"Happy Father's Day!"
"Rose…uh what are you doing?" Greg chuckled, sitting up from his slouch on the sand. He had been strumming a new tune for baby – little dude was getting pretty active. If he wasn't sleeping – he was dancing and kicking around. Which would be fine, the fact that he's definitely alive and healthy in there is a great relief, but Rose needs her rest. A good tune was the perfect lullaby.
"It's Father's Day!" Rose gushed, slowly lowering herself next to him. Her new belly had greatly unbalanced her and her usual graceful movements were almost on par with a human. Greg helped her down, unable to resist pressing his face against the peak of her stomach – Steven always liked kicking when he felt someone other than Rose. "Steven's not awake right now; he should be up soon though."
"Ah, well…uh thanks." Greg strummed a few notes. "Wait, how did you know it was Father's Day?"
Rose grinned. Despite their many years together, Greg's heart still stuttered whenever she smiled like that. "I went out to town today with Amethyst and these two little girls at the pizza shop were making a sign with Nanefua."
"Wow, I totally forgot." Greg mumbled, leaning into Rose who quickly hugged him tight. "You know, typically humans celebrate father's day when the baby gets here."
Rose's hug got a little tighter. "I won't be here next father's day though."
Greg sighed heavily, trying to ignore the burning in his eyes. "Oh I…I keep forgetting that." Greg sighed heavily. "What am I going to do without you?"
"You'll do wonderful. I know you will." Rose whispered fiercely.
"I-I don't know Rose." Greg whispered, staring out at the ocean. "My dad was barely in my life. How am I supposed to raise a good kid when my parents barely raised me?"
"Greg look at me," Rose gently cups his face. Her thumb wipes away the budding tears in his eyes. "We knew this wasn't going to be easy. I'm so sorry that I can't be by your side, but I wouldn't have done this if I had thought you couldn't do this."
"I love you so much Rose." Greg sighed, wrapping his arms around her neck. "And Steven too, I-I'll do my best."
"That's all I ask." Rose returns the hug and not long after their embrace, Steven wakes up and demands a song.
…
Greg looked out toward the ocean, breathing in the fresh, clean scent. It's refreshing since he's been smelling stinky diapers and musty van for the past few hours. Steven had been growing so fast, that he'd unfortunately let the cleanliness of the van go undone for more than a few weeks. He'd been so deep in the dirty, dank of the van that he had momentarily questioned if air had ever smelled good.
Thankfully, Vidalia had offered to take Steven off his hands until lunchtime, so he only has to worry about cleaning. Vidalia had been going baby crazy since Sour Cream had hit three – she had practically been begging to see Steven.
The van is finally clean, a little earlier than expected too. Kids are ingeniously messy – how Steven managed to stuff eleven diapers under the driver's seat and somehow get baby powder in the glovebox were mysteries of the universe he'd probably never have answered.
"HAPPY DADDY DAY!" Vidalia's voice rings loudly in his ears and when he snaps around, body still tense, Steven is shoved right in his face.
"AHUGH!" Greg fell, nearly tripping over Sour Cream in the process. "Vidalia? Ow, what was that for?"
Vidalia snickered, Steven suddenly back on her hip. "Is that anyway to greet your son? And when he's got a father's day gift too."
"Father's day?" Steven is reaching for him – making his grabby fists; one of his tiny fist has something in it. "Is that today? Already?"
"Yep. Me and Sour Cream were gonna head to the dock to visit one of my friends." Vidalia lowered Steven onto Greg's stomach. "Steven wanted to see you though – he made you a present."
Steven is doing his best to shove his present into Greg's eye socket. "Ow, okay buddy I'm gonna look!"
"He made it all by himself!" Vidalia praised.
"Sowa help!" Sour Cream grunted, pulling out a handful of sparkles from his pocket. Vidalia sighed a quiet, "Only my kid."
