Time for the ultimate question: Boy or Girl? Leave a review stating your preference and what name I should give him or her! I already have two votes for a boy and two for a girl!I talk names in this chapter and a few of you who added this story to your favorites are in for a treat!

And, though it may be spoilers, Hiccup and Astrid are going to have a healthy baby. I can't believe I have to say that but someone told me they wanted them to miscarry and I don't like that. Please don't wish death upon this baby!

~KateMarie999

Chapter Ten: By Any Other Name

Astrid couldn't sleep.

For some reason, her baby decided that it was about time to stretch his or her little muscles hours before the sun came up. She awoke in the early hours in the morning with an exceptionally full bladder and the bizarre sensation that could be best described as her baby's decision to beat her insides as hard as he or she could. It wasn't the first morning she had felt this way but this one was, for some reason, particularly frustrating.

If her ankles could make noise, they'd be screaming with pain when Astrid slowly placed her weight on them. They had swollen to nearly twice their normal size in the past few months and each step had become more painful with every pound she put on. She made her way to the outhouse to take care of the bladder situation and then, when she was faced with climbing the stairs again to get to her bedroom, she faltered. She took a few deep breaths. Before she was pregnant, she could have taken the steps three at a time and not have even been winded when she got to the top. Now Hiccup had to help her up most nights. But she wasn't about to shout up the stairs to get her husband. No, she was going to find somewhere else to sleep. Her baby kicked her hard in the ribs. Okay maybe she wouldn't be sleeping for a while.

She turned around and came face to face with Stormfly, who was staring at her with big, sad eyes.

"I'm sorry, girl." she whispered to the dragon, gently stroking her chin. "This baby's changing everything."

The dragon crooned sympathetically. She began to gently nudge her human, begging her to go for a ride.

"I can't." Astrid said sadly, wincing as the baby began to do some sort of wiggle, probably becoming cramped now that he or she had gotten so big.

Stormfly continued to nudge her, her noises growing louder. Then, suddenly, Astrid smiled.

"I can't fly you but we can go riding. Would that be okay?" she whispered.

The Nadder seemed delighted at this prospect and happily lowered herself so that Astrid could clumsily climb onto her back. Astrid's ankles seemed to sigh in relief once her weight was now on the dragon's back instead of them. Stormfly slowly trotted out of the front door and into the world outside. As soon as Astrid took a deep breath, clearing her sinuses and taking in the fresh air, she became very frustrated. If only they could fly. The last time she had flown, they had only gotten twenty feet into the air before Hiccup spotted them and bellowed until he was hoarse about endangering their baby. That had been about 11 weeks ago. She'd barely had a bump then but now it seemed to envelop her whole midsection. Fortunately for her, the rhythmic movements of the dragon seemed to lull the baby to sleep.

"Astrid?"

She hadn't realized how far Stormfly had taken them until she heard the all too familiar voice from just behind her. Stoick the Vast was, for some reason, taking a walk in the dark. They stared at each other for a few seconds, both wondering what the other was doing out at this hour.

"I wasn't flying." Astrid said defensively, her brows furrowed. "Just wanted to get off my feet."

Stoick's eyes flitted to her swollen ankles, which weren't in her usual boots, and nodded. "Understandable. I'm not going to get on your case."

Astrid smiled, feeling slightly relieved that Stoick and Hiccup had such different personalities. Her husband would probably have found some way to make her feel guilty about riding her dragon and then he would likely have forced her to lie down while he nearly killed himself trying to make her something to eat or do some chore that didn't even need to be done.

"Do you mind if I walk with you?" Stoick asked a moment later. "I'm just on my way to Gobber's workshop. Can you keep a secret?"

He never could figure out why she chuckled in response to this question. "Oh I can keep a secret."

"Right… well with everything going on, the academy hasn't been running as much as it was. I saw the last lesson." Stoick let out a bark of laughter. "I still can't keep a straight face at the image of him reaching out and trying to catch the baby. I really should have taught that boy more about the birds and the bees."

