Futurama: Venus Triumphs Over Her Rock

Okay, so the reason it took me so long to get around to posting this update is because... um.. uh... my cat ate it. Yeah that's right, my cat ATE it! And i had to wait a while to get it back. So here it is.

And it's long too! Yay!

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Residence of Turanga Morris & Munda
4:45 pm
Recovery: Day 9

Leela could almost feel her blood pressure rising. It wasn’t that she was ungrateful of her parents extra attention, but there was really only so much hovering she could take.

“Mom, I’ve got it. I promise, I’m fine.” Trying her best to ignore her mother’s nagging she approached the sink and deposited her dishes. Munda had wanted to do it for her, so she wouldn’t have to leave the safety of the couch, but Leela was far too independent to allow herself to be waited on hand and foot. She wasn’t an invalid and there was no reason she couldn’t walk the thirty-or-so feet to the sink unescorted. Munda evidently disagreed. How exactly her mom thought she could possibly injure herself with a plastic bowl and a spoon Leela could only guess. Either way tempers were beginning to wear thin.

“I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t let me take those for you. You shouldn’t be up and around in your condition!”

“What ‘condition’? Leela demanded. “I fell, it happens, life goes on.”

“It wouldn’t if you’d broken your neck on the way down!”

Exasperated Leela crossed her arms. “But I didn’t break my neck. I’m still here, neck fully intact, and completely capable of returning my own dishes, feeding my own pet, and doing my own laundry.”

“Is that so?” Munda asked angrily with her tentacles on her hips. “And what if you had another seizure while doing your laundry? You could hit your head on the edge of the machine when you passed out! And what about feeding Nibbler? Those snout cans weigh a good fifty pounds! If you collapsed under one of those you could crush yourself! And the dishes! If you fell bringing those in here just now you could’ve jammed that spoon right in your aorta! Then where would you be?”

Leela stared at her mother in amazed frustration. “You’re overreacting.” She stated flatly.

“Am I?! You nearly got yourself killed this morning!”

“Five steps! I fell down five steps! And the paramedics said I’m fine!”

“You bled on my carpet!”

“I’m so sorry I stained your carpet with my blood,” Leela said with sarcasm creeping into her voice. “I’ll be glad to clean it up as soon as you let me near the ‘Spray-and-Vac’!”

“Turanga Ayden Leela you are missing my point!” Munda screeched raising herself to her full height. “For the love of Dr. Phil, what do I have to do to keep you safe? Wrap you in bubble wrap?!”

“I’d love to see you try it.” Leela growled coldly, not taking too well to being yelled at.

“Damn it Leela why is it so hard to let someone take care of you?!”

“Maybe if I’d had someone to take care of me when I was little it wouldn’t be such a foreign concept to me now!”

Leela knew she had overstepped her boundaries the instant the words had left her. Absolutely horrified she clamped her hands over her mouth.

Munda looked like she’d been slapped. She gaped at her daughter at a complete loss for words.

“I am so sorry.” Leela whimpered shrilly. “I didn’t mean it. I don’t even know where it came from…”

“No… it’s… it’s a valid point…” Munda said softly still looking a little dazed. “You’re right. I’ll back off.” With that she turned and numbly walked away.

“No, mom! Mom wait! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!”

An hour later when Morris returned home from work he was startled to find his daughter lying face down and motionless, spread limply all over the couch. He approached with concern.

“Leela?”

Her response was a muffled sniffle.

“I’m a terrible daughter.” She whimpered.

Morris knelt down beside her, gently rubbing her back as he replied softly. “Of course you’re not, don’t be silly.”

“I fought with Mom. I think I made her cry.”

“What happened?”

Leela pushed herself upright, allowing Morris to take a seat beside her on the couch. She recapped the argument that had taken place and shamefully repeated her parting shot.

“Low blow Leela.” Morris said looking a little hurt himself. “Very low blow.”

“I swear I didn’t mean it!”

“We did the best we could.”

