Forever with His Edith

Fight

AN: I'm back to post another chapter! I'm so sorry for not posting all this time... I can't promise I'll be posting more often, but I'll definitely try!

Noah POV- A year and seven months later

The tiny offender sat curled up in the lap of my almost two-year-old daughter. Lydia's chubby fingers reverently grasped at its furry ears, down to its matted tail, being extremely careful not to touch the small gash on his back. The adoring smile on her face made it all worth it even if I was pretty sure Eden was currently losing her mind in our room ten feet away.

I probably shouldn't have brought a cat home, even if it was my wife and daughter's favorite animal. Judging by Eden storming from the room at the sight of him, I was in big trouble. That wasn't anything new lately. I knew that Eden hadn't wanted to have a pet until Lydia was old enough to help care for it, but the tiny kitten was found by my tire while leaving work, bloody and shivering, and I didn't have the heart to leave it.

I guess I could understand why Eden would be upset. It was another mouth to feed, another baby to raise, something else to worry about when she was filled with anxiety about everything that could possibly be taken from her. But I wasn't letting up this time. The kitten would be ours for as long as it decided to live with us even if I had to go against Eden to make it happen.

"Daddy, Kitty!" Lydia was practically bouncing, but trying her hardest not to jostle the brown fluff in her lap. The kitten would be beautiful, if not for his extremely dirty and matted fur and gunk in his eyes. I had made sure to clean up the blood in his fur using some napkins from the school bathroom and check for fleas, thankful that he didn't have any that were noticeable.

"Yes, Lydia, that's a kitten. Be careful, he's sleeping, but I think he already really likes you! Do you want to give him a bath with me? We'll take him to the vet when I get home from work tomorrow."

"Yes!" She squeezed the kitten close to her chest and he yawned, his eyes struggling to stay open.

I prayed that Eden wasn't listening. I hadn't even convinced her that the kitten was ours, or spoke with her about how much money it would cost us. I knew that when Lydia went down for the night, I would be up for hours trying to rectify the situation. In fact, I might be paying for my irrational decision for days or even weeks. Honestly, I didn't care.

Eden always got to make the big decisions. I'd never complained because I knew she was usually making the right choices, but I wanted to be spontaneous without being yelled at for once. Cats weren't crazy hard to take care of and our daughter adored them.

Lydia Elizabeth's favorite book was one about a cat and she insisted on reading it every single day, her lovey she used when sleeping was a stuffed animal cat named Paws, her favorite movie was the lion king, and some of her favorite toys to play with were her tiger, leopard, and cheetah figurines. Gigi's cat, Willow, was her best friend and I had never seen a baby be so careful with a living being like Lydia was with that animal. Heck, her third word was "kitty". Eden and I had already talked about having Lydia's first pet be a cat, and there was no way I was taking this particular kitten from the arms of my enamored daughter.

Well, I may take him from her arms, but I would return him as soon as he was clean and healthy. Eden would just have to deal with it. I cradled the kitten, deciding we'd need to name him soon before "Kitty" stuck. "Come on baby girl, let's see what this animal looks like underneath all of this grime."

Lydia followed behind me, almost stepping on my heels as we made it to the kitchen. Her tiny arms were wrapped around my right knee and I tried not to stumble with her wrapped around me. I could tell she was excited. I turned on warm water in the sink and grabbed one of the washcloths from the drawer. The kitten was awake and mewled softly, rubbing his head under my chin. I decided that once he was clean and fed, Eden would adore him. He was way too sweet to ignore.