One Thing

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! Are you ready for another wild ride, because this one is another one of those funny chapters. It's going to be interesting for the next few chapters. I gotta say I really like writing this version of Rowan and Steve. I feel like Rowan's more in control for this one. What do you guys think? 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 6

His day started out great.

Well that was because the night before had ended amazingly.

He and Catherine were supposed to go out to dinner but they ended up retreating to his room for a more… entertaining activity.

His dad was out for the evening, which meant he'd have the whole place to himself, and tomorrow he'd have a day off so he could spend even more time with Catherine. Starting with taking her out for Brunch seeing as they didn't quite make it to dinner. Again.

This thing with Catherine was on and off and since they were both in the Navy it had taken place all around the world, wherever they had managed to link up.

Him coming home had meant that they could connect again because she was stationed there with Naval Intelligence. It almost meant he could ask her favours to get help with his cases. And she always obliged, so long as she got a date out of it.

And after helping him with cases back-to-back Steve hella owed her a date.

Steve wasn't going to admit it, of course, but he had been much more distracted than he usually was when he was with her. He couldn't help it. His mind was still on a specific red-head-now-brunette girl who had gotten under his skin in such a short amount of time.

In the morning, when he tried to start things up again, because who doesn't like morning sex, he found himself interrupted. Not by thoughts of Rory, though they were still on his mind, but by a call from the Governor who was demanding that he and his team come to work.

On a Saturday.

He apologized profusely to Catherine, promised that he'd treat her to lunch or dinner, though probably dinner cause he figured this was going to take a while. His dad wasn't due back until the evening, but he was sure to call him to tell him that he might come back to Cath in the house.

Both seemed a little disappointed in him. Catherine in Steve, though she was clear that she understood he had to work, it was just disappointing to lose out on the time she wanted to spend with him. His dad was disappointed because to him it looked like Steve was abandoning her and he taught his son better than that.

But what was he supposed to do? The Governor had called him. He couldn't say no. She was his boss.

This case was all about the two daughters of the US Ambassador to the Philippines. They were vacationing here in Hawaii and were, of course, personal friends of Governor Jameson. One daughter was found dead this morning by a tourist submarine.

The other one was missing.

They needed to find her.

They ran into all sorts of road blocks, like uncooperative parents and security ruffians, but eventually they figured out that the two girls were party girls and that they last place they had been seen was the Zephyr lounge.

Specifically seen leaving the night club, both on the arm of a very creepy looking man, neither of them really walking straight telling Steve and Danny that they were clearly intoxicated.

Well, wasn't that just great.

It also meant that, that night, they'd have to go to the Zephyr lounge to find this guy. Because 100% that man was stupid and would go back there.

Especially since this was no doubt his hunting grounds.

Steve immediately got in there and ordered two beers. Danny of course questioned him about that choice because they were both on duty. But these guys had just abducted two girls, his radar was going to be up, if he thought they were cops he was going to bolt and then they'd never find the missing girl.

But being there brought up the argument again. The incessant questioning about why Steve was smiling so much when Danny had never seen him smile before. He had girls eyeing him up all over this nightclub and he couldn't have cared less. No red blooded male didn't like getting eyed by attractive girls, how was he being so calm about it?

Danny eventually realized that it was because Steve had gotten lucky last night, and that was why he was smiling. Luckily he hadn't thought to ask why that meant that he wasn't interested in at least looking at any of the girls that were eye humping him as Danny called it.

The problem was that Steve was conflicted. He had two girls on his mind right now, he couldn't handle any more.

On the one had he had Catherine, she was his on and off… thing… for a very long time and he liked her a lot. They had a lot in common, they got a long great, and the sex was wonderful. But this thing with Rory… it was visceral. It was like all common sense flew out of his head the second he came around her and something that strong was dangerous.

Not to mention she was a criminal, probably dating the man who was behind his mother's murder and his father's attack and at least one of her brothers was an international arms dealer so dangerous and lethal and just saying his name scared people.

