Healing Hearts

Rated; M for Mature

Pairing; HunterXAmy(HiccupXAstrid)

Author; Nightstar Fury

Disclaimer; I do not own anything HTTYD related-not the movies, shows, shorts, or series. I also don't own any of the songs that I may or may not use in the story. Everything belongs to its original artist or creator!

34; Ratted Out

{Normal POV}

Everyone was happy to see Hunter this excited over getting his diploma, it was a big event for him. It didn't just signify him finishing high school, it also meant the judge would wipe his record clean of all old charges and he would off parole after. Of course this meant he still had to stay out of trouble, but at least he didn't have to be in by midnight anymore. After the ceremony ended and pictures been taken, as well as all caps and gowns turned back in, they were headed to the Ostberg residence to celebrate. Amy, Roxanne, Flynn, even Sonny, Travis, Randy, and Vince were coming alongside Glenn, Axel, Sam, and then of course Daniel, Timothy, Eric, Cassandra, and Heather were coming. And couldn't forget little Belle! All of them were coming to celebrate the graduation together.

"I'm so proud of you, Hunter!" Vivian exclaimed when they reached the apartment and Hunter got off his bike, parking it next to his mother's SUV. Hunter helped Amy down as smiled removing his helmet.

"Geeze Ma, gimme a little room to breathe would ya?" Hunter said as he kissed Amy's cheek. "I'll be back, need to change out of this first," he then headed inside to his room to change out of the dress clothes, he hated wearing them. Once he was changed he tripped over something, an empty bottle of beer. Hunter stared at it a few moments before closing his eyes and turning his head. 'No...Not today, I won't drink today...' he thought firmly, he already felt the withdrawals coming on. The cigarette only held them off for so long. He made it through the ceremony fine but in truth, Hunter hadn't had a single drop of alcohol since Thursday night. 11:50 pm after getting home from work was the last drink he had and he felt it the control he had on it starting to slip fast.

"There he is!" Flynn smiled when Hunter returned outside.

"Hunter, we're so proud of you!" Cassandra exclaimed as she hugged him, Heather following suit.

"Yes, we are. You've come so far from where you were a while back. You focused, you studied hard, you've stayed clean the entire time too," Eric smiled connecting hands with him.

"Well, except for last week when he did X and Rohypnol, as well smoke weed and get drunk..." Vince remarked. Hunter glared instantly as a few backed up.

"I'd shut up if I were you before I punch you clear into next week," Hunter warned coldly as his hand tightened to a fist, his knuckles cracking.

"Hunter, don't mess up on your last day now..." came a familiar voice, Hunter turned and saw judge Jaxson there. Fuck.

"Di-Did I say punch?...I-I meant...hug, because we're...such good friends..." Hunter said unclenching his fist and smiling as he put his arm around Vince's shoulders and gave a one armed hug as a few of the others started chuckling. Hunter glared and they shut up quickly.

"Don't give him a hard time, Mr. Grimborn. Hunter has come a very long way, and last week was just a testament to the good deeds he does regardless of worry for himself. He wouldn't have taken those drugs if it didn't mean protecting you and everyone else in that school from harm," the judge stated as Vince nodded his head. The judge now smiled at Hunter, "Well, now, don't keep me waiting. Let me see it," he smiled.

Hunter went inside the house and grabbed his diploma off the fireplace where he'd had his Mom put it. He brought it out and handed it to the judge proudly. The man looked over it and smiled wide as he handed it back, "So...is he in the clear?" Vivian asked nervously.

"Well, that's why I'm here to check out. Mind if we take a seat?" Jaxson asked softly. Hunter nodded and led him to the fire ring where there were a few small tables and chairs set up. A fire was going in the middle as the two sat down and Jaxson pulled out a folder with the visible tab reading: Hunter Haddock-Ostberg. "A year ago around this time, your first arrest took place for fighting in school and officers having to pull you off the young man you put in the hospital. That was when you first came to my courtroom, Hunter. I let you off with a warning, and you continued to get yourself into more trouble by partaking in illegal acts, committing various crimes, doing drugs, endangering your life and the lives of others." Jaxson told him.

Hunter sighed some, he didn't want to hear about it again. He wanted to go to his room, lock the doors and start drinking to forget about the horrible things he did back then. "Y-Yes...Judge Jaxson...I remember," Hunter replied looking down. The judge now opened the folder, Hunter's charge list sitting right on top and under all that was each one that was filed when it occurred in more detail.

