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Telepathy Verse: Timestamp IV
“Clara, for God’s sake, I need help here…” Steve stared at his phone in disbelief as Danny’s mother hung up on him, nearly choking in a fit of laughter that trilled from the phone. Heart sinking, he turned to face his tiny, blond nemesis.“Mommy?” A pair of bright blue eyes, peered hopefully at him from the hiding space beneath the dining room table.“Sorry, buddy. Mommy can’t come here. You have to stay with me until you’re big again.” Steve said, wincing at the glare screwing up the little face. “We can get some ice cream, okay?” he added hastily, hoping to stave off another tantrum.“NO!Signing, Steve pinched the bridge of his nose and hoped like hell that Jenna and Lori would get back soon with the necessary kid supplies and that Kono and Grover had somehow managed to shake answers out of the angry witch who had bespelled his partner.
Everything had been fine that morning until the team got a call about a violent, supernatural domestic disturbance in an outlying neighborhood. By violent, it literally meant two angry witches and their familiars going at each other like cats and dogs. By the time Five-0 rolled up, there was a miniature thunderstorm raining down on the house, one of the neighbors had been turned into a nanny goat and Duke and HPD had cordoned off the block and were huddled behind the warded barricades clutching protective amulets to their badges to make sure the spells and hexes flying their way bounced safely off to dissipate into nothing.Five-0 had immediately sprung into action, Kono and Jenna raising a magical shield so they could safely approach the warring couple, while Steve, Danny and Lori worked to swiftly guide the besieged neighbors out of the battle zone. Apparently one of the young witches who lived there had come home to find her wife in bed with a member of their coven. Five-0 had yet to sort out if she was angry because her partner was cheating, or because she had not been invited to join in. After Kono and Jenna managed to separate the angry couple they were attempting to temporarily dampen their magic so they could be safely handcuffed and transported to HPD, when one of the women got off one last spell blast that nearly took her startled partner’s head off. Kono had deftly deflected it, but the mass of swirling, chaotic energy had neatly ricocheted off her shield and struck Danny full on as he was guiding an elderly neighbor to safety behind a warded barricade.Where the diminutive detective once stood, there was suddenly a pile of clothing and a startled, naked, blond toddler. Said toddler had taken one look around him and immediately let out a howl of terrified outrage that had Steve scampering across the street like his ass was on fire to scoop him up and comfort him. He had immediately gotten a small fist in his eye for his trouble. Even at two, Danny had a mean right cross.Now, with Danny safe in his house while his team attempted to get the elements of the spell from its caster, so they could reverse it, Steve suddenly found himself with not one, but two small children to deal with. Baby Grace sat wide-eyed in her bouncy seat as her much reduced father glared at Steve from under the table.“Danno, why don’t you come out and help me feed Gracie?” Steve suggested gently.He wasn’t quite sure how much Danny remembered now, his mind was a painful swirl of confusion and Steve didn’t want to frighten him further by using his telepathy unless absolutely necessary. Little Danno was not only confused and frightened, he was also mightily pissed off. Steve had no doubt that when he recovered he would get his ears chewed off in a lecture about the necessity of immediately acquiring more powerful protective amulets for the team. Jenna was already trying to figure out why his had not worked at all. In the meantime, Steve tried his best to focus and send soothing thoughts to his tiny partner.He lucked out though, because the suggestion immediately had tiny Danno popping out of his hiding place like a little blond gopher. He pointed a wee, belligerent finger at Steve.“My baby!” he announced, glaring up at his tall partner, puffing out his little chest and standing as tall as he could. Steve bit back a wide grin at the sight because the little blond was cute as hell standing there wearing one of Kono’s spare tee shirts, all pink skin and golden ringlets, little bare toes curling on the hardwood floor. (The curls were priceless! Steve would tease Danny about them forever once the spell was broken.) “That’s right! Gracie is your baby. You gonna help me feed her, buddy?”“Yeah.” Danny nodded and toddled over to the diaper bag on the couch and clumsily but carefully removed a small bottle of formula, then trotted towards the kitchen. There he stopped and glared at the microwave perched high on the kitchen counter, thwarted by its height. Reluctantly, he turned to Steve, blue eyes narrowing suspiciously as Steve valiantly fought to maintain a serene, blank face.