Ladybug studied her husband's face as he processed the revelation that Shadowmoth, whom they now knew to be Gabriel Agreste, personally knew her civilian self.

Her own emotions were in a bit of turmoil, but she was doing her best to stay calm and collected for the sake of the baby. They had warned her while she was at the hospital for the false alarm that it was especially important to keep her blood pressure down in the few final weeks of her pregnancy, and with the panic she had felt at being unmasked earlier, not to mention finding out that Shadowmoth had been her boss, she was pretty sure she had disregarded the warning enough for one day.

"Gabriel Agreste knows you." Chat said quietly, almost in a whisper.

She took yet another deep breath, thinking back to her lamaze classes with Adrien.

"Kitty," she tried to say calmly. "We've defeated Shadowmoth, but he's still got one thing on us."

Chat snorted. "Only one?"

She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but continued. "He knows who we are. And he could spill that information at any time. We've been compromised."

Chat's eyes widened, and she could tell he hadn't yet considered that possibility.

"We promised the kwamis that once we defeated him, we would do our reveal." She looked deep into her husband's green eyes, and he stared back, almost desperately. "I think…" she paused again for another deep breath, and felt tears prick her eyes. "Chat, I think… it's time."

There was silence in the living room for a moment, except for the television, still droning away in the background. Chat broke her gaze to grab the remote and turn it off.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

"How should we do it?" Chat asked softly.

"I don't know," she replied. She looked down at her belly, feeling Emma stretch. Chat reached a hand out to feel, and grinned at the movement.

She sighed, feeling a little silly for being nervous. This was her kitty! Nothing would change between them with an identity reveal, not after all this time.

"Maybe on the count of three?" Chat suggested.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

"Okay," she agreed, feeling suddenly shy, her heartbeat beginning to increase. They were really doing this. In just a few short seconds...

"One. Two," Chat started, an expression of resolve gracing his features.

"Wait!" she cried, feeling relieved at the interruption, and guilty that she felt relieved. "My phone's buzzing. One sec?"

She grabbed it from the coffee table, avoiding her husband's gaze, and nearly dropped it once she saw who was calling. "It's Nathalie!" she gasped.

"Wait, you know Nathalie too?" Chat asked, his brow furrowing as she looked at him.

"You know Nathalie?" she asked him back, surprised.

"Are you going to answer it?" he asked, rather than reply.

With another deep breath to steel her nerves, she answered the phone, holding it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hello, Ladybug."

She couldn't help but gasp.

"Yes, I know who you are. Gabriel got his phone call, after all. He asked me to extend a proposal."

"What kind of proposal?" Ladybug asked.

"He offers to not reveal your identities to the public, in exchange for two things. One, immunity for myself."

"Mayura," Ladybug gasped, as the pieces suddenly fell into place. "That was you!"

Next to her, Chat looked a little faint, leaning back into the couch cushions.

"Yes," Nathalie replied. "I have not actively participated in Gabriel's plans for some time, as the Peacock miraculous was broken and made me ill. Suspicion will come upon me, I know, but no one can prove that I was a willing participant, especially for how incapacitated it left me."

"Hmm," Ladybug hummed suspiciously. "And the second thing?"

"The reason Gabriel became Hawkmoth, and then Shadowmoth, was for one purpose," Nathalie continued. "To rescue his wife. She is in a magical coma, on life support beneath the mansion. Gabriel believed the power of the wish could bring her back, something I have always been wary about myself. As the guardian, he wishes for you to examine her. He is putting her life in your hands. These are his demands. If you do not wish to comply, he will go public with your identities."

Ladybug looked up, meeting Chat's eyes. "I-We'll need to discuss this."

"You have 24 hours to make a decision. Goodbye, Ladybug." The line clicked.

"Did you catch all that?" she asked Chat, glad for his sharp hearing.

He nodded.

Suddenly, Ladybug felt exhausted, and slumped back onto the couch cushions herself. This was all too much.

"Are you okay?" Chat leaned in, placing a steadying hand on her arm.

"I'm fine," she said. "But this sucks."

Her husband sighed. "Yeah. In all the times I imagined what it would be like to take down Hawkmoth, and then Shadowmoth, I figured we would be more… I dunno?"

