That day at the park with Karina, Ellie, and Owen seemed to do wonders for Harvey. When Harvey got back to his dorm after the picnic, he and Heather talked about the conversation with Ellie. Heather was surprised the Ellie gave Harvey advice and helped him figure a few things out. Heather was aware that Harvey wasn't going to take Courtney back, and tell the others the full story of what happened when Harvey left to when he returned. Also, Harvey informed Heather that he was going to stay at the school and keep teaching because he wanted to. Heather was proud of him, that he wasn't allowing himself to fall back into depression like the first time and Harvey honestly felt good about his decisions. The main one being; he wanted to get on with his life.
Harvey returned to class as planned on Monday and made everyone aware that class time for learning about dragons and anyone not following that standard would be getting in trouble, so without argument, the students did as they were told. This is how class was every day until Thursday when Harvey thought of a way to get them in one place without it seeming suspicious. The rules said that Harvey could not be in their dorms, and they could not be in his. It would also appear off if they used class time to discuss personal matters from the past.
Harvey's idea was to talk to the headmaster about a possible camping trip out in the woods; the trip would involve them taking their dragons and learning how to navigate in the dark as in life beyond college could involve them having to fly at night. This trip would be spent telling them the story, but Harvey would take different nights to show them how fly after the sun goes down.
When 1 pm came around, Harvey left Heather in charge to start the class while he spoke to the headmaster and by a stroke of luck, the man agreed thinking it was an excellent idea. Harvey said he would take them Friday at 5 pm to Monday 7 am, a weekend camp out would be more than enough time to teach them what they needed to know. Harvey left the office fo the headmaster and reached the DT field ten minutes later to see that Heather had them in the air practicing to fly in a circle or figure eight.
"Nice flying," Harvey called to them seeing how well they were doing. "Bring yourselves down to landing," he added after a moment. Slightly confused, the students landed carefully and dismounted while grouping close to him and Heather came beside next. "I was recently looking over the curriculum for dragon training and found that in past classes, the students are never taught to handle or fly dragons after sunset. I brought this up to the headmaster and made a suggestion that he has signed off on. So, this Friday after 5 pm, all of you are to bring your dragons and meet me at the forest edge because we're going camping over the weekend,"
"Wait. We're going camping, through the weekend, in wild dragon territory?" Syrus inquired.
"Indeed we are. Friday night to Monday morning, we're going to be camping out, and I'll be teaching you how to fly your dragons at night," Harvey informed.
"I can't go camping, Mr. Haddock. I have Owen," Ellie reminded.
"As I have Karina who will be staying with Heather for the weekend and she has already offered to take Owen as well. The kids will be all right with her and Heather has first-aid and CPR training," Harvey smiled.
"I assure you that I'm aware of both children's medical needs and I can handle them for a few days," Heather insisted, and Ellie nodded to her.
"Good, that's settled. I will e-mail you a list of things you need to bring," Harvey told them. Obviously not having much choice, they agreed and class continued. That night, Harvey sent them a group e-mail of what to bring and he handled everything else.
(Friday Night)
As planned, the students met Harvey at the forest edge at 5 pm with their dragons saddled and ready to go. Ellie and Harvey dropped Owen and Kari with Heather and promised they would call and talk to them as much as they could. Harvey got on Toothless and the students copied him once he said they were flying over the trees to get there. Harvey split the gear up among the riders and then they were in the sky. After thirty minutes of flying, Harvey landed them in an open area and they all dismounted to look around. Easily they were able to see that it was modernized and seemed like a campground because there were cabins, stables, a firepit, and big see through tent that zipped shut and had two picnic tables in it.
"Welcome to The Nest. Cozy little camping area owned by my former boss. The cabins sleep six each so Sydney, Ashlyn, Courtney, Ellie, and Rylee can take one. Andrew, Syrus, Ford, Dominic, and Tyler can take the other." Harvey said.
"What about you?" Rylee mentioned.
"Me? I'm sleeping in the tent. Go on and get unpacked, I'll take care of dinner." Harvey informed. Sure enough, they separated to their cabins and began to make their beds and unpack anything else, then went outside to situate their dragons in the stables. While outside they were able to see Harvey had already set up his tent and got a fire going. The time was about 6:15 pm and just as they were about to ask what was for dinner, they saw Harvey's parents flying in on their dragons and land there. "Hey Mom, Hi Dad," he greeted.
"Hi son, brought what you asked for," Stuart smiled handing him four large pizzas in an insulated bag, then his mother passed the bag with soda and water in it.
"Thanks," Harvey smiled to them.
"Be safe out here, call if you need anything," Veronica reminded.
