CHAPTER NINE.
Steven stared thoughtfully at his reflection. The suit still fitted, just as it had the day before. Hadn't he tried it on the day before that as well? He couldn't remember. "Still fits. Just like yesterday."
"Well you can't blame them for checking," Connie said cheerfully. "It wouldn't be the first time you've grown overnight, especially around an emotionally charged event-"
"And what could be a more emotionally charged event than my wedding?" he finished.
"Exactly." Connie grinned widely. "You're getting married in the morning!"
Steven stared at his reflection again. "Yeah," he said slowly. "In the morning."
xxx
Peridot stared down at her boyfriend in his hospital bed. If she forcibly ignored the wires and tubes attached to his body, he looked just like he was sleeping. Which if the medical reports were to be believed, was exactly what was happening. Except people didn't usually sleep for... "How long has he been this way?"
"A week," Greg said dully.
"A WEEK!?" she screeched in horrified outrage. "Wha- where are the doctors!? Why aren't they here, doing something? What could possibly be more important than Steven's health!?"
"I asked that same question," Pearl admitted. "And according to Connie's mother, the answer is 'repairing a torn aorta in an eight-year old child.'"
"There's nothing really they can do," Amethyst added. "He's not actually in a coma or anything, he hasn't taken any drugs or been deprived of oxygen or suffered head trauma. He's just... asleep."
"We know he has trouble waking after using his dream powers," Pearl continued. "So perhaps he just lost track of time when he was with you. Now you're awake, he should wake up as well any minute now!" And she peered hopefully at him in case saying it was enough to make it happen.
To her annoyance, Steven remained resolutely asleep.
"Give it a little longer," Amethyst suggested, patting her on the arm. "P-dot only woke up like, half an hour ago and we were piping music in her ears for an hour before that."
"Maybe... do you think it would be OK to ask the doctor to take another look at him?" Greg said timidly. "Just to see if there's any change now that Peridot's better?"
The Crystal Gems hesitated, but Peridot, who had not been present when Connie's mother had lost her temper with Pearl for calling her five times in an hour, lunged for the alarm and pressed it hard.
"I suppose we can always blame it on her," Pearl murmured as they heard footsteps approaching.
"Well yeah, it's true," Amethyst whispered back, but as the door opened and Doctor Maheswaran stepped into the room, they both stepped behind Greg, just in case.
"Yes, what it is?" she asked, thinly-veiled irritation in her voice.
"Steven requires further examination," Peridot announced, gesturing towards him as she spoke.
"This happened because he was using his dream powers to contact Peridot," Garnet quickly explained as Doctor Maheswaran frowned. "Now that she's awake, the connection should be broken. Would you mind taking a look at him to see if there's any change?"
Doctor Maheswaran's expression softened. "Oh, I see. Very well then. If you could just give me a few minutes?"
The little group left the room, some a little more reluctant than others, and waited impatiently in the hallway for her to let them in again. It was only ten minutes, but it felt at least ten times longer. But finally, she poked her head around the door frame and beckoned them back in.
"Well, right now, there's no change in his condition," Doctor Maheswaran said, getting straight to the point. "But as I've said to you before, I have no idea how his gem powers work and I'm not willing to make any guesses as to when he'll wake up. However, he's still completely stable, which I believe is a good sign, and there does appear to be a slight improvement to the rash-"
"Rash?" Garnet and Peridot interrupted in unison.
"Oh, yeah, Doctor Maheswaran told me she spotted a faint rash on him a couple of days ago," Greg spoke up.
"I took swabs and sent them down to the lab," Doctor Maheswaran said, flicking through her notes to find the relevant information. "Let's see... oh, yes, the results were inconclusive. Probably just a heat rash. He was prescribed a topical steroid treatment. I have to go and do my rounds now, but I'll tell the nurses to check his vitals every half an hour and to let me know if there's any change." And before anybody could question her further, she swept out of the room.
Garnet turned on Greg at once. "What do you mean, he has a rash!? Where!? Why didn't you tell us!?"
"She- she said it's just a heat rash," Greg stammered, taken by surprise. "I didn't think it was important-"
"Not important!?" Pearl butted in shrilly. "Have you seen Peridot!?"
