A/N: I can't help but be excited about this chapter, because it was one of my favorites to write, and the 2nd half contains the scene that inspired the story in the first place. Hope you enjoy!

Adrien contemplated Marinette's situation over the next few weeks, unable to drop the idea that it was not exactly the joyous affair he'd assumed initially. He decided that he would try and support her the way any friend could. He made an effort to drop by her desk more often; he liked to think that she appreciated it, as she seemed to enjoy their talks after that first unfortunate meeting. She seemed to make no further comments or direct acknowledgment of her pregnancy, so he did his best to follow her lead, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable.

Some of his spare time was spent vaguely searching online for things to help pregnant women, keeping ideas he found in mind as he worked. He started picking up items that looked helpful from the shelf of donated collaboration products left for the models and artists of their company. Being careful to be subtle in order to not bring her unwanted attention, he began leaving the small items with Marinette. She seemed very appreciative, and it always brought a smile to his face to see her light up.

On one particular day he brought her a jar of belly butter, which he had grabbed immediately when he saw it, knowing it was something useful according to a few articles he had read.

"Oh, Adrien, thank you." Marinette looked a little choked up when he handed it to her, and he met her smile with one of his own.

He didn't have time to respond before a loud voice called out from the far side of the office. "Adri-kins, there you are. I've been looking everywhere for you." Adrien bit back a sigh as he looked up to see Chloé Bourgeois walking over to him. She pranced through the office as though she owned the place. Their friendship had soured over the years due to her inability to treat others well, though he seemed to be the only one between them to notice. He'd had to keep up the appearance of friendship for the sake of their parents, though it irked him to do so.

She stopped in front of him, sliding her sunglasses up as she looked at him expectantly. "We have lunch, or did you forget?" Her eyes drifted from his to Marinette's behind him, and Adrien itched with the temptation to take a step to shield her from Chloé. The two women had never gotten along back when they were kids, and even now were barely able to keep from being hostile to one another when they were together.

At first, Chloé gave no reaction, choosing not to even acknowledge her existence. Something did grab her attention, however, and her eyes swept past him again as her expression turned calculating. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, are you pregnant?"

The office grew quiet. "Chloé," Adrien kept his voice low, but his tone was sharp.

Chloé huffed at him. "What, is it a secret or something? Who's the father?"

Irritation flared through him, but before he could say anything, Marinette stood up behind him. "That is none of your business, Chloé."

The blonde woman's laugh was grating to his ears. "Sounds embarrassing for you, then."

He needed to diffuse this before it became a bigger scene. Marinette didn't deserve to deal with this. "Chloé, that's enough. Let's go."

His attempt didn't work. Chloé just turned his gaze to him, disgust in the curl of her lip. "Why do you even care, are you the father?"

Adrien did step in front of Marinette then, his irritation fanning into anger. Chloé's implication frustrated him, as though the only reason someone would care about Marinette was if they were directly involved. "She's my friend, Chloé, and I don't like it when people bully my friends. I thought you got over that in lycée." His words hit their mark, distracting Chloé and leaving her gawking in muddled disbelief. He quickly took her arm, leading her across the room. Adrien looked back before leaving. "I'm sorry, Marinette." He managed to pull Chloé out of the room, avoiding any further incidents. He glared back at her when they made it outside. "I don't understand why you're always so terrible to her."

"And I don't understand why you always make a big deal of it. She's nothing, Adrien." She moved closer to him, clinging to his arm. Adrien noticed the flash of a camera, picking out the paparazzi across the street watching them as they walked.

Extricating his arm from her, he pointedly stepped away. "If you truly do not understand friendship at this point in your life, I have no hope of explaining it to you."

She scoffed at him, crossing her arms in a pout as they stopped outside their destination. "Whatever. Besides, you saw her, she's pregnant. If you keep being seen with her, people are going to talk."

Adrien clenched his jaw. "If anyone does, I will be happy to explain that we are coworkers and friends, and that her personal life is private."

Chloé rolled her eyes at him. "She's not worth it, Adrien."

He rounded on her. "Do you know what's not worth it, Chloé? This, right here. I have enough things trying to control my life, I don't need you doing it too. I'm going to leave if you don't drop it."

She narrowed her eyes at him, her gaze darting behind him. She finally smiled. "Fine, you win. Let's just eat." She grabbed his hand and dragged him into the restaurant.

Adrien couldn't wait to get out of there.

