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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday my lovely readers! This chapter is a little longer than the last one and it's very interested. You guys get to see how far Rowan's network really goes. And you get to see Rowan and Steve being adorable, which is always a plus! The next 7 chapters are going to be harrowing. There are some cute pieces but for the most part the next seven chapters are nothing but chaos and action. But it's going to end wonderfully I promise! Don't forget to review and tell me what you think!

Chapter 113

By the time Rowan got back to Steve's place he had called her five more times, making it a total of at least 12 calls.

She shot off a quick text.

Sorry. I was driving. What's up?

She put her phone in her pocket and waited. If it was really all that important, he would just call her again and this time she'd pick up. Instead she heard the screech of tires and the sound of gravel flying everywhere which included pinging against her car. She scowled, why the hell was he peeling into their driveway? If he had chipped the paint on her GTO he was paying to get it redone again. She may make him wax her car just to have him shirtless and sweating in the drive way. She would just sit on the porch with an iced tea watching him work up a sweat.

Any excuse to get him in a shower with her.

She stepped out onto the porch in time to have Steve barrel into her, practically bowling her over. She might have fallen if he hadn't wrapped her up in a tight hug, his nails digging into her, pressing her deep into his chest as he panted into her neck.

What the hell had happened to upset him so deeply?

"What's the matter, are you okay?" she asked noting that it was Danny's car in the driveway, with Danny and Amber stepping out of the car.

Danny waved to them. "See I told you she was here!" he called. "I'm going to PT!"

Rowan waved them off and then pet Steve's back.

"You're here," he whispered. "Thank god, you're here."

Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. "Where the hell did you think I went?"

"The void, you opened it, I felt it. Just like all those other times you tried to get home," he said. He pulled his head out of her neck to stare down at her. He looked traumatized, distraught, there were tears in his bright blue eyes and she realized three things at that moment.

1. he had felt her electric attack on the tiger shark and 2. He thought she had travelled into the void so he couldn't tell the difference between the twinges and 3. he was absolutely terrified.

He looked her over, his hands gripping her shoulders, no doubt checking her for injuries. Rowan put her hands out and gripped his sides, as soon as she did Steve's head bowed to hers. She knew better then to dig into his ribs like that, she knew what that reminded him of, she knew what that did to him, but she wanted to remind him that she was there, to maybe soothe some of those fears reflected in his eyes.

She did her job a little too well.

When he finally looked up he was angry. So very angry. "Why did you open the void? Where were you going? What happened? Where you in danger?"

She had been in danger. Very much so in danger. She was looking a very angry Tiger Shark in the eye and had she not pulled an electrical current from who knows where it might have bit her right in half. Chin had said she had basically become a giant eel, but that electrical current also scared everything else on the reef away too. Rowan had no idea she even had that power, let alone whether or not she could wield it again. It was like the void had answered her frantic internal cry for help so maybe it was a one-off thing.

And she couldn't tell Steve any of that. He would be so upset to find out that had happened and he hadn't been there for her. He wouldn't let her out of his sight if he found out. She had learned her lesson, she wouldn't go back in the ocean after this, clearly her and the ocean were not friends. Message received. She wouldn't need Steve standing over her and making sure she didn't go past her knees when she went to the beach with him. If she ever went to the beach again.

"No, of course not, Steve," she said with what she hoped was a warm smile on her face. "I was over at Atlantic Studios, one of my songs was getting bid on and the buyers wanted to hear the chorus done a few different ways."

It wasn't a full lie, that had happened to her just a few days ago. Except she already had the chorus done up a few different ways and she just had to send the recordings over.

Steve's eyes narrowed at her. Like he didn't believe her. "Then why did I feel it then? If you didn't open up the void…"

"Well, it sounds like heart attack-like symptoms… how do you know you didn't just have a heart attack?"

