And so it begins! The water is broken and contractions have started! That baby's going to be here very soon! I hope you all are as excited as I am!

Again, special thanks to EmmerzK for some assistance in dialogue and a few paragraphs and revisions.

Also, I am putting together a pretty good idea for a sequel to this story about Hiccup and Astrid's foray into parenting. I'll ask again when the baby is born but who would actually want to read it?

~KateMarie999

Chapter Fourteen: Guilty Conscience

Hiccup could not believe what had just come out of his mouth. What the Hel had happened to his brain? His common sense? His humanity? Had they all just slipped away while he said the most horrible thing he could imagine to his wife who, on top of suffering from flashbacks, was mere weeks away from giving birth? Nothing she said deserved that kind of response. Why had he said it? What was wrong with him?

He opened his mouth but no sound came out. He shut it again, furious at himself for having no words to say to undo the worst thing he had ever said in his life. He stood frozen, watching his wife slowly walk over, raise her hand, and slap him across the face. She had hit him so hard, sounds were slightly muffled in his left ear for the next few minutes. A sharp pain radiated all over half of his face and he was surprised at her strength. For a second, they stared at each other, neither able to say a thing, and then she turned around and walked away from him.

He could hear his heart thudding in his chest as he slowly lifted his hand and touched the place she had hit him. It stung slightly but the worst of the pain had passed. He vaguely heard her take off on Stormfly and had the tiniest urge to run after her. No. He wasn't going to do that. He was going to let her cool off and come to him. She hated it when he tried to make up before she was ready. And if there was one thing he knew about his wife, it was that she would eventually come around.

It was a few minutes before he realized that she was long gone and that he should probably clean up the mess he had made. He looked down at the shattered fragments of the cups he had destroyed in his anger and was appalled that he had gone that far. He had never lost control like that. And Astrid's face as he shouted at her… she had certainly never looked at him like that before. Very slowly, he lowered himself to his knees and silently picked up the broken pieces of clay. When Astrid returned, he didn't want her to accidentally step on them. Once he had picked up the large pieces, he placed them on the table and brought out a broom, carefully sweeping away the rest of the fragments so that it was if he hadn't lost control at all. This only took about ten minutes so, once he had finished, he still wasn't sure what to do. What could possibly make up for what he had said?

As he began to slowly pace around, he caught sight of something on the wall, something he had seen many times but hadn't fully registered. It was a horribly made dagger, lopsided and not in any way sharp. He immediately recognized it as the first one he had ever made in Gobber's workshop. And then he had presented it to Astrid when they were about six years old. Was that how old they were? That sounded about right. He remembered the hours he had spent trying to get the shape right and how proud he had been when he finally finished it and presented it to the girl he liked. How she had smiled when she saw it, clearly not caring that it wasn't the least bit dangerous. And she had saved it for all these years and hung it on the wall.

She needed a better dagger. One he made for her that she could actually use. And that was the best thing he could think of to give her to make her feel better. He quickly walked out the door and, ignoring Toothless completely, jogged to Gobber's workshop. Gobber had his head in Hookfang's mouth (something Hiccup thought was incredibly risky) and seemed to be cleaning the dragon's back teeth.

As he crafted the dagger, he felt like he was pounding his own words into oblivion. He hated himself for what he had said to his wife. He desperately hoped that she would come home that night so he could beg for her forgiveness. He wouldn't put it past her to spend another night with Ruffnut and Tuffnut. This thought didn't comfort him at all.

When he finally finished the dagger, it was the most perfect thing he had ever made. Perhaps it was his anger that gave him the ability to craft such a fine weapon. Maybe it was his guilt. Either way, Astrid would love it. And, just because he was still feeling guilty, he decided to carve her name into the hilt. It took hours but it was perfect. Hopefully she would appreciate it and, if he was lucky, her anger at him would melt away. And then they could have a long talk about what to do about their baby. Yes, everything was going to be okay soon.

He returned home as the sun was beginning to set and paced back and forth, waiting for her to show up. When Berk was finally bathed in total darkness, he thought it would be best to check and see if she had spent a night with one of their friends. He couldn't figure out why but he was beginning to feel something strange in the pit of his stomach. Something wasn't right. It was probably nothing but he had to make sure his wife was okay.

It only took him a few minutes to spot one of his friends mulling about and looking bored. Snotlout raised an eyebrow as Hiccup immediately made a beeline to him.

"Have you seen Astrid?" Hiccup asked, sounding slightly breathless.

