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WebMistressGina
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Yes, yes, tis I! Apologies for the lack of updates here; I was able to get my old job back (the one I had before that 'recent unpleasantness'), so I've been in training and stuff for the last two weeks. But on a good note, it looks as though I have the next few Mondays off, so you can hopefully expect to see some Monday updates.
This is actually not the full chapter here, so you'll get the second half next week or so (I know, sorry!). Didn't wanna leave you guys without another Monday update you know? So the last few chapters, there's evil afoot with the Moopets and the Rag Muffin, so let's switch up and have something nice for a chance okay? This chapter, we get to meet one Frankie Strider, who I have based - speech wise - on the Muppet (you all remember the Muppet, right?) So here you go with a part of a Monday.
VIII.
The end of another week was exciting to anyone who ever held a job and for one Penelope Strider, her Friday was met with excitement, apprehension, and a little bit of fear.
As a nurse, Penny’s schedule could be up and down, with her working nights or days, weekdays, weekends, and even some holidays. If she had been single or had a spouse, it may have been easier because there was someone there who had her back and could help in making some of the financial burdens that came with being an adult living in a high cost of living area; however Penny was not single and was no longer married, but she did have someone who had her back and who she had to watch out for.
Franklin Shelby Strider was the product of her marriage to Vincent Strider, a wildlife ranger bear who had used his love of nature and upbringing to help other animals and people. It had been his helpfulness rescuing two lost hikers during a freak weather storm in Maine that had led to his death, falling to the waters below when one of the rigs on the rescue helicopter broke; it had nearly killed everyone on board, but it had been Vince to the rescue, saving others while sacrificing himself.
It had been hard to take, especially when she had to tell Frankie, who didn’t and probably still didn’t understand why the nice man he called daddy was no longer around. Ironically, it had been the Muppets who lived on Sesame Street that helped her young son get an understanding on what had happened; she had always loved the classic episodes and was making her way through the older episodes and showing her son the show at the same time. They just happened to come across the episode after the original store keeper, Mr. Hooper, had died; it had been a great moment in television history, but for Penny, it had opened the door to helping both her and Frankie get over their recent loss.
While Vince would always been in her head and heart, the nurse was slowly starting to see another face in her dreams and it wasn’t that of her deceased husband. She had never been one of those fans who fantasied about marrying or dating a celebrity, but a roll of fate had put her in charge of one Fozzie Bear, the comic for the Muppets, a recent causality of what could have been a fatal car accident. She didn’t know what it was about him, but Penny felt drawn to him; maybe it was because he didn’t seem like those celebrities that mistreated or insulted their fans or maybe it was because he made her laugh, she didn’t know, but she had been finding more and more reasons to spend time with him.
This Friday was her day off and it was the day she planned on visiting the comic, taking her young son with her. Frankie loved the Muppets and every Sunday night, they were both in front of the television set waiting to see what hilarity or comedic mishap the stars would find themselves in that week. The two and a half year old loved the entire thing, but his favorite performer was Fozzie; he laughed at every joke as though it was the funniest thing he had ever heard and he was glued to the screen whenever the bear appeared. The fact that her patient was the same face they saw every week had been a treat and it was a definite honor that Fozzie was letting her come bother him with a little version of her husband in tow.
And that’s what had gotten her apprehensive in this upcoming meeting; it had been a little more over two years since Vince’s accident and while Penny wouldn’t ever state that she was a beauty queen, but she had gotten her share of male attention. Male attention that quickly died when she would mention her son, an attachment that turns off any single person, with the thought of having to contend with a child that’s not theirs and having to perform through hoops in order to get that child to like them.
It was a condition that most men didn’t want and didn’t take.
Not that Penny had her sights on getting Fozzie Bear to consider her as a potential girlfriend! That…that thought was completely not what she was thinking or wanted; she was doing this for Frankie, though the fact that she would certainly not be opposed to counting Fozzie as a friend had entered her thoughts.
For now, she had to first worry about getting her boy ready for his big surprise.
