Early the next morning, Tom, Sabine, Marinette and I lugged our half-soaked suitcases down to the hotel lobby to check out, since we were all eager to hurry through Pennsylvania and get to New York. 

Two families were already at the front desk, so we stood in line to wait. A little girl with chesnut brown pigtails and purple overalls was running around the lobby, while pretending that the doll in her hand was a flying superhero. While she was playing, she accidentally tripped and fell. 

I ran towards her and knelt down to help her stand. "Are you okay?" I asked with concern as I checked for bruises. She had fallen pretty hard. 

She nodded silently as tears welled in her eyes. 

"You should be more careful next time," I told her with a smile. "Hotel floors can be slippery. Do you know where you're parents are?"

"Manon!" someone gasped from behind me. "I told you not to run off while your father and I checked into the hotel room."

I turned and saw a pregnant woman with short maroon hair coming towards us. 

Feeling my chest tightening painfully, I rose up from my knee slowly.  

Manon raced to her mother arms and cried. The mother turned to me and smiled gratefully. "Thank you for looking after her, young man. She's been a handful lately."

"No problem," I replied kindly, trying to swallow the sudden lump in my throat as painful memories began to cloud in my mind. 

"Nadja!" waved a copper skinned man who was waving a few feet away from us. "We got the room. Let's go!"

"Alright, Alec," said Nadja, thanking me again as she led Manon away. 

   I watched as their little family disappeared down the hallway towards the elevators. Marinette came and gently placed her hand on my shoulder, causing me to avert my gaze. 

"Are you okay, Adrien?" she asked gently. 

"Yeah," I mumbled. 

"Are you sure?" A worried frown grew on her face. "You looked really upset just now."

"Don't worry, I'm fine," I reassured her. 

But I wasn't feeling fine at all.

I pointed toward the bathroom. "I'm just gonna go splash water on my face real quick..." I said, hurrying through the lobby before Marinette had a chance to reply. 

In the bathroom, I kept scooping water into my hands and splashing onto my face several times, wishing the memories of my mother's pregnancy would stop suffocating me. 

   When Mom first told me she was pregnant, I was fourteen and was completely content with having both of my parents all to myself. 

But that was the first time I have ever seen her so happy. "The thought of you being a big brother absolutely melts my heart, Adrien," she had said dreamily. "And now I can finally see it with my own eyes. You have no idea how overjoyed I am..."

As her belly grew bigger and bigger, I began to look forward to having a new little brother or sister. I went to a few doctor appointments with her and even got to listen to the baby's heartbeat. And sometimes she would put my hand on her stomach to let me feel the baby kicking. 

"It always kicks whenever you're around. I think it's excited to see you," she laughed. 

I started to get excited to see it too.

Most pregnant women are usually stressed or very tired, but my mother was always glowing. 

I still remember when she came home from a doctor's appointment--when she found out the gender of the baby. 

I had just come home from school and was doing my homework on the kitchen table when she came in, bringing along the outside sunshine and spring breeze in with her. 

"Adrien!" She squealed, her eyes filling with tears of pure happiness. "It's a girl!! We're having a girl!!"

I jumped out of my chair in surprise, a huge smile growing on my face. "Are you serious?" 

"Yes! Where is your father?!" she asked breathlessly, looking around the house before groaning, "Why is he never around when I need him?"

"I'm right here," said Dad as he entered the kitchen. "What are you yelling about this time, Emilie?"

Mom immediately burst into tears threw her arms around him the moment she saw him. "We're going to have a daughter, Gabriel," she sobbed. "We're going to have a daughter, and Adrien is going to have a little sister."

   We turned Dad's office into a nursery for the baby, decorating it with soft  pink butterfly curtains, and a fluffy white rug. Dad painted white butterflies on the walls and Mom furnished the room with white baby furniture and filled the tiny dresser drawers with tons of dresses, onesies, and bows. I helped assemble the crib and painted an old brown wooden toy chest a bright rosy pink to match the color scheme of the room before filling it with toys and stuffed animals. 

We were able to finish the nursery, but picking a name for this baby took us months. 

"I think her name should be Gabrielle, or Gabriela," Mom said one night during dinner, a few weeks before the due date. 

