Chapter Text
“Remind me again why we’re here?” Steve spoke over the throbbing bass line of the music as they entered the nightclub.
“Because we’ve all been working hard the last couple weeks,” Chin replied with a calm smile, “and we needed some down time as a team.”
“No, I got that part,” Steve started to push his way towards the bar, “I meant, why are we in this loud club paying five dollars a beer and watching half naked co-eds writhe all over each other while pretending to dance instead of at my house watching a movie and grilling?”
“Because it was Kono’s turn to pick the activity,” Danny pointed out sensibly, “And since Adam’s out of town she suggested this…then pouted until you agreed.”
“What he said,” Chin grinned and clapped a hand to Steve’s shoulder as they got to the bar, “You gotta learn how to resist the pout, brah.”
“And don’t even pretend you’re not enjoying the half-naked portion of the evening,” Danny tried to grab the attention of the bartender.
“Order me a Longboard, Danny,” Steve sighed, “I’m going to go find Kono. She was supposed to meet us here.”
“And a table somewhere not by the speakers,” Danny insisted, “Since I’m apparently paying for your beer again.”
Steve smirked at Danny over his shoulder as he made his way to the dance floor. Chin was right, his team had been working hard the last couple weeks. They had just finished up another case this evening when Chin, wise man that he was, suggested a team night. Everyone easily agreed, then Kono had suggested drinks and dancing at a popular nightclub downtown, pouting at Steve when he initially disagreed. He held out for a full minute and a half before he finally gave in, letting Kono leave early so she could go home and get changed for the club.
Danny protested after she left, calling Steve a sexist because he wouldn’t let Danny go home to change too. Truthfully, Steve liked the bright blue dress shirt and deep gray slacks Danny was wearing and he was afraid the man might try to put one of his ridiculous ties on if he went home. Chin was still in his deep rose Henley, a color only he could pull off with any success, and a comfortable pair of jeans. Steve’s only concession to the evening was to change out of the white tee-shirt he had somehow gotten blood-stained into a clean teal V-neck, not bothering to change out of the khaki cargos he wore since they were still clean.
A flash of color caught Steve’s eye and he turned to see Kono already dancing at the edge of the dance floor. She was in a bright red halter top, the back consisting of only an antique lace pattern and a couple thin straps, and a pair of tight, dark skinny jeans, black strappy heels on her feet. She had pulled her shoulder-length dark hair up into a high ponytail to keep cool in the heat of the club. Steve gave her a quick wave, which Kono returned with a smile, then set off towards the tables at the back corner of the club.
Steve found a couple of tables that would work for their group; big enough they could spend some time together like Chin wanted, far enough from the speakers that Danny wouldn’t be complaining the whole night, high bar stools so Kono could take breaks from dancing, and against the wall with a clear view of the whole club so Steve could keep an eye on everyone. Unfortunately, one of the tables had a large group of rowdy women with feathery tiaras announcing that they were a bachelorette party. The second table had a single occupant; a tall, dark-haired man with a relaxed sprawl and a lazy grin that took Steve a moment to recognize. He made his way over to the table with a smile.
“Is that you, Sheppard?” Steve asked when he got close enough.
The man set his beer down next to a clear glass with a dark bubbly liquid in it and turned his lazy grin to Steve, “McGarrett?”
“Yeah, man,” Steve offered his hand, which Sheppard shook after an almost unnoticeable pause, “Almost didn’t recognize you out of your flight suit.”
Sheppard was wearing a wrinkled white linen shirt, the top couple buttons undone, sleeves rolled up on his forearms exposing an intricate pale blue-silver tattoo on his right arm, a complicated black digital watch on his left wrist, a thick, dark silver ring on his left ring finger, and a pair of well-worn dark jeans. The thin sliver chain of his dog tags was visible around his neck.
“Nice to see you,” Sheppard motioned to the seats around him, “Have a seat.”
“What are you doing here?” Steve took the seat next to Sheppard, facing out towards the club, “Last I heard they were sending you to Antarctica.”
