I'd like to say a thank you to my two reviewers for taking the time to sling some feedback my way. I honestly didn't think I'd get even one review so thanks a lot. Also, thank you to the individual who gave this story a favorite (you know who you are), really didn't see that coming.

This chapter ends a bit abruptly but the next parts I want to do feel like they should be on their own.

As before, I welcome any and all feedback, positive and negative alike. Thanks for reading and I hope you derive some entertainment from it.

Fry tentatively prodded the tiny hat that now sat on his head with unnatural rigidity. The delivery boy wasn't sure how to react to everything the Professor had told him about his new situation and he was even less sure how to react to the fact that he thought he actually understood the gist of it on his first try.

"So... how much smarter is this thing making me?" he asked at last.

"Hmm... that's difficult to say," the Professor admitted. "Your unique brain structure is a complete unknown. That you ever managed to come close to mastering shoelaces without a delta brainwave is truly remarkable."

Fry shrugged. "It did take a long time but I think that may be partially my hands fault. Got a lot easier while I had the robot hands."

"Man, it's so... freaky," Amy said. "Watching Fry be all coherent and make reasonable observations and stuff."

Fry's face sank into a slight frown. He knew that he probably the dumbest person he'd ever met but he didn't exactly enjoy having it rubbed in his face all the time. Besides, hadn't the Professor just said that it was a genetic thing? Memories of the blatant anti-mutant prejudice that had once seen Leela banished from the surface by people who saw them as 'genetically inferior' swirled uncomfortably in the front of his mind until Hermes' voice broke his train of thought.

"I'm just glad we don't have ta go rootin' around in your bowels like last time," Hermes said.

"Are you feeling alright, Fry?" Leela asked. Fry's frown was quickly replaced with a smile at his girlfriends concern.

"I feel a little weird but I think I'm okay." He hopped down from the table and straightened up experimentally. The room seemed to slosh a little with the movement like a loose stepping stone across pond but otherwise his brain managed to cope.

"Welp! Glad that boring crap is over with," Bender said. "Fry survived yet another near-death experience and we're all richer for it... Let's go get hammered!"

"Hammered?" the Professor said, visibly alarmed. "Absolutely not! Under no circumstances may Fry ingest any alcohol whatsoever!"

"What? Why not?" Fry asked.

"Yeah, you're talking crazier than usual," Bender added.

"Guh!" Amy cut in. "Your brain almost got fried, remember? Who knows what a bunch of beer would do to you. You're going to have to be careful."

Fry blinked as Amy's words sunk in. "Oh. I guess that makes sense."

"Now, don't be stupid, Fry," Leela began. "You need to- wait, what?"

"I said it makes sense. I don't want to end up brain damaged, after all."

The Planet Express team exchanged looks ranging from amazed to unsettled.

"I think he's a clone," Zoidberg said in a whisper that was several notches too loud to go unnoticed.

"Flreaky," Amy agreed.

Leela put her hands on her hips and fixed the others with a glare. "Don't you all have jobs to be bad at?"

"You people work here?" the Professor said, amazed by this newest revelation. "What do you think you're doing, slacking off? Get back to work!" A few quick jabs with a cattle prod into Hermes' and Zoidberg's midsections was enough to encourage the crew to make a hasty retreat from the laboratory.

–

He wasn't sure if it was the hat or Slurm withdrawal but Fry was restless. Normally on days without deliveries he wound up spending most of his time on the lounge couch watching television. He had always been the kind of person who could lose entire days to TV to the point that someone had to threaten to pry him out of his groove with a crowbar at least every other week.

Today it wasn't working. Reruns of Calculon's acting in All my Circuits seemed even hammier than usual. The Scary Door must have been thrown together in a single drug hazed afternoon by someone with a big deadline looming and if he heard Elzar say "bam!" one more time he was going to go insane.

Fry clicked the TV off and gradually worked his way into a standing position. Once he was on his feet however he realized he had no idea what to do with himself. He'd have no understanding of what the Professor and Amy were doing even with the hat and Hermes' work was almost lethally boring. Zoidberg would either be digging through garbage or inadvertently maiming a patient and Benders activities were best left a mystery. There was also Nibbler but Fry found that being alone with the tiny alien gave him the oddest feeling of impending doom for some reason he couldn't place.

