Chapter 25:
Velma read the same paragraph about five times before she realized she kept repeating it. Somehow, she didn't remember it at all. She went back and made a sixth attempt.
Jinkies, it was useless. She just couldn't stay focused. Maybe she needed a break.
Except that she taken five breaks in the last hour. At the pace she was going, she might finish around four a.m. She just hoped she could finish it by work tomorrow. Evil Monday mornings...
She checked her watch. 3:20 p.m. Four a.m. was over twelve hours away. She had time...
And she had a lot to do.
Velma stood up and stretched. She needed a distraction of some kind. There was no way she could focus right now anyway.
And there a distraction was. Daphne was knocking on her door.
She ran to open it.
"Hi, Daphne!" she greeted her friend.
"Hi Velma," Daphne greeted back, then paused at the sight of the papers piled up on the table. "Sorry... is this a bad time?" She indicated the forms.
"Oh... don't worry about that. I can't really concentrate right now anyway. My mind is in a completely different universe."
"A universe with Shaggy, by any chance?" Daphne had been amused at Velma's head-over-heels reaction since she and Shaggy made up again. Velma nodded.
"How did you know?"
"Been there, done that," Daphne said, laughing. "Except my universe contained Fred, of course."
"Yeah, I guess you've been through everything before me. I should just look at your life to determine the future."
"Actually, I could probably do that myself, with my own life. History repeats itself."
"You're so poetic!" Velma teased.
"No, I mean history has repeated itself." Velma looked over at Daphne inquisitively. Daphne's face shone brightly. "I'm going to have another baby."
"Really? That's great, Daphne..." Velma grinned. "Now we can look fat together!"
Daphne donned a mock offended expression. "Maybe. When did you say yours was due?"
"August sixteenth."
"I guess I'll be showing by then. Mine's due in late December... the twenty-sixth. Maybe it'll get here a day early, a Christmas baby!"
"Your kids like showing up on holidays, don't they?" Velma pointed out, referring to Janice's delivery last Thanksgiving.
"Well... after Marie becomes famous, her birthday can be a holiday too."
"We don't know that it's a girl..."
"Yeah... but you never told me what you'll name it if it's a boy."
Velma blushed. "I still haven't decided."
"Well... you'll think of something. Just we've got dibs on the name Daniel, if ours is a boy."
"So naming our kids the same thing is entirely out?"
"What, were you thinking of the name Daniel?"
"No, just wondering."
"Because if you really wanted to name your baby the same thing, it's your right... but don't you think it might get confusing when the gang gets together and there are two kids named Daniel?"
"Relax, Daphne, Shaggy and I weren't even considering Daniel as a name." She thought for a moment. " 'When the gang gets together'-- that's a nice thought."
Daphne sighed happily. "Just wait and see. Our kids will be the best of friends. I wonder if the Mystery Machine will still work by the time they're old enough to drive it..."
"Hang on. You're not saying they'll go getting themselves lost in haunted houses as soon as they get the opportunity!"
"Why not? That's what we did."
Velma contemplated this, then said, "Well... I suppose it's one of the more harmless risks they could take as teenagers, all things considered."
Daphne nodded. "And they'll be better equipped. Odds are there will be more of them, and at least one of them will have superpowers..."
"You never know. Maybe all of them will."
Daphne's mixed feelings on that topic showed in her face, and Velma felt just a little bit of the same nervousness: Genetic modifications, particularly accidental ones, were not always positive; these children could be normal, gifted, or harmed, and neither Velma nor Daphne had any say in the matter. Plus there was the issue of, if Daphne's children had these abilities and Velma's did not, Velma's children wouldn't be allowed to know about Daphne's. At least, they couldn't know about the abilities of the Jones kids. Or the Jones kid, if Janice were the only one with powers.
Then Daphne's fear gave way to cheerfulness, and she envisioned, "I can just see it ten or so years from now. We'll be having a barbecue or something, and our kids will all be playing capture-the-flag or kickball, and someone will get into a fight over fair use of powers. Then they'll ask one of our husbands to referee, and--" She bit her tongue. Jeepers, she could be stupid at times. "Sorry," she apologized. "I forgot you and Shaggy--"
"It's all right," Velma said, dismissing Daphne's slip. Her friend hadn't meant to be insensitive. "Hey, it's just good to know that's still possible."
"So you still haven't made up your mind?"
Velma was silent for a moment. "Actually..." she confided. "I think I have."
"Have you told Shaggy yet?"
"It's kind of complicated..." Velma swallowed. "I guess I just feel kind of like I blew my chance. Like Shaggy deserves someone who wouldn't have left him."
"Don't sell yourself short, Velma. At any rate, even if he didn't deserve you, you're what he wants, regardless. And since you want him too, why should you deprive someone you love of someone he loves?"
Another thought crept through Velma's mind. "But... what if I scared him last time? What if he never asks me again?"
"You could always ask him..."
Velma shook her head. "I'd embarrass him. It would look like I was saying he didn't have the initiative to ask me himself."
"Well... what do you want?"
"To marry him!"
"Then that will happen, sooner or later. You can always drop hints, or just bring it up as a discussion without proposing. And Shaggy does have initiative... who kissed whom in the first place?"
Velma pondered this. Finally she said, "Thanks, Daphne. You're a great friend."
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Those who favored Daphne's idea would have called it being a true friend. Those who at least thought it was cute would have called it playing cupid. Those who disliked her idea would have said it was plain old gossip, and those who were outright opposed to the whole thing would have called it meddling.
But was meddling not Mystery Inc.'s trademark?
As soon as Daphne got home, she found Fred and talked to him.
"Freddie... you should call Shaggy tonight."
"Why?"
"Because this would probably be better as a man-to-man discussion." And, thought Daphne to herself, I would probably start giggling in the middle of the whole thing.
"Okay..." Fred sounded curious. Daphne looked him in the eye.
"Tell him Velma wants to marry him."