Chapter 11

Ladybug and Chat Noir were sitting in one of the buildings, resting. They had had a very busy day. The last week Hawkmoth had been quite active, and that didn't make things easy. Not to mention, Mayura had made a few appearances alongside her typical amoks, which made their job even more difficult.

It was a pretty cool day. They were both enjoying the evening breeze, reclining on one of the rooftops.

"My lady, what a busy day. All I want to do now is sleep and not wake up for a few months"

"Yes, I'm tired too" Ladybug said, rubbing her eyes. "I wonder what Hawkmoth is up to"

"What are you talking about?" Chat Noir looked up.

"Well, it seems he's been more desperate lately than usual. Just look at the akumas he created. It seems like he has more elaborate plans."

"Perhaps you are right, my Lady"

Chat Noir turned to look at one of the streets, where he saw something or rather someone he was not expecting.

"Isn't that Lila Rossi?"

Ladybug turned to see. Indeed, it was her.

"What's Lila doing so late at night?" Ladybug was very puzzled.

"Maybe we should follow her. These are not hours for her to be out here, alone" Chat Noir got up from where he was.

Ladybug rolled her eyes, annoyed.

"Ok, let's go"

They both followed her at a fair distance, in case she had problems being so late at night in Paris with its empty streets, but a few moments later they lost sight of her.

"Where did she go?"

"I don't know" Chat replied.

They both sat back on the roof, frustrated. Like Hawkmoth, Lila was behaving quite suspiciously, especially when it came to school attendance.

"It's very strange, she was absent from school for two whole weeks" Chat Noir thought.

They stayed on the roof, thinking. They looked from the height, the entirety of Paris, illuminated by the lights on the street. Chat Noir had an idea, but he didn't know if Ladybug would agree.

"My Lady, perhaps by any chance, I know who Lila is in real life. So, I was wondering if we should reveal our identities? It could make things easier for us" Chat Noir mentioned visibly nervous.

Ladybug thought about it for a moment. In those moments she felt very overwhelmed with everything that was happening. Not just as Ladybug, but as Marinette as well. She thought it would be a good idea to have an extra hand to help her. Besides, Master Fu wouldn't bother, right?

She got up and took his hand to lead him to a more secluded place so no one would see or hear them.

"Okay, I'll reveal you who I am, but promise me you won't make a fuss"

Chat Noir couldn't believe it. He was going to know the identity of his lady!

"I promise not to" Chat Noir raised his hand, and brought the other to his chest, where his heart was.

Ladybug closed her eyes and proceeded to undo her transformation.

"Tikki, spots off"

A light blinded him for a moment, before he saw who was behind his lady's mask. He recognized the person in front of him instantly.

She was Marinette Dupain - Cheng.

That left him speechless.

"It's not what you expected, is it?" Marinette couldn't help noticing the expression on his face.

"No, I'm actually very surprised" Chat Noir laughed a little, passing a hand over his face "I'm so dumb… Plagg, Claws in"

Adrien was at Chat Noir's place.

Marinette gasped in surprise. She didn't suspect that Adrien was Chat Noir. They both hugged right there.

"It's you" they both said. Adrien hugged her again. They stayed that way for a few seconds.

"I'll support you more than ever, Marinette. Lila won't hurt you as long as I'm here" Adrien ended the hug "Now talking about our plan ..."

They both transformed again and went to the roof of Marinette's house. Right there they began to work on a plan to expose Lila Rossi.

A couple of weeks with more akumatizations along with some appearances from Mayura left Nathalie very weak.

One night, while she was in the bathroom in her bedroom finishing getting ready for sleep, she began to feel dizzy and coughing up a little. Soon Nathalie began to feel she was losing consciousness, so she tried to reach out to grab the first thing she could find, without success. Or at least it was the only thing she remembered before everything went black.

When she woke up, the sky was a lighter shade, so she guessed it was almost morning already. Looking around her, she realized that she had passed out in the bathroom. She was still feeling a bit dizzy, so she began to carefully get up.

She suddenly had a very strong coughing fit that left her on the ground again. When she finally stopped, there were a few small drops of blood on the ground. She got up quickly to clean them and washed her face to get ready for her work day. When Nathalie got to the office Gabriel was already there. After greeting him, she felt a burning that was spreading throughout her chest, just as she closed the door of the atelier.

Nathalie was having a coughing fit again. It was quite loud, which caught Gabriel's attention. She leaned against the door sliding to the ground and covered her mouth with her hand. Gabriel was already there, with one hand on her back.

She felt a metallic taste on her palate. When she withdrew her hand from her mouth, she realized that she had blood on it. Gabriel gave a surprised sigh.

