Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday everyone! Thanks for all the love! I didn't realize everyone would want to read the part where Nurse Alex comes over for dinner so I didn't actually write that part! But here's what I'll do, if you keep reviewing I'll post the chapter as a Bonus chapter when we reach 50 reviews? Sound fair? Thanks and see everyone again Next Friday!

Chapter 7

Doris was sitting by the front door, her foot taping, tears in her eyes. Rowan was in the kitchen staring at her, not sure if the woman wanted her to intervene yet or not. She stood, instead, with a mug of tea in hand, watching the older woman carefully in case she was needed. But she knew, from asking a million times before and after Steve left the house to pick up Marry from the airport, that Doris did not want her support. So she was going to wait until she asked for it.

"Rowan?" she called softly. Wow that didn't take long. Rowan rushed over to her.

She sat down in the chair beside her and offered her a hand to hold that Doris took immediately. She was nervous, and excited all at once. Mary was back, Steve had gone to the airport to meet her. He was going to tell her that their mom was still alive and then bring Mary back to see her. Rowan had advised that he not tell Mary and just surprise her with their mom but Steve had not listened to her nor let her explain why she had requested he play it that way.

"Does she come?" Doris asked in almost a breathless whisper.

Rowan blinked her eyes she wasn't certain Doris wanted this answer, not the real one anyway. "She's not going to come, is she?" she asked again when she noticed the unconscious wince on Rowan's face.

This time Rowan knew she was wincing. She didn't want to answer that question, she really didn't but Doris was staring at her and she didn't think she could keep quiet for much longer. Outside they heard the crunch of Steve's truck in the drive and Doris let go of Rowan's hand. By the time he had shut the car door and made it to the door Doris was up and had the door opened.

Rowan already knew Mary wasn't there, but hearing Doris confirm it was heart wrenching. Steve walked into the living room ruffling Rowan's hair as he walked by. This was a serious moment so she tried to stifle her groan of frustration, it had taken her almost an hour to tame her hair into the straightened perfection it was. This Hawaiian humidity was trying to kill her with frizz.

"She's not coming, is she?" Doris asked from the door.

"I mean, you can't blame her, Mom," Steve said. "She thought you were dead."

"Where is she staying?" Doris asked shutting the door deftly and moving back to where she had been sitting as Steve stared at her. He said nothing but Doris just laughed.

"Okay. I'll just track her down myself," she said sitting back in her chair. Rowan and Steve exchanged glances but Doris didn't notice that she was too busy digging through her bag to get her cellphone. "I mean, acquiring target locations is actually a specialty of mine, so…"

"Mom," Steve said only to have Doris ignore him to play with her phone. "Mom, Mary's your daughter, she's not a target."

Doris finally stopped but she refused to look at Steve. "I'm sorry, okay? But look, give her some space. Give her some time. When she's ready she's gonna come to you."

Doris shook her head. "And what if that never happens?"

Steve didn't get a chance to answer. His phone started ringing. Rowan sat back, she knew who was calling. Doris, however, got up as Steve did, hope dawning on her face. "Is that her?"

"No, no, no. Stand down, Mom. It's work," he told and her for the first time since the conversation started Doris McGarrett started to laugh.

"Did you just tell me to stand down?" she asked, clearly for clarification because she didn't believe her son could be that stupid. Rowan didn't need it, she heard it and believed that he could, in fact, be that stupid.

"Affirmative. Now, if you don't mind," he confirmed staring her down as she continued to laugh but in a way that conveyed how offended she was by this whole conversation.

"McGarrett," he answered as his mom sat down. She smiled over to Rowan who reached out to take her hand and squeeze it. "Yeah I'll be there in twenty."

Steve hung up his phone and then turned to Rowan. "Come on, you're coming with me," he said.

"What? Why?" Rowan asked staring up at him. She had been quiet and well behaved this whole conversation. Sure she had made faces as Steve talked because he was saying stupid things and she couldn't stop herself but she hadn't thought he noticed.

