A/N: Updates might be a little slower now that I have you pretty much caught up to what I have written. I have a little more written after this for the next chapter, but that's it so far. Hope you like this chapter! Enjoy!

Emma and Ella

Chapter 29: Recovery

"You just go through those doors and straight to the back of the room. You should see her from there." Snow said as she pointed to the doors. "The nurse said she probably will be there for another half hour. She said that Dr. Whale will be coming in to check on her before she moves back to her room."

"Okay, I'll let you know when they move her back." David said before heading to the recovery unit.

David found his way to Ella. He frowned at seeing how pale she was laying in her bed. She had a new cast on her leg that was a light blue color. He walked over and sat down in the chair beside her bed. She was sleeping just like Snow had said she was. He lightly stroked her hair as he took in her pale face.

15 minutes later…

Ella moved her head back and forth in her sleep and David frowned, knowing she couldn't be dreaming about anything good. He took her hand gently in his and tried to calm her by just speaking to her softly without waking her up.

It seemed to help for a moment before she started to get even more restless. His frown deepened and decided to try to wake her. "Ella." David said a little louder this time before shaking her shoulder gently. "Ella, baby, wake up."

Ella blinked her eyes open quickly and looked around frantically before seeing her Dad. When she saw him she sighed in relief and calmed down some. "Dad-dy…fire…" She mumbled to him in a sleepy voice.

David looked at her in confusion. "It was just a dream, sweetie. You're okay." David reassured her.

Ella seemed to relax after that, but still was sleepy. She was holding on to her Dad's hand pretty tightly though.

Dr. Whale came over after a few minutes to check Ella's progress and give her a quick exam to see if she was ready to be transferred. The nurse came as well.

David watched as Ella seemed more relaxed with them doing her vitals then she had before the surgery. He wondered if it was because she was still sleepy and little out of it from the anesthesia. He kept her hand in his while they did what they needed to.

"Ella, can you rate your pain for me? One being the lowest and ten being the highest." Dr. Whale asked after checking everything else and reviewing her chart.

Ella squinted up her face as she thought about it. David smiled as he watched her think about it. "Four…"

Dr. Whale jotted it down before looking at David. "She is doing well so I am going to have them take her back to her room. I want to keep her for a little while longer before we discharge her though so that we can watch her blood pressure. It's still lower than I would like."

"Is that normal?" David asked in worry.

"It is common with some children after surgery and normally clears up within a couple of hours of surgery." Dr. Whale told him.

"So it should clear up then?" David asked.

"Yes, but until then we will keep an eye on it." Dr. Whale said.

"Ok, good." David said as he looked back down at Ella.

"It will probably take the transporters about 10 to 15 to get up here to take her back to her room." Dr. Whale told him.

"Okay, thank you." David said before Whale left.

"Time to go home, now?" Ella asked in groggy voice.

"Not yet, honey." David said with a kind smile.

Ella frowned at him.

"It shouldn't be too much longer though. They are going to move you back to your room in a little bit then you will be able to see your mom and sister." David told her.

Ella yawned and tried to keep her eyes open.

David smiled at her trying to stay awake. "You can go back to sleep if you want, honey."

Ella frowned and shook her head no.

"Why not?" David asked softly.

"Not tired..." She mumbled with another yawn.

David smirked. "Then why are you yawning?" David asked with chuckle.

Ella looked at him with a tired smile, but didn't answer.

"Sleep, kiddo. I know you are tired." David said when she didn't answer.

Ella shook her head no again. "I have weird dreams here." Ella told him with a frown.

David gave her a sympathetic frown. "I'm sorry, sweetie. But they are just dreams. They aren't real." He told her softly.

Ella nodded, but still didn't try to fall asleep even though she wasn't far from falling asleep anyway.

"Just try to rest then." David said softly as he stroked her hair again.

Ella nodded and relaxed, knowing she didn't have to fall asleep. Although, she hadn't planned it, she ended up falling back asleep rather quickly.

David smiled softly as he watched her sleep peacefully. It didn't seem like she was having a bad dream which he was thankful for.

*****OUAT*****

Ella heard quiet talking as she slowly woke up. She blinked her eyes open to see her Dad looking at her. She felt someone holding her hand on the other side so she slowly turned her head to see her mom smiling down at her.

"She's awake?" Emma said as she came over to stand by her Dad. "I didn't think you would ever wake up."

"Time to go home now?" Ella asked.

David and Snow chuckled. Every time she woke up, she would ask the same thing.

"No not yet." David responded.

Ella pouted. She wanted to go home. She felt like she had been at the hospital all day long. Ella frowned in confusion. "What time is it?"

David and Snow smiled softly at her confusion.

"It's 1:15." Snow told her with a smile.

"Oh." Ella said, but still looked confused. She felt like it was way later.

"Can we give it to her now?" Emma asked her parents.

David nodded to her with a smile.

Emma smiled and ran over to get the gift and card they had gotten Ella. She made sure to hide the gift behind her back as she made her way back to Ella. She handed Ella the card as she said, "This is for you."

Ella was a little slow in responding, but she took the card and slowly opened it. She smiled as she read the card before setting it down on her lap. "Thanks." She said, not knowing there was more.

"And this is for you too." Emma said as she pulled the golden retriever puppy stuffed animal from behind her back.

Ella smiled in surprise. "For me?"

Emma nodded her head as she gave Ella the stuffed animal.

"Thanks, Emma." Ella said as she took the stuffed animal and put it under her arm without the IV.

Emma smiled. "Well I just picked it out. Dad and Mom bought it."

Ella smiled before looking between her parents. "Thanks."

David and Snow both leaned in to kiss her cheek at the same time.

