As the family and I were settled in our seats, I couldn't help but notice a man walking around making the guests uncomfortable.

He had his eyes wide open, like unnaturally wide.

He claimed he was the wedding photographer.

But something about how conspicuous this guy was and unashamed he appeared.

Funny enough, just as I was about to bring it to Summer and Morty's attention, Rick grabs my attention. It looks like he might've done it unintentionally, he was staring off into space but was staring directly at me from across the table.

It took him a moment before standing up, clearing his throat and reaching for his champagne glass to get the attention of the room. But most importantly, of Birdperson.

"Uh, hi everybody. I'm Rick."
He was reading off of this tiny little napkin, which he clearly had just to do a bit. I knew he was going to crumple it up for satiric effect. "You know, when I first met Birdperson, he was... uhh..."

He crumples the napkin up, like I predicted, and continues,

"Listen, I'm not the nicest guy in the Universe because I'm the smartest. And being nice is something stupid people do to hedge their bets. Now, I haven't been exactly subtle about how little I trust marriage. I couldn't make it work, and I could turn a black hole into a sun. So, at a certain point, you got to ask yourself what are the odds this is legit and not just some big lie we're all telling ourselves because we're afraid to die alone? Because, you know, that's exactly how we all die... alone."

Our table groans. Rick's eyes lands on me and solely me. He's searching my eyes for a reaction. I smile faintly at him, subconsciously nodding in encouragement.

"But... but... Here's the thing."

"Birdperson is my best friend, and if he loves Tammy, well, then I love Tammy, too." The room applauses, my smile grows.

"To friendship, to love, and to my greatest adventure yet... opening myself up to others."

Rick takes his seat again, setting down the glass with a genuine grin plastered on his face. He looked really happy, finally giving in and just lowering his defences. I watched as he relaxed his shoulders, slumping back into his chair as he looks up to the nest pedestal Tammy and Birdperson were on.

After the applause died down, Tammy stood up.

I mentally rolled my eyes before crossing my arms over my chest, slumping forwards on the tabletop. The only thing supporting me up is my hand acting as a pillar under my chin. I cocked an eyebrow her way, I couldn't be any more disinterested in what Tammy had to say for herself. I get that it was pretty rude of me to be this way at her wedding --especially at her wedding-- but I have my reasons.

"Thank you, Rick. That was beautiful. Blah blah blah, high school senior from the planet Earth, blah blah, blah blahhhh." The room fills with laughter.

I subconsciously wore black to her wedding. That right there should tell you how I feel towards her...

"Blah blah not a high school senior from the planet Earth, blah blah."

... but Tammy just itched me the wrong way.

"Blah blah blah blah, what I really am is a deep-cover agent for the galactic federation, and you guys are a group of wanted criminals, and this entire building is, in a certain sense, surrounded."

I-

Instinctively, my eyes shot up at Summer and Morty. It was just settling in with them, and they soon realized after they fully saw the whole picture.

"I don't get the metaphor." Beth shrugs subtly. "Mrs Smith, maybe we should get going..." I reached out for her hand already sprawled out on the table as I pushed my chair out.

"Everyone here is under arrest for crimes against the federation."

My God.

That 'photographer' was comparing mugshots to guests--

Rick.

When my eyes darted his way in desperation, he looked stuck in place. Frozen in time. It sent shivers down my spine.

"Mrs Smith! We really should be g--"

A gunshot rips through the air, startling me. It surprises everyone in the room and everyone at home who saw that episode for the first time.

I have to turn me body all the way around to see Birdperson on the ground, twitching with a ton of gunshot wounds to the chest. My hand slaps over my mouth to hold in the yelp as I watched him helplessly lie there. I see Rick and he's just about lost it, screaming Birdperson's name and screeching in disbelief.

Out of the blue, these bug-fly alien hybrids burst through the ceiling and erupt from every exit in the venue. My heart starts rapidly pounding. My fight-or-flight has been triggered, way back when Tammy revealed her true colours. This... this was fight-or-flight on steroids.

"ELIZABETH! Get the fuck out of here!!"

