June 19th.

On this day, Rick and Morty didn't go adventuring.

On this day, Summer went out either by herself or with friends.

Morty either went out by himself or he stayed home and spent time alone playing video games in his room.

Normally, Jerry would be doing yard work or housework. Except Jerry had moved out, so the yard had started to get overgrown and forgotten. On this day, Beth kept to herself in the bedroom. It was an unspoken rule that nobody should bother her about anything-unless of course there was a sudden alien invasion, or if the house was on fire.

On this day, Rick Sanchez was working alone in the garage. Usually, he and Morty would be involved in some space-related hijinks. Any other time he would have missed it, but on this day, it was actually kind of a relief to be alone. He used the time to work on some unfinished projects he'd been putting off for a while, relieved to finally be getting them done. He wasn't used to being by himself in the garage all day, without even Morty coming in at least once or twice to bug him about something that needed fixing. It was kind of nice and almost peaceful-even though even he had to admit that he kind of missed the kid's winy pubescent voice messing up his thoughts.

At the end of the day, he finally retired from work, at once completely entirely satisfied with the outcome of his goals. He was satisfied, but also, strangely exhausted. Funny, because he hadn't even left the garage at all when on any other day he might have been on the run for his life. Instead, all he'd done was tinker away by himself in the garage, and now all he wanted to do was drag himself upstairs and burrow himself into the covers. Except something was nagging him, and then he realized with a start: he hadn't had a single drink of anything-not even his flask-all day. No wonder his head ached. His throat was so dry it hurt.

He made a beeline for the kitchen and stopped, a bit surprised to find that the light was already on. Usually, by this time everyone was in bed. Yet there was his daughter, sitting square on the floor, her back against the cabinet and her feet sprawled out in front of her. Her head was tilted back and she was staring blankly at the ceiling. There was a near-empty glass of red wine in her hand, and an already half-drunk bottle waiting on the floor beside her.

"-Beth...?" Rick almost fell backwards with surprise. "Wh-what're you doin' in here, sweetie?" From the looks of it she had been there he floor with that glass in her hand, getting progressively drunk, for quite some time now.

Beth slowly turned her head towards him, blinking at him like a sleepy-eyed sloth.

"Whaddas it look like, Dad?" Beth slurred, grinning strangely at him as she sloshing the glass of wine in his direction. "I'mmm DRUNK." She giggled a sickening, almost ghoulish-sounding, kind of laugh. "Ch-chip off the 'old block', huh?" She laughed again, and the sound made him cringe. As if to prove her point Beth tipped the glass back and drank the rest of its contents in two or three gulps.

Rick didn't say a word, as much as he wanted to tell her that becoming an alcoholic wasn't exactly how he'd dreamt about his own daughter following in his footsteps. He wanted to turn grab what he came for and leave, but he knew he'd be a real douchebag if he completely ignored his only daughter's obvious cry for help. Finally, guilt won the argument and he found himself taking a seat on the floor beside her.

"L-look uhhh, Beth…" He sighed as he ran his fingers through his unkempt dry to the point of almost brittle hair, suddenly realizing he was probably way overdue a shower and that he was also a complete hypocrite to be giving her any advice on relationships or whatever it was that bothered women in their late thirties. "I-I'm not really very good a-at this kind of thing-"

Beth cut him off with a heavy snort. "You don't say, Dear Ol' Daddums? Really? Mr. Scientist-Type-Time-Traveling Fella doesn't do little Heart-to-Heart talks with his kids anymore hmmm?"

Rick cocked his unibrow at her with confusion. "I-er….I don't really do time travel-" Since when had she ever called him 'Daddums'?

"Want some?" She held the half-drunk bottle up as though it were a sort of 'peace offering'.

"Uhhh-thanks," Rick replied awkwardly, "but...uhhh….No, thanks. Actually…." He hesitated. "I'm...actually not drinking...today."

Beth's eyes arched in surprise, but she didn't question why. Instead, she poured the last bit of the wine into her own glass. He helped her hold the bottle steady, and suddenly he was so thirsty he couldn't stand it. "Okay…," he grunted, "maybe one sip." The wine was good at least. It was a Malbec. Her favorite.

