Chapter Thirteen
For the next three full days, Miss Piggy slept.
She woke once each evening, to go to the bathroom and bathe. Then she came back to her room, dressed--
clean clothes, every day-- and applied a powerful lotion to her hands and feet that Janice had bought for her. Then Kermit came into her room with a bowl of soup-- each day, a little hardier of a soup-- for her to eat. She ate, eagerly, and went back to sleep.
They tried not to disturb her. She so clearly needed the rest.
On the fourth morning, she woke up.
There was sunlight in her room. Sunlight, when she woke up, without having had to balance in her sleep. It was nice.
She put more lotion on her hands and feet, and wondered how well it was working. She'd hardly ever even noticed how bad her hands and feet had gotten. Then she stood up to dress herself.
...What on earth did she want to wear? She sat on her bed and stared at her open closet for a long time.
...A dress. A dress was nice and simple. It didn't require matching things. She didn't feel like picking out matching things just now. She just wanted to get dressed, wanted to feel a little more like herself.
She slipped into a dress, sat down at her vanity, and began to brush her hair.
Easier said than done.
It had gotten horribly matted in the past year, and although she had been using conditioner in the past... three baths, she hadn't put much effort into detangling.
As she brushed-- and wrestled-- her eyes landed on the string of pearls around her neck.
How that necklace had survived, she would never know, but she held her head a little higher. She couldn't even remember how she'd lost her ring, but it was long gone.
Pity.
When her hair was finally smooth, she took a deep breath.
Gloves.
She opened up a drawer. Purple silk. It had been so long...
She slid on a pair. Oh, but it felt so
strange, such soft silk against her hard hands... And the gloves were a little too loose...
She decided it didn't matter. Hair, pearls, dress, gloves...
Oh. Shoes.
She looked at her closet and bit her lip. She wasn't quite ready for heels yet. Those required balance, and she'd had quite enough of keeping her balance for a while. She found a pair of flats and slipped them on.
She took a deep breath and looked at herself in the mirror.
Goodness, but she was thin... And, speaking of being thin, she was hungry.
She went downstairs.
"MISS PIGGY!"
"Good morning, Miss Piggy!"
She flinched, and then gave them a nod. They were all smiling at her, all scurrying to empty a seat and fill a plate for her.
She sat down and ate. Knife, fork, plate, glass... odd concepts, those. Good food.
By the end of breakfast, it was very clear to the Muppets that Miss Piggy was not back to herself yet. Her nerves were higher than they'd ever seen her nerves to be, and with her painfully thin frame under her usual clothes, she looked like a cheap imitation of her former self. Still... She was on her way to recovery, and she was
trying...
It only seemed natural for her to continue her progress, and come with them to the theater that day.
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It was becoming painfully obvious to the Muppets that Miss Piggy's emotional unwellness was probably as extensive as her physical unwellness. It was easy to deny at first, of course. So, what if she had been jumpy when she had first returned? She had also been asleep, and they'd kept waking her up. Anyone would jump at that. So, what if she was quiet? She was weak.
Of course, if Kermit was honest with himself, he knew that she wasn't the same when he brought her soup... But... But she was
weak, and there were still
hints of her own personality there, and…
But when they went to the theater, more and more... changes began to reveal themselves.
They could no longer deny that the sparkle was gone from her eyes. They were hard and objective, assessing
everything in their path with skepticism and doubt, and never really trusting anything, at all, and re-assessing everything and everyone... usually trusting the Muppets, but... not the surroundings.
Anything sudden seemed to startle her. A new sound or voice that she hadn't expected, or any sudden movement, caught her attention and made her at least flinch and occasionally jump.
They knew they had to accept that she had somehow been emotionally scarred, though, when they got backstage.
"Bet ya really missed the stage, huh Piggy?" Scooter said excitedly. "It's right there, waitin' for you!"
"Yeah, c'mon Piggy, let's go onstage!" Gonzo said.
A big group of them excitedly hurried onto the stage.
Miss Piggy held stone still, staring after them.
Kermit was standing behind her. He stepped a little closer to her, uneasy. "...Piggy?" he said softly.
She twitched.
"...Piggy, aren't ya coming?" The Muppets started coming back off the stage, looking at her, confused.
Her muscles were tense, her eyes flicking over them. Kermit took a step to one side to get a better look at her face, and saw the just barely restrained panic...
And then the Muppets coming off of the stage started to push forward, concerned, and someone pushed Gonzo right into her.
She
screamed and drew her arms up to fight and--
"PIGGY--" Kermit quickly and firmly wrapped his arms around her from behind to grab her wrists and she tried to fight free-- "Piggy,
calm down, it's just us," he said firmly, and she froze, recognizing, and kept her eyes firmly on the floor-- out of fear or shame? "It's okay, Piggy, calm down," he whispered to her, firm and soothing, keeping her in his arms. "It's okay, Piggy, it's okay... You're home, you're safe here..."
At this, to his and everyone else's shock, she turned in his arms and sank against him, her hands on his shoulders and her face against his neck.
He stood still for a moment, stunned, and then slowly wrapped his arms around her waist. "...It-- ...It's okay now, Piggy," he whispered. "It's okay..." She was so very thin in his arms, too... Mindful of her frailty, he gently gave her a reassuring squeeze.
