Fourteen: Access Denied

Once Astrid was safely at training, Hiccup had Cami drop him off around the corner from the Police Station, waving her goodbye and brandishing the key he had been given to get back into the apartment. As the black Mercedes slid away, he felt a shiver run down his spine, as if he was being abandoned but he firmly forced himself to focus. Though he had masked it well when he was at work and able to focus on the job, Bella's ruthless picking at him had scoured out a lot of the foundations of his confidence and it was fragile and easily knocked down. But Astrid's warm support and her words-which he really truly hoped were genuine and not just politeness-gave him hope that somehow, he would be able to talk to her about this. Maybe in a decade or so…

Girding himself, he walked round the corner to the white concrete building with square barred windows and the array of cop cars parked outside. The logo of 'ARCHIPELAGO LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES' was emblazoned over the reflective sliding door and he paused and then walked in.

The lobby area was large, empty and white, with harsh spot lights from overhead leaving almost no shadows. A high desk had a stern-faced female with hard dark eyes, dark hair pulled back into a high bun and a pristine uniform sitting beside a computer screen. She looked up with little interest as he walked in and then her gaze flicked back to the screen. Feeling horribly self-conscious, he walked slowly towards the desk as the door behind him slammed open and two large cops erupted in, wrestling with a huge man with wild beard, scarred face and mean dark eyes. Hiccup scooted sideways at top speed as the cops hauled the resisting man to the desk.

"Got a live one here, Sarge!" the slightly older cop said. Both looked on their forties, one with a receding hairline and lined face, the other with buzz cut and huge bushy moustache.

"Resisting arrest, petty theft, damage to police property," Moustache added. The desk officer turned to lean over the insanely high desk and peer unpleasantly down on the large prisoner.

"Been causing trouble again, Alvin?" she said in a bored voice.

"Phlegma, me old friend-yer know I miss yer!" The man's accent was thick and his voice a little wheezy with forced cheerfulness. "If yer'd only come out with me, yer'd make me the 'appiest man around!"

"Alvin-you can't go round getting arrested all the time just to ask me out," the desk officer told him impatiently. "I've told you-I don't date criminals! So if you want to go out with me, you'll need to turn your life around!"

"But while I'm doing that, I won't get ter see yer," Alvin protested with perfect logic. He had stopped resisting once he was talking with the woman and in truth. Hiccup found himself feeling a little sorry for him. It seemed obvious that he was only getting arrested to see her.

"What did he take?" she asked the officers and they shook their heads.

"A bunch of flowers and a box of eggs," the older officer reported.

"Why?" Phlegma asked pointedly.

"The flowers was fer yer, me dear," Alvin said honestly. "And the eggs was fer pelting the police car so they'd bring me to yer!"

The tap of keys was the only sound for a moment.

"You'll get another caution," Phlegma sighed. "Go back and pay for the flowers and once you bring me a receipt, I'll accept them. But Alvin-I'm a police officer…I can't accept stolen goods. And I'm not sure I should be going out with the leader of the Outcasts anyway…"

"Former leader," Alvin corrected her with a grin. "I quit two weeks ago. Me second-in-command, Savage, is now in charge. He may live at Number Seventeen, Indigo Buildings, Dockside…if yer friends are interested?" The two officers shared a look and sprinted from the lobby as Alvin gave a broad grin. "Just you and me, me dear…"

"And him," Phlegma pointed out, gesturing at the forgotten Hiccup, standing against the side wall of the lobby and hardly daring to breathe. Alvin turned to glare at him.

"Hop it, skinny!" he growled. Phlegma scowled at the big man.

"Hey-I came here to report a crime!" Hiccup replied indignantly. "And not one that was committed just so you could ask the desk officer on a date!" Now they were both glaring at him. "Look, I get you like her and I can see you have a soft spot for him as well," he said, wondering why he wasn't wilting under the twin ferocious glares-but unconsciously, some stubborn nubbin of his former sassiness was fighting back. "If you want to win her, prove yourself. Pay for those flowers. Do something community spirited that has nothing in it for you. And use your newfound sense of community to make the city a better place." He paused. "Oh-and flowers and gifts go a long way-not stolen but honestly earned. You know where she is…if you really want her, you gotta woo her properly."

There was a shocked silence at his words and then the big man nodded slowly.

"Makes sense, actually," he reluctantly conceded. "I mean, bein' a gang leader all me life don't really encourage a man ter think of the legal way ter do things…but a woman as fine as you, Phlegma…well, you're worth the effort…"

He laid the flowers on the desk.

"I'll send a courier with the receipt," he promised and gave her a wink. "Yer know…pink really goes with yer eyes," he commented and left, whistling softly. Staring in shock, Sergeant Phlegma recovered first and turned to Hiccup.

