A/N: So this was going to be a one-shot, but I forgot to mark it as complete, and Snowbeardolphin said "Can't wait to read the next chapter," so I got to thinking how I could expand it. This is a couple of months early, but *shrug*. Enjoy!

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Steve McGarrett stared in dismay at the lumpy...lump in his mixing bowl. There was just no other word for it. It certainly didn't look like the smooth ball of dough his partner, Danny Williams, had produced at Christmas time. He'd made it look so simple—mix the ingredients and come up with the perfect cookie dough. Somehow, it hadn't worked that way for Steve. His was lumpy, and bumpy, and streaked with flour and—were those eggshells? Shit. Not to mention his kitchen—and him—looked like a hurricane had blown through. Flour coated the counter and floor—and Steve—eggshells littered the counter as well, and there was a trail of sugar from the pantry to the bowl, with a large spill at the bowl. He'd had this daydream when they'd made cookies at Christmas of presenting Danny with a perfect heart-shaped cookie for Valentine's Day, but reality definitely wasn't living up to the dream. Time to call in reinforcements.

Danny's daughter, Grace, answered on the first ring. "Uncle Steve! What's wrong? Is Danno okay?"

"Yeah, Danno's fine," Steve reassured her. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just. . .I need some help."

Grace sounded puzzled. "Help? With what?"

Steve stumbled over his words. "Well, you see, I wanted to make Danny something for Valentine's Day—cookies-and he made it look so easy, but it wasn't, and you help him and I thought. . .maybe you could help me?" He asked tentatively.

"Just a sec." He could hear her consulting with someone, probably her mom. "Do you want me to come over now? Mom can drop me off."

He sighed in relief. "That would be perfect."

When Grace arrived, she took one look at the kitchen and declared "You really made a mess, Uncle Steve."

"I know," he said. "Just help me fix it," he begged.

"There's a price," she said.

"What do you want? I'll give you anything if you just help me!"

"I want some cookies."

"You can have as many as you want," Steve promised. "Unless. . .you're not planning to give them to some boy, are you? I don't think Danny would like that."

"Relax, they're for my class, though if a certain someone got a special cookie I wouldn't mind. . ." Grace grinned at the look on Steve's face. "Relax, I'm just kidding. No boys, I promise." She surveyed the array of fresh ingredients on the island. "Looks like you've got everything. Let's get started." She picked up the bowl with Steve's failed attempt. "What in the world is this?"

"Cookie dough?" Steve replied hesitantly.

"No wonder you need help." She picked up the recipe lying on the counter. "First, we cream the butter and sugar." She carefully measured sugar into a clean bowl, not spilling a drop, Steve noticed enviously. She picked up the butter, looked at it, knocked it against the counter with a resounding 'thud', and looked at it again in bewilderment. "Uncle Steve, this butter is frozen."

"Well, yeah, it keeps longer that way."

"You can't make cookies with frozen butter! It has to be soft! No wonder your dough didn't turn out right! Haven't you ever made cookies before?"

She sounded so like Danny Steve would have been amused if her tirade hadn't been directed at him. "Not really. We made cookies at Christmas, but Danny did most of the work."

Grace let out a put-upon sigh. "Looks like I'm going to be doing most of it this time." She put the butter in a small bowl and put it in the microwave, heating it in five-second bursts until it was okay for creaming. Then she added it to the sugar and creamed them together. "Now for the eggs. Do you want to add the eggs, Uncle Steve?"

"I'd better not. I kind of got shells in it the last time."

"Oh, Uncle Steve." Grace expertly cracked the eggs. Steve really was jealous of her kitchen skills. He wondered if he'd ever be able to make this look as easy as she and Danny did. Grace added the other ingredients while Steve looked on, and soon they had a bowl of—much better looking—cookie dough. "Now, let's get the decorating materials ready while this chills."

"Okay." Steve went to his cupboards and started pulling out decorating supplies. Grace looked on, amused.

"You sure have a lot of stuff, Uncle Steve."

Steve shrugged. "Most of it's left over from Christmas. Danny picked it out."

"Danno does tend to go overboard, doesn't he?" She picked out the red food coloring. "This is all we need, I think. We can use it to make both red and pink."

"You don't want purple and blue?" Steve asked, remembering Danny's insistence on those colors at Christmas.

"Nah, I'm a traditionalist, not like Danno. I think he gets a little carried away," she said confidentially.

Steve laughed. "Yeah, he does. Traditional's good with me."

Steve got down a bowl to make frosting, carefully measuring out powdered sugar. Unfortunately, it started pouring way too fast, and he ended up with way more than he intended. "That's okay," Grace assured him. "We'll just have extra."

Steve measured out milk and dumped it in. "No, Uncle Steve," Grace scolded. "You have to add it slowly. Now it's too thin."

"But I can just add more powdered sugar, right?" He reached for the box, but Grace stopped him.

"I think you'd better let me, Uncle Steve." She carefully added more sugar until the frosting was the right consistency, then divided it between three bowls. She handed Steve a bowl and the bottle of food coloring. "Now add it one drop at a time, Uncle Steve."

Steve did as she said, relieved when he got a beautiful pink. Then he added more food coloring to the other bowl until he got red. "Very good, Uncle Steve!" Grace praised.

By then the dough was ready, and Steve moved with more confidence, dividing it in two and placing it on pieces of floured waxed paper. He carefully rolled the dough out to precisely one-eighth of an inch, grateful he'd actually thought to get a rolling pin. It wouldn't do to let Grace see him rolling out the dough with a beer bottle like they'd had to do at Christmas. He then carefully used the cookie cutter he'd bought to cut out heart shapes, making sure to space them so as to get as many cookies as possible out of the dough. "You're good at this part, Uncle Steve."

"Thanks. It's just geometry. I'm good at that. It's baking I need some help with," he said ruefully.

"You're doing fine," Grace said. "I can't wait to decorate them!"

Once the cookies were cool, they set to decorating them. Grace threw herself into the decorating with the same enthusiasm Danny did, though her cookies were a lot tamer, even if she did tend to go a little heavy on the sprinkles and the decorating sugar. Steve was a little more deliberate, taking more time with his cookies, especially one in particular.

"Is that Danno's?" Grace asked, watching him carefully spread pink frosting over the cookie.

"Yeah. I thought I'd put red hots around the edges. Do you think he'd like that?"

"Oh, yes, Danno loves red hots!"

Steve carefully placed red hots around the edge of the cookie and studied it critically. It still wasn't quite right. He thought a moment, then carefully traced another heart in the center with a knife, covering it carefully with red colored sugar. "There, how does that look?"

"Perfect! Danno will love it!"

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Steve stood outside Danny's door, cookie carefully concealed behind his back, heart pounding as he waited for Danny to open the door.

"Steve! What are you doing here?" Danny asked, surprised to see him. "I thought you were busy."

"I was, but I'm done now. I have something for you," Steve said nervously.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"This." Steve held out the cookie. "Will you be my Valentine?"

"You made me a cookie?"

"I thought it would make up for the one I stole at Christmas. I hope you like it."

"I love it." Danny put an arm around Steve's neck and kissed him soundly. "And I would love to be your Valentine. Happy Valentine's Day, Steve."

Steve kissed him back. "Happy Valentine's Day, Danno."