*For info about the contest please read Chapter 98 for rules and more info on the chapters*
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A/N: Guys! This is chapter 100. Oh my god. I never thought that it would go this far, you know, I mean, I knew it would because I mapped out the story, but… usually I give up by now. I'm so surprised that this is still going, and I really got to hand to you guys for giving me the inspiration and the sheer determination to see this story through. Seriously you guys are the reason I'm still at this so thank you.
So for this chapter, I don't really have anything too special. It is another one of my long ones, it's sitting at 15 pages, but the last little bit of the chapter is a complete d'aww moment. I promise. So more fluff, but I wrote it mostly to be entertaining. Enjoy it for now because in two chapters we got some angst coming up. See you guys on Tuesday and if we get 9 more review I can announce the contest winner! Looking forward to that one!
Chapter 100
The phone rang again and Rowan jumped. It wasn't hers though, which meant it was Grover's again.
"Don't you pick up that phone," Rowan snapped. "If that's Steve don't you answer that call."
Grove winced at her, once again. "The man has called us both at least a hundred times. He's texted twice that. The man is gonna have an aneurism. For the love of God let me answer the damn phone."
"No, he'll just demand that I come home," she said and Clara couldn't help but laugh. She wanted nothing more then to actually see Rowan and Steve together, they sounded like fun. They sounded like the kind of relationship she wanted with her own husband, minus all the fighting and arguing and apparent threatening that they threw at one another. Clara had seen pictures of them though, Grace had hundreds of them together, same as Danny, but Rowan had thousands and they were absolutely adorable. They made the quite the couple.
But she had only seen Rowan and Steve separately at this point. Danny kept saying it was a good thing because them together was… well… a bit chaotic.
Rowan had been a godsend on this little ride-along, because Grover hadn't wanted to take them anywhere fun, but with Rowan's insistence they had ended up here and Clara was about to have some real fun.
"Gurl, if he traces one of our phones to find us, you are taking that argument on all by yourself. And I'm not gonna help you if he tries to arrest you again," Grover said to which Rowan just rolled her eyes. "Fine, you don't wanna listen to me, it's not my problem. You gonna come over here and try this shooting simulator, or what?"
Grover had just gone himself. He had done remarkably well. Now he was handing the reigns over to Rowan who was all smiles all of a sudden and ready to go.
The nice man helping them, restarted the simulator, Rowan levelled her gun and fired. The resounding bang sounding much louder then Grover's had been and immediately Grover was on her taking the gun out of her hand. The second they connected Clara swore she heard the zap of static shock, Grover even yelped at it, but both of them ignored it.
"Is that a loaded… you have a loaded gun? Why the hell do you have a loaded gun?"
"Isn't that what we're shooting with?"
"No! We've got a practice gun. It's sensored to go with the simulator. Where the hell did you even get this?"
"From Kevin."
The man who was helping them, Kevin, immediately turned to his empty holster. "What… how did she…?"
Rowan just shrugged. Grover scowled at her. "For the love of god, Williams' is right, you are a damn hazard. Sit your ass down, you're grounded."
Rowan scowled but did as she was told, throwing herself back into her chair arms folded over her chest. She sulked to herself as Grover got Clara ready to go, he double and triple checked that she had the proper kind of gun that didn't fire real bullets and then she was shooting at the screen, and he was giving her tips and pointers.
Clara enjoyed the fake shooting. She giggled and laughed when she shot the wrong people, in fact she just shot everything that moved. When they were done, they turned back to Kevin to see how they did.
"Captain Grover finished in the 98 percentile," Kevin said. And Clara teasingly congratulated him and then she got her score.
Bottom third. Well, damn. But what made it all between was Kevin's flirting with her. Prettiest girl to come and test their shooting skills.
Clara was all very flattered and about to accept the business card that Kevin was offering her when Grover interrupted their flirting. "Uh, Kevin, where's the girl?"
Clara followed Grover's eyes. Rowan was gone. Kevin turned back to the empty chair that once housed a young woman.
"Uh… she was just there."
"Oh god. Oh no. I can't have lost her, McGarrett will lose his damn mind if I lose that girl."
"Oh damn, that was McGarrett's Rowan?" Kevin breathed out. "Yeah… you're in trouble."
Grover scowled at him. Taking his phone out to call Steve. This was not something he wanted to do, but really… did he have a choice? Clara felt bad for him.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
He came out of the small house wiping the blood off of his hands, discarding the bloodied rags in the garbage before leaving the garage. He made his way to the end of the driveway where his car was and someone crashed right into him.
