One Thing

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: And hello there my wonderful readers! Guess what, we're almost there! We're almost to the main climax of this story, the big reveal as it were. We're almost almost finished. I think there's about seven chapters left! Isn't that exciting? Well in the mean time i hope you guys enjoy this update and I'll do my best to have the next update ready for next week!

Chapter 26

This was stupid, he wasn't even sure he should do this, but his whole team was convinced this would work, so he was going to try. No matter how uncomfortable he was with this.

They went and picked up Rowan from the McGarrett household, told her what they wanted her to do and she had sort of shrugged and said she'd try.

Steve didn't even want her to come with them, but Danny was certain having her there would help them. Steve didn't want to use her like that, but Danny sure as hell did.

"Might as well use her brothers' reputation for good, right?"

No, Steve wanted her left out of this, especially since invoking her brothers' reputations had never worked well for her… not since he had met her anyway. But she agreed to come, and it also meant that Steve got to spend some time with her, seeing as this case was taking up all of his time.

Together they went to the Russian Consulate, demanding to see the Consul. Just as they were being showed in, Rowan had to go to the washroom.

Wonderful.

So both men were shown into the Consul's office, and neither he, nor Danny, chose to sit. They both stood there, arms crossed over their chests as they explained what it was they were there for and why.

And they got just the answer they were expecting to get.

"You must be mistaken. I've known Dimitri for over 20 years, since we attended university. He's no murderer."

So much for making this easy.

"Technically, Consul Shepkin, he's a murderer and a rapist," Danny snapped.

"And you have proof of all this?"

"Aside from the sworn statement from the woman he raped?"

"Dmitri is a wealthy man. Women target him all the time."

Wow. Yeah these guys were going to be those guys. How unfortunate.

As much as Steve wanted to lay the law down on them, he really didn't have anything he could hit them with. He had to hope that they could convince him to help, and seeing as Consul Shepkin had just admitted that he had been friends with Vonakov for a long time, he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to convince him of anything.

"Hi Andrei," Ro said skipping into the office and coming to sit in front of him. The Consul General stared at her and then up at Steve and then to her. Rowan pulled her chair up closer and then propped herself up on his desk, elbows on the desk, her chin resting in her hands. "Sorry I'm late, I had to go to the washroom. So, are you telling lies about Dima?"

"They're not lies…"

"Oh we both know exactly what he's like. It's why you don't leave your wife or daughters alone with him. And none of his money is his own, or made legitimately. So stop with the pretentious bullshit and let me talk to him."

Steve blinked his eyes as Shepkin glared Rowan down. It was clear as day that Rowan knew this man. Like… well, and she had not mentioned that. She had told them she might be able to help, at no point had she told them she actually knew the Consul General.

"Hold on a second… how do you know this man, Ro?"

"Oh he uses my brother's services sometimes too," Rowan said, she then turned back to Shepkin. "Did you ever get yourself out of the red?"

Consul Shepkin flushed to the very roots of his hair. Oh, that had hit a nerve.

"I think we both know you have no power here, Miss. Pierce…"

"Okay… but do you wanna bet on that? Keep in mind, your horrible track record with gambling is how you ended up in the red in the first place."

Shepkin blinked his eyes and she held out a hand. Specifically the one with the dragon tattoo around her wrist. Shepkin's eyes fell on the dragon's face on her palm, the way she was holding her hand out made it look like the dragon looked like it was angrily blowing it's flames right out at him.

"Phone please."

At that he scoffed but he wouldn't hand it to her.

"Okay fine." She then turned to Steve. "Can I borrow your phone?1"

Steve took out the phone and handed it to her and Ro turned back to Shepkin.

"You have to the count of three to change your mind," she said. "One… two…"

She paused, eyebrows drawn up waiting for him to do something but he just sat there staring at her.

"Three…. Alright, your funeral."

"The message went out, loud and clear, you are no longer…"

But Rowan had just dialed a number and put it to her ear. Steve could tell right away when someone answered because she immediately perked up.

