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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Did you know this chapter was 15 pages before I cut it in half? That is wild. This is also a pretty funny chapter so I hope you guys enjoy! Don't forget to leave a review or drop a fav or a follow and I'll see you guys next week! Hey! Anyone doing National Novel Writing Month this year? Let me know I'd love to have more writing buddies.

Chapter 425

While they were discussing what they were going to do next, Oliver called the cops.

He wasn't Oliver though, he was Ollie, the little boy version of him. Ollie had called because his dad, Pat, the violent alter, had done something bad. Alicia had tried to talk to him, but Pat hadn't wanted him to, he made Ollie hang up.

Jerry had done a trace and found out that he had called from the corner of Pohukaina and Cooke and that was them rushing off to catch him.

Steve had tried to get Chloe to stay behind, trying to dissuade her while he put on his Kevlar and picked his favourite weapons to load into the trunk of the Camaro. She had not listened, so they had put her in Kevlar too.

He didn't like having to bring her but there she was in the back of the Camaro with that stupid note book wearing Kevlar.

"Chloe, listen. You didn't have to come along, you understand that, right?"

"No, no, your wife hired me to make an assessment and I'm going…" she started and then took a deep breath. "Do… do you have to drive this fast?"

"Oh, we always do it like this. You're gonna be okay, I promise."

Beside him Danny deeply exhaled but otherwise said nothing. Steve glanced at him, suddenly confused. It was awfully quiet in that car, normally Danny would be bitching by now and he had no idea why Danny hadn't said a single thing.

Steve continued to shoot glances at Danny but still nothing came and honestly he was starting to get really worried.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked when he couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Me?" Danny echoed, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, you."

"I didn't say anything."

"I know you didn't. That's why I'm asking what's wrong. Usually by now you've said something hilarious like, Hey Steve, it's not the DeLorean time machine. You don't have to get it up to 88."

"That's actually funny," Danny said, which was also a very big red flag.

'Or maybe, Hey, can you turn up the radio? I say why. You say, Cause I'm pretty sure I just heard the GPS lady say she wants to get out."

"That's good."

"Yeah? Rowan used that one on me a couple of days ago," Steve said. "She also made me pull over to throw up after that but… you know..."

Steve waited for Danny to bring up how Rowan must be pregnant and Steve was stupid for thinking that she wasn't but it never came.

"I think you're doing a fine job." Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. What the fuck did he just say? "In fact, maybe you wanna give Grace a driving lesson this weekend or something like that."

Steve sat there for all of two seconds before he realize what was happening. "Oh, my God. You told him he's part of the problem, didn't you?" Chloe said nothing so he glanced to Danny "She did, didn't she? She said to you that your constant complaining and criticisms are contributing to my stress." When he got a good look at Danny's unimpressed glare and heard his wry chckles, he knew he was right. "She did!" he cried and then he too laughed. "You know what, Chloe? I think you're right. I think I do have a stress problem. And you know where it is? Right here riding shotgun with me every day."

"Well I'm glad you think its funny cause uh… she's going to tell Ro the same thing…"

The smile was knocked right off of Steve's face. "Ro? Ro! My Ro?"

"Yes, Ro. Your wife. Your Ro."

"Rowan?!" Steve cried. Almost turning around to look at her before turning back to the road. "You're going to tell my wife who is paying you that she's the problem!" he didn't even give her a chance to answer he simply shouted: "Don't you FUCKING DARE!"

Chloe had a wide eyed look of fear on her face and he thought good, maybe that would keep her from spouting any of that nonsense at Rowan, but nope. That wasn't it.

"Keep your eyes on the road, please," she squeaked and Steve begrudgingly turned back around, a dangerous scowl on his face as he fixed the Camaro's trajectory.

Out of spite alone he began to drive faster. "If you think I'm going to let you tell my wife she's contributing to my stress you have another thing coming. I'm serious. I don't care if it's true, I absolutely fucking draw the line…" he came to a halt when his phone started ringing. "We will continue this later."

But they never got to it because they found a dead body at the corner where Oliver called 911 from but he wasn't not there.

Jerry was still tracking him though, and for some reason, he was heading to HPD headquarters.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Duke had said that Oliver had walked into HPD headquarters in his father's old uniform, badge and gun and everything. He calmly walked to an empty desk and sat down, starting to flip through files like they were his.

Steve had called him in advance so he was sure to make sure all of the cops knew to keep a wide berth and just let him sit there. Duke had gone up after some time to talk to him, told him that the old Captain was in the office looking for him.

Never mind that Tanaka was retired now, Oliver wouldn't remember that. If he really thought he was Pat he wouldn't think anything of it. He had agreed, and they had shoved him into the office and then barricaded the door shut.

