Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFic

A/N: So there we go, this one's a shorter chapter, but we've got a long author's note today.

Catherine's officially gone. Well not gone in the sense that she's never coming back but she's not with Steve anymore so that is step 2 in the getting them together plan. I know some people thought he let Catherine off easy, but what I wanted to stress was that Steve has realized that a lot of what happened was because of him and he took the blame. Also, has Catherine really gotten off that easy? Because at the current moment, she has no friends, no boyfriend, no place to stay and everything at work is going to be awkward now… so… I unno, did Steve really need to rub it in or would we rather him try to mature a little? ANYWAY, Steve and Rowan are ALMOST to where they're going to work things out. I know it's taking a while, but I promise (it's like in three chapters) that once we pass that hurdle it's nothing but fluff. Okay, there's still going to be some angst, but the fluff will outweigh the angst. And for everyone who was worried Steve's just going to get what he wants. He doesn't. They still have a lot to work on, the pair of them, before Rowan just gives in. He's got a lot of apologizing to do.

Also, We reached 500 reviews. So thank you guys for that! I really can't put into words how much your continual support means to me. However, I'm kind in the middle of a crunch time at school so if you guys don't mind, can I do the 7 day marathon when the crunch is done? I should be good to go somewhere around the beginning of April. I also kinda wanna make sure that I have enough chapters banked up to be able to do the marathon and still post twice a week. Thanks guys! See you on Friday!

P.S. YAY JP's BACK! I wondered where you had gone off to! Tell me all about your VACA! Don't worry about Catherine, I've got some nice things planned for her later, but she's going to be a bit of a bitch for the next little while, which is to be expected when something like this happens. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the others.

Chapter 85

Steve parked his car, slung his shoulder bag of essentials over his shoulder and then jogged up to Danny's place. He knew it was a lot to ask to crash at it his friend's place on Christmas but he hoped it wouldn't be all that bad, he'd love to spend Christmas morning with Gracie. He felt dirty about the breakup he just initiated though so he was hopping that he could shower the guilt right off of him. He let Catherine stay in his house figuring she wouldn't be that petty to destroy the place because he left her. He let her stay because he knew she had nowhere else and he didn't want to kick her out. But he also knew that if he stayed she'd have nowhere else to sleep but in Rowan's room because she wasn't sleeping with him. And no one went into Rowan's room… it was Rowan's room.

He knocked on Danny's door and waited, but no one answered. He knocked again, and once again nothing. It wasn't that late, it was only seven o'clock. Yes it was Christmas but Danny… Danny wouldn't be asleep this early… would he?

Steve dropped his bag and then checked the windows. Everything inside was dark. Not even the Christmas tree was lit up. So what the hell?

He pulled out his phone and dialed Danny's number. The phone rang but Steve didn't hear it ringing inside.

When he answered Steve was ready to go off on him. "I'm at your place, where are you?" he asked.

"My place?" Danny echoed. "Why are you there?"

"Because I broke up with Catherine," Steve answered. "I was gonna stay on your couch."

"Uh… if you broke up with Catherine shouldn't Catherine be looking to crash on my place, not the other way around?" Danny asked after a brief pause.

"Look, can we talk about after you let me in?" Steve shot back and he almost heard Danny frown over the phone.

"Wish I could, but I'm not there," he answered. Steve paused. Something was wrong. It had to be, why else would Danny have left his house, with Grace on Christmas Eve?

"Why not? Where are you?" Steve asked.

"I'm uh… I'm at the hospital," he whispered and Steve's heart dropped out of his chest. His first thought was Grace, cause if it was Danny he wouldn't have answered the phone.

"What happened?" he asked already stooping down to pick up his bag. He was almost to his truck when Danny finally answered him.

"It's… uh… it's Rowan…" Danny told him. The bag dropped out of his hand. The world disappeared in a blinding static white. The words went into his ears but he couldn't process what was being said. He was just in shock that this was all happening all over again.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny had Grace sitting in the waiting room, Chin was beside her, he too waiting. The only person missing, other than Kono was Steve and he was on his way. It had been harrowing to be settling down for Christmas Eve and then get that call from King's Medical hospital.

