Rewrite
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: This is it guys, the chapter that Steve finds out. See, I told you it was coming soon. I told you. In this chapter, we're going to see Steve's last terrible thing, we're going to see Rowan stand up for herself and next chapter you get to read how Steve and Catherine deal with the confession. After this we're on the road to redemption. Literally in a few chapters the fluff is going to start (I think it's 3 chapters) I gotta tell you guys, I got a lot of stuff happening in the 95-105 chapter range, all of my chapters are 13 pages long (some are more) is that too long you think? Do you guys want me to shorten them? What do you think? Tell me what you think!
P.S. For the guest who was asking for the songs, yes, all of them are online. I'm not that creative as to create whole new songs for this story. The Hallelujah song she's referencing is actually by Panic! At the Disco.
Chapter 83
A whole day before Christmas and they had a murder. Guy wearing nothing at all dead in a junkyard car's trunk. Found by a very curious junkyard dog. A guy that turned out to be a serial burglar who may have gotten himself killed on his last job. There was an unspoken pressure on everyone to get this wrapped up by the end of the day. But that was the least of Steve's worries. Not when his Aunt Deb, Mary and Joanie were in his office staring at him like it was he who had cancer and not his Aunt Deb.
He loved having them in Hawaii, both having decided to stay on until after the New Years to keep him company, baby Joanie having no choice but to stay where her mother was, but they had made life a tad bit more hectic for him.
He shut the door to his office and stared at the three women in his life that mattered more than any case did.
"So what is the big issue?" he asked. They had practically scared him witlessly rushing into the office and demanding that he speak to them right at that moment about some sort of emergency. He immediately assumed that something was very wrong but he had only left them a few hours ago so he wasn't certain what could be the issue.
"We have something to tell you," Mary said. "Something about Rowan."
Steve's blood ran cold. What could have possibly happened now?
"We heard something Thanksgiving night, something we think you should know," Aunt Deb continued.
Oh, it had to do something with Wo Fat. They were concerned because Rowan was involved with him. Or something about him dragging her to Japan, all drugged up and partially unconscious. Damn it. He didn't want them to know far he had fallen over this girl.
"Something between her and Catherine," Mary finished. Steve found himself blinking his eyes. Rowan and Catherine had been arguing before he went up. He had a feeling that Rowan had been lying about what that was about. Had his aunt and sister heard the argument? Was he about to find out what happened?
"Okay, what did you hear?" he asked, leaning against his desk to get comfortable.
"We heard… well… we heard Catherine tell Rowan to exit your life," Aunt Deb told him and just like that Steve was standing again, erect and alert staring them down. "She mentioned that she had demanded she do so before but Rowan hadn't gone as far as Catherine had wanted her to and she was essentially demanding that she finish the job or Catherine would make life uncomfortable for Rowan."
"Yeah something to that effect," Mary said.
Steve stared at them. "Catherine told Rowan to get out of my life?" he echoed. They confirmed it but Steve was already lost in thought. It explained everything. It explained Rowan's behaviour, her sudden flip in attitudes. It explained why her and Catherine were at odds. It explained all those hints Rowan had dropped. It explained everything except why Rowan went along with it.
It also explained Danny's slip up at the dock. Danny knew. Danny knew Catherine had done this to Rowan and his best friend hadn't told him. But judging by Chin's complacency with all of this and his suddenly closeness to Danny and Rowan, Danny had told Chin instead of telling Steve.
Steve stalked to the door and poked his head out. "Danny, Chin can you come here a minute?" he called.
The both came in, he shut the door with a loud bang and then turned on them.
"The ladies have told me something very interesting…" he started but Danny groaned.
"Tell me… tell me you didn't want until Christmas Eve to break the news," he said to them. "I told you. I told you not to. Do you have any idea what he's gonna do now?"
"So, it's true then?" Steve snapped before either Mary or Aunt Deb could protest. "Catherine really told Rowan to get out of all our lives and you didn't tell me."
"She begged us not to," Chin said.
"Which one," Steve snapped.
