Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFic

A/N: So here we are. Update #4. For all of those who don't like Catherine, what did you think of that scene? For all of those who do like Catherine, don't worry, at some point she gets her own happy ending, I promise. For all of those who liked Billy… don't worry, we'll see him again. We've got two updates left. JUST TWO. And then we get to it. That part I'm so excited for. I promise, I know it seems like this is dragging on forever, but I have some really great scenes coming up. SOME REALLY CUTE HAPPY SCENES I swear, honest. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you tomorrow.

P.S. JP If you want a special chapter/marathon for your birthday week just tell me which special chapter you'd like or when you'd like the marathon!

Chapter 71

Alex may not have known the words to the Time Warp, but Rowan, Max and Sabrina were rocking it out and Alex was beside them attempting to dance along. He didn't know all the moves but he was trying and that was all that mattered

Rowan stopped singing and jumped over to Alex. "Are you having fun?" she asked draping herself across him, her arms around his neck. He was a sexy Prince Eric just for her and pulling off the look oh so very well.

Alex and Rowan had been seeing each other for about a year now. Her year anniversary in the Five-0 world had come and gone and she had rung it in with Chin and Danny, drinking vodka straight from the bottle and making pancakes for her boys in Danny's kitchen because she was too depressed to go out. And too afraid Steve would see her.

Not that he had come looking for her. Since she had almost beat up Catherine he hadn't come anywhere near her.

She missed him.

Their last Halloween together had been broken up when Duke pulled them over and arrested her on Steve's request. This year she didn't have to worry about that. Or at least she didn't think she did, she never knew when Steve would get mad and send someone to come arrest her, or worse… come himself to do it.

Alex had wanted to go to a party but Max had mentioned the Rocky Horror Picture show on the beach and she had freaked. Who didn't like Rocky Horror Picture Show? Alex apparently. But it was the first time in a month that Rowan had gotten excited about something, so he let her pick their costumes AND agreed to go on a double date with Max and Sabrina, despite him thinking that Max was odd and creepy.

She had gone as Ariel, of course, in the blue and black dress, and Alex was dressed as Eric, the regular Eric outfit. He made a wonderful Eric. Their costumes had gotten a lot of compliments. But Rowan could tell by the look in Alex's eyes that he wasn't having fun, but she also knew he wouldn't say anything.

Anything he was going to say was halted when Max said: "Sir, I'm a doctor, do you need assistance?"

Immediately his interested was piqued by whatever was happening over Rowan's shoulder. Rowan turned. The man dragging his leg through the sand, grunting and groaning and covered in blood was right beside Max. Max in his inflatable roman gladiator suit…. Wait a second… Inflatable muscles… zombie like exterior.

"WAIT MAX NO!" she cried, turning to Max but it was too late, the guy practically picked up Max and threw him. Rowan rushed over to Max just as Alex stormed past her to attack the guy.

"What's our problem, man?" he thundered, forcing the man to turn around. The man grabbed him and Alex tried to pull away, by this point, Rowan was aware that Max was safe, but Alex wasn't.

In her dream the zombie bit a gladiator, but in reality he bit into Alex instead. She heard Alex cry out. She saw the zombie man take him down. She heard the screams of everyone else. She even saw a cop rushing over to assist, a real one, not just some guy in a cop costume. But that didn't stop her. She didn't even think to stop.

"GET OFF HIM!" she thundered and then kicked the zombie straight in the chest and off of Alex. The zombie went flying and the cop picked him up. Alex was quick to his feet. His shoulder bleeding, pain in a grimace across his face, but still shielding Rowan and pushing her back to where Sabrina and Max were now standing, both had their arms out stretched, ready to grab Rowan and Alex and pull them safely away from where the Zombie and the cop were now wrestling.

The zombie was practically throttling the cop. On top of him with his hands on his throat. In the tousle the cop pulled a gun and shot him. Twice. Point blank. In the chest. Only then did the zombie collapse.

Max pushed past them, going to the zombie to administer first aid. Rowan followed after him. "Wait, don't put your mouth on him," she said but it was too late. Max had already administered breaths.

He looked up to her as he started compressing. "What's the matter?"

"Uh… he had a powder on his mouth and nose," she answered. He finished his first set of compressions and she watched him give breaths again. "It's uh… gonna affect you badly."

Behind her Alex groaned and she half turned to him. Right. Injured boyfriend. "Okay, I'm gonna go see Alex, uhm… when you collapse, it's not because you're turning into a zombie… okay?"

