Five months.

It's been five months since Rick handed himself in to the intergalactic confederation.

The day they came to pick us up off of the miniature Earth I can still remember it like it was yesterday. I remember feeling my heart sink in my chest watching the confederation's hovercrafts land and those lanky bug aliens hop it, armed and aiming their weapons at Beth and Jerry. Beth's hands were up over her head, tears in her eyes as she realized what was happening. Jerry had his hands up too, but he was very clearly relieved to be 'rescued.' He even went so far as to embrace one of the aliens, sobbing at their clawlike feet.

I rolled my eyes. That dramatic prick.

When we got back to Earth, things were so different. Unbelievably different.

I guess things are looking up for Jerry because the second we get back, the planet's taken over by the confederation. They gave him a job right away, but the downside to that is they're paying him in narcotics. 

Trying to medicate us... Earthers? Is that what they'd call us? 

Well, they're trying to medicate us to keep us from jumping at the opportunity to overthrow the intergalactic government. 

Ever since, Jerry's been a lot more of a show-off. A lot more pompous, a lot more so I've noticed when he gets his way or when the opportunity strikes where he finds himself successful. 

I don't think about him like that often, though. Thinking like that about my son-in-law is turning me into Rick.

.... but then again, that shouldn't be considered an insult. 

I remember sitting in the Smiths' living room, arms folded over my chest and wrapped around me in an embrace. An attempt to try and comfort myself in reaction to the reality of everything. An attempt made in vain. 

"B-- uhh... Mrs Smith?" My arms are still crossed, I stand up to follow her into the kitchen as she reaches into the fridge. "Gwen, honey, could you reach up into the cupboards and pass me a glass?" I hesitated. My eyes gazed around the kitchen for a moment before they landed on the cupboards up above my head, having to get on my tippy toes to reach up onto the bottom shelf, snatching the closest wine glass to the edge. 

Beth pulled out a half empty bottle of red wine, I heard it clink as she set it down on the countertop. I must've given her a look because she gave me a dry chuckle, "This is a very common coping method. I'd offer you some, too, but you're underage..." She popped the cork and poured herself a glass, just almost a full glass, before taking a sip. "... aren't you?"

I fixed the sleeve of my dress, pulling it slightly down past my wrist. "I mean, I think so." I muttered under my breath, rubbing the nape of my neck. "Yeah, n-no thank you."

"It helps, it really does. I-I of course don't mean to do it in front of you, but--"

"No, no don't worry about it Mrs Smith. I don't..." I sighed. "I'm not one to judge." Anymore. I leaned up against the countertop before launching myself up to sit on it. Beth leaned up against the counter, wine in hand, allowing a gentle silence to settle in the kitchen between us. I didn't mind it, it just gave me a lot to think about.

"What was Rick like? Growing up, I mean."

Beth took a longer sip. 

"Oh, my father was... eccentric. He was just like he is now, a lot of his time was spent in his studies and... yeah." She stifled a chuckle. Beth swivelled a finger around the rim of her glass, looking deep into the dark mahogany liquid as she spoke. "I'm just... glad he was back in my--ou-our lives," She said that last bit a little too loudly. "For as long as he was. It was really sweet to see Morty grow his relationship with his grandfather." She gulped the rest of her glass in one swig, reaching out for the bottle to pour some more in her cup.

"What happened to your parents?" My heart sank. "I noticed they don't come by to visit anymore." 

My fingers were tapping impulsively on my lap, and it only took me now to realize it. I stopped, leaping up off the counter and landing on the cold floor with my bare feet. "Yeah, umm, about that..." I breathed deeply and exhaled before continuing. "I've sorta been living on my own since the wedding. I don't want to talk about it right now but I would like you to know that I've grown, I'm of age so there's no need to report this in and send me off somewhere. I was actually hoping  to ask you if I could--"

"Oh..." Beth clamped a hand over mouth, her voice shaky before dropping her hand down to graze her collarbone. "Oh sweetheart, yes of course." She set down her glass to step over and pull me into her embrace. "You can stay for as long as you like. I-I understand." 

It was an odd but familiar feeling hugging Beth. I had never hugged her before today. It was like arriving at a childhood home decades after moving out, reentering the home and knowing the layout by memory. You could walk it blindfolded. Every nook, every crevice, every corner, you knew it but it all just also felt very strange. 

That's what it was like hugging my future daughter.

****

Sleeping in Rick's room the first night felt cramped to me, mostly because I was so used to my ginormous room... that, and Rick's been sleeping on a cot all these years he's been at the house. 

But over the past few months, I've gotten over it. 

I've gotten bored since I moved in as well. Things are much less quirkier without Rick around, I can see it every time I talk to Morty. Like he's lost his spark. It's what made me explore outward and peruse around the garage, through Rick's work mostly. It was a month and a half after Rick was incarcerated that I, out of complete boredom, started killing time by getting into tinkering again. The first thing I made in his garage was on a whim: it was a pistol that allowed its bullets to ricochet multiple times off the enemy after the initial impact. Having tried it on a pig I bought, it ricocheted off within the body twelve times within a split second before exiting the body.

The ricochet pistol was the invention that pushed me forward into motion. It took me about a week and a half to perfect it, so you could imagine what else I came up with leading up to the day I picked. Retribution Day, I call it, to put my hard work to good use and bust Rick out of jail.

My next big thing was a hovercraft of my own creation, to help me travel undetected into the facility and for a speedy escape once I get a hold of him. I used one of the unused blueprints scrolled up in the dustiest corner of the garage, filling in all the information such as the date and the name of my work-in-progress. 

I was writing down my name when I stopped at the initial of my surname.

