It Happened on Monday

[Twisted Tails]

Oh no

Okay guys, I was able to get some stuff done today, but I've got a psuedo busy week coming up as I try to make up time for my dentist appointment tomorrow. As I mentioned in my last post, you'll probably want to get your hankies ready. These last few parts are a bit misty...


“Hey, there you are.”

“Looking for me?”

“Yeah,” Gonzo chuckled, walking into the back office. He had never been in this area before, which he guessed where Kermit and Scooter did all their hermitting while working on a film. “Scooter said you were back here.”

“Did you talk to Scooter?” the frog asked, quietly.

Gonzo nodded, slowly, noting that Kermit had yet to actually turn and look at him. “We…we…exchanged some words,” the weirdo began. “Um…actually, Kermit, I…uh I was looking for you because I…I needed to tell you something and I’m…I’m not sure...”

“It’s okay,” Kermit whispered. Turning his gaze on one of his best friends, Gonzo knew that Kermit knew. “You’re leaving. Aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” the weirdo replied. “It’s just…Camilla and I have been seriously talking about some…serious stuff and…”

Kermit waved off the explanation. “I get it, Gonzo,” he said. “I understand, I do. I know you all probably think I don’t feel it or I can’t see it, but I do. I have. Things…are just falling apart right now.” Glancing around the room at the various movie posters that were up, as well as other random photos, Kermit continued with, “You know this project we’ve been working on has been shelved. Permanently, indefinitely.”

“What?” Gonzo breathed. His heart immediately started to sink; he had hoped he’d at least be able to continue working with everyone before he left. “When did this happen?”

Kermit took a breath before swallowing deeply. “About three weeks ago.”

“Say what?”

“That’s right, Gonzo,” the leader replied, rather bitterly. “I’ve had everyone come in for the last three weeks to work on a film that is never going to get made.”

Gonzo had looked to Kermit for many things – friendship, leadership, direction – but he didn’t think he had ever looked at the frog as though he had just completely lost his mind. “What the hey, Kermit?” he sputtered. Three weeks of coming in to film scenes for a movie that wasn’t even in production!? “Why would you do that?”

“Because I saw the same thing you did,” the frog replied. “And…I…thought…I thought that I could stop it from happening. And all I did was just speed it up and make it worse. Much, much worse.”

While he had never been a mathematician, the daredevil wasn’t stupid in any means. The production costs alone for a movie could be outrageous; the costs for their movies could go a little beyond that sometimes. The very fact that there were three weeks of filming, shooting, gripping, and other things going on that the studios obviously weren’t going to pay for…

“Oh my…Kermit!”

The frog just nodded, knowing perfectly well how very very unlike him this was and what an incredibly dumb decision this was.

“What were you thinking!?”

“I wasn’t,” he admitted, with a helpless shrug. “I wasn’t thinking. I haven’t been thinking for quite some time because…how else could you explain why…I…would tell the most important person in my life that I would never marry them for as long as I live?”

Gonzo was still having trouble wrapping his mind around what he was going to correctly assume was the complete and utter bankruptcy of the Muppet Studios. “Who…” he began. “Who else knows about this?”

“Just you.”

“What?” Gonzo asked. “You didn’t tell Scooter?”

“Why would I do that, Gonzo?”

“He’s your assistant!” the daredevil cried. “Not to mention the admin and you know, financial advisor guy!”

“He’s also a genius,” Kermit whispered. “How many times have we said that, Gonzo? That Scooter was a genius? And how many times have we all sat around, you included, and wondered if we weren’t somehow holding him back from his potential? Twenty minutes ago, Scooter came in here to tell me that he went ahead and accepted a position at some big search engine company in Silicon Valley.

“And do you know what he did? He tried to talk himself out of going. I had to literally fire him to make him go. Do you really think he would’ve gone if I had told him?”

“Then why are you telling me?”

“Cause you’re the only one crazy enough to understand why I did it.”

Whether it was the tension of learning what he had or he was catching whatever lunacy Kermit had, but Gonzo did laugh. “Geez, you’re an idiot,” he chuckled.

“Is that what you’ve been muttering under your breath at me all week?”

“Well, idiot was the nicer choice of words, so yeah, we’ll go with that.”

The two were silent for a moment, the situation of everything washing over both of them. “Come with us,” Gonzo whispered. “Come with us, buddy. I mean, it’s gonna be rough cause we’re just starting out, but we’ve been down that road before right?”

Kermit chuckled. “Right,” he said. “I can’t. I have to stay, Gonzo. I’m not gonna just let all of this be for nothing.”

“It’s not for nothing,” Gonzo insisted. “We had a ton of great times here.”

