CHAPTER TWO

Pearl opened the carton of eggs for the third time and then glanced up at Steven's room. "It's almost nine," she fretted, closing the carton again. "He should be awake by now. Why isn't he awake?"

"Because you woke him up three times in the night?" Amethyst suggested mildly.

"It was one time," Pearl corrected irritably. Amethyst stared at her until she looked away with a blush. "All right, twice. But that was it! He should be awake now!"

"Don't worry," Garnet said. "I woke him up two hours ago, he's fine."

"He'd probably be awake by now if you'd all just left him alone," Peridot pointed out sourly as she poked at a circuit board with a soldering iron.

"Don't look at me," Amethyst objected. "I didn't do anything." Then she smirked. "Didn't need to. I put a nannycam in MC Bear-Bear."

Three sets of eyes stared at her in silence until Peridot burned her thumb. "You are joking, right?" Garnet asked as Peridot swore loudly behind her.

Amethyst ignored the question and raised her eyebrows in Peridot's direction. "You kiss our baby boy with that mouth?"

"For goodness sake, hold it under the cold tap," Pearl snapped. "You are joking, aren't you, Amethyst? You could've told us-"

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" Amethyst held her hands aloft in surrender. "I checked on him at three, just like you asked- you have to turn the tap on!"

"Of course, now that you mention it, a nannycam might not be a bad idea..." Pearl mused aloud.

"We're not putting a nannycam in Steven's room!" Garnet said in exasperation. "He's eighteen years old, not eighteen months!"

"Good point. You might wind up with an accidental porno," Amethyst said solemnly, nodding her head in Peridot's direction.

Peridot didn't bother replying, choosing to simply glower at the other gem as she made a mental note to dismember all the stuffed animals in Steven's room.

Meanwhile, Steven had given up trying to sleep any more and sat up with a loud groan. "What's all the noise about?" he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"The gems are just deciding which one of your bears they should put a nannycam in," Peridot said before anyone could stop her.

"No we're not!" Pearl objected, although the blush on her face did little to convince him.

"It's just Amethyst's idea of a joke," Garnet added, glaring at the gem in question.

"Yeah," Amethyst said placidly. "Don't worry, we're not monsters, none of us were really going to do that. Right, Pearl?" she added pointedly.

Pearl ignored her and smiled brightly up at her foster son. "How are you feeling this morning, Steven?"

"Honestly? Not great," he said at once, climbing to his feet. "Look, I get that you guys are worried about me after what happened, but I'm half-human. I need to sleep, you can't keep waking me up half a dozen times a night. You have to trust me when I say I'm not going to use my dream powers."

"OK, but in our defense, the first time you told us you were having a nap, you left out the bit where it was gonna take three days," Amethyst pointed out.

Steven opened his mouth and then shut it again. "All right, you got me there. But it was an emergency, and Peridot's cured now."

He immediately wished he'd kept his mouth shut as everyone turned to stare at Peridot, who blushed and pretended to be completely absorbed in the task of drying her hands.

"I don't know..." Pearl mused aloud. "She's still very spotty-"

"She's not deaf though," Peridot snapped.

"We're sorry, Steven," Garnet butted in before a row could break out. "We were just worried about you, but I suppose we did go a little over the top. It won't happen again."

Steven smiled with relief. "Thanks, guys."

He gathered up a clean set of clothes and disappeared into the bathroom while Pearl finally began making breakfast. "So what's the plan for the day?" he asked when he reappeared. "You're all going to the Kindergarten, right?"

"That's correct." Peridot picked up her soldering iron again. "Pearl has informed me that they began work on the drill while we were- indisposed, but I need to check and make sure everything is up to standard," she said, oblivious to the look of irritation on Pearl's face. "And of course, we'll also be installing the security drones."

"Once you've finished soldering them to your hands," Pearl muttered under her breath, thankfully too quiet for anyone else to hear.

"You gonna come with us, Stee-man?" Amethyst asked.

He shook his head. "I'll join you later, I'm gonna go see Dad, he wanted to show me the work he did with the song." He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "Might take a nap while I'm there."

"Jeez, all right, we get it!" Amethyst punched him on the arm, making him wince. "We'll stop waking you up in the night." She gave him an evil grin. "We'll just watch you sleep instead."

"No we won't," Garnet said firmly. "Bye, Steven, we'll see you later."

