OLIVER-SAURUS

Based upon the episode by Paul Dawson

Adapted by Zack Wanzer and Rachel Ravens

The last few days had been quite eventful for Murdoch, one of the newest engines of the North Western Railway. Due to his sensory issues for loud noises, he was glad to be on a quiet goods train this morning. But that didn't mean his day was completely uneventful, or that he wasn't unpleasant to his fellow engines. He whistled a greeting to BoCo as he came to Wellsworth.

"Ah, Murdoch," the big green diesel greeted. "How have you been settling in?"

"Oh, pretty well, actually," Murdoch replied. "The other engines hae been very kind since Donald an' Douglas helped explain mah situation."

"That's great to hear," smiled BoCo.

"Have ye heard about th' museum down near Ballahoo?" asked Murdoch. "It hasnae been gettin' much tourist attraction, so Ah've heard from Emily."

"Oh no!" gasped BoCo. "That can't be good. Perhaps they need a new exhibit to spice things up a bit."

"Hmm… maybe," said Murdoch. "Ah dinnae know what good we'd do tae help."

"Neither do I," BoCo sighed. "There's only so much we can do to help other people on the island. Speaking of helping, have you heard about the Pack's latest project?"

"The Pack?" asked Murdoch. "Ye mean Miss Jenny Packard's crew?"

"That's correct," said BoCo. "They're going to be building a school near Breandam. An all-girls school, actually."

"Why an all-girls school?" wondered Murdoch. "Sure, mah sisters could be annoyin' sometimes, but Ah wouldn't want tae be separated from them all the time."

Before BoCo could answer that, his guard's whistle blew. "Fair question, Murdoch," he mused. "I'll get back to you on that." And he rumbled away with his trucks.

Further down the line, just north of Brendam and by a small halt, the Pack were working on the new school. There was a lot of activity going on at the construction site.

"Right, Buster," said Miss Jenny. "We need ye to flatten out this earth fer the new football field."

"Yes, ma'am!" he smiled. "This will be the flattest football field anyone's ever seen!" He cheerfully set off to work, smoothing out any bumps that lay before his roller.

"And Alfie," continued Miss Jenny, "we need you and Jack to dig trenches for the library."

"You got it, ma'am!" grinned Alfie. "Come on, Jack. Last one to work has a broken shovel!"

"You're on!"

Patrick Percival chuckled as the young diggers got to work. "You two are as competitive as me and my sister, Penny."

"Oh yes," said Alfie. "How are your siblings, Patrick?"

"They're going very well, thanks," he smiled. "Especially my eldest brother, Peter. Did you know he recently became a dad?"

"Wait, he did?" gasped Buster. "No way! Congratulations to him and Sophie!"

"Hold on," said Alfie. "Did we miss out on hearing about their wedding?"

Patrick shook his head with a laugh. "No. Peter and Sophie had their daughter before they got married. Oh, they are still planning it, don't get me wrong, but… things just happened unexpectedly."

"I… see," said Buster. "Well, Patrick, how do you and your siblings feel about being aunts and uncles?"

"It's so much fun!" he grinned. "Phoebe is a real chip off the old block, if you guys know what I mean. And you gotta know who's gonna raise her!"

"Er… her parents?" guessed Jack.

"Okay, sure, get technical," said Patrick, rolling his eyes. "But uncle Patrick here's gonna teach Phoebe the really important stuff, like how to burp!"

"I doubt that's important!" scoffed Isobella from nearby. "Teach her manners first, please!"

"She's only a baby," insisted Patrick. "She's a bit young to understand what that means."

"I say, young Patrick," called the cement mixer that shared his name, "do ye think yer niece will come to this school when she's old enough?"

"I think that'll be up to Peter and Sophie to decide where she's enrolled," said the youngest Percival son.

"Well, in any case," said Buster, "I can speak for all of us when I say I can't wait to meet her. Phoebe must be adorable."

"Oh, she is!" said Patrick Percival. "She's as cute as a button!"

"Well, give our good wishes to Peter and Sophie, Patrick," said Jasmine. Patrick Percival smiled and nodded.

At another area of the construction site, Oliver was digging the foundations for the swimming pool. Max was being loaded with dirt.

"Come on! Hurry up, old man!" he scowled. "I haven't got all day!"

"I've got to take care in digging this area," said Oliver patiently. "This isn't something you can rush, you know."

"At this rate, Monty's gonna beat me in disposing of that rubble for the library foundations!" huffed Max. "He'll never let me hear the end of it if you don't get a move on!"

Oliver just rolled his eyes and didn't say anymore; it was no use arguing with Max, Monty or both when they were on a competitive streak. As he lowered his bucket, it suddenly hit something hard.

"Oh!" he cried. "What's that?" He then carefully scraped away at the earth.

"Come on, Ollie!" scowled Max. "What's the holdup now?!"

"I… I think I've discovered something buried underneath!" exclaimed Oliver.

"Some old city ruins?" Max huffed sarcastically. "Sounds like rubbish to me!"

"It's not rubbish," insisted Oliver. "Operator, can you get Miss Jenny or the foreman to see what this is?"

"Of course I can," he replied. Oliver's operator shut down his engine before running over to the new library trench.

"Miss Jenny!" he shouted. "You might want to come over to the swimming pool! We've just found something!"

"Oh?" she asked. "Jack, Alfie, keep at yer task. I'll be right back."

She quickly followed Oliver's operator to where the brown excavator had made his discovery and gasped at what she saw.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed. "We'll need some experts fer this."

"Oh, great," grumbled Max. "Another job with an unnecessary interruption–"

"That will do, Max!" Miss Jenny cut in sternly. "Please dispose of whatever dirt you've got loaded in yer dumper and I'd better not hear o' any incidents with you and Monty!"

