Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday guys! Okay a lot of stuff is going to happen here. Catherine will be told off, and Steve's gonna have a stern talk with her too. So this is it. The chapter you guys have been waiting for. This is the beginning guys! The beginning of all the cute stuff. But keep in mind that we've still got a few more chapters of angst to go through before the cute stuff is full swing. This chapter has a little bit of fluff between Steve and Rowan, it does end on an unfortunate cliffhanger though so I'm sorry about that. But I can say that in 4 chapters Rowan and Steve are for the most part together, not like officially, but they're together kinda, aww you'll get what I mean you read it. Still that's pretty exciting! :D

Chapter 84

Rowan got out of the cab and looked around. In her heart she knew that this was the place. This was where Chin had last been but she saw nothing that would indicate where he had gone or what happened. She paid the cabbie and let him drive off as she stood in the street and looked around.

"You lost honey?" a lady asked from her porch behind her.

Rowan turned and smiled to her. Yes, with any luck this would be a nosy neighbour would could tell her everything she needed to know. "I'm just… I'm just looking for my friend. He was on a motorcycle…" she said. "Have… have you seen him?"

"A guy came around a while ago. Went to go talk to Gary across the street. Nice man, but mostly keeps to himself," she said pointing to the white house across from her. "Maybe he's still there."

Rowan thanked her for her time and then jogged across the street. She rushed up the walkway and then knocked on the door. The man who answered it looked at her like she was crazy, his eyes were wide his clothes were out of place, like he had been in a scuffle. But that wasn't what froze her. It was the same man from her dreams, the one she saw hovering over Chin as he sawed off a finger.

"Can I help you?" he asked her.

Rowan forced herself to smile. "Sorry. I'm looking for someone, his name is Chin Ho Kelly, he works for Five-0, he said to meet him here but I can't find him," she said.

"Yes… uh… he was here a while ago. He checked to see if my house was broken into but he left," he said.

That didn't feel right, he had to be lying, but she couldn't see how to prove it not when she didn't know where Chin was. Maybe he wasn't in the house. Maybe he was. She thanked him for his time and then turned away. What was she going to do? Did she call Danny and tell him what she knew? Would he believe her. She could call Steve but… you know… after what happened he probably wouldn't take her call… rightfully so. She took two steps down the path when she felt that pull of the void again, the hazy whiteness that took over. Just like before she saw that man, hovering over Chin's body, sawing his index finger off.

In his basement.

Rowan came to a standstill in the middle of the walkway. Chin was here. That man. Gary Nathan, yes that was his name. He really did have Chin in that house. Rowan pulled out her phone and sent a single text to Danny

Found Chin. Serial Killer's basement. Send Help + Medic ASAP.

Slipping her phone back in her pocket and steeling herself for what was going to come next, she marched her way right back up that walkway and wailed on that door until that asshole on the other side opened it up again. She knew his name now. She knew all about him. Chin was there she knew it, the vision confirmed it, but she needed the door open, she needed to keep him away from Chin and whatever other hostage he might have found because she knew someone else was there.

He opened the door looking far from pleased to see her again. "I already told you, your friend isn't here," he snapped.

He went to shut the door in her face, but she stopped him, putting half her body in the doorway to keep it from closing.

"Gary Nathan, right?" she asked him and his smile faded. He opened his mouth to ask her how she knew that but she had the lie out already. "You introduced yourself before? Look. I know this is annoying but I can get a hell of a lot worse if you don't just answer my last question. Just one more question and then I'll be out of your hair, I promise."

She smiled sweetly and batted her big blue eyes at him.

He sighed but said: "Go ahead."

And Rowan broke out in song.

All you singers stand up sing hallelujah!

She waited, her eyes boring holes into him and from the basement she heard a resounding cry of: "hallelujah!" The right chords, the right timber, coming from somewhere below the house.

The man in front of her turned back to the sound as if surprised it had come from the basement. He'd probably have a clever lie for her, but Rowan knew. There was only a handful of people who knew the chorus of the song she had written. And one of them was in that basement. Seeing as she was looking for Chin she'd bet money that that was him and there wasn't a single thing that man could do to convince her otherwise.

