Hello everyone! This is an idea I got while rewatching an old episode of Hawaii 5-0 (season 3 episode 20 to be more specific): why Steve was called Smooth Dog? Because if I do remember well, the latter remained pretty vague on that information lol

So, I decided to explain my theory with including Junior on it. As he is now a former NavySEAL (he retired, right? He's not like Steve in the reserve, isn't he?), he has some stories to share with his boss and the rest of the team.

I integrated this story along the eight season, somewhere I don't know. Maybe before Dany got shot at? To explain: they have no case to investigate at the time, they are bored, so while eating their lunch, Junior tells a story about the SEAL, something his CO told his class. If you want to know more, you really HAVE to read this story ^^

ENJOY THEN!

An unusual investigation, that was what they missed the most this past few days in order to avoid peak boredom. They loved their job, no one could deny that. But the same murders with the same stories about love, treason and all... Lieutenant-Commander Steve McGarrett, Detective Danny Williams, Lou Grover, Tani Rey, Junior Reigns and Jerry Ortega were bored to not having original cases, the ones allowing them to end into a car-chasing or running, going from a suspect to another one without knowing who had murdered the poor victim. And this, it was when they had a case. Which was not the case for a week now, but as the Governor of Hawaii's Task Force, they had to be there, working to catch up all the paperwork and help the Honolulu Police Department on their daily cases: patrols, car accidents, this kind of things. All gathered around the desk planted in the middle of the main room, each of them was eating what Steve had ordered for the group. A surprise for all of them, Danny included, because he wasn't the guy buying something for himself, rather less for others, so for him AND the others? Anyway, it showed how high their boredom was.

"So, Junior. Tell us about your time as a NavySEAL. Because I'm bored", Steve gently asked while took a bite of his meal.

Everyone stopped, as if time had frozen. Tani, who had her fork inside her lunch box, raised her head, surprised to hear that her boss had used this word. Bored. Inwardly, she was laughing out loud; nobody dared to admit it to Steve, and he was the first one saying it.

"Steve, I am pretty sure you already know everything about Junior. You're a control freak and a former Navy Intel", Danny noticed with a mouth full.

Only Lou kept eating his lunch, calm and impassive but listening to this new argument between the blond-hair head and the salt-and-pepper hair one. It had been over three years now since he first met them and not a day had passed without one of these arguments, and it was a bare minimum. At first, he listened to them carefully, ready to laugh at the least occasion. But seeing his two other colleagues, Chin and Koko, doing as nothing had ever happened, he understood that this was from now on his daily routine. Therefore, he did as nothing was happening and continued to devour his lunch.

"I don't deny that, but you don't know his story", Steve argued.

"Because after eight years of knowing each other, you think I know yours? You never wanted to tell me about a crazy SuperSEAL background, because it is classified!"

With this remark, Steve straightened up and turned to Danny while putting his lunch box on the desk.

"Which is the case: most of my missions weren't official ones, and the ones that were official could compromise national security if I talk to you about them. You know that, Danny!"

Danny kept his mouth shut and sighed. Yes, he did know that. It was in order to protect himself, his country and its interests. And especially to protect the one he loved. But to conceal many details of his life as he had shared with him secrets and difficult personal moments, it was something he hated the utmost from him. It was as if he didn't trust him enough to reveal this information, even though he knew that Steve trusted him with his life, blindly.

"I know that you were in Irak at some point because you mentioned it with Joe. I know you've been deployed in Afghanistan for at least three years because you speak the local language, in North Korea because you speak Korean and we made an amazing trip up there, and before you ask: yes, I remember the whole operation. And before that, you were probably deployed in China or something like that because you speak Chinese quite fluently. And from what I've heard, you've also been deployed in the Maghreb because you speak Berber. Undoubtedly some other place I don't know where."

Lou stopped eating, finally, and placed his gaze on Steve. he had just heard something surprising.

"Hold on, you've gone to North Korea? The both of you? The most-closed country?!"

Everyone was surprised but Danny and Junior. The first one because it was obvious: he himself had gone to save his teammate and bring him back home, which had led to Commander Joe White being court-martialed and forcing to retire prematurely. The second one because as an ex-NavySEAL, he knew where he could be assigned. And North Korea was one of those countries. For the majority of the population, whether American or global, North Korea was the most closed country in the world. But it was only an appearance: the forest acting as a natural border between the two Koreas was so dense that neither government dared to keep an eye on it from the inside. So, it was easy to come in and go out the country, when you know what to do. Which was the case when you were a NavySEAL. But they had heard right: Danny had also gone to North Korea, and it apparently had not been a pleasure.

