Archive of Our Own

The Island of Sodor has a rather different culture surrounding sheds than the railways on the mainland did. Typically, engines had no designated sheds and merely stayed at whichever one was closest. Sodor engines, however, prefer having a specific shed that they call 'home'. They'll stay elsewhere if their usual home is unavailable (like if the turntable is frozen) or if they're just that tired. But usually, they'd always choose to be in their spot.

The engines at Tidmouth Sheds in particular loved it. It started off as the 'original six'. Then Emily joined. And much later after that, James, erm, had a little accident. Tidmouth Sheds was rebuilt with an eighth berth, Edward left, Nia and Rebecca arrived… But even after all of that, it was still Tidmouth Sheds and everyone loved living there together.

Well, for the most part…

Gordon was the last one to arrive at Tidmouth Sheds one day, feeling rather tired. It had been a busy day, especially for the express. Now, of course, dhe adored pulling the express and wouldn't have it any other way, but that didn't mean it couldn't get rather exhausting. Especially when the yards were too noisy for him to get a good nap in. He groaned quietly as the turntable turned around to the only empty berth left, not quite having it in him to complain.

'Hello, Gordon!' Rebecca greeted. 'Good to see you made it back after all!'

Gordon winced; Rebecca's cheerful voice could be a little irritating on a good day, and it was straight-up headache-inducing on a bad one.

'You're just in time to hear about my epic race with Bertie today!' Thomas said. 'I bet he thought he had me, but when we approached the crossing gate, he-!'

'Yes, yes, we know,' James said. 'You won. Can we talk about actually interesting tonight?'

Emily groaned. 'Ya mean, yaself?'

James grinned a very biff-able grin. 'Of course! What else?'

'Something that we don't hear every day,' Percy remarked.

'Hey!'

'It is true,' Nia said. 'It seems to be the only thing you ever talk about!'

Gordon let out a long groan. His day had been long, his mind was exhausted, and the last thing he wanted to deal with was all of… all of… this.

'Enough of this,' He said. 'I have had a long day today, and I'll never get to relax or have a good night's sleep with you all chattering!'

Rebecca giggled. 'Oh come on, Gordon. We're not chattering that much. We're hardly chattering at all! I don't really chatter.'

'Yes, but you do laugh. And sing. Far too much.' His eyes darted across the shed. 'All of you! You're all much too loud.'

'Hey, I'm not that loud!' Thomas said, sort of proving himself wrong. 'If anyone around here is loud, it's James! He's always going on and on about his splendid red coat.'

'Because it's worth talking about!' James said. 'Does any other engine on this island look so splendid? Nooo! Even Rosie's red is a slightly less splendid shade. Still splendid, I must admit, but not nearly as splendid as me!'

Nia sighed. 'There you go again.'

'May I remind everyone here that it was Thomas who started all of this?'

'Which isn't much of a surprise, really,' Emily remarked.

'Whose side are you on?!' Thomas said.

Gordon let out another groan, this one even longer and louder than the last. Each voice nagged at his smoke box like a swarm of bees.

'Hey, let's not fight,' Percy said. 'Let's just have a good time!'

'That's right!' Rebecca said. 'You know what I think we need?'

'Don't tell me-' Gordon said.

'A sing-along! All the engines in the sheds have to get along. Get along. Get along! All the engines-'

'I don't think that's helping,' Henry said. 'Gordon looks like he's about to burst another safety valve.'

Thomas laughed, loudly. 'He does! Maybe if we sing loudly enough, we might make him-!'

'CAN WE PLEASE BE QUIET?!' Gordon shouted.

Well, that certainly accomplished making the engines shut up for a moment. Even at his angriest, Gordon was never that loud.

'It's bad enough when I have to deal with constant chatter from annoying little engines while I'm working,' He huffed. 'But I can't escape it even when I go home to sleep! You're always chatting or bickering or singing about something, and I can't take it! Is it any wonder that Edward left?'

'We're not that bad!' Percy pleaded.

'Yes, you're right. You're even worse! Between Rebecca's singing and James's constant gloating, not to mention Thomas's occasional sleep-whistling, I'm shocked that anyone manages to get any sleep around here! You probably keep all of Tidmouth up.'

