CHAPTER 47

'What's wrong Daph?' she heard Fred ask.

Daphne turned around and saw Fred making his way towards her.

'Velma just stormed past me looking mightily angry. Are you okay?'

She sighed. 'She knows, Fred.'

Daphne had expected Fred to be embarrassed about that. But instead, he simply shrugged and replied, 'Well, I'm glad she knows we're serious.'

Her mood lifted significantly at Fred's response.

'But why was Velma so angry?'

'Well because she… Actually. I don't know,' Daphne replied in surprise.

'Is it because we made out in the middle of a war zone?'

'Maybe…'

'Why should that be a big deal? For her, I mean.'

'Freddie, it's not that… she thinks… well. I know what she thinks. I just wanted to say I'm sorry.'

Fred looked shocked. 'For what?'

'For forcing you into having sex with me. I know you weren't really ready.'

'You didn't force me into anything Daph. If I didn't want to do it, I would've stopped you.'

'Mm.'

'I did want to do it. And I don't think you should care about what whoever says.'

It was a subtle nod to Velma.

'It's hard Freddie, she's my best friend.'

'Is she? The two of you have done nothing but fight and argue since this war started.'

Daphne reflected on that. It certainly was true. The initial hike down into Headquarters was characterised by them going at each other's necks.

'Best friends can still fight,' she said quietly.

Daphne thought Velma's attitude had a lot to do with some personal issues she had going on at the moment, and trying to figure out who she was. It didn't excuse her behaviour.

'We had to do it, Daph. You're right – you've been saying it all along. Life is unpredictable, now more than ever. What if soldiers raid Headquarters tomorrow and kill you? I'll live with the regret for the rest of my life that I never got to have that moment with you. It was special to me, Daph. Really special.'

'You're too sweet.'

But Fred thought she still didn't seem convinced. 'Hey, listen, tonight, I'll prove you didn't force me into it.'

Daphne gave him a coy smile. 'I would like that very much.'

'Come on, let's get lunch started. The guys will be back soon, and I'll bet they'll be starved!'

'That's something that'll never change.'

~oO*Oo~

Fred, Daphne and Velma were sitting around the dead campfire in a tense silence. Fred and Daphne were sitting close – not close enough for Velma to glare in their direction, but still close enough to feel each other's warmth. They were just finishing their lunch when Shaggy bounded breathlessly back into camp. The others stood up in alarm immediately.

'Where's Scooby?' Daphne asked.

'What happened?'

'Shag, what is it?'

They were all firing questions at him, but Shaggy held his hands out to try and calm them down while he caught his breath.

'Like… it's all okay… Scooby's fine,' he panted.

That seemed to cease the rapid bombardment of questions.

'Would you like a wrap, Shaggy?' Daphne offered.

'Yes, but let's wait until the others get here.'

'The… others?' Fred echoed.

'Yeah. Like, that's why I came here first because like, it came as a huge shock to me and Scoob. We thought it was the end for us.'

'What the hell is going on Shaggy?' Velma demanded.

Shaggy looked taken aback at Velma's anger. 'Right, right, okay. We like, met someone. And we offered if she wanted to come down here with us and she said yes. Like, I hope you're all good with that.'

'Do we know her?' Daphne asked.

Shaggy nodded knowingly. 'Oh yeah. We know her. And you won't believe the story of what brought her here in the first place.'

'Why are you here alone then?' Fred asked.

'To brace you guys. We didn't like, want to walk in on you guys in case you had guns blazing at us.'

'Fair enough. So when will they get here?'

'Right now. Hey Scooby! You can like, come over here now!' Shaggy called.

The three of them turned their heads as Scooby walked triumphantly from the bushes. And in step just behind him – the other three gasped: 'ANGEL DYNAMITE!'

Angel Dynamite – aka Cassidy Williams – looked a little sheepish as she walked into the clearing behind Scooby. Like them, she was coated head to toe in black – a colour they were not used to seeing her in, as her usual attire was neon green. She had always been thin, but she now looked unhealthy and scrawny: her cheeks were hollow and her eyes were sunken. Her magnificent black Afro had been shaved unevenly close to her head, and her dark skin had lost its golden glow. She gave the gang a small smile in response to their stunned faces.

