Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Kay so this chapter is going to be a bit longer than the others (it's 13 pages instead of my regular 8) but a lot happens so it'll be worth the extra reading. I tried to go for comedy here, as well as a few aww moments, I'd love to hear what your fav part is, even if it's not from this chapter. I did some math, I've written 16 chapters in advance at the moment, if I were to try doing twice a week updates I'd run out of chapters in 8 weeks. I don't think that's enough, but I'll tell you what, if I get this story 20 chapters a head, I'll try posting two chapters every other week. (One week there's one update, the next week there's two) how does that sound? OH! Also! I've commissioned some art for this story, particularly a cover. This story's gonna have a cover soon how exciting is that? I'll be sure to tell you guys when it's ready to go. We're on our way to that bonus chapter too. Only 26 more reviews to go. Next week Rowan's gonna rewrite another episode and we get to see a little more cuteness and more of what Catherine thinks of this whole situation. I hope you guys are ready for the upcoming DRAMA! See you guys next week!

Chapter 12

Danny kept thinking about what Rowan had said to him. No Foundation. It made no sense but he knew it meant something otherwise she wouldn't have bothered. What the hell had she been trying to tell him?

Troop Leader Madeline had kept the girls calm and sent them to find blankets and sleeping bags so they could try to sleep. But Danny was not okay with that. He couldn't kick the door down because it opened in, they had a key but it was for the lock on the front. He didn't like being stuck in tight places, his chest felt tight just think about it. Combine that with his worry for Steve, Rowan and Lucy, he was bound to have a panic attack right in front of Grace.

"What are you brooding about over there?" Madeline asked him.

"I just keep thinking about what Rowan said," Danny told her.

"The girl had a gun fired right by her head, she was talking nonsense," Madeline told him.

"No, Rowan's always right about important things," Grace cried ever quick to jump to Rowan's defense.

He got up and paced the floorboards surprised when he heard them creaking. No foundation. Of course.

"Do we have a crowbar or something?" he asked.

"We have tent stakes," Madeline said quickly passing it over to Danny. It took some wiggling but he got the board pried up and found he was looking at dirt. He used the stake to dig a bit laughing at what he found.

"There's no foundation," Danny said. Rowan was right after all. "All we have to do is pull up a few boards and then we can dig our way out! Come on girls, grab a stake and start digging."

So that's what Rowan had meant, she was telling them how to escape without actually telling them. When he found Rowan he was going to kiss her. He didn't even care if Steve got mad at him over it.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

Rowan was struggling to keep up, he didn't know if was because she wasn't used to hiking or because of the head injury. Steve wanted to help her, but Ron was making him walk in front with Rowan behind him and Lucy right beside Ron.

"We should stop and rest," Steve said, more for Rowan's benefit than Ron who also looked like he was not doing well with the hike either. They had been hiking all night, the sun was fresh up and even though they were pausing every now and then so Ron could play with his beeping device, probably a GPS of some kind, it looked like they still had pretty far to go.

Rowan stopped and leaned up against a tree, Steve finally got to turn to take a good long look at her. She was huffing like she was exhausted so her cheeks should have been red but she was pale as death. She had taken her sweater off ages ago, choosing to tie it around her waist, both sleeves were stained with red from her wiping the blood away from her face. The cut that sliced through her eyebrow was an angry red against the pale of her skin but it had finally stopped bleeding. Her sweat pants had been rolled up so her calves were covered in mud and her pink teeshirt was clinging to her skin with sweat. There was a lot Steve wanted to do, he wanted to hold her tight, he wanted to yell at her for getting them into this situation, he wanted to attack Ron for doing this to them but above all for some strange reason he wanted to kiss her. But Steve had to settle for reaching out and brushing the locks of her red-blonde hair that were plastered to her forehead, sticky with her own blood, so he could take a proper look at the laceration above her brow.

Before he could get too close, Rowan beckoned Lucy over and put them in between the two of them. She absent went about fixing her hair, loosening the pigtails and braiding them back up again. Lucy leant against Steve who had handed her water to drink, her head resting against his hip. Steve reached across the distance to Rowan.

"How did that happen?" he asked his fingers lightly tracing the wound which had finally stopped bleeding. He knew if the words Ron whipped me with his gun came out of her mouth, Steve would attack the man right then and there.

