The next afternoon, Marty came back and found Greg, Vidalia, and Amethyst were sitting on the sand, watching TV.

"Hey, Marty, check it out!" said Greg. "Using the A/V equipment from my van, I was able to get access to over a dozen channels right here on the beach! And the reception's surprisingly decent, too!"

"I never knew this television stuff existed!" Amethyst gushed. "And you say it's been around for half a century?"

"A little less than that, but yeah," said Greg.

"Wow," said Amethyst. "I'm so glad you drove your van through the fence; otherwise we'd never have gotten with these latest trends."

"I heard this new show, Little Butler, is pretty good," said Vidalia. "Not sure when it's on, though."

"So, you're still doing this, huh?" said Marty to Greg.

"Yup."

"When are you gonna wake up and realize that girl's not worth it?"

"Never, because Rose is worth it," said Greg. "She's sweet, and kind, and beautiful, and fun to be around…"

"Funny, because it seems like she's never around," said Marty.

"Well, she has a lot of places she needs to go most of the time. I assure you, she's back here at least a few times every day." He noticed a figure coming out of the cave. "In fact, that might be her now!" he said. "No, wait, that's just Pearl."

"Amethyst!" Pearl said as she came closer. "I thought you said you were going to clean your room up a little!"

"I was," said Amethyst, "but then I got distracted by television!"

"You were never going to actually clean it in the first place, were you?"

"Nope!

Pearl frowned, then noticed Vidalia. "Who's this?" she asked. "Is she a new romantic partner that you've grown to prefer over Rose, meaning that you'll leave her and the rest of us alone?"

"What? No, Vidalia's just a friend."

"Oh," said Pearl, sounding disappointed. "And who's the other male?"

"That's Marty. He emphatically isn't a friend."

Marty harrumphed.

"Well," said Pearl, starting back to the temple, "if Amethyst's not going to clean up her room, I guess I'll just have to do it."

"Don't you dare!" Amethyst shouted, racing after her.

Marty watched the two Gems go into the cave, then turned to Greg. "How many women are here anyway?"

"Just Rose, Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst."

"Wow," said Marty. "You're practically living in a harem."

"It's not a harem, Marty."

"You know what I mean."

"I do know, and it's not a harem."

Marty rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm going back to the B&B."

"You know, you'd probably actually meet Rose if you stuck around for more than five minutes at a time!" Greg yelled. But Marty was already at the hole in the fence.

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually want to meet her," Vidalia said.

"Yeah," Greg sighed. "But what about you? Would you like to meet her?"

"I'd love to!" she said. She glanced at her watch. "Er, but not today. I lost track of time, and now I'm late! I need to get going too. Maybe tomorrow."

"Sure," said Greg. "I'll try to see if Rose can be here at, say, 4:30. Would that be a good time for you?"

"It'd be perfect!" said Vidalia.

"Alright! So, see you tomorrow!"

"Okay! See you!" Vidalia said, skipping off.

Marty was already waiting in the back of Greg's van when he returned to the temple at 4:15.

"Where were you?" Marty demanded. "I've been sitting here for hours!"

"I was cleaning up my Uncle's barn," Greg said. "It's a hard job; he won't let me throw anything out. He claims it all has 'sentimental value'."

"Well, you know what would be better than dealing with all that junk? Having a career as a musician, touring the country and playing songs!"

"Give it up, Marty. I'm not going back on tour, and even if I did, it's not going to be with you."

"Gah, why are you so stubborn?"

"Hey, guys." Vidalia walked up.

"Oh, hey, Vidalia!" Greg said cheerfully.

Marty wasn't as friendly. "Look, I'm trying to bore through my friend's thick skull here. Go bug someone else."

"It's just that I've got some news you'd like to hear."

"Unless it's gonna convince Greg here to get back on the road, I don't care."

"Marty, I'm pregnant."

This got Marty's attention. "You're what?"

"I'm going to have a baby, Marty. And you're going to be a father."

Marty scowled. "And so what do you want me to do, huh? Marry you or something? 'Cause you know, if Greg here hadn't gotten lovesick, we'd be two states over by now."

"I can take care of it perfectly well on my own, thank you. I just thought you'd like to know."

"Well, I don't! I would have been perfectly fine being in a completely different town, with a completely different girl, like I was supposed to! I wouldn't care if I ever saw you or your pregnant body again! And as soon as Greg comes to his senses, we're going to leave! So don't act like you're doing me a favor by trying to burden me with your personal problems!"

"Hey, man," Greg said angrily. "You can't just—"

He was interrupted by a giant creature emerging from the sea. Though this beast somewhat resembled an octopus, it was nothing like any pictures he had seen in books, or anything he had ever imagined, easily five times larger than himself and wearing a bright red, rock-like skin.

"What is that?" Vidalia shouted.

"You think I know?" said Greg. "I don't' know everything about these women! All I know is that they're magic! They didn't say anything about any monsters!"

The three humans found themselves backed up against the cliffside with no direction to flee.

"Great, Greg!" Marty sniped. "Because you just had to go chasing your dreams, all three of us are going to die!"

"This isn't the time, Marty!" Greg said.