"Yeah, homegirl looks like someone flicked a loaded paintbrush at her," Amethyst added, pointing accusingly at the other gem. Peridot flushed and shrank into her sweater as Greg turned to stare at her. "And you didn't think to tell us that Steven's got spots too?"
"Wait, are you saying you think he might be corrupted!?" Greg shook his head in disbelief. "He can't be, you all said so, the song doesn't affect humans. Yeah, I know, he's half gem," he added as Garnet opened her mouth. "But his human side's always protected him from this sort of stuff before."
"That's true," Garnet grudgingly admitted, recalling how he'd freed her Ruby and Sapphire from Peridot's ship several years earlier. "But still, we can't afford to ignore this-"
"The song!" Peridot blurted out. "It worked for me," she hastily explained as everyone turned to look at her. "If Steven truly is showing signs of corruption, then it should work for him too. Or maybe just the noise will be enough to wake him up."
"I suppose it can't hurt to try," Pearl acknowledged. "I'll go and fetch the tablet."
"Uh, I'll fetch it," Amethyst objected at once, who over the last few weeks had come to think of the tablet as her responsibility.
"You can both go and get it," Garnet butted in before a fight could break out. "Quickly, please."
Neither of them looked particularly pleased with that instruction, but they left the room with minor grumbling. Shortly afterwards, Greg excused himself, partly because the silence was making him uncomfortable and partly because his need to pee was making him more uncomfortable still.
For a few more seconds, Garnet and Peridot continued to sit in silence, and then Peridot finally tore her gaze away from Steven's face. "Do... do you really think he could be corrupted?" she asked.
"I think it's a possibility," Garnet admitted. "He had trouble waking up the first time and I suspected then that it could be corruption, but he persuaded me otherwise."
"He assured me that he was fine." Peridot groaned and closed her eyes briefly, feeling sick with guilt. She should've tried harder to send him away, she silently admonished herself, but she'd just been so relieved to have him there. "You should've poofed me before he could return."
Garnet fell silent again. "I almost did," she finally confessed. "I had my hands around your waist, all I had to do was squeeze. But I couldn't go through with it."
"Oh." Peridot blinked and inched away slightly. She hadn't quite expected Garnet to agree with her and it was a little unnerving to hear how close she'd been to being poofed. Still... "I suppose I would've understood your reasoning."
"Hmm." Garnet smiled faintly. "Unfortunately, nobody else would've. Steven remaining asleep for an indefinite amount of time was actually one of the better futures I saw."
"Oh," Peridot said again. She turned her attention back to Steven again and bit her lip. "Did you happen to see any where he woke up?"
"No," Garnet said flatly. "But," she continued, "for what it's worth, I didn't see any where you woke up either. So I have to admit, I'm a lot more hopeful now than I was twenty-four hours ago. There's no reason why Greg's song shouldn't cure Steven the way it did you. Or even-"
But then she reigned herself in. It was too soon to hope that the song could cure everyone. Right now she would settle for curing Steven.
xxx
"You're getting married in the morning!" Connie squealed with delight.
"Yeah," Steven said absently, massaging his brow to try and ease ache behind his eyes. "Bet you wish you were getting married tomorrow as well."
Connie's eyes lit up. "Tomorrow's probably a bit soon for us to get married, but I could propose," she suggested.
"Yeah. Ow." He winced and closed his eyes for a moment. "You could put a ring in the bouquet and have Peridot throw it to..." He trailed off. "I've never met Alice, have I?"
"No," Connie said serenely. "Her family live on the other side of the state, she generally visits them when we're not at college."
"But she's met your family, right?" he pressed. Surely Connie wouldn't propose to somebody her parents had never met-
"Of course, Mom and Dad met her when they came to visit me," Connie said before the thought had even finished crossing his mind. "And she did come to Beach City once, but you had a gem thing going on?"
"Yeah?" He frowned, trying to remember-
"Yeah, it was when Peridot was corrupted. You slept right through her visit."
"Oh." Steven fell silent and stepped back into the dressing room to change back into his regular clothes. Still, something was bothering him. "Do you have a photo of her?" he asked once he'd stepped back outside.
