Title: MSN 101

Author: IrishDachsie

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I own nothing...nothing at all. No profit is being made. This was written in response to a challenge by LSI.

MSN 101

“Hey Griss?”

“Hmm?”

“Where’s your MSN Messenger?”

He looked up from the textbook he was proofreading for a friend to see her sitting at his desk, the chair swivelled around so that she was facing him. He furrowed his brow a bit and tilted his head slightly.

“My…what?”

She gestured towards the monitor, jumping slightly as she glanced at it. “Damn screensaver! Where the hell did you find something like that anyway?”

“What’s wrong with the screensaver?” He chuckled lightly as he stood and walked the short distance between them.

“Gil…there are bugs crawling on your screen.”

He smiled fondly at her before looking at the monitor. “Yes, there are. Aren’t they beautiful?”

She shook her head and sighed. “And why am I dating you again?”

He leaned over and brushed his lips against her cheek. “Because you love me…now, what were you asking about?”

She moved the mouse slightly to disengage the creepy crawly screensaver before turning back towards the screen. “MSN Messenger…where is it?”

He studied her carefully. “Depends…what is it?”

She turned her head towards him, her amusement dancing in her dark eyes. “An instant messaging program. Like AIM, ICQ, YIM…”

“WWINT?”

“What?” Her amusement turned to pure confusion.

He shrugged his shoulders lightly and grinned. “Thought you wanted to speak in acronyms.” He winced in mock pain as she swatted his arm. “Okay, okay…why would I need that?”

Confusion turned to bewilderment. He successfully smothered the laughter that was growing at her rapid progression of emotions.

“Uh…to talk to people?”

“To talk? Sara…why would I need an instant message program to talk to someone?”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

He fought the urge to roll his eyes and exhaled deeply instead. “Sara, I rarely talk to anyone outside of work anyway. And…when I do…they have this invention called…a telephone.”

He gave her a smile as he watched her emotions change again. Ah…frustration…

“It’s the twenty-first century, Bertie…”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t call me that…and I’m well aware of what century it is.”

“Well?”

“Well what, Sara?”

A low growl rumbled in her chest. “Nevermind, I’ll download it myself…”

“Wait…I just don’t understand what the big deal is about it…”

“It’s one of those things, Griss…”

“One of what things?”

“One of those things that you don’t understand until you give it a chance…like me.”

“Sara…that’s not…”

She cut him off quickly. “It IS the same…sort of. You didn’t really understand US until you gave us a chance. And now…look at us…”

He sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his hair. “Fine Sara…go ahead…I still don’t understand the big deal though.”

“You will…I’ll show you, okay?”

He watched her quietly for a few minutes as she clicked here and there. Suddenly a thought appeared in his head.

“Sara?”

“Yeah?”

“Uh…so…who DO you talk to on this thing?”

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and bit her lip, stifling the smile that was threatening to appear. Shrugging her shoulders, she released her lip and continued with what she was doing. “I actually have friends all over the world…”

“Do you?”

She noted a hint of something in his voice. She smiled lightly as her mind’s finger placed it. Jealousy…over internet friends that he didn’t even know existed until now. A smile appeared in her eyes as she watched the download screen.

“Sure…Australia, Ireland, Latin America, Germany…New York, New Jersey, California…Boston…Seattle…Orlando…Detroit…”

His mind began to relax somewhat. He leaned back in his chair, his eyes glued to the monitor.

“…Vegas…”

His body snapped back up to an upright position, his eyes darting from the screen to her face. “Vegas?”

She nodded innocently. “Sure…”

He rubbed his temples gingerly. “Who…uh…who in…who here do you talk to?”

“Who here?” She chuckled lightly. Her ears not registering a chuckle in return, she turned to him. She quickly realized she didn’t hear her favorite “Grissom-Chuckle”, as she called it, because…he wasn’t laughing. “Griss?”

“So...what are you doing?” Somewhat embarrassed by his jealousy, he tried his best to change the direction of the conversation.

Her eyes squinted slightly as she looked at him. “Well...waiting for this file to download...and then I’ll install it for you.”

He chuckled lightly. Not the chuckle she wanted to hear, but she settled for it anyway. “I...really don’t think I’ll use it...but...you seem to enjoy it. So...”

“Gives me something to do while you’re engrossed in your bugs?”

The “Download Complete” box popped up and she diverted her eyes from him back towards the monitor. Clicking a button on the screen, she heard him huff softly.

“What?”

“Uh...wasn’t that a licensing agreement?”

She gave him a crooked grin and nodded. “And...I’ve already read it before. So...do you want to use a Hotmail account or register your email address with Passport?”

“I need a passport?”

She let out a bellow of laughter and shook her head. “Not THAT kind of passport...” She gasped as she tried to swallow some air into her lungs. “Just...Hotmail or your address?”

Slight irritation shone in his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest. “If you just feel this tremendous urge to sign me up for something I’ll never use...just use my address. I don’t feel like going through the trouble of coming up with an account name.”

“It’s not that hard, Gil...”

“Yeah, Ms. LVTPSS...”

“Shut up...” She flashed him a bright smile as she went about registering his regular email address. “What password do you want?”

“I don’t care...I’m never going to use this, Sara.”

She thought for a moment and smiled. “Harvard.”

A puzzled look settled into his features. “Huh?”

“That’s your password...Harvard. Now...what’s your favorite pet’s name?”

“Why?” He leaned forward slightly to get a better look at the form she was filling out.

“In case you forget the password, it will ask you what your favorite pet’s name is...and...once you answer, it’ll give you the password.”

“Oh...”

“So?”

“Oh...Leo. Leo was my favorite pet.”

“Dog?”

He shook his head with a smile. “Pink-toed tarantula.”

She gave him an endearing smirk. “Why am I not surprised?”

She finished with the registration and smiled as he pulled his chair closer to watch her. A small window appeared. “Signing In”. She quickly clicked “Add a Contact” and grinned as she typed in “LVTPSS@hotmail.com”.

“There...now I’m on your contact list. When we’re both online we can send messages to each other.”

“Sara...we live in the same house. If I need to talk to you...I’ll come find you. This is ridiculous.”

She laughed loudly and nodded. “You do have a point...”

She quickly began adding people to his list. “Warrick...your favorite CSI. Greg...your favorite lab-rat.” She looked at him with a serious look on her face. “I’m not adding Catherine to your list...”

“Why not?” He was genuinely confused by her statement.

“Because...”

Realization hit him and he chuckled heartily. “Because she’s Catherine...I understand...”

She leaned over and kissed his lips softly. He pulled back and gave her a stern look. “I’m not going to use this...you know that, right?”

Giving him a quick wink, she grinned. “We’ll see...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

She woke to an empty bed and glanced around curiously. Hearing his gentle laughter from the office down the hall, she got up and pulled his shirt on. She padded softly down the hall and stood in the doorway.

“What are you doing?”

He blushed lightly. “Talking to Greg...he had an interesting date last night...”

Walking behind him, she draped her arms over his shoulders and planted a light kiss on his neck. “Thought you said you’d never use this?”

“Well...you never know what can happen when you give something a chance...”

She gave him a wide grin and ruffled his hair. “Tell Greg I said ‘Hi’...I’m going to get breakfast started...”