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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: HEY Y'all we had a great question from one of my readers last chapter that I'm gonna answer now. So Gajeel-rocks wanted to know if all Rowan's songs are plagiarised, even where she came from. The answer is no. Since this is fiction we're going to assume that Rowan's written them all, even in her own world. And that's just because… I'm creative but not creative enough for me to make up my own songs. I tried doing some of my own poetry stuff and it sucked so I'm sticking to her stealing songs for us. Sorry if that's a rip off, side note, if you have any songs that you think Rowan would write or Steve would sing to her, drop me a lyric or a song name! I'll see if I can work it in for you. Don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday.
Chapter 126
Steve watched from the couch as Rowan rushed around his house. She was in a complete panic double checking everything. Even though it was before noon, Steve took a sip on his longboard. She was making him nervous just by watching her.
"Ro, everything's fine, can you calm down please?" he called.
"NO!" she snapped back without stopped. "Everything can't be fine. It has to be perfect!"
God why had he agreed to this? Why? It was supposed to be just a cookout, throw a few burgers on the grill, keep the beer flowing and everything would be fine. But Rowan was acting like it was tea with the queen.
Granted it was her first time at a cookout at his place, and her first time hosting one with him, so he got why she was so nervous, but like… she really didn't need to be. These were her friends and they were going to be happy with whatever she put out, even if the umbrellas on the cups weren't perfectly aligned.
"Babe, come on… you're making me dizzy."
"I think that would be the beer you're drinking at 11 am buddy!" she called back rushing from the kitchen and out to the Lanai. Probably to check on the decorations and the set up and the table for the hundredth time.
Steve took another swig of his beer. He wanted to tell her that she was driving him to drink but that would be cruel. Besides it was kind of cute to have her freaking out about pleasing their friends. Like their friendship depended on this cook-out going well.
When Rowan came back inside, Steve got up off of the couch, set aside his beer and then cornered her against the kitchen counter.
Rowan groaned, dodging his attempts to kiss her. "Steve I don't have time for this," she hissed, but Steve wasn't letting her go.
"Babe, everything's perfect, so stop it. Stop your worrying. Stop your pacing and your fussing, and stop avoiding me, you know you want me babe."
He said that last sentence with a smirk on his face, his trademark smirk and it was that smirk that got her, because she was on her tippy toes in an instant rewarding him with that kiss he so desperately wanted.
He devoured her hungrily pinning her between him and the counter immediately. He'd've gotten away with more too if she wasn't in a nice white summer dress and fussing about not messing up her hair. He let her push him away from her and then leant back and watched as she primped and pampered herself making sure her lipstick was fine and her hair was still perfectly curled.
But when the doorbell rang she jumped, and then pressed her skirt again like she was brushing off imaginary dirt.
"They're here, they're here."
"Well someone's here," Steve said moving away from the kitchen and towards the door, already sort of guessing who it was. Because the door didn't stay shut it just opened on its own. "Hi Danny."
"Hi Grace!" Rowan cried hugging her first while Steve bro-hugged Danny. Rowan took the plate of sandwiches from Danny as Grace hugged Steve and walked away to put the sandwiches in the fridge.
Danny looked at Steve hard and then said: "You got a little…" and then indicated to Steve face.
Steve felt at his lips. Rowan's lipstick. "Goddamn it, Ro! Do I have lipstick on my face?!"
From the kitchen Rowan laughed. "That's what you get for pinning me down to ravish me," she called and Steve frowned and swiped at his lips.
"Is it gone?" he asked.
"No, you've missed… aw just come here," Danny ordered, crossing to him and starting to forcibly rub the red off of Steve's face. "There… I think that's all of it."
Steve thanked him and then a pair of someones cleared their throats. Suddenly Steve remembered that Rowan and Grace were still near-by and had probably witnessed everything.
