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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! So I'm posting on a Monday, so clearly I've decided to keep posting three times a week. Thanks for all that voted! We're 5 reviews away from announcing a winner so don't forget to review. I am sooo sorry for the cliffhanger. I fucking LOVE my clifhangers I just can't resist them. This chapter doesn't end on one, I promise. In fact this chapter ends with Steven and Rowan finally getting together… officially, so you know… took them long enough right? 2 more chapters and we'll be on the fillers which are all calm and quiet before we start with the season of drama and fluff!
Chapter 120
Danny followed Steve out into the hot humid air they had been exiled to outside of the tent the second Steve lost his shit and started screaming at them. These assholes who got his Rowan into this weren't going to do a damn thing to save her. Not in time. A civilian casualty no one would know about because they would cover it up. All because she snuck onto a god damn plane to save him.
"Calm down."
"NO!" Steve shouted. "This is my fault! She told me not to leave! She knew, she knew I was going to get captured, and I left anyway. I left anyway and she came to save me and now she's in there and I'm here… and I'm…"
"Breathe," Danny ordered as Steve slumped against the wall across from the room. "Stop. Just… goddamn it… don't get so worked up. There was no way Rowan could have stopped you, just like I couldn't have stopped her, I tried and look at what happened."
Joe White came out of the room took one look at Steve's posture combined it with the look on his face and he sighed. "Their strike team is thirty minutes out."
"That's too long and you know it. She's not trained for this," Steve groaned.
"I know… but uh… doesn't Rowan have… oh I don't know… a list of contacts that might be able to work outside of official channels?" he asked.
Steve straightened. Rowan had left him her phone. She had purposely put it in his hands and said: "Just in case." Of course, this was what she meant. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked it over. There was already something on the screen a big red alert that said: "Confirmed Arrest. Confirmed Holding overseas. Possible sighting in active nightclub. Inactive for forty-eight hours. Danger deemed eminent Code level elevated to Red. Contacts sent to confirm situation. Waiting for Professional Confirmation. Confirm situation."
So Steve pressed the confirm button. And watched as the screen started glitching out with words commands and calls. Damn… they weren't going to know what hit them.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Rowan sat in the chair looking at the two people in front of her. Marik Gholam was going over the file she had left out in the open, purposely, and behind him, his bodyguard with the severe dark brown eyes stared her down. She had a feeling if she tried to run, that man would gun her down so fast she wouldn't even feel it.
"My… the man… the men…"
"If you're referring to the men you had in the building across the street, you can be assured that none of them have survived," Marik told her and a bile rose up to her throat. What about Rogers though… what had happened to him? "And your personal little soldier is being taken somewhere to be dealt with separately. Both of you may prove to be quite useful to us."
Oh god they were going to torture him. What the hell where they going to do to her?
"So… let's talk about you. You're American, then?" he asked her.
Rowan shook her head trying to put on a brave face, hopefully the camera was still broadcasting, hopefully they were sending someone to help her, and hopefully someone was already on their way. God she hoped Steve wasn't watching this, he would be so panicked for her.
"Canadian," she answered once she found her voice.
"We have no quarrel with them," Marik growled.
Rowan nodded at him. "Yep. We're pretty chill."
"Who sent you?"
"Uh… US Navy? Not quite sure. I uh… I got arrested for stowing away and this was uh… this was my community service," she explained.
"I just asked if you were American," he growled.
"Yeah but I'm not…"
"You are spy!"
"I'm really not. Come on, look at me. I'd be the worst spy ever," she said. "This all a misunderstanding but if you just let me take the file and go, I can leave, the Navy or whatever won't blow you up and I think we all end up alive and happy."
She half got out of her seat and reached for it and he slammed his fist down on it causing her to jump. "Sit back down," he ordered and she did so immediately. "I don't think you know the kind of trouble you're in. I'm going to need you to tell me all you know, Miss. Spy. All the names you have, all the positions of teams, troops and stations. Or things are going to get messy."
