"Alright, Morty, it's time to go!" The voice of Beth hollered throughout the house.

Morty perked up in his wheelchair and shouted back a reply. "C-coming!"

Rick arched a brow inquisitively. He and Morty had been situated in the garage, Rick at his workbench, fiddling with a new type of gun for his best client, Krombopulos Michael, and Morty had been sitting in his wheelchair, a few feet away from Rick's station, previously having been watching the scientist work.

"W-w-w-where are you two going?" Rick asked. He took a moment to sip from his flask that had been laying down on the table, among his normal desktop clutter.

"Oh, d-don't you remember?" Morty stammered, peering up at Rick with curious green eyes. "We—we all talked about it at d-dinner on Wednesday."

Rick fixed the boy with a hardened stare. "And we've talked about how I don't listen to sh—URPEGH—it at dinner."

Morty made a face of recognition. "O-oh, right. I mean, I-I still think that—that it's an asshole move, for you to not listen during dinner, but Mom, Dad, and I a-a-agreed that I should start going to physical therapy."

Rick suddenly remembered the conversation that Morty spoke of, though only vaguely. "Oh, y-yeah, I remember."

Morty simply shook his head. He looked as if he wanted to say more, but Beth picked just then to poke her head into the garage. "Come on, Morty, we're going to be late," she said.

"O-oh, okay, s-sorry Mom," Morty replied. Beth ducked back out of the room.

Morty looked back at Rick, almost expectantly, and Rick sighed, sliding out of his seat. "Yeah, yeah, 'm coming."

He helped Morty out of the garage, through the house, and over to the front door. There, Beth was waiting as she tapped her foot, checking her phone. Seeing Rick and Morty enter the room, she slid the device into her pants pocket. She walked over and moved behind Morty's wheelchair, taking Rick's place. Rick stood back, sticking his hands in his lab coat's pockets.

"S-so, when will you two be back?" Rick asked, sounding nonchalant.

Beth picked up her purse, scooping her hair from underneath the purse straps and piling it on top of the strap as her purse hung on her shoulder. "Around 6:30. Just in time for me to start making dinner."

"Jesus, you'll be there for six hours?!" Rick exclaimed. His unibrow shot up to his hairline and his eyes widened. The kid would be exhausted when he got back home.

Beth shrugged. "Dr. Howard said that it should help." Rick pursed his lips at the mention of Morty's neurologist. Dr. Howard, in Rick's very correct opinion, was a stuck up dick with a whole goddamn tree growing up his ass. It was always 'Dr. Howard said this', 'Dr. Howard said that', and whatever the man did to help Morty ceased to do much if anything at all. He was completely misinformed and was being paid by his family for absolutely nothing useful at all.

"Dr. Howard isn't the smartest man in existence, honey," Rick sneered.

Shooting him an unamused look, Beth scowled. "I don't have time for this," She said and began to roll Morty towards the door, bending over Morty's head awkwardly to open it.

"Oh, and Dad—" Beth addressed Rick, "—you're in charge of Summer."

Rick shrugged and nonverbally watched Beth. She seemed to realize that the shrug would be the only response and resumed wheeling Morty out the door.

"B-b-bye, Rick," Morty said with a small smile, turning around to look at Rick.

Rick's expression softened, ever so slightly, and he returned Morty's grin with a reluctant smile. "B—URGH—bye, Morty. S-see ya in a few hours, kid."

After the words came out of Rick's mouth, Beth closed the door behind her and Rick was left alone in the room. He watched through the front window as Beth wheeled Morty up the wheelchair ramp in her car, finally looking away when the car drove off.

Rick pinched the bridge of his nose. Great. He was alone. For six hours.

It was a truly wondrous question now: what was a Rick supposed to do without a Morty?

Summer looked up from her phone as Rick entered the living room, plopping down onto the couch in a pout. He reached into his coat for his flask, almost completely draining the alcohol that was inside of the container as he chugged it.

Summer watched raptly as he did so. When Rick took the flask away from his mouth, she spoke up. "Uh... grandpa Rick?... Are you okay?" She cocked an eyebrow.