Apparently, it didn't reassure, because she
flinched, so fiercely that it pushed him away, and then she froze... and she kept her eyes down and ran up the stairs, where Fozzie's mere presence startled her so that he had to jump back to avoid a swat, and she froze again and then darted into her old dressing room and closed the door behind her.
The Muppets stared at the door, perfectly frozen in a state of shock, her ear-piercing scream still ringing in their skulls, for a long moment.
"...You okay, Fozzie?" Kermit asked softly, shakily, uncertain of just how close to him her arm had swung.
The bear, along with everyone else, was still looking at the door. "...Yeah," he said.
They stared at the door.
"...Maybe, we should... let her calm down, a little..." Kermit said uneasily.
They hesitated, and then nodded uneasily, and then slowly, uncomfortably began to scatter.
Kermit stayed at his table, looking at the door, shifting his weight. Occasionally, he tried to turn away from the door, but those attempts usually lasted no more than a few seconds, if that.
He ultimately found that he
couldn’t wait very long before he went to check on her.
He hurried up the stairs, swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and knocked on her door. "...Piggy?" ...He gently opened the door and slipped inside.
Sitting at her vanity, she immediately straightened up and sniffed and wiped her cheeks. "I-- ...I-- ...I--"
By then he had closed the door and crossed the room. He gently put his hand on her shoulder. "Come talk with me, Piggy," he whispered.
She hesitated, but he took her hand, and she let him guide her to sit with him on the little couch, facing him.
He took a deep breath. "Piggy..."
But then, once again, her hands were on his shoulders and her face was against his neck.
"...Ke-- ...Kermie..." she whispered faintly.
He swallowed hard. It was the first time she'd said any of their names. He slowly, very lightly, wrapped his arms around her, scarcely trusting himself to do so, lest she flee again. She didn't, and after a long moment, he let his hand lightly stroke against the back of her arm... so thin, so... bony... "Oh, Piggy," he sighed softly, letting his head gently settle against hers. "...What happened to you..."
She didn't answer, or at least, not then. She just stayed there, very still in his arms, with only the feel of her breath against his skin to assure him that she was alive.
He held her the entire time, lightly stroking her arm, and then shifting his hand to her back. He could
feel her ribs, right through the dress. He bit his lip. It would take her a long time to recover...
There was a light knock at the door, and Kermit looked up to see Scooter easing it open. "Boss?" he said quietly, quickly taking in the sight before him. "...I-- ...I brought you both some lunch..."
Kermit nodded. "Thanks," he said softly. "You can just put it-- ...um..."
Scooter quickly pulled the vanity chair over to the couch and set the two carryout soup containers on top of it.
"Thanks," Kermit said softly.
Scooter nodded, concerned eyes flicking over Miss Piggy. "Um... Boss, your-- your mom called. She said you have some explaining to do."
Kermit hesitated. "...Oops." He sighed. "I'll call her back later, I guess..."
Scooter shifted his weight. "...Um... Boss?" he whispered, and he nodded his head towards Miss Piggy, a question in his eyes.
Kermit gave his head a small shake.
Scooter frowned, nodded grimly, and sighed. "...See you later," he said softly, and he slipped out of the dressing room, closing the door behind him.
Kermit took a deep breath and gently shifted his hand against her back. "Piggy?" he said softly.
She shifted slightly.
"Piggy?" he said. "It-- ...It's time for lunch..."
Slowly, very slowly, she straightened up, slipping out of his arms and avoiding his eyes.
He uncovered one of the soup containers and unwrapped a plastic spoon. "You hungry?"
She nodded once and reached for the container and spoon that he handed her.
He opened his own soup and unwrapped the other spoon, watching as she began to eat. "...Piggy?" he said softly. "...Were-- ...Were you... in the jungle, the... the whole time?"
She nodded without looking up.
He bit his lip and winced. "...What'd you eat?" he whispered.
She was quiet for a moment, slowly stirring her soup. "...Salad," she whispered.
"...Salad?"
She nodded.
He ate some of his soup. He doubted that she ate the kind of thing he thought of when she said salad. To the best of his knowledge, there weren't any restaurants in the rainforest.
"...Couldn't reach the fruit, towards the end," she whispered after a while. "Too high."
He looked up. This was the most she'd said since her return. "...So-- ...So you ate... leaves?" he whispered.
She nodded and ate more soup.
He took another spoonful. Some plants in the rainforest were poisonous, weren't they? "...Did-- ...did you ever-- get sick?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Tired," she whispered.
He bit his lip. "...Couldn't tell," he teased lightly, softly. "You only slept for three and a half days."
She didn't react.
He swallowed hard and looked at his soup. Why couldn't he get through to her? He wished he could undo the past year, and take away whatever had taken
her away from him-- from them. She wasn't the Miss Piggy he had known anymore. He looked at her. "Piggy?" he whispered desperately. "Look at me?"
She froze. She was very still for a long, scary moment, but she took a deep breath and obeyed.
He felt the air fall right out of him. He had thought, had almost completely believed, that he would never see those eyes again... and there they were. ...But they had changed...
He put his soup on the chair and gently pulled her into his arms. "I'm glad you're safe now, Piggy," he whispered.
She carefully settled against him and continued eating her soup.
It made him feel worse somehow. She was Miss Piggy. She really was. Miss Piggy was here. But where was the diva? Where was-- ...Where was
everything that made Miss Piggy,
Miss Piggy?
He sighed softly. The answer wasn't here today. Try again tomorrow.
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