All of that should have rendered her an unviable life partner, but when he pictured himself having a family, not that he did that often, but now when he did it, he thought of Rory and not Catherine.

He barely fucking knew the girl, but he knew if they had kids they'd have his hair and her eyes and they'd be little lookers. And he had never, ever, wanted to procreate more in his life.

Luckily before Danny could pick up on his inner turmoil, they found the guy they were looking for. He was sitting in one of the booths just talking to this nice looking black haired girl in a pink dress.

They were eyeing him, hoping to find a reason to go over there, maybe once the girl left for the washroom or something. Then he put something in her drink and they moved in on him right away.

Danny got there first. "Excuse me. Excuse me," he said to the girl just a she was putting the drink to her mouth. "Put the drink down. It's time for you to go to the bathroom."

Luckily she didn't question it, she did as she was told, clearly catching the cop vibe from Danny, and scampered off. Wonderful. Now they were alone with the creep boy.

"Dude, who do you think you are?" he asked, clearly upset that they had shooed away his next abduction victim.

"What's that? Who do I think I am?" Steve asked getting his attention. He then flashed him his badge as Danny sat down beside him. "I think I might be a guy who just saw another guy put something in a lady's drink."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ah every guilty person's answer. "I didn't put anything in her drink."

"No?" Danny asked. "Then drink it."

"What?"

"Drink it." When the boy just stared at him Danny slung an arm around his shoulder. "Here…" he slapped his cheek. "Listen to me. Drink that drink or I'll bust your teeth and pour it down your throat. Okay?"

The boy was looking at that drink like it were poison, and it might as well have been because he had laced it with something.

"I'd drink it," Steve said, knowing full well that he wasn't going to because he knew exactly what it was that he had put in there.

He was hesitant but eventually he did was he was told. He was only going to take a sip, but Steve tipped that drink up so it went all the way down his throat.

"Right, let's go lover boy," he said grabbing him by the back of the neck and dragging him up. Danny slapped him in cuffs and they were perp-walking him through the club when Steve just froze.

He had caught a flash of something familiar and turned, just to confirm that he was seeing things. Still seeing things because he had been seeing her in the edges of his sight since he had last seen her with Wo Fat.

Except he had seen right. It was her.

He'd recognize her anywhere.

She was wearing a wig. Long black glossy straight, but very clearly not her hair. She was in a skin-tight, thigh high red dress. It hugged all her curves in all the right places.

And she was swaying, between three men. Men who were taking turns pulling them to her, so they could grind against her. And she just let them put their hands on her waist and tug her around. She would just wrap her arms around them as if she were perfectly fine with this. As if she wasn't dating Wo Fat and giving him heartburn at the mere whisper of reminder of their second kiss in that restaurant.

Steve could only stare at her as she smiled prettily at them as her own hands wandered.

Jealousy, irrational misplaced jealousy, coursed through him, burned a trail from his heart to his throat. But he got a flash of something shiny in her hands, and he knew right away what she was doing.

She was pickpocketing them.

"Where are you going?" Danny shouted over the music. Steve hadn't even realized he was moving.

But he was.

He was moving towards her.

He got into that ring of men, just in time for her to turn. He expected fear, he expected apprehension, that maybe she'd try to run. But she didn't.

She was surprised for a moment as she recognized him. But that quickly faded away and then she was just smiling up to him, as if she were happy to see him and then her arms were around his neck. His hands had gone to her waist without thinking, his head dipping into her neck to breath her in. The feel of her against him was doing something to him, had him sweating, panting, heart hammering. He felt like he was running a fever and only her soft body was going to cure him.

And then he felt the cold glint of steel against his wrist just as the cuff closed.

She moved, moved before he could grab her, cuffing him to the man closest to him and then she was dancing away and out of reach.

And as she moved she smiled. Widely. In her hand was the keys to his cuffs and in the other was his gun. Fuck!

He had literally watched her pick pocket those other men while she was dancing, why the hell did he not realized that she would do the same to him?

