Futurama

The Other, Part 9
By Rye Guy

Leela walks drudgingly down the street, her elbows hunched and her head hung low. Her mind wanders as she remembers the last thing he said: 'Leela, I'll meet you there.' "What did he mean?" she thinks. "Meet me where?"

As she continues her thoughts, she doesn't realize that she's walked the wrong direction. No longer heading to her apartment, she finds herself out front of the Robot Arms apartment building.

A small smile graces her face. "You know, I just realized, I've never seen the inside of Fry's apartment before," she says to herself.

She walks in and up to Fry and Bender's room. The door slides open and she steps into the closet-sized space where Bender normally sleeps. The second door opens and she sees Fry's part. She looks around and sees his unmade bed, some articles of clothing scattered on the floor, and some posters of bikini women at the beach and one of a computer mainframe on the wall.

"Maybe there's something here that'll gimme a clue as to what he meant."

The blind is pulled down over the window; she opens it and sees the view. The night sky can be seen perfectly with the city outline underneath the moon.

"Beautiful."

She turns and steps on something that sounds like cracking glass. It's a picture frame lying face-down on the floor with some broken glass scattered around it. She bends down and picks up the frame; in it is a picture of her and the crew at Monument Beach. Caressing her fingers down the photo, following Fry's body, she sighs and sets the picture back on the end table.

"I'd better clean this up."

She gets down on her knees and begins picking up the glass shards; she glances over and sees something under the bed. Curious, she reaches in and pulls out a big black box with two latches on the front. With a click the latches come undone and the box opens. Her eye tears up as she sees his Holophonor inside. She gently holds it in her hands and holds it to her chest. Some folded up sheets of paper in the box get her attention. She unfolds them and gasps happily as she reads the title: 'Leela: Orphan of the Stars.'

"It's his opera!"

She begins reading the lyrics printed on the music sheets to the parts she didn't get to hear before. She sits there for maybe an hour or more reading these beautiful words.

Upon finishing the last sheet, she holds the Holophonor to her chest again and lies on her back on the floor.

"He loved me so much...for so long...how could I have been so blind?"

She slowly sits up and observes the Holophonor.

"Hmm, I wonder..."

The rounded end lights up as she begins to play. It sounds awful, but she doesn't care. The rainbow spectrum fades in over the end and an image appears.

The image is a crude, almost stick figure like, drawing of herself crying. Fry walks up to her from behind; he too is a stick figure. He holds his hand out to her and she turns and cries on his shoulder. He holds her close. Then, many demonic looking stick figures appear around them. They try to get to her but they can't get close because Fry has created a force field around them that protects them both. This force field expands and disintegrates all the demons. The Leela figure looks up to the Fry figure and they both smile. Then they share a kiss as the music stops and the image fades away.

She gazes out the window.

"I know you're still alive, Fry. I believe it; I can feel it in my heart. Please meet me there...wherever it is...and soon."

She sits back against the wall, slowly drifting into sleep. The Holophonor drops from her limp hand. The sound of it hitting the hard wood floor wakes her up and she sees it roll under the bed. She reaches down to get it. She finds it but feels something else beside it. She pulls both objects out; setting the Holophonor on the bed, she examines the other object. It's an old composition notebook that has been badly burned. She opens it to the first page and sees a crude and simple drawing of herself.

She smiles. "Still looks better than my Holophonor interlude."

Flipping through the burnt pages, she watches in amazement as the artwork improves with each page. By the time she reaches the last page, she sees an almost photo realistic drawing of her. It's so beautiful with her long flowing hair and red dress.

"Wonder how it got so burned."

In a small room littered with various knick-knacks...

