One Thing

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hey there my wonderful readers! So here we are, the conclusion of that season 2 episode 1. We're heading into a flashback with the next chapter and it's super cute so that's exciting. I know you guys are wondering when Steve's going to find Rowan again, but that's not going to happen until chapter 16, which will be soon, but we've got some time until we get there. 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 12

It wasn't the escape he dreamed of, it definitely had more stabbing than he wanted, but it had gotten him out.

After Wo Fat had left he had been taken out to the yard for his outside time. He was separated from the general population because he put quite a few of the bad guys in there in the first place. He was supposed to be in the yard alone. He planned to do some sit ups, throw a basketball around, run a few laps.

He had been really into fitness recently, more than he was before. It was literally all he ever did now-a-days. Wasn't like he had anything else to do.

But he had only been out there for a couple minutes when the guards let someone else out with him. Now already he was suspicious. When it turned out to be Hesse he knew right away that he was being set up.

He and Hesse got into a fight, Hesse had a shank, none of the guards came to help him in time. Steve tried to fight him off but he got stabbed.

Cue to him in an ambulance being transported to the hospital.

Steve wasn't going to make it there though. Not cause he was badly injured and going to die, no, Steve was going to escape.

He took out the two EMT's and jumped from the moving ambulance. He tucked and rolled, got himself up and sprinted away.

But he was hurt, and he needed help. He needed to go somewhere but he knew if the first place HPD would look would be at his dads, the second would be all the Five-0's houses. He needed somewhere else to lay low.

As he thought about what he was going to do, he found a gas station, went inside, tried to patch up his wound best he could, and a cop car showed up. Steve hadn't wanted to fight the guy, but he must have noticed the bloody paper towels he had stuffed into the garbage because he came for Steve in the stall he was hiding in.

After that he had no choice.

He incapacitated the cop, put on his uniform and stole the police car. Then he went to Max's cause damn did he need help and he was the only one we could think of to go to.

When he got there, Max wasn't home. He broke in, and immediately, now that the adrenaline had worn off, he could feel all the dizzying pain that he was in. He went to the washroom hoping to find something to help him but things just ended up going fuzzy around the edges before finally fading to black.

When he woke up again someone was saying his name.

At first he thought it was Rory.

He dreamed of her a lot. He dreamed of the way she felt beside him, not just the way she melded into his arm, but the actual feeling of her against him. This warmth that sat on his chest when she was near him. He dreamed of her hair whether it was tickling his nose or the way it felt sliding through his fingers. He dreamed of her hands on him, how her fingertips felt tracing patterns into his skin or threading through his hair.

He dreamed of the way she tasted.

But Rory never called him Commander McGarrett.

His eyes focused in on a ceiling fan. Rory's voice faded away and became Max's.

And the memory of Rory's badly decomposed body sitting on a morgue table hit him full force.

He wasn't ever going to hear Rory's voice again because he had let her die.

"Commander McGarrett? Can you hear me?"

Steve forced himself to focus on Max and the situation at hand. He didn't have time to mourn Rory, he had to worry about himself. He glanced down to his abdomen where the stab wound still pulse in agony. He was lying on that couch in only the pair of pants he had stolen, he was completely shirtless. He had been wrapped up, and clearly treated.

That was very nice of Max to do that for him.

"Max, the least you can do after you patch me up is call me Steve."

The Asian man in front of him smiled. "Oh, well, thank you, Steve."

He was taking this consideringly well. "I'm sorry I broke into your house. I, uh… I didn't have anywhere else to go."

"No apologies necessary. In fact, I'm quite humbled that you feel comfortable enough to come to me. I… however, I am curious as to how you acquired that wound. I'm guessing that it as a crudely sharpened piece of unsterilized metal—"

"I got shanked in prison, Max," Steve said cutting him off and Max nodded.

"Oh," then he actually paused to do some thinking. "So, then you didn't come by that uniform in a legal manner."

Steve just stared at him blankly.

"You don't watch the news, do you?"

"I try not to. It's very scary." Steve wanted to laugh but it hurt to do that so he tried to keep his chuckles in. Max got up and turned away and Steve did his best to sit up. It was hard work, let me tell you.

"My roommate is visiting family on the mainland. You two are approximately the same size."

He handed Steve clothes and he smiled. He wouldn't have to wear a blood stolen cop's uniform anymore.

