Pov y/n

The alarm pulls me out of the land of the dreams and I groan before shutting it off. I rest my arm above my eyes, not ready to get up. The matrass beside me shifts before I feel kisses on my cheek. I lift my arm away and smile a little when I open my eyes and look at Scarlett. She looks equally as tired as me but still manages to smile at me.

"I don't wanna go." I mumble and she smiles softly and kisses my nose.

"It'll be just fine, I know it." She assures me and I sigh a little.

"But why so early though?" I ask back and pout a bit, making her chuckle.

"You had to get up even earlier for your job at the coffeeshop." She points out and I hum, she is right.

"But back then I didn't have the chance to cuddle with you instead of getting up." I grin a little and scoot closer to her, looking up at her as she's propping herself up on one arm. She smiles and pushes some hair out of my face.

"That's true." She agrees and gives me a quick peck before moving away and I sigh a little but get up as well and dressed.

Today is my first day at my new job as a marine biologist and I am actually excited about it but I am also nervous because this is bigger than working at a coffeeshop or an aquarium, this probably is the one chance in life and if I blow it, it might never come again.

Besides, I am also nervous to meet all these new people who are already a team and now I come along. I mean, I did meet one or two people already when I was there to sign the contract and everything but still, from today on, I will work there. Even picking an outfit makes me nervous because I wanna make a good impression.

I look through my choices but can't seem to find the right one. When I feel a presence behind me, I glance at her and sigh. Scarlett rubs my shoulders, trying to calm me down, before she takes out some clothes and offers them to me.

I look at them: a grey pair of jeans and a light blue blouse that is a little warmer, so I don't freeze, seems like a solid choice.

I nod and take the clothes from her before giving her a quick kiss. She returns it and tells me she'll make breakfast and wake up Rose while I get dressed.

I nod and change into the clothes she picked. I look into the mirror and tug a bit on the blouse until I'm happy and take a deep breath, it will be fine.

The smell of coffee lures me downstairs and I see Scarlett hustling around the kitchen, preparing breakfast. I take a moment to just look at her and admire my wonderful girlfriend.

Since my new job is in Manhattan, my old apartment is pretty far away and the drive there would have taken really long, ending in me needing to get up very early.

So, Scarlett offered that I can stay with her and Rose until I have my new apartment. I wasn't sure about it at first because it felt like moving in together and it doesn't feel quite right yet, but she assured me that it is really just until I find a new apartment here in Manhattan. I agreed and have to admit that the thought of waking up next to her, definitely sounded tempting. We moved some more clothes of mine in here, so I have a bigger selection. I still have my apartment in Brooklyn though, just in case I need some space or silence or so.

Rose was excited as well that I am living here for now and insisted on taking me to work on my first day, meaning, Scarlett has to take me and Rose comes with us. Honestly, it's pretty adorable and it makes me smile every time I think about it.

Scarlett notices me and nods towards the cup of coffee she made. I walk over and take a sip, it tastes great and I smile thankfully. She returns the smile.

"You know, you don't have to do all this, I could do it myself." I say, feeling a little bad that she puts this much effort into it but she shakes her head.

"I want to do it, it's your first day in your new job and I want your morning to be great." She explains and leaves the waffle maker alone to come to me and wrap her arms around my waist. I put the coffee down and rest my arms on her shoulders.

"It feels a little like I'm sending my child back to school after summer break." She sighs a little and looks a bit sad. But I can't help it to raise my eyebrows.

"Don't worry, I'll behave, Mom." I grin a bit, deciding to just go with it. She swats my back lightly.

"It's just, we had the past two weeks to us, no work in between and I just enjoyed spending so much free time with you." She explains and a small pout forms on her lips. My eyes soften at the sight of it.

"I loved it too." I reply and kiss her a few times, until the pout is gone. "But we knew this would come."

She shakes her head a little. "I liked the bubble we were living in a lot."

I chuckle a bit and kiss her cheek. "Me too, bug, me too. But it needs to be popped now." I say and she nods, still unhappy with it though.

"Now I feel like I'm sending my kid to school after summer." I joke and she huffs a bit but smiles.

"I will miss you." She whispers and I pull her a little closer.

"I will miss you too." I whisper back and kiss her again, before she pulls away to take care of the waffles again. As if on cue, Rose comes into the kitchen. She still looks sleepy and her hair is messy but she is dressed. She slurs to the dining table and sits down. I go to her and kiss the top of her head.

"Good morning, sweetie." I greet her and get a tired smile back.

"Morning, Mama." She greets back and leans back in her chair.

It's almost funny to see her like this in the morning, because usually, she would have been awake in half an hour anyway and full of energy. But it's always different when you actually have to be awake and don't do it voluntarily.

I smile at her before helping Scarlett in the kitchen. We set the table and Rose watches us. Scarlett gives her a kiss as well and asks how she slept. While we eat, Rose tells us that she had a dream about bunnies tonight and that they were super cute.

Slowly but surely, she wakes up more and by the end of breakfast, she is as energetic as ever. I quickly clean up the table while Scarlett does Rose's hair and we are ready to head out. I double check if I got everything, which is basically just my phone, my wallet and my keys.

