Sheena slowly walked into the house, it had been little over 2 week now since Peridot, Jasper, and Agate had gone into the hospital. All three women were healing nicely, Peridot's throat was healing up, she no longer wheezed as much, and her voice wasn't as hoarse. Agate was starting to talk a little, the poor thing had been traumatized by the Diamonds. Jasper's legs had mostly healed up, they were the area of least concern. She hadn't woken up yet, which was, in the pink haired girl's opinion, a good thing. She needed as much rest as she could get.
Right now though, she wanted to focus on something else. She had left Garnet, Bismuth, Steven, Rose and Greg over at the hospital, and had driven down through the snow to Aqua and Cat's house. Christmas was coming soon, and the pink haired woman had been making absolute sure everything had been bought. The presents were all being hidden at her home, with a massive tree being put into Lapis' house, it was her turn to have Christmas at her home. The blue haired woman had always hated the holidays, but Sheena had the feeling that Lapis' heart had made a change.
Looking around, she could hear some odd noises coming from upstairs. Sheena walked up to see her poor fiance huddled in the bathroom, her face was flushed as she leaned up against the bathroom counter, her eyes closed and her skin paler than usual as she shivered. Pearl coughed and sneezed, there were a few used tissues near her and on the counter.
"Baby?" Sheena murmured as she knelt down, taking one of Pearl's cold clammy hands in her own. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
Pearl looked up at her with watery eyes. "Lapis and I..." Her nose was stuffed up, making her sound odd. "We... Caught what Peridot had. I've mainly got a cold, but I have a fever too, and Lapis has been throwing up anything we give her, she can't even hold down toast or water..." The French woman went into a coughing fit, and slumped against Sheena's shoulder. "I came in here but... I can't get back to bed, I'm... I'm so tired..."
Sheena gently scooped up the shorter woman into her arms. "It's okay now, I've got you." She whispered, and carried Pearl into the room they used whenever they stayed here. She laid the shivering girl on the bed and tucked her in, putting a fluffy pillow under her head before she felt a small tug on her sleeve.
"Water?" Pearl croaked, and Sheena nodded. She grabbed a half full water bottle out of her purse and pushed her fiance into a sitting position, keeping a hand on her back. Pearl had drank quite a bit before giving a slight smile and relaxing. "Lapis is downstairs, she's not taking well to being given medicine."
The pink haired woman sighed. Lapis hated taking pills of any kind, stemming from her mother forcing different drugs into her mouth to use Lapis as her lab rat. The blue haired woman despised needles and pills, even ones that she knew were to help her feel better, she just couldn't quite seem to get over it.
Sheena nodded again down at Pearl, put a cold wet cloth onto her forehead, and went downstairs.
There was Lapis, huddled in the corner of the basement eyeing up Cat and Aqua. "Get that shit away from me." She hissed, her eyes wide with anger and fear. "I want Peridot, take me to see her, NOW!"
"Lapis, she's sick and so are you. Stop it, you're not going to get better if you stress yourself out like this. You need rest." Aqua tried to reason with her. Oh bless the doctor's heart, she thought it was possible. Lapis shook her head, curled up tighter and clamped her hands over her ears.
"I need HER! Go away, leave me alone! I HATE YOU!" Lapis howled, her voice filled with terror as she shivered in the corner, her skin soaked with sweat as she looked wildly around the room, as if searching for an escape.
Sheena stepped over to them, making sure to not make any quick or sudden movements. It didn't take a genius to know that the blue haired girl was having an episode, probably one of the ones that would keep Sheena up at night days later, some of the things she could say were disturbing, but the ones that stuck around and buzzed in the pink haired woman's brain were when Lapis seemed to momentarily have the mind of a child, a lost, hurt and scared little girl...
"Shh, it's okay Lapis... It's me Sheena." Said the tall woman as she approached, getting down to be almost eye level with the smaller girl.
Lapis shook her head rapidly and began to hyperventilate. "No, no, I don't want it, I don't want medicine..." She whispered, her voice shaking. "Please, I'm scared..."