"Ran into a branch," she answered and he stared at her hard. Was she lying to him so he wouldn't do anything dire? Because that was a Rowan move he did not approve of. "No seriously, I ran face first into a low hanging branch and stunned myself."

Steve tried not to laugh at her because it shouldn't have been funny, but it kind of was. He brushed her hair behind her ear and suddenly frowned.

There was blood leaking form her ear canal.

"Do you still hear the ringing?" he asked the concern returning to him.

"Yeah, everything's muffled on this side and I'm getting dizzy spells," Rowan replied. "I'm sure I'd be in more pain if I weren't so worried."

Steve stared at her. He didn't know what to do, but by the sounds of it she had burst an ear drum. He was going to have to take her to the hospital again. That was more alone time with Nurse Alex for Steve to worry about.

"Okay love birds, it's time to go," Ron said reaching between them and pulling Lucy away.

Rowan shot a glare at him that Steve seconded. "Kay, that was like five seconds. If I need more of a break you probably need it too. And besides, I'm not done with her hair," she said pulling Lucy away from him and finishing off the second braid.

Ron scowled at them and waved the gun at them again. "We're going two miles up this way."

Steve followed the direction that Ron was pointing at. "Up this way? No we can't go that way Ron. The bridge is out," he told them.

"How dumb do you think I am?" Ron asked.

"Do want an honest answer to that?" Steve shot back.

"Oh you and your girlfriend must think you're so funny," Ron snarled and Steve shot a glance at Rowan who merely shook her head and then winced and raised a hand to her injured ear. Steve would have to ask about that later.

"He's right though, the bridge is out," she said.

"Oh yeah, cause the psychic knows everything, right?" he said. "You'd agree with anything he said."

"Not true, Steve and I rarely get along or agree about anything," she argued.

"Shut up!" Ron shouted. "I am so sick of arguing with you people! Stop trying to trick me!"

"We're not trying to trick you," Steve said.

Lucy was crying again and Steve softened, so did Rowan because she sighed. "It's okay, Lucy, it's going to be okay," she said. "Look, see, we're going to start walking, okay?"

Steve liked that she was distracting Ron, it had given him a chance to pick up a rock and pocket it. "You good to climb Ro?" he asked as he began the ascent up the hill.

"Yep."

"Okay, you good too Luce?" Steve asked.

"Yeah."

"Kay, and Ron?"

"Just keep walking," Ron ordered

"I hope you fall to your death," he heard Rowan mutter and he had to try so hard not to laugh.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

It was light out by the time they had dug their way of the shed. The cars were dead, Ron having cut the spark plugs. But one of the Aloha Girls had found their broken phones and had managed to Frankenstein one into working. Danny had called Kono and Chin who sent the park rangers over to them and a whole bunch of trucks to take the girls.

Danny, of course, was going to go after Steve and Rowan. He promised Grace that he would find her friend, and he was gonna shoot the little bastard if he had hurt his friends and maybe even if he hadn't. Chin was trying to head them off at the top of the trail, they had sent a blood sample that most likely came from Ron back to Iolani Palace to run through CODIS. Grace was safely left in an officer's care and then Danny was ready to go.

The problem was he couldn't convince Madeline to stay behind. It was one of her campers that had been kidnapped and she was better at tracking, so she was coming. And Danny couldn't stop her.

"What's the deal with Rowan and Steve," she asked as they were walking.

"Not dating," Danny said. "Not really getting along either, but really protective of one another."

"I guess that explains why he looked like he was about to faint when he saw her bleeding," Madeline added.

Danny barked out a quick chuckle. "Yeah, Ron might get shot for that alone."

"Here it is again, do you see it?" Madeline asked pointing at the ground. Well, that ended their current conversation, clearly. Straight onto the next topic without a segue. "Circular indentation. It's very faint. Repeats itself every two feet. It's gotta be that walking stick Ron was carrying."

Danny looked down and saw nothing out of the ordinary. It all just looked like jungle to him. Okay, maybe it wasn't so bad that she was there with him.

"Huh, you know, I gotta admit. I never would have noticed that," Danny told her.

"Yeah, well, my dad taught me how to track," Madeline told him. "He was big into hunting. I mean, tracking's just about prediction, you know? Your prey leaves you a clue, you recreate what happened and then you try and figure out what it'll do next."

"Sounds like being a cop," he said.

Madeline glanced back at him. "Yeah, kind of," she agreed. "By the way you have a spider on your neck."

