Author's note: I know I suck, and that this chapter took way too long to come out to wrap this story up. I really didn't expect to be this busy after school started back up…but with full time status, a job and an internship…I guess I can't be all that shocked. Hopefully the length of this will make up for it.

Thanks to everyone who followed a long and waited it out. You guys rock.

There wasn't a string of words that could describe how shitty Rick's day had been, and the fact that it seemed like it was finally over was more mind-blowing than any Kalaxian Crystal high he'd ever experienced.

Rick was never one who had trouble processing the world around him, but as he stepped out of YX-43 Rick's house, Summer quietly in toe, he found his eyes scanning his surroundings, trying to convince himself he was having some sick, alcohol-induced nightmare.

Summer kept her arms wrapped tightly around herself and her eyes down as she followed her grandfather through the threshold and exited the house. She didn't want to see any more of this world and, more than anything, she just wanted to forget all that had happened. But she knew that would be impossible, and all she could do was put one foot in front of the other on a journey back home.

She didn't notice when Rick had stopped in front of her to talk to Squanchy, and ended up crashing into him and losing her balance.

Out of the corner of his eye, Rick could see her starting to go down. As she stumbled backwards, he wheeled around and grabbed her, not about to let her fall.

There was a moment when their eyes connected, and she hissed when he touched her skin. Rick couldn't tell if it was his grip possibly hurting her injuries, or just reacting to seeing his face; the same face of someone who had done horrible things to her. Regardless, he steadied her and let go, giving her some space.

Squancy watched the scene before him unfold with a sadness, and he didn't attempt to involve himself at all. He could tell that this was something Rick would have to handle on his own.

Summer blinked a few times and took a deep breath to calm herself, the bruises on her sore body throbbing. She knew the whole thing was over; she knew she shouldn't be this jumpy. She was already the lowest of the low in the eyes of who she was with, and she although she had nothing to lose, she didn't want to appear any weaker.

She stepped around Rick and faced Squanchy.

"Thank you," she said, her voice low and unsure.

"Squanch, Summer, don't thank me," Squanchy tried to reassure her, his voice soft.

Rick watched her face as she pursed her lips, unsure of what o say next and what her next move was going to be. She slowly turned her gaze up to face him, questioning.

"It's unlocked," was all he said to her.

She nodded, threw another quick 'thank you' at Squancy, and walked to the ship, taking the shotgun seat and closing the door quickly behind her. Rick heard the click of the lock button.

He frowned and looked to Squanchy.

"Uh," he tried to think of something to say.

"Don't squanch about it, Rick, she's been through a lot today," Squanchy shrugged it off. "Getting her home to rest and recover is the best thing for her."

"I can't bring her home looking like that, though, Squanchy," Rick mused. "I thought about it while you were gone and honestly, it seems better if Morty, Beth and Jerry don't know about all of this. I'm sure she's not into the idea of telling them, either."

"Right, I agree…" Squanchy paused, putting one paw to his chin as he thought about it. "You could manage a trip to the Plaagin Galaxy; they have chemicals to make medical sprays that can heal flesh wounds pretty well. You've seen Bird Person and I have use it dozens of times; it should work for her, too. Do you remember it?"

He nodded and suddenly a thought returned to his brain. The Plaagin System; Rick had completely forgotten about the need to go there to obtain for a remedy for Morty's sickness. Now he had even more of a reason to go.

"I'll do that," Rick bit his lip; this was the part he wasn't good at. "Listen, Squanchy, I–I–I…well, uh, you know, everything that happened…I…you. Well, I…"

But Squanchy raised a paw, halting him. Being an ally to Rick was a thankless job a lot of the time, and Squanchy had come to accept that. He knew deep down, Rick did truly appreciate him. That was all he needed, because although Rick was great at almost everything, he wasn't good at everything. Apologizing and thanking people were two things he struggles with. Squanchy also knew that Rick was going to have to do both of those things on his trip home, and he didn't want to force him to do them now.

"I know, Rick," he said. "Just do what you gotta do."

Rick smiled, or smirked, or something, and nodded.

Without another word, he opened a portal to planet Squanch and bid his friend farewell, and watched pensively while his ally stepped through and the portal slowly closed. Afterwards, he stood silently staring at the spot where the portal had once been.