The same young man walks, a large rifle slung over his shoulder. He tilts to the side, allowing the rifle to slide off gently onto the floor and lean against the wall. The young man is dirty and covered in soot. He sits on the cot and wipes the dirt form his face. Removing his gloves he reaches into a pocket inside of his shirt and pulls out an old photograph. He smiles as he gazes at it; it's wrinkled and faded with creases from it being folded. Suddenly, a loud sound is heard outside of his door followed by some people screaming, then silence. He slowly and quietly stands and steps to the door. It unexpectedly flies off its hinges and pins him against the wall with great force.

He wakes up with a start... He looks around and is glad to see that he's sitting in a dark and cold alley. He rubs his eyes.

"Well, at least I'm off to a start," he ponders.

The cold gets to him and he shivers. He pulls some large pieces of cardboard over him to try and keep warm for the night. He reaches into is jacket pocket he holds the same photo from his dream. Holding it close to his heart, he shuts his eyes.

"This has got to work."

A while later, Bender walks in...

"Maybe looking through some of his stuff will help," he says to himself.

He walks in and sees Leela asleep on the floor; the notebook clutched in her arms, the Holophonor lying next to her.

"Poor thing. This musta been harder for her than anybody."

He gently picks her up and lays her in the bed. She snuggles on the pillow as he pulls the cover over her and walks back into his part of the apartment.

"What's wrong with me? Feels like I've got that stupid emotion chip in me again."

The next morning... Leela awakens from a surprisingly peaceful night's sleep. She yawns, rubs her eye and stretches. The sunshine coming through the window brightens the whole room and she admires the scenery outside. A blanket of snow has covered all of New New York. With another yawn and a warm smile, she steps into the bathroom. Looking at herself in the mirror, she can't help but chuckle a little.

"Geez, I'm a wreck."

From her blood shot eye to her fussed hair, even some of her make-up which has smeared and run down her face.

"I'd better wash up. Wanna look my best when he comes back. Of course, knowing him, he'd say I was beautiful anyway."

She sighs and takes off her jacket. As she hangs it up on the rack on the door she sees the long scar on her arm. She softly strokes it with her fingers; the pain is still fresh in her mind. If only she could go back and do more to save him. Then they'd be together now and cuddling to keep themselves warm on this X-Mas.

"It's X-mas..." she says to herself.

Removing her shirt, she's faced with another reminder of what she had to endure. Two scars, one on each side of her torso, from her supposed death. She only hoped that it didn't cause any harm to her child. As she becomes preoccupied in her thoughts, she sees something shining in the mirror. It's her engagement ring which she has not taken off since he first slipped it on her finger. She takes it off and sets it on the side of the sink then finishes undressing and steps into the shower.

At Planet Express... The crew (sans Leela and the Professor) is all together and celebrating X-Mas as best they can. There's a small palm tree standing in the middle of the conference table. Everyone has picked their own ornament and hung it on the tree. The Professor walks in.

"Good news everyone! I want to int - wait, where's Leela?"

"She called a while ago so she should be here any time now," responds Amy.

"Oh, good. I'll wait until she gets here to make my announcement."

The door opens and in walks Leela wearing her usual attire with her green jacket. "Hey guys."

The Professor smiles. "Good news everyone! I want to introduce you to our new delivery boy." He turns to the door behind him. "Come on in."

"New delivery boy?" asks Leela. "But Professor, Fry is our delivery boy."

"Don't worry. He's just temporary." Their new delivery boy walks in from behind the Professor; it's the same young man. "Everyone, this is Skyler."

Skyler nods his head. "Hey."

"Here, allow me to introduce everyone to you," says the Professor as he leads Skyler around the room to Hermes. "This is Hermes. He's our resident Jamaican and business accountant." They shake hands and greet. Then to Amy. "Here's Amy, she's our technician."

"Pleasure to meet you, Amy." They shake hands.

To Bender. "This shiny fellow is Bender."

"Yeah, he kinda bumped into me last night," says Skyler.

"Hey, you bumped into me!"

"Alright! Enough bickering you two. There'll be more time for that while you're working." He leads Skyler to Zapp and Kif. "And these two are Captain Zapp Branigan and-"

Skyler cuts him off, "-Lieutenant Kif Kroker."

