Disclaimer: I do not own Scooby Doo or any of the characters. They belong rightfully to Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros.
Warning: Some smut in later chapters.
Hi guys! It's my first ever Scooby Doo fanfiction (I'm obsessed with Shelma), and I hope I made the characters not too OOC :")
By the way, this story occurs after Mysteries Inc left Crystal Cove and stayed in a penthouse... somewhere...
-xxx-
Velma Dinkley watched in horror as the fire licked its way across the corridor and slowly engulfed the door frame in flames. She was cornered, trapped between a boarded window and a burning hallway.
Think, think, think, she gritted her teeth, pulling the collar of her turtleneck over her nose and mouth, trying not to breathe the smoke that was stinging her eyes. She looked around the room - the walls were covered from ceiling to floor with books, which were starting to burn. Leave it to Velma's luck to run into a room filled with dry old pages while being chased by a fire.
Think, think, think.
She wondered about the rest of the gang, they had split up to search the house, and as always, she went alone. She had found clues (an old family photograph with the faces scratched off, a few cigarette butts, and the remaining of what seemed like dried coffee in a paper cup), and was about done with the second floor when she heard gunshot noises and saw that the staircase were already in flames. She was forced to retreat into last room in the corridor - the library with boarded windows.
She climbed onto the desk under the window and pulled at the wooden planks. One came off, but the space it uncovered wasn't big enough for her to go through, and there was still the glass. Coughing, she mustered all the strength she had left and slammed the glass with the plank in her hands. Once. Twice. The glass shattered and she thankfully breathed in the cool night air.
"Shaggy! Scooby!" she called out through the crack, "Help! Anyone!"
The tongues of flame were creeping towards her - almost at her ankles now, yet she doesn't have enough energy to remove another plank, despite the newfound oxygen. She could feel her bangs stick to her forehead and sweat drenching her sweater.
Looking around desperately through the crack in the glass, she spotted a familiar green scarf.
"Daph-," she tried to scream, but was cut off by a coughing fit. Her body couldn't take it. Her vision blurred and her muscles trembled - and then she collapsed.
-xxx-
Velma felt cold wind slap her face gently as she swung back to consciousness. Her eyelids were heavy but she forced them open a millimeter. She noticed that her glasses weren't at the bridge of her nose anymore. A moment later, her senses came back and a sharp, searing pain burned on her left shoulder and calf. She let out a loud, pained "Ungh!"
"Guys! She's awake!" She heard a familiar female voice and became aware that she was on a stretcher, and that sirens were screaming in her ears.
"What -," she started weakly, but her throat was dry, her lungs burned, and the pain in her shoulder and calf was only growing.
"Velma, zoinks, like, stay with me, man."
That was Shaggy. He sounded worried, but she had no strength to reply. Her face contorted in pain as they placed her in the back of the ambulance and slammed the door shut.
Velma gasped in shock when one of the pediatricians ripped her sweater at the front, but before she had a chance to react, his partner had pushed a needle into her arm and soon she was unconscious.
-xxx-
It was about 11 in the morning the next day when Velma finally opened her eyes. She blinked several times before registering the fact that she was in the hospital. Without her glasses, the room was just a blur of white, but the needle in the back of her hand and the fact that she was still alive tells her that she was obviously in the hospital.
"Hey guys! She's up!" She heard a voice on her right and squinted at the direction. Blonde. Fred. She saw the rest of the gang - blotches of purple, brown, and green coming towards her.
"Hey, Velms, like, how're you feeling?" Shaggy's face came to focus as he placed her glasses (probably a spare) on her nose.
"Hideous," she croaked, and she wasn't joking. She smelled like charred meat, and she was sure that her hair was matted to her forehead. She needed a bath. Badly. But the gang laughed anyways, and Daphne sat on the edge of her bed to help her take a sip of water. Oh the glory of water.
"What happened..?" She asked, wincing when she tried to sit up.
"Hey, hey, like, don't even try to get up."
"Rou'rl rip rour rarm roff," translate: you'll rip your arm off.
Velma gave up and leaned back down on her pillow, "Right. Well, then?"
"Well as you know we were looking for clues, you upstairs, me and Daph downstairs, and Shaggy and Scoob were in the basement," Fred started explaining, "Long story short the Flamester showed up when Scoob found a trapdoor leading somewhere below and they both ran back up and bumped into me and Daph."
"Yeah, like, the dude totally freaked us out!" Shaggy shuddered.