Adrien was thankful for the distraction later that day when he transformed into Chat Noir and saw he had a message from Ladybug, asking him to meet her at their usual spot. He made his way to the Eiffel Tower, seeing Ladybug arrive in front of him. "You called, my lady?"

"Hey Chat." Ladybug seemed rather nervous, standing with her hands clenching and unclenching.

Instead of jumping into the reason for meeting, she remained uncharacteristically quiet, and he grew concerned. "Is…everything okay?"

"Not exactly, mon minou. I need to tell you something." He shifted, pushing himself off the metal framing he'd been leaning on as he focused on her. "You remember Love Bomb, yes?"

He stilled at the reminder, wondering if she was finally going to open up to him about what bothered her about it. "Hard to forget, really." His efforts to do just that seemed to grow less effective every time she brought it up. He looked away from her, trying to keep the images away.

"Tell me about it," she murmured, and his gaze shot to hers once again. He couldn't help thinking about all the possibilities for why she would respond like that. Was she embarrassed? Upset? Angry? Did she have a hard time forgetting? She went on brusquely, not giving him much of a chance to dwell. "My cure is supposed to fix everything after, right? Unfortunately, it didn't completely work this time. Well, turns out I'm pregnant, and I'm going to need to hand over my earrings for a few months."

She was, what? Chat felt like the world had just shifted under his feet. He barely took in what she said after—

Pregnant.

Ladybug was pregnant.

Her cure hadn't worked, she'd said, implying that it had happened during the attack. When she had been with him, with Adrien.

He had gotten her pregnant.

His mouth felt dry as he tried to wrap his mind around that. He repeated her words, feeling as though his mind was stuck in neutral. "You…you're pregnant?" He looked down to her stomach, seeing nothing different in the toned flatness of her belly, but her words echoed through him.

Pregnant.

She was going to have a baby. His baby.

He was going to be a father.

A mixture of emotions exploded through him at that realization. Before he could focus on any one of them, he forced himself to push them all away and focus; he was Chat Noir right now, not Adrien. Things began to click into place for him as he realized this must have been what was on her mind over the past couple of months. Shoot, how long ago had the attack been?

He didn't know how long he stood there without saying anything. When he finally managed to bring her face back into focus, her expression was wary, but also quite vulnerable. It was clear that this was distressing news for her. His heart twisted at that, and he took himself completely out of the equation for a minute.

"I'm so sorry, Ladybug." He walked to her, pulling her against him as he wrapped his arms around her. She started shaking against his chest – crying, he realized with a jolt. She must have felt so alone. The thought nearly killed him. What could he do? He was Chat, he had to remind himself. What would Chat do? What would he say?

She moved back from him, though he didn't want to let her go. He asked one question that filtered to the front of his mind. "What are you going to do?" He ran through what she had told him once again, finally taking in the last half about giving up her earrings. She must have decided to keep the baby, a realization that came with a surprising amount of relief. "You said you would need to step down as Ladybug?" Did that mean she needed to do so to protect herself and the baby?

Adrien felt very disconnected from himself as he tried to separate Chat Noir and Adrien in his mind. Focus, he repeated to himself, focus on what Chat would be focused on. Was it a question of safety, then? "Is it dangerous for you and the baby to transform?" The thought suddenly brought a flash of fear as he realized they were standing on a surface hundreds of feet off the ground. "Wait, should we be up here this high right now?" He tried to tug her closer to him and away from the edge, his fear spiking into panic. Would the suit protect her and the baby if she fell?

Our baby, his brain tried to interject, but he pushed it away, along with the thread of happiness that tried to pierce through. He couldn't be happy about this, not when she was clearly not.

Besides, I'm Chat Noir right now.

Ladybug did not comply with his attempt to move her, holding firm in her spot. "I'm good, Chat, don't worry. I'm safe in the suit. It's just that things are getting more awkward as I get bigger. I know I don't look it right now because of Tikki's magic, but I'm actually about out to here now." Her hand moved in front of her stomach, approximating her size for him. He felt dumbstruck staring at the distance between her very flat stomach to her hand. His brain started to impose a new image of her over top of reality, but this time, stomach rounded, extended out with child – his child. He tried to clear the image away, but was having a tough time.

Ladybug dropped her hand before she continued on. "I won't be able to fight very well for long. I have someone in mind though. You remember Scarabella, right?"

Focus. He managed a nod, and she continued,. "She'll step in. I'm hoping to come back as soon as I can."

