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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: I'm posting hella early this week. We had to put my dog down and I'm a bit of a mess so I doubt I'll be posting on Friday. So I'm going to do it now before I forget. Here we are. We've closed off this episode and it ends with some DRAMA. From here on in Catherine's going to be a little bit harder for Steve to manage. Next week we have a fluff chapter, it'll be shorter than the others but it's super cute and it's supposed to be super funny and then after that we get into the chapters that get a bit... freaky. They're also the chapters that open up this whole can of worms and then the really drama starts. Also Guys... guys... guys... we got a COVER! I hope you guys like it as much as I do! See you guys next week! Don't forget, 10 more reviews and you get that bonus chapter!

Chapter 14

Catherine shot a glance at Rowan. The girl had been very well behaved since they had returned to Ethan's house. She hadn't talked back, hadn't mentioned Steve, and hadn't tried to run off. But Catherine didn't trust her. Rowan kept her phone on her leg, but she frequently looked at the screen, mainly cause she was getting a million text messages. She said they were from Alex, who was trying to talk to her, but Catherine had a feeling some of them were from Steve because in between the frowns she'd smile. A little annoying as Steve hadn't messaged or called Catherine once since they had separated but she doubted he was telling Rowan pertinent case information or she would have said something. Which begged the question, what could Steve be texting her about and why?

They had been playing poker with Ethan, a game Rowan was not familiar with, a game Catherine may have suggested because she was aware of that. They were playing with chocolates and Candy canes while Rowan stared at her cards confused.

"I will raise you two candy canes and a mint," Ethan said with a cocky grin on his face.

Catherine smirked right back. "I will see your two candy canes and your mint," she told him.

"Are you in Ro?" Ethan asked, having already adopted her nickname.

"I don't know… I don't know if I have anything good…" she said.

"Oh just fold already, woman," Catherine cried.

Rowan glanced at Ethan shot him a smile that Catherine could only describe as interesting and then called their bets.

"What do you got?" Catherine asked the table, but her eyes stayed on Ethan.

"It's your call," Ethan shot back.

Catherine grinned. She was gonna be rolling in it after this hand. "Pair of nines," she crowed happily as she showed him her cards.

Ethan chuckled. "Three kings," he said slapping his cards down.

"Nice!" Catherine cried as Ethan revealed his higher cards.

Rowan smiled. "Aww, Ethan wins again," she said.

"You have to show your cards, Ro," Ethan reminded her. So far, if Rowan had actual bet properly and not folded when she got the chance she could have won. Ethan kept going over what beats what, but she didn't get it.

"Just these ones," she said, putting them down revealing a row of hearts in sequential order, all suit cards.

"Ro! That's a royal flush!" he cried. "You're the winner!"

"I am? Really?" she said frowning as Ethan pushed the pot towards her.

Catherine threw her cards down. Rowan wasn't even trying and she was good at this too. Ethan moved to shuffle the deck again and Rowan unwrapped one of her chocolates and popped it in her mouth.

"Stop eating your chips Ro," Ethan said with a smirk.

"Can't help it, they're too good," she said unwrapping another one.

"You're going to run out of things to bet with," he warned her.

"Naw, I've won a substantial amount. I think I'm gonna retire somewhere nice with my cavities," she said.

Catherine rolled her eyes at her and ignored the way Rowan lowered her eyes when she spotted it. Catherine wanted to be nice to her, she wanted to believe that Rowan was a nice person, but she also had a feeling that Rowan was trying to take Steve away from her. All the evidence supported that theory.

Rowan suddenly went from lounging in her chair texting to sitting up ramrod straight, her phone clattering out of her hands. Her eyes went glossy like she was seeing something that wasn't there. Catherine hadn't really witnessed one of Rowan's dizzy spells but she figured she was witnessing one now.

"Rowan, what is it?" Catherine asked feeling a little bit like someone asking Lassie what was wrong.