Then before Max could say anything she turned back to where Alex was propping himself up. God. She was not going to hear the end of this.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

So many things happened in a month. Billy went home to his family's farm and so far he was settling in quite nicely. Chin had lost contact with Kono, Adam had been taken by the Yakuza, and Danny and Chin had started acting very, very strange. In an attempt to mollify Catherine, Steve had agreed to stop calling Rowan for visions, had agreed to stop seeing her entirely. Which was made easy because Rowan hadn't wanted to see him anymore anyway, hadn't wanted to tell him about her visions. And he kept seeing that look on her face and hearing her voice on loop in his head: just go the fuck away. And it broke his heart more than he cared to admit.

Then the Doctors went viral. Or more aptly, Alex and the Doctors, went viral. There was no mention of Rowan and how she wrote the song that shot Alex to minute stardom, but hearing, Thief, the song he knew she wrote on the radio, seeing posters for him everywhere had not been pleasing to Steve. He had learned, from Grace of course, that Alex was getting larger gigs, that Rowan was still singing backup vocals.

By walking into a conversation between Chin and Danny he learned that Rowan had been fired from the waitressing job, due to the arm injury and missing two days' worth of work for being in the hospital with no notice. The two day hold being because she had, in fact, hit her head when she fell off her hospital bed. Or more aptly, when Catherine had tackled her off the bed. Rowan could have fought her firing the way she had fought off Catherine, Steve wasn't sure if she had. By walking into a completely different conversation on a different day, he learned that Rowan failed her driving test so badly that it was recommended that she take driving lessons to teach her to stop driving so aggressively.

But other than those small things, for thirty days, Steve didn't hear from or see Rowan. And while he was doing much better, he still thought about her every day and he still had that PI following her, even though he rarely checked in with him on how she's doing. Mainly because he didn't like what the man had to say.

So, he busied himself Catherine who was not doing well. Even though her arm healed, despite Rowan attempting to gouge the stitches right out of her arm, even though Billy was alive, and they caught his shooter, Catherine was walking around acting like Billy had died in her arms or something. And Steve didn't know what to do.

He had been in that place Rowan had mentioned. Second guessing everything he did and what he could have done to make things end differently. But that wasn't where Catherine was. He figured, like himself, she'd feel better if he left her to her own devices, if he showed her that he was attentive and no longer interested in Rowan. But it was going on a month and that had not happened. Steve was officially getting worried.

She had gone for a run on Halloween night, while everyone was out trick or treating. She hadn't stayed to answer the door with him, she hadn't wanted to wear a costume, even though Steve offered to do a couple's thing. So, in solidarity he hadn't worn one as well.

He had just finished handing out some candy to some kids when Catherine came back. He smiled at her though she didn't return the courtesy. He was starting to understand what it was like for Catherine whenever he was in a funk over Rowan. He must have drove her crazy.

"Your costume needs work," he said to her as she walked past him, pulling her earbuds out. She didn't laugh at his joke so he asked: "Want some candy?"

"No thanks," she said moving into the kitchen at a rapid pace. Like she couldn't get away from him faster. He shut the door behind him, letting her take a drink of water and stand in his kitchen with no lights as she gasped for air.

She was pushing herself too hard. And he didn't get why. Billy was alive. He was fine. Why was she doing this to herself?

Steve turned on the lights and Catherine stood straighter. She was drawing her walls up, getting ready to fight him.

"Catherine, you can't keep doing this," he said. He was leaning on the cabinet across from her, instinctively knowing that she wanted space. "You gotta stop punishing yourself for… uh… for whatever it is you're punishing yourself for."

"Steve, please don't do this right now," she whispered, her voice hitching.

Steve shook his head. "Would you please just listen to me?" he asked. And only then did she turn to him, clearly not happy with him at all. "Look, I've been here. Okay? Well, not really, but Rowan… I know you don't want to hear her name right now… but Rowan's right…. I… I know what it feels like. I know both side of this."

Catherine rolled her eyes. Mentioning Rowan was something he shouldn't have done, but he was trying to explain just what it was that Rowan had saved her from. "Losing someone, the way you might have lost Billy, you start second-guessing everything you did, you start thinking about all the ways it could've been different. And you can't do that. You don't want to have to carry that kind of weight around, okay?" he said. "I'm not saying you forget what that can feel like, but I am saying that you're lucky. You're lucky that it didn't end that way. You're lucky you don't have to feel… the way I did after my dad died."

