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chapter 4

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"Jesus fucking Christ." Rick grumbled to himself when he checked Morty's vitals on his Morty-tracker. Maybe Morty wanted to believe the senior boys really did want to be friends, but Rick wasn't fucking stupid, so when Morty wasn't home after it got dark, he decided to check in.

Morty was still at the school according to his Morty-GPS, and his vitals were troubling. The boy's body temperature was a bit low, his heart rate and breathing were slowed. If Rick didn't know any better, he'd assume the kid was drinking... But Morty wouldn't do that...

Shaking his head slightly to himself, Rick put in the coordinates to the school into his portal gun and shot out a portal. He wasn't sure what Morty was doing, but his vitals didn't look normal, so Rick had to check.

When he stepped through the portal, Rick couldn't help but to actually gasp a small breath. What he saw before him was not what he expected. He kind of almost thought maybe the older boys would have gotten Morty to drink so they could make fun of him being a stupid drunk - even if doing it at the school would have been the stupidest part of the whole thing.

That clearly wasn't the case. The older kids weren't here. Morty was... All by himself, seemingly passed out, taped rather thoroughly to the flag pole in front of the school with all of his clothes gone and his underwear pulled down to his knees.

"Jesus Christ..." Rick breathed, quickly making his way up to his grandson. He smelled very strongly of alcohol, and not just from drinking it. He was all wet, shivering... The alcohol had been poured on him. Rick frowned when he noticed someone had written 'tiny dick' with an arrow pointed down with sharpie on Morty's chest.

"What kinda fuckin' frat bullshit..." Rick frowned as he looked Morty up and down. He knew these kids were mean to his grandson for no real reason, but this was more than even just run of the mill bullying. This was fucking harsh, definitely illegal... Almost surely something that would even be considered sexual assault - even if it was just what Rick guessed and hoped was the case - an effort to embarrass Morty and not anything more.

"Morty..." Rick spoke in a low voice as he put his hand on Morty's cheek and narrowed his eyes, trying to judge if Morty was at all conscious.

The boy's lips were almost turning blue and he shivered, but didn't say anything back, didn't blink or flinch.

"Hey, Morty..." Rick said again, putting his other hand on Morty's upper arm, wincing at how cold his skin felt. "Wake up... We're getting you outta here, Morty, okay? You've just gotta open your eyes. Look at me."

Morty groaned softly and turned his head as he shrunk down very slightly and choked out a small sob. The tiny noise and movement, though so small and quick conveyed all sorts of feeling - pain, fear, betrayal, exhaustion. Poor Morty just wanted these stupid fucking kids to accept him. He just wanted friends.

"God damn it..." Rick breathed, grabbing a pocket knife out of his lab coat and starting to work on cutting through the massive amounts of duct tape securing his grandson to the pole. He pulled up Morty's underwear on his way down to the tape around his ankles, then worked his way up to the tape around his stomach and neck, then finally the stuff wound many times around his wrists behind him.

Morty immediately started to fall forward once his wrists were free, but Rick caught him and lowered him carefully down to the ground.

"Morty." Rick spoke again, placing his hand on his grandson's chest. "How much did you drink?" He wasn't sure if his grandson was in real danger of alcohol poisoning. Morty didn't drink like Rick did, or at all really... His tolerance had to be really fucking low.

Rick frowned as Morty let out a soft, choking sound, then turned his head to the side and grabbed weakly at Rick's hand over his chest. Silent tears streamed down the boy's cheeks as he lightly squeezed Rick's fingers.

Rick's brow furrowed as he stared worriedly down at his grandson. This looked like some sort of hazing prank - they got Morty to drink, got him really drunk, then when he passed out, they took his clothes, taped him to the flag pole, and wrote on him. They got him drunk fast too - Rick had seen him like three hours ago, and at that point, Morty was completely sober, planning to meet these little pricks.

It might have been funny if Morty were more their equal, their age, their size, their longtime friend - if Morty would find humor in it too... But that wasn't the case. Morty was tiny, innocent, naive. They did this to be cruel, not as a harmless joke among friends. Morty had tear streaks down his cheeks. He was covered in bruises and had definitely been crying. He wasn't in on this joke. He didn't think it was funny. That much was obvious.

Rick could picture Morty willingly drinking in order to fit in. Morty was kind of gullible and naive sometimes. He wanted desperately to fit in with other kids... It wasn't far-fetched to assume he'd drink on his own, pass out, and wake up to this...

