Hi! This chapter has been long over due hasn't it!
Sorry for taking such a long while updating this story, there is a moment I just could not get right, and I had some help from CaulderPine to get it just right. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and please let me know your thoughts on this angle.
Adrien had been awake for several hours. Still slightly groggy from his ordeal and had only had the doctors and nurses grace him with their presence. When he woke there was no Plagg, no Marinette and no friendly face to tell him what had happened. Just medical professionals poking and prodding him with needles and other equipment to check his condition. A stern looking doctor had informed him that until the authorities had been to see him, no one would be able to visit. This was because of the severity of the situation, and what had transpired.
Adrien started to spiral.
He was left panicking as his mind wandered to what could have ensued while he had been out cold. The blonde was informed that he had been unconscious for quite some time, and that they could not identify all of the substances they found in his blood toxicology. He honestly did not know how he would be of any use to the investigation, and the agent who would be coming to see him had been delayed with questioning the others. Adrien was sure he was next on the list to be cross examined. He was starting to believe that they thought he must have known his father was Hawkmoth. Plenty of time mixed with irrational thinking led to restless legs and fidgeting hands, Adrien was nervous.
Finally, the door to the corridor outside his room creaked open, cascading bright fluorescent light into his dimly lit room. The person opening the door stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Adrien recognised the fair haired portly man as Jaques, who sat down with a solemn expression.
The GIGN agent gave Adrien an assessing look, seemingly hesitant and not knowing where to start, he sighed. "Mr Agreste, if you are not up to speaking with me, I can come back at a later time."
Adrien shook his head, "no, I would like to know what has happened please," the blonde looked down at his hands on his lap. "The doctor said I can not speak to anyone until you have questioned me."
Jaques lost all of his professional persona, looking incredulously at a resigned Adrien. "Adrien, you have been through enough, you are a victim in this. I do not wish to question you, at least not at this moment." Jaques relaxed and rubbed his slightly stubbled chin. "I do need to find out what you remember to complete our case file, but we are in no doubt that you had nothing to do with Hawkmoth and his reign of terror." He blinked his tired eyes wide and stretched his face out, "Miss Sancoeur has been more than cooperative, she has told us everything."
Adrien felt somewhat relieved. Nathalie was helping with the investigation, which would surely make the whole process easier. A nagging thought however, plagued his mind, "why can I not see anyone then?"
"We thought it would be best to wait until Marinette was available but there is someone who does not want to wait to see you."
Adrien's brow furrowed, and his heart skipped a beat. Panic shot through his centre, quickly rising to the surface. "Where's Marinette? Is she okay? What hap-"
Jaques stood up to place his hand on Adrien's shoulder, after he had quickly sat up straight and started to remove his covers to jump up and run to wherever she was. "Adrien, calm down, Marinette is a bit worse for wear right now but she's ok." Adrien sat back under the firm hand, the still slightly disoriented blonde had little energy to fight against the portly man's gesture. Panic and worry still etched into his face while he waited for further explanations. "She is in a secure location and not in any danger." His words were calming but they did not pacify Adrien's need to be next to his lady.
The desperate want to leave was obvious, so Jaques decided to move quickly. "I have someone outside that you have not seen for a very long time." His features were cautious, looking pointedly at Adrien under his conflicted brow. Seemingly still assessing if he was making the right decision.
The blonde stilled, feeling the cold air hitting his back through the gap of his hospital gown that he just realised he was wearing. His eyes flitting between a serious looking Jaques and the currently closed door.
Jaques sighed and stood up. Heavy footsteps indicated his movement to the door before the fluorescent light creeped into the room once more.
A slim silhouette was revealed while the dim lighting of the room cast their face in a shadow. The person entered the room and Jaques turned up the dimmer switch on the wall behind the new occupant of the room.
Adrien's mouth dropped open. Green eyes wide as he shook himself and pinched his arm to make sure he was actually awake, and not still in a coma.
Dressed in a white velour tracksuit, blonde hair cascading down the left side of her neck and onto her chest. Green eyes smiled back at him, arms outstretched as she approached his stunned form. "Adrien."
Still not convinced of his conscious state, he found the bright light from behind the woman gave her an angelic glow. A halo cast around her golden locks and the fluorescent light protruding around her form morphed into wings.
Adrien rubbed his eyes, "am I dreaming?" The breathless words left his mouth just as her arms encased him in a warm, familiar embrace. Jaques closed the door behind her, giving them privacy from any observers outside. Her instant awakening had astonished doctors, and he had found it very difficult to keep her miraculous recovery from becoming a circus. The GIGN agent surmised there would be plenty of time for the medical team to run tests, but this moment was something which could not wait any longer.
She whispered in his ear, "you're not dreaming Adrien." Her voice was like a long forgotten melody. A soothing entity which had been missing from his life. A familiar, yet distant memory, a lullaby he instantly recognised.
Adrien relaxed instantly into his mother's arms.
The shock lessened as his emotions took hold. Tears falling down his cheeks, Adrien buried his face into his mother's familiar scent. Trying to memorise as much as he could, in case she disappeared once more. Basking in the warmth of her embrace, Adrien could not believe what was happening.
