Found out that mo'o stands for more than reptile in Hawaiian. Apparently there are creatures called Mo'o that are known to shape shift and one of their forms is, you guessed it, a dragon. Cool, right?

Shout out to Phoebe Miller for beta reading!

Fact #24: Dragons often get their own wings at museums.

Season: Early-mid Season 3

After staring a moment longer at the display of teeth, Steve took three long strides to catch up to the fifth grade class being led through the exhibits at the Bishop Museum. They were in the Mo'o Hall on a field trip with Grace. He didn't quite remember the finer details of how he came to be there as a chaperone along with Danny, but he was sure that he had been invited by Grace and had inadvertently said yes when he had been taking her home two days ago when her dad was sick.

His partner, who looked phenomenally better, was holding hands with his daughter. His shoulders were looser than he had seen them in a while and a small grin stayed on his face while Grace pointed at things. Steve smirked. It was nice to see him relatively relaxed for once.

Though, the faint bruising visible just under the collar of his partner's shirt reminded him of a not so relaxed time three days ago. His own arms were crisscrossed with bandages that covered a few of the deeper wounds dealt by big, curved claws and he was still tender around his burns.

"I haven't been in this hall before," he said once he had stepped closer to his partner.

Danny nodded and waved a hand around at all the displays. "I'm not surprised. They just renovated. Gabby said that this whole hall has been several years in the making."

"We goin' to see her today?" he asked.

"No. She's busy with a project on the Big Island for a few days," Danny shrugged.

Steve glanced around at exhibits on either side of the brightly lit passageway, looking for something to change the subject from his partner's often gone girlfriend.

"Danno, look at that," Grace pulled him towards a glass case and Steve followed.

Other little kids crowded around the display. A few bumped into him and suddenly he felt like a giant with all the heads coming up to only just above his waist.

"These are footprints that were found where a lake existed long ago near the Hell Creek Formation in Montana," their guide, a young man by the name of David, patted the top of the hardy glass case. "We know that they belonged to a dragon because you can see five toe impressions, something you don't see on much of anything else during this time period."

One of the kids shot her hand up in the air, waving it madly.

"Madison, you have a question?" their teacher, Mrs. Adams, asked.

"How big was the dragon that made that footprint?" she asked.

"Good question," David's head bobbed in approval. "If you measure the distance between the front feet and back feet, and how far apart the steps are, we can guess that the dragon was around twenty-five feet long."

"Cool," a few of the kids chorused.

David led the group further down the passage they were exploring. Steve stared at the casts of the lakeshore footprints. The front one almost looked like a handprint, except for the size and obvious marks where the claws had sunk into the mud. The hind one was odd in that it, too, had five toe impressions. Most dragons held their hind fifth claw off the ground, except for Amphibians and Wyverns.

"Uncle Steve!"

"You're falling behind, slowpoke."

He looked up and jogged half the length of the passage to catch up to them. "That guy must've had some pretty big feet, huh, Grace?"

"All the better to smash you with," she giggled.

Danny eyed him.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Are you really going to start that again?" Danny raised his brows at him.

That was why he had picked him as his partner. His instincts were good. They were good and they had told him that he was trying to pick up the conversation they had started on their way to meet the bus at the museum. It was a conversation that had sort of went a different direction than what Steve had anticipated.

"Start what?"

"You know what. The thing that you've been pestering me with for three days."

"I'm just curious!"

"You know what they say about curiosity and the cat, right?"

"Everyone always forgets that satisfaction brought it back."

"Oh, so now you're an etymologist, huh? Fine, you do whatever you're going to do. I can't stop you, lord knows I've tried. But quit looking at me like I've sprouted a second head or something, okay? Can you do that?"

"Danno," Grace put her finger to her lips and shushed them.

Steve narrowed his eyes at his partner. It was irritating in the extreme. He thought that he was the man of mystery and intrigue on the team, but the tables had been flipped and unceremoniously dumped on his head in the last couple of weeks. And every time he tried to figure out more, he was blockaded, either by Danny himself or by teammates that wouldn't spill the beans on their friend.

He turned his attention to David, who was speaking.

