The show went on without much consequence, though some audience members were a little confused when Zoot was missing from the band at the start, but Miss Piggy explained that he had to take a night off after the events of the night before. Zoot was very glad she did that, otherwise some people could've stressed about his well-being throughout the entire show.
After everything was done, the band began packing up their instruments to leave, when Zoot got a call on his cell phone. He picked up his phone and checked to see who it was. It was his sister, Zoeysha.
"That's not Zachariah, is it?" Floyd asked, gripping his guitar case. "Dude called the office a lot the night before. He sounded really upset about what happened to you."
"I'm aware of that, and not, it's not Zach. It's Zoey," Zoot stated, answering the phone.
"Zoot! You're alive!" he heard his sister's voice exclaim.
"Yeah, of course I am. Did you really think I'd die?" Zoot asked his sibling.
"Well, yeah, there's no telling what that beam could've done to your body. It could've given you a weird mutation or something. So are you perfectly fine?" Zoey asked.
"Yeah, I'm alright, except that…" Zoot started until going silent, remembering he was in the same room as his bandmates, who could easily hear what he'll say to Zoey.
"Except what? Zoot?" he heard his sister ask in a concerned voice.
Zoot muttered into the phone, "Wait a second." Then, he quickly left the room and went around the building until he found a hallway that was completely empty. Then he spoke to her again, "Sorry, I had to isolate myself from the others for a second."
"Why? What's wrong?" Zoey asked.
"Well, nothing is really wrong with me, it's just…" Zoot started, trying to think of a way to explain his bizarre situation to his sister. After a few moments of silence, he sighed, "Okay, I'll just cut to the chase; Zoey, when I was born, was I born...intersex?"
His sister didn't say anything, but he could've sworn he heard a small gasp. "Dear god...you found out. Wait, Bunsen said his machine was used to allow infertile women to become fertile, and you never showed any sign of fertility throughout your life, so...did the machine actually do what it was supposed to?"
Zoot sighed and said, "Yeah, it did, and I'm a little ticked about it because NOBODY in my family informed me of this."
"Oh Zoot, I'm so sorry we hid this from you. Zachariah did in fact want to tell you, so you could get your ovaries removed, you know, but he thought you wouldn't believe him," Zoey explained.
"Well, I can still get them removed, but the thing is...I don't know if I want to," Zoot admitted.
"Really? Why?" Zoey asked.
"I don't know...maybe Dr. Teeth might want to have kids with me one day and this could make it easier," Zoot suggested.
"How do you know he won't get freaked out by this? A lot of people can be pretty judging, Zoot. I mean, you know Sam the Eagle, right? He's one of those people, I can tell," Zoey warned.
"Oh come on, Zoey. Doc isn't like that. He's pretty open-minded," Zoot said, shaking his head.
"Are you sure of that?" Zoey asked.
Zoot froze, thinking about Dr. Teeth. Was he the type to get freaked out about something like a guy having ovaries? Surely he wasn't...then again, as far as Zoot knew, Doc never met someone like that, until now when Zoot might make his "big reveal".
Zoey spoke again, "I'm sorry, you're right. Maybe he won't freak out. But what about all the other Muppets? Won't they flip?"
"I already told Bunsen, and he's cool with it. Says that it's a pretty normal thing to happen to someone," Zoot stated.
"Yeah, but that's just Bunsen. He's probably heard cases like that often since he's a scientist, but what about the others?" Zoey pointed out.
Zoot went silent again, trying to think of possible outcomes of telling his friends of his surprise condition. Would they see him as a freak? Would they not want to hang out with him anymore? Would he get FIRED?! The thought of losing his job and friends made his knees shake and sweat pour down his face. Finally, he uttered out, "I know I might come off a bit as a freak, but I'm sure some of them will be cool with it. We've had freakier Muppets here."
Zoeysha just sighed, "Okay, I'm just worried you're going to get yourself emotionally hurt or something. Listen, if find yourself in a difficult situation because of this, just call me and I'll do what I can."
"Alright...does Zachariah still think I should sue Bunsen, because, as you know, I'm completely fine, and it was an accident," Zoot asked.
"He finally dropped the subject after hearing news that you're perfectly healthy, but he's still a little ticked at Honeydew for it even happening. Brace yourself if he realizes that Bunsen's machine made you fertile. He might be the #1 person to pressure you to get your ovaries removed right away so you don't get pregnant or something," Zoey stated.
