Something Completely Different, part 1 By Enhas
Author's Note: I don't own
Futurama or anything to do with it, and this is strictly a non-profit
only thing.
Another post Time Keeps
on Skipping story from me, but not like my others. Though I am a
supporter of Fry and Leela, be warned that you will not see very much
of it here. If you've read any of my other stories, you'd know that
I like to write unexpected and different situations that would
probably never happen on the show.
This is a Fry / Morgan
Proctor story. If you don't like to read different twists on canon,
please leave now.
This chapter has been
edited a little bit, with some more added to the beginning that
wasn't there before. I wanted to add it, because I think it's better
than trying to explain some things in an author's note.. enjoy!
Late-April, 3001..
The direction of an entire
universe can depend on several, complex outcomes.. or in this case,
hiding after being discovered as a cheater in a poker game. For one
Bender Bending Rodríguez, though he did not know of it and
never will.. was a critical pawn placed strategically in a game of
chess that could change an entire outcome.
After shoving Zoidberg out
of the way and racing down the halls as fast as his metal legs could
carry him, Bender was ready to enter the office of the bureaucrat
named Hermes Conrad.. since he would not be there at that time of
night. The robot neared the door, and..
.. suddenly found himself
outside of Planet Express, with the three men from Applied Cryogenics
flanking him.
"Get him!"
"What the.. ow, my
poor eyes!" Bender cried, as he was beat up and literally tore
limb from limb.. and robbed of his ill-gotten gain and left in a
nearby dumpster. The next morning, his best one and two-eyed
fleshwad friends found and reassembled him.. and Bender didn't have
much time to think of the strange occurrence from the previous night,
as a female newcomer was now entering Planet Express.
Nice watch.. and I
think her hair clip might be worth a few bucks too, hehehe..
"Who the hell are
you?" Hermes asked to the woman.
"Morgan Proctor,
bureaucrat grade 19." Morgan said.
"Hermes Conrad,
bureaucrat grade 36."
After some quick stamping
and formalities, the inspection began.. and went smoothly, except for
Zoidberg being annoying in general at times. Hermes passed and was
promoted to the coveted grade 35, and Bender didn't remember
or care that almost a minute of his life was unaccounted for.. he
would sometimes lose a few minutes every now and then due to lack of
alcohol. Life went on, and soon the Planet Express crew would
discover the lost city of Atlanta and have many other life or
death (mostly death) adventures.. all seemed to be right with the
world.
It was, for the most
part.. until the Harlem Globetrotters showed up.
Mid-July, 3002..
Philip J. Fry was having
one of the worst nights of his life.
About two days previous,
the time skip phenomenon was finally ended with the help of one of
the Professor's doomsday devices. Sadly for the young man brooding
on a chilly park bench, it also ended the only chance he had to win
the heart of the woman of his dreams.
I'm so stupid.. Leela
will never love me now.
After the explosion had
shattered his love message in the stars, Fry refused to talk to
anyone for any amount of time. He showed up early for work (which
for Fry, was not normal and an indicator of something wrong)
and would often lock himself away and cry, all alone.
I finally did something
right for a change, and now it's all gone and there's no proof it
ever existed!
Fry was thinking of doing
something really stupid, and just didn't care much for anything
anymore. He just couldn't take the pain.. the pain of having his
heart ripped to bloody shreds with little chance of being made whole
again. In another universe, maybe he would have gone through with
his plan and leave the others to face the consequences. However,
this universe took pity on him at a crucial moment.. in the form of a
woman who unknown to Fry would eventually make him whole
again.
"Philip J. Fry? Is
that you?"
Oh great, one of them
found me and.. wait! Nobody calls me Philip here.. Fry thought,
raising his lowered head in the direction of the unknown voice. A
slender, brunette woman dressed in business attire stood with perfect
posture.. a bureaucrat of some kind. She looked familiar to him, but
Fry couldn't quite place where he had met her before.
"Yeah, what's it to
you?" Fry said.
"Morgan Proctor.. I
was involved in an inspection at the Planet Express offices over a
year ago. We met briefly and you gave me your number.. but sorry to
say I must have misplaced it among my stacks of forms and.."