Adrien tried to play catch up as he struggled to deal with his emotions. She was leaving. She was giving up her earrings to another. She hadn't told him, though – Adrien, him, that is. But would she soon? How far back had it been – three, four months? His attempts to remain only as Chat Noir slipped, and he asked,. "What about – what about the father? Have you told him yet?" He knew she hadn't, but he was Chat Noir, and Chat wouldn't know. This was a safe question. He could learn her plans, try and prepare himself—

"No, I haven't. Actually –" She took a deep breath as he held on to her every word, "I'm thinking about not telling him. He didn't have a choice in this either."

Chat froze. Her answer was so unexpected that he didn't process it for a second. She was…not going to tell Adrien? At all? If she didn't tell him as Adrien, he would have no understandable way of knowing, and then…

The panic hit hard and fast. "Wait, what? No, you can't—"

She was quick to interrupt him.. "I can raise a baby on my own, Chat. I have other support. There are plenty of single mothers out there making it just fine. Plus, I was transformed at the time, so that's all he would remember. I would have to reveal myself, and that would put him in danger if Shadow Moth found out."

No, no!

She had to tell him; he couldn't not know about his own child. But what could he say? He was Chat Noir. Her reasons echoed through his head. He could fight that. That wouldn't be suspicions. He was her partner; of course he would worry about her. "But—but even if he knew who you were, he's only one person in the entire city. Couldn't you tell him about the need to be careful?" Granted, she wouldn't know the additional complication that Adrien was also Chat Noir, but that wasn't an issue he cared about at the moment.

"It's not just that. I can't reveal much, but he's pretty well-known. He's watched pretty heavily by the media, not to mention his…family is very strict. It would be a huge burden. He doesn't deserve that."

He's pretty well-known – not that he needed the confirmation, but hearing her description of him, of Adrien, threatened to derail his thoughts again. But he couldn't be distracted. He had to stay focused. Ladybug thought she was protecting him, but he didn't want to be protected. If he wasn't careful, however, it looked likely that Ladybug wouldn't even give him a chance to prove that he could be there for her and her baby – for their baby. She couldn't take that choice away.

Fear at losing that choice forced his words out harsher than he'd meant to. "He should get the chance to decide that for himself, Ladybug."

Her expression turned frustrated, as though she couldn't believe he would argue this with her. "Why do you even care that much, Chat? I'm going to work it out."

Because I'm the father, and I want the chance to be one.

He forced the thought away. Chat Noir, not Adrien. "I care about you, my lady. Raising a baby on your own takes a lot of work. How will you handle being Ladybug again after the baby is born if no one knows who you are? I don't want to lose you, Ladybug. You're my partner." It was all true. He silently begged for her to understand.

She turned away from him, blocking her reaction. "This is why I wanted to find Shadow Moth so badly. If he were gone, this would all be so much easier."

It was a line he grasped at with both hands. "We can step up our game. More patrols. We can tell the citizen of Paris to help track the akumas; maybe we can figure out where they come from. We can try harder." He tried not to beg with his words, but he wasn't sure how successful he was.

"Maybe." She was quiet, voice soft and longing. He wanted to believe that meant she wanted to tell Adrien, but fear kept her back. He had to believe that; he didn't know if he could take the thought that she not only didn't know Adrien, but might actually believe he would make a bad father. He only needed a chance, one opportunity to talk to her as Adrien, to convince her they could make this work.

He decided to push a little further, trying another angle. "Not that it matters what I think, but if I were in his shoes, I would want to know."

She sighed deeply. "I'll think about it, Chat. There are other reasons, too. Ones I can't share." His heart dropped. That answer didn't bode well for him. He desperately wished he knew what other possible reasons she had, but he couldn't continue to argue with her without looking suspicious. "Thank you, for the support. I'm not sure when I'll need to step down completely, but it'll be soon. I might not see you for a while, mon chaton."

His heart pounded in his chest. She was leaving. She might not tell him about their child, and she was leaving: maybe never coming back. If she disappeared, then even as Chat Noir, he wouldn't know how to find her. The thought blew his focus and he lurched towards her, panic once again overtaking him as he blurted out his worry without thought,: "Wait, no, I don't know who you are!"

She gave him a befuddled look. "Of course you don't; secret identities, remember?"

Stupid. He shouldn't have said that. But his fear made his words come out in a mess as he tried to find something that would make sense to come from Chat. "I mean – I – what if – hold on." If she decided not to tell him as Adrien, then maybe she would trust him as Chat Noir. They had been partners and friends for so long now; maybe he could still find a way. "If you decide not to tell him – the father, that is – let me help. With the baby. Please." It was his last chance, short of revealing himself to her, which he was too overwhelmed to fully consider as a possibility at the moment.

