Hiccup was released after two days when they hospital staff were satisfied he hadn't got a bad concussion or suffered any serious injuries. Snotlout had driven him home again, genuinely contrite that Hiccup had been injured on his watch. No matter that Hiccup had deliberately slipped his escorts to speak with Mr Grimborn, Snotlout felt responsible that the other boy had been harmed when Snotlout had promised to protect him. It made both Hiccup and Astrid look at the Football Captain in a new light.

Heather, Cami and Ruff were waiting for them at Astrid's house, bursting with news. Hiccup limped in on his crutches, manoeuvring over to the couch and lowering his battered shape into place. Astrid snuggled at his side, her hand twined with his. Snotlout and the girls arranged themselves around the room while Ingrid brought them all sodas. The previous day, Ingrid and Martin had been interviewed by Family Services and signed the forms to officially take custody of Hiccup as his foster parents. Astrid had been overjoyed when they had told her and when Martin had arrived at the hospital with Ingrid to tell Hiccup, the boy had been quiet for a long moment, staring at the wall and blinking rapidly. Then he had turned back to the Hoffersons and he had nodded.

"Thank you," he had said brokenly, his eyes shining. Ingrid had immediately gone to hug him, seeing him struggling and he had buried his face in her shoulder, shaking. He had been more astonished when Martin had wrapped his arms around both, enclosing them in a powerful, protective hug. Hiccup had stiffened for a moment...then allowed himself to relax in the embrace of two parents...neither of whom was his but both of which had stepped up to job when he needed them most. "Thanks," he whispered.

"Hey, Midgard to Hiccup!" Cami called with a grin and he snapped back to the present. His emerald eyes sparkled.

"Right here, Camilla," he replied cheekily. She threw a cushion at him.

"Okay, girls-spill!" Astrid cut in, forestalling a cushion fight. "While I know you guys are all pleased to see Hiccup, Ruff looks like she's going to explode with excitement so there has to be some serious news..."

"And then some!" Heather told her, her eyes sparkling. "The biggest is...Mr Treacher has been suspended!"

"WHAT?" Astrid gasped. Hiccup flinched, his eyes widening.

"Really?" he murmured.

"Yeah...it was all hushed up...which is why everyone knows," Ruff burst in. "Bullying and child abuse!" Astrid's head snapped round and looked at Hiccup. His green eyes flicked up and he nodded. The others stared.

"Wait...you mean...?" Snotlout realised, staring at Hiccup. "You? But how...?"

"Alvin Treacher is my step-father," he admitted quietly. Snotlout's jaw dropped and his mouth worked soundlessly. "He's been abusing me since he married my Mom, four years ago..."

The room fell silent.

"Um...did he...you know...touch you?" Snotlout said at length, saying what everyone was thinking. Hiccup sighed and shook his head.

"Thank the Gods, no," he admitted. "He just got his rocks off slapping me, burning me, hitting me..." He stared at his hands, falling silent. Astrid grasped his hand, her fingers sliding between his and he curled his fingers around her hand, lifting his eyes with a pained smile.

"That time...after Ast kissed you in the canteen...when he took you out, he hit you then, didn't he?" Cami asked him. He nodded. "You came back with a split lip and a slapped cheek."

"Though why no one ever asked beats me," he sighed.

"Because they all did as he told," Heather added. "And they were all in on it. The School Board are involved because of 'grading irregularities'." Astrid's eyes popped wide. "I guess it's to do with all our workbooks you got us to give to your Dad. Mr Grimborn has been suspended as well."

"Hmm...I guess everyone is currently out of Viking History," Hiccup murmured dryly.

"Result!" Ruff announced.

"Ruff-you don't even take Viking history!" Astrid pointed out. The girl's eyes widened and she sighed.

"Nuts," she commented. Snotlout shook his head.

"Savage, Thuggory, Dogsbreath and Midgets are all suspended and have been arrested," he added. "That's three members of the Team down...which is really gonna affect our chances in the Archipelago Cup!"

"Snot! There are more important things going on here that Football!" Heather told him off.

