The pain of the aching heart was almost unbearable. This damn broken heart, right underneath the right collarbone!
No wait, that wasn't the heart, there was something else.
With quite some effort Nathalie's eyes slowly fluttered open. The first thing she could see was light, blinding, cold, fluorescent light. She squinted and turned her head a little to the side. A mixture of grey and blond appeared in her sight. The without wax and hairspray softly falling, chin-long hair of Gabriel Agreste framed his pale face. Dark rings lay around his now closed eyes, and even though he seemed to be sleeping, he was making noises and was fidgeting and twitching.
The young woman wanted to smile at him, when she remembered her dream and looked down towards her stomach. With relief she noticed it still there and anxiously she looked further at her surroundings, suddenly noticing a familiar sound. Though the volume was turned down to almost being muted, she recognized the rapid heartbeat of her little girl immediately.
A scene appeared in her memory, showing two male figures of her past. One aiming for her and her unborn child's life, the other, who had made her suffer for so long and despite telling her at her wedding, that he could never make it up to her, what he had done, he had saved them both. He had thrown himself between her and the bullet and had made her fall to the ground, so that the projectile had missed its original target. It had only hit her...
Right underneath her clavicle! That's where the pain came from.
"Did the baby get hurt too?", her voice was weak, barely audible.
But the from fear and rage exhausted man hadn't been able to drift into a deep sleep anyway and opened his eyes in an instant. At first he thought, he had been hearing Nathalie's voice in his dreams, but when he raised his head to look at his unconscious wife, he saw her looking back at him, her lips torn into what was supposed to be a smile.
Gabriel just kept staring, not believing, that she had woken up so quickly, after the doctors had told him less than two hours ago, that her condition had worsened and that they would have to take her into surgery if she kept spiraling down into a worse state.
He felt something move on his palm and remembered that he had fallen asleep while holding Nathalie's hand.
"Is this a dream?", he questioned with a hoarse voice, to see the woman, he loved so dearly, shake her head.
"It's not", she whispered, not having the strength to speak louder. "What about the baby? Did she get hurt?"
"She's fine", he gulped, tears brimming his eyes, as he got on his feet and brought his face close to hers, his hands gently cupping her cheeks. "She is perfectly fine, my love, it's you I'm worried sick about!"
He softly pecked her lips, then leaned his forehead against hers.
"I was so scared, my love. I still can't believe that you're awake", he cried.
Nathalie lifted her right hand, her left was attached to too many things, and placed it on his cheek. Instead of calming him, her touch made him sob even harder.
"Gabriel", she still could only breathe out her words, "please don't cry. You can't get rid of me that easy!", she joked.
His sobbing was mixed up with a laugh and he kissed her desperately again. Then he reached for her hand and while he kept it in his own, he sat back down on his chair.
"My father", Nathalie questioned, "is he..."
"He has immediately been arrested. And the police and social services are investigating all the things, that have been going on in that community."
The weakened female nodded. "What about.."
"Your ex husband?", Gabriel inhaled deeply.
"Yes, is he alright?", she asked further.
The designer shook his head. "He threw himself in front of you and the bullet went right through his abdomen before it hit your chest. It hit a major artery and he bled out within minutes. I have hired a mortician to take care of his funeral, if that is okay with you. I feel like I have to, because despite everything, that he has done to you, I owe him both your lives..."
"Thank you. That's good." She closed her eyes but stroked the back of his hand with her thumb.
"Is Marinette alright? How is she coping? I pushed her away and told her to run before I heard the shot....then I fell and felt that weight on me....and he said something to her....but...I", she needed to pause. Speaking tired her rather quickly.
Gabriel squeezed her hand in a comforting manner as he answered her questions:
"Marinette is still a little shocked and Adrien brought her home, but she wasn't hurt. If it had not been for her, you maybe wouldn't still be here right now. He told her to tell you, he was sorry for being too slow, to stop your father. Then he collapsed and Marinette rolled him off of you and tried to stop the bleeding with her bare hands. The doctors told me, if she had not done that, you wouldn't have had a chance to survive." Tears had started to run down his cheeks again, when he imagined how close he had been to loosing her, how close he still might be.
"I need to thank her, next time I see her", Nathalie mumbled sleepily. "Please don't be mad, but I think I'm gonna take another nap, okay?"
"Of course, my love, get as much rest as you need. Why should I be mad? I am so happy that you're better, I will never be mad at anyone again!"
He bent over to kiss her once again. "Sleep well, my dear. I love you."
"I love you too", she hummed and pulled his hand onto her chest. Grunting, because she felt a short pain, she drifted asleep anyway, yet without loosening her hold on him.
Relieved the exhausted man leaned his head carefully against her left shoulder. He wasn't going to leave her side ever again. But he pressed the button, that called for a nurse, to let the doctors know, that she had woken up for a short time.
