One Step At A Time
Summary - Modern AU. Hiccup is about to go to his first rehabilitation appointment. How will he find trying to walk again go?
"No! I told you a million times I'm not going!" Hiccup yelled as he laid on his side on his bed, facing away from his father.
"And like it or not, Hiccup we are taking you to the session!" Stoick yelled back at his son.
"What's the point?! Its a lost cause, nothing is going to work!" Hiccup yelled in anger.
"Hiccup-" Stoick began to yell but a soft hand was placed on his shoulder. Stoick turned to come face to face with his wife, Valka.
"Stoick, let me talk to him. You get the car ready." Valka told her husband. Stoick let out a sigh before nodding. As Stoick left the room Valka made her way into her sons room, taking a seat on his bed. The pair stayed quiet for a few moments before Hiccup broke it.
"I'm not going." Hiccup simply said. Valka shrugged.
"That's you choice. I ain't gonna force you, I'll make sure your father doesn't force you. You just do what you know is the right thing to do." Valka said.
"The right thing would of been for the idiot to not of been drink-driving in the first place." Hiccup muttered. Valka sighed softly before placing a hand on her son's right leg, giving it a squeeze.
"Is that why you don't want to go? Is it getting in the car?" Valka asked. Hiccup shook his head.
"It's not just that." Hiccup said before turning onto his back. "I haven't been able to walk in over a month. How am I suppose to be a normal guy when I don't even have a left leg?!" Hiccup yelled as he gestured his missing left limb. Valka didn't say anything but instead looked at his wound before looking back at her son, who was staring down.
"Hiccup, do you think Gobber is normal?" Valka asked.
"Yeah, why wouldn't he be?" Hiccup asked, before suddenly realising what she meant.
"You consider a man with only one leg and one arm a normal guy but not yourself?" Valka pointed out. Hiccup didn't say anything, knowing where she was going with this. "You've just got to take it a bit at a time. And you just gotta have faith."
Hiccup nodded slowly. Valka smiled before standing up from her son's bed and getting his wheelchair ready.
XXX
Stoick wheeled Hiccup into the hospital reception while Valka walked up to the desk. Sitting behind the desk was a woman around Hiccup's own age. She had pitch black hair that was thrown over her right shoulder in a braid. Her forest green eyes looked away from the screen and up to Valka.
"Hi Valka." She greeted with a smile.
"Hi Heather, nice to see you again." Valka responded. Heather then looked past Valka and to Hiccup, giving him a warm smile.
"Hey Hiccup, how you doing?" She asked. Hiccup shrugged.
"As good as I can be." Hiccup told her. Heather was one of the nurses that Hiccup got along with quite well while Hiccup was recovering from his accident. He had been out of the hospital for a couple of weeks now so it was nice to see a friendly face.
"You here for your rehabilitation?" Heather asked. Hiccup nodded, not saying anything. Heather looked at him with a bit of confusion and looked at his parents.
"He didn't want to come." Stoick whispered as he leaned closer to Heather. Heather gave him a small 'ah' as she nodded. She then began to type in the computer looking for his appointment.
"Okay then, Dr Hofferson is still with a patient but I can take you to the room now." Heather offered.
"Thanks Heather." Valka said. Heather smiled as she moved from behind the desk and towards Hiccup. She then gripped the wheelchair and began to lead them to the rehabilitation room.
"Don't worry about it. Just doing my job." Heather said. As the group began to walk down the hallway Stoick asked Heather a question.
"Do we know Dr Hofferson?" Stoick asked. Heather shook her head.
"I don't think you will. She often works with people who are disabled and helps with recovery. To be honest out of all the physicists I've met, Astrid as to be the best one there is working here." Heather told them.
"Is she really or are you just saying that because she's your friend?" Hiccup asked. Heather let out a small laugh.
"She is my friend yes, but she is truly a miracle worker. We had this one kid who had a double hip replacement and non of the doctors could get her walking. She refused to get out of the bed for 3 days. I called Astrid to help and 2 minutes later she had her up and out of the bed." Heather said.
