A/N: I hope everyone really likes this! It took me a bit to think of where I wanted to go and how I wanted to proceed with the story. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this story this summer but I make no promises due to real life commitments. I feel like the guys are a little OOC but let's remember that it is fanfiction!
The next morning Danny found Steve and Grace exercising in the backyard of their rental house. Well it was more Steve working out while Grace danced around him like a monkey. It was definitely a sight to Danny's un-caffeinated brain, in which his only reply was to shuffle into the house and pour himself a cup of the premade coffee Steve had made. Sighing at the blissful taste of the drink of the gods, he shuffled his way back to the sliding door leading to the backyard.
"So at what ungodly hour did you two get up at today?" Danny asked as he sat at the patio table. Taking another sip he raised his eyebrow at the enthusiastic grins he received from the mischievous two.
"Danno we got up really early! Like super-duper early and dolphin trainer Annie, Steve, and I had breakfast, made you coffee, and have been out here exercising!" Grace exclaimed as she ran to her father. She wrapped her thin, but surprisingly strong arms, around him and squeezed as hard as she could. Not a moment later she was running back to the grass and dancing a dance only she knew. Steve took his place next to Danny, taking gulps from his water bottle.
"So… What time is 'really early'?" Danny asked after taking another sip of his precious drink.
"I got up at five, did my morning swim, came back in around six thirty and found her looking in the fridge for something to eat. So I gave her some of the sugary cereal you love so much and then she specifically said we needed to brew you some coffee or the 'evil Danno' will come out and be cranky the morning. Though she said you'd actually be cranky at me and would be 'lovey-dovey' with her. So to her specific instructions we made you're coffee. Afterwards, which was around seven twenty three, we came out here and began our exercising routines." Steve replied with small smirk.
"You know, you could have just said, 'I got up at five, after crazy seals activities I found her in kitchen. Fed her, made coffee, and then we came outside to do exercise and then you showed up.' See simple, not too complicated. But thanks anyway, now I know I'm going inside for a little TV time and will look over the case files. Feel free to stay out here or join me in the living room." Danny said as he scooted his chair away from the patio table and made his way inside, stopping by the coffee maker to get a quick refill.
Steve could only shake his head in amusement before joining Grace for some more exercise routines.
Inside the living room Danny sat on the couch, slowly flipping through a pile of papers. In front of him the TV played softly, recounting the beautiful weekend and week they were supposed to have. Nothing in the file reports were indicating a link between the murder and murders except for the fact that the victims were gay. He knew he was missing something very important. He had read them over and over but he couldn't pick out what he knew was there.
Groaning he leaned back into the couch and glanced at the digital clock. Reading the red numbers he searched for his cell phone and found it nowhere in sight. Standing up from the couch he stretched and made his way back up to his room. Grabbing his phone from the nightstand, he dialed Chins' number and waited for the other man to pick up.
It was only a few short rings before Chin picked up, "Chin here."
"Hey it's Danny. I was wondering if you or Kono had picked up on any other leads or anything. I was looking of the case files and something in the files that are bugging me but I'm not really sure what it was." Danny said as he sat down on his bed, running fingers through his un-gelled hair.
"Well we got a couple suspicious anonymous tips come in last night and we've got the Hawaii Police Department weeding out the ones that have nothing to do with this case and forwarding us any tips that may be related to this case. Kono is actually currently out following up a lead she got Kamekona. He'd heard it from a contact of his that there was some dirty exchanging going on with a couple of gay bars in the area. She went to go check if it had anything to do with our case or not.
"Other than that, I've been cross referencing some of the witnesses at the bars who last saw our victims alive. So far their information checks out. Yet there are still a few people I have to check out and cross reference their stories. Also some of the evidence has come back from the lab and has given us some inside look to the pattern the murder has been using. Even though all of the victims were beaten with a blunt object, we've noticed that it's the eye color that begins the pattern. "
"Eye color? That's a bit different, but wait one minute before you go any further. I want to grab a note pad and write this down. One minute," Danny muttered as he pulled out his suitcases and began shuffling around in them for the notepad of paper he kept with him. Finding it nowhere in his bag he quickly made his way back down to the living room and shuffled the papers around. Nearing the end of the pile of papers he found his notepad and a pen. Grinning in accomplishment, he sat down and poised his pen to start writing.
"Sorry bout that took a little longer than I expected to find it. Ready," Danny said into the phone.
"S'OK brah, not a big deal, but as I was saying the murder's pattern is decided by the eye color. The first victim was female, blonde, green eyed, twenty eight year old. The next murder victim was a twenty four year old African American male with brown eyes. After him was another male only he was twenty six years old, Asian and had blue eyes. The next female was twenty-three, Hawaiian origin, and she also had green eyes.
"While this seems to be jumping to conclusion as we don't have solid proof of evidence, it's our best lead we have so far. This murder doesn't care if the victims are male or female, they don't have a preference of ethnicity. Their focuses on the victims is their sexuality and their eye color. After I finish these cross referencing I'm going to check back with Kono and find out what she's got. When I'm done I'll send you a detailed e-mail to both you and Steve." Chin replied, keyboard noises could be heard in the background as he relayed his information to Danny.
"Chin you're amazing! I'll get with Steve and we'll sit down and work on why the eye color was so important. If anything important or urgent pops up just give us a call. Also say hi to Kono for me." Danny replied scratching hurriedly across the notepad of paper.
