The Mystery of Living
In which there is no big mystery but lots of small ones. A slice of life fic.
'Bells, always bells,' Daphne thought as chimes sounded around her head. They were soft and repetitive, and slowly annoying her. She spun around, but she couldn't find the source of the sound. Finally the sound grew louder and she put her hands over her ears in a futile effort to block the noise.
"Ooh," she moaned, only to open her eyes suddenly. Her phone was ringing, and she threw out a hand to answer. Beside her, Fred murmured, still asleep.
"Shh," she told him and then answered the phone. "H'lo?"
"Daphne Blake-Jones?"
The unfamiliar voice made her look at her display. 'Private' flashed unhelpfully.
"Yes," she confirmed, cautiously.
"I was calling for you and Fred Jones. I was referred to you because... I have a mystery."
"What?" Daphne screeched. Shaking Fred, she hissed "wake up! Some guy is asking for help on a mystery!"
"Huh?" Fred sat up on the bed, looking around the room.
"I'm going to put my husband on the phone, okay?"
Smiling, Daphne slipped out of bed and headed for her robe, listening to Fred flail on the phone.
-----
"Vel! Get the phone!"
"You get the phone, Kris," Velma muttered, still asleep.
Instead, Kris handed the phone to her. Sighing, she looked at the display. "Daphne?"
"Hi Velma! I hope you've been fine! Here's Freddie!"
"Wow, Daph, lay off the caffeine," Velma murmured as Daphne announced "I got her" to Fred before handing the phone off.
"Hi Velma!" Apparently Fred had gotten into the coffee too. "How's, uh, Kris?"
Velma sighed. "If there is a chase, cut to it."
"There's a mystery. We want to unite the team again."
"That's a no," Velma said and snorted. "I do have an actual job now."
"I know, but we do too and it won't take long. Surely you have some vacation?"
"Yes, that Kris and I were planning to use on an actual vacation," Velma snapped.
"Just one weekend. Give us one weekend and we'll leave you alone. Don't you miss us?"
Fred said this in a plaintive tone, making Velma feel guilty for shooting him down so quickly. Rolling her eyes on how much of a sap she was, she sighed again and said, "Fine, Fred, one weekend. But that's it, I swear."
"Yes! You won't regret this!"
"I already do. See you tonight."
Velma hung up and turned to Kris. "Wanna go meet my friends?"
Kris grinned. "With the enthusiasm you're exhibiting, how could I say no?" Her smile turned wicked. "Besides, being away from work with my girlfriend feels like a vacation..."
-----
The phone was ringing,but Shaggy ignored it. At the moment, his hands were busy, rolling his blunt to the perfect thickness. He ran a lighter over it to seal it and then put it into his travel kit. Task finished, he picked up his bowl. Scooby, who was zoned in front of the tv, turned his head toward Shaggy, expression questioning.
"Just a couple of hits, Scoob. I'm gonna go out today, I swear," Shaggy reassured him.
"Rokay," Scooby said and turned back to the tv. Shaggy regarded him for a minute. Scooby was a lot less active nowadays, sitting more and moving, speaking and even eating less. While the last thing was probably good, the other two were worrisome.
Shelving the topic for later, Shaggy took a hit from the bowl, slowly exhaling the smoke.
The phone rang again and he almost dropped the bowl, startled. Most calls lately were wrong numbers, and those usually happened less than once a day. For the phone to ring twice was downright busy.
"Get the phone, Raggy," Scooby said, getting on all four paws and pacing back and forth.
Shaggy nodded and reached out. He saw the display and answered quickly. "Fred?"
"Hey Shag. How've you been?"
"Okay, just fine," Shaggy said, waving a hand before realizing that Fred couldn't see it. "What about you and Daph?"
"Good, good. Listen. We have a mystery and we're all getting together. Is the Mystery Machine still running?"
"Like a top," Shaggy said proudly. Other than having Scooby, and a supply of weed, keeping the old van moving was his thing. "Are we meeting at your place?"