For the first time, Connie looked uncertain. "Um... maybe. She's a bit camera shy," she said hesitantly. "So I haven't got any good ones of her-"
"Can I see anyway?" Suddenly it seemed very important that he see a picture of Alice.
"...OK," Connie relented, scrolling through her phone and looking rather unhappy about it. "But I warn you, they're not very good."
She was right. The few photographs of Alice were badly blurred and out of focus. It was impossible to even make out the color of her hair. Steven swiped through them, trying to find one that didn't look like the phone had been dropped halfway through taking it, but they were all equally terrible and in the end he gave up and handed the phone back. "I guess I'll finally meet her tomorrow," he mumbled. Still, it bothered him that he didn't know what Connie's girlfriend of two years looked like.
They stopped outside a jewelry store and Connie pressed her nose against the window. "When-"
"In about an hour," Steven said without thinking. Then he blinked and shook his head. "Sorry, what was that?"
"I was gonna ask what time Sadie and Lars were arriving," Connie said slowly. "But I guess you already answered that. Still," she added brightly, turning her attention back to the window, "that's plenty of time."
Steven looked at the window and found his eyes drawn towards a simple ring in the middle of the display. Somehow he wasn't surprised when Connie pointed to it and stated that it was the ring she wanted.
They walked back to the house is silence. Connie tried to initiate conversation several times, but Steven was deep in his own thoughts and she quickly gave up. As they walked across the sand towards the house, Steven slowed down a little and stared at Jasper as she tried to help Amethyst put up the marquee. How had they cured her and brought her over to their side? He couldn't quite remember.
Come to think of it, how had they cured Peridot of her corruption? Connie had said that was when he'd slept through Alice's visit, and he could recall using his dream powers to contact her, but after that...
Despite the fact that it was a beautiful, sunny day, he suddenly felt cold. He stumbled to a halt and looked around again, and everywhere he looked, something was wrong. Lapis was working next to Jasper, and neither of them were showing any sign of discomfort about it. The Rose Quartz gems from the zoo were trying to grow flowers, but he had no idea how they'd come to be unbubbled and here on Earth. He could see the Off-Colors further down the beach. How had they got here? Last time he'd seen them was when he'd gone to rescue Lars; the spaceship they'd stolen to rescue him had been destroyed and so they'd never been able to go back for them. Even though he knew there was nothing he could do about it, he'd always felt bad for leaving them behind after all they'd done to help him and Lars. Same with the Rose Quartz gems, every time he thought about the zoo mission, he wanted to go back and shake his younger self for not trying to grab even one of them. True, he'd just got his father back, and they'd been separated from the other gems, and the Diamonds had been there... still, he couldn't help wondering if he could've somehow grabbed just one.
This is a trap.
He blinked and shook his head, trying to dislodge the thought, but it refused to leave. Instead, more questions began flooding into his aching brain. When had they unbubbled Bismuth? When had they cured Centipeedle? If they really had cured her, why was he still calling her Centipeedle? What was her real name? When the heck did he get on good enough terms with the Diamonds to invite them to his wedding?
And why was Pink Diamond in his house when he knew full well that his mother had shattered her five thousand years ago?
All of this is too good to be true.
He shook his head again. He didn't want to believe it. "You're not in the Matrix, Steven," he muttered to himself as he began walking again. "Sometimes things do just work out for the best. Now go inside and help Peridot with the seating plans for tomorrow, which will be the happiest day of your life."
He followed Connie into the beach house and greeted Bismuth, who was hammering at a wall with a shapeshifted hand. "Hey," she said, waving at him with her other hand. "If you're looking for your fiancee, she's in the back, going over the seating plans."
Steven nodded and took two steps towards the door at the other end of the aisle before he realized what was wrong. "Wait, what?"
"She's going over the seating plans," Bismuth said again. "Something about White Diamond? Anyway, she's been at it for three hours now." She chuckled fondly. "You might wanna go and give her a hand."
"Right..." Steven said slowly, and tried not to think about how he'd already known Peridot would need help with the seating plans even though they were supposed to have been sorted three days ago.
Just like he'd known what Connie was going to ask before she'd said it.
Just like he'd known which ring she'd choose.
All of this has already happened before.
