He was oddly quiet. Especially given that he had always seemed to have so much to say to her before, while the both of them had still been stuck out on the streets. If it wasn't a charming remark, then it was a piece of advice. And if it wasn't either of those then it was a quick joke. If by some sheer miracle it wasn't one out of that trio, then he would at least pass the time by humming, or singing tunes that were unfamiliar to her ears.

Now all he did was...sleep. Occasionally he ate, but that seemed to only be by obligation. Otherwise he seemed to prefer to be all on his own, in a quite corner, with his eyes firmly shut.

To Lady it hadn't done much to interrupt her own routine and duties, but to see someone so previously charismatic and talkative, entirely quiet and deflated struck her as being incredibly unusual. And with her endless pondering, came plenty of theories and assumptions. As they began to haunt and corner her, she finally decided to simply ask him if something was wrong.

"Tramp...Tramp, wake up."

He yawned, taking his time to stand up and face her and even then he held onto his tired expression, "Yeah Pidge'?"

Lady suddenly regretted not thinking of what she would say to him in advance, but stumbled through a question in any case, "Are you alright? You seem to be sleeping a great deal as of late."

"I've just been dog-tired lately Pidge'. I don't mind though, all the shut eye gives me a chance to think."

"Think? About what?"

Tramp chuckled tiredly, "Plenty. I got you to think about and those two owners of yours'. Then there's that treacherous little demon they've got holed in upstairs."

"Must you really be so rude?" Lady asked, an upset look crossing her face. "I thought you had learned to live with Junior after you rescued him from that rat."

"I saved him for your sake, not his. And I'm living here for your sake, not theirs."

Lady's lip curled up, she'd always known him to be ever so slightly stubborn, but to see him still holding on so tightly to cynicism even now, with two loving owners, a warm home and food aplenty, simply left her baffled.

Tramp looked at her, appearing annoyed, "If you don't mind me Pidge', I think I'll be getting back to sleep now."

Their whole conversation had been so abrupt and unfinished. Lady fought the temptation to wake him up again, instead shaking her head and walking off, seeking to carry out her routine as she usually would, without any interruption.

There were two things every dog knew in life and one of those two was that the sound of a whistle, or a hum, or the faint sound of footsteps, meant that their master was returning home after a busy day.

To Lady, that sound was a whistle, one which carried a sweet tune straight to her ears. And once she heard that whistle, she knew it. Knew that Jim Dear was returning home.

She ran from her spot besides Darling's feet, almost tumbling over a misplaced ball of wool. Rushing down the stairs, the sound only grew stronger to her ears, driving her to run even faster.

Her eyes caught a brief glance of Tramp, laying down in his usual corner and doing exactly what it was that he usually did...sleep.

Lady didn't spare him too much attention though, the exciting promise of her owner's return taking all the space in her head.

She made the rest of the journey in relative ease, quickly leaving through the kitchen door and slipping out into the backyard. Once she was outside, she ran straight towards the front gate, barely catching Jim Dear as he was entering.

"There you are girl!" Jim Dear exclaimed happily as soon as Lady came running up to him.

After quickly challenging and beating her owner in a race, Lady performed a small trick, earning a small treat and a pat on the head. Her time with Jim Dear didn't last long though, as the man quickly entered the home and much to Lady's surprise, didn't immediately go to greet Darling. Instead he walked into the living room where Tramp still laid asleep.

Bending over the gray mutt, he gently petted the top of his head, waking him gradually and slowly. Tramp didn't pull away as he usually did, only yawning and eyeing the man with a mistrustful look.

Petting him over the head one last time, Jim Dear stood up and opened his briefcase, pulling out the biggest bone that Lady had ever seen. Her eyes grew wide as he set it in front of The Tramp and then began to walk off to see to his wife.

Tramp sniffed the bone, ultimately giving it a disdainful look and turning to go back to sleep.