"Nice try, but I've
heard worse turn-downs before.. yeah, I remember you!" Fry
said, laughing bitterly. "Just go away.."
Moving his head lower, Fry
chose to ignore Morgan and sink back into his own world. She noticed
that he had been crying, and his disheartened appearance suggested
that something traumatic had happened to him recently. Morgan had
been in such a state once before in her life, and it nearly destroyed
her.
I don't know, should I
leave him alone? Morgan thought. Poor boy.. no, whatever it
is I have to help him. Nobody was ever there for me, and I'm not
going to let him go through what I did! I can tell just by the look
in his eyes.. he must have lost a loved one.
Not heeding Fry's advice,
Morgan walked over and sat down close to Fry on the bench. He looked
even worse up close, and immediately he noticed that Morgan was now
sitting beside him.
"I thought I told you
to go away.."
"No, Philip.. not
until you tell me what is wrong." Morgan said. "I may not
look like it, but I have always been a good listener. Come on,
Philip.. tell me."
"First, I don't need
your sympathy.. but I'll take it, I guess.." Fry said, a faint
smile appearing on his face. "And don't call me Philip.. just
Fry. Women don't usually talk to me first, so this is
something new!"
Morgan smiled back. "You
were on the news recently. The media blames you for Earth's loss to
the Harlem Globetrotters."
"Well, yeah.. but
it's not really my fault! The time skips started and.." Fry
said, before the tears began to flow. "The time skips.. both
the best and worst thing of my life! Why couldn't anyone else have
just seen it for a second? Why?"
"The time skipping
phenomenon affected everyone, Fry. I woke up in a strange room with
a coiled snake tattoo near my right shoulder, see?" Morgan
said, moving the collar of her shirt to reveal it. A small black
viper could be seen on her skin just above her breast. "Who
knows what else I have done.. is that what you are distressed about,
Fry?
Fry didn't know why or
how, but he knew that he could be open to this woman that he barely
knew. An inner voice told him that she could help him, but most of
himself was still fighting with the will to live after all he had
experienced a few days ago.
"I don't know why I'm
saying this to a complete stranger, but I've done weirder things
before.. anyway, do you remember Leela? She's this cyclops I work
with, and I really love her. We got married and divorced in the time
skips and nobody knew what was going on.. but then I found out I made
a message in the stars but it was blown up and now she'll never know
and.."
Fry stopped his story to
wipe his sore, tired red eyes with his right hand. "Sorry..
it's just, I really love her but she doesn't love me!"
I was right.
Morgan thought. It's always about love. "I understand
completely. I was in love, once.. but that's another story for
another time. You have to move on and make the best of it or you
will die, Fry."
"How did you know I
was gonna.."
"I know the look in
your eyes.. I've seen it in others, and had it myself. The feeling
that your world is shattered, your life hopeless.. I know that we
don't really know each other, but I want you to know that you can
speak to me. Be a man, Fry.. don't give up so easily. Here is my
number, don't forget to call me if you want to talk."
Morgan wrote something
down on a small piece of paper and handed it to him. "We can
take a taxi together.. less fare to pay that way."
"Okay.." Fry
replied, still in a bit of a daze over the events of the last few
minutes. The ride was a short one, as Robot Arms was only a few
blocks away. Fry disembarked from the car but turned around to say
goodbye to Morgan.
"Morgan.. I don't
know if it was God or what, but thanks. If you weren't there then
I'd probably have went off into some alley or a suicide booth, or
worse. Tomorrow, I'm gonna go back to work like nothing's ever
happened.. Leela or no Leela. Bye!"
As the taxicab pulled
away, Morgan glanced at Fry through the window.. deep in thought. He
seems nice.. I don't know how anyone could reject him so coldly, as
that Leela woman must have. Well, back to three hours of rubber
stamping and black coffee when I get home..
Late-September, 3002..
After a hard day at Planet
Express and while digging through half-crushed Slurm cans and week
old pizza.. Fry discovered something that he had completely forgotten
about in an unwashed pair of his pants.
