Obviously, that hadn’t been a problem this year, she soon realized, looking around the room that she hadn’t remembered coming to the night before. Someone must have carried her up there and tucked her into bed, and she smiled to herself with the thought that that someone had almost undoubtedly been Ethan. Beside her, Daphne slept quietly, her back turned, and so Velma took the utmost care not to wake her as she slid from the covers and headed for the door.

The downstairs of the house was as quiet as her room had been, and Velma quickly surmised that she was the first one awake. Padding into the den, she immediately noticed that someone had been playing Santa during the night. The amount of presents underneath the twinkling Christmas tree had about doubled, and there was a stocking for each person hanging, very full, from the mantle. On each, the appropriate name was written out in gold glitter, and Velma recognized the swooping, almost flowery cursive as Daphne’s. It was not the tree, nor the stockings, nor the brightly wrapped packages that held her attention, however. In the center of the room Ethan lay asleep on a large air mattress, covered to the waist in several blankets. He was stretched out comfortably, one arm up over his head, totally open to the world.

Velma crept over to him, sitting carefully on the edge of the mattress so that it wouldn’t depress too much and wake him. He was beautiful to look at. She knew that you weren’t supposed to call a man beautiful—men were handsome—and of course Ethan was. But his shape, his form, the way he was put together—those things were beautiful. She smiled at his sleeping face, then ran her fingers across his hand and satin-clad arm, so lightly that she was barely touching him.

Of course he woke up. "Hey," he said, his voice still gliding smoothly over the word even though he couldn’t have been more than half-awake. Velma looked immediately to his face, her hand dropping, just in time to see a soft half-smile form on his lips. "Merry Christmas," he continued, pulling himself up to more or less sitting position.

"You too." She’d been all set to be embarrassed, but Ethan’s approving smile stopped her.

"Do you want...?" he asked, pulling the corners of his blankets back and gesturing to them with a slight tip of his head.

"Sure," Velma replied, easing herself onto the mattress and under the covers. Ethan slid back down again, letting her nestle comfortably against his chest. For awhile they just lay there, Velma with her eyes closed in contentment, Ethan watching the lights blink on the tree, his fingertips all the while running up and down her back and arm almost absently. They had reached the point in their relationship where they could simply enjoy being quiet and content together, and the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. However, few minutes had passed before Velma decided to break it.

"Fred’s going to propose to Daphne, isn’t he?" she asked against his chest, the morning-softness in her voice making the inquiry sound almost casual. She sounded as if she were asking an incredibly basic question, one of the everyday variety to which people already know the answers before they ask.

"What?" Ethan replied on impulse, surprised that she knew. Fred had told he and Shaggy that between them, his parents, and Daph’s parents, no one else had been let in on it—especially Velma. Though she was dependable to the utmost degree, Fred feared that Daphne would immediately be able to read the information from her best friend.

"Oh, come on, it’s pretty obvious," Velma said, moving back to prop herself up on one elbow. "I do have some feminine instincts, you know."

"Believe me, I do," Ethan responded to her joke, smiling at her in a way that nearly made her blush. "Nah, it’s just that Fred was trying to keep it a secret. I only know because Shag and me were with him when he got the ring..." Ethan let the sentence fade off as realization came to him. "Hey, wait-- how did you know I knew?" Velma grinned at him in reply. "You just set me up, didn’t you!?"

"Precisely."

Ethan laughed, dropping his head down to his pillow. "Oh well, I’m taking it you had a pretty good idea anyway. That girl-radar thing."

Velma looked highly amused by this observation. "Something like that."

"Does Daphne know?" It almost seemed a silly question, but Ethan asked it anyway. Surely, if Velma had figured it out, Daphne would have as well.

"She has her suspicions. Fred’s been acting so strange lately that she’s pretty sure it’ll be soon."

"She’s right—he’s planning on today." He didn’t bother to tell Velma to keep it a secret. She would already know that, and he trusted her.

"Today? Jinkies," Velma breathed, almost to herself. She’d anticipated the event but having an actual time put on it—and a time so soon to occur—brought the realization to a new level. Her two best friends from childhood were going to be married—it was a lot to take in. Slowly Velma shifted in her place next to Ethan, turning so that she could rest her head against his chest again. Immediately she felt his hand move around, lightly, automatically running up and down her back in long strokes. She snuggled in closer.

Then, as suddenly as his touch had begun, it stopped, and Velma felt an odd tightening in Ethan’s breath—lying as she was, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. "Velma," he began, his voice deeper and soft, "would you want to marry me?"