Rowan blinked her eyes at him, she didn't have any of that. "I… I don't know… how am I… uhm… look, I'm really not a spy. I don't work for the army. I'm a singer slash song writer from Hawaii…"
"You said you were Canadian," Marik growled to her and she sighed in exasperation.
"Okay… yes… I'm originally from Canada but currently living in Hawaii. You can google me. I swear, I come up under writers for Atlantic Records. Just look it up, I just sold a song to Justin Timberlake. I'm Rowan Pierce, I promise."
"Oh. You," the bodyguard breathed out which just confused his boss.
Marik was now looking at her with a perplexed look on his face. "I know that name, how do I your name?" he asked her while beside him his bodyguard's phone chirped. Rowan and Marik both turned him. He was surprised, so was Rowan. She didn't think Wo Fat's web extended this far. But hope flared up in her chest. She may just be saved. His dark brown eyes surveyed hers for a moment before he lowered them.
Still he fished out his phone and stared at the screen and then back at her like he was in shock and then back at his phone.
"What are you doing?" his boss asked.
His bodyguard shrugged a strange sort of smile on his face. "I'm sorry, just reviewing a new job offer," he said, his gun back in his waistband as he typed away on his phone.
"You are on contract with me," Marik snapped, turning back to Rowan. "And best believe we're going to have a lot of fun cracking this little whore."
Rowan turned her eyes to his bodyguard, her eyes wide, pleading with him. He assessed her silently and in his hand his phone chirped again. His smile grew. "Hot Damn," he whispered. "He really will pay anything to get you back."
"What are you talking about?" Marik cried. His eyes turned back to Rowan with a strange sense of dread and fear overcoming his features. "Nazaria was slain by a Pierce. Pierce the Destroyer. The warrior witch from Hawaii." Whoa… that was a lot to take in there. "It doesn't matter though. I pay him enough to keep him happy. There's nothing your brother could pay to save you now."
But that clearly that wasn't true because the body guard put his phone in his pocket and suddenly a gun was in his hand. He put the muzzle to the back of Marik's head just behind the ear and Marik's smug smile faded.
His body guard however, was grinning almost maliciously. "Sorry, boss, turns out he can pay me better," he said and then pulled the trigger.
Rowan screamed, she screamed long and loud because she just watched a head blow up and now she was coated in a mist of red. The bodyguard jumped over the desk to the door just as the two guards outside opened the door. They both took three shots to the chest. He dragged their bodies into the room as Rowan was still screaming.
He shut the door and turned back to her. "Stop it," he ordered. "Stop it or we won't be able to get out of here."
Rowan blinked her eyes and then lunged for the garbage can beside the desk. The assassin watched as she emptied her stomach contents out into the waste basket and when she was done she heard him sigh: "Really?"
"I don't like blood okay?" she cried. He looked her up and down quite carefully before he turned away. He went about destroying a bookcase and Rowan tried her hardest not to vomit again.
When he was done taking everything off of all the shelves he could find he returned to her. "Okay, so we need to go. I need you to suck it up or hold it in, or take the can with you, cause you're going to see a lot more blood before I get you out of here."
Rowan stared up at him, from the other side of the door he had barricaded with two bodies and a well-placed chair, came the sound of shouts and pounding and while she flinched he did not. He merely hooked a thumb over his shoulder and said: "That's literally only going to hold them back for a minute. So can we go, or do you want to get shot?"
Rowan scowled at him. Really? Really? Who the hell was this man? He didn't even flinch at the thought of hostile people on the other side of a flimsy wooden door. "Okay, I don't have time for this, and I don't get the money if you die," he snapped and then he tugged her to her feet. When she turned she saw that a passage way had opened up, hidden behind the bookcase.
"Wow that's smart," she said to him as he tugged her along the secret passage way. She thought about Steve who was watching and listening on that little camera and wire she had. She pulled the pin off of her lapel and looked into it as they ran.
