One sided benefits

Memories

"Shush, it's alright. Don't think about it anymore, I'm okay, our baby is okay and maybe, with a little help from us and Marinette, as well as a really empathetic therapist, Adrien will be too!", Nathalie hummed calmingly.

Gabriel nodded with a sigh, tears still running down his cheeks.

"I still feel bad, Nathalie. I should have noticed something! Did....", he inhaled deeply, brazing himself for the possible answer to his question, "did she say, what Em-Emilie did to him? Did he tell her?"

The caring woman brushed a strand of hair, that had fallen from his usual styled up hair and hung loose at his forehead, back to the side, then shook her head, telling her husband:

"She didn't mention, if he told her. But I don't think he did. She just put two and two together and was able to make him trust her so far, that he eventually confirmed it. She in fact said, he didn't want to talk about it, but simply forget and move on. Yet he is still having nightmares, except, when they had....I can't believe, I am telling you this, .....when they had sexual intercourse before."

Nathalie's cheek had blushed deeply and she couldn't hold his gaze, as she said that about the boy she had seen growing up.

Gabriel chuckled over her reaction, making her heart ache a little less for both Agreste males.

"Well, he's seventeen. He had to start doing that at some point. Though I would have wanted him to wait a little longer before he did that. Not according to his age, damn it, I was fifteen, when.....", he paused and looked at his wife, trying to read in her face, if he could continue or if he was hurting her, but she just smiled and nodded encouragingly. "Well, I was younger when I had my first time, but that's not my point. I thought, he would wait a little longer to go that far with his first ever girlfriend. And she..... I.......", he shrugged, "maybe it's because, they already trusted each other!"

"I'm sure, it is!", Nathalie agreed. Then she leaned her forehead against his, mumbling:

"We'll have to talk with him about....you know.....Emilie and what she did to him. And about.....what she....did to....you! So he will know, that he's not the only one, something like that happened to!"

Gabriel groaned, but knew, she was right. If he wanted his son and him to heal, he needed to overcome his own trauma and tell him about it.

What he couldn't remember himself though, was, how it could have come that far. Why he had let the small, light weighted woman do that to him. Why he had for so long kept to the wish, to get her back, when he should have been relieved over her passing away.

Nathalie's voice all of a sudden startled him:

"Gabriel? You're looking almost scared, what were you thinking about?"

For a moment he looked at her, as if he had never before seen her face. Then he shook his head vigorously and reached out to take her hand into his own and softly kissed her palm.

"Sorry", he reluctantly began his explanation, "I was just trying to figure out, how everything started back then and why I didn't fight back or stop her. And why I never noticed, that she did something similar to our son!"

Nathalie gave him a puzzled look.

"You can't remember?", she asked.

"No", he responded, "and I want to know, why!", he hissed.

"Why don't you just tell me, what you remember. Tell me how the two of you met, how you became a couple and all!", she suggested, "maybe, you made yourself forget somehow. The human brain does strange things, to protect itself sometimes! And maybe, by telling someone, you find your memories somewhere along the way!"