Walking through the door and knowing that they could stay this time lifted a weight Caddy hadn't even fully recognized from her shoulders. No more Diamonds. No more days spent wondering if Sky would be there tomorrow, or if she'd make it to tomorrow herself. No more feeling like her time with White would forever be cut short. No more wearing her uniform or her hair the way she was told to. They were free.

Oh stars, where should she even start? There were so many options.

But before she could start to wonder about long hair or short hair or pants or skirts, White was in front of her with the most beautiful smile she'd ever seen.

"You're back."

"We're back!" Caddy opened her arms, since White looked about half a second away from hugging her, and she didn't even care when the stiff, jagged fabric at the top of White's leotard poked into her neck. "It's so good to be home."

White nodded into her shoulder, arms snug against Caddy but not squeezing too tight.

"You three take your time," Crimson said softly behind them. "I've got to go check in on the Pearls that were recovered."

"Can I come with?" Sky asked.

"Yeah, of course."

The two of them slipped away to the infirmary nearby, leaving Caddy and White by themselves.

"I really missed you," Caddy whispered. "I know it wasn't that long, but if something had gone wrong—"

"It didn't," White interrupted, clearly not wanting to think about the other possible outcomes. Caddy didn't either. "I missed you too."

"Thanks." Caddy ducked her head to kiss White's shoulder. "And thanks for waiting to meet us when we got back."

"I just wanted to know you were safe."

"I am. We are." She smiled as she pulled away to look at her. "You forgot to say 'You're welcome.'"

"Oh, right. You're welcome." White was looking at her intensely, but the stress was beginning to clear from her face.

"We're gonna be able to do so many things now," Caddy said excitedly, latching her arms around White's neck. "No running back and forth, no Diamonds, just whatever we want!"

"What do you want?" White asked curiously. "Right now, I mean?"

"Hmm…" She thought about it for a moment. "I wanna say hi to everyone and tell them the good news! Will you come with?"

"Sure."

"Yay! But I have one other stop I want to make first."

"Where?" White asked, and Caddy answered with a tug on her hand.

"Your room! 'Cause I want to give you lots of kisses and Crimson'll complain if I do it out here."

She laughed happily and let Caddy pull her along. "How many is lots?"

"You'll just have to wait and see."

Inside the infirmary, Sky and Crimson were met with an organized mess of equipment. Pearl seemed to be directing a small team that consisted of Lavender, Yellow, and Blue, all rushing around to make sure everything was set up properly.

"We've nearly got everything in place, Crimson," Pearl said, forgoing a greeting. "We had to reroute the power a bit but—yes, Lavender, just like that, now make sure the other one matches—I'm confident that this will work! It's actually quite fortunate that Slate brought it all back in one piece; it's saved us a lot of time."

"That's good to hear," Crimson said, coming over to take a look. "Do you think they'll make it?" she asked, gesturing to the Pearls inside. "Will the interruption hurt them?"

"How should we know?" Yellow grumbled. "This is a first for all of us."

"Actually," Pearl begin, enthusiasm sparkling in her eyes, "one time Rose and I broke into—"

"Not exactly the time for stories, Pearl."

"No, it isn't," she sighed. "How is it looking over there, Yellow?"

"It's functioning within normal parameters, from what I can tell."

"Same here!" Blue called.

"Good, good. Lavender, nothing unusual happening in your section?"

"No, nothing!"

"Excellent," Pearl declared. "We appear to be finished then. We'll keep monitoring everything for a while longer though, in case we run into any problems."

"Thanks," Crimson said appreciatively. "I'll leave that to you then. Feel free to grab some other gems to help if you need more hands at any point."

She nodded. "We should be fine. Though it seems as if Viri could use some help…"

Crimson blinked, startled that she had missed the taller Pearl in all the chaos. Sure enough, Viri was off to one side of the infirmary, slowly sorting through and separating out pieces of broken gems. "Viri?"

"Huh?" She looked up, hands pausing. "Oh, hi, Crimson. And Sky! I'm glad you're safe. Caddy is too, right?"

"She is," Sky reassured her quickly. "We made it back without any problems. So, um, what are you…?"

"Oh. They're…They're the Pearls that got…"

"Discarded?" Crimson suggested politely, not sure if there was any good word for it.

"Yeah, discarded," Viri repeated, her voice a little wobbly. "Because they were different. But I want to see if any of them can be healed. Th-There's some big pieces left, so I'm hoping…"

Sky nodded. "I hope so too."

"Thanks."

"Would you like any help?" Sky asked softly. "I'd be happy to lend a hand."

