Adrien had one more chance, and he sure as hell wasn't going to waste it. He knew that he could do everything in his power to help Marinette the next day at school, but it wouldn't make an ounce of difference as long as his peers still went and talked behind Marinette's back. No act of chivalry would mask the gossip. Adrien had no choice; he had to nip this problem in the bud.

Now, Adrien's mind was filled with things that he would love to say to those jerks, but he needed to stay on their good side. Besides, everyone in school knew him as a pretty docile guy. Adrien needed to make sure he kept his Chat persona as far away from his Adrien one as possible, or else people might get suspicious. No, he couldn't go and tell off his peers without raising any suspicions. He needed backup, and he knew there was only one girl for the job.

Alya was shocked when she looked at her caller ID. Why on earth was he calling her? Hell, she had no idea that the Agreste boy even had her number! Nonetheless, she picked up her phone on the second ring. Adrien had been acting so strangely at school, and maybe she could get some information out of him.

"Hello?" Alya answered.

"Hey, Alya, it's Adrien. How are you?" Adrien asked casually.

"Um, I'm good, I guess. What's up?"

"I was calling to talk about Marinette," Adrien started. Alya almost fell out of her chair. This was too good! Her best friend's crush was calling to talk about Marinette? She would go nuts! Alya was definitely going to have to call Mari after this. But before the wheels in her head could keep turning, Adrien continued.

"I would bet that you're pretty unhappy about Marinette moving schools, right?"

"Yeah, of course I want her to stay, but you could see how unhappy she was. I just want what's best for her," Alya stated.

"I think it would be best for her to stay around her friends."

"Well, obviously, but she seems to think otherwise. I don't think she can handle people gossiping about her." Alya sighed, believing it all to be a lost cause. Why did Agreste even care so much?

"Then we need to stop the gossip!" Adrien exclaimed. Alya had to stifle a laugh.

"Come again? Adrien, Marinette is pregnant. With some mystery guy's baby, nonetheless! People don't just let these things go; I would know! How the hell would we get people to stop talking about that?"

"C'mon Alya," Adrien said. "Marinette is probably the kindest girl in the entire school. Everyone loves her! We just have to get them to empathize and show them how hurtful they're being."

"As much as I would love that, Marinette has already made up her mind. She got the form signed and everything, and she starts at her new school next week. It's too late, Adrien."

"Not quite," Adrien pointed out. What on earth was he talking about? Why was he being so persistent? The aspiring journalist in Alya was bursting at the seams, and if she wasn't careful she would go into full interrogation mode. But this was about more than Alya's personal satisfaction. This was about Marinette. And if Marinette's long time crush was finally showing interest in the girl, Alya wanted to make sure not to jinx it.

"What do you mean, Agreste?"

"I talked to her…. I mean, I heard that she was giving it one more day at school. We have one more chance." Adrien explained.

"How… Who?" Alya stammered. "Who convinced her to give it one more day? Even I couldn't talk her into that!"

"Uh, I don't know exactly. All I know is that we have to get everyone back on Marinette's side, and fast."

"Alright, you've got me. I'm in. What's the plan?"

Barely one hour later, their entire class was sitting in Alya's living room, minus Chloe and Marinette, of course. Alya and Adrien had immediately gotten to work calling everyone they knew. Even though many students had been busy, they had been convinced to come when they heard it was about Marinette. Most of them had come for their own selfish reasons, as they hoped to learn the juicy details about the girl's mysterious situation. However, upon arriving and seeing the look of frustration on Alya's face, they realized that they might be in for more than they bargained for.

Surprisingly, no one said a word at first. The tension in the room was obvious, but no one wanted to feel Alya's wrath. Once the last two people, Ivan and Mylène, arrived, Adrien stood up from the armchair he had been occupying.

"Thank you all for coming," Adrien announced. "I realize that this isn't the most opportune time, but this conversation really couldn't wait." A few people nodded, but most stayed quiet. That is, until Kim spoke up.

"I had to miss swim practice for this, can we hurry it up? I don't mean to brag, but I'm the star…" he started, but he never got to finish.

"Take a moment to think about someone other than yourself, Kim!" Alya snapped. She stood up in a confrontational manner, but Adrien pushed her back down into the couch.

"In respect of everyone's time, I'll try to keep this brief," Adrien continued, nodding at Kim. "But only if you guys promise to respect our wishes." He looked around the room for any objections, and was pleasantly surprised to see none. "I asked you all to come here because I want to talk about what happened to Marinette today."

Immediately, the quiet room erupted. Everyone had turned to their neighbor and started blatantly whispering about the poor girl again. And they did not hold back their judgmental comments. This angered Adrien to no end. He could not just sit by while his "friends" bad-mouthed the mother of his child. However, losing his temper would be too risky. Instead, he just nodded at Alya. The girl wasted no time, stepped onto the coffee table, and yelled.