He and Grace had rushed over, he had called Chin on the way and he had met them there. Thankfully Chin stayed with Grace as the doctor talked Danny through everything and what was going to happen to make Rowan better... if she made it through the night.

Steve slid into the emergency room, his eyes wide, his chest heaving. "How bad is it?" he asked him. When Danny didn't answer quite fast enough Steve repeated the question, only louder. "Danny… how bad is it?"

Danny glanced to where Chin and Grace were sitting. Steve followed his eyes and saw a teary-eyed Grace staring up at him and now that his attention was on her she was ready to voice her own complaints. "Uncle Steve! The doctor said Rowan has a subural homeytony but no one will tell me what that means."

Steve turned back to Danny his eyes wide with horror and confusion. Danny merely sighed at Chin who understood the silent plea in Danny's eyes and quickly nodded before turning to Grace with a smile. He tapped her shoulder so she'd turn away from Steve and Danny. "Hey Gracie, how about we go get another hot chocolate?"

"Another one?" she whined.

"Yeah. I'll even let you pick something from the vending machine. What do you think?" he asked.

Gracie looked up at him and then back to Steve, she seemed to realize she wasn't going to get an answer so she got up and went with Chin. As soon as she was out of ear shot Steve had a hand on Danny's arm.

"Subural homeytony? Did she mean subdural hematoma?" he asked. There was no point lying, no point trying to soften the blow.

"Yeah, that's what she meant," Danny admitted.

Steve let his breath out in a shaky hiss and then ran his hand through his hair. "Is it… is it really bad?"

"Uh… you know what I'm not going to sugar coat this so… yes. Yes Steven, it's pretty fucking bad," Danny said. His eyes stayed firmly on Steve's chest because he couldn't look him in the eye and see that terrible pain on his face. Not again, not if it was anywhere near as bad as when she got shot. "The bleeding in her brain is extensive. She… had a pretty bad seizure on the way here and when she got here they… well… they drilled a hole into her head…"

He looked up at that point and the shock on Steve's face was more than apparent. "Did they… did they…"

"Yeah, they got most of the blood out except that wasn't her only bleed. They… they had to drill two more holes to deal with it all," Danny answered. "She did a lot of damage Steve… there's terrible swelling in her brain and they want her unconscious upside of a week to deal with it… that's if she makes it through the night."

"She'll make it," Steve said quickly he needed to believe it so Danny wasn't going to rain on his parade with everything the doctor had told him to contradict it. "She's strong, Danny. She'll make it."

"They have her on something called… uh.. dexamethasone… just you know some drip to combat the swelling. She's breathing on her own but they've induced her coma already," Danny explained. "She's not out of the woods yet and they're not very positive about her outcome."

"She'll be fine, Danny," Steve said again. "They don't know her. She's… she's stubborn. She's strong. She'll make it through…" He fell silent thinking about it, his eyes searching the rooms of the ICU no doubt for any sign of her. "Uh… when can we go to sit with her?"

"You sure you want to spend your Christmas Eve here with her?" he asked.

"She'd stay with me," Steve whispered. Well he had him there, so all Danny could think to do was point him in the direction of her room. Grace and Chin made their way back and she came running up to him with his favourite chocolate bar in her hand.

Chin glanced to Steve's retreating back and turned back to Danny. "So… how did that go?"

"As good as could be expected," Danny said. He smiled down to Grace and tried to smile. "Are you ready to go home, Monkey?"

"We're going to leave her?" Grace asked with a pout.

"Well… Monkey, Auntie Ro needs to sleep off this head injury," he told her. "She's gonna be asleep for a very long time. That would be boring."

"But wouldn't she know that we're there? You know… feel us there? Wouldn't it make her feel better?" Grace asked.

"You know… Uncle Steve's going to stay with her tonight. Why don't we come and visit her tomorrow, before go off to Japan to return the box, huh?" Danny offered.