“They did send me to Antarctica,” Sheppard drawled, “I’m on leave and wanted to do a little surfing. What about you? I thought you were chasing bad guys around the world.”
“I was,” Steve looked out over the crowd to see Chin and Danny making their way towards the table, hands full of cold beers, “I transferred to the reserves four years ago. I run the Governor’s special task force here on the island now.”
“So you’re still chasing bad guys,” Sheppard grinned again, “only now you’re doing it locally.”
“I guess, yeah,” Steve shrugged and returned the grin.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your new friend, Steven?” Danny took the chair next to Steve, setting down the beers on the table as Chin sat next to him.
“Detective Sergeant Danny Williams, Detective Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly,” Steve motioned to each of them with one of the cool beers, “This is an old friend of mine, Major John Sheppard, Air Force.”
“Colonel now,” John smiled around his beer, “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Danny acknowledged.
“Aloha,” Chin greeted him.
“They made you a Colonel?” Steve questioned, “How’d you pull that off?”
“I kept a General from getting his ass shot out of the sky,” John shrugged, “and he gave me a new assignment. Then one thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, they were promoting me again. I made Colonel last year.”
“You kept a General from getting shot?” Danny wondered curiously.
“Sheppard’s the best pilot around,” Steve explained easily, “He flew a couple missions for my SEAL team when we first met back in…what 2002?”
“Sounds about right,” John agreed.
“What are you doing here in Hawaii?” Chin asked, “You stationed at Hickam?”
“Nah,” Sheppard shook his head, “I’m just here for the sun and waves.”
“Plenty of that here,” Chin smiled, “How long you staying for?”
“Hopefully another week,” John looked over to the dance floor, “As long as there’s no emergencies at work.”
“Where you stationed now?” Steve inquired.
“Peterson,” John answered absently as he smiled wickedly at something in the crowd, “in Colorado.”
Steve followed John's eye-line to see a short, blonde woman striding towards the table. She was wearing a simple, purple tee-shirt, cut in a low V, paired with a tiny pair of dark jean shorts, showcasing strong tan legs, a low-cut pair of lavender Chucks on her feet. Her pale blonde hair was in a loose French braid, the end over one of her shoulders, and she had a tattoo that matched Sheppard’s covering her left forearm. She also had a thin sliver chain for dog tags around her neck.
The blonde stepped close to John, fisted her right hand in the front of his shirt and yanked him close for deep kiss, heavy on the tongue. She released him and gave him a quick wink while reaching over to down the rest of the liquid in the clear glass on the table, then turned to leave. As she turned around, Steve saw the back of her shirt consisted of nothing more than thin purple strings criss-crossed across her skin, tied in a neat bow at the center of her lower back. Before she made it more than a step away, John's hand snapped out around her wrist and he pulled her back to the space between his spread legs.
“Did you put all of them back?” John asked, moving his hand to her hip, “In the right places.”
“I put them all back,” the woman rolled her eyes, “in the proper spots. No one noticed and I didn’t get caught.”
“Good girl,” John patted her butt, “If you can manage to keep your hands out of other people’s pockets for the rest of the night, you can have a special treat tonight.”
“Promises, promises,” the woman leaned over to press a warm kiss to his lips, “I’m going to get another drink. I’ll be back in a minute and you can introduce me to all your gorgeous new friends.”
“Hey,” John called as she walked away, “You’re not supposed to notice things like that.”
“I haven’t suddenly been struck blind, John,” the woman smirked over her shoulder, “Maybe one of them will dance with me since you won’t.”
“Wow,” Danny looked between the stupid grin on John’s face and the retreating blonde’s mostly bare back, “Who’s that and where can I get one?”
“That’s my wife,” John looked over at Danny, grin morphing into a scowl.
“What were you talking about?” Steve interjected, drawing John’s attention away from Danny, “What was she supposed to be putting back?”
“Wallets, hotel keycards, IDs,” John took a long pull from his beer, “Car keys. Whatever happens to be in someone’s pockets basically.”
“Wait, what?” Danny gaped at John, “Your wife is pick-pocketing people?”
