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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: So here's Bonus update #2, with any luck you'll still be enjoying this chapter, I added a bit of humour to the whole situation so hopefully you find it funny too! If you guys still don't quite get whats going on with the network thing, I'll post an explanation on Tuesday just tell me in your review if you need clarification. I am also pleased to announce that Rowan and Steve are officially working things out as of Chapter 87, they're not 100% together but they're casually dating! Which, you know, is something great to look forward to because that's when I get to write fluff and what not. Anyway, please tell me what you think of this update, I know that this chapter also ends on a cliffhanger and I'm sorry about that, but I'm pretty sure things get wrapped up in the chapter after. See you guys on Tuesday.

Chapter 60

Danny found a body by the elevator. He found shards of glass from the blown light above the aforementioned body. He found evidence of foot prints in the glass but that was it. Nothing that told him where the screaming had come from. Nothing that explained the power flicker down the hallway. But it did explain the gunshots they had heard.

He checked the emergency exits next. Bomb taped to the door. Not good. No go. So he had no choice but to return to the supply area Steve was holed up in with their bleeding-out-NLM-ticket-to-freedom. He had been looking for a way to plug up that leak in their injured guy's shoulder when Danny went on the recon mission. He wondered if he had had any luck. He came into the room, he thought quietly but Steve must not have thought so because he drew his pistol on Danny.

Danny just glared at him, slightly startled at first but he had faith that Steve wouldn't actually shoot him. "What are you going to do you going to shoot me?" he asked, completely insulted that Steve had even pulled the gun on him in the first place.

"I considered it," Steve responded after he paused to put his gun away. Clearly deciding that Danny wasn't a threat.

"Oh, you did?" Danny said. "Well, do me a favour then. Put me out of my misery."

"Did you check the emergency exit?" Steve asked him clearly not wanting to argue. Well good, Danny only half wanted to argue, only because it would distract him from the situation, he was in.

"No, I went to get donuts," Danny snapped sarcastically. He then sobered up. "Yeah, I checked the emergency exit. Not an option. They got something rigged to the door. It is not cop friendly."

"And the screams?" Steve asked almost absently. Danny wasn't fooled though. The scream was female. Steve was automatically worried about Rowan. The flicker of power also worried him, what with Rowan's special powers and what not. But he saw no evidence of Rowan down there which meant she was somewhere upstairs in all of that chaos.

"There's a dead body over by our elevator. Light above it is blown. Other than that, nothing," Danny answered.

"Blown? You mean… like out?" Steve asked.

"No, numbskull. Blown, like blown to bits. Like power surge shot the bulb to hell," Danny said and Steve tried to not worry. The guy in front of him, who had been shallowly breathing suddenly stopped breathing entirely. Danny seemed nonplussed but still said: "Steve?"

"Yeah, I see it," he answered and then went straight to doing CPR. "Come on, come on."

"Buddy, we lose this guy, we got no leverage," Danny said from where he was standing a few paces away. Steve wanted him to shut up, anything to shut him up.

"You're not helping, all right?" Steve snapped as he continued to compress. Well, he had him there.

Danny raised his hands in surrender. "Okay. All right. You're right." He then thought for a minute. Thought about how his day had been going before he got the call that the prison had been hit. The prison he knew Steve was at, the prison he knew Rowan always visited on Fridays.

"Don't move. I'll be right back," he said under his breath. That stupid comment had not been what he wanted to say but he also wasn't sure what else there was to say. The alternative was too scary.

"What was that?" Steve asked as he continued to compress. Not that Danny finished or excelled at Boy Scouts but he was pretty sure somewhere in there, Steve was supposed to breathe into the victim. But hey, there was no mask to do that into so he got it if Steve didn't want to.

"Now's not really the time… uh…" he said but then he figured, why the hell not? There was no telling how long he was going to be in this situation for so he might as well just go with it… right? He knelt down beside Steve and the dead guy and began to tell his tale.

"Gabby, she's in town. Right? And for a minute there I thought I was actually happy. Which is a weird thing for me because I don't really know what that means, you know? But I had forgotten about Kono leaving, about Salgado and his son, about all the shit with Rowan, because I miss her and it's hard tippy-toeing around your feelings. I forgot about getting shot at. Again. And then the phone rang. I had to tell Gabby I'm going somewhere, so I turn to her and I sit her down and I say: 'Don't move. I'll be right back,'" Danny said. He was talking fast. He saw Steve's look of incredulous shock but he ignored it and kept on plowing through because, well, why not, it was better than just sitting there watching that poor mugs body jerk.