"What do you mean? Where?!" Danny cried jumping around and slapping at his neck and fiddling with his backpack trying to get it off.

Madeline chuckled at him. "It wasn't poisonous."

Oh great. She thought it was funny. Well it was not funny. "Let me tell you something. I hate this jungle. I hate jungles in general. Every jungle in the world, I hate. And no disrespect, but I am pulling Grace directly out of the Aloha Girls and putting her in ice hockey. It's cold, there are no bugs and no deranged kidnappers," he ranted.

Just like Steve she was unphased by his tirade. "You know, you're the reason she does this."

"I'm the reason," Danny echoed.

"Yeah."

"Hey, this wasn't my idea. I told you, I got kicked out of the Boy Scouts," he reminded her.

Madeline shrugged. "She says it make her brave, just like you."

Danny tried to hide his smile, but that was the cutest thing he had ever heard. "Oh, brave like me? Maybe I am not as brave as she thinks I am," he snapped.

Madeline thought a bit before saying: "She's probably never seen you do that little spider dance."

Danny nodded. No, she had not seen that dance. "Yeah. You know, I promised her that I would bring Lucy back. She thinks there's nothing I can't do. I can do anything, but one of these days she's gonna realize I am not Superman."

"Probably," Madeline agreed and Danny tried not to sigh in aggravation. She was not helping the situation. "But it's not gonna happen today. See? These tracks go right up this trail, but in a half mile it dead ends. The bridge is out."

That didn't make sense. But he wasn't going to argue with her. He took a drink of water and caught a flash of something red in the trees. He took a better look and spotted a parachute hanging from the tree. It was then that he remembered something Rowan had said the night before.

If Rowan was right Ron really had jumped out of a plane.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

They had been right about the bridge and Ron had been furious. An innocent passer-by had tried to help and got shot. Steve had no choice but to take them around. Ron had been amped by the shooting and told them quite clearly that next time he needed an adrenaline boost he'd shoot Rowan. That had not made Steve happy but Rowan was too tired to care at this point.

Rowan had told him that she wasn't in pain but she had lied. Her head was throbbing. Running face first into a branch had not been good for her and there was something terribly wrong with her ear. But she couldn't tell Steve that, not when he had to worry about saving her and a little kid. So she kept quiet, maybe a bit too quiet.

"What's going on Ro?" Steve asked. "Daydreaming again?"

"Mmm… McDreamy," she murmured. She tried to play it off like she had just been jerked out of her own musings and not like she had barely heard him because of the constant sound of the ocean rolling around in the one ear.

"What?"

"Oh you know, from that TV show with all the doctors. I have been daydreaming about my own personal hot nurse," she said. Steve stopped hiking and turned to look at her.

"Really? You think Alex is that hot?" he asked turning to dazzle her with that cocky half grin that always set the butterflies rioting in her stomach. "The guy who looks like me?"

"Hey! You said you didn't see it either," she reminded him pointing a finger into his face as he smirked down at her.

"I think you should just admit that you find me attractive," Steve said to her. "It would be easier than dating look-a-likes."

"Okay. I'll admit to finding you attractive when you admit that you tried to alienate Alex from me because you were jealous and wanted me to yourself," Rowan shot back.

"Uh… no… because that is not what happened," Steve snapped.

Rowan crossed her arms over her chest and smiled up to him. "Then I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not you're attractive. The only thing I can say is that my current boytoy is very hot and after this I may be taking him out of his package."

The look on Steve's face was worth the suggestive comment in front of a minor… and hostage taker.

"Okay lovebirds, keep moving. It should be around here somewhere," Ron snapped. "Look for a black backpack."

Everyone looked around. Rowan just turned her head, she wasn't really looking, because it hurt to move her head. She was in too much pain to focus, and she was getting one of her dizzy spells again. It was so bad she had to brace herself on her knees.

"Are you sure it's here because I don't see anything," she heard Steve say but she was too busy looking down at the ground and wondering why it looked like it was moving? How dizzy was she?

Her eyes focused and she saw that she was looking at a snake, brown with tan spots slithering by her feet. "SNAKE!" Rowan screamed jumping immediately onto to Steve's back.

Steve had not been expecting a screaming human projectile and as such the force of her attempting to climb him like a tree caused him to yelp and fall over much like a tree getting chopped down. Once they hit the ground Rowan screamed: "SNAKE!" once more and launched herself up an actual tree, climbing up as quickly as she could without thinking about it.

