"Did you get the medicine?" Katie asked hurriedly as Travis came in through the front door. Mary hadn't been feeling very well earlier in the day but the parents wrote it off as nothing. As soon as she learned how to talk, Mary loved to moan and complain about every little thing. Turned out that she actually wasn't feeling good, but they figured that out just a bit too late. While Katie threw the puke filled bed sheets into the washer, she had her husband go out to Circle K to get some antibiotics for the five year old.

"You sent me to the store to get medicine, so why wouldn't I come back with medicine?" he groaned, holding up the bag. Travis loved being a father, more than he loved tacos. But when he had to wake up at two in the morning to go and get some way-too-expensive medicine Mary was only going to need once, he was not the biggest fan of parenthood. Hearing his daughter up chuck half of the organs in her body didn't really make him want to dance with joy.

Katie rolled her eyes, grabbed the medicine and ran back up the stairs, Travis right behind her. As he neared the bedroom, he heard the small murmur of "Mommy" that just broke his heart.

"I'm coming, sweetie," Katie said nicely, quickly walking in to the bedroom. Travis came to a stop in the doorway, and watched as she sat on the bed to feed the girl medicine. Travis couldn't help the small shiver that ran down his back. Katie was dressed in gray sweatpants and one of his old T-shirts with some picture from World of Warcraft. It was a gift from Katie for his birthday that one year he was strangely obsessed with that game. Katie's hair was a complete rat's nest, she had no makeup on, and her stomach was as large as a basketball. She was the most gorgeous thing he'd ever seen.

"How are you feeling?" he asked Mary, walking over to feel her forehead for a fever.

"Yucky," she mumbled. Snot was dripping from her nose and her small lips were terribly chapped.

"Well this'll fix it all up," Katie said, finally opening the bottle and pouring some of its contents into the measuring cup.

Mary's face scrunched up in disgust. "I don't like medicine."

"Come on, baby," Travis cooed. "After you take that, you'll fell all better."

"But it's gross!" She huffed and crossed her arms moodily.

Katie and Travis sighed in unison and glanced at each other. They sent each other silent messages, begging one another to try first. Ever since they had first started going out, they had been able to understand what the other was thinking just from a few glances. Mary sat and stared. Travis shook his head. "But I went first last time!" he whispered loudly. There really was no need to whisper. Mary could still hear.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Fine," she mumbled. "You're such a baby sometimes, Travis, I swear." She turned back to Mary with the medicine still in her hand. "Just drink this, Mary, for Mommy."

After clamping her mouth shut, invisibly zipping her mouth closed, locking it, and throwing away the key, she shook her head. Katie sighed. She hated stupid kindergarten teachers for teaching her that motion. She never knew why they told the kids to do that. It never kept them quiet. Until now, of course.

"Please, honey, just take it. It'll make you feel all better." She had also learned to be persistent. Katie decided to blame that on the teacher too. It sure as hell wasn't her fault. It wasn't. At all. When Mary shook her head once again, Katie glanced back up at Travis, begging him. He shook his head with a small smile on his face. Sometimes she just wanted to punch him.

"Come on, Mary, it's not that bad."

"Yeah huh."

"Nuh uh."

"Yeah huh."

"Nuh uh."

"Yeah huh."

"Nuh u-" Katie stopped, and shook her head. "Amaryllis Lily Stoll, you will take this medicine right now whether you like it or not." She didn't raise her voice, but the sharpness of her tone was extremely noticeable. Mary's lower lip began to tremble. Katie's angry expression turned to one of guilt. "Baby, I'm so sorry. I -"

"How bout I take over from here?" Travis asked as he came over and took Katie's shoulders, forcing her to stand up.

"I didn't mean to. I-"

Travis shushed her and looked into her eyes. "It's okay, it's okay. I'll take care of it."

"But you always have to take care of her. I never do anything. I'm a terrible mother. I don't deserve to have another baby. I'll probably kill it cuz it won't take its medicine and then it'll die and it'll be all my fault and-"

He shushed her once again. "Katie, Katie, Katie. Calm down." He rubbed her arms and pushed her hair over her ear. "You are the best mother I have ever met. You're sweet, and kind, and caring, and just wow. I've never met another mom who could look as sexy as you do in sweatpants. You will not kill our next child no matter what. Besides, Child Protection Services would get it before you could kill it."

She moaned and hid her face in his chest. "That wasn't funny." Her voice was slightly muffled by the fabric of his shirt.

"I know, I just couldn't think of anything else to say." They stood in silence for a bit longer. The only sound was from Travis's hand going around in circles on Katie's back. That, and the small snores coming from Mary's bed.

Katie stood up straight and glanced over at their daughter. There she was, asleep. She looked up at Travis. "She's asleep."

He smirked. "She's asleep."

"But she didn't even take the medicine . . ." She trailed off as she saw the small, empty cup on the table. Katie smiled. "Gods, I love her."

Travis turned her back around and kissed her forehead. "I love you."

"I love Nyquil."

"Hear, hear."

This is not a one-shot, peoples! It's actually a twenty-six-shot! Yes, lucky yous all get twenty-five more chapters on Tratieness. I'm doing an ABC challenge, I guess you could call it. It kinda just came to me. I'm sure other people have done this before, but for Tratie? I think not. If you're still confused on what this ABC challenge is, seeing as I haven't even explained it, I will be doing a chapter for each letter of the alphabet. This one was A for Antibiotics, the next one's B for Birthdays, C for College, etc., etc. If you have any suggestions for ideas or what not, feel free to share! I've kind of planned out all of the letters, but I'm not a big fan of all of them and I've already changed like half of them. This one was originally called "Absent" but then it got chaged to "Aliens" which finally got changed to "Anitbiotics." As you can see, I'm welcome to change!

Goats. Goats are good for everything: birthday parties, you can eat em, swimming, preparing salads, cuddling (I snuggle with goats occasionally), sword fighting. I also like to mountain climb with goats on dangerous slopes. But you know what goats are really good for? Not owning Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Nyquil or anything else I mentioned up top! They're great at that. And so am I! I also don't own the alphabet, but oh my god that'd be so awesome! I'd put U and I together, just so people couldn't use that lame pick up line anymore.

Thanks so much to my BFFFF for betaing this for me and what not! Love ya!

All the cool kids review!

:) Jordan