June 1, 1976
Beach City, DV
Pearl woke up to a nice late spring day, the kind of immaculate morning she could only see at Beach City. The Sun glowing over the ocean, a slight breeze ruffling the sand. The first bustloads of summer tourists starting to arrive, swarming the boardwalks and crowding the beaches. And making business.
As she got dressed, she looked at her prized picture of Rose and herself, one of the few pictures she'd saved from the Gems' DC apartment. Stared at longingly for a long moment, then with a sort of comfort. She could move on with her life. Rose would always be a part of her, something she couldn't escape, but her memory seemed less painful now.
She knew she'd lived out part of Rose's legacy, as best she could. They'd retrieved the Family Jewels and given them to Congress, the press, anyone who printed everything. Unfortunately, they made only a minor stir. The CIA was no longer news. Frank Church saw his presidential campaign go down in flames, to be replaced as front-runner by a no-name peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter.
With the Bicentennial about a month away, and an election in the fall, nobody wanted to think about government misdeeds any longer. It was all about patriotism and a sense of pride and renewal. Moving on from the sordid past of Watergate and Vietnam and intelligence abuses and endless hearings.
Pearl felt more than a little resentful at this outcome. The Jewels that they'd fought so hard, and risked so much for seemed like academic interest. She tried to justify it to herself - better that people know, it's not our fault that they won't do anything with it - which helped only a little. Which didn't make the resentment go away.
At least it helped in some concrete sense. Three awful people were dead (as much as Pearl, and the other Gems, hated killing, she could admit that a world without Aquamarine and Jasper and probably even Topaz was a better place); she and Lapis and the rest could move on with their lives and not have to live with the government looking over their shoulder.
Hopefully. There was no guarantee of that. She and the Gems still weren't fully physically recovered from their ordeal, all these months later. The scars on Pearl's stomach were still deep and red and likely to be permanent. And she still found it difficult to bend her body too far to the left, making her wonder how much that might inhibit
Now, she thought as she forced a t-shirt onto it was time to carry out another one of Rose's wishes. One she resented a bit more.
She went downstairs and saw Greg and Amethyst eating breakfast, sloppily shoveling cereal in their mouths.
"Hey Pearl," Amethyst said through a mouthful of Fruit Brute. "Gotta pick up a shipment of sauce for the restaurant before we open. Who knew that hot sauce would be so popular?"
"On tacos?" Greg asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Guess you're right," Amethyst repliede. "Still, hot weather, hot sauce..."
"That's what sour cream is for."
"Greg, I like the way you think!" Amethyst chortled, dribbling milk all over the table.
"Amethyst," Pearl reflexively muttered, rushing forward to clean up the mess with a tissue.
"Already looks pretty crowded out there," Greg said. "Saw a whole busload of people come in just after dawn. Talked to the driver and he said they were coming from Philadelphia."
"Guess they got tired of Jersey," Amethyst said.
"Them and me both." Greg rolled his eyes.
"Well, the summer rush has started," Pearl said, putting her hands on her hips. "This is the first summer we've had at the restaurant, and we've got to make a good impression. Our food is fine, our service is adequate, but we need everything to be exceptional to keep business steady."
"I'd say our food is better than fine," Greg grumbled. "We have dozens of repeat customers..."
"Which is fine when it's March and the only people coming in are the locals," Pearl replied. "But we're going to have hundreds, maybe even thousands of people coming through town every weekend. A few regulars aren't going to cut it."
"Pearl...seriously, relax!" Amethyst urged. "It's gonna be fine. People aren't looking for the most amazing food in the world, just something that'll make them full between swimming and shopping."
"I mean, it's pretty much impossible for a restaurant to fail around here," Greg added.
"Okay, fine," Pearl said. "But that doesn't mean...I mean, this is Rose's place. What would she think if...?"
"Rose would want us to have fun and enjoy ourselves," Amethyst interrupted. "I mean, this restaurant was her passion, not an obligation that she felt she needed to do."
"Hmm, I guess you're right," Pearl said, sighing. "I just want our place to be...as good as she'd make it."
"I wouldn't worry about that," Garnet said, walking downstairs.
"Teaching again today, huh?" Amethyst asked.
"Just today and tomorrow," Garnet said. "They're thinking about offering me a full-time position next year, so I have to make a good impression."
"You'll do fine, Garnet," Amethyst said.
"Besides, if you don't - and you will," Pearl added, "you'll always have a place working for us."
"Good to know," Garnet said, smiling slightly as she walked out the door.
"Come on, Pearl, grab something to eat before we head out," Amethyst said. "We're gonna have a busy day. Now we've got time to relax and, you know, chat."
Pearl looked at Amethyst and Greg and sighed.
"Rose would certainly like me to relax," Pearl admitted.
"That she would," Greg nodded.
Pearl sat down but didn't make herself any food. She just took in the scene around her, listening to her friends talk trying to make the most of their time before work.
It was peaceful, she admitted, and despite the strangeness of the arrangement, she realized that she could enjoy life again, even with the hole in heart missing.
Time doesn't heal all things, Pearl thought, but it does make them easier to manage.
And she smiled at that thought, as Amethyst told Greg another awful joke and he laughed and spewed coffee out his nose.
This time, Pearl didn't bother to scream or clean up their mess. She was just happy to be here.
Happy to be happy again.
Peridot wished she could enjoy her arrangement.