Lady meanwhile sat back, the jealousy all too obvious on her face. She couldn't quite understand what had just happened.

Her cheery, optimistic greeting had been met with nothing, but the slightest amount of affection. While Tramp's tired, cynical awakening had been awarded with special attention and a treat ten times bigger than her own.

This hadn't been the first time that such an incident had occurred.

On their first walk, down to the park, Lady had accidentally stepped in a little bit of mud and earned a stern scolding from Darling. However, when Tramp had disappeared from all of their sights, causing a ceaseless worry amongst the three of them and keeping them out searching until late, only returning once he had done whatever it was that he needed to do, Jim Dear, Darling and even Junior had shown nothing but relief and joy to see him back safely. There had been no consequences and not even the smallest sign of disapproval. They had even taken the liberty of filling his bowl with extra food, which he of course had not even bothered to eat.

Why a dog they had just taken in got special treatment that she herself had never been privy to, was a full grown mystery. Maybe it was that she was no longer the favorite between her two owners. Unlike with Junior, it seemed now that someone had truly arrived to replace her.

It was a rainy day. And truly the pattering of the raindrops was too loud and obnoxious for Lady to ignore.

She laid restlessly halfway up the staircase, staring lazily through the colorfully stained glass window. Past the rolling drops of rain, she could see Tramp, for once not sleeping, running about like a wild animal.

"Tramp!" Jim Dear called out, newspaper protecting him from the rain. "C'mon boy, we need to get out of the rain!"

Tramp was having far too much fun to pay him much attention and based off of the way his tongue wagged from his mouth, it seemed as though he was in the middle of his own personal game.

Only when Jim Dear, thoroughly soaked and panting, somehow got him cornered, did he make a break for the door, quickly running indoors and bringing with him all the mud and grass from the outside world.

Lady, even with her ears down and resting on the floor, still heard the heavy paw steps that stormed up the stairs behind her.

Tramp dropped down in front of her, clearly still hyper and seeking more to do, "I tell ya Pidge', nothing beats a quick run in the rain. What's got you so down?"

She lifted her head high, even as she didn't feel the want to respond, "I'm fine," she cleared her throat to brighten up the tone of her voice, "you seem rather...muddy."

"What can I say Pidge', a dog's gotta live," his tongue hung out of his mouth once again. "Say, what do you say we head out and get a little dirty together?"

"No I don't think we should."

"Don't worry about the two masters, they don't mind honest. Look they're cleaning up my mess right now."

Lady shot up suddenly, letting her deepest thoughts be known, "Well why don't you go ahead and make a bigger mess? I'm sure they'll reward you with a treat. Or better yet, they'll blame me for it and I'll get punished, because clearly you're their favorite now."

Tramp had backed up during her rant, almost tripping over himself.

"Or maybe you'll just be in a bad mood later and ignore me completely."

She tucked her head back in between her paws, retreating to the safety of the darkness that closing her eyes offered.

"Awhhh," Tramp whined, "c'mon Pidge', if I knew it was eating away at you like this I would've been much more social."

"That doesn't change the fact that they prefer your company over mine," Lady sulked once more.

He sidled up to her, the confusion on his face as clear as daylight, "What do you mean they prefer my company over yours'?"

"Exactly that," she glared up at him. "They would rather play with you than play with me, feed you more than they would ever feed me and scold me for the smallest thing- they probably aren't even going to scold you for all the mud you brought inside."

"That's not how it is Pidge', really, it isn't! I've seen the way they coddle you and give you attention, they're just being nice because I'm a guest in their household."

"Guest?" her head swung up suddenly. "You're not a guest, you live here."

Tramp only chuckled, there was an odd sense of sadness behind his laugh, "No Pidgeon, I was never cut out for the house life. I'm just a weary guest staying here until my paw heals up."

"But...if you weren't meant to be here, surely they would have-"

"The bones will run dry and their hands will grow tired. Only reason I'm still here is because I saved that baby of theirs'. One day they'll call me to the front door and send me right back out there, where I belong."