For the first time in a long time, he would be with Summer alone for an extended period of time. Completely alone. The prospect was utterly terrifying; one he didn't want to face.

But the problem wasn't going to go away no matter how long he watched the ground. So it was with a heavy sigh that Rick forced himself to walk towards his ship, as slowly as he possibly could.

It wasn't slow enough as before he knew it, he found himself sitting in the driver's seat, closing the door behind him.

"Uh, ready to go home?" Rick asked.

He could have slapped himself. What a stupid fucking question that had been.

"Yeah," Summer mumbled, her gaze locked outside the passenger side window.

That one little word relieved a lot of tension he was carrying. He knew he had a far way to go in terms of getting back on Summer's good side, but at least she wasn't above speaking to him.

"Okay," Rick started the ship.

He guided the ship through takeoff slower than usual, careful not to make sudden movements or anything rash that would startle her. Had it been under other circumstances, he would be flooring it to get off world and the now six-hour trip home over with faster. That stop in the Plaagin System would tack on an additional two hours that he wasn't sure his sanity could handle.

He even considered offering to send her home through a portal just so they wouldn't have to spend the time together, but there were reasons Rick knew he couldn't do that.

One, if Beth or Jerry saw the shape Summer was currently in, they'd kick him out of their house before he could even get out of his ship. Not only was he the only one who could make the medicine to heal Summer's injuries more quickly than anyone else in the cosmos, but he couldn't handle that; hearing his daughter tell him that he had to go because he was a piece of shit who only hurt his own grandchildren, no matter how true it was. The thought alone refilled his flask every few hours.

Two, he wanted to keep an eye on her. He wanted to study her, to see how she handled herself. He knew she was freaked out by everything, and she had the right to be; it had all just happened. As heartless as Rick was, he knew this would take some time to get past, and he had to tell himself he needed to be okay with that. Summer wasn't like him, and he was actually grateful for that. He hoped neither of his grandchildren would ever become like him in the long run.

Three, if Summer had opted to go through a portal, he knew they'd never have the conversation they'd need to have on the way home. If he put it off now, he'd find every excuse to put it off for the rest of ever. And that could spark a repeat of this whole situation, possibly with a far worse outcome. Rick shivered at the thought.

The conversation they needed to have…how was he supposed to start it? He could berate her for even thinking running away was the answer to all of her problems, but she definitely knew that already. He couldn't just out and apologize to her, because he wasn't good at that sort of thing. So he bit his tongue and waited, staring at the stars and far-off galaxies in front of his ship while he tried to think of a good opening.

Twenty minutes of silence had passed; 20 wasted minutes of unbearable silence. Rick had always been the type of person who, if he had a problem, he could come right out and say something about it. Here he was finding himself struggling to even speak.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye every few minutes. She kept her eyes straightforward, but they seemed unfocused. She was lost in whatever thoughts she was having, and he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to know.

At one point, he noticed her rubbing her arms up and down slightly, her legs curled up and shaking slightly.

"You cold?" he asked her.

She tensed briefly, like she forgot she was with someone.

"A little, I guess," she shrugged, not even looking at him.

Words. Well, more than one word, at least. That was a start.

Rick began shifting in his seat, shrugging off his lab coat, peeling it off of his arms and holding it out to her. She blinked at it a few times in front of her, torn between the option of taking it or passing.

That was when Rick decided he wasn't going to let this passive bullshit stand anymore. This wasn't Summer; not at all, and he didn't like it.

He wanted his granddaughter back: the one who wasn't scared of back talking at him when he was being an asshole. The one he'd spent the whole trip there remembering and respecting. The one who would go after what she wanted in life. The one who was actually ballsy (or stupid) enough to steal his portal gun and escape because she was unhappy.

He wanted to find that fire in her; the fire that had made him respect her, and he wanted to pour gasoline all over it.

He realized to find her, he'd have to treat her the way he always had. If he wanted that normal to come back, he had to be normal. Pity wasn't something Summer ever liked, not was it something he was good about offering, so he wouldn't waste his energy giving it to her. Wherever Summer was, buried underneath this loathing whiny girl in front of him, he'd have to force her out.

"Just take the damn coat, Summer," Rick sighed. "Y–y–you should know I'm not normally nice enough to offer sentimentality or anything like that."