Henry grinned. 'Well, at least I'm not-'

MWAH MWAHHH!

'AHH!'

Henry jumped from the sudden noise passing him by combined with that weird thing moving in the corner of his eye. When his eyes instinctively darted over to the 'weird thing', however, he was rather embarrassed to find that it was actually Duck. The Great Western engine puffed on by, muttering something about 'silly big engines' under his breath.

'See what I mean?' Gordon said. 'Henry's the quietest one here and he still screams without warning sometimes!'

'That wasn't really a scream, Gordon,' Henry said, blushing. 'More like a-'

'We all live here too, you know,' Nia said. 'And we can put up with it.'

Thomas and Percy started to laugh. Gordon didn't know about what, but he knew he didn't like it. Whether they were laughing at Nia talking back to him, or Henry yelping at the oh-so-scary sight of Duck, it had them hollering like hyenas.

Rebecca joined in, her laugh loud enough to drown out theirs.

Gordon's eye twitched.

'That's it!' He yelled. 'I'm not staying in Tidmouth Sheds anymore!'

Before anyone could ask what he was talking about, he was already puffing out of his berth and back onto the turntable. Mercifully, it was still set for him. As soon as it spun around far enough to connect to another set of tracks, he was off.

'Wait, you're leaving?!' Rebecca cried. 'Just like that? Why?'

'Because none of you can be quiet for even a few minutes!' Gordon said. 'All I want is a chance to relax in peace, and I can't get it here with all of you. Until you lot can learn how to be quiet for once in your lives, I'm sleeping elsewhere!'

'Now where could you possibly be going?' James asked. 'You'll be lucky to find another place. The Steamworks will be clanking and clanging all night long, for one.'

'Ooh, maybe he could stay at Knapford sheds!' Rebecca said.

Gordon winced. 'With Charlie? Certainly not. Her jokes will keep me up all night too.'

'So what?' Nia said. 'Are you just going to sleep outside tonight?'

'Precisely that!'

Before anyone could write it off as a simple joke, he left. Puffing off down the tracks, making sure not to go too fast lest he end up creating too much noise himself. Because he at least kept the people of Tidmouth in high regard.

'You can't be serious!' Henry said. 'We can't be so noisy that you're willing to sleep outside instead of with us!'

'I am serious!' Gordon grumbled. 'Besides, it's a warm night. I'll survive a night outside. I'll worry about finding a shed all to myself tomorrow! I'm sure the Fat Controller could find one for me. And if he can't, I'll gladly settle for my tent again!'

And with that, he vanished from their view completely. His huffing and puffing filled the silence of the night-time air, until it too vanished into the night. Tidmouth Sheds, for the first time in a while, went quiet. But only for a few moments.

'I can't believe him!' Thomas said. 'We're a little noisy, so he decides to just leave?'

'Yeah!' Rebecca said. 'We're not that noisy. … Are we?'

'No,' Emily huffed. 'He's just complainin' about nothing, as usual.'

Most of the engines seemed to agree with that sentiment with no arguments about it. But one engine didn't think so. Henry let out a long sigh as he stared at the rails.

'Maybe he's right,' He said. 'We can be rather noisy. And… and it's true that pulling the express is a difficult job. It's not so bad when it's just for one day, but every day? It's exhausting. He'd really want peace and quiet after that. I know I'd be upset if I went to my forest only for a bunch of chatty engines to ruin my quiet.'

As much as the others wanted to argue with him, they had to admit he made a good point. They all had moments where they needed some quiet time. And some engines needed it more than others. Rebecca hardly needed it at all, whereas others like Murdoch or Henry needed a lot more of it.

'Henry's right,' Nia said. 'It isn't fair that Gordon never gets any quiet to himself. He works on the express all day, has to rest in busy yards, and comes home to us chattering all night.'

'Yeah…' Percy said. 'He deserves some quiet. Even if just for a little while! If we could stop talking, even just for half an hour or something, he'd be so much happier!'

'Ooh, we really screwed up,' Rebecca said.

James scoffed. 'Come on. How hard could staying quiet for half an hour really be? Here. Let's try it out ourselves. Everyone, be quiet!'