“Let me give you a hand! I’ll heat that up for you. Do you know where her burp cloth is?”Danny nodded and reluctantly allowed Steve to take the bottle, watched closely as he placed it in the microwave and set it to warm, then trotted back to the living room to root through the diaper bag for a clean hand towel. Steve couldn’t hold in the smile when he came in with the warm bottle and found the little blond and the baby cooing sweetly at each other, Gracie happily patting her small father’s smiling face. Steve basked mentally in the delicious warmth of their mutual love for a moment. Danny turned to Steve and scowled and held out an imperative hand for the bottle of formula.“I do it!” he announced firmly.“Sure, Danno. Let’s sit on the couch okay, so you can hold her?”Steve said agreeably, helping boost the little boy up on the cushions. Once Danny was situated, burp towel in place on a small shoulder, Steve lifted Grace and brought her over and gently sat her across his lap, supported by a cushion. He was impressed at the toddler’s expertise as Danny carefully checked the temperature of the formula before allowing Grace to nurse. Even as a kid, Danny was a good parent.He beamed fondly at them and surreptitiously took a few photos with his phone under the guise of checking for texts. Once he had his small partner settled and occupied, Steve hurried into the kitchen to throw together a hasty meal for himself and Danny. Luckily he had some chicken strips and tater tots in the freezer that could be swiftly prepared. That and some fresh fruit should make an adequate lunch, with one eye on his small charges, while waiting for the beep of the microwave, he texted an impatient query to Chin.*Well?**Not looking good, boss. We may have to just let the spell wear off. It was an instinctive casting, the woman has no clue exactly how she did it. It was more will than ritual.*Fuck.Steve pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off a headache. If they couldn’t break the spell within 24 hours then they had to wait for it to wear off. Depending on the strength of the witch that could take as long as a day or up to several weeks. He bit his lip and texted Lori, as Jenna was out seeking spell ingredients to help Danny.*Can you pick up some extra formula and diapers for Grace and drop them off?*He hated to ask the Werecat. Lori has been surly as hell lately. The usually calm woman’s mood change has been radical enough that everyone on the team now gave her a wide berth. She was silent, sullen and just slow enough at obeying orders that Steve was at the point of pulling her into his office for a chat to see what the hell her problem was. After a couple of minutes he got an answering text.*Sure.*Steve huffed a sigh of relief and put his phone down on the table after texting a thanks. He again checked his small charges before heading into the kitchen to work on the food.Lori arrived during lunch. Danny had finally agreed to sit on the booster chair at the kitchen table, carefully dipping his tater tots in ketchup as he kept a sharp eye on Grace, who was in her bouncy chair nearby, gumming a teething biscuit. He had begrudgingly allowed Steve to burp the baby after her bottle and change her diaper, staying close and keeping a sharp eye on the SEAL.Those bright blue eyes were now focused disapprovingly on the Werecat, who had slunk silently into the house, bags in hand. The slender woman was rather scantily dressed today in a paper thin, clingy, silk tank dress that barely covered her thighs. Steve assumed she had changed into it after work, because that and the strappy, high-heeled sandals she wore were definitely not office attire, he could see the color of her underwear. Thinking he had inadvertently interrupted a date he thanked her profusely and apologized, only to be surprised by her glare and the unshielded flare of anger she sent his way.He was even more surprised when she slammed the bags down on the counter and was suddenly up in his personal space, green eyes flashing, full lips curled to reveal a hint of sharp teeth.“I wore it for you, Steve. For you! Why do you keep ignoring me? You must know how I feel about you.”Before the astonished man could say a word in denial, she curled a strong, clawed hand behind his neck and tried to pull him down into a kiss. Startled, Steve grabbed her shoulders and shoved her off him. While he had known she was attracted to him, he always made sure his mental shields were up around her and kept their relationship strictly professional. “Stop! Lori, you and I have a good working relationship, but I have no desire to take it farther than that.” This could be more trouble than he needed, he realized. Werecats formed strong attachments quickly and like felines, they didn’t like to be denied what they wanted. He squared his shoulders, hands on hips and frowned down at the frustrated woman, hoping his stern, straight forward demeanor would bring her to her senses. Before he could say anything further, a glass salt shaker sailed across the room and beaned her on the side of the head, causing her to gasp in surprise.