A few seconds after they had opened the doors the police arrived at the house. Daphne explained the situation to the officers who brought out the Freds. Both looked equally rough and both looked too much like each other for even Daphne to tell them apart.

"If Scoob's nose was working he could tell them apart strait away" said Shaggy "What will we do now?"

"I know how to tell them apart, I'll be back in a couple of minutes, officer could you come with me please?" Velma left the room followed by one of the police officers. A squad car was heard to leave only to return almost immediately. A short while later the officer returned Velma followed a minute later carrying two plates, on each there is a slice of bread with something spread on it. She handed a plate to each Fred "Now gentlemen, on my signal you are each to take a bite out of the bread and eat it. Ready, eat now." both took a bite, one carried on eating the other collapsed, half choking on the floor with tears streaming from his eyes. Velma pointed triumphantly at the stricken Fred.

"There's your man officer. The real Fred is the only one I know who can eat this stuff" declared Velma

"Say fella, have you finished with that?" said the real Fred taking and eating the other slice of bread. "Do you have any more Velma? I'm still hungry" he smiled

Daphne rushed over to the real Fred and began to give him a long kiss. She went a strange colour and her eyes watered, but taste of the spread did not deter her.

"Man, that's love if ever I saw it" Shaggy whispered to Velma who smiled and put her arm round him.

Once Daphne had confirmed to her satisfaction that Velma's identification was correct she turned to face the criminal behind their recent capture "Let me have a closer look at this phoney Fred" said Daphne staring at him angrily. She approached and carefully looked as his face

"Look here, there are some scars around the hairline, the real Fred doesn't have any scars like that, it looks like he's had plastic surgery to make himself more like the real Fred." she stared intently at him and nodded in recognition "Now I recognise him, this man used to be one of the best product designers in my fathers company. Well, what have you got to say for yourself?"

"Curse you Daphne Blake, curse you and your meddling friends" he replied angrily "I was the brains behind the company, all those ideas were rightfully mine. I should have been rich, not your father. All I wanted was what was rightfully mine but you had to get involved and ruin everything."

"What are you talking about? You worked in the beauty products division." she asked angrily "All you did was steal the pet and van products then relabelled them."

"Clueless as always you red headed bimbo..." without thinking Velma slammed her hand into Fred's chest "...This was just to be my revenge on you, on all of you. You stopped me profiting from my ideas. So what if I was using the same labels as your fathers products, he stole my ideas so I stole his labels"

"You are raving mad, what on earth are you talking about?" she asked

"I think I know" said Velma quietly.

"What Velma? What's wrong?" asked Daphne as she saw how pale and upset she looked.

"Think back Daphne, back to the last case we did for your father and a junk-yard a year or so ago" she replied quietly. Shaggy took Velma in his arms, partly to comfort her, and partly to stop himself from laying into him. By nature Shaggy was not a violent person, but being confronted by the person who was the root cause of all her suffering was causing his blood to boil. Out of the entire group only he really knew how much pain and distress she had gone through during her recovery.

Daphne thought for a second, she looked at Velma then the man and her eyes narrowed; it took two police officers to prevent her for tearing him limb-from-limb.

"Take it easy, Miss Blake, take it easy," said the senior officer "What happened?"

"About a year ago my father asked us to look into some counterfeit products; he suspected that someone inside the company was behind it. Velma and I were attacked and kidnapped to be held for ransom but we escaped and their whole operation was shut down. The assault was so bad that one of his gang was charged with attempted murder."

"Of who?" asked the senior officer.

"Me" whispered Velma finally succumbing to the emotion of the moment. The man was dragged away by the police leaving the gang to comfort Velma

"There are some things you shouldn't be reminded of" she whispered when she was more in control of herself.

"Do you remember it all now?" asked Daphne

"No, it just reminded me of everything we all went through afterwards" she replied then squeezed Shaggy and smiled "But you are all the best medicine I've ever had… Can we go home now? It's already been a long day." The gang headed downstairs, Daphne called her father to let him know she was OK and to update him on what had happened over the past couple of days. Fred arranged for a tow-truck to collect the History Machine and to everyone's relief the robot Velma was packed away.

