Author's Note: So I originally wrote this story about 15 years ago. I had always intended to post it here but honestly, just never actually got around to it. I had posted it in a beta format on a Futurama message board and got such a great reception and validation from it that I basically lost the motivation to give it the one final polish I felt it needed before posting it 'for real'. So it sat on my hard-drive until a few months ago when I realized that this was the 20th anniversary of the show's original premiere. So I broke out the dvds, had a full series re-watch, then a second re-watch with the commentaries on, met Maurice LaMarche when Animaniacs Live came through my town (He was SO nice. I told him I'd done the re-watch with the commentaries on and he laughed and asked me if I was sick of Dimaggio's laugh yet. Then he did the Kiff voice for me.) By the end of it I was so revved up again on Futurama (primarily Fry and Leela's relationship) that I finally decided to dig this story out of cold storage, fix it up to meet my current standards and now here it is, old but not forgotten.

Points to know: This is meant to slide seamlessly into canon, this isn't an AU. That being said I wrote this during the hiatus after the show's first cancellation after 'Devil's Hands'. So there are a few contradictions with the later part of the series, primarily with Munda and Morris' personalities. I wasn't completely thrilled with how they were portrayed in 'Zapp Dingbat' so I kept how I originally wrote them.

Summary: Takes place during and after the episode 'The Sting'. The sixteen days of Leela's coma followed by the sixteen days of her recovery.


Sixteen Days

Prologue

Planet Express Delivery Ship
4:16 pm
Day 1

As far as escapes go, this one hadn't been all that bad. Arguably the crew had been in far more dangerous situations. After all, running away in terror was something the three main Planet Express Crew members, Fry, Leela, and Bender, were actually quite expert in. Get in danger, run to ship, fly to safety. They did it on a weekly basis. Sure, giant space-bees were a new one but the principle was essentially the same. But that didn't make the crew any less ecstatic once they were safely on their way back home.

"We made it! We're alive!" Fry announced in relief.

Leela gently laid her newly-acquired baby Queen Bee in Nibbler's nearby unoccupied pet-bed, stroked the insect once, and stood up.

"Burn on that old crew!" She said arrogantly. "The only things they did better than us were suck and die!"

Crossing his arms Fry regarded her solemnly. "Leela, we got lucky this time. But you should be more careful. I don't want anything to happen to you."

She shrugged. "Thanks, but I can look out for myself." Unnoticed behind her the baby bee unfurled itself and lined up for an attack. "Frankly," She continued, "I can smell danger a mile away."

The bee lunged.

"Look out!" At Fry's sudden warning Leela whirled around causing the bee to miss her by mere inches. With a startled scream she took a step back cornering herself against the bulkhead as the bee spun around and readied for another attack.

Leela had nowhere to go.

Without a moment's hesitation Fry threw himself protectively in front of her earning himself a look of startled surprise. "You want her?" He growled fiercely. "You're gonna have to go through me!"
This wasn't a problem to the bee. It bared it stinger and accelerated on them full speed.

Under normal circumstances Fry would have gotten himself out of the way. Bravery, he was definitely not known for. And even though every self-preservative instinct in his body was screaming at him to Get Down, he didn't move. The love of his life was in danger and he would not let her down. Even if it meant his death. Which at this point seemed inevitable. But he stood and faced it head on. Doesn't mean he didn't scream like a girl when the stinger hit, but he faced it just the same. The stinger went straight through him like he wasn't there and to his dismay he heard Leela's cry of pain behind him. The stinger broke off and they went down together both out cold before they even hit the floor.

The bee, sans stinger, landed on its back and buzzed helplessly about. Seeing an opportunity Bender grabbed it and stuffed it into a conveniently located mini-airlock sending it out into the path of an oncoming hover truck. Satisfied he turned to check on his injured crewmates. Fry was crumpled on the deck with the stinger still lodged through his abdomen. Blood loss was minimal, the stinger acting like a cork, maintaining pressure and keeping his insides from moving around. But the blood he had shed showed up starkly on his white t-shirt. Leela hadn't fared much better. She had landed in a semi-upright position with her back against the wall and her head slumped forward. The front of her tank top was saturated a bright red. Her injury didn't seem as severe as Fry's but she was bleeding a great deal more. Unsure of what to do Bender took hold of her arm, lifted it up and then dropped it. It limply hit the floor.