"Hey…." Beth observed as she paused in between sips, and looked at him for a moment. "Sooo...that means...you're sober…." she pointed out bluntly, "aren't you?" Beth was only this blunt after she'd had more than her fair share of wine.

"May-maybe?" he shrugged. He wasn't sure what he felt. "Probably? I guess? Well, for the moment, anyway." He glanced around the room as though he were seeing it for the first time. "Hey, Beth..remind me, again-what you like about this place so damn much? It's...it's nothing like space, y'know? In space, everything happens, everywhere, all the time! Here... N-nothing happens, like, ever! It's-it's about as boring as beeswax on a paint can-"

"Beeswax is pretty interesting actually," Beth pointed out, which earned a smirk from her father in spite of himself. (She was pretty sure he'd meant "as boring as watching paint dry", but she knew his pride would be hurt if she mentioned it.) "It's a great exfoliate, actually, they make candles out of it, it can even reduce inflammation, a-and-"

"Jesus, Beth!" Rick snorted with amusement. "You and the beeswax! G-get a room!" He laughed a little at his own joke, but Beth didn't laugh at all. "Uh, okay..." Rick looked away uncomfortably. "Listen, uh, Beth," he cleared his throat uneasily, "I-I know it might seem like I can do everything, but-unfortunately reading minds isn't one of them, anyway, yet-but-considering what a nightmare most people's brains are, I-I don't really think I'd actually want to have that ability, anyway-"

"Jerry and I-" Beth's forehead wrinkled at the name. "We wanted to give the kids a….a normal life I guess." Suddenly she slammed her fist against the floor, so suddenly that RIck jumped. "That stupid bastard!" Beth snapped bitterly, as her fingers curled furiously around the stem of the wine glass, and it began to shake. "He-he's probably swimming in prostitutes! I-I hate his f-f-fucking guts!" She slammed the bottle down hard. It toppled to the floor, spilling out its remains. Beth stared at it bleakly for a moment, trembling furiously, only to moments later burst into tears.

She wasn't expecting comfort, but she wasn't surprised when Rick burst out into laughter. It wasn't the first time he'd been completely indifferent to her despair, but it took her a second to realize this time he wasn't criticizing her. "Oh come ON Beth!" He scolded her as he went about sopping up the spilled wine with paper towels and setting the fallen bottle on the countertop. "Are you fucking kidding me!? This is JERRY we're talking about! H-h-he's probably sobbing into a beer right now, or drowning in his own piss over you-"

His argument was cut short when she abruptly tackled him in a hug and began sobbing. Rick grunted unintelligably in response, partially wanting to remove himself from her grip but she was so strong he didn't want to injury her in the process. People didn't hug him often, and he just wasn't used to this. So he just stood there like a dumbass, and when she was done he handed her a tissue.

"I'm sorry, Dad." Beth laughed a little then herself, gratefully accepting the tissue and wiped her eyes. "I-I...I don't really hate Jerry…." She slumped against the wall, that faraway look was back. "I…" She grit her teeth together. "Dammit!" she swore in frustration. "Why does love have to be so hard!?"

"Heh...b-beats me." Rick shook his head with bemusement. "I can understand everything in the entire freaking multiverse, all the way down to a quantum level, but love is a whole other ballgame."

Beth didn't know what to say to that. She didn't understand quantum level but she sure didn't understand love.

"C'-c'mere," Rick said suddenly. "I-I wanna show you some-something!" He grabbed her hand, and suddenly he was tugging her through the living room towards the backyard.

"Dad, w-why?" Beth stammered, startled.

"You'll see!" He slid open the door and took her right out into the middle of the backyard.

It was the dead of night, but the moon was full, so bright it was almost like the beginning of the day.

"Look up, Beth," he said, suddenly as giddy as a kid at Christmas. "Look up-look up there, Bethie! Tell me: what do you see?"

Beth glanced upwards, and the sight took her breath away: a sky that was filled with a seemingly impossible endless sea of stars. It seemed to go on and on forever. It made Beth feel completely small in comparison. Perhaps even insignificant.

