One Thing

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! So here we are, we get to get all the answers to all the questions that Steve had, maybe some of yours. Don't forget to leave a review, or a fav and a follow and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 29

Steve woke up and knew right away that he was tied up to a chair.

He groaned, not just because his head hurt, but because of this whole situation. He honestly was just flabbergasted that Rowan had done this to him. He knew she was capable, of course, he had just… he had hoped that she felt the same way he did. But it was glaringly clear that she very much didn't love him, because look at what she had done to him.

You don't knock out the person you love and then tie them to a chair.

Or, at least, Steve wouldn't have done that.

He lifted his head and found that, basically he was the last to wake up at this forced slumber party. He was sitting in the chair across from his father, who was staring at the woman on his left like she had kicked a puppy.

Steve was staring at her too. Because he recognized her.

"Mom?" he whispered.

And it was his mom. Yes she was older, but she was in the same sort of auburn hair in that between-long and short haircut, and she looked the same. Her eyes were watering, she was clearly about to cry and she wouldn't look at him.

But he knew it was her.

Rowan had been right.

Shelburne was his mother and she was sitting right there. Alive and well, having apparently abandoned him and his sister and their dad all those years ago.

God he had so many questions. None of which he could ask with Wo Fat sitting on his right.

Steve's eyes turned to him. He too was glaring at Doris, but in a more angry sort of way. If looks could kill, his would have. The man looked so mad.

"Stop it," Doris hissed. "Just… just stop it."

Wo Fat's face remained unchanged. "You couldn't just call me? No. No, you had to try and kidnap Ro. You always had to make everything difficult, Doris."

Wait a second, his mom had done what? He didn't meant Rowan right? Why would his mom try to kidnap Rowan? Unless she was trying to rescue Rowan from Wo Fat.

"Oh shut up!" John said. "Like you haven't been making all of our lives difficult since you showed up!"

"Well maybe if you kept your nose out of my business, I wouldn't have felt the need to come after you, huh old man?" Wo Fat shot back.

Steve just sat there, his eyes on his mother. "You're actually alive. You've been alive… this whole time!"

To his right Wo Fat groaned. "Oh my god, Steven, catch up."

Steve shot him a glare. "Okay, you know what, can you just call your girlfriend and ask her to untie us. I'd like you out of my house and I'd like to talk to my Doris in private."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Yeah and you didn't marry her either!" Steve cried and then paused at Wo Fat's confused stare. "I mean… she said you didn't… was she lying to me about that too?"

"I'm mean she's lied about a lot of things, especially our relationship but…" "—Oh my god! You two are actually married?"

Wo Fat stopped and just stared at him, mouth open in shock while Steve glared right back at him. His heart was breaking, he wasn't sure why because he was pretty sure she had betrayed him again, but it was.

He had wanted to marry her, he had been thinking about it since North Korea.

Now she'd have to divorce Wo Fat in order for that to happen.

Maybe he could just kill him and make her a widow. That would probably be easier.

"How the hell did you let your wife stay in this house with me for so long? With that charade of hers? All we ever did was have sex."

Wo Fat grimaced. "Ew. Please, I don't want to hear about her sex life, thank you."

"I will literally go into detail if you don't get her in here now!" Steve growled.

For a moment Wo Fat held his gaze before rolling his eyes and shouting: "Ro! Get in here!" on the top of his lungs.

In a flash Rowan was out of the kitchen. She looked them all over with a smile and then said: "Oh great you guys are all awake!"

"Rowan, untie me, right now," Steve ordered but Rowan didn't move.

"Yeah, no thanks. I need you guys contained, I can't trust any of you not to throw down. So we're going to talk everything out and when you guys are done and our tempers are cooled I'll untie you guys."

"You're grounded," Wo Fat snapped. "To the end of time, grounded. Do you understand? You are in so much trouble!"

Rowan took that in, in fact, she sort of edged a way a bit. "You, I'll untie last," she murmured.

"Rowan," Steve said, getting her attention again. "Don't do this. Okay? We… we can work this out. I'm sure… I'm sure he's made you think you have to do this…"

"I'm tied to a chair, what makes you think I'm in on this at all?" Wo Fat asked, interrupting him.

