Hi!

As promised, I'm back with another chapter :) hope you have fun reading!

It was nearly 4 hours later when Steve finally came back from his meeting. John had started crying a few minutes ago after Danny had changed his diaper and had fed him half of the bottle. The Jersey Cop rocked him around a bit, knowing, the whining toddler was probably just tired and feeling a little uncomfortable in a different environment. It wasn't the first time Steve had brought him to HQ but most of the time, Steve has been around. Said man walked in as Danny was giving John his dummy who immediately started sucking on it.

"Hey. Is everything alright? Was he like this the whole time?", Steve asked, a worried glaze on his face as he took the sobbing child from his partner's arm. Danny nearly had to smile about his friend – he never had seen him like this before, little John had brought up the soft side of the former SEAL Danny never thought he would experience once in his lifetime.

"No, not at all. He was playing most of the time without a problem. He started crying maybe 10 minutes ago, he's probably just tired. His diapers are changed and he drank half of the bottle, within some crackers I gave him before."

"Thank you, Danny.", Steve looked at him for a second, before he gave John a kiss and let him cuddle up against his shoulder. Little John calmed down immediately and the sucking on his dummy got more energetic. Daddy's arm was the comfort he had been looking for.

"How was the meeting? Had been pretty long.", Danny asked him, noticing, his partner looked exhausted. Not that he was surprised about that. Who wouldn't be tired after a restless night with a toddler, followed by an 4 hours meeting with the Governor?

"Yeah, tell me about it. I was running crazy.", Steve sighed and laid his hand on the back of his son who started to nod off hanging over his shoulder, cuddled into his neck. "Look, let me put him down somewhere and gather the papers, then I will brief you.", he decided a second later.

Danny held up his hands to take off the obvious stress going out from his partner. "Hey, there is nothing to hurry about, okay? Why don't you sit down on your couch in the office with him, he seems to be pretty comfortable, and just let him sleep. We will come to your office and you can tell us about the meeting. I will get the papers."

Steve gave him a tired smile. "That sounds good, thanks. I will meet you in my office."

10 minutes later, the three of them gathered around in Steves office. Chin leaned on McGarrett's desk, Danny had sat down in his friends office chair and Kono took her seat on the other end of the couch. Steve had placed himself on the couch as well, leaned back and with a peacefully sleeping toddler lying sprawled out on his chest and shoulder. The little guys face was cuddled into his neck and he was dead to the world. His little excursion through the HQ had worn him out pretty good. Steve had a arm around the small body to hold him in place and with his other hand, he handed Danny the flash drive he brought from the meeting with all the important information and papers on it.

"So, how happy was the Governor about the little stake out that went south last week?", Danny wanted to know. He wasn't really shouting but he didn't need to hold his voice down that much either. Compared to his father, who would wake up from the lightest movement or noise around him, the little guy named his son was probably the deepest sleeper Danny had ever met. It probably would need at least three jets, taking off at the same time next to him in order to snap the toddler out of his sleep.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand and sighed. "Not really happy. Apparently, HPD had taken some wrong communication which lead to the reason why this whole thing had been blown up. The chief told us they lost their informant and the guys delivering the drugs got suspicious. Certainly, we got enough evidence to blow the hole cartel up and arrest most of them. But the Governor suspects they will come back, if we don't dig deep enough and I agree with that. Now, we only got through the surface of the cartel – if we blow them up now, they will vanish forever and we will never be able to get them. And with that we face the danger to spread them all over the world and to countries, we have no access to. It would have been all for nothing."

"So, what should we do?", Chin throw in the question all of them had in their heads.

"The Governor ordered us to go through the evidence again we collected from the last stake out. He and the chief were sure about the rumour, that one of the more important people was there at every deal at the harbour they made. Someone had to be there; someone, who had something to say. If we get to him, we would have a chance to follow him back to the real important people behind this mess."

"So, basically, he wants us to dig through all the reports, surveillance material, photos from the deal… everything we have?", Danny repeated what Steve had told them and his partner nodded. Danny sighed and rubbed his forehead. "That's a lot, man."

"I know. And I know, we are all tired but we need to do this. Im as concerned as the Governor. You all remember the last victim of the drug cartel, he was only 17. We need to do something now.", Steve underlined the importance of the task of work ahead them and none of his team disagreed on that. Nobody wanted to see another body of a child lying on the table, abused to death from drugs.

Steve was interrupted by John, who was shifting slightly in his position, pressed against the former SEALs chest but fortunately, he didn't wake from his nap yet. Steve changed his position a bit and stiffed an upcoming yawn between his jaws.

"Im sorry, guys. I know, I promised you a few days off after the last case but I can't let that slide for now.", Steve continued, waving one hand in an excuse to his team.

"Steve, you don't have any fault in this. Besides, this order came from the Governor and I agree with you – we can't let that slide. We all agree on that.", Chin's calm voice stated the obvious and for that, Steve gave him a tired smile. He knew he could count on his time as often as he had to.

