Let The Ricks Fall Where They May
Written by Kat_Aclysm
Beta Read by Unlvcrjchick
Rated: - T for language
Disclaimers + Copyrights: I don't own any of these characters, this is a work of fanfiction. Rick and Morty is an Adult Swim animated comedy created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon.
NOTE: A lot of the plot in this chapter was requested by Sillycritter. :) Writing from the perspective of a baby is actually easier than you might think (seriously try it, it's fun). This entire subarc was going to be one entire chapter, but because it grew so huge, it's since been broken up into two. Tidied for grammar + repeats.
Chapter 8 – The Full Morty
November 22nd, 7:15am Local Time, 2001
Birdperson's Tree House
Bird World, Dimension Unknown
He was quite warm and comfortable in the position he had been sleeping in. Feelings of hunger had started to come over him, but it wasn't something that bothered him just yet. He was content to lie there in the peaceful quiet of the room as he began to gather his sleepy baby thoughts.
Morty was only 17 months old and his motivations were still relatively simple; eat, sleep, poop, cry when something hurt, and calm when somebody who smelled familiar was cuddling him. He was at a critical developmental age where he was grasping the beginning concepts of language; he had discovered that making noises and calling out sound-names would very quickly get people's attention. Morty didn't have a name for himself just yet; his brain was only just starting to operate with words. His thoughts were still dominated by emotions, feelings, and a pictorial memory that his mind almost constantly updated, thousands of brand new neural connections being made every day as he learned about the world around him.
His favorite people were three different adults; all of them smelled unique and were very recognizable by sight. The first called herself 'mom', and then there was another that wasn't quite mom, but still very good for comfort, even if he was a little unsure of himself.
The third was completely unlike the other two; he was loud, seemed to like yelling and burping a lot, and always seemed to smell spicy, though the youngster would one day learn that this was the aroma of scotch whiskey. His wild spiky hair was always incredibly fun to pull on and Morty found that he could get away with it more often than not. He had a word for himself, too – 'Rick'. Morty knew the sound quite well, but still wasn't particularly good at pronouncing it yet. He was very keen to learn it though, because he was sure once he got the whole word down, Rick would surely pay more attention to him.
The young boy had no idea why the spiky-haired person who called himself 'Rick' was such a predominant fixture in his life now, but it didn't really bother him; he always seemed to be close by and was quick to comfort him when he made enough noise to demand his attention. Sometimes Morty wondered where his mother was, but as long as the one who called himself 'Rick' was close by, he didn't seem to mind too much. Sometimes he missed his mother and found himself thinking about her smell and her face, but he felt exactly the same way about 'Rick' when he was taken away from the tree house. He was willing to cling onto any familiar person he could get right now.
In more recent times, Morty had refused to let Rick out of his sight; the unfamiliarity of the world around him was incredibly scary, and he was the only steady fixture that he knew of anymore. One day everything had been completely normal, but then there was noise, noise, too much traumatizing noise, fire, then explosions, and then quiet; he couldn't remember much because he had just screamed through it all, wanting it to stop. It had since gone away, but he still wouldn't let Rick go anywhere without him just because remembering it all still frightened him. He couldn't quite comprehend why he needed Rick's presence so much; he only knew that his smell and closeness brought comfort and made everything so much more bearable.
Morty rolled over and kicked a foot out, half expecting to bump it into the sleeping lump of a grandfather that was normally present whenever they were in this spot. However, he soon discovered that the rest of the space was cold and absent and didn't like this at all; he simply couldn't understand why Rick wasn't there and it made him incredibly upset. He sat up and began to cry about it, feeling very insecure with the fact that he was all by himself. He didn't want to be alone; the thought absolutely terrified him. He cried even louder in his misery, tears streaming down his little face.
The loud sound soon attracted somebody, though it wasn't who he wanted at all. There was now a feathery person at the doorway, staring at him. Morty got to his feet and made a sharp noise of alarm as the bird person came into the room; he didn't want to have anything to do with him. Although he vaguely recognized who the stranger was, he wasn't Rick; he wanted him and only him.
Morty continued his loud, teary-eyed crying as he hopped off the roll-away cot and made a break for the door, afraid and incredibly insecure without somebody he trusted well enough to keep him safe. The young boy only made it about three or four steps; he was still terrible at running and tripped straight over his own feet. The abrupt contact with the floor had only made it worse and his upset noises were escalated straight to full blown screaming at the top of his lungs.
