Sponge: Hello all! Thank you for adding this story to your favorites, your alerts, and for reviewing! I appreciate it more than you know. I hope you're all looking forward to this second installment in the Terror Time series! New chapters will be coming out every Wednesday around 10pm Eastern time. No content warnings for this particular chapter (though a break-up is mentioned, so be warned!) but there will be content warnings for chapters in the future, so just be aware! In the meantime, please enjoy this chapter! Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby Doo characters. They belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna Barbera.

Chapter 2: A Little Nervous

One week earlier…

"Okay, Freddie, I think this is the last of it." Daphne paused at the bottom of the long stairway up to her apartment, gathering her thick ginger hair into a ponytail to keep it away from her neck. Her boyfriend Fred had parked the Mystery Machine, his behemoth of a van, on the corner, and had just shoved one final box of Daphne's belongings into the trunk. He was helping her move out of her SoHo apartment for the summer – not fully, since she'd be back in August for the start of the fall semester at NYU – but she'd packed several things she wanted to take with her. She just hadn't realized it would be so many things.

"Great," Fred said, swinging the rear doors shut and wiping his sweaty forehead with the hem of his white-and-blue-striped t-shirt. It gave Daphne the perfect view of his muscular torso, and she had to look away before she swooned. They'd been together for almost four and a half years, but she still got butterflies with him. He was just as handsome as ever, even with his blond hair matted with sweat from the exertion of helping her bring her belongings down four flights of stairs.

It was hot as an oven in Manhattan on this early June afternoon. There was often a mass exodus from the city once the summer began, with many residents leaving for the cooler pastures of the Catskills, the Adirondacks, or the Hamptons, only returning in September. Daphne was part of this temporary migration, returning with Fred to their hometown of Coolsville, Ohio, where Fred still lived and went to college. Though they wouldn't be staying there for long.

Before Daphne could dwell on that thought, her three roommates spilled out of the open apartment door behind her. "Is that everything?" asked Kennedy, a tall young woman with large hazel eyes and bright pink hair that was styled into a trendy undercut.

"I think so." Daphne tugged down the hems of her jean shorts and shot the girls a watery smile. She had been dreading this moment a little, saying goodbye to her roommates. They'd all met as freshmen in NYU's acting program, become fast friends, and moved into an apartment together at the start of their sophomore year. They would continue living together next year when they were juniors, and probably when they were seniors too. Daphne couldn't wait to see her friends from home, but that didn't mean she wouldn't miss her roommates. She blinked rapidly in an attempt to stave off tears.

"Oh don't start that!" wailed Anahita, another roommate. Her eyes also filled with tears behind her tortoise-shell glasses. "If you cry, I'll cry!"

"Everyone take it easy," said Kennedy gently, putting a hand on Anahita's shoulder. "We'll see her again in like two months." But there was a tell-tale quiver in her lower lip.

Daphne felt the burning in the back of her throat that usually preceded tears. "I'd hug you all, but I'm so sweaty," she said, tugging at her purple tank top.

"Don't be ridiculous, get in here." This was from Xiomara, the final roommate, who wrapped her arms around Daphne's slender frame and pulled her into a tight hug. Kennedy and Anahita followed, and soon all four girls were enveloped in the embrace.

"You too, Fred!" Anahita called, waving Freddie over with a wave of her hand. Fred obliged, joining the girls in their group hug. He really loved all of Daphne's friends here in New York – they were a great crowd, and he'd had several opportunities to spend time with them whenever he came to visit (which was as often as he could manage). And while he knew no one could ever replace the gang, he was happy that Daphne had found such a tight group at school.

At last, everyone relinquished their hold on each other.

"This is so silly," Daphne laughed, wiping her eyes where tears had started to trickle out. "I'll be back before you know it."

"I promise I'll return her in one piece," Fred said solemnly.

Everyone laughed, and the sorrowful tension lifted.

Xiomara gave Daphne one more squeeze. "See you in August, hermosa."

Daphne hugged her back. "Behave yourself," she said. "All of you!" This was called to the other two girls, who chuckled again in response.

Finally, once all the farewells had been said, Fred and Daphne headed for the Mystery Machine, waving at the roommates as they piled in. The three girls stood on the corner behind them, waving until the Mystery Machine was out of sight.

x.X.x

Fred loved Daphne. He loved New York. And he loved driving the Mystery Machine.

He did not love driving the Mystery Machine in New York.

But his love for Daphne outweighed everything else.

Still, he was concentrating so hard that he didn't say a word until they were safely out of the Holland Tunnel, heading westward towards Ohio.

"You good?" she asked as he breathed a sigh of relief. She knew his feelings on driving in the city, and appreciated that he did it anyway.

"Much better now," he replied, reaching for her hand and kissing it.

"Thanks for coming to pick me up," she said with a grin.