“And we will again,” the frog stated, that familiar conviction creeping in his voice. “Besides…I have a house.”

“That’s filled with too many memories.”

“I would rather have memories than nothing at all.”

Though their conversation was about Piggy, Kermit’s statement combined everything that seemed to be lost to him. Everyone was leaving, the film that Kermit had once been quite proud of had petered out and died, and there was a very real and very looming possibility that the studios they had built up might be taken away from them. “You’re one stubborn frog, you know that,” the stuntman quipped.

“I’m from the South,” the frog drawled. “We’re born that way.”

Again, the two were wrapped in silence. “It’s getting late,” whispered Kermit.

“Yeah,” Gonzo whispered back. “I should probably get back.” Turning to leave the way he came, he stopped and turned back. “You’re sure you don’t wanna…”

Kermit shook his head. “I have to stay here, Gonzo.” Holding out his hand, he said, “Good luck.”

Gonzo took the proffered hand and shook it, before pulling the frog into a tight hug. “In case I’ve never said it,” he whispered. “I love you. You’re my brother. My stupid, idiot brother.”

Kermit chuckled. “That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve said to me.”

“This week.”

“The last few weeks,” Kermit laughed, along with Gonzo. Patting each other on the back, the both stepped back from each other. Gonzo wanted to tell him that things would be okay, they just had to be. Whatever situation they got themselves in, by all accounts, they could get themselves out; he tried remembering what geeky TV show Scooter used to quote when describing their inevitable luck in both attracting and repelling trouble.

He couldn’t remember it and it wondered if it would make a difference at this point, the lowest one he thought they could reach. Instead, he thought it better for his friend to remember this moment on a good note.

“Don’t take any wooden nickels.”

Kermit smiled, seeing the ploy for what it was. The thought to give back a retort, that at this point the wooden nickels could probably help him dig himself out of the massive hole he was in, instead he thought it better for his friend to remember this moment on a good note.

“I’ll try not to.”

With one last smile and a nod, Gonzo opened the door and stepped back into the larger studio lot. His smiled withered about five steps away from the door, causing him to turn and look back. He wasn’t sure what he planned to see – Kermit, coming out through the same door; maybe the frog standing in the doorway, watching as his friends started leaving one by one.

Maybe Gonzo was thinking about going back himself, telling the director that he and Camilla would be good for a few more weeks and together they could figure out whatever mess Kermit had managed to get himself into, because the weirdo was sure he hadn’t gotten the whole story from the frog. He quickly reached a hand down to his pocket where he kept his phone, but stopped himself.

Who exactly was he planning on calling? Scooter? Kermit had taken the drastic measure of firing the boy in order to push him the direction he needed to be headed right now. Fozzie? The comic would have his own issues when he told the frog about his own departure and that was a meeting that Gonzo knew wouldn’t be good.

Rowlf? The dog had known Kermit longer than anyone, but he was leaving with the Mayhem and quite frankly, was dealing with his own stuff.

Piggy? Oh sure, that was a smart idea.

In the end, Gonzo dropped his hand. It wasn’t that he thought Kermit was going to do something drastic, but the revelation he had just heard made him wonder if Kermit would do something drastic. The former plumber was at a crossroad, just like the rest of them. His only options were to either go forward or to turn back and the choices that those directions would heed.

Sighing, he took the path forward and didn’t look back.

[hr]

At precisely a quarter till eight o’clock, Scooter was sitting outside of a posh hotel waiting for a passenger. No sooner had he pulled up than said passenger was getting into the passenger side of his car. Since her announcement, Scooter had been rather angry at Piggy and Kermit; he had been angry at them before, but never on this type of scale. Ultimately, he did come to the conclusion that he was being rather selfish; they weren’t his parents and he certainly couldn’t stop them from breaking up any more than he could stop the sun from shining.

He blamed himself, naturally. He’d been a pretty impressionable kid when he had first walked through the backstage of the Muppet Theatre. His uncle, John Paul, better known as JP Grosse, owned the theater and had just signed a lease with the group. Feeling that his teenage nephew should be doing something of importance with his summer vacation instead of playing video games or reading, JP quickly put him to work as a spy within the theater.

The plan had originally been to report back to ensure that the group wasn’t doing anything weird while running this supposed live show that just happened to be taped for broadcast viewing. What JP and even Scooter had anticipated was the fact that Scooter would enjoy himself there. The teenager hadn’t wanted to be an actor, but he had been fascinated by the inner workings of working backstage.

