One Thing

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Well hello there my wonderful readers. So we have another late chapter here, but there's A LOT happening in it. Like... a lot, a lot. It's also unedited at the moment. I'll be putting up an edited version probably later today, once I'm done work. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and the next one so I hope you like it to!

Chapter 21 (Unedited)

After Wo Fat got away, again, Steve was determined to find him.

The problem was, he couldn't. As per fucking usual.

It was like the man dropped off the face of the earth.

Firstly, he disappeared off of a ship in the middle of the ocean, again. All he had found on that boat was dead bodies and the clothes he had changed out of. Who the hell turned on the people rescuing thing?

And what had happened to all the electrical equipment on the boat? Everything was fried, like it got hit with an EMP or something.

It was like he got onto that boat and vanished. There was nothing on the sonar or the radar, no other boats that they knew about or could read, it was, honest to god, so fucking annoying that the man could just… disappear.

Yes, he was known for it. It was all over his file, that the man could just walk into a room and fucking vanish, but he never thought he'd be able to get away from him that easily. Steve was a different breed of determined, the fact that Wo Fat was ducking him this much was frustrating.

He had tried to distract himself, but after every case was done and Steve was alone with his thoughts, they always turned back to Wo Fat and Rowan. He kept telling himself that he wanted Wo Fat to make him pay for everything he had done to Steve and his father, but honesty, what he wanted was Rowan.

Because she'd be with him, of course, she was always with him. And Steve wanted her back.

There were no words for how much he wanted her back. But Rowan, Wo Fat and The Master had all basically dropped off the face of the earth.

One of the things Steve was using to distract himself was Jenna Kaye.

At first he had her working with Five-0. Training her, dealing with her sassiness, distracted him from missing Rowan. But then she left for DC. She heard a rumour about her fiancé Josh. He might be alive.

She went to DC to track down the rumours, see if it was true. And if it was true to figure out how to bring him home.

He couldn't, in good conscience force her to stay so she had left, with a promise from him. That if she needed help, he'd be there. And if she wanted a job with Five-0 when she was done, she could have one of those too.

Three months later she was back in Hawaii asking for that favour he had offered her. You see, she had found Josh in North Korea, he was being held just a little over the border. She wanted him to come with her.

And well, he still needed that distraction so despite everyone being worried about it, he went with her. Though really it was just Danny who was worried, no one else had the same worries as he did. But Danny didn't trust Kaye, he didn't have a reason, just a gut feeling.

They flew down together, rigged up transport and then they were heading for the drop. Kaye had the money they wanted, and Steve had the tips.

Things like, they won't give them the money until she could positively ID Josh.

Their jeep stopped at a point in the road, the meet point, and a larger truck approached them. Steve got out their Jeep and Jenna did the same, getting gout behind him, the bag of money on her shoulder.

He kept scanning the trees that surrounded him. He was getting a bad feeling about this, but he couldn't see any movement in the trees, there was no sign of danger. He didn't know what was wrong but there was an electric heaviness in the atmosphere that was making him nervous.

A man was forced out of the other truck and behind him Jenna gasps. She struggled to get around him, and she might have if he hadn't grabbed her and held her back.

They were getting shouted at in Korean, and, while Steve wasn't fluent, he knew enough of what they were saying to translate.

No guns. Bring the money. They'll shoot. No guns and money.

But the man they brought was not her fiancé and Steve knew that. But Kaye hadn't gotten it yet.

He kept her tight against his chest, his mouth by her ear.

"That's not your fiancé. That man is 5'9, he's got tan skin. He's a healthy 185 pounds, okay? It's not Josh," he hissed to her.

The five Korean's that had come out of the truck all pulled their guns out. This was not good. They had come with the wrong person and they were getting angry.

"Let me go Steve," Jenna hissed back trying to twist out of his grasp.

But they were getting ready to move, they were going to have to fight their way out of this.

"We gotta move. We gotta go the other way," he said instead. "Right now."

He pushed her aside as more men came out from behind the trees. Goddamn it, it was a trap! Steve pulled out the rifle he had and started shooting. But they needed better cover so he grabbed Jenna and hid them both behind a tree.