Morgan's number! Oh
no, I forgot all about it!
With guilt eating away at
him, he dialed the woman's number and shifted nervously through the
dial tone until a feminine voice answered. "Hello?"
"Morgan? It's Fry..
listen, I'm so sorry I didn't call you. A lot of stuff happened in
the last few months, so much that the new stuff must have pushed some
of the old stuff out of my brain, or something."
"Fry? Hello.. well,
at least you remembered. That's more than I can say for most other
men I have met. Listen.. I would like to see you again, you are very
intriguing." Morgan said.
"In tree.. what?"
Fry said. "I don't live in a tree!"
Morgan sighed over the
phone line. "Another word for interesting. Anyway, I was
wondering if I should go to your apartment or if you should come to
mine."
Fry considered her offer.
Normally, he would accept any offer from any woman that he could..
but this wasn't the same. In the short time that he had met her on
that dark and cool night on a bench, he realized that something about
her was different from any other women he had ever met. Plus, she
had called him interesting.. something that he wasn't used to being
named. Fry was more familiar with the words freak, jerk, weirdo, and
idiot than interesting. He had to get to know this woman,
especially after the recent disaster with his grandmother Mildred.
"Well, I'd ask you to come over here but it's really dirty and
messy.. it hasn't been cleaned since I moved in."
"Dirty and messy, you
say?" Morgan asked. "That also sounds very interesting.."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing.."
Morgan said, with a hint of a playful pout in her voice.
"Bender's holding
some robot strip poker party here in an hour or so, so you can't come
here. I guess I'll meet you at your place.. but I gotta know where
it is first or it'll take me a long time to find."
"Okay, I'll give you
my address." Morgan said, chuckling in the background. "That's
West 14th Street, not 14th West Street.. everyone makes
the same mistake. See you soon, I'm sure you have much to tell."
Feeling brighter, Fry
changed to a fresh pair of clothes and was ready to leave before
Bender stopped him.
"Hey, meatbag.. I
thought you were gonna stay here tonight! Lots of booze, cards and
cheap Elzarian cuisine! By cheap I mean free, and by free I mean I
scraped it out of the dumpster behind Elzar's!" Bender said.
"It's really
tempting, but.. something better's come along. I'm gonna see
Morgan."
"Morgan.. that name
doesn't compute! I don't know any Morgan! Who is he?"
"It's a she. I
actually met her last year but only really talked to her a few months
ago.. I found her number and I'm going over to her place to talk with
her for a while." Fry said.
"Oh, oh oh OH OH OH!
A woman willingly letting Fry into her apartment? The world is
ending as we know it! Though, you are your own grandfather.. sicko!"
Bender replied. "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
"Don't remind me..
anyway, that was a mistake! And I could have just as easily left
your head in the desert for another thousand years!"
"I was lonely.."
Bender cried. "Only the worms were my friends!"
"Anyway, later!"
"Yeah, yeah..
whatever!" Bender yelled, already clear into the next room out
of Fry's sight.
Fry did make the
mistake and knocked on a door on 14th West Street. An old
woman answered and promptly began to beat him with her cane before he
ran away.. not without suffering a bruised shin first. Eventually,
he was in front of Morgan's door in a large apartment suite.. and
rang the doorbell. Within a few seconds, the door opened and Morgan
could be seen dressed in full business wear. She appeared to be
working on something, as she held a clipboard in her right hand.
"Hello, Fry. Please
come in and have a seat."
Walking inside, Fry could
see that her apartment was very large and well organized. It was
easily three times the size of his and Bender's own at Robot Arms, if
not more. A desk lined with papers, forms and other things sat a few
feet to his right.. Fry figured that Morgan must have been working
there before he arrived.
"Sorry I'm a bit
late. Anyway, thanks again.. I think you did save my life that
night!" Fry said, slouching down on the nearby sofa.
"Everything's fine now, except a stupid thing I did last week."
Morgan didn't answer, but
instead carried a tray with two mugs of coffee and offered him one.
She took the other, and even though the sofa was quite large.. she
sat as close as she could to Fry. For some reason, this both pleased
Fry and made him nervous at the same time.
