a/n: Thanks for all the great reviews, guys! :)

Steve didn't look at Danny once when Five-0 met up with the small group from SEAL Team 7 at the rendezvous point. He didn't look at the rest of the Five-0 team. He didn't speak to anyone but the SEALs. And Danny thought he'd seen Steve's SEAL-Death-Stare-Face before. He was wrong. Damn, if this was how Lt. Cmndr. Steven McGarrett, USN operated for some organized crime jackasses, how the hell did he deal with terrorists killing his fellow soldiers on the battlefield? The thought caused Danny to shudder a bit.

Danny tightened the straps on his vest, checked his weapons, made sure every available hidey-hole was stuffed with extra clips. He watched Steve talk to his Team, but he was speaking quietly and they stood several yards away, so Danny couldn't hear what he was saying. A moment later, he saw Jake nod and led two SEALs to where Five-0 stood. Steve stayed behind with Tom, dealing with something in the back of the vehicle.

"Hey Danny," Jake said. The two other SEALs stood just behind and flanking him in part of a diamond formation. Danny wondered if they'd done it on purpose or if it just came natural to form up when they were all suited up. They held their machine guns in their arms comfortably, like beauty pageant winners cradled bouquets of flowers.

Danny thought maybe the SEALs liked their guns more than those beauty queens liked their flowers.

"Okay, so we're just gonna go over the plans quick one last time." Kono, Chin and Lou finished their checks and stood close by for the final briefing. Danny may be the boss, but there was no doubt who was really in charge here. "We're moving out in five minutes. We've got a mile's march to the compound. We're in first. You follow on our order. HPD SWAT will arrive on the road to the south once we're in position and be available for clean up. Steve and I just got back from some last minute recon. Dozen hostiles. Guards at all exits as predicted. We're gonna move fast and quiet. They won't see us coming. Ready?"

"Ready," Danny confirmed. Jake nodded.

"Move out in three."

There was nothing else for Danny to do but hurry up and wait so he watched the SEALs with their final preparations. Five-0 would usually be joking and bickering with each other until it was time to go, but they all seemed to have independently decided to follow the SEALs in their almost silent movements.

He watched Steve pull a canteen out of the back of the truck, take a long drink, then pour some water into what looked like a canvas bowl and set it on the ground. Before Danny could wonder what the hell that was all about, he heard Tom speak for the first time that morning, whistling first.

"C'mon Tex. Show time." There was a jingle of metal and a beautiful German Shepherd on a long red leash jumped out of the back, wagging its tail.

Steve clipped the chin strap of his helmet, sporting a helmet cam like the rest of his team. Goddammit, why didn't he ever wear that much protection when he was with Five-0? It would have saved Danny a lot of heart palpitations. Ready to go, he crouched down and nudged the bowl in Tex's direction.

"Here ya go, buddy. Drink up."

"Huh," Danny couldn't help the little sound of surprise.

"What?" Jake asked

"Thought Steve hated dogs."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "No way, man. Not all Fire Teams use dogs on a regular basis, but I've known Steve ever since he started leading his own and he's always made sure to have a K-9 pair on all his Teams. But from what he's said, I honestly don't think he ever spent a lot of time, if any, around dogs until he became a SEAL and worked with them for the first time in the field. This crew, we were just a four-man deal before. When he came back and took over, he brought on the Double Ts. Steve picked them because Tex's specialty is narcotics, but he's good in pretty much any kind of firefight."

Danny nodded. He supposed that still fit into his canine-world view of McGarrett. Dogs – especially big dogs – were finally trained soldiers like he was. Not slobbering mutts that hogged beds and acted like morons like the one Danny had adopted. Tex wore his own kevlar vest with what looked like as much electronics as his human teammates had. He was the only SEAL with a smile on his face.

There was a click in Danny's earpiece and he saw Jake's hand move up toward his helmet as he walked toward his Team. Then he heard Jake's voice.

"Williams."

"Yeah." Danny motioned to the rest of his own time. It was go time.

505050

Danny sat at his desk, staring at his computer monitor. Jake had given him a copy of the footage from a couple of the helmet cams from this morning's little adventure. What he saw had him speechless. He knew if Steve was here, he would never have heard the end of that. At least, the old Steve would have. Maybe this Steve too, who knew. Definitely not Danny because he hadn't spoken to his friend all day.

