A/N: Hi, guys! I wanted to interrupt your regularly scheduled chapter to congratulate Thomas and Friends on the 75th anniversary of the Railway Series!

On May 12th, 1945, a book by a relatively unknown Reverand was published titled The Three Railway Engines. No one could have predicted what massive success could have followed from those four stories. Since then, the story of the North Western Railway and its engines has expanded to 42 books in the Railway Series (which comes to 168 stories in all), 24 television series, 13 television specials, one film in theatres, three spin-off series, three theme parks, and dozens of replica engines around the world. No matter your opinion on the current series, past series, choices made, or any other aspect of the series, it's incredible to see how far these engines have come from stories told to a young sick child.

Here's to another 75 years and more, Thomas! Keep on steaming!

Chapter 2: Meeting and Shattering

The family stayed holed up in the house for the rest of the day. Shaina, especially, barely came out of her room, wrapped up in her hammock. The world was far too confusing at that point in time. It felt so wrong, but, at the same time, she never felt more at home. She stayed there for hours, wrapped up and hidden away from the world.

The very next day, Shaina woke up early and decided to go out for a walk. She really wasn't sure where she was going, but her feet eventually took her past her house and down towards the shed. As she got closer, she heard conversation and laughter.

"Jim, Maggie, don't start riling Gordon up again today. He was in a foul enough mood yesterday!"

"C'mon, Dan, it's far too fun! And don't you start, Alice. I saw you with James last week."

"Moi? Try anything with my dear engine? Perish the thought!"

There was an unbelieving snort and a howl of laughter.

"I heard that, Jack, and you'd better not say anything. You and Blue One over there have been terrorizing the branch line for the past few days!"

Shaina was now close enough to peek around the corner of the sheds. The engines were there, all six of them. And near each engine were two people, checking them over and getting them ready. Half of the people, who Shaina guessed were the drivers, wore blue suits with dark smudges on the legs and a blue cap. The other half wore the same cap, but with blue coveralls that were started to turn various stages of black from coal dust, which indicated that they were the firemen.

The first to notice the brown mop sticking out from around the corner was one of the men standing near the tank engines, the one with blond hair and sparkles of grey at the temples. He straightened up as Shaina ducked back behind the wall. She panicked a bit. What if she wasn't supposed to be here? Could she get in trouble for trespassing? What if she was arrested?!

But, before her thoughts could lead her down a more troublesome rabbit hole, the man looked around the wall and smiled. "No need to worry, guys. Just an observer," he called back to the others before nodding to her. "Nice to meet you, miss. What's your name?"

"My name's Shaina," she said, taking a half-step back. "And yours?"

"I'm Chris. Chris Wryda. You want to come meet them?"

"Them?"

"The engines." Chris looked at her curiously. "Have you been to the island before?"

"That depends on what you mean," Shaina replied vaguely. "But, I would."

Chris chuckled and motioned her out into the view of the engines, who were pretending that they hadn't been listening closely. Shaina couldn't help but chuckle a bit as the other man with Chris shook his head disbelievingly at the tank engine. The crews quickly came over to see the new addition to the island.

"Hi there," greeted a man with wavy brown hair. "I'm Dan Hanes. I think I saw you yesterday."

"You did?" Shaina asked.

"Of course! Henry's my engine." He showed off the gleaming gold "3" pin attached to his blue work jacket. "C'mon. He's been asking about you."

Shaina quietly came over and looked up at Henry, who smiled down to her. "Hello, Miss! It's nice to see you again."

Shaina nodded up to him and was just about to respond when there was a jealous snort from the two engines to Henry's left, a blue one beside him and a red one on one end of the shed. The blue one, Gordon, spoke up first.

"And you nearly made me late for the Express in the process!"

Henry just rolled his eyes as one of the crew members wearing coveralls, a woman with brown hair, came over and glared up at Gordon.

"Oi, that wasn't very nice. And you weren't late yesterday, so knock it off!"

The red engine, James, snickered as Gordon shrunk back.

"Yes, ma'am."

The woman shook her head and came over. "I'm Maggie Ducal. My husband, Jim, and I crew Gordon." Sure enough, the blonde-haired man she motioned to had a gold "4" pin on his jacket. "He can… be a handful at times."

"Which he? The engine or the husband?" Shaina couldn't help but joke.

Maggie laughed. "Oh, she'll fit right in," she remarked to Dan.