"Long story, but Steve went there at least twice since I first met him."

Speechless, Lou, Tani and Jerry didn't know what to say. The truth was that the latter hadn't said a word since the beginning of the conversation, which was rare enough to notice it. He was listening to Steve as if he was God.

"You were there too, Danny!" Steve noticed, frowning and pointing his friend with his right forefinger.

"Yes, to save your ass, bitch!"

A slight laughed settled inside the room, to the dismay of the commander.

"I learn a lot about both of you every day!" Tani stated with a big smile.

She had shivers traveling down her back just thinking of the risks her boss had taken for his country. Their country. And she imagined her father doing it too, on these same missions. What hell did the military go through to bring order to the world and maintain a semblance of fragile peace? She came back to reality hearing Steve sighing near her.

"Alright, let's go back to Junior, shall we? Tell us which team you were assigned to."

Junior was also baffled, even though he didn't really show it. He had been trained to survive in a hostile environment, so he knew that the missions his boss had done, he could very well have participated to them. But to have missions in North Korea, it was to chill your blood. Just being caught meant that you were dead. And the US government would have been forced to deny you in order to preserve the interests of the country as well as its honor. This meant that every mission in this country was a black operation, where the slightest mistake would result in the deaths of the soldiers in question. But hearing Steve's question, he pulled himself together and shook his head slightly to stop his reverie.

"Uh, I was a part of TeamSeal 3, spotting specialist. When an operation was ordered, we were the one on the field to cover the AO and map up all the choke points. What about you, Sir. You were a part of which team?"

Steve smiled. He knew that this statement from Junior was a half-truth. Nobody knew how many TeamSEAL there were, let alone the number of people on each team, or their specialty. It wasn't possible to change the specialty of a group, but it's was possible to change the name of the teams. So Team 3 was the one he was last assigned to. So he played this game.

"TeamSeal 6. Tracking and spying specialist."

Junior's look changed abruptly, filled with both admiration and fright.

"What is it, Junior?" Danny asked when he saw this sudden change of behavior. "Look like you saw a ghost", he joked.

Steve kept his gaze on Junior while he was trying to pull himself together. He knew what the young NavySEAL was thinking, and it surprised him to see so many emotions in his eyes. He was young but scared of something he didn't know yet.

"Uh... Nothing, it's uh... During my training, our CO told us stories. Probably to scare us to death, or to force us to excel and move on. I don't know. One of these stories was a legend about a TeamSeal 6."

Lou could not help but make a comment. This story interested him to the highest degree.

"Oh yeah? Tell us about it, maybe Steve knows this legend?"

"I think I know what Junior is talking about, but I'm going to let him tell us about it", he admitted with a slight glance.

Danny knew those blue eye: slightly closed, a slight smile on his face. He enjoyed this conversation and where it was going. Which meant only one thing: Steve probably knew what Junior wanted to talk about. Everyone stopped, putting their lunch box on the table and waited for Junior to begin his story. Even Jerry stopped and sat up in his chair to take part in the conversation.

"Our CO told us about a TeamSeal. A group of four men the HQ systematically sent to the most dangerous front in order to explode or implode the enemy lines or to eliminate some... Some sensitive targets. The oldest NavySEALs apparently called them The Fantastic Four."

Danny could not help but raise his eyebrows and have a face. It was his way of looking surprised. To tell the truth, he was. The Fantastic Four, it was a little too superhero for him. A bit too much. Maybe it was part of this SEAL legend?

" The Fantastic Four? Original name! And why that name?"

"From what it's told, it's because they each have a specialty, a bit like in the comic, where each of the Fantastic Four has a unique ability. We don't know their real names, but we know their code names. This is the only thing we know about them. The instructors never wanted to give us their physical, mental or other attributions. They said it doesn't make you a SEAL, but that was what you were doing with your knowledge."

"Tell us everything, I'm all... Yours."

It was true: everyone was listening to him, even Steve. But he had a slight smile as Junior was telling this story. Danny quickly guessed that his theory sounded right: Steve knew what Junior was talking about. That meant two things: either he knew that legend as well, or he was a part of that legend. Which in a sense wouldn't surprise him, far from it.

