Marinette and Adrien had in the meantime returned to the bakery to tell Tom and Sabine the news. When they entered the apartment above the shop, the baker and his wife looked up at them.
"You come back late. Where have you been anyway? I thought you wanted to stay in and see Adrien only in the evening. What's going on?", Tom interrogated his daughter.
"May I explain, Sir?", came from Adrien before Marinette could even open her mouth.
The big man nodded, anger still showing on his face.
Now the young model turned towards his girlfriend.
"Would you mind, showing them the pictures? It will make it much easier to explain!" While the teenage girl showed her parents the first photographs of the newborn Hélène, Adrien continued speaking:
"Well, I guess those pictures already say the most important, but let me add please, that my little sister was born in the forest, because they were stuck there, and had no phone signal. It was just a lucky coincidence, that we followed a gut feeling after not being able to reach either one of them and could get them back home before something worse could happen. That's why Marinette wasn't home and why we both are late!"
He stood in front of Tom Dupain, not smaller than him, as he was back then, when he had been akumatized into 'weredad', but though only half of the baker's weight, he was half a head taller by now.
Tom stared back at him, then saw the picture and immediately began to smile.
"Come here, Lad!", he blurted out and hugged the young model. "Congratulations to the beautiful, little sister!"
"Thank you Mr. Du..."
"It's Tom, lad, I told you before!"
"No, you haven't, dad!"
The baker scratched his head.
"Haven't I? Well now I have so please, call me Tom!"
"Alright, T-Tom. Thank y-you", Adrien stammered nervously.
Now Sabine came to hug the boy.
"Congratulations from me too. And now tell me, what's her size and weight?"
Adrien stared at Marinette in shock.
"I-I-I d-d-don't k-know", he admitted sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck.
His girlfriend giggled.
"Well, lucky for you, that I know. Nathalie send me a message, after the doctors left. She is 52 cm (20,5') long and weighs 3,1 kg (6 lbs 14 oz)!", she informed the other three.
Sabine slapped her hands to her mouth, then uttered enthusiastically:
"Oh my, that's a very skinny little girl. Hopefully she'll gain a bit of weight soon!"
"I'm sure she will", Marinette laughed. "You should have seen her drink!"
Now all four laughed together, until Tom said:
"Well, to celebrate the little miracle I say, we need some Champagner to raise our glasses to honor the little girl's birth."
"Now that you mention it, dad, it's the best idea you could have, as she was conceived and born in the Champagne!"
"Well, I'll go and get us a bottle from the cellar then!"
Marinette and Sabine looked at each other with a smirk. Tom's 'wine cellar' was only a small one, but he was very proud of it. Twice a year, he took a whole day off, to just tend to his bottles, dusting and wiping, rolling them, checking the temperatures in several places, to see if he needed to adjust the air condition.
"Why don't you go with him, Adrien? I am sure, he loves the company!", Marinette suggested.
Though he gave her a bewildered look, he followed the now blissfully beaming man down the wooden stairs.
The two Dupain-Cheng women started to giggle as soon as they were out of hearing range.
"The poor boy. Now he has to listen to all the things, he usually tells us", Sabine snickered.
"Yeah, I know, but for once, he won't tell 'us'!", her daughter replied.
"Well, how are Nathalie and the baby doing? Are they ok? Everything went the way it should?"
The teenage girl looked at her mother with sparkling eyes and nodded.
"Yeah, they are both healthy and, I don't know about the baby, but Nathalie is very happy. So is Gabriel!"
"What's her name?", Sabine was curious
"Hélène Emilie!"
"That's a beautiful name. It's after her and Adrien's mothers, right?"
Marinette nodded. Than she exclaimed:
"Oh mum, she is so cute. I held her in my arms and she has Nath's hair and the most beautiful blue eyes, you've ever seen. I can't wait to have one of my own!"
"Oh yes you can!" Tom's loud voice made them flinch. Adrien looked scared, as the strong man placed his arm on his shoulders. "Wouldn't you agree, 'son', that you are both much too young to even 'do' things that could lead to a baby?"
Adrien nodded quietly, not daring to look into his eyes, so he kept his gaze on the floor.
"Oh dad, I know that too. It's just a phrase. "
Sabine came to her rescue:
"And I am sure, that Gabriel and Nathalie will be very glad, if you two are going to watch their child every now and then, because......well....they are still....newlyweds and....you know, they might want to spend some alone time....to...."
"We get it, mum. And we aren't children anymore. You can speak about things like sex, without feeling bad or flustered."
"Maybe you think, you're old enough, but I can tell you, that you are not. At your age, I wasn't even considering to get as close as you were when I caught you. So you better wait until I say you're ready!", Tom bellowed all of a sudden.
The teenagers gazed at each other with dark red faces. Then at Tom, then Marinette looked at Sabine, her eyes pleading for help.
"Why don't we just get back to the celebrating, Tom?", and with a muffled voice she told him, "I remember when we were their age my darling and I also remember us doing what you just tried to tell your daughter, she was to young for!"
Now Tom blushed and began to stutter:
"B-b-but that's t-totally d-d-different. W-we w-were re-re-responsible at that age a-a-and we knew, w-w-what we w-were d-d-doing!"
Sabine scoffed while she shoved him into the living room. With a scarlet red head, her husband now poured each of them a glass of the expensive beverage.
"Here's to the beautiful....what's her name?"
"Hélène Emilie!", Adrien proclaimed.
"Here's to the beautiful Hélène Emilie Agreste!"
And then they clinked their glasses to take a sip of the bitter sweet drink. The teenagers, not used to the taste, grimaced, while the adults seemed to enjoy it a lot.
