While Nathalie started to panic because of the tiny inconvenience of not having a name for their daughter yet, a red Kwami seemed to be very nervous and was constantly staring at the place, where the miracle box was hidden.
"What's up with you today, Tikki?", Marinette wondered.
"Something is going on inside the box and I am not sure that I like to know", the Ladybug Kwami replied pensively with her high pitched voice.
"Good afternoon M'lady, what's going on?", ChatNoir lowered himself through the hatch, questioning, "Plagg almost threatened me into transforming, and he usually tries to avoid that, as you know. Claws in!", a green flash brought Adrien back into sight.
The cat-like, black creature, instantly soared to the red one, without even asking for his favourite camembert, though he knew, Marinette always had a piece for him ready.
Both teenagers furrowed their eyebrows to this and watched the magical creatures hovering close in mid-air whispering to each other. Eventually Tikki came floating towards Marinette and asked shyly:
"Marinette, would you please do me a favour and let Nooroo and Duusu out of the box? Plagg and I agreed, that there is something going on, he could sense them at Adrien's even!", she looked furiously towards the little cat, "you should have been with him in school and not at home lazing!"
Adrien now turned to Marinette and looked at her rather anxiously and uttered his fear out.
"If Nooroo and Duusu are so excited all of a sudden, maybe there is something wrong with Nathalie or father or even both!"
The teenage girl opened the secret case, where the box was hidden and grabbed the peacock and the butterfly miraculous, then locked up everything again.
The very moment she and Adrien had put on the jewels, a purple and a blue little creature appeared.
Not even trying to calm Duusu, who was whining and lamenting, while she soared through the room, Marinette directed her question to the little butterfly:
"Nooroo, what's going on? Why are you both so excited? Is something wrong with Nathalie and the baby?"
"Miss Nathalie is in really bad pain and she is scared and Nooroo says, so is Mr. Gabriel. Scared I mean."
Adrien tried to calm the hyperactive creature down.
"Duusu, she is probably having the baby and that's why she is hurting. And of course both are nervous and scared. I would be too", he glanced at his girlfriend who was already turning scarlet red. "What do you think, Princess?"
"Huh?" She had totally drifted off after he had talked about having children and looked at her like that.
Now Adrien chuckled softly and pecked her cheek.
"I wanted to know, if you agree with me or not. I mean about Nathalie and father. And that they could both be scared and nervous because the baby is really coming. Or do you think something's wrong?", he explained.
"Oh, uhm, well, I'm not sure. Nooroo, what about you? Do you think, something isn't right? Did something happen?", the girl was reluctant with her reply.
Before the little butterfly could say anything, Duusu whirled towards the girl's face and stopped only a tiny bit in front of it. There she soared and gazed at her guardian's eyes.
"Please, Miss Marinette, let at least me go look for her. I am sure, that she needs me.
"I must consider that thoroughly, Duusu, let Nooroo speak first", the teenage guardian obliged.
The blue bird pouted, but obeyed.
"Gabriel is very anxious too. And he is worried. I can also sense some joy. It really could be the baby being born. But Duusu is right, something is bothering him about the whole situation. If only he wouldn't keep his emotions to himself all the time. It was difficult to read him when he was close, but with a distance like that in between..."
The tiny peacock was circling the room, impatiently waiting for Marinette's answer.
The young woman watched her for a short while deep in thought. Then she sighed.
"Okay Duusu, you can go. But Nooroo has to stay here and don't let anyone see you, do you understand?"
Squealing happily, the Kwami nodded and hugged her cheek.
"Thank you, Miss Marinette!", she gave the girl a quick peck and soared off.
The purple Kwami sadly watched her leave.
"I am very sorry, Nooroo, but I need you here. We need to take care of a few things first, but then ChatNoir and Ladybug are going to find Nathalie and Gabriel to see if they are alright. And we will need you to guide us."
She turned towards her boyfriend.
"I think you already tried to call them on their phones, right Chaton? And how did you quit your fencing practice early, by the way?", she questioned.
Plagg cleared his throat.
"I.....uhm....might have....faked an urgent call.....from his dad....and...yeah."
Marinette giggled and the black cat quickly joined her, glad she wasn't angry at him.
"My father's and Nathalie's phone are both unavailable, Bugaboo. I've tried like a hundred times", Adrien informed her, his voice slightly trembling while his eyes glistened with tears.