"Rowan of course," Danny growled. "She martyred herself on the cross of your relationship with Catherine. Gave us all up so you and her could be happy."
"Well a lot of good it did us, didn't it?" Steve cried. He looked away from the men he thought were his friends when he looked up all he could see was the betrayal. "You should have told me," he hissed.
"Yes. We know. But she had a near heart attack over the mere thought of it," Danny replied. "And… well… we knew you'd over react."
"Over react?!" Steve thundered. "Really? Over react?"
"Yes. Steven. When it comes to Rowan you have a distinct tendency to over react," Danny clarified.
"Chin, you and Catherine are going to go to those houses we think Dobbs hit. Okay? One of them has to be the one he hit last night before he got murdered. And since you're so good at secrets, try to not tell her what we just talked about," Steve growled, turning for the door. "Danny, you're with me."
"And where are we going?" Danny asked.
"To Rowan," he snapped. "It's time to make her confess."
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Danny had directed him to the Atlantic Records Oahu building where Rowan was supposed to be working that day. It took a lot of arguing but he managed to convince Danny to stay by the car cause he figured that Rowan wouldn't lie as much if Danny wasn't there to cover for her. He thought she'd be in the back, watching Alex and his band record, he didn't expect to see her in the sound booth belting out a song. He couldn't get over the look on her face, enraptured, like this was where she needed to be. Her eyes half closed a small smile on her lips, her lyrics piercing him in the heart.
And there goes the alarm ringing in my head, like somebody said, "don't you trust him, no."
He hated the way her smile faltered the second her eyes opened long enough to spot him. At this one of the execs turned around and spotted him. He motioned for Rowan to continue before he approached Steve.
"Hey I'm Pete Ganbarg, can I help you with something?" he asked.
Steve pulled out his badge and flashed it. "Sorry, I need to borrow Rowan."
Pete glanced over to Rowan who was no longer singing but glaring at Steve from the sound booth as she took the headphones off of her head.
"Yes, she mentioned she moonlights as a consultant for you," Pete said with a shaky laugh.
Rowan came into the room and moved up to him. "What do you want, Steve?" she asked.
"I need to ask you some questions," he answered.
"How about an apology first?" Rowan offered.
"You wanna talk about the car that was stolen out of the HPD lot in front of your new bosses?" Steve growled and Rowan frowned at him.
She turned to Pete and smiled at him. "I'm sorry, give me a minute. I'll uh… I'll finish the song when this is done."
She pushed Steve back out into the lobby and once the door shut behind her she pushed him fully away from her. "What the hell is your problem?" she cried.
"I just found out that you, Danny, Chin and Catherine are all in on the same lie," he snapped. "So I'm going to ask you one question, Ro. One question and if you lie to me, you're going to regret it."
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" she cried but Steve ignored her.
"Did Catherine tell you to get out of my life?" he asked and then he waited. And he watched.
Rowan's face blanked. She stared at him with her big wide eyes, clearly confused and afraid. She took a deep breath set her face into a mask of indifference and then said quite clearly and decisively: "No."
Steve blinked his eyes. Why. Was. She. Lying? "You realize I already know she did, right?"
Rowan shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about. She didn't tell me to do anything."
"Rowan... Danny and Chin confirmed it happened. You told them it happened," he reminded her.
"I don't know what to tell you because that didn't happen," she said. "They must be lying."
"The only one lying is you!" Steve cried. "Why the hell won't you tell me the truth?!"
"I am. Catherine didn't tell me to get out of your life. She didn't tell me to drop all the Five-0's," she clarified which was hilarious because he didn't say anything about any of the other Five-0's so where did she get that from if it didn't happen? "I wanted to be out of your life because I hate you Steven McGarrett. You're an abusive monster hell bent on controlling me and I'd rather spend my time with a convicted criminal who tortured you and destroyed your family because at least he actually cares about me instead of whatever the hell it is you're doing!"