Birdperson stood over Morty, partly confused, partly bewildered. He was still getting used to the presence of humans in his house and he found them to be very strange creatures indeed; Rick was at least understandable because he could communicate and express himself, even if he was terrible at it. However, Morty was completely beyond his level of understanding; he had no idea why the tiny human found reason to cry and yell about so much, but the sound was loud enough to hurt his ears.
Birdperson decided right then and there that enough was enough; Rick was still asleep on the couch in the next room over and he didn't particularly want him to wake up just yet, as he knew he was going to have a terrible hangover, and didn't want to deal with it until he needed to.
The bird-man simply moved across the room to pick the little boy up and hold him at arm's length. His attention was drawn to the room around him, remembering that Rick usually did something with him as soon as he woke up, though he couldn't quite remember what it was. In another moment, Birdperson had decided that this was outside his area of expertise and carried the screaming child out of the room. His pace quickened as he headed through the living room, wanting to minimize the amount of noise that Rick would be exposed to as he exited the tree house via the front door; he had to deal with this immediately.
Gresharak had already appeared at the doorway to her own tree house; she had heard the sound already and just stood there, listening. She was not in the least bit surprised as she saw Birdperson fly across the distance to her tree house and she stepped out onto the landing, watching the new arrivals with intense curiosity; she already wanted to know the reason for the sound and why they were here.
Birdperson landed on the wooden deck with an abrupt thud, Morty secure in his arms. He immediately turned his attention towards the female and offered the young child out for her to take. "I do not understand the reason for this noise. Please find a way to deal with it in an appropriate and swift manner."
"There is always a reason for it," Gresharak's explanation was a little hurried as she reached out to take Morty from Birdperson, "sometimes it is just a simple one." She began to rock Morty in her arms. "Sometimes it could be just a pain, or perhaps something does not feel right. This noise is relatively familiar in pitch and I recognize it because he has made it every time you have brought him to me. It is the noise he makes when he pines to be back where he is most happy."
"Thank you for dealing with this again," Birdperson told her, "you may need to take him into your care for the entire day. We shall see."
Gresharak stared at him, her expression a mixture of confusion and unhappiness. "That does not bode well for me; he is impossibly difficult to calm when he is like this. However, I am almost certain that I know why you are here... the one you call 'Rick' is incapacitated again, yes? What happened this time?" She shook her head, pausing for only a moment before speaking again. "For somebody who appears to be so healthy, at least physically, he does find himself in a lot of strife."
"Yes, trouble always seems to find him." Birdperson nodded his head, knowing that statement carried far more weight to it than he was willing to let on. "Trouble always finds those who assist the cause of freedom. We are never safe and some of us are still running. However, this has nothing to do with that. This time the cause of his downfall was entirely... self-inflicted."
"Self-inflicted?" All of the feathers on Gresharak's neck bristled in one movement. "Please tell me that does not mean what I think it means..." She had stopped patting Morty on the back and stared back at her neighbor, horrified, wanting an answer immediately.
"No, he is quite safe, do not worry about that." Birdperson quickly raised a hand and waved it in a dismissive gesture. "However, I am sure there is no way to word this without it sounding like irresponsible conduct on Rick's behalf."
As Gresharak narrowed her eyes, her feather comb raised high above her head as her expression shifted towards suspicion. "What happened to him?" She resumed patting Morty on the back and although he was quiet again, she didn't seem to notice.
Birdperson remained silent; no matter how he thought about it, there wasn't really a way he could make it sound like Rick getting completely drunk was a positive thing. There was certainly no way he was about to speak ill of his best friend either, not after what he had done to himself in order to apologize.
Gresharak took one more look at Birdperson and cradled Morty close to her chest as she turned on her heels and launched herself high into the air.
As Birdperson watched her go, he regretted his decision to stay silent. He shook his head and took off to follow; he knew he would be needed before the situation could get out of hand.
It only took the bird mother a moment to fly the distance across the tree tops back to Birdperson's house. As she hurriedly forced the front door open, an incredibly unimpressed expression came over her features; she wanted to know exactly what this 'irresponsible thing' was and fully intended to find out for herself.
"What is going on?" Gresharak called out as she stepped into the living room. "Where are you?" Her question was answered as soon as she had spoken it, and her eyes fell onto Birdperson's couch and the lump of blankets lying across the cushions. She moved over in three angry steps and her voice changed to the exact pitch and tone she would have used if her own children were in trouble. "Get up! You have a young child here who needs you to be a parent. You also have some explaining to do!"
