The applause, the cheers and the laughter, the thing she remembered most was the laughter. Velma got up and turned off the television, sniffing, trying to gulp down the ball of tears that was forming in her throat. She turned off the lights and sat down on a stool next to the window and looked out to the nearby woods. She was tempted to run and hide there, if it had been earlier in the day then she would have but it was too dark, so all she did was stare. For a long time that was all she did. sit on the stool and stare out of the window trying, and failing, not to cry. Yet again he had broken his promises; despite all the assurances given she had been publicly belittled and humiliated by him again. Finally she gave in and let her emotions go, she knew she would feel better afterwards. At some point Velma became aware that there was someone else in the room with her, she felt a weight on her lap and looked down into Scooby's watery eyes. She was just about to speak, she tensed slightly at the touch of a hand on each of her shoulders and turned to see who it was, it was Shaggy. Velma relaxed and leant back into him resting her hands on his. He was almost as good as Scooby when it came to sensing she was upset. She looked up at him, he looked like he had been kicked in the stomach; he looked like she felt. She was surprised when he spoke.

"I can't take much more of this Velms. And… and I don't think you can either"

Her bottom lip began to quiver again as much from seeing his distress as from her own. Shaggy broke down first, Velma crushed him to her, they held tightly onto each other as their tears flowed.

"You are special Shaggy, you are, don't forget that"

"I'm not sure about that anymore"

"You'll always be special Shaggy"

At the time it was an obvious decision to make Fred the spokesman of the gang. It was Daphne who first suggested it; secretly she found the idea of her boyfriend being on TV very appealing. The rest agreed that Fred was the natural choice as neither Shaggy nor Velma were that comfortable in front of the camera and while Fred was the de-facto leader of the group that wasn't the reason he became their spokesman, it was that the camera loved him. His broad shoulders, strong face and blond hair just worked on TV. His easy, confidant manner won over reporters and the viewing public. But in making Fred the spokesman they had unwittingly loosed a monster in him, an inverted vampire as it were, whereas those creature feared and hid for the light, he couldn't get enough of it, the limelight that is. Put a camera or microphone in front of him and he transformed from the Fred they knew into a shameless self-publicist, ignoring, belittling and ridiculing the other members of Mystery Inc. Each time this happened, less of the original Fred returned. Of course this necrosis of his humanity didn't happen overnight, if it had they would have slapped him to his senses, and most likely Fred would have joined in. But slowly he changed, the in-jokes within the gang became public, at first it was Fred joking about himself and his obsession with traps but that was soon dropped, bigger laughs could be had at Shaggy's expense, then Velma's. Even Daphne from time to time was held up for ridicule.

Out on a case he was Fred the leader and protector, always ensuring that the girls were safe and that Shaggy and Scooby got well fed. The gang always felt better when on a case as Fred returned more-or-less to his old self, each time they hoped that when they got back the old Fred would remain. When at home he retained the vestiges of the Fred they had known, always doing his share of the chores and the like. It was outside of the house that things changed. Scooby was the first to notice, they would start going out at busier times, to more public places. Increasingly it was to places where cameras were present. Of course this meant that the 'runts of the litter' as Daphne had once caught him referring to Shaggy and Velma, often had to be kept at home lest they distract from him. Daphne always went along; she was more glamorous than Velma and more comfortable in front of the camera. It finally dawned on Daphne that she was the trophy, not him.

Velma was aware of the old folk-tale that if you put a frog in boiling water it's going to jump out, put a frog in cold water and turn the heat on–it'll stay in there and boil to death. By way of jumping out both Velma and Shaggy had taken to doing jobs outside of Mystery Inc. Velma became a contract scientist and engineer and Shaggy helped out at local Humane Society. This gave them an outlet and some breathing space. They also found people who would accept and value them for what they were. This helped keep them sane, but still they worried. Privately they worried about each other, collectively they worried about Fred and what had gone wrong but most of all they worried about Daphne. Fred knew Daphne's emotional levers, Shaggy and Velma felt sorry for her; they knew Daphne tried to challenge Fred about his behaviour but he was always able to manipulate her to deflect criticisms. It was our date – a romantic surprise – they didn't want to come and so on; at the time all so plausible reasons and delivered so sincerely.