She was going to run. He was going to lose her. But she backed right into a different gun. Danny's gun.

She turned back to him, looked him up and down. The music came to an abrupt halt, people started screaming to escape and Steve was left there with the man he was cuffed to, and Danny holding Rory at gun point.

She turned back to him, her glare not really directed at anything in particular, and then sighed heavily. "Ah…. Shit-sticks."

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny had to call Kono and Chin to come get their lover boy and take him back to the Palace. As soon as Danny had confirmed that Steve had the Rory in his custody, he refused to leave.

In the time that Rory had gotten out of her cuffs three times and had bolted twice. Steve had to catch her, which had been oddly hard because she was not playing fair. She had thrown things, toppled chairs in front of her, but every time he caught her, he'd wrap both arms around her and hoist her up into the air.

Really he was just straightening to his full height. Rory was just so small that her feet left the ground when he straightened.

Danny was just smiling, seemingly enjoying all of this. How flustered she seemed to make Steve, how easily she was getting out of the cuffs and getting away from him, just everything. And He just stood there grinning at them.

Steve still had Rory in his arms. She had lost her wig, it was sitting on the bar with all the things they had taken out of the little clutch she had. And damn, for such a small purse she had a lot of stuff in it.

She was limply hanging in arms, annoyed that he had caught her again. But she had stopped struggling which was good. He just… hadn't let her go yet. Mainly cause he didn't trust her but also because he liked having her in his arms.

A little too much.

"So like… are you going to put me down or am I your personal teddy bear now?"

Steve dropped her to her feet but didn't let her go. "Unless you promise you're not going to do a runner, I'm not letting you go."

Rory looked down to the grip he had on her upper arm and then turned that blindingly sweet and innocent smile up to him. "Okay. I promise."

"Yeah well I don't believe you," Steve said and that smile of her fell right off her face and she began trying to tug her arm loose.

"Manhandling a woman is not how you get her to like you, Steven," she snapped.

"Get you to like… Rory… you're under arrest!"

She turned wide eyes up to him as if she hadn't realized that's what this was. That Steve had just been cuffing her and catching her simply because he wanted her company. And if that were the case, why the hell had she just been okay with that behaviour?

"For what?!" she cried.

"Well for starters, how about all this shit we lifted off of you?" Steve said pointing to the array of items they had found both in and around her cleavage and in the little clutch she had been carrying.

Keys. Credit Cards. A giant wad of cash. And jewelry. Lots and lots of expensive jewelry. Both men's and women's. Rings, bracelets, necklaces, watches. She had so many.

"Okay… but like… how do you know they're not mine."

Danny picked up the stack of credit cards and began to read out names. "Evan Taylor, Rachel Greene, Tom Mahoe…"

"I have a lot of identities," she said.

"Which is identity theft," Steve said and Rory just sat down on a bar stool with a pout on her face.

"This is ridiculous," she grumbled but it was clear that she realized that she was trapped. They had caught her.

And Steve was realizing that she was very far from the helpless bystander that he thought her to be. She wasn't a victim of her brother's name. She just wasn't at their level of notoriety.

"Right, so you're going to tell us what you're doing here," he said and Ro narrowed her eyes at him and then glanced back to all the items they had laid on top of the bar. "You're just here to steal? That's it?"

"Yeah… it's kinda like… my job here," she said.

Danny shook his head. "The club hired you to pick pockets?"

"No," she said. "But the guy who did owns the club… like a silent partner. So I have to come every other night and I steal things. Sometimes I get a list, sometimes I get to just lift whatever they want."

Steve blinked his eyes. Jesus Christ. Someone had hired her as a personal shopper/thief. That was fucking remarkable.

"How… how did this happen, Rory?" he asked.

"Well I owe him money…"

"What?!" he cried because holy shit did she not see what sort of shit she was in?

"So how does this work. You steal shit and then what? You meet him somewhere? Are you meeting him tonight?" Danny asked trying to get them back on a normal line of interrogation.

"Oh hell no. He doesn't like seeing me," she said. "I'm annoying."

