Work Text:
The day was drawing slowly to an end. It was a little past four o'clock. At this time of day, Sodor's small stations were generally quiet, with fewer people around, both workers and passengers. Everyone had gone off for their breaks.
Toby and Henrietta stood on two sidings at the end of the line at Lower Arlesburgh, watching the sunset, which was beautifully visible from this slightly elevated part of the island. Long rays of light glistened on the surface of the little lake nearby. It was quiet all around. There was hardly any wind, only a light breeze, drifting in from somewhere out at sea, brushed against Toby's side. He sighed.
"Is something the matter, Toby?" asked Henrietta.
Toby sighed again.
"The wind feels rather cold today," he said absently. "And the sun... I'm watching it set, and... I'm thinking about us. I mean, about myself. It's coming to the end of its journey. Setting. And I'm already quite old..."
Henrietta blinked a couple of times. Among different things in life which she disliked was precisely this sort of melancholy, to which he was somewhat prone.
"Toby, you're talking as if you're about to die. Don’t be so sentimental - you’re only seventy, you will work for just as many years, mark my words."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Henrietta."
"Sorry for what?" she grinned.
"For being so... well... ridiculous," he replied hesitantly.
"My Toby can't be ridiculous, only sweet," she declared with a laugh.
Toby blushed. Even though they'd been together for many years, he always felt shy whenever she called him cute in one way or another.
"By the way, do you remember when we got stuck in the tunnel during that dreadful snowstorm?" Henrietta asked, trying to change the subject. "Brr, I thought we will remain there forever, turning into two blocks of ice. Then someone dig us out a million years later, like mammoths preserved in the permafrost."
"I don't like snow," Toby grimaced. "It's water, and I've never got on well with water. I'd had enough of travelling on a raft when the dam burst and the bridge was washed away with me on it."
Henrietta laughed.
"Yeah, you almost became 'Toby the Boat.' Well, that's nothing compared to the time I was nearly turned into a chicken coop!"
Yes, being turned into a henhouse could have been a terrible fate, from which Sir Topham Hatt had saved her, and now they looked back on it with nothing but a smile. But the most terrifying experience, perhaps, had been their adventure on the mainland. Of all their adventures together, Toby still sometimes recalled that one with a slight shudder.
This is how it had happened: just a year after they'd first met, Henrietta was nearly sent away to be scrapped because of a terrible mistake. One of the workers accidentally coupled her to a train bound for the mainland, and once she arrived there, a series of misfortunes and accidents left her unable to return. The twists of fate carried her from one town to another, taking her farther and farther away from her home place Sodor.
Toby rushed off in pursuit across the whole of Great Britain and finally found her just in time at the smelting works in Whitby, practically snatching her from the clutches of the crane that was about to crush her and send her into the furnace. He remembered the sheer terror he had felt when he saw that the most important person in his life was about to meet an inevitable death.
Henrietta always recalled it with enthusiasm, whereas Toby saw nothing good in it.
"Do you remember how you shouted at the smelter manager?" she asked with a giggle. "'Take your hands off my Henrietta, she doesn't belong in this cursed place, it's a mistake!' Oh, Toby, how romantic that was!"
Toby didn't see it that way, as he made clear with a frown.
"You were in mortal danger, Henrietta, how can you talk about it so lightly?" he said. "I couldn't lose you. Please, let's talk about something else, these memories are sending a chill down my firebox. I... I can't keep thinking about it. Don't tease me."
"All right, all right, I won't. It's just... I keep remembering how brave you were, Toby," she replied, her voice turned much softer than usual. "No one's ever worried about me like that before. Hanging there from the crane, seeing the fear and fury in your eyes as you argued with the workers, I realized that I only ever wanted to live my life with you."
Toby smiled.
"So do I. When we were separated, it was the first time I'd realized just how empty my life would be without you, Henrietta."
They smiled at each other. The warmth in their eyes, born of a long, deep love forged through life's twists and turns, said more than any words ever could. They travelled many roads, faced many challenges and dangers, and had always been together.
A bell in the near town's tower tolled, proclaiming five o'clock, the beginning of the evening services. Toby stirred. Then he heard the footsteps of his crew behind him.
"It's time to go," he said to Henrietta. "Honestly, I wish this moment could last a little longer. Go on, call me sentimental, it will be true."
Henrietta chuckled, but the softness remained in her eyes.
"Me too, Toby. Right, well then," she said, her commanding tone returning. "Off to Arlesburgh Harbour, then to the quarry, and, of course, we need to pop into the Steamworks to check your axles! You've started wobbling while moving, and that's not good. We also need to pick up more coal, as it's a long way there, then... and then..."
Toby rolled his eyes as he backed to the turning triangle while she listed all the places they needed to go. Still, a small smile returned to his face.
No matter how annoying some things may be, they will always be forgiven in those we love.