Matt finally accepted defeat midway through Christmas Day. There was nothing more he or Richard could do about the adoption today. They'd have to wait until tomorrow to make any other inquiries. But Elizabeth had been so upset and worried over the fact that Annie wasn't theirs yet, and he hated to see her upset. She'd put on a brave face, as always, but when she did let her guard down enough to confess what was bothering her, Matt always tried to make it right if he could. But this was something he couldn't make right. Not right now, at least.
He came into the living room to find mother and daughter snugged together on the sofa. Richard went to the kitchen where Margaret was working on cooking their Christmas dinner—Elizabeth was supposed to help but was obviously given a reprieve—so Matt joined his wife.
"Here, do you want to hold her?" Elizabeth asked, sitting up and shifting so she could hand the baby over.
"More than anything," he admitted, taking Annie in his arms and sitting back. Their little girl was sleeping soundly for the moment. "How did you get her to settle?" he asked.
Elizabeth smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "I sang to her."
Matt couldn't help but grin. "Does that mean you'll be singing around the house more?"
That comment confused her. "I guess so. Why?"
"Because I love when you sing, and you don't do it nearly enough."
"Why didn't you ever say? I would have sung to you."
"Well it's sort of a weird thing to ask for. 'Would you sing for me?' comes off a little odd, don't you think?" he countered.
She shrugged and cuddled up with him again. "I guess so. I wouldn't have minded. Some men ask their wives to cook more or clean more or do things in bed. Mine just wants me to sing."
"I wouldn't mind if you cooked and cleaned more. And I can think of a number of things we could do in bed," he answered with a smirk.
Elizabeth nudged him for that. "Things I haven't done for you before?"
He feigned thinking for a moment, earning another nudge as she laughed. "No, I'm quite certain you've taught me more in bed than I'd ever contemplated before. Which is not something a husband likes to think about."
"You're English, honey. You're not a sexually adventurous people," she teased.
Matt wasn't sure how to respond to that other than to roll his eyes and focus his attention back on Annie. She had started pursing her lips in her sleep which was quite adorable. Her pale eyelashes fluttered, and Matt practically held his breath hoping she wouldn't wake up. Babies needed sleep and the house needed some peace and quiet.
Elizabeth's comment about the English made his mind wander. The thought always came up whenever they were in America, which was thankfully less frequent nowadays. This was her home, but he never liked having to be here. Though Matt didn't much like travelling. He liked being at home with his things and what he was comfortable with. Elizabeth had more of a sense of adventure than he did. He suffered the hassle and discomfort of travel for her.
"If we split up, would you move back here?" he asked, voicing his thoughts aloud.
She looked at him incredulously. "It's Christmas and we're about to adopt a baby and you're asking me what I'd do if we split up?"
"Not that we will," he corrected quickly. "God I hope we never do, but I was just thinking about being back home and realizing that this house and this city are home to you, aren't they? So if it weren't for me, would you bother staying in London?"
Elizabeth frowned. "I haven't really thought about it before." Really, she didn't like this line of conversation. The idea that she wouldn't be with Matt at some point in the future was not one she liked to contemplate. But since he had brought it up, she tried to imagine life in London without him. Would she stay? It was hard being so far from her family, and it still did feel like a foreign country so much of the time. But their house in Chiswick was her her real home, her life with Matt was her real life. Coming to LA and seeing her parents, that was a holiday for them. And they'd be going back to life in London in their house. All three of them, hopefully.
Matt turned to kiss her hair. "I'm sorry I brought it up. I just sometimes think about how much you gave up to live in another country with me."
"It wasn't much to give up," she assured him. "I like our life, Matt. I like our house and our friends and everything. And it's where we're going to raise our daughter. It's your home and it'll be her home, and that makes it my home."
He kissed her again and then realized something else. "We're going to have to make room for her pretty quickly. It's not like we left for our Christmas holiday thinking we'd need a nursery when we got back."
Elizabeth sighed, "We'll figure it out. I just want to know for sure that she is ours and we can take her home with us."
"We will," Matt promised. He still didn't know if that was a promise he could keep, but it was a promise he made to Elizabeth and to himself and to the baby in his arms.
The doorbell rang, interrupting the quiet. It woke Annie, and she started fussing. "Can one of you get the door?" Richard shouted from the kitchen. "We've got our hands full in here."
"Here, let me take her, and you get the door," Elizabeth offered.
"You sure? You've been with her all morning while she cried," Matt said, feeling bad for not being there for her.
"I'm used to it now," she answered. In reality, she hadn't showered in twenty-four hours, being too busy with Annie, and she had no idea how she looked. She didn't really want whoever was at the door to see her.
Matt passed the baby to Elizabeth, who stood up to rock her and try to soothe her, and went to the door.
