"Daddy! I'm bored!" Lily said to me.

"Where's your Momma?" I asked her, expecting her to object to the title like she usually did.

"Uhm... I don't know." Lily shrugged.

"Go get her from the office, baby." I said.

Lily ran off, going into the office to get Ava. She came back a minute later, dragging Ava with her.

"She's here, Daddy. Now can we do something fun?" Lily asked me.

"Baby, I'm trying to make dinner... why don't you two go have some fun outside until dinner is ready?" I asked.

"Can we?" Lily asked Ava.

"Sure, baby. I'm just a little tired right now." Ava said.

"It's ok. We can just go on the swings." Lily said, pulling Ava towards the back door. Ava kissed me before she was dragged out of the house.

It had officially been a month since Lily moved in with us and Ava was really getting worried that Lily would never see her as a mother. I knew that it was only a matter of time before Lily used that title with Ava.

I was in the middle of cutting vegetables, occasionally checking on my girls through the kitchen window. I found them dancing at one point. Lily looked like she was having the time of her life. The second time I looked out there it was because Lily screamed, but I looked out the window to find her being tickled by Ava. The second time it was Ava who was screaming and it was after Lily dunked a bucket of water on her legs. She wasn't upset though, just shocked and amused.

I was able to finish cutting up all the vegetables for the falafel sandwiches I was going to make before I heard yet another scream. This time it was Lily running away from Lily who was pretending to be the strawberry monster. Lily of course played the role of the strawberry and had to run before the monster caught her.

The girls had so much fun together, and I loved watching it from afar.

After a while, they fell silent for a good twenty minutes, which had me a little worried. I found them sitting in the grass with Ava laying down on her side and Lily sitting facing her. My girls seemed to be talking about something interesting. I smiled and went back to my cooking.

I made the falafel mixture by grinding the chickpeas and the parsley and the onions and adding some spices. Then I shaped them and started frying the Falafel. I was halfway through, when I heard Lily scream. This scream was different from the others, it was a scream that was honestly quite alarming.

"Daddy!" She called.

"Gabe! Gabe, come here! Quick!" Ava screamed. I turned the heat off on the oil and ran out of the kitchen and through the back door of the house.

"Daddy!" Lily screamed, sounding like she was about to cry.

I looked around and didn't see my girls. Then Ava popped out of the woods behind our yard and waved me over. I ran over to them, my heart pounding in my chest.

All the possibilities of what could've happened were running through my mind. Maybe Ava was hurt, or Lily was hurt. I felt the blood drain from my body as I thought about something happening to one of them.

"What happened? Is everything ok? What happened?!" I asked, genuine fear flowing through me.

But when I reached them, I realized that both of them were fine.

"Daddy, he's hurt." Lily cried, pointing at a tiny little black puppy stuck in a thorn bush.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself on a tree and letting my heart relax. Just five seconds ago, I thought something bad happened to one of the girls, and now I saw that it wasn't the case.

"Daddy! What're you doing?! Help him out!" Lily screamed.

I remembered the poor little puppy and knelt down in front of the bush. It was whimpering, it's little eyes just showed how sad and scared it was. I tried my best to lure it out of the bush, but it wouldn't come out. There were so many thorns, and I didn't want to hurt the poor little puppy.

"Hey, gorgeous... will you go get me the garden scissors?" I asked Ava.

"Sure." She said, running off.

I tried to lure the puppy out but nothing was working. Eventually, Ava came back with the scissors I asked for. I was able to snip away a lot of the branches that were blocking it's way out. The poor little thing wasn't quite ready to come out though, it was probably scared of us.

I reached into it and I felt the little guy nip at my hand. I was able to gently tug the puppy through the narrow opening I'd created even though he was struggling to get away and bite me.

"No, Daddy. Don't hurt him!" Lily screamed.

"I won't, baby, it's ok." I said, feeling her hands on my back. She was basically on top of me, trying to see what was going on.

"Daddy!" She cried.

"Hey, relax." I said softly. "He's going to be ok."

"Promise?" She asked me.

"I promise." I said to her.

"Come here, baby, let Daddy get the puppy out and let's not distract him." Ava said.

After about fifteen minutes of getting bitten and barked at by the tiny little guy, I was able to get him out.

He was shaking, he could only stand on three of his legs and he was whimpering with his tail between his legs.

"Help him, he's so scared and hurt." Lily cried.

"We've got to get him to a vet as soon as possible." I said softly.

"I'll call Theo, can we get him some water and something to keep him warm?" Ava asked me.

I nodded, carrying the little guy into the house and getting a bowl out to put some water in it for him. Lily was bouncing around trying to see what was going on. When Ava came in, she picked Lily up to stop her from running into my legs every few seconds and also to allow her to see everything.

When Ava saw my hand which had a bite mark in it, she gasped, setting Lily down on the counter and grabbing my hand.

"Baby, it bit you?" She asked me.