"I can't help but notice you seem...bothered by the reminder of the things you did, chose to do. Do you regret your choices, Hunter?" Jaxson asked him.

"I do. I regret every single one of them," Hunter replied to him.

"That's good, a lesson was learned then. Well now, let's see if we met all of our parole conditions?" Jaxson said filing through a few things. "Conditions for parole and record expunging were no more fights or drugs, random drug testing, curfew of midnight to 5 am, and to graduate high school without ending up arrested again. Yes?" Hunter nodded to him. "Well, you passed all of your drug tests perfectly. However, you did break the other three. You did take drugs a weeks ago, you broke curfew a few months back and injured a man to subdue him, you also did end up cuffs."

Everyone bit back, was Hunter in trouble for all that?! "In lieu of extenuating circumstances, I'm going to waive them all as excused with good reason. You broke curfew to help a friend in need, you fought to protect her and keep her from being hurt again, you took drugs and risked your own life as the cost to put ten very bad people away again. Military or not, you always think of others before yourself and you protect fully. You completed every condition I set for you when I gave you a second chance, so it is my honor to be the one to release you from parole. But first, there is someone who came with me who has waiting a long time to see you," Jaxson smiled, "Come on out, Erica," he said as he looked back and motioned with his hand for someone to step out from behind the house.

Hunter looked up as he saw the little girl from a year ago, he stood quickly with worry in his eyes. "Hello, Hunter..." the child greeted. "You look surprised to see me, last time I was wearing a leg brace and had crutches."

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry," Hunter said to her gently.

"Please...come down here so I can see you better?" she asked, Hunter got on his knees and so she could look down instead of up. "No need to apologize, I should actually be thanking you for putting me in the hospital." she said as Hunter's eyes widened.

"What? No...no. I...put you in a coma for two weeks because of that wreck, because I was stupid. You didn't deserve that because of me," Hunter said quickly.

"You saved my life," she smiled. "I pulled you from a wreck I caused..." Hunter looked down, Erica now lifted his chin up some.

"Aside from the crash, you saved my life another way. When...I woke up from the coma, the doctors ran tests to make sure I was alright...and they found cancer in me." Erica told him, "If I hadn't been in the hospital, then they might not have found it in time to save me. It's because of you that I'm still alive, I fought all year because I wanted to live to see you again. I wanted to make sure you didn't break your promise to me. Today was my last treatment, I'm cancer-free." she explained.

"I kept my promise, Erica," Hunter told her, Erica put up her pinky and Hunter connected his to hers.

"I always knew you were good, Hunter Haddock. And I hope you never forget that there are people who look to you still and see you as the hero they know you are." Erica smiled as she pulled something out of her bag and handed it to him. "I made this for you," she added as Hunter opened the folded piece of paper and looked at it, his eyes widened a bit. It was a drawing of him in a soldier's uniform with a cape attached to his shoulders. She had even given him a name: Mr. Goodheart. At the top was written 'my hero'. "What kept me fighting, was you. I know you never gave up, even if you got a little lost. But, we all do. I never gave up either because you're the hero I looked to for the strength to keep fighting," Erica hugged him tightly around the neck.

Hunter didn't respond for a minute or two but then he closed his eyes and hugged her back, "Thank you," he said calmly. Jaxson smiled as he handed Erica the folder after the hug broke as she walked towards the fire that was burning.

"Consider this the expunging of your criminal record," Jaxson told him as Erica ripped the folder in half and throw it in the fire to burn. "You're a good man, Hunter. Don't ever forget that," he added with his hand out to Hunter.

"I won't. Thank you...for giving me another chance," Hunter said shaking his, and then hugging Erica again.

"Well, best get back to Arc Isle. Promised your parents I'd have you in time for dinner," Jaxson told her, Erica nodded as the two of them turned and left. "Enjoy your graduation party!" they called and left in the taxi that was sitting out front. Hunter looked back to the burning folder. His...parole was over and record expunged...he didn't even have the words for how happy he was right now. He actually wanted to cry, but wouldn't.

Hunter smiled as he sat down in the chair and relaxed. Belle jumped on his lap and smiled. "What's up princess?"

"Can we go swimming?" Belle asked pointing to the pool off the left, it was a five foot in ground one.

"Belle, I didn't bring your suit..." Daniel mumbled.

