Little Concessions (Rick and Morty Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty- Six

"Thanks," Summer said, taking her starbucks drink from the tray and starts to drink it, nodding and humming, "this is the shit, like, the best. How did the doctors go?"

"It went fine. My doctor said nothing was really wrong," I said, setting the tray holding my drink and Morty's down on the table in the kitchen, "I'm glad. Is Dad out job hunting?"

"He'd better. I love your father and all but he needs to get a job instead of watching coin collectors and Taddy Mason and Futurama." Mom said. Summer rolled her eyes.

"Ugh, I'm so sick and tired of the coin collecting stuff. Futurama is ok I guess." She said, I nodded.

"Yeah, Bender's my favorite, and who on earth is Taddy Mason?"

"Who knows? All he does is talk about him on tv, says that he's his buddy. What do you guys want for dinner?"

"Uh... spaghetti." Summer said, I nodded once more at her.

"I was gonna say that too. I love spaghetti, no matter what." I said with a smile.

"Hah, yeah, you're a spaghetti freak. Alright, I'll make us some spaghetti for tonight. Before that I'm gonna have to give some people a call. Tell the school that you're alive, what are we saying for an excuse again?" Mom asked, pulling out her phone.

"Uh, we said... oh we said that-" I was cut off by a moody-as-always Rick walking into the kitchen.

"She never died, she was in a coma in a hospital." Mom cocked an eyebrow at her father.

"Right, but some people from their school were there at her funeral; Summer's friends, Jerry's grandparents... what about that?"

"Uh, ok... she was buried alive and was in a coma... she woke up and you brought her to the hospital."

"Ok, how would we know that she was in a coma and woke up? Before bringing her to the hospital?" Mom asked her father again.

"I don't know, she was buried with her phone? I told you not to bring her to the doctor, Beth. I told you she was fine. I ran some tests and found nothing wrong. Bringing her there was a waste of time." He said to her.

"I just wanted to make sure, Dad. I didn't know you ran any tests. And maybe they were different." She shrugged.

"Maybe you should listen to your genius father when he tells you something." Rick said, Summer and I decided to give these two the room. Summer sighed and she walked to the stairs, probably towards her room. I picked up my drink and followed her, but I made my way to Morty's room, to see how he's doing with all this. I nearly tripped at the top of the stairs, almost spilled our drinks. I straightened myself and walked towards his room, his door was closed. I brought my hand up to the door and knocked three times.

"Hey, M, it's me. I got some starbs for ya. Want some?" I asked him, I didn't hear anything on the other side for a few moments. I took a sip of my drink before I heard him give me an answer.

"K." Was all he said behind the door. I then opened the door and saw him sitting on the side of his bed with his laptop on his lap, not really looking over at me. he closed it and stared kind of blankly across the room, at one of his posters. The ripped up Spiderman poster that he had for a while, covering a hole that was made when him and I were play fighting and I tripped on his shirt and my elbow somehow landed and broke the wall. A small whole.

"So..." I said, sitting down next to him, showing him the drink I got him, "Got you the same thing that I got myself, I forgot what it was called but its really good. Not really as good as Bloogie. I think that's the name of that drink in that tavern. That was an awesome drink." I said to him, smiling, trying to get him to say something like "gross, Bloogies." Or something. But he didn't say anything, I looked to the floor, thinking of something else to say.

"Well, Mom's gonna set up an appointment for me to finally get rid of my braces. I'm gonna finally be free, and chew gum, and all the other stuff I couldn't for years of wearing these stupid things. And I'll stop sounding so cringy." I said, laughing. He didn't say anything after that either. Something else... something else...

"Wanna watch The Simpsons later? I wanna see more of Sideshow Bob. Or we could watch Futurama... or maybe something scary... It is Saturday, Scary Saturday, our favorite day of the week. You and me would get snacks and watch scary movies all night, and try not to wake the others. Remember what happened last time with Summer? She lost her mind because we woke her up, she wanted to kill us. But she made more noise and woke up Mom and Dad and once they came down, you and me pretended to sleep on the couch, and she got in trouble!" I started laughing some more, remembering that night, that was so damn funny. I told Mom and Dad that it was me, and didn't get Summer or Morty in trouble. I wasn't punished or anything, but in the end they thought it was funny. Still... nothing, but he did shake his head slightly. That's something... I guess. But he's still not saying anything, would talking about our previous reality make him talk to me? Our home? Or would it make it worse? I don't want him to be sad, or uncomfortable. I think he's mentally already there.

"You uh... want to talk about anything?" I asked him, hoping he'd give me an answer or something. He just shrugged, before opening his mouth.

"I uh... don't know." Was all he said. I hummed a little, looking at the spot on the floor as he was. One of his socks.

"Are you thinking about... about our reality? It's hard not to think about. It's hard to think about. I can't even try to pretend it never happened."

"I don't want to talk about it. I don't." He was fast with that response, kind of a sharp tone. I looked at him quickly and nodded.

"Ok, we don't have to talk about it. Sorry. Your uh... drink's gonna melt, it's lemonade." I looked at his drink and handed it to him. He put his laptop on the other side of the bed and took his drink. He didn't try it, he just stared at it almost blankly. He then opened his mouth, his next words kind of shocked me.

"Are you going to die?" I bit my lip a little at that, he said that softly. It hurt to hear that, coming from my younger brother, at a time like this... and especially learning about my... thing.

"I... I'm not going to die, Morty. I'm gonna be fine." I feel like I've said the word fine a thousand times.

"You don't know that. I-I-I-I heard everything in the garage. You're fine now, but what happens a w-w-week or a month from now and you-you-you get sick?" He's getting worked up. This child struggles with stuttering in most of his sentences, but when he is upset, he stutters frequently every few words and speaks quickly.

"It won't happen."

"You-you-you don't know that, Julia. And this rea-reality's Julia died a month ago? That's scary."

"It is... very scary, I'm scared. I... I don't want to die, I won't die. Rick said he'd figure something out, right?"

"He won't." He said, he set his drink at the small side table next to his bed. I don't know what else to say to him. I don't know what to do for him. If I keep saying something about me feeling fine or not going to die, he might just shut me down a little and say the same things he's been saying. I don't want to make him any more upset. I cleared my throat a little and rubbed my hands together.

"Um... Mom's uh... gonna make us spaghetti for dinner tonight. I'm gonna go check on Summer with my laptop, sometimes it freezes. I need a new one. Maybe a different color this time." I stood up from his bed slowly as I spoke. Before I made it to the door, he spoke up, kind of shocked me. His tone was a little different, more clearer and slightly louder.

"Wait, where are you going?" He asked me, he might not have heard me, maybe he was zoned out. I turned to him before my hand reached the handle.

"I was gonna go check on Summer. She's using my laptop for homework and I wanted to see if she had any problems with it. It freezes."

"Oh, well... can you just... I-I mean... stay here for a little longer? May-maybe wanna watch something? Or something?" I stared at him for a moment or two. smiling a tiny bit, but the face he made towards me made my smile fade a little.

"Yeah. Yeah, sure, little bro." I nodded at him and walked back to his bed, and I sat down next to him once again. He then picked up his drink and taking a sip from it. Then he took his laptop and opened it up, looking for something for us to watch on YouTube. At last, I caught sight of a slight smile on his face.