"Relieved?" Ladybug supplied.

He nodded. "Yeah. But instead we're all tense, and Shadowmoth-Gabriel-still has something hanging over us."

"But not for long," Ladybug pointed out. "The only reason our identities are a big deal now is because we don't know them. What do you think about Nathalie's offer?"

Chat frowned. "I-I don't know."

"Something's not sitting right with you," Ladybug guessed.

He nodded in confirmation. "I…want to say more. But it's an identity thing."

Reclined on the couch cushions, Ladybug rested her head on the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling, rubbing her belly and receiving little kicks in return. They sat like that in silence for a few minutes.

"Ugh, why is this so hard?" Ladybug said, feeling frustrated by her own hesitation. "It's just you, it's just us! Nothing changes!"

Chat smiled at her, a little sadly. "Milady, you know that isn't true. Knowing our identities changes everything. For one, we can start using our front door a lot more frequently."

The unexpected joke made her giggle, and laughing made her relax a little.

"You're right. The front door. And we won't have to mask up in the house, the Kwamis will love that!"

"And we can introduce each other to our friends, finally, without code names!"

She smiled at him. "We can have that proper wedding that you wanted."

He smiled back at her. "That sounds wonderful. So should we do it? Right now?"

Ladybug bit her lip, that little bit of nervousness still present, in spite of the lessened worries about the changes a reveal would bring. "Tell you what. It's getting late, and I, for one, am exhausted. What if we go to bed, release our transformations, and wake up to each other in the morning?"

Chat nodded. "Tikki's plan," he said. "I'm down."

He helped her to her feet, and the next few minutes were spent getting ready for bed. While Chat brushed his teeth, Ladybug pulled some Camembert from the fridge, and some cookies from the cupboard, arranging them on respective plates as a "we-did-it" treat for the Kwamis. It was a little bittersweet, she reflected as she did so. She had always pictured this day being a happier one, once they had finally rid themselves of the threat of Shadowmoth. But then again, nothing about being a superhero was easy, so expecting nothing but sunshine and rainbows of a defeat was probably unrealistic.

She swapped Chat for his place in the bathroom, dropping her full-suit transformation, and handing Tikki a cookie before brushing her teeth and washing her face.

Tikki, seemingly sensing the tension in the air, was quiet as Marinette finished her bedtime routine, but gave her an encouraging smile as Marinette asked for a mask-only transformation for just a few more minutes.

Ladybug waddled out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, where Chat was already in bed, waiting for her on his phone. He turned it off and plugged it in to charge as she climbed into bed, and helped her arrange her pregnancy pillow fort so that she could lay on her side, facing him.

He grinned at her from his pillow, his face just a few inches from hers.

"Grab the light?" she asked, and he turned to hit the switch on the nightstand lamp, extinguishing all illumination from the room.

"Are you ready, Milady?"

Ladybug took a deep breath. "As ready as I'll ever be, Chaton. Spots off."

"Claws in."

There were twin flashes of light, then darkness again.

"We'll be in the kitchen," Tikki said. "Holler if you need us."

"Aw, but I wanted to see their faces!" Plagg whined, but his voice trailed off, indicating that both Kwamis had left the room.

Marinette had her eyes shut, despite knowing the room was too dark to really see anything. She focused on her breathing, in and out, realizing a minute later that she and Chat were breathing in sync.

"Kitty?" she whispered.

"Mmm?" he replied.

"I love you."

There was a pause, then she felt him shift, scooting closer to her, pressing his forehead to hers. The brush of his nose against her skin startled her a little, being without his mask for the first time.

"Ladybug, what-ever-your-real-middle-name-is, last name redacted until morning," he replied. "I love you more than anything else in this world."

She giggled, then kissed him. He kissed her back, enthusiastically, passionately, then fell back on the pillow, cupping her face in his hand, before running it down her shoulder and curling around her back to hold her as close as he could with her bump and the pillows in the way.

"Goodnight Kitty," she whispered.

"Sweet dreams, Bugaboo," he whispered back.

She drifted off to sleep.

