Ruby and Sapphire had told the others everything that happened when they had taken Steven to the fountain. They repeated everything that he had said to them—to Garnet. They all had to take a few days off after that revelation. Ruby and Sapphire still hadn't been able to fuse. Steven had remained in his room ever since they got back that day. He very rarely came out now, only to use the bathroom, which was far less frequent now that he stopped eating and drinking almost entirely. He never said anything when he came out. The Gems had to bring him food, but he hardly touched it. At most half of it would be gone, but usually none of it was touched. He was at least drinking one glass of water every couple days though, which still wasn't much but it was more than the food.

Amethyst was knocking on Steven's door now. She'd called Greg and Connie over today, and the two wasted no time in showing up. Steven had refused to let either of them visit for two and a half months and Amethyst had had enough. She was torn apart over everything Ruby and Sapphire had told them, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from doing something for her friend. She'd already explained everything that went on the last several months-it took about three hours-and told Greg and Connie that they need to stay calm when seeing Steven. Sapphire had told Pearl and Amethyst that it seemed that when Steven started feeling strong negative emotions is when he would begin to lose control of himself.

"Come on, Steven, open up!" she said, continuing to knock on his door as Greg and Connie waited at the bottom of the stairs. She had been trying this for about ten minutes. "You know I can just get through the cat door! And we can warp in there too, there's no point in ignoring me."

The Gem knocked a few more times before throwing her hands up and saying, "Fine! Don't open the door, we're still coming in!" before turning around and descending the stairs.

The two guests had taken residence on the couch. Connie was hugging her bag and Greg was nervously tapping his foot, his shoulders tense and his fingers gripping the cushion. They looked over as Amethyst appeared with a groan.

"Come on, we're taking the warp in," she stated, arms crossed. The other two didn't move and she huffed. "Let's go! Chop, chop, we don't have all day!"

Greg and Connie looked at each other before standing up. "Amethyst, are you…sure about this?" Greg asked as they joined the purple Gem. "I mean, after everything you told us, don't you think this is…well, risky?"

"We want to see Steven really bad," Connie added, clutching her bag tighter. "But we're worried about this. He could react badly. I…I don't know if I can stay as calm as you need me to."

"Don't you think I know that? But we need to try! Steven needs to be with someone. He says he wants to be alone but I know he's lying. He doesn't want us to see him, that's it. But he doesn't want to be alone. Just—just don't stare. And don't go running around either, or freaking out, or anything else. We can do this."

She spun around and marched to the warp pad, and after a moment Connie and Greg followed.

The warp in Steven's conservatory lit up and the three appeared on the platform. They didn't see Steven, so he must have been in his main room. Lion was there, though, but he'd pulled his bed to the complete opposite side of the room, as far away from the stairs as possible. He rumbled when they showed up and crawled over to shove his head against Connie.

"Hey, Lion…are you okay, buddy?" she asked, swinging her bag over her shoulders and grabbing the big cat's face. He growled gently and licked her wrist.

Amethyst showed up beside them and gave Lion a pat on the head. "He's nervous, I think. Or scared? Maybe both," she said. "Ever since this whole thing started he's been avoiding Steven. I never really expected the big guy to abandon Steven like this but…I guess I can't blame him, you know? It's sad, though. I think it really hurt Steven."

Lion nuzzled Amethyst before sulking back to his bed.

"I'm sure he just needs more time to get used to this," Greg piped in, trying to sound optimistic. "Anyway, uh, how about we go see Steven?"

Amethyst just nodded and led them to the short flight of stairs out of the conservatory.

They found Steven on his bed in the dark with his window curtains closed, and with the night light on. Cat Steven was stretched out on the boy's pillow, her tail gently tapping out a slow rhythm. Amethyst had told them what to expect but neither were truly prepared to see Steven like this. The spikes, the tail, the arms, it was all just so much to take in.

Amethyst went to turn the lights on and a quiet growl came from Steven's throat when he heard her walking around. The lights flicked on then and the growl stopped as Steven curled tighter into himself.

"Steven!" Greg gasped and started to run over, but was quickly cut off by Amethyst.

"What did I tell you?" she hissed. The sudden noise from Greg must have agitated Steven, because he had started to growl again. Greg took a step back and looked toward his son, then back to Amethyst.

"I-I'm sorry, it's just…" He cleared his throat. It had just been so long since he had been able to see Steven that he acted without stopping to think. "…Sorry."

Amethyst sighed and moved out of the way. With Greg calmed down, Steven also went quiet, and Greg continued over to the bed. Connie remained by the stairs as Greg sat on the bed above Steven's head.