He shot a few more rounds out and then all of sudden everything went quiet. In his crouched position he looked around, everyone had just… disappeared… like… out of no where.

Where the hell had everyone gone?

But then he heard the click of a gun behind his head.

The only person behind him was Kaye.

He slowly turned around, slowly got to his feet and found that it was a weepy looking Kaye holding a gun on him and he suddenly understood what was happening.

"I'm sorry."

Right so she didn't want to do this, but she was anyway.

He had a feeling he knew what had happened but he didn't want to believe it.

Then someone knocked im to the back of his head and he went down. HE was out, but he was definitely stunned.

The world was spinning, going in and out of focus but he can see that his theory was right because Wo Fat was standing above him.

He was dressed in all black, had under arm holsters for his gun but was wearing fancy black shoes. Not good for hiking which was stupid.

And he might have commented on it if the reality of the situation hadn't constricted his lungs.

He was at Wo Fat's mercy.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve had been forced up and bound up. His hands were bound behind his back, a rope was tied all too tightly around his neck and then they were dragging him through the jungle. Every time he tripped or lagged behind someone had knocked their rifle into the back of his head.

This was not looking good.

Wo Fat had walked silently a head of him, shooting back smug glances back at Steve with every grunt of pain that escaped him.

He had tried to talk to him at first, asking him how long Jenna had worked for him, if it was true that her fiancé was alive, though he was starting to think everything had been one horrible lie. Including the fiancé who may or may not have been alive.

But then he asked how Ro was and if she was still with him and though Wo Fat was as quiet as he had been with all the question, that one got him to turn around.

He turned and stared at Steve, with his hot angry eyes. Like the mere mention of her name upset him. Like he thought Steve would have forgotten all about the girl the two of them seemed to be fighting over.

Eventually he turned around and they went back to walking.

He was led to this giant compound in the middle of the jungle. He was taken inside and that's when they were split up. Jenna to be taken somewhere else, while he was forced into a small room where they strung him up, ripped up his clothes looking for anything hidden, leaving his shirt open so they could see his chest, though why that was important he didn't know. Then they beat him up.

They literally took turns punching him, over and over and over again.

Eventually they stopped, they let him hang there a bit. He could sort of stand on his tippy toes, but that was part of the torture. Eventually he'd get too tired or be in too much pain to continue standing like this, he'd collapse and his shoulders would dislocate.

They left him alone in the room, only to come back in with Jenna. They forced her ot the ground, chained up her hands and then they were both left there in the silence.

She couldn't even look him in they eye. Yes, she felt that guilty. Which was good, it was what she deserved.

Eventually he couldn't hold it in. He had to ask her.

"Why?"

For a moment he thought she'd ignore him but eventually she half sobbed out a: "I had no choice."

Lies.

She had a choice, she chose to betray him.

"We let you in. We treated you as one of our own. We trusted you. I came down here. I didn't ask one question."

He really should have asked at least one question. Honestly, he shouldn't have taken her at face value, he shouldn't have trusted her. Danny never did. He should have listened to Danny.

"Wo Fat told me Josh was alive."

"You just took him for his word?" Because the man was a professional liar and she should have known better… because she was the one who had told Steve that.

"He showed me his ring."

Like Wo Fat couldn't have gotten a ring off a dead man? Jewelry didn't prove a pulse.

"He had pictures, but more than anything, I needed to believe it. I would've done anything to save him."

Yes, and that's what Wo Fat had been counting on.

"So you decided to trade him for me?"

She looked up at him, tears falling down her face. She was quiet a moment before she whispered: "Yes."

Well at least she had stopped lying.

Steve was angry, though, because Kaye was there and her fiancé wasn't. Steve knew Wo Fat had been lying to her, now he wanted her to admit it.

"So where is he, Kaye?"

The tears started again. Good, he thought to himself, he hoped she felt really guilty about all of this.

"You have to understand. This reporter came to me looking into Josh's operation. She said she had a source that said that Josh was alive. And I thought if anyone could survive…" she trailed off and then she sort of smiled, though trying her hardest not to sob so it turned into some sort of grotesque grin. "He's a lot like you. A fighter, you know?"