He hit the ground with the person on top of him, his hand going for his gun immediately but he didn't draw.
"Oh gosh, oh dear. I'm so sorry!" the girl said. She had a pair of stunning blue eyes and a dazzling smile. Clearly harmless, probably just a resident. "I wasn't looking where I was going, here let me help you up."
She was wearing a pair of denim shorts, a black sleeveless high low sweater and a white tee shirt. Her red hair was half up in a messy bun and she was still smiling. She helped him up, dusted him off.
"I really am sorry, you're okay, aren't you?" she asked him and when he nodded, she smiled, apologized for the third time and then turned and jogged away. With the number of apologies, he had gotten he almost thought her to be Canadian. But a Canadian this far off a resort was unlikely.
He crossed to his car, his hand went to his pocket, out of habit to make sure that he still had his precious cargo but it wasn't there. Panic lanced through him. His hands scrambled to each and every pocket he could think of but it wasn't any where.
He turned back to where he last saw the girl but she had utterly vanished. She obviously wasn't as harmless as he thought she was.
She had pickpocketed him.
She had the Unicorn's Hard drive.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
This was not a good day for Steve. First he was angry because Rowan was on that stupid Ride-along Steve was certain would end in disaster. Then Danny was still mad at him over not telling him he set up the ride-along for his mother. He had to deal with a real live Chinese Spy attacking Jerry. The Navy was stone walling him, him, and Jerry acting like he was Steve's partner. And now there was a bomb under a dead body.
On top of all of those things he was dealing with, Grover had informed him lost Rowan.
So, when Grover showed up at the scene with Danny's mother in tow, he was not happy with him and neither was Danny.
"Hi Ma!" Danny said though he was far from pleased to see her.
"Are you okay?" she asked and then Steve turned on Grover, his hands on his hips.
"How is it possible that Rowan left with you, but you lost her? I mean… Lou how?"
Grover frowned at him. "Okay, listen here McGarrett, you lose that girl on the reg. If you and your team can't keep tabs on her, how the hell did you expect me to?"
Steve swore under his breath, he had a point. Not even Wo Fat could keep tabs on her and he had a whole network. He glanced back to the house where the bomb squad was entering with their giant green suits and then turned back to Grover.
"Why the hell did you think taking her along was a good idea?"
"I thought you sent her."
"Me? You thought I… me… that I would send Rowan on a ride-along? I don't even trust her to drive!"
"Well the doctor does."
Yeah well that was a completely different situation, he was surprised she past the drive test let alone her reflexes test to get cleared to drive again.
"Okay, but you have people looking for her right?" Steve asked.
"Course I do, I'm not stupid," Grover snapped. "But your girl left her phone in my truck, her car is in your garage still and she left no clue as to where she was going. Add this into the mix," he said gesturing to the house. "And obviously we're moving a bit slow on the whole locating thing."
Steve shook his head, he was gonna kill Rowan. When he found her again, god, the things he was gonna do to her.
Danny smacked Grover's shoulder and Steve noted that Clara was being taking away by a nice young officer. "What were you thinking? Bringing my mom here?"
"I told her to stay in the car, what do you want me to do?"
Wow, poor Grover was just getting it today. The bomb squad called out the all clear and Steve got his Chinese spy, Zi Chen, out of the back of the SWAT vehicle.
"Do you believe me now? Quan knew I would come here, he did this to set me up. To kill me," she snapped.
Steve did believe her, it was Danny who didn't. But Steve didn't have time for that. Despite Grover telling him that Rowan had left her phone in his truck, his heart soared when he saw her name on the screen. He answered it quickly but it wasn't Rowan's voice on the other line.
"I need you to tell me that you know Rowan's exact location at this exact moment."
Why the hell was Wo Fat calling him? How was he making it look like it was Rowan calling him? He was that worried about Rowan that he called him of all people? That didn't bode well, now did it?
"I don't have her exact location right now… why?"
Wo Fat swore, loudly. "Okay, follow up question. You're on an active case, correct?" When Steve confirmed that he followed that question up with: "And does it involve Chinese spies and something called the Black Unicorn?"
Steve mouth ran dry. "How do you know that? How…"
"Son of a bitch it is her."