He had just gotten the shirt on when someone knocked on the door.

Steve was immediately alert.

"Who is that?"

"It's alright," Max said instead of answering heading for the door.

Jesus Christ. No! No! Come on, Steve was a wanted fugitive, yes he hadn't flat out said it to Max but he had to have put two and two together. The man was a genius for god sake.

"Max! Don't get the door," he ordered but Max scampered right past him telling him it's fine again.

No it fucking wasn't.

"Don't answer the door Max!" he cried but the idiot was opening the door so Steve went for the handgun that had been left on the coffee table.

Steve pointed the gun just as the door opened, panicked that he was about to get arrested again before he had managed to prove his innocence, but It was just Danny and Chin.

Max closed the door behind them and Danny rounded the couch to bear down on Steve.

"What the hell is the matter with you, huh?" he practically shouted.

Right, see he hadn't missed this at all.

He liked it better when Danny was on the other side of glass with prison guards around him cause then he couldn't bitch or raise his voice.

"What is the matter with you? Breaking out of jail? Taking out a cop? Have you lost your mind?"

Seriously, why was he getting yelled at right now? He had enough on his plate, he didn't need this.

"Why are you yelling at me?"

"I'm not yelling at you!" Danny definitely yelled.

"Actually, you were expressing yourself in a very loud manner," Max interjected.

Danny turned to him. "Hey! Zip it, Kermit! Okay?" He then turned back to Steve and repeated: "Have you lost your mind?"

"What choice did I have, Danny?"

"What choice did you have? What does that even mean?"

Chin immediately moved in to shush the both. Cause that was all they needed someone to call in a noise complaint and Steve getting found.

"You alright?"

There see! This was why Chin was his favourite.

"Yes. Thank you for asking, Chin," he said being sure to put as much attitude in his voice so Danny knew that this was the correct response. "I'm alright. Thanks to Max."

Chin turned to Max "Mahalo for calling."

"Did anybody follow you guys?"

"Undercover unit tried to, managed to shake the tail." Good that was good. "Hey, heard you stole a squad car. Where did you ditch it?"

"A few blocks south. It's behind a construction site."

"I'll take it up to the north shore, distract HPD."

Steve winced. Come on, Chin had just gotten that nice promotion he didn't want to ruin it for him in case this all went south.

"You are HPD, Chin. You remember?"

"Hey, just because the badge says HPD doesn't mean I'm not Five-0. You know that."

"I know. You did what you had to do. Okay? Right now, I wanna find Wo Fat. You understand?"

Chin nodded. "Kono is following one of his guys right now. AS soon as we get eyes on him, we'll be there."

Great, that was great news. Behind Chin, Danny's phone rang. He answered it, spoke briefly in one word responses and then said: "Yeah, he's here, let me put it on speakerphone."

Steve was momentarily concerned but then it was Joe White's voice coming out at him.

"Steve, you okay?"

"Yes, sir. Uh, where are you?"

"I found someone you need to talk to. 5423 Puuikenna Drive. I'll be waiting out front."

God, see this was why he loved his training officer. He didn't lecture him, he didn't call him stupid, just straight to business. He knew exactly what Steve wanted to do and he was already moving to help him.

"Right. Copy that. I'm on my way."

Joe hung up and Danny went straight to bitching mode. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean you're on your way? You're not on your way. You're a fugitive. You remember that?"

"You hear the man, Danny. He's got something."

"Yeah. I heard him. We all heard him. He doesn't have anything. He's got an address. That's all. Unless Master Yoda can send telepathic messages that the rest of us cannot hear—"

"Actually," Max said interrupting again. "Yoda technically didn't have telepathic powers."

"Seriously? Right now? Please," Danny snapped before turning back to Steve. "Please, listen to me. Is there any way that I can talk you out of this?"

"Has it ever worked before, Danny?"

Danny sighed heavily. "No."

"Okay, so let's go, yeah?"

And they did. Just in Danny's car, but in Max's so HPD wouldn't tail them.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat had just finished his deal with Hauff at Ko'olina and the boat was moving away from Pier 49 when a grating static ran over his senses.

No.

No she didn't.

He turned and Ro was coming out from behind a door, Con following her. Son of a fucking bitch she was supposed to be on the Aurelia. That was where this boat was going after all. To meet the Aurelia. Why wasn't she on his yacht like she promised she'd be?

He needed her on that fucking yacht.

