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Tim and Ruby

Written by BNSF1995 & Broa Island

Proofread and corrected by Broa Island

Isle of Sodor, 1966

It had been a fortnight since Tim and Chloe, the Fowler Twins, had been transferred from Hellifield MPD to Sodor. Sir Charles Hatt was sitting at the desk in his office, looking at some documents. He beamed as he looked at the past week's reports. Efficiency across the region had jumped 200% since the twins' arrival, and profit margins were also way up.

To say the North Western Region was the most profitable part of the network would be a gross understatement. It helped that the region was staffed exclusively with non-faceless engines, which greatly cut down on running and labor costs. The roads on Sodor were also still poor, which was why passengers and goods clients preferred rail over buses or lorries. Not that there weren't buses or lorries, but they still hadn't recovered from the Great Depression.

Charles was shaken from his thoughts when he saw the report for the Brendam Branch. Efficiency was down 35%, and he knew why: Edward was the only engine running the Brendam Branch.

"We need another engine for the Brendam Branch." he mused. And so, he made a phone call to Head Office. As fate would have it, British Rail was all too happy to dump a diesel on him that they deemed a failed design.

A Metropolitan-Vickers Type 2.

Tim and Chloe had made friends with pretty much every engine on Sodor, even the Skarloey and Culdee Fell engines. They even liked Dennis and Daisy, as they weren't unrepentant assholes like Matthew.

Tim was particularly close to one engine, though. That being Ruby. One could expect to find them in the yard between trains, talking about anything and everything, from life on the SDJR and S&C, to paranoia over why BR would scrap non-faceless steam engines alive, throwing out every theory possible. As was said in the last story, Chloe knew where this was going, and she approved. And when Yang found out, she, too, approved of the budding relationship.

Even so, there was one engine neither of the twins ever talked to.

That engine was James. After hearing what he did to Ruby during the Strike of '35, they saw him as nothing but a barbaric bully. The few times James tried talking to them, they completely blew him off.

One night, he was moaning about it in the sheds.

"I just can't understand it." he said, "Those two are friends with everyone. Even you, Gordon, I haven't heard you talk down to them once!"

"Tim and Chloe have been nothing but a blessing for this region." Gordon grunted, "They don't complain, they don't play tricks, they can climb the hill without a banker, they do whatever work is given to them without complaint, they're always punctual, and they're overall the most pleasant engines I've ever had the pleasure of knowing."

"So why do they blow me off?"

"Oh...you know why, James."

James thought for a second.

"I got nothing."

"God, ye're dense!" snapped Duck, "Ruby obviously told them about everything YOU did to her during the Strike!"

"...oh. OOOOOOOOHHHHH."

James looked at his buffers sheepishly. It had been 31 years since he shoved Ruby off the tracks at Maron and called her the c-word, and she STILL held a grudge against him. Every time he tried to apologize, she would either ignore him, let off steam in his face, or even cuss at him.

"Why won't she let that go?" muttered James.

"Probably because you hurt her far more than you think." said a feminine, American-accented voice. It was Rosie.

"W-well, who asked you?!" he spluttered, and he rolled back into his shed and went to sleep. The other engines exchanged worried looks.

"I think it's getting to him." said Duck.

"No, you think?" replied Henry.

"Look, we can't worry about it right now." said Belle, "Best we all get some sleep."

The next day, James was on the Brendam Branch helping with the passenger traffic. He was running well, before he came to a red signal next to the Vicarage Orchard. Trevor was working in the field pulling a cart filled with apples. It was around autumn, and the Harvest of 1966 was in full swing.

"Hello, Trevor!" said James cheerfully, "You look as bright and cheerful as a child!"

"Oh, I am!" replied Trevor. It was at that moment; James heard a droning buzz.

"Wait...I know that noise...V-1 BOMBS! GET TO COVER!"

Trevor laughed. "No, James! Those are bees you're hearing!"

"Oh...right...bees. Sorry, I still struggle with PTSD regarding those German weapons. Anyway, when did Laxey start keeping bees?"

"About a few months ago. They're all in these boxy things called beehives. The vicar says they make good honey, and he's going to sell it. Best of all, they make honey year-round, meaning he'll have a steady profit even when it isn't the harvest season!"

Just then, they heard an unfamiliar sound. It was a two-tone horn and a rumbling engine.