"Her?" Steve echoed. "What are you…"
"I just got an alert. A Chinese spy turned business man was looking to sell illegal data from a satellite that wasn't supposed to exist…" "Okay but what does that have to do…" "He just put out an APB on the dark web for information about a girl that matches Rowan's description on Oahu, specifically a location for her."
"Well… why the hell would he do that?"
"Well she's not picking up her phone, and my contacts are having a hard time locating her, so I don't know the answer to that question, now do I? But if it involves one of your cases I can be sure of two things. One. The description he put out actually is for Rowan. And Two. She's gone and gotten herself into a sticky situation to help you again."
"I didn't ask her to…"
"No, you never do, do you?" Wo Fat snapped. "Look, I've got my people looking for her. But she doesn't have her phone. I need you to find my sister, McGarrett, before that asshole does something to her."
Steve paused. "What did you just call her?"
"What?"
"Your sister. You called her your sister."
It was one thing to hear Rowan talk about Wo Fat as if he were actually a relative of hers. But it was something else entirely to hear that Wo Fat seconded the claim. It did something to him. Something bad. It made him feel slimy. It made him feel sick.
"Why does… what do you… why do you care?" Wo Fat stuttered and then he cleared his throat. "Does that really matter right now? Rowan's got a Chinese Spy after her and she doesn't have her fucking phone to call for help whether it be for me or for you. Are you going to do something or not?"
"Well, yea, of course, but like… what do you expect me to do? She doesn't have her phone and I don't know where she is…"
"She's on the fucking Island, McGarrett, she slept over at your house last night. How is it this hard to keep tabs on her? I mean, I can mostly keep tabs on her and I'm across the world. You can't be this useless McGarrett… you've had more practice with this than I have and…"
"I get it I get it," Steve snapped. "I'm on it, okay?"
"God. I never should have left her with you. I should have sent them to take her," Wo Fat growled. "If something happens to her McGarrett I'm going to hold you personally responsible."
And then he hung up the phone. Steve sighed, he didn't need the guilt trip from him. He was always worried about Rowan, always looking out for her. A text came through on his phone from Catherine, important intel. He read it over and let the info sink in. He had the distinct feeling like he was getting played. He looked up to Zi Chen and glared darkly.
"What the hell does your Fiancé want with my girl?"
She had the decency to look surprised.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Steve stormed out of the Palace. The goal was to get to the arcade to help SWAT storm the building to get the hard drive back before Quan could sell it. He was going to his truck to get his other gun, cause he'd need more than one. The situation had turned sticky since Zi Chen had come clean about her involvement with Quan. Her ex-fiancé had turned on his country and on her, now she was on the hook for stopping him, for retrieving the lost data or she and her whole family would be… wiped out.
That was a lot to put on Steve. That was a lot to ask him to help with. Especially since his concentration had gone out the window the second Rowan had gone missing and it had gotten worse with Wo's phone call. He might as well've had ADD because he hadn't been able to focus on the case since this had all happened.
"Steven!"
Steve turned and Rowan was coming towards him, sprinting in fact. His heart leapt into his chest. "Ro!" he cried. He opened his arms and Rowan jumped into them.
"I'm so happy to see you!" she whispered into his neck. He had lifted her up by accident, and she forced him to put her feet back to the floor. "We gotta go, now!"
She had grabbed his hand and was trying to tug him back to the Palace but he wasn't having it.
"No, Rowan, what's going on. Wo Fat called me cause a Spy is looking for you. Why is a Chinese spy looking for you? He's wrong, right? It's a mistake. They're looking for a different red-headed girl on Oahu?"
Rowan turned back to him surprised. "Wo heard about that? How did he… you know what? Can we do this inside?"
No sooner did she ask that did the car arrive. It peeled into the parking lot, all smoking tires and screaming breaks. All Steve saw was the gun, aimed at them out the back passenger window. He grabbed Rowan, tugging her out of the way of the oncoming vehicle, throwing her to the ground behind the truck before the driver could start shooting.
Rowan yelped under him, but clung to him as he shielded her with his own body. He fairly had to drag her to the front of the vehicle so she could have some cover. God he hoped his team heard this, because he only had one pistol which was no match for whatever the driver was shooting with, which sounded like it was bigger and faster than Steve's service pistol.
Bullets ricocheted off of his truck and he pressed Rowan further into his chest. "What is happening, Rowan? Why are we getting shot at?"
"Oh god, you're gonna be so mad!"
"Rowan what have you done?"