"Do you guys need a room?" Rowan asked and Steve and Danny devolved into complaints about how he was trying to get Rowan's permanent lipstick off. "Yeah, yeah whatever. Can you two start the grilling please, Grace would like me to braid her hair for today so we shall be upstairs. Can one of you also please answer the door as people arrive in case I'm busy with Grace's hair?"
"That's a lot to expect me to do, Rowan."
"It's grilling and answering doors, Steven. Please tell me I can trust you with that?"
Steve frowned at her and said: "Grilling is an art form it needs all of my attention," just as Danny nodded and said: "We got this."
"Thank you, boys!" Rowan called before disappearing up the stairs with Grace. Steve shook his head. He should have gotten a few more kisses in before she left. Even if he got lipstick all over his face.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
The cook out was in full swing.
Steve had burgers, sausages, and hotdogs going. Kamekona had shrimp sizzling away. He even had one breast of chicken for Rowan. He was flanked by Danny, Grover, Chin and Kamekona, they were all sipping on their longboards and arguing about the best way to grill all while micromanaging Steve's job
Rowan was milling around making sure that everyone was talking and okay. She made sure that glasses were refilled and bowls of snacks and plattered plates were never empty. She was going back and forth from the kitchen to the table handing out everything that had been brought.
Though to be fair, the boys mostly just brought beer. But Renee had brought a cake, Max and Sabrina had brought a potato salad, Flipper had brought a soundtrack, and his ukulele to serenade them, Duke and his wife had brought fruit plate, Kono and Adam had brought a baked mac and cheese.
Samantha was sitting with Renee, quiet and subdued, but her brother, Will, was running around wild with Grace who looked like a regular princess with her braided crown. Looking like Rowan's twin. Rowan had even been nice enough to braid up Amber's hair the same way when she came in. So they were the braid Triplets and Amber wouldn't feel left out.
Everyone was eating, except… you know her and Steve but she was fine with that. Maybe, Steve wasn't but she was.
She crossed to him and all she had to do was put a hand to his shoulder and that beer bottle was discarded so he could wrap an arm around her waist. Every time before this he had done so with the beer bottle in hand, but a drop of beer had gotten on her dress and that had been all she needed to freak out over it. After that the beer bottle was not allowed anywhere near her and her white dress.
"You hungry?" she asked and he shook his head.
"Your chicken's almost ready," he said instead.
"Mmm… okay so would you like me to make you up a plate?" she asked him and he pressed a kiss to her temple.
"Sure thing babe, get me all the good stuff."
Rowan smiled to him but had to practically move his hand to get him to let go. She left him with the others pulling together plates for all of them, and not just Steve.
Grace came running up tugging an uncomfortable looking Amber with her. "Auntie Ro, Auntie Ro!" she called. "Can we teach Uncle Steve the dance now?"
"Hmm… I unno, he's pretty busy right now, why don't you go ask him?"
Grace immediately abandoned her dragging Amber over to pester Steve. Rowan watched as he paused in his grilling to focus on Grace. Rowan walked over with her plates to offer up to the men just in time to hear him say: "I'd love that Grace, but maybe once I'm done grilling."
Grace's face fell and Rowan stepped up. "Couldn't one of the boys take over grilling for you? Just for a little while? For Grace?"
Steve stared at her, but he eventually sighed at her. "Alright, you guys can teach me the dance," he said. "Is it… uh… is it just me or are other people gonna learn."
"Ohhh yeah, that sounds like fun," Rowan said nudging Grace. "Why don't you and Amber get that started and I'll come join you when I get a chance, huh?"
Grace nodded happy to be in charge of this activity. Steve handed Danny the reigns… or the flipper in this case and went with them. They were soon joined by Grover and Kono, who dragged Adam with her. Sabrina and Max were next, and once the music was playing and Grace was going over steps Renee and Will joined in too.
Rowan sat down beside Samantha who hadn't seemed interested but was covertly watching from under hooded eyes. "You can go join them, you know," she whispered.
Samantha shook her head and Rowan sat back and thought about what everyone had told her when she had gone through terrible things in her life.
