Sara brushed her brown hair off of her cheek; It was sticking to her tear stained cheek, making it difficult to move it at all.

She had awoken during the night after having the nightmare about her mother killing her.

The same nightmare she had experienced a month earlier.

Gil was nowhere to be found in the house; She had searched everywhere and had come up empty handed.

After wandering around looking for her husband, Sara returned to bed, but not to sleep. She sat on her side, knees pulled up to her chest and began thinking.

"Why do I have these dreams? Why would anyone dream their own mother was murdering them?" She whispered.

The hours passed and these same thoughts swirled around in Sara's mind; She couldn't think of anything else.

The thoughts were tiring, but she was afraid to go back to sleep; Afraid the dreams would return.

"Mommy?" A small voice asked from the doorway.

Sara turned her head and saw Liz standing in the door; Hair sticky from sweating and eyes red and puffy, making her resemble Sara even more.

"Come here, baby."

Liz ran into the room and joined her mother on the bed. She sneezed as Sara released her from a hug.

"You're not any better?" She asked, feeling her daughter's forehead.

Liz shook her head in agreement; She sneezed again, looking up at her mother with sorrow filled eyes.

"We'll go to the hospital right now. Come on."

Sara swung her legs to the side of the bed and let her bare feet touch the carpet for a moment; When Liz sneezed again, she stood up, picking her up as she went.

"Mommy, what about Lily?" Liz asked, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"She'll be okay. Wait a minute, didn't you sleep in my bed last night?"

Sara carefully marched down the stairs; Once at the bottom, she slipped her tennis shoes on, grabbed her keys off the table by the door and continued outside.

"Yes. But in the middle of the night, I had to go to the bathroom and I fell asleep on the floor. By Lily's cage. You didn't see me?" Liz explained.

Her voice was greatly altered by her cold; She sounded miserable. It broke Sara's heart to hear her sounding all stuffed up.

"No, guess I missed you. I'll call daddy when we get to the hospital, okay?"

Sara started the vehicle and backed out of the driveway; She narrowly missed hitting the mailbox at the end and smiled as Liz giggled from the backseat.

Desert Palm Hospital Pediatric Ward, Room Two

"Sara and Liz, how are you today?" A nurse wearing pink scrubs smiled as she entered the room.

"Good," Sara replied. "How are you?"

"I'm good. My name is Lauren, obviously I'll be your nurse today. It says here you have a cold?" She asked Liz, still smiling.

"Yeah. My throat hurts," Liz answered quietly.

She never had been very fond of hospitals; She was very much like Sara that way.

"Okay. Can you open your mouth for me?"

Liz nodded as Lauren pulled on a pair of almost clear plastic gloves.

Lauren pulled a flashlight out of her pocket and shined it in Liz's mouth; After nearly ten minutes of looking down Liz's throat, she clicked the flashlight off and checked the small girl's ears.

"Well, it looks like your have strep throat. I'm going to have a doctor come in and double check, so just hang out for a minute and he'll be right in," Lauren slipped the gloves off as she left the room.

"I didn't like her," Liz told Sara almost immediately.

She laughed and ruffled Liz's hair; A second later, a doctor entered.

"So, strep throat?" He asked, checking the chart in his hands; He wrote something down with a pen then pulled an empty chairs over in front of Sara and Liz.

"That's what the nurse said," Sara answered. Liz stared at the floor.

"May I take a peek?" He questioned Liz. "You can have a sticker when I'm done."

Liz nodded sadly and looked up at the doctor before her; Her eyes were glassy, a sure sign she had some sort of illness.

The doctor looked into Liz's mouth, moving her tongue from side to side with a small wooden stick like object then nodded.

"Yep, it's strep all right. I'll go write up a prescription for that then you can leave," He smiled as he exited the room.

Liz locked her arms around Sara's neck and became coughing; She tried to comfort her daughter the best she could, but she felt a warm liquid on her neck.

"Liz? Did you spit on mommy?" She asked, wiping at the spot with the back of her hand.

Being a mother, Sara had faced things much more revolting than spit; But saliva had always made her gag and she was doing her best to remain calm.

"Yes. I'm sorry mommy! It tasted bad!" Liz gasped between coughs.

The doctor, whose name Sara couldn't recall, entered again holding a piece of paper; Sara accepted it from him as she saw the look of thought on his face.

"I might have something to help you right now, Liz."

He pulled a sucker from his white coat pocket and handed to the small girl; She tore the wrapper off and popped it into her mouth. Almost instantly, she quit coughing.

"Amazing, isn't it. Get well soon," He grinned.

Sara stood up, Liz still clinging to her and left the room.

"We'll get your medicine filled when we leave, okay?" Sara asked the little girl.

"I'm sorry I slobbered on you," Liz answered, lollipop stick protruding from her mouth.

Sara walked into the elevator and pressed the ground level button; Liz tightened her grip around her mother's neck as the elevator gave a jolt.

"It's okay. We'll get a drink too."

The doors opened and doctors rushed in as Sara rushed out; As the two left the building, the hot sun hit them, the natural chestnut highlights in the mother and daughter's hair gleaming.

"Mommy, I'm tired," Liz yawned, looking around the parking lot as if she didn't know where she was.

Two quick chirps came from the Tahoe as Sara unlocked it; She opened the back door and placed Liz on the back seat, fastening her seat belt as quickly as possible.

"Okay, just stay awake until we get home. What do you want to drink?" Sara asked, trying to keep Liz up.

When no answer came, she looked in the rearview mirror.

Liz was already fast asleep.