Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Are you guys liking the update marathon? I know it's only day two, but I'm so excited! This is it! The plot twist I am so excited for! I hope you guys aren't too mad at me after this. But I can't help it, I'm the Queen of ANGST! And JP, yes, Rowan does remember time spent with her brother, but that's a different version of her brother. Remember, the one from the alternate timeline she left behind. The brother that's in Hawaii right now, is the Hawaii-Five-0 version of her brother. Hope that clears things up. See you guys again tomorrow!

Chapter 37

Steve found Catherine in the back office standing over their bad guy. Gun in hand. Situation handled. One of the Derby girls had been tied to a chair and as soon as he got there he crossed to the man who was bleeding on the floor, having been shot in the leg by Catherine, and cuffed him. Once the man was on the floor and rendered useless Steve went to the other side of the captive girl to help Catherine untie her.

"You okay?" he asked. He was a little breathless, having the panic drain from him slowly.

"Yeah," she replied and the two shared a soft smile. All he wanted to do was hug her. Because it had scared him to think that he had put Catherine into trouble. At least Catherine had a gun. At least Catherine could take care of herself.

Steve!

Steve knew that voice. He knew it. And just like that all concern for Catherine, all that happiness that she was okay drained out of him and was replaced with a glaringly empty need. All that pain of losing Rowan, it had come back, multiplied by ten. The anger returned full force, along with that lethal drive to find her. It was like everything else became silent and all that mattered was getting to her.

Rowan was here.

He rushed away from Catherine without saying a single word. He rushed back into the disorder or the roller derby. To Danny lying prone on the floor a hand in his hair. To Rowan being carted out by Wo Fat, for who else could it be.

"STOP!" Steve shouted, his gun coming up. Wo Fat answered not with words but by turning and firing into the crowd. Steve dove to the floor, not daring to shoot when Wo Fat was using Rowan as a shield and chaos erupted around him. People were screaming and pushing each other to get out. When the shots stopped Steve forced himself to his feet. No. Wo Fat was not getting away this time. He just wasn't.

He went to Danny and helped him up, checked his head over. Light bleeding, but he wasn't so much in pain as he was angry.

"I had her Steve," he growled as they both headed to the door, guns drawn. "She was fucking in my arms and that asshole got the drop on me."

"It's okay," Steve kept saying. Because it was. He was just glad that Danny hadn't been shot. But when Danny tossed him the keys he was surprised. After the car incident Danny had sworn he'd never let Steve drive again.

"I have a head injury and Wo Fat has a crazy lead on us," Danny told him as he crossed to the passenger side. "But if you crash the Camaro again I'll kill you. You understand? With my own two hands."

Steve's smile lit up his face. Yes. Today was the day. He was finally going to get Rowan back.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat threw Rowan into the car. And she didn't struggle. He called Armando on the way and at no point did she try to argue or interject.

"Send the cruiser to the pier, and tell them that we'll need to be taken the freighter. We need immediate transport to Japan. But I need you to stay back and pack everything up. I'll need you to be on the next freighter out," he had ordered.

Still Rowan didn't struggle. She said nothing. She just stared at him. He found that he couldn't look in her eyes, he knew what she was thinking. He knew she was going to try and beg him to let her go. He needed to be strong, he needed to convince her to stay.

"There are lots of things to do in Japan," he told her before she could say anything to him. "Lots of places for you to visit. It'll be safer for you too. I'd be more susceptible to letting you and Juan Carlos explore while I'm working."

Rowan was quiet for a little bit before whispering: "How's your throat?"

He glanced to her. That's all she had to say? She wasn't going to beg him to stay? To let her go back to Steve?

"It's alright…" he replied. "Good shot, good thing you missed."

"I didn't miss. I wasn't trying to kill you," she whispered.

He couldn't help but shoot her a soft smile. He couldn't hold back his proud chuckles either. "I taught you well," he said.

When he glanced back at her big bright tears were welling up in her eyes. "Please don't make me go."

Behind him he heard the wail of a siren and saw that familiar silver Camaro creep up on the horizon. Fucking Steve. Rowan immediately perked up and he almost swore at her.

"Look. I get it. Okay, but do you think you could just try?" he asked. "Just for like a month? And if you still want to go back, if you still miss Steve, I'll send you home. Okay?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "Do you mean that or are you just saying that?" she asked him.

"Yes, I mean it," Wo Fat growled. Even though he was banking on her wanting to stay and then not letting her leave even if she wanted to go back. "I know this is going to sound ridiculous but I like having you around. Alright? Because I see you in me. I see the me I was when I was young and I needed someone to help me. You're all alone and you need guidance and that's what I'm here for."

"So you want to mentor me?" she asked.

"No. I want to be what I needed when I was like you. Someone to count on," he explained. "And don't you fucking tell me you can count on Steve that man has picked cases and Catherine over you time and time again.

"Alright. Say I agree to go with you. Do I have to do illegal things?" she asked.

