Chapter Text
Morty woke up to the sun shining in through his window and birds loudly singing outside. But it didn't comfort him or bring him any happiness like it usually would and he knew yesterday had not, in fact, been a bad dream.
He'd put the sympathid back in and it consumed every bit of empathy he had.
Morty felt numb as he stared up at the ceiling. He could hear his family downstairs, smell the pancakes his mom was making, but it still didn't stir any feelings within him.
There was a knock on his door and Summer's voice called out to him. "Mom sent me up to get you. If you don't come down now, Grandpa Rick is going to eat your pancakes when he gets up."
Morty didn't want to get up. He didn't want to face his family like this, but he didn't have a choice. If he stayed in bed, they'd eventually come up to check on him. He'd just be prolonging the inevitable.
With a heavy sigh, he forced himself to get up and reluctantly headed downstairs. His parents and Summer were sitting at the table, but Rick was nowhere to be seen. Given all the supplies that he'd had Summer go buy the previous day, it was likely he was down in the sub-basement getting drunk.
Morty learned his lesson the first time. He wasn't about to go back down there and fuck things up again.
"Good morning, Morty."
"Is it though?" His dad looked a little hurt by his response, but Morty didn't feel any guilt or remorse.
"Ew, you're still all moody?" Summer wasn't sure what exactly was wrong with her brother or why he was still PMS'ing, but she'd hoped a good night's sleep would fix it. Clearly that hadn't happened.
"Fuck you, I'm allowed to be moody." Morty glanced up as Rick walked in, noting his bloodshot eyes and the dark circles beneath them. He had definitely gotten drunk and Morty couldn't help rolling his eyes at the typical behavior.
Summer didn't miss that action and immediately brought up her complaint. "Grandpa Rick, you need to fix Morty."
"Shut up. I don't need fixing."
"Don't tell your sister to shut up, Morty." Rick had completely forgotten about Morty's lack of empathy and he ignored the glare Morty sent him as he took a seat across from his grandson.
"Oh, please. You tell us to shut up all the time, you fucking hypocrite."
"Hey!" Beth was used to her family bantering and teasing each other, but this felt different. Almost meaner and genuine. "Stop arguing and eat the breakfast I cooked."
"I'm not hungry." Morty shoved himself out of his chair and headed towards the stairs. Sure, he was a little hungry, but he was no longer in the mood to eat breakfast with his family. He'd eat something later.
"Morty, honey? Are you feeling alright?"
He stopped in the doorway of the dining room and turned back to look at his mom. She looked so worried and Morty usually would have felt ecstatic that she actually cared, but the numbness in him didn't fade at the sight of her concerned gaze. "Yeah, I'm fine."
As soon as her son disappeared upstairs and out of earshot, Beth turned to glare at Rick. She knew from previous experiences that if her kids were acting different from how they normally did, her father usually had something to do with it. "What did you do to him?"
Rick paused, his fork halfway to his mouth, and gave her a look of disbelief. "Why do you think I did something?"
"Because he was fine yesterday morning and now he's being a little shit. When my kids are acting strange, you are usually the one to blame. Remember the matrix incident?"
"The little idiot did it to himself. If he had just left the Sympathid alone and not put it back in, he'd be fine right now." Sure, Rick could have simply talked to Morty, instead of introducing the Sympathid to him to begin with, but he refused to admit that. Morty was the one who ultimately put the Sympathid back in, not Rick. Ergo, it was Morty's fault.
"Somehow, I doubt that." Jerry ignored the glare Rick was giving him. Despite what his father-in-law was claiming, Jerry knew his wife was right and that it was likely Rick's fault.
"Shut up, Jerry."
"Dad, you need to fix whatever the hell you did to Morty."
"Yeah, yeah. It's on my to-do list." While Rick did plan get to it, it wasn't exactly high on his list of priorities. It's not like a lack of empathy was doing any harm to Morty.
"Aren't you worried about him?" Summer didn't understand why Rick was being so nonchalant about this.
"Geez, you guys worry too much. He'll be fine."
~
Monday morning rolled around and, given that Rick still hadn't attempted to fix Morty's non-existent empathy center, Morty had to assume that there wasn't a way to fix it. That he was stuck like this.
Morty grabbed his backpack off his desk and headed downstairs. Before he could leave through the front door, a hand grabbed him by the arm and dragged him towards the garage. "Rick-"
"I'm taking you and Summer to school today." Rick was hoping to get things back on track between him and Morty. Sure, he still had to fix Morty's empathy center, but that didn't mean he couldn't try to make up for what had happened until he fixed it.
However, it quickly became clear that it wasn't going to be easy. The short flight to school was quiet and not the comfortable kind of quiet that sometimes settled over Rick and his grandkids when they didn't have anything to talk about. This was an uncomfortable and heavy silence. "Hey, I was thinking maybe we could go to Blips and Chitz after you get out of school, Morty."
"No thanks." He used to love going to the intergalactic arcade with Rick, but he didn't find the thought of going appealing. Well, to be fair, he didn't really find anything appealing anymore and it sucked that he no longer enjoyed the things he used to. "Pass."