"Why can't people do that with juice or at least a delicious wine?", Marinette lamented.
Tom laid a hand on his chest in utter shock.
"Marinette! You are French. How can you say something like that about our most known and most popular and expensive beverage. It's known everywhere in the world!"
"Yeah", she scoffed. "And some countries are even that clever, that they call every kind of sparkling wine, champagne! That's not how it's done!" She impersonated Rolland Dupain with her last sentence, making them all laugh out soundly.
After celebrating some time and describing all the beautiful features again and again, the teenagers decided to go to sleep.
"Remember to keep the hatch open", Tom yelled after them.
"Really dad? You didn't bother for the last six months or so. So will you please relax!"
"Fine. But don't forget, I can hear you from everywhere in the house!"
Sabine's voice was heard again:
"Will you stop that now? It's about time for you, to go to bed as well. And once you are asleep, you don't hear anything anymore! So just leave them be. Just because you screwed up big time, when you tried to talk with your daughter about things like contraception, you can't just tell her, to not do it at all. And now, go! Before you fall asleep on the sofa and I have to wake you up a thousand times again, to get you into bed!", she ranted.
The teenagers giggled as they locked the hatch.
Then Adrien suddenly got quiet and gave her an odd look.
"What...", but she couldn't continue, as he had started to kiss her passionately, while he nudged her towards the chaise longue.
"Adrien, I..."
"Shush. I just need to kiss you right now."
He laid her down on her back and crawled on top of her, kissing her again. With his hands he already fumbled with her shirt, trying to get it off of her. But Marinette felt that something was wrong, so she stopped him again.
"Hey, not that I'm complaining, but...just tell me, what's bothering you!"
He stared at her with a sheepish smile.
"Well, one thing is, I would like to make love to you as much as I can, before your dad really keeps us apart. And the second thing...well.... you kinda....scared me...and made me happy at once...and I am just....a little....I don't know....but the more I think about it....I...", he reluctantly spat out.
"About what are you thinking, Kitty? You haven't told me yet! What did I scare you with? Oh no.....you both heard me say...I can't wait....but as I told my dad, it's just a phrase. Y-y-you c-c-cannot take that serious, Minou! And why would it make you happy? I-I-I mean, we're far too young.....and we...really need to finish school....and...Adrien, say something!", her voice was high pitched and loud now.
The young man pressed his lips to hers. Then he pulled back to explain.
"You were waking the whole neighbourhood, M'lady!"
He sat down and pulled her into his lap.
"I know, that we are young, too young probably, but it still made me happy, that you even consider the possibility of having children with me someday. You were thinking about me as father, right?"
They were both dark red now, when Marinette simply nodded and whispered: "Of course I was. I have chosen our children's names, when I was thirteen. Oh no...I-i...didn't....you weren't supposed to hear that..."
He cupped her face giggling.
"Look at me. There is no need to be embarrassed by that. I love you Marinette. And I love that you were already thinking about that back then. But for now, as we are on the safe side, after you had this injection, may I take that off of you?"
He tugged on the hem of her shirt.
Marinette nodded with a playful grin.
When the crying of her daughter woke Nathalie up in the middle of the night, she thought at first, she was dreaming. Then she remembered the events of the previous day and opened her eyes, to see Gabriel pace through the bedroom, their daughter on his shoulder while he was tenderly patting her back.
The moment he noticed his wife awake, he beamed at her and slowly walked towards the bed.
"See, I told you, that your mum would wake up, if you kept crying. We should've both let her sleep some more. Yeah, I know. You're hungry and I can't help you with that", Gabriel spoke very softly with his youngest child.
Nathalie smiled at him, as he was eventually at her side. She yawned.
"Why didn't you just wake me up? Now I feel guilty, that you didn't get enough sleep tonight! Come here, precious. Ouch. If she keeps sucking like that, she's going to turn into a vampire soon. My....well...my areolas are already so sore, I feel they're about to start bleeding the moment I simply look at them."
She looked past him, feeling a little ashamed to talk about that. She was also noticing, that she felt way less flustered than she had a couple of months ago or even yesterday, before he had seen her giving birth to their child.
"May I have a look?"
She nodded barely noticeable. Gabriel pulled the duvet a little back, so he could see, what Nathalie was talking about. Now he was staring at her red and bruised nipple and out of instinct bent down and placed a soft kiss on top of it. Then he quickly pulled his head back.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you even more. I just...", he tried to explain apologetically.
But the young mother shook her head vigorously.
"No, it's fine, it actually felt nice, just because I know you did this to make the pain go away." She took his hand into her own.
"I still can't believe, that I am a mum now! It feels so amazing, to hold this little girl, knowing, she has grown inside of me. And after such a short time, she was all ready and perfect. It's still an overwhelming feeling!". she enthused quietly.
Gabriel smiled. He sat down and cupped her cheek, then kissed her tenderly.
"You did a very good job, my love. She is just as perfect as you! But now, try to get some more sleep, I will take care of everything else, because I don't want you to get up already. You still look pale and exhausted and I will not take any risk, when it comes to your health. Never again, my love."
"Not before she is finished with drinking. Remember what they told us in the class? To always let her drink on both sides in the beginning? Well, at the moment I dread that, but...I know, I'll have to, so..."
Gabriel kissed the back of her hand. Then he placed himself next to her and laid an arm around Nathalie's shoulders.
"I know, I can't do much, but maybe I can make it easier to bear the pain by holding you?"
"Mh, you certainly can!"
She turned her head to kiss him, then looked back at their child. She still couldn't understand, how one person could feel so much love at a time.