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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hey guys day three of our seven day marathon! Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! You guys are great readers! Alright, you guys, this is the chapter where the lovely Guest Reviewer, AJ's character will be introduced. With the possibility of being brought back later, maybe, we'll see. So, to AJ I hope I did you and your character justice, I hope you enjoy the chapter and to everyone else, I hope you guys enjoy it too! Still posting from the app hopefully you guys are seeing this! See you tomorrow!

Chapter 130

Rowan and Steve had so much to do today.

It was the first official Game Night at the McGarrett house. Where they were going to be hosting their very own game night like an official fucking couple. Which meant a lot to her because she couldn't get him to agree to put a label on her. And of course, in the midst of last-minute preparations that Steve swore he'd help her with, the asshole went and caught a case. It was Rowan's job to hand him off to Danny at the crime scene on her way to getting more supplies for the party.

"Come on Steve! We're running late as it is!" she called up to him.

"I can't find my shield baby! Where did you throw it?"

Rowan tried not to groan. Yes, they had gotten quite passionate last night after he had come home from work but she didn't remember throwing his badge any where. She had thrown his boxers across the room but not his badge.

"It probably fell off your belt again, try under the bed," she called again.

"It's not there," he shouted back. "I checked."

"Well check again, cause if come up those stairs and find it under the bed I'mma super glue that fucking shield to you hand!"

She heard him grumbling upstairs but she didn't have time for this. "I'm going to get the car started," she called but Steve ignored her this time. She opened the door and startled the other person on the other side.

Whoever she was, she had a hand poised and ready to knock on the door, and probably would have if Rowan hadn't opened the door when she had. The woman on the other side was wearing tan cargo pants and a black tank top. She had long dark brown hair and kind of looked a little bit like Catherine, the only difference was the green eyes.

"Uh… hi? Can I help you?" Rowan said. She didn't like this. This didn't feel right. Catherine was gone, but a Catherine look-a-like was now standing on her door step… why?

"Hi… I'm looking for…"

If she finished that sentence with Steven McGarrett Rowan was going to flip shit. "AJAX!" Steve shouted behind her. Oh. Fuck no.

"Stevie Wonder!" the woman cried out, shoving her way past Rowan quite effectively to enter the house Rowan had no intention of letting her into and hugging the man that Rowan was supposed to be dating.

"Man! It's been too long. Did you uh… did you ever get that FBI gig?"

Wait, hold on, she worked for the FBI? That was kind of suspicious. That someone who went way back with Steven McGarrett, who also worked for the FBI, would just show up out of the blue, with no prior notice or attempt to get in contact, only a few weeks after Wo Fat escaped prison and went under ground after doing her a series of favour… like killing a guy who had kidnapped her boyfriend's co-worker's daughter.

Okay she was just being crazy right? Like not everything in the world was about her and Wo Fat. Maybe this… Ajax person was just here to see Steve… that's totally plausible… right?

"Sure did, but look at you, with your own task force. Never thought I'd see the day that Wild Steven McGarrett quit the navy," she said slapping Steve shoulder.

He was grinning, ear to ear, actually he was beaming. Well… that was it, she was going to be late for dropping him off, she was going to get bitched at by Danny.

"Uh… hi… I'm Rowan… the girlfriend," she said. She heard Steve open his mouth, knew he was about to say that she wasn't his girlfriend yet, and she elbowed him in the ribs as quickly as she could as she threaded her arm with his. "Don't you dare," she growled to him and then offered this Ajax person her hand.

"I'm sorry, and your name is… uh… Ajax?"

"Naw, my name is AJ, short for Amanda Jean, but Steve used to call me Ajax when we were kids."

Rowan blinked her eyes as AJ took her hand and shook it. Ah an illusive childhood friend. So, they did exist. "AJ lived down the street from us and she'd come down to play with me like… every day. She was such a tomboy too, always getting muddy, had an amazing football tackle… and yeah. She moved away when we were… oh… we had to be ten." "Yeah, something like that." "And we sort of kept in touch over the years, but she's been, you know, in Washington becoming a big bad FBI agent and I was you know…" "Touring the world?" "Yeah that's one way of putting it."

They finished each other's sentences. Not even she and Steve did that… unless they were arguing.

"So how long are you in town for?" Steve asked.

"Only a few days, I was going to ask if you had some free time for your favourite childhood friend, but uh… I guess you're busy."

"Naw it's just a case," Steve said. Dear god if he blew off a case for this girl, Rowan was going to kill him. He never blew of cases for her… and he was fucking her. Hell he had promised her he'd help her with the supply run for tonight and he was blowing it off for a case right at that moment. "Hey… I know you're on vacation but uh… did you want to come with?"

"You want me on a case with you?"

"I mean… you don't have to help or anything but if you just wanted to passively watch on maybe?" Steve asked a cheeky grin on her face. "Besides it would give us the time to catch up."

"I'd love to!" Ajax cried with a big beaming smile on her face. Great she even smiled like Catherine.

"Oh, babe, she should come to game night, Jerry said that his… uh… his plus one can't make it so you know, we need an extra player."

"So, she's going to a crime scene with you and she's coming to game night," Rowan asked almost sarcastically. She then donned a fake smile and tried to be as enthusiastic as possible as she said: "Oh yay!"

What she really meant was: Fuck me.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny stood beside Chin watching as the Catherine look-a-like chatted up with Steve at the side lines of the murder. They were talking shop, talking about theories. Which was pissing Danny off because that was his thing, that was a his and Steve's thing.

