Work Text:
It wasn’t true, what Steven had said. He had been to the hospital once, a year after he had been born. He had gotten a fever, and the gems didn’t have much experience with human offspring- especially sick ones. Greg had thought that Rose’s gem would keep Steven from getting sick, but it seemed that he was wrong.
Greg regretted coming in as soon as he saw those Doctors holding Steven, touching his gem, her gem, and he’d nearly lost it. Greg took him out of the doctor’s arms, and he didn’t care when they told him Steven had anomalous nerve formations and synapses and an abnormal circulatory system- Rose literally formed him consciously, he knew his son was bound to be physically different from humans.
Since then, Steven’s never been sick. A few years later, Pearl had given him a comprehensive scan, using Rose’s biological equipment she’d used to study humans from before the war. Steven did have notable differences. His skeleton was stronger, his bones thicker than normal. He had a few extra ones, noticeably around his torso and legs. His spine was a bit longer than average for a child his age. His circulatory system had more veins, noticeably looping around and under his gem. His DNA had no extra chromosomes, although comparisons to Greg’s DNA did confirm the existence of several extra proteins and several sequences of rewritten ‘junk’ DNA. His brain had a larger amount of synapses, and his nervous system was very developed, with extra synapses and neurons bunched together beneath his gem, as well.
Pearl, who had no doubt assisted with Rose’s examination of humans, had surprisingly never thought to scan Steven using her equipment. She’d made several theories as to the functions of Steven’s anomalous features. Really, though, all they knew was that they knew nothing about Steven.