After the girls had been dropped off at the Murray Hotel, Dr. Teeth drove the bus down the road and made a turn, on route to the Happiness Hotel that he and his band lived at.

Gonzo had hopped across the aisle to get to the empty seat to allow Fozzie and Lips more space, and looked back at Lips and asked, "So…why were you going after Jet about her pills? You seem to really not like that she was using them."

Lips groaned, "I wasn't trying to be antagonistic about it or anything, I just get a little wary when anyone seems to casually pop pills like she seems to."

Fozzie shrugged, "I don't know if that's her case, Lips. Sometimes people need pills to help with their mental troubles, like anxiety and depression. It doesn't do good to judge them for it."

Lips shook his head, "Yeah, but with how defensive she got over them…I don't know, I just worry that she could overdo it one day, is all..."

Zoot then spoke up, "Don't worry about it. You'll probably never see her again."

"But she gave us the name of her workplace," Janice pointed out. "So maybe she, like, wants to see us again. She doesn't seem to be a bad person, fer sure."

"Also, if it weren't for those pills, we'd all still be in jail," Floyd added. "It was a sleeping pill you drugged your guard with, right?"

Lips nodded, "Yeah, that's true…"

Dr. Teeth glanced at Lips in the mirror and said, "You worrying about her overdoing it is very understandable. Our pal, Zoot, had a pretty close call a few years ago."

Gonzo looked at Zoot wide-eyed, "You mean a drug overdose?"

Zoot sighed, "Yeah…Tubman had me REALLY stressed out for a few months because of some shit. Took relaxant and sleeping pills to keep myself calm. One night, I think I counted out one too many…"

Floyd grimaced, "Animal found him getting all sick in the bathroom and we had to rush him to the hospital. Barely had enough to pay the med bills. Fortunately, there wasn't any lasting damage to his body, but he had to take a week or two and Tubman put us through HELL for that."

Lips' brows rose and he said in a bit of a stunned tone, "You got really sick?"

Zoot nodded, "Yeah. That's how drug overdoses go, right?"

Lips looked over to where Janice and Floyd sat, and Gonzo looked behind his seat to look at them, where he noticed that while Floyd was looking at Zoot, Janice seemed to be staring at the back of her seat, biting her lip. What was that about?

Lips soon sighed, shaking his head, "Consider yourself very lucky, Zoot. My best friend, Jowls, wasn't. He took the EXACT same kind of pills Jet did and took too many one night before bed…and he never woke up. We had been sharing an apartment, but because he was dead, I couldn't afford to keep the place by myself, hence leading to my homelessness."

Gonzo winced, "I'm very sorry to hear that, Lips. I'm sure Jowls was a good friend."

Lips nodded, "Yeah…he was one of the few people I could trust. I'd been alone for a LONG time."

Fozzie patted him on the shoulder, "Well, you're not alone anymore. You have all of us now!"

"And you three are no longer homeless, cause we're coming up to your new home right now!" Dr. Teeth declared.

Gonzo looked out the window of the bus to get a look at the Happiness Hotel.

It was a tumbledown wreck of a building whose paint was peeling badly. A few brave weeds, trying to climb the iron rails in front, had given up and died. Stiff, gray laundry hung from the second floor balcony. Beyond the broken windows, twisted blinds clinked in the breeze. A pair of small, dilapidated signs were nailed to the posts by the door, one reading, "Happiness Hotel" and the other reading, "It's Weird but It's Cheap".

Gonzo raised a brow and looked back at the band, "You guys really live here?"

They all nodded and Dr. Teeth parked the bus in front of the hotel, right behind a huge vehicle that looked like a cross between a bus, a truck and a shack.

Everyone collected their things and got off the bus, and once Dr. Teeth shut the bus doors and made sure it was secure, they proceeded to the door.

Lips looked the building over, "So a four-story building, huh? Probably a lot of room available, right?"

"Yeah, but it'll be cheaper if you three share a room," Janice suggested. "That's what we do. The beds are more than big enough to hold three puppets."

"Just be careful when you lie down to sleep," Floyd stated, with a snicker.

The homeless trio looked at one another before following the band up the creaky, old steps, over a mildewy welcome mat, and into the building. The hotel's interior was about as impressive as the exterior: The dark lobby was covered in dust and cobwebs. Faded pictures hung on rusty nails on the walls and a few threadbare rugs covered the floors.

