As he grabbed his thing to get dressed, something didn't feel right. Daryl grabbed his vest and looked at the back, before yelling:

"For Fuck's Sake! Carol!"

She was in the living room, playing with Judith and Tabs.

"I'm not deaf, what's wrong?" She asked.

"Your offspring decided to ..."

He was just too angry for words and showed her the wings on his back. One was mangled, and there were clawing marks on the shoulder.

"Ouch," was all she said.

"Ouch?" he repeated.

"Leave it to me, I'll fix it."

"Tabs did this..."

"I know. Which only goes to show that we need to get him more stuff. On your next run, you need to look for a cat tree."

"A cat scratching post?" He asked, baffled by the way she was not responding to his outrage. "Where do I find that?"

"In a pet store of course. And you need to see if you can bring him back some dry food. He'll be off milk soon and we need food for him. Take as many bags of junior and not junior food you can carry."

He loved it when she was bossy, but there was still the problem of his vest.

"What you're saying is that I should go out, risk my neck, and get back with cat toys?"

"Oh yes, cat toys! I hadn't thought of those. Bring some back. Or toys for small dogs if you don't have a choice."

She had successfully calm down his mood, and he wondered if it was something she had learnt with Ed. He hated the idea that he could have made her feel threatened for a minute. Sure, he was unhappy with Tabs, but Carol was safe with him. Even the goddamn kitten was safe. He looked at her and she smiled, her head tilted on the side.

"I know," She said, and there was no doubt, she could read his mind.

"What about my vest?"

"Leave it, I'll fix it."

"And if you can't?"

"Well I won't then."

"It's my favorite vest!"

"It's your only vest."

"It has meaning!"

"Oh please. You just liked and picked it up. Remember how much you used to love your poncho? You got over that too."

"But my vest..." Daryl found himself saying, pitifully.

"I'll do my very best to fix it. I have some tips on how to repair leather, and I know that one of the elders, Martha, will gladly help me if she can. She had a sewing machine. We'll make your vest brand new again."

She was smiling at him, and he would have sworn she could read in the layers of his behavior. As a kid, clothes were spare, mostly hand me downs, and he rarely got to have something he liked. She joked about the poncho, but she knew he loved the vest.

With a sigh, he handed her the vest, glaring daggers at Tabs, though he didn't really mean it.

"I knew kids were a bad idea," he said under his breath.

"Yet you're the one who got us one!" Carol said laughing.

She got up, Tabs on her shoulder, and kissed him briefly.

"Be back soon, I'll find some rope in the mean time for the tyke to do his clawing."

"He's lucky he's got this hot mama, or he would be a shish kebab already," Daryl grunted.

"Liar!" She laughed, before rushing him out of the house, where Aaron was waiting.

"Is there a pet store somewhere?"

"Does your offspring need something?"

"Shut up," Daryl said.

He would get hell for sure when he would share the list of items Carol had ordered to get for their son. Little rascal the cat was. Daryl fought the urge to smile when he realized how proud it made him feel to have someone to be all "proud papa" over.

Getting that cat had been his brightest idea.