Coming Back Around

Hiccup awoke fully for the first time just as Astrid was entering the room. He blinked, and said dazedly, "Thorn?" Astrid moved over to his side.

"No. Astrid." She gently lifted his head with her hands, and tried pressing softly against the damaged area. Hiccup responded by jerking his head away and trying to bat her hands off him.

"There'll be someone along in a minute to get you cleaned up," Astrid said softly, aware that with consciousness probably came a pounding headache.

"Thorn?" Hiccup asked again, his face full of confusion.

"No. Do you know where she's gone? She was here when I left…" At that point, the teacher came in. Seeing Hiccup lying on the bed, clearly in some discomfort, she sighed.

"What happened here?" she asked, in a tone that suggested she'd much rather be somewhere else right now. Perhaps watching some TV show on her computer instead of working. Who knows what goes on behind the locked doors of teacher's offices?

Hiccup tried to roll over on his side, and in doing so revealed his missing foot. The teacher gasped, a look of astonishment crossing her face. She rushed over and reached for his leg. When she grasped it, Hiccup winced sharply.

"Not that. My leg's an old story. I fell over and bumped my head. And my jaw hurts too…" His fluent sentences meant that he was regaining the full use of his senses once more.

"Um… okay… um… right…" The teacher was clearly flustered. Stopping all motion for a minute, she finally moved towards Hiccup's head, and began to try and examine the wound. Each time the teacher pressed, Hiccup winced again.

"How far did you fall?" she asked him. Hiccup looked to Astrid for an answer.

"He fell backwards, from standing upright to the floor," she supplied efficiently and helpfully. The teacher had a faint look of further questioning on her face, but she let it slide. Returning to her examination, she sighed once more.

"Well, there's not really much I can do for you other than give you an ice pack and let you stay here awhile. I'll get you one, and then you can leave when you're ready. Just come to my office and let me know." Her friendly tone was not reflected in her face, which showed exhaustion and irritation. She pulled an ice pack out of the cupboard, and wrapped it in a soft towel. Handing it to Astrid, she couldn't get out of the room fast enough.

Astrid moved to take the place of the teacher, pulling up a chair as she did so. She lifted the ice pack, and Hiccup obediently turned his head so that she could ice the injury. When the cool pack touched the sore spot, Hiccup sighed with evident relief. But he couldn't remain still for long. After a few minutes, he was shifting and trying to turn back towards Astrid, who had to keep pushing him gently back away from him. Finally, Astrid relented and handed Hiccup the ice pack. He rolled over, and turned his eyes to face hers.

In the few minutes that his face had been turned towards the wall, Hiccup's emotions had been changing every few seconds. First, there had been pain- he had a gargantuan headache, and his jaw throbbed too. Next, confusion as he tried to work out where he was and who was there with him. Then realisation, as he finally remembered what had happened. Finally… fear. He didn't want to remember the events that had just passed, but he knew he had to face up to them in order to see the truth.

What Astrid saw was a look of fear, and just from the first glance fear was struck into her heart also. It took her a few seconds to realise what the fear might have been about, before her suspicions were confirmed by Hiccup's next words.

"It happened again. The flashback. I was there again. In the workshop." Astrid reached up and gently grasped his free hand, Hiccup gripping back painfully firmly, as if he was clinging on to his sanity.

"Just tell me what you remember, so I can try to help." Astrid nodded, trying to encourage him further. Hiccup sighed, then screwed up his eyes and tried to recall every detail for her.

"I was back in the fire. Everything was grey, and I could hear a voice, yelling something. I… I can't remember what it said. I couldn't move, couldn't see. I was feeling around with my arms, but then the whole room started shaking and my arms were stuck to my sides… after that… I don't know. I think that was about it. It was much shorter than the first one." His speech over, Hiccup slumped tiredly on the bed, as if remembering had taken all of his remaining energy from his body.

"When did it start to happen?"

"I don't know, right away I guess. I took about three steps into the room and I started imagining the fire again." His face was full of worry. "I must be going mad."

Astrid threw him a sharp look, but her expression quickly softened. "No, you're perfectly sane. Do you think that any other normal person could go through what you have and come out of the other side completely free from any side- effects?" Sensing that Hiccup was about to disagree with her completely, she hastily continued before he could say a word. "And actually, I think that all your hallucinations and flashbacks are a good thing. It's your brain trying to process what happened; much better than you just blanking everything out. It must be the sight of the workshop that sets off your flashbacks, too." She sighed.

"Listen. You've suffered more in sixteen years than most people do in a lifetime, and it's changed you. Physically and mentally. We're all shaped by the people we meet, the events that occur, and the hardships we endure throughout our lives. You've had more hardships so far, but eventually it's going to even out. And all of the things you think are bad when they happen might be good for you later in life. Just because you've had two flashbacks to a day when your life turned around doesn't make you crazy. Doing that stuff was crazy, sure, but it was completely selfless and you shouldn't be ashamed of it. You should be proud. Proud that you did what nobody else would. Even all the sporty, popular kids chickened out when it mattered most. And yeah, you've got scars, but that just proves you're truthful and you put others before yourself in any situation." As she spoke, Astrid felt a surge of emotion and care for the boy who had risked everything to save a perfect stranger.

No words were said in that room for a long while after that. Astrid just sat, silently watching Hiccup tend to his wounds. They both found that the silence held more wisdom than any number of words that could pass between them. And even though neither spoke, there was a deeper communication in the room; they took comfort in one another just being there.

They sat for so long that soon the rest of the school began to swarm out of their classrooms to move to their next lesson, and, later, outside for the end of the school day.

When they could hear the rush dying down, Astrid took the now warm ice pack from Hiccup and placed it in the sink while he re-attached his prosthetic. There was now a sizeable lump on the back of his head, but most of the headache had dissipated. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he threaded his arms through his crutches (helpfully held by Astrid) and shakily got to his feet. Staggering a little, Astrid moved quickly forward to steady him, and she continued to scrutinize him carefully as he made his slow progress out of the door and down the corridor.

"Is your dad waiting to pick you up?" she asked.

Hiccup laughed, a short bark. "Well, I don't suppose he'd make me walk home." Moving more confidently, he quickly distanced himself from her, settling into a rhythm and swinging along towards the door, where she could see the outline of his father waiting. She slowed, eventually coming to a stop in the middle of the corridor.

"You're welcome," she said sarcastically to his departing back. Why had his mood changed so quickly?

Hiccup left the school and walked with his father to the car. Just as he was getting in, he noticed a sliver of bright orange next to a bench outside the school. The day- glow colour reminded him of Thorn, who had been strangely absent for most of the afternoon. The weird thing was, he could have sworn that she was there at some point, but that thought was dismissed as a result of the knock to the head he took.

Instead, he sent her a quick text.
Hey, where were you this afternoon? I missed you.

A reply came back almost instantly.
Go away. You don't want to talk to me.

Stoick started the car, and reversed out of the parking space. He turned left to exit the car park, and as the car swung right onto the busy road just outside, Hiccup glanced back at where he had seen the flash of orange. To his surprise, he saw a girl with messy black hair staring back at him, her expression unreadable at this distance. Quickly he pulled out his phone again.

Why are you sitting on the bench? And of course I want to talk to you. Why wouldn't I?

This time, there was no reply.

A/N: I'm sorry for yet another short chapter, but this was more to move the plot along. Hopefully they'll get a bit longer soon!