A Double Miracle
Written by: JuliaFC
Betas: Lizziemagic, katiekat513, Mystic_raven20
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
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Sequel to the story "The Only Family I Need".
Written for the Advent Calendar 2022 of the Facebook group "Hurt/Comfort Italia - Fanart and Fanfiction - GRUPPO NUOVO". Prompt n 19 - 'Second Heartbeat'
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"Blood clots?"
Marinette and Adrien looked eye-wide at the blonde gynaecologist sitting on the other side of the desk. The woman sighed, looked at them from behind her square glasses and started searching for some paper among the ones lying on her desk.
A few months had passed from that cursed night when Tikki had woken Adrien up, and he had found his wife sitting in a pool of her blood, crying her eyes out for having lost yet another pregnancy.
Yet another was the key because, unknown to Adrien, Marinette had been having one pregnancy loss after another, suffering in silence for over two years and not daring to tell him anything. Because she was scared. Because she thought he wouldn't love her anymore if she couldn't give him the family he craved. Because she felt like a failure.
The story of their life.
It had taken Adrien a lot of work to finally convince Marinette that he would love her no matter what, that in the worst-case scenario, they could adopt. Truth be told, he didn't mind; she was all the family he needed and wanted. But if she really wanted to get pregnant, they had to take the matter seriously and go to a specialist to get checked up—both of them. Yes, he put himself on the line too, because it takes two to tango; it could be his fault. So they had both gone through every kind of medical examination to try and find out the source of the repeated miscarriages that Marinette was having.
In the last few months, they had done tests to exclude abnormalities in her reproductive organs, or any hormonal issues. They had even gone through a full karyotype test to exclude chromosome abnormality. Everything had come up clear and perfect, and they had seriously started thinking it was just bad luck; until today.
"Yes, M. and Madame Agreste. The result of the latest screen came back very clear." She picked up one of the papers on her desk and passed it on to them, quickly logging on to her computer and clicking with her mouse a few times.
Adrien and Marinette looked blankly at a long list of strangely worded results, their gazes going from the page in their hands to the woman's face in front of them. She looked back, the reflection of the computer screen on the lenses of her glasses showing that her computer was displaying the same page.
"What are we looking at, Dr Lepen?" Marinette asked after clearing her throat a little.
The gynaecologist shook her head, her blond curls escaping from behind her ears and covering her forehead, aiming for her eyes. She pushed her hair back behind her ears and took hold of her mouse again. "If you look at the values of the proteins C and S, especially those of the antithrombin, and compare with the reference range next to them, you can see it yourself. All three are deficient, which shows us where the problem is."
The values that Dr Lepen highlighted were shown in red, the first indication that something was wrong, and Marinette noticed immediately that the values were way below the reference range. "So what does this mean? I—" She gulped. "Won't be able to…" Her voice cracked, but she immediately felt Adrien's hand on her shoulder. Her husband gave her a firm squeeze, and she covered his hand with hers, holding it strongly to gain some courage, her heart racing in her chest.
The woman smiled, her blue eyes behind the lenses of her glasses looking almost indigo in the dusky room. "It means that we have a solution."
"Really?" Marinette's hold on Adrien's hand grew more decisive as her face flushed.
"Yes. These results tell us there's a risk for you to develop thrombophilia or, as I said earlier, blood clots. That's probably what has terminated your previous pregnancies."
Marinette frowned. "But I've never had blood clots before."
"It doesn't mean that it can never happen to you." The gynaecologist clasped her hands on her desk as she looked Marinette straight in the eye. "It's not uncommon for women to find out that they have thrombophilia while being pregnant, and having multiple miscarriages is an unfortunate symptom of it."
"Oh." Marinette deflated and her lips curled down into a pout.
Dr Lepen tried to offer a reassuring smile. "However, knowing what the problem is, we can do something about it. What I can recommend is you take a blood thinner. Injections of Lovenox should be sufficient." She adjusted her glasses unnecessarily. "It will 'thin' your blood and help prevent blood clots."
Marinette went on all alert in literally an instant. Her back straightened, her elbows pinned to the desk in front of her, her forehead and brows furrowed into a determined frown. "When do I start? How do I take it? Do I start now?"
"Of course, Madame Agreste. I understand you are eager to start the treatment right away," she smiled softly at Marinette. "But you can not start this medication until you are pregnant."
