, what's the worst that could happen?" laughed James.

Gordon had visions of the house in flames with walls crumbling and his three sons trapped on the roof. "I'll treat that as a rhetorical question."

"Come on dad, let's go," sighed Henry as he pulled his dad to the door.

"R-right," muttered Gordon. "We'll be back soon!" Then he shut the door as he and Henry left.

Thomas and James eventually got tired of games so James went upstairs to his room, presumably to make an Instagram post updating everyone on the latest about his most recent imperfection (probably the tiniest sign of acne on his cheek or something).

"So Percy, what do you want to do?" Thomas asked his brother, who was trying to work out a maths calculation.

"I want to do my homework."

"Come on Percy, you have plenty of time to do it!" exclaimed Thomas. "Why don't we go in the garden?"

"No."

"Want a snack?"

"No."

"We have board games. Let's play Monopoly!"

"No Thomas, let me do my homework!"

Thomas sighed. "But I'm already bored!"

"Why don't you go in the garden on your own?"

"It's not as fun on my own."

"When I'm finished I'll join you."

Thomas sighed and folded his arms. "You're not usually such a killjoy. I thought the older siblings were meant to be more responsible. You probably have the most common sense of any of us."

"Very true."

Thomas sighed. He then went upstairs and knocked on James' door. "James?"

"What do you want?" he heard James' voice call from the other side of the door.

Thomas opened the door. James was sitting on his bed. "Wanna do something together? We can play a board game or go outside or-"

"I'd rather not," replied James, rolling his eyes. "I just want a nice, quiet evening where nothing can go wrong. If I go outside I might stain my new jacket!"

"Then we can do something else. How about-"

"No. I don't want to do anything, Thomas."

"But I-" Thomas stepped forward, lightly kicking a ball on the floor in the process, making it roll towards James' bed side table, making it wobble. Both Thomas and James watched as a drink seemed to fall off the table in slow motion, the contents pouring out. James cried out in horror as the drink went all over his brand new jacket. He stood up quickly.

"NOOOOOO!" he screamed looking at his jacket before giving Thomas the evil eye. "You're dead meat, Thomas!"

Thomas knew he had about 5 seconds before James would bolt after him, so he decided to get a head start and took off running. James wasn't far behind and he followed. Thomas didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of James' punches. James might not be extremely muscular like Henry or his father, but he could still pack quite a punch if he was angry enough. As he made his way downstairs he found himself inside the living room. He pulled Percy off the sofa, to his confusion, then tipped the sofa over before hiding behind it. Percy joined him.

"What did you do?" asked Percy, hearing James' heavy footsteps coming downstairs.

"I may have spilled something all over James' new jacket," laughed Thomas innocently, rubbing the back of his head.

"Are you crazy?" exclaimed Percy with worry. "He'll kill us all!"

"Come here you brat!" yelled James' voice and they heard him charging across the living room towards them. Thomas acted quickly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a man-made stink bomb, courtesy of Donald and Douglas. James immediately stopped in his tracks. "Is that a-?"

"A Donald and Douglas stink bomb, fashioned by the finest of Scotland," Thomas laughed impressively. "Once I let this off, not a single soul in this room will survive."

"You're definitely crazy!" spoke up Percy. "Donald and Douglas are the best at making these! I thought they made people pay for them!"

"Duck gave me one," replied Thomas. "You can always rely on Duck."

James backed away in fright. "You can't set that off! It will take us all out!"

"I'm willing to take that chance," replied Thomas, and James analysed his face to check if he was bluffing. He couldn't tell. Then he had an idea.

"Don't worry Thomas, you may have won the battle, but you won't win the war," he chuckled before racing back upstairs.

"What was that all about?" asked Percy.

"I'm not sure," replied Thomas, before bolting into the kitchen.

"Thomas what are you doing?"

"I'm getting more ammo!" replied Thomas before coming back with handful of foods that could cause some damage. "Something tells me the stink bomb might not be enough."

"You think he has a counter for that thing?"

"Possibly."