"Bonjour, nǐ hǎo…"

"Did she just mix French and Mandarin?" Danny asked and he nodded. They both watched her listen in on the other side of that phone call before she suddenly got up.

"Wǒ xūyào yīgè bāngzhù," she said as she walked away.

Now… why the hell had she asked for a favour? In Mandarin? She didn't have any more favours with the person she knew who spoke Mandarin. So who the hell had she called? Shepkin had gone an ashen color.

"I uh… I can still stop her if you need me to," he said.

Shepkin turned a dark glare onto him. "Do you know who that is? Truly?"

"I know she's the Master's little sister. I know she says they're not talking, but he's intervened on her behalf before and I'm sure he'll do it again…"

"Oh she's so much more than that…"

Yeah, Steve was starting to get the impression that she was a lot more involved in her brothers' operation then everyone wanted to let on."

Danny, however, was not in the mood for allusions to the truth. "Okay, I'm done wasting time. Why don't you just bring Vonakov out here we'll take our blood sample and we'll go."

"I don't understand?"

"You don't? Okay. You see, our victim, she has blood on her fingernails, right? If your buddy is innocent like you say is, you have him come out here, we'll take a blood sample and clear his name once and for all and then we can move on."

"So... you think that Dmitri is here."

"Yea, once of your cars picked him up from the hotel. And uh… little Miss she's-so-much-more-than-that was very clear that hiding out in Russian Consulates is his MO in situations like this. I think she mentioned her brother helped him out a few sticky situations he found himself in. So… just bring him out."

"Well, it's true that he does stay at the consulate when he's in town for business from time to time but that was last night. He's gone now."

"Gone where?"

"I'm his friend, not his babysitter." Shepkin suddenly got to his feet. Bracing himself against his desk as he glared at the two men left in front of him. "And a word of advice, that woman… she's a very skilled liar. We're done Gentleman."

And that was their cue to leave. Counsel Shepkin didn't even both to stay in the room, he left too. That was it, they had struck out.

And Steve knew the man was in there too. He could feel it.

Still, he had no leg to stand on, as technically the Consulate wasn't Hawaiian, or even US soil, so he was going to have to leave.

He and Danny then found Rowan outside, no longer on the phone, but clearly not coming to look for them either.

"Lot of good you were," Danny snarled.

"Hey this wasn't my idea. You guys asked if I could get you to him, I tried and I couldn't," she said with a shrug as she handed Steve his phone.

"And thank you for trying," Steve said slinging an arm over her shoulder. "Just so I know what favour did you call in?"

"Hmm?"

"On the phone, before you left, you were talking in Mandarin, you asked for a favour. Who did you call?"

"Oh a friend of mine," she said with a wave of her hand, though she wouldn't look her in the eye.

"Is he going to help us?"

Rowan shrugged. "Not sure, guess we'll see."

That sounded ominous, but maybe, if he was lucky he'd catch a break.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Oh boy did he catch one hell of a break.

Steve and the others were in the midst of planning what would be their next Great Offensive. The plan to drive Vonakov out of the consulate he was hiding in, like the coward he was.

If they got caught, the Governor would be livid, they'd all get fired. But if they succeeded they'd be bringing a rapist, and probably a murderer to justice.

They just had to hope they could pin the murder on him.

They never got to use their plan though, because, in the middle of planning, someone walked into their office.

The very person they had been planning to drive out of the consulate. Dimitri Vonakov himself.

"I am here to turn myself in," he announced to them and they all just stared at him, mouths agape, in complete surprise.

He was just surrendering? Just like that?

What the… why?

Danny went to put the man in handcuffs, while Steve turned to Chin. "Can you go and pick up Rowan, I think… I think… I think we should have her here."

They were taking him to the elevator to get him into an interrogation room when Vonakov suddenly stopped. What, did he change his mind?

"Where is she?" he asked. "The woman. The sister?"

"Rowan's not here," Steve said curtly trying to muscle the man into the elevator, except he wouldn't move.

"You have to tell her."

"Tell her what?"

"That I came!" Vonakov cried and both Steve and Danny exchanged glances.

