Josie looked out the kitchen window with a smile on her face. The sky was a lovely shade of orange, with small patches of black, shadowy clouds. She could even swear she heard a bird or two chirp.

She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. The smell of the fresh coffee in her mug entered her nostrils and her smile grew even more. She opened her eyes back up and took a sip. Black and bitter, just how she likes it.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the doorway. Josie turned around and saw a tall, blonde man in glasses stare at her with a smile.

"Good morning," he simply said. Josie slowly walked towards him with her smile still planted.

"Good morning, Alex," she replied. Alex then bent down and kissed her for a few seconds. When he pulled away, her smile grew even larger.

"What are you doing up so early?" he asked her.

"I couldn't sleep," Josie admitted. "I've had a lot on my mind."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Well, for starters, we've been through a lot in the last few years, haven't we?"

"That's an understatement," Alex said with a small chuckle.

"We've done so many things that I never thought ANYONE would do in their lifetime, let alone us."

"But it's all been in good fun, right?"

"Sure, it's been fun, but it's also been very dangerous."

"It's been dangerous since day one, Josie. Besides, you can't deny it's gotten better out there."

He then pointed out the window Josie was just looking at, which she turned back towards.

"Have you seen a single sign of a threat today?" Alex asked.

"No," Josie replied honestly.

"And it's been that way for days. Jo, we may just be close to finally living in peace!"

"Maybe...and the thought of no more danger sounds perfect!"

Alex then reached out and hugged Josie tightly. His chin rested on the top of her head as she continued to stare out the window.

"So that's my excuse," she continued. "Why are YOU up so early?"

Alex gave a small chuckle as he pulled back and looked her in the eyes.

"Because I haven't been able to fall back asleep since a certain someone woke me up."

Josie gave a small smile.

"Where is she now?"

"Fred came in and took care of her. In fact..."

Alex then pointed towards the living room and revealed a man a few years younger than him sleeping on the couch with his mouth wide open. On his chest, sleeping much more peacefully, was a toddler with long, dark hair.

Josie smiled as she walked up to the man and lightly shook his shoulder. He gave a snort as he opened his eyes widely with fear.

"What is it?" he asked quickly. "Are they coming?"

"No, we're good, Fred," Josie replied. "I just wanted to thank you for taking care of her for us."

"Hm?"

Fred then looked at his chest and saw the little girl sleeping on him.

"Oh, right," he said with a yawn. "No problem at all."

Fred then reached towards the girl and lightly shook her, as well. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around. Her eyes locked on to Fred's and she smiled.

"Gud mawnin, Fweddy," she said softly.

"Good morning, Emma," he replied with a smile. He then picked her up, sat up, and carefully handed her to Josie. Josie held up Emma and looked at her with a giant smile.

"Good morning, Sweetie," Josie told the toddler.

"Gud mawnin, Mommy," she replied.

Josie gave a quick kiss to Emma's forehead and held her close to her. Alex just kept watching from the kitchen with a giant grin. Raising that little girl was no easy task, especially when she was the youngest person on the entire planet. Of course, it was no easy task surviving the last few years, but if it wasn't for their protection, there was no way Emma would have come close to existing.

"What a touching moment."

Everyone turned towards the kitchen and saw a flower with a brown face and yellow pedals in a pot on the table. This could've passed as a normal flower, but it had two eyes and a mouth that functioned properly.

"That it is," Alex told the flower.

"How long have you been there, Sunflower?" Josie asked.

"Oh, not long," Sunflower replied. "I was just going to get ready to make some breakfast."

"Sounds good to me!" Fred said, sounding a bit more awake now. "I could go for a good meal right now."

"Says the guy who hardly touched his dinner last night!"

"I told you; I don't like anchovies on my pizza!"

They all then had a quick laugh.

"Mommy?" Emma asked as her big, brown eyes looked up at Josie.

"Yes?" Josie asked in reply.

"Where'z Peashuter?"

"That's actually a good question. Has anyone seen him?" she proceeded to ask everyone else.

"I think I heard him go in the bathroom," Alex replied. "He had a lot to clean after Dave's little...incident last night."

"Ugh, don't remind me of that!" Fred said with a shutter.

"Hey, I had no idea the man was cucumber intolerant!" Sunflower argued. "Furthermore, I have no idea why he would even ask for cucumbers on pizza in the first place!"

"Maybe he didn't know it, himself," Josie said with a shrug.

Alex then walked to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" a male voice from the other side called out.

"Everything okay in there, Pea?" Alex asked.

"If by 'okay', you mean 'disgusting', then it's perfect!"

"Well, I think Emma wants to see you."

"Oh. Well, I'll try to hurry up real quick."

"Thank you."

He then walked towards his daughter and gave a smile.

"He'll be out soon, okay?"

"Otay!" Emma replied with a grin.

ERT! ERT! ERT!

That was a sound the whole group knew too well. It meant that 'they' were coming.

"Better get out now, buddy; we need ya!" Alex called into the bathroom.

"Oh, this is just perfect...okay, I'm coming!"

A few seconds later, the door opened up, revealing a green, round plant hopping out of the room. Everyone else followed suit and ran towards the basement.

"Where's Dave?" Josie asked.

"Oh, he'll be down here," Alex replied. "He's the lightest sleeper I've ever met!"

"Well, let's hope so..."

The gang then made it to the basement and turned on their TV. Right away, they saw a whole hoard of human-like beings walk towards the front of the house. Only they weren't humans. Their skin was pale, their walk was funny, and their bones were popping out of their limbs.