Rick grumbled to himself and folded his arms. Nothing was audible besides "Fuckin' Dr. Howard..."

Summer smirked knowingly. "Pissed that Morty isn't here? Do you miss him?"

Rick snarled. "N-no! I'm just pissed that he's going to—to be gone for six hours! There's a fuckin' ton of stuff we could've done in six hours!" Rick groaned. "I-I have work to do, Summer, this has nothing to do with... feelings." He spat out the last word like it was acid burning a hole through his tongue.

"...Mhm." Summer rolled her eyes. "Look, grandpa Rick, why don't I just help you if you have stuff that needs to be done so badly?"

Rick looked affronted by the idea. "You?! Help me? No," He said firmly.

"Ugh!" Summer fumed, standing up suddenly. She threw her hands out by her side. "I knew you would say that! Just because I don't have a dick doesn't mean that I can't do what you and Morty do!"

Rick massaged his head as Summer's fit continued. As time went on (two minutes; Rick counted) Rick grit his teeth. "FINE!Goddamn, okay, whatever! I give up!" He took his portal gun out, entered some coordinates, and fired off at the wall next to the Tv. "Get in the fucking portal, Summer!"

Summer grinned, her anger disappearing in a split second. "Cool," she said like she hadn't been pitching a fit seven seconds ago.

She crossed through the portal smugly. Rick cursed to himself as he entered the portal after her.

The planet they entered had a grayish, maroon-ish sky, and flutters of ash flew about the atmosphere, immediately catching in Rick and Summer's hair.

"Grandpa Rick, where are we?" Summer asked, mesmerized by the barren land's effects.

"Just out south of the Hemglofin system. This—UURG—place doesn't have a name yet, but I like to call it Belly-Lint-Galore. Because, y-y'know, the...the ash."

Summer turned to Rick with a fierce look of disgust. "Grandpa Rick, gross!"

Rick frowned. Morty would've laughed, the scientist told himself as Summer began to speak again.

"Why are we even here?" She folded her arms and popped a hip to the side.

"B-bec—AUGH—se, Summer, I need a really rare selection of Sênëntry seeds and this is the only place that I can get them without having to pay a fuckin' arm and a leg. Here, since there's no one to stop us, it's free," Rick said. He pocketed his portal gun and began to move forward.

Summer followed him. "What do we need the seeds for?"

Rick grunted. Just like her brother, the girl asked way too many questions. "For something," Rick said, unwilling to share the legitimate answer.

Summer scoffed and turned Rick around to face her. "Again with the sexist bullshit!" Summer yelled. "Just because I don't have a penis doesn't mean that I can't know stuff!"

Rick groaned and pinched his eyebrows as the redhead bitched to Rick. "Look," He said gruffly, cutting the teenager off, "I wouldn't've told Morty what I need these seeds for, s-so you are being treated exactly the same way I treat everyone else. I-I-I'm not going to treat you like I'm walking on eggshells, okay?"

Rick could see Summer's enraged expression calm, but she still glared at Rick furiously. "Whatever." However callous she may be, Rick could tell by her body language that she was embarrassed by her outburst. Good, Rick thought, she should be.

"Okay, now c-come on, this is taking an unnecessary amount of time already just because of your teenage meltdown."

Summer crossed her arms over her chest and followed Rick as he patrolled further.

Rick led them into a field of graying crops, the colorless plants reaching up to at least Rick's waist, the longer ones even going to his chin.

"Grandpa Rick, what are these?" Summer asked. Rick looked over his shoulder to see Summer push a particularly tall stalk from out of her face.

"Do you want the scientific version or the—ERP—Earth version?" Rick asked.

"Earth version."

"Well, i-i-it's basically fire weed, Summer," Rick responded. He instantly saw how Summer's eyes lit up and he rolled his eyes. "Lemme guess, you wanna get high?"

"Hell yeah," Summer said with an easy smile, placing a hand on her hip. They'd reached a clearing, Rick observed, and were halfway through the field.

