I'm just going to apologize in advance. Sueanoi was right.
He was screaming. Not crying, not sobbing, not whimpering, not whining, not fussing but a horrible awful scream. It was ragged, his voice hoarse with every desperate inhale he took in. As he reached the end of his lungful of air, the scream became a grating screech. His usual pink face was incredibly red and damp with sweat. His little fingernails were digging hard into his palms as clenched his arms hard.
Pearl didn't know what to do. Steven, in all of his life, had never screamed like this before. There had been screams of delight and the awful first screech he had released after being born, but never this.
She had been sitting in her rocking chair, her usual nighttime routine. She had moved it a little closer to Steven's crib tonight so that she might watch him closely while he slept. She had been reading one of the child care books Greg had given her and she had quickly finished it after midnight. She had gone to her room to get another and when she had come back, Steven had been screaming.
There was no blood. No vomit, no excess saliva, nothing leaking from his orifices and no marks on his skin that she could see. She checked his diaper-no rash and no diarrhea. She gave him his gas drops, but he continued screaming. She removed his clothes and then added more, swaddled and unwrapped, rocked him, hummed and sang but nothing worked. With every failed attempt she grew more and more panicked. What if something was wrong with him, something that required the 911?
She held him tightly in her arms and ran to the temple. She skidded into her room and raced toward the Burning Room furiously. Steven's cries echoed painfully throughout the temple.
"GARNET!" Pearl cried. She nearly slammed into Garnet, who had been observing the many bubbles of the gems. Pearl was crying, tears running down her face as she struggled to speak over Steven's screams. Despite Pearl's nearly incoherent babble, Garnet understood.
"I'll get Amethyst. Go back to Steven's room-check his temperature." Garnet ordered. As soon as Pearl was safely back into the beach house, Garnet went to get Amethyst. When Garnet came into Steven's room, Pearl was holding the thermometer under Steven's arm pit. Garnet let Amethyst go from her grip and kneeled down next to Pearl.
"What's wrong with him? Why he is crying so hard?" Amethyst asked frantically.
"I don't know!" Pearl whimpered. "His temperature is normal. I checked his diaper, his skin, and where he hits head. Nothing is out of the ordinary!"
"Is he hungry again?" Amethyst asked nervously, gripping one of Garnet's legs.
"I tried giving him his bottle, but he didn't want it." Pearl sobbed, still holding Steven in her arms. "I tried everything. Maybe we should call Nanefua?"
"What if it's his gem?" Amethyst asked. "What if isn't a human problem?"
Pearl gasped and quickly removed Steven's shirt. They all leaned in close, surveying the pink gem embedded onto Steven's tummy. There were no cracks, or glow or discoloring that any of them could see. Steven continued wailing powerfully, his fist now clenched onto Pearl's skirt. Pearl and Amethyst began to panic, unsure of what to do, but Garnet only leaned in closer.
Steven's mouth was wide open as he cried and she noticed his unusually red gums. She was very familiar with the gummy structures in his mouth, being one of Steven's favorite pacifiers. From the moment she had offered them, Steven had been suckling on fingers to comfort himself. In recent days, Steven had stopped suckling and begun gnawing. Garnet had shared this with Greg and Greg had laughed it off.
"He's around the age to start getting his teeth is all."
Garnet stepped back, a vision quickly flashing through her mind. She knew what to do. They didn't need to call Nanefua or Greg or the 911 service. She had the perfect solution, or rather she was the solution.
Pearl was about to ask Garnet if they were now allowed to call the 911, but Garnet was taking a deep breath a few feet away. In a bright flash of light Garnet was gone. Ruby lay on the floor legs in the air, while Sapphire was suddenly at Pearl's side. Sapphire lifted her left hand and ice frosted over her glove, she pressed her hand against Steven's cheek. Steven turned his head towards her hand and opened his scrunched eyes up a bit. When he wasn't screaming he was panting heavily and fat tears left streaks down his cheeks. Steven's tiny fist grabbed Sapphire's cold hand and shoved it into his mouth.
He whimpered quietly, finally relaxing in Pearl's arms. The blood in his cheeks faded back to normal and beads of sweat rolled down his temple.
"S-S-Sapphire?" Pearl stammered, the tension in her shoulders easing with every second that Steven wasn't screaming. Amethyst looked between both Ruby and Sapphire confusedly.
"He's teething." Sapphire explained quietly. "We forgot, but Greg told us that his teeth were going to start growing."
"But if it was just his teeth, then how come he was screaming so bad?" Amethyst asked, hesitantly patting Steven's head.
"Teething is painful for humans." Pearl sighed, all of the tautness finally gone from her shoulders. She leaned back into the couch, willingly handing Steven to Sapphire. "I read about it. But the way they described it, it was as if it was more of a discomfort than torture!"
"Humans are weird." Ruby groaned, finally sitting up. "Why don't they just come with teeth already?"
"I know right?" Amethyst agreed.
Pearl only sunk further into the couch, closing her eyes and pressing both hands against her gem. Sapphire floated easily onto the couch as she cradled Steven. She patted the cushion next to her and Ruby joined her.
