Hi lovely readers,

Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews on the last chapter. I actually think it was one of my favourites and the fact so many of you loved it means a lot.

Someone mentioned about the ages of Amy and Sheldon in these prompts and it occurred to be that I never really explained a brief timeline of events, (for those of you that are interested) here goes. Things happen a little differently, they marry when Amy is 32 and Sheldon 34. They then go on to have Emily and Arthur when Amy is 34 and 38.

Anyway, this prompt was requested by Boris Yeltsin, I hope this is okay for you.

Enjoy reading.

Time is one of our most valuable resources, it's fleeting and limited nature makes it incredibly precious to every human being. Amy had always understood the importance of time but nothing had taught her that more than becoming a mother.

Watching time in the form of your children was a scary concept, scary because of how quickly it went. When Emily was born everyone told her to enjoy every second and she did, she really did. Every little movement and sound her daughter made, she was in complete awe of, every little milestone was a treasured and she snapped photos at every opportunity. She took the same approach when her son was born a number of years later.

Then one day you suddenly blink and they're not babies anymore. They're not tiny little human beings whose whole body can lay on your chest or fit snugly in your arms. They grow up and start school, they learn about the world and everything in it, the good and the bad. Each day you watch them slowly become that little bit more independent knowing that one day you're going to have to let go for good.

"Mum, what did you do for your thirteenth birthday?" Emily asked as sat on the breakfast bar, a cereal bowl resting in her hand as she munched away on something that her father would say contained far too much sugar.

Thirteen! Thirteen! How was her baby, her first born, the very same little person that made her a mother about to turn thirteen. It was complete madness, surely she was still only four.

"Get off there for starters" she tapped her on the shoulder as she moved round the kitchen to make herself a coffee. Why was physically sitting on the breakfast bar much more appealing than sitting on the lovely stools at the side? She heard her daughter sigh and her heavy footsteps thud on the tiled floor beneath her. "I didn't do anything for my thirteenth birthday" Amy responded as she poured herself some strong coffee.

Turning thirteen in any child's life was quite the milestone. Your teenage years were the best years of your life, right? When you experience so many things for the very first time: your first job, first love, first heartbreak, first car etc… your teenage years are something to celebrate but for Amy, her thirteenth birthday was just the same as any other birthday.

"You didn't do anything?" Emily gasped, the notion of celebrating was completely alien to her. Maybe it stemmed from the fact that no matter what age, Amy had always made a huge fuss of her children's birthdays. She knew it stemmed from her own childhood but she wanted the days to be memorable, something for her children to look back on and remember with nothing but excitement, fondness and love. Maybe it was also because that now turning thirteen was seen as this huge event in modern culture, Amy swore there was never this much of a fuss when she was younger.

"No, you know what grandma was like" Amy shrugged as she held the mug in her hands. "I guess that's why I always make such a fuss over birthdays," she admitted.

"Oh…well" it was clear her daughter was a little stumped as she stumbled over her words. For someone so young, she possessed a huge amount of empathy. "Now I feel bad for what I was about to ask…" Emily trailed off.

"Ask away" Amy smiled, she knew what was coming. Unfortunately for her, Emily was very easy to read, like her father she had a face that gave away every emotion and thought.

"Well, I was going to ask if I could do something with a few friends. Just me and them, like go and see a movie or go for dinner and maybe…maybe have a sleepover" Emily didn't know how much Amy would agree to but she thought if she slowly reeled off a few things then maybe one of them would happen.

What Emily didn't realise was that this was a huge moment for her parents. Normally, her birthday parties would have taken place at their home or at a soft play centre, they were always heavily involved and present. To now know that she had reached an age where she didn't necessarily want them around at her parties was huge, sure it was eventually expected, but for Amy the moment felt like it had come round too soon.

Amy and Sheldon had always parented with a way that was right for them. When Amy had first fallen pregnant, she read so many book on various parenting styles, how you should do something and when. She found the whole notion of it very overwhelming and simply decided that as a family, they would do whatever worked best for them and so far it had severed them well.

As of yet, they had never really let Emily do anything without an adult being present so the thought of her suddenly stepping out into the big wide world by herself was a huge step. Some may argue that thirteen was far too young to be letting her start doing things by herself, some may say they should have done it years ago but so far everything had worked out right for them.