"I can fix that," Hunter said as he got up and carried Belle with him as they went into the house. After ten minutes they came back out with Belle wearing one of his t-shirts that reached past her thighs and Hunter wearing his swim trunks. "Ready?" Belle nodded to him as he held her tightly and jumped in the pool with a laugh, both surfaced and continued to have a good time. After twenty minutes, Hunter stopped while still holding her in his arms, he closed his eyes and put a hand to his head.

"Unka...are you okay?" Belle asked softly.

"Yeah...I'm...okay, Belle. Um...why, don't we...take a little break from the pool..." Hunter told her, as he began making his way towards the stairs, stumbling a little.

"Hey, I think something's wrong with Hunter..." Randy said first noticing it, this got everyone's attention as they looked and saw him having trouble moving in the water.

"Hunter? Are you okay, babe?" Amy asked.

"I-I'm...good, just...need a br-" Hunter stopped short, Belle had her hands on his chest and looked to her father quickly.

"Daddy, Unka's heart is beating really fast." Belle called to him. "And he's shaking!" she said with worry. "Unka...Unka are you okay?!" Belle cried now. Hunter wasn't responding to her, he just stood there shaking. Belle shook him a little and he closed his eyes and then opened them again, shaking his head once or twice to focus. "Unka?"

"Hunter, out of the pool now..." Vivian told him firmly, Hunter was closer to the side without the ladder so he moved slowly and placed Belle on the ground first as he pulled himself up onto the ground and sat there a minute. "What happened?"

"I-I don't know. Just, blanked out for a second. I'm okay, really, Mom. I promise..." Hunter told her.

"Belle said your heart was beating really fast and you were shaking." Amy reminded.

"I'm fine. Will you get off my back about it?" Hunter said with narrowed eyes as he got up from the ground and got a towel that was sitting on his chair.

"Hunter, we're just worried about you..." Heather said.

"Well, stop. Alright. I don't need people to worry about me, I can take care of myself!" Hunter raised his voice, then stopped and sighed a bit. "I'm sorry. Guess I'm just...tired." he added. Hunter knew he had to control himself, Toothless whined at him. Clearly wanting him to tell the others about the paper that sat in his nightstand drawer, Hunter shook his head before heading inside to change his out of his bathing suit. He returned outside wearing dark blue jeans, tee-shirt, and his sandals. He noticed all of them looking at him worried that he'd just gotten incredibly irritated over them being concerned that he blanked out in the pool while holding Belle, who had also been worried about him and alerted her father that Hunter was shaking and his heart was beating fast.

Hunter sighed as he moved over to the grill and opened the lid up, starting to scrape it off with the wire grill brush. After that was clean he went inside to get the burgers and hotdogs, he put those down on the folding table and then went back in to get the buns for both, as well the condiments, cheese lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickels. He left those in the outside fridge so they wouldn't go bad. Hunter fired up the grill and while that heated up he started getting the hot dogs out of their package and the burgers separated. He started lying everything on the grill rack and getting the spatula to flip with when it was time. He felt something tug his pant leg and he looked down to see Belle there,

"Hey princess," he said to her.

"Unka, I worried about you..." she said sadly. Hunter smiled a bit as he picked her up with one arm and kissed her cheek.

"I'm okay. I'm sorry I scared you," Hunter replied to her.

"But you were shaking, were you cold?" Belle asked.

"Guess I was and got distracted. But you snapped me out of it, you'll make a great doctor one day." Hunter told her gently, Belle smiled wide.

"I'm gonna be a medic like Auntie Heather! I'm gonna save soldiers," Belle said with a big grin. Hunter laughed a little.

"That's a big job. But I think if anyone can do it, you can." Hunter told her as she hugged him tightly while he flipped the burgers and rolled the hot dogs. "Hey, you want to help uncle?" Belle nodded, "Go in the fridge there, and pull out the cheese and you can hand me pieces to put on the burgers." he said, Belle smiled as she got down from his arms and grabbed the cheese from the fridge. The others were talking among themselves while still watching Hunter and Belle work on the burgers and hotdogs. Hunter placed the cheese on as by handed from Belle, then after it melted he shut the grill off and put everyone on a serving tray.

