Begin Again (sequel to Isabella Marinette Martha Wayne)

Chapter 9

Shoutout to MaBo1982 for motivating me to write this chapter!

So here they were. All standing around THE phone. As it charged. The guilty phone which Bruce had put away in order to 'Not give into the temptation to get Isabella, his own kid back' as so kindly put up by Jason.

"It's an old model." Tim said. "If it had been a new one? We could have simply replaced the battery with a charged one and it would have been up and running in no time. But since this is one of those God forsaken ancient types—"

"It's only 8 years old Tim." Bruce said.

"Exactly my point! These were the ones that were used before–" Tim was interrupted by Jason. "Yeah, yeah, we know, Timbers. The point is, how long is this thing gonna take?"

"You guys have absolutely no patience." Barbara said, shaking her head. "Who knows how you stay still during Recon missions."

"I think the screen is turning on." Dick said, eager to stop the bickering.

"Ookkkayyyy, Just gotta make this thing respond in order to open the voice mails. But seriously, don't you guys see it? The reacting speed is so slow!!" Tim said, his eyes roaming over the screen.

But despite Tim's views, the 'thing' opened up soon enough. There were 76 voicemails left, one by someone else and the remaining 75 by Marinette.

"Well?" Fei said. "Let's start them up. Oldest to newest."

"Got it." Tim said.

And soon enough Marinette's. Or more accurately, young Marinette's. Voice came out of the speakers.

Voicemail 1- "Hey, Dad... You didn't pick up, so I guess you're busy? I got off the flight without any hitch and Tom and Sabine seem nice. I'll call you later, I suppose."

Voicemail 2- "Dad. Hello, are you stuck in a meeting or what? Wait, that is impossible. It's 8:00 PM there. Just...just Call me back when you can."

Voicemail 3- "Dad respond. Please."

Voicemail 4- "Come on, Dad. Pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up, PICK UP."

Voicemail 5- "You're scaring me, Dad."

Voicemail 6- "Hey, Bruce. It's Hal. There is a meeting scheduled for 3:00 PM today. Diana has me stuck on calling duty so, don't forget to come."

Voicemail 7- "Dad, is your phone broken? Is that it? I suppose it won't work then. Are you on a League mission? Dad, you gotta answer the phone!"

Voicemail 8- "I tried calling Dick, Clark and Diana. None of them are picking up. And I'm almost sure these aren't their numbers. Dad. Answer the phone."

"Please stop it." Bruce said. He was clearly trying not to cry And Selena was rubbing soothing circles into his back. "I can't take it. Please just-t don't."

"OK, B." Barbara said scrolling through the voicemails. "Most of them have similar durations, And they are all around the same time So I think they are all similar."

The only thing going through everybody's mind was- She was disheartened. She was losing it. Around 50 voicemails were left that way. And then clearly, Marinette got the message. If Her calls weren't gonna go through. She might as well stop calling.

But then the Call log showed that the calls picked up again. Around two years back.

"OK, I gotta start up from here because technically there is no reason other than her calling for help when the akumas started." Barbara said, her eyes searching in the duration of the calls. They didn't match up with the previous ones. They were more lengthy compared to the duration that the other calls had gotten into slowly as time went on.