"No," Rick responded. At Summer's disbelieving expression, he repeated himself. "I said no, Summer. This is—this is supposed to be a twenty-minute adventure and fire weed has a high that lasts twelve hours. I—I don't want to have to explain to your mom and dad why their daughter is plastered."

Summer pouted and clasped her hands together; it was so dramatic that Rick was almost surprised when she didn't drop to her knees in a kneeling position. "Pleeease, grandpa Rick?" Summer pleaded. "I don't have to smoke it today, I can just bring some home and smoke it at a friend's house. Come on, please?"

Rick covered both his ears with his hands but her whining still cut through those barriers. Jesus motherfucking Christ, the girl's fussing was worse than Morty! "Fine! Fuckin' fine you whiny, manipulative bitch!"

Summer smirked and crossed her arms. The look on her face was purely sadistic.

Rick muttered profanities under his breath as he quickly cut the cannabis from its stalk. Summer grabbed for it greedily.

"Tuck it somewhere safe, s-so you don't lose it, because I know that if you lose it, you're just gonna cause another scene and force me to come back, and you—you're givin' me a migraine enough as it is," Rick warned. Summer nodded and did as told, shoving the fire weed into her back pocket.

Rick, without comment, sped on forward and heard the telltale sound of shucks shifting as Summer followed after him.

After a few more minutes, Rick and Summer had finally waded their way through the field.

"Where are we going now?" Summer asked, peering around inquisitively. Rick could understand her confusion; the site looked exactly like everywhere else they had been. All except for one little detail.

Rick pointed towards a large, blossoming tree, the only tree for miles on this planet that was blossoming. "There. We'll be getting t-the Sênëntry seeds from that tree, Summer."

Summer gaped in awe and Rick grinned. He'd forgotten how wondrous the tree looked the first time you saw it.

"Now, c'mon," Rick said, lightly shoving the teen.

They walked forward a few feet and stopped at the root of the tree. Rick began going through the motions and started the harvesting process. He looked over his shoulder and back at Summer where she was watching him work.

"Y-you'll want to pay attention to what I'm doing, Summer, because you'll be doing this too in just a second."

Summer shrugged and moved closer to Rick to see him work.

Rick turned back to the tree. He counted the seeds as he unrooted them from the bark of the tree. He frowned; last time he'd been there, there had been way more seeds. Rick shook off the thought but didn't erase his suspicion—it never hurt to be prepared.

"T-there, Summer. If you paid attention, you should be able to do just fine," Rick said, fishing another tool out of his lab coat. He handed it to her and refocused on his own section of the tree. They worked in harmony, the scraping sound that emitted from the metal on bark filling the atmosphere.

Once they had all they needed for Rick to be satisfied, Rick began stuffing the seeds into a cloth bag that was designed to make them shrivel faster. It was required for what he was planning, and he might as well kill two birds with one stone.

As he proceeded to fill the bag with handfuls of the seeds, he heard a loud rustling from behind him.

Freezing, Rick observed his surroundings and narrowed his eyes. "Summer," Rick began slowly, cautiously, "did you hear that?"

Summer looked back at him with a perplexed look. "Hear what—"

Summer was cut off by her own scream as someone swung an arm around her. Rick cursed and leapt to his feet, ignoring the seeds that fell to the ground because of his action. He pulled out a laser gun from the inner recesses of his lab coat and aimed.

He shot a hole through the head of the man holding Summer, and as the man dropped to the ground, Summer rushed back to his side.

"What the hell just happened?!" Summer asked. She crouched behind Rick, afraid, as Rick ran a scan by use of his cybernetic eye. "I thought you said this place was deserted!"

Rick clenched his fists around his ray gun. "Uh, yeah, clearly because I'd thought that it was deserted! But I can't know everything, Summer!" Rick spat out. He forced himself to turn back to the task at hand, tuning out any further quips that Summer made in response.

He could detect a new storm of aliens coming, so he got out his portal gun and turned back to Summer. He spoke as he set the coordinates in his portal gun. "O-okay, Summer, we're gonna be getting out of here—"

Rick was cut off by a laser beam grazing his shoulder. "Fuck!" Rick yelled and he accidentally dropped his portal gun. He and Summer watched it fall in practically slow motion, their eyes as wide as saucers. Like Rick knew it would, the device shattered on impact and Rick watched the green portal fluid trickle out of the cracked glass.

