So, I actually had a post for you, but thought it too short, so I have an extra long one for you!
In case you're just catching up, here's the obligatory mid-story summary:
On what should have been a routine trip, Flight 3546 crashes in the middle of the California desert. On board, 5 crew members and 36 passengers, including Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. In our last segment, the Muppet gang have just learned that after nearly 36 hours, the remnants of the plane have been found, along with some survivors.
And now...
The scene at Cedar-Sinai was organized chaos, as family and friends of the passengers and crew arrived to see about the safety of their loved ones. By now, the major media outlets had learned about the crash and were actively hovering outside when Gonzo had pulled up in front of the hospital; fortunately, they hadn’t heard about the passengers on the flight, but it wouldn’t be long until the word that Piggy and Fozzie had been on would leak.
Worse was they still weren’t sure who exactly had made it out. While the word that most passengers had made it out alive, there was still speculation that passengers could have been injured or had badly those injuries were.
While the media wasn’t allowed to be parked in front of the ER, they were still in front of the doors, just yards away so that ambulances could get through; should they see four Muppets head in, it would be over before they could figure out the situation themselves. It was dire enough to elicit a curse from Gonzo when he saw the group before putting the car into reverse and parking elsewhere in the hospital parking lot, the idea being they’d enter in through a man hospital door and make their way to the emergency room.
The Muppets were known to do a number of charities, especially those that were based on helping and brightening the days of patients in the hospital, so their arrival wouldn’t be so surprising. They hoped.
Reaching the ER, they were immediately directed to a sitting room where the other family and friends were. A few people were surprised to see the four Muppets appear in the room, but the concern for their loved ones overrode their curiosity. It still took another thirty minutes before a doctor entered their area to give an update – all thirty-six passengers were alright, as were the three flight attendants; sadly, the pilots did not make it out alive and had perished in the crash. Aside from a few minor injuries, which seemed to have gotten attention while the group awaited rescue, everyone was fine.
Most of the passengers were already checking out, though the passengers who had taken young children with them wanted to be sure their child was perfectly fine before leaving. The group as a whole was lead as a whole down the hallway towards the checkout station, with many families being reunited as they entered; many of the passengers were or had been checked out from ER and were just waiting for family or friends to arrive.
It took a few minutes before the group was able to spot the bear and pig, who were doing what they did best – performing for those passengers who had waiting around to either leave or be checked out; Fozzie was entertaining a group of passengers, while Piggy seemed to be telling some elaborate fairy tale to a small group of children who had been cleared.
“Fozzie!”
“Piggy!”
Both turned, happy to see their own family and friends appearing alongside the others. Hugs were thrown all around, until they just ended up in large group hug, while injuries were assessed – Fozzie was cleared with a minor concussion and a few stitches to the right of his head, while the puffiness of Piggy’s left eye had gone down, though it was definitely a shiner to home to.
“We’re alright,” she confirmed.
“You sure?” Kermit asked, placing his hand on her cheek.
“What happened to your eye?” asked Gonzo.
Chuckling, the diva replied, “Well, you’ve been telling me for years that I have a wicked left hook, well…you weren’t lying.”
“That’ll teach ya for beating up on yourself,” Rowlf joked, causing the group the laugh.
[hr]
Two hours later, the group were gathered over at Gonzo’s house in West Hollywood, almost on automatic as it was Gonzo who had been driving. He had purchased the house earlier that year, excitedly inviting everyone over nearly every weekend since he bought, a drastic difference between the little apartment he had in South Gate.
Fozzie had conked out within the first thirty minutes after they had arrived and it was clear that Piggy was doing her best to fight off her own fatigue. She had been fairly tight lipped on what exactly had happened, which wasn’t like her to not share some harrowing story in which she may have been the star; however, it was obvious that she was tired, so they let it go for the moment.
A chirp from Scooter’s phone alerted him to a new text message, this one from Janice. “Kermit, do you have your phone?” he asked.
Kermit patted himself down before looking around the living room for it and not having any luck. “Uh…no?”
Stopping himself from rolling his eyes, the red head said, “Janice has your phone. You left it at Rowlfie’s on the bar top.” Handing the frog his own phone, he continued with, “And you should probably call your girlfriend. She’s looking for you.”
A look of concerned fear crossed the frog’s face as he reached for his manager’s phone, as Piggy stated, “You should put that fire out before you flame out.”