A key turned in the lock and Rowan immediately grabbed Ethan's arm and held on with all her might. "Don't move," she whispered. "He has a gun!"

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

Rowan had to cling to Ethan to keep him from running to his dad once he realized that he was in the house. The man who was holding him at gunpoint had forced Ethan's dad to the basement, they were looking for money. They argued the whole way there about how Bruce had betrayed him, but Rowan knew he hadn't, not that the gunman, a man she remembered only as Rizzi, believed him. Rowan knew that but the others didn't yet. Rowan turned to Catherine who was ducked behind the kitchen counter with them.

"Do the smoke alarm thing," she whispered.

Catherine turned to her confusion all over her face. "You know… put the paper towel in the toaster under the smoke alarm to set it off?" she said. "Then beat his ass and I'll get Ethan outside."

"Oh so I'm doing all the hard work?" Catherine hissed.

"Uh no… you have more training in hand to hand combat then I do and I have to wrangle the mini version of Steve," Rowan muttered. "That's a lot harder."

"No, you're right, I'm just going up against the guy with a gun," Catherine snapped.

"Okay, look, I get that you're mad at me, but I don't know what I did so I think we should deal with this situation first and then when it's all over you can yell at me or slap me or whatever!" she offered.

Catherine stared at her as if she hadn't expected that, as if she had thought Rowan couldn't tell that she was angry. Catherine didn't answer her, she stood up and began to fiddle with something, Rowan assumed it was the toaster. Rowan turned to Ethan and pushed him towards the back door.

He shook his head but Rowan just had to glare at him to get him moving. Once they were outside he rounded on her. "I'm not leaving my dad!"

"I'm not asking you to!" Rowan cried shoving her phone into his hands. "I need you to call McGarrett. Tell him a dude with a gun just showed up with your dad, and I'm taking him on."

"Wait… what?" Ethan asked watching her unlock the screen. She prayed he didn't notice that the background photo was one of her and Steve.

"Trust me," Rowan said and then rushed back into the house. She found Catherine in the process of winning with the fight against the guy. Rowan urged the father to her side.

"Bruce?" she asked when he got close. "Ethan's outside!"

Bruce didn't need anything else, he ran out the door calling for Ethan. Rowan carefully made her way back through to the front of the house, narrowly avoiding the flying kicks and haywire punches that both the man with the gun and Catherine were throwing. Damn it didn't look like Catherine was winning anymore. Where was that Navy training she was supposed to have? Wasn't she supposed to be just as good at Steve at hand-to-hand combat? She didn't remember this fight being so bad. Rowan watched as the kidnapper shoved Catherine away and went for his gun. She didn't have a choice. She was going to have to intervene, and he was just correctly lined up for what she wanted to do. Rowan took a deep breath to steel herself, let out the most terrible roar she could manage and charged the man.

This was going to hurt.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

Catherine hadn't been expecting it but one minute the man that had been holding Bruce hostage was standing above her and the next second he wasn't. Taken down by a screaming projectile, it took a few minutes for Catherine to understand what it was that had happened. Rowan had tackled him, straight down into the basement.

Catherine got up and rushed to the trap door looking down. Rowan lay on top of the man not moving. The man's body was sprawled at an awkward angle, probably dead, but Rowan's looked just as awkward and that was not good.

"Ro?" Catherine called but she didn't answer. Also not a good sign.

Behind her the door was kicked in and Steve appeared gun drawn and ready to go. He was packing the big heat, his RPG instead of his pistol. The look on his face spoke to how worried he must have been and she wondered if that was just for Rowan or if he was worried for her too?

"Ro?" he called. Well that answered that question. He spotted Catherine, his face paling when he saw her stricken face and the trap door. "Catherine, where's Ro?'

Catherine wanted to be mad at him for not asking if she was okay. But they had bigger issues at that moment.

"She tackled him and they both fell," Catherine said. Steve dropped his gun and dropped to the ground beside her. "She's not moving."