"Instead of what?" Steve asked and Danny almost laughed. Still trying to keep up the conversation despite doing CPR.

"I figure I could've said something better than that," Danny said with a sigh. Beneath them the man gasped coming back to and Steve lounged back and caught his breath. Danny pat his back appreciatively. "Okay, let's hear it for the Boy Scouts of America. Nice work buddy."

Steve merely nodded. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead and then turned to Danny confused. "Wait a minute…" he said. "What were you gonna tell her? You love her or something?"

Danny sighed as he thought about it. "I don't know. I mean, maybe," he said.

Steve just stared at him all confused for a second before half scoffing and turning back to the guy he was kneeling beside. "Okay, well, you know what? Maybe you should be sure, before you say something like that to a woman? Okay?" Steve said. "Because once you say it, you can't unsay it, you understand me? It's a serious thing."

Oh, that was rich. Coming from the guy who couldn't decide between two girls, had pushed one of them away and was working on alienating the other one. But Danny had already gotten away with mentioning Rowan once, he didn't want to bring her up again.

Instead he said: "I understand. Are you speaking from experience? Because, personally, I don't think it counts when you say it to a pistol."

Steve shook his head. "Look we gotta keep moving," he said. He looked down to the guy who was wheezing painfully. "You, get up. Up, up, up!"

He pulled him up when the guy proved either unable or unwilling to move.

"Do you really miss having Rowan around?"

"Yeah, you know, she always had a way of making us smile. But you, fuck, she could light up your damn face just by looking at you," Danny admitted. He probably shouldn't have, but it was true. He purposely ignored the way Steve half smiled just thinking about it and gratefully neither of them said a thing about it. They got two steps before they were interrupted.

Tomas. Flavio. Where's the girl?

Steve turned to him surprised. Danny pulled the walkie he had taken off of the body by the elevators and showed it to him. "Forgot to mention I picked this up."

They're dead. Stop being a coward and come find me yourself.

That was Rowan. Fucking Rowan. What the fuck was Rowan doing on this walkie talking about killing people?

"What the fuck is she thinking?" Steve breathed out.

You're Five-0. Aren't you, little puta?

Do I sound like Five-0 to you? Rowan shot back. Steve half chuckled. She kind of did. Just a more ruthless version.

You have our brother Ricardo Cosi. I'll give you one minute to return him to me, or I start shooting hostages.

Rowan didn't have a response for that. Concern pinched Steve's features. Danny could literally see the wheels turning in his head as he thought of a plan, any plan. Probably one that would cause Danny a lot of bodily harm

"Don't. Okay. Don't. She's not that stupid. She's probably with Chin, you know that. Rowan just can't keep her mouth shut," Danny said.

Just so you know I mean what I say…

And then they heard a gunshot and screaming. Oh great. Just great. He was going to have to go with Steve to give up their one bargaining chip.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The elevator dinged and Steve and Danny appeared. Holding up Ricardo Cosi. Glaring at the man with the gun and the walkie. He took them in but did not seem happy.

"Where's the girl?" he asked.

But Steve wasn't going to answer that question. Not just because he didn't actually know, but because even if he did, he'd never give up Rowan like that.

Steve and Danny dragged the half conscious man down to the oval foyer where one of the men there for Cosi took him from them. The man with the gun smiled in the cockiest of manners. Still Steve said nothing.

"On your knees," he ordered.

Steve and Danny obeyed. For the hostages they had no choice. He came up to the them, "I know there's more than two of you. Your girlfriend. She won't stop talking."

Steve half scoffed. Yeah that was Rowan for you. The gun was aimed at him and Steve didn't even flinch.

"Yeah, that's really not a good idea," Danny said. What the fuck. Just shut up Danny.

The man smiled again and he shifted. Now the gun was pressed flush against Danny's neck. "Are you offering to go first?"

Oh. Well if Steve was mad before, he was even more mad now. But he wasn't going to play with Danny's life. Maybe if he just called Chin down they could pretend he was being the girl to throw them off?

"Chin!" he called. Hoping he'd know the play. Hoping the man would come out. But that was not what he got. "It's all over, get down here."

