Whoa! A great big 'mahalo' to everyone! I loved the reviews and am blushing over the fav lists I've been added to! As you can tell this is Danny's turn to be in his own element. Please enjoy! ~MM
Chapter 2: The Little Hawaiian Team
An hour and a half later properly garbed the Hawaiian contingent walked the short distance to the conference center. They stopped once for a lesson on properly packing snow balls and soon white projectiles were flying as the laughing group had fun. They entered the conference room brushing snow off each other.
"You got snow in my ear!" Steve complained as he took off his cap and shook it.
"Serves you right!" Kono replied. "You were cheating!"
"How can you cheat at throwing snowballs?" he asked, incredulous.
Leaning over Danny showed Chin how to disengage the cleats from his boots and slip them into a jacket pocket. Hats were removed as well as scarves. They hung these with coats on a rack in the entry.
There were perhaps a dozen people already in the room. From the looks of it pretty serious about something. Almost as one they turned to stare at the newcomers.
"I feel like my fly is down," Chin muttered to his cousin. She shrugged and put on a smile.
"Steve McGarrett, 5-0," the dark haired man held out his hand as they neared the cluster, his team behind him. A rather dour looking man moved forward to accept the greetings.
"Jason Farr, Governor's Task Force, New York," he said with authority. He efficiently introduced his team, all 10 of them. All male with testosterone to match.
Steve confidently introduced his team, not liking the way they were being sized up. Although Steve looked the part, the other three seemingly did not meet criteria and were subsequently ignored.
McGarrett also did not appreciate the way he was pulled into the conversation but his people were left out. He noted Danny's seeming indifference as he navigated to the bar and got drinks for them. He accepted the bottle of beer and turned to follow the conversation.
The Los Angeles and Chicago groups arrived next. None of them had any qualms about the Hawaiian team and soon they were engaged. Kono was pleased to see women on both teams. These also were larger teams, with ten and fifteen people. Of course, they'd all been established well before Hawaii and had grown over time.
A smaller contingent came in from Austin, then a group from Miami and finally New Orleans. Add to that various guest speakers from various governmental agencies and you had the bulk of the conference.
"Dan Williams!" a deep voice called out. "You old dog! Who let you in here?" A strongly-built man with greying hair came up to him and grabbed him in a bear hug. This brought the rest of the team back to him and they loosely arranged themselves in case of need.
Fortunately, Danny was grinning ear to ear.
"Jim Hadley! They let you in here?" Williams returned the greetings.
"Yep, made me the keynote speaker of all things," the older man chuckled as he loosened his hold. "They seem to think I'm expert on something related to law enforcement."
"Let me introduce you to my team mates," Williams smiled, waving them closer. Before he could begin the New York head, Farr, simply shouldered Danny out of the way.
"Colonel Hadley, sir!" he said and held out his hand.
"Detective Farr," Hadley returned, clearly not impressed.
"I'd like to introduce my crew to you!" Farr tried to pull the speaker towards his expectant team. They were still clustered together and had not mingled like the rest of the teams had.
"I'll be pleased to meet them," Hadley gave him a tight smile. "But first I want to catch up with my old friend and his team mates." He clearly enunciated 'old friend' and pulled his hand back.
"You have the week for that and I really think you'll be impressed with my..." Farr again tried to pull the man towards his side of the room.
"I'm sure I will be, detective," Hadley neatly skirted around him and laid his arm over Williams' shoulders. "I will make it a point to do so sometime this week. Now, Dan, let's meet the team!"
Farr was seething. How dare those upstarts corner Colonel Hadley! Even with McGarrett's somewhat impressive presence they were weak. He glared at the shorter man's back and felt himself being watched. Shifting slightly he realized McGarrett was glaring daggers at him, nearly daring him to do something. Turning abruptly, Farr turned and returned to his team.
"This is our leader, Lt. Cmdr. Steve McGarrett," Danny began. "Chin Ho Kelly, our computer expert and kick-ass detective." Hadley laughed at the description.
"And this must be Kono Kalakaua, probie and kick-ass detective in training," Hadley finished up. He'd researched all the teams attending the conference and was quite impressed with the 'little team' from Hawaii. Everyone chuckled over his description.
"Well, we're just tryin' to raise her proper," Chin grinned.
"From what I've read you're all doing a fine job! We'll have to sit down and discuss some of your successes and failures," Hadley said.
"Sounds great," Danny smiled.
