Pearl hurried from the kitchen in silence. She held the bottle coddled against her chest as she uncapped it. The bubbles surrounding her moved too, moving seamlessly into each other, coalescing into one large bubble at the center. Pearl eased her free hand out beneath it. It popped with an audible clap, releasing a shower of gem shards into Pearl’s waiting hand. Her fingers curled ever so slightly around them.

"We are not going to take haphazard risks with Steven’s life, Amethyst," Pearl bristled in response. There was a brittle edge to her voice, like glass. It was firm and unbending, but threatening to shatter at any moment. Pearl leaned over to get a better look at Tourmaline’s broken body. "We can figure out the exact construction of his gem from these pieces. It won’t be terribly difficult. Just find which shards form exact pair-bonds with other shards."
"Yeah, well, that’s gonna take an eternity! And we don’t have a lot of time, Pearl!  The tears are magic! Maybe they know how to shuffle everything around all normal and we don’t need to bother!"
"There are three of us, we can figure it--"

Amethyst moved her hands over Steven’s gem. With excessive care, she released her gathered shards into the open cavern. They clinked gently. Pearl followed suit; laying down more shards with even less noise. Pearl moved the bottle of tears into position.

Garnet glanced to Amethyst; at least, she probably did. The slight twitch in her neck implied it. She said nothing in reply. Her next words were directed to Pearl. "Be gentle."