Grace smiled. "Okay, and we can bring her all her Christmas presents right? And I can open hers here? The one for me I mean? Oh and we can get her a new stuffed animal, a unicorn this time!" she cried.

Oh god. More shopping. Still he smiled at his daughter and nodded. Chin added: "Yeah, it'll probably be a good idea to do this in shifts. And someone better go to get him a change of clothes and the necessities. If this is going to be anything like last time, we're going to have a hell of a time getting him out of here."

Danny nodded, clapped a hand to Chin's shoulder and they walked out together, ready to face this next injury that Rowan had incurred and what it would mean to their fearless leader.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Chin showed up in the early morning hours with a bag of clothes and essentials. Unlike the last time Rowan was in hospital they were all well and truly prepared, apparently Chin and Danny had come up with a plan of attack if this ever happened again. Chin also told him that they would be doing this in shifts and that was nonnegotiable. Danny would be coming later in the day for his turn and Steve was expecting to actually leave the building.

Danny ended up having to come earlier, when the Governor called Steve and demanded his presence at his office. Steve had completely forgot that he was supposed to go in to speak to Dennings, and you know… get suspended. Luckily, he must have called Danny too because not only did Danny bring him a suit to change into so he would look presentable to present his case to not be suspended indefinitely and he brought in his badge and his gun for Steve to hand in to him. While he changed, Grace had carefully put a soft plush unicorn with a pink mane, a matching pink tail and a golden foil horn in the crux of Rowan's arm and then began unpacking wrapped boxes to put by Rowan's beside. Christmas gifts for her to unwrap when she woke up.

"Can we get her other stuffed animals from Uncle Chin's?" Grace had asked. Before Steve could even ask why her stuffed animals were at Chin's Danny had pushed him out of the door. Said he had to be quick because the Governor was waiting and he had a flight to Japan to catch. Turned out he had found who that puzzle box and the locket Grace found on the beach belonged to.

He didn't have the energy in him to fight Danny, especially when he was letting him his borrow car so willingly, so he changed quickly and took Danny's Camaro to the Governor's.

He walked in, dressed in the blue suit Rowan liked so much, ready to explain the error of his ways and how much he was going to change. He sat in the chair across from the Governor's desk and he looked over what was probably a file of everything that had happened between he and Rowan over the last eight months.

"I had to spin a very interesting story about you to the music executives you arrested her in front of yesterday," Dennings said without looking up from the papers. "You almost cost her her career."

Guilt hit him, straight in the chest constricting and twisting his heart. He hadn't been thinking about that when he arrested. God, he hoped he didn't ruin that for her, he go with any story, say anything he had to to make sure they didn't write her off. "I can talk to them, explain the misunderstanding," he said with a sigh.

"She said the argument was personal, is that true?" Dennings asked finally looking up.

"… Yes, it was a personal disagreement we were having," he admitted and Dennings' eyebrow shot up on his face like he was shocked Steve had just flat out admitted it.

"I'm at my wits end, Commander," Dennings told him. "I don't know what to do. I can't pull the head of Five-0 off of Five-0 permanently and then expect someone else to come in to fill your place. But you can't go on the way you have and while Rowan seemed certain that this would be enough to dissuade you from doing it again, I don't hold the same confidence."

Steve nodded, yeah that was fair. "I know I haven't given you reason to believe this… but… uh… I really have had a break through. I've pinpointed the cause of this behaviour and I have devised a plan to keep it from happening again."

Dennings glared at him. "And what would that plan entail?" he asked.

"Well for starters, I broke up with Catherine," he said and Dennings interrupted him.

"I fail to see how breaking things off with Lieutenant Rollins will fix anything between you and Rowan, in fact if anything it creates more strain on Five-0," he cried.

"The latest development with Rowan, the one that brought us to this moment, was… uh… directly caused by Catherine and a demand she made that Rowan attempted to follow through with. It made things clear to me, that I hadn't been fair to either of them and I am endeavouring to fix it," he told him.

"By ending things?" Dennings repeated.