"Not a problem brah, and do the same to Grace and Steve for me." With that the two men ended the phone call.
Standing up from the couch Danny made his way back to the kitchen and refilled his coffee mug with lukewarm coffee. Adding in his additives he slowly stirred the drink before taking a sip, groaning at the silky smooth taste. Turning around he watched from his place at the counter as Steve and Grace began cleaning up the backyard from their morning exercise. Danny didn't have to wait long before the couple was in the kitchen clamoring around putting things away and looking for a snack.
Grace was quick with her snack; grabbing a mozzarella stick from the fridge she turned toward Danny and said, "Danno it's time for my cartoons! Is it OK for me to watch them in your room?"
Laughing lightly at his daughter's puppy dog face he kissed her on her forehead and pushed her in the direction of the stairs. Watching her bounce away he shook his head in amusement and turned around to find Steve kneeling down looking in the cabinets. The brunette's shorts hugged the man's statuesque figure, leaving little to the imagination. Steve's white tee-shirt clung to the others chest and torso, framing the broad strong shoulders. Watching as his partner stood up from his position he glimpsed the power bar that rested in Steve's powerful hands.
As Steve unwrapped the power bar he snapped out of his thinking and mentioned his call to Chin.
"So what did he say?" Steve asked through a mouthful of his power bar.
Grimacing at the mush he could see in the other man's mouth he retorted, "Manners Steven! Sheesh you're acting like a Neanderthal again! Anyway, I wrote down all of the information which you can look at later. However, the pattern Chin said they came up with is the color of the victims' eyes. The first victim had green eyes, the next had brown, the third had blue, and the fourth had green. The murder isn't targeting ethnicity as the victims are all of different origin. This case isn't any ordinary case Steve, it's becoming serial. We're up to the fourth victim and if the press gets a wind of our only lead in the case we might as well be starting from point A again.
"Kono's currently out following a lead from Kamekona about some dirty exchanges going on in the gay bars and clubs. Chin's currently checking out the alibis and once he knows more he'll send out a detailed e-mail to us."
"Hmm…" Steve pondered as he finished off his power bar and downed a glass of water. "Well, even though the eye color pattern is our most obvious lead, it still doesn't narrow down our search to our murderer. The best thing we can do for right now until we get some more clues and evidence is to continue on with our plans for the neighborhood barbeque. Let's get our plan ready for now and get it all sorted out. When Chin and Kono get back to us we'll work on approaching their information and ours from what we gather."
"You know Steven, that's the most sensible thing I've heard from you in a while," Danny stated as he made another cup of coffee for himself. "So I thought for the barbeque, we'd just go invite the neighbors and have it tomorrow?"
"Sounds like a plan, I'll make a paper real quick so you can leave them on people's doors who are or aren't home. Let me go grab the laptop real quick and I'll be right back. Oh and by the way Danno, you're looking so sexy all sleep mussed." Steve winked as he exited the kitchen laughing to his self.
Huffing in amusement Danny ignored the comment and went back to the living room. Pulling all his papers back into a neat pile took him a few moments, but when he was done a small pile of papers were placed in front of his face.
Blinking owlishly he leaned back from the papers and glanced over them. On the right hand bottom corner, there were two male adult stick figures with one small female child stick figure making a waving motion at anyone who glanced at them. Above them shone a kid-drawn sun, while the ground beneath them was a sandy shade of what looked like a crayon scribbling. On the top in bold Comic Sans MS font was 'Neighborhood welcoming party! Come join us in celebrating our move to our new home!' Underneath the big print was a more sizeable font that placed the date and time.
"Cute, so when are you going to go hand this out?" Danny asked.
"That's the fun part! You get to go invite the neighbors! You always say I lack those, wait what are they called? Social skills was it? So obviously the best course of action is for you to do them. " Steve replied with a smirk on his face and his hips cocked to an angle and resting on the couch. Steve crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Danny's reply.
Sighing in resignation, he stood up and took the papers from Steve. "I'll be right back let me go get dressed and I'll start making the rounds on the neighborhood."
Nodding his head, Steve took a seat on the couch and watched as Danny left the room. Frowning when the other man was out of sight, he pondered on the other man's actions. It was very out of character for him to not reply in some loud brash way. Thinking upon it a bit more he pushed the thoughts away as Danny came thumping down the stairs and moving towards the front door.
"I already informed Grace that I'd be going out and that she should listen to whatever you say. I should hopefully be back within the next hour or two but I'll let you know via text." Danny said as he slipped on his shoes and pocketed his keys.
"Sounds good, thanks Danno you could have had me do it you know," Steve said as he watched Danny.
"It's really not a problem Steven, especially because you do lack the necessary skills that would be needed to charm the neighborhood into accepting us and not pillaging our rental house." Danny smirked as he left out the door. Steve grinned at the show of the usual Danno attitude and flipped on the television.
Danny sighed as soon as the front door closed tightly; he did not want to deal with the neighbors as much as he had made it out to be. Yet, he had said he'd do it and he stuck to his word. Gathering up his wits he made his way to the first neighbors.
A/N: I've actually had this written for a bit now but forgot to keep uploading it! Hope everyone enjoys! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own this series, all characters belong to the network and its partners.