After The Rescure

[on:]

   The beginning...


   Fry, Leela and Bender were standing close to each other on the bridge of the ship that Bender used to "rescue" the inhabitants of Universe Gamma from the Yivo-controlled universe.  Bender was very proud of his accomplishment and had just released his favorite two organ sacks from a suffocating embrace.  Instead of the thanks and ass-kissing he was expecting, Bender was surprised by the reaction from Phillip J. Fry, friend, coworker and donator of blood (while he was asleep, of course) and Turanga Leela,  co-worker, nagger and wearer of big boots.

   "Fry, you screwed everything up again," Leela yelled as she threw both arms up as a gesture of exasperation, not for the first time since she had known Phillip J. Fry.  "We were in paradise and you just had to screw everything up."

   "Yeah, so I messed up.  How could I know that sending Bender a letter would make Yivo so agry that he would throw us out.  Besides, I lost Colleen.  I loved her and she would rather stay with an alien from a different universe than with me.  Don't you think that I'm hurting, too."  Fry responded with a trace of hurt in his voice.

   "I swear to God, you're the most screwed-up person I've ever met.  Everything you touch becomes screwed-up.  That's all you do:  Screw-up!  I'm so tired of you - I really meant it when I said that there are times I wish you would go away, far away.  I'm sorry we ever met.  I'm sorry I ever defrosted you.  My life has been nothing but one disaster after another since we've met.  Go away - please.  I don't care where you go or even if you die, just get the hell out of my life and never come. back!"  Leela yelled, her body language displaying great anger, both her hands balled up into fists.  Any sane person would know that Leela in this frame of mind was capable of inflicting tremendous injury on whatever she targetted.

   Fry, of course, was not sane or smart.  He was hurting from months of betrayal, rejection, rebukes and now losing both paradise and his girlfriend was too much.  He didn't fear Leela, he now felt rage at her.  Rage bought on that she would blame him for everything wrong in her life and be so oblivious to her own shortcomings.  Rage from years of being put-down and treated badly by her.  Rage that she would never return his affections he had for her.  He knew he wasn't the epitome of physical fitness that she was, but by God, after eight years in the future he had learned how to fight.  She had bullied him way too many times and it was coming to an end.  If she mopped the floor with him, so be it, but he would never back down from her ever again.  He mirrored her agressive stance, both of his eyes meeting her single, large eye.

   Leela, shocked by Fry's refusal to back down from her stopped her advance and both stayed in one spot, neither moving as they were in a test of wills, eyes to eye.  Leela was torn between emotions, but that was nothing new.  She was always torn emotionally starting with her cruel childhood, issues of abandonment and an uncontrollable temper.  It was only by force of self-control that she didn't constantly erupt in violence.  Her feelings for Fry were always in turmoil but as long as he was around, she felt superior to somebody.  She was his superior at the workplace, she was much more athletic than him but most importantly, he always accepted her for who she was and practically worshipped her.  Him standing up to her, risking a complete ass-kicking from her was totally unexpected.

   "God-dammit!" she bellowed as she swung in a spinning back kick and landing a solid blow... on Bender.  Bender, completely taken by surprise was knocked to the floor.  After a few milliseconds he realized what was happening, he looked up to see Leela standing over him with both fists balled, as she was daring him to move.  Bander knew this wasn't good for him, whenever ol' one-eye looked like that, she was going to do some damage to somebody or something.  For whatever reason, she picked him to be the "something" worthy of being pounded into scrap.

   "You!  You pile of circuits!  You couldn't leave us alone.  No, you had to rescue us.  We didn't want to be rescued.  In the past two months I've gone from being happy to losing everything.  I've lost Lars, I've lost paradise.  I've lost everything that I've cared about because of both of you!"  Leela spat out as her eye went back and forth, looking at both Fry and Bender.

   "Whatcha so upset about?"  Bender asked as he put one arm in front of his face as a defense move.  "Ain't Fry and Lars the same person?  Other than being a few years older and having his hair burned off, Fry's the same guy."

   The words poured out as fast as she could say them, a combination of anger and hurt spewing forth, "Fry is Lars?  Not hardly!  Lars matured and he treated me like a queen.  What did Fry do after we found out that he was a older dupicate?  Did he try to grow up any?  Hell no!  He went out and found that slut Colleen and completely forgot about me.  He never called to see how I was doing - he was too busy finding somebody to screw around with.  He says he loves me?  Why can't he just grow up and make something out of himself?  He's the same loser now that he was in the stupid ages."

   Fry, having found a backbone and was now going to stop being a pushover, moved forward one step and pushed Leela on one shoulder to make her face him, retorted, "Yeah, like you would ever give me a chance.  You've slept with Captain Gross Gorilla," his right arm gestering towards Captain Zapp Brannigan. who was still bent over from the solid punch that Kif landed in Zapp's stomach.   "You've slept with a creepy bug, that boring-assed Adlai and you were getting ready to put-out for The Mayor's Aide.  You even wanted me to walk Nibbler while you were getting laid, knowing how I felt about you.  You have a lot of room to talk about being hurt."

   After almost a moment of eye contact, Leela's shoulders slumped as she relaxed from her combat-ready stance and looked at the floor.  Without saying a word she walked out of the room, leaving everybody in the room surprised that she hadn't murdered Fry.  Fry relaxed when the door closed behind her, turned around and offered Bender a hand to get up.  Bender accepted, looked around and asked, "What crashed her operating system?"

