Regret

I Will Find You

"Astrid. Astrid wake up!" Astrid awoke to Flynn shaking her shoulders roughly. She jumped awake and grappled in the sheets for Hiccup instinctively. Empty. Then she noticed the blue and red lights flashing through her blinds and Flynn's face.

"Where is Hiccup?" Astrid shot upright and ran down the stairs with unsteady legs and flung on all the lights as she searched their kitchen. No Hiccup.

She ran to the living room, the spare bedroom, the study. No Hiccup.

By the time she reached the backyard she was staggering, panic blinding her senses. A dozen red dots converged on her figure at once, trailing up her bare legs to her night gown clad heart.

"STAND DOWN!" Flynn shouted as he barreled out of the house and flung his coat over Astrid's shoulders. He held the shaking woman close to his chest and swore softly.

"I- I don't understand. Why did he leave? He said he wouldn't he-" Astrid paused. Hiccup would never leave her. Not if he could help it.

Where panic froze in her veins previously undiluted rage  now brought her back to life.

The extra police officers. Flynn waking her up despite not having a key to her home. The call about Rapunzel.

Astrid sprinted to the front of their house, her bare feet screaming at the snow she crunched underfoot, but she paid it no mind. Out front was multiple police cars and ambulances, and multiple bodies covered in white sheets. A group of EMS workers rushed a newly resuscitated Agent Frost into the back of an ambulance and peeled off. It confirmed everything she needed to know.

"Who took him." Astrid seethed as Flynn caught up to her. She was shaking now, not from fear, maybe slightly from the cold, but shaking with rage.

Hiccup was good, and kind. He struggled making friends as a kid because he was different, but his differences were what gave him his respect now. He never gave up on her, not truly. He had upset his entire life to welcome her back home and now... Now he was gone.

Who could've been so callous as to not only steal her, but now him. Astrid had made many enemies over the year, she knew that. Eret rotting in that cell and his crimes against her were proof enough for that. But Hiccup?

Hiccup had no enemies, only Astrid did. Love enemies too.

"Can't believe we had to come out here in this storm while she's snuggled up with lover boy."

"To have something to hold over him incase things go south?"

"I want to meet this woman you spend all your time with."

"Astrid this is my fiancé Merida, the one I told you about."

The realization hit her like a train, knocking all the air from her lungs. Flynn rushed to help but she raised a hand, stopping him. She didn't need his help. She didn't need anyone's help.

Astrid balled her fists and screamed. She was sure the neighbors who had come outside would talk. She could hear the gossip already. 'Didn't that Hofferson girl just get found after eight years?' 'Now the Haddock boy?' 'Are we safe here?' But she didn't care. Not anymore. Astrid was tired of being scared and listening for the whispers behind closed doors. Tired of being the victim, of having her choices made and stolen. Tired of being thought of as weak instead of feared.

Because Merida should fear her. The trauma that the redhead had given her would've effectively kept her in her current state for months more, but by kidnapping Hiccup? The warrior within had woken up.

"Merida DunBroch." All color drained from Flynn's face as he swore. Merida had a motive, connections to the criminals and the victims, and had let Eret and Dagur know which hospital room was hers. If Merida hadn't been guilty she would've rushed to the Haddock-Hofferson residence immediately. The news crew had already shown up, helicopters circled above. She had no alibi anymore.