Forgotten Times 2/17
By Debbie Eng (wan-ping@juno.com)

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	I hate hospitals.  If I tell Peter, maybe he'll quit ending up here so
often.  Kermit thought as he walked to Peter's room.  He nodded to the officer
guarding the door.  After Kermit had threatened to ram his gun down the 
officer's throat the first time,the officer  no longer felt the need to ask 
for identification.

	Kermit was taking his turn at Peter's side.  He viewed Peter like a 
younger brother.  He had heard that sometimes people in comas could hear what 
was being said to them, so he had been sitting there reading the sports page 
aloud so that Peter could keep up.  As he was reading, he thought about the 
three men who had put Peter here.  Apparently Peter had followed a lead and 
discovered that a group of steelworkers were the ones who had been stealing 
cars and stripping them down for parts.  Peter had called in for back up, but 
had not waited for them before confronting the men.  Peter had wounded one of 
them in the shoulder with his gun, and had managed to knock the other one 
unconscious, when the third one had pulled down the lever that had sent a 
platform of steel pipes crashing down on Peter.  Kermit had arrived just in 
time to shoot the man, but he hadn't been on time to stop the man from pressing
the lever.  Kermit had had to watch in horror as the pipes buried Peter beneath
their massive forms.

	By the time the rest of the back up team had arrived and called an 
ambulance, Kermit had already been shifting the steel pipes so that he could 
get to Peter.  Later, upon reflection, he had been amazed that he could have 
even shifted one of those pipes, much less lift one.   Each one must have 
weighed over a hundred pounds.   He had heard that in a crisis situation, 
sometimes people got an unnatural burst of strength.  That must have been 
what happened. On the internet, he had once read the story of a mother 
managing to lift a tree that had fallen on her small son on their way to 
shelter in a storm.   Kermit had thought of it as pure fiction.  But now...
after experiencing the rush himself, he changed his mind.

	When they had arrived at the hospital, he had called Paul and the rest
of the family.  He would have called Caine, but he hadn't known where to find 
him.  He had been trying to find Caine before this had even happened.  He hated
to see Peter hurt and if it weren't for the fact that it would have hurt Peter
more, he would have killed Caine for what he always did.

	Damn it, Peter, he thought, wake up!  You're scaring the hell out of 
the rest of the family.  Kermit had been part of the Blaisdell family long 
before Peter had.  In fact he could remember the first time he had seen him.  
Peter had been visiting with the Blaisdell's.  He had been quiet and shy.
He had also been afraid.  Afraid to screw up and have this family turn against
him too.

	  Little had Peter known that this family was not about to let him go 
no matter what he did, Kermit thought with a grin.  Kermit knew the feeling.  
When he first met Peter, it had been like meeting a kindred soul.  One who had
seen a lot of violence and had been through more then most. 

	 Kermit had been upgrading Paul's computer when his mercenary 
instincts had told him that he was being watched.  " Whoever it is, come on 
out, " he had called.  Peter had reluctantly come out from his hiding place.
The sling on his arm and the stiff way he moved because of his broken ribs 
tore at Kermit's heart.  No one should do that to a kid, Kermit had thought.

	" Who are you? " Peter had asked.  Paul had just picked him up from 
the orphanage to spend the day.

	" Come here, " Kermit had gone towards Peter.  Peter had flinched 
back.  

	" Look, I'm not going hurt you, " Kermit had said, " My name is 
Kermit, I'm a friend of the family's. "

	Peter had looked warily at him, " Kermit ? "

	" Yeah, you know like the frog on TV, " Kermit had answered, " On the 
Muppets, the one always being chased by Miss Piggy? "

	" We didn't have a TV at the temple, " Peter had said.  Shadows had 
crossed his face.  Then he looked up, " Is Kermit your real name? "

	Kermit looked startled.  Not many people thought to ask that question.
They just assumed that it was, " No, its not.  My sister gave me that nickname
when we were younger.  She said I swam like a frog. " He had grimaced, " Then 
once I got into The Trade, I needed a codename, and it just sort of stuck.
I added the green shades for a personal touch. "  He never told anybody that. 
Even the Blaisdells had assumed that was his name.

	" The Trade? " Peter asked.  Then he thought about the rest of what 
Kermit had said, " You're named after a frog, " Peter had smiled and even 
laughed a little. Kermit had winced.  However inside he was happy because from
what Paul had told him, this was probably the first time Peter had smiled
in quite a while. Paul had told Kermit a little about what had happened to 
Peter.  He knew that Peter needed something to focus on so he decided to teach
Peter about computers to give him something to do.  After all, school wouldn't
be starting for another month anyway.  He fixed Peter up with an old laptop 
and email account.  Whenever he saw Peter he would teach him something new or 
answer the questions that Peter came up with on his own.

	Peter had been a quick study but Kermit knew that Peter would rather 
be a cop then a hacker.  The thing that worried him the most was that Peter 
didn't seem to care what happened to himself.  Even by the time Peter had been
in the police academy.  Kermit would discreetly check on him from a
distance or access Peter's files from the school computer.  He was appalled to
note that Peter would defend others with no thought for his own safety.  If 
Peter was not going to care, then he was going to have to watch over him.  
He knew that Peter wanted to work at the 101st with Paul when he graduated 
so he had to get things moving now, otherwise Peter would be suspicious later 
on.  He had gone up to Paul and asked for a job.  If Paul had been surprised, 
he didn't say anything.

	Kermit smiled with remembrance at another memory and earlier one. It 
had taken him months, but Kermit finally convinced Peter to call him Kermit
instead of Frog Man.  Frog Man was simply not acceptable.

	Kermit paused in his reading of the hockey scores when he thought that
he had heard something.  He folded the newspaper and took off his green 
sunglasses.  Then he leaned towards Peter.  He heard the sound again.  It 
was Peter's hand moving restlessly on the white hospital sheets.  Kermit
pushed the call button for the nurse as Peter's eyes slowly fluttered open.

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