Lissy
Hiccup
Hiccup didn't really remember how he'd made it to the hospital. His head was a mess, crammed with too many things at once to deal with them accordingly and concentrating on the traffic around him hadn't been that big a priority… it would have served him right if he'd ended up in an ambulance as well, really…
What had brought Astrid and their friends to the hospital again? They'd spent far too much time there already during the last two years, for his taste at least Did they had an accident? Had there been an attack? One of the hate letters, those who threatened to harm Astrid?. Fishlegs had assured him that neither of them was seriously injured or hurt but Hiccup had been too keyed up to listen closely. He'd just grabbed his jacket and hurried toward the lift, to his car and on toward the highway. He should have let Fishlegs finish speaking… But he'd wanted to reach them as fast as possible, to be with Astrid, to make sure she was alright…
"Ah, good day, Mr. Haddock." The receptionist greeted him with a smile as he entered the lobby. He really had spent far too much time here… "What can I do for you?"
Hiccup struggled for a moment to remember her name. He knew that he knew it… but being civil was just not that easy right now…
"Good day, ahm… Sally" he finally read her nameplate. "ahm… Ms. Hofferson and Mr. and Mrs. Ingerman are supposed to be around here somewhere. Do you know anything about that?"
The woman frowned slightly and glanced at her display. "I… don't remember seeing their names here…" she said slowly while checking her entries and then shook her head. "No, I can't find them anywhere. Are you sure they are here?" No, he wasn't… he wasn't sure of anything anymore! He pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers, trying to think. If they weren't here, where else could they be?
In that moment, Sally's colleague approached them, obviously having overheard their conversion. "None of them got admitted officially." She said with an apologetic smile. "But I saw Ms. Hofferson earlier. They were heading for the outpatient department. We could call-"
But Hiccup was already gone, running out of the hall and down the corridors. At least! He thought. At least the outpatient department and not the ER… He knew his way around here far too well but right now it came in handy as he dashed around corners and past stunned people.
When he reached the waiting room of the outpatient department, his heart sank for a moment and he hated himself for it. He saw Heather and Fishlegs in perfect health, sitting there and chatting as if they were in a café or something while Astrid was nowhere to be seen. He was glad to see his friends unharmed, dammit!
They both looked up at him when he approached them and simultaneously raised their arms to indicate a door across the corridor, even before he had the chance to utter "Astrid?" breathlessly. Without another word or glance, he ran toward it and dashed inside without knocking or hesitating for a moment. And could have hit himself. Of course, this was a sickroom, he should have knocked, should have waited. But now it was too late. Luckily, she hadn't woken up.
Thunderstruck, Hiccup stared at the slender figure in her bloodstained clothes as she lay on the bed, above the cover, asleep or unconscious, which one he couldn't tell. A thick bandage was wrapped around her head, covering probably a laceration as her blonde stands were partially crusted thickly with dried blood. His head was spinning, vision dizzying and his heart pounded rapidly. What, in Thor's name –
"Hiccup?" sounded an all to familiar voice from behind him and slowly he turned around to stare at her, unable to take any more.
I could have let the last chapter end here as well… but I'm not THAT evil… :P
Astrid
Astrid leaned against the sink and stared unseeingly into the mirror. She wasn't sure what to make of this, how to deal with this. It was… too much… too much to think about it now, really. She needed more time. And more information. And first of all, she needed to talk to-
With a loud Bam! the door opened and someone stormed into the main room. Astrid raised her head, irritated by the noise. This was a sickroom and she was finally sleeping, dammit! Quickly, she sprinkled a few more drops of water onto her face and neck to calm down a bit and then left the small bathroom attached to the main sickroom. Whoever it was who dared to make such riot in this sickroom particularly was in for some trouble! She prepared herself for a good scolding, brows furrowed and lips pressed into a thin line when she recognized her favorite patch of tousled auburn hair.
"Hiccup?" she asked, bewildered. Why was he here all of a sudden? He turned toward her, eyes wide and as pale as a ghost.
"Astrid?" he gasped and she noticed him shaking vigorously. Before she could react though, he was on her, holding her in a tight embrace and panting into her hair. "Oh, thank Thor! You're alright!" he drew her even tighter toward him and she raised her arms to return his embrace tentatively.