Gripping tightly onto my daughter's arm, I yank her up with such force that I didn't think twice on the possibility of accidentally hurting her. "SUMMER! MORTY! You too!! Get your fucking asses up, let's get the fuck out of here now!"

It's much too late to get far, we have to duck from the gunfire behind a table propped up as a shield to barricade us. Rick was off firing his weapon left and right, much too far away from us for me to call out to him.

I risk a peak out from around the table to see where I could safely get my family out of this mess. I saw the opening, glowing a heavenly white to the outside, when Rick literally slid over just as I was about to make a run for it with the family.

He shot upwards into the chin of an alien I hadn't spotted was so close to us. Rick instinctively reached into his lab coat to pull out his portal gun but was stopped by the Mega Bitch herself.

"Drop it! Slide it to the centre of the room."

I watched as he modified it quickly before obliging. Rick wrapped an arm around me to pull my curious self down, avoiding the blast.

Once it so very clearly stunned Tammy, we made a break for it with Rick leading the way and I on his heel.

Apparently, that coked up cat turned into the Hulk, but I'll let him do his thing in the background.

We ran as far and as fast as our legs could push us and then we ran father and faster than that. Rick reached a hover van, none of us hesitated and hopped in.

"What the hell happened b--" Summer stopped, interrupting herself with a scream when she saw one of the cyborgs climbing up the side of the van before swinging open the back doors and climbing in. It lunges itself straight towards Summer. As I attempt to shield Summer with my body, it managed to snake its fingers around my neck and try to choke the living hell out of me. The guy raises me high above his head, looking into my eyes as he appears to be warming up some kind of optical laser beam.

Morty, screaming like a howler monkey, attacks the cyborg from behind with a knife to the head which causes it to malfunction and glitch out a weakened grip. Dropping to my knees, gasping for air, it takes me a bit to catch my breath and recuperate.

I watch through blurred vision as the tuxedoed cyborg is roundhouse kicked by Morty out of the van, now at a high altitude, both of its back doors still wide open.

Little did we see the woman claw her way around the side at the entry, about to pull Jerry (who I've only now realized has been huddling in the corner with his legs up to his chest, teary-eyed and loudly freaking out) out of the flying van.

Maybe it was the fight-or-flight response in me. Or perhaps it was the adrenaline of it all. But it took me half a second to decide how I was going to handle this predicament.

At the front of the van, with my back to the back of Rick's seat, my feet were positioned properly and my knees bent. I rolled up the hem of my dress, balling it into my fists as I readied myself.

"Gwen," Rick muttered, eyes darting back and forth from the wheel and me. "Wh-what the hell do y'think you're doing...?"

The heel of my farthest foot launched me into a running start and I tackled the woman out of the van.

As I fell from the car, I could hear them gasp and scream. Calling out my name as I fell faster and faster with every second.

I watched as the cyborg plummeted closer to the ground, as tears collected in my eyes from the wind and the high altitude.

Closing my eyes, opening my arms wide, it at least felt a bit more like gliding downward.

It was getting so hard to breathe up here...

I'm.... I'm okay with this.

I felt and heard the undeniable sound of a swish. A portal opened up below me. My eyes opened up, even barely a squint, just seconds before I fell into the green swirling hole. I landed stomach first back into the van.

"Gwen!" "You--you scared us!" "Don't ever do something that stupid again!" Summer and Morty cried as they embraced me with a hug, warming me up from the shivering cold and breathlessness from what I had just went through. I chortled, pulling them in closer for a tighter hug. "This is on you guys!" Rick grunted, tucking his portal gun back into his lab coat. "I told you guys weddings are stupid."

****

The reality of everything is sinking in, after letting me marinate in it for some time since Rick came out and told us that we're essentially fugitives. We can't go back home. The intergalactic confederation want Rick and will stop at nothing to get him incarcerated.

The thought frightens me. Beth strapped to a chair being tortured by some lanky Beelzebub aliens... I'd rip their throats out with my teeth before I ever let any of them touch my kid.