Before he had even turned the full way around Rowan had gotten herself ready. Before he could say a single thing. Before he could lie or throw a punch at her. Rowan roared with rage and tackled him into his own house.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Chin heard the roar of a small woman and knew immediately that instead of getting help, Rowan had decided to attack.

God. Damn it. Rowan.

When he had answered her sing-along call he thought she'd go call Steve. Unless the serial killer who owned this house had grabbed her, he didn't understand why she'd try to attack him when she was 110 pounds when wet. He had no time to worry about this. There was no point to yell up: "Go get Steve" because he could hear the fight going on upstairs. The thumping, and clattering and yelping. He couldn't tell who was winning and he needed to get out. By the sounds of it they were in the kitchen and by the metallic bang he had just heard Rowan had probably found the pots and pans. There was another roar, a male one, yet another yelp of surprise and then a large bang.

Rowan let out a string of curse words and a strangled demanded of: get off. Chin immediately started to panic. Fuck. He started twisting himself to get at the pliers he had knocked off the table when Gary Nathan was too distracted with tying up the girl he had dragged down the stairs. If Rowan hadn't knocked on the door at that time he would have been screwed. He had already cut his feet free now he had to cut free his hands.

Gary Nathan had shown him a lot of pictures, and then done some pretty painful things to him. This man… this man was a serial killer, a pretty brutal one, Chin didn't want Rowan squaring off against him all on her own. Though, judging by the sounds up there she was doing pretty good.

There came this terrible crash and then two bodies flew down the stairs. The crack of them hitting the ground echoed in the silence of the basement. Chin stared at the bodies, letting his breath out in a shaky sigh when Rowan groaned and rolled herself off of the body she had landed on.

She rolled onto her front, both her hands threading through her hair and pressing on the back of her head. Oh god. Had she hit her head again?

Rowan carefully stood up she was swaying but she said to the man at her feet: "I hope you enjoyed your flight on Air Rowan."

"Rowan! This isn't the time to gloat." Chin cried and her eyes turned to him, or at least in the general direction of him. She took a hesitant step and stumbled to the side and then dropped to one knee. Like she was drunk and couldn't keep her balance.

"Kay, I'm seeing like four of you, which one is the real Chin?" she asked taking another step and stumbling in the other direction.

Chin got his hands free and put them out to grab her, but he had to lurch after her. "Holy fuck I wacked my head super hard on that trip," she said when he grabbed her. "But are you okay? Like…. Not a lot of torture, right? You didn't get stabbed with garden sheers, did you? Do you need help with the ropes?"

Chin couldn't help but smile at her. So many questions like she wasn't the one to fly down a flight of stairs. "Yeah, I'm okay, more worried about you to be honest."

"Oh no… I'm fine… I… uh… I texted Danny but it occurs to me that I never gave him an address… he'll uh… he'll just track my phone, right?" she asked. She had just shrugged off his concern for her, like McGarrett did. The similarities between them and their reactions to things was uncanny.

"You didn't give him an address?" Chin echoed. It wasn't like her to be that unprepared, but at least she had texted them, at least they knew something was going down and she was right, Danny probably traced her phone.

"Okay… I was panicking… don't judge me right now," Rowan snapped. "A simple thank you would suffice."

Chin leant Rowan against a work bench as he cut the girlfriend free. Once she was loose, she turned to where Nathan lay in an awkward position and gasped out an: "Oh my god, Gary!"

"He's not getting up, is he?" Rowan asked and Chin glanced over to where the man was still laying.

"No, Rowan," Chin said. "I'm pretty sure he'd down for the count."

He didn't want to tell her that she had probably killed him but he didn't want her worrying that they were in danger again either.

Rowan sighed and leant back against the workbench he had propped her up on. "Oh good. Cause, I know you remember that last one got up. And I am totally not up for a round two. You were totally gonna have to take round two."

