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“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were still out on a case!” John shot as he jammed the key into the front door of their house. “I would have left work earlier. Amelia’s been home alone all afternoon.”
His husband rolled his eyes as he followed John into their home.
“She’s sixteen, John, and she’s perfectly capable of being home alone.”
“I don’t doubt that,” John said, “I’m more worried about what she might be-"
He froze when he saw the scene before him. Their daughter was on the sofa with her arms wrapped around a…a…boy. An older boy! An older boy with horrendously spiked hair and a five o’clock shadow. Up until this very moment Amelia had shown absolutely no interest in boys- or girls, for that matter- and the two dads had thought they might actually not have to deal with a dating teenager after all. But here she was, tongue down his throat, his arms on her…her…
“Oi!” John exclaimed, but before he could say anything else Sherlock stormed over, grabbed the kid by his arms.
“Hey!” The boy shouted as he blinked, looking a bit disoriented and confused now that he was finally getting some air.
“You little-!” Sherlock roared, throwing the kid toward the door.
“Dad!” Amelia shouted, horrified.
Their daughter jumped up, placing herself between the guy and Sherlock. Her lips were swollen from kissing and her hair was tossed about. There were marks on her arms where he had held her, and John’s blood ran cold. He threw his finger in the direction of the door as he screamed at the kid:
“Get out!”
The boy fled without argument. His own eyes went wide with rage as he rounded on his daughter, who sank back into the sofa in shame.
“Daddy, I can explain!” She pleaded.
“I don’t think you need to,” John replied coldly.
Her eyes swelled with tears, and while Sherlock looked like he was ready to give her the benefit of a doubt John wasn’t. This was exactly why he didn’t like leaving his daughter alone. This was why he still wanted to know where she went after school and on weekends. This was why he kept close tabs on her mobile usage. He remembered what it was like to be a sixteen year old boy- and he was one the more well behaved ones!
It was just then that he noticed Sherlock texting.
“What are you doing?” He demanded to his husband, though he knew Sherlock well enough to know exactly what he was doing.
“Surveillance,” he muttered.
“Dad, no!” Amelia screamed. “You’re not spying on him!”
“Your dad’s a consulting detective, your uncle is an actual detective, and your other uncle is the British government! Do you really expect them to not check up on your boyfriends?”
Letting out a frustrated groan, Amelia threw her hands in the air before crossing them over her chest.
“Like you two weren’t dating when you were my age!” She shot.
“Actually, I wasn’t,” Sherlock replied innocently.
John rolled his eyes.
“The point is not about you dating,” John said. “You can’t sneak around, and you can’t let people in the house when we’re not here. We don’t want your friends around when we aren’t- let alone boys. Do you have any idea how many young girls I’ve seen who were-"
“Don’t!” Amelia cried, pointing an accusing finger at him. “He’s not like that!”
“This is serious, Amelia! He had his hands all…everywhere! He is clearly more experience than you.”
His voice exploded a bit more loudly than he meant to; his words echoed through the house so forcefully the neighbours probably heard.
“Clearly?” Amelia spat, disgusted. “You saw him for like two minutes before you kicked him out. You didn’t even bother to introduce yourself. And what the bloody hell do you know about my sex life?!”
Sex life?!
His hands balled into fists, and it was all he could do to not pick up the nearest object and throw it across the room.
“I would hope that you don’t have one!” He exclaimed.
“Why, because you think I’m still your little girl?” His daughter demanded. His mouth hung open in shock- of course that’s why! What was wrong with that? “You two are ridiculous. You freak out if I’m left alone. You panic if I don’t phone you straight after school. You don’t even like me going out with my mates. Now I finally have someone I care about and I can’t have him because of what you think!”
Letting out a sigh, John pinched his nose and closed his eyes as he attempted to calm himself down. When he opened his eyes again he saw that Sherlock was still texting.
“Would you help me out here?!” He cried to him.
Sherlock looked up, confused, as though he had forgotten they were in the room. He looked between John and their daughter before muttering:
“Right.” He cleared his throat before taking two gentle steps toward her and taking her by the arm. “We love you, Amelia. Daddy’s only getting upset because he too was once a sixteen year old boy, and he knows what they’re capable of.”
“Not what I meant by helping,” he mumbled.
“You two always talk about ‘when I was a teenager’!” Amelia argued. “Well then why can’t you understand what it’s like for me?”
