Edward had assisted the Flying Scotsman that following night, gently talking him awake when a nightmare had taken hold of him and deflecting the other engine's questions or comments.

Despite the Scotsman's fears, his nightmares had not gotten worse, only eased in the presence of the other engines. He did suspect that Gordon had warned them about his night terrors as no one questioned his strange behaviour during the night.

It was now morning however and the other engines were slowly waking up to find him already wide awake and waiting for them.

"Did you sleep well Flying Scotsman?" The large green engine named Henry asked him.

"I slept alright," the Scotsman smiled at him. The Scotsman's crew buzzed around him eagerly, his fire already lit and steam hissing from him softly. Henry was surprised as the sun wasn't even up yet.

"Your fire's already lit," he commented and the Scotsman smiled.

"My driver wants to take me out for a little while before I pull Gordon's express," he explained. "My crew missed me and we want to avoid any enthusiasts. I don't mind them usually but they can get tiring to deal with."

"I see," Henry said.

The Flying Scotsman suddenly gave a sly grin and a glance at Henry before blasting his whistle at full volume as he steamed out of the sheds.

"Hey!"

"What is your problem!"

"Why would you do that!"

A chorus of angry shouts and insults were hurled at the Flying Scotsman as he chuffed away with a brazen laugh.

"I see someone's a lot happier today," Edward said with a wide smile.

Thomas only grumbled annoyed.

"I guess it's payback for every time you've woken Gordon up the same way," Edward told him.

Thomas only glared at the old blue engine and pouted.


James was waiting impatiently in front of the express when The Flying Scotsman came up beside him ready to double head. Despite being angry at being woken up so rudely by the engine in the morning, James was excited to be pulling a train with the world's most famous engine.

Surely it would get him recognised elsewhere in the world as a truly splendid and famous engine. The Scotsman was sizing him up.

"A bit small aren't you?" The Scotsman observed and James pouted.

"I've pulled the express by myself many times, I'm not small at all," James assured the famous engine.

"Still, you don't look like you can handle anything over 80mph," The Scotsman said with a teasing smile and James glared at him incredibly insulted.

"I assure you that I can and I'm not afraid of a big express engine like you," he snapped angrily.

"My you must be a brave boy then," the Scotsman said with a smirk before moving off to be coupled to the front of James. "Let's test how brave you are then James."

James glared at the back of the Flying Scotsman's tender as he waited for the train to start. He could almost feel the Scotsman's smug grin he waited.

But James couldn't shake the bad feeling in his boiler that something bad was afoot. He remembered Tornado's warning that The Flying Scotsman often liked to trick those he was double heading with.

The guards whistle blew and the Flying Scotsman started, pulling James and the coaches with a mighty tug catching James off guard. He wasn't used to such a strong engine and found his wheels slip as he struggled to keep up.

"Was that Wheelslip James?" The Scotsman questioned and James turned as red as his paint.

"No it wasn't!" James snapped and pushed his pistons into work, pushing the Scotsman along with an angry hiss of steam.

The Scotsman grinned, the smaller tender engine had some bite to him after all.

He said nothing, only matching the red engine's pace. The little engine was smaller, had a maximum speed of 80mph and Scotsman suspected that they had paired him with the engine so he would not overdo his repairs by having to match someone a lot smaller than himself.

"You can't go over 70mph, your new parts still need to wear in," his driver reminded him. "Watch yourself Scotsman."

The Flying Scotsman rolled his eyes. He'd had no issues the previous evening or morning and his pain was fading. He was feeling the best he had in days. Besides, he was unlikely to go over 70mph with the little engine behind him.

James was keeping up with him which was impressive. To the red engine's credit, he was a lot stronger than he looked at first glance.

His braking however left something to be desired.

He was too harsh on his brakes and found himself yanking hard on the coupling connecting him to Flying Scotsman and pulled the engine back slightly.

"Stop breaking so hard," the Scotsman advised. "It's not good for your breaks little James. And the passengers won't like it."

"I'm not taking advice from an engine who doesn't know when to stop after his valve gear explodes," James snapped angrily. "Or who's been almost scraped several times."

"James!" His driver scolded him angrily. "Watch yourself!"

The Flying Scotsman went red in the face and felt deeply hurt. It took a lot to genuinely insult him but the mention of being scrapped truly made the green engine extremely angry.

James had hit a nerve and he decided to enact his plan to scare the engine. He grit his teeth and glared back at the engine behind him.

