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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: APRIL FOOLS! Can I just say thank you! Most of you guys were so understanding, I thought you guys would be so mad if I ended it there! Maybe you were and you just didn't tell me. But of course I'm not going to end the story there. Could you imagine?! Hot damn. So yes I did let you think that we were going to end there for a whole day and I'm very sorry about that, but come on guys, I've been taking about all the extra stuff to look forward to for like… months, I'm surprised that more of you didn't catch that. Anyway, to make up for my terrible deceit I'm going to post another 7 days ONTOP of the 7 I owe you guys for reaching 500 reviews! Okay? Does that kind of make up for it? 14 chapters in a row? (That includes yesterday's chapter, so 12 more posts after this one) I feel like that kinda makes up for it AND it gets you guys through all the cute stuff. What do you think? :D Hopefully you forgive me. See you guys tomorrow!

Chapter 88

Danny had left her alone at the hospital. Never mind that Steve and Grover and Chin had this case and didn't need his help, never mind that Rowan had told him to leave, once she made a phone call to her house Danny shouldn't have left her alone.

So once he was done with the case, once he had showered the day off of himself, he had returned to the hospital to find that Rowan was in the process of discharging herself. She had changed into the clothes she had been brought in with, which were still flecked with blood including where it had trickled down the back of her neck and pooled. Steve stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

"What are you doing? You need to be resting," he asked.

Rowan jumped and turned around, she looked him up and down before turning back to the bag she was zipping up and said: "I'm going home… well the consulate first. They'll help me get home since you won't."

"Rowan you are home," he said to her, he tried to reach out her but Rowan ducked his hands.

"No! I'm not. I want to go to my real home. With my mom and my brother and my daddy! I really, really want my daddy!" she near sobbed.

He wanted to soothe her, he wanted to hold her until she was better again but when he reached out Rowan slapped his hands away. "Let me help you," he whispered. "Let me tell you what happened."

"No!" she shrieked. "I'm not in a different reality! I can't be! I just got my life on track. I was skating again, Trevor and Malcolm were getting engaged, and me and my mom were finally getting along! I am not in a different reality. I'm not dead! I'm not!"

Steve finally managed to get a hold of her, his hands gripping her shoulders. An electric current ran up his arms, his chest tightened like it usually did when she was about to jump. No! He was not letting her leave him. She screamed: "I want to go home!" and those orange electric bolts flew from her frying the medical machines by her bed. In a flash they weren't in the hospital anymore, they were in the void.

Rowan looked around, while Steve just stared at her. Her tears beaded up and floated away from her, swaying ribbon like strings hovered around her but it was the red strings, flying from his chest that wrapped her up. He watched Rowan struggle, trying to pull herself away from him, but the red strings kept growing and multiplying and tangling her up until she couldn't move.

Her eyes turned up to him as he stood there, arms outstretched as if still reaching for her, a million red strings cascading from him and in that instant he could see her give up on trying to get away. Her eyes seemed to clear, she seemed to recognize him for the first time since she had woken up, like properly recognized him and suddenly a cascade of red strings erupted from her own chest, tangling him up too.

When they finally came out of the void Rowan was in his arms, his finger nails digging into her.

"I'm never going home am I, Steve?" she asked and then broke out into loud sobs. She buried her head into his chest and if it was possible his grip tightened around her. The nurses came rushing in, responding to the frantic beeping of her EKG machines which look past burnt out. He held her tightly as they all swarmed around him trying to get him to let go so they could look at her. Despite the severity of the situation he couldn't help but be happy, because she finally remembered him.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve had stayed the night. He had barely slept and instead he spent his night watching her. After coming out of the void she was so distraught that she had to be sedated and they had to move her to a room with an EKG machine that wasn't fried. She hadn't woken up yet, but she had rolled onto her side to stretch a hand out to him. He had held it all night.

After visiting with Rowan the day before, Danny had gone to see the girl he had rescued. Amber Vitale. A nice girl, very appreciative for his assistance, who then accepted the offer to let him take her out on a date. Which was why Danny wasn't in the room when Steve and Rowan ended up in the void. Then Danny had called Grace to catch her up and found out that Grace had packed up her things and was demanding that Danny pick her up so that she could come home and see Rowan as soon as possible.

Cue to that morning, Grace had come skipping into the room, sliding to a stop beside Rowan's bed and standing up on her tippy toes to see if Rowan was awake. She was not. Danny had come in after that and told him to stretch his legs and grab something to eat.