He was a child who enjoyed science and technology, whose favorite television show was Star Trek and whose favorite movie was Star Wars; there was something about this old fashioned theater trying to combine the medium of television within it that was intriguing. Of course, he never hesitated to remind people of who he was, especially when he didn’t get his way.

After a while, that routine got on people’s nerves and it was Piggy who had not only told him no, but told him he was being annoying. It was the first time someone had actively told him no and that it didn’t matter who he was or who his uncle was, he wasn’t going to get his way this time. As people had counted, Andrew Grosse was probably a genius, but he was also especially eager to please and if everyone in the theater thought he was annoying, he wanted to change that perception because…well, the Muppets were the first group of people to accept him for who he was. His uncle never understood the weird obsession he had with the technology of the future and how things worked…

But when he came into work every day, he could always count on Fozzie or Gonzo to read comics with; he always had Dr. Honeydew or Beaker there to help with a science project or equation; he was always welcomed to listen in on the Mayhem when they played; and Piggy or Kermit always called on him first when he needed something.

Oh, on some level he was aware that he was being used as a weird messenger boy between the power couple, but at first, it had been fun. He enjoyed reading old mystery stories and watching detective shows on TV, so to be so cloak and dagger was great and Piggy didn’t trust anyone else but him. And the more they did it, the more he got attached; before he knew it, one day Piggy wasn’t just the diva whose dressing room was at the top of the stairs, she was Piggy his glamorous and famous friend.

And then one day, she moved passed the friend level.

They were doing another ‘get Kermit to marry me’ scheme when he blurted out that here she was, this beautiful, talented woman who could get any guy she wanted and she was wasting her time on someone who didn’t even care about her the way others did. He certainly hadn’t meant to say anything and certainly not out loud and not to her, but when it was out, Scooter suddenly felt a wave of confidence that said she just needed to know that there were other guys out there who were better than Kermit.

And just as he had equally hoped and dreaded, she got the message loud and clear. And then proceeded to let him down gently.

Piggy was of course the first in a line of female cast members that Scooter would develop crushes on, but she was the special one. It took a while to realize why that was and the answer had come to him in the oddest of times – it was the time when Piggy had volunteered to watch the baby band in order to show Kermit how motherly she could be and the whole thing was a disaster. The idea came at him harder than any homework solution ever did –

He wished Piggy was his mother.

Scooter’s own mother had died when he had been very small and he never knew his father, didn’t even know what their relationship would have been. He had been raised by his uncle, who had been a no nonsense, strict parental unit who saw Scooter as a business liability than that of an asset. Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Floyd, and the rest of the Muppets had treated him more like family than his uncle ever did and if there were two people whom he held in high regard, it was Kermit and Piggy.

Gonzo would never know that his recent assessment about Scooter had been correct – this was tearing him apart.

Scooter knew enough friends from school whose parents had gotten a divorce and it was never pretty. You had to split your time in half with them, the adults never wanted to spend any time with each other, and all the while you’re either feeling as though it was something you did or you’d like to do something to get their attention. Scooter had wanted to do something, but his current focus on been on getting into Google’s intern program.

In fact, he had planned on making his announcement at the Monday office meeting. He knew things had been tense lately, both on set and off and certainly he had fielded his share of a visibly strong, but emotionally upset diva, but she had never just decided to go before. And that’s what put the sting in his heart – she wasn’t just leaving Kermit or the Muppets, she was leaving him and he couldn’t for the life of him think of what he had done that would make her do that.

She hadn’t even told him where she was going, even when he asked. He had liked to think that he was maybe one of her closest friends and he had fully expected her to tell him that she was going to this such and such a place and that if he uttered a word to anyone, there would be heck to pay. But she hadn’t. She hadn’t said a word to him. He had even tried to trace where she could have thought to be heading, but that search proved fruitless.

He certainly understood wanting to hide from Kermit, but him?

“You’re quiet this morning.”

“It’s early.”

“You’re always up early,” was the retort.

“Well, I’m also not usually driving one of my best friends to the airport without knowing where they’re going.”

“Andrew,” she sighed. “This has nothing to do with you. I haven’t told anyone where I’m going, so you can stop doing searches and traces and whatever else that little brain of yours had thought up. I’m not going to tell you.”

“Fine.”

“You can be huffy with me all you want,” she continued. “You know that gets nowhere with me. Andrew, please don’t let the last moments we spent together be tense. You’re the last person I want that with.”

“If something should happen to you and I didn’t know about it…”

“This must be some man thing,” Piggy replied, rolling her eyes. “You are the fourth person who has told me that in the case trouble pops up, I need to immediately call you. Have you all forgotten that I have a black belt in karate? Was trained by a ninja master? Hello, I can break a guy’s finger by looking at him! I think I’m gonna be okay.”

