Chapter 8 pt. 2

Authors note: Hey guys sorry for the long wait I was having trouble figuring out where I want to go with this chapter. It's not exactly how I wanted it to go but there is nothing I can do at this point. This should be the last chapter of this story, I may do an epilogue just to round it off any loose ends. Also at a little over 5000 words, it was getting a little too long.

Also, I know you guys are having a hard time following my writing as I jump between different viewpoints. I tried to fix that but I'm not sure if I managed to write in 3 people.

I would just like to point out that I am not a doctor therefore this story should not be taken as a reference to medical procedures. Hope you enjoy it!

The faint beeping sound of a heart monitor was the first thing that reached Hiccup's ears as he came out of his deep sleep.

The sharp pain he had experienced the last time he had woken up had dissolved into a dull ache. Hiccup looked over at his father, who was typing something out into his phone. The man's brows were knitted together in concentration for whatever it was he was staring at so intently on the screen.

Hiccup didn't want to disturb him so he quietly tried to sit up on his own. Keyword being tired as he managed to get about 4 inches above his pillow before the movement pulled on his knee and he let out a yelp and fell back onto the bed.

Stoic's head shot up so fast it was a wonder he didn't get whiplash. His phone instantly forgot as he throw it down onto the chair and rushed to Hiccup's bedside in seconds. "Hayden! Are you alright?"

"...y-yeah" Hiccup groaned out as he cursed at his stupid leg.

"What did you think you were doing?" Stoic yelled out concerned for his son written all over his face.

"I just wanted to sit up," Hiccup said, pouting at his lack of mobility. Stoic only smiled at him letting out a small sigh as the large man helped Hiccup sit up while readjusting the pillows behind the boy's head to prop him up.

"Is that better?" Stoic asked. Hiccup just nodded easing himself back down onto the bed "how's the pain?" the concerned father pulled back but still hovered over his child.

"Better… I just shifted it a bit when I tried to get up." Hiccup huffed as he tried to get into a more comfortable position.

"You have to be careful…" Stoic started to say but was cut off.

"I know" Hiccup snapped at his father a little more harshly than he meant to. "Sorry… I-I just want to get out of here" Hiccup said softer as he avoided his father's eyes.

"I know son, but you have to be patient. Dr. Northrup said we can go home tomorrow at the latest. So long as you don't spike a fever."

"…Okay" Hiccup grumbled, before quickly looking to his right as movement caught his eye. Hiccup smiled as he spotted Gobber walking into the room holding two trays of food.

"Gobber!" Hiccup smiled at the sight of his father's childhood friend.

Gobber's face broke into a huge grin when he saw Hiccup awake. His long blonde mustache swaging as he all but ran into the room shoved the two trays of food into Stoic's arms before sitting down on the side of the boy's bedside.

"Hey Laddie, glad to see you finally join the land of the living," he said, ruffling Hiccup's hair much to the teen's annoyance "how are ya holding up?"

"I'm okay, I've had better days." Hiccup replied as he swatted Gobber's hand away from his head and attempted to fix his unruly auburn hair.

Gobber gave him a slight chuckle "you gave us quite the scare there didn't ya my boy?"

Hiccup gave him a sad nod "sorry" he mumbled guilt washing over him.

"Aw, don't worry lad," Gobber said ruffling Hiccup's hair once more and gave him a bright smile. "The good news is that you're here safe and sound and on the mend. Now, why don't you help me get your old man here to eat something? And don't forget to yell at him for not taking care of himself." He tilled his head towards Stoic.

"Who are you calling an old man, Gobber?!" Stoic yelled turning around from placing the food trays down on the side table and punching Gobber's arm.

They all laughed and joked around for a while until they heard a knock on Hiccup's door and turned to see who it was.

Dr. Northrup was standing in the doorway of Hiccup's hospital room as he entered he was followed in by a tall lean woman with short blonde hair. Hiccup didn't recognize her but his father must have as he stood from his chair and greeted her "Detective? What can I do for you?"

"Hello Mr. Haddock, Mr. Belch I hope this isn't a bad time, but I was hoping to get a statement from Hayden, today?" her voice sounded serious but at the same time sad.

"Statement?" Hiccup asked confused.

