Well then, looks like we're in for a couple of really interesting chapters, I think now that I look more into it, the whole Gabriel finding out part needs more depth to it, I don't really want to cut it just down to the point because I know most of you are expecting a full blown reaction from Gabriel so that's what I'll try to aim for. Maybe towards the end of this chapter or at the start of the next chapter it'll be the ultrasound and then afterwards a time skip to keep this story moving along. :)

So I really love the feedback I get from you guys, the encouragement and positive feedback from all of you is what motivates me to keep on writing this story till the very end! Well, that and I usually hate to leave a story unfinished…

Anyways, enjoy the Chapter! ^^

Miraculous Ladybug © Thomas Astruc/ Zagtoon

Chapter 21 – A Negative Reaction

The sudden rush of news almost made Gabriel faint from shock, but he withheld his ground, his face filled with strongly definitive shock, his mouth glued open with his eyes widened at the sudden turn of events. A million things raced through his mind in that moment Adrien and Marinette anxiously waited for a response, both having the feeling that it was going to be negative.

So many questions erupted in Gabriel's mind. Were they that intimate so soon? Why didn't they use Protection? Was abortion still an option? Was Marinette sure it was Adrien's child? How far along was she? Did her family know? Did they have anything planned yet? He wanted to ask them all, but felt like his emotions would take great control with every question he asked. In the end he decided to ask the more basic and obvious questions, knowing that eventually he would find out everything.

Gabriel cleared his throat, almost startling Adrien and Marinette who were biting their lip tightly in nervousness, Marinette looked down at her stomach caressing it as she held back her tears, ready to face the negative response, meanwhile Adrien kept a content and serious face, but his muscles tightened and he couldn't help but bit down on his lip really hard, almost piercing the skin as well.

"How far along are you?" Gabriel asked in a calm tone.

Both Adrien and Marinette were surprised with how Gabriel was responding so far to the pregnancy, but deep down they both felt like he was going to explode with negativity, but at the same time they began to have second thoughts about assuming the obvious with Gabriel.

Marinette took a deep breath to relax herself, temporarily relieved that he didn't yell in their faces or ask her to leave immediately. "I'm around four months." She answered, worried that saying how far along she was would trigger something in Gabriel's mind that might set off a switch inside of him.

Four months…. Gabriel repeated that over and over in his head. She had been pregnant for four months already, they had only been together five months in terms of what they told him and a month into their relationship they decide to fool around with each other and then make a baby by mistake. He only assumed it was a mistake, knowing how young they both were, Adrien turning eighteen very soon and they were both in their last year of high school and neither of them had moved out yet, but Gabriel wasn't expecting Adrien to move out anytime soon.

He couldn't hold it in, they were reckless, and they didn't use protection. Sure, it meant that they loved each other a lot and they had loved each other for more than five months but had only been together for that long. It was too much, neither of them were ready to start a family, they were still teenagers, he wasn't ready to be a grandparent, he expected better from both of them.

"I can't accept this reckless behaviour of yours." He stated firmly, closing his eyes as he clenched his hands on the desk, and then turning his head towards Adrien. "I expected better from you Adrien, this is not what I raised you for."

Adrien saw it coming, he began to fight back. "But father it was an accident, I didn't mean to hurt her like that." He exclaimed, gesturing to her with a look of regret on his face, hating himself everyday for hurting her like that.

Gabriel cleared his throat, now seeing that Adrien didn't mean for this to happen, but this only raised more confusion and anger as to why this had happened in the first place. "Really, then why did you decide to do it in the first place?" He asked, his tone of anger slowly rising.

Marinette felt like it was going to come something like this, in that moment while Adrien and her father were arguing, she started to make decisions on her own, not wanting Adrien and his father to have a torn relationship over her pregnancy, she knew Adrien wouldn't be able to fully explain why this happened and neither could she, it wasn't going to make any sense no matter what lie they conjured up, she could see in Gabriel's expression that it was only growing more and more negative the more Adrien tried to explain everything.