“Bad touch!” Danny’s high voice shrilled, as he stood up on the chair and proceeded to send a barrage of missiles straight at the startled werecat. He had a hell of a aim for a toddler and he pelted her relentlessly with the pepper shaker, the ketchup bottle, slices of banana and his half-full glass of milk. He was about to frisbee his plate at her startled face when Steve strode across the room and scooped him up, relieving him of his ammo and holding him on one hip. He was even more surprised when the little boy curled a possessive hand in the back of his shirt and pointed a tiny, stern finger at Lori.“Bad touch, Lady! Mine!”When the startled woman hissed angrily at him, slender, clawed hands curled into frustrated fists, Danny bared his teeth right back at her and shook a small fist at her in a defiant ‘bring it on’ gesture, the other hand still clenched firmly in Steve’s shirt.Steve felt a almost hysterical urge to laugh his ass off, caught between amusement and pride at his tiny partner’s unflinching defense of his dubious virtue. But most of all he felt a surge of pure joy because the toddler was beaming a fierce, protective love for him that bathed his lonely soul in pure sensation. Something of that pride must have shown on his face, because Lori deflated, slumped and wiped a hand over her face, abruptly defeated.Eyes downcast, she mumbled an apology and moved rapidly for the door, pausing at the threshold, face averted. If she were in full cat form her ears and tail would be drooping.“I’ll have my resignation on your desk tomorrow, Commander.”Steve sighed, but answered firmly.“I’m sorry that you feel you need to leave Five-0, Lori. But I do understand.”He walked her to the door, wondering if there was a way to salvage the situation. She was an excellent member of the team, after all.After the woman left, he looked down into the suddenly solemn eyes of the little boy he held and raised a brow.“Yours, huh?”Tiny Danno scowled back at him and blew a loud raspberry in his face in response.
___________________________________________________By the third day of dealing with de-aged Danny, Steve was almost at the end of his rope. The energy and sheer mischief the kid had could put a squad of SEALs to shame. In fact, Steve had seriously considered calling in some carefully hoarded favors from his military buddies to lend a hand wrangling pint sized Danno.“Hey Mister! Is that your kid?”Steve jolted and looked up from his gloomy contemplation of Kamekona’s Island Shrimp Special and nearly choked, looking wildly around. Danny had vanished from the bench at his side (how did the little shit disappear like that?) and was down on the beach gleefully stomping some wailing tourist kid’s sand castle flat.Steve took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose hard, hoping his shields would hold. Hell Week had nothing on this. Women, he realized, must have the patience of saints, otherwise half of the human race would have been strangled in infancy. Sighing, he rose and went to retrieve his small blond nemesis, who was chortling happily over his misdeed, while his victim squalled. Luckily, the kid’s mother laughed the whole incident off and even recorded it on her phone, which she cheerfully sent it to Steve to use as ‘future blackmail material’, and boy, did Steve intend to use it later! He took Danny and Grace to work with him, glad to take advantage of his teammates to help babysit. Grace was content in daycare, as always, but Danny had escaped the first morning Steve had left him there and nearly given the entire team collective heart attacks before they finally found him in his own office curled up under his desk napping. Today he was hanging out with Jerry, the burly werebear tech more than pleased to set the little boy up with simple video games to keep him occupied. They had a stash of coloring books and Steve’s old G.I. Joes and Hot Wheels as backup entertainment.Steve had managed to persuade Lori to take a vacation and seriously reconsider her decision to leave Five-0. He suspected the entire team already knew the reason she wanted to leave and felt rather foolish for being the last to know himself. As a telepath, strong mental shields were necessary for his wellbeing, but sometimes he overlooked other more obvious clues as well with social interactions.Fortunately, Five-0 was having a slow week. Other then tracking some leads on a series of jewel thefts at some top end jewelry stores, nothing was happening crime wise. Steve hoped the criminal element of the Island was taking a couple weeks vacation because apparently they were going to have to wait for the spell on Danny to wear off. The distressed witch had done her best to help, but every effort she, Kono and Jenna made to break the spell had done nothing other then make Danny sneeze.
