Thank you to my lovely reviewers, you are all so kind! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did.

Ladybug has a bit of a personal epiphany in this one that is very dear to me personally as I relate to her experience. I hope than anyone else who may struggle with imposter syndrome or feeling like an 'unqualified adult' can relate as well.

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Chapter 11

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True to Mme. Lahiffe's word, Adrien was brought back to a room in a short time, and to Ladybug's tremendous relief, he was awake. Ish. A huge oxygen mask almost covered his face and his clothes were replaced with a hospital gown. She swallowed hard. The pallor of his skin hadn't improved much, and as she grasped his hand to let him know she was there, the coldness of it shocked her.

The nurses moved him from the stretcher to the bed, elevating the top so he could sit up a little.

"What's going to happen?" Ladybug begged the staff to tell them. "Is he going to be okay?"

A male nurse who had wheeled Adrien in directed the answer at him, rather than her. "Never fear, young M. Agreste, you're going to be alright. The doctor said you've broken a few ribs and one of your lungs needs a small surgery to repair. After that, I'm confident you'll start feeling better. We'll come back and get you when it's time, in the meantime, try and relax."

As soon as he had left, Ladybug started to say something, but Adrien turned, fixing her with wide eyes. "Marinette," his voice was raspy."-my ring. They took it while I was asleep!"

She knew she should care, but somehow the ring just wasn't as important to her as other things at this moment. Still, she couldn't just turn off being Ladybug, and Ladybug understood the gravity of the situation. "I can go and find it. They probably took it off if you had to get an X-Ray for your ribs, Chaton." She was suprised by the ease with which she had started calling him that. It felt so natural. "I can go check. Will-will you be okay here if I go?"

"Plagg is gonna be worried," Adrien's voice was barely above a whisper. "Go, I'll be okay until you get back." He attempted a smile, but it was hidden by the oxygen mask.

She reluctantly tore herself from the room, and, feeling a bit timid in such an unfamiliar place (she'd never been inside a hospital before!) she walked to the nurse's desk. Mme. Lahiffe wasn't there at the moment, and she wasn't sure what to say, when the two nurses present saw her costume and realized who she was.

"Ladybug! Can we help you with anything?"

"Um, yes!" she squeaked, feeling very much like she was just Marinette at the moment. She definitely wasn't in her element. "My-uh-my friend, Adrien, the-uh, civilian-I found earlier today-he was just wondering if anyone had seen some of his stuff that he came with?"

"Oh, I'm sure he's looking for his Alliance, or a phone," giggled one of the nurses. "We keep bags with personal items people bring in with them. I'm sure I can find it for you."

"Well-" she knew she should have stayed quiet, but it just spilled out. "He doesn't have an Alliance."

"Really?" the other nurse spoke up in surprise. "But-he IS Alliance."

"Yeah," she responded dryly. She decided NOT to get into that discussion.

"If you're looking for Adrien's belongings, I have them stashed over here," a new voice interrupted her, and Ladybug turned to see Mme. Lahiffe approaching. She placed a reassuring hand on Ladybug's shoulder, and handed her a bag.

"I'll bring these to him," she smiled. "Thank you, Madam-"

"Call me Cecile," she replied. "I'll be in to check on Adrien shortly."

"Thank you...Cecile." It felt weird to call her friend's mom by her first name. Very grown-up-ish. Maybe a little too grown-up-ish.

She peeked inside the bag, and was relieved to see Plagg's green eyes glowing up at her. She headed back into Adrien's room.

"Adrieeennn!" Plagg exclaimed, leaping out of the bag the second Ladybug closed the door behind them and flying to his holder's side, bumping into his shoulder and settling on the bed beside him.

Adrien turned, stiffly, and smiled tiredly upon seeing him. "There you are, Plagg!" He reached up to give him a gentle headpat but Plagg skirted away.

"What is that thing on your arm!?"

"It's just an IV, Plagg, it's okay. It helps a lot."

Plagg eyed the monstrous needle sticking out of Adrien's hand warily, not convinced.

Ladybug perched on the side of the bed herself, and, with a wry smile, slipped Adrien's ring back onto his finger.

He arched an eyebrow up at her. "Are-are you sure?"

"What do you mean?"

"I won't be a very good Chat Noir in this state."

"Nonsense," Ladybug put her hands on her hips. "We're not going into battle yet. Besides, if I have to take care of an akuma, Plagg can look after you while I'm gone."