Everything was in place for her to be happy. She was working an easy job on a decent salary. She was living with the love of her life in a house (not an apartment...a house!). Now that she was working for Senator Dewey, she'd gone from hopeless girl nerd to important young woman whom everyone, even if they didn't like her, at least held her in respect. She was still young and had her life
What was there to dislike?
But somehow, it didn't click. Her mind needed to be engaged with things greater than shmoozing and shaking hands and remedial politico scuttwork. She still wanted to do more substantial stuff; shaping policy, helping people who weren't rich donors and town fat cats.
Making a difference. Being important.
She wondered whether her exile to Beach City wasn't a punishment after all, despite the Senator's secret sinecure and his honeyed words.
Still, she thought, there was Lapis. Who seemed together. And that almost made it worth the aggravation.
"What are you working on today?" Peridot asked, watching Lapis remove the cover off a canvas.
"Oh, just a little private piece," she said mysteriously, a smirk crinkling around the edges of her mouth.
"Private? Not something for the studio?" Peridot asked.
"Oh, no," Lapis said. "Not anything like that."
Anything like that? What did that mean?
"...Something I'm gonna regret wanting to know?" Peridot asked carefully.
Lapis snorted and giggled, a sound which made Peridot's heart skip a beat. Her laugh was much lighter and playful than it been before. But it didn't really relieve her anxiety.
"Maybe if I show it to someone else," Lapis said, admiring her handiwork with the same mischievous smirk.
It made Peridot swoon - and drove her crazy.
"All right, Lazuli!" she growled. "Let me see..."
"It's not quite finished yet..." Lapis protested.
"Lazuli, you can't taunt me like this and then not expect me to be curious..."
"I want you to be curious," Lapis said, "but not to see it until..."
But Peridot pushed her aside to look at the painting. And her jaw dropped open.
It was a painting of...them.
Embracing each other.
In the nude.
"Oh my..." Peridot couldn't say anything more. She was too mortified.
"Told you it wasn't done yet," Lapis said. Peridot hadn't even noticed that the painting stopped at their waistlines.
As if that was her objection.
"Jesus Christ, Lapis!" Peridot yelped. "You haven't shown this to anyone, have you? Have you let Vidalia see this? What about Amethyst? Holy shit, if Amethyst sees this..."
Lapis's face burst into a wide, teasing grin, not even bothering to hide her enjoyment any more.
"No, just us," she said.
"Thank God," Peridot muttered.
"You've gotta admit I'm getting better at this," she teased her partner. "I didn't even paint from life, and yet it came out looking so real..."
"Maybe too real," Peridot smirked, trembling with rage and embarrassment as she examined the painting closely. "I mean, did you really have to paint the mole under my right breast?"
"Why not? It's one of those little realistic details that tells you, this isn't an idealized figure, it's a real person who lived."
"And had a mole under her right breast."
"Exactly."
"Well, at least it's not full frontal," Peridot harrumphed.
"I thought about doing that," Lapis admitted, "but I'm still terrible at perspective. Can't draw people facing towards me, you know? Plus it would be kinda creepy."
"Whereas seeing yourself painted in the nude isn't creepy at all!" Peridot growled, looking like she was about to explode.
"Peridot, I think you're missing..." Lapis said, trying to calm her partner down. "Look, I'm sorry you're hung up on the mole, but there's a reason it's there. I mean..."
And she pointed haltingly to the paint of her own arm. Peridot saw, amidst the light olive skin tones, a deep pink blotch of paint.
Peridot gasped.
The scar on Lapis's wrist. If anything, it was bigger on the painting than it was in real life.
"I wanted this to be real," Lapis said, suddenly serious. "I mean, to capture us in this moment...how we were...who we are...when we're starting out and still confused and trying to make things work...And still getting over everything...But we're still happy and in love. It's warts and all. Or, moles and all. Or, scars and all..."
Peridot's mouth dropped open slightly. She felt all the anger within her deflate instantly.
"Besides," Lapis continued, trying to regain her jocular tone. "We're gonna be together for a long, long time. And we need to remind Old Lapis and Old Peridot how hot we are right now."
Peridot smirked. "Lazuli, I don't know about you but *I* plan to stay hot forever."
Lapis broke into a loud belly laugh. "You dork!"
Then she grabbed Peridot around the midsection and pulled her to the ground. The two lay there, looking up at the painting and laughing their heads off for a long time. Then they stopped, and hugged, and kissed each other several times.
Then they heard a noise. Looked up, and saw someone slip an envelope through the mail slot in the door. Then heard the footsteps racing away.
They froze. Peridot moved first, heading slowly towards the door. Lapis remained frozen, looking over at the cabinet where she kept her pistol but unable to move.
Peridot was too afraid to open the door. Instead, she reached down and grabbed the envelope off the ground.
It wasn't marked. No address, no postage, no writing of any kind.
Peridot slit the top open with her fingernail, afraid of what she'd find inside.
Lapis slowly edged over to join her as Peridot pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. There was a typewritten message, short, vague, but tantalizing...
"PROJECT DIAMOND=TERMINATED
"CARACAS-SANTIAGO=UNDER CONDOR'S SHADOW
"VIVA LA LIBERTAD"
Peridot's eyes widened as the implications sunk in. Fear, trepidation, and not a little excitement crossed her face.
She didn't have to understand all, or even any of it to lodge an educated guess. And she could tell, from Lapis's reaction, that she understood too.
Their time with the Crystal Gems wasn't over yet.
Author's note: Thanks for everyone who's managed to read this far! I appreciate your time, especially those who've left comments. I'm hoping to turn this work into an original novel in the future, so we'll see how that goes. Until next time!