He watched them all step onto the warp pad and disappear, and after he'd finished eating, he grabbed his phone, wallet and keys and stepped outside onto the deck. He'd just reached the bottom of the stairs when he heard a soft whoosh behind him and spun around just in time to see Lapis land gently on the sand. "Hi, Steven!"

"Lapis!" He ran back and gave her a hug. "What are you doing back? Have you finished looking at rude places?"

"Nah." She reached out and ruffled his hair. "I was just passing by on my way to Bare Bum and I thought I'd stop by and say hi." She paused for a moment. "Hi."

Steven laughed and then shook his head. "Aww, it's a shame you weren't here like, five minutes sooner, you just missed the others."

"Shame," Lapis repeated, not even pretending to sound like she meant it. "So anyway, how are you?" she asked. "Peridot said something about corruption?"

"Oh, yeah! OK, so you know that computer in the Kindergarten? Well..."

And as they walked across the beach, Steven told her the story of his and Peridot's corruption. Lapis listened intently and shook her head in stunned disbelief when he finally finished. "Wow. That's just... wow."

"Yeah, it was an experience, all right," Steven said dryly. Then he perked up. "But we have a cure now, isn't that great!?"

"Great," Lapis said cautiously. "So... you're going to try curing some of the corrupted gems then?"

Steven gave her a sidelong look as he remembered what Peridot had said the night before. "That's the plan. And yes, that does include Jasper."

Lapis scowled and shook her head. "I can't believe you've even seriously considering it, you know what she's like, you know what she did to me! She won't thank you, you know, she'll turn on you at once."

"Then we'll fight her," Steven shot back. "And we'll win. Again." Seeing that she still looked upset, he sighed and shook his head. "Look, Lapis, I know you hate her, but corruption is awful. I know we'll probably have to poof her and bubble her again, but I'd feel a lot better about it if she was cured first. Besides, it's not like we're planning on curing her immediately, we're gonna try it on some of the old Crystal Gems first."

"Great. If you're really lucky, they might not even try to kill you," Lapis said sarcastically.

Steven rolled his eyes. "Everyone's tried to kill me. You tried to kill me."

Lapis had the good grace to blush at that comment and quickly moved on. "So... where are they going to live?"

Steven slowed to a halt. He had no answer to that, curing the corrupted gems had been the only thing he'd thought about. Beyond that, he didn't have a clue. "Uhh..."

"I guess they could always live in your bathroom," Lapis said slyly, giving him a nudge.

Steven laughed and shook his head as he began walking again. "No, nobody else is living in my bathroom! I need it! No, I'll talk to the gems, there's gotta be some suitable gem structures still left they can live in. And-" He stopped abruptly.

Lapis tilted her head curiously. "What?"

He shook his head again. He'd been about to mention that Bismuth had said she built spires and temples before joining the Crystal Gems... but Bismuth was bubbled. He was suddenly struck by just how unfair that was. Here he was, talking about unbubbling Jasper when Bismuth was still bubbled with no plan to change that. True, she'd tried to kill him, but like he'd said, everyone had tried to kill him. Even Peridot had tried to kill him. Even Pearl had come close on more than one occasion. "Uh, nothing," he lied. "I was just gonna say, it's not like we're gonna unbubble a hundred gems at once, we're gonna try it out on one or two to start with. I mean, we don't even know if the song will work the same way on them. But I'll talk to the gems anyway."

"Ah, OK." Lapis nodded slowly. "Well, just warn me when you're about to unbubble Jasper."

"So you can come and help us if she gets out of control?" he asked hopefully.

"So I can get as far away from this place as possible," she corrected. "Maybe I'll visit Uranus that day."

They stopped in front of the ramp that led off the beach and up to the Big Donut. "Well, I'm heading over to Dad's place now, do you wanna come with me?" he asked politely, not really expecting her to agree.

Sure enough, she shook her head. "No, that's OK, I really just wanted to see how you were, I'd better head off now. But tell everyone I said hi!"

"I will," he promised. And with that, she unfurled her wings and took off, leaving him standing alone on the sand. He waved until she was out of sight, and then began walking again, pausing briefly outside the Big Donut as he wondered whether to buy a coffee to wake himself up. Best not to, he decided. He wasn't entirely sure how Mindy managed to ruin plain filtered coffee, but she did. He'd have a fancy, flavored coffee when he got to his dad's house. And maybe later on he really would have a nap.