"Uhm… okay… well… let's get you into the interrogation room and…"

Vonakov turned to him, his eyes still wide and very very afraid. "I'll do whatever you want just tell that woman to call them off."

"Them?" Steve echoed.

"Just tell them I came goddamn it! Tell them I came!"

Oh that wasn't good. Rowan had two thems in her life. One being her brothers and the other being Wo Fat and Sin Nombre. He had to hope that it was her brothers and not the two guard dogs. Though… would either really be good considering how Rowan was sympatico with either of them.

They dragged Vonakov into the elevator and then got him into one of their interrogation rooms. They cuffed him to the chair and then just stood back and stared at him as the man stared back.

Steve had never had someone surrender before… well… no… that wasn't true. Wo Fat had surrendered to him once… it had not gone well.

Rowan had been involved with that one too.

Danny cleared his throat and then gestured to Vonakov. "Okay, let's start with why you're here…"

"I killed her," Dimitri said. "I killed that woman and I raped her sister."

Oh wow, so he was going to make this super easy.

"You… you killed her?" Steve asked, again, mainly because he couldn't believe this was happening. Usually he had to use some sort of interrogation tactic, or throw some kind of evidence into their face.

It felt a little weird to not have to do any of that.

"I had to. She was going to prove I was a rapist. She'd have ruined me, and all that I worked for. So I killed her to save my reputation, then threw her down the laundry chute."

Steve and Danny exchanged glances. This was the quickest confession they had ever gotten.

"I'll sign whatever you want me to sign. I'll confess to everything, anything you want, just… please… don't…"

"Don't what? What are you so afraid of?"

Dimitri stared at them for a moment before settling on Steve who had asked the question in the first place. "What am I afraid of? Do you… do you not know who she is?"

"No, I know who Rowan is…"

"Then you know what she is."

"I know her brothers are very violent. Is that the problem? Did they contact you, is that it?"

Dimitri looked surprised. "You don't know what they did?"

No, clearly they didn't know, but he was starting to think it was pretty bad. "No… why don't you illuminate me?"

"They came by after you left. Maybe an hour or so. Conversation was brief. Give yourself up or we start collecting in on old debts. He was mad. I've seen him mad before and it's not… I wasn't going to chance it."

"He was mad?"

"He said we disrespected him. And that the level of disrespect was unwarranted, unwelcomed and unappreciated. Said after everything he had done, to do what we did…"

"What the hell did you do?"

"We said no!" he cried. "Andrei didn't listen to her. I didn't come out. You don't disrespect them like that… not without facing the consequences..."

"And you… you disrespected him by… disrespecting her?"

"YES! Don't you understand?! They protect her, in every way possible!"

Danny blinked his eyes. "But uh… she said that they've… you know… cut her off."

"They told us that too, but… he came… she called and he came and he… he was so fucking angry."

Yeah something wasn't adding up.

"So her brothers came here? They're on the island?" Steve asked.

Dimitri opened his mouth to answer and then paused. He looked at Steve very carefully and then said: "No. He sent her dogs."

Shit. Not his dogs, they sent hers. Steve knew who her dogs were. They had sent Wo Fat and Sin Nombre. Which meant that Wo Fat was back. Wasn't that just great?

But Steve didn't like how he answered that question. It was like he was hiding something, he just didn't know what.

This was getting complicated, too complicated.

He sort of wished he had left Rowan out of this in the first place.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

When they were done with Vonakov both Steve and Danny left him to stew as they headed up to the main office. When they got top side they found that Chin had done what Steve asked and had gotten Rowan to the Palace.

She was just standing in his office, looking over at all the medals he had displayed, specifically the special case for his grandfather.

It even included the customary flag that all the families are given. There hadn't been a proper funeral for him, after all, seeing as there hadn't been anything to bury, but his family was still presented with a flag.

Steve made a bee line for her right away.

"Hey," he said as he entered his office. "Anything you want to tell me?"

Steve could have gone about this in a million different ways, but what he needed the most at that moment was answers.