"Thank you, young man," she said briskly. "Though I suspect my desk will now be littered with gifts and flowers…"

"And I guess they'll all have the receipts taped to them as well," Hiccup reminded her. She chuckled.

"That would be a first," she admitted and then her expression grew more serious. "You said you have a crime to report." He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Um…yeah…and it's…well, it's a bit sensitive," he admitted. Glancing down, he saw her dark eyes flick down the list of available officers and then she shrugged.

"We've only got Officer Grimborn available," she admitted. "He's not the most sympathetic…but if you want, I can take your details and call you when a more empathetic officer is available." For a moment, Hiccup considered her suggestion but he knew if he walked away without filing the report now, his nerve would almost certainly fail him and he would never get round to doing it. He had meant to complain so many times about his injuries at Bella's hands but somehow, he had always been too ashamed or plain scared but now…Astrid had given him the courage.

"No-this needs doing," he said firmly. "But thanks for the offer." She gave him a small but genuine smile and ushered him through to a small plain white interview room with a table, two chairs, a tape recorder and nothing else. He saw warily at the table, clasped his hands together and felt the heart pounding in his chest.

After about ten minutes, the officer entered and Hiccup almost wanted to leave right then. Officer R. Grimborn was a huge man, tall and powerfully-built, the uniform straining across his buff shape. His head was shaven and his dark brown eyes were cold. He had a small stripe of a beard down the centre of his chin and his expression was generally scornful-especially as he spied the lean and anxious-looking shape sitting at the table. Slamming the door rewarded him with a start by Hiccup and a nervous look up as the officer deliberately slammed his pad and pen down and sat back in his creaking chair.

"You say you have a crime to report," he said without sympathy. Hiccup nodded and wished he'd taken the other option: he doubted he'd have a receptive audience here.

"Yes," he said. "My bank accounts have been fraudulently accessed and my money stolen." Grimborn gave a smirk.

"Tell me more," he invited mockingly.

And so Hiccup did, quietly but clearly outlining what had happened, when he realised and who he had spoken to. He also slid over copies of the papers he had signed at his bank-which the officer didn't even glance at-and then waited.

"So how did she access your funds?" Grimborn asked pointedly.

"She had my cards," Hiccup said slowly. "She took my wallet off me and kept it."

The officer laughed.

"That's the most pathetic excuse I have ever heard!" he sneered. "Gods-you're supposed to be the man, not her."

"Supposed," Hiccup muttered, feeling a mix of shame and anger curl in his chest.

"You should just grow a pair and take back what is yours," Grimborn told him coldly.

"It's not that easy," Hiccup protested self-consciously.

"What is she seven foot tall and built like a dragon?" Grimborn scoffed.

"Um, no…she's five foot five and medium build at best," Hiccup admitted. "But…"

"Then what's the issue?" the officer sneered. Hiccup felt himself cringe inwardly.

Here it comes…

"She's…violent," he revealed awkwardly. "If I try to do anything she doesn't approve of, she attacks me…verbally or physically. When I returned this time, she hit me over the head with a vase, gave me a kicking and took my wallet and keys. She only left me the phone because I need it for work and without the job, she wouldn't afford the apartment and everything else she likes buying…"

"Oh come on-you expect me to believe this hogswill?" the officer scoffed. Gently touching the still evident lump on the back of his head, Hiccup nodded.

"It's true," he said tonelessly.

"So how did she get your password for your online account?" Grimborn pressed. "Did she kick that out of you as well?" He flinched.

"No," he murmured. "Hair straighteners."

"What?"

"She used her hair straighteners on me," he said more strongly, grabbing his shirt and pulling it up to reveal the perfectly straight burns across his waist, white and healed but still ugly against the pale, slightly freckled skin. A few purple-yellow bruises was just visible as well. "And then she threatened to do that to Toothless, my cat…and I knew I couldn't be there all the time because I work…and burns like this would kill him…so I told her…"

"You really are pathetic," the officer sneered. "I would have just slapped the bitch!"

"Oh-and that would work!" Hiccup replied sarcastically, righteous indignation at the reception his painful confession was receiving rearing its head. "And then suddenly, I'm a wife-beater, hitting a poor little woman. No one would care what had happened to me to provoke it. Bella would cry and play the injured party, all scared and pathetic and everyone would believe her."

"Well, men can't be beaten up by their wives!" Grimborn snapped, his eyes glittering with anger. "Well, not real men. Only weak, pathetic excuses for men…" Flinching at the condemnation which echoed everything he knew he would hear if he ever confessed to his friends or family, Hiccup nodded.