Gwendolyn S--

It just felt so natural to write down another name, one that I've been so programmed to use. One that wasn't mine. I struggled --I actually struggled-- to remember the name I had before I was ripped out of my timeline. 

Having some self-awareness, aside from the fact that I'm an OC in a Wattpad fanfic, has struck me like a truck. It's been freaking me out ever since I found out I've been reliving suppressed memories through my dreams. That morning in the garage, realizing who Rick was for the first time, followed by the loss of my adoptive parents. Then finding out that I was right not to trust that Tammy loser. It's all just been a little... traumatic for me lately. Today, I reclaim my identity.

With the ballpoint pen gripped in my hand, I scratched out the S.

I am Gwendolyn Bouvier.

****

Equipped with every weapon I'd crafted these past five months, I finish loading up the space cruiser with the Meeseeks boxes in the back seat. I'm suited up in the snag-proof, skin-tight bodysuit I also made that has a built-in invisibility cloak. I have my hair tied up last minute in a tight high ponytail, securing everything is set in place and ready to be set in motion. Nothing can go wrong, I'll make sure of it. 

I clean up the garage just before I go. Before everything is set to go, I need to make sure his things are in order before his arrival, I'm that confident everything will go successfully according to plan. There's crap I left all over the counter that I have to sweep up, but in that moment I find a picture of Rick with Morty and Summer at an arcade called Blitz and Chitz. 

I can't help but smile at it. It's a picture I found the first night I stayed with the Smiths. 

Folding it twice, I take it into the vehicle with me before closing the door shut behind me. I'm thinking about Summer and Morty. I've already decided that I want them to have zero part in this, I can't risk losing them too. I need to rescue Rick on my own.

The space cruiser has a pointed nose, extendable wings, and a jet-like appearance. I made it to travel fast, so it could take off at a speed of 300 miles per hour from a flat zero. It's already parked out by the curb on the street, I'm still standing in the open garage collecting the last things I need. 

The very last thing I do is look at the mirror I've propped up in the garage. Popping on the collar made to help me when in battle, I take one last good look at myself in the mirror.

I make it into the hovercraft, take off, cut straight to the institution with the cloak on. I activate the drill set into the cone of the nose, cutting in to create my own entrance. When I make it in fully, I pull out and park up the craft, locking it up with my key and folding it up to pocket away for later.

All I have to do is throw it forward and it will unfold itself, popping its door open for me to slide in and operate it to escape the vicinity.

I have the Meeseeks boxes tucked under both of my arms, ready to go when I need it most. When I reach heavy security, I'll activate both boxes with at least twenty taps each. A temporary army of forty Mr. Meeseekses. Disintegrate the guards. Tap one box ten times. Protect me.

Once I reach the cells, I use my tracker after implementing some of Rick's DNA into the contraption. It's meant to locate him within seconds of activation. Once I find him, I use the miniature laser to cut the lock, free him, we hug for a sec and then get the hell out of there. We get caught in a mess of enemy guards, it's tough for us to hop over this line but we love a challenge. I hand Rick one of my weapons, hooked on the belt loosely hanging off my hips, and we start a firework show. He takes one out, I take one out; he shoots someone rushing up behind me and I take out someone rushing up behind him. It's wild, starting to get out of hand. Rick's out of ammo, he's looking to me for some help but I'm running out of ammo too. Soon enough, I'm fully out. I give him one devious smirk and open the side panel on the collar around my neck. It gives me the ability to cheat time and take out each one of these goons individually, all the while in real time it just takes me two seconds. 

We've made it to the edge of the penitentiary and I tell Rick to leap, hoping he trusts me enough to risk his life for my word. I leap off the edge along with him, reaching into one of my suit's pockets and throwing my folded up hovercraft down before us.

I choke on my gasp when it hesitates to open. The atmosphere around the penitentiary is racing towards us, we're about to leave it and fully enter outer space. I pray it opens, I pray again and again for it to unfold. After every test run, after all the hours I've spent making it, that thing just won't open on the day I need it to. No other options can be accepted here. It needs to open.

It opens. God heard me. I fall in through the roof, having had calculated a near perfect positioning of the passenger seat where Rick would fall in. I zip out of the atmosphere and as far away as I can get from the place, I have a bad feeling that we'll be followed. But of course, that's when I'll activate my cloak... which of course malfunctions. A dogfight ensues. I do my best to dodge every bullet that comes our way, letting Rick take the wheel and handle the pistols I have attached to the cruiser while I try and have the problem fixed underneath the steering wheel.

Mind you, I'm lying on my back on the floor right in between Rick's legs while I have the cruiser's cloak fixed. I manage though, no thanks from the couple of barrel rolls Rick had to pull off to shake them off our back. He did warn me the first few times, but the last one was super out of left field.

We make it back home, safe and sound of course, where Rick marvels at my cruiser and I tell him  how the family's been for the past five months. "You've really outdone yourself, sweetie. I'm impressed." 

"We're not done here yet. They'll still be out looking for you, you know that? And about Earth being enslaved by the intergalactic confederation--"

"Leave it to me," Rick belches. "I've been saving this baby since Rixty Minutes. It's a virus that'll only attack everything that isn't native to Earth, fauna and flora alike, digital and biological."

"Oh yeah, that sounds like you. Shouldn't be too hard, considering you've unleashed something like that before--"

"I don't need to be reminded of C-137, but thanks for reminding me."

This expedition's going to be difficult. 

So, now that I've got everything planned in detail and ready to be executed, let's set sail.

I just hope Summer and Morty will understand why I have to leave them behind this time. I really do hope everything goes according to plan.

It's only then that I hear the door open.

My heart stops, sinking down to my stomach.

"Gwen?"