She gripped a branch tightly as Steve got up. She watched him as he looked around at the ground before turning to stare up at her. He had his hands on his hips as he glared up at her. "It was a Brown Tree Snake, Ro," he called up. "So it can climb trees."

Rowan's eyes widened as she stared down at him but instead of trying to climb down she just gripped the tree branch even more tightly and quickly surveyed the branches in case a snake was up there with her already.

A breathless: "Oh my god!" escaped her lips and she purposely stared at Steve waiting for directions. Steve gave her the "What-gives" arms again and sighed in the most aggravated way possible.

"Just climb down, Ro!" he ordered.

Rowan looked down at the tree branch she was clinging to and then back to Steve. "I can't."

"Why?" he groaned.

"I'm much better at getting up than I am at getting down," she said. She glanced up to where the branch ended and saw something hanging off it. That wasn't some black poisonous version of the Brown Tree Snake was it?

Rowan squinted at it and then pointed: "Oh hey look a backpack."

"Whoa! That's it! She's not coming down until she gets that bag!" Ron shouted.

"Look at that tree Ron, it's all dead. I'm surprised it's holding her weight as is," Steve complained. But Rowan knew with absolute certainty that if she didn't get it Ron would make them send Lucy up.

"It's okay, I've got it," she said scooting forward until she was within arm's reach of the bag. She had just managed to get a hold of the strap when the branch underneath her creaked. Rowan froze immediately. "Uh… Steve?"

"Yeah, yeah I heard it" he called to her. "Get ready to jump."

"To jump?" Rowan echoed.

"Yeah, I'll catch you," Steve told her from under her. The branch creaked again and this time it swayed under her weight.

"Like how you caught me before when I was getting away from the snake?" she asked. Cause he hadn't caught her, he had fallen instead.

"I wasn't ready for that one, I'm ready now," he told her. The branch dipped again and Rowan yelped.

"The bag! Grab the bag!" Ron was screaming.

"Rowan, you have to jump," Steve was saying as the two of them continue to ignore Ron. "Trust me. I will catch you, just jump."

The branch creaked again, this time sounding more like a crack and Rowan pushed herself up just as the branch started splintering. She yelped as she threw herself to the side and as promised Steve did catch her.

Except instead of staying on his feet he fell back clutching Rowan to his chest.

They landed in the dirt once more, groaning as they did so and the branch crashed down by their feet.

After a few seconds of breathless panting Steve said: "See, I told you I'd catch you."

Rowan pushed herself up and glared at him. "Hate to break it to you, Super Seal, but we're on the ground."

She was lying against the length of his body, she could feel every rock-hard inch of him pressed against her. Her hands were on his chest which meant that she could, not only, feel the planes of his chest rising up and down with each breath but she could count each wild, heavy, beat of his heart. His hands were scalding her his palms pressed into skin of her sides meaning her shirt had been pushed up in the fall. She made the mistake of propping herself up to taunt him which meant she was now hovering above him a lips distance away from those soft lips looking into his baby blue eyes.

She was breathlessly in awe of him and she needed that to stop. Rowan rolled off of him and quickly got up, being sure to picking up the bag that had fallen with her, detangling it from the branch it was stuck on. Behind her Steve cleared his throat.

"Yeah, but I caught you. It's not my fault you're heavy," Steve told her.

Rowan turned around, her jaw slack with surprise. "Did you just call me heavy?" she cried. "I AM NOT HEAVY! I am a normal weight for my age and size! You are clearly not as strong as you say you are!"

Steve had gotten up as well. He put his hands on his hips and glared down at her. "How dare you! I can bench pressed at least 150, you should not be that hard to keep up!"

"150?! You think I weigh 150?!" She echoed. "ALSO! I've spotted you while you weight trained. You barely cracked 90!"

"Give me the bag!" Ron interrupted but Steve put up a hand to silence him.

"Give us a minute," he said before turning back to Rowan. "I can bench press you no problem, if you're not throwing yourself at me at weird angles!"

"Bullshit. I could jump at you right now, you wouldn't be able to catch me," she snapped.

"Give me the goddamn bag!" Ron shouted coming closer to them.

"Just a second," Steve said again before turning back to Rowan. "Of course I wouldn't, cause I'm not ready!"

