AN: Side stories to "The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys".
Please read the second chapter of "The Lines Between Ricks and Mortys" first before reading this to avoid spoilers!
Anyways, this little fanfic will tell the background stories of the Mortys that Rick C-137 catches in "The Lines Between Ricks and Mortys" and will be updated alongside it. That way, it won't take up any space in the main story and unnecessarily bore any readers that don't care so much about their backgrounds.

Warnings: abuse (emotionally and physically), angst/hurt/comfort

The Mortys and their Stories – Chapter 1: Morticia

When her grandfather had moved in with them, Morticia didn't know what to think of him.
Her mother was so happy to have her father back in her life again after he had left her when she was still just a child. So, Morticia guessed that if her mother was happy that she should be happy, too.
Yet, she still found it weird that he just suddenly appeared out of nowhere after so many years of absence and not even contacting her once in all the time.

However odd that was though, Morticia also couldn't help but find her grandfather interesting.
He's was quite eccentric, but not only that. He was a scientist and not the normal kind, but like a mad genius kind of one.
Not soon after he had moved in with them, he had claimed the garage as his workshop and soon there were shelves filled with the weirdest inventions.
Morticia would lie if she said that all the stuff that he worked on didn't pique her interest.
So, curious as she was, she wanted to get to know her grandfather a bit more.
She just wished that he would just let her.

Morticia didn't know why, but Rick seemed to dislike her.
Whenever she would enter the garage, he would try to kick her out again and the few times when he didn't, he just acted as if she wasn't there. When she would ask about any of his inventions, he would ignore her and he also refused to ever take her with him on one of his adventures to alien planets.

For a while, Morticia wondered if it was because she was a girl, but seeing as her grandfather treated her big sister, Summer, completely different and even allowed her to travel with him on a few occasions, it couldn't be her gender.
She really wondered why Rick disliked her this much since she could not recall ever having done something that could have offended him.
In fact, he had acted coldly towards her from the moment that he had laid his eyes on her.

She wondered so much about it that she even asked her mother why Rick was like that, but Beth only answered "Your grandpa is a good man, so, it must be something that you are doing."

Morticia honestly had no idea what it was that she was doing wrong. After thinking long and hard about it and still not reaching a conclusion, she decided in the end to just ask Rick what the problem was.

With fluttering nerves, she dared to go into the garage where her grandfather was sitting like usual on his workbench and working on some contraption.
Morticia briefly cleared her throat to make her presence known, but Rick kept working as if he didn't know that she was there.
Trying to ignore the sting from being ignored and focusing on the task at hand, she began to speak up.

"Rick? Why do you not like me? What's the problem? Is it—am I doing something wrong?"

Her grandfather suddenly stopped on what he was working and actually turned around to look at his granddaughter.

"You wanna know what's wrong?! Y-you wanna know what the problem is?! You are the problem, Morticia! You not being a Morty is the problem!" he yelled harshly at her. "It's really no surprise that the Rick of this dimension killed himself. I'm really tempted, too. Those damn burickrats at the Citadel completely screwed me over with this one."

"W-what? I don't understand…" Morticia replied faintly.

The girl was confused. What did her grandpa mean that she was not a Morty? And the Rick of this dimension killed himself? She didn't get it.

Rick took a sigh before he went to explain "There are infinite dimensions with infinite possibilities, which means that in a lot of dimensions a Rick exists. And most of these Ricks have a Morty. I used to have one, too before he got killed. That wasn't my fault though. If he had listened to me that wouldn't have happened." Rick was gesturing wildly with his hands, getting very defensive all of a sudden.

"Anyways-" he continued. "-I left and went to the Council of Ricks and applied to get myself a new Morty and they relocated me here. But look what I got. Instead of a Morty I got you!"

With an accusing finger, he pointed at Morticia as if it were her fault somehow.
The girl felt at a complete loss, trying really hard to understand what her grandfather was telling her.

"I-I mean, it's not like we Ricks like having Mortys hanging around us. We just need a Morty so that their idiot-brainwaves are camouflaging our genius waves! And while your brainwaves might work like that, too, there's no way that I'm going to take YOU with me on my adventures! I'd rather risk my life and go without camouflage."

'B-but why?' Morticia wanted to ask.

She felt like none of what Rick had said was an explanation as to why he didn't want her around.
He only said just because she wasn't a "Morty". So does that mean that the problem was because she was born as a girl instead of a boy?
Was that it?

Before she could even demand a proper answer from him, Rick turned back to his project at the workbench and dismissed her with "And now get out of my garage!"

It was obvious that he would just ignore her now no matter what she did or asked, so Morticia gave up and left the garage.

Mortys.
Morticia couldn't help but wonder about it. In most other dimensions, her alternate selves were boys that were called Morty, huh?
Out of curiosity, she went to her mother and asked her if she had been a boy, what her parents would have named her.