Hunter grabbed the lettuce, onion, and pickle and set them on the table near the cutting board to slice up tomatos and peel some lettuce pieces. Hunter started slicing the tomatos up into good size pieces to fit the burgers. It was now that Hunter felt nauseated, and started to sweat a little. Hunter shook his head a little and his vision began to go blurry on him. Hunter placed the knife down suddenly and lowered his head breathing heavily. At this time, Belle had returned and saw her uncle had paused in his previous actions and was breathing heavily, Belle touched his arm lightly.

"Unka Hiccup?" she asked. Belle then noticed Hunter just space off and start shaking, Toothless started barking to alert everyone else that something was wrong. "Daddy! Something is wrong with Unka!" Belle shouted out quickly. Before anyone could react, Hunter fell to the ground and start shaking more with his eyes open but not blinking or moving.

"He's having a seizure!" Vivian said quickly as she rushed over to him, they all did. "Someone get me something to put on under his head," she said with concern while Eric and Timothy started moving things away from Hunter so he couldn't hurt himself. Daniel got Belle off the chair she was in, trying to soothe her worried about her uncle. Cassandra had gotten a pillow from the couch inside the apartment and it was placed under his head.

"Wh-Why...is he having a seizure?" Amy cried.

"I-I don't know. He's not prone to them, he never has been unless he was coming down from drugs..." Vivian replied with concern.

"B-but he hasn't taken any except for last week and we were...all there with him when it happened." Amy responded now still watching her boyfriend jerk around on the grass.

"He doesn't have epilepsy or anything?" Axel inquired and she shook her head to him. "You say this only happened when he came down from drugs?"

"Yes. Everytime during the coming down process, he'd fall into small seizures. It happened last Saturday right before you all arrived, he fell into it while asleep and took a few minutes to recover from. Kids, how was he at school during the withdrawal process?" Vivian asked.

"Uh, irritable mainly. But he also had headaches, sweating, nausea, and tiredness. Slight shaking too," Flynn told her.

"He's not still withdrawing, is he?" Sam questioned.

"Shouldn't be, unless he started taking drugs again to stop the withdrawal symptoms..." Eric said.

"You can do that?" Vince asked.

"Yeah, people don't want to feel the withdrawal from not having it in their bodies, so they keep doing it to avoid the withdrawal." Cassandra stated now. They all looked back at Hunter whose seizure was starting to lessen.

"Four minutes he was in that..." Amy whimpered a bit. "That was longer than the one from the gym..."

"And longer than any of the times he came down. Those only lasted a minute or two, then about five minutes to regain consciousness." Vivian informed as she and Glenn carefully turned Hunter on his side, it was creepy to see his eyes open but him not moving at all. "When he wakes up, we'll talk to him..." she sighed some. For six or so minutes, there was nothing but him lying there and then he started to twitch a bit and they feared him having another one, they were ready to call 9-1-1 but Toothless stopped them as he nudged Hunter's face a bit while whining. Toothless licked his cheek as Hunter started blinking a bit, Toothless pulled him to a sitting up position and sat beside him.

"Hunter, are you okay?" Amy asked worried.

"Yeah..I'm...fine? Why am I on the ground?" Hunter asked.

"Baby, you fell into a seizure for four minutes and just took the last six for you to wake up fully..." Vivian said as she checked his forehead and cheeks. "You're sweating, and have a fever. What's going on, tell me so I can help you?"

"Mom, I'm fine okay. Just tired, I'll go to bed early and be fine tomorrow." Hunter told her. Toothless growled at him now, "What?" Toothless gave him a look that said 'tell them or I will'. "Knock it off you, I'm fine, Toothless..." The dog barked at him then went in the house. After five minutes, he returned with a paper in his mouth. "Toothless, give me that right now..." Toothless backed away from him and handed it to the closest person to him which happened to be Amy.

"What's this, Toothless?" she said uncrumpling it and looking over it. Amy's eyes widened some as she handed it to Vivian to read over.

Vivian's eyes widened as well, turning to shock and fear almost. "Hunter Haddock-Ostberg! You explain this right now!" Hunter looked at Toothless now, his friend has his head down. Ashamed he ratted out Hunter's alcohol poisioning from a few weeks ago, but he was only trying to help. He knew Hunter couldn't do it by himself. "Hunter. I'm waiting, what is this all about you having alcohol poisoning a few weeks ago and went to the hospital for it?!" as soon as she had said the words alcohol poisioning, everyone had gasped looking at him shocked and with worry all wanting an explanation.