Le Chat et Le Serpent

Chapter 26: The Most Beautiful Things

The most beautiful things in the world

Cannot be seen or touched

They are felt within the heart

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I Have Lived a Great Deal Among Grown-Ups ... And That Hasn't Much Improved My Opinion of Them

Gabriel spun the brooch in between his fingers. "Emelie, look, I believe the Miraculous is broken." Gabriel pushed the jewel towards her.

"Gabriel!" Emelie shouted. "Our son is bleeding! I don't care about that stupid thing!" She slipped her arms under Adrien. With the young boy pressed against her chest, she carried the weight of her dismissive tone; not towards the man wielding the jewel, but the creature who inhabited it. "Sorry, Duusu, I didn't mean to be cruel."

Duusu was still trying to grasp his surroundings. The only aspect of the scene he truly seemed to recognize was the tense woman in front of him. Everything else felt strange; a spinning blur. He still did not fully understand why she seemed worried about her words in respect to himself, so he simply shrugged. There was something glaringly wrong with the human she held in her arms, he obviously needed her attention more than himself. "Just make sure that little boy gets his holes sealed." The boy's inside fluid was still draining onto the floor.

Running toward the commotion, Adrien's bodyguard was met with the gruesome scene. He didn't have a moment to question which was more horrific, Emelie's grip on Adrien as his limbs dangled limply, or the fact that Gabriel seemed incredibly disinterested in the commotion unfolding beside him. Reacting, he lifted Adrien from his mother's arms. As they marched towards the door, he grunted back to Gabriel, indicating that he should follow.

Gabriel was ired at the fact that Adrien's condition for the boy's own insolence was distracting everyone from the damage that lay upon the piece in his palm. Frustratedly, he set down the Peacock Miraculous and promptly set towards the waiting car.

The dichotomous reactions continued within the company vehicle. Emelie was frantically peppering Adrien with kisses, begging for him to be okay. Each kiss somehow built a greater dread, each peck feeling icier than the last.

Gabriel worked to disregard the high pitch clattering beside him by gazing out the window. Duusu was confused, does this mean that we will not be able to use the Miraculous? Is there a way to mend what Adrien broke? 

The bodyguard drove with a stoic determination, cautious yet heavy footed. Surveilling Adrien's state from the rear view mirror, he saw that his bloodshed had nearly ceased, but his snowy skin was trembling. Without a second thought, he shimmied off his jacket to pass back to Emelie.

"Oh, uh, thank you." Gabriel acknowledged his deed. He hadn't thought that such actions were necessary; but the velocity in which Emelie wrapped Adrien, it must have been helpful.

Emelie's tanned fingers coiled around the handle before the car's tires reached the entrance of the hospital. Overwrought, she barely attended to Gabriel's ringing phone.

"Emelie you take the boy in. I'll take this call while we park the car." Gabriel announced as he squinted at the contact upon the screen. He was so engrossed in himself, he scarcely noticed the door slamming before he concluded his sentence.

The bodyguard, professionally, hid his disgust as Gabriel answered his phone.

"Hello, Nathalie."

"Gabriel, I just got in contact with Amelie, she is on her way to the hospital now." She informed him.

"And why would you do that?" Gabriel seethed at the thought of Amelie adding her unpleasantness to the situation.

"My apologies sir, Emelie instructed me to do so. Amelie has the greatest knowledge on the rings." Her voice was calm as her head reeled.