Fry smiled as he entered his new pin into the device the purple sales smog had put front of him. He seemed to recall something about women liking flowers so had taken a short detour to buy them for Leela with the assumption that the same would apply to women mutants.

As he continued his journey to work he found himself thinking about Leela as he often did although, he had to admit, a little clearer than usual.

Since he and Leela had declared their love for each other, shortly before being crushed by a million tons if spaceship, he had expected them to become closer. Instead they had drifted apart. It's not as if they hadn't gone out on several dates since the professor cooked them back up from stem cells, but something would always go wrong and mess things up. He had always assumed it would work out and now he was scared, and he had no doubt that Leela felt the same way. It all seemed so obvious to him now. How had he not seen it before?

As he approached the Planet Express building Fry began to feel better. He had made what he thought was a breakthrough in his relationship with Leela, without her actually being there and spelling anything out for him, but he couldn't shake the feeling he was losing her.

"Here goes," he said to himself as he walked through the hanger entrance.

"Sorry we're closed," a voice said somewhere in front of him.

As his eyes adjusted to the low lighting around the ship he noticed Amy on a hover platform holding a weld-o-matic gun.

"If you come back later we..."

She removed her welding mask and realised for the first time who had actually come in.

Fry? You look great," she said with a slight erotic and all too familiar tone to her voice.

"Thanks, so do you."

Amy looked down at herself to check she had actually remembered to put her pink sweat suit on this morning. It took her a moment to realise Fry was simply returning the compliment to be polite.

Fry watched as she lowered the platform and walked slowly and seductively towards him. He didn't know what she would do when she got to him, but he had no doubt it would be something that Kiff would not approve of. In a desperate attempt to prevent a confrontation with an alien with no bones Fry raised the flowers he was holding in front if him.

"Have you seen Leela?" he said quickly, indicating the flowers so that Amy wouldn't get the wrong idea.

Amy got the message and backed down with a slight look of relief. Fry knew that she had problems controlling her libido but had never expected to have to protect her from himself.

"She's not in yet, she must be running really late if you've got here before her."

"Actually I'm early"

"Sure you are," she said with a chuckle and headed back to the hover platform.

"Maybe I'll get the ship ready to launch for her," he said as he put the flowers down and took off his jacket.

"Without Leela here to keep an eye on you? It's your funeral."

Fry ignored her comment and set to work. Leela had shown him a hundred times how to set the ship up before missions but he never got very far, it all became too confusing and he would give up.

He thought he'd start with cleaning out the reactor as that was the easiest thing to do. He then filled the fuel tank with dark matter from Nibbler's litter tray and before he knew it he had set up the launch controls, cleared the cargo deck of owl droppings and changed the empty air freshener on the bridge. The ship was now ready to go wherever the professor was likely to send them, returning was another matter.

A small satisfied smile spread across Fry's face as he realized he had finished with the essentials and could spend the rest of the morning taking it easy washing the ship. He was finishing off doing just that when Leela walked into the hanger carrying a large ham.

"Hay Leela," he said as he dried off the last wet patch on the ship.

"Hay Fry, have you seen Nibbler? He wasn't in his bed when I woke up this morning."

Fry could see that Leela was upset. She often was when Nibbler went AWOL although he could never figure out why. Sure he was cute and kept her company but...

"No sorry, I haven't. He's probably just gone on a secret mission or something. I'm sure he'll be back soon."

"Yeah I suppose you're right," she said as she looked down at the ham she was cradling in her arms.

Fry looked into her eye. He hated to see Leela sad.

"Maybe these will cheer you up," he said picking up the flowers and handing them to her.

"Sorry their a little squashed. I had to hide them under my jacket away from Dr. Zoidberg. You know how he likes to eat flowers and stuff."

Leela put the ham down and took the flowers. She gave them a sniff and smiled.

"Oh Fry, they're beautiful thank you."

Fry smiled back but he could still see sadness in Leela's eye. Usually he couldn't tell what she was feeling at all, he would just take her statements at face value. Today, however, he could read her like a book, which for some reason he also felt like doing.

"Sorry I'm late by the way, I lost track of time looking for Nibbler."

"You're not that late. I got here early and got the ship ready."

Leela kissed Fry on the cheek.

"Sure you did," she said.

Before he could say anything else the building shook with a violent scream.

"What was that?" asked Fry removing his hands from his ears.

"Midday conference call," replied Leela. "Wow, I guess you did get here early."

No one seemed to notice Fry when he sat down at the conference table with Leela. Bender had no doubt known Fry was on his way due to the array of 'super robotic' sensors he possessed and constantly bragged about, but had decided to ignore him and count a wad of cash instead. Fry felt a little annoyed at this but, was even more so when he realise Bender was wearing an 'I gave blood' sticker on his chest plate. He decided to play Bender at his own game and ignore him.

Also at the table was Amy. She was sitting to one side painting her toenails pink and seemed blissfully unaware of anything else, yet alone Fry's arrival.

The professor was fast asleep in his chair as usual.

Hermes and Zoidberg were standing by their seats arguing.

"There's no way a bottle of beer got past Bender mon, especially not a full one. You must have dreamed it you stupid crab."

"I don't care what you say Hermes it was a feast I tell you. A feast!"

Hermes shook his head and sat down.

"Ok, who had Fry to arrive four hours late yesterday?" he said looking around the table. Amy suddenly drew her attention away from her nails and raised her hand.

"Me, I did," she said eagerly.

Hermes handed her an envelope which she shoved in her pocket before continuing with her nails.

"For today's pool we'll see how long it takes Fry too...," he stopped as he realised Fry was in fact sat at the table.

"Fry mon!" he looked at his watch and clearly not satisfied with what it told him began to tap it.

"It must be broken," he murmured to himself.

"Actually I got here early this morning."

Hermes turned to him and removed his watch.

"Sure you did," he said as he threw the watch in the nearest bin. "I suppose you also cleaned the ship and got her ready for launch as well?"

"Sure did," he said feeling proud of himself.

Hermes tried but failed to keep a straight face.

"Fry mon, you really know how to crack a guy up."

Fry crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Don't be upset Fry," said Leela in a soft tone reserved for sparing his feelings. "I'm sure you did a great job on the ship. Why don't I just go and inspect her and then we can get on with whatever mission the professor has planned for us. Who knows, we might even make a delivery today."

A short time later she returned wearing a blank face and holding something behind her back.

"Everything check out ok?" Fry asked smugly. The next thing he knew he was on the conference table, with Leela on top of him pointing a Death-o-matic pistol in his face.