But what if that wasn't all that happened? Morty was crying, his body decorated in numerous bruises... His underwear had been pulled down. Did the other boys sexually assault him? Like more than just pulling his clothes off? Did they actually touch him? Hurt him sexually? If they'd do the rest of this, surely they wouldn't stop there... Maybe they did... It made sense - if they did all of this just to be cruel... maybe it wasn't even their original plan, but they decided to go for it when they pulled down Morty's underwear as a joke and Morty freaked out. Maybe they saw how scared he was of that and decided to do it just because it would hurt Morty more than anything else...

"Fuck..." Rick breathed, taking off his lab coat and wrapping it around Morty as he lifted the boy up into his arms. He knew he should have forced Morty to come with him. He shouldn't have made his grandson learn this lesson the hard way. Morty would have been mad. He would have forever claimed Rick screwed up a chance for him to make friends with the cool kids, but at least none of this would have happened.

Morty choked out another soft sob as his head lolled to the side in Rick's arms. He was clearly quite intoxicated and was going to take a while to sober up. Hell, he was barely even responsive at this point.

Hefting Morty up in his arms, Rick put most of Morty's weight on his one arm and took his portal gun in his other hand. It wasn't that hard to do. Morty was so tiny. He barely weighed anything. Just that one small observation made Rick even more angry about this situation. Whether those other kids appreciated Morty as a person or not, it was completely fucking uncalled for to abuse him like this. Morty was so tiny, so innocent. He was pretty much the last person who deserved something like this. Unfortunately, that made him a very common target for bullies.

With an annoyed exhale, Rick held his portal gun out and aimed it in front of them, shooting out a familiar glowing green portal and stepping through it and into the garage.

As soon as they were back home, Rick laid Morty down on his work bench and looked him over more now that it was light enough to properly see him. Pulling back his lab coat, Rick scanned the boy's skin. Morty's ribs had faint bruises forming on them, like he'd been punched and/or kicked quite a few times. He had finger-shaped bruises on his arms too, and a darkening mark forming on his cheek under his eye.

It didn't seem like any bones were broken, but he was still shivering, still wet and sticky with alcohol... Still naked besides the underwear that Rick had had to pull up for him.

Rick frowned as he stared down a this grandson, picturing in his head what all of this must have looked like. The older boys clearly beat him up at some point. Did they do it while he was already drunk, while he was disoriented and confused? Or did they do that first? Maybe they forced Morty to drink. And at some point they took his clothes. Rick highly doubted Morty gave them up willingly. The poor kid was probably fighting back, maybe crying while they wrestled his clothes off of him... He would have definitely been terrified when they pulled down his underwear, fully exposing him.

And then what did they do? Was Morty crying just because he was scared? Or because they hurt him in the cruelest way imaginable?

"Morty..." Rick whispered, putting his hand on Morty's shoulder and shaking him slightly. "Wake up... You gotta talk to me, bud... You can sleep for hours on end after, but I need to know what happened..."

Morty groaned and reached up toward Rick's hand, pushing it weakly away from his shoulder. "Stop..." He whispered.

Rick grimaced and drew his hand back. "Morty... It's me..." He reminded the boy, reaching back and taking both of Morty's upper arms in his hands, dragging him up into a sitting position and pulling his lab coat securely around the boy's shoulders.

Morty blinked tiredly as he looked dizzily around the space, finally focusing on Rick. "R-rick?" Morty slurred, his lower lip trembling as tears filled his eyes.

"Yep..." Rick frowned. "You gotta tell me what happened. The fuckin' truth. Now."

Morty swallowed and closed his eyes as he started to fall forward.

"God damn it..." Rick exhaled, catching Morty. His grandson was pretty significantly drunk. He might not be getting a clear answer out of the kid any time soon. That, or now would be the very best time to get his answers, when Morty wasn't coherent enough to think of lies.

"Did you drink all that on your own?" Rick asked, choosing to ask yes or no questions rather than open-ended ones to see if Morty would offer up the easy answers.

Morty shook his head and looked down. "No... Th- he ma-made me..." He breathed, sniffing back tears. "They d-didn't... Y-you were r-right..." Morty stuttered and slurred, making his speech almost incomprehensible. "You were.. They- They didn't wanna be m-my friends... Y-you were right..." Morty sobbed, bringing his hands up to his face and drawing his feet up onto the work bench, curling himself into a small ball and crying loud, heartbroken sobs.