The second she uttered the words I hate you the rest of Steve's heart shattered into a million pieces. To hear her hurl those words at him with such a deadly accuracy had literally broken through that iron guard he had put around his heart and well… broken everything inside him. He could have burst into tears right then and there, but it was when she said she'd rather be with Wo Fat, despite of what he did, instead of him that he lost it. Everything in Steve froze over and then he stopped being Steve. Rage took over, before he knew what he was doing he had forced her arms behind her back and handcuffed her, dragged her down to the first floor and then out of the building. He found Danny waiting by the car, a look of horrified, painful shock on his face as he witnessed this latest arrest.
"Danny, keys," he ordered when he got close, shoving Rowan against the car and ignoring her grunt of pain, for a brief second he thought he felt Rowan's hands on his hip but the motion was fleeting so he was certain he was dreamed it up. Danny had not moved, opting to stay on the curb to watch Steve do this. He winced when Rowan hit the car, Steve was knew he was being aggressive but he couldn't find it in himself to either stop or feel sorry about it.
"Nope. I'm not doing it," he said and Steve turned back to him, anger painting his face in terrible grotesque expressions and bright colors. Why was Danny never on his side? Why did he always side with Rowan?
"Steve you're being ridiculous," he told him. "You need to let her go."
"She's refusing to cooperate," Steve hissed, hoping Danny would catch the hint.
"Yes, to a personal matter, you CANNOT arrest her for refusing to answer personal questions," Danny warned him. Steve let go of Rowan completely to whirl around on Danny.
"Immunity and means, Danny, I can do what I want," Steve scoffed and then he felt the cold of metal around his wrist and heard the click of a lock.
Rowan backed away from him as he turned back to the Camaro and found that she had handcuffed him to the car. What the fuck? How the hell had she gotten out of the cuffs?
He had been so distracted by realizing she had managed to handcuff him to the car that he didn't notice her dancing around him until he felt Rowan's hand in his pocket but he wasn't quick enough to grab her. By the time he turned around she had his phone. He turned and found her standing just out of reach, shoulder to shoulder with Danny as she fiddled with her thumb.
"What's going on with your hand?" Danny asked. Rowan didn't look up until they heard the soft pop of her thumb going back into place, which explained how she got out of the cuffs but not how she got him into them.
"I've been able to dislocate all my fingers on my right hand and my wrist since the accident," she said absently and then tossed Danny the cuff's keys, had she gotten those out of his pocket? Well that explained how she got him into them.
But out of all the questions he suddenly he had, the one that came out of him was:. "What accident?" She looked up to him but she didn't acknowledge him. "You won't get my password," he told her with a proud tilt to his chin.
She merely shot him a dark glare and then showed him the phone. There was his home page. She had guessed his password. "It's your Naval ID, it's on your dog tags," she answered absently.
"How do you know that?" Danny asked. Yeah Danny, good question. Rowan paused she looked up to Danny and then to Steve.
She blinked those impossibly blue is surprise looked back down at the phone and said: "I used to uh… I used to wear them, okay? Don't make a big deal out of it." Steve was suddenly filled with all of these images of Rowan wearing his dog tags, and was suddenly harder than he should have been in the given situation. He focused on watching as she went back to the phone. Pressing one button and then putting it to her ear.
"Hello Sam," she said and Steve's smile fell right off his face. Had she just called the Governor? "Yes, I know I'm calling from Steve's phone, because he did it again."
She was silent for a minute, listening to whatever the Governor was saying to her. She nodded to whatever was being said as Steve watched her. It wasn't fair that she could look so lovely while she spoke to his boss no doubt to get him in a fuck ton of trouble.
"He showed up at my recording session and arrested me in front of the executives," she told him. "No, it has nothing to do with his current case. I was refusing to answer questions of a personal nature."
There was a brief pause and then Rowan said: "Oh, he's currently handcuffed to the Camaro. But Sam, this needs to stop. He can't keep arresting me when he's mad at me." There was another pause and when her blue eyes turned up to him they weren't that warm sparkling blue that he wanted to dive into, it was a pair of steel blue eyes, cold and hardened glaring into him. And his heart cracked a little deeper.
"I think there should be some sort of punishment," she said into the phone. Didn't she know that she was the thing he cared about the most? "I think you need to take him off of Five-0."
