One Thing

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: What's this? An update? After so long?! Yes, yes it is an update, and it did take me forever to get it out to you. Guys, I swear, I'm trying so hard to write, but like... I'm just so majorly blocked. I'm going to try to get the next update up next Friday, but let's be honest here, it'll probably be late. But I hope you enjoy this one at least!

Chapter 25

Having Rowan in his life, a Rowan that wasn't problematic, or running, or attached to her brothers or Wo Fat in anyway, was actually rather refreshing.

Though it took everyone else some time to warm up to her, they definitely weren't as bad as they were before. In fact, it was mostly just Danny who was giving him issues now.

And oh, boy, was Danny loud about his issues with Rowan.

He didn't trust her, she was too sassy and sarcastic, and she hadn't apologized to him yet.

Steve had asked right away what it was Rowan was to apologize to him for, and he said North Korea. That's right, Danny had somehow made Steve getting kidnapped and tortured in North Korea all about himself.

He had been worried, the stress had surely given him an ulcer, and rescuing Steve had been dangerous. He blamed Rowan for it, she was to apologize, but Steve refused to let her. That whole situation had happened to Steve, not Danny. She had apologized to him, as far as he was concerned it was done and dealt with.

But Danny would not let it go.

It had literally become a point of contention with them. It was honestly absolutely ridiculous.

Then, about a week ago, entirely out of the blue, the Governor told him that he and the team would be attending a function. He handed out invitations to them, but they were mandatory. These were basically shipping out orders.

They were to show up, dressed to the nines, with a smile on their faces to make him look good.

Steve had been livid. Sure it was a good cause, but he didn't want to have to ask his dad to babysit Rowan again. In fact he wanted to spend that time with Rowan, not out at some party wishing he was there with her.

And then Kono asked him why he didn't just bring her as a date. The invitation didn't specify whether or not he got a plus one, but would the Governor really argue with him?

Well, no, actually he might cause he didn't really like Rowan.

Still he went home that night, showed her his invitation to the Clean Coast Silent Auction, explained that it was a fundraising event that the Governor had volun-told his team to go to, and asked if she would like to go with him.

Rowan had jumped up in excitement. Yes she would like to go to this event, and then she started talking about everything she'd have to do to get ready.

Like dress shopping. She'd need a whole new outfit. A new dress, new shoes, matching clutch, she'd have to get it all. Then she'd have to get her hair done, and her nails, and her toes and her make-up too. Steve had never seen her so excited and he was so happy that this invite could do it for her.

He didn't even care if the Governor got mad at him for bringing Rowan with him, he'd argue till his face went blue so long as that smile stayed on her face.

The night of the actual event, she had made the whole getting ready process a secret, which meant Steve had to wait downstairs for the big reveal.

The fact that this took her almost the whole day, between her hair appointment, make-up appointment and mani-pedi, meant she was going to look flawless. Or, at least, he hoped she did, because if she didn't after all that work he'd be ridiculously disappointed.

She eventually came down the stairs that evening in this stunning black dress, it's sleeves were poofy, which were all silky chiffon, were off the shoulder, baring her pale collarbones. It had a sweetheart bodice, it had a high low skirt that was encrusted in diamonds and she was wearing a pair of heels so high she was almost as tall as Steve.

Almost. She made it up to his chin.

Her hair was done up in this elaborate do with matching crystals and her eyes were framed in this smoky eyed make up with glitter all across her lids.

His eyes almost immediately caught on this necklace around her neck. It was all diamonds, like large diamonds, and he wasn't sure where she got it from. He figured she had purchased it, so he doubted they were real, but if they weren't they were good fakes. He was a little worried she stole the necklace but they could argue about that later.

He had never seen her look so beautiful before and already he was wondering if he could sneak off with her. He really wanted to know what it would feel like to have the fabric of that skirt balled between his fists. And if he managed to get home at a decent hour after this party, he wanted to see what that dress would look like pooled around her feet.

But at that moment, he was at home, in front of his dad who kept taking pictures with the old family camera like this was Steve's Prom Night or something. To be fair, Steve didn't get a prom, and his dad has missed Mary's so this was probably his only chance to get something like this.

His dad even let him take the Marquis, or he offered. Steve was worried they wouldn't make it there and back so they took his truck instead.

