I never thought it would come to this, but damn, I had a bad case of baby fever. I had thought it all through and things just seemed right in terms of Gabe and I having a baby. I just needed to talk to him about it and convince him.

Lily walked into the house and set her backpack on the floor, Gabriel came walking in behind her with a sigh as she ran off to her library. Ever since the new school year started, both of them had been super stressed. Lily just couldn't talk to people. She'd had several panic attacks trying and now she was just unhappy and so was Gabe. He couldn't keep up with all his students and with Lily at the same time.

Lily had been fine last year, but that year things were different. It had already been a year since the wedding and things had settled down quite a bit, but this year was proving very difficult for us. Which is why I felt that I might need time off work, especially if we were going to try for a baby.

"Lily! Come back here, Baby!" Gabe called after her.

"No!" Lily sobbed.

"Honey, leave her... I'll go talk to her." I said, getting up off the couch and going towards the stairs. "Oh and there's food in the oven, Love."

"Thank you, Gorgeous." He said, kissing me on the forehead before letting me follow our daughter.

I hopped up the stairs and found Lily sitting in a chair looking out the window in her library. She sniffled and looked back at me when I opened the door. I picked up a random book off of one of her shelves and I took a seat in one of the big bean bags on the floor.

"Hm... this seems like an interesting book." I said quietly.

"It is." Lily nodded, hopping off her chair and walking over to me as she wiped her tears away.

"Well, do you want to read it with me?" I asked her as she settled on my lap.

"No." She said, snuggling into me.

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" I asked her.

"I don't want to go to school. I hate it there. It used to be good before, but now it's just bad. All the kids look at me weird and they say mean things, and I just don't want to go there anymore." Lily cried.

"Ok, baby. But how else will you learn all the amazing things that they teach you at school?" I asked her.

"It's not like anyone is teaching me except Daddy." Lily said. "I don't need to go there anymore, it's stupid."

"So you want to learn all the stuff that they would teach you at school but do it at home?" I asked her.

"Yes. Can I please do that, Mommy?" Lily asked, her fist grabbing my shirt as she hugged me.

I rubbed her back, planting kisses on her forehead.

"Can you tell me what made you hate school so much? You used to love school, baby. You were so excited." I sighed.

"I told you, they say mean things..." Lily sighed, tears dripping from her eyes.

"What were those mean things, you can always tell Mommy. Are they still bothering you?" I asked.

"They talk about how you and Daddy adopted me. They say it's because my parents didn't want me, because they didn't love me." Lily said. "I know it's true, but they don't have to talk about it."

"Aw, Lily... listen to me, Baby." I said softly. "Those people didn't deserve you... your real parents are Gabriel and I. I may not have had you in my belly when you were a baby, and I may not have known you when you were little, but I'm the one who takes care of you now and who loves you more than anyone."

"I know, Mommy, but they don't understand that." Lily cried.

"They don't... but you do. So don't let anything that they said hurt you. In the summer, you found your real home where your real parents are. And there's nothing to worry about anymore. You don't have to think about how life used to be back then. All I want you to think about, is our camping trip that's coming up." I said with a smile, kissing her forehead.

"Is Daddy mad at me for not being able to do school properly?" Lily asked.

"No, baby. He's not mad." I said to her, rubbing her back. "But he likes seeing his little strawberry happy, not upset."

"Mommy, I don't want to go to school anymore. It's just making me and Daddy sad." She told me.

"Alright, baby. Daddy and I will discuss it, and I want you to pick out five books you want to read with us tonight, and get changed into something more comfortable. Daddy and I will be in the living room when you're done." I said.

"Ok." She nodded, sniffling.

I wrapped my arms around my baby and hugged her tightly, kissing her cheeks and wiping her tears away.

"There's no need to be upset anymore." I said to her.

She nodded, helping me get rid of the tears on her pretty face.

"I love you, Lily." I said to her, kissing her cheek again.

"I love you too, Mommy." She said.

"Are you feeling a little better?" I asked her.

She nodded her head and I smiled.

"Then off you go. I put a change of clothes on your bed and I want you to go wash this pretty face, get changed and ready for dinner and pick out some books. Ok?" I asked her.

She nodded her head, kissing my cheek before she went to her room. I quickly hopped down the stairs to find Gabe laying on the couch.

"Hey, baby." I said to him.

"Hi, Gorgeous. Is she feeling better?" He asked me.

"Yeah, and I think that she should be taken out of school." I said, watching him groan and rub his forehead. "Hear me out, I've thought about it."

He sighed and nodded, inviting me to explain myself.

"She's being bullied and struggling to speak to people, Gabe.... She seems to be able to talk to people if she learns to trust them... but she's not going to learn to trust anyone at this rate. It's only giving her more trust issues."

"She's being bullied?" Gabe asked me, sitting up.

"Yeah. Some kids are telling her stuff about her biological parents and making fun of her for her parents not loving her and how she had to get adopted by us... Gabe, the truth is, I don't think I want her there anymore, and I have a plan." I said to him. "I want to drop my hospital shifts for the time being. I'll do two shifts at the clinic on weekends, and then I'll need your help to just come up with some things to do with Lily at home."

"What?" Gabe asked me.

"I want her out of school. I'll homeschool her. I just feel like I need the time off and with my family... and I want her to be more comfortable." I said to him.

"Baby, are you sure? This was never what you wanted... I can handle her and find some other way to make this work. Don't make yourself do something you don't want to do." Gabe said to me.

