"Have fun at your work thing," Max said as his parents were putting on their jackets.

Sheldon rolled his eyes at his fifteen-year-old son. "There was a time in my life when I couldn't tell when someone was being sarcastic. I know you were being sarcastic just now because you know how much I despise these events."

"We're getting dinner before the event, which doesn't start until eight. We'll probably be home around ten," shared Amy while kissing her youngest two kids goodbye. "Pizza should be here in about fifteen minutes. Be good for Max. Daddy and I won't be home for bedtime, but we'll check on you the minute we get home."

Katie wrapped her arms around Amy as Sheldon hugged Leo. "Bye, momma."

Waiting for their parents to finally leave, Max turned to his siblings. "Mom ordered pizza for us for dinner. What should we do after we eat?"

"Movie!" Katie excitedly yelled, while Leo stood quietly next to her.

"Hey, what do you want to do tonight? Katie wants to watch a movie. Maybe you can pick out the movie for us?" suggested Max, kneeling in front of the almost-two-year-old.

Leo cupped his hands around his mouth to whisper in Max's ear. Max nodded at his request, "I think that sounds like a great idea. Katie, Leo said he wants to have a sleepover in my room tonight. Maybe we can all get on our pajamas after we eat and watch the movie in my room?"


Across town, Sheldon and Amy were enjoying dinner at The Cheesecake Factory before returning to the university for the evening. "You're being unusually quiet tonight. What's on your mind?" Amy questioned her husband as he picked at the French fries on his plate.

"What?" Sheldon was pulled from the trance he had fallen into. "Just thinking about us. About our kids."

"What are you thinking about us and our kids?" Amy was slightly concerned to hear his response.

Shrugging his shoulders, Sheldon explained, "Nothing really, just that I have a wonderful wife and three amazing kids. Not to mention, my wife helped me win the Nobel Prize I've always wanted."

Amy smiled at Sheldon. "And I have an amazing husband," she commented before looking at her watch. "Ooh, we'd better get going. It will be easier to sneak out early if we're there early and people are more likely to see us as they're coming in. They'll remember we were there and no one will question us tomorrow if we were there or not."


"Okay, pajamas are on. Popcorn is made. Remember our agreement, don't tell dad that we had popcorn in my room. You know he doesn't like us having snacks in our rooms," Max reminded Katie and Leo as the group got settled on his bed.

Leo looked at his older brother, "Breaking rules is bad," he said while shaking his finger at him as he reached for the popcorn with his other hand.

Max chuckled. "We're not really breaking a rule. We always have popcorn for movie nights, we just changed the location of the movie night to my room. Now, Katie, what movie did you decide on?"

The three-year-old proudly answered, "I wanna watch Finding Nemo. It's Leo's favorite."

"Nemo!" The boy got excited and started to bounce on the bed before Max pulled him to sit down.

It didn't take long for the siblings to become entranced in the movie and before Max knew it, Leo had fallen asleep in his lap and Katie was leaning against him, struggling to keep her eyes open. "You wanna stay here or go to your room?"

"Stay here," she whispered, snuggling closer to her brothers.

"Let's get you under the blankets at least. You'll be more comfortable," Max was starting to pull the blankets out from under his little sister. Katie quickly crawled under the covers. Knowing she would be asleep before too long, he kissed the top of her head. "Good night. I'm going to put Leo in his bed."

Katie reached her hand out and grabbed Max's arm. "No. Leo wanted to sleepover, too."

"Okay. Leo can stay here, too," Max shifted his brother under the covers in the middle of the bed and noticed Katie was smiling to herself, proud her older brother had listened to her. Max moved the half-eaten bowl of popcorn from his bed and set it on the desk across the room before climbing under the blankets himself.


"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Amy asked, unlocking the front door to let herself and Sheldon in.

Hanging his jacket on the hook behind the door and reaching to hang up Amy's, he answered, "No. I enjoyed myself quite a bit, but I won't be wanting to go to these unless we're required to attend."

"The kids must all be asleep already, Max isn't even down here. He usually stays up until we get home when he's babysitting," Amy took note of the dark house. "I'm going to go check on them."

"I'll be up in a minute. I'm going to double check Max locked everything before they went to bed."

Sheldon was checking the lock on the backdoor when he heard his wife yell down the stairs to him, "Sheldon! Katie and Leo aren't here." Quickly abandoning his task of checking the backdoor, he dashed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He found Amy in the doorway of the room their youngest children shared. "Their monkeys aren't here either," referring to the stuffed monkeys from the zoo Max had gotten both of his siblings when they were born.

Peering over her shoulder, Sheldon attempted to calm Amy, "Is Max in his room? Maybe they're all in our bed. It wouldn't be the first time they've decided to go to bed there when we're out late."

"They're all in Max's room," Amy sighed after opening her oldest son's bedroom door.

"Let's put them in their beds. You grab Leo, I'll get Katie."

The couple was lifting their sleeping children when Max woke up. "They can stay. Leo wanted to have a sleepover. Katie wanted to watch a movie, so we decided to have movie night in my room. I knew they wouldn't make it through the movie."

Amy tucked Leo back in as Sheldon did the same with Katie. "They don't have to stay. Feel free to take them back to their room if they keep kicking you or try taking over your bed," Amy reminded the teenager. "Let's go to bed, Sheldon."


redhead59901 asked how I come up with my ideas and the dialogue. I have a very rough outline of where I want the story to go, some of the chapters have more details in the outline, some are pretty basic (this chapter's outline was "Shamy goes out, Max babysits). I'll look at my outline before I start to write & be playing with ideas in my head for a day or two before I start to write. The dialogue kinda just comes to me as I'm writing. I also write the chapters a few weeks before I post them, so I've got time to go back & edit or change anything I decide I don't like. I can't tell you how many times I've added things or changed things. I've gotten some ideas for this story from Sheldon's voiceovers on Young Sheldon, some I've gotten from my own life or my friends, and some are from other books/shows/movies that I change up to fit the story.