Chapter 5:

There was a knock on Fred's door. Fred got off the couch and answered it. He, like the rest of Mystery Inc., had been so stressed over the last couple days' events that he didn't even worry about how messy the room was, or that he hadn't showered lately. It didn't matter anyhow, since the visitor was Shaggy, who looked every bit as disheveled as his friend.

"Like, hi, Fred..." Shaggy greeted him. "Like, where's Daphne?" Knowing his friends better than they knew, it was a logical conclusion that Daphne would probably have been at Fred's.

"Visiting Velma," Fred answered, shrugging and trying to look like he hadn't really been thinking about it. He had asked Daphne if he could join her, but Daphne had declined, explaining that she and her friend needed independent "girl time." He felt a sort of morbid pang, a whisper of how the gang used to work: Usually they went out in a group, but it was perfectly normal for Velma and Daphne to have their "girls' nights out." Neither Velma nor Daphne was willing to allow Velma's hospitalization to take that away.

"So where's Scooby?" Fred asked, trying to change the subject.

"Like, he didn't feel like coming... seeing as he doesn't have opposable thumbs or anything." Fred stared at Shaggy, confused until Shaggy held up a video game and motioned toward the PlayCube Wii60 attached to Fred's television set. Video games. The boys' private escape when the girls weren't around.

Fred popped the disc into the machine. He was grateful Shaggy had brought the game over. Games had for years been their way of distracting themselves from the stresses of exams, relationships, and mysteries. They both needed a distraction right now, more than any other time.

Except now it didn't really work. The game proved to be just distracting enough to diminish any possibility of saying how they really felt, but not distracting enough to diminish the need to.

Shaggy furiously moved the joystick, scoring point after point at Freddie's expense. As Fred's frustration made him apathetic, Shaggy's made him aggresive, so after five minutes Shaggy's score was eight times that of Fred's. Neither boy cared.

Finally, after the huge red lettering flashed "GAME OVER" at the top of the screen, Shaggy tossed his controller down and stared out into space.

"Er... Shaggy? Are you okay?" Fred asked.

Shaggy paused, then shook his head.

Fred got up for a second and came back with a box of Scooby Snacks. He offered it to Shaggy, who disturbingly declined.

"Shaggy... I know you're upset... we all are..." Fred knew it sounded really lame and cliche, but he also knew that the loss of one team member meant he would have to do his best looking out for the rest.

Finally, Shaggy spoke.

"Like, Fred... it's not that I'm upset..."

"You mean you're not?"

"No! Of course I am... but there's... there's something else... that's bothering me..."

Fred sat down and cautiously turned to his friend. "What is it?"

"Like... I don't know..."

"Then how--?"

Shaggy sighed. "I mean, I do know... just... not... everything." He looked Freddie straight in the eye. "I think there's something else, something I'm not doing... that I could be doing."

"Like what?"

"Helping Velma?" That really was what this felt like, but Shaggy knew it didn't make any sense.

"Shaggy... it's normal to feel a sense of helplessness. And it's just as normal to deny that feeling, to try to do whatever is in your power to fix everything." He blinked.

"But Shaggy, sometimes there's really nothing we can do. Don't feel guilty... it's not your fault."

Shaggy wasn't really listening. He knew what Fred was saying, but he had the strangest feeling that what Fred was saying wasn't entirely true. That there was something neither he nor Fred knew that would change everything.

Fred continued, oblivious to the fact that something completely unrelated floated through Shaggy's head. It was understandable-- Fred was going through some of the same agony Shaggy was, and his words were as much to comfort himself as they were to comfort Shaggy. But that didn't change the fact that they weren't true.

"--there is no available donor, and it's unlikely there will be one. We just have to hope--"

There is no available donor, and it's unlikely there will be one. There is no available donor, and it's unlikely there will be one... Odd...

Shaggy excitedly straightened up, alarming Fred slightly.

Something in his intuition had just located the falsehood.