It was difficult to tell who was more surprised by the totally unplanned question. Under his hand, Ethan felt Velma’s muscles tighten in reaction, then shift as she propped herself up, looking into his face. He hadn’t meant to word the question quite that way—he’d planned on asking if she’d ever thought about them being married—and the simple change of words had made all the difference in the world. Even so—he knew that he didn’t want to take them back.

Velma stared at him for a heartbeat, trying to sift his meaning. Were it not for his incredibly intense look, the way that he held his breath, she would have thought he was just asking a conversational question. They had talked about marriage before, in futuristic terms. But now it almost seemed as if he were... could he really be...?

"Are you asking?" she finally questioned through her pinched throat, the words an almost throaty rush.

Ethan stared back at her, noticing how almost overwhelmingly vulnerable she looked as her question tumbled out. He’d never seen her like that—vulnerability not being one of Velma’s usual traits. Maybe once, the first time he’d kissed her. But not like this. It was an awful position to have put her in, and Ethan knew it. There was nothing to do but be honest with her.

"Yes," he answered her with certainty, the word releasing all the tension he’d been carrying, all the longing. He’d wanted to ask her for months, and finally doing it gave him such an intense feeling of release that it didn’t occur to him at first that she hadn’t even answered him yet. Reaching out, he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, trying to keep himself grounded in the moment. It was starting to take on a surreal feeling... All at once, the earlier conflicts came back to him.

"No," he corrected himself, his voice scraping with disappointment as he turned away and flopped onto his back. His eyes on the ceiling, he didn’t see the hurt flash into Velma’s eyes, all her features reacting as if she’d been slapped. "I can’t," he sighed heavily. "It’s not fair—it’s not fair to you."

"What?" Velma asked, causing him to turn to her again.

"I’ve been wanting to ask you for months," he explained, surprising Velma. She’d had no idea. "Ever since we started talking about it... but... I mean, we’re both so busy right now and life’s crazy... especially with the tour. We couldn’t get married until after that, and only if something else didn’t come up. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, and I prob’ly won’t have a lotta say in it."

"That’s true," Velma agreed.

"It just doesn’t seem right for me to ask you and then not even be able to figure out when it might be— and prob’ly it’ll be a long time before I do know. But it’s not that... that I don’t want to be married to you," Ethan assured her, his voice sounding strained with emotion. "It’s not even that I don’t want us to be engaged... ‘cause I do. That’s why I just asked you... ‘cause I just couldn’t hold it in anymore."

Velma tried hard to think through her whirl of emotions, through the pounding of her heartbeat loud in her ears. She hadn’t even the slightest idea that Ethan felt that way— though he had been enthusiastic about the idea of marriage when they talked about it, his actual proposal hadn’t seemed eminent. As he said, their lives were so complicated. This wasn’t to say that she hadn’t thought about marrying Ethan; she thought about it a great deal, and she couldn’t picture marrying any man but him. Though he was the only boyfriend she’d ever had, she knew he was the only man she wanted—for she really was a one-man woman in the very literal sense. Velma had a great capacity for loving others, but when it came to truly opening up, her love was also selective—she couldn’t imagine ever sharing herself so much with anyone else as she had with him, nor could she imagine their relationship ending.

"Ethan," she said after what seemed, to him, an endless moment.

"Yeah?" he replied, still reeling. He couldn’t believe he’d loosed those words—the ones he’d meant to hold back until a better time. Their relationship would never be the same now.

"You’re right about all that." Ethan gave her the slightest nod in reply, looking terribly somber. Evidently she agreed with him... but to him it didn’t feel like a relief. It felt like a disappointment. "It’s just that you forgot one thing."

"Yeah?"

"My answer." Ethan’s eyes bolted to hers, making contact instantly. "I’ll give it to you..." Velma trailed off for a moment, looking down. She knew that with her next words, she’d be laying her heart out in front of him, but she had to go ahead. "Unless you’re... really taking back your proposal." Despite his very sensible, very mature reasons for not being able to carry through with it, Velma sensed that he’d forget all about them if he could. He’d said it wouldn’t be fair to her—if she was right, his reasons, good as they were, had little to do with his own feelings. And if she was wrong... well, she’d soon find out.

Ethan swallowed hard, unable to speak as he tried to take in her totally unexpected words. Surely she wouldn’t say something like that-- something that would only set him up to be crushed-- if she were going to say no. Velma wasn’t like that; she didn’t play those kinds of games. That meant she must be going to say... yes. Yes! It meant that she didn’t care about the indefinite engagement, about not knowing when they could be married, or when a tour might separate them during the planning. Well, she’d care, of course— but she didn’t mind working through it. There was nothing to hold him back now. Getting up off the mattress, he took Velma’s hand and helped her to do the same, as gallantly as he knew how. Slowly he got down on one knee in front of her, still holding her hand as if it were glass. She had put her heart on the line already, and now he took his turn.

