Ladybug scooped up the unconscious cat kwami from where he lay on the ground and shoved him into her pocket. She could take him to that weird vet dude later. Right now she had to stop Adrien from dying.

"What do we do?" Ladybug was shaking so badly she could barely hold the stretcher. Tears were streaming down her face as she sobbed. She and Alya made their way through the rubble, determined to get Adrien away from the scene, lest the cops put two and two together and figure out that he is Chat Noir.

"We need to get him away from the media. My house is a few blocks away, and my parents and siblings are all asleep. We have a suture kit and a lot of first aid stuff!" Alya offered. Ladybug nodded.

"Lead the way," she sniffed. They walked as fast as they could, not wanting to jog so they wouldn't jostle Adrien too much. They arrived at Alya's house in under eight minutes. Alya fumbled, trying to put the key in the lock upside down. She righted it and unlocked the door. Both girls were panicking. Adrien Agreste's life was now in their hands, and their hands alone. If he died, it would be their fault. And neither one of them, for separate reasons, could bare to lose him.

"Up here!" Alya instructed, putting her finger to her lips to signal that they had to be quiet. Ladybug shifted her grip on the stretcher as the girls charged upstairs, turning left into Alya's room. "Get him on my bed, I'll get the supplies!"

Ladybug slid her arms around Adrien, lifting him bridal style and laying him gently on the bed. His face was as white as paper. She checked his pulse again. She could barely find it at first, and it was so faint she wasn't quite sure if it was actually there, or she was just hoping it was. But his chest was barely rising and lowering, so she knew it was there.

"Here we go," Alya dumped an armload of stuff on the floor. Ladybug nodded and turned to Adrien. His blood was staining Alya's sheets. She hesitantly lifted his shirt and immediately blanched, letting the blood soaked fabric flutter back down.

"Do we need to cauterize it?" Ladybug asked in a shaky voice. If Alya was surprised or disappointed by the lack of bravery and knowledge on Ladybug's part, she didn't show it.

"That won't do much good at this point. We need to clean it off as best we can, and then stitch it shut and wrap it tightly," Alya instructed.

"Do you know how to stitch?" Ladybug asked, using a towel to wipe away a lot of the excess blood around Adrien's stomach.

"No. But my best friend is really handy with a needle. She doesn't live too far and she can keep a secret. I can call her-"

"NO!" Ladybug blurted out, startling Alya, who hissed and put a finger to her lips, nodding towards the closed door. "I mean, no, I can do it." She offered a weak smile. Alya shrugged and handed her the needle and thread she had just prepared. Then the red head took the towel from Ladybug's hand, picked up some disinfectant, and went to work on Adrien's stomach wound, trying not to gag from the sickening stench of blood.

Ladybug took in a deep breath, trying to calm her shaking hands. She could do this. She'd sewn a million shirts, skirts, dresses, etc. This couldn't be too different, could it? "Yes, it could. This is a person. This is my partner! And my school cru-" She cut herself off from thinking about it.

"Okay, it's as clean and blood free as it's gonna get!" Alya said, clearly grimacing. Ladybug nodded and bent over Adrien's exposed stomach. Her hands were still shaking.

"Just shove the needle in, loop it around, pull it out. Next stitch." She closed her eyes, steadied herself, and plunged the needle into his skin.

The blood continuously coming out didn't help, along with Alya peering over her shoulder, offering her advice, or telling her to get the stitches closer together. Eventually, the young reporter started working on the gash on Adrien's leg, cleaning it and disinfecting it.

"Done." Ladybug slumped down against the bed. The stitches on Adrien's stomach were not in a straight line, but it was the best an amateur could do on such short term notice. And it would hold.

Alya and Ladybug switched places, Alya cleaned up around the stitch job and began tightly winding gauze around Adrien's stomach, while Ladybug began stitching up his leg. When she was about halfway through, her earrings let out a high pitched 'Beep, beep, beep!'

Ladybug and Alya immediately looked at each other. Ladybug sighed. Tikki had held out extra long, but she couldn't do it anymore.

