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Rick didn’t notice until he got home, until he took his hands off the steering wheel and got out into the garage, the ship door shutting firmly behind him, that he was trembling. Huh. Interesting. He shook his head, doing his best to ignore it.
“Hey, Morty,” he said. “Don’t—don’t go inside yet.”
Morty paused, his hand already on the door to the house. He turned to look at Rick, seeming a little nervous, a little hopeful.
“Y–yeah, Rick?” he asked.
If his shaking hands were any indication, apparently Rick had been scared today. He didn’t like being scared. He’d rather be angry instead.
“You, uh, you really will take the first opportunity to abandon me and leave me to die, huh? Guess it’s on me for expecting more from you.”
Morty’s face fell. “Rick—I didn’t—okay, I mean, I was, but talking to Birdperson helped me—”
Rick held up a hand, taking a step closer to Morty. “Hey, I’m not done here. I mean—I mean, what if you hadn’t, you know, talked to Birdperson? You would’ve just—” He trailed off, letting the implication hang in the air.
Morty’s lip wobbled. “No. I mean, I don’t know—”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Rick said, putting his hands on his hips and scoffing. “Some grandson.”
“Rick—”
Rick stared at Morty. Morty stared at Rick. After what felt like forever, Morty’s eyes filled with tears, and he scurried into the house. Rick stared at the closed door for a few seconds, then shrugged and went over to his workbench, puttering around for a bit before he realized he didn’t really even have any projects to work on at the moment.
He glanced over at the door again, and he was thinking about Morty when his phone rang.
“Ugh,” he said, but his spirits lifted some when he took his phone out of his pocket and saw Birdperson’s name flashing on the screen. He smiled despite himself and pressed the answer button. “Pers. Hello.”
“Hello,” Birdperson said. There was a short pause before he added, “You sound upset. Your planet, is it okay?”
“Yeah,” Rick said. “Yep. Everyone’s safe. Well, except for a few people on the ground who I guess got, like, sacrificed to the sky? I don’t know, Beth said there was some cult that formed or something, but—yeah, we’re okay. Morty made it back in time and—you know. Yada yada.”
“Good.” There was silence on the line again, this time stretching out longer, and Rick was about to ask if Birdperson was still there when the deep-voiced alien added, “I’m happy that you have your family again, Rick. Especially Morty.”
Thinking about the exchange he and Morty had just had, Rick asked incredulously, “Morty? Why? That kid was about to leave me for dead—”
“He didn’t leave you for dead,” Birdperson said by way of correction.
“Yeah, because you talked to him. That’s all. What if you hadn’t talked to him?”
Rick could practically see Birdperson’s cocked head, the way he moved when he was concentrating very hard, on the other end of the line. “I don’t know.”
“Well, there—there ya go. You know the second Mortys get a little too cocky, they have a tendency to—”
“Rick, your grandson cares for you,” Birdperson interrupted. “And I called to say I’m glad that you have your family, Morty especially, which I have said, because it’s good to see you caring about something again. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you care about something this much. It seems good for you.”
Rick thought about telling Birdperson he cared about him that much, that he had since they’d met and he still did. But instead he just sat in silence, an expression on his face that Birdperson would describe as pouting.
“And I called to say,” Birdperson continued, “that Morty seems to care a great deal about you too. Even if he did go back because I talked to him, he would have regretted abandoning you to die for the rest of his life if he hadn’t gone back. I don’t think he’ll ever do anything like what he almost did again. He knows better now.”
Perhaps it was just Birdperson’s calm and measured tone, or perhaps it was something more, but Rick believed him.
“Yeah,” he said. “Okay. Hey, uh, am I gonna be seeing you around anytime soon?”
“You will,” Birdperson confirmed, although there was something else lurking beneath his tone, something hiding. “Rick, I should go. Tammy needs me. We’ll be seeing you soon.”
Rick wrinkled his nose a little at the “we.” He had absolutely no interest in seeing that bitch Tammy, who he hated because she was annoying and awful and not because he was jealous of her or anything. What, did he want some kind of married domesticity with Birdperson? No way. He—
BP hung up the phone with a click, and Rick was left alone in the garage. He thought of Morty’s little face right before he’d made Morty cry, and he wished the boy was still out here with him.
“Fuck,” he said, standing up and making his way toward the door. He guessed he had a grandkid to apologize to or something.
Morty was sitting on his bed, sniffling with his chin resting on his knees, when the door to his room opened and Rick came in. Morty winced, afraid Rick was going to yell at him again, but instead Rick just walked across the room, sat down on the bed with him, and sighed.
“You okay, buddy?” he asked. “I guess—I guess I was kind of unfair to you back there.”
“Oh,” Morty said, not knowing what to do with Rick actually apologizing for something. Or, well, doing something very close to apologizing anyway. “I, um, I’m fine.”
“Good.” Rick looked uncomfortable, but smiled a little and nudged Morty with his elbow. “So, you, uh, you liked playing music today, huh?”
Morty nodded, perking up a little. “Yeah. I—I like doing stuff with you, Rick.”
Rick reached down, ruffling Morty’s hair. “Yeah? You, uh, you think you might want a keyboard or something for Christmas this year?”
Morty reached up and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, feeling a sense of relief that Rick wasn’t so mad that he wasn’t planning to stick around. “I–I don’t know. I’ve thought about, like, a ukulele or something before.”
Rick coughed, and Morty briefly thought he was going to make fun of him, but instead Rick just said, “A ukulele. Yeah, I mean—yeah, that could be cool. Hey—” he stood up and took Morty’s hand. “It’s been a long day, hasn’t it?”
Morty nodded.
“You—you hungry?”
Now that Rick mentioned it…
“Good,” Rick said. “Let’s go see what’s in the kitchen, okay? And, uh, I’m not mad anymore. I don’t think you’re—well, let’s just say I think you learned your lesson today.”
Morty reached up and gave Rick a hug that Rick only resisted a little. “Thank you.”