"Of course," he said. "So we all know what that makes me, doesn't it? But I still want to file this report and you have to write it down! This was theft-the money was in my personal account, she took the cards by force and the passcode by coercion and she had no permission to remove any of it. And she has stolen all of my money and maxed out my credit card. That is theft. I reported it to the bank. And now I'm reporting it to you."

Smirking in an incredibly condescending way, Grimborn reluctantly grabbed his pen and began writing on the form.

"As you wish," he said with a bored sigh. "Name?"

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third…"

oOo

Sitting in her warm apartment that she had insisted Hiccup rent, even though it was at the limit of what he could afford, Bella sipped her wine and lazily logged onto the computer. She suspected that Hiccup had some more money squirrelled away and she had no qualms about locating and taking it. He owed her, for the inconvenience of walking out on her and making her actually have to tidy the place up on her own and try and locate him again. He was hers, a weak-willed, relatively easy-on-the-eye meal ticket with a rich Daddy and a host of pressure points that she could exploit. She knew he had been pining for his High School crush when they got together and she had no qualms in ruthlessly exploiting her physical resemblance to Astrid, about playing Hiccup for all he was worth until she had him just where she wanted him.

Of course, he was stubborn and had a sarcastic streak a mile wide…but she had slowly undermined that, with a steady stream of criticism and scorn, seasoned with some cloying affection and a generous helping of sex. And shy and self-conscious as he was in that department, she had manoeuvred him just to where she needed him to be. The fact he had been bullied at school made it easier to remind him of how inadequate he was, how lucky he was to have Bella as his girlfriend when the girl he had loved from afar up and left him without a backwards glance…and once she had set him up, she could start to isolate him from his friends and make him just hers.

Idly, she logged in to the bank accounts-and found an unfamiliar message flashing up.

ACCESS DENIED.

She sat up straighter, eyes narrowing. She tapped in Hiccup's account number and his passcode.

ACCESS DENIED.

She tried once more.

ACCESS DENIED.

Growling in her throat, she slammed the top of the laptop down. Rage flooded through her and her fists tightened. She needed something to smash but she had already broken everything of Hiccup's-as well as the man himself. Furious, she rose to her feet and grabbed her glass, then hurled it against the wall, hearing the tinkle of glass and allowed the sounds of destruction to calm her once more. She glared at the computer and took a deep breath.

If Hiccup wanted to play that game, he would find out just what the cost of crossing her really was.

oOo

Staring at the screen of his computer, Hiccup sighed. His entire impetus, his drive had vanished after he had left the police station, the scorn and disdain of Officer Grimborn still ringing in his ears. It was exactly how he had imagined, all those times he had nursed his injuries, swathed in guilt and shame. No one would believe him, everyone would look at him as if he was a liar or worse, as if he was the most pathetic and weak excuse for a man who had ever walked Midgard. But he had promised himself that he would make the report, though he doubted anything would come of it. In fact, he seriously doubted Officer Grimborn would even log his complaint.

Feeling so worthless hadn't helped as he set out for Astrid's apartment complex and he had found himself walking into a small local shop and purchasing a bottle of cheap brandy which was stowed shamefully in his bag. Cami had given him money for a cab when he had said he didn't want to trouble her by coming to collect him and he was so ashamed, he had walked all the way to the apartment, arriving hot and exhausted. After a quick shower and a black coffee, here he was, unable to work, his mind in turmoil and more convinced than ever that he didn't deserve her.

He closed the computer and looked at the plans on the draughting table. He had made good progress but he just couldn't do anything now. So he rolled up the plans he was working on and fumbled in his bag, finding an A4 watercolour pad and his watercolour pencils. Bella had allowed him to keep them because he never showed any sign of doing anything artistic with her, not realising that her presence sucked all the joy out of life and crushed his desire to draw. They had remained in his bag, silently accusing him of abandoning one of the things he loved and was best at because he was afraid of her scorn destroying his belief in his ability there as well. Better he didn't draw at all but believed he still could than no longer believed he had any ability.

Quietly, he reached for a 3H pencil, his hand hovering over the sheet before he looked up and saw the sun gleaming off the water in the bay. There were a few clouds clustered high in the sky and the parkland that swept around the right side of the bay was bathed in sunlight, making the trees seem a vibrant jade green. Unconsciously, he found his hand moving, swiftly outlining the scene and before he realised, he had captured the view. Without even thinking, he was collecting a glass of water and a couple of sheets of kitchen towel and then he was away, the blues and greens washed onto the paper to provide the base for his scene, the colours echoing Astrid's laughing eyes. And his lips were tilted up in a smile.

You can't take this from me, Bella, he thought with defiance, the sense of safety of being in Astrid's apartment washing away his earlier despondency. Not while I'm with Astrid. While I'm here, away from you, I'm free.