I've been missing the Dixon family from this particular world and some of you have mentioned that the Dixon family needs a pet.

…

Chapter Fourteen. Meow.

"Mama!" The voice ripped through the otherwise quiet air of the Saturday morning.

Daryl grumbled as he rolled onto his back. "Damn kids," he muttered, still half asleep. Beth mumbled something, too, in response and rolled after him, her head finding his chest and his arm finding its way around her shoulders, holding her close. They both began to drift off again because although both were early risers every morning, they were able to tell without opening their eyes that it was still too early to pull themselves out of bed yet.

"Mama!" The voice shouted again and it was closer this time.

Beth's eyes snapped open when she felt a sudden weight drop onto the bed and she flew into a sitting position. Hunter was kneeling on the foot of the bed with a grin on his face and something small being held in his arms.

"Can we keep it?" He asked.

It took a moment for Beth's sleepy brain to understand what she was seeing. "Where did you get that?" She asked.

And there was something in her tone that reached into Daryl's own sleep and he woke up, sitting up with a yawn, but it was abruptly cut off when he looked at Hunter and saw, too, what he was holding.

"It was outside, underneath the front steps. Me and Luke heard him crying up a storm," Hunter explained, still grinning. "Can we keep him?"

"Luke and I," Beth corrected automatically, looking at the small black kitten in Hunter's arms before looking to Daryl. But he didn't say anything as he was also staring at the kitten. She looked back to the boy. "Hunter, you…" she began to lecture him that he knew better than to pick up wild animals but then the kitten let out a quiet, sharp meow and she instantly forgot what she was going to say. "Oh. It's hungry," she said, pushing the covers off of her. "Come on," she said, gently taking the kitten from Hunter's arms and holding it carefully in her hands. "You poor thing," she murmured softly and she walked from the bedroom, Hunter on her heels.

Daryl had no idea what had just happened and he wondered if he was still asleep.

He pulled himself from bed with another yawn and went into the bathroom first before leaving the bedroom. He went across the hall, poking his head into the bedroom that belonged to their daughter, Abby, but it was too early for her, too, and the little girl was still asleep. She slept without her hearing aids so she probably hadn't heard Hunter shouting at this god-forsaken hour.

Going downstairs, he found the rest of his family in the kitchen and Beth was talking to the boys about kitten formula but they only had milk and that would have to do for now though she really wished they had something else. Both Hunter and Luke sat on the floor with the kitten as the tiny ball of black fur lapped at the dish of milk.

Beth looked when Daryl entered. "I'm going to take the kitten to my dad this morning. Have him look it over," she said and Daryl nodded, not saying anything as he shuffled to the refrigerator. Without a word, he pulled out the pack of bacon and Beth was already pulling out the frying pan, setting it on the stove. "Luke showed me where they found it," she said to him softly as they stood side by side at the counter. "It looks like that little kitten is the only one. I wonder where it came from. Poor thing," she then said again, looking back to the kitten and the boys on the floor.

Luke was slowly and lightly running his hand down the kitten's back, frowning as he was able to see and feel all of the kitten's ribs, and Hunter was already talking about names – names that ranged from the expected Midnight to the not so expected of Hulk or Spiderman, two of his favorites.

"What do you think?" Beth asked as she looked back to Daryl.

"'bout what?" He finally grunted.

"Do you think…" she trailed off then but he didn't really need her to finish.

He knew the instant he opened his eyes minutes earlier and saw Hunter holding that kitten. That kitten was already a part of their family and there was no way he could be the asshole who told his kids and his wife that they couldn't keep it.

"I ain't gonna be the one to take care of it," he said, dropping the strips of bacon into the frying pan once it was hot enough.

"Of course not," Beth said and her smile was blinding as she pushed herself up onto her toes and kissed his cheek. "Having a pet might be good for the kids. I remember how much I loved having a pet when I was their age. And it taught me all about responsibility and caring for something other than myself."

Daryl didn't say anything but he was listening to every word she said. He was always listening even if he was acting like he wasn't. He thought his kids knew plenty about responsibility already.

Rick had said something the other day where he read something about only twenty-five percent of kids in the country nowadays had chores to do around the house and then he mentioned how Carl doesn't do anything except play video games. Luke and Hunter and even Abby though must have been part of that twenty-five percent, Daryl figured, because he and Beth had things they had the kids do around the house. The usual of taking out the trash and helping with the dishes and making their beds and keeping their rooms neat enough.

But then there were other chores of helping Daryl sweep up his small woodshop or helping him gut and clean the animals he hunted and collecting eggs from the chicken coop and helping Beth with her vegetable garden.

Daryl remembered his own dad and seemingly every other Dixon man and how they had done nothing but laid around and drank all day and how Daryl knew he didn't want to be anything like that. He had always kept himself busy and he expected to pass the habit down to his children.

"If you think they can handle it," Daryl grunted in response and didn't say anything else, poking at the sizzling bacon with a fork.

"Of course they can handle it." Beth looked back to the boys with the kitten and a faint smile passed across her lips. She looked back to Daryl and didn't say anything else as she lifted herself onto her toes to give him another kiss on the cheek.

…

Beth and all of the kids went to the farm later that morning as Daryl went hunting. And when he came back, Hunter ran up to him to inform him that the kitten was a boy and that he was healthy except for being underweight and mama said they would get him registered so they could get him a collar and a tag and maybe a little bell, too, to wear and he was so excited, saying all of this in a rush of words, Daryl had no idea how he was able to talk so much without breathing.