Tidmouth Sheds went silent. The engines glanced at each other wordlessly, believing for a moment that they could actually pull this off. Until,

'Hold on,' Percy said. 'How are we gonna know if thirty minutes have passed by?'

'Hm, good question,' James said. 'I suppose we could-' He then realised what he was doing. 'DOH, PERCY! You ruined it!'

'I ruined it?! I was just asking a good question!'

'And he's right,' Thomas said. 'How are we going to know if we've done it or not?'

Henry whimpered. 'We'll never figure it out on our own! We don't even have a clock to look at!'

'We could guess!' Rebecca said. 'I'm sure Gordon won't need exactly thirty minutes.'

Nia sighed. 'Should I point out that we're proving exactly why we're struggling with this?'

The engines went red in the face when they realised that, yes, they were doing a good job at proving how they couldn't do it. Then, Thomas got an idea. A splendid idea at that.

'I know what we can do!' He said. 'We can do it, but we might need a little help.'

'From who?' Percy asked.

'I know just who to ask!'

The Fat Controller was, to say the least, rather shocked to see Gordon sitting by himself in the yard. And was only slightly less confused when Gordon explained his plight. With a heavy sigh, he offered an old shed elsewhere in Tidmouth. It wasn't exactly much, but it would be enough. Just big enough for one mighty, grand express engine. The only problem was that the roof was liable to leak, but Gordon didn't mind.

A whole downpour of rain directly to his face would be well worth not having to deal with so much chatter at night.

Gordon spent the whole day happy. Yes, the express was still an exhausting job and the yards were still too noisy to let him take much of a nap, but he was still happy. After all, he'd be coming home to a nice quiet shed that he had all to himself.

'No more singing,' He said to himself during an afternoon run. 'No more laughing. No more screaming. No more gloating. No more chattering!'

Just the thought of his brand new (in some odd definition of 'new') shed awaiting him kept his spirits up all day. The other engines found it mighty unusual that he was so cheerful, but he didn't mind. Peace and quiet awaited him!

The other engines of Tidmouth had gathered around their turntable after a hard day of work. It didn't feel right to have everyone together like this without Gordon, with that big empty berth staring back at them, but here they were. Usually, they'd be spending this time chatting among themselves and teasing each other, as per the Tidmouth Sheds tradition. Today, however, was going to be different.

Another engine stood on the turntable, looking over all of them. A certain electric engine at that.

'So let me get this straight,' Stafford said, sighing. 'You called me over here… so you can learn how to be quiet for more than a couple minutes?'

'Yes, yes,' James said, rolling his eyes. 'We only explained it about five times.'

'It's for Gordon,' Thomas said. 'We upset him last night because we kept making noise, so he left.'

'And now,' Percy said. 'We want to learn how to be quiet! At least for a little while. Long enough to give him the peace and quiet he deserves!'

'I see,' Stafford said. 'So why did you ask me?'

'Well, uh, you're an electric engine,' Henry said. 'Which means you're a lot quieter than any of us. If anyone can teach us how to be quiet, it's you. So, please, can you help us?'

Stafford still wasn't sure about this plan, but he smiled nonetheless.

'Oh, what the heck!' He said. 'I do know a thing or two about staying quiet. Besides, how hard could it be?'

The steamies decided not to tell him how much trouble they had been having with staying quiet for any more than a minute or two, for the sake of keeping him around.

'It's easy, really,' He said. 'All you have to do is simply stop talking!'

The others seemed to get it, remaining quiet. Of course, they were just waiting for whatever Stafford had to say next, but silence was silence.

'You see?' Stafford said. 'Just like that!'

'You hear that?' Rebecca said. 'We're doing it!'

Stafford gave her a look. 'That's not-'

'Oh yeah, this is easy!' Thomas said. 'We'll have Gordon back in the sheds in no time!'

'You've already-'

'And we thought this would be hard!' James said. 'Maybe we don't even need Stafford after all.'

'It hasn't even been fifteen seconds-'

'We're so good at this!' Percy said. 'We've just started and Stafford has already-'

'YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE QUIET!'

Stafford yelled as loudly as he could, which actually wasn't that loud at all. Still, it was plenty loud enough to get everyone to shut up and listen for a moment. Henry in particular jumped so hard that his axles rattled.

