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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hey guys, so this is it. At the end of this episode (which is in two chapters) Steve and Rowan will be unofficially together. In their minds alone, they're pretty freaking together otherwise, oh you'll see what I mean. I have also made the executive decision as to which chapter I'll be giving you for the anniversary chapter. As much as I'd love to give you the wedding chapter, it's got way too many spoilers in it for me to share it with you guys just yet. But I have gone for their proposal instead, which is even cuter okay?! I'm really excited for you to read it. Anyway, I'll see you on Wednesday!

Chapter 108

Dust settled.

Three bodies lay in a circle of debris, blood and death. The one who had been tied to the chair was dead, he was always dead, there wasn't anything she could do to help him out, and she had long since stopped trying to help him.

But it was the other two bodies she cared about.

In this version, one was already dead, the other… and the other… well he survives initially but he's not going to survive for long after this.

Rowan stood at the epicenter of the aftermath bile rising up into her throat. She waved a hand and everything set up again. Steve on one side, Danny on the other, the beeping starting. She took Danny and made him crouch down.

This time when the bomb went off, Steve was blown back. Danny was… crushed under a goddamn beam.

Screaming in frustration Rowan waved her hand and rewound it again.

Crouching didn't work. Moving him back didn't work it put the rebar through his lower spine, move to the right and he's flattened by a different stone slab that comes from above, move him forward and the rebar goes through his neck. Get them out the door and both of them are crushed to death.

Rowan ran a hand over her face. How long had she been playing with this time line? How long had she been reliving it, watching each variation trying so hard to find some way to fix it so both Steve and Danny survived?

Rowan sighed. She took Danny and moved him one step to the left.

That time when the bomb went off the rebar went through his stomach. Way off to the side. He didn't die immediately but she could see down the line, that pink string for Danny had stripes of black in almost all of the forks after that. But there was one, one fork off that lead to him being alive. She could trust Steve to take the down the path that lead to them surviving, right?

This time when she watched the scene play through, she focus on the man in the chair. The bomb erupted from behind him. She wasn't sure where and that wasn't the point. She focused on his face, watched the blast hit is body, watched the debris and shrapnel destroy him. He wasn't doing too good before the blast and there was a slim chance of survival even if the blast wasn't going to hit him. She forced herself to keep watching, her eyes following his body, watching as blood and bone flew, trying recognize him, trying to know why he was so damn important that someone would blow him up. But the bomb went off, the dust settled and she couldn't watch anymore.

Rowan came awake, her stomach already complaining. She rushed to the washroom, hoping to be as quiet as possibly. She threw up until she felt better and then sat back on the tile floor. Knowing without any certainty that it was today. This was all going to go down today.

Forcing herself up she returned to her room and picked up her phone. She wanted to call Steve but… well… he didn't want her help. He didn't believe in her dreams and she knew if she called him now he'd ask her to come over and she didn't want to cave to him again no matter how much she wanted to see him.

So she called Danny.

"Rowan… it's six in the morning… why…"

"Don't go to work today."

Danny went quite on the other side and then said: "Why?"

"Because it's… it's today…" Rowan said. "It's going to happen today."

"Are you like… one hundred percent sure? Do you know where the bomb is? Do you know when it goes off? Do you know what the case entails? Do you know…"

"Now I don't know all of that, I just know it's today…"

"Okay, look, you know nothing except a bomb is going to go off in a parking garage…"

"Or a basement of a building…"

"So now it's not even a parking garage?"

"I don't know, I thought there were cars, but now there aren't any and there's this small like… storage type area…"

"God Rowan we don't… I don't… this is getting to be way too much. There's nothing definitive about this there's nothing concrete."

Rowan struggled to reign in all the fear and the tears and the sudden urge to scream at him. She could practically feel all the strings vibrating around her, tightening their holds on Danny and Steve's lives and her heart. There was no stopping this now. This was it. Now she had to take preventative measures to minimize the damage.

"Alright, fine, if you're not going to listen to me… then… just… take one step to the left, okay? One regular step to the left."

"What are you…"

"Just say you will. When the time comes, take one step to the left."

"Alright, fine, I'll take one step to the left, better?"

No but she'd have to take it. "I guess."

"Good, now go back to sleep." And then Danny hung up on her.

Except Rowan didn't want to go back to sleep. She didn't want to see that stupid explosion again, she didn't want to be surrounded by dust clouds and blood anymore. But she didn't want to wake up Chin who had been up with her twice this week with her nightmares.

