Sandy sat at Knapford's platform 1, blushing and gazing to the ground, repeating the previous events over and over in her mind. A few moments later, she caught a quick glimpse of something red appearing beside her before staring straight down to the ground again, not able to look anywhere else, that strange yet wonderful feeling from before still lingering on her lips.
James in turn threw an angry glare at her once more, though as he noticed she didn't even bother looking at him he just rolled his eyes and sighed, thinking, 'Fine then, I don't need to talk to her anyways. Best she stays out of my way and we're all happy then.'
A few minutes later, the Fat Controller stepped out of his office. He wanted to assign jobs to each of the two engines, but was a bit irritated by the fact that Sandy was completely absent minded, not listening to what he was saying, and James was muttering things to himself so he abruptly stopped talking and watched their reactions.
Sandy snapped back to reality first, slowly speaking up, "I'm sorry, Sir, I was in thought..."
"I hope this won't affect your work today! You are going to collect some empty trucks at Brendam and take them to the quarry as your first job. Henry will help you with this as you haven't been to the quarry yet. He should be here any moment as I already informed his crew a while ago. At lunchtime, you are to meet Emily here at Knapford. She will be double heading the express with you to show you all the significant points on the mainline you have to remember when you will pull coaches on your own. Gordon still isn't feeling well and therefore I asked Emily to help out," the Fat Controller said.
"Thank you, Sir. I will try my best," Sandy answered and smiled brightly, the incident from before nearly forgotten.
"Oh and before I forget, you will be double heading the evening special with James today. He will meet you here around teatime. Percy will shunt the coaches for you," the Fat Controller added.
James rolled his eyes once more, "But, Sir… there nearly was an, well, accident before and she was the cause of it." He glared over to Sandy.
"No 'buts' James, work is work and you have to do as I tell you. I got a railway to run and you have to follow my orders," the Fat Controller answered.
"Fine then, but don't blame me when…" James couldn't finish as he was interrupted.
"Nobody is blaming you of anything and nothing happened, so would you please stop nagging and move on with your work for now?" slowly, Sir Topham Hatt was losing his patience.
"Alright… ok then," was all James had to say to that.
As soon as Henry arrived, he and Sandy set off to Brendam docks. Sandy was pulling ahead as she wanted to go a bit faster to be done with her jobs early to come back and see the sunset again.
"Please, slow down a bit. We don't have an express to pull. We'll get to Brendam soon enough," Henry said from behind her, quite irritated and a bit surprised that she seemingly already knew her way to Wellsworth, where they would swerve off onto the branchline to the docks, better than most other new engines that have come and gone before.
"Sorry, I just wanted to get my work done as soon as possible. I- I wanted to go back to Brendam in the evening to see that wonderful sunset again," Sandy answered, slowing down again to match Henry's speed.
When the two arrived at the docks, a long line of empty trucks was already awaiting them. They were giggling and making fun of Sandy.
"Look at her, sure she's from a midget railway," one of the trucks said and the others busted out into a choir of laughter.
As Sandy heard that, she moved closer to the trucks, narrowing her eyes at them and gritting her teeth.
"What did you just say?!" she asked, an angry look on her face.
"Nah, I got a question for you all here: What does this thing and a scrap iron have in common? They're both empty in their smokeboxes!" this was followed by a roar of laughter from the trucks and it only angered her more.
"Oh I got a better one! Why does she go to the washdown and drink soap water? She wanted to be spotless inside out!" another chimed in.
Sandy finally lost patience and blew steam and ashes at her offenders, making them cough and gasp for fresh air.
"Ooh... watch out, the black dragon will get you!" another truck said, mocking her as he had regained his breathing.
This clearly was enough for Sandy. She shuddered from anger, making her driver stumble inside her cab, accidentally grabbing her regulator in hopes to regain his balance which made her lurch forward and bump into the trucks, hissing, "I'm not black!"
