OKAY, THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER AND I HOPE IT DOES JUSTICE! :D I think I'm going to write a one-shot, too, probably which I will post sometime in the middle of June...I normally end up posting a one-shot or two while I'm on my hiatus. :P :D So, enjoy chapter 16, and thank you all! :D

Valka wasn't one hundred percent sure where she was or what had happened. All she knew was that her limbs were stiff and sore, and her eyelids felt as though they had been glued shut.

The next thing she was aware of were voices. The first one was a feminine voice of a young girl. "Hiccup," she said, "you look tired."

"I'm alright," Hiccup replied. Valka was confused. What was he doing here? She was still wondering where she was...she couldn't remember much of anything. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't move, so she settled for just listening to her son's conversation with the girl. "You should stop worrying about me, Astrid. I'm fine. Honestly."

"Honestly," Astrid repeated as if she were mocking him. "Yeah yeah yeah, sure you're fine. You look like you're going to collapse. You need to go get some rest, Hiccup. Remember what we talked about?"

What were they talking about? Valka didn't have a clue, and she couldn't open her eyes to find out.

"Yeah, I know," Hiccup said. "'Starving myself isn't going to help the situation, and not sleeping can lead to me making myself sick.' I know, Astrid, I just...I can't. I'm worried."

Worried? Worried about what?

"I know you are," Astrid said. "And I am too...but you know she's going to be fine. I'm more worried about you if I'm completely honest."

"I'm not the one that's been in a coma for over a week. I told you to stop worrying about me."

"I told you to stop beating yourself up over stuff like this."

Coma? Who was in a coma? For over a week? It seemed like…

Oh.

Oh.

Now Valka understood. It was she Hiccup was worrying about. She remembered everything; seeing the large hunk of ice falling towards Hiccup, shoving her son clear of it, and then her world fading into blackness...yes, she remembered.

But part of that didn't seem right. Didn't Hiccup hate her? Wasn't he mad at her? Why was he worried about her? And it sounded like he was so worried he wasn't eating or sleeping right. Thinking about that made Valka worried. She wanted to tell Hiccup not to worry...but she couldn't move.

She heard Hiccup sigh. "I know, Astrid, I'm...I'm sorry, I just...I don't know what else to do. I'm supposed to be Chiefing the village, and yet I just…"

"We understand, Hiccup. No one's asking you to do everything. That's what friends are for, right?"

"Right, but no one told you you guys had to do everything, either."

"You're right. But as your friends, we want to help you out. We all do. Gobber and Fishlegs are doing a great job as far as watching the village goes, and Toothless has been taking care of all the dragons...we didn't ask for your permission, sure, but we didn't need it. We want to help you. If you let us, of course."

"You shouldn't have to, though. It's my place. I should be the one taking care of the village. I should be the one undergoing the clean up. I should be the one-"

"You shouldn't, Hiccup. What you need to do is stay here. Take care of your mother...and take care of yourself while you're at it. Seriously, you look like you're going to faint."

"Occupational hazard."

"Hiccup…Hiccup? Hiccup, you're crying."

Crying?

Valka heard the shuffling of feet, and she imagined Astrid hugging her son. She didn't know hardly anything about Astrid, but if the way she comforted Hiccup after Stoick's death back at the nest was any indication, than they were close. Very close.

She heard Hiccup's sobbing mingled with Astrid's soothing nothings and felt her heart break. Did Hiccup really care about his mother? Did he? He must have...maybe? At least a little bit?

Fogginess plagued her mind, and she was powerless to stop the unconscious that overwhelmed her once again.

…

Valka opened her eyes. The sunlight almost blinded her, and it made her wonder just how long she had been out. She squinted and blinked multiple times until her eyes adjusted to the light.

She was in what looked like a loft, by the structure and the fact that she saw the ceiling beams stretched out above where she was lying. The surface was hard; a bed, then. Not like Cloudjumper's wings Valka had learned to enjoy sleeping in in the twenty years she had been living with the dragons.

After a few moments, she realized that Hiccup was sleeping soundly, sitting on a stool although his head was slumped against the bed, his arms lying slack beside it. Valka called to mind the conversation Hiccup and Astrid had previously, where Astrid was telling him that he looked about ready to faint from lack of sleep. If looks were any indication, then she had been right. Valka wondered for a moment if Hiccup had passed out. He was pale and abnormally thin, with dark circles beneath his eyes.

Valka lifted her hand, took a moment to keep it from shaking (everything hurt...but she didn't know why), and then set it on Hiccup's head. His hair felt sweaty, but at the same time soft against her palm. She sighed. She had lost her son because of the mistake she made twenty years ago. Maybe he would never forgive her? Sure, you can be worried about someone without forgiving them.

She supposed she wouldn't know until Hiccup woke up.

"Mom?"

Speaking of which…

Hiccup shifted beneath her palm, lifting his head to regard her. He rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands as if not seeing properly. He blinked. "Mom?"

