Chapter VIII: Recovery
Edward, Jack, and Rapunzel all met up with Merida, Hiccup, and Pitch at the hospital. Merida and Jack filled Rapunzel in about Jack being a titan shifter, about Hans, and what happened with Hiccup.
"So the titan with the white hair and blue eyes I saw was really you?" Rapunzel paused for a second trying to take everything in. It worried her a little, and she had no clue what to think about all of it, but she knew no matter how confused she was, Jack was more so. "I guess that explains that unexpected bright light that flashed before that titan- uh, Jack- appeared."
"I guess so." Jack replied. His voice was a little uncertain.
"I don't like the thought of people bein' titans," Merida added in. "Pitch said not all titans are human, though."
"That doesn't really make it any better," Edward forced himself into the conversation. "How are we supposed to know if a titan has a human inside before we attack them? They're all the same."
"Can we not talk about this?" said Jack. He wouldn't make eye contact with anyone. "It makes me sick. I refuse to think I'm one of those things. One of those monsters who have killed so many people, who are the reason we have to live our lives terrified and trapped inside a wall with limited resources. It's not right."
"Jack.." Rapunzel mumbled, no one heard her.
"Yer' right, yer' not one of 'em." Merida encouraged. "Ye' saved Hiccup. There is no way he'd be alive if it weren't for you."
"That doesn't mean anything if I don't remember doing it."
"It does!" Rapunzel spoke up. "You also let me go free when you first turned. If you really had the mind of a titan I..probably wouldn't be here right now."
"Ye' also took out other titans. I've never seen a titan attack another titan before. It was as if ye' attacked them with the mind of a human, ye' attacked them as a human."
"But it still felt like I had no control over what was happening.." Jack sighed "When I saw the titan that killed my sister I was so angry. All that was on my mind was how much I wanted to kill it for everything it took away from me. And then my titan body seemed to act on its own after that. It's not safe for me to use it. If I ever get that angry again who knows who I'll hurt."
"Pitch seems to know a lot about this. I don't trust him." Merida replied.
"You called?" Pitch walked out of a room and into the hallway where everyone was.
"How's Hiccup?" Rapunzel asked.
"He will be fine, he just needs to rest a while longer. You're lucky I was around to get him in a room. A lot of people are currently wounded and sick, you know. Luckily, a lot of people owe me a few things for all I've done for them."
Merida glared. "Well, can we see him?"
"I guess. I doubt he'll be awake anytime soon."
Even though Hiccup was still asleep and unable to respond to anyone, everyone walked into his room anyway.
"It looks really bad..." Rapunzel said quietly.
"He's strong, he'll be fine." said Merida, trying to convince herself.
"Well mates, I need to get back to work. Keep me updated on Hiccup's condition. Also, Jack, I think it would be best if you keep this whole titan shifting thing between us." said Edward before heading out the door.
Jack groaned. He still hated the thought of being a titan. Rapunzel noticed how stressed Jack was over everything. "What do you know?" she questioned Pitch.
"Oh?" he replied.
"Merida mentioned you know more than you're telling us." Rapunzel added.
"I do, but why should I tell you anything?"
"For Jack!" she shouted, only loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
"Fair enough." Pitch sat down in a chair next to Hiccup's bed. "I've seen it happen before. Twice, actually. One was a bit more recent, but the first time I saw it was from an old 'friend' of mine." he scoffed "Haven't seen the idiot since; he probably never figured out how to shift back to a human." He laughed.
"What does this mean for Jack?" asked Rapunzel
"Well, Jack's still human. I have yet to figure out a way to know if someone is a titan shifter or not, but there is a way to tell the difference between a titan being controlled by a human and just an average titan." he turned to Merida. "You've seen it. Titans being controlled by humans tend to hold a lot more intelligence. Most titans are idiots who mindlessly eat people and always follow in groups. Titan shifters, though, usually go against the groups. And they probably won't attack humans unless they lose control of their titan form."
"So what? Jack is just goin' to keep randomly turning into a titan?" Merida questioned.
"No," Pitch replied "He'll only become a titan if his human form has weakened to the point the titan form can take over. Long as Jack takes care of himself and isn't reckless, he may be able to avoid turning titan. But I wouldn't recommend that."
"Why not?"
"If Jack keeps trying to deny his titan form, when he does happen to shift into it one day, he'll have little control over it. You need to accept it, if not, you may actually hurt one of your friends next time."
Jack clenched his fists, his hands were shaking from rage, but his face showed less emotion.
"If you're able to control it, who knows how useful your titan form can be for you and your friends. That's all I know, though. By the way, keep in mind what Edward said. Don't tell anyone about this. The city will probably go against you and kick you outside the walls." Pitch stood up and started walking towards the door. "Or, they'll just kill you on spot." he shrugged.
