Mary opened the door to her parents room as quietly as possible. She knelt down beside their bed, her face only inches away from her sleeping father's. He was snoring slightly and a bit of drool slid down his cheek. "Daddy," she whispered quietly. "Daddy!" When he still didn't move, she poked him in the forehead. His face scrunched up and his eyes opened wide. He seemed hazed at first, as most people who have just woken up do, but after looking around a bit, blinking quite a few times, and hearing his daughter say his name, he woke up and acknowledged his surroundings.

"Mary," he mumbled groggily. "What is it? Are you okay?"

"I had a bad dream," she whispered, her bottom lip sticking out in a pout and her eyes wide.

"Well that's not very good." She agreed and shook her head. Travis rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed. After shaking his head around a bit to wake himself up, he pushed the covers back, stood up, and grabbed Mary's hand. "Let's go to your room, sweetie," he murmured quietly, walking towards the door, her small fingers intertwined with his. "We don't want to wake up Mommy."

Travis flicked on the light as he walked through the doorway of his daughter's room. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the brightness and followed Mary to the side of her bed. After she crawled on to the matress and under the covers, he tucked her in and kissed her forehead. He went to walk away but a pleading, "Daaaady," stopped him.

"Hmm?" he asked, turning around to face her.

"You can't leave now," Mary said, shaking her head in disappointment and rolling her eyes. Sometimes the similarity between mother and daughter were slightly scary. "I have to tell you about my dream."

He smiled and walked back over to the side of her bed. "I'm sorry. I forgot. Silly me." Travis looked around the room for some place he could sit. In the corner of the room sat a small table and three small chairs perfect for tea parties. The chair was far too small for him, but it was better than the ground. After moving the teddy bear that sat perfectly in the middle of the seat, he grabbed the chair and brought it next to Mary. He sat down and tried to get comfortable. That was quite hard when the seat was practically going up his crack.

"So," Travis said with a sigh once he was as comfortable as possible. "What was your dream?"

"There was this guy and he was giant."

"So he was a giant."

"No! He was giant."

"But giants are giant."

"But he wasn't a giant! He just was giant!"

"Fine. So he was giant but he was not a giant."

"Yes." Mary sighed and rolled her eyes before continuing. "So the giant guy was also part chicken."

"What?"

"He was part chicken."

"What do you mean 'part chicken'? Did he have wings? A beak?"

"His head looked like a normal person's head, but the rest of him looked like a chicken."

"How do you know he wasn't just wearing a chicken costume from the neck down?"

"Because he wasn't! He was part chicken!"

"Alright, alright. No need to yell. What happened after the chicken man?"

"So the chicken guy, he took me and then he trapped me inside the monkey bars."

"Wait! How can someone trap you inside monkey bars?"

"I was trapped in them! I couldn't move!"

"So were you literally trapped inside a monkey bar, or was there a bar here and another here and you were trapped in between the two?"

"I don't know!"

"Well that's the first thing you have to know if you're telling me about your dream, Mary! You need to know the facts! Plain and simple." After Travis's words, Mary's bottom lip started trembling and her eyes became wide and wet. "Oh, no, no, no. Don't start crying, sweetie. I'm sorry. I was kidding, I promise."

"You were?" she asked, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

"Yeah, totally." She nodded and smiled once more. "Alright then," Travis said, standing from his tiny chair and towering over the girl lying in bed. "I will now bid you adue. Goodnight, my dear." He leaned down and kissed her forehead before heading for the door once more. Right as he reached to turn off the lights a small, Mary spoke up.

"Daddy?"

He sighed. "Yes, sweetie?"

"I can't go back to sleep."

"Have you even tried?" he asked, eyebrows raised. She nodded her head vigorously. "So you decided from the three seconds after I said goodnight that you couldn't go back to sleep?"

Nodding again, she muttered, "Yep."

Travis sighed once more and walked back over to her, sitting in the small chair once more. "Well, what can I do to help that?" he asked her.

"You can tell me a story!" she exclaimed excitedly, bobbing up and down in bed.

He gave her a small smile. "Mary, you know I don't tell stories. I'm really more of a jokes kind of guy."

"Pleeeaaassse," she whined. Katie liked to say that the only thing Mary inherited from Travis was her whining. Travis was starting to believe her.

He sighed in defeat. "Fine." She smiled and looked up at him expectantly. "So there was this princess-"

"No, no, no! You're doing it all wrong!"

"Well I'm sorry! You know I don't do stories!"

Mary sighed and shook her in disappointment. "You have to start it with 'Once upon a time.' Mommy says that's what makes a story."

"Really? Is that what she said?" She nodded her head and continued to stare at him patiently. "Well, um, I guess once upon a time . . . "

So this idea has been rolling around in my head for a while, actually, and I just finally decided to write it. I'm not exactly sure how many chapters this will have, but there probably won't be all that many. I guess you could thank Jane and the Dragon for this fic cuz that's really where I got the idea. It's just Katie's and Travis's story with a medieval twist. Ha ha! It'll mostly just be the story with little outbursts of Mary's here and there. You'll see what I mean. Sorry for any mistakes! My oh so wonderful beta is currently out of town with no computer so this was indeed unbeta'ed. I'd love to hear what you guys think of this!

I don't own anything!

Lather, rinse, review!

:) Jordan