Author's note: Thanks again for the reviews!

/

It's been one week exactly.

Seven days since the Peacock miraculous started working its magic. It gives back what it had taken. It doesn't look like much to the outside world, although by the fourth day, it's clear that the color has returned to her cheeks. The main difference is her vitals. Nathalie has taught Adrien how to monitor them and how to use the equipment hidden underneath the mansion should anything ever happen to her, just as Gabriel had done for her in the past. As such, he's able to watch her heart rate increase, one beat at a time. Her lungs take in more oxygen and her brain functions are back to normal. In short, she's being dragged out of the coma that she had been trapped in for five years.

The progress is remarkable.

Now, they're about ready for the next step.

"She's stable." Nathalie informs the group gathered there. "She doesn't need the machine any longer."

Adrien wants to jump for joy. He really does but there's a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. He's close to calling it fear.

He's had a week to think about matters and still they're no clearer. His head is a mess. He's looked at the photos which are so dear to him, watched some of the old home videos his father had kept locked away and listened to those old records of hers. Something has changed. He can't quite put his finger on it but something isn't sitting entirely well with him. He wants to be excited, to be bouncing off of the walls. Somehow, he can't. It's just nerves, Plagg tells him. A lot has happened. As soon as his mother is back with him, things will be better and everything will become a lot clearer.

Marinette stands next to him as they wait for the glass coffin to open. She reaches out and takes his hand in her own. She can sense when something isn't quite right with him and knows just what's needed. He smiles gratefully, unable to express just what her presence here right now means to him. She's like another leg for him to stand on as his own feel increasingly unsure.

It's quite a lengthy process to disable the machines which had been keeping the woman alive for these past five years. So they have a while to sit around, to chat and to think whilst Nathalie does her work. Adrien wants to talk, to express himself but he struggles. Sitting face to face with his girlfriend, his legs crossed. He shifts uncomfortably. She waits patient as always where he is concerned. So for a while, he's content enough just to look at her and to try and forget about everything else that's troubling him. From time to time, he tries to articulate what's eating away at him but it never seems to come out as anything comprehensible or which anyone else could possibly relate to:

"This feels kind of unreal… I've dreamed of it for so long and now it's happening-" His voice trails off for a moment as he struggles to find the right words. "I can't quite imagine it happening."

"You're just nervous chaton." She assures him with a confidence he only wishes that he possessed.

He tries his best to relax, to push his doubts to the back of his mind. He focuses on everything that he's missed about his mother: her smile, her laugh, her kindness… Everything that he had longed for for so long and had been denied.

Nathalie calls them over when it's time. Officially, Emilie is keeping herself alive now. There's no more life-support involved. The next challenge is getting her out of that infernal pod. She'll stay down here until she wakes up. Whilst the Agreste mansion doesn't get many, if any visitors, it would be difficult to explain just why Adrien's notionally still missing mother is unconscious in a bed if someone were to stumble upon her by accident. Best she stay down here until she recuperates a bit… They have a bed all set up for her along with the medical supplies required to ensure that she stays alive until she finally awakes.

Adrien's mind is blank as he stands there watching the door open with a hiss. His legs are trembling. His heart beats like a drum and there's a feeling at the pit of his stomach which he can't quite place.

"Are you going to be okay?" Plagg asks, hovering next to head.

"Yes..." Adrien answers mindlessly.

A second later and for the first time in five years, Emilie Agreste is out in the open air without life support. There's nothing filtered about the oxygen that she breathes and it's her lungs doing all the work. For all that, she remains peaceful, at least to the outside world. It's as if she continues to sleep, regardless of the change of circumstances.

Adrien's presence is required. They're going to need to move her and he's physically the strongest person there. For all that, he trembles at the prospect. His legs are shaking a little as he stands there. His eyes flick over to Nathalie. She's by his side and says nothing. Her blue gaze rests on him. Does she know that he's struggling? Is it even possible to ask for help at a time like this? It seems unfathomable that anyone can offer any form of assistance or guidance, especially when he himself doesn't understand just what's wrong with him. He should be rushing forwards, eager to do whatever he can.

He closes his eyes. His lungs are filled with oxygen in the hopes that it will give him the courage that he needs to continue.

The teen takes a few tentative and shaky steps forwards. They're not much but each of them carries him closer to his parent. All of a sudden, he can't take his eyes off of her. It's like he's under some sort of spell. He's not thinking, just acting. Whilst his arms are trembling, they're still strong enough to pick her up. For some reason, he'd thought that she would be icy cool. Instead her flesh feels warm and soft, yet another confirmation that she's a living being and not some sort of illusion. She doesn't seem to weigh anything in his arms.