Kaleo. Yes. He had gotten up. But Kaleo was a different beast entirely. And there shouldn't have been a round one between her and Gary Nathan in the first place but he was going to be eternally grateful that she came to rescue him, even though she was dreadfully ill equipped to do so.

Once the other woman was free and she was running up to the stairs to freedom and leaving them behind. Chin went to Rowan, pulled her against his side and began to lead her towards the stairs. "Come on Rowan. We better get you out of here. Get you to an ambulance."

"Yeah… I think I need one of those again," she whispered. She was leaning on him hard and he was too sore to actually support her weight, something he was loathe to admit. "Do you think we could get me in one before Steve shows up?"

Above them came the wail of sirens and then a shout of: "FIVE-0!" and the sound of a door being kicked in. Both Chin and Rowan's eyes went to the ceiling and Rowan groaned.

"Why did he do that? The door was unlocked," she mumbled under her breath. Chin just made her move forward and up those stairs. It was a bit too late for her to avoid Steve and getting her to an ambulance was more important right now.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve crashed through the door to get to Rowan… though if anyone asked it was to get to Chin. He was ready to kill whoever stood in the way. His worst fears were bouncing around his head. Chin dead, tortured, tortured and then dead, Rowan twice as dead and twice as tortured as she was the serial killer's type but nowhere in those worst fears did he predict that Chin would come up from the basement practically holding Rowan up. Chin looked like he came right off a battlefield but it was Rowan who needed the support.

He dimly remembered that he was supposed to be mad at her, but the anger didn't come. Instead he was afraid. Very fucking afraid.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "What's happened?"

Rowan slowly lifted her head, it bobbed and swayed like she couldn't keep it up right. Her eyes narrowed, squinting as if the sunlight streaming through the windows was practically blinding her.

"Oh no, not Steve," she groaned and he rolled his eyes. Yeah well he didn't want to see her either.

"She… uh… she fought with the guy. They took a tumble down the stairs together, she whacked the back of her head really hard," Chin told him. "She uh… she's acting more spacey than usual."

Don't be worried. Don't be worried. Don't. Be. Worried!

"Why are there so many of you?" she said. "Three… four… five… too many. It hurts. Make it stop."

"I'm right here," he snapped to her.

"It doesn't help if all of you say it at the same time," Rowan grumbled her chin dropping to her chest. Oh fuck. Well that wasn't good at all, now was it?

"Why did you even come here by yourself?" Steve hissed and Chin shrugged as Rowan couldn't seem to do it for herself. "Okay, get her to the ambulance."

Chin winced. "Could you… uh… could you help me? I'm not gonna lie… I'm really sore… I don't think I can… I don't think I…"

It must have hurt to admit that, Chin's pride was almost as strong as his. Despite what had happened that morning that lead to him being suspended, despite knowing Catherine was either just outside or just behind him, Steve's automatic reaction was to grab Rowan and pulled her to his chest. He had her up in his arms before he could remember that he was supposed to be done with always rescuing her. But as soon as her arms wrapped around his neck, her head ducking into shoulder he didn't care about any of that anymore.

He passed Catherine on the way out. He heard her cry of: "WHAT THE—?" but ignored it. Getting Rowan to the awaiting ambulance outside was the only thing on his mind, he'd deal with the consequences later. Carrying her bridal style was not a good thing either, not for his heart which swelled with happiness and not for Catherine who looked like she had fire in her eyes.

"I feel so sick Steve," Rowan whispered into his neck. More like a whimper, her breath sticky against his skin. "I want to lie down. Please let me lie down."

Steve got her to the gurney and set her down. The EMTs were busy with the other woman who had been in the basement with Chin and Rowan so Steve stood in front of her, to make sure she didn't fall right out of her seat.

"Tell me what happened Rowan," he said, trying to keep her talking. Her eyes, god her eyes, they were so dilated and not evenly. She couldn't seem to focus her eyes were swinging every which way.

"Look at me," he ordered but Rowan shook her head.