"Will do, safe flight back guys," Harvey replied as his parents left once more and Harvey brought the food into the screen house tent and set it out. "Told you I had dinner handled," he chuckled.
"So, are we flying tonight?" Dominic asked.
"No, that's tomorrow night," Harvey stated as they were coming into the tent to sit down and start eating. "Night fly training was my excuse to the headmaster to let you all leave the campus with me without seeming suspicious," Harvey said as they looked at him confused and Harvey sighed. "Look, I know that five of you wanted the story of my leaving even though I'm sure by now, you've figured most of it out. However, rules say that students can't be in staff areas and vice-versa. So, I used training as an excuse to get Trechdon to agree. I'm still going to teach you, but tonight, I'm giving you the story you have wanted since September of last year,"
"You're going to tell us?" Ford asked.
"I thought you said it wasn't our business," Tyler remarked.
"Technically, it's not. However, given the circumstances of everything and all the wrongful assuming, I decided I would tell you just to shut down any more theories you might have," Harvey explained.
"Are you going to tell us everything?" Ashlyn inquired.
"Yes. What led up to the leaving and then all through until you saw me again last year," Harvey informed. "If you're still curious that is?" he added.
"We want to know," the small group nodded.
"Then I will tell you around the fire after we eat," Harvey replied. The others were a little anxious, they had been waiting forever it seemed to hear the truth about what happened. Most of the story was known as Harvey mentioned. The group now knew that Harvey had a daughter with Courtney, and also, at one point Harvey and Courtney were engaged to be married. On other notes, they knew Courtney walked out on Harvey and Karina, Harvey almost drank himself to death in the depression, and that Harvey and Heather have had sex plenty of times. But even with all that, there were blank spaces and tonight they were going to learn what those were from Harvey himself. When dinner ended made sure to seal up the remaining food and everyone found a seat around the fire.
"Whenever you're ready, Harvey," Ellie crooned.
"You two on a first name basis or something?" Courtney asked.
"Outside of class and off campus, you don't have to call me Mr. H or Mr. Haddock. Ellie and I have hung out a few times is all, our kids happen to be best friends," Harvey sighed. "Anyway, so the start of this story begins before I left. The night of the block party after Courtney got me to agree to join the fun. Not sure if anyone else noticed, but the punch was spiked,"
"Yeah, that was my fault," Syrus admitted.
"I was getting bored and buzzed, getting ready to go back into my house, Courtney reminded me of the dance she promised me. So, we danced and then afterward she asked if we could go to my house and I agreed. Gave her a tour, ended up in my room. Both buzzed I guess, starting making out, she told me she liked me and I returned the feelings. Well, one thing leads to another and we ended up having sex, though, to this day, I still can't remember much after Courtney telling me to take her. Next morning, I woke up first with a hangover and realized what happened. I got her awake and explained things, we ended up agreeing to keep a secret relationship and tell no one what we did. Her parents would freak, mine also weren't to happy when I told them. In school, we acted like the other didn't exist but we would meet each other in the hall or bathroom to make out," Harvey said.
"So what happened? Did you parents catch you guys or something?" Tyler asked.
"No. A month later, Courtney said she was sick so I went over after school and after some talking about how she felt, we made a guess that she might be pregnant because she missed her period. I ran to the store and got her a test, came out positive and she panicked saying her parents would send her to some home for pregnant teenagers and then once the baby was born, she would have to give it up for adoption," Harvey said.
"Or they would have made me get an abortion," Courtney added.
"That too. Courtney and I both wanted to raise the baby and felt our parents wouldn't understand, so we left Berk together a week later and went to the city. We grabbed our saved money, only things we would need, and our Terrible Terrors. Left the neighborhood by cab on that Saturday you were all at the game. Since we didn't have a lot of money and I didn't have a job, I found us a cheap place to live at Happy Homes Trailer Park. Once we got settled in, I started looking for a job, and that's how I ended up at the sanctuary and meeting Toothless. I won't go through that part of the story again because you know it already," Harvey stated.
"Fair enough. So you both ran away together to keep your baby, why didn't you just come back at eighteen? No one would have been able to stop you?" Dominic asked.
"Never gave it much thought, we were comfortable where we were. Trailer park was beautiful, affordable and close to my job. All that aside, by the time I got the promotion to Strike-class trainer, Courtney was five months pregnant. Next big event was Karina being born on May 19th, 2017. I remember it well because Courtney called me from the trailer while I was at work and told me her water broke. Heather gave me a ride there and took us to the hospital. Was a little scary because the baby was born two weeks early but perfectly healthy. Court was in labor for fifteen hours, after Karina was named, we just lived life with her. I went to work every day, Courtney was a stay at home mom," Harvey told them.
