Penguin: Hello everyone! I'm sick as a dog rn, and since there's no recent reviews, let's get to the chapter.

"Janie, make sure that Mrs. Summer gets her medication before-" Dr. Max broke off, choking. Because Adrien had just wrapped his hand around the prick's throat. "Stop!" The nurse-Janie- sprang to her feet. "Let him go!"

She grabbed for the phone. "Security-"

"Security can wait a bit, honey," Nino said as he took the phone from her. "We're just gonna have us a little chat with the doc." Max's eyes bulged. "Let…me…go…" Adrien eased his hold. "Want to have the chat out here, or in your office?" His fingerprints were bright on the doc's throat.

"O-office…"

"Good choice." He let the doctor go. Max spun away from him. Strode down the hall. "Dr. Max?" Janie called out uncertainly. "I've got this," Max snapped back. No, the bastard didn't.

Max threw open his office door. Paced inside and rubbed his neck. Adrien marched after him. Nino followed. He shut the door, then put his considerable bulk in front of the exit. "What the hell?" Max demanded as she spun around to confront Adrien.

"What the freaking hell! How dare you come in here and assault me-"

"Her picture is gone," Adrien said. Max's mouth snapped closed. "All the pictures on your desk are gone." Actually, it looked to him like the doctor was packing up his office. "Planning a trip?"

"I've got a transfer," Max gritted out. "I applied for it months ago after-"

"After Marinette dumped you." Max flushed. "I heard about her disappearance. I-I'm sorry. I hope the cops can find her soon." Adrien wanted to drive his fist into the doctor's face. Again and again until he heard the smash of bones.

"Seeing as how it was some person who took Marinette, and not a figment of her imagination, I think your theory was a little off, doc." Rage seethed in Adrien's words. "My mistake." Each word seemed torn from Max. "I thought…I-I was wrong."

"You were." He closed in on the doctor. He didn't like Max. Didn't trust him. Actually, Adrien wanted to rip the man apart. "I almost killed a man for Marinette once." Max swallowed. His eyes widened. "You did what?"

"I wasn't even aware how close I put the guy to death," Adrien said as the memory rose in his head. "He was trying to rape her. I saw…and I reacted. I hit him, again and again, until Marinette pulled me off him." Sweat beaded Max's forehead.

"That's what I did to him," Adrien murmured as he stared directly into Max's eyes. "So what do you think I'm going to do once I get my hands on the man who took her?" Max backed up. "I didn't take Marinette! I've been here-"

"Actually, you came back to work the day after Ms. Dupain-Cheng was taken," Nino said as he stood firm by the door. "We checked. We have lots of resources to do things like that." Max's gaze darted toward Nino.

"She left you, and you couldn't handle that…" Adrien fought to keep his voice level. He wanted to pound into Max, but that wasn't the plan. He had to walk a very delicate line here. Very delicate. The doctor shook his head. "It's not me! I wanted to help her-"

"You wanted to own her. You wanted her to be yours, but she couldn't be…Marinette didn't love you, and no matter what you did, you couldn't make her love you." A fist pounded into the door. "Doctor Max?"

"Looks like Janie called security after all," Nino said flatly. "Some people just don't know how to follow orders."

"I didn't want to own her." Max shoved his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. "That was the set designer, Ivan. He's the one who was always controlling her. Telling her when to exercise. When to go home and sleep. What to freaking eat. He wanted to control everything about her life."

Adrien kept all emotion from his face. "I'm going to kill the man who took her." Max tensed. His eyelids jerked. Such a small move. "I am going to kill him," Adrien said deliberately. "because Marinette wasn't his to take."

The guards had burst inside the room. "She was never his," Adrien told the doctor. "Never."

The guards shoed Adrien and Nino out of the hospital. "Well, that didn't go so smoothly," Nino murmured as he gazed around at the hospital's parking lot. "But at least none of the damn paparazzi are here to see you get your ass thrown into the street."

"The meeting went exactly as I hoped." Marinette wasn't his to take. When Adrien had said those words, Max's hands had fisted. His eyes had been tight and angry, and the man had clamped his lips together to stop himself to replying to Adrien.

"The guy was angry, but that was probably because you basically accused him of being a kidnapper and a killer. And because, you know, you threatened to murder him." Nino turned toward the car. "All right, boss, we need to back off."

They weren't backing any place. "I goaded him so that the fellow would make a mistake." Nino glanced over his shoulder. "Maybe it is the set designer, Ivan, maybe he's…"

"I've got two agents on Ivan. They are watching him twenty-four, seven." Just in case. "And now, you and I are going to take over the watch on Max." Because his gut told him to stay close to the doctor. He'd taken her pictures away. Packed up the office.

And the man in the video- that damn grainy video that Adrien had watched again and again- he'd expertly injected Marinette with that needle. No hesitation. The man who killed Chloe had known just where to shove his knife. Known just how to twist that blade to cause maximum damage.

A doctor would know. Adrien headed toward the back of the building. Waited. When Max rushed out of the hospital ten minutes later, Adrien was still waiting. The doctor hopped into his car. Sped away. "Now it's your turn to be stalked," Adrien whispered.

Adrien started to walk towards the car, until he heard a voice. "NINO LAHIFFE!" the voice shouted angrily. Adrien's eyes widened and turned around. He saw Alya, super pissed off. She was wearing a blue dress that went above her knee and her plaid jacket over it, only the top button buttoned. She wore a green watch on her right wrist and wore her glasses, with her long hair down.

She tapped her white Converse sneakers impatiently. "Nino, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT MARI WAS KIDNAPPED?! HOW COULD YOU HIDE THIS FROM ME?!"

Nino blinked, his eyes wide in fear. "Uh…"

"EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Alya screamed at him. Nino chuckled nervously and looked at Adrien. "Adrien, my best bro, can you help a brother out here?" Adrien shook his head. "Nope. You're the one who decided not to tell her. I'm not going to jail for that one. You're on your own dude."

Alya glared at Nino and he said, "Babe, it's not what it looks like. I-"

"Adrien!" a voice shouted out. Adrien turned and saw Cecilia running towards him. Adrien's eyes widened. "Oh shit." Cecilia looked at him straight dead in the eyes. "I heard Marinette was kidnapped. I want to help you find the bastard."

"I'm going too." Alya said, climbing into the car. Nino's mouth dropped open in shock. "But-"

"No buts, my friend is kidnapped, and if that son of a bitch hurts her, he has to go through ME." Alya said, crossing her arms. Nino groaned. "Great…"

Cecilia climbed into the car as well. "Cecilia, don't you have a show coming up or something?" Adrien questioned. "I have time. I may not like Marinette, but no one deserves to be kidnapped." Adrien sighed and went into the passenger side of the car.

When did finding your soulmate get this complicated?

Penguin: Alya is a person you don't want to mess with...Thank you guys for reading! I'll be adding a new poll choice for new stories so if you haven't voted yet, go and vote. Remember, you can only see the poll on a computer. And if you wanted to vote for the new one but you already voted...I'm sorry! :s