A little white-haired puppet man was sleeping at the dusty, old-wood front desk, who was pointed at by Dr. Teeth, "That's Pops. You go through him if you want to check in."

Gonzo nodded, "Okay. Thank you."

When Gonzo, Fozzie and Lips approached the desk, Gonzo thought the band would start to make their way to their own room, but instead, they stayed in the lobby, watching them with big grins. (Actually, Zoot seemed to be on the verge of zoning out, so it was hard to tell if he meant to hang around.)

Gonzo reached the desk first and spoke loudly, "Um, excuse me, sir."

Pops jolted awake and looked at the trio, "What is it?"

Gonzo motioned at himself, Fozzie and Lips, "We'd like a room."

Pops' brows rose, "Really?"

Lips nodded, "Uh, yeah, we'd like to check in."

Pops beamed and he turned his head up to the banisters above him, "Somebody's checking in!" he called out, slapping his hand on a table bell.

Within seconds, a squad of country-style puppets emerged from some of the rooms. "Somebody's checking in?!" they all exclaimed.

"Here we go," Dr. Teeth said with a smile.

One blonde puppet with a beard and wearing sunglasses strummed a few chords on a banjo he was holding, and Pops looked at the trio and sang:

Oh, there's no fire in the fireplace, there's no carpet on the floor.

Don't try to order dinner, there's no kitchen anymore.

But if the road's been kind of bumpy and you need a rest a spell…

"Well, welcome home to Happiness Hotel!" the country band sang.

Gonzo, Fozzie and Lips looked at each other with raised brows before setting their stuff down on the floor. Pops looked at them with a smile, "How're you fellas fixing to pay?"

"Uh, what're our choices?" Gonzo asked. He dreaded this question.

Pops counted out the options on his fingers, "A. Credit card. B. Cash. C. Sneak out in the middle of the night."

Fozzie smiled, "We'll take C!"

Pops nodded, "Very popular choice."

Then, a purple-pink lizard emerged from somewhere in the lobby and strode up to the trio, singing:

If you've got luggage keep it handy, but you're running out of luck!

Cause the bellhops ain't too organized and the elevator's stuck!

He pointed at a small group of rats sitting inside an old, busted-looking elevator, all of whom wore red bellhop uniforms, who all chorused:

So, if you don't mind friendly animals and can learn to the stand the smell…

"Well, welcome home to Happiness Hotel!" sang several more puppets, who peeked out from behind warped doors, through the banisters or from underneath the broken-down furniture.

At this point, Dr. Teeth had taken a seat at an old upright piano situated in the lobby, tapping away a tune that went to the song.

Lips went up to him and asked, "Do they do this song often?"

"Yeah, but only for the new guests," Dr. Teeth stated.

Lips nodded and watched the rat bellhops as they carried his and Gonzo's bags up the stairs. Gosh, he hoped they could manage. Then, the residents began to continue the song:

Welcome home! Welcome home!

Welcome home! Welcome home!

No matter where you wander you will never do as well!

A few of the remaining rats began to dance a sort of jig to the music, and at this point, the Mayhem band joined in on the song:

Floyd: Okay the lobby's lookin' shabby, and it's got the wrong address!

Dr. Teeth: And the whole damn thing's been condemned by American Express!

Janice: Still, the management is cheerful though the whole joint's gone to hell!

Whole band: Well, welcome home to Happiness Hotel!

Gonzo looked at Floyd and asked, "How long have you guys lived here?"

"Oh, ever since we moved to NYC," the redhead answered.

"And you got welcomed with this exact same song?" Fozzie asked.

"Yeah, but the song parts went to different people back then," Dr. Teeth explained. "In the future, you can have a part in the jingle."

Lips' brows rose, "We have to help sing this song to newcomers?"

Janice nodded, "Well, yeah, but you don't, like, have to. I mean, Lou's been here a rully long time, and had never done the song once!"

"Yeah, I have," a man with a long black beard stated.

"No, I mean the other Lou," Janice corrected.

"I've done it too," a woman with long red-brown hair pulled into pigtails added.

"No, I mean Sadley," Janice specified.

Before Gonzo could ask who Lou Sadley was, the song went on courtesy of a pig with very curly blonde hair:

Oh, there are bugs.

Rat bellhops: There are bugs!

And there are lice.

Rats: There are lice!

