Sponge: Welcome back! Congratulations to AnonymousAva, who correctly guessed the chapter title song! Last week's chapter was a song by Florence and the Machine. Let's get to it! Warnings: language, mentions of child abandonment, mentions of dog and person death. Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby Doo characters. They belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna Barbera. I kind of yadda-yadda some science here, but for that I have to thank Breaking Bad and the Wikipedia article on fulminated mercury.

Chapter 8: The Story

February: Coolsville, Ohio – Eighteen years ago…

The night was cold, but not so much that it was snowing. And it was warm in the car. Even so, Judy held the baby closer to her chest and pressed her cheek to his head.

Brad sighed and glanced at her from the drivers' seat. "Sweetheart," he murmured. "We really should put him in the car seat."

Judy simply shook her head. She knew she shouldn't hold him while Brad drove. It was dangerous. But she couldn't let him go. Not when she would have to say goodbye so soon. She felt tears building behind her eyes, and closed them so Brad wouldn't see. If only there was more time.

As if to spite her, the car rolled to a stop. "We're here," Brad murmured. Judy opened her watery eyes to see the mayor's residence dimly illuminated in the moonlight. A pair of lamps on either side of the porch lit the front door.

Judy bit her lip and held the sleeping baby closer.

Brad swallowed several times. "Judy," he said in a voice so quiet she nearly didn't hear him. "I know this is hard. I can't…" Brad's breath hitched, and he took a moment to collect himself. When he was in control of his voice again, he continued. "But we have to do this. After everything that happened with…"

"Don't," Judy whispered fiercely. Tears caught on her lashes. Having to leave her son behind was bad enough. She didn't think she could bear it if she thought of Cassidy, Ricky, and Pericles right now. After all, it was because of them that they needed to do this in the first place. She took a deep breath. "I understand why we're leaving him," she told Brad. "I just…" She took a shaky breath and her voice broke. "I wish we didn't have to."

Brad sniffed and pulled Judy to him with one arm. "I wish we didn't either," he admitted. "But it's for the best. As long as we're being followed, he isn't safe with us."

Judy nodded. "I know," she told him, wiping her eyes with the corner of the baby's blanket. And she did. She knew it was for the best. She understood why they needed to do this. That didn't mean she had to like it.

She exhaled and glanced into the back of their car, where the last remnants of Cassidy's work lay carefully preserved in a cooler.

Brad followed her line of sight. "We'll finish the serum," he promised her. "Make it safe. Make it better. And then we can come home."

Judy just looked at him. "But why do we have to lie to the mayor? Shouldn't we tell him what's going on? Tell him that we're in trouble?"

Brad shook his head. "That would only endanger the baby. Mayor Jones can't know any of what's going on."

"But why not?!" Judy wanted to know. "He already knows about Per –"

"Shh!" Brad hissed, eyes widening. He glanced out the window, but the skies were still clear.

Judy exhaled deeply. "Sorry," she whispered.

"That's all right," Brad told her comfortingly. "But don't you see? This is why it's better that the mayor doesn't know anything. And why it's better that our baby…grows up not knowing about us."

"I know," said Judy again. She hugged the baby to her once more, wishing with all her heart that she didn't have to say goodbye.

Brad checked his watch. Just a few minutes after one in the morning. "We should do this now," he whispered reluctantly, gazing out the windshield at the mayor's home. Where his son would grow up.

Judy nodded and braced herself to step out into the cold. She held her son in one arm while reaching for the baby carrier in the backseat. Meanwhile, Brad grabbed the duffel bag full of all the baby's things, and all the false papers. It paid to have had an internship at City Hall. Made it easier to forge official documents. That was how they'd created fake identities for themselves as well. Brad Chiles and Judy Reeves were registered to be attending Cornell, but Chad Biles and Ruby Jeeves – the aliases they'd be living under for the foreseeable future – would be on the opposite side of the country at Stanford.

Together, Brad and Judy ambled up the mayor's walkway, their pace unhurried as though they could freeze this moment in time by going slowly enough.

Brad put the duffel bag on the porch, then turned to Judy.

"Do you have the note?" he asked her.

She nodded and reached into her coat pocket with the hand that wasn't holding the baby. Brad produced a safety pin and gently attached the note to the blue blanket. Then he gave her a tearful look.