And then she was showing him. The drive. The drive with all the intel, it was right there in her hand. Somehow, Rowan had gotten a hold of the Black Unicorn's hard drive. That was why the spy wanted her. Rowan had stolen the item he was trying to sell. Steve stared at it and then stared at her. A bullet ricocheted a little too close to them and Steve instinctively pulled Rowan down and to his chest before she could get shot.
From the Palace came cries of his name. His team, they had come, they returned fire, taking Quan's attention off of them. Steve pulled Rowan out of his chest. "What the actual fuck Rowan?"
"Okay so I may have bumped into your bad guy this morning and it fell into my hand…" "—Rowan!" "—Ugh fine! I purposely bumped into him this morning and pickpocketed him, okay?"
"WHAT?!"
"Okay, now before you freak out this is something I learned, LONG before I met Wo Fat," she said. "It went hand in hand with the whole Professional business I had, once I got roped into robbing banks I got pretty good at lifting things off of people…"
"What?!"
"We don't have time for this Steven!"
Steve glanced out to where Quan was pinned behind his own car. More shooters had piled out of the car, one faced in Steve's position, the other's busy keeping the Five-0 Team pinned and unable to get to him for help. He needed to get Rowan out of there. He needed her safely inside the building.
"Okay, you're gonna go for Danny's car…"
"No. I'm allergic to bullets. I'm staying right here."
Steve scowled at her. "Alright… fine… but you'll stay right here though?" he asked. "If I move on them, you'll stay right here?"
"Yes. Promise."
Steve nodded, he didn't want to do this, he didn't want to leave her behind, but he stood up and crossed two cars over so he could have a better vantage point to shoot. But no sooner did he do that, did the shooters pack up and drive away, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared.
It was then Steve noticed the second car. With all the shooting he hadn't noticed that it had driven in behind the first one. But he saw it now. Because there was a man dragging Rowan back to it.
Everyone opened fire, Steve sure as hell did, but the glass was bullet proof and he missed every shot at the tires he aimed at which was entirely not like him. Steve came out of his hiding place, watching in a panic as the car with Rowan in it drove away.
He looked down to his phone and pulled up that fake Rowan number.
He wasn't doing this today. He was going to let her brother try and fix things for once.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Between taking her and getting her to this dingy worn out arcade, the demeanour of the men who took her had changed.
At first they were all, angry and slappy and yelling. Where is the drive, where is the drive? Hidden, HA! But that wasn't what she told them. In fact she stayed blissfully quiet about that. Kept saying she didn't know what they were talking about. But then they got that call. A single phone call and they all backed away from her like she had the plague.
They stopped asking her questions. Stopped slapping her around. But they didn't untie her. No they just kept a very wide berth.
But while the other men seemed intent on staying away from her, they were actually staring at her like she was a bomb about to go off, there was one guy, the guy she pickpocketed that morning, the Chinese rogue spy, who hadn't seemed to get the memo.
But every time he went towards her, the other guy, some white guy Rowan didn't recognize would pull him back and they'd start whispering all over again.
They had bound her to the chair she was in with rope. Rowan had already dislocated her wrist and gotten one hand out, she was currently working on the other.
"I don't care who he is, she took the drive, you don't get your intel without the drive and I don't get my money."
He. A strange phone call followed by even stranger behaviour. Wo. Wo Fat had called. Wo Fat had threatened but it didn't look like it was going to help.
A gun came out. He pointed it in her direction. "She's going to talk…"
The white guy, with the thick Russian accent grabbed him again, aimed the gun away from her. "That man took out the NLM for her. Because a man dared to slap her…"
"Three times." Both men turned to her and Rowan just stared up at them. "Well actually, he slapped me twice and had one of his lackies punch me in the nose. He got a bit upset about that and somehow or other everyone ended up dying."
The man turned back to the Chinese spy and pinned him with a knowing look. "See. Now imagine what he'll do if you shoot her."
"I suspect he'd break out of prison. He'd probably start by killing your family. Then he'd hunt you down. But not with the intent to kill you. He'd probably run you ragged first, make you look over your shoulder for a few years, make you second guess everyone you usually trust, ruin your relationships, your businesses until you're isolated and alone. And then he'd move in for the kill. We call that Black Cat Protocols."
The Chinese spy stared at her. He seemed confused. Or shocked maybe. Rowan shrugged. "Wo Fat has the distinct capability to over react, and he almost always does so if the situation involves me. But he's not what you have to worry about right now."
"Oh no?"