They started to squeak and cry out in shock and then they fell silent because of fear to enrage her more, at least for the time being. Henry was impressed and also aware that this probably caused a more severe plan of the trucks to trick them later on. He would've never thought that the trucks gave up on mocking an engine that fast and the silence that fell over them was deceiving. He prepared himself to be coupled to the line of trucks when workmen suddenly started to buzz around the turntable.
Sandy was waiting patiently until one of the workmen came up to her and said, "We sadly can't get the turntable working; some important piece has broken off. I'm sorry but you'll have to pull the trucks backwards."
Sandy was slightly upset, but backed up to switch tracks, facing Henry. Just at that moment, they heard someone shouting and laughing. Apparently, they got the turntable to work again, screwing the broken piece back on to be able to turn her around at least by manpower, so Sandy backed onto the turntable and they turned her around. She then reversed onto the train and got coupled to Henry and the two set off, whistling as they departed. But trucks weren't trucks if they hadn't planned some sort of revenge on Sandy for biffing them around. As they reached the top of a steep hill, the trucks began pushing the two engines and they went faster and faster. Henry's and Sandy's crews tried in vain to apply their brakes; the long train, although empty, was just too heavy to be stopped downhill at this gradient and they would only end up with flats on their wheels if they kept the brakes locked in place.
Suddenly, Sandy had an idea, "We have to try and apply our brakes in turns, that way we could build up enough power to stop those trucks pushing us down the line!"
Henry thought that her idea could work so their crews worked together via the obligatory radio installed on every engine to achieve what Sandy had suggested. Eventually the train started to slow down and came back to normal pace until they reached a station where Henry had to take on water.
"Wow, it's time that someone teaches those trucks some respect," Sandy said as they were resting at the water tower.
"Trucks will stay trucks, sad but true," Henry answered. 'She still has a lot to learn about trucks, doesn't seem she's handled a lot of them yet,' he thought.
"Yes, but I still hope for the better and..." Sandy was interrupted mid-sentence as James passed by, grumbling and shouting at the trucks he was pulling.
His face was red and Sandy assumed the trucks were causing him trouble as well. And also by seeing James, she was reminded of their incident in the morning, causing her to blush slightly and biting her lower lip.
"I, er... think we should get going again. They will be waiting for the trucks at the quarry by now," Sandy stuttered and started to set off again.
Henry raised an eyebrow at her, but didn't ask any further questions even though he wanted to know what had happened, 'I wonder why she's behaving that strange way every time she sees James. Guess I'll ask her later on when we're done with our job as he has already been acting differently since yesterday and it seems to throw her off somehow.'
Silently, they continued on their way until they finally reached the quarry. After the trucks had been filled with their load, Sandy backed up to the train and Henry got coupled to the front of her. She was happy about that since then Henry wouldn't need to stare at her tender all the time and he knew his way around a lot better too. After a quick and smooth journey, the two finally reached their destination at Tidmouth harbour and Sandy got uncoupled from Henry and the train.
Now he saw his chance to ask her what had happened, "May I ask you something before you're off for your next job?"
"What would you like to know, Henry?" she replied, a bit unsure of what was to come. 'Oh damn, he probably noticed my shaky voice when James passed by beforehand…'
"Well, when we stopped for me to take on water, James passed by with some trucks. I noticed you felt a bit uneasy when you spotted him so I wanted to ask for the reason of your reaction," he came straight to the point.
"Urm, actually… it's nothing. At least nothing important," Sandy tried to avoid the topic.
"There must be something when you…"
"No! Don't be so curious, that's not a good thing," Sandy interrupted him, then went on, slightly regretting her harshness, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to come across as rude. I just don't know what has gotten into me. All this is still new as I haven't been out and about for a very long time back home and now everything is hitting me all at once."
She then whistled good-bye to the green engine and set off for Knapford to meet Emily. All the while she went along towards the main station, she had a strange feeling in the pit of her boiler but couldn't quite sort out what it meant. She shrugged it off when she arrived and focused on what Emily was telling her about the express and mainline. Sandy took mental notes of all the significant points and spots she thought important to remember later on and enjoyed Emily's company. After a couple hours, being done with their express duty, Sandy and Emily returned to Tidmouth sheds where the Fat Controller was already waiting for them.