"This is the perfect time! There won't be another time later!"

The creature slowly approached them, flailing its jewel-encrusted tentacles, and they huddled together, awaiting the inevitable…

Then suddenly Rose Quartz appeared in front of them, using the shield she was carrying to protect them from its blows. With the sword in her other hand, she swung at it, and the creature evaporated in a puff of smoke, leaving a small gemstone behind. Rose picked it up and placed a magic bubble around it, and then it vanished.

She turned around. "Are you three all right?"

"Just a bit shaken," said Greg. "What was that thing?"

"A Gem monster. They are drawn to the temple, and so we must defend against them from time to time. I understand if this makes you wary and you don't want to be around me anymore because of this."

"What? No!" said Greg. "I don't care if being around you means facing attacks like this, because you'll be around to take care of them! I mean, I'd have appreciated a heads up, but know that I know, I think I'll be prepared for them!"

"I thought it was quite exhilarating," said Vidalia.

"You know what? You two are crazy!" shouted Marty. "You're all crazy! You can stay here with the coven of witches and monster attacks all I care, but I'm getting out of this town and finding a new musician to manage!" With that, he stormed off.

"Who was that?" Rose asked.

"Eh, not important," said Greg. "I doubt we'll ever be seeing him again."

"And what about this one?" Rose asked, indicating Vidalia. "Will we never see this one again either?" The other Gems—Amethyst, Pearl, Garnet—gathered around to look on.

"Uh, no!" said Vidalia. "I mean, um, yes, I mean… I'm not gonna hang out here all the time like Greg does, but I'd like to visit from time to time. If that's okay."

"Of course it's okay!" said Rose. "Now that there's a big hole in the fence, there's not much in the way of preventing humans from coming up here—as long as they're prepared to encounter things like those monster attacks."

Vidalia smiled. "I think I can handle it."

"Alright!" Amethyst shouted, running over to nuzzle her. The others also gave a warm welcome, though Pearl still showed some clear trepidation.

"Now," said Rose, "how about we go watch some of that 'television' that Amethyst has been going on about?"

Amethyst squealed in delight, and the group started walking over to the van. Greg, though, held Vidalia back.

"Do you want to talk about what you told Marty?" he asked.

Vidalia frowned and turned away. "I'll be fine."

"You sure? I mean, I'm no parent myself, but I'm pretty sure becoming one's a big deal."

Vidalia sighed deeply. "I guess I'm just… concerned a bit. I was telling the truth when I told Marty that I could raise it without him, but I'm beginning to worry if I can raise it at all." She started to sound anxious. "What if I'm a bad mother? I'd have to give up my party-girl lifestyle. What if I can't? Or what if I drift away from my friends? Or if they resent me for not partying all the time? Or if I resent them?

"Calm down, clam down," Greg said. "Believe me, you'll make a wonderful mother. You aren't like Marty, not caring about anyone but himself. But the way you're asking all of these questions—and the way you interacted with Amethyst—show me that you do care. As for your friends? Well, I don't know about your old friends, but I know that five new friends right here who you can count on.

"I know what it's like to make a big change in your life. Just a week ago, I was on tour, and now I'm here, dating a magical woman who fights monsters. It's strange, and a little scary sometimes, but I know that I can adjust—just like you can adjust too. And you've got nine months to prepare. And just like I haven't totally abandoned my music, you don't have to totally abandon your free spirit. You just have to make room for it. Having fun all the time is, well, fun, but there are more important things, like love, and family. And I have the feeling that, if you do it right, those can be pretty fun as well."

Vidalia smiled. "That was quite eloquent."

"Yeah, I know. Why can't I be that good when I'm writing lyrics?"

Vidalia chuckled and gave him a hug. "Thanks, Greg. I'm still sort of worried, but that helped a lot. Now how about we join the others and watch TV?"

Greg nodded. "Sounds good to me."

And so they went and joined the others.

"That was a really cool story, Greg," Amethyst said when he was done.

Greg started a bit at the presence of another listener.

"Amethyst!" Steven yelled, pleasantly surprised. "When did you get back?"

"About five minutes ago," she replied. "Me and Pearl took the sloop to an island, but it turned out that Pearl could do everything there by herself and there was nothing I could do to help, and it got pretty boring doing nothing, so I took the sloop back by myself."

"And you left Pearl there?" Greg said, somewhat alarmed.

"Eh, she said it'd take a while. She'll be fine. Anyway, I came back here and saw everybody gathered round, listening to Greg. I was gonna scare you all, but when I realized he was talking about the time we all first met each other, I decided to listen in too."

"Good for you," Vidalia said, laughing and tussling Amethyst's hair. "Well, now that the story's over, maybe Onion and Steven can play together while the rest of us catch up?"

"Or," said Amethyst, "we could all watch television together! Just like old times!"

Onion nodded vigorously and bounded up the stairs to the upper level, turned the TV on, and plopped himself down on Steven's bed. Amethyst and Steven followed.

Vidalia shrugged. "Sure, why not. As long as we make plans to meet again and, you know, actually talk."

"Sounds good to me," said Greg.

And so they joined their children (and Amethyst) in watching television, just like old times.