Part 6: Homeward Bound

Chapter 43

Leela called the professor as soon as they broke orbit. There were no signs of guilt on his face. Either Farnsworth did not feel regret for abandoning her to whatever fate Ivan had planned, or he simply didn't remember anything that had happened. It quickly became apparent that it was the second case.

"Hello?" he enquired upon accepting the call. "Who is this?"

"Professor! It's Leela! It's so good to see you again!"

"Leela! There you are! We've been looking all over for you! Why aren't you at work today? There's a package that need's delivering to the politically correct people of Liberalis 12!"

Fry, who had been listening to the conversation from the rear of the ship, got up and moved to a position right behind Leela. If he cocked his head just right he could get it in the vidphone's field of view.

"Umm, " he began, "Leela was kidnapped by Ivan, and I went to rescue her. That was a few days ago now…"

"Huh-wha?"

"You know, Ivan. That guy that stole all of your doomsday devices and tried to blow up your spaceship?"

"Don't be silly Fry. All of my doomsday devices are all perfectly safe. Why, I was tinkering with the quantum matter wave disruptor just this morning. Nothing wakes up the mad genius like the smell of tachyons decaying in the morning, oh my yes…"

By this point Farnsworth had become lost in musings of diabolical machines of death and destruction. He wandered off camera before Fry or Leela had a chance to regain his attention. Leela had just enough time to grumble something about senile old men and start to hang up, when Amy happened upon the scene.

"Umm, professor, I think you left the vidphone on again," she yelled from off screen. "Hmm, I wonder who he was talking t-" She realized who was on the other end of the line. "Oh my gosh! Fry! Leela! You're ok! We were so worried about you!"

"Hi Amy, god it's good to see you again. Yeah, Fry and I are fine. Fry managed to rescue me from Ivan."

"Uhh, yeah about that Leela. The professor wouldn't let us come after you… We wanted to, really we did, but by the time we had loaded up all of the professor's things there wasn't a trail to follow anymore. I'm really sorry."

Leela smiled to diffuse her friend's tension. "It's ok Amy, I understand. The professor did the right thing anyway. Those weapons could have killed millions of people, there wasn't any other thing you could have done."

Amy was visibly relieved. She had been worried that Leela would hate her forever. "So, where are you now?"

"We're in a shuttle headed for home. We'll be back at Planet Express in a day or so." Damn it felt good to say that…

"Oh, ok. Do you need us to come out and meet you half way? It looks really cramped in there."

Fry and Leela looked at each other, and then looked over their shoulders in unison. It would be a cramped 24 hours. The two companions turned back to the vidphone. "No, its alright," responded Leela. "Fry and I can handle it."

"Alright, if you say so. Umm, anyway, what happened to Ivan?" Amy was almost certain she knew the answer, but she needed someone to tell her for certain.

"Ivan's dead Amy. Fry…"

Fry interjected. "I blasted him! I was all like, rolling around on the floor and found this gun and I was like 'hasta la vista baby!' and he was all like kapow! Zap! Squish!" Fry's speech disintegrated into a series of weird noises and bodily motions as he tried to explain what had happened. He finally hit his head on an extruding pipe and fell silent for a moment, finally retreating toward the stern with embarrassment.

Amy laughed. It was such a relief to see her two friends safe and acting like their normal selves; Leela frosty and pretending to be as tough as granite, Fry as composed as a six year old that had just been told he was going to Luna Park for the weekend.

Something still bothered Leela. "Amy, did the professor ever get his devices back?" Farnsworth had just told her that yes, his devices were safe, but that could just be an illusion brought on by senility. "Fry told me that Farnsworth broke into the hangar on Talora to get them."

"Oh yeah, everything's all taken care of. We loaded all of the professor's stuff into the ship and took off before anyone even knew we were there."
"So then they really are back in the planet express building?"

"Yep"

"But wasn't the whole reason for this awful mission to get them away from the Planet Express building?"

"Heh, yeah, funny story. The Society for Mad Scientists threatened to stop supplying President Nixon with new doomsday weapons if they couldn't keep some for themselves, so Nixon threatened to rampage through the Supreme Court until they declared the anti-doomsday law unconstitutional. Doomsday devices are legal again."

"That figures. Actually, I would have been surprised if something like that hadn't happened to us; it always does." Leela sighed. "Alright, well it's been nice talking to you again Amy. Here's our flight plan so you know where to find us if there's a problem. I'll see you in a little bit"

Leela moved to break the connection, but Amy had one last thing to say.

"Wait Leela, there's something else."

Leela waited.

Amy gestured for Leela to turn the volume down so that Fry wouldn't overhear. "Did Fry tell you about how he rescued you?"

"No, not yet. We haven't really had the time to sit down and talk. I can probably guess though. You found him a ship and the professor somehow figured out where I was and programmed the ship to bring Fry to me. I still don't know who helped him once he got to the planet though…"

Amy was shaking her head sadly. "Spleesh Leela, you never give him enough credit. The professor figured out how to track you, but he wouldn't let Fry try to rescue you. You should have seen how furious Fry was. We actually had to keep watch on the bridge the whole time he was onboard because we were afraid he'd steal the ship! Then when we were loading the professor's doomsday devices onto the ship I saw Fry go running for the little shuttle that was sitting in the corner. By the time I got there he was already halfway through powering it up. Leela, Fry stole a spaceship to come look for you. Nobody helped him. We all tried to stop him. Everyone thought he'd just get himself killed."

Leela was flat out speechless. She had had no idea…

"Oh." Was all she managed.

"And, well, Leela, Fry told me something just before he took off. He's said it before but I never really believed it for some reason. But, geez Leela, you should have seen him! There was something in his eyes. I've never seen anything like it before."

"What did he say?"

"He said he loved you."

Leela sat in the pilot seat staring into deep space and mulling over Amy's words. Fry was breathing lightly in the background. The delivery boy had told her that he loved her several times, it shouldn't be news. "Then why is it?", she wondered. The first time she had heard him say it, she had been flattered but hadn't taken him seriously. After all, this was Fry she was thinking about. The only other time she had heard him say it was when he had been infested with sentient tapeworms. It had been easy to blame them for the delivery boy's sudden deep, coherent emotions. Now Leela wasn't nearly so sure. Fry had stolen a spaceship he didn't know how to fly and chased Leela's captor across the galaxy. It was even likely that it was him that challenged Ivan in orbit around Gyllegyn. Then he had broken into Ivan's ship in the middle of a small war to rescue her, all the while risking near certain death. "And he did it without a second thought, just because I needed him." "He'd do it again too, even if I never thank him." If that didn't sound like love, then Leela had no idea what did.

Presently, two weeks of stress, terror, and exhaustion began to catch up to PE captain. Leela reached out and activated the autopilot. There was nothing between their current location and home but deep space. The ship could be trusted to fly itself for awhile.

Leela stretched and stood up. She could see Fry lying on his side, comatose on the ship's only soft horizontal surface. At first she started to sit back down, thinking to sleep in the chair, but she paused halfway through the motion. Not giving herself any chance to change her mind, she walked the few steps to her sleeping comrade and sat down on the edge of the bed. Being very careful not to startle him, Leela laid down on her side. When she was sure he wouldn't wake she rolled over and snuggled up him. Before long an arm appeared around her waist.. Leela smiled contentedly and surrendered to the drowsiness that was slowly creeping up on her. A moment later she was asleep.