Most of the party had been smoozing. The Governor had wanted him to talk to all sorts of people, to keep up his image and to make it seem like Five-0 wasn't just a bunch of rough and tumble cops causing damage across the island in the name of catching the bad guy.

And for it all Rowan was on his arm, smiling prettily and answering all questions poised at her delicately and vaguely.

It was almost like she had done this before, he wondered if it was Wo Fat's arm she had been on when she learned how to act in situations like these. Which brought him down a dark path, so he actively had to push that thought out of his mind.

"So what do you think? Not too shabby huh?"

For their first black tie event, not only did he think it was going well but Steve was super enjoying it. He was just worried that, maybe, Rowan wasn't having as much fun.

"Its fun, I like it," she said with a grin. "But don't get used to this, the second I can these heels are coming off."

Steve smiled down at her, they had to hurt, they were a mile tall basically. "Do I get to take anything else off while you're at it?"

That earned him a coy smile. "Mmm… you might…"

"I was hoping you were gonna say that."

For a moment the two got lost in one another's eyes, just grinning those wolfish grins at each other. He might have kissed her if he wasn't 100 percent certain that PDA at an event like this was frowned upon. They were only interrupted when Governor got up to the podium to thank everyone for coming and to remind them that this was a good cause and the silent auction was going to end a few minutes.

"Wanna check it out, see if there's anything you want to bid on?"

"Sure!" Rowan said brightly, and then took a hold of his hand. They walked through the crowd to the tables of items to bid on. It was there they found Danny who looked to be in the process of putting in a bid.

"Well, look who is pitching in to save the environment," Steve said as they got close.

"This is the steal of the century. Season tickets, 50-yard line, half face value. I'm in."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "I didn't know you were a fan of college football teams…"

"That's because he's not."

Danny immediately took offence. "Excuse me?" he cried. "A, I am a huge football fan. And B, the Warriors' uniforms remind of my beloved Jets."

"Who?" Ro asked only to be ignored.

"And C, this is… uh… for charity, right?"

"You're right, and it's good to see that your priorities are straight," Steve said. "Excuse me for a sec."

Steve let go of Rowan's hand, took up the pen that Danny had just put down and began to scrawl in his own bid. Yeah he was doing it to spite Danny, a little bit to get back at him for all the nagging he had been doing about trusting Rowan, but he too, also liked football. And while the Warrior's uniform didn't remind him of the team he really liked, he was a big supporter of the University of Hawaii, which was where that team was from.

He was always down to support local Hawaiian teams. Especially if it annoyed Danny at the same time.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked.

"I'm uh… feeling charitable."

"Do we have to make this a competition, boys?" Rowan asked, only to be once again ignored.

"Why do you have to do that?" Danny cried. "You have a very big problem, you know that? You're too competitive."

"You're kinda proving his point, Steven…"

"What are you guys talking about? There's no such thing as too competitive."

"You can't let somebody be happy. You gotta one-up everybody all the time. They got a name for people like you. You know what it is?"

"Hun Dan," Rowan said absently and at that both men turned to her.

"What the hell does that mean?" Danny cried. "What did you just call him?"

"The literal translation is mixed egg, but I meant it as it's slang term which is scum bag," she said. Steve frowned at her while Danny laughed.

"Actually that's not too far off. I was going to say Toppers. You are a topper, my friend," Danny said.

Steve shook his head. "Actually you're both wrong. We're called winners." Danny immediately moved for that clipboard. "What are you doing?"

Danny didn't answer, he just wrote.

Steve looked at the number. "I'm sorry. Did you just… one dollar? You outbid me by one do…" He glanced to Rowan who was just staring at him with plaintive eyes, clearly shocked that they were having this conversation. "He outbid me by one dollar what is this, The Price is Right?"

Danny might have argued more if Kono and Chin didn't choose that time

"Hey guys did you bid on anything?"

"No," Rowan said pulling Kono to her side. "No, don't go there."

"A dollar's a dollar, Steven," Danny cried, only pausing for one second to wave a hello at Kono.

Kono was in a white, floor length glittery white dress. She stood next to Rowan with a glass of champagne watching the two boys argue. When she got bored of their competition she turned to Rowan with a patient smile.

