Plotted starter for @mcltiples & @evilmcg
The air in the lab was still and cold, saturated with the pungent smell of chemicals and disinfectant. Under other circumstances, there would have been other odours in the mix, coming from various experiments and test subjects, but Rick had made sure to remove any trace of his usual activities for the occasion.
Not only the procedure was delicate and demanded his utmost attention, but there was an emotional value to it. Not for him, of course, but for everyone else who was in the room with him. It seemed appropriated to treat it as a ritual.
The tools and devices he needed were already in place, perfectly aligned on the mobile side table set next to him, ready for use. He was very peculiar on how the instruments should be positioned, but he would have been more lenient about it today. After all, his counterpart would have been assisting him and he couldn't demand that the other knew every detail of his methods.
Grey blue eyes landed on the corpse that was lying on the operating table, studying it for a moment, blank expression unreadable. It had been perfectly preserved, as if mere seconds had passed from when her heart had stopped, but no one could have denied that this was a portrait of death.
The cold, naked flesh was too pale, closer to grey than to its usual rosy complexion. The hair was messy and spent, no trace of its usual volume and softness. The limbs were perfectly still and rigid. The face, unmoving and expressionless, was the biggest giveaway, even if he had made sure to close the eyes.
Holding a syringe in his gloved hand, Rick turned his attention on his other self, who was standing on the opposite side of the table.
"L-Let us begin," he spoke up, draining the vial of orange liquid that his counterpart was holding for him. "I-If any complication presents, I'll handle it myself."
Not that he thought that there would be any. It was a procedure he had perfected through the years. However, he knew better than being overly arrogant. In the unlikely case something went wrong, he would be ready.
Leaning against the whole, away from the too bright white lights, Morty watched in silence as his Rick injected the first drug in Meg's dead veins. Just as his second-in-command, his expression betrayed no emotion, even if his lips were pressed together in a thin line. A little hint that betrayed that he wasn't as unfazed as he was trying to look.
From his spot, he couldn't fully see the operating table, but he didn't need to when he could easily watch the procedure through his Rick's eyes. Literally.
Besides, even if he wouldn't have admitted it, he felt more comfortable remaining in the dim darkness. It made it easier for him to hide any reaction he might have against his will. Self-control wasn't something he lacked, but the feelings and the thoughts that had been festering inside him for weeks now had grown powerful and unpredictable.
Useless to say, the fact that he was conflicted about what was taking place in that moment didn't help. He would have never denied Meg the chance to be alive again. He could be cruel and he had been unfair to her plenty of times, but he would never cross such a line with someone he cared for. On the other hand, though, he couldn't stop thinking about how he would have soon be set aside, relegated to a background role while his counterpart and the girl were all over each other.
He had hoped that forcing them to put him at the centre of their world while she had been gone would have softened the blow that was about to come, but the knot that was squeezing his stomach in that moment told him that it hadn't worked.
Pathetic, that was what he was. Wounded by something as trivial as emotions. Perhaps this was for the best. It could have been his chance to walk away and get rid of the weakness that relationship had brought him.
A firm tug coming from the back of his mind snapped him out of his gloomy contemplations. He lifted his eyes just in time to meet his Rick's for a moment. No thought or gesture passed between them, but there was no need for it. He knew what he was being told.
Focus. Stay in the present. There would be time for everything else once he would have been alone, in the privacy of his flat.