Standing as he dialed Denise’s number, Kermit moved past her, saying, “Will someone please make sure she falls asleep?”
“’M not tired,” came the grumpy response.
“C’mere, kitten,” Rowlf said, throwing his arm around the diva’s shoulders and pulling her to lean against him. “You owe me a hug.”
“’M not sleeping, Rowlfie,” she grumbled, despite snuggling against the pianist’s shoulder.
“I know you’re not,” was his response, attaching a brotherly kiss to the side of her head.
Kermit stood in the kitchen, waiting for his girlfriend to answer the phone, finally getting her on the third ring. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” came the greeting. “Are you alright? I’ve been trying to call you for hours! Where are you?”
The frog grimaced at the shaky tone in her words; he hadn’t meant to worry her and he probably should have called, if he had realized he didn’t have his phone. “Yeah, sorry about that,” he said, sheepishly. “I guess I left my phone when I left the Tavern. I just realized it now when Janice texted Scooter; I’m using his phone actually.”
“Oh,” Denise sighed. “So you’re with Scooter still?”
“Yeah,” he said. “We’re over here at Gonzo’s; Fozzie and Piggy are okay, thankfully, so was everyone else. All passengers accounted for, but the pilots didn’t make it.”
“How sad,” the pig whispered. “So Fozzie and Piggy are okay then?”
Kermit let out a relieved chuckle. “Yeah,” he said. “Slight concussion and a few stitches for the bear and a nice shiner for the pig, but nothing too drastic.”
“That’s good,” the manager sighed, happily. “Very good. I’m glad. For them and you.”
The frog couldn’t help but blush; his girlfriend had been a brick about this, letting him worry about the fates of his friends for two days without complaint. He would definitely have to make it up to her. “Are you coming over?”
Just not tonight.
“Uh,” he started. “Probably not. I think…I think we’ll make likely stay, you know, make sure they’re okay for the night.”
“And they need you there?”
“I can’t leave my best friends.”
There was a lull in the conversation, something that neither person wanted to address or get into. “No, you can’t,” Denise whispered. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Um…not sure, actually,” Kermit admitted. “I’ll uh…I’ll give you a call. Well…just in case, it might be coming from Scooter’s phone. I’ll have to get mine from Janice hopefully before Monday.”
“Alright,” came the sigh, which Kermit could hear had a slight disappointed huff to it. “Call me when you can.”
“I’ll make this up to you,” he said, hurriedly. “I promise.”
“I know you will,” she replied. “Have a good night, Kermit.”
“Night.”
[hr]
A little under a week after the crash, the studio set received some unusual visitors, that of two agents from National Transportation Safety Board or the NTSB. The NTSB was originally created in 1940 under another name before becoming the official independent body in 1974, investigating transportation accidents in the US, as well as assisting other transportation boards in other countries.
As part of the investigation process, the NTSB had a go team that looked at every aspect of the crash – from the time of the flight to the crash itself, all in the effort to discover what made the plane go down. In many cases, there are no passengers or witnesses to tell investigators what had happened, leaving only the evidence from the crash to help piece together. In the case of Flight 3546, every passenger and the cabin crew were alive, which would help them understand what was going on in the cabin, however with the deaths of both the captain and the co-pilot, finding out what was going on in the cockpit would need to be left up to the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
The investigation was already under pressure to discover how a 737, one of the most popular Boeing models had crashed and how had all passengers and cabin crew survive, but the pilots did not; added to this was the fact that the media had now gotten word of who was on the plane, namely the host and announce of Up Late with Miss Piggy. The two agents needed to get through a swarm of reporters who were outside the studio gates, hoping to get one or more of the Muppets to speak with them.
Inside the studio, it was pretty much standard as usual, though not for everyone. Kermit was starting to grow increasingly worried, but not about the person he thought he’d be worried about; Fozzie, who had gotten a slight concussion, had been the first on his mind. His best bear friend hated flying, almost bordering on phobia levels and the frog was certain that the comic would be suffering terribly after the ordeal. Ironically, Fozzie seemed fine, more than fine. He was pretty much back to his old self by the time they started their work week on Monday.
Piggy, whom Kermit had assumed would be able to handle the aftermath, was the one he actually was worried about. The normally very outgoing and attention seeking diva seemed more withdrawn than Kermit had ever seen her before, so much so that by Wednesday, he needed to actually find out why.