Wordlessly, he wrapped them in an embrace – one that Judy knew would be their last as a family. Tears leaked from her eyes, but she remained silent. The baby was asleep, and she knew that if he woke up, she'd never be able to leave him.

Brad let go first, and tenderly caressed their son's tiny head. "I love you, Freddie," he murmured in a trembling voice.

Judy's resolve nearly broke, but she steeled herself. "We both do," she whispered to the baby before planting a kiss on his forehead.

She gently placed him in the baby carrier, and it felt like letting go of a piece of herself.

Brad rang the mayor's doorbell, and he and Judy hurried back down the walkway to their car. Judy didn't let herself look back until she'd fastened her seatbelt. Through watery eyes, she saw the mayor open the door, stare aghast at the sleeping baby, and pick him up.

She and Jones made eye contact for the briefest moment before Brad pealed out of the driveway and down the street. Judy turned around to stare at the house through the back windshield, her heart splintering all the while. And as soon as Brad turned the corner, she broke down in sobs.

x.X.x

June: Chicago, Illinois – today

Judy would have been lying if she'd said she never thought about her son. She did think about him. Every single day, with every breath she took. She wondered how he was, if he had good friends, if he got into trouble – and how often. She worried about him, too – if he was happy, if he was healthy, if he was being taken care of. She'd always known he'd be in good hands with the mayor, but just because her child wasn't with her didn't mean she'd stopped being a mother.

And she would have been lying if she said she'd never dreamed about this reunion. She'd always known there would have been a slight tinge of awkwardness to it, but in her ideal scenario, she and Brad would have called Mayor Jones to let him know they were safe, and the mayor would have been able to prepare Fred. And she and Brad would have had time to prepare themselves.

Now, sitting in her living room with four strange teenagers and a second talking dog, Judy had never felt more underprepared and overwhelmed.

She stared at this strapping young man with wide eyes, and the more she studied him, the more of herself she saw in him. He had her eyes. He had Brad's build. He had their signature blond hair. And he had a look of resolute determination in his face that Judy herself hadn't felt for quite some time but recognized instantly.

She inhaled a trembling breath and finally tore her gaze from her son to glance at her husband. Brad looked, if possible, even more shocked than she felt. His mouth was agape, and his hand had stopped in mid-air while petting Nova. The cocker spaniel was also staring aghast at Fred.

"You're…Fred?" she murmured, leaping gracefully off Brad's lap to trot over to the teenager. She stood up on her hind legs while her front legs leaned against the couch, and she gazed quizzically up at Fred. "Oh my…" she whispered, glancing back at Brad and Judy.

Nova was the only one in their life who knew about Fred. She was the only one in their life who could know about Fred. None of their colleagues at the university knew, obviously, and neither did their students. Not even their parents, God rest their souls, had even known Judy to be pregnant all those years ago. Judy had convinced her mother and father that she was starting a special pre-orientation program at Cornell, and so hadn't seen them at all once she'd begun showing. It pained her that they'd never know their grandchild. Judy looked back at him and felt tears swim in her eyes. He'd grown so much from that tiny baby in a blanket. He was a man now, nearly. The age she and Brad had been when they'd become pregnant. Probably on the cusp of college himself. Judy had a million questions to ask, and a million apologies to make. But she couldn't articulate any of them. She simply stared, astonished, at her boy.

Fred stared back, feeling his heart beating powerfully in his ribcage. Brad and Judy looked so…surprised. Why was that? Sure, Fred hadn't been truthful about his identity at first, but hadn't Brad and Judy been sending texts to help the gang find them? As if suddenly remembering them, Fred shot a cursory glance towards his friends. They were all waiting silently and patiently, eyes on him. He swallowed.

"I'm sorry I lied to you about my name," he said, turning back to Brad and Judy. "I lied about my friends' names too. This is Shaggy and Velma." He gestured to each of them in turn before taking Daphne's hand and squeezing it gently. "And this is Daphne, my girlfriend."

Daphne cleared her throat. "We're sorry," she repeated Fred's apology. "We just…we had so many questions and we weren't sure if you'd answer us honestly if you knew who we were."

The doorbell rang – the pizza had arrived.

