Kate picks up the phone…
"Hello?" asked Kate uncertainly, her heart in her throat.
"Kate?"
"Maurice? How is she?"
"She's okay," he gasped out like a man who had just climbed a mountain and lay panting for breath on the summit. "She made it through the surgery."
Kate's eyes teared up. "Oh, oh, that's wonderful!"
She looked at Rumple who was staring at her wide eyed and she gave him a thumbs up. He grinned from ear to ear.
"Can I talk to Belle?"
"Oh yes, yes of course!" said Kate. "She's just upstairs."
"Stay right here and be a good boy, okay Rumple?" Kate said to Rumple.
He nodded. "Is Belle's Mummy going to be alright?" he asked.
"Sssh, Rumple I have to take the phone to Belle," said Kate.
Then Kate tuned into Maurice. He was still talking, babbling everything he'd just learnt.
"The doctors said Rose's new lung is functioning. She's breathing on her own, but she's still getting a little oxygen to help her out. She still has a lot drains and tubes in her body to remove excess fluid from the surgery and she's in the ICU. They said if all goes well she could be out in a few days and in a regular room. I can probably take Belle to visit her tomorrow for things continue okay. We're not out of the woods yet, the next few days are really critical. They said there can be rejection, and they're giving her immunosuppressing drugs intravenously. But the important thing is she pulled through, and she's getting stronger. If things really go well, she could be out in as little as two weeks," he said hopefully.
"Oh Maurice, that's wonderful!"
"Yes," he said, hope and pride suffusing his voice. "I know. Rose is a fighter. She has always defied the odds."
"Belle!" Kate called out to the little girl as she emerged from the bathroom, clean and scrubbed. "Your dad is on the phone."
Belle practically tore the phone out of Kate's hand she was so eager to hear from her dad.
She held the hot little object up to her ear, her little hands sweating with worry.
"It's alright, baby," said her father. "So far your mum made it through."