"Why can't we just go home?" Chase asked quietly.
"I have a shift at the radio station, remember?"
"Why can't I go with you?"
"You had a TRM last time"
"I don't remember it"
"You were rocking and screaming and scratching,"
"I wish I were normal then I wouldn't get overwhelmed," Chase grumbled.
"Hey, do I look normal to you?"
"But you don't shut down or act out, you have control over your body"
"So do you"
"Not always"
"That's okay"
"It's not okay"
"Look," Christina watched Chase from the review mirror, "You are perfect the way you are, no if and or but's about it"
"You're my sister, you're supposed to say stuff like that"
"So I'm wrong?"
"I dunno but I still want to go with you"
"I promise, I'll talk to Angel okay?"
"Okay," Chase mumbled.
"Cheer up, buddy," Christina smiled at him as their uncle's castle came into view, "You'll have fun"
"I dunno"
"Trust me"
…...
"I'm Here!" Christina announced.
"You're late," Cassidy pointed to the clock.
"I know, It was a hard time getting Chase out of the car"
"How is your brother?"
"Some days are better than others," Christina said moving to the shelves of records that still needed to be organized, with most equipment gone digital Cassidy didn't need the records as much as she once did, keeping them for nostalgia's sake. Her collection, however, was a decades-spanning behemoth that Christina was tasked to organize.
She still hadn't made it past the sixties.
"School alright?"
"So, so," Christina waved the question off, "Do you have every record ever?"
"No, but it's pretty close"
"I'll be here a while then"
…...
Shaggy lay on his bed as he did every single day, losing himself to the heart-crushing grief. Why? Why hadn't he tried harder to stop them from going into that barn? Whether there were clues to find or not it would have been fine to leave the deathtrap be. They could have searched for groundbreaking clues. Despite his objections, they'd moved forward, he'd followed as he always had, holding tightly to Velma's hand, ready to yank her out of harm's way if the creep of the week decided to make an unexpected appearance.
But, they were gone now, crushed to death while this side of him. This, werewolf blessing surfaced in time to save him.
If only. If only it hadn't waited. Maybe, maybe if it had surfaced earlier, he could have saved his lifelong friends from their deaths.
But it hadn't and he couldn't so he lay under his covers after school, one hand around Velma's spare glasses as always.
"Shaggy," his father pushed open the door, "We've got to go, son"
"Go where?" Shaggy croaked.
"Your mother and I want you to get checked out by a doctor, we have to go now"
"Like, there's no point in going anywhere, Dad"
"We've already made the appointment, we have to go, come on, please"
It took great effort but his parents eventually got him into the car, Scooby by his side as always. Shaggy was expecting a very long ride to a very big city like he was accustomed to. Instead, it was a short drive to the Steins clinic.
"Why are we here?" Shaggy groaned.
"We just wanted you to have a check-up," Stacy smiled weakly, "Come on"
Shaggy dragged his feet, following behind his parents with one hand on scooby's back the entire time. They were brought into what Shaggy could only guess was an exam room and told to wait. It took everything in him not to break down again, he was holding on by a thread now.
This was sure to be a disaster.
The door opened, the two doctors Viktor and Vivika Stein coming into the room.
"Hello, Shaggy," Vivika greeted.
"Hi," Shaggy sighed.
"We're just going to run a few tests, okay?" Viktor explained.
"Fine"
Whatever got him out of there fastest. Following their every direction as they conducted the tests, one would find at a child's checkup before his parents stepped out of the room, following Viktor while Vivika stayed behind, pulling a chair to face him.
"What now?" Shaggy asked.
"Now you are going to talk and I'm going to listen"
"I don't want to talk"
"That's alright but we're going to be here for some time so it'd be best if we talk about something"
But, Shaggy didn't want to talk. Not about the school, not about his peers. Especially not the accident that put him here in the first place! He should have expected something like this from his parents. They were so concerned. They should have just left him alone!
He wanted to be left alone! Was that so hard to understand?
…...
So many records! There were so many records!
"Christina, you've been at it for an hour and a half, why don't you take a break?" Cassidy suggested, "Take a break"
"No, way, I'm almost to the seventies over here!" Christina glanced away from her sorting, "I found a Josie and the Pussycats album hidden in here"
"That's where it went," Cassidy rolled her eyes, "Grouped by genre instead of year, flighty summer interns" she tsked.
"I'll put it where it belongs, don't worry"
"After you take a break"
"But-"
"Christina"
Christina sighed heavily, brushing loose hair from her face as she stood before plunking back down in the nearest chair. A new song started giving Cassidy leave for a conversation.
"You've done good work," she observed the newly labeled shelves, neat stacks of things yet to be sorted, and the duplicate bin.
"All in a day's work," Christina brushed off the compliment.
"So what's Chase up to?"