"Hell no. I'd keep you separate from that," he said immediately. He almost added: And you can't be trusted. Especially after the Juan Carlos incident. He'd never trust her around a gun ever again.

"Would you let me call Steve and explain so he doesn't worry?" she asked.

"From an untraceable phone, sure," he replied, even he noted that he sounded a bit unsure. But Rowan didn't seem to notice, she was too busy mulling it all over.

"I guess that's a pretty sweet deal," she replied. "But if you break your promise I swear I'll be so annoying you have no choice but to give me back."

Wo Fat found himself laughing. Yes. Yes! She had agreed. Sure she had some hard demands to fill but she had agreed. He couldn't stop smiling. A proper giant grin. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe he had finally won. Fuck, why hadn't he tried that before? He couldn't wait for this trip. He was going to take so many pictures to taunt Steve with.

Rowan laughed at him. "Wow, what's that smile? I didn't even know you had that many teeth!" she cried and the two of them laughed. Until he had to dedicate his attention to the road so he could try and out run McGarrett.

With carefully evading Wo Fat managed to lose Steve briefly, just long enough to get them to the pier and out of the car. He hated to do it but he had to abandon the Audi. But he didn't have to worry about Rowan not following him because he had a hold of her hand. She ran after him as the sirens filled the air revealing that Steve had called in the cavalry. But Rowan didn't run as fast as he did, even though he was holding her hand and tugging her along. She wasn't trying to hold him up, she wasn't fighting him, she just wasn't as fast.

He tugged her down a maze of shipping containers hoping to dodge Steve and the Five-0's that were running around them braying her name. He was trying to get to the right pier, the right place to get them on that boat that would take them to Japan. It wasn't going to be a comfortable journey but it was a necessity.

Rowan was flagging. They came to a stop by the water's edge. But it was the wrong pier. He thought he could find a smaller boat, use that one to get to the one other one. Wo Fat could hear them from all sides. Rowan had slowed him down, he wouldn't get to the boat in time for them both to get away. He could easily have left her behind. He could have. But he didn't want to. He didn't want to let Steve win. He didn't want to hand her back to a man he was certain didn't appreciate her the right way.

Rowan!

His voice followed them. Searching for her. Repeating her name the way a dog howled when he caught scent of his quarry. Why was McGarrett so fucking obsessed with her? Why couldn't he just let her go?

Rowan let out a single whisper, of Steve's name. She wanted to go back to him. But why was he surprised? She had wanted to go back to Steve since Wo Fat had taken her. She wanted to return to a man who didn't want her, she claimed. Wanted to be with a man who had already chosen someone else. Who was he to deny her? If he wasn't so selfish he might have actually done as she asked. But she had just agreed to go with him. She had just said she was fine with their arrangement. It stung to have her so desperate to return to Steve who couldn't and wouldn't give her any of what she wanted. When he was willing to give her anything. But still he couldn't bring himself to leave her. He had dithered too long and now he was cornered. Brought down by his own selfishness.

Now they were both screwed.

She turned to him, gnawing on her pink lips. He hated it when she did that. "You could still get out of here," she told him. And that stung too, because she was offering to not go with him. They both knew that they wouldn't both get away, that he wouldn't get away from Steve with Rowan with him but this move was far from selfless.

"I can distract him," she continued. And a light bulb when off in his head. She really could be a distraction.

It was a gamble. He couldn't be certain it would work. But it might. It just might. If Rowan was wrong and Wo Fat was right about how deep those feelings of Steve's ran. But he didn't know if he could do it. Not when she had opened him up to the onslaught of emotions like guilt.

"Give it up Wo Fat, we have you surrounded! Surrender the girl and we'll go easy on you!" Steve's voice called out to them. He saw the urge for her to scream for him on her face, she hadn't yet as he still had a gun and she still didn't trust him.

"I can draw him away from you, give him wrong intel," she whispered to him. "But you have to go now."

He nodded but made no move to run. Rowan didn't notice. She had a smile on her face that Wo Fat had never seen before. "Steve over here!" she cried. Wo Fat could almost feel the shift. The charge in the atmosphere, the second Steve knew where she was, it was like the air around them went electric.

He came into view and Wo Fat raised his gun. He clocked the panicked look on Steve's face. But he was too far to get a good shot on Wo Fat without risking hitting Rowan. Too far away to get Rowan out of the way.

A scream erupted from Steve's lips. A primal mix of Rowan's name and the word No! For a moment, Steve actually froze. For the first time, Wo Fat was certain he was seeing Steve in a state of true fear and panic. He knew then. He knew then he was right.

Rowan seemed to realize that something was wrong, and slowly she turned around. Those big blue eyes he had gotten accustomed to staring back at him and the gun with disbelief. "What are you doing?" she asked him. Her voice warbling and cracking. She took a step back but there was nowhere to go.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. In that split second before he did it she turned to Steve who was in a dead sprint heading for them. She got out a half whisper of his name.