Especially when the person she really wanted to see was Steve. That time when she picked up the phone, that time when she dialed Steve's number butterflies filled her stomach and then kicked up into a wild tornado when he finally picked up, his voice low and husky from sleep.

"Hey babe, are you okay?"

"Yeah… I just… uhm… I…"

She heard Steve moving, heard him get out of bed and leave behind the sleepy murmurings of someone else who had been in bed with him. Ah, he had been with Catherine last night.

"Oh… you're with… I'm sorry…"

"No, hey, hey, no, it's okay," he said his voice slightly louder but still a whisper. "What's going on, did you have another dream? Do you need me to come over?"

He still thought she was living with Alex so that was a hard no. "No, I didn't. I'm fine, I just… miss you," she whispered.

She didn't have to see him to know he was smirking, she could feel it through the phone. "I miss you too."

"Uhm… maybe after Catherine goes home we can go for breakfast?" Rowan asked.

"You wanna go now?"

"But you're with…"

Steve blew out a raspberry at her. "I don't care. You wanna go now? I'll come pick you up."

"Naw I'll come get you," Rowan said quickly. "Or I can meet you?"

"No, it's alright, I don't mind you picking me up," Steve said. "ETA?"

"Uhm… thirty minutes maybe?"

"Kay, see you soon," he said and then hung up. Rowan couldn't help but smile. There were so many terrible dynamics between her and Steve, the relationship was far from healthy, but she had such a hard time stepping away. All she wanted was Steve. No matter how mad he made her, or what he did to her… he was all she wanted. And she really, really didn't want him to go to work today!

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve went to breakfast with Rowan, leaving Catherine in his bed with a note to meet them at the site of their next op. He had tried to tell Rowan that the only reason that Catherine was in his bed was cause she had gotten drunk last night while he was trying to tell her that he was done seeing her. He had let her sleep it off in his bed cause her new apartment was sketchy and he didn't want to leave her on the couch in case she had to throw up, and he wasn't putting her in Rowan's room so that was why she was in the bed. Problem was, as soon as he tried to explain she shut him down. They had promised each other they wouldn't talk about what they did with their other people, she had reminded him. So he had let it go.

Rowan had opted to sit beside him in the booth, nestled into his side, oddly quiet. He figured it was because she knew he had just been with Catherine. Or maybe it was cause she hadn't slept, the bags had all but taken over the space under her eyes.

But while Steve knew she wasn't sleeping. He also knew that Rowan hadn't been dreaming about the explosion as frequently as before. Or at least, she wasn't calling him or Danny about it. Maybe it wasn't going to happen anymore.

But it was when he announced that he needed to go, after he paid because he wasn't going to have her accuse him of cheaping out on their dates again, that things got weird.

She had grabbed him, she had held him tight and started to cry. He had asked her over and over what was wrong and the only answer she could give him was: I'm scared. And that scared him. She wouldn't tell him what it was, she wouldn't admit she had a dream, but she was scared, scared about what was going to happen on this next mission. But she wouldn't tell him why, so he had no idea what was going on.

Until they got to the building and Danny shook his head. "Nope, no I'm not going down there."

Steve glared at him. He was already nervous he didn't need this. "Okay, just because Rowan's had dreams…"

"Yes and she said it's happening today. So I'm not going down there," Danny growled. Fuck, really? Why hadn't she told him that? "You can go explode by yourself."

"Look, the perimeter was secured, there's no one here, we cleared all the cars," Steve said. "This tip, it's a solid tip. We need to act on this."

Danny sighed at him. Danny knew what happened if Steve when down without him. He couldn't get out on his own. Steve would die trapped and alone. Danny didn't want that to happen. But maybe Steve was right. Maybe Rowan was wrong. Rowan had been wrong before right?

He followed after Steve hating himself, praying that Rowan was wrong, that the bomb was going to go off in a different basement parking lot of a different building.

Steve immediately felt better with Danny by his side. He ignored the fact that Rowan had told him repeatedly that it happened when he and Danny were together. Still, this was his job it was risk he had to take… even though he would rather risk his own life and not Danny's. Maybe he should tell Danny to stay back.

But Steve didn't voice his concerns. He was too afraid to. Instead they all went down their separate stairwells. He and Danny in one, Lou and S.W.A.T. in another, Kono and Chin in the far one, Catherine on her own with extra S.W.A.T. in the other. They waited for Grover to be ready, waited for Steve's count and then burst into the empty parking garage where they found literally nothing, not even cars, the whole place was empty.