"Steven can't chew on your hand all day or when Greg gets back though." Ruby mentioned, brushing Steven's sweaty curls from his forehead.
"Greg will have a solution." Sapphire said. "Until he gets back though, this is the solution we have that works."
"Do you mind being apart?" Pearl asked them both, her hands sliding down her face and resting on her cheeks. "We could call Greg, he wouldn't mind coming back early."
"It's for Steven. I think we can be apart for one more day." Ruby scoffed. Sapphire smiled knowingly, but didn't say anything only nodding in agreement.
It was agreed that Sapphire and Ruby would stay the night in Steven's room. Sapphire was small enough to fit in Steven's crib and she would occasionally send cool pulses of ice to Steven's aching gums while he slept. Ruby elected herself to unofficial guard duty, just waiting for some idiot to try to break into her Steven's house. Sapphire told Pearl to rest, noticing the headache that she was trying to hide and for Amethyst to go back to sleep.
The night would be without any more screaming, she promised. Sapphire ensured Pearl that they knew how to make Steven's bottle-just in case he wanted an early morning snack and how to change his diaper. As soon as the weary gem had made her way into her room, Ruby jumped into the crib with Sapphire.
"I thought you were on guard duty?" Sapphire asked with a grin.
"I can guard from here." Ruby whispered, ogling at Steven while he slept. She was starting to understand how Pearl could do this every night.
"You sure you don't want to hold him?" Sapphire asked, resting her head on Ruby's warm shoulder. "He's a lot bigger than the last time we saw him."
"Not yet. I-I…just…maybe if-I…not yet." Ruby stammered, letting one of her fingers trace Steven puffy cheek.
"Garnet held him." Sapphire whispered.
"Garnet's not here right now." Ruby grunted, marveling at Steven's tiny feet resting on her knee.
They sat in silence, Ruby combing through Sapphire hair with her fingers while Sapphire hummed a familiar melody. Sapphire closed her eye as Ruby began littering kisses up and down her neck.
"I'm sorry that you were scared." Ruby whispered. Sapphire didn't say anything in response, only shifting Steven closer to her chest as the melody died in her throat. "You shouldn't feel bad for what happened."
"I could have prevented this." Sapphire whispered sadly, her lip trembling. "He didn't need to have been in such pain. I should've been looking."
Ruby wiped a single tear from Sapphire's face. "You know as well as I that you can't stop everything you see. We were looking for big accidents, not teeth."
"You heard him screaming, Ruby." Sapphire moaned. "I thought I heard enough screams in this lifetime to be immune, but I don't think I'll soon forget his."
"I don't think any of us will." Ruby whispered.
As Garnet, they weren't always actively present within her mind or seeing through her eyes. Most of the time they lingered powerfully inside Garnet, giving her stability and love to base herself off of. They saw the passage of time, but usually remembering things as Garnet was different than remembering them as Ruby or Sapphire. It wasn't hazy or blurry, just different. They remembered feelings that weren't theirs, but Garnet's feelings. Garnet's feelings and opinions colored each memory different than what Ruby would remember them as.
But Garnet, Ruby and Sapphire had all been equally terrified when Pearl had screamed for them. It was like waking up from a wonderful dream and being thrust into a terrible nightmare. One moment, she was embracing Sapphire, rocking back and forth within their sacred place and in the next there had been a horrible misalignment and she was Ruby again. No longer within Garnet but alongside her in their shared mind. There had been so much fear; Garnet's fear and Sapphire's distress only increased Ruby's terror.
Ruby had been scared about a lot of things-giant gem monsters, the Authority, and dying without Sapphire during the war. She had never expected to be so frightened by Steven though.
"This is a part of his growing up Sapph." Ruby sighed. "Humans face these pains every day. We're not gonna be able to prevent a lot of them. So please don't feel bad-Steven hates it when people cry."
Sapphire rubbed her eye with a watery chuckle. "I thought I was the one who calmed you down?"
"It physically pains me when you can't smile." Ruby teased and giggled quietly when Sapphire playfully pushed her. "I love that laugh. Even I can get something through this stubborn head of mine, to learn something new. Just. For. You."
Sapphire began to giggle, letting Steven sit in her lap. Steven had knocked out and was no longer actively suckling on Sapphire cold fingers. Ruby kissed her lightly, snuggling closer and closer.
"We'll wake Steven." Sapphire hushed.
"Are you sure?" Ruby pursed his lips and pouted.
"You already know the answer to that." Sapphire gave her a quick peck.
"Well do you see a future where I get kisses tomorrow?" Ruby asked, placing her warm hand on top of Steven's belly. Steven grabbed the tips of her fingers and tried pulling her hand up as though she was his blanky.
"I think I might." Sapphire grinned. "I think I just might."
A/N: There will be more kisses. MUAHAHAHA! So, yeah heard the bad news about the extended hiatus and now I want to write a part 3 with baby Steven at the beach with all his moms.
Thank you all for the many favorites and follows and especially to those of you who took the time to review. Hopefully we can all last one more month.