"Oh, you've heard of me?" asks Kif surprised.

"Yes sir, alot. And might I say that it is an honor to be able to meet you in person." He holds out his hand and shakes Kif's.

"Well, if you've heard of Kif here then surely you've heard of me," remarks Zapp, with a prideful tone in his voice.

"Oh yes, Captain Zapp Branigan. Let's just say you're...reputation...precedes you."

"Why yes it does. Twenty Five medals to be exact."

Skyler smirks. "Not that reputation."

The Professor leads him to Zoidberg. Zoidberg prepares to introduce himself but the two continue past him to Leela. "And this is our captain, Leela."

Skyler, seeing her for the first time, takes a step back and stares.

Exasperated, Leela sighs. She's gotten used to reactions like these. She always tried to not let them get to her, but deep down they made her furious. "Great, another chauvinistic gawker," she mumbles under her breathe.

"She is more gorgeous in person," he thinks. He continues admiring her completely unaware that she's taking it as impolite staring. She taps her foot on the floor hard and loud. Skyler shakes his head. "I-I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, kid, I'm used to it." She doesn't understand why, but for some reason she feels some kind of familiarity with this young man. She shakes it off. "So what brings you here?"

"Oh, well I accidentally bumped into Fry yesterday and he dropped a...um...a business card, yeah. So I thought I'd see if you were hiring."

The Professor and Hermes are nearby. The Professor scratches his head. "That's odd; I don't recall us making any business cards."

"Neither do I."

"Professor..." calls Leela.

"Yes?"

"I brought a picture of Fry to put on the tree. I hope that's alright."

"Quite alright, just make sure to find a good spot."

Leela examines the tree for the ideal spot. She's suddenly struck by genius. She sits the photo on top of the tree in front of the star. The points of the star can be seen coming out form behind his face. She happily hums Walking on Sunshine as she gazes at the picture.

Bender jumps on the table to get everyone's attention. "Hey! It's time to open the presents!"

They all go downstairs to the locker room and grab their Secret Santa gifts from their lockers and begin to hand them out.

Amy gives hers to the Professor and he opens it: it's a pink lab coat. "Do you like it?"

"Why...yes. It...it's...uh...very...pink."

"I knew you'd like it! Here, go try it on!"

"Must I?"

Hermes hands his gift to Bender who immediately rips the package to shreds; it's an industrial size can of Mom's Old Fashioned Robot Antenna Wax.

"Hey alright! Now I can keep Little Bender lookin' shiny for the ladies." He reaches into his chest compartment and pulls out a sloppily wrapped gift and tosses it to Amy. It hits her in the head, knocking her to the floor. "Heads up."

The gift hits the floor with the sound of something shattering, she picks it up. "Way to go Bender, you broke it!"

"Did not! I got you a bag of irregular glass shards."

"Oh..." she smiles. "Thanks."

The Professor gives Hermes his present. He carefully unwraps it; he got him an electronic message changing filing stamp. Hermes almost dances with delight; he pushes the button on the handle "Void." He speaks into the end. He watches the stamp as on the blank pad the word 'Void' appears. "With dis little baby I can stamp twice as many papers at once. Thanks mon!"

Zoidberg holds up a present. "Here, Zoidberg, this is for you. For me?" He opens it and inside he got himself a mouth-flap warmer. He slips it on. "Wow thanks! It's just what I needed. Merry X-Mas! Merry X-Mas to you too!"

"That's just sad," remarks Bender shaking his head.

Amidst all the celebration, no one notices Leela as she walks out of the room. Skyler sees her and quietly follows.

To be continued

Alrighty! I know most of you were getting used to the violence from the last few parts, but now things are calming down. So you can breathe a sigh of relief now and read safely. Come on, you can trust me. Hey, have I ever lied to you before? No...well...there was that one time, but we won't go into that now. This isn't the time nor place. Part 10 coming soon...