"Because after what happened last week I don't trust you to not run off with my mom and kidnap Mary," he growled.

"Okay, no. We would not do that," she said and then caught the glare on Doris' face. "Okay, well maybe she would, but I would not be down for that. Besides I don't want to sit in your office all day, bored out of my mind."

"You'll be staying with Kono," Steve answered, stooping down and grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up.

"Aw can't I stay with Nurse Alex instead?" she asked. Steve turned his dry glare to her and Rowan sighed, she should have known better then to mention him. "Alright fine, can I just grab a few things to keep me entertained?"

Steve let her go and Rowan rushed up to her room. She grabbed a sweater because the air conditioning was ridiculous in the Iolani Palace. She grabbed three books because she had a feeling that she was going to be there for hours, then she grabbed her iPod so she could listen to something and her chargers for when her phone and iPod battery eventually died.

Steve was waiting for her at the door and she tried to avoid his eyes. She turned back and saw that Doris still looked forlorn so she put her books into his arms and told him to give her a second.

She went over to Doris and wrapped her arms around the woman. "Give her time and she'll come to you. I promise."

Then before Doris could say anything or Steve could honk his horn Rowan was out the door.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

Steve glanced over his shoulder once more to where Rowan was sitting in the back of Danny's Camaro. She had her headphones in her ears and her nose in a book but he was still worried about having her there at a crime scene with him. Danny was speaking to the parents about their son who had been taken. The supposed good kid.

"You did just pick him up after a six-month stay at juvenile hall, though, right?" Danny asked.

Both the parents looked away. "It was just a prank," the mother said.

"Not exactly," the father argued. "Zack took things too far and he paid the price."

"What exactly did he do?" Steve asked.

"Hacked into the White House database and got tickets to the Correspondents' Dinner," the dad explained. Steve couldn't help it, he was impressed. The continued talking. "They wanted to make an example out of Zack and they gave him a six-month sentence."

"What about when he was locked up?" Danny asked. "Any trouble, fights that he got into, anything you know of?"

Both parents shook their head. "None that he mentioned," the mom told them.

Steve looked around again, his gaze falling on Rowan who was now playing with her phone and bobbing her head along to the music she was listening to. He realized that he had gone quiet again and that Danny was looking at him, his gaze darting back to the Camaro before falling back on Steve's face. That smug grin on his face was a look Steve knew well and wanted to slap off.

"What are you doing way out here in the middle of nowhere?" Steve asked hoping to distract Danny before the ribbing started.

"I was just following the GPS," The dad explained.

Steve excused himself from the parents to go track down the GPS to see what had happened. But before he did that he glanced at the Camaro one more time just to make sure that Rowan was there. This time she had her head resting back on the headrest with her eyes closed looking like she was trying to nap.

Danny who had been following him must have noticed just what he was looking at. "She's fine," he told him. "And if you're going to be this worried about her, you should probably have left her at home."

Steve scowled at him. "After what happened with the bomb I'm never leaving her alone with my mother again," he growled. "They enable each other. A pair of enablers!"

Danny tried not to laugh and failed which just meant Steve was glaring at him more. Steve had been trying very hard to be better, to not show how much Rowan got under his skin or just how fixated he was on her, but when she did stupid shit all the time he couldn't help it.

"So, your mother's home alone and you've dragged Rowan to work with you, don't you think it would have been better if you had done it the other way around?" Danny asked. "Rowan's less likely to run off than your mother."

No that would not have worked because his mother wouldn't have listened to him and he was worried if that if he left Rowan alone in his place she'd bring Nurse Alex over and get up to all sorts of terrible things. But Steve couldn't tell Danny that without getting teased.

"Danny," Steve said sighing with aggravation. "Will you please shut up?"

They approached Chin and Kono to find that Kono was searching a license plate. Steve stood idly by as Kono found a match to a stolen van and realized that the van had been found and was being taken to an HPD impound lot. They agreed that she and Chin were going to go look for it while Steve and Danny chased up other leads.

