Steve was waiting for Danny’s plan to arrive from the Big Island. For the past week, his second-in-command had been testifying at the trial of one of the biggest drug smugglers in the business, and thanks to that, had managed to ensure that the man would be spending the next twenty to thirty years in prison, with no hope of parole until at least twenty-five of those years were done. The judge for the case, one Michael Hideki, had a reputation for being a stickler for procedure, and feared throughout the Hawaiian Court System.

By the crooks, not the cops, although he showed no mercy to any cop who was dumb enough not to have all of his ‘t’s crossed, and his ‘i’s dotted. 

That hadn’t been the case in this particular instance. Steve had made especially sure that no detail was left out, even though his team had had to pull more than a few all nighters’ in order to ensure that they had an airtight case against the man.

Their persistence had paid off in spades, and now, Danny was due any minute, despite the lateness of the hour.

Steve spotted him in the crowd of people and grinned. The younger cop looked as if he’d been through a wringer; his suit was rumpled from the cramped flight, and he looked as if he were about to spit nails.

“Tough flight, bruddah?” Steve asked in all innocence, and Danny simply rolled his eyes at him.

“Three crying babies on board; four passengers complaining about the food; three others affected by air sickness, and to top it all off, my seat mate has yet to discover the power of a good deodorant! So yeah, it was a tough flight.”

“Ouch.” Steve replied, “Come on; let’s go get your stuff. I’ll drive you home, and you can hit the hay. Take the rest of the week off, and I don’t want to see your face in the office for the entirety of that time.”

“Thanks, Steve,” Danno said gratefully. He was totally exhausted, not only from the flight, but also the trial. The air conditioning in the building had conked out in the middle of one of the sessions, and the combination of heat and humidity had made for some very short tempers in the courtroom.

After they had gotten a hold of Danny’s luggage, their attention was drawn by the sounds of an argument. Someone was having a fit, and it sounded like a very young someone. A very loud, young someone.

Their curiosity piqued, they went to investigate. Not too far away from them, three people were having an argument, and the noise level was starting to go up.

More precisely, a young boy was having an argument with two adults, one of them a stewardess and the other one a uniformed cop.

The boy couldn’t have been more than twelve years old, possibly thirteen. He was a bit small for his age, with black hair, wearing a white shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. Judging from his accent, he was of Hispanic origin, and to judge by the quality of his clothes, he was from a moderately well off family.

The stewardess had a hold of the boy’s arm, and he was trying, without success to break free from her grip. The cop was trying to mediate between the two, and was failing miserably.

The boy then drew back one sneakered foot, and kicked the stewardess in the ankle. She let go of his arm in shock and surprise, and the boy was off like a shot.

Danny, being the closer of the two, reached out and snagged the boy effortlessly, handing him off to Steve, saying, “Where you going bruddah?”

Steve took a hold of the boy’s forearm and snapped, “Look kid; I don’t care if that woman is the Queen Bitch of the Western Hemisphere, you don’t kick a woman!”

The boy stopped struggling, and looked up into Steve’s face, giving him the shock of his life.

The boy had raven-black hair, opaque blue eyes, and a very familiar face. Steve saw that face every day in the mirror every time he got up in the morning. There was only one person that this kid could be. Steve turned to the police officer, and seeing his nametag, asked, “Officer Tanaka, what’s going on here?”

“Sir, the stewardess came up to me with the boy in tow, and she started demanding that I take him in. Evidently, he’s traveling alone, and she made herself responsible for him. He took offense at this, and says he can take care of himself. The rules of the airline state that a minor child cannot travel without an adult with him, or waiting for him at his destination, and he’s having a bit of a fit about it.”

Steve looked at the boy. He had thought that he would never see this child again. The last time he had seen him, the boy had been a mere baby of only three months old. He hadn’t seen him again after that.

“Esteban?”

“Popi?” the boy asked, his face breaking into a huge grin that was a spooky echo of Steve’s own.

“And who are you?” the stewardess asked in a heavy Spanish accent, her tone dripping with disdain.

“He’s my father,” Esteban stated, in a tone that adolescents reserved for truly stupid adults, “His name is Steve McGarrett, and he’s the head of the state police.”

Steve gave the woman a very pointed look, and she had the good grace to look contrite.

“What are you doing here?” Steve asked his son, “All by yourself? Where’s your mother? Does she know where you are?”

“Mami’s dead.” Esteban stated simply, and Steve released him onto his own two feet.

“Senor, I was trying to explain to your son that I could not simply let him go without being accompanied by an adult.” The stewardess explained in a very sniffy tone. She didn’t much like children, and this boy, in her opinion, needed a good beating.

“Well, he is in the company of an adult now,” Steve said in an ice-cold tone of voice, and she shrank visibly, “Thank you for your assistance.”

She threw a glare at Esteban and snapped, “Well, don’t you have anything to say?”

He looked her up and down for a moment, and then said, “Si, you should wax your legs more often. They’re hairier than my step-father’s.”

Steve and Danno only just managed to keep their poker faces at the insult, but Officer Tanaka didn’t even bother. He snickered loudly, and the stewardess, finding no sympathy with him, simply turned her back on the lot of them, and walked away in a huff.

Tanaka gave them a farewell nod, and went back to his duties.

“Come on kiddo. Let’s get your bags, and I’ll take you home with me. I can’t allow my son to gallivant all over this island at this hour of the night, now can I?”

Knowing that he was being teased, Esteban said nothing, but obeyed his father. Together, the three of them went to the parking lot, and got into Steve’s car. Esteban was formally introduced to Danny, who was beginning to like this kid more and more every minute.

Steve drove the car to Danno’s apartment complex, and dropped his friend off. At that hour of the night, well past midnight, there was very little traffic on the highway and the whole trip took less than a half hour.

Once that was done, Steve drove on to his beach house. Esteban was already starting to drop off, and when they arrived, he didn’t protest having to go to bed. In fact, once he hit the pillow, Esteban was dead to the world. Steve simply covered him with a blanket and went to bed himself. It had been a long day, and the next one looked to be even longer.

*****