AN: I received an Anon Ask and because I got it before I left work, I ended up spending the rest of my shift and the bus ride home thinking waaay too much about my response and it turned into this.

Anonymous said to themadkatter13fanfiction: In Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, how often does Peter have to re-sew Wade's tummy up?

Warning: temporary character death - OC child.

Wade's stitches were ripping again. Peter had lost count of how many times it had happened, how many times he'd stitched his alpha back up, how many times he'd taped him and glued him, but there was only so much one could do with rotting skin. Honestly, out of all the weird, gross things in their relationship, this might have been the worse.

"C'mere you," he grunted as he carefully sat on the bed. Either he'd forgotten what the last bed he'd stayed in has been like, or this bed was just the best bed on the planet, because Peter wanted to leave it less and less as he neared the end of his pregnancy. The only reason he kept getting up was the two kids he'd already had relied on him and him alone to keep them fed and watered and clothed and clean. The only fatherly thing Wade had ever done for them was create them, protect them, and neglect to eat them, and for a zombie, that was about all Peter could ask from him.

The walking corpse he called a mate was still standing at the foot of the bed, which was where he'd stopped when he'd followed Peter into their bedroom. For all of Peter's attempts to teach his zombie even the most basic commands since they 'got together' three years ago, not a single one stuck. No matter how many times repeated the same words, repeated the same actions, he never once got a response. Not the tilting of a head or the shifting of eyes. The only thing that seemed to work were the most primal of sounds.

Peter sucked in a deep sigh, held it in his chest, and then released it. Then he whined, a pitiful sound, high in his throat. He hated making that sound, mostly because it reminded him of all weak omega stereotypes that used to flood the pre-apocalypse media, but the response was immediate. Wade growled, low in his throat, and finally came around the side of the bed, stopping in front of Peter. He didn't reach out and try to touch like a normal alpha would, he made no move to comfort his omega, just stood between Peter's legs - which he'd technically only spread to make room for the girth of his stomach, not his mate. Wade didn't stop growling, which never failed to look strange since there was none of the facial expressions a living alpha would exhibit, until Peter purred, a contented noise that immediately made Wade go silent like Peter was deactivating an alarm. Though he'd been appeased, Wade stayed right where he was, a habit that was either annoying or helpful depending on Peter's mood. Peter sighed again and got to work.

Even with all the practice he'd gotten over the last few years in this particular task, it was still slow going, every stitch carefully spaced so as not to tempt tearing from the other nearby holes, leftover from past patch-ups. He'd only gotten a couple of stitches in, had only been at it for a minute, when a loud shriek echoed down the hall, accompanied by the thumping of little feet and an odd dragging sound.

"DAAADDYYY!"

"Bedroom!" he hollered back, keeping his focus on his stitching.

At first, every little sound his firstborn, Elya, made scared the shit of Peter because what the fuck did he know about raising a kid? There was no internet to tell him what he was doing right or wrong, and eventually he just had to keep telling himself that people got on fine before electricity, and he would too. Still, that hadn't really settled him. But watching his firstborn sprinting away from him, trip, and impale herself right before Peter's horrified eyes, only to get up, look down at the healing hole in her chest, and then begin to cry? Well, that had done the trick and gone a long way to assure Peter that he couldn't really mess up the new life he'd brought into their terrifying world.

He'd been just as fearful for Nessie when she'd joined their growing family, unwilling to bet that she was just as hearty as her sister, even if they had the same zombie immunity. And then Elya had accidentally dropped Nessie, and while Peter was still sobbing uncontrollably over his newborn's broken neck, Nessie had woken back up and screamed bloody murder. Because, apparently, half-zombie babies weren't zombies, but they did have crazy amazing healing powers. And were apparently immortal. Not that Peter plans on testing that with every child because he will never get back the years he lost upon witnessing the deaths of both children.

It was only his security in that knowledge that prevented a freakout when Elya ran into the room, dragging Nessie's limp body along the floor by her arm like a rag doll. "Elya, don't pull your sister like that," Peter sighed, even as he made the 'come here' gesture with a jerk of his head. As was to be expected, Elya dragged her sister along the thankfully-polished, splinter-free floor and left her at Peter's feet in order to climb onto the bed.