"I can't get a new book in front of him fast enough, no sooner do I find one than he's finished it, I just wish he could find some friends but he does have to go to the normie school so that's harder than usual"
"Your mother used to teach him, didn't she?"
"Mom and Daddy both, Grandmother offered to take the teaching responsibility but you know, new environments stress him"
"I'm always here if you need a little help"
"Thanks, Cassidy"
…...
When Shaggy was finally allowed to go home, his parents sent him outside citing the need for fresh air. Christina wasn't in her garden which saved him from a conversation. The only one on the other side of the fence was her wolf who was snoozing under a tree. Looking from the garden next door to his own family's yard he was reminded how empty it was. What was he supposed to do? Just sit in the grass?
Everything was empty. So, so, empty.
Like his life.
…...
Christina had barely stepped into the entry hall before Chase crashed into her. For how small he was he had three times the strength. Squeezing her tightly.
"Home now?"
"Let me say hello first, okay?"
"Okay," Chase released her only to grab tightly to her arm.
"Hey, did something happen today?"
"No"
"You are not a good liar," Christina gently replied, "You can tell me or Uncle Dracula will"
Chase remained tight-lipped so Christina was left with no other choice. Climbing the stairs to the study with Chase hanging off of her arm. The door was open, he was waiting for her with Chase's backpack in hand.
"Hello, Uncle Dracula"
"Christina," Dracula sighed heavily, "You need to see these," he handed over Chase's bright red homework folder with Mickey's sorcerer's hat drawn on the cover.
"Don't look-" Chase pleaded but Christina had already opened the folder.
Barely passing grades with notes reading stop letting your sister do your homework for you met her.
It took everything in Christina to not explode.
"Chase," She looked to him for answers, "What is this?"
"My-my history teacher thinks you're doing my homework for me!" he broke down, "I-I-I told her you weren't I even showed her the slip from the field trip last year and she didn't believe me"
Clenching her jaw, Christina pried Chase from her arm so she could hug him properly, "We'll fix this, okay?"
"I don't want to go there anymore, Christy," Chase sobbed.
"Then we'll figure something else out, I am not putting up with this any longer," Christina declared, "The fostering inclusion bit won't work any longer"
"I'm sorry Christy"
"You have nothing to be sorry for bud," Christina ruffed his hair, "Hey, let's buck the system and go to the bookstore okay?"
"The big bookstore? Not the one in the Maul right?"
"Yes, the big quiet bookstore with the wide shelves and the cat-"
"Sylvester"
"Sylvester"
"Can we go right now?"
"If you tell Uncle Dracula and Aunt Vana goodbye first"
Chase hugged Dracula before running out of the room to find Vana. Once he was gone, Christina shut the door.
"What am I going to do?" she mumbled dejectedly, "The monster school isn't equipped for special needs students and I can't teach him! I-I-I-"
"Christina, ve'll think of something together, you don't have to do it all on your own"
"I wish Mom and Daddy were here"
"So do I," Dracula agreed, "Ve haven't given up the search, ve'll bring them home"
"I hope you're right"
…...
There was no telling how much time had passed while he sat there staring at nothing. Buried in thoughts. The sound of doors opening startled him footsteps following soon after. Velma his heart begged though he knew it wasn't her it would never be her anymore. Eyes drifting to Christina's house he saw her wind through the gardens, with a watering can in her hand.
"Hello, Shaggy," she smiled at him, beginning to water the flowers.
"Hi, Christina"
He didn't ask where she'd been, she didn't ask anything. Christina never pushed for conversations. Not like his family, not like others.
Brushing her braid back, Christina returned to her flowers, a song soon following.
"I know you
I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you
The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
Yet I know it's true
That visions are seldom all they seem
But if I know you, I know what you'll do
You'll love me at once
The way you did once upon a dream "
The song wasn't meant for him. Christina's songs were never meant for him and yet, every time he heard her sing it was as if the songs were his. Wrapping him in a warm, happy feeling that he hardly felt anymore. There was something about Christina that made his heart do things it shouldn't have. Things that betrayed Velma.
Velma who still held his heart.
Velma who haunted his nightmares, her body shattered and bloody.
What was he to do?
The feeling of his heart being pulled into two different directions. Torn into two halves.
No.
He couldn't betray Velma.
He WOULDN'T betray Velma!
But even as he stood to go inside, his heart was begging to stay. Pleading to stay near Christina.
…...
The shadows stretched across the house, Chase was slumbering peacefully in his room with Jade laying protectively over him. But Christina couldn't sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she saw her parents. Her mother's smile, her father's thoughtful eyes. Clenching and unclenching her fists she tiptoed from her room to her parent's room, laying on their bed, letting the tears slip free, inhaling her mother's flowery smell, the leather of her father's books.
"I don't know what to do," she whispered, "I need you, I miss you so much, please come home to us"