"That's strange…" mused James, "was Daisy meant to help today, too?"

What he saw, though, was most certainly NOT Daisy. It was a large diesel painted in BR Green, carrying the number D5702.

"ARE. YOU. SHITTING ME?!" screamed James as the diesel rolled past. Neither he or Trevor saw it, but the diesel looked hurt.

The diesel soon arrived at Brendam Docks, where Sir Charles Hatt was waiting.

"Welcome to Sodor, D5702!" he said, "Though...do you have a name?"

"I... seem to have forgotten it, sir." said D5702, sheepishly, "My controller wouldn't let me use it, saying that because I'm a failed design, I didn't deserve one."

"Oh, that bastard!" snapped The Fat Controller, "He'll dehumanize any engine that doesn't meet his strict standards!" He looked at D5702 and recomposed himself. "An engine with only a number just won't do! Let's see...you have a unique Co-Bo wheel arrangement...hmm...reverse that and you get Bo-Co…"

"BoCo…" mused D5702, "it rolls off the tongue nicely. I like it!"

"BoCo, it is, then!" said The Fat Controller. "Now, you're here to help with the Brendam Branchline. We have Furness Railway engine who, as much as I hate to admit it, is getting on in years and will probably need an overhaul soon. Now...you're not anti-steam, are you?"

BoCo's face looked pale. "I've...seen the horrible things that they've been doing to non-faceless steam engines on the mainland, sir. But it's not just them...diesels aren't safe, either. I've heard that once steam is abolished, BR is going to look at the diesel fleet. Many classes are just going to be cast aside and probably scrapped alive, too, mine included. Unreliable and small classes are most certainly going to be targeted…"

"Well, you won't have to worry about any of that." said The Fat Controller, "Still...I didn't know it was THAT bad. Anyway, your first job is to take any goods trains that look ready."

"Yes, sir!" said BoCo. He was looking forward to starting work. He just hoped his engine wouldn't act up.

Of course, BoCo's first train didn't go smoothly. He took some trucks he thought were ready, but they weren't actually for him, they were for Bill and Ben, the tank engine twins. When they found out...well, you already know how that turned out.

When BoCo reached the junction with his first passenger service, he saw a red steam engine with another rake of Mark 1 coaches.

"Oh, hello! I'm-"

"Let me stop you right there." said James, menacingly, "I know your kind. You come into our yard, butter us up, and then, when our guard is down, BOOM! You show your true colors and malicious usurpers and take all of our work while we get carted off to the scrapyard and cut up without so much as a Final Firing! It happened once, and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again! You wanna continue functioning? Then LEAVE THIS RAILWAY. NOW! Or would you prefer I SHOVE YOU OFF THE RAILS?!"

BoCo was speechless, but at the same time, expected to find at least one anti-diesel steam engine. Just as he was about to respond, a black steam engine similar in size and design to James sidled up on the middle line with a through freight.

"Alright, why don't you do us all a favor and SHUT THE FUCK UP, JAMES?!" screeched Ruby, "I will NOT allow another engine to go through the HELL I did!"

James was now supremely PISSED. "How DARE you, you...DIESEL APOLOGIST!"

Just then, the guard's whistle blew. It was James' guard.

"This isn't over…" James said, menacingly.

Ruby didn't reply. She just gave one mother of a Kubrick Stare.

"Is he always like this?" asked BoCo.

"Ohoho, he's worse." snarled Ruby, "You try being shoved off the rails before being slandered, and see if YOU'LL ever see him the same way again!"

BoCo said no more. He knew exactly what was going on here.

Later that day, BoCo was back at Wellsworth, now hauling flatbeds loaded with redwood logs from the Isle of Bren (or as they call it in the TV series, "Misty Island"). After shunting his train, ready for it to be taken to the mainland on the next outbound freight train, he heard a whistle. A VERY familiar whistle.

"Could it be?" he said to himself. He rolled out to the mainline and saw a Fowler 4F pulling a short passenger train.

"Tim?!" he gasped. Tim was taken off-guard.

"JESUS!" he cried, and almost upset his train, but kept it under control, "D5702, when did you get here?!"

"Just today!" he laughed, "And I go by BoCo now!"

"BoCo, eh?" mused Tim, "I like it. Rolls off the tongue nicely, and perfectly describes your wheel arrangement, to boot!"