They were all too shell-shocked to say anything for a good couple of minutes – even Velma. Daphne recovered first and got up to embrace their old friend.

'Cassidy! It is so good to see you!' Fred beamed.

'Thank you, Fred. It's good to see you too.'

After Fred hugged Cassidy, Daphne reached around and hugged him too. He squeezed her back hard, releasing all his emotions of shock, relief and happiness on her. They sat down together and started bombarding questions at Cassidy.

'I… I thought you were on the Coval!' Fred gasped. 'I saw you there – in that cage!'

'I escaped,' Cassidy replied.

'Cassidy, I was under the impression that there was a great penalty for escapees,' Velma said.

Cassidy's face tightened. 'You kids can't talk, honey.'

'Actually, yes we can! We didn't escape! We were never there in the first place!'

'I know.'

'Of course!' Fred said.

'They know you're missing. You're on their most wanted list. Especially with some of the things you've done.'

'Jeepers.'

'You're the only people in Crystal Cove who they haven't managed to track down. But if it was going to be anybody, I knew it would be you five,' she said, giving them a small smile.

'But I still don't understand…' Velma began.

'How are our families?' Daphne interrupted.

'I don't know, Daphne. I escaped months ago. They were fine when I last saw them. I escaped before there was a serious penalty,' she added, eyeing Velma.

'What kind of penalty?' Daphne asked.

'Basically, when work parties go out, they hold their family members or closest friends hostage to prevent them from escaping. I hate to say it, but it's quite an effective system. I escaped before they even implemented work parties.'

'You've been on the run for months?' Fred asked. 'When did you escape? How did you get here?'

'Whoa, hold on baby.'

'Rou will not relieve the rtory of how Rangel is here!' Scooby said excitedly. 'Rell rhem!'

Cassidy smiled at him. 'Okay Scooby. I escaped on the night of the explosion. When you guys blew up City Hall. I assume it was you guys? People said they saw you fly past on motorbikes, but few believe it.'

'Yeah, that was us,' Daphne replied, a little proudly.

Cassidy looked down at them approvingly. 'Nice work. Very good. In the confusion and chaos, I slipped out without anyone noticing. I headed for the bush because, well…'

'Like, here is the good part!' Shaggy said.

'REEEEEEE!' Scooby squealed.

'I better let you two tell it.'

'HER GRANDFATHER IS (R)EDWARD (R)WILLIAMS!'

Fred, Daphne and Velma's mouths dropped in shock. The mysterious Edward Williams whose name was in a plaque on top of the Lookout now had a meaning.

'Your grandfather was the guy who fell off the cliff?' Velma said. 'Incredible! How did we not see the connection with the surname before?'

'Williams is quite a common surname,' Cassidy shrugged. 'And he didn't fall – he was pushed.'

'By who?'

Cassidy chose to leave Daphne's question unanswered. 'My family have treated that lookout above the valley as his gravesite. That's how I knew about this place. I never knew my grandfather; he died long before I was born. But I knew it was the perfect place to go – probably for reasons similar to what you kids decided. That's what Shag and Scoob told me.'

'So Cassidy, did they ever, err, find his body?' Fred couldn't resist asking.

'No. I didn't know there was even a way down here until Shaggy and Scooby showed me.'

Fred glanced at Shaggy and Scooby – so it seemed they had not told Cassidy about that skeleton. Shaggy caught Fred's eye and briefly shook his head. Fred understood.

'So Cassidy, where have you been all this time? Why haven't we seen you before?' Daphne asked.

'I've been around.'

'How?'

'I survived.'

'Wait! So it was you in the cottage that night!'

'Huh?'

'That's right!' Velma said. 'When we were on a supply raid, we saw someone in the window.'

'It was bloody creepy. So it was you?'

'You were in that cottage too?' Cassidy quailed in disbelief. 'By god, that was terrifying. I thought you were soldiers doing a raid! I thought you were making too much noise to be civilians.'

'You also probably weren't expecting civilians,' Fred said, slightly put out that she had said they were noisy.

