"I don't know how to explain this Zoot, but...I think you have a set of ovaries inside of you," the doctor said, examining the ultrasound.
Zoot's body went stiff, processing the information he was just given, before saying, "Please tell me you accidently came into contact with morphine before coming to check on me."
"I'm being serious, Mr. Simms. Here, look." The doctor moved the monitor so Zoot could see the screen, where the somewhat heart-shaped organs could be seen on the screen.
"But...how? Did Bunsen's invention mutate something in me to make ovaries?" Zoot asked, still confused.
"Well, I saw the episode of Up Late with Miss Piggy last night, and he said the machine was intended to make infertile women fertile. Therefore, it's possible you could've have these ovaries all your life but never knew," the doctor theorized.
Zoot slammed his head back on the examination table and grumbled, "Dear god...Zachariah and Zoey are going to FLIP."
"Now relax, these types of things come up sometimes, but not often. You not exactly a freak," the doctor stated.
"Yeah, I figured, but what can I do about it? Is there a way to reverse the effects?" Zoot asked, sitting up again.
"Well, first we'll get a specialist to come in from another state to assess the situation, which could be a few weeks, and then, if possible, we could remove the ovaries," the doctor suggested.
"Are there risks involved? Should I have to tell my friends about this?" Zoot asked, worried about the other Muppets' reactions to this bit of news.
"None as far as I know. As for your friends, you might want to let them know ahead of time before you get this all done. For all you know, your partner might want to have a baby and this could make it easier," the doctor answered.
Zoot thought hard; his friends might be a little freaked out to know of Zoot's long-hidden organs, but they might get used to the idea...maybe. And as for being able to have a baby, well, pregnancy seems to be a pretty hectic thing for women to go through, especially the birth! But what if Dr. Teeth wanted to have kids? How would pregnancy affect him? Would it have risks? Zoot didn't want to find out.
"We could adopt," Zoot said.
"True, but adoption is such a lengthy process, and it's gotten a lot more expensive since the 70s," the doctor informed the blue Muppet.
Zoot sighed and said, "Send the specialist over, but I'll have to think about the whole removal thing."
"Alright, she might arrive in two weeks. If you'd like, you can take a file containing all the info for Dr. Honeydew to look at. He might want to know of the situation," the doctor suggested, printing out the ultrasound image, putting it in a file along with some other documents, wrote down a few notes and then handed it to Zoot.
Zoot sighed and took the folder. This was going to be a very different day.
At the studio, Yolanda was sitting at her desk, reading a rat fashion magazine, when the phone rang.
She picked up the receiver and said, annoyed to be interrupted, "Office of Up Late with Miss Piggy. What do you want?"
Then, she froze for a second and her annoyed frown turned into a bright smile. "Oh! It's you! How are you? It's been so long...You're moving into town?! Well, I'm sure some Muppets here will be very happy to see again! See you soon!"
Then she hung up, still smiling. Then went off to inform Kermit of this surprise visitor.
A half hour later, Fozzie drove to the hospital to retrieve Zoot, since the band was tied up with work.
"Alright Zoot! Let's get you to the studio! Or do you need to stop by your house to get a change of clothes first?" Fozzie asked.
"Janice texted to me that she brought some clothes from the house," Zoot stated, holding up his cell phone.
"Oh, right! She told me that before I left. I completely forgot," Fozzie said, covering his eyes with his hand. Then, the comedian bear noticed the folder Zoot was gripping and pointed at it, "What's that?"
"Oh, it's just some documents the doctor gave me to look over, like my medical history, you know," Zoot lied.
"Ah, makes sense. Okay, let's go," Fozzie said, leading Zoot outside.
Once at the studio, Zoot went off to the band's hangout room to see it was empty, but there was a small stack of new clothes for Zoot so he wouldn't have to walk around in what he wore yesterday. He put them on and set out to find Bunsen, wanting to inform him of his "situation".
He spotted the scientist at the food table, getting some coffee, and was about to walk over to him when he heard Janice and Lips holler, "Zoot!"
Zoot turned around to be tackle-hugged by his friends, causing him to crash to the ground.
"Ow! Guys, I just got OUT of the hospital. Do you want to send me back?" Zoot joked.
"Oh, like, sorry. Got a little excited," Janice giggled.
"Yeah, sorry pal. We missed you," Lips added, grinning.
The blonde Muppets stood up and helped Zoot to his feet as Dr. Teeth, Floyd and Animal ran over to them.
"Good to see you're doing okay," Floyd said, patting the saxophonist on the shoulder.
"Do you think you're fit to perform, or do you want to take it easy for this show?" Janice asked.
"Some fans might think it cruel if Miss Piggy put me to work just the night after all that chaos happened, so I think I'll take a break for the night," Zoot said.
"So, everything's all good?" Dr. Teeth asked his boyfriend, taking his hand and looking into his eyes.
