No Way Out

A Princess and An Impossible Choice

Still trying to process the news, Adrien and Marinette stared up at the ceiling that night as they lay in bed. There was no adult time happening because they were both too busy replaying the evening's conversation in their minds.

After a long period of silence, Adrien started speaking. "We'll just have to overpower him," he said quietly. "It'll be easy enough. Even if he manages to transform, he's no match for the two of us combined. Then as soon as we get the bangle from him, one of us will unify the kwamis, heal him, and that will be that."

Marinette turned onto her side to face him and prepared for some backlash. "I know how upset you are about this, but your father was right. This is his decision to make. It's his life."

"So we should do nothing?" he responded with an edge of anger in his voice. "We should just stand around and watch him die?"

"Of course not, Kitty. We need to talk to him. We need to make him think rationally about this."

Adrien shook his head. "My father has never been a rational person. I mean, you've met him. Once he gets an idea in his head, he doesn't stop until he gets what he wants." There was a moment of silence. "I don't understand this at all. He's never hesitated to use the Starfish to heal people before. Why is it different this time?"

"It's different... because it's him who's sick," she said quietly. "It's not your mom, it's not me, it's not the kids. It's him."

"But that doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't he want to save himself?"

Marinette took a moment to answer that question. "Maybe," she whispered, "he thinks that... he doesn't deserve to be saved."

"That's not it," Adrien immediately said with a head shake. "Everything he did, he did for my mom. He doesn't regret a single second of it."

She looked away from him as tears welled up. "Well," she said after a minute. "It doesn't really matter what the reason is. We have to deal with the situation, and we have time. You heard what he said, we have at least four months. If not, longer. A lot could happen in..."

"Maybe the doctors are wrong," he interrupted. "What if it's less than four months? It's just a guess, right? They don't know for sure."

She sighed. "It's still not right to force him into doing something that he doesn't want to do. Besides, how do we know that he's going to keep wearing the bangle? He's not stupid, Adrien. He knows that we don't agree with his decision, and he probably assumes that we're coming up with some sort of plan right now. What if he takes it off and hides it somewhere? Then what?"

There was no response. Adrien kept staring up at the ceiling, even as tears started forming in his eyes.

Marinette turned back to him and caressed his cheek with her hand. "I know you love your father, Adrien," she continued softly. "And I know you're worried about him. We're going to help him. We are. But we need to do it the right way. Once Emilie finds out about this, she'll convince him to change his mind. He might not listen to anyone else, but you know he'll listen to her."

Adrien finally met her gaze.

"You'll see, my sweet Kitty," she said, rubbing her thumb over his skin. "He'll be okay." A smile. "We're going to be stuck with him for a long, long time. Just like we always have been before. He's not getting out of being Ladybug's father-in-law that easily."

Leaning into her touch, he wanted to cry for a different reason. "How do you do that?" he whispered. "How do you always make me feel better?"

"It's my job," she whispered back. "And I take these things very seriously."