“You’re gonna be okay where?”

“In…the place where I am going,” she said. “Nice try, kid.”

Oh no! Oh dear! I am ready to cry now because the Muppet gang is spliting up. Why? Somebody cue the Saying Goodbye song please?

BTW: More please!

 

[WebMistressGina]

lo friends! We're coming up to the end here. This is our last section before the epilogue and this was probably the toughest one I think I've done. Again, the hanky warning is still in effect.


The drive to LAX was actually a lot longer on most days, with trying to combat LA drivers who were in a rush to get anywhere in the city. Today however, Scooter seemed to make the drive in half the time, which was odd considering he had purposefully taken a much longer route and had gotten stuck behind a Shriner’s motorcade.

Pulling into parking, Scooter had the most perplexed look on his face Piggy had ever seen. “Well,” she began. “Either you have no sense of time or your sense of direction is horrible. So where do you want to have breakfast?”

Having already arrived, the two decided on a little café that was a part of the airport and opened for those travelers who passed in and out of LAX either on to the mean streets of LA or back to the relative safety of their homes. “Have a mimosa with me, Scooter.”

“At eight-thirty in the morning?”

“Eight-thirty in the morning happens to be a perfectly great time to have a mimosa,” Piggy insisted. When their server came over, the diva ordered two mimosas to start. Noticing her companion’s manner, she quipped, “Are you going to sulk all morning?”

“I’m not sulking,” came the sulking response.

“You’re sulking and it’s adorable.”

Letting out a sigh, Scooter crossed his arms over his chest. In times past, he probably never would have said what he was about to, but being around Piggy – and the Muppets in general – had done wonders for his confidence. There wasn’t anything they couldn’t tell each other and not know that it was said in love or concern.

“I thought you trusted me.”

“I do trust you.”

“Really.”

Piggy stayed her reply as their server returned with their drinks and wondered about their food choices. The two hadn’t even cracked open their menus yet, but they usually got the same thing whenever they did have breakfast together, regardless of where they were eating. Waiting until their server left, Piggy slowly twirled her champagne glass.

“Andrew,” she began. “If I do this, if I get on this plane and fly to the place where I am going, which essentially means I leave this and Kermit behind, I have to do it completely.”

The red head nodded slowly. “And that means leaving us behind.”

“Can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t mention Kermit to me, even if I asked?”

“No,” he said. “I wouldn’t mention him because you asked me not to.”

“And you’d be able to do that for Kermit, too, right?” There was a hesitancy that Scooter couldn’t avoid. Yes, he wouldn’t ever mention Kermit the Frog if Piggy asked him to, but if Kermit were to ask about Piggy?

Giving his arm a squeeze, she whispered, “I’m sorry, dearheart. Once again, Kermit and I have forgotten ourselves and didn’t see what was right in front of us until it was too late. Sometimes I wish you all weren’t so loyal.”

Smirking slightly, the page just nodded his understanding.

“Anyway,” she said, lifting her glass slightly. “How about a toast?”

“To what?”

“To what?” she repeated, surprised. “To what? To what, he asks. Why to Google’s newest, smartest, handsomest, and most talented of interns!”

“That’s all I need,” he chuckled. “Go in there with an ego.”

“And why not?” Piggy challenged. “You’re a genius. We’ve known that for years. To you, Scooter.”

They clinked their glasses and took their first sips, enjoying the mixture of alcohol and juice. “How did Kermit take it?”

Sighing, Scooter shook his head slightly before taking another sip. “I don’t know,” he answered. “But I did get the impression that…I dunno, he was hiding something from me.”

“Hmmm.”

“I’m sure it didn’t get any better once Gonzo went in there.”

“Why did Gonzo go to see him?”

“He’s leaving.”

“Gonzo?” she asked. Of all the people she thought would leave the Muppets, Gonzo wasn’t one of them.

“He and Camilla,” Scooter confirmed. “He mentioned Fozzie was leaving too.”

That got her attention. And she immediately retracted her earlier statement. “Fozzie…” she said, not sure if they were talking about the same person or not. “Fozzie Bear?”

Scooter nodded.

Piggy couldn’t really think of any words that could actively convene what she was thinking. “Well…” she began, before taking a long drag on her drink. “We’re certainly managed to mess things up, didn’t we?”

“How did we let it get to this?” the assistant asked. Apart from the fear of having to tell everyone that he was leaving, Scooter had taken his promotion as stage manager and production assistant very seriously; the very notion that he hadn’t done all he could to keep the group together had been weighing on him for some time, enough time that this new opportunity doing something he equally loved didn’t seem as great and enjoyable anymore.