"Well, let's see what we got here." Greg cooed, sitting up and depositing Steven in his lap. The card is a mishmash of colored cardboard, mostly wrinkled because Steven had balled it up in his little fist. It's a beautiful array of glitter, feathers, scribbles and what looks like a piece of granola taped next to: Happy Father's Day, Dad Dude!
"WOW!" Greg gasped, blinking back tears. "You guys made this just for me?"
"Mm." Steven grinned.
"Yah!" Sour Cream giggled. "I put the granola on!"
"Hey! That was my breakfast!" Vidalia lifted Sour Cream into a bear hug – much to his delight. "You little brat! I knew you were up to no good."
"Ahhhh!" Steven yelled, clumsily slapping the scribbles.
"And you did the colors? This is really pretty, little buddy." Greg kissed Steven's fluffy head. "And thanks Sour Cream. I know Steven can sometimes be a handful, thank for being such a big boy and helping your mom out."
"No pob." Sour Cream somehow, despite only being a toddler, always exuded a certain 'coolness' about him.
"Ah, Greg!" Vidalia slapped him hard on his back. "We don't mind at all. Steven is the best. Are you done cleaning or did we interrupt?"
"Uh, yeah actually." Greg stood up. "With all the junk back there, I'd thought it would take me forever."
"Did you want me to take him again?" Vidalia asked. "I know, the past few months have been kinda hard on you two. I was serious when I said I didn't mind – you look pretty tired."
Greg couldn't deny that the past few months had been pretty hard. The house construction was going well, but the gem's missions slowed their progress down and Greg's own work at the car wash wasn't helping either. He couldn't really complain though – Steven was an easygoing baby.
"Nah, it's father's day right? I think I should spend it with my son."
"Okay, you two have fun." Vidalia and Sour Cream started heading for the dock. "Calm me if you need anything!"
…
Steven is busy sticking his head into the newly shampooed carpet of the van. He's busy sniffing away, only coming for air when he needs to.
"You like that buddy? Our van doesn't smell like stinky diapers anymore, huh?" Greg laughed, patting Steven's back. It's way past little dude's bed time, but Greg's feeling indulgent – it is Father's day after all. "Hey, guess what buddy?"
"Wha?" Steven sat up clumsily. He crawls to the bed, watching Greg as he fumbled around with something.
"Today is father's day, right?"
"Daddy day." Steven affirmed.
"Well did you know that we already celebrated it, back with Mommy, when you were still in her tummy?" Greg heaved Steven onto his lap. He balanced Rose's picture in one hand and Steven's card in the other. "Your Mommy and I celebrated cause….cause she knew she wasn't going to be here."
Steven looked up, a little frown on his face. "Bye bye?"
"Yeah. But she-she told me that even though she couldn't be here, that she knew we were going to be fine." Greg whispered, fighting back the choked up feeling in his throat. "I didn't think, last year that…that I could do this. Not without her help, but I think we've been doing okay."
Greg lifted Steven up, holding him at eye-level. "I know this isn't easy for you. I wish I could give you a house, real clothes and cool toys, but I hope this is enough. I want you to be a greater man than I was, to live and be happier than I was. I promise Steven, I'm going to do my best for you – whatever it takes."
"Otay." Steven giggled, not really sure what his dad was going on about. "Lub you, Daddy."
Greg kissed Steven, earning a bunch of gurgly giggles. "I love you too, buddy. Thanks for making me a dad; I couldn't have asked for a better son."
A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates, I'm an unfortunately busy gal. This happened really quickly, so I apologize for the host of grammatical errors. But I love Greg so much and he's such a good dad and it's father's day, so I couldn't resist. I'm not sure if any of you guys are dads, but if some of you are Happy Father's Day (sorry I'm a little late). Hopefully I can update more this week and thank you guys so much for your patience. To all of you have sent me prompts, thank you very much, I'm working on putting them in my word doc and working on some of them as soon as I can. And as always thanks for your favorites, follows, and taking the time to leave such awesome reviews.
A/N: CGA UPDATE THIS WEEK