Ladybug looked at him softly, and for half a second, he thought she would say yes. "Thank you for the offer, Chat. That means a lot to me." Her gaze turned sad, and his heart fell yet again. "It would probably not work until we defeat Shadow Moth. We can't know each other's identities."

He knew that. He knew that. He felt his fight drain away as his last attempt was squashed. He wasn't going to be able to convince her. "I know," he said, trying to hold it together. "I just want to help." She walked to him, apparently moved by his emotional plea, pulling him to her. He hugged her tightly, not wanting to let go. He reached for something, anything to distract him from the emotions threatening to pull him under. His mind flashed back to Rena's previous warnings, which suddenly made more sense. "Please be careful, Ladybug. Promise me, no more risks." He backed slightly away to stare her down, trying to get through to her.

"I'll be careful."

He took her in again, the situation settling in as he continued to hold everything back. "The circumstances are terrible, but congratulations anyway, Bug. You'll be a great mom." She would be. He had known her for nearly a decade now, and of that he was certain. Her answering smile lit her face. He tried to remember again how long it had been, how far along she'd be. Had it been long enough to find out… "Do you know the gender yet?" This might be his last chance to see her for a while if things didn't work out the way he hoped, and he longed to know as much as he could.

"Not yet. Another month, I hope."

Another month, and she'd find out if their child was a boy or a girl. His throat clogged up. She had to come back; he needed more time to convince her, even if it had to wait until after she returned after giving birth. Unless she didn't return. The thought frightened him, and he held her tightly to keep her from leaving. "Don't disappear on me, my lady, you hear me?"

She smiled at him, a hint of sadness in her features. "I won't." She took off, leaving him alone on the tower. He stood, watching her grow distant as she swung through the streets, afraid that he might not see her – or their child—again.

He sank to his knees, the emotions he'd held back finally crashing over him.

The next week was torture for Adrien. His knowledge that he was going to be a father was overshadowed by the fear that Ladybug would not tell him, and that the reason for not doing so might stem from something wrong with Adrien himself. It didn't make much sense to him otherwise; Ladybug might not know Adrien, but he knew her, and she wouldn't keep this from him without a compelling reason. He tried hard not to be angry with her as he fought through his insecurities. He knew the situation was not exactly a typical one. He had to believe that Ladybug didn't really know Adrien very well, and had no idea that he would be willing to do anything to help her.

He also struggled to come to terms with the fact that his hesitation upon running into her during that attack had resulted in this situation. He had spent ten years in love with his partner, and had dreamed of having a family with her if she ever shared his feelings and they'd managed to defeat Shadow Moth. But to have her forced into this felt like some sort of cruel cosmic joke.

All he could hope for was that she would just give him a chance to be a father to their child.

He went out every night as Chat, hoping to see Ladybug again, to convince her to change her mind.

He didn't find her.

He started to doubt his initial reluctance to reveal himself. Now that he'd had the time to clear his head, he knew he would give up being Chat Noir if it meant he'd be able to be there for Ladybug and their baby. The more days that passed, the more he worried that he'd missed his only chance. If only he'd been thinking straight and hadn't been so blindsided by the revelation, he would have done it.

As much as he wanted to continue beating himself up over it, he tried to keep his attention on what he could actually do with his time. He found himself diving into research on pregnancy and babies. The time he'd previously spent doing so had only been out of curiosity on how to help a friend; now, it suddenly became imperative that he do so, on the chance that Ladybug changed her mind. He had to be ready.

He found himself stopping by Marinette's desk once during that impossibly long week, though he immediately regretted it, as the sight of her and her baby bump that she no longer attempted to hide only made him think of Ladybug, out there in the city somewhere, pregnant and possibly on her own with no one to talk to about it. He'd left quickly after that, vowing to try and visit Marinette again when his head wasn't so troubled.

A/N: Let me know what you think in a review, I really enjoy reading your comments!

Spoiler ahead for anyone who happens to be reading this story fandom-blind.

So, I always pull my husband in to read my chapters for me for grammar and general comments, and he insists that after that last paragraph, Adrien must be an idiot not to make the connection. I'm a firm believer that the magic that protects their identities is effective, at least on a surface level, but also that Paris is simply a large place with over two million people living there. I just don't think it's that hard to believe he wouldn't necessarily jump right to the correct conclusion. What do you guys think?