Fred gave her a sidelong glance. "I'd do anything for you, Daph."

Her heart fluttered and she squeezed his hand.

"I'm excited to see the gang," he said. "And Brad, Judy, Ricky, and Cassidy."

"Yeah me too," Daphne agreed. "We haven't seen Ricky or Cassidy since the summer we graduated high school. It was really nice of them to invite us all out to Crystal Cove this summer."

"And nice of Brad and Judy to rent a beach house for us all to stay in," Fred added.

They had an exciting vacation planned this summer, traveling to California with Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby, as well as Fred's birth parents, Brad and Judy, and their dog Nova. They were spending a week visiting Brad and Judy's old friends Ricky and Cassidy, who had spent a little more than a year traveling the country before deciding to settle in a small town called Crystal Cove. Brad and Judy had been teenagers when they'd had Fred, and had given him up for adoption to protect him from an evil, power-hungry parrot named Professor Pericles. But now that Pericles was safely behind bars, Brad and Judy had struck up a relationship with Fred and his friends. In fact, they lived in Chicago, where Shaggy went to culinary school. This was very good news for Scooby, who was involved romantically with Nova. But Fred, since he still lived in Coolsville, didn't get to see them much – just for the holidays.

In fact, they didn't get a chance to see any of the gang much, since they all went to different colleges across the country. They kept in touch through emails or texts, and the occasional phone or video call. They had a group chat that they contributed to often, and every now and then someone would post an update on Instagram – though Daphne was definitely the one who used social media the most. But it had been a long time since they'd all been together in person. Shaggy had gotten a part-time gig as a line cook in a restaurant in Chicago when he wasn't taking classes, so Daphne and Fred hadn't seen him since he'd been back in Coolsville for the holidays. And no one had seen Velma since last summer, just before they all went back to school. She'd had a tough freshman year at Stanford, where she double majored in physics and chemistry, so she'd spent these past two semesters catching up and retaking a class that she'd dropped. She hadn't come back to Ohio for any of the breaks this year. They were all looking forward to finally getting a chance to all be together again.

Well…they weren't all looking forward to it. There was a huge elephant in the room that Daphne didn't want to call attention to. Mostly because it made her sad. But also because it made her a bit apprehensive.

"Are you still a little nervous?" Fred asked, as though he could read her mind. "About the trip?"

Now it was Daphne's turn to look at him sideways. He knew her so well.

She wasn't nervous about spending time with Brad, Judy, Ricky, or Cassidy. In fact, she was looking forward to seeing them, and getting to know them better. It would have made more sense than the truth, which was that she was nervous about spending time with her best friends Shaggy and Velma.

Because while it was the first time the gang would all be together since last summer, it was also the first time they'd all be together since Shaggy and Velma had broken up.

"Yeah, I'm a little nervous," Daphne sighed, gazing out the passenger side window.

x.X.x

It had happened last fall, just after everyone had gone back to school. And to Daphne and Fred, it had seemingly come out of nowhere. Shaggy and Velma had been dating since their senior year of high school (or technically, if you counted the time they spent sneaking around and dating in secret, they'd been together since eleventh grade) and while their relationship had been fraught with drama, they'd always seemed happy together. Indeed, even the announcement about the break up itself hadn't made a huge deal of the fact. Velma had simply texted the group in late September, a very unceremonious message which read, "Hey, just wanted to tell you that Shaggy and I broke up last night. It was a mutual decision as we decided the long-distance was too much. Nothing has to change with the gang – we're all still friends. We just wanted to let you know." And Shaggy had "liked" the message, his indication that everything Velma had said was true.

Daphne, of course, had been thrown for a loop. She'd immediately privately texted Velma ("OMG! Are you okay? I'm so sorry! I'm here if you need to talk!" *bandaged heart emoji*) and Shaggy ("What happened? This was so sudden! Do you want to talk?" *bandaged heart emoji*) and, of course, Fred. ("Can you believe this?! I'm in shock! Should we talk about this?" *bandaged heart emoji*). But Shaggy and Velma had both assured her that they were fine, it was an amicable split, and they were happy to go back to just being friends. They didn't want to cause a scene, they explained, so they didn't want this to become a point of contention within the gang.

Fred's reaction to the breakup had been extremely blasé. He'd urged Daphne not to get worked up over it. "Obviously it's sad," he'd texted her that day, "but I'm sure Shag and Velm know what's best for them. If they say they're happy going back to just being friends, then I believe them."

But Daphne knew better.

Just over a year ago, she'd watched her own parents go through a horribly acrimonious divorce and she hated to admit it, but Shaggy and Velma's breakup was bringing back some PTSD in her. Even though the two of them kept things cordial in the group chat, Daphne was terrified that this meant the gang would never be the same, that she and Fred would have to choose sides. She made the mistake of bringing this up to Velma once back in the winter, when it had been made clear that Velma wouldn't be returning to Coolsville for the holidays.