"When did you propose to her, I think Heather said it was Christmas, right?" Andrew inquired.
"Yeah. Christmas 2017, I had been putting a little extra money aside, bought her a ring and asked her to marry me. Courtney said yes and there wasn't really anything else big that happened until Karina was thirteen months old," Harvey closed his eyes and turned his head some. "It was the beginning of July 2018 and I was working six days a week from 9 am to 6 pm, Courtney still stayed at home with Kari but I'd been noticing that Courtney was getting distant and always on her phone at night when we regularly spent time together. The housework began to lessen and I found myself doing it after work, I planned to talk to her about everything that night I got home from work. However, that's not how it went," he trailed off some.
"What did she do? Walk out and leave Karina there alone?" Rylee asked quickly.
"No. As I reached the door, I heard Kari crying loudly and got worried. I got inside to see the trailer a complete mess and Courtney sleeping on the couch. Karina was locked in her bedroom with a rash, high fever, and persistant coughing. Also, she hadn't been changed in hours. I got her cleaned up and changed, then confronted Courtney about it and she complained she hated being home all day with no car to go anywhere. I told her we would talk about it later and I jumped the next bus to the hospital. That's when Karina was diagnosed with asthma, the fever was from her teething, and the rash was a reaction to the wash that she had a bath with. I got home and found the trailer picked up but Courtney was gone. I called everyone I knew to ask if they had seen her and nothing, finally, I saw a note on the table of her saying she had left," Harvey replied
"You walked out on your thirteen month old daughter and fiance!?" Ashlyn and Rylee practically screeched.
"That's enough, I'm not tell you all this to pass blame. Lay off her," Harvey told them and they relaxed. "Courtney left the ring with Sharpshot and the cell phone on the counter. I was hurt and worried what I would do next, after a while, I called Heather and she came over and told me she would help me out all she could. Next day, I called my boss and told him I needed some time off to figure things out. I was buying alcohol and getting drunk every night, I was depressed and hurt myself a few times. I went back to work for a bit then fell farther into depression, that's when Heather found me blacked out and drunk on the couch. Heather quit DSS to babysit Kari for me after my friends at the sanctuary helped me get back on my feet and working again. Of course, that was only the beginning of my problems,"
"What happened?" Ford asked.
"Child services got involved, and they tried to take Kari away from me," Harvey kept his eyes closed.
"Why did they try to take Karina?" Courtney asked.
"Because when I was in that depression, people took notice and thought I was neglecting my daughter. The people didn't show up until after I was back on my feet, but I still had to work my ass off to prove that I could take care of Kari and provide a stable home for her. I had to work my nine-hour day, come home, cook and clean the trailer every night because I never knew when they would show up for a house check. They were running through my financials, making sure I wasn't drinking and doing drugs. It took almost eight months to be satisfied and close the case," Harvey muttered, apparently not happy with remembering those times.
"Is the next part when you and Heather started messing around?" Dominic inquired curiously.
"Yes and no. Heather and I started messing around after Courtney left, she knew I drank but didn't know how bad. Both drunk one night, we just did it. There was no romantic connection between us; we knew that. It was just meaningless, protected sex after Kari went to bed. When Kari was two, Heather's mom got sick with cancer, and that stressed her out, so I was there for her. We never had sex sober; I'm sure she already told you why. She said she did," Harvey remarked.
"Yeah, when she snapped at Courtney," Sydney mentioned.
"Good, then I don't need to talk about it. Anyway, Heather and I strayed away from having sex every couple of nights when Kari got older then took a long break from it as her mom got sicker and I was busy with work. As I said, we haven't done it in a while and then I got the offer to teach here. I wasn't going to take it because it meant coming back here but Heather reminded me that this job offered me better pay, benefits, and living situation. Plus Kari can go to daycare instead of being bored in the trailer all day. But after accepting the job, we came here and that's the story," Harvey shrugged.
"Let me get this straight," Ashlyn asked, "Night of the block party, you and Courtney had sex and she got pregnant. Scared to lose your baby, you ran away to the city where you got the job and bonded with Toothless. Couple months later, Karina is born. You proposed to Courtney on Christmas of the same year. Next, a year later, Courtney walks out on you which sent you into a depression. Heather and you started hooking up to have drunken, protected, sex at random. Then you dealt with child services, after all that you got the offer to teach at the university and moved here because it was better than the sanctuary?"
"That sums it up, yeah," Harvey replied.
"What the fuck man," Tyler blinked, "You went through hell,"
"You still should have told us, we would have understood why you were leaving," Ford mentioned.
"It was a quick decision just to leave, and not leave a trail. No offense you two, but you can't keep a secret to save your lives. You would never have held up in questioning about where I was," Harvey chuckled.