"Hey there, Schtu-ball, how ya' been?" he asked, forcing himself to act as casually as possible, despite everything screaming in his head.

Steven didn't answer, which Amethyst told them would likely be the case. Greg rubbed his neck and looked over to the Gem, who shrugged back. She really wanted this to go well, but she knew they couldn't force anything. They had to be careful and take their time, and maybe give Steven just a small push.

"How are you able to be so…calm about this?" Connie asked, coming just a little closer to the group.

"I'm not; I've just been able to gather enough self control to look like I'm calm. Acting crazy won't help Steven, I told you that," Amethyst replied, waving her hand at the aforementioned teen. "We've all done enough of that already. I just think the best thing right now is to stay as chill as we can and take some time to be with him. Whether you want us to be here or not." She directed the last part at Steven who just sighed in response.

Cat Steven mewed as Amethyst hopped onto the bed, annoyed at being disturbed so much. She stretched and jumped off the bed, then trotted over to and up the stairs to the conservatory. Connie watched the little cat leave before finally taking a spot on the bed as well, her hands tight around the straps of her bag. Amethyst was sitting at Steven's feet, while Connie took the space behind him. He remained still.

Amethyst's face fell as she looked down Steven's body. There was nothing new, but the spikes, the claws, the horns, had all gotten longer. Not by much, but it was enough for her to notice.

Connie had started shuffling through her bag. Papers and pens and who knows what else rustled as she searched until she finally found what she'd been looking for.

A book.

"Hey, Steven," she said, her voice cracking. She coughed and nervously leaned over Steven to hold the book where he could see it. "I brought this for you. It's the first book in the spin-off series to The Unfamiliar Familiar. I know how excited you were when I told you about it, so I got it for you."

Steven shifted slightly so that part of his face peeked out from behind his arms. He scanned the book cover for a few seconds before lifting his hand and gently pushing it back to Connie.

"You don't want it?"

He shook his head and raised his hand further so that he could touch the cover with one of his claws. The visitors watched curiously as the corner of the paper cover separated from the rest as Steven dragged his claw down and the piece fell to the bed.

"…Oh, I get it. You're worried you'll tear the pages if you read it, right?" Connie asked, taking the book away.

"Mhm."

"How about you read some of it to him?" Greg suggested. "After all, it's nice to be read to every now and then."

"That's a great idea!" Connie said with a smile before adjusting into a more comfortable position. Reading would be a good way to keep her nerves from going haywire. She opened the book, cleared her throat, and started reading.

She read for about twenty minutes and managed to get through the first three chapters before she was cut off by Steven's stomach growling. He let out a tiny groan when it happened and Connie put the book down.

Amethyst sighed. "Steven, have you eaten any of the food I've given you today?"

Steven shook his head. He pointed to where all the food was, in a corner of the room, untouched.

"Why haven't you eaten anything?"

He shrugged. His stomach growled again.

"Do you want something to eat right now?"

He did nothing, then nodded.

"What do you have for him?" Greg asked as he gently ruffled his son's hair. His brows furrowed when he took his hand away and he rubbed his fingers together. They felt very greasy. "Steven, when was the last time you got a bath?"

Steven muttered something that sounded like "three weeks".

"That's when Garnet…" Amethyst began, but her voice trailed off before she finished. "There's a lot of stuff in the fridge for him," she said instead. "Pearl left me instructions on how to make all of it since I'm not really…a good cook."

Steven made a noise of agreement which made the others chuckle. "At least you still have some of your humor left," Amethyst said, patting Steven's leg.

"How about you two go make him something to eat and I'll help him get washed up," Greg suggested, getting off the bed. He turned and rubbed Steven's arm. "Do you want to go downstairs yourself or do you want me to carry you down?"

Steven thought for a while before holding all four of his arms out toward his dad. Greg nodded and scooped the boy up into his arms, being careful to avoid the spikes on his back. "You're doing great, Greg," Amethyst told him before she and Connie also got off the bed. Steven clung to Greg's t-shirt as they all walked down to the first floor of the house. It relieved Amethyst that this was all working out so well. She knew that bringing Connie and Greg over would help. The only thing is that she didn't know how much it would help. That was something they'd just have to wait for. All they had to do was be patient.

Connie and Amethyst looked through the list of instructions Pearl left to find something to make while Greg took care of Steven. Pearl left…a lot of instructions, so it took quite some time to actually find something they thought Steven would want. They ended up picking some kind of vegetable stir-fry and got to work.