"Like I'll get it," Shaggy offered, rising from his seat on the sectional. Neither Brad nor Judy looked to be in any state to even get up from their armchairs, let alone answer the front door. He took the boxes from the delivery person and set them on the table, but no one even glanced at them. Even Scooby, who could no doubt smell the tantalizing aroma, only had eyes for Brad, Judy, and Fred. Shaggy returned to the couch and sat back down next to Velma.

Nova was back on all fours now, crossing the living room to Brad and Judy again. "You should tell them the rest," she advised.

Judy finally wrenched her gaze from Fred to stare aghast at Nova. "What?" she hissed. "No!"

"Why not?" Nova challenged. "You planned to tell them everything earlier, hadn't you?"

"That was before I knew…" Judy began, gazing tremulously at Fred again. He still looked determined, but a flash of confusion crossed his face now as well.

"Before you knew he was your son?" asked Nova. "Doesn't that make it all the more important to explain?"

Judy shook her head. Fred couldn't know. He could never know. She would protect him from the danger until her last dying breath if she could help it. "I…I can't," she whispered tearfully.

"You must," Nova implored her. "All our lives depend on it – yours, mine, theirs. The fact that Scooby Doo even exists is a threat to their well-being. Shouldn't we at least tell them why?"

Shaggy sat bolt upright. "Wait…like, what are you talking about?" he asked, glaring inquiringly at the cocker spaniel.

Nova ignored him. "You owe them an explanation," she said to Judy.

"But…" Judy murmured. Her argument tapered off and died in the air.

"She's right, Judy," Brad admitted reluctantly. "We should tell them everything."

But Judy still looked anguished and cast her eyes down.

Nova stared at her, determination flashing in her eyes. "If you won't explain to them, then I will," she said imperiously. She turned around and gazed at the dumbfounded teenagers once more.

"My apologies," she said to them. "I imagine you're all feeling very confused. I hope that what I'm about to tell you will illuminate things. Although…" here she glanced back at the still-silent Judy, "…much of this story occurred before I was born, so you'll be hearing it second-hand." She exhaled and turned back to the gang.

She was so…articulate. And she didn't have the same speech impediment that Scooby did. Why was that? Velma desperately wanted to ask, but she held her tongue. She would get her answers – after Fred got his.

"No, Nova," said Brad sternly. "You don't have to tell the story…" He reached out and took his wife's hand. "I will."

Judy bit her lip but said nothing. Nova simply nodded impassively and sat down at Brad's feet.

Brad sighed and looked at the teens. Slowly, he got up from his armchair and took down a photo from the wall behind him. The gang hadn't noticed it earlier. He handed the framed photo to Fred, and everyone gathered around to look at it.

"That's us," Brad said softly. "All of us, before all of these terrible things began."

The gang gazed at the photo, a black-and-white portrait of four teenagers and a parrot. They recognized Brad and Judy at once – this photo must have been taken near the same time as the photo that the mayor had given them. In the photo, they flanked a dark-skinned, bespectacled girl at a table, who must have been Cassidy Williams. A book sat open in front of her, and behind her was a tall and lanky teenage boy who must have been Ricky Owens. Which meant that the parrot on his shoulder was none other than Professor Pericles.

Scooby stared curiously at the bird. He felt familiar to him, somehow.

"This is a long story," Brad told the gang, his voice very serious. Scooby slipped out of his reverie to look up at Brad. "It's been nearly twenty years in the making. I hardly know where it begins myself…the day I met my friends? The day we first began searching for the ley line? The day we discovered the mineral under the tree?" Brad shook his head. "I don't know where the story starts. But I do know that the trouble began the day Pericles killed Cassidy."

Fred felt his stomach drop. "What?" he exclaimed, aghast.

The others looked stricken as well. "I thought she died in an accident," Velma murmured, her glasses magnifying her already wide eyes.

"That explosion was no accident," Brad said though gritted teeth. "Pericles didn't want Cassidy to finish the serum, so he caused that explosion in her basement in order to stop her. He made it look like an accident, but we knew the truth. We found a gray feather in the rubble afterwards – that's how we knew he'd done it. Couple that with the fact that he'd been threatening to take her out for weeks…" He sighed, and shook his head. "We didn't think he'd actually do it. But we were wrong. So very wrong."