Yeah and now Steve was going to die like him too.

"There was this one night we were supposed to have dinner in D.C., The Capital Grille. And it was raining, and he was late, and his car wouldn't start. So he hops on his bike of all things. Got in this horrible accident. Got hit by a car. Had to have these pins put in his knee. And when I reached the hospital, I just lit into him. He's always rushing around like that for nothing. That when he pulled out the ring, and he said, It wasn't all for nothing."

She dissolved into tears again but Steve was past caring about her grief. Her grief was going to get them both killed.

"The reporter who came to you, was her name Bethany Morris?"

"How did you know?"

He knew because they had found her dead the morning Kaye had come to see her. Five-0 was investigating her death, if he had stayed he might have figured out the connection. He wondered if his team had.

"She's dead. She had her neck snapped. Did you know that?"

"No…"

"You don't get it, do you, Kaye? Wo Fat was her source. You see? He sent Morris straight to you, to give you hope that Josh was still alive."

"And my hope got her killed."

Yes, yes it had. They were screwed, very much screwed.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve didn't know how long he had been before Wo Fat came into the room himself, all he knew was that when he came in he had a cattle prod with him. And with him came the pain, crackling through him as he shocked him, over and over again.

All with the same question. "Tell me about Shelburne."

Not a question, per say, but a demand.

Steve was breathless at this point. He kept telling him that he didn't know what Shelburne was. It was a lie. He knew Shelburne was a spy, but he didn't know who Shelburne was.

And every time he told him that, Wo Fat would hit him with the cattle prod.

"Your father spent a great deal of time investigating who Shelburne was," he said as he circled Steve. Like a shark circling it's helpless victim. "I can't imagine he didn't share any of his findings with you."

"Well he never gave me an answer," Steve snapped. "You're wasting your time… my dad wouldn't even… admit he knew you… even after I went to jail for your crime. He didn't tell me anything about Shelburne."

He shocked him again and Steve did his best to keep himself from screaming and failed.

"What about Joe White? What did he tell you?"

"Joe White… Joe White doesn't know anything about Shelburne either, okay? And if he did… well… he keeps more secrets than the CIA, so I don't know what you expect me to tell you!"

"You're lying."

For fuck sake, no, no he wasn't. What the hell was wrong with this guy?!

He put the cattle prod down and then calmly walked back to Steve.

And then punched him.

Just sucker punched him.

And then he continued to punch him. Landing blow after blow on him, giving him no time to catch his breath.

Jesus.

Steve wasn't going to be able to take much more of this.

"What's so important about Shelburne anyway? Why do you care? Is it really just revenge? Because… it's starting to look like it's more than that."

Wo Fat didn't answer him. He punched him square in the face instead.

Then his stomach.

Then rapid fire to his stomach and his chest.

Like he was his own personal punching back.

Steve was pretty sure his nose was broken. He was pretty sure he had broken ribs too, because it was getting increasing hard to breathe.

When he stopped Steve struggled to regain his breath, as Wo Fat just watched him. And then, once he could breathe again, he laughed.

"You don't have any idea who Shelburne is, either, do you?"

One of Wo Fat's men came in with a satellite phone, the one Kaye had. They had found it somewhere. While he was distracted, talking to the man, Jenna leant forward.

"It wasn't for nothing," she whispered, echoing her earlier story and then tossed him something.

A little silver something, some sort of pin, he knew right away that if he could get it to his hands he could pick the lock and get out. So he stepped on it. Covered it with his feet so he could get to it later and Wo Fat wouldn't notice.

It was very nice of her to help him now.

But then Wo Fat crossed to Jenna, took out a little silver pistol and shot her two times, straight to the chest.

Steve gasped, he… he really hadn't expected that.

In his mind he still figured he could get them both out. But now she was dead… yes he had been angry but he never wanted her… dead.

Wo Fat turned back to him and all the anger about the situation hit him full force.

"I'm gonna kill you!" he thundered. "You're a dead man!"

And then he repeated that last sentence, over and over. Just spit it into Wo Fat's face, covering his cheeks with speckles of the blood on his lips.

