Infected
Ladybug darted to the Akuma's side, ducking under its arm and conjuring a dagger to cut the object from the chain around the Akuma's neck. Ladybug swung the arm holding the dagger, only for the Akuma to grab her arm and wrench the dagger free.
"Thank you." Sneered the Akuma, before plunging the dagger deep into Ladybug's side.
The Akuma leaned forwards, allowing Ladybug to rip the chain off their neck. The Akuma fluttered out and Ladybug caught it in her yoyo. She purified the butterfly and cast her Miraculous Ladybug. The scars that adorned the Eiffel Tower vanished, but the burning pain in her side remained. Ladybug looked down and saw the dagger was still in her side. Ladybug looked at the Akuma victim, before carefully wrapping an arm around them and taking them to the ground.
"Can you make your way home from here?" Asked Ladybug, looking at the citizen.
The citizen nodded and started to walk off, leaving Ladybug to head to the rooftops before she de-transformed. Ladybug just made it to her balcony, the dagger still in her side, it had to stay in to prevent her from bleeding out…right? Her transformation fell and the burning pain became blistering agony. Marinette looked down at the blade and wrapped her hand around the leather-bound handle. She quickly clamped her hand over the wound, as Tikki spotted it and flew off to get the first aid kit.
Marinette examined the dagger, the blade was roughly half the length of her forearm. On one side of the blade, it was serrated and on the other it was curved. Marinette's first thought was that it was a hunting knife, before Tikki returned.
"You need to go to a hospital, Marinette." Said Tikki, looking up at her chosen.
"And say what? I got stabbed fighting an Akuma as Ladybug?" Questioned Marinette, lifting her shirt up, "I don't think it hit anything important."
"That's not the point, Marinette!" Protested Tikki, as Marinette put anti-septic onto the wound, "What if it gets infected?"
"Tikki, that only happens if the wound isn't cleaned," Sighed Marinette, carefully threading a needle, "I cleaned the wound, and this is going to hurt like hell."
Tikki winced and looked away as Marinette stitched herself back up, "I still think you need to go to the hospital."
"Tikki, I'll be fine, what's the worst that can happen?" Asked Marinette, climbing down into her room and carefully settling herself down into her bed.
I
Marinette scowled at the maths problem in front of her. It'd been a week since she had that knife jammed into her side and it was killing her, Lila had tried to trip her up and it was boiling. Thankfully, there hadn't been an akuma today.
"Alright everyone, complete the problem you're currently on and hand them in." Said the Teacher, making Marinette sigh.
Alya glanced at Marinette's paper, "Er, girl, you've only done three questions."
"Sorry, it was really difficult." Excused Marinette, collecting the papers and walking up to the teacher's desk.
"Marinette, is everything alright?" Asked the teacher, frowning, "You look like you're burning up."
"It's nothing." Dismissed Marinette, handing the papers to them.
They had PE next, Marinette hoped that no one would question the vest she was wearing. No one even noticed she was wearing a vest, it hurt to move her arms. Marinette stumbled slightly and shook her head to get rid of the black spots appearing in her vision.
D'Argencourt had Marinette's class standing in a line, "Today, we have guests, some from my fencing troop and others from other schools."
Marinette spotted Kagami and gave her a small wave, before looking back at D'Argencourt.
"We will start our lesson off with five laps of the gym and then some stretches to warm up." Commanded D'Argencourt, making everyone groan, "10 laps!"
Everyone was still grumbling as they started jogging, Marinette slightly slower than everyone else. Lila noticed and smirked to herself. They completed one lap, two, three. On the fourth lap, Lila 'tripped' and had Marinette run into the back of her.
"OW!" Cried Lila, gripping her ankle, as Marinette fell onto the floor on her side, "My ankle, it hurts!"
Everyone headed towards Lila and Marinette. D'Argencourt glanced at Lila and instructed her to sit on the bench for the rest of the lesson, before turning his attention to Marinette.
"Ms. Dupain-Cheng," Said D'Argencourt, before frowning, "pretending to be unconscious isn't going to work."
Marinette didn't move, making D'Argencourt sigh through his nose and grab her arm and hoist her up, "Ms. Dupain-Cheng!"
Rose looked over as D'Argencourt spoke and spotted a red patch blossoming on Marinette's side. Rose screamed and pointing at the area, D'Argencourt followed Rose's finger and froze.
"Le Chien; get the nurse, Raincomprix; call an ambulance, Lahiffe; get her parents." Ordered D'Argencourt, carefully lowering Marinette to the ground and kneeling beside her. The teacher placed his hands over the wound and pressed down. He noticed no one had moved, "NOW!"
