Keyword: "Decontamination"

408 words

16 minutes (not counting proofreading and editing) (So shoot me. I went over the limit.)

Don had become accustomed to the chaos that was his brother's house. But when he knocked on the door and was met by a tearful Amita holding a sobbing Mara in one arm and a wailing Andie in the other, he knew this was something new and different.

"Amita," he raised his voice to be heard over Andie's wails. He took Mara from her arm. "You look like you're about ready to collapse. What's wrong."

Mara sniffed loudly and buried her snotty, teary face in Don's shoulder. "I wanned ootube," she wailed. "Tooky monster!"

"What?" Don looked at Amita, confused.

"She wanted to watch Youtube. She and Charlie..."

At the mention of her father's name, Mara wailed even louder. "Dada! I sowwy!!!"

Don patted his niece's back and murmured, "It's okay, Baby. Shhhhh."

"Not baby," Mara's indignant voice was muffled.

Don looked at Amita, who wiped her eyes and continued. "You know who was busy, and she decided to help herself."

Don glanced down, noticing for the first time that his formerly clean dress shirt was now smeared with peanut butter. "I'll straighten him out. Where is he?"

"In the garage."

Don handed Mara back to Amita and strode bravely into the lion's den. Charlie was hunched over his desk, his back to the door. He was muttering profanities as he typed frantically. He jumped when Don touched his shoulder. "What?!" He turned, and blushed. "Sorry. I'm in the middle of decontaminating my computer. I have to catch it before this damned Trojan horse contaminates the rest of the network."

"Trojan horse? I thought the problem was peanut butter."

Charlie snorted mirthlessly. "The peanut butter part was easy. Apparently those little peanut butter fingers clicked on a cute little picture of Cookie Monster and, well, the rest is history." He turned the screen so Don could see it. The screen was filled with dozens of dancing Cookie Monsters performing obscene acts on each other.

Don laughed. "Is that all it is! Poor Mara is crying her eyes out in there. What did you do to her?"

"Well, I certainly didn't hit her if that's what you're implying. I may have screamed loudly enough to be heard in four counties."

Don rubbed his face as the reality of the situation struck him. "My case files..."

Charlie waved at the screen. "They're in there somewhere. You still think it's no big deal?"

Don scowled. "You want me to bust her?"

Author's note: Thank you to StatsGrandma for letting me borrow Mara, without whom this story would not have been possible, and Andie, who deserves an Oscar for her supporting role.