Bab 9: Chapter 9: Wake Up
Trigger Warning]
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Her eyes opened to darkness. The room was silent and was filled with the slow beeping of the heart monitor next to her bed. She looked to the left looking for her purse but the table was empty. Her eyebrows furrowed as she frowned. She slowly lifted herself up wincing at the throbbing pain in her head when she swung her legs down to touch the floor. When skin met tile, it sent a shiver down her spine. Where were her shoes? She slowly stood up allowing her feet to adjust to the new temperature of the floor and made her way to the window where she pulled the curtain aside. It was dark. She looked at the clock but it had stopped ticking and instead stood ground at exactly 2 in the morning; the hour-hand dead on 12 and the minute-hand dead on 2.
She shivered as a small gust of wind came in from the window and hit her shoulders, the hospital gown weakly swaying before coming to a stop. When had she changed her clothes? She looked at the window debating whether or not to close it. The sound of cars filled the room before they were silenced when she shut the window drowning out the noise. When had she opened the window?
She looked around again. Her door was left slightly ajar. Where had everyone gone? Had she fallen asleep and they left without saying goodbye? She tried to think back but her thoughts became fuzzy. She huffed. Whatever. She was starving and apparently she'd missed lunch time so the best she could do now was to go out, find a nurse and ask for something to eat.
The door creaked as she opened it. She looked around but found the place empty as well. The hallway was dark albeit there were a few lights turned on allowing her to see down it. "Hello?" Her voice bounced off the walls echoing down the hall and dissipated into the air as though it hadn't appeared in the first place. When no answer came, she walked further down. She knocked on the next room but when no answer came, she opened it to find the bed empty as well. It had definitely been slept on but the sleeper was nowhere to be found. She frowned again, her lip twitching in worry. When she came to the next door, it was opened and she peeked in to find another bed empty; definitely slept in but the sleeper nowhere to be found. This spiked at the fear building in her stomach.
The sound of her footsteps grew as her pace increased; the sweat from her feet sticking to the tiled floor before ripping themselves off and carrying on with their journey. "Hello?" Her voice wavered as it grew in depth. The hospital was active 24/7 no matter what time of day so where the hell was everyone? She could see the elevator coming into sight as she paced down the hall. She stopped and moved to press the button but froze as a 'ding' was heard and the doors opened as though expecting her. She looked back at the dimly lit hallway before stepping into the box of metal. The door closed leaving her to make her decision as to which floor she would go to. Her eyes widened when she looked to the buttons and only found the number '2'. No alarm button. No ground floor, no 1st floor, no 3rd or 4th or anything else. Just 2. What the hell was going on?
She pressed the button watching as the elevator moved from whatever floor she was at now and moved. She couldn't tell whether she was moving up or down but jumped at the 'ding' indicating she'd reached her destination. The doors slowly opened to reveal another hallway almost identical to the other one but being more spacious. She stepped out and they closed behind her.
She looked around. It seemed the only place to go was forward. Hopefully she would find someone along the way. She walked down flinching when a light flickered before turning off. Another light broke. A normal person would turn around, however, she was no normal person. She was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, wielder of the Ladybug miraculous and temporary wielder of the black cat and horse. She continued forward before hearing a noise. She squinted her eyes as she saw a figure running towards her and lifted her arms up in defence but lowered them when she saw it was a nurse. The nurse slowed down when she reached her. "Um excuse me, where is everyone?" The nurse shrugged before speeding up. "I'm sorry, I'm in a rush, I have to go."
Marinette called after her but stopped when she disappeared out of view leaving her by herself. She had so many questions. Like, where the hell was everyone? Why was it so dark? Why could she still hear her heart monitor when she'd left it in her room? She felt a tug of pain at her stomach and placed a hand on it freezing when she realised it was flat. And where the hell was her baby?
-&-
She'd been walking around for what seemed like forever before she heard the faint sound of what seemed to be...crying? Or more specifically, a baby.
She followed the noise stopping outside the door of the baby's ward and slowly opened it. She looked around. The cribs were empty. The noise stopped before a sniffle was heard behind her. She swerved herself around to be met with the sight of a crib tucked in the corner. Another sniffle followed after. She crooked her head slightly to the left curious before walking to the crib. She looked over the wooden sighed and smiled at the cooing baby staring back at her. He was beautiful. His raven hair blended in with the darkness of the room but his green eyes pierced through the dark veil and almost glowed in the darkness. She lifted him up laughing when he grabbed for her finger and squeezed it before dozing back to sleep. She slowly placed him back in. As soon as his skin touched the cotton of the blanket, another cry was heard. She turned back around to be met with the sight of another baby. Also a boy. When she moved to pick him up, he stopped crying and opened his eyes to stare at her. He was almost a clone of the first baby. The only difference was that his eyes were a beautiful ocean blue resembling her own. She put him back in his cot and watched as he too fell asleep.
Everywhere went silent again and only the soft snoozes from the babies and the beeping of her heart monitor - that she was certain was still in her room where she'd left it beside her bed - was heard. She slowly closed the door to the baby's ward but froze when she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking. She slowly turned around to only gasp when she she saw Damian kneeling behind her and a gun pressed against his head. She slowly looked up to the owner of said gun and let out a sob at who was pressing the gun into her friend's head.
"Adrien, what the hell are you doing?" Her voice once again echoed down the hall and stopped when it reached the two men at the end. The beeping of her heart monitor increased almost instantly accompanied by the sound of the blood rushing around in her body heating up her skin and allowing tiny droplets of sweat through her pores.
Adrien pushed the gun further into Damian's head, his frown deepening and his blonde hair darkened by the hood over his head.
