Steven Universe Fic (Season 2)

Part One Chapter One: The AfterShock

Eight months.
She had been back for eight months.

Spinel didn't know what to do with herself, while she sat alone in the living room, she picked at her gloves, anxiously waiting for someone to return. She was better, much better at being alone for extended periods of time now.

You get better when the only thing you can see for half a year is the glowing stars on Steven's ceiling. Trapped, unable to speak, or seek comfort, or tell him you were so, so sorry for getting shattered.

She was better at being alone because Steven rarely ever left her alone anymore.
So sitting on the couch, staring at the blank television and picking at her gloves for three hours was fine, if not boring.
She wasn't even anxious about being left alone. No, she was anxious about Steven.

It was maybe two or three days after she came back that it began, and she didn't know what to do. He just started...glitching.
He didn't have a body made of light though, and Spinel knew that, she knew that whatever was wrong was a human thing.
She recalled it so easily, that day.

"Spinel, I wanted to show you someone-" Steven's smile suddenly dropped and he buckled over, startling the pink gem.
She watched, terrified as he twitched and groaned until it seemed like all his muscles contracted at once and he was lying on the ground unconcious.

"Steven?!" She dropped to her knees, shaking him fervently, hoping that he might wake from his sudden sleep. But he didn't stir at all.
She reached out, wrapping her arm around the nearest gem and yanking her toward her, tears streaming as she stared at the startled orange gem.

"Help me?! I don't know what's wrong! I need a human, I need-" the burly orange gem nodded silently and scooped up the boy in her arms, carrying him toward the center warp of New Homeworld. The two of them warped to his home, and Spinel raced down the stairs screaming frantically for Pearl, or Garnet, Amethyst, anyone.

The orange gem plopped him on the couch and Spinel tried to wait, but her worry grew far too quickly to allow rational thought.
Her eyes darted about the room as she paced, searching for one of the phones Steven had before finding it on the kitchen island. She snatched it up dialing the only human she knew would answer.

"STEVEN'S DAD," she shrieked with fervor, startling the voice on the other end, though she didn't care, it was urgent, he was hurt, he could be dead. "Something is wrong with Steven, help me please?!"

"Spinel?" Greg's voice was tinged with confusion and worry that only increased as she continued.

"He broke! He just fell down and got broken!" She had no idea what had happened, she couldn't exactly put into words what happened, "it's an emergency!"

The phone grew quiet, before Greg spoke finally, "Spinel, I'm on my way, I'm taking him to the hospital."

Then all she could do was wait. Wait for the human doctors to make sense of things she couldn't.

"It looked like he had a seizure." Doctor Maheshwaran said, flipping through the notes on her clip board. "Though, considering the alien part, I can't be entirely sure."

"What do you mean not entirely sure?!" Pearl squaked, her hand over her mouth as she stared at the boy in the hospital bed.

"Don't worry, I'm fine guys." Steven said with a small smile as he sat up in his bed. Amethyst rested her hand on his  bed, nodding in apprehensive agreement.

"Dude, you like, passed out. Don't think that's fine." She said, the concern in her voice betraying the small laugh she forced out.
Everyone was huddled around him, except for Spinel.
She didn't want to be close, she was afraid to be close, that maybe, secretly...she made this happen.

And now she sat on the couch, eight months later, picking at her fingers while Steven was at the doctors for another 'seizure'.
She glanced at the doorway, just as the heads of her three favorite gems and Steven came up the porch stairs to enter and she jumped from her seat, smiling brightly despite the nagging, terrible feeling that she was the cause of Steven's ailments.

"We're back!" Steven called, immediately being wrapped in a coil of her arms and pulled to her side in a nearly suffocating hug. "And I've got good news! The seizures are getting better!"

Spinel pushed him away for just a moment, confusedly looking him up and down to search for any, even mild, notion of a lie.

"Dr. Maheshwaran said that they are losing their severity and duration, and I even noticed they happen less often." He clarified, Spinel blinked, not exactly believing him. He knew this.
Steven was well aware of her concern for him, despite not showing it as overtly as usual. He also knew that she secretly blamed herself for his condition, though decided maybe it was better to not pressure her as to why.

She would talk about it in her own time. And when she was ready, he would be there to listen and make her know that he didn't blame her.

It was better than the alternative. Which usually ended in far more tears than he ever would like to see her cry. That and she hadn't entirely lost her irrational paranoia surrounding herself and their relationship. If he pressured her, she was bound to take it in the most negative way possible. He had made that mistake many a time.

Spinel's arms slowly dropped their hold, sinking to the floor like sopping noodles, she feigned the reaction as relief, but he could see the clear worry on her face.

"Spinel, I promise, I'm doing great." He reassured her, the gem nodded, and retracted her arms with a forced smile.

"Of course, you know, I just don't want you to hit your head or something." She giggled, lightly tapping his head with her hand and bouncing back to the couch.
Steven laughed, moving to her side and purposely bumping himself against her as he sat down, turning on the television for their weekly show.