One Way or Another

An Appointment and Red Ribbons

Adrien squeezed her hand. When Marinette looked over he smiled and mouthed the words 'I love you' to her. Relaxing a little, she returned the smile before turning back to the doctor.

Dr Patel moved the ultrasound transducer over her skin with a neutral expression on her face. Every couple of seconds Marinette could hear a quiet beeping noise, which she assumed meant that the doctor was saving pictures.

After a minute of nothing, Marinette looked over at Adrien again. And they continued staring at each other until the doctor stopped scanning and put the transducer down on the machine. Then they turned their attention back to her.

"I'm very sorry," Dr Patel began sadly, "but I'm afraid that this isn't a viable pregnancy."

A sob came out of Marinette's mouth and she squeezed her eyes shut. Adrien quickly leaned over her and put his hand to her face. "I'm so sorry, Princess. I'm so sorry," he whispered as he started tearing up too.

They held onto each other for a moment, both trying to process the news.

"I'm very sorry," the doctor continued. "Sometimes these things just happen. Neither of you did anything wrong, so please don't blame yourselves. And this doesn't mean that you won't be able to get pregnant in the future and have children."

Adrien looked at her and nodded before turning back to Marinette.

Dr Patel moved over to the door. "I'll leave you alone for a few minutes. Then I'll come back to discuss what the next steps will be."

"Thank you," Marinette choked out weakly.

With a sympathetic glance, the doctor left, leaving the grieving couple behind.

*

All of Paris seemed to be mourning with them. A dreary rain fell over the city for the next few days.

Marinette spent most of her time at their apartment, letting her employees run the small boutique that she owned. Adrien tried to stay with her as much as possible, but had to go out a few times for work. When he was gone, Plagg, Tikki and the other kwamis kept her company.

Once Saturday came around Marinette finally went out to the grocery store. Both her parents and Adrien's parents were coming over that evening for dinner, so she had a lot of food to buy for the meal. They had originally invited them over in hopes of announcing the pregnancy to everyone at the same time, but unfortunately fate had other plans.

After coming back from the store, Marinette spent the early afternoon making mille feuilles for Gabriel. After all, she promised him that she would. And when that was done, she helped Adrien prepare the main dish.

When it was finally dinner time her parents were the first ones to arrive.

"Hi sweetie!" Sabine said happily, coming inside the apartment.

"Hi Maman," she replied, giving her a hug.

After embracing her daughter, she moved on to Adrien. "How are you doing?"

"We're good," he lied. "How are you?"

"Never been better," Tom replied, giving Adrien a big hug that almost lifted him up off of the ground. Then he sniffed the air. "Something smells good in here!"

"Well we tried one of your new recipes," Adrien explained. "And I'm very pleased with how it came out. I mean, it will never be as good as yours, of course. But you know, I think that it's acceptable."

"I'm sure that you've done me proud," Tom replied, winking at him.

Their conversation was interrupted when there was another knock at the door.