guesos - Tumblr blog

guesos · 5 years ago

Text

Part of the Job

Summary: Doing mysteries is all fun and games until one of them get hurt.

He stumbles, gripping his hair with his fists across the hall. Shaggy tries to breathe, the sudden anxiety filling his mind, and his throat tightens.

"Aww shit, I didn't think I would hit him that hard."

Shaggy hears, but the voice drowns due to the pounding of his head. His tight firsts turn to a palm on the side of his head, and he feels something sticky.

"You hit a kid, Ant, what were you thinkin'?"

Ant turns to Shaggy, ignoring his brother: "Hey, hey, you're fine, kid, can you tell me today's date?" He swallows at the slow reaction of the lanky teen.

"…Like...head hurts." Shaggy says, breath shaky, his vision swims and he sinks to the floor.

Voices and rushed footsteps fill the air. "We have to go, Ant, before those other meddling kids catch us." The men dressed as ghost tells Ant, and Ant, baring a pipe, tosses it to the side and runs to the other way before they can come into the room.

"Raggy!" Scooby presses his nose against Shaggy's hand, and his brown dewy eyes land on his friend's head.

"Shag, you okay?" Fred kneels to Shaggy's level, inspecting his head. He slowly removes his hand, blood staining his hand and light brown hair. Horror filled his blue eyes.

"Head hurts," he whispers, and clench his eyes shut.

They're still investigating, and the "ghosts," which Velma knows aren't real, are getting away. But her friend seems to have a concussion.

"C'mon, Shag. Daphne, call the ambulance. Scoob, help me out." Fred drapes Shaggy's arm around his neck, and Scooby pushes his friend up with his head. Shaggy slouches over, hand over mouth.

Velma notices quickly that Shaggy was gonna –

She grimaces.

"Like...sorry." Shag mumbles, the content spilled onto his shoes.

"You okay there, Shaggy?" Velma asks, and she grabs Shaggy's hand to continue to press pressure on his head when he starts to slack.

"Hurts." He mumbles, and Daphne is back like she never has left.

"Okay, they should be here in a few minutes, what do we do about those ghosts?" She asks.

"We deal with them later, let's help Shaggy first," Freddy says, slugging his friend closer as he feels heavier by the second. "Stay awake, Shag." He nudges him, lightly but hard enough for Shaggy to feel.

"Hmm, like, head hurts." He replies tightly, his teeth clenching.

"I know Shag, you'll be okay."

The humming of the emergency response echoes through the silence as they manage to go outside.

Shaggy looks up at his friends, his eyes dazed, and the dizziness hits all over again. "His names…like, Ant." He slurs, his hand wanting to slide off his head, but Velma's tight grip won't let him.

"Shaggy!" Daphne exclaims, and both the ambulance and police arrive to the scene. "Is that who hit you?" He nods like his head is full of lead.

Scooby barks and they see the two ghosts lead outback of the mansion, but seconds later, they trip into Freddy's trap he has put earlier.

"Everything makes sense now," Velma says, tugging a smile, but was too worried about her friend to be happy.

Emergency responds come, and takes Shaggy off their hands, two of the three deputies go in the mansion, and minutes later he comes back with the bloody pipe.

"It's a good thing you put pressure onto his head," an EMT tells Velma, who gives him a tight nod and small smile.

"I learned it in my CPR class." She says all smartly and proud.

They wheel him away in the ambulance, and the only reason why they haven't rushed after is to fill in the police of the two suspects.

"We think their goal was to scare off realtors for their old uncle's mansion, who apparently wouldn't give his nephews the mansion before he passed. But now that he has, they took the opportunity to somehow scare everyone to consider it haunted and not put it on the market." Velma tells the deputy, who writes it down on his small pad and looks up to see another deputy coming his way.

"We found this bloodied pipe and think it's what hit your friend." A deputy tells them, and with his gloved hand, he puts it in the evidence bag.

Velma pulls her sleeves down subconsciously, the thought of being hit with something so strong can do so much damage, it sent shivers down her spine.

The deputies notice the worried looks, and one of them steps forward: "Listen, I know it's hard, and your friend will be okay. I do have to ask questions though before we can let you kids go, do you know who hit your friend?"

"Yes," Velma says in what feels like an autopilot response, "it's Ant. We didn't see what happened, but Shaggy told us." Velma says, and she fixes her glasses.

"Thank you, we'll make sure he'll get charged with assault and battery, you kids better go home, we'll call Norville's dad and let him know about his son." The deputy says tightly, before turning his sirens back on and leaving the scene.

It was moments like these, that they forget how much reality can get in the way of their fun-busting-adults for free. The sudden sadness and heaviness drawn to them, their friend got injured and the reality of it all, this wouldn't be the end of it. They've all been injured at some point – bruised and bloodied, but never something so serious.

"Okay gang," Freddy's voice broke through everyone's thoughts, "let's go see Shaggy," Fred says, and Scooby is in the first one in the van.

"You think he'll be okay?" Daphne twirls her hair in worry, and Velma smiles at her.

"He'll be okay. With the pressure on his head, and the help of the EMT, he'll be back and hungry," she adds, "he's a strong guy, believe it or not."

And as those words echo, Scooby wishes he were there to protect Shaggy at the beginning of it all.

11 notes · View notes