A body crashed down towards them, bouncing against the marble steps painfully. When Steve dared to look up Chin and Rowan were standing at the top of the steps watching both with horrified faces. Mouth gaping and open, wincing with each sick crack of that body hitting the steps. When she reached the bottom Chin slowly turned to Rowan who was now covering her mouth with her hands.

"I thought you said you had her?" Chin asked.

"I was wrong," Rowan breathed out. She then erupted into a shaky laugh. "Whoo, she was a human slinky for a moment there. Uhm… is she still alive? Someone might want to check."

Beside him Danny began to snicker because Rowan would throw a bad guy down the stairs by accident. The muzzle of the gun pressed further against his friend's neck and no one answered Rowan's question because no one moved towards the fallen body. But the second that gun hit his first her whole demeanour changed.

"You're playing a dangerous game, asshole," Rowan growled. "I suggest you remove that gun from my friend's person or I'll make sure you regret it. Just like you're friend over there."

The leader stared down to the woman that lay in a crumbled heap at the bottom of the steps and then turned his eyes back up to her.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked her in a dangerous tone.

"Some NLM peasant or thug," Rowan answered with a chipper tone. Flat out quoting Wo Fat from the other day. She stepped over the body at the bottom of the stairs and then tilted her head to the side in an inquisitive manner. "Do you know who I am?"

"A dead girl?" he asked sarcastically and a smile widened on Rowan's face that Steve had never seen before. A dangerously glittering grin paired with a wide blue eyes that made her look truly mad.

"I'm Rowan Pierce," she said. All around them phones began to beep but none went to pick them up.

The man behind them let out his breath in a low hiss. "You're Fat's girl," he said softly. Rowan nodded quickly adding a cheery mhmm to it. The man looked her up and down. God he hated it that that was her identifier. "You don't look like much of anything to be honest."

Rowan shrugged casually as if that comment didn't affect her. "I make up for it with a criminally insane ruthlessness," Rowan said. Which was a flat out lie but this guy didn't know that… maybe. Rowan shot a glance back to the woman she had dropped down the stairs. "Your girlfriend learned the hard way."

His eyes went back to his comrade and then back to her. "What did you do to her?" he wondered.

"She didn't answer my questions so I gave her a little zap to get her talking," Rowan said casually as if that was a perfect reasonable reaction.

But Steve had clocked the bandages that were wrapped around Rowan's arm and leg. The way Rowan seemed unbalanced and not in control. Like she always looked after interacting with the void.

"A zap?" Steve asked in a hollow voice.

"Try fried. White eyes, orange electric, electrocuted," Chin confirmed and Steve almost swore. What the fuck was Rowan thinking.

"I don't know what that means…" the leader whispered and Rowan took a step forward.

"It means take your bitch. Take your injured dude, and get the fuck out of here," Rowan snapped.

"We don't take orders from you," he growled.

"No, but the snipers I have waiting for you outside do, Ernesto" Rowan said in a dangerous tone. She knew their names? "You may have renegaded on his deal, but there are literally hundreds of others who haven't. Now you can leave of your own accord or I can order you all dead. Take. Your. Pick."

As if to prove her point a shot echoed out of nowhere and one of the men, who had been slowly raising his gun up, went down, blood spattering everywhere. Rowan jumped, obviously she hadn't been expecting that. She purposely turned her eyes away from the body and held the leader's gaze, but Steve could tell, she was shaken. She may just vomit then and there but she was doing a pretty good job at holding it in at that moment. The leader and the rest of his people forced themselves into corners and out of sight of windows. He turned a look so filled with rage on her Steve almost got up.

But Rowan just held his gaze with a coolness that iced even his veins. "Get the fuck out of here. Tell your Yakuza buddies that I didn't like their little trick and if they try it again I'll personally see to it that they have a very shitty year," she growled and then actually walked away. She paused by Chin. "I need your phone, I need to call Kono."

He unlocked the screen and then offered it to her. Rowan stepped over the body again and headed back up the stairs. "If I come back down here and any of you are still here, you're all dead, do you understand me?" she called down.

Once she was gone Ernesto went to Ricardo. They spoke briefly in Spanish and then he shot him. Shot him dead. Steve blanched. Upstairs he swore he could hear Rowan throwing up, but he couldn't worry about her now. Around him the remaining men were putting down their weapons even though technically they had the advantage.