Rose is already running to the car as I look around the entrance hallway, thinking about if I need anything else. Scarlett's hands softly hold my sides and I turn around to look at her.

"You can do this, it will be fine, no need to worry." She assures me, seeing the nervousness in my eyes. I nod a little and bite my lip.

"Take a deep breath, okay?" She says and inhales deeply before letting it go. I mirror her when she does it again and try to calm my nerves.

"You know a lot in your field and they know you are qualified, they picked you for this job, so there is nothing to prove today. They will be nice to you and if not, they are asses. You may not make friends directly but you are not alone, you still have me and if you need someone to talk, just text me, I'll have my phone with me all the time." She says, never breaking eye contact.

I breathe in once more and let her words sink in. She is right, they know about what I can and can't do and picked me to work there and the few people I met were nice, so hopefully the rest will too. I nod and smile a little at her.

"You are right, it will be okay. Thank you for calming me down and being there for me." I say and she smiles at me.

"I'm doing my best and am glad when it helps." She replies and lets go of me.

I step out and to the car while she closes the door. Rose already buckled herself up and Scarlett and I get in as well before she drives the car out of the drive way. The drive is mainly silent but when we stop at a red light, Rose moves around on the backseat a bit and I turn around to look at her. She grabbed her backpack, that was laying next to her, so I turn around again. I can hear her open the backpack and pull something out.

"Mama?" She asks and I reply with a 'yes', turning around in my seat a little. She holds a piece of paper in her hand.

"I know it's your first day of work and I always get a little nervous at my first day of school after a long break, so I drew something for you, to help make you less nervous." She says and my eyes soften when she hands me the paper.

I turn it around and my heart melts at the sight. She drew me in an underwater world and wrote 'Hav a god day at work Mama.' above it. I smile softly at the spelling mistakes that make the picture even more adorable.

"When you look at it, it can remind you of home and you can imagine to play with me or to cuddle with Mommy and me." She explains enthusiastically and I look from the picture to her, reaching out my hand that she takes.

"I love it, sweetie, thank you so much. I will have it with me with honor." I promise and her eyes light up and she smiles happily.

"Maybe you can put it up over your desk, if you have one." She suggests and I nod.

"I definitely will, if I have one." I assure her and she smiles even wider.

Scarlett glances over at us, a content smile on her lips. Maybe this day will be better than I thought.

When we arrive, I get out, after kissing Scarlett and squeezing Rose's hand and saying my goodbye. Rose waves as they drive off and I turn around, looking at the building I am working in from today on and let my fingers graze over the rolled up drawing I put in my bag. Here goes nothing.

I enter the building and go to the front desk to get my key card. There are different companies in this building, so my key card only works for the parts that belong to the one I work for. When I approach the elevator, I feel the nervousness rising again but I take a deep breath, this will be fine.

I don't need to get up high, so I get off again and step into the front room. There's a young woman, about my age standing there, looking up from her phone when I walk in. She smiles at me and pushes some of her brown hair out of her face. I return the smile. She approaches me.

"Hi, I'm Brooke." She introduces herself.

"Hi, I'm y/n." I reply and she nods.

"I'm here to show you around a bit and to your work places." She tells me and gestures towards an open room.

I raise my eyebrows a little. Work places? As in plural?

I follow here and am led into the open room where three desks are, behind everyone sits a person, either typing something on their computer or being on a call.

"This is part of our management. They are mainly here to reply to people who are interested in this organization or to companies who want to work with us. They also take jobs for when someone calls to schedule us researching something for them or so." Brooke informs me and I nod along.

She leads me further into a little hallway with five doors. Two of them have toilet signs on them, self-explanatory. One door is open and Brooke stops in the doorframe. I take a look inside and find a little kitchen and a table, fitting around six people.

"Looks comfortable." I say and Brooke smiles and nods.

"It is. Here you can spend your breaks if you want to and get yourself coffee, tea or whatever your heart desires. The fridge is used from everyone on this level, so maybe write your name on the things you put in there." She says with a little laugh and I chuckle.

"Alright, I will keep that in mind." I say. She points to one door.

"That's the office of Jordan and Brandon. They have the same job as we. I will introduce you to them later, they're in the lab right now." She explains and I nod, so she has the same job as I.

She leads me to the last door and opens it. The room is quite big for an office and is divided by a wall that can be slid to the side. One side is already decorated with plants and a few pictures of Brooke and other people. The other side is plain. There's a computer and a large desk. In front of it, there's a deskchair. Above the desk, there's a whiteboard for me to write notes on. The needed pens are in a little cup next to paper. On the side there's a shelf with probably empty folders and a printer. Next to it there's a paper trash can. Looks nice, I can work here.

"It's quite big." I say out loud and Brooke nods.

"And luckily it's not very loud here, so working and concentrating is easier. But let me show you the place where you'll probably spend most of the time: the lab." She says and grins before guiding me out again.

We take the elevator up anther level and now I understand why she said work places, I'll have a separate desk. Somehow I assumed I'd just be in the laboratory or have a desk that's not private but apparently I have my own office, which is honestly nice.