Sheena's heart broke, she sounded like a terrified child who was seeing monsters under the bed, needing to be held and soothed but not letting anyone closer out of the desperate fear of being hurt. The older woman held out her hands to show Lapis that they were empty. "I don't have any medicine, see? I'm not gonna make you take any, okay? I just need to know what happened. Why are you scared, is it the pill?" She asked gently.
The Hawaiian gave a nod. "I don't like it... It's too big, I don't trust it." She murmured. Sheena got a bit closer to her, only for Lapis to curl up tighter. "I wanna go home, I want Peri..."
"I know you do honey, but if you go to Peridot like this, you could make her very sick. She has to take a lot of medicine, and she's very weak right now. The doctor said she needs lots of rest, no stress or excitement, and to be kept in a nice healthy place. You wouldn't want to make Peridot all sick, would you?" Sheena said to the smaller woman in a calming voice, and watched Lapis shake her head. "So you have to be a little more patient. I know you hate this, but think about how happy Peridot will be to see you again when she's all better! She really misses you, and I know she'd really want you to take medicine to get better."
Lapis gave a somber noise. "I know..." She whispered. The Hawaiian slowly uncoiled her body, sighing sadly and looking up to the older woman. "Can you hold my hand, please?"
Sheena gave her a warm smile, and took the tan lady's hand into her own larger one. "Sure buddy." She said, before turning to look back at Cat and Aqua. "You guys can give her the medicine now, she'll be okay."
The young doctor sighed with relief, "Oh thank god. I need to bring her fever down." She said as she grabbed a water bottle from Cat. She quickly gave the blue haired woman the pill, and while Lapis had squeezed Sheena's hand tightly enough to probably bruise it, the pink haired woman was at least happy that her friend would be getting better soon.
Cat scooped Lapis up into her arms and carried her back upstairs, back into her own little bedroom. Sheena and Aqua followed her back up, watching Cat tuck Lapis into a bed.
The pink haired girl REALLY hoped things were going better back at the hospital.
POV SHIFT- Garnet Avenir
"I like the tiny one, she's got some real sassy style to her." Said Bismuth quietly as she held Jasper's undamaged hand. Garnet gave a soft chuckle, the rainbow haired woman had been bonding with the tiny blonde (whenever Peridot was awake for more than 5 minutes) and the two seemed to get long well. Of course, Peridot was pretty friendly to everyone she met, so there was really no surprise.
"Yeah, she is pretty sassy when she wants to be. Should see her when she's happy. I swear, she brings us all up." Said Garnet as she sat down next to her friend, tired of pacing around the room. "Little moral boost, and she helps out around the house, even offered to help fix up our cars."
"Damn, must be pretty nice. So where'd you find her?"
Garnet froze up a little. "Um... See we uh..."
Bismuth raised an eyebrow, "'Uh', what? Garnet where did you find this girl?"
The dark skinned woman looked down, her feet were pretty interesting right about now. "Lapis found her. She was a mechanic. I don't know exactly what happened but... I guess she changed something inside of her. Lapis fell into an obsession, which turned into real love, I hope. She... Kidnapped Peridot, had her brought into her home, they've been bonding, and I think Peridot's fully forgiven her by now. I hope everything turns out alright, we all deserve a little goodness after this."
The older woman gave a small nod. "Tell me about it..." She murmured. The two sat in silence for a while, watching over Jasper as she slept. Her wounds were getting better, the burns on her hands were definitely doing much better, even the doctors were impressed. "My Jaspy... A god damn hero. Goin out there to help her friends, saving her baby sister, even when she knew it coulda fucking killed her..." Bismuth gave an empty chuckle before a slight gasp, her eyes going wide.
Jasper was waking up.
The buff woman groaned softly. "Wh... Where am I?" Her voice croaked, and Garnet hurried to press the call button to get the doctors into the room.
"You're in the hospital sweetie, you're gonna be okay." Bismuth whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. "Everything is gonna be okay."
