DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything.

Note: This was originally meant to be a short fic where Sandy and Kirsten exchange Chrismukkah gifts. I have an idea that I'm going to incorporate into the fic that will make this into a longer fic, and it kind of changes the direction of the story, so the new description is this:

A visit to Berkeley gets Kirsten thinking about making some big changes in her life.

Here's chapter 3. Thanks for reviewing the other chapters. Enjoy and let me know what you think of this one!

As they drove up to Berkeley, Sandy asked Kirsten, "So why'd you do this?"

"For you…because you told me you wanted this."

"Aww baby you didn't have to do this much. I just wanted to see you loosen up a little, that's all."

"Well there are more surprises. I don't think you know what this weekend is, do you?"

"Umm…no," Sandy said confused as he tried to remember all of their special occasions and couldn't come up with any that were this weekend.

"It's the annual alumni weekend. I know you've mentioned it to me a couple of times over the years but we never went. I called and got us tickets to the dinner."

"You did? Oh Kirsten…you did way too much," Sandy said smiling, reaching out to grab hold of her hand, "by the way, you don't have to wear that. You look way too sexy."

"Thanks. Did you really think I would? Come on Sandy," she said playfully, looking down at her and Sandy's linked hands and saying softly, "I just wanted you to see that I could still be who I was back then."

"I knew you could."

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As they approached Berkeley, Sandy said, "Ah, back to the old days. It feels good. So what hotel are we staying at?"

Kirsten laughed, "Well, tomorrow we'll be staying at a hotel. Tonight we'll be staying in the Range Rover."

"What?" Sandy asked, turning his head toward Kirsten as he stopped at a red light.

"I thought to make this trip seem really like the past we should sleep in here, kind of like when we lived in a mail truck," Kirsten said smiling.

"Baby now this why I love you so much," he said leaning over to kiss her.

Kirsten kissed him back, saying in between kisses, "Oh yeah? Why's that again?"

"Because I know that you're only doing this for me. Honey you're a hotel girl. Not a camper. Trust me, I remember the summer of 1998. Camping with you is no fun."

"Mmm...I wonder if that's changed at all since then. You know, just for the record, it was disgusting in that tent and we were on a family vacation, you were trying to kiss me while we were in a disgusting, dirty tent and Seth was right next to us. And besides, we aren't sleeping in a tent this time. Plus we're alone, so you never know."

"Woohoo!" Sandy said excitedly.

Suddenly they heard horns blowing behind them to go since the light changed.

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The rest of the night they spent riding around past familiar places, recalling events from their past. They came up to their old house. "Ah it feels like the year 1987, doesn't it? We had just moved in while you were pregnant with Seth."

"Yeah, it does. It seems like only yesterday we bought this house. There's Seth's room," Kirsten said, pointing to one of the upstairs bedrooms.

"Yup. Remember how you insisted we renovate the attic so we could have our bedroom next to Seth's, and that we repaint it blue even though it was just painted white before we bought it? And then you surprised me that day when you painted the teddy bear mural on the wall."

"Yeah. I was 8 months pregnant then. It was my pregnancy project. I wonder if the new owners left it up."

"Should we see?"

Kirsten looked back at Sandy with a response that said she wanted to, but didn't think these homeowners would want strangers coming into their home to look around.

Nevertheless, a few minutes later, there they were, standing on the doorstep ringing the doorbell. Sandy gave Kirsten his "Berkeley" sweatshirt he was wearing so that she could cover up a little. Sandy and Kirsten hoped the homeowners were the ones they sold the house to. Thankfully, it was them. Both parties recognized each other and the homeowners invited the Cohens' in. Memories flooded the Cohens' minds as they made their way through their old house. It was so different from their house in Newport Beach. This house was very small. It only had one bedroom until the Cohens' had the attic turned into two additional bedrooms upstairs. The Poolhouse alone was about the size of the entire first floor.

As they reached the top of the stairs to explore the small, second floor, they slowly went into Seth's old bedroom.

"Wow," Kirsten gasped as she looked at the room in awe.