She seemed surprised at his words, but then her face slowly began melting into a small, frustrated glare as she took the lab coat out of his hands and begrudgingly pushed her arms through the sleeves. Once she was covered up, she turned back and faced forward. Not out the window, not with her back to him. Forward.

Ah, sweet progress.

He had to keep pushing it; he had to be the one to start this conversation, because she clearly wasn't going to.

Summer, meanwhile, was gnashing her teeth silently and she squirmed her arms through Rick's too-big lab coat in her seat. She knew what this was: charity. Something didn't want or need.

In truth, she'd always wanted some form of special attention, and to any other person, this gesture might have seemed a step in the right direction. But Summer thought better; this was an, "I-feel-sorry-for-you" type deal. She knew her grandfather well enough to know he didn't really care for her; this act was probably some stupid attempt to get her to get over it all.

And it pissed her off to think that Rick thought that was all he needed to do to fix everything.

She idly wondered why she didn't ask him to portal her home when he started talking again.

"Alright, so, you wanna give me an explanation, Summer?" Rick took a deep breath.

Neither of them looked at each other, and Summer only scoffed in response. After everything she'd been through, he thought she owed him something? Granted, yes, she took his portal gun without his permission…but he was one of the ones who drove her to do that.

Why did he even come for her anyway? Her best guess led her to believe it was for selfish reasons. If Summer's mother knew what had happened, and she found out how badly Summer had been hurt throughout the whole ordeal, she'd probably realize just how dangerous the things Rick did – like space travel – actually were. There's no way Morty would be allowed to go with Rick anymore after that, and there was no way Rick would give up his favorite grandchild for her mistake.

"Summer, spill," Rick demanded.

She felt her anger slowly building, like the reality of everything that had happened was finally setting in. And how he believed that he was so above her, he demanded to know everything, probably so he could insult her.

"I don't owe you shit," Summer muttered, glaring out at space in front of them.

Rick felt his lip twitch; he was really going to have to push it to scale these dumb, emotional walls she was apparently was putting up. It was absurd; she was better than this. He knew she was, and he was going to show her that.

"What?" Rick asked. "Speak up. Don't mumble your answers, that shit's annoying and it accomplishes nothing almost 90% of the time."

"I said, I. Don't. Owe. You. Shit. Rick," Summer said slowly, directly, venomously; she pronounced every word carefully.

It was suddenly very silent in the ship, the only sounds coming from the humming of the engine as they zipped through space.

She was facing him now, fists balled and tears pooling in her eyes. She hated crying, and she especially hated the idea of crying in front of this asshole, but she couldn't help it. Every emotion was hitting her now: the guilt, the sadness, the anger, the hate, and everything else washing over her like waves on a beach in a hurricane.

It was completely overwhelming, and she was shaking slightly because of it. She hoped Rick's lab coat was hiding the vibrations of her chest and she fought with everything in her to keep herself from breaking out into hysterics.

Rick's sigh broke the silence. He reached over to the dashboard, typed in a few numbers and flipped a few switches. He then scooted his seat back and the auto pilot light turned on, indicating the ship was steering itself to whatever coordinates he punched in. He turned to face her, prepping himself.

They made eye contact for the first time for the first time that day, and it felt like he'd been punched in the stomach when he could see just how torn up she really was; the tears in her eyes and bruises on her face.

But he knew he had work to do, and there was literally no excuse left to put it off anymore.

So he decided to take a sledgehammer to those walls, because climbing them wasn't going to get the job done.

"I don't think I need to remind you that you stole my portal gun," Rick said carefully, gauging the her reaction. "That's grounds enough, Summer. I deserve to know why, in your own words, you did that. Help me understand what part of you thought that it was a good idea, because clearly what happened was not what you expected to happen."

"Spoken like an asshole who's trying to sound like he cares," Summer snapped.

"I do care, Summer. That's why I'm–"

He was instantly cut off by a sudden outburst of yelling.

"No, you don't!" she exclaimed, her nostrils flared and her teeth gritted. "You don't care, you never have! None of you ever have! Don't even think you can convince me of otherwise; you might be the smartest being in existence, Grandpa Rick, but you don't know the first thing about human emotions. When it comes to understanding feelings, you're dumber than Morty in a math test when he's sitting next to that sophomore, Jessica.