She said it so nonchalantly that it actually dealt a blow to Steve. She had been told so many times that she was annoying that she actually believed it. And that was a terrible thing for any person to internalize.

"So what is the deal here?" Danny asked again.

"Oh, I put everything in the hidden cache in my locker and once a week I bring what I got to him. Unless I got something pretty big."

"What constitutes as big?"

"Well three nights ago I stole a car."

Oh holy fuck.

"You stole a fucking car?" Steve snapped. "Are you fucking shitting me? You know you just admitted to grand theft auto, right?!"

Rory actually blanked like she hadn't actually known that, or like she thought that he wouldn't include it. Steve could feel Danny staring at him and he wished he knew what his problem was.

"Do you uh… do you wanna get back on track here?" he asked him and Steve rolled his eyes. Right so he shouldn't have been so concerned with what Rory was incriminating herself with but he couldn't help it. He had a feeling that this girl had no idea just how deep a hole she was digging herself.

"How do you get a hold of him?" Steve asked and behind him Danny huffed clearly

"He calls, never on the same number."

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Danny cried interrupting her. Steve turned back Danny completely exasperated. "Is that really it? That's all you want to ask her?"

"What? What else do you want me to say Danny?"

"Did you completely miss the part where she said she has a hidden cache in her locker?"

Actually he had. He had completely missed it.

"You have a locker here?" he asked. Danny huffed again so he added: "That has a cache in it?"

"Uhm… no?"

Danny turned to Steve who simply intoned: "Rory," and she threw her head back and groaned.

"Fine, yes. It's in the back."

Steve and Danny exchanged glances and Steve reached out for Rory's arm again. He put that cuff on her wrist and then onto his and said: "Right let's go."

Rory just sighed heavily. "Ah… this blows."

But she got up, and that was all that mattered.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rory led them into the back and then pointed out her locker. She got it open for them but was having issues getting to the cache. Or… at least she said she was having issues. She asked to be uncuffed from him but he knew that was a trap.

If he uncuffed her he'd lose her, or well, she'd try to bolt. He wasn't chancing losing her again.

So Danny took her place, trying to find where she had put this cache she was speaking of.

This left Steve and Rory standing back and kind of staring at one another. He sort of wished they weren't cuffed simply so he could take his shirt off and drape it over her shoulders. She looked cold in her strap-y, way too short, skin-tight red dress of hers.

She looked so pretty. He couldn't really quantify what it was about her just that she was absolutely stunning, to the point where he could barely stand to look at her. It literally physically hurt to look at her. And she was in so much trouble, god how he wished he could save her from it but he couldn't.

Steve couldn't stop himself from reaching a hand out, his fingers touching the tips of her very short brown hair. "Why did you change it?" he asked softly. Because he had liked her the way she was.

"Oh, he said I had to."

Did she mean Wo or her brother?

"What, why?"

"Yeah, he said something about how someone was super fixated on me so he wanted me to change how I looked to throw him off," she said.

He found himself breathlessly asking: "Did he say who," even though he had a feeling he knew exactly who it was they were worried about.

"I unno, he told me, I swear, but uh… I was concussed at the time and I didn't really take it in," she said. Ah so this would have been right after North Korea. So yeah, he definitely knew who it was that they were worried about. Cause it was him.

His eyes travelled to the scar he could see snaking up her forehead and into her hair. He could barely see it though, as she had managed to cover it up with make up.

"Anyway, I said cut the blonde out of my hair not realizing how much of the blonde I actually had. Do uhm… do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's uh… is that your natural hair color?"

"Mhmm…"

"Seriously?!" Danny thundered and Steve practically jumped away from her. He hadn't realized it but he had been playing with her hair, tucking it behind her ear and brushing his thumb across her cheek. "What the actual fuck is wrong with you?"

Steve knew exactly what was wrong, which was Rory's presence unnerved him. But he was not going to tell Danny that in front of her. And luckily for him he didn't have to.