“It’s not your fault,” she replied, sending him a look. “It’s not your fault or Kermit’s or mine or Fozzie’s or Gonzo’s or Rowlf’s…it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It just…”

“Happened,” he finished.

The server happily brought out their meals, asking if they needed anything else and making sure that they were set. Again leaving for tables left untouched by her perkiness, Piggy straightened her plate before picking up her utensils. “I am about to have my very last breakfast with one of my very favorite people in the world and you’re bringing me down,” she compained. “If I wanted to be depressed during meals, I would’ve brought Sam.”

“That square?” Scooter protested. “You’d rather have him here than be graced in the presence of Andy Westside?”

Piggy looked at him. “Andy Westside?”

“That’s…that’s my rap name.”

Again, the diva just stared at him. “What do you boys do when I’m not around?”

“We…sit around and come up with rap names.”

“Really.”

“And read comics. Sometimes.”

“Bunch of lunatics.”

“Yes,” Scooter agreed. “Yes we are. But we’re your lunatics.”

“You’re the frog’s lunatics,” she protested. “I just share joint custody sometimes.”

[hr]

This was it.

This was the moment that Piggy had equally looked forward to with the anticipation one feels on Christmas, while feeling the same type of dread as though she was going into the dentist. Talking about leaving and actually leaving were two completely different things; Piggy had always talked a good game. There were very few things that she could talk up and then not be able to do and if she couldn’t do it, she faked it long enough until it looked like she could do it.

In those times, it was just an act. An act to keep up the persona of Miss Piggy, internationally reknown star of stage and screen, the leading lady of the Muppets, and the most irresistible woman in the world; these last few months had shown that Miss Piggy was very much still Pigathia Lee Hogglesworth, from Bogen County, Iowa, who had gone cross country with a frog, a bear, a dog, and a whatever in order to find her name up in the lights.

Piggy still wanted her name up in lights – who didn’t? – but it would have been great, awesome, rewarding to have her friends with her to see her name up in lights. It would have been great to have Kermit with her to see it.

Would she see her name up in lights in Paris? She didn’t know and that uncertainty was killing her. This was it.

Scooter was aware of it too when they stopped at the entrance to several different arriving and departing seating areas. Looking up, he realized that all of the flights leaving were all headed out of the country. “You know this is the area where people are heading out of the country, right?”

“Yes,” she said. “I am aware of that.” She watched him for a moment before saying, “Stop. Stop it, Scooter. I can see from your eyes that you’re trying to figure out what city in which country you think I might be heading to and I want you to stop. Please stop, Andrew.”

Not trusting himself to look at her, he nodded, and said, “Okay.”

Sighing good-naturedly, she opened her arms and said, “Come on. Bring it in.”

The force of his hug nearly toppled her, though he managed to stay upright, she did have to take a few steps back. Out of everyone, saying goodbye to Scooter was the worst. He wasn’t just the little go-fer who had managed to financially bully his way in; Scooter Grosse had become one of them, just by being his childish, goofy, nerdy self.

Piggy had latched on to his eager to please personality for her own means, but it soon became clear that the teenager shared in her wants for Kermit to marry her; she hadn’t meant to get attached to anyone, no one other than Kermit and this whole process had shown when she hadn’t been paying attention, she had grown attached.

And that first person was Scooter.

She had never admitted it and she was toying with it now, but if she had to imagine having a son with Kermit…it was Scooter.

And it was so like Scooter to just break her down, by being just as attached to her as she was to him. “If you make me cry,” she sniffed. “I will kill you. I’m serious, Andrew. You stop that sniffling right now!”

“Gonna miss you so much!” he cried, the sound muffled by the way he had buried his face in her shoulder.

“I know,” she sighed, putting her forehead against his shoulder, if only to hide some of the tears.

“I don’t want you to go!”

Lifting her head, she placed her lips near his ear, making sure only he could hear her. “I know you don’t,” she sniffed. “But I have to and you know I have to. You know it, I know it, and deep down, I bet even he knows it. It has to be done and believe me, no one likes it. Okay?”

He was crying now, she could tell, but she wasn’t about to stop him. It was going to be so very odd without these people in her life. “Out of everyone,” she whispered. “I loved you the most. Andrew, look at me. Look at me, okay?”

A teary Scooter greeted her and she wiped some tears away with her thumbs, satin gloves getting wet. This wasn’t the first time she had done this – she had put out many a fire during his teenage years – but she had really hoped those times were the last. She had once promised him that she would never let anyone, girl, woman or beast ever make him cry and here was doing it herself.