"You know, when bad things happen, people like to tell you that eventually things will get better. They tell you to talk about it, and not internalize what you're feeling. And they've got a point, but they don't tell you that talking doesn't actually make you feel better. At least… not right away."
Samantha turned to her. "What would you know about it?" she asked.
Wow, teenage sass at its best. Yeah, well… she kind of deserved that. "Well… I crashed a car once and ruined my life, my brother's life, and killed the three people in the car with me. I got kidnapped. I got sexually assaulted. My family have cut me out of their lives and I'm essentially halfway across the world from anyone I know and the life I had made for myself and I'm never going to get any of that back. And trust me… talking about it doesn't make me feel better. But neither does holding it in. Do you want to know what I do to help myself?"
"Sure."
"I keep living. I surround myself with things that make me happy. Like Steve, like singing… like all of you," she said gesturing to everyone around her. "These people are there for me. So what if I'm not ready to talk about things now? I know that when I'm ready they'll be there and until then they'll help me stay distracted."
Samantha glanced to where her mom and brother were learning dance moves. "It's okay... you know? You don't have to bounce back right away, you don't have to always be happy, but you do owe it to yourself to at least try to keep living."
Samantha looked down. "I never thanked you for saving me."
"Yeah well… to be fair I kind of also caused the emotional problems."
"Ian's done the damage… you… you… you kinda saved my life."
"True. But don't worry, the Five-0's don't say thank you either. I'm used to it."
"I think I'm gonna go join them after all," Samantha said standing up and Rowan smiled and watched her go.
Well that was one thing on the road to being fixed at least. Sitting there she stared out at the people who had quickly become her closest friends, to the man her heart belonged to. All of them dancing to a song she wrote. Though she missed her friend and family from her timeline, she couldn't help but be happy that she had met such nice people, that she was in the process of making herself a new family, a new life and a new her.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
"Thanks for staying back," Rowan said to the group that was sitting in front of her. They had Danny, Kono, Chin and Grover. Renee, Amber and Adam had agreed to take the children plus Grace out for ice cream so that they could have this private meeting. The whole reason that they had agreed to have the cook-out in the first place.
"Yeah… I mean, you said it was important," Kono said. "Is everything okay?"
"Oh yeah, no everything's fine. It's just that… uh… I… Steve and I… we have an announcement."
"Oh god they're getting married…" Danny said. "Two months unofficially together and they're gonna get married. I bet those dog tags were the engagement ring!"
"Naw, they're breaking up," Grover said. "They're breaking up and they need us to take sides."
Steve scowled at his friends as they all laughed at their jokes. None of that was funny. "We're not breaking up," he growled.
"And he can't get away with proposing to me with dog tags. It's a diamond or I won't say yes," Rowan and then waved off Steve's emerging protests. "No, we're going to tell you guys the truth. The whole truth. About me."
And just like that they all went silent. You could have cut the tension that blanketed the Lanai with a knife.
"So… some of you know most of the story. But uh… you know, we have a new person on our team who's out of the loop and with Rowan's ever growing and evolving talents, we thought it was best to just come clean about everything," Steve said. "But… you know… you guys… you gotta…"
"Not tell anyone," they all said together and then Steve turned to Rowan. She looked at Steve, who interlaced his fingers with her for solidarity. She took a deep breath and turned to the group in front of her.
"I'm not psychic."
Everyone just stared at her. Kono blinked her eyes. "But you… you know everything beforehand…"
"That's because you guys are my favourite TV show."
That earned her some strange looks. "Excuse me?" Grover snapped. "I'm on a TV show now? We being filmed right at this moment?"
"No, nothing like that," Rowan said.
"Rowan… come on… I thought that this was part of the delusion, I thought we agreed that it wasn't possible," Chin reminded them. Steve and Rowan exchanged glances before looking back at the team.
"We said what we had to," Steve told them. "You guys were asking too many questions that we didn't have answers for. So we… we came up with a clever cover up."