"Of course I am, silly!" she chided him with a light chuckle. "Why wouldn't I? Didn't Fishlegs call you?" She rubbed his back soothingly. Why was he so keyed up like this? There had been something up with him earlier as well but this now…
"What? No, he… didn't…" Hiccup drew himself away from her to inspect her face, searching for what she did not know and lingered on her arms and her chest, where the bloodstains were the most obvious. He gulped and his hands on her arms began to shake again. She led him toward the two chairs placed at the side of the room and made him sit down, while he was practically hyperventilating, eyes glued to the red spots on her blouse.
"Hiccup?" She asked intently, trying to draw his attention back to her eyes. His gaze flickered back and forth, his breathing still too fast and shallow. She frowned slightly. Quite some time had passed since his last panic attack and even then it had rarely been as bad as this one. But she knew how to deal with those by now. She placed her hands on his cheeks, kept her eyes on his, holding his gaze. "Hiccup, I'm alright! You hear me? This is not my blood!" She saw understanding flicker in his eyes and relaxed when his breathing slowed down a bit. What in Odin's name had caused this emotional turmoil within him for him to react this strongly to her bloodied clothes? Just being in the hospital again? It hadn't bothered him the last few times, although there hadn't been any blood involved than…
"Fishlegs really didn't call you?" she asked, mainly to distract him but also to start an explanation, for he clearly had no idea what had happened. And as expected, Hiccup shook his head. "Well, he was supposed to…" she kept talking lightly. "to call you and tell you what happened, I mean. I'd say I have to have an earnest conversation with him about the importance of some tasks but I guess Heather will see to that…" She was babbling now but she didn't care. She knew he needed the distraction and simply continued. "Anyway, he was supposed to call you and tell you we probably wouldn't return to the lair today anymore, depending on how long the check-ups and everything else would take here. In the end, they were really fast, but… Lissy was so tired and finally fell asleep so we decided to stay a little longer." Hiccup took one last deep breath to finally calm down, closed his eyes and grimaced.
"Lissy?" He asked in a strained voice, face contorted into a strange mask. With his eyes still closed he wouldn't see her nodding toward the bed so she lifted their intertwined hands to indicate toward the girl.
"Yeah, Lissy." She confirmed. "We found her stumbling along the street, covered in blood and dirt and brought her here immediately." Astrid gazed at the sleeping girl. Lissy had captivated her, and Astrid couldn't even explain to herself, why that was. Or so she kept telling herself.
Hiccup got up then and slowly walked over to the bed and Astrid followed him. "She must have been involved in some kind of accident." She kept telling him what they knew by now. "Judging by the multiple small cuts and the bruises it was probably a car crash, or so the doctors said. Maybe she was thrown out of the car or crawled outside afterward, we don't know. She doesn't remember what happened but the whole area gets searched as we speak. Lissy asked after her mother…" At this, Astrid paused for a moment, gulping down the rising lump in her throat. Mommy? The girl had asked and looked at her, Astrid. It had been one of the stranger moments of this incident, though not the strongest. Not at all…
"…so she must still be out there somewhere. I wanted to go and ask whether they'd found her by now, but… well, Lissy asked me to stay with her, so… I don't want to leave her all alone." She shrugged helplessly. Somehow this girl had chosen her as her point of reference throughout this confusion. Astrid didn't know what had happened, how badly the girl's mother would be injured but it surely wouldn't do the girl any harm, when she stayed by her side. There it was again, this strange protectiveness Astrid felt over her…
Hiccup made a strange strangled grunting sound by her side and she looked up at him again. He stared down at the girl and she couldn't really decipher his expression. There was a hint of… terror in his eyes. And pain… and… guilt? She shook her head. Surely, she was imagining things. This whole situation probably reminded him too much of his own experiences connected to hospitals. Accidents, pain, and blood…
Astrid turned back toward the sleeping girl but leaned against Hiccup's side. As expected, he laid his arms around her instantly and drew her back against his chest. She could feel his rapidly beating heart even through the multiple layers of cloth as it still pounded against its cage angrily. Why was he still so upset? Astrid leaned more heavily against him, needing his support for both their sakes. They stood like this for a few minutes, both lost in their own thoughts and basking in each others presence.