"Don't worry, it's not the first time this has happened" Nathalie closed her eyes as the burning continued.

"Why you didn't tell me?" Gabriel looked quite concerned.

"I didn't want today's plan to be ruined by this" she coughed up some more.

"No, you are going to rest. Our plan can wait, I don't want you to keep hurting yourself"

He helped her sit on her desk and he knelt before her.

"I want you to stay here and try to rest while the doctor arrives. If you do not feel able to advance in the reports do not do it, you are more useful to me healthy"

Gabriel reached into his inner pocket of her jacket and handed her his handkerchief, which she gladly accepted. She continued coughing up blood, but this time on her handkerchief. It was instantly stained with blood.

"I'm sorry sir, I'll clean it up and then ..."

"Keep it. You need it more than I do" He took her hand and closed it around his handkerchief.

Gabriel had the family doctor called to come over and give her some painkillers. Unfortunately, they couldn't tell her all of Nathalie's symptoms for obvious reasons. If that persisted, the doctor told them to go to a hospital. But that was not a viable option. If they did, they would be discovered. Nathalie would hold on a little longer, contrary to Gabriel's protests. She managed to compose herself in a time of rest on the sofa in the living room. When she felt a little better, Nathalie got up to continue with her daily chores.

In the afternoon, she was walking towards Gabriel's office with some folders. But from one moment to another, she started having a pretty bad headache that stopped her. She brought her free hand to her head and lost her balance for a moment. When it stopped, she tried to keep walking, but this time it was stronger, so much so that it made black spots appear in her vision.

Gabriel was working on some designs in front of his drawing screen. Seeing Nathalie coming in and looking so sick, he forced her to go, this time, to her room.

"I'll recover, it's nothing. Taking a break will improve everything" Nathalie said while Gabriel carried her to her room.

"Then stay in your room for a while. Please, Nathalie."

Nathalie nodded after he laid her down on the bed.

"Can you let me know when Adrien gets home? I don't want him to worry about me"

"I will, now rest. If you need something, call me on my phone" He turned off the lights and closed the curtains. Nathalie leaned back against the fluffy pillows.

Gabriel came out closing the door softly. He looked at his hand, which got a bit stained with blood when Nathalie had one of her coughing fits as they went upstairs. He closed his hand into a fist. He didn't want Nathalie to suffer anymore.

A couple of days later Nathalie who had already recovered a bit from that episode. Although she made one more appearance as Mayura without Gabriel's permission, she did it to see if she could figure out any weaknesses in Ladybug and Chat Noir, without much success. Luckily, she supposed her boss hadn't found out about it, at least not yet. Nathalie collapsed in her room when she returned to the mansion during the night she made that act. During the day, she performed her chores as if nothing had happened.

In that same week she had decided to start accompanying Adrien to her lunches. She didn't want to leave the boy alone, because even Gabriel had been even more absent from meals than usual.

"Thanks for waiting for me for lunch. I know Dad doesn't have time, but at least you don't leave me alone" Adrien took a bite from his plate.

"It's my job Adrien, you shouldn't be thanking me for this" Nathalie said sweetly.

"I know, but you deserve to be credited for what you do" Adrien said.

She sat in one of the chairs, feeling a little weak. Adrien began to look at her with concern.

"Are you OK? You look a little pale."

"Don't worry Adrien, it's just a passing thing. When I take an aspirin, I will feel better"

Nathalie got up slowly and headed into the other room to get the medicine, but suddenly she started feeling dizzy. The world began to spin and the vision of her began to be stained with black dots, again. She tried to grab onto one of the chairs, only to find herself on the floor.

"Nathalie!" Adrien dropped his cutlery and leaving his seat, he ran over to her and knelt beside her. Nathalie didn't look good at all.

"Dad!" Adrien shouted scared "Dad help!"

That was the last thing Nathalie heard before losing consciousness.

Gabriel has just returned from visiting his wife, very thoughtful. Hearing the cries for help from his son, he went out to find Adrien at the door of the atelier with tears in his eyes.

Gabriel looked at his son with concern.

"What's going on?" He took him by the shoulders and shook them a little "Are you hurt?"

"No dad, it's Nathalie"

Adrien noticed the worried look from his father. They moved quickly to where Nathalie was standing. She was on the ground motionless. Gabriel took her in his arms and led her to her room. He saw her face and noticed that she was even paler than the last time she lost consciousness that same week. It had already been about three times in a row. To him this could only mean one thing.

Nathalie was getting worse.

And he would have to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

Adrien was even more confused than he ever was. How could Nathalie suddenly fall ill like this? And just when she was already starting to feel better?

Everything was very confusing.

