When Rick woke the next morning, he immediately knew somehow that something was wrong; he was beginning to develop the "sixth sense" that some parents seem to have and it was completely unnerving; he still didn't know what to expect.
The last thing he expected was to find Summer's bed empty, and her backpack was gone. The other last thing he didn't expect was to find the note she had left on the kitchen countertop in an anxious teenager's scrawl.
"Rick," it said, "If you are reading this, then I am not here. I found the diary in the garage. I know what you did to Mom. I'm sorry, but I cannot trust you anymore and I can't stay here." It was simply signed: "Summer."
By the time he was done reading, Rick was seething with rage. The note completely baffled him; he didn't know of any diary", and he couldn't possibly fathom what this Rick had done to Beth for Summer to take off so promptly, but obviously, she wanted nothing to do with him now, which meant he'd failed, and Rick didn't fail.
Tossing the note aside, Rick dashed to the garage; his eyes immediately fell upon the box labeled "Beth's Old Stuff". Rick stared at the box, dreading what he'd find in there; he couldn't imagine what Beth had gone through, and what the other Rick had done, and the more he thought of the possibilities, the more it sickened him.
When he finally braced himself, he opened the box and found the diary. It took all of the willpower he could muster to open the diary and begin to read….about what this other version of himself had done.
He didn't want to read these intimate passages but he couldn't help it; he opened the book again.
January 3rd, 2003
We have a plan. Jerry is going to make Dad leave. He's gotten a gun. He promises not to use it, only to threaten him with it. I'm scared of what may happen. I pray that this plan works.
January 5th, 2003
Dad was drunk again and started hitting me. I called Jerry and told him. Jerry came right over and he had the gun with him. He pointed it at Dad and ordered him to leave. Shockingly, Dad did. He opened a portal and left. Jerry had never seen the portal before. He still can't believe they actually exist. He stayed with me overnight and has been here ever since. Dad hasn't returned and good riddance. Now we can focus on raising our child, even if it is because of-
Rick stopped reading. His head was swimming. The room was spinning. It took all of his willpower not to tear the book in two. Instead, with a completely primeval yell, he hurtled the book across the room. It was true-all Ricks were assholes, sure-but this? This was pure evil; he'd never heard of any Ricks harming their Beths in such an unbelievably and unspeakably cruel way. This Rick was one sick fuck-no wonder Beth had never mentioned him to Summer.
Now Summer hated him, and Rick had nobody to blame but himself-because this was a version of him.
The words sickened him to the point of wanting to throw up. He wanted to kill the Rick who had done this. He wanted to make him suffer. He wanted to get revenge. Except, this Rick might as well be him-was he capable of such atrocities?
Rick balled his hands into fists, digging his fingernails so deep that they almost drew blood. He wanted to scream. He had to hurt someone, and he had to do it now. He kicked the nearby desk, sending some of Jerry's old work tools clattering to the ground. The saw blade caught his eye, and he reached for it, fingers shaking. Holding the saw blade with both hands, he saw his own reflection in the blade, and he hated it. What's the use of just another Rick anyway? It was the last thought as he shut his eyes and slowly brought the tip of the blade closer to the naked skin of his own wrist-
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.
SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! He was almost there-he could do it-
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!
The blade was almost touching-
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!
Rick's eyes snapped open as he found the source of the noise: THE BEACON had been ACTIVATED and was sounding its alarm.
Rick stared at it in confusion; how could this be? The Beacon was only meant to alert Ricks of any endangerment to their Mortys. The Beacon was a unique alert system. It was contained within a device that all Ricks had secretly embedded within their Morty's cell phones. Only it didn't make any sense, because this Morty wasn't alive anymore, so he couldn't possibly be in danger-
-unless SUMMER was the one who was in danger-
The sawblade fell to the ground and Rick lunged for the locator device. In no time at all he found her. Summer, it seemed, was somewhere along the interstate, heading due south, at least four or five hours away. How on Earth had she gotten that far so fast? Rick didn't want to know the answer. He immediately snatched his portal gun and punched in the coordinates.
Summer's movement had stopped, and when he exited the portal, Rick understood why.
In front of him was a truck, which was the only truck in an empty parking lot of a truck stop on the highway. It appeared from the locator indicated that Summer was inside the truck. Rick wasted no time-he ran straight to the truck, using his portal gun to smash through the driver's side window.