"I don't know which one is the real you," she whispered, her hands reached out for him. He couldn't let her touch her. He just couldn't. It would ruin everything. All that hard work on tuning his body to stop reacting to her would all be undone. All the anger he was desperately trying to hold onto would vanish in a puff of smoke, the girl had gotten him suspended, she didn't deserve his comfort when she did a thing like that.

"It's me, I'm me, I'm right here," he said to her hoping that would be enough.

A single tear rolled down Rowan's face but she didn't flinch and she didn't even look like she was actually crying. Like the tear had escaped without her knowing. "It doesn't help if you're all talking to me at once," she near sobbed. She brought her hands back to her ears as if to block out the noise but she gasped out a terribly heart wrenching, "Make it stop hurting!"

Steve crouched in front of her immediately. He took her hands away from her head and put them to his cheeks where they then framed his face. As soon as she had his skin under her palms she seemed to calm down.

She smiled at him, shaky and crooked but he'd take it. "There you are," she whispered. His traitorous heart skipped a beat.

"Okay, yes, good, now tell me what happened."

"I've been dreaming of Chin, of these terrible things this guy was going to do to him. He was gonna emancipate him, make him subservient. And I had a vision today, that today was gonna be the day that happened, and you know, Chin's gone through so much, you know? He just… he just really doesn't deserve that," she said.

Okay, visions. Dreams. Great. Just great. Hadn't she said those had stopped? "Why didn't you tell me. Or Danny?" he asked. "Or Chin for that matter?"

"Because I didn't know. I didn't know who the guy was, or when exactly it was going to happen or what would set him off. I didn't call you because… well… after this afternoon… I didn't think I could or should. And there was no point telling either Danny or Chin anything until I had specifics," she explained. "But I had a plan. I swear I had a plan."

"Yeah? What was it?" he asked. They had gotten closer. Subconsciously he had moved closer to her. Fuck he still couldn't break that habit. Her eyes still mesmerized him, his heart beat still ran wild at her touch, and having her fingers running softly in the hair just above his ears was setting him on fire.

"I was gonna confirm which house he was in and then call you or Danny and make you guys come," she said. "But then it took too long to find him and I got more and more frantic. I just… I just didn't want him to have to hurt anymore."

"You attacked the guy on your own?" Steve asked, his voice hollow.

"I had no choice, he had Chin," she said. He was cataloguing the red welts and bruises that he hadn't noticed before. Red welts from finger nails raking gashes down her arms, how one eye seemed slightly redder then the other, like she had gotten hit on that side of the head, and a slight darkness under her jaw where a fist might have connected.

"One more question," he whispered to her. "One more question and then we'll get you fixed up, okay?"

Rowan nodded to him and he smiled. "What did Catherine say to you to make you fight with me and the other Five-0s."

The tears leaking out of Rowan's eyes fell a little harder, her lip trembled. "She told me to go away. That… that I was being selfish and ruining everything and to make you happy I needed to stop talking to all of you and I… I want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy and she's right. I was keeping all you from being happy. But shhhhh, don't tell Steve."

Steve stood there, staring at her. None of what she said was good. She had forgotten she was talking to him, she had a lazy smile on her face and a strange look on her face. But what really got him was that she believed her words. She actually believed that pack of garbage Catherine threw at her. He opened his mouth to tell her that none of what Catherine had said was true but the EMT came over and took over. He flashed his little penlight in her eyes causing Rowan to almost cry out in pain. Steve tried not to react, but he knew he flinched. If he hadn't had control of himself, he would have punched that EMT for hurting her like that.

Whatever that EMT saw was enough to panic him because suddenly they needed to be on the move. They were strapping her in and putting her in the back before Steve could say anything else.

"Once they clear you I'll have to bring you to the palace to fill out paperwork," he called to her.

"Great. I'm getting arrested again," he heard her mumble and he almost laughed at her.

"It's a necessary precaution," he teasingly called and he swore he saw her smile.

"Fine. You bring the handcuffs and I'll bring the sass," she called back.

Steve couldn't keep the smile off of his face. The doors shut in his face just as he was saying: "That's a date," and that smile fell right off his lips. Mainly because he knew what was coming next and considering what she had done he didn't think that he'd respond politely to what she had to say. He barely had to turn, Catherine was at his side almost immediately.