The only way he could even do that was to corner her in her dressing room, probably her most private sanctuary besides her own home. Both were places Kermit was very familiar with, so it was completely disconcerting when even he was being denied inside, which of course started an argument.
“Kermit, I really don’t have time right now.”
Clue number two – Piggy rarely broke her diva persona, unless she was under emotional stress.
“Well, you’re making time,” he said, following her inside and closing the door behind him. Reaching out to grab her hand, Kermit pulled her to face him. “Hey,” he whispered, giving her hands a squeeze. “It’s me.” Sweeping some of her hair from her neck, he continued with, “Don’t you think I’d be the first person to notice if something’s wrong?”
Letting out a heavy sigh, Piggy ran a hand over her face. “Of course you would,” she said. “It’s…it’s really nothing, Kermit. I’m just…I’m having a bit of trouble sleeping and having the media camped outside my gate isn’t helping matters.”
“Then we’ll fix it,” he said. “We’ll get Scooter to make up some joint statement, you and Fozzie face the media, tell them you’re okay, and it’ll be over. Alright?” The diva nodded, tiredly. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
Shaking her head, Piggy took a deep breath and Kermit could literally see Miss Piggy coming back to life. “Just restless,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze. A knock on the door prevented whatever comment Kermit had prepared. “Entre.”
Surprisingly, it was Denise whose head popped through the door, causing the current occupants to take a few steps away from each other. “Hey,” Kermit said, smiling nervously. “You looking for me?”
“No, actually,” the marketing manager began. “Scooter texted you; there’s a couple of guys from the safety board that need to talk to you. About the crash.”
“Oh,” Piggy said, nodding quickly. “Yeah, no, that’s…that’s fine. Moi is more than happy to talk to them. Does…does Fozzie know?”
“Not sure,” Denise said, shrugging. “But they’re right here.” The brunette pointed behind her to the two investigators that stood behind her.
“Do you need me to stay?” whispered Kermit.
“No,” she sighed, patting him on the shoulder. “It’s…it’s fine. But…vous could find our furry comic friend, s’il vous plait?”
Kermit nodded. “Oui,” he answered back, probably the only thing he actually knew in French. “I’ll…go find Fozzie then.”
Giving her one last concerned look, Kermit made his way out while the two NTSB investigators made their way in, closing the door behind them, leaving the frog staring longingly at the closed door. “She’ll be fine,” Denise said, seeing the look on her boyfriend’s face. “Piggy’s the toughest gal around, like nails. I’m sure she can handle those two. I’d actually be more worried about the investigators.”
If she had hoped the joke would elicit a laugh, she was disappointed, though a small quirk of his lips showed he at least appreciated the commentary. “Yeah,” he whispered, still gazing at the door. “Yeah, you’re right.”
But he didn’t really feel that way.
[hr]
There is a ride at both Disneyland and Disney World called the Tower of Terror, an accelerated drop tower ride that was located in Disneyland’s California Adventure, within Hollywood Land. Piggy had gone on it, just once, after a dare from Gonzo; never one to let Gonzo have the last word, she went on with Gonzo, Floyd, Janice, and Rowlf, leaving Kermit and Fozzie to shake their heads at them, thinking they were completely crazy.
Which she obviously was, because she let Gonzo talk her into several rides while they were there.
The Tower of Terror did nothing to prepare her for actual falling from a large height. Simulated as a 13 story building, Tower of Terror had a drop of 139 feet; Flight 3546 was falling from a height of 35,000 feet and it didn’t seem to be stopping. It was the same feeling she had from that park ride, the exception being she had lived after getting off the ride – she and Janice had hit Gonzo within an inch of his life, laughing and crying at the same time and still shaking with adrenaline.
This wasn’t a ride however, and Piggy was pretty sure that she and everyone onboard were going to die. And that’s when she started to panic – she didn’t want to die! She still had a ton of things to do in her life – she was still single, she hadn’t gotten married yet, she hadn’t had children yet! And she had a lot of regrets – she wouldn’t see her family again, as much as they fought and argued, she didn’t want to die and have her family think she totally hated them. She didn’t, she didn’t really!
She loved her brothers! They drove her crazy and she was likely to kill one or both of them, but they were her brothers and she did love them.
And then there were the idiots she worked with.
Oh God, she was going to get Fozzie Bear killed! If his mother wasn’t already dead, she would kill her. Actually, there was a pretty good chance Ma Bear would be waiting for them and she’d be kicking Piggy down from Heaven to the underworld.
