Thanks to my ONE reviewer, APseudonimo - come on readers, it's not that hard to type out a little comment! If you didn't like the chapter, just say so!

Anyway, this is another little Katie chapter as I'm still working on the wild-child ideas... It's based on a comment Jim makes in Knockout about Kate not wanting a night-light.

I don't own anything you recognise.


"Come on, Katie-bear, into bed," Jim commanded with a playful grin, reaching towards his daughter's midriff to tickle her lightly.

"Daddy!" she squealed in a high pitched giggle. "Stop!" With an exaggerated grunt, he swung her up and over his shoulder, carrying her upside down towards her bed with her feet kicking frantically by his head.

"The Dragon has got the Princess," he announced in a low growl which elicited another giggle from the five-year-old as she was deposited in a heap on her duvet.

"The Princess is free!" she exclaimed happily.

"The Princess is going to bed!" Jim mimicked her voice and attempted to coax her under the covers.

"But I'm not tired," Katie whined. She slapped her hands on top of her father's as he tried to pull them up to her chin.

"But Daddy is, and we don't want Daddy to be tired, do we?"

"So it's your bedtime, Daddy. Go and brush your teeth and find your teddy." The little girl slithered off her bed and pointed sternly in the direction of the door. Jim tried not to chuckle. Her expression was the mirror-image of her mother's when he was being told to do something or another.

"But Daddy can't go to bed until Katie goes to bed," he explained. "All the Daddies have to look after their Princesses. So you have to get Ted-Bear to bed before I get Mommy."

"But I'm not tired!" Katie yawned, flopping back to the edge of the bed and clutching a beaming bear to her chest.

"But Ted-Bear is." At that, Katie's head shot up to peer with concern into her toy's beady eyes.

"Ted-Bear, are you sleepy?" she whispered. The bear appeared to answer her, as he was held up to clumsily peck Jim's cheek before a similar, wet, sloppy one was delivered by his daughter. Katie nuzzled sleepily into his shoulder and mumbled an explanation. "Ted says he's sleepy, Daddy. I'm gonna put him to bed. Night night."

And then she was curled up in a tight ball, a mass of curls spread over her pillow, little body slowly rising and falling as her breathing slowed to a peaceful pattern of sleep. Leaning over to brush a kiss over her brow, Jim took in the sight that he would never grow tired of. He smiled.

"Night night, Katie-bear." Just as he was about to close the door, he heard a whisper from her direction.

"Daddy? Will you check my monsters?" He padded quietly over to the low bed and knelt, pausing to thoroughly check that Elmo (she had been an easily terrified toddler) and friends weren't lurking maliciously under it.

"No monsters."

"Check again."

And so he did, as always. The second search yielded no more monsters than the first - but Jim was sure he would do anything, no matter how ridiculous, to put his little girl's mind to rest.

"Still no monsters."

"Ok. Night night."

"Good night, princess."


"Daddy. Daddy." The tugging at his hand quickly woke him up, and he rolled over, rubbing his eyes groggily to see two brown eyes staring at him from just over the mattress.

"Katie? What's the matter, sweetheart?"

"Daddy," she whispered. "You missed a monster."

"What?"

"There's a scary monster and it's scary and I don't like it and you said you'd get rid of them and it stopped me sleeping and I told you I wasn't tired and Daddy please make the monster go away." It all came out in a tired breath as she drowsily tugged him back the way she'd come.

Tucking her in, he knelt by her head and stroked her hair gently.

"Where's this monster, Katie?" he murmured. She leaned closer to whisper in his ear.

"It's dark, Daddy." Ah. So that was it. Since Katie had moved to her big girl's bed she had had trouble sleeping through the night to a relentless fear of the dark. More than once he and Johanna had offered to find her a night light to sit either in her room or in the corridor outside where its comforting beam of light would reassure her.

Unfortunately, their daughter had inherited their stubbornness and refused to have one, claiming she could be brave. On the occasions she did get to sleep, if and when she woke up the eerie darkness proved to be a night terror for the little girl, and often it took another hour to get her snoring gently again.

"It's dark at night, Katie. You know that."

"But I don't like it, Daddy."

"Would you like Daddy to get you a light?"

"No. I'm a big girl." Worth a try, Jim thought fondly, settling back against the radiator along the wall and resuming his caresses as she finally succumbed to sleep.


So. Good? Bad? Please, please let me know! Also, if you have anything you want to appear, please tell me!

See you next week

~wolfergirl