"What? No, you just got home," Viri protested. "This isn't the first thing you should do."

"Isn't it?" She smiled faintly. "I want my new freedom to help the rebellion, so this seems like a pretty good first thing to me."

"…Only if you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"Me too," Crimson said, kneeling down beside Viri to look at the broken pieces. "This isn't the kind of thing anyone should be doing alone."

Viri nodded slightly, tears brimming in her eyes. "You two are really sweet. Thank you."

"Anytime," Sky murmured.

With three gems working together, the difficult task was completed faster than Sky had anticipated. Crimson offered to stay behind and watch over the gems that had been placed in healing tears, while Sky took Viri out to the common room. Viri always seemed to be at her happiest when she had friends around her, so hopefully this would make her feel a little better.

"Sky!" Caddy was quick to run over to them. "Guess what?"

"What?" she laughed, startled.

"Steven said he's going to throw us a party!"

"A party?"

"To celebrate you and Caddy being free," Steven said, coming over to join them. He gave Sky a quick hug. "And for the successful mission and everything! Is that okay? Do you like parties?"

"Um, I don't know. I get the feeling that what you're thinking of isn't the same as the parties I've attended with Blue Diamond."

"Well, this kind of party isn't going to be super fancy or anything. But we'll put some music on and dance and have a fun time together. Oh, and I bet Dad and I can get a cake for everybody to share too! And balloons!"

"I don't know what that is, but it does sound a lot nicer," Sky agreed. She glanced back at Viri worriedly. "What do you think?"

"Of course you should have a party," Viri said warmly, patting Sky's ponytail. "Don't worry about me. It sounds like just the kind of thing I need."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Okay," Sky said, smiling as she watched Caddy bounce up and down on the balls of her feet excitedly. "Let's have a party."

Steven was helped by nearly everyone in getting streamers and balloons scattered all across the common room. Soon the place was filled with a multitude of new colors, and cheerful music played at a comfortable volume.

Caddy was first to start dancing, encouraging White and Sky and several others to join her. Some Pearls were tentative at first, the activity similar but different to what many of them had been expected to do in service, but Caddy managed to get a decently sized group together once the Crystal Gems had joined in too.

"Ory, come on, dance with us!" Caddy called, trying to beckon the shy Pearl off the sidelines.

"I-I-I don't know…"

"C'mon, it'll be great!"

"I mean, y-yes, b-b-but it's great over here too."

"That so?" Caddy teased, winking. "Okay, I'll let you enjoy the view."

Sky was afraid Ory might poof from blushing so much. "I'm going to take a break," she told Caddy, catching her arm for a moment to get her attention.

"Okay!"

Sky made her way to the other side of the room, giving Ory a friendly smile on her way to the table that held the cake. Crimson had put herself in charge of cutting and plating slices for anyone that came by.

"Hello again," she greeted Sky.

"Hello! Is it okay to have a second piece?"

"I think so, everyone who's going to have some has gotten some already." She cut Sky an extra-large square. "It is pretty good, isn't it?"

"Ohh, is that why you took this job?" Sky teased. "So you can sneak extras?"

"Only every now and then."

"Want someone to keep you company?"

"Oh, I've got plenty of company," she laughed. "Amethyst comes by every ten minutes to see if she can steal the leftovers yet. Go enjoy yourself, Sky, I promise I'll save you some."

"Okay, okay, thanks."

Sky wandered the room a bit as she ate, savoring each bite of the fluffy, sweet cake. To her surprise, the first Pearl to come talk to her was Quin.

"Hey, Sky."

"Hi. What's up?"

"I wanted to make sure you and Caddy got your allowance," she explained, tilting her head slightly to retrieve an envelope from her gem. "It's not very much yet since Garnet won't use her future vision to help out, but I've got enough to give everyone a little. Next time, I should be able to double it."

"Um, thanks," Sky said, taking the envelope curiously. "Where does it come from?"

"The money Greg gave me when we visited Earth. He told me—or, well, he showed me a website that explained all the different things you can do to get more. It's really fascinating."

"It sounds like it," she agreed. "Maybe you could tell me about it sometime?"

"Tell you about it?" Quin looked taken aback by the request but then brightened. "Yeah, sure! If you're interested!"

Sky nodded. "I'd like to try more new things with everyone now that I'll have the time."

"Cool." Quin pushed her curls back into place around her gem distractedly. "I'll make sure I study up so I can answer any of your questions!"