"We're about to enter the main display room of the hall. Feel free to look around and to check out the sensory center where you can touch real dragon scales, dig for bones in our sandbox, and smell the rare herbs that are known to only be grown by dragons."

The group filtered out into the cavernous room and was awestruck. Steve had to admit that he felt like a kid again. The place was packed with all things dragon with a few dinosaurs thrown in, he guessed for size and build comparison. While most of the kids made beelines for the sensory center, Grace led him and Danny over to a life size diorama.

"That alligator's huge!" Grace leaned against the metal rails, trying to get a closer look.

"It says that this scene is based on a set of fossils found in New Jersey," Danny grinned at the mention of his home state, "and that they were found like this, as if they had died fighting. Gustav here is a Deinosuchus and the dragon is of unknown origin, like most dragon fossils discovered."

"Hey bud, that Deinosuchus has some serious armor," Steve pointed at the osteoderms plating its back and the scutes that ridged its tail.

"All the better to protect himself with. The poor guy had to have some defense against schmucks entering his life and messing up his usual routine," Danny gestured to the two prehistoric beasts.

Steve didn't miss the fact that the dragon vaguely looked like a thicker scaled Arboreal. "Enhancing. You mean enhancing."

"Enhancing? How can somebody strolling up to you while you're minding your own business and starting a fight with you be enhancing?"

"This guy was probably bored to death."

"I beg to differ. He was probably enjoying his life, basking in the sun on the edge of a river or lake and then had to deal with this putz."

"He was grateful for the change of pace."

Danny opened his mouth to retort, but Grace was already dragging him to another display. Steve trailed after them. They passed by a skeleton of a dragon that was partially shifted and another diorama of a dragon interacting with humans during the Ice Age. The one they stopped at was an upright display of claws.

"Look at that one, Uncle Steve," Grace pointed at one of the claws on the dinosaur side of the display.

"Utahraptor," he read off. The claw was impressive at almost nine inches long. He glanced at his partner. "It's got claws almost as big as yours."

Danny gave his fingernails a quick look and held one hand up with his fingers slightly curled. "All the better to slice and dice you with."

They both winced as soon as he had said it. Funny as it was, it was still a bit too soon.

Danny sighed, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. "Sorry."

Steve waved him off. "There wasn't so much slicing and dicing. More like flailing and failing."

"Really? I feel like it was you, my friend, that was flailing and failing, since you had to resort to biting," Danny lifted his chin and exposed the fading purple and slightly yellow marks on his throat.

"Danno says biting is fighting dirty," Grace concurred.

They looked at her and then shared an awkward look over her head.

"Just remember that, okay? You don't win fights with your fists, you win fights with your words and your brain, got it?" Danny lovingly tugged on one of her pigtails.

Grace nodded seriously. "But if someone starts a fight, I can finish it."

Steve snorted with laughter. That sounded like his partner alright. Danny rolled his eyes and suggested that they move on to something else. Grace slipped her small fingers in Steve's hand and led the pair of them over to the center of the room where the main exhibit was. It truly was the pièce de résistance of the hall.

"Woah," Danny's hands swept out to emphasize the size of the complete skeleton. "Forget you, babe, this guy is huge. I thought that you were tall, but this guy is a monster."

Steve utterly agreed. He prided himself on being a rather large crossbreed. It almost always gave him an advantage in a fight and added to his intimidation factor. This dragon, both in life and in death, made him look like a bug.

"This is Titan," Grace examined the plaque in front of the skeleton. "One of the largest complete dragon skeletons they've ever found."

"This guy's head is huge," Steve tilted his head to the side. He pointed. "Look at where the muscles would've attached to his lower jaw."

"All the better to grind your bones," Danny said softly.

"You might be able to take a limb off, but he would snap a tree in half," Steve walked under the ribcage on the path that wound through and around the skeleton. He cast his eyes up into the chest of the immense being. "Wonder if he had a stoking chamber."

"It says they didn't find any evidence of charring on the teeth," Grace was still standing reading the plaque while the two of them wandered around underneath it.

"Could you imagine this thing flying?" Steve said with a chuckle.