Unfortunately, however, her dreams were not sweet. She was back on the tower, and Gabriel Agreste stood over her. She was frozen again, and he held her miraculous in the palm of his hand. "Soon, Ms. Dupain-Cheng, Chat Noir and your baby will be mine!" he snarled, before pulling out a sewing needle the size of a sword and stabbing her in the side over and over again. She cried out in pain, trying to get away, but being unable to. Everything began to shake, and next thing she knew, the shaking was real, and Chat was telling her to wake up.

"Ugh," she groaned. The room was still dark.

"Babe, are you okay? You were screaming." He sounded worried.

"Just a bad dream. I'm fiiiii-ow!" She gasped in pain as the pain in her side returned, but was now wrapping around her back, to the other side. "Oooooow," she groaned again, struggling to sit up while trying to press a hand on the spot on her side.

"What is it? What's wrong? Did you get injured?" Chat's voice was frantic.

The pain subsided, and Marinette realized what was happening. "No, not injured. Contractions," she whispered.

"Contractions? You mean, the baby's coming? Now?"

"Is everything okay?" Tikki's voice came from the direction of the door.

"She's having contractions," Chat replied.

"Oh, that. Yes, they started earlier today," Tikki replied.

"What?" Marinette asked, at the same time Chat said "What do you mean?"

"Well you were transformed pretty much all day," Tikki said, sounding a little defensive. "They started around the time you were getting ready to leave the restaurant, fairly minor, but started getting stronger, and I didn't want to worry you when you were in the middle of your plan, so I just masked them. Then you were akumatized, and I think that may have stalled your labor, because when we transformed again I didn't really notice you were having any more contractions, and you seemed fine when you de-transformed a couple hours ago, so I thought it might be another false alarm."

"I don't think it is," Marinette groaned through clenched teeth, clutching her sides as another wave of pain came upon her. "Chat, can you grab my phone? I have an app to time how far apart they are."

She felt Chat lean behind her on the bed, fumbling for her phone on the nightstand. She took it from him, struggling to steady her shaking hands long enough to pull up the app, and felt him move behind her, pulling her into him as she hissed in pain.

"Don't forget to breathe, Babe," he murmured in her ear.

Feeling the pain begin to subside, Marinette took a deep breath, relaxing back into her husband. "I've decided contractions suck," she informed him.

He chuckled, and she could feel the reverberations in his chest, pressed against her back, and her sleepy brain suddenly remembered that they were not transformed. She must have tensed a little too much at the thought, because she suddenly heard a little popping sound, and felt a trickle of liquid wet her pajama bottoms.

"Aw crap. I think my water just broke."

"Okay, that's it," Chat said from behind her. "Time to head to the hospital."

A few days later, Chat would confess that he too, had completely forgotten that they weren't transformed, given that it was around 2:00 in the morning following a very stressful day and being woken up to his wife screaming in pain hadn't helped any. Whatever the reason, before she could say anything, he had extracted himself from behind her on the bed, reached back across to his nightstand, and flipped on the light.

And Marinette's brain stopped working.

Because right there, in her bed, was her husband. And her husband, her goofy Kitty, her wonderfully romantic Chat, was her old friend from school, her coworker, her good friend, her fake baby daddy/fiancé, Adrien Agreste.

He wasn't looking at her though, instead swinging his legs off the bed, and taking a couple steps over to their closet, sliding the door open and rummaging around. "Your hospital bag is already packed, yeah? What do you think I should bring? Probably a change or two of clothes, right? Do you think I'll want pajamas?" Hearing no response, he straightened up, and turned around, then promptly had to grab the frame of the closet door for support, swearing weakly.

They stared at each other for a minute, mouths open, twin expressions of shock, and probably would have stared longer, except that Plagg couldn't hold in his laughter any longer.

"Your faces!" he howled. "After all this time! Priceless! Tikki, where's the camera?"

The kwami's interjection shook them from their stupor.

Marinette felt tears springing to her eyes. Of course. Of course the two best men she knew were one in the same. Her two best friends, the ones who always had her back. It made so much sense. Unfortunately, she didn't get a chance to say that to him, as another contraction hit, making her double over on the bed, panting through the pain.

Adrien was at her side in a flash. "M-Marinette," he said, his voice a little shaky. "What can I do to help?"