'True.'

'That explains all the tin cans then.'

'So you took them!'

'We're really sorry. We wouldn't have taken them if we'd known you were using them,' Fred said.

'But, you can have some of them back during your stay here,' Daphne offered.

'Ha. Yeah, thanks for the accommodation by the way.'

'If you would call it that.'

'Hey! I think it's great. You've made it into a nice refuge.'

'It's called Headquarters,' Fred said.

'Is it now? I see. I like your van wheel out the front of the camp,' Cassidy said. 'Maybe you should carve Headquarters into it.'

'Yeah, maybe.'

Daphne took Fred's hand and gave it a squeeze. Things were going to be so different now they had an actual adult with them. That was what they had wanted for so long. But did they want it anymore? She looked to Fred and could tell he was thinking the same thing. A look of understanding passed between them – one that was not unnoticed by Cassidy. She raised an eyebrow in their direction and looked quizzically at Velma.

Shaggy seemed to be aware of the unspoken escalating tension between Fred, Daphne and Velma and now Cassidy, so he quickly changed the subject.

'Hey, like wanna hear the story of how Scoob and me met Cassidy?'

'I would love to,' Fred said.

'Please! How did the raid go, by the way? We didn't even ask!' Daphne said.

'Like, it was fine. No soldiers, no creepy people watching us… like, at least, not as far as we know anyway.'

Daphne sighed in relief. 'I'm glad it went smoothly for you.'

'Like, so are we,' Shaggy said honestly. 'It's tough work; I'll give you that. Lugging all that stuff to Headquarters. But anyway, the story.'

'Re were on the ray rack and it was night and re had just rinished the walk to the Rookout. And we were raving a ridnight snack. We round rarshmallows in the rouse we raided so we recided to reat those but while we were reating them, re noticed the rinside rasted reird. Really bad. Re turned on the rorch and saw that there was rould inside.'

'Ew!' Daphne exclaimed.

'Like yeah,' Shaggy chuckled. 'We were eating them on the hike to the Lookout as well and I was wondering why they tasted funny. Like, I guess that's what made me sick on the way there.'

'But you continued to eat them?' Fred said, trying to stifle his laughter.

'Well of course,' Shaggy said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

'Ri didn't get rick,' Scooby said, puffing out his chest. 'Rand I had more than rou.'

'Your stomach must be made of scrap iron,' Daphne said.

'Is this really important?' Velma said in a bored tone.

'Err, well I guess not. We got like, a little side-tracked. Like anyway, there we were at the Lookout. And then Angel said "Shaggy? Scooby? Is that you?"' Shaggy said, doing his best imitation of Cassidy's strong southern accent. 'And we like jumped out of our skin, but I guess looking back on it, there was no easy way she could've revealed herself.'

'Reah, we rould've been rcared ranyway.'

'With good reason,' Cassidy agreed. 'Of course I knew it was you two, what with the amount of food you were eating.'

'So is that it?' Velma said sarcastically. 'Great story.'

Shaggy and Scooby looked visibly hurt at Velma's comment.

'What's up your arse tonight?' Daphne said angrily.

'Nothing, but I know what's going to be up yours tonight.'

Angry red fury flashed through Daphne as she made a move to stand up and approach Velma. But Fred pushed her back down.

'Cork it, Dinkley,' he said.

Shaggy, Scooby and Cassidy looked confused and bewildered at what they had just witnessed. Daphne wrapped her arms around Fred's shoulders and buried her face into his neck. Fred felt a warm wetness on his skin, and realised to his horror that Daphne was crying. He was furious at Velma for reducing Daphne to this state, but he couldn't bring himself to yell at Velma in front of everyone.

'You're so mean to me,' Daphne sobbed. 'Why are you being so mean to me lately? Can't you just… just go to bed. Go away,' she kicked a foot out in Velma's direction.

Cassidy suddenly sprang up from where she had been sitting. 'Hey Velma, why don't you come with me and show me around the camp?'

Velma shrugged and started to walk away. Cassidy thought she had rejected her until she called over her shoulder, 'Come on then.'