The news about Walter frequently dating Lily spread around the Muppet family like wildfire. As well as the public eye. Articles came pouring in, many titled with questions on who Walter's new girl was. He and Lily of course, didn't want to be too open to the press about it yet. But, Walter was going to with the Muppets now. Monday ended up being what he expected, a huge wave of questions being thrown at him.

"How did you guys meet?" Rowlf asked. Walter sat in the house seats of the Muppet auditorium. Rowlf, Scooter, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Miss Piggy sat there, all looking at him with excitement. Kermit sat there too, interested in what Walter had to say. But, also for another reason. After the article came out, Kermit told some of the others not to come on to Walter too abruptly with their curiosity. He sat there to make sure they kept it that way.

"We grew up together back home." Walter responded to Rowlf, "she moved in across the street when we were kids."

"Aw, a childhood blossomed into a romance." Miss Piggy said, adoringly.

"She moved from your town to L.A.?" Fozzie asked.

"No, after we graduated she went to college in New York. She's lived there since. She's only been here for a while." Walter said. On the outside, Walter seemed pretty calm with them. But, he was pretty nervous. It was nerve racking telling them all about his new found relationship.

"Well, tell us more! What did she study in New York?" Gonzo asked.

"Musical theatre." The boy responded. He saw their eyes light up, suddenly a lot more intrigued that Lily was also an artist like them. "Yeah, she's a great singer. She moved here to pursue acting."

"A girl after my own heart." Piggy said, "probably inspired by moi."

"So I'm sure you guys get along fine, if you grew up together." Scooter said.

"Yeah, we really do. But, it's still taking some getting use to." Walter said.

"What do you mean?"

Walter shrugged his shoulders."I don't know. I mean, how often do friends...get together?"

"Well, that happened with me and Estelle." Fozzie said. The friends looked towards him.

"Fozzie, who's Estelle?" Kermit asked. Fozzie looked towards the frog.

"You know, that pretty blonde bear I dated when we were younger!" Fozzie said.

"Oh yeah, I remember her." Gonzo said.

"Yeah, we were friends before. Then after a while, it didn't work out because of it."

Walter pressed his lips firmly together and leaned forward off his chair, uncomfortably. Kermit noticed Walter's sudden change in tone and cleared his throat. He hoped to get Fozzie to stop, but it didn't work

"But, she really wanted all this marriage stuff." Fozzie continued, Kermit saw Walter relax. If that was the reason, Walter was fine with it. Until Piggy said something else.

"Oh! Speaking of marriage, I just thought of the cutest wedding gift for you and Lily!" She said to Walter. Walter tensed up again, and felt his face go hot. Kermit looked at his partner.

"Piggy..." He tried to keep things down low, but once again the frog wasn't heard.

"Maybe you guys could do like a double wedding with your brother." Rowlf laughed. Walter swallowed, starting to flush pure red.

"We've only been on two dates, guys..." Walter said, nervously.

"Yea, but you could still borrow your brother's tux when he's done with it." Fozzie said.

"Guys-" Kermit could barely start a sentence, without getting cut off.

"His brother's tux would be way too big for him." Gonzo said. "He could borrow my vintage one."

"That suit is older than Walter is. He should get married wearing something new." Scooter intervened.

"I call officiating Walter's wedding!" Fozzie said, raising his paw.

"No way, I'm gonna do it!" Gonzo said.

"Guys, I'm not even getting...married..." Walter said, hesitating on the last word.

"Ouh! Besides the wedding, your children would be adorable!" Piggy said. Walter's mouth dropped right open, freaked. The young Muppet ran his hand through his hair, his heart beating fast. That was definitely NOT something he was thinking about.

"Good grief..." Kermit said.

"Of course they would," Rowlf said. "They're both good-looking. Those would be some attractive kids."

Gonzo looked at Walter, who was still blushing. "Better have them soon. You two won't be young, forever."

"OKAY." Walter bursted out, jumping to his feet. His friends looked at him, startled. Walter realized he had stopped acting calm. He couldn't get out of this one.

"Uh..." Walter tried to look for words. "I think I need some air..." Walter scooted out of the seats, and quickly walked to the lobby. When he was out of the auditorium, Kermit sighed and looked towards the others.

"Did we say something...?" Fozzie asked. Kermit shook his head.

"Guys, Walter is young. I think...you freaked him out."

"Yea, but you and Piggy married young. You were only a bit older than Walter, how's that different?" Gonzo said.

"Well, we were sure about it. I think Walter knows that something like that is too...vast for him."

"Sorry chief, we didn't mean to scare him..." Scooter said. "We weren't trying to be serious."

"Except for the part about their kids being attractive." Rowlf said. "Cause they really would be."