Rick exhaled and put his hand lightly on Morty's back, holding him close and letting him get out all of his emotions. Of course Rick was right. He knew these stupid little pricks must have wanted something from Morty. They regularly beat him up and teased him. It was a pattern. Morty was heartbreakingly stupid and naive to believe they'd suddenly want to be his friends.

"I wa-was really scared, Rick..." Morty whimpered as he clung to Rick like a young child.

Rick nodded and pulled the lab coat closer around Morty's shoulders as the boy continued shivering. Rick let Morty lean into him, putting his arm across Morty's back and holding him closer as his grandson went on. Part of Rick wanted to get mad, to grab Morty by his arms and shake him, to tell him he fucking told him this would happen... But a bigger part of him saw that his grandson was devastated and heartbroken, and wanted to just hug him.

"Th-they made me drink this awful, bur-brun-burning stuff... I h-hated it... And th-then they t-took my pants and m-my shirt and I th-thought for a second... Y-you know... L-like wh-why wou-would they do that? I th-thought they were gonna do som-something really bad... B-but they didn't. Th-they j-just wanted to embarrass me." Morty guessed.

Rick nodded silently, glad Morty's inebriated state was helping him be so truthful at the very least.

"A-and they hit me...and t-tied m- taped me to the f-falt fa flag... And ta-took off m-my underwear..." Morty whimpered, hugging Rick tighter as his sobs increased to the point that Rick could no longer understand what Morty was saying.

That didn't keep the boy from continuing to talk between his shaking sobs though. "Th-" He gasped, pressing himself securely against Rick. "Pulled... They..." He cried out again, clearly unable to get even half a thought out before breaking down completely.

"Morty..." Rick rubbed a hand gently over his grandson's back. "It's okay... Slow down. Breathe."

Morty shook his head and continued crying. "H-he j-just pulled them down..." Morty whimpered. "I wa-wasn't... Rick... I thought..." The boy shook his head and hugged his arms around Rick's stomach, sobbing even louder if that was at all possible.

"You're alright..." Rick breathed, still rubbing the one hand over Morty's back and pressing the other against the back of his grandson's head, ignoring the strange texture from the alcohol that was starting to dry in his hair. "It's okay. You're gonna be okay, Morty."

"Rick, I'm sor-sorry..." Morty choked. "Y-you were right... Th-they were so fu-fucking mean..." He cried.

"Don't be sorry..." Rick frowned, feeling his throat growing tight. "You just wanted friends... It's not your fault these stupid cunts lied to you."

Morty's sobs slowly started to die down into shaky breaths and sniffs, but he remained close to Rick's chest, holding onto the man with arms wound tightly around his stomach. "Wh-when Th-theo took... p-pulled down..." He hesitated, breathing in another shaky breath. "H-he asked if I th-though th-they were gonna r-rape me..."

Rick tried to remain calm as he exhaled a slow breath and waited for Morty to continue.

"I d-did kind of think th-they m-might..." Morty breathed, moving his arms back toward himself, squeezing his hands into tiny fists within the front of Rick's shirt as he hid his face in the man's chest. "Th-theo w-wouldn't stop talking a-about it... They - I think th-they th-though it was fa-funny... Th-that I thought that..." He whispered in a rambling, slurring voice.

Rick shook his head. "That's not fucking funny..." He disagreed.

"I d-didn't think so either..." Morty sniffed.

"So they didn't do that though?" Rick asked, needing to know just how much to fucking hurt these little bastards.

Morty shook his head. "J-just ma-made me think they might. I think th-that they noticed I wa-was scared when they first took off my pants...a-and they wanted to sc-scare me m-more..."

Rick shook his head as Morty leaned against him more, hugging his arms around Rick's stomach. Rick hugged him back as he stared silently at the garage wall. That was so fucked up... Those older boys pretty much threatening to rape Morty just to humiliate him. They scared him into believing they might do it and then laughed at him for being upset...

"They didn't do it, Rick." Morty whispered again, maybe reminding himself more than telling Rick. Maybe he needed to reassure himself that he was okay. That that didn't happen and wasn't going to.

