Jan 11th

Hospital Group Diaconesses Croix Saint-Simon

Later that afternoon

-Adrien-

Monday 11:00PM

Adrien - Chloe collapsed during lunch. She got really stressed out when it happened. Please tell me she'll be okay.

Nathalie - How come?

Adrien - She was apologizing.

Nathalie - An apology set her off?

Adrien - It's kind of a long story…

Nathalie - You expect me to believe this was some kind of long story? It still doesn't describe what happened.

Adrien - It had something to do with what I said a few weeks ago.

Nathalie - Oh no.


"Adrien told me about what happened to your daughter today during school hours." Gabriel says, sharing a worried look with Nathalie.

"Don't worry about Chlorine, no," Audrey says, but she managed to forget even after trying to make a token attempt to remember. "tip of my tongue. Leon? I dunno some kind of green herb? Maybe it was chives or something."

"Chloe." Nathalie says.

"That's right," Audrey says, her eyes lit up. A playful smile suddenly curled on her glossed, pouted lips. "My gracious Gabriel, your speech has improved these past few days. Look at you, you're finally speaking in much fuller sentences again. You were beginning to worry me. I also see your free from that wretched heart monitor."

Gabriel swallows a pained gasp before asking as politely as he could manage. "I only wanted to know if Chloe had been taken care of."

"Why not ask her yourself?" Audrey says. She stands near Gabriel's bedside. Her arms folded across her busty chest, staring down at him. "Honestly, I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal out of my daughter's health. And just when I thought being dragged away from my manicure was bad enough," she exhaled an irritated sigh. An opinion about how she felt. "She's perfectly fine. I told the nurse before I left she was playing it up for the drama but you know how teenage girls are. They're so emotional."

"I wonder why that is." Nathalie says, beneath her breath.

"Give me a break, Gabriel," Audrey says, harshly. "It's over. Clarisse is awake now and whatever else happens afterwards I'll deal with it myself." then another beat of silence. This time it was an angry contemplative, pause. And this alone frightened Gabriel.

"Let me see for myself before you take her back." Gabriel says, softly.

Audrey is seemingly at a loss of words, and then suddenly. "Suit yourself. Whenever you're finished with my daughter. Send her back to me," Apparently Audrey was clearly unbothered by the anger that was quietly brimming behind Gabriel's eyes. "We have lots of work to prepare for and I can't keep my clientele waiting much longer."

"Nathalie, dear. Please get me my wheelchair." Gabriel says, a heavy sigh falls from his pale, chapped lips. Whatever happened between Chloe and her peers it could only mean one thing. Peace talks must have broken down and they need someone to referee the fallout.

Someone to help soften the blows.


"Chloe."

"Chloe, are you awake?" Nathalie says, ever so gentle.

Nathalie didn't want to rouse Chloe from her restful sleep. Neither had Gabriel. Chloe's head was currently buried in her pillow.

"Chloe please wake up," Gabriel says, after another beat of apprehensive silence, he says again, the second part much louder for emphasis. His wheelchair sat near Chloe's bedside. He waited patiently for her response. "Your mother is currently outside waiting for you to join her but before you go I have something I'd like to ask you."

Chloe had suddenly responded to the voices in the room. The voices echoing inside of her head during semi-consciousness. Words had become more louder and familiar. Nothing like the cold, sharp words of her mother.

The warmth of Gabriel Agreste's voice had drawn Chloe in like a moth to a flame.

It was irresistible.

"Mr. Ag-Agreste?" Chloe stammers out.

Further examining Chloe after she had sat up in bed. She jerks upright, she's apparently dazed, and bleary eyed.

"Chloe we have much to talk about." Gabriel says, in a soft, but very stern tone.

Chloe is aware this is the tone of voice Gabriel often uses when Audrey's daughter is much too difficult to handle.

"I know, Mr. Agreste." came Chloe's frank reply.