Frankie was as you would expect any two year old to be – bright, cheerful, and excitable, especially when there was a prospect of a special surprise. His coloring was that of his mother’s, but Penny could see that as he got older, his fur got darker and would probably match that of his father’s; his eyes were hers, but his face – oh, that face! – was very much his father’s, as was that smile that seemed to always be plastered on his mouth. When she had told Vince he was going to be a father for the first time, they had of course discussed the possibility of having more than one, something that Penny was disappointed hadn’t happened.
However, for an only child, Frankie was quite happy at making his own world of imagination; he was still learning how to talk, but he had gotten a very good grasp of the English language for someone so young. He saw a totally different world in his mind when he played, one where his stuffed animals were his friends or sometimes his audience and she had caught him a few times performing his own little theater show. Their neighbor, Irene, was a stay at home mother with two children of her own and never minded watching Frankie while Penny was at work; this was actually a great tactic, as it gave Frankie the chance to play with other children and give his growing vocab a work out.
Currently, Frankie was dressed and ready for his surprise – as he had been for several hours – and was now performing some type of show for several of his stuffed animals.
“Having fun?” she asked, leaning against the doorjamb to his room as she watched.
Turning around, the boy smiled at the sight of his mother. “Showtime!” he shouted, repeating the new word he had learned while watching the Muppet Show.
“Almost,” she replied. “I have a surprise for you and it does involve a certain person that you like.”
“Muppet Show?”
“Well, not the actual show per se,” she added. “But along those lines. Come on, we’ll have breakfast and then we’ll see what the surprise is, okay?”
“Kay!”
The cub quickly went past his mother and headed for the kitchen, eagerly getting into a chair at the dining table; he had insisted that he was a big boy and could sit at the table like an adult, though he could only reach the tabletop by sitting on his knees on the chair itself. It was adorable, especially when he tried his very best to make sure he didn’t make any spills at his spot or on himself.
“What would you like for breakfast, sweetie?”
“Pancakes!” came the immediate answer.
“Pancakes, huh?” Penny smirked. Pancakes were her son’s favorite breakfast meal and while he would’ve been happy if she made them every day, for every single meal, she did her best to regulate it just to Fridays or the weekends when they could spend the whole day together.
“I think I can see my way to making you some pancakes,” she said, heading to the stove to turn on the oven. “Are you excited about your surprise?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” he shouted, bouncing happily in his seat.
“What do you think it could be?”
Frankie scrunched up his little face in concentration, a look Penny was sure he had gotten from his father. “Presents?” he asked, excitedly.
Penny chuckled. “Well,” she began. “It is a present, but just one.”
Again, the child got a look of concentration on his face, trying to decipher what this particular surprise could be. “Pancakes?”
This time, Penny laughed out loud. “You’re silly!”
“You silly!”
The two continued their guessing game, though it ended up into a sing-along when Frankie started singing the theme to the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants. Pancakes were served with childlike enthusiasm and very little fuss and mess for the bear cub; hands and faces were washed, clothing checked for any stains, and just an overall checklist before heading out into the world.
For Frankie, these days were the best. He got to spend time with his mommy, probably his most favorite person in the whole world, which was something, as his world was very small; he certainly liked playing with Ms. Irene and Johnny and Maggie, but he liked playing with mommy better. She liked pancakes and let him watch the Muppet Show before going to bed; they both laughed at the antics that happened when a frog tried to run a theater full of apparent lunatics.
The little cub didn’t know what his surprise was, but he approached it like any child would when knowing they’ve been good and were getting a treat and for Frankie, a ride in the car was a treat, as was spending time with his mother. Being the big boy that he was, Frankie happily jumped into the backseat, climbing into his child protective seat and strapping himself in, impatiently waiting while Penny got into the driver’s side and buckled herself in as well.
“You all buckled?”
“Yes, Mommy!”
“You ready?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay, here we go!”
[hr]
Fridays in a hospital setting were always busy, regardless of day or night. During the day, many people tried to get in appointments with their doctors or clinics before the weekend, while the night’s festivities could sometimes result in mischievous behavior that landed many a young person in the urgent care or worse, the emergency room.