Had she ever told Scooter how much she loved him? Did he even know he was the bestest friend she had ever and would ever had? The dark apprentice to her dark master, as his beloved Star Wars movies would dictate; her constant partner in crime in all her schemes, the boy that had grown up before their eyes…god, his parents would be so proud of him, his uncle too, to see the sweet, intelligent, funny, nerdy kid.
Or the Mayhem. Was there a better band in the world? Maybe, but they weren’t the Mayhem and she had gotten lucky to get them as her house band. The whole group was great, but she couldn’t remember if she ever told them that. Did they know? Did they know that Dr. Teeth’s exuberance always brightened her day, that Animal had been a valuable watch dog when she needed it, that Janice was probably the only woman she knew that never expected Piggy to be anyone else but Piggy, or that the ribbing she and Floyd did always kept her on her toes?
When was the last time she had told Rowlfie he was the brother she needed in an unfamiliar state with unfamiliar people? That his advice had always kept her from making colossal mistakes? That sometimes he knew Kermit better than anyone and that had been so helpful when trying to navigate her relationship with him?
And Gonzo. That lunatic could drive her crazy better than anyone, but he could be the sweetest person in the world. How many times had she needed to stop him from putting his fist in Kermit’s face on her behalf? Oh, she was sure some of that was because he did have feelings for her and she couldn’t lie; there were times when the thought of dating Gonzo had outweighed dating Kermit.
Had she ever told him that? That once upon a time, she had felt a similar attraction to him as he did to her – they both held a dangerous aspect to their character, though whether it was mostly an act or not, she was never sure. But Gonzo had definitely been on a short list of potential love interests should Kermit never notice her.
Kermit.
They had settled into a nice, friendly pattern, but she couldn’t help that her heart broke every time she saw him with Denise. She loved him, was still very much in love with him, and while it was clear he was over her, Piggy didn’t think she’d ever be over him and now she was going to die and he would never know.
She was a terrible girlfriend, a horrible friend, and an even worse sister, daughter, niece, aunt, and everything in between and she was going to die without the ability to change.
And then, the falling stopped.
Which didn’t matter, as the diva was now having a heart attack. Or an aneurysm, if the blood coming from her nose was any indication.
She turned to look at Fozzie, perhaps to tell him goodbye, because she was going to die, but Fozzie didn’t respond to her call. In fact, he seemed very unconscious, dead maybe? Before she could tell him she was sorry and apologize to his mother for not keeping a better eye on him, they were falling again and then they were spinning and Piggy was back to apologizing to every single person she knew.
And then they stopped.
They had landed. They had landed…and Piggy was the only person alive.
“Fozzie?” she asked, shaking his shoulder, with no response.
“Did you kill my boy?”
Looking up, Piggy was startled to see Fozzie’s mother standing in the aisle next to her. “What?” she asked. “No!”
“You knew how much he hated to fly,” the mama bear insisted. “And you let him fly and now he’s dead.”
“I didn’t…” Piggy sputtered. “Kermit’s the one who booked this gig!”
“It’s always someone else, isn’t it?” the bear asked. “As long as the mighty Miss Piggy isn’t touched…”
“That’s not true!” the diva shouted. “I loved Fozzie!”
“Oh, just like you love the others, huh?”
“Piggy?”
Turning to her right, the being that had been Fozzie Bear was now replaced with an eerie, burning skeleton. “Am I dead?”
Shutting her eyes tightly, Piggy tried to block the image of a burning, deathly bear, and could feel herself falling again, this time more steeply than before, taking her breath away, and causing her heart to beat wildly in her chest. In fact, it was beating so hard and so loudly, it felt as though it had literally pounded itself out of her chest and stealing her breath with it…
Blue eyes opened to stare in the dark of the room, before they began to look around wildly. I’m in my room, it’s just my room, but the thought seemed muddled; no matter what she did, she couldn’t separate herself from being in that plane, couldn’t stop the feeling of falling, the bright light from the sun…she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe and she was having a heart attack. She couldn’t breathe, she was having a heart attack, she was shaking, and she was crying, and she was losing her mind.
She wasn’t sure how long it took, but at some point, she had slid from the bed and was sitting on the floor, trying to breathe normally, and calm her heart down. Blindly searching for her phone, it took Piggy at least five minutes to grab it and check the time, shaking as she was. She wasn’t sure what number of nightmare this was, but this was the third time it had awoken her in a panic, though this one was the worst yet. The previous times she had been able to calm herself, chalk it up to just a bad dream, and doing a few things to take her mind off seemed to help and she had gone back to sleep.