"Sorry, babe-what did you just say?" he asked in astonishment.

"I'm not your babe-I'm Fishlegs's!" she shot back. "And we're talking about people who beat up Hiccup and tried to force him to drop charges against Dagur who tried to kill him!"

"And who were threatening to attack Astrid as well!" Ruff snapped. He sighed.

"Okay," he admitted, "but with Dagur, Savage and Thuggory gone, our team is a lot weaker..."

"So you guys will just have to step up," Astrid told him with a smile. "And the Cheerleaders will be behind you all the way!" Snotlout sighed.

"I guess it will just be down to me again," he said dramatically. "Meathead again next week...if we get a result, we'll be in the Final. If not...playoffs against the Hysterical Warriors." He paused and grinned. "And when you say it like that...Thor, it sounds lame!"

Everyone laughed and Astrid felt Hiccup lean against her, his warmth leaching into her body. She snuggled against his shoulder and an arm gently wrapped around her. The girls and Snotlout remained for another hour, joking and discussing the upcoming match and what had happened in school before they left, leaving the two teens alone. Hiccup turned his head to look at Astrid, emerald eyes meeting azure as he sighed.

"You didn't tell them," he told her gently. She shook her head.

"They didn't need to know that the cops caught the Berserkers at the end of the block, planning to burn the house down," she murmured softly.

"I really thought your parents would have asked Family Services to take me away because I endanger you," he murmured. "That was why I..I was so surprised when they came to tell me they had agreed to keep me..." She smiled at him, seeing the anxiety in his bruised features.

"There was an issue," she reminded him. "The fact we're going out. They were pretty worried because it's against the rules...though Mom did point out that actually they are only fostering you for about six weeks..."

"...because fostering ends at age eighteen when I am technically an adult," he sighed. "Yeah...and after that I'm supposed to be on my own..."

"So they looked at your case and all the circumstances, your injuries and who had been abusing you and made an exception...because they felt it would cruel to move you from somewhere you were safe and settled for just a few weeks..." she smiled. He looked deeply into her eyes.

"You know I can never thank you enough," he said seriously.

"Babe-you're never getting away from me," she said earnestly and he gave a small smile.

"Oh-kay...scary stalker girlfriend act..." he teased her and she swatted his shoulder again. "Owww..." he whined pathetically as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Ingrid called and walked to the door, guessing it was another one of Astrid's friends. But what she wasn't expecting was the tall, slender shape in a warm coat, her grey-streaked auburn hair in long braids and emerald eyes cold. Valka Treacher stared at the blonde woman and gave an imperious look.

"I wish to speak with my son," she said coldly. Ingrid stood back and gestured.

"You'd better come in," she said, glancing through the door to see the neat Toyota car parked on the drive, the huge dark-haired shape of Mr Treacher in the driver's seat. She immediately knew what this was about as she firmly closed the door and showed the woman into the sitting room. Valka stared down at the shape of her son, battered and beaten with his leg still in the soft cast from the accident, a beautiful blonde girl leaning against him, her blue eyes sparkling with humour. Hiccup glanced up and his green eyes widened in utter shock.

"MOM?" he gasped, scrambling to try to get to his feet. "Mom...oh, thank Thor you've come. I was..."

"I am very disappointed in you, Hiccup!" she snapped. He froze.

"Wh-what?' he mumbled. Valka glared at him.

"Your vicious lies are harming a good man!" she told him. Hiccup stiffened...and then gave a bitter laugh.

"Alvin? Good?" he choked out. "Mom...please..."

"I never thought you would stoop so low...lying about him..." she sneered, then gestured at Astrid. "But I supposed you made up these lies to impress your new girlfriend..." Hiccup glanced at Astrid, seeing her eyes widen and open her mouth to hotly defend him. He shook his head.

"What am I supposed to have lied about, Mom?" he asked quietly, his voice wary. He was searching her face for any signs she cared for him, any concern for his current state.