"Yo, Chumpette. You still functional at all?" He was met by an unnerving silence. So he turned and tapped Fry with his foot. "Hey Meatbag, how 'bout you?" No response. Bender didn't know or for that matter care much about human physiology, but he knew enough to realize they were in serious need of medical help.

"And once again it's up to ol' Bender to save the day." He mimed cracking his knuckles and strutted importantly over to the captain's chair and made himself comfortable. Engaging the hyper drive he floored it towards Earth. "The things I do for you guys." He gave a long-suffering sigh. "You two had better make this worth my while."

For the life of him, Fry could not remember having been in more pain. It felt like his insides had been ripped out, set aflame, stomped out, and then haphazardly jammed back in upside down, inside out, and backwards. He wished he could just go back to being unconscious. Moaning softly, not knowing that the stinger was still inside him, he slowly tried to roll onto his back. This soon proved to be a Big Mistake. As he turned over, the point of the stinger, the roughly five inches that stuck out behind him, snapped off as his weight was applied forcibly jostling the length of stinger still within him sending a whole new brand of pain shooting throughout his body. He screamed.

At the sound Bender swiveled his head around and glared. "Hey, would you knock that off? I'm trying to be a hero over here and your being distracting!"

Fry held his body as still as possible and took slow deep breaths trying to ride out the pain. When it died down to a more manageable level he finally opened his eyes. All he could see was the ship's ceiling.

"Okay", he thought, "I'm on the floor. Why am I on the floor?"

Before he could think about it further, he was distracted from his thoughts by a weird, soft, gasping sound. It was coming from off to his right and something about it was making him uneasy though he wasn't sure why. Wanting to understand what was happening he slowly pushed himself up onto his arms and looked down at himself. At the sight of the stinger the memories came rushing back. Leela, Bee, Pain, Falling, LEELA!

"Leela?" His voice was hoarse and raspy, so he attempted to clear his throat and tried again. "Leela? You okay?" All he could hear was that soft little rasp. Slowly, trying to keep from jostling his injury he turned his head towards the noise.

"Leela!" She was lying in the same position she had landed in, propped up against the wall. Still covered in blood. Her breathing was dangerously shallow and irregular with a slight wheeze, like a suffocating asthmatic. Panicked, Fry forced himself onto all fours. Adrenaline surged through his body blinding him to his own pain.

"Hold on Leela, I'm coming!" He crawled awkwardly towards her and leaned himself up against the bulkhead by her side. Though she was unconscious, Fry was overwhelmed by the sudden urge to comfort her. He took her hand in his, and was shocked at how cold it felt. Greatly alarmed he instinctively looked down at her hand and gasped. Her fingertips had taken on a light bluish tint as her body slowly starved of oxygen. His panic growing, he looked up to examine her face. It was pale, almost to the point of being white and her lips had also gone bluish. Not knowing what to do, but desperately needing to help her in any way possible, he clamped his hand over her wound and tried to staunch the bleeding. But he was too weak to apply any real pressure so her blood simply oozed between his fingers. Slipping his free arm around her he pulled her down until her head fell gently onto his shoulder.

"Bender… she needs... hospital..." He rasped weakly, the sudden burst of adrenaline was wearing off and he was rapidly losing his strength.

"I'm working on it." Bender snapped tersely. "We still got about twenty minutes."

"Don't have… twenty..."

"Well, whadda'ya expect me to do about it? I'm flooring it over here!"

"Ambulance? …Meet halfway?"

"Great idea! Glad I thought of it." He made the call as Fry continued to offer Leela comfort. "Okay," Bender announced after he had hung up. "Said they'd meet us in ten."

Fry turned back to Leela. "Didja hear that?" He whispered softly. "It's gonna… be okay. Just gotta… keep breathin'... an' everythin' will... be okay." She didn't respond. But he hadn't expected her to. He was just thankful she wasn't in any pain and hopefully wouldn't remember very much of this when she woke up. Gently he laid his head on hers and listened quietly to her labored breathing.


So that was the prologue. Yes, it's mostly episode recap but it had to be done. This story is fully written and edited which means you don't have to worry about me ditching out or waiting forever between updates. My upload schedule is going to be every Tuesday and Friday for a total of 28 chapters. I'm still super proud of this story, I consider it to be the best thing I've ever written so I hope you guys enjoy it too. Thanks for reading and I'll see you Friday!