Rowan blinked her beautiful blue eyes at him. "Uh… you looked really nice in your suit last night? I especially like it when you've got buttons undone and… the bowtie untied… very disheveled chic. Kinda makes me want to undress you, so I was sort of hoping when we got home we could put our outfits back on and…"

While that was nice that was not the answer he had been looking for. It was a great answer, just not the right one.

"Thank you, I also like how you look with your hair down, kinda makes me want to run my fingers through your hair." A big smile appeared on her lips. "But that's not what I meant."

And that smile disappeared.

"Vonakov had an absolute meltdown downstairs about you and how you're not supposed to be protected…""—I'm not.""…and that your dogs are here…"

"My dogs?"

"Yes. Your dogs. I'm going to assume that's Wo Fat and Sin Nombre, they're here."

Rowan look properly shocked at that. "They are? Like… he saw them?"

"Apparently."

Rowan took a step back from him. "They're here… like really here? Like… on the island? And you're sure? You're absolutely positive?"

She was looking utterly terrified, like straight up hyperventilating, mid panic attack, and for a moment Steve stopped being angry. He couldn't help it, seeing her in such distress hurt his heart, it hurt it bad. Right away he was moving to hold her. Once he got her in his arms he could feel the trembling.

"Calm down. Come on Ro, calm down."

"Why are they here? Are they… what do they want from me? I'm not… I haven't…"

"No, no, don't worry, I'm not going to let them hurt you," he whispered and her arms came around him to hold him close.

"Promise?"

"Of course. No one's going to take you from me again."

He meant it, of course, the problem was, he wasn't sure what it was, but he didn't quite believe her.

Something was off about this, he just didn't want to flat out call her out unless he was wrong. Danny did like to tell him how suspicious he was, he seemed to doubt almost everyone. But then, there were all the situations where he definitely should be more suspicious. Like with Jenna Kaye… or anything with Rowan.

"That favour you called in…"

"It wasn't to them," she said right away. "It was to one of their contacts. I thought he might be able to intimidate the Russians… but I wanted him to do it, not call my brothers…"

Yes but even if that was the case, Wo Fat and Sin Nombre would have had to be on the island before she made that call. They had shown up only a few hours after Rowan made the call, they couldn't have arrived in Hawaii that quickly.

But if she wasn't lying and she had no idea, it would explain why she was so freaked out. It also meant, that if they were there, they were there for a reason.

He wondered if that meant they were trailing her, stalking her, waiting for her to be alone so they could snatch her away from Steve.

Except her left her home alone a lot, now that he trust her more, so why hadn't they grabbed during any of those times.

"So… you thought you could call in a favour and they wouldn't tell your brothers?"

"Well…" she started with a wince. "It's more like… I thought he'd do it then try to square things up with them after. That's what most people do anyway. I guess he called first to make sure that it was okay. He must have known I'm… you know… with them anymore."

"And he wouldn't have just asked you?"

"That's disrespectful Steven. Stuff like that can get a guy killed, specially if he was wrong."

Steve's eyes narrowed. "So… do your brothers rescind their backing of you often to the point where people never know when you're being protected?" he asked.

"No… but… still." When Steve just stared at her she sighed. "Things with my brothers are complicated. I supposed most people are worried that it's just a matter of time before I'm back in their good graces so they're not sure whether or not they want to cross me, lest it gets back to my brothers. Doesn't mean I won't find that one person that won't care… like Wo Fat… he won't care…"

Of course, the one person who wouldn't care was the one person that had shown up today. And he had gone, probably at the behest of her brothers to intimidate the Russians into agreeing to give up Vonakov.

He had to wonder why her brothers would get that call from whoever Rowan had pulled that favour from, and then not only agree to help her, but send the people who wanted to hurt her to do as she asked. That seemed odd and he wondered if she realized that.

She was clearly hiding something from him, keeping him out of the loop. It was almost like she was trying to hide that she was back in with her brothers, and if that was the case, what else would she be hiding?

And if she was good with her brothers, why hadn't she left like she had last time? Was it because of him? God he sure hoped so.

Because he wasn't about to lose her again. Not to anyone. He'd literally make a deal with her brothers, with Wo Fat himself, if it meant keeping her.