"This...fantasy...about Alvin hurting you!" Valka snapped. "Honestly, I know you didn't like him disciplining you but you were such a stubborn, defiant and rude boy that as your father he had every right to..."

"No, he didn't," Hiccup said tonelessly. "He's not my father. He had no right to slap me whenever I refused to tell him what my friends were talking about...or tell him where I was every hour of the day. He had no right to whip me with his belt. He had no right to haul me into the yard and beat the crap out of me. He had no right to put his cigars out on my arms just because he liked seeing me whimper in pain." She stared at him.

"Those are just lies," she said. Hiccup levered himself up, dragging his sleeves up to reveal the burns. Then he half turned and dragged his top up, revealing the scars across his back.

"Are those lies?" he asked pointedly. He stared into her eyes-he was her height now and meeting the exact match of his own eyes was something he had dreamed of...but this meeting was more of a nightmare.

"You are just jealous that I chose my husband over my spiteful and troublemaking son!" she snapped.

"You didn't answer me," he told her sternly. "Are these scars lies? Do you remember when he beat me, Mom? Do you remember that night when I was brought home-and when you were sent upstairs while I was throw out onto the yard, beaten and thrown out into the freezing night? When you looked through the window...then turned away and pulled the curtain to, leaving him to beat me without a word of protest from my own mother?"

"You know, it's been very difficult to even like you, let alone love you the last few years," Valka said devastatingly. "I want you to retract these lies and leave my husband alone..."

"Mom-you don't have to do this," Hiccup said, his voice urgent. "You can get away from him. Stay here...we can live together, away from him...I can get a job and..."

"What are you talking about?" she asked him in shock.

"Mom-you don't have to be afraid of him any more..." Hiccup began...but she began to laugh at him, shocked at his words.

"Don't be so ridiculous!" she told him scornfully. "I love my husband. I am with him because I want to be with him. You...chose to leave..."

"No choice-since I was thrown out!" Hiccup said sharply. "My mother and the man she married rejected me-he threw me out and you told me you didn't want me back. But I clung onto the hope you might still love me, Mom...because I am your son and I love you. I offered to come home, to endure whatever he wanted to do...and you know what he does to me, no matter how much you deny it!"

"You see? All you do is argue and stress me out, Hiccup!" she snapped. He flinched.

"And yet you are supposed to be my mother," he told her in a defeated voice. "I know my father loved you with all his heart until the day he died. And I promised to protect you...but you rejected me, you sent me away. You turned away. I still love you, Mom...but didn't you even worry when the hospital phoned after Snoggletog and said I'd been in an accident? I could have died. I nearly lost my foot. I underwent two surgeries. And all you said was 'wrong number' when Mrs Hofferson called you...and when I did as well! Mom...look at me!"

She glared at him.

"Which one of us is lying?" he asked her sadly. "I endured years of Hel just to be with you. You know Alvin is abusive-he's hit you as well. He controls you, every second of the day. I'll bet he's in the car now, sitting outside because he would never let you go out on your own. I bet he's been feeding you lies about how I've just made up all the allegations against him, that he's really a good and caring man. But Mom-when I was brought in after the accident, the hospital found my scars and they knew straight away. They KNOW these things. The cops were furious when they read the medical report-I said nothing...but my injuries said it all. The damage doesn't lie-but Alvin does. In the end, I had to tell...because he was starting to target Astrid as well...and I would never let anything happen to her. Alvin lied Mom. And now...so have you. Please, Mom...believe me. Please tell me that you care about me. That-that you're still my Mom..."

She stared at him, her eyes momentarily softening as she read the desperate plea in his face and voice. Then they closed down.

"You're lying," she condemned him. "You're a vicious troublemaker. I never want to see you again." She turned to the door. "I hope you're happy with your choice. As of now...you are not my son."

And with that and a slam of the door, she was gone.

There was a long moment where the sound of the car pulling away was audible...and then Hiccup bent forward, his arms thrown across his face and whole body shaking with grief. Astrid raced to his side, wrapping her arms around his devastated, trembling shape.

"Dad...I'm so sorry..." he whispered. "I lost her..."