'You can't gloat about how quiet you're being!' Stafford said. 'Do you not see how contradictory that is?'

'Oh,' Percy said. 'Right.'

'But we were doin' really good!' Emily said. 'Aren't we allowed ta-?'

Stafford gave her a look. 'You're still talking.'

Emily's face went a little red. So did a few other steamie faces, actually.

'We'll never learn how to be quiet long enough to bring Gordon back…' Henry murmured.

'Gordon's never coming back!' Percy said.

'I don't really blame him,' Nia remarked.

Stafford groaned. 'You're still talking!'

It slowly sunk into every steamie at Tidmouth that this was going to be a very difficult task indeed. Much more difficult than they anticipated. They were just about wondering if they'd ever manage it when Thomas spoke up with all his puff.

'We can't give up that easily!' He said. 'Gordon, whether he wants to admit it or not, is a close friend of ours. And if he needs peace and quiet, then we just have to try our best to let him have it!'

'Yeah!' Rebecca said. 'It won't be easy, but it's the least we can do for him. We gotta do it, for him!'

'We can do this,' Emily said. 'I know we can.'

With the engines a little more riled up, they started to think that maybe, they really could do this. Just ignore the fact that riling themselves up required them to talk even more. Stafford, despite being unsure about all of this, smiled.

'Well!' He said. 'Sounds like you won't be giving up.'

'Of course we can do this!' James said. 'We can make it to half an hour of no noise. Just give us the go and start timing!'

'But how he is going to time it?' Henry asked. 'We couldn't. How would he?'

'As it happens,' Stafford said. 'My driver likes to keep a stopwatch on her person at all times, just in case she needs it! Good to have when someone was to break records.'

Stafford's driver left his cab with the stopwatch in her hand. How convenient! She stood in front of him and held the stopwatch where he could easily read it. The Tidmouth engines all had grins of determination on their smoke boxes, just waiting for when the timer started.

'Alright,' Stafford said. 'Be quiet starting... NOW!'

His driver started the timer. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Four se-

'The stopwatch works, right?' James asked.

The timer was stopped.

'Four seconds,' Stafford said, as deadpanned as could be. 'New record.'

'James!' Percy said. 'You ruined it!'

'Oh shut up, Percy!' James said. 'I was just asking a good question!'

'This sounds familiar…' Henry murmured.

'Well, at least we know the stopwatch works,' Emily remarked.

Stafford took a deep breath, for whatever good that would do for an electric engine.

'Alright…' He muttered. 'Let's try again.'

Gordon had finished all his hard work for the day and was feeling positively pooped. The express run seemed to be getting more and more exhausting as the days went by. And if anyone said it was because he was getting older, he'd run them over. He chuffed through Tidmouth with a smile on his face.

'A shed all to myself!' He said to no one. 'Finally, the shed I was always meant to have. One for me, myself, and I!'

It didn't take long until he spotted the shed. When the Fat Controller called it 'old', he had meant it. The shed was still standing, but had certainly seen better days. And with those holes in the roof, it would certainly leak. It didn't even have a turntable. But you know what else it didn't have? A bunch of annoying, chatty engines.

'It's not exactly dignified,' He said. 'But it's certainly quiet!'

He made his way over to his new abode nice and slowly, to take all the silence in. Nothing but the sound of his own huffing and puffing. Yep, definitely not dignified. Oh well. This shed was sure to be a temporary place until the Fat Controller could get him a solo shed befitting an engine as grand and as mighty as him. He could wait. The nights were still warm enough that he could handle a door-less shed.

Once he was settled in, he slowed to a complete stop. And just like that, silence. Beautiful, beautiful silence. Nothing to be heard except the sounds of Tidmouth at sunset. A few cars in the distance, some singing birds, an occasional conversation from the workers before they went home.

Yes, this was the life.

Beautiful peace and quiet.

There was no way he would ever go back to Tidmouth Sheds now.

The Tidmouth engines felt fit to burst. This challenge was proving very difficult indeed. Who knew that it would be so difficult to stay quiet for so long? Every passing moment, they had to work hard to keep it all inside. Lest they be forced to hear Stafford tell them they had failed.

It had been two minutes.

