when he became involved with Lila in Season 2. He initially considered his relationship with Rita to be part of his disguise; however, by the end of the Season 4, Dexter had fully evolved into a family man and wished to rid himself of his self-titled "Dark Passenger". There are chinks in Dexter's emotional armor; he acknowledges loyalty to family, particularly his now-deceased, adoptive father, stating "If I were capable of love, how I would have loved Harry", since Harry's death, Dexter's only family has been his sister, Debra Morgan, Harry's biological daughter. At the end of the first novel, Dexter admits that he could not hurt Debra or allow Brian to harm her because he is "fond of her". Dexter likes children; the flip side of this affection is that Dexter is particularly wrathful when his victims prey on children. In the book Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter realized that Rita's son Cody was showing the same signs of sociopathy as Dexter had at that age, and looked forward to providing him with "guidance" similar to that which Harry provided him. Cody's perceived sociopathy has not been shown in the television series. This also gives him a reason to continue his relationship with Rita, to whom (as of Dearly Devoted Dexter) he is engaged because of a misunderstanding. At the beginning of the third book, Dexter in the Dark, it is revealed that Cody is not the only one with dark impulses, as Astor too pressures Dexter to teach her, and Dexter comes to accept his role as a stepfather to both children very seriously; for example, while on a stakeout, he begins to wonder if Cody has brushed his teeth before going to bed and if Astor had set out her Easter dress for photo-day at her school. These thoughts distract him while he is waiting for an intended victim, which thoroughly annoys him. In the TV series, Dexter also takes a detour in his code of only killing murderers in order to dispose of a pedophile who is stalking Astor. Animals do not like Dexter, which can cause noise problems when Dexter stalks a victim with pets. He is quoted as having once had a dog that barked and growled at Dexter until he was forced to get rid of it, and a turtle, which hid in its shell until it died of starvation rather than have to