Marinette froze, the overwhelming feeling of being caught red-handed flooded through her entire being as her stomach twisted in knots. Although she had only frozen for the briefest of moments, to her it felt like an eternity.

She had been caught with Chat's baby, and by Adrien of all people!

What would he think? Would he find out she was Ladybug?

Her nervousness however was short lived as common sense took over her frantic mind, suddenly giving her the urge to slap herself for being so absurd. In fact, she almost did slap herself, raising her hand halfway to her head before quickly lowering it as she caught sight of Adrien's confused face.

Of course he didn't know she had Chat's Emma. There was no way Adrien would know what Chat's baby looked like, much less that her name was Emma or that she was currently in the care of Ladybug. He had probably seen the doll and instantly assumed it was their Emma.

Marinette couldn't help but stifle a laugh at how ridiculous she had been as she waved him off.

"This isn't Emma."

"Are you sure?" Adrien asked, studying the doll closely. "She looks like Emma...she looks a lot like Emma. Where did you get her?"

Marinette started to panic, she hadn't thought up an excuse as to why she was carrying around a random baby.

"O-of course I'm sure," she stuttered. The name Emma kept catching her off guard. She knew that Adrien was referring to their Emma, but whenever he said the name she couldn't help but associating it with him knowing that it was Chat's Emma.

"This baby..." Marinette paused, trying to quickly come up with an excuse. Suddenly her eyes lit up as though a light bulb had just appeared over her head. "This baby is one of the ones that had been vaporized by the akuma! The parents must have left before the Dreamtime was defeated." Just as an extra precaution to ensure he wouldn't figure anything out, she added, "and it's a boy! I already checked, so it's definitely not Emma. There's only about four different doll designs, so the probability of him looking like Emma is pretty high."

She let out a nervous laugh, hoping Adrien would believe her. When the questioning look on his face changed into one of acceptance, she decided to continue.

"Her-HIS parents will probably soon realize that the akuma attack is over and come back looking for him, so I had decided to keep him safe until they show up."

Adrien nodded. "You're so kind Marinette, he's not even your doll yet you're taking care of him." He flashed Marinette a smile that made her face grow hot with a blush. "I really admire that about you."

Marinette's eyes darted away from his radiating smile, trying to focus on anything so she could continue to have a civil conversation with him without turning into a stuttering mess.

Eyes moving about all over the place, they soon landed on the baby carrier that he wore where Emma was safely tucked inside. That is, where Emma would be safely tucked inside had she actually been there.

"Umm, Adrien?" Marinette asked, completely forgetting about his previous smile. He regarded her curiously and she motioned her finger towards the empty baby carrier that he wore on his back. "Where's Emma?"

Now it was Adrien's turn to grow flustered, and for the first time ever, it was as though they had swapped personalities. Marinette was calm and composed while Adrien fidgeted on the spot, his mind racing back and forth.

"I...she...I..." he stuttered before shouting out the first lie that popped into his mind, "I left her in the library!"

There was a silence between them after that. Marinette stared back at him confused while Adrien mentally called himself a series of downgrading names for saying something so stupid. He obviously couldn't just tell Marinette that Emma was with a girl he only knew the alter ego of and not her true identity, but still, did he have to say the absurd excuse that Plagg had given him!

Marinette on the other hand was contemplating how to reply. At first she just wanted to say "oh, ok," but figured that sounded too much like she didn't care about where Emma was. Well, she didn't really care about where Emma was, but she didn't want Adrien knowing that. She had to at least act like a decent mother in front of him.

Marinette opted for going with a standard reply and asked him the simple question, "why?"

Adrien twiddled with his fingers as he came up with an excuse on the spot, silently apologizing to Marinette for the continuous stream of lies he was feeding her.

"I hid in the library during the akuma attack because I thought it would be safer for Emma. After waiting a while I wanted to come out and check to see if it was over and decided it would be better if I left Emma there, you know, in case the akuma was still outside."

At first Marinette seemed to buy his excuse, nodding her head in agreement, but then she froze for a couple of moments and soon after her face turned into one of fear.

Was Marinette scared about Emma's wellbeing? After all that doll had put her though, of course she wasn't. But Adrien's excuse helped her come up with an excuse for herself.

"You left Emma, all alone, in the library! What if she gets hungry, what if she cries? Who knows what could happen!" Her voice rang out in mock agony. "Here, you take this baby and wait for his parents to show up looking for him, I'll go get Emma from the library."

Before Adrien knew what was happening, Emma 2.0 was being shoved into his arms and Marinette was sprinting away from him towards the school.

His mouth gaped open like a fish as he tried to make sense of what just happened. Marinette on the other hand was grinning from ear to ear. This was the best thing she had thought of all day. Adrien could be the one to give Emma back to Chat, that would solve her problem of explaining to the kitty why Marinette of all people had his baby.

Adrien looked from the doll, then to Marinette's receding figure, then down to the doll, and finally back to Marinette.

"W-wait, Marinette!" He called out to her, but the girl either didn't hear him or chose to ignore his desperate plea.

Emma wasn't in the library and there was no doubt that Marinette was going to figure that out herself once she got there.

Adrien started to chase after her, but remembered the baby in his arms. Looking around frantically he spotted a bench near him and carefully place the doll on it. He was about to start after Marinette again when a curious voice called out to him.

"You're really going to leave her here?"

Adrien looked down to find Plagg's head sticking out of his shirt staring up at him.

The blonde boy sighed. "I don't have any choice, the parents will find him here when they come looking...probably." He paused for a moment before adding, "and he's a boy, not a girl."

"Right, right, a boy." Plagg drawled lazily, not sounding like he cared. "But like I said, are you seriously going to leave her here?"

Adrien nodded.

"Really? If that doll starts crying wouldn't you, or I mean, the parents, get a bad grade? What would Chat do in this situation?"

Adrien grimaced. Why did Plagg even care about what happened with the doll, he never cared about anything except cheese. He waited a couple of moments before sighing. "Chat would take the doll with him."

He picked up Emma 2.0 and stared at him. "But I don't get why I have to take care of a baby that's not even mine."

Plagg let out a little snicker causing Adrien to flash him a confused glare.

"What's so funny?"

The black kwami waved him off. "Nothing, nothing. You two are just so clueless, it's funny to watch."

Adrien shook his head and opted for ignoring his kwami who never made sense half of the time. Placing Emma 2.0 in empty baby carrier strapped to his back, he quickly hurried after Marinette. He didn't have much choice considering the circumstances. He would have to tell her the truth, or at least, part of the truth.

Rushing into the school he flew down the hallways until he reached the library doors which were already open wide.

Marinette stood alone in the center of the empty room, the only blonde hair blue eyed doll within any vicinity of them being the Emma clone currently tucked against his back.

"Marinette, I can explain!" He shouted out, but he never got the chance to however as Marinette turned around to face him, eyes wide with disbelief. She opened her mouth and her voice echoed out as the only sound in the empty library.

"Someone stole Emma."

~.~.~.~.~

I'm really sorry, it's been nearly a month since the last update! Real life just keeps getting in the way, but I assure you, I have not dropped this story

Thank you for all of the votes and wonderful comments you give me, I love all of you!

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! Have a great day!