Jasper looked over towards Bismuth, her amber eyes widening. "Bis... You're here... How?"
The muscular woman smiled softly down at her injured girlfriend. "I had to see you. You know I'd do anything for you." She said, holding onto Jasper's hand, wiping at her eyes a bit and sniffling. "You really scared us, you know that?"
Jasper looked confused for a moment before her expression twisted into a more panicked one. "Where's Amethyst?!" She looked up at Garnet. "Is she okay, where is she?"
"Shh, it's alright, she's okay. She isn't here right now, she's resting in my house as we speak." She explained as calmly as she possibly could. "She's okay now too. She was coughing for a while and had a sore throat, but she's alright."
Garnet watched as Jasper gave a shuddering sigh, the large woman beginning to look at her body as a doctor came in.
"What seems to be... Oh!" The doctor's eyes widened a little as they looked down towards Jasper. "Miss Redimido, you're awake." The doctor began to gently explain everything that had happened, and Garnet watched as Jasper's expression turned from confusion into a pained one filled with terror and heartbreak. "The risk of infection has decreased, and you should be fit to go home by the end of the week so long as your burns are treated properly..." They kept talking, but it seemed the white haired woman wasn't really listening.
"Are... Are these gonna scar?" She croaked. Jasper let out a long heavy sigh followed by a sob after the doctor nodded.
Garnet stepped out of the room, she walked over through the sterile white halls, her old memories flooding in.
Blue Diamond had hallways like these. Lined with cells where she would keep her prisoners, forcing them to cut ties with family and friends. Only one place was worse in the muscular woman's opinion. White Diamond's main building. She had only been in there once, and once was enough.
Garnet peeked into Peridot's room, the blonde was sitting up in her bed, writing on a piece of paper and taking sips from a cup of juice, occasionally taking a small bite off a plate of fruit, cheese and crackers. Rose noticed Garnet peeking in, and walked out to see her.
"How's she doing?" The younger of the two asked, and Rose smiled.
"Pretty good. She's been eating somewhat well, the doctors weighed her while she was asleep a few hours ago, she managed to put on roughly 5 pounds. Positive reinforcement really works on her. I know we're still going to have issues, and I'm setting her up with a therapist per doctor's orders, but I think she's going to get better, slowly."
There was a soft whine from inside the room. "Rose..." Peridot called, and the two walked inside. "Can I please have my DS? I ate almost all my food."
Garnet raised an eyebrow as she looked at the pink haired girl. "What? I never said it was the ONLY thing that worked." Rose said and began to laugh.
She knelt down near the blonde's bed and watched as her brilliant green eyes lit up. "Garnet!" She gasped. She leaned over to hug to tall woman gently around her waist with one of her arms. "The doctor said I'm getting better, I can stay up for almost 5 whole hours without feeling tired at all!" She boasted before Rose handed her the shiny pink DS. She happily began to play one of her games on it.
"That's wonderful." Said the British woman, "What exactly were you writing before you got your DS? You seemed like you were in some deep thoughts when you were writing."
Peridot looked up towards her from her game and blushed. "I... I was writing a letter to Lapis. I don't really know what to say, but... I'm trying. I'm telling her that I'm sorry. That I want to do something with her when I get home, that I AM coming home... Think that's okay?"
Garnet gave the small woman a little pat on the back. "I think it's perfect." She said with a soft smile. "How's your throat and chest feeling?"
Peridot took a bite of her cheese and a large gulp from her drink before she answered. "I'm feeling a lot better. Greg brought me some of my things too, it's nice to have my DS and stuff."
She watched over the shorter girl. She could sense that Peridot was lying a little, that she wasn't truly happy, but she understood. It would be very hard for her to be happy here, this wasn't a place she was used to, and there were strangers forcing her to eat, along with the absence of Lapis, it really wasn't a shock that the little Greek woman was only acting so cheerful to put on a brave face.
Even Garnet was acting. She had tried to call her mothers.
Their phones were disconnected.