"If you can hear or see this, I'm fine," she called. "I have the file. I'm on my way out…"
"Who the hell are you talking to?"
He had stopped, suddenly and unexpectedly, she ran straight into his chest as he turned into her. "Well… they're watching from this…"
He snatched it out of her hands and whipped it down the hallway, he looked her over and then began to paw at her as she cried out. He had the wire in his hands and ripped right the hell off of her before she knew what was happening.
"What the hell?!" she cried. "You don't get it, my boyfriend… he's going to be worried about me!"
"Boyfriend?" he echoed. "You have a boyfriend that let your untrained ass come anywhere near here?"
"Well he's not really my boyfriend… we're doing this like casual relationship thing," she explained though she didn't know why. The bodyguard was busy looking over her head at the way they came to see if they were being followed. "And he didn't want me to come, I kinda had no choice."
"Tell me as we run," he ordered, grabbing her and pulling her again. He seemed to know where he was going which was great, because she had no clue.
He stopped her in a shadowed corridor as he looked around it to determine the next move. "You know my name, what's yours?"
He turned to her, almost surprised, like he didn't understand the question, like no one had ever asked him his name before. He lowered his eyes to the thing she had carried with her that he must have not noticed before.
"Did you bring the garbage can?"
"Well… yeah, I'm probably going to vomit again gotta be prepared and all that. Don't avoid the question," she chided.
"Sin Nombre."
"No name?" Rowan translated. He turned back to her as if surprised she understood him. He then nodded. And Rowan laughed. "That's not a real name, what's your real name?"
"That is my real name."
"Lies. Your real name can't be no name," she whispered. "Everyone has a name."
"Well I don't."
"So you're like, a nameless assassin?" Rowan asked and then gasped. "That's what I'll call you then. Nameless Assassin… Oh! NA for short. Cause your name is not applicable, get what I did there?"
He was staring at her again. Rowan smiled warmly at him, proud of her word play and he just continued to frown at her. "You know… no one mentioned you were this annoying," he muttered. "They should have a warning label. Caution Extremely Obnoxious, now shut up and follow me… quietly."
He moved into the hallway and Rowan followed him. "This isn't as bad as I can usually be," Rowan said.
"Oh wow you get worse huh?" he asked absently. He was moving slowly, keeping a gun out and ready to go and push her behind him if necessary. "And here I was thinking being a Rowan-gram was the worst thing you subject me to."
"Rowan-gram?" she echoed. "Have you… have you taken a job from me before?"
"Yes, two. One for your friends in China, and I'm the one that got Matty out of Colombia," he answered absently. Rowan smiled at him.
"Really? That was you? And you think I'm obnoxious? I heard Matty was pretty bad, am I worse than him?"
"I'm also the one who got you away from the NLM."
Rowan straightened, completely forgetting that he had side-stepped her question, too busy staring at him in sudden realization. "That was you! OH! It was you! I literally vomited everywhere cause of you. Blowing up a man's head right beside me. That seems to be your pattern huh?"
NA just stared at her. "Okay firstly… I am an amazing shot, head shots are my specialty… and second… okay you know what? Do you think we can chat after I get you out of here?" he asked.
There came the sound of approaching feet and he pushed her into a small alcove. It was all great until the door he had her pushed up against suddenly opened startling both her and the man that opened the door. Before NA could turn to shoot him, Rowan took the bucket in her hand and hurled the contents at him. He fell back floundering and Rowan pulled the door shut as his horrified cries just started to bubble out of his lips.
NA took all of that in before carefully turning to her. "Did you just throw a garbage can full of vomit at that guy?"
Rowan blinked her eyes and then looked back to him. "I… I panicked…"
"Wow… I've done some pretty terrible things but that… that's pretty sick."
"Okay, don't judge me!" Rowan snapped. "You're a professional killer, I'm sure you've done some pretty sick things that are probably worse than that… and I just saved you from getting shot so maybe… just maybe… you should be thanking me instead of making me feel bad?"
