I know I know, it's been over a year since this story got updated.

I'm sorry, the... pandemic hit my area incredibly hard and I wasn't in the best of mind spaces to do a lot of anything.

Luckily my issues have subsided to a point where I have been able to grow small platform on twitch and build a working PC.

I hope my readers enjoy this chapter and what I might have planned.

Thanks for sticking with Rick, the Watterson's, and I.


~Gumball's Perspective~

"All I'm saying is, when has a new addition to the family brought just good with it?" Darwin says to me as we walk to the buses for the ride home.

"Isn't it odd that he's helping him?" Carrie tacks on to Darwin's question.

"Is something happening here," Anais asks, more confused by my reluctance to talk about something with Darwin than the conversation in general.

"Nothing important," I reply as I try to think about the assignment.

"You think that Zach being here is not important?" Darwin asks, astonished by my statement.

"Look," I sigh, "whether he's back or not, which is hard to confirm because I don't see anything in that bottle there;…" as I motion to the corked glass bottle Carrie had in her hands, "in which she said ghosts can be seen by the living, doesn't matter when it comes to Rick."

"He said Rick was helping him!" Carrie exclaims.
"Do what?" I shoot back, "Huh? Rick isn't even here and, for some reason, you two are trying to make him out to be a bad guy. Carrie I understand, she met him for the first time today; but you Darwin? Why are you so adamant that he might be trying to get one over on us?"

"It just makes sense," Darwin explains, "First off, Anais is unknowingly left with another you who tries and succeeds to ditch her. We meet two sketchy guys, who we never really see here at school, at the park while investigating this other you. We get a call from a hospital that you're hurt, but you were right there when it came in. You get there and there he is with stolen money and the sketchy guys. And now Zach's back as spirit-adjacent? How can you not be suspicious?"

"We accidentally tested him, remember? That evil incarnate turtle attacked him when it would avoid other forms of true evil."
"When unprovoked. How do we know he didn't have it attack him to give him 'evidence' that he wasn't a bad guy?"

"Why would he do that? Seriously, why? To get into our drowning-in- and-out-of-poverty family? To take my astronomically comedic stress-filled and danger-prone life? There's nothing that's good about my life aside from the love we have for each other in our family! That is the only thing I can think of that he might want, and if so we should let him get that love!"

"Gumball," Carrie pipes up, "Just think. Both Zach and Rick have something that would make them hostile to you. Rick was your ignored conscience, the thing tells you not to do something since the consequences could be bad. And Darwin told me that Zach messed with your memories in order to take over your body."

"Yeah, I was there, Carrie," I snarked.

"Both were a part of you that you refused and locked away. It's not far-fetched that they might have gotten together to mess with you."

"There's just one actual problem with that," I sigh.

"Which is?" Both Darwin and Carrie say.

"He purposefully avoided not just me, but our entire family," I say, "He could have hurt Anais in some way to hurt our relationship without saying he's someone else. He could have destroyed my relationship with Penny by gaslighting her or promising something that I'd have no idea about. He had stolen money and could have used that to get me arrested and sent to Juvie. He's had ample opportunity to turn my life upside down, and yet he hasn't. He was here for almost an entire week and the only bad thing that happened was that fall I had in the park, which obviously was not his fault. So yeah, I have a little more trust in him. Should I? I'll cross that bridge when I get there."

I walk away from them, head on to the bus and find a seat.

`I understand they are just looking out for me, but Darwin knows that I've felt Rick's feelings every now and then. Not once did I feel anger or jealousy.`

"Ahem"

I look to the sound of someone clearing their throat to see Jamie rubbing her arm sheepishly. I insta-recede into the side of the bus, having nowhere to go.

"Is it alright if I get off at your stop?" she asks before saying, "I wanna apologize to Rick." She begins to turn beet red as I just sit here with my mouth ajar.

I blink a couple times, not believing my eyes, "sure…" is all I could muster. She nods her head and sits across the aisle.

`Is she blushing? Apologize? Wait… I need to apologize as well.`

Darwin walks up the aisle and sits with me while Carrie and Anais take the seat behind us.

"Will you be quiet…" I hear Carrie mutter. I look to see her talking to the bottle.

`Why does Rick want to help Zach anyway?`


~Rick's Perspective~

4 hours ago

I'm sitting on the school steps waiting for my ride and thinking about how Bryce had 28 favors he could call in from Principal Brown. Apparently, Bryce came across 34 illegal and/or immoral actions, decisions, and items that lead back to Principal Brown. In return for not ratting him out, Bryce only asked for favors regarding his time in school. Bryce didn't want to pad his grades, but he made sure absences and detentions wouldn't affect him nor would they be on his records.

'What else does he have on him?'

I shake the thoughts out of my head and look back on my first day. How everything went well until lunch. My breakdown in the hallway might have been building up to then as I thought about it more.

