Supplies

Pearl was sitting on the warp pad in the temple. Steven was lying on a blanket beside her. Greg had left the blanket with Steven and now Garnet had left with Amethyst to get human provisions. Pearl had protested at first at being left alone with the baby, but watching him flail his tiny little hands happily caught her interest.

The newborn had a very fixated gaze and Pearl felt like he was constantly staring directly at her. He looked so much like her when he did. He grabbed at one of her fingers and wrapped his whole fist around it. She couldn't help the smile that came to her face. "You are awfully cute." She whispered. Steven made a happy sound.

Pearl picked the baby up and held him close to her. "Oh Steven, you are going to okay. You know why? Because you are a Chrystal Gem, and you have us to take care of you now."

"Aww she LIKES him!" Pearl jumped slightly but managed to keep from jarring the infant. Amethyst had returned and had shape-shifted to have eight arms in which she carried bags and bags of groceries, baby books, and other things Pearl couldn't even imagine the use for. Humans where so strange.

"Amethyst, you need to be careful about yelling around Steven." Garnet warned, but there was no heat behind her words. Amethyst looked bashfully at the taller gem. "It's alright." Garnet was carrying a large stack of two-by-fours and a bucket of nails as which she dropped at the cave entrance.

"What is all this?" Pearl stood up rocking Steven intuitively. Garnet smiled at her friend's remarked improvement. She knew that leaving Pearl alone with Steven would be the best way to get the two to bond. Pearl held Steven rather possessively as Amethyst stood on tiptoes to look at him.

"He's so squirmy." She commented touching his fluffy hair.

"We need to build a stable environment for Steven." Garnet said, gently putting her hand on Pearl's back.

"A wha—" Pearl looked up, her blue eyes swirling with confusion.

"That's what the book said anyway." Garnet pulled out a parenting book she had picked up in town. Pearl looked skeptically at the human book.

"Yeah," Amethyst said enthusiastically, her whole body bouncing with excitement, "it's got all kinds of stuff about how to deal with babies, and food, and diapers, and and and" she trailed off flipping through the book after grabbing it from Garnet's hand, "and supportive parenting- whatever that means."

"It means," Garnet grabbed the book back, "that we are going to baby-proof the temple."

"Baby-proof?" Pearl asked in confusion.

"Just watch Steven and take him out of the cave for a bit." Garnet said. Pearl grabbed Steven's blanket and took him to one of the rocks just outside the entrance to the temple.

"Okay Steven we're going to wait here while Garnet and Amethyst get everything ready for you." The baby gurgled softly and he smiled at Pearl. She felt her eyes tear up, his smile was so like his mother's.