The frog shook his head, again. "Well, how should we calm him down?"

"Kermie, you should go talk to him..." Piggy said.

Kermit looked at her. "Really, Piggy?"

"Yeah, Kermit." Gonzo said. "If you can give a huge leadership speech every so often on the fly, I think you could calm him down." Kermit nodded and got up. Without another word, he started to walk to the lobby.

Meanwhile outside the theatre, Walter tried to calm himself down. He was really freaked out by all that talk of Fozzie and Estelle splitting up. Or even worse, the jokes about the wedding and having kids. They may have been kidding, but it still got to Walter.

Walter hyperventilated into a brown paper bag. He breathed in and out, the paper bag retracting and inflating. He continued to breath into it, rapidly. His heart beat extremely fast, his head feeling faint. He needed to stop before he got too light headed. But, his heart was beating so fast that he wanted to keep going.

Walter continued to breath fast, until he felt a hand quickly and unexpectedly go on his back.

"Woah, woah. Walter, calm down." Kermit said. Walter didn't look at the frog, he kept breathing into the bag. After the paper bag retracted from Walter's breathing for the millionth time, Kermit took it away. Walter still hyperventilated, his breathing no longer muffled by the crumpling of the bag.

"Slow it down..." Kermit advised. Walter still breathed stiffly, but felt his heart slow down. The two sat down on the steps of one of the doors to the theatre. Walter took a few more steady breaths before speaking.

"Sorry..." Walter said.

"No, no its okay." Kermit said. "They sometimes...say things without realizing. Thats what they did when Piggy and I started dating."

Walter tensed up, and Kermit realized that that was probably not the best example.

"Maybe I shouldn't have started with that." The frog said.

"Y-yea. Cause...that only says that Lily and I are gonna end up spending that much time together. And Gonzo is right, w-we're not getting any younger...! So it'll have to happen some d-day, right?"

"Okay, okay." Kermit tried to keep Walter calm. "You guys can have the chance of many years together, ahead. You've only just started seeing each other, you have nothing to worry about."

"But what about all that stuff that Fozzie said about him and Estelle? About being friends before, and then not after they ended things?"

Kermit shook his head. "Unless Lily is anything like Estelle was, I think you guys will be okay."

"But, what if we aren't?" Walter asked. "I mean, we've literally known each other since we were five. If it didn't work out, I'd hate to mess that up."

Kermit sighed. "Well...I know this may be a big question since you've only been on two dates. But, do you like her?"

Walter hesitated. He ran his hand through his hair, not sure how to answer. Guess there was only one way to. Honestly.

"Yeah." Walter smiled, "I really do."

"Hm." Kermit spoke, nodding. "Well, I don't think you need to worry about anything."

Walter nodded. "Thanks." His leader nodded in response, glad he had calm down. Before the frog could respond, someone interrupted.

"Walter?" A girl's voice said. The two Muppets lifted their gaze. Lily stood there, her shoulder bag dangling from her shoulder. Her hands were clasped, uncomfortably. Walter remembered that he was meeting up with Lily after rehearsal.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked. Walter jumped to his feet, and went over to Lily.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Don't worry." Walter said, reassuring her. "Sorry, I was suppose to call you."

"Don't worry, I was gonna text you that I was outside." Lily said, not at all mad. Walter relaxed. He then noticed his date slightly peer her gaze over Walter's shoulder. Right, Kermit was still there. Walter turned around, and the frog was now standing as well.

"Uh, this is Lily." Walter said to him, he looked back at Lily. "Lily, this is-"

"I think I can guess." Lily smiled. Kermit smiled, too.

"Nice to meet you in person, rather than on a newspaper." Kermit said. Lily blushed slightly through her pale skin. It was nerve racking all of a sudden being in front of someone she watched on tv while growing up.

"I guess everyone saw that pretty quickly." She said, thinking about the article. She looked back at Walter. "How did they react?"

"With a mob of questions." Walter said. Lily noticed a tone of nervousness in Walter's voice. She arched an eyebrow.

"So uh, is there a reason you were randomly sitting outside...?" Lily asked. Walter cleared his throat, trying to think of something. He didn't want her to know that he was freaking out over the idea of commitment in their relationship.

Walter cleared his throat. "Well...uh..."

"Just discussing for Friday's show." Kermit intervened. "Thought we'd get some air." Walter looked at the frog, who gave him a subtle nod. Kermit has been together with a pig who doesn't try to let anything get by her, for a long time. He knew this stuff. Walter felt relieved. Maybe his friends finding out about Lily was better than he thought.

"Yea, that's what we were doing." Walter agreed, looking at Lily.

Lily didn't feel totally convinced, but she went with it. The three continued to talk and Kermit got to know Lily a bit more. After a while, Walter pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled his wallet out accidentally too. He checked the time.

