Chapter 36:

It was getting very late, but even so Shaggy and Velma waited loyaly in the hospital waiting room. The instructions had been to go home, get some rest; there was no need to wait around when there was no telling how long this could take. Even so, did Freddie and Daphne honestly expect their best friends to just go home and sleep normally on a night like this?

They had dropped Scooby off at Shaggy's apartment; it wasn't that he didn't want to wait too, but that discriminatory no-dogs-allowed sign had squelched that chance. Mr. Blake had gone to be with his daughter; the hospital only allowed husbands and immediate family to be present, so that left Velma and Shaggy. Alone.

Here there was a contradiction: Of course both of them were eager to meet someone they had spent months hearing about without ever seeing. Yet as long as they waited here, they did wait together.

But this wasn't like the igloo. Sure, it was "cozy" and they were surrounded completely by white, but now wasn't the time to sneak off and make out. Now was the time for serious discussion.

"Shaggy..."

"Yeah, Velma?"

"I was just wondering... how long will it take?"

Both of them knew she wasn't talking about the delivery.

"Well..." Shaggy answered, trying to be truthful. "I can't say I would know. It was your idea."

Velma nodded. She knew what he meant: He was really keeping silent at her request. She had started it; he would stop it when she was ready.

"I... I guess I just feel guilty. Guilty that I'm scared to talk to them about it, somehow."

Shaggy knew about fear. "Guilty that we don't trust them?"

"I don't know how that could be, though. I mean, there isn't any way to betray our trust with this, is there? There's nothing they could or would do to us. So why would I be afraid?"

"Maybe it's because there isn't any way to betray our trust." Smart Shaggy was starting to peer around Dumb Shaggy again, and Velma listened. "Maybe it's because this is such a big, wonderful thing that it seems nothing could go wrong... that it's too good to be true. I think you're trying to stop anything from going wrong by eliminating one possibility, and pretending it's the only thing that could go wrong." He turned to look at Velma. "I think it's okay. I think that we will stay together if we really were meant for each other. And I know we are."

Deep and romantic. Here, somehow, was the Shaggy who tried so hard to bury himself under a heavily stained green shirt, who tried to laugh everything off as though it were a joke.

But when it really mattered to him, Shaggy wasn't afraid of anything, least of all his true self. Velma admired that more than ever.

"So we should tell them?"

"So we should tell them."

With the seriousness out of the way, they kissed-- amazingly for the first time since they entered the waiting room. And of course as they finished it and were contemplating a second they realized that they heard footsteps.

They turned and saw Freddie.

Well, now they didn't need to actually tell anyone.

Fred laughed. "Thanks a lot... now I owe Daphne two dollars... and she just got to name the baby."

"It is a girl, then?" Velma asked, straightening.

"It's a girl." Fred smiled proudly. "Nine pounds, three ounces. Janice Rachel Jones."

"So any chance we can see her soon?"

"Right now." Freddie led the way.

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After cooing over little Janice for a while, Mr. Blake, Velma, and Shaggy left to give the family some privacy.

Family. Freddie liked the sound of that. As he and Daphne looked at their newborn sleeping peacefully, they both saw eighteen years flash before their eyes. They saw a small girl skipping off to her first day of school... a middle-school-age girl hosting slumber parties and maybe cheerleading... a high-school girl dating and maybe even falling in love herself. Both parents were thinking the same thing: Eighteen years of legal custody couldn't possibly be enough.

The child stirred, awakening. She even opened her eyes a little. Daphne stroked her soft, newborn hair. It couldn't seem to make up its mind what color it wanted to be: There were a few strands that were Fred's blonde shade exactly, and some that perfectly matched Daphne's red. Then there were those indecisives with an in-between color.

Daphne smiled at her daughter. She pointed to herself. "Mommy," she whispered. She pointed to Freddie. "Daddy." She pointed to the baby. "Janice."

"Mommy loves Janice," she continued, wanting to establish this early. "Daddy loves Janice. Mommy loves Daddy--"

"--and Daddy loves Mommy," Fred finished for her.

Janice went back to sleep, seeming just a little more peaceful and assured than she had been before.

A/N: No, this isn't the last chapter... there's one more... hang on...