"And...he's got the point," Tyler stated with a nod.
"All that aside. Why the hell didn't you tell us, Courtney! We asked you if you saw him, and you lied to us, to his parents! And when we saw him again, finding all that stuff out, you claimed to no nothing when you knew all along," Ashlyn scolded.
"I knew she wouldn't. It was in her letter," Harvey sat back in the chair now. "She said she missed her old life when she could party and have fun. Also, that when she got back to Berk, she wasn't going to tell anyone we were together, or that I got her pregnant,"
"That's cold, Courtney. How could you walk out on them? You ran away to have that family and then threw it away, broke Harvey's heart, and made him suffer all that by himself. Why would you do that to him?" Sydney said sadly.
"I-I don't know. That day when we argued, I realized I let him down and I felt like I didn't deserve to be with him anymore or around Kari so I left. But as soon as I got to Berk, I knew I was wrong and was afraid to go back because he'd been so angry when he left and I didn't want to argue more," Courtney explained as she looked at Harvey now, "And I'm so sorry, Harvey. If I could go back and do it differently, I would, you know that."
Harvey sighed, his heart pulled to be with her again and then Ellie's words returned to him and he knew what he had to do. "I know we didn't live a glamous life but I tried my best. Having you two in my life was all I needed to be happy. I was not mad at you that day, I was scared for Kari's health which has been up and down since. I wanted to come home and talk to you about things, I considered the entire time in the hospital that you might be homesick and decided maybe we should come back to Berk. But instead of talking to me, you ranaway,"
"I still love you and if you give me another chance, I swear I won't let you down again. Please? Forgive me?" Courtney asked.
"I'll forgive you," Harvey said as Courtney's eyes widened and she wanted to cry, Harvey was going to forgive her, and they could be a family again.
"Oh, thank you, Harvey. I promise you won't regret this," Courtney smiled.
"I know I won't," Harvey paused and pulled out of the hug and stepped back from her as she held a look of confusion, "Because I'm not taking you back,"
"Wh-What?" Courtney asked, "B-But you said you forgave me,"
"I have and do. By the Gods, I still love you, Courtney. But I can't be with you again, I'm sorry. I gave you my loyalty, my attention, my love. Even my heart. My happiness came from just coming home and getting to see my girls, knowing that everything I did kept them safe and happy. Yet, with all I gave you, you weren't happy and instead of talking to me about it, you left me and Karina too. We've done all this once before and you threw it away on an assumption that wasn't true," Harvey explained.
"Harvey, please!" Courtney tried.
"Courtney, you walked out our thirteen month old daughter and me because you assumed I was mad at you. Thankfully, Karina doesn't remember so it doesn't hurt her. However, I do know that pain and I don't ever want Karina to have to feel it. I never want Karina to know or feel the pain of coming home one day and realizing someone she trusted and loved, walked away. It would bring me so much joy to have you back, unfortunately, it's not only me I have to think about. Kari is almost four and I can't risk bringing you back into her life with the fear that you could just decide to leave again. I can't risk my daughter's happiness for mine," Harvey said as Ellie smiled a little.
"Harvey, I won't...leave you again, I swear to you I won't," Courtney said.
"And I wish I could believe you. When you broke my heart, you broke my trust, and you know how I've always been. Once you break that, it takes a long time to earn it back. I can forgive you, I can maybe even be your friend with time, but I won't be with you again. I have to think about Karina," Harvey informed as he did something unexpected and kissed her forehead as she closed her eyes and a few tears fell from her eyes, "I never wanted things to be this way. I do love you and part of me always will, but this is how it has to be. I'm sorry," he whispered before stepping back from her. Courtney lowered her head and wiped her eyes with her hand.
"I...understand," Courtney sniffled, "I'm going to go to bed now," then she turned and walked away from him and past the others as she entered her cabin. Harvey saw the look in her eyes; he knew he essentially just broke her heart by forgiving her but not taking her back, and now he hated how much of an asshole he felt like.
"Harvey?" Ellie asked, and Harvey glanced over at her, "Are you okay?"
"No," Harvey said, "No, I'm not." he added before going to his tent and zipping it closed. Sitting on his cot, he had his legs up with his arms on his knees while silent tears fell. 'I'm sorry. Gods, I'm so sorry,' he repeated over and over again in his thoughts. Harvey hoped he would feel better if he stood firm in front of her and told her he had to think about Karina. Yet, he felt worse because he knew he made the right choice and knew how much he hurt Courtney. Harvey hated that this hurt him so much, to let her go and walk away as she had done to him. But Harvey knew that this was how it had to be.
