My Girl

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: And here we are my wonderful readers! The big drama! This is how Steve managed to capture Rory. It's also how she got hurt. I hope you guys enjoy it, things are going to get interesting from here on in!

Chapter 23

I was in pain. I was high, and I was putting myself into dissociative states to deal with the trauma I was being subjected to.

I was dreaming. I didn't know I was dreaming at that time though, to me I was reliving a past that I wanted to be mine. I dreamed of the day Anton Hesse died, but it wasn't my dad on the phone that day. It was my wife.

It was my wife I wanted to save, and it was my wife I returned to Hawaii for.

I dreamed of my Rory. With her new name. Rory McGarrett. It didn't matter that I knew her real name was Rowan, she was my Rory.

She always had different hair and it changed with each new dream I slipped into, which should have clued me in to it being a dream but I never got it. Not then anyway.

All I knew was that I was happy, I was in love, and I had my Rory back, her too-blue eyes staring at me filled with love, her arms around my neck. Holding me close, whispering words of comfort to me between the hours of torture I was enduring at her father's hands.

Though I still didn't believe he was really her father, and in my dreams he wasn't her father either.

So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up and the woman I loved and thought I was married to was there in that basement I was being tortured in. My wife, in my mind only, was about to be used to torment me.

There was no way to describe that fear, but it had a hold of me.

At that point I was willing to do about anything to keep her safe.

Literally anything.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

When the world came back to him that time, there was someone else in the room with him.

His eyes danced up the female features before settling on the face. For a moment he didn't recognize her, but then again, her features were swimming in that hazy cloud. But once he focused in on those beautiful blue eyes, everything else fell into place.

"Rory?"

He had to be dreaming. There was no way that she was in front of him.

She put a hand to his knee, the warmth and weight startling him, because it meant she was real.

Oh god no. He knew what had happened now, they had kidnapped his wife. They were going to torture her if he didn't give them answers.

"No, no, no," he managed to moan out.

"Steve, it's okay," she whispered, but it wasn't okay, it couldn't be okay. She was there, Wo Fat was going to hurt her.

That was the very definition of not okay.

"No, you have to… they have to let you go…"

"Steve just listen," she whispered and his eyes focused in on her face. Why did she look so calm? Why did she not look afraid? Did she not realize what was happening? "It's going to be okay. All you have to do is tell him where his dad is, then we get to go home. Don't you want that? Don't you want to go home?"

Yes, yes he did want to go home, especially with her. That sounded so great right now. Except that wasn't going to happen because… well… he didn't know where Yao Fat was.

"Baby… baby…" because that was what he called her like all the time. "I don't… I can't…"

He couldn't even tell her. Because it meant that what was going to happen next was her getting hurt. He couldn't look at her and tell her that he was going to fail her as a husband. God, Wo Fat was going to make him watch his own wife get tortured. How the hell was he going to survive that?

Maybe he could convince him he didn't know anything… it hadn't worked yet, but maybe now it would.

Wo Fat put a hand to her shoulder, with a soft utterance of her name, and Steve lurched against his bonds shrilly screaming at him.

"No. Don't, don't! Please, please, she's… I don't know anything. I don't have anything to give you. Just please, she's pregnant, don't hurt her. Please. Hurt me instead, be mad at me, this is between you and me."

"Did he just say pregnant?" the rabbit man asked. "Jesus, how high was that dose?!"

"Will you two stop it," Rory hissed. "Just… give me a second." She then turned back to him, that patient smile on her face. "Come on, Steve, you don't want him to hurt me do you?" a whimper escaped his lips, because he very much did not want her to get hurt. "Then you have to give him something to go on."

But that was the problem. He had absolutely nothing.

"I don't know where he is." It was a bare whisper but he hear his voice crack, he couldn't help it. He was about to cry.

"Oh enough of this!" Wo Fat cried. "Start talking or I start messing up her pretty face!"

"No!" Steve howled. "No! I'm not lying! I'm not! I'm not. Doris… she doesn't talk to me. I don't have any connections here. I have literally no idea where he is. I'm serious. I'm sorry but finding your dad wasn't my priority. Okay! OKAY?"

At that point Rory stood, which was odd. Why wasn't she tied up in any way? Why was Wo Fat just letting her stay loose? And why hadn't she tried to run yet?

"Dad, I think he's telling the truth," she said and for a moment Steve was blinding. Wait did she say dad? Actually why did that sound like that might have been right?

He was getting all confused.

