Chapter Text
Rick took his hand out of his lab coat pocket as Mom fumbled down the stairs. No memory gun, just his bare hand. Morty grabbed at the fabric pooling at his ankles and hiked it over his ass. His dick was half hard. No one needed to know his dick was half hard, no one needed to see that.
Summer, still shielding him, dropped the arm covering her eyes as they watched Mom walk across the kitchen on trembling legs. Morty tried to catch Mom’s eye, but she made a point to keep her stare on Rick as she bit her lip. “Dad. Tell me I didn’t see what I think I just saw.”
Summer turned towards her. “He’s standing in the kitchen naked!”
Rick sighed and retrieved his pants. “Really, Beth? You want me to lie to you?”
“No, I want you to not have done what you did.” Her jaw set. “It’s completely unacceptable! What the hell were you even thinking, Dad? Morty’s your grandson!”
Rick shrugged, shoving one leg then the other into his pants. “Th-there’s not really a good excuse. I’m drunk. I got confused. Here we are.”
Mom and Rick were staring each other down, eyes tense. Mom rubbed her face. “God, Dad, you can’t do this. If this is how you act when you’re drunk, then... then you can’t be drunk around my family.”
“Okay,” Rick said. It was the same tone he used with Morty earlier. The one that meant he wasn’t agreeing, not really. “It won’t happen again.”
Mom’s shoulders relaxed. She headed for the wine cabinet. Morty’s heart dropped as he dried the tears on his face. Mom was stupid to believe Rick’s words, but Morty couldn’t fault her for it. He was stupid too.
Summer tore the bottle from Mom’s hold. “That’s it?”
Mom tried grabbing the bottle back, but Summer avoided her hand. Mom glared. “What? He said he won’t do it again.”
“And you believe that?”
Mom looked from Rick to Summer, then bit her lip. “Um.”
Summer slammed the bottle down on the counter. “Not to mention you haven’t said a single word to Morty. Maybe you should ask if he’s okay. Maybe you should ask him if this has ever happened before trusting the person you caught raping him!”
Everyone turned to Morty. Summer offered him an encouraging nod while Rick’s eyes told him to shut up or else. Morty looked down.
“Right,” Mom said. “Right, uh. Has this happened before?”
“Never,” Rick said.
“I was talking to Morty,” Mom said. She sounded a bit more sure.
Morty knotted his hands together. “It’s happened before,” he admitted.
“Really,” Rick said, crossing his arms. “And you remember this happening?”
Morty glared at him. “A few weeks ago. You were drunk. You passed out on top of me and I had to drag you out into the hallway.” Rick’s eyes shot wide. “I’m not surprised you don’t remember. You were pretty hammered.”
Summer gestured to him. “So what’re you gonna do, Mom? Huh? Rick has been molesting and raping your son, what’re you gonna do?”
“Put an end to it,” Mom said. She looked between them. “No more adventures.”
“But—“ Morty said.
“No more adventures and Rick doesn’t get to hang out with Morty unless supervised.” She looked to Summer. “How’s that?”
Summer facepalmed.
“I don’t know,” Mom said. “I guess... if Morty feels better living with his father—“
“You’re supposed to kick Rick out,” Summer shouted. “He’s the problem and you’re telling me you’d rather toss Morty over to Dad? He’s living in a motel room.”
Mom looked to the floor. “Well. I know.”
Rick finally pulled the memory gun. “Alright, I’ve heard enough.” Summer’s eyes shot wide and she turned to run, but Rick was faster. Mom was next, her eyes loosening. It was stashed away before Summer and Mom looked around.
Rick crossed his arms. “Yeah, Beth. You should really listen to Summer and stop while you’re ahead. You have work in the morning.”
Mom blinked. “What?”
Rick looked at Summer. “Wow. She’s drunker than I thought if she doesn’t even remember drinking, am I right?”
Summer looked around, finding the bottle on the counter. Her eyes went from Morty to Rick, darkening even as she kept a steady-yet-confused voice. “Yeah?”
“I had one glass before bed,” Beth said. “One!”
“Sure, sweetie.” He took the bottle from the counter and put it away. “Take your, take your mom up to bed, will you?”
Summer looked between Rick and Morty again. “Yeah, okay.”
Morty tried to smile as he nodded for her to leave. Two nods.
Summer left, Mom in toe.
Rick scoffed. “Sheep.” He pulled his flask and chugged what seemed to be the last bit. “Way to ruin the mood. Go to bed, Morty. Once they’re settled, I’ll erase their memories again for good measure.”
Morty swallowed. “Mine too?”
“Hm? Oh, naw, you can keep it.”
He blinked. “Why?”
“Beth made her choice,” Rick said. “I want you to remember that.”
***
Morty didn’t sleep. There was too much to contemplate and he resigned himself to numbness as he thought through all of it in circles.
