“Connie??” Pearl and Amethyst asked her name in unison. Even Garnet seemed surprised to see her there. As far as the Gems knew, it had been varying degrees of time since they’d seen her with Steven. Pearl had only seen the two of them together at the roller rink, and Garnet? Well, she hadn’t physically seen them together. She just knew that the proposal had happened and had failed.
“Connie, what’s going on??” Pearl asked in spite of Connie’s words. She started to ask another question, but stopped when Connie’s insistence that ‘it wasn’t what it looked like’ slipped out. Confusion decorated the war veteran’s face.
“Not what it…? What’s that supposed to-”
“Let them go, Pearl,” Garnet interrupted. “We’ll have answers before too long, I’m sure.” And with that, the Gems let them go. Garnet had thought to try stopping Steven, but she saw how quickly he had headed toward the bathroom. Trying to intervene was pointless. As for Pearl and Amethyst? They’d been too distracted by Connie’s presence to think to stop Steven. All for the best, really. Especially when Connie was following Steven into the bathroom.
It sounded like water was already running inside the bathroom. Whatever Steven was doing, Garnet told herself, it was important. Important enough to have involved Connie.
Inside the bathroom, Steven was by the sink and opening up the cabinet. He caught sight of Connie’s reflection as he opened it, then quickly glanced back to nod in acknowledgment. Now or never, he told himself as his heart raced. If this did work, it was yet another tally mark he could add to the list of things he’d accomplished that his mother couldn’t. If not… he’d have a lot of explaining to do to the Gems, and the guilt on his shoulders forever. It would be there regardless, he told himself as he grabbed the bottles of Blue, Yellow, and White’s essences.
There wasn’t time to properly uncork all of the bottles. As the tub filled up with water, he put the essence bottles in and let all the liquid alter the colors. Blue, Yellow, and White mingled together as they did when he healed corrupted Gems. There was no joy in this, though. Just the terror and uncertainty.
“Thanks, Connie,” Steven managed. He knelt down beside the tub and looked at her, managing a weak and momentary smile as he did. At least he still had her. Even if this didn’t work, there was no risk of losing her.
Finally, Steven pulled his hand out of his pocket and carefully uncurled his fingers. He didn’t know for sure if Connie would move to join him, but if she did? He wouldn’t object.
Mom’s perfect quartz, reduced to this in an instant… Steven felt his complexion go a touch paler as he looked at the shards. Only then did he begin to bring them back in order as they should have been. Piece by piece, her gem was put together. The cracks were still visible, though. They would be as long as he didn’t try to do something about it.
“Here goes,” Steven said. He didn’t know if he was speaking more to Connie or to himself there. When had he started trembling? It was either because he was still wearing his rain soaked clothing or because he was truly afraid that this wouldn’t work. Or… both, he realized as his stomach twisted. He tried to push that notion away, though.
“Please. Please, let this work,” he begged aloud. Then, he dunked his hand with Jasper’s pieced together gem into the water.
“Jasper, I’m sorry,” Steven whimpered. “Please… come back.” Tears started to roll down his cheeks and into the tub, landing with gentle little splashes and adding a delicate pink tone to the mingled white, blue, and yellow hues. Then, the colors started to swirl. Steven’s heart raced and he squeezed his eyes shut, not daring to look and see if the process was working. He had Connie there to fill him in. She could keep an eye on it, he told himself.
“Please…” The plea was whispered this time. All was quiet apart from water that still ran into the tub. Why Steven hadn’t thought to turn it off was more than likely a result of his panicked state. Minutes seemed to tick by, but whether it was actually minutes or not remained to be seen.
…Finally, something happened.
A light started to shine from Steven’s hand, orange in color, accompanied by the sound of a Gem taking form. At first, Steven didn’t believe it. He only dared to open one eye.
“C-Connie…” Steven’s surprise was apparent. “It… it’s working…?”
And with that, there was nothing to do, but...
Well, wait. Wait, and hope.
Into the bathtub went the three bottles of diamond essence. Under other circumstances, Connie would have asked if using all of it wasn’t a bit of overkill (poor choice of words, in the context); but as things stood at present? She understood what she assumed to be Steven’s line of thought: that it was better to use it all than risk not enough. That and, well...
Was there... a time pressure? Did gem shards only hold onto a fraction of their form’s consciousness for a certain length of time after shattering, unless they were repaired? Given the nature of the gem mutants and the Cluster, Connie wasn’t sure she could say... but it certainly felt like this had to be fixed as quickly as possible.
No. No, don’t think it. Don’t doubt him. Not now.
Even so, she couldn’t suppress a soft gasp as Steven withdrew Jasper’s shards. The once-powerful warrior, reduced to so many fragments of quartz... Connie felt her jaw moving, trying to say something, but no words emerged. Even to one who knew how gem physiology worked, it was hard to reconcile the broken orange splinters with a living being.
She didn’t speak; there was nothing to say as Steven plunged the fistful of shards into the swirling multicolour water. Connie watched in silence, feeling distinctly apart from the scene... at least, until Steven’s sobbing pleas reached her ears.
Stepping tentatively forward, she wrapped her slender arms around his sodden shoulders. Not intervening; just holding him, letting him feel her support. She didn’t care that her clothes were absorbing the water from his; just that, whatever happened... whatever happened, she was here for him.
Even with her vision partly obscured by his dark curls, her gaze never left the tub.
Her eyes widened as, all of a sudden, orange light was spilling from between Steven’s clenched fingers, and Connie felt her heart leap into her throat. Was this-- was this it? Was it working? Some small apprehensive part of her whispered that there was no guarantee how this was going to turn out even if it had worked...
Was he seeing this too? The whisper of her name in return made it apparent that he was.
“I think... I think it is!” Her own tone was hushed too, still hardly daring to believe her eyes.