"What was it?"
she asked, taking a sip of coffee. "Was it anything else to do
with that woman Leela?"
"No, it wasn't.. we
went back in time to Roswell in 1947. I accidentally killed who I
thought I was my grandfather, and brought my grandmother to her
house. I was stupid.. I figured she wasn't my grandmother since I
was still alive, and I slept with her. But, it turns out that she
really was my grandmother, which makes me my own grandfather!
Ugh, why am I such a screw up? First Leela and now this!"
Morgan choked briefly on
her coffee but then replied to him. "That was a big mistake,
but do you know that I almost did the same thing?"
"What?" Fry
said, interested in what she had to say.
"Three years ago, I
flirted with a certain man in a nightclub. He seemed awkward about
the whole situation, and I was ready to lead him back here until he
revealed to me that he was a time traveller and my
great-great-great-great grandson!"
"And you believed
him?" Fry asked.
"Well, when I think
about it now.. he did have my eyes. The same chocolate color
and slant, so I suppose he was telling the truth." Morgan said.
"I have such bad luck with the opposite sex."
"Tell me about it!"
Fry said, and Morgan gave him a mean look which made him realize
what he had just said. "Oh, no.. not you! I mean me! I have
really bad luck with girls.."
"I don't see why, you
are a handsome man." Morgan said. "That red hair really
makes you stand out!"
"Really?" Fry
said, more because she had called him handsome rather than the color
of his hair. "Well, the hair comes from my mother's side of the
family.. I think. The good looks must be part of my DNA.. but the
Professor is also part of my family and he's like all wrinkled and
stuff, so I might be wrong."
After saying nothing and
drinking coffee for the next few minutes, Fry was the first to break
the silence. He stared directly into Morgan's eyes beyond her
glasses and asked her the question that had been on the top of his
mind. "Morgan.. why did you talk to me in the first place? You
could have just left me there.. you were and still are almost a
complete stranger! How did you know I wasn't just faking and going
to pull a knife and rob you, or something like that?"
Morgan set down her coffee
cup and took one of Fry's hands into her own. "Because I could
see that your heart was breaking. I couldn't let anyone else go
through that.. I know what it was like. Remember how I said I was in
love once?"
Fry nodded, while still
feeling the effects of Morgan's touch. Really warm, and soft..
"It was many years
ago now.. I think ten. I was young and naive, and engaged.. I don't
want to bring it all up so I will just tell you the short version. I
caught my fiancé in bed with another woman..my own bed! And
this was only a few days before we were going to be married! I
really loved him too and thought he was going to be the one, but he
was not."
"That's really sad!"
Fry said.
"I packed up and ran
away. Like yourself, I was contemplating suicide.. but something
told me not to give up, that there was something that I had to do. I
suffered for over a year until I came to my senses and joined the
bureaucracy.. rising in the ranks and burying myself in my work. I
just stopped caring about everything, until that night I met you. I
remembered that I had to do something, and I realize now that it was
to save you, Fry."
"Morgan.." Fry
said, gripping her hand tighter. "If it wasn't for you, I'd
probably be dead or dying in my own filth or something really bad. I
mean, I'll never forget what I did for Leela but I did move on even
if it was at first with a Lucy Liu-bot. Everyone noticed that I was
still a bit down and took me to do most of the things I've always
wanted.. I still get along with Leela too. Though, at the end of it
an army of Lucy Liu-bots invaded the city.."
"It was the least I
could do.. thank you, Fry." Morgan said, with tears streaming
down her cheeks. "Fry.. do you believe in fate?"
"Like, destiny?"
"Yes. This may sound
ridiculous, but I think we were meant to meet and save each other,
Fry. And do you notice how well we seem to get along, and listen and
understand each other?"
"Yeah.." Fry
said. "But what do you mean about me saving you?"
"Fry.. I am
thirty-two years old. For the past ten years I have been dead
inside.. until I noticed you that night, and especially now. You
make me feel great, Fry.. even though there is a lot that I do not
yet know about you, but I would like to know." Morgan said,
moving her fingers within Fry's gripped hand and smiling.