She spoke up in the midst of the argument. "I'll take care of the baby on my own...if that's what you want..." She said, beginning to cry as she realised the decision she was making.

Adrien's heart almost completely shattered into shards of broken glass, he didn't want her to do any of this on her own, he wasn't thinking she couldn't do it all on her own, but at the same time she had so much to tackle in her life already, he didn't want her being a full time mother without any of his help. "Marinette, no! I don't want you raising our baby on your own! I'm not saying you can't handle it but I want to be a part of this baby's life as much as you do!" He exclaimed, cupping Marinette's face.

"I will not tolerate this Adrien; I will only accept this on one condition." Gabriel stated firmly, grabbing some papers from one of his drawers. "That you two consider an abortion." He said as he spread the papers in front of the two teens on his desk.

The first thought that came to Adrien's mind was that his father was prepared for this to happen. "You were prepared for this? What makes you think I was going to turn out to be a reckless child!?" Adrien snapped, feeling strongly offended.

Gabriel knew Adrien wouldn't take this kindly, he was surprised to see Marinette not breathe another word, instead she was trying her very best to hold back her tears, but was starting to lose control. Having a child this early in their lives was not something he wanted to happen, he knew that the damage had been done but there was still time to undo the damage, the two of them needed to consider an abortion, otherwise he only had one option left, and that was to go with Marinette's decision of taking care of the child on her own.

Thinking more about what Adrien just yelled at him about, Gabriel always thought from when he was born into the world that he was going to act so much like his mother, who was also reckless at his age, but not in the same way. He only thought because teenagers were doing it so early in their lives now that Adrien would choose to do the same, and with Adrien's reasons of not wanting to hurt her in the first place made it all the more promising that Adrien was only covering up his reckless actions with Marinette.

"Ever since you were born I've felt like you were more like your mother, she too was reckless at your age...not in the same way as what you've done but she loved to be free and break the rules of society every now and then. I can see her in your eyes every time I look at you. You're just like her, reckless and selfish!" Gabriel shouted, slamming his fists on the desk.

Gabriel was taking this too far; he had gone to great lengths to even insult his mother who had been missing for several years now, it was the last straw, Adrien was ready to explode, his heart was pounding, his face reddened in deep anger as he was about to yell back at his father, before he heard the soft cries of Marinette.

"See; look at what you've done!" Adrien exclaimed, his anger lessening but still present as he realised how upset their argument had made her.

Marinette tears slowly faded as she tried to hide them, not wanting to seem weak in front of her fashion idol but couldn't help herself. She hated that Gabriel put all the blame on his son and none on her, even though she knew that if it wasn't for him she wouldn't be pregnant in the first place, but in reality it was that one akumatised victim that started it all.

"I don't want to lose my baby!" Marinette cried, caressing her belly as she hid her face away from Gabriel.

"Fine, if you won't consider my abortion option then I will give you one final option that I will accept." Gabriel stated, his tone of anger slowly fading away as he intertwined his fingers on the desk.

Adrien wasn't ready to hear his father's other option, knowing it wouldn't be any better than the abortion option. He could already see that his father wasn't accepting this pregnancy already. He turned away, crossing his arms as Marinette dried the remainder of her tears, waiting to hear Gabriel's other option.

Gabriel cleared his throat before he spoke. "You can keep the child, but I don't want you having any links with her once the baby is born. You are not leaving this house to raise that child." He informed firmly, the seriousness piercing through Marinette's eyes, knowing that both options were terrible from their point of view.

Marinette couldn't take much more of this, it was worse than she thought it would be, although Gabriel didn't say much about her as he was mostly scolding and punishing his son for the unplanned pregnancy, Marinette couldn't help but feel that she was dragging Adrien down and wrecking his relationship with his father, she knew that it was strained a little already but felt like their relationship ad reached its limits. She didn't want it to become any worse than it was, she ran out the door, apologising before nothing but cries were heard from her mouth.

