Ruby jumped out of the warp only minutes after Amethyst and Pearl arrived home. Hugging Amethyst before either of them had even spoken. "You're home!"

"Yeah…I guess I am." Amethyst muttered. Feeling uncomfortable with all the attention. "Hey. Did Pearl ruin my room?"

"I don't think she ever went into your room." Ruby replied. "We didn't even go into our own rooms much. We mostly stayed out here."

"I'm gonna check it out. I miss my stuff." Amethyst said. Darting away from them and into her room. She walked between the piles of stuff. Smiling at the stacks of memories. "Yeah…this is a nice room." She said, flopping back onto a pile and closing her eyes. "I missed this."

They didn't try to hug her again when she came out, which was good. She was more than hugged out for the next hundred years. There was an awkward moment when they stared at each other for a second. Before Pearl started talking "Oh, we have so much to get you caught up on, Amethyst. It's been so long. Too long."

"Yeah, but maybe tonight we should just hunt a corrupted gem." Ruby said.

"Yeah. Sounds good." Amethyst said, relieved this was something she knew how to do.

They got on the warp pad together and appeared in a jungle, Pearl started her speech about the gem who was supposedly around these parts, and Amethyst and Ruby looked around. Everything was different then it had been, but shockingly familiar as well, when Pearl ran out of things to say about the gem, she moved on to telling her about what they had been spending the last years doing. Hunting gems, and the humans they were spending their time with. "You? Talk to humans?" Amethyst laughed.

"They aren't all bad, Amethyst, and after all, Steven is half human."

"Steven?"

"Rose's son, Amethyst. He goes by Steven."

"Aw…Little Rose. Yeah, I remember her."

"Well, he prefers Steven." Ruby said.

"I'll try to remember." Amethyst said, waving it off.

"We watch him most days." Pearl said, "Greg works. You'll meet him tomorrow."

"I met him already!" Amethyst protested.

"He's changed a lot." Ruby said. "But you'll like him. He's really fun."

He was way bigger than she remembered, but way smaller than Rose- or Pink had been. She remembered that Sour Cream had grown a lot. He was shorter than Sour Cream had been. But made up for it in his rounder shape. Greg walked him over to them.

"Amethyst? You're back?" He asked, mouth falling open at the sight of her.

"What'up?" She greeted him.

"Uh, not a lot. Steven's grown a lot. Schtu-bal. This is Amethyst, she's an old friend of mine."

"Woww…I thought you left?"

Amethyst shrugged awkwardly. "Got bored. Came back. Anyway, these guys were totally lame without me."

"Pearl and Ruby aren't lame! They are like the coolest people I know!"

"Uh..." Amethyst hadn't been expecting the kid to disagree. "Sure." She answered weakly.

The kid was undaunted by her rack of enthusiasm. "It will be so cool to have another gem around. I was really sad when Lapis left but I have so many cool things to show you!"

"Steven." Pearl said, in a reprimand Amethyst knew well.

"Oh, sorry…I guess I just mean…I'm really glad you're here."

"Yeah. You too." It was weird. The kid wasn't really acting like Rose, but something about him reminded her of Rose anyway. Maybe she was just looking too hard, or maybe those wide eyes hid as much as Rose's did.

"Hey, Vidalia would love to see you. Maybe we can all hang out soon. Play some cards, you can eat our trash. Just like old times." Greg said.

"Yeah!" Amethyst hadn't been sure Vidalia and Greg would still be alive. "I'll stomp you both!"

"No eating cards you don't like." Greg tried to protest.

"Never." Amethyst said. "Hey, did Vidalia change her hair like you did? Cause I got to tell you, not a good look. You should go for something else next time you reform."

"Amethyst. Humans don't reform." Pearl reminded her.

Greg ran a hand through his retreating hair. "Oh, man. I wish everyone would stop noticing."

The kid was happy to meet her, but while Rose had always seemed to try to pull back her enthusiasm for life, the kid had no such limits, joy bursting from him at every turn. They combed the beach for shells, and he showed off his bike- a red and black one Ruby proudly claimed credit for- he let Amethyst ride around on it and she had to admit it was fun, even if she thought it should go much faster. When Greg came back, they went back to the car wash and Steven showed off his ukulele and sang a little duet with his father before finally being handed a device from his father and settling down to play a game.

Pearl had claimed they needed to catch up, but they had hardly spoken all day being dragged around in the whirlwind that was Steven's life. He had introduced her to everyone in town she was sure, although she doubted, she remembered a single name in the onslaught of names thrown at her.

Finally, Greg tucked him into the van to sleep and she entered the car wash with him and the other gems. Greg made himself a cup of tea and Amethyst snagged his tea bag. Throwing it into her mouth "man I missed eating. I didn't even think of that." She said.

Pearl sat primly on one of the seats and Ruby and Greg flopped on the couch together. Amethyst flopped in the seat next to Pearl.

"Kid's fun." Amethyst said. "I like him. He's always doing stuff. I could get used to that."

Pearl beamed, "Oh, I knew you would like Steven."

"He's a pretty great kid." Greg added.

"Sapphire would like him…I'm sure of it." Ruby sighed.

"How did that go?" Pearl asked her.

"She knows about Lapis. It didn't change anything." Ruby answered.

Pearl sighed "one day, Ruby, I'm sure one day."

"Yeah." Ruby said. "I haven't given up."

Amethyst approached Steven the next day on the beach. Pearl and Ruby were in the temple talking about Sapphire, a conversation they had clearly had many times before. Steven was playing with some small doll-like toys on the beach, "Hey, Amethyst." He greeted her.

"Hey, kid. What are you doing?"

"Playing with my GUYS, you want to play?"

She ignored that. "What do you want with us?" She asked

"Ahh...I mean, I thought we could play with GUYS?" He looked up at her with those wide eyes, the confusion the same she used to see in his mother's face.

"Do you remember me?" She asked him.

"No, sorry. Pearl said I was a baby when you left. I don't remember being a baby."

"I remember being a baby." Amethyst said.

"You were a baby?" Steven asked.

"Yeah, for like. Five minutes. You were a baby then too. It was sorta fun."

"Oh…" Steven looked confused.

She sat next to him on the beach, watching him play. He glanced towards her a few times but let her be.

"You've got to remember!" She bursted out "You might have changed but you've got to remember!"

"Uh…" Steven looked confused, and maybe a little worried. "I'm sorry. I was really young…"

"Not that!" She jumped to her feet. "Who cares about that! I mean all of it! Thousands of years, Rose and you just forgot?"

He gripped his toy tighter "I don't-"

"I mean, how can you forget everything? Why didn't you ever tell us? Pearl said you cared about us but why didn't you ever tell us if you did? Why do this?" She gestured at the boy. "You have to tell me. You have to tell me what you were thinking. I'm not going to believe you! You already changed once so why should I believe you didn't just change again? We aren't going to be tricked twice, Rose!"

"I'm not Rose!" He yelled.

"You are. You're right there."

"I'm Steven. You're just confused. Ruby said you were." He was sniffing, almost crying. Amethyst stopped. "You aren't her are you?"

He shook his head.

"Sorry." She muttered.

"…did you want to play GUYS with me?"

She sat next to him, "Yeah. I'm going clobber you, what are the rules?"

"It's not really a rules game…"

AN : Sorry this is a little late, I have been trying to post on a weekly schedule but I will be taking a break for about a month. I have a new puppy that is taking a lot of my time. I plan on returning to this story in early November. Thank You all So Much for your kind comments!