One Way or Another

A Familiar Sky and A Show

"What's going on?" Marinette asked, going up to Nathalie as the people around them scattered about.

The woman kept her eyes on the tablet in front of her. "I have a messenger bringing over extra fabrics from the warehouse. He should be here within thirty minutes. And I'm having teams of three work on each design. Everyone should be able to fix or recreate every piece without too much guidance, but you'll still have to go around to make sure it's exactly how it was."

Marinette shook her head in disbelief. "But the show is supposed to start in ten hours..."

"Ten hours, six minutes and forty-five seconds," Nathalie corrected her. Then she finally looked up to make eye contact. "We have plenty of time."

She blinked at her. "Bu... but wh... where did all these people come from?"

"They work for Gabriel. We were right down the hall."

Marinette shook her head again. "But all of you are supposed to be getting things ready for his show."

Nathalie smiled that smug smile of hers. "We have all day tomorrow and Friday. We'll be fine."

Not wanting to get her hopes up, Marinette kept denying the possibility that everything would actually be ready. "But Gabriel won't be happy about this..."

"This is Gabriel's orders." A moment passed by in silence before Nathalie looked at her tablet and continued. "Adrien called him about ten minutes ago and asked for his help."

"Adrien called him?" Marinette repeated in a whisper.

She nodded. "Are you really that surprised? Adrien would do anything for you."

Marinette looked down at the floor, overcome by emotion.

"Gabriel's on his way in," Nathalie added.

"Oh no, he doesn't have to..."

"He insisted. Besides, he needs to get out of the house. It will be good for him to focus on something other than... riddles for a while." She looked at Marinette over the top of her glasses. "I promise, everything will be done by five."

Wanting to cry, Marinette moved forward and hugged her.

"Alright, enough of that," Nathalie said with a smile after the embrace. "We need you to get to work and tell us what to do. I have a strong feeling that you excel under pressure."

Marinette smiled back. "Thank you."

With a nod, Nathalie turned her attention back to her tablet.

After a second to take a deep breath, Marinette started going around to direct the tailors on what to do. But she had to stop when she saw Adrien enter the room.

She quickly ran up and wrapped her arms around him. He responded by holding onto her tightly. They held on, not needing to say anything to each other. Because they already knew.

Then Adrien pulled back and stared into her eyes. "Let's do this, Princess."

Marinette nodded.

After an extra second, they separated and both got to work. She guided and helped the tailors. He was the acting model for all of the menswear pieces. And Dominique stepped in to act as the model for the women's pieces.

A half hour later, Gabriel arrived to assist in the grand undertaking of redoing a whole collection in one day. Marinette thought that she was going to pass out when she saw him take a garment and start to sew it himself. It was like watching Picasso paint a masterpiece.

At one point Sophie pulled Marinette aside to give her an update. "I just got the report from security. They checked the cameras, and they said that only one person entered the room after you two left last night. But the person was all covered up, so they can't tell who it was and they can't do anything. I'm sorry I don't have better news for you."