He did as he was told because he was too tired to argue. But when he got back Rowan was waking up and he was afraid to go in and see her. What if she didn't want to see him? What if she didn't want to answer any of his questions?

Steve stood outside the door of Rowan's hospital room watching Danny and Grace. Both were perched on either side of the foot of Rowan's hospital bed. Despite being sedated only hours ago she had big purple bags under her eyes. Her eyes kept closing, longer than they were supposed to, before opening up again. Under one arm she had the unicorn plushie Grace had made Danny go and buy her, they had also gotten the red fox that Grace had bought her last year for Christmas too.

"Auntie Ro?" Grace asked and Rowan stretched an arm out.

"Hey Gracie!" she whispered to him a smile on her face. Yes! She really did remember them. She rolled off her side to her back, her eyes finding Danny. "Hey Danny… uh… how long have I been out?"

"Somewhere around 8 days," he answered. "How you feeling?"

"I missed Christmas?" Rowan asked instead of answering Danny's question.

"Obviously and New Year's," he snapped and she scowled at him. She turned back to Grace.

"Sorry, I know you wanted to do a special sing along but uh… I guess I was busy," she said to them, Grace just smiled widely at her. What the hell was a sing along?

"That's okay. I braided your hair… like every day… and I got you a new unicorn! It's super soft," she said watching as Rowan picked it up her eyes narrowing to get a better look at it.

"Thank you Gracie, it is super soft. He'll do great in the collection. Uhm… was Steve here?" she asked. "I could have sworn… I thought he was…"

"Yeah, I'm here," Steve said finally walking into the room. "How are you doing?"

Rowan looked around at the two faces other than his and he realized she didn't want to answer with them there. "I'm fine," she finally said and he knew she was lying.

"Okay… uh… would you be up for some questions?" he asked.

Rowan sighed, she shifted in the bed as Grace lay herself down against Rowan's legs. She shot Steve an untrusting look that made him feel even more nervous about this then he had been before. Was this a good idea?

"How many questions?"

"A few," Steve admitted sitting down beside her. "I… I don't want you to lie to me anymore. I think it's time you got me officially caught up on everything."

"Yes," Danny said sitting down in the chair on the other side of Rowan. "I'd like to be caught up too. I will also mediate when Steve inevitably freaks out over your answers."

The two men glared at each other, Grace breathed out an "Uh-oh" and Steve almost swore. Danny was the worst mediator ever. He couldn't even mediate the arguments that happened between Steve and himself, how was he going to do it for Rowan? Especially since Rowan and Danny seemed to be on the same page about everything these days and Steve was horribly out of the loop.

"Kay, so what do you want to ask me?" she asked clearly resigned to an interrogation.

"What is a particle energizer?" he asked.

"How the hell did that come up?" Rowan asked and then she sighed and rolled her eyes when Steve could only shrug. "I uh… I mentioned that when I thought this was a TV show again, didn't I?" she asked. Oh she remembered that too? When he nodded she sighed once more and said: "It's a ray gun my dad invented. It energizes particles of matter so that they can travel through the white spaces… well… the void, we call it the void… safely. My dad only tested it on objects, never anything living."

"You said Trevor shot you with it," Steve added and Rowan nodded.

"Uhm… it's a little fuzzy, but yeah, the night before I woke up in the air he had. But… you know… that shouldn't have been the reason why I got pulled here. Energizing particles doesn't make you jump into the void. It's just how I survived it… I guess…" she replied. Steve hung his head, he knew how she got pulled here, this version of Trevor and Trenton had performed an experiment to pull something through the void, if she was energized it was logical to assume that she would have been the thing to get pulled through. But Steve couldn't tell her any of that without admitting that he had sent her family away.

"White spaces?" Danny asked when Steve lapsed into silence.

"White spaces… oh … uh… cause he believed that the alternate universes stretch out in lines, or strings. The space between the lines… he always called them white spaces," she answered.

"Do you think this ray gun caused the side effects we've been dealing with?" Steve asked.

Rowan shook her head. "No. I think that was from the actual trip here," she said. "But I think the energizing has run out finally. And that is having some terrible side effects."

"Like what?" Danny asked.

"I'm losing my memories," she admitted. "I can't remember songs I wrote. Not the lyrics not the melodies. I can't remember things about my childhood until someone reminds me and my visions are fuzzy. I'm not getting them in advance any more either. It's why this happened, why I didn't call you or Danny. I got the vision late, by then Chin had already been taken and I was in a panic trying to get to him before anything too terrible happened."