"You know more, don't you?" Jack asked.
"Probably too much." Pitch walked out the door.
"We can't trust him." stated Merida.
"Then..what about Hans? Do you think he never learned to control his titan self? Maybe he..." Rapunzel was cut off.
"He was a monster, there's nothing else to it. No human would kill people like that. I don't want him being brought up anymore.. If he wasn't dead I'd kill him." Jack exclaimed.
"Well now you just sound like an idiot." Hiccup commented.
"Hic!" Merida ran up beside him. Rapunzel followed behind. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"It's hard to get any rest around here will all this talking going on." Hiccup tried to sit up but the pain stopped him from moving. "Ugh... My left foot feels so numb I can hardly tell if it's there. I must've taken a bad beating."
Everyone was silent.
"Hic...Ye' lost yer' leg by a titan." Merida replied quietly
"Oh.." Hiccup looked down at his leg. "Well..." he wanted to be brave about it around his friends, but he suddenly lost motivation to speak.
"I'm so sorry Hiccup..." said Rapunzel, weakly.
"We'll figure something out. Whatever it takes." Jack declared
"It's fine, guys. Really." Hiccup sighed. "I'll figure something out for this later. I have other things on my mind and I need to talk to an instructor immediately."
"That's right. Before ye' went off on yer' own ye' said there was something important ye' wanted to figure out."
"Yeah, and I think people need to hear about it-" A lot of pain flowed through Hiccup's body.
"You need to rest first... You won't be able to hold up a good conversation like that." Rapunzel suggested
Hiccup wanted to talk more but he knew she was right. He sighed.
"We should go back and get some rest, too. It has been a long day for all of us." Jack commented. Rapunzel agreed.
"I'll stay here and watch over Hic." said Merida
"Are you sure?"
Merida nodded. "M'hm. Pitch could come back and I don't trust him with Hiccup."
"Okay." Rapunzel and Jack left the room and went back to the cabin. It was already dark. They were at the hospital a lot longer than they thought. Leaving the hospital was the worst. There were a lot of sick people getting kicked out of their rooms so the wounded could be taken care of first. Jack tried to ignore it, he didn't want anymore rage built up. Rapunzel wouldn't look the sick in the eyes. It made her upset. She wished she could do more for them. today wasn't supposed to happen.
For half of the walk home there was an awkward silence between Jack and Rapunzel. Rapunzel had a lot on her mind but didn't know how to put any of it into words. Jack finally spoke up. "I'm sorry, Rapunzel."
"For what?" she asked, her voice was dry.
"For everything, I guess." Jack sighed "Everything that happened today is probably causing you a lot of stress, and I don't want it to." his voice was scratchy. "I'm a monster. I could have hurt you."
Rapunzel stopped, causing Jack to stop a few seconds after. "Shut up." her tone was strong. Jack was confused. "You're Jack. You're the guy who keeps everyone going. The guy I've known most my life." she looked down. "I thought I lost you." her voice went soft. "I did lose you. But for some reason, somehow, you got a second chance," her voice was shaky but she pushed herself to keep talking "Not everyone can say they got someone back after something like that. When all odds were against me ever seeing you again, you came back." she finally looked him in the eyes again "I love you... you're my dear friend. We all love you. You're strong, you can be really full of yourself sometimes, you're not perfect but you love your friends with everything you have. You're a lot of things, but you're not a monster."
Jack was shocked at Rapunzel's sudden rush of words, but they made him happy. He couldn't help but smile.
"You will never be a monster. I like you, human or not. You're my perfect imperfection, Jack. Me, Hiccup, even Merida. None of us would be who we are without you. You're important to us. We will never look at you differently. Never think otherwise. Got it?"
Jack chuckled quietly to himself. "I got it" he replied, "Thank you, Punzie.
Rapunzel gave him one last smile before they went back to their walk home.
Merida stayed up for a few hours but eventually fell asleep next to Hiccup. It was late and the hospital was much more quiet than before.
Hiccup suddenly started screaming. Merida woke up instantly and looked over at Hiccup. He was screaming but was still asleep. Merida tried waking him up after she called for a doctor.
"Hic? Hiccup?! Wake up!" she yelled, but she could hardly hear herself over his screaming. A doctor finally came running in a minute later.
Without asking Merida any questions he ran straight to Hiccup and tried to calm him down. Merida watched, but didn't understand what he was doing. She was worried. "What's wrong with him?"
The doctor didn't reply simply because he didn't hear her over Hiccup.
After a while of poking around, the doctor finally spoke to Merida; loud enough for her to hear. "Has he ever had night terrors before?"
