A Hiccstrid Story

Chapter 14

Astrid followed Hayden as he led her through the garden and up the stone stairs to the balcony overlooking the party. He then opened the French doors and walked over to the right before entering a door a little way down the corridor. Astrid followed into a beautiful study that was clearly Hayden's father. There were oak bookcases lining the two walls filled to the brim with books. There were both collector's edition books as well as rare books that had barely any copies. At the end of the room, there was a stunning hand-crafted mahogany desk with a picture frame on it as well as several papers in the middle. On the other side, there was a laptop angled slightly towards the chair.

Hayden sat on the edge of the desk and indicated for her to sit in one of the two chairs on their side of the desk. Sitting tentatively, Astrid placed her hands in her lap and fidgeted nervously. "I wanted to apologise for my attitude towards you since you returned to town." Out of everything that could have left his mouth, that was the one thing she least expected. "I-It's ok" Astrid said nervously, "you were rightfully angry at my betrayal so it's not your fault." Hayden smiled, "not so rightfully it seems." Astrid looked at him questioningly. "My mother told me about the diagnosis" he clarified, "so I apologise."

The woman before him shook her head, "it's not necessary but thank you." Hayden nodded his head and then stood up, walking around the back of the desk. "My mother told me about what the doctor told you about remembering" he stated, "so I thought that I'd help you out seen as I have and know just the places to jog your memory." Astrid sat baffled, why would he help after what I did to him? "Have you remembered anything so far?" he questioned while looking in a drawer on the bottom left side. "Not much, only flashes when I look at a photo" she started, "when people started arriving at the party, I remembered some other parties that I attended."

Hayden hummed from his crouched position behind the desk, "why are you willing to help me though?" Astrid questioned, "I don't understand. Even after I cheated on you?" Hayden sighed and stood up, "because it's not your fault you forgot about me and our relationship." Astrid nodded and then questioned what the man was doing, "fair enough, what are you doing behind there?" Hayden stayed silent as he searched through the drawer before jumping to his feet. "I was looking for this" he said as he showed her a photo album. "When we were dating, I used to take pictures of everything we did together. From dates to school hangouts to the garden parties. Literally everything."

Astrid sat in awe as she looked at Hayden holding the album before he gestured for her to follow him as he left the study. He led her through the corridor to the entranceway and then up the large staircase. Astrid followed him all the way up and then along the corridors and into a room that instantly caused her to remember moments from 10 years ago. This was Hayden's room, just being in the room was opening up her mind to old forgotten memories. Images flooded through her brain of times spent in the room, from sensual nights of passion to just chilling in the room revising for tests. So many nights of her childhood had been spent here and all of that was now being remembered.

Hayden looked at her, "what's wrong?" Astrid looked at him as her blank stare cleared from her face. "Nothing, it's just" she paused, "being in this room is causing so many forgotten memories to resurface." Hayden smiled and led her over to the desk, pulling out the seat for her. Astrid sat down and looked at the desk as he placed the photo album in front of her. "I hoped that you being here and looking at this will jog you mind a little." Hayden then walked over to his bed to lay down and wait for her to finish flicking through all the images. "Thank you Hayden" Astrid said as she turned in her seat to thank him.

The woman turned back to look at the photo album in front of her and opened it to the first page. The pages contained 8 photos of both Hayden and Astrid. Some images were taken of just her and some contained both of them. The ones of just her were of her doing normal things, like sitting in class studying or chilling on his bed. As she flipped through the album more and more memories started to freely flow through her mind of moments once forgotten but now being remembered. It would appear as though Hayden was right in his assumption, being in a place she spent so long in, coupled with the photos before her was truly getting rid of her selective amnesia.

Upon reaching the end of the album, she closed it, stood up and walked over to Hayden who was busy looking at his phone. "H-Hayden" she said with tears threatening to spill from her eyes. He rested his phone down on the bed and looked up at her, concern forming on his face as he saw the tears. "I'm so so sorry for everything I put you through. A-All the years of suffering and pain I c-caused........." she stopped talking as tears followed down her cheeks, causing her to choke on her words. Hayden stood up and pulled her into a hug, circling a hand over the small of her back, just like he used to back when they were together.

Astrid's heart fluttered as she felt his arms wrap around her. It was weird yet oddly familiar and made her feel incredibly safe and loved. She had no right to think that after what she did to him. However, having had her memories returned, she was overwhelmed with emotions that were just going over each other and completely blocking out all of her thoughts. The only thought going through her head was how much she had ruined her life. She had ruined her relationship with Hayden, had been cheated on by Erick and now had no one who loved her romantically. Worse still, the only one she would ever want to be with was never going to go back out with her after what she did. Yet here he was, comforting her as if nothing untoward had happened over the last few years.

"It's ok Astrid, I forgive you" Hayden comforted with his hands rubbing up and down her back. "I hold nothing against you, it wasn't your fault." Astrid snuffled her tears back as she broke the embrace and looked at him. "T-Thank you, even though I don't deserve it" she replied to his comfort. "I missed you Astrid" Hayden said to her. Astrid chuckled as she stopped crying and wiping her tears away. "I missed you too Hayden." He smiled and walked over to the desk to pick up the album. "Before we head back to the party, why don't we catch up a little?" he suggested. Astrid smiled and nodded quickly at the suggestion.

The pair sat on the bed together and Hayden started the conversation, "so what have you been up to?" Astrid started to talk about the last 10 years of her life from university to the article that made her career, to her work and the places she has been to. She also told him about the recent events with Erick and what he had done and implied during their last conversation. "What a scumbag, an absolute fucking asshole" Hayden ranted, "you don't deserve that, even if it was karma." Astrid listened to Hayden as he ranted some more about her bastard of an ex. "Thank you Hayden that means a lot to me, more than you know."

"I haven't been up to anything else, what about you?" Astrid asked him. Hayden's smile faltered but he nevertheless told her about the last decade of his life. From Special Forces training to rescuing the president's daughter, to rescuing Mia and finally about his injuries three years prior. "When I woke, I was told that my leg had been amputated on the lower left leg." Astrid sat in stunned silence when he said this. Looking at him, you would never know that he was missing part of his leg. He had no limp, no obvious prosthetic or any signs that there was anything wrong. "Y-you lost your lower leg?" Astrid asked as if not believing him.

To prove a point, Hayden reached to the bottom of his left leg and pulled the trouser leg up as far as he could. Astrid's eyes landed sight on a metal prosthetic that looked completely odd in its design. It looked like a piece of metal was just wrapped around his leg and foot. "When I came home, I designed this prosthetic and then the military constructed it for me. Of course I tweaked it a little but it operates just like I never lost it." Astrid was in awe of him. After just losing your leg you come home with the parents who disowned you and make your own leg? How this man could do this baffled her to no end. It just didn't make sense to her about how he could do this. How much determination and drive does this guy have?

"I am alright now though" he clarified, seeing her look. "I learned to live with it and it makes things interesting." Astrid giggled, "I'm glad, but I'm sorry that happened to you. How did it occur?" Hayden's smile left his face as he thought back to the base attack. "I-I don't want to talk about it" he offered as a response, "it was a dark time." Astrid chose to drop the topic and instead gave him an exit out of the situation. "Come on, we should get back to the party, the others will be missing us." Hayden nodded before standing up and making his way over to the door with Astrid getting up to follow.