"That's it!" Ron screamed the gun waving towards Rowan again. "Give me the bag or…"

And Rowan gave it to him. She whirled around and swung the bag at him, the corner of it clipping his jaw and sending him spirally.

"Go! Take Lucy and run!" Steve shouted jumping onto Ron and struggling to get the gun from him.

Rowan reached out to Lucy and stared out at the trees. "Stay here with me," she said handing the young girl the bag. "It's gonna get really scary but me and Steve got you, okay?'

"Run Rowan! Why didn't you run?" Steve asked standing over Ron with the gun.

There was the click of a gun and a man came out of the bushes with a rifle pointed in their direction. Rowan had one hand on Lucy's shoulder but she reached out behind her with her other hand to grab the hem of Steve's shirt.

He turned and saw the man standing there and Rowan felt him stiffen.

"Throw the gun aside," he ordered and after shooting a meaningful looking at Rowan he did as he was told.

"Meet Ron's partner," Rowan said. "He's not as stupid as Ron."

Steve said nothing. He merely reached out and gripped back of her shirt, by the hem, and despite the situation she couldn't help but smile.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

Steve should have listened to Rowan when she mentioned a partner, but he was listening now. He remembered her mentioning the partner killing Ron, and he was pretty sure he would be okay with that.

"Get up!" the partner ordered. "You are 24 hours late."

"Well, I had some technical difficulties," Ron snapped as he got to his feet and fixed his glasses again. "I missed my jump window. And look at my leg."

"How the hell did you miss the jump?" he other man cried.

"The pilot tried to stop me, so I had to throw the bag out of the airplane," he near shouted. "And then I had to fight the pilot. But it doesn't matter cause we got the goods. No problem."

"No problem?" his partner echoed. "I'm looking at three problems right here."

"Well okay…"

"Well okay?" the partner repeated. "You're traipsing around the jungle with three witnesses."

"Uh. Correction. There are a lot more than three witnesses," Steve interjected. The partner had been walking towards Ron at this point but now his attention was on Steve, which was how he liked it. He tried to signal to Rowan to move but he didn't have to, she was already edging away.

The partner took in what Steve said and then turned back to Ron who nervously tried to laugh it off. "This guy."

"Tell him about the Aloha Girls," Steve offered. "He'll tell you about the Aloha Girls."

"The what?" the partner asked.

"Hawaiian Girl scouts," Rowan added in. This time the partner swung around to face her. Steve had to keep himself from tackling the man as he glared at Rowan over his shoulder. "There's about twenty of them plus the cop we left behind who's probably called HPD by now… not to mention Five-0. Did he mention that Steve here is Five-0?"

The partner turned back to Steve who just smiled and waved in the most condescending manner he could muster. "But you know, aside from all that, you should get away with it," he added.

"Really?" Ron cried. "Not cool, man."

Like what did he expect? Steve to have his back? What was he nuts?

Ron turned back to his partner. "You know what? Shoot these guys, because we gotta go. My leg is killing me. I gotta see a doctor really bad. My leg's infected."

"What you think we can just walk into a hospital and get them to stitch you up?" the partner asked taking a few more steps closer.

"Well I don't know. Maybe we'll go to Urgent Care. Maybe we'll go to a witch doctor! I've been through a lot of trouble for you!" Ron shouted.

"You had one job. Jump out of a plane," the partner said quite calmly. "All you needed was gravity!"

"Well, I'm feeling pretty crappy!" Ron screamed. "Maybe it's time you did something!"

"I think you're right…" the partner said.

Steve had been edging them towards the bushes as Ron and his partner's argument got more and more heated. Luckily Rowan didn't need the nudge, she was already shuffling, keeping Lucy as far back from the scene as she could. As soon as the gun went off Rowan turned and practically picked up Lucy and sprinted away with Steve following after. He cringed and half ducked as the rifle went off and bullets whizzed past them all. He was grateful that not a single one found a mark.

He pushed the girls forward until he was certain that they had a good enough lead and then Steve stopped them.

"Are you guys okay?" he asked. Both girls nodded but it was Lucy who whispered: "Is he still coming?"

"Yes, he's still coming," Steve told her and ignored Rowan's grimace. What did she expect him to do? Lie to the girl? "But it's okay, we've got a really good lead on him. Lucy, you gotta listen to me. You're going to stay here with Rowan and you're going to hide. I'm going to lead the man away and when it's safe I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna get you, alright?"