Lizard: Sure we have our little problems, but you'll never beat the price!

Floyd: We've got every kind of critter.

Zoot: We've got every kind of pest.

Pops: But we treat 'em all as equals just like any other guest.

All Residents: Though you're cleaner than the others still as far as we can tell, you'll fit right in to Happiness Hotel!

At this point, Gonzo, Fozzie and Lips couldn't help but join in, "We'll fit right in…"

And then everyone chorused, "To Happiness Hotel!"

With the song over, the new trio were introduced right away to all the residents of the Happiness Hotel. Aside from Pops and the Electric Mayhem, there were a lot of people to account for:

There was Leon the Lizard, the purple-pink lizard with big yellow eyes who had a sort of smart-aleck attitude; Annie Sue Pig, the blonde pig girl who was very sweet to them; Lubbock Lou and his Jughuggers, a country band that consisted of Lubbock Lou on jaw harp, Slim Wilson on guitar, Zeke on banjo, Bubba on jug, Gramps on fiddle, and the Other Lou on vocals; Lew Zealand, an orange puppet with a round red nose who possessed a weird species of fish called Boomerang fish ("I throw them away and they come back to me!"); Mildred Huxtetter, a puppet woman with a purple-triangular face and wore fancy glasses, who prided herself as being very smart (though Dr. Teeth said that was debatable); George, an old humanoid who worked as the hotel janitor who was a tad grumpy; Swedish Chef, a humanoid puppet who cooked in the hotel kitchen who spoke only Swedish; and Gaffer, a tabby cat that sported an eyepatch.

With all these friendly faces around, for the first time in Gonzo's life, he felt comfortable around the people he was living with.

After the round of introductions, Gonzo, Fozzie and Lips were taken to their hotel room by the rat bellhops, where they found their bags neatly set on an old dresser.

There was a sofa in the room that had a lot of loose threads sticking out of it, a small, cracked mirror hanging on the wall, hunks of plaster laying strewn across the floor, and a lightbulb hanging on a single cord in the ceiling that looked like it would fall at any second.

As for the bed, there wasn't one, but there was a small night table with an old table lamp situated next to a spot where it probably would be.

Lips frowned, "Huh. What with this being a hotel, I thought there'd be a bed in our room. The band mentioned they had a bed in their room, right?"

Fozzie nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure they did. Maybe not all the rooms are fully furnished…"

Gonzo shrugged, "Eh, it's no big deal. At least we're not exposed to the elements."

Lips stood in the center of the room and looked around the floor, where he began to state a plan, "What we can do is get a broom and sweep up all this plaster and dust, so we can have a clean place to lay our sleeping bags or blankets down. Maybe we can ask the staff if they keep extra blankets and pillows stored away…"

However, before Lips could finish formulating his idea, the rat bellhops slammed the door to the room, and with a loud sprung, a large Murphy bed unfolded from the wall and smacked right down on top of him!

"Lips!" Gonzo and Fozzie shouted, getting down on their hands and knees, crawling towards the end of the bed. "Are you okay?" Gonzo asked.

Lips crawled out from under the bed, his hair more mussed up than usual, mumbling, "That was worse than a door to the face…" He stood up, dusted himself off and looked at the bed. "Well, at least it turns out we do have a bed."

The bed sagged a bit, but it had pillows and a very thick-looking blanket on it, so there wasn't too much of a comfort shortage.

Gonzo sat on the end and patted it with his hands, where he smiled, "Yeah, it doesn't feel too bad. Much better than the bus terminal locker."

He looked at his two new friends and asked, "So, what do you want to do today? It's Christmas and we have a lot of free time."

Lips shrugged, "To be honest, I want to stay in for the holiday. I don't feel like going out into the city what with us all breaking out of jail last night."

Fozzie nodded, "Yeah, me too. Too risky to be out and about today."

Gonzo sighed, "Yeah, you got a point there. I've never really done anything on Christmas except envy those who are able to celebrate it."

Lips glanced at the door and wondered aloud, "I wonder how they celebrate the holidays in the hotel? I didn't see and decorations of any kind up."

Fozzie shrugged, "Maybe they don't have them. Decorations can be pretty expensive. Especially from Bitterman plaza."