He shrugged as if it didn't make sense to him but he let her have it. He edged her on, keeping her behind him. He half rounded a corner and shots came flying at him, he backed up pushing Rowan back as well.
"Here I found a door!" Rowan cried, but it didn't lead to anywhere useful and she couldn't see another way out.
"Really? You thought this was a good place to hide?" NA asked gesturing to all the boxes of munitions around them.
"Well… at least we won't be out gunned?"
"Yeah except none of these are going to be loaded."
"Wow… really?"
"What? Did you think that guns travel loaded? That would be so unsafe."
"Yeah… but its contraband. Do people really care about safety when it comes to illegally procured guns?"
"Yes Rowan… because they don't want their shipments to get flagged!"
The shots started up again and NA practically tackled her behind a box of useless machine guns. They were pinned, there was nowhere else to go. She looked around, a box of grenades sat in front of her. The box she was pretty sure said "stun grenades." In a language she didn't quite recognize. Her brother played enough Call of Duty with his macho friends for her to know what that was.
She picked one up, pulled the pin and lobbed it at their assailants shouting: "Flashbang!" on the tops of her lungs.
Nameless-Assassin turned, clocked the box she had pulled it from and shouted: "REAL BANG" and then tackled her back to the floor again. Just as the explosion went off, shaking the building all around them. There was two seconds of silence after that explosion went off before the cracking started.
Nameless-Assassin had her up, struggling to get her somewhere safe. She didn't quite understand what was going on but she understood what he was saying:
Fire! FIRE!
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Steve had forced Captain Norrell to take him and Danny with the strike team in the helicopter bound to Ziarat. He sat with the team, in Kevlar and slings his leg bouncing in that nervous tick that he thought he didn't have but clearly had.
But when he got there the entire area was nothing but chaos and fire. The night club she had been in on was on fire and at some point had blown up. A building Rowan had been in. By herself. He should have been there. He should have been there to help her. This never should have happened. He should have let Catherine go on her own, he should have… he should have.
Danny came to stand beside him. "We don't know if she was inside when that happened," he told him seemingly reading Steve's mind.
But she was. Steve knew she was. Yes, someone was helping her to get out. Yes, one of Wo Fat's contacts had been there to save her from getting raped and tortured but even then, they could only do so much against an explosion.
"She has to be here," Danny continued. "She just has to be."
Steve shook his head. There were too many words and emotions clogging his throat. Too many pills to having him walking properly. He staggered forward, beside him Danny called Rowan's name. But no one responded to it. He tried again. And only then did Steve find the words.
Well only one word.
Rowan!
Danny pulled aside people trying to flee to safety, asking if they saw a girl matching Rowan's description, soldiers were fanning out to secure the perimeter. To help civilians get to safety. Steve was starting to have a full out break down. He could feel it, the tears, leaking out of his eyes. Why… why had he let her go? Why didn't he find a different way to get her out of lock up? For God sake why didn't she just call Wo Fat?
Steve.
As soon as he heard her voice he turned. His body immediately intuned to her and seeking her out. She was soot stained, dusty, covered in blood but rushing towards him from down the street. She wasn't limping and she wasn't moving slowly, she wasn't holding onto any part of herself, she didn't even look that bloody other than the mist that was coating her face. She was fine.
Steve rushed to her, letting her run into his embrace. Letting her collide with him despite how much it had hurt his collar bone and his broken ribs.
"Oh God, thank God," he whispered into her hair as she hugged him tightly.
"I'm so glad to see you!" she sobbed into his chest. "I wanna go home Steve, can we go home now?"
Steve almost burst out into laughter. Yes, after this they should be able to go home. He was going to take her home, of course he was and then he was never going to let her go. From his chest pocket came the chime of her ring tone, Rowan pulled it out of his pocket immediately and answered it.
"Hello?"
Steve heard a frantic voice on the other side which he knew was Wo Fat and then Rowan was talking.