"We need-we need to go," she said, trying to get the words out, but the pain continued to build. "I think Emma's trying to have a reveal of her own."

She saw a look of fondness cross his face, but he immediately sprang into action, throwing some clothes on, tossing some others into a bag, grabbing her a change of underwear and new pants to replace the ones soaked in amniotic fluid, and running to get her jacket. Tikki and Plagg helpfully brought over her shoes, and as soon as the current contraction subsided, she managed to sit up and quickly do her hair into two braids.

Adrien came dashing back into the room. "I've called a cab, they're waiting downstairs."

"Oh gosh, I'm a mess," Marinette said, catching sight of herself in their full-length bedroom mirror as he helped her to her feet.

"I think you look beautiful," he declared, giving her a shy smile as he ushered her through the apartment, grabbing their bags.

She smiled back, but it turned to a grimace as she grabbed for the back of their couch, trying to stay upright as another contraction hit.

"Cancel the cab," she groaned. "We need to get there quicker."

"Don't worry, Milady," Adrien declared. "I know a guy."

Marinette looked down at the tiny human in her arms, and could hardly believe that she was, at long last, finally here.

"She's perfect," Adrien whispered at her side, extending a finger and letting their new baby girl wrap her tiny little fingers around it, making his seem giant in comparison. "Just like her Maman."

Marinette looked up, searching Adrien's expression. The last hour had been a whirlwind. Tikki had transformed her to leave the house, but the contractions were already too much to be masked, so Chat-Adrien, she reminded herself-had carried her here. They had de-transformed in an alley a block away, and he'd rushed her into the hospital, where the receptionist had taken one look at her almost falling over and gotten her into a room right away. The midwife had appeared not long after, checking to see how close she was, and then springing into action when she found that Marinette was already fully dilated and ready to push. Another ten minutes, and less than half an hour after arriving at the hospital, Emma Agreste entered the world.

Nurses were still bustling around, cleaning things up, but Marinette was glad that this particular hospital kept you in the same room you gave birth in, so they didn't have to move.

The little family sat together like that for a while, waiting for some privacy, and basking in the wonder of their brand new baby, who kept yawning and making them melt, before she drifted off to sleep.

At last, the final nurse left with instructions to give her a ring on the call button if they needed anything before the next rounds in a couple of hours, and Marinette and Adrien were left to themselves.

"You can come out and meet her now," Marinette said softly, and Tikki and Plagg darted out from under the hospital bed.

"Aw, she's almost as cute as Camembert!" cooed Plagg.

"And you're as mushy as it!" Tikki teased, though she too was gushing over how adorable little Emma was. "She's got your eyes, Marinette, but Adrien's nose!"

Marinette and Adrien looked at each other, then blushed. Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.

"Marinette, you did such a good job," Tikki continued. "I just love the miracle of birth. The creation of new life and all that." The little god sighed happily, beaming at Emma's sleeping form.

Plagg though, had caught on to the bit of tension between the new parents, and grabbed Tikki's hand. "Come on, Sugarcube, we'll get plenty of baby time later. Let's leave them to it."

The two kwamis headed for the hospital bag, leaving Marinette and Adrien alone once more.

Now that the whirlwind of pushing a whole tiny human out of her body was over, Marinette found she was still trying to process the events of the whole night. It was hard to tell which of the three things was the biggest. After all, taking down Shadowmoth was huge, though it had been dampened by the revelation that Shadowmoth was Gabriel Agreste. Which, come to think of it- Marinette gasped, clutching for Adrien's arm.

"Your father! That's how he knew who you were, he assumed that since I'm Ladybug, you must be Chat Noir!"

Adrien nodded thoughtfully. "It was a lucky guess," he said. "Especially since he didn't know that we weren't actually dating!" He paused, a funny look crossing his face. "Except, since you're you, and we're married…"

"Wait," said Marinette, her own sleep-deprived brain catching up with him, "This whole time you and I were fake dating. And you were my fake baby daddy."

"But I'm your real baby daddy! And your husband!"

"And we can't get married because I'm already your wife!" Marinette proclaimed, and they both broke into sleep-deprived laughter, startling baby Emma, who started to fuss. "Whoops, we woke the baby," Marinette giggled.