Steven wasn't really cooperating all too well as Greg tried to give him a bath. He wasn't fighting with Greg or anything, but he certainly wasn't helping his dad either. He undressed without much of a fuss but now he was just sitting in the tub, leaning against the wall as Greg let the water fill up. His dad had tried to convince him to wash himself but Steven made it a point to ignore him, focusing his tired eyes on the faucet instead. Greg sighed and grabbed the washcloth off the shower rack.

"Amethyst told us about everything that's been happening," he said as he started to wash Steven off. "We had no idea how bad this had gotten. I mean, you haven't really been talking to me or Connie for a while now. She's been stopping by the carwash with her folks a lot recently too, wondering how you've been. 'Course, I haven't really been able to give much of an answer."

Steven pushed the water around.

"Guess you're still not in the mood for talking, eh, Schtu-ball?"

Steven simply shrugged again.

"Well, that's alright. You don't gotta talk if you don't feel up for it."

After about ten or fifteen minutes Steven had started to take some of the cleaning over from his dad. He grabbed the shampoo and silently began to wash his hair. He had to take a lot of time doing it though, because if he didn't he'd hurt himself with his claws, or cut himself by rubbing against the horns sprouting from his firehead.. Steven had tried filing the claws before, but none of the files he had could even put a scratch on the nails. He hadn't bothered with the were actually a number of scabs over his body where he'd accidentally cut himself already, too.

There was a long silence between the two. Steven had apparently finished with his hair (really, he just stopped in the middle of it) so Greg figured he'd just finish that part too. They had probably been in the bathroom for forty minutes by the time Greg finally was able to start rinsing all the soap off.

Steven closed his eyes and sighed. "What's going to happen to me?" he asked, catching his dad off guard. "The Gems haven't been able to find anything to help me…I'm just getting worse. I don't want to hurt anyone, dad. I, I don't—"

Steven sniffed and a tear ran down his cheek.

"You're going to be okay, Steven. You're not going to hurt anyone," Greg told him, doing his best to be reassuring.

"Don't lie to me!" Steven snapped at him and Greg pulled back, eyes wide, as the boy snarled with pointed teeth.

A look of shock took over Steven's face a moment later and he slapped his hand over his mouth as more tears fell. He didn't mean to yell. Why did he yell? He didn't know.

Greg couldn't come up with a response, so he just reached over and grabbed a towel after unplugging the drain. "Um…here, Steven. Dry yourself off and I'll get you some clean clothes."

Steven nodded and got out of the tub.

Amethyst and Connie had been busy cutting up and frying the vegetables and the food was almost done when they heard Steven's outburst from the bathroom. They looked at each other and Amethyst was about to check on the other two but was interrupted when Greg appeared.

"I-is everything okay?" the Gem asked, trotting over to the man. He scratched his chin and looked back to the door. "Greg!"

"Uh—y-yeah, everything's fine. He's okay," Greg said, though his tone wasn't very convincing. "Can you show me where his clothes are? I uh, noticed those…modifications on the dirty ones…can I assume Pearl did that?"

"Yeah, that was Pearl. I'll show you where she put them. Connie, can you take care of the food?"

Connie gave a thumbs up in response. She went back to finishing up the stir-fry as Amethyst led Greg back up to Steven's room. A few minutes later Amethyst was back with Connie and Greg was back with Steven.

"This is going way better than I was expecting," Amethyst commented as Connie looked for the plates. "Too bad you guys can't stay here all the time." She sighed and leaned against the counter with her arms crossed.

"Amethyst…if this gets…worse, what's going to happen?" Connie asked quietly. Amethyst looked to the floor.

"I'm not really sure. None of us are."

"What if he turns into a monster? Like the other Gems had?" Connie asked next as she turned the stove off. "He doesn't poof…and we already know the pool doesn't work."

Amethyst looked up to see Connie shaking. "Hey," she said, pushing off the counter and going to Connie. "Listen. Whatever happens, we'll figure something out. We're not going to lose Steven, okay?"

Connie stood still for a few seconds before walking away from the stove. "Just put the food on the plate," she muttered as she dragged her feet to the couch. Amethyst hastily did as she was told, placed the plate of food on the counter, and hurried over to Connie.

That's when Steven and Greg came out of the bathroom. Amethyst looked over to them, then turned around and went back to the counter. Steven walked over as well, though he was looking at Connie while he did so. She was sitting with her knees hugged against her chest.

"Here, Steven. You don't have to eat it all if you don't want to, but maybe try to eat, like…most of it?" Amethyst said, placing the plate of food and some utensils in front of Steven as he sat at the counter. He sat without answering and pushed the food around the plate a bit before starting to eat. Greg sat next to him and patted his shoulder while Amethyst returned to girl on the couch.