"... Shit ," Rick groaned.

"Grandpa Rick! What are we gonna do?!" Summer shrieked. She was beginning to freak out in a similar manner as her brother and Rick barely managed not to roll his eyes. He searched through his lab coat for another ray gun and he tossed it at the panicking teen.

"Can you man a gun, Summer?" Rick asked as he looked over his shoulder.

Summer nodded and clutched the gun close to her chest. Rick would have actually rolled his eyes that time had it not been for the laser that whizzed by his face, just two inches away from Rick's nose.

"WOAH—Holy shit!" Rick exclaimed, flinching back. He regathered his composure as quickly as he could and snapped at Summer. "Just get your fucking shit together, Summer! It's obvious that I need some fucking help!" And with that, Rick turned back to eliminating his targets, slightly relieved when he heard gunfire coming from behind him, indicating that Summer had begun to take fire.

However, it hadn't been enough, something that Rick hadn't realized until it was too late and an alien had knocked him and Summer upside the head, rendering both of them useless and unconscious.

As soon as Rick opened his eyes from unconsciousness, his head felt like it was on fire.

With a moan, Rick rolled over on his side and observed his area. Summer was in a similar state as him, passed out cold on the chilled concrete flooring. The room was dark and damp, and several drops of water were made audible when they fell from the ceiling due to the room's echoey design.

As Rick sat there, squinting his eyes, a groan issued from Summer as she stirred awake. Her hair was all amiss, strands of it falling into Summer's face. Summer's eyelids slowly cracked open, and as soon as she saw where she was, she furrowed her brow.

"Where... am I?" Summer asked to herself.

"Dunno, Summer," Rick said. He was now sitting up against the rock wall of their cell. "But it probably has something to do with the aliens we were to 'genial' towards."

"Grandpa Rick?" Summer questioned. "What's going on?"

Rick ran his hands through his spiky hair in irritation. "W-what the hell does it look like, Summer?! We—we—we—we got caught, that's what's going on, you dumb bitch!" Rick explained in an irritated tone. His patience was normally okay, a bit on the short side, but he could only take so much when he had a possible head injury as well.

Summer frowned to herself and curled into a little ball. "Well... What are we going to do?" Summer asked, hope radiant on her face. The question got on Rick's nerves.

"You really are your father's daughter, huh?" Rick said harshly. When Summer winced, Rick felt bad. Even he thought it was too much. However, he continued. "We basically can't leave, Summer! M-m-my portal gun broke! We're either stuck here until I can make another or we die here. There—there aren't a whole lot of options here."

Summer's lower lip quivered and Rick rolled his eyes. The old man shifted, scowling when something hard and circular pressed into his side.

He knew the object was coming from inside his lab coat, he could tell that much. So, Rick went through his coat, searching through all his layers and pockets. Finally, his hands enclosed around the rounded object, and he took it out. Light was cast through the room, making Summer look up, and a lightbulb went off in Rick's head.

It was the beacon compound!

"Ohhhhhh shit, dawg!" Rick exclaimed, holding up the sacred item like a trophy.

"What is it, grandpa Rick?" Summer asked, squinting against the sudden light.

"I-it's the beacon compound, Summer!" Rick explained. "Remember it? Remember the beacon compound from chapter two?"

Summer wore a look of contempt on her face. "Uh, no? I have no fucking idea what you're talking about."

Rick shook his head, waving his hand about. "It d-doesn't matter, Summer. What does matter is that we won't be sleeping here tonight! Let's go, motherfuckers!" Rick said, turning the beacon compound on with a press of a button on its side. Rick had fixed the formula shortly after first showing it to Morty, but ever since then, he hadn't used the object. In fact, Rick distantly remembered considering to remove it from his lab coat, thinking about how it was taking up unnecessary room. Rick had always been a bit of a hoarder, but it was in times like these that he was grateful for the fact.

