csi_sanders1129 | Fic: Courage

Title: Courage
Chapters: 4/10
Author:

csi_sanders1129
Genre: Friendship. Drama. Romance. Angst. Humor.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~1,100
Pairings/Characters: Fred Jones/Shaggy Rogers, Scooby Doo, Velma, Daphne.
Synopsis: Fred and Shaggy go from friends to more as they live through ten courage-requiring events at Coolsville High.

Comments: I’m writing slash for Scooby-Doo. I’m weird. I know. On that note, you have been warned. And, while reviews are awesome, flames will not be tolerated – they will be deleted. Original characters are mine, but everyone else belongs to Hanna-Barbera. It is set in the Mystery Begins/Curse of the Lake Monster!Verse, but does occasionally reference mysteries from Where Are You!, some references to Pup Named Scooby Doo via Red Herring, and one to Alien Invaders later on. This was also a ten-song challenge thing (that I totally cheated on) and so there’ll be song names at the beginning of each chapter, too. Enjoy!

This chapter also counts as one of my

hc_bingo prompts for drowning.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |

Rescued / Emerson Drive

After the lake monster incident, summer break goes pretty fast. Soon enough they're back at school and working Mystery Inc cases whenever they get the chance.

Once case in particular leads them out of Ohio and a couple dozen miles out into the Atlantic on a purportedly haunted boat over a long weekend.

Things do not go entirely smoothly. Actually, they end up going pretty horribly.

There's this moment when Shaggy is in the midst of the running away from the newest monsters of the week – a trio of presumably masked men posing as evil pirate ghosts or something – part of the mystery when he realizes something is seriously wrong.

He thinks Scooby is right on his heels and when he stops dead in his tracks, that theory is proven correct when the canine slams into him and knocks him down rather ungracefully.

"Rhat's rong?" Scooby hurriedly inquires, glancing around for whatever unseen danger Shaggy had managed to spot.

Shaggy isn't sure. He sees flashes of orange and purple clothing as Velma and Daphne run around the corner in front of him, so they're safe, but then where is Fred? "Go watch out for the girls," he says and takes off in the direction he came from despite the futile protests from Scooby Doo.

He's running back toward danger and terror and almost-certain death at the hands of the ghost of Blackbeard or Bluebeard or Whatever-Color-beard, but something makes him weigh that risk against the possibility of Fred being in danger and from there it's not much of a choice.

"Freddy!" He calls out as loudly as he dares when he can hear the maniacal laughter of the imposing trio of sea-dogs, while he ducks behind a stack of crates on the main deck. "Freddy! Where are you?"

Then there are screams and Shaggy isn't used to being the one to hear screaming – unless it's his own – and rescuing the person doing the screaming – again, usually himself – is not something that typical lands on his shoulders. But, this is Fred and Fred is clearly in danger if he's shouting like that and then Shaggy abandons his stealthy cover and rounds a corner to face what is probably the most terrifying sight he's ever seen.

It's Fred. And the pirates have him tied up and dangling over the edge of the boat in the middle of the ocean. And as he gets closer he hears things like 'sharks'll get him quick enough,' and 'won't be anything left of him for anyone to find,' and Fred sees him and his eyes blow wide and he shakes his head like he doesn't want to risk being rescued, but like hell if Shaggy is letting his best friend die when he can do something to stop it.

He doesn't have much time, but his mind forms a half-insane plan that just might be crazy enough to work if he can pull it off. There's a ladder that leads up the mast and he quickly, but quietly, climbs it, eyes on Freddy the whole time.

"Hey, scallywags!" He calls out as he manages to untie the fishing nets that have – for some unintelligible, but nonetheless, helpful reason – been secured along the mast. "Up here!" He releases the knots and the nets fall almost perfectly. One guy, the leader, of course, is just out of range.

The leader – Graybeard? Orangebeard? No – is moving toward Freddy before Shaggy can really grasp what is happening. As soon as he does figure it out, he's grabbing at another rope and sliding down and somehow he aims just on target enough to hit the pirate – Redbeard! Ha! That's it! – hard enough to send him flying down a staircase.

Unfortunately, he manages this impressively effective feat just nanoseconds after the ironically beardless Redbeard shoves Fred overboard.

His heart stops, just stops altogether, when he sees Fred dropping to the unforgiving ocean below , but then Shaggy is diving after him and he can see the spot where Freddy went under and somehow he hits pretty close to it. The water is chilly – as it is October – and rough and murky, but he spots the rapidly sinking mass of rope that is presently tied around Fred and how he manages to hold his breath long enough to get down to Fred and drag him back up to the surface he doesn't think he'll ever know.

The girls and Scooby Doo are leaning over the side of the boat when Shaggy forces his eyes into focus again upon surfacing. They're shouting instructions at him and lowering something down to sea-level and Shaggy never does figure out what it is that gets them back on deck and quite frankly he doesn't really care.

He's mostly running on pure adrenaline by that point and even though he's having trouble forcing air into his lungs, he's all focused on getting Fred untied and making sure he's alright. The ropes are wet and slick and damn near impossible to get off but somehow he manages to get them undone before Daphne and Velma appear at his side.

Fred isn't breathing though, so Daphne's giving him mouth to mouth and Shaggy is trying to get his hands to cooperate long enough for chest compressions but they're shaking and they just won't do what he wants so Velma pushes him aside and takes over. "The Coastguard's on the way," she tells him, just before his energy disappears and everything fades out.

***

When Shaggy is next aware of his surroundings, he's laid out on some sort of makeshift cot on another nicer, non-ghost crewed ship with his head in Fred's lap and Scooby Doo lying across his legs; they're both piled with blankets and in dry clothes now, too. Fred's awake and aware, he's glad to see and now if his head would just stop spinning, everything would be good.

"Like, you okay?" Shaggy manages to ask, wondering why it hurts his throat that much to talk.

Fred nods, kind of half-grins and tries not to think of pulling a hayloft because this is not the time or the place and he doesn't have the energy or the desire to be awkward right now. "Thanks to you," he says, instead, "the pirates are unmasked and under arrest. But don't do something stupid like that for me again, okay?"

Shaggy drifts out again before he can make such a promise. Maybe it's on purpose.