One Thing

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! Are you excited for this chapter? I know I am. This one here is one of my favourite chapters, and I can't wait to see what you guys think about it! I hope you guys enjoy reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing it. As always don't forget to leave a review or drop a fav or a follow and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 5

After a long day, Steve had decided to treat Agent Kaye to dinner. Seeing as he had broken down her door and made her tell him all about how she got bad intel on one of Wo Fat's deals and sent her fiancé to his death. Which was why she was there trying to steal evidence from him in the first place.

He knew there were holes in her story, he just didn't know what she was hiding and why. He was going to get it out of her though, and it was going to start at this dinner.

Jenna was running a little late though so he had ordered himself a beer and had poured it out to drink while he waited and looked over the menu so he'd know what to order when she did eventually show up. He had just taken a sip from his freshly poured beer when the person sat across from him.

Not Jenna though.

Wo Fat

Wo Fucking Fat had just sat down across from him.

Who the hell did he think he was?

He was sitting there in his nicely tailored black suit and his blue button up shirt with the few buttons not done up, smiling at him like he wasn't about to get shot.

Steve just glared at him. "What makes you think I won't kill you right here in this restaurant?"

"The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out. Old Chinese proverb."

Wow.

Could this guy get more conceited?

"Say hello to my little friend," Steve shot back, making sure Wo Fat heard the click of the gun he had hidden under the table, pointed right at this man's gut. "Old American proverb."

Wo Fat simply smiled, this thin smug smile. He clearly wasn't afraid at all.

"Do you honestly believe I'd come here without some assurance of my safety?"

Steve glared at him. What did that mean?

A waitress came to the table and put a pot of tea and a single teacup in front of Wo Fat that he gracefully went about pouring tea into.

While he did that Steve had some time to think and figured he knew exactly what Wo Fat meant by that comment. "Where's Agent Kaye?"

"Heading east on Kapiolani Boulevard, driving a silver Malibu" he said right away. "But who can really say? In any case, I'm sure she'll make it here without incident."

The door banged open behind him, but Wo Fat ignored it. Steve, however, couldn't.

He had glanced up and then completely froze.

Because it was Rory.

The Hesse's Rory.

She was dressed up in this little black dress. It hugged all her curves, was sparkling and a bit too short. She was in matching black heels with red bottoms. She had a little black shawl hanging off of her haphazardly.

And her hair. Her hair was no longer that red and blonde fade but instead shorn short to her chin and dark brown. So it had been her at the golf course. She had been there with Wo Fat and Noshimuri.

And while he was surprised to see her, sort of, that wasn't what had him frozen.

There were clear tear tracks cutting through her make up, smudged in black from her eyeliner. She was upset. She had been crying.

And her angry eyes were on the back of Wo Fat's head.

She stormed all the way over to their table, stood above him and then just glared at him. She was seething though, and all of that anger was pointed directly at Wo Fat.

Wo Fat had been smugly staring at Steve who had had no choice but to holster his gun again the second she was beside their table. Wo Fat had taken a sip of his tea as he just stared at him, as he hadn't noticed Rory's presence yet. But he sure as hell noticed Steve staring at her.

He followed Steve's gaze took in the woman in front of him, literally looked her up and down with a single cocked eyebrow, and then pointed to her. "Uh… what is going on with your face…"

"My date ran out of the restaurant… screaming."

"Really? That's interesting…"

"Oh, is it?" she asked sarcastically, her hands on her hips as she glared down at him.

"Yes, he wasn't supposed to make it to the restaurant."

Rory's eyes widened and her nostrils flared and Steve knew right away that that was not the right thing to say.

"You cannot keep derailing my dates!" she hollered and Wo Fat actually jumped.

"Ro…"

"No! This is an absolute…" "—Ro." "… and completely disrespectful…" "—RO!" "WHAT?!"

Wo Fat turned his eyes back to Steven and then back to her. "You're embarrassing me."

Rory turned to Steven said: "Oh, hi Steven," and then turned back to Wo Fat. "Oh you're embarrassed? Well this is a no name little restaurant, I can NEVER go back to Le Mer!"