He and Sherlock exchanged glances, and John knew they weren’t going to get through to her this way. He was surprised when his husband grabbed him by the hand and led him away to the kitchen where they could whisper in private.
“I think it’s time we have the talk with her,” Sherlock whispered.
John’s eyes widened.
“The talk?!”
Sherlock nodded, looking a bit paler than normal in the face. They remained silent for a moment, both in complete denial that life was moving this fast. They weren’t ready for their daughter to group up. Oh what John would give to see her crawling around the floor in an onesie again or playing violin with Sherlock. Instead Amelia was begging them to teach her how to drive and wanted her curfew pushed back later and later each weekend. She couldn’t wait to get away from them. She couldn’t wait to grow up.
It wasn’t fair.
But he knew Sherlock was right.
“Yeah,” whispered back, “perhaps you’re right. God I don’t want to do this. Can you do it? She trusts you.”
“You said you would do the sex talk!” Sherlock hissed.
“But then I had to give the period talk!” He pointed out. “You said that if I did that you’d get the next one. Well, this is the next one!”
Scowling, Sherlock protested:
“It only made sense for you to give the period talk! You’re a bloody doctor! It also makes sense for you to give the sex talk because you have far more experience in that area than I do.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Sherlock was right. His husband had only had a few partners before their relationship while John had (regrettably) slept around quite a bit. He was Three Continents Watson, after all. He had given into every temptation, every opportunity, from the moment he was of age. He knew all too well the pressure Amelia was facing.
“Fine,” he finally agreed, “but you have got to promise me you’ll talk to her about drugs.”
“Of course,” Sherlock said, throwing his hands up in defence. He then placed a hand on John’s shoulder. “You’ve got this, love. Deep down she needs your help.”
John’s lips curled up in a small smile.
“See, you understand this more than you think,” he teased.
Sherlock stole a quick kiss to his cheek before giving him a push back toward the living room. His husband disappeared to the bedroom, and John turned back to his daughter. He wasn’t surprised to find her sitting on the sofa, cross-legged, and furiously texting on her mobile. When he entered the room she threw her phone onto the table.
“Go ahead,” Amelia announced. “You’re taking my mobile away, aren’t you?”
It was honestly the first punishment he had thought of, but he knew that wouldn’t help matters right now.
“We need to talk,” he announced as he sat down beside her.
For a moment they both sat in silence, both wondering how they got there and what they were trying to do, before John decided to just give it a go.
“It’s not that we don’t trust you. It’s not that we don’t want you to be happy. It’s not that we don’t want you to have mates or boyfriends or girlfriends or whatever you prefer. We just want you to be safe about it.”
“I am being safe,” Amelia insisted, remaining remarkably calm as she looked at him. Their eyes met, and John’s heart melted as he looked into those familiar orbs. It was hard to believe those were the same little eyes he looked into when she was a newborn. “I wouldn’t have let him done anything to me.”
“I know,” John nodded. “I know you’re strong and you stand your ground. But boys…boys can be pushy. Boys can be intimidating. Boys tend to know what to say to make you trust them and then suddenly…suddenly you’re doing things without realising that you’re doing them. Your hormones get all out of whack and suddenly you’re thinking with your heart and not your head. All you want is that experience: to feel and see what all the fuss is about. It happens quicker than you think, and boys- a lot of boys- want to move a lot quicker than you think.”
He watched as his daughter’s nose scrunched up and her arms tightened around her chest. She put her feet up on the coffee table in defiance; he forced them back to the floor but she put them up again, smirking.
“You know what it’s like Daddy,” she said. She paused in contemplation for a moment and chewed at her bottom lip. “Like you said, you were a teenager once. You know what it’s like to want to get out there and…explore. Not like, have sex, explore but go on dates, snog, fall in love. I want to know what that feels like. I’m old enough now and I just…I want to know what it’s like to have that special someone in your life. Like you and Dad. I want that. I really like this guy. He’s so sweet, Daddy. He texts me every morning, he sits with me at lunch, he makes sure I get to class and get home okay. He checks up on me on the weekend. He’s gentle, he’s kind. Even with the kiss: that wasn’t him. That was me, I initiated it. And it was my first snog, by the way, my first proper snog and you two ruined it.”
A pit fell in John’s stomach as he remembered his first time snogging a girl. God he would have melted to the floor and locked himself in his room for the rest of his life if his father had walked in on that. But he still didn’t think he was over reacting; she still needed to know what she was in for.
