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chapter 5

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Blinking and swallowing a dry gulp, Morty brought his hand up to his forehead and let out a pained groan. He stared up at the ceiling - the garage ceiling, then looked down to find he was covered by by Rick's ratty old garage blanket - the one he used when he got so shit-faced that he didn't bother coming inside at night - or in the day - or whenever he happened to get tired enough to actually sleep.

Morty leaned forward and smelled the blanket, then leaned back and coughed. It smelled so heavily of alcohol - the same kind- no... That wasn't the blanket. That was him. That was Morty's own self. He remembered now. The bullies at school poured alcohol all over him.

"You awake?" Rick asked as he glanced over toward Morty with a raised eyebrow. "Want some coffee? We can dose it up with creamer and sugar and shit so you can handle it."

Morty frowned and looked back down at himself. Under the blanket, he was wrapped up in Rick's lab coat. Besides that, he was wearing nothing but underwear.

Sticking out his lip in a pout, Morty thought back to last night. Theo and Ivan took all of his clothes, pulled his underwear down, and... Morty pulled back Rick's lab coat slightly, noticing 'tiny dick' written on his chest.

"That really wasn't fair." Rick noted from across the garage, clearly noticing Morty observing the writing on his skin. "I mean, compared to a fucking six foot tall jock prick, yeah... Your dick is small... But you're fuckin' five feet tall. A hundred damn pounds. Proportionally, it's pretty normal. You'd look like a fuckin' freak if you had an elephant dick, right?" Rick laughed.

Morty couldn't help but to laugh as well, not really expecting that strange degree of support and reassurance from his grandfather. Not after Rick warned him against hanging out with the older boys and Morty stupidly ignored him. Morty was kind of a dick about it too. He wondered if Rick was going to say something shitty soon - make sure Morty remembered that he was a dumbass and that he got what he deserved.

Swallowing, Morty watched as Rick turned back around and resumed working on whatever he was doing at his work bench. He wondered why Rick wasn't making fun of him right now, gloating, telling Morty he was fucking idiot for trusting that these brute jocks would actually want anything to do with him.

"R-rick?" Morty spoke in a low, cracking voice, swallowing dryly as Rick remained facing away from him.

"What?" Rick called back.

"Did... Um... Did I say like... W-what did I say last night?" Morty wondered with a worried frown.

Rick shrugged. "Enough." He answered.

Morty grimaced. He wasn't sure what that meant. Did he tell Rick how heartbroken he was when Theo and Ivan betrayed him? Did Rick think it was ridiculous and stupid that Morty gave a shit what other people thought of him? Was Rick going to make fun of him for this? Gloat? Remind Morty what a naive little fucking idiot he was?

Did Morty tell Rick he legitimately thought they might rape him when they took his clothes? When they pulled down his underwear? That was so embarrassing. He hoped he didn't admit that fear to Rick. His grandfather would probably think he was so weak and stupid. Rick would have never been dumb and weak enough to get himself into that sort of position - not even when he was Morty's age. He probably would have been one of the cool kids - maybe not threatening to rape smaller kids, but perhaps bullying them. Rick was so fucking assertive and smart. He would have never let bigger kids be mean to him.

"You don't have to worry about them anymore. They won't be bothering you again." Rick noted after a moment of silence. "If you wanna go shower and get changed into something that isn't my lab coat and your alcohol soaked underwear, we can get going. I've only been waiting like a whole fuckin' day to get-"

"Wait...W-what do you mean, I don't have to worry about them? Why not?" Morty frowned. Did Rick threaten them? They'd probably be mad if he did. They'd probably hurt Morty again, only warn him to keep quiet about it or else. Morty hoped Rick hadn't made all of this worse unintentionally.

"They're gone." Rick noted, glancing back with a shrug and a raised eyebrow.