Rick ran his hand up over Morty's hair, hugging the boy's head close against his chest as Morty's tears dissolved into soft sniffles. Rick didn't often feel guilt, but he did now. He knew these stupid kids didn't really want to be Morty's friends, and while he did give the boy fair warning that something was up, he didn't check in for a while. He should have. He should have kept an eye on the situation the whole time.

A part of him wanted Morty to learn a hard lesson through this. He wanted the older boys to do something mean and prove Rick right... But not like this. Rick knew they weren't being genuine, and he warned Morty, so he left the situation alone for a while to play out as it would. He wanted Morty to come home angry and humiliated, refusing to tell Rick about the dumb ass girl he liked rejecting him and the popular boys locking him in his locker for an hour or something else harmless but embarrassing.

Morty was gone for several hours before Rick finally checked in. He had unintentionally given the bullies way more time than he should have. Rick just didn't think they'd actually go this far.

It wasn't until it got dark that Rick started to really worry, but he was a little worried the whole time. He should have been more worried... But a large part of him expected these kids to do something a lot less extreme, like have Morty ask out Jessica and film the girl rejecting him, post it online, and get a laugh out of it. Rick didn't expect a serious assault. He didn't think the older kids would force Morty to drink hard liquor and rip his clothes off of him. He certainly didn't expect to check in and find Morty naked, passed out, and taped to a pole. It was fucking November too. The poor kid could have realistically frozen to death overnight if no one thought to check on him.

Rick breathed in a slow, slightly shaky breath as he held Morty in his arms and felt the boy relaxing, maybe starting to fall asleep. Morty didn't deserve anything those fucking kids did to him, and the fact that they both didn't see an issue with what they did was fucking ridiculous. Two different people, two chances for someone to speak up, remind the other that what they were doing was wrong... Neither of them did that.

"I knew they pr-pob-"Morty laughed a breathless giggle as he closed his eyes and tried again, speaking the word slowly. "Prob-ab-ly didn't want t-to be my friend... I knew that... I j-just hoped..."

Rick nodded, swallowing. It was actually pretty heartbreaking to have to witness Morty face this level of cruel rejection. Of course, the kid was naive as fuck trying to make friends with the kids who constantly bullied him, but Rick could see how much this all hurt his grandson, and he hated that.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Morty. You know that right?" Rick frowned.

Morty shrugged slightly.

"They're the ones who are fucked up. The world would be much better off without them in it." Rick noted.

"Yeah." Morty breathed. "I d-don... Kinda don't w-wanna ever see them again..." He whispered, tears shining in his eyes.

"Alright... I'll tell you what..." Rick exhaled, pulling back slightly and looking down at Morty's face as the boy stared back up at him with wide, tear-brimmed eyes. "Let's get you to sleep for now... You need a fuckin' nap. We'll get you into the shower and clean you up when I get back... Um..." Rick looked around himself, spotting a half-full bottle of water on the other end of the bench. "Drink this." He snatched up the water and handed it to Morty. "Take a nap... Sober up a little... I'll be right back."

Rick stepped back and looked down at his portal gun, figuring out the right coordinates to take him where he needed to go.

"Wh-" Morty started as tried to climb forward and started to fall off the work bench.

"Fuck..." Rick stepped forward and caught him, helping Morty onto the floor. "God damn it, Morty..." He grumbled.

Morty laughed softly as Rick steadied him on his feet.

Looking around the garage, Rick spotted his pillow and blanket in the corner - old, tattered bedding he used when he got too drunk to find his bedroom. He put the stuff down and made a little makeshift bed out of it, leading Morty over and kind of tucking him in.

"Where are you going?" Morty whispered, tilting the bottle up toward his lips and pouring the water about 30% into his mouth and 70% everywhere else.

Rick rolled his eyes and snatched the bottle out of Morty's hands. He kind of hoped Morty wouldn't ever get drunk in his presence, or that he'd do so while Rick himself was way too drunk to care. Other drunk people were annoying.

Morty stuck his lower lip out in a pout until Rick put his hand on Morty's back and helped him sit up, tilting the bottle up to his grandson's lips and allowing him a rather generous gulp before twisting the lid back onto the water bottle and putting it up out of Morty's reach.

"Where're you goin' Rick?" Morty slurred again, his eyelids drooping as he struggled to stay awake.

Rick forced a small smile. "Gonna go deal with these little snot-nosed punks." He breathed, shooting a portal ahead and exiting the garage.

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