He could kill himself. He could down a bottle of pills, shoot himself in the head, or even set off a neutrino bomb. That would be a giant fuck you to Rick, setting off a neutrino bomb. Hell, Morty could bomb the garage, destroy the portal gun, and crash the spaceship before he killed himself. Maybe the next Morty would be less of a coward. Maybe the next Morty would have the guts to kill Rick instead of himself.
Then Morty decided he might as well try one more thing before killing herself. Because what did he have to lose?
His alarm rang and he got dressed. Rick wasn’t awake yet, thank god, and Summer drove them to school.
Summer was quiet, which meant Morty had to be the one who started the conversation. It took him half the car ride to force out the words “Did you notice” out of his mouth.
They were at a stop sign. Summer rubbed at her eyes. “Hm?”
“You lost time last night.”
Her back straightened. Wide, shocked eyes met his, then looked over the rest of his body for evidence.
Behind them, a car honked.
Summer slammed on the gas, jolting the car forward.
“Summer, geez!”
“What happened?”
“I shouted,” Morty said. “You came in. Mom came in.” Summer’s head sunk into her hand, fingers threading her hair. Morty cleared his throat. “I’m ready to do something about it.”
Summer refocused on the road. “Alright. Alright, yeah. Do you have a plan? An idea of a plan? I don’t really have that much money saved up, but I’m sure that... Where’s somewhere Rick wouldn’t expect us to go?”
Morty shook his head. “I’m not running away.”
“You just said—“
“Let’s try something before we go that far,” Morty said. He didn’t mention that he was planning to kill himself if his plan didn’t work. Summer wouldn’t let him do it. She wouldn’t understand that, to him, it was the only other option. “Rick. He wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t remember how to be a problem.”
Summer’s jaw dropped and Morty could see the ideas flinging through her brain.
***
Later that night, Summer pushed Morty’s bedroom door opened and said, “Hey, I can’t sleep. Wanna watch TV?”
That meant Rick was asleep and had been for at least thirty minutes. Morty slipped out of bed and followed Summer downstairs.
They did turn on the TV and stare at it for a bit. Just in case. Summer even emptied a bottle of wine into a glass and took a single sip to make it look like she was up to steal Mom’s alcohol. “Do you do that a lot,” Morty asked.
Summer shrugged. “It’s something to throw in his face. And the bottle, it’s empty now, you know how in the movies they break the end and use it as a weapon?”
Morty gestured to the actual, legit weapon sitting next to the bottle. “You have a laser gun!”
“Yeah, but breaking a bottle is badass. It’s about presentation, Morty.”
Morty shook his head and turned back to the TV.
Summer took the key from around her neck and offered it to him. “I think it’s safe to go out there now.”
“Five more minutes,” he said.
“Morty.”
He squirmed. “He probably has a sensor or something. On the door. To alert him to someone entering. I mean, he’s probably on high alert.”
Summer rubbed her forehead. “That’s why I’m keeping watch, Morty.”
“But—“
“Just hurry up,” she snapped. “Stalling won’t get us anywhere, so unless you wanna skip to plan B—“
Morty took the key and forced himself to stand. “No. No, I’m going.” His sock feet pitter-pattered towards the garage door. He held the knob. Looked up the dark, empty stairs, then at Summer who was giving him a thumbs up from the couch.
With one last deep breath, he entered the garage.
No alarms so far. He uncovered the door and headed down the ladder. It felt like he was being watched the farther down he went. He hopped off the last rung and fast-walked through the hallway.
Morty searched the mindblower room. The memory gun wasn’t on the cart or any of the shelves, but Morty had expected it to be on Rick’s person. He was there for the tranquilizer gun. Once Rick was knocked out, they could search him. Search his bedroom and the garage and the whole house if they needed to without risk of him interrupting.
Morty stepped into the hallway and unlocked the box on the wall. The tranq gun was there. The memory files weren’t.
The hallway lit up portal-green.
Rick slammed Morty into the wall, pinning him. “Looking for this?” Rick thrusted the memory gun into his neck.
Morty tried to twist out of Rick’s grasp. It didn’t work. “B-b-b-but—“
Rick yanked Morty into the Mindblowers room by the shirt collar. Rick was wearing the mindblowers helmet. Morty hasn’t noticed before, but it had been missing from the room. “Oh, was Summer supposed to keep watch or something? Huh.” He threw Morty towards the chair and blocked the exit as he spun the memory gun in his hand. “Guess she forgot,” Rick smirked. “Really, Morty, you, you think I’m stupid or something? You think I couldn’t figure it out, that that you knew about the Mindblowers? I sure as hell didn’t tell you, so Summer, she’s the only other option.”
Morty stepped back as Rick strutted forward. “How, how much of her memory, how much did she forget?”
“Reset her,” Rick said. “She’s asleep on the couch. You can shout for her if you want. This whoooooole underground lair’s soundproof.”
