Emilie Alone - rcrose4 - Miraculous Ladybug [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

“Are you sure you have everything?” Emilie asked her son, “You don’t want to forget anything.”

“Mom it’s fine,” Adrien answered, “You checked my bag three times already. It’s only one night. You were much worse with Nat.”

“I know. Nathalie is in the UK for four more days promoting her business and you’re going to your first sleepover. I wish you had your first sleepover when you were a kid.”

“That wasn’t your fault. Gabriel screwed everything up for us so you can thank him for that.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s okay now. Go have fun with your friends. Don’t let me hold you up any longer.”

”Thanks. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Adrien closed the door and Emilie was all alone. She hasn’t spent a night by herself since the night she almost died. She wasn’t sure how the events would play out. She’s spent a year and a half recovering physically and mentally from the scars Gabriel inflicted on her and the family She’s healed physically for the most part. She has marks on her arms that will remain a constant reminder of what Gabriel did to her and her family which is why it’s taken so long to recover mentally.

Emilie walked into the kitchen and finished doing the dishes. She then made her way to the living room to watch an episode of a show before going to bed, but the plot for the episode was so slow she ended up drifting to sleep.

When Emilie woke up she wasn’t in the living room. Well she was but it was the living room in the mansion. Both Nathalie and Adrien were looking at her in a confusing way.

“Nat, is mom gonna be okay?” Adrien asked

“You mom took quite a fall. I’m gonna take a look at her. You wanna know what would make her feel better?”

”What?”

“Why don’t you go into the kitchen and ask the chefs if they have any leftover croissants and fruit from breakfast.”

“Okay.”

Even though it was late in the night, Nathalie was sure they’d be leftovers. Adrien ran off to the kitchen leaving Emilie with Nathalie.

“What the hell?” Nathalie asked, “What did he do to you?”

”I don’t know. One minute I was training with the miraculous and the next minute I’m on the floor. He didn’t even help me get up. He just stepped over me and walked out of the office.”

Nathalie glanced at Emilie's wrist and saw a red mark. When she turned it over Nathalie saw a footprint.”

“Em, he stepped on top of you to get out.” Nathalie said, “This is getting out of hand. We need to—“

“You need to what?”

“Gabriel!” Nathalie jumped, “I was um… I…”

“Enough. Leave us.”

Nathalie scurried her way out of the room but kept an ear on the door to listen in

“Emilie,” Gabriel asked, “Are you ready to continue?”

”Continue? Gabriel I can’t move. The miraculous paralyzed me. I’m ill. If we keep going down this path I’ll die. Please… just… Let it go.”

“No.”

Gabriel grabbed Emilie wrist where the red mark was and started cutting the circulation out of her hand, dragging her along. When Emilie stood up she fell to the ground.

”Pathetic,” Gabriel grunted. Emilie’s hand started turning color. “You’re so pathetic.”

Emilie jumped awake after that. Usually after a dream like this she would find comfort in Nathalie but she wasn’t home. She wasn’t even in the same country. Emilie’s breathing started to grow shallower and shallower.

She stood up looking at the hand Gabriel cut the circulation out of and she screamed with anger. Without Nathalie around Emilie started pacing back and forth through the apartment while her shallow breathing continued. Sh tried to remember all of her healthy coping strategies her therapist talked to her about. Nathalie would stop Emilie if she was about to succumb to an unhealthy habit, but she’s not here. The only thing Emili could think about doing was calling Nathalie.

“Call Nathalie,” Emilie instructed her Alliance ring.

”Calling Nathalie.” The AI woman answered.

The phone rang and Nathalie answered right away.

“Nat!” Emilie gasped through anger and tears. “Nat I’m sorry for calling you. I had a dream. It was when I was paralyzed and I wanted to call you before doing something I wouldn’t like and—”

“It’s okay. You’re okay. You showed strength just by calling me. It was just a dream. You’re safe okay. Take some deep breaths with me.”

Emilie breathed in and out slowly with Nathalie’s instruction. Once her breathing returned to normal Nathalie spoke again.

“Do you feel better?”

“I do.”

“Good. I want you to call your therapist tomorrow morning and tell her about this. Maybe she can schedule you for an emergency appointment.”

“Perhaps,” Emilie said, “I definitely should.”

“Alright. Are you going to be okay now?”

“Yeah I’ll be fine. I love you, Nat.”

“I love you too, Em.”

Emilie hung up and decided to actually change into her pajamas and sleep in her bed. I took her a while to fall back asleep but eventually find herself falling back asleep.

“Mom?” Adrien asked. Emilie was back in the living room of the mansion sitting on the floor, “Mom, are you okay?”

“Darling I’m fine. I just fell.’’

Emilie started to stand up but fell back down after getting her knees an inch in the air.

“Yeah… Maybe I’m not okay. Can you get Nathalie?”

“Yeah I got it.”

Adrien returned with Nathalie two minutes later and the two of them got Emilie back into the chair.

“Looks like I’m done with walking?” Emilie laughed trying to make the air around them less dense for Adrien.”

“Is this part of the sickness?” Adrien asked

“I’m afraid so,” Nathalie answered, “But your mom is strong. She can get through this. I’ll have a wheelchair here within two days.”

“Thanks, Nathalie. You’re amazing.”

Emilie woke up again and it was about 7 am. After deciding that she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again she decided to start her day. She walked downstairs to the apartment’s gym and did a small workout. By the time she came back upstairs it was 9:00 am. She called her therapist and scheduled an emergency appointment. Adrien won’t be back until later tonight so she had the whole day to prioritize self care. Something she really needed today.

When Adrien came back later that night, he checked in on his mom before dropping his bag in his room.

“How was your night by yourself?” Adrien asked his mom

“It was… not great. I had another nightmare and called Nathalie. I went to an emergency therapy appointment and talked about it. Today has just been me prioritizing self care and it was great.”

“That’s great. Well maybe not the nightmare but at least you got help. Now that I’m older I’m starting to understand how much Gabriel hurt you. I remember when Gabiel left you on the floor to suffer after you became paralyzed. It was really scary but your top priority was making sure that I wasn’t scared. You played it off as a joke when in reality it was really serious. He hurt you. He hurt me. And he deserves what he got.”

“You really are grown up. Aren’t you?”

”I am sixteen.”

“Okay. No more sad talk. Go unpack. I wanna hear about your sleepover.”

So with that Adrien unpacked his bag and joined Emilie on the couch with some tea and they talked well into the night. Emilie eventually fell asleep while watching a movie so Adrien laid a blanket on top of her and turned off the TV and light.

“Have some good dreams tonight,” Adrien whispered before going to sleep on his own.