Hiccup stirred then behind her, swallowing hard and his arms around her tightening for one last moment before he released her and took a step backward.
"I'll go and ask whether they found her mother by now." He said in a throaty and almost emotionless voice, squeezed her hand in parting and hurried out of the room.
Astrid gazed after him worriedly. Whatever had bothered him earlier at the lair, it wasn't over yet, that much she could tell. But admittedly, neither the corridor in front of Heather's office nor this sickroom was a good place for a possibly distressing conversation. Well, he would tell her what troubled him eventually. He always did!
Her gaze fell back on the sleeping girl in her bloodied and torn clothes and she sat down on the bed's edge carefully. What she'd told Hiccup had been the truth but it had also been only a brief summary of sober facts. There had been so much more, so much she couldn't even describe or explain to herself.
They had spotted the girl simultaneously as she stumbled aside from the street over the uneven field before them. Fishlegs had stopped the car and Astrid had jumped out just in time to catch her as she was about to keel over. She had stared down at the child in her arms and something had hit her.
The fringes of her blond hair which had fallen into her face had been dyed almost brown by dried blood. They'd been barely able to hide the contorted expression of pain on her small face, her skin so pale beneath the smudges of blood and hey eyes screwed shut as a low groan escaped her. That was the moment when it had hit her, this protectiveness. She didn't know what else to call it and even with this term, it didn't really make much sense. She'd just felt this irresistible urge to help her, to protect her.
Astrid had carried her inside the car and instead of driving to get some pizza for lunch, Fishlegs had turned his car around, heading for the hospital instead. She'd examined the girl's wounds as best she could on the backseat and found nothing but scratches, cuts, and bruises. But one never knew… During these examinations, however, the girl had opened her storm colored, still slightly clouded eyes, had looked up at her and had murmured this one word.
"Mommy?"
It hadn't been that surprising, really… How old would she be? Eight? Or ten? Astrid wasn't good at guessing ages but she surely was young enough to ask for her mommy right away. And yet… hearing someone calling her that, especially now… it had confused her for a moment, had made her head spin. She'd thought a lot about becoming a mother after Hiccup had brought up the topic a while ago, but now…
The girl had whimpered then, in pain obviously, and Astrid had torn herself out of her thoughts. "No, honey, I'm not you mommy." She'd answered in a soothing voice. "My name is Astrid. Who are you?" She'd asked this mainly to distract the girl but also to have a way of addressing her later.
"Mmnnh… Lissy" the girl had groaned, eyes shut again. "Where's my mommy?" Astrid had felt rather helpless at this question, had put her arms around the girl's shoulders and had kept on babbling soothingly to distract the girl until they knew anything more. Her memories of Hiccup had been so vividly in these minutes, as she'd done similar for him, too, whenever he needed to be distracted from his sometimes all-consuming thoughts.
Astrid had told Lissy they would bring her to the doctors who could help her and that they would make sure someone would look for her mommy, that they wouldn't leave her until she was safely cared for. Somewhere during these soothing words, the girl had started to first lean against Astrid and later to l literally cling to her as they went inside the outpatient department. She hadn't wanted to let go of her and had only agreed to let the doctor examine her after Astrid had promised to stay with her. Heather and Fishlegs had wanted to go then as Astrid very well knew, there were caretakers in the hospital after all, but she hadn't been able to leave Lissy just like that. Somehow she felt responsible for this girl that clung so desperately to her hand.
After many further examinations, they had declared Lissy to be fit enough to go home, though she ought to relax for a few days. At this, the girl had become very quiet and it had taken Astrid some time and questioning before she got any information out of the girl. She was not from here and had no home to go to. She and her mother had come here on a short vacation a few days ago, has slept in a small bed and breakfast place until today and had been on their way back home, when-
Lissy had interrupted herself then and no one had required any more thereafter. Astrid had asked after her father then. Maybe he could come and get her but Lissy had just shaken her head. "I don't have a daddy." She'd said soberly and Astrid grimaced, annoyed at herself. If her father had been an option, Lissy would probably have asked for him herself.
And now Astrid sat there at Lissy's bed, watched her sleeping form, waited for her to wake up and promised to herself that she wouldn't leave Lissy's side until her mother had been found.
A/N: So, how about that...
This was difficult to write... please let me know your thoughts! .