"Well.. I'm
twenty-seven now and was frozen in 1999 for a thousand years. I had
a brother named Yancy who I found out really cared for me and named
his son after me, and I had a dog named Seymour. I wonder what
happened to him. Anyway, I guess that's a start."
"Would you like
another coffee?" Morgan asked, standing up and taking the tray
with the empty mugs in her hands.
"Sure." Fry
said, and watched her leave the room into what was presumably her
kitchen. Wow.. I don't know what it is, but I've never met anyone
like her. Not even Leela, and I thought I loved her! Wait.. do I
love Morgan? I barely know her!
Returning with more
coffee, Morgan resumed her position on the sofa and both drank and
exchanged small talk for a while, before Morgan decided to come right
out with what she had been thinking.
"Fry, do you
believe.."
"..in love at first
sight?" Fry said, finishing her sentence.
"How did you know I
was going to say that?"
"I don't know,
Morgan.. I just knew. But I don't know if I believe in love
at first sight, but I knew I saw something different in you that
night in the park. If a beautiful woman willingly comes to me for
any reason besides hitting me in some way, she has to be special."
Fry said, taking her hands within his again.
"But do we really
love each other?" Morgan said. "This does seem to be
progressing very quickly.."
"I don't know,
Morgan.. but right now I wouldn't trade this away for anything."
A light blush covered
Morgan's face, as Fry drew nearer for a kiss. She was about to
receive him when he suddenly pulled away.
"Is there anything
wrong?" Morgan asked, with a tone of worry in her voice.
"Morgan.. why do you
wear those glasses and your hair up like that? I think you'd look a
lot better without them, and your hair down." Fry said, gently
taking her glasses off and setting them down on the coffee table. He
then undid the clip holding her hair together, letting it fall freely
down to her shoulders. A grin appeared on his face as soon as he saw
the beautiful sight in front of him.
"To make myself look
more business-like.. I can see fine without the glasses."
Morgan said, maneuvering herself onto Fry's lap. For him, the room
temperature seemed to suddenly skyrocket as she moved in even closer
to whisper in his ear. "Now, you fool.. kiss me."
Philip J. Fry experienced
true love for the first time that night.
Early-March, 3004..
Morgan Proctor was having
one of the worst days of her life.
It had seemed to be only
hours ago that she was given the news that her boyfriend had been
stung by a space-bee, but in reality it had been two weeks. Two
weeks of sitting by his bedside almost nonstop, talking and pleading
that Fry would wake up.
It's all that cyclops's
fault.. if she hadn't decided to take that bee along, my Fry would
still be here..
The doctors didn't give
the young man very much hope. He had taken the full dose of venom,
which amounted to almost certain death.. but Morgan couldn't give up.
The only man that she had truly loved was dying in front of her, and
there was nothing that she could do about it.
Someone else had entered
the room while Morgan was reflecting, her hard boots giving away her
identity. She sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the bed,
her single eye moving between both Fry and Morgan respectively.
"Hey, Morgan. You
should probably go and get something to eat, you don't look very
well." Leela said.
"With no thanks to
you!" Morgan snapped. "The robot said that it was all
your idea.. but what is more is that you did not even try to stop the
bee from stinging him!"
"It happened so fast,
Morgan! There wasn't any time to react! Bender shoved the bee out
of an airlock before it could attack anyone else!" Leela said.
"And yes, it was my fault! One of my best friends might die
because of me!"
"If you were being
attacked instead, Fry would have thrown himself in front of you to
try and save you. I know him.. he cares about his friends and though
he doesn't love you like he did anymore, Fry still cares for you.
Unlike you, however.. I tend to listen to and not scorn him every
chance I get." Morgan said.
"Why, you.. I don't
know what you did to him, but you really changed Fry. He loves you,
no doubt.. but in some ways I liked the old Fry better."
"Are you jealous,
Leela?" Morgan asked. "Really, are you?"
"What?" Leela
said, a bit of shock on her face. "No.. no, of course not."