"Okay, you guys are good to go?" Steve asked finally ready to go back to the Camaro and see if Rowan wanted to stop off for malasadas or pancakes or shaved ices except Rowan wasn't in the car.

Steve froze immediately. She was literally just there. "Okay, where the hell could she have gone?" Danny asked.

Steve jogged over to the Camaro. The seat had been pushed forward so she could get out and all her stuff was missing.

"Rowan?!" Steve shouted, looking up and down the trail to see if she had started walking on her own. If she had gotten out of the car and started walking back to civilization he was going to tackle her to the ground and cuff her to the back seat of the Camaro.

There was no answer to his call. Steve was starting to get frantic.

"ROWAN?!" he near screamed. He heard the fear in his voice and tried not to let it show how much it bugged him that he was this afraid. Especially since if he could hear it that meant Danny could hear it too and he'd never hear the end of it.

"Yeah?" came her answer and Steve turned.

Rowan was half out of Kono's car, one earbud still in her ear the other in her hand, she was staring at him as if she couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Steve spread his arms out in the universal "What gives?" gesture and glared at her.

"What the hell are you doing over there?" he asked her.

Rowan's eyes crinkled in confusion. "You said I was going to be staying with Kono," she reminded him.

"Yeah, at the Iolani Palace, not while she's running down leads," Steve argued.

"But what's the point of you driving me to Iolani Palace just to drop me off? Knowing you, you'll want to wait until she gets there before leaving and then you'd be wasting your time and you don't want that do you?" she asked and she had a point. But Steve didn't want to admit that. He just wanted to be angry.

"Fine, fine," Steve snapped. "You want to ride back with Kono and Chin, fine. Do what you want."

"Are you seriously mad at me right now?" Rowan asked stepping out of the car fully. "Because I'm not going to go back with you and Danny?"

"No, Rowan, I'm not mad," Steve argued, even though he sort of was. "If you would rather spend your time with Kono instead of me and Danny I'm sure Danny will get over it."

"Uh… Danny could care less if she's in the car. No offence," Danny told them. "Danny would just like to drive his car for once."

Steve turned his glare to Danny wishing that just once, JUST ONCE, his partner would either side with him instead of Rowan or shut the hell up.

"Okay. If it's gonna bug you this much, I'll ride back to the Iolani Palace with you, okay?" she asked.

"No. You've made your choice," Steve said, heading towards the driver's seat before Danny could try and snag it.

"Are you seriously going to pout over this?" Rowan called but Steve ignored her. And for the record, he was not pouting.

Danny got in the car, that smug look back on his face. Steve ignored him and put the Camaro in reverse.

"Danny…"

"Yes, Steve?"

"Not a fucking word."

"Or what? What are you going to do? Sulk about it?" Danny asked.

If Steve thought punching him would have shut him up, he would have.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

Finding out that Rowan had been present when Kono and Chin found the body had not been a fun moment for Steve. She had taken it well, he had to give her that. But it wasn't something he wanted to repeat with her. At this rate she was going to need years of therapy to get over the trauma being associated with him was giving her.

After that he had bought her as many malasadas as she wanted and kept her by his side. Which landed her in the surveillance truck in between Danny and Toast. Her eyes were wide as she stared straight ahead at the computer screens and Toast complained. At every stupid comment she would put a hand out to Danny's arm as if her touch alone would keep him from climbing over her and socking Toast right in his whiney little mouth.

"Look there's something I haven't told you," Toast suddenly said.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Steve asked checking the wire he was about to strap to Toast.

Toast shot a glance to Rowan. "I don't really want to say it around the babe," he murmured.

Steve was dangerously close to hitting him now. He did not like that Toast found Rowan attractive. Nor did he like that Toast's first reaction to even seeing Rowan was to exclaim loudly that he wished he was high or had deodorant or a mint before she came over to them so he could be halfway decent for her. It made sense, of course, Rowan was very pretty, but that didn't mean Toast had to keep saying it. Or looking at her like she was the last bowl of Cap'n Crunch. Or calling her some ridiculously objective pet name.