Panic rolled around in Steve's stomach, he wouldn't even look Danny in the eye. "Maybe it's just me, but aren't there supposed to be guns in a gun deal? Maybe a gun dealer or something like that?" he asked. Well at least he wasn't throwing around the Rowan's always right stuff. He should honestly just get Danny a fucking tee-shirt with that printed on it so he could whip it out whenever he needed to… oh or a button.

Danny was very proud of himself for not shitting on Steve's parade, and though every synapse of his body was screaming run before Rowan's predictions come true he stayed firmly rooted to Steve's side because Rowan's words still echoed in his head. Without you he doesn't make it at all, blows himself up in like five minutes.

That was Steven fucking McGarrett to a tee.

"This doesn't make sense. This is where the deal was supposed to go down," Steve reminded him. Yes, but that tip came from a criminal they put in jail. Yeah he informed when he got info in return for a lighter sentence, but… you know… he was still a criminal… who had been put into jail because of them. Danny opened his mouth and Steve snapped. "No. Okay. Look, this is not a Rowan's right situation. Cause she could never confirm what case that bomb was tied to, what time of day, or anything important all she said was that we were together in a parking garage."

Danny gestured to where they currently were, which was together… in a parking garage… and Steve just scowled and turned away and to Grover who was coming towards them, flanked by his S.W.A.T. boys like he was heading a freaking goose formation, all vee-shaped and shit.

Under his breath Steve muttered: "I'm not living my life in fear of her visions unless she can give me exact details."

"Looks like you boys got some bad intel," Grover said to him. Steve tried not to be embarrassed.

"Well, maybe they caught wind we were coming and changed the venue," Chin offered and Steve almost smiled. Yes. At least someone had his back seeing as Danny was saying fuck all and seemed to be eyeing every shadow and every door out of there.

"Or maybe the time got moved up and we're late to the party," Steve offered.

Kono, ever the diplomat said: "Okay. Well, we'll canvass the area and see if anyone saw anything."

Steve turned to Catherine, and tried very hard to not make the next request awkward. "Alright. Catherine, do me a favour, call the ATF, alright? See if anything's come up on the radar."

Steve hadn't asked Cath for a favour since he had broke things off with her. Mainly cause the asking of a favour was kind of a precursor to sex or a date or something, and well… he had kinda pulled back from Catherine since establishing that he wanted Rowan and only Rowan he just hadn't told her that cause they were working together and, if he was going to go with Danny's descriptors, he was a Neanderthal idiot.

"Roger that," Catherine said with a flirtatious smile on her face, which meant she probably took that the wrong way but Steve didn't have time to deal with that right at that moment.

Danny waited for Steve to catch his eye before he pinned him with a judging glare. He caught it, and looked away. Good. Feel bad you putz. What the hell was he thinking, the Neanderthal, half flirting with Catherine when he was hellbent on figuring things out with Rowan.

"Thanks for the backup Lou," Steve said because he didn't want to deal with Danny.

"You got it," Lou said as he and his men turned away. "Alright fellas, let's pack it up."

Danny and Steve fell in step with one another and then they truly were all alone in that parking garage. Danny was trying to steer Steve towards the nearest exit.

"Maybe they moved up the time," Danny echoed not buying it for a second. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Okay… what… what did you want me to say?" Steve asked turning to glare at him.

"I unno… maybe that you were wrong?" Danny offered. He'd love to hear that. Steve rolled his eyes and looked away. He hadn't been wrong he had just hadn't be right. "How about, that we should've vetted this thing before we wasted everybody's time? Maybe listening to a convicted felon is not the right move. How about, come on Danny, let's get out of here before the place blows? I don't know, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, you know?"

"Okay… let me tell you something. That son of a bitch, he's laughing in his cell right now," Steve growled. Yes probably but that wasn't the big concern here. Still Steve wouldn't move. He kept pivoting, searching, as if the gun runners they were told about were going to pop out from behind the columns all like: "Ah you got me!"

Steve finally turned away, heading towards the exit as Danny followed him. "Just so you know, this is the same thing as admitting you were wrong."

No it wasn't cause he didn't say the words. They were heading back to the service tunnel they came down, Steve was in the process of throwing out some lame retort like yeah, okay, when they heard a phone ring.

