Before we get into this chapter, I want to state there's Alya salt in here. I really like Alya, I do. I think she's a great character, because she's not a perfect person. So don't think I dislike her because I'm being critical of her.
—
In the hospital, one does not have the luxury of independence.
Marinette never did consent to using the bedpan, but she was slowly getting used to John escorting her to the bathroom, and helping her do her duties. It was embarrassing, and she hated it.
On such an occasion, Marinette cried as John undid the ties on her robe. "What's wrong dear?"
She sniffed. "I just hate being like this."
"I know it's pretty strange having someone watch you, but it shouldn't be too long before you're on your own."
She winced slightly, finding her confession sad. "Actually…I'm used to being watched now…I'm not used to using a toilet."
John just gave her a reassuring smile. "Then I'm glad you insisted on using the toilet instead of bedpan. You are making the conscious decision to create human habits. After substantial trauma, like what you've suffered, many people would really fall into dehumanized behavior. Not cleaning up after themselves, not using toilets, eating expired foods, really just not taking care of themselves in general. So for you to say, 'no, I want to use the bathroom like a big girl' instead of 'whatever, I'll just lay here' is really encouraging to me."
"I still want to lie in bed."
"I would be surprised if you didn't."
Once she was done, John helped her back into bed. "How's your pain level?"
"Fine. My back aches."
"Do you want some Valium? You can have some in an hour."
"Can I have something lighter?"
John smiled. "Man Marinette, you really know how to reassure a nurse. Ibuprofen sound good?"
"That'll hit the spot." She couldn't help but laugh.
John smiled too, only for it to fade slightly. "So, Marinette. I have to let you know, there's someone here that's been wanting to see you, but we had to make sure you were up for it."
"Oh? Who's that?"
"Would you like me to tell you? Or do you want to be surprised?"
She screwed up her lips. "Is it Adrien?"
"It's not Adrien, unfortunately."
She frowned slightly.
"I hear she's a friend of yours."
"It's not Lila, is it?" She asked with fear.
"No, that's not her name."
Marinette shrugged. "I guess surprise me. I'm out of guesses."
"Alright, I'll go get her."
Sabine, who had been sitting patiently nearby, took her hand and nodded in reassurance.
In the minutes that ticked by, Marinette grew uneasy. There weren't many female friends she was comfortable seeing right now.
While Salo's torment was still the most prevalent thing in her mind, the sting of betrayal from Lila had never subsided. How hypocritical of her classmates to come here and wish her well after they humiliated her and betrayed her? What would they have to gain?
Would it be from guilt? Or just because they didn't want to be on Ladybug's bad side?
"I think I changed my mind," She told her mother. "I don't want to see anyone."
Sabine nodded in understanding. "Alright, I'll stop them before they come in."
But she was a little too late, since John had returned, with Alya in tow.
"Hey girl…" She said softly.
Marinette shook her head. "No, no I can't handle this. Not her. I can't—" Her throat squeezed, and it took a few tries to swallow.
"Marinette," Alya spoke, her voice thick with emotion. "I know the last time we talked, things weren't great…"
"I don't want to talk to her," Marinette interrupted, telling John.
"Please, just hear me out!" Alya begged.
"Why should I?" Marinette stared her down with a ruthless gaze. "You never listened to me. I was just jealous of Lila when I told you she was lying. I was a coward when I wasn't ready to confess to Adrien. I wasn't journalistic when I warned you about posting stuff on your blog. You were always telling me I was wrong. So why should I listen to you now? Because you know I'm Ladybug? Because you're my biggest fan?" She shrugged, gesturing her to answer.
"Well…" Alya started, but then stopped. She was really speechless. She shrugged. "You're not wrong. I wasn't always a good friend. But I love you, I love Marinette, more than Ladybug."
"Then why didn't you believe me? Why weren't you there for me when I needed you? Why was Lila telling the world I wasn't actually in pain?"
Alya frantically wiped her tears away, trying to speak, but finding it too hard to.
Sabine just sighed sadly. "Alya punched Lila in the face in our living room."
"Twice," Alya sniffed. "Once in the living room, and once at school. After that, I wasn't really allowed to be around her."
Marinette shook her head in disbelief.
"The day you went missing," she began her tale. "Your mom called Nino and I. We were scared that because of what had happened at school, something was wrong. Maybe you had been akumatized or something. I didn't know. So we went to everyone's house, gathering a search party, and we looked all over Paris. Around dinner time, we returned to the bakery to regroup. Adrien's dad was there, because Adrien hadn't come home either, and that akuma was still on the loose. Then…she came on the TV."