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The almost silent creak of Steve’s bedroom door opening had him wide awake and stealthily reaching for the gun secreted in his night table drawer, when his brain caught up with his body and he realized who his nocturnal visitor was. Danny was hesitating on the threshold, knuckling his eyes and holding one of Grace’s stuffed animals. He must have had a bad dream and was seeking comfort. Steve had left him safely tucked in Mary’s bed, with Grace’s crib nearby.Steve stayed silent and still to see what he would do. After a couple of minutes the little boy came quietly into the room and with some effort climbed up onto the bed and inserted himself under Steve’s arm. He wiggled for a few minutes getting comfortable under the duvet, before giving a sigh of deep satisfaction and falling asleep, little blond head nestled on Steve’s shoulder, small body limp. Steve lay in the dark, breathing in the sweet strawberry scent of baby shampoo and gently ran his fingers through soft, blond curls, a broad grin of pure happiness on his face.
________________________________________________________“NO!”The slice of fresh pineapple slid down Steve’s face to plop stickily on the table.Danny folded his plump little arms and glared at Steve from across the table.Steve gritted his teeth in sheer frustration and tried to count to ten in his head. He made it to five.“What do you want?”Blue eyes narrowed consideringly. From her high chair, baby Grace watched the snack negotiations with fascination.“Abble, nana and choccy!”Steve scowled back. Pineapple was a perfectly acceptable, delicious fruit.“Apple, banana, but no chocolate!”Then when the little face began to screw up and turn an alarming shade of red, he hastened to add.“But if you eat all your dinner tonight, you can have chocolate pudding!”He groaned and dropped his head in his hands. He, Steven J.McGarrett had interrogated Taliban insurgents, why was he reduced to negotiating with a toddler? If he wasn’t careful he would be babbling baby talk with Gracie next.Across the table, Danny beamed at him and chirped, “K!”Steve grinned back helplessly at the sweet face. That. That was why. He would make a total ass out of himself if it got him those sweet, happy smiles. Steve was so screwed.______________________________________________The rest of the team couldn’t help but be amused by their leader’s obvious infatuation with their ‘mini boss’, not that he ever really made an attempt to hide his fondness for the adult version in the first place.It was the weekend and they all hit the beach with enthusiasm after a grueling work week. They were tracking a ‘faerie dust’ smuggler, who was somehow managing to get large amounts of the illegal substance into the islands. The drug, while harmless to most of the supernatural inhabitants (offering a milder buzz then weed) was hell on normal humans. It was instantly addictive and burned a human out faster then pure grade meth, making them paranoid, remorseless as a shark and inhumanly strong and fast. Life expectancy of a dust addict was less than two years and the habit, once acquired was almost impossible to kick. A dust addict would do literally anything to ensure a constant supply. Any first responder attending to a call about the toxin was in danger of coming in contact with the deadly stuff, so HPD made a point of sending nonhumans on Dust calls as often as possible and equipping their human officers with the most effective protective gear and amulets availiable.In short, it was a death sentence in sparkly, glitter form and the dealer was proving frustratingly elusive.So, today the team basked in the sun, surfed and had a beach picnic. Little Grace was slathered with sunblock and ensconced under a beach umbrella with Malia, Chin a wavering shadow near her. As a spirit, Chin’s best anchor was at the office, the place where he had died, but Kono was his blood relative and Malia his beloved wife, so with their help, he could anchor himself to them sometimes and travel about his island home in corporeal form. The newest hire, Lou Grover, had stayed only a short while, as his son had a ball game to attend. Charlie Fong was off on a date. Lori had not appeared, merely texted her apologies to the team. The werecat had not yet decided whether to stay, having already acquired several lucrative job offers from