Once outside they savoured the fresh morning air, Fred and Shaggy went to strap the armchair to the roof of the Mystery Machine whilst Daphne checked out Velma's unexpected change in image.

"Say Velma, great new outfit you have there, I barely recognised you when I first say you. Is this your new look for mystery hunting now?" said Daphne.

"Thanks Daph. No this is just special occasion wear, my regular clothes are back in the decoy's hotel room, I hope. We figured they knew who we were, so we needed to go in a deep disguise."

Daphne stopped dead in her tracks; her eyes out on stalks. She grabbed Velma's left hand "Was this part of the disguise as well! Because if it isn't I will be so..." she said staring at the engagement and wedding rings on her finger.

Velma went the same colour as her trainers "It was Daph, it was open season on Dinkleys out there, I went to the hotel and checked in as me; Shaggy said I was followed the moment I got in the hotel. They would have grabbed me there and then had we not planned for that eventuality. That's why we used the decoy me and we went in a disguise they wouldn't expect. I wore make-up and Shaggy dyed his goatee."

"You wore make-up! Oh Velma, both of you sure went the extra mile for us" said Daphne

"Anytime, we knew you'd do the same for us" replied Velma.

"So... Who did you go undercover as?" Daphne asked innocently, Velma went even redder and looked utterly wretched. For once Daphne relented "You can tell me all about it later… Mrs Rogers" she said quietly patting her on the arm then heading off to the van.

"How...?" said Velma in shock.

Daphne turned around and smiled "Well Shaggy is wearing a wedding ring as well. It suits you both"

"Remind me again, why did we rescue you?" muttered Velma to herself as she followed Daphne to the van.

The Mystery Machine pulled up outside the hotel, Shaggy and Velma dashed out the second the van had stopped moving. Daphne could not figure out why Shaggy and Velma were in such a rush to check-out of the hotel.

"World record check-out time guys!" exclaimed Fred as Shaggy and Velma emerged seconds later with the remains of their gear.

"Come on you two" said Velma to Fred and Daphne "you've had a bad couple of days. When we get back home Shaggy and I will cook dinner for you tonight as a treat. I think I've got some dry-ice in my lab." Fred and Daphne exchanged worried glances dry ice?

"Oh... good." said Fred weakly.

Daphne mulled the idea over for a while, intriguing as it was she decided that she would insist on a quick trip to the drug-store on the way back. Fred was simply relieved to be on the way back home no matter what culinary fate awaited him.

They were quiet for a while, letting the miles tick away. After a while Daphne spoke up

"Velms, I'm sorry I teased you and Shaggy about your disguise. It really worked; it fooled me as well as those goons. I don't think I'd have had the gall to pull of something like that." As Daphne continued to speak, it eventually dawned on her that she was getting no response from the back. She turned round to see why there was no reply and her face lit up

"Freddie pull over slowly" whispered Daphne, Fred did as asked

"What's wrong Daph?" he asked "And why are we whispering?"

"Look at the two love-birds" beamed Daphne. Shaggy and Velma were sleeping peacefully, Shaggy was resting against the corner of the van; Velma was leaning back against him, sitting between his legs. His arms were around her waist; her arms were resting on his with their hands entwined. Her head was resting on his shoulder, face turned upwards towards him. Their foreheads were resting on each other, their lips almost touching. Scooby was asleep on their legs and looked equally at home. Daphne slowly climbed into the back of the van

"Come on Daph, don't disturb them, they look so peaceful" whispered Fred, Daphne made sure she didn't disturb them especially whilst she took some photographs. Daphne was ecstatic got you she thought.

Fred shook his head, Daphne had a strange set of priorities at time. "Well let's be going Daph. There is always next years convention, it's a shame that this one went so bad for us" sighed Fred driving off again

"Oh I don't know" she smiled looking at the photos of Shaggy and Velma "I think this trip has been quite successful after all."

(Authors Note: Many thanks to those who have been reading this so far. There is one more that follows after this, currently titled The Perils of Daphne and Velma.)