"So, how do you know this Jersey transplant, sir?" Steve asked.
"Well, Dan, here, worked with me on a couple murder cases that involved drug traffickers and a serial murder case. Tried to get him to jump ship and join up with me," Hadley explained. "Damn fine investigator and profiler."
Profiler? This was news to them, although they knew that Danny was a great investigator.
"How's Gracie?" he turned to Williams who was definitely trying not to squirm under the praise.
"Great, loving Hawaii," Danny said.
"Well, I think I've pretty well crushed Farr's attempts to use me for political fodder," Hadley grinned. "I need to go meet and greet, but let's get together later this week! There'll be down time and I want your opinions on a couple files."
"Ah, I knew there was a catch!" Williams replied.
"But it comes with a bottle of the good stuff you like," Hadley winked.
"Really?" Danny was interested.
"Oh, yeah, 18 year old Laphroaig," the greying man smirked.
"Cool!" With a chuckle Hadley turned around and moved on to meet other people.
After awhile the groups moved into the dining area. They found they'd been assigned a table near the front of the room. Hadley managed to switch his name card and quickly sat down next to Danny. He was avoided sitting with Farr, but the New York lead simply switched his name card and sat down at the same table with his own 2IC.
Steve leaned over and whispered "Plastic chicken" to Kono causing her to giggle. Then, nudging Chin, they chanted softly "bonding! bonding!" causing their boss and 2IC to laugh as well. Hadley snorted.
"Inside joke?" he inquired.
"Very," Danny grinned. The New York duo shifted.
"You should let it out of the closet," Farr drawled the innuendo. This elicited a polite chuckle from his own man, but blank stares from the rest of the table.
"Our Governor is very adamant about team building and bonding," Steve said firmly. "In her estimation our team needs to work seamlessly together and she feels we work at our best when we are most comfortable in each other's space. But that doesn't include any closets, Detective Farr."
"Our team does work seamlessly," Farr ground out. "We're professionals and don't need to 'build' or 'bond' anything."
"Different philosophies, same goal," Danny shrugged. "From my perspective every team has its own way of working together. None of them are totally right or totally wrong."
"Ah, you're stealing part of my speech, Dan," Hadley chimed in and patted him affectionately on the shoulder causing Farr to frown even more. "I took the time to review all the teams before I came. There are interesting similarities and a few differences that I'll touch on. Plus, it helped us design the workshops and discussion groups as well."
The first course was brought out, bowls of hot vegetable soup and crusty rolls. They hungrily dug in and conversation drifted to football and the impending football playoffs. The table occupants were amused at Kono's knowledge of the teams involved and it was decided they'd open up a room and set up a screen to project the NY Jets/Indianapolis game later that week.
"Jets suck," Farr commented as he pulled a long sip off his beer.
"And the Giants are playing when?" Danny shot back with a smirk.
"Whatever," Farr tipped his bottle and pushed his uneaten soup away. Salads followed then the main course was whisked out.
"Bu-wuk!" Steve said as the plates were set out. A thick cut of prime rib with baked potatoes and steamed veggies.
"You know, if you really want chicken I'm sure the waiter would be happy to get you some," Kono pointed out and lifted her hand. Steve quickly pulled it back down.
"No, no, don't want to cause any problems," he said. "I'll just have to suffer with this." With a snort various accoutrements for the potatoes were passed around. Horse radish was checked for spiciness and chives were liberally doled out.
When finished the staff cleared away the debris and brought out coffee and a rich chocolaty dessert. When Kono expressed her delight, Hadley passed his dish to her.
"I get to go talk now," he shrugged. "And unlike Dan I have to work to keep this svelte figure!" He grinned as his name was announced and he moved up to the podium.
"One thing about Jim," Danny told his friends, "he's a fine speaker. I never fall asleep when he talks."
"Hey! What do ya mean by that!" Steve elbowed him in the side. Chin and Kono grinned then they all turned their attention to Hadley.
As far as speeches go McGarrett had to admit it was really good. Hadley had done his research and included examples of the best each team had to offer. If it seemed he used the Hawaiian team a few more times than the others no one commented, but Farr was grumbling under his breath each time they were cited.
Once over the last of the coffee was poured and a final call from the bar. Although it was early according to Hawaiian time, the team was tired because of the long travel day and drastic altitude change. Making their goodbyes they collected their gear, strapped on their cleats, and headed back to the cottage.