Suddenly Rick was beside her. With one arm tucking around her shoulder, he drew Beth closer. "What do you see?" he whispered, and his voice, so excited and hushed and mysterious, suddenly reminded Beth of all the times she was a child, and the world was still full of wonder, magic was real, and anything good was possible if she wanted it to happen.

"I-I see…." Beth tilted her head back and squinted hard, trying to absorb as much as possible of the cosmos in a single vision. "I...see…." She shivered. "Infinity," she murmured. "I see...infinity." She shivered again; she was surprised when Rick covered her with his lab coat and pulled her towards him. They stood staring up at the stars.

"Right you are Beth," Rick murmured, nodding at the stars, "right you are!…. S-see that, way up there? That is a reflection of the universe….a universe that's absolutely positively teeming with life and infinite possibilities!"

Beth smiled at the thought, relaxing into his embrace. She could feel the scratchiness of a half-shaven beard and she smelled that all-too familiar scent of his aftershave.

"Dad…." She didn't want to ruin this moment, but she knew if she didn't ask now, she never would. "I know that...you don't believe in an afterlife, but-" She felt his muscles tense, but she had to keep going, while her mind was still lucid enough to think about it. "-if she were here-what do you think she would say?"

For a moment all was quiet, and Beth feared that she'd lost him. Then, Rick released his hold, clearing his throat as though he was preparing to speak. Instead, he stood off to the side for a moment, gazing upwards into the blank inky void. She knew not to interfere; she only hoped he would stay.

"We used to stargaze a lot."

His words startled her into speechlessness, and Beth could only turn and stare.

"I..." Rick cleared his throat again. "I used to point out all the stars and planetary systems to her by name." A small smile, almost unseen, tugged gently, at the corners of his lips. "She knew all the constellations by heart, but...she could never remember the names of the stars, except one-"

Beth opened her mouth as if to speak, but then she thought the better of it. Instead, she simply stood there silently and listened.

"Out of all of those stars and planets up there-ALL of them, Beth!-she said her favorite was Alpha Centauri," Rick said, still smiling that strange, almost unfamiliar smile. "It's the nearest star system to ours at 4.37 light years-It's actually a triple star system, but when you see it with binoculars, it appears as one singular completely binary star. She said the illusion of it reminded her of twin flames who had finally found each other across the cosmos once again." A chuckle startled Beth out of her daze. She looked at him again, but he wasn't smiling; his face remained neutral, fixated upon the heavens. "She-she was into that kind of stuff, your mom," he said. "...a born romantic-unlike me." Another chuckle, and an indifferent shrug. "I suppose I thought she was being kind of silly for thinking such things, but it made her happy, so I didn't argue, which kept her satisfied, and made us both happy for...awhile anyway….It was just better that way." He kept his eyes fixed on the sky above. "Maybe at one point I thought the universe was a romantic place, but….once you've been where I've been, and seen the things that I've seen…." He didn't finish the words, but a chill hung in the air, and Beth shivered a little, even as his coat remained wrapped around her shoulders.

He seemed almost naked without it in comparison. Beth suddenly wanted to return it, but didn't want to disturb his moment. His eyes remained fixed upon the stars, his head tilting back as far as it could go, as though he were trying to see further than sight itself, as though if he could reach the farthest corners of the universe he would find some simple answer to the world's most impossible questions.

Beth came over and stood beside him. Without a word, she took his closest hand in hers, shocked to find that it was surprisingly soft and warm. Without asking permission, she leaned against his tall, sturdy frame, smiling as she thought of all those times he'd hoisted her above her shoulders when she was a child, so that she could see higher and farther than everyone else in the world.

Those three words that so often eluded her invaded her mind. She almost said them, but her throat trapped them in silence.

She could only hope that he felt it too.

Then, as if in response, there was a single squeeze to her palm.

Beth realized it had been such a long time since they'd held hands.

If that was his response, then that was enough of an answer for her, for now.

For now, they were both just a father and a daughter, staring up at the endless sea of stars.

And for once in her life, Beth was relieved to admit that she didn't feel quite so alone.