A/N – I'm going to update weekly! Yeah, well, there went the ball and I'm still laying on the ground. I started reading the Throne of Glass series and I literally have done little else in my life for the past week.

Anyway… enjoy! You all have been super-awesome readers.

Bonus: I have now become the self-published author of THREE books. Yes, my third novel, a stand along steampunk/pirate/fantasy, is out! Yay! It's titled Caroline Eversole and the Gilded Gauntlet.

Chapter 18

Hiccup heaved his breath; he couldn't take his eyes off the water. It had gone entirely, utterly, unbelievable still – not a drop moved. It looked solid as stone, like glass, and black as ink. The air in the basement stilled, as if in preparation; not even the dust in the air or the dirt on the floor seemed real, everything looked still as a painting.

James wasn't moving. He stared, mesmerized, unblinking into the womb.

Suddenly, the water moved.

A waved rolled over its surface as if something underneath had moved. It moved again, and again – roiling, boiling, thrashing – and then a pale hand burst through the water's surface. It clawed at the air and landed with a smack on the dirt ground beside it. another hand joined it, and the thing began to pull itself out of the water.

"Go to her," James said, without taking his eyes off the water.

Hiccup didn't question it. He ran to the womb and collapsed beside it. He grabbed onto the wet, slippery hands; the water had turned into a film. He pulled the hands; arms followed, and a torso came from the water with two legs attached. Wet blonde hair stuck to its head and hid the face.

He pulled the pale naked body from the water. It went limp in his arms. The loose dirt of the cellar floor stuck to the pale, filmy skin. He pushed the gooey hair from the face; it looked like Astrid.

"Astrid?" Hiccup called.

She responded in a low grunt that faded into a moan. Her head lolled about in his arms. She was breathing; her chest rose and fell in a gently rhythm. Her bare chest, as Hiccup's brain reminded him. He forced himself to look away from her breasts and to her face.

"Astrid?" Hiccup asked again. "Is it you?"

Her eyes opened ever so slightly; blue peeked back at him. They closed. She seemed to be asleep. She started to shiver.

"The upstairs closet in the hallway, beside the master bedroom, is a linen closet. Go get a blanket," Hiccup said to James, who then hurried up the stairs. He returned in no time with a blue and green blanket. Hiccup quickly wrapped her in it. The film on her skin began to soak through as he stood up; it was already on his clothes, seeping through with a surprising cold touch to his chest.

They took her upstairs and Hiccup laid her down in his bed – the sheets were already dirty, no filmy paranormal goo would matter; was this the infamous ectoplasm?

The young woman who resembled Astrid moaned in her sleep. Hiccup retrieved another blanket from the closet and laid it over her, and put another underneath her head.

"Is it her?" Hiccup asked James.

"I don't know," James said. "But, her ghost wasn't there."

"I know, what does that mean?"

"My guess is that her ghost no longer exists because she's right here in front of us," James said. "Or, less likely, she realized that she didn't want any of this and move on without us knowing and another ghost had taken her place."

Hiccup suddenly felt horrified at the idea.

"Don't worry, Hiccup," James said. He set a hand on Hiccup's shoulder in a fatherly manner. "I'm sure she's right here. We did everything exact."

As he spoke, footsteps, heavy booted footsteps, sounded in the hall outside the door. They both waited, but not one entered the room. James, however, walked to the door. He peered down the hall.

"No one," he said.

"Great," Hiccup said, chuckling. "My house is haunted."

X

It took a while for Astrid to fully wake. She tossed and turned in her sleep; Hiccup tried to sleep beside her, but every time she moved, he would wake and sit up, hoping she had woken up. He'd put a small light in the bathroom just in case she woke up – he didn't want her to wake up in the dark.

Sometime in the morning, Hiccup was woken by a hand on his shoulder.

"Hiccup? Hiccup, wake up."

"Five more," Hiccup grumbled.

"Hiccup," she said, firmly. "Come on, get up."

This time, the voice registered. He opened his eyes at once. Astrid, her hair a dried, gooey mess, stuck up at strange angles. She clutched the blankets to herself. Her skin was a bit blotchy along her shoulders and her cheeks were flushed.

"Astrid?" Hiccup said. Sleep left him fast. "Astrid?"

She smiled. "It's me, isn't it? You did it?"

"Is it you?" he asked, too happy to hear a negative answer. He grabbed her shoulders just to feel her under his hands.

"I think so," Astrid said. "I feel the same, I mean, my mind feels the same. I feel a bit heavier."

He smiled. "We should check, just to make sure…let me see…what did we do on your mother's birthday?"

"We danced," she said at once. "I taught you because you didn't know how."

"Astrid," he said, bringing his hands to her face. He almost couldn't believe it. Astrid!

Despite the dried goo on her skin, despite the dirty sheets, despite how grimy he felt himself, he wrapped her in a tight hug. They started laughing and couldn't stop.