"No… I'm… I'm okay, I promise. I'm fine. I'm a little bloody and still a little sickish but… what? Oh… uh… well… I came because Steve… yes McGarrett… yes… Steven McGarrett got himself… oh… hold on…" she whispered and then looked up to Steve. "Well I mean… he's here but…"
Steve stared at her almost perplexed. "He wants to talk to both of us," she whispered to him. He nodded and she pressed the speaker button on her phone and then she said: "Okay… uh…"
"So let me try and understand the situation. You're both in Afghanistan, I've had to pay someone a ridiculous amount of money for saving her, he's reporting that not only was she absolutely the most obnoxious thing on the planet and I need to warn people about that but apparently she blew up a whole fucking building…" oh she had done that? Wow, that was extra even for her. "How did you even… why are you even… Rowan do you have any idea how lucky you are that I had anyone in Afghanistan to come save you? And now you're telling me that you've done this because McGarrett got into shit in Afghanistan? Are you actually telling me that the Super SEAL needed a psychic's help in Afghanistan? SERIOUSLY?"
"She… uh… I had been… she was…" Steve stumbled but Rowan cut him off.
"He was going to die, Wo. Insurgents got him and then were gonna… and I was the only one…"
"What were you going to do, Rowan? Sing him to freedom? FUCK!" he shouted
"I'm sorry!" she cried, actually sniffing and swiping at her eyes. No, that wasn't fair, Wo shouldn't have been making her feel worse, not after the day she had been through. Steve was ready to snap back but Danny, the king of sass did that for him
"Hey! The guilt trip is unnecessary," Danny snapped. "Look, she tried to keep Steve from coming to Afghanistan and failed. Me, Joe White, and Kono all failed to keep Rowan in Hawaii and you successfully got her out of a situation before a crazed terrorist shot her, so look at that, you're the winner."
Wo Fat was silent for a few moments before he said: "Don't ever let that idiot talk to me again. Okay, Rowan, how did you get to Afghanistan, I mean… you need permission to fly there and I doubt anyone gave you permission."
"She stowed away on a military aircraft," Steve answered. "She uh… she got… well she got caught stowing away. I managed to talk them down from jail time to uhm… well this. This was like community service."
"Community…" he echoed. "I'm honestly… Rowan, I'm honestly at a fucking loss."
"Oh, wait… I have the guys in charge coming up to me, I gotta go."
She ignored the beginning of Wo Fat's protests and looked up at the man who had trapped her in this situation, Captain Norrell merely stared at them as Steve swept her aside.
"Well this is an unmitigated disaster.
"Not fully… Rogers is alive NA has gone to go get him…"
"Well thank the lord for small miracles," Norrell growled. "But I said retrieve the data, not blow it up."
"It's not blown up," she said putting a hand into her shirt, jiggling around until it came out with an USB. "See. Nice and safe. Just like you asked."
Norrell practically snatched it right up out of her hands before she could hand it to him. Steve wrapped his good arm around her and tugged her away. "Alright you got what you wanted. Now it's time to let us go home."
Norrell looked up to them and the over them to the chaos she had single handedly accidentally created. It was after some consideration that he finally nodded, ushering them away from the carnage and the wreckage and back towards the helicopter they came in. Steve never once let go of Rowan. He was tired, he was about to crash, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was that Rowan was safe, and they were finally going home.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Rowan couldn't have been happier to be going home to Hawaii. Sitting on the bed beside Steven as he got packed up and put into his own clothes to be sent home had her feeling all giddy and excited. His bruising had stopped swelling, he could see out of his eye again, and even though he only had one hand he wasn't letting her help him back.
They were all having fun until Norrell came back into the infirmary.
"Rogers has been located and he's on his way back here," he told them and Rowan breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the lords she got one of the men that went with her back safely. She only wished she could have done more for them. "Everything we needed was on that USB, and will be put to good use. And we hear that your little assassin took out the rest of Marik's men, so all in all a good-day's work."
"You're welcome," Danny snapped.
"But you're not done."