Marinette walked over and hugged him tightly.
"Don't be scared, Minou. Everything is going to be fine. Come on now, let's get ready so we can leave soon. Even for Superheroes like us it's gonna take a while to get there", she said soothingly. Then she kissed him tenderly.
It was almost an hour later, when they were finally ready to transform and leave the city, Nooroo flying ahead, showing the way.
In the meantime Gabriel had taken his panicking wife into a tight embrace and was stroking her belly while he rocked her back and forth.
"That's what makes you panic, Nathalie? ", he mused, "we will find a beautiful and worthy name for our baby and she will be the prettiest girl that either of us has ever seen."
He kissed her on top of her head. As the woman slowly calmed down again, after getting used to the thought, that there probably weren't several hours until the actual birth but maybe even less than one.
Nathalie lifted her head off of his chest and looked into his eyes, about to speak, when she inhaled sharply to hold her breath, slamming her face to his torso again, her hands clawing into his upper arms.
Breathing in and out deeply again, she made it through another, more painful contraction without even making a sound.
Gabriel watched the woman he loved go through this pain and felt ever so useless. He wanted to help her, wanted to make it easier for her, yet he couldn't imagine how. His admiration for her though, grew with every minute that passed.
When he felt her relax and look up at him again, he smiled at her sympathetically and brushed some loose strands of hair out of her face. Then he questioned her, still feeling like it was his fault, she had to go through this:
"How do you stay so calm and quiet? Most women would be screaming at that point. You don't have to be ashamed to show me, you know that right?"
The tired looking female smiled back at him.
"I stopped making any sound of pain, when it only led to more pain. I can tell you, that it hurts like hell, but I can cope very well, for now. It's just tiring, you know. And I am still a little shocked, because I.... damn it, again?"
She closed her eyes again and grabbed her husband's hand. Nathalie held her breath this time for much longer, to then breathe in and out in short, flat breaths until she felt the pain dissolve once more.
Taking a deep breath, she leaned against Gabriel to regain some strength from just being close.
"I wish, I could somehow help you, my darling", the designer, who was almost crying due to his helplessness, whined, while he started to very carefully caress her belly. "Just tell me please, if there is anything I can do. I just..." He shrugged.
"You are actually doing exactly what I need, you give me the strength, to get through the pain. And you can help me get up. Don't worry, I just feel like I will be much more capable to endure the pain, if I can lie down. I would just feel way more comfortable over there. In the sun it's really a challenge, you know?", the young woman pleaded calmly.
"You don't sound so scared anymore. How are you actually feeling. I mean mentally. Did you find your confidence again? You most certainly look like it", Gabriel stated. "And please Nath, don't feel flustered to show your pain. There is nothing you have to prove to me, I already know, that you are way stronger than anyone, I've ever met! Would you like to lay down right away or wait until the next contraction has gone by?", he then asked, already holding out his hands to her.
"For now I think I can move, so go!", Nathalie just gave him the order.
And Gabriel just obeyed her orders despite being used to give them himself and not to receive them.
He pulled his pregnant wife up on her feet and immediately she clang on to him, because she felt an immense pressure keeping her from bringing her legs together and she had the urge to crouch down or lay down and pull up her legs, getting herself into a fetal position.
"G-Gabriel, I can't! I-I-I need to g-get b-back down, now!", she breathed through gritted teeth. "I j-just f-feel...I..." she grabbed his forearms now, trying to stay on her feet, when she felt the man, she loved, lift her up and carry her into the cooler shadow.
"Set me down, now!", Nathalie suddenly shouted at him, making the man instantly crouch down and try to place her on the soft underground very carefully.
Gabriel watched the young woman turn to her side in agony, her eyes squeezed shut, her face distorted, while she really pulled her legs into a fetal position, holding her breath until she needed the oxygen and took long, deep and trembling breaths. In an effort to comfort his wife, Gabriel laid a hand onto her stomach, but was pushed off by her hand.
"Don't", she hissed and concentrated back on her pain-handling strategy.
Pulling his hand away from her, shocked and hurt, Gabriel could only sit and watch, until she relaxed again.
Nathalie now searched for his hand with her own. As she found it, she smiled and pulled him closer. Than placed it on the small of her back. With a barely audible whisper she said:
"It's fine there, but please don't just touch me anywhere, when I'm having a contraction, without permission okay? I dont think I can do this much longer!", she added desperately.