Sky opened her mouth to say that Quin didn't need to go out of her way for her, but the other gem was already giving her a cheerful "See you!" and disappearing into the small crowd of Pearls keeping Viri company. Sky sighed. Quinacridone was a nice gem, but she never seemed to relax—around Sky, at least. Maybe that would change with time.

Rather than dwell on it, she cast her eyes around the room, looking for someone else to talk to. White, maybe? The other Pearl was off by herself in one corner of the room, sitting with her legs stretched out along the couch.

"Hey," Sky greeted her awkwardly, sitting down in a nearby chair and setting her empty plate on her knees. "How's it going? Did you and Caddy have a good time earlier?"

"Yeah, she wore me out. We were running all over base to share the news."

"She's just excited," Sky said defensively.

"…I wasn't complaining."

"Oh. Sorry."

White watched her for a moment. "You don't like me much, do you?"

"What?" Sky looked startled. "I like you fine."

"You barely speak to me, and when you do, you're always worried about me and Caddy."

She faltered, eyes widening. "I…I didn't mean to come across that way."

"I don't mind it. At least you're straightforward," White said. "Did I do something to make you angry?"

"What? No, you didn't do anything."

"No? I would apologize if I did."

"You didn't," Sky said quickly. "You don't need to apologize. Actually, I should probably be the one to apologize, if I made you think that."

White hesitated. "Okay then. Are you sure I don't need to apologize too? I could use the practice."

A laugh bubbled up in Sky's throat before she could stop it. "Sorry, sorry," she said quickly, pressing a hand to her mouth. "I didn't mean to laugh."

"It's fine. I need to practice making jokes too."

Sky relaxed a little. "I am sorry though, if you thought… I just worry about Caddy sometimes. She puts all her feelings out there for the world to see, and you're… It's harder to tell what you're thinking sometimes, even if it's obvious you love her too. But that's my own fault, because I never really tried to get to know you properly."

"It's understandable. It's not like I was trying particularly hard before either," White said wryly.

"Maybe, but I still should have tried," Sky murmured. "I'm sorry, honestly. I think I just found it hard to be around you at first."

White stared at her curiously.

"The Pearl before you…"

It was uncharted territory, talking about the Pearls before her. Caddy and Sky both avoided the topic whenever possible. "You were close?" she asked.

"I guess." Sky smiled wanly. "It hurt to lose her. And the next day, there you were."

"Was she like me?" White asked warily. She must have felt something, talking about all this, but she was calm.

"Not at all," she laughed. "Not at all, thank the stars. I'm not sure the rebellion could handle two of you."

White found herself smiling as she locked eyes with Sky. "True."

Sky ran her hands down her thighs, shaking off the nervousness. "I would like a chance to be friends," she said. "I'm sorry I haven't done the best job of showing that."

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I understand."

"Thanks."

"Do you like dancing?" White asked, pointing over to where Caddy was.

"I do," Sky answered, relieved at the change of subject. "Do you like it?"

She nodded, turning and pushing herself to her feet. "Want to go dance some more then?"

"Sure, that sounds like fun."

It seemed like ages before the party was over, only ended by the fact that Steven reluctantly decided he needed to go back home to sleep. The Crystal Gems made their departure, save Pearl, and then everyone else slowly began to filter out of the common room as well.

Caddy didn't want it to end, Sky knew, but even she was beginning to run out of energy.

"Come on," Sky said. "We get to go back to our rooms to rest, and that's pretty exciting too."

"It is!" Caddy grinned, slinging an arm around Sky's shoulders. "Oh, and we should redecorate! I bet Snow's got more furniture and junk to choose from than when we first picked!"

"Tomorrow," Sky agreed happily.

"And is it okay if we stay in the same room for tonight? I don't really want to split up right now."

"Of course," she reassured her quickly. "I don't either."

"Good." Caddy hugged her then, a little too tight.

"Come on," Sky said gently. "Let's get some rest."

She nodded, smiling as she fell into step alongside Sky. "Rest!" she repeated. "You know what I'm going to do tonight? Sleep. Not nap, sleep! I'm gonna lay in bed and not think about Yellow Diamond one bit! I can stay there as long as I want! I don't have any chores!"

"You have some chores," Sky laughed. "But Crimson's probably not going to mention it if you aren't punctual about them."

"We've got a good boss now," Caddy agreed.

"A good friend," Sky added softly, and Caddy nodded.

"We should do something to say thank you. Y'know, once we're done skipping out on out chores."

"Definitely." Sky smiled. "Let's brainstorm tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," she agreed with a contented sigh. "Tomorrow, we'll be right here."

"And every day after that."