Hi lovely readers!

Thank you so much for all of the lovely reviews on the last chapter. Like I always say, it really does mean so much and I'm so grateful to you all for taking the time to read.

This was requested by ThatAwkwardPotato. I really hope this is okay and what you were after, thank you so much for requesting.

Enjoy!

Amy knew something was wrong with her daughter. She had been studying her every move for the last fifteen years, she knew her better than anyone. It could be her body language, movements or just a fleeting comment but Amy could always tell when her daughter was hiding something.

Tonight, it had simply been down to the way she had been idly twirling the spaghetti around her fork at dinner, as if her mind was too distracted, too focused on something else. Amy refrained from asking her there and then, knowing that a fifteen year old, hormonal teenage girl may not want to discuss her problems in front of her father and younger brother.

"Emily, come and help me with the dishes," it wasn't a question, as she cleared away the plates from the table, she was telling her daughter to come and help her. Emily looked at her mother, she wanted to protest but saw something in her mother's eye that stopped her.

Emily sighed and pushed her chair away from the table. At fifteen, Amy and Sheldon had adjusted to life with a teenage daughter. There was no denying it was hard work, Amy would argue that the newborn phase was easier. It was a case of picking your battles, learning not to take things personally and giving her space when she needed. Emily huffed as she picked up her plate and piled her little brothers on top.

"Why didn't you ask Arthur to do this?" Emily asked as she followed her mother into the kitchen, dumping her plates by the side of the sink.

"Because" Amy started as she moved round the kitchen, gathering up the saucepans and plates to fill the dishwasher. "I sensed something was wrong and I wanted to talk to you. Could you pass me that glass?"

Emily handed her mother the glass and watched as she slotted it into its place in the dishwasher. "I'm just tired," Emily answered. "I've got this project that I need to work on and…it's…I don't know it's just stressing me out," Emily admitted, as she ran her fingers through her hair. Amy saw getting this much out of her daughter quite the achievement.

"Okay. What can we do to help?" Amy asked. Her calm nature was one of her best traits and a quality of hers that their son had inherited. Although not quite as bad as her father, Emily had a tendency to be quite the worrier.

"I don't know" she shrugged. "Do it for me" the little smile on her daughters face, warmed Amy's heart. Emily was clever but by no means was she as clever as her parents, she doubted whether she was even as clever as Arthur. He definitely possessed that genius streak like her parents.

"I could always help" Amy offered. Although, she appreciated her mother's help, she wanted to do this by herself. It was only fair, her partner didn't have Nobel prize winning parents that could simply look at their project and produce something amazing and worthy of the highest grade in seconds.

"No, it's okay" Emily shook her head as she helped her mother load the dishwasher. "We'll get there, I'm sure" she was trying to be positive, there was no point letting it get her down.

"We'll?" Amy lifted her head to question. "So you have a study partner?" Emily nodded. "Well, why don't you invite them over one evening and you can study here" Amy suggested. Remembering back to when she was at school, she often ended up working by herself or doing all of the work in a group project.

"Oh, I don't know…"

"It's fine. Bring her over tomorrow, she can stay for dinner and…" Amy stopped herself from rambling, realising that she was getting a little carried away. Because her childhood and school times had been rather lonely, she wanted to do everything she could to avoid her children's lives being like that. In many ways Emily and Arthur were very different to their parents, they were both sociable characters and had lots of friends but even so, it still didn't stop Amy going all out to make their friends feel welcome. "You don't have to if you don't want to" Amy softened when she saw Emily's face. For once, she couldn't quite read her expression.

"It's not that" Emily loved the idea of chilling out, working at home with her parents nearby to subtly help or bring her snacks. "My study partner is a guy" Amy didn't miss the glint in her daughters eye as she mentioned this very fact.

"Okay" Amy dragged out her word. "I don't see the problem, my darling" she rose to her feet, closing the door to the dishwasher. The steady rumble of the machine filled the room. Emily was staring at her as if the problem was blantenly obvious.