Steve balked at the idea, he let her go to put his hands on his hips and glare down at her. "I did not have a heart attack!" he cried. "I am a young man, I'm in the prime of my health…"

"You're not that young anymore and you live a very stressful life, I bet your blood pressure is through the roof…"

Steve's mouth fell open. "You think I'm old? Is that what you're saying?"

Rowan laughed at him, god he sounded so offended. She hid her smile. "Course I do, you're practically ancient compared to me…" "It's a nine year difference, Rowan, it is not that big of a difference…" "…and you know… that the only reason I'm with you, you know… to cash in those pension checks once you eventually die of old age… which should be like… what? Three days?"

Steve realized she was joking now, she saw it in the way his smile grew on his face and started glowing in his eyes. He reached out for her with a playful scowl on his face. "Oh yeah? Is that it? That's all you want me for?" he asked as he hoisted her up over his shoulder. Rowan squealed his name but that didn't stop him from walking into the house. Rowan had to reach out to shut the front door as Steve was too busy taking her to the stairs.

"Really, sex, sex is all you want me for?" Rowan shot back. She said it in a jokingly tone but it was one of her insecurities.

"Well I mean… you do have other uses, like breakfast… I mean, I like first breakfast, but second breakfast is also good…"

Rowan hid her flaming cheeks in his shoulder. He was teasing her, she knew he was. He happened to love the first breakfast tradition, which involved him waking her up with his tongue, eating her out before she'd pull him up to her and demand he fuck her properly. It was an every morning tradition, except for the morning they had Grace, because Rowan liked to sleep in and he liked to go for morning runs or swims. There was nothing she liked better than waking up to him on her, glistening from the sweat or sea water, and he liked nothing more than to hear those delightful moans and squeals, he especially liked it when she'd say his name, his full name. Whisper it, scream it, moan it, didn't matter, if she said his full name he went wild.

He got to the second floor and Rowan used it, a husky moan of his name and suddenly she was up against a wall. His mouth slammed down on hers and Rowan intertwined herself around him, arms and legs.

God this man drove her wild. He drove her up the wall… in more ways then one… but she wouldn't have it any other way.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

To say Steve was distracted was an understatement. He couldn't keep his mind off of what had happened that morning. It kept bouncing between that terrible twinge and the time he spent with Rowan in his bed… and in his hallway.

If she hadn't traveled had he maybe… actually… had a heart attack?

It seemed unreasonable to him, that he, who was crazy healthy would suddenly have heart problems. Not when usually that type of spasm was directly caused by Rowan fucking with the void. He hadn't felt a large one like that in a very long time though which made him the most nervous. Mainly because he thought she couldn't open the void anymore.

She was supposed to be devolving not getting stronger. She was supposed to be out of energy. But he knew she could still pull from the void. She did it to get her visions, she did it to find him and Danny beneath all that rubble, and she did it to destroy the camera with their IA recordings. But those had been small, they had been flutterings. This had been… very, very large. Large like all those times she had travelled into the void, like when Hassan was going to cut his head off.

And then Grover started lording that larger fish over him like he had won the goddamn fishing Olympics.

It shouldn't have been bothering Steve but… you know… it really did. If he wasn't the best then what was he?

So maybe… just maybe… he was being a little too mean with Dawn Hatfield… a wanna be terrorist, an American grown white girl who thought she was a jihadist super star.

He was glaring down at her because he needed her to talk, he needed to know where the bombs were, he needed to know who else they were working with, who their masters were.

"There was enough hardware in that house to make three bombs, Dawn," he said to her. "Why don't you tell me your plan?"

But Dawn stayed quiet which meant Steve had to keep going, had to spitball ideas out there.

"Maybe detonate an IED on the road leading into the Air Force base? Wipe out some innocent soldiers, then a couple of secondary devices to shred up the first responders? That sound about right?"

It was the kind of attacks these people did on a regular basis, it was generic, just like this white bitch.

Dawn finally looked up to him, finally acknowledged his presence, she had an unimpressed glare on her face that Steve wanted to slap off. "Innocent soldiers?" she echoed. "They drop bombs thousands of feet in the air, killing innocent women and children like cowards."