"What most of you know, is that two years ago, essentially I fell out of the sky. There was no record of me in any database, and we told everyone I had amnesia, and that maybe I came off a commune or something and the Governor got me a citizen ship card, Steve create a new kind of identity for me and we kind of just stopped talking about it."
"No, we talk about it, but you don't answer our questions, Ro," Chin told her and she again, waved that off.
"Kay… well… that's true… but uh… but that's not the point. The point is I'm not from here. Like this reality. I'm not from this reality. The me that's here is dead, I was… I was still born. Which is why I don't have any records and why my DNA didn't pull up any matches when you searched me up. I have a family, but I don't match their DNA… which I think is also because I don't come from here so our DNA is different… I mean… I've looked at the tests they're similar but not enough to be a familiar match, more like a distant cousin."
Steve turned to her surprise on his face. She had tested her DNA against theirs too? Holy. Shit. He had no idea that she had even looked into that. She didn't know that they had come to the island to look for her did she? Because if she did… he had a feeling he'd be in a lot of trouble for sending them home.
"You know… I don't know what I was expecting… but alternate reality wasn't it," Grover muttered when they all went quiet.
"It's a lot to take in. But essentially… my dad's a cosmologist…." "You're dad's into beauty?" "No smart ass," she snapped to Danny. "He's a scientist who studies the universe, he specializes in parallel universes with in the realm of String Theory. He was always creating new gadgets to prove the existence of them, specifically with contacting them and by opening up the space between them."
"So, what does that have to do with anything?"
"I got hit by an energizing particle gun, the night before I ended up here, and from my limited knowledge of what my dad was always babbling about, instead of taking over someone's body I just sort of… dropped in from the sky."
"Okay… so all this vision… dream… electric shit is because you're from an alternate reality."
"Okay, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not sure what the electric stuff is about," Rowan told them. "I can tell you that my dreams or visions or insane knowledge is cause where I come from, this is all a TV show and I watched all the episodes repeatedly."
"All the episodes huh? Is there a particular reason?"
"Him," Rowan said pointing at Steve just as he raised a hand and said: "Yeah, me."
He then shot her a proud smirk. "The reason we're telling you is because her powers are evolving," he said. "She's harnessing electric powers from the void she travelled through, she used to be able to open up the door between the worlds and go through, and we just learned that if I'm greatly stressed I can call the void to me too."
There was a cacophony of cries at that last one and Steve put out a hand to calm them all down. "It was in Afghanistan. Uh… I called up a shield, it kept my head on my shoulders."
"Okay, so little miss can travel through the worlds, is that what you're saying?" Grover asked.
Rowan shook her head. "I haven't been able to open a door to the void in a very long time. But once I lost the ability to open the door I gained the ability to electrocute people on cue. Like the woman in the Palace basement, or the tiger shark or all the IA tapes," she said. "I'm also forgetting things. Like… a lot of things."
"Like what?" Kono asked.
"My life."
Everyone stared at her. "I can't remember things from my past, until something jogs my memory. I've lost all the episodes, I don't know them off the top of my head, but I'm getting dreams, dreams and visions when I need them, when the events are starting to happen or are going to start happening soon. But now I can look at the different options until I find one that works for us."
"This is a lot to take in," Kono admitted. "I knew things were going on but I just thought… I don't know what I thought."
Rowan nodded. "I mean, you guys were all fine with psychic, how is this any different? How were you guys explaining me generating enough static electricity to scare of a tiger shark?"
"We just figured you were some kind of mutant with amnesia," Chin said.
"My money was on government experiment that escaped," Kono offered.
"I knew what was going on, cause Steve told me, and cause I witnessed the whole flickering thing, but my money was on witch," Danny added.
"Y'all I just figured the girl was crazy and you were feeding into her delusions cause it was easier," Grover cried. "You mean to tell me she really just dropped out of the sky one day? That she really gets psychic visions? That she really electrocuted a goddamn tiger shark?"