"I think that's a little to close to my name, darling," Dad told her, dropping a kiss on her forehead. 

"So?" Mom laughed. "I think it's a beautiful name. And I think she'll look more like you anyway."

"We can call her 'Gabriel Jr.' for short," I joked. 

Dad shook his head, though it was obvious he was amused. "We're not naming her Gabrielle or Gabriela or Gabriel Jr. or anything of the like. I suggest the name, 'Samantha'."

I frowned, and Mom wrinkled her nose in distaste. 

Noticing our reactions, Dad shrugged and took another bite of his food. 

"What do you think her name should be, Adrien?" my mother asked me. 

"Something unique," I replied. "Like Adalyn or Celeste."

"Those are good names," Dad nodded in approval. 

"Ugh, this is so hard!" wailed Mom playfully. "At this point we might as well ask Duusuu what we should name her."

Upon hearing her name being mentioned, my mother's pet bird chirped from where she sat in her cage in the living room.

Mom went into labor only a week before the baby was due. I remembered her waking me up at 5 am -her light blonde hair disheveled and her face flushed as she gently but firmly shook me awake. 

"It's time." she had said. 

   We raced to the hospital. I waited by myself in the waiting room for family members while my father stayed with my mother in the delivery room. Though it was still really early in the morning, my palms were sweating like crazy, and my heart was beating so fast that I immediately thought I would end up having a heart attack. 

Three hours later, Dad came to get me. I expected him to be happy or crying tears of joy. 

Instead, he looked broken. 

"It didn't make it," he whispered.

The moment he said those words, I felt as if I received a slap across my face. I ran to the delivery room before he could tell me to stop. 

My mother was on the bed crying. She saw me come in and tried to smile. 

"Adrien," she tried to say, but her voice immediately broke. 

My own eyes began to fill with tears as a feeling of overwhelming dread and sadness overtook me. I tried to hold them back as I made my way to her bed and wrapped my arms around her while she sobbed. 

"It's gonna be okay," I said, thought I myself was having a hard time believing in those words. But I didn't know what else to say. 

I wish I did.

   I remember waking up to the sound of her crying one night a few days after we lost the baby. 

"I'm so angry at myself, Gabriel," she wept. "I'm so angry. I should be grateful that I've been blessed with such a beautiful son...but I can't help feeling like I lost a part of myself..."

"Don't beat yourself up for it." My father consoled her. "The situation wasn't within our control. We did the best we could. And we have no other choice but to accept what happened."

I don't know if she ever accepted what happened. 

I definitely didn't.

It hurt seeing her deal with this, and I felt like she was the only one suffering while Dad and I went just watching her from the sidelines. I tried to comfort her and cheer her up as best as I could, but I couldn't help wishing I could do more. 

Why did Mom have to go through this? I painfully kept asking myself. She had never done anything to anyone, or done anything wrong. She was the most caring, most intelligent, most beautiful woman I know, and yet she went though so much. 

A string of knocks sounded on the bathroom door and interrupted my train of thoughts.  

Marienette's voice came from the other side of the door a moment later. "Adrien, are you okay in there? We're about to leave."

"I'm coming," I called, splashing water on my face for one last time before drying it with a paper towel and staring into the mirror. 

"No tears," I firmly told myself. 

I refused to let Marinette see me cry. 

(A/N):

Heyloooooooo

Thanks so much for tuning back in! I really hope you enjoyed reading (this was actually the longest chapter I've written in this story ;-P) as much as I've enjoyed writing! 

Be sure to drop a comment, become best friends with that little star up in the corner, and maybe share with a friend if you feel like it ;-)

I loved reading all you guys' comments from the previous chapters...they were hilarious and always motivate me to continue writing. So i guess if you keep commenting theeennnnn maybe you'll get more chapters oftennn????

Mmm we'll see lol. 

I have been really busy lately with college, work, and anime (of course), so I'm  glad I was able to squeeze in this chapter. I'm also going to be working on Torn and Conflicted real soon, so be on the look out for that!

Also stay tuned for my Gabriel x Emilie oneshots book ;-)

That's all for now. Thanks again for reading, and as always, hope to see you in the next chapter!

Until then, STAY MIRACULOUSSSS!!!!!! <3<3<3