"Velma, I'm worried that this breakup is affecting you more than you're letting on," Daphne had said over the phone that evening. "And that's okay, you're allowed to be sad, but I'm afraid that if you don't let yourself grieve the relationship properly, it's going to have negative repercussions on all of us."

"Our relationship really wasn't that serious, Daph," Velma had replied, her tone slightly clipped in annoyance. "We never even slept together. The breakup was bound to happen eventually – the distance was getting to be too much. The reason I'm not coming back to Coolsville for winter break has nothing to do with Shaggy – I just have a lot of work to do for school, and in the chem lab for my work study. I'll try to come back for spring break, okay?"

But she hadn't, of course, again claiming work as an excuse. Shaggy hadn't returned to Ohio for spring break that year either, insisting that he wanted to stay in Chicago and work extra hours at the restaurant to earn more money. Shaggy himself had been oddly uncommunicative about the breakup, clamming up whenever Daphne broached the subject over Facetime, or simply shrugging away her concerns. It made Daphne feel as though Shaggy was the one who had pushed for the breakup, no matter what Velma had said about it being mutual.

She had tried to talk to Scooby about it when he and Shaggy had been in town for Christmas. But Scooby, ever loyal to Shaggy, had been even more evasive. "Rit's not ry business," he would say any time Daphne brought it up. Eventually she'd stopped asking, even though every time she thought about it, she felt uneasy.

x.X.x

Now, in the car on the way back to Coolsville, where they would stay with Fred's adoptive father Mayor Jones for the next five days until they left for California, Daphne felt that familiar creeping anxiety.

"If it helps," Fred told her, after she'd admitted to being nervous about the trip. "I don't think Shaggy and Velma would come if they weren't ready to be in the same room together. I'm sure they're over the breakup by now."

Daphne was less certain. She wasn't sure if Shaggy and Velma were over the breakup, or if they were just pretending to be. Brad, Judy, Ricky, and Cassidy all knew about the breakup, and had asked Shaggy and Velma separately if they were sure they'd like to come, and they'd said yes. But Daphne thought it was more likely that they didn't want to be rude to any of the adults who had invited them to come on vacation and offered to pay their way.

"I mean," Fred went on. "Hasn't Velma been going out with a few guys at her school? Er…people, I mean?"

Daphne's mouth quirked up. Fred's verbal flub was understandable. Back in the spring, Velma had officially come out to her friends as bisexual, in yet another unceremonious text message. Of course everyone had been supportive (including Shaggy, which Daphne thought was quite magnanimous of him), but no one had been very surprised. Daphne'd had a feeling that, for a brief time in their senior year of high school, Velma had been harboring a secret crush on a friend of theirs named Marcie Fleach. Marcie had actually admitted to having feelings for Velma herself, but since Velma had been in love with Shaggy at the time, nothing had come of it. Daphne had been sure that now that Velma was a free agent, something was going to happen between her and Marcie. But Velma had denied this. Marcie went to CalTech, which was about five hours from Stanford where Velma went. It was closer than Roosevelt, where Shaggy went, but still far enough that it was considered "long distance."

Still, Velma had shared with the gang that she'd gone on a few casual dates with some classmates, both men and women. Nothing serious, she'd told them, just lunch or coffee. Occasionally they went to bars, but not very often. None of the gang were technically old enough to drink yet – Shaggy was the oldest of the group, and his twenty-first birthday wasn't until November – but Velma, the youngest of the gang at eighteen, would only risk going into a bar if she knew for sure she wouldn't get carded. Her academic probation for cheating on a test last year had only just ended, and she was still wary of getting in too much trouble.

"Just because she's gone on a few dates doesn't necessarily mean she's over it," Daphne said now to Freddie. She was thinking of their senior year of high school, when she and Fred had broken up for a brief time. Even though the breakup was only for two months, Daphne had fielded a lot of invitations for dates from other boys in the school – including Red Herring, whom she had dated before she and Fred got together. She'd even gone on a couple dates with Red, but her heart hadn't been in it. She'd only gone out with him to feel something other than heartbreak – and to make Fred jealous.

Daphne couldn't help wondering if Velma was doing something similar.

Fred could see the consternation in Daphne's expression out of the corner of his eye, so he glanced away from the road for a brief second to look at her. "Hey," he said softly, taking her hand again. "Try not to stress yourself out over this, okay babe? I know it's going to be different with the gang now that Shag and Velm aren't together like that anymore, but the most important thing is that we're all still friends. Best friends. And that'll never change."

"I know that," Daphne told him. And she did. She knew deep in her heart that the five of them would always be friends, no matter what.

But even if that never changed…it didn't mean that nothing else could.

Sponge: Hope you enoyed! Please review if you feel so inclined. See you next Wednesday!