To yellow 14: You would think so, but Nathalie did take care of Adrien while she was in her coma, so that does buy her some consideration.
To Butterfly: Let's see if this one is as awesome!
To armadas: Admittedly, my attitude toward Nathalie changed a bit in the last year, to the point where she could receive this measure of redemption. Considering everything that happened, I like the idea of Emilie deciding to forgive her.
Emilie really didn't want to visit him – not after spending almost two months delving into the bowels of the Ladyblog, combing through every last one of Gabriel's transgressions over the course of two years. A part of her wanted to ignore him and pretend she had never even been married to the man behind the Hawk Moth.
But she knew there was no moving forward if she couldn't confront her past demons. And this particular demon had portrayed himself as an angel when she married him and lived with him for fifteen years. And he was the father of her son.
She couldn't just ignore his existence for the next nine years.
With a heavy sigh Emilie steeled her nerves, nodded to the guard, and pushed the door open to find Gabriel shackled to the table in the visitation room. He stared up at her with a mixture of shock, awe, reverence, and joy. Concentrating on her miraculous, Emilie plumbed the depths of the myriad of emotions he was feeling at that moment, looking for any trace of regret or remorse for his actions.
Nothing.
He started and tried to stand, the handcuff chains rattling on his wrists. "Emilie! I–"
Her lips set in a thin line and eyes hard, still standing by the door on the far side of the room, Emilie held up a hand to silence him as Duusu emerged from her purse, phased into the wall, and disappeared for two minutes. He reappeared out of the wall and gave Emilie a curt nod, turned to glare at Gabriel, folded his arms, and returned to her purse. Only once the Kwami was gone did Emilie speak. "You have some nerve," she seethed, shooting daggers at him with her eyes.
"What!?" Gabriel stared at her wide-eyed.
"170 years!" she yelled, her clenched fists quivering at her sides. "170 years my family guarded those miraculous from those who would have abused their power for their own ends! Through wars! Through epidemics! Through natural disasters! Through rioting and upheaval! We used the Butterfly and the Peacock to help people! I used them to help people! Did all of that mean nothing to you!?" She stopped and took a shaky breath. "Did I mean nothing to you?" she whispered forlornly.
Gabriel's jaw dropped in shock. He stared up at her. "'Did you–' You mean everything to me! I threw away everything for you! And I would have done it again! And again! All to get you back!"
She shook her head. "But you didn't get me back." She glared at him, eyes flashing with anger. "If you had cared about me at all – if you had respected me at all – you would never have done any of this!" Crossing to stand opposite him, she slammed her palms down on the table with a ringing noise, staring down at him hard. He flinched at the noise and looked up at her in disbelief; she could sense his confusion. "You. Hurt. People," she ground out, enunciating each syllable. "And you did it in my name! In what universe did you think that was what I would have wanted!? I would rather have died myself than come back to find that you had harmed other people in my name! And with my family's legacy!" she finally screamed, centimeters from his face.
"No one was killed, and all the damage was repaired by Ladybug!" Gabriel argued, backing carefully away from her.
"Did you know she was going to be able to repair it?" demanded Emilie hysterically. She threw her arms out wide. "As far as I can tell, you had no idea the powers you were actually messing around with! But regardless, that doesn't matter. You put our son in danger! What if Adrien had been killed?"
"I didn't know he was Cat Noir!"
She stared at him in disbelief, her jaw agape. "Does that matter!? You put him in danger as himself on multiple occasions! YOU THREW HIM OFF A BUILDING!" Emilie's chest heaved from the exertion, and she collapsed into the chair opposite Gabriel, folding her arms over her chest protectively. "The physical damage may have been repaired every time, but not the emotional and psychological damage. And no one suffered more emotionally over the three years between my accident and your defeat than our son."
Gabriel sighed. "I know," he admitted, looking down at his hands on the table. "He needed his mother."
"No." Emilie shook her head adamantly. "He needed a parent. He needed you to be his parent, instead of acting like his jailer. Not allowing him any friends? A social life? Using school and friends as leverage to keep him in line? How can I have seen in less than three months what you missed in three years? What you did damaged him, Gabriel."
"I knew you would help him recover once you woke up," Gabriel defended. He scoffed. "Besides, he doesn't seem to be hurting at the moment. Ladybug seems to be fixing that damage, too."
"She is," Emilie agreed icily, eyes hardening. "But I sense the struggle he goes through, and our future daughter-in-law shouldn't be responsible for healing the emotional scars that you left on our son!" She sighed, rubbing her forehead in frustration. "Why couldn't you have just let me go, moved on, built a new life for yourself with Nathalie?" she demanded rhetorically. "At least then Adrien would have had a family."
Gabriel looked horrified. "I could never do that to you! I love you! I could never have let you go! It would never have been the same without you!"
"No, it wouldn't have. It would have been different. But it would have been good in a different way. And it would have been a whole lot better than what you have now."
"There is no way for that to be true." He shook his head adamantly. "I do not regret what I did – how can I when you are right here in front of me, alive and whole? I wanted Adrien to have his mother back, and now he does. People may have been hurt, but it was worth it in the end."
Emilie scoffed. "It absolutely was not worth the price! It was not worth the damage you caused! And if you had succeeded? The kids told me what you were attempting to do. Combining the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous? Did you ever bother to read the Grimoire!? That power comes with a price, Gabriel! The universe must have balance. The universe would have exacted a price equal to the wish, and the price to balance out your wish would have been Adrien himself! That price is far too great! Do you think I would have wanted to wake up, only to find out that my son was now in a magical coma!? And what if Adrien had been the one to make that wish, not knowing the consequences? That price would have been even greater! He would have doomed the love of his life to a magical coma – all without knowing what had happened! Would you have cared to be the one to explain to him that he received his mother back at the cost of the love of his life? Because I sure wouldn't." She shook her head and stood up. "I may be able to forgive you for what you did eventually, Gabriel. But not now. Maybe not even before you are released from prison. Not when you feel absolutely no remorse for what you did." She strode across to the door.
The handcuffs rattled behind her. The chair fell over and hit the floor. "Wait! Emilie!"
She pushed the door open without turning around. "Goodbye, Gabriel."
AN: Methinks Mama Agreste mighta had some pent-up anger there…
Tomorrow I have a "Life and Times" one-shot, and then "Guys' Day Out" will start on Saturday!