Hi lovely readers,
Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews on the last chapter. I appreciate it so much!
This prompt was requested by fluffyreadsnow. First of all I apologise for taking so long, I wrote and rewrote this one so many times but I hope the end result is what you were after. There are a few things mentioned in this prompt that go into much more detail in my fic 'The Second Time Round' so if you're interested go and give that a read too.
Anyway, I really hope this is okay. Enjoy reading.
Amy was never one to live in the past but if she could go back in time to when she discovered she was pregnant with her second child, she would have told herself that then was the right time to be getting ready to move house. Not right now, in the height of summer and days away from being seven months pregnant. Normally, they were both so organised, she had no idea how they had managed to let time run away with them but now they were just weeks away from moving into their new family home.
To say Amy was exhausted was an understatement. With the help of her four year old daughter, she had packed as many boxes as possible from piles of clothes, to stacks of books and toys. A good portion of the house was now stored away in boxes.
It was a strange thing to stand back and observe. To look at the life they had created in this apartment, the apartment where they had returned as husband and wife, the place where they returned as clueless and slightly terrified brand new first time parents. It held memories that they would treasure for ever, memories that boxes simply couldn't hold. However, with a new arrival it was time for a real family home with a playroom and a back yard for the children.
Amy stood outside of Emily's bedroom, it was a strange sight to see half of her daughters room packed away in boxes. The room that once upon a time they were so excited to prep for her. Emily was sat upright in bed with a few pillows propped up behind her, a book was placed on her knee and she was shuffling around trying to rearrange her teddies. Amy loved moments like this, simply observing her unaware, it really was one of her favourite things to do, to just watch her daughter.
"Is daddy home yet?" Emily asked excitedly as she looked up and saw her mother standing in the doorway, a mug of hot chocolate in her hand as a little bedtime treat for all of her hard work and help with packing.
"He's on his way" Amy answered as she walked into her room, placed the mug on Emily's bedside table and sat herself down on her bed. Amy knew these moments were precious and maybe in the next few months fairly limited. Although she was so excited, she was incredibly nervous to welcome a second child into the family. How would the new baby fit in to their family dynamic? How would Emily cope? Would they still be able to have time for Emily? She knew it was probably only natural to think these things but sometimes, it was overwhelming.
"I'm excited" Emily smiled as she shuffled on the bed to get herself comfortable and make room for her mother.
"You do know daddy might not want to do it tonight. He could be a little tired from work so you might have to wait until tomorrow" Amy explained. Whilst they were packing Emily had a discovered a huge white photo album, the album was covered with dust, a reminder that it was a long forgotten item however, Emily was enthralled by it.
The photo album belonged to Sheldon and was filled with photos taken throughout his life. Many were from his childhood, photos of his Meemaw, parents, sister and brother. Emily was amazed that the little six year old boy in some of the images was her father, she was amazed at how small he used to be and Amy marvelled at how much Emily looked like him. It was then that she abandoned the packing to trawl through the photos, her little fingers flicking carefully through each picture. She wanted to know the stories behind them and was desperate for her father to relay stories from his childhood to her.
"Maybe we could do a story too. Just in case," Amy suggested. Deep down, she knew Sheldon would, no matter how tired he was he would do anything for Emily. She had her father wrapped round her little finger and she didn't even know it.
"This one" Emily held up the story on her lap. 'Guess How Much I Love You' was one of her favourites.
"Sure"
—
Amy was lost in her own thoughts as she stood by the sink washing up the hot chocolate mugs. Now that she had finally stopped for the day, her body became aware of the aches and pains that being this heavily pregnant brought. Thankfully, the click of the front door took her mind off of the pain in her feet and back and the overwhelming tiredness that had struck her.
"Hey" she smiled, turning round to see her husband stood in the doorway. He offered her a small smile, she could see the tiredness in his eyes and wondered if it was even worth mentioning the fact that Emily wanted to hear all about his childhood. "Good day?" she asked as he moved closer to her and kissed her cheek.
"Yeah" he nodded, placing his bag down on the kitchen island.
"You might have one last little job to do" she told him, she bit her lip anticipating his reaction. When he didn't respond, she continued. "When we were packing earlier, Em found one of your old photo albums, she's quite fascinated by it," Amy explained.
"Okay" Sheldon spoke slowly, unsure of where this was going. He couldn't even remember the last time he had even opened the photo album. The item had been long forgotten.
