Gabe, Lily and I were getting ready to go to a party that Dr. Lee, Dr. Connors and Dr. Garnet had decided to throw for me. They were the doctors that worked with Dr. Ferrari and I at the clinic. They'd heard about Lily because I couldn't stop talking about her, and they also heard about my engagement. So they decided to throw a party for me to celebrate my growing little family and the end of my residency which we'd never celebrated before.

The only problem was that Lily had been a little dramatic the entire day. So I didn't know if she was up for being around other people.

"It's been a rough day for her, you two can just stay here if you want." I said.

"She's good. Don't worry about it, baby. Just enjoy your party." Gabe said, kissing my forehead as he picked a tired and upset Lily off the ground and carried her with us to the car.

"Cornelius!" Lily screeched, making Gabriel sigh and put her down.

She ran back into the house and then came back with the stuffed elephant wrapped up in her arms.

Gabe drove us there and I sat in the back with Lily. She was still crying about a smushed strawberry from a few minutes ago. She leaned against me and I stroked her head gently, making her snuggle up more closely.

"Is my princess ok?" I asked.

Lily nodded her head and finally let me braid her hair. She wanted it to look like mine but with braids. My hair was in a messy bun that still looked fancy. I did Lily's hair even at the strange angle we were in. And it just added a few braids that wrapped around the base of the bun. She looked adorable, but she wasn't happy about being around other people.

When we arrived everyone greeted me and Lily wrapped her arms around my leg, finding comfort in my presence. I picked her up and let her hide herself in my neck.

I greeted lots of people and I saw lots of people that I'd worked with in the past. It was pretty great honestly. I felt like I'd truly achieved my goals. I was a doctor now and on top of that, I had the family I'd always wanted.

While I was standing there, talking to Dr. Lee, Lily suddenly gasped and I looked at her in confusion.

"Cupcake." She whispered to herself.

"You want a cupcake, baby?" I asked her, kissing her cheek as she nodded.

She was still holding me really tightly.

"You can go get one." I said, attempting to put her down and making her grab onto me desperately in hopes that I'd keep carrying her.

"Alright, why don't you go with Daddy and get a cupcake?" I asked her, attempting to hand her off to Gabe.

"No, you." She said to me.

Dr. Lee was looking at us like we were the cutest thing she'd ever seen. She told me to handle Lily and that we could talk later. I went over to the little buffet table and got my baby a cupcake. When I returned to my seat, I felt Gabe's arm wrap around me and he kissed my temple.

"Daddy, you want a bite?" Lily asked him.

Gabe looked at me and I shook my head, knowing it would make him sick. He kissed Lily's forehead and he told her it was all hers. She finally agreed to go with Gabe and they walked around for like an hour together. I got to talk to everyone and thank them for the party.

Then Gabe came over to me and Lily threw herself at me. She looked angry.

"What's going on?" I asked Gabe.

"Someone's upset that everyone here is trying to steal you." Gabe laughed.

"No one is going to steal me." I smiled, kissing Lily's forehead.

"No, they're trying to make you happy so you stay with them." Lily cried.

"No, I'll tell them that I only stay with Lily and her Daddy, ok?" I said, rubbing her back.

"Ok." She sniffled.

"You wanna say hi to some of my friends? They wanted to meet you." I said to her

"No, I wanna stay here." Lily said, tightening her grip on me.

I carried her around for a little longer and then it came time to eat. Luckily most of the food was from Angel's, so Gabe managed to have some food too. Lily refused to eat, she said she wanted hugs. So I let her have all the hugs in the world while I ate. Eventually, she got enough hugs and she looked at my food.

"You want some, baby?" I asked her.

"It's tasty?" She said.

"Yeah, it's very tasty." I nodded, kissing her forehead.

"I want Daddy's." She said, looking at the food in his plate.

"Alright, baby. Here's a spoon, you can eat from whichever plate you want." I told her, handing her the spoon that I brought over for her.

"No, you feed me?" She asked.

"Ok." I nodded, letting her rest against me as I fed her some of Gabe's food.

"I want to read? Are there books?" She asked me.

"There are, Sweetie... look over there on the bookshelf, there are books over there." I said, pointing to where she needed to go.

She hopped off my lap and ran over, looking at the books and then coming back with a sad look on her face.

"Aw, what's wrong, Princess?" I asked her.

"I don't like those. They're for babies." She said to me.

"Alright... well instead of a book, why don't I write some words down for you and you can figure out what they are?" I asked her, making her climb into my lap.

"But what if I know what they mean?" She asked me.

"Then you can just tell me right away." I said to her.

"Ok... are they gonna be doctor words?" She asked me.

"Do you want them to be doctor words?" I asked her.

"Yeah... I want big doctor words." She said to me.

"Alright. Can you and Daddy go hunt down a paper and a pen for me?" I asked her.

"Daddy, come on!" Lily said, taking his hand and pulling him up off his chair.

He picked her up and he carried her around in search of a paper and a pen. I saw Rico walking around and he was very intrigued by Lily. I knew he was eager to meet her, but he'd have to wait a little while longer.

Lily was still extremely clingy and wasn't ready for any new people in her life. When Rico saw that I was still trying to finish my food, he came over and sat down with me.

"How's she doing?" He asked me.

"A lot better than the first few days." I said to him.

"She's so cute." He smiled, looking back at Gabriel.

"I know, she's adorable... I can't wait for her to get used to everything and then finally meet you guys." I smiled.