In the living room, Abby was sitting on the carpet on the floor with the little kitten curled into her lap. Daryl watched for a moment as Abby was petting him down his back and the kitten seemed to nestle closer to her and Daryl saw the smile across Abby's face. Ever since they had gotten the little girl her hearing aids, it seemed like she hadn't smiled like that in a long time and Daryl stood there, watching it now, and he admitted that maybe having the little kitten wasn't the worst thing.

"What are we gonna name him?" Luke asked from the couch where he had his paper pad in his lap as he almost always did, already making a sketch of the kitten.

"Peter Parker!" Hunter exclaimed, sitting next to Abby, leaning close to the kitten.

"Hey," Beth came into the room with a smile when she saw Daryl. "Get anything?"

"There was a buck but we don't need it," He said, his eyes still watching Abby and the kitten. "'ave enough deer meat in the freezer."

"What do you think, dad?" Luke lifted his eyes to him. "What do you think we should name him?"

Daryl shook his head, swinging his crossbow off his shoulder and setting it down, leaning it against the wall for the moment. "That's all yours cat. You name 'im."

"Peter Parker," Hunter then said again. "We're naming it Peter Parker."

"We all have to agree on it, Hunter, and I'm not agreeing to that," Luke told him.

"Kyle," Abby then said suddenly, her eyes never lifting from the kitten.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, looking at her. Hunter then laughed.

"Kyle," he echoed and leaned in, scratching the kitten behind his ear. "Hiya, Kyle."

"I like it," Luke nodded and went back to sketching.

Beth smiled, laughing a little. "Then I guess his name is Kyle."

Even Daryl smirked a little and then looked to Beth. "I'm headin' into town. Need to pick up a few things from T at the hardware store. You need anythin'?"

"Can I come?" Hunter scrambled to his feet. "We need to get Kyle a few things."

"I'll come, too," Luke said, setting his pad aside and standing from the couch. "The pet store has this laser thing where if you type in the animal's name, it traces it onto a tag. Molly did it when she got her dog."

"Cool!" Hunter's eyes gleamed at the mention of a laser.

Beth looked to Daryl. "We can all go?" She suggested. "You go to the hardware store and I'll take the kids into the pet store."

Daryl nodded and the boys ran out of the room to go get their shoes and Beth went to Abby, crouching down in front of her, making sure she was looking to her face as she told Abby the plan. Abby nodded and then tenderly lifted Kyle to her. Beth smiled as she took the kitten and Abby stood up, going to go get her shoes as well. As she passed Daryl, she looked up at him and smiled and Daryl put a hand on her head, smiling back at her.

…

Daryl admitted that he was pretty indifferent to Kyle at first.

He made Beth and the kids happy and they loved him so that was fine with Daryl but Daryl didn't feel much attachment to him. He was just the black cat that lived with their family and occasionally slept between him and Beth in their bed if he wasn't sleeping with Abby in hers.

He got bigger and healthier and the first time he brought a dead mouse into the house, dropping it on the kitchen floor right next to where Daryl was sitting at the table, Daryl's indifference grew to respect. He respected anything that could hunt and if Kyle was going to keep their house mouse-free from now on, then Daryl would never look to the animal as just some fat house-cat.

Hunter came home from school with a cold and passed it onto Luke and Beth kept the two boys sequestered in their rooms until they got better, not wanting anyone else in the family to get sick. And Kyle kept them company, going from one room to the other and then back again, lying on the beds, sleeping with them or just lying there as Luke drew and Hunter read his comic books.

And when Abby was in her room, playing with her dollhouse or having a tea party for her teddy bears, Kyle became a frequent guest, sitting at the small table as Abby poured him a cup of tea and asked him if he wanted sugar or cream, a question he just blinked at so Abby always gave him both.

When Beth played the piano in the living room, Kyle often jumped on top of it, lying down, lazily swishing his tail back and forth to whatever song she was playing. He seemed to like her Mozart sheet music the best though, always letting out contented purrs when the familiar songs rang throughout the house.

Beth had developed the habit of playing a lot more Mozart nowadays.

And with Daryl, Kyle had grown an attachment with as well.

Whenever Daryl grabbed his crossbow and began heading into the woods, Kyle began following him. At first, Daryl tried to tell the cat to go back to the house but Kyle just blinked his yellow eyes at him and ignored him. Daryl just expected Kyle to go back on his own but as he walked further into the woods, the cat stayed right on his trail, following after him.

Daryl grew to not mind that much, having real no reason for it to bother him. It wasn't as if Kyle was making noise and scaring away the game. And he hunted his own things, mainly mice and one time, he had killed a bird, which Daryl decided not to tell Beth about because although she was more than used to Daryl hunting and killing animals, he somehow knew she would probably be more upset with the bird's death than anything – even if Kyle was just giving into his natural cat instincts.

The cat even seemed to like Merle and Merle, surprisingly, liked the cat in return. When he came over for dinner on occasion and sat on the couch with a bottle of beer, Kyle always came and curled right up in Merle's lap and Merle just kept watching the television and rubbing a hand down Kyle's back.

"Looks like your family's finally complete, baby brother," Merle grinned. "You got the wife and the kids and the house and now, the family pet."

Daryl didn't say anything to that – just shrugged and took a sip of his own beer.

The truth was, he had already thought of that.

"Kyle!" Beth called out from the kitchen. "Dinner!"

The cat leapt from Merle's lap and went running as if lightning had just struck him. Merle chuckled and shook his head and focused his eyes on the television.

Daryl took another sip of beer. "I always 'magined myself havin' a dog someday."

Merle grinned. "There's always time for a dog, too," he said. "Hell, you have all of this and who would 'ave ever thought? You want a dog, you'll get yourself a dog."

Daryl nodded and thought that over for a few minutes. "Wouldn' want Kyle to get jealous though," he then mused out loud and Merle just let out a laugh.

…

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