Lucy broke out into tears and shook her head. "No, I want to stay with you, I want to stay with you!" she sobbed and then threw herself at Steve and hugged him tightly.

"I second that," Rowan said. "I want to stay with you too."

Steve looked up at her, she looked so afraid he wanted to soothe them both but they were running out of time.

"Come on, Lucy, you're being so brave. I promise you, I'm going to come back. But I need you two to stay here," he said.

Rowan rolled her eyes. "You're seriously going to do this?" she asked to which Steve nodded. "Alright, come on Lucy, let's go hide."

"I'll come back for you," Steve assured them. "I promise, I will come back."

He was ushering them towards the dense foliage, he had a soft guiding hand on Rowan's back. He tried very hard to not feel the electric current running up his arm from the contact. Before Rowan ducked down she turned to him and the look on her face told him she was about to spit some psychic shit at him.

"When you get to the river, watch your feet," she said and then she hugged him. Her arms around his neck her chin in his shoulder. She pressed a kiss to his cheek as tender as she could, their good-bye tradition, and all the breath in his body left him. "Be safe."

Steve didn't even bother to chastise her for giving him info he didn't want. He merely smiled at her, promised once more that he'd come back for them, that he'd be safe, and then vanished.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

Chin Ho had heard the shots and rushed towards them. He found Danny a few miles into the jungle crouched over a dead body. The dead body of the man who had taken Rowan, Steve and Lucy hostage, but all three hostages were missing and they didn't know if was Steve who shot this guy or someone else.

When they heard more shots farther in the jungle both he and Danny rushed off splitting ways to cover more ground. Chin was rushing through the leaves, gun out and listening very carefully in case someone was hiding near-by. And it was because of that that he heard the whimpering.

Chin stopped and doubled back. "Lucy?" he called out.

"Chin?" answered him. Chin knew that voice.

"Rowan?" he asked and then she erupted from the bushes hugging him tightly and knocking him down.

"I am so happy to see you," she said into his neck as he sat them both up. She turned back to the bushes where a small blonde haired girl was climbing out.

"Lucy this is Chin, he works with Steve, he's a friend," she told her. "Chin she has the diamonds, can you get her to safety?"

Chin nodded putting a hand out to help Lucy out of the bushes. When he looked up Rowan was scanning the area a look of frantic worry on her face. "Where's Steve?" he asked her.

"He's at the river, which way is that?" she asked.

"You should come with me and Lucy, Danny's gone after Steve," Chin said but Rowan shook her head and took a step away from him.

"Steve needs help, which way is the river?" she said, her tone matching her eyes. Completely, utterly and seriously determined.

"That way," Chin said pointing her in the right direction. Rowan took a step towards it immediately but Chin grabbed her arm to stop her. "You better be careful, cause if something happens to you McGarrett will never forgive me."

Rowan just smiled. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing," she told him and as she jogged off Chin pretended not to hear her whisper: "I think."

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

As soon as Steve put one foot in the river he understood what Rowan had been saying to him. Because the second his foot hit that first stone he went down, biting against a cry of pain as his body hit the wet stones. Behind him the partner with the rifle came crashing out of the trees and stopped.

Steve forced himself to turn and found the man standing above him with the rifle ready to fire.

"Hold it! Where are the diamonds? Where are they?" the man demanded to know.

Steve tried to catch his breath. He had been running so hard and evading those bullets that he was damn near breathless. "You know what? I forgot," he said. Because he sure as hell wasn't going to tell them they were back with Rowan and Lucy.

"You tell me where they are," he said taking a step closer.

"Uh… they're in the jungle. Why don't you go and take a look? I'll wait right here," Steve said.

"You think I'm playing games?" The partner asked. "I will kill you."

"You kill me, you're really never gonna find them," Steve taunted. The man bashed the butt of the gun into his face. Blood erupted in his mouth, the metallic taste and the sting of the blow making him woozy.

He spit out a mouthful of blood and then turned back to the man with the gun.

"How's that, funny guy? Except no one's gonna find you either," the man said.

"I found him," a soft voice called and once again the world around him began to slow down.