Rowan groaned and put her head in her hands. "Oh My God! I don't care about your glandular issue," she told him.

Toast turned her his jaw slack. "How did you know I was going to say that?" he asked, he then turned back to Steve. "How did she know I was going to say that?"

Steve and Danny exchanged glances. Their inner circle knew about Rowan, he didn't want that to include the often-baked Toast.

"I'm psychic," Rowan said in a dry tone. Steve would have to congratulate her on that one, that was a good cover, a good excuse to give people who weren't to be trusted with the real reason.

"No way," Toast cried. "What am I thinking, right now?"

Rowan stared at him, their eyes linking. She looked so unimpressed. "Boobs. Boobs. Wait… look at her face. Boobs. D'aw I just said not to look at her boobs. Gonna die. I can't do this guys," she listed.

"Holy Shit! She's good!" Toast cried.

That was enough for Steve. He grabbed Toast by the front of the shirt and forced him to look back at him and not at Rowan's chest. "Just remember the plan. You're there to offer your services. That's it."

"When you get alone, download everything off of his computer onto this thing here. We'll take care of the rest," Danny told him.

Rowan leaned forward her chin resting on her hand. "Even I know that's an external hard drive," she said.

"Oh, psychic, cute and a bit of a computer nerd," Toast cried, grinning at her. "Toast likey. I'm gonna call you Jean, you know after Jean Grey the hottest of all the X-men…"

Steve grabbed him again before Danny could reach over Rowan and smack him. "Toast? Live long and Perspire. Now get out of this truck!"

Rowan watched him go as Steve and Danny turned back to the computers.

"It's not going to work," she told them. "He's going to get performance anxiety."

"Shut up, it will work," he said.

"It's too bad you don't have a plan B," she said.

"We don't need a plan B because he will be fine," Danny told her.

"You guys don't have a plan b?" Toast echoed from the mic.

As he and Danny argued Rowan turned to Steve. "It doesn't matter, he's not the one we're after anyway," Rowan said.

"What are you talking about?" Steve cried. She knew better then to tell him things but he was getting better at taking what it was she had to offer when it came to the knowledge she was giving out. "Who are we looking for than?"

"I don't remember. It's all fuzzy, usually I know by now. I don't know why it's not coming to me," Rowan said.

"I can't do this, guys," Toast suddenly cried. "Plan B! Plan B!"

Steve and Danny exchanged glances. Steve hated it when Rowan was right.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

It had taken a whole hour to convince Steve to let her go with Kono. She was just going with her to a wake at the victim's house. To look for a password. How dangerous could that be? It wasn't that she didn't like sitting in Steve's office eating junk food and playing solitaire on his computer. She was just bored. She had finished all her books, her iPod was charging and her phone was almost dead and charging too.

She needed to do something.

This left her sitting at a wake while Kono talked to the parents and then went looking around Zack's room for the password. Rowan was wracking her brain for what happened next but she couldn't remember. Then the room started to spin. She gripped the couch she was sitting on tightly as images clouded her vision and things started to spot around her. It was like she was watching the TV show at home but on fast forward.

When the door crashed open she had remembered everything. She knew was what was going to happen next. She let the masked men round her up, she stayed quiet and waited. When the brought Kono down she immediately went to Rowan's side. The two women held hands and for those moments that they were connected Rowan wasn't as nervous or afraid. .

When the cop came Rowan held her breath. When he walked away and the masked gunman went for the door Rowan spoke up. "You don't have to kill him. If you do the police come faster!"

But she was ignored. The cop got shot, the body got dragged in and the masks came off. The episode was still replaying on loop in her mind. She knew how this was going to end and if she played her cards right, if she could think of a better plan she could change things for the better. It didn't matter if Steve didn't want her to use her knowledge to help, if she could make things better than that was what she was going to do.