"You're forgetting your life before you got here?" Steve asked because that's what had him feeling the guiltiest.

"Just… can we maybe not…" she said sniffing and rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hands.

As Danny said: "It's okay, we can change the topic," Steve said: "Alright. That night that Adam left… you took him aside… what did you two have to talk about?" Danny nodded, yes he agreed that was a good question.

Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. "I knew he was going to fake his death, I told him not to. In return he told me that Wo Fat's network would get me killed. Neither of us have listened to the other."

"Fair," Danny said. "Kono found him, you know. She's on her way home."

Rowan smiled lightly. "Oh good! My tip helped!" Oh she had given her a tip? Add that to the list of things Steve hadn't known.

"How about the assault. How did the assault happen?" he asked. When she got a pained look on her face he added: "If you're comfortable, that is."

Rowan glanced to Grace who was frowning and Steve frowned too, maybe this wasn't a good question to ask around Grace.

"I was trying to escape, he got a hold of me and got a little… handsy," Rowan answered. "Wo Fat got him off of me and dealt with him. I'm not going to say that I didn't know he was going to kill him, but he never said that was what he was going to do. He just said he was going to make him suffer."

Yes. That man had suffered. Quite a bit before that bullet in his head ended his life. Steve couldn't pretend to be upset by that, he knew that if he had walked in on that situation he probably would have just shot the guy on sight.

"But are you okay?" he wondered.

"Uhm… you know… I thought I was but… uh… no… I think I have some latent PTSD over it. My therapist is helping me with it and I've been doing much better. I can't do dark enclosed spaces anymore though," she whispered. Danny reached over and grabbed her hand and held it tightly.

He squeezed her hand and Steve found himself bitterly adding: "Let me guess you have Chin and Danny to help you with that."

Rowan and Danny exchanged glances. A small smile and then they sheepishly looked away. What the fuck was that? Steve purposely looked away from the intertwined hands.

"Tell me about the accident," he demanded so he wouldn't snap on them.

"That's a long and convoluted story… and I'm not… I'm not ready to tell you the whole thing yet," she whispered. "There's a lot to explain… and I just… please don't make me."

"Cliffnotes it then," Danny ordered.

Rowan sighed once more, pulling her hand out of Danny's grasp and folding them over her lap.

"I crashed a car going over 200mph. The car rolled four times. Killed everyone in the car but me. Completely shattered the Tibia and Fibula in my left leg and killed my skating career."

Steve drank all of that in… his Rowan had been in an accident so bad it destroyed her leg and her skating career. What skating career? "You don't limp though," he whispered instead.

"No, all of that happened years ago. I would have been twenty, turning twenty-one. I've had a long recovery road, and I had even started skating again before I got pulled here. Trevor and I had struck up a deal, he was going to choreograph just for me and I'd make us all famous… or well... even more famous than I was back then."

"How famous were you?" Steve found himself asking.

"Uhm… C list," she said after a moment's pause. "Or at least, that's what the agent said. I figured I was more of a D list. I didn't act. I just skated and sang. I wasn't too popular or anything. Or at least I wasn't when I was single, I always got a little bit more interest if I was dating someone more famous than me."

Steve was going to ignore that little bit and focus on the main point of that answer.

"Singing, you were singing?" he asked. "Professionally?"

Now that didn't surprise him. He had seen Rowan singing, he had witnessed the euphoria on her face. He couldn't understand why she hadn't gone for that here. She would have been able to do it no problem.

"Yes," she answered.

"Why not strive for that here?" Steve asked but hesitantly this time. He didn't actually want her to be famous. If she were famous, she wouldn't want him.

"Because I don't want that," she replied. "You know, doing it the first time, I learned. I learned what I liked and what I didn't. I didn't want to be famous. I didn't like it. I didn't like the reporters and the rumors and the lack of privacy. What I wanted to do was write songs and sing them. I saw this as a chance to, you know, do things right, a second chance to do things a way I'd like better."

That was a waste of talent, he wanted to tell her. She loved singing, she was better than Alex, she was better than half the artists he heard on the radio these days. But it wasn't his place to say any of that so he kept his mouth shut.

"Kay so no one wants to talk about the skating?" Danny asked. Steve did but he had certain questions he wanted answered and he figured that one he could wait for.

"Figure skating. I'd rather not talk about that yet," she answered oohh, good. Good he didn't waste his questions on that.