Marinette furrowed her brows further. "But—"
"I know." The doctor sighed. "You had miscarriages even before finding out. That's a risk, but we cannot unnecessarily allow you to take a blood thinner. It's a dangerous drug; you can only take it when needed, after having conceived." She noticed how Marinette was trying to talk again and continued quickly, "It doesn't mean that you will miscarry again. Look," she said, attempting a smile, "we're going to keep the situation under control. You will take your temperature every morning before getting out of bed and send it to me weekly. When the time comes for your ovulation, start taking LH tests daily, so we can assess the best time for you to have intercourse."
Marinette gasped, and Dr Lepen must've noticed how her face flushed at the word; she pursed her lips. "Mme Agreste, I'm sorry to take away the romantic side of all this, but if you're serious about having a baby, we can't leave anything to chance. I'll also check on you regularly with ultrasounds and blood tests. As soon as we confirm the pregnancy, you'll start on Lovenox."
Adrien cupped a hand over Marinette's and squeezed it gently. "What does taking Lovenox involve, Dr Lepen?"
"I was coming to that," the woman said. She grabbed a box from her drawers and showed it to them. "It's a subcutaneous injection. I will show you how to do it so you can do it yourself, Madame Agreste." She noticed that Adrien was trying to talk, so she smiled and continued, "And if it's alright with you, M. Agreste can learn as well. The important thing is that it's injected every day at around the same time."
Adrien smiled hearing that, a smile that reached his eyes and lit his whole face. He grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her slightly to meet gazes with her as his lips pressed softly on her knuckles. Marinette flushed.
"I'll help as much as I can, mon amour. You'll see; we'll get there eventually."
§§§
It didn't take too long for Marinette to send Dr LePen the information she had requested. It took a couple of attempts and, unfortunately, a further miscarriage that left Marinette even more distraught. But eventually, they caught the right timing. An early intra-vaginal scan showed a small amniotic sac; the doctor couldn't help smiling at the excitement and happiness of the couple's reaction to the news. They were glowing.
Blood tests were carried out every couple of days to ensure that her levels of HCG were increasing at the correct rate. According to the gynaecologist, they were even at the higher end of normality. And as soon as the first blood test detected the presence of HCG, the gynaecologist was true to her word and prescribed Lovenox. Marinette took it religiously, once a day, every day, at the same time, allowing Adrien to help when he was home. The days and weeks passed smoothly, and Marinette even started seeing the shadow of a bump beginning to show on her tummy.
"That's just bloating," snapped Plagg the umpteenth time Marinette looked at herself in the mirror that morning, her skirt only slightly lowered to show off her naked stomach as she sat down at the edge of her bed.
Adrien was prepping the Lovenox injection. As soon as he had it ready, he positioned himself in front of her, grabbed a little piece of cotton damp with disinfectant and passed it over the area he was going to inject. Then he pinched the skin just at the side of her navel; he inserted the needle slowly, the tip of his tongue peeking slightly out of his lips to keep the correct angle before emptying the content inside her and taking the needle out. His gaze softened as he pushed the safety cap over the needle and placed it on the side table to deposit in their needle-safe plastic container in a moment. His hand moved around to stroke tenderly her porcelain skin, currently covered in what looked like tiny little brown dots, the scabs of many, many other injections like the one he'd just given her. And many more were going to come in the next few months, if everything was going to go according to plan. Despite that, he looked at her tummy as if it were the most beautiful thing in the world and placed a soft kiss on her skin just above her navel.
But at Plagg's words, he pouted as he stood up to dispose of the syringe into the empty plastic detergent tub Marinette had assigned as the container for disposing of sharp needles; then, he washed his hands. "You're a killjoy, Plagg. It's obvious that it's a bump."
Plagg ate a slice of Camembert and licked his tiny fingers meticulously before raising an eyebrow at his holder. "It's bloating. Way too early to see anything, gamin."
Adrien pouted some more. "Whatever it is, it's adorable!" he said, causing Plagg to roll his eyes and sigh. But Adrien ignored him and moved behind Marinette, who was quickly adjusting her clothes. He cupped his hands over her tiny bump as his lips brushed against the crook of her neck.
Marinette shivered and placed her hands over his, and then slid them up his arms to reach his shoulders. She leaned her back against his torso and closed her eyes briefly, taking a deeper breath before looking at herself in the mirror again. "What do you think of this ensemble?" she asked as she straightened the collar of her top.
Adrien's lips found her collarbone again. "You're gorgeous as usual, Buginette."
"Liar," she whispered, "I feel like a pincushion…"
But she turned swiftly towards him and brought her hands to his neck to pull him in for a quick kiss. Which wasn't enough for Adrien, as he cupped his hands to her cheeks and claimed her lips again, leaving her breathless.
