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Most people don’t like hospitals. Alya was actually somewhat indifferent to them; Nora spent quite a bit of time in them when she was young because she was always getting injured one way or another. Alya occasionally had to come along to see a cast removed or a checkup after a concussion.
Still, as she walked through the halls, she couldn’t help but feel a chill on the base of neck.
Room 532, Marinette had texted her. Go directly to the room, not to someone at the front desk.
Alya kept her pace up and her face down. When she arrived at the door, she was met with two police officers. The door between them was closed.
“Ma’am, this room is off limits,” one of them said. “Please step away.”
“I’m Alya Césaire,” she said confidently, even if she was shaken. “The Ladyblogger and personal friend of Adrien Agreste.”
“I’m sorry, but this room is only available to a few people, and you aren’t —”
The door opened — Ladybug came through.
“She’s a personal guest,” Ladybug said to the police officer. “Unless you want me to call Adrien and disrupt him just for his permission?”
Suddenly, the officer’s eyes went forward and he nodded, standing pin-straight. “Of course, Ladybug. Sorry, Miss Césaire.”
Alya held her head high as she walked through the door into the room.
Once she got there...
Well, she only made it a few steps, even once Ladybug went and sat back down in the chair next to the bed. They both stayed silent.
Across the room, Emilie almost seemed like a normal patient, sleeping quietly between treatments. Her hands were at her sides, above the blanket; an IV was hooked up to one of them.
“We shouldn’t be here,” Marinette said quietly enough that Alya almost didn’t catch it. She moved up, tentatively to the other side of Emilie, sitting on a chair opposite from Marinette. “I mean, legally speaking, I don’t actually have the authority to let you in. Adrien’s the only one with the ability. I’m allowed in because the police recognize me as an authority over this legal matter and the doctors recognize me as an authority over the medical-slash-magical side of it, but also because Adrien let me come in. You really shouldn’t be.”
Alya examined Emilie closer up. Her skin was starting to wrinkle, but that made sense for someone in her late forties; she was thin, maybe even more than usual, but she didn’t look unhealthy; in fact, even close up, she looked staggeringly normal.
The only thing to notice, in fact, was her hair. Yes, it was golden, exactly like Adrien’s, but it was drier and thinner and... And the roots were gray.
Not in a “the roots are graying” sort of way, but in the way that her whole head of hair was gray, except someone had taken the time and care to dye it. Alya wondered if that was Gabriel or Nathalie; she wondered if they did it out of love or vanity.
She wondered if Emilie would have wanted that.
“But really, we shouldn’t be here at all, because Adrien isn’t here, and I don’t think he’d want me here.”
Alya finally looked up at Marinette — Ladybug. (Same difference.) “Why are we here, then?” she asked.
She shook her head. “I know that she’s done despicable things. At best, child abuse. At worst, she’s the one behind everything that Hawk Moth did, plus who knows what else. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive her for any of it. But last night, I laid awake thinking about...
“Whatever Adrien decides to do from here, someone will think it’s despicable. Murder, or injustice, or both, they’ll call it. I don’t know what I would think about it if I didn’t love him so damn much. And if he was the one lying in this bed and I wasn’t there with him, I’d still want someone to be sitting at his bedside, reading to him. Despite every despicable thing he’ll do, I want to know he’s cared for. And after realizing that, I realized... I can’t leave her here alone. Not like this.”
Tears were leaking down her face. Alya noticed a book sitting face-down on the nightstand.
“You know it’s not the same, girl,” she said. “Adrien was forced into this situation. Emilie made her own decisions.”
“I know,” Marinette answered quickly, reaching up and wiping her eyes. “But still. There’s so much we don’t know, and I... I can’t leave her here alone. Which is why I shouldn’t be here, because Adrien doesn’t know and he wouldn’t want me here and... Don’t tell him, okay?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
They stayed silent for a moment more and Alya considered how different they truly were. She had no idea what she’d be doing in Marinette’s shoes, but never in a million years would she sit at Emilie’s bedside reading to her after all she had done. And if she were viewing this from an outside perspective, maybe she’d think of what Marinette is doing as bad, even evil.
The thought experiment would be fruitless in the end, but she couldn’t help herself.
“This isn’t why I told you to come here. I — I’m sorry for dumping all of that on you, you don’t deserve that.”
Alya raised her eyebrows and stared down her friend until she made eye contact back. “Don’t ever be sorry for telling me how you feel. I am perfectly capable of telling you when I can’t handle it, and you clearly needed someone to talk to.”
Marinette’s lips quirked up but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Now, what did you need?”
She sighed and unhooked her yoyo off her waist, opening it up to the void within and pulling something out — the Fox Miraculous. She set it on her thigh and reached in again, getting out something different this time — a pair of sunglasses.
“I have to ask you for something.”
“Anything.”
“Right now, we don’t know all that much about what killed Gabriel. His remains only told us the cause of death — a huge wound across his entire chest, caused by something sharp and powerful — and everything we know about the circumstances comes from unreliable sources. The only thing we can actually trust about it is that it happened somewhere in Tibet at about the time when Adrien was a baby.”
She began to reach over the bed with both Miraculous in her hands.
“I need to stay here, because like I said, Adrien would not want us to be here. He doesn’t know what I’m asking you to do, and you have to promise not to tell him, okay?”
Alya grabbed the Miraculous. “Of course.”
“Those glasses are the Horse Miraculous. I need you to use them to go to Tibet and investigate what happened. It’s a huge area, so you may not find anything, but start at the Temple of the Guardians — Kaalki will help you get there. Ask for Su Han and tell him I sent you. He won’t like it, but he’ll give you resources to find out what happened. The temple was gone when this happened, so they probably won’t know either, but they can help you. I’m giving you the Fox Miraculous too in case you need it, but don’t use both of them at once — yes, I know that I do it, but it’s dangerous. You don’t need to call me a hypocrite, Adrien has done that plenty.”
Alya nodded. “Of course. Anything to help.”
“You’re the only person I trust to do this, and you’re the only person who would be able to figure it out.”
She nodded and turned back to Emilie. Eventually, she would put the Miraculous on — but for now, she wanted quiet.
“What are you trying to find out?” Alya asked.
Marinette shook her head. “Honestly? I want to find out that Emilie is exactly as good as Adrien remembers her as. I want this to be easy for him, because if it’s not, we’ll be living with it for the rest of our lives. It will haunt us both like a ghost. I want it to make sense in a way that it never will if Emilie is truly as bad as it seems she is.”
Alya’s eyebrows knitted together. “You know I love you, and I’d do anything for you, but... Right now, we know almost nothing about what happened. Don’t get your hopes up for finding out the truth any time soon.”
Marinette squeezed her eyes tight. “I know,” she said. “But if I didn’t try, I’d be left to wonder forever, and that sounds like absolute torture.”
“Whatever happens, I’m right here with you, okay?” Alya reached her hand across the bed and Marinette grabbed it. “I love you.”
She smiled weakly. “Love you too.”