Steve looked down the stairs to Rowan's unmoving form and quickly nudged Catherine aside. "I'm going to go down…" he started and then a groaning was heard.

Catherine and Steve stared down and saw that Rowan was moving. She pushed herself up and rolled herself off of the dead body. She looked up at the two of them staring down at her and said: "That took the wind right out of me."

Steve laughed practically jumping down the stairs to get to her side. He pulled her up off the floor and checked her all over. No cuts, no breaks, just bruising but otherwise she was fine. Steve spotted her as she climbed up the stairs, Catherine held onto her as she got out. She was going to thank Rowan for helping her, the words were there on her tongue but then Steve joined Rowan on the first floor and scooped her up in his arms and the apology died on her lips.

Catherine scoffed and stormed away. She couldn't believe this. She was there too, she had taken the fight with the kidnapper. Yeah Rowan had tackled him down a flight of stairs but that didn't mean that Catherine didn't want her boyfriend—or whatever—to comfort her too. After standing outside for a bit and catching her breath, Steve still hadn't chased after her. That meant he was still in the house with Rowan. Catherine decided she was going to storm right in there and give the two of them a piece of her mind, to demand that Steve choose between she and Rowan right at that moment but once she got to the door she stopped.

"You should go check on Catherine," Rowan was saying. "She seems really mad at me."

"She's fine, she's taken beatings worse than that. I'm more worried about you, are you sure you're alright?' Steve asked.

Rowan had pushed away from him and was keeping him at an arms distance. "Yeah, I'll be fine," she said. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she checked it than ignored it again. She looked up to Steve who was just standing there watching her. "Seriously. Go check on Catherine before she does something dire."

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked.

"She's furious with me for some reason, Steve. I'm terrified she's going to ask you to send me away," she admitted.

Catherine paused. She had been thinking that. The fact that both Rowan and Steve looked distraught at the possibility did not bode well.

"She's not going to do that Ro," Steve assured her and Catherine felt her cheeks flame.

"Yeah, but if she does I'll have to go," she said.

Steve shook his head. Catherine didn't know if that meant that he wouldn't choose Catherine or it wouldn't come to that.

"She's not mad at you, so we don't have to worry about that," Steve said.

"Well she sure is taking it out on me," Rowan snapped crossing her arms over her chest. "Are you sure I haven't done something? They didn't interrupt your date to tell you I was arrested did they?"

"No, Ro, you didn't interrupt our date, a guy trying to mug us did. But that doesn't matter because she's mad at me," he admitted. This time Rowan's eyes narrowed at him.

"We'll come back to the mugging later. You didn't take her to that place you were talking about last night, did you?" Rowan asked.

Steve glared at her. "There is nothing wrong with Rainbow's, Rowan"

"I agree. But I told you not to do that, Steve," Rowan groaned. "She specifically asked for something romantic."

"Uh… no… no she did not," Steve complained.

"She asked to go somewhere special before she goes back on the boat, that's girl code for romance. I told you that," Rowan told him nudging his shoulder with hers.

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled.

"You are going to have to start admitting that I'm right about some things," she said. "Starting with girl stuff. I know a lot more about girls then you do."

Steve cocked an eyebrow at her and Rowan just smiled at him. "You know what I mean. I'm a girl, I get how girls think. You're going to have to think of something to make it up to her, Smooth dog."

"You got any ideas?" Steve asked.

Rowan turned to him with a sigh. "Yeah. I have an idea."

Catherine turned away. She was more than surprised. She did not expect Rowan to be giving Steve dating advice, let alone encouraging him to be as romantic as possible with her. It didn't quite seem like the kind of thing someone who was attempting to steal a man would do.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

They had all gone to Kamekona's shrimp truck for a celebratory meal. Steve had gone home to change, for what, Catherine didn't know. Rowan who didn't like seafood was waiting for her special to come out while everyone else was already eating and opening up the Christmas presents that Kamekona had given out to them, except for Rowan, who he didn't realize would be there and would send a long later.