"Hey, we should get going. We're gonna be late." Walter said.

They both said bye to Kermit and the two began to walk off. As Walter put his wallet in his back pocket, a little white piece of paper flew out. Walter didn't notice, but Kermit did. The frog walked over and picked it up.

"Hey Walter, you dropped something." Kermit wanted to tell Walter that something fell out of his wallet, but they were already gone. Before Kermit could get a look at what Walter dropped, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, Scooter, and Rowlf came out of the theatre.

"She seems so sweet!" Piggy said, as they walked up to Kermit.

"Were you guys spying?" Kermit asked, startled.

"Only for like the second half of it all." Fozzie admitted. Kermit played with the glossy paper in his hands.

"What's that?" Gonzo asked.

"Oh, uh nothing." Kermit said, shrugging it off. They all began to walk back into the theatre, Kermit staying behind a bit. He lifted the paper to look at it.

It was a picture of a man dressed in a U.S. Marine Corps uniform. Kermit flipped the picture, and saw writing on the back.

It read:

Never stop fighting for what you love, Walter.

Love, dad.

Kermit's frog eyes widened a bit as he looked at the writing. He flipped it back to the picture of the man, realizing who it was.

"This is-"

"Kermieee! Are you coming?" Piggy chanted from the door. Kermit looked up from the photo and walked back to the theatre.

Kermit sat in his office, looking at the photo that sat on his desk. Not just any photo, a photo of Walter's father. He had no idea his father was in the Marines. But the real question was, was he still...alive?

Kermit sighed, that was probably something he shouldn't be going around asking. But, he should probably call Walter and tell him he had it. That, and there was something else important he needed to ask him.

The frog picked up the office phone, and dialled Walter's cell number.

When Walter picked up the phone, he sounded frantic

"Kermit?"

"Hey Walter." The frog cleared his throat. "Sorry to interrupt. Are you uh, okay?"

"Uh, not really. Listen, I'm sorry but I don't think I can talk. I lost something really important and I can't find-"

"Is it a photo?" Kermit asked. It was silent for a second on the other end.

"Do...do you have it...?" Walter's voice said.

"I'm looking at it right now."

Walter calmed down, and kept talking. "Oh, okay. Can you just...hold onto it until I get it back?" The boy sounded nervous. Clearly, this wasn't something he was open about. Kermit picked up the photo.

"Absolutely." The frog reassured him. "Actually Walter, there's another reason I called."

"What is it?"

Kermit cleared his throat. "Well, I'm not sure what to call it. It's just sort of an...evaluation question."

"Evaluation question...?"

"Um." Kermit tried to look for a reason. "Just something we do with new Muppets. You know, since you just joined." The frog was lying. That wasn't at all what it was. But, he couldn't tell Walter what he was thinking. Not yet.

"Uh, okay."

"It's just a simple question." Kermit leaned forward on his desk.

"Okay..." Walter said, sort of skeptical.

"Walter," Kermit began. "When it comes to leading a group that's a family, like ours, what do you think is the most important thing to keep true to?"

Walter felt a bit perplexed. It wasn't like Kermit to just randomly call someone up and ask a very specific question like that. Walter was still new to being a Muppet, though. Maybe that's just how they do things behind the scenes.

"Well," Walter began. "I think it's important to not put your interests in front of everybody else's, and instead consider what is right for the group. You know...a good leader isn't about showing what you can provide, but doing what's right."

Kermit nodded. That answer was perfect.

"Is that a Muppet enough way to answer?" Walter asked. Kermit chuckled.

"Yeah, that's perfect. Thanks Walter, that's all I needed. And don't worry, I'll keep your photo safe."

"Ok, no problem. And...thanks."

The two hung up, and Kermit was all of a sudden in motion. It was time. Time to tell some others what he had been thinking about for a while. He thought about the phone call he had with Dr. Teeth a few weeks ago, when he nearly told him about a job position he wanted to offer Walter.

Just then, Scooter entered.

"You wanted to see me, chief?" The stage manager asked.

"Yes, Scooter. Are Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, and Rowlf still in the theatre?"

"They're just about to leave, should I go get them?"

"Yes, please. But only them, and you. This is really important."

Scooter looked at his boss, a bit surprised by the seriousness in his voice. "Right away, chief."

As soon as Scooter left, Kermit put the photo of Walter's dad in one of his desk drawers. He went over to a file cabinet, and pulled it open. A cloud of dust went his face, allowing him to cough. Kermit looked through it, until he found what he needed. The frog sat back at his desk, looking at the old paper.

Kermit looked up at a picture in his office of Jim Henson.

"I think it's time, Jim..."