The process to have Jewelie swap Edward and Thomas on their jobs was not easy to say the least: she was still upset with Conan, and the Vicarstown stationmaster wasn't really sure if this should be done without the Fat Director's knowledge. But after a few minutes, both parties agreed to let them swap and Thomas went off happily to find the trucks.

As stated before, unlike in the books, trucks are not actually troublesome: they like to joke around and play with the engines, but overall, they mean well and are actually good workmates. That said, they tend to retaliate should an engine be bossy, bump them violently, and treat them with disrespect, which is when they start acting up.

Edward knew this all too well, and warned Thomas to be careful. However, Thomas, in his excitement, forgot to listen as he marshalled the goods train together. That said, he did wait to be coupled on this time, and when the signal dropped, Thomas was ready. The guard blew his whistle.

"Peep peep!" whistled Thomas, and started off, but the trucks weren't ready.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" they screamed. "Wait, Thomas, wait!"

But Thomas wouldn't wait.

"Come along, come along!" he puffed.

"Alright, don't fuss! Alright, don't fuss!" grumbled the trucks, as they were pulled slowly out of the siding and onto the mainline. They tried to be patient, since this was Thomas's first goods train in a while. However, he was so excited that he pulled them along at a faster speed than they were used to, and he tried to go faster and faster.

"Peep peep!" he whistled, as he rushed through Henry's Tunnel.

The lead van, a cattle truck, tried to negotiate.

"Thomas, maybe you should slow down a little," he said.

"We can't slow down! We can't slow down!" insisted Thomas, as he raced through Crovan's Gate.

"I don't mind the speed, but our companions here, they don't seem to be happy."

"Rubbish!" snorted Thomas. "Everything's fine, they'll get over it."

But the van was right, the other trucks grew crosser and crosser as the journey went on, only relieved when Thomas made water stops at the stations. Another truck tried to speak with Thomas during one of the stops.

"Thomas, you really should…"

"No nonsense!" interrupted Thomas. "This train is urgently needed and I can't afford to slow down!"

"A bunch of bakery supplies? We're carrying butter and flour," put in a third truck.

"All the more reason to hurry up before it melts!" snorted Thomas. "Now come on, we're a fast goods!"

He set off once more.

It wasn't until he reached the top of Gordon's Hill that he finally began to slow down.

"Steady now, steady," warned the fireman to Conan, who shut off steam and began applying the brakes.

"We're stopping! We're stopping!" called Thomas.

The trucks decided to play a small prank, but it would run out of control.

"No! No! No! No!" answered the trucks, bumping into each other. "Go on! Go on!"

They intended to propel the train a bit, but before Conan could stop them, they went too far and began pushing Thomas down the hill, rattling and laughing behind him.

Poor Thomas tried hard to stop them from making him go too fast.

"Stop pushing! Stop pushing!" he hissed. Satisfied, the trucks decided the prank was complete, but their own weight forced them forward.

"We can't! We can't!" they wailed.

The E2 was glad when they got to the bottom. Then he saw in front the place where they had to stop.

"Oh dear! I'm meant to stop there and drop some of these trucks off! What shall I do?"

They rattled through the station, and luckily the line was clear as they swerved into the goods yard.

"OOOOH ERRRRR!" groaned Thomas, as his brakes held fast and he skidded along the rails. "I must stop." And he shut his eyes tight.

When he opened them, he saw that he had stopped just in front of the buffers. And there watching him was…the Fat Director!

"What are you doing here, Thomas?" he asked sternly.

"I've brought Edward's trucks," Thomas answered.

"Why did you come so fast?"

"I didn't mean to, I was pushed."

"Don't be mad at him," said the cattle van. "He was pulling us too fast, but this is our fault: we got so upset with him we decided to push him down the hill. None of us considered we would be unable to stop on such a steep incline."

"I see," said the Fat Director, and turned back to Thomas. "Have you pulled trucks before now?"

"No sir, not since Luci came to this Island."