"What about dad?" she asked, waving her arms around and yet keeping her voice quiet, the last thing she wanted was to alert her dad to something going on and have him asking question. "He'll be totally protective and embarrassing."

Emily was yet to bring a boy home. Amy was sure that there had been boyfriends, nothing serious or long lasting but Amy was incredibly inuitive and didn't miss it when her daughter would talk for hours on end about a particular boy, how her eyes would light up and a smile would tug at her lips. Sheldon wouldn't even entertain the idea of his daughter dating, she was far too young for all of that.

"That's what dads are for," Amy laughed. It was easy for her to laugh, her own father was the most chilled out, laid back person she knew. He had to be to put up with her mother for all those years. Also, Amy never really had to endure Emily's pain of embarrassing parents, by the time she'd met Sheldon, it was very much a welcome decision that her their daughter had finally met someone.

"I know but he's just…" she struggled to find the words. "Well, you know, he's just dad, isn't he?" she shrugged.

"Would you like me to talk to him?" Amy offered, gently placing a hand on her daughters shoulder. "I've been keeping that man in check for almost twenty years" she smiled.

—

It was almost this unwritten rule, that Amy and Sheldon waited until they were both in bed before turning out the lights and going to sleep. Amongst the madness of their day to day life, she enjoyed the quite peaceful moments of being close to her husband, whether it just be a fleeting goodnight kiss, Amy treasured it all. Tonight, she was sat in bed applying hand cream, waiting for her husband to finish cleaning his teeth before she broached the subject of their daughters study partner.

"I need to speak with you about something" Amy started as Sheldon pulled back the duvet and climbed into bed next to his wife. He knew from her tone that something wasn't quite right but all the same, he nodded for her to continue. "I was talking to Emily earlier, she's all stressed out about a school project so I suggested bringing her study partner round one evening. The only problem, well, it's not really a problem at all but she's worried about how you'll react because her partners a guy," Amy explained. She wanted her husband to be just as calm and collected as she was about all of this, it was just a project, he was just a friend but she knew with Sheldon Cooper that wouldn't be the case.

"She's working with a guy?" he questioned. She felt him stiffen beside her, the notion of his daughter with any guy no matter what the circumstance never sat well with him. She was his baby, his little girl and in his mind that's the way she would always stay.

"Yeah" Amy nodded. "It's no big deal" she gently placed her hand on his arm.

"How can you say that. They're fifteen," although he hadn't been your typical fifteen year old, he had witnessed how his brother and twin sister behaved at that age, not to mention all of Penny's stories.

"Darling, it's just a project. Just a school project," she tried to reason with him, hoping that he could see it was just an innocent thing.

"Okay" he nodded. "But if he comes round, I may need to ask him a few qu…."

"You don't need to ask him anything" Amy gave his arm a squeeze, she was gazing at him lovingly.

"He's around my daughter. I need to know some things about him" Sheldon explained. He would prepare a list tomorrow, maybe even ask Arthur to help him out,

"Just please don't embarrass her" Amy warned. "I think she really likes him," Amy probably shouldn't have shared such information with her husband but seeing her daughter happy, seeing that excited little gleam in her eye meant everything to her. Maybe she was reading far too much into it, maybe she wasn't, she just didn't want Sheldon to ruin it all for her.

"What?" he asked quickly, as she turned on her side and switched off her bedside light.

"Oh nothing" it was best not to go into too much detail now. "I love you."

—

When Amy heard the front door open, she resisted the urge to go racing towards it to meet her daughter and Will, her study partner. She had spent the last hour in the living room, curled up in her favourite chair with her favourite book. It was her favourite way to spend her afternoons off, with the children and Sheldon out of the house it was nothing but peace and quiet.

She could hear the mumbling of voices, her daughters laugh and footsteps that were getting closer to her. This was no big deal, it was just her daughters study partner for one school project. She probably would never see the boy again.

"Hi mum" Emily shouted through the house, Amy didn't have time to respond before she appeared in the doorway. Next to her stood Will, he was tall with piercing blue eyes and blonde scruffy hair. "Mum, this is Will" she gestured to the boy stood beside her, books clutched to his chest.

