Comforting the blue engine

(Loosely based on Someone to Talk to by The_Alice_Killer)

"Edward, can I talk to you?"

"Hey, Edward! I need to talk to you."

"Edward, you have a moment?"

"We need to talk."

Edward heard those phrases and similar ones very often. He was always the one the other engines went to when they needed to talk. Edward didn't mind this at all, but by any means, it was hard. He constantly had to worry about other engines. To try to help them with their problems.

But, the main thing was: no one ever was there for him to talk to.

Edward  was seen as someone who didn't have any problems. Someone you could always rely on. But, that wasn't the case. Edward did have problems. And a pretty major one at that. He didn't know how it happened, but suddenly, he just lost motivation to do much. Nothing felt good to do anymore.

Edward didn't want to talk about it with his crew. Or with Boco. He didn't feel like they would understand him. But, no one else would listen either. If he tried, they'd always assumed he was asking a question about something unimportant. They never thought he'd be wanting to talk about how he felt.

Work was going by slowly again. Time seemed to freeze whenever he was at work. Edward could barely focus on anything. He felt exhausted, not because of his age, but his energy had been depleted a long time ago and never came back. Doing the simplest things were a great struggle, so you could imagine running a branch line was a lot more taxing.

Edward managed to stay on topic so no one suspected anything was up. The last thing he wanted right now was for them to worry. He wasn't ready to talk. He didn't know what he would say to them. He had to think about that first. Edward just kept pushing it off. He didn't want to talk.

During the next few hours, Edward had been late a few times. It was barely noticeable, but it seemed like everyone could tell. Edward hoped they wouldn't ask him about it. They normally only discussed the issues after work was over. He had some time yet to prove it was a simple slip up and wouldn't happen again.

The next few hours, it was worse. Edward was late about 10-15 minutes more. Emily looked over at him with a worried look. It wasn't like him to be late so much. Edward tried to give her a smile to reassure her that everything was fine. The day soon ended. Everyone knew something was up. They just didn't know if it was wise to ask about it.

That night, the other engines were talking about Edward's sudden behavior.

"I've never seen Edward behave like this." Said Thomas. 

"Has Edward ever had that behavior like this?" Percy asked.

"I've known Edward for quite a long time." Huffed Henry. "But I've never seen his behavior like this, it's just dis- dis-"

"Disgraceful!" Said Gordon.

"Disgusting!" Put in James.

"Despicable!" Finished Henry.

"I know." Huffed Toby. "Tomorrow, when we're all done with work, we'll go and talk to Edward about his problems."