They were silent for a long time as they stared out the window together, rain still moisturizing the grass, as Jim Dear dropped his boots at the front door with a heavy thud. And suddenly she was against him, trying to comfort them both.

"I meant it when I said that I love you. You know that right?"

"I know."

That day came a lot sooner than either of them had expected, as it was in fact, the very next day.

He was summoned by the two humans and for once, when they called, he actually woke up, actually lifted himself from his sleeping spot and crept out of the living room, stalking towards the kitchen where they might have sent him off with a bone.

Lady followed not far behind. Ever since the prior day she was always there, always near him.

"Ah, there you are boy!"

They were smiling, clearly ready to rid themselves of the burden that he was.

"You must be starved after that nap. Go on, your food bowl is full."

So they did have a little decency after all, maybe not much, but at least they wouldn't leave him hungry.

Suddenly he was pulling something from behind the bread bin on the counter, "It's not much and it's not Christmas yet, but Darling insisted on the wrapping paper."

A square-shaped gift, covered lovingly in red and green wrapping paper. Tramp eyed it up and down, deciding that it was a parting gift and thinking that Lady's two humans actually had a lot of decency.

It was unwrapped for him and before he had anytime to react, the man was fastening a red collar, golden license shining bright, around his neck.

He froze when he looked at himself in the mirror. His fur was clean and brushed, his paws were pristine and there was now a collar around his neck, with it's license reading : Tramp, a crude joke most likely concocted by Jim Dear. By every definition of the term, he looked like a housedog. Why then did he not feel ashamed in the slightest?

"I think it suits you."

Maybe it was because Lady was by his side.

Tramp puffed out his chest, again observing himself, "I do too Pidge'. I do too."

Her slow, measured and steady breaths felt like a grand relief after so much heavy breathing, screaming and physical effort. Then again, no one ever said going into labor, for the first time no less, would ever be an easy endeavor. But it was over now, the puppies she'd carried every day for the past two months were now out on their own, alive, healthy and well, being introduced to the world in the form of the empty spare room, which her owners had spruced up considerably when the vet had visited and confirmed what they had all suspected for months.

Lady wanted nothing more than to rest in a deep and long slumber, she felt more tired than she ever had before and the warm pillow and comfortable blankets that Jim Dear and Darling had fixed up for her in the attempt to make her as at home as possible, didn't make staying awake any easier. But, she forced herself to keep her eyes open as wide as they possibly could, motherly and natural instincts pushing past any fatigue that might have been plaguing her both mentally and physically.

She gently nudged one of the puppies towards the others, who were suckling hungrily and instinctively. She smiled as she gazed upon them with an inexpiable pride, three were brown and nearly identical to her, with the makings of bushy, brown and floppy ears and a stubby tail at their ends. The other was shaping up to be the perfect duplicate of his father, gray and with a much longer tail. Even as blind as he still was, he seemed determined to sniff out some sort of an adventure, clumsily and shakily standing up, trying to explore his surroundings. Lady pulled him in before he could get too far though, being sure to keep a good eye on him.

"Well, I'll be darned Pidge', it's three of you and one of me."

Lady looked up, startled for just a moment. She hadn't even seen Tramp enter, hadn't even heard him. She smiled excitedly at him, "Aren't they just precious?"

"Of course they are," he crouched down to get on eye-level with all four of the puppies, he made little, silly and juvenile sounds in an attempt to make them laugh. They in turn leaned in closer and tried to sniff him, out of quizzical wonder. "You must be exhausted."

"I'm a little tired..." she nodded, before releasing a yawn that shook her entire body to it's very core.

Tramp chuckled, "Better get some sleep then, definitely don't want you moody 'cause of exhaustion now of all times Pidge'."

"Oh, but Tramp," Lady spoke through her fatigue, sucking in another yawn, before it got the chance to escape, "we haven't even named them yet."