"Yes," Danny and Steve said at the same time. "She uh… landed in the ocean right beside our dinghy."
"We were stranded at the time," Danny told him.
"Okay… so uh… are we all on the same page now?" Rowan asked. "I'm not from your universe. My visions are memories of a TV show I watched religiously cause I had a celebrity crush on Steven McGarrett, and I swear, I'mma do everything I can to change all the terrible things that are going to happen."
"Uh… terrible things like what?" Kono asked.
"Well for starters I'm going to make sure that Adam doesn't go to jail, so that's like… my priority number one. I'm gonna make sure Grover don't get kidnapped by that Chicago mafia dude or something, I'm still fuzzy on that cause I think that's like… really far away in the future. And if I can get Charlie his bone marrow before he gets super sick I'm gonna do that too," Rowan listed, she then turned to Steve and whispered: "I've already made sure that you won't get tortured."
Okay, that was worrying. And suddenly everyone was asking questions. Mafia? Why the hell do you care about Charlie? Why is Adam going to jail? Wait who the hell was going to torture me?
And poor Rowan stood in the middle of it all, eyes whipping from person to person clearly overwhelmed, so Steve stepped up.
"Okay, whoa, alright, lets calm down," he said. "She just told us things are fuzzy, we're not close enough to those things yet for her to know enough to inform us, but she will keep us posted right?"
"Well… I mean I'll try, but… you guys don't really listen to me…"
"Hell, girl, can't you dream the winning lottery numbers?"
"If it didn't happen on the Hawaii Five-0 I don't have it in my head, sorry,"
"Wait, Hawaii Five-0, is that the name of the show?" Steve asked and Rowan nodded. "Yeah. It's a remake of an oldie me and my dad used to watch back in the day. I was so excited when they rebooted it. Dad didn't like you though, thought you were too much of a pretty boy."
Ouch. Rude.
"Okay… so uh… other than to clarify visions are there any questions?" Steve asked.
Kono raised her hand. "Why do you think you came here? I mean… do you have a theory about what happened?"
Steve and Danny exchanged glances. See, they knew, they knew what had happened. But Rowan did not.
"The night before I woke up in the sky… falling… my brother shot me with my dad's latest invention. It's got a fancy name, but essentially, it's a particle energizing gun. It uh… it only shoots a special kind of lazer. It's essentially harmless. He had only ever used it on objects… never anything alive. I'm not sure what it was that brought me here… but I'm pretty sure I survived the trip because I was energized by that gun. I think it… I think… I think the trip itself kind of tied me to the void."
That was only part of the story. The other half… the other half was that her family here had performed an experiment, that they had tried to pull someone or something through and because she was energized it had pulled her through to another world. But… Steve couldn't tell her that without telling her how he knew that.
"And your family is here… like you're mom and your dad and your brother?" Chin asked.
Rowan nodded again. "They're not my real family. They're the version of my family that's in the world. The version of my family if I wasn't born. They… they wouldn't know me."
"Which is why when she called her mother, back when she was dealing with that amnesia from her head injury, her mother freaked out on her," Danny finished.
Grover raised his hand and Rowan nodded. "Look. I'm just gonna try and sum this all up here, see if I've got it straight. You watched a TV show and you like that version of Steven McGarrett. And then you got pulled here by some whacky science you don't understand and you've been helping us with our cases because you watched that TV show so you know what's going to happen beforehand."
"Yeah, that's about it."
"So we got Samantha back because you realized what episode you were in? And acted accordingly."
"Yes, that is what happened… but you know… with help… Wo Fat was a great help in that instance… I couldn't have done that without him," she said shooting a glance at Steve who avoided her eyes, his jaw pulsing in his annoyance, clearly trying to bite back a witty retort about how useful he thought Wo Fat to be.
"Okay, but where does Wo Fat fit into all of this?" Chin asked. "I mean… he just… I unno… I don't get it… did you void him into liking you or something?"
