No lyrics in this chapter, because the song in the title has no words. But it really embodies everything I wanted to say with the chapter.

Also, ALL ABOARD THE ANGST TRAIN CHOO CHOOOOOO

—

"Do you have those drafts ready for the meeting?" Asked Marinette, peering into her co-worker's office, a very peppy woman named Jill.

"Of course! I've gotten them matted, just like you asked. 10, right?"

"Yes! Thank God someone is doing their job right today."

"Oh, Marinette, where are your shoes?"

Marinette looked down to her bare feet. "Oh, I wore pumps that are great for working at my desk and walking to the water cooler, but they got kicked off somewhere around 9 this morning."

"That bad, huh?"

"Have you seen Tim? He's fixing the sizing sheet and I can't find him anywhere!"

"Did you try his office?"

Marinette's jaw dropped. "Tim has an office?! Since when?"

"Since always? Are you okay? You look like you could use a nap…or at least a cup of coffee."

Marinette groaned. "No naps! No more coffee! My heart is just a hum now anyway! I haven't been able to sleep the last few days and last night I didn't sleep at all. I got this weird phone call—" she stopped herself before she said too much. "Anyway, yes, Tim does have an office. I forgot."

"And he's always so good at emails, you never need to talk to him. I know. We had this same conversation last week."

Marinette groaned again as she covered her face in shame. "Why is Mr. Agreste doing this to me?"

"Speaking of Mr. Agreste, have you gotten any answers from him today? I've sent three emails and he's not responding at all. Apparently Tim's having the same problem with Adrien."

"I haven't heard a thing from the manor. Not Gabriel, not Adrien, not even Nathalie. We're supposed to have a meeting at 2, but I haven't heard if that's still on."

"Doesn't Adrien usually come into the office on meeting days?"

"He did…I don't know what's up with him. He was being super cagey with me yesterday when I went to talk to him." She sighed, hunching her shoulders. "I'm worried." She didn't disclose the truth of the conversation, that Adrien had effectively ended their friendship. It was too painful, but too fresh to ignore.

"I've been working here since Emilie was still around. Gabriel went through a huge personality shift when she disappeared. Maybe Adrien takes after his dad? Maybe something happened?"

"Ugh, don't talk like that, I'll just worry more!" An alert beeped from her phone, letting her know she had an email. "Ah! An intern's job is never done! See you later!"

"Good luck, Marinette!" Jill called. After she left, she added, "you're going to need it."

At two o'clock, the department heads and designers all came together in the conference room. Marinette set up her laptop to the screen and had the presentation open, as well as the Skype call to Gabriel.

He had yet to join the session, but it was still a few minutes before the meeting officially began.

"I see you're wearing shoes now," said Jill.

"I don't know if I could handle the ridicule from Mr. Agreste if he saw me bare foot in the conference room." Marinette chuckled weakly.

"As if Gabriel would ever reprimand you," said someone else. "He adores you."

"That must be why he took a vacation and told no one," she laughed again. Was her filter fading with all this sleep deprivation? Probably.

Finally, the call started, but Nathalie took the helm instead.

Before questions could be asked, she announced, "I'm afraid this meeting must be postponed." No 'hello', no 'thank you for your patience and hard work'. It was enough to make Marinette snap in all of her exhaustion and emotional turmoil.

"Nathalie, with all due respect, everyone is here and ready to go. Why isn't Gabriel ready?" She huffed.

Nathalie glanced away from the camera, a tell that she was about to deliver a great blow. "Mr. Agreste is deceased."

The room went silent. Someone dropped a pen.

Marinette fell into a chair, feeling like the ground was shaking under her.

"Early this morning, both Gabriel and Adrien passed away. A joint visitation and funeral will be held at the manor on Friday evening and Saturday morning, respectively. Everyone is invited, but it's not mandatory, of course."

Marinette couldn't swallow the lump in her throat; it was so thick.

"The fall line will not be released this season. Two weeks paid vacation will be passed on as we prepare the new head designer to take Gabriel's place."

Someone asked, "Who is the new designer?"

Most heads looked to Marinette, knowing the answer.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng has been determined to be the new head designer."

She sputtered out of her shock. "What? Me?! No! Surely not! I'm just an intern!"

"Intern to the head designer," someone clarified. "We all knew you were going to be hired as his assistant soon. It was obvious."

"But—but—" she stammered. It was rather obvious, thinking about it. Gabriel was just waiting for her to secure that college degree to make it official. "I can't! I just—" Without any preamble, tears burst forth and rolled down her face.

Adrien was gone.

Her best friend. The love of her life. Without a goodbye, and on such horrible terms.

Screw the responsibilities, the job title didn't matter. She didn't care at all.

Several arms wrapped around her, her coworkers, her friends, comforting as best as they could.