The loud noise had woken Rick up almost immediately. He propped himself up on his elbows and hugged the blankets around himself as he glared up at her, bleary-eyed. He already had a skull-splitting headache and the amount of light in the room was seriously hurting his eyes. "Volume..." his voice was hoarse and scratchy from his night of drinking, "...down." He blinked uncomfortably and pulled the blanket over his head in an attempt to block out some of the light. "C-can you just... fuck off for a couple of hours? That would be great..." He lay back down on his side with his back facing her now, not caring in the slightest that she was still there.
Gresharak moved to stand in the space directly in front of the lump now, and stared down at it, her feathers bristling. She could immediately detect the air of liquor still surrounding the other and she felt her anger rising. "So this is what has you incapacitated? You want me to take care of your child because you made yourself drunk?"
"I... I-I don't recall asking you to do that..." Rick's muffled reply came out from under the blankets. "Keep your voice down, s-stop with the bullshit already..."
As Birdperson moved back inside the house, he was completely torn; he wanted Rick to take time out and recover but he also knew that ushering the female out of his house would cause her to become even more riled up than she already was. He knew that Rick was more than capable of handling himself and pushing others away if he wanted, so he let them be and headed into the kitchen to begin mixing up something that would take the edge off Rick's hangover. If he got angry and blew up again, at least it wouldn't be on him this time.
"Very well, Rick." Gresharak made a point of harshly saying the name in her angry, motherly tone. "Get up and look at me when I'm talking to you. The very least you could do is be respectful when you are having a conversation with somebody."
"No offense, woman," Rick paused for a moment to yawn, "b-but I don't answer to you. Again, can you keep the volume down? Holy shit, y-you're too loud..." He finally sat up this time, figuring he wasn't going to get back to sleep anytime soon. He pulled the blankets back around himself and over his head, wearing them around his face like a hood. "You're the one who wants to have the conversation, not me." He lowered his head and furrowed his brows in pain; his eyes hurt and his headache was near unbearable. He had always been somebody who could tolerate a considerable amount of pain, but this was particularly bad, even for him.
"You know, under normal circumstances I would feel sorry for you. But you deserve exactly what you are getting right now." Gresharak told him sternly as she held onto Morty firmly with one hand, the other on her hip. "You should be ashamed of your conduct. You need a serious talking to!"
"Oh my god..." Rick groaned as he placed a hand on his forehead; his head was pounding with each heartbeat. Of all the times he regretted drinking too much, this certainly wasn't going to be one of them. "You have no idea what the reasoning behind it was, s-so just... try not to judge, OK? S-stop... stop being such a bitch."
Morty was listening to the exchange, though he remained quiet. Although he was very happy to finally see Rick, he couldn't comprehend why he was so grumpy. He also looked like he was hurt, which Morty didn't like at all. He pulled at a couple of the bird woman's feathers as he leaned against her, entirely uncertain about himself and torn; he wanted to be with his grandfather, but he also didn't right now.
Birdperson finished what he was doing quickly; he had been listening to the whole conversation and didn't want it to degrade further. He simply moved over to the couch with a cup in hand and held it out for the other to take, completely silent.
Without saying a word, Rick reached out to take the cup and drank the entire contents in one go. His only response was a loud guttural burp as he handed the cup back to Birdperson.
"What was that?" Gresharak's eyebrows were raised as she watched the curious exchange.
"Powdered, salicylic willow bark and concentrated ilex-leaf extract," Birdperson answered with a small shrug of his shoulders, "dissolved into ordinary warm water."
"A-and if there was still a planet Earth, y-you could patent that shit and make millions fro-URRRPPPm it." Rick pulled the blankets off himself and dropped them on the cushion beside him, as he was done with them for the time being. "Bitter as hell, b-but it does the job."
"Rick, you know I have never been interested in the pursuit of making money." Birdperson looked down at him, his face completely expressionless. "It is a hollow endeavor that only ends in misery. It also results in having friends that are not genuine."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever..." Rick's reply was a tired grumble; all he wanted was for the pain to go away. "Get me another one of those, I-I'm gonna need it." He leaned back against the cushions behind him, his expression annoyed as he looked back at the bird mother. "Why are you still here?"
Gresharak puffed out all the feathers on her upper body, still furious with his current attitude. "Because you still need a serious talking to!" She held out Morty as if emphasizing her next point. "You need to take care of this little boy, he is entirely dependent on you! If you do not understand that, then you need some serious lessons in parental responsibility."
Rick shrugged his shoulders, not bothering to move. "Look, hold onto him for a while, i-if he's happy, then let him be. I already know what's going to happen here, so..." He glanced off to the side, thinking hard; he already knew she wasn't going to leave him alone until she'd spoken her mind, so he was pondering how to use it to his advantage. "I still need more time before I launch back into shit today, and you're probably not going to go away and shut up, so... if you can do your thing at a reasonable volume, I'll.. I'll listen to whatever you have to say."