"Okay so that day you were driving Wo Fat's Audi and you crashed us... how… I mean… why did you do that?" he asked instead. Rowan blinked her eyes, maybe surprised at the sudden change in topic. She shifted in her bed, blinking her eyes rapidly as if thinking about it.

"I asked for driving lessons or shooting lessons," she said. "I knew there was no way in hell he'd put a gun in my hands, but I needed something to make sure I got the driving lessons. I said I wanted to learn how to drive defensively, and they were going to teach me. I made sure we took the Audi because Kamekona had seen me and Wo Fat in it already, I knew if I got that Audi back in his line of sight he'd call you and you could come and find me. The problem was he didn't want to let me go."

"Tell him why you sideswiped my car," Danny said in between his grit teeth. Oh… did he already know this story and he hadn't bothered to tell Steve?

"Because he was going to try and shoot Steve, but at his angle he would have ended up shooting you, Danny, so I hit your car purposely so he couldn't shoot you," she said pointedly to Danny who shot a smug smirk at her.

"I wanted you to find me," Rowan said in a soft voice. "But I didn't want him to shoot you either."

She wanted him to believe that she cared about him but he wasn't sure he believed that. Not with Wo Fat's words still bouncing around in his brain.

"Okay, what about the pool? How did you end up at that fight with the MMA fighter?" he asked.

"Oh, uh, Wo Fat needed to do business with someone at the fight, and he didn't trust leaving me alone with his men so he brought me along. He went to the meeting, I got to stay and watch the fight with one of his men with me," she answered. "When I saw what was happening though I didn't like it. I got into the pool and tried to knock that professional fighter girl out with a metal tray."

"And how did Wo Fat end up shooting one guy almost ten times?" Steve asked.

"Not sure," Rowan said with a shrug. "that girl they were attacking… I went to help her out, and because I wasn't getting my visions frequently, I got blinded by visions, the whole episode at once and when I came to I was surrounded by bodies. He said it was because the guy was gonna stab me but I'm not sure if that's true."

It was true. Steve knew it. Wo Fat had killed that man to protect Rowan. 10 bullets in the back, simply because he threatened Rowan. Another reaction much like Steve's would have been if he was there.

Steve nodded. "What about the heist, how involved was he in helping you get the microfiche back?" he asked.

"Geeze, how many questions do you have?" she shot back.

"Only a few more," he whispered lowering his eyes.

"Ugh, okay," she said softly. "Uhm, he was very involved. He's the one who got my fake identity. He told me which cleaning company to apply to. He told me where the safe most likely was, and he told me the best way to leverage Doris. I just didn't get to use that method cause I went to rescue you guys. He said that was a stupid move. He said you would have got your mother out of that situation somehow and I shouldn't have intervened."

It was true. He would have thought of something eventually. But Rowan helping had been greatly appreciated.

"And what about the Governor?" Steve asked. "How did you get him to agree to let you visit Wo Fat?"

Rowan's lips twitched, her eyes narrowed too. He knew that look. It was a look that told him she didn't want to answer that question. That he wouldn't like the answer. Still he pinned her with a glare. With a stare that told her that he needed to know.

"It wasn't all me," she whispered after Danny cleared his throat and the two exchanged a meaningful look. Oh god he knew about this one too. "The previous Swat captain, Sam, had been sending videos to, you know, Governor Dennings, and that helped."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"Well, uhm. You see, the videos proved my point, which was that Wo Fat acts very… uh… very human-like, with me," she replied. This question was making her nervous. She was worried he'd be mad. But he already knew all about this, about how normal that psychopath acted with her. "And since it showed proof that he had the capacity to be normal, Dennings agreed for me to keep seeing him but it wasn't for free."

"Oh yeah and what did he get then?" Steve asked with a smirk. Because really, what else could Rowan really give him other than baked goods?

"Information," Rowan answered bitterly. "Sam threatened to deport me and Wo got upset, I think at that point he traded information to keep me on the island."

"Deport… he said he was going to deport you?" Steve hissed. Fear lanced through his heart. There was a point in time that Rowan could have been taken off the island without him knowing? Hell no.

"Yeah. He said that if I was your weakness, I'd have to go," Rowan said with a casual shrug. Except there was nothing casual about this.

"And Wo Fat stopped him," Steve whispered. "Do you know what he gave up?"

"Not then, but I know now. It's why the Yakuza are interested in me," Rowan answered. "He told them about that graveyard that got Kono in trouble. Now the Yakuza thinks that the best way to get to Wo Fat is to use me."