Astrid chortled as she remembered that moment. It was something she would never let her husband live down. The laughter did a wonderful job of diffusing the tension.

"I've taken the liberty of putting all of his notes into a new Dragon Book." Stoick said as they reached the door to Gobber's workshop. "After everything I'd put him through as a kid, I thought it was the least I could do. Plus that baby can have a better reference book when he grows up and wants his own dragon."

As Stoick opened the door, Astrid realized how long it had been since she had set foot in Gobber's workshop. Either Stoick or Gobber had completely rearranged everything so that it saved more space. A drawer next to the desk was stuffed with papers and she smiled as Stoick pulled it open.

"Haven't been working on it long." He said as he pulled out handfuls of papers. "Hiccup's been very meticulous. It's going to take ages."

She thought she recognized the scribbles she'd seen him make when he was fifteen years old. The notebook he'd carried when he was first observing Toothless lay at the top of the stack of papers. Goodness, it had been a long time since she had seen that. His handwriting hadn't changed much over the years but his drawing had gotten quite a bit better. His simplistic sketch of Toothless (with the smudged out left tail fin) was nothing compared to the detailed drawings he would make of his dragon now. Then again, it was supposed to be just a simple sketch. She wondered if her now docile baby would inherit that gift.

They were silent for a while as Stoick finally pulled out the binding he had intended to use for the new book. The book was going to be enormous but her father-in-law had only filled out two pages so far.

"I'm trying to finish up the section on the Gronckle. Both Hiccup and Fishlegs took dozens of pages of notes on them so I'm going to be here a while." He looked up at Astrid, who was staring pointedly at the wall behind him. He didn't like talking about feelings but she was already having them so it was probably best to address them. "Something on your mind?"

Astrid's eyes snapped back to him. "Oh… well yes. No. Not really. Just a question."

Turning back to his notes, Stoick gestured to her. "Ask away."

She took a deep breath. Moment of truth. "Do you think Hiccup is ready to be a dad?"

He let out a low, booming laugh that reverberated around the room. She wasn't sure what to make of this but remained silent, waiting for him to finish.

"I'm not laughing at you." He said at last, putting his chin on his left fist as he began to write out a few notes on the book. "It's just… no one is ready to be a parent. It happens. And then you make do with what life throws at you." He looked up at her and was surprised to the look of terror on her face. "No, Astrid, Hiccup is not ready to be a father. He's impetuous, over-protective, emotional, and a tiny bit irresponsible."

Astrid was shocked to hear her father-in-law list out Hiccup's faults so matter-of-factly. Stoick smiled at the sight of her suddenly eyebrows rising far above her eyes.

"But the only way to break him out of those behaviors is to give him someone helpless who completely depends on him for everything. Who looks up to him and imitates him. Being a father is going to change him for the better." he turned back to the book. "He certainly changed me."

There was a long pause as Astrid mulled over this information. And then, just as she felt the baby squirm a little bit, she looked up again.

"Am I ready to be a mother?"

Stoick smiled and looked up at her. "I think you know the answer to that question."

Astrid managed to return home before sunrise and was even able to get a few hours of sleep on the couch before Hiccup came downstairs in a panic.

"Ast- oh there you are!" he sighed in relief. "I thought something happened."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "I had to get up and then I didn't want to go up the stairs again."

"You should have called for…"

"Absolutely not, I can't have you bailing me out of everything."

They stared at each other for a few more minutes, Astrid narrowing her eyes into what she knew was a very intimidating glare. And then, without having to ask, she knew he had cracked.

Hiccup blinked and swiftly shook his head. "Okay, okay. Are you hungry?"

"I'm always hungry."

With a small smile, Hiccup turned toward his now gurgling dragon. "I'm not forgetting about you, Toothless." He said as he pulled a fish out of a barrel.

Toothless' teeth came out as he caught the fish in midair.

"You know, you're not even toothless and I still can't imagine calling you anything else." Hiccup said affectionately. Suddenly his eyes widened in horror. "Astrid!" he cried, making his wife jump. "We haven't named the baby!"

