Object of Desire

Title: Object of Desire

Summary: Marie's Fascination with Daddy's laptop (Season IV).

Prompt: 7: "What Do you Think Your Doing?"

Author: Sakura123 (weber_dubois22)

Rating: K

Characters: Marie Dubois; Joe Dubois

Chapters: 7/28

Word Count: 545

Written: 10/10/09

Completed: 10/11/09

Disclaimer: Medium and all things related are property of Glenn Gordon Caron, CBS Paramount Television, Picturemaker Productions, and Grammnet Productions. Original storyline and characters are property of me, the author.

Authors Note:

It was a constant presence ever since Marie could remember, always sitting idle on the table while her father sat hunched over it. There was a memory wrapped in a comfortable fog that Marie loved to reference the most. She remembered the rumble of her father's voice as he carried her through the house against his hip, while she suckled on her pacifier and her mother's voice drifted from somewhere ahead of them. The most vivid fragment in her mind, though, was without doubt the shiny box that always sat on the table. Daddy's shiny box.

He sat on her his lap, talking to her in that voice that always made her giggle, even with her pacifier in her mouth, before averting his attention to his shiny box. His fingers danced across the keyboard painted with letters and numbers and seconds later they would appear on the screen. When she got older, her sister Bridgette explained that the shiny box she was taken with was called a laptop. "Basically, its like really small computer without all the extra stuff," Bridgette said. "Its got this really, really cool pad on it, so your, like, using your fingers instead of a mouse to move the arrow around." That enticed Marie's curiosity even more now that it had a proper name.

Everytime, she saw her daddy at the table, typing something on his laptop, she wanted nothing more than to play with it. Their mommy was always telling them not to play with it, however. "Daddy's computer is not a toy. It's very important for his work, so you can't touch it," Mommy said, not at all in a mean way. She, Bridgette, and Ariel always nodded "yes". Marie always tried to do what mommy told her to do, but now was not one of the times.

She was the first one up, before everyone, which was becoming a new habit for the youngest Dubois now that mommy and daddy were home more often than they used to be. Marie went to get something to drink when she saw it sitting on the table, screen illuminated. Marie didn't mean to play with daddy's computer, but it was just sitting there, all alone and shiny. She didn't see the harm in pressing a few buttons. Her original reason for coming into the kitchen forgotten, Marie found herself settled in the chair, exploring the wonders of the shiny laptop.

"Marie?" The girl jumped in her seat, fingers retracting from the laptop's keyboard like she'd been slapped with a ruler. Peering over the chair, Marie found herself staring into the surprised face of her father. "What do you think your doing, young lady?"

Marie averted her gaze downward. "Playing with your computer, daddy," She said. Daddy crossed the space between them, Marie ducked when he reached over and closed the laptop.

"Didn't mommy tell you not to play daddy's work computer?" he asked. Marie fidgeted under his gaze, adjusting her new glasses, she nodded slowly. "I'm sorry," Marie replied. Daddy pulled her out of the seat and held her like he used to, only now her legs went past his stomach and dangled against his own.

"S'okay, as long you remember not to do it again."

"Okay Daddy."

[End Prompt 7]