Steve immediately turned. It was neither of theirs. But a phone was ringing in the maintenance closet right next to him. Danny tensed, no he didn't like this at all.

"You hear that?" Steve asked turned to Danny again.

They got into their ready positions, and Steve opened the door letting Danny move in first with his gun raised. All that was there was a man tied to a chair with a bag over his with duct tape over his mouth. He was dressed sharply, like an accountant, and there was a phone ringing in his pocket.

Danny got in close. "He's alive but barely."

Steve ripped the duct tape off of his mouth. "What's your name, buddy?" he asked quickly. "Who did this to you?" He was getting a bad feeling about this.

The man, though heavily beaten up merely shook his head. He uttered a single word.

Bomb.

Steve didn't even get to say that Rowan was right. Danny didn't get to say I told you so. Steve didn't have time to duck, but Danny, Danny had time to do one thing. As soon as he heard the word Bomb he took one step to the left.

And then it went off.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Chin's head was fuzzy, his ears were ringing he was all sorts of dazed but when he realized it was Kono asking if he was okay and trying to pull him up he had to act like he wasn't stunned by this at all.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said to her when he got a chance and then looked around at all the chaos. Damn, he and Kono were lucky to be out of there alive.

"I've got a collapsed building," Grover said into his mic. "Address: 1085 Ahua Street. Expedite fire and rescue. I need all available units"

It was at that point that Chin realized that his phone was ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and as soon as he saw the contact on his phone he remembered. He remember why all of this seemed to familiar

"Rowan?"

"They're down there," she said and Chin blinked his eyes confused. "The building collapsed right? Well it was a bomb, and they're in the parking garage dream I was having. It's happening. IT'S HAPPENING!"

"Parking garage dream?" he echoed. God damn that was no good at all. Beside him Kono swore.

"Shit they're down there?" Kono asked in a soft tone and Chin nodded. Panic swept across all of their faces but it was Catherine who jumped into action and it was up to Grover to stop her from doing something stupid. Rowan was still talking.

"Okay, look, they were in some maintenance closet last, Steve's okay, just a few cuts and bruises, maybe a burst ear drum or two. Danny's going to be hurt. Like. Really bad. So you gotta get people there fast!"

"Okay Rowan… slow down. Are you sure this is the right thing, cause… like… you haven't dreamed it that much, only a couple times, usually they get more frequent…"

"I lied Chin!" Rowan screamed and he fell silent. "I've been dreaming every night, but I… I figured it out. I figured out how to pause, how to see the strings, how to pull different options and see which ones work. And none of them work. Actually one works and I don't know if I set them on that path. Please Chin. I'm right. I know I'm right. They're down there. Danny's hurt. Get help. Get lots and lots of help before McGarrett tries to blow them out and kills them both."

"Okay, calm down, I believe you. But you have to believe in us too. Can you… can you tell me anything? About their position, about how they're going to get out? You said McGarrett was going to blast himself out?"

"It doesn't work though you gotta stop him Chin. You gotta make contact. Catherine makes a thing, have Catherine make a thing," Rowan cried.

"Okay, okay, Catherine will make a thing, and I'll keep you posted. We got this, just… just don't do anything rash."

He hung up the phone and turned. Turned to where Catherine was frantically trying to move rubble to get to him.

"Alright guys. Call in a rescue team. Get Catherine away. And get a medic here stat. She says they're injured."

Catherine turned. "Is Steve really badly hurt?"

Chin didn't want to say which one it was, he didn't want to worry them further so he shrugged his shoulders and hoped that that was enough. It evidently was, because they all went their separate ways to get everything done. It was up to them to save Steve and Danny for once.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

It took a lot for Steve to pull himself up. Everything hurt but he was pretty sure that nothing was broken and he wasn't mortally wounded. Well, his body wasn't, his pride sure was. His ears were ringing, he was covered in dust. He kept his hands over his ears trying to will them to stop hurting. He coughed the dust out of his lungs but it didn't help. He grabbed his pocket flashlight and used it to look around at the damage the bomb had caused. Trying to establish if there was a way out. Beams and metal creaked around him, his ears were still killing but Danny could only think of one thing.

Rowan was going to kill him.

And Danny was going to…. Danny. Where was Danny?!

"Danny?" Steve called out into the dark silence. He should have heard him by now? Unless he was unconscious. He forced himself to his feet, forced his eyes to clear so he could see through the hazy dust clouds.