"You are. I know
you, Leela.. not by experience but by what Fry has told me. You want
him now since he's not available, but if I didn't exist then you
would look the other way and flaunt other men in his face like you've
always done."
"That's not true!"
Leela said.
"Yes, it is."
Morgan replied. "I have something to tell you, Leela.. I met
him a few nights after the end of the time skips, and he was the
sorriest sight that I have ever seen in my entire life. I talked to
him, and.. did you know that he was ready to kill himself over you,
Leela?"
Leela didn't reply
straightaway, but a look of worry and denial crossed her facial
features. "No.. I mean, he wasn't well for a few days after the
end of it but he went back to normal.. well, normal for him anyway.
Fry would never consider something like that, you're a liar!"
"No, it's the truth.
He loved you, and the strain of the wedding and divorce combined with
rejection nearly pushed him over the edge. Fry probably did not tell
you this, but he made a message in the stars which he thinks made you
love him.. which you yourself later destroyed. Can you imagine what
that must have done to him? No, you must not have cared. But I did,
and I do. I love this man, Leela.. and I'm not letting you or
anything else take him away from me. He will wake up."
Leela began to weep
slightly and wanted to be mad at Morgan, but she knew that the woman
had told her the truth. How could I have thought for a second
that Fry tricked me into marrying him? Who is the bigger idiot now,
Leela? You are.. if Morgan hadn't come along when she did, Fry could
very well be dead. Yes, I am jealous.. Fry found someone who really
loves him and he loves her, and somehow they just seem to magically
fit together.. and now he could die because of me.
She did not speak another
word, but silently left the room.. leaving Morgan alone with Fry.
Hours passed, before she decided that she needed some sleep and
leaned forward to kiss Fry's forehead.
"Be a man, Fry..
don't give up so easily." she whispered before her lips met his
forehead. So cold..
Returning to her position,
Morgan was ready to doze off when she heard a faint voice very close
to her. "Morgan.."
Opening her eyes and
pinching herself to make sure it was not a dream, Morgan noticed that
Fry's eyes were opened and that he was looking right at her. "I..
I didn't give up, Morgan."
Immediately, she ran to
alert a doctor and after some tests.. the room was crowded with most
of the people from Planet Express, and Morgan. All were surprised at
Fry's recovery which bordered on the miraculous. For Morgan, it was
not a miracle.. but something she knew would happen.
"I didn't give up on
you either, Fry.." Morgan said.
"Hey, meatbag.. great
to see you back! I even returned half of the money I stole from you
last month!" Bender said, handing Fry a small wad of cash.
"Thanks." Fry
said.
"Don't thank me yet,
I might need it later!"
The rest of the Planet
Express crew took turns to congratulate Fry on his recovery and to
inform him of what he had missed while he was in his coma. Leela was
last, and surprised everyone by kissing Fry on the cheek and giving
him a hug which nearly choked him.
"Leela.. I can't
breathe!" Fry gasped. "And I'm still really sore!"
"Oh, sorry."
Leela said. "Fry.. I'm glad you made it. It was my fault that
you ended up in this bed to begin with.. can you forgive me?"
"It's nothing, Leela.
It was an accident.. and we're always going to be friends."
Fry said. Somehow, that reply had bothered Leela in a way that she
wouldn't have felt before. "Don't blame yourself. Now, can
everyone in here get out except Morgan because I want to talk to her
alone."
They left, with one of
Bender's arms extending back into the room unnoticed to steal back
Fry's money. When he was sure that everyone was gone, Fry grabbed
Morgan's right hand with his own and held it tightly.
"Morgan.. I had a
dream the whole time I was out. It felt so real.. but you were dead
in it and I couldn't take it. You know Leela's pet, Nibbler? Well,
he was in it too for one part and he could talk.. and he asked me
something like if there was anything in the future worth saving. I
said your name without even thinking about it, Morgan. And I heard
you telling me to be a man and not give up."
"Fry.."
"I can't put this off
any longer. I could have died, Morgan.. but the dream made me
realize that I have to live life now and not waste it. Now, I don't
have a ring and I'm too sore to get out of bed and on my knees.. but
Morgan, will you marry me?" Fry said, with hope in his eyes.