"And because you're so smart, I'm surprised you yourself can't figure out the reason I took your stupid portal gun and left! It's pretty obvious, but I guess you just want to hear me say why so you can have some stupid, 'I told you so' moment. Maybe give me a speech on how I'm a dumb, over-emotional teenager like you always do! Or even use your default and blame it all on my stupid boobs.

"Do you know what I really am, Grandpa Rick? I'm an argument that my parents keep repeating instead of just getting a fucking divorce. I'm a petty bitch of a sister to my younger brother, who isn't even my real little brother just like you're not even my real grandpa. And, on top of all of that, I'm nothing to you, because you don't take me anywhere or do anything to show me otherwise.

"Why did you even come for me anyways? To save your own ass incase my mom found out? To make sure you could keep favoring Morty and making him feel special and continue to ignore my existence while the two of you go off and do things I wish I could do if someone loved me enough to give me the chance?

"That's the real reason why, Grandpa Rick; because you and everyone else in my life don't even value me. That's not me wanting to be popular; that's me being denied love that I don't just want, but that I need. I don't matter, and I thought maybe I could find someone out there who could convince me of otherwise.

"So go ahead; tell me I was being a brat for taking your portal gun and that I'm an idiot. Tell me you don't give two shits about me and that it would have been better if the other Rick would have finished me off before you got there so that you'd have one less pain in your ass to deal with. But know this; you're preaching to a choir, because I already fucking know those things. You more than anyone have taught me those things."

She fell back into the seat after she was done speaking, not even realizing she had been leaning forward. She huffed and wiped the tears that were streaming down her face with her arms. A part of her felt good to have gotten all of that out, but the majority of her felt utterly broken at the truth of it all. More than ever, she wished YX-43 Rick had actually killed her.

Rick watched her with a pensive look on his face. On one hand, he knew the outburst she'd had building up inside was going to be pretty brutal, but he didn't expect her to lay it all out the way she had. And he knew no response he could give her in the moment would settle her right away.

The problem before him wasn't one he could solve in a simple step. This was going to take time and energy to resolve. He would be working on this for a while, and he knew that if he wanted it to get better, he had to show her he truly cared, which he wasn't good at. But it was time to start getting better at it, for his granddaughter's sake.

It was time to start breaking that wall down…

"Do you want a tissue?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

…Damn, okay. Nice job.

He really wasn't good at this.

When she shook her head in a negative, and he ignored her. Reaching in the backseat, he grabbed the box he kept back there and offered it to her anyway. She huffed and pulled three out of the box despite denying them previously.

Rick mused to himself again, trying to think of what the best approach would be to start his own speech.

What bothered him the most in her rant was how she had admitted she wished she had died; that she had thought that sick fucker of a Rick killing her would have been better for everyone involved. It was clear she didn't know much about the Rick she had been with other than that he was a sadistic fuck. And part of fixing this problem was going to have to be her learning the truth about who YX-43 Rick was.

"Look, Summer," he took a breath, praying to a God he didn't believe in that he could get this right. "I'm not good at this sort of thing; you yourself just pointed that out about, what, six times? So you know I'm a douche and maybe that will help you understand what I'm going to try to say, but I need one favor from you before I try; I need you to tell me what you knew about that Rick."

She held a tissue to her hide half of her face and looked down, eyes red-rimmed and pupils slightly dilated at the thought of the man who had almost tortured her to death.

"All I know is that, aside from being a major fucking psycho, the Summer and Morty in his reality died and he was sent to that place by the bunch of you's who made a council or whatever."

"Alright," Rick nodded, then paused again.

He figured he'd have to handle this the way he handled every situation and experiment he'd ever encountered: he'd break down the problem and solve it step by step.

"Look, I have a lot to say, Summer," Rick said. "I know you might not want to listen to me after all of this, but I think you should. I'm not going to insult you or anything like that, because you don't deserve that. And that's not pity; you know I don't pity anyone. But before I can say anything else, I think you need to know the backstory for YX-43 Rick; it might help you think of me less as a piece of shit.

"The Rick from dimension YX-43 didn't lie to you; his grandkids were dead and the Council of Ricks did banish him to Zenoa. But he also didn't tell you that whole story. Summer, that Rick killed his own grandkids."

It made sense to Summer, and it really didn't surprise her to learn this. Despite herself, she gasped anyway.

"Granted, I don't know all that much about it…" Rick sighed. "When it all happened, the Council of Ricks sent out some huge case brief file folder bullshit with all the specifics on what that Rick had done to every single Rick in existence, and how the Council had handled the whole thing.

