Bender had only gone in to check on Fry once since they left. He was being so quiet he feared that they had left him behind at first. But he was there, apparently asleep, in his bunk with his back facing the door. Bender sighed and left him in peace, before returning to the bridge.
As soon as the door opened, Bender called out to Leela.
"Yo meatbag. How long is this gonna take? I got plans and I don't want it to be an overnight trip!"
"Relax Bender, the journey's about 2 hours, and hopefully the delivery itself shouldn't take more than an hour…" Leela replied, not taking her eyes off the screen in front of her.
"Wha?! How come it'll take so long to dump off the supplies?!"
"Mainly because any ship who comes to close to the base is automatically destroyed by the base's lasers. To be on the safe side, we'll park about half an hour away and walk there."
Bender sighed and flopped down onto a chair nearby.
They sat in silence for a few minutes while Leela carefully manoeuvred the ship between oncoming rocks from an asteroid field, until finally, once they were free of the area, Bender asked her a question that had been plaguing his mind for the past few nights.
"Hey Leela, do you know what's up with Fry? He's been actin' all strange and stuff recently, and I can't get anything out of him! Even when I hit him! Think it's a strange disease or somethin'?"
"Well, now that you mention it, there has been something different about him… I just couldn't put my finger on it until now… Maybe he's just going through a phase in his life. I wouldn't worry about it too much though. Before you know it, he'll be back to his lazy self and you guys can go back to your boozing contests again."
"I dunno Leela… He seems different somehow."
"Well, go talk to him about it then! You're his best friend for God's sake."
"Do I have to do everything around here?! Fine fine. I'm goin', you happy now?!" he practically shouted before leaving the room. All this strangeness was making him testy.
As he approached the cabin room they shared together, he calmed down a little. Feeling foolish for getting so worked up, he entered the room, without knocking as per usual, and was disappointed to find Fry in a similar position to half an hour previously. Sighing to himself, he walked over to his bunk and reached out a metal hand to shake him awake.
As soon as his fingers felt the exposed flesh of Fry's shoulder though, he stopped. His friend was trembling beneath his hand, so he pulled back quickly.
"Fry? You awake?"
Fry moved his shoulders a little in reply, and nodded.
Sitting down on his own bunk, Bender was disheartened to see that his friend continued to tremble and kept his eyes shut tight.
"You… feeling cold or somethin' buddy?"
Fry said nothing. Bender took this for a 'yes', so, reaching into a drawer for his own bed sheets (which he never used, being a robot) draped them over Fry, and mistook his silence for pre-sleep. He left the room and returned to the bridge in hushed thought.