For a split second, he considered the possibility of calling Peridot and inviting her to join him. It might not be the most restful nap ever, but it certainly would be a pleasant one. Then again, maybe not. The last time they'd tried anything at his dad's place, every single one of the Crystal Gems had shown up and interrupted them. No, what they needed was a vacation. Somehow he'd have to find a way to ask his dad if he could have some money to take Peridot away so they could finally make love to each other. Without actually saying any of those words. Not that he was scared to say the word 'sex' or anything, he'd once read somewhere that if you couldn't bring yourself to say it, you probably weren't ready to do it, but he figured that probably meant more like with your partner rather than your parents. He hoped so, anyway. He'd rather eat an entire box of Amethyst's mayonnaise donuts than talk about sex with any of his parent-figures, and he suspected they probably felt the same way.

It didn't take him long to reach his father's house and Greg welcomed him enthusiastically. "Come on in, kiddo!" he said, stepping aside so Steven could enter. "You hungry? I just made pancakes."

"Hmm... I already had some eggs, but I could go for pancakes too," Steven decided. He had, after all, missed breakfast for several weeks.

Greg grinned and began heading back towards the kitchen. "I thought you might. And then I'll show you the studio. I brought some new equipment, audio interface, an outboard compressor and a couple of filters, that sort of thing."

"Ooooooh, neat!" Steven's eyes went starry at the prospect of new music equipment to tinker with. He really would have to hurry up and finish writing the song he was working on so he'd have an excuse to come over and play with it all.

Greg began serving up pancakes and watched as his son made straight for the coffee machine and started making a rocket fuel espresso. "Uh, did you sleep OK?"

"Not really," Steven admitted. "The gems woke me up half a dozen times last night just to make sure they could."

"Ah." Greg nodded in understanding. "Can't say I really blame them."

Steven smiled ruefully. "Yeah, me neither. Still, while I'm here, do you mind if I take a nap for a couple of hours?"

"Of course I don't mind," Greg said at once. "Sleep as long as you need. Within reason," he couldn't help adding.

Steven caught his eye and grinned sheepishly. "I'll set an alarm," he promised. "Now let's eat!"

They ate in companionable peace for the new few minutes, and had just began gathering up the dishes when there was a knock at the door. "Ah, that's probably the mail," Greg said, putting a half-drunk glass of orange juice on the kitchen counter. "I'll be right back."

Steven nodded absently and started loading the dishwasher. "Hmm. Half full or half empty?" he mused aloud, reaching for the discarded glass. It was a question immediately answered by the cosmos when he somehow managed to knock it over, sending a stream of juice across the counter, straight towards a stack of paperwork.

He lunged forward with a squawk and just managed to yank it all out of the way before it was ruined. "Whew! Thank goodness for super speed," he mumbled, idly flicking through the papers to make sure none of them were damaged. Then, as his eyes drifted across the pages, he suddenly realized what he was looking at and stiffened. "Summary of- what the hell is all this stuff? Lab, hematology, diagnostics, ECG monitor- how much!?"

He read each line with mounting horror until he reached the bottom, which outlined the total cost of his recent stay at Beach City General. Then he read it again. Then he reached for a chair, missed, and sat down heavily on the floor.

"Eh, nothing interesting, mostly junk- Steven!"

The leaflets slipped out of Greg's grasp and fell to the floor as he rushed forward to his son's side. "Are you OK, son?" he asked urgently. "Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor?"

"No!" Steven shook his head quickly. "No doctors!"

"What? Why-" Greg's eyes slid to the crumpled bill in Steven's hand and suddenly understood. "Ah jeez. I meant to put that away before you got here."

"It's so expensive," Steven said in a low voice. "Why is it so expensive? Did I lose you all your money?"

"What!? No!" Greg laughed incredulously. "OK, I'll admit it's a lot of money, but it's OK, I have a lot of money. Well, I guess I might have to switch to store-brand caviar for a little while, but it'll be fine."

Steven pursed his lips, unconvinced. "Really?"

"Really," Greg reassured him. "Garnet's given me some good financial advice in the last few years, I actually have more money now than I did when Marty first gave me that check."

"So I haven't bankrupted you?" Steven checked.

"Not even close." Greg reached out and helped his son back onto his feet before smiling warmly at him and giving him a pat on the shoulder. "But you know what? Even if the bill did cost all my money, I still wouldn't care. I'd go back to living in the van in a heartbeat if it meant you were safe and healthy."

Steven tried to smile, but somehow that statement hadn't been as reassuring as Greg had intended, and as he followed his father out of the kitchen and into the studio, he knew there was no way he could ask his father to pay for a vacation now.