“I know, I know!” The young cyclops buried her face in her hands. “I didn’t even mean to say it, it just came out of nowhere and then I couldn’t call it back!” Her expression turned vulnerable and fear filled. “Should I leave? Do you think she still wants me here?”

“Leela!” Morris reprimanded, shocked. “Your mother loves you way to much to throw you out over an argument, and I wouldn’t allow it anyway!”

“But I was so cruel. And now she won’t even look at me. I know Fry would stay with me if I asked him to, so I have somewhere to go if she wants me to leave.”

“She doesn’t. Trust me. She would hit the roof if you even suggested it.” Morris said sternly. “You should really apologize to her though.”

“I have!” Leela insisted looking pained. “Over and over! She keeps saying it’s fine and she’s not upset but it’s obvious that she is. Nothing I say seems to help. And I still don’t even know why I said it!”

“… I guess it makes sense that you would have some unresolved anger at us for abandoning you.” Morris said looking downcast.

Leela balked, horrified. “But I don’t!”

“Leela, if you don’t talk about it it’s just going to build up until you explode again.”

Leela hunched her shoulders and stared miserably at the carpet.

“Talk to me, kitten.”

Leela hesitated for a moment before saying softly: “I just don’t understand how you could do it. I was your baby. How could you just turn around and walk away?”

“We wanted you to have a be-”

“No,” Leela interrupted, “I understand the why. What I don’t get is the how.”

At Morris’ apologetically bewildered expression, she struggled to find a better way to explain herself. “Fry told me that while I was unconscious he tried to leave me. But when it came down to it, he just couldn’t. Even though he tried. If he couldn’t how come you could? If you love me as much as you always say you do how could you turn around and leave thinking you would never see me again? I just don’t understand.”

“I really wish I could explain it to you.” Morris replied gently. “All I can say is that when you have children their needs come before yours. It’s just part of being a parent. We were determined to do right by you even if it killed us. And believe me, it did. Don’t think for one second that it was an easy thing for us to do. I can’t even count the number of times we nearly came up there to rescue you. Every time we checked in and saw how miserable you were, and how you were being treated it took everything we had to continue to leave you there.”

“I wish you would have come rescue me.” Leela whimpered as she ran her hand roughly across her face.

“Sometimes I wish we had too.” Her father confessed. “But what kind of life would you have had? You wouldn’t be a space captain. You wouldn’t have gone to the places you’ve gone to or seen the things you have. You wouldn’t have the friends that you do, or Nibbler. You wouldn’t have Fry. He adores you. You’re his world. You deserve to be someone’s world. And if you ever have children, having them with a surfacer gives you a better chance of their being normal and healthy. The sewer’s aren’t a good place for fetal development. There’s a high infant mortality rate down here, you could miscarry.”

Leela looked thoroughly unconvinced. “I’m not sure twenty-five years of being alone was worth it.” She said sadly.

Morris wrapped his arm around her and drew her close. “We didn’t know you were going to be alone the whole time. We thought for sure you would be adopted right off. You were such a happy baby, and such a people-person we thought you would have no trouble finding a family. And we never thought you would be treated so cruelly by everyone. Aliens are usually accepted outright. Especially the prettier ones. We thought your life would be okay.”

“Would you have still left me if you had known it was going to turn out the way it did?”

Morris was silent for a long while. “I honestly don’t know Leela. I honestly don’t.”

He gave her a gentle hug and rose to his feet. “I’m going to go talk to your mother, alright?”

Leela nodded. “Tell her I’m sorry?” She asked plaintively.

“I’ll do my best kitten.”

Forlornly, she watched him head off down the hall in search of Munda who had taken refuge in the dining room. Sensing her unhappiness Nibbler leaped lightly into Leela’s lap and rubbed against her arm, purring encouragingly. When she failed to respond he rolled onto his back and pawed at her until she obliged him and rubbed his tummy.

“I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with me.” She muttered to him. “They do their best to take care of me and I reward them by making Mom cry and making Dad think I blame them for my childhood. How horrible am I? Like they don’t have enough to deal with without me being difficult.”