Silence fell over them. "What?" Steve whispered. "No… but…"
"You heard them. Pierce the destroyer. Backed by a network of evil. You saw how easy it was for her to get in with them, people just let her walk in. She's the best asset we've got."
Steve stepped in between them. "No. That mission… you said it yourself… was an unmitigated disaster… she…"
"Yeah! She did her community service. Now we're going home."
"Yes, you two will be going home, but Miss. Pierce is coming with me."
That was when Rowan noted the wall of soldiers standing behind Norrell, he must have brought ten of them. Why? What did he think was going to happen?
"You can't do this!" Steve shouted as Rowan began to inch away. Maybe she could run while they were distracted, maybe
"The girl stowed away on a military plane. You ran a rogue op and are refusing to give up the source of your intel. You I can court martial, but her… she's going to get jail time and as soon as that gavel pounds I can demand her back here helping me for a mandatory five years at minimum. You guys are stuck. She's staying here. You're going home. End of story."
Rowan bolted she made a beeline for the exit only to be snatched up by a soldier and then they were dragging her away from Steve. Five stayed to keep Steve and Danny back and the other five went with Rowan.
She was too panicked to cry. She could only shout for Steve as Steve shouted for her. She didn't want to do this. She couldn't do this. She had barely survived the one op and she had had a lot of help.
She was handed off to Norrell who was taking her towards a truck, instinctively she knew if he got her to the truck it was game over. Rowan dropped to the ground. Norrell, startled, went down with her. As soon as he hit the ground she twisted out of his grasp and tried to run again. One of the five soldiers grabbed a hold of her and while she grappled with him, kicking out at him trying to make him let her go, Norrell got up. Once he had a hold of her again that was it they were on the move.
Behind her Steve howled her name and she half turned. They had four soldiers on Steve to keep him from going forward. Injured shoulder and everything and it took more than two guys to hold him at bay.
"You can't fucking take her," Steve was shouting. "You can't."
"Are you kidding me? With Wo Fat backing her we're unstoppable," he called back dragging Rowan away. His grip on her arm was killing her, but despite all her struggling she couldn't get him to.
"I'll stop you know," she growled to him. "I swear to god. I'd rather die before I let you exploit us that way."
And he just laughed at her. Even though she was digging her heels into the ground he was still tugging her and successfully pulling her to the truck. If they got into that truck she was screwed. She'd never get home.
She tried to twist out of his grasp but he had her. So she had to take drastic measures. She kicked at the back of his legs and he went down. As soon as he did that was it, Rowan was scrambling away and back to Steve. She got within arms-reach and he had her, his good hand tugging her through the wall of soldiers and to him and then he was pulling her away.
Norrell was up, heading towards them, Steve was trying to sweep her behind him to protect her. Rowan could hear her phone. She tugged it out of Steve's cargo pant's pocket. It was the App extension. Quickly she answered it.
"HELP ME!" she shouted into the phone and for a second there was silence before someone said: "Put him on the phone or put me on speaker."
That wasn't Wo Fat's voice, it was someone else's, regardless Rowan pressed speaker and then extended her hand. "Kay go."
"Alright Captain Norrell I've been contracted out as a Rowan-gram. I've got someone that wants to talk to you."
There was silence as he stared at them and the phone and then a very small: "Grandpa?" came out of the phone and Rowan's heart sunk. That was a child. They had taken a child? What the hell was Wo Fat thinking?
"Nora?" he asked staring at the phone in Rowan's hand.
"Grandpa I don't like these people. I want to go home."
And then the little girl was gone and the man was back. "Release Rowan to Steven McGarrett, or Nora's going to have an unfortunate accident and you can tell your son that you're the reason why his daughter's dead."
"Now listen here…"
"No. The terms are non-negotiable. Nora will be returned to your family when Rowan has confirmed that she's landed in Hawaii. If she isn't returned within 24 hours, if there's any fishy business at all little Nora's gonna get it. You feel me?"