"Adrien--please--" her voice croaked. She swallowed attempting to apply her tongue with moisture. "Please, don't--"
"On one condition." His voice pierced through.
"A-Anything." She knew her voice was barely a whisper and she almost couldn't recognise it. It had never sounded so...weak..before.
His eyes pierced through hers and his voice boomed despite being a whisper. "Wake up."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "What?"
He growled. "Too slow."
She threw her hands forward, her mouth opened to ask him to wait but it was too late. The sound of the bullet ricocheted off the walls and echoed in her head. Her view shrouded with black and everything went dark.
-&-
Her eyes shot open before they narrowed squinting at the light threatening to blind her. She took a slow breath out. That nightmare had left her shaking. She slowly lifted herself up and yawned but froze at the sound of shuffling next to her. She slowly turned her head before her eyes widened and she let out what should've been an inhumane screech and jumped out of bed covering herself with part of the duvet.
The man next to her shot up and blinked adjusting to the light before scanning the room and reaching into the first draw of the nightstand on his side pulling out a hand gun and yelling, "What's going on? Are we under attack?" He cocked his gun ready for attack but when his eyes met hers, he shoulders slumped and he relaxed rubbing a hand down his face and putting the gun back to safety before placing it back in the drawer. A frown adorned his features but replaced itself with a more relaxed look. "You scared the hell out of me, are you okay?"
"Of course I'm not okay!" she screamed, "What the hell are you doing in my bed?"
He stared at her confused before swinging his legs off the bed and rounding it to her side. She slowly backed away pulling the duvet along with her as she held it to her chest covering the nightgown she was currently wearing. He stopped when he noticed her retreating and sighed. "Did you have another nightmare?"
She stared at him confused watching his muscles under his tank top as he lifted his hand again to rub at his eyes. She lowered her gaze but shot it back up when she realised he was only wearing boxers down there. She flinched when he wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her cheek before retreating back to the other side to pull on a pair of sweatpants. When he turned around and found her still stood where she was before holding the duvet to her chest and shaking, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.
He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the sound of the bedroom door opening and the soft footsteps of a toddler. He beamed instantly and lifted the giggling boy into his arms before pressing a kiss into his hair and spinning him around. "There's my little demon!" The boy giggled before turning his head to Marinette and sending her a toothy grin. "Good morning mama!"
Marinette watched the encounter with a frown. "Damian, why the hell did he just call me 'mama'?"
Damian frowned and the young boy's eyebrows furrowed in concern before he whispered something in the man's ear. Damian smiled before setting him back down on the floor and ushering him out of the room.
He turned around and met her eyes again smiling. "Hugo's going to make a marshmallow toastie, you'd better stop him before he burns the place down."
Marinette took a step forward. Her grip on the duvet slackened and it fell to the floor. "Who's Hugo?"
Damian's lip twitched and he placed a hand on her forehead checking for her temperature.
"Damian, who the hell is Hugo?"
Damian took a step back watching her face as though analysing every movement and replied. "Our son."
"Since when did we have a son? Heck, since when did we get together?"
His frown deepened and his voice laced with worry. "Since we got married 2 years ago and you gave birth to him 3 years ago--Marinette, are you okay?"
She shook her head gripping onto her forehead when a sharp pain shot through. "Where's the other one?"
He took a step forward pulling her back into his arms. He was so warm. "Other one?"
She pushed herself out of his arms, instantly missing the warmth, and looked up staring straight into his eyes. "The other baby."
"Mari, we only had one."
She gasped as her vision shrouded with black spots and looked down to find red liquid staining her gown. She held a hand to her stomach and pressed on it to try and soothe the pain but the blood kept coming. Then everything went dark.
-&-
Her eyes opened to a blur of red and black. She blinked a few times trying to clear her vision and found a frantic Tikki hovering in front of her face.
Tikki sighed. "Oh thank Gods. You weren't waking up. You scared me so much!"
She slowly sat up, her hand shooting instinctively to her eyes wiping at the tears dripping down her cheeks. "Tikki, what happened?"
"You were crying in your sleep. I couldn't wake you up!"
Marinette sighed rubbing at her eyes. "Tikki, I just had the weirdest dreams."
Tikki held a hand to her face. "Wait. Before you continue--"
"You have fingers."
Tikki tilted her head. "What?"
Marinette stared at the hand in front of her face and repeated herself. "You have fingers."
Tikki looked at her hand and sure enough there were five red fingers. She looked back up to Marinette and everything went dark again.
-&-
"Marinette!"
She shot up screaming, heavy tears streaming down her face as she violently kicked her legs backing herself into the corner of her bed where it met the wall.
"Marinette!" She looked up to the sight of the Wayne brothers standing by her bed.
Her voice died down as she stopped screaming but the heavy tears only grew as she gasped for air.
"Marinette, calm down!" She turned to Jason's voice. "In." she breathed in. "Out." She breathed out. "C'mon Mari, in." She breathed in. "Now out." She breathed out. "One more time, in." She breathed in. "Out." She breathed out regaining air into her lungs and taking a few more deep breaths before she calmed down, her heart racing in her chest. She shot her hand down to her stomach and sighed in relief when she felt the familiar bump.
The tension in the room cooled down as the brothers sighed in relief. She looked up to Jason. "Let me see your hand."
His eyebrows creased, "What?" She huffed with impatience grabbing his hand and counting the fingers. 5. 5 long fingers. Good. She released his hand and wiped the sweat on her brow picking at her shirt to allow cold air to brush against her skin. She looked back up to Jason. "Thank you." He nodded.
"Night terrors." All eyes turned to the voice. Tim repeated himself. "Night terrors. You just had a night terror."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone