It was about 10.00 in the morning.
It had been four weeks since the incident with the Morganite facility, and group had stopped by for a couple nights by a motel called: Shell Town Motel' and were right now standing by the van at the motel's parking-lot.
They had just gotten home from grocery-shopping, told by the two bags beside the van.
Everyone looked quite confused, at the worst, worried.
Garnet was sitting on the floor on the back of Greg's van, feet on the ground. She looked a bit dizzy, but apart from that, okay.
Pearl watched her. "I just don't get what could cause all these black-outs." She said a bit frustrated, hand on her chin.
Amethyst just shrugged and threw a burrito into her mouth and swallowed it whole.
"Maybe she's sick?" Steven suggested, sitting on the van's floor with his feet dangling over the side.
"Gems can't get sick, Steven." Pearl corrected him.
"Speak for yourself." Amethyst shuddered, all green in the face and holding her stomach. "Ughh, that burrito did not work well with those cans of old tuna I ate earlier." She burped loudly, letting out a green cloud of breath.
"Amethyst! Those containers has been filled over the limit ever since we got here!" Pearl exclaimed. She then sighed in annoyance. "Besides, no doctor would ever accept to take in a being from outer space." She crossed her arms.
"Maybe we should ask to stay a few more days before we get back on the road." Greg suggested, sitting on the ground before them.
"Out of the question." Garnet grunted. "I'm alright."
"You heard the boss, Gregory." Amethyst shrugged, standing up, still green in the face, before burping again.
Though it was hard to see any reaction of Garnet at all, Steven could still see a tense expression on her face.
Later that day, about early afternoon, Steven was laying on one of the beds of their small motel-room.
He laid on his back, swiping through pictures on his phone.
He just laid amused as he watched through all the posts from all his friends in Beach City.
Sour Cream had been a DJ on a concert, Mr. Smiley had found a working partner with his old friend.
He sighed and continued scrolling.
Sadie and Lars had made a brand new donut, and there was a memory-picture from one year ago with Ronaldo holding hands with a young woman, both holding a sign which said 'Bye Beach City. Hello Shell Town hospital!'.
"Huh?" Steven then noticed how the woman beside Ronaldo was wearing a doctors-robe, probably just for show. "W-w-what?!" Steven exclaimed, scrolling up to see the text above.
'Ronaldo Fryman with Vera Mable.'
He quickly stood up and rushed out of the room. "GUUYYS!"
The next thing Garnet knew, she was sitting in the backseat in Greg's van, on her way to the hospital. Where she just sat cross- armed and looking at nothing with a soft frown on her face.
"Stupid battle of will." She muttered quietly to herself, nervously tapping her fingers against her shoulder.
They parked on the hospital parking-lot and were soon walking in the halls of the hospital, Steven and Greg first, Garnet last.
Greg crouched down to Steven's level. "Hey, Stu-ball. No offense to the gems or anything, but what doctor would agree to take gems as patients?" He asked him in a soft whisper.
"She used to be in a relationship with Ronaldo." Steven answered.
"There we go..." Greg mumbled in realization as they continued walking.
Garnet was not in a good mood the whole time.
Soon they were sitting in a room, Garnet sitting cross-armed on the bed and Steven and Greg standing by.
When at last, a woman opened the door and walked inside.
"Good day. My name is Dr. Mable." She introduced herself as she walked inside, looking at her papers and holding a cup of coffee.
She wasn't that tall, but she had a healthy body with some meat on her bones. Her skin was light and her hair caramel, all tied up in a very messy bun which caused hair sticking out from all sides of her head. Her eyes were green and her face was decorated with a pair of big, round glasses.
She smiled towards the boy before her.
"You must be Steven." She said as she shook his hand. "Ronaldo used to tell me so much about you and your family."
"The gems?" Steven asked intrigued.
"Yes!" Dr. Mable grinned. "That your family really are aliens from space, who burst through the ground all to serve under the Universal apocalyptic era, and that they all are named after gemstones, which are the cores of your light-bonded beings!"
"Wow! You sure know a lot about us!" Steven stuttered, quite uncomfortable. "I might have to update Ronaldo on our history, but the rest sounded right." He then mumbled. "So you're not upset that we're actually aliens?" He asked to make sure.
"I have watched too many Anime series and horror movies to get surprised of anything anymore." Dr. Mable chuckled as she turned around and picked up a note plate from the desk.
"So. You have been troubled with sudden black-outs?" She said as she sat down before Garnet, throwing one leg over the other. "How long has this been going on?"
Garnet thought for a moment. "Four weeks." She replied plainly.
"Four weeks." Dr. Mable wrote it down. "Any other symptoms? Fever? Maybe?"
"Gems don't really get sick." Steven explained. "Except food-poisoning, though."
"I see." Vera nodded and stood up. "Let's start with a random standard examination and go from there."
And so, during the next hour, Dr. Mable examined Garnet in every way she could.
She tried her reflexes for a reaction, using her tool to gently tab Garnet above the knee.
There was absolutely no reaction whatsoever. Not even a little.
The doctor frowned, trying once more. Nothing.
She looked up at Garnet in question, who simply shrugged with an unknowing hum.
Later on, it was time for the eyes and she had asked Garnet to remove her visor. But the second she revealed her three eyes looking at her, she fainted. Nothing surprised her, huh?
But after she recovered, she shone a light into all three of her eyes. No reaction whatsoever. If not, her third eye was a bit sensitive for the light so it made it a bit difficult to do the examination.
She examined her mouth, placing a wooden stick on her tongue and shone a light inside. Nothing.
At one time, she was about to examine her ears. But it was quite difficult because of Garnet's thick hair.
She tried to dig inside the hair, searching for ears, she looked about, she climbed, one time she even tried cutting the hair with a scissor but it broke in half.
At last, she had tried pulling the hair back but only ended up loosing grip and fell to the ground.
Dr. Mable looked at her frustrated, as if she asked herself if she even had ears?!
Garnet just simply shrugged with an unknowing hum.
She tried to check her blood-pressure with one of those things you wrap around the arm. But no matter how much she tightened the tool around the arm, nothing was shown.
She tried to check her height, but she was so insecure if the hair would count or not. She tried to push it down, but it stayed where it was.
By this point Dr. Mable had failed so many times because of her strange body she decided to do a X-ray of her arm, as if to see if she even had bones. Which was right, because the only thing seen on the picture was a gem.
And by this time, Dr. Mable had grown crazy of the result and teared a few papers in half, her hair all messy as if she was going crazy.
At last, almost two hours later, she sat down exhaustedly in her chair, tired and frustrated.
She sighed heavily, taking off her glasses and cleaning them with the lower part of her shirt.
"No reflexes. Three eyes. Possibly no ears. Definitely NO bones..." She sighed as she replaced her glasses.
Steven smiled nervously as he stepped over and handed her a cup of coffee.
"Yeah. It's weird sometimes." He chuckled.
"This is even weirder than CSS. Complete Silver Sorcery." The doctor took a sip of her coffee, looking up at Garnet sitting on the table in thought.
"Explain her symptoms again to me, please." She sighed, grabbing a note plate and a pen.
"Well..." Steven began insecure. "Nothing more than black-outs. Suddenly she just-." With his hand, he made a falling gesture.
Vera hummed. "My first guess would be low blood pressure. But she doesn't have any to begin with." She thought loud, staring up at the ceiling. "Could be seizures too, but I bet she doesn't have a brain either." She mumbled. Immediately, she apologized to the gem in front of her. "No offence."
"Not taken." Garnet mumbled.
The doctor then looked over her notes. Her eyes went from top to bottom, watching all the crossed examinations until she had reached the last word at the bottom. She tapped it with her pen. "The last thing we can do is to check her heart-beat and pulse. But considering the circumstances..."
"Hey. Don't beat yourself up." Steven tried to calm her. He and Greg had for the past two hours sat outside on one of the benches. "Let's give it a try and if you can't do anything, we'll just try something else." He shrugged.
Vera looked at him before standing with a deep sigh.
A few moments later.
"Here goes nothing." She mumbled as she put the plugs in her ears.
"This could be a bit cold." She warned and placed the diaphragm of the stethoscope against Garnet's chest.
She listened for a while, moved it, changed sides. She frowned. "No heart-beat." She confirmed as she grabbed her notes and wrote it down. "That explains the blood-pressure."
She then grabbed Garnet's right hand and put the diaphragm against her gem. All she heard was an odd, metallic sound coming from it. She lifted the piece and the sound stopped, she replaced it and it returned. "That's interesting." She hummed.
She tried the same thing with her left hand. Same result. She hummed intrigued and wrote it down.
Moments later she was placing diaphragm between Garnet's shoulder blades.
"Now. Breathe in." Garnet inhaled. "Breathe out." Garnet did as she was told.
They repeated the process for a few minutes as Dr. Mable moved the diaphragm lower and lower down her spine. Which she didn't have. Until a a familiar sound caught her attention.
"Hm?" She hummed, removing the piece. The sound disappeared. She replaced it, it came back, she removed it, it disappeared. It was similar to what she had heard earlier, but it was way, way fainter.
"Garnet. Could you please lift your arms out?" She begged and instructed her to stretch her arms to the sides.
Again, she replaced the piece against her lower back, where her stomach would be, and the sound returned. Only very faint.
She took off the stethoscope and flew up to her feet. "Wait here a second." She told her before exiting the room.
Garnet watched her leave before looking down as her hands twitched.
Meanwhile, Steven and Greg sat outside. Greg was half asleep and Steven played with his hands.
Steven worriedly picked his phone up. 18.42. He sighed and put it back in his pocket. "I hope she's okay." He muttered.
Greg woke up slightly and wrapped his arm around his son. "Of course she is. She's Garnet. I saw her get hit by a car once and she didn't even notice." He chuckled.
Steven smiled as well before Dr. Mabel opened the door.
"Mr. Universe. Could I borrow you for a moment?" She asked.
Greg sat up in surprise. "Uh, sure." He turned to his son. "Hey, Stu-ball. Do you remember those baguettes with salad and that yellow goo with chicken, we used to eat when you were little?"
Steven's pupils turned into stars. "You mean The Chicken Majesty Combo?" He asked.
"Yeah. Why don't you go see if they have one in the cafeteria? I'll be right back." Greg then stood up.
Steven saluted him before running off down the hallway.
"Is something wrong?" Greg asked before they entered the room.
"It just would be nice to talk to someone who I'm sure of has a brain." Dr. Mable said, a bit frustrated as she shut the door behind them.
One moment later.
"First. Listen here." She put the diaphragm against her gem. He heard the sound. "And now listen here." She removed the piece to her stomach instead. Same sound, but fainter. Not as faint as from the back, but still.
"It's sounds the same." Greg said.
"Exactly." Vera nodded.
Meanwhile, Steven was strolling down the hallway. Though, he wasn't that comfortable.
Maybe half of all the lamps hanging in the ceiling was glitching. The rest of the hallway seemed rather dark still.
He passed doctors and nurses every now and then, and sometimes visitors and patients.
"They better fix the lamps here soon. Yesterday I almost tripped over a kid." A female nurse said to her companion as they passed them.
The silence and the whole atmosphere of the hospital freaked him out.
"Don't be silly, Steven. Hospitals aren't scary." He told himself. "They are just a place where they help people get well, that just happens to have electrical problems."
He heard an odd sound and he gasped and started walking faster.
One after one the room passed him. Until one of them caught his eye.
It was a small room with one bed. And in that bed, laid an old man. Skinny, gray-haired and all wrinkly in the face, tied to tubes and one of those things they use to help people breathe covering his mouth and nose. He was breathing slowly, clearly asleep.
A dark-haired nurse suddenly passed Steven, walking in and started fixing with the machines beside him.
"Um... excuse me..." Steven squeaked shyly. "If I may ask, why is he in here?" He asked.
The nurse turned around to look at him. "He's in a coma." She explained.
"What's that?" Steven asked.
"It's a condition, often caused by physical or internal trauma." The nurse explained as she moved the quilt higher up on the elderly man's chest. "Mr. Sanders hasn't been awake for two years."
"That's so sad." Steven sighed, feeling bad.
"It is." The nurse nodded. "I don't blame him though. In my years I've worked here, not a single person has ever visited him." She sat down on the bed-side and nodded to the emptiness around the patient.
No flowers, no get well-cards. Nothing.
Steven watched sadly.
When suddenly, there was an odd sound coming from somewhere in the room. The nurse frowned. "Those dang mice! I've told them to call in the pest control but nobody ever listens to me." She hissed with a heavy sigh. She stood up and closed the door behind her. "Did you need help with anything?" She asked Steven.
"No. No. I'm fine. I'm- gonna go." He said and started walking again.
The nurse watched him leave. And then, she just shrugged and walked away. "Weird kid."
"Alright. This is a picture of a homo sapiens." Dr. Mable explained, gesturing to a picture of a human skeleton. She then changed to another picture, an empty one with two gems on each side. "This is the picture we took of Garnet." She explained.
"Like the first picture we took of Garnet's arm, it has no bone-structure at all." She changed to the picture of Garnet's arm. "But this is what braffles me." She changed the picture back and with the pointing-stick, pointed it at a place right in the middle of her abdomen, where there was another, circular gem.
Garnet immediately tensed.
Greg frowned in distrust. "Is that a-."
"That's a gem." Dr. Mable ended for him. "A complete, healthy gem."
The duo could just watch in distrust.
"I am quite positive it's not how 'gems' would put it-." Dr. Mable began. "But in human terms, we would describe it as..."
"Pregnant." Greg looked back at Garnet in distrust.
Garnet's visor hid a lot. But they could see she wasn't pleased with the news either. Her mouth was twisted in a grimace and she looked away, trying to progress.
"Aww! They're closed?!" Steven exclaimed disappointedly. He had at last reached the cafeteria down at the end of the hall, and it was closed?! He sighed in annoyance and then started walking away down the way he came. "It would be nice with some fry-bits right now." He sighed dreamily. "Or Kofi's pizza, or a hot, delicious fresh donut from Sadie and Lars." He started drawling almost.
He picked his phone up and clicked himself to messages. No messages.
He sighed and replaced it in his pocket as he strolled down the hallway, passing the room with toilet stalls. "I wonder if any of them even misses me." He sighed. "I know Connie does but... don't they? Just a little bit?"
He passed a toy-machine. One of those you put a coin in and and then rotate a handle. And it started to rumble.
"Huh?" Steven stopped and looked at it. Nothing. He shrugged and then started walking again. And that's when it started to rumble again.
"Huh?!" This time, Steven stepped back and looked at it.
It shook and rumbled again.
Steven grimaced. "Hospitals aren't scary, you said Universe? It's a living toy-machine. Not scary, right?" He hissed to himself as he tip-toed over to the machine.
Inside the transparent plastic/glass, was a pile of balls with toys in. And one of them looked very familiar somehow. Maybe because of the blue gem on its forehead.
"A- a gem!" He gasped.
The little lizard-looking gem moved again around the balls.
"H-hang on! I'm gonna get you out of there!" Steven shouted, immediately digging in his pocket after his wallet. He picked it up, picking up a coin. "Aha!" He put in in and rotated the handle.
A ball rolled out and he caught it with his hand. He frowned. "Ahh! Not a toy!" He exclaimed and grabbed another coin and put in in.
Another toy.
Steven was starting to get mad. "No! No! No! I don't want a toy!" He grabbed the machine and started shaking it. "I! Don't! Want! A! Toy!" He shouted.
When suddenly, the hatch on the back opened and the balls just flooded out.
And so did the gem.
"There you are!" Steven sighed in relief.
As it turned out, it was quite big creature, almost the size of a really big lizard. It was green, but had no eyes. And at the back it had plates like a dinosaur.
It stumbled over the toy-balls and looked around nervously.
"Now. Don't be scared." Steven whispered as he slowly approached her. "If you calm down, I can take you to a friend and we can help you. Doesn't that sound good?" He asked kindly.
He reached his arm out and the corrupted gem hissed at him. But as his hand came too close, she hissed loudly and showed her teeth before she ran off in the halls,
And once she was out of sight, he could hear people scream.
"Oh boy…."
"Ronaldo explained to me when I still lived in Beach City that gems's bodies reflects through their gemstones and that's where they get their energy from." Dr. Mable explained to them, using the pointing-stick to point at the picture. "He also told me that during a gem's growing state, it's sucking the energy out of the ground. With other words, what holds it."
"That would explain the sudden black-outs, if my hypothesis is correct." She continued. "I am sure the gem is already forming a physical form, only we can't see it on the X-ray." She them explained, making circular motions around the gem with her stick. She then put the stick together.
"Tell me, Garnet. Has anything out of the ordinary happened lately?" She turned towards her patient, holding her notes. "Something that we could assume is the cause of all this?"
Garnet looked down, thinking.
And from our point of view, we could see the memory reflecting through her visor of how she was back at the Morganite Facility, in the basement inside the Essence Chamber. And how one of the guards had punched her in the chest and made her fall into the essence-pool with a splash.
The reflection disappeared as she looked up again. "Yes." She answered plainly. "What an un-foreseen turn of events." Se said almost ironically as she rest back against the wall and crossed her arms.
"Wait, you knew?!" Greg exclaimed.