“I’m glad he’s kind to you,” John said. Reaching up, he stroked a strand of her blonde hair out of her eyes. “I just want you to be careful. It’s so easy to feel like you’re on top of the world when you begin a new relationship. It’s easy to feel like you want everything- like you want to experience everything. But trust me, love, many times when it comes time for you to take that next step you wish you hadn’t. You wake up in the morning and you just feel….wrong. You feel like you’ve cheated yourself. No matter how prepared you think you are there is nothing scarier than being in the moment the first time it happens. Your entire life changes in that moment. That moment holds more meaning than you can ever imagine, and you’ll carry it with you forever. And sometimes- I hate to go all doctor on you- there are consequences like you could have never dreamed of. It only takes a second to change everything. Sometimes you don’t even make a mistake, you might plan and be really careful but pregnancy can still happen.”
Amelia squirmed, and he resisted the urge to put his arm around her shoulders and pull her close. How many nights had they sat on this very sofa as he just held her? She used to come to him and tell him everything. He was her go-to guy.
Okay, so most of what she used to tell him had to do with imaginary friends or Disney princesses.
But still.
“Then why does it always seem so beautiful and amazing in the movies?” She asked so quietly he barely heard of.
John blinked.
“What movies have you been watching with-?”
“God, forget I said anything!” Amelia exclaimed as she stood up and threw her hands in the air in defeat. “Just please, get on with my punishment already.”
He looked up at her, studying the perfectly straight hair and the makeup she spent an hour on each morning. He glanced down to the heels she saved up money for and spent a whole week practising in just so she could show them off to her mates. His daughter was growing up far, far too fast and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
“Alright, I’ll give you your punishment,” John said as he stood up. Their eyes met, sizing each other up, and he decided this should be a punishment than benefited them more than tear them apart. “Here it is: you’re sentenced to one dinner with me. Out. At a restaurant. Just the two of us.”
Amelia’s eyes went wide; he might as well have taken her mobile away for a year. But he couldn’t help but to smirk, feeling proud for thinking of it.
“Fine, whatever,” Amelia muttered. “I get to keep my mobile, then?”
He hesitated; if he was a good father he’d probably take it away to make sure she couldn’t keep in contact with this boyfriend. But instead he was a terrified father, and he didn’t want to upset her even more. Plus why take her mobile away when he could just have the Mycroft hack into it?
Not that he would ever actually do that.
It was just nice to have the option.
“Come here,” he said, opening his arms. She let out a loud, pathetic, groan of disapproval, but he held his arms open, being insistent. They shifted into an awkward hug, but he was surprised when she squeezed him and buried her head into his shoulders.
“Thank you for telling me all that,” Amelia said, “and thank you for not sending in Dad instead.”
They both let out a small laugh; deep down he knew Sherlock would have been rubbish at having ‘the talk’.
“How did I do?” John said as they broke apart. “On a scale of one to ten?”
A bright smile crossed Amelia’s face as she replied:
“Ten. My friend Gina said when her parents gave her the talk they made her watch some health video from like thirty years ago!”
“God,” John laughed as he took her hands. “You can talk to me about anything. If you ever need help, if you ever get into trouble, you can come to me. I don’t care how bad it is. I’m here for you.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
He squeezed her hands before letting her go. Looking around, he wondered how they were going to go about pretending to have a normal night after all of that.
“Daddy?” Amelia asked; he turned back toward her, perhaps a little too quickly. “That dinner…could it be tonight?”
His eyes lit up, and he was a bit ashamed to admit how excited he was at the thought of his daughter wanting to go to dinner with him.
“Yeah,” he replied, “grab your coat.”
She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“You’re the best,” she said before running off to her room to get ready.
A stupid grin remained on his face even as he was left standing alone. He had actually had ‘the talk’ with his daughter, and it had gone quite well. Sure he knew full well she would still go out and make her share of mistakes. She was probably texting her boyfriend right at this moment.
But they had talked, and that was progress.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Amelia announced as she stepped back into the room.
She had changed into…jeans and a t-shirt. She wore sneakers and her hair was in a ponytail.
“You look gorgeous,” he offered.
She grinned at him.
“Thanks.”
They linked arms and headed out to the car. It was the first time he could remember going out to eat with just her in…years. Somehow, just for that night, they seemed to take a step back to the past. Maybe time wasn’t fast-forwarding as quickly as he thought.