Heather Together Chapter 6

When Heather first arrived on Berk, Hiccup gave up his room for her and slept downstairs. He figured she'd be gone in a day or two, so he made no alternate arrangements for her. Then came the flight north and the battle with the Red Death. When he finally returned, he was comatose and missing nearly half of his left leg, so he was laid in the bed he'd been using downstairs.

Stoick was being run ragged with the demands of rebuilding his town's ships, accommodating a flock of dragons who had moved in, and supervising the village's reaction to those dragons, not to mention spending as much time by his son's side as he could. Finding a sleeping place for a visitor was so far down on his list of things to do, he never did it. She certainly didn't get in his way or cause him any trouble. So Heather remained in Hiccup's room, upstairs in the chief's house.

That made it very convenient for her to spend nearly every waking moment by Hiccup's bedside.

She was seldom alone. Aside from Stoick, Gobber visited several times a day, to change Hiccup's bandages and check on the healing of the wound. Gothi also visited Hiccup several times a week. She never made any encouraging faces, but she never wrote anything that Gobber could understand as bad, either. Most of the teens stopped by at least once a week to see if there was any change in Hiccup's condition. Other people in the town dropped by when they could.

Toothless, of course, never left his side at all. In that sense, she and Hiccup were never alone.

She was unable to watch Hiccup and still keep any kind of contact with the blue dragon she'd ridden. When Astrid made one of her rare visits, she asked Heather if she could work with the Nadder. "Sure," Heather answered. The other teens soon informed her that Astrid had formed a close relationship with the dragon and rode her often. "Good," she said. "That's good for both of them."

As the days dragged into weeks and Hiccup still didn't awaken, the casual visitors dropped off. Gobber didn't have to come so often, now that the wound was almost healed. One morning, he came to change the bandages and found them already changed. "I've been watching how you do it," Heather explained.

"Not a bad job for a first time," he nodded in approval. That was the last time he had to change them. She took care of it until the amputated leg had healed enough that it no longer needed bandages.

They had two close calls with infection. His fever rose, and nothing they did could cool him off. But somehow, his thin, battered body fought it off and his temperature returned to normal. Yet he remained unconscious through it all. It was as though he was holding on to life, yet refusing to embrace it.

Aside from sleep and meals, the only times she left his side for any length of time were the nights when she had to meet Savage and report to him. When her first week was up, he demanded to see the boy who trained dragons.

"He was badly injured in battle," she answered. "He's in a coma in his father's house."

He assumed she was bluffing. "Show him to me," he demanded.

"All right," she agreed, "but I suggest you walk quietly." She led him through the dark, quiet streets of Berk at midnight and brought him to Stoick's house. "He's in here, in the bed against the back wall, on the left," she whispered as she opened the door.

Savage stepped up to the door – and stopped dead as the doorway was suddenly filled with a huge scaly black head. Toothless sniffed him once and let out a quiet but deadly-sounding snarl. Savage's eyes went wide, and he turned and ran back to his ship so fast, one would have thought his pants were on fire. His pants actually had a different problem, but that stain couldn't be seen in the dark.

Heather patted Toothless on the nose. "I guess I forgot to warn him about the Night Fury," she whispered with a shrug and a grin. "Silly me."

Every week, Savage demanded the boy, and every week, she told him Hiccup was still unconscious. She gave him updates on the rebuilding of Berk's ships, and anything else she could think of. She wasn't trying to make it easy for Alvin to triumph any more. She was playing for time; she didn't want Alvin to do anything to her parents until Hiccup was awake and could help her think of something.

Starting around the fourth week, he began stirring for a few moments at a time. He might roll onto his side, or say a few random words, or snap his eyes wide open, and Toothless would yowl and her heart would leap because he was waking up... and then he would lapse back into unconsciousness again.

Halfway through the fifth week, she had run upstairs to change her clothes when she heard him murmuring. Toothless sounded excited as usual, and suddenly, she heard Hiccup cry out. His next words were quite coherent – "I'm in my house! You're in my house. Does my dad know you're here?" Now it sounded like the dragon was knocking over everything he could bump into. Stoick was remarkably tolerant of having a dragon in his home, but he had his limits. She ran down the stairs, calling, "Toothless, stop your –"

...and Hiccup was sitting up in bed.

For a moment, she was stunned into speechlessness. Then she screamed his name and launched herself at him. She forced herself to not knock him flat – he was sure to be even weaker than usual from his long ordeal. He allowed her to fling her arms around him, but he seemed confused.

"Heather, it's nice to see you, too, but... what's all the excitement about?"

She couldn't talk. She couldn't think straight. She was hyperventilating. All she could do was cling to him. At last she regained some of her composure and partially let go of him.

"We were so afraid for you! We didn't think you were coming back!"

"Coming back?" he wondered. "From where? What's going on? Excuse me a second, I've got an itch like you wouldn't believe." He pulled the covers back –

...and stared. Just stared.

Toothless joined them by the side of the bed, crooning anxiously. She felt like she shouldn't say anything; she let him decide how this scene would play out. She sat on his right, Toothless stood by his left, and together, they let him begin to come to terms with his loss.

He looked at his leg, then at Toothless, then back to the leg, then at her. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself. Finally, he asked, "What happened?"

"No one really knows," she said through a throat that was tightening. "You brought down the Red Death, then something bad happened. We found you wrapped up in Toothless' wings. He'd crash-landed and kept you safe, except for..." She gestured at his leg.

He thought about that. "When?"

She looked in his eyes; this would be hard for him. "Almost five weeks ago," she whispered.

He stared back at her. "Five... weeks," he echoed. "No wonder I feel so out of it." He slowly swung his legs out of bed, took another deep breath, and stood up.

She ran around to the other side of the bed to help steady him, but he'd already taken his first step with his artificial leg, and nearly fallen. He tried another step as she reached for his elbow, and he fell right past her. Toothless caught him and helped him stand again, and this time she got a good hold of his right arm.

"Heather, thanks, but I need to learn to do this." Reluctantly, she let him go. He took baby steps, with one friend on either side of him, until he felt a bit more confident. He reached the door and pulled it open. Heather couldn't see what he saw, but he slammed the door shut again in a panic. "Toothless, Heather, stay here." He eased the door open again.

She stood next to Toothless as Hiccup stepped out and got his first look at the new Berk. She hadn't seen much of it herself – she'd spent so much of her time at his bedside – but she'd been aware that some major changes were taking place. Now, she stared in almost as much amazement as Hiccup at the multitudes of dragons that walked the streets, roosted on the roofs, and rested in a building that looked like it was built with them in mind.

"If it wasn't for you two, I'd assume I'm dead," he said at last.

"No, but you gave it your best shot," an almost-tearful Stoick answered. They had an emotional reunion as the rest of the town gathered around to welcome Hiccup home. Gobber presented him with a new saddle and riding gear, which was Toothless' cue to knock over everyone between him and Hiccup and demand to go flying.

Within minutes, he'd saddled his dragon and leaped into the air, where he was quickly joined by the other dragon-riding teens, including Astrid. They raced all over the town and soared high into the clouds, exulting in the freedom of flying.

Heather stood in the doorway, forgotten, and watched them go.