For the duo of Penny and Frankie Strider, the trip to the hospital was done quickly, escaping the morning traffic heading into work and avoiding those heading towards lunch during their assigned break times. Frankie had been a semi-regular at California Medical, having been born there nearly three years earlier, and of course coming to visit when his mother was there for whatever appointment he or his mother may have had.
Nurses and doctors who knew the boy happily waved to him as they passed, stopping to talk to both him and his mother if they had the time before they started their rounds. The bear cub excitedly waved to people he remembered and those he didn’t, saying hello to patients and their families as they walked past, skipping happily along the side of Penny as they headed up to the floor where Fozzie was.
The closer they got, the more nervous Penny felt, hoping against hope that Fozzie truly didn’t mind having her and Frankie visiting today; while she knew logically that the comic wasn’t like any celebrity she had ever known, there was still a persona that most celebs kept, their public face and then their private faces. She was fairly sure Fozzie’s public and private faces were one in the same, but she had been fooled by male bears before, having been deceived by the looks and thoughts of a person who couldn’t have cared less about her or her son.
Reaching her nurses’ station, the nurse on duty – Alyssa, a raven haired Whatnot with multicolored braces attached to her teeth – was typing away at chart information on the computer when she saw the bears coming towards her. “Hey you!” she replied, standing and bending over the counter to see the smaller bear next to her. “And there’s my special little guy! And here I thought you’d forgotten about me.”
“Nope!” the cub said, smiling brightly. While sweet and adorable, Penny did have a concern in the back of her head that her son was going to be a lady killer once he discovered girls were more than just mommy or mommy’s friends. “Hi ‘Lyssa!”
“What’re you two doing here?” asked the nurse. “Isn’t this your day off?”
“We’re here to see a friend,” Penny replied, shyly.
Alyssa got a look in her eye before smiling widely. “And I think I know who it could be,” she remarked, adding a wink while doing so. “You may be interested to know that he’s been asking about you today.”
“Really?”
“Quite a reaction that was,” the raven haired Muppet replied. “I went in to see him twice this morning and both times, he got this look of excitement on his face until he realized I wasn’t you.”
“Oh, c’mon, Alyssa,” Penny chuckled, nervously. “I’m sure he wasn’t that disappointed. Or excited, for that matter.”
“You’ll see,” the Whatnot replied, again sending a wink towards Penny and the small bear cub. “You’re just gonna love your surprise, sweetie!”
“’Prise?” Frankie asked, trying his best to see above the counter where Alyssa. “’Lyssa, you have present?”
“I don’t, sweetie,” Alyssa said, patting the boy on the head. “But it’s in that room and he’s a friend of your mommy’s.”
“Mommy friend?”
“Thank you for your help, Alyssa,” Penny said, rolling her eyes.
“Any time!”
The two bears turned away from the nurses’ station and headed down the hall to where the room of one Fozzie Bear resided. For the bear inside, he had been anxiously waiting all morning for Penny to come by with her son. Still laid up in bed, there was nothing for Fozzie to really do but watch the horrible shows that were showing on television or lay in bed thinking about his nurse and the latter was something he had already been doing since the attractive mother of one had entered his hospital room one day.
Fozzie had liked to think that he wasn’t easily caught up in infatuations or love sickness, especially at his age. Sure, it happened quite a bit when he was a boy, but he was a man now, an adult bear who knew the differences between a crush and something that was real and true. He prided himself on not acting the way Kermit did when he thought no one noticed him staring lovingly at Miss Piggy and he was certainly not as woman crazy the way Gonzo had been when they had first met; no, Fozzie knew when a crush entered his heart and he was good enough not to make a big deal about it.
That’s where his troubles with Penny began.
It wasn’t that he disliked her – quite the opposite! – and he wouldn’t lie that hearing she had a son hadn’t derailed him, but knowing that she wasn’t married – admittedly, she was a widow – and wasn’t seeing anyone, that he knew of, his thought patterns regarding her were even fuzzier than he was after a shower.