"Cowards?" Steve snapped. Yeah like she was any better. "You wanna talk about cowards? You should have said so. Okay, let's talk about cowards. Why don't we start with your boy Nazaria, your mentor? Let's start with him. Where is he?"

Dawn scoffed at him and looked away like this was funny.

"He's hiding in a cave in the mountains of Yemen. You think that traitor cares about you? You think that piece of human garbage gives a damn that your friends are dead and that you're gonna spend the rest of your God-forsaken life rotting in some federal prison?"

He was yelling, like full out screaming at this girl and she was just laughing she thought this was fucking funny. It wasn't funny. This was serious. And knowing Rowan's propensity for just stumbling onto his cases, he wouldn't be surprised if she managed to find the active fucking bomb by stepping on.

"Muhammed Nazaria is a warrior," she growled. No Steve was the warrior, that man was a scholarly coward who never got his own hands dirty. "He's a soldier of God, pursuer of the truth and the light, okay? He is the leader."

"Leaders lead from the front." Like Steve did. "And I don't see him, do you? Where is he? Don't you get it, Dawn? They found you, okay? Because they look for people like you. They look for people who are vulnerable, people who are emotionally fragile, who have a big wound on the inside, who are trying to get back at somebody for something. Make you feel like you're an important part of something, a cause, a cause bigger than you. So big, in fact that it's worth giving your life for."

"I am a soldier for Allah and we must fight you as you fight us. Those of us that believe must fight in the cause of god."

"What are you talking about?" Steve thundered. "These words coming out of your mouth, they're not even your words. They're phrases that have been cherry-picked from a holy book and tailored to fit the lies they've told you."

Dawn wasn't listening to a single word he was yelling, he was going to have to try to kind compassionate route. He got down on one knee and tried to look like he didn't want to strangle her, Dawn wouldn't look him in the eye so that helped.

"Okay, listen to me. I get that it was rough growing up. Your mom was an alcoholic, your old man, he was never around, I get it. How old were you when he died? You were, like, eight or nine, right?" Oh, she was looking at him now. With nothing but contempt. She needed to realize that people's pasts didn't define them. Just like his past didn't define him. "I lost my old man too. I know what it's like to lose a parent." Hell he had lost both essentially and at no point did he turn to terrorism.

She was shaking now she was so angry. Oh maybe he had hit a nerve. "I didn't lose him. He died, okay? He died fighting your imperialistic war against the peaceful children of Allah."

Wow. This girl was very, very far gone. "You're wrong. Your dad was a hero, okay? He was a patriot, a soldier fighting for his country Dawn. You gotta remember him. What would he make of all this?"

She swallowed and looked away. "You gotta know, somewhere inside you, that this is wrong. Some shred of regret."

"My only regret is that you stopped me."

Steve just stared up at her horrified. Jesus Christ this girl was certifiable. The door buzzed and suddenly swung open. Steve would have been concerned if he had felt that blanketing sense of calm come over him.

"Hey Steve," Rowan said, sliding into the room and shutting the door behind her. "I see you're having some trouble breaking her. Would… would you, maybe, like help?"

Steve got up off his knees, surprised. He hadn't known she was there, he didn't know why she had come to visit either. Not that he wasn't glad to see her, but he was busy and he didn't have the time to dedicate to her that he wanted to. Dawn was abandoned as he turned to Rowan.

"Uh… she's uh… I don't think you can help her, Ro."

"Course I can't help her, but I can break her," she said confidently coming into the room and smiling prettily at Dawn who just scoffed at her. She turned her eyes back to Steve. "Sometimes you have to fight crazy with crazy."

Steve didn't want her involved with this. He couldn't rely on her to help him solve all his cases and selfishly he wanted to keep Rowan away from all the ugliness in his life. But Rowan was smiling up at him with a smile so sincere and wonderful that he couldn't turn her down.