"You look nice Ro, where did you get the dress?"

"I unno, I said point me to the most expensive dress shop and then I went straight to the dark colored dresses."

"Oh and who's money did you spend this time?"

Rowan pinned Danny with sudden ice blue eyes. "If you're not careful my next big purchase will be done with your money."

She had been doing that for a while now, quite often, specifically if Danny annoyed her. She had also pinned Joe White with that kind of smile when he had introduced them a few weeks back. It was this dangerous glittering wolfish grin paired with ice blue eyes that were a terrifying combination. It had a way of freezing anyone it was pinned on.

Steve had started thinking of it as a war mask, something she put on when she felt threatened. But all he saw when she did that was Wo Fat.

He didn't want to argue about that now, nor did he wanted to think about Wo Fat and how Rowan seemed very similar to him at times, so he turned to Chin and changed the topic.

"Chin, did you bid on anything?"

"Actually yeah, I'm about to win a ukulele lesson from Jake Shimabukuro."

"Who?" Rowan asked and that time she got an answer.

"He's famous," Chin said. "Well, he's a big deal here. Anyway, how cool is that?"

"Super cool, cuz," Kono said. "You know what would be even cooler, though, is if you bid on that romantic getaway weekend in Kauai."

"Why would that be cooler?" Danny asked.

"Well, because it's Valentine's Day this week and he should probably want to score brownie points with the woman he's engaged to? Unless you already got Malia something?"

Chin was ready for this though. "For your information, Malia's old-school. She's perfectly happy with flowers and chocolates."

Kono nodded. "Oh, okay, right. Because nothing says I love you like drugstore candy. I forgot."

"Well its better then someone forgetting entirely," Rowan said and Steve focused in on her.

It was Valentine's Day that weekend, and he hadn't gotten her anything yet. They were still new but technically officially dating now. His plan had been to make her dinner at home, present her with a box of her favourite chocolate bars, Crunch bars and Hershey's Cookies and Cream bars and then maybe a bouquet of flowers.

Was she expecting more? Was she going to get him more? Maybe he should have asked her about this before this.

"What about you? What do you like for Valentine's Day?" he asked and Rowan turned to him, the ice already defrosted out of her eyes and looking more like herself and less like Wo Fat.

"Uhm… I unno," she said softly and Steve blinked his eyes.

"Well…. What do you usually do for Valentine's Day?"

"Oh, I've done all sorts of Valentine's Days. Romantic ones, over the top ones, single ones, drunk ones… I'm not sure I have a favourite kind."

Danny and Steve exchanged glances. Did her brothers do all of that, or was it Wo Fat?

"Okay, what did you do last year?"

"Last year? Hmm… my brother took me to Venice. We went on a late night Gondola ride with champagne and strawberries and fireworks…"

"So like… he took you on a date? Why would he take you on a date?"

Ro's nose crinkled at that. "No it was not a date, I unno, he was just trying to cheer me up. Anton had bailed last minute and I was upset. Next thing you know he's taking me out for a Gondola ride. And then we did a high tea in the morning cause he knows how much I love high tea…"

Yeah… it sounded an awful lot like her brother was borderline dating her.

She then turned to Steve. "I don't need that again this year though. I mean, I like getting gifts and doing things, but they don't have to be super expensive or super romantic. I'm pretty chill with anything." He must have looked like he didn't believe her because she lowered her eyes and asked: "What do you normally do for Valentine's Day?"

Normally he gave a girl chocolate, took her out for dinner and got laid. Now he was thinking he was going to have to step it up for her. How mad would she be if he told that was normally what he did?

"Hey, now I'm paranoid. I gotta go find something for Gabby," Danny said, slipping past Steve and away.

She nodded, yeah, that was a good idea. But he had the advantage cause his Valentine's date was here with him.

"Do you see anything you like?" he asked sliding in close to her. "Anything you want me to buy you?"

Ro looked around at the tables and then casually shrugged. She didn't seem to be interested in anything, but then again she hadn't really looked.

"What? And let Steve get away with not buying something for you?" Kono asked.

"No, no, it's okay…"

"No, hold on a second, here. I can get her something great. Just you wait," Steve said before stopping himself. Why was he setting himself up for failure? He literally had no idea what to get her that she would like.