Valka couldn't help but smile, even if faintly. Mom. She had never actually heard Hiccup call her that before, and it was enough to warm her heart. Maybe he was forgiving her? Maybe-

She didn't have time to think anything elsewise before her son was hugging her in a tight embrace. There was a splitting pain in her ribs, but she ignored it, hugging Hiccup back tentatively.

Then he started crying. He sobbed and cried, clinging to her tightly as if expecting her to vanish. He was whispering things she couldn't make out, and she was too shocked to wonder what they were. Hiccup had always seemed so confident in everything he did...she never thought he would be one to break down in front of her.

"I'm sorry…" he choked. "I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry...p-please forgive me. I'm...I'm…" He coughed twice and continued crying, his big, salty tears nearly soaking her shoulder.

Valka's motherly instincts took over almost instantly, and there she sat, her son in her arms, ignoring the pain in her ribs and head, instead focused only on the sobbing boy clinging to her desperately as if she were his lifeline. She rubbed his heaving, shaking back without fully thinking about what she was doing, closing her eyes. She hated seeing Hiccup cry, but at the same time, the fact that he was being open with her made her feel happy, if just slightly. She liked the fact that he was letting his guard down.

But at the same time…

Her poor baby…

"Shh," she said. "It's alright."

But if Hiccup's choked, sobby ramblings were any indication, then it wasn't alright in his mind. As he cried and stumbled over his words, tripping over his constant sobs, he told her how sorry he was, although she was only making out every other word he whimpered.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry."

Valka squeezed him tighter. "I'm sorry, too," she said.

After what felt like hours, Hiccup finally pulled away, his hands on her shoulders. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve with a sniff. "I didn't mean it," he said. "I was...I was just so angry...I didn't...I don't want you to think that I hate you…"

Valka's eyes widened. "I never thought that, Hiccup," she said. "I knew you were angry-"

"But that's not the point," Hiccup insisted, shaking his head feverishly before she was even finished speaking. "I shouldn't...I shouldn't have ever talked to you like that. I never should have said the things I said. I was mad, I was hurt, but...but it's no excuse, and I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong," Valka assured him. "It was my fault, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Hiccup, but...do...do you think you could give me another chance? Could we start over? I know it's going to take a long time for you to forgive me completely, Hiccup, but...if you could just let me try…"

After a moment of hesitation, Hiccup nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I...I forgive you."

That was all it took. Valka leaned forward and captured him in her arms again, gratefully holding her son, whispering thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you over and over again in a barely audible voice. She was so relieved that there were tears sliding down her face, and she made no move to wipe them away. Hiccup hugged her back after no hesitation, and they stayed there for a long time.

"Of course," Hiccup said, not breaking their embrace, "this doesn't mean that I'm not generally still upset...because I am, and sometimes it's going to show…"

"It's okay, it's okay, yeah," Valka whispered in response, feeling too happy at the moment to be upset. She knew Hiccup was going to be mad sometimes. She knew that much, and expected nothing else from him. She knew that it was going to take time before he put it behind him. In fact, he might never put it behind him.

But she couldn't think about it at the moment. She held her son close to her, sighing with contentment.

"But...I just want you to know," Hiccup said, "...I love you, Mom."

Her heart melted just a little bit at those words. She never thought she would ever hear them ever come from Hiccup. "I love you too, s-" she began, stopping herself just before she said "son." He told her not to call him that, and really, she understood that. She was okay with that, as long as he forgave her.

"And Mom?" Hiccup said.

"Yes?"

He rested his head against her shoulder wearily. "You can call me son if you want," he murmured.

Valka felt the air vanish from her lungs, and she sighed yet again. "Thank you," she whispered, and then, after just a moment, added, "son."

Hiccup smiled.

It felt good to be called that.

Author's Notes:

OHMYGOSH THIS STORY WAS SO FUN TO WRITE AND I JUST HAVE TO SAY A HUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGEEEE HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE THANK YOU TO THE USER IonitaMircea32 FOR REQUESTING THIS AWESOME THING! THANK YOU! It WAS SO FUN TO WRITE! :D

Sooooo, I'm going on my hiatus now through June, and maybe through just a little teeny bit of July, too, since right now my hiatus is overdue. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT TO FINISH THIS STORY! :D

I put some new stories up on my poll, so if you guys want, you can vote for which one I write after I get out of my hiatus! The first one I'm going to do is "Come Little Children" (it's not on the poll because I already know for certain that I'm writing it next because the user that requested it (freyathefearless, guest) has been waiting FOREVER for me to write it), and then really whatever comes next. :)

And last but not least….

I LOVE YOU GUYS OMGOSH YOU ARE ALL SO INCREDIBLY AMAZING AND THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL AND I WILL SEE YOU AGAIN IN JULY! :D :D :D

Until next story!

-BeyondTheClouds777