Seventy-Four: Prepping for the Delivery

With a little help from Ladybug, Chat readies his presentation for the board – only to be interrupted by an unexpected call from his best friend.


"…and if we look at the results for the third quarter," I said as I paced in front of the small projector, "sales in related product lines increased by no less than five percent, with a significant spike of eighteen percent for formal wear."

Pausing dramatically, I clicked the remote to the next slide; it was a shot of me in one of the new suit designs that had launched during the Spring fashion season. "As this particular design – the newest and most contemporary in our catalog – was the driving factor in our growth, it becomes clear that my refocusing of the brand to purrsue consumer tastes has yielded pawsitive-"

"Chat," Ladybug interrupted, sighing as she shook her head and somewhat dramatically put a gloved hand to her face. "You did it again."

I felt my masked eyes widen. "Did what?"

"You punned. Again."

"I did?" I asked, replaying what I had been saying before frowning. "Damn."

Moving toward me, Ladybug put her hands to my biceps. "I realize being transformed gives you bit more confidence, but I'm starting to wonder if we're going about this wrong. Too much of Chat is bleeding into your presentation."

Taking in the rooftop we were standing on, complete with a small projector illuminating my presentation against a brick wall, I found myself smiling slightly. "It's not the strangest place I've ever prepped for something important," I replied. "I spent the whole night in the bell tower at Notre Dame memorizing my lines for a commercial I did in college."

"Notre-?" she started. "It hadn't reopened yet!"

"Exactly," I smiled wider. "I knew I had the place to myself. Which was good, because the damn script was something like six pages."

Ladybug frowned. "Did it work?"

"I thought so, though that was years ago. And I'd not been Chat Noir for quite as long, either."

My partner smiled. "Your two personas have nearly become one, haven't they?"

"Not really," I smiled craftily, "maybe a little. There's no question I use a bit of Chat's aggression when dealing with Father at the office. It's come in handy when I've needed to try and bend him ever-so-slightly to my way of thinking. I thought I'd been pretty careful about the cat puns, though. That's one thing that Ordinary Adrien just wouldn't do."

"Wouldn't he?" Ladybug laughed as she leaned up to kiss me. "Then I think, my love, you'll need to another run through, but this time as Ordinary Adrien."

I slowly nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right." I reached a claw to her ponytail – Ladybug was experimenting with some changes to her normal hairstyle, and I had to admit, this look was a frontrunner for me. "I'm not sure I can do it with Ladybug in the audience, though."

Ladybug laughed. "I'll drop mine, too. Then you'll have an audience of three."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not sure I need Plagg's passive-aggressive commentary, actually. He was no help in school, I assure you."

"That I can believe," she chuckled again.


We spent another hour or two going through the presentation before Marinette pronounced me good to go; transforming back to our heroic alter-egos, we made short work of packing up my materials before heading back to our apartment. Halfway back, Ladybug unexpectedly paused on a random rooftop and turned to me. "What did you tell your father about asking Alya to contact Chat?"

"I was honest," I smiled slyly. "I said Alya was on maternity leave—"

Once more I thought the universe was listening in on my every word, for at that precise moment, my baton chirped out a cheery tone from where it was sitting at the small of my back. Sliding it out, I popped it open to see the very animated face of Carapace. "Chat!"

I glanced at Ladybug before looking back at the small image of my best friend. "Cap… what's wrong?"

"Nothing! Everything!" He glanced sideways and then back to me. "Water! Baby! Now!"

My masked eyes widened, turning I could see Ladybug had already translated as well and had her yo-yo open to the Miraculous tracker. "They're still at their apartment," she said.

"Holy kwami," I breathed as I kicked my backpack behind a loose piece of roof tile. "Carapace, we're on our way," I continued as I followed Ladybug toward the edge of the roof. "Did you already call an ambulance?"

The turtle hero just blinked at me.

"We're only a few minutes out," I said reassuringly. "Hold tight."

"Hurry!" came the plaintive cry as I snapped the phone shut and leapt after Ladybug into the dark night.