"It's you," he whispered into the crook of her neck, "it's you, it is really you."
Jaques watched the pair embrace, he knew he had made the right decision in allowing this to happen. Adrien had a lot to process and Jaques still had the devastating news of the loss of his father to deliver. The portly man sat down, intent on giving them this moment at least, before working out how exactly to break the news of Gabriel Agreste's demise.
Emilie pulled her son away from her slightly, and gazed down lovingly on his tear stained face. "I have missed you so much Adrien." All Adrien could do was smile at her, his eyes memorising every aspect of her face, the familiar face of the woman he had not seen for over seven years. She started to cry, droplets of happy tears poured down her face while he failed to find the words to convey just how he felt at that very moment.
Ecstatic.
Astonished.
Relieved.
Amazed.
Bewildered.
Loved.
In her embrace, with her adoring gaze focused on him, he felt loved.
He felt the love of his mother pouring onto him. The love of a parent he had not felt in a very long time.
"How are you here?" He asked in disbelief. "How am I so lucky for you to be here?"
Adrien clung to his mother, dreading her leaving his side and for her to disappear again, proving this reunion to be a dream. She sat on the bed next to him holding on just as tightly. Cradling his head into the crook of her neck once more, tears streamed down her own youthful face. She really had not appeared to have aged at all.
The portly man turned somber again as his tearful smile at their reunion morphed into a troubled frown. Both blondes looked to him, the younger blonde needing answers, answers his mother was unable to give in her emotional state.
"Adrien," Jaques pinched the bridge of his nose and addressed him with a serious tone. "We have spoken to Duusu and Tikki," the GIGN agent rolled his lips unsure of what he was actually saying. "It would appear that once Hawkmoth had been defeated, and his hold on the Miraculous had been relinquished for good… the powers and energy he had unknowingly been absorbing from your mother through her connection to the broken Miraculous were replenished instantly."
Adrien sucked in a deep breath. His eye fixated on Jaques, "I don't…"
"Duusu was not aware of what was happening, and Miss Sancoeur has confirmed that her health diminished once she had started using the broken Miraculous of the Peacock." Jaques continued his explanation.
Adrien nodded his head slowly, he could remember Nathalie becoming sick. The similarities between his mother's deterioration and Nathalie's worsening health were scarily similar.
Jaques took Adrien's nod as affirmation that he was understanding the information to some extent, so carried on with what he had been told. "Tikki has a theory. She has reason to think that when a broken Miraculous is being used, another Miraculous being used in close proximity will syphon energy and power from the Miraculous and their host." Jaques looked to the floor and pursed his lips. "Your father was preventing your mother's recovery by using the Butterfly Miraculous in such close proximity to her resting state."
Emilie shifted her position, she knew what was coming next and needed to brace herself to be able to support Adrien when he was told the news.
"When Miss Sancoeur also became linked with the broken Miraculous, she too, was suffering from the effects which caused your mother to fall into a coma." Jaques watched Adrien intently, this was a lot for the young man to process, and he had not even delivered all of the news to him yet. "Hawkmoth was becoming more powerful because he was taking the life source from two weilders of the same broken Miraculous."
Jaques cleared his throat. "Your father was trying to save your mother by trying to gain yours and Marinette's Miraculous but," he hesitated, "if he had stopped using the Miraculous indefinitely…" Jaques trailed off quietly, Emilie picked up what he was saying.
"I would have regained my consciousness eventually, and he need not have done what he did."
"So," Adrien tried, attempting to get his head around the information he had been given. Still not relinquishing his hold of his mother. "If father had just stopped, you-you would have come back?"
"Yes." She confirmed, "not as suddenly, but myself and Nathalie would have made a full recovery."
"So why do you seem to be fully recovered now?" He was struggling to make sense of what he was hearing. 'Shouldn't it have taken more time to get to this state? How long have I been out for?'
Emilie and Jaques exchanged an apprehensive glance, Emilie looked back to Adrien and motioned him to look her straight in the eye.
"All that he took from us was instantly restored when, he… your father Adrien, he-" Emilie stopped. Tears of sadness followed the lines which had been made earlier by her tears of joy.
Jaques cautiously finished for her, "I am afraid there is no easy way to deliver the news, but your father died while you were unconscious Adrien."
Adrien looked disbelievingly from Jaques to his mother, "no, that-that-"
Emilie hugged her son tightly, "I'm sorry Adrien," she whispered through watery words. "Your father is no longer with us."
"Your father, Adrien," Jaques added further explanation, "was overcome by a Kwami taking control over it's wearer's body, and unfortunately, your father was killed by their actions…"
As Jaques' words sunk in, Adrien's body started to go numb. His eyes wondered to bore a hole in the wall behind Jaques as he could not focus properly on anything in his surroundings. Even his mother seemed to fade out as a high pitch noise sounded through his ears and caused everything else to be drowned out.
He did not hear the rest of Jaques' explanation, nor did he care to. He had many questions swimming around his head, and the joy he felt at his mother's return, was now tarnished, with the death of his father.
Thank you for reading and sticking with this story, I really appreciate all of the reviews, follows and faves it has received so far!
Take it easy =)
Lady Rhi X