"Nope," Rowan said with a shake of her head. "See the problem is, I'm dating the head of the Hawaiian Task Force that deals with you guys. Five-0, maybe you've heard of them? Immunity and means and all that jazz. Yeah. Y'all kinda took me from him and if you think Wo Fat's bad, you should see what he's like when he's upset, eh."
Rowan blew her air out as she thought about it. The white man backed away from her. It was like a double whamy hitting him. Rowan lifted her hands up and they both stared at her with shock on their faces.
"And besides. I slipped these ropes, forever ago."
Before the spy could react, and just as Steve kicked down the door to the back room screaming: Five-0 like he usually did, Rowan punched spy in front of her right in the crotch as hard as she could. The spy went down and Rowan threw herself out of the way as the shooting started.
Bullets were flying everywhere, Steve was calling her name telling her to stay down. But she couldn't. Sacking the spy hadn't help her, he was on the floor, level with her. Rowan rolled as he tried to grab her, pushing herself up, cringing as bullets whizzed by her and rushed for the back door.
She heard Steve calling for her, she heard Grover shout: "He's going after Rowan," but judging by the amount of volleying she heard between Steve and the bad guys he was pinned and she was on her own.
So Rowan ran, she ran as fast as she could, but when she got to the street she could see that there were no back up cars. Great, Steve had gone in with minimal back up again, also meant there was no one to run to. Still Rowan figured, if she ran far enough, fast enough, if she could duck into a building and then back out she could double back to Steve.
Problem was, Rowan's stamina definitely wasn't there anymore, not after that last head injury. So the spy caught her quickly, slamming her into a wall, and in their struggle they tumbled into the alleyway.
He had grabbed her, his arms encircling around her chest. Rowan pitched forward, he lost his balance and they tumbled head long into another wall, Rowan turned so their shoulders took the hit. She then pitched back slamming the back of her head into his face, which sent him spiralling backward. He hit the next wall back first, Rowan's vision swam, that last hit, that one had really, really hurt.
"Stop struggling and give me the drive."
Though dizzy and suddenly really sensitive to light Rowan did not stop struggling. "If I didn't have it when you took me, I'm not going to have it now."
"Then tell me where the hell it is!"
"Quan!"
He stopped trying to wrestle her and looked up. The gun came up out of nowhere. A woman was standing in front of them, she too was holding a gun. She spoke to the man holding her in a language Rowan didn't understand, Chinese probably.
He was distracted, he said nothing to her, but he wasn't paying attention to Rowan anymore. Time for her signature move.
Rowan planted her feet on the wall opposite her and pushed off it. Her body slammed into the spy's again, her head bashing into his, slamming him into the wall behind her. His gun went off and the woman in front of them cried out and went down.
He finally lost his grip, Rowan hit the ground the asphalt biting into her skin. The spy went down too, slid down the wall grunting in pain, but he was up quicker. He used his foot to force Rowan back to the ground and to hold her there. Then he had the gun pointing down at her, aimed right for her face.
"Tell me where the drive is."
Rowan didn't even get to open her mouth to tell him she wasn't ever going to tell him where it was.
Bang.
The first gunshot got his foot off of her chest and let her roll away from him.
Bang.
The second hit him in the shoulder, forcing him away from her and to turn towards the mouth of the alleyway.
Bang.
The third hit him dead center mass. The spy staggered backward, starting to fumble, starting to collapse. His eyes found Rowan again. The gun in his hand raised. One last shot, one he'd make out of spite.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The last three shot came in rapid fire. Two more taps to the chest and a final, right between the eye. The spy dropped, dead before he hit the pavement. That many shots meant Wo had sent someone, someone who didn't give a shit about warning shots like cops did.
"Rowan?"
Steve. Oh wow, that one was Steve. The last person to riddle a man with bullets for her had been a deadly criminal with no morals. Steve had done it despite his morals. He and Wo Fat were quite similar and it would distress both of them to realize that. She glanced to the other person in the alleyway with her, the woman who had tried to save her, maybe.
"Steve… Steve… she got…"
"You okay? You okay though?" he asked coming towards her.
Rowan nodded though she was lying. She was purposely avoiding both bodies that were flanking her because she didn't want to vomit Her head was pounding, she couldn't quite look up cause the sun was killing her and her vision was getting hazy… and doubled.
Steve went to the woman, the one who had tried to stop the spy. "Danny, I need an ambulance, alleyway off Queen and Alakea… yeah, no I got Rowan, she's okay but Chen got shot."