"Er, yes, Miss Jenny. Right away," Max said sheepishly before rumbling away.

"Now, Oliver," said Miss Jenny, "see how much ye can clear away while I phone fer some experts."

"You can count on me, Miss Jenny!" Oliver replied. His operator and a few more workmen removed his bucket and began replacing it with a chisel.

Minutes later, BoCo stopped by the halt with his trucks, and was surprised to see that activity at the construction site had slowed.

"That's strange," he remarked. "The Pack shouldn't be finishing up this early. What's going on here then?"

The big green diesel soon got his answer when the foreman came up to him and his driver.

"Oliver's made a discovery at the swimming pool site," he explained. "Miss Jenny has called for some experts to come here as soon as possible. Can you pick them up when you reach Brendam?"

"Of course we can," BoCo smiled. "I was on my way there myself." As the signal dropped, BoCo purred away. "I wonder what this discovery's all about…"

Soon, BoCo had brought two experts to the halt in his brake van, and Miss Jenny led them over to the swimming pool. By now, more of Oliver's discovery had been dug up so that they could get a better look at examining it.

"Oh, my goodness!" said the expert with a red mustache. "This is a dinosaur bone!"

"A dinosaur bone?" asked Ned.

"They were giant creatures that lived many years before humans roamed the Earth," Miss Jenny explained. "Their bones are all that's left."

"That's… a bit creepy to think about," Ned considered.

"Wouldn't it be amazing to see a living, breathing dinosaur for real?" asked Patrick Percival. "If it didn't try to eat us first, of course…"

"My driver's nephew likes this movie called Land Before Time," said Jack. "Maybe that will fulfill your desires for now."

"Hmm… I may have to give that a watch on movie night," said Patrick. "Thanks, Jack."

"Well, Oliver," said the expert with the fuzzy beard, "I wonder if you'd do some more digging for us."

"Of course, sir," he replied, and carefully started to unearth more of the display.

"Excuse me, Miss Jenny," called BoCo, "but do you know where this dinosaur could be displayed?"

"Hmm… I'm afraid I don't have any ideas, BoCo," she shrugged.

"Well, thankfully, I do," chuckled BoCo. "Murdoch said that the Ballahoo museum isn't doing too well right now. I think this dinosaur skeleton might be what they are looking for."

"Excellent idea, BoCo!" Miss Jenny smiled. "I'll call them up straight away."

By now, Oliver had uncovered more of the dinosaur skeleton; he had now exposed its ribcage. And it wasn't long before the tail was uncovered as well.

"Well done, Oliver," smiled Miss Jenny. "I'm sure the Ballahoo museum will be very impressed with yer discovery."

"I know I am," grinned Alfie. "Makes me proud to be an excavator! I would like to learn to do that myself."

"It takes a lot of practice, Alfie," said Oliver. "And a lot of care. Maybe I will teach you… so long as you don't get too excited."

"I'm not that careless!" scoffed Alfie, and Jack chuckled.

A few days later, the Pack were still helping with the construction of the school, when Miss Jenny received today's edition of The Sodor Times.

"Well, I'll be blowed!" she chuckled. "It seems we have a celebrity here." She showed everyone the front cover of the newspaper – DIGGER DIGS DINO, it read.

"Look at that, Oliver!" cried Ned. "It's you!"

"And the dinosaur!" added Jack.

"On the front page, no less," remarked Poppy. "Not half bad, Oliver. Not bad at all!"

"Thanks, everyone," said Oliver. "But I hope we don't have any more surprises during this construction. We've already delayed the school completion date."

"Are you sure you don't want any more surprises?" chuckled another voice. The Pack glanced up to see Patrick Percival with a bundle in his arms. He was shortly followed by his older brother Peter and his girlfriend Sophie Hugh.

"Aww, is this who I think it is?" asked Jasmine.

Peter nodded. "Everyone, meet the newest member of the Percival/Hugh family."

Phoebe babbled happily and waved at the Pack.

"Welcome, little one," said Kelly.

"She's so sweet, Peter and Sophie," added Nelson. "Congratulations!"

"Do you think she could become my apprentice someday, Pete?" asked Patrick.

"Not if you're going to be a bad influence on her," remarked Peter.

"Oh, come on, bro!" scoffed Patrick. "I won't be that bad!"

There were some chuckles amongst the group. But… Isobella looked up at the Percival brothers for a few moments before somberly driving away from the group. Jack blinked in surprise before rushing after her.

"Isobella…" he said quietly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Huh… oh, sorry, Jack," she hummed. "I just… seeing Peter and Patrick interacting made me think of Elizabeth."

"You still haven't found closure, have you?" asked Jack.

"…no."

"I don't know how I can help with finding her," said Jack. "But if you do need to vent… I'll be willing to listen."

Isobella smiled weakly. "Thank you, Jack. You're really sweet."

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's Comments

It's been a few months since we were last in Series 6-7 territory, but at long last, we've finally finished up this rewrite of Oliver-saurus! It's a decent episode on the whole, but to be honest, I don't feel as though our rewrite was very inspired, which is probably why it's so short. The only real additions here were the added location as to where the dinosaur skeleton ended up - Ballahoo museum - and an expansion of the Percival family by introducing Phoebe, Peter and Sophie's daughter. Note that the ending leads into the next rewrite, and I promise it won't take four months to write up and post.

Upcoming rewrites:

- Elizabeth the Vintage Lorry

- Kelly's Windy Day

- The Monster of the Lake (Bad Day at Castle Loch)

- Not So Hasty Puddings

- Jack Frost (Jack Frost/Scaredy Engines)