Steven was already more than 6 months old. To Greg, it felt like no time at all had passed and, at the same time, he wasn't sure he remembered how life was before the small baby with a pink gem on its belly came into his life. He honestly wasn't sure if the child had been out of his direct line of sight for more than 5 minutes since his birth. That fact had made today extra hard.

There had been a bit of an issue with the car wash. An issue that involved a giant grasshopper-like gem monster ripping off one of the walls. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, and he and Steven hadn't been there at the time, but it was something that needed to be fixed immediately. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough money at the moment to pay someone to fix it. So, he was going to have to fix it himself. Somehow.

He'd found some wood that was in his price range, but he had to pick it up himself. The problem was, it was a three-hour drive both ways. No matter how well behaved his baby usually was, he didn't want to make Steven be in a car for that long and he didn't want to be juggling a baby while trying to load the wood. He'd needed to leave him with a babysitter.

He had thought about leaving Steven with one of the other humans in town, but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea. It had been just under a month ago that he'd found Steven sitting on the edge of the car wash's roof. Sure, the baby could have just found a way to climb up there like a normal human child… in three minutes… even though Greg himself needed a ladder to get up there… and the child exhibited no signs of being able to crawl yet. But, if there was any possibility that Steven may use magic, Greg didn't want it to be with a human teenager who didn't have any idea what was happening.

The only option was to leave him with one of the Crystal Gems. Garnet to be specific.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the other gems to watch his child, it was just… Pearl still wasn't quite comfortable with Steven and she was even less comfortable with the liquids, solids, and everything-in-betweens that babies tended to excrete. And, well, it wasn't entirely improbable that, without someone there to take him from her when he inevitably began to spit up after lunch, she may drop him. Not to mention, Steven was a very empathetic baby who sensed when people were uncomfortable, which would escalate any problem that happened with Pearl around.

Amethyst was better. Despite her rambunctious nature, she understood that she had to be gentle with the fragile baby. Greg actually had no worries about her dropping him and she certainly had no qualms with the messes Steven produced, but she didn't always understand basic human needs. She knew humans needed to eat food, but she didn't always understand that food wasn't motor oil. She understood that the baby needed to be bathed, but sometimes forgot that humans needed oxygen.

Garnet was more responsible and more likely to think through actions before executing them. She let Steven drool all over her hair and was able to hold him for more than 5 minutes at a time. So, yes, Garnet was really the only rational choice.

Plus, Steven loved her. Greg had been worried at first that her stoic nature would make it hard for Steven to connect to her. Babies reacted to smiles, soft gentle voices, and eye contact, none of which came naturally to Garnet. But, she tried for Steven and even when she failed to express herself as well as most babies needed, Steven seemed to understand.

So, Greg was feeling pretty good about leaving Steven with Garnet for a few hours. He was a little nervous as most new parents were when leaving their child with someone else, but he hadn't expected to come back to the temple on fire.

In all fairness, the temple wasn't actually engulfed in flames or anything. There were just a few little spots of fire and steaming areas in front of it, but that didn't really calm the man whose baby was supposed to be in the building.

Panicking, he raced into the temple expecting to see some type of gem monster attacking.

Instead, there was a small red person pacing back and forth inside the temple. Her footsteps left trails of fire behind her. She was crying almost as hard as the wailing Steven in her arms. Greg was about to really panic, but paused when she started speaking. "Please stop crying baby, please stop," she begged, trying to mask the abject terror in her voice. She looked up desperately. "Help me Sapphire!"

"I can't," another voice said completely monotone. It was another person he had never seen. They were probably Gems, Greg realized, noting the blue color of her skin. She didn't move anything but her mouth when she spoke and it looked like ice was creeping up the wall behind her.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"There is no future where he will stop crying."

"Is there a future where You! Help! Me?!" the red one screamed and Steven wailed louder. "Ah, no," she said looking down at the baby in her arms, horror in her eyes. "I'm sorry Steven. It's okay. I didn't mean to yell. Everything is okay, see, I'm making funny faces," she stuck her tongue out and screwed up her eyes a bit. It had no effect on the baby's crying. "Please," she sobbed, "it's funny."

"What's going on?" Greg finally asked. "Who are you? Where's Garnet?"

"Greg!" the red looked over at him like he was the messiah who'd just floated down from heaven. She ran over to him and pushed Steven at him. "I'm sorry, okay. He was crying and we could get him to stop. Wedidn'tknowwhattodo!" and with that, she ran out of the Temple.

Greg looked at the blue gem. "What happened?" he asked.

"His cries will extend into infinity" she responded and Greg could have sworn the ice behind her expanded up the wall.