Marinette's anger had begun to subside, as she listened intently.
"I got this sinking feeling in my gut when I saw Ladybug and Chat Noir tied up like that. My brain just kept echoing 'what if? what if?' and then…the masks fell. I was horrified. I honestly don't remember much of what happened after that. I know there was yelling, and I punched Lila…but everyone knew the truth. Lila confessed she had lied."
"So she found new targets." Marinette supplied.
"Exactly." Alya continued, "Not long after, she was starting her web at school, talking with other students and some of our more…optimistic classmates into her lies. I just snapped. She was on the ground, bleeding, and then I heard Hawkmoth in my head."
"You got akumatized over me?"
"I fought it off. Because I knew it wasn't going to help. But I got his attention."
A strange tingle tickled at the back of Marinette's head. A moment in the rain, screams of terror. It all sort of blended together with everything else that she had been through.
She willed it away with a shake of the head. "I thought everyone believed her. I thought they believed it was…some sort of performance? I don't remember what she said. But she convinced everyone it was fake."
Alya shook her head, "No, not everyone. Just a tiny sliver of people. A loud sliver of people. You know Lila, she's got that…wicked charisma that just ropes people in. She's a manipulator, and she has to be in the lime light."
"Yeah, I know." Another flash of something familiar, Lila with bloody hands over her mouth.
Was it a dream? Or a hallucination from the drugs?
"Nino and I watched every scrap of the stream. We worked with detectives and analyzed everything we could. We even did our own searches around town. Rena Rouge and Carapace were spotted too." She took her laptop out from her bag and opened it up. "And on the blog, I had some volunteers help summarize and write out all the dialogue. EUROPOL used it for clues to find you."
A question that should have been asked a while ago came to mind, but she hadn't even considered it yet. "How did we get out? Who rescued us?"
Alya bit her lip and looked at Sabine, who in turn looked at the nurse.
John shrugged. "You may as well tell her now. She'll have to find out at some point."
"Find out what?"
"Marinette...you and Adrien were akumatized."
Marinette felt her skin grow cold and her hands become clammy. She reached for her water to help swallow the lump on her throat. "Oh."
Oh? Oh? That's the best she had? Ladybug! Akumatized! That's the worst thing that could happen!
Not only had she failed as a superhero, her enemy had to bail her out!
Hawkmoth had saved them. And given that Tikki was still with her, he hadn't even taken the Miraculous.
Was she that pitiful to him? Or did he have something much worse in store?
"I don't...I don't remember." She whispered after drinking. He cup rattled in her hand.
"No one does." Alya reminded, gently. "Don't worry about it."
"Did we hurt anyone?"
Sabine reached over and squeezed her knee. "You gave me your earrings, and I did a Miraculous Cure."
"But did we hurt anyone? I lost my memories, but no one else would have!"
John squeezed her shoulder. "Marinette, you need to take a deep breath. Your blood pressure is rising."
"I don't care about my god damn blood pressure!" She shouted.
"Okay, this conversation is over," He declared. "Alya, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Marinette grabbed him back, digging her fingernails into his arm. "Not yet."
John sighed. "First you wanted her to leave, now you want her to stay?"
"I need answers. Everyone knows everything. But I've literally been in the dark this whole time. What happened? What did I do?!"
Alya took a calming, considering breath. "Okay, I'll tell you everything, but we're going to cover it slowly and calmly. I don't want you to hurt yourself."
"I can't be hurt any worse than I have been, stop treating me like a fragile old woman!"
"Please calm down."
"Calm down?! No! I'm not going to calm down! I was akumatized! My identity was exposed, my miraculous stolen, I was beaten and tortured for god who knows how long! I watched the love of my life slowly die in my arms! And Hawkmoth finally got me! I have failed all the way across the board! So what else, huh? What did I do? Go on a murder spree!? Because not only was Paris disappointed in me, but are they scared of me now, too? What's next!? Prison? The guillotine?!"
"Marinette, you're hysterical." Sabine warned.
"Oh shut up, I'm allowed to be!" Marinette snapped, her voice cracking. "And I'm only getting angrier the more you all withhold information from me! So speak!"
Alya nodded. "Yeah…yeah, you…you guys killed some people."
Marinette clenched her eyes shut, nodding harshly. "Yeah, okay. Like, Salo and her men? On camera?"
"Yes, and—and some others."
"How many?"
"You don't want to know."