And two minutes in, Henry felt a nagging itch deep in his smoke box. Some coal dust must've gone the wrong way. Try as hard as he might to fight it…

'Ah… ahh… ACHOO!'

… he ended up sneezing anyway. Even when suppressed to the best of his ability, it was still very loud.

'Bless you, Henry!' Rebecca said, helpfully.

And before Henry could tell her 'thank you'…

'STOP!' Stafford said. 'Rebecca, you spoke.'

The stopwatch was stopped. Again. Only a couple minutes in.

Rebecca stopped smiling immediately. 'W-What? But… but that's not fair! Henry- I had to- I couldn't-!'

'The rule is, no talking!' Stafford said. 'Start again!'

In the few seconds it took for the stopwatch to be reset, most of the steamies gave Rebecca rather frustrated looks. Henry, meanwhile, was a bit more sympathetic.

'Sorry…' He murmured.

'Okay,' Stafford. 'We go again, NOW!'

This time, the steamies really knuckled down. One minute. Nothing. No noise at all. Two minutes. Silence. Going good. Three minutes. Not a peep. Four minutes. Not even the smallest 'peep peep' of a whistle. Five minutes-

'How long is this goin' ta take?!' Emily demanded.

'A lot longer now!' Stafford said. 'Stop the timer.'

James groaned. 'Still haven't learnt any patience, Emily? I can't believe it!'

'As if you're any better! Ya looked like you were goin' ta burst if ya had ta go ten minutes without gloatin' about ya coat!'

Stafford squeezed his eyes shut. Did you know that engines were capable of getting headaches, just like humans did? Really, they were. Stafford was finding this out the hard way.

'Here we go again…' He said, already losing the energy to put feeling into it. 'Now.'

Yet another round began. This time, the Tidmouth engines really tried to concentrate! For reals. They focused on the stopwatch, even though they couldn't read it from where they stood, and tried to think of nothing but pleasing Gordon.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three mi-

Thomas suddenly began to giggle. It started off quiet but quickly progressed to outright guffawing.

'Laughter counts too!' Stafford said. 'Especially a laugh like that. Stop the timer!'

The others groaned and aimed annoyed looks Thomas's way. When he realised what he had done, he immediately stopped laughing.

'Sorry!' He said, blushing slightly. 'I just remembered a really funny joke Charlie told me earlier today. Do you want to hear it?'

'Not really, no,' Stafford said. 'I get enough of her jokes shunting with her in the yard.'

Henry let out a sad sigh. 'Oh, we'll never learn how to be quiet.'

One by one, the Tidmouth engines were coming to the realisation that perhaps Henry was right. The longest they had lasted was a mere five minutes, if that, after all. But one engine wasn't so defeatist. One engine was very optimistic indeed.

'We can't give up just like that!' Rebecca said. 'Gordon is our friend, and if he needs his peace and quiet, then he's going to get it! We all know that pulling the express is no easy job. And what he wants matters just as much as what we want. No more, no less! So I say, we learn how to be quiet for just thirty minutes, for Gordon!'

And one by one, the Tidmouth engines began to smile again.

'FOR GORDON!' They all chanted at once.

Stafford smiled too. 'Well, it's hard not to be hopeful with an attitude like that! Let's keep trying until we get this right!'

Gordon got settled into his new place very nicely. The sweet sweet quiet welcomed him with open arms. The sun set behind the horizon and soon night fell across the island. And with it, came the tranquillity. No more bustling people or engines. The Island of Sodor began to slow down, revealing a peacefulness of night.

Yes, this was exactly what he wanted. No more singing. No more laughing. No more screaming. No more gloating. No more chattering.

Just himself and no one else. He let every moment of silence sink in, as if it'd be taken away from him at any moment.

'What a perfect arrangement!' He said to no one. 'A shed all to myself, with no one around to annoy me. Just as it should be. Take that, Little Thomas!'

It was only after the name left his mouth that he realised that, of course, little Thomas was not there. He couldn't help feeling silly. Moving to the shed was precisely to avoid engines like Thomas, and yet he was still trying to talk to them! Luckily, no one was around to see or hear that.

