Everything was quiet for Stoick, he just silently sat in place as he gazed at the bottle of beer in his hand as if it was going to give him answers to everything that had just happened to him and his family. His mind was still reeling over the previous series of events and looking back at them it seemed so surreal, however, he was taken out of his thoughts when a door was opened and Gobber came walking in, a bag of groceries in his hands.
"Hey, I'm back." He said coming into the kitchen where Stoick was sitting.
After Hiccup was arrested, Stoick and Valka sprang into action, immediately going to the police station for any information that they could get on what was happening to their son, however all they got was the stone wall. Despite that they didn't stop, from there they tried everything that they could think of to get answers, lucky for them they had the advantage of Stoick having friends in the federal government, but even that wasn't enough. Now Stoick was sitting trying to think but at the moment there didn't seem to be anything that he could do but he tried to stay strong for Valka's sake.
"Stoick…Stoick…are you there man?" Gobber said snapping his fingers in his large friend's face and it seemed to work as Stoick shook his head and stared at Gobber.
"Oh Gobber, sorry I didn't hear you come in." Stoick said.
"I can see that." Gobber said taking a seat on the left side of Stoick. "I haven't seen you this deep in thought since that time we saw the Usual Suspects." Gobber said.
"Hey, I didn't see that coming all right." Stoick said but stopped himself from losing focus on the matter at hand. "Sorry, I'm just worried is all, I have no idea what happened to my son and no matter what I've tried I can't seem to get answers."
"I know Stoick, I'm worried about him too but right now the best thing we can do is hope that he's okay." Gobber explained.
"Maybe." Stoick sighed. "By the way, I wanted to thank you again for letting me and Val stay here."
After the incident, Stoick and Valka didn't feel comfortable with sleeping with their own home so Gobber had offered to let them stay with him until they felt ready to move back in and it has been a fairly smooth transition.
"Oh don't worry 'bout it, you two can stay here as long as you need." Gobber said.
Just then Stoick heard someone coming down the stairs, looking over he saw his wife entering the living room and she looked absolutely tired, obviously this incident has been very rough on her. Without a word Stoick stood up and made his way over to Valka and placed him large hands on her shoulders.
"How are you feeling?" He asked with concern in his eyes.
"Better than yesterday, but not by much." She said.
Looking at her Stoick took in her appearance, her hair was a mess, she had bags under her eyes, essentially her whole demeanor was unlike her normal lively self, but Stoick knew that she was having a very hard time right now, in fact she spent all morning in bed.
"Do you need anything?" Stoick asked.
"Yes, I want my baby back." She said as tears started to well in her eyes.
Stoick instinctively wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close as she tried to suppress her sobs but she was failing. All Stoick could do was rub her back in a comforting motion while trying to give assurance.
"It's going to be okay Val." He said.
After a few minutes Valka's sobs quieted and she pulled back, this allowed Stoick to look at her in the eyes with a determined look on his face. "Listen, I don't know what's going on, but what I do know is that I am not going to stop until we find our son." He said.
His words seemed to have had the desired effect as Valka steeled herself and returned Stoick's look. "You're right Stoick, I'm going to stop either." She said.
"That's my girl." Stoick smiled as he kissed her forehead.
"Umm, are you two done?" Gobber asked.
"Sorry." They both said in unison which made them chuckle.
As the two of them were dealing with the situation, the third member of the Haddock family was not doing any better than he was nearly a day ago. After trying to call home, Hiccup was handcuffed back in his seat, but this time he had three Airmen standing guard. They had not taken their eyes of him since they landed to refuel and that was around six hours ago, granted Hiccup didn't have a good sense of time because there was no clock and he couldn't look outside. At first it was uncomfortable but after a while he just got used to it, not like there was anything that he could do to stop them, he tried to cut the tension by starting a conversation but it became pretty evident that they were not interested in talking.
"Gods this is awkward; I wonder how much longer this ride's going to be." Hiccup thought to himself.
As if on cue he felt the plane rumble which was followed by a feeling of force rushing from his feet to his head, like being on an elevator going down, and based that Hiccup came to one conclusion. "We're landing, but where?"
On the outside it the sky was a dark purple with faint blues near the horizon, an indicator that it was most likely late evening but that didn't matter at Edwards Air Force Base, because at that moment, personnel were scrambling as they prepared for the C-130 to make it's landing. Near the runway, Agent Philips and Colonel Shaw were waiting patiently for their special 'guest'.
"All this for one kid, they don't teach this stuff in the academy." Shaw said looking around.
"This is obviously unorthodox but right now that's the best we can do in a situation like this." Philips said.
Both men watched as the plane skidded across the runway until it came to a completely stop, inside the aircraft Hiccup was becoming increasing anxious about what to expect and his anxiety continued to grow as the cargo door opened and he was un-cuffed from the seat. Standing up he was escorted out of the plane by the guards, upon exiting the plane he was shocked to see where he was and that's no small feat compared to what he had gone through, at this moment he was standing in the middle of a military base, making both excited as well as terrified. He didn't have to time to register where he was when a guard suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and made him walk forward and as they walked Hiccup got a good look around and saw troops moving, each with their own specific purpose to fulfill, but he had a hunch that they were all related to his presence in some way or another just by the look of things.
"Okay Hiccup, whatever you do, try not to panic." He said to himself, although he could already feel as though he was going to break that promise.
After a few minutes of walking, Hiccup spotted two older men looking at him, one was wearing Air Force fatigues while the other was wearing a black suit and tie, this made Hiccup even more confused as to what was going on. When they got close enough the two men approached him and the one wearing the fatigues came to a stop right in front of him. Hiccup looked up at the figure and though he was a little over six feet, he looked like a skyscraper in Hiccup's eyes with the way he stood and looked down at him.
"Hiccup Haddock," He spoke with a tone that could be described as authority laced with hospitality. "Welcome to Edwards Air Force Base, I hope you like the amenities, you might be here a while." He said.