Catherine just glared at him. "Do you even know what's wrong with me?" she asked.

"Well… no… but that's cause you won't talk to me…"

"Your other girlfriend," "—Rowan's not my girlfriend." "—yeah, well whatever the hell Rowan is, she was right. Okay? She was right?"

Steve blinked his eyes. "Okay… but isn't that… isn't that the point? She was right. She called an ambulance, but you and Billy survived the encounter… this isn't the first time she's been right…"

"No! she was right about me!" Catherine cried. "When the ambulance got there, I wasn't even with Billy. I had left him there. Bullets in his gut, bleeding out, to check on the other victim."

Oh hot damn.

"And she was right. It hadn't even crossed my mind to get my phone and call an ambulance while I did that. I mean, I knew Billy was dying, I could see it, but I didn't… I didn't do anything to help him… If Rowan hadn't… if she hadn't called, he'd be dead. Don't you see that… he'd be dead and all because I didn't listen… because when he was dying I cared about everything else but him…"

"Okay, Catherine, you have got to forgive yourself here," Steve said. "I know you don't want to hear this but I've been there too. Do you have any idea how guilty I felt when I found out that Chin was in Halawa? Do you? I had Rowan on the beach, hours before hand, telling me that Chin had been kidnapped, that he was in Halawa and I didn't listen. I called her crazy, I dismissed her words, and Chin nearly got killed. Rowan nearly got herself killed trying to save him on her own because I didn't listen to her."

Catherine scoffed and rolled her eyes again. "I know you want to make yourself the bad guy here, but Rowan… she says things and you know… you just don't want them to be true. You don't want them to be true so you call her crazy, you think psychics aren't right 100% of the time and you dismiss it. But you know what?" he asked. "She's not psychic. Where she comes from, this is all some crazy TV show and she watched all the episodes cause she thought I was hot. And I've come to realize that… that… well… I need to listen to her. Because if she's says it's going to happen it will."

"So that's your plan?" Catherine asked. "Everything Rowan says is bible?"

"No. Catherine. No. I'm just trying to tell you that it's okay. You didn't listen to Rowan, that's fine, none of us do. But Rowan knows that. Rowan knows when what she's saying isn't being heard and she will act even if you don't want to… even if you don't want her to," Steve said. "So yes, you were going to make a bad decision. But Rowan saved you from the guilt. She saved you and you've owe it to yourself to try and move past this."

"I want to, Steve," Catherine said, fighting back her tears. "But… my whole life was the Navy. Knowing where I had to be every minute of the day, having a purpose. But I don't have that anymore. I don't have a purpose…"

"Right! Okay, that's why you gotta find something to do. It doesn't have to be a job, you know," Steve said quickly, already on the fix-it plan. There were so many hobbies she could pick up. Hell she was living with him now, why didn't she just surf every morning? She was good at it. "It doesn't matter what it is but you gotta find something."

"But that's not all I lost Steve. Whether he died or not, I lost Billy. He won't even speak to me. So now I don't have a purpose, a job, a best friend and… I don't have you."

"Catherine…" he started but she cut him off.

"I know, I know Steve, I know you're trying," she said. "But you shouldn't have to try. It shouldn't be this hard for you and that kills me you know. Because I used to be enough."

Steve nodded. That was fair. He got that. "I don't know what else you want me to do," he whispered. Behind him the doorbell rang and he sighed. More trick-or-treaters.

Catherine pushed away from him and sighed. "Yeah. And that's the problem." She walked away, heading up the stairs leaving Steve to answer the door to hand out more candy.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Grace was off with her friends doing Halloween stuff and instead of handing out candies he had been pulled in for a case. Chin would have called Steve but Rowan, of course, was involved and he would have been an idiot to call him on a case that involved Rowan.

So, after being briefed about the situation and how Rowan was involved, luckily not by a lot, Danny stood beside Chin staring at the victim's profile.

"Victim's name is Michael Besner," he told him. "He's the chief administrator at King's Medical Center. Toxicology came back with high doses of a powerful hallucinogen called scopolamine. He had traces of it around his nose and mouth."

Danny nodded. "Okay, that explains how Max and Alex got infected," Danny said. "Max from the CPR, Alex cause he got bit."

"You know, in places like Colombia, people use scopolamine to drug and rob tourists," Chin told him. "It leaves its victims very docile and very open to suggestion. People can actually be sent up to their own hotel room, empty their safe and then wake up the next morning with no memory of what happened."