"If he couldn't break me you won't be able to."

"Au contraire, mon amour," Rowan purred. "Why… this is my specialty."

"I think… I mean, thank you for the offer, but she might be…"

"Oh Steven, don't you remember the stories? They didn't call me the Ice Queen for nothing. You just need to find the right strings to pull. The right points to put pressure on," she said to him. Steve didn't have the heart to tell her that Dawn Hatfield didn't care about anything but her cause and therefore hand no points to put pressure on, but Rowan was staring down at her. "So what do you do when all they care about is the cause? Well… you take down the cause."

"You can't take down a cause, Rowan…"

"No. But I can take down her faction."

Steve stared at her. She could what now? Rowan carefully walked around Dawn like a lion sizing up her prey. "Let me guess, this leader of yours. He filled a void, right? That father figure you missed, that direction you seemed to be lacking. He gave you back a purpose and on top of that he made you feel beautiful, didn't he?"

Dawn said nothing, she shivered when Rowan propped herself up against the back of her chair, she carefully put her hands onto Dawn's head and suddenly Dawn yelped in pain.

"Oh I'm sorry dear, did I shock you there?" a vision, she had gotten a vision. "It must have made you feel special. Someone as charismatic as Zanarnia…" "Nazaria Rowan, it's Muhammed Nazaria." "Yeah, I'm never going to get that. Don't interrupt me Steven. As I was saying, my darling. It must have been wonderful to have someone like… him… paying you attention, telling you were special. All those moonlit strolls on the beach. Let's see if I remember, third island of the Socotra Archipelago? Nice little compound there. The Radical Leader and his chosen one…"

Rowan walked out from behind her and Dawn just stared at her horror on her face. "Follow the coast there's a trail that leads up the hills, the trees have markings… I'll draw them for you. They lead to a cave, which… when you go down… leads to an under-ground compound. He has…. Seven men, two of which are personal body guards and are with them at all times. Then there's one cook, the others keep the perimeter safe, they take turns going to town for supplies, they rotate so it's not the same person each time. There's a Ferrier, Karim Habashi, say the right code to him and he takes you to their personal dock, where one of the perimeter guards take you up to him. I believe this month, the code is: Praise Allah and go with strength to rain his words down like fire against the non-believers."

Dawn stared at her, the absolute horror that was painted on her face was enough for Steve know that Rowan had just gotten everything right.

"Your army… your soldiers… they won't…"

"Army? Soldiers?" Rowan echoed cutting her off. She laughed as if it were hilarious. "Oh no, darling, I'm not going to send in the army. I'm going to call up my own little faction and I'm going to turn his own men against him…"

"You couldn't… the cause…"

"Not even your noble cause can stand against the siren call of money. Don't you know who I am? I'm Rowan Pierce," Rowan hissed. Dawn's eyes had gone wide in horror, she knew the name. Everyone knew the name. Rowan had knelt down in front of her and was getting closer to her, her hands inching towards her thighs. "Do you know what we're going to do? We're going to turn his men against him. We're going to run through his compound killing everyone, and then we're going to torture them, we're going to make them give up every single member of your faction and then I will send someone after every member until each one of you is dead. And do you know what they're going to hear? When they beg us, when they demand to know why this is happening, the last thing any of them will ever hear is that Dawn Hatfield delivered them to their deaths."

And then Rowan's hands were on her, the girl screamed in terror and Rowan's shoulders slumped. Rowan looked back up to her, her eyes the darkest blue Steve had ever seen them.

"Say good-bye to your cause, Dawn."

Dawn started to scream, no words just a rage induced howls that echoed after them. Rowan left, taking Steve with her and when the door shut silencing Dawn's tantrum she turned and said: "I have more than just the location of Zanarnia. I know who's been helping her, and they have families, families they'll give up info for."

Steve nodded, smiling, he didn't even bother to correctly pronounce Nazaria's name. He smiled because without her, solving this case would have taken longer.

