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Morty is not going to cry. Nope, he is not, thank you very much. He will not cry over a petty argument that his mom do not love him as much as she loves Summer. Or that his mom is going to let him die just like that, with no hesitation at all. Nope, he is not going to cry. Okay just a little bit, that thought hurts as hell. No, not thought. The truth hurts like hell.
The space infecting worm just had been out of his body and it hasn't even been 5 minutes and Beth is already off to ignoring him once again. Summer finally decided to stand up for him.
Morty knows he's not as smart or as strong or even as confident as Summer but he also thought his mom would have a little more love for him than that. A little more than none.
"Oh come on Summer, I was just trying to confuse that alien guy or something" Beth dismissed Summer's accusations with a wave of a hand and a sip of her wine. Rick had just gone out to throw the disgusting worm that came from Morty's mouth. Summer, for the first time Morty has seen her, flared with anger. She put her phone down and grabbed Beth's wine, pulling it away from their mother. "Summer! Give me back my wine,"
"No, mom. Listen to yours-"
"What are you ass-BLEGHH- assholes doing in here" Rick voice boomed into the living room, halting Summer's anger. Beth's face brighten with a smile and quickly snatched her wine from Summer, "You know how they are dad, a little too sensitive" she snorts.
Morty sighs, tears filling his eyes but not falling yet. No, he will not let it fall this time. Not in front of Rick again. The embarrassment is way too much already, even for Morty's low standard. He thought, what can be more embarrassing than your mother not loving you. Nothing can beat that for sure. Rick would made fun of him nonstop.
Morty gave a low sniffle, too low for anyone else to hear. Anyone else but Rick's enhanced ears, of course.
"Is that why the little shit is crying then?" Rick asked, pointing Morty out. Again, Mort thought, tensing in his stand. Beth chuckled and waved Rick off as well, "Ah, you know how it goes, dad" she laughed again but Rick's eyes never left Morty's. Summer stood in front of Morty and held her place. Better than me, Morty thought. "Grandpa Rick, that space worm didn't just go into Morty by accident-"
"I know. Those type of space worms can only infect people lacking large amounts of serotonin hormones, which isn't new for Morty, but it also infects living organism who, at that moment, secretes high amounts of distress only they can feel. Now, BEUGGHH all this-all of this is normal for Morty but taking in everyone's stunned faces, Beth's barely concealed guilt, and your unfiltered shock, I'd say its more than that," he finished with a swig of his flack.
Beth's laughter stopped and Morty could feel his heart beat come faster. Perhaps it was because Rick's eyes still found his behind Summer's strong stand. Perhaps it was fear that Rick would think less of him now. Less than Summer, less than everyone else.
The atmosphere grew tense. Beth lose the smile she once sports and Summer held an angry albeit confused face. Rick continues to stare down on Morty, seemingly unaware of the palbable tension he created just with a few words. Morty shifted under his gaze and tried to make himself feel smaller but to no avail. Summer was about to speak up once again when Beth scoffed.
"Come on, dad," her icy tone made Morty shivered, "It was nothing. The kid's are just overreacting." She refills her wine glass the way she usually does when she's pissed off, all the way to the top. Summer sighed in defeat. She knows what that means, their mother will no longer be listening to the argument and pushing it further would just be worse for everyone, especially Morty. Beth starts to walk away.
"Hold on there, Beth," Rick gulps the rest of his flask down and proceeded to pull out a device from his inner jacket. Morty instantly recognized it as the listening device Rick insists on using on him whenever they would be separated on adventures. Morty gulps, fearing the worst of it all. Was it going to be more embarrassment directed at him? Will Rick expose just how pathetic he actually is on adventures? Morty clutched his stomach in anxiety just as the device started running.
"I'm not an unreasonable man Beth Smith," the static sound of the device floated through the air just as Beth's face fell, "I know children are everything to a mammal," Morty's mind went blank, his heart rate picking up. He found that he had to strength to look anyone in the eye. Not even Rick. Especially not Rick.
"I will spare one of their lives," Morty's tears fell
"You simply have to choose-"
Morty instantly started crying and gasping for air. In a blink of an eye, Rick had turned off the sound recording and has stepped between Summer and Morty, grabbing the young boy by his waist. Beth stoo shock and red. A multitude of emotions running through her mind and jealousy running rampant in her blood. "That should be me," she couldn't help but think. Beth flared.