Why did he have a feeling that Wo Fat knew exactly what to get her though?

"Nothing too expensive though. If it's expensive I'd rather buy it myself… you know?"

Well, that was surprising to Steve. He would have thought that her brothers treated her to everything, which meant that they'd make Wo Fat spend on her.

"You know I never asked, do you have a job?" Kono asked.

Steve liked that Kono seemed to be making the effort to be friendly to Rowan, it was really nice that her and Chin were like that. Because Danny had been horrible.

"Well, not really, I get most of my fun money from my YouTube channel."

Rowan had shown them all her YouTube channel. The Epic Rap Battles of History she had up there were hilarious. And they all had horribly high view counts too.

"How much could your little YouTube channel make you in the long run though?"

"It's worth two mil right now."

They all turned to her, Kono practically choked on her sip of champagne.

"What?"

Rowan took in their stares and then sighed. "Honestly. Like I said before, It's just fun money."

"Fun money? What… what…"

"Well, I make most of my money off of heists."

"Like what?"

"Well the Star of Adam got me 500 mill. Bought a house with that money. Lovely little mansion off the coast."

Steve noted right away that she didn't mention which coast. Still didn't trust him enough to tell him about that one but she trusted him enough to tell them that she had pulled off one of the most successful heists in the world.

Steve had heard about that one, it made big news all the way to Iraq where he had been posted at the time.

From his understanding they had no idea who it could be, had no leads at all, so he wasn't all that surprised to find out Rowan was behind it.

At that moment Danny chose to come back and interrupt the whole conversation because even though he was a few tables away he was still listening to her.

"Hi. Yes. I'm sorry, I couldn't help but over hear but uh… did you just say that you stole the Star of Adam."

"Well… allegedly."

"Anything else you want to tell us about?"

"Uh… well… no not really."

"What about the Mona Lisa, how much did that get you?"

"Nothing. I did that out of spite."

"Spite?" Chin echoed.

Rowan nodded quickly. "Oh yes. My ex, he had cheated on me… and was an art thief and uh… he tried to kidnap me. He was using me to get at my brothers. So once I got rescued and we were officially broke up I figured we'd plan like… a revenge. So I uh… I invited him over for a hook up, left the painting in the middle of the room so that when Interpol raided the apartment they found it in his hands. He tried to tell them it was me who did it, and they totally arrested me for it, cause like it was my apartment and I was also there when he got busted cause like… well… I wanted to see him go down. He was the art thief after all, and they knew that, I was a nobody until they figured out who I really was. But they couldn't prove it was me and someone had to go down for it so… yeah. He's still in Jail for it. If he ever gets out he's gonna be pissed."

Steve exchanged glances with everyone before his gaze settled on Rowan.

"I'm sorry you stole the Mona Lisa to frame your cheating ex-boyfriend?"

"Well… allegedly. Remember? No one can prove I did it."

Steve blinked his eyes not quite sure how he felt about what she had just told him. Danny, however, was grinning.

"Hear that Steven? Her ex is in jail because she framed him for a theft, sound familiar?"

It did sound familiar because Wo Fat had done that to him. Except he framed Steve for murder. The two of them clearly had the same playbook.

"I wonder what she'll do to you when you cheat on her?"

See, see, why did he have to say it like that? Steve wasn't going to cheat on her, he wasn't trying to cheat on her. And he definitely wasn't going to have that story.

Rowan, however, narrowed her suddenly ice blue eyes onto Danny in a way that made him squirm a bit where he stood. "Don't you have to find Gabby a gift? Seeing as you've most likely forgotten about Valentines Day? Or are you just hoping to be a massive disappointment from the very beginning."

"For your information I found her a gift, thank you…"

The Governor chose that moment to come up. He didn't smile at them, but then again he rarely smiled. But there was something about the way he was holding himself that made Steve wary. Like he was going to be angry with him about Rowan's attendance, or something else was wrong.

"McGarrett… Williams… please excu…" his eyes fell on Ro. "Miss. Pierce…"

She looked him up and down with disdain and then said: "Whatever it is I didn't do it."

"Obviously," the Governor said and then focused on Steve and Danny again.

