I will love again

Valentine 2.1

Marinette found Nathalie at her desk, double checking everything, Chloe's assistants and other employees had worked out. She looked up, when she saw her daughter in law enter through the large door and by the look at her face instantly furrowed her brows.

"What's wrong, Marinette? Something with Hélène?", she asked with a high pitched voice.

"I'm not sure, Nath. But all she described, it sounds as if.....", she inhaled deeply, while she tried to process all informations in her head. "I would suggest, that you go talk to her, because you had all your children without any surgeries and I had just Louis and I somehow can't remember much of that. But, though she says, they're just Braxton-Hicks, they don't look like it. And when she told me, that she would still like to have some intimacy, but that not only the act itself was uncomfortable or lightly painful, but that even his fingers or anything, that would touch her at her intimates, was unbearable, I got a little scared, because I remember that feeling only from...."

".....from very shortly before giving birth. When the head is already pushing down and putting a constant pressure to your ladyparts, and those first contractions weren't really bad, I had them for like two days, before my water broke, when Hélène was born!", Nathalie now finished Marinette's thought. "You were absolutely right to be scared. I'll go and talk to her!"

"Nath, wait. I just got her to tell me, why she wants to stay in that room so urgently and she and Nick are talking about that right now. So, as long as he's with her, he'll certainly notice the tiniest change. And uhm, though it is early, Emma was born at thirty three weeks and she had hardly any problems, except that she had to stay in that bed, that kept her temperature stable, because she was so skinny!", the younger woman now tried to soothe her. "Give them a little more time, then go and see for yourself. If we take her to a hospital, they won't do anything to stop the birth anyway, as she is mature enough, to be born. We would only trigger that, because we would get Leni all worked up! She...", Marinette took a deep breath and laid a hand on Nathalie's arm, "...she was under so much pressure and emotional or mental distress, that she almost had lost the baby. She was in the hospital for two weeks, from her eighth to her tenth pregnancy week. So, we need to be careful, to not upset her or scare her. I am sure, the whole break up was by far enough to deal with and if Nick hadn't been there for her...."

The woman, who was still doing the work as Gabriel's assistant, sat down at her desk and took a deep breath.

"Okay, tell me about the things, she told you, but then, I'll go upstairs and spend some time with her, so I can watch her without scaring her in an instant. Just tell me, why is it always her? The other kids never were in danger or went through years of unreciprocated love, trying to cut themselves because of a stupid fight with their crush.... I want things to go well for my children and Hélène has by far suffered enough! Let me guess, that's part of why she is locking herself into that room again, just like she did, when she was a kid. Her little fortress of solitude!"

"Nath! Superman, really? Classic comics or Netflix?", Marinette now teased her.

"Well, when the twins and Louis were in that age, I somehow started to read all those comic books too and well, I kinda got a little addicted!", she admitted.

"When the twins and Louis were in that age? I can only speak for Louis, but he hasn't grown out of it yet. Just the content has changed a lot. The last one, I read, because I was curious, made me blush and....well...... I had to try it and it turned out, the drawings were very accurate....but don't mention that to Adrien please, he has no idea, that I got inspired by a comic book!", the younger female giggled sheepishly.

Nathalie quirked one eyebrow, then began to smirk and wondered:

"Do you still have that book?"

"Nathalie Agreste! Could you really imagine me, keeping something like that?", Marinette exclaimed in offense.