"When I got that file, I started reading it out of curiosity on what the Council considered to be acts so bad, they felt the need to send out a fucking novel to every Rick in every plain of conceivable reality. Looking back at it now, it seems like it was more of a threat to anything; if any Rick every stepped that far out of line, the Council would find him and take serious action. But that's beside the point.

"Like I said, I started reading that file, but I never finished it. Do you know why, Summer? It's because that shit was too sick even for me to want to know, and I almost feel bad for the Ricks who had to compile all of that data together. The gist of it is, that Rick tortured his own family to death. He did some really fucked up stuff, Summer; things I'd never even consider no matter what. The things you went through with him were only a fraction of what that piece of shit did to his Summer and Morty and Beth…"

He shivered a little at the thought of his own daughter going through something similar. But he pressed on.

"And he managed to hide it all from the Council for years. He'd fucking attend regular meetings at the Citadel of Ricks and pretend like everything was fine. He'd find excuses for why he'd never bring his Morty there. He was a pro.

"It wasn't until his Morty died from him using..." Rick cleared his throat. "From him performing…an experiment that it all fell apart for him. I don't know exactly how she did it, but the Summer of YX-43 found out about the Council of Ricks, and she thought they could help. According to that file, she managed to get his portal gun, and she actually made it there.

"That Summer tried to tell the Council members, and every Rick she met in the Citadel, what was going on in her dimension. But none of them really listened to her right away; they wrote her off, because she was a Summer. I guess it's just a common trait among us Ricks to underestimate our granddaughters.

"Eventually, one of the Ricks sent her back home, totally uninterested. And when her Rick found out what she had done…Well, I skipped reading that part. It was really intense, I guess is the best way to describe it. Point is, that was the end of that Summer.

"Even though they ignored her at first, the Council of dicks decided they'd bother and go check in on YX-43 Rick, because he hadn't checked in with them in a while, and the more they thought about it, the more it seemed weird a Summer would go through so much trouble to act crazy in the Citadel.

"That was how they found out about his…activities. They found out he'd been planning a dimension-hopping murder spree; he wanted to target other Mortys and Summers and Beths because apparently that's how he got his shits and giggles. It was sick, but the Council caught him and put him on trial and banished him to Zenoa.

"See, they're too stupid to recognize when they need to put a Rick down, because there are some out there that definitely need to be. But they're so against killing a Rick…it's dumb. But yeah, that's how he ended up there, portal gun-less. And the Council always had people monitoring him there, just incase he tried to get off-world.

"There are a lot of sadistic Ricks in the infinite timelines, but that one was one of the worst ones known to Rick-kind. But it was because of his Summer that he was caught, and she saved countless other Mortys, Summers and Beths. That's pretty respectable."

At one point through Rick's story, Summer had turned her gaze downward, unable to look at the exact same face of a murderer.

Her lip was trembling as the gravity of the situation she had been in slowly seeped into her brain. The Rick who had saved her life and then tried to end it was far more insane that she could have ever guessed. When he had told her his grandchildren were dead, she assumed it was a horrible accident. Not that he used to torture his own grandchildren to death for fun.

And the fact she had almost given him an escape; the fact that had he gotten away with the portal gun she'd brought there...it was almost too much.

For whatever reason, she found herself afraid of him all over again.

"The Council's probably gonna give me a load of shit for killing him when they find it out," Rick thought out loud.

Summer started a bit; Rick didn't miss the slight twitch. He raised an eyebrow to her while she kept her eyes downcast.

"You killed him?" she asked slowly.

"Of course I killed him," Rick said, almost shocked she even assumed he wouldn't have. "You think I was gonna let that piece of shit live after what he had done to you?"

She winced again, and new tears streamed silently down her face as she chewed her lip, debating on whether or not she should say what was on her mind. Rick squared his shoulders and braced himself; he knew what was coming.

And then, it came, in an almost inaudible whisper.

"You don't care about me, Grandpa Rick."

It was odd to Rick that while he knew her statement had been coming, it still stung him. She'd already accused him of the same thing earlier, but this tiny, broken whisper hurt worst than the screaming did. In some weird, unknown part of his chest, he felt a uncomfortable pang. And he hated it; he wanted that gnawing feeling that had slowly been spreading throughout his chest for hours to go away.

