Steve McGarrett sat in the back room of the Los Angeles jewelry store, watching as the jeweler, a dapper little man named Van Diemen with gray hair and a neat goatee, unwrapped a series of precious gems.

“What about this one?” Van Diemen gently shook a deep blue stone from its cloth pouch onto the black velvet cloth. “A 1.5 karat blue sapphire. It sounds like it might fit the description of what you’re looking for.”

McGarrett bent to examine it, picking it up to hold under the desk lamp. “No, the color isn’t right. Too dark.”

The jeweler returned to stone to its bag. “Well, maybe this? It’s a slightly lighter blue. A one karat sapphire.”

“No, the other one was the right size. And this is still too dark,” said the head of Five-O. “I don’t know if it’s actually a sapphire I’m looking for. Are there any other blue stones?”

The jeweler put a knuckle to his mouth, considering. “Ah! I wonder...we recently got a shipment of blue topaz. A very rare color...maybe the stone you are looking for is in that. Let me get it.” Van Diemen packed up the sapphires and vanished through a door at the side of the room.

Returning from the vault, the jeweler set a small, white cardboard box on the table and removed the lid. He took three cloth pouches from it, carefully tipping a glittering faceted blue stone from each.

McGarrett examined the gems with a frown of concentration. He picked each one up in turn to inspect under the light. Finally, he pointed to the one in the middle. “This one. Definitely.” He sat back in his chair.

“Very well,” Van Diemen said briskly, packing up the other stones.

“How much are you asking for it?”

“Hmm...with the setting you chose...let me run some numbers....”

“I’d like to pick it up tomorrow. I’m scheduled to return to Honolulu tomorrow night on the red-eye,” said McGarrett.

“Tomorrow!” Van Diemen looked up at Steve, startled. “Well, I suppose we could do a rush job,” he mused. “Did you want any engraving?”

“Yes.”

The next day McGarrett returned to the shop to collect the ring. He held it up to catch the sunlight. No gemstone can match their sparkle, but this is just the color of his eyes, Steve thought. He checked the inscription. ‘DW, my love, my light, my life’ he read.

“This is perfect,” he told the jeweler, returning the ring to its velvet-covered box and taking an envelope from inside his jacket. He handed Van Diemen a neat stack of cash.

“This all seems to be in order,” the small man said. “It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Jones.”

As Steve left the shop, he thought, This was expensive, but it has a ways to go before it could be as precious as Danny is to me....