"Really?" Gresharak's anger seemed to fade as confusion set in; she simply couldn't comprehend why he would so readily accept being criticized.
"One condition, though..." Rick's brows suddenly furrowed in pain and he squeezed his eyes shut; he knew the stuff Birdperson had given him would take time to work and his head was still pounding. "Take care of the kid until I-I'm a little more useful, huh? If... if you can do that, I'll let you say whatever you want."
"All right. Done." Gresharak nodded in response, willing to take whatever she could get. "Where can I find your little boy's things? If I'm going to take care of him, I need to know where they are."
"In t-the... room down the hallway." Rick leaned forward, seeming to be having difficulty articulating his thoughts as he buried his face in his hands. "There's... there's a thing with things in it in the middle of the floor," he paused, scowling, "don't touch anything on the desk, and d-don't... mess up my stuff."
Gresharak turned away and headed off down the hallway with Morty.
Birdperson watched her go and moved back into the living room, carrying another cup with him. As he sat down beside Rick, he nudged him in the shoulder and offered it back to him. "Sit up. You will have to stir this one as it was made in haste. This is as much as I can give you for the time being. Consuming any more in such a short amount of time would cause a very unpleasant overdose. "
Rick made a soft laugh in spite of how he was feeling. "As if I ever cared about things like that... unpleasant overdose? What the hell do you think is wrong with me right now? D-do you even know who I am, BP?" As he lifted his head, he smirked back at the other, then reached out to take the cup. He swirled the contents around as he held onto it with both hands, watching the cloudy-white powder agitate as it moved through the water, forming a suspension. "Thanks for doing this for me."
"Anytime, Rick." Birdperson's response was calm, and he was pleased that any animosity that existed between them before was well and truly gone.
Rick's eyes stayed on the contents of the cup as he sat there in the silence, simply content to be in Birdperson's company. Despite how bad his hangover was, he felt strangely peaceful and he knew he had made the right decision. The heavy weight on his shoulders felt like it had been lifted, and the feelings of guilt were completely gone for the time being. Although he was still bitter about having his weapons taken away, he'd finally been able to accept that it had happened. The peace didn't last long however, and he looked up towards the hallway as he heard Morty screaming again.
"Jesus, Morty... s-shut up, will you?" He muttered aloud, scowling in irritation. "I should probably get that..."
"Let Gresharak deal with him for the time being, Rick," Birdperson told him, "she is a competent mother and knows what she is doing. Finish your medicine and give it time to be absorbed into your system."
Rick shrugged, then raised the cup to his mouth, swallowing the entire contents in a few mouthfuls. "Bleghh..." He screwed his face up in protest, then set the cup back down on the coffee table. "One of these days, y-you might actually be successful in mixing u-UURRRRPp something that doesn't taste like garbage. Or brake fluid... o-or garbage mixed with brake fluid."
"I could have added pine sugar to it to make it more palatable." Birdperson thought aloud as he turned his attention back towards the kitchen. "Do note that the key words in that sentence were 'could have'. You see, I could have, if you did not eat it all yesterday."
"Oh shut up, BP." Rick smirked back at him. "That shit was good, and you know it! I would totally do it again. In fact, go get more, huh?"
Gresharak walked back into the living room, carrying one very-grumpy Morty with her. She moved to stand in front of the couch again, seeming flustered. "Somebody decided to put up a fight today, it seems," she held onto the little boy despite the fact she was being assaulted by his little, flailing arms, "he didn't want to wear pants."
Rick's brow was completely flat as his eyes tracked her back into the room, the tiniest smirk at the edge of his mouth as he watched them, amused with Morty's behavior. "Hah. T-that's completely normal. You're not telling me anything I don't already know."
Gresharak turned her attention towards Birdperson. "I must ask something very important of you. Forgive me for asking you to leave; this is your own house and I should not be telling you what to do in it. However, your friend and I need to have a very serious talk together. He needs to understand how to be a better parental figure. You understand, yes?"
Birdperson gave Rick a sideways glance, hesitant, trying to gauge his reaction. He wasn't sure if he wanted to leave them alone together, especially knowing how quickly the spiky-haired male could blow up if only wound up enough.
Rick shrugged back at him. "I already told her she could, BP. A deal's a deal, y'know? And I'm a man of my word, s-so," he scowled back at her, "have at it. You want to tell me how terrible of a job I'm doing? So be it."
