Ao3 here! Mentions of child loss/death and gem egg hell but that’s nothing new!
Three days. It had been three days. Sapphire kept assuring her that things would be fine, but they were supposed to hatch three days ago, and she was starting to fear for the worst. Steven assured her that everything was going to be fine if the blue gem was telling her so, but she wasn’t so sure. The eggs weren’t even moving, and though her scanners were still detecting life, she was doubting that they worked. The geodes were supposed to have hatched by now, and she couldn’t even bring herself to leave their sides.
It was killing her. They were her last little ones left out of the bunch, and they should have hatched by now, but they hadn’t. Why was it taking so long for them to hatch? Were they traumatised? Too much so to hatch? She couldn’t leave their sides, knowing that they were supposed to arrive into the world soon, though not a single crack had appeared on their shells. They had to hatch soon. They had to. She kept telling herself that it wouldn’t take much more, that they’d be out and about before too long, but she couldn’t believe it, no matter how much she told herself so, or the others told her the same.
Sitting in her room with the little ones, she couldn’t help but feel alone. They had been the only real thing that made her feel like everything was going to be okay here on this miserable planet, and without them, she felt lost. It had all been her fault. She should have stayed aboard the ship, let them take her, but she hadn’t, because they could have easily crushed the still developing ones inside her, but instead, she had crashed. That had been so much worse than anything they would have done to her, because instead of the chance of it all, it had been certain, and she had lost so many to cracks too early. Now, the others weren’t cracking like they were supposed to, and it was driving her insane.
She was going to lose them too, wasn’t she? It wasn’t fair. She had thought they were doing so well, and that her scanners were working well, but no, it wasn’t true. They had never been alive, had they? They were dead the entire time, worse than she had been expecting, because not a single one had hatched, and it had all been a waste- a complete and total waste. Peridot had lost every single one of them despite her best efforts, and it was all her fault.
She pressed her forehead to her prosthetic knees, tears starting to stream her cheeks. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair. Peridot couldn’t believe that they hadn’t hatched, hadn’t even had a chance, after so long of waiting. She wanted to scream, because she couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe they had been lost as well, that she had carried for no reason because not a single one made it, and it hadn’t mattered. She had lost every single one she had carried, down to even the runt, and it wasn’t like she had lost them because they hadn’t been warmed or anything like that, no, it was because she had been stupid and a careless carrier.
What was she even supposed to do with the rotten geodes now? They were useless, worthless, and she couldn’t believe she had ever thought that they were going to make it. Ruby and Sapphire would probably tell her what to do with them, because they had told her that they had had their own that didn’t make it, and she couldn’t believe hers were going to end up with the rest of theirs. The technician felt so stupid for even having thought that they could have made it. It was her own fault for crashing her escape pod. Oh god, what if her superiors had been lying to her the entire time? What if they had never had a chance of making it, and this was some sick joke done by them? What if–
“Chirr?” She drew her head up, tears streaming her cheeks as she looked around. Where had that noises come from? No one else had came in, because she hadn’t heard the door open, and she was otherwise alone. The only other thing in her room was the heat lamp, the geodes, and a few of her personal items she had brought in her gem, and that was no where near any of the sounds she had programmed into her robonoids or any of the other inventions of hers. “Chirr! Chirr!”
There it was again. Was she hallucinating? She glanced around again, not seeing anyone else, before looking back at her geodes. Her heart would have stopped if it could have, because sitting in the circle was a tiny little peridot, barely sticking out of her shell. Her hair was a wild mess and matted to her little body, her little arms grasping at air as she tried to get out of her geode. Her eyes were stuck shut, and when Peridot moved a finger over to nudge her, she grabbed onto the digit, chirring up a storm. Slowly, with her heart in her throat, she picked up the geode and moved it closer, noticing the dark stripes on it and the gemling inside as she moved it closer.
