Chapter 6 - Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Harry had sent another two builders to finish off the job that Chuck and himself had started. Later, he drove Leela down to her own apartment, to collect some more of her things. Besides, Chuck's place was getting a little crowded, and so they had to find somewhere of their own pretty quickly.
As they both walked into the living room, they spotted Fry, still sitting in exactly the same place, in exactly the same position that she'd left him. He was still in his best navy-blue tuxedo, that he'd worn to the Casablanca the night before, just staring into space, like a sitting dummy. He had only moved every once in a while, to go to the bathroom, but even that was delayed for as long as possible, as it reminded him so much of the man who'd "stolen" his wife.
"Hello Fry, you don't look as if you've been to work today, are you... OK?" she asked the statue, who had changed into a much paler colour, as the glum look on his face seemed to reflect how miserable he felt. Fry sat there in silence, without saying a word to anybody, but continued to stare at the blank wall.
She waved one of her hands in front of his face, to attempt to get some sort of reaction. "I've come to get my things, Fry... change out of this dress, and into something more comfortable."
When she'd finished changing and packing most of her belongings, Harry helped her take them down to the car. Deep down inside her though, there was still something that wanted her to stay behind and take care of Fry, as though something was saying, he needs you.
She felt awful, but she knew from the very beginning that although all three of them would get hurt, the perpetrator of the tragedy should suffer the hardest. If she turned back now, she would be back again for good, with the same crap occurring again and again, so she left her miserable life behind her, and walked out the door, hoping never to return.
Over the next fortnight, Harry and Leela looked for a cheap apartment to rent out, to start a new beginning of their own. However, during this time, Fry had hardly moved an inch at the now fixed-up apartment, that used to be his marriage home. Still sitting there alone, lonely and completely torn apart, Fry had began drinking to extreme excess, his alcoholism had gotten worse. Other than the effort to get up and get another bottle, as well as move his arm and wrist to lift the weight of the whiskey bottle to pour it into his mouth, he remained sitting in a tranced and an extremely traumatic state.
Why did he take her for granted? What had made him become uncaring, unresponsive... unloving? If he'd only attempted to discuss their problems over, or even sort some of them out with her, then none of this may have happened in the first place. It was really his fault, therefore he only had himself to blame for her leaving. Leela was right when she told him how he'd had his chance, yet he screwed it all up. But, for him, crying over spilt milk wasn't going to help him, yet he saw it as his only option.
Now that the two weeks were up, Leela returned to work to visit, hoping that Fry had gotten over their traumatic break-up, and made it back to work. She walked into the Planet Express lounge, where Hermes came running towards her, waving accounts for undelivered goods into her face. "Where huv ya bot been? We've all been tryin' to contact ya, but dere's no answer... we've even gone around yer house... but nuttin'. We have replaced ya wit subs, and dey're completely useless. We all been so worried."
"Both been?" replied Leela, after just realizing Fry hadn't turned up to work either. "Did you just say 'both been'?" Leela figured she already knew why Fry hadn't turned up for work over the fortnight, and so decided it was up to her to do most of the explaining.
After they all listened with great interest, eager to pick up every piece of new gossip, Amy finally remarked, "Oh cool, I've always believed a girl should be young, free and single. Besides, he was never that good in bed anyway!"
"I told them about your disgusting little romp at the Casablanca with that strange dude," Bender blurted out. Leela had become bright red with embarrassment.
She had decided she'd better go and revisit Fry again, as she felt that something may have happened to him. So, despite the difficult and traumatic events of their marriage and the after-effects of breaking up, that left quite a lot of unwanted scars, still attacking her from the inside, she just had to go and see what had happened to him. She told Hermes that she was leaving the firm, and asked if he'd stick Fry on sick leave.
After leaving Planet Express, Leela then made her way to her old apartment, just to satisfy her curiosity as to why Fry hadn't been back at work. As she still had their old doorkey, she unlocked the door, and began to walk straight through the hallway, where she began to smell something extremely pungent... like a decaying human being.
Thinking the worst for Fry, the worried sick woman zoomed like lightning into the living room. But, when she got there, she was relieved to find that Fry hadn't died, but instead hadn't bathed for the entire two weeks she'd been gone.
He still sat there, whiskey bottle in his hand, and in the same navy-blue tuxedo. He hadn't washed his hair, body or clothes, and with the addition of the bad smell of the apartment to join his own disgusting odour, it wasn't a pretty sight. To add to the scene, there were also a few delivered empty pizza boxes lying over the incredibly messy apartment floor, as well as dozens of empty whiskey bottles. He seemed to have taken their split-up rather heavily, appearing malnourished, and he seemed to be in some world of his own, as if in a state of mental exhaustion. Fry needed help, right now, and as before, when they were together, she was going to have to be the one to rescue him again.
She ran off to the bathroom, and began to run a steamy, hot bubble bath for him. She managed to drag him inside the bathroom, away from the overpowering scent in the other room. Her first major battle with Fry began with trying to separate him from the tuxedo that was stuck to him, drenched in pizza, whiskey, and bodily effluent.
After taking off his soiled clothes, she threw them in the waste bin, then with a little more trouble, she went through her old routine of sticking her fingers down his throat, to get him to puke up in the toilet. As he'd become very weak, Leela had to also help him, with all her strength, into the bath itself. Quite a lot of bathwater came splashing out, all over Leela's clothes, as she bounced the pungent naked body of Fry into the bubbled water.
The water began to change into a dark brown colour, as she sponged off the sweat, vomit and faeces from his body. She also had to shampoo out the muck, knots and flies which had accumulated in his hair, while she'd been gone. She even had to give him a second bath, just to rinse the first lot of mucky bath water off, and the entire thing took just over one and a half hours to finish. Leela knew it was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it, and unfortunately for her...
After towelling him dry, she put him to sleep, and gave him an aspirin for his headache. However, things didn't seem to be getting better, and Fry awoke in a sweat and started moaning out unintelligible words, which worried her. She had to seek medical help, so she called the ambulance to come and take Fry to the hospital, and sat with him until they arrived.
Leela went to the hospital with Fry, just to give the receptionist his details, and make sure he had safely been seen by a doctor that knew what she was talking about. After she was satisfied that her expectations were in order, she finally left his side.
She then returned to Harry, via the NNY tube system, to the small apartment of their own that they'd found, just to settle into for the time being. Although her new man wanted to get away from all their past life, Leela felt she had to remain close by, just in case Alison needed to spend some time with her father as she was growing up.
She always knew that she couldn't play mother to Fry forever, and one day, he would have to pick himself up, pull his socks up, and look after himself. Now was as good a time as any to start, or else he would never learn. Besides, she couldn't sacrifice the happiness of the man whom she now loved deeply, and that loved her just as much in return, for the other man who had ruined both hers and Alison's lives. She also had an exquisite utopia lying not far away in her future, instead of a deeply depressing and gloomy drudgery that would have been her life with Fry. Despite her worries about Fry's health, she had new feelings inside that she was finally getting somewhere... somewhere glorious, somewhere that was right for her; somewhere where she really belonged.