Birdperson moved to his feet, though he couldn't help but feel a little bit surprised. He had known Rick well for many years; the man constantly reminded everyone that he didn't like being told what to do and now he seemed willing to take it from somebody he barely knew. It didn't make sense. Still, he nodded his head, respecting Rick's wishes as he picked up the cup, retreating to the kitchen, and then to the master nest-room in the tree house.
"Well let's get this over with already." Rick huffed in annoyance. Although he wanted to get up and go back to work, the pain behind his eyes was still too strong for him to do anything useful. He knew he would just have to sit it out patiently for the time being.
Gresharak sat down on the couch next to Rick, her weight sinking heavily into the cushions. She set Morty down in his lap and her expression softened almost right away; she knew that if such a serious topic was to be brought up and discussed, it would need to be done so with kindness and understanding.
Rick picked Morty up and scooted one whole cushion away; she had been too close for him to be comfortable with it. Both of his arms circled Morty's chest, and he drew the little boy in for a hug as he looked down at him. "Hey there, little buddy. So you're gonna sit with me while the mean bird woman tells Grandpa Rick what a shitty person he's being, y-yeah?"
Morty made a soft, happy noise in response to Rick's words; he had no idea what he was saying, but his tone was friendly and he was simply happy to be back with him. He leaned against him and gently batted his hands across Rick's arm, soothed by his presence.
Gresharak sighed at Rick's words. "It is not a joke. You should not make light of the situation, your behavior is very concerning. First and foremost: your language. Your hatchling does not need to hear those words ever, let alone from his primary caregiver. You should be more thoughtful about what you say around him."
"Y-you want me to think about that? Seriously, woman? Do you even know who I am?" Rick raised an eyebrow at her, then returned his attention to Morty, tapping him on the shoulder. "Hey. Hey little buddy, look at me. C-can you say 'fuck'?"
Morty stared back at Rick, understanding enough of what he was saying to make sense of it. He paid particularly close attention to Rick's mouth as he pronounced the word, because he wanted to learn it and make him happy. "F-ff-fuh."
"Heh heh heh!" Rick bared his teeth in a devilishly wicked grin as he glanced back up the bird mother. "Y-yeah there you go, I thought about it. Next."
Morty made a soft happy noise, deeming his attempt a success. "Fff-fuh!"
"H-hey, that's actually pretty good." Rick's attention was suddenly back on Morty – that vocalization had taken him by surprise. "Good work, little buddy." He seemed genuinely pleased as he ran a hand through the little boy's soft hair, ruffling it up. It was the most complete word he had ever heard Morty make and he was legitimately proud of him. "We'll have to spend s-some more time talking later, huh?"
Gresharak stared at the two, absolutely horrified with the exchange. "Oh my, why are you teaching him that? You are not even going to try to take this seriously, are you?"
Rick waved a hand as if to dismiss it. "Oh relax, lady. Don't get me wrong, I said I'd listen to what you have to say and I was serious about that... taking all of it into consideration, though? That's different. Depends what you say, doesn't it?" He shrugged. "In all seriousness, h-have at it. You think you can make me a better parent? Off you go then."
Gresharak's expression shifted to unhappy as she sighed. "I will only continue this if you take it seriously. I do not want to waste my breath and I am not even going to say it for your benefit, Rick. You need to do it for your little one's sake. Do you understand that?"
Rick shrugged at her a second time. "You're the one who started it. So what's next on the agenda?"
"I understand that things are difficult right now." Gresharak continued, her voice returning to a gentle tone; she knew she needed to stay calm and compassionate if she was ever going to get him to listen properly. "You are having trouble coping and resorting to the assistance of fermented products seems like an easy way out. But it is not. You cannot care for your little one when you are so inebriated that you cannot even care for yourself."
"Hah! You're worried about that?" Rick raised both of his eyebrows this time; she really had no idea. "Look, all I'll tell you is this... it's been dealt with. Everything I do is for a pretty damn good reason, including that. I got shit squared away with BP last night, no need to worry about that any more. I'll give you some credit though, you're observant and you're worried about Morty's safety, and by association, me. I-I get that. But shit happened last night, i-it's done with."
"So... you're feeling better?" Gresharak stared at him. "You do not want to harm yourself?"
"Phh, NO!" Rick scowled. "Did Birdperson tell you that? I suppose he must have, t-there's no other way you could have known," he narrowed his eyes suddenly, "fucking tattle-tale motherfucker!"
"He was worried about you. You have a great friend, Rick. That is the main reason why he sent me out to find you yesterday," Gresharak told him, "do not take somebody like that for granted."