Nibbler chattered at her.

“At least I haven’t alienated you yet. Although knowing me, I bet I’ll manage it sooner or later.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Morris entered the dining room and silently took a seat next to his wife who was staring pitifully at the grain of the wooden table.

“Oh Morris, she resents us.” She said sadly.

He placed his hand on her shoulder in comfort before responding. “It was unfair of us to expect her to get over being raised as an orphan just like that. We have to give her time.”

Munda finally raised her gaze from the table. “Give her time? She’s hurting now. What good are we to her if we can’t fix it?”

“We’re not supposed to be able to fix everything. We’re just supposed to help what we can and be supportive for the stuff we can’t.”

“I feel so useless.” Munda sighed. “All these horrible things keep happening to her and I can’t stop them. I’m trying to help but I just keep irritating her.”

Morris thought for a moment on how to respond, but before he could Muffin leapt onto the table with a loud meow. She was quickly shooed down by Munda who understanding Muffin’s vocalization perfectly glanced over her shoulder to verify that her understanding was correct.
Seeing that it was, she pushed her chair back from the table and stood.

“The animals are hungry. I might as well feed Nibbler too or Leela’ll want to do it herself.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Purring softly, Nibbler had just fallen into a light doze on Leela’s lap when he heard his most favorite sentence in the world being called from the kitchen.

“Nibbler, dinner!”

On his feet in a flash he launched himself across the couch, before forcing himself to stop so suddenly he nearly fell off the edge. He hesitated, torn. Leaving Leela unattended so that he could eat had led to disaster that morning and he didn’t want to be responsible for another accident. He turned back towards his mistress, who was watching him with concern, and whined pathetically.

“Go on, go eat.”

Nibbler looked longingly towards the kitchen, the aroma of snouts already torturing him, before sitting down and giving Leela his most pathetic puppy-dog face.

“What’s up with you? I know you’re hungry. Go eat.”

When he failed to get up, and whined even louder, realization set in. As well as angry frustration.

“Not you too! I’m the master here. You’re the pet. I do the care giving. I don’t need you glued to my side, there’s nothing you could do to help me anyway! Now go!”

All three of Nibbler’s eyes widened and he fell silent. Leela never raised her voice at him like that. Hurt, he hunched low and began whining in earnest.

“Oh lord,” Leela muttered pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’m doing it again. I’m sorry Nibbler. You didn’t deserve that.” She opened her arms to him. “Come here.”

Still crouched low he slowly crawled into her arms allowing her to pick him up.

“If you’ll forgive me I’ll stay in the kitchen with you.” She promised him as she stood. He immediately began purring and licked her cheek.

But entering the kitchen meant facing her mother again. Their eyes met very briefly before both had to look awkwardly away. Leela deposited Nibbler gently on the floor where he ran to his dinner and began scarfing like he hadn’t seen food in a month.

Morris watched as his wife and daughter carefully avoid eye contact with each other. They both looked so uncomfortable, and clearly had no intention of starting a conversation on their own accord, so he decided he’d intervene.

“Leela? I believe you had something you needed to say to your mother?”

Leela fidgeted and began wringing her hands together. “m’sorrymom.” She mumbled as she stared at her feet.

“I already told you it’s okay.” Munda responded gently, also keeping her gaze averted.

“Good. Now hug.” Morris ordered.

Leela stepped quietly over and she and Munda briefly embraced.

“I’m not feeling the love.” Morris complained, when they pulled apart.

After a moment’s hesitation, and a cautious glance at each other, the women rewrapped their arms around each other this time with substantially more warmth.

“See? Now was that so hard?”

Munda smiled limply at her daughter, still not quite making eye contact. She didn’t blame Leela for whatever hard feelings she had about her childhood. And she wasn’t angry. She already blamed herself for the hardships of Leela’s life, but knowing Leela blamed her as well, even if only a little bit, hurt. She gently squeezed Leela’s arm to comfort her then silently left the room.

