Rick landed with a careless thud, sliding out of the space cruiser with one swift step and slamming the door shut behind him with the rest of the family inside. Everyone's belts were still buckled.

I had to lean forward, peering over Mrs Smith's head, to see Rick begrudgingly walk around the front of the ship.

His fists were balled up, stuffed into his coat pockets as he dragged his feet into the venue. Rick was annoyed, you could feel it sitting in the back. He'd been seething with vexation from the second I stepped out of the house. I felt my eyebrows furrow as I unbuckled my seatbelt, my eyes refusing to let Rick stray out of my sight.

Nearly tripping on the hem of my dress as I step out, I pat myself off and straight out the wrinkle on my hip. It isn't long before I take in my surroundings.

Planet Squanch really looked like a stereotypically alien planet. Like if you asked someone from the 50's what they thought an alien planet looked like. They'd say it had multiple moons, all the colour blue, in a bluish-yellowish green sky surrounded by red dirt. It honestly looks like this place is made of Play-Doh... kinda smells like it, too.

"Rick Sanchez! You psycho bag of squanch--!" Rick walked right through that crackhead looking cat. He sorta looked familiar to me, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. That thing looked stunned, like Rick's behaviour was just so unexpected. But I've gotten used to this part of Rick.

It flips like a switch for him, he's either on or he's off.

Summer's gasp followed by a long screeching squeal spooked me, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand. I snapped in her direction. She was running to embrace--

"TAMMYYY!"

Ughhhhhhhh....

"Oh, you made it!"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Nice, another character I forgot about. Don't know how...

She's that dreadful bitch I met back in Chapter Three, so you know that was a long while ago.

I mean, for good reason I forgot she existed. I never liked her. You know she rubbed me the wrong way when I first met her, and she still gives me that bad vibe.

"Hi Gwen." Tammy said through an obviously forced smile, as if she had to behave on her wedding day.

I nodded solemnly before picking up the hem of my dress again, "Tam."

Nothing really mattered to me right now, other than what was going on with Rick.

Now, if I were a nihilistic alcoholic old man who was forced to come to this wedding where on Planet Squanch would I be?

Hmm...

Hmmm.....

....

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....

Okay, yeah yeah I heard you. Which one of you called me a Dora the Explorer type bitch??

Shut the hell up. I'm going to the bar.

Morty, in his tiny little suit, was there already. Talking to Rick. Dress still in hand as my heels clicked with zeal, running towards them at the bar, I was too far away to hear any of what they were saying. 

Right as I reach them both, Morty's already seemingly had enough of Rick and storms off after Rick turned away from him to attend to his vodka. Morty doesn't even really take notice of me at first, he was that mad.

My eyes darted from Morty to Rick, melting away from a look of concern to a look of sour confusion. "Richard, what the hell's going on?"

"Don't call me that." Rick mumbled before taking another shot. "You know I'm not into formalities."

I smirked at him playfully. I stared deeply into his bald spot before hopping up on the barstool sitting next to him, my long black train trailing down the back behind me. "Well, technically I didn't know that. You never really corrected me the first time I called you that." I giggled, smirking toothily and cocking my shoulders up as I played with a glass coaster on the tabletop.

"My Gwen would've known that."

My smirk dropped, "Yeah..." I drooped on the bar stool as his words soaked in with me. My elbows propped up on the bar.

"Is that what's bothering you?" I reached out to touch the tip of his free grey hand, cold and kinda clammy.

Rick paused for a bit, his nose in his drink, before saying something again.

"After you left the garage, it just really sort of sank in, you know? Of course I knew way back when that you were you, I just..."

I felt my eyebrow raise quizzically. "You just...?"

His shoulders shrugged. "I pushed back the thought of what might happen. Now that you know, I mean."

Is... Is he talking about the changes?

"You know," my mood turned sour again. "You haven't looked at me once since we got here. If it's--"

"Yeah, why do you think?" Rick cut me off, turning his whole body around to face me. He abandoned his drink, wiping at his lip before speaking. "I can assure you it's not for the reason you think. You look so fucking gorgeous. Just knowing you look this beautiful in that slip is pissing me off. Just imagine if I let myself look at you. I'd shoot the head off the next guy who'd look back just to get another glance at you."

I scoffed sheepishly, "Yeah? I mean, yo-you-- I-I..." I sigh, cheeks flushed pink. "Thanks Rick."

He smirked faintly, turning back around to gulp the rest of his vodka. Rick sighs with his glass still in hand, staring up at all the foreign bottles of liquor behind the bartender, "I'm glad you came with us."

My wandering eyes cocked his way again, "Eh?"

The corner of his mouth pulled up into a smirk. "I said what I said."