"Excuse me?!" Rick's eyes widened at the casual dismissal and turned to look at his grandson, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You can't pass on Blips and Chitz, Morty! We have to go!"
"Don't be a baby about this, Rick. Sometimes I feel like staying home. It's not the end of the world."
"Fuck you, Morty. Call me a baby again and I'll eject you from the ship." Despite the threat, Morty simply rolled his eyes and muttered out a quiet 'whatever', before turning to look out the window.
Okay, maybe the rest of the family been right to be concerned about Morty. Rick was certainly a little worried now. Morty usually never turned down a chance to hang out, especially when it was an adventure that didn't involve anything dangerous, but now he acted like he'd rather be anywhere else.
"I know you can't exactly remember what empathy is, but you could at least try to enjoy some things." His mutter was quiet as he landed the ship outside his grandkids' school, but Morty had clearly heard him and glared at him as he got out.
"If you wanted me to be empathetic, maybe you should have fucking talked to me instead of giving me an alien brain parasite." He slammed the door shut behind him to emphasize his point and stomped towards the school. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Summer following him down the hallway and it was clear she wanted to say something, but he didn't give her a chance and hurried away towards his locker.
He didn't even get to make it to his locker. Some upperclassman roughly shoved Morty into a nearby wall and yanked at his backpack, trying to get it away from him.
"Gimme your lunch, Morty."
He glanced around to see other kids watching. Summer, Tricia, and Jessica were among the numerous students watching this unfold.
But no one was doing a damn thing to help. So fucking typical. Nobody gave a fuck. But, for once, Morty also didn't give a fuck.
Morty could only really see one plus side to not having any empathy and it was that Morty no longer felt like he had to cower in front of bullies. He jerked his bag away from the bully, slinging the bag back over his shoulder, and glared up at the upperclassman. "Why? Your parents not love you enough to make you a lunch?"
The kids in the hallway started snickering and making comments about that, but Morty hadn't said it to get attention or laughs. He said it because he knew that was likely the case and he no longer cared enough about not hurting people's feelings.
The bully clearly hadn't been expecting that from him and stuttered out some unintelligible sounds as he tried to think up a comeback. When he couldn't think of one, he grew angry and lunged towards Morty. "Come here, you little shit."
As soon as he was grabbed by the front of his shirt, Morty lashed out and punched the kid in the face. He obviously knew he shouldn't be fighting in school, but he didn't have the patience to deal with bullies right now. To his amusement, the kid actually burst into tears. "Yeah, welcome to my world, asshole."
Unsurprisingly, Morty was sent to the principal's office after that incident. Principal Vagina tried to seem sympathetic over the fact that Morty had been being bullied, but apparently he didn't think it was a good enough reason to hit another student.
"Do I need to call your parents?"
Morty wasn't scared by the threat. What were his parents going to do? Yell at him? Tell him they were "so disappointed in him"? "They're at work. Call Rick."
His principal seemed surprised that Morty wasn't putting up more of a fight to get out of trouble and hesitantly picked up the phone to do just that. Ten minutes later, his grandpa was standing in front of him, eyes narrowed and arms crossed as he stared down at Morty in anger.
"I wasn't even gone for ten minutes, Morty!" Rick had barely began flying back home when his phone started ringing and it was Morty's school demanding he come pick up his now suspended grandson. Rick had no idea what had happened between dropping his grandkids off and the phone call, but he was pissed that Morty had gotten into trouble.
Morty ignored that outburst and turned to face his principal. "Are we done here? Can I go home now?"
Rick's eyes grew wide in disbelief at how casual Morty was being about this and it appeared Principal Vagina felt the same way.
"Morty Smith, you hit another student. Do you not see how serious this is?"
"It isn't that serious. I get bullied and hit by students all the time and nobody ever gives a fuck about me. But suddenly it's a big deal when I hit somebody once? He'll be fine. Maybe he'll even learn to stop being an asshole." Morty let out a heavy sigh as he leaned back in his chair and rolled his eyes. This was so pointless. Nobody had been seriously hurt and everything would likely be fine the next day. He just wanted to get this dumb meeting over with and go home. "I'm going to go wait in the car."
Morty didn't wait for a response and strolled out of the principal's office and Rick muttered out an apology as he hurried after his grandson. He quickly caught up with his grandson in the hallway and grabbed Morty by the arm, forcing him to turn around and look at Rick. "The fuck is wrong with you?"
"The same thing that's wrong with you, asshole."
Rick ignored the jab. Morty wasn't wrong, but he also wasn't right. At least Rick knew when to pick his battles and this whole incident at school didn't seem like it had been a battle worth picking. "You're going to go back in there and apologize to that kid you hit."
"No, I'm not." Morty jerked his arm out of Rick's grip and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not spewing some useless apology for something I'm not sorry for. You wouldn't."
"This isn't about me, Morty."
"Oh, wow. Something isn't all about you for once?" Morty's scowl finally changed, a look of fake shock replacing it, and he dramatically looked around at a non-existent audience. "Quick, somebody take a picture. That will probably never happen again."
"You're grounded, Morty." Rick froze when his grandson laughed. Morty actually fucking laughed at that.
"You aren't my fucking dad, Rick. So stop acting like it."