"Okay." Astrid said, rolling her eyes again. "If it's a boy, we'll name him Hiccup."

He looked rather indignant. "I am not naming my son Hiccup!"

"Oh why not?"

"Because it's a terrible name!"

"It's your name!"

"That's how I know it's terrible!"

Astrid winced as she felt her baby kick her once again. Hiccup gently placed his hands on her belly and felt the baby's movements. He knew his impatience couldn't possibly rival Astrid's, who was beginning to look very uncomfortable, but he wanted to meet his child very badly. The longing was beginning to make him feel a physical ache in his chest. Just a few more weeks and his baby girl would be in his arms. Well technically it could be a boy but… no. It was a girl. He knew it was a girl.

"How about Stoick? We could name him after my father." Hiccup suggested, half hoping Astrid would shoot him down.

Sure enough. "Gods, no. Nothing against your dad but I do not want my son splitting rocks in two with his skull."

Hiccup chuckled. "Me neither. So I guess Gobber is off the table."

She nodded as they both felt the baby kick again. He gently brushed his lips against her belly. His heart was racing. He suspected it had been beating a little faster than usual ever since he had discovered he was a father but with the due date approaching, it was beginning to drum uncomfortably against his chest.

"Sven?" she suggested after a few minutes. "I think that's a nice name."

He considered this for a few seconds. "No. We already know someone named Sven. I don't want to confuse anyone."

Astrid furrowed her brow. "Who died recently?"

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her. "Well that's lovely. Steal names from the dead. I'm sure he'll love that."

She rolled her eyes. "At least he won't be confused with anyone else. At least not in the land of the living."

He shook his head. "It seems a bit morbid to me, that's all. Besides, as I keep telling you, it's a girl."

"And I keep telling you that you can't possibly know that. I, on the other hand, am around him all the time and I can tell it's a boy." She smiled and shifted positions, hoping that her baby's weight wouldn't be as uncomfortable if she lay down on her side.

Hiccup lowered himself to his knees so that he could look his wife in the eyes. "Well humor me. What if it's a girl? What would we name her?"

"I don't know. How about Amanda?"

Hiccup gave her a long stare. "Is that just a nonsense word? That doesn't sound like a name to me."

She grinned. "I can come up with more nonsense words for you. We could name her Emily."

"Emily…" Hiccup had a bit of trouble saying that odd word out loud. "It does sound feminine. I've got one! Let's name her Lilith."

Astrid laughed. "Gods, that sounds silly. Can you imagine her going out in public with a name like that? Hmm… we could name her Beatrice."

"Beatrice? Maybe we could call her Trissy. She couldn't possibly get made fun of with a name like that. Okay let's see… how about Ashby?" Hiccup began to giggle uncontrollably.

"Astrid and Ashby… sounds like people would stumble over that." Astrid chuckled. "I've got another one. We could name her Kellie."

Hiccup looked thoughtful about that one. "It actually sounds like of nice. But I don't think so. Obviously the best name for her would be Saphira!"

"Sounds like sapphire. We better hope she has my eyes!" Astrid placed her hand on her belly and felt the baby kick. "I don't think she likes that. We could name her Ally."

"I kind of like Ally. Sounds weird but it has a nice ring to it. How about Haley?" he suggested.

"Sounds like hay leaves. And hay doesn't have leaves. Okay, another nonsense name… hmm… Megs?"

Hiccup laughed out loud at this. "Oh Astrid, I love you so much!" he guffawed, kissing her gently on the lips. "But maybe we should focus a little more on a name we'll actually use."

"Well then… Samantha."

"Astrid…"

"And if it's a boy, we could name him Nathan!"

"Can we be serious for a second?" Hiccup asked, still grinning at the silly words they were bouncing back and forth. "What if we have this baby and we don't have a name? That would be pretty embarrassing."

Astrid took a deep breath. "Hiccup, I really don't care what we name this baby."

"Why…"

"Because he's going to be loved. That's what matters."

As Hiccup leaned down to kiss her, he thought he saw her eyes flicker with something unreadable. But then again, maybe it was a trick of the light.