Zoot blushed and stammered, "Y-yeah, everything's cool...I just need to discuss something with Bunsen real quick."
"You're not going to sue him, are you?" Floyd asked, his jaw dropping.
"What? No, I'd never do that," Zoot stated.
Sam's voice hollered from across the room, "But you honestly should!"
Zoot turned in the direction of Sam's voice and shouted, "Sam, this doesn't concern you!"
Then, the saxophonist turned around to go up to Bunsen, but he was gone, the double-doors nearby swinging.
"Good grief, is he avoiding me?" Zoot thought, before going through the doors to find him.
He saw Bunsen quickly walking down the hall, as if trying to escape, prompting Zoot to sigh and run up behind him, saying, "Bunsen, there's something we got to talk about."
Bunsen quickly turned to face Zoot and fell on his knees, "If this is about the night before, I'm very sorry! I didn't intend for anyone to get harmed during my experiment! Please don't sue me!"
"Relax, I'm not going to sue you. I already forgave you for what happened," Zoot said to Bunsen, patting him on the shoulder.
"Oh. Dear me, how silly of me to assume so easily," Bunsen said, standing up. "In that case, what do we need to talk about?"
"Well…" Zoot started, then took a quick look around to see who was standing nearby who could possibly eavesdrop. There were quite a handful of people in the room and there were chances others could walk in on them, so Zoot said, "Actually, it might be better to talk about it on the roof."
"I see. Well, to the roof then," Bunsen said, going towards the stairs.
Once on the roof, Zoot handed the scientist the file of his medical info he got from the doctor and Bunsen skimmed the info. "Well, it says here you're very healthy. What is the issue exactly?" the melon-head Muppet asked, a tad confused as to why Zoot wanted him to look at the file.
"Look at this ultrasound picture the doctor took," Zoot said, grabbing the picture from the bottom of the documents and showing it to Bunsen, along with the page of notes stapled to it.
Bunsen examined it, and if he had eyes, they would've become as big as dinner plates. "My invention gave you a pair of ovaries?!" he gasped.
"Actually, the doctor thinks I've always had them, but they weren't fertile. Now according to him, they might be because of your machine," Zoot explained.
"Incredible! That means my invention did what it was intended to do!" Bunsen exclaimed, jumping for joy.
"You're not freaked out that I have ovaries?" Zoot asked, surprised.
"Of course not! It's actually somewhat common in the medical world. I believe the term is intersex. However, most cases become secret, because the doctors usually mutilate the genitals to hide it, mostly making intersex babies into female. I'm actually surprised that that didn't happen to you, since this did occur in the 70s at times," Bunsen explained.
"Yeah, I'm shocked too. Maybe my parents didn't want it done," Zoot shrugged. "I'm actually wondering if my siblings knew."
"Probably not, otherwise they would've told you," Bunsen assumed.
"But I'm really confused now," Zoot said.
"About what?" Bunsen asked.
Zoot took a deep breath and said, "All my life I've considered myself a guy, and to find out I have 'girl organs', like...am I still a guy or am I a woman now?"
Bunsen patted Zoot on the shoulder and said, "Zoot, I'm a man of science, but I know gender isn't all about what genitalia or reproductive organs you have; it's mostly in what your brain and heart say. If you identify yourself as male, you're male. If you identify yourself as female, you're female. If you identify yourself without a gender, you're nonbinary. Gender doesn't have to be determined by your genitals, it's determined by what you think. Do you understand?"
Zoot processed what the scientist said and answered, "Yeah, I think I get that. Thanks, Bunsen."
"No problem," Bunsen said.
Then, out of the corner of Zoot's eye, he could've sworn he saw a flash of light! He turned towards the roof entrance to see the door suddenly closing. He turned towards Bunsen and asked, "Did you see that flash?"
"Yes, I did," Bunsen confirmed. "It was similar to a camera flash."
"Camera flash...oh no," Zoot muttered, before bolting through the door and down the steps, trying to catch the hidden photographer.
When he reached the bottom, he found Zondra standing near the bottom, scrolling her phone. She looked at Zoot and asked, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be taking it easy?"
"Yeah, but I think someone took a picture of me and Bunsen talking on the roof. Did you see anyone?" Zoot asked the Gothic Muppet.
"Sorry, I didn't notice anyone. I just walked down here," Zondra admitted, shrugging.
Zoot looked around, trying to locate the escaping mystery person, but nothing was off about anyone.
"Whoever did that doesn't mean well. I can sense it," Zoot thought to himself.
Well, as if turns out, Zoot was born with ovaries that have become fertile due to Honeydew's machine.
Will he tell the band and the other Muppets about it?
Will he have them removed?
Who was the person that called that got Yolanda excited?
Who was the person that took the picture of Zoot and Bunsen talking? Find out in the next chapter!
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