"It's funny that you ask because we were actually expecting a boy and had the name Mortimer already. It was quite a surprise that you turned out to be a girl though, so we named you Morticia instead. Not that your dad or I minded it. I like having two girls." Beth answered with a smile.

So, Mortimer Smith.
That is the one that she should have been but did not became. And that was the reason why her grandfather hated her.
Just having the answer though wasn't satisfying enough for her.
There must be something that she could do to fix that, right?
Then again, it wasn't like she could just become a Morty. Or could she?

Morticia felt like she had a sudden revelation.
If she could pull off her plan, this whole mess would be fixed and her grandfather could finally like her and take her with him on adventures.
Naturally, there was no way that she could turn herself into a boy – not without surgery anyways and she would never find a doctor who would operate on the gender of a 14 year-old girl, never mind the costs of that surgery – but she could at least try to come as close to it as possible.

Morticia set her plan in motion, starting right on the next Saturday early in the morning.
She skipped breakfast in favor of leaving the house to go to a hair salon.
The stylist looked at her in slight disbelieve as she told her what kind of cut she wanted, but did it nonetheless.
She didn't even bat an eyelash as locks upon locks of long brown hair fell all around her to the floor.

After everything was done, she looked into the mirror, looked at the stranger that stared back at her.
She cast a look at the photo that she had used as reference – a picture that she had found in Rick's room of what she assumed had been his original Morty – and back in the mirror, checking that it indeed looked like it was supposed to.
She was satisfied.

After that, she walked into a drug store and bought a few bandages.
There weren't many at home and Rick was practically hogging them with how often he actually got injured on his adventure – even if he did try to hide it from the rest of the family.
Afterwards she returned home and dashed quickly in her room before anyone could see her.

Once in her room, she stripped of her shirt and bra and pulled the bandages from the small shopping bag.
With a little struggle, she carefully started to wrap the bandages around her chest in an effort to bind it off.
It was uncomfortable and probably a tad bit too tightly wrapped, but after she was done and put her t-shirt back on, looking in the mirror, she was satisfied with her appearance.

Now she looked exactly like a Morty.
Maybe Rick would be able to accept her better like this.

Filled with hope and a tight lump of nervousness in her stomach, she slowly made her way to the garage.
She knocked briefly and took the grunt that answered her as an invitation to enter the garage.

"What?" Rick asked rudely without looking up.

He was hunched over his workbench and tinkering on one of his devices again.
Morticia was a bit disappointed that he wasn't looking at her.

"Hey, Rick. I just wanted to ask if you need h-help or something…" she nervously trailed off.

The longer that she stood in the garage being ignored by her grandfather, the more she felt her initial courage waning.

"I don't need any help from a girl." Her grandfather only waved her off, still not looking up from the machinery that he was tinkering with.

Tensely Morticia continued to stand in the garage, looking at her grandfather's back, not willing to just back out even if she was clearly not welcome here.
As Rick started to curse and fumble wildly for a wrench on his workbench, it fell with a loud clanking-sound to the ground.
In a flash, Morticia ran over and picked it up, handing the tool back to Rick.

"Thanks…" He grumbled almost inaudibly.

That was the moment when he finally looked at her and his eyes widened.
Morticia hoped that it was a good sign, but his following words disproved it.

"What the fuck?! What the hell did you do?!"

"I uh… I just…" she wasn't sure what to answer, not having thought about what to tell him in advance when he would question her. "I just wanted to try out a new style… I guess?"

Rick's eyes instantly narrowed and the look of shock on his face was replaced by one of pure rage.
Before the girl knew what happened to hear, a loud slap resounded in the garage and she found herself sitting on the concrete floor with a stinging cheek.
Morticia looked up at her grandfather with big, wet eyes and one of her hands was slowly reaching up to place itself on the quickly reddening and swelling cheek.
Rick's hand was still lifted in the air as he looked darkly down at her.

"Dammit, Morticia! Stop trying to be something that you are not!" he yelled.

Tears finally spilled as the girl looked in disbelieve at her grandfather.

"B-but I-" she tried to argue back but was cut off.

"No! You just never listen to me, do you?!" Rick slapped her hard again, causing her to land flat and face down on the floor.

He yanked her head up again by gripping tightly into her short curls and moved her so that her ear was directly against his mouth.

"You will never be my Morty! You're never going to be what I want!" spittle was flying from his mouth and splattering her face.

Then he threw her back on the ground again before he sat down in his swivel chair.

"And now get out of here! You know that I don't want you in here."

Still in pain and with a swollen face, she slinked out of the garage. As soon as the door was closed behind her and she leaned against it, tears trailing down her red cheeks, she could hear her grandfather cursing loudly.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

There was a loud crash as if he had swiped everything from his workbench on the ground in anger.