It made sense, didn’t it? She was his nurse, he saw her every day and it was her job to make him feel better, even if it meant listening to his jokes and laughing at them. And she was pretty, so of course he’d be attracted to her; Fozzie had been attracted to a lot of people in his life time and that number had tripled once he had gotten in with the Muppets. Piggy was certainly easy on the eyes, as Rowlf would say, and when Gonzo had been in charge of auditioning the chorus girls, he had always gotten the prettiest ones.
That weren’t chickens.
It was perfectly logical for him to be attracted to his nurse. Yes, it made sense.
What didn’t make sense was why he was nervous at meeting the smaller, male version of her or what he assumed to be the smaller, male version of her. Penny had stated that her son was a fan of his and that it would be a great treat for the boy to meet him; Fozzie couldn’t turn that down. He loved kids! It was one of the perks to his job and if he could give his nurse the same amount of generosity she had given him while he was there, he was certainly going to do that.
This nervousness was just…meeting a new person. Yeah, that was it. Fozzie was naturally shy. Naturally.
Even that didn’t ring true to his ears.
Taking a deep breath, Fozzie held it, releasing it when he heard and then saw the door to his room open. Penny’s head immediately poked through, her smile seemingly reassuring any doubts that he had been troubling over before her arrival. “Hey you,” she said.
“Hey.”
“I didn’t wake you, did I?”
The comic shook his head rapidly. “I’ve been awake for quite some time,” he admitted. “To be honest, I’ve been kinda waiting for you.”
“Well,” she began, opening the door wider to reveal the little bear cub who had been eagerly trying to get inside to see what this so called present was. “The wait is over.”
Frankie wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, just knowing that a surprise present was somewhere that Mommy was taking him was enough to get his interest up. But what he saw would probably trump every present he would receive from now on, including the ones Santa would bring him come Christmas. Right there, right in front of him was Fozzie.
Fozzie. Bear.
The same Fozzie that he saw in the TV on Sundays when they watched the Muppet Show and there he was, right there! Before his very eyes! But while his heart was beating with excitement, his eyes sent notification to his brain about where exactly he was seeing his favorite comic. This was the place where Mommy helped people who were sick and hurt. And here was Fozzie, laying in a bed with a strange, big white sock on his leg. Was Fozzie sick?
The first response his little brain wanted to do was to show Mommy that, whoa! There’s Fozzie! As in, the Fozzie from TV and if Fozzie was there, did that mean the other Muppets were there, too? Instead, his brain managed to switch gears immediately, taking in the comic as he lay in bed, the big white sock, and in the place where Mommy helped people who were sick and hurt and came up with only one response.
“Oh no!” he exclaimed, running into the room and standing by the side of the bed. It was huge, as was Fozzie, but that didn’t matter now. Fozzie was sick! Glancing at his mother, he asked, “Fozzie sick?” before turning back to the comic and asking worriedly, “You sick?”
“Aw, I’m okay, buddy,” Fozzie replied, patting the cub on his head. “I only got a little hurt, but I’m alright.”
“Mommy fix?” the cub asked, once again turning to his mother. Turning back to Fozzie, the boy nodded, and said, “Mommy fix.”
“Your mommy fixed me already,” Fozzie assured him. “You know when you sick and then you have to wait to get all better?” Frankie nodded. “Well, that’s what I’m doing. I’m in the getting all better phase.”
Penny brought over a chair, picking up Frankie and putting him in it so he could clearly see the idol he worshipped. “Manners, Franklin,” she admonished. “Fozzie Bear, meet your biggest fan, Frankie Strider.”
Holding out his paw, Fozzie smiled at the cub. “Hiya, Frankie.”
“You kay?” the cub asked, again. “You kay, Fozzie?”
“I’m okay,” Fozzie said. “I promise. In fact, both the doctor and your Mommy say I should be out of here next week.”
“You do show?”
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen, baby,” Penny replied. “Fozzie’s still got a cast on and I know I didn’t tell him that standing on it would help him any.”
“Hurts?” Frankie asked, pointing to the big sock.
“No,” the comic sighed. “Just itchy. Hey, you wanna sign my cast?”
“Yeah!” the cub replied, enthusiastically. “Mommy too?”