Morty felt his chest grow cold. Sometimes Rick made people disappear when they were considered too big of a problem... Disappear as in they were dead. Like laser gun to the face dead. Morty hated how Ivan and Theo treated him, but he didn't want them to die for it. Rick knew that right? That he couldn't just kill high school kids who were mean to him...

"Where are they?" Morty whispered.

"I sent them to another dimension." Rick answered.

"Oh..." Morty exhaled. He had thought for a second that maybe Rick killed the older boys, which really would have been taking things way too far. Morty definitely wanted them out of his life, but not like that. "Wh-which dimension?" Morty wondered. Hopefully not one with a different Morty for them to torment.

Rick smirked. "A fuckin' funny one. Like downright hilarious, Morty. I mean, I almost fuckin' pissed myself laughing after I sent them there."

Morty felt a smile tugging at his lips. "Like... Somewhere really annoying?" He guessed, picturing in his mind Ivan and Theo tryin to hold onto the planet's plants to stay near the ground in a dimension with hardly any gravity, or dodging bird poop in a dimension where pigeons outnumbered humans a million to one.

Rick's smile widened on his face. "Yeah. Really, really annoying."

Morty laughed softly, appreciating Rick's support. Maybe the man wasn't perfect, but he saw these boys were cruel to his grandson and he made them pay for it. "Like... maybe where everything's sticky, or it smells like farts all the time?" Morty guessed. "Or a dimension without much gravity or where it rains pee or pigeon turds?"

Rick nodded and his eyebrows rose. "Something like that."

"Like what though? Is it like one of those dimensions where everybody walks backwards or its only daylight for an hour every day? Like something they're gonna have to like take forever to get used to? They'll feel like the odd ones out for once..." Morty grinned.

"Oh man, Morty..." Rick shook his head. "They're never gonna get used to it... It's like physically impossible. That dimension is like practically incompatible with life."

"Oh." Morty frowned, feeling himself growing legitimately nervous. What did that mean? 'Incompatible with life...' Like that living there would just be really, really awful? Maybe that wasn't fair... Theo and Ivan were really cruel to him, but did they deserve to suffer forever for it? "Well... are you gonna bring them back later?"

"Nope." Rick shrugged. "Did you want me to? You miss 'em, Morty?"

Morty looked down. "No. I mean, I don't miss them, and I don't really want them to come back... Just... Like, what they did was mean, and I don't like them, but you really sent them away forever to somewhere really unpleasant? Did they deserve that?"

"Yeah." Rick stared across the room at him with a raised eyebrow and a slight frown.

"So... Where are they?" Morty wondered. "Where did you send them?"

"Dimension of lava people." Rick answered, letting out a kind of crazy laugh and shaking his head as though completely amused by himself.

"Lava people?" Morty wondered.

"Well, yeah. I mean the whole dimension isn't just lava people. That would be insane. The Earth there is Lava-Earth. That's where I sent them. To Lava-Earth. Just like here only all the people are lava people and there's a shit-ton of volcanoes... Like the whole planet is in that stage. Just fuckin' magma and lava all over the place." Rick smirked.

"Wh-what's that mean?" Morty frowned.

"Means it's over 2,000 degrees there and they definitely died instantly." Rick shrugged and turned back around to face whatever was on his desk.

Morty felt his mouth drop open and his eyes widen. "W-what?!" He gasped.

Rick turned back toward him. His eyebrow was raised. "I killed them." He said very simply. "Well, I didn't. The temperature did. I just physically moved them. The environment did the rest. I wanted to watch, but didn't feel like coming back for my heat-resistant lava suit... But yeah... They're dead. Humans don't thrive in 2,000 degree heat." He laughed again, shrugging and turning back around.

"Why?" Morty stared. "What the fuck... Rick! W-why would you do that? Did you really? Are you fuckin' serious? Y-you killed them? Like you legit murdered my f-fucking classmates!? Y-you can't keep doin' that, Rick! Did you really?"

"Yeah." Rick stared. "I did. They deserved it."