The ship was completely silent as Summer's words hung in the air. Rick flexed his fingers and remained perfectly still, hoping somehow, the silence could give him some inspiration.

He pursed his lips, took a deep breath through his nose and exhaled slowly.

"Summer, you're too smart to be this dumb," was what came out of his mouth.

Granted, it didn't sound all that nice, but it did what he wanted it to do; she slowly rose her head and met his gaze. Her eyes were sparkling with tears and confusion.

"What?" she could barely force herself to speak.

"Summer, if I didn't care, I wouldn't have come all the way out here to find you and bring you home," Rick clarified.

"You didn't come for me," Summer challenged. "You came so my mom would let you bring Morty on more adventures."

"I never said that; you made that up. What if I told you your mom and dad have no idea where you went, actually?"

Summer opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. In fact, nothing she could say came to mind. And Rick took full advantage of her silence.

"Your parents don't know you left, so you can cross that theory off of your list," Rick said. "And don't jump from that ship to the, 'he came to get his portal gun back' one either. Or anything like that. I came to get you, Summer. I know I'm shit at showing it sometimes and I know this might be hard to believe, but I actually do give a fuck about my grandchildren."

He was looking directly at her as he spoke every word, and it made Summer feel odd.

Where all of this was coming from, she didn't know. She knew he was capable of being like this, so that wasn't where the confusion came in. In the two years Rick had lived in their home, she'd seen this genuine side come out a few times, but it was extremely rare. Rare as in, when he thought no one could see him or he thought no one was paying attention.

Being as invisible as she was most of the time, Rick never really noticed just how much attention she paid to those around her. It was probably why she could understand how unhappy her parents were together, despite how it always seemed to shock Morty whenever he noticed them fighting. But that invisibility, it was one of her superpowers; it gave her a window to see Rick in those sincere yet hidden moments.

Now here he was, openly having one of them, and it was directed at her; something she didn't think would have ever happened.

She'd wanted this for a long time; attention from her grandfather when he gave it all to her younger brother. Now, she was getting it, and yet, it didn't feel as satisfying as she'd wanted it to be; maybe because it wasn't enough for her. Words were powerful things, but at the end of the day, actions spoke louder.

"You care about Morty, I know that much," she sighed. "But you've never really given me much of a reason to believe that I'm important too, Grandpa Rick."

Rick frowned deeply, and again, that weird feeling was spreading through his chest again. What was this? It was practically driving him mad.

"You never take me on adventures or to do anything special like you always do with him," she continued. "It can't just be because I'm a girl, Rick. It has to be because you don't want me around."

"That isn't it at all!" he snapped quickly, that off-anxiety spreading through his chest more rapidly. "There is a reason, Summer. A real, legitimate reason that I don't bring you around so much..."

"What is it?" she pressed, a sudden surge of something in her voice; hope, perhaps?

"It's…complicated," he responded dumbly.

An empty heaviness was weighing him down on the inside.

"Why don't you want to tell me?"

It felt like it was getting harder to breathe.

"I'm not as stupid as you think I am, Grandpa Rick."

His lip was trembling; when was the last time he'd had a drink?

"Whatever it is, I can handle it."

He felt his right eye twitch; seriously, what the fuck was this?

"If you want me to believe you, you owe me as much."

It was getting worse and worse every time she spoke.

"Please."

There were the tears again, falling down her cheeks as her eyes screamed for answers and clarification. He could see more than anything, she wanted to believe him, and the one thing that was holding him back was the fear of how she would accept the answer she didn't know that she didn't truly want.

"Please just try to let me understand."

A connection was made in his brain suddenly as he was able to identify the emotion that was tearing him up internally.

Guilt; something he's felt less than a handful of times in his lifetime. And here it was, murdering him.

The guilt for holding back the truth from her; guilt from driving her away in the first place; guilt for what he decided he was going to tell her.

He needed a drink so fucking badly.

"Let me ask you a question," he began slowly, closing his eyes. "Do you remember when you and your parents looked at your alternate lives?"

She exhaled, clearly not expecting this turn in the conversation, but affirmed him anyway.

"Yes."

"Alright," he nodded, opening his eyes and pointed to the glove box on the dashboard in front of her. "Open that up and take out what's in it. Give it to me."