“I love you,” she repeated. “And Kermit loves you. And Fozzie and Gonzo and Floyd and Janice and Rowlfie and all of us. We love you and we are so very proud of you. Now you’re going to leave here, knowing that no matter what, we’re not that far apart, okay? You’re going to walk into your first day of being a big shot computer company guy and you’re going to love it.

“And I swear, Andrew, if I so much as get a hint of any trouble, there is going to be trouble, hear me?”

Scooter chuckled. Leave it to Piggy to threaten him from half a continent away. “I hear you,” he whispered.

“Did you pack?” He nodded. “Promise me that you’ll go home, you’ll get all freshened up, and you’ll do something fun. Don’t think I won’t check up on you. You are to do something fun because if I hear that you sat in that little box of an apartment all night…”

“Not fair,” he giggled. “You can’t do that.”

“I can do whatever I want cause I say so,” she replied, matter of factly. She smiled at him, gave him a motherly pat on the cheek, before dropping a kiss on his forehead. “Go home, Scooter.”

“Don’t you want me to…”

“No,” she said, a finality in her voice that didn’t bear an argument. “I’ll be okay and you’ll be okay. Now go home.”

Knowing this was something he wasn’t going to win, Scooter nodded, sadly. “Love you,” he whispered, taking a deep breath to prevent another onslaught of tears.

“I know,” she said. Taking by the shoulders, she turned him towards the way they had come. “Go home, dearheart.” With one last kiss to his cheek, Piggy gave him a push towards the exit.

The red head stumbled down the slightly ramped walkway, doing his best not to turn around and look back. The urge to do so was so strong that he almost just stopped and turned, but he didn’t. He kept walking and the more he walked, the less stumbling he did.

Before he knew it, he was sitting in his car and he couldn’t remember getting there.

 

[The Count]

Yay for ficness goodness. Again, it shows you've studied under the masters of emotional manipulation present here within our community's library. Well done grasshopper. *<3 the departure between diva and gofer, thank you for posting this. Hope to read whatever's left.
?
Dunno, take it up with Gina.

 

[Muppetfan44]

Whoa! As Dr. Teeth would say, "This is a narrative of very heavy-duty proportion!"

Some very powerful stuff indeed- heart-wrenching plot-twists at every turn, with one Muppet after another leaving the stage lights of Muppet Studios and their green amphibian leader behind. The fact that Kermit kept them working on a film for three weeks that would never get made...wow...didn't see that coming but whew I could definitely picture it. Kermit would do anything if even the slightest bit of him thought that it would keep the Muppets together, even if it did mean nearly bankrupting the studio. I still wonder what made him crack.....his onslaught of fights with Piggy....the indefinitely stoppage of the film...his remaining grief over Jim or a combination of those things, but man Kermit is falling and falling fast.

So very sad but still a very good story. I loved the moment when Piggy and Scooter were hugging, each crying, knowing that they don't want the future to happen but knowing that is must...after what Kermit said to Piggy about their zero chance for marriage, Piggy had to leave or else she would have justified Kermit continuing to be not the frog he was supposed to be, definitely not the frog that she and the rest of the Muppets loved and respected so much.

I hope you put Piggy's letter to Kermit in here...I would have loved to see what their last moment was like before she left....maybe something you could do as a "deleted scene" or something?

Can't wait to read the epilogue and more of your other work soon!

 

[WebMistressGina]

Yay for ficness goodness. Again, it shows you've studied under the masters of emotional manipulation present here within our community's library. Well done grasshopper. *<3 the departure between diva and gofer, thank you for posting this. Hope to read whatever's left.
?
Dunno, take it up with Gina.

Mini tanks! I'm glad I'm doing some Muppet justice here!

Sorry Cami, darlin', you no longer appear in the rest of this fic, however you are prominent in the next one!

Whoa! As Dr. Teeth would say, "This is a narrative of very heavy-duty proportion!"

What it is, what it is!

Some very powerful stuff indeed- heart-wrenching plot-twists at every turn, with one Muppet after another leaving the stage lights of Muppet Studios and their green amphibian leader behind. The fact that Kermit kept them working on a film for three weeks that would never get made...wow...didn't see that coming but whew I could definitely picture it. Kermit would do anything if even the slightest bit of him thought that it would keep the Muppets together, even if it did mean nearly bankrupting the studio. I still wonder what made him crack.....his onslaught of fights with Piggy....the indefinitely stoppage of the film...his remaining grief over Jim or a combination of those things, but man Kermit is falling and falling fast.

I swear to you that this was not a pre-planned idea; it actually came to me when I was writing up the scene with Gonzo. As I wrote it, the idea that the film was being scrapped before being finished was as far as I got until the idea of, what if Kermit just had them come in to work on a film that wasn't gonna happen?