"Wha- I don't... No, he hasn't." Merida mumbled. Has he? She wasn't fully sure. It just now hit her that she hasn't been around Hiccup and the others for very long. Was she really the best person to be here when he is under such a bad condition? Thinking about all of this made her upset, but she tried to stay calm for Hiccup.
"What was that? I'm sorry, you have to speak up, I can't hear you ove-" the doctor was cut off. Hiccup sat up really fast and stopped screaming while he did. He was panting as if he just saw a monster, but finally woke up.
"What- why are you both staring at me like that?" Hiccup questioned.
Merida sighed in relief. "Hic, you're okay!"
"Yeah? Why wouldn't I be?" he looked down at his missing like "oh, right..."
"N-no, not that. Ye' were screaming just a second ago."
"Screaming? I don't remember doing that." he commented.
"It seems as if you were having a night terror. I can't be sure enough to diagnose you, but you seem to be doing fine now." the doctor replied. The doctor checked a few things on Hiccup before heading to the door. "If you need anything just shout for me. I'll be in the other room."
"Night terrors, huh?..." Hiccup sighed.
Merida looked away from Hiccup. "Have ye' had them before?" she sounded upset, but Hiccup couldn't figure out why.
"Jack and Punz mentioned me screaming in my sleep a few times before. But that was years ago. I don't know why it would be coming up again. Agh, I don't want to think about it right now. I'm going to sleep this headache off. I'll see you in the morning."
"Yeah..." Merida sat back in the chair next to Hiccup's bed and looked out the window, waiting for Hiccup to fall asleep before she would let herself do the same.
Rapunzel darted up from her bed, taking deep breaths for air, a few tears were rolling down her cheeks. The first thing she did was look around for Jack. Once she saw him asleep in his bed she was able to calm down.
"A nightmare..." she mumbled to herself. She tried to lay back down and attempt to sleep once more, but horrifying images kept her from doing so.
Rapunzel got up and got out of bed, walking over to Jack. She looked away before poking at his shoulder gently to try to wake him, but it failed. She then poked his cheek.
Jack unconsciously moved his hand up and pushed Rapunzel's finger away from his face before waking up completely. "Punzie? What's wrong?" his voice was a bit cracky and soft from just waking up. His eyes were only half-open.
"I... couldn't sleep." Rapunzel mumbled.
Jack sat up and looked over at Rapunzel. "Is something wrong? Are you okay?"
Yeah I just- well," she sighed "I had a nightmare."
"Of what? Of the titans? Don't worry Rapunzel, you're okay. You're safe. There's nothing to be afraid of-" Rapunzel cut him off.
"Not me; you." her voice went shaky "It was of you.. of you dying. You were d-dead. I couldn't help you and...your heart stopped. You had no heartbeat and I..." before she realized, tears were streaming down her cheeks.
Jack looked at her, worried. He wanted to tell her things were okay, but he knew that wouldn't be enough. He sat up a bit more and moved over in his bed. "Come here." he gave a pat beside him, motioning to Rapunzel to lay next to him.
Rapunzel's cheeks were red, but Jack couldn't tell because it was so dark. "What? But-"
Jack laughed. "C'mere, Punzie. Lay down. I want you to listen to something."
Rapunzel didn't want to make a scene so she listened and laid down next to him in his bed.
Jack smiled and used his hand to gently move her head onto his chest. "Do you hear that?" his voice was strong, but calming.
Rapunzel listened for a minute. She could hear it; Jack's heartbeat. It was steady. She closed her eyes so the only thing she would think about was the sound his heartbeat was making. It calmed her down and she was able to relax. Her tears stopped. The sound was really soothing to her.
"I'm okay, Rapunzel. I'm here. Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere." his voice went soft once he noticed Rapunzel slowly falling asleep. Knowing she was feeling better made him happy. "Sleep well, Punzie." he said. Eventually they were both able to get to sleep. No more nightmares would wake anyone up the rest of the night.
In the morning everyone got ready to go visit Hiccup in the hospital.
"Hey, Merida?" Hiccup spoke. "I have a favor to ask you."
"What is it?" Merida replied
Hiccup pulled out a few sheets of paper filled with words and sketches. "I want you to get everything that's on this list. It's really important. Obviously I can't just get up and do it myself. So, if you could."
"Did you do all this? When did ye'-"
"I woke up again during the night. Everything's fine- I just couldn't sleep." Hiccup cleared his throat "Anyway. Would it be okay?"
Merida looked at the sheets of paper a while longer. "Wait, is this for?"
"Yeah. That's why it's really important."
Merida sighed. I can only do the littlest things for you guys, she thought to herself. "Okay, I'll leave soon to get everything."