Faster than I thought possible, we crossed the city toward the high-rise where our friends lived; while I could completely relate to Carapace being nervous about the impending birth of his twins, I was a little surprised that he'd seized up the way he had. It worried me he'd transformed, making me deeply concerned something was wrong with Alya; that thought propelled me to push my feline body to the limit. As Ladybug was easily keeping up with me, I knew she was feeling the same way. Landing side-by-side on the exterior balcony of our friend's apartment, I tried to catch my breath as I yanked open the sliding door that gave access to the living room.

My masked feline eyes quickly took in the situation. Alya was lengthwise on their couch, dressed in comfortable sweats but huffing and puffing like she was running a marathon. Perspiration was streaming down her face, matting her gorgeous brown hair to her forehead. Carapace was on his knees, holding her hand and murmuring nonsense as she howled, clearly feeling the pain of her contractions; a small set of bags from the corner market was beside his green form, and I could just pick out the top of a melting container of ice cream – evidence that he'd bent Ladybug's rule slightly on personal use of a Miraculous in order to quickly see to the intense cravings of his wife. I didn't need my enhanced senses know that Alya was much too far along for us to try and transport her to the hospital, though the assault on my feline ears was hard to ignore.

"I'm calling it in now," Ladybug said crisply. "You see if you can't get Carapace to drop his transformation. The paramedics won't be expecting a superhero father."

"What about us?" I asked. "Should we—"

"We'll deal with the fallout later. Get him to drop his transformation now, and then see if you can't work your calming magic on Alya."

"Got it," I replied, quickly falling into partner mode.

Dropping to my knees beside Carapace, I put a paw to his shoulder and reached the other to take Alya's hand from his gloved one. I tried not to grimace as she mashed my paw, hard, as another contraction hit. "Cap, I'm going to try and ease your wife's pain, but I need you to back away for a moment."

"Back? Away?" he replied, dazed.

"Yes," I said as I gently pulled him from Alya. "I'll calm her down. But I need you to do something for me."

"Okay," he replied. "What?"

"Repeat after me," I said, trying not to smile. "Wayzz – shell off."

"Wayzz – shell off?" he said.

I had a fraction of a second to see his surprised expression before the de-transformation wave washed over him and released the turtle kwami. As he sat on his haunches and blinked, I pressed a bit closer to Alya, my ears flattening at her howling. While my purring didn't exactly operate on command, I'd begun to be able to pull it out whenever an akuma victim needed something extra to get over what Hawkmoth had done to them. Reaching one arm around Alya, I rested her head against my shoulder while pulling Nino back toward me.

"Hold her hand," I said softly as I placed her hand into his, then ramped up my purring a bit more. "Alya, focus on my purring—"

"I'm not focusing on any damn-"

"Focus, Alya," I interrupted calmly. "Breathe. In. Out. Feel yourself centering…"

Ladybug dropped to my side. "Four minutes out," she said to me, then looked to her friend. "Hang in there, Alya."

Eyes wide, Alya slowly nodded as she tried and succeeded at slowing her breathing down. "Sorry… about… this…" she said between grimaces. "I sent him… for ice cream… and then-"

"Shhhh," I said, ramping up the purring even more. "It's not a problem. That's what friends do." I looked up at Ladybug with a sly smile. "I do hope this qualifies me to be the godcat for these kittens, Milady."

"Godcat?" Despite the clear pain she was in, Alya managed to roll her eyes. "Really?"

"Would you prefer godfeline instead?" I laughed. Beneath me, I could feel some of the tension draining from Alya, but it was still quite clear she was deep into the throes of giving birth. "Alya, I think we should try and get you someplace more comfortable."

"That ship… sailed," she gasped. "I should have… left for the hospital when the first… contractions hit."

"How long ago?" Ladybug asked.

Alya looked chagrined, or at least as chagrined as someone in her current position could.

"Never mind," Ladybug rolled her eyes. "And why am I not surprised?"

My feline ears perked up. "Elevator just arrived on this floor. I think I hear a stretcher."

"Showtime," she smiled as she started to stand up to let the paramedics in. Ladybug paused and put a gentle gloved hand to my shoulder. "You're pretty good at this, kitty."

"It's all the suit," I smiled back. "Inside I'm an emotional mess."

"I doubt that," she replied as she leaned down for a quick kiss between my feline ears. "Pardon me while I welcome some heroes of a different order…"