"It came to my ears that you worked fast and right on time, Sandy. You seem to settle in quite nicely and so I decided to send you to the wash down as a reward to get cleaned before pulling the evening special with James," the Fat Controller said with a content smile on his lips.
"Thank you, Sir! I really appreciate that," Sandy answered, beaming with delight and getting ready to set off to find the wash down after she had asked Emily how to get there.
Finally, evening was settling in on Sodor and Sandy was contently sitting at platform 1 at Knapford, waiting for James to arrive; her thoughts were constantly trailing off to that incident with James earlier though, 'Oh my, why does this affect me so much? He hasn't been very nice, yet he seems to hide something behind all his anger and I'm determined to find that out soon.'
Suddenly she heard a whistle and then she saw James puffing proudly into the station, his paintwork gleaming in the evening sun. Sandy assumed that he had been at the wash down too to look his best for the passengers. And there it was again, that strange yet good feeling she had had the whole day when thinking of him. Her whole frame was shivering and if she would have been human, she'd have had goose bumps on her skin. Sandy couldn't explain where this came from, nor did she want to explain it. As James spotted her, he grumbled and rolled his eyes at her, though stopping right beside her.
"What are you doing here, that's my place!" he snarled at her.
"I was here first! Besides, how should I get to know the line when your joke of a tender is blocking my view?!" Sandy snapped back at him, clearly not in the mood to discuss this further.
"What did you just say?" James asked in a dangerously low voice. "I warn you, I can…"
Just then, the Fat Controller arrived. "Now that's enough James. If your behaviour doesn't change for the better, I'll ask Edward to double head the train with her and you will spend the evening in the yards, preparing the goods trains for tomorrow."
"But she… sorry, Sir…" the red mixed-traffic engine started, but then thought it was better not to say a word anymore for now to avoid that dreaded shunting.
"Very well then, Percy will have your coaches ready in a few minutes. You two will be leaving right on time! Oh and after you're done with your one-way run, Gordon will take the special back to Knapford so you will have the time off for the rest of the evening," the Fat Controller explained.
"Yes, Sir! Thank you, Sir!" both James and Sandy said in unison.
At that point, Percy was done arranging their coaches and the two tender engines prepared for their departure. Once the guard blew his whistle and waved his green flag, James and Sandy started to pull out of the station, though Sandy got power down to her wheels faster than James despite her huge drivers; she nearly tore the coupling apart.
"Move already! I don't want to be late because of you!" she snorted impatiently.
"Who are you to order me around, eh?" James growled at her before lurching forward, bumping into her and pushing her forward.
"Verdammt, pass auf, das hat weh getan! Aber dir ist das ja egal… pff…" Sandy suddenly switched to a different language.
"What did you just say there?!" James was confused.
"Oh, nothing in particular. Now get going or we're really going to be late," the blue kkStB 306 replied.
They slowly started to pick up speed as they went through the countryside, passing through several stations. For one short moment though, the wind blew a cloud of Sandy's smoke into James' face, which caused him to cough quite violently.
"Gah, god damn it what coal are you burning in your firebox?! It smells awful, just like the black smoke Henry used to blow out before he was rebuilt. Bleh..." James asked her with a raspy voice, annoyed that he wasn't able to breathe properly now.
"Oh forgive me, Mr. 'I'm so splendid'! Austrian coal, even mixed with British, may not be of the high quality you have here, but at least I don't need to be rebuilt to be able to burn it and nobody ever complained about that!" Sandy answered with a sarcastic tone.
James only grumbled and rolled his eyes at that and tried to keep his mouth shut until they reached their first stop. They waited patiently until passengers left or boarded the train before continuing on their way. At first it all looked like they calmed down again but then Sandy started speeding up more, making it a bit hard for James to keep pace, until she was more or less dragging him along the rails.
