No Way Out

A Win-Win, A Prognosis, and A Game of Chess

Marinette didn't get as much work done as she would have liked that night. Overtired from the lack of sleep all week, she put her head down on her desk around two in the morning to 'rest her eyes.' The next thing she knew, it was almost five.

With an aggravated groan, she shut down her computer and went to bed.

Then on the train ride to work, her cat nap was more like a lion nap. She was so zonked out that she missed her stop and had to take a different train to get back to her destination.

Nathalie was waiting for her when she finally arrived. "Good morning," she said, tablet in hand. "Did you happen to see that interesting news report yesterday?"

"News report?"

"It seems like some former superheroes are suddenly out of retirement," she explained, watching Marinette take the seat at her desk and flip through some papers. "I saw different clips of Ryuko, King Monkey, Pegasus, and Viperion jumping around the city."

"That's nice," Marinette replied off-handedly. "It's always good to have some extra superheroes around to handle any minor emergencies that might come up. I've heard that there's been an increase in muggings lately."

Nathalie half smiled, pleased to know that at least Ladybug was finally getting some help. It was obvious, however, that Marinette was still in desperate need of more. "You look tired," she said. She wanted to add 'and that's an understatement,' but decided against it.

"Uh huh," Marinette murmured, trying to dismiss it. "Did the contract from Zigler come in?"

"Yes, it did," Nathalie replied. Then she waited half a minute before continuing. "Why are you so tired?"

Why was Nathalie so persistent? "I haven't been sleeping too well recently." Hopefully that would be the end of it.

"And would that have anything to do with the fact that your work is somehow being done when you're not here?"

Marinette sighed. Knowing that she was caught, she might as well fess up. "I've been getting a little work done at night."

"Only a little?" Nathalie challenged, looking at her over the rim of her glasses.

"It might be a little more than a little, but what's the big deal? The work is still getting done, but I'm actually able to spend the evenings with my family. It's a win-win."

Raising her tablet up to double check something, she didn't respond for a moment. "Based on what I see here, a substantial amount has been done. Hours upon hours of work."

Marinette just shrugged.

Nathalie exhaled and lowered the tablet. "Does Adrien know that you've been staying awake all night to work?"

"It's not all night, and no, he doesn't know. He's also not going to find out," Marinette added with a pointed look.

She exhaled again. "Whatever you say, Mrs Agreste."

That time, Marinette didn't bother glaring. She had too much to do already, so she just tucked her head down to signal that the discussion was over.

Catching the hint, Nathalie didn't bring the subject up again. The two women worked all day, not even stopping to eat lunch. They both needed to get enough done in order to leave in time to make it to the Agreste mansion for dinner.

Finally, they packed things up and traveled back to Marinette's house together. It was helpful that Nathalie was there. Otherwise, Marinette would have missed her stop again. The train had barely started moving before she fell fast asleep in her seat.