The two spent some time catching up, for you see, BoCo and his class were regular performers on the S&C, mainly pulling the overnight container train called the Condor.

"So, made any friends yet?" asked Tim.

"Well, Edward, of course, and this black female engine who's name I never got."

"Did she look like me?" asked Tim.

"No, I'd know Chloe when I saw her."

"Then that was Ruby! Oh, she's a cutie, she is!"

"She sure didn't seem like it. She got into a shouting match with another engine named James."

Tim's face darkened. "Oh...so you've met James."

"Met him? He read me the riot act! Said something about me being a malicious usurper who lulls steam engines into lowering their defenses!"

"Well...it's not without precedent. Surely you've heard the story of the Devious Diesel?"

"Well, yes, but I don't see how that has to do with it."

"It happened here. On Sodor. James was one of the engines taken in by Bruce's lies. Now he sees any diesel he's not familiar with as a villain seeking to dieselize Sodor."

"Well, I can assure you, I am NOT one of those diesels. I've seen the face of the Steam Holocaust first-hand. And... we diesels are targets, too."

"I know what you mean. I've heard of diesels built under the LMS being scrapped and replaced by other classes of diesel. Many of the diesels...they think they're invincible. One day, another class will come along, and they'll all be in the same boat as us steam engines."

"Amen to that."

For several days, James was nothing but a menace. Everywhere Ruby went, there he was with an insult or a small bump (but not too big a bump, as he didn't want to go to Rail Gate; he wasn't sure if a non-faceless vehicle could be a "prison bitch", though). Eventually, any confidence Ruby had gained by shoving James off the rails when he, Henry, and Gordon, blinded by rage, were plotting to kill Duck during Diesel's reign of terror, was shattered, and she began to cower in fear.

Eventually, it all got to be too much.

There was an uproar at Knapford. The 8 AM Knapford-Barrow stopper, often called the Morning Banker, was ready at the platform, made up of all-Rail Blue Mark 1 stock, but Ruby, who had been rostered for this service, was nowhere to be found. The passengers were angry. Tim was at Platform 4 with the 8:10 Knapford-Ballahoo stopper (made up of 1946 coaching stock) and was worried. At last, The Fat Controller came out of his office to see what all the noise was.

"QUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!"

All at once, there was a deafening silence that was only broken when Henry passed by with a Class E goods train.

"Rioting will NOT help anything! We will find another engine for the Morning Banker, but PLEASE, calm the hell down!"

As he finished, he saw BoCo coming in with a train of scrap metal from Crock's.

"BoCo! Thank god you're here! Can you pull this train, please?"

"Uh...of course, sir! But what about this lot?"

"Leave them right there." said Duck as he pulled up, "I can handle them."

"Thank you, Duck." said BoCo. He uncoupled from his train, and coupled up to the Morning Banker face-first.

"How can you see where you're going?" asked Tim.

"Ah, watch and learn!" And BoCo's face disappeared, then reappeared on his rear-end, which was now his front-end, all like magic.

"How…"

"Scientists are still trying to find out why, too. They think non-faceless engines can control their essence."

"...I am SOOOO not sleeping tonight."

Soon, the clock struck 8, the guard's whistle blew, and BoCo rumbled out of the station. After he disappeared around the bend, The Fat Controller walked up to Tim.

"Ruby's never this late…" he pondered.

"I think I know what's going on, sir." And Tim explained the entire James situation. The Fat Controller was FURIOUS.

"Has he learned NOTHING?!" he roared, "Ohh, when I find him, I'LL-"

"Sir...please don't say something you'll regret. You wouldn't want to be like those controllers on the mainland, would you?"

The Fat Controller paused, regained his composure, and smiled. "Sometimes, I think you're more mature than me, Tim. You're right, I shouldn't do anything rash. I'll need some time to think of a fair punishment. In the meantime, Tim, I want you to go find Ruby."

"But I can't just leave this train sitting here! It has to go out in eight minutes!"

"I'll take it." said a voice. Tim and The Fat Controller looked over and saw Chloe. "Got nothing else to do."

"You're sure you're not rostered for any other workings?"

"She shouldn't be right now." said The Fat Controller. Tim looked at his sister and smiled.

"Thanks, Chloe."

"Anytime, bud."