And that was terrifying.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Like the dutiful brother Wo Fat prided himself on being, he had followed his sister to Hawaii.

This had been her plan, of course. Her way to ensure that Shelburne showed up. Wo Fat was supposed to wait for her to call him, but her plan involved being with McGarrett again, and he didn't trust her.

He was right not to trust her too. Because she had been there almost two months, and the only thing she had done was become official with McGarrett and force Wo Fat to give up a strong partnership with the Russians.

To be fair, when she told him they had been that disrespectful to her, he had been angry. He had no idea that her beef with them was that she had gone into the Russian Consulate in regards to a Five-0 case and she had been summarily dismissed… as she should have been.

He just thought that Vonakov had done something to her.

Man was a rapist and his sister was very beautiful. It wasn't unreasonable to assume that he had done something to her. But no, she merely wanted him arrested, and while Wo Fat was not comfortable using his power to help the cops, he had still gone to that Consulate to intimidate the fools who hadn't listened to her.

All because his sister asked him to.

She so very rarely called him now, which was something else he wasn't used to. He was used to speaking to her daily, now it seemed she only called when she needed something. He would have thought she was avoiding him, though, whenever she called to check in—which also wasn't as frequent as Wo Fat she had wanted—she assured him that she wasn't. She was just busy. On this last call, after she had asked her favour, Wo Fat had asked her if she had found the microfiche yet, and she had told him no, she was still working on it. In the exact tone of voice she used whenever she lied to him.

Wo Fat wasn't stupid. His sister had feelings for Steven, she tried to downplay them, she tried to pretend, for his sake, that she didn't have them, but they were there. He was actually very annoyed that they were there, but what was he supposed to do? Make his sister miserable by keeping them apart.

He might have actually tried that if he didn't know a miserable Rowan was a Rowan that made everyone else around her miserable too.

So he figured he'd let her lie to him, sooner or later she'd either come up with a different plan, or she'd hand the microfiche over.

And besides, the second McGarrett knew who she really was he'd drop her. Like a hot rock. And then his sister would be miserable and if he was lucky she'd let her favourite older brother shoot him.

He was actually banking on that happening. He was even preparing for it at that moment, stocking up on all the typical break up supplies and little gifts to cheer her up.

Things between the two, however, did not look to be slowing down.

Whatever his Ro was feeling, McGarrett clearly felt the same was. Which was also annoying, but he was going to have to be okay with it for as long as it lasted.

This would mark his first Valentine's Day without his sister. The fact that he missed her was ridiculous, but for the last three years he had been celebrating with her, and now he didn't have her.

Because she was out with McGarrett.

Was he bitter? Yes. Was that weird, considering how often he bitched about having to entertain her on Valentine's Day all the years before? Yes.

But the fact of the matter was that he wanted his sister.

He didn't want to share her anymore.

But she was out with McGarrett, on some romantic picnic on the beach.

Wo Fat had trailed her, much like the year she had been dating Anton Hesse, because he didn't trust the man not to mess up.

Anton had abandoned Ro in Ireland, too busy doing stuff with his brother to take her out like promised. Though that was probably just going to be a night at a pub. Ro had been so upset that Wo Fat had taken her to Venice to cheer her up.

But the reason he had followed her to Ireland was the same reason he had followed her on this Valentines' Day. Because he was banking on Steven messing up, and him having to pick up the pieces. Which he would do, gladly.

Except Ro seemed to be having fun and Wo Fat found himself disappointed.

Ro, who hated the outdoors and complained any time Wo or Con tried to take her there, seemed perfectly fine out on that beach watching Steve grill the meat for her. Especially since they seemed to be spending most of the time making out. It was like they couldn't keep their hands off of one another.

It was disgusting.

After a while, he figured her okay and he didn't want to watch things get… R rated between her and McGarrett so he had to return back to the safe house he was sharing with Con. He was sure to bring back lots of tequila for him and lots of food to share.

But it wasn't the same.

He didn't want his other sibling, no matter how much he loved him. He just wanted his sister back.