Only the Beginning 
by Cindi Dean

a sequel to First Meetings

It had been eight days since Kim joined the precinct. She was getting herself some coffee when she turned around and saw Kermit in his office. She knew she hadn't see this man in a black suit and wearing green sunglasses before. He had recently come back from a mercenary mission. She picked up her coffee and went to his office. She knocked o his open door with her free hand.

"Hi, am I disturbing you?"

"No, come on in." Kermit didn't look at her. He continued typing away on his keyboard. His fingers flew across the keys.

"I'm Kim Lawton. I started working here eight days ago. I don't believe I've see you before." She was curious about this mysterious man, so she didn't let it bother her that he wasn't paying a lot of attention to her.

Kermit finally stopped typing and looked at her. She smiled at him. He stared at her.

"I'm Kermit Griffin, I was away until early this morning. Nice to meet you, Kim. You have green eyes." Kermit was intrigued. He hadn't seen anyone with emerald green eyes before. Kim knew he was different, she could feel and see it.

"Yes, I have emerald green eyes. Why?"

"Green is my favorite color. I've never seen anyone with your color eyes before."

"Really? Is that why your sunglasses are green? Do you always wear them?" Don't you ever take them off?"

Kermit laughed. He didn't think of anyone asking him that first question before. He did hear the other two questions before. Kim got a puzzled look on her face when he laughed. She didn't think her questions were funny.

"No one has asked me if the reason I wear my glasses is because green is my favorite color. I wear them all the time and only take them off when I got to bed."

"Oh, why wear them all the time?" She asked again out of curiosity.

"They protect me from people who grate on my corneas," Kermit simply answered.

Kim raised one of her eyebrows. "Don't they also protect and keep people from seeing your eyes, knowing your emotions, therefore keeping a mystery about you?" Kim asked with a smile. Kermit was shocked, how could she know that? He pushed his glasses halfway down is nose and stared at her over the top of them. He didn't respond to her question.

"I hope you don't count me as one of those people who grate on your corneas." Kim didn't think she did. She hoped he felt that way too.

"No, you don't I like the way you look." Kim looked at him as if he was crazy then briefly laughed. She got the pun. He was strange, but a good strange. She didn't care.

"Oook. I'm going to leave now. Nice meeting you,Kermit,"Kim told him on her way out of his office. Kermit pushed his glasses back up with the middle finger of his left hand. He turned back to his computer and continued his rapid typing. He paused, looked at his open office door where Kim was standing and smiled.

"Oh yeah," He exclaimed. This woman he liked a lot. Not only was she tall, beautiful and quite busty,but she seemed to be smart and perceptive as well.

A few hours later, a woman resembling Kim walked into the precinct. She wore her hair differently, had single pierced ears and wore different clothes than Kim. She wore her hair completely loose, a short-sleeved tee shirt, a denim vest, matching miniskirt, red ankle strap pumps and a denim jacket. Her earrings were silver hoops. The woman stopped in front of the front desk. Broderick looked up at her. She smiled.

"You went home and changed," He told her in shock.

The woman laughed. "Not exactly," She told him. She went into the squad room, found Kim's desk and sat behind it.

She looked in all the drawers, curious to see what was in them. Blake noticed what she was doing and walked over to Kim's desk.

"Did you loose something?" He asked. She slammed the drawer she was looking in and looked up at him.

"What?"

"Can I help you find something?" He offered.

"Oh no, thanks. I'm fine," She nervously said. Blake smiled at her then went back to his desk.

The woman picked up the top three files from a small stack on the right side of the desk and started to read through them. Strenlich walked over to her.

"Is there a problem, Detective?" He said in his usual authoritative tone. Hearing his voice made her jump, she was so distracted by reading the files that she didn't see him come over. She looked up at him. He seemed to be annoyed at her.

"Ah, no. Everything's fine. I was just reacquainting myself with these cases,"She told him.

"When you''re done acquainting yourself, I need you to do start doing some paper work." He barked at her.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that away," She assured him.

"See that you do." He told her, then walked away. The sighed a big sigh of relief when he left. Kim came back in, Broderick noticed her. He was very confused. Kim headed straight for her desk. "How did she do that?" Broderick asked himself. Kermit came out of his office, he saw Kim and the woman then went over to Broderick. He and Broderick stared at Kim and the woman.