Steve was assuming that this was all some elaborate ploy that made it look like Wo Fat was the victim and not the mastermind. So he flat out ignored him and kept his eyes on Rowan.

"You don't have to keep helping him. Okay? And… and if you're actually married to him I can help you get out of it. Just… please… Rowan… untie me."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Married? How did I get married again?" she asked with a groan, sounding horrible unimpressed. "What did you say to him?"

Wo Fat huffed like he was annoyed. "Nothing!" he cried. "For some reason he keeps jumping to us being married, I don't know why that…"

"Well you have to be saying something to him to give him that impression."

"Rowan!" Steve hollered and she jumped and turned back to me. "Just… let me out! Okay. You can keep them tied up, but please… just…"

"Yeah, not going to do that. And other then the whole marriage thing, you should listen to him he's not lying to you… about the other stuff." she said as she gestured to Wo Fat. She then clapped her hands, clearly dismissing that line of conversation. "Right, you guys start talking. Con and I are getting the torture devices ready, cause I have a feeling you guys aren't going to cooperate! I'll be back in a jiffy!"

"How can you be doing this?" Steve called to her as she left. "He fucking beat the shit out of you! He almost killed you!"

But Rowan didn't stop so he turned his hot angry eyes onto Wo Fat who had the good grace to wince.

"Well… about that…"

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Six months ago in North Korea

"I'm sorry… you want me to do what?" Wo Fat cried.

"Beat me up," Ro repeated. "It's the best way to get to Shelburne."

Con, who was standing beside him with his arms crossed over his chest said: "Kay, I'm not following. How does us beating up you, get Shelburne to come out of hiding?"

Rowan groaned. "Look, we need that microfish right?" "—Microfiche," both Wo Fat and Con corrected. "… oh whatever! Look we need it right? And to get it we have to find it. It's somewhere in that house but in order to find it I have to be in the house."

"I don't see why you can't just look at the strings."

"Because there are too many between me and Steve to sort through," Rowan said with a wave of her hand. "Now, we need him to believe you've turned on me, which means, someone is going to have to beat me up really good and then hopefully he takes me with him when he escapes."

"That's if he does escape," Wo Fat said.

"Oh he's going to escape his Five-0s and Joe White are here to get him. They have a helicopter and a bomb gun…" "—RPG," Both Wo Fat and Con said. "…oh whatever! The point is, you're going to lose him. And we want him to take me with him so I can find that microfish. As soon as I have it I'll come back."

"Yeah, I unno. You really seem to like living there. Every time you go into that house it takes us months to get you out."

"Yeah, it's actually rather insulting," Wo Fat added.

"Guys!" Rowan cried interrupting him. "Seriously. Just… trust me. This will work! I promise!"

The two men exchanged glances and then turned back to her.

They didn't want to agree, that much was clear, but they did. They did because they trusted her. They did because they knew, if she was this adamant about it, then they were going to find out she was right down the line.

Caving now would save them the "I told you so" song and dance down the line.

The one problem was that neither of them could do it.

They had tied her to a chair, because she needed to show signs of captivity. And they didn't want her to scramble away, because they'd have an even harder time beating her if she was trying to get away.

But they had been standing there, and her sitting in that chair, for at least twenty minutes at this point and nothing had happened.

"Are you guys serious right now?" Rowan asked. "Both of you have said, on multiple occasions that you've wanted to pop me one, so go ahead and do it!"

They turned to each other again.

"I mean… you're the one that always wants to throttle her," Wo Fat said, again.

"Yeah, and you're the one who went grey over her antics. Remember how mad you were when you had to dye your hair the first time?" Con shot back. "Oh or the time she crashed your Audi."

"Which time?" Wo Fat asked and Con pointed at him.

"See, see, you're obviously angrier than me. So you go ahead and hit her already!"

Wo Fat turned back to her a frown on his face and then turned back to Con.

"I can't… I mean… look at her," he said as he took her chin in his hand. "How can I hit that cute little face?"

"Okay… well my sole purpose in life is to protect her. This goes against my programing and the job description you gave and pay me for," Con snapped.