She bit back a quiet sob knowing she had directly caused the Agreste couple to worry about her welfare - yet again. She had angered Gabriel Agreste and he had good reason. She was the one who owed him everything, and he owed her nothing, and this was how she repaid his kindness?

She had deliberately handed him the reason.

"Chloe what's been going on?" Nathalie asks.

It had startled Chloe when Nathalie settled down on her bedside, sitting near the edge. "It was all my fault," she whispered out, then she spoke louder. "I shouldn't have said those things I've said. I shouldn't have done or said anything of those things at all, but I did them anyway. I don't know what to do or even how to take those things back."

When Chloe thought about it's not like you can take a word back like you could with a receipt. She couldn't just bundle up any of those violent and abusive words she had used against Sabrina or Jeluka and everyone else and take them back to the department store.

As Adrien, her only trustworthy friend had forewarned Chloe, she was socially inept. She was closed off from the world and insular which might lead to some intensive confrontations she never had the chance to experience due to homeschooling. Audrey despised a lot of people, even when she had no good reason to do so. Which made it harder for Chloe to interact with her classmates. She never truly experienced a normal, healthy childhood.

Adrikens was right about that. She should have listened to him. She should have prepared herself, but she never listens and always has to learn the hard way.

It was such a tough habit to break.

If she had never been introduced to Adrien when they were younger she probably would have had no basis for comparison due to her mother's interference. She was alone again. Along with Adrikens. Maybe, hopefully if he ever decided to forgive her, but if he didn't choose to do so she wouldn't blame him.

Chloe had single handedly destroyed her last sanctuary when she overstepped boundaries and cut her classmates with her own words. Dangerously sharp edged words, she had learned from her own mother, no less. Her explosive temper had sabotaged those chances of experiencing the rest of the school year being apart of Mrs. Bustier's class.

It was her own fault and she was sorry.

So, so, sorry.

"I understand you want to fix this. I believe you, Chloe," Gabriel says, sounding tired. "But there's no reason you have to go making a spectacle of yourself when you do so."

There have been a couple of rare instances. During the darkest moments of Chloe's frustration with her mother, she privately wished that Gabriel and his wife Nathalie had been the one to raise her as a child.

She never voiced those sentiments out loud.

It was only her emotions overwhelming her. Nor would she ever want to make Gabriel feel awkward for saying such a thing.

"We love you, Chloe." It was those four letter words that tipped her over the edge. She broke down completely in Nathalie's arms.

Nathalie had wrapped her arms tightly around Chloe's shoulders. Tight enough to make her feel secure. Chloe was doing her best to fight back hysterical sobs that kept bubbling inside of her chest before yelling over her heavy laborious breaths.

"I love you too! I LOVE BOTH OF YOU! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean what I said and I wanna take it back! I wanna take it all back!"

Chloe would remember simpler times during her childhood when all she had to do was crawl into Nathalie's lap and Nathalie would wrap her arms around her and make the big and scary universe go away. Nathalie and Gabriel alone had the ever soothing god-like presence to make all the evils in the universe disappear while she was safe in their arms.

Their arms only.

Chloe's definition of love was pretty rough.

Most of the time when she was forced to spend time near her mother during work hours she had treated Audrey's love as though it were a poison. Audrey tossed her a few scraps of motherly affection but speaking realistically. Not one time she ever spoke to her daughter Chloe was tonaly appropriate when Gabriel was in her presence.

Chloe was unworthy in Audrey's eyes.

Unworthy of her tenderness. Love. Affection. She had made herself quite clear over the years. But Chloe is still quick to receive whatever positive attention she gives to her.

So Nathalie talks. She uses her voice to fill the silence of the room. "Sssh, it's okay. Will fix this together," she whispers, low soft whispers often used to soothe. Her lips brush against Chloe's earlobe as she speaks. "I know you didn't mean it. It was the wrong thing to do and I'm so proud of you for reflecting upon those actions. And taking responsibility for what you did, but right now we just need to know what happened."

"I'll tell you everything." Chloe says, her voice is muffled and choked by her own tears.