"Yes, about what happened to you? Those men that kidnapped you are in custody and awaiting trial, we need your statement on the matter before we can move on with the investigation."

"Do we have to do this now? He just got out of surgery a couple of hours ago. Can't this wait until tomorrow?" Stoic asked.

"The Lad's still recovering," Gobber said looking worriedly down at his nephew.

"I know and believe me I'd hate to ask, but we need his statement." The Detective was sincere as she did feel bad about it. "But with Hayden being unconscious at the scene and being rushed to the hospital there hasn't been any other time we could get his statement. I am sorry but it can't wait any longer."

Hiccup had been looking down into his lap throughout the whole conversation fidgeting with a loose thread on his blanket. He was a little annoyed that everyone was talking about him like he wasn't even there, but it gave him time to think. He didn't want to talk about what had happened to him but he knew the faster he did this the faster he could put it all behind him. "…I-I'll do it."

"Hayden?!" the loud and booming voice of Hiccup's father cried out.

Hiccup turned his head to look at his father and saw the worried look in his eyes. Hiccup could see that he was hesitant for him to do this but Hiccup just wanted it over with. He needed his father to understand that the longer he waited the harder it was going to be to talk about it later. Maybe doing this will take the weight he was feeling off his chest, and hopefully be able to breathe a little easier.

"Dad... I have to do this..." " Hiccup gave his father a pleading look hoping that he would see that this was important for him.

"….Alright son, if your sure" his father agreed somewhat reluctantly, and after a quick nod from Hiccup, Stoic waved the Detective closer.

"If you'll excuse me first," Dr. Northup said stepping up to the side of the bed, "I would like to check on my patent first before you stress him out."

Hiccup had almost forgotten that the doctor was still in the room, as he gave Hiccup a wave from the end of the bed as he was reading through the chart there.

"Of course," Detective Mala said.

…

After a few minutes, the doctor gave the all-clear and the Detective turned towards Hiccup. " Alright Hayden, would you be able to tell me what happened with those men?"

"I-I don't know where to start?" Hiccup said starting to get nervous.

"That's alright," Mala said giving him a reassuring smile "why don't you start from the beginning. I believe you were going and a field trip according to your father."

"That's right…"

So Hiccup told the Detective about the kidnapping and what happened on the bus. He almost broke when he talked about Sven getting shot and that he was forced into the van right after. Hiccup had to take a couple of minutes to calm down but after being reassured again that Sven was alive and well he went to continued.

The Doctor wanted to stop as Hiccup's blood pressure was getting dangerously high.

"No, I'm fine... please let me finish" Hiccup insisted.

After a few minutes, and a couple of deep calming breaths Hiccup continued to tell them that they had thrown him into the back of the van and tied his wrist behind his back. Hiccup sub concisely rubbed his sore wrist as they were still felt raw from where the rope dug into his skin.

"They wanted to tie my feet too but I-I panicked… I didn't want them to see it" the room fell silent as they knew he was referring to his prostatic leg. "They um… knocked me out after that with some wired smelling rag to my face. It smelled… sweet? Like sickly sweet and it made me really dizzy."

"Chloroform" she stated angrily.

"I guess…um when I woke up Alvin was standing over me and was shoved my phone at me telling me to talk to my dad…" Hiccup paused and looked over at his father, who smiled at him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder giving it a light squeeze to let him know it was okay to go on.

Hiccup kept his eyes down throughout the rest of the story. "After the call, I asked him why he was doing this. He didn't say much just that it was what he was paid to do."

"Did he say who paid him?" she asked looking up from her notes.

"Huh… no sorry I-I didn't get a name," Hiccup said apologizing to the detective.

"That's alright, you're doing great… can you tell me what happened next?"

Hiccup nodded "Savage took me into an office in the back of the warehouse and tied me to a chair. I tried to fight him but he hit me… here" Hiccup pointed to his temple.

"Then Alvin came back in and was taunting me saying I should get comfortable because I wasn't going anywhere… I-I got angry and kick the back of his knee as payback for what he did to Sven…" he took a second to look at his father "I know it was stupid but I didn't care I was just so angry and I wanted him to pay for killing Sven."

"It's alright," Stoic said running his hand through Hiccup's hair in a calming gesture.

"That a boy" Gobber laughed as he padded his nephew's arm.