Adrien doesn't have to carry her all that far, only a few feet into a makeshift bed they've set up for her until she awakens. He places her there gently. Nathalie and Marinette both offer their assistance in ensuring that she's tucked in and comfortable. He steps away and lets them tend to her, feeling numb. His eyes rest upon the features of the woman and for the first time in a week, it finally hits him:

His mother is back.

Every fond memory and bad one hit him at once. It's a sharp pain which strikes his heart: both from being reminded just how much he's been longing for this day to come and how he has missed the woman. Every second that she's been taken away from him seems to weigh upon his shoulders. It hurts terribly and yet… Now he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. All of that silent suffering he's been enduring is at an end. She's back with him. He'll be able to hear her voice, to laugh with her once more… Things will go back to as they had been before. With a few differences… She'll have to get used to the fact that her husband's gone (no great loss there) but Nathalie's here now and she makes up for it. They'll have to-

"Adrien?" It's his guardian's soft and caring but none-the-less concerned words which draw his attention. "Do you want to sit down?"

Has he been acting up again?

He turns back to Nathalie, back to familiarity and away from the excitement and longing which had been taking hold of him. He feels himself return to himself for a while, taking a single breath of air. Still, it takes him a moment to be able to respond. He manages to muster enough self-awareness and control to give them a watery smile. It likely fails to conceal some of his internal struggles but then he's not really trying to fool them, just to let them know that they don't need to be all that worried for him:

"I just need a minute."

"A minute alone?" Nathalie questions.

She gets a nod in response.

Sometimes it's best to give Adrien some time alone. Others, he desperately needs company and leaving him alone would be madness. Right now, Nathalie senses that it's more the former. Plagg will stay nearby, providing comfort and if necessary will come and get them if their presence is required once more. They ensure that Emilie is both stable and has everything that she will need before silently slipping away. Leaving the boy with his mother.

They head outside, suddenly needing a breath of fresh air.

It's quiet out there. Marinette sits down. The clouds continue to cover the city, making everything an unpleasant gray. Only Macaroon, oblivious as always seems to have energy. The girl throws a ball half-heartedly for the over-excited mutt. Nathalie is deep in thought, that much is clear as for once, she doesn't have her tablet in her hands. Instead, she's fixing either the building or the sky, the teen can't quite tell. They've both got the same thing on her minds and know it. As such, neither bothers to speak for a while, allowing the other to process things at their own speed.

Finally, it's Marinette who speaks:

"He's not taking it the way I thought he would..."

"How did you think he was going to take it?"

"I don't know." The girl shrugs her shoulders, not indifferent but rather unable to explain herself. "He always had stars in his eyes when he talked about his mom. So I guess I thought he'd be bouncing off of the walls… It's a lot to get through his head though."

Nathalie remains silent. There's another thought which has occurred to Marinette but which she doesn't dare articulate. She's only briefly whispered about it with Tikki on a couple of evenings. She wonders if the woman might be jealous. She's been raising a boy who isn't her son for four years now. Now, his real mother is back in the picture. Does she fear that the boy is going to drift away from her? She's selfless, the girl knows that much. She won't do anything to keep the two apart but surely, she must be at least somewhat worried least this be the beginning of a "goodbye".

Still, she offers no insights into her private thoughts. Forcing Marinette to ask this time:

"What do you think?"

"I think it's going to be a shock for both of them." The woman declares gravely turning away from the sky to look at the teen. "Adrien always idolized his mother, to the extent that he blinded himself from her faults and believe me, like all of us, she had them. He's been out in the world since then. Now, I'm not so sure he won't notice. Emilie will be waking up expecting to find her perfect little thirteen year old boy. Instead, she's going to be faced with the young man and Adrien's..."

"Fragile?"

The woman didn't say anything. As Marinette has come to understand, it can be as good as a confirmation where Nathalie was concerned. She didn't always say what she meant. More often than not, it could be a guessing game as to just what was going on in her mind, even harder to imagine what was happening inside of her heart. At times, she wonders if Adrien, almost certainly the person closest to her, knows.

Marinette doesn't know Emilie. All that she can base herself on is how much Adrien loves her. It's clear that he does. Every time he brings the woman up, he gets stars in his eyes. Up until the past week at least, he's grown a little quiet about the subject. As such, she can't even begin to imagine just what it will be like for the two of them to be reunited. She wants to think that they'll go back to those "golden years" and be the perfect mother and son duo she's always thought they would be. On the other hand, there's no denying that Adrien's changed. He's not the same boy as he was. That will surely come as a shock.

"We'll work it out." Nathalie declares a moment later. "It won't be easy but we'll make it work."

Marinette nods in agreement. Come what may, she'll be there for Adrien… Now it's just a matter of waiting.