"I also have a long list of other names running around in my head, I should write them down before I forget them," she said. "I think they're the rest of the cell though if you get Nazaria he's got a master list hidden in a hole under his mattress. Wo has contacts in Yemen, competing factions who would love to muscle him out, so if you really want him to suffer say the world I'll send them down."

God, sometimes he loved that Rowan came from another world, but it was at times like these, looking into those blue eyes that usually shone lightly and brightly, he saw a little bit more of that sociopath and a little bit more of that ice cold poison that everyone kept warning him about.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve had taken a lot of pleasure in telling Dawn that Rowan had been right about everything. She had been right about the people who had been mentoring Dawn, about the location of Muhammad Nazaria who had already been captured, and they had already captured more of her faction.

Dawn had howled. Raged. Screamed and cried and Steve had left her there.

He had wanted to take Rowan home, wanted to wrap her up in his blankets, worship her body and forget the drama of the world. So he was quite disappointed when he was told that instead they would be going to dinner with his Five-0 family to eat the stupid fucking fish that Grover had caught.

Enough to feed all of them. Well, except Rowan didn't eat fish.

He sat at the table, wearing a white shirt with blue Hawaiian palm trees printed on it. It was a shirt Rowan had said she liked, but it was a shirt that meant they couldn't sneak off for a quicky, not when her nails were liked knives in his back. She was sitting back in a nice navy-blue summer dress with golden seaweed hems. her hair was half back leaving tendrils for Steve to play with like he liked and the two were playing footsie under the table. He had a beer in one hand and Rowan's hand in the other. He felt calm, he felt cool and collected.

Until the waitress brought over that fucking fish.

"Mm, have mercy. Will you look at my fish? She sure does clean up nice doesn't she?" Grover asked and Steve rolled his eyes. The waitressed dropped Rowan's pasta dish in front of her and she immediately let go of his hand. Now free, that hand went across the back of her chair, his fingers twisting into her lose hair almost absently.

"She sure does," Chin said. Rowan glanced to fish and went. "I can smell it from here and I think I'mma gag."

Grover scowled at her but moved the plate a little bit away from her. Steve shot Rowan a little smile of appreciation and she winked at him. God this girl, she had done that for him. What had he done to deserve this girl?

"Well, listen ladies and gentlemen, before we dig in, I'd just like to take the time to say a few words about my worthy opponent," Grover said standing up. Steve stopped playing with Rowan's hair to press his hand to his forehead, god, why wouldn't this man shut up? "To become so strong and mighty, you've spent many years in the depths of the ocean, avoiding the nets of the trawlers, dodging the fisherman's spear…"

Steve turned to Chin. "Did you write this?"

"Nope it's all him."

Danny smiled at Steve's discomfort and obvious jealousy. "That's good, I like it. Keep going."

Fuck Danny, he was never on his side. Steve was starting to think he did it just to piss him off.

"You were not one to be fooled by the baited hook, or by the shiny lure, oh no. You knew no fear, for you were king of the sea, that is until that fateful moment, this morning when you swam around that reef and found yourself looking deeply into the eyes of a might warrior…"

"Stop. Stop there. We're done, we're bored, we're hungry," Steve snapped, because he was all of those things and he just… he just needed this nonsense to stop. "Pass the damn fish around the table."

"I'm not bored," Danny said with a teasing smile on his face. Steve kicked him under the table causing Danny to yelp and everyone else to laugh. Rowan immediately slapped his shoulder.

"Don't kick people," she chided. "You're not a mule."

"Actually, he is. He's a stubborn mule."

"Do you want me to kick you?" Rowan hissed to Danny. "Cause I can. And I'm wearing stilettos, I can impale you if I get the right angle and the right amount of strength behind it.."

Danny raised his hands in mock surrender and Steve smiled proudly at his girl as the fish got passed around. He gave the plate to Rowan who shook her head. "Nope get that thing away from me."

