Three Times Greg was Totally Ready for this Parenting Thing, and one Time he Wasn't
By Katia-chan
1. Rose's excitement tends to blind her to details. She misses the little things, because she's loving and feeling everything so intensely, and experiencing it with the slightly manic enthusiasm - , and attention span - of a 5000+-year-old toddler. It's one of the many things Greg loves about her. So when he has to bring a dozen bags of canned vegetables, and fruit cups, and other non-perishable things that will keep in a van but will still provide nutrition back to the grocery store, he doesn't mind. She was trying, after all. They just hadn't gotten around to the dietary differences within the species; the classification of baby vs adult anatomy had felt like enough of a hurdle for one discussion. Greg uses the store credit to buy as much formula as he thinks (as Vidalia has told him) he'll be able to store. It never occurs to him, as he arranges the boxes in the van, that since the baby's not due for months, he could have used the groceries to feed himself. He just feels good that the kid's all set. And it's probably a little rock-and-roll to have your van piled high with baby formula...somehow.
2. Greg runs across the store to meet Rose, triumphantly holding a pair of little tiny baby sneakers above his head, practically levitating with excitement - aren't they the cutest coolest little things she's ever seen? Their baby's gonna have kickin' tiny little feet. He's brought up short by the pile of baby clothes Rose is holding, which is... nearly as tall as he is. He stares, in wide-eyed bemusement, as she explains with pride and glee that their baby could be either gender, and since they didn't know, she had to be prepared. What if it didn't like what they bought? What if its personal preferences and opinions meant that it wanted pink instead of blue, or what if it had a strong opinion about dinosaurs vs ponies (dinosaurs, obviously). They had to take its feelings into account.
Greg has to physically restrain her when he makes the mistake of mentioning that there are gender neutral clothes that might have a little more of the variety she's looking for. She manages to catch her pile before it falls on him and crushes him, but it's a near thing. OF COURSE they need this third set of clothes! She loves that he knows so much about this! Is there a fourth? Is there some sort of distinction within the neutral category?
It takes a little while to calm her down, to convince her that two sets will be enough, and more importantly, that the baby won't actually care about what it's wearing. He looks at her slightly crestfallen face, and suddenly realizes that she cares, a great deal, and maybe this isn't about the baby's feelings.
He leaves her slowly putting things back on the shelves, and returns a few minutes later with a large pack of plain white onesies, and a set of colored pens, and takes her hand. They've got this.
3. It's been a sore spot between them, the fact that if they decide to be parents, they won't be... them anymore. Rose hasn't seemed to mind too much, but Greg's finding it more difficult to be calm about the whole thing. He's even been putting off starting the process, which makes him feel crappy. But one day, he has a brain storm, and he's so happy when he gets to the temple that he gives Pearl a quick hug on his way past her to find Rose. She does *not* approve. He does not care.
How had he never realized? She wanted a baby, because she wanted to watch something grow up and change. But to get that, it didn't have to come from her. They can do it; they can have it all. They can be parents together and raise it and love it and love each other, and he won't have to do it alone, and she'll still get everything she wants.
When he finds her, she's talking to Garnet, who's sitting and listening with a fond, if slightly forced smile, about how thrilling it will be to feel human, to feel a real life building around her, a life that will *become* right in front of her, and won't it be amazing to be a part of that? Can she imagine anything more incredible, to start from nothing and find out what you are as it happens? And to feel that in the very depth of your own being?
Greg sighs in defeated resignation, but only on the inside, because what else can he do when she's smiling like that. They're going to have a baby.
Rose didn't say goodbye, because she was changing; she wasn't leaving. But as he holds his son, Greg feels twenty-two, and clueless, and scared, and very, very alone.
Notes: I have a lot of crushing real-life responsibilities I should be working on, so... fic. That being said, if you're enjoying reading my stuff, I am (shamelessly) motivated by praise. So if you have time to leave a review, you would be feeding my fragile self confidence, which might make me write more. (I should be embarrassed, but I've just had to come to terms with this failing in myself). If you don't wanna, that's okay too, of course. I'm just telling you how I can be manipulated.