"But-" Adrien hesitated, his expression difficult to read under the mask that was still in place. "But, my Father. W-what if he-" his voice started to shake.

Ladybug pressed his cold hand up to her chest, so he could feel her heartbeat. "It's going to be okay. I promise. I won't let him near you. He has no idea you're even in Paris, right?"

The apprehension was still evident in his eyes, but he nodded slowly.

Cecile entered just then, interrupting their moment. Adrien brightened when he recognized her. "Ma-Madame Lahiffe!"

She winked at him as she came in, adjusting the height of his bed, his IV stand, and call button with a practiced air. "It's just Cecile today, kiddo. Nino never told me you were such good friends with Ladybug. It's a good thing she brought you in, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Adrien mumbled, a faint tinge of red coming into his cheeks. Ladybug was relieved to at least some color back in his complexion.

"They're going to take you for surgery in a moment. Do you remember anything about how this happened?"

Her tone was light and casual, but Ladybug got the feeling she was searching for information for a reason. She knew this because she and Chat often did the same with civilians to keep them from panicking or withholding information just because they were scared.

"I, uh, well-I have this rock wall at my house, and I've done in a million times but I guess I just slipped and fell off," Adrien's voice was a bit strained and Ladybug could tell he was a little panicked by having to come up with a plausible excuse at the last minute.

He hesitated, exchanging a glance with Cecile before speaking again.

"It's just-umm-I've-I've never had a s-surgery before and I'm really sorry, I'm not-I thought I had a good question to ask but I-what are they doing to me exactly? Am I gonna be awake? Is it gonna hurt? I mean, it's-it's okay if it does..."

Cecile sat beside him on the bed opposite Ladybug, as Plagg darted out of the way before she could see, laying a firm hand on his shoulder. "It's okay. You're going to be asleep, and when you wake up you might be hurting but you'll be able to breathe a lot more easily, sweetheart."

"Will-" he hesitated. "Will I be able to go home? After that?"

"Not for a few days."

Adrien's green eyes shot a worried glance in Ladybug's direction, but she was focused on listening to Cecile.

"You'll need a lot of rest, and too much movement could make your injuries worse. The doctors always make sure you're starting to get better on your own before they send you away. But don't worry. Your friends can come and visit, and we'll call your father so he can come and sit with you."

At that, Adrien and Ladybug's faces both blanched simultaneously. "No-no, please don't do that," Adrien begged her.

Cecile's eyes narrowed slightly. "Is there..." she stiffened, pursing her lips as she considered her words carefully. "...perhaps more to the story than what you were comfortable sharing?"

"Um." Adrien gulped, starting to look panicked.

"His father doesn't know he's in Paris!" Ladybug squeaked, deciding to speak up for him this time. "He heard a rumor about an akuma attack and came back to warn me about it, but he was supposed to go back to London."

"If he finds out I'm not in London, he-he'll be furious," Adrien's hand trembled in Ladybug's.

She fought to keep her own breathing steady so he wouldn't hear the tremor in her chest. She was starting to wish the Miraculous HADN'T decided she and Chat were now 'grown-up.' Being a grown-up was pretty overrated, to be honest. She always knew she could protect Chat Noir when he was transformed, but this was something else entirely and-it scared her so much to see him helpless like he was.

"Adrien," Cecile spoke very calmly, but her face and posture had taken a very serious stance. "I need you to be completely honest with me. Do you feel safe around your father?"

The trembling stopped. Ladybug looked down at their intertwined hands in surprise.

"No." Adrien's voice was full of quiet conviction.

She stared at him in surprise.

Adrien looked down at the blanket in his lap. "I've been kidding myself," he continued more quietly. "I haven't felt safe around him for a long time."

Ladybug had never heard him use that tone to speak of his father before. She had seen him frustrated over his father's distance and restrictions, and she had seen him resigned to them and discouraged.

He'd always been the one to speak out on the behalf of herself, or of others. But this was the first time she'd heard him speak out for himself.

Cecile's lips tightened into a thin line. "What do you think would happen if he were to find out what happened to you?"

"He'd lock me up again." Adrien didn't miss a beat. He was a little too vehement in his statement, unfortunately, and triggered a raspy coughing fit, his whole body convulsing to try and draw in enough air to keep up. When it ended, his face contorted in pain, and it was a moment before he could catch his breath enough to continue. "That's how I got hurt." He took another short breath, and swallowed hard. "I was trying to escape the last place he locked me up in."

