Well hello everyone. The last few months have been a bit of heaven and hell for me. I lost my beloved father at the beginning of August and I published my first book in October. My heart and mind have not been on this story, but thanks to Reader575 holding me accountable to finishing this story, so this is my start. Hope you enjoy it.

Olivia had started at Stanford and if she was being really honest. Her heart really wasn't into it. She wasn't sure if it was the new environment or the baby, but she needed to have a conversation with her husband. She didn't want him to blame himself for what she was contemplating.

She realized while they were on the road, she had never just stopped her education for anything. She had sacrificed so much to get where she was, but at a price. She paid it by not seeing her family on a regular basis, and she and her husband saw each other a couple of days every two days. Fitz's residency had him at the hospital ever two days. To be honest she felt a little alone, which was strange for her. She had been alone for so long and now she had her own family and she missed Fitz a lot. Logically she knew what to expect of Fitz's residency, but when they were in Boston, she had Jake, and Vanessa. Jerry and Venessa were still closing up the Boston house. So they hadn't made out to California yet.

She also had the added sadness that her mother was not going to be able to come out to see her until the baby came. They had Grandpa Dan negotiate a reprieve for the babies birth. Her father and mother would get to come out for a month once the baby was born, but Olivia wanted her mother before the baby got there. Talking to her on the phone was not enough for her.

She needed to come clean with Fitz. The three months they had moved to their new home, had not turned out the way she thought it would. She was intelligent person and logically moving to another state and school would not be the same, but she found herself struggling to throw herself into her usual routine that served her so well throughout her academic life. Now, she felt off kilter and on unfamiliar ground at school. It wasn't even the riggers of her internship, if she had to be honest. She didn't like it. She didn't like the people she worked with and her instructors for a lack of better words, they didn't challenge her. She was bored to tears. She literally had to talk herself into going into the hospital for the last two weeks. She felt like she was suffocating and if she didn't do something soon it might not be good for her or the baby.

So for the first time in a long time, Fitz had the weekend off and they needed to talk and find a solution to what was happening to Olivia. She let him sleep in because he needed it after 48 hours on duty. He finally woke up around 11am, which was his usual sleep pattern. Olivia had been busy in the kitchen cooking a brunch for both of them. She was an early riser, so she had a bagel to eat something before her husband woke up.

Pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs, grits, fruit, and a pot of coffee for her husband and her favorite mint tea for her.

Fitz walked into the kitchen smelling the feast from his bed had enticed him to get out of bed quickly.

"Babe. Either I've done something really good, or you've done something really bad. Either way, can it wait until we eat?"

He smiled. She laughed at her silly husband.

"Yes Captain. Let's eat."

The one thing that Fitz loved most about being married to his wife was that she was such a great cook. She brought a bit of her southern cooking skills with her. He was stuffed like a tick on a hog when he finally told his wife he had enough and got up to clean up. That was their rule, you cook, the other cleans. He was in the mist of scrapping their plates and getting the dishwasher ready to load.

"Babe, can we talk as soon as you load the dishwasher?"

"Sure Livie." He winked at her and continued his task.

When he had wiped down everything and started the dishwasher. He went and sat down beside his wife.

"So, my love, what do you want to talk about."

Those words just made the water start a path down her eyes. Fitz was immediately alarmed by her response. He got out of his chair moved around to where his wife was sitting picked her up and sat her on his lap hugged her to him as he let her weep a bit. When she started to calm down a bit.

"Livie, baby what's the matter? You know you can tell me anything. I love you so much."

She pulled back and wiped her nose with his t-shirt. Which made him smile.

"Your not going to like what I'm going to say. Because I think your going to take it wrong."

"How do you know unless you tell me what's the problem?"

She took a few deeps breaths before she started to talk.

"I don't like my internship. I don't like my professors, they don't challenge me at all. I have to give myself a pep talk everyday just to get out of the car to go into the hospital."

Fitz heart sunk at his wife's admission. Olivia could see the sorrow in his eyes. She took both her hand and put them on the side of his head and made sure he was looking into her eyes before she spoke again.

"I can already see that your taking this on as your fault. It's just not a fit. I made the decision to come out here, we had no idea that the program was not as good as Harvard, but how many are. I been thinking a lot of my academic life and I've never had a break for the past twelve years. I want to drop out of the program for now and maybe doing a bit more research or start working on the foundation now."