Okay, huh, he wondered how that drug would work on McGarrett… or Rowan. Maybe he could use it to his advantage and have those two shmucks actually listen to him for once.

"Okay… if this drug makes people easier to handle, why did Besner here go off like a zombie craving brains?" Danny asked.

"Because it's highly dose-dependent," Chin explained. "You hit your victim with too much and they suffer a violent psychosis and given that Besner was found with no keys or wallet…"

"It's possible that he was drugged and robbed and then flew off the handle as a result of being overdosed," Danny finished with him.

Chin nodded. "Right. So the good news is Besner, Max and Alex are all in stable condition," he said. "But the bad news is whoever did this is still out there."

"Okay, we need to retrace Besner's steps. Work out how and where he was drugged tonight. And if somebody on the island is using scopolamine to rob people there could be other victims," Danny ordered.

Oh he liked doing that. Being the one in charge because Steve couldn't handle Rowan interactions. He needed more Rowan centered cases.

"There's one more thing we have to do," Chin told him.

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"Someone has to call McGarrett," Chin said softly and then immediately, right after, he said: "Shoddy not."

Well… Fuck.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

"Okay but is Max okay?" Steve asked. Danny had just called him to give him the low down on the situation. Obviously the concern was for his friend who had been quote on quote infected.

"Yeah, yeah, he's thrilled. Zombie attack was on his bucket list," Danny said absently. He was holding something back about this case, Steve could tell.

"Ah, yeah, you're funny," Steve intoned. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but he couldn't, Danny was already talking.

"Anyway, listen, H.P.D. went by Besner's place and there was no sign of any break in or any robbery," Danny told him as Steve struggled to get his shoes on with his phone being held between his ear and his shoulder. "But we tracked the GPS on his car. It turned up on the other side of the island, like fifteen miles away from his house."

Hmm, weird. Steve got to the door, he knew Danny was coming for him, and with the atmosphere in his house he didn't want to stay in there. He'd wait on the porch. "Well, whoever robbed him probably dumped it there," he told Danny as he opened the front door.

"Well, either way it's a good place to start, I'm almost to your place… hey uh… question for you… how come we never take your truck?" Danny asked.

Steve blinked his eyes. "My truck-, uh, well, the Camaro gets great gas mileage, Danny," he answered. He winced, he knew Danny wasn't going to let that slide. He locked his door waiting for the inevitable slide back.

"Yeah, it's gas mileage that I gotta pay for," he reminded him. Great, so now Steve was gonna have to start sliding him gas money. Great just great.

Whatever else Danny was going to say was cut off by Steve's sudden cry of: "Son of a BITCH!"

"What is it?" Danny asked. "Everything okay?"

No everything was not okay. Someone had TPed his front lawn. AND HIS TRUCK!

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve was ranting. Full out ranting. Going on a mile a minute about how he didn't serve his country and his state for this long to have toilet paper, a fucking commodity when you're out in Iraq, strewn across his lawn like a fucking decoration. And how those kids better pray he couldn't lift a finger print of DNA from any of that paper flying about his lawn cause if he did, oohh they were gonna be SO ARRESTED.

Danny just thought it was funny that Steve was driving his car and that he was this upset. Because if it were the other way around, Steve would not have been as compassionate with him.

"You're right. Any way you look at it, it's a violation," Danny said. "But uh… you may want to hold off on arresting them, it was probably just a couple kids having fun on Halloween, Steven."

Steve just shook his head at him. "This is a gateway Danny. First step Tp-ing, final step, armed robbery," he growled.

Danny tried not to laugh at him. "Okay, alright, you're right. Well, I hope you do get some DNA or something. I hope you catch these hardened criminals," he said trying not to smirk or laugh. "And uh… I have a feeling… a strong feeling… that this is going to be a career case for you. Gonna be in all the papers."

"Are you making fun of me right now?" Steve snapped. "Really?"

"Yes, of course I'm making fun of you right now, you sound insane!" Danny cried.

Steve shook his head and glared at the road. They were coming up on the location of Besner's car, but the problem was… there was a field of cars here. Which one was his? Were all of these victims or scopolamine robbery?

Steve put the Camaro in park and they got out. "It's the middle of nowhere, what are all of these cars doing here?" Steve asked, and then the party bus drove up.

Well… guess they were going to a party.