"First of all, there was Birdy. According to the legend, he was the pilot, he could fly and drive any vehicle, and he was trained to be deployed on the field. It seems that he was the one who was sent to deploy the troops on the ground in hostile territory, especially in the most remote places on enemy territory."

With an attentive ear, everyone took into account what Junior was saying and imagined a pretty strong man flying a helicopter over the enemy lines as if nothing had happened, while at any time, the aircraft could be taken down.

"Okay, so Birdy is the pilot", Danny summed up. "Then?"

"Then, there was Bitsy."

This time it was up to Lou to speak, surprised.

"B-Bitsy? Like... Itsy Bitsy Spider? The child animated movie from the early '90s?"

Obviously, apart from Junior and Steve, nobody knew that their code name was associated with a particularity he had developed. To be honest, Steve was wondering what name was assigned to his youngest partner and colleague. It intrigued him to know that.

"Exactly. Apparently, it was the most multi-tasking of the four, he knew how to handle all weapons, from the smallest to the largest, but his specialty was sniping. He was the one with the most retired position in order to cover the other three. He was called Bitsy because he could do several things at the same time while keeping his efficiency. Then there was Banger."

"Banger? I wonder why...", Lou quipped, suspecting that it had something to do with weapons that made a lot of noise.

"Let me guess... All the weapons that make a bang?" Tani asked with a big smile.

"Close. The specialist in heavy weapons and landmines. He was the one who went first to defend his teammates and to attack the enemy. His favorite toy was the bazooka, and he liked to smash enemy lines, especially high positions and according to legend, he was a great professional knife killer, and he always wore at least four of them hidden on him."

"Okay, scary guy... And the last one?"

Junior felt a shiver run down his back. It was just a legend, but he was afraid of it. Even if it had helped him overcome what he had faced in order to become a SEAL. But this legend seemed so true that he was afraid it would be real.

"The leader of the group. The legend says that if you see him, it's the last thing you see before being killed and ending dead. He's the most discreet, but the most deadly. It is said that he tracked down his target without being spotted, without the slightest noise, without leaving traces behind him. It seems that his sixth sense was highly developed. It is also said that he never left corpses behind him, or not enough fresh flesh to satisfy the vultures."

"Seems like a nice guy! And what was his code name?" Danny asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

"According to our CO, his code name was Smooth Dog."

"Smooth Dog?" Tani repeated.

While Junior nodded and the others ended up surprised, Danny turned his head to Steve, astonished but without showing anything to his colleagues. No one but him in this room knew that Steve was called Smooth Dog during his stay in the Navy. Was that why he was called that way, or was it a nickname he had before inspiring this legend? Because yes, Danny knew that this Smooth Dog was their Steve McGarrett, his friend, his heart brother. He could read it on his face; his smile said a lot.

"Do you know this legend, Sir?" Junior asked him when he saw the smile on his boss' face, standing up in front of him.

"Of course! I know the whole detail. Each year is the same, the CO tell the story every time. Like a tradition."

"Is it a legend? Or was it a real team? Like a normal TeamSeal?" Junior asked again, intrigued.

"If we can call it a normal TeamSeal...", Tani stated the obvious very seriously.

Danny smiled inwardly. Knowing Steve, he wouldn't deny or confirm this. If the operations he led were talking about this group, then the information was classified de facto. But his best friend was never going to admit that he knew more than he would ever like to admit. This nickname was Steve's secret in a way.

"I can neither confirm nor deny."

Junior suspected that his boss's answer would be this one. After all, if this group really existed, all their missions were classified, and they were going to stay this way for a long time. The legend also said that they were sent to the worst places in the world to eliminate several high-ranking targets, or even reckon the field in remote places in enemy lines. It was an ultimate elite group. In fact, no one knew how many teams there were, how many SEALs formed a team, and each had a specific number that changed from year to year to keep soldiers safe. The only number that had never changed was that of Team 6, because no one knew its existence outside the SEALs. Apart from this legend.

"And you Junior, what was your code name as a NavySEAL?" Tani dared to ask, curious too.

Thanks for the distraction! Steve thought. Because he suspected that Junior was close to hear the answers he wanted to get from him. Although he was a spotting professional, he had been trained to endure torture, to give torture and gather information here and there without letting anything appear.

"Me? Uh... Well, since I'm not in the Navy anymore, I think I have the right to give my code name, is that right Sir?"

"If none of your missions is classified or if your code name won't compromise national security, then I too would like to know."