"Oh my god the two of you are pussies!" she cried and they both turned to her their complaints mixing together. "If you two can't do it, can you get someone you work with to do it?"

Wo Fat shook his head. "Maybe we don't beat you? Hmm? I'm sure if I threaten you in front of him he'll believe me."

"We need the sympathy factor, Wo. Now, if you're not going to do it, get someone else to. And stay far away until they're done so you don't intervene."

Oh she knew them so well.

Though neither wanted to, they did as they were told. It took a while to find a man willing to go at her in that way. Most of the men he had with him knew all about him and how rabidly he protected her. They all assumed that if they did go through with this, he'd kill them anyway, even if he was the one who asked.

Wo Fat had Con had actually walked away from the compound, so they wouldn't have to hear her cry out. Because they knew she would.

They said absolutely nothing to one another as they walked, but they did share a smoke before heading back.

Neither were happy with what they saw either.

It was bad.

A lot worse then what they had expected.

Wo Fat almost shot the man then and there. He had to remind himself that he had asked them to do this. That this had been Ro's idea.

But it hurt, seeing her like that. Seeing the bruises on her face, seeing that she was barely conscious.

He had untied her and pulled her to his chest. He had needed to hold her, to feel her breathing for himself, to feel her heart beating under his fingertips.

And even that didn't calm him down.

He was suddenly angry.

Furious that he had agreed to his. He should have never caved. He should have told her no, that they'd find another way.

But it was done now. So he had no choice but to have Steve put in that truck, and then to deposit Ro in the back with him. He had tried to do so softly, as to not hurt her any further. Maybe that was stupid, but he couldn't bring himself to hurt her anymore. Beside, Steve was pretty out of it, good chance that he hadn't even noticed.

Ro had been holding onto his shirt. She was prone to that. Any time he carried her, she'd grip his collar or cuff. Having to pry her grip off of him, having to watch as she blindly reached for Steve so she could hold him instead had hurt his already bleeding heart.

When Steve's team showed up, when they managed to get him out, Wo Fat should have run. But he and Con had stayed back. Had watched from the trees as Steve refused to leave Ro behind.

She had been right.

He had taken her.

But he wasn't sure it was worth the cost.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Steve thundered. "You actually beat her… just to get to me? That was her best idea, and you just went with it?"

Wo Fat shrugged. "I mean… it was not ideal… but uh… she was certain that it would work and it did…"

"So this is all part of her plan too?" Steve asked dryly because the man was tied up just like him. "Are you a fake hostage? Because I'd believe that you just let her tie you to a chair to look the part."

Wo Fat avoided his eyes and Steve knew exactly what the answer was, even before he said it.

"No, this is not the same plan her and I discussed. She's uh… she's gone rogue," he admitted after a moment of silence. "She uh… she's under the impression that all of us are headed to disaster and… well… she's taken matter into her own hands."

"Okay… well, she pukes at the sight of blood she won't torture us…"

"She specialized is psychological torture," Wo Fat whispered and Steve sighed heavily.

"Why did you teach her that?"

Wo Fat turned to him. "I did not to teach her that! She already knew how to do it, I just helped her fine tune it."

"Yeah, how is that going for you?" Steve asked, again dryly.

"I mean… normally I'm quite proud of what she's capable of… just… you know not when she's using it against me."

"This is absolutely ridiculous. Why didn't you just hand her back to her brothers when you got her back? Why did you keep her here?"

Wo Fat's eyebrows furrowed in surprise, like he didn't understand the question. Doris was giving him a similar look, though he didn't know why.

"Steve… do you not… do you not know what's really going on?" Doris asked. "I mean truly?"

Steve groaned. "Oh my god! Will everyone stop talking in riddles and just tell me what's going on?" he cried.

"Okay," Rowan said appearing in the circle. Startling all of them and interrupting any answers Steve might have gotten about the state of the relationship between Wo Fat and Rowan. "Did you guys talk it out, or do you need incentive?"

They all glared at her and no one said a thing. She turned to each one of them and sighed. "Geezus you guys are stubborn. Fine. I've got an easy way to do this."