Wo Fat just continued to smile.

"We're getting on a plane in one hour, and you're taking me to Shelburne."

So that's why he killed Kaye. Easier to transport one hostage instead of two.

And then there was the scream.

This high pitched, echoing screech of utter primal terror. A woman's scream.

It was coming from somewhere else in the compound, but it was loud enough for it to fill the room they were in.

Steve saw panic, real panic on Wo Fat's face he turned around towards the sound. He rushed to the door, only to have the door bang open.

It was a flurry of voices.

Someone crying hysterically, and a man trying to calm him down.

Steve recognized her immediately.

It was Rowan.

He had Rowan here.

She wasn't dressed for the jungle either. She looked almost the same as how he knew her. She was in plain black leggings and an off the shoulder grey sweatshirt. Her hair was a glossy pin straight brown which meant she had straightened it. He had always preferred her curls.

She was pressed into Wo Fat's, her face hidden as his arms tightly wound around her. She was shaking, he could see her fingers digging into Wo Fat's back. She was absolutely terrified and Steve was terrified for her.

He shouldn't have been but his whole body had come alive the second he saw her. He was hard, his heart was racing and his eyes never left her.

He wanted her attention, he wanted to be the one to hold her, to soothe her, but he was going to have to be the one who watched Wo Fat do that for him.

"What happened?" he asked her and when that didn't work his eyes turned up to Con. "What happened?!"

Con half shrugged and then Rowan pulled her head out of Wo Fat's chest and screamed: "HIS HEAD CAME OFF!"

Wo Fat took that in and then turned a dark glare onto the Spaniard and then looked back to Rowan "Really? Why did you go in…" That time when he paused his eyes turned to the Spaniard and stayed there. "Why did you let her in there? Why are you here! You're supposed to be in Lucia. Why do you never stay in Lucia when I tell you to?"

"I just wanted to see if you wanted to go to Dim Sum with me!" she cried. "And I went into the wrong room and… and… he was just… I just tapped his shoulder and… it… it came off and… do you know how long a body has to decompose for it's head to just come off?"

Steve winced he couldn't help it because he knew how long a body had to rot there to be. It must have been Josh.

He didn't know if it was cruel or kind that a body had at least been given to Jenna.

"I wasn't talking to you," Wo said. "Just keep breathing please."

Rowan put her head back into his chest as he crying subsided and Wo Fat focused his anger on the Spaniard.

"Why didn't you stop her?" he hissed.

"Excuse me? How was I supposed to stop her? She would have just popped open that door and walked over here, whether I wanted her too or not. You're the stopper, not me."

"No, you're the goddamn enabler!"

"You're the one that said I have to do what she says!"

"Yes! But that doesn't mean taking her to my compound in North Korea, especially after what happened last time!"

"Well… keep her away from the grenades."

Wo Fat was clearly going to gear up to argue some more but then he was distracted. His face turned down to the top of Rowan's head.

She had since then stopped crying, she was now just standing there with her head in his chest, hugging him tightly, but she must have done something to gain his attention.

They were quiet a moment and then Steve could see what had gotten his attention. It was the hiccup that shook her shoulders.

"Are you… oh no, no, no, Ro, not on me," he said struggling to get her off of him. As soon as he got her disengaged and turned around, Rowan hunched over and threw up.

Both Con and Wo lurched into action, starting first by pulling her hair back so it didn't get in her face, then he sent Con for a ginger ale.

The required Con telling Ro to pop him back home to do that. Rowan made some gesture with her hands, this sort of flick and static erupted in the room. Con turned back to the door, opened it, disappeared and a couple of seconds later, he was back with a cold can of ginger ale.

Like… what the fuck?

The place didn't look to have air conditioning but it had a fridge? With ginger ale in it? Like right outside the door? He hadn't really noticed it when he got dragged in there, but he was also struggling to stay out of that room. Wasn't really looking for appliances.

He opened the can, handed it to her and then for a while they just stood there and watched her drink. Eventually Wo and Con devolved into arguing about whether or not it was Con's fault for letting Rowan come here, and Rowan stood back and away from the puddle of vomit on the ground to drink her ginger ale.

