It was the next morning, this time at 6am when Morty woke up. He wasn't on the floor thankfully, mostly assuming Rick had brought him to bed instead of letting him pass out in his arms or on the floor from exhaustion. He got up and did the usual, stopping near where Rick was supposed to be sleeping to see if he'd gone to bed in an actual room as well. He opened the door and not even to his surprise, Rick wasn't in there. He sighed and continued to walk down until he was at the table.
Rick was asleep at the table, half from exhaustion and the other half probably being from the alcohol he'd consumed. Morty looked across the table at the half finished portal gun. It seemed like Rick had been working all night on it and mostly assembled it. The power source was different, he wasn't too surprised at that as they had to work with a different one but it should work all the same.
Morty picked up the portal gun and the power source, slowly attaching the fluid container to the machine. He watched it start to power on and the fluid start to glow. It's not like he hadn't powered it on or watched it turn on before, most of it was just him not being able to leave in a few days and missing his stupid ass family. He looked over at Rick who was fast asleep within a drunken state. He moved the portal gun near the right side of his body, so much for Rick not to see the light from it. To Morty, it was bright but that could just be because it's almost seven in the morning.
He carefully ran through the hallway to an empty room, portal gun still in hand. Rick won't like this, Morty thought to himself. But I'm going to test it. I'm going to be the one to see if it works this time. He felt a rush of anxiety mixed with pure curiosity of the ever so expanding multiverse opened up to him with the portal gun in his hand. He patted his pants pocket to make sure his phone was in there and shot out a portal, not even looking at where the hell it was going to take him. "I-I'll be back," He whispered as he slowly walked into the portal, looking back at the door. "As s-soon as I kn-know it really works."
The time now was 12:06pm. Almost six hours after the time Morty left. Rick had already woken up but he was mostly drunk. He was under the assumption Morty was asleep or doing something else until his eyes focused on the table and the portal gun was gone. "Fucking Goddamn it Morty!" He yelled, pulling out his own phone. He had an app to track Morty, granted he didn't want to have to use it. Once the app was pulled up, it showed the most accurate place the kid was. Why the fuck is he there?! Rick thought to himself. He has the portal gun and he's fucking running. His cold heart was beating fast with anxiety and fear over his grandson's safety. Though in front of others, he'd never say he gave a shit that openly.
Rick started to call Morty who's phone was obviously on. He waited for him to answer, anxiously bouncing his leg up and down while sitting. Come on you little shit pick up the phone! He thought to himself. The phone finally got out of limbo after the last twenty seconds before Rick would have to call again. "Morty, wh-where the fuck are y-you?!" He yelled into the phone. He was hearing Morty's unsteady breathing over the phone. "I-I-I don't kn-know which dimension thi-this is…" Morty responded windedly. Rick sighed heavily, bringing his hand up to his temple and throwing his leg up onto the table.
"Y-Y-You seriously took the p-portal gun??" He asked in an annoyed tone. Rick checked the vitals on his phone while Morty took a bit more time than he thought the boy needed to for answering. They were stable other than heartbeat which was out of control but it was understandable given that Morty had supposedly been running. "I-I-I wanted to t-test it!" Morty said in a loud, defensive tone. Rick couldn't say he was surprised that the new fluid and working portal gun wasn't fascinating to Morty. Or at least didn't peak a bit of his interest, but it was still a new version of the original portal gun fluid. There was no telling how toxic the new one was compared to the old one.
Rick reached for his flask and took a drink. "H-How much is l-l-left in the fluid supply?" Rick asked, halfway sighing at the same time. In between the question, the app alerted him that Morty's heart beat jumped ever so slightly, but it was a large jump. There were only a few things that would cause a jump: anxiety, pain, dreaded infatuation, general fear… Was he in that big of a situation in that other dimension?
"Th-The supply is st-still close to fu-full." Morty stuttered out, seeming to move his phone outward at the same time. Rick gets a text, from Morty of course, with a picture attached to it. It's the amount left in the fluid supply, which really wasn't that empty. It barely was under the mark he left on the glass. "Y-Y-You haven't been (uuurrrpp) dimension h-hopping that much?" Rick asked in an annoyed tone, analyzing the photo. There was a faint "yes" and "fuck" in response to the question on the other end.
How the fuck long had he been there?? Rick thought to himself. His mind raced although it was more impaired due to well drinking and being hungover. It seemed like Morty wasn't too far out from a place to get the fuck out of there. "M-Morty, do me a favor a-and (uurrrp) use the d-damn portal gun to ge-get back here," He demanded as staring at the tracker again. "Yo-You need to ge-get out of there. Now." In the background, he could hear the sound of a portal opening after a whole two minutes. There came in Morty, looking tired, anxious and in a way close to death.
Morty felt his body give out after taking two steps and his ears heard the muffled sound of a chair moving. He was fully prepared to crash down on the cold floor, face first, but that wasn't the case. The feeling of Rick's long skinny arms holding his dead weight body and trying to prop him up. "... okay, Morty….'re okay." Was all he heard while his exhausted body gave up. He felt so horrible as the adrenaline and serum wore off and left him in an anxious, 3/4ths dead state. He really didn't want to black out for multiple reasons. The largest reason is due to the injuries he sustained while out there. Not too many were big except for a few around his shoulders and legs.
Morty was not going to let Rick assess his injuries. At least not right now while they're still fresh. Unconsciousness beckoned him to come and stay with it but he wouldn't allow it. He had used a serum while he was out there but it did little to nothing. As his body finally just caught up in pain and tiredness, he hoped and kind of prayed that the larger, more serious injuries had gone away.
Rick sighed loudly. Why did it have to be him?! He angrily thought to himself. The feeling of Morty's body becoming dead weight didn't quite scare him but Jesus Christ if Morty was out there it would have. He saw Morty's hand relax, the same one holding the portal gun, so he caught the gun and shoved it into his pocket. There wasn't much he could do other than do a small assessment of any and all injuries on the boy. Without Morty's recount of what had just happened and what caused some of those injuries, he could only assume what they were.
"G-Goddamn it (uuurrpp) Morty." Rick mumbled. Dragging the boy to the table, he cleared the crap off of it and set him onto the table. The most visible injuries were a few bruises and scrapes. Those are fixable, it's the big injuries like bullet wounds and stab wounds were the issues. But he would know if Morty had any, Morty would be dying. Regardless, Rick started to assess the rest of his grandson's body. His assumption was correct, no major injuries on his body. Morty's prayer had been answered. He took time to fix up the bruises and scratches upon Morty's body. With that, he yet again allowed Morty to remain unconscious while he worked on figuring out what that dimension was.
The two would be able to return home as soon as Morty awoke. This gave Rick time to research the dimension he went to, as his hypothesis is it was outside the original central finite curve so he knew shit about it. He sighed, taking a drink out of his flask and thought, What shit did he get himself into over there?
After Chapter AN: Thank you guys for reading thus far! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
Big note for the next chapters: My plan is to incorporate more of the other episodes in reference to things going on and to actually put more emphasis on certain mental illnesses (one ex: the usual Rick being suicidal but with a bit more depth). This was my intention from the get-go within how I am/was writing this since I feel that it's a sort of reflection for both Rick and Morty at this point in order to move on and try to be better partners.
If you don't like this kind of stuff, I totally understand and you don't have to read further if you aren't caught up or this isn't your cup of tea. Regardless, let me know if there is anything you want changed or feel is too OOC or even what ya like about it! RR is appreciated.