Peter sighed again, carefully transferred needle and thread to his other hand, then leaned down to grab the back of Nessie's shirt and bring her up onto the bed too. It was only when he lifted her that he saw her eyes were open, and it was only when she saw his face that she let out a gurgling laugh and clapped her hands. He couldn't help but smile and laugh back at her before putting her at his back so he could return to his task.

"Time to play the Other Daddy game!" he whispered excitedly. Elya knew what that meant and she immediately sat up, stiff as a board with wide eyes and pursed lips. Nessie was still learning, but she was doing far better than her father in that respect and Peter placed his finger to his lips. "Shhh," he breathed, and Nessie went still. "Good girls," Peter said softly, smiling.

He watched them both for a moment, making sure they were dedicated to the game, before he returned to his task. As gross as it was, it was something of a peaceful time, his whole little, weird family quiet and undemanding and just there. He fell into the rhythm of the stitches and slowly the gash he'd made in his alpha's stomach closed. He almost felt bad that he'd done it, if only because he was the one who had to keep cleaning up after it. He didn't actually feel bad about the doing of it.

By the time he was done, he felt good and relaxed, which he knew wouldn't last much longer. Not when number three was about to come out, and he'd have to rearing that one. And it would only be three months before he was pregnant again. It wasn't what he'd wanted for himself, back before the world fell apart, but he couldn't deny that he loved his kids. He did. He didn't love his alpha, couldn't really, not when there wasn't a personality there to fall in love with, but he might have had a fondness for the alpha who'd kept him company and kept him and his children - their children - safe.

It wasn't likely that they'd move on after this kid, this was probably going to be their house until Peter died and whatever child wanted the house could keep it. It was that knowledge that lead Peter to holing up in this house in the first place, a house that showed no signs of raiding, that still had all its furniture and a good amount of clothes. Some of them had even been big enough to fit Wade, but the first day Peter had gotten his mate into them, Wade had some sort of fit when he tried to mount Peter that night and found sweatpants in his way; Peter had given up after that. But the real selling point of the house was the massive garden out back, overflowing with fruits and vegetables that had grown wild without the gardeners hand to tend them back. It had done so well that they hadn't gone hungry when Peter got too pregnant to go out hunting, and it would continue to serve them well in the years to come.

"Annnd… done!" he declared when he realized he'd been sitting there, staring at the stitches for probably too long.

"Who won who won?!" Elya chanted, jumping up and down on the bed. Peter stored the remaining needle and thread in the side table, and then turned a considering eye to his daughters.

"Hmmm, I think…" he drawled slowly. "I think you both won! You're both so good at the Other Daddy game!" he cheered, twisting around, just a little awkwardly with his belly, and ducked down to blow a raspberry against Nessie's belly. "Now, who's hungry?"

"Me me me me me!" Elya chanted, pouncing from the bed and bounding out of the room with all the enthusiasm of a Tigger. Peter laughed and pulled his less-active child against his side before levering himself up from the bed.

"Let's go make sure your sister isn't hogging all the strawberries," he whispered conspiratorially to Nessie. She didn't quite understand him yet, but she giggled when he tapped her nose. "And you, big boy," Peter said, turning his attention to his mate. "Let's go make sure our kids are good and fed."

Wade definitely didn't understand him, probably even less than Nessie did, but that unexpected fondness welled in Peter's chest again. He carefully balanced against Wade's shoulder to lean up and press a kiss to a spot of whole skin on the alpha' cheek, and then patted it, grimacing when his fingers touched an exposed cheekbone.

"Maybe we'll clean up first," he said to both of them, and waddled out of the room, his zombie mate trailing after him.

Hopefully it would be some time before Wade aggravated his stitches to the point of tearing again. Peter wouldn't have time to do it for at least a year, and by then, he'd have another child on the way. Maybe he should try scavenging the local high school for something he could use to invent a way to keep the wound from splitting open again. But that, too, would have to wait.

Even if it was only because Elya was screaming "STRAWBERRIES!" at the top of her lungs from the garden.

FIN

I say FIN but this will probably get another chapter when I have the time. I didn't actually have the time for this one, but… shit happened. Shit always happens. lol

Reblog the thing (themadkatter13fanfiction tumblr, tagged/Surviving-the-Zombie-Apocalypse).