Technically speaking, this universe's Gwen's kid.

So, here we are. In a log cabin we built on a miniaturized Earth. I mean, it was kinda cute to begin with but Jerry hogged all the bacon we had for breakfast... that we drove to extinction.

Speaking of Jerry, it's not even a second after Rick left to go for a walk to the South Pole and he's already openly talking shit about him behind his back. "I'm just saying, we keep acting like there's only two options but there's not. We go back to Earth, they'll want to interrogate us. I'm just saying what --and this is purely hypothetical here-- what if we just... turn your father in to the government?"

I furrowed my eyebrows in disgust and disbelief, sneering at him before folding my arms across my chest. "You'd really throw your father-in-law out to the wolves like that? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Jerald."

"Oh please, this is Rick we're talking about. Why should we go through hell for someone who would never do anything for anyone but himself? I need to be thinking about my family now and what's best for them... right, guys?"

Summer, Morty, and Beth all share the same disappointed look I have on my face. "For you to even discount Rick as family just goes to show the kind of patriarch you are. You're a cowardly piece of shit that hides behind the scapegoat you've made out of Rick. You claim to want to sacrifice Rick for the family but I can so clearly see through your bullshit: you just don't want car batteries hooked up to your nips over someone you very clearly despise."

"Your place, Gwen, is not with this family. You need to be reminded of it. And that's Mr Smith to you. You're just our neighbour, you don't qualify as--"

"She's just as much a part of our family as Rick is, Dad." Morty butted in, standing up for me. "And Gwen's right. Rick isn't a burden in our lives and he shouldn't be treated like he is. We love him... f-for the most part."

Summer chimed in, "Yeah, you don't love people in hopes of a reward. You love them unconditionally." Beth commends her kids, noting how proud she is of them for sticking by Rick. I could hear it in her voice, I didn't need to see it to know she was genuinely proud.

"Th-this is crazy!" Jerry snickers in disbelief. "You realize what he's doing is selfish, right? Keeping us trapped here when it's just him the government wants: the galaxy's most wanted."

Bickers fly across the room, everyone against Jerry in defence of Rick, and it gets heated when everyone starts talking over each other. I still haven't recovered from Jerry's remark. I feel out of place being there, so I thought it would be best if I just got up and left the cabin for some fresh air.

Just as I'm walking out of the fight, my hand on the knob to the open cabin door, I hear Beth retort with a shaky voice, "I don't want him to leave again, you dumb asshole!"

I'm holding my breath. After hearing that, I feel my heart sink and my eyebrows furrow. My hand's laying flat on my chest before clutching the pendant on my necklace. I walk around the cabin, taking off my pumps before beginning to stroll around the world as I pace. I reach a tiny little forest with a clearing, a patch of field with hills upon hills that lumped close together near by a mountain with a river at its foot.

Sitting by the streaming body of water, my legs sprawled out beside me as I grow weary and uncomfortable in my long black dress, I feel my eyelids get heavy.

I'm able to close them for a moment before seeing a tall pale figure emerge over the horizon, heading in my direction. It was Rick. He looked defeated, his hands were stuffed into the pockets of his coat, eyes facing down and droopy as he kicked at his feet.

"Rick?" His eyes perked up as I called his name. "How was the South Pole?" He flashed me a half smile, catching glimpse of it made me faintly smile too.

"Fine, fine..." He trailed off, looking everywhere else but at me. "Look," Rick lent a hand out to help me stand up. "I'm gonna go pick up some supplies for the cabin. Don't wait up."

I flashed a look at him. I didn't mean to. My eyebrow quizzically cocked up at him, something about the way he said it. He sounded deadpan. Like he had an obligation he had to take care of, like a chore almost. Whatever it was he had in mind, it sounded like he had no choice.

We were still holding hands, I realized.

He stood so close to me. I don't mind it at all. It's just so weird standing next to someone six feet tall, whereas I barely pass five foot one. I felt my cheeks grow hot when Rick caressed my cheek, trailing his finger down to my chin before softly pinching it. With that, he let go and started to make his way back to the cabin.