"Uh… do you guys remember back when Steve and I were still not admitting we liked each other?" she asked. That earned her a few groans and one: How could we forget from Danny. "Kay, well I went missing. Right? And if you guys remember I came back kind of…"
"Skeletal," Steve finished for her.
"Yeah that's a good word," Rowan whispered and they all nodded. "Okay, well… every day… some times more than once a day, I was going into the void and trying to go home. I couldn't find the way back to my world, by the way. I kept getting tangled up in red strings and falling back here. Anyway. On one trip I basically landed in Wo Fat's lap and he kind of just… took me in."
"Just like that?"
"Yeah. I unno it was weird. He took me in but I got away from him and then you know… I fell out of that helicopter and he just decided to keep me," Rowan said with a shrug. "He says I grew on him. But uh… yeah, other than the void kind of dropped me in his vicinity, the void doesn't really have anything to do with what's going on with me and him."
"Okay, and you can't open the door to the void anymore?" Grover asked. "Like, you can't try to go home?"
"No. Uh… I haven't been able to open the void since my last trip through. I fell out… uh… into the ocean and I've lost the power to open the door," she told them and Steve and Danny exchanged glances. Out of curioustiy they had plotted the spot where he and Chin had gone to rescue Rowan. It was the exact same place she had dropped into their lives two years ago. It was the exact same place her father and brother had been trawling looking for whatever had dropped out of the void.
"I had one surprise trip when you guys had the zombie case, where I ended up in the tunnels, but uh… yeah… haven't been able to open any doors," she admitted she glanced up at Steve who was avoiding her eyes before she added: "Not that I've been really trying or anything."
Thank god for that.
"And what are the red strings."
"Uh… well… we've established that they're coming from me…" Steve admitted. Both to himself, and to all of them.
"Not all from him, I'm making them too. But they're connecting us together... and tie us together."
"Wait… so you two have red strings connecting you together?" Kono asked and they both nodded. "That's so funny. Cause there's this Chinese myth that says that soul mates have an invisible red string of love tied between them. And… like… you guys are pretty well… I unno, it's not love, obviously but it's something."
Rowan and Steve exchanged glances. Was that what this was? His feelings for her were keeping her stuck in this reality and vice versa? That… that wasn't fair… was it?
"Okay this is a lot to take in," Grover said slapping his thighs and standing up. "I mean… as an explanation it really just raises more questions… that I'm thinking none of you know how to answer."
"Uh… probably not, I mean… I can try."
"Have you thought of contacting the dad you have here?" Chin suddenly asked. "Maybe he would know what's going on? Or… does he not have the same job?"
Steve's heart froze in his chest as he glanced first to Danny and then to Rowan who was trying to answer the question. "Well… no he does… but…"
"How do we explain to him what happened? He'd think we're crazy," Steve interrupted. The panic on his face apparent because Danny rolled his eyes but added: "Yeah, he's gotta point. Crazy, or the government's going to swoop in and try to weaponize her. We already had the Navy try that over her network… let's just let things calm down before we start making any announcements about her abilities, shall we?"
They all nodded and then stood up to follow Grover. Steve kept his hand tightly around Rowan's. He didn't want her to make contact with her family. Not because he was trying to be controlling, but because he knew if he did, she'd leave and he wouldn't be able to survive that.
Maybe that was him being controlling. Maybe he could trust her to make contact with her family and not leave him. Maybe he could go to Canada with her and help her through this… maybe….
His heart constricted in his chest again. No. He'd have to tell her that her family came looking and he had them deported. He'd have to admit that they were here for her and he sent them away. That he locked her file so they couldn't look her up without contacting him for permission. That he told them she didn't exist and then made it impossible for them to ever locate her again.
Then he'd lose her for sure.
No. Steve couldn't chance that. He couldn't. Not when things were going so well. No. he'd… he'd just… wait. He'd wait and tell her later.
Much. Much. Much later.