A knock landed on the bedroom door.

"Come in," Hiccup said.

James opened the door. He leaned against the doorframe. "Looks like it works?"

"It did," Hiccup said.

Astrid hugged the blankets a little tighter around herself, and heaved the blankets higher on her chest.

James smiled, a 1950s hero sort of smile, and said, "You kids get cleaned up. I'll make breakfast."

He didn't give them an option to decline. He shut the door and headed downstairs. Hiccup and Astrid, too giddy to argue, rolled out of bed and walked to the bathroom. At the door, Astrid dropped the blanket he'd wrapped her in.

Hiccup felt his face go red.

"Don't try to tell me you didn't look," Astrid said.

"I-I didn't," Hiccup said, half-lying.

Astrid set her hands on her hips. Hiccup, quite unconsciously, flickered his gaze to her breasts, then back to the floor. Heat rose to his cheeks.

"You're stuck with me now, Hiccup," Astrid said. "Forever. We're practically married."

"Is that so?" Hiccup asked, trying to be as coy as her. Of course, she wasn't a single man staring into the face of a naked woman. "I don't remember making such a commitment."

"You made the commitment when you decided to bring me back," Astrid said. "So, like I said, you're stuck with me."

"Forever," he said.

She nodded, grinning madly.

Hiccup walked over to her, not hiding his eyes as he took in as much of her as he could. He set his hands on the smooth skin of her waist. She met his halfway; they kissed. While they kissed, Astrid undid the buttons of his shirt.

"I haven't told you something," Astrid said shyly as Hiccup added his shirt and pants to the dirty pile accumulating on the floor.

"Oh? You've got a tattoo?"

Astrid, grinning like a schoolgirl at his boxers, shook her head.

"I…" Astrid bit her lip.

Hiccup added his boxers to the pile. Admittedly, he felt exposed. He'd only been naked in front of one other girl before, and it had been dark in that room, and both of then had been drinking.

Astrid walked backward into the bathroom, and Hiccup followed. He shut the door. Astrid stepped into the spacious bath and he stepped in after.

"Yes?" Hiccup asked. He set his hand on the water faucet.

"I," Astrid started firmly. "I…love you."

Such sweet word, such a sweet mouth, from a sweet girl; what more could he have possibly asked for in that moment? Hiccup kissed her tenderly, and she kissed him.

"I love you, too," he said.

"You'd better," she whispered.

"And I've got you forever," he said.

"Forever."

He started the water and ran it warm; they washed themselves, and each other, clean of the grim they'd gotten from the past three days. Once cleaned and dried, Hiccup gave Astrid a pair of his pajama pants and a t-shirt to wear.

"We'll have to go shopping," Hiccup said. "You can't wear my clothes all the time."

"Why not?" Astrid said. She'd pushed her hands into the deep pockets of the skating-polar-bear pants up to the elbow. "Think of all I could put in these pockets!"

Hiccup laughed. "Yes, but those are pajamas. They're for sleeping."

"You wear them around the house all the time. I've seen you."

"Yes…they're also for lounging."

She tugged on a pair of his socks, too. She combed out her hair and left it loose about her shoulders.

"Are you sure it's not inappropriate?" she asked. "I could put it up."

"It's fine," Hiccup said. "Women are a lot less…uh, well, let's just say the standard of what's appropriate and what's not has changed. Women wear their hair down all the time."

She took his word and together they walked out of the bedroom. The smell of breakfast filled the house.

Wicked wench…

Astrid froze before she made it to the staircase. She glanced back at him. He'd stopped in his tracks, too. He'd heard it.

"Hiccup?" she asked, her voice small. "What was that?"

"It wasn't me," he said.

"I know," she said. "That wasn't your voice."

They listened, but heard no more of the voice. Could that voice belong to the boot-wearer who'd walked down the hallway the night before?

They made it down the stairs and into the kitchen were James had fried bacon, eggs, and toast for three.

"What's this?" Hiccup asked, pointing to a dish of white and brown…things.

"Hash browns," James said. "I found a bag of them in your freezer."

"Oh," Hiccup said. Had he bought those? Of course, Fishlegs had gone shopping a few times.

Astrid looked at the spread with a longing in her eyes.

"You want some coffee?" Hiccup asked her.

She looked at his cup, curious. He handed it to her. She took a sip; her face scrunched.

"That's bitter," she said.

"Try it with cream and sugar," James said. "It makes it smoother."

With a few trial and errors, Astrid worked out a cup of coffee to her liking.

They sat down at the table together.

Astrid held her arm out to the sunlight streaming in through the window, awe some on her face. She said, "I can feel it."

Disgrace…

Hiccup snapped his head around, but no one stood anywhere else in the kitchen. James seemed to noticed something, too, for he was looking about the kitchen. Then he looked at Hiccup. Astrid, however, seemed preoccupied with feeling the sunshine.