"It's not a lie," he whispered back. "Your creations are always amazing, Marinette. You're beautiful. Radiant."
She raised an eyebrow, her gaze gleaming with mirth. "Yeah. Carefree. Dreamy. I thought that was you, Monsieur." She burst into a loud giggle at his pout.
"How dare you. Not the fragrance ad again," he complained, causing even more laughter from his wife. Eventually, he started laughing too. "That ad will haunt me for the rest of my days at this rate! But I don't care, as long as it makes you laugh." He smooched her lips briefly. "I love your laughter."
She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in for a further kiss. "And I love you." Their gazes met for a long moment, but when Adrien pulled her close again, she reluctantly moved back and straightened her top once more. "But we'll never get ready at this rate. I don't want to be late this time. We're meeting our kitten!"
Adrien picked up the letter that lay on the side of the dressing table and gave it a quick look. "We still have a couple of hours." But Marinette had already started pacing the room and gathering her stuff to place everything inside her bag.
"Yes, we only have a couple of hours, and a long drive to get to the clinic; let's go!" Her bag securely held on her shoulder, she fixed the neck of her coat and moved her head towards the door. "Are you coming, papa?"
Adrien's smile was like a gift. "You bet I am, maman." He held out his arm to her, waiting for her to hold it before getting out of their apartment.
§§§
Cold. The gel on her private parts felt as cold as it had always been. Marinette cringed as the gynaecologist pushed the head of the scanner inside and switched the screen on.
"Sorry about that, but it's still too early to get a good picture from a normal ultrasound. Transvaginal ones are much more effective this early in the pregnancy," Dr Lepen said with a soft smile when she noticed Marinette's discomfort.
"It's okay," Marinette whispered, so the doctor nodded at her and started focusing back on the screen.
" Let's see what we've got here," she said.
The first images started fading in, which raised Marinette's interest, making her immediately forget the cold sensation and the slight discomfort. She pulled up the towel the doctor had covered her with to protect her modesty and grabbed hold of its hem, squeezing it for dear life.
The doctor kept looking at the screen, moving her mouse and tracing small lines where Marinette could only see what looked like tiny bubbles. The longer the woman was silent, the more Marinette's anxiety levels rose. She suddenly felt Adrien's icy hand reach for hers and hold it. That helped her gather the courage to tear her gaze away from the screen, meeting Adrien's worried green eyes. She moved her hand to take better hold of his and squeezed it firmly, trying to get and give reassurance at the same time.
The silence in the room was deafening. Only the random click of the gynaecologist's mouse broke it from time to time.
"I-is everything okay?" Adrien dared ask after a moment that felt lasting forever.
The doctor seemed to remember their presence suddenly. "Oh yes, everything is good. Even more than good, sorry. Just give me a moment; I'll finish all the measurements and get back to you."
Marinette felt the scanner head inside her move, and the gynaecologist smiled at seeing something she put a line on. She pushed a button on her machine, and suddenly, the sound of a heartbeat started resounding in the room.
"Is this—" Marinette asked.
"Uh-huh," the gynaecologist said. Then she gave them an amused look and pointed at two lines on the soundbar. "Yes. Both heartbeats are very strong." She looked at them from behind her glasses and pursed her lips, trying to hide a small smile at their gasp.
"B-both?" Adrien and Marinette exchanged baffled looks.
The doctor's smile spread wider. "Yes. There's a second heartbeat. You're having twins." The way both their jaws dropped must have been funny because Dr LePen couldn't stop smiling. "Happy Christmas!"
Christmas. Yeah…it was only a few weeks away—she had completely forgotten about it, focused as she was on the discomfort of the injections and…well, on the other thing that they had to do, which was much more enjoyable.
Ahem.
Marinette blushed and moved forward without thinking, then remembered that she still had the scanner inside of her, and reluctantly, she returned to her previous position. The doctor moved the scanner head inside her until she found what she was looking for again and started pointing at some tiny dot with her free hand.
"This is baby A." Then she pointed at another small black dot. "And this is baby B. They share the same amniotic sac; that's why we didn't see them earlier."
Marinette couldn't believe it. "Twins?"
"Well," Adrien said, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. "They run in my family…" He looked a little tense as he exchanged gazes with Marinette. "My mother was a twin, after all."