"I’m not taking it back. I just—just wanted to do it the right way and everything." He paused, looking up into her eyes as best he could. They were filling, and she looked breathless, staring right back down at him. "I love you so much, Velma. Will you marry me?"

"Jinkies, Ethan," she replied, "how could this not be right?" He smiled at her, but his entire countenance was one of almost enraptured anticipation. "Yes-- I would love to marry you."

"Yes?!" Ethan stammered, his mind straining to get itself around the situation even as he strained to take a breath.

"It might not be sensible to get engaged now-- but who says we have to be sensible?" She gave him one of her curved, wry smiles, though her expression was soft. It was an old joke between them, and Ethan let out a breathy, almost relieved laugh as she joined him, sinking down to sit on the mattress again. He pulled her into his arms, laughing gently against her hair. In a moment he drew back again, but his hands didn’t leave her, reaching up to hold her face and touch it. All his doubts were gone. In spite of all the barriers, she’d said yes.

The two of them were sharing a serious engagement-sealing kiss when Velma had her inspiration. "I have a plan," she stated after the long interlude.

"Hmm?" he questioned, heavily distracted by the warm kiss.

"Maybe we could get married next December."

That got Ethan’s attention right away. He drew back and simply looked at her, eyes questioning.

"Your tour is September to November... mid-November, right?" Ethan nodded, trying to focus his mind. "We could be married in the first part of December—then we’d have time for our honeymoon before anything else came up, because of the holidays."

"Yeah, and I wouldn’t be doing very much during the first part of the year, either—not tour-wise, anyway," Ethan put in enthusiastically, his mind diverted from kissing—momentarily. "And I wouldn’t be making an album, just writing new stuff. We know we’d have at least four, five months." His brow creased. "But after that I’ve got no idea—I’d might have another tour right after, or a bunch of publicity stuff. That’s not very long, and I don’t want you to feel like I’m-- running off when we just got married." Willing as he was to speed up the marriage, he didn’t know how Velma would feel about him possibly having to go off five months into it. Of course he’d love to have her with him, but she had her job, too—more than one job, in fact. She still did a little bit of independent work for NASA on the side.

"I wouldn’t think of it that way," Velma told him. "It isn’t ideal, but that’s just how your career is going to be for awhile. We could wait until you get more control over your schedule, but we might be waiting for... jinkies, I don’t even know how long."

"Yeah, that’s the music business. I guess the shortest might be... two years, something like that. I just have no idea right now. I mean, I might decide I don’t like performing and just write, or I might get really famous and then I’d have a lot more say in what I wanted to do. Or maybe nothing’ll happen."

"Now that’s not true."

"But whatever it is, Vel..." Ethan said, his voice and countenance growing deeply serious, "you know I’d give it all up for you. You mean way more to me than any of that."

Velma had to look away for a second; it was almost too much to hear. Her eyes filled for the second time that morning. "I’d never ask you to do that," she managed to get out. Ethan’s career was his dream; his music was a part of him. He wouldn’t even be himself without it. Yet he’d give his dream away for her.

"I know," he replied.

"What I wanted to say was..." Velma tried to reign her thoughts back into some kind of order. "Was that I don’t want to wait that long to get married... not two years or however long it takes until our lives settle down. It probably isn’t the smartest attitude to have, but it’s the truth."

Ethan had thought of all this, and he certainly agreed, but he hadn’t talked with Velma about it. If he’d known she felt the same way, he would have been asking for her hand in marriage a good two months ago. "I don’t want to wait that long, either," he said, quietly, then smiled, hoping to lighten things up. "Wanna elope?"

His joke worked. "Jinkies, now who’s impulsive?" she giggled, loosing a last stray tear from her eyes. Reaching under the rim of her glasses, she wiped it away.

"Well, you know I’m usually the sensible one in this relationship."

"Oh, always. You’re a real stabilizing force."

They shared a laugh. "December?" Ethan confirmed when they had paused. She nodded, smiling. "And that’ll be okay with your caseload?" he added, not wanting to leave her career out of the planning. It was just as important as his, though it was more flexible. Unlike they had in earlier years, Mystery Inc. rarely drove around looking for or stumbling upon mysteries. These days they were hired, flown to the location if needed, and usually finished in a matter of days. Their caseload was considerably heavier, making this a necessity, though they did occasionally drive around in the good ol’ Mystery Machine for sake of nostalgia. The fact that they got paid—well—for their work was also a definite plus.

"It’s hard to say. I would think so, and we can always adjust. We’ll have to anyway with Fred and Daph getting married, and I know they want to start a family fairly soon. You should hear them talk about it," she smiled.