While Chloe coupled to the train, Tim went looking around Knapford Yards for Ruby. He searched everywhere, from Knapford Heights and fishing dock, to Knapford Harbor Sheds, where he found Yang.

"Woah, woah! Where's the fire, Tim?"

"Ruby never showed up to pull the 8 o'clock stopper, and I can't find her anywhere!"

"She's missing?!" gasped Yang.

"I've looked all over Knapford Yards, but no dice!"

"Hmm...did you try Tidmouth Harbor?"

"That's it! You're a genius, Yang!"

"Oh, a genius? Well, heh, I don't know about that, and you're already gone…gonna be a boring two hours before my first train..."

Tim arrived at Tidmouth Harbor a short time later. It didn't take him long before he came upon a siding tucked away at the back of the harbor. There, with her tender up against the buffers, was Ruby. It was clear to Tim that she had been crying for hours now, and now had no tears left, though a small whimper still escaped her lips from time to time.

She was shaken from her thoughts when she heard a steam engine.

"Oh, no!" she thought, "He found me!" She closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. What she heard, though, was the complete and total opposite of what she had expected.

"There you are!"

She opened her eyes.

"Tim…"

Tim buffered up to her as a sort of embrace. He really wished they had been born humans and not non-faceless steam engines, since without hands and arms he couldn't properly hold her.

"I was so worried when you didn't show up to pull the Morning Banker! BoCo had to take it, and I left the 8:10 with Chloe to come find you!"

"I'm sorry...I just...I can't take it anymore…I thought I had conquered my insecurities back in '58, but...James...he just keeps finding new ways to break me...I'm such a weakling..." And she began to cry anew. Tim, who was usually a calm and composed engine, was on the verge of tears himself.

"No, you're not a weakling! I am…"

"You're not-"

"I am, though! I should've done something, but my devotion to my work...it kept me away...I'm such a workaholic…I mean, look at the bags under my eyes! I've barely slept since I left Hellifield! How can I call myself a friend when I'm not there for those I care about?!"

By now, Ruby had stopped crying, and was looking deep into Tim's eyes.

"Tim... you're not a workaholic. You're just doing what God intended for us non-faceless vehicles to do. And... it's not your fault you weren't around to defend me from James. You were just doing as you're told. That's one of the things I admire in you, Tim. You work so hard and never complain or whinge. You just...do it like it's nothing."

"I... don't know what to say…"

"I just wish I could be as strong as you…"

"But you ARE strong, Ruby. You're just like me, always working hard, never complaining, doing it like it's nothing...I don't think you give yourself enough credit."

"I don't deserve the credit…"

"Who are you going to listen to: me, or that red bastard?"

"I heard that!" said a voice.

"No!" cried Ruby, as James slowly pulled up on the track next to her and Tim's.

"Well, well, well...what do we have here? A diesel apologist and her knight in grimy armor!"

Tim gave a low growl.

"Oh, and look, your back's to the sea. Where you belong…where BOTH of you belong."

"You l-l-leave Tim out of this!"

"Ooh, trying to stand up to me again, aren't you? You only bashed me through those buffers because you had Yang there! Well, she ain't here now, is she? No! It's just you, and the engine who always blows me off!"

"You know why…" growled Tim menacingly.

"Without your sister who isn't really your sister, you're nothing! Nothing but a milquetoast little BITCH who licks the boots of the diesels! That BoCo...he's a sweet-talking DEVIL! They all-"

At last, Tim lost his cool. And he just. Went. Off.

"SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!"

James went silent, his smug face replaced by a look of utter shock.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT SPEAKING TO RUBY, OR ANY ENGINE LIKE THAT! HOW COULD YOU DO A THING LIKE THIS, TAKE AN ENGINE'S CONFIDENCE AND SMASH IT ALL TO PIECES! YOU'RE AN INHUMAN MONSTER!"

James' shock turned to fear. Having never spoken with Tim up to this point, he had no idea what he was capable of.

"And you speak of BoCo coming in and paving the way for dieselization. Guess what? HE'S IN THE SAME BOAT AS US STEAM ENGINES! His class is considered a failure, and when BR is done dieselizing, they're gonna set their sights on the other diesel classes! Oh, and there's the little matter I think you should know about: THEY'RE JUST AS VULNERABLE! My old railway, the LMS, built quite a few diesels. And you know where most of them are now? SCRAPPED. And those asshole diesels who brag that they're the future, know this: they'll be replaced by newer classes of diesel someday, and then we'll have the last laugh! But until that day, YOU NEED TO SHUT. THE FUCK. UP!"