"Oh really, Dad?" She snorted with fake amusement as she glares at her father holding a breaking down Morty in his arms and gently swaying him side to side. A new kind of anger and pain bubbled up inside Beth Smith. An ugly emotion, jealousy is. " What? Like you're not going to choose Summer over Morty too ? My son is disabled, dad. He's slow! He masturbates everywhere and doesn't really listen to anyone. Of course, I'd choose Summer over him. I was just being practical. Survival of the fittest, remember that? You thought me that!"
By then, Morty's cry has turned into sobs. He has his face pressed on the crook of Rick's neck as the scientist holds him up by the waist with one hand and uses the other hand to gently rub soothing circles at Morty's back. Beth notices the affection, Beth fumes. Summer looks at her with disbelief and tears on her eyes. She knows her mother is capable of being a monster, she just wasn't expecting her to be this big of a monster. Beth hides the guilt in her eyes and looked back to Rick and Morty to find her dad already glaring at her.
The shame instantly ate her up. Why her? She's his daughter. He should be on her side, not Morty's.
"Isn't that enough, Beth?" Rick asks as he gently shushed Morty as the boy Mpeats saying "sorry'" like a mantra. The glare he gaves her was cold. The coldest glare She's seen from him. It plants her on her spot. She couldn't move as she felt her heart stop. She couldn't do anything with the heavy judgement of her father's eyes on her.
She has seen that look on him before. A couple of times during her childhood. The cold and unloving look Rick would give her as a child. The same one she often caught herself giving to Morty. Fear, dread, and guilt swarmed her body cold. Tears fell as she snaps.
"REALLY DAD??? HIM? MORTY? OVER ME? I AM YOUR DAUGHTER"
"And I don't really give a shit Bethany"
Beth took a step back as though slapped. Silent tears fell from her eyes as Morty's hiccups continue to fill the silence of the room. Rick's hard stare on her continues . to plant her on her spot and Summer looks at her with a bitter smile. "I don't really give a shit about any of you," Rick continued as he gently placed Morty on the couch. He fired his portal gun and pulled out a glass of water from it, handing it over to Morty. " If it wasn't for this little one insisting you guys live, I would have blown you to bits long ago."
Beth shook, "What do you mean dad?"
"What I fucking said Beth," Morty has finished drinking, " I don't care about any of you and I'm only here for my little one." His tone left no room for arguments as he returned back to patting Morty's back soothingly. Now it was Summer's turn to look at Rick in disbelief. She expected her grandfather to help Morty but the revelation of Rick wanting only Morty was shocking, if not painful.
"Dad you don't mean that. You don't. Come on, you came back for me. You're here for me. You care about me-"
"No," Rick took a step towards Beth causing her to take another step back, "I came back here because I know Morty is here. It was never about you, Beth. You just assumed. I never explicitly said I'm here for you or anyone else for the matter. It was never about you. It was always about Morty."
Beth shook her head in tears. She opened and closed her mouth again and again as though finding for the proper words to say. Her whole body shook as she let out a sob. It's not true, It couldn't be true. Beth refuses to believe it. Refuses that her father never really loved her. But he couldn't not love her. He's wrong. Of course, he is! All these are just Morty's fault for spending so much time with her dad. Beth can see it now.
Without any warning, Beth let out a shriek and jumped Morty with her claws out. She moves quick in trying to reach out to Morty's face but Rick moves in even quicker and holds onto both her arms, twisting it behind her and pushing her down on the carpet with a grunt. "None of that now,"
"MOM!"
"You still don't get it do you?" Rick asks exasperated, "Rick, let go of Mom!" Morty cried out behind Rick making him scoff and let his daughter go. Instead, he stepped back and made himself a human sheild between his daughter and his grandson, a scowl on his face and beneath his coat, his cybernetic enhancements are prepared to fire.
"Why him, dad?" Beth cried from the ground as Summer helps her stand, "It just can't be true. Is it really him over me?" Her tears and snot covers her face as she kneels in front of kick who still stand guards in front of Morty, keeping him away from his mother. Morty peeks out from behind Rick. A mixture of disbeIief, embarrassment, and astonishment, along with something else, danced across his features. He helds onto Rick's labcoat and Rick quickly covered his small hand in his big one, comfortingly. Beth's eyes twitched at the action.
"I would watch you all burn and rust and choose Morty all the time,"
Beth hangs her head in defeat as Summer sniffs beside her. She heard the portal gun open and the grunt her father make whenever he holds Morty in his arms. With a painful breath, she lifts her eyes up to watch her dad walk out of her life once again. She was being left alone again. An inaudible gasp left her mouth as she watched her father's back, with her son in his arms, stepping through the green light of the portal. Morty stares at her through Rick's shoulder making a fresh batch of tears fall from his mother's eyes
Morty was smiling triumphantly at her