"May I?" Adrien asked, holding out his arms. Marinette carefully handed him the baby, and he stood to rock her, singing her lullaby softly to soothe her back to slumber.

Marinette watched them, and something clicked together in her heart. Even if her head was still trying to reconcile Chat and Adrien, she knew that no matter who he was, she loved this man.

The attempt to soothe Emma was successful, and Adrien soon came to sit back down, returning Emma to Marinette's arms.

"What do you think of Nathalie's offer?"

She could tell he was trying to be casual, but now knowing his identity, his earlier demeanor now made a lot more sense.

"Oh Kitty… your mother…"

He nodded, and she could see tears coming to his eyes. "Come here," she instructed, and did her best to hug him from bed while not jostling the baby.

They sat like that as he softly wept, and she stroked his hair.

"I can't believe he kept that from me," he gulped. "She was under the mansion the whole time. And he was Shadowmoth, trying to get our miraculous. To bring her back? But surely he knew how dangerous using the wish would be!"

"People do crazy things for love, Kitty," Marinette sighed.

"Resorting to super-villainy? That's not love, that's insanity," Adrien said bitterly.

"Let's take Nathalie's offer. I hate to see her get away with it, but it was your father's plan and it certainly seems to have messed her up," Marinette mused. "And we'll examine your mother, as soon as we can. We'll bring all the kwamis. Maybe one of them has seen this happen before."

Adrien sniffed, but nodded into her shoulder.

"Why don't you text Nathalie, before we forget."

Adrien nodded again, then sat up and pulled out his phone.

"Oh! And you should text my parents," she added. "Quick, take a picture of Emma. But not me!" she added, as he leaned back, looking like he was gonna get her in the frame. He smiled, and took the picture anyway, before leaning back in and taking one close up of their daughter.

"Oh, and probably text Alya and Nino as well," she added.

"Wait," Adrien said, lowering the phone. "Since you're you, and I'm me, that means… Alya was trying to set us up the whole time!"

They both groaned at the implication.

"If we hadn't waited so long for a reveal, we could have been together so much sooner," Marinette lamented, feeling suddenly very foolish.

"Hey, don't think like that," Adrien told her, stowing his phone back in his pocket and reaching over to grab her hand. "We were together. In a loving relationship as Ladybug and Chat Noir, and in one of the best friendships I've ever had as Marinette and Adrien. On both sides of the mask, you've always been there for me. And I wouldn't trade that for anything."

Marinette felt her eyes fill with tears. "Really?"

Adrien gazed into her eyes and smiled. Not his model smile, but the tender one she'd seen countless times on Chat. "Really."

He pulled her into another embrace, and it was her turn to cry on his shoulder. But they were happy tears. They were going to be okay.

They pulled apart when Marinette let out one of the biggest yawns of her life.

"You need sleep," Adrien told her. "You just birthed a whole baby. And it was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen you do, and I watched you take down Shadowmoth single-handedly less than 24 hours ago."

She giggled at the praise, but he was right. She was absolutely wiped. She handed him Emma to place in the bassinet, and he helped her roll onto her side.

"Goodnight, Milady," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her gently.

She returned the kiss, surprised that it felt so normal to be kissing Adrien Agreste. "Goodnight, Kitty."

He turned out the light, and went to lay down on the couch.

A few minutes passed as Marinette tried to turn off her brain, listening to the little snuffling sounds that Emma made in her sleep. She had almost drifted off when she heard Adrien whisper her name.

"Mmm…yeah?"

"I just realized! We already have a whole wedding planned! I get to marry you properly!" He whispered excitedly.

She giggled, his excitement, combined with the overall relief of things falling so neatly into place making her a little giddy (and exhausted). "I love you, Adrien." Her world was complete. She drifted off to sleep with a smile still on her face.

Disclaimer: I had my baby in the United States (during COVID, so everything was a little off because of that). I'm not completely sure exactly how births in France go, and though I know I could have just researched it, I decided to just write what I know, so I apologize if there are any inaccuracies in my description of the hospital setting. Besides that, thanks again for reading! Just one chapter (and week) to go! I appreciate everyone who has joined me on this wild ride with these two oblivious idiots, and I hope you enjoyed the payoff! See you next week!