Disclaimer – I don't own Hawaii Five-O. If I did, Steve McGarrett would be shirtless all the time. And they wouldn't be covering up any of AOL's tattoos. I'm just toying with the characters for a while.

This will be another short chapter, just kind of setting things up. Thank you so much for the reviews and story alerts, I'm honored you all took the time to read and review.

8 months earlier

Steve McGarrett angled his truck into an empty spot in front of 5-0's downtown headquarters. His eyes involuntarily rolled as he saw Governor Denning's unmarked black sedan idling in front of the office. "Unbelieveable", he muttered, slamming the gear shift into park and stepping forcefully on the parking brake.

He swung the door open and grabbed the travel mug of coffee Catherine had made him as he left the house. His boots hit the pavement below and he groaned as the sense of dread that hit the minute he saw the Governor's vehicle multiplied with every step he took closer to Headquarters.

Steve took a deep breath as he reached for the door handle. He pulled it open, releasing the breath slowly to find Kono on the other side of the door.

"Morning, Boss," she said with a wry smile.

"Not good, then, I take it?" Steve asked with a smirk.

Kono laughed. "The Governor has a present for us."

"Oh good," Steve answered sarcastically. "We haven't gotten a present from the Governor in a while. Where's Danno?"

The young cop grinned and cocked an eyebrow at her boss before answering, "Making nice with the present." She couldn't help the laugh that escaped as Steve groaned again.

He yanked the glass door open and motioned for Kono to go through before following. Governor Denning leaned casually against the smart table, smiling and speaking to Chin. Danny sat opposite a blonde woman, his eyes wide, grin radiant, wearing a look Steve had seen before on his partner & best friend – love, or rather, lust at first sight.

"Commander!" Denning said brightly, turning his attention to Steve. Danny caught his boss' attention and the blonde turned in her seat. Had Steve not instantly pegged her as Denning's new 5-0 "babysitter", he might have found her attractive. Emerald green eyes, perfect medium complexion, long sandy blonde hair that framed her face like a halo…okay, yeah, he found her attractive. But, she was still the enemy as far as he was concerned.

Denning stepped up to Steve and extended his hand. Danny and the blonde rose from the desk and made their way over to the Governor. "Commander McGarrett, I'd like you to meet Assistant State's Attorney Claire Ellis. I'm assigning her to 5-0, effective immediately."

The blonde extended her hand in greeting; but Steve recoiled like he'd been burned. "Governor, with all due respect," he spat out, "we don't need another babysitter."

Denning, Claire and Danny all began speaking at once.

"Babysitter?" Claire asked incredulously.

"Steven!" Danny admonished.

"McGarrett," the Governor warned.

Steve held up both hands in surrender. "I apologize if I've spoken out of turn, but Governor, why would you be assigning 5-0 an Assistant State's Attorney if not to serve as your new watchdog over this office?"

Governor Denning scratched his goatee and eyed the Commander warily. "And here I thought I was doing 5-0 a favor by providing a direct line to the State's Attorney's office for those search warrants you keep neglecting to get."

"We've never had a case go bad because we didn't get a search warrant," Steve argued.

"You've never had a case go bad because the State's Attorney is a hell of a lawyer with a hell of a team behind him," the petite blonde answered. "Consider yourself lucky I'm here, Commander."

"Lucky?" Steve scoffed, his blue eyes wide in disbelief. Danny turned away and ineffectively swallowed a laugh. The Governor didn't bother to hide his smirk as he patted Steve on the shoulder and made his way to the door. "See, you two are gonna get along great."

TBC...