Steve's heart stopped beating in his chest. Even Danny turned to her with eyes wide with shock. She'd take Five-0 from him? The job that meant everything to him? Wasn't losing her enough?
She listened for another few seconds before she handed the phone back to Steve. "It's for you," she said with a malicious hint to her usually sweet voice.
Steve took the phone and put it to his ear. He whispered his name, he barely heard the Governor talking, there was a static in his head. A complete blanket of shock took over all of his senses.
"Steven, I don't know what's going on but as of right now you've been suspended from Five-0 indefinitely until I can figure out how to proceed with this. For now you're going to hand your gun and badge to Detective Williams and you're going to come to my office, do you understand?"
He told the Governor that he understood. He hung up the phone and stared at the two of them, His face was a terrible red color. He felt hot. He felt sick. He felt like he could wring her fucking neck. He put the phone in his pocket and turned his dangerous glare to Danny.
"Give me the keys Danny," he ordered. But Danny didn't comply he just stared at him so he shouted: "GIVE ME THE DAMN KEYS!"
Danny jumped to uncuff him from the car and then let Steve snatch the keys out of his hand. He got in the car ignoring Danny who was asking him what was happening, if he was okay, and where he thought he was going. But Steve didn't listen. He revved the car and drove away, leaving Danny and Rowan behind.
Not that it mattered he couldn't bear to look at them anyway.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Chin pulled his motorcycle to a stop and called Catherine. He waited for her to pick up and then said: "I just finished my sixth house and got nothing. How are you making out?" he asked.
"Uh… just finished my fourth. I've got nothing too," she told him.
Whoa. Only four? How was that possible? "Only four houses? Aren't you the one driving around in a muscle car?" he teased.
"Hey, you saw my list. My houses cover a wider area than yours," Catherine complain. Ah excuses, excuses.
"Okay, then. What do you say the last person who gets to the bottom of their list picks up the next tab at Side Street?" he offered. Nothing to make the work go faster like a god natured bet.
"You're on!" Catherine said and then ended the call but already he could hear her engine roaring as she picked up speed.
Chin practically jogged up the front path to the front door of his next house. This was gonna be an easy free meal. He knocked on the door and smiled when it was answer.
The man in the plaid button down shirt stared at him with avid curiosity. "Hello, may I help you?"
"Aloha!" Chin said as cheerily as possible. "I'm Lieutenant Kelly. I'm with Five-0."
"Gary Nathan. What can I do for you?" the home owner offered him.
"Well Mr. Nathan, we're investigating a rash of break-ins in the area. We have reason to believe that your home has been targeted," he told him. Gary looked surprised and then concerned.
"Are you serious?" he asked.
"Did you have any cable or Internet work done here recently?" Chin asked.
Gary paused to think about it. "Yeah," he told him. "A few weeks ago I had a new Wi-Fi system installed. What does that have to do with being robbed?"
"Our suspects are using service calls to access people's homes," Chin explained. "A lot of our victims don't even know that they've been burglarized until days or weeks after the fact. Mind if I take a look around? It'll only take a couple of minutes."
Gary stepped away from the door. "Oh, of course. Yeah. Whatever you need."
Wow super accommodating, Chin loved it when people were helpful. It also meant that he'd get through this house quicker and be one step closer to a free meal at the Side Street Diner.
Chin started to look around. He didn't want to be awkward about the whole thing so he started to ask a few questions. Small talk, you know, easy stuff.
"Nice place," he said, meaning every word of it. "How long have you been here?"
"A couple of years," Gary answered.
"Before that?" he asked because Chin could tell that this wasn't a native of the island. Just by the way he dressed, like he was about to go onto an episode of Mr. Dress Up.
"Denver," Gary replied. Short answers. Chin decided to hurry up, he was outstaying his welcome, he could tell. Which was odd because he had only been there a few minutes.
"I used to vacation in Hawaii as a kid," Gary continued. "So when the opportunity came up, I moved here."
A lot of people did that. Who would pass up the opportunity to live in paradise, right?
"Denver huh? You a skier?"