"Seriously?" Valka said, sounding a little shocked. Heather nodded.
"I even tried to get her out of the bed, but it was like trying to talk to the devil itself. She was dark." Heather said with a little shiver.
"Then how did Dr Hofferson get through to her?" Hiccup asked.
"Let's just say you're not gonna want to get on her bad side." Heather suggested. Hiccup nodded.
"Good to know." He muttered. Heather then turned his chair towards a door. Stoick Quickly stepped in front and opened the door for the group. Once inside Hiccup could see some small apparatus and prosthetic. Heather lead Hiccup towards a hospital bed that was in the shape of a chair. Once Hiccup was in front of it Stoick moved forward to help Hiccup up but Hiccup quickly put his hand out in front of himself.
"I can do it myself." Hiccup told his father. Stoick nodded and stood back. Taking a deep breath Hiccup gripped onto the bed and lifted himself onto his right foot. Getting comfortable he slowly turned around and hopped onto the bed. Heather moved the wheelchair next to the bed while Valka and Stoick stood next to their son.
"You're father and I need to head of now but we'll be back to pick you up after the session. You still okay with that?" Valka asked. Hiccup nodded. She then leaned forward and placed a kiss on his head. "Love you."
"Love you too." Hiccup returned. As Valka began to walk out Stoick quickly placed a hand on his sons shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"Stay strong, son. You've got this." Stoick told him. Hiccup didn't say anything but nodded his head to his father. Stoick nodded back before following his wife. Once they were gone Heather spoke.
"Right, I need to head back to work. Are you going to be okay waiting?" Heather asked. Hiccup nodded to her.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Hiccup said.
"Okay, Dr Hofferson should be here soon so you shouldn't have to wait for long. I'll come back a bit later to check on you." Heather said. Hiccup gave her a smile.
"Thanks Heather." Hiccup told her. Heather smiled back.
"No need to thank me Hiccup." Heather said before exiting the room.
XXX
Hiccup sat in silence looking at the different equipment in the room. He had been only waiting for about 5 minutes but he was dreading every moment, wishing he wasn't there. All he could think about right now was how fast could he get into his wheelchair and sneak out without being caught.
Then the door opened behind him. "Hi, sorry I'm late I was stuck with a patient."
"No, no its fine." Hiccup said as he looked over to his left to see a woman with bright blond hair in a braid over her shoulder. She was wearing a light blue shirt and black trousers with a white doctor's coat over the top. She walked in front of him and placed her bag on a table. She then turned to him and smiled.
"Henry Haddock I take it? I'm Dr Astrid Hofferson." She said as he walked over to him and shook his hand.
"I guessed that, Heather talked about you on the way here." Hiccup told her. Astrid raised her eyebrows as she took a wheeled stool and sat on it.
"Oh did she now, what did she say?" Astrid asked.
"Just to not get on your bad side." Hiccup said. Astrid let out a small laugh.
"Well that is true. I am said to be quite scary when I get angry." Astrid told him. Hiccup nodded. "You know we're gonna be working together for a while so you can call me Astrid if you want, instead on Dr Hofferson. Heather said that you are called Hiccup more than Henry?"
Hiccup however ignored her last comment and focused on what she said before. "What's a while?" He asked sounding a little worried.
"Well an till your able to walk on your own with at least one crutch." Astrid told him.
"And how long will that take?" Hiccup asked.
"As long as a piece of string." Astrid answered. Hiccup however gave her a confusing look. "There are different lengths of recovery time for different people. We can't put a length on this."
Hiccup sighed before looking at the table. "Are any of those mine?"
"Well we've got your socket that you were measured for, and the rest of the parts of the leg, so today we're just going to get your leg used to the feeling of supporting your body again. In simpler terms your going to learn to stand up and sit back down." Astrid explained.
"No walking? Taking steps?" Hiccup asked, sounding a little disappointed.
"Like I said, different lengths for different people. If I feel like you ready to start walking today then great, but we can't rush this." Astrid explained. Hiccup sighed before nodding. "Wanna get started?"
"Sure."
