Eliot Waugh

It wasn't entirely because Steve was a delicate hothouse flower and the East Coast was going to be cold as hell this weekend that Steve and Danny were back in Hawai'i! They had things to do in Honolulu! Family things! Yes!

Family things involving surfing and then sitting on the beach and charging up on the sun like a 6-foot plus human solar panel while Charlie worked on a sand castle.

Steve was cleaning the last of the breakfast dishes when the doorbell rang. His forehead crinkled: he wasn't expecting anyone, and the people he knew wouldn't ring the doorbell. He calmed down his hyper-vigilance by reminding his brain that serial killers wouldn't ring the doorbell, either, and sauntered to the door with a dishtowel over his shoulder...and a pocketknife in his back pocket. Just in case.

He answered the door and found a painfully earnest kid in his Navy work uniform who snapped to immediate attention.

"Commander McGarrett?"

"Yes?" Steve replied, sounding a little wary.

"Special Operator 2nd Class Junior Reigns. It's an honor to meet you, sir," the infant replied.

God, had Steve really been this young at one point? "Nice to meet you, Junior," Steve replied. "Please relax. I'm, um, I'm not on Teams anymore." And that only sort of killed him to say. Progress! "What can I do for you?"

"Uh, my Master Chief David Lange always spoke very highly of you," Junior said with a hopeful smile.

"David Lange?" Steve chuckled a little self-consciously. Lange had been at the bar in Annapolis a few weeks ago. This felt like a subtle (for SEALs) intervention, getting checked on by a younger version of himself. At least it wasn't an intervention from Dick Pic Scott. Steve would never get over that.

"He's your master chief? He was my dive buddy," Steve said with what he hoped didn't look like a slightly awkward smile.

"He mentioned that," Junior said with a much less awkward smile. "He says you're the best."

"Well, don't believe everything David Lange says," Steve said, running his hand through his hair. "When you headed back downrange?"

"Actually, sir, I just processed out," Junior said, and his earnestness increased tenfold.

Steve knew exactly what Lange was trying now, but he had to confirm it. "Well... Special Operator 2nd Class Junior Reigns, I gotta say, I'm intrigued as to why you're standing on my porch this morning."

"I heard about the task force you run and, you know," Junior said, "the type of work you do, and... well, to tell you the truth, I need a job."

Of course he did. "Ahh," Steve said, nodding and praying for Danny to come rescue him.

[OOC: For Danny, who will not rescue him.]