"We'll got for a walk outside later," Hiccup told her.

"That sounds lovely," she said. "But first, we should eat."

"Yes," James said, pointing his fork at her.

They began to eat, but Hiccup had more fun watching Astrid try the food; she took bites of everything and savored it like her last meal.

"I missed food so much," she said. "This is delicious! Luckily I couldn't smell food either, so, it wasn't so bad, but I didn't realize how badly I missed this!"

They ate in relative silent, save for Astrid's occasional moan of pleasure. Hiccup kept his attention alert, however, because something told him that all was not well. He had heard something, twice that morning, that he didn't like. He hadn't heard it before. Had it had something to do with the ritual?

They had finished eating and were working on the coffee, talking about things that had changed in 1880 that Astrid should know about, when Hiccup heard it again. It came as a faint whisper, but there was no denying:

I'm sorry…

Hiccup glanced sideways again, but saw nothing. He strained his neck to look the other way, toward the smaller hall on the opposite end of the kitchen that connected the kitchen to the living room.

He saw it: a faint shimmer, a distortion. He locked his eyes on it. It stayed there. It was taller, not very wide, and appeared darker.

After all I've done…

The shimmer vanished.

Hiccup watched the spot for a while. A hand touched his knee and bought his attention back.

"Hiccup?"

"Yeah?"

"I can vote?"

"Oh, yeah," he said.

"We're all equal now," James said. "Men, women, black, white – it doesn't matter. A person's a person."

"That's wonderful," Astrid said, thought through a veil of disbelief.

"Don't worry," Hiccup said. "We'll watch documentaries to catch you up on history."

She looked blankly at him. "A documentary?"

Hiccup smiled. The technology would take time for her to get used to. "It's like a book, but they've made it into a series of moving pictures. There's a narrator talking. It's easier to show you."

"Oh, like those boxes where the pictures moves?" she said brightly. "The people that lived here before you had one. I liked to watch it, too."

"What sort of shows did you get to watch?"

"They watched this one in black and white, the misses liked it, and a woman was already getting into trouble," Astrid said. "Lucy something."

"I love Lucy."

"That's it! There was this other with army men…and one set in a bar."

"Sounds like TV Land," Hiccup said.

"Is that what it's called?"

"It's a station on the television," he said. Astrid stared back at him, confused. He laughed, "Don't worry. We'll get one and you can see what it's all about."

She seemed exited at the idea.

That day they spent lounging about the house. They sat out on the balcony in the sunshine. Hiccup was making a list of things Astrid would need: toiletries, clothes…would he be able to explain tampons to her? Or how a bra worked? He wasn't even sure how they worked.

God…maybe he should call Heather and tell her what happened.

"Hiccup," James said. He came out onto the balcony. He held a notebook in his hands.

"Yeah?"

"So, as you may have thought, Astrid's going to need a few things," he said.

"Yeah…" Hiccup glanced down at his list.

"I mean, legal things," James said, scanning Hiccup's list. "I've got a contact that can help, but it will take a few days and a few…risky transactions."

"What do you mean?" Astrid asked.

"I mean, you're going to need an identity," James said. "The government keeps track of people with something called a social security number, which you don't have because you were born before it's time. If they were to investigate and someone finds our that you're not in the system, you'll be seen as an illegal."

"But where would they send her?"

James shrugged. "That's the thing we need to fix. I think we should use Norway as our point of origin. Your father original came from there."

"I don't want to go there," Astrid said.

"You won't," James said. "I can make a few calls and get things organized, but in the meantime, you shouldn't leave the house. Don't go anywhere where they're going to need an ID."

"But…" Hiccup started. "They're going to put her into the system?"

"Basically," James said. "My friend will make her a birth certificate from Norway and then forge a passport to make it look as through she traveled here when she was eighteen; she'll have her way in. But, here's the thing, to hid her better, she'll need to change her name. It would be fantastic if she had married when she arrived."

"Then forge a marriage license," Hiccup said. "Can he do that?"

"He can," James said. "I was looking for permission to marry the two of you before I did it."

"We're married?" Astrid asked. "Just like that?"

"On paper," James said. "I'm sure you two can throw a lovely little party in the back and get married the religious or emotional way, or whichever way you'd like."

"Sounds good," Hiccup said. "What do you say, Mrs. Haddock?"

Astrid looked a bit stunned, but she nodded. "I agree, Mr. Haddock."

Hiccup grinned like a fool and he knew it. He'd always thought finding a wife would stressful and exasperating… but finding Astrid had been more of a chance of luck, of following his instincts and his heart. Falling for her had been so very easy.

Sitting there, on the balcony with his soon-to-be wife, nothing else in the world could have possible mattered to him more, not the strange voices from that morning, and not the shadow that Hiccup didn't see lingering in the room behind them, watching. All he saw in that moment was the blonde, blue-eyed girl he never knew that he needed.