"Is something wrong, Sir?" Steve asked, because he knew something was wrong. Might as well figure out what it was that had him upset. Hopefully not Rowan seeing as he seemed to have just realized that she was there.

"You can say that," he said with a nod of his head. "Could you follow me?"

Steve didn't want to leave Rowan unattended but she waved him off.

"It's okay," she said. "I'll be fine, I promise."

Steve nodded, and then followed after the Governor. He was definitely not please to find out the Governor's problem was a goddamn murder.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The Governor wanted him to solve this murder, mainly because it had happened in the hotel his event was at. He didn't want the bad press either so they had to do this on the down-low and he was not allowed to lock down the hotel or interrogate the guests.

So basically he didn't want Steve to solve this murder. Or he wanted Steve on Hard mode or something, like this was a video game.

It was ridiculous.

But a girl had been thrown down a laundry chute, like she was literal dirty laundry and that was just disgusting, so yeah, he wanted to figure out who did this.

He immediately went to work.

They tracked the poor girl to Dennis Mack's room. He was a groom at a wedding also in the hotel, except his wedding had not gone well. His bride to be was found with his best man. They found him drunk on the roof about to jump off, Steve had tried to stop him and fallen off with him.

Luckily they both landed on an emergency stair case a floor below so Steve was just winded by the fall.

He had given Danny a heart attack though and the man threatened to tell his father on him again. Like that was going to get Steve to stop doing daring stunts.

It wouldn't, by the way.

They took him to the Palace to interrogate him. He told them the story about the ex-bride and how the woman had just helped him to his room. He then helped himself to the minibar and tore up all his ex's clothes and punched out his mirror cause he felt like he couldn't look at himself.

So he was cleared.

Chin and Kono had stayed at the hotel. They figured out that she had been in a room booked by Garlin international. It was a company, some of their execs were invited to the event, but they had booked out a few rooms and some were empty. They were assuming this one was empty, though someone had used it and killed her in it.

Chin was working on figuring out where it came from.

Kono had told them that the dress this woman was wearing had a tag for an expensive shop. It was a thing people did when they had an expensive dress and couldn't afford the dress. They'd wear it for one night, keep the tags on and then return it.

It was from that shop that they had figured out that her name was Victoria Chase.

From there they got her phone records and saw that she had called someone, a man who was a bodyguard at the club she worked at. They had pulled him in because he had a record and his finger print was in her blood on the doorknob. They were sure he had something to do with it, but no, he had been called by her.

He told them that he worked with her, which they already knew. And that she had called him to the hotel because she wanted him to beat someone up. But when he got up to where she said she would be, he found that she had gone in without him and the place was empty except for blood.

He looked for her but couldn't find her.

Which was how the finger prints were found on the door.

Steve had to let him go for that too.

But then, when Danny and Kono were still talking about the trick with the dress, when Danny asked if Steve thought Rowan had done that for her dress, Steve was hit with a sickening realization.

He had left Rowan at that party.

It was literally mid-day the day after, and he had left her at the party.

Steve left the Palace in an absolute panic. He tried calling the house but no one picked up. He called his dad's cell, which he had forced him to buy after the Hesse incident, and he told him that Rowan had shown up in the wee hours of the morning.

She hadn't been crying, but she was clearly annoyed. She had told him that Steve had caught a case and she had to take a taxi back to the house. She had not told him how she got a taxi when she didn't have cash, so he was expecting her to have someone's credit card.

Not his, cause his were accounted for. Maybe she swiped Danny's. She did threaten to spend his money next time.

His dad also told him that when he had left for his errands that day she was still sleeping which made sense because she was probably tired after getting back so late.

Steve was sorta disappointed that he didn't get to help her take that dress off like he had offered the night before. But at that point he just wanted to be sure she was okay.

They got to the house and found her outside on his lanai, a guitar in her lap and a book beside her that she was writing in.

So she was working on songs again.

Rowan liked to do that. She liked to do it out on the beach because the water seemed to motivate her. She also had a mug of tea as well, which meant she was probably freshly awake.

"Hey! Hey, I'm sorry," he said coming towards her.

Normally she'd jump up for a hug but Rowan didn't do that this time. She looked up at him, said: "It's okay," and then went back to her writing.