"As you're not having a contraction right now, I will touch you, yeah?", he replied calmly and lied down behind her, enveloping her with his own body, hoping she could still find a little halt in that.
He had barely taken this position, when he felt her cringe again, a quiet groan slipping her lips, still she tried to stay quiet and focus only on getting through,
"Why are you doing that, love? Why don't you just scream or shout or cry?"
She was panting when she said:
"Because I have once seen that documentation where a midwife told the woman, to rather put the power, she wasted on screaming, into the pushing. And that's what I am trying to do. I felt the urge to push, the moment I was on my feet a moment back. I am still scared though. It doesn't feel right yet. But maybe it really is the fear of even more pain talk...ugh fuck!"
She bent herself even more than before, then she suddenly rolled onto her back, her legs open and propped up on her heels. Gabriel could see her head get red from the great effort and immediately knew, that her body was taking over and she had started to push.
When she relaxed once again, panting heavily, because she held her breath the whole time, he gave her a concerned look.
"Are you really sure, that you should do that already?", he asked anxiously. "Maybe I should've taken another look..."
But with a strained voice, while the next contraction already went through her abdomen and back, she squeezed out:
"Believe, it's time, just look now and you'll see..."
She inhaled deeply again, feeling the agonizing pain of her ladyparts being stretched to the edge of tearing, still struggling with the pain, trying to ease it by not pushing too hard or to much, when all of a sudden her head was clear and she just gave in. Knowing, that she had to go through that pain, to make it stop, she just let go of her last restrain and, though not screaming, with a still quiet: "Aaaah", she put all her strength into her stomach, forcing the little human out of her body.
Gabriel, who had furrowed his brows, when she had told him to take a look, had lifted up the blanket carefully and gasped, when he saw the head already crowning.
Struggling between supporting his wife and catching his daughter, he tried to do both, by placing the woman's heels on his shoulders and grab her hand, so she could feel him and squeeze it if she had to.
The moment their skin touched she felt new strength. With the legs bend back like that, she was now also in a better position. So she took a few slow and calm breaths, waiting for the next tensing of her womb, when she heard Gabriel sniffle and whisper:
"She's got your hair!"
Her smile quickly fainted, when she felt a new excruciating pain shoot through her back and with a soft cry she gathered all her strength and pushed as hard as she could.
The pain got even worse now, though it mainly was where the head was being forced through her ladyparts, pinching and tearing the skin by that.
Suddenly, as if someone had pushed a button, the worst pain was gone.
"Her head is out, my dear, slowly now, yeah? Remember what they told you in the course, breathe out in small puffs now, as if you would blow out a candle. Yeah, that's great!"
Though she wanted nothing more, than the pain being completely over, Nathalie did as he told her, though she felt very flustered by doing so.
And then everything happened incredibly fast. She heard Gabriel sob:
"There you are", then felt him push up her shirt and place something on her chest. The moment she looked, she saw that small, beautiful face, the shrivelled skin on the baby's body, and just a second later, her daughter opened her shiny, blue eyes and started to cry.
"Hey cutie", she whispered in awe, being totally overwhelmed, by how much love she was able to feel. "Don't cry precious", Nathalie spoke to the tiny girl softly again, while she looked for Gabriel, who had gotten to his feet and was walking towards the corner of the cave. The young mother was about to call for him, when he returned with the first aid kit. After putting two clamps, he had luckily found in the cooling box, to lock the plastic bags, onto the umbilical cord to then take the scissors out of the first aid kit and cut it between the clamps.
A/N: The clamps, they use at the hospital aren't much different infact!
He had to swallow hard, when he felt the blades cut through the thick string of veins and arteries. He then put a sterile compress around the leftover piece on the baby's tummy and underneath the remaining clamp.
Only now he shortly knelt down beside his wife and daughter, spreading a blanket over the tiny girl and Nathalie's chest, to then cup the woman's face and kiss her tenderly.
The exhausted but fully awake and agitated woman, smiled at her husband blissfully and raised a hand to his face to wipe away the tears, while she held her still crying daughter with one arm to her chest.
"I love you", she whispered, to be kissed again.
"I love you too, Nathalie", Gabriel hummed.
He watched her grimace in disgust. His sudden concern vanished though, when he followed her gaze and knew what had let her make that face.