Fitz still felt responsible for her having a hard time making the transition to their new life. If he had just stayed in Boston none of this would have happened.

"Babe, sometimes life doesn't go as planned. You don't know that I wouldn't have made the same decision if we stayed in Boston. To be honest, some of what I'm feeling is burn out. I just want to stop for a while. Our baby will be here soon and I want to just stop and enjoy this time, because I won't be able to get it back."

"I hear you Little Woman, but I don't want you to resent me for bringing you out here. I tell you what. Let's say you drop out of Stanford and if you like, let's do some research and maybe go talk to a few people over at Berkley. If you like what we find out, you could apply for the fall session of next year. That will give you time to do what you need to do with the baby coming and having the time you want with the baby before you rush back to school."

Olivia smiled at her always thinking husband. She pulled his head down and kissed him tenderly.

"Sounds like a plan Captain Daddy."

Fitz laughed at his wife.

So that's what she did. That Monday she went in and resigned from the program. Her teachers were really perplexed by her leaving, they considered her their prized student. She didn't let their pleas keep her in the program. When she got back in her car, she was giddy, she had never in her life not been in a structured environment. It was like she was skipping school or something. For the first time in her life, she was free to do anything. As she sat there in her car, she had no idea what to do, but she knew someone who would. She pulled out her phone.

"This better be life or death for you to call me at work."

"Can it Jake. I know it's your day off."

Silence

"OK, OK, what do you want loser."

Olivia laughed

"Did Fitz tell you that I quit my internship?"

"Why the hell would you quit your last year? So, are you happy?"

"Best thing I've ever done and now I have absolutely nothing to do for the first time in my life, and I knew who to call to consult on time wasting task."

"I'm not sure if I'm flattered or insulted, but you not far off. Speaking of wasting time your holding up my online gaming time. So what do you want. Tick tock lady."

Olivia laughed out loud. This is what she missed most about Boston.

"So, any suggestions for my first day of freedom?"

"Well since your having a kid, why don't you start shopping or something. Have you and Fitz started to fix the baby's room yet?"

"Not yet, but that is something we are going to do together. I want me stuff to do, not we stuff."

"Ahh, gotcha. Well...it's been a while since I've been out to the bay, but why don't you go into San Fran and go to Ghirardelli Square and have the most decadent hot chocolate you've ever had in your life. While your out there, get me a pound of chocolate raspberry coffee. I'll expect it next week. Later loser."

Olivia laughs out loud at Jake's antics.

She took his advice and sat down near the window and watched the cable cars go up the hill as she moaned in delight at her hot chocolate with the most devine wiped cream on top. After purchasing Jake's coffee, she decided to see what other shops were in the square. Her first stop was in a store called Lola. It had a bunch of kitsch that she loved. She bought a book called Goodnight San Francisco and a book called Larry gets lost in San Francisco. She wandered on and found a novelty spirts shop. She went in and bought her husband an 8 year old Scottish whiskey. After leaving the shop she was on her way to the car when she came across a store called Yap and she saw all the small doggy gear and right then and there, she knew they needed a dog. Their busy lives had never allowed them to have one. They had talked about getting one, but realistically they didn't have the time. Olivia stood looking in the window for a few more minutes and made up her mind that they were a dog family.

She walked back to the parking deck with the craziest grin on her face. She couldn't wait to tell Fitz that they were getting a dog. She got into her car and smiled and said out loud. "We are a dog family. Right baby?" She chuckled a little and put her car in gear and headed home.

Fitz wasn't due to be home till Wednesday. It sounded so cliché but she wanted bake her Mom's lemon meringue pie. It was her favorite, she would ask for it for any special occasion. She hadn't had it in a long time. As she was getting her ingredient's out, she paused at her island realizing she had missed a lot of things in the past twelve years. All the birthday's, new babies in the family. Her brother's graduating from high school. Grandpa Dan's 90th birthday celebration. The whole town turned out for the celebration, but Olivia was at school. Fulfilling her promise to her parents. Had it been worth it?

As she stood there. She felt a little flutter and it made her smile. All she had given up had brought her so much in the end. She pushed on to make her pie. She called her Mom to update her on everything that was going on and had a little tea on facetime with her as she showed her her effort to make her favorite pie.