"I think, if he actually knew, he'd have told you by now," she said. "I mean… if he loved me so much he would have by now, right? So either he doesn't love me or he knows nothing so…"

"He told you I don't love you?" Steve whispered. "Of course I love you, I've always loved you. I fell in love with you on that beach. The first time you took the feet out from under me. I was yours."

Rory turned back to him, a look of surprise on her face, like she hadn't known that? But how could she not have, he told that story all the time, it was in his wedding vows to her.

"Why would you believe him?" Steve asked because he didn't understand how she could have taken anything Wo Fat, the liar, had said to her as face value.

"Jesus, how high is he?" the Rabbit man asked again.

"Nope, the taking the feet out from under him thing actually happened."

"I'm sorry, that man has been in love with you since he was twelve?"

"I was twelve, he was fourteen," Rory answered absently.

"Okay, enough!" Wo Fat shouted. "You two outside." He then turned to Steve and pointed at him "You stay there, I'll be back."

Steve was very confused as to what was happening, but he definitely understood what was going on when Wo Fat grabbed his wife's arm and pulled her away from him.

"No! Don't! Don't take her! I can't tell you what I don't know!" he shouted after them. But Wo Fat took Rory out of that room and shut the door.

And Steve lost his ever living shit.

He struggled, struggled so hard that he tilted that chair over, and when it hit the ground something cracked. Not on him, on the chair. That was a good thing, he figured out where the weakness was, a leg, and managed to smash himself free. One he had his foot free, he maneuvered himself so he got the broken off chair leg, and then used that to break the bonds on one wrist. With a hand free he got the rest of himself free and then he was sprinting to that door.

He got the door open and found Wo Fat and Rory just on the other side. They were just standing there staring at one another, or they had been when he opened the door. The second he opened the door both of them turned to him, clearly surprised to see that he had gotten free.

Fair, they had him pretty tightly locked up.

For a moment they all just stared at one another and then Steve just tackled Wo Fat, slamming him into the wall across from them. There was a pair of shouts. A lower one, obviously the Rabbit man. And a high scream of Daddy which was followed by Steven which came from his wife.

Yes she called him daddy in bed but this was not the time for that. And it shouldn't have gotten him hard but she had trained him well and it kind of had.

They grappled with one another, wrestling, each trying to get the upper hand. Wo Fat shoved him off of him, and went to kick him. But Steve knew that was Wo Fat's go to move, so he blocked it with ease. Or he tried to, he was pretty unstable on his own two feet.

So while he blocked that kick it still sent him down to his knees. But that was okay, he swept Wo Fat off of his own feet with a kick of his own and then he was on top of him trying to wrestle him. If he could just get his hands around his throat he could choke the life out of him and get his wife out of there.

"I can't shoot, they're moving too much I might hit dad!"

Was that the Rabbit man? Really? Was he Wo Fat's kid too? How many kids did this villain have?

"Oh my god, get off of him!" he heard Rory cry and he couldn't help but turn around to stare at her. Was she… was she talking to him? She wanted him to get off of Wo Fat? What the fuck?

The paused was enough. Wo Fat used that to dislodge him. He finally went for his gun, but Steve knocked it out of his hand, punched Wo Fat in the face and then lunged for the gun himself.

Rory had been going for it as well, but he got it first. He took it, grabbed her, put her behind him and then pointed that gun right onto Wo Fat who had been the process of getting up.

Wo Fat stared at him, straightening slowly, his eyes darting to Rory who was hidden safely behind him. Steve finally had the upper hand, he had his gun, but with a "Here!" from the man in the rabbit mask a gun was tossed to Wo Fat that he caught effortlessly and then pointed in Steve's direction.

Rory came out from behind him at that point, why he didn't understand, but there she was out from behind him, staring up at him.

"Steven," she started but he put a hand out and brushed her back behind him where she belonged.

"Stay behind me, I'm going to get us out of here."

But Rory wouldn't stay behind him, she came out behind him again and this time got in between the two guns.

"Ro what are you doing?" came out of Wo Fat and Steve shot him a glare. Why the hell did he care what Steve's wife was doing? But seriously, what was she doing?

"Its fine, I got this," she said taking a step closer to him. "Steve… Steve stop," she said softly a hand outstretched to him.

"Why are you… why are you protecting him?" Steve cried. "He tried to steal you from me!"

"No, no, he was… he protected me," she said. She was still in between them, that gun was painted right at her chest, only because he had forgotten to aim it at Wo Fat over her shoulder.

"Protected you… from… from what? From me? Why… why would he need to… why didn't you…"

Everything was getting jumbled in his head. How exactly had he managed to marry her if she had been missing? Because he remembered that too. She had been gone, he had just found her… or… or had she been married to him? Which one was the reality and which one was real?