"Your earrings," Alya whispered.

"I know," Ladybug said simply, continuing to stitch Adrien as fast as she could.

"But your secret identity..."

"Alya, you already know his identity. You could do enough damage to the media and us if you released that information. It doesn't really matter if you know mine too. Besides, Alya, I trust you. I just don't want you to hate me for this."

"Hate you for what?" Alya asked, shocked. "Ladybug, I could never hate you!"

"I'm not so sure..." Ladybug mumbled, finishing another stitch.

"What do you mean?" Alya asked.

"In two minutes, you'll find out for yourself," Ladybug sighed. Beep! Beep! Beep!

Ladybug had just completed the last stitch and wiped the blood off of her hands when her transformation let out. A flash of pink filled the room. Tikki flew down to where Ladybug had set Plagg on Alya's dresser, nudging him.

Alya watched as Ladybug's red suit disappeared, turning into...pink pants. Alya's eyes headed upwards. White shirt, black jacket. It couldn't be! Finally, she lifted her head all the way and stared at the face of her best friend. "Marinette?"

"I'm sorry, Alya," Marinette sniffed. "I-I couldn't tell you..."

"Mari, it's okay," Alya promised. She felt a little bit of anger that her friend had been hiding this from her, listening to her fangirl and rant and all the time she had been Ladybug! "But you just wanted to stop something like this from happening!" Alya gestured to Adrien.

"But it happened anyway!" Marinette sobbed. "And I blamed Chat when Adrien disappeared! I hated him for it! And it was him all along!" Marinette finally let herself break, hugging Alya for all she was worth and crying her heart out. Alya stroked her best friend's hair.

"I know, Mari, I know," Alya cooed. "But let's finish getting him cleaned up, okay? That wrist looks bad." Mari nodded, wiping her tears on her sleeve and then taking out a tissue and blowing her nose.

The girls went to work in silence. Alya wrapped Adrien's wrist and splinted it. Then she put ice on it. Marinette started to put bandages on Adrien's smaller scratches, especially the one on his face. That would leave a scar that would stay there forever. Both girls' minds were racing.

"Omigosh, Marinette was Ladybug. My best friend was the superhero I've been chasing for two years now! How did I not see it before? Same hair, same eyes, same height. She always made up some dumb excuse for her absence when akumas attacked. And all of those times she was late for school! Oh, I am so stupid!

"And Adrien is Chat Noir! Oh gosh, that also makes so much sense! It was so obvious! Why, oh why did I never see it? And Chat has a crush on Ladybug, who is Marinette, who has a crush on Adrien, who is Chat Noir! This would be perfect! But...only if Adrien forgives Marinette. And if Marinette forgives herself. And if Adrien pulls through this..." Alya sighed as she glanced back down at the blonde haired boy. He had lost so much blood!

Meanwhile, Marinette's mind was in a much worse place than Alya's. "Chat Noir was Adrien all along! I blamed Chat for Adrien's disappearance. I hated him for it! I swore we would never see him again! I swore I would never forgive him!

"But it was him all along. That cheerful, pun loving kitty was Adrien Agreste the whole time! How could I have ever doubted Chat? He was always the better of the two of us. He braved through everything while all I did was complain and give up. I'm such a despicable person. He doesn't deserve me!"

"Mari, he lost too much blood. We need to get him some more!" Alya instructed. Marinette snapped out of her thoughts, guilt still pounding through her, closing in from all sides.

"But we don't know his blood type!" Suddenly, Alya's cell phone started ringing. She hastily tried to silence it before someone woke up. She answered it, confused as to why someone was calling her at this time.

"Hello?" a gruff voice said on the other side.

"Who are you?" Alya asked.

"A friend. I just want to know if Adrien is okay."

"What? What does Adrien have to do with me? How would I know if he's okay? Didn't he go missing several days ago?" Alya laughed nervously.

"I know Adrien is Chat Noir, and I saw you leaving the scene with Ladybug. Please, if there is anything I can offer you, I will do it," the mysterious man said.