The beacon compound, if possible, lit up the room even more as it scanned said room for any possible places of exit. It took only a few seconds before all the light shot out to one crevice, a crevice that had been easily overlooked by Rick when he first woke up.

"Fuck yeah, baby!" Rick smirked. He threw his hands up in the air and got to his feet, clutching the beacon compound securely. He helped Summer up, and they both made for the crevice.

Rick stooped down to observe it, running his hands all along the concrete, when he felt a tiny ridge. He fiddled with the ridge some and, based on the light that his invention gave off, came to the realization that it was a trapdoor.

"Woah," Summer said as Rick found the way to open it up. Rick peered back at his granddaughter—who was looking at Rick in wonder—and offered her a smug grin.

"Y-y-you impressed, Summer?" Rick teased. He had to admit, the sheer admiration on her face was making Rick proud of himself.

"I—yes, holy shit, is that even a question?" Summer asked, recovering from her nonplussed behavior.

Rick smirked and gave a slight shrug. He didn't answer her and only turned back to the trapdoor. "We should be leaving this shithole. I-I'll go first."

Summer crossed her arms and Rick climbed down the ladder through the hole in the ground. He didn't see anything at first, so he shone his light into the room he'd just entered. Automatically, the beacon compound's light shot out towards a set of double doors and Rick raised his eyebrows.

Rick gave Summer the okay as he climbed down the ladder himself, Summer close behind him.

"I-I-I gotta admit, Summer, this—this escape route is pretty straightforward. I probably could've found a way out as soon as I woke up if there had been light in the room," Rick said, walking towards the doors with Summer at his side. "Though, that might've been why it was dark..."

As soon as Rick crossed through the door leading to the next room, a gun was aimed right at Rick's face. He peered around the barrel of the gun and saw a humanoid alien to be the owner of the gun. The alien wore a fierce look on his face, and he shoved the gun more towards Rick's chest. Summer let out a gasp and positioned herself behind Rick.

"Freeze! Hands in the air!" The alien demanded.

Rick rolled his eyes but did as he was told, though he did so very halfheartedly.

In his hands, the beacon compound—which during their encounter with the guard had stopped emitting clear light in any general direction—had shot out towards Summer's ass.

"What the f—" Summer began, cowering even more behind Rick. The light only followed her again, and it was then that Rick realized why.

Dropping his hands down to his sides, Rick turned to Summer. "Summer, g-give him the fire weed!"

"What?!" Summer exclaimed, still trying to move away from the light that was attracted to her butt.

"Give it to him! Give him the weed, y'know, t-the weed you threw a fit over!" When Summer still looked like she didn't understand, Rick yelled, "THE WEED IN YOUR POCKET!"

"Oh."

Instantaneously, the guard lowered his gun. "You have fire weed?" The guard inquired. He wore a look of interest.

Rick took the opportunity and ran with it. "Y-yeah! Do you want some? We'll only give it to you if you let us pass by, no harm done," Rick bargained.

The guard nodded eagerly but seemed to reconsider a moment afterward. "I shouldn't... It's illegal for anyone but royalty to possess."

Rick waved a hand in dismissal. "Then don't let anyone know about—URP—it, obviously. P-problem solved."

The guard sighed and smiled, grabbing for the fire weed that Summer had brought out of her pocket. She protested a bit when it was released from her grip, but she let it go when Rick shot her a glare.

The guard brought it up to his face, his gun now in his holster, but before the alien could do anything, Rick lunged at the alien, snatched its gun, and shot the guard in the forehead.

Summer let out a shriek, her eyes wide in surprise. "Grandpa Rick! He was letting us go!"

Rick grunted, getting back to his feet. "You obviously don't know about these types of dwellers, huh?" When Summer confirmed his suspicions by shaking her head, Rick launched into an explanation. "He probably would've killed us anyway, even—even though we negotiated with him. Though even if he hadn't shot us, there will probably be other aliens that we'll pass by and we need to defend ourselves. I don't have any weapons now, so we should be armed as much as possible. And anyway, this way, we get to keep your f-fire weed. So quit your yapping and follow me."