Rowan put her hand to the back of her head, her fingers coming back wet and sticky. Oh no. No that was not good. She should not have told him she was okay.
"Steven… we have a problem…"
Steve looked down at her, as she looked at her hands. "Bleeding… you're bleeding… were you shot? Where are you hit?" he was crouching in front of her, his hands on her shoulder his eyes wide in horrified shock, looking her over for any sign of injury.
"I hit my head again."
Steve looked down to her reddened fingertips and swore, pulling her head down to his chest so he could look at the back of her head.
"It hurts Steve."
She must have blacked out after saying that because the next thing she was aware of, she was in his arms as he carried her towards the street shouting for a medic.
He got her into the ambulance waiting for her and Rowan blinked her eyes up at him. The light behind him lit his profile up like a halo. Her knight in shining white armour. Her Steven McGarrett.
He was talking to the EMTs they were talking turns looking at her, she had something important to tell him but the pounding in her head was drowning it out.
Steve glanced back behind him and a sudden panic came over her. "Aren't you coming with me?"
Pain crossed his features. "I have to…. I have so much to…"
Rowan shook her head though it hurt to do so. "It's okay. I'll be okay."
"When I'm done, I'll be there. Okay? I'll meet you there, I promise."
Rowan nodded the EMTs lifted her gurney into the back and that panic came back to her but for a different reason "Hey! Cargo pants," she called to Steve who was watching her, his heart in his eyes.
"Yes I know, I only always wear cargo pants."
"No Steve… your… in your…. Cargo pants. Just… just… Cargo pants."
But Steve didn't get it. He said he'd meet her at the hospital, then she was boarded up into the ambulance and the doors shut behind her.
And that was the last thing she remembered.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
It had been a rough day. He had lied to Zi Chen. He personally had to call Wo Fat to tell him that Rowan was in the hospital again and he had been less than kind about the turn of events, going as far to tell him that he was a complete and utter waste of space with the managing abilities of a monkey. And Rowan once more had a concussion and bandages wrapped around her head.
When Zi Chen had woken up from her surgery he had said the hard drive was destroyed. Rowan, who had realized just what she had and what it meant, had mulched it, put it down the garbage disposal at his house. Steve showed Zi Chen the proof, said he couldn't get the intel off of it. He even gave her the destroyed bits and pieces of the hard drive to take back home with her. Proof that her mission was a success, in some way, so her country didn't punish her or her family.
But that had been a lie.
Steve had found the hard drive, exactly where Rowan had said it would be. He just hadn't gotten it right away when she was trying to tell him. He blamed the oncoming concussion for the miscommunication.
All that time and it had been in the back pocket of his cargo pants. She must have slipped it in when they were in the shootout. He had been so frantic about losing Rowan that he hadn't even thought to check his own pockets.
Steve sat beside Rowan's bed, tired, but refusing to move. He smiled at her, remembering his surprise at finding the hard drive in his pocket. His brave, smart little pickpocket. He was going to lecture her so hard when she woke up.
"Lieutenant Commander McGarrett."
Steve turned, Vice Admiral Graham Rhodes, the man who had the nerve to look him in the eye and tell him that he had no idea what Steve was talking about that morning, stood staring at him. He had his cap in his hands, his uniform was nicely pressed all his stars and medals were shiny.
Steve didn't bother to get up. He didn't even smile. He merely went into his pocket and pulled out the flash drive. The one Catherine put all that info onto for him.
"Catherine Rollins recovered the info for you. It's all there."
He then turned back to Rowan. As far as Steve was concerned the Vice Admiral had been dismissed but he didn't see it that way.
"And the hard drive?"
"Erased and then put down a garbage disposal. I returned it to Agent Chen… or well… the pieces of it we got back anyway."
"And she believed we were unable to retrieve the data?"
Steve nodded. "Have you met Rowan?" he asked, it was a rhetorical question, because of course he hadn't. "Trust me. Meet her once and you will one hundred percent believe that she's the exact type of spiteful that would shove a hard drive containing Government Secrets into a garbage disposal."
"You've done your country a great service, Commander. We now know what the enemy knows, and we can adjust accordingly. Job well done. Uh… to the both of you."
The Admiral gestured to Rowan's sleeping form. Steve's eyes lingered on her again.