'That's right,' He said. 'No Thomas. No Percy, or James, or Nia, or Henry, or Emily, or Rebecca. No one. Absolutely no one. Just here, by myself, as I should be.'

As he rambled to himself about how amazing this all was, he couldn't help noticing just how quiet it all was. Tidmouth seemed a little empty without six other engines filling the air with endless noise. Eerily so. It made the place feel like an old abandoned station, despite being a big town with plenty of busy engines and people.

'Was Tidmouth always this quiet…?'

The quiet he had desperately craved now felt a little wrong. Almost isolating. Almost too quiet, as the saying goes.

'Just me. Only me, without any annoying engines around to bother me. No Thomas to keep me up with his sleep-whistling. No…' His voice started to waver. 'No Rebecca to sing her silly songs. No… n-no…'

The more he spoke, the harder it was to get the words out. The silence of the empty Tidmouth grew louder.

'No Henry to scream when something silly frightens him. No Emily to tell me I'm wrong. N-No Percy to… to…

His remaining steam stuttered. His axles trembled. His boiler ached.

'To tell me stories about his mail run. No N-Nia to talk about her home country.'

The world began to turn blurry.

'No… no James to… t-to gloat about his splendid red coat…'

The silence loomed over him like a dark storm cloud. Like a malevolent spirit. The air grew cold as the world grew blurry. In the silence, Gordon now wished to hear the sounds of his fellow engines. To hear the cheery laughter from Rebecca or the startled yelps from Henry. To indulge in Nia's tales about Kenya or Emily's random trivia. To listen to James gloating about his paint or Percy recounting a silly incident. To deal with Thomas's endless teasing.

For the first time in years, he had a shed all to himself with all the quiet he could ever want.

And the only thing he found himself wanting was to hear those annoying little engines again.

'I-I can't believe it…' He murmured. 'I… I… I miss them! I miss the laughter, the singing, the arguing, all of it! I-I even miss Thomas's sleep-whistling!'

In the silence, his voice travelled far. But no one was around to hear it. Gordon's pleas to no one went unheard by everyone except the very engine who was shouting.

'What have I done? I've made a terrible mistake! Tidmouth Sheds is where I belong, with the other engines. Not here all by myself!' He shuddered all over. 'Ooh, I have to go back to the sheds. I must! It will be so embarrassing to return after what I did but… oh, I don't even care! I can't stay here any longer. I must be with my friends!'

As he hurriedly puffed out of 'his shed' and through the yard again, only one thought had him worried.

'I only hope they'll take me back after what I said…'

The engines were truly, really, honestly, seriously, undeniably focused now. Locked in, as the youth of today might say. They stared almost exclusively at that blasted stopwatch. The seconds ticked by so silently that they could almost hear the gears in the stopwatch turning away.

This round had been going beautifully. The last round was, unfortunately, interrupted when a bird suddenly flew out in front of Henry and made him yelp, but this round? Smooth sailing. Like a fast express run with no stations to stop at and no hazards to slow them down. Some of them, like Emily, had tried counting the minutes only to lose track almost immediately. None of them how much time remained.

What they did know, however, was that this was no easy task. Thomas had to stop himself from laughing six times by this point. Emily's patience (or lack thereof) was being pushed to its actual limit. Henry felt as though he was going to fall apart from the pressure. But still, they reminded totally silent.

Stafford had managed to keep attention this whole time. By this point, he was equally invested in seeing this one through. He watched the stopwatch with the sort of attention he gave the shunting yard, silently counting the remaining minutes in his head.

And when the stopwatch approached the final minute, his eyes went wide. His battery buzzed with just one single thought - they might actually do it! He didn't voice it, of course; he was trying to stay quiet too, only speaking up to announce when a round began or ended.

By this point, James's face was turning as red as his livery.

Stafford was on the edge of his proverbial seat.

Ten…

Nine…

Eight…

Seven…

Six…

Five…

Four…

Three…

Two…

He gasped. 'YOU DID IT!'

With how silent the yard had become, his little shout was almost like a bomb going off. All the Tidmouth engines jumped. Henry let out a little cry, and immediately blushed. He hadn't screwed all this up after they were doing so well, had he? Then what Stafford had said sank in.

'Wait, we did it?' Percy asked. 'Did we actually do it?'