Though he had asked them, to let her get some rest, they had immediately started to do several tests on her, until he couldn't stand her desperate look anymore and started yelling:
"Would you let her get some sleep now please? I asked you kindly before, but you had to start doing all those things. How is my wife supposed to get any better, if you can't give her the piece and quiet for that?"
His eyes were glistening dangerously, while he stared each doctor and nurse down with his gaze and pushed them out of the room.
"Don't you even dare coming back inside, if it's not necessary or urgent!", he then shouted after them.
Gabriel now walked back to Nathalie's side taking both her hands, careful to not hurt her by pulling on everything, she was connected with.
The injured, pregnant woman looked at him gratefully.
"Thank you", she whispered, "I already thought my dream would come true!"
"Your dream?", he asked, "what kind of dream?"
And then she told him, that she had seen him suffer, that she had seen their little daughter on that video.
"You didn't even name her!", she said accusingly. "But when you noticed that, you got cleaned up and went to see her and held her and then I felt this unbearable pain and first I thought it was my heart that was breaking. But then I noticed, my heart wasn't here."
She pointed at the gun wound now.
"That's when I woke up. I somehow knew deep in my heart, that you needed me, Gabriel. Ugh....can you help me sit up, please?"
"Nathalie, I will do everything you want, but I am not sure, if that's really good for you", he hummed into his loved ones ear and kissed her cheek softly.
"I know, you might be right, but I can't stay like this any longer. That little girl is really getting heavy and she's making it hard to breathe, when I am lying as flat on my back, as I am now, so please, Gabriel....I...." She was now gasping for more air and the worried man quickly reached around her shoulder, trying to not hurt her by doing so, and slowly pulled her into a sitting position.
Though her face went a little paler instantly and she hissed in pain, her breathing became deeper and calmer and she sighed in relief.
"Thank you, Gabe!", she mused.
He couldn't help it and smashed his lips onto hers. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, Nathalie kissed him back just as savagely, while he was still holding her up.
It felt like an eternity to both, until he sat down on the mattress beside her, still supporting her back, looking around for the remote of the electric bed. Eventually he found it, hanging at the side of the bedside table. Gabriel reached for it and pressed the button that made the head part of the hospital bed come up until Nathalie could sit without his help.
"Here", he suggested, "I'm placing that right beside your hand, so you can reach it, yeah?"
The still tired woman nodded.
"Thanks again, Honey. I....ouch....love you so much!"
"I love you too, Nathalie. Just do me one favour, woman. Stop scaring me like that!"
They both chuckled, Nathalie wincing again, but she still couldn't stop. She didn't even try to either.
"You need to go home and get some rest, Gabriel. And take care of Adrien and Marinette. Even if she didn't get hurt, her parents probably aren't very happy about yet another incident, you have to help the kids before her parents forbid her the contact with Adrien. It took them long enough to get together!"
"But..."
"No buts, I'll be fine, and I am going to sleep the whole time anyway. You won't be helping anyone, if you are going to pass out soon, ok?"
He agreed. "But, I'll be back in the early morning, and don't you dare to abject me!"
The young woman smirked: "Of course not, 'Sir'!"
He kissed her again passionately, before he said goodbye and left to go home.
When he entered his home, the teenagers already came running towards him.
As he watched them, standing awkwardly in front of him, he knew exactly what he had to do. Gabriel Agreste, known as cold and emotionless. opened both his arms and pulled the children into a tight embrace.
"Nathalie's awake. She's still weak and needs a lot of rest, but for now it looks like, she will be fine. It was close though. Less than two hours before she woke up, the doctors told me, they had do deliver the baby, if she would get worse. And Nathalie wouldn't have been able to survive the new blood loss, so... I am just glad, she's better now!"
None of the two Agreste's had expected that.
Marinette fell down on her knees, sobbing and hugging herself. The whole girl was trembling. Both men crouched down, to comfort her, but it was Gabriel, who lifted her up and brought her to his son's room. Placing her on the bed, he hinted Adrien to stay with her.
"I will go and call Marinette's parents, they are surely very concerned. You take care of your girlfriend, Adrien. Please inform me, when you need me, I'm in my bedroom, trying to look human again. Maybe in the morning, we can visit Nathalie all together?", he uttered quickly, then placed a peck on the top of the girls head and hugged his son tightly again.
"Same for you father, we're here, if you need us, okay", the teenage boy replied.
Gabriel nodded then left.
Adrien narrowed his brows, as he laid down beside the sobbing girl.
"Marinette, M'lady, why are you crying now? She is better and the baby is fine too. So, no need to worry anymore!"
"I-It's j-just.....I am s-s-so relieved. I-I really th-th-thought, she would....I-I pushed her dead ex husband off of h-h-her.....and then......I-I tried to s-s-stop the blood a-a-and there was s-s-so much b-blood, Adrien. I-I am just so happy right now, that she's okay, I c-c-can't stop c-c-crying......I..."
The dark haired girl buried her face in his chest, sobbing vigorously again.
Adrien just pulled her taut and let her cry, a few tears running down his own cheeks, while the couple slowly drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.