"Wow, is he always so grumpy?" Rory asked and Danny went a red color that meant he was about to explode on her.

Steve immediately stepped in between them only to free the cuff he had attached to his own wrist. He whirled around immediately and grabbed Rory by the back of her shoulders before she could bolt.

"No, nope, no," he said turning her back around and pushing her towards the lockers. "He clearly can't find the cache, go get it please."

"You're going to have to uncuff me," she said. Instead, Steve pulled a barstool, that had been sitting in the corner, to them, uncuffed himself and then cuffed her to it.

"Seriously?" she asked and he just shrugged.

"I figure it'll be hard to run away with that attached to you," he said. "Or at the very least I'll hear where you are."

"You're a dick," she said, but she dragged that over to her locked and went about trying to get to the back of it while attached to a stool.

"So how do you know Wo Fat?"

"Who?"

"What do you mean who, the one who told you to cut your hair," he said and Rory turned back to him with a confused look on her face. "The man at the restaurant?"

"The man at the restaurant?" she asked and then realization dawned on her face. "Oh, you mean Jackie?"

Steve scowled at her. Really? She was dating him and she didn't know his real name? He was calling bullshit.

"His name is Wo Fat."

"Well, I call him Jackie. I'm on loan to him."

"What, why?"

"Duh, cause I can steal things…" she said absently as she went about try to stuff herself into her locker, but she was having difficulty with that barstool attached to one of her wrists.

"And where are you brothers? Anton said you had dangerous brothers. And Victor confirmed... he confirmed that the people you had come to rescue you were your security detail that work for your brothers. So is Wo Fat your brother or you're Security detail?"

She stopped focusing on her locker and turned back to him. "Uh… security detail."

Why did it sound like she was just agreeing with whatever he was saying? She was lying but he didn't know why she would just go with whatever he said. What was she hiding?

"So you don't work with him?"

"Well I do, but he's also supposed to keep me safe. You know… it's kind of complicated right now," she said.

Steve and Danny exchanged glances.

"CIA says you've been on loan to him for three years."

Rory turned back around again. "CIA hmm?" she asked. "Is that Agent Kaye?"

Great she knew Agent Kaye too.

"I wouldn't listen to a lot of what Agent Kaye has to say, half of that interrogation we were all high on noxious gas. I don't even remember half of what I said. Pretty sure her own grief filled in the rest."

Steve glared at her. "So, you're saying Wo Fat really went into Langley and broke you out?"

"He had to," she said. "When my brothers are working Jackie's in charge of my welfare. So when I got arrested on his time, he had to get me out. Thems the rules."

"And your brothers? Where are they now?"

"Working."

"Where?"

"I unno, somewhere, they don't usually take me with them. I'm annoying remember?" she asked and he did. He just didn't like her saying that. "I'm also hazardous around their business. A liability if you were."

"But they let you work with Wo Fat?"

"You're really fixated on Jackie," Rory said turning away from the locker again. "Why are you so interested in him?"

"His name is Wo Fat and I have my reasons that are none of your business," Steve snapped.

"Jeeze, alright, no need to get snippy with me Rambo!" she cried as she turned back to the locker. Steve bit back his groan.

"I'm not getting… stop interrupting me. You're… you're dating him? Jackie? I mean Wo Fat."

At that Rory stopped once more and turned back to him. "Did he say that?"

"Sort of…"

Rory pinned him with a narrowed look and a dragged out: "Interesting."

"Why is that interesting?" Danny asked as Rory turned back to the locker. She was clearly trying to peel something away from the back. What an ingenious place to hide something. Even she was having issues getting it out, though that might have been because she was handcuffed to stool.

"He's never admitted that before, so I guess I never considered us dating. Specially cause I'm always seeing other people. Would explain why he keeps interrupting, ruining, and sometimes physically harming my dates though. Thought my brothers told him to do that but maybe he's just jealous."

Right so they weren't dating? They weren't… what the hell was going on? Were they dating in Wo Fat's mind and not hers? Was he her bodyguard or was she his thief? Clearly they didn't communicate well.