“Of course!” the comic said. “I certainly wouldn’t feel better if it wasn’t for her.” Fozzie tried his best to give Penny the more heartfelt and earnest look he could without blushing and he was fairly certain it didn’t work the way he had wanted.
This is actually not the full chapter here, so you'll get the second half next week or so (I know, sorry!). Didn't wanna leave you guys without another Monday update you know? So the last few chapters, there's evil afoot with the Moopets and the Rag Muffin, so let's switch up and have something nice for a chance okay? This chapter, we get to meet one Frankie Strider, who I have based - speech wise - on the Muppet (you all remember the Muppet, right?) So here you go with a part of a Monday.
VIII.
The end of another week was exciting to anyone who ever held a job and for one Penelope Strider, her Friday was met with excitement, apprehension, and a little bit of fear.
As a nurse, Penny’s schedule could be up and down, with her working nights or days, weekdays, weekends, and even some holidays. If she had been single or had a spouse, it may have been easier because there was someone there who had her back and could help in making some of the financial burdens that came with being an adult living in a high cost of living area; however Penny was not single and was no longer married, but she did have someone who had her back and who she had to watch out for.
Franklin Shelby Strider was the product of her marriage to Vincent Strider, a wildlife ranger bear who had used his love of nature and upbringing to help other animals and people. It had been his helpfulness rescuing two lost hikers during a freak weather storm in Maine that had led to his death, falling to the waters below when one of the rigs on the rescue helicopter broke; it had nearly killed everyone on board, but it had been Vince to the rescue, saving others while sacrificing himself.
It had been hard to take, especially when she had to tell Frankie, who didn’t and probably still didn’t understand why the nice man he called daddy was no longer around. Ironically, it had been the Muppets who lived on Sesame Street that helped her young son get an understanding on what had happened; she had always loved the classic episodes and was making her way through the older episodes and showing her son the show at the same time. They just happened to come across the episode after the original store keeper, Mr. Hooper, had died; it had been a great moment in television history, but for Penny, it had opened the door to helping both her and Frankie get over their recent loss.
While Vince would always been in her head and heart, the nurse was slowly starting to see another face in her dreams and it wasn’t that of her deceased husband. She had never been one of those fans who fantasied about marrying or dating a celebrity, but a roll of fate had put her in charge of one Fozzie Bear, the comic for the Muppets, a recent causality of what could have been a fatal car accident. She didn’t know what it was about him, but Penny felt drawn to him; maybe it was because he didn’t seem like those celebrities that mistreated or insulted their fans or maybe it was because he made her laugh, she didn’t know, but she had been finding more and more reasons to spend time with him.
This Friday was her day off and it was the day she planned on visiting the comic, taking her young son with her. Frankie loved the Muppets and every Sunday night, they were both in front of the television set waiting to see what hilarity or comedic mishap the stars would find themselves in that week. The two and a half year old loved the entire thing, but his favorite performer was Fozzie; he laughed at every joke as though it was the funniest thing he had ever heard and he was glued to the screen whenever the bear appeared. The fact that her patient was the same face they saw every week had been a treat and it was a definite honor that Fozzie was letting her come bother him with a little version of her husband in tow.
And that’s what had gotten her apprehensive in this upcoming meeting; it had been a little more over two years since Vince’s accident and while Penny wouldn’t ever state that she was a beauty queen, but she had gotten her share of male attention. Male attention that quickly died when she would mention her son, an attachment that turns off any single person, with the thought of having to contend with a child that’s not theirs and having to perform through hoops in order to get that child to like them.
It was a condition that most men didn’t want and didn’t take.
Not that Penny had her sights on getting Fozzie Bear to consider her as a potential girlfriend! That…that thought was completely not what she was thinking or wanted; she was doing this for Frankie, though the fact that she would certainly not be opposed to counting Fozzie as a friend had entered her thoughts.
For now, she had to first worry about getting her boy ready for his big surprise.
Frankie was as you would expect any two year old to be – bright, cheerful, and excitable, especially when there was a prospect of a special surprise. His coloring was that of his mother’s, but Penny could see that as he got older, his fur got darker and would probably match that of his father’s; his eyes were hers, but his face – oh, that face! – was very much his father’s, as was that smile that seemed to always be plastered on his mouth. When she had told Vince he was going to be a father for the first time, they had of course discussed the possibility of having more than one, something that Penny was disappointed hadn’t happened.