"He tortured me."

That part was true, he knew that part because he was still in pain.

"He… he drugged me… kidnapped me… did you know he was going to do this?" She blinked her eyes and he realized that she did, in fact, know that this was going to happen. "How could you let this happen? You said you loved me!"

"I… I mean…"

"So what? You lied? You're a liar just like him?" Steve cried. "Why did you stay if you didn't love me? Why did you marry me? And our… our baby! Why the hell did you let yourself get pregnant if you didn't love me?"

"Wow, you just dreamed up a whole little nuclear family didn't you?"

"I love you!" he thundered. "I gave you everything and you do… do… this!"

"Steve I think we're getting off topic," she said. "Right now, let's put the gun down and talk this out."

But Steve didn't want to put that gun down, he wanted to shoot Wo Fat in the face. He knew, no matter how much he loved the woman in front of him, that if lowered that gun, Wo Fat would sweep her aside and just shoot him.

He couldn't let that happen.

He had to save her from him.

"Steven, please? Give me the gun."

"You're with him aren't you?" he asked softly. "I'm not… we're not together are we?"

Rory shook her head. "No Steve, we're not. But you're not going to hurt me… are you?"

No, he didn't want to hurt her. But it made sense now. Why he was so confused. He had dreamed up a happier story for them, but it wasn't the story he had.

Rory wasn't his Rory, she was Wo Fat's.

"You don't love me."

Rory's face softened, a hand reached out for his cheek and Steve found himself leaning into it.

"Steven, I haven't seen you in like twenty years. Of course I don't love you, I don't know you. Just like you don't know me…"

She was trying to say that he didn't love her, but that was where she was wrong. He had never forgotten her, never gotten over her. He loved her as much as he had loved her when he lost her when he was fifteen.

"Now… let's give me that gun."

Her other hand had been going for the gun without him realizing it, he tried to jerk it away from her, but his finger slipped.

The bang startled him, the recoil of the gun jerked the reality into a clear focus. Rory collapsing back with the blow of the gun was all too clear in his face.

She landed in Wo Fat's arms, the man had cried out, reaching for her to catch her. Blood splatters had destroyed her shirt and had hit him too. He could feel them against his chest and face.

The realization was still hitting him. He… he had just shot her.

Wo Fat stared down at Rory, as the red began to seep outward until her whole shirt seemed soaked with it. The man with the Rabbit mask had swiped his mask to the side, had dropped to his knees beside the fallen pair.

Steve still couldn't believe he had done it. Accident or not, he had just shot the woman he was in love with. In both version of reality in his mind.

Wo Fat's angry eyes turned up to him. The hatred seething there was not foreign but this time it was wet. Wo Fat was… crying? Or about to cry, no tears had actually fallen yet.

Steve was still in shock about the whole situation, still couldn't believe he had done what he had done. He was in so much shock that he couldn't find it in himself to move.

He should have run, but stupidly he had stayed. He wanted to be sure that Rory was okay.

Which meant that when Wo Fat lifted that gun the rabbit man had tossed him, Steve hadn't escaped, or gotten away. He was still, very stupidly, standing exactly where he had been when his gun went off.

That mean, when Wo Fat finally shot at him, which seemed a whole eon later, not only did Steve not move, he didn't even bother to duck. He, however, feel that bullet hit him, felt the pain in his head, and then everything went black.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

They say that they found me in the basement hallway, my head split open. Danny had been freaking out, he was sure I was dead and to be fair, there was a rather large pool of blood by my feet, and Wo Fat was lethal.

I was fine, mostly. I was drugged, I was in pain, I needed to get my lungs drained and my head stitched up. I was lucky the bullet had glanced off my head instead of going into it.

She must have bled out in the basement, because they found her DNA down there, mixed in with mine.

Three days after I was admitted to the hospital, my team tracked her down. Rory was in the same hospital, a floor beneath me. She had been dropped off at the med bay, bloody, bleeding out, bullet in her shoulder matching the gun that I had been holding when they found me.

She was alone, a Jane Doe that no one had come to collect yet.

Her injury had been a gun shot so HPD had been called in. Thanks to them entering her DNA into the system, and the ballistics to the bullet they had gotten out of her, we were able to match her to the person we were looking for.

Eventually she did wake up, and it was not the reunion I was hoping for. She didn't seem happy to see me, which was fair, I had shot her after all. She seemed to think that Wo Fat was going to come for her, but I knew better. He wasn't coming.

And with him out of the picture, for good this time, I could finally make her my girl again.