"Why does she have to do this to me?!"

Morticia didn't understand.
What had she done? Just what was it that she was doing wrong…?

And then Rick was just gone.
He had been up and left in his trashy space ship, going on one of his crazy adventures without saying a word.

No one worried about it. After all, it wasn't all that unusual that he was sometimes gone for several weeks without a sign of him that he was still alive and kicking.
However, Morticia had a feeling. A feeling that something bad had happened to her grandfather.

She was sure that he wasn't going to return, but she couldn't voice her thoughts aloud. It would break her mother's heart if she did, the woman becoming quickly a nervous wreck with each passing day while trying to convince herself that her father hadn't abandoned her again and would surely come back.

Days continued to pass. Then weeks. Eventually they turned into months and still no sign of Rick.
Beth had a breakdown by now thinking for sure that he left her for good.
Morticia wanted to comfort her, telling her that it surely wasn't her mother's fault that he didn't come back, but she just couldn't find the right words.
A little part inside her was blaming herself – thinking that she was the reason why he didn't return.

One day however, when Morticia was lingering around in the garage as she used to do every so often after school, a green, swirling portal suddenly opened up.
Her hair had already grown a considerable amount back by now and she wore her red hairband again.
Rick stepped through the portal and Morticia looked with big eyes at him.
Something was off…

"Oh. H-hey there, Morti." Rick greeted her with a twitching smile as he spotted the girl, trying to hide a look of surprise.

She immediately knew what was off.

"You-you're not my Rick." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Rick smiled apologetically at her…

It seemed that aside from Morticia no one noticed that this Rick wasn't the Rick that belonged to this dimension – not that the one that had been here before had really belonged here either.
Summer seemed to have noticed that he was different and probably figured it out but didn't say anything.
Beth was overjoyed to have her father back, her mental state stabilizing enough that she didn't need to drown her worry and self-hatred in red wine anymore – she just drank as much as was considered normal for an alcoholic like her.

Everything seemed to be back to normal even though the Rick that was now here was a replacement.
However, even if he was a different Rick, it didn't mean that it made things worse.

"Hey, Morti. Wanna go on an adventure together? You know on planet Glurbah in the Algamflorx Galaxy are plants that only grow every 500 years and they're in bloom right now. Do you have any idea how much money we gonna make when we harvest and sell these babies? It's gonna be great!"

"Huh?" she looked at her grandfather in surprise. "Are-are you really sure that you want to take me with you?"

Rick looked at her surprised. "Of course! It wouldn't be a classical Rick and Morty adventure without you."

"But I'm not a Morty. I'm only a Morticia…" she mumbled and walked off, leaving her grandfather standing in the garage, stunned.

It was just another normal morning in the Smith household.
Beth was serving breakfast as the family members, one after the other, trickled into the room to take a seat at the table.
Rick was the last one to walk into the room.

"Uh…Dad?" Beth carefully asked as she looked at him.

"Hmm? What is it, sweetie?" he casually asked back.

"Um…" she fumbled how to properly word her question. "Why do you suddenly have boobs, Dad?"

The question drew the attention of the other family members immediately to Rick.

"What the heck, Grandpa Rick?!" Summer shouted as she almost dropped her phone.

Moriticia also stared at him with wide eyes and at a loss for words. Her facial expression was matching the one that was on her dad's face.

"Hey, you have boobs, too. Why can't I have them? What's the-what's the problem with that?" Rick commented as if it was no big deal.

"Well…" Beth wanted to start but then decided to just dismiss it. "…I guess you're right. Please dig in before the pancakes get cold."

Everyone quickly overcame their shock at Rick's new appearance and continued their breakfast as if everything was normal. Everyone, but Morticia.
She still stared at her grandfather with a gaping mouth, taking in his transformation.
He still wore his off-white lab coat and a blue sweater, but underneath it were two round, bouncy spheres that pressed against the cloth noticeably enough.
His boobs were huge – they were at least a double D size – and Morticia couldn't help but think that he completely overdid it. She didn't dare to say it aloud though.

However, as he turned around to her and winked with a friendly smile, it finally dawned on Morticia why Rick had done such a ridiculous thing.
It was because he cared about her – unless her last Rick – and wanted to show her that she didn't need to be ashamed of her gender.
He would be supporting her whether she was a Morty or a Morticia.
She realized all that even before Rick confirmed it for her verbally later in the garage.

In that moment, she made a vow to herself.
Morticia vowed that she would try everything in her might to never disappoint her grandfather.

AN:

So, this was Morticia's background story. I hope that her personality and the reason why she's so antagonizing to / competing with her male counterpart in "The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys" as well as why she's pushing herself so hard for Rick, has become more understandable with this.
Of course, how she ended up in the wild and what had happened to her last Rick is still a mystery…