Suddenly she felt something snap, making her shoot forward for a moment, and James cried out from behind, "Oh damn, look what you've done now! You not only tore the coupling apart, but also broke the spring of my coupling hook!"
Sandy gasped in shock at what she had just heard. She didn't mean to do this, but she was used to going faster than 50 miles per hour on regular express passenger trains. Her crew slowed down a bit to match James' speed, then called the next signal box via radio about the incident to have them switch tracks to let him pass by with the coaches before switching tracks again to buffer up behind the last coach, everything without saying a single word. She didn't know what to say anyways and it would be a lot of explaining if the Fat Controller found out. When they reached the next stop on their route, their crews surveyed the damage. Both drivers and firemen decided that they would keep James as the pilot and Sandy as the back engine to avoid another coupling to snap so they coupled her to the back of the train. The rest of their run went by in silence until they reached Vicarstown where Gordon was to take the train to go back to Knapford. As the two engines got uncoupled from the coaches, they both went for the water tower, though Sandy kept a lot of space between her and James to avoid further problems. She kept her gaze locked to the ground, not even able to look at the damage that she had caused on James. This first day had been nothing but stress for her so far whenever he was around and she was hoping for a good rest before going back to the sheds.
"What did you even think you've been doing there? You could've derailed the whole train, including me! And then my paintwork would've been ruined!" James snapped at her again.
"Hey, we know it now, no need to keep it up!" she looked miserable, about to cry, before she added, hardly a whisper, "I'm sorry…"
She went for the turntable to be turned around and then backed up in the siding next to the water tower, sighing and wishing she was back home again, in the museum where she didn't cause any trouble to others. Sandy hadn't been out for decades and had just enjoyed the long run from Austria to Great Britain and on to Sodor and now she messed things up on her first day already. James saw her downcast gaze and he realized he had been a bit too harsh. But he wasn't one to apologize fast and admit he had done something wrong so he just crept to the turntable slowly, feeling a bit guilty ruining her second proper run as a pilot on a passenger train after a very long time. He knew part of her history from what the Fat Controller had told him when James talked to him in the morning, asking why he ordered a 4-4-0 compound engine again. And now he regretted his words, wishing he had thought them over before simply barking them out at an engine he hardly knew and that couldn't even begin to be compared with that Midland Compound he knew decades ago that hurt him so badly.
As soon as he was turned around, he went back to the water tower, stopping right next to Sandy, wrinkling his nose slightly. He wanted to say something to break the awkward silence that had formed, but he didn't know what to say. This gave him time though to take a closer look at her and get a proper opinion. What he had seen so far from her personality, she had a heart of gold, but also a strong and stubborn mind, not easy to break. Almost like they held a mirror in front of him apart from the fact that she clearly spoke her mind and did not shy back from telling everyone what she was thinking. He let his eyes wander over her frame, her drivers, and her funnel until his gaze was glued to her face. For the first time he actually looked at her properly and was as struck by her eyes as Henry had been in the morning, though he would never admit it to her, at least not yet.
Sandy noticed that he had been staring at her and looked at him questioningly, raising an eyebrow, "Is there anything wrong with my face or why are you staring at me like that?"
"I… urm… n- nothing wrong," was all he brought past his lips before his eyes snapped away. 'Oy, I hope she doesn't ask any further.'
Sandy was tired, all she wanted was to head back to the sheds and get her rest, but now this troublemaker that had been getting on her nerves almost all day long was staring at her like she had dirt on her face. And why doesn't he close his mouth? Hasn't he seen a female engine with make-up before? It went to the point that she was more annoyed than tired and then simply decided to get back to Tidmouth, not waiting for James who still didn't move.
James only saw Sandy departing and was following her with his eyes as she disappeared, the evening sun casting a golden veil over her. Only then he noticed he should get going as well, he didn't want to miss out on his beauty sleep like he loved to call it and the sooner he came back to the sheds, the higher was the chance of him getting to choose his berth. Though all the way back, Sandy's face, her eyes and the sadness that was displayed in them, wouldn't leave his mind anymore.