"Who's that?" Kermit asked Broderick.

"I have no idea," Broderick answered. They continued to stare at the two women.

"Hello Claire. Get out of my chair." Kim told the woman, she was annoyed. The woman looked up at her from the files.

"Oh hi, Kim," She said with a smile.

"Get... Out... of .. my.. Chair," Kim repeated, pronouncing each word. Claire did what she was told. Kim sat in her chair, closed the files and put them back on the small stack. Claire sat down on a corner of Kim's desk. She looked around the room at everyone.

"You didn't tell them about me," Claire announced in an annoyed tone of her own.

"If I hadn't come back, I'm sure you would have told them the truth."

"Who is she Kim?" Peter asked the question that was on everyone's mind from behind his desk.

"She's my twin sister, Claire."

"Obviously we're identical," Claire added.

"There's more surprises to discover Pete," Kim teased Peter.

"Oh good. I look forward to them," He answered sarcastically. Kim and Claire laughed.

Kim introduced Claire to Peter, Blake, Mary Margaret and the other detectives in the squad room. She knocked on Blaisdell's open office door.

"Excuse me, sir. I'd like you to meet my twin sister, Claire."

"Is she the cause of the commotion out there?"

"Ah, yeah, she tried to pretend to be me. Claire this is Captain Blaisdell. Captain, this is Claire."

"Nice to meet you Claire," Blaisdell said in a friendly tone. Claire shook his out stretched hand.

"A pleasure Captain. You have a good looking squad," Claire said with a smile.

" Well, we'd better let you get back to work. I'll walk you out Claire," Kim told her.

"Ok, right behind you," Claire told her. She followed Kim out of the squad room.

They stopped at Broderick and Kermit. Kim introduced her to them. Claire stared hungrily at Kermit.

"Hi,"She said to him in a seductive voice. Kim shook her head in disbelief.

"I'm sorry Kermit. Claire that's enough. You should go now and let us go back to work,"Kim said to her in a strong tone.

"OK, nice meeting you all. Bye Kermit." Claire left. Kim breathed a deep sigh of relief when she left. Kim went back to her desk. Kermit went back to his office and Broderick went back to his paper work. Blake walked over to Kim.

"So that was your sister."

"Uh yeah. She gets to be a handful sometimes. She doesn't act like this all the time, she behaves at work as a nurse, although she does flirt with cute male doctors and patients sometimes. " Kim informed him. Blake smiled and went back to his desk.

A few days later, Kermit and Kim did an all night stake out together. Kim told him about her life,he politely listened to her, hanging on her every word. Kim fell asleep at one point. Kermit came out with the nickname, Angel for her. He told her it was because that's what she looked like when while she was sleeping and it was appropriate to describe her personality most of the time. Kim came up with the nickname Ace for him.

Blake got suspicious when they started with the the nicknames for each other. He got even more suspicious when Kim started a new routine at the precinct when Kermit was there. She would get some coffee, go into Kermit's office and shut the door. She'd stay in there for five to ten minutes before coming out and starting her work. He tried to listen at the door, but Kim had caught him. She'd open the door very fast and he'd almost fall into Kermit's office. Kermit kept his window shades down and closed around his office.

Blake eventually gave up trying to listen at the door, but his suspicions didn't go away.

"Are you two having an affair in there?" He asked her one time.

"Yeah, we tried to keep the moaning down, but I guess you heard us, Blake, " Kim answered him sarcastically and in a teasing tone. Blake walked away shaking his head. Kim laughed.

Kim would put her arms around Kermit's neck, kiss his check, sit down next to him and they'd talk for a while. Kermit wanted privacy, he didn't think they should know his business. Kim respected that and kept it a secret. She only wrote it and what else happened in her diary entries. She would also draw sketches in a sketch diary to go along with her nightly entries.

Kermit was a mystery. She heard rumors around the precinct about Kermit and Blaisdell being mercenaries. Kim wondered if that was true. She would have to ask Kermit sometime when the time was right. Blaisdell seemed to have a perception of a Shaolin priest. Both of them were guarded about their personal lives. Kermit seemed more so.

Two months later, Peter's father would come back. A new detective would join the precinct and Kim would meet someone else who would change her life. Life at the 101st was getting more interesting.

This is what Kermit looked like
after his conversation with Kim