Wo Fat sighed, clearly unphased by this revelation. He picked up that little china teacup to take another sip. "Le Mer? How unfortunate I had a reservation for us there at the end of the week…"

"We'll we're not going cause I'm forever going to be the girl who sent a guy SCREAMING out of the restaurant."

"I feel like you want me to apologize, but I'm not going to… so…"

Rory took that in and then began to shake. Her face went this red color and then she just stopped. She took three very deep breaths and then let it all out with one large sigh. She then put out her hand, palm forward, clearly expecting him to hand her something. He looked at her hand and then up to her.

"Is now the best time for a high five? Low five? I'm not sure what kind of five that is…"

"Wallet. NOW."

Steve waited for him to protest, but to Steve's surprise he just sighed. He went into his pocket to pull it out and then handed it to her. "Why exactly do you need…" he then watched her pull out all of the bills. "I need those…"

But she had thrown him back the wallet and stormed off. Wo Fat watched her go muttering: "I hate it when she makes a scene."

Then he turned his unimpressed eyes back to Steve as if remembering he was there and the two were in the process of threatening one another. Or well, Steve was threatening him, Wo Fat was threatening Agent Kaye.

He smiled almost shakily. "Women… such over emotional creatures."

No, it sounded like she had every right to be mad at him but at that moment he had a more important question.

"You and Rory are… how exactly… is she… is she… uh…"

"With me?"

With him?

He completely missed Steve's stricken look of panic as his eyes had travelled to where Rory was standing handing over his money for whatever food she had ordered. He seemed to regard her thoughtfully before turning back to Steve.

"I suppose that's a way of explaining her continued presence in my life."

Steve's mouth dropped in shock. She was… she was with him. They were dating?

God had she just been flirting with him for… what? Fun? Distraction? Just because she could? God he had never felt so used before in his life.

For a moment they were just sitting there staring at her, but then Steve's eyes turned to Wo Fat, just to watch him stare at her. The way his face seemed to soften. Like the second she came around he stopped being that ice cold, in control, crime boss he had been when he sat down at Steve's table.

He turned away, however, when Rory turned around. She was clearly done ordering and paying and she was heading back to the table. But Wo Fat didn't want her to think he was staring though.

She got to the table, he offered out his hand for whatever was left of the bills she had taken from him and she dropped a pittance of change in his hands that he immediately stared at like it was trash.

Rory, however, wasn't looking at Wo Fat. She was looking at Steve and he was looking at her. Because he very stupidly still found that girl perfectly attractive.

Then she surprised them all by sitting down on him, like literally straddled him to the chair and swooping in and kissing him. IN FRONT of the man she was with. But despite the awkwardness of this moment he still found his hands clinging to the fabric of the dress and kissing her back.

It was everything that he daydreamed of. All those hours in North Korea, dreaming of her lips on his, they were well spent. She tasted sweet like strawberries and summer. She fit to him like she was made for him.

He didn't want this to end.

"Are you done?" Wo Fat asked.

Ro stopped briefly only to say: "He's a good kisser," and then she was kissing him again.

He wanted to thank her for thinking that he was a good kisser, he wanted to tell her that she was a good kisser too. That, if given the opportunity, he could show her that he was the better option than Wo Fat.

There was a bit of an annoyed sigh and then he heard Wo Fat snap: "Get off of him."

Finally, or sadly, Rory separated from him, got off of him and then went to sit down beside Wo Fat, leaving Steve burning for more and trying to show both of them that it didn't actually fluster him the way it had.

Rory took her seat and then turned a smile onto Wo Fat. "I feel a bit better now."

Wo Fat was glaring at her. He indicated to the change he had in his hand. "Did you buy the whole menu?"

"No. Just my favs and your favs and whatever Con said he wanted."

So the rabbit mask guy was here too? "Ah," he said as if that explained everything and then he pocketed the change.

"By the way, did you know he had a gun on you when I came in?"

"Yes, I did," he said. "I had it handled…"

And then Rory put the gun on the table and Wo Fat nodded at her, though he looked thoroughly disappointed to see it. Steve groaned she had pick pocketed him again.