Fucking McGarrett had escaped prison somehow and was on the loose. It wasn't crazy to assume that he was going after Wo Fat, he couldn't have Ro here if he showed up.

She was supposed to be dead. McGarrett was certain she was dead. It was apparently a sore point, which meant he cared for her, and that was confusing cause he couldn't fathom why. Yes, they had a more romantic relationship but Ro was adamant that they never got to sleep together. The men in Ro's life never got that attached until she slept with them. Her vag was fucking magical or something, casting spells on unsuspecting one-night stands. If she hadn't slept with him like she claimed then why the hell was he at this level of obsession?

It was very important that Steven McGarrett continued to think she was dead.

Because having to explain why he faked her death when he was supposed to have been mad at her would not be easy. He'd probably figure out the secret and he didn't want him to know that Ro wasn't just a weakness but the weakness.

Then on top of that Officer Kalakaua had shown up. Had been trailing him, knew about the person he was selling his raw materials to. So he had to get rid of her.

This was getting way too complicated. And her showing up now was not good. He just knew it.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed and then turned to Con. "And why the hell did you let her come here?"

"I wanna go for lunch," she said and Wo Fat rolled his eyes.

And that would be how she got Con to agree. All the man ever did was eat. Too much actually. Wo Fat was worried the man had a tapeworm. It was the only way to explain how he was so thin when he ate the amount he did.

"Where did I tell you to stay? I was very clear, where were you supposed to stay?"

Now it was Ro's turn to roll her eyes. "On the boat, but I'm bored and I missed you so I'm here. Can we go for lunch please?"

"Ro I'm working."

"You are not, you're done. You were coming to meet me anyway. You just got paid, lets get crazy!"

Wo Fat shook his head before sighing. Her excitement had always been contagious and they all knew just how hard he found it to say no to her.

"Alright, what did you have in mind?"

Ro squealed with excitement, did that bouncing thing of hers and then suddenly her face deadpanned.

Her eyes went blank, the smile faded from her lips and a static jolt erupted from her and slammed right into him, and by the way Con jerked it went through him too.

Then Ro just dropped to her knees.

"Jesus!" Con cried. "That was a strong one."

Wo Fat stared down at Ro. Usually when a vision hit her all at once like that she was down for the count. If it was really bad she's seize up. She was definitely out of it but she wasn't seizing that was good right?

Instead her hands raised, her fingers poised to pick at the strings only she could see like they were a harp. But her eyes were narrowing in confusion.

"What the hell is this? All these… red strings… I can't… what the hell is happening?"

That didn't sound good.

"Red strings?" Con echoed. "What did she said red was? Death?"

"No, black's death," he said. "I'm not sure what she said red was. I don't remember her having red strings before."

He knew pink was family cause they bound up her to him and her to Con, and while she said it bounded him to Con too he didn't quite buy it. He liked the man but he didn't think of him as a brother like Ro said he did.

He crouched down beside her and put a hand to her shoulder. He hated doing this, because it hurt. It always hurt, but he couldn't help her if he didn't see.

The second he touched her, a static jolt ran up his arm but now he could see what she saw.

And it was horrifying.

They were surrounded by a wall of red strings. She must have put up some sort of shield because they were in a perfect sphere.

"Jesus," he whispered. She was right this was new. The strings had never done this before.

"I don't know what to do. Something's trying to push through but these are in the way."

She sounded scared. She usually was when the void did things that were new.

He hated it when his sister was scared.

He wanted these strings to go away. And no sooner did he think it did it happen.

It was like his thoughts were a weapon. The pink strings that held the two of them together shot from him and into the web of red.

They seemed to duel but eventually Wo Fat managed to push them back and once they were pushed back he literally felt Ro's vision hit her.

The void and the strings left his vision when it left Ro's. Normally he'd be a bit disorientated, except this time he didn't get he chance.

"Five-0!" she cried. "Steve, he's here, he's on the boat."

And the gunshots that followed that cry confirmed that claim.

Both Wo Fat and Con lunged for the two briefcases filed with money, while Ro got up to go to the door.

"Get a portal open Ro."

"I'm trying," she said. "I'm blocked again."

Blocked from making a portal? What the actual shit? This had never happened before.

Lies it had. Once, when she was first starting out and panicked, she could get a strong enough grip on her powers to open the portal. But Wo Fat knew how to fix that.

