One Way or Another

A Secret Mission, A Liver Condition and A Deadline

The monkey bars were the place to be.

Annabelle was lucky enough to be one of the first kids over there at recess. So she happily swung back and forth.

But what made her even happier was when she noticed someone standing on the other side of the fence.

The girl immediately jumped to the ground and ran over to the woman. "Ladybug!" she said in a hushed voice.

"Hi Annabelle," Lila replied with a big smile. "How are you?"

"I'm great!"

"Well that's wonderful to hear."

"I'm so happy that you came to visit me again!" Annabelle exclaimed.

"And I'm so happy to see you! I'm sorry that it's been so long since I last stopped by. But there's always a lot of things to do when you're a superhero."

Annabelle nodded.

"Anyway," Lila continued, hunching over to get closer. "I was hoping that you would be able to help me out again. You did such a great job last time!"

The girl's eyes sparkled. "Yes, Ladybug. Of course I'll help you again!"

"Excellent. Thank you so much Annabelle, I knew that I could count on you. Now all you have to do is unlock the gate and front door to your house again tonight after dinner. Just make sure that no one sees you."

"I will!"

"Oh and don't forget, this is top secret. Don't tell anyone that you've been talking to me, okay? It's super important that no one knows."

"I won't tell anyone," Annabelle promised. "But Ladybug, why do you want to keep coming into my house?"

"I can't tell you that quite yet," Lila explained. "But I will as soon as my secret mission is all done."

"Okay," she said excitedly.

Lila smiled down at her. "Well I should go. Thanks again for all your help Annabelle. I'll stop by again real soon."

"Bye Ladybug," she replied, watching the woman walk away.

************************************

They were brought into the same exam room yet again.

"Good afternoon Mr and Mrs Agreste," Dr Patel said as she entered. "How is everything?"

"Everything's going well," Marinette told her.

"That's wonderful to hear. Now I have the results of your blood tests and the baby is looking great. Everything came back completely normal."

And Marinette felt a weight lifting off of her. She was so relieved to hear the good news.

"Would you like to know the gender?" the doctor continued.

"Yes," Adrien quickly replied.

"Wait, no," Marinette added before turning to him. "You know that I want to wait until we're with our families Saturday night to find out."

"But we really want to know," he argued gently. "And we could find out right now, just the two of us. It will still be exciting when we tell everyone else Saturday."

She stared at him. 'Please?' she mouthed silently.

He blew out a breath of air, wondering exactly how he was supposed to deny such a simple request from her. "Alright Princess," he said after a moment.

"Thank you, Adrien." She turned back to the doctor. "We'd like to know, but not right now. Would you be able to write it down and put it in an envelope for us?"