Max has been promoted to Resident at Sacred Spleen Hospital. His oldest daughter Saranya has become a teen.
Their second child, Kamala, is also growing fast. She's a very bright child, her teachers even say she's a genius. She's already decided that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up, just like her father.
Kamala has become good friends with her cousin Colby, who is so far the only one of Thornton Wolff's grandchildren to inherit his black and silver hair.
Max is Resident for only a short time before being promoted to Trauma Surgeon. That's great for his career, but the schedule takes a huge bite out of his family time. Working from 7pm to 3am means no more sleepovers with his family. He visits after the girls are home from school and Rukmini is home from work to help with homework and have a quick dinner before his shift begins. Sundari, the youngest child is the most neglected of all the girls, no one ever has time to read to her.
For the first time in her adult life, Rukmini is sleeping alone most nights while Max works his late shift. The bed seems disturbingly cold without him in it, and the room has an eerie chill that keeps Rukmini up at night. It had been easy to not get married and have Max move in since he was always around anyway, and his absence now has caused Rukmini to think about her life and the choices she's made with it. She had wanted something different than the expected route that her brother had gone down, marrying his high school sweetheart, having kids, but the only thing different about the life she made was that she had raise her kids without being married to their father. She and Liam even had the same number of children, his third son Joseph having been born recently. And now Liam's hair was gray and he was thinking about retiring. If Rukmini still wanted more from her life, she'd have to act fast.
Sundari has grown into a child. Her birthday came and went without notice from her family.
Saranya has become very close with her classmate Harlan Bachelor-Bunch. She'd like to get closer in the romantic sense, but Harlan is notoriously shy and the effort required to get him out of his shell has put off many girls before her. Saranya is more determined than most, and having decided what she wants has plotted the course to get her there. Making no demands on him, she's simply spent time with him, hanging out, playing games, letting him talk when he felt comfortable opening up.
"Have you thought about what you're going to do after graduation?" he asks her.
"Oh, yeah," Saranaya answers with great self-assurance, "I'm going to be a firefighter."
"Really? That's so hot!" Harlan says, blushing as the words leave his mouth.
Saranya seizes the moment and throws her arms around him. "What about you, Harlan? What do you want to do with your life?"
"I'm just hoping I can avoid anything that forces me to be around people all the time," he answers, "What I want...isn't a career. This will sound kind of stupid, but my dream is to have a really great kitchen. I love cooking."
"It's not stupid," Saranya assures him, and then kisses him.
Kamala becomes a teen.
The weekend finally comes and Rukmini is thrilled to have Max back for a solid two days and most especially, nights. He spends as much time as he can with each of the girls, who miss them as much as their mother does. Rukmini waits her turn, knowing she'll have him to herself all night. As the sun sets, however, his beeper goes off, he's needed at the hospital, and Rukmini has to spend another night alone.
Sundari becomes a teen.
Max surprises Rukmini with the news that he's demoted himself back to Resident so he won't have to work nights anymore and can spend more time with her and the girls.
"You'd do that for us?" Rukmini asks.
"Of course. My career has never been as important as my family," he answers.
Rukmini follows up on that with a surprise of her own. She wants to get married. Saranya will be graduating, and Rukmini wants to give her the family house, leave her in charge of her sisters for awhile while she and Max take a long honeymoon together. Max is reluctant at first to leave the girls, but the Kamala is nearly grown up herself and he trusts Saranya to be able to handle the responsibility. It won't be long before all the girls are on their own, and he's waited for Rukmini all his adult life, he wouldn't be able to turn her down now.
(Challenge Notes: So generation 2 comes to an end. Rukmini will marry Max and move into Wolff Manor with him as soon as Saranya reaches YA. Rukmini achieved her generation goal, Expansionist, as soon as she reached YA, and playing Hands Off wasn't too hard, so generation 2 wasn't much of a challenge. The goal I set for myself was to have Max become friends with all three of his daughters, which was a bit challenging since as a guest his autonomous interactions with infants and toddlers was minimal. When the girls got older and could initiate interaction it did happen for him, however. Rukmini did make it to the top of her career, though she spent so much time on maternity leave, there was some doubt on that. Saranya's goal will be Perfect Career, in the firefighter field, and No Strangers allowed. Her spouse will be part-time job only. Lucky for her she's got Harlan, who is a Loner and a Natural Cook, he was born in game, to Bella and Ethan Bachelor-Bunch, but it's like he was made especially to fit into generation 3's spouse.)
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