XXX
"How does that feel? Is it to tight or loose?" Astrid asked as she adjusted the prosthetic on his leg.
"Its fine." Hiccup told her. Astrid sighed and looked up at him.
"Hiccup, don't rush this. Remember slow and steady wins the race." Astrid told him. Hiccup chose not to say anything and kept his eyes of the prosthetic. As Astrid finished tightening the prosthetic to Hiccup's leg she gave a confident sigh. "Right, you ready to stand?" She asked as she stood up. Hiccup immediately shook his head.
"No, no I don't." He said quickly.
"Hiccup, come on you need to get used to standing again. Just try at least." Astrid said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"No, just stop!" He yelled as he tried to move away from her. Astrid immediately moved back a little to give Hiccup his space. Hiccup let out a shaky breath and placed his head in his hands. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry. You're not the first to yell at me." She told him as she sat back down on the stool. "I had this one girl who actually slapped me because I was trying to push her a little."
"I threw a book at my dad cause he kept on pushing me." Hiccup muttered. Astrid nodded.
"Heather told me you don't get along well with your dad." Astrid said.
"We have our differences. I didn't exactly take after him. We've never really gotten along that well." Hiccup explained.
"I heard that after the accident you didn't want to see either of your parents." Astrid said. Hiccup nodded slowly. "Why's that?"
"I didn't want them to see me like this." Hiccup answered in a quiet voice.
"Like what?" Astrid asked.
"A cripple." Hiccup said. Astrid sighed.
"Is that what you think you are?" Astrid asked.
"It is though, isn't it?" Hiccup said almost like he was laughing at the end. "I can't walk, I can't stand, I can't even go to the toilet without hurting myself." He let out a shaky breath and looked down at his leg. "How am I suppose to walk my daughter down the isle or play catch with my son? All my kids are going to know is that their dad has a fake leg. Hell what woman is even gonna want to have kids with a one-legged cripple?"
Astrid chose not to say anything and simply sat there letting Hiccup carry on talking. She knew that he properly hasn't spoken to anyone yet so he needed to let this out. She needed to find out why he as so angry.
Standing up she walked next to Hiccup and pulled over the wheelchair so it was in his reach enough so he could get into the chair. Hiccup looked at her with confusion as she walked over to the table and picked up a pair of crutches. She then placed them next to Hiccup on the other side. She then sat back down on her stool. Hiccup looked between the 2 choices with confusion.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"No one is going to force you to do this Hiccup. We can leave it for today and you can come back tomorrow or you can leave it all together. Its up to you, no one is going to force you, I'm not going to force you into anything you don't want to do. If you want to try and stand there are the crutches, if you want to go home the wheelchair is right there. Either way its your choice." Astrid told him.
Hiccup looked at her with almost shock. Why was she doing this? She was his therapist, she was meant to me pushing him into standing up and getting him not walk, not convince him to give up all together. He looked between the two options again. If he went home he would be proving to not just everyone else but himself that he is in fact just a cripple. If he tried to stand up he will be one step closer to walking and having a normal life again.
Taking a deep breath Hiccup took hold of the crutches and placed his hand onto them. Astrid quickly stood up and placed her hands hovering over his arms in case he was to fall. Hiccup then took another deep breath and slowly stood up, carefully putting support onto his left leg. He immediately felt the difference of what it used to feel like. Before he felt like he had balance of his entire body but now he felt like he was balancing on something thin and wobbly.
He stood there for a moment, getting used to the new feeling of his prosthetic. Astrid slowly took a step back so Hiccup could feel like he didn't need her help. "How does it feel?"
Hiccup let out a sigh before answering. "Weird. It pinches a little."
Astrid nodded. "Okay, we can work on that." She said with a smile. Hiccup looked up at her and smiled a little.
"One step at a time." He said softly.
"One step at a time." Astrid repeated.
179 days
I just want to apologise for not updating in a while. Life has gotten in the way unfortunately so I haven't been able to write much recently. I found this story on my computer from where I wrote it last month but never uploaded it. I know some of you don't like modern AU's but this is all I have at the moment unfortunately. I will carry on writing as much as I can at the moment.