Chapter Text
Duke sat in the shed, the only engine awake so late into the evening. He’d asked his driver to add some teabags to his water tanks – he was stressed. Telling his story had definitely helped with how badly he felt about his past, but it didn’t help how guilty he felt.
He’d never been able to find the other Mid Sodor engines. No Jim, no Tim – no Stanley. He didn’t want to admit that he regretted how he’d treated Stanley after he’d been turned into a pumping engine. Yes, Stanley had been rude, and reckless, and sometimes even cruel. But no engine really deserved to be turned into a pumping engine and then lost to time in a mine. It wouldn’t have suited His Grace.
The tea calmed his nerves, though not but too much. The others were fast asleep. Duncan snored, Rusty’s engine would sometimes growl. Bertram would mumble in his sleep and… and Duke usually snored a little too. But instead, he sat bathing in the moonlight. His fire was still barely burning – the cleaner hadn’t been very thorough – but otherwise he was all but silent.
BoCo rumbled into view with the Midnight Goods. Normally, the train rushed through and was gone, but tonight it stopped. BoCo uncoupled the first truck on his train – which held something vaguely familiar – and began to move towards the Works. As he did, Duke caught a glint of the engine.
“Stanley?” he gasped. Nudging himself toward, a couple lumps of coal fell into his firebox, catching on the embers. Steam began to build.
BoCo shunted the engine into the shared workshops, then rumbled away. He didn’t see Duke. Duke didn’t care. He shuffled forwards again, knocking a couple more lumps of coal into his firebox. Forcing steam through his valves, Duke slid his regulator open just slightly – enough to start rolling along the line.
He stayed as quiet as he could, making his way along the stretch of line to the works. The door was still open. Duke bumped himself again, knocking yet more coal into his fire. It was burning brighter now, giving him enough steam to roll into the sheds…
… and come face-to-face with Stanley. The rusted pumping engine said nothing, fast asleep. Duke looked up at Stanley, and sighed.
“What happened to you youngster? You weren’t supposed to end up like this – none of us were. I realised what really happened the other day… you weren’t regauged correctly. You couldn’t run on our rails… why didn’t you ever tell us?”
There was no reply from the sleeping engine. Duke continued to look him over, seeing where the rust was at its worst.
Stanley must have partly been stuck in water, the rust was spidering out from the worst patches on his running board.
Duke sighed once again, still staring up at the engine he had once known all those years ago.
“What will you be like now? Do you hate me for what happened? What am I supposed to think Stanley? You were not a nice engine when you arrived, but there is something else, isn’t there? I just wish you’d have told me.”
Duke nudged his reverser as best as he could, wincing as he did. Driving himself took a lot of effort, and was not a pleasant experience. He began to roll back, puffing gently along the line to just where he had sat. Slowing to a halt, Duke closed his eyes and fell into a troubled sleep.
The next morning, the Thin Controller arrived to give the engines their duties. Duke was sent to pull tourist trains around the lake, a duty he loved. He happily agreed, and set off to collect his coaches. This would be a great chance for him to relax and think – a chance for him to spend some time figuring out what was going on inside his smokebox. His driver added some more teabags to Duke’s tanks, already realising Duke was going to stress himself out.
The train wandered up along the line, stopping at all the stations to let people off so they could enjoy the hiking trails and picnic spots that dotted the valley. It reminded Duke of when he’d pulled the ‘Picnic’ back on the Mid-Sodor.
Back at the yards, the Thin Controller and the Works foreman surveyed the engine in front of them.
“Is it possible?” asked the Thin Controller.
“Yeah, but it’ll take some time,” came the reply.
The Thin Controller nodded, and walked away.
That evening, he made an announcement at the sheds.
“A new engine for our line is being restored at the Works, but it will be some time before he is ready. Until then, I hope you are all able to work very hard and do your best.”
The engines began excitedly talking about who they thought the new engine would be – but Duke knew. Duke knew who he was, and he knew what he would have to do to make things right with Stanley.