With a few last and to Nathalie completely painless contractions, the placenta had been delivered too. The sensation itself was weird and in addition to that, everything that was splattered on the blanket, she was lying on, looked and felt rather disgusting. Nathalie was most embarrassed, when she saw that the books were right and she really had defecated while pushing so hard.
Gabriel quickly got to his feet and grabbed the edges of that blanket, rolling it into another that was underneath and brought them out. He then grabbed a clean one, and placed it in the now bare spot.
Feeling much better, now that she didn't have to see the mess anymore, she focused back on her daughter and did even let Gabriel clean her up and place a folded towel between her thighs to absorb the big amount of postnatal discharge. The man then left her for a third time and returned with a plate of food and a by now almost cold cup of tea.
He held her upper body up carefully, to not hurt her or their baby and placed some cushions in her back, so she could be in an almost sitting position.
Nathalie smiled at him thankfully and gestured him to sit close to her. As he did so, placing a kiss on her dried out lips, she smirked and placed their daughter in his arms.
Tears immediately brimming his eyes again, he stared down at the tiny human, laying a finger into her palm, which she immediately grasped. And despite knowing, that this was just a reflex, it felt wonderful to him.
The new mother watched him happily, while she took a big gulp from the tea. She grimaced.
"You know, I can have a little sugar in it again now that she's born", she teased him, but took another zip, "and by the way, I haven't been nauseous for ages before!"
A squealing voice startled them both as Duusu soared down from the cave ceiling, enthusiastically blurting out:
"Weeeeeeee......loooook at that little lady. Sheeeeeee is sooooooo beautifuuuuuullllll!!!! I arrived juuuuuust iiiiin tiiiime but didn't want to interrupt youuuuuu. Nooroo wil be soooo pissed, that he missed it, but they aren't here yet!"
"Duusu", Nathalie blurted out, making her daughter, who was just calming down, louder again. "Oh no, precious, I didn't want to scare you, I was just so happy, that Duusu is here. Give her to me please, I can't stand to hear her cry and not be able to hold her."
Gabriel placed their child carefully back in his wife's arms with a tender smile.
"Hello Duusu, nice that you are here to be at Nathalie's side. But what did you mean by 'they aren't here yet'?", he asked curiously.
"Nooroo aaaaaand Ladybug aaaaand ChatNoir of course! We could sense your excitement from afar, Mister Gabriel", the tiny bird proclaimed. Then she looked at the baby and Nathalie, squinting shortly at the baby girl who was moving her head around. "She is hungry by the way", Duusu then exclaimed and flew out of the cave.
"I'll go and look for them", she yelled back.
Nathalie gazed at Gabriel with one laughing and one crying eye.
"Do you think, Duusu was right, is she really?"
The young woman was now becoming insecure as she looked down at her newborn.
Gabriel watched the baby for a moment and nodded.
"It looks like it", he confirmed. "Do you want to try feeding her?"
Nathalie nodded hesitantly, looking down at her breasts and her searching daughter.
"Just let me help you", Gabriel now offered, helping her push up her shirt, then opened her bra, pulling both over her head and off her arms. "I'll get you a fresh shirt, just try and relax now, okay. It won't be bothering you like that"
"Well, here we go!", she mumbled and tried to find the best position so her baby could start to drink from her breast. "That's harder than I thought", she started then gasped, when the little girl had eventually found what she was searching for and began to suck.
"Wow, Nathalie whispered to not scare her, "I wouldn't have thought she would suck so strongly. It's amazing and it hurts, but mostly it's the most wonderful thing in the world right now."
"Can we come closer?", a female voice softly questioned from outside.
Nathalie looked towards the entrance and looked at Marinette and Adrien, as well as three floating, small creatures next to them. She nodded vigorously.
"Of course", she said softly, "come and look at her!"
"Uhm, I'll wait here until.....uhm....you're done with...", Adrien stammered sheepishly.
Gabriel gazed at his wife before he spoke, seeing her giving him permission with a tilt of his had. He then walked to his son and laid an arm around him.
"Just come in, there's no need to be flustered over your little sister being fed, Adrien", he said calmly.
"Yeah, Kitty, just don't be soooo shy all the time. This is nothing to feel weird over!", Marinette nudged him aside and made her way to the back of the cave to give the new mother a half hug to not bother the little girl.
"I can't believe, we were too late for the actual birth!", she exclaimed.