"Not since yesterday." Snotlout shrugged. "How could you have lost her, she's the size of a…"

"Shut up." said Hiccup, in no mood to play games. "Let me know if you see her."

But no one he spoke to had seen her. Even the twins denied having seen as much as a glimpse of her all day. As did her mother. And, now he thought about it, Fishlegs was missing as well. His feeling of unease began to take over. Where had she gone?

And then he remembered. Of course. Their spot. No one would have run into her there unless they went out of their way to fly or walk to the other end of the island. And she had spoken to Fishlegs before so perhaps that's where they were. Feeling slightly relieved, he hopped onto Toothless and flew to their spot.

But the cliff was empty. Hiccup was just about to climb back onto his dragon when something caught his eye on the edge. Right where Astrid would have been sitting if she had come there. He looked closer and his insides froze. Blood.

Something had happened there. He could feel it. He had no idea how long ago this had occurred but he knew that something was horribly wrong. On a whim, he decided to walk back to the village with Toothless at his side, thinking that perhaps Astrid had ridden Stormfly back and that he could find her in the woods. For a few seconds, he heard only the sound of his foot and prosthetic breaking twigs and crunching through dead leaves as he walked with his dragon slightly behind him.

And then he saw it. A massive dragon lying on the path ahead of him. As he raised his lantern, he immediately recognized those spikes. Stormfly.

"What the… what happened to you?" he muttered, pulling out his own dagger and cutting the dragon free.

The Deadly Nadder began to screech at him, almost as if she was trying to tell him something. Toothless began to squawk in response and the Night Fury looked panicked a moment later.

"What is it, girl? Where's Astrid?" Hiccup asked, his legs beginning to tremble slightly.

"Ohhh my head…"

For a split second, Hiccup hoped that the voice had come from his wife but the lower register came as a disappointment. But at least he had managed to find Fishlegs.

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked as he held the lantern over Fishlegs' slowly stirring form.

"Don't know… maybe… I think so…" Fishlegs said, groaning and slowly standing up.

For a moment, the two young men silently stared at each other. Fishlegs looked as if he had been knocked out. Probably by the people who had tied up Stormfly. Suddenly, the blonde Viking's eyes widened as he remembered what had just happened.

"Hiccup!" he shouted. "Oh gods, Hiccup, Astrid!"

Hiccup's heart felt as though it had dropped through his stomach. So something had happened to her.

"What is it?" he asked, grabbing the man's shoulders. "What happened?"

"We were walking and they came out of nowhere! Knocked me out and I think they took her!" Fishlegs said, breathing heavily.

"Who took her? Fishlegs, tell me who took her!"

Fishlegs took a gulp of air before replying. "The Berserkers. Dagur was here and he… oh gods, it's dark, it must have been hours ago!"

"He took her?" Hiccup let go of Fishlegs' shoulders and ran his fingers though his hair. "Well we've got to get back to the village, we don't have much…"

"That's not all! Hiccup, her water broke!"

Absolute silence. Hiccup's heart had settled somewhere in his throat now. Not now. Not now!

"We gotta get to my dad." he said in a shaky whisper. With that, he turned and sprinted toward the village as fast as he could run, Fishlegs and Toothless chasing after him. In his panic, he had completely forgotten he had a dragon at all

Hiccup hurtled through the trees, branches slapping face. One in particular probably cut his cheek, but he didn't stop, nor did he feel it. It briefly registered to him that he was running so much faster than usual on his prosthetic but he figured that adrenaline was making everything on the ground easier to see. He finally reached the village, but didn't stop.

He bolted to the square, running past people and nearly plowing Edgar over (thankfully the boy managed to see him coming and jumped back). Gobber didn't fare so well however. Hiccup ran smack into the man's side, knocking him off his feet and sending them both flying.

"GAH! Hiccup!" Gobber started shouting, but he stopped when he saw Hiccup panting, slick with sweat and practically hyperventilating. "Hiccup, what's…"

"Where's my dad?!" he interrupted, eyes wide. By now a crowd had gathered around them, curious of what was going on.

Gobber smiled lightly, "Now if this is about Astrid and the baby-"

Hiccup suddenly grabbed him by the shirt, "GOBBER, WHERE IS MY DAD!"

"Hiccup?"

Hiccup whipped around and saw Stoick shoving his way through the crowd.

"Dad! Dad!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, feeling like his voice was tearing at his throat. "Berserkers… Astrid… the baby…"

Stoick put his hands on his shoulders and tried to calm him down. "Son, slow down. Take a deep breath." Hiccup shook his head vehemently, but tried to slow his breathing and focus his vision on something or someone. By this time Fishlegs had caught up.