"It was a suspicion." Garnet corrected him, adjusting her visor. "I just for once wanted to prove my future vision wrong."
"Why didn't you tell any of us?!" Greg didn't exclaim, more a louder question.
"Because I wasn't sure myself." Garnet admitted honestly.
When suddenly, they heard screaming. Outside, dussins of people, nurses and visitors ran past the room. And following, was the corrupted gem. And not far behind her, ran Steven.
"Don't panic! She's just scared!" He shouted.
"Steven?" Greg raised an eyebrow.
"STEVEN!" Garnet shouted and ran out of the room.
"Wait! Your copy!" Vera shouted, waving with a small picture.
"I'll take it." Greg said as he grabbed it and put it in his pocket.
"No offense, but this has been the weirdest day of my life." Vera chuckled.
"Welcome to my world." Greg muttered and rushed outside. "I'm coming Steven!"
Steven was running after the creature, but lost track of it.
Garnet approached him soon enough, gauntlets ready.
"The creature." She demanded.
"I don't know where it went!" Steven shrieked, looking about after her.
Soon they heard small, quick footsteps from their left.
"There!" Garnet shouted and they ran over.
Greg tried to keep up, panting and sweating heavily.
"Hey guys!" He panted. "Hang on a sec!"
Garnet and Steven ran down the hall until they had reached a dead end.
"Where did she go?!" Steven asked.
"We need to evacuate the hospital!" Garnet stated.
"No! Wait! Look!" He pointed forward.
There she was. The creature. She was hiding beneath a candy-machine.
But something wasn't quite right. She was hiding, and shaking. Like if she was afraid. Afraid of something around her.
"Huh?" Steven looked up. There was a lamp which was glitching from light to darkness within seconds.
"You're scared." Steven's eyes widened at the revelation. "You must have thought it was so scary, with all the lamps glitching on and off." He sat down on his knees. He slipped closer with a few inches. "It's okay. I think hospitals are scary too." He leaned his hand forward.
The creature stepped back.
"It's okay. Come on. You're safe with us." Steven smiled.
The creature sniffed his fingers.
"There! Not that scary, right? Come on out." Steven cheered.
The creature took a step out from under the machine.
When suddenly-
The light glitched from light to darkness.
She hissed and tried to bite Steven. But Garnet quickly grabbed him and pulled him back.
The sudden movement of the creature made the plates on her back jolt the machine around. To the point of it falling.
"NO!" Steven screamed.
But it was too late. The machine fell and the creature poofed, It's gem flying off to the side.
Steven quickly ran over and bubbled it and held it in his hands sadly.
"She wasn't dangerous." He sighed, holding her. Garnet rest a hand on his shoulder. "She was just scared. And needs company."
"I'm sorry, Steven." Garnet told him supprtingly.
When suddenly, Greg managed to keep up with them, completely out of breath. "You…you guys…o…okay?" He asked between heavy breaths.
"Yeah." Steven smiled back at him. "And I think I have an idea."
Steven held the bubble above the desk.
"There you go." He whispered as he gently placed it on top of of the desk behind the bed. "Now you don't have to be scared anymore. Because now you have company." He stepped back to see better.
Garnet moved the blanket a bit higher on the old man's chest.
Now the old man wasn't alone anymore. He was from now on always have someone by his side. And so would she.
Greg entered the room, holding a bouquet of yellow flowers. Steven took them and put them in the vase on the desk.
Steven dried a tear away from his cheek. Greg laid an arm around him before they started walking.
At the way home, it was peace and quiet in the darkness. Greg drove, Garnet sat back in the backseat and Steven sat beside her.
"It was a good thing you did back there, Steven." Garnet told him, giving him a proud smile
"Yeah?" Steven smiled back. "I just thought that… even though the corrupted gems don't remember who they used to be…. They're still gems. Right?"
Garnet smiled again. "That's right."
Steven jumped closer to her and rest his head against her thigh. Garnet rest a hand on his back.
"You remind me so much of your mother." Garnet told him lowly. "She always saw other gems as equals, not strangers."
"Yeah?" Steven smiled tiredly. "Well, what would life be if we always are strangers to each-other? Just charing life should be what keeps us together."
"And giving life to you, must have been a light on the way." Garnet ruffled his head. And they fell silent.
After what felt like hours, Greg looked back at them through the mirror.
Steven was loud asleep in Garnet's lap. Garnet herself was staring out the window. But he couldn't help but notice the tear running down her cheek.