Time skip to a week later.

     Adrien's treatment for his cancer has started. He sighs. He wishes he would have shown the marks to Marinette sooner. He feels bad that he lied to her. He saw them sooner than he would admit.  He did not want her to worry since she was already harassed at school.

     He opened his eyes feeling sleepy due to the treatment and his lack of appetite.

      "Adrien, how are you feeling?" Marinette ask. She sets a card on the tray beside his bed. 

      "I have had better days. Who sent the card?" 

     "Nino, Alya, Chole, and the rest of the class signed it," Marinette says.

      "Everyone hopes you get better, Adrien. I especially, hope you recover," She remarks.

        Marinette does not say that the doctor told her how bad the progression of the cancer is or that there is still the off chance that Adrien will not survive.  Despite the bad news, Marinette smiles because she wants to stay strong for Adrien. 

        She gives him a small hug. Adrien hugs her back.

         "You look awful," Marinette blurts out.

         "I am sorry. You look lovely, "Adrien responds.

       Marinette blushes at the compliment. She is glad to see he is happy to see her.

    "Hi, Adrien, I came as soon as I could get away," Nino says as he enters the room. He has a balloon with him.

            "Yes, and he brought me with him," Alya adds.

            "Good to see you, Nino, and Alya," Adrien responds.

                Marinette ties the balloon to the foot of Adrien's hospital bed. She reaches into her bag and hands something to him.

                Adrien grins when he sees the small plush cat. He thought, How did she know?

                   "I bought that at the gift shop for you," Marinette says.

                 "Thanks, Marinette," Adrien says weakly.

                "Thanks for coming, and for the balloon, guys," Adrien says between coughs.

                 "Dude, you better get better, because I have something to tell you," Nino remarks.

                     "What he means is Nino, and I have something to tell you," Alya says.

      *Author's note: What could it be that Alya and Nino want to share with Adrien?

                   Alya starts to cry. "Take care, Adrien," Alya says. She leaves the room.

                   Nino follows after her but waves a quick goodbye to Adrien.  Marinette remains in the room.  She sits back in the chair beside the bed. She sighs.

                   "Marinette, why did they let you in here first?"  Adrien asks.

                     Marinette feels ashamed. 

       She is not sure how to answer without making things awkward between them.

               "Marinette?"

              "I  may have told them we are engaged," Marinette answers. 

           She feels she can't hide it from him any longer. Adrien blushes.

                 "Marinette, I wish it were true," Adrien says after a huge coughing fit.

                     "W-what?" 

                "I wish it were true about our engagement," Adrien whispers.

                  "You won't tell anyone, I lied, will you?" Marinette whispers.

                "No, cough, it will be, our little secret," Adrien replies.

                  Marinette nods her head in relief. She is glad he does not plan to rat out on her. 

            She is also grateful the teacher let her work on school stuff on her laptop. This way she can finish without leaving Adrien alone for too long. She notices Adrien is asleep again. It is probably just as well since he finished another round of chemotherapy today.  She thinks, Me and you both, Adrien. She wishes they were engaged for real.

                   Marinette stands up, kisses his hand, and returns to the chair. She submits another history assignment online, then a science assignment and an English paper. She is glad that yesterday she finished the last math assignment.  This way there is a little less to work on.

                  She looks at Adrien's computer and sees he finished a recent English assignment. She finds the place to submit it and turns it in for him. There she thought, when he wakes up, he won't have to stress about it. 

                    She leaves the room to take a bit of a walk. She returns an hour later and buys some food from the vending machine. She eats it. She is glad that Lila is not allowed to come here.

                      Adrien's father never comes to visit him. Marinette is angry about this, but what can she do?  She sends an email to Nathalie. She goes to the bathroom, checks Adrien's temperature, and gasps. She sends for a nurse.  As the nurse checks for a fever, Marinette nervously sits; doodling in her journal.

                      The nurse smiles, "It appears he had a slight fever at some point, but now it reads 97.6 so the fever has broken, Miss Marinette. Your fiance is in good hands."  With that, she left the room.  Marinette sighed a sigh of relief.

             The doctor enters the room, He tells Marinette the rest of the treatments will consist of chemotherapy 3 times a week for two weeks, then radiation once a week, no treatment for three days, and then the chemotherapy starts back up for the same rotation as before, followed by the radiation, and so on.

                "So, you believe the treatments are working?" Marinette asks.

              "At this point, it is hard to tell, but we intend to stick with them until he recovers, request the treatment stops, or the condition worsens to the point the treatment is no longer necessary," The doctor replies. He removes his gloves, throws them away, washes his hands, and exits the room.

             Marinette sobs. She falls asleep with tear-stained cheeks. In her dreams, she and Adrien are happy with a pet hamster, four children, a dog, and a nice-sized house. They have a van, a car, two scooters, and a truck. The truck is the one their eldest drives.

          The story continues in Chapter 15

         Until then,

     bye-bye,

  little owlets!

   Summer out!