"You're lying."

Rick stopped in his tracks, he couldn't bare to turn around and face me.

"Please don't tell me you're going to do what I think you're about to do, Rick."

He sighed. I watched as his back curved, slumping forward before standing up straight and turning on his heel to speak to my face. "It's what's best. For--"

"So you'd just lie to me." I snapped at him. "This would be the last time I ever see you and the last thing you ever tell me is a lie? You couldn't have just been upfront with me?"

"This is exactly why I had to make something up." Rick groans, rolling his eyes at me.

"No, you don't have the right to give me that crap right now. I-I'm not like Morty, Rick. I'm not! You'd put me through the same pain as Morty or Summer would? The same exact pain Beth felt when you pulled this same shit all those years ago?"

"You wouldn't know a thing about it, sweetheart." He growled. "You weren't there for that, remember? She isn't your Beth--"

"And neither is she yours." I sneered at him, putting my hands on my hips. He scaled my height with a quick glance up and down me, snickering at our very noticeable height difference. "How are you shorter than Morty?" Rick chuckled, tucking a tuft of my windblown hair behind my ear. I smacked his hand away, fighting the lump in my throat from making me burst into tears.

"Rick, I'm serious..." I sighed. "If you go, you're leaving Beth again... you'll be leaving me again, and I just got you back. I-I know I'm not your Gwen, but that doesn't mean I won't relive that pain all over again..."

He took my hands again. Both in one hand, squeezing them reassuringly. "Gwen, you know I have no choice here." He attempts to walk past me and towards the cabin. "Just let me get this over with."

Turning around on the ball of my bare foot, I'm able to grab Rick by the sleeve of his lab coat.
"I won't let you."
"Gwen..."
"No! I-I won't let you do this! You can't! We'll find another way for you to--"

"I'm not going to fight with you over this stupid shit!" Rick groaned in exhaustion, pulling his arm out of my grip. "I've made up my mind. There's nothing you can say or do that'll change my goddamn mind! Just let me do this! Let me keep you safe!"

He looks me right in the eye to further illustrate his point. He's dead serious. "I need to do this..."

I couldn't stop them at this point. The tears were already blinding me, now they stained my face and impaired my speech as I choked up, my voice cracking as I struggled to keep from fully breaking down. "I understand."

Rick had made it just a few feet away from me before stopping again in his tracks. His back facing me.

"I just... worry about you so much."

He turned again, standing with his feet wide apart. I could tell through my blurred vision that he was studying the look on my face. I had to wipe my eyes dry with the back of my hand to see him more clearly. Once my eyes are dry, I see Rick standing there. Our eyes lock from so far away.

I could read the pain on his face. I could feel it, it was seeping from him.

A weak smirk plants on his lips as he opens his arms wide for me. With a flick of his wrists, he urges me to come. I break into a giggle, wasting no time to run into his arms, practically catapulting myself into his embrace. I feel him pick me up and I naturally wrap my legs around his hips as he spins me around. I felt the palm of his hand pass up the dip in my back, up and down my spine while his fingertips slowly yet softly traced alongside his palm. The cool of the breeze counteracted the warmth of his hold, his clothed arms against the bare skin of my back was almost intoxicating to experience. Like time had stopped for a few seconds.

He put on cologne for the wedding. Very subtly, but I could tell.

Rick held me so tight that he told me without speaking that he didn't want ever to let go of me.

I don't want to let him go.

Something in me expected him to say something to me. Like I'm waiting for him to say something, one last thing before he does what he has to do. But Rick says nothing. He squeezes me a little tighter, a little closer to him, before putting my feet back down on the soft grass.

With my head nuzzled safely in his chest and my eyes closed, I feel Rick's lips softly kiss my forehead. They weren't wet like I expected them to be. I'd noticed that.

He's not as intoxicated as he used to be.

Rick let me go, prying himself away from me and heading straight back to the cabin without exchanging another word with me.

I watched as his shoulder blades moved as he walked further and further away from me.

I notice something...

Rick's changed. For the better.