Another chill ran down his spine. He didn't want to think about it. And as he and Connie helped Peridot reorganize the seating, he squashed his rising panic and willfully ignored the fact that he already knew what arrangements would work before Peridot confirmed them. If he didn't acknowledge it, it wouldn't be true.
How long have I been ignoring this?
He pushed the notecards away and stood up to greet Lars and Sadie a full ten seconds before they actually walked into the house. He absently praised Lars for the beautiful cake moments before it was unveiled, responding to questions without really taking them in but somehow answering them perfectly. He instructed Peridot to talk to the newer gems about cakes that looked like rocks before she could suggest doing so herself. And then when she was gone, he sat down on a nearby chair, put his head between his knees and took several deep breaths until he felt a little less like throwing up.
"Isn't she adorable?" a familiar voice asked. Enormous pink shoes stepped into his line of sight and he slowly straightened up to see Pink Diamond looking longingly over at baby Janey-Lee. "It's so exciting to think one day she'll stop being small and she'll grow up and start walking and talking."
She opened her mouth to continue speaking, but Steven got there first. "Her life's going to be full of so many possibilities." He laughed hollowly. "Sounds like something my mom would say."
"...Yes," Pink Diamond said slowly. "It does, doesn't it?"
"Speaking of my mom," Steven continued, staring at the flawless diamond gem in her belly. "How can you be here when she shattered you?"
Pink Diamond was silent for a moment. "You... found me."
"Where?" he asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.
A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Hidden in plain sight. Excuse me."
And before he could question her further, she walked away and began pulling faces at the baby. Connie turned and began walking towards him, and he knew they'd talk about the ring they were going to put in the bouquet, tied to a pink rose in the middle. Then he'd go and talk to Peedee about the catering and avert a small crisis with soup. The Rose Quartzes would lose control of their plant powers again and break the marquee and he'd use his own powers to fix everything. Peridot would give him a kiss and tell him how wonderful he was, then she would head off to reprogram her drones to carry decorations and one would go wrong and try to shoot the gem with the tongue she'd once poofed...
How many times had he lived through this day if he already knew all of this was going to happen?
Connie stopped in front of him, waiting for his line, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. "Excuse me," he said instead, and pushed past her, heading for the room he shared with Peridot.
Once he was inside, he closed the door and then lay face-down on his bed. "This is a bad dream," he mumbled into his pillow. Then the thought struck him and he began to laugh a little hysterically. "Oh jeez. That's literally what this is!"
There was a quiet knock on the door and then he heard Peridot's voice. "Steven? May I come in?"
Steven stopped laughing and his mind went blank. For the first time that day, he had no idea what to expect and weirdly enough, that made him fell a little better. "Yeah, sure," he called back, and sat up.
She pushed the door open and crossed the room to sit down beside him. "Is everything all right?" she asked, looking up at him in concern.
He opened his mouth to lie to her, not wanting to worry her, but then he stopped himself. What would be the point? "No, not really," he admitted.
"Do you feel unwell? Connie said you looked sick." She pressed the back of her hand against his forehead before he could reply. "Your temperature is within the normal parameters."
"I do have a bit of a headache," he said, unconsciously leaning into her touch. "But that's not-"
"Why don't you lay down and rest?" she suggested, already pushing him back down onto the bed. "We have everything under control. Just have an early night."
Despite everything, he couldn't stop his eyes from closing. It would be so easy to just go to sleep and get this day over and done with. Then he could wake up in the morning and get happily married.
"Just think," Peridot said quietly, and he felt her snuggle up next to him. "Tomorrow I'll be Mrs Universe. I can't wait."
His eyes snapped open again and he sat up. "No."
Peridot stared at him in confusion. "What-"
"I said no." He jumped to his feet and spun around to face her. "You won't be Mrs Universe tomorrow."
"What?" she said again, and this time her heard fear in her voice. "Steven, what do you mean?"
He took a deep breath. "I mean, there isn't going to be a wedding."
Peridot's hands flew to her mouth and her eyes welled up with tears. "You-you're leaving me?"
"That's not what I-" he began.
"Bu-but I lo-love you! We're supposed to be g-getting m-married in the morning!"