Wo Fat crossed to her again where she was frantically opening the door over and over again, the portal not appearing like she wanted it to.

He put a hand to her shoulder. "Breathe," he whispered. "Just breathe and focus."

She looked at him, those blue eyes of her wide and filled with fear. He did the first breath by himself, but she followed him through for the second and the third.

She then turned back to the door, focused and with him there beside her she managed to open up the portal to the right place and the three of them went through.

He didn't know it, but Steve came into that room not ten seconds later. Any sooner and he would have caught them. Any sooner and he might have seen Ro's alive, and her powers in action.

He didn't know it, but Steve had been flabbergasted to realize that Wo Fat was gone. He had searched that boat high and low and found not a single trace of him.

He couldn't figure out how it happened, how Wo Fat had managed to escape. Wo Fat had just disappeared seemingly into thin air and he had no idea how he did it.

And if Wo Fat got his way, he never would.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

John McGarrett had saved the day.

He had put a camera in the Governors office. That was how they proved Steve hadn't killed Governor Jameson. That person Joe had sent him to was a friend of John's, they met there at his house and he told him about the camera. He had chosen this place because very few people knew of his friendship with this friend, and this friend had been the person to put John on this path originally.

They had hired him to look into the Yakuza having connections to HPD, which John uncovered went all the way up to the Governor.

He hadn't told them about it when this first started because he knew the Governor was dirty, he knew Wo Fat was working with the Governor, but he didn't know who else. He was afraid to tell them what he knew, and where the camera was until he knew they could get it without alerting the dirty parties that they had evidence.

So, he waited until Joe White came to town. But then Steve jumped the gun to escape. With that knowledge he sent Chin and Danny to get the clock that the camera was hidden in and they then showed it to the new Governor.

But though the camera proved that it wasn't Steve who killed the previous Governor, it didn't show Wo Fat. They couldn't tell it was him, his face had never been shown. So, it was circumstantial at best on that end, but it proved Steve's innocence without a shadow of a doubt.

When that was proved Steve got his team back, he stopped being a fugitive, and they got Five-0. But it all came with conditions.

Steve was fine with it so long as the new governor let Steve go after Wo Fat.

When they got there the deal had already been done. Steve took Danny and Chin and went after Wo Fat and the boat and Kono and Joe went after the buyer and found the raw materials for a dirty bomb.

They had Wo Fat dead to rights, but when they got onto the boat, and into the room where they were sure he was he wasn't there.

He had gotten away and Steve still had no idea how he had done it.

But something else had happened.

Something in his chest had tightened. This had been happening since Rory had died. He'd get this ache in his chest, that was… pulling him almost. It would fill him with such a need to move that he couldn't breathe.

Sometimes he'd just get in his car and let it take him places. So far it had led him to two of Wo Fat's warehouses and then three houses that had not had anything important in them. Just rental properties.

So sometimes useful, sometimes not.

This was like that, but worse. This was not the same ache, though it felt made of the same stuff. This was a squeeze, like someone took a hold of his heart and was trying to crush it in their hands. It was so bad it actually dropped him down to one knee.

If Chin, who was still in the boat they had used to chase this boat down, hadn't shot the man standing above him Steve would have been killed.

When the pain went away, when he got up to his feet, that pulse that had been in his chest was gone. And so was Wo Fat.

Seriously, how the hell did he get off that fucking boat?

Steve was disappointed, very disappointed. And the disappointment just got worse.

When he got back to the mainland he got a good look at the video that saved him. And found that if you rewound it you found more footage.

Footage of John in a meeting with Wo Fat and the Governor. So you know, that was how he knew Wo Fat, that was probably how he knew the Governor was dirty. Doesn't explain why he didn't tell him, and when questioned he simply said that he thought he was protecting him.

Steve didn't need protection. He needed answers.

The audio to the video was gone, probably something John did. And his father wouldn't answer his questions.

So he figured he'd ask Hesse. Hesse knew more about Wo Fat then anyone else at this point, but when they went to talk to him his throat had been slit and all cameras in that area of the prison had been taken down.

No idea how but they all died at the same time. Like an EMP burst.

Yeah, a bittersweet end to what could have been a great day.

Steve was forced to return home empty handed, trying to be grateful that he was a free man, proven innocent without having to go to trial, and that he had also gotten his team back. But when he got home Joe was waiting for him.

