A/N: This is a one-shot story about a music video I made of Daphne's feelings during "Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo show" and "Scooby Doo and the thirteen ghosts". If you wish to watch it it's called "Thinking of you Freddie". So enjoy this short story. :)
Daphne's hands gripped around the stirring wheel of the mystery machine tightly, her eyes desperately tried to stay focussed on the road. Accept her mind unwillingly slipped away to a certain young man who once sat in the driver's seat. Oh please, her weak voice pleaded, not him! anything but him! The ecstatic laughter from the remaining members of mystery inc faded away, She always kept herself busy, so that his face wouldn't enter her mind, but times like this, when she drove the mystery machine it reminded her. And so the vivid memories ran through her head, as soon as they appear the more likely she would spend the rest of the night locked in a small room. It was the best way to deal with it when she was near breaking point. To just cut her connections from realisation, and sit in a dark quiet room by herself. Ironically it was those same rooms that she was stuffed in when she was kidnapped. She sometimes pretended that he would open the door and save her. Once upon a time he did, but not anymore. Her fantasy was over.
Usually when her tears finally dried and whimpers no longer escaped her mouth, Daphne was ready to come out of her enclosure. Of course she never shown this to anyone, especially not Shaggy and Scooby. At first she was glad of his absence, Daphne was finally in control, she was the leader of mystery inc. For once she wasn't just the pretty looking girl who stood beside him. But soon she began to realise she spoke like him, like "Come on, gang." or "Let's split up".
She began to question herself, was she a substitute for him? The reason why he spoke to her, acknowledged her- was so that she could take over when he's gone?
But the boy still fascinated her, he wasn't exactly what she expected, he was polite, intelligent and handsome. Everything she wanted. He was like a- Drug, he is a drug, Daphne. You're like an addict in rehab. Get over it- he certainly has! Oh, but she wanted him so bad. She ached for him. She wanted to be in his presence, to see him, to feel him. Something real for once. No more hallucinations, no more projections, no more ghosts. She wanted the real Fred. Her Fred. She could never tell him the truth, because she known, after pushing the thought out of her head it always bounced back, that Fred just used her, he just wanted a way to get himself out of mystery inc. And he did. But why does he keep coming back? Why does he rip Daphne open and leave her bleeding? Why didn't he left her to die?
Daphne cringed, remembering their last encounter. Fred, Shaggy, herself and the dogs volunteered to help at an orphanage's Christmas play. They both kept their distances and if were to have a conversation, it was short and formal. After death stares to his face, and longing looks the minute his back was even half-way turned.
"The worst Christmas ever." she smiled, but there were no humour in her tone.
"What did you say, Daphne?" a voice shattered her thoughts, Daphne didn't realised that the van was silent. She slipped up. Shaggy had noticed the long daydreams, the smeared mascara and mysterious sobs at night.
"Are you okay?" the beatnik's concerned voice asked, Daphne's arms stiffed. Putting on a quick fake smile before she turned to answer.
"Yes, never better." she flashed her infamous smile, her voice thick with enthusiasm.
Shaggy smiled back, his eyes still unsure to believe the red head. Suddenly the silence broke by a large screech into the night, a luminous figure flew past the mystery machine.
"ZIONKS!" Shaggy yelled, Scooby jumped into his arms as Scrappy eagerly tried to see the ghost.
As soon as Daphne halted the van, the ghost vanished. She felt her fear flood through her body, and for some strange reason she felt relieved. She found some thing to keep her mind off him for a while.
"Looks like we've landed ourselves in another mystery, gang."
She tried to move on, but she had to admit, the only men that caught her eye had the same qualities as him. For example his smile, his eyes, the way he slipped his hand in his pocket with his thumb poking out. Damn she missed him. She even imagined hearing him, simply muttering from behind her, something he did while he was in deep thought. She was even tempted to hang herself, it would have been quick and clean, a belt and the fan in her hotel room. Easy. But she didn't have the guts. Unlike him, she was a coward. She could never become half as a great leader he was.