"She asked me if you could tell her some stories about the photos at bedtime. I did tell her you might be too tired…"
"I'll do it" he nodded, Amy always knew he would. Sheldon wasn't the most perfect person, it had his faults just like every other human being but Amy really couldn't fault him as a father. He was far more than she had ever imagined, more than he had imagined. Little Emily really had changed their whole world for the better. "Is she still awake?" Sheldon wasn't entirely sure how he felt about going through photos and reliving memories that he had almost erased from his brain. His childhood was a mixture of joy and pain, growing up had been far from perfect but it had always been full of love. Maybe those photos would remind him of that. You only took photos during the good times, right?
"She should be. I only left her a few minutes ago"
—
Sheldon carefully opened his daughters bedroom door, he had contemplated knocking but knowing she could be asleep he didn't want to risk waking her. She was still sitting up in bed, it did a funny thing to him to know that she was up and waiting for him to return. Being a father did lots of funny things to him, it opened up his heart to so many different emotions that he had no idea one person could make him feel.
"Daddy" she whispered, her eyes lighting up and a smile that made his heart melt found its way on to her face. "Look" she pointed to the photo album on her bedside table. "I found this when I was helping mummy pack." She looked incredibly proud of herself for finding such a thing. "You're really small in the pictures dad" she laughed.
The thought that her father used to be just a little older than her was an odd concept for a four year old to get her head around. He was her father, that's exactly how she saw him, the person right now was her dad. In her eyes it was all he had ever been because it was all she had ever known.
"Shall we take a look at this then" he picked the photo album up and got comfortable on the edge of Emily's bed, she saddled up close to him, tucking herself into his side, her head on his chest. "You know I haven't looked at this for years."
His fingers skimmed the edges, he could remember his Meemaw and mother taking photos and placing them in this very album. When he moved to California, he had asked if he could take it with him, he didn't really know why, maybe it was his way of feeling a little closer to home. Never did he imagine, when he first moved to California that one day he would be relaying the contents to his daughter.
"This one" Emily pointed to a photo of her father, George and Georgie, stood in front of their car that you could clear see was filled with suitcases, all of which belonged to Sheldon. He could remember that day so clearly, their first boys trip that Sheldon had been able to have a say on. The previous fishing and camping trips had been less than successful. "That's you. Uncle Georgie and Grandpa George" Emily pointed to each person, as she said their name.
"That's right" Sheldon squeezed her tightly against him, already he was feeling emotional. "We we're going to Cape Canaveral so I could see a space shuttle. My dad didn't really like stuff like that so I think Grandma had to convince him a little" he explained. It was only in later life that he had begun to appreciate his dads efforts on that very day.
"Did you get to see a real space shuttle?" Emily asked excitedly, even at her young age she knew how much stuff like this excited her dad.
"Not quite. The journey was quite long so we ended up staying in a motel. When we woke up the next day it was raining, really heavy rain and lots of thunder and lightening so the space shuttle never took off" he could remember his disappointment and his desperation to just stay and see if the weather suddenly got better but it never did happen.
"So you never saw it?" she asked.
"Nope" he shook his head, "but the most important thing about that trip was that I got to spend some quality time with my father" he didn't want to get too deep when talking about this moment with his daughter but he never knew at the time just how much he would cherish that trip. "You see me and Grandpa George liked really different things but that weekend he made a real effort to at least try and I'll always remember that"
"Like when you play with my dolls. You don't really like dolls but you play with them for me," he felt his heart just burst with love, little did he know he was already creating moments like that for his daughter and he hoped he would always be able to do that.
"Yeah, I guess so. Exactly like that," he could feel himself growing emotional, he didn't want to upset his daughter just before bedtime so he quickly moved on. "I remember Georgie and I fighting over who would sit up front in the car, my dad flipped a coin and I'm pretty sure he lied about the result just so I could sit up front with him" Sheldon smiled at the thought, he smiled even more when Emily laughed.
"That's funny" Sheldon had told Emily about his father a few months ago and since that day she had become rather interested in finding out about her grandfather. It was nice to be able to talk about him after all these years, after all Emily was a part of him too. "What about this one?" Emily asked as she flicked through the images and came across another photo that peaked her interest.