"Sophie is going to love her." Rico smiled.

"How is everyone, by the way? I feel like it's been ages." I sighed.

"Everyone is good. They're all super excited to meet Lily and for Kiara's baby." Rico laughed.

"How's Kiara doing?" I smiled, remembering her little baby bump from the last time I saw her.

"She's good. Surprisingly very calm actually. When Sophie and Hazel were pregnant, they drove Ric and I insane, and Ari was another story that we don't need to get into. Em wasn't too bad, but Killian would argue against that. Kiara is completely calm though. Vidal got lucky with her pregnancy." Rico laughed.

"That's great. I'm glad things are going well." I smiled.

"What about Lily? I bet it hit you two hard for her to move in so suddenly." Rico said.

"Yeah. She's a handful, at first it was like a slap to the face, all she wanted was Gabriel and nothing else. But she's getting used to me." I explained.

"Does she call you two Mom and Dad yet?" He asked me.

"Gabe, yes. Me, no." I said with a smile.

"It'll come. And it'll probably slip out too." Rico said.

"And if it doesn't ever come and I just become Ava?" I asked him.

"She's not going to call you Ava forever... relax." Rico said.

"No, no. She doesn't even call me Ava. I think she's said my name like two or three times, but I'm 'you', 'her' and 'she' at the moment." I explained to him.

"It's ok. Gabe has been her teacher for like two or three whole years, so obviously he has a head start. She seems like it's just a trust issue that she has. She needs to get used to you and trust you." He explained.

"I know... it's just hard to see her more comfortable with Gabe... I'm a little jealous, but I know it'll come." I chuckled, making him smile.

"She seems like a clingy little one." He chuckled, watching her insist that Gabriel carry her again.

"Yeah, she's very clingy, especially when we're around other people." I explained.

"She also clings to you, which is a good sign." He told me.

"Yeah. But only because I'm the second most comfortable person." I explained.

"If you ask me, she seems just as comfortable with both of you." Rico told me.

"Not really, she doesn't joke around with me like she does with him." I sighed.

"Show her that she can joke around with you then." He smiled. "Sophie was always the fun one, until I realized that I could be the fun one if I initiated the fun."

"How do I do that?" I asked.

"Just pick a time when she's in the mood for some fun. And mess around with her." He told me.

"I don't know how to mess around." I groaned.

"Ava, I'm the most boring person this universe has ever seen. But somehow I still managed to be a professional soccer player and a father who could have fun with his kids." Rico said. "If I could do it, you can."

I laughed and nodded.

"Dr. Ferrari!" I heard Dr. Lee call out, making Rico get up and walk away in a hurry. Waving to me and saying goodbye.

Lily and Gabe were back once I finished eating and I wrote down some words for my little girl.

"How do I figure them out?" She asked me.

"You can ask me, or you can get hints from me... or you can guess." I said to her.

"Are they all doctor words?" She asked me.

"Yes... I'll give you a hint, they're all things you can find in this room." I said to her.

"Ok." She said. "And I get a checkmark when I get them right?"

"Yeah. With this purple pen." I said to her.

"Ok." She smiled, sitting in my lap while I wiped a little smudge of Gabriel's brownie off her face.

"What is... ste-stetho-tho-scope?" Lily asked me.

"You wanna guess?" I asked her.

"Uhm... is it something a doctor uses? Like a tool?" She asked me.

"Yeah, how did you guess that?" I asked her.

"It sounds like microscope which is also a tool." She told me.

"You're right. It does." I said to her.

"What does it do?" She asked me.

"It lets us hear something." I said, giving her a hint.

"Oh! It's the thing you listen to me breathe with!" She said.

"Yeah, and I also listen to your heart." I said to her.

"Yours is pretty. It matches the pretty car." She said to me.

"You wanna use it?" I asked her

"Yes... I'll listen to Daddy's heart." She giggled, taking my stethoscope from me.

I helped her put it in her ears and then she put it on Gabe's chest.

"No, down here, baby." I said, helping her listen to the right spot.

She giggled as she listened to it. I looked into Gabe's kind brown eyes and he smiled, making me melt. I got lost in his eyes and he just took my hand and kissed the back of it.

"It got faster!" Lily squealed.

Gabe's face turned red and he took the stethoscope from her, grabbing the paper and showing her another word.

"Uhm... this one, Daddy." She said, pointing to a word.

"Fracture." Gabriel read to her.

"No! Daddy!" She cried, hiding her face in my neck.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Daddy read the word... I was supposed to read it." She cried.

"Aw, baby, it's ok... there are plenty of other words." I said to her.

"No." She cried.

"Ok, I'll add another word. How does that sound." I asked her.

"No." She cried.

"I'm sorry, baby... I didn't know you didn't want me to read it." Gabe said.

That was all it took to get Lily in a bad mood for the rest of the night.

"God, this is giving me flashbacks to Ari as a kid." He sighed.

I chuckled.

"I'm telling her you said that." I laughed.

"You will do no such thing. I'm already in enough trouble with this little one." He said, pointing to his daughter.

I laughed and rocked Lily side to side as she cried for no reason whatsoever. Eventually, she forgave Gabriel and went back to her little word hunt while I got to talk to everyone for a little while and say goodbye before we had to get the little princess to bed.

Overall, it was an amazing party, I felt like a pretty good mother, even though I wouldn't feel like that title was official until Lily referred to me as her mother. But, I felt so successful with a stable career and a beautiful little family.