"Why didn't he want her to finish the serum?" asked Velma.

Brad hesitated. "I wasn't entirely honest with you about the reason she was working on it in the first place," he admitted. "There was one more side effect that we discovered the mineral had in Professor Pericles…and it was rather sinister."

The gang said nothing, merely waited for him to continue.

"The heightened intelligence had caused Pericles to go power-hungry and mad," Brad said after a few moments. "The mineral on its own turned out to be dangerous. Cassidy was creating the serum in order to dilute the mineral, and make it safer so that we could help him." Brad shook his head miserably. "Obviously, we were all distraught when we learned he was responsible for Cassidy's death, but none more so than Ricky. He vowed to find Pericles and make him pay for what he'd done. We were only a few months away from graduation."

That explained why Ricky had dropped out of school – to search for Pericles.

Daphne cleared her throat. "So…you must have learned you were pregnant with Fred pretty soon after Ricky left."

Brad nodded again. "Judy and I had been working as interns at City Hall during our senior year, helping with Fred Jones Senior's first election campaign. At least, that was our cover. In actuality, we got those internships to assist us in our search for the ley line. City Hall archives were where we discovered the numerical sequence that turned out to be coordinates to that oak tree. But the more we worked on Jones' campaign, the more we admired and appreciated him. We grew close, and decided that we would ask him to be our baby's godfather, regardless of whether or not he won the mayoral election."

"But that was just a cover too, right?" asked Fred, unable to help the acidity in his tone.

Judy shook her head vehemently. "No…we never wanted to leave you," she whispered, her voice breaking with sincerity. "We only did it out of necessity, to protect you from the danger."

"What danger?" asked Daphne.

Brad's face clouded over. "Pericles," he responded – the ice in his tone made clear his disdain for the animal. "After Cassidy died and Ricky disappeared, Judy and I went back to that cave under the tree. We dug out every single mineral in that room until there was nothing left. We weren't going to let all her work be in vain. We had salvaged some of her notes on the serum process and we planned to continue to work on the serum while we were at school. But then Pericles returned – without Ricky, so we assumed the worst had happened to him – and he threatened us." Here, he glanced at Fred with a pained expression before continuing. "He told us that unless we stopped work on the serum and gave him all of Cassidy's notes, he would make sure that we all suffered the same fate she did. We realized that you would never be safe with us until we stopped him. But…you would be safe with Mayor Jones. Other than us and Ricky, he was the only one who knew that Pericles was responsible for Cassidy's death."

"How did he know?" asked Fred in a whisper.

"We told him," Judy replied. "We didn't mention the serum, but we explained that Pericles was smarter than the average parrot, and that he had murdered Cassidy. He knew how much she meant to us. He even helped us set up a scholarship in her name. And then he had the sheriff put Pericles on Coolsville's 'Most Wanted' list. We knew that Pericles would never touch you as long as you were under the mayor's care."

There was a short silence as everyone let this sink in.

"We never expected to be away for as long as we were," Brad continued. "It was meant to be temporary. Cassidy's research and development had taken so much less time, but even with access to Stanford's biochemistry lab, it was years before the serum was ready."

"Can I ask…why Stanford?" Velma spoke up. She'd been sitting on this question ever since New York, and felt as though she couldn't hold it in any longer.

Brad shrugged. "It was on the opposite side of the country from where we were meant to be," he told her. "We knew Pericles would never find us there. And it has one of the best biochemistry departments in the country. I don't think we would have been able to complete the serum without Stanford."

Judy cleared her throat, finally seeming ready to join the story. "Our former professors and advisors put us in contact with some shelters and breeders with sick dogs. We tested the serum on them first – and it worked like gangbusters. Dogs that had once been sickly were, within a week of the injection, healthier than they'd ever been. It was astonishing. The serum was going to change the course of history in veterinary medicine."

"And…the ability of speech?" asked Velma. This was the part that she was having the most trouble understanding.

But Brad and Judy simply shrugged. "Yet another strange side effect of the serum, along with increased intelligence," said Brad. "The magic of the ley line is the only explanation we have for that."

Velma rolled her eyes, but Brad and Judy didn't notice.