"Yet another head injury…" Catherine started but Chin shoved her so hard she actually toppled over and into Lou.

"HEY! I just watched her fly down a flight a stairs, taking our bad guy with her. Still don't know how she did it," Chin said, pointing a finger into Catherine's face. "All so she could save my life. So, don't you say a fucking thing about her behaviour! She was in major pain, and if Steve made her feel even a little bit better than it was worth it."

Everyone stared at him. Chin wasn't one for that kind of talk. He rarely swore, he rarely got mad at his team mates, but something on his face told them not to argue and for once Catherine actually looked hurt.

"I didn't mean it…" she started but Chin shook his head.

"No. Stop it. Rowan did do any of this to get to Steve, she did it for me. And Steve had her because I couldn't hold her up anymore. And I'm not sure what was going on over at the ambulance but I'm going to assume it's because she was seeing triple, or more or whatever," he argued. "So stop it. Let it go."

"Alright… I'm sorry…" she whispered and everyone let it go. She looked around at all of them carefully before picking her next words. "Uh… well… neither of us finished our rounds so uh… how are we going to determine who won our bet?"

"How about this?" Chin asked. "I got taken by the serial killer, you owe me dinner."

"Maybe, not tonight though," Steve said. He then turned to Catherine and tried to smile. "I was hoping to talk to you."

She smiled at him like it was a good thing. So, he tried to smile back at her even though it faltered on his lips. She was not going to like this conversation, but it needed to be done.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve got Catherine back to his house, he hadn't talked to her while they were driving and that was worrying. He could barely look at her. Which was worse, but that was what he was like when he was around Rowan. Not only was she injured, which meant Steve was going to be worried, she had been very forward with him, her hands in his hair, him carrying her like that. It would take a lot to get him to forget that, a lot of work that Catherine was going to have to do. She was starting to not think it was worth it.

"Are you going to tell me how you got suspended?" she asked him.

"It's a long story," he said with a sigh. "In one word. Rowan."

He pulled up into his driveway and got out of the car. Catherine followed him. "I'm sorry? How did she manage that?"

"Her and I got into an argument and I arrested her," he answered. He got into the house and shut the door after her. "She called the Governor, told him what I did and I got suspended, rightfully so."

It sounded fair. It was a pretty logically response to his behaviour and he was taking it surprisingly well. It sucked he got suspended but maybe this would be what he needed to finally get over Rowan. One last terrible betrayal.

"What did you and Rowan argue about?" she asked.

Steve turned to her, his face a mask of disappointment that tied a knot of dread in her stomach. "About you," he answered and her heart sunk. Oh god. Oh no. "About some things you said to her. Is there… uh… anything you want to tell me?"

"Look, she's a liar, okay? Whatever she told you I did or said… it's not true," Catherine said hoping she sounded the right amount of surprised and pleading. "She's just doing this to get between us. Okay?"

Steve nodded. "So, she was lying?" he asked his eyes searching hers.

"Yes," Catherine said with a sigh. Yes, he believed her.

"That's funny, because she told me you didn't say any of those things to her," Steve said and Catherine's relieved smile left her lips. "Yeah… she uh… she said, Danny and Chin, and my Aunt Deb and Mary, who heard you two arguing apparently, they were all lying to me and you didn't say a single thing to her about leaving my life and never talking to any of the Five-0's ever again."

Oh, he had to be fucking kidding? Rowan had covered for her while the rest of the people on Five-0 and Steve's family had thrown her under the bus. She kinda got Mary doing it cause Mary never really liked her, but she had picked Aunt Deb up when she got out of jail that one time. She thought she and Aunt Deb were cool.

"Look… Steve…"

"God Catherine, how could you do that to her?" Steve asked. "How could you do that at all? I mean… I get… I get that you're upset and I guess I get what you were trying to do but… god… Catherine. She had no one else."

God, why did he always side with Rowan? Catherine backed away from him. "Oh my god, you're finally doing it," she growled.

