With the visit having taken place the prior day, Farid was excited to hear how everything had gone. His faith in the inmate had not been false, but he still wanted to know some of the details and get an idea of how things might proceed. Shortly, Gobber entered with the client.

"Do I have some surprises for you," Dagur said, smiling widely before the handcuffs could even be removed.

Farid glanced at Gobber in shock. "Surprises?" he asked, emphasizing the plural nature of the word.

"He's not wrong," Gobber admitted happily.

The officer removed the restraints and left to get to the rest of his duties. Once he did, Dagur quickly got to those surprises.

"Okay, first, it went really well with Heather! She doesn't want me to die! Isn't that sweet of her?"

He started laughing, positively giddy even if the sound was still a little disturbed. Farid grinned at him and Dagur leaned back in his seat.

"I'll hand it to you–you were right. You definitely had a lot more faith in me than I did. I swore that I was going to say the wrong thing and get cursed out if she was in a good mood." He paused, recalling what he had heard and smiling wider. "She even said that she would return. I don't know when exactly, but I didn't think she'd be willing to do that. On top of that, when she was referring to Mom and Dad, she said 'our' parents…our! I think she believed me about being her brother. You don't know how much I wanted to talk to her again, Doc. I've wanted it from the day-the moment really-that we lost her."

"I'm glad this could happen. You two could probably help each other in ways neither of you expect."

"That would be cool if we did." Dagur's eyes widened in remembrance. "Oh yeah! The other surprise is that I'm out of solitary."

"Really?" Farid asked, jaw dropping some.

The client laughed. "Ha! I finally was able to tell you something you didn't expect. Yep. Just happened on the way back from talking to Heather. No more days where the only sounds I hear are my breathing. No more dark cells or wondering what people are like nowadays."

"I'm happy to hear that too. Did you get to introduce yourself to your new cellmate?"

"I did, but he's a bit of a brooder. His name's Ryker. He's a big guy but doesn't seem to talk much. He's a sulker if anything. I don't mind too much, though. If he doesn't bother me, I won't bother him."

There was a brief pause as he thought about when he was headed to the cell. "I'll admit that I got nervous when Gobber first told me about it. I've never gotten along well with others, so I really wasn't sure how this was going to go. To be honest, I'm still not. I've only been around him since last night and I didn't sleep a wink as usual. I kept thinking he'd try to attack me or something. He wasn't snoring, so either he was awake too or just is a quiet sleeper."

"It's understandable that you'd be wary of him. I even think it's healthy. I haven't spoken with Ryker, so I don't know much about him. I know that some of the people here want to change for the better, but I also can tell that some don't. Be open to help him with that change if he wants to make it. You might find a kindred spirit in him. Of course," he conceded with a slight frown, "this isn't exactly the safest place to make new friends. I wouldn't want you to be blindsided by him either."

"What would you suggest then? I'm not sure if I can be suspicious of him and his friend."

"I wouldn't recommend you do both. I suppose I'd suggest that you just be yourself and stay observant. Time reveals a lot. If the situation shows itself where you could help him turn his life around, I think it's worth it to take that, but if you see that he's unreceptive, why waste time?"

Dagur considered his words for a moment, letting them sink in as he nodded. "I can do that. What about my rep, though? Do I stay deranged or go for something different?"

Farid paused, thinking hard. "I think firmness would be more helpful than insanity. If they think you're deranged, some will avoid you but others will see that as a challenge. With firmness, you don't have to be mean, but you're also not a pushover."

"Sounds like a good balance."

"Unfortunately, some of them have probably already heard of you and will want to test the waters. If you feel yourself getting angry, don't immediately react. Take a breath and let yourself calm down."

Dagur nodded, then noticed that the psychologist's expression was becoming more thoughtful. "What's going on in that noggin now?"

"There's something else I've been considering. Have you ever thought of the future? Yours in particular?"

Lifting an eyebrow, the young man put a hand to his chin. "Not really. Well, okay that's not true. When I was little, I always liked the idea of leading people. I wanted to have my own business. I didn't want to be like one of those boring bosses who just barked orders and never got their hands dirty. I wanted to be really involved with whatever the business was."

"What did you want the business to be?"

After laughing, he answered. "That's the thing. I kept changing it. I used to get bored so easily. I'm actually not too different from that now, so I could never stick with one thing for long. One day, it would be a company that made different types of weapons. Gotta have more knives. Can you really ever have enough? Another day, I'd want to have some place where people learned to fight. I think the longest any idea stayed with me was a week and that doesn't count all the revisions it underwent during those seven days."

"They say creative people get bored easily."

"Then, creativity has never been an issue of mine. What makes you ask, though? It seemed like there was more to your look than just wondering about my weird childhood dreams."

"I'm thinking about the future too. There might be a possibility of you going to a clinic one day instead of staying here. That's what I'd like to happen instead."

"I'd be in a psych ward?" Dagur asked, scrunching his face.

"It's not old-fashioned. It's mine actually."

"Oh, I didn't know you had your own."

"Well, I didn't love what I was seeing at some of the places where I was working before. I decided that instead of just wanting things to be different, I could make that happen myself. I can assure it's not like medieval times with mistreatment and abuse."

"I won't get an ice bath or be chained to a bed?" the inmate inquired, half-joking.

"Definitely not."

"I heard electrocuting people is still a thing."

"Disturbingly, yes, but not at my clinic. You won't even get shocked by rubbing your socks on the carpet. It's all hard floors. I can't promise a balloon won't ever be brought, though, so I'd ask you to not hold that against me if you play with its friction."