   A suddenly weary Fry looked at Bender.  After a moment he found The words he wanted and softly said, "Bender, buddy.  I know you came after us because you thought you were doing the right thing.  It wasn't what we wanted, but it's done."  Taking a deep breath, Fry dropped his gaze to the floor and asked, "I'm tired.  Is there somewhere on this ship that I can sleep?"

   Somehow Bender knew his friend wasn't kidding about being tired.  Instead of a caustic comment, Bender motioned for Tinny Tim to come his way.  Bender then gave the order, "Take this meatbag to my quarters.  No one's to disturb him."

   After Fry was escorted from the bridge and with a roomful of eyes on him, Bender wondered if three friendships had been thrown on the scrapheap.  Perhaps forever.  After a few seconds, he gave the order, "Let's get moving.  Get all these organ sacks back to where they belong."

[Reply #1 on:]

Bender's "Rescue Ship" had just dropped off its last passengers, the Planet Express crew.  The Professor, Hermes, Amy and Leela walked slowly into the damaged Planet Express building as Zoidberg made a beeline for the nearest dumpster.  Bender stayed behind on his ship along with the still-sleeping Fry.

   Leela was the first to break the silence after all were in the building.  "What a mess," she stated flatly.  Nobody else said anything since it would be confirming the obvious.

   "Well, crew," Farnsworth said in an almost broken voice, "we'll get some sleep and start making repairs tomorrow."  He looked around for another few seconds, seeing the broken windows and massive damage as if for the first time to his workplace and home.  He then shuffled off slowly towards his recliner and collapsed in it, asleep before his body landed.

   Leela looked around, sighed, started picking up scattered debris from the floor.  Amy looked at her bewildered, only Leela would make more work for herself than necessary.  Since she had nobody else to talk to, she spoke to the busy cyclops, "Hey, Leela.  The Professor said we can clean tomorrow.  Go home and get some sleep."

   Leela didn't slow her cleaning as she answered, "I don't have a home.  The scammers destroyed it last month and it hasn't been rebuilt.  People aren't too keen on renting a place out to a one-eyed freak; it scares the children."

   Amy was shocked - she was so involved with Kif over the previous month after Nudar was defeated that she didn't know that Leela's apartment was destroyed.

   "So where have you been staying?" Amy asked quietly.  After asking the question, Amy saw a subtle sign from Leela, most other people would have missed it.  Leela paused slightly from her work, then started cleaning again.

   Feeling a little braver, Amy pushed forward, asking, "Leela, please don't ignore me.  Kif's giving me the silent treatment and I don't need it from you.  Where have you been sleeping?"

   Leela stopped her self-inflicted work and stared at Amy.  For a few seconds both were silent, Leela answered, "The ship.  I've been living in the Captain's quarters since my home was destroyed.  You got it out of me.  Happy?"

   Suddenly Amy felt small.  She made a mistake and slept with Zapp, but she did that out of grief.  Kif was dead at the time, but that didn't seem to matter to Kif.  Leela had lost the man she loved, he was dead and not coming back.  She lost her home but never complained or made a single comment about it.  Amy realized how lonely Leela's life was.  It didn't matter that some of it was her own doing, all that mattered was that Leela protected her the best she could from Yivo's tentacles just days earlier.  Now the place that Leela had called home was scrap metal.  Leela lost Lars and her home, then another home and from the way things looked, she had lost Fry also.

   "Leela, you have a place you can stay until things get better," Amy stated.

   Leela continued her stare at Amy, despite having known Leela for over eight years still got creeped out when Leela stared at her.  Amy just blurted out, "You can stay with me, at my place.  It's big enough for both of us."

   Leela just shook her head as she started cleaning again.  For some reason this angered Amy.  Leela being strong and not showing weakness was part of her personallity but this was something more, it was like Leela was trying to be some sort of martyr.  And for what?  Nothing.

   "Leela, don't blow me off!"  Amy shouted at the cyclops.  "You know what your problem is?  You're too damned proud.  You're too proud to ask for help.  You're too proud to be with Fry.  You're too damned proud to stay with me.  I'm offering you a place to stay because you're my friend."

   Leela stopped her cleaning, turned to Amy and said, "Okay, I'll stay with you until things get better.  I'll warn you, I snore,"  Hearing that, Amy smiled, then Leela added with an omninous tone, "but never mention Fry's name to me again.  Ever."

   Feeling that she had won a small victory with Leela, Amy just nodded her head.  As Leela walked towards Amy, the young Martian made the comment, "We'll go shopping tomorrow.  You need new clothes.  Before you say anything, consider it a loan." 

   Amy didn't see Leela's large eye roll upwards...

[Reply #2 on:]

It's good so far, I cant wait to read more!

[Reply #3 on:]

Great start!

Cool idea to have a straight continuity story after BWABB, so much potential!!

Looking forward to the next update, and many more!

*edit* July 9th!? how did this fall through the cracks!!! So sorry I didn't read it sooner!

[Reply #4 on:]

This is off to a nice start... Hope Fry continues to stand up to eyeball...

[Reply #5 on:]

Really hope the author hasn't left after a month without being noticed.

I actually feel pretty bad that it went so long before someone posted.

[Reply #6 on:]

 

Originally posted by aknightofni:
Really hope the author hasn't left after a month without being noticed.

I actually feel pretty bad that it went so long before someone posted.

That would be a shame if it isn't continued. I have no idea how this one slipped past me...
 

[Reply #7 on:]

Ive started drafting my first fan script, Ive just started typing it this morning. The only thing im not sure of so far is the title,
I have Forgetting Turanga Leela, or A little bit Frygettful, what do you reckon sounds better(although I think most people will get the vibe of what the stories' about)?