"Hello" placing her book down, Amy smiled brightly, she wanted to make him feel welcome and settled before Sheldon came along and potentially flipped all of that one it's head.

"Hi, Mrs Cooper. It's nice to meet you" when he smiled Amy could see why her daughter may be a little smitten with him.

"Please call me Amy," he nodded. Mrs Cooper sounded far too formal. They stood for a moment before Emily finally spoke.

"I think we'll study in the dining room, is that okay?"

"Of course, just give me a shout if you need anything"

—

Unlike Amy, when Sheldon met Will he hadn't insisted on being referred to by his first name. For now Dr Cooper was just fine. He actually appreciated the correct use of his title, he was sure Emily had briefed Will on the importance of getting this right.

As Emily died of embarrassment simply at her father being in the room, Sheldon pulled up a chair and began to quiz them on their project. What started out as a few questions about the work, soon turned into a few questions about Will and his future endeavours.

"So Will what would you like to do once you leave school?" Sheldon asked. He didn't deem the question to be too inappropriate or intrusive, just a general question that he thought everyone his age asked young adults. However, he could already feel his daughters eyes burning in to him.

"I like sport" Will told him, sounding confident and passionate. Sports didn't impress Sheldon Cooper and already he was forming an opinion on him. "I play basketball so you know that would be the dream but definitely something sport related" he explained as Sheldon nodded. "Em, what if we did this?" he turned his attention back to Emily and sketched something out on the notepad in front of him.

"We could give it a try" Emily nodded seeming enthusiastic. Sheldon had to admit, seeing her this happy about studying really did make him proud. Arthur suddenly joined them, pulling up a chair next to his father, he had been in and out of the room all evening, keeping a close eye on his older sister.

"Will, do you have any brothers and sisters?" Arthur asked, leaning forward and placing his elbows on the tables. "And do you have good grades?" he asked, the second question clearly being one that had been rehearsed with his father.

"I have two older brothers" he explained, watching Arthur nod. "My grades are okay, yeah. Nothing amazing but they're good."

"What do your brothers do?" Arthur asked, Sheldon was happy to sit back in his chair and let his son ask all the questions. It definitely took the spotlight off of him.

"They both work in finance" he explained. "What would you like to do when you grow up Arthur?" he asked, it was clear he wanted the child to like him and keep him on side.

"I want to work in physics like my dad." Without any pushing or pressure from Sheldon (if you exclude the numerous times that Sheldon took Arthur into work with him when he was just a toddler and talked him through his equations, research and theories), Arthur had naturally developed a love of science and particularly physics.

"Wow, you must be pretty clever for that" Arthur seemed to love the idea that someone like Will had called him clever, despite being four years younger than him he already felt like he'd made a friend.

"What's going on in here?" Amy asked popping her head around the doorway to the dining room, seeing her whole family gathered round. "Boys, I told you to leave Emily and Will alone, they're supposed to be studying" she saw the look in daughters eyes, the look that said thank you, she also hoped her eyes were letting Emily know she was sorry for not stepping in sooner.

"We were just getting to know Will" Sheldon reasoned as he stood up from the table. Arthur, his very own little shadow, following suit.

"I think you've asked him enough dad" Emily told him. She couldn't be mad with him, his questions were, she guessed what every parent asked someone of her age.

"I just have one more question" Sheldon announced before leaving.

"Sheldon" Amy warned as Will lifted his head from whatever he was writing.

"If you were to start a relationship with my daughter what would…."

"Okay, that's more than enough" Amy told him firmly as she placed her hand on his back and pretty much pushed him out of the dining room.

Thank you so much for reading! As always reviews are always welcome and so appreciated. I love hearing your thoughts and opinions.

I think for now, whilst I catch up with some requests, I'm going to close prompt requests for now. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get through what I have so they'll be open again very soon. As always thank you so much for requesting and keeping me busy! :)

Stay safe

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