The three of them returned to the waiting area to find Mabel staring intently at the phone, looking like she hadn't moved from the spot since the last time they saw her; Dipper was sitting by her side, holding her hand.
There was no sign of Mikey's family.
Stan let out a half-hearted laugh. "I swear if that thing rings while you're staring at it, then I'm officially using you as my newest attraction: the incredible telekinesis kid!" He lifted his arms in a dramatic gesture.
Mabel gave him a playful smirk. "You better use the tagline while you can. Once I turn eighteen you won't be able to use the kid tagline on me anymore!"
Stan groaned. "Don't remind me."
"Where is everyone else?" Ford finally asked.
"Mitch started having a panic attack all of a sudden, so his folks took him outside to get some air," Dipper said softly.
Clara gave a very tiny flinch that only Ford noticed. It did nothing to soothe his nerves.
A few minutes later the Stewarts came back; Mitch was looking a little pale, but somewhat better. Valencia and Mr. Stewart were each gripping one of his hands like he was a small child. As they sat down, they gave the Pines family smiles that were probably supposed to be reassuring, but frankly looked more like the kind of rictuses you would find on a corpse.
And a minute after that, a heavily scrubbed and masked figure stepped into the room. Ford recognized him as Mikey's surgeon, and saw that the front of his scrubs was stained with bright crimson.
The surgeon pulled off his gloves, and cleared his throat.
"Why don't you all follow me to the conference room where we can talk privately?" he began.
Ford's heart dropped down to his boots; he knew exactly what the doctor was saying.
"No, you can tell us right out here!" Mabel demanded, getting to her feet.
Mikey's parents looked like they wanted to say something but couldn't create the words to argue.
The surgeon looked between her and them hesitantly for a moment…before sighing and opening his mouth again.
"It turns out the tumor was far worse than we could have imagined. It was totally ingrown into the side of his heart."
Any hope left in Valencia's expression vanished, and her hand flew to her mouth as she let out a small, tremulous wail. Her husband pulled her into his arms, but his eyes had already started to flood with tears.
Mabel blinked, and slowly shook her head.
"So…now he needs a heart transplant too?"
Her voice had a slight tremble indicating that she knew what he was saying…she just didn't want to believe it.
Ford put both hands on Mabel's shoulders. "Mabel…no."
"I'm so sorry," the surgeon said softly. "We did everything we could-"
Before anyone else had time to speak or stop her, she was bolting out the door.
And she kept on running-out of the hallway, out of the hospital, out into the cold winter air.