There should have been no way for him to get out, but when Steve and Danny got there, he was gone. He had gone through the ceiling and disappeared.

They had found him as he was escaping, he went down into the parking garage, knocked out a cop, stole a car and ran off again.

Steve and Danny, along with Grover and Tani, and of course, Chloe, who he could not get to stay behind no matter how hard he tried, chased him back to his house, where it all started.

He was trapped now and he could tell, so he had threated to kill himself. He'd shoot them all, kill all his alters. And well, they didn't want him to do that, so they let him go inside the house.

It seemed like minutes later Alicia was showing up with the dress that Claudia had died in, saying that she knew how to get him to stop, how to get Pat to go away and Ollie to get out. She had a sandwich and everything, like a tuna fucking sandwich was going to fix this.

But she was right, she had the only idea that didn't involve breaking down the door and shooting him or having a sniper get him through a window. She he let Alicia go in, after he made sure that the snipers were in place and ready to go.

It was while they were waiting, listening to her talk to Oliver/Pat, to see if it was going to work, when Rowan showed up.

She just appeared beside Steve and he jumped. He hadn't realized she was there and he always knew when she was close. He was legitimately surprised he hadn't sensed her.

She just appeared by his side with a soft: "Hello," and he almost yelped.

"Baby," he had cried. "Baby, why are you here?"

He hugged her tightly, a little concerned about why he hadn't sensed her, but he didn't want to start an argument so he just kept quiet.

"I've been calling you but you didn't pick up."

Steve went to his phone, noted the calls and then put it back in his pocket. "Baby, I'm sorry, but I have a bit of a situation…"

"Yes, I know, where's Chloe?"

"Chloe?" he echoed and then turned around to where he had her hidden safely behind one of the squad cars. He waved her over. "What do you need her for?"

"Just to prove a point," she said, she too waved at Chloe as she got close and then turned around and shouted: "Come here!"

Steve followed her eyes and found Wo Fat as he jogged towards him. Ah, so that's why he didn't sense her, Wo's presence must have dampened the affects, though why he was muting her powers was beyond Steve.

That might have been because he had finally been made aware that she shouldn't be using her powers and was subconsciously trying to stop her. A little surprised he had let her pull him here, seeing as he knew what Steve and Con did now.

When he got close she grabbed onto the fabric of his suit jacket and pulled him to her side. She then gestured to Chloe who was standing before her.

"This is Chloe Gordon. She's a stress coach."

Wo's eyebrows furrowed. "Stress coach?" he echoed. "Like, someone who helps you manage your stress?"

Rowan nodded and Wo's frown deepened. "Now… hold on a second. While I appreciate you care, this isn't entirely fair. You're why I'm stressed," he cried. "You are never not in trouble, you forced me to adopt a younger brother who's an assassin and I'm now in charge of keeping a man I hate alive because if I don't you'll cry and I don't want to deal with that. But considering the circumstances my blood pressure isn't that high so I'd say I'm managing my stress quite well." He then turned onto Chloe "Your services are not needed, I'm perfectly fine. You can go."

"You went completely grey," Steve cried. "Your hair is dyed black."

"Because of you!" "No, because of Ro." "Yes and Ro and all of them… and I don't appreciate springing this on me."

"Okay, calm your tits," Rowan snapped and Wo Fat huffed at her. He even shot a glance at Chloe as if to say: see what I mean? "The stress coach is for Steve."

All the righteous indignation deflated right out of Wo's chest. He nodded quickly. "Actually that tracks."

"What, how?!" Steve cried but was ignored.

"I just wanted her to see that it's not all Danny, cause… I mean, I'm stressful and you two probably don't help the situation."

Steve immediately intervened. "Baby, if you wanted to make the point that it wasn't just Danny stressing me out, you should have brought the brother that stresses me out the most."

At that Rowan glanced around. "Uh… I did… I'm not sure… I'm not sure where he went."

Steve took that in and then glanced to Wo Fat, who should have been better at keeping track of his siblings. He took in Steve's stare and then said: "Oh, uh… we saw Alicia go in the house, and I think he said something like What the shit is that about? And then he was gone."

Steve glared at him. What the actual fuck? Wo was supposed to be the oldest. He was supposed to be the responsible one.

"Does that help?" he asked almost tonelessly, in a way that implied that he didn't give a rat's ass whether or not it helped Steve or not.

"Wo!" Steve cried. "Is he in the house?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean? How can you not know?"

"Easy. Con is the capable one, and she's the one who trips over her own feet. Obviously I'm going to be a little more attentive to the second one."

"Attentive? You weren't even with her when she came up to me!" Steve cried. He might have even said more except shouting came over the feeds.