'You did!' Stafford said. 'Thirty minutes, almost totally silent! It was a little touch-and-go a few times there, but you managed to stay quiet the whole time! Congratulations.'

It took a few moments for it all to sink in. After so many failed attempts - most of which hadn't even lasted five minutes - they had done it. They had managed to stay quiet for thirty minutes. And with how chatty this lot were, that was a mighty accomplishment. But when they did…

'WE DID IT!'

They made up for the thirty minutes of silence by celebrating in the only way they knew how - noisily. They cheered and whooped and blew their whistles in triumph! Perhaps a bit counterproductive to the plan, but they deserved it after all this hard work and effort.

'Wait, stop!' Emily said. 'We can't celebrate too loudly!'

Once this was pointed out, the celebration tapered out almost immediately. Thomas and Percy whispered cheers to each other, only to start giggling among themselves halfway through.

'I knew we could do it!' Rebecca said. 'No matter how hard it seemed, we always find a way to overcome whatever is thrown at us.'

'We have to tell Gordon right away that he can come back!' Henry said. 'If he wants to…'

'Don't have to ask me twice,' Stafford said. 'I'll go looking for him right now and tell him the good news!'

Stafford backed up off the turntable, but that was as far as he got before another sound filled the air. A very familiar sound at that.

WOOO WOOOOOO!

Anyone who spent a long enough time on Sodor would be able to recognise that sound miles away. That iconic deep whistle could only belong to the big express engine himself, Gordon. The engines all went quiet as Gordon's huffing and puffing grew louder and louder. Then, he appeared. Coming closer.

They were all expecting a mighty berating, considering how loud their celebration had been, but that certainly wasn't what they got.

'Oh thank goodness!' Gordon said. 'You're all still here, and you haven't already given up my berth for someone el- Stafford?!'

'Before you panic,' Stafford said. 'I'm not here to take your berth. That still belongs to you.'

Gordon audibly breathed a sigh of relief. Stafford could hardly believe that he genuinely thought there was even a possibility of him losing his berth to some random electric engine, but he didn't press the issue.

'I was just here to… give your friends a little advice, that's all,' He said. 'And by the looks of it, I oughta be leaving. Goodbye, everyone!'

And he disappeared into the night, just like that, to return to his proper home at Knapford sheds. Gordon, immediately, puffed onto the turntable. The other engines couldn't believe their eyes. The big express engine wasn't fuming or frustrated with them. The guy looked like he was about to cry!

'I-I'm so sorry, everyone!' He said.

And those certainly weren't the words they were expecting him to say.

'The way I acted was… was horrid!' He continued. 'Yes, I deserve peace and quiet after all my hard work with the express. But I never should've left in a huff and demanded my own shed. Never! I-I didn't even say goodbye! I just left, simple as that! I believed that I was better off by myself, away from all of you, locked up in solitude in my own little shed!'

He let out a hiccup. Dreadfully undignified, but he didn't care. He barely even noticed.

'But I was wrong. So dreadfully wrong! Tidmouth Sheds is where I belong, with all of you. Your endless chatter is annoying, but when I left, I… I… I missed it! All of it! I missed Rebecca's cheerful singing. I missed James's constant gloating. I missed Percy's laughter, Henry's fretting… I missed it all! But, most of all, I-I missed you. And I… I…'

He took a deep breath and tried to recompose himself as best he could. No matter what, he was still the island's grand express engine. He had an image to uphold, after all.

'I want to come back home,' He said. 'Where I belong. So, please, let me back in. I'm sorry.'

He looked down at the rails, strangely afraid of rejection. When he was brave enough to look back up, he was met with a shocking sight. Every engine was smiling. He could hardly believe it. It was almost enough to get the waterworks flowing again.

'Y-You mean it?' He asked. 'You're welcoming me back?'

The other engines all looked at the empty berth.

Gordon beamed.

'Oh, thank you, THANK YOU!' He cried. 'I was such a silly engine. This is where I belong!'

Everyone else was rather shocked to hear Gordon say 'thank you' on his own accord (for once in his life). But still, they said nothing. They simply watched in silence as the turntable was spun around and Gordon slowly backed into his-

'Welcome back, Gordon!' Rebecca declared, loudly. 'We missed you too!'