"It'd make a windstorm just trying to get up off the ground," Danny said. "Good thing it didn't have wings."

"It says that they think he lived along the coast and swam in the water," Grace said.

"Swimming beats flying any day," Steve smirked.

"I thought SEALs stood for Sea, Air, and Land?" Danny perked a brow at him.

"See, I knew that you always played dumb just to annoy me," he shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "While I know how to fly a plane and a helicopter, I'd rather be in the water. Nothing beats being in your element."

"I agree. Now you know why I miss home. This whole island thing was so ridiculous to get used to."

"It's paradise, what was so ridiculous?"

"First, this whole island time thing. Why can't anyone just be where they say they're going to be at the time they say they're going to be there?"

"It's because everyone here, unlike you, is chill."

Steve watched him closely for the silent few seconds that followed. The last time he had used chill in a sentence it had resulted in him almost getting mauled. However, Danny seemed disinterested in commenting on that and only gave him a dirty look while holding up a second finger.

"Second, everyone puts pineapple on everything. Hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, salsa, ice cream, chocolate, smoothies, and the worst of all, pizza. I can hardly get a decent slice around here. Do you know how long it took me to find a place that can make a pie even anywhere close to what they do back home?"

"Notice how it's only you that dislikes pineapple that much?"

"That's not true. If I were to take a ham and pineapple pizza into my old precinct in New Jersey, I'd be arrested after they force fed it to the scum in lockup."

That was an exaggeration, he was sure. But it was entertaining to hear a full force rant for the first time in three days.

"And third?" he asked.

"Third, I never had to face as many dangers back home as I do here. It's like this island is trying to kill me off! Whether it's the people that live on it or the island itself, it's constantly trying to get rid of me."

"When has this island done that?"

"Let's see. The first day I met you I was shot. My ACL acted up again, which was something it hadn't done in years. A tsunami-"

"It was a fake tsunami."

"It sure felt real when the sirens went off, thank you very much. I had a curse put upon me by a homeless bum who broke both windshields on my car, I practically turned into a nomad after my apartment evicted everyone, I was infected with Black Dragon Eels, I had to invade North Korea to save your dumb hide before it got tanned, I was kidnapped by the CIA, I've been marooned in the ocean on a dinghy with you, had to chase down a fire breathing terror, I was almost scattered across a city block by a bomb, and most recently I was drugged. Need I go on?"

"No, I think you've pretty much covered it."

"And all of that is just what's happened since I was hijacked into being your partner. That doesn't even include what happened when I was still with HPD."

Steve's brows went up. "What happened when you were with HPD?"

"Now you're interested in my past? Now you want to know?"

"I've always been interested, but for all the talking you do you never tell me anything."

"I tell you a lot of things, but you never listen to me! It goes in one ear and out the other. If you had been paying attention to me then you may know what happened while I was with HPD. I thought someone that worked with intel would be a better listener? It's not like you're exactly an open book with your past."

"I'm bound to national security, Danny. I can't tell you what I've done, the things I've seen."

"I know, you're Mister Classified, so full of secrets and intrigue that us mortals must seem incredibly boring to you."

"Mister Classified, full of secrets and intrigue? This is coming from the guy who took almost two and a half years to finally show me what he is," he kept his voice low so he didn't draw unwanted attention. "And it was under duress. You were so drugged you literally couldn't stop yourself."

"Why is this such an issue for you?" Danny pressed his palms together pleadingly. "Why are you so hung up on this?"

Steve swallowed, now feeling unsure why it bothered him so much. "You let Chin see you."

"Again, under duress."

"And Kono apparently figured it out."

"She's smart. Are you mad because Chin wouldn't tell you anything? Look, I made him swear, okay? He's got a code that it's none of his business to tell anyone anything, because he's a good man like that. Is that part of it, huh?"

"It's like you don't trust me," he said, finally putting his finger on it. Over two years and his partner didn't trust him enough to let him in on his secret. "And it kind of hurts, man."

Danny went very quiet and very still. His ever moving hands tucked under his arms as he crossed them over his chest and pensively gazed around the massive legbones on either side of them.