God, why was he letting this girl get to him so easily?

He didn't have to reach for it though, Wo Fat just shoved it at him with the hurried sense of hide it in his eyes.

"Alright, and what else did you get?"

"I got his wallet," she said pulling it out and handing it to him.

Steve did a quick flip through it, but knew right away what she had taken from him. The bills were gone again. Just like the last time. How the hell had she gotten the money out without him noticing? How had she gotten the wallet? At this rate she was going to bankrupt him.

"Where's my cash?"

"In my bra, you can frisk me again if you want to," she said with that same suggestive smirk from the Humvee.

"He doesn't want to," Wo Fat growled shooting a warning glare at Steve. "What else did you get?"

"Oh, I also got his badge, and his phone and his dog tags."

Wo Fat actually smiled at her proudly as she deposited everything on the table. "Good isn't she?" he asked Steve and he was just glaring at them.

"I also got your gun," she said putting that on the table, and just like that Wo Fat wasn't smiling any more.

He took it back as he glared at her. "What did I tell you? Hmm? What did I say?" Rory turned her innocently wide blue eyes to him but unlike when she did it to Steve, Wo Fat wasn't buying it, nor did he cave. "Don't you give me that. I know you know, I say it all the time…"

Rory rolled her eyes and sighed out: "Don't pickpocket you."

"Would it kill you to listen to me? On the spirits I swear, you do it just to annoy me."

Rory just gave him a passive look and said: "How else am I gonna get you back for all the social damage you cause?"

Steve was officially very annoyed. They argued like a little old married couple, solidifying the claim that they were dating and they clearly had been for a very long time, judging by the bickering.

"What is happening here? I mean… what is the point of this?"

"I was attempting to dissuade you from your current course. And it was going well until someone showed up," Wo growled shooting a glare at Rory who just rolled her eyes again.

"Well, if you would just stop ruining my dates I wouldn't be here right now."

Wo Fat huffed. "I've already told you, after what happened with Anton, dating is no longer an approved activity."

"It was one mistake…"

"Dating that boy at all was the mistake. And it was a mistake you made repeatedly."

"Okay, okay, I get it. But he's dead now," she snapped. "So I won't be making it again."

"Nor will I be allowing you to be making the same mistakes with new men. So, you're cut off, now, can I get back to business please?"

She gestured for him to continue, and Wo Fat turned back to Steve and went to start up with his threats again.

"You two have a very strange relationship," Steve said interrupting him before he could even speak. "How exactly do you know her again?"

Wo Fat visibly deflated, in fact he looked very annoyed at the question.

"Why does that matter?"

"Well… I unno, it's like, a ten-year difference between you two and the way you talk to her…" Steve tried to argue but Wo Fat blinked his eyes.

"Well, there's actually 14, and I don't see why our age matters…"

"Fourteen… but aren't you like… late thirties?"

"Uh… yes? Again why does this matter?" he asked but Steve was just staring at him. "There's almost fifteen years between me and her, and about ten between you two so why…"

"Wait a second, she's 24? You're 24?"

Wo Fat turned to her. "What age did you give him?"

Rory winced at him. "Twenty-eight."

Wo Fat shook his head at her and then turned a glare onto Steven. "Why the hell would you think she's older? Look at her, she has the mental maturity of a high school kid!"

"As opposed to the 50-year-old with no emotional maturity!

"How dare you! I am 39!"

"Oh 11 years off. Big woop! You're middle aged, almost half a century year old. You have grey hair. Don't think I haven't noticed your boxed-dye kits. You old."

For a minute Steve was certain that Wo was going to kill her right in front of him. He was glaring at her, a sort of pink was on his cheeks and his eye was twitching. However he did none of those things. He just scowled at her teasing grin.

"Okay you know what," he said shoving his tea cup towards her. "Drink that. You've been crying and I'm not dealing with another one of your headaches. So drink the damn tea and let me work."

"Fine," she said with a huff much like a petulant teenager but she poured herself more tea and actually started to drink.

She… she listened to him. She listened to him… and he… and he didn't just flat out kill her for disrespecting him. They had to have been in love.