Adrien wanted to quickly run after her, but knowing that the argument with his father wasn't finished. "Father, you can't do this! I am much a part of that baby's life as Marinette is! You can't stop me from being what I'm going to be!" He yelled, pointing a finger at his father before rushing out the door after Marinette.

He knew that the next time he saw his father it was going to be worse than ever, but Adrien's number one concern right now was to comfort Marinette after what just happened. He knew how much of Gabriel's negativity was affecting her; it wasn't good for the baby either. All that Adrien wanted was to have a happy family, but knew that was the stuff dreams were made of and this was reality.

Compared to his life, Marinette's life almost seemed perfect, but he knew she had her struggles and imperfections; it was only because of his mother's disappearance that his life had grown more miserable since then. If he only knew what happened to his mother, everything would be so much better with her back in his and Gabriel's lives.

Not a moment later, Adrien found Marinette crying outside, she was about to leave the front gates when she heard Adrien call her name from behind. "Marinette, wait. Please!" Adrien cried, not wanting her to leave.

Marinette turned, seeing it was Adrien before she turned away, her face red and swollen with tears that engulfed her delicate and beautiful blue eyes, she hid her face away in shame, feeling that she looked like a complete mess and wanted nothing more to do with this. All she wanted to do in that moment was go home and forget that this meet up ever happened, it was terrible and she never wanted to remember it again.

"Leave me alone! I don't want to strain your family any more than I already have!" She cried, hiding her face in the palms of her hands.

Then, Adrien realised exactly what Marinette was upset about, he assumed that she was most upset about Gabriel not being accepting towards the pregnancy and forcing her to have an abortion or have him out of her life forever, but she was actually upset over the fact that she thought the pregnancy was tearing his and his father's relationship apart, when he knew it was already torn to begin with.

Adrien sat down beside her after Marinette stopped running and almost collapsed in tears on the steps, she kept her face hidden from him as he sighed heavily and rested his hands on her in support and comfort. "Marinette, this is not your fault. Ever since my mother disappeared things haven't been great with my father and me. It has nothing to do with you, it's not your problem at all, please don't feel like it's your fault." He assured, knowing that the pregnancy news only aggravated their father and son relationship which was already falling apart as it was.

Marinette looked up, sulking and sniffling as she saw the seriousness and a small comforting smile on his face. She felt terrible for what happened in there, Tikki and Plagg popped out in that very moment and comforted Marinette also.

"If your father won't be a part of this, so what?" Plagg exclaimed, not understanding the whole picture and just hoping that the two of them could work all of this out without Gabriel in the picture.

Adrien sighed, knowing that Plagg wouldn't understand the full picture; meanwhile Tikki was assuring her that not everything was going to work out crystal clear. Marinette already knew it wouldn't, she only had hope that Gabriel would be at least a little accepting to the pregnancy, not wanting Adrien to not be a part of the baby's life, or even worse getting rid of it while she still had time.

Tikki rested in the palms of Marinette's hands, looking up at Marinette's glum and saddened expression. "We can get through this Marinette; Adrien is here to support you. I know he'll never leave your side." Tikki assured with a smile looking over at Adrien.

"Tikki's right, no matter what my father says I'm not letting you do this on your own. I want to be in this child's life as much as possible, so it grows up with two loving parents. I don't want it to have what I've been through." Adrien explained, looking down as he thought about how torn apart his family was, not wanting that to happen to his child either.

Marinette looked up with a smile, knowing that her kwami and the love of her life would know exactly the right words to say to cheer her up, but then worry returned as she dreaded the thought of seeing Gabriel again, or when Adrien was going to walk back in there and talk properly to his father about everything. "But what about you and your father?" She asked worryingly, knowing things wouldn't get any better if he went back inside to talk to him more about this. "I don't want you to get hurt." She exclaimed, feeling some of the tears return to her eyes.