The next photo caused Sheldon to smile but it also brought up the sickening feeling he felt on that very day when he knew he had disappointed his parents. He hated disappointing anyone but there was something about disappointing his mother that hurt him the most. The photo was of him and Georgie in their garage, completely unaware the photo was being taken, Mary had snapped this sneakily amazed that her two boys were bonding. Sheldon had a pair of bright yellow gloves on and in front of both of them were two colanders.
"Now this photo here was another one of Georgie money making ideas. When we were little he was always trying to figure out the best way to make money and on this particular occasion he had enlisted my help to try and get platinum out of gravel" he knew that the science behind it would be lost on his four year old but she was still interested.
"Did you make lots of money?" she asked,
"Not quite. You see we needed a really hot oven and Grandma Mary and Grandpa George wouldn't let me build one so we ended up using one at the school" he could still remember the frustration at his parents for putting the breaks on what would have been an amazing science project. "It all went a little bit wrong and we nearly set fire to the school" he could still remember the worry he felt and how despite Georgie telling him to remain calm whilst he tried to avoid a commotion, Sheldon's only option was to hit the fire alarm. "My mum and dad weren't very happy at all" Sheldon told her.
They continued to flip through the album with Sheldon relaying stories from his childhood. He loved how interested Emily was in finding out things and he found the whole process surprisingly therapeutic. Emily was still tucked up into his side, he was sure at times her eyes were closing, it was way past her bedtime and she was fighting the urge to sleep.
"Look, that's mummy" seeing her mother in one of the images seemed to be perk her up. The photo was of Amy sitting up in a hospital bed with a brand new baby Emily in her arms, still to this day Sheldon wasn't sure he'd ever seen his wife look happier, he wasn't sure he had ever been that happy.
"And that right there is you" he pointed to the baby, "I think you must have only been hours old here, one or two at the most" he watched her soaking in all of the information. She had rarely seen physical photos of herself they were now all just images snapped on someone's phone. "Do you know, I think that day was the best day of my life" he kissed her head. He could still remember all the emotions he felt on that day, he had no idea it was possible to feel so scared, so tired and so in love all at once.
"Why?" she asked, looking up at him, he could see now just how much she was fighting to stay awake.
"Because that was the day I met you" he squeezed her tight, she was his absolute everything and looking at these photos from his childhood reminded him to tell her that every single day. Their little moment was cut short when Amy cracked open the door just a little to get a peek inside. She was half expecting to find them both cuddled up together fast asleep but instead they were both wide awake chatting away.
"Are we still awake in here?" Amy asked, "I was expecting you to be asleep, it's way past your bedtime" she had this soft motherly tone that Sheldon just loved, he couldn't have asked for a better mother for his children.
"Look mummy, we found you" Emily took the photo album from her father and turned it round to show her mother. Amy had no idea that Sheldon still paid attention to this photo album, even though the photo was a little over four years old it was a much recent event than the rest, it reminded Amy that maybe he hadn't completely abandoned the photo album after all. "And that person there, that's me" Emily told her excitedly "and daddy said that was his favourite day ever."
"Oh gosh" Amy took the photo album and observed the image. "I think that's one of my favourite days too, in fact, I know it is" she smiled at her daughter, she really couldn't imagine her life without her, nor could she remember what life was like before she came along. "I can't believe how tiny you used to be" the years really had flown by and even though she was about to do it all over again with their new little baby, it still amazed her how quickly time had gone by.
"You used to be able to fit in my hands, like this" Sheldon showed her, gesturing how small she used to be.
"Will my baby brother be that small too?" Emily asked.
"Yeah for a little while" Amy couldn't have been prouder of how Emily had already taken on the role of big sister, her little brother who she hadn't even met yet, she already loved so much. Emily let out a huge yawn that alerted her parents to the fact she really should now be asleep. "Okay, I think it's bedtime for you little lady"
The photo album was placed to one side and Amy and Sheldon moved around each other so they could tuck Emily up in bed.
"I love you. Good night." Amy told her gently as she kissed her forehead.
"Mumma, did you know daddy tried to blow up his school."
—
Thank you all so much for reading. As always your reviews are always welcome and so appreciated. I absolutely love hearing your thoughts.
I had a request from a guest who wanted a Shamy version of an idea they had read in another fandom. If you could point me in the direction of the original fic so I could just get a bit of inspiration that would be great. If not, no worries at all.
Stay safe everyone
Lots of love.