"Used to be," Gary said with a shrug.
"If you ever get the urge, you ought to try Mauna Kea. It's on Hawai'i Island. Actually, snows there a couple times a year," he told him. "The locals call it pineapple powder."
"I'll have to check that out," Gary said following Chin around as he checked all the windows in the living room.
They got to kitchen and Chin wasn't seeing anything out of the ordinary. "Do you mind if I take a look at your wall safe?" he asked.
"How did you know I have a wall safe?" Gary asked laughing, but the way his eyes shifted told Chin Ho that he was a little surprised by that question.
"As part of the investigation we confiscated photos of the homes that were cased, and as I mentioned earlier, yours was targeted," he reminded him.
Gary nodded, but he was no longer smiling like he had been a few minutes before. "Yes. You did say that. It's over here."
He led him over to a painting that he then took off the wall to reveal a nice safe. There didn't seem to be any tampering but Chin had to be sure.
"Did it come with the house?"
"No, I had it installed," Gary said with a smile.
"I'm gonna need you to open it up," Chin said.
"Excuse me?" Gary asked with a big of a chuckled.
"Well I just need you to verify that everything's accounted for," Chin explained. Easy enough. It shouldn't be this much trouble.
Gary frowned at him. Ah, he didn't want Chin to see what was inside. Fair. He nodded and smiled. "I don't need to see what's inside," he said. "Go ahead."
He then turned his back on Gary and the safe, letting him open it while he looked around. As he heard the safe open, he found a piece of tin foil on the floor by a window.
"All good," Gary called.
"Okay. You can close it back up," Chin said and then stopped to pick the tin foil up. Their vic had used low rent techniques to get through some pretty sophisticated security systems. Like tin foil.
"What's that?" Gary asked.
"Tinfoil," Chin answered look up to the window above him.
"Probably a gum wrapper," Gary said.
Chin stood and took a closer look at the window in front of him. "Home burglars use tinfoil to bypass security systems," he told him. He turned just in time to have Gary hit him over the head and knock him right out.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Danny had been kind enough to collect her things from the recording studio before escorting Rowan to the Governor's office as she was too ashamed and embarrassed to go up there herself. When they got to the office he got to tell the Governor that Steve had gone MIA, with his gun, his badge and Danny's Camaro.
Sam had asked if Danny thought Rowan to be in danger. Rowan didn't want to think she was but Danny couldn't confirm. Steve had been utterly livid after what had happened, and while Steve had been deteriorating, she didn't think it was enough to assume he'd hurt Rowan for this. If anything, he'd just really abuse his next suspect.
Danny left her there and Rowan sat down in the chair, letting all of it sink in. Everything. She had been in shock since it happened. It was like she had an out-of-body experience, she watched herself do it, she watched herself slip out of her cuffs, steal the keys from Steve and then handcuff him to the Camaro. She watched herself break into his phone and call the Governor. She heard her own voice telling Sam what happened and that he should suspend Steve from Five-0. But she didn't feel like she was the one who did it.
But sitting there now, listening to Danny's plan to find Steve it hit her. She had gotten Steve suspended from Five-0.
"Are you alright, my dear?" Sam asked her once Danny had left and his secretary had put a mug of tea into her hand. She really was here a lot if his secretary knew exactly how she took her tea without having to ask her.
Rowan took a shaky breath before answering with an every shakier: "No." Sam nodded like he understood and Rowan half laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. "He arrested me in front of the music Execs. They're never going to want to work with me now."
And Steve would never forgive her.
"I'll put a call into them for you," Sam said. "Now, I need to know how long this sort of behaviour has been going on."
"Since I moved out," Rowan answered softly.
"Rowan… that was almost a year ago," Sam sighed. "You've been putting up with this for a year?"
"Well… I unno… he had viable reasons at first. Today… today was the first time he arrested me over a personal argument we were having," she admitted. "I… I pushed him too far, I guess."
"He's the head of Five-0. If I can't trust him to be rational with you how am I going to trust him to be rational with anything else?" Sam grumbled.