Then James returned, armed with a gas mask that covered his face, allowing him goggles to see through. "Alright, I'm armed and ready!" he exclaimed. He had also armed himself with a belt full of some gadgets.

"Where'd you get all that stuff from?" asked Thomas in shock.

"Henry's plot convenience draw," replied James, trying to look impressive.

"I forgot about that," muttered Thomas. "Alright James, eat EGG!"

He then threw an egg at James, who rolled to avoid it before ducking behind the other sofa. The egg hit the wall and cracked, leaving the egg on the wall while the shell shattered to the floor. "Alright, you want a battle, I'll give you a battle!"

Then he grabbed a slingshot from his belt. "I never thought I'd say this, but thank you Henry!"

Gordon and Henry were both scouting the aisles looking for a 5 man tent. "We might need help here, son," said Gordon, marvelling at the massive tent selection. Henry could barely see over the mountain of sleeping bags, roll mats, camp chairs and other gear he was holding in his hands. They did have a trolley but had to abandon it halfway through because one of the wheels jammed. What made it worse was Gordon couldn't get his coin back out, and they didn't have enough change for another.

"Excuse me, can I help you?" asked a familiar voice.

"Bear?" asked Henry from behind the piles of gear.

"Henry is that you?" asked the surprised employee, not recognising Henry due to his face being covered. He was a shorter boy with a darker green shade of hair.

"What are you doing here?" asked Henry, trying to move some gear aside to see his friend.

"I work here," said Bear, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "I don't tell anyone because I'm worried people will tell me I'm outdoing myself."

"So you're this Bear I've heard about," smiled Gordon, who hardly ever met any of Henry's friends. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Henry's father." He offered a handshake.

"Oh, you're Gordon!" replied Bear as he nervously accepted the handshake. "Henry doesn't mention you much."

"Oh doesn't he?" asked Gordon raising an eyebrow at Henry.

"Well, we're kind of busy right now, Bear, I'll talk to you later," said Henry quickly as he tried to push his friend away (quite difficult considering how much he was carrying).

"Nonsense Henry, I'm sure we can spare a few more minutes talking to your friend," said Gordon as he pushed Henry aside, making sure it wasn't hard enough to make him drop all the equipment. He looked at Bear. "Henry's always been like this. Even when he was younger he wouldn't bring his friends round. Come to think of it, he didn't have many friends growing up. He would always embarrass himself. One time, he went on a school trip to the zoo, and Henry got scared of an elephant."

"Oh no," muttered Henry. "Dad, can we not talk about that?"

Gordon ignored him. "Then there's another time he caught some boys throwing stones at people, so he tried to fight them. But then he did a big sneeze and they were all so disgusted that they left him alone."

"DAD!"

"And then there's the incident where he got stuck in a snowdrift and his friends Donald and Douglas had to help him out."

"Ugh!" sighed Henry. "Despicable."

Back at the Awdry household, James narrowly avoided some tomatoes being thrown at him, before firing pellets with his slingshot. Thomas did a barrel roll to avoid them before throwing a carrot. James held up a bin lid which he used as a shield, the carrot bouncing off it.

"I could be the next Captain America!" he laughed before a tomato hit him square in the chest, further staining his jacket.

"You deserved that!" yelled Thomas with a laugh, only to be hit in the face by a shoe. "Ow!"

"There's more where that came from!" exclaimed James before throwing his other shoe.

"What are we going to do?" asked Percy, watching Thomas almost get hit by the shoe.

"We fight fire with fire!" declared Thomas. "Percy pass me your shoes!"

Percy was reluctant but gave Thomas his shoes to use as ammo. The youngest boy sighed. "I wish dad was here. All I wanted was a nice quiet evening to do my homework."

He saw Thomas had dropped his phone. Percy didn't have his own yet, so he went and grabbed it before opening it. Percy had seen Thomas open his phone enough times to know the password, so he had no difficulty. When it opened he found youtube still running with the worst kinds of videos imaginable.

"Ugh, minecraft tutorials," muttered Percy as he closed youtube and opened Thomas' contacts. He scrolled through until he came to 'Dad' and clicked on it, waiting for it to ring.