Gonzo nodded in agreement and began to think to himself as Lips began to go through his bag and Fozzie looked around the room. He thought about what Kermit said about finding the right audience. What did that mean? If Gonzo's old act didn't appeal to the people at the mall, who could it appeal to? Would he have to figure out a whole new act? He may have to, since he lost Amy the dancing brick. Well, at least he still had his guitar.

Suddenly, he heard Lips exclaim, "Whoa man!"

Gonzo's head jerked up, asking, "What's wrong?"

Lips stepped out of his view of the sofa, pointing, "THIS!"

Gonzo looked to see Lips was pointing at his open trumpet case, which had his horn nestled inside still, which made Gonzo wonder what the problem was. After a moment, he noticed it was nestled on top of a lot of dollar bills and coins!

He hopped off the bed and looked into the case, "Wow! That's a lot of cash! Did you earn all this last night before you go arrested?"

Lips shrugged, "Maybe. I didn't even notice people had tossed tips into it. I didn't even notice the money when I handled my trumpet at the café!

Fozzie looked into the case and exclaimed, "Wow! You must be a really good player if you managed to earn this much!"

Gonzo smiled, "Maybe we could pay rent here after all! How much is it?"

Lips removed his trumpet and began to count out the bills and coins, and after a few minutes, he answered, "$73.87. That's the most I've ever gotten!"

Gonzo nodded and he looked at the blond, "Hey Lips, how about we work together?"

Lips looked at the whatever with a raised brow, "Work together? On what?"

Gonzo motioned at his trumpet, "On music. I'm a pretty good guitar player. Maybe if we write a decent enough song, we can perform someplace together and earn a good living."

Lips furrowed his brow, "How do you know we'll be good enough for that? I've tried to get gigs at places for YEARS and got accepted nowhere!"

"Well, maybe where you were looking didn't have the right audience," Gonzo suggested. "I made a friend last night named Kermit the Frog who told me that in order to achieve my dream, I had to find my audience."

Fozzie's brows rose, "Kermit the Frog?"

Gonzo looked at the bear, raising his own brows, "You know him?"

Fozzie nodded, but then shook his head, "Not personally, but...I took something of his last night."

The bear produced the wallet he had gotten back at the police station, which he opened to reveal Kermit the Frog's ID!

Gonzo gasped, "That's Kermit! Where did you get that?!"

Fozzie winced, "I stole it off of him."

Lips frowned, "When?"

"He and some human guy dressed as an ice cream man from Hello Dolly had just gotten tossed out of Club Dot. I helped them to their feet and swiped Kermit's wallet as I helped dust him off," Fozzie explained. "He knew my name somehow but I'd never met him before in my life…and that's not the weirdest thing!"

He unfolded the photo holder in the wallet and showed Gonzo and Lips the photos held inside. They immediately recognized Gonzo, Fozzie, the Electric Mayhem and Rowlf the Dog in some of the pictures, all of whom were standing with Kermit. When Gonzo saw himself standing with Kermit by a cannon, his brows rose even higher!

"When…when I was younger, I always had the dream to be a stuntman," he stated. "But nobody took my acts seriously. Not when I ate a tire to Flight of the Bumblebee, not when I played a violin for a tomato plant, not even when I tried to break apart an Oldsmobile, all for the sake of art! I guess…in this picture I achieved that dream somehow."

Lips looked at the photo of the Electric Mayhem and frowned, "Why am I in that photo? I've never met Kermit, or the band until last night. These are weirding me out major…"

Fozzie shrugged, "I don't know. I didn't see these until after I ran from him."

Gonzo tapped his chin and furrowed his brow. Kermit was in these pictures with many of them, so it had to mean something…right? After a moment, he had an idea.

"Kermit's a time traveler!" he exclaimed, prompting the other two puppets to stare at him. "He came from the future to push us towards our dreams! I'm sure if we all come together, he'll come into our lives and lead us to stardom!"

Lips frowned, "What? You mean like some sort of prophecy? Sounds ridiculous to me."

He looked at Fozzie and said, "Let me see those pictures, Foz."

Fozzie handed him the wallet, "Be careful with it."

Lips nodded and gently slid one of the pictures out of the holder, which he flipped over to look at the back. After a moment, he shook his head, "This photo was developed a few years ago. There's no way Kermit's from the future."

Gonzo's enthusiasm fell and he sighed, "It was just a thought…"

Fozzie then gasped, "Maybe he's from another dimension!"