Summer huffed and reached for her fire weed. It was obvious to Rick that she still didn't understand, not fully, but it was okay because she would learn.

Just as expected, they'd come across other aliens wanting to kill them on their way to wherever the light from the beacon compound led them.

"Woah... cool place," Summer marveled, observing every last aspect of the control room that they'd been left in.

Rick nodded numbly in response—his main focus was on following the light to wherever the hell it was leading him. As he walked through the room even more, he grew curious as to how he was supposed to get out of the foreign place. He'd completely forgotten about his initial reasoning to come there, for his Sênëntry seeds; he just wanted to get the fuck out of there.

As he walked forward once more, the light from the beacon compound increased, causing Rick to look up. There, on a count, sat his portal gun, with various electrical parts surrounding it, enough to repair the broken device.

Rick gawked at his beacon compound. "Jesus, I struck gold with the idea for this thing!" Rick exclaimed. He settled to work on his portal gun, estimating that it would take about ten minutes to repair it.

Three minutes in, he sensed Summer walk up to his side. She pulled at his lab coat irritatingly.

Rick groaned. "What is it?" He snapped.

Summer was holding something behind her back nonchalantly, and she was wearing a cocky smile. "So, grandpa, didn't we lose our Sênëntry seeds?" Summer asked. A smile poked further at her lips.

"Yeah. And?" He asked. He had turned back to his portal gun only for Summer to elbow him in the side.

"The fuck is your p—"

But he was cut off by Summer shoving a bag—it must've contained 12 pounds—full to the brim with Sênëntry seeds.

"I—holy shit, Summer for the win!" Rick exclaimed, taking the bag from her and fully observed it. It had enough seeds to last him a decade worth of science, nonetheless what he needed the seeds for right then!

"Booyah," Summer said to herself. Rick ignored it and turned back to his portal gun, now considerably happier about the seeds Summer had supplied him with. Summer decided to stand by his side and watch as he messed with the portal gun, adjusting it so that it would be perfect.

Finally, in just a few minutes, the portal gun was in perfect condition, and they were ready to leave.

"O-okay, Summer, we're ready," Rick said, putting in the coordinates for Earth.

He fired the portal gun at the wall and went to grab the bag of Sênëntry seeds while Summer went through the portal. Rick was right after her, and, sure enough, was welcomed to the sight of the Smith family's front lawn.

"Oh thank god!" Summer sighed, immediately curling in on herself.

She started to move towards the front door, but Rick grabbed her arm and held her back.

"W-we should probably clean up before your parents see you," Rick advised. He was right—Summer's clothes were dirtied and torn, her hair was matted with sweat and a bit of blood (now, whether it was her own blood or the blood of her enemies, Rick wasn't sure) and Rick's lab coat was completely stained with blood, so it would be in their best interests to tidy Summer and Rick up, unless they wanted to get chewed out by Beth and Jerry.

Summer agreed and Rick led her to the garage.

"Why are we in here?" Summer asked, scrunching up her nose.

"Because, Summer, we need a private place to d-do this shit," Rick said going through his cabinets. He'd made sure to duplicate articles of his family's clothing and leave them in the garage just for this reason, but where had he—bingo!

Rick took a pink tank top and a white pair of pants from out of the cabinet. He tossed the clothes to Summer and she caught them.

"Wash up," Rick said, changing out of his own lab coat and replacing it with another. "U-use the sink, y'know, by the washing machine?" Summer nodded and, when she was done dressing herself, moved towards the sink to wash her hair.

Rick tidied himself up as well, but it took a lot less time for him to be done than it took Summer.

Finally, when she had finished, Rick cleared his throat. He was right by the door, his hand on the handle, about to walk into the kitchen. "S-so we should probably get our story straight on where we were." Summer shrugged and Rick continued. "If anyone asks, we were getting ice cream."

Rick didn't allow her to reply as he swung open the garage door. He was greeted with the sight of his daughter standing at the stove, cooking dinner. She turned around upon hearing the door open and smiled.

"Hey you two," Beth chirped. She turned back around to work on the dinner she was making.

