"Adrien," It whispered. The sound came from below him, and he looked down into Ladybug's lidded eyes. A crashing wave of joy rose in his body before his stomach immediately dropped. She had said his actual name. She said Adrien, not Chat.

He held his breath, not knowing if it was real. Ladybugs eyes were glazed and barely focused. He gently shook her in an attempt to wake her. She let out a hiss as she flinched, clutching her side. He immediately stopped, one clawed finger moving to brush away the hair over her face. "Ladybug, what are we supposed to do?" He asked, stricken.

She could hear something, a muffled noise that she instinctively tried to avoid. A lancing pain shot through her, and she could feel her body spasm in pain. The pain brought her a brief moment of clarity that allowed her to see a blond face with a desperate expression. "Chaton," She breathed, reaching a hand towards him, barely conscious. She felt him rub against it with his cheek, and she realised what was happening. She jolted slightly expecting the threat of a masked figure and recoiled at the pain it caused, whimpering. Chat had a shocked expression plastered to his face, which she had moments to recognise before panic replaced it. "What happened Ladybug?" He questioned, and she felt him quivering. Memories of a fight with a masked figure. The snake-like hiss of the words that the mask had spoken to her. "You will tell no one, for I will know," It had said, "For now, I will always be watching!" The masked face loomed over her, and she tried to shuffle away instinctively, but it held her in its grasp. "Ladybug!" It said. "Ladybug!" It laughed.

"Ladybug!" He shouted at her. She seemed to wake for a moment, no longer trying to wriggle from his grasp. "Chat?" She looked confused, and the combination with the terror that had been there previously felt like a sharp knife in his stomach, twisting and wrenching. "What do you need me to do?"

Her lucidity had returned, and she looked into his eyes realising that she was no longer in the alley. Her Chaton had come to save her. She tried to sit up but instead felt a crunching, grinding sensation in her chest and she halted, her teeth gritting in pain. "Chat, I need to cure myself with the power of the Ladybug." She hissed out, lying back down into his lap.

"You're in no state to fight Ladybug it will be too dangerous!" He argued, trying to think of another solution. Ladybug raised her hand and rested it against his, grasping it.

"You'll be there to keep me safe won't you Kitty?" She inquired, pushing her thoughts elsewhere to focus on a solution. Shifting back into Marinette now would not help her, her ribs would remain broken and she would reveal her identity to Chat who wouldn't be swayed to leave her side that easily. They were also running out of time, she could hear sounds of screams in the distance, a few blocks away.

His face became tense as he responded to her question. "Always Bugaboo." He watched her attempt her normal playful grin but he could see the pain she was in. He could also see how much she was relying on him. "You have a plan?"

"When have I not?" She managed to get out as she lifted herself with an outstretched hand, ignoring the fearful voice in her mind knowing exactly when she had not. "Let's go kick some Akuma ass Chat!"

Chat carried her over the rooftops in his arms trying to avoid as many sudden movements as he could. He had seen the purple man with the pans near his school and the Akuma couldn't have wandered too far from there. Another loud clanging from another street over confirmed his suspicions and he shifted Ladybug in his arms slightly as he prepared to leap again, finding it much more difficult with her extra weight and without his staff in hand. He had no idea how she had managed to get hurt and she hadn't told him. The miraculous was supposed to grant their wielder near invulnerability. He made a promise to convince her to tell him soon, once she was back on her feet. A pan flying towards him made him focus again and he angled his body to avoid it as best he could.

Watching Chat leap from building to building with her in his arms was calming until he suddenly twisted to avoid a metal pan below her. "Chat, place on that building there," she pointed, preparing to use her power "Lucky Charm!"

Chat watched as a coil of rope appeared above her. She quickly explained what he was supposed to do. "Run around him, wrapping around his waist with the rope before he gets a chance to throw another pan. Then tie it around a pan when he throws it at you. When the pan expands to hit us, its gained weight will knock him over and you can take the Akuma."

"Of course m'lady," he replied with a bow, before swan diving from the roof to the Parisian streets below.

The plan worked and once Chat had Cataclysmed the chef's hat, she caught the bundle of rope he threw to her. "Miraculous Ladybug!" she cried, throwing the charm high into the air as the miraculous power flooded the area. It washed over her and she felt all of her wounds heal, bones pop back into place and bruises fade. A massive beaming smile from Chat greeted her when she lept down to the road beside her. She had obviously given him a scare. She resolved that she would have to recount what had occurred to Chat as soon as possible. They bumped fists with their iconic "Pound it!" before Chat opened his lips to speak to her except his words were cut off by a police officer who came over to them.

"That was simply amazing, you have the police forces thanks, there was nothing we could do trapped inside the station by a giant pan unable to evacuate civilians. Now I don't mean to intrude but I believe that I have surveillance footage that you may want to see..."

"Of course Officier, what exactly is it?" questioned Chat, ever curious.

"It appears to be of Hawkmoth breaking into the police station and I thought you should know, considering he stole some files containing the identities of some Parisian citizens. I have them right here on the tablet."

"You don't mind if I take a look at the files do you?" Chat asked politely, with a serious expression, different to his normally carefree attitude. As Chat took the tablet, Marinette had realised what had happened. Hawkmoth had somehow worked out that she was Ladybug because of those files. Which means that she was on them.

She blanched, watching Chat's expression with dread. If Hawkmoth had guessed her identity just by looking at it then surely he would too, knowing her much better. She saw a look of surprise grace his face briefly and she thought the worst had come to pass. Everyone would know her identity and she would have to give up the Miraculous. Instead, he merely continued scrolling after a few seconds remarking that she was someone he knew. Once he had got to the end of the list, he gave it back and she breathed out a sigh of relief. He hadn't worked anything out. Her blood chilled slightly at his next words, however.

"Hawkmoth was obviously searching through files to try and find the identity of Ladybug, it seems that he came up short though. Thanks for your information officer." He shot the man a wink before turning to her, about to ask something. He would want to know what had happened. If she told him, he would know that she was on that list and she couldn't have anyone else knowing.

The flash of her earrings saved her and she saw that Chat had paused to glance at the noise. "Well, we want to keep it that way, so I better split," She said, hurrying over her words, trying to find a way away from the conversation. Chat nodded to her with an apologetic smile.

"We can talk on patrol later M'lady!" She nodded barely registering his words as she zipped away to that distant balcony, where she and Tikki would soon be having a long chat.