Almost as if on cue,
Morgan began to cry.
"Oh no, don't tell me
that.." Fry groaned.
"Yes, of course I
will!"
Without thinking, Morgan
nearly leaped onto the bed and hugged Fry tightly.. forgetting that
he was still very sore and tired.
"Ow!"
"Oh, sorry."
Morgan said. "Well, I was ready to go to sleep for a while
before you woke up. That chair hurts my back.."
"Go home, Morgan..
I'll be okay. They'll probably keep me here for a couple of days at
least, but I'll be out. Wait until we tell the rest that we're
getting married!"
Not known to them, one
already knew.. her eye wet with tears and glaring through the small
window opening in the door.
December 28th, 3005..
"What will we name
him?"
"Yancy.. I want to
name him Yancy after my brother. I don't know if he ever had any
more kids, but he named his first son after me and I'm kind of
repaying the favor.. I guess."
Taking him from his
mother, Fry held his newborn son in his arms. He was the splitting
image of himself except for his dark hair.. Fry smiled at him and
even though he would not understand for a while, he began to tell him
of his namesake and how much he loved and missed his older brother.
The birth had been tough
on Morgan and she was still very weak, but she propped herself up in
her bed after a doctor had taken young Yancy away for the night.
"Your brother.. he must have been a very special man, like you."
"Special? Yeah,
right!" Fry said. "He used to copy me, steal my stuff and
torment me.. but I loved him anyway. That's one bad thing about
being frozen.. I never got to say goodbye to him or meet his son, but
I'll always remember them."
Fry stopped talking and
stared out a nearby window for nearly a minute before Morgan snapped
him back into reality. "Fry.. is there something wrong?"
"Some nights, I have
weird dreams.. like everything here is just wrong. In one of them
you're really mean and took Hermes's job, and put Bender's brain on a
floppy disk or something like that. In another one I'm playing the
Holophonor.. something I gave up years ago. But that's not
what's weird, I'm playing some opera but it's about Leela and not
you! And in another one I'm shoving space-bee honey into my mouth to
kill myself but it's like I'm watching it on some big screen and then
I freak out and start crying!"
"They're just dreams,
Fry. They can't hurt you."
"Yeah, but this
sounds crazy.. but what if the stuff I dreamed actually did happen in
other universes and it's somehow leaking through in my dreams?"
Fry said. "Sounds like something from a bad Sci-Fi.."
"I do not know about
dreams or other universes, Fry.. but all that matters is here, and
us. Our family." Morgan said. "I don't care if we were
manipulated in some way or not, because I like what I have now."
"We're both a lot
better off than we started." Fry said.
"Much."
"Leela's alright now,
too. I mean.. she did try to crash our wedding and was hauled off by
the police, but I forgive her. What you told her right before I woke
up must have really got to her."
"I only told her the
truth, which was something she needed to hear." Morgan said.
"Anyway, I never met
him but according to her she met a really nice guy a few months ago
and now they're engaged. I hope it works out. Leela's always been a
great friend from the day I met her."
Morgan didn't answer Fry,
as she had fallen asleep from exhaustion only moments before. He
lightly kissed her forehead before exiting the room.
After leaving his wife
alone to rest, Fry thought back to that night.. the lowest
point in his life. If the woman now lying asleep in the adjacent
room had not come to him on that night, he didn't know where he would
be today. He now had everything.. a wife and a son. Even Bender
joked that he wanted the kid to call him "Uncle Bender"
when he or she would be old enough to talk. Fry now understood that
even cold park benches could be bearers of good fortune if the right
person came along.. which she did.
Wow, much longer than I
expected!
Anyway, this is a very
different story.. and I can never write romance to save my life.
Writing the anti-Leela parts was almost painful to do, but it had to
be done for this story. Fry's dreams near the end reference How
Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back, The Devil's Hands are
Idol Playthings, and my own fan fiction A Second Chance
(shameless plug).
The story title itself
(Something Completely Different), was taken from Monty
Python's Flying Circus.. which is a great show. The next chapter is
short, but explains some things..
|