CHAPTER 3

Hello there! I'm back with chapter three… I just want to say that I'm getting more and more excited about this story and that always means more regular updates! At least, I hope so!

I also hope you guys like where this is heading and I would really appreciate some feedback so, whatever you feel like to tell me about it, feel free to leave a review (comments, questions, ideas, requests, guesses of what's going to happen in future chapters) anything you like!

Now, I would like to dedicate this chapter to my very good friend Aquababy58: I hope this new chapter takes your mind off things even if it's just for a little while… I really hope you enjoy reading it!

On with the show…

- Why do you look so nervous? – asked Steve while they approached their destination aboard his truck.

- It's my first day in college. What did you expect? – Annabeth answered, her eyes never leaving the passenger window where she gazed at the tons of students making their way into the building.

- You know you're not actually starting college today, right?

- Yeah, but this is as close as I'll ever be, so I have the right to be nervous – she stated simply and then turned her head to look at him – besides, it'll be good for my character. It'll give me more credibility – Steve finally made it to the drop point where other parents were dropping off their kids as well and before she could get out of the truck completely, he bombarded Annabeth with questions.

- So, you remember who you need to approach? The information you have to gather? The people you need to talk to? Your classroom?

- Yes, yes, yes... You do remember this is not my first undercover work, right? – she asked back, amused at Steve's antics. She always found it funny the way Steve could act so smothering whenever she was about to go undercover. He, on his end, decided to overlook the question.

- Remember that you have to meet with Dr. Sanders at some point during the day... What?! – he asked at seeing Annabeth's incredulous look.

- Will you stop already with the check list? I know what I have to do.

- Fine... – finally Annabeth grabbed her bag pack and pulled the handle to open the door – so... Are you ready? – he couldn't resist asking.

- Oh my God! – was all she replied before stepping out of the truck and slamming the door shut. The last thing she noticed before heading for the entrance was Steve's goofy smile through the window, to which she responded with a roll of her eyes.

He may not realize it but he and Danny were more alike than they both cared to admit, and when one wasn't around to mess with another member of the team, the other wasn't too far away to fill in the space. Annabeth sometimes wondered how she could put up with being partnered with them all the time. Between the jokes, Danny's rants, Steve's magnetism for danger and the never ending "carguments", she wondered how she was still sane.

If she was honest with herself though, as much as some of the things Steve did irritated her (like acting all mother hen whenever she went undercover or got hurt on the job), she had to admit that she liked it: the dynamic they all had. It made her feel like she belonged somewhere and after almost three years into the team, she couldn't help but think about all of them as true friends. They had been through their fair share of stuff together: Steve's abduction in North Korea, Danny's sarin poisoning, Kono's suspention from the force and, most recently, Steve's mom being alive. They had all been hard blows on everyone but instead of bringing them down, they came closer together and acted as a well-oiled machine. Sometimes... well, most of the time, people didn't get their dynamic. But since it brought results, they let them be for the most part; even the Governor.

What there was no doubt about is that with Five-0 around, the island had become a safer place. That is also why they were handling this complicated case now.

There wasn't a more complicated case than the ones where no connection can ever be made between victims and modus operandi; the murders that seem random always take longer to solve and when serial killers were involved, it was always necessary to proceed with caution. And yes, Annabeth had already decided to consider this a case of a serial killer.

With such a layout, several things had to be taken into account when proceeding in an investigation: the perp (if it was just one) could be (probably was) mentally unstable, a sociopath or even a psychopath, so absolutely anything, even the smallest of things could set them off into another round of killing spree; it could make him evolve and develop his way of killing; it could also make him stop and flee, disappear from radar and make it almost impossible to find him again until the person resurfaced with more murders and that could be years from now. So, yes; they needed to approach this carefully and that's where Steve's plan came to play.

He had suggested an undercover operation to gain information from inside the university and what better way to do that than to send someone in as a student? Annabeth, of course, was supposed to approach some very specific people to try and understand what was the connection between all three victims; to understand what had made them vulnerable to the attacks.

She would pose as some kind of exchange student from London who had come to take a few curses in biology for a project she was working on back home. The only person who knew who she really was and what was going on was the Principal, who had agreed to help Five-0's investigation by giving her a position inside the student body and a very good excuse as to why she would start classes almost in the middle of the semester. The Principal had been the one to suggest the fake project and the need for her to just spend a few months in the US while she advanced on it. "Field research" he called it and they gladly took it.

Now, on her way to her first class of the day, her eyes surfed above the crowd of students already taking their seats and waiting for the professor to arrive. She recognized her primary target and made a bee line for the fifth row, going over some students to get to the empty seat next to him. She smiled as a cordial salute and then opened her notebook to start her role as a student.

This was a chemistry class and she couldn't help but thinking that posing as a biology student might be just a little more difficult than she had originally thought.

TAN, TAN, TAN! Undercover work! For those of you who know me and my stories you know that I love an undercover operation, so I decided to throw one right here!

I know that the chapters of this story are shorter than I normally write them but, since I'm still fighting a bit with my muse, I decided to write shorter chapters that will allow me to post more frequently so you guys don't have to wait that long between updates to know how the story goes… That being said, I'd love to hear what you think of this new story!

Until next chapter (which I'll hopefully start writing now)!