Norrell glared at her while Rowan just winced and avoided his eyes. "I agree."
"Good. As mentioned before, when Rowan lands in Hawaii we will release your granddaughter. And not a moment sooner. The quicker she's on the plane the better. You can trace the phone, you can go to the cops, you can do whatever you want. But if Rowan isn't released, your grand daughter will die, even if Wo Fat has to send someone else to get the job done."
The phone call ended and Rowan carefully pressed herself behind Steve as she clutched the phone to her chest. She wanted to go home, but she hadn't wanted this.
"What have you done?" Norrell snarled to them.
"Did… did you broadcast your plans to anyone… on any open channel maybe?" Steve asked. "Cause the app went on overdrive when she hadn't responded, it started monitoring any and every frequency it could find in the phone's radius. He might not have taken it down after we extracted her… they might have heard what you were going to do next."
Norrell glared at them, she could feel it through Steve. She'd have to diffuse this fight. She'd have to do something.
She stepped out from behind Steve, and instantly his good hand had a hold of her shirt. "I can't stop something he's already put out," she said. Which was mostly true, especially since they had already taken the girl. "I didn't ask him to do this… but… you have been playing with fire. Wo Fat takes my safety very seriously… you're… you're going to have to let me leave."
Norrell continued to glare at her. He said nothing until he pointed a finger into her face. "My granddaughter better not get hurt."
"I will put that in the app the second the plane takes off," Rowan said and he nodded.
"Get the hell off this base. Get the hell out of the country. And don't any of you dare come back."
And none of them needed to be told twice.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
True to her word, Rowan had put in the app the order to not hurt the little girl the second the plane took off. Once she had landed she confirmed she was fine, and confirmed that she would call Wo Fat in the morning to explain in detail what had happened.
Rowan kept apologizing to him. For the two days of utter worry that she had put him through. Even Steve apologized. For letting Rowan get into this situation in the first place. For not listening to Rowan when she told him what was going to happen. Wo Fat had barely accepted those apologies, and he sure as hell hadn't accepted Steve's.
And though he was worried the navy might come back at any moment and snatch Rowan up again, Steve was very happy to be returning home to his house, with Rowan in tow. Both of them were alive and well and that was more than he could ask for. Steve was going to need some time to heal, but Rowan was, for the most part, in perfect health. And going on about how she was gonna take care of him for the foreseeable future. He was definitely going to look forward to that.
He let Rowan in first, loving how she just slid into his home like she had always belonged there. He shut the door behind them and tossed his keys into the bowl. He was already eyeing his chair. He was ready to sink in it, to close his eyes and begin the resting period, and as soon as Rowan got within arm's reach that girl was going on his lap and staying there. No matter how much it hurt his ribs.
Then his cellphone rang.
"Tell Catherine I say hi," Rowan called from the kitchen. "Also, I'm going to make you a tea."
"Sure, thing babe… but uh… if you could get me a beer too, that'd be great," he called. "And you don't know its Catherine."
Steve fished out his cellphone and looked at the number. Private long distance number. Satellite phone.
Fuck it probably was Catherine.
"Hey, Catherine, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Hassan's men were searching the area and I had to lay low until they were gone," she said. Steve couldn't help but feel relieved. He glanced over to where Rowan was already making tea.
"You were right, it is her and she's fine," he called to her.
"Told you!" Rowan called back and Steve smiled.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that Rowan knew I was going to be okay, tell her I say thanks for checking her strings for me. Or dreams, you know, whatever they are."
"What about the kids? Did you get them out?"
"Yeah, they're safe."
"Was Najib with them?"
"No, no, but I got a lead on where he might be," Catherine admitted and Steve almost swore, damn Rowan had been right about that one too. "I think they might have taken him across the border."
Steve took that in. "You're gonna go after him, aren't you?" Steve asked.
"Yeah. Yeah I am. I have to. And I can't come back until I find him."
