Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to get ahead in a few more chapters. This chapter isn't closely read for mistakes or grammatical errors, so please be kind. I promise if I notice anything I'll change it as soon as I can. Again, thanks to my reviewers, you guys are awesome!
Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Complications
After that night with Adrien, Marinette decided to take a step back from everything for a while to just think. She thought about sending a message to Chat, but in the end decided a talk face-to-face was better.
She only had to wait a few nights before they could meet. She was sitting on the edge of a random building, staring out into the night sky, when the familiar soft thump of boots alerted her to his presence.
"My lady, it's nice to see you again." He bowed lowly, making her smile. She patted the spot beside her and pulled out a fleece blanket from behind. Without hesitating, he slid beside her and threw the blanket around them. A leather-clad arm slid around her waist, the brief cold of the material making her shiver.
"You haven't asked to meet like this in a while. Everything okay?" He asked, grabbing her hand and tracing patterns on it.
"Yeah, just a lot of stuff going on in my civilian life. It's hard to believe we've balanced everything for almost eight years now." She felt Chat nod his agreement. "How's your side? It should be almost healed by now."
"100% again, thanks to you. I don't even think the scar will be all that noticeable after some time."
"I'm glad you're okay." She took a deep breath, and finally looked to meet his eyes.
She secretly loved that green. Alya teased her she had a thing for men with green eyes once. Chat was smiling, eyes searching hers.
"Something's bothering you. Care to share, Princess?" She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Are we doing the right thing? We've kept everything a secret for this long, and it's worked. We haven't been personally blackmailed by Hawkmoth, and our families are safe." Chat's hand stopped moving as she spoke, but he didn't pull it away. He grasped it tighter, as if to keep her from pulling away.
"I'm not going to lie, I'm scared too. But, I'm mostly scared of losing you. If you need us to slow things down, just to take a step back and think over things for a while, I'm okay with that. As long as I can keep you in my life. I cannot lose you." The sincerity in his eyes made her warm, and the thinly veiled fear made her grasp his hand harder.
"I'm not going anywhere. Some time to think is exactly what I need. You'll be there when I'm tired of thinking, right?" He pulled her in close and started pressing playful kisses to her face. She giggled but didn't try to push him away.
"I'll be here, always. However you'll take me." His words tugged at her heart, and she had to fight the tears gathering in her eyes.
That night, as she buried herself in bed, her heart was heavy but the nervous weight on her shoulders was lifted. She reasoned it was okay to let a few tears slip, and Tikki stayed close that night to comfort her.
Only a few weeks had passed, and her life was more hectic than usual. She was so stressed out between finals for university and deciding what to do about her relationship with Chat, that she got sick frequently. Food never sat well with her, and it was starting to get on her nerves.
It got so bad that at one point she almost collapsed after class.
The course was hands-on designing, meaning she was working, and on her feet for three hours straight. Her design had a lot of components and switching fabrics, and she needed to keep her mind sharp to avoid screwing up.
Not wanting to have to stop in case she got sick, Marinette chose to avoid eating breakfast altogether. The class was important, and if she could get a good score on a timed dress project then she wouldn't have to take the written final— and that would be a huge weight off her shoulders.
Adrian was in the same class, conveniently stationed right behind her, and had noticed the way she would sway occasionally. Since he'd stayed at Marinette's, he was worried about her.
While he was fine the next day, she'd still had lingering nausea. He wanted to stay and make sure she was fine but ended up leaving after she insisted. Since then, he noticed she had seemed off. Often she seemed tired, and lost focus easily.
As class dismissed, Marinette left with the paper in hand dismissing her from the final. She almost cried when the teacher handed it to her, smiling and telling her good work.
All that was on her mind as she left was food and a nap, so she didn't hear Adrien calling her name. As he jogged to catch up to her, her vision tunneled, and she grabbed the wall for support. Her legs would have given out had arms not looped around her waist and held her up.