More confused then ever, she panicked slightly. This was going far better than she hoped, and she didn't want him to retrieve his flask and drive away his clear thought process to treat her like shit again. Not when they were making this much progress…

"Grandpa, I really don't think you should drink right n–"

"There's no alcohol in there and my flash is back in the garage," he cut her off. "There's only one thing in there, Summer. Hand it to me."

She didn't hesitate, then. She unlatched the small door on the glove box and it fell open, revealing that it was indeed empty, save for one folded piece of paper inside of it. She slowly reached in slowly, not sure what she was expecting.

It looked normal enough; just a small, blank rectangle piece of paper. She stared at the paper intensely, wanting to find a message in invisible ink or something, anything, to help her understand the point Rick was trying to make.

When he realized she wasn't going to give it to him right away, he sighed again, preparing for whatever reaction she could have.

"Turn it over," he instructed.

She did.

"Replacement Morty…?" she read aloud, bringing the small ticket closer to her face as if she could maybe find a better explanation.

He gave her a few moments to process what it meant, and her face paled within seconds. Her eyes grew wide, too.

He held his hand out for the coupon, and she shakily passed it over to him, looking up at him with fearful eyes. He briefly looked down to the disgusting piece of paper in his hands, then back up to her.

"This is exactly what you think it is, Summer," Rick stated carefully. "In any event, if I'm to lose your brother, the Council of Me's will give me another one. This entitles me to a free Morty if mine is ever to die."

All she could do was stare at him in horror. She knew that Rick and Morty sometimes ran into danger on their trips, but the thought of one of them never actually returning frightened her. And the fact that her brother could simply be replaced by a copy were that unthinkable thing to happen…

Well, it already had happened. But the Rick and Morty she knew now were closer to her than her own had been.

Rick could see the question in her eyes that she was too afraid to ask in fear of an answer.

"I've never had to replace your brother," he told her. "Morty and I are both from dimension C-137. He's my original Morty, and I'd like to keep things the way they are."

That seemed to take some of the sting out, and her eyes seemed to return to a less alarmed size. But she still needed more; she was in too much shock to put the pieces together.

"Replacement Morty vouchers exist," he began. "They're given to Ricks by the council incase they're ever needed. I got this one when I was framed by that evil Rick a few months ago; they gave it to me when I was able to prove that I was innocent. There are countless Mortys available should any Rick ever need one, whether it be that their Rick died or he just never came into the picture, or whatever. There are infinite possibilities.

"Back to what I asked you earlier, though, about the infinite timelines? I'm sure you had trouble finding realities where you even existed, right?"

She nodded slowly.

"See, I know that because I've looked through the other timelines as well. When Morty and I had to bail on C-137, it took me quite some time to find a reality where you existed at all, let alone Rick and Morty-less. Longer than I care to admit, but the point is…you're a rarity, Summer. In a majority of the timelines for countless reasons, you don't exist.

"Let me be clear right now; I don't want to replace your brother. Not now, not ever; it's a possibility that's always in the back of my mind, and I do what I can to keep him safe anywhere and everywhere we go together. But that's the key difference between you two.

"Universe forbid I ever fail to keep Morty alive, I can get him back. In some form, I can get your brother back. But if anything were to ever happen to you, Summer… there's not much of anything that I could do.

"I know I've taught you and Morty that there are infinite timelines and dimensions and possibilities, and in some way, if I got lucky, I'm sure I could find another Summer somewhere…but I'm just one person, Summer. No matter what I'm capable of, it would be impossible for me to search every single part of infinity.

"That's why I try not to bring you along for the more dangerous stuff. I'm not being a dick on purpose, and I'm not trying to ignore you constantly. And on top of that, I'm sure you're capable of handling yourself; you've proven to be more competent than your brother on a handful of occasions. But I'm not a betting man; I like to shoot straight, and gambling with your life isn't something I want to do on a regular basis.

"From here on out, I promise you I'll do my best to try to be more considerate. You and I both know there will be times when I fail miserably, because even I can fuck up sometimes. But know it's nothing personal; it's actually me being considerate.

"I'm not saying I'm gonna bring you everywhere, either. I told you the reason why I don't, and I expect you to understand it really is for the best that you avoid most of the places I go to with your brother. But I'll make time for you, too. I'll take you on solo missions and we'll have fun without your brother tagging along every now and then.