Adrien sighed, knowing that going back in and talking to his father was going to result in a thousand bad things happening to him at once, but then a thought occurred to him and his eyes widened as an idea came to mind. "Don't worry, I have an idea, we just have to wait a little while until everything will be sorted out for good." He assured with a wink.

So with that, Marinette felt like Adrien had most of it under control, she wasn't sure what he meant by having it under control, but as she made her way back home, she began to realise that his birthday was coming up real soon, meaning he was going to turn eighteen and have the right to do things on his own, she only hoped that Adrien would be able to do it all, seeing how strict Gabriel was on him today scared her a little, though she still admired him as a fashion designer, but not as a potential grandfather.

For the rest of the day, Adrien was grounded from leaving the house, he was lucky enough to not have security cameras installed in his room for the sake of his privacy. He had talked to his father again after Marinette left but he said the exact same thing and wouldn't continue the argument any longer. By that point, Adrien didn't even tell his father about the ultrasound, knowing that he would disagree on him going to that as well. So Adrien kept it to himself and would just head straight to the hospital with Marinette without telling where he was.

During patrol that night, everything went as per normal. There was only one akuma attack so that didn't leave Ladybug or Cat Noir to talk to each other about the events from earlier that day, so they headed off straight after they defeated the akuma attack before their transformations wore off as they were in plain sight and didn't want that risk of anyone else seeing.

Sunday went by like a breeze, Adrien and Marinette talked on the phone for a good hour or two about how things were going to work out between the two. Adrien assured that once he turns eighteen he'll be able to do so much more and then they could work stuff out together. He didn't tell her everything that he was planning to do but he planned to do a lot so he could get away from his disapproving father.

Meanwhile during that day, Marinette worked on her homework as usual and helped her parents with some more baking. And shortly after dinner, she couldn't help but feel inspired to create some little outfits for the baby, she started to sketch out some unisex outfits since she didn't know whether it was a boy or a girl yet, or the fact if she was having more than one yet. Later on that night, before going to bed, she took a good look in the mirror and caressed her belly. Tikki flew next to it and felt the hard lump which was the protective barrier for the baby to stay in while it grew inside of her.

"Your baby is going to be amazing." Tikki stated, looking up at Marinette before floating up next to her head as they both looked in the mirror.

Marinette giggled softly, as she looked back at the mirror. "Yeah, the baby will definitely be a big change in my life."

School the next day went by quickly, both Marinette and Adrien waiting impatiently for the time to go faster but to their surprise they spent so much time getting a lot of work done in class that time flew by quickly. Before they both knew it, the bell for the end of the school day had rung and everyone had rushed out the doors, after the two of them grabbed their stuff from their lockers, Adrien stayed inside of the school, knowing that his driver would be waiting for him and would not take no for an answer, meanwhile Marinette was trying to find a way to get Alya off her back so she could go home and get ready for her ultrasound, eventually she did as she and her best friend parted ways for the day.

She knew Adrien wouldn't be too far behind, on her way back home she could see his driver waiting impatiently at the front of the school for Adrien to arrive, she could almost hear him growl as she walked away and crossed the road towards home. It would be a little while before Adrien could make it to the hospital with them for the ultrasound.

In the meantime, Marinette had another thought occur to her after she and Alya parted ways, she wondered if she was starting to show through, or when she would to start showing through her clothes should she tell her? It was a question that ran through her mind for a good half hour until Adrien arrived and the four of them were on their way to the hospital to have Marinette's very first ultrasound.

So I didn't completely get to the ultrasound bit, but hey that Gabriel part was pretty big, and there's going to be more conflict coming once Adrien's 18th birthday comes around. Looks like a fair few interesting chapters are heading your way soon! :D

Also, on a side note, I would've uploaded this sooner but on Wednesday an extremely severe storm hit my town and it caused a widespread blackout for practically the second half of the day, which is when I usually get things done so I couldn't work on anything because of the power outage. Hopefully I can upload the next chapter a little earlier next week, I am on break now so maybe I'll try to do extra chapters during this time too! ^^