So very glad that's a plausible scenario!

So very sad but still a very good story. I loved the moment when Piggy and Scooter were hugging, each crying, knowing that they don't want the future to happen but knowing that is must...after what Kermit said to Piggy about their zero chance for marriage, Piggy had to leave or else she would have justified Kermit continuing to be not the frog he was supposed to be, definitely not the frog that she and the rest of the Muppets loved and respected so much.

Piggy and Scooter's scene was actually the first solid scene I had an idea for on this, though it was actually for something that was along the similar vein. I've just got it stuck in my head that these two are super close; how else would you explain their constant scheming together if they weren't?

I hope you put Piggy's letter to Kermit in here...I would have loved to see what their last moment was like before she left....maybe something you could do as a "deleted scene" or something?

Can't wait to read the epilogue and more of your other work soon!

OMG, thank you! I had completely forgotten about that letter! My original epilogue I think was that Kermit would come home and find the letter, but not open it. He'd know it was essentially a 'Dear John' letter, but he wouldn't be able to bring himself to read it. And then something else, I don't remember, but NOW I do wanna put that in there.

Tank q!

 

[WebMistressGina]

Okay kiddies! Here's the first part of the epilogue! The second part will come later today or tomorrow!



Epilogue

2011 – six years later


The lights of Paris, France would have been a perfect romantic setting for any couple, with little bistros lined up and down the cobbled streets, the view of the Eiffel Tower in the darkened distance. For one frog and one pig, this was not the romantic meeting that they had planned nor was there any sense in romance period for what their purposes were.

The reunion between Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy was under the pretense of professionalism – Kermit needed Piggy to come back to the Muppets in order to help save their studios, the very studios he himself had placed in danger six years prior. Only the Great Gonzo was aware of the huge misstep that Kermit had taken, but only the frog knew how deep he had really gotten in. Upon learning that his benefactor, Tex Richman, was actually planning on destroying those studios had been a hard blow.

But it was nothing in comparison to the blow that Kermit had just been delivered.

Piggy wasn’t coming back.

Kermit had once thought he knew each and every one of his friends to the letter. He knew everyone of Fozzie’s worries and insecurities, knew all of Gonzo’s pick up lines and stunts, knew all of Scooter’s favorite science fiction movies, TV, and books, and he knew everything there was to Piggy. But in the six years that had passed since they had all been together, Kermit wasn’t sure he knew them anymore.

Fozzie was probably the one constant – he knew the bear wasn’t happy in Reno, even when he tried to play it off that he was having the time of life. But that seemed to be the only person who seemed to stay to themselves, initially. Kermit wouldn’t admit that Gonzo had just about floored him when he dismissed them, opting to stay with his multimillion dollar plumbing business than to return to what he had always loved.

And while he knew trying to win Piggy back wouldn’t be easy, he had honestly thought the years gone between them may have…he didn’t know, but they obviously hadn’t. If there had been one person he counted on to return, it was Piggy. And she wasn’t. Feeling a few drops of rain on his face, Kermit looked up, thinking maybe the sky was going to open up and a torrent of showers was coming his way. It took him five minutes to realize that the drops were coming from him.

Steeling himself, he made his way back to the car, where everyone had been anxiously waiting. They must’ve been discussing what was going on because all conversation stopped as soon as he opened the door and got in. “Where’s Miss Piggy?” Fozzie asked, wondering where their former diva was.

“She’s not coming, Fozzie.”

Was it his imagination or was Fozzie more devastated by that fact than he was? The bear had been the most ardent cheerleader for Piggy’s return that Kermit had to wonder what the heck had those Moopet people done to him. In thinking that, the frog grimaced. Piggy had been Fozzie’s friend too and the bear had actively predicted the outcome – they couldn’t do this show without her.

“We’ll be fine, Fozzie,” Kermit whispered, responding to a question even he wasn’t sure of. “We’ll be fine.”
Of course they’d be fine, he’d be fine. He had been fine without her for six years, what was that in comparison to one lousy night where they needed to save their studios?

He didn’t want to answer that.

80’s robot got the car rolling and they made their way back to the states to try and figure out what they needed to do. Kermit didn’t say any more, even though whispered conversations went on around him; he watched the city of lights drift away and realized that he had just let Piggy walk out of his life for a second time.

[hr]

In a darkened office building, only one light was on in the office of Vogue’s plus sized editor.

Piggy had never imagined that her day would have ended like this. With the fashion season creeping up on them, she certainly had plenty to do, but that morning, she had been bored out of her mind. She kept making up excuses to put off the paperwork and editing she had to in order to decide which donut to have for breakfast and where she would go to lunch and whether her apartment would look better with the desk on the left or right.