"Sounds like it," said another man, this one with jet-black hair, approached. He wore coveralls as well, but, unlike the others, he wore a pin like the drivers. It was a black "5" pin, which caused Shaina to smile a bit.

"You're with Henry?"

"Indeed I am, Miss. Ray Jackson's the name." He smirked at noticing her glasses. "What're you? A bookworm?"

"I like to think of myself as one."

Dan gave his work partner a gentle smack upside the head. "Enough, you. We don't need any of your pranks today."

"No, we really do need some pranks today," called a fireman who had black hair with bright red streaks. Shaina smiled. She could guess who he worked with.

"No, we don't, Benjamin Canun!" retorted a woman with fiery red hair that seemed to tangle itself down to her shoulders and a "5" pin on her jacket. "So help me, you'll be stuck scrubbing coal dust off James by yourself for weeks if you pull anything today."

"Why wouldn't I? Gotta keep him shiny so we can show him off!" Ben grinned as James gave him an appreciative glance.

The woman threw up her hands in exasperation and stormed back to the engine cab. Dan shook his head.

"That's Alice Mansi, James' driver. She… tends to speak her mind."

Another one of the drivers came over, this one with a gold "6" pin. "If you like books, you might want to stop by Crovan's Gate sometime. Massive library they've got over there." He held out his hand to shake. "Rick Hanes. I'm Percy's driver. Dan's my brother."

"Nice to meet you," Shaina greeted, shaking the offered hand.

"Wanna come see him?"

Shaina chuckled. "Why not?"

Rick lead her to the opposite end of the shed. Here were the two tank engines, shielded from Gordon and James by Henry and another blue tender engine.

"Sam, how's Percy's fire coming?" Rick called.

In response, a woman with black wavy hair poked her head out the window of the green engine's cab. "Building. We should be ready in a few minutes."

"Good. The Boss should be here soon, so we'll be ready."

The tank engines, meanwhile, were watching the newcomer with interest. But it was neither of them who spoke up first. Instead, the tender engine smiled at Shaina.

"Hello, there. I'm Edward. Are you new to the island?"

"I am. Nice to meet you, Edward."

The two men with Edward came over to introduce themselves as Charlie Sand III and Sidney Heaver Jr.

"When did you come?" interrupted the tank engine she recognized as Percy.

"A couple of nights ago."

Chris then came up and brought her over to the very end of the shed. "Shaina, meet Jack Rogers, my fireman. And this…" he motioned up to the engine in front of them, "...is Thomas."

Shaina froze for an instant as she stared up at the engine, who stared back. This engine, Thomas, was the same one she saw in her dream!

The spell was broken in a moment as the sound of a small car came from down the road.

"Guys! Boss at 12 o'clock!" Jack called back to the group as the crews scrambled to their respective engines. Chris escorted her to the other side of the shed.

"Sorry to cut the whole thing short, but we head out right after we get orders anyway. Feel free to say hi to any of us if you see us out and about!" He brought her around to the walking path and jogged back to Thomas. She stayed and watched for a moment as a man in a suit with a yellow waistcoat and top hat came out of the blue car. He greeted the engines and started assigning jobs in a booming voice.

Shaina sighed as she turned to head back, popping in her earbuds and starting one of her favorite songs. She only half heard herself starting to sing along, the violin gently pounding away in her ears.

"Somebody make me feel alive and shatter me!"

The engines and humans alike were silent, listening to the song. They wouldn't even realize what had happened until later that day when Ben found a small symbol painted in James' number. Shaina herself wouldn't even notice the whistle around her neck that wasn't there before until lunchtime when Joel would ask her where she found it.

For now, all they knew was the voice and the violin.

A/N: Ahh! You guys are so awesome! Thanks to Thorn and Sash for leaving reviews! Reviews are always appreciated, so feel free to leave them!

Shaina's finally officially met the engines and we meet their crews as well (which is why this chapter ended up so long). Don't worry, this isn't the last we'll see of Chris, Dan, and the other crews. They'll pop up every now and again.

For those wondering about what symbol appears, the same symbol is the cover image for this story.

Also, I threw in a fun little Easter egg in this chapter. If you can find it, I'll give you a shout out at the start of Chapter 3! Hint: it may not be in the right order!

Speaking of Chapter 3, what will be in it? Well, more mystery, to be sure. We'll meet more people as well, some familiar and some not...