Alright, sorry this one took a little longer to get out, I wrote it up and then I accidentally deleted it so I was really angry at myself and couldn't look at it again for a little while! but I finally rewrote it and here you go, chapter 8! I hope you enjoy it!

The day they decided to turn time back on came a good six months after they had originally paused time. It had been a fun and interesting six months and Joy had to admit, spending that time with Rick, Morty and Summer had been some of the best times. After fixing up the house and cleaning everything, replacing things that had been broken and having a good time together.

It felt like everyone was finally a little healthier, they weren't worrying about Beth and Jerry and their shitty marriage, Rick had even surprised Joy one evening when he walked over with a meeseeks box and dropped it on her stomach as she lay on the couch playing video games with Morty.

"Ow what the fuck-?" she looked up at Rick who let out a belch.

"Come- Come on, we're going to your house."

"What's with the Meeseeks box?" she asked as she set down the controller and then looked up at Rick. "Woah woah, I already said I wasn't going to fuck a-"

"Rick!" Morty looked at Rick who rolled his eyes.

"Oh Relax Morty, we're not going to fuck a Meeseeks… Right?"

"Right." Joy nodded. She looked at the box again before looking back up at Rick. "So- if we're not going to fuck the meeseeks, what are we doing with it?"

"We're going to work on your house." he told her, Joy's eyes widening slightly.

"Rick, I don't think I'm ready for that-"

"It's been long enough. Let's go," he said before grabbing her wrist and pulling her along with him. "Get out of the way Jerry," he snapped at the frozen Jerry as they passed by him.

Getting to Joy's Rick walked in, opened the garage and then stepped inside, looking at the boxes that were stacked from floor to ceiling.

"I mean, there's a reason I haven't started working on this," Joy told him, looking over at him with a shrug.

"Well, that's why we brought a Meeseeks box." Rick told her. "What- what kind of shit of your dead parents do you want to keep?"

"I don't know, pictures, tax papers, the deed to the house if that comes up." Joy shrugged.

"Okay, I'll take a few meeseeks and deal with the garage, you go do your parents bedroom." he told her and she huffed.

"Rick I don't-" she was cut off by Rick pressing the button on the meeseeks box four times and four meeseeks popped out.

"I'm Mr. Meeseeks look at me!" all four cried.

"Two of you go help Joy clean out her p- parents bedroom, the other two help me clear out this garage." Rick told the meeseeks.

"Can do!" they all replied before two of the meeseeks followed Joy up to her parents room.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered before looking at the meeseeks. "Okay, so my mom wasn't anywhere close to my size, so I guess one of you can bag up all of the clothes and bedding and stuff and bring it down to the curb so I can donate it- and the other one can go get some boxes so I can start boxing up some of this crap." she said.

"Can do!" they both replied and one Meeseeks went downstairs, getting a box of trash bags while the other one went to the garage to get some more boxes.

As they worked, Joy packing up things like books she didn't want, all of her parents shoes, and anything else she saw that should be brought to the goodwill she talked to the meeseeks about her hesitation to do the task.

"You know Joy, maybe Rick is pushing you to take care of this task because he wants you to be able to stop holding yourself back, maybe he knows that by holding onto the attachments of your parents and the attachments of P-48, you'll never be able to really give yourself to him and commit to this relationship." one of the meeseeks said as he wiped down her mom's empty dresser, Joy pausing as she thought about that before nodding.

"I hadn't thought about it that way Mr. Meeseeks," she said softly, looking at him with a gentle smile. "Good point."

Cleaning out her parents bedroom took a few hours, and after they were done the meeseeks disappeared, Joy stood in the empty room, staring around at the furniture before realizing- it felt good to have this room done, it felt good to know she had finally gotten the room cleared of her parents stuff and it wasn't something that was weighing on her in the back of her head.

Going downstairs to the garage she found Rick there drinking a beer and tracing a spot on the ground with a piece of chalk. "What are you doing?"

"I-I'm going to build a new subterranean lair." he told her. "A man can never have too many subterranean lairs."

"Okay, but didn't you say the power needs for something like that are outstanding?"

"Yes, that's why I have the meeseeks updating the wiring in your house," he told her.

"Okay fine, but you're paying the power bill," she told him as she scooped up the meeseeks box.

"B-baby I'll pay all the bills if that'll make you happy." he told her simply as he pulled out a tool she didn't recognize and started to cut the floor.

"I'm going to go have the meeseeks re carpet and paint my parent's bedroom!" she called as she walked out of the garage, leaving Rick to build his second subterranean lair.