“She was afraid her skills were getting rusty,” John rolled his eyes, “I told her as long as she put all the stuff back in the right spots I didn’t care. And that I wasn’t bailing her out of jail if she got caught, but that earned me a lecture that I don’t care to repeat.”
“You do know we’re cops, right?” Danny asked carefully.
“I assumed that when McGarrett called you ‘Detectives’, yeah,” John drawled.
“It doesn’t concern you that you just told a bunch of cops that your wife has been stealing things all night?” Danny questioned.
“I also said she put everything back,” John pointed out.
“Seriously,” Danny looked over to Steve, “Do they teach you guys how not to follow the law in the Army?”
“Navy, Danny,” Steve insisted, “It’s the Navy.”
“I’m Air Force,” John added helpfully.
“Relax, brah,” Chin clinked his beer against Danny’s, “We’re off duty tonight.”
The blonde came bouncing back to the table, sliding into the chair next to John and setting her short glass on the table. She looked around the table, noting the exasperated look on Danny’s face, as well as the amused grins Steve and Chin wore. Steve caught a flash of violet irises as she looked between Danny and him, and something niggled in the back of his brain.
“What were you boys talking about that has Blondie so upset?” she asked.
“Your sticky fingers,” John snorted.
“It doesn’t count as a crime if you put it back where you found it,” she assured Danny with a quick grin.
“Danny Williams, Chin Ho Kelly,” John motioned to each of them, “and-”
“Lieutenant Steve McGarrett,” the blonde finished for him, “Nice to meet you all. I’m EJ Sheppard.”
“Lieutenant Commander, actually,” Steve’s face scrunched up in confusion, “Do I know you? You seem really familiar.”
“You know him, Emma?” John asked curiously.
“His SEAL team pulled me out of Afghanistan,” EJ took a small sip of her drink.
“Oh, yeah?” John dropped his arm over the back of her chair, “Which time?”
“The fourth time,” EJ leaned back against his arm.
“Which time?” Danny asked incredulously, “You’ve had SEAL teams pull you out of Afghanistan more than once?”
“Yeah, half a dozen times,” EJ replied dismissively.
“I remember you now,” Steve expression twisted into a scowl, “You head-butted my Chief Petty Officer.”
“You head-butted a SEAL?” John laughed.
“Most of my fingers were broken at the time,” EJ shrugged, “and my legs were still tied to the chair.”
“You broke his nose,” Steve scowled, “when he told you we were leaving.”
“I broke Petty Officer Carlson’s nose because he wanted me to leave without proof of the intel that I had just spent forty-eight hours acquiring,” EJ corrected, then scrunched up her nose when she continued, “And because he called me ‘baby girl.”
“What is it with you and breaking noses?” John asked fondly.
“I only break noses if they deserve it,” EJ insisted, “I spent a week prepping and executing that mission, two days of which consisted of me getting my bones broken, and Carlson wanted me to leave without what I was sent for. He’s lucky I didn’t break worse than his nose.”
“Weren’t they there to rescue you?” Danny questioned.
“Not really,” EJ shrugged, taking another long swallow of her drink as she stood, “You sure you don’t want to dance with me, carissime?”
“I don’t dance, dulcis,” John shook his head with a smirk.
“That’s a terrible shame, Sheppard,” EJ grinned before she turned to Chin and held out her hand, flashing a hint of dark silver on her ring finger, “Dance with me, handsome?”
“Sure,” Chin agreed easily, setting down his beer to take EJ’s hand and letting her pull him towards the dance floor.
“You have Aneurysm Face again, babe,” Danny caught Steve’s attention, “She gave you aneurysm face?”
“I do not have-” Steve started.
“I didn’t know that face had a name,” John interrupted, turning to Danny with a smirk, “You named his face?”
“I was going to go with Bitchface #3,” Danny grinned around his beer, “But I decided Aneurysm Face was more family friendly.”
“Good choice,” John agreed, “Always better to keep things as family friendly as possible.”
“I don’t have Aneurysm Face,” Steve scowled at the two of them.
“Don’t worry, McGarrett,” John smirked again, “She has that effect on most people.”