Steve sighed. Ah, so that's why she was trying to stay away from them. That's why she had said no when Steve had asked her to help him in Japan. At least Rowan knew she was in danger maybe that meant that she was getting the protection she needed.

"You know you can come to me… you know… if you're worried about them. I can protect you," Steve told her.

Rowan nodded. "Don't worry, babe," Danny said, seemingly sensing that Steve was distressed about this. "She's got me and Chin. She's got Wo Fat and his network. We got this, we got her. Don't panic."

Steve tried not to scowl. How much had Rowan told him? Why had she told Danny before him? And how had Danny, who could barely keep a secret to himself, managed to keep all of this from Steve? And did the others already know too? Was he the only one who didn't know?

"Okay, last question," Steve said. "Wo Fat said you were going to go to Japan with him. That's a lie right? He just said that to get at me… right?"

Rowan's face went a shade paler then it's normal pale. That did not bode well. "Uhm… well… uh… I was… uh… I was sort of considered…"

"No. Shut up. Don't you fucking dare finish that sentence," Steve snapped throwing himself to his feet. Danny protested, pointing to Grace but Steve was lost to the rage. "You mean to tell me that you were just going to go to Japan with him? After everything he did. After he kidnapped you, you nearly got throttled, nearly stabbed, were almost in a car accident and got sexually assaulted, you were just going to leave with him? Do you know what would have happened Rowan? I never would have found you again. You know that? If you had gone with him we never would have seen you again."

Rowan's lower lip trembled like it did when it she was about to cry but she said nothing to defend herself.

"Calm down, will yah?" Danny demanded but it didn't do anything but make him angrier. Why was he always on her side? Why?!

"He said he'd bring me back," she whispered.

"What?"

"He said, to just give it a shot," she said. "He had been so nice, and he had taken care of me and he was trying so hard to be something he wasn't. He said, if I didn't like it after a month, if I still wanted to go back, he'd let me go back to Hawaii. He was even going to let me call you from Japan so you wouldn't worry."

"AND YOU BELIEVED HIM?!" Steve thundered because there was no way that any of that would have happened. She had to see that he had lied. He wasn't going to let her call him, and he wouldn't have let her go.

"Yes," Rowan said her cheeks aflame. "I get that he's not so great with you, but… you know… he's always honest with me. He… usually tells me the truth."

"God Rowan, stop being so naive! The man is a sociopath! He had no intention of bringing you back, you idiot. He wanted to bring you to Japan to ruin me, do you understand? He doesn't give a shit about you, all he cares about is hurting me!" he cried. Which wasn't true anymore. At least, he was pretty sure he wasn't. He didn't know what the thing between her and Wo Fat was, but he was almost certain it had nothing to do with him anymore.

Danny stood up. "Hey, man, calm down!" he said. "What does it matter now? They didn't get to Japan, we got her back…"

"No, we didn't get her back. He shot her! And she still talks to him like they're besties. He's not your bestie. He's not your brother. And you shouldn't be giving visions to him either. You're supposed to save those for us…"

"I am not going to withhold a vision that could save someone just because it's not for you. My visions don't belong to you. I don't belong to you," Rowan shouted back.

Well she had him there. She was right in that aspect but he was too mad to see it as that. All he saw was that Wo Fat had turned her against him. That if he hadn't shot her, Rowan wouldn't be here with him right now. That because of Wo Fat and because of Catherine Rowan wasn't his and her loyalty had been given to Danny and to Wo Fat.

And it killed him.

"You know what, I have one last question. What the hell is going on with you and Danny huh? What you ruined my relationship and now you've got your hooks into him too? What? I wasn't good enough? Ruining me and Catherine wasn't good enough?" he snarled. He meant it as the insult it sounded like. And it shocked everyone in the room.

"That's it," Danny snapped. "Get out."

Steve glared at him. Of course, Danny would kick him out instead of answering the question. Of course Danny's idea of mediating was just kicking him out of the room. "You're being unreasonable. Leave now."

Steve scoffed but said nothing. As he stormed away, he realized that he was probably right. Rowan and Danny were dating. It was the only thing in his mind that made sense.

He kinda wanted to go find Alex and throw that in his face. But knowing how mad he was he figured the only way it would end was with a fist to either his or Alex's face. So, Steve left the hospital instead. Putting as much distance between he and Rowan as he could without driving his truck into the ocean.