The sight he saw inside almost made him throw up right on the trucker. The trucker was bent over Summer, like a dog. He was wearing nothing but a tank top. He was breathing heavily, and the truck stank of booze and sweat.
The trucker stared for a moment at Rick in stunned silence before shouting loudly, "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?"
"I'm her GRANDFATHER," Rick returned coolly. "I'm ALSO your WORST NIGHTMARE!"
Before the trucker could return a response, Rick had grabbed him by the shirt collar, opening the door with the other hand single-handedly pulling the man out of the vehicle. Meanwhile, the startled predator managed to garble, "HEY WHAT THE FUCK-!"
"Pick your poison." Rick sneered into the trucker's face. "ONE: you run away and we never hear from you ever again. TWO: you try to put up a fight but fail miserably. Wanna know the third option?"
The sausage-shaped man blinked at him. "Uh wad's dat?"
"THREE," Rick grinned devilishly at the grotesque pig-faced man, "I KICK YOUR ASS ALL THE WAY TO FUCKING TIMBUKTU."
"Uhhhh…" The dickhead thought about it then said, "I'll, dur, take number two?"
"BAD choice!" Rick stuck his fists up and prepared for battle. The trucker swung his fist, which was caught by Rick immediately and tossed out of the way in the blink of an eye. With his other hand, he slammed his fist into the younger man's jaw, knocking him completely unconscious, and sending him tumbling to the ground in a heap.
Without missing a beat Rick dove into the truck, reaching a hand out to Summer. "Get out of there, Summer-this is no place for you," Rick encouraged as urgently and as calmly as he possibly could without raising his voice. He didn't want to wake the other man from his slumber. He could also see that Summer was understandably terrified. Still in shock, Summer was shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't take her eyes off of the unconscious predator who had almost had his way with her.
"C'mon Summer!" Rick hissed. "The guy's gonna wake up any, any second now! C'mon, come with me!"
Summer's eyes shifted, and suddenly she was looking right at him. Rick's breath caught in his throat; he'd never seen an expression like that on her before. She was looking at him like he'd just done something evil. When Summer spoke, it was barely above a whisper, but he still heard it clear as day. "NO." It was all she said, and then she turned away.
"Don't be fucking rickDICKuculous Summer!" Rick hissed, but he immediately regretted his words as Summer flinched. "I-it isn't SAFE here-"
"GO TO HELL." Summer didn't turn away from the window. "I'm not going ANYWHERE with YOU!"
"Why the hell NOT!?" Rick demanded. She was being stubborn, and he was getting tired of her resistance.
"YOU'RE just as bad as HE is!" Summer spat back even as she couldn't stop shaking. "At LEAST he didn't RAPE my MOM-"
"You don't know anything ABOUT that-"
"I found and read the goddamned DIARY," Summer hissed back, "so YES: I DO KNOW EVERYTHING."
Rick gritted his teeth, trying to keep himself from shouting at her in a fury. They were running out of time. The pig-faced man could wake up any second. She of course was being difficult, and suddenly he didn't have all the answers and he hated it. And suddenly he was breaking the rule that all Ricks were never supposed to break. He faced this girl that thought she knew him when she didn't know anything. He said, "You don't know the fucking TRUTH SUMMER!"
"The TRUTH?" Summer snorted. "The TRUTH is that you're a fucking RAPIST, GRAND-PA!"
"I'm NOT your fucking GRANDPA!" The words erupted from Rick's mouth before he could stop them.
The silence that hung in the air was deafening.
Summer was staring at him, completely stupefied; she looked like she wanted to cry. "You LIED to me," she whispered hoarsely. "You LIED to me about EVERYTHING!" She pushed open the door of the truck, half-falling out of the vehicle and practically injuring herself in the process. "I HATE YOU!"
"Summer-" Rick pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He stopped as he had to compose himself further for a moment. He knew he'd crossed a line that was almost impossible to come back from. No Ricks were supposed to confess such information. It was like changing the hands of Time. "I didn't lie-I-fuck, you're not even supposed to know this-"
Summer pushed herself to her feet, stepping over the unconscious man that lay between them, glaring directly at the man who had claimed to be her grandfather. "Know," she demanded coldly, "What?"
Rick gritted his teeth. He hated this. He hated this to his very core, but he knew that if he didn't confess this information, he was going to lose her. "Summer I want you to listen to me very very carefully." Rick looked her straight in the eyes. "I'm not your grandpa by blood." He took a deep breath, and said the words he knew he was probably going to regret: "I am your grandpa from a different dimension."