Leela turned to her father and frowned helplessly.

“What?” He asked, “I thought that went well.”

Residence of Turanga Morris & Munda
7:45 pm
Recovery: Day 9

Still upset over the evening’s events Leela wallowed in misery on the couch. Morris had tried his best to lift her mood, but hadn’t been successful. His daughter had unfortunately inherited her mother’s ability for marathon wallowing. He’d eventually given up and went to work on Munda who was consoling herself with laundry.

Nibbler had been happy enough at first, to simply lay beside his human on the couch, but had eventually gotten bored. His solution had been to bring over all the available pet toys one by one trying to get a response. When he failed to get her to even acknowledge his existence he bit her on the hand and stalked off to find someone a little more appreciative of his presence. Leela glared at him as he left. Not only for biting her but for leaving her as well. Just because she didn’t feel like playing tug-of-war with a slobbery chew toy didn’t mean she wanted to be abandoned.

She was beginning to go back into pity mode when a knock on the door caught her attention. Dragging herself to her feet she hoped it was Fry. He always made for a good distraction. She didn’t really know how to react, once she opened the door and saw Amy standing on the porch. The Planet Express Intern looked a little unsure herself.

“Is… Did something happen?” Leela asked.

“No, no nothings wrong. I just thought you might like some company.”

This confused Leela even further. She stared blankly at the younger woman for a few awkward moments.

“Can I come in?”

Wordlessly Leela stepped back and pulled the door open the rest of the way.

Grateful she’d made it this far Amy glanced around and tried to come up with a complement to break the ice.

“I love the texturing on the wall over there. Is that a faux finish? Very art deco.”

“That’s rust.”

“Oh.”

“Amy, why are you here?”

“To hang out,” Amy responded. “We never hang out and I thought maybe we should.”

“…Why?”

“You don’t want to hang out?” Amy asked looking crestfallen.

Leela hesitated cautiously. “I didn’t say that.”

“Well great!” Amy plopped down into the armchair and clasped her hands together between her knees.

“So, how you been?...I mean, other then like the seizures and stuff.”

“Fine, you?”

“Fine.”

There was a long, silent pause.

“So, … uh.” Amy searched desperately for a topic.

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do Amy, but let’s be honest here. We have absolutely nothing in common.”

“That’s not true!” Amy insisted. “We’re both girls, and we uh… we both work at Planet Express… Oh! And you’re the surrogate mom to my babies! That makes us like family!”

“Does it?” Leela asked dryly.

“There’s got to be something we can talk about!” Amy said desperately.

Leela shrugged. “Well I definitely can’t think of a topic.”

“You know I don’t hate you right?”

Leela’s eyebrow shot up. “Well that certainly came out of left field.”

“I know I already apologized back at the hospital for being mean, but I never actually said whether or not I hated you and I just wanted you to know ‘cause I really don’t!” Amy blurted out quickly.

“I never assumed that you did… but thanks.”

“So we’re cool?” She asked hopefully.

“Yeah. We’re cool.”

Amy leaned back in her chair, relieved. “Oh good! I was really stressing about it and my psychology teacher said stress makes you age faster.”

Now Leela’s interest was piqued. “You take Psychology?”

“Child Psychology. But just for the semester cause I needed an extra credit. I was just gonna take something easy but my mom said it would make me a better mother. Also she promised to buy me my own nightclub if I made at least a ‘C’.

“You know I majored in Child Psychology.”

“You did? That’s uh… surprising.”

“Yeah, I wanted to be a counselor.” Leela admitted, almost shyly. She’d never really discussed this topic with anyone before. The subject hadn’t ever come up.

“You mean like a guidance counselor?” Amy asked looking dubious. “Like at a high school?”

“More like a social worker. I wanted to work with orphans.”

“What made you pick that? I thought you wanted to forget anything orphan related.”

Leela hesitated a moment before answering. Usually the crew hated when she launched into Orphanarium stories, but in this case Amy had specifically asked and therefore had only herself to blame.