"At least you’ll all be here. Makes things easier." That was one thing Velma and Ethan had already decided on in their previous marriage talk—they both wanted to stay in Coolsville. With Velma this was obvious, but Ethan had developed a fondness for the town during his visits there. A house would be cheaper there, too, when they wanted to buy one. The best thing about it was that the record company that had signed Ethan had a branch in Cleveland, which was not so far away that he couldn’t commute there for business matters when they came up. Of course, some of his work would have to be done in New York, where the company would provide an apartment. Ethan decided to bring this up. "And when I have to go to New York, we can live in the apartment. I don’t think it’d be too often."

"Sounds good to me. The clients can always fly me out separately if a mystery comes up. They did that with Shaggy when he was in California visiting Mary Jane last summer. But your recording sessions are still set for Cleveland?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Good—I wouldn’t want you to escape for too long while we’re trying to plan the wedding." Velma gave him a teasing look, and he played along, grimacing. According to Daphne, men in general weren’t particularly keen on wedding planning.

Ethan grinned back at her, only to have it overtaken by new thoughts. "I guess I am gonna be kinda running off for that," he realized. "For all the recording I’ll be in Cleveland, and then I’ll have all kinds of rehearsals, then the tour..." Ethan trailed off, concerned. Granted, he didn’t really know how much help he could be in planning a wedding, and would just as soon leave most of the details to Vel, but it didn’t seem quite right for him to not be there at all.

"I wouldn’t want anything too elaborate, would you?" Velma pondered, knowing the answer.

"Nah," he answered, predictably.

"It probably wouldn’t be too hard to plan if we kept it low-key."

Ethan pondered a moment. "I’d kinda like to have a night wedding," he offered. It made sense—Ethan was much more a night person, and that kind of a ceremony would fit his personality.

"A winter night wedding. I’d like that, too. Very elegant."

"Yeah. And I get to plan the honeymoon, right?" Ethan grinned at her. Considering the fact that they were waiting for marriage for their honeymoon-related activities, he’d given that special vacation a good deal of thought already. "I mean, I’m the groom."

"I think we’ve ascertained that," Velma deadpanned. "And I think what that means is that you get to pay for the honeymoon."

"Darn. Can I pick the band for the reception?"

"Of course."

"Alright—heavy metal!"

"You’re romance itself."

"Always." He smiled at her, and their conversation lulled as they were once again drawn to one another, coming together in a kiss. Both were happy to let planning leave their minds for the moment, though there was one issue still lingering in Ethan’s.

"I just remembered," he told her softly in between kisses, "I’ve gotta talk to your parents tonight. I hope they don’t mind that I did this a little backward."

"What about that long talk my dad had with you a few months ago?" Velma reminded him dryly, diverting his next kiss to her cheek. "I figured he was giving you the old twenty questions."

Ethan laughed. "He was." Harold had indeed had the age-old ‘are your intentions honorable’ talk with him, even though he knew that they were. The two men actually got along very well, once Ethan got over being intimidated by him. "Do you think that counts?"

"Close enough."

"And I’ll go get you your ring tomorrow, after we’re done visiting my parents. The store where Fred got Daphne’s ring had a lot of nice ones." Ethan paused. "I shoulda just bought one for you then."

"That’s okay." She honestly didn’t care that he’d proposed without one. Being told that he loved her enough to want to spend the rest of his life with her—that was special no matter how it happened. "The only thing is, I think we better wait on telling the gang."

"Why?" Ethan, at that moment, wanted to tell the whole world.

"I just mean for this morning. It wouldn’t be right to show up Fred like that."

"Oh, man you’re right," Ethan agreed. It would be pretty inconsiderate to announce their surprise engagement right before Fred was to do his carefully planned proposal. "I guess the news can wait—for a little while." Surely, Ethan thought, if he had held off his proposal for months, he could hold in the news for a morning. Maybe. It was almost too much for him to take in, for either of them to take in. They weren’t just boyfriend and girlfriend anymore, no matter the fact that they were, in that state, as devoted and faithful as any two engaged people. They were going to be married—not sometime, but in a year. It wasn’t so long, not with lives so busy as theirs. Married. A man and woman couldn’t have a bond stronger than that.

Velma reached out and touched Ethan’s face, surprising him, for she didn’t do it often. The first round of necessary planning finally leaving her mind, she was left with a feeling bordering on awe, and the look on his face as he received her touch told her that he felt the same. This man loved her. He was going to be her husband, her partner. They were going to have a life together. Leaning the short distance in, she gave him a kiss of her own, then another.

The day had barely begun, but it was already the best Christmas of their lives.

On to Part 5

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