To keep her from going to other trucks Kamekona had started stocking chicken just for her, because everyone just up and fell in love with Rowan, apparently. He called it the Rowan Special, as in only Rowan could order it. She merely said what sea food meal she wanted to try that day and he'd make it with chicken instead. Today was Rowan's Special Garlic Shrimp, usually it made her smile but not today. While they were all joking and laughing, Rowan had been staring at her phone frowning instead.

"What's with the long face?" Danny asked her.

"Alex and I keep arguing," she said. "He says he didn't know that I was arrested apparently."

"Do you believe that?"

"I don't know, maybe," she answered. "He said that he figured that no cop would be stupid enough to arrest the girl Steve McGarrett obsesses over. Now we're arguing over the validity of that comment."

She avoided Catherine's eyes after that, and Catherine tried not to let that comment simmer in her stomach. She needed to put this jealously away, she was starting to think that Rowan may not be the problem, but she might be.

"Whoa! There he is, 007 in the house," Kamekona said, having just spotted Steve. He had gotten out of his truck and was for some reason, dressed to the nines. Catherine could not take her eyes off of him. He looked so dapper in that tuxedo. She was so mesmerized that she barely heard the comments and catcalling coming from the table of Five-0 members. She did, however, managed to catch Rowan staring at Steve like she had been blinded by his new look, but had frowned and looked back to her still buzzing phone in her hands.

"What are you doing?" Catherine asked him trying to sound nonchalant and not like her panties were dropping as he stood there staring down at her. She would definitely have to thank Rowan for whatever this plan was later.

Steve didn't answer her. He offered her a hand, pulled her up and then picked her up bridal style. "I'm taking you to dinner," he told her.

"Reservation is at 7:30, to give her time to change," Rowan called as he began to take her back to walk back to the truck. Oh yeah, Catherine was going to owe Rowan big after this. She pulled him in and kissed him quickly.

She couldn't help but giggle, this was all so adorable. "I like this," she told him.

Steve's grin was huge, oh, he was going to take all the credit for this, she knew. And she was going to let him. "Yeah, you like this?" he said with his proud smirk. "Good."

This was perfect, but Catherine just had to ruin it with her big mouth.

It was because she recognized the guy that had walked past him. Steve hadn't even registered that he had gone by, he was too busy staring at Catherine. But even though she had only met Nurse Alex once she was certain it was him that walked by with a guitar strapped to his back.

"Was that Nurse Alex?" she asked and that's where everything went to shit.

Steve's happy smile faded and he turned. She could tell by the frown that replaced that big grin that had been on his face that it was Nurse Alex. And boy was he dressed up just as nicely. He was wearing a nice pair of pants and a freshly pressed button-down shirt looking like he just came from a photo shoot or he was in some crazy famous boyband. Already Steve was frozen in place just watching what was unfolding in front of them.

At first Rowan looked far from impressed by his appearance. He said something to her, which could not have been good because she just scowled at him and turned away. Danny was say something and waving his hands at Nurse Alex, and Catherine thought that might have saved the situation except for the fact that Nurse Alex didn't heed a thing Danny had said to him. He merely pulled his guitar forward and then he was singing her a song, which Catherine could hear from where she was standing because everyone in the area had suddenly gone silent to listen to him.

The worst of it was that Rowan was smiling.

So you tell your friends and I'll tell mine. We both know it's coming It's too hard to hide. Can't wait for another minute. Let's go and get it over with. Acting like it isn't when we know it is. I think it's time we define the relationship. You're all that I ever wanted. Let's go and put a label on it.

Steve dropped Catherine and she plummeted to the ground. He then stepped over her to go accost the man singing. Catherine yelped when she hit the ground, she called Steve's name as he walked away but he didn't turn back to her. As she watched Steve grab Nurse Alex by the collar of his nicely pressed dress shirt Catherine realized that the problem wasn't with Rowan trying to steal her man, her man clearly had feelings for Rowan.