She was painfully distracted and she had no idea why.

When her assistant had come in and told her there was someone to see her, she was estatic. Finally, something to do for at least a few hours. Of course, when said visitor entered her office, the idea of entertaining suddenly seemed to be off her plate; he was the weirdest looking guy she had ever seen and that was saying something after her years living in Hollywood, however there was something about him that reminded her of someone.

It was only later that she realized who he reminded her of - Fozzie Bear. Clumsy, childlike, funny, adorable Fozzie Bear, someone she hadn’t thought of in years; and there, on her office floor, was just about everyone she had tried to forget for the last six years. And then she saw him and she lost herself. But only for the moment! Thankfully, she had regained her senses and realized, she was mad at him. She was mad at him and the last thing she wanted was to see them.

Him. See him. She did not want to see him.

And then he used those darn pollywog eyes on her and she nearly caved. Nearly, but not quite. Oh no, they were on her turf now and she definitely had home court advantage, which meant that if Kermit was looking to get back in her good graces, he was going to do this by himself and without help. Like she didn’t know how nosy the others could be; especially with Scooter there. She was almost tempted to have the frog frisked, just to ensure the little sneak didn’t plant a bug or tracking device on him.

A little part of her was of course elated and excited, but she stomped that down quick, bringing up the very reasons she had left in the first place.

She had arranged everything because they were going to discuss what she wanted. But…she wasn’t completely unreasonable. She couldn’t pretend that seeing him again didn’t get her heart beat faster and that, hope against hope, maybe he had been as miserable without her as she had been without him, but no. Even after six years of being apart, he still couldn’t just tell her that he hadn’t been able to get along without her.

And they were right back where they started.

That…had been a little devastating. Maybe he didn’t care, maybe she had been wasting all her time mourning for a relationship that just was not going to happen.

Truth be told, she missed everyone – not just him – but everyone. Seeing that boyish grin on Fozzie’s face, the ugly and familiar green jacket of Scooter’s, those big brown puppy dog eyes of Rowlf’s…they took her back to a time when they sat around in the cantina or at that bar they loved so much, discussing everything and nothing at the same time. As much as she may have complained and argued her way out, she missed those guys and she missed those times.

And the fate of whether or not they’d be able to do this again was riding on her.

She wasn’t stupid. Of course they needed her! She had been part and parcel of the Muppets forever and she could still be recognized as being one of them. She had her own fans and she knew that if they needed to come up with the money to get their studios back, those fans would want to see her along with the rest of them. A decision needed to be made and Piggy was sure she had already made it.

Picking up the phone, she dialed one of the office assistants. “Francois,” she replied, thankfully knowing it was still early enough that he’d be awake and working somewhat. “J'ai besoin d'un billet d'avion immédiatement. Ce soir.” She nodded to whatever he said over the phone before interrupting him and saying, “Pour Hollywood.”

 

[The Count]

*Hooray for epilogue firstness, still need the other part to add to your repertoire girl.
The only thing that bugged me was...

Posted by not Newsie's Gina:
"And then he used those darn pollywog eyes on him"
Er who did what to who now? Pronoun problems methinks. Unless Kermit was staring at his own reflection in a mirror in Piggy's office, but even with my blind batty eyes I don't think that's what happened during that scene in the movie. *Still has to buy it for home library.

Other than a few little typos here and there, it shows how much your style/thinking has come into its own with this fic. More please?
Oh, and thanks for the cookies. *Hides them from Mr. Googly-Eyes.

 

[WebMistressGina]

Posted by not Newsie's Gina:
"And then he used those darn pollywog eyes on him"
Er who did what to who now? Pronoun problems methinks. Unless Kermit was staring at his own reflection in a mirror in Piggy's office, but even with my blind batty eyes I don't think that's what happened during that scene in the movie. *Still has to buy it for home library.

Heh heh. Yeah...that should have been 'her'. That's the problem with trying to get this stuff typed up before my weekday starts - I'm writing fast and thinking faster than I'm writing, while keeping an eye on the clock.

Luckily, I think I'm still within my edit time frame, so heres I go!

EDIT - lies! The edit button will not lets me edit Well...I think we know who's gonna have to fix that, yes? (looks at The Count)

 

[The Count]

Yes, that and anything else ya needs fixing. Cause I knows a guy...

 

[WebMistressGina]

Is it the same guy I know, cause that guy knows stuff. He knows the epicness of the Scoobius. and I think he might be a Control agent. At least I hope he's a Control agent...