"Your welcome, sweetie." Snow said softly with a kind smile.

Ella smiled tiredly, but then looked at her Dad. "Now is it time to go home?"

"No, sweetie. They have to discharge you first." David said with an amused smile.

Ella frowned, but then saw her light blue cast on her leg and her frown deepened.

Her parents and Emma followed her gaze as she saw her cast.

"Ugh another cast." Ella grumbled.

David and Snow exchanged an amused look at her grumbling at her cast. She knew she was getting one, but she must not have remembered until now.

"Does your leg hurt at all?" Emma asked.

Ella nodded her head in response.

David frowned.

"Is it the same as before or does it hurt more?" Snow asked in concern.

"More." Ella responded.

"I bet what they had her on in surgery is starting to wear off." David said as he stood up to see if he could catch a nurse to ask if she could be given something to help with the pain.

*****OUAT*****

"Her blood pressure has been stable so I am comfortable with discharging her. She will need to rest for the rest of the day. She will be a tired from the pain medication. Tomorrow, she can start using her crutches, but only a little. I want her to stay off it for most of the day."

Ella frowned. She had been stuck in bed or on the couch for the last two days and she would end up being in bed or on the couch for the rest of the day. And knowing her parents, tomorrow she would be off her leg as much as possible.

"I want her back here in three days to check on her. If you have any questions until then you can call the nurse or myself. The nurse will give you her discharge instructions and go through them with you." Dr. Whale continued.

"So when will she be able to use her crutches more often?" Snow asked.

"After I see her, I will clear her to start using them more. Until then just limit her time on them." Whale answered her.

"We will." David said.

"And don't let her walk on it without her crutches. I want her to keep her weight off of it as much as possible." Whale added.

Snow nodded. "Okay, we will."

"The nurse will be in shortly with her discharge instructions." Whale said before looking at Ella. "And I will see you in a few days."

"Ok." Ella said shyly.

Whale left the room and Ella frowned thinking of the boring days ahead of her.

"What's wrong, Ella?" Snow asked in concern.

"I just don't want to be stuck in bed." Ella said.

"You won't be stuck in bed the whole time." Snow said with a smile. "But you will have to stay off your leg."

"But he said I could use my crutches." Ella said seriously.

"Yes, but only a little." David said.

Ella knew she wasn't going to be able to get away with using her crutches more than she was supposed to. Not that she really wanted to walk right now because of her leg hurting, but she knew soon she would want her freedom back even if it was with crutches.

"It won't be that bad." Snow said with a kind smile at Ella. "Maybe I can find some school work for you to do…" She teased.

Ella's eyes widened. "No…" She whined.

Snow chuckled, but then began to get serious. "Thinking of school. We need to have a meeting with the town to get things going again. I know a lot of things have closed up after the curse." Snow said.

"We don't need school to be open." Emma chimed in.

David chuckled. "Yes, we do." He told Emma before looking back at his wife. "When should be have it?"

"Maybe tomorrow around 10:30?" Snow responded.

"Ok. I'll call Grumpy and Granny to get the word out." David said.

"Good. Then we can get school going again and decide what to do about Regina."

"Yeah, I know a lot of people are still trying to find love ones. Some people want to know if we can go back. It will be good to get everyone together and talk about the different issues to calm people down." David said.

"True. What about the girls?" Snow asked.

Ella and Emma looked at each other and knew that they would either have to go with them or have a babysitter again. They had both finally got to a place with their mom and dad where they could stay at home alone for short periods of time. But now that the curse broke their parents were extra protective.

David looked between his girls before looking back at Ella. "We could probably just take them with us. Unless Ella's not feeling good then we could get a babysitter…but I don't want her using her crutches too much if she does come with us."

"I agree. So we can decide tomorrow morning?" Snow said.

"Why don't you just let us stay at home alone?" Emma asked with a charming smile.

Snow laughed. "She got that smile from you."

David smiled, seeing what she meant.

"Until everything is settled and we know that no one is after either of you or us, we don't want you two alone." David answered after a moment.

"But we could lock the door." Emma said as she rolled her eyes.

David ignored her rolling her eyes. "We know, but that wouldn't necessarily stop someone from getting to you. Being the savior puts you in a dangerous position. Some people will not have liked that you broke the curse."

Ella frowned a little. It sounded like they were more worried about Emma than her since Emma was the savior. She understood, but she couldn't help the pang of jealous she felt. She pushed it aside though because she didn't want to be jealous of Emma.

"Ok, but I still don't think anyone is after me." Emma said.

"We hope not, but we aren't taking any chances." Snow said looking at Emma.

Ella frowned again. If they were just worried about Emma then why didn't they just leave her home and take Emma with them. "You could just leave me at home and take Emma." Ella spoke up.

"No, kiddo, we aren't leaving you home alone after having a surgery." David said quickly.

"But…" Ella started.

"No, Ella. Your father is right. We aren't leaving you since you can't even really walk and will be on pain medications." Snow said interrupting her.

"I can use my crutches." Ella said with a frown.

"You won't be using them too much and we would rather have someone with you when you do use them." David said.

"Then I just won't use them when you're gone." Ella continued to argue.

"Ella. We aren't going to be leaving you home alone or leaving both of you at home unless we have a babysitter." David replied firmly.

"Fine." Ella grumbled as she crossed her arms.

David looked at Snow with an amused look at Ella's grumpy attitude. Snow just shook her head in frustration at her daughter.

Ella knew she was more upset about feeling like they were more worried at Emma and just didn't trust her to be alone. A little part of her was thinking that they didn't want to admit to her that they weren't as worried about her as Emma so they were just saying they didn't want to leave her there alone.