Garnet knew that Rose would reform, had known it was something that would happen the moment Steven's physical body turned to dust.
She couldn't tell when rose would reform and, painfully, a part of her could not care to look further into the future to find the moment. Her vision, both future and present, was clouded with grief. She had been so certain that the pain watching Rose fad away and turn into a bundle of flesh and nerves would be the worst pain ever.
Oh, how wrong she had been.
While Rose had guided her on loving herself, Steven had shown her how to love the world around her.
Rose had her through a war against Homeworld, Steven lead them through peace talks.
Rose had been the start of something beautiful. Steven had been the final product.
There was no quelling this ache. Garnet even split herself apart, to see if the terrible grief belonged to one Gem more than the other. Ruby and Sapphire did not need to be apart for long to know that this was a shared pain expressing itself in different ways.
Ruby could not stay still. Her tears became steam against her face before they could fall.
Sapphire could not move. Her tears never got a chance to form, she was frozen solid from the inside out.
When they fused again, their extremes of grief melding together once more, Garnet hugged herself and wept. It hurt more, in a way, to feel this loss together. But, like this, they could at least cry.
Garnet had been worried when a vision came to her, months after Steven had died and only two weeks since Lars had left their company. She could see Rose reforming soon. What she could not see, though, was how she would react to the death of her son. Would she come back, expecting everything to be the same as when she left? Could she even begin to understand how much Steven had meant to so many?
Would she even want to understand?
These thoughts plagued Garnet for weeks as she waited, day by day, second by second, for the once leader of the Crystal Gems to reform herself.
The day comes and, when it does, Garnet knows her fears had been unfounded.
When Rose reformed, tears already streaming down her cheeks, she knew. In some way or another, Rose knew how beloved her son was, had grown to love him just as they had, and grieved for his lose too.
They had never seen her cry like this before. Her tears had always had a certain regal flair to them, sliding down her face without fuss, dropping off her full cheeks and chin delicately. The tears she cried when she reformed though, were unrefined and raw. Sobs wracked her body and, despite all three of them holding her, consoling her, telling her how happy they were she was back, her anguish knew no end.
She never spoke, even when her tears had subsided for a moment in time, she would not speak.
Pearl was always at her side, telling her every little thing she could remember about Steve.
Amethyst showed her the numerous pictures and images she had been saving over the years. She gave a running dialogue as she did, pointing out each little detail of anecdote.
Garnet just sat with her, a quite reverence between them.
It's nearly a hundred years after her reforming that she finally says anything.
"Who's this boy that Steven is always with?"
Garnet had been the only one present. Rose had photobook after photobook open, lovingly looking at Steven in each photo. Garnet looked to where she was pointing and a small grin came to her face.
"That's Lars, Rose. Steven accidentally healed him with his tears while on Homeworld. He left our company only a little while after Steven…"
Died.
Even after a century, she still couldn't bring herself to say it.
"Was he human, Garnet?"
"Yes. At one point he was."
Rose only nodded and turned her attention back to the books around her.
When she's gone the next day, Garnet is not surprised. Both Amethyst and Pearl are besides themselves, questioning why Rose would leave them again, where had she gone, would she be coming back?
"Don't worry you two. She's just gone to find Lars. She'll be back before you know it."
When one week became a month became a year became a century, Garnet knew Rose must be taking her sweet time. As much as she tried, Rose had always been one Gem that always seemed to throw her future vision for a loop. She saw time and time again, Rose returning without Lars. Then something would happen, her drive would be reinvigorated by something, and she would begin her search anew.
When a vision came to her, of Rose and Lars returning together, she knew this time it would been for certain.
The day came when, from afar, Pearl spotted a familiar ringlet pink hair and had cried out in joy.
As they ran to meet her, Garnet could hear a sound she hadn't heard in years.
Rose was laughing. Lars was laughing.
Somehow, some way, whatever it was that the human had said to her. But she knew, deep within the components of herself, that Rose had finally started to heal.
All because of a human.