"Gobber!" Stoic shouted at his friend with a warning look.

"What!? Come on Stoic you can't tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing?" Gobber raised a brow at him daring him to lie to him.

"That's different!" Stoic scuffed

"Ah-huh different how?" Gobber crossed his arms at his old friend smiling.

"Well…" Stoic gestured to his son waving his hand up and down his body.

"You just gestured to all of me" Hiccup sighed after rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest in annoyance. He thought his father was past the whole runt of the litter thing.

When they didn't get more of a response (besides a sideways look at Hiccup with an apologetic look) Gobber looked back at Hiccup, "go on Lad."

Hiccup gave Gobber a small smile before continuing "He has a point though…my hit didn't even phase him. Nothing but a slight limb and that was only because I kicked him with my prostatitis."

Hiccup looked back down at his knee "Alvin didn't think it was funny though. He was pissed… and said it was only fair that he returned the favor. An eye for an eye, or knee in my case." Hiccup stopped taking and took a few deep breaths to calm himself.

"H-he slammed his fist into my knee… I-I remember hearing a kind of popping… or crackling sound and then the pain... I-It hurt so much. When I looked down at it I could see that my knee was dislocated, but…" he trailed off looking at his father "you said I needed surgery so I guess Alvin fracture it too. But I didn't know that at the time and that guy popped it back into place for me."

"Who, Alvin?" Mala asked.

"No, the driver… I don't know his name. That was the only time he ever came near me."

"And what was the extent of the damage that he needed this surgery for?" Mala asked the doctor next to her.

"His Knee was indeed dislocated and relined, however, his patella was also fractured. I believe that after the joint was popped back into place that the bone shifted and fractured it further as there are two distinct fracture lines you can see on his x-ray here". The Doctor added pointing to an x-ray slid that was on the wall. "The surgery was so that we could surgically place a pin in Hayden's knee in order to pull the bones back together and secure them in place." Detective Mala nodded as she added that to her notes.

"Is that what he was doing to you when he called me? You… you were screaming?" Stoic knelt to get a better view of his son's face. But Hiccup hide behind his bangs and didn't lookup.

"N-no… I passed out after he popped it back in. I don't know for how long but when I came to the driver was gone and Savage was shouting at me and he slapped me trying to wake me up. But I couldn't focus on what they wanted me to do… so Alvin grabbed my knee and... He-he squeezed it. I- I couldn't… I begged him to stop but…" Hiccup dropped his head into his hand's body shaking.

"I think he needs a break…" Stoic said to bring his son to his chest as he gasped for breath in despite the attempt to hold back the tears.

But Hiccup shook his head and pulled away after only a couple of minutes from his father's arms and gripped the front of his hospital shirt attempting to slow his heart rate down. "…No just… just give me a minute."

Dr. Northrup checks him over and deems him stable, and nods to the group to continue but to wrap it up as Hayden needed to rest.

"Hayden, can you tell us what happened after the phone call?" Mala posed the question looking sadly over at the boy but he didn't respond. She turned to Stoic and the large man nodded and knelt again to his son's level and cupped his face in his hand tilling it to look at him.

"Hayden… Did they say anything to you before I got there?"

"…" Hiccup hesitated.

"Hayden?" Stoic's voice was gentle but it held a worried tone at his son's lack of response. It looked like Hiccup was in shock again, his eyes were blank as they stared straight ahead and his body was ridged. He was about to call this off when Hiccup spoke.

"They… they made a call when they thought I was unconscious…" Hiccup swallowed and Stoic put a hand over his giving it a light squeeze for reassurance. "We were still in the warehouse and he… no Alvin said that 'Stoic fell for it just like the old man said he would.'

"Are you sure that's what he said?" Mala asked leaning forward slightly.

Hiccup just nodded and tried to force down the rising anxiety that was creeping in at what he was going to say next. "He went on for a bit after that saying that this old man was the one that gave me up, and he said it was his idea to have them kidnap me to get the tech for my dad. Alvin was laughing and said he would take care of the old man after and to have his half of the money ready in an hour."

"Thank you Hayden I'll have my officers look into that. Now was this around the time that you showed up Mr. Haddock?" Detective Mala said pointing her pen at the man.