"Chief, we don't have time to slow down! The Berserkers kidnapped Astrid hours ago. She's in labor; we don't have time at all, we need to get a plan and save her! I rate our chances of saving her at…"

Hiccup finally had caught his breath and nearly lashed out at him. "Don't you dare finish that sentence! The lives of my wife and unborn child are not to be chalked up to some statistic!"

Stoick laid a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Easy..." he warned. He then turned to the rest of the villagers. "Everyone, to the Great Hall for an emergency meeting! We have to make preparations."

He took a few steps forward but noticed that Hiccup didn't follow. The young man was pale and looked as if he had just seen a ghost.

"Son?"

Hiccup shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. "It's my fault."

"Don't be ridiculous, it's a natural…"

"We got into an argument. Astrid and me. And she stormed out and I didn't follow her and now she's gone and probably in pain and it's my fault, dad!" Hiccup forced back the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. "What I did, what I said, I scared her, maybe that's why…"

Stoick roughly grabbed his son's shoulders, startling the young man. "That may very well be true but now she needs you more than she's ever needed anyone and, so help me Thor, you will be there for her."

"How long until she has the baby?" Hiccup asked in a weak, slightly hoarse, voice.

"No way to know for sure. But we can't worry about that now. We need to put together a plan and we're going to have to risk not getting there before the baby comes." He shook his son's shoulders again. "Hiccup, listen to me, you have got to focus on saving Astrid. Put aside your feelings for now. She needs you, son."

Hiccup looked up at his father and nodded once. The two men walked to the Great Hall in silence as most of the village poured into it. Hiccup sat down next to his friends and felt a slight ache at Astrid's absence. He certainly wouldn't have let her embark on this mission if they were rescuing someone else but now that she was the one who needed saving, her absence stuck out and everyone saw it. It seemed to give the Hooligans a renewed resolve to get her back and save the baby.

Stoick stood up in front of the tribe, causing an instant silence to fall over the crowd. As he explained what had transpired, for anyone who hadn't been present for Hiccup and Fishlegs' outburst, there were several gasps. Astrid's mother looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"We'll have to be careful." said Stoick, peering around the hall at his fellow tribesmen. "Obviously Dagur wants a war with this move."

"Oh trust me." Hiccup muttered darkly. "He'll get one."

Astrid was surprised that he had considered it at all, but in the end he had one of his men carry her to a holding cell. That was the most hospitality she'd gotten from them since she was kidnapped. Now she was cold, sweaty, shaking, her breathing labored, pain wracking her midsection, bloody water still pooling under her skirt, and her hands and mouth still tied, so all she could do was sit there.

For the next few hours, she put herself to work trying to free herself from her gag. The pains bloomed every few minutes, making her gasp and moan. The soldier who had tied the rag around her mouth had done quite a good job and it was a long time before she was free of it. As the rag dropped to her shoulders, a sharp, agonizing pain shot through her midsection and she cried out, breathing deeply and begging the gods to make it stop.

She heard someone enter from her far left and approach the bars of the cell. Looking up, she found herself eye-to-eye with Dagur, who had crouched down to her level.

"Don't you just look beautiful…"

"Shut up and get me a midwife," she gasped.

"Maybe I will..." Dagur put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "If you ask nicely."

Astrid bit her lip and panted hard for a minute, trying to not look weak and helpless in his presence. The pain finally ebbed and she fell back against the wall. She had about four minutes of rest until it started up again. She could feel sweat pouring down her face and she knew she must look terrible. Perhaps that was why Dagur was smiling so widely now.

"Tell you what, if Hiccup doesn't take my deal, maybe I'll let your baby live here. Train with me as a Berserker. You never know, maybe he'll inherit his grandfather's strength. Might be a good warrior for us." Dagur chuckled. "And if it's a girl, well…" he leaned into the bars. "Someone has to do the housework."

"You son of a…"

"Yes, yes, nothing I haven't heard before. But it might behoove you to encourage your husband to take me up on my offer if he wants his precious child back. Not long to go now, is there?" Dagur straightened up and turned away from her. "Let me know when you feel like asking nicely and I might send someone in to help you have that baby."

He took the only torch in the room, plunging it into darkness. Astrid felt another pain shoot through her belly and, before she could stop herself, she screamed both in agony and in rage.

Yeah the baby's going to take a little while to get here. New chapter on Thursday but keep an eye out for a holiday story on Wednesday! I'm just finishing up the first chapter and it's proving to be quite amusing.

Don't forget to review!