"Three innocent people lost their lives, and my girl cracked her head open again over this one," he growled. He turned his disapproving glare onto the man shrinking away from Rowan's bed and back towards the door. "Make it count."
To his credit, the Admiral nodded to him. "Sorry about the runaround earlier. Nothing personal."
Steve once again said nothing. He just continued to stare at Rowan and her beautiful resting face. If she were awake, if Danny were here, a sassy remark would have been thrown his way, but Steve had nothing to offer him.
Luckily this time the man actually left. With a soft shake of his head, Steve let out a deep sigh and sunk into his chair. He just wanted Rowan to wake up. Just to tell him or show him that she was okay. He just wanted her to be okay, was that so much to ask?
And like she was answering him her eyes opened, slits of cold blue staring back at him. Steve straightened in his seat, leaning forward and towards her, he put a hand out as she rolled over to face him. She reached out for his extended hand and he gripped her tightly suddenly smiling. He was between laughing and crying he was so happy to see that she was awake.
She blinked her eyes leisurely. "Did you find it?"
"Yeah, yeah, I did… are you okay?" he asked.
She closed her eyes as if she were thinking about it, as if she were mentally cataloguing all the pain in her body before she opened her eyes and said: "I think so. Do I…"
"Have another concussion? Yeah. You also lacerated the back of your head."
Rowan groaned and Steve shook his head at her. "Yeah, well someone decided to head butt a Chinese spy."
"I forgot my head was too fragile for head butts, okay?" she shot back she shifted again to get comfortable and Steve moved closer to her. "Have you slept?" Steve shook his head softly and Rowan scowled. "Why not?"
"Too worried."
"About me, or about more nightmares?" Steve faltered and from that she knew the answer. "Do you want to talk about it?" When Steve shook his head again tears formed in Rowan's eyes. "You still don't trust me?"
Steve put a hand to her shoulder as she began to quake. "No, Rowan… it's not… I just… I don't want to…"
"Would it help if I told you more about me?"
Steve's eyebrows rose up his face, Rowan rarely volunteered information. "You'd do that?" he asked.
She nodded. "I can tell you about the accident if you like…"
The accident was tied to so many stories, so many unanswered question in her past. Steve nodded and she slowly and leisurely blinked her eyes.
"When I was 18, and we were young and impetuous, my brother got me into drag racing. Which I know is illegal, I'm not doing it now so stop looking at me like that," she warned and Steve fixed his face accordingly and went back to listening. "It started off small you know, a race here or there, but I was good… really good… and Trevor… he liked to gamble. We came up with the Professional scam after he lost a few races and needed me to get him out of trouble with a debt. After that he did it on purpose."
"It was easy. Trevor would lose a bunch of races, eventually lose a car to them and then he'd call me and I come and 'bail him out of it'. The con was I'd show up in our parent's beamer and pretend to be stupid. I'd offer to race to pay off his debts, and lose. Then I'd offer both his pink slip and mine as a wager against all of theirs. And almost everyone would take the bet and I'd smoke them. Sometimes I'd let them buy the cars back, for those who needed more time, I'd send the cars down to a garage, owner was a friend of a friend, he'd give me a cut when payments came in. Sometimes they'd just be chopped up or sold off. Sometimes that trick would take months to set up, we were playing long odds essentially. We took our trick all through BC, Alaska and even as far as into Alberta. We were like ghosts, no one ever knew our real names, we'd go missing from the drag racing scene for months at a time, and we always raced with different cars. They started calling me the Professional. I got a real rush out of it."
"So you crashed your car during a drag race?"
"Uh… well… no… not really. So… when I was twenty, I stopped skating pairs with Trevor. It was a big deal, I had always only skated with him and without him… uh… I just took off. And he got it in his head that he… that he was holding me down, that he was my lead boots or something. Which I never said to him, but you know it got reported in the papers so… you know I got it. But instead of telling me he was upset that I was doing better without him, he started racing with his own car. Problem was… Trevor wasn't as good at racing as I was, so he just kept loosing and loosing. So, he tells me that he lost his car in a race, and asks if I can help him get it back. Which I did. The whole Professional bit and everything. It was an epic race, those assholes had no idea what hit them. Problem was, he owed a lot more than a car and somehow I ended up getting recruited to be a getaway driver for a ring of thieves."
Steve's hand gripped hers.
"That doesn't make sense Rowan, how do you just out of no where get recruited as a get away driver?"