"Yes, it is. I barely made it to the warehouse in time even with your help. I made it into the warehouse just as they were threatening to shoot Hayden for me being late. They told me to put the prototype on the table in the center of the room. I told them I wouldn't until I saw my son." Stoic paused as he looked down at his son, seeing that Hayden was trying to curl in on himself. Stoic was glad that they were getting to the end of this as he didn't know how much longer his son could hold out. He looked like he was going to pass out his eyes drooping and swaging slightly with the effort of keeping himself awake.

"That's right and that's when they had you decrepit the files Hayden's?" Detective Mala asked him.

"…Yes," Hiccup said looking up "Alvin was angry that the files were still encrypted… and pulled me out of Savage's hands and held a… a gun to my head. When he found out that I was the head technician he throw me in front of the laptop and told me to decrypt it."

"But if you decrypted those files for them why we're they still encrypted when we recovered them?"

Hiccup smiled tiredly at that, and for the first time looked directly into the detective's eyes "that's why it took me so long to decrypt them for Alvin. I created a code to re-encrypt the files once the computer was in sleep mode… and if they didn't have the encryption key to unlock the files, it would go back to the way it was once they tried to access them again." Hiccup said holding up the dragon pendant that hung around his neck.

Stoic was shocked that his son had the skill set to do something like that, let alone to think of it when he was under that amount of stress and pain. His son was a crazy genius, Stoic thought.

"I have to say that's very impressive," the detective said shocked that a boy of fifteen was able to do that. "Is there anything else you can tell me about what happened after that Hayden?"

"No… sorry." Hiccup said shaking his head.

"That's alright Hayden, you did great," she said to him closing her booklet and pulling out a business card from her jacket pocket, and handed it to Stoic. "Here call me if you two remember anything else. Thank you for your time and I hope you get better soon." She directed her last comment to Hiccup with a smile on her face, which Hiccup returned.

"No thank you, Detective," Stoic said taking the card from her. "Please keep me informed with the investigation. I want to know who did this to my son."

"I will."

After that, the Detective left and Dr. Northup said that his fever had spiked a bit from the stress of the conversation, and hooked him back up to the IV for the fever-deduced medicine, and ordered him to get some rest. "I'm sorry kid it looks like we're going to have to keep you another night. Now I need you to get some sleep and when you wake up I have one for the nurses to bring you something to eat."

"But what about my friends?" Hiccup had been looking forward to seeing his friends later that evening.

"I'm sorry kiddo, but they'll have to come back tomorrow." Dr. Northrup gave him an apologetic smile.

"But…" Hiccup stopped as a hand landed on his shoulder and followed it to his father's worried eyes.

"Hayden, I know you want to see them but your health comes first. Do want the doctor says and I promise you can see your friend's first thing tomorrow morning alright?"

Knowing that he didn't have a say in the matter Hiccup nodded his head and let his father lower him back down onto the bed so he could rest. Hiccup didn't realize just how tired he was until his head hit the pillow and he was fast asleep in minutes.

…Time laps…

The next morning had Hiccup was lying awake in his bed staring up at the ceiling tiles above his head bored out of his mind and wishing to be anywhere else but here.

He had given up on watching television hours ago as there was nothing good on and his head hurt too much to focus on the book is Gobber had brought him and the boredom was starting to drive him insane.

His fever hadn't broken until late last night around 10 pm so they had decided to keep him another night. He wasn't happy about it seeing as now he had to wait another whole 24 hours without having another fever before they would discharge him. Hiccup knew it was hospital policy after any surgery, but that still didn't' make him feel any better about current his situation.

Hiccup's head turned to the doorway as he heard a light knock, and gave a quiet "come in" as he didn't want to wake his father who was passed out in his usual chair beside his bed.

"Good morning Hayden" the doctor greeted him and Hiccup quickly held up his index finger to his lips to let the doctor know to be quiet as he pointed to his sleeping father.

"Oh sorry" he apologized as he lowered his voice after seeing the man "How are you feeling today? Any pain?" he asked while picking up Hiccup's chart from the end of the bed.

"It's better than before so long as I don't move my knee," Hiccup told him honestly.

