Two
Rick wondered a bit why Beth hadn't just brought Morty into the living room like she had done with Summer, but whatever. Her house, her rules. "The guest room is right across from Morty's room." She said. "He's probably still asleep in here."
Oh boy oh boy, Rick sure was excited about this kid. Hah. It was probably three or four in the afternoon. What a slackass. "Doesn't he have, y'know, sc-ooUGH-school or something?"
"Morty doesn't go to regular school like Summer does," Beth replied. "He takes online classes."
"That's probably a good thing." Rick didn't know much about online school, but having some hang-ups about the public school system himself, he figured it was probably an improvement. Hell, it had to be. At the very least you weren't subjected to every fucking person judging you on your intelligence, or lack thereof, or whatever.
"We felt it was best for him," she said. "And, well... it's what the doctor recommended."
Rick cocked his brow. "Doctor," he repeated. "Wh-whuh why, does he have some problem with his head o-o-or something?"
Her mouth formed a tight line as she looked down for a moment. She finally sighed and gently opened the door to the boy's room.
The room was dark and quiet, save for the gentle humming of an air humidifier and a quiet beep or two from some other device that stood near the boy's bed. In the bed lay a bundle of covers and blankets which moved up and down in a slow, steady rhythm. The movement came not from the bundle of linens itself, but rather, the human curled up and facing the wall beneath them. A head of curly, brown hair could be seen, and just past the neck, a long, thin, transparent tube connected out from under the sheets to an oxygen tank. Another cord connected to the beeping device, which displayed a small number that could be read as a heart rate.
Rick frowned and squinted a bit, before turning back towards Beth. "What's wrong with UURGHP- wrong with him?" He asked. Fucking great. Of all the timelines Rick had to be a part of, it was the one with a defective Morty. Maybe if he left now he could go another dimension where that Rick wasn't there...
"Morty was born prematurely, and a day or so after he was born he had a heart failure. He lost some oxygen to his brain, and somehow, we're not sure, it caused further problems with his heart, his lungs, his stomach... on top of that, he goes into coughing and hacking fits, sometimes he has a hard time holding food down, and he gets so tired he has a hard time with walking long distances." Beth explained. "When he was in kindergarten, he wasn't really active like the other kids at recess, he'd fall asleep in class, he couldn't eat snacks without throwing some of them up later... one day he had a coughing fit and started choking on something, we weren't sure if it was food or something he was chewing on, but he was so exhausted after the ordeal, he passed out where he was sitting."
"Je-EEEGHH-sus Christ," Rick said.
"It seemed like it got worse in the first grade, he was expending so much energy and time with just being sick that he fell behind and got held back a grade. We decided to try online and at home schooling, and that seemed to click. So that's what he's been doing ever since."
Rick peered back into the room. Next to the bed, on the floor, was a little white dog, obviously too small to get on the bed. Under the dog was a round rug with a space pattern on it. This rather interested Rick, and he noticed that there was all sorts of science-related ephemera in the boy's room. Posters, action figures, hell, there was even a pennant that simply read 'science' hanging on the wall. Rick didn't want to think about it too much, but this reminded him a bit of himself. Not unlike his own room as a child. Rick shook his head a bit though once he realized how ridiculous that was. We were talking about a Morty here. There's no way this kid had THAT much potential. Especially with what fucking shape he was in. How was he gonna be of any use?
"...th-that really blows," he replied simply, belching in his mouth at the end of the sentence.
Beth bit her lip. "...yeah, it's... it's hard. We never know what's going to happen with him. He hasn't improved too much as he's gotten older, and 14 can be a rough age as it is." Her eyes began to water. "...the last time he went into the hospital, I was terrified. I thought it was gonna be it."
"What, i-i-is he dying or something?" Rick asked. Beth fell silent. His brow furrowed a bit. Uh-oh.
She wiped a tear from her eye and replied, getting more and more frantic with each point, "We don't even know what he has. His doctor keeps saying, 'it's fifty-fifty, we'll keep doing what we can.' I just... I don't know, dad, we take it a day at a time and we don't think about the negatives and the possibility he might not wake up and we're having problem after problem with our insurance and coverage and bills-"
Yikes. "Hey, hey," he put his hands on his daughter's shoulders. "Look at me. Look. Things- things are hard, I-I can see that. Ti-urghh-time is a fleeting and fragile concept, and so is life and death and it sucks being forced to face it head on like this, with your kid." Hell, if Beth was fucking dying of some disease as a kid, he never would have left. Rick was a sociopath, sure, he was a dick, yeah, but he loved his daughter and respected her. Her husband not so much, but that's besides the point.
She sniffled a bit. "I just don't know what to do. Jerry and I can't get along or agree on what to do about Morty. I think a lot of it is because we don't even know what's 100% wrong with him. We don't even know if his medications are working right, and it's getting hard to be able to afford them when we aren't seeing a difference. I'm stuck, our marriage is stuck, and worst of all Morty is stuck."
"Beth," Rick began, "I'm a genius scientist. I know a lot of shit ab-ooUUGH-about shit. I make things that are way beyond- way past what anyone can, can fucking fathom."
"I know, dad. I haven't forgotten the stuff you've made and the stuff you've done." Not to mention the places he went.
"Right. But what I'm sa-aaegh-saying is, I'm capable- more than capable of doing things doctors can't."
Beth looked at him knowingly. "You're saying you'd help."
"I'm not saying that," he replied. "I'm saying I could. Could, could is- that's the key operative."
She smiled warmly. Beth wasn't a fucking crazy genius like Rick, but she was very smart and just as attentive.
"...and besides," he said, folding his arms. "I wouldn't just live here for free or without doing anything or whatever. I'm not some- some parasite."
"...thank you, dad. That means a lot. To all of us." she replied. "...it really is good to have you back."