However, for an only child, Frankie was quite happy at making his own world of imagination; he was still learning how to talk, but he had gotten a very good grasp of the English language for someone so young. He saw a totally different world in his mind when he played, one where his stuffed animals were his friends or sometimes his audience and she had caught him a few times performing his own little theater show. Their neighbor, Irene, was a stay at home mother with two children of her own and never minded watching Frankie while Penny was at work; this was actually a great tactic, as it gave Frankie the chance to play with other children and give his growing vocab a work out.
Currently, Frankie was dressed and ready for his surprise – as he had been for several hours – and was now performing some type of show for several of his stuffed animals.
“Having fun?” she asked, leaning against the doorjamb to his room as she watched.
Turning around, the boy smiled at the sight of his mother. “Showtime!” he shouted, repeating the new word he had learned while watching the Muppet Show.
“Almost,” she replied. “I have a surprise for you and it does involve a certain person that you like.”
“Muppet Show?”
“Well, not the actual show per se,” she added. “But along those lines. Come on, we’ll have breakfast and then we’ll see what the surprise is, okay?”
“Kay!”
The cub quickly went past his mother and headed for the kitchen, eagerly getting into a chair at the dining table; he had insisted that he was a big boy and could sit at the table like an adult, though he could only reach the tabletop by sitting on his knees on the chair itself. It was adorable, especially when he tried his very best to make sure he didn’t make any spills at his spot or on himself.
“What would you like for breakfast, sweetie?”
“Pancakes!” came the immediate answer.
“Pancakes, huh?” Penny smirked. Pancakes were her son’s favorite breakfast meal and while he would’ve been happy if she made them every day, for every single meal, she did her best to regulate it just to Fridays or the weekends when they could spend the whole day together.
“I think I can see my way to making you some pancakes,” she said, heading to the stove to turn on the oven. “Are you excited about your surprise?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” he shouted, bouncing happily in his seat.
“What do you think it could be?”
Frankie scrunched up his little face in concentration, a look Penny was sure he had gotten from his father. “Presents?” he asked, excitedly.
Penny chuckled. “Well,” she began. “It is a present, but just one.”
Again, the child got a look of concentration on his face, trying to decipher what this particular surprise could be. “Pancakes?”
This time, Penny laughed out loud. “You’re silly!”
“You silly!”
The two continued their guessing game, though it ended up into a sing-along when Frankie started singing the theme to the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants. Pancakes were served with childlike enthusiasm and very little fuss and mess for the bear cub; hands and faces were washed, clothing checked for any stains, and just an overall checklist before heading out into the world.
For Frankie, these days were the best. He got to spend time with his mommy, probably his most favorite person in the whole world, which was something, as his world was very small; he certainly liked playing with Ms. Irene and Johnny and Maggie, but he liked playing with mommy better. She liked pancakes and let him watch the Muppet Show before going to bed; they both laughed at the antics that happened when a frog tried to run a theater full of apparent lunatics.
The little cub didn’t know what his surprise was, but he approached it like any child would when knowing they’ve been good and were getting a treat and for Frankie, a ride in the car was a treat, as was spending time with his mother. Being the big boy that he was, Frankie happily jumped into the backseat, climbing into his child protective seat and strapping himself in, impatiently waiting while Penny got into the driver’s side and buckled herself in as well.
“You all buckled?”
“Yes, Mommy!”
“You ready?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay, here we go!”
[hr]
Fridays in a hospital setting were always busy, regardless of day or night. During the day, many people tried to get in appointments with their doctors or clinics before the weekend, while the night’s festivities could sometimes result in mischievous behavior that landed many a young person in the urgent care or worse, the emergency room.
For the duo of Penny and Frankie Strider, the trip to the hospital was done quickly, escaping the morning traffic heading into work and avoiding those heading towards lunch during their assigned break times. Frankie had been a semi-regular at California Medical, having been born there nearly three years earlier, and of course coming to visit when his mother was there for whatever appointment he or his mother may have had.