"It's called not letting your passengers down James," he said with a cold and deadly calm. "If you pulled coaches more often you would understand that."

James said nothing except gave a pouty face and a grunt of disapproval as the two set off again.

At first James didn't notice anything until his wheels started to hurt him. He glanced at the countryside whizzing by faster than he'd ever seen before as his driver suddenly noticed.

"We're going over your maximum speed James!" He cried out. "you need to get the Flying Scotsman to slow down!"

James held his tongue. He knew he had pissed off the Scotsman by mentioning being scrapped and so he knew that the Scotsman was being petty.

"James!" His driver yelled.

In The Flying Scotsman's cab, his driver was furious as the Scotsman was now approaching 90mph.

"You need to slow down!" He shouted at the engine. "You're going too fast for your repairs!"

There was no response, the Scotsman completely ignored him. He was determined to teach James to never mention scrapping to him or any other engine again.

James' wheels began to scream in pain at the speed he was going. It felt like his entire undercarriage was on fire and going to crack.

"Alright! Alright!" He screamed out. "Stop, stop I'm sorry I insulted you! Just slow down please!" He begged and the Scotsman gave a sly smirk and slowed down.

James' face was red and flush and his wheels shook from the intense pain. He'd always laughed at Thomas when he'd been dragged behind the express with Gordon but now he knew just how awful the Tank Engine must have felt.

"What did I tell you about going over 70mph?" The Flying Scotsman's driver snapped angrily at him as they slowed down to stop at the next station. "You need to stop pushing yourself like this!"

The Scotsman slowed to a safer speed and gave a sigh.

"I'm fine," he assured his driver despite the fact his little trick has caused a sharp pain in his boiler to resurface and parts of his vision begin to blur. "James should know better than to tease someone over their crashes. And if he ever mentions scrapping to me ever again, I'll go even faster, that is a promise."

James said nothing in response, only glaring at the back of the Flying Scotsman's tender as his wheels stung him. He decided to keep quiet, so as to not incite the bigger engines' wrath.

For the next twenty minutes, the two engines travelled in an uncomfortable silence with only the drivers talking to them.

That was until James suddenly felt the full weight of pushing the Flying Scotsman. He strained, trying to push the bigger engine while pulling the heavy coaches.

"Alright, I get your tricks Scotsman," he snapped angrily. "You can stop now."

The Scotsman however didn't reply and didn't resume pulling.

"Scotsman?" There was no response from the bigger engine.

James felt a sudden sinking feeling that this wasn't one of the Flying Scotsman's tricks.

Said engine was currently struggling with the increasing pain in his boiler, an intense heat in his smokebox almost like a fever. It felt like someone was constantly cutting into his smokebox, pain exploding in every inch of his being.

He could hear his crew calling out to him but couldn't focus as his vision became a sickening blur of colour and made his wheels feel unsteady.

He was vaguely aware of James trying to stop the train and himself while his own crew applied his brakes. His vision began to fade and he began to completely go blind.

Panic suddenly began to consume him as he suddenly slammed on his breaks causing James and the coaches to bump into him hard.

"Flying Scotsman?" The Red Engine asked, now concerned. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

The Flying Scotsman winched at James' voice. Everything was too loud. The world was swaying around him and still the pain increased.

"Scotsman? Talk to me," his driver, Vincent, had climbed onto his running board and was gently speaking to him. "Tell me what's wrong old boy."

"I can't see, my eyes… somethings wrong with my eyes!" The Scotsman cried out in a panic. "Everything hurts!"

The Scotsman began whimpering in pain.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone over 70, I'm so sorry, please," he begged desperately. "I'm sorry."

Vincent felt his heart drop. The Flying Scotsman usually held his composure, even when things were dire. It hurt him to see the engine so completely vulnerable for once.

The only other time he'd seen the Flying Scotsman so distraught was saying farewell to his friend Alan Pegler.

Since then, he and the other members of his crew noticed the Scotsman become more reckless, more insolent, more erratic.

Maybe, maybe the engine never fully recovered. Maybe he was still mourning.

Vincent gently brushed his hand over the Flying Scotsman's frame and the Scotsman seemed to calm, if only slightly.

"We're gonna help you," he assured Scotsman. "For now James is going to uncouple you and put you into a siding before taking the Express the rest of the way alright?"

"Okay," the Flying Scotsman gave a small whimper almost like a child.

James silently pushed the bigger green engine into a siding, guilty that his comments played a part in what had just happened.


Gordon returned from the run with Tornado furious after learning what had happened with James and his brother. He vowed to find the little red engine and give him a piece of his mind.