Steve observed the kids darting around the exhibits and displays. Grace was absorbed in the plaque and was talking animatedly to two of her friends that had walked over. She used hand gestures just like her father. His lips quirked upwards a little.

"I'm sorry."

He snapped his attention back to his partner.

"I'm sorry that you think I don't trust you," Danny worried his bottom lip and shifted his weight around on his feet. "Because despite all of the boneheaded things you do, I trust you with my life."

"So why…?"

"Like I told you before," Danny swiveled to look at his daughter. "It's to protect her."

Steve sighed. He already knew that was the major reason why. Even a mixed blood with Cliff lineage was a target for poachers and trappers for the same reason that snow leopards and pandas were: they were rare. He understood Danny's need to remain unknown.

"Tell you what, you overly sensitive Neanderthal."

He looked up and caught his eye.

"I'll let you have a free question each day, and I'll actually answer it. I can't go showing off my handsome alter ego just because you're curious, but I can at least let you try to get to know me like you've let me get to know the unclassified part of your life. God help me."

"Really? One free question each day?" Steve perked up.

"One."

"Guess I'll have to make them count."

Danny flashed him a grin and walked back over to Grace, who immediately included him in on the conversation she was having about over how awesome it would have been to see a dragon as big as Titan was. Steve was also immediately roped in once he was close enough to them.

"Danno, Uncle Steve should come on the Aloha Girls camping trip next month," Grace said.

"Yeah, that would be cool," one of her friends, Lucy maybe, agreed.

"I don't know, Monkey, he may have other plans and not want to spend his weekend with a gaggle of ten year old girls," Danny said.

"I could teach them survival skills. It might be fun," Steve said. The girls already seemed on board, and when that happened there was typically little arguing to be done.

"We'll have to ask Madeline if it's okay," Danny caved.

Grace and Lucy high fived.

The rest of the morning they meandered around the Mo'o Hall with the girls. At one point there was a short movie about dragons and how they had existed down through the millions of years without changing very much. All throughout that time, Steve pondered his first question carefully. Of course, he'd much rather just be shown rather than be told, but he'd settle for what he could get at the moment.

It wasn't until they were exiting the hall to go eat lunch and they passed by a display of wings did he know what he wanted to ask.

"Arboreals only have gliding wings," he started, making sure to word it carefully. He wouldn't put it past Danny to say that a question not pertaining to what he actually wanted to ask was his one question for the day. Like some kind of genie.

"I'm so glad you noticed that," Danny nodded indulgently.

Steve frowned, but continued. "Arboreals have to jump from high areas to stay in the air for any amount of time."

Another indulgent nod.

"Wyverns and Cliffs are the only two known types to have powered flight."

"I feel like you're actually asking more than one question, but I'll let that slide since this is the first day."

"What does it feel like to fly?"

It was the question of a small child, he knew. But he had always wondered what natural flight felt like. Gliding off a cliff and catching the air currents was amazing. How much more so would being able to touch the clouds without the aid of an engine.

Danny stuffed his hands in his pockets and lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "I don't know."

Steve made a sound of annoyance. "Come on, man, is it always going to be like this? I ask you a question and you just go, 'I don't know'?"

"No. I just…I don't know."

"I thought you of all people, you with your huge vocabulary would be able to describe it better than, 'I don't know'."

"Steven, I don't know because I can't fly."

"What? Of course you can."

"No. I can't."

One look at the serious and slightly embarrassed expression on his partner's face confirmed it. Steve's eyes widened and he watched his back as he walked ahead to catch up to Grace. That wasn't an answer he was expecting.

Danny couldn't fly.

Whoops. It's not a red herring, I promise. I address it later.

New art has been added, just a sketch of Titan's skull, so check out that link I gave out last week. Note to reviewer amberplant33, I can't send you the link unless your PMs are turned on. If you still need the master link to all the art, comment or PM me!

Thursday on "Dragons", we learn not to trust everything the internet says about dragons, or Danny has a nightmare and Grace runs in to check on him. I'm having a small editing/posting crisis, so it'll either be one or the other.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!