"I can't begin to fix the damage I've caused with Rowan without first fixing the issues I have myself. Catherine… I was leading her on, I should have broken up with her right away, I took the blame for messing things up. I told her she can stay on Five-0 that we can still work together if she wants. She's uh… she's deciding still. Rowan… well… I have had a hard time… separating her from Wo Fat… and as such I sort of treated her like him. I'm going to work on remembering that she and him are not the same, no matter how close they seem to be," he said.

"All of this because she chose Wo Fat," Dennings said with a sigh. He pinned Steve with a dry glare. "Does this revelation have anything to do with the fact that Rowan is currently in the hospital with a less then positive prognosis on her survival?"

Oh someone had told him about that too? Steve had to swallow the lump that rose up in his throat before he could answer Dennings.

"No. You can ask Danny, I came to this conclusion before she even got hurt," he said.

"I will definitely pull Detective Williams in later this week to confirm," he said and then he looked carefully at Steven before saying: "Considering the situation, considering her condition, I have decided to take Rowan's advice on the length of your suspension."

Steven sighed, this was it, he was fired. "Let me guess… forever…" he said.

"No, she said three days," Dennings told him. His face must have betrayed his emotion because he added: "Surprised? Me too. That girl really went to bat for you. Said I should have just suspended you for a day instead of the forever I wanted to go for."

"She… wow… really? I didn't know she…" he trailed off. No, he hadn't known. He had no idea that, mad as she was, Rowan hadn't actually demanded a full suspension. A one day, that's what she wanted, he didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve her.

"Yes. You two, quite frankly, are absolutely ridiculous. I will not be suspending you for three days, that's too light for what you did. You will be getting suspended for the next seven days, unless there's a case I think we need you on," Dennings said and Steve nodded. Okay. Fair. A week… he could handle a week.

The Governor signed and stamped his suspension form and when he was done he looked back up to Steve with a strange look on his face. "May I be frank, Commander?" Dennings asked leaning forward. Steve gestured for him go ahead and Dennings smiled in this strange toothy way that made him nervous. "This time, when she wakes up, just tell her how you feel. I'm getting tired of cleaning up these messes. The two of you obviously like each other so work it out. And I don't mean, letting her move out or telling you to leave or whatever else it is the two of you do."

Steve smiled, he thanked him for his advice and he left feeling a little bit light. Questions still weighed heavy on his mind and he had a feeling that, no matter how he felt for Rowan, things wouldn't be alright between them until he got his answers.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve got back to the hospital, and with suit jacket slung over his shoulder he entered Rowan's room to find her whole little family waiting for her. Minus, Kono, Adam and for some reason Alex.

Steve glanced at Grover who was leaning against her bed with his arms crossed. He narrowed his eyes at him.

"Who invited you?" he asked and Grover scowled at him

"This Grinch act of yours has got to stop, you know you like me," he said with a big fake grin.

"No seriously… what… you worked one case with the girl and now you're besties?" Steve asked.

"Well, I mean… why not? You two worked one case together and you invited him to a family function, and Rowan's much more likeable then you," Danny said. Wow, either that meeting was longer than he expected or Danny's trip to Japan had been really quick. He was teasing, Steve knew he was, but he also knew that Danny was a slight bit jealous that he and Grover went on the typical McGarrett adventure. Like Steve should have waited to ride horseback after a truck until Danny came home to do it.

"Ha ha," Steve answered sarcastically which got the rest of the people in the room laughing.

"In all seriousness, the girl comes into my office once a week with cupcakes. It's the highlight of the guy's week. If we're not in the office when she drops by she leaves them for us. She always asks about our cases, she knows about our families, and she always had a nice thing to say about you," he said pinning McGarrett with a serious stare.

Steve let out a shaky laugh. "She does?" he asked, his mouth running dry and his eyes decidedly moist.

"Yeah. Kept trying to convince me how great a guy you were. Let me tell you that got hard quick after I witnessed you arresting her," he said. "You should have seen her face though. She'd say something about how your methods might be stressful or strange but you have great results and you're more loyal then a dog and I'd say: Gurl, that man arrested you the second an opportunity presented itself. And her face. Oohhh. It would scrunch up and she'd frown at me because I had her. I had her."