With one big tug she got the back panel free and then she was reaching into the shadowy crevice behind it. And it must have been huge because she came out with a whole ass toolbox.

A red Champ, toolbox.

Rory opened it up and let them see all she had inside. "Right, so, as I said, I just did a drop like… three days ago, you know with the car, so I don't have much," she said. Except it was filled with things. Wallets, bundles of cash, and electronics such as cameras and phones were in the bottom compartment, included a few designer clutches. The top was filled with rings and necklaces and jewellery.

"Jesus," Danny sighed but Steve was practically hyperventilating.

Because that toolbox, looked like his dad's. All the way down to the oil permanently staining it.

Steve put a hand out to it, it had the same dents and scratches. He knew, it was his dad's.

"Where did you get this?"

Rory glanced up to him and then down to the tool box with a furrowed brow. "Uh… which thing?" she asked.

"The toolbox, Rory! Where did you get the toolbox?"

And that just seemed to confuse her because she was now staring at him with blank blinking eyes.

"Uhm… I… I mean… why does that matter? It's just a toolbox."

"It's my dad's toolbox."

"Oh shit," Danny cried from behind him and Steve eyes stayed on Rory who was even more confused now.

She took a long look at the toolbox before her, her eyes blinking as if she was still digesting what this meant. "Oh. Snap. Why didn't I remember that?" she seemed to ask herself. "Huh… well I guess that's why I wanted it so bad."

Steve just glared at her. "Where the hell did you get this?" he repeated and Rory winced.

"So Jackie has this thing with the Yakuza and the Oyabun here, and I may have got it from them."

Okay that meant she had got it from the Yakuza and the Oyabun. Wow, she knew a lot of people. He'd bet money with was Hiro Noshimuri who gave her this.

"What about everything inside?" Steve asked.

"Oh uh…. Jackie has it, I think. I unno they went through it and I wanted the toolbox so they let me have it."

"They just let you have it? Why?"

"Well the Oyabun likes me," she said. "He thinks I'm funny and… he knows my brothers and… well I have the hole in one trick."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah I can always get a hole in one, doesn't matter the course," she said. "Can only do it once though, can't do it hole to hole." She then paused. "That sounded really sexual. I mean golf."

"So you can do a golf trick and they just gave you something they stole out of the McGarrett house?"

"No, I unno, people don't usually say no to me."

"What? Why?" Danny cried, but Steve knew why.

"I guess cause my brothers are heavily invested in my happiness and the last person who said no to me died," she said absent and then smiled up to them. "And Stevie here can you all about what happen to the last people to arrest me."

She said it with this grin, this dangerous dark grin. Her eyes had gone this light blue like ice and for the first time Steve could see exactly what it was that Jenna Kaye had seen in that interrogation. She definitely did have the same capabilities as her brother she just clearly hid them very well.

Danny pulled him away. "Dude, that was fucking terrifying, I thought you said she wasn't like them?"

He thought she wasn't, but clearly she was. "I unno what to tell you man. She's a lot different then before."

He was starting to realize that she was a much better actor than he thought. They turned back to her to see that she had already gotten the handcuff they had attached to the stool off and was working on the one of her wrist. Steve shook his head. This was ridiculous.

"We need her. Wo Fat will come to her, he has to if he's on his payroll, and she's the only link we have to the Master."

"Yeah but death follows her, doesn't that worry you?"

Of course, but it needed to be done.

"Congratulations Rory," he said heading towards her. Taking that cuff she had just gotten on her wrist and putting it right back on, completely disregarding the disappointed groan when he did. "You're officially in protective custody."

Rory turned her eyes away from the handcuff that was now anchoring to him and blinked her eyes at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means you're our witness, and we're going to take you into protective custody to make sure both your brother and Wo Fat can't get to you."

"Witness to what exactly?" Rory asked.

"To all of Wo Fat's criminal acts."

Rory took that in and then groaned. "Ah Christ on a Cracker, Jackie's gonna kill me."