"Right..." Tramp drawled thoughtfully. "I've never really had a nick for naming things Pigeon, what do you think? Tramp Jr.?"

"Tramp Jr.?"

"Yeah, it's a...you know what, never mind, how about Danielle, Collette and Annette for the brown ones?" he suggested, looking to her for approval. "One of those families of mine had these three triplet girls, those were their names. Pretty nice, but they couldn't ever stop themselves from tugging on my ears."

Lady looked at the three of them, who were curled up against one another, fast asleep, "I think those are lovely names, Annette especially."

"Glad to hear it. Now what about my doppelganger?"

"Doppelganger?"

"Fancy word for lookalike," Tramp explained quickly.

"Oh," Lady nodded her head in grateful understanding. "Well, I don't know, what about...Dan? Or no, Buster? No, no, I've got it, how about Scamp?"

"Scamp," he repeated the name smoothly, letting it roll right off of his tongue. "Rhymes with Tramp and I'd rather pick it over something like Buster any day. Perfect if you ask me. How'd you think of it?"

"It was just-" she yawned again, this time hard enough to make her lower her head onto her two front paws, "It was just...a long time ago...on..."

Lady dozed off before getting a chance to tell her story, quietly muttering a few things and cracking an eye open to ensure for the last time that all four of her puppies were besides her.

"Oh well. At least we got all of them named," Tramp thought cheerfully, carefully giving the gray puppy, Scamp, a push in the direction of his mother, biding him to sleep with the rest of them.

Lady chatted merrily with the guests in the Brown family's household. She listened to an injured Trusty trying for a few moments to recall the classic story of 'Old Reliable' before deciding to give it up and talk about something else instead, turning to the tale of how he'd saved Tramp from the pound. Jock for his part seemed pleasantly amused by his older companion's struggling memory.

She allowed a quick glance at Tramp and their children. The five of them were playing, play fighting and rolling around on the carpet, much to the joy of an almost one year old Junior, who clapped and cheered for Scamp, who had by then become his favorite out of the four rapidly growing puppies, whenever he managed to leap atop his father.

It was relieving to get a moment to herself, even if it wouldn't be for very long. Anything beat having to supervise all four of them for extended periods of time, be it in the house, or whenever they went on walk to the park and back.

"So lass'," Jock spoke to get her attention, "ye finally understand what Darling's fuss about the baby was all about? Understand why she was so grouchy and as unhappy as could be all the time?"

"I suppose so. Tramp says I was apparently rather moody as well, but I myself don't recall too much from the past few months, least of all my behavior."

"Well, Miss Lady mam, we're just glad you're alright now. Always a good thing when things like this go off without a hitch."

"I'm glad that you're alright as well Trusty," she bowed her head graciously. "I was so worried after what happened."

Trusty shook her worries off, "It's gonna take much more than an unjustified wagon and a couple of horses to keep an old geezer like me down. And besides, I'd much rather die than let your significant other suffer such a fate, especially after misjudging the poor fellow so harshly."

"It's a good thing that you're both alright. I don't know how I would live with myself if I had lost either of you."

"Indeed."

"Aye lass," Jock perked up, ears standing straight. "Now you've got friends, family and four lovely, little- yeoch!" he half-kicked, half-shoved Scamp away, licking his injured paw. "You've got this rebel to deal with as well," he muttered the last bit under his breath, while everyone laughed.

"C'mon Whirlwind," Tramp quickly came over to grab his son, he turned to Jock. "Sorry about that."

Jock shook his head, quickly lightening up, "No worries' man, clearly he takes right after his father, has a knack for interrupting conversations as well."

"He'll grow out of it though," Tramp chuckled. "Just like his old man."

Lady smiled one last time, before going off to join Annette, Collette and Danielle, the three of whom had curled up into their brand new shared basket and dozed off in a mere matter of minutes.