Steve was worried. He was. He couldn't help it. This woman had been part of his life for so long, he had cared for her for so long, just because they weren't together anymore didn't mean he wanted he running off into dangerous situations without the help.
"I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for helping me with this. And I know you. I know what you're like. You're going to want to come back and help, but you can't do that. You… you almost died, Rowan was right and you almost died. I think… I think It's better if I do this alone… without you… so that I can… so that the distance can help me… fall out of love with you."
Steve sighed. God. She knew him well. Suddenly the phone was pulled out of his hand. He looked up as Rowan put the phone to her ear.
"You find him you know," she said. "It's going to take a while, but in every version of the strings you find him."
Steve smiled up at her, his girl. His beautiful wonderful girl who looked at the different fates so she could help Catherine. The woman who had tried to ruin her. By all means they should have been enemies, and usually they were, but in this time of need Rowan had put all of that aside and looked out for her.
"But uh… if you get in trouble… mention the destroyer. That's me by the way. I'm apparently hot shit over there. Isn't that cool?" Rowan crowed. "Seriously. I'll have them put it in the app for you and everything. Just use code name destroyer and that should get you out of trouble."
Steve wrapped his good arm around her and pressed a kiss to her midriff. "No more app for you," he whispered. "You promised."
Rowan handed him back the phone. "Whatever you say dear."
"Good-bye Steve," Catherine said to him. "I'll… uh… I'll never be able to repay you enough. Either of you."
"Just be careful," he said to her and then he let her hand up the phone.
He looked back to the kitchen Rowan had a mug of tea for herself and a mug of tea for him too.
"A beer would be better, Ro," he said to her as she put the mug in his hand.
"Not on the pain meds you're on," she said. "Trust me, I've been on that ride, you won't like it."
Ah that fateful Christmas dinner were a very drunk Rowan did a lot of really strange things and then threw up. Yes. What an entertaining ride to watch her go on, but she was right he did not need to go on it.
"Fair."
He let her perch on the arm of his chair, as he drank his tea. The house seemed different, quieter since they returned.
He thought about the night they had Grace over and decided that maybe what his house needed was more people. Preferably little mixes of Rowan and Steve.
"I have something to ask you," Steve said and Rowan turned to him with a smile on her face.
"Yesss?"
"Before I do, can I just say, I planned this out so much better than what you're getting right now," he said. "I swear. I had a swanky reservation in a private booth over at Le Cirque…" "Le Cirque… but it's like impossible to get a reservation there." "Yes, it is, it took a lot of wheel greasing to get that one…" "When are we going?" "Uh… you know the first night I was in Afghanistan?"
Rowan glared at him, deep and darkly. "Are you telling me I missed out on Le Cirque over that bullshit?"
Okay this was already not going well. "Okay that is not the point, can I get to the point please?" he asked and with a sigh Rowan gestured for him to go on. "Okay, the point is I had this great romantic evening planned with a fancy restaurant and a fancy outfit, all blue cause I know how you like me in blue, and then I was going to ask you something very important and hope to god you said yes cause my happiness relies on it…"
"What were you going to ask me?"
"To go steady."
"To go steady?" she echoed. "What are we in the 1940s?"
"Shut up. That's what I was going to ask you. Me, you, exclusive."
"But what about…"
"I can't really say shit about Wo Fat after Afghanistan, now can I? Not when he's the only reason you lived through it."
"That is true."
"So… you know, I'm okay to look over the whole Wo Fat issue thing… so long as he leaves me alone," Steve said. "And you don't invite him to dinner or something."
"You think I'm stupid enough to put the two of you in the same room?" she asked and Steve half laughed, good girl.
"So… what do you say?"
"To what?"
"Going steady, Rowan."
"Oh, have you asked me already? Like was that you asking me?"
"Rowan," he growled in warning.
"Oh, of course I'm going to say yes," she whispered and then kissed him, lightly because his jaw still hurt and he smiled.
Happiness didn't even begin to describe how he was feeling at that moment.
"You still owe me a night at Le Cirque."
Fuck.