"I'll keep that in mind," Zoot said, rolling his eyes at the idea of his brother losing his mind over this. "I'll talk to you later."
"Okay, see ya!" Zoey said, before hanging up.
Zoot hung up his cell phone and put it in his pocket, when Janice ran down the hall up to him.
"Zoot, we're all ready to go. Why'd you run off like that?" Janice asked her friend.
"Sorry, I needed to discuss something with my sister in private," Zoot explained, going down the hall to retrieve his belongings to go home.
Days went by as normal, the Muppets helping each other put together Up Late with Miss Piggy, going to Rowlf's Tavern for the afterparty and then heading home. All normal. However, one day, Zoot felt like it was going to go differently for once, but he couldn't figure out why.
At the office, Zoot was cleaning his saxophone in the band's hangout area, all alone. Then, there was a loud commotion coming from down the hall, prompting Zoot to abandon his work to see what it was all about.
He walked down the hall to see Yolanda standing guard in front of the room where the guest star would stay and wait to perform, with Pepe and Rizzo pleading to her about something.
"Come on! Can you at least give us more hints on who the guest is?" Rizzo asked.
"Yeah, saying that 'he's someone from our past' isn't very helpful, okay," Pepe added.
"Nuh-uh, you can't see him yet. It's a surprise. You'll just have to wait until the show to see him," Yolanda told her friends.
"But that's an hour away!" Pepe complained. "Just tell us, okay!"
"No!" Yolanda rejected as Sweetums walked up to her. She turned towards the huge monster and asked, "Sweetums, can you guard the guest's room? I need to get some work done and I don't want Pepe and Rizzo to go in there."
"Sure thing, Yolanda!" Sweetums obliged, taking the blonde rat's spot.
As Yolanda walked by Zoot, the saxophonist asked her, "Can you tell me who the guest is?"
Yolanda turned towards the blue Muppet, put her hands on her hips and shouted, "No! You'll just tell Pepe and Rizzo and then they'll really want to get into the guest star's room!"
Zoot just did a soft laugh and went back to the band room to the sound of Rizzo and Pepe trying to convince Sweetums to let them into the guest star's room.
Later that night, during the show, there was no sign of the guest star. Yet, at least. Finally, in the last part of the show, Piggy looked at the audience and announced, "Now, our guest tonight is someone who many of you might not be familiar with, unless you watched the show he hosted in the 90s for two seasons. He is an old friend of moi's and a dear friend of many Muppets who are here. I could just let you all sit there and guess who it is, but that would ruin this moment, so everyone, had an astounding round of applause for...Clifford, the former host of Muppets Tonight!"
As soon as Miss Piggy said his name, Rizzo and Pepe's jaws, along with many other Muppets', dropped as the familiar purple Rastafarian Muppet made his way onto the stage, looking towards the cheering audience, smiling proudly.
Zoot noticed Lips was in extreme awe as well, his eyes wide open for once as soon as he saw the Muppet. He kept forgetting that Lips had never personally met Clifford. Usually, Clifford dropped by when Lips was unable to perform with the band, so he only heard of him.
Clifford grinned as he took a seat in the guest sofa and said, "Thanks Piggy, it's great to be here. Especially since a lot of my old friends are on the show here as well. Though I am a little surprised I haven't been barraged with hugs by now."
As soon as he said that, many of the Muppets snapped out of shock and ran up to the Muppet to greet him.
"Man Clifford! How long has it been since we've seen each other last?" Rizzo asked.
"I think the last Muppet thing I was involved with was The Muppets Wizard of Oz," Clifford stated. "Which was back in 2005?"
"11 years! That long, okay! Wow, we need to start hanging out again, okay," Pepe said.
"We could've hung out in those 11 years, but none of you called," Clifford stated.
"We tried, but we couldn't reach you for some reason. I think when you left, you headed somewhere out of our cell phone's range, so we gave up after a week of trying to call you," Rizzo explained.
"Remember, cell phones were kind of terrible back then, okay," Pepe reminded his old friend. "Many kids don't even know how to text with those old flip phones anymore."
"So, what are you doing with your life now?" Miss Piggy asked Clifford, before anything went too off topic. "Surely, you must've been busy during those last 11 years since you left the Muppets."
"Well, for one thing, I decided to go back to my roots as a bassist, and I've been working as a male model," Clifford answered.