Daphne threw him an annoyed look and continued, "So of course we tried to leave the house, but the Flamester threw those fireballs at us and fried the staircase. And since the floors of the house were made of old, moldy wood..."
"Rit rall burned rown," (translate: it all burned down) Scooby finished.
"We called the firefighters and Shaggy heard your scream, but there was no way to scale the burning walls. They arrived a minute later but..," Fred shook his head.
"You like, passed out," Shaggy added.
Velma rolled her eyes, "Wow, like, I totally didn't notice."
Shaggy ignored her sarcastic comment and sat on the other side of her bed, near her left hip. "Like, when the pediatrics ripped your sweater open and tended to your shoulder I almost passed out myself!"
"What do you mean ripped my sweater?!" Velma's eyes grew wide with horror. Shaggy blushed a little, realizing what his words might imply.
"Well they needed to see how bad your injuries were," Daphne explained, "Then they injected you with anesthetics before treating to your second degree burns and cuts."
"If they knew they were gonna have to strip me, why was he allowed in the ambulance?!" She threw a dirty look at Shaggy, who flinched.
Sensing danger, Daphne placed a hand on Velma's good shoulder and said quickly, "We were all worried and insisted to come with you, but Fred had to drive the mystery machine and dogs aren't allowed, so me and Shaggy came with you. I mean, we didn't know."
Shaggy grinned apologetically when Velma threw him another look. It was one thing to be seen in your underwear, and another to be seen in your underwear by an ex-boyfriend when your skin is covered in soot and your hair drenched with sweat, smelling like coal. She hated being pathetic, reliant, or helpless. Last night, she was all that, if not much more gross.
The gang left for lunch an hour later and the doctor came by Velma's room to change her bandages and tell her that her burn wounds will scar. She accepted the news easily. Scars don't matter. None of them are going to show through her turtlenecks and knee socks anyways. Although this basically means goodbye to any dreams she'd had of ever becoming hot. Not like she had better chances without the burns anyways.
The gang had offered to take turns in sleeping over at the hospital to accompany her, but she refused. She preferred to be alone. Like always. Actually, no, it wasn't that she wanted to be alone, but watching her friends pairing up all the time made her realize, that she will never come first to any of them. When the time comes, Fred and Daphne will choose each other the way Shaggy had chosen Scooby over her a few months back. She was always the overlooked one, the odd one out.
-xxx-
A little less than a week later, Velma was discharged from the hospital, but her burns have yet to heal completely. Her skin was still raw and doing everyday things can still be difficult. What made it worse was that the gang acted like she needed help with every little thing like showers and meals. Sure they meant well, but it made her feel dependent. She hated it.
Few days after she was back in the penthouse, Velma came up with a theory on the case of the Flamester, whom she was sure to be the young boy in the picture she had scavenged from the house. She had slipped it in her sweater during the fire and Daphne had picked it up when her clothing were ripped off her.
"Evan Crowe," Velma clicked her tongue, as she typed into her laptop, "Driven insane by his family's cruel disciplinary actions, Crowe was the only one to survive the car crash that killed his family, but it seemed like he hasn't really been seen for the last 12 years."
"Well, that explains why he was robbing banks and frying parents who tried to discipline their children. He's crazy and most definitely broke," Daphne added, leaning in to Velma's side.
"I also found some dried coffee and cigarette butts which looked pretty recent, and one of the bedrooms in the second floor was less dusty than the others," Velma continued. "The trapdoor Scooby found in his basement must have led to his stash of gunpowder, and it's safe to say that that was the only place in the house not made of wood - which explains why there were no big explosions despite the dangerous things kept down there."
"Well, what are we waiting for then? It's trapping time!" Fred exclaimed, running around the house to find his things. Shaggy and Scooby groaned, knowing they'll be bait again, and Velma stood up to pack her laptop, but Daphne stopped her.
"Wait," she said gravely, "Velma shouldn't go."
"What? Why?" Velma started to complain, "I'm perfectly fine!"
Unfortunately, the others agreed with Daphne. Annoyed and feeling a bit left out for the thousandth time, Velma crossed her arms and sat back down, sulking.
"I think someone needs to stay home with her to make sure she doesn't follow us," Daphne added. Why, Velma thought sourly, does Daphne know me so well.
Shaggy and Scooby volunteered immediately, but were forced to play in a game of rock paper scissors in order to decide who stays home and who stays bait. Shaggy won. Velma groaned inwardly.
Thanks for reaching the end of chapter 1! There isn't much of the pairing in this chapter, but more will come, so please leave a review. I don't mind criticism :))