With the help of the Meeseeks Joy's house was able to transform within a week from a shrine to her dead parents to a home that was entirely more her. Not to mention all the things Rick helped her get from stores that were all frozen…

As the two lay on the bed in her new bedroom, the master bedroom having been painted a deep royal blue and given a whole new look, Rick lay on the new mattress, reaching over to the bedside table and picking up a pack of cigarettes, lighting one and exhaling before passing it to her.

"So you like the new room?" she asked.

"O-Oh yeah Baby, it's looking a lot better in here." he told her as he looked around the room and ran a hand over the fresh black cotton sheets. "The bed is a lot better too,"

"Yeah well that's because we got it from Pier one," she said as she looked at the nice bed frame they had gotten.

"The mattress is nice too," he commented as she exhaled her smoke and then passed the cigarette to Rick.

"Yeah," he said and then looked over at her with a half smile.

"What?" she asked as she looked at him, leaning against his hand when he reached out and ran his fingers through her hair. He seemed to be deep in thought as he watched her, Joy smiling and turning to look at him a little more. "Rick?"

"Just thinking about what those lips can do," Rick answered as he looked at her, the smile turning into a grin before she turned over and moved to kneel between his legs, Rick moving to put the cigarette out before he looked at her again with a grin.

"You ready see what these lips can do old man?" she asked, Rick grinning widely.

"I was fuckin born ready Baby."

Joy smiled as she ran her hands up Rick's thighs, leaning in to show him exactly what her lips could do.

When it was the day they had all agreed to restart time Joy woke up with Rick's arm around her waist, the two of them asleep in her house. Since they'd redone her house they had been spending a lot more time there- she had even let Summer and Morty take over the guest bedrooms because they all agreed it was nice to have a place to escape to when Beth and Jerry were being- well- Beth and Jerry.

She smiled softly when she smelled coffee and felt Rick stirring slightly before looking over her shoulder. "I'm going to go make sure the kids don't burn the house down," she told him, pushing the blankets back and getting out of bed.

"Mm, Joy," Rick mumbled, Joy turning to look at him. When she turned he grabbed her wrist, pulling her back onto the bed and pulling her into a kiss. Joy giggled as he wrapped his arms around her, kissing him back.

"I'm going to miss this," she told him softly as she lay in the bed with him, Rick pulling her leg over his hips.

"What are you going to miss Baby?" he asked as he pushed himself into her.

"Mm-" she moaned softly as he started to move against her slowly. "Oh- You- I'm going to miss you Rick," she told him.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, frowning at her.

"No," she agreed, "But, I mean this is," she explained. "It's just, when we start time again, you and the kids aren't going to stay here," she explained, biting her lip as she felt him bottom out in her. "Oh fuck- And- and you- you're going to let Beth be a bitch to me." she gasped as he pulled out of her and then started to rock his hips.

"Baby, Baby," Rick put his hand on the back of her neck and made her look at him. "None of that matters, the point of freezing time was to show all of you that- nothing matters."

Joy looked at him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, you're right," she agreed as she kissed him.

After a very stimulating morning Joy and Rick joined Summer and Morty downstairs where Summer was carefully flipping pancakes and Morty had set the table.

"Hey guys," Joy greeted them.

"Morning," Morty greeted them. "You guys want some orange juice? We squeezed it from the tree Rick flash grew in your back yard."

"Sure," Joy smiled. "Thank you."

"We just wanted to make our last morning special," Summer told them as she put a large plate of pancakes down on the table. "Since we have to unfreeze time and everything this morning."

"Yeah," Joy sighed as she put a few pancakes onto her plate.

"It- It's going to be fine," Rick told them all. "Listen, I know we've all gotten used to time being frozen, but we can't live like this forever."

"We know," Morty said.

"Hey, Joy, is it okay if we keep our bedrooms over here for when things get too annoying at home?" Summer asked as she sat down at the table.

"Of course," Joy told her. "I want you guys to feel like this is your house too," she said as she got up and poured herself a cup of coffee. "And if Jerry and Beth are making life miserable, I want you guys to know that the house is open to you."

"Okay cool, and um, you're not going to tell our parents what we did right?"

"What, like the bank robbing, stealing, drugs, drinking, underage drinking and using meeseeks to completely redo my house stuff?" she asked, all of them laughing before she shook her head. "Yeah, I'm just going to run over and give Beth a million more reasons not to like me." she smiled at them. "All of our secrets stay here, I promise." she told the kids who smiled.

"Hey Rick," Morty looked at his grandfather who was chewing his pancakes. "It was a pretty good six months wasn't it?"

"It sure was Morty." Rick nodded.