"Thank you Merid-" Hiccup was interrupted by Jack and Rapunzel walking in the room.
"Mornin'" said Jack "How did you sleep?" Rapunzel added.
"Oh, well..." Hiccup looked away a bit. "I guess I started screaming in my sleep again, like I used."
"Your night terrors are back?" Rapunzel asked, worried.
"Yeah, but I'm sure they'll go away soon. It's nothing to worry about, honest."
Rapunzel was still worried but didn't want to speak up.
"Captain Elsa wanted to come visit and check in on how you're doing. Has she stopped by yet?" asked Jack
"Elsa? No, not yet. You guys are the only visitors today so far." Hiccup replied.
Back at the front desk of the hospital, a man was trying to talk himself into getting a visit with Hiccup.
"Well, no, I don't know him personally, but ya'know, I just feel the need to check up on him. It's more of a personal thing, really. I promise I won't do anything wrong, I just-"
"I'm sorry, but if you're not close to Hiccup we can't allow you to visit him. You're going to have to leave." said the woman at the front desk.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, but-" the man was cut-off
"He's with me." said Elsa, walking up to the front desk.
"Ah, Captain Elsa. Are you sure?" the woman questioned.
Elsa looked at the red-headed man standing beside the desk. "Yeah, I'm sure."
"Well, okay. Hiccup's room is down the hall. Last room on the left."
Elsa started walking towards Hiccup's room, and the man followed behind her.
"Ah, thanks for that." he said
"Who are you? What's your name?" Elsa questioned.
"Who am I? My name's Axel. You should probably remember that, or something." Axel said confidently.
"Well, Axel. I assume you're not a bad guy. But if you try to hurt my student, I won't go easy."
Axel laughed awkwardly. "Ah, well, I wouldn't want you to go through any trouble. I just want to apologize, is all."
while they were walking down the hallway Axel noticed a vase of flowers. Without Elsa noticing, he quickly grabbed the flowers out of the vase and caught back up to Elsa right as she reached Hiccup's room.
Elsa knocked on the door before walking in. "How are you holding up?"
"Oh, I'm doing fine. A lot better." said Hiccup "I think I could even-" Merida cut him off.
"You?!" she shouted at the red-haired male once he walked in the room. "What are ye' doin' here?!"
"I just came to apologize! I even brought flowers!" Axel shouted back
Merida grabbed the flowers out of his hand then threw them back at him "Those just look like cheap flowers you can get out in the hallway!"
"Well at least it's something!"
"He doesn't accept them!" Merida bickered
"I'm not asking you!"
"Guys, clam down! Sheesh. I think the last thing Hiccup needs is listening to people argue over..what exactly?" Jack commented
"He was there after Hiccup's leg was eaten. He just stood there and watched while Hic needed help, and then he just ran away!" Merida shouted. Her anger took over.
"I'm sorry, okay! I came to apologize, remember?!" Axel continued to shout back.
"Guys, Jack's right, this isn't really helping at all." said Hiccup.
"Oh great, now you've upset him. Good going." said Merida.
"It's not my fault. You started it." said Axel.
Merida rolled her eyes then grabbed the papers Hiccup gave her earlier and started heading toward the door.
"Where are you going?" Elsa asked.
"I have to get a few things. And I don't want t'be near him." Merida looked to Axel.
"You can't hate me forever."
"Yes I can." Merida managed to add before shutting the door behind her.
Hiccup sighed.
"Look, I really am sorry. I didn't just leave you for dead, though. I promise. I-"
"It's fine. I wasn't even awake during it." said Hiccup.
"I'm sure Merida will calm down after a while. You may want to stay away from her for a while, though." Rapunzel added.
"Yeah, good idea. Anyway, I don't want to waste your time. I just wanted to apologize, I'll be out of your hair now."
"I just came to see how Hiccup was doing. Everything seems fine so I'm going to lead Axel out. Make sure he doesn't bump into Merida and all." said Elsa
"Good idea." Jack chuckled.
Elsa and Axel left the room. Everything was quiet for a while after.
"Hey, what were those papers Merida had?" Jack asked.
"Oh, well, blueprints, I guess. I'm going to need to be in my best condition if I'm going to talk to the higher-ups tomorrow." said Hiccup.
"What do you mean? What are you going to talk to them about?" asked Rapunzel.
"A lot. There's a lot going on. And all this talk about my night terrors only reminded me of things I've noticed a few years ago." Hiccup's voice went serious.
"There's something going on here. And I don't think people are going to like what I have to say."
Chapter End:
Sorry about the chapter being so late. I've been babysitting non-stop lately. I'm really sorry. gdfhjgfd
Also I would like to thank FloralrmaTylee for reviewing every chapter, it really means a lot!