David emerged a few hours later with all his wounds cleaned, a couple of stitches, a binded wrist. He was sore but had been given pain killers and reassured that he would heal relatively quickly- in the meantime he should just rest.

He came out into the waiting room looking pale. Fryman and Peedee stood up and walked over to greet him. They asked him if he had anywhere to stay in Beach City, anyone they could call. David told them no. He needed to contact Gwen and fill her in, but wanted to stay and see how Max was. He explained to the doctors that he was Max's councillor. He reassured Fryman and Peedee that they could go home and thanked them.

Steven, Greg and the Crystal Gems were still sat waiting for Max. David approached them and sat down silently next to Steven.

Pearl peered round and looked at him. Then she learnt in and whispered something to Garnet. Garnet shrugged.

"What is it?" Greg asked.

"Pearl was just wondering about the human body," Garnet said, and Pearl blushed furiously.

"No, no, not like that," she said hurriedly. "I was just thinking about David and Max and them getting hurt. How serious is it? How long will it take to reform? I mean- heal?"

"What do you mean?" David said, confused.

"Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet are Gems," Steven explained. "They're space rocks!"

"Wait ... what?"

"Our physical forms are made of light," Pearl said. "We gain all the nutrients we need from our gems, and we can summon weapons from them. We don't need to eat or drink-"

"Sure we don't need to," Amethyst cut in. "Doesn't mean we don't!"

"But when our bodies are injured-" Pearl continued, ignoring Amethyst, "we retreat into our gems to reform. But when our gems themselves get damaged, it's much harder to repair ourselves."

"So yeah, basically we're space rocks," Amethyst said, rolling her eyes. Pearl frowned.

"So... what about humans?" Pearl asked. "We know a little about it from Steven, but he's half gem."

"Well, it depends," David said. "It should take me a few weeks to heal. I'm not that badly hurt. But Max..." David sighed deeply. "Max... much longer."

"A few weeks?" Amethyst repeated, shocked. "But all you did was fall down a hill."

"If that happened to a Gem they wouldn't even need to reform," Pearl smiled.

"Wonderful," David muttered, then immediately felt deeply guilty. "I'm sorry," he said. "As you can tell I'm not my usually cheery self today."

"Quite understandable," Pearl said. She liked David's polite attitude.

A doctor appeared in the doorway.

"David?"

He stood up. The doctor beckoned him over.

"You can see Max if you like," he said. "He's a little woozy."

"Oh, yes please!" Exclaimed David, joy bursting in his chest.

"Do you know if Max has any family members we can contact?" The doctor asked. "You're his camp counselor, yes?"

"That's right," David said, feeling a little uneasy.

"Is he currently at camp or staying at home?"

"He... um..." David felt sick. "I was driving him home from camp when we had the accident." The lie turned sour in his mouth. He didn't want to talk or even think about what Max's parents had done to him.

"I see," said the doctor. "Then why don't you come through and we can sort out the details of contacting someone in a little while..."

"Okay," David said. "Thank you."