Chapter Text
It was a painfully average morning in Beach City. The early morning fog was beginning to lift, giving way to a partly cloudy sky. The sand was moist underfoot; still damp from last night’s steady rainshower. The residents of the small tourist town were beginning to wake and open their shops. On this day, seagulls flew overhead, waves lapped lazily at the shore, and the baby turned one month old.
Garnet walked down the beach, taking a winding path to Greg’s car wash that avoided the boardwalk. It had been a difficult month, to put it mildly. The longest month of her long life, and yet there were still no signs of improvement. Rose’s death had hit everyone hard, especially because it had been so senseless. They’d all tried to reason with Rose, even pleaded with her near the end, but nothing they said would have dissuaded her from having her child. Garnet knew this from the beginning, and yet still, she’d tried.
It was hard to tell who was taking this transition the hardest, Amethyst or Pearl. Amethyst was so upset, she’d run away before the baby’s birth, and still had yet to return. Once everything settled down, she would come to regret missing Rose’s last days. Garnet didn’t need future vision to know that. But, where Amethyst tended to retreat away from people when she was upset, Pearl only clung tighter. And, since she was irrationally angry with Greg, Garnet was the only one around for her to hold on to. Garnet hadn’t anticipated just how emotionally exhausting it would be to look after Pearl; she’d never had the same patience for Pearl’s clinginess that Rose used to have, but she was trying to be there for her friend, like their leader would’ve wanted her to be.
On top of all of this, there were still corrupted gems running rampant all over the earth, and it was now up to Garnet to bubble the ones causing trouble. This meant that she had to disappear occasionally, which meant that Pearl was left alone in the temple, which made her even more frazzled. She was alternatively upset with Garnet for appearing to move on so quickly from Rose’s death, and dependant on her friend’s continued stoicism to help her through her own turbulent emotions. It was, to put it succinctly, absolutely exhausting.
In the aftermath of Rose’s death, none of the gems had felt much up to paying a social visit to Greg and the baby. Pearl, especially, was adamantly against it. So much as mentioning Greg’s name this morning had earned Garnet a disapproving scowl, so she’d elected not to tell Pearl where she was going when she’d left the temple. Because, like it or not, someone had to check up on Greg and the boy eventually, and it was obviously not going to be Amethyst or Pearl.
Garnet had a feeling she’d be doing a lot of things she didn’t want to do in the coming years, and this was just one of many.
It wasn’t that she blamed the child for his mother’s death. Logically, she knew that the boy was entirely innocent. But just the thought of seeing Rose’s gem imbedded in someone else’s stomach was enough to make Garnet feel slightly nauseous. And, even if it weren’t for his association with Rose, Garnet simply didn’t know how to act around human children. There was nothing equivalent to infancy in a gem’s lifecycle, so Garnet had no experience to draw from. This visit was bound to be awkward and unpleasant, but there was no getting around it. She would get past this, just as Pearl and Amethyst would come around, in time.
Greg was exactly where Garnet knew he would be; sitting on the bumper of his van, which was parked in front of the car wash. He was holding a white bundle in his arms, but the baby was mostly obscured from view by Greg’s slowly-receding hair. Garnet walked right up to Greg, who didn’t notice her approach until her shadow fell over him. He jumped, startled, and yelped,
“JEEZE, oh man, don’t sneak up on people like that!” Once he’d looked at her, Garnet saw the dark circles under the new father’s eyes. There was a pale pallor to his skin that definitely hadn’t been there a month ago, and a weariness in the way he held himself that Garnet couldn’t quite pinpoint. She should’ve come by sooner, that much was plain.
“You need help. You should’ve come by the temple.” Garnet sat next to Greg without waiting to be invited. She spoke to Greg, but her concealed eyes were fixed on the bundle of blankets, still shrouded by Greg’s hair. “You’re going to smother him.” It wasn’t true; the baby could breathe fine, but Garnet selfishly wanted to see the child’s face. Greg stared at her for a moment, baffled, before jumping into action.
“Oh! Yeah, right.” He flipped his hair over his shoulder, finally giving Garnet her first look at Rose’s son. She had to admit, it was rather anticlimactic. The baby was ugly, to put it bluntly. His skin was wrinkled, his body an off-pink color, and his face was pinched in a permanent scowl. Weren’t human children supposed to be an amalgam of their parents? This child didn’t look anything like Rose… or Greg, for that matter.
“I, uh, didn’t think I’d be welcome. At the temple.” Garnet was so enraptured by the baby, she didn’t even acknowledge Greg. The more she stared at the child, the less unappealing he seemed. Removed so suddenly from the cover of Greg’s hair, the infant was roused from his rest. His little eyes blinked open sleepily, and he fussed a bit under his blanket. Garnet indulged her curiosity and peered into the future, just to see if he would grow into his wrinkly skin. He would, of course, and he’d soon start to grow a mop of curly hair, too. That made Garnet smile faintly.
“Do you… wanna hold him?” Suddenly, the baby was thrust toward her, and Garnet shrunk back in a rare show of uncertainty.
“No, I-I don’t think so.” The child looked up at her and wriggled more vigorously, successfully freeing one of his arms. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to hold him; she did, but he was just so small. Now that she had started using her future vision, it was hard to stop, and there were so, so many ways she could hurt him. It was best not to risk it. Greg looked strangely disappointed as he brought the child back to his lap.
“Alright, maybe later. Aw, jeeze, he got one of his arms loose again. You little rascal!” He chuckled affectionately and tickled the baby under his chin, earning him what sounded like a happy gurgle in response.
Garnet felt a strange sense of loss. She leaned in toward the father and son, all three eyes still fixated on the child. While Greg was distracted with trying to make the baby laugh (he wouldn’t be successful for another two months, she already knew) Garnet slowly reached for the little hand that was stretched out to the side. It was so small; the pad of just one of her fingers could cover the baby’s hand.
She stroked his palm gently with the tip of her finger, shocked and a little proud when his fingers curled tightly around hers. Garnet grunted in surprise, alerting Greg to the situation. He smiled broadly,
“Ha! I think he likes you.” The child’s grip was surprisingly strong; Garnet suspected she could lift him into a sitting position without breaking his hold. This could’ve been a problem, though, if she ever wanted her hand back.
“How do you get the baby to let go?” She asked, finally breaking her eye contact with the boy to look up at Greg imploringly. He gave her a quizzical look, then said with a soft smile,
“Y’know, he has a name.” Garnet blinked behind her visor. She hadn’t really let herself think of the child as a person; someone real, tangible, and entirely separate from Rose. Until now.
“Right. Steven.” She wriggled her finger in his grasp, but he only held on tighter. It was fine, though. Steven could have her hand, he could have everything she had to give.