Morty’s back hit the shelf, knocking a few vials to the floor. “Why are you doing this? I-I just don’t get it, Rick, what’s the point off—“
Rick rolled his eyes. “Would you quit analyzing? There doesn’t have to be a point for everything, Morty. I do what I want, how’s that for a point?” Rick stepped right up to him, trapping Morty between the wall and his body. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish what we started last night.”
Morty shoved to no avail. “I do mind, Rick!”
Rick’s hand wrapped around Morty’s neck. “Not enough. I can do anything. I could inadvertently murderer our whole family and you’d stick by my side! You have!” Rick lead Morty to the chair, encouraging him to climb up on it by yanking his throat up.
Morty sat himself in the chair, gagging from the hand around his neck. Rick loosened up. “Hey, you know what always turns me on?” Rick reached over and pulled a vial from the cart. The red one labeled virginity. “Have you seen this one?”
Morty nodded.
Rick sat on top of Morty, releasing his throat to put the vial inside and take the helmet off his head. “This vial always gets you hard, it’s hilarious.” He brought the helmet towards Morty.
Morty bashed his head to avoid it. “No! Not that, Rick, c’mon!” He tried bucking Rick off.
A dart hit Rick in the shoulder. Summer was in the doorway, tranq gun in hand.
Rick dropped the helmet and slumped onto Morty, a dead weight.
Summer walked towards him. It was a Summer that Rick had reset. A Summer completely trusting and in cahoots with Rick. A Summer who would reset him, no hesitation.
Morty shoved Rick’s body to the floor and threw himself at the memory gun, clenching it in his fist. He aimed it at Summer, arms trembling. “Don’t!”
She backed into the hallway, palms up. The tranq gun was still in her hand. “Morty, put it down!”
“No! You’re gonna make me forget! You’re gonna reset me back to, back to before!”
“No—“
Tears welled in Morty’s eyes. “He raped me! And. And he took my memory of it! He did it again and again, and you helped him! You helped him take my memories!” His vision blurred over as his breathing sped. “You said you’d help stop it.”
“I’m trying,” Summer said.
Morty shook his head. “He reset you.”
“He didn’t.”
“Don’t lie! I’m sick of being lied to! I’m sick of—“ He choked.
Summer took a shaky breath. “I showed you the Mindblowers, Morty. Remember? We were drinking, you told me what Rick was doing to you so I showed you.”
Morty’s arm shook, the gun weighing him down. How’d she know that? If Rick reset her memory, she wouldn’t...
“I couldn't just sit around doing nothing while he hurt you. And I couldn't do much without it blowing up in our faces, but. Dad has this Rick friend, Doofus Rick. We met him when you and Rick got kidnapped by the other Ricks. He’s weird and eats shit or whatever, but he’s friendly. He helped me make new vials. For both of us. So we’d remember. Rick didn’t reset me, Morty, I made sure he couldn’t.”
Morty let his arm drop, the gun slack in his hand. He took a deep breath. Then he shot Rick.
Summer shoved herself against the wall. “Morty!” Her eyes were wide, but they eased when she saw who the gun was pointing at. Whose memory Morty had wiped.
“I believe you,” Morty said.
Summer huffed. “Okay. Okay, good. Now put the gun down.”
He stared at her, biting his lip.
Summer facepalmed. “For Christ’s sake, break it then if you don’t trust me.”
He blinked. “Break?”
“Break the gun.”
A beat of quiet. Morty messed with the gun until something click-crunched. Then he dropped it.
Summer’s shoulders barely had time to relax before Morty ran at her, arms wrapping around her waist. He squeezed tight, head burrowing her collar bone. He trembled, a quiet “Thank you,” among the whimpers.
She set her hands awkwardly at his back and squeezed.
***
Morty opened the smelling salts. Rick groaned.
“Rick,” Morty called. “A-are you okay?”
Rick sat up. “What happened?”
Morty swallowed. “Y-you went on an adventure after dinner. I, I came in here to do laundry, found you on the ground.”
Rick stood up, eyes sweeping the garage. They’d set Morty’s laundry basket by the door and put the portal gun in Rick’s hand. He lifted the gun up and examined it before looking to Morty and Summer. “Who are you?”
Summer crossed her arms. “Uh, your grandkids? Did you hit your head or something?”
Rick felt his head. “I-I don’t know. I guess?” He looked at Morty. “You said my name was Rick?”
“Yeah,” Morty said. “You really don’t remember?”
Rick shook his head.
“Well, I’m Morty and, and this is my sister, Summer. You live with us. Well, us and our Mom. Her name’s Beth. You’re a scientist and. And that’s your portal gun. I can show you how it works if, if you want.”
Morty held his hand out. Rick looked between him and the gun, eyes narrowed. Even blank, he was suspicious. It made Morty smile.