Nino and Kim shot off, while Sabrina ran to get her phone. Everyone was silent, as Sabrina returned with her phone. A couple minutes later, Kim returned with the nurse.
"Good lord!" Gasped the Nurse, before rushing over, "What the hell happened?"
"Rossi tripped, Dupain-Cheng ran into the back of her, I lifted her up and she started bleeding." Grunted D'Argencourt, as blood seeped between his fingers.
"Keep compressing the wound, judging by the amount of blood it's fairly deep." Said the nurse, as Nino returned with Marinette's mother.
Sabine froze, before she looked around. Alya looked like she was going to faint, while Adrien looked like he was staring death in the face. Sabine headed over to Alya, she might not be able to help her daughter, but she could help her friends.
"What happened?" Asked Sabine, touching Alya's shoulder, jerking the girl from her daze.
"I, I don't know." Confessed Alya, "One second we were jogging, and the next Lila had bumped into Marinette and she passed out. Then Mr D'Argencourt picked her up and she started bleeding."
Sabrina led a pair of paramedics into the gym, where they took over from D'Argencourt and the school nurse. A Police Officer entered a minute later, looking around and spotting the school staff. Adrien, Nino, Alya and Sabine were joined by Kagami and Luka.
"Looks like a knife wound." Said a Paramedic, carefully removing Marinette's blood-soaked shirt and vest. The Paramedic froze, "Apparently she tried to patch herself up."
The Officer froze when he heard that, "I don't suppose you know how to contact her parents?"
"Her mother is other there." Said D'Argencourt, pointing at Sabine.
The office nodded and walked over to the Chinese woman, frowning.
"Mrs Dupain-Cheng?" Asked the Officer, looking down at the short woman.
"Mrs Cheng." Corrected Sabine, looking up at him, "Is she going to be alright?"
"She should, at most the wound is an infected, shallow wound," Responded the Officer, "I don't suppose you know how she got the wound?"
Sabine shook her head, "No, as far as I know, she hasn't come back in bleeding."
"Is there anyone who you can think of, that may want to harm your daughter?" Questioned the Officer.
"No, I don't think anyone would want to hurt Marinette?" Replied Sabine, her gaze falling back to Marinette.
"Are there any issues at home?" Asked the Officer, frowning.
Sabine's head snapped around to look at him, her face going slack in shock.
"Are you trying to say that my husband and I did this to her?" Demanded Sabine, struggling to process the accusation.
"We're considering all possibilities." Answered the Officer, folding his arms, "We'll be speaking to her when she wakes up."
Without another word, the Officer spun on his heel and walked off, leaving a gobsmacked Sabine and silent Alya. The others had heard what the officer said, as well as what he'd implied.
"Marinette's parents wouldn't hurt her, would they?" Asked Lila, capitalising on the current state of shock.
"Her parents are the nicest people going," Said Kim, frowning, "that guy was white, right?"
Nathaniel nodded, "He's been hanging around the area, he's actually known to be biased against anyone who doesn't fit the aryan race."
"Wait, he's a nazi?" Asked Kim, giving Nathaniel a sideways look, "How'd you know?"
"His social media was featured in the news," Responded the red head, "I thought he was suspended."
"He is." Confirmed Sabrina, getting ff her phone, "I just asked my dad if he's been put back on duty. The answer's he wasn't."
The class went over what Sabrina said, before the girl continued, "However, what he said about speaking to Marinette when she woke up was standard procedure, given how no one else can answer how she got that wound."
"And the accusation that Marinette's parents were responsible?" Asked Alix, glancing at the Paramedics, who were loading Marinette onto a stretcher and preparing to leave with her.
Sabine moved to follow them, stating she was Marinette's mother. The procession exited the gym, leaving everyone in a flat silence.
"If that police officer is going to try and say that Marinette's parents did this, we need to find a way to stop him." Said Kim, as Alya, Nino, Adrien, Luka and Kagmai joined them.
"There's a security camera that looked away from the school, it has Marinette's balcony in the frame," Said Alya, looking around the class, "it might've caught what happened."
Everyone slowly turned and looked at Max.
"How did I know you were going to do that?" Sighed Max.
I
Everyone crowded behind Max, trying to get a good view of the screen.
"The School has to update their firewall and security systems, because it was far too easy to hack in," Said Max, typing away at his keyboard, "Now, I just need to find the camera and the moment Marinette was stabbed."
"Wait, you're in?" Asked Kim, looking at Max.
Max sighed and slumped, "Yes, Kim, I'm in."
"Ha, ha, classic." Grinned Kim, as Max started his search.