The man with the gun turned revealing Rowan behind him. She was just standing there staring him down. Steve heard his scream of run fall from his lips but she hadn't moved. As the man with the gun turned he fired the first of few shots as Rowan fell to the ground. Only four shots went off before a louder fifth shot was heard and the man with the gun crumpled. Danny was to the left still holding the gun he had fired and the world around Steve went back to normal speed.

He struggled to get up, calling Rowan's name as Danny rushed to her side. He didn't even get to crouch down when Rowan suddenly popped up like a jack in the box startling Danny and causing him to fall over.

"STILL ALIVE!" she crowed throwing her hands up in the air. Steve let out the breath he had been holding as he forced himself to ignore the pain in his leg and move over to where Danny was glaring at Rowan.

Steve offered her a hand that Rowan refused to take so Danny took it. She then turned to Danny. "Can you help me up?"

"Super Seal was right there offering you a hand, what his hand not good enough for you?" he asked.

"No, I'm too heavy," she said shooting Steve a dark look. Steve wanted to shake her, he thought she knew that had just been a distraction. She took Danny's hand and let him haul her up. "Am I too heavy, Danny?"

"Heavy? You're as light as a feather," he said. He pulled her in close and kissed her cheek and lingered until Steve grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off. "What? I'm just saying thank-you for the tip. Didn't take me long to realize we could dig ourselves out because there was no foundation under the shed. Why the hell does she think she's too heavy, by the way? I feel like that's a good story."

"He didn't catch me," Rowan said. "Twice."

"No, no, you tell him the full story, not just the highlights," Steve snapped as they started to walk down the trail.

"Yes, please, tell me the whole story. I can't wait to hear how Super Seal couldn't catch you, Rowan," Danny said.

"Okay, so it started when I saw a snake and jumped on his back…."

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

By the time Steve got Rowan out of the hospital and back to the house he was feeling a bit better, mainly because Alex hadn't been in so he didn't have to deal with that interaction. That was until his front door opened and Nurse Alex stepped out. Rowan ran at him, screaming his name as he too rushed forward like this was some stupid rom-com. She jumped at him, wrapping her arms and legs around him and began to kiss him fervently. Steve tried to ignore that burning in the pit of his stomach as he stormed past them.

"See, he can catch me," he heard Rowan snap at him as he walked past and it took all of his willpower to not tell her to go fuck herself.

Of course he could have caught her, when he was ready and she wasn't throwing herself at him at a strange angle. He slammed the front door and glared at his mother who had discretely moved a single panel of the drapes to spy on Rowan and Alex as they talked but mostly kissed.

"Why is he here?" Steve hissed.

Doris turned to him with surprise on her face. "Because when Danny called me to let me know what happened, I called Alex so he knew. He was worried and offered to wait with me, which was very nice of him, and he wanted to be here when she got back. He's quite a doting boyfriend."

"Course he is, she's his best patient," Steve grumbled to himself as he stormed to the fridge to get a well-deserved beer. He took an extra one out and handed it to his mother who had followed him.

"You know, Steven, if this is bothering you so much you could just tell her you like her. I'm sure she'd be more than willing to drop the Nurse to date you instead," she offered.

Steve nearly gagged on his swallow of beer. He choked and coughed and when his airway was clear he turned to his mother surprise on his face. Not that she had told him to ask Rowan out, she had done that before but she had never mentioned before that Rowan would most likely reciprocate any feeling Doris thought he son to have. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm not blind Steve, I see how she is with you and how you are with her. It's clear as day you both have feelings for each other, why are you denying it?" she asked.

Steve put down his beer and stared at his mother, hard. His heart was beating wildly out of his chest. She was wrong. Rowan was not interested in him in that way, and neither was he interested in her… maybe… probably. "Mom, what is this about?" he asked. "I thought you liked Catherine."

"I do. I love Catherine, I just don't think you do," Doris said. "I think you're a little more interested in our house guest."

Steve shook his head. "No," he told her. "You're wrong."

He moved towards the steps, he wanted to have a shower. He wanted to wash the jungle off of him and the feel of Rowan's body against his. He wanted to forget that mind numbing desire to kiss her as she hovered over him, her hand over his heart, and his hands on her waist. No. He needed to forget.

"Please make sure they come in at a decent hour," Steve told his mother. "And under no circumstances should you allow that man to stay the night."

His mother said nothing and he was grateful she didn't. He needed to get a better handle on this. Maybe it would be better if Rowan stayed with Danny for a few days after all.