Nurses and doctors who knew the boy happily waved to him as they passed, stopping to talk to both him and his mother if they had the time before they started their rounds. The bear cub excitedly waved to people he remembered and those he didn’t, saying hello to patients and their families as they walked past, skipping happily along the side of Penny as they headed up to the floor where Fozzie was.
The closer they got, the more nervous Penny felt, hoping against hope that Fozzie truly didn’t mind having her and Frankie visiting today; while she knew logically that the comic wasn’t like any celebrity she had ever known, there was still a persona that most celebs kept, their public face and then their private faces. She was fairly sure Fozzie’s public and private faces were one in the same, but she had been fooled by male bears before, having been deceived by the looks and thoughts of a person who couldn’t have cared less about her or her son.
Reaching her nurses’ station, the nurse on duty – Alyssa, a raven haired Whatnot with multicolored braces attached to her teeth – was typing away at chart information on the computer when she saw the bears coming towards her. “Hey you!” she replied, standing and bending over the counter to see the smaller bear next to her. “And there’s my special little guy! And here I thought you’d forgotten about me.”
“Nope!” the cub said, smiling brightly. While sweet and adorable, Penny did have a concern in the back of her head that her son was going to be a lady killer once he discovered girls were more than just mommy or mommy’s friends. “Hi ‘Lyssa!”
“What’re you two doing here?” asked the nurse. “Isn’t this your day off?”
“We’re here to see a friend,” Penny replied, shyly.
Alyssa got a look in her eye before smiling widely. “And I think I know who it could be,” she remarked, adding a wink while doing so. “You may be interested to know that he’s been asking about you today.”
“Really?”
“Quite a reaction that was,” the raven haired Muppet replied. “I went in to see him twice this morning and both times, he got this look of excitement on his face until he realized I wasn’t you.”
“Oh, c’mon, Alyssa,” Penny chuckled, nervously. “I’m sure he wasn’t that disappointed. Or excited, for that matter.”
“You’ll see,” the Whatnot replied, again sending a wink towards Penny and the small bear cub. “You’re just gonna love your surprise, sweetie!”
“’Prise?” Frankie asked, trying his best to see above the counter where Alyssa. “’Lyssa, you have present?”
“I don’t, sweetie,” Alyssa said, patting the boy on the head. “But it’s in that room and he’s a friend of your mommy’s.”
“Mommy friend?”
“Thank you for your help, Alyssa,” Penny said, rolling her eyes.
“Any time!”
The two bears turned away from the nurses’ station and headed down the hall to where the room of one Fozzie Bear resided. For the bear inside, he had been anxiously waiting all morning for Penny to come by with her son. Still laid up in bed, there was nothing for Fozzie to really do but watch the horrible shows that were showing on television or lay in bed thinking about his nurse and the latter was something he had already been doing since the attractive mother of one had entered his hospital room one day.
Fozzie had liked to think that he wasn’t easily caught up in infatuations or love sickness, especially at his age. Sure, it happened quite a bit when he was a boy, but he was a man now, an adult bear who knew the differences between a crush and something that was real and true. He prided himself on not acting the way Kermit did when he thought no one noticed him staring lovingly at Miss Piggy and he was certainly not as woman crazy the way Gonzo had been when they had first met; no, Fozzie knew when a crush entered his heart and he was good enough not to make a big deal about it.
That’s where his troubles with Penny began.
It wasn’t that he disliked her – quite the opposite! – and he wouldn’t lie that hearing she had a son hadn’t derailed him, but knowing that she wasn’t married – admittedly, she was a widow – and wasn’t seeing anyone, that he knew of, his thought patterns regarding her were even fuzzier than he was after a shower.
It made sense, didn’t it? She was his nurse, he saw her every day and it was her job to make him feel better, even if it meant listening to his jokes and laughing at them. And she was pretty, so of course he’d be attracted to her; Fozzie had been attracted to a lot of people in his life time and that number had tripled once he had gotten in with the Muppets. Piggy was certainly easy on the eyes, as Rowlf would say, and when Gonzo had been in charge of auditioning the chorus girls, he had always gotten the prettiest ones.