"The mural's beautiful, isn't it?" The female homeowner said. "It was here when we bought the house from you and its perfect since this is our grandson's room when we babysit him. It fit the room perfectly."

"Kirsten painted that," Sandy said softly.

"You did?" the woman asked, looking at Kirsten.

A bit emotional from seeing such an old painting of her own, Kirsten stuttered, "I…I…painted this when I was pregnant with our son. This is the whole reason we wanted to come inside. I was curious if it was still on the wall," she said as she rubbed her hand over it.

"Oh this definitely wasn't coming down," the woman said firmly, "it's beautiful! You must be an artist?"

"No," Kirsten said quietly and giving a small laugh, "I'm not an artist."

"Well you should be. I'll be downstairs. Take your time," the woman said.

Sandy came up behind Kirsten, wrapping his arms around her. "You okay, baby?"

Kirsten nodded and held on to Sandy's arms. "It's just…all these memories."

"I know. I'm surprised the mural's in such good condition after all these years," he said while looking at it.

"It could use some touchups. Maybe I should touch it up for them? I mean they were nice enough to let us come inside," Kirsten said anxiously.

Sandy didn't know what to say. Sure he was happy the homeowners let them in, but this would mean less time alone with his wife on their private weekend. He didn't dare ask how long it would take as he could see this painting was sentimental to his wife. He simply responded, "Okay."

An hour later Kirsten was touching up the mural while Sandy conversed with their new friends inside the Cohens' old house. He went upstairs to bring her some tea but ended up just leaving it on a table when he saw how captivated his wife was with painting. Sandy smiled to himself, thinking about how Kirsten used to paint all the time when they were in college. She even painted a portrait of them together.

Two hours later, Kirsten finished, and the Cohens' conversed with the homeowners a little longer.

It was already 10:00pm when they left. "Sandy I'm sorry I made you wait while I repainted the mural. I just felt like I needed to do this."

"It's okay. I'm glad you did it. Boy, I don't know how you could paint so neatly on the wall yet get it all over yourself, AND on my sweatshirt!" Sandy said jokingly.

Kirsten looked down at the sweatshirt. "Yikes, I'm sorry!"

"So where to now? You ready to get some rest or are you up for more fun?"

"More fun," Kirsten said laughing.

They headed to the campus to take a walk.

"Mmm…this feels good being up here," Kirsten said as she reached out for Sandy's hand.

"It does! Who would've thought we'd get to go into our old house? Hey, I have fond memories of this place?" Sandy said to Kirsten as he pointed to the library.

"Yes! It's where we got so much studying done!"

"If you call secretly making-out behind the romance novels section studying, then yeah." Sandy was referring to the fact that he and Kirsten met in the library everyday, sometimes this being the only place they saw each other for a few days at a time since Sandy's law school schedule and internship and Kirsten's art history degree and part-time job kept them very busy. This was a central location for them to meet and unwind for a while before heading to their next class or work.

Kirsten let go of Sandy's hand to face him, skipping backwards. She was excited thinking about their days at Berkeley. It was fun reminiscing. "We were pretty good at hiding it, weren't we?" she asked teasingly.

"No! We were good at covering! Remember when the librarian heard you moaning and asked you if you were okay when we left that day?"

"Yeah," Kirsten said starting to giggle uncontrollably, "I told her I had a tooth pulled that day and I was still in pain. Or what about the time those preppy kids caught you on top of me making-out and they told on us."

"Yeah, like if that isn't high school to do," Sandy said joking. The truth was that Sandy and Kirsten were like two high school sweethearts in college. They couldn't keep their lips off each other.

"I know! We had a good time. We never sneak around making-out anymore."

"Well, Seth and Ryan have caught us in the kitchen a few times."

"True. We should do it more often to aggravate them, or show some affection in public more often. It's fun."

"I agree." Sandy couldn't believe it. Not only did he get a surprise, romantic trip to Berkeley with his wife, but his wife had suddenly become a teenager again who only wanted to make-out with him and have fun. Maybe this was what she needed. Maybe instead of just doing this to please him she realized that she needed to dothis for herself. He just hoped that once they went back to Newport Beach she would still feel the same way.

TBC

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