"Then you've got a lot to learn about trucks, little Thomas. They are silly things and must be kept in their place, but also deserve to be respected and treated fairly. After pushing them about here for a few weeks you'll know almost as much about them as Edward. Then you'll be a Really Useful Engine. I'll be speaking to Edward about this. Shunt these trucks away for now, I'll have a word with them later."

Conan gave Thomas a reassuring smile, knowing it wasn't exactly his fault for once: while it was true Thomas had been rough with the trucks, it was them who chose to play that trick. Thomas appreciated this.

When the Fat Director arrived at Vicarstown, he scolded Edward and Jewelie for not informing him of this change.

"Jewelie, I have to say, that is something I didn't expect from you."

"Sir, I can only apologise for this," said Jewelie. "I expected they wouldn't have too much trouble and would be working together again."

"So why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I guess I just forgot," Jewelie replied. "Been rather hectic all night."

"In which way? Someone kept you up all night?"

"Something like that," said Jewelie.

"I do have good news, however. I decided to move Thomas and Edward down to Wellsworth so the former can learn how to handle trucks: now that the Peel Godred has finished being built, all that's left is installation of third rail and overhead wires. I can have Edward allocated to Wellsworth for that. I'll be transferring you there as well."

"What does that mean? Me and Conan will have to move?"

"Yes, it does. Keep in mind this isn't a punishment: it's so you three can be together."

So the arrangements were made: Timmy was made station pilot of Vicarstown while Thomas and Edward both moved to Wellsworth to help out on the Wellsworth Line. The changes were made and Conan and Jewelie entered their new house a few days later.

"New start, Jewels. New place, and maybe we can go to the beach one day."

She blushed, but smiled.

"Oh Connie….KYAAAAAA!"

Conan had begun to tickle her. She began laughing.

"Stop… Stop! No fair! Come on, give me a chance!"

Before she knew it, Conan had tickled her onto the floor.

"Connie…fine. Go ahead. Just not on the floor, please, I…" She was cut off as Conan planted a kiss onto her lips. They stood up and began walking towards their bed, kissing as they did so.

Thomas was shunting coaches in Wellsworth, having been asked to take a passenger train down to Brendam. As he waited, everything suddenly began to feel off: without warning, he started rocking side-to-side.

"What on Earth is going on?" he asked.

"Thomas, control yourself!" chuckled his driver.

"I swear to god, this isn't me!" insisted Thomas as he kept vibrating. Then his fire started to behave erratically: one minute, it fizzled, the next it was burning, brighter than before. "Oh my god, what on Earth is happening?! Help, I'm coming apart!" This went on for what seemed like years before…SPLAT! His fire dropped out underneath him, the burning coal landing in the middle of the sleepers. It took the E2 a while to figure out, but he eventually guessed that it had something to do with a strong sensation of Conan's

"I don't know how this happened," said the fireman, "but there's no time to build another fire: we'll be running late by then. Our only option is to fetch Rolf, he's still in steam."

Thomas felt humiliated as Rolf shunted him away. Edward happened to have seen the whole thing. He chuckled a bit before puffing over to explain what had happened.

"What?!" Thomas blew ash out his whistle as Conan ended up sneezing.

"Watch…where…you…sneeze!" panted Jewelie.

"I think…somebody…was talking…about…me," panted Conan.

It did indeed take a while for Thomas's fire to build back up, the firelighter unaware of what the cause was.

"Trust me, back in the day, my partner was just the same," said Edward. "Nothing can be done, it's just how people are."

"Perverts?"

"I don't really know," admitted Edward.

The next morning, the sun shone in Jewelie's face. She began to feel ill, holding her mouth as she felt something enter her mouth. Darting out of bed, she ran to the toilet and threw up.

"Jewels? Everything ok?" asked Conan, entering the bathroom after her.

"Connie… I think…It's finally happened. I think…I'm pregnant!"

To be continued…

(Author's note: The steamy, forgive the pun, part of the chapter is something we won't apologise for. You should consider yourselves lucky we didn't actually tell you what happened, so be grateful for that. Besides, Pixar uses adult jokes so we can do the same.)