"Twins…Oh my God," Marinette whispered as Dr LePen took the ultrasound head out of her and passed some wipes to her to clean herself before getting dressed again. Marinette did all that in a stunned silence and, after having dumped the wipes in the bin and having dressed again, she turned back to the gynaecologist. "Are the kit-uh, babies going to be okay?"
The woman finished typing something at her computer and pressed a button that caused a printer to come on. A few seconds later, it printed a few pictures on shiny paper that she placed inside a cardboard container and handed to Marinette. "It is riskier than a singleton pregnancy, especially because the embryos share the same sac and placenta, so we will need to pay more attention to your health and ensure you have plenty of rest."
Adrien and Marinette exchanged knowing looks, Marinette's hand running to her earrings and flicking them on her earlobes. "I see," she muttered.
The doctor grabbed a file from the sonography desk and started walking towards her main desk, gesturing for them to take a seat in front of it. "Let's put a plan into place. It's going to be okay."
§§§
A couple of hours later, lying comfortably on her bed wrapped in her husband's embrace, Marinette couldn't close her eyes, her hands clenching Adrien's arms and holding him tight.
"Twins," she muttered.
Adrien's lips brushed against the crook of her neck. "We'll be okay."
"She said that it's riskier." Marinette's hand left her husband's arm and started fiddling with her earrings. Earrings that, for the first time in about ten years, weren't her Miraculous.
Adrien huffed against her skin. "I knew Alya wouldn't mind bringing Scarabella back for a few months. She was so happy when you gave her the earrings that it felt as if Christmas had come early for her! I'm sure she will be okay. Paris will be okay. You need to focus on yourself and our kittens now."
He hugged her tighter, and Marinette sighed happily and allowed herself to bask in his embrace. She stayed quiet for quite some time, so much so that Adrien thought she had fallen asleep, and he started feeling his eyelids get heavier and heavier. But before he could slip into dreamland, he heard Marinette talking again.
"Are we going to be okay?" she whispered. He hugged her a little tighter, and she reciprocated, squeezing his arms. "I mean," she continued, "twins…they're hard work. Will we be able—"
He flipped her over and gave her one of his intense and mesmerising looks that melted her insides and made her knees feel like jelly. "We're a team, and there's nothing that we can't do when we work together, My Lady." He smiled and gave her a soft kiss on her nose. "You and me against the world, remember? We'll help each other out."
She was smiling now as she got lost in the sparkles of those mesmerising green eyes. "Are you sure, Chaton? We've never done this before!"
"Positive." He smiled too. "Two tiny babies can't be as bad as Papillon."
This made her laugh. "You have no idea what you're signing up for, M. Agreste."
He kissed her nose. "Not in the slightest, I must admit it. But I'll try, or die in the attempt."
"You're such a melodramatic dork." She laughed louder, drawling her words out after a big yawn.
He smiled happily. "Your dork."
"Always," she muttered before allowing herself to fall asleep in his arms.
Author's Note:
Hello! This Christmas, I decided not to participate in any Santa exchange or advent calendar, to keep focusing on my MLBB fic and the Christmas presents for my friends. However, when I looked at the advent calendar for my h/c group, I saw this prompt and…well, it was too tempting. I had received many requests to give a sequel to "The only family I need", and I decided that this prompt was perfect. What better outcome, after the suffering poor Marinette had to endure in that story, than to be blessed with a twin pregnancy?
So here it is; I hope you like it!
While the first story was inspired by my own experience with pregnancy loss (although not as long and as severe as Marinette's), this story is dedicated to my sister, who went through this exact situation before having her little girl (who is now three years old and adorable, by the way!). She will never read it, but it's dedicated to her. And also to all the families who, like Marinette and Adrien here, are going through the struggles of trying to conceive. I hope all of you will get a nice Christmas present, this year or in the future. As I said in the previous story's notes, I think we should speak about pregnancy loss and the struggles to conceive more freely. They are, for some reason, considered taboo in our society, making it even more heartbreaking for families who may want to get support from the people they love.
Talking about it and writing/reading stories about it are all ways to learn about the subject, spread the word and share our experiences. There's nothing wrong with it, and we shouldn't feel ashamed (or made to feel ashamed) for our feelings on the matter.
Big hugs to all young couples who are going through this. May Christmas bring you happiness and joy!
I will publish more in the next few days, but this is all for today. Happy holidays!
As usual, if you read this and you're not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join my favourite Discord servers, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks) and Miraculous Discordance (discord dot gg slash QwgKdUhJNJ). I will wait for you on one of these servers. I promise, I don't bite, don't be shy and join us!