Dagur chuckled. "I don't think that would be quite fair to get mad at you about." His smile became wider and he nodded. "I'd be willing to go there. What happened with Heather yesterday wouldn't have happened without you. You've earned my trust."

"I'm glad that I have. I really think that would be better than here and not just because of Alvin and anyone else he's working with. I'm more equipped to help you there than trying to go around the hours I'm allowed to visit and just having an hour at a time."

"Hey, out of prison is out of prison, so that sounds pretty great."

"Also, depending on how it goes, you could get back into the outside world."

Dagur's grin faded, but it was due to shock rather than unhappiness. "Are you serious?"

"I am. I'm authorized to release in-patients after they demonstrate that they can acclimate well to regular life."

The client looked at the table. "I don't know what I'd do out there. I'd like to say I have this perfect plan ready, but I really don't."

"You don't have to right now. I'd just like you to think about it."

The smile returned, but it was small. "After the day I saw that bloody knife, I figured I didn't have a future anymore. I don't normally like to be wrong, but this is an exception."

There was not much time left in the session, but it went well and Dagur was able to return to the cell with his thoughts on their conversation. When it was time for Farid to return home, he saw a message from Hiccup.

"Hello," it read, "I wanted to let you know that the twins apparently discovered that it's not hard to sneak past some of the guards at the prison. They are looking at me right now, so I hope this is useful because they weren't going to let me not tell you."

Farid chuckled and began to respond. "It actually is. Thank you. That could help support a suspicion of mine."

Soon, a new message appeared. "Really? If I tell them, no one will ever hear the end of it, so I might just keep this between us. What do you think is getting brought into the prison?"

"I think that someone's found a way to get drugs in, but I'm not sure how exactly. It might be someone from the outside."

"If so, then Mala will probably be able to get them."

"Sorry, I don't think you've mentioned Mala to me before. Is she an officer friend of yours?"

"I don't know her too well. She's a captain for Berk's police. I hear that she runs a tight ship but that she's respected by her colleagues. I could see if she and I could talk. If so, I might be able to let her know about this. If it turns out that you're right, her knowing sooner than later would help."

"That sounds like a good idea to me. Thanks for reaching out to her."

"No problem! I don't want drugs all over Berk any more than you do."

The conversation did not last much longer, but the doctor did keep thinking about the topic. The sooner they discovered how drugs were getting into the prison and over the area, the better it would be for everyone. Earlier that day, Dagur has returned to his cell with Ryker being as quiet as he had been the other night. The redhead decided he would take Farid's advice and just let things progress naturally. Trying to force a friendship was a poor plan and seeming too nice still could be dangerous in a place like that. Suddenly, the cell door opened. It was not just their cell. All of them were opening.

"Right," Dagur thought. "Forgot that regular inmates get let out to the cafeteria and yard."

For a moment, he just looked at the open space. It would feel weird to go out there with everyone again. Ryker lacked such hesitancy. He got up from the bed and went over to the exit. As he neared the door, he scowled at Dagur.

"Get out of my way."

The other inmate gestured to the door, "How am I in the way? You don't even have to walk around me!"

Ryker did not say anything else as he bumped his shoulder into Dagur's. His expression changed slightly as he noticed the shorter man did not get pushed backwards. Feeling anger build up inside of himself, Dagur took a deep breath. It did surprisingly work and he was less enraged.

He followed a line of criminals down past the cells. As he did, he heard mutterings and saw suspicious glances. They knew about him. Instinctively, he wanted to glare at the people, but he resisted the urge. When Dagur got to the cafeteria, even the servers looked wary of him.

"Thanks," he said, shocking the person behind the counter.

The lunch person was too taken off guard to say anything as Dagur went towards the tables. They reminded him of highschool.

"I wonder why there are always cliques," he mused, quickly assessing which were there. "We've got the tough guys, the soft ones, the sneaky ones, and the ones who want to be left alone. No point in joining that last group, so I'll do like I did back in school."

Dagur took his food and went to a nice, secluded corner to eat. He did not need a table. He neither wanted to join a group nor be joined by someone he wound up disliking. It was a culture shock to be around so many people again. They were loud. They were smacking too which was of particular annoyance to him. There was just a lot of energy, so limiting how much happened at once was important. Sure, he got a few weird looks, but he knew he was going to get them anyway.

Something which interested Dagur was where Ryker was. He was not sitting with the tough guys. He was with the soft ones, but he was clearly not welcome. The brunet had an arm on one's shoulder. From what Dagur could see, it looked like they were talking, but they were too far for him to try any lip reading. He did not have to be closer to see that the other guy was scared. The man was doing his best imitation of a leaf in a tornado. Dagur kind of felt bad for him.

Ryker did not stay there for much more time, then joined the group Dagur had anticipated him being in from the start. After lunch, it was time to head to the yard. That made Dagur's stomach knot up a bit. The yard always meant a fight was coming and though he was never one to oppose that, he doubted fighting would help prove his point that he was trying to become a changed man. For the time being, he decided he would do the same as he had for lunch: observe. He would get information about people and could avoid conflict.

Dagur found a spot away from the crowd and watched. The groups were the same as before, but it was interesting watching them go about their days. Like Ryker for instance. He was heading over to the sneaky group. Every time the man approached someone, it was like he petrified them. It reminded Dagur of someone. Ryker went around a corner with someone, then returned after nearly a minute. To most, nothing had changed. To Dagur, he had a slightly larger pocket bulge caused by money. The prisoner sighed and put a hand over his face.

"Great. A new Ansson."