Brad continued. "The smaller amount of the mineral within the serum made it safer, so it didn't cause the dogs to go insane like it did Pericles. And we discovered that injecting a pregnant dog with the serum passed the effects down to her puppies, as well."

"We think that's why Scooby Doo can speak," Judy explained, gesturing towards the perplexed dog. "We didn't inject any pregnant Great Danes, but there were a few studs who received a dosage of the serum. If they went on to impregnate a female Great Dane, that may explain Scooby's ability to speak."

Shaggy sat forward. "So, like…does that mean that if Scooby Doo had any brothers or sisters, they might also be able to talk?"

"Precisely," Brad confirmed. "And any puppies that they had may possess the ability as well. We've never done a long-term study on the effects but given this development…I'd say it's very likely."

Judy cleared her throat. "If you want more proof, the studs who received the serum lived with a breeder in Vista Heights. That's where you said you were from, correct?"

Shaggy nodded, feeling his mouth go dry.

"Why did you leave California?" Daphne asked. "It seemed like you were well-hidden there."

Judy bit her lip. "We didn't want to stay hidden," she told her. "We wanted to move back east, closer to Ohio…and to Fred."

"We didn't want to be on the run forever," Brad added. "The plan was always to let Pericles find us eventually so we could lure him into a trap."

Fred blinked. "A…trap?"

Daphne caught the longing in his voice and squeezed his hand, but no one else noticed, too rapt in the story.

"Once we caught him," Brad continued. "We could administer the new serum to him and put a stop to his power-hungry madness once and for all. If our hypothesis was correct, it would make him no different than Scooby or Nova – he would just be a regular parrot, who had the ability of speech and higher than average intelligence."

Velma shook her head. "If you're so convinced that there's something supernatural about the mineral, then why did you keep treating the serum as a science?"

"Alchemy is science, dear," Judy reminded her. "It's the precursor to chemistry. And Brad and I have seen enough odd things in our lifetime to understand that…some things just can't be explained."

"Actually, that's part of the reason it took us so long to perfect the serum," Brad added. "Our research and experiments were all scientific, but the answers we received never quite matched up to what we thought they should be. We were a lot like you when we were younger – always searching for answers and explanations that made sense to our conventional understanding of the world. But it's like Judy said…sometimes we don't get answers in this life. And we have to be all right with that."

Velma frowned, frustrated with this cryptic non-answer, but said nothing more.

Judy spoke again. "Anyway, the Great Dane studs in Vista Heights were the last dogs who received a dose of the serum before we moved across the country to New York. We got married and received our PhDs from Columbia. By then, it had been ten years since…" Judy's breath hitched, and she looked at Fred in anguish. The thing she'd left unsaid – since we left you – hung heavily in the air.

Brad cleared his throat and continued. "We decided that enough time had passed that we could finally come back to Coolsville. We contacted the mayor and told him to be on the lookout for a clue, indicating that it was safe to tell you about us. Our plan was to return to Ohio and lure Pericles there so we could inject him with the serum."

Fred nodded. This matched up with what the mayor had told them several days ago. "But something stopped you?" he prompted.

Brad sighed, looking distraught. "One day," he murmured. "We came home to our Midtown apartment and discovered Ricky Owens waiting outside our door."

The gang stared at them, flabbergasted. "But…I thought Ricky Owens died?" said Velma, horribly confused.

"So did we," Judy replied, her voice barely above a whisper. "We thought Pericles had killed him. But it turned out that Ricky had been following Pericles for the past ten years. He still wanted to avenge Cassidy, but Pericles was too smart, too powerful. So, Ricky had gone into hiding like us, spying on Pericles and lying in wait for the perfect time to strike. But…before he could, he discovered something awful, and came out of hiding to warn us."

"Warn you about what?" asked Daphne.

"It turned out that during the past ten years, Pericles had been tracking down all of the animals that had been given the serum and destroying them," Judy replied.

"…Destroying them how?" asked Shaggy, though he thought he already knew.

The look Judy gave him confirmed his fears.

"Zoinks," he breathed. "Like he went around…killing the dogs?" His stomach twisted agonizingly.