the mainland. Jerry, stuffed with Kamekona’s shrimp was snoring under a palm tree nearby, oblivious to the fact that a very stealthy Danny had managed to bury most of his lower body in sand and poured buckets of sea water over the sand to pack it in firmly. Max was perched under his own umbrella, floppy sun hat and shades firmly in place and was engrossed in a medical journal. Jenna sat near him, small nose buried in an old grimoire.A happy shriek brought their heads up, attention on the surf line, just in time to witness tiny Danno sprinting down the beach, stark naked, shedding and leaving his his tee shirt, board shorts and flip-flops in a trail behind him. Steve was hot on his heels, scooping up the items as he ran in pursuit of the laughing child. Immediately, cameras were whipped out to record the evidence as one of the toughest men on the Islands scooped up his tiny partner with a growl, gave his plump tummy a raspberry and pretended to toss the happily yelling child into the sea, while Kono laughed behind them. For blackmail purposes it couldn’t get any better than this.
____________________________________________________Monday found the team back at work, bent over the tech table. Danny was napping on the sofa in Steve’s office, once again having escaped daycare. Steve had left him sound asleep, tucked under one of Grace’s soft blankets. Kono had just brought up a map on screen, showing the locations of the nearest dust fueled incidents, when the office doors slammed open and a wild-eyed man barged in, automatic weapon in hand. He sprayed a burst across the floor at their feet and screamed at them to stay still, practically foaming at the mouth as he ranted about their interference in his ‘business.’ It was impossible for him to be still. He twitched involunatarily, grimaced and bared his teeth at them. A haze of golden dust motes floated gently around him. Apparently a victim of his own product, their wayward dealer had come to them.The team froze and raised their hands obediently, carefully not watching as Kono pressed her hip against the tech table and Jenna began to murmur under her breath. The monitor lights flickered as Chin sought to gather the energy to manifest.Steve spoke up, hands held out placatingly, seeking to keep the raving man’s attention on him to give his team members time to work up a shield and contain spell. He wished fervently that Jerry and Lou were back from lunch. He could use both burly Were’s aid.“Hey! Hey, buddy calm down.”It worked a little too well. The enraged man focused bloodshot eyes on the tall SEAL and pointed his gun directly at Steve’s head.“I had a good thing! I was making thousands a week! You ruined it, you ruined it all! I can’t turn around anymore without running into a fucking cop!”Steve opened his mouth to reply, mentally focusing on sending calming thoughts to the raving man, but before he could speak, a small voice spoke up from the doorway of Steve’s office.“Steeb?”Danny stood there, frowning sleepily and knuckling his eyes with one small fist, a stuffed giraffe borrowed from Gracie was clutched in his other hand. With his Mickey Mouse tee shirt and little pink toes curled in yellow flip-flops, he looked impossibly tiny as he scowled up at the dusthead, who was between them and the little boy and way too close to him for Steve’s comfort.Steve took a step forward, desperate to get the man focused on him again, instead of his tiny, helpless partner. No way in hell would he allow his Danno to be hurt. He would take the bullet first. He heard Kono’s lilting voice join Jenna’s behind him before he could open his mouth, and he could feel the power of the spell being raised but before he could act, wee Danny frowned up at the intruder and pointed a stern finger at the startled man.