I chortled. "W-wait, so it doesn't surprise me that the Mr Sanchez is hesitant to show emotion but shit on my shoe if that's not what's bothering you."

Rick furrowed his eyebrow at me, "Shit on your shoe...?"

"Do you hate going to weddings because it reminds you of your marriage?"

With a deadpan look in his eye, his eyebrow stiff and his body turned halfway facing the bar, he just looks at me before folding over the countertop and directing his attention on something far off.

I sighed, folding my arms over my chest after running a hand down the side of my hair, smoothing down any wispies that got loose. I watched as the alien bartender took a glass from under the counter and raise a hose up to it, filling it up with what I hoped was just water. He slid the glass over to me before walking away to shine the far end of the counter.

"Look, Rick." Inhaling deeply and subtly, I didn't really take into account what I wanted to say. What came out next was just mostly me thinking out loud. "I know I may not be... your wife, ok? I understand that. I-I may not be the woman you married, but I sure as shit know that lamenting over it isn't going to rewrite history. It's not."

I noticed Rick glance at me from the corner of his eye, head still faced forward.

"You can sit there all you want and side-eye me but no matter how many shots you take, your marriage will still forever stay as a reminder to you. That the smartest man in the universe had one failure that even idiots could achieve: you couldn't make a marriage work. You fell in love, against every logical bone in your body, statistically knowing that it could end up the way it---"

"Your point, Gwendolyn?" Rick snapped. "What.. the fuck... is your point?"

I dug my heel into the barstool to swivel me around to face Rick fully. My hands intertwined and sitting on my lap, my head hung low as I slowly breathe in.

"There isn't a universe you could hop to that doesn't involve you and I... technically I... working out in the end. There is no happy-go-lucky universe in existence where everything worked out and we live together as an old couple, with Beth a successful surgeon for humans, and the grandkids---" I peeked up to catch Rick's reaction. "It's... still very weird of me to say."

"I lived a good 17 years back in my timeline before being sucked out to this one. I've been stuck here for years, God knows how long with my mentality growing with every turn of the sun but my body refusing to give up the facade. This was all before realizing Morty existed, before I realized I was living right next door to my family. Morty's the reason why. He's how I found you."

Rick was now facing me, the look on his face softened. I could tell now that he was getting tipsy.

"Since the facade's been broken, all the mirages around me are fading. My adoptive parents, the way I look, the way I feel... it's made me think of the future a lot and I realize that if it is going down the path I think it's going to go, then I might as well just live it out to the fullest. I mean, I've got my family living right across from me. Things are out of my control right now, and I think I'm ok with that. Whatever happens next is for the universe to decide... right?"

I held my breath, biting down on my lip, my eyes pinched shut. I was sort of scared to see how Rick would react to all of this. I was kind of nihilistic with it, but I hoped I wasn't too harsh with my projection.

"I... I just want you to be happy, Rick."

Slowly, I opened one eye to see what Rick had plastered on his face.

He waited until I eased up, had both my eyes opened and my shoulders relaxed, before reaching out to hold my hand.

"Winnie," a cool shiver ran up my spine when he called me by that long forgotten nickname.

"It's sweet of you to care about me like that, but... well, you shouldn't invest a lot of emotion into me. I tend to disappoint..." The entire time Rick held my hand he was rubbing the back of it with his thumb, which was so soothing up until he basically told me not to care about him.

I yanked it out of his reach. "Rick, how could you say something like that? It's not like you have a-a target on your back or a price on your head or something."

Rick chuckled, "You don't know the half of it, sweetie." He turned to tap on the countertop again, demanding the attention of the bartender to fill his drink again. I just sat there and sighed, lifting up the back of my low ponytail with my fingers and rubbing the nape of my neck. As if I could rub out all the stress I'd been retaining.

I reached out to take my glass of water before fixing my dress and stepping up off of the barstool. I had a right mind to just leave him there and let him drink his self-pity away, but...

Something held me back.

I stopped after taking a few steps away from the bar. Cautiously turning on my heel, I walk back towards Rick.

Once I reach him, I wrap my free arm around Rick's shoulders and plant a soft kiss on his cheek. I hugged him from behind, tight enough to feel our heartbeats sync.

"You know I don't deserve you."

"Rick," I breathed. "I know the kind of man you are. I know you. I also know that the universe will toss you a bone soon, one way or another. Just... just this once, now that I know who I am, please just ease up. If not for you or anyone else, do it for me..."

Stepping out of the hug and away from Rick, I turned again and started making my way to the ceremony. Hopefully my words with Rick will resonate, because we're at a wedding.

I mean, really.

What's the worst that could happen, aside from Tammy being a total bitch?

* chapters twenty-three to twenty-five: june nineteenth *