"Y-yeah no shit, lady." Rick picked Morty up in his arms as he moved to his feet; he knew she was trying to pick his brains and get him to open up to her, but he wasn't going to have a bar of it. He was feeling more awake and the pounding inside his head was becoming more tolerable, which meant that the medicine was starting to do what it needed to. With this observation noted, he decided that he was probably good enough to go back to work. "S-so do you have more stuff to tell me, or what? Because if you want to continue talking, you can hang around the table in my room." He figured that he could take advantage of her presence and use her to distract Morty. He wasted no time moving back towards the spare nest room, not bothering to wait for her.
Gresharak simply moved to her feet and followed, taking the invitation as a positive sign. Once in the room, her attention was on the walls. Although she'd already been in the room a little while ago, she didn't have the time to take it in because she had been tending to Morty's needs. As her eyes attentively looked across the designs, she knew that she was looking at something that had been produced by a keenly intelligent mind. She recognized some of them at once, and although she had known who Rick was from Birdperson's stories, actually seeing the scientist's years of work in front of her was fascinating. She began to slowly pace around the room, her eyes following the pins and the lines of string between them; she knew it was all connected somehow but it was all way beyond her level of expertise.
"You like them?" Rick watched her in his peripheral vision as he sat back down at the desk. "They're old as shit now, I-I actually forgot to tear them down." He deposited Morty into his lap and picked up his soldering gun, immediately getting back to work. "If you wanna do that for me, feel free. They need to go in the trash anyway..." As he talked, he ionized a couple of resistor wire legs onto the circuit board in front of him, and then carefully clipped the excess wire off with a pair of pliers. His eyes were still hurting, but he didn't mind as long as he could focus on what he was doing.
"Why would you want to throw such intricate work away?" Gresharak stopped in front of one of the older blueprints as it caught her attention. It was quite faded and the edges of the paper had curled over in the many years it had been stuck to the wall. "I recognize this weapon design. My spirit mate owns several of them... I think they are called 'Ballzinators'? He still uses them in his patrols around Bird World."
"Hah, oh them? Wow, those are fucking garbage. Throw them away, I-I'll design you something better." Rick's reply was gruff. "That was one of my first, any tired hack could design better shit than that." He frowned suddenly as Morty made a grab for his soldering gun and he pulled it away. "That's not for you, little buddy. Don't touch it, you'll burn your hands off."
"I will leave them there for you, Rick. You should not throw away your past, it is a record of how you grew into the person you have become." Gresharak turned around, then decided to sit down on the edge of Rick's roll-away cot, her weight sinking heavily into it. "You seem like a very busy and intelligent man. How are you able to balance your work and a small child at the same time? Are you finding it hard?"
Rick gave a small shrug of his shoulders, irritated at the fact she was still persisting at getting him to talk. "It's working out so far."
Morty made a loud noise in declaration of his boredom. He wanted to play and Rick wasn't paying attention to him; he had been before and he couldn't figure out why it wasn't happening now. The little boy sat up and began to whack his grandfather's outstretched arms while he worked, making loud noises at him in an attempt to turn his focus back towards him; surely that would work.
"Stop doing that, Morty!" Rick gritted his teeth; his headache was still bothering him and he wasn't in a good mood. "I'm getting real tired of your shit..." He dropped his soldering gun on the desk and picked Morty up, returning him to the floor. "Go annoy someone else."
Morty made a loud frustrated noise and began to growl; he hadn't wanted to be put down. He began thumping the chair leg with his little hands in his frustration, hoping it would get Rick's attention again.
"If you are having trouble coping, there are many things you can do about it." Gresharak offered, her attention on Morty for the time being, finding his behavior fairly typical to watch. "Sometimes just taking the time out to spend time with your little one can tire him out. You might find that you will have more time to yourself if he is taking frequent naps." She watched the two carefully, but didn't want to interfere. "Have you taken him to the hot springs yet? A nice long soak in the warm water always puts my babies to sleep."
"No." Rick's reply was short and completely disinterested. He picked up the next component and began soldering it onto the circuit board, completely ignoring what was happening to his chair. He felt stubborn and defiant; the pain behind his eyes wasn't going away as fast as he wanted it to and Morty was being annoying as hell. He had decided that he would just fight through all of it and keep trying to work for as long as he could.
"You should consider it," Gresharak told him, not seeming to notice his deteriorating mood, "I also have mint oil. He would respond well to a nice massage."
Morty grabbed at the tails of Rick's lab coat, having remembered that being fun back in the garage of his house. He held onto the fabric with both hands and began tugging on it, making small noises with each tug as he tried to regain his grandfather's attention. "Riiiii!" He yelled with particular firmness.