"I don't think… I don't think he was in a right state of mind when we were arguing," Rowan whispered. "I think something really upset him today and my refusal to answer his questions… to admit I was lying even though he knew he was right… well… honestly… I said things I shouldn't have to hurt him."
Sam blinked his eyes at her. "I don't follow."
"Steven caught me in a lie and I refused to tell him the truth. And when he wouldn't stop pressing the issue, I hurled some pretty terrible words at him," Rowan told him. "As such, I don't think you should punish him that severely."
"Oh? You don't?" Dennings asked sitting back in his chair. "And what do you propose I do?"
"Well… I unno suspend him for a day maybe? Or two?" she offered. "I mean… Five-0 needs him, right?"
"Five-0 needs him on his game, not chasing down you instead of leads," Dennings snapped. Okay he had a point there.
"Okay… so… three days?" Rowan offered.
Dennings stared at her, he seemed to realize that Rowan wasn't going to relent. Clearly, he'd have to come up with his own punishment since Rowan had no ability to be objective.
"You really do champion the wrong people, Miss. Pierce. Be sure to tell your psychiatrist about that the next time you're in, okay?" he said. Rowan smiled at him. It was true she really did pick some winners, but Steve wasn't like her other cases, poor Steve was mostly her fault.
"It's a shame to suspend him now, what with the serial burglar case we just picked up," he said.
Rowan's head whipped up. "Burglar?" she echoed.
"Yeah. Serial burglar. The guy only hits houses with safes…"
"And uses low tech ways to break through high tech security systems," Rowan finished for him.
"Uh… yes… how did you know that?" Dennings asked.
Rowan was already getting up. "I… uh… I heard Steve and Danny talking about it before he went ape shit on me," she said, even though she was lying. "I… uh… I gotta go… okay? I've got… uh… I've got…"
"To go back to the music studio?" Dennings offered to finish for her.
"Yes, that one," she said bolting for the door. As soon as she got out into the hallway she forced herself to breathe.
She needed to remember this case. This was the case where Chin got tortured. She didn't want Chin to get tortured. He had been through so much he didn't deserve that. She had been dreaming about it for weeks but, when she had left that morning, she hadn't realized that that had been today. She would have warned him, would have called him.
She pulled up her phone and dialed his number but it just kept ringing until it hit his voicemail. He was already taken, she knew it. She just had to find him. She had to find him and save him.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Danny found Steve back in the palace. He was sitting on the floor of his office, behind the desk, his back against the wall. His knees were up, his hands were in his hair. Danny had been worried about this, what his eventually rock bottom looked like… well… this was it.
"Uh… you okay babe?" he asked. Steve's head should have whipped back up. But instead it stayed firmly planted in his hands. Danny slowly, and carefully, lowered himself to the ground, stretching out beside him. He nudged Steve with his shoulder and repeated this question.
This time Steve lifted his head and said: "No," very shakily. "She got me suspended."
Danny almost laughed. "Yeah, she did, didn't she?" he asked. He caught Steve's pained look and forced himself to stop smiling. It wasn't supposed to be funny but it was kinda funny. "Did… uh… did the Governor tell you for how long you're suspended?"
"Yeah. Indefinitely."
Hot. Fucking. Damn. Rowan did some damage. Smart girl. She hit Steve where it hurt the most. The only way she could have hurt him more was if she announced she was going to go to Colorado to marry Wo Fat.
"Look, I'm sorry about what she pulled, but, uh… you kinda cornered her, you know? When people get pushed like that… they… they lash out…" Danny said. "I mean, it kinda sucked that you left me stranded there too…"
Steve barked out a sarcastic laugh. "Yeah. That seems to be the pattern here."
Danny's eyebrows drew together concerned. "What are you talking about?"
"The pattern. I've been a shitty friend, a shitty co-worker and an even shittier boyfriend," he said. "I just… I just didn't realize that I was the problem until she looked at me like that. Like I… like I was the villain. She… she said she hated me Danny. She said she hated me and I didn't get it right at the moment, but when we got to the car, when she was on the phone… I got it.
