Guess Who [A Miraculous FanFiction]

Chapter Eight: Hospital

Marinette Dupain-Cheng awakens with a jolt and a gasp of pain. In her mind, the screaming echoes all around her and she sits up quickly.

Except....She is no longer on the street. And looking down, she can also see that she is no longer in her suit. She is laying on an unfamiliar bed.

Blinking, she tries to concentrate on her surroundings and they become clearer...She is...in the hospital? In the chair next to her bed sits her mom, who is cat-napping and in the chair next to the door is her dad. Her head is spinning as she tries to kick her legs out from under the blankets. Unfortunately, the movement sends a very sharp pain into her and she gasps loudly.

"Mari!" Sabine Dupain-Cheng bolts upright and jumps to her feet. Her eyes fill with tears as she softly pushes Marinette back onto the bed. Marinette doesn't resist as the dull aches all over her body begin to turn into stabbing pains.

"Maman? What's going on?" Marinette asks softly, her eyes flicking to her sleeping father whose arm is in a sling. "What happened?" Her eyes wander back towards Sabine and she notices the bandages around her mom's head.

"Oh honey....No one really knows how it happened, but a fire started and spread quickly. A lot of buildings were damaged or destroyed and....well...." Sabine begins to cry in earnest now.

"Mom?" Marinette is scared by Sabine's tone and follows her gaze out of the hospital window. Marinette's eyes widen at the sight of blackened, burned buildings in the distance. Above them, smoke rises in sporadic patterns, making the whole of her beloved city seem darker and more terrifying than it ever has.

And in the distance...Marinette can see the ruins of several buildings, a whole block's worth. On instinct, she searches for the outline of their home and Bakery, but her eyes can't seem to focus on it. She turns back to her mom, who is now pushing the button for a nurse.

"Mom, where's our house? I can't...see it. I don't think my eyes are concentrating very well."

Sabine's eyes drop from Marinette's gaze to the ground. "That's what I was trying to tell you, chéri." Her voice breaks as she continues, "The house and the Bakery are gone. They burned down."

"No!" Marinette exclaims, jerking her gaze back towards the window. She begins to search in earnest now for her home...the only place she had ever lived, the only place where she felt truly safe and happy....

Before Sabine can answer, a nurse opens the door quietly and, seeing her patient awake, walks swiftly over to Marinette's bed.

"Miss, are you in pain?" The nurse asks politely but sternly. Marinette turns unwillingly to face the woman and nods, tears running in torrents down her cheeks.

"The doctors expected you to be out much longer. I believe I will administer some sleeping medicine so your body may heal better." The nurse says and then continues talking, but Marinette blocks out the words.

Her home is gone. Her whole life has been upset in one long night. She can't see how she could have done anything else, and yet guilt swells in her stomach. She failed...and it wasn't the first time recently.

Marinette suddenly gasps, sitting up again and interrupting her mother and the nurse's conversation.

"Chat! Ladybug! What happened with them? How did I get here?" Marinette's voice is high-pitched from her fear and the volume of her questions finally waken her father. He gives a sigh and his eyes pop open, but Marinette can't find it within herself to worry about him. Her mind is on her partner-in-heroics.

"Maman?" Marinette asks, looking to Sabine for an explanation but it is her father, who has walked over to her bed who answers her desperate pleas.

"Well...we aren't really sure what happened. From the witnesses, we were told that Ladybug pulled your mother and I out of the house. Then she got Chat out from one of the buildings, which exploded. When the dust had cleared completely, Chat was found to be hurt and so was she. But she used her Lucky Charm and somehow, they got away. No one is entirely certain about how as the witness's stories are all mixed up about that. But the two heroes disappeared. And the SAMU men found you in one of the alleys by the house and they brought you here....That was three days ago."

Marinette stares at her father for a long moment, her eyebrows scrunching together in confusion. She is concentrating so hard on trying to remember the events that she is unaware of the nurse on her right who is piercing a needle into her arm. That is, until the medicinal drugs start their work on her body. The aches and pains all over her slowly numb and her vision blurs slightly. She falls back onto the pillows behind her and groans softly.

"Sleep, my dear," Sabine whispers, kissing Marinette on the forehead as her eyes close.

"Mhmmm," Marinette moans as Sabine moves away. Tom moves into her place to also kiss her head.

"I'll see you when you wake up, darling." He says and moves away. Marinette's eyes stay closed despite her efforts to open them. She can feel sleep trying to overcome her and she has very little energy to fight it. The only thing she can manage is to mutter:

"Where's Tikki?"