AN- So, this chapter spends most of its time as an angst fest, so warning you now. You will, however, get some answers. On to questions!

BrawlerGamer (From Chapter 2)- Astrid, like Hiccup, has had no action in years, and while they will both get some eventually, it will be off-screen so to speak.

Nobody figured out my title convention, so I'm going to give a shout-out to the first person to get it whenever it happens.

On to the chapter!

Chapter 4- Heartbreak

Astrid took a deep breath before knocking on the door. After only a few moments, it opened to reveal Heather's smiling face. "Come in! Dinner's almost ready."

Astrid gave her a smile. "Thanks for having me. I would have been doomed to another night with a TV dinner."

As they sat down at a small dining table, Heather looked thoughtful. "Maybe week could meet once a week, and I can teach you how to cook."

"That would be great, thanks." Heather wrapped up the final steps of her cooking and got the food to the table. Much like the lunch she'd had earlier, it was delicious and prepared perfectly.

After a delicious meal in companionable silence, Heather motioned Astrid towards the door to the side of the dining room. It led to a sitting room of some sorts, with only a couch, a chair, and a TV. Astrid plopped down on the couch, and Heather dropped down next to her. "Astrid, I know you probably have a ton of questions, so ask me anything you want to know."

Astrid asked her first question without even needing to think. "What's the deal with Stoick hiring me to basically be a bodyguard?"

Heather's expression quickly grew grave. "Once, because of a really bad person, Hiccup was badly hurt and almost kidnapped. Thing is, he's been over the physical injuries for a long time; it's the emotional damage that's the problem. It's still pretty tender, even though everything went down a couple of years ago."

Astrid spoke up before her brain could stop herself. "Did it have to do with Cami?"

Heather's face reddened with anger. "How do you know that name?"

Astrid quickly raised her hands to placate the dark-haired woman. "I overheard Hiccup and Fishlegs arguing today, and that name came up." Heather's face slowly drained of the red, but her expression remained wary. "Who was she, Heather?"

Heather went quiet, seeming deep in thought. "Let me check with Fishlegs to see if it's a good idea to tell you the story." After that, Heather was silent while she banged out a text message. Some time later, her phone buzzed and she read the text quickly. "Fishlegs thinks that, for you to do your job effectively, you need to know everything. I'll tell you, but it's not a pretty story."

"This story starts, in a lot of ways, back when all of us were in elementary school. In first grade, Hiccup was small, scrawny, and brainy. Because of that, he got along great with me, Fishlegs, and a young girl in our class named Camille. On the other hand, his stronger cousin Snotlout and the twins picked on him relentlessly. Camille was small, even smaller than Hiccup, but she protected them from Snotlout's torment vehemently, earning her the nickname 'Camikazi' from Tuffnut. We all got along pretty well, but about two-thirds of the way through the year Cami's dad got a new job and she had to move away. We didn't see her for almost ten years."

"About three years ago, just as Hiccup and Fishlegs were starting up Dragonwing with the twins, Cami came back to town. She was a stunner, about your height with gorgeous blond hair and these stunning brown eyes. Hiccup was smitten with her almost immediately, and we thought she was interested in him too, because they were dating within a couple of months. It was almost like they'd never been apart. Only a couple of months after that, Hiccup was giving her a spare key to his apartment so she could come over whenever she wanted to. That's when everything went wrong."

"Just the very next night, some big, burly men broke into Hiccup's apartment and tried to kidnap him. Fortunately for Hiccup, he has a pet cat named Toothless who is fiercely loyal and protective. Somehow, that cat was able to harass them enough for Hiccup to break loose, and the two of them managed to knock the would-be kidnappers out. After that, when his uncle Spitelout came to take them into custody, Hiccup found the spare key he had given to Cami on them, and he was beside himself with worry."

"Stoick sent word to all the law enforcement in the state, since all of them till owed him a favor for the Bludvist arrest. Cami was found in St. Paul, alive and well. Turns out, she'd been hired by a man named Viggo Grimborn, the CEO of a big-time biotech company, to get Hiccup's designs for prosthetic limbs. When she couldn't get them from him by going through the papers in his office, Viggo ordered her to set up the kidnapping. When Hiccup found out that it had all been fake just so Viggo could get those designs, something broke inside of him."

"The friendly, borderline naïve, innocent Hiccup we all knew vanished almost overnight, replaced with the man you met today. Even those of us closest to him aren't allowed close anymore, except for Snotlout, who's family. His dad only made him worse when the first 'Security Chief' of Dragonwing showed up about a month later. The position always reminds Hiccup of Cami, and he gets so much worse every time we get a new one. He goes through almost ten security chiefs a year."

"That's why you have a job here. We're all hoping that, with how similar and yet how different you are from her, that you can help Hiccup to move on. But for that to happen, you have to stick around. Hiccup will do everything he can to make you quit, so please, whatever happens, stick around."

Astrid was still reeling from Heather's story. So much pain, and so much evil involved. After spending almost fifteen minutes processing it, she still wasn't quite sure how to respond. "That's horrible. What kind of person would do that?"

Heather sighed. "Someone desperate. Viggo's company was failing, and he needed something new and cutting-edge to keep it afloat. Hiccup's capabilities were already pretty famous by the time Dragonwing was starting up, so the start-up was high profile enough for Viggo to pick up on it. He and Cami are both in jail now, and his company had fallen into ruin."

Astrid was sure of what she thought, but Heather didn't seem to be doing as well after having told the story. Deciding to try a less depressing topic, she made a request. "Tell me about the old Hiccup, before all of that happened."

A glowing smile spread over Heather's lips. "He was just about the sweetest guy you would have ever met. Ruffnut actually crushed on him in High School. He saw the best in everybody, and he even mended the relationships he had with his dad and Snotlout and got Mildew and Alvin involved in the community. He and Fishlegs could spend hours talking science, history, engineering, philosophy, anything really." Her expression was starting to drop again. "His sarcasm was always used for humor, never to hurt people like it is now. Now, though, he's borderline mean to everyone, even Fishlegs." Heather tried to wipe away the tears that were trying to fall from her eyes. "You would have loved him. Everyone did. And we all miss him so much."

At that point, Heather broke down, her head falling onto Astrid's shoulder as her body was wracked with sobs. It was almost like she was mourning the death of a friend, and Astrid realized that that was exactly what she was doing. A fresh wave of anger washed over her at Viggo and Cami, for not only hurting the man who she worked for, but for reducing this strong woman she was now friends with to tears.

After Heather calmed down, Astrid steered the conversation away from Hiccup (As much as she still wanted to ask more) and onto other topics. The girls soon were happily chatting about baseball and hockey, until several hours later when Astrid was getting ready to go. Fishlegs and Dagur arrived, carting a tub of ice cream, and the blond spoke up. "Hey, Astrid! Want to join us for ice cream?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, but I need to take care of Stormfly, my pet bird. Maybe next time I come over, I'll bring her and we can have ice cream without me having to run home."

Fishlegs beamed at her. "That sounds great! Well, I'll see you tomorrow." After giving on last goodbye to Heather and Dagur, Astrid headed home.