"Okay, well, this seems like the day is not going to end soon. Can I suggest something?", Danny asked and pointed out to Steve and his personal sleeping pillow in the shape of a human bundle softly snoring on his chest. "You, my friend, are bone tired and have a duty as a father for this little guy. You should go home and rest a little."

Steve frowned at him. "Im fine, thank you."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Jeez, don't you trust us to take this over for a few hours?"

"That's not it!", Steve protested but lowered his voice, since his little boy shifted again. "The Governor specifically told me to put my team on this – and this would include myself and I will not stand down."

Danny looked at him and knew, he wasn't going to win this. Not this time. "Fine. Next suggestion: We gather our stuff and make ourself a workplace at your place. It would be easier for you and way more comfortable for John, so you don't have to keep an eye on him every second."

Steve thought about what Danny said and finally agreed. "Okay, let's do this."

An hour later, the McGarrett house was equipped with all the stuff needed to work on what the Governor ordered. Chin brought a few computers and rebuilt their smart table into a smaller version but no less capable in its use. Kono brought a flash drive with all the photos from the stake out and some data they collected around the suspects over the last weeks. Steve had built a pretty big playpen all by himself a few months back when John had started crawling. It was big enough for him to crawl and walk around a bit in case Steve couldn't have an eye on him every second. Fortunately, John was an easy baby regarding to be entertained for a while and he was totally happy, when Steve put him down into the playpen with some of his favourite toys.

The team got into work and on occasion, one of them would go get some cuddles from little John or Steve went to change his diaper and soothe him with some of his favourite crackers the toddler could suck on with his few teeth in his mouth. It was in the early evening when Danny noticed his friend next to him, hovering over his computer, starting to fight against sleep. His eyes were drooping more and more but every time they would close, he snapped them open again. Rubbing them, blinking and Steve went back to work. Danny decided to say nothing for now, the former SEAL won't listen anyway. It didn't take long and Steves eyes wont open again. His body went limb, his head lolled to the side and his brain just shut down in order to get the much needed rest.

"Well, that took longer than I expected.", Kono commented the sleeping figure on the couch. "Should we wake him up and coax him into bed?"

"No, let him sleep.", Danny sighed at the sight of his slumbering friend; too stubborn until he would just pass out during work. "He wouldn't listen to us anyway and with that, he sleeps at least a bit. Probably better than during the nights."

"That bad, huh?", Chin raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I don't know. Little guy started toothing a few months back and since then, he seems to be a very restless sleeper, at least at night. Steve told me he is usually awake 3 to 4 times, sometimes more at the worst nights."

"Jeez, how is the Boss' brain still working?", Kono shook her head in disbelief and looked at her softly snoring boss.

"Well, honestly it isn't working that well. Yesterday, I had to remind him 3 times to sign my report and a couple days before, he nearly left his SIG on the desk before heading out. Not that I blame him, its just not like Steve at all. Usually, he's the precision in person.", Chin nodded towards said person and both of his teammates nodded in agreement.

"Sometimes its obviously even too much for SuperSEAL. Although, he won't admit it.", Danny moved his gaze to the playpen where John had stood up and hold himself on the wooden reeds. He sobbed and was looking for someone to pay attention to him. "What is it, little guy? You hungry, huh?"

Danny walked over and picked John up who looked around while he was placed on his uncle's arm, obviously searching for his daddy. "Your Dad fell asleep on duty. How about your Uncle Danno is going to look for some dinner for you, huh? Come on.", he talked to the kid, carrying him into the kitchen.

While Danny prepared some baby porridge for the little man, Kono and Chin decided to take the time for a break and to order some food. They let Steve sleep until the food arrived.

"Hey, buddy. Rise and shine, its time for dinner.", Danny squeezed his friend's shoulder who was awake immediately.

"Huh?", he mumbled, his sleepy voice was scratchy and eyes were blinking confused. "Did I fall asleep?"

"You did. But no worries, Boss, we had it under control.", Kono smiled, when Steve sat up in a more upright position and stretched his stiff muscles.

"Someone wants to talk to you, I think.", Danny stood by his side and handed him his kid who squeaked happily at the sight of his father and wrapped his little arms around Steves neck while babbling some incomprehensible sounds. "He has a fresh diaper and he already ate – like you hadn't feed him with a bunch of crackers the last two hours."

"Dada!", John practically screamed into Steves ear and the former SEAL smiled. "You did, huh? Well, you are a very good eater, like your mom was.". John looked like he understood what Steve said to him and smiled even brighter.

"He smiles a lot.", Chin stated the obvious, not being able to stiff his own smile while looking at the happy toddler in the strong arms of the former SEAL.

"Yeah, he does. He's almost always in a good mood; he has that from Catherine. I hadn't seen her in a bad mood very often since the first day I met her. She was always smiling, like him.", Steve looked at his son, poking his nose and cheek to trigger another laughter from the baby boy. He smiled again. There is nothing he loved more than that. It always reminded him of Catherine.

Nobody said anything; the three of them watched Steve bickering around with his son and just enjoyed the picture. Steve didn't talk much about Catherine but sometimes he did and it always seemed to be special for him to share it with his surroundings.

That's it for today, will be back in a few days! Reviews appreciated :)