"No one is expecting you to jump right in," Nathalie explained. "You were quite close to both of them."

"What about you?" Marinette rasped out.

"I had my moment earlier. I'm in business mode now. If anyone would like more details, please reach me privately."

And she left. Like a whirlwind, leaving destruction in her path.

"Can you get home on your own?" Someone asked Marinette.

She thought she confirmed affirmative, but someone led her from the room with an arm around the shoulder. Maybe it was Tim. She didn't really know. She didn't really care.

When she arrived home, she dropped her purse on the floor. Where were her other bags? At the office? Oh well, didn't matter now.

Nothing mattered anymore.

"Girl, you look like you've seen a ghost."

Alya and Nino were home, they were here and alive, and they didn't know.

They didn't know and she had to tell them.

"He's gone," She whispered.

"Who?" Asked Alya, resting a comforting hand on her arm.

"Adrien…he—he's dead."

"…what?" Nino squeaked out. "H-how? Why?"

"I don't know…he and Gabriel—" she stopped and flexed her hand. Her phone was still in her hand. It held answers.

She called Nathalie on video.

"Hello Marinette. I'm glad to see you made it home safe. I was worried."

"What happened?" She blurted. "Nino and Alya know that he died. What happened?" Because there had to be a reasonable explanation.

Nathalie's face morphed from serious business to pain and pity. "Are you sure you want to know?"

God, with a preamble like that, it couldn't be good. Not painless like Carbon monoxide poisoning in their sleep, and not instant like a car accident.

"Please Nathalie, I have to know."

She breathed shakily and admitted, "it was a murder-suicide, as enacted by Adrien. He first stabbed Gabriel, and then himself."

"Augh!" Marinette sobbed out. It was an ugly sound that couldn't be controlled or silenced.

"I'm sorry. I wish I could lie…but I can't. Adrien had been acting strange lately…I think Gabriel knew this was going to happen."

"No! You're lying!" Marinette yelled. "Adrien loved his father! He would never—he's not like that!"

"Marinette, I saw them. Adrien was obviously deeply disturbed."

"SHUT UP!" She ended the call and dropped the phone on the floor.

Then she looked to her friends, who were both bawling like her. Nino moved first and pulled her into a tight hug. Alya came around the other side, crushing her in a Marinette-sandwich.

"You're right, he wouldn't do that." Alya offered. "But they're both gone, so we can't prove anything."

"If Nathalie didn't tell the office, then the truth might never come out," Said Nino, nodding in reassurance. "Only the four of us will have any idea."

After a long time, numbness started to set in. There was a degree of disbelief in her still, where she may have heard it, but she didn't see it.

That left room for doubt.

Without a word, she took her phone from the floor and wandered back to her room.

After the door closed, Tikki appeared. "Marinette…"

But she wasn't listening. She was staring at her phone screen, like she was trying to solve a puzzle.

Then she started a call.

It rang and rang and rang and rang…

"Hey there, it's Adrien, I'm not available to answer right now. But leave me a message or shoot me a text, and I'll get back to you. Hope you have a great day!"

The phone beeped.

"Adrien," she sobbed. "Adrien I know—goddamnit this sucks. I'm too late. I love you so much, and I'm too late. I wish I told you sooner. Even last night when you called—I'm sorry I didn't know you were struggling. I'm sorry I didn't know how to help you. I loved you so much and I couldn't save you and I'm so sorry…"

"Marinette…" Tikki tried to tell her to stop.

"This is the closest I could get to telling you. And you'll never hear it and—"

The phone beeped again, signaling the end of the recording.

She saved it, and set the phone down.

"Marinette…"

"What is it, Tikki? What's so important?"

"I have to tell you something…but it's really really bad."

"Well, hit me with it. Today is literally the worst day of my life."

"Adrien…well, he was Chat Noir."

As if the day couldn't get any worse.

"What?"

"Chat Noir. He was Adrien."

"But—but he can't be. You must be confused."

"Marinette, he literally wore the earrings before."

"I KNOW!" She screamed. "But you have to tell me he's someone else! Because I can't lose both of them! I can't do it Tikki!"

"I know it hurts. You two were literally soul mates. The Ladybug and Black Cat always are."

"You're not helping!" She sobbed.

"I know, I'm sorry."

Tikki allowed Marinette to sob for a while, letting her anguish spill out of her. Tikki just kept watch for the Akuma that never came.

"You know what you have to do next, right?" Asked Tikki.

"What?"

She sighed. "You have to go to the visitation and take back the ring."

"I can't do that!" Marinette cried, horrified. "I can't! There's no way!"

"We'll he can't be buried with it. You have to, Marinette."

Marinette crawled into bed, still fully clothed and wept and wept and wept until her tears burned her cheeks and exhaustion took hold.