"Yeah, it's almost too bad we have to go back to real life. It was a nice break though," Summer commented.

After breakfast the Smiths went back over to the Smith house to take care of a few final things while Rick helped Joy do the dishes. "Did you mean all of that earlier?" Rick asked and Joy looked over at him as she handed him a dish.

"All of what?" she asked as he dried it off.

"All that stuff about being nervous about what life will be like when we start time again, wishing it could stay like this?" he asked.

"Well- yeah." she smiled softly. "Is that really so hard to believe?"

"I don't know, I guess I kinda figured, since you were stuck on Earth for six months you'd want to go back into space after we start time again." Rick told her, Joy shaking her head.

"Rick, space was fun, but it wasn't as much fun without you there." she told him. "And I know that you wanted me to finish the house was so I could put all of that stuff in the past behind me so I could fully commit to this, and I have. I'm committed to you Rick," she told him, Rick frowning at that.

"Woah woah, what the hell are you talking about?" he demanded, Joy frowning as she looked at him.

"What?"

"The only reason I wanted you to do this task is so you would commit? I wanted you to finish your house so you weren't spending every waking moment at my house!" he told her, his voice raising slightly.

"Rick, what are you talking about, I thought you wanted me to spend time with you?"

"Oh, you thought that I wanted some human around who barely understands what space is a real thing and that needs someone to hold her hand so she doesn't get killed while she rides my lab coat tails into legends?" he asked, Joy feeling the color rise in her cheeks.

"What is happening right now?" she asked, confused at how a nice morning could have gone so wrong.

"I'll tell you what's happening, what's happening is I have fucking work to do and you're trying to play house. So let me do my fucking work, and you go back to dreaming about the perfect life of human mediocrity and leave the real work to the geniuses." he shouted before storming out of the house, leaving Joy standing there feeling shocked and confused.

An hour later Joy heard it, the sound of birds and car driving by. Knowing that time was turned back on she looked out the window to see No Jerry or Beth in the front yard of the Smith house, and then turning away from the window she walked through her house.

Everything had been so perfect while time had been frozen, they had played games in the living room, they'd been like a family, but maybe Rick had been lying when he said he still wanted to do the Joy thing.

Maybe he had meant it in the moment but he didn't mean it now, either way, if he wasn't ready to commit, she wouldn't force him.

Going upstairs she quietly made her bed, tucking in the edges of the sheets while she tried not to think about the good times she and Rick had had in between those very same sheets, and trying not to focus on the man who she had begun to love.

Across the street Rick, Morty and Summer were all feeling very uncertain, Rick was in the garage staring at a screen and felt himself growing more frustrated. "Oh crap are you kidding me? Two dots? This never needs to be more than one dot. The two of you made us uncertain!" he shouted at his grandchildren, heat rising in his cheeks as he tried to play it off like he himself hadn't been thinking and rethinking his conversation with Joy only an hour ago.

"What do you mean?" both versions of Morty asked the question in different words while both versions of Summer found very different ways to ask:

"What? English please?"

"Our time is fractured. You two somehow created a feedback loop of uncertainty that's split our reality into two equally possible impossibilities. W-we're exactly like a man capable of sustaining a platonic friendship with an attractive female co-worker. We're entirely hypothetical." both version of Rick explained to both versions of their grandkids.

"But I thought there were infinite timelines." both Mortys asked.

"We're not on any timeline, dummy. Look." Rick opened the garage door where instead of seeing the paramedics taking away their enderly neighbor who had fallen off the roof, all six found themselves staring into a void with floating trees, islands, and for some reason-

"Are those cats?" Both Summers asked.

"I assume they're Schrödinger's cats. A-actually, I assume they both are and aren't, just like us." Ricks explained.

"Is the world gone? Where are Mom and Dad?" one version of Summer and one version of Morty asked.

"Mom and Dad?" Get your head out of your family's ass. The three of us are lost in a timeless oblivion. Your parents get to exist. They're probably living it up in some pointless grounded story about their shitty marriage." Rick snapped.

"What about Joy?" the other Morty and the other Summer asked, making Rick look down at his hands. "Rick?"

"She's probably at home, wondering why I'm such an ass," the Ricks admitted to his grandchildren.

"Well yeah Grandpa, but what are you going to do about it?" both of the Summers asked, making both of the Ricks look at them.

"I'm gonna get us out of here so I can explain it to her."

Alright! So thoughts on why Rick freaked out and yelled at Joy? Any idea on why he's being an ass? Let me know in the reviews, and if you're into Star Trek don't forget to check out my new Spock/OC story! It's smutty and fun and I'm having fun writing it!