Shouting from a male he figured was Oliver, shouting from Alicia to let him go and don't and the sound of struggling and scuffling.

Well. Shit.

Steve shouted a "Stay here" over his shoulder directed at Rowan, Chloe and Wo Fat as he and ran towards the house with Danny, Grover and Tani on his heels.

He was expecting a blood bath, it was what Con was known for after all, but when they got in there Alicia was just standing there in the kitchen, yelling at Con who had Oliver in a headlock.

And poor Con just looked so confused.

"Why the fuck are you yelling at me right now?" Con shouted over her. "The guy's a maniac he could'a killed you!"

"He is not a maniac, he has DID most of his alters are completely harmless…"

"Brown… this guy muy loco!"

The man in question, Oliver, looked practically limp against Con's hold. His face was red his eyes were closed and he seemed to just be hanging there, held up by the Con's grip and the fact that his feet were still on the ground.

God, Con was probably suffocating him

"Con, let him go," Steve snapped.

Con looked down to the man in his grip and then back up to Steve. "Naw, I wanna wait a thirty more seconds to make sure he's not faking it."

"Con drop him!"

Con rolled his eyes, huffed aggressively and then did as he was told. The second he let go Oliver hit the ground. They watched him hit the kitchen floor and Alicia turned a dark glare onto him.

"See," she said but Con just rolled his eyes again.

"Y'all are nuts!" he said. "You deal with crazy by killing crazy. Not trying to reason with it. Cause crazy can't be reasoned with."

"You think Ro is crazy," Steve reminded him and Con's dark glare turned onto him.

"Yeah, but I know how to manage her, and I know she can't be reasoned with… but I can bargain with her."

"How is that better?" Steve cried as Con literally stepped over Oliver to get out of the kitchen.

Officers came to pick him up, he'd be going in the ambulance and checked out by the psych ward. He got out the front door, clocked Rowan standing across from Chloe her arms crossed over her chest while Chloe talked to her.

Steve immediately looked around for Wo Fat and found him standing with Con, having apparently left the sibling he actually worried about alone.

Steve knew right away what Chloe was saying and absolutely HATED how sad Rowan looked as she got the news.

"Nope, no, no, no," Steve said rushing off. He slid to a stop beside her and then said: "Did she tell you you're contributing to my stress? Did she?" he then turned onto Chloe. "It was fine when you were saying it to Danny, but not to her."

"It's fine Steve. I know I contribute…"

Steve groaned. "Baby, no. No. See, me stressing about you is normal. I'm always gonna stress cause I love you and I want you to be okay."

"I know that, but still... I can try to be less stressful."

"HA!" Con cried. "That'll be the day!"

Steve turned to find both brothers had followed him and he scowled at them both. He wanted to chide them on leaving her unattended so the stress coach could spout these lies at her, but instead he settled on pointing out what he knew was his biggest problem

"Chloe meet the other reason I'm super stressed out. This my wife's other brother Con."

"I know who she is I met her this morning," he said but shook her hand anyway. "And he's right, I'm pretty stressful." But then Con paused. "Wait… was she blaming Rowan for your stress?"

"Yes," Steve said before Chloe could try and reword her accusations. "She seems to think that Danny and Ro are my main stressors."

"Now… I wouldn't say that," Chloe started but Con's dangerous glare slid onto her and she paused.

"You want me to hit her?"

"No, Con, I don't want you to hit her," Steve said with a sigh.

"Fine, I'll hit her," Wo Fat offered and Steve had to step between him and Chloe.

"No, not you either," he snapped and then turned to her. "See, see, my wife is not the problem."

Chloe nodded and then pulled out her notebook. "Noted."

Steve turned back to his brothers-in-law. "What are you guys even doing here?"

"Well, she said she wanted us to meet someone…" "—I've already met Chloe, but Wo hadn't and she wanted him to. Now I can see that that's because she wanted to throw us under your stress bus."

He frowned at Rowan who just rolled her eyes. "We've spent most of the day doing a sort of smile workshop."

"Smile workshop," Steve said carefully trying to make sure he heard her right.

"Yeah, Wo needs help with his smile," Rowan said.

Steve took that in with one long blink of his eyes. "Help with his… smile?"

"Yeah, uhm, one of his coworkers said his smile is off-putting and well… they kind of had a point, so we thought it might be good to have him practice."

"The exact words were… creepy. My smile is creepy."

"That's kind of rude of your co-worker…" "—No, she said that," Wo said pointing to Rowan.

Rowan huffed. "Wo, it is though. I'm sorry, I'm used to it so I don't care, but you asked and it is so…."