Judy nodded, looking miserable. "It turned out we hadn't been as well-hidden in California as we believed. But after we left, Pericles lost track of us again. He began killing the dogs to draw us out of hiding, so that he could get to the serum. He'd figured out a way to weaponize it, make it even stronger. Ricky told us that Pericles wanted to make changes to the serum and use them on himself, so that he could reach ultimate power. We knew we couldn't let that happen, so we made the difficult decision to destroy the serum and all of our research on it. Most of the serum and all of our lab notes were in our office at Columbia, so Ricky followed us there. And…so did Pericles."

Daphne gaped at her. "What?" she whispered.

Brad's face had clouded over again. "It turned out that Ricky was a pawn," Brad told them. "Sent by Professor Pericles to spy on us, and help lead him to the serum. Once we realized we'd been double-crossed, we raced to the chemistry department with Ricky and Pericles hot on our heels. We knew where the dangerous chemicals were kept, so we found some fulminated mercury –"

Velma gasped aloud. "No!" she exclaimed, aghast.

"What?" asked Shaggy, confused. "Like what's fulminated mercury?"

Velma was still staring at Brad and Judy. "It's a dangerous explosive," she explained, not taking her eyes off the couple.

Fred was staring at them too. "You blew them up?" he murmured.

"We had to," Brad replied. "They would have killed us, otherwise."

Daphne sat back, astonished. "So…if Pericles is dead, why are you still on the run?" she asked.

"He didn't die," Judy replied. "We don't think Ricky was so lucky, but Pericles escaped. We found more feathers in our apartment the next day. Like he was taunting us. So, we knew we couldn't stay in New York."

"In the meantime," Brad continued. "We had one final dose of the serum which we had already promised to a cocker spaniel breeder on Long Island. We warned him that he would need to make sure the puppies and their mother were spread far and wide."

"Did you tell him about Pericles?" asked Daphne.

"Not in so many words," Brad continued. "We warned him to be on the lookout for birds, but we were afraid to be more specific than that. He let us stay with him so we could hide from Pericles, and so we could be there when the puppies came. When Nova and her siblings were born, we stuck around for a while until the puppies were old enough to leave their mother. Nova was the last puppy left after the others had been adopted. We changed our names again and took Nova with us, so we could protect her from Pericles. We never contacted the mayor again, because we know Pericles is still out there."

Velma furrowed her brow, hung up on a detail that Brad had dropped. "So…the breeder in New York knew about the serum you'd given Nova?" she asked.

"Of course," Judy assured her. "All the breeders knew about the serum. We would never do something to their dogs without consent."

The gang all shared a perplexed glance. All the breeders knew which dogs had been injected with the serum – including Roy. And yet, he had neglected to mention it when the gang had visited him in New York. He had even told the gang he didn't know the real reason Brad and Judy had stayed with him. That seemed awfully suspicious.

But before any of them could bring this up, Brad continued.

"So, for the past eight years, we've been here, with Nova." He gestured to the dog. "We always figured it was only a matter of time before Pericles found us again. But we never expected you, Fred." He looked at his son a bit mournfully. "We'd always hoped that, when we reunited…it would be in a future where Pericles had been eradicated, and the danger was gone."

Fred furrowed his brow in confusion. "Then…why did you send us all those clues?" he asked.

Judy blinked. "What clues?" she asked, looking confused.

"The CD and the coded text messages," Fred told her. "The ones that led us to you."

Now Judy looked alarmed. "What are you talking about?"

Fred, Daphne, and Velma shared a glance. "The…text messages we've been receiving," said Daphne slowly. "We knew you were cryptologists, and we thought that the messages were meant to be a code to lead us to you."

"And they did," Velma added. "It was only because of the texts that we knew to find you in Chicago."

Brad and Judy both looked downright frightened now. "What do you mean?" Brad murmured.

"We haven't contacted the mayor in eight years," Judy whispered. "And we had no idea you were searching for us. Even if we had known…we wouldn't have sent you messages."

Anxiety gripped Fred's heart. "So…you haven't been sending us texts?"

Brad and Judy shook their heads. "No," they murmured.

Fred looked nervously at the gang, and saw similar expressions of shock on their faces. "So…" he whispered. "If you haven't been texting us…then who has?"

Sponge: Thanks for reading! Official clues start again next week! In the meantime, review if you please, and don't forget to guess where the chapter title comes from!