"Uhm... yeah... is that bad?" I asked her.

"It's pretty bad, baby. I need to take a look at that. When was your last tetanus shot? We need antibiotics for this." She panicked.

"Ava, Ava... baby, relax." I said. "I'm going to be fine until we get to the vet clinic." I said to her.

"No! We're cleaning it now and bandaging it. You need an antibiotic cream." She told me.

I sat down while Ava cleaned and treated my arm and then bandaged it up.

"Don't get bitten again, and Lily, Sweetie, don't try to touch him yet." She said softly, making Lily pout and reach out for me.

"Alright, what did Theo say?" I asked her.

"He said there was one near us. He sent me the location. Let's get this little guy to the car." She said, picking the little puppy up and carrying him to the car.

"I don't want him to be hurt." Lily cried.

"It's ok, baby. We're gonna take him to the puppy doctor and they're gonna fix him up and make him feel better." I said to her.

"What if they can't?" She asked me.

"Then we'll figure something out." Ava said softly.

"You're a doctor, you can make him better, right?" Lily asked Ava.

"I'm a human doctor, not a puppy doctor." Ava said softly.

"But you're still a doctor." Lily said.

"Yeah, I'll try to help him, ok?" Ava said.

"Ok... he's gonna be ok?" Lily asked, looking up at me.

"Yeah. He's going to be ok." I promised her, brushing her hair away from her face.

We made it to the vet clinic in no time. They fixed him up, they tried to search and see if he was registered as a pet anywhere, but they found out he was part of a litter that was given to one of the rescue facilities in the city a few days ago. So either we left him to join that rescue, or we could adopt him.

I was very hesitant about this adoption thing. We did want to get a dog, but that was before Lily came into the family. We already had our hands pretty full with Lily, I didn't know if we could take care of a puppy. Puppies were a lot of work. Had it been a cat, I would have been more up for it, because cats are easy to take care of. But the way both Lily and Ava looked at me was so hard to refuse.

"Ava?" I asked.

"I want him." Ava said.

"Yeah, ok... but think about if we can handle that responsibility right now." I said.

"We can... I'll drop a hospital shift." She said.

"You should drop a hospital shift regardless." I chuckled.

"Ok. I will... but please, baby, he's going to be good for her... it'll give her a distraction." Ava said.

I looked down at Lily who was still staring towards the room he was in.

"I know. But we have to feed him, and wash him, and take him on walks." I sighed.

"Are you telling me you can't handle that?" She asked me.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." I sighed. "I know it doesn't seem too bad... but sometimes I can't even cook dinner with that little one running around."

"But she wants this puppy, Gabe. If she promises to be on her best behaviour and let us take care of him properly, then will you let us take him in?" Ava asked.

"And what about when he poops on our couch, Ava? He's not housetrained yet." I said.

"I know." Ava said.

"You're willing to go through the trouble of housetraining him, and making sure he's potty-trained and also walking him and also scheduling his food and everything?" I asked her.

"Yes. If you want, I can take an extra two days off... then I'll have four days off in a row. I'll help start the training and I'll get to work on adjusting him to the house and to Lily. I'm sure that Lily would be more than ready to help take care of him. All the playing with the puppy that needs to be done, it can be her job." She said.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I mean, Lily and her tantrums and her demands and need for attention, along with a little puppy who needs some training and attention and walks and feeding and cleaning up after... it's a lot..."

"I know it is, baby. But since when has that stopped us?" Ava asked me.

"Never, I guess." I sighed. "What's your diagnosis, Doc?"

"My diagnosis, after thinking everything through, is that this will be good for Lily... it'll be good for her because then we don't always have to be the ones playing with her, and we don't have to be her only source of entertainment, and she'll be more independent, she'll have a companion." I explained to him.

"We're getting this dog aren't we?" I asked.

"Yes, please, please, please. He's so cute!" Ava cheered.

"Daddy... when can we bring him home?" Lily asked me.

"I'm beginning to realize that you two are a powerful duo." I said. "I can't say no to these pretty faces."

"So, we can take him home, now?" Lily asked.

"I think Daddy needs a little convincing." Ava said, picking Lily up.

Lily giggled and grabbed my shirt, pulling me closer to both my girls. That's when they both attacked me with kisses. They attacked my face with kisses. Each of them occupied one cheek.

"Ok, ok. We're keeping the puppy." I relented.

"Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the best daddy in the whole world." Lily cheered.

"And guess who the best little strawberry is?" I asked.

"I think it's the one I ate for breakfast today." Lily giggled, knowing that I meant her.

"No... it's this little strawberry." I said, tickling her as I took her from Ava's arms.

Her giggles filled the room with joy.

"Let's go get him now, Daddy!" Lily said, dragging Ava and I towards the little room that the puppy was in.

That's how the fourth member of the family was added. All I wanted was a night with my fiancé. Just one night, without little feet kicking me in my stomach, just me and Ava.