"Male model? Wow, that's really cool, okay. Do you ever become associated with the female models?" Pepe asked.
"Sometimes, depending on the sort of shoot we're doing," Clifford explained.
"Oh. Do you know if any of the female models were single?" Pepe asked, sparking some laughter from the audience.
"Well, I'm pretty sure some of them were, but they were in and out of the studio too fast for me to ask," Clifford admitted.
"Oh great. I was hoping you could hook me up with one of them, okay," Pepe said.
Piggy got Clifford's attention back by asking another question, "Speaking of dating; Clifford, before you left the Muppets, you were always on the phone with someone. Your girlfriend I believe?"
"Oh, you're talking about Chantel. Yeah, we dated for quite a while, but one day, she decided to call it quits," Clifford stated. "I didn't know why...until a few weeks later I found out one of my fellow male models is dating her now."
"Oh no!" Rizzo shouted.
"Unbelievable, okay!" Pepe exclaimed.
"Oh, you poor thing!" Miss Piggy gasped.
"Man, that's a real bummer, Clifford," Dr. Teeth agreed.
"If it helps, I can, like, introduce you to some of the girls in my aerial silks class. I'm sure at least one of them will be interested in dating you," Janice suggested.
Lips looked at Janice and said, "Now, now, Jan. Clifford might need some time to think before getting into the dating game again."
Zoot whispered into the trumpeter's ear, "Yeah, that'll give you plenty of time to figure out what Clifford's preference is." Lips shot the saxophonist a look and then focused his vision on Clifford again.
"That's nice, Janice, but like your trumpeter friend said, I need a little space right now...say, who is that guy anyway?" Clifford asked, looking over at Lips, who blushed a little.
"Oh, that's Lips. He plays trumpet in our band," Dr. Teeth answered. "He's usually missing whenever you decided to stop by and hang with us."
"Oh, so you're Lips. I've heard a lot about you," Clifford said.
"Well, the band has told me a lot about you, too," Lips stated. "They told me that you're good at playing instruments other than the bass, like bongos and maracas."
"Yeah, I can't deny that, but I'll be honest; I have been thinking about taking up the trumpet," Clifford admitted.
"Really?" Lips could feel his face turning a little pink. "W-well, if you want, I could...teach you sometime," he stammered.
"I'll keep that offer in mind," Clifford said, grinning at the trumpeter, who looked away a bit to hide his blushing.
"So Clifford, what brought to my show? You asking to star was a bit unexpected on my part, but something tells me vous planned it," Miss Piggy pointed out.
Clifford took a deep breath and stated, "Well, I'll be honest with you, Piggy. Despite how well I'm doing in the modeling industry, I kind of miss working with the Muppets. So I came here to ask if I could work on the show in any way, so I could be around my old friends again."
Rizzo gasped and quickly said, "Hey, we have quite a couple openings! If you're any good at writing, you could work me me, Pepe, and Gonzo. But if you'd prefer to pursue music more, you can work with the band. I'm sure they'd love to have you around."
"Sí, sí, you can work with us definitely, okay," Pepe said.
"Now hold on, our executive producer, Kermit, has the final say," Piggy reminded the rat and prawn. "Kermit, what do you think? Should we let Clifford back into the Muppet family?"
A camera panned on Kermit, who was silent for a few seconds, tapping on his chin, before saying, "Well, despite being gone for quite a while, Clifford, you haven't really LEFT the Muppet family. So, I'm going to have to say...you're welcome back to work with us again!"
The audience and Muppets cheered loudly, making it feel like the room was shaking for a bit. After the show was officially over, Kermit went up to Clifford and patted him on the shoulder, "Welcome back, Clifford."
"It's great to be back, Kermit," Clifford stated, still smiling.
So Clifford has made a return to the Muppets! At long last! (At least in my fiction universe)
And Zoot reveals his situation to his sister, Zoeysha, who gives him a warning regarding how his friends will react to his condition.
How will Zoot's friends react once he reveals his bizarre situation? Will they be as cool with it as Zoot hopes? Or disgusted by it like Zoey warned?
Will Zachariah find out? Will he really pressure Zoot to get his ovaries removed?
What will happen behind the scenes of Up Late with Piggy now since Clifford is in the mix? Why was Lips behaving so oddly when he saw him?
What will happen next for the Muppets in this story? Find out in the next chapter!
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