"Let me talk to your dad" Amy told her, she didn't want give an answer without talking everything through with Sheldon first. They were a team and talked about things before coming to a decision. Amy also knew that her husband would probably have quite a lot to say on the matter.

"Really?" Emily jumped down from the stool excitedly, abandoning her cereal bowl on the surface, she ran over to her mother and flung her arms around her.

"I haven't said yes yet" she laughed as she patted her daughters back.

"But you haven't said no either" Emily pulled away from her mother and looked at her with her bright smile. "I was honestly expecting you to say no straight away"

—

"So" Amy sighed as she threw herself down on the couch that evening. One thing they had learnt to do over the years was to make time for one another, often their days were so busy with work and taking care of the kids that sometimes all they were able to spare was an hour or so in the evening once the kids were asleep or at least in their bedrooms. "We need to talk."

"You know I hate it when you say that" whenever Amy started a a conversation like this, it more often than not meant it was going to go down a path that Sheldon didn't like.

"It's about Emily" she turned to face him and saw the worry in his eyes. "It's okay" she placed her hand on his knee. "Nothing is wrong, she just asked me something today that I wanted to talk through with you" she explained.

"I'm not sure I like where this is going" he knew Amy pretty well, well enough to know when her tone of voice or a look in her eye indicated something.

"She asked about her birthday" Amy explained, as Sheldon sighed. She knew that the thought of his daughter, his baby girl turning thirteen was a sore subject. Just like her, he was finding it hard to believe that he was just weeks away from having a thirteen year old. "She wants to do something with her friends, by herself" carefully, she watched him for a reaction.

"Well what kind of things?" he asked.

"Movie, dinner, she mentioned having a sleepover"

"Is she not too young for all that?" Amy knew that in Sheldon's eyes for most things in Emily's life she would be too young. Even if they were having this discussion when she was thirty, it would still be too young.

"I don't know" Amy shrugged. "I guess we have to let it happen at some point" although it broke her heart just a little, she knew she needed to give her daughter the space and freedom to grow up.

"I can't even cope with the fact that she's going to be thirteen" Sheldon admitted. "It's crazy isn't it? How have we now reached a point where we have a thirteen year old," he genuinely looked baffled by the concept.

"I know" Amy cuddled closer to him, forcing Sheldon to reluctantly move his arm out of the way so she could rest her head on his chest. "I mean, I know the sleepless nights were a killer but I kind of wish we could do it all over again," she sighed contently, reminiscing on the years gone by.

"Really?" he wasn't sure he could do the newborn stage again, looking back on it all now and remembering how tired they both were, he didn't quite know how either of them had been able to get through it. He definitely preferred the stage when they were a little bit older when they were able to verbally communicate. "I'm not sure I could do it again" he felt her snuggle closer to him.

"I guess we should enjoy the next four years before we have two teenagers" Amy laughed, she knew that four years would fly by and by then who knew what their lives would be, Arthur would be a teenager and Emily would be turning seventeen. She could only imagine the kind of things she would be asking to do then. "So do you think we should let her?" Amy brought the conversation back to its original starting point, knowing that Emily would be nagging her in the morning for an answer.

"What do you think?" even after nearly thirteen years of parenting, he still always turned to Amy, in his eyes she was the expert.

"I think we should let her" she nodded against his chest. "It isn't like I don't trust her, she's sensible enough but I think we need to sit down and lay out some boundaries and go from there" Amy explained. She had already thought all of this through before bringing up the subject.

"And we'd have to give her a time she would have to be home by" Sheldon added. Amy was right, it wasn't that they didn't trust their daughter, they just didn't trust the world. It could be a scary place at times and she was one of them most precious things in their life.

"And if she breaks our trust then we don't let her do it again, right?"

"Right" he nodded. Amy sighed and wrapped her arms around her husband, squeezing him tighter.

"I'm so glad I get to do all of this with you" even though Sheldon couldn't see, he knew she was smiling. He agreed with her too, there was nobody in the world that Sheldon would want to be doing this with. Before Amy, there was no one in the world that he thought he would want to do this with, but this, their life and family that they had created together meant everything to him. It was all her, she had given that to him and he wasn't sure he would ever be able to tell her how grateful he was for that.

"Okay" he affectionately tapped her head, "someone is getting a little soppy."

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

Stay safe

Lots of love