Cecile's eyes widened almost imperceptibly. She was keeping herself calm with a practiced air, for their sake, but Ladybug could tell she was becoming alarmed.

"M. Agreste? We're ready for you." A young man in surgical gear stepped into the room, startling them.

"Just a moment," Cecile snapped, her voice betraying just how concerned she really was.

Startled, the technician nodded and backed out of the room.

Adrien, damn him, had the audacity to grin, even though it was weak and pained and mostly hidden under his oxygen mask. "I really did fall off a rock wall, though. It just wasn't the one in my bedroom."

Ladybug bit back a groan. In that moment, his being Chat Noir became all too believable.

"Okay," Cecile stood, looking him directly in the eyes. "Listen. The hospital staff will be informed that your father is not allowed to see you for now. And if he comes here, nobody is allowed to tell him anything about you. Understand? You're going to be okay. But, surgery is waiting and they NEVER agree to wait, so let's get you in there. I promise we're going to take care of you. Okay?"

Adrien's brief confidence was gone at the mention of surgery, and his eyes took on a scared look again as he nodded.

The technician bustled in again as Cecile stepped back, motioning to Ladybug to follow her out of the room as well.

"Can you really do that?" Ladybug asked, feeling humbled surrounded by so much that was unfamiliar and surreal to her. The hospital was like its own little city, that had its own rules and procedures and ways of doing things that she knew nothing about. "Keep his father from coming to see him?"

"Legally, we must and we will notify the authorities as well," Cecile answered, seeming somewhat distracted as she walked toward the nurse's station, then turned, looking around the room as if unsure what to do first.

Ladybug frowned, crossing her arms. "Then why do you look so worried?"

Cecile turned toward her, appearing much more openly upset than she'd expected from the mom of one of her friends. "The system works well if everyone does their jobs."

"You're worried they won't?"

"Honey, this is not some local criminal locking his son in the basement. This is Gabriel Agreste. If a policeman goes to his door, he's going to take one look at Adrien's room, decide he couldn't be anything less than the luckiest kid in France, and maybe ask for an autograph on the way out."

Ladybug's shoulders slumped, and she had to look away for a moment.

Cecile began talking in hushed, though urgent tones to the other nurses at the desk, while Ladybug remained deep in thought.

While she was genuinely concerned about the safety of police going to confront the man they knew to be Monarch, it seemed like, no matter what the issue, the responsibility of it always fell to her. Even matters that should have been handled by the adults in charge.

No police had ever helped her or Chat in their search for Monarch's identity. They were more than content to let teenagers handle the problem, unless they were working to hunt him down in secret and not even including the superheroes in their plans.

She didn't know why she felt so utterly disappointed.

This wasn't the first time adults had failed to meet her expectations.

Look at what the 'responsible adults' had done when Chloe had set herself up as mayor-!

As she stood, deep in thought, a tall, young, imposing-looking man in neatly fitting scrubs strode past, catching her eye. His posture screamed that he was an experienced doctor, which matched the tag hanging from his pocket. He walked up to the nurses' station. However, instead of barking orders like she'd expected, his entire posture changed and he started grinning, pulling a wrinkled paper from his pocket and waving it in front of the nurses, who ooh'ed and ahh'ed over the childish, colorful scribbles decorating the page.

Her lips curved upward the tiniest bit.

"Perhaps," Ladybug thought to herself, "even the most important adults are just normal people, with normal lives."

She felt a bump against the back of her leg, and turned, eyes widening as an old man apologized for running into her with his wheelchair. She apologized as well and backed out of the way, as he made his way, a few centimeters at a time, down the hallway, bushy brows furrowed in concentration on his progress.

"Perhaps...they're just like...me."

A flurry of moment caught her eye and she turned, her heart lurching as she recognized what was going on.

A small crowd had gathered at the other end of the hallway, where a few people in scrubs and several reporters, as well as others in nondescript business suits, chattered excitedly pointing cameras at a man in the center.

Several other people in scrubs began joining them, shouting at them to leave, but when seeing who it was, only a few of them continued to protest.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ladybug saw Cecile stand from leaning against the nurses' desk, her spine straightening and a hard edge settling into her eyes and jaw. "Call security," she muttered to someone on her right, before striding forward with confidence.

"There will be absolutely NO photography or journalism in this hospital," she announced in a loud, clear voice, waving her arms to break up the huddle. "No matter who, or what, has decided to grace us with its presence, it is not beneficial to our patients to have a commotion and it violates their privacy. I don't know how you got a camera that large inside here without anyone stopping you," she pointed to one journalist, who rolled his eyes at her, "But you never should have made it past the front desk."