He had explicitly told his friends to never mention scraping or anything related to such things to his brother as it was one of his deepest fears that made him act out.

The Flying Scotsman was a trickster and would often tease others but he rarely if ever ment true harm. The only few times the Scotsman had been intentionally nasty was when Mallard had tried to turn Blue Peter, Duchess of Sutherland and City of Truro against him resulting in Mallard being preserved and no one in their right minds tried to mess with him again.

The second had been when Spencer had tried to have Tornado scraped by tricking her into almost stealing the Duchess' coaches to which the Flying Scotsman had not only beaten the wedge shaped bully in a race but had tricked him into running off the tracks and into a deep lagoon. It had taken two days to drag the Silver Engine out of the deep nasty sludge and even longer to restore him.

Gordon had noticed that Spencer's bullying of himself had eased after that incident so to say the event taught Spencer a lesson was an understatement.

The Flying Scotsman was respected on the mainland. His elusive vengeful side almost never showed, but when it did, engines learnt hard and painful lessons.

"You need to apologise to my brother," he told James as he arrived at Wellsworth finding James on the other track "My brother has a reputation for teaching engines very hard and painful lessons if one angers him enough. It's rare, but he'll do it."

"I know and I will," James said with a guilty look. "I've already felt a small part of it, I'd rather not experience anymore."

"He dragged you didn't he?" Gordon said with a curious look.

"My wheels still hurt," James mumbled. "But in doing so, he hurt himself. The guilt hurts more knowing my teasing really got to him and lead to him being hurt."

"I warned you, about not mentioning scraping to my brother did I not?" Gordon huffed at James. "Even if you were teasing he will not take it well."

James gave a sad sigh and looked at the ground.

"I know Gordon, I know," James said miserably. "I don't think I've been sorry for anything more than this. I'm just glad you're not as vindictive as your brother I guess."

Gordon gave a tiny smirk.

"Well, my brother has to deal with snooty mainland engines all the time, I only have to deal with you."

"Oh shut up," James grumbled.


The Flying Scotsman was feeling very sorry for himself.

After being taken to the Steamworks by Douglas and Donald, Victor had found no damage but was furious that the Scotsman had pushed himself to 90 resulting in a state of shock from the pain, causing him to go temporarily blind.

Equally furious the Museum Director had ranted angrily at the Scotsman before sending him back to Tidmouth sheds to rest for the next couple of days until he regained his sight back and learnt a lesson or two. Some of his words had not only upset himself but his crew as well.

They weren't exactly happy with what the Director had told them.

His driver Vincent had stayed with him after Donald and Douglas parked him back in Tidmouth sheds, talking to him, comforting him even though the Flying Scotsman didn't say anything.

He was glad that Vincent stayed though, he didn't like the thought of staying alone in the sheds at daytime.

Vincent sat on the running board reading his novel when the Flying Scotsman suddenly spoke up.

"I can see a blurry red thing coming towards me," the Scotsman said. "Is it James?"

Vincent looked around the Scotsman's bulk to find James trundling sheepishly towards them.

"It's James," Vincent confirmed, surprised.

"I wanted to come and apologise to you, Flying Scotsman," James spoke as he stopped just in front of the great green engine. "I shouldn't have said those things I said, even in teasing. I never wanted you to end up hurt or in trouble, I'm so sorry."

The Flying Scotsman only gave a sad smile.

"It's alright James," the Scotsman said softly. "I should apologise too, for teasing you and overreacting. In the end, my little trick caused more pain to me than to you so I guess I'm paying for it."

"Can you see again?" James asked concerned.

"No, I can only see fuzzy blobs of colour, Victor says my vision will return over the next 48 hours," the Scotsman explained.

There was a pause.

"Thank-you James," the Scotsman said a kind smile. "I heard the Express was still on time again despite my little mishap. Your wheels must hurt you though."

"They feel like they're going to fall off," James whimpered and the Scotsman gave a snide grin. "Now I know how Thomas felt when Gordon dragged him behind the Express."

"Oh Gordon did that did he?" The Flying Scotsman asked with a laugh. "What did Thomas do to annoy him so much?"

"He kept waking him up when he was trying to nap after long jobs," James smirked and the Scotsman laughed.

"Of course he did." The Scotsman laughed. "You impressed me today James, maybe they should call you the Flying James."

James blushed but immediately rejected the name.

"I don't think I could handle that at all," he admitted meekly and the Scotsman only laughed at him.