So why the fuck did she kiss him? Why was she trying to date other people?

He then turned back to Steven with a glare, clearly past fed up. "Enough about ages, and enough about her. She is not what's important here," he said and Steve's eyes narrowed because Wo Fat seemed almost desperate to get Steve's attention off of Rory.

"What do you want?" Steve asked.

"To know the man who is trying to know me," Wo said and beside him Rory scoffed.

"You and your fucking riddles," she muttered and he just elbowed her. She yelped and glared at him but otherwise she was ignored.

"Well, what I know is that Hiro and Hesse both answer to you which means at the very least you're an accomplice to my mother's murder and my father's attack, and at the most you're directly responsible," he said and then he glanced at Rory. "And if she… as you've said… has a continued presence in your life, then you two are my only link to the Master who not only masterminded that entire rescue, but probably gave you all the intel and means to pull it off."

Wo Fat just nodded but he ignored the digs. "Interesting theory."

"If that theory pans out, I promise you, I will find you and next time it will be on my terms," Steve warned but Wo Fat hit him with that thin smile.

Rory, however, looking worried. She took in Steve's very serious and determined face and then turned to Wo Fat clearly looking for some kind of assurance that they would be okay. But Wo Fat was still ignoring her.

"A little friendly advice," Wo Fat finally offered. "I wouldn't dig too deeply into your family's past. You might not like what you find."

A server came over with two gigantic bags of food and put them in front of Rory who immediately offered up the Mandarin saying for thank you. Oh so she spoke Mandarin too?

Wo Fat held out a hand, palm out to her. He was clearly asking for her to give him something but Rory immediately gave him a high five.

Wo Fat groaned and then turned a glare to her. "Oh," she said quickly going into her bra, right in front of them, to pull out the cash she had stolen from Steve. "Sorry."

"I'd say dinner's on me, but she took my cash," he said but he then put Steve's bills back in front of him. "So there, now you can treat Agent Kaye to something nice."

The two of them got up and Rory smiled. "Bye Steven…"

"No," Wo Fat said immediately tugging her away from the table and pushing her towards the door. "Go. Just… just go."

Steve watched them leave. Watched the way she held the door for him, by leaning her back against it as she had her hands full with the two bags of food, turning around to smile at him as he caught up. He watched him take the door from her, and then the one of the massive bag of food that she was trying to carry, before ushing her the rest of the way out of the door way. He watched the way Wo Fat's eyes danced over her features and the way his face seemed to soften as he watched her.

He had his proof now.

Rory was Wo Fat's weakness. She was how he'd take him down.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve had kept quiet all through dinner. He wanted to tell Jenna that Wo Fat had invited himself to that dinner, but then he would have to tell her that Rory was there too. And Rory was something that she wasn't bring up for some reason.

But he needed to know more about Rory. Because she wasn't just how he'd take down Wo Fat. She was how he was going to get the Master too. But to do that he needed intel on her. He needed to know who she really was.

So he didn't say anything all through dinner. He graciously saw her back to her hotel but he wouldn't let her close the door on him.

"You didn't give me all the information," Steve snapped letting himself in.

"What are you talking about."

"Rory. His Rory," he said. "You left everything out about Rory."

Jenna stared at him and he realized that she was going to pretend that she didn't know what he was talking about.

"The girl. The loud mouth, red-haired girl. The one he took on the Navy for," he snapped. "The one connected to the Master. Her."

"I don't see why that…"

"Because he came to dinner," Steve snapped. "He came to dinner to warn me off this investigation and she was with him. And he cares. About her. So what's going on? Why didn't she come up when you went through his file?"

She sighed heavily and went back to her files. "See this where things get fuzzy," she said. He watched her dig through her stuff until she had another file in her hands. She opened it up and Steve could see that this one had Rory's picture on it.

"Probably because I didn't realize you meant her. And because I didn't think she was here."

Except that didn't explain much. "Go on."

"Right, so her name is Ro. That's all we got on her," she said. "She's technically a Jane Doe. She shows up on the scene in 2007. Before that nothing, it's like she didn't exist. When she showed up the Master showed up. It was her first rescue, the first time he created chaos to get her back, first time his name hit our radar. And shortly after she showed up Wo Fat started spending all of his time shadowing her. If she's around, Wo Fat's not too far. And neither is her little bunny assassin."