From the time Danny's team showed up Steve hadn't even acknowledged their presence. Jake relayed all orders to Five-0. Steve seemed tense – or perhaps it was just the weight of the armour and equipment strapped on his body – but somehow also completely in the zone and comfortable. Almost more so than Danny had ever seen him.

Yeah, Danny'd been a bit pissed about that at first. But as he sat in front of his computer, it all kinda made sense.

He'd watched Steve like a hawk, as much as he could being five men back, on their route march through the rain forest. The man was completely focused on the mission, they all were. Unless the camouflaged men had their own comm frequency, they only time Danny heard any of them speak in anything other than infrequent clicks was when Jake relayed orders to him.

Five-0 broke a few twigs, rustled leaves. The SEALs were completely silent. Once they hit the compound and the SEALs had taken out the guards, Danny hadn't seen them again until everything was over. It had only been a couple of minutes before Jake called them in, but there'd been nothing left to do. Watching the video now, he realized that calling Five-0 in at all really had been just a courtesy, or politics as Steve suggested – something the SEAL had been ordered to do. And one thing Danny knew Steve was good at was following orders from his superiors.

Clearly no one had ordered him to make sure Five-0 actually helped in any way.

The Military men wasted no ammunition. They remained quick and silent and barely even needed hand signals to know where Steve wanted them to go. They moved as one. It was actually kind of amazing to watch. Sure he'd watched SEAL Team 9 on an Op once, with Steve standing next to him, tense with what, even at the time, Danny has assumed to be longing. He'd asked his friend then if he'd done this stuff. Got that smirk and a 'classified' in return. But knowing and seeing were, of course, two very different things, and here he was actually watching Steve. It made him realize something.

Danny had been right all along.

Five-0 Team Lead Steven McGarrett was reckless. He rarely followed procedure of any kind, let alone Naval. He was sloppy. Danny was no mind reader, but he knew Steve, okay? And now, he knew him even better. He was pretty sure he knew why this SEAL was so different from his boss.

Steve had been holding himself back. He'd been trying so hard to be that cop that Danny was trying to teach him to be. And he'd been too worried about his Team. Danny knew that Steve was proud of them, proud of their abilities – none of them had needed those commendations to know that. Danny knew they were all more than capable, or Steve wouldn't have them on his Task Force. At the end of the day, though, they were civilians and cops, sworn to serve and protect. Steve had sworn to protect civilians, take out the hostiles, and, when required, die for his country. He went in without backup so much, not because there was no time to wait, but because he wanted the bad guys taken out before anyone else showed up.

Danny leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.

And saw McGarrett standing in his doorway, jaw clenched as his eyes shift from the monitor to Danny. If Danny's gonna be honest – and really, when isn't he? – he didn't expect to see Steve again.

It was just two hours from the time Five-0 met up with the SEALs until most of HPD and the ambulances were gone again. Of the group of twelve Yakuza and Colombians, seven were dead and five were injured – all with military precision. The cops had barely got a shot off but none of the good guys were injured. All that were left now were the forensics guys, Max and the rest of his team, the SEALs and Five-0.

Danny found Steve and Tom sitting against one of the outbuildings, helmets upturned on the ground beside them but the rest of their armour still in place. Danny and his Team had shed theirs as soon as possible. Tex lay on the ground between the two SEALs, panting happily as the men pet him. Steve looked up, met Danny's eyes but before the cop could go over and talk to him, Max had called him over.

The next thing he knew, the SEALs were getting into their vehicles for the drive back to Pearl and a debrief. He'd barely managed to catch Jake and suggest they meet back at the Palace and then go for drinks. Given Steve's history in the past six months... well, yeah. You couldn't blame Danny for thinking Steve wouldn't allow it. He was pretty sure the only reason he'd agreed to go to the Hilton was for Team bonding before the Op.

But, here he was, not even sporting Aneurysm Face though he did seem nervous. Danny couldn't help but smile. He swivelled his chair to face the other man.

"So, Operation Blueberry Fields was a success."

"Yeah. Didn't expect anything different."

"I still can't believe you called it that." Steve shrugged, but he couldn't hide the grin that spread across his face. "Well, it seemed fitting. Thought you'd like it."

"This mean I'm gonna hear about Strawberries anytime soon?"

"Nope."

Danny faked an exasperated sigh. "Fine. Let's go, you Neanderthal." He tossed him the keys to the Camaro. Steve was so surprised he almost fumbled the catch.