Author Notes: Been quite a while.
She was gone.
Greg wasn't sure what to make of what he'd just seen. His child - their child - was being cleaned off and Rose - Rose was gone. She'd been there just mere minutes before, turning towards him with a smile that seemed so sad as she spoke. "Take care of him."
Gems didn't die. Not in the sense that he would - not in the sense that humans did. Rose, technically speaking, was immortal. She herself was not the human shape she'd taken for so long. No, she was the sparkling pink stone embedded in his newborn son's stomach, right where his bellybutton should have been. But she wasn't going to be there to hear their child's first word, see him take his first step - that would belong to Greg, and to him alone.
He didn't cry when she vanished. Maybe he should have - but he couldn't. At least, not until his son was handed to him, swathed in a thick blue blanket. His skin was pink, but not quite as bright as normal newborns. He wasn't screaming, either. And maybe it was Greg's imagination, but he swore he saw a smile on those tiny lips. A smile he knew so well - and Greg Universe began to cry.
He sank into the chair beside the bed, cradled his son close to his chest, and cried.