"And don't ever think I don't care about you, Summer. I'm shit at caring about people, but I can do it, and you, your brother and your mother are the three most important people in my life. I'd do anything for you guys, including traveling across the galaxy to find you and save your ass from a more fucked up version of me any day.

"I know I've probably got to do a lot more to earn your forgiveness, and as petty and annoying as I think that is, I'll do it. You are right in saying I owe you some shit. I'll work on that."

Silence filled the ship for some amount of time after Rick stopped talking, and it was incredibly uncomfortable for Rick. He wasn't one for speeches and opening up, and he certainly didn't expect silence to be the response.

Summer's face was blank as she absorbed everything Rick had said to her. At first she didn't believe it had even happened; she waited to wake up and find herself in her own bed at home, and to be stuck back in the same situation as she was before she had left. She even tried biting the inside of her cheek to force herself awake, but all she accomplished was filling her mouth with pain and the taste of blood as she slowly realized it was all too real.

The next phase she went though was processing all of his words. The first step was accepting the speech happened. The second was accepting that there was actual truth behind them.

She searched his face for any sings that he was lying to her, but she never found any. Her grandfather wasn't a liar unless he was trying to convince Beth whatever he was doing was perfectly safe for Morty. Other than that, he was bluntly honest all the time, not caring who the truth hurt. And he had nothing to gain from lying to her there, in that moment.

The last phase threw them both off guard. She didn't remember when it happened, but next thing she knew, she leaned over and threw her arms around Rick.

He stiffened from the sudden, unexpected contact and display of sentiment, but adjusted quickly and wrapped his arms around her as well, feeling her weak frame tremble against him.

"I'm sorry," she chanted over and over in a mantra. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"I am too," he told her.

They stayed like that for a while before she finally let go, and leaned back into her seat, and he into his. She then reached her hand out for the Morty voucher, and he slowly handed it back to her, wary of what she could do.

She held it in one hand and looked down at it again, while she wiped the remained of her tears onto the sleeve of Rick's lab coat. It felt like it weighed a thousand pounds in her hands.

"Promise me that you'll never have to use this," she breathed.

Rick had already promised himself that very same thing the moment he'd even gotten the damn thing from the council. His Morty was not replaceable, because no Morty could ever compare.

But Rick wasn't naïve, either. He knew anything could happen in the multiverse, and as much as he was against it, he knew there was always a possibility that he may have to use it, if anything just to make sure Beth had her child.

Summer herself already knew it was a promise he couldn't ever truly make, but for whatever reason, she needed to hear him say it. It would make her feel better.

"I promise, Summer," Rick said.

She breathed a sigh of relief and put the ticket back in the glove box, shoving it closed and turning her attention to the vastness of space in her view out of the front windshield.

While she slowly sunk back into the passenger seat, a wave of pain and soreness spread across her torso and other parts of her body. The adrenaline finally wearing off, she realized just how hurt she still was. She tried stretching her arms out slowly in front of her to dull the pain, but it only made it worse.

She groaned and gnashed her teeth together, trying to mask the discomfort.

"We're gonna make a stop in the Plaagin System in a few minutes," Rick said, checking what Summer had called his "space GPS" once. "We gotta get some stuff for your brother; little bastard caught a space cold last night. And we'll be able to get some meds that will fix you up, too.

"I mean, I still owe you. You saved my ass…what is it, three times now? Gazorpazorp, Tiny Dick and the purge world? I'm counting this trip as one off of my three strikes of debt."

Her eyes suddenly lit up, the prospect of going somewhere new with her grandfather dawned upon her. Rick saw the sudden change in her attitude and smirked to himself.

"There's this one planet in this salaxy that has this mega arcade…it's pretty sick," Rick added. "I mean, nowhere near as fan-fucking-tastic as Blips and Chitz, and we'll go there sometime if you want, but it's pretty damn close. This one has Roy 3: Mike. We'll check that out after we get you patched up. Your brother can stay sick for a little while longer after not listening to me about wearing a jacket."

"I'm down, let's go," Summer could barely keep her voice leveled to mask the sheer excitement.

They had a long way to go and Summer was going to have to readjust, but for now, this was a good start; a few good steps in the right direction. Finally, Summer felt like she actually mattered for once. She was the happiest she had been in she couldn't even recall how long.

She had no idea that beside her, Rick felt the exact same way.