"-and then there was another time where Henry..."

Henry had put the stuff on the floor and used it as a seat as he watched his dad continue to ramble about embarrassing events. He knew that his father wouldn't stop no matter what he did. He knew he could trust Bear though, he wasn't the type of guy to spread the word. Then Gordon's phone started ringing.

"Excuse me a moment," said Gordon before stepping aside to answer it. "Hello? Percy I can't hear you very well."

Henry approached his friend. "I'm sorry about my dad. It seems he does what he can to embarrass me."

"I understand that," chuckled Bear. "I never knew my dad, but I've seen enough to know what it's like."

Henry decided to change the conversation. "So what's it like?"

"What?"

"Working? Do you enjoy it?"

"Sort of. It doesn't pay too well, but I'm getting a pay rise next week," shrugged Bear. "I'm doing it so me and my brother can continue to afford our rent."

"Old Spamcam should be pulling his hand out of his pocket and paying himself," muttered Henry, he never liked Bear's older brother. "Why doesn't he get a job? It's not like he goes to school or anything."

"Spamcam is good at getting jobs actually," corrected Bear, rather defensive of his brother. "It's just keeping a job that he can't do."

"I can imagine."

"You ever think of getting a job?" asked Bear curiously.

"I didn't start thinking about it until recently," explained Henry. "Apparently my dad's friend Edward knows a guy called Jem Cole who's employing. He repairs stuff, but I'm not sure if it's the right job for me."

Meanwhile with Gordon...

"What are you talking about Percy? Slow down," urged Gordon. "What? What about Thomas and James?" A pause. "They're what?" Another pause. "You're not hurt are you?" Another pause. "Okay, I'm on my way Percy. Just make sure nothing gets broken." Another pause. "What do you mean too late?"

Gordon angrily finished the call. "Henry, you stay here and pay for this, I'll be back to pick you up in half an hour."

"What?" groaned Henry as his father stormed off.

James launched a book across the room, which Thomas ducked to avoid. He threw an orange but it failed to hit James.

"We're not in close enough range!" muttered Thomas before leaping out from behind the sofa. "Come on out and face me like a man!"

James put down his gear and removed the belt before jumping up from behind his own sofa. The two stared each other down, their eyes narrowing as they stood staring for about 20 seconds. Wild west music started playing in the background as Percy watched, starting to get invested in the battle. Then after another 20 seconds they both charged.

"Have at thee you blue-haired brat!" bellowed James, bringing his fist back.

"I'll make you eat those words you selfish red-haired jerk!" snapped Thomas, bringing back his own fist.

They then swung their fists forward but before the punches could connect, the door swung open with so much force that it almost fell off its hinges, and a large figure stood blocking the doorway. Thomas and James immediately stopped their battle and began to look around, seeing the chaotic mess of overturned sofas, egg-covered walls and toilet paper dangling from the ceiling. They gulped and both hugged each other as the mad tyrant that was their father seemed to glow with an evil aura.

"I leave you alone for 40 minutes." They began to cower in fear. "40 MINUTES! YOU TRASHED THE HOUSE IN 40 MINUTES!"

Gordon was practically breathing fire at this point. The two middle children looked at each other and knew they were in for a world of trouble.

Thomas and James were both hard at work scrubbing the walls when Henry and Gordon returned. "What happened here?" asked Henry in shock.

"James started it," muttered Thomas, flicking water at his brother.

"You're the one that got my jacket dirty, you-!" The mere presence of their father behind them was enough to make them both be quiet and get back to work.

"You missed a spot," laughed Percy, pointing to an egg just out of reach. Thomas stood on the tips of his toes as he tried to reach the egg high up. However, this action caused the stink bomb to suddenly fall from his pocket. Thomas, Henry, Gordon, James and Percy all watched in horror as the stink bomb got closer and closer to the floor.

"Oh crap..." muttered Thomas.

A/N: This was my favourite chapter to write so far. I wanted to add Donald and Douglas in some way but I couldn't find a way to, but I'm happy with this anyway. Hope you enjoyed. Next chapter will be a big one.