Nathalie felt like she was floating. She tried to open her eyes, but when she did, she only saw the same multicolored place in her dreams when Emilie appeared. There was only one small detail, something that for her did not fit.

She didn't remember going to sleep.

Emilie was looking at her. She had a worried expression on her face.

"Emilie?"

"Nathalie, you have to wake up. You must wake up"

"What?" Nathalie was very confused.

Nathalie finally opened her eyes. She noticed how dark it was. She felt around a bit and discovered that she was in her room, in the mansion, on the bed. She woke up at night. She looked at the ceiling and was surprised, because by that time she should have already been at her desk.

The last thing she remembered was how her vision was filled with black spots and everything began to spin, the echo of Adrien asking for help was still in her mind.

She fumbled for her glasses on the nightstand she had next to her, but she couldn't find them. The room lit up. She looked for the light source and saw that the door was open. She could distinguish a shadow that just then entered the room.

It was Adrien, who had a steaming mug, full of liquid in his hands. When he approached, she looked at him with a tender gesture.

"Nathalie, you woke up" Adrien was relieved to see that Nathalie was finally conscious, after several hours.

She looked back at the mug.

"Adrien, you don't need to do this."

"For me it is, after all you took care of me when I was sick. Well, usually, most of the time" Adrien said confidently.

Nathalie couldn't help feeling guilty. If Adrien knew everything she and Gabriel were doing, maybe he would never forgive her.

"I'm going to get my father" He put the cup on the nightstand and left the room.

She leaned against the head of the bed so she could hold the cup. The scent of herbs hit her senses. Adrien returned with his father.

"Adrien, leave the room"

"But Dad…" Adrien was about to protest, but Gabriel's gaze stopped him completely.

"Adrien" he said in a more severe tone.

"Yes father" Adrien just lowered his head and went straight to his bedroom. They both hear how Adrien slammed the door.

Gabriel turned to Nathalie, frowning.

"That thing you did was very stupid, Nathalie. You could have passed out in the city yesterday and I couldn't have found you. Someone could have discovered you. If you are going to do something you have to tell me.

"I just wanted to help you…" Nathalie whispered

"You know I can do it myself. I don't need you to help me."

"But Gabriel ..."

"I don't want what happened to Emilie to happen to you!" Gabriel had raised his voice so high without realizing it. He only noticed it when Nathalie flinched.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry Nathalie. I just… I don't want that to happen again. Anybody but you.

Gabriel released all the air that he was holding all that time.

"At least I was here to help you" Gabriel spoke calmly "I want you to take a few days off. From now on, you are prohibited from using the Peacock Miraculous. And you won't use it again until you've fully recovered. I'll take care of everything else."

Nathalie didn't say anything and just looked at her mug. He waited for her to drink the contents from it and helped her undress and change into her pajamas. When Gabriel took the mug and closed the door without even saying good night, she only did the only thing she could do at this time: Sleep.

A few hours after falling asleep, Nathalie heard a knock on the door, which woke her up.

"Come in"

The door opened and she found Adrien, disheveled and sleepy.

"Hi Nathalie. Sorry to wake you up"

"You should be asleep Adrien. I don't want you to ruin your sleeping pattern" She got up a little from the bed so she could see him.

"Sorry, but I couldn't sleep" He yawned. "Can I stay with you?"

Although she wanted to tell him to go back to his room, she would let it pass this time.

"Of course, Adrien."

She let him lie down next to her. Adrien removed the covers on the empty side of her bed and snuggled into them as if he were a small child. When Adrien's mother was not ill, and Adrien was still a child, she let Adrien sleep with her, usually on days that Gabriel was absent from the mansion. It was the least Nathalie could do for him.

Nathalie took her phone to check the time. It was past midnight, but the date on her phone caught her attention. She hadn't realized that her own birthday was that day. She was so caught up in her boss's plans that she completely forgot about it.

When the sun had already risen, Nathalie woke up. Adrien had settled himself so close to her that he could practically feel his body heat through the covers. She saw the time on the clock on her phone. It was quite late. Adrien would be late for school if he didn't get up right now. She put a hand on Adrien's back.

"Adrien, wake up."

He just grunted a little. She shook him some more until he opened his eyes and raised his head.

"You have to go to school. You will be late."

Looking at the time, Adrien jumped out of bed.

"Oh god, thank you Nathalie. I'm going to get ready" And with that Adrien ran out of the room.

Nathalie hoped Adrien could take care of himself and perform his chores while she recovered. She supposed Gabriel would take over her usual tasks, or at least that was what he had made clear the day before. She just hoped that, if that was the case, Gabriel wouldn't have any problem.

I'm back here once more. The good news is that now I have chapters to publish of what's left of the semester and is it is very unlikely that I will go to hiatus again :)