“Chirr! Chirr chirr chirr!” The technician moved it closer, holding the little shell as she looked it over. The gemling was naked, but her mother expected nothing less, and she was so small that Peridot couldn’t help but wonder if it was normal. The little one was disgusting and sticky, and needed a good cleaning off, but her mother was so happy that she was alive, and chirring at her- demanding the green gem’s attention, like she was supposed to be cleaning the gemling off and getting the shells of her daughter right this second- that she didn’t care that the little gem was dirty. A laugh bubbled out of her before the grown gem thought twice about it, happy and disjointed, before she slowly started picking the shells off her little one. She seemed at least contented by that, her chirring getting less erratic as Peridot slowly peeled the shells away. What was this one’s name again? Stripe?
No, Streak. Her name was Streak, and she fit almost perfectly in the palm of her hand, so tiny and small as she was. The small gem was chirring, though it had calmed by now from a mess of chirrs that demanded attention at that very moment, to chirring that sounded perfectly happy with the shells finally being removed, as if she had had to wait forever for them to leave her. When the little one was finally free of her shells, Peridot wiped her thumb across her eyes, removing the muck there. She waited to see if she would open her eyes, but when she didn’t, she could only hold her close. Streak was content with this it seemed, purring softly as she was held. She glanced back to the geodes, unable to hold back a smile. If this one had hatched, then the rest had hope. In the next second, she knew her hope wasn’t misplaced.
Tiny little cracks appeared on the shell of her tiny little runt, and she watched the shell shatter and splinter before a hole was made in the side by a tiny foot. The green gem was quick to shift Streak, and herself, setting the little one in her lap as she scooped up her only orange egg. The little one kicked and the shell shook before the hole widened. She didn’t waste another second to start pulling the shells away, wanting her little one free. She broke them away, revealing the tiny thing that was so much smaller than her sister. Her name was Byte, and she wasn’t making nearly as much noise as her sister had been. She was still breathing though, her short hair spiked everywhere, with a few strands still stuck to her naked form. Peridot was quick to deposit her next to her sister when the next one started cracking, her plain green geodes shaking at the same time.
Peridot scooped them up when they started cracking, shells falling into her palms as they broke free. A tiny, messy headed gemling poked free from one, Data if she remembered right, and she started breaking the shells away as the little gem chirred at her, and she had barely got half of them off before Dottie was sprawling out in her palm, having broke out of part of the shell that was closest to her palm. She was careful to set the cracked geodes down carefully before chipping away at them both, one hand working on each. By the time their mother had finished, she could tell that they were both plain little peridots, though their hair was more reminiscent of their sire’s than hers. Both had gems imbedded in their faces where their noses should have been, though they were the same colour as her own.
“My little ones,” she gasped, her tears starting fresh again as she sat them next to their sisters. They curled together, a mess of tiny little bodies on her lap, and she choked down a sob, because she couldn’t believe it. They had hatched, her little ones had finally hatched, after days of making her worry and fret, they had hatched. She wanted to kiss them, to listen carefully to their adoring little purrs as they kept each other warm, but they needed to be cleaned off. However, that could wait for the moment, because they had just hatched, and had to be tired from the whole ordeal.
The technician glanced up at the last egg, seeing the light stripes adorning it, and picked it up. It had a small crack, but nothing more, and fear flooded her. Scared for her child, she started breaking the shell away slowly. Four out of five was good, but four out of her total wasn’t. It wasn’t fair to have lost so many, but she at least had her four, right? Her thumb broke through the membrane, and a tiny set of teeth dug into her finger the moment the digit did. She hissed softly, pulling it back for a second and glancing at the skin. It hadn’t broke through, but it had still hurt, and that was good, great even, because that meant her little one was alive, and a fighter. Excited, she started breaking the shell away, slowly but surely, her little one appearing as pieces fell away.
Smudge was small, so small that it almost hurt, but she was bigger than Byte, and that was an accomplishment in itself. She seemed to be the only one that didn’t have unruly locks, more reminiscent of her mother’s hair, and when Peridot looked her over, she noted that her gem was in the same spot as her own. It was a relief, and she sat the tiny gem next to her sisters. Tears started streaming faster than she thought possible, because they were so small and perfect and sticky. She would need to get Pearl to help her clean them off, but at the second, she didn’t care. They were finally here, finally in her lap, finally in the world.