"Um…" Greg started, but then the baby in his arms drew his attention with an even more pitiful whine and Greg chose to ignore the strange gem in favor of calming down his son. He hushed the child and rocked him. After a few minutes, he quieted a bit. "Hey, little man, what's the matter?" he asked. Steven reached for his father's thumb and pulled it towards his mouth. The baby stopped fussing all together once he started gumming on Greg's thumb. He'd been sticking a lot of things in his mouth lately and Greg could feel little bumps in his gums. He must be teething.

"Y-you got him to stop," the blue gem spoke.

He blinked, looking up at her. "Uh, yeah. I think his mouth just hurts where his teeth are growing in."

"But he wasn't going to stop," she said. There was a bit of a shake to her voice.

Despite the fact that he didn't know this gem or why Garnet would leave her and the red one alone with his kid, he really didn't want another crying person on his hands. He smiled at her (though he wasn't sure if she could see it with her hair over her eyes) and tried to keep his voice light. "Well, he has to stop some time."

"W-we didn't break him?"

"What? No, he was just crying. Babies do that."

"But in every future I could see, he kept crying forever."

"Erm…" Before he had to respond to that, the warp pad activated. He had never been so glad to see Pearl. She took in the scene with obvious surprise.

"Sapphire?" she said. "What happened?! Where's Ruby?"

The blue gem looked over at Pearl. "Steven was crying for no reason and Garnet couldn't get him to stop so…"

"Y-you unfused because Steven was crying?" Pearl asked seeming a bit flabbergasted.

"Yes."

"And Ruby?"

"Is in all likelihood allowing herself to be completely engulfed in flames now that she isn't holding Steven anymore."

There was a pause. "Do you think you should handle that?"

Sapphire thought about it for a moment. "Yes. She'll probably calm down once I tell her Steven stopped crying." And with that she literally floated out of the temple.

"Who were they?" Greg asked Pearl once Sapphire had left. "Where is Garnet? What's going on?"

Pearl sighed and walked toward him. She slid her fingers through Steven's hair still a bit cautious, but she smiled when the baby shook one of his fists at her. "They're Ruby and Sapphire. They are Garnet. Garnet is a fusion," she explained.

"Garnet's a fusion, but…?"

She didn't actually look at him, just continued to watch Steven. "It's complicated and not really my story to tell. Basically, Ruby and Sapphire fell in love and decided to stay fused as Garnet permanently. They rarely unfuse anymore unless they are seriously injured."

"Then why did they unfuse now?" he asked.

"Emotional distress," Pearl answered simply.

"Oh." Emotional distress hadn't exactly been unusual in the temple since Steven had been born. Even though Garnet had been putting up a strong front, this type of thing made sense.

Okay… well, this didn't make sense. He didn't exactly understand what had happened and was still unable to comprehend the new knowledge that Garnet was actually two people. But, then again, he usually didn't understand what happened around The Gems.

He did understand, however, how being alone with one's thoughts and a baby who wouldn't stop crying might make someone fall apart (usually not quite that literally, but…).

"How has Steven been?" Pearl hedged and he knew that she must actually care because she had never bothered to fill the awkward silences between them before.

For the next few minutes, Greg told Pearl about everything Steven had done in the past few days and explained what it meant for a human. She asked some in-depth questions about teething and how to deal with it. She was just about to start in about the book on human infant nutrition she'd read when Greg heard heavy footsteps coming into the temple.

Greg had never thought he'd see Garnet look sheepish, but that was how he interpreted the expression on her face. "Sorry," she said simply, "I panicked."

"Eh, it's okay," Greg reassured her. "Steven's fine."

"He was crying," she pointed out.

"Babies always cry," he waved her off, "just give him something cold to chew on next time."

"I think I can handle that," she said with a bit of a smirk, but Greg could see she was still unsure.

Greg sighed and walked over to her. Her arms automatically came up to accept the bundle dropped into him. Steven made a happy sound around Greg's thumb when he saw her. He'd probably been even more stressed out by the disappearance of Garnet than the teething in the first place. Greg slowly slipped his thumb out of Steven's mouth and Garnet replaced it with her own finger.

"Those are his teeth?" she asked probably feeling the bumps under his gums.

"Yep. He'll be a bit fussy for a little while until the tooth breaks through his gums."

"That is all that was wrong?" she asked just to make sure.

"That's all that was wrong," he confirmed.

She seemed to relax after that, looking down at the baby in her arms with a soft expression that she reserved for him only. "You're going to completely destroy me, aren't you?" she asked the baby. Steven reached a hand up toward her face and cooed at her in agreement.

That baby was going to destroy all of them.