There was one thing that did stand in Fred's favour; he got them work, a lot of work. Privately he knew how to sell the gang and their skills, of course he presented himself as the glue that held it all together, but when money was on the table a more calculating Fred emerged. As the money rolled in Fred felt his approach was justified and could brush aside any concerns that the others might express, especially when it came time to hand out the quarterly bonus cheques. None of the others could argue with the fact that they were very successful, both Shaggy and Velma paid for their time in college, up front and in cash and never really noticed the loss. Daphne had the ideal princess lifestyle, platinum credit card, flash car, designer clothes and a trophy boyfriend. And Fred well, it was hard to know what he wanted, aside from attention. And he made sure he got that.

The one thing that kept Mystery Inc on the rails for so long was Daphne's father. He had bankrolled them when they started out, it was an exercise in tax-deductible philanthropy as most of the cases the gang took in the early days were for people who couldn't afford the services of private investigators. He was also secretly pleased that his daughter was out in the world doing something else other than just spending his money in the local mall. As Mystery Inc became well known and started taking on paying cases it became in effect a wholly owned subsidiary of the Blake business empire. I was a seemingly sensible request from Daphne's father when he had asked Velma to reappraise all the efforts of the gang for the past 12 months. He had been getting some disconnected rumblings about unhappiness and discord within the gang and assumed that it was due to how they divided the bonuses. Fred was not happy with the findings as it resulted in his share being reduced. But Mr Blake knew that Velma had been scrupulously honest as she had reduced her share as well. The thing that pleased Daphne and Velma but annoyed Fred the most was that Shaggy and Scooby had their share increased. But as the months rolled by the tensions mounted, Mr Blake realised that the problems were far deeper than he had feared. As they solved case after high-profile case the media interest in them soared, at the same time the internal pressures increased. At the end it was obvious things were starting to spiral out of control, obvious to all that is but Fred, He had agreed to a fly-on-the-wall documentary about them as they visited New York for a series of Mystery Inc related events whilst they visited the city. At the last minute the date was changed, and that was when it all kicked-off.

The argument had raged for nearly an hour.

"No, I am not going Fred and that's final. Just leave me alone!" shouted Velma

"Velma, this is official Mystery Inc business" said Fred

"I've got my own work to do Fred. Anyway it coincides with a clown convention in the same hotel we are staying at. Why didn't you tell me this? You know I have coultrophobia, you've joked about it often enough."

"Hey we had to rearrange the meetings so don't bite my head off. You're just an employee so you'll do as you're damn well told. We've got media appointments arranged, they're following us for a few days remember" said Fred

"No! I am not going just so my panic attacks can provide comedy relief for anyone watching" said Velma and with that she stormed out of the room.

"She needs to be taught a lesson, impudent little brat" muttered Fred following after Velma. Shaggy got up and stood in his path.

"Man you lay one finger on Velma and, and I don't know what I'll do but, just leave her alone" said Shaggy blocking in the doorway.

"Freddie calm down" said Daphne.

"Step aside Shag. Velma's coming whether she likes it or not" said Fred

"I'm not moving" Shaggy could hear Velma from within her room, it sounded like she was on the verge of a panic attack, and that was enough to steel his resolve. Scooby stood by his side and growled.

"Is there a problem?" they turned to see Mr Blake enter the room.

"Velma doesn't want to go to New York because of the clown convention" said Daphne quickly.

"I know, I said she didn't have to go, I wouldn't expect her to go" said Mr Blake looking confused, all eyes were then on Fred.

"Oh yes, I forget" he said and stormed out of the room. Inside Fred was seething, he'd planned a bit of image improvement for himself, and Velma was key to all that. She would get stuck in a lift with some clowns, have a panic attack and when the lift opened he would be there to help and comfort her. All discretely filmed by a hidden camera crew who would then post the film up to show how he kept his caring side hidden from public view. He'd get even with her; she was getting too big for her boots.