"N-no they didn't, Rick! Oh my god!" Morty gasped.

"Yes, they did." Rick insisted. "They pretended to be your friend so they could hurt you, Morty. They made you think they were gonna rape you and they thought it was funny that you were scared. Man, fuck these guys. I'd kill 'em again if I could. I mean, I'm honestly tempted to get down my time-travel stuff, and go back just to fucking kill them over again in a more painful way."

"Well..." Morty hesitated. So he did tell Rick a lot last night. Rick knew Morty's bullies kind of threatened to rape him, and that he was completely terrified by it. Morty never would have told him that if he had been sober. It was embarrassing. Morty probably wouldn't have told Rick any of this if he had been sober. He'd have come home, hidden the bruises as best as he could, and pretended it didn't happen.

Rick shrugged and stood up. "You should go take a shower and get all that alcohol and sharpie off of you. We got shit to do today. You already missed the first half of school, like it even matters... So we might as well do my thing. I've only been waiting a whole damn day."

Morty swallowed and looked down at himself again. He really did need a shower... He looked back up. "You like, really honestly legit killed them?" He asked again.

"Yup. It's done. Couldn't take it back if I wanted to, and I don't want to. Go get ready so we can harvest those rejuviberries. I've put if off more than an entire day now and it's kind of a time-sensitive thing." Rick frowned.

Morty nodded. "Okay..." He agreed as the initial shock of Rick's confession started to wear off pretty quickly. Maybe he wasn't that upset that Rick killed his bullies. Rick had killed people before. This wasn't new... And they really did make him feel awful, made him cry... a lot more than just this once too. Morty didn't feel he was in any position to decide that anyone deserved actual death, but out of all the people he knew in his whole life, Theo and Ivan had tormented him and made him feel like shit quite a bit.

Morty stood up and headed toward the door. Rick made the decision for him, so he supposed he didn't have to feel guilty about it at least. Morty didn't think he would have ever given them the death sentence... But Rick did... They wouldn't be bothering him anymore, and Morty didn't even have to do anything. Rick solved it for him... In a rather blunt, brutal way... but it was solved.

"I get it, Morty." Rick spoke as Morty headed toward the door.

Morty paused in the doorway and stared back at his grandfather, not expecting any serious conversation to come from this. He actually expected to be talked down to and made fun of more than anything. It was surprising that Rick hadn't told Morty he was a dumb naive idiot yet.

"You want to be accepted. I get it. You wanted to believe they meant well, so you lied to yourself and gave them your trust." Rick explained. "You knew better. We both know that. You can be naive sometimes, but you're not like full-stupid. You knew better. You just hoped they changed. You wanted them to be genuine. You wanted to fit in."

Morty swallowed and continued staring. Was this where Rick was going to turn his speech around and tell Morty he was a naive dipshit and that this was most, if not entirely his own damn fault? Rick told him not to trust them. Rick saw this shit coming as well as Morty did. He just wasn't dumb enough to ignore his common sense like Morty was.

"Don't beat yourself up over those pricks... But learn from it. Okay? You messed up, but it's their fault they chose to be assholes. None of it's your fault, but remember this. Learn from it." Rick stared at him. "If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. If someone proves they're a bastard, don't let them tell you they aren't. Watch what people do, not what they say. You knew these pricks weren't ever going to change. You believed their words instead of their actions."

Morty quickly nodded.

"Alright. Go get ready to go." Rick waved and turned back around.

Morty swallowed nervously and made his way up to the bathroom, closing the door, discarding what little clothing he had on, and stepping into the shower. The warm water felt really good, and he kind of wanted to just stand in there for a while, but he recognized that Rick had been waiting for him for quite a while now. He owed it to his grandfather to be quick so they could go harvest those berries he couldn't stop talking about.