"How far does the footage go back?" Asked Adrien, as Max brought up a video of Lila and Marinette.
"Well, this is the day Marinette was expelled." Said Max, as Lila started walking down the stairs, "I don't know what's going on, since there's no sound."
Lila got to the bottom of the stairs, sat down and started screaming. Everyone stared as the teachers appeared and Lila accused Marinette of pushing her.
"That lying bitch." Seethed Alya, pulling out her phone and opening google.
"What are you doing?" Asked Alix, as Alya glared at her phone.
"Research." Growled Alya, glaring at her screen.
"Anyway," Said Max, deciding to move forwards, "This is about a week ago, now we just need to wait for Marinette to appear."
The group sat and watched as evening flew past, Kim laughed when he saw a pigeon fly into Marinette's room and the girl throwing it back out the window. The evening progressed further, as the footage slowly got darker.
"This is surprisingly high quality." Remarked Max, as a flash in Marinette's room caught their attention.
Everyone froze as Ladybug appeared from Marinette's skylight and swung off into the city.
"Okay, either Marinette's Ladybug, she know's who Ladybug is or she's hooking up with Ladybug." Said Kim, as Ladybug suddenly reappeared in the frame, with an Akuma chasing her.
"I missed an Akuma?" Whined Adrien and Alya, getting strange looks from everyone else.
"Are you two sure you aren't one person?" Asked Nino, as Ladybug and the Akuma vanished again.
Everyone waited in silence for Ladybug to appear on the screen again. Max decided to speed up the footage, until Ladybug reappeared.
Ladybug roughly landed on Marinette's balcony, where her transformation fell. Marinette sat crouch with her hand pressed against her side. A first aid kit flew up to her, with Marinette starting to patch herself up.
Everyone was silent at they tried to comprehend what they'd just seen.
I
Sabine watched as Marinette wriggled in the bed. A nurse stuck her head through the door, with Officer Raincomprix behind her.
"Marinette," Said the nurse, softly, "This nice man was hoping you'd be able to answer some questions."
Marinette scowled at the nurse, "I'm not a child, I'm fifteen and I know who he is."
The nurse flushed, as Officer Raincomprix entered.
"Marinette," Asked Raincomprix, sitting in a chair not far from the bed, "Can you remember how you got stabbed?"
Marinette looked down and gave a small nod.
"Do you know who did it?" Asked Raincomprix, leaning forwards.
Marinette shook her head, getting a disappointed sigh from Raincomprix.
"Why didn't you tell anyone you'd been stabbed?" Questioned Raincomprix, running a hand down his face.
"I was embarrassed, I guess." Mumbled Marinette, picking at the blanket.
Raincomprix sighed, "Marinette, you were very luck today. The doctors told me that the wound was become infected and, if it'd been left any longer, could've led to sepsis."
Marinette continued to look and pick at the blanket.
"Marinette, the next time you're hurt from an outside source, you need to tell someone, even if it's a minor thing, like a bruise." Implored Raincomprix, before getting up and leaving.
Sabine reached out and grasped Marinette's hand, making the girl look at her, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You and Papa are busy." Mumbled Marinette, looking back at her lap.
"I meant what you are doing as Ladybug." Sabine gently squeezed Marinette's hand, making the girl's head snap back up to look at her.
"H-how do you know?" Stammered Marinette, her mouth suddenly dry.
"Marinette, please," Sighed Sabine, "give your father and I some credit. We noticed how you were conveniently absent during attacks, and you kept returning as if you'd been running a marathon."
"I thought I was careful." Mumbled Marinette, looking at her lap.
"You were," Assured Sabine, "but we live under the same roof. The only way we wouldn't know is if we were neglectful."
"D-do you want me to stop?" Whispered Marinette, glancing at her mother.
"No, I just want you to be more careful in future. Maybe you could take up some self-defence classes just in case something like this happens again."
Marinette kept her head down and gave a reluctant nod, at least her mother didn't demand she stop being Ladybug.
"Now, how did you get stabbed?" Asked Sabine, looking down at Marinette.
"I, kinda, conjured a knife and the Akuma forced me to stab myself with it." Mumbled Marinette, but Sabine heard her.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
I
"We can't show this to the police."
No one looked at Sabrina when she spoke, none of them disagreeing with her. It was bad enough that they all knew Marinette's Identity, they couldn't go and blab to the police.
"We're going to have to tell her that we know." Stated Adrien, looking around, "We can't keep this from her."
"How can we tell her?" Asked Juleka, looking at the Model, "How can we tell her that we know she's Ladybug?"
Adrien was silent for a moment, "Leave it to me."