"Ok, ok, I'll tell you. my CO called me Deaf Bull."

"Deaf Bull? Because you run straight without listening?" Danny replied with a laugh when he realized that every code names were talking about a particularity of each NavySEAL.

"We can say that", Junior affirmed with a smile on his face. "Let's say that I don't like to wait, and I tend to go headlong without thinking about the consequences of my actions. A bit like a bull."

A silence accompanied the end of the young man's sentence, before he asked for something.

"And you Sir, what was your code name?"

Danny smiled, just like Steve. Both knew the real answer and the one Steve had to give him.

"Given the operations I did on behalf of our wonderful country, I can't, unfortunately, give you this information", he denied with a smile.

For once he did' t say: 'I can neither confirm nor deny'! Of course, he knew that these colleagues, apart from Danny, would do everything to find this information and many more.

"And before you ask Jerry to dig into my past to have classified information, you won't find anything official in my file or in any international and national database. I've already checked myself", he added.

It was true, more or less: he had never checked, but as he had never been caught _except twice in Afghanistan but this led to the death of the group that dared to abduct him before they could say a word_, nobody had something on him, on his life, his family or his military career. Not even fingerprints.

"Alright kiddos, lunch time is over!" he screamed while tapping in his hands. "Let's go back to our boring day!"

Everyone left the main room to go to their personal office, except Danny who followed Steve into his office in front of everyone else. He closed the door behind him while Steve sat in his chair.

"So this is where your name come from, or did you get it long before?"

"Smooth comes from the fact that I never left any trace of my presence, that I was silent, and also because I performed my missions almost without any difficulty, and Dog, well... Because I was tracking my targets with what I could see, perceive, hear, and the famous sixth sense that Junior spoke of."

"And uh... Your friend, Freddie. He was... He was one of the members of this team?"

"Bitsy. Usually, he covered my back with his sniper."

"What about Nick?"

"No, Nick was a part of Team 6, but not the Fantastic Four. He was a part of the second wave. You already know I can't tell you much, Danno."

"What I mean is that you called him Bullfrog once. Why?"

"Oh. Because he was the best of us for all amphibious operation. He was the fastest, the agilest, water was his thing. Hence his code name."

"Alright, uh... And uh... Why didn't you tell Junior?"

"Tell what?"

"The fact that you are Smooth Dog."

"Junior passed his BUD/S thinking that this was a legend. He probably did it because of it. He thinks it's not true, or he hopes so. Have you noticed how tense he was when he heard that I was a part of the TeamSeal 6? He was scared. And even terrified when he started talking about Smooth Dog. If he realizes that he works with the man he is scared to death of, we'll lose him."

"I know what you mean. But I thought that you were all fearless neanderthal animals?"

"We learn how to deal with our fears, but if it's an irrational one, like a phobia, we can't control it. His fear of meeting one of the members of this group is real. You understand the fact that we can't tell him about me then."

"Yes, I do."

After a long silence, Danny spoke again.

"And uh... They're... You know? Alive?"

Steve sighed, closing his eyes. Danny had hit a nerve; it was an information he could give him. And he knew it.

"Birdy got killed while covering my ass, as a diversion. His bird got rocketed. A couple years ago. And uh... Banger... I don't know. I hope he's still there, somewhere. He is a great guy. He saved me on numerous occasions while operating. These guys were like the family I never had actually."

Danny smiled; he knew that with his mother's story, he never had a real childhood. He had to grow up really fast and face adult situations from then on. His family was torn apart because of this faked death and his dad flying him out the Islands with his sister to the mainland. With these guys he worked with for a long time, it was like having what he never had a chance to embrace: brothers. People he could blindly trust with his life. Guys sharing what he did and could do everything to protect each other, sharing laugh and death situations. Always together, no matter what.

"So, uh... this Fantastic Four... They sent you for Operation Strawberry Field?" Danny asked with a smile on his face.

He already knew the answer Steve was going to give him, because it was always the same. But one thing was certain; according to the speed of this sentence, he would know whether or not it was the case. The commander looked up, surprised by his colleague's question. He was probably never going to let go of it before having answers. Seeing the smile on his face in front of him, he smiled back.

"I can neither confirm nor deny."

That was it, everything was said. Danny knew. Atta boy!

A/N: So, what do you think of this story? Was it good? Was it bad? Did you expect something else or something more?

Please, leave me a review to know what was actually good or bad :D Or your opinion simply!