Steve thumped Wo Fat's shoulder in what was supposed to be a soft gesture meant to catch his attention but came off much more aggressive then he meant to. Luckily Wo Fat just cocked an unimpressed eyebrow at him instead of calling him out.

"Ignore her. It can't be that bad, and we'd be better judges. So… so uh… hit me… let's see what we're talking about."

Wo Fat took a deep breath, composed himself, fixed some kind of smile onto his face and then pointed it at Steve.

Steve couldn't help but yelp because that smile… it wasn't normal. It was like he was baring his teeth at him, his lips stretched all the way across his face, his eyes wide and intently boring into him.

"Jesus what are you doing?"

The smile left Wo Fat's face and for the first time he looked, well, upset. Or at the very least frustrated.

"I'm smiling."

"Why you doing it like that?"

"I unno, I'm trying to seem sincere."

"It looks like you want to skin me alive."

Wo Fat actually deflated a bit. "Well, I kind of do."

Steve turned to Rowan and then back to him. "That's not your sincere smile, I've seen it and it's not that."

At that Wo cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"He means you're trying too hard," Danny said from his place beside Steve. Steve had almost forgotten he was there. The fact that he hadn't made a comment about Wo's disaster of a smile was remarkable.

"Okay, it's easy," he said and then pulled out his phone. Wo Fat's eyes narrowed literally immediately and Steve sighed. "Trust me. Just close your eyes and think of Rowan. Nothing else. Just her, and let your face do what it normally does."

Wo Fat clearly didn't trust him though, because he just stared at him, before turning to Rowan. Rowan stared at him back and then gestured for him to do as he was ask, all while Steve stared at him patiently, and eventually, though he didn't want to, with Rowan's instance he did close his eyes.

Steve waiting, phone out and ready to go for Wo's face to change. It took a while but it finally did, a small smile stretching over his lips. Right away Steve took the picture and then nudged him.

"See, that's your normal smile," he said handing Wo his phone so he could see the picture for himself. "That's not that bad."

Wo Fat took that in, as if confused about his own face. "That's my Ro smile?" he asked and Steve nodded.

"Yep. You make that face whenever you're with her. It's the most human you've ever looked."

At that Wo Fat's smile got a little wider, and then he turned to Con. "I'm going to make two more faces, you take the picture."

"On Steve's phone?"

"Sure!" he said offering it out to him.

Steve probably should have cared, but honestly, no he didn't. He'd let his brothers-in-law play with his phone, they wouldn't want to swipe on any of the pictures in Steve's gallery lest they caught a glimpse of something Rowan sent that was meant just for him.

So Steve shook his head and then turned to Rowan. "Are you good? Did you really just come here to prove Danny wasn't my only stressor?"

"Yeah," she said with a shrug. "He texted me… warned me that I was next…"

"That's bullshit babe. That's bullshit and you know it. You are not contributing to my stress, not extra anyway, you know what I mean?"

"I do," she said. "Uhm… thank you for trying to help him with the smile." Steve nodded and noticed that his wife was wincing. "And uhm… we're going to have to talk to Nahele."

"Why?"

"Uh… he may have eavesdropped on our conversation this morning, and he might be freaking out about me not giving him a straight answer about what's going on."

Steve sighing heavily. He should have known that would happen.

"Right, I didn't want to do this but I guess I don't have a choice now."

Rowan winced at him again. "Yeah, I'm sorry."

Steve glanced over to where Chloe was standing, noting that she was writing in her notebook once more. Yeah, Steve didn't like that at all.

"No, see, this is not an extra stressor! It's not, fuck off!" he barked and Chloe raised her hands in mock surrender.

Steve meant to turn back to his wife and tell her that they'll figure out something to tell Nahele, some way to explain what was happening without really freaking the kid out. But Wo Fat stepped up and put Steve's phone into Ro's face.

"Look, that's my Con smile," he said and then flipped to another picture. "And that's my Jian smile. They're slightly different from yours. Isn't that neat?"

"It is," Rowan said diligently and Wo Fat turned back to the phone to stare at the picture. "Though… that Con smile is a little uhm…" "—Sinister?" Wo offered and she nodded.

"Yeah, Con said that too, but I don't mind," he said with a shrug. "I can't wait to show her." He then turned his eyes back to her. "I know you're not uhm… doing much of that anymore, but do you think that you could take me to see her?"

Yeah, Steve didn't like that. Rowan was supposed to be avoiding the void. She shouldn't have pulled Wo to her in the first place. "Only if I'm with her," Steve said right away, fully intending to just protect her from whatever that feeling is.

Wo nodded and then wandered off with Steve's phone. Steve couldn't help but sigh, god he wished the day was done, but it wasn't.

And he was no looking forward to what would be coming next.