“Hurry, we have to get him stabilized, and the Cave isn’t enough for this! What even happened?!”
“Calm down, I’m not sure, no one else was here. Just wait until he’s stable enough to be left alone, and then we’ll go and figure out what happened, ok?”
“Fine, Bruce.”
——
“No one can be back here right now while we figure out what the cause is.”
“No-!”
“Come on, Jason, we can’t be of any help right now.”
——
Beep… beep… beep..
“He should be fine for now. I’ve spoken to everyone that came to bring him. Is there anyone else, any kind of family on file?”
A brief bout of silence was there, before another voice spoke up.
“There was a daughter, but she passed away some time ago. The only other person registered was a granddaughter. Should her guardians be called?”
“Depends, how old is the granddaughter?”
“14, Doctor.”
“Go ahead, no need for anyone to get on our backs for not calling family.”
“Of course.”
——
The Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie had been open for an hour, ready for the early morning runs, before a shrill ring had been heard. Thinking nothing of it, Sabine gave her husband a quick kiss on the cheek and went to answer it.
Tom, the jovial man that he was, despite his intimidating size, chatted with the customers, bidding each of them farewell before greeting the next one in line.
It took a few minutes before Sabine came back, with the phone. Her mood from earlier had obviously dissipated, making her husband- who was oh so attuned to the emotions of those around him- worry over what could have happened.
Without any hesitation, he asked for the latest customer to hold on, who just happened to be Alya and her mother. Seeing the couple's face, they gave a nod, backing up a bit to not impose themselves on anything personal in regards to the family.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, as soon as they were out of earshot from everyone else.
“Tom- it’s about Julia’s Father. Alfred.”
“Julia?” Tom repeated, as that was a name he hadn’t heard in years. Not since she died all those years ago, leaving nothing behind but her daughter- Marinette- and a letter, never to be opened by anyone except for an “Alfred”. They had never known who the name belonged to until now.
“He’s in the hospital, and it was proper protocol to alert all family members of his condition. As of right now they aren’t sure of what exactly is wrong. Do… Do you think that we should tell her? Marinette I mean. She’s always been curious about them.”
Taking a deep breath, Tom, rather than replying, just got to work ushering everyone out. Only one person really kicked up a fuss, but was silenced with a short explanation of just “Family issues, otherwise none of your business.”.
“I think it would be for the best,” he said, finally answering the previous question, “and we should probably tell her now. Just in case we need to start making any preparations on her behalf.”
Silently agreeing, the two made their way towards the stairs, and being the gentleman he was, Tom swept his arm out, signaling for her to go with a “ladies first” also trying to shed some light back into the atmosphere.
As her lips raised the slightest bit, he took it as a success, and loudly trudged up the steps behind her.
——
Waking up to knocking on her trapdoor admittedly wasn’t the worst thing to awaken to, with one of the worst being an akuma attack in the dead of night, which had happened hours before, but Marinette was still tired and didn’t want to be bothered. Hoping that if she pretended to stay sleeping, then it would all go away.
When the knocking began to grow more insistent, she quietly groaned, dragging herself out of bed to see what was going on. Still in the process of rubbing the sleep out of her eyes she kneeled onto the floor, and once lifting the trapdoor blinked down at her parents.
“Maman? Papa? Is something wrong?”
Seeing the look the two shared, a feel of nervousness began to make its way to her, pooling in her gut. While her father was one to worry and blow the littlest things out of proportion, her mother was not. Seeing her so visibly showing her nerves in the way she was pulling at her clothing but Marinette’s own underlying nerves to attention.
“Sorry for waking you up, honey, but there’s something we need to speak to you about, ok?”
With a silent nod of her head, Marinette waited for both of her parents to back away from the ladder, before coming down herself. Rather than waiting for Marinette to completely get down herself, Tom elected to just grab her around her middle, pulling a small squeal out of the girl with an alarmed “Papa!”.
He did nothing but laugh in response, only setting her down once they reached the living room. That was when the tense atmosphere came back over them, with no one really wanting to keep eye contact with the other.
Coughing to grab their attention, Sabine first fondly rolled her eyes at her husband, before placing both of Marinette’s hands in her own.
“Sweetie, you know how you were always curious about learning about Julia and the rest of your relatives?” Pausing in between her words, Sabine took a deep breath, more so to calm herself rather than anything else, “Well, this morning we had gotten a call that needed our immediate attention. The person over the line was trying to inform you that your grandfather, Julia’s father, was admitted into the hospital in critical condition.”
Marinette was… shocked, to say the least. Sure she had entertained the idea of meeting that side of her family one day, it was never really expected to actually become something attainable. It was meant to be just like the other dreams and wishes that children made, that never ever really came into fruition. Now, with something tangible she wasn’t really sure what to do.
Clenching and unclenching her hands, her mind raced through all of the possibilities, before remembering something that her mother had said.
She got a call because he was in the hospital.
That got her more worried than she already was, but before she could jump up, Sabine broke through her inner turmoil.
“I know this is a bit sudden, but- but would you like to go see him? If that’s what you would want to do of course.”
Taking a deep breath, she responded.
“I’d love to.”
Apologies for the taglist absence
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