Hiccup was up early the next morning, showered, shaved and dressed in comfortable training pants, loose long-sleeved green T-shirt and converse when Astrid stumbled out of her bedroom. Emma was still sleeping, exhausted by the late night and Astrid yawned, running her hands through her dishevelled hair.  Automatically, she combed it with her fingers, then loosely rebranded it as she walked through to the kitchen area-and found Hiccup. He was munching his way through granola and sipping a coffee, while peering at his laptop as she appeared. He started and knocked over his coffee.

"A-astrid!" he stuttered. "Um...did-did you sleep well?" He was trying to mop up the coffee with a Berk Marauders tea towel, looking incredibly self-conscious and she smiled, taking the cloth from him expertly and wiping up the mess almost automatically. 

"Very well, thanks," she said calmly, investigating the kettle and finding the instant coffee he had placed ready on the side by a mug. She swiftly stirred her coffee, dolloping two spoons of sugar and settling by him. "Emma was restless but I've slept with her enough. Little ones get nightmares..." He nodded, though he didn't really understand. He looked at her, his emerald gaze sweeping over her poised shape. She was dressed in a vest top and loose pyjama pants, her beauty not diminished by the fact she was still a bit crumpled from sleep and barefoot.  And never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined he would wake up to Astrid in his house.  

"Is she okay?" he asked with concern. Astrid stared absently into the distance, then nodded.

"I think she's okay, but I worry for her," she admitted. "I mean Dagur is after her and..." His definite brows dipped and his eyes narrowed.

"Dagur?" he asked, keeping his voice expressionless. 

"Um...Emma's biological father," Astrid explained. Hiccup sighed, then rose and walked to the kettle. He refilled it then went to the fridge, fishing out eggs, butter, bread and milk. 

"I think you need to tell me what is going on so I can work out what I can do to help," he told her firmly, deftly cracking the eggs, seasoning them and pinching in a few crushed chilli flakes, coriander leaf, black pepper and garlic salt before whisking them up and expertly making two plates of scrambled eggs and hot buttered toast. He served her with a smile, delivered fresh white coffee with sugar and a glass of orange juice. Her eyes widened.

"I-I don't know what to say," she breathed. "I mean, no one has ever made me breakfast since I was about ten..." She smiled shyly, flicking her braid over her shoulder. "Thank you..."

"You haven't tasted it yet," he advised her but she took a small forkful, swallowed and hummed in pleasure. 

"Gods, I am never leaving here!" she laughed. "This is amazing!" He blushed fiercely, suddenly self-conscious. He took a mouthful and coughed. 

"Um...thanks," he mumbled, taking a sip of his OJ to cover his embarrassment. Ana had laughed at his cooking, telling him only women knew how to cook properly. She had refused to touch a morsel he had cooked. Astrid winked and tucked into her plate, occasionally sighing in pleasure at the meal. Finally, she pushed her cleaned plate away, resting her hands gently over her middle and smiling in happiness.

"Gods, that really was amazing," she told him in a relaxed voice. "Thank you, Hiccup. That was the best breakfast I've ever had!" He stared at her as he chewed his last mouthful and sipped his coffee. She looked happy and relaxed-and he felt enormous guilt for what he would need to do to her to help her. He smiled.

"You are welcome," he told her gently and then he sat back as well, before flipping open his laptop. "Now Astrid...I don't want to upset you or make you feel awkward-but I really want to help you and to do that...I need to knew what the story is."

As he had anticipated, her pupils dilated in fear and the smile vanished from her face. Her shoulders hunched and he hated himself for causing her pain, even though he knew it was with the best of intentions. Finally, she let go a shuddering sigh. 

"Okay," she sighed. "I mean, I turn up in the middle of the night and need to stay with my daughter and there has to be a reason...but I really don't know what you can do about it..." He rose and gently walked round to sit at her side, taking her hand in his and squeezing it tightly.

"Astrid, I promise I can help," he told her gently. "Dagur has broken the law and frightened you. And I won't let him get away with that."

Because he got away with beating me up all those years at school. 

She swiped a tear away from her eyes and nodded.

"Thanks," she whispered. "I-I don't know what you can do but it's so-so reassuring that there is someone on my side. Thank you." He managed a small smile, though his heart was soaring in his chest. He squeezed her hand once more.

"Take your time," he advised her.

So she told him everything that happened, from when Dagur transferred to Raven Pointe High and took the Football Team by storm; how she had caught his eye and the Head Cheerleader and the Quarterback had made the school's golden couple-until Prom. Then, in a quiet, shamed voice, she described how they had gone to the Prom, how they had been voted Prom King and Queen and how she had left with him, ostensibly to go home. She paused, then forced herself on, recounting how he had taken her to his home and plied her with alcohol until she was drunk-but not too drunk. She had resisted his advances and asked to be taken home over and over-but he had finally cornered her, held her down and raped her.

Hiccup's fist tightened until the knuckles were white as he saw her tears and her head bow in shame. Especially as she carried on, telling how the police discounted her report as silly High School nonsense, how she had found herself pregnant and how Dagur had rejected her and disavowed any knowledge of the child. Of how he had denounced her as a slut, a whore who had entrapped him in a callow effort to try to hang onto the coattails of his success. She had been scorned, ridiculed and ostracised. She had graduated to silence, with only the sounds of her parents to greet her greatest academic achievement. And she had lost her place at College.