“Well, when I was growing up they had me seeing a bunch of different counselors. Which was completely pointless. There wasn’t anything wrong with me. It was everyone else who had the problem.” Leela’s gaze darkened and turned inward. “So what if I stabbed a few of my tormentors with ballpoint pens. They had it coming.” She stewed for a moment before snapping herself out of it and continuing. “Anyway, the counselors were useless. They never tried to help. Most of the time they couldn’t remember why I was there, or even my name. So I decided when I got older I would become the kind of counselor I wish I’d had back then. Someone effective. Someone who at least pretended to care. Someone who didn’t work on the damned crossword puzzle during sessions.”

“So what happened?”

“Graduated college, went to be screened for my career chip, got labeled a Cryogenic Counselor.”

“What does that have to do with Child Psychology?”

“Absolutely nothing.”

Amy looked horrified. “You mean you can get assigned a job you didn’t go to college for?”

“You’re assigned the job you would be best at. Just because you have a degree in something doesn’t mean there isn’t something else you could do better. Having a college education might help your chances at being placed somewhere you want, but it doesn’t guarantee anything. But I wouldn’t worry about it in your case. Your parents are rich enough to buy your way into pretty much whatever career path you choose.”

Amy wrung her hands together nervously. “Oh God, I hope those Animal Husbandry classes I took don’t come back to haunt me, I did really well in those classes!”

“Animal Husbandry?”

“There was this really cute professor…”

“Oh Lord. Do I even want to ask why you got into engineering?”

“Cute Professor.” Amy answered sheepishly.

Leela rolled her eye. “Cute prof- not Professor Farns-”

“No! No! Different Professor! Younger Professor!”

Amy looked sickened for a moment but then perked up. “Hey! We just had a conversation! And it didn’t even suck!”

Leela was taken off guard. “You’re right, I guess we did.”

“Yay female bonding!”

Leela didn’t feel especially bonded, but decided to allow Amy her moment. Maybe the Intern would be easier to share space with now. Time would tell.

Amy didn’t hang around for too much longer after that, nightlife beckoned. She was, after all, a college student and therefore was obligated to partake in the monthly ritual of the sorority/fraternity ‘Wholesome Chaperoned Scrabble Tournament’ followed by the not-so-wholesome and not-so-chaperoned ‘All Night Beer Bash’.

Leela wasn’t particularly sorry to see her go. She liked Amy well enough and truly was grateful for her efforts at clearing the air, but the younger girl could be a bit much and Leela’s mood had already been a bit sour to begin with.

When she once again had her solitude she attempted to pick up her pity party where she had left off but realized she wasn’t really in the mood. Proper self pitying required a certain mindset and Amy’s interruption had ruined everything. She still felt down, but not down enough to really wallow. Which just left her feeling bored. She’d spent so much time practically living on her parents’ couch she was surprised she hadn’t started leaving permanent ass indentations.

She missed exercise. Not just for the physical benefit, three weeks away from the gym left her feeling a little on the flabby side, but for the distraction it offered as well. She could kill an entire evening without even realizing. But that wasn’t an option now. If she attempted even a tiny little bit of cardio Munda would surely catch her at it and blow an aneurism.

So if she couldn’t exercise her body she’d just have to settle for exercising her mind. Once again peeling herself off of the couch she walked over to the nearby bookcase and began skimming for something interesting.

“Now let’s see… ‘Studies in Statistical Exolinguistics’, ‘Martha Stewart’s Head’s Interior decorating on a budget’, Crocodile Taming for Dummies’, ‘Illeria’s Guide to Old New York on Five Dollars a Day’, ‘What your daughters cooking says about you’.”

Vaguely amused Leela pulled the book from the shelf and gave it a once-over. It was fairly new, but obviously well read as evidenced by the tentacle suction marks on the cover.

“I should bring her some of Bender’s cooking and pretend it’s mine.” Leela muttered as she placed the book back alongside her father’s copy of ‘101 uses for Vodka’.