Rowan blinked her eyes, she thought carefully before continuing again. "Okay, uhm, I got pulled out of my training session because this guy was with my brother and Trevor looked super uncomfortable and his nose was bleeding. We talked at the rink side, he told me my brother owed him well over 3 million dollars, and, like, I was making money skating but neither of us had that kind of change, and he said that he'd consider letting my brother out of his debt if I did some driving for him. Said he liked the way I raced the night before, and thought I'd be good at it. The driving turned out to be as a getaway driver for various bank robberies."
"I knew it was a bad idea, but I loved my brother and he needed my help, so… so I agreed. I went along with it, but one job turned into one more and then another and another and I… I was really liking it. Trevor wanted out but I had found something I was good at. Something not useless. I know that sounds stupid, but I was never good at school, my whole family is geniuses and then there was me who barely made it out of high school. All I was good at was skating, singing and baking, none of which were a viable career for me. And well… yeah… I just liked it. It was there they taught me how to pickpocket, it was there that my sociopathic tendencies really helped us. Then there was the murder."
Steve's heart stopped beating, Rowan stopped talking and that sentence just hung there.
"They were always really careful, you know? They had never killed anyone before. But this one heist went sideways and they shot two tellers, a hostage and a cop, the cop… the cop died. That's when Trevor and I knew we had to get out."
"We made a call to CSIS, told them we had info, and we got this hot shot from Ottawa who got in a car chase with us once and I out maneuvered the hell out of him. Like it was bad, I humiliated him and he was all for revenge. He did not like me. Like at all. But he took a shine to Trevor and he agreed to help us if we testified."
"They made me agree to do one more heist, one more heist where they would catch them in the act. And I was like, fine, I can do that. The problem after that was that the boss got word that we might be turning snitch and held Trevor back. Said if his men got arrested they'd kill my brother. So I warned Malcolm, he's the CSIS Agent that was helping us, and he said to go through everything as planned, don't let on and that he'd notify me when they got Trevor out so I could drive them into the trap. The next heist I got everyone in the car, the cops were chasing us, and I was just waiting to for the text. I got it, and crashed the car purposely. Rolled us four times. Killed everyone in the car except me."
"But you killed your skate career and you got really hurt… why… why would you do that to yourself?"
She turned her sorrowful blue eyes to him and Steve's breath left his body. "Because I'm a horrible person. My brother begged me to get us out. I had more than paid back the debt but I didn't want to leave. When Malcolm asked why we had stayed so long if we weren't forced to be there, I was forced to admit just what kind of monster I am. That I stayed because… well… because it was the only thing I was good at. I thought if… if I killed myself in that car accident… if I killed us all, no one would come after Trevor and I wouldn't be a burden anymore."
She actually thought that? She actually thought she was a terrible person? How could his wonderful, sweet, loving little girl think that?
"Rowan…"
"Either way it didn't work. The guy in charge… his father and his twin sister had a major grudge out for me and Trevor after that. And for the next…. Uh… almost two years we ended up having to be in witness protection… almost a full year in a cast and another six months of physio. But that was how Malcolm and Trevor met…"
"Malcolm is Trevor's…?"
"Boyfriend. Well Fiancé… he was supposed to be getting engaged when I left. I had been writing a song to sing at their wedding."
Steve nodded, he helped Rowan dry her tears as he smiled softly and sadly at her. "You're not a horrible person. You're not a monster. And I don't want you to ever think like that again, okay?"
Rowan nodded. "Can you…" oh here it came, she was going to ask him to tell her about Freddy. "Can you just get in bed with me. I really need a hug and… and I'd feel better if you were here…"
Despite knowing the nurses didn't want him in her bed, he hoped the gate and settled himself down beside her where she snuggled into his side and he held her close.
"You know… I was thinking…" he whispered. Rowan mumbled against his side and he smiled. "I was thinking that Freddy… Freddy… he would have really liked you."
Rowan lifted her head out of his side to stare at him. "Really? You think so?"
"Oh, I know so. He would have loved how you keep me on my toes, he would have laughed at a guy like me ending up with a princess…"
"A princess?"
"Yeah, one of those glitzy glamorous girls who didn't understand rough and tumble guys, and only wanted us in theory cause we're pretty to look at and they think they can domesticate us," he said. "You're not all like them, but you're mostly a princess."
Rowan smiled up at him and Steve's breathing hitched. Concern flashed over her features and he found himself dangerously close to tears.
"Yeah, he would have loved you…"
And then the rest of the story just sort of tumbled out.