This follows on from a concept I had of Fry and Leela going to a planet where they ended up cloned - but their DNA was cloned together, causing them to have a child. However, this was an accident and neither Fry nor Leela felt that they were in the right place in their lives together to co-parent. Upon learning that without being around them their child would cease to exist until they returned, Fry and Leela fled. However, one day Helix awakened to find that se had consciouness, meaning that hir parents have returned. As you can see, Helix has no gender - se is neither male nor female - so the gender neutral pronouns have been used. 'Se' = He/She and 'Hir' = Him/Her. Helix was named after the closest nebula to Earth, and also the much-further-out Double Helix nebula, which looks like Fry and Leela's nebula from the Titanic.

(Disclaimer: Fry and Leela belong to Matt Groening, maybe Comedy Central and probably the bloody FOX Network).

It's a weird thing not to exist. It wasn't like waking up from a sleep or being knocked out. Was this like being born, Helix wondered; a sudden Big Bang of everything at once? No. Helix still had all hir memories. Memories that weren't just colored in Orange and Purple - memories of hir whole independent existance from Fry and Leela; the pink waterfall that hid the cave when se painted on the walls - painted things se'd never seen. The last thing se remembered from hir life was the tears in Leela's eye through the ship's window as she watched her and Fry's baby fade into the distance where they'd left hir - in Leela's baby basket from the orphanarium with the flowers they'd fed through the wicker - where se'd sat reading Fry's comics until everything went dark. To Helix, it felt like they hadn't been gone at all. Se could smell the Slurm and beer, and the citrus and pine soap. From last time? From this time? Who Knew? Helix tired to control hir excited breath. Se knew they'd come back. Se'd always known.

"Helix...?"

Se jolted at the sound. It was Leela. She was close! Her voice sounded weak, "...forgive us."

"Please," murmered Fry.

Helix couldn't see at first. Se rubbed hir eyes and stretched out hir arms, seeking Fry and Leela. Suddenly there they were, stood a little way in front of the ship, a few feet from Helix; Leela anxiously clasping her hands together and Fry behind her, holding onto her shoulders.

With a gasp, their child ran to them, one hand on each of their clothing - as high up as se could reach.

"Oh Helix," Leela breathed, dropping to the planet's dusty violet ground and wrapping her arms around hir.

Helix closed hir eyes at the sound of hir parent's voice and collapsed into the safety of Leela's strong arms. Her voice felt familar and warm in Helix's ears, with that honey-like softness so full of love. Helix felt Fry's hand lightly on hir back and looked up from Leela's sweet-smelling shoulder at him, desperate to take it all in.

Leela and Fry lifted the little child together, holding hir between them. Se wasn't heavy. Feeling their soft kisses and nuzzles in hir hair, Helix felt warm and sleepy. Se was still clinging to each of their clothes in case they'd suddenly vanish and hir existance would be wiped out. But se knew that wouldn't happen - Helix knew Fry and Leela inside out; their thoughts, actions, hopes, dreams, fears, talents, passions...all of it was as familiar to hir as nursery rhymes were to other children. Se had no idea how - it came naturally. Watching them console each other seconds before the Planet Express ship hurtled away from view, Helix knew for certain they would bring hir back to life one day. How long it had been, se didn't know. But they were here, and - unlike the first time se'd met them - they were here by they own choice. It was too much; Leela smelt of a million roses and se was being rocked oh-so-gently, Fry still kissing hir head, it was just too much...se felt hir body going limp against them.

Helix woke up on a pillow in a hover crate wrapped in soft blankets. Fry sat on a box at hir side, very gently swaying the crate.

"Oh, you're awake," he whispered, "I love you so much. You have no idea. I'm so happy..." He looked up to see Leela standing behind him.

"So happy," he repeated.

Helix sat up, hugging hir knees and looking back and fourth at each of them. They smiled. It was pretty intense when someone with three eyes stared at you like they were worried you weren't real, or that you'd disappear any second. Fry took his yo-yo out from inside his jacket and fiddled with the tangled string, not making any progress at all on untangling; he was still smiling contentedly at Helix.

"You came back for me..." their child managed at last, "you brought me with you."

Leela placed a hand on hir forehead a gently swept back a jagged chuck of Carmine hair. "I'm not going to lie to you. We when first learned what had happened, we were really scared...so we panicked."

"You don't need to explain yourself to me, Leela. You never do. It's so much better this way. You made me on purpose. You went through so much to do it. You both put in so much care and effort, and here I am. You brought me to life because you wanted me. Not a different child. I know Fry thought about adopting and co-parenting with you, and you thought about co-creating with him physically..."

There was a worried look between Fry and Leela. Was this awkward? Their child was right; Leela remembered those times in the medical room at Plan Ex, in the lounge, drinking with Bender, on reproductive-function-threatening deliveries... whenever someone mentioned Fry's sperm cells for whatever reason (it came up more than you'd think, it really did) - she ached. Just to have something made so intimately by his beautifully Fryish body so close to something inside hers, something so vital to her. Her ova seemed to smart with longing sometimes.