"Happy Christmas, Matt! I brought presents!"
Leon didn't wait for a response and just pushed right inside. Matt ran his hand through his hair, wondering how to deal with this new iteration of chaos.
Elizabeth was in the living room, bouncing Annie and trying to get her to quiet. She'd only just eaten an hour ago and she didn't need to be changed, so Elizabeth wasn't sure what she was crying about. She turned to see Leon walking in with bags of gifts in his hands. "Oh, hi Leon," she greeted, trying to speak over Annie's crying.
With shock and perhaps a bit of disgust written on his face, Leon looked from Elizabeth to Matt who had just walked through. "Liz, you look like hell! What the fuck is that horrible thing?!"
Without a single thought, Matt reacted to the question by throwing a punch that connected hard on Leon's nose. "That's my daughter, you twat! And don't you dare say that about my wife!"
Leon dropped the bags he was holding and clutched his face as blood started to flow. "Fuck! Bloody hell, Matt, I don't think you're supposed to use that kind of language in front of children!"
"Shit, you're probably right," Matt agreed. He grabbed a tissue box from the side table and handed it to Leon. "Sorry, I'll get you some towels. And ice."
Elizabeth watched the exchange with slight horror. She knew this was not the first time Matt and Leon had come to blows—the former having quite an unpredictable temper and the latter being as much of a twat as Matt had accused him—but this was not a typical Christmas occurrence. "Are you okay?" she asked nervously.
Leon's voice was muffled by the tissues pressed to his nose, but he answered, "I don't think he broke my nose but Jesus that was a bit uncalled for, don't you think? What did he mean, that's your daughter?"
The daughter in question had stopped screaming, finally, and was now awake but quiet in Elizabeth's arms. "It's a long story but this is Annie, and Matt and I are trying to adopt her."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Leon whined.
"We only found her yesterday," Elizabeth explained.
"But I thought you were just coming to spend Christmas with your parents, not to adopt a baby!" He really was put out that they'd come to LA under false pretenses on the tickets he'd bought for them.
"We didn't plan on it. But you know my mom is an OBGYN and a baby got abandoned at her office yesterday, so Matt went with her to see the baby and brought her home and as soon as we met her, we just kinda…knew."
"Knew what?"
She didn't blame Leon for not understanding. This wasn't really his sort of thing. "We knew that she was meant to be ours. So we named her Annie, and we can't do much today, but my mom already talked to the birth mother who wants her to be adopted. As soon as we can tomorrow, we're going to figure out what we have to do so we can take her home," Elizabeth explained.
Matt and Margaret appeared with ice and damp towels to tend to Leon. Matt apologized again and then went to take Annie from Elizabeth to give her a bit of a break. She went to the kitchen to get herself something to drink and to check in on her dad.
"You met Annie, then," Margaret said as she checked Leon's nose to make sure it wasn't broken.
"I wasn't expecting a crying baby and made a comment to make your son-in-law punch me, yeah," Leon answered bitterly.
"No one's said anything bad about her before," Matt grumbled. He really didn't know what came over him. Usually Leon had to do a lot more than make some stupid comment before Matt had to hit him.
Margaret chuckled. "Get used to it, Matt. You should have seen Richard when Elizabeth got a bad review in a play once."
The very idea was absolutely horrifying to Matt, that anyone ever could be anything less than kind and adoring to the little girl he'd fallen so madly in love with.
Leon shifted the conversation, not wanting Mat to get upset again. "I'll bring a present for her tomorrow. I obviously didn't bring a Christmas present for a baby I didn't know existed."
"Will you join us for dinner, Leon?" Margaret offered. Matt shot her a dirty look.
"No, sorry, I'm meeting up with Orlando Bloom and that supermodel girlfriend of his. They're having a Christmas party for some of her single friends. I'd say I was going to have a very happy Christmas but now Matt's gone and fucked up my face."
"I don't think having your face unblemished would have made a difference with the supermodels," Matt said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh shut up. Just because you've got a wife and a baby and a perfect family Christmas doesn't mean the rest of us are so lucky."
"I think if you were less of an asshole, you might have more luck," Matt fired back. "And you don't want a wife and baby anyway!"
Leon turned to Margaret. "Dr. McGovern, Matt's being really mean to me. After I went to all the trouble to make sure he and Elizabeth could come spend Christmas with you. And if it weren't for those plane tickets I bought, he wouldn't have that baby," he pouted.
Matt realized he was absolutely right. "I know, I'm sorry, Leon."
He brightened. "So you'll let me be her godfather?"
"I'll ask Elizabeth," Matt said, his heart dropping in horror at the very prospect. But he tired to play it off and just wandered away, holding his beloved daughter in his arms.