"You're free to arrest us now," he said.

Steve could only blink his eyes. What was going on? On the second floor he heard the distinct sound of someone throwing up and closed his eyes. Great. Now he had that to deal with too.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve had seen to everything. He saw their friends, they talked shop and assured everyone waiting on the other side of the barricade for them that they were all fine. Chin told them about the breach in their drives. That Rowan had said it was about Kono and Yakuza, that part was clear, but he didn't want her to be right so he had Chin and Toast working on deconstructing the drives. But Steve was mad. Mad because Rowan was the one who called in the sniper. Rowan was the one who grabbed a woman and electrocuted her with her own two hands. Rowan was the one playing the psychological warfare game with the walkies. Rowan was the one who was acting just like Wo Fat.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Steve thundered as he stormed into his office. Rowan was back at his desk. Her phone in front of her, her head in her hands.

"They stole information. They were paid by the Yakuza to get Adam and Kono's location," Rowan said. "I was thinking No one fucks with my friends."

Steve just glared at her. "Are you out of your mind?" he hissed.

"Steve, please," she said. "Just… please…"

Steve took a good look at her. God she looked so terrible. Steve softened immediately, he came to kneel beside her, using his chair to swivel her towards him. "Are you okay?" he finally thought to ask.

Rowan half smiled. "Yes. I… I think so..." she whispered.

"How did you electrocute her?" he asked.

Rowan sighed. She threw her head back and once her eyes were off of him he looked at the rest of her. She didn't look too badly injured. A bandage on one arm, the opposite leg, one on each collarbone and judging by the redness under her nose she had had a nosebleed at some point.

"I've been electrocuting people every time I touch them," she said. "I know from experience that if I channel my anger I can use it to open the door to the void."

Everything in Steve froze. "You were trying to open the void?" he asked in a quiet voice. If she said yes, he knew he'd break. Every bit of him. Every inch. He'd cling to her and spout all his emotions at her until she had no choice but to stay with him to shut him up alone.

"No," Rowan said. Thank God. "I forced myself to get a vision from her. I was trying to force the electricity out of me and into her. And it worked."

Yeah it had worked. Very well surprisingly. This was not a good thing, though. Just by looking at her he could tell it had not been good for her.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Catherine suddenly shouted and both Rowan and Steve jumped.

Steve jumped to his feet, Rowan jumped and fell out of the chair scrambling under his desk like a reprimanded child, or a hostage taking cover.

Catherine just glared at them, her arms folded across her chest. "I came to see if you were alright. I came because my boyfriend was just in a hostage situation. But clearly you don't need me checking up on you, because you already have her!"

Rowan popped up from behind the desk. "I wasn't checking up on him, he was checking up on me."

Oh that was not better. "Oh, My, God, that's worse!" Catherine nearly shouted. She then stared at Steve expectantly. But Steve was too tired, too worn, and too worried about everything to do this now.

"Can you take Rowan home?" he asked her instead.

Catherine scoffed in outrage and Rowan let out her typical uhm of interruption. The uhm she used before she negated whatever he said.

"Uhm… not that I wouldn't love to go for a ride with Catherine but are you out of your mind?" she cried. "If you let me go with her, I'm gonna go missing."

Catherine scoffed again but said nothing to argue with her. Steve sighed. Oh, okay it was going to be like that, was it?

"Okay, look. I just want her out of my hair. I want her somewhere where I won't have to worry about her and what she's going to do next. Talking like she's Wo Fat and ordering hits!"

"I did not order a hit!" Rowan cried.

"And what do you call using an app on your phone to call a sniper specifically to take out the men that were holding us hostage?" Steve asked her, hands on his hips as he glared down at Rowan. She was still on her knees behind his desk, only her head was visible to Catherine.

"Uhm…. I'd call it asking for assistance?" Rowan offered.

"Rowan. You realize you're the kingpin of a criminal network now, right?" he thundered.

"I am not. I'm just the password!" she argued.

"Rowan! What does that even mean?!" he shouted.

"It means that I say the right code words and they help me!" she explained.

"That's just a fancy way of saying you're giving orders!" Steve cried. He put his hands to his temples and just sighed. He then turned to Catherine and said: "Do you see? Do you see what she's doing to me. I just want her to go home and sleep and you're the only one I trust to make sure she gets there and doesn't run off."