"EXCUSE ME!" Everyone stopped their whispering, and a startled Rose dropped the glass of water that she had been holding with a squeal. "Do you guys hear yourselves? How insensitive can you be? This is Marinette Dupain-Cheng we're talking about, and I will not stand here and listen to you all talk shit about her!"

A wave of guilt passed over the faces of almost everyone there. Unsurprisingly, Sabrina seemed to lack the capacity to be sorry due to the fact that she had been brainwashed by Chloe.

"It's her own fault that she got knocked up!" the redhead squeaked. "She can't seriously have expected people not to gossip!" Adrien growled and whipped around to face Sabrina.

"Are you kidding me? What is wrong with you? What happens in Marinette's personal life is none of your business, you little…" Adrien lashed out.

"ALRIGHT!" Alya screamed, effectively stopping Adrien's strange rampage. She gave the blonde a questioning look before continuing. "I know that this is all really weird, and it is really hard to not want to figure it all out. Trust me, I get it. But we have to think about what we're doing. Every time you go behind Marinette's back and gossip, you're hurting her. Her situation is already difficult enough, don't you think?" Alya could see that people were starting to think about what they had done, but she knew she had to drive the point home. And that meant that it had to get personal.

"Alix," Alya started. The pink haired girl looked up, surprised to be singled out. "Who was there to take you to the hospital when you broke your wrist rollerblading?"

"Marinette was," Alix replied. Alya turned to Sabrina next.

"Sabrina? Who helped you when you were overloaded with Chloe's homework, as well as your own? Who stayed with you at the library until two in the morning?"

"It was Marinette," Sabrina mumbled, dropping her gaze into her lap.

"Ivan and Mylène, isn't Marinette the entire reason you guys got together in the first place?" Alya questioned. The two nodded, sharing an affectionate look with each other. "I know that Marinette has touched each and every one of our lives. She's the reason that I have Nino right now," Alya smiled. "Don't you guys see? Marinette has been there for us without fail, and now she needs you guys to return the favor. Do you all really want her to switch schools?"

A resounding "no" echoed through the room. Adrien gave Alya a small smile and then turned to face the room.

"We have one more chance to show Marinette that we are going to support her, and I know that with your help, we can show her that she belongs with her friends," Adrien said confidently.

The next day, Marinette struggled to find the will to get out of her bed. She really loathed the idea of listening to her old friends talk crap behind her back, but she made a promise to Chat to give it one more go. She swung her legs over the side of her bed, and let out a heavy sigh. She had been feeling extra tired lately, and it seemed as though she couldn't get enough sleep. She trudged over to her vanity and looked at the bottle of vitamins that had revealed her secret to the world. Marinette knew that her friends would find out eventually, but she had been hoping for a few more weeks to get her bearings.

'Oh well. The chat's out of the bag now,' Marinette giggled to herself before swallowing her pills. She got dressed and put on her shoes before making her way downstairs. Her parents were busy in the bakery already, prepping for the breakfast rush. They didn't know that she was going to school for one more day, and Marinette really didn't feel like explaining. Instead, she wrote out a note and left it on the island.

She made her way out of the door and was surprised to find Kim and Alix waiting just , she spotted them after running straight into Kim's chest.

"Oh!" Marinette exclaimed, and apologized profusely. "Are you guys waiting for the bakery? It doesn't open for another half hour, but I can grab…" Kim just laughed in response, and Alix stepped forward.

"Nah, we're not here for the bakery," Alix explained. "We just thought we would walk with you to school."

"Oh, um… that's so sweet of you," Marinette stuttered. Why were Alix and Kim being so nice? "Don't you guys usually roller blade? Please, don't let me slow you down."

"Well that would be rude of us, especially since we already told you we were walking you to school," Kim stated. "We also wanted to say sorry for… yesterday. That was really not cool of us."

"Yeah," Alix added. "Your situation is sucky enough without your friends making a huge deal about it." Marinette looked between her two friends, and she almost started tearing up on the spot. She pulled them into a group hug and smiled. But what caused their change of heart?

"Thank you, guys, that means a lot," Marinette answered. Kim smiled back and then looked at his watch.

"I know you're used to being late, Mari, but we better get started if we want to make it before the tardy bell."

"Of course, lead the way!_

The strange behavior didn't stop there. Everywhere Marinette turned, one of her friends was doing something nice for her. First, Ivan helped her reach the textbooks on the top shelf of her locker, when she usually had to secretly send Tikki out to give them a push. When Marinette accidentally dropped her sack lunch into the dirt, Juleka offered to split her own lunch with Mari. And most shockingly, Adrien hadn't left her side all morning (Which explained why she had been such a clumsy mess!). He had been waiting by her seat when she arrived in the morning, and offered her a fresh blueberry muffin made by his personal chef. He claimed that the chef had made extras, but Marinette wasn't so sure. Then, as she was moving to go to physics, he offered to carry her bag for her. Since that was the bag where Tikki currently resided, she had to decline, but the gesture itself made her swoon.