He made notes as she detailed how Dagur refused all efforts to be involved and had finally taken out a restraining order against her. How she delivered her daughter alone and had moved out of her parents' house when Emma was six months old and been determined to support herself. And then she explained how Dagur had been to the Nursery, the card which she handed over and finally everything he had said the previous night.

"He threatened your life?" he asked softly. She nodded and lifted her chin, the bruises from his grip visible. "Odin." he breathed. "Astrid, I am so sorry..." She dropped her eyes and sighed.

"No, I should be-because no one in his right mind would want to help me and my stupid mess," she said with obvious self-loathing...but his hand landed gently on her shoulder and pulled her into an awkward hug. She snuggled against his chest and curled her head down. He gently rested his chin on her head.

"I promise I will help," he murmured. "So you reported the rape, you reported the visit to the Nursery and the break-in last night?" She nodded. "Did you keep the texts?" She nodded.

"They're on my phone," she said and sighed. "Couldn't afford a new one-so I've still got the old one from when I was at school..." 

"Thank Thor," he murmured. "We'll get those texts downloaded. They include the texts, the scans, the threats to leave him alone, him disowning all knowledge...?" She nodded.

"Um...and lots of abuse from him and his-well, formerly my-friends," she mumbled. His hug tightened. 

"And he now claims he wants your daughter and mentioned he wants to paint you as an unfit mother?" he mused softly. She lifted her head.

"I think so," she sighed. 

"Mommy?" Her head snapped up and she connected with his chin, knocking him backwards and making him see stars. He yelped and clutched his chin as she looked back and her face fell into a mask of guilt as she froze. 

"Oh Hiccup! I'm so..." she began.

He waved her off to see to her child, while he tried to regain her breath. And his eyes softened as he saw Astrid the mother for the first time, crouching by her daughter, talking gently and calmly to the child and lifting her into a seat. She made breakfast and fed her daughter, then took her to get dressed. While they were in the bedroom, Hiccup grabbed his phone and dialled a number he had memorised and used so many times two years earlier. He took a shuddering breath, pushing back the memories. 

"Cove Law, Hoark Hoarkson speaking."

Hiccup gave a small smile at the gruff, professional voice that was so familiar from those horrible days and weeks when he had struggled to sort out the complexities and wade through grief as well as the monstrous mess his father had left him on his untimely and abrupt demise. 

"It's Hiccup Haddock," he said, calming the nerves from his voice. Honestly, he hated how he felt, the sudden waves of panic that overwhelmed him and froze his brain into a useless mush. He hated that he was physically restricted, that his self-confidence and sense of self-worth had been annihilated and that things he could cope with previously were a real struggle-or beyond his wretched capability. But he could do this. He could help Astrid keep her daughter-and keep her safe from Dagur. Because Hiccup knew Dagur.

"Pleased to speak to you, Mister Haddock," Hoark said gruffly. The man had been a loyal friend of Hiccup's father, Stoick 'the Vast' Haddock, entrepreneur and property developer but he always treated his late friend's son with the utmost respect. "How can I help you?"

"I have a problem," Hiccup said, his voice wavering. He took a deep breath and he rolled his eyes. "I have a friend with a problem. She has a child, the father abandoned her the moment she told him she was expecting, he took out a restraining order against her to prevent her claiming he was the father or telling her anything about the progress of the pregnancy-and now, three and a bit years later, he wants the child. He's stalking them, has broken into her apartment and been at the kid's nursery. She has filed reports, the courthouse should have the restraining order against her logged and she has the texts she sent to him and his replies."

"Very good," Hoark said thoughtfully. "What do you want?"

Hiccup paused. Dagur had tormented younger Hiccup for years, joining with Hiccup's own cousin to beat the crap out of him, day after day. The young man was sadistic and brutal-and had enjoyed torturing the skinny runt Hiccup had been. In fact, Hiccup had been one of the few who had rejoiced when Dagur was expelled for drug use: the jocks had mourned their finest Quarterback but Hiccup had celebrated the departure of his bully and tormentor-only to find out now  he had wreaked further havoc on Astrid in his new School.

"I want Dagur investigated," he said in a firm voice. "He flunked out of his Football Scholarship-drugs, I think. And I have reason to believe he is probably a dealer and a very dangerous criminal. I want a restraining order against him to keep him half a mile from Astrid and Emma Hofferson at all times. And I want any attempt at custody fought off by every possible means so he never gets any contact or access to the child he so shamefully abandoned."

There was a pause.

"This is going to cost," Hoark reminded him but Hiccup gave a short laugh.

"That's hardly an issue-as you well know," Hiccup replied with a small smile. "One thing I can contribute is the financial muscle to see this done."

"And the finest lawyers and investigators in Berk," Hoark reminded him. "I'll get Eret on it straight away-he's our finest." Hiccup nodded.

"Thank you," he said gratefully. "Keep me updated daily. And I'll bring Astrid down to the offices this afternoon to give her affidavit and the texts." Hoark smiled.

"I'll have the police reports and copies of the restraining order by then," he promised. "I'll be ready by noon." And he hung up without further ado. Hiccup stared at his phone and gave a small smile-and then he heard Astrid walk closer. 

"Who was that?" she asked suspiciously but he gave a small smile.

"That was the lawyer who will ensure Dagur never gets his hands on Emma," he said.