"Marinette? Are you okay? You didn't eat this morning." He said it as a statement. She'd done this once before, back when they had just started university. It was their first round of midterms, and she'd been so nervous for a class she'd skipped eating all day.
Marinette had gotten dizzy and ended up at Adrien's while he forced her to eat. It had actually been one of the moments that cemented their closer relationship.
"No, I didn't because of the test. I couldn't risk getting sick in middle of it, so I skipped breakfast. I'll go eat now, promise." He shook his head but released her from his hold.
"Nope, I'm supervising you the rest of the day. Is your place okay since it's closer?" She nodded, and before she could protest further, he took her hand and led her home.
He made her food, ate lunch with her, and then left once he was satisfied she would be okay. What Adrien didn't know was that as soon as he left, Marinette rushed to the bathroom and threw up everything.
She slept on the bathroom floor that night, crying every time she got sick while Tikki held her hair back.
Thankfully, for the rest of the week her nausea subsided. A few times her stomach would roll at the smell of chicken, but it would go away quickly.
She caught up on her studies, rolling through her finals with ease. It wasn't until the last one that she got sick again. The last ten minutes or so, she scribbled her answers out and threw it on the professor's desk. She didn't miss the worried look on her professor's face and made a mental note to email her and explain later.
The bathroom was clean, so she didn't feel a bit grossed out to sit in the floor, back against the cool wall. Tikki sat on her shoulder, nuzzling her cheek and wishing she could do something for Marinette.
Twenty minutes passed, and she finally heard knocking at the door, and managed a weak "Occupied". It snapped her out of it enough to realize she needed to go to the doctor.
Being sick for this long obviously wasn't food poisoning, and if it was something as serious as cancer the earlier it was found the better. She snorted to herself, knowing it most likely wasn't that.
After digging through her purse for a moment, Tikki dove in and came back out with Marinette's phone.
"Are you going to call the doctor?" She floated directly in front of her chosen, trying to figure out what could be wrong.
"No, but I'm going to call someone to take me there. Hopefully he's not busy."
~.~.~.~.~.~.
"Miss Dupain-Cheng, I'm Doctor Smith. It's nice to meet you." She stuck out her hand to shake, which Marinette took and smiled back at her. She was very nice, and her demeanor helped Marinette to calm down.
No doctor was going to come in so cheery and welcoming, just to tell her she had some rare disease or something incurable.
"May I ask who this is?" Dr. Smith gestured to the chair beside the table. Adrien straightened up from his slouch, giving the doctor a smile.
"I'm Adrien. It's nice to meet you." Dr. Smith smiled and turned back to look at Marinette's chart.
Adrien mouthed out something along the lines of "She didn't recognize me," and grinned. She shook her head, smiling too. He secretly loved when someone didn't know who he was.
"So, I've got good news. The main cause of your nausea is irritation of the lining in your stomach. Is there anything that would have you stressed out lately?"
"I just finished taking my finals for university." Dr. Smith nodded, and scribbled notes down.
"That would definitely cause high levels of stress. I'll prescribe you a medicine to take for a few weeks to build the lining in your stomach back up and allow you to eat without getting sick." Marinette bit her lip.
"Um, actually, could I just wait it out? I'm not fond of taking medicine unless I have to." Dr. Smith smiled, and she sat down on the chair across from Marinette and Adrien.
The young adults exchanged looks of worry. No one ever gave them that look, unless they were receiving news that wasn't good.
"Usually, I would encourage such a view, but not in this case." Marinette felt her stomach turn and eyed the trashcan in the corner of the office. Dr. Smith noticed and slid it closer with her foot.
"Does it have to do with the 'other' cause of nausea?" Adrien hadn't missed her earlier words and had been pondering over them.
Marinette being sick for over two weeks made him very worried. He was happy when she finally broke down and asked him to take her to the clinic. There was a campus one, but neither trusted it as much as a physician's office.
"Yes. You're about a month and a half pregnant, Marinette. Congratulations." It took about three seconds for the words to process, and Marinette lunged for the trashcan. Adrien immediately moved to keep her hair out of the way and looked to Dr. Smith.