Mari was thrilled at the attention she was getting from her biggest crush, but it felt a little weird to her. After all, she was having someone else's baby. She wasn't romantically bound to Chat in any way, right? She wasn't even planning on keeping the baby. She had been thinking more and more about Master Fu's offer, and she had been heavily considering it. Just because she had to make this sacrifice for Paris's sake didn't mean she had to change her entire future. She hated keeping it a secret from Chat, especially since he had been so supportive. Still, she dreaded the thought of bringing up that conversation. Chat had seemed excited about the baby, and Marinette had no idea how he'd react.

Anyway, what was making everyone be so nice to her all of the sudden? When she approached Alya about it, the brown-haired girl just smiled and winked. Did Alya talk to everyone? Marinette found that to be the most likely solution, but she had no idea how her best friend worked this kind of miracle. Had Alya threatened them?

The biggest surprise of the day happened at the end. Somehow, Marinette had managed to avoid Chloe all day. That was truly a first! It almost seemed as if her classmates were distracting the blonde whenever she would usually come to torment Marinette. Unfortunately, most people had gone home when Marinette finally made her way to the exit of the school. She had started to feel a bit sick and rushed herself to the bathroom, where she dry-heaved for a good fifteen minutes. When she had emerged from the stall, she ran into Chloe and Sabrina reapplying their makeup. Marinette resisted the urge to leave the bathroom without washing her hands and tried to avoid the blonde's relentless gaze.

"Well if it isn't our own little mommy!" Chloe started. "Too bad there isn't a daddy in the picture. I'm not surprised, though. I'm sure he ditched you when he realized what an annoying little tramp you are," she laughed. Marinette's cheeks started to flare and she worried that the lights in the bathroom would burst any second. Chloe had begun another series of taunts when Sabrina stepped in between the two girls.

"Enough!" the redhead yelled. Chloe turned to her friend and scoffed.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Chloe. Just leave her alone, won't you?" Chloe glared at Sabrina, but Sabrina refused to back down. Obviously embarrassed that her backup had turned against her, Chloe left in a huff. Marinette mumbled a shocked "thanks" to Sabrina before the redhead left to follow Chloe.

"What the hell has gotten in to everyone?"

That night, Marinette heard a knock on the trapdoor to her balcony. Unsurprisingly, Chat Noir was the one on the other side. She moved aside and he let himself in and found a comfy spot on her lounge.

"So, how was school?" Chat asked. Of course, he knew exactly how it went, but he wanted to hear it from her.

"It was… really nice," Marinette admitted. "I don't know why everyone had a change of heart, but you were right, Chat."

"Really, I was right?" he joked. "Music to my ears, my lady!" Marinette giggled.

"Oh hush, Kitty. Statistically, it had to happen sometime!"

Chat put a hand over his heart, feigning pain. "You wound me, Purr-incess!"

The two shared a smile and Chat moved over to sit on the bed next to Marinette. She almost instinctively moved away, but she caught herself before she did. As Ladybug, she did everything she could to refuse Chat's endless advances. But now, she didn't find it so annoying.

"How are you doing?" Chat asked, grabbing one of Marinette's hands in his own.

"Not terrible, I guess. I think some morning sickness has started, though. It's weird. It makes it all seem real," Marinette said softly. Chat gave her hand a squeeze.

"It is real, Mari. We're going to be parents," he told her. When he heard the girl take in a sharp, nervous breath, he gently raised her head to meet his gaze. "But it's okay. I'm here for you, every step of the way. I promise."

Marinette found herself getting lost in Chat's green eyes and sweet words. How had this silly kitty suddenly become so mature? His words only worsened the guilt in her heart. He really wanted them to be parents? How was she ever going to break the news? Chat could still be the baby's father, but Marinette didn't really want to raise the kid. Didn't Chat have his own dreams for his future?

Marinette could feel herself getting stressed and worried about the baby going berserk. But before anything could happen, Chat had started running his hands through her hair, effectively calming her down. Before she knew it, her eyelids were starting to droop and she couldn't sit up anymore. Chat gave her one last smile before standing up.

"Ah, I guess that is my cue to leave," he stated, giving her a small salute. He was almost out the door when Marinette stopped him.

"Chat, wait!"

The blonde hero stopped in his tracks and turned to face the beautiful, tired girl.

Now, Marinette had no idea what came over her. Maybe it was insanity, or maybe it was hormones. All she knew is that she really didn't want him to leave.

"Stay."

And that word was the undoing of one very lovestruck Chat Noir.

Thank you for reading! Sorry for any mistakes, I plan to go over and edit a lot later. I just wanted to get some material to you guys while I was inspired :)