She was leaning against the wall behind her, no doubt because she was unsteady, as her eyes swung between the two men still arguing about her and what happened. Then her eyes turned to him and her head cocked to the side, surprised. As if she hadn't expected to see him.

Or maybe she didn't recognize him. He had been beaten pretty badly.

Eventually she pushed off that wall she had been leaning against and came up to him. She seemed to look him up and down and all over, like she didn't quite believe that he was hanging there. And he literally was hanging there; he was on the tip of his toes at this point.

He breathed out a shaky: "Hi," hating how pathetic she made him.

Her boyfriend was literally beating the shit out of him and there he was excited to fucking see her. Like he didn't have more pressing concerns at that moment. Like escaping.

But at the sound of his voice her eyes narrowed, and then a hand came up and touched his chest. God why did her touch set him on fire like that? Not in the sense that she had touched a piece of him that was hurt cause all of him was hurt, like in the sense that he wanted nothing more than to get his hands free and kiss her.

Then she looked down to his feet again. She stooped down and picked up what he was hiding. The little pin that Kaye had slipped him.

"No… Ro…" he tried to say as she stood up but she simply turned around.

"Steven's here!" she cried and the two men stopped arguing and turned to where she was standing. Her hand came back to his chest. Her finger tips danced along the pieces of his collar bones that she could see, then she put her palm right against the middle of his chest and moved it down to his belt and then up to his collar again.

For fuck sake she was petting him.

"Why is Steven here?"

"Ro, come here," Wo ordered, but Rowan responded by snaking an arm around Steve's waist and pressing into him. "No, Ro, he's all bloody and sweaty and dirty… come here now."

But Rowan was determined to ignore him and looked up to Steve again. "Whatcha doing here?"

"He's uhm… he's invited me over for dinner."

"Oh cool, whatcha having? That's a trick question he only knows how to make egg fried rice."

Wo stalked over to her and tried to rip her away from him but Rowan just held on tighter. Steve might have relished in her fingers digging into him again if he weren't in so much pain. He grit his teeth against the pain, though, and tried to keep his body from reacting instantly. Because what he wanted to do, right now, was kick Wo Fat now that he was close enough to him.

Wo just glared down at her.

"For once in your life, could you not get distracted by a cute boy?"

"Okay, there's a couple things wrong with that sentence. For starters, Steven's a man a very attractive, sexy man. Not a boy and definitely not cute. And I am not distracted, he has my full attention…"

"Ro!" Wo cried. "We've discussed this, when I'm working against Steven, you are not to be… with him… or whatever it is you're doing. Now stop it."

Oh, now that was an interesting response. Wo Fat must have been jealous of him, and Rowan's instant attraction to him.

"What's the matter Wo? Afraid your girlfriend will pick me over you?"

He meant it as a jab, but it made Rowan let him go. Now she was staring at him perplexed.

"I… I'm not his girlfriend, Steve," she said to him and Steve's heart dropped out of his chest.

"What did he propose?" he asked with a laugh. When that cause Rowan to frown at him Steve's heart dropped, oh my god… had he actually? "And you said yet?"

Even he could hear the betrayal in his voice. God he sounded so fucking pathetic.

Both Rowan and Wo Fat stared at him. Their mouth's both dropped in shock. Rowan blinked her eyes, said: "No," only to be cut off by Wo Fat who grabbed her, tugged her away from him and then shoved her to the side.

"Yes sure, we're engaged now," he said. "Please get yourself obsessed with someone else."

Steve glared at him, his heart fracturing in his chest. He couldn't think about his Rowan with anyone other than him. Now he had images of Wo Fat all over her. He honestly was about to throw up.

"Is that a dead body?" Rowan asked cutting off their glaring contest. Wo Fat turned, found her half standing over Jenna Kaye's body and he groaned.

"Uhm… nope, no she's just… unconscious. I knocked her out."

Ro blinked her eyes. "That's an awful lot of blood for just… wait a second… is that Jenna Kaye?"

Wo Fat's eyes narrowed. "Uh…."