"Yes well, you're bound to be a little sore for the next few weeks." He said as he busied himself checking over all of Hiccup's other wounds. After a couple of minutes, he deemed Hiccup fine and said "so long as you didn't develop another fever, you should be able to leave the hospital tomorrow morning".

Hiccup thanked him and he turned around to leave the room. Shortly after the doctor had left there was another knock on the door.

"Hey kiddo how are you doing," Sven asked as he walked into the room.

"S-Sven!?" Hiccup shouted forgetting to keep my voice down, for his father woke with a start from the sudden outcry. "You're here! Oh, gods I- I thought… I thought they had killed you? They said you were fine but… H-how did you..? How are you?" Hiccup's mind raced not being able to land on a single thought long even to process which question he wanted to ask first or that he was really seeing Sven alive right in front of him.

"Whoa easy son, deep breaths" Stoic warned his son as his heart monitor spiked. Hiccup stopped closing his eyes and breathed, trying to calm himself down. He listened as the monitor's rapped beeping went back to normal and took in one last deep breath before opening his eyes again.

"There you go," Stoic said stroking his son's arm. Hiccup looked over in thanks smiling at his father before he looked back over at Sven curiously.

"I'm all good kid. Bullet went straight through" Sven said gesturing to his shoulder. "It was all thanks to your friend Astrid that I didn't bleed out, she kept the pressure on my wounds until the paramedics arrived."

"A-Astrid…did that?" Hiccup couldn't believe it. He vaguely remembered his father telling him about it before but it was still hard to believe.

"I was just as surprised as you were" Sven chuckled.

"The detective said that after you got taken she just couldn't sit there and do nothing" Stoic smiled giving his son's arm a light squeeze. "You have yourself a good bunch of friends."

"I know" Hiccup smile.

*KNOCK, KNOCK*

Hiccup turned his head to look at the door as a nurse opened it smiling kindly at him and his father "Sorry to interrupt Mr. Haddock but there are some teens in the waiting room asking to see your son. Should I let them in?"

Stoic looked at his son for confirmation he didn't think his son was up for any more visitors yet seeing how tired he was just after seeing Sven but he would give his son the choice. "Hiccup?"

Hiccup nodded tiredly "Yes, please I want to see them."

"Okay" Stoic looked back towards the nurse "you can let them in."

"Then on that note, I'll leave you to your friends. Good to see you kid, get well soon okay" Sven said waving goodbye.

"Oh okay sure, and Sven…" Hiccup called back to the man as he turned back around "thank you."

"Don't mention it, kid, I only wished I could have done more" and with that Sven left the room. The nurse nodded and followed him out of the room.

Not more than 5 minutes later Hiccup could hear the shouts of his friends as they pushed and shoved their way down the hall and came barreling into his room. The frantic manner in which they tried to all enter his room at once caused him to laugh as the twins and Snotlout had fought to get through the door first and had ended up falling in a heap on the floor wrestling it out.

Astrid ignored their struggles completely and jumped over them running over to see him.

"HICCUP!" she shouted throwing her arms around his neck "oh Gods we were so worried" she pulled back to look at him. "Are you okay?!"

Hiccup saw the concern in her eyes as well as his other friends as Fishleg's had made his way around the others a bit more cautiously and moved to the bed almost hyperventilating in his rapped fire questions and worrying concern.

Hiccup couldn't get a word in otherwise and now Snotlout and the twins had pulled themselves up off the floor and had joined the fray at the foot of his bed with the rest of his friends. They were all shouting over one another but all asking the same thing 'are you okay or how was he feeling' and so on.

"…" Hiccup was starting to feel a little overwhelmed as all of his friends were crowding him, and he could feel his breathing pick up as panic rose to the surface but he forced it down.

"ENOUGH!" Stoic yelled glaring at the teens "give him some room." Hiccup smiled up at his father gratefully.

They all stopped at once and gave a quick apology, but the twins started an apology battle and Hiccup knew he had to speak up. "Um, guys? Guys!" he shouted and waited for them to calm down, it felt so good to see his friends again "I'm okay…. really." Hiccup directed the last part to Astrid as she gave him a skeptical look.

"Liar!" Astrid yelled punching him in the arm, abled lighter than she normally would have "the hospitals had you on lockdown for the last two days now. You're covered in cuts and bruises, not to mention your knee is all bandaged up. What happened to your leg?!" She ranted waving her hands around while gesturing to all of him.

