February 4th

-Marinette-

Monday 5:00PM

Marinette - Adrien you told me there was a family emergency during lunch. Is it about your dad again? Is he okay? Was it a relapse?

Adrien - Father is fine. It's about Chloe.

Marinette - Chloe? What happened?

Adrien - Dehydration. I'm sitting in Chloe's hospital room right now. Thing is Audrey won't even respond to her voice mail. Not even her secretary can reach her! Something's wrong, Marinette! Everything is all wrong!

Marinette - Calm down, Adrien. It might just be miscommunication.

Adrien - What kind of mother would allow her own child to dehydrate? When father found Chloe she was barely conscious. The last thing Chloe told father before she closed her eyes was something about her mother's brooch.

Marinette - A brooch?

Adrien - She's probably obsessed over a piece of stupid jewelry to care about Chloe's health. By far this is the worst thing Audrey has done!

Marinette - I'll come over. Which hospital is Chloe being held?

Hospital Group Diaconesses Croix Saint-Simon

The familiar drip of an IV bag that hung from its pole greeted Marinette after she stepped inside Chloe's room joining the Agreste family who gathered to comfort Chloe.

A shaky sigh escapes her throat.

"Marinette-" Chloe says, weakly. "Never thought I'd see you again." she smiles back at Marinette. It's a smile met with elation. "Marinette-" she breathed in a far more questioning tone as though she were testing the name on her tongue.

Her eyes were wide and pleading.

"Chloe, Chloe are you okay?" Marinette asked.

"She'll be fine, she just needs some rest." Nathalie says, nervously.

Marinette had stared back in surprise.

Nathalie's blue eyes were incredibly soft and looked very concerned. Stunned and somewhat overwhelmed she kept trying to probe for more answers. Asking for whatever immediate available information she was able to uncover.

Gabriel and Nathalie exchange guilty, conspiratorial glances to one another. They're conversing amongst each other but Marinette knows this answer must somehow be based purely on indecision.

Marinette graciously maintained her silence.

"Dehydration will do that to you," Gabriel says, offering his own exclamation. Trembling from his most recent memories. It made it more difficult to finish his sentence. "Not only that but she was delirious with fever when I found her."

XxX

"Muh-Muh-My MOTH-MOTHER'S BROOCH!"

"Chloe, whatever happened is far more important than some brooch! Chloe, where is your mother!? Where is Audrey?"

"She's guh-gone. Some-somewhere-"

Chloe would say before her voice gave out.

She was much too tired to fight back any longer. She finally gave in. There was no more reason to hold onto consciousness. It was her mother Audrey who insisted she was in control of her actions. Instead of exhausting herself by resisting. Chloe had simply allowed Audrey to do so and had banished of her own volition all thoughts coupled along with the reasons why.

"Where is Audrey? Answer me, Chloe!"

"..."

"Chloe…Chloe please don't do this to me. Chloe, open your eyes. Chloe, please! Please don't! Please don't leave. Not like this…not like this…"

XxX

"That's horrible," Marinette says, softly.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't battling her inner demons along with them." Nathalie says, with a short sigh of resignation.

"For all we know it could have been dehydration speaking." Gabriel says, sinking further into his chair. "It's pointless trying to pry any useful information from Chloe." He bothered to seat himself next to the second story window.

His cane sat between his legs.

He had that far off look in his eyes. Marinette notices they reflect a mixture of fatigue and sadness, all at once.

Flurries of snow drifted past the window.


"Adrien has Audrey always been this way?" Marinette murmurs.

Adrien would bite his tongue, preventing himself from expressing the thought that he had an awful lot of reasons to answer Marinette's simple question. "Neglect is pretty high on Audrey's list but not one time has she ever left Chloe to die of illness before." was all he would say in response.

"As if that makes it any better!?" Marinette says, her voice edging on the hysterical.

"I know. It's just that even for Audrey this is pretty low."

"Do you suppose Audrey will ever make a phone call?"

"Hopefully soon."

"Wherever Audrey left for she has to return sometime."

"Whenever Audrey does," Adrien affirms. "she'll have to answer directly to my father when that time comes."