"Fucking stop it, Morty!" Rick was growling now, the quality of his negative mood deteriorating even further. "I'm trying to work here!" He snatched up the edge of his coat and tucked it under his butt.
"Try to be more patient with him." Gresharak's attention was on Rick's face, and she seemed worried at how quickly his mood was degrading. "He is too young to understand and he loves you. He wants you to spend more time with him. Every time I see you, you are either working hard on something or complaining about the fact that you need to finish it. Is there any way you would consider taking time out to spend time with your little boy? He is really insecure and needs to know you love him."
"Not gonna happen," Rick huffed, very clearly pissed off, "can't go out and play. Gotta get this shit finished..."
Morty moved around the chair, remembering that Rick's CD player had been something that put him in a good mood. He reached out to grab the appliance cord and tugged on it with an outstretched hand, causing the player to slide backwards off the table. It smashed down on the floor beside him and the loud noise frightened him. He began to loudly whimper in response.
Rick's eyes narrowed as far as they would go, his jaw tensed hard; he wanted to yell, but kept it contained. He remained seated at the desk, completely silent as he kept his attention glued to soldering another component down onto the board. Distracting himself with work usually kept him calm, but it simply wasn't doing a good enough good job right now; he was furious and his ability to tolerate the situation was fraying fast.
"He needs your undivided attention, not just part of it." Gresharak continued her explanation, her tone remaining gentle as if it could help somehow. "Sometimes there is not really a way to balance the two. There are times when you will need to put down what you are doing and let him know that he has your attention," she watched the appliance crash down onto the floor, though remained where she was, "such as right now."
"Don't... d-don't tell me what to do!" Rick sat there for a moment to pinch the bridge of his nose; it was taking every ounce of will to not completely lose it. "L-look, it's fine, that's all you need to know." He slammed a fist down on the table in his frustration and accidentally knocked several components aside, as well as the circuit board he had just been working on. He watched it bounce off the table in the rough movement and reached out for it as it clattered onto the floor.
Unfortunately for him, Morty was faster; he sprang ahead and beat his grandfather straight to it. He wasted no time snatching it up and popped it straight into his mouth, drooling heavily on it. He concluded that if Rick found it so fun, maybe he would, too.
When Rick witnessed what was happening to his circuit board, his ability to contain himself had completely crumbled beyond the point of no return. "What the FUCK did I just say to you!?" He reached down and aggressively snatched it out of the little boy's mouth. "That's NOT for you! Why can't you just keep your goddamn mouth shut for once in your miserable little life so I can finish this shit and get us out of here?! Can't you see I'm trying to do this for you? Why do you feel the need to be so fucking annoying all of a sudden!?"
Morty stared back up at Rick and he was frozen on the spot, paralyzed with fear. His lower lip began to quiver and his mood instantly deteriorated, but he dared not make noise while he was being yelled at.
Rick swung around in the chair and took a moment to inspect the damage, repulsed at the fact there was a heavy coat of baby slobber all over his work. He threw the circuit board across the table in his anger and glared back down at the little boy. "That's fucking disgusting! Y-you got your germs all over it! You probably just ruined it, too, you little shit! D-do you know how much time that's going to cost me!?"
Morty finally broke down in tears and fearfully retreated, running to the safety of the weird feathered bird lady he only barely knew; she was far less scary right now. He bumped hard into her leg and began miserably wailing into the fabric of her clothing.
"Wow." Gresharak's voice was low and very unimpressed. She wasted no time picking Morty up and cradled him in her arms so she could begin calming him down again. "I genuinely have no idea what to say to you right now."
Rick simply sat there, staring ahead at the space on his work table as he listened to the noises reverberating off the walls of his room, his anger dissipating entirely. The loud, penetrating crying was doing nothing for his headache, but he no longer cared about that. He hadn't meant to snap, but he wasn't feeling well to begin with and his patience had been low since he had woken up. He placed both hands on the desk, lowering his head as he gave himself a minute to calm down; he felt terrible. The loud crying sounds were positively heartbreaking to listen to, and he knew that once again, his grandson was upset solely because of his bad temper. It hadn't felt good last time and he had told himself that he needed to prevent it from happening. And yet, here he was, repeating the same action all over again.
Rick moved off the chair, his brows creased in concern as he looked down at the little boy in the bird woman's arms, feeling compelled to do something. "H-hey come on buddy, I didn't mean it like that." He crouched down in front of them and reached out in an attempt to place a hand on Morty's head, but he was met with a loud defiant scream of resistance as the youngster tried to get away from him. "Come on, buddy... don't be like that, huh?" He withdrew his hand again and just stayed there, silently observing the little kid as a deep frown grew across his face.