"I'm not. I want to do this... I was going to talk to you about only weekends actually... because there's something else I want." I said to him.

"What?" He asked.

"I want to have a baby. I think that it's time. I want to have a kid while we're still young and I want Lily to have a sibling." I said softly.

"You realize that's a lot, right? We have a seven year old who's struggling with school. I work a fulltime job and you do too right now." Gabe said to me.

"But I won't be working a full time job anymore. I'll change my hours starting next week, I'll take out the IUD a week after that and then once I get pregnant, I'll work weekends until my due date starts approaching. Then I'll go on leave for the baby." I said to him.

"How long have you been thinking about this?" Gabe asked me.

"Two days." I smiled.

"Is this really what you want?" He asked me.

"It really is what I want Gabriel... because I just realized how pointless life feels without my family. Once upon a time, I convinced myself that my career was the only thing that mattered, but now I realize that it's not. You and Lily and the rest of the family are what really give me motivation." I said.

"I say yes... to the baby. But how are you going to handle teaching Lily and being pregnant or when you have the baby?" Gabe asked me.

"Honey, it takes nine months of pregnancy before you actually get the baby. And Lily is so easy to take care of, she's considerate and she understands that I might be sick... so, trust me on this one, let's pull her out of school, and I swear, I'll make it work." I said to him.

"Ok. And you promise to tell me if it's ever too much for you to handle?" Gabe asked me. "That way we can figure it out together."

"Mommy... can I come downstairs now?" Lily asked from upstairs.

"Of course, baby. Come here." I called back.

"Since we've decided to have another little one... does someone want to practice making one tonight?" Gabe whispered in my ear.

"Yes, please." I said, shivering as he planted a kiss on my neck.

Lily walked into the room with

"Daddy... I'm sorry for being so sensitive and not being able to be good at school." Lily said, her pretty eyes full of tears once again.

"Lily... baby, come here." Gabe said, holding his arms open for her to come hug him.

She walked over with tears streaming down her face and she let her father pull her into his lap.

"Since when does Daddy care about anything but your happiness?" He asked her.

She shrugged, hiccupping as she cried.

"I don't care about any of that, Angel... I just want my little lily pad to be happy. Mommy and I talked about it and we decided something." Gabe told her, wiping away her tears.

"What?" Lily asked.

"No more tears, look at me." He said, wiping away her tears and kissing her cheeks and forehead.

She was still sobbing, making her breathing difficult.

"Sh... why are you crying, my love. You know we love you more than anything in the world, right? I'd never want you to be unhappy. That's why we're all gonna work on this." I said to her.

"I do-on't w-w-wa-ant to b-be diff-icult, Daddy. I'm s-s-s-orry!" She sobbed.

"Sh... no." I said softly, kissing her forehead. "Relax, my love. Everything is perfectly ok, right now. Right? You're with Mommy and Daddy, you're safe and we're going to have a great night, read some stories and have dinner."

"Y-yeah." Lily nodded.

"Ok, no more tears, we need to tell you what we decided." Gabe said, gently brushing her hair back and hugging her, rocking her back and forth to calm her.

"I'm scared." Lily sobbed.

"No, baby. There's no need to be. You know that when Mommy and Daddy are here, there's nothing to be afraid of." Gabe said to her.

She nodded, sniffling and trying to catch her breath as Gabe wiped away her tears and I brushed her hair back. We both kissed her on her cheek as she took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Oh my goodness, this is my favourite girl in the world!" I squealed, pulling her into my lap and kissing her cheek repeatedly, tickling her a little too and making her giggle.

Gabe laughed while he watched us, his hand rubbing my back as I sat up straighter and cuddled closer to him, pulling Lily closer and getting ready to tell her the new plan.

"Mommy and I have decided that you're gonna stay home with her. You'll stay here and you'll learn all the stuff that you have to learn but Mommy will help you. You'll get lots of time to read books and do fun activities. You'll also get to see the rest of the family." Gabe told her.

"Daddy... are you serious?" Lily asked, her eyes shimmering with excitement.

"Of course I'm serious, baby. As long as you promise that you'll be the best little girl for Momma." Gabe said.

"Ok. I will be! I'll be so good!" Lily cheered in excitement.

"Good. Now tell Daddy who's been saying mean things to you at school." Gabe said.

"It was Lauren... she said mean things and some other girls who I don't know copied her." Lily said.

"Well guess what? Lauren doesn't know anything about you or your story... she doesn't know anything about me or Mommy either... so we don't care what Lauren said, because she has no idea what she's talking about." Gabe said.

"Ok." Lily nodded.

"All you need to know is that Daddy is hungry for strawberries..." Gabe said wiggling his fingers in the air and making a huge smile form on Lily's little face.

"No!" She screeched happily, getting up and running off.

"Now, you, beautiful... you prepare yourself. We've got a lot of practicing to do if we want to make an addition to this family." Gabe said.

"Oh, I'm more than prepared... the question is whether you're prepared, Teach." I said.

"Someone has guts today." Gabe said, leaning down and kissing me before running off to catch his little strawberry.

I prepared dinner and eventually, both Gabe and Lily made their way to the dinner table to eat. After that we all settled in Lily's bed, reading her several stories and just talking to her about how things would be now that she'd be learning from home.

She seemed so excited, and so relieved. The adorable smile on her face lit up my world. I was so ready to start spending more and more time with my daughter and watching her learn and grow into a beautiful young woman. I was also excited for the little addition we were going to bring into the family and to see Lily being the best big sister this world had ever seen.