"I have Hesse's word that the people who came to get her, and the man in my dad's house were her security. So if that's Wo Fat…"

"I wouldn't be surprised. I have intel supporting that as well. But Wo Fat doesn't like working for other people and he doesn't do jobs for free. Plus… have you met the girl? She's really annoying."

Obviously, Steve had and, while it was true, he didn't like her being called annoying. It irked him for some reason. "Yeah, so what?"

"Wo Fat's a sociopath. She's too annoying for him to like. He's killed people for less. The fact that he hasn't killed her means she's worth something to him."

Well, if she was connected to the Master he was assuming he'd want her around for the immunity. If no one was going mess with her out of respect for the Master, then Wo Fat could do whatever he wanted by proxy. It was actually a really smart move.

"Have you met her?"

"I did. The CIA had her in custody half a year ago in connection to an international heist and of course… him."

"Yeah and what happened?"

"Wo Fat and her Rabbit marched themselves into Langley and took her back."

Steve turned back to her with his eyes wide. "I'm sorry… he did what?"

"He did to us what he did to you in Korea, except for us he gassed our whole floor, walked into holding and took her. We never even knew he was in the state let alone the country. As far as we knew he had been in Japan."

"Why didn't anyone hear about this?"

"Because, just like Guantanamo, no one wanted to admit that they got hit so sophisticatedly and no one ever wants to admit that they lost her."

"Wait a second. Guantanamo?"

"Yeah no one likes talking about that either, but I hear she set it on fire. The girl is chaos incarnate, and when she wants to be, she's exactly like him."

See that couldn't be true. Wo Fat was made of something dark and twisted, Rory was soft and kind and sweet. She was just… you know… a little annoying, maybe in a less than legal petty criminal kind of way. No, he just didn't see it. The similarities. She wasn't anything like Wo Fat.

"And how many bodies have you put on her?"

"None, as far as we know Wo Fat and her Rabbit do the killing for her."

"Rabbit, why do you keep calling him Rabbit?"

Jenna turned back to him. "Because the mask."

"Well obviously but… what's his name?"

"No idea. He's never left DNA or fingerprints at any scene and no one's seen his face," she said, pulling out another file. This one just had a few blurry pictures, all of a man in a white rabbit mask. "He's an assassin. They say he has a perfect kill streak. He showed up a year after Ro did."

"And she calls him Con…"

"Yes, it's short for Conejo which is rabbit in Spanish," Jenna said and he nodded, right so even Rory called him Rabbit. Interesting.

"So you're thinking… you're thinking that Wo Fat's the Master then."

Jenna shook her head. "No. We think she is."

Steve looked down at Rory's picture. "I'm sorry. You think she's the one calling the shots? Her? And you've said you met her? The girl failed geography…"

"We can't find her school transcripts. Her DNA isn't on file anywhere. She doesn't exist before 2007. The Master showed up when she did. Before that no one had heard of him before. And she lies. She lies well. That ditz thing is just an act, and she knows more than she's letting on."

Steve shook his head. No, he couldn't believe that. Jenna didn't see what he saw. He saw kindness in her eyes, and a sincerity in her smile. Rory wasn't the mastermind.

"Look. Intel says Ro and Anton had been broken up for six months before she decided to go on that trip with him. It was an out of the blue spur of the moment decision. But I think she did it on purpose."

"You think she got arrested on purpose?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To give Wo Fat the excuse to go into your dad's house."

Steve shook his head. "That can't be right, she's the reason my dad's alive. She specifically told who ever was in that room not to hurt my dad."

"Yes, and he walked out with all of the evidence John had to prove the Yakuza killed your mother," she said. "And why do would you think that her or would Wo Fat want that?"

Because he was involved in that too.

Oh my god.

They were working together and he hadn't seen it. He had been too blinded by her smile. Had let her kiss him and let her get away.

Rory really was the key to everything and she had made a fool of him.

Well he wasn't going to let her do it again.