Not being able to resist a cheeky come back he shot her a cocky grin "gee Astrid I thought you were more observant than that. I only lost the limb about a year ago" he got swatted for that but it was worth it.

"Idiot! You know what I meant!" she glared at him.

"Alright, alright" Hiccup laughed. Thinking to himself that it felt so good to laugh, it felt like he hadn't done it in such a long time. It was as if a large dark cloud had been hanging over his head for the last few days now and he hadn't realized how much he missed being able to laugh with his friends again.

"It looks worse than it is really. I'm doing much better now…" Hiccup tried to reassure them. He gave a nervous laugh that held no humor as he spoke: "and as for my leg… let's just say, I had a little disagreement with one of my kidnappers after I decided to kick his leg out from under him." Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Seeing the confused looks on the teen's facings Stoic added "One of the kidnappers punched his knee with enough force to dislocate it and caused the bone to fracture. He got out of surgery yesterday after they put some pins to hold it in place."

"Oh, my Gods, Hiccup?!" Fishleg looked worried.

"I'm okay Fish really, the doctor said it was a clean break and it should be fine in a couple of weeks, though I'll have to keep the brace on for about 2-3 months."

"Damn Cus' you need to learn to pick your fights! Those men were like 4 times your size, from what I heard," Snotlout said both impressed and horrified at the same time.

"Yeah, not the first time I've been told that one" Hiccup scuffed rolling his eyes.

"You totally freaked us out back there!" Ruff said followed quickly by her brother "Ya totally awesome and scary. But we're glad you're okay H."

Hiccup felt guilty "I'm sorry, I scared you guys and I'm sorry for ruin the trip." Hiccup looked down playing with a loose thread on his bedsheets again not able to look his friends in the eyes.

"Hey, you have nothing to be sorry about you didn't ask those men to kidnap you," Fishleg's said.

"I know but…"

"Hiccup stop! There was nothing you could have done. We were there too, remember. We…" Astrid stopped not wanting to get into it right now. Hiccup had been through enough and the nurse had warned them not to push Hiccup into talking about it.

"Astrid? Are you okay?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid sighed of course he was more worried about her than himself. She took his hand in hers ignoring the large blush that spread across her friend's face. "It's nothing."

"I'm sorry," Hiccup said quietly "I just hate being stuck in bed like this and now I'm stuck in one for who knows how long. You guys have had to slow down so much for me this past year, because of my whole leg thing and now I made it worse. I didn't think… I-I'm sorry I'm such a burden to you guys."

Astrid looked sympathetic towards him. "You're not a burden Hiccup. You're part of this group and we're not leaving you behind, and so what if we have to move a little slower it gives us more time to hang out" Hiccup nodded in understanding at her words.

"Ha-ha sappy much" Tuffnut laughed before crying put in pain as Astrid punched him in the arm causing him to fall to the floor. "OW! I am hurt I am very much hurt" his sister doing nothing to help her brother as she was too busy laughing at her twin.

Astrid turned back to Hiccup ignoring the twins "now what did you mean by worse?" she asked.

"Um…" Hiccup paused as he looked away from the scene on the floor but couldn't meet her eyes "I provoked him, I was angry and thought he had killed Sven and wanted to fight back. But I barely even made him flinched. Then everything backfired on me and he lashed out dislocating my knee as well as fracturing my patella… my kneecap" he added seeing the confused faces of the twins and his cousin's faces.

"I get that, we're just glad that you're safe. But in the future please be more careful" Astrid said.

Hiccup just nodded shyly before a large yawn snuck upon him and used his free hand to cover his mouth. "s-sorry…" he apologized.

"Alright that's enough for today, Hayden needs his rest" Stoic stood up from his spot in the chair next to Hiccup's bed and began ushering the teens out and ignoring their loud groans and complaints to stay just a little bit longer. "You can see him again before he's discharged tomorrow."

"Fine, see you later Hiccup"

"Get some rest"

"Later Cuz."

"Bye 'H' see you tomorrow"

"See ya Hiccup"

Stoic ushered the teens out as Hiccup waved goodbye to his friends. He had never felt happier than he did right now know that his friends cared for him so much.

…