The tears began to roll down her cheeks, and he instinctively took a step forward to comfort her before he forced himself to stop. "Peridot, I love you so much. This?" He held his arms open and smiled sadly at her. "It's everything I've ever wanted. My friends are happy, everybody's safe and well, the war is over, and you and me are about to have the happiest day of our lives together." He felt tears rising in his own eyes and blinked them away. "But none of this is real. It's corruption." And as he said it aloud, he knew it was true. Garnet had been right, his battleground wasn't fear, it was the promise of love keeping him here instead. "I have to go."
"Steven, wait!" She half-jumped, half-fell off the bed and lunged towards him, flinging her arms around his waist. "Please, you can't!" She gazed up at him with tear-shiny eyes. "I'm pregnant!"
"What!?" He could actually feel the blood drain from his face, and the room span wildly, forcing him to lean back against the door before he fell over.
"-going to tell you on our honeymoon," he half-heard her say. "-a surprise-"
For a moment, it almost worked. Then he forced himself to push her away. "Peridot, what's an IC popper?"
"I-a what?" she stammered.
He looked into her eyes and saw that she honestly had no idea. Because he had no idea. "I'm really sorry about this." He turned around and picked up his mother's sword, which was conveniently propped up against the wall next to him. "But you're not Peridot."
xxx
Amethyst arranged the headphones around Steven's head and then gave Pearl a thumbs up. "Ready."
"Good." Pearl nodded firmly and pressed a button on the tablet screen. "Oh. Ah. Whoops."
"What do you mean, whoops?" Peridot asked sharply.
"It's nothing, I just pressed- oopsie." Pearl flushed and swiped across the screen. "Oh dear, no... hmm..."
"Ugh, give it here!" Amethyst snapped, and leaned over Steven to try and snatch the tablet out of Pearl's hands. "I know how it works."
"I can manage!" Pearl snapped back, refusing to let go. "Just let me- stop that, Amethyst, I had it working!"
"Hey!" Peridot yelled as they began to tussle over her tablet. "Be careful! That's mine!"
But before the argument could escalate any further, Steven's eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright with a loud gasp. "Peridot!"
For several seconds, there was chaos. Amethyst screamed again, and only Garnet's timely intervention saved Steven's nose from meeting the same fate as Peridot's. Pearl threw the tablet across the room without thinking and almost knocked out Greg. Lion roared with fright and instantly destroyed several hundred thousand dollars worth of medical equipment. And Peridot found herself crushed against her boyfriend's chest as he urgently kissed her gem over and over until he was satisfied it was intact. Then he pushed her away again. "What's an IC popper!?"
"A device for removing chips from circuit boards," she answered at once. "I suspect Amethyst has stolen it to floss her teeth with."
He laughed with delight and hugged her tightly again. "It's really you! I'm so happy you're awake!"
"You can thank your father for that." She pulled back slightly and waved a hand over at Greg, who was watching them with watery eyes, which were only partly due to the tablet that had bounced off of his head. "Apparently he has successfully managed to compose a song to counteract the effects of corruption." She smiled proudly. "It's what we used to wake you up as well."
"Really?" He stared at his father with admiration. "Dad, that's incredible!"
Greg grinned bashfully. "It was nothing- well, it wasn't nothing," he quickly corrected himself. "It was definitely something- aw hell. Any room in that hug for your old man?"
Peridot and Steven exchanged glances, and then nodded in unison. "Come on," Steven beckoned.
Greg stepped forward, embraced the couple and immediately burst into tears. Moments later, Garnet and Amethyst joined in, complete with their own noisy sobbing.
And while the tearful reunion was taking place, Pearl picked up the tablet and after a furtive look around, closed the music app before anybody could see that the music was paused. Thanks to the struggle for control of the tablet, she hadn't managed to get the song playing properly.
Of course, she told herself as she joined the group hug, it was possible that Steven's human half had protected him after all, just as Greg had said. But she couldn't quite shake the suspicion that it was the gem side of him that had prevented him from fully succumbing to corruption.
Because of course, the only gem who had ever managed to fight back against the Diamond's weapon had been Rose. And after all this time, she didn't want the others to start wondering exactly how she'd managed to do that.
XXX
And that's all for this story! Gonna take a little break now and catch up on some reading before I start writing the next part. Thanks for reading!