Morty scrubbed and scrubbed, probably cleaning himself better than he had in years to wash away the alcohol, dirt, and marker that clung to his skin. He was able to get most of the sharpie off of him, but it could still be read with a squint. He supposed it didn't matter much if his chest still had the faded, offensive, degrading message. No one was going to see it.

He stepped out of the shower, walked to his room, and put on clean underwear and socks, a t-shirt and pants. No one could read the sharpie now, as it was covered up. He'd scrub it more later.

Besides for some visible bruises on his arms and one on his face, Morty looked pretty normal. If he and Rick played their cards right, Morty might be able to keep all of this from his parents. They didn't seem to mind so much anymore when Rick kept Morty out of the house for days on-end. Maybe he could encourage Rick to take him somewhere tomorrow too, and the next day. He could just do that instead of school, like Rick always wanted. It wasn't like Morty learned much in school anyway.

Morty headed back to the bathroom, brushed his teeth and took a long drink out of the sink, then made his way back down to the garage.

"Ready?" Rick smiled as he looked up from his work bench.

Morty nodded, climbing into the space car next to Rick and fastening his seat belt. "Thanks, Rick." Morty whispered as Rick settled in next to him.

Rick nodded slightly toward him and offered a small half-smile.

"I appreciate that you stood up for me, and that you're not being mean or gloating... I know you said-" Morty started.

"No. It's fine. Don't worry about it. Let's go get those fuckin' rejuviberries!" Rick smirked.

"Okay." Morty breathed, smiling as well. He was happy Rick didn't want to linger on this topic either. It felt kind of good to just forget about it. It was over. They could move on to the next thing, get back to business as usual.

"So these berries.. What are they? What do they do?" Morty wondered.

"Sober up drunk and drugged people. Would'a worked wonders last night." Rick noted.

"We can use them on you." Morty suggested.

Rick glared at him. "You better fucking not."

Morty smiled as Rick drove the space car out of the garage and up into the sky. Strangely, he felt very comfortable, very safe when he was with Rick. Rick nearly got him killed so often, but Morty knew in his heart that the man would always bring him back home. Rick wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. He was safer in space, on planets full of wild monsters, than he was at his own school. Thanks to Rick...

It had been a huge mistake to trust Theo and Ivan... Rick could have been a bastard about it, but he chose not to. Maybe he really was only trying to help when he warned Morty before. Morty had almost seen Rick as one of them - one of the bullies... Telling Morty there was no way he was cool enough, no way he was good enough... But that wasn't what Rick was saying. He wasn't saying Morty wasn't good enough to be friends with the cool kids. He was warning Morty that the cool kids weren't good enough to be friends with him, that they were awful bullies incapable of change. That they were the problem. Morty wasn't.

Maybe Rick wouldn't have been a bully in high school after all... Or maybe he'd have kind of bullied the bullies. Rick was smart. He'd have been too intelligent to waste his efforts being mean to someone small and harmless. At least, he wouldn't have taken it as far as Ivan and Theo did - not even close.

Morty looked over at his grandfather with a smile. Morty didn't have friends his own age. Maybe he never would... But he did have Rick, who made fun of him for small things, but was fully supportive when it mattered. Rick didn't make light of any of this. He could have, but he didn't. He didn't make Morty feel stupid or weak for fearing that the older boys might do more than they did. He didn't laugh at the sharpie message scrawled on Morty's chest. Rick didn't think any of it was funny, and made that very clear. He even went so far as to kill the bullies.

That might not have been the exact right thing to do... Morty still wasn't sure on that. But it did solve his problem. They weren't ever going to hurt him or make fun of him ever again. They were gone. Thanks to Rick.

He had Rick's support when he needed it most, and it was a fierce, loyal support. Morty had no friends at school, but he did have his grandfather. Maybe he didn't need any more than that. Rick supported him and protected him like no one else ever could or would, even if it verged on scary sometimes...

In a strange way, Rick was his best friend, his only friend. Morty was okay with that.

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THE END

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