Steve glanced at Danny and then back to her.

He knew she was probably annoyed with him, but she could see that he had been busy working. He was still in the suit she had last seen him in, except he had taken the tie off and the jacket, and he had undone a bunch of buttons because he was just so damn hot now that the sun was up.

"I didn't mean to leave you like that… it's just been really busy."

"I figured," she said absently. "I'm just trying to not forget the chords I just came up with."

Ah, so she was on a roll and he was interrupting her. He already felt a little better because he knew exactly how she got when she was on a roll. She had a one track mind.

He let her finish what she was doing and then she turned a smile to him, but she didn't get up. Oh, maybe she was more annoyed with him than he thought.

"You solve it yet?" she asked and he shook his head. "So who do you think did it?"

"We're not sure yet."

"Really? Well I have my money on Dmitri Vonakov."

"Who?"

"He's this bad dude. He owns a company. Garnet something, I think," Rowan said with a wave of her hand. She was talking about the company that owned the room that Victoria was murdered in. Oh boy, maybe Rowan was right. "Saw him in the hotel lobby after you guys left but he cleared out when he saw me."

"Really? Why?"

"Why was I in the lobby? I had to go pee, Steven."

"No," he started but she cut him off.

"Oh! Why do I think it's him or why did he clear off?"

"Both, but I guess why you think it's him is more important," Steve said.

"Well, I mean… Dmitri isn't a good person. Last time he was here he raped someone," Rowan said absently moving to scribble down notes on the paper beside her.

Both Steve and Danny turned to her watching as she wrote. Wait… what? How did she know that?

They exchanged glances waiting for her to elaborate but it never came.

"Ro... how do you… how… I mean…"

"His fancy company used my brother's uh… services a few times. They asked him to pull him out of a few sticky situations I'm not sure if uhm… if that was because of that situation, but either way he was made aware of his habits. Not sure who told him, but he was staying with us, and my brother knew so… the place was on high alert for a while. He like, reminded me every five seconds not to ever be alone with him."

Steve blinked his eyes. "He let a known rapist stay with him? While you were there?"

Rowan simply shrugged. "He was warned. Usually a warning is all that's needed. It's very rare that my brother has to act on his warnings."

"Why?"

Wow, Danny and his morbid curiosity.

"Well… because my brother doesn't bluff. If he says he'll do something, he means it. Most people know that, it's why they leave me alone."

Yes, except she didn't have her brother's protection anymore.

That was part of the problem.

"Is that why he ran out when he saw you last night?"

Ro shrugged. "I unno. It's why most people clear off, but I obviously didn't talk to him so I don't know what he was thinking."

However, if he was going to talk to Vonakov he'd have to bring her with him. She'd probably make everything easier on him.

"If it was him," she continued. "He'll check into an Embassy or a Consulate, that's how he tends to get out of everything. Always the Russian ones, they use my brother sometimes too. But uh… if he does that you won't be able to get him out."

Steve and Danny exchanged glances, if that was true they'd be screwed. What would they do then? How would they get justice for Victoria then?

She had let him kiss her good-bye, he took that time to change out of his outfit and then they were heading out again.

When he got back to the Palace they found that Kono and Chin had located Victoria's sister so that would be their next stop. He left Kono and Chin with the name that Rowan had given them and asked them to see if they could find anything out about him and then they went to talk to Amanda to see if she knew what was going on with her sister last night.

When they found her, they found her with a baby, only a couple of months old at best, and with some pressing she admitted that she used to work for Garlin International. That she was an intern, and an older CEO from New York had been charming and she started dating him, or at least she thought that was what they were doing. But then he forced himself onto her and then just… disappeared. Stopped seeing her, stopped coming to Hawaii, just… went back to New York as if he hadn't just destroyed her.

She had never pressed charges, had never admitted what had happened. But her sister came back to help her with the baby who a product of that rape, and the whole story had sort of spilled out.

She was furious, she had wanted him punished but Amanda talked her out of it.

But then she told Steve the name of the man who had raped her, who Vicky was looking to confront.

Rowan had been right. Dimitri Vonakov was their man, and he had been picked up, last night, from the hotel, in a Russian consulate car.

She had been right about everything.

And he didn't know whether to be proud or worried.