That just left Leela. For once in her life Leela had actually encouraged Fry to relax in front of the TV under the premise that he wasn't likely to find anything that would tax his brain amongst the daytime lineup. On the one hand, she might be annoyed that he wasn't still doing it. On the other hand, maybe she'd be grateful if he tried to help with cleaning the ship? He'd seen people clean before, after all. He'd even done it a few times without somehow leaving things filthier than when he'd arrived. At the very least Leela might have a suggestion of something else to do that didn't involve soap operas.

When he climbed the stairs into the ships hold the first thing he noticed was the stench of industrial grade cleaning agents. The next thing he noticed was that the stench was around for good reason. The hold that had been a blood splattered mess that morning was practically clean enough to eat off of any given surface. Leela was tossing a final bag of debris off the edge of the cargo hatch into the waiting pile below the ship when Fry approached her.

"Man, you really got this place done," Fry said.

"Fry? I thought I told you to go watch TV. Did you do something?" she asked immediately.

"Uh... no."

"Did Bender destroy something?"

"Not that he's bragged to me about."

"Did we lose our cable connection?"

"Nah."

"Alright, I give up. What is it?"

Fry shrugged. "There was nothing good on. Thought I'd see how you were doing and stuff."

Leela appeared to be genuinely puzzled by this answer for a few moments. Then her eye flicked up to the hat perched on Fry's head and understanding set in. "I'm done, actually."

"That was fast. I figured you'd be at it for a few more hours."

"So did I, but it turns out that I got help. Did you know we have a janitor?" She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at Scruffy. The janitor simply licked his finger and turned the page of the magazine he was reading.

"Now that you mention it... I think I do remember that guy. Hasn't he been here for years?" Fry frowned when Leela's eye darted between his face and the hat again.

"Uh... Leela? Am I doing something weird?"

"No. No, of course not."

"It's just you keep looking at the hat."

"Wait, you noti- euh, I mean... It's not the hat. It's... uh..."

Fry's eyes narrowed. "You think I'm acting weird too. Just like everyone else."

"...Well, you are acting a little different, Fry. I mean, you like watching TV. Wouldn't you be surprised if I stopped enjoying martial arts?"

Fry stopped to consider that. Leela's love of beating the tar out of things was as central to her personality as her love of small furry creatures or her bossiness. Was sitting in front of a TV really that defining for him?

"I guess I am acting a little different," Fry admitted. "And I would be kind of confused if you stopped wanting to beat people up all the time." Fortunately Fry missed Leela glancing at the hat again before she replied.

"A whole lot of people would have to stop being idiots before that could happen," Leela agreed. "Of course it figures that the one time you want something to do there's not much left to do."

Fry sighed and started back down the stairs. "Man, today is dull. First I'm comatose, then I'm bored."

"Look on the bright side, Fry," Leela said, following him down the stairs. "At least the day is almost over."

"Yeah, I guess. Oh, hey, are we still on for tonight?"

Leela crossed her arms and gave Fry an appraising look. "You might be better off going home to get some rest."

"Aw, come on, Leela. Bender's had hooker bots over every night this week."

"Too loud to sleep through?"

"He won't let me sleep through it. Bender isn't happy unless everyone on the floor knows exactly what's going on."

"That does sound like Bender," Leela admitted. "Alright, you can sleep at my place."

"Yes!"

"I mean sleep, Fry. You're taking it easy until I'm sure you're better."

"Geez, Leela, what gives? I mean, I know you're always trying to stop me from getting myself killed and stuff but this is overkill nagging even for you."

Fry expected Leela to jab her finger in his face and give her usual retorts about how she was right and he knew it, or how he needed to be less reckless and listen to her. Instead her eye avoided his, her posture slumped ever so slightly and she half turned away from him.

"It is not," she said somewhat lamely. "I just don't think brain injuries are anything to mess with. It's not like buying a new pair of hands or a spleen."

"Okay, I'll take it easy," Fry promised. "It's not like you ever aren't worth the wait."

Leela finally gave him a small smile. "Well, I suppose if you're not going to watch TV, you can at least help me get this garbage to the dumpster for recycling pickup."