He meant her to pass it to Chin but clearly Rowan wasn't even going to touch the damn plate it came on. Chin snatched it up before Steve could drop it in her lap just to annoy her and Grover.

"Mm, it tastes so good," Grover said. "It's like liquid it just melts in your mouth. Go ahead," he goaded as Steve forced himself to take a bite. "Move that around in your mouth. How do you like that?"

Damn. It was good. Steve wanted it to not be good. But it was. It was really good. He tried to his scowl but it obviously didn't work. "You know what? It tastes like a suicidal fish who gave him life to pump up your ego."

Rowan leant back in her chair. "Oh, here we go," she said with a sigh.

"Yeah, you're just gonna keep right on flogging that dead horse," Grover said with a shake of his head.

"No, just keeping it real, man."

"Real? Let me tell you what's real. You, me, fish-off. This weekend."

Rowan was immediately sitting up straighter in her chair. "Uh, no. I've already called dibs on him for this weekend," she said pointing a finger at Grover. "No one's fucking with my weekend."

Steve actually thought the whole fish off was a good idea. It would put this argument to rest. "Uh… well… I'm sure we can set aside some time this weekend for a fish off."

Rowan scoffed at him. "Set aside some time….?" She echoed and then she threw down her napkin. "Okay, that's it, you know what? Enough of this. I can't take it anymore. Why are either of you bragging? This wasn't an extreme sport. Spear fishing was easy, both of you suck. Let it go," Rowan snapped.

Both Grover and Steve turned to her and started lecturing her on the intricacies and inherent difficult of spear fishing and Rowan answered by lifting a hand to silence both of them.

"It's not difficult and I can prove it. Me. Clumsy, useless me, also went spear fishing with Grover and Chin this morning, also on my first try, and managed to bag twice as many both of you together, and multiple fish twice the size of the one Grover caught," she snapped she then poked Steve aggressively with each word: "Spear. Fishing. Is. Not. Hard. Ya'll. Just. Suck."

For a minute the whole table was silent. No one could believe it. And then the noise started up again, laughter from everyone else and a loud "WHA?!" from both Grover and McGarrett. Steve blinked his eyes at her. "Wait a second, that's where you were this morning? You went spear fishing with Chin and Grover?"

"Yes, and I'm pretty good at it. I bagged like three in one shot," Rowan said she then turned to Grover and said: "You were there for that."

"You went spear fishing… you puke at the sight of blood!" Steve shouted. Grover slapped his elbow and said: "That's what I said!"

All eyes turned to Chin. "See… this is why I didn't want to tell y'all…"

"WAIT, it's true?!" Grover thundered. "She caught a fish bigger than mine?"

"She caught more fish than me?!" Steve asked appropriately horrified to have been out fished by his Rowan.

"I caught twenty-one fish in total, which is the same number as my birthday and my largest fish was over 50lbs," Rowan said primly. "I sold all of them for a profit of 350 dollars. And for your information, the blood doesn't really bother me if it like immediately dissolves into water but I made Chin reel in each and every single one of those suckers I caught cause I was not gonna touch them."

"She… uh… she's a sniper. Shoots from a far so fish don't think to swim away. Doesn't work for anyone but her," Chin explained and everyone groaned.

"Okay, fine, then she's definitely has to come to the fish off so we can out fist her," Steve cried. And then Rowan, Grover and Chin were all wearing the same face. One of blank determination, and they were all avoiding his eyes. Oh god. What had happened? He narrowed his eyes at her and asked: "You told me you were at Atlantic this morning… why did you lie to me about going spear-fishing? Why do you look so suspicious right now?"

"I didn't want you to worry. I didn't want anyone to know how good I was cause Grover was so proud of the fish and you were so proud of the amount of fish you caught…" "Why the hell are you lying to me?"

Rowan's eyes widened but she wouldn't look at him, Steve was now turning between Grover and Chin to tell him the truth. "Why does it matter? The point is this… I can safely say that I will not be going anywhere near the ocean ever again," Rowan said to him.