They all exchanged glances. She was just going to start torturing them now? In front of everyone? How was that going to work?

She then pointed to Doris. "So, Steve, was I right? Is Shelburne yo'mama?"

Steve huffed. "I mean… obviously," he cried. "But come on Ro, you and Wo Fat have done nothing but lie to me, how was I supposed to know this was the one time you were telling me the truth?"

"Fair point," she said and Steve blinked. Oh wow. That was… unexpected. But Rowan was done with him. She was no pointing at Wo Fat. "Okay, Doris, tell him the truth."

His mother glared at her. "He already knows I killed his father."

"His mother," she corrected and Doris went sheet white and turned to her. Rowan just held her gaze. "His mother. Go on tell him."

She glanced to Wo Fat and then back to her. "You can't… you can't possible know…"

"She's in Cambodia, I think? Pursat Province… is that a real place?" It was. And the fact that she knew that seemed to utterly shock Doris. "I unno, John wrote the coordinates in a code on the tool box, I have to scrape it off to figure it out. She's buried in a wooden box, in an empty field. Doris here killed her by accident."

"She can't know that!" Doris howled.

"And how did she know about the coordinates? I've never told anyone that they were there… not even Steve… and definitely not her," John snapped.

"Wait… so you knew about mom being a spy?"

"No!" John snapped. "I knew that Shelburne had an mission there. I knew those coordinates led to some secret, I just didn't know what. All I saw was an empty field, I just knew it was important."

Wo Fat's mouth dropped. "You mean to tell me that she's been right this whole time."

"Yes. And your dad is still alive in a CIA black site, not sure where. But I'm working on it."

She was doing that absent thing, where she stared off into space, her hands raised as if were playing a guitar in the air. She had done this before, right before shit went flying in North Korea.

"What is she doing?"

Wo Fat tsked at him. "This reality please," he called and her hands dropped.

"Right sorry. Point is I was right. Tell him I was right."

Doris faltered.

"Just admit it. She already knows it, please, make it easier for all of us."

Doris had tears in her eyes. "I… I was meant to kill your father but… I missed. I… I didn't mean to…"

Wo Fat's face remained unchanged. "So she's been right? Three years she's been telling me my dad's alive somewhere and she was right? That's what you're saying?"

Doris faltered again. "I guess… but I don't know how she could have possibly known!"

Wo Fat just shook his head. "So where is he then? My dad, where is he?"

"I really don't know," Doris said. "Honestly. I don't."

Wo Fat turned to Rowan who nodded. "That's true, she doesn't know yet." She then nudged Doris again. "Tell Steve why Wo Fat's scared of you."

"I'm not scared of her," Wo Fat snapped.

"Yes you are," she said as she nudged Doris again. "Go on. Tell him."

"What's the matter? You don't know?" she taunted.

"Oh no, I do. But you have to tell him. And you better, or I'm going to send Con after your little girl," Rowan said with a vicious grin.

Really? She was threatening Mary? Mary was the only one who liked her. How could she do this? She really wasn't the girl he thought she was.

That was becoming more and more apparent.

Doris sniffed at her and then turned to Steve. "After… after his mother died, I… I stayed on."

Steve's eyebrows furrowed. "As what?"

"As my mother," Wo Fat growled. "So that's it, huh? You had a guilty conscious so you raised me?"

"I tried, but the CIA they figured it out… they made me give you up…"

"And then you never came back," Wo Fat growled.

"That's kind of her MO," Rowan said. "She's fucked up two generations of kids now."

Doris was crying now. A tear actually fell down her cheek. "I thought I was doing what was best."

Rowan just rolled her eyes and then looked around.

"Alright, have we covered everything?" she asked. "Doris is Shelburne. Doris is also Wo Fat's mom. Wo Fat's mom is dead, his dad is alive…. Somewhere. Is that everything?"

Steve glanced around. Was that everything? Basically.

All his family secrets were finally out in the open. His mom was back, but he didn't have it in him to be excited about that just yet.

It was just so much all at once and Steve had found himself reeling at the discovery. But he was going to explain it away as side effects of the taze if anyone asked.