AN: I don't own National Treasure. Katie is mine. Any shows or other media mentioned in the text are not mine. R/R.

The next morning, Katie woke up before I did. I don't have a clue as to what's up with the internal clock of a five-year-old; it's just completely out there. At nine A.M., she raced into my room and began jumping on my bed. I woke up instantly.

"Slow down, tiger," I told her.

"Riley! Riley! SpongeBob's on!!" she laughed.

"SpongeBob already?" I asked, sitting up in bed. "You sure it's nine o'clock?"

Katie nodded and grinned.

I checked the clock. Sure enough, it was 8:59. "You win, tiger," I said, and kissed her forehead. With a giggle, she darted downstairs and I followed. The TV was already turned to Nickelodeon, and Katie's Bindi sleeping bag was spread out on the living room floor.

"Hey, tiger, you want some chocolate chip pancakes?" I asked Katie. She nodded vigorously. Upon checking the fridge, I realized that I already had a pre-made thing of pancake mix. I took that and a enormous bag of chocolate chips, dumped the entire bag into the batter, and stirred until it was certain that there was way more chocolate than batter.

As the pancakes cooked and later were consumed, Katie sat on my lap and we watched SpongeBob. The second episode turned out to be our favorite - Sing a Song of Patrick. By the end, the two of us had eaten three pancakes each - not necessarily our own - and were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes.

It took almost the entire commercial break for the two of us to stop laughing, but when we finally did, I asked Katie if she wanted to stick around for iCarly. She told me that she did.

It must have been Katie's lucky day - the episode of iCarly that was on, iWant a World Record, was one of her absolute favorites. I had been with her when she had first seen the episode, and because of it, she desperately wanted to set a world record. I'd told her after a couple failed attempts at different records that she had already set a major one in the Riley Poole Book of World Records, and that was being the world's most awesome niece. Then I'd given her a hug that pretty much squeezed the living daylights out of her. She had really adored that.

Now, I looked at the five-year-old on my lap, lightly tweaked one of her long blonde pigtails, and said, "You're still the world's most awesome niece, tiger."

She giggled. "You'll always be the coolest uncle ever," she told me. "I love you, Riley."

"I love you to Pluto and back," I told her, smiling.

Katie's eyes grew wide. "All the way to Pluto?" she gasped.

"And back," I answered.

Katie beamed and threw her arms around me. Then she said, "I had to write a thingy at school, on my favoritest person. You wanna hear it?"

"Who'd you write about? Bindi?" I joked.

She laughed, shook her head, and began digging in her little Wizards of Waverly Place backpack. I recognized it as one I'd bought her for her first day of school. Soon, Katie produced a piece of that classic kindergarten paper, and with a smile, she began to read.

"Riley Poole is my favoritest person ever. Riley is my uncle, and he is the bestest uncle in the whole world. I see Riley all the time, and love everything that we do together. He listens to me and he teaches me so much. But best of all, he's so much fun. Riley gets to go out and look for awesome treasure with Ben Gates. He gives the most awesomest hugs and he takes me to all sorts of great places. One thing I really really really love about Riley is that he is the very bestest tickle monster in the whole wide world. When I get big, I wanna look for treasure and write books, just like Riley. I love Riley so much and I love being with him. Riley rocks!"

Attached to this was a crayon drawing of two stick figures. One was wearing a pink dress and had blonde hair, and the other had brown hair and was wearing jeans, a blue shirt, and what looked to me like Converse. They both had enormous smiles. I took these stick people to be myself and Katie.

I grinned widely and opened my arms. "Gimme a tiger hug, you," I said. Katie lit up (if it was even possible for her face to be lit up more than it already was) and charged into my arms, and I proceeded to give her the biggest and best hug that I have ever given anyone in my life.

"Who's my little tiger?" I asked her.

"I'm your little tiger!" Katie shouted.

"Katie's a tiger, she's Riley's little tiger," I chorused, evoking hysterical giggling from Katie.

"So I'm the very bestest tickle monster in the whole wide world?" I teased.

Katie nodded, still giggling.

I put my finger to my chin. "Hmm," I said. "I wonder if tigers are ticklish."

Katie continue to giggle madly. She definitely knew what was coming, but she wasn't about to escape. Katie may be only five, but believe me, she's got the brain of a Harvard graduate. I wiggled my fingers in Katie's direction and she pretended to recoil.

"This must be one ticklish tiger," I said to her, and with that, I began to tickle her stomach.

Boy, for a little kid, that girl sure can laugh. It started out with little giggles, but rapidly progressed into full-circle, all-out belly laughs. She kicked (not much, though) and squirmed around. "Ril-hee-hee-hee! Ril-hee-hee-heeee!"

"Still the best tickle monster?" I asked her as she giggled.

"Yes!! He-he-he-he-heeeee!"

After a few minutes, I finally let up. I was the one that got tired, not her. When I let up, I picked up her little paper on me as she wriggled around on the floor, still laughing. For a kid, it was pretty darn good. It was riddled with the usual five-year-old mistakes - spelling, grammar, whatever - but in my eyes it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever read.

"Can I keep this?" I asked Katie once she stopped laughing.

Katie nodded. "I brought it for you to keep it."

I went over to the fridge, found a magnet - Independence Hall - and stuck Katie's thing up. She beamed.

"Thanks, tiger," I said, kissing her forehead.

Katie enveloped me in a huge hug. "You're welcome, big tiger."

AN: Some of the aspects of Katie's "essay" are from the real Bindi Irwin's memorial speech for her dad. If you would like to hear the whole thing, it's on YouTube. Please review!!