a/n: I've had a few questions about the end of this season and if how I'm going to incorporate all that into this story - the wedding, Cath, Charlie. When I started this story, I had it starting somewhere after 5x18 and planned out the entire story at that point. As the season progressed, I figured I could work in the wedding and Catherine, and I might, but Charlie... That's seriously gonna mess with my plans for Steve. I'm not completely against the idea, if something comes to me.
Basically, I'm torturing my boy enough right now. lol
The ding and pop-up of an Outlook reminder interrupted Danny from the requisition form he'd been filling out. He'd always teased Steve about never doing his own paperwork. Of course, he'd known that wasn't true back then, but he had to get his fun somehow. He'd never realized, however, just how much paperwork Steve did until he'd taken over the Task Force and it was all his job. It had only taken two weeks before he'd delegated Kono to take over some of the administrative duties. All the work and reports that he once took from Steve, without the other man having to ask, with copious amounts of complaining, though none of it sincere.
He dismissed the reminder. Fifteen minutes until his meeting and depending on how that went, who knew when he'd get back to the paperwork. He finished the form as fast as possible and sent it off before heading out of his office with five minutes to spare before whoever it was he was meeting with showed.
Lou and Kono were in their offices and Chin sat on a stool, hunched over the smart table, staring at a scary-looking blue screen. He looked up at Danny's approach.
"Howzit, Brah?"
Danny shrugged and nodded at the screen. "Better than you, by the looks of it."
"Nah, this is fine. The upgrades should be done by the end of the day. We'll be up and running first thing Monday morning."
Danny nodded. Over a month ago, Chin had suggested some upgrades that Danny didn't really understand, but was assured they'd make tracking suspects a lot easier. The problem was, he needed a good two or three days to complete the upgrades and the team hadn't had enough downtime to do it until now.
"Great. Make sure we don't have any delays. I've got a feeling we're about to run out of free time."
"Got it. You think something's up? You even know who you're meeting with, yet?"
Danny shook his head as he heard the main door open. He answered Chin before turning to see who had joined them. "I don't think the Navy's sending their guys over here without telling us anything just because they miss us."
"Well, you know, it's classified, Danny."
He blinked slow, certain he was hearing things, then turned around. Blinked again. Greeted the man the only way he knew how.
"You look like shit, Steven."
"Thanks! I missed you, too." Steve grinned; it was contagious. Danny missed this but he still raised an eyebrow, asking a silent question. If Steve missed Danny so damn much, why the hell did he leave? That sounded ass backwards, even to Danny, but it was definitely something he would say if he were going to rant. But he didn't rant, just folded his arms across his chest and waited. For the briefest moment, Danny thought he saw a flicker of disappointment on Steve's face.
Lou and Kono joined them to see what all the commotion was about and Kono let out a not-so-little squeal, running over to hug her old boss. Danny finally noticed that Steve wasn't alone and gave Jake Costas a smile and a nod. Then, even more important, Danny noticed the box in his friend's hands.
"Are those what I think they are?"
The SEAL grinned, walked over to the center of the room to put the box on the smart table, crossed his arms, and shook his head. "Nope. Better."
Danny was on the other side of the table almost before anyone could blink. In the next instant, he had the box open and a pastry in his mouth. Only then did he slow down; his eyes slipping shut as he savoured the taste. He let out a dirty moan.
Lou raised an eyebrow. Kono couldn't contain her laugh. Chin just smirked and reached into the box for one of his own. Danny swallowed the bite slowly, licked his lips and opened his eyes, looking at Jake.
"You ever had a cocoa puff?"
The shorter of the two SEALs finally released the laugh he was holding in. "Just the cereal."
Danny shook his head like someone was threatening to torture his puppy. "No. Not the same. At. All. These," he held up the portion of the pastry still in his hand, "are better than sex."
"Sounds like," Costas said.
"Think you've been having sex with the wrong people, maybe, Danno?"
Danny turned to Steve, raising an eyebrow. He didn't say a word, just took another slow, savouring bite. There was a beat of silence and then Steve turned to Costas.
"They are pretty good."
"Thank you," Danny mumbled around the rest of his food.
Costas shrugged and picked one out for himself. Steve and Danny looked at each other, eyes laughing, and Danny's smile grew. He hadn't heard from Steve since he rode with him to the base clinic six months ago, but it was like nothing had changed.
After Jake beat Danny to the last of the pastries, the Detective turned to Steve, crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
"So, considering no one else has shown up, I'm guessing you two are my Navy contacts, and not just a happy coincidence?"
Steve frowned. "Denning didn't tell you who you were meeting with?"
A shake of the head. "He just called me yesterday and told me to expect a rep from the Navy to come by today and brief us on a new case – which he also did not tell us anything about."
"Huh. He knew it was me. I was on the phone with him yesterday and we came here straight from a meeting with him."
Danny shrugged. Clearly the Governor was trying to mess with them. What else was new? He waved his hand at Steve's uniform. "Ah. That explains the get-up, then. Was wondering why you were so overdressed. And to think you used to get all bent out of shape about my ties."