"Hey, Joe," he said as he came in. "I didn't know that…"

"I wanted to talk to you about something," he said gesturing for Steve to follow him into the kitchen where his dad was sitting.

The two had been friends forever, so it made sense that he'd come and visit with him after the day wound down.

"Did you get dad to open up about what that video was about?" he asked and both John and Joe shook their heads.

Right, so that was how it was going to be.

"Your friend, Agent Kaye, she showed me all her surveillance still of Wo Fat. And she had a picture that was kind of out of place. A picture of a girl. Rory," Joe said. "Agent Kaye mentioned she was a casualty and John mentioned that her death… it seems to have really affected you."

Steve winced. It seemed foolish to be embarrassed but the fact of the matter was that he was. Joe had trained him to be strong and he had thought that he had hidden his pain best he could.

"I… I feel responsible. She was… I promised her and he… he slit her throat and threw her into the ocean to rot and… I…"

"I understand," Joe said. "But I wanted to show you something."

Steve nodded coming towards the table. Then he watched as Joe put down four files.

The first was Rory. His Rory. With her short brown hair and her brig blue eyes. The Rory he knew.

Then he put down another file. The picture inside was still Rory, but different. Black hair, shoulder length, pin straight.

Then a third file. This Rory had blonde hair, curly and in pigtails.

And then the last. The red to blonde faded Rory he met first, except her hair was so fucking long he couldn't see the end of it in the picture.

"What is this?"

"Well, they're all her right? All Rory?"

"Yes," he whispered because she didn't have a twin, obviously. But why so many? How many times had Wo Fat changed her hair and Identity?

Joe pointed to the first file, the one of the red-to-blonde fade. "The farthest back we can find is this one. Three years ago. China. She was admitted to the ER with a stab wound. They were told her name was Robin Wang. The man who dropped her off fits Wo Fat's description. They say he stayed the whole time until she was awake. He was the one who signed her out. Twenty Four hours she was found dead. Shot to the back of the head, nothing was left of her face. DNA and Fingerprints were used to identify but the coroner who did it, we now know is a known associate of Wo Fat."

Jesus Christ.

"Then six months later, we've got the black hair, said her name was Rose Falcon, she was down in Colombia with Wo Fat who was helping out the Diaz Cartel. We're not entirely sure what happened but the Diaz Cartel made a play on the house where Wo Fat was keeping that girl and it was a complete and utter Massacre. They gave her a new name, started calling her La Bruja, means the witch," he said. "There was a literal which hunt for her. Month later we're given another body. And she's once again thought dead."

Steve was staring at him. What was he trying to say?

"A year later, this one," he said pointing to the third file. Blonde hair Rory. "This one she was found in Wo Fat's compound in California, played herself off as a victim of a kidnapping. Told everyone her name was Roxanne Carlton. By the time they figured out she was actually with him she was gone. They put her on a no-fly list and a week later they found this underground smoke pit, like an Imu, the remains inside were unrecognizable but they managed to figure out that it was her."

Steve could see the pattern now. Starting with she always picked names that started with Ro, which was her nickname.

"Then she shows up in North Korea with Anton Hesse, new name, new hair style, and now she's dead… again…"

"What are you saying?"

"Well what happened to her body?"

Steve sighed because this upset him too. "I was gonna bury her, but there was a mix up… she had been cremated…"

"That too is a common theme. We can't test any of the bodies because they were cremated as soon as the identify was confirmed. We now know that he no doubt used body doubles but we'll never know who he used unless he admits to it."

Fucking hell. So he just killed people put them in her place and had everyone think she was dead? Why… why would he do this? Over and over? What was the point? Why was he protecting her by making people think she was dead?

"And what about the Master?"

"Well, no one's ever seen him. They only ever see Wo Fat and your girl. Rory," he said.

Steve picked up the picture. "You think she's alive, is that it?"

Joe nodded. "He's been faking her death all over the world. It would make sense that he'd do it again, especially if he thought you were getting too interested in her. It's what he's done every other time."

A little flicker of hope lit up in his heart. Rory might be alive. He might not have failed, he might be able to see her again.

Even if it was just a possibility, even if he didn't have any proof, it was all he needed to ignite that beacon of hope. And just the added bit more fuel on that fire, that burning need he had to find Wo Fat.

Because if Joe was right and Rory was still alive. Then she would be with Wo Fat.

And he was going to find them.