This level has a different vibe, as strange as it may sound. It's less busy because there are no people working at the front. We follow a short hallway and step through two doors, which lead us into another small room with a glass front. From here we have a perfect view over the laboratory in front of us.

There are two young men working in it right now. It looks very well equipped and I am honestly impressed.

This organization is rather small since it's just starting to grow, so I expected a smaller lab with less high equipment but it seems like they have their priorities set and do everything to assure their research is good. There are four booths in the lab, two on each side, a long table in the middle, kinda splitting the room into two halfs. There is some equipment in the middle, that's only there two times, the rest of the not so expensive equipment is there four times, one in each booth. There are also a few white boards on the walls, scribbled full with notes for everyone. The men are both wearing white lab coats with the initials 'OCI' on the left side, standing for the name of this organization: The Ocean's Future Initiative. They also both wear protection glasses on their head, not needing them right now though. There's also a huge fridge kind of thing at one of the walls to keep samples in and that kind of stuff.

"As you can see, we work in this lab with four people but generally, everyone has their own working space. When we work on the same project, we write down important notes onto the white board, so everyone can look at them whenever it's needed. And if we all work on different projects, we keep an update on those white boards. If you should be stuck in any way, feel free to ask me or the guys, we're always happy to help. And don't worry about the silence that mostly lays over the lab, that's because we're all concentrating but that doesn't mean we can't help you or answer a question." Brooke explains friendly and flashes me a smile that I return.

"Thank you, that's really kind of you." I reply and she nods in response before pointing at the door across from where we came in. There's an industrial sink in front of it and hooks with lab coats, well two because the other two are used at the moment.

"We always wash our hands before going in or after coming out, just to avoid any problems. The lab coats are on the hook when we don't need them but it's totally okay if you forget to get out of it when you're rushing into your office to write something important down. Don't worry, that happens quite often to Jordan." She grins a bit and nods towards the young men with black, short curls.

"Just hang the coat over the sink in the end of the day, so the cleaning staff knows to pick it up and wash it after replacing it with a new coat. There are name tags above the hooks, just to avoid accidentally swapping coats." She continues and now I notice the tags as well, my heart beating faster in excitement when I see that my name is already above one of the two remaining coats.

"I think that contains the tour so far, if you have any further questions, I'm either here or in our office." Brooke flashes me another smile.

"Thank you, I really appreciate you showing me around." I say honestly and her eyes light up a little at my genuine tone.

"We usually get our new research jobs either in briefings or in our emails. Your work email address and everything about that should be on your desk. I'd suggest to see there if you have something to do and to get comfortable in your new office. Otherwise, the manager's and boss's office are on this floor, when you walk the hallway into the opposite direction as we just went, just ask them if you have questions about new projects." Brooke explains and I nod along, thanking her one last time before she excuses herself to go into the lab, putting on her coat and washing her hands.

I turn around and head back to my office. It's a bit strange to be in here but as long as I work here, this will be my office.

I look around a bit more and place my bag onto the desk. When I open it, I immediately see the picture Rose drew and take it out, a smile on my lips as I look at it again. I scan the room to see where I can put it and decide that for now it will go on my whiteboard. Before sitting down, I send Scar a quick message that everything is fine and she sends me a thumbs up and a heart back.

I take the note with my login information and start the computer. The login is easy and I smile when I see two emails already, one being very sweet and welcoming me to OFI. The other one is my first project and I feel my finger tips tingle a bit, excited to start this job. Even though it's a simple task, I start it with a big smile. I don't need to go into the lab for this one, so I stay in my office and get to work.

Close to the end of my work day, I am nearly finished with my first task, Brooke comes back in and glances into my office, checking in if everything is good. I assure her it's great and she nods and goes back to her half.

Eventually I finish my task and send it over to my boss, so he can take a look at it. A glance at the time tells me, that I only have ten more minutes until I can go home. I use that time to clean my desk as there is a cup and a plate on it.

For lunch, Scar made me a sandwich today, which I honestly found adorable and I got myself a plate for it when I made me a tea shortly before. When I reenter the office, Brooke leans back in her chair and when she notices me, she smiles friendly.

"First day done. How was it?" She asks and sits up a little straighter, not slouching in her chair anymore.

"It was good, I think. I finished my task and am looking forward to see what I'll do tomorrow." I answer honestly and she nods knowingly.

"I feel the same way when I finished a project, always excited to see what's next. And even if some are a bit more boring, the others are interesting." She grins a bit and winks. I chuckle and nod.

"By the way, the picture your daughter drew is adorable. Sorry, I couldn't help but notice it when I checked in on you." She says and scrunches her nose a bit, unsure of my reaction.

My heart almost skips a beat when she calls Rose my daughter. I mean sure, people on the street probably assume that but hearing it being said out loud just makes me happy and if I'm honest, I do see her as my daughter somehow.

"Thank you, she was excited for me as well today." I reply and Brooke smiles softly before I go back to my office and gather my stuff.

I say goodbye and head out after my first day is officially over. It really was a good day and as much as I am looking forward to this, I am missing my other two jobs because I really liked them and the people I work with and I hope, that I can stay in contact with them.