Daphne Lost in Thought

It was midday. The gang had just wrapped up another mystery and were ready to go home and relax. Looking out the window Daphne lost herself in thought. It happened again. She got separated from the others when their backs were turned and she couldn't even blame it on the mask wearing creeps responsible for the mysteries they always get caught up in.

No. This time she got distracted and wasn't watching where she was going. She ended up stepping on a particularly worn piece of flooring and fell thirty feet into a darkness filled basement. Luckily she didn't break anything having fallen into age old linens from when the supposedly haunted mansion had last been lived in. Unfortunately she was once again on her own without the gang.

You would think she would get used to it considering how often it seemed to happen even when they were little tikes. Running around Coolsville as The Scooby-Doo Detective Agency. Those were at least the good times, when the villains they unmasked at least knew not to seriously harm children despite their attempts to meddle in their villainous plots. Unfortunately their adventures as more grown up teenagers in The Mystery Inc. wasn't so safe.

If she was lucky only one in every 5 villains would attempt to do more than just scare Daphne when she would end up separated from the others. When she wasn't . . well at least they never succeeded in their attempts, especially after she took self defense courses and studied martial arts for her safety. Which brings her mind to her best friend, the best friend she could ever have had. Shaggy "Norville" Rogers.

It was a friendship she'd like to say was written in the stars but it wasn't always easy between them at first. They had a lot of trials and tribulations to get through especially considering it was only their love of a good mystery that they had in common back in their early days. Not to mention each of their obsessions with Daphne's for being clean and fashionable and Shag's for superhero comics and "Unique" taste in food and it's amount.

Though that wasn't so bad once she knew he had an extreme metabolism that kept him thin as a noodle despite how active he was in running from all things scary and monster-like. Seriously, you'd expect him to at least have a runner's build but no. If it wasn't for the fact she knows he is 100% muscle and energy despite no actual muscle showing you'd be liable to think he wasn't eating enough. He may not look it but he is very, very solid.

Probably more in thanks to all the times he's had to carry Scooby every-time there was a way too loud noise too close for comfort, or a run-in with said villainous creeps in masks. (Sigh) . . To be fair he did finally get some recognizable muscle definition after one of the summers the gang split up on their own. According to Shaggy at the time it was the result from spending a couple months as a derby driver having to always fix or upgrade his Hot Rod racer. Though she never quite believed that, not the part of him doing derby racing.

There were news stories about his success and she always called him when she could catch his races on her satellite tv to congratulate him. She just didn't believe he gained his quite noticeable muscle tone by working on a car. Specifically because as much as Fred totes that The Mystery Machine is his baby, Shaggy is the one always working on it when Fred drives it too hard. And Shag's been doing that for years.

No, Shaggy got his muscle from something else, not that it matters since he won't say anymore when I tried asking. I think whatever it was ended up being traumatic for him. I always wonder what he is up to when him and Scoob are off on their own. Have been ever since our adventure with the 13 Ghosts. Now that was a chaotic summer. It was also the first time I started looking at Shaggy differently.

We were always friends but that summer solidified a much closer bond for the both of us. That summer we became best friends and I couldn't be more thankful for knowing one Shaggy "Norville" Rogers. We had plenty time that summer between tracking and hunting the Ghosts that Shag and I were able to talk and reminisce about our past mysteries and even what we do outside of them. We connected like never before. It was almost surreal how easy it was to just rely on each other by the end of it.

I end up missing him every time we split up from the group to do our own things. It's hard sometimes not to just insist on going with him and Scoob each and every time. The short stint where Mystery Inc. was retired for a year was especially difficult. Sure I was busy with my new show Coast-To-Coast with Daphne Blake and even though Fred was helping out it always felt wrong. At first I thought it was because I missed solving mysteries with the gang.

But after making the decision to get the gang back together to try and find a real monster or spook and I still wasn't feeling too great I had to believe it was something else. Turns out that I found the problem pretty quickly after Fred called everyone to resume Mystery Inc. Shaggy wasn't there. The man who had become such a big part of my life ended up not being a part of it. Sure we talked on the phone almost daily but it wasn't the same.

I just didn't realize it until we met up again. I nearly cried in his arms when we saw each other. If it wasn't for the rest of the gang being there I'm sure I would've. And Shag, he just stood there with a giant grin on his face as if I didn't just realize the most obvious thing in the world while hugging the Jeepers out of him! I was done and out. I had fallen in love with my best friend!

And wasn't that a mind-blower! Looking back it made sense. It was something that just developed after years of being there for each other outside of the gang. It was even there when we were just a couple of meddling kids looking for the next mystery to solve. Just not so clearly defined. It wasn't substantial until the 13 Ghosts were a problem. Like I mentioned we ended up pretty close by the end of it.

Always looking for each other when someone enters the room should've been the tell that something was there between us. I bet that's why Fred tried to never pair us up when we would split up to look for clues. I doubt Fred did it because he was jealous. We never had a relationship like that despite how it seems to come across to others. I'm certain it was more like Fred probably felt Shaggy could never keep me safe.

I love Fred but like a brother more than anything else. He was most likely being overprotective without realizing it. Something to talk about to him about at some point. Any-who, here I am having just realized the depths of my feelings for a man who, if he put in the effort, could probably go twelve rounds with a professional fighter. Not even exaggerating either, he did . . . .Authors Note: (This is the end because I can't remember where I was going with the previous sentence. If anyone wants to continue this line of thought, then feel free to. This was intended to be a two or three part story, with the obvious second part being Shaggy Lost in Thought. If I ever get the inspiration to finish this someday then I will but for the moment I'm happy to just post this as is and see what everyone thinks. I wanted my First posting to be a complete story but I tend to get distracted too easy it seems, to ever do so. This can be considered Complete as a drabble if nothing else.)