"HOW MANY, ALYA!?" She shrieked.
Alya covered her eyes with her hands, scared to look at her friend and admit this out loud. "Final body count was 47 people. Mostly people who worked for Salo and Edward Savage, but also some police officers and some civilians that got caught in the crossfire."
Information is what she wanted. And it's what she got.
But god, did it hurt.
"They all came back then? With the cure?"
"As far as we know, yes." Sabine soothed. "No one has tried to press charges or anything either."
"What are they saying about us? What are they telling Paris? Will we...will we have to leave?"
Sabine shook her head. "I haven't had the stomach to listen to the news."
"Most people have been very supportive of you both, especially Nadja Chamack," Alya provided. "There's been a lot of back and forth and critics having their opinions. But it's mostly garbage. They'll be forgotten."
"From what I've seen," John interjected. "This isn't like most political arguments where there's hidden information. Everyone knows what happened. Everyone has the same information. Anyone arguing otherwise is being brutally shut down. It's kind of the silver lining to this all being broadcasted."
Sabine squeezed her daughters hand. "No matter what, you have plenty of people ready to support you. So don't worry about Paris. Worry about you and Adrien."
Marinette looked to Tikki, who patiently sat in her hands. She grazed her thumb over her cheek absently as her mind wandered.
"All these resources, EUROPOL, the police...if no one else was able to find us, how did Hawkmoth? And why didn't he take my Miraculous?"
Sabine and Alya shared a subtle look. Marinette hadn't wanted them to withhold information, but how were they supposed to tell her that her new father-in-law was also her arch-enemy that they had been battling for years?
"I think it's best if he tell you that. I'm sure he'll appear sometime." Alya winced.
Before Marinette could grill her more about the vague answer, there was a knock on the door before Gabriel entered. He had a dress bag over his arm and a gift bag in the other.
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" He asked gently.
"Just an interrogation," Sabine said lightly.
"What do you want?" Marinette demanded.
"Just to say hi, and ask how you're doing."
"Hi. I'm peachy." Though her tone said otherwise.
"Would you be opposed to gifts?"
Marinette blanched. "I don't know if I deserve any gifts."
"Of course you do." He entered the room fully. "One isn't quite ready yet actually, but I thought it might cheer you up."
Marinette managed a weak smile as he set the gift bag in her lap. "Here, open this first."
She pulled out the wrapping paper, only to find a small white box. Inside, a brand new, top of the line, very expensive, smartphone.
"It's already set up. It should have all your contacts, as well as myself. This way if you need anything and someone's not here, we can get it for you."
Holding the device in her hand, Marinette felt some tightness in her chest subsiding. That horrible feeling of dependence waned with the world at her finger tips. Because besides being able to contact people, she'd be able to see for herself what was going on in the world. What people were saying about her.
"And one other thing," he stated as he draped the garment bag over her legs. "I hope you'll forgive me, but I studied your sketchbook. I wanted to get this as close as possible to what you imagined."
He undid the zipper, revealing a light pink garment. A dress, with a silvery lace bodice, that continued into the transparent wrist length sleeves. The skirt was full and unfurled from the bag. Right in the front of the skirt was an intricately hand stitched Phoenix, in rose color thread.
Her dream wedding dress.
Speechless, Marinette reached out to touch the pink silk, tears gathering in her eyes.
"Do you like it?"
"It's beautiful." She breathed. "I...I don't know...why?"
"Why what?"
"Why would you do such a thing? For me?"
"Marinette?"
"I don't know why...you're even talking to me? I—I'm the reason Adrien's so hurt. You know that, right? It was my mistake?"
Sabine squeezed her shoulder. "Marinette..."
Gabriel leaned closer to get to eye level. "You didn't torture him. You didn't kill anyone during a drug deal. You're not a fault."
"But—"
"Listen." He sat on the bed next to her. "I know I'm not the easiest person to understand. And that's my fault. You don't have to accept this dress if you don't want to. I still want to give it to you, no strings attached. Because your marriage to Adrien is legal and binding, which makes you my kid now too. And I'm fiercely protective of my kids."
She clenched her eyes shut, willing herself not to cry. Her fingers tangled in the fabric and crumpled it. "I can't wear this...it's so beautiful...and I'm hideous."
"You're not, girl." Alya assured. "You look rough, not gonna lie, but you're not hideous."
"All things in due time," Gabriel patted her hand. "When you are both ready, we'll have a proper ceremony. Alright? Whatever you want."
She nodded heavily. "Thank you...thank you..."