This dream however had been different, as she hadn’t ever seen a…shaking her head, she tried to stop the images that were still fresh in her head, something that closing her eyes didn’t seem to help. Phone in her lap, Piggy had been a little surprised to see that Fozzie’s name and contact info was now showing on her screen, as though she had been about to call him.
“Did you kill my boy?”
“Am I dead?”
Moaning in distress, Piggy quickly canceled out of the contact, bringing it back to her most recent and favorite list. Almost immediately, she tapped on the card for Kermit before hitting the call option. It rang a few times and just when the diva was sure he wasn’t going to answer and she would have to wake up Scooter or maybe Gonzo, she heard the sleepy, “Lo?”
“Kermit? Kermit, I…”
It was starting again and she could feel the drop and the spin and she was going to die…
“Piggy? Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
They were falling and they were going to hit the ground and would break into a million pieces…
“Piggy? Baby, I need you to breathe. Just nice and slow, honey.”
It took ten minutes to even out her breathing, but it didn’t feel as though she was choking to death and her heart wasn’t trying to escape from her chest. Kermit could hear she was still breathing heavy, but it wasn’t the hyperventilation level he heard when she first called. “Alright?” he asked.
“I…”
“Give me five minutes, okay?”
“Kay.”
Fifteen minutes later found Piggy sitting on her couch when Kermit walked in. At a little before three in the morning, both of them should have been in bed, sleeping, and the frog was pretty sure when – or if – he told his current girlfriend about this, she would say the same thing. But Denise didn’t have to listen to the very clear panic that had been in Piggy’s voice and he wasn’t about to just leave her like that. It didn’t take him long to reach the house they had once shared, her pride and joy he had once joked.
Despite no longer being a couple, he still had the house keys, just as she had the keys to his apartment; emergency reasons, they had stated. Just in case. Scooter had keys to their places, Kermit had an extra to Fozzie’s apartment, it was normal, of course.
“Hey,” he greeted, walking past her to sit beside her on the couch. She had been leaning forward, elbows on her knees, with her head resting in her hands, but now Kermit was trying to coax her to lay down. It was a testament of just how tired and stressed she was that it only took a few tugs before she complied, letting her head rest in lap, with his arm slung loosely over her upper chest.
“Hi,” he said, smiling slightly when she looked up at him.
“Hey,” she replied, weakly.
“You alright?”
“Incredibly tired,” she sighed. “Just a few bad dreams.”
“Doesn’t sound like a few,” he whispered. “Gonna tell me?”
Piggy shook her head. “Not now, at least,” she said. “Probably should’ve had you with me during that interview.”
“Pretty bad?”
“No,” she replied. “Just very detailed.”
“I thought Fozzie was supposed to be with you.”
“He was, but he ended up getting waylaid by his girlfriend over something. He didn’t get there until I was nearly finished.”
Kermit took a deep breath, a few choice words for Fozzie shifting through his brain. “Kermit, please don’t be mad at Fozzie.” It was only the hitch of her voice made him take notice that this didn’t seem to be a normal request.
“I’m not,” he insisted, pushing her bangs off her forehead. “Sweetheart, I’m not, okay?”
It was nearly four in the morning before Piggy managed to calm herself down to the point where she could actually go to sleep. Kermit, wanting to ensure that she would indeed go to bed and not do anything else, literally tucked her into bed, sitting next to her to make sure her eyes were at least closed before he left.
“You need to go to bed,” she said, sleepily.
“So do you,” he retorted. “Now you’re all tucked in, I told you about the time I left Jimmy on a floating mattress, and I think you already had some water, so you should be asleep before I leave.”
He smiled at the giggle he elicited. “Aye, aye, captain.”
“Gonna be alright?” she nodded.
“Thank you,” came the whisper. Squeezing the hand that held hers, she swallowed deeply. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he said. “Always. I’d do anything for you.”
“Even show up at my house at 3am?”
“Even that,” he said. Leaning over, he kissed her lightly, whispering “Go to sleep” before delivering a goodbye kiss to her forehead. Standing, he began to leave with, “I don’t want to see you until 10 o’clock.”
“Yes sir.”
With that, Kermit took his leave, hoping he could get a few hours’ sleep before he needed to be at his own office.
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