But she'd never thought about Fry thinking about stuff like that. He never though about the future, just flitted from moment to moment. Leela usually figured that if she asked him to think about the future, it would be the same as the present - bumming around space with her and Bender. It never crossed her mind that maybe he'd think about co-parenting a child with her - and adopting no less! The little girl inside her heart felt a familiar, deep seated, not-yet-healed longing - the endless wait to be adopted. Suddenly Leela saw Fry through the eyes of an orphan; this excitable dork, all red hair and space dreams, reeking of sugar with his infectious laugh and infectious tears. He would appear - like he does - from right out of the blue to sweep them off their feet into a life of eating Blast-Off Sundaes, of Shrinky Dinks and Rubix cubes, of being swung in the air after you win your first video game, of being read Spaceboy comics and starring in Delivery-boy-man comics, of a parent who doesn't just give you stuff to color - but sits and colors with you, of listening to the blasted glee of that Walking on Sunshine song a thousand times over, of being mesmorized by holograms and musical chaos, of falling asleep stargazing, of being taught how to make ice-cream soup...

Leela was gazing at him, but Fry was lost in thought. He remembered how night after night he'd dreamed of holding their baby with her - one they'd adopt and so warmly welcome into an ever-loving, goofy home. He didn't know too much about how things were for people with uteri in the thirtieth century - but he knew for sure that they still lived in a sexist world, and the thought of Leela scared or in pain made him immediately want to throw up. He'd manage to shake that feeling when it came, and held the pillow he'd be cradling closer. Yes, adoption was the way forward. Much less throwing up. Probably. He'd smiled, gazing up at her bedroom ceiling. Every orphan he saw was a little version of Leela in his mind; he wanted to protect them all. He'd wondered about telling her this - but usually when she was fast asleep at his side, as he hugged the pillow and pretended, curled up around her sleeping naked body.

His mind drifted back into the present; What was Helix saying? Leela had thought about co-creating with him physically? He'd learned over the years that 'physically' often meant something much more interesting - it usually involved sex. Then...wait...'co-creating'...was that...making babies?

The shock he was feeling must have shown on his face, because Leela's expression switched from a gaze of pure adoration to one of a gentle warning, pleading with her eye for him to stay quiet. He knew why; what Helix was staying was so important that she couldn't bare to see him derailed. Was that all it was? Maybe. He didn't want to interupt their brilliant child either.

"...and yet," Helix went on, "...you never could have imagined doing what you did. And you did it for me so...it, uh, means a lot."

Se seemed to have come over a little self conscious, which melted Leela's heart.

"I fell in love with you," she told Helix, "I don't want anyone else." Still looking at her child, she took Fry's hand gently in hers, "and as perfect as adopting with this lil' spaceboy here would be - as would having his babies - it doesn't come close to you, Helix," she paused to smile lovingly at Fry, "And that's saying something, because either of those would be incredible," she took Helix's tiny hand in her other one and look hir deeply in the eyes, "but nowhere near as incredible as you."

Fry sniffled; Leela was right as usual. Helix was way better than anything. "She's right..." He held Helix's other hand, "you're better than any dream we could have ever had. Either of us."

Leela watched proudly as Helix and Fry smiled at each other. All three of Helix's eyelids were drooping, and he took his time blinking.

"You look a little tired, Helix."

"Mmm-hmm." Se lay back down. Fry and Leela tucked hir in, taking turns stroking and kissing hir hair a little. Then they sat on boxes a few feet opposite each other, became completely lost in each other's eyes, and passed the hover crate very slowly back and fourth.

Softly, so as not to wake Helix, Leela crept out of the spare cabin where they'd put hir crate-crib and into her own cabin. Fry trailed in behind her.

As soon as the door slid shut, he blurted out "you wanted to have my babies?!"

Leela reddened; "don't make me have to kiss you to shut you up."

He blinked at her, "Babies. You. Mine!"

"Oh Fry."

Her lips were so soft against his - it was a light, senusous touch but he felt an urgency to it - she wanted him.

He broke off playfully, "I never even thought about that!" He just about managed to get the words out before her full, red lips were stopping his runaway mouth again.

He darted backwards, "I mean, adoption is one thing but - mmmhhh!" It was a harder kiss, her toungue seeking his. He fought the urge to recipocate and dived onto her bed, "what about the pain?"

Leela pounced - but for once he was too quick for her and rolled out the way, "what about the mess?"

She pounced again and caught him. Fry let out a delighted squeal - he couldn't help it.

He broke her crazed stream of kisses by turning his head, wriggling free, "and think about what you'd have to do to get that to even work!"

"Oh Fry!" Leela gasped with exasperation, "it must be so difficult for you to get your brain around. I mean, I'm not your grandma or anything-"

The rest of her sentence was lost in his passionate kiss - his tounge wildly exploring her mouth and his hands creeping to just below her collarbone - trailing his soft fingers against her fiercely tingling skin. Finally, finally. She felt herself trembling, moaning against his mouth.

"Shhhh!" giggled Fry between his kisses.