"I second her not going anywhere near the ocean," Chin said and Grover raised his glass to that too. Now that was definitely very suspicious.

"Wait… why… what happened?" Steve asked suddenly very concerned. "Guys…"

Grover shook his head. "No. We swore we wouldn't speak of it."

"Okay, you can't say shit like that and then not expect us to want to know," Steve snapped and Danny nodded as if it all made sense. "Does this have something to do with the chest pains I felt this morning?" Rowan made a face and Steve growled at her. "Oh my god, it does! Something happened out on the ocean, didn't it? That's why you lied to me about where you were! What happened? Rowan!"

All three guilty parties exchanged glances but both Grover and Chin were staring at Rowan. She was the one who brought up the fact that she was there, when the plan was to clearly never do that, because Steve wasn't supposed to know. So it reasoned that it would be fair for Rowan to be the one to break the news of the incident to her over-protective… whatever Steve was to her.

"Kay… so… maybe… I slightly… got confused about what kind of fish I was shooting at… and maybe, I kinda, sort of, accidentally… a little bit… shot a shark."

The table went silent. Chin glared at Rowan who went quiet and avoided all of their eyes. "And?" he prompted because she couldn't end the story there and she was going to have to admit what she did.

"And… it might have charged at me… cause you know… I made it mad. And… I may or may not have panicked… and I may or may not have accidently caused a bit of an electrical current…that nearly killed Chin but you know… at least it startled the shark." "It startled all the marine life off the goddamn reef." "Shut up Chin. The point is, I'm not going back in the ocean. It keeps trying to kill me…" "I think the fact that you shot at a Tiger Shark is why you nearly died today…" Oh My God Chin! Shut up! The point is I'm not going back in the ocean every again, you can't make me."

"You… you shot a tiger shark and tried to void away… and then you lied to me…"

Rowan turned to him calmly and asked: "Are you freaking out?"

Steve couldn't believe she asked him that. He threw up his hands in frustration as he turned fully in his chair to look stare at her with the panic he felt illuminating his face. "Of course, I'm freaking out, Rowan!"

"And that is why I lied to you."

She turned away from him like that was the end of the conversation while his friends and co-workers giggled around him like this whole exchange was funny and not fucking terrifying.

"Okay no, this is not funny. I was so concerned about this morning that actually set up an appointment to go to the doctor in case I did have a real heart attack!"

"And that's a good thing for your health, you should get a check up, just to make sure that you're okay. But babe, I promise, if you go on this bet with Grover, I will cheer you on from the safety of the shore. Kay? So Danny can throw down 40 bucks on Grover and I'll throw down 40 on you and we'll split the profits fifty-fifty," she said.

"Danny's gonna… Danny's gonna bet against me?"

Danny shrugged. "Well someone has to." And Steve narrowed his eyes them all.

"Look, this fish-off is clearly happening," Grover said ignoring Rowan's huff of indignation. "Biggest catch will be the winner, your girl can come but uh… little miss generator is staying on land and as far away from sharks as she can."

Steve turned to him and then looked back at Rowan who smiled prettily at him as if he wasn't going to scream at her the second he got her back to his place. She believed in him and that was enough.

"Fine, you're on," Steve said taking Grover's offered hand. When they were done shaking he turned back to Rowan. "And you… you are in a lot of trouble."

Rowan groaned and sunk down into her seat. As everyone around them laughed, Steve put an arm around her shoulder, wondering if he'd ever get used to that feeling he got when she came close to him, wondering if she'd ever stop scaring him. Rowan dropped her head to his shoulder and Steve decided that none of that mattered, this… this siting around a table with all his friends with Rowan pressed to his side… this made every scare worth it. This was all he was ever going to need for the rest of his life.

"Okay, now that we got that out of the way… someone wanna talk me through this void and electrical shit, cause I still don't understand?" Grover asked and Steve groaned.

Fuck. He was not ready for this conversation. He just was not.