...Shaggy...

My mind felt like it was floating away from my body from the pure bliss that I had been feeling for the past hour. I couldn't even bring myself to speak, much less look at Velma. I found that though I was happy, I was also extremely nervous. Where do we stand now? What does this make us? Are we sill friends? Was Velma kissing me back just a spur of the moment thing? Did I ruin her life? Is she okay? So much was running through my mind as I dug through the box of old files that sat under the desk.

"Shaggy," Velma spoke, pulling me out of my thoughts, "Look at this!"

She ran up to me, a genuine smile stretched across her face. "What is that?"

In her hands, Velma held a newspaper article, and a very old one at that. "It's an article from twenty years ago; apparently, this place is built right on top of an underground tunel that the city closed off due to hazards that are not explained in this paper. Anyway, it does state that the tunnel was once used way back in the day to transport female slaves in and out of the city."

"Why only female slaves?", I asked, confused out of my mind.

She sighed, "Shaggy. The Black Market? Sex slaves? Ring a bell?"

"Oh," I blushed, "Sorry I wasn't thinking. Like, what do you think this has to do with the mystery?"

"I think there is a way into the tunnels, actually. Look what else I found," she said, reaching into her pocket.

I watched as she pulled out a small photo book. Upon opening it, she flipped to a page with a picture of a room in it. It looked familiar.

"This is a record of City Hall and each of its rooms that the City keeps to see how well the building and the cleanliness of such is holding up. The date on this picture was dated two months ago. It's a picture of the basement that we're standing in right now. Look at how clean it was," she said, wavering the picture in front of my face.

I did notice. All of the papers that surrounded us now were not in the picture. The files weren't sorted through at all. None of the chairs were broken, and it looked well kept. "So, like, what do you think is going on here?"

"I don't know," she shook her head, making me smile at her innocence, "but I think there's more to this basement than what meets the eye."

"Like, you said City Hall was built on top of some underground tunnels, right? That must mean that like, the basement is in a tunnel," I said, unsure of myself, "at least I think so."

"Shaggy, you're a genius!", she exclaimed, throwing her arms around my neck, "we have to go find Fred, Daphne, and Scooby!"

I smiled, "Like, I'm so glad to see you smile, Velms."

She stared me in the eyes and maintained her composure, "Shaggy," I didn't let her finish, because my lips were suddenly pressed against hers. My heart raced in my chest as I pulled her close to me, gently working against her mouth. I wouldn't let myself take this any further than a kiss, as I know we're both not ready for that; Velma more than I.

As I pulled away from her, she leaned her head on my chest. "Shaggy, thank you."

"For what?", I asked, confused even more.

"For always being there for me, and for not walking away," she said, blushing. I smiled as her cheeks turned a small shade of pink.

"Like, Velma I'd never walk away from you. I love you, remember? Even if you don't love me back, I-"

"Velma? Shaggy? You guys down here?", I heard Fred's voice as he walked down the staircase. I felt Velma pull off of me, her face even redder than before.

"Like, yeah! We were just about to come and find you guys," I said, blushing myself.

"What's going on?", Daphne asked, looking at us with a smile on her face, "did you guys find anything?"

"Raggy, are ryou rokay?", Scooby had come up beside me and gave me a look of concern.

"Guys I'm fine, like nothing happened, okay? Anyway, Velma found a clue or two, and like, I hipotized something!", I said, matter-of-factly.

Suddenly, Velma busted out laughing, along with everyone else. "What's so funny?"

"You said, hipotized. Shaggy, it's hypothesized!", Velma said while wiping away her tears of laughter.

I blushed, "Yeah, like, well..."

She put a hand on my shoulder, and smiled, "It's okay," she whispered, "I thought it was cute."

...Velma...

So it's official now; Shaggy does love me, and though I haven't said it back, the feeling is mutual. I'm not sure what's holding me back from saying those three words. I think I'm scared, or nervous; I just don't want to get hurt again. It's Shaggy, though, I know he'd never hurt me.

He did impress me with his 'hipotizis' though, although he did manage to say it wrong. Leave it to Shaggy to try and impress me, but say the word wrong; he's so perfect! I feel so warm and happy, the complete opposite of the past five years for me.

"So there's a pathway down here somewhere, I assume," Fred's voice drew me out of my thoughts, and I nodded. I had informed them on everything that I had found, and what Shaggy may have deduced.

"We have to search for it," I said. I was so glad to be back in Mystery Inc., I never realized just how much I missed all of them.

After around ten minutes of searching, I finally heard something I wanted to hear, "I found a door!"

It was Shaggy. He had moved out a bookshelf, and by himself! "Shaggy, how'd you manage to move that heavy thing alone?"

"Like, I'm just that strong, Velma," Shaggy said while grinning. He still had that grin, even when Daphne pointed out that the bookshelf had a set of wheels on the bottom. I laughed.

"Is it locked?", I asked, walking toward it. When Shaggy opened the door, not only did we have an answer, but also an answer to Shaggy's hypothesis; it did lead directly into the tunnels.

"Gang, it looks like we're going underground, into the tunnels of the deceased black market," Fred said sternly, clutching onto Daphne's hand.

I felt Shaggy's fingers lace through mine, and I blushed. He knew that I was scared; this place was full of not only remanants of the sex trade, but also of death and rape. Young girls were taken away from their families, and from everything they knew and disposed of here. "Shaggy," I whispered, causing him to look at me, "please don't let anyone hurt me."

"I won't Velma, like I promise you that I won't," and he pulled me close.

"Relma, ryou rokay? Rare rhere ronsters?", Scooby asked, walking beside me. He looked at Shaggy's hand in mine, and smiled.

"No, Scooby. I'm not okay. I promise, I'll tell you why later, but I do want you to know something; there are really monsters out there, Scooby. And they used to reside here."