Danny nodded as he took this in. "Uh… okay… well all of us know that you haven't quite taken this well."
"Yeah but that shouldn't be an excuse," Steve cried. "You guys have had to hide things, and lie to me, simply because I've been a tyrant. I've been an abusive asshole and you guys have had to hide things from me so I wouldn't become worse! That's not normal!"
Danny nodded again. That was true. "Okay, yeah, you know, you did kinda loose it a bit," he admitted. "But we all sort of got it. Rowan… she…"
"It's like as soon as I even so much as suspected that she had allied herself with Wo Fat I lost my mind," Steve breathed out.
"And she lied to you about it," Danny reminded him. "That didn't help the situation."
"It doesn't excuse what I've become," He breathed out.
"I think, and this is just me assuming here because you refuse to talk about this stuff, but uh… I think this is all because you're conflicted," Danny said. Steve turned to him. "You're trying to keep Rowan and Catherine and it keeps backfiring in your face. Firstly, because Rowan keeps picking other people, like Alex and Wo, and secondly, because neither of them would ever agree to be in any kind of sharing situation."
"I'm not conflicted, or, you know… I wasn't," Steve whispered softly. "Before all this happened… when she got shot… I had chosen. I had made my choice and I think, I think that's what started this."
Danny took that it. "Okay. But who did you choose?" he asked even though he thought he knew the answer.
Steve chuckled wryly, but ignored the question. "You know, there's another problem. I've haven't been too good to Catherine."
Danny nodded. Alright, he wanted to gloss over that. Well, he'd just come back to it later.
"You just need to stop leading her on," Danny said. "You need to decide who you want. Is it Catherine or is it Rowan?"
"I… I don't know," Steve murmured. "I don't, I don't trust her…" "—who?" "…Rowan… I don't feel like I can trust Rowan and after what happened with Catherine… I don't know if I like what she'd be willing to do to get her way."
"As opposed to what you did to Rowan when you didn't get your way?" Danny teased. Steve shot him a pained look and Danny struggled not to laugh. "Okay. Look, who are you leaning towards? Who do you want the most?"
Steve sighed, he looked torn, but Danny knew what was going to come out of his mouth even before Steve said it. "Rowan."
It was always Rowan.
"Then you got to talk to her," Danny told him. "You gotta tell her how you feel, tell her you're sorry and see if you can figure things out with her. Okay?"
Steve seemed to take this in but made no motion to move. Danny wasn't going to let this continue though. This had gone on long enough. "Come on," he said nudging Steve again as he lumbered to his feet. "Let's go. I'll drive."
And for once. Steve didn't argue, he just let Danny lead him out of the office, but once they got out into the bullpen, they saw a strange woman with a badge and in an all-black pant suit.
"Hey, can we help you?" McGarrett said, wondering why she was there and who the hell she was. If the Governor sent someone to escort him out of the building he'd lose it.
"Commander McGarrett? Detective Williams?" she asked. Damn, she knew their names.
"That's right and Captain Grover is around here somewhere," he said just as Grover came out of Chin's office. "How can we help you?"
"Special Agent Rebecca Conway, FBI," she introduced. Ah the FBI that did not bode well for them.
"How do you do?" Steve asked as he shook her hand. Why the hell was he talking like he was still on this case? The asshole was suspended indefinitely.
"HPD crime lab ran a search that flagged a case I'm working," she told him. Uh oh. Not good. They only had the murdered burglar. "Specifically, the tarp and firearm information that was entered liked to a series of murders that I'm covering. Our suspect's killed 14 people that we know of. Twelve on the mainland, two in Hawaii."
No that was not good at all.
Danny stared at Steve who had gone from moping to Super Seal in under a second. He knew what this meant but it didn't mean good things for anyone else.
"You're saying we have a serial killer on the island?" Grover asked.
That was a good fucking question. "Why are we only hearing about this now?" Danny asked. Also a good question.
"We've been after this guy for a long time," she explained. "We didn't want to scare him off."
"And you think we're chasing the same guy?" Steve asked. Also, a good question. Another good question, when was Steve going to leave?