He screamed his name even louder, not sure if he could be heard over the own ringing in his ears. Danny had been right by him when the bomb went off, his ears might have been ringing too. God he was never going to live this down. He was wrong about the tip, he was wrong about Rowan's dream. There was just so much he had been wrong about, and now there was a body to his left, a body crushed by a giant slab of concrete, a body that he didn't have to touch to know it was dead.

"Danny?" he whispered in a soft voice. Rowan had said that Danny would die alone in this blast. That was what she said, what if… what if that had been what happened. He… he'd never forgive himself if he had let that happen.

But as Steve got closer he could see a bit of the guy's face. It wasn't Danny. It so wasn't Danny. Thank god. But he had to find him soon. So he pushed himself foreword, trying to navigate the rubble. Calling for Danny and listening, hoping to hear an answer through the ringing in his ears.

He pulled out his phone, no service. That meant he couldn't call for help. But his team would have realized where Danny and Steve most likely were and if they didn't Rowan would have alerted them by now.

The sound of coughing hit his ears. He looked to the guy trapped under the rubble, but his eyes weren't open and his mouth wasn't moving. It had to be Danny.

Steve turned. "Danny?!" he called and a hand raised up from beneath what had to be a mountain of rubble. Steve had never moved so fucking fast in his life.

He moved, tripping over rubble, struggling to get to his friend. For every call of Danny's name, Danny answered. First with a reply of Steve's name, and then the rest was just grunting and coughing. As soon as he got close to him, Steve grabbed his hand and held onto him tight, not just so Danny would know that he was there, but because Steve needed to feel his pulse under his fingertips. He needed to know that Danny was alive.

Whether or not he was okay, remained to be seen.

"Hey. I got you buddy. I'm right here. I got you," he said.

And he got: "I told you so," in a slow wheeze right back at him. Steve almost wanted to leave him under the rubble.

But he couldn't really do that. So he dug Danny out, refusing to see the look of utter anguish on his face.

"My leg's pinned," Danny said and Steve could see that but he let Danny talk. "And I think I broke a rib."

Steve struggled with the hunk of column that had landed on Danny, he struggled to move it but it wouldn't go. Danny was obviously trying to talk himself to distraction cause he wouldn't shut up.

"Where's the other guy? Huh?"

"Dead," Steve answered. He gave up on the beam and reached for Danny's hand. "Okay, listen to me. This thing it too heavy. I can't lift it." Danny answered him with a grunt. Steve didn't know what that meant and he was starting to panic a bit himself so he forced himself to keep talking to calm both of them down. "We got no cell service here, so I can't call for help. I'm gonna go get something to give me leverage, get this thing off your leg. Okay, I'm gonna be right back, I promise."

Yes. Steve would never leave a man behind again. This was not going to be a repeat of Freddy.

Before he could move away though, Danny's grip tightened. "Alright. Whoa. Just… don't go just yet."

"Danny, relax, it's gonna be okay."

"Is it okay?" Danny asked that trademark sass back. Well at least this hadn't taken his sass from him. "Because I'm in a confined space with a bunch of concrete on top of me and given my present condition, that's not the best situation for me. You know what I mean?"

Steve nodded. "Right, right, claustrophobia." How had he forgotten that? Danny nodded in agreement. Around them small trickles of tiny debris began to rain down, the beams acting as a roof groaned. Steve needed to move fast. "Okay. Take a deep breath, okay?"

"That's no good. It makes it worse."

Fuck. Okay… what would Rowan do?

"Danny, I gotta get this off your leg. Alright? You understand me?" he snapped. That was most certainly not what Rowan would do but it was all that came to Steve's mind.

"Alright. Okay. Alright. Carter's behind the plate. We got Santana… Hernadez playing first. Backman's second base."

"What the hell are you doing?" Steve asked worried that Danny had just gone insane.

"Helps me relax," Danny answered, eyes closed and already slipping back into it. "I just recite the '86 Mets lineup. It helps me relax." He devolved into chuckling out the last sentence over and over like a broken record and Steve was a little worried that maybe this time he had gone crazy.

"That's good. No that's good," and then he laughed with Danny, smiling, glad he'd have something to keep him from panicking. "I'll be right back."

And then he finally let go of Danny's hand and went in search of something to help him get that beam off his leg. With Danny's ramblings echoing around him, reminding him that they were both alive, Danny was still alive, and Steve immediately went to work. He could get them out of there. Rowan wasn't always right.