"Perhaps you should just give him some time," Gresharak suggested as she continued to pat the little boy on the back, "sometimes they just need to cry it out."
Rick nodded once in acknowledgment and stood up again, moving out the doorway. Once he was in the hallway and out of sight, his shoulder hit the wall as he sank against it; he really hadn't meant to lose it like that, that was bad enough. But the look Morty had given him when he tried to get away from him felt even worse; he had outright rejected him. He shook his head and headed for the kitchen; he needed to rehydrate and give the medicine in his stomach more time to work.
He could still hear Morty's protests as he filled up a cup with cold water and leaned against the counter in heavy regret. The noise was fairly recognizable in pitch and tone; it was the same noise that Morty had made before they had arrived through the portal onto Bird World, when the entire world was in the process of being destroyed. Even though there were no words, he could pick up on the fact that it was full of insecurity and fear, and this time it was entirely directed at him.
"Fuck," He hissed aloud to himself, "He's... h-he's really going for it there, huh?"
He hung around the kitchen for a few more moments, reluctant to go back. When he realized that the noise wasn't going to quieten down, he returned to the doorway to his room and stood there, watching attentively. "H-hey..."
Gresharak looked up at him, but said nothing.
"Look, uh..." Rick rubbed the back of his head as he tried to conceal his mood with a scowl, "I need you to do me a real solid, bird lady... I can't pronounce your name. Can you just... take him away for a while?"
Gresharak blinked at the suggestion, confused. "You are giving up?"
"No." Rick stuffed his hands into his pants pockets, glaring hard at the space on the floor in front of him. "He would probably benefit from spending time apart from me for a while. I did this, I can undo it later. But he has to calm down first, and that's not going to happen while I'm still around. This is my room, s-so... fuck off." He raised his head again, glaring at her, his tone suddenly becoming resolute and authoritative. "Take him back to yours for a couple of hours. I'll come find you again when things have settled, and... and I'll make this right again."
Gresharak stood on her feet, still holding onto the little boy. "This is not a good way to go about this. You cannot just avoid the problem entirely."
Rick's left eyebrow twitched and he glared harder at her; anger was an easy way out and he knew it. "I-I don't really give a shit how you think I should handle it! Just let me deal with this my way, OK?" He realized how abrasive he was sounding as he spoke, but that was exactly what he wanted because he was actively trying to make her go away.
It seemed to work. The female bird mother simply shook her head at him as she passed by, walking down the hallway, carrying the crying child out of the tree house with her.
Rick stepped back into the room and slammed the door behind him. It didn't do anything for his mood, but damn it felt good to make noise. He sat back down at the desk and picked up the circuit board he had thrown, feeling concerned over the fact that it was more likely to have been damaged in the impact against the tabletop rather than being in the mouth of a small child.
After checking it over, he discovered it was perfectly intact, albeit a little wet.
Rick sighed aloud as he wiped it off on his lab-coat sleeve. "Fucking idiot..." He chastised himself. He realized he had gotten angry over something completely preventable and it didn't even matter much anyway. As long as he had the etching chemicals, he could make as many circuit boards as he wanted to; all it would cost him was time. As he dropped the circuit board back onto the table, he realized that he'd upset another person and worse, this time it was his own grandson; a little kid who was barely able to comprehend complex thoughts and feelings, let alone words.
There would be no way of talking himself out of this one. He had no idea how to make amends with such a small child; he had never had to do anything so outrageous before. Morty barely understood anything he was talking about most of the time, so simply talking it out and apologizing in the same way he had done to Birdperson was out of the question.
His mind began to race with all kinds of questions; what exactly were babies motivated by? Hugs? He couldn't do that, Morty had wanted to get away from him and likely didn't even want to have anything to do with him for the time being. Candy? He didn't have any and he'd always been against the idea of bribing children to get them to do something. There wasn't even any interesting food in the box of baby supplies he could use, but that would have been stupid anyway. Morty wasn't solely motivated by food; he wasn't a dog. It wasn't going to be that simple.
Rick moved to his feet and grabbed up the backpack he had used yesterday during his trip outside and began loading it with supplies, intending to take off for the day. After making his way outside, he began to climb down the tree. He'd climbed up and down so many times over the years that his body was on autopilot as his mind began to ponder a way out of his predicament, though he had to admit that he currently couldn't think of one. As his feet touched the ground, he headed away from the tree house community at a fairly casual pace. He needed time to get away and time to think.
He needed to stop doing this; it was just becoming repetitive, abusive behavior now. He needed to stop yelling and losing his temper at the people he actually gave a damn about.