Rowan got a little closer to her, really looked at her face and then gasped. "It is Kaye!" she cried as she whirled around to look at Wo. She pointed at Jenna, and then at Steve and then gasped even louder if that was possible, which it was. "You're doing my plan! Ooohhh… and you're doing it wrong!"

Her plan?

"Wrong?" Wo echoed.

"Yes! I told you if you were going to use Jenna Kaye to bring him down here then you should put up a camera, film the torture, put in on the dark web and lure Shelburne here!"

That was her plan?

Seriously? Did she not… god the feelings were mutual that's what she said. Why would she betray him like that?

Why was everyone betraying him?!

"Okay… and?"

"Well where's the camera Wo?"

"I've obviously decided to go my own way…"

"Yeah, except I told you this way doesn't work!" she cried. "Why wouldn't you listen to me?"

"Because, Ro, you've been wrong a lot lately…" "—How dare you, I have not!""…And your plans haven't exactly worked recently…"

"Excuse you, did I not just get you out of jail?" she cried.

Great, so she was the one who orchestrated the escape. Goddamn, she clearly didn't feel the same way for him as he did for her. She clearly loved Wo Fat more.

"I mean where it comes to him. Your plans don't work when he's involved."

"That's not true either."

"Not true? Ro, you said if I didn't kill John McGarrett Five-0 wouldn't happen," he cried and then gestured to Steve as if that were all the proof.

"Okay, we talked about that, the second you walked into McGarrett's house Five-0 was going to happen…"

"Okay, Ro, thank you, you had a good idea. I used the first half of it…"

"About that, I said hold onto his body I didn't say leave it to decompose in a chair."

"Okay and what was I supposed to do with it?"

"I unno… put it in a box? Oh, no, a coffin!"

Wo Fat stared at her blankly. "Right, I don't have time for this, it's time for you to go…"

"No… but… wait," she cried as Wo Fat tried to grab her. "You're doing this wrong. This isn't going to work."

"Yes, it will."

"No, it won't. You're beating on the poor man when he doesn't have any information to give you."

Wo Fat turned back to her. "Ro…" he said in a warning tone.

"No, I'm serious. Wo, I lived with him. That man is attractive, and driven, but he's a dense as a slab of concrete," she cried. Steve glared at her, seriously? Why the fuck had he liked this girl. "He thinks we're engaged!"

"Oh god, did you marry him?" e asked and Rowan turned to him with this look of utter shock on her face. "Oh did you?" he cried. "Why Ro! The man is a psychopath! He can't really love you!"

Rowan's shocked looked turned into this blank look of frustration and then she turned to Wo Fat who was also staring at him, with a narrow-eyed confusion.

She then pointed at him. "See," she said. "He doesn't know who Shelburne is, and if he doesn't know who Shelburne is, he sure as hell doesn't know where Shelburne is."

"Oh and you do?" Steve asked.

Rowan turned right away and said: "Both of us already told you. Yo mama!"

Steve's glare darkened at her. "My mother's dead."

Rowan took that in with a giant grin and turned back to Wo Fat. "His mother's dead!" she cried. "See, see, Wo, the man has no idea."

"What are you talking about? My mother really is dead. The Yakuza was behind it… I bet Wo Fat had something to do with it too!"

But Rowan didn't turn around that time. Instead she was staring at Wo Fat who's eyes were darting between Rowan and Steve almost thoughtfully.

"Right, well none of that changes the fact that I need you to go, thank you," he said grabbing a hold of her before she could get away and dragging her towards the door.

"Aw… but… I wanted to have lunch with you."

"I'm busy Ro!" Wo Fat cried, but she let him grab her and take him towards the door

"Awwww, wait a second," she cried and then turned around and waved at him. "Bye Steve!"

Steve just watched her go, did she really think that this was a social call? Could she not tell that Wo Fat was torturing him or did she really just not care?

Before the door shut behind them, he heard Wo Fat ask: "What's in your hand?"

"Oh, I found it under his foot. Figured it had to hurt to stand on," Ro said and then the door shut completely leaving him all alone in that room with Jenna's dead body and no way to pick the lock.

God.

What was he going to do now?