"Hi sweetie," and "Hi mom," were both said as Rick and Summer entered the room.

"What were you two doing?" Beth asked, turning her head to look at her father and daughter.

"Er, ice cream—we were getting ice cream," Rick said. Summer nodded frantically to confirm what the elder had said.

"Oh," Beth said. An odd look of jealousy came onto her face, and Rick only saw it for a second before she moved away. "...Well, that's nice."

Summer looked uncomfortable and Rick felt as uncomfortable as Summer looked. Sheesh. What was Beth's deal?

"I'm gonna go into the living room..." Summer said, not staying long enough to hear a response.

A few seconds ticked by.

Rick coughed to relieve the tension in the room. "So, Beth...how was Morty's physical therapy?"

And Beth seemed to feel more comfortable with the topic, something Rick was grateful for. "It was fine. We just went over some of his treatment plans and some exercises to start out with."

Rick nodded. "And uh...w-where is he?"

"Oh, Morty's in the living room," Beth smiled. "You can go in there if you would like. I'm sure he'd like to see you, Dad. Just be careful not to be too loud, he's pretty tired."

Rick barely suppressed a snort. Morty was tired? Rick felt like he'd just run thirty miles.

"Sure thing, honey," Rick said and he left the room.

Sure enough, Morty was laid out on the couch, a blue blanket draped over his lap, and with Summer sitting to his right. And Morty did indeed look tired, Rick noticed as he sat down to Morty's left.

"Hey, kid," Rick said, leaning back in his seat and swinging his right arm around the back of the couch.

Morty turned to Rick and smiled. His eyes were weary and Morty wore his nasal cannula. "H-hi, Rick."

"I was just telling him about what we did today," Summer piped up.

"I-I w-wish I could've b-been there," Morty said longingly. "D-did you two really get kidnapped by aliens?"

Rick took a sip from his flask, feeling alcohol numbing some of the leftover pain. He hadn't had his flask all day, so it was nice to drink after so long.

"Y-yup."

"W-woah," Morty breathed. The boy let out a yawn after that and seeing him yawn made Rick realize how tired he really was which caused him to yawn as well. Summer yawned too, and it set off a chain reaction.

The three of them burst into light and sleepy laughter once they were done yawning, all amused by the outbreak of yawns that Morty caused.

"Jesus fucking Christ, w-we're acting like a bunch of idiots," Rick remarked, grabbing for the remote.

Rick turned on the Tv and redirected his attention to it. It was on the news, not something he was necessarily interested in, but he was tired and he didn't want to devote all his remaining stamina towards comprehending plots of inconsistencies.

Soon though, after a few minutes, Morty had passed out, sleeping soundly pressed against Rick, and Summer followed Morty's lead not too long afterward.

Sleep tugged at Rick's eyelids as well, but he didn't let the deprivation take hold of him yet. Rick allowed himself to observe Morty's peaceful, young face as he slept. The man stared, but only for a moment before he grew content and turned away.

After that, it was with a smile that Rick fell asleep.

"Kids?" Beth called out, peeking her head out to the living room. "Dad? Dinner's ready!"

She could see the backs of their heads, and that meant they were still there where she'd left them, so why they didn't get up when she called for dinner was a mystery to her.

"Summer? Morty?" Beth tried again. She huffed after another minute of silence went by.

She shot Jerry—who was sitting in the dining room—an irritated look and he shrugged back at her. "Hey, don't look at me!" Jerry defended. "I just got back from work!"

Beth folded her arms. "Oh shut up, Jerry," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

Jerry sighed. "Okay, Beth."

Beth ignored her husband again as she began making her way to the living room.

"Okay, I don't know what the hell you three are—" Beth began, but stopped halfway in her sentence.

There on the couch laid her father, son, and daughter practically piled up on one another in slumber.

The visual made Beth's heart clench in yearning, yearning for the kind of affection from her father that she'd never received as a child, but she also felt happy. Happy for her kids, happy that her father was apparently trying to right his previous behavior and connect more with his family.

So Beth would let them sleep.