"Um, no thanks. Unless you just happen to know his blood type," Alya answered sarcastically.

"Type B." And then the man hung up. Alya stood there, shocked.

"Well, that solves that problem. He's Type B," Alya informed her, ignoring Marinette's questions about who that was and how he knew.

"Well, where do we get it from?"

"Um, the hospital!" Alya immediately responded.

"We can't just go there and say, 'Hey, Chat Noir is hurt and I need a blood transfusion, but I can't let you help me even if I do look like an unqualified teenage girl, which I am, because you can't know Chat's secret identity but I know his secret identity because I'm Ladybug'!" Marinette protested.

"But I'm sure they wouldn't turn down a superhero if she asked!" Tikki suggested, speaking for the first time.

"Holy crap what is that?" Alya screeched, jumping backwards. It was Marinette's turn to shush Alya. It was a miracle no one in her family had woken up yet. It was probably around 5:00am.

"Alya, this is Tikki. She's a kwami, and she's the one that transforms me into Ladybug through my earrings," Marinette explained. Alya looked a little creeped out, but shrugged and nodded.

"Tikki. Kwami. Got it. And she's right, you should go as Ladybug and ask the hospital for a blood transfusion!" Alya said. Marinette nodded.

"But first, do you have any cookies?"

"Cookies? You want to eat cookies at a time like this?"

############################################################################################################################################################

By the time Tikki had recharged, Marinette had transformed (which made Alya squeal in excitement quietly), Ladybug had gone to the hospital, the hospital staff had surprisingly asked no questions and gave her what she needed, and she got back the sun had started to peek above the horizon.

Ladybug vaulted back through the window, detransforming. Tikki flew over to Plagg, who was still unconscious. Marinette noticed that while she was gone, Alya had moved Adrien, changed the sheets, and then put him back on the bed and wrapped him in a blanket.

"Here we go," she set an IV drip and a blood drip IV. Alya immediately read through the instructions that a nurse had scribbled down and then set up the needles accordingly in Adrien's muscles.

"That's all we can do for now. They give you any trouble?" Alya asked. Marinette shook her head.

"They were surprisingly okay with it," she answered.

"Of course they were, you're Ladybug!" Alya answered cheerfully. She watched as Marinette's face fell, frowning deeply.

"Hey Alya," she started, sitting down on the bed and absentmindedly stroking Adrien's hair. "How would you like to be Ladybug from now on?"

"WHAT?" Alya practically yelled, before clapping her hands over her mouth. The girls nervously looked towards the door, waiting for Alya's parents to burst through it. Nothing. "I meant 'what!'," Alya finished, whispering the 'what'. "You can't just give up because your partner got hurt!"

"But it was my fault, Alya," Marinette whisper-argued. "I was the one who blew up at him earlier! If we hadn't had that fight, we never would have separated! And I was the one who was so stupid and blinded by hate because I was selfish, that I blamed Chat Noir, who is so honest, helpful, and innocent, for Adrien's disappearance! And he had to pay the price for it!"

"But Marinette, all of the evidence pointed to Chat Noir! You had no way of knowing that he was Adrien! Even I thought it was Chat!"

"But if I hadn't been so insistent on keeping our identities a secret, if I hadn't trusted him a little, then none of this would have happened!" Marinette started to sniffle, letting a few tears run down her face. She looked at Adrien, fingers still running through his blonde hair.

"Marinette, you kept it a secret so that this wouldn't happen! To keep both of your friends and families safe," Alya argued back.

"BUT IT HAPPENED ANYWAY!" Marinette hissed. "I'm not cut out to be a superhero. I never was! Chat was the only thing that convinced me to keep the Miraculous! Did you know that when I first received my earrings, I slid them into your bag at school?" Alya's eyes widened. "Chat encouraged me not to give up, so I took them back! But they were probably meant for you all along, Alya. You deserve them, not me!"

Alya opened her mouth to retort, but a noise snapped them out of their argument. They leapt to their feet and spun around, staring at the bed they had just been sitting on.

"M'lady..."