"Yeah, the guy's coming to brief us, and we figured we should all be in the loop."
'Must be Daph's influence, making Fred more diplomatic,' Shaggy thought. "All right, see you tonight."
Fred hung up and Shaggy whooped. He felt more energized than he had in quite a while.
"C'mon Scoob, we have a mystery to solve!"
"Rokay!" Scooby jumped up as if he was a puppy again.
"But first," Shaggy said, and he and Scooby chorused, "Let's eat!"
-----
Shaggy showed up first, of course, because he lived only a couple of hours from Fred and Daphne's house. He surveyed the perfectly manicured lawn, with the white picket fence and shuddered in dismay. He couldn't picture himself with all the... surburbanness around him.
Fred answered the door, wearing a polo shirt and khakis. "What, no ascot?" Shaggy joked as he and Scooby walked in.
"No, not around the house," Fred said and faked a laugh. Shaggy could tell he was irked by the question and felt bad- this was awkward enough without adding further tension.
"Daphne will be right out- she was pulling cookies out the oven and wanted to get them cooled, so... I'll shut up now. Beer?"
"Yes, please," Shaggy answered quickly.
"Me roo," Scooby added, so Fred juggled three beers, putting Scooby's into a bowl.
"Well, this isn't at all like old times," Daphne said as she entered the room. She had a martini glass in her hand. Shaggy eyed her purple wraparound dress with appreciation.
"I was told there were cookies," Shaggy said.
"Hello to you too, Shag. Nice beard. Cookies are cooling in the kitchen, and will be available in ten minutes."
A silence fell in the room. Scooby finished his beer and lay down, head on his paws. Shaggy pretended to be entranced by the fishtank that dominated a wall, Fred got up abruptly and walked upstairs, muttering something about a phone call, and Daphne tossed back whatever was in her glass. "This is weird. Why is this weird?" she asked softly.
Shaggy opened his mouth, and she said "Never mind, I know why. This is not what I had in mind..."
"What do you mean?"
"I thought we'd all show up, and say, wow, you haven't changed at all! I guess I was still expecting you in cords."
Shaggy looked down at his ripped jeans and Bob Marley shirt. "Yeah, I've moved on, I guess."
"Have you?" Daphne's voice was still soft, and Shaggy looked away from the tank and into her eyes.
"Yes..." and Shaggy looked away.
Fred came back down, holding a book. "Look what I found! I was gonna wait for Velma, but we can show her when she gets here."
He showed them the title- North High Annual.
"You found our yearbook! Oh wow." Daphne took the book from Fred and started flipping through the pages. "Look at my signature to you! 'Dear Freddie, as long as the ocean waves... stay groovy! Hugs and Kisses'... how many x's and o's did I possibly need? 'Daffy.' Daffy!" She hooted. "Let's see what you put, Shag."
"Give me that!" Shaggy took the book and flipped to the back. Let's see, 'Remember the Alamo? Neither do I! Norville Rogers'. I used the full formal on you, man!"
"I've got to go find mine! I wanna see your signatures to me!" Daphne took off and the two guys sat and idly flipped through the book. "Remember junior prom?" Fred pointed to a picture of a group of formally dressed students, looking terrified.
"How could I forget? The ghost of North High! Our principal was weird," Shaggy mused.
"What about the time that we went to the sock hop and ended up finding that treasure?"
They lapsed back into silence, but the mood was comfortable this time, as they thought about their shared past.
-----
"Well, this is the exit. I guess we can't turn back now."
Kris looked at Velma, eyebrow lifted. "Seeing as how we're 5 hours away from our house, probably not, no."
"I'm just anxious. These are the people I spent my formative years with. I was a nerd, Kris!" Velma glanced over at her girlfriend. "You're not impressed, are you?"
"Nope," Kris said cheerfully. "They liked you then, they'll love ya now. Ya big doof."
Velma grinned and made a turn. "Love me? I'll just settle for 'not killing each other'. We didn't exactly end on good terms, all of us."
"You did say it was just circumstances. No tears, fights or the like."