She looked sympathetic, but something told him it was because Marinette was sick rather than the news of her being pregnant.
"B-but I'm on the p-pill, and other precautions. How did this e-even?" It wasn't often Marinette's stuttering made an appearance these days, but in times of extreme confusion or distress she couldn't help it. Right now definitely qualified.
"Well, not all contraceptives are effective, although they do have a 99% prevention rate. Sometimes these things still happen though, and there are other options if you're not ready to have a baby." Marinette tensed, automatically wrapping her arms around her waist.
"What? No! No, I could never. I-I'm keeping it." Dr. Smith smiled and turned back to her chart, making more notes. When she turned back to them, she held out a prescription.
"This is for your stomach, take it once a day for the next week, and you shouldn't have any nausea outside of the usual morning sickness. If you do, don't hesitate to give me a call. I have a special phone for my expecting patients, so I'll give you that number to contact me with should there be any emergencies." Since Marinette was still in shock, Adrien leaned forward to take the card from Dr. Smith.
"You also need to stop at a pharmacy and pick up some prenatal pills. They're special vitamins to help you and the baby get enough nutrients. No high amounts of caffeine, and definitely no alcohol or raw meats of any kind."
Marinette was thankful Adrien was here, no matter how embarrassing it was to have your crush find out you're pregnant when you do, because she only caught about half of the information. Knowing him, he caught every word and was already mapping out routes to the pharmacy.
"I know this is a lot to take in, but you seem like you have a good guy here. He'll help you, so don't go thinking this is all on you to worry about. After all, it takes two to make a baby, no?" Marinette opened her mouth to tell the doctor Adrien wasn't the father, but he spoke first.
"Don't worry, I won't let her. Like you said, we got into this adventure together." Dr. Smith smiled and stood.
"I'd like to see you again this week for a proper ultrasound, and then after that in three months. We should be able to tell the gender at that appointment. I'll see you two soon, and again if you have any questions or problems call me. Have a good day." Marinette wanted to puke again, but not because of her stomach this time.
"Oh wait!" Marinette spoke, Dr. Smith stopped, turning to face them.
"I may have eaten some bad chicken a few weeks ago. Just a few pieces, but would that have hurt anything?" Marinette twisted at the hem of her shirt, worried she had already screwed up her child before even getting used to the idea of being pregnant.
"No, you should be okay. Especially since it was just a piece or two. Make sure to double check food from now on though, okay?" Marinette nodded, and Dr. Smith left.
As they left, Adrien made the appointment for later in the week, managing to coax her into giving him specific times that would be best. She stayed silent, nodding at his questions.
The receptionist gave her a sympathetic look, and she chose to shut her eyes and lean on the wall until the appointment was set.
Finally, they exited and walked back to Adrien's car, Marinette almost missing it she was so far gone in thoughts. He had to grab her hand to guide her around the proper way before her mind snapped back to reality.
"Marinette, I'm so sorry." They were on their way to the pharmacy, but currently stuck in traffic. Marinette had still been totally silent, and Adrien mulling over what to say.
"Why? I got myself into this mess. Why are you being so nice to me about this anyway? This could be bad for your image, and your Dad would lose his mind at a pregnancy rumor. If the nurses or Doctor had recognized you, we may have had a problem." She contemplated getting out of the car and walking, just to avoid the conversation, but Adrien would lock the doors and force her to stay.
"Forget my image. I'm not the one pregnant and carrying an entire other human. Besides, I'm not leaving you alone in this, Mari. This is my fault anyway." He muttered the last part, and she snapped to look at him.
"Your fault?" He didn't answer at first, waiting until the light changed and the car began to move.
"Sorry, that came out wrong. Just wait until we get you home, okay?" His posture was stiff, and he refused to look her in the eye. It made her nervous.
"Okay…" She had no idea what he was talking about, or hiding, but decided it was best to leave it alone for now.
And we finally arrive at the main premise for the story! I'll get chapter 5 out soon for you guys!