'How do you fix that?'

I feel my leg bouncing and try to calm down, but I only cause a chill to spread throughout my body. This feeling settles at the base of my ears and I begin to rub there. As I continue rubbing, I hear commotion from up the road and I know what to expect.

Looking up I see a familiar scene of a station wagon speeding down the road with an army of patrol cars behind it blaring their sirens. I throw my head back and sigh deeply, but in spectacular and frightening fashion the station wagon pops onto the sidewalk on two wheels. While I can't fully describe how; without slowing down, or crashing, the driver was able to yank me into the car and fasten me into the passenger seat within a half a second before getting back on the road.

I am clutching the head of the seat as my heart pounds so hard I think I can see an outline of it under my shirt. I look over at the driver and, sure enough, it's the father of the Watterson family in only a robe and underwear. I smell something and look on the dashboard to see an open extra Large pizza box with 3 slices left in it. I also notice my feet touching something and when I check there's a sack with the dollar sign.

'Oh… oh no...'

"So…" Richard begins trying to be calm, "How was school?"

"Fine…" I squeak sheepishly as we go over a hill. With frightened sarcasm I ask, "How was your day?"

"Oh it wasn't half bad," he said as drifted around a corner, "Woke up not long after you all left, made myself breakfast, called the fire department to put out my breakfast, watched some tv, fell asleep, woke up again, ordered a pizza, realized I didn't have any money for the pizza, raced off to the bank, somehow crashed through the vault, made a withdrawal, rushed home to pay the delivery man, received an urgent call from the school to come pick you up, heard the sirens head towards the school, and then hurried to save you from the emergency."

"Well, I'm good," I tell him, "but I don't think the sirens are for a school emergency. If they were, wouldn't you have to pick up everyone else?"

Richard just goes silent for a while, about 3 minutes, before slamming on the breaks and exclaiming, "Did I rob the bank!?"

A series of thuds, crashes, and screams fill the air as behind us each patrol car rams into each other as the ones in front come to a screeching halt.

~30 minutes and 1 remorseful apology in jail later~

"I can't believe they allowed me to put the stolen money up for bail," I say as we get back into the station wagon.

"Sliver linings, Rick, sliver linings," Richard remarks as he starts the engine.

"I'm pretty sure it's 'silver linings,'" I respond back.

"If we had silver we wouldn't have needed the money."

'... how did he graduate?...'

I look at the dash and see there's still an hour and a half left in the school day. I sigh then look out at the scenery as we go by. I roll the window down and feel this light warm breeze go across my face. I begin to imagine myself skating on the air alongside the car, doing various tricks and flips to avoid the people and objects on the sidewalk. My imaginary self now is just gliding gracefully when there is no obstacle like he has no care in the world. I close my eyes as I imagine gliding on air high above the ocean, just passing by clouds.

"So…" Richard begins, which brings my focus back to the car, "what happened at school, Rick?"

"I'm honestly surprised you got my name right," I say without thinking as I roll the window back up.

"Well yeah," He responds proudly, "I may not be the smartest, or even smart, but I do know who my kids are," before he mumbles, "some of the time."

"You really see me as your kid?" I ask looking back at him, ashamed of my comment.

"Yes, of course. No matter how you got here you're one of our Watterson boys. A part of this... ," he rattles on before he trails off as a curious look appears on his face as we pull up to the house. I look to see what he is looking at, but I don't see anyone or anything of note. He then asks, "Was that the emergency?"

I look at him confused, "Huh?"

"Was your emergency because you don't see yourself as part of the family?"

I'm just sitting here, mouth closed tight, shocked and embarrassed that my issue was out. I look down and twiddle my toes. I feel my anxiety rising from my shame.

"I don't know a lot of things, but I do have things that I think about myself. 'Am I being a good dad? Am I a good husband? Does my family actually love me? Will I turn out just like my own dad? How bad did I mess up?' That last one is often and, obviously, very recent. These thoughts always pop up when I see I did something not so good, even when I haven't done anything. Everyone has something they worry about, whether they should or not. You can't ignore them cuz they'll just get bigger and bigger until they're all you think about."

"Then what can I do?" I ask him. I look up from my feet to meet his gaze. His eyes glisten with repressed tears and my question is answered.

"There's no 1-size-fits-all cure-all for this feeling," he says, "Each person has a way to make the feeling go away; whether for good or for like 30 minutes. It varies. Some people's ways involve them hurting themselves or hurting others. Some, luckily for them, have it disappear all on it's own. Some try to ignore it until it either goes away naturally or it festers to a point where it'll never go away."

"How do you deal?" I ask my last question. He looks me in my eyes, like he's trying to speak to my very soul.

"I learned what 'fester' meant."


Hope you enjoyed what I'm setting up and, of course, leave a review, if you can.

Best wishes,

GreyLoki