'Aw, Rebecca!' James said. 'We were doing so well until you opened your mouth.'

Rebecca blushed. 'O-Oh, sorry!'

Henry sighed. 'We almost had it…'

'What are you lot talking about?' Gordon asked. 'Almost had what?'

The others looked at each other a little awkwardly. Well, if they had spoken up and shattered the silence already…

'We were trying to be quiet,' Percy said. 'For you.'

Gordon gasped. 'For me?'

'At first, we thought you were acting silly and getting cross for no good reason,' Nia said. 'But we realised that you deserve some peace and quiet when you come home. After all, what you need is just as important as what we need.'

'Ya can thank Henry for this,' Emily said. 'He's the one who helped us realise that. After all, he understands how important some quiet time can be for an engine more than anyone else.'

Gordon glanced over at Henry, who smiled and blushed. He made the mental note that he owed Henry something for this.

'So we asked Stafford to help us learn how to be quiet!' Thomas said. 'And it… took a while. It wasn't easy for us.'

'But I think you'll find that we pulled it off!' James said. 'We didn't give up, and we did it. Complete silence for a whole thirty minutes!'

'It only took, uh, a while!' Rebecca said.

'Thirty minutes?!' Gordon cried. 'You taught yourselves how to be quiet for that long… just for me?'

'All for you!' Thomas said, grinning a cheeky grin. 'So you'd better be grateful!'

Indeed, he was grateful. Very grateful. As he backed into his rightful berth, he could hardly believe it. The mere sentiment that these engines had tried so hard to do something just for him, right after he had gotten mad at them, was so beautiful that he started tearing up again.

James peered a little closer. 'Hold on. Is that…?' He grinned. 'Oh, it is! Look at that, everyone. Big grand Gordon missed us so much that he's crying!'

Thomas laughed out loud. 'Wait, you're right, he is!'

'N-No!' Gordon snapped. 'I… Well, even if I was, so what?'

'Awww!' Henry said. 'H-He really did miss us! Snfff! And w-we really missed you too!'

Gordon groaned. 'Oh, Henry, please don't tell me you're crying too.'

'Too!' Percy said. 'He said TOO!'

'He admits it!' Rebecca said. 'He's crying!'

Gordon sat there blushing harder than he had in a long while. The other engines were laughing like hyenas (or making a strange laugh-cry sound in Henry's case). Well, so much for keeping it quiet.

'STOP!' Gordon shouted. 'Or I'll leave Tidmouth Sheds again, permanently!'

That shut everyone up. They stopped laughing. They stopped smiling. They all just stood there, all looking as if they'd be scrapped if they spoke a word. That was, until Gordon laughed.

'Now really,' He said. 'You can't honestly believe that I meant that? I was clearly joking. Especially after what happened tonight!'

Thomas laughed again. 'I think I must be rubbing off on you!'

'Say that again, and I really will be leaving Tidmouth Sheds.'

No one believed his threat this time. Not for a second. They all started laughing again. And Gordon couldn't help chuckling along with them, just a little.

'I think we should try being quiet again,' Nia said. 'Like we're supposed to be.'

'Indeed,' Gordon said. 'A little peace and quiet would still be nice. But it doesn't have to be for a whole thirty minutes. Just a short while should be enough. Wouldn't want all your hard work to go to waste!'

'Yeah!' Rebecca shouted. 'Let's all start being quiet, right now!'

With that, they all shut up. For real. Like, for real real. Gordon smiled a contented smile as he took in the silence. Just a few minutes really did make all the difference. He didn't need it as much as some engines did, like Henry. These few minutes were just enough. Especially when he could look around and see all his closest friends (minus Edward, who alas was still in Wellsworth).

Only one voice, a very quiet one, interrupted the tranquillity.

'Welcome back, Gordon,' Henry whispered - his voice was rather quiet for an engine of his size anyway.

Gordon smiled back. 'Glad to be back, Henry.'

When those few minutes were up, and the others started chattering and laughing among themselves again, Gordon didn't complain. He just sat there and appreciated every little second of it, the same way he had appreciated the silence.

Absence makes the firebox burn brighter, as they say.

THE END!
Oops, I mean...
the end.