"Sometimes it doesn't come to that. Sometimes, you just know where to get off the ride. It was good, but that was then."
Kris snorted. "So dramatic. You sound like my friends and I, back when I was like, 13."
"Fine! Watch, when we get there, they'll be yelling, and Daph might cry, or Fred."
They pulled up to the house, parking behind the Mystery Mobile ("Wow, psychedelic paint job," Kris commented) and walked up the path.
"Oh, I totally forgot to tell you about Scooby!" Velma grimaced as she rang the doorbell.
"Tell me what?" Kris asked as Daphne swung open the door.
"Never mind," she answered quickly. "Hey Daph!"
"Velma! It's been forever! Come in, we have cookies, and look, we've been looking through our old yearbooks. Wow, we were cheesetastic!"
Daphne hugged Velma briefly and then shook hands with Kris. Velma laughed inwardly-most of the time, the reverse happened- and they trooped into the living room, where the guys were holding up old decals and laughing.
"Remember these? We were going to make over your room to match the van!" Fred whooped, and he and Shaggy fell over laughing.
"And how early did you make with the beer?" Velma asked, eyebrow raised.
"Actually," Daphne whispered into Velma's ear, "Shaggy went to 'show Fred something in the van'. I think Scooby Snax were involved."
"Ah," Velma said in understanding. "Dang, I missed it!"
"Don't worry, I'm sure Shag brought plenty. Judging from the shirt, anyway. By the way, I love your haircut. It's super cute!"
"Wow, thanks, Daph! You look hot, as usual."
"Thanks!" Compliments out the way, the women sat on the couch across from the men and started pulling out stuff from the box that was on the table.
"Our very first mystery! The knight thing! I went back to that museum last year, remember Kris, and that suit of armor is still on display." Velma touched the the faded museum pass. "I can't believe I was that young."
"I can't believe you don't wear the glasses anymore! That's wacky." Fred looked at her again. "Who knew your eyes were hazel?"
"No one, apparently. Thank god for Lasik."
"Look at this!" Daphne thrust a yearbook in her hands. "That's our club, remember? No one else joined and we were glad because we didn't want tryouts anyway."
Velma looked at the picture of them back then. All of them were smiling at the camera, her with those awful black glasses and favorite pumpkin sweater (funny how it didn't fit anymore and not because she'd picked up weight since school) and Daphne with her pilgrims on, and the guys in bellbottoms.
"We were groovy back then, weren't we?" Velma traced the old Mystery Inc logo with her finger.
"I said that earlier!" Daphne said.
"Why did we ever stop this?" Fred asked, looking around.
"The whole hanging out thing? Dunno. The mystery thing? Because it looks suspicious driving around in a van for long periods of time if you're over 20." Velma looked down again and then looked up. "For what it's worth, I missed you."
Kris snorted softly beside her and Velma elbowed her. "Anyway. We have a new mystery to solve, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," Fred jumped up and grabbed a piece of paper. "This guy called this morning with an British accent and asked if we could help him solve the mystery of Grant's Tomb."
"Wait, what? Grant's Tomb? You've got to be kidding me!" Velma threw her hands up in the air. "You called us here for a prank call?"
"Um, oops?" Fred smiled sheepishly.
-----
In the end, the fact that there was no reason for them to come together was a good enough reason to do so. They spent the weekend reminiscing about good times and bad, and resolved to keep in touch more often. Kris got the surprise of her life when Scooby asked her to give him some cookies, and everyone made a 'trip to the van'.
It wasn't until they were driving home that Kris said, "You know, I was promised tears from one of your friends. I demand recourse!"
"Hey, I cried, and that should be enough for you. So when I come back this summer, will you come with?"
"Sure, if you'll come to Connecticut. Meet my girls and all."
Velma just nodded. "Yep. It's good to reconnect with people. My friends are the best."
-----
After everyone had left, Daphne asked Fred, "Did you know that was a prank? And please answer yes, so I don't question your intelligence."
Fred just winked and walked her upstairs.