"I'm not totally convinced, but that's why I'm here. To compare notes," she said.
Steve nodded and turned to the smart table. "Okay, what do you got?" Why the hell wasn't he leaving?
"Uh… Steve… don't you need to go?" Danny asked.
Steve looked up at him. "No," he said like he hadn't just been suspended like thirty minutes before.
When everything was set up she turned to Steve and said: "In every case, our suspect holds the victims for less than 24 hours. All are bound and tortured. The COD is always the same. A single gunshot wound to the head using 9-mm jacket hollow-cavity bullets." Already this was an issue because so far their cases were spot on. "We think this is a mercy killing after the horrific abuse that he inflicts."
"So, you're sure that the killer's a male?" Grover asked.
"The kind of atrocities associated with this killer seem to be a function of masculine traits, particularly the way he disposes of the bodies. He's very practical. He strips the victims of their clothing, wraps them in a plastic tarp and dumps them in random locations. The killer also likes to cut a single finger from each victim's hand, which he keeps as a souvenir."
"So, he can relive the fantasy at a later date, right?" Steve asked.
"Right," she agreed. "Now, what I can't figure out is that up until this point, all the victims have been females in their 20s, most likely targeted for those specific traits. Your victim is male."
"And he's not missing a finger," Danny added.
"Right, but other than that, the MO fits," she summed up. Yes. Quite the conundrum. "I'm just not sure why my guy picked Mr. Dobbs."
"Maybe your guy didn't pick Mr. Dobbs," Steve said. Danny groaned. Oh my god, just go home, Steve. "Maybe Mr. Dobbs picked him."
Yes. Yes. That made sense. Mr. Dobbs broke into his house and the killer had to kill him. Dobbs had forced the killer to change his MO.
"Okay, you cracked it, it's time to go home now," Danny said trying to push Steve away from the table.
"Do you have an address?" Mrs. Special Agent asked him which gave Steve all the excuse he needed to ignore Danny.
"We have people in the field working on that," he told her.
"Pull them back. Do it now," she ordered, a bit too easily considering this wasn't her OP and Steve was already a live wire over what happened. "If this guy knows he's cornered, he's gonna run or do what he does best which is take another life."
At that point Catherine walked into the office. "Hey where's Chin? The sore loser owes me a free meal at Side Street and he's not answering his phone," she called. She glanced around at all the tense faces and then paused. "Uh… what's going on."
Already Danny was calling Chin. "You don't know where Chin is, do you?" Steve asked.
"No… uh… I haven't heard from him in a while. Why is something wrong?" she asked.
Steve glanced to Danny who shook his head. "He's not answering."
"Okay, contact your people, tell them we've lost one of ours and we're gonna need all the help we can get," he told Rebecca. She nodded and pulled out her phone.
Danny's phone chirruped and everyone turned to him as he looked down at the text on his phone, but it wasn't Chin like everyone was hoping. "Fuck. Steve. Rowan just texted me. She found Chin she needs medic and 911 ASAP. No address."
That meant a lot of things. For starters Rowan not thinking to send an address meant she was rushing. Rowan sending a text and not calling meant that she couldn't talk yet which wouldn't make sense if she had gotten Chin out, unless she had literally just found him and hadn't gotten him out yet. So, if Danny knew Rowan, and he did, that meant Rowan was in the Serial Killer's house, trying to rescue Chin. The Serial Killer who tortured young beautiful girls in their 20s. Like Rowan. Rowan was going to get herself killed.
Both Steve and Catherine swore and for completely different reasons. "Trace her phone," he cried having obviously come to the same conclusion as him.
"Babe… babe… you're not on this, you're suspended remember?" Danny called as Steve raced towards their tactical gear.
Catherine whirled around. "I'm sorry, what?"
"It's a long story," Steve said to Catherine and then turned to Danny with a dark glare. "The Governor can suspend me after we save Chin," The and Rowan was implied. Danny longed to tell him that it didn't work like that but right at that moment all that mattered was finding Chin and Rowan before something disastrous happened.
The smart table dinged and they all scrambled. They had their address.