That weren’t chickens.
It was perfectly logical for him to be attracted to his nurse. Yes, it made sense.
What didn’t make sense was why he was nervous at meeting the smaller, male version of her or what he assumed to be the smaller, male version of her. Penny had stated that her son was a fan of his and that it would be a great treat for the boy to meet him; Fozzie couldn’t turn that down. He loved kids! It was one of the perks to his job and if he could give his nurse the same amount of generosity she had given him while he was there, he was certainly going to do that.
This nervousness was just…meeting a new person. Yeah, that was it. Fozzie was naturally shy. Naturally.
Even that didn’t ring true to his ears.
Taking a deep breath, Fozzie held it, releasing it when he heard and then saw the door to his room open. Penny’s head immediately poked through, her smile seemingly reassuring any doubts that he had been troubling over before her arrival. “Hey you,” she said.
“Hey.”
“I didn’t wake you, did I?”
The comic shook his head rapidly. “I’ve been awake for quite some time,” he admitted. “To be honest, I’ve been kinda waiting for you.”
“Well,” she began, opening the door wider to reveal the little bear cub who had been eagerly trying to get inside to see what this so called present was. “The wait is over.”
Frankie wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, just knowing that a surprise present was somewhere that Mommy was taking him was enough to get his interest up. But what he saw would probably trump every present he would receive from now on, including the ones Santa would bring him come Christmas. Right there, right in front of him was Fozzie.
Fozzie. Bear.
The same Fozzie that he saw in the TV on Sundays when they watched the Muppet Show and there he was, right there! Before his very eyes! But while his heart was beating with excitement, his eyes sent notification to his brain about where exactly he was seeing his favorite comic. This was the place where Mommy helped people who were sick and hurt. And here was Fozzie, laying in a bed with a strange, big white sock on his leg. Was Fozzie sick?
The first response his little brain wanted to do was to show Mommy that, whoa! There’s Fozzie! As in, the Fozzie from TV and if Fozzie was there, did that mean the other Muppets were there, too? Instead, his brain managed to switch gears immediately, taking in the comic as he lay in bed, the big white sock, and in the place where Mommy helped people who were sick and hurt and came up with only one response.
“Oh no!” he exclaimed, running into the room and standing by the side of the bed. It was huge, as was Fozzie, but that didn’t matter now. Fozzie was sick! Glancing at his mother, he asked, “Fozzie sick?” before turning back to the comic and asking worriedly, “You sick?”
“Aw, I’m okay, buddy,” Fozzie replied, patting the cub on his head. “I only got a little hurt, but I’m alright.”
“Mommy fix?” the cub asked, once again turning to his mother. Turning back to Fozzie, the boy nodded, and said, “Mommy fix.”
“Your mommy fixed me already,” Fozzie assured him. “You know when you sick and then you have to wait to get all better?” Frankie nodded. “Well, that’s what I’m doing. I’m in the getting all better phase.”
Penny brought over a chair, picking up Frankie and putting him in it so he could clearly see the idol he worshipped. “Manners, Franklin,” she admonished. “Fozzie Bear, meet your biggest fan, Frankie Strider.”
Holding out his paw, Fozzie smiled at the cub. “Hiya, Frankie.”
“You kay?” the cub asked, again. “You kay, Fozzie?”
“I’m okay,” Fozzie said. “I promise. In fact, both the doctor and your Mommy say I should be out of here next week.”
“You do show?”
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen, baby,” Penny replied. “Fozzie’s still got a cast on and I know I didn’t tell him that standing on it would help him any.”
“Hurts?” Frankie asked, pointing to the big sock.
“No,” the comic sighed. “Just itchy. Hey, you wanna sign my cast?”
“Yeah!” the cub replied, enthusiastically. “Mommy too?”
“Of course!” the comic said. “I certainly wouldn’t feel better if it wasn’t for her.” Fozzie tried his best to give Penny the more heartfelt and earnest look he could without blushing and he was fairly certain it didn’t work the way he had wanted.
birthday over at HV.
as the "second girlfriend".