"Yeah… uh… yeah… I haven't really… I haven't really deserved her praise as of late. I'm really surprised she thought I was any good at all," he said.

"Yeah but that's Rowan," Chin said. "She's a lot like Steve. Recklessly loyal. She could be literally furious with you, talking up and down on how terrible you are but the second someone else has something to say she would defend you to death." Chin took that moment to pause. Steve hadn't realized Rowan was like that, that she'd defend even him when he didn't deserve it. It sort of explained why she was the way she was with Wo Fat. Chin got a small smile on his face and then he was saying: "Did you know, she took on a ring of convicted criminals simply so they wouldn't shank me? You think the computer trick was scary, imagine all five-foot-four of her perky self trying to talk her way out of a prison riot. And it almost worked!"

"Oh… or the time she tackled a fugitive bank robber down a flight of stairs?" Danny added.

"Oh, so this taking criminals on trips down stairs is a habit of hers? Someone better teach her how to do it without throwing herself down too," Grover said.

Yes, Steve should teach her better self-defence, so this shit wouldn't keep happening to her.

"Rowan does end up in the hospital a lot trying to help us," Chin agreed. "I think… I think we gotta start listening to her more. Maybe that will keep her from going off on her own."

"She didn't tell us about you this time, though," Steve argued. "She didn't tell us until she found you and by the time she had she was already in the house."

"Well… that's not strictly true," Chin said. He glanced carefully to Grover before saying: "She… uh… she dreamed about it. Every other night. She'd wake me up about it all the time."

"Wake you up?" Steve echoed. Danny pinned Chin with a glare, a dark glare Steve didn't understand. What could they be hiding now? He knew they were friends.

"Yeah… she'd uh… call me? Yeah, she'd call me. Ask if I was okay, tell me she had the dream again and make me promise not to go into any basements or chasing after fingers, which made no sense… until this case…" Chin said.

"Okay, y'all need to tell me what's going on with this girl. This isn't the first time I've heard about dreams and visions. She some kinda psychic?" Grover asked.

"Yeah, some kind," Steve answered. "She's a very long story, and I'm sure one day you'll get it."

"Geeze, you Five-0's and your secrets," Grover said with a shake of a head. "You guys have more secrets then the CIA."

They all exchanged glances and polite chuckles. None of them said anything because it was true. They all kept secrets. From the public, from the Governor, from Grover and from themselves.

"No one has more secrets then Rowan," Steve whispered softly. It came out before he could stop himself. And maybe she didn't have secrets, she seemed to tell Wo everything and Chin and Danny seemed to be in her confidence too. But Rowan didn't tell Steve anything. He didn't want her to die without telling her secrets, without her trusting him, with her thinking that he didn't care for her. He didn't want her to die at all.

He swiped at his tears hopefully before anyone noticed and luckily they didn't because Grover was talking again.

"Look, secrets or not, I want in on this whole rotation thing," he said to them. When they were all quiet, staring at him with their own versions of confused faces he added: "William's said that you guys are rotating staying with her until she wakes up. I want in. Put me into the rotation. I'll sit with her. I'll talk with her. Hell I'll serenade her if the doctors think it might help. And it might too, with my caterwauling she might wake up to shut me up."

The room broke out in chuckles. "Hey she came out of her last coma to tell Wo Fat to go fuck himself, it stands to reason she might wake up to tell you to shut up," Danny answered and Grover just shook his head.

"Y'all serious about this? This girl is something else. Someone better tell me that whole damn story!" he demanded.

As they fell into telling Rowan stories again, Steve's eyes focused on Rowan who had been smothered in stuffed animals at some point while he was gone. Gauze haloed her head, her red hair looked out of place against the paleness of her face. He wanted nothing more than for her eyes to open. He had already lived through this worry, of sitting beside her bed willing her to live. He could do it again, but that didn't mean he was used to the pain crawling under his skin.

He'd trade places with her in a heartbeat. But right now, with all his friends, plus Grover, in the room, this was good enough.