"These idiots have no business here, but I do," the sneering, lofty voice made Ladybug's blood run cold. "Will someone show me where my son is being kept? I have important business to attend to and Adrien has some explaining to do."

"Sir, your son is not on this floor," Cecile stepped right up to him, dwarfed by his stature but looking directly up into his eyes without an ounce of intimidation in her posture. "If you could follow me, I'd be happy to show you the way."

"His name is on this door," someone yelled out, in the bustle of the crowd so it was impossible to tell who it was.

Ladybug began backing away, ducking behind the desk to avoid being seen.

"Cecile Lahiffe, is it? I believe your son is a friend of my own." Stiff and poised as ever in his starched white suit, Gabriel grinned down at her sneeringly. "Cecile, if I didn't know any better, I would say you were trying to keep me from my son. Who would want to keep a father and son separated at a time like this? You know he is all I have left after the loss of my dear wife."

She continued to face him, unyielding. "From one single parent to another," her voice was sharp, "I assure you, I would NEVER do anything that wasn't in Adrien's best interest."

Gabriel pushed past her, easily moving her aside without actually appearing to attack. His strides were long and quick, and she had to run to get back ahead of him.

"WHERE is that security?!" she shouted toward the desk, but nobody had an answer for her.

Ladybug realized what was happening before they passed her and took off at a sprint in the direction the surgical team had taken Adrien. Gabriel hadn't actually seen her yet, and she didn't know if she was prepared for THIS to be her first encounter with Monarch, knowing his identity, but she it wouldn't be the first time she'd faced him as Gabriel Agreste and it was looking like she may not have a choice.

Hearing the commotion, Adrien's blond head had popped up over the edge of the bed, his eyes gone huge as he recognized his father's voice from down the hall. "L-Ladybug?!" his voice was breathy and not very loud, but her ears picked up on it anyway. Even as the surgical people were still moving him, she caught up and ran beside them.

They approached the surgical suite. "Ma-demoiselle, ah-um, Ladybug, you can't come in here, I apologize," one of them stopped her, trying to separate her from Adrien as they wheeled him inside.

"Wait!" Adrien begged them. "J-just a moment? Please!?"

"I won't let him hurt you, Adrien, I promise!" she exclaimed, reaching for his hand and squeezing it hard, as her own heart pounded in her chest.

"B-but they're going to put me to sleep, I-I won't be able to-"

"They have to!" she exclaimed. "Please, Adrien, you have to trust me, I won't let anything happen to you."

"But what if he hurts YOU!?"

"He won't! I promise!"

Grumbling under their breath, the surgical team left the bed halfway in and out of the door as they headed inside to prep, giving them another moment.

Ladybug took a deep breath. "Plagg."

"Present!" Plagg zipped out from under Adrien's pillow so fast she almost didn't see him. His eyes were wide, like Adrien's, and she looked at him seriously.

"You know what to do."

"Cataclysm the heck out of anyone who tries to hurt Adrien while he's unconscious. Got it."

"Exactly," Ladybug agreed at the same time as Adrien exclaimed, "WHAT!?"

"See?" She begged him, with her eyes, to understand. "I have a plan, Chaton. You know I always do. Everything's going to be okay. You have to have this surgery and get better, so I can have my partner back. I need you."

He still looked terrified and uncertain, so she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek, to the side of the mask, just as the techs returned and finished wheeling him inside. He held eye contact with her as long as his neck would allow, and she lost sight as they travelled behind folding doors.

Taking a huge breath, Ladybug struggled to collect her wits. She was Adrien's shield from now until he woke up, which for all she knew, could be hours from now. She had to find a way to keep not only his father away from Adrien, but Monarch away from Chat Noir as well.

Her eyes narrowed to slits as the pointy tip of his snow-white hair came into view.

She gasped, loud and dramatically, stepping into his view and ignoring his shocked expression as he recognized his arch enemy. "Monsieur Agreste! What in the name of Miraculous are you doing here at a time like this!?"

Gabriel nearly stumbled backward, his erect poise taking a brief reprieve before recovering quickly. "Ladybug?!"

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Anyone else so freaking proud of Adrien? Seriously, to anyone who's ever spoken up about abuse, regardless of the response you've received from others, you deserve the utmost respect. Xo readers, thanks for continuing to stick with this story, next chapter coming soon!