Steve's eyebrows furrowed. "Doing what?" he asked.

"You're leaving me for Rowan," she explained.

Steve blinked his eyes surprised. He hadn't been expecting that and maybe that was a good thing. "No I'm not leaving you for Rowan," he said. "I'm leaving you because of her."

WHAT. THE. FUCK. That was the same thing!

"Catherine… none of this has been fair to you, I honestly don't know why you stayed for so long," Steve said. "It's painfully clear to me that I… I definitely, 100% have feelings for Rowan. They're strong, they're crippling and they're affecting more than just me. They're affecting how I do my job, how I treat Rowan and how you behave."

"So, you're breaking up with me? After everything that happened? Do you think she's going to just jump in your arms when all you've done is arrest her the past six months? For Christ sake, Steve just she got you suspended!" Catherine shouted.

"Catherine, I already told you, I'm not leaving you for Rowan," he repeated. "And yes, I'm very well aware that Rowan and I just won't fall into a perfect relationship. I have a lot to work on, I have a lot to apologize for but that's for me to worry about."

Catherine crossed her arms over her chest. She couldn't believe this was happening, that she had put up with so much, had fought so hard and it had all amounted to nothing. "This is ridiculous. I can't believe you're doing this to me."

She wanted to cry. She wanted to shout at him. But he was right. She shouldn't have stayed. The second she realized he cared for Rowan more than he cared for her, she should have left him.

"I'm sorry Catherine, I am," Steve said hanging his head. "I didn't mean for this to happen, I honestly thought that I could… let it go… my feelings for her, but I just can't. I can't stop thinking about her or wanting her and honestly… you don't deserve that."

No, she didn't. But she wanted Steve. She didn't go through of all of this to get nothing. "So… what? This it, me and you are over?" she asked, trying very hard not to cry, even though tears were in her eyes.

"Well… I mean… yeah…" he said. "Uh… I'm obviously not going to kick you out but…"

"You want me to look for my own place," she growled. "Of course you do. So we're not… we're not going to try and fix this? That's it? Everything you ever felt for me, erased. Because of… her."

"No… because of me," Steve argued.

"And your feelings for her," Catherine snapped back.

Steve sighed deeply. "Yes Cath… because of my feelings for her," he admitted.

Catherine wiped the first of her tears away and Steve put a hand to her arm that she didn't have the heart to move away. "I do care for you, Cath. I do, very much. But… Cath I feel like I've been leading you on for months now. Telling you I could stop seeing Rowan like it would fix things, telling you I could stop feeling what I did, when none of that was true, when I couldn't bring myself to stop… it was wrong," he told her. "And to be honest, what you did to her… telling her to cut all of us out her life. I know where it came from and I understand what you were probably feeling and how that might have worked for you but… that was a terrible thing to do to her. She had no one else."

Oh this again. Stupid Rowan, why couldn't she have just stayed away? "I felt like I had no other choice," she muttered.

"Yes. I get that. But you also shouldn't have felt like that and that's on me," Steve told her. "I understand why you're mad Cath, I do. I shouldn't have done this to you or Rowan. I should have just owned up to it. I'm sorry. I am."

There was no arguing with him. His mind had been set, and it hadn't been a single thing that Rowan had done, this was on her. Tragically enough. She tried to brush the last of her tears away. She smiled sadly up to him and whispered. "I'm sorry too and uh… you don't need to quit Five-0, we're mature grown ups, we can… we can work together still, right?" he asked and when she nodded, he added: "You don't have to leave tonight… I'll uh… I'll stay with Danny okay?"

Despite all the sadness she went to him and wrapped her arms around him. He held her back, but not nearly as tightly as she held him. She pulled herself away from him and turned away before she could see that the tears were starting to fall again. She went up to the room they were sharing to get her stuff out of his room.

But she wasn't defeated. She wasn't going to let Rowan win. He'd see. He'd have like four dates with Rowan and see. She was so embroiled with Wo Fat that he'd leave her.

She just had to be sure to be there when Steve needed someone's shoulder to cry on. She wasn't going to let go that easily.