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“And worst of all, for me to live, I gotta kill the part of me that saw
That I needed you more”
It was the worst day of his life.
Adrien Agreste had never run so far. He had never run so fast. Even when he was Chat Noir on the verge of being akumatized, Adrien couldn’t remember a time when he pushed himself to his limits as he was in this moment.
But he had to get there. He had to get there before her time was up.
As he rushed through the city, the phone call echoed in his head over and over again.
“Good morning!” Adrien smiled as he shuffled through his office.
“Adrien! You need to get to the hospital as soon as possible!”
His smile dropped at the urgency and fear in his mother in law’s voice. “Sabine? What’s wrong?”
“Marinette fell while we were baking and she started bleeding really bad! You need to get here now. We’re at the planned hospital. They’re not sure how serious it is but she was bleeding really bad… They’re not sure if either of them will make it.”
Adrien’s heart beat in his throat.
They’re not sure if either of them will make it.
He couldn’t lose her. He just couldn’t. They’d barely started their life together after all the time they wasted with identity shenanigans! They had been married for seven months, dating for a year in a half! She was seven months pregnant with their honeymoon baby! He couldn’t lose them now when everything was looking so good.
Their child.
His partner.
The very best parts of him!
No.
It wasn’t going to happen like that. It wasn’t.
Fate couldn’t be so cruel, could it?
It could.
By the time Adrien made it to the hospital, Sabine was in tears and immediately threw her arms around him.
“Adrien! I’m so sorry, Adrien! I should’ve never let her help me in the bakery today. I didn’t want to but she insisted on helping. ‘I’m pregnant, not sick! I can still help around here!’ . I let her and now she’s in there fighting for her life. I’m so sorry, Adrien.”
Adrien swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Her life? So it’s serious?”
Tom, his father in law, put a big hand on his shoulder. Eyes rimmed with red, he nodded. “She hit her head and back pretty hard and they said it triggered early labor.”
Adrien’s heart dropped even further. “L-Labor?”
Before either of them could respond, Adrien was pushing through the small crowd in front of the nurse’s desk.
“Good af-”
“My wife.” He nearly shouted. “My wife is here and she’s in labor. I need to see her now.”
The nurse looked like she wanted to chastise him but Adrien didn’t care. She didn’t speak, choosing to click through her computer. “Name?”
“Marinette Agreste.”
The nurse clicked a few times before her eyes saddened. “Yes. She is in room 107. Follow Nurse Shelia and she will take you to her.”
Everything else was a blur as he was led through the doors and down the hall and into a room where he immediately rushed to his wife’s side as soon as he laid eyes on her.
She didn’t look too good. Her face was pale and there was a bandage around her head. Her stomach looked deflated and he wondered if she were still in labor or-
“Mr. Agreste.” Spinning, he saw a tall man in a white doctor’s coat.
“Doctor?” The man nodded. “How is she? How is my wife? Our daughter?”
The doctor glanced down at the board out of habit before pushing his glasses up on his nose. “Your daughter is fine. Despite being premature, your wife was able to deliver her. She will need to stay in the hospital a little longer but she should be fine.”
Some relief flooded his body but his veins ran cold as the doctor sighed.
“Your wife, however… she hemorrhaged a lot through the birth and from the wound on her head. We slowed the bleeding but it hasn’t stopped.”
Adrien’s mind raced. “But what does that mean?”
The doctor sighed again. “It means that you and your loved ones have a little bit of time to say goodbye.”
“G-G-Goodbye?” Adrien stuttered.
“I’m sorry for your loss. A grief counselor will be in shortly to help you and your family cope.” The man patted his shoulder before leaving the room.
Numb and shaking, Adrien turned to the bed and stared at his wife in disbelief.
Marinette was… dying?
After everything they’d been through she was just going to be… gone? That fast?
Collapsing to his knees, Adrien felt more than heard his sobs breaking through his chest.
He couldn’t do it. Adrien couldn’t live without her. There was so much stuff they hadn’t done yet! So many places they hadn’t seen and Adrien was going to show her the world! It was the least she deserved after spending her childhood protecting Paris and putting herself last! And now he would never be able to…
And now they have a daughter!
A daughter who would be forced to grow up with the best mother anyone could have had!
How was this fair?!
Why was this happening?
A soft pressure fell on his head and he looked up to see Marinette smiling down at him weakly. Quickly, he slid forward and pressed her cold hand to his cheek. “Milady.”
“My prince.” She whispered. “I guess it’s bad news, huh?”
“Yes.” He cried.
“Our daughter?”
“No. She’s fine. They say she’ll make it.”
Her eyes were filled with happiness for a second before they dulled. “So me then?”
“Yes. I’m so sorry, Milady. I should have been there for you!”
“It’s okay, kitty. There was no way for either of us to know.” She shifted and winced.
“Don’t move. I’ll… I’ll go get your parents! I’m sure they’ll want to see you too before… before…”
“Okay.” She whispered. “Can I ask one thing before you go?”
Adrien’s eyes shone with tears. “Anything.”
“Can her name be Emma?”
The tears slid down his cheeks. They’d never discussed names because they wanted it to be in the moment. “Of course, my love. Of course.”
Not even thirty minutes later Marinette was gone.
The funeral was held a week later. The church had been filled to the brim of people, friends, and family who wanted to say goodbye to their loved one. The graveyard even more so with fans and citizens alike wanting to say goodbye to their hero.
Before long, however, Adrien found himself standing alone staring at her tombstone and fighting the urge to break down again.
“Marinette.” He whispered, running his fingers along the cool marble.
“Adrien.”
Looking up he saw Tom and Sabine bracketing him, eyes still red, and looking at their daughter’s final resting place.
“Are you okay?” Tom ventured.
Adrien shook his head. “No. I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again. She was everything to me. My first love, my partner, my better half, the mother of my child. How am I supposed to go on living when she’s not here?”
“Oh Adrien.” Sabine sobbed, pulling him into a hug.
Tom just patted his shoulder. “It’s going to be hard, son, but you have to try. Once Emma is ready to leave the hospital, you’ll have to take care of her.”
“You won’t be alone! Not even a little bit.” Sabine assured. “But you have to try for her, even when you feel like you can’t go on.”
“But how? Mari is all I can think about, all I can dream about. I can’t just… turn it off!”
Tom sighed and looked towards the casket. “It’s horrible, but you have to try. Even if you have to push the thoughts away until you’re able to deal with it properly, you have to. You can’t focus on how much more you need her because now she’s not here and you have to learn to get used to it.”
Adrien slumped against them and they supported him.
He would try. He needed to try. He was a father now and taking care of his daughter had to take top priority now. If it didn’t, he knew Marinette would be disappointed in him and he didn’t want that.
So, for now, he would shove his feelings in a closet. Push them into the deepest box. Kill them if need be to make sure that he’d be the best father possible for the little blue eyed, blonde haired girl they’d brought into the world.
It’s what Emma deserved.
It’s what Marinette would have wanted.
So he would.