She sat next to her gave her a nudge. "If it's worth anything, you and Greg have been a huge help today. You guys were definitely what Steven needed right now. I couldn't have gotten him out of his room by myself," she said with a big smile. Connie looked down at the Gem and gave a little sigh before smiling back.

"I guess so…but still, it's. Hard. To see him like this. Steven was always so happy and carefree. And now? Now he's just…that." Connie motioned over to him. They were talking quietly enough that Steven and Greg didn't seem to hear them, which was probably a good thing. Connie didn't exactly want Steven hearing this.

"You know, I almost didn't come today. After you called I had a thought…that maybe I should just stay at my house. I didn't know if I'd be able to do this…to see Steven like this. Really, I still don't know. I don't know how much longer I can put up this guise of 'everything is okay and I'm definitely not literally about to have a panic attack'. I'm really glad us being here has gotten Steven to…do things. But what happens when we leave? What happens when Steven stops listening to us too? What happens when this all inevitably gets worse? We all know it will, so what will we do when it finally does happen?"

"…I don't have an answer for you, Connie."

"I know you don't."

Everyone was back in Steven's room. The sun had gone down not long ago, and Connie had gone back to reading while Steven rested his head on her lap. His tail had started thumping against the bed as she read which was amusing to the others. It was a good sign though, because it meant he was feeling at least a little happier. And of course no one said anything about it, because then it would stop.

Connie had mentioned earlier that Greg should probably take her home soon, but when Steven heard that he looked distraught to say the least. He hadn't said anything about it of course, but Connie called home all the same and her parents had allowed her to stay the night. She'd taken Lion back home after that so that she could get her stuff and be back as fast as possible as to not upset Steven. Greg had also decided to stay; after all he had to make sure Steven got a good breakfast.

Connie got about four more chapters into the book before Greg cut in.

"I think it's about time you kids get some sleep, don't you think?" he said from the floor. Connie hummed and stuck a bookmark between the pages and returned the book to her bag. Steven made a sound of disappointment and sat up as Greg stood. "There should be more than enough room on the couch for both of us."

"That'll be fine," Connie said, turning to hop off the bed. She felt something pull on her shirt before she could get off and she looked back to see that Steven had grabbed her.

"C-can you stay with me…?"

That was the first thing he'd said to her all day. It broke her heart.

Connie looked over to Greg and Amethyst.

"Um…I guess that would be okay?" Amethyst said with a small shrug. "Could help."

"I…don't think it would be a problem as long as you're okay with it," Greg said to Connie. "There should be some extra blankets and stuff that you could use."

The girl turned back to Steven as he released her shirt and she smiled at him. "Yeah, I can stay."

With that decided Greg went and found the extra blankets and started to set them up next to Steven's bed. Steven sat quietly on his mattress the whole time, watching.

Soon after Connie had finally settled into the blankets and Amethyst and Greg had left her and Steven in the glow of the night light. She was listening to Steven's breathing, which was calm but uneven, coming from his bed. She heard him shift around every now and then and he'd huff before quieting down again. Poor Steven…

Move moving around, more huffing. He was starting to sound less calm and more frustrated. Frustrated wasn't good. Sapphire had told Amethyst that too much frustration caused changes. Quite a bit of time went by like this. Connie felt her heartbeat pick up. All of this, it was driving her insane. She was scared and worried and helpless as Steven grew more agitated.

More moving.

More huffing.

This time it was louder. Closer.

Connie felt the nest of blankets she was in fall under a new weight.

Steven had crawled off his bed and was nudging his way under the covers next to Connie. She stayed still and said nothing as he slowly arranged himself beside her, twisting and turning his body to keep his spikes from getting near her as he tried to get comfortable. Connie felt his breath against her forehead as he eventually managed to find a position that suited him.

Carefully, Connie moved her hand away from her chest. Her fingers brushed against Steven's arm and she felt him pull it away. His skin had been cold and rough against her fingertips. Her hand moved upwards. Steven made a noise, a low, quiet rumble as his hand met Connie's. His touch was warm and soft as he held onto her. He took in a deep breath and Connie could feel his whole body start to relax as he exhaled.

"I didn't want to hurt you or dad," the boy whispered into her hair. "I was scared, so I pushed you both away."

"But, we're here now, even if you didn't want us to be. Even if you still don't."

"I'm sorry…"

Connie moved a few inches closer and rested her head beneath Steven's chin. She heard the rumble come back and felt a cold hand move to rest on her waist. The noise slowly faded as Steven drifted off and Connie closed her eyes.

Steven couldn't be fixed. She knew this. She heard it in his voice, felt it in the rumble of his chest. The boy was slipping away.

No amount of love and patience would make this stop.