Catherine was softening, he could tell. Her lips twitched back and forth before she sighed and said: "I'll take her home only if you answer this next question correctly."

Steve shrugged his shoulders because really, what else could he do?

"Why is Rowan here?"

What the hell? How the hell was he going to answer that question correctly? There was no right or wrong answer. Actually that was a lie, there was a right answer, he just didn't know what it was because Catherine had already decided what the right answer was and he had no idea what it was.

"People came to the prison when I was visiting Wo Fat. Blew things up. Killed a bunch of my friends. Steve was there. Steve got me out. Steve brought me here for debriefing. Then I was in a hostage situation, I may have gone a little crazy with the psychological warfare and it ended with me throwing up in a planter in the hallway. I'm telling you it has not been my day," Rowan answered for him.

He glanced at Catherine's face and saw that she looked surprised. "Oh, really?" she asked. "So… you weren't like arrested… or forced here?"

"Well… I mean… having guys come and try to blow you out of a cell is kind of forceful," Rowan said but when Catherine just glared at her she said: "Nope, something legitimately happened and I had to come here to help fill out paperwork."

Catherine turned her eyes onto Steve who nodded. "Yeah, that was what happened," he confirmed.

"All right, fine, I'll take her home," she said. "To her home, right? Not yours?"

"Uh… yes, but if Alex isn't home take her to the hospital. I don't want her alone right now," Steve said. He went to his desk and pulled Rowan out from behind it. Once she was on her feet he pushed her off in Catherine's direction. He avoided her eyes. He didn't hug her like his arms itched to do. He didn't even look at her as she left.

Then. Once she was gone he collapsed to his chair. Put his head in his hands and tried to breathe out all the stress out of his shoulders.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

As soon as the car started moving Rowan was asleep. Head resting against the passenger side window. Out like a light. That was good for Catherine, because she hadn't wanted to make small talk with the girl that caused all the problems between her and Steve anyway.

They were on the road for only a few moments when the car started to billow smoke. Catherine pulled the car over to the side. She tried to turn it over but the car wouldn't turn. The stopping of the car woke Rowan up.

She stared at Catherine with bleary eyes. "Are we there yet?" she asked. She then looked around at her surroundings and groaned. "Oh my god! You can't make me disappear, you promised!"

"I promised no such thing," Catherine growled as she popped the hood.

"Okay… true… but you can't cause Steve would be upset and I'd haunt you and make your life a living hell," Rowan said resting her head back on the glass of the window. Clearly not as worried about disappearing as she originally acted to be.

Catherine scowled. She knew that Steve would be upset. He'd probably be inconsolable and then Catherine would be competing with a ghost, a memory, and that was worse. Catherine got out of the car to look at the engine, to try to figure out what was wrong.

She was out of the car for thirty seconds when a tow truck pulled up. Catherine smiled, how fortuitous. Maybe today wasn't going to be so bad after all.

"Hey do you need help?" he asked as he parked the truck.

"Yeah, actually," Catherine said. She turned back to the engine and saw that Rowan was awake. Fully and completely. Ramrod straight and staring at her… no staring at the tow truck driver that was coming towards her.

"Catherine, get in the car," Rowan hissed.

"Rowan stop it, we need help," she said and then she heard the click of a gun behind her ear. Rowan's face said it all. The man was jacking her.

"Get out of the car or I'll shoot her," he said to Rowan.

Rowan shook her head. "No. I don't want to," she said. "I'm tired. I'm sore and I'm done with you people. Get lost."

He pulled back the hammer of the gun, loading it immediately. Alright, not an automatic weapon then. "Get out now."

Rowan sighed but did as she was told, slamming the car door a little too aggressively. She glared at him defiantly and then said quite clearly: "I'm Rowan Pierce and I don't condone your actions."

In his pocked his phone beeped. He turned to look at it and then turned back to her.

"You're Rowan Pierce?" he asked scoffing at her. "Too bad we're not a part of that network anymore."

Rowan groaned. "Goddamnit what is the point of this stupid thing if y'all are gonna renegade on it? Huh?" she cried as she threw her hands up in the air in frustration

Regardless both of them ended up in his truck. Handcuffed together and told to be quiet. Catherine sighed. Rowan was right, this wasn't either of their days.