“Bad! You under arrest!”The little boy dropped the stuffed animal and dug clumsily into the pocket of his overlarge board shorts and pulled out an oval object. He then tossed it at the man who stumbled back and gaped down at the grenade that rolled delicately over to rest between his feet, pin intact. He dropped his attention and his gun just long enough for the team to strike. There was a crackle of ozone in the air and a blue lightening bolt sizzled across the room from the tech table and struck the gun in the tweaker’s hands, causing him to scream and drop it, while at the same time a translucent, glowing red hot cage of Pele’s fire materialized out of thin air and clamped firmly down to contain him. Enraged he bellowed obscenities at them and bent and scooped up the grenade.Steve was already charging across the room and scooping Danny up in his arms and diving into his office and behind his desk, rolling to cover Danny’s small body with his own. Behind him, thwarted and senseless with rage, the man pulled the pin. Kono and Jenna ducked under the tech table, secure in the knowledge that Chin would shield them. There was a resounding explosion, the concussive force of which shattered most of the office windows, followed by a disgusting splattering noise, then silence. When Kono Kalakaua and Jenna Kaye raised a volcano goddess’ shield, nothing got past it. Steve sat with his back against his desk, heart racing and clutching Danny close, body curved over the little boy, one big hand protectively cupping the little blond head. After a moment he dared to raise his head and check on his charge.Danny regarded him wide-eyed, one thumb in his mouth. Then he pulled it out and pointed solemnly into the outer office.“Boom!”Steve stared back, heart still thudding and half a second away from thankful, hysterical laughter, then scowled down at the impossible child in his lap.“Where the hell did you get that grenade?” Danny scowled right back and poked Steve hard in the nose.“Bad word!”Steve frowned and repeated his question severely, scowling harder at the small face. He stoically ignored the tremble of Danny’s pouting lips and teary eyes. The little shit was a master at using tears to get out of trouble and it had taken a week for Steve to realize that.Danny stopped pouting and smiled sweetly at him and pointed behind him to the open desk drawer.“Yours, Steeb.”Steve groaned as he remembered tucking the live grenade there weeks ago because Danny wouldn’t allow him to put it in the glove compartment of the Camaro. Dear God, how could he be so careless! He reflexively clutched Danny close to his chest and pressed his lips reverently to the soft, rosy cheek. There was a pop of displaced air and Steve grunted at the sudden weight of a startled, full grown, totally naked except for two bits of shredded cloth, Danno in his lap. Said naked Danno regarded him with astonishment, looked around at the shattered windows, the mess on the floor, then yelped and covered his privates with his cupped hands and gave Steve a familiar glare.“Steve, what the hell have you done now?”Outraged at the accusation, Steve regarded his partner with astonishment. “Me! What do you mean, me! You’re the one who tossed the damned grenade Danny!”The bickering was on. Both voices rising in volume, heat and tone as each sought to out argue the other. It was a familiar cadence to the listening teams’ ears. Lou and Charlie had walked in, guns drawn and followed by half of HPD, just in time to catch the tail end of the argument as they strode out of the office, Steve’s overshirt wrapped like a sarong around Danny’s waist as he followed the smaller man towards the locker room. Danny was waving one finger under Steve’s nose, clutching the shirt around his waist with the other and lecturing him on firearm (and explosives) safety, which swiftly changed to a yelp of startled outrage when Steve reflexively scooped him up and lifted him up in a bridal carry so that he wouldn’t cut his bare feet on the glass shards littering the floor.“I am not an infant, Steven!” Steve mumbled a sullen reply and they heard Danny’s voice rise as they went out the door.They were still arguing as the door slammed behind them. Everyone was intrigued to notice that Steve had yet to set him back down on his own feet. Jenna beamed at Kono, and chirped, “Well, that went well, don’t you think?” Kono lowered the shield with a flick of her hand, wrinkling her nose at the smell, as Chin dialed the HazMat team to come collect the remains of their dust dealer. There wasn’t much left and the carbonized bits would fit neatly in one warded garbage bin. Hopefully Max would be able to retrieve his spirit and identify him. She smiled secretively to herself. She wondered how long it would take those two oblivious idiots to realize that the spell hadn’t just worn off. After all, True Love’s Kiss remained the most effective antidote to an astonishing number of ancient hexes and spells.Fini8/10/2017