Suddenly, they heard thumping from the stairs. They turned and saw a large, bearded man wearing blue striped pajamas and a cooking pot on his head.

"Sorry I'm late!" he apologized. "I was dreaming about how the world would be amazing if they made bacon-flavored underwear!"

"Well, how about we focus on how our lives would be better if we took care of this invasion?" Fred asked.

"You're right! Okay, let's kill some zombies!"

Alex popped his knuckles and pressed a button on Sunflower's pot, adding her DNA into the computer. Once it was added, he placed a Sunflower clone onto the lawn by dragging her image onto a square on the screen. Once it was there, he saw a small sun-shaped item drop down from the sky. He clicked on it and he saw that his sunawatt counter increased by 50.

"I'm so glad you found a way to turn 25 sunawatts into 50," Josie told the lunatic with a pat on the back. "Makes things so much faster!"

"Yeah, but it certainly took getting used to, that's for sure," Alex commented as he planted another Sunflower.

Right as he did, a zombie slowly inched its way onto the lawn. After collecting 100 sunawatts, Alex planted a Peashooter in the same row as the zombie. Once planted, the Plant started taking deep breaths and spitting softball-sized peas at the undead creature! After a few hits, the zombie was down. By that time, another zombie had entered a different row. After collecting 2 sun symbols from the Sunflowers, he added another Peashooter.

After adding a few more Sunflowers, as well as another Peashooter, Alex could see a zombie with a road cone on its head stumble its way onto the lawn. To combat this, he planted another Peashooter in front of the one already planted, thus having 2 peas shoot down the row instead of just 1. After the amount of hits it would take to kill a Regular Zombie, the Conehead's cone fell off. After that, it was a matter of hitting it even more to kill it!

A few more Coneheads approached the lawn, but all that was needed were a few more Peashooters. Soon, though, a new challenger entered the arena: a zombie with a metal bucket as a helmet. Alex could have planted another Peashooter, but since he only had 50 sunawatts, he thought of a better solution.

"Hey, Wally!" he called out.

"Yeah?" a voice replied back from the back of the basement.

"We need you over here!"

"Great! Can someone come get me?"

"On it!" Josie replied as she ran towards the voice.

A few seconds later, she returned holding a giant nut with a smile on its face. She placed the nut on the scanner next to the laptop and let the machine scan his DNA into the computer. Once it was installed, Alex planted him in front of the 2 Peashooters in the row the Buckethead Zombie was coming in from. The Wall-Nut then appeared out of the ground with a huge and determined grin on his face.

Once the Buckethead was in front of the Wall-Nut, it tried eating it, only the tough shell was making that very long and difficult to do. Fortunately, this gave the 2 Peashooters enough time to continuously shoot at the zombie until its helmet was destroyed, and quickly thereafter, the zombie.

Another Buckethead started approaching from another row, but unfortunately, Wall-Nut was still recharging and could not be placed! Fortunately, another solution came into Alex's mind.

He quickly looked to another screen next to the laptop and saw a list of all the Plants in their arsenal, all of which were located in the greenhouse next door. After finding the Plant he was looking for, he quickly tapped on its picture and waited. A few seconds later, a small cart carrying a potted and half-buried potato with an antenna came in from a hole in the basement wall, stopping right next to the laptop. Alex then proceeded to press the button on the pot. 

"Aww, I was just about to hear the punchline of Snow Pea's joke!" Potato Mine said with a sad tone.

"Don't worry; you'll hear it soon," Alex reassured as he planted a Potato Mine clone in the yard, right in the row the Buckethead was in, though he made sure to plant it a few squares in front the zombie so the mine could have time to arm.

After around 15 seconds, the Potato Mine in the yard was ready. By that time, the Buckethead stepped on it and...

SPUDOW!!

The zombie exploded into bits as pieces of mashed potatoes flew across the yard. After that, it seemed like the zombies were done attacking, as no more seemed to be approaching. 

"Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!" Josie said with joy as the clapped her hands.

"Lemon... hm... now there's an idea!" Dave said with a stroke of the beard.

"What, for a new Plant?" Fred asked.

"Hm? Oh, sure, that too. I was thinking for flavored mattresses!"

"Well, what do you say we eat some actual food?" Alex asked. 

"Yay!!" Emma cheered as she clapped her hands.

Everyone smiled as they got up to do their separate things. Alex sent Potato Mine back to the greenhouse via the railway system, Fred put Wall-Nut back in his corner so he could continue to read and relax, Crazy Dave brought Sunflower upstairs so she could make food, and Josie brought Peashooter over to Emma, who smiled with joy.

"Hi, Peashuter!" the toddler told the Plant with a wave.

"Hey there, Emma!" Peashooter replied. "Wanna play pretend?"

"Yay!"

"Okay! Let's pretend we're...um...pirates!"

"Arrrrgh!" Emma replied as he held her hand in front of her as if her pointer finger was a pirate hook. 

Josie smiled as she sat next to her unofficial husband and watched their daughter play pirate with a sentient Plant.

"I could get used to this," Josie told Alex.

"So could I," he replied as he held her hand and gave her a peck on the cheek.

She smiled her signature goofy grin as she leaned closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. All she wanted to do was kill the few remaining zombies and let her daughter be raised in peace. And if things continue as they are, that's exactly what will happen. All she has to do is be patient.