An E2 Reunion

Chapter 2

The next morning, Thomas woke up, but his fire was slow to start. So Percy had to look after Annie and Clarabel, while Thomas had to go to the Quarry. As Thomas waited for his cars to be shunted, he saw Henry and Azul double-heading the Flying Kipper, and were laughing together. This caused a familiar scene to play out in Thomas' mind. A group of engines in the harbor, another engine running up to him and...

"Thomas? Thomas? Hello? You in there?" Thomas was startled when he heard Toby's voice. He looked up to see the worried look on Toby's face. "Are you alright?" 

"Uh... Yeah! I am fine, just thinking about something, that's all!" Thomas responded, giving Toby and Henrietta a bright smile.

"Are you sure? You looked pretty upset." Henrietta replied.

"I am fine, just uh... thinking of something else; that's all." Thomas lied.

Thomas left quickly to fill up on water, leaving Toby and Henrietta more worried than ever. Then, Thomas' driver came out of Thomas' shed, he had something in his hand.

"Hm? What's this?" Toby's driver asked.

Thomas' driver showed it to Toby's driver. When he got a good look at it, he noticed that it was a picture. Thomas' driver then quickly pointed to a spot on the picture before running out to meet Thomas. 

"Do you think he was trying to tell you something?" Henrietta asked.

"Yeah, I think he was." Toby replied.

"Maybe this has something to do with why he seemed so down before." Replied Henrietta.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing..." Toby's driver added. "I'll have Sir Topham Hatt have a look at this."

Thomas was on his way to the Quarry, with his freight cars in tow.  As he was approaching the Quarry, he started thinking about that scene again. Completely lost in thought, he slowed down to a crawl and stopped paying attention to his surroundings.

"Hey Thomas! Look out!" He suddenly heard someone call out. But it was too late as Thomas puffed straight into the a siding with a pair of unsafe buffers.

"Ah!" Thomas yelled out as he crashed through the buffers. "Ow..."

"Are you alright?" Asked Mavis, who was rushing over to check on her friend.

"Yeah, I am fine! Guess I wasn't paying attention!" Thomas said, in embarrassment.

"You looked like you were deep in thought, is everything alright?" Mavis asked.

"Yeah, just got a lot on my mind today, that's all!" Thomas replied sheepishly.

That afternoon, Sir Topham Hatt came to see his engines. 

"Good afternoon, engines; tomorrow will be a very busy day. All of you will have normal duties tomorrow. Thomas, I need you to go to the Little Western to help with the ballast trains while Oliver is undergoing repairs."

"Yes Sir." Thomas huffed.

As Thomas left, Sir Topham Hatt turned to the other engines.

"Um, Sir; what was that all about?" Percy asked.

"Hmmm I think I have an idea..." Sir Topham Hatt said, earning a surprised look from the other engines. "Ok engines! Before Thomas comes back, I have a special assignment for all of you!"