James was cowering in fear by now.

"And if I EVER see you bullying Ruby again or hear of it...I'll make you regret the day you had your First Firing. Do you UNDERSTAND?! YOU PUTRID FUCKING ****?!"

James was speechless! Tim had just twisted that word against him! He was about to run away screaming, but then he felt a strong BUMP on his rear-end and went through the buffers. When he opened his eyes, his front-end was in the sea.

"Oh...god." he groaned. "Percy will never let me hear the end of this."

"And I'll make sure he never does, YOU BASTARD!" yelled a voice. James looked back and saw that Yang had shown up out of nowhere and bashed him off the rails.

"How did you find us?" asked Tim.

"Your yelling acted as a beacon." replied Yang, "And I heard everything you said. EVERYTHING."

"Ohhhh..." Tim groaned, "Ruby, I am SO-"

"No, Tim…" interrupted Ruby, "it's fine. He needed that. I needed that. And... thank you."

"For what?"

"For defending me like that."

"Yeah," added Yang, "I've yelled at other engines before, but even back in '35, I NEVER approached that level of pure, unfiltered rage!"

"I... never knew I had it in me. Last time I got that worked up was a few weeks back with that bigot, Matthew."

"Wait, Matthew?!" spluttered Yang, "THAT mental case?!"

"Sadly yes."

"See, what did I tell you?" called James, "They're ALL-"

"DON'T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE, YOU PUNK!" roared Tim. James frantically apologized at that.

"So…" said Tim, turning his attention back to Ruby, "will you be okay now?"

"I'll be better than okay…" smiled Ruby, "now that I've found the perfect boyfriend."

Tim's jaw dropped. "What did you just say?!"

"I'm saying, Tim... I love you."

Tim stood silent for a minute or two, then spoke again.

"If only I were a human so I could kiss you…"

"Soooooo, now that I've brought you two together...do you forgive me?" asked James.

"NEVER." Tim and Ruby unintentionally said in unison. They looked at each other and burst out laughing.

For the rest of the day, the three engines went about their work as if nothing had happened at Tidmouth Harbor. That evening, though, they told Chloe what had happened, and was over the moon for Tim.

At Tidmouth Sheds, James slowly backed into his berth. Having heard what happened at the harbor, The Fat Controller went easy on James and put him on freight trains only for the next month. Molly was in the next berth over. Like James, she was anti-diesel, and saw James' punishment as a martyr.

"So," she asked, "what happened at the harbor exactly?"

"...Tim scares me."

"Ah, no need to say more."

From that day forward, Tim and Ruby were an official couple. For a time, they were the only couple on Sodor, until others such as Thomas and Emily, James and Molly, and Stanley and Rosie, all developed. Of them all, though, theirs is the happiest.

An MI5 agent disguised as a workman had witnessed the event and brought it back to his superior, who stood waiting inside a small office in the distant outskirts of London.

"Dr. Mitton! You'll never guess what I saw on Sodor!"

"If it's another crash, I have no interest in it."

"Well, yes, I did see a crash, but it's what happened AFTER the crash!" And the agent handed the photos to Dr. Mitton. The doctor stared in amazement.

"This is... Mr. Fehrle, this proves my father's hypothesis about emotions in non-faceless vehicles!"

"So, what's the next step?"

"I'm keeping these photos and locking them up. And tell Harold there is to be NO further investigation into this! The people are already pissed about the Steam Holocaust. Dissecting non-faceless vehicles would just give them the excuse they need for civil war. I will NOT be the one to give Brezhnev an opening!"

Dr. Mitton opened a drawer, dropped the photos in, and locked it shut.

"This never happened…"

Outside, men continued hammering and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work on the machines they were making. Now and again a light like the beam of a warship's searchlight would sweep the nearby sandpits and fields, smoldering black and covered in dead trees.

The following morning, news boys exclaimed that one or two adventurous souls had crawled near the worksite in the night – never to be seen again. Yet around them, the daily routine of life – working, eating, sleeping – was continuing serenely as it had for countless years…