And then he pulled the trigger.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The howl ripped out of him and echoed through the night. All he saw was Rowan. The way her body crumpled when the bullet hit her dead center mass. The way her eyes stayed on him as the force of the gunshot blew her back. The way she dropped into the water and disappeared under the black surface.

He threw his gun to the side. Ripped the bullet proof vest off of his chest. Ignored Wo Fat who was retreating, disappearing into the shadows. And dove straight into the water after her.

It was like the void dream all over again. She was sinking. Her hands outstretched as if reaching for him. Bubbles escaped her lips. Her eyes were blank and empty. Blood streamed out of her like red strings as he swam down to get her.

He pulled her to him. Pulled her back to the surface. But he wasn't greeted with coughing. He couldn't feel her chest moving. She wasn't breathing. Steve was pulling her to the side. He'd need help. God why had he gone on without Danny and Chin and Kono? Why had he left them behind?

Help me!

His scream sounded foreign to him. Like it was a completely different person. Luckily he was answered.

"Give me her arm," Danny ordered leaning over the side of the pier to grab her. Steve hoisted her up and Danny got an arm under hers and wrapped around her chest. Chin had arrived on the scene as well and grabbed her other side.

They got Rowan out of the water as Steve scrambled out after them.

"Boss, Wo Fat got away," Kono said coming to stand over him. He barely heard her all he could focus on was Rowan.

"She's not breathing," Chin told him. "Pulse is weak. Shot got her right under the collar bone, through and through. She's losing a lot of blood."

Steve was kneeling over her immediately. "Danny, call 911, Kono go flag them down, Chin plug up that hole in her," he ordered. He looked into Rowan's glassy blank blue eyes. "And don't you fucking die on me."

He moved in immediately, his mouth sealing over hers as he breathed into her. Her chest rose half way, he pulled back took a deep breath and breathed into her again. Once she had air in her lungs he began to compress.

Danny was on the phone to 911, an ambulance on the way. When he was done giving them information he joined Chin in the efforts to keep her from bleeding out. The operator still on the phone that he had put down between he and Chin.

"Don't do this, Ro," he said between compressions. "You can't die on me."

He breathed into her again. Once. Twice. Her chest inflating. Her eyes still glassy. "No. Ro. No!" he cried, starting to get more and more frantic. He continued his compressions. Pressing as hard as he could, feeling her ribs crack under the pressure he had to put on her.

Still, she didn't breathe.

"Her heartbeat's getting weaker," Danny told him or maybe the operator who was still on the phone. At this rate her heart was going to stop all together.

The sirens broke through the silence. The flashing red lights shattered the darkness of the night sky.

"We're here!" Kono was crying, waving her arms over her head.

"Wake up, Rowan," Steve begged her, he didn't care if his voice cracked or shook this time. He breathed into her again. Once. Twice. A third time, a kiss. "Please, don't do this to me. Don't leave me."

Chin took over compressions while Steve hovered over Rowan's face. His hands shakingly caressing her cheeks. His hands painted with her blood leaving red droplets of it to roll down her wet face. "Please," he kept whispering to her.

Please.

The paramedics arrived. They brushed the worried boys away like flies. One checked on Rowan and her stats. They flashed a light in her eyes. No reaction. They asked if she could hear them. She couldn't. They checked her pulse.

She has none.

They might as well have taken a knife and stabbed him in the chest. This. Could. Not. Be. Happening.

"We've got a GSW to the shoulder, Code 99. We're going to need to intubate," one of them said into the walkie. "Get a trauma team ready to take her into triage."

Steve paced the length of Rowan's body. He watched them shove a tube down her mouth, attached to a pump that made her lungs take in oxygen. He watched them get her onto a stretcher. He could have done that. He could have gotten them to the hospital by now. He went to follow the gurney. He went to get into the back. But he was stopped.

"Sorry, family only," a paramedic told him.

He had no intention of letting Rowan out of his sight. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett of Five-0, I'm going with her."

"If you're not family, you're not going with her," the paramedic repeated and he snapped.

"I'm her goddamn boyfriend now get out of my way," he shouted, a lie, a necessary lie, but a lie that he felt was truth. His hand going for his empty holster. If he had his gun it would have been in their faces by now. But he had left it somewhere. He couldn't remember where and he didn't care. He just knew he needed to go with her.

The paramedic had the good sense to step aside. And Steve got in. His eyes stay on her. That pale ashen almost blue face. His heart ruptured in his chest. A flood of emotion he didn't want to deal with took over him. He took her hand. Her cold clammy hand and held onto her for dear life. He pressed a kiss to her knuckles trying to remind her what his warmth felt like, so she could return to him.

There was no reaction. Not a single flutter of her lashes, not a tinge of red in her cheeks, not a beat of her heart under his fingertips. And the floodgates opened. The last his team saw of him, he was sitting by her side. Her hand in his larger ones, his lips on her knuckles, with tears streaming down his face.

And then the door shut.