Gonzo then perked up, "Yeah, that could be it! A world where he was our friend and we all got famous together."

Lips huffed, "So I guess this means we're in the world where he's not our friend and we're living with unfollowed dreams. But if that's the case, then what was he doing over here? Why wasn't he back in his own dimension living his no-doubt fantastic life?"

Gonzo shrugged, "I don't know…I had actually run into him earlier yesterday and he seemed to talk to me like he knew me and was very confused when I didn't know him. And he was with that Hello Dolly ice cream man guy Fozzie mentioned! It was pretty odd. If only I could find him and ask. Does the wallet have an address card.

Fozzie nodded, "Yeah, it does, but the house it lists is a rundown place that I've heard some disturbing rumors about. No way Kermit would live there."

Lips sighed, "So, it's hopeless to find him then. Maybe we'll never see him again."

Gonzo looked at the photo holder and thought about all the other people in the photos with Kermit, the ones they had never met. The little frog. The orange puppet with glasses. The lady pig. The bearded human man. Could they all be in New York City? Were they on hard luck like they were. If only there was a way to know.

He looked at his new friends and said, "The fact that we're all in these photos with Kermit must mean SOMETHING. Maybe it means that we can all work well together, and if we do, we can achieve our dreams! And maybe at some point in the future, we'll meet the other people in these photos and they can help us! Maybe there is hope for us!"

Lips looked at Gonzo with a raised a brow, "Our dreams? What sort of dreams, Gonzo?"

Gonzo stood tall, "I've always wanted to make millions of people happy. With my stunts, my songs, my everything! I'm sure you both wanted to do something like that at some point in your life."

Fozzie looked down at the floor, "I've always wanted to be a great comedian…but nobody ever thought my jokes were funny…"

Lips sighed, "And I always wanted to play trumpet for rooms full of people, just like my granddad used to…"

Gonzo patted each of them on the shoulder, "If we work together, I'm sure we'll find a way to make your dreams come true. Kermit told me that everyone matters, for worse or for better. I want everyone in the world to hear that message, so that everyone, human and puppet, won't ever feel as miserable as we do."

Fozzie lifted up his head and said softly, "A world where everyone matters? That sounds…nice."

Lips looked up at the ceiling and sighed, "What a wonderful world that would be…but how do we do it, even? I mean, our acts are niche at best. There's no way we could get a do it."

Gonzo pointed at the money in Lips' trumpet case, "If your act was 'niche', would you have all that money?"

Lips glanced at it and shook his head, "Maybe not. But it could pity tips, for all I know…"

Gonzo shook his head, "No, Lips; you're a fantastic trumpet player! And if people are willing to tip you for playing on the streets, you're bound to earn a lot more doing something bigger!

Lips looked at Gonzo and nodded, "Yeah, I guess you're right. So, what's our plan for stardom then?"

Gonzo grabbed a pad of paper and a short pencil from his rucksack, and took a seat in the center of the bed. "Let's brainstorm a song that the three of us can do together. One that'll attract a lot of attention and entertain a crowd."

Lips climbed onto the bed, smiling, "Well, I used to be a guest lecturer on music a few years back. I could be of some help with this."

Fozzie smiled, "Yeah, let's put our heads together and write our first single!" He plopped down on the bed, which, with another loud sprung, folded back up into the wall, trapping the three puppets!

"Uh," Gonzo muttered. "Any of you guys got a penlight?"

"Nah," Lips replied with a grunt.

"Sorry," Fozzie mumbled. "This bed must have a hair-trigger…"

Gonzo sighed, "Well, I guess we could sleep a little more. Maybe a dream can give us inspiration for a song."

And with that, the trio drifted off to sleep, between a soft bed and a hard wall. The lightbulb hanging on the thin cord soon fell to the floor with a light crash.

So Gonzo, Fozzie and Lips have settled into the Happiness Hotel, their new home, and they have a new goal in life! How will their plan work out in the future, I wonder?

According to the Muppet Character encyclopedia book, it states that Jowls is an old friend of Lips, so I decided to use that. There'll be a little more on this and how Lips' complete mental state regarding it in later chapters.

The character mentioned, Lou Sadley, is an old Muppet OC created by partycoffin on Tumblr, who they haven't done art of for a long while because of their focus on Welcome Home, but I still remember him. So, I thought I'd add him to this fic! You'll see him in a later chapter!

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