It was definitely a rare insight into the minds of her parents, but didn’t provide her with any literature of interest for herself. After a moment of self-debate she decided she might as well just call it a day and go up to bed.

She called for Nibbler, who upon hearing her voice crawled out of his hiding place beneath the easy chair and approached enthusiastically allowing her to pick him up. No sooner had she taken a step towards the staircase Munda came down the hall with the last of her laundry piled in a basket.

“Hello Leela.” Munda greeted cautiously.

“Hello.” Leela replied, equally as cautious.

“Heading upstairs?”

“Yeah, I’m going to go to bed.”

“Oh, alright. Just give me a minute to put these away and I’ll walk you up the stairs.”

Leela blinked in surprise.

“Walk me upstairs? Why? Did you need to talk to me about something?”

Munda shifted her laundry onto her hip knowing her daughter probably wasn’t going to like what she said next.

“I don’t want you on that staircase without either me or your father with you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t make me repeat it. You heard me.” The older woman said with a sigh.

Leela bit her lip carefully monitoring every word she was about to say. “I don’t need an escort.”

“This is non-negotiable. You will not go upstairs without someone with you.”

“I’m twenty-eight years old! If I want to go up a flight of stairs I’m damn well gonna do it!” Leela bristled.

“Not in this house you’re not! If you don’t want me to walk you up you are more than welcome to sleep on the couch!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

The women turned away from each other. Munda going to put the towels away and Leela flinging herself back down on the couch with a frustrated moan.

Nibbler tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. He’d been around enough women in his lifetime, Nibblonian and Human, to know he didn’t want to draw attention to himself when they were angry. This was made difficult by the fact he was still tightly clutched in his mistress’ arms.

Munda returned, sans laundry, a few minutes later. Casting Leela an unreadable look she hovered near the base of the stairs.

“If you’d like to come up-”

“I’m fine here thanks.” Was the stiff reply.

Pressing her lips together in a thin line Munda ascended for her own bedroom.

Leela stewed in her own juices for a bit while Nibbler continued to pretend he was invisible.

But Leela wasn’t about to be told what to do. She knew her mothers bedtime ritual well enough to wait half an hour for Munda to get settled before sneaking up the forbidden stairs towards her room. She felt like quite the rebel as she sat Nibbler down at the foot of the bed and began changing into her pajamas.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“She gets it from your side of the family you know!” Munda stated accusingly as Morris slid into bed beside her. “None of my relatives were ever this hot-headed!”

Morris frowned slightly but smartly kept his mouth shut.

“She’d rather sleep on the couch than let someone help her up the stairs!”

Morris frowned again, this time in confusion. “What do you mean ‘sleep on the couch’? I passed by Leela when I came in here. She was in her room.”

“What? No, you had to be mistaken. She would never deliberately disobey me!”

Morris shrugged. “She’s in there. I promise you.”

Not wanting to believe him, Munda got to her feet and stalked down the hall. When she opened Leela’s door sure enough, there she was. She smiled smugly and waved.

Munda was too outraged for words. She glowered fiercely at her daughter then whirled around and stomped back down the hall.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into her!” She exploded once she had re-entered her own bedroom. “The way she’s acting I wouldn’t be surprised if she dropped dead just to spite me!”

“Munda, come on.” Morris tried to reason. “Leela’s a good girl. I think you’re just pushing to hard. She’s an adult. She’s not used to taking orders. I thought we agreed to give her some space?”

“Give her some space, are you kidding? I’m not going to lose my child just because little-miss-self-sufficiency down there has a death wish.”

“Munda, our relationship with her is too new to risk pushing to hard. You don’t want to drive her away do you?”

“I’ll worry about damage control later. When she’s not dead. All I want, is to get her to survive till morning. Once that’s accomplished I’ll work on keeping her around till next evening and so on until she’s healthy. If she wants to throw a fit and act like a child, that’s fine. As long a she’s alive I can take what she can dish out.”

“Mund-”

“I’m not gonna lose her again Morris. I’m not.”

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Hopefully i'm still writing at Peelie winning standards.