"Well, Danny, you were the one who kept saying this wasn't the Navy."
The cousins snickered at the banter, but Chin brought them back on task. "What's going on, Steve? From what Danny told us of his conversation with Denning, I'm guessing this isn't a social call." The banter stopped; it was time to get to work.
Danny nodded. "You wanna do this out here, or in the office?"
"Nah this is fine." Steve looked to Jake who opened up a file and put it on the table. "We've got an Op going down. Thought we'd see if you guys wanted in."
"Of course," Danny agreed, before even finding out what was happening. He wasn't going to turn Steve away. He had his back. "Whatcha got, babe?"
Steve took in a deep breath, looked at his watch, and Danny had a feeling that telling them all about this was the last thing he wanted to do. When he spoke, however, he sounded confident and all business.
"This guy," he started, pointing to a surveillance photo on the top of the pile of documents, "is Emilio Rojas. A year ago, he was just a low-level South American thug doing other people's dirty work. Intel we've received says he's shot up through the ranks of the Colombian drug cartels." Jake leafed through some of the documents to support the intel as Steve spoke. The SEAL Team Leader turned his focus to Danny, meeting his eyes and holding the contact. "He saw his opening in the fallout around Marco Reyes' death."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then Danny gave a sharp nod. "Ah, I see. And he's, what, planning a trip to this beautiful island to celebrate his new job?" His increasingly animated hands air-quoted 'beautiful'.
Steve would have smirked any other time. "Somethin' like that."
Jake took up the briefing as McGarrett checked his watch again. "We believe Rojas and a small entourage are on their way here to meet with a contingent of the Yakuza."
"What, like are we hosting a super villain convention or something?"
"Nah, Danny, like creating a new business partnership."
"Yeah, I figured it would be something that was likely to get me shot at." Steve winced.
"This good intel, Steve?" Chin asked and McGarrett's mood didn't seem to get any better. Aneurysm Face, definitely. He let out a long breath.
"The Navy thinks it's rock solid. Straight from Langley."
"But you, you do not agree, do you?"
"While I wasn't told specifically, I'm pretty sure I know the source. It's been... reliable in the past. Do I trust it? Not as far as I can throw it." He met Danny's eyes again. "Same source that helped us out in Colombia."
The Detective blinked, his expression softening. As far as he knew, he was the only one besides Steve, Joe, and Doris that knew who that source was.
"Well, I do appreciate you bringing us in on this."
McGarrett twitched. "Yeah, well, we can't exactly run a SEAL Op on U.S. soil. So yeah, technically, the Governor got wind of this potential threat and assigned the case to his Task Force." He grinned that annoying grin. "The Task Force leader – kinda this obnoxious Jersey Detective, but smart cause he decided to call in the Navy for backup."
"Yes. I am very smart because I, I always call for backup. Unlike some Neanderthals."
Steve chuckled, looked at his wrist.
"So, if the Navy likes the intel," Lou asked, finally piping up. "Why don't you?"
"Honestly, my Team and I have been tracking these guys for most of the last six months. I haven't heard much of this guy at all. Certainly not enough to think he was working on something like." Danny watched Steve. He was pretty sure there was more to that then he was letting on, but he didn't say anything. Well, about that, anyway.
Danny caught Steve checking looking at his watch again. This time, he also watched as Jake noticed this, too. He fidgeted for a moment, as if he were trying to decide if he should say something or not. Danny decided to put them both out of their misery.
"Hey, ah, you got somewhere better to be, babe?"
Yep. That was definitely a Face. A Hand-Caught-in-the-Cookie-Jar Face. "Nowhere to be, Danny. I just wanted to make sure you got outta here on time."
"Okay, thank you. I do appreciate that. But, ah, why?"
Steve frowned and twitched just a bit. "Well, you gotta leave in a few minutes. I know you've got Gracie this weekend and school's out at 1530." Danny grinned but remained silent. "I gave my guys the afternoon off to enjoy the island. Tomorrow we'll get down to work with you guys, " He looked around at the rest of the Five-0 Team. "Gather the rest of the intel and when you're back from dropping her off Monday we'll coordinate the take down."
Still grinning at his friend, Danny's silence and raised eyebrow broke Steve in about three seconds.
"What?"
"You remembered that it's my weekend with Grace?"
"Well, yeah, I mean..." Steve shook his head and shrugged his shoulders like it was nothing. "Of course I did."
"Yeah, of course you did. Well you'd be right, except that Rachel took her to Maui for a cheer competition this weekend."
"Great," Kono said. "I call drinks at the Hilton, then!"
"You paying, cuz?" She just scoffed in response.
"Hey Jake," Danny nodded in the other SEAL's direction. "You got eyes on McGarrett's wallet this afternoon?"
Jake frowned. "Uh, yeah, sure." Steve muttered 'traitor' under his breath.
"Well, that settles it then," Danny declared, shoving one hand in his pocket and punctuating the statement with his other hand in the air. "Hilton. Steve's paying. Don't let him lose his wallet before then, Jake."
a/n: Next chapter is already written, (I'm actually splitting one chapter into two) so you won't have to wait as long, yay!