Their body had been found at the bottom of an ice machine that morning. And then Rowan showed up, with Steve and this new woman, and then promptly dropped them onto Danny because she didn't want to deal with it anymore. Danny had almost forgiven her, she was taking tonight's Game Night very seriously and she was very annoyed that Steve wasn't staying home to help her. But he could tell that she was also pissed off about the amazing Ajax, on vacation from her cushy job with the FBI, showing up unannounced.

"I guess you can say… he was put on ice," she said and Steve broke out in loud laughter like it was the funniest fucking thing he had ever heard. Which was bullshit because if Danny had made that joke Steve would have just rolled his eyes and called him stupid.

Beside him Chin let out a breathy chuckle, just a single one, more like an exhale of amusement, but it still earned him a glare. The traitor.

"Oh, come on, that was kind of funny," Chin whispered to him.

Danny shook his head. He had a bad feeling about this. Steve kept mentioning childhood friends, but Danny always thought he made them up because Steve was neurotic and hard to put up with, and the only people who could do it successfully without trying to kill him was Rowan, Danny and the rest of the Five-0s. But maybe Steven wasn't as bad as a child as he was now. Danny doubted it, but maybe.

"So, tell me about this girlfriend who isn't a girlfriend?" AJ suddenly asked and Danny and Chin were suddenly very, very interested in this question and why she was asking it. They exchanged surprised glances, but Steve didn't seem to find this suspicious.

"Well… she's sort of, kind of, my girlfriend… I just… we don't do labels," Steve admitted.

"Are you sure cause I think she does labels," AJ told him. How astute of her to realize that Rowan was one of those girls who very much wanted a label. But Steve hated getting into that conversation and the scowl was enough for AJ to realize that and change the topic. "How long have you known her?"

"Two years," he answered. "What about you, you got anyone?"

"No," AJ answered stiffly. "And she's not from here is she?" when Steve just turned to her she added: "Come on now, I lived her long enough to spot a Haole. Where is she from?"

"Uh… Canada," he answered.

"And her family is there?"

Steve was suspicious now. Hell, Danny and Chin were pretty fucking suspicious too. Why the hell did she want to know all of this stuff about Rowan? Why did she care? About Rowan of all things. Was she after Steve, was that why she was here?

"Uh… she's estranged from her family…" "All her family?" "Why are you asking me all these questions about my girlfriend?"

"I thought she wasn't your girlfriend," Danny called and Steve turned a scowl to him and snapped an unimpressed: "Shut up."

"I don't know. I guess I'm interested to see what kind of girl tamed you. You know? You had high expectations, I guess I'm curious to see if she meets them… cause honestly looking at the two of you… it just looks like an odd match you know?"

"What the hell does that mean?" Steve snapped. Oh hot damn, she hit Steve's main insecurity when it came to Rowan right on the fucking nose. Danny knew he'd have to save Ajax from the argument that was going to break out if they stayed on this topic. And besides he wanted his case and his best friend back.

"Okay, you know what, no. No more chit chat, we have a case, buddy, so save the catching up for later."

"Oh yeah, we gotta wrap this up, Rowan was very clear if we miss game night because of a case she'll not speak to us for a week," Steve added with a sigh.

That actually sounded quite nice and the prospect of not having Rowan's nagging in his ear for a whole week sounded great. That must have shown on his face because Steve sighed and growled: "Yeah, smile, go ahead and smile, you don't have to live with her."

"I mean… if she gets really mad she'll probably make you sleep on my couch again…"

"Shut up Danny," Steve cried storming away and as he did Danny turned his attention back to AJ who was on her phone. Now who could she be texting with that look on her face?

Seriously… what was this girl after? Information or Steve? Maybe they could have another running bet on what it was.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny and Amber were the third couple to arrive, Amber immediately went to where Rowan was sitting with AJ and Kono and Steve was relieved.

"Thank-god you're here man," Steve whispered dragging Danny into the kitchen to get a beer. "Rowan has been nothing but frosty since AJ and Jerry got here and… like… I thought Kono would be the mature one and help smooth things over but Kono's on her side and they've like… frosted AJ out."

"I thought you said Rowan was fine with AJ."

"Turns out I was wrong," Steve said. "I came back after the case and she was livid. I think she's just mad at me for bailing on the prep for tonight but she's taking it out on AJ."

Danny nodded. "You know… uh… to be fair… she has been asking a lot of questions about her, maybe Rowan doesn't like that."

Steve shook his head but Danny wasn't going to let it go there.

"I'll bet you any money… any money that AJ is here to get info about Rowan," Danny said taking a sip of his beer. Steve scowled at him and Danny added: "Well you said the CIA knew about her, maybe they want to see how much she knows."

"That's the CIA, AJ works for the FBI."

"They live in the same house don't they?" Danny asked. "Look, AJ has an in with you already. Easy to send her in, lull you into a sense of security, get you to talk about Rowan."

"AJ is just a friend, Danny," Steve snapped. He didn't want to believe that AJ would do that to him, he just didn't.

"Yeah, a friend who spent most of the day asking you questions about Rowan, she even asked US questions about Rowan," Danny told him. "So either she's here cause she was to fuck you and she's trying to get Rowan out of the way or she's fishing for info."

"You're insane."

"Well you're so sure I'm wrong you wanna bet on it?"

"Bet on it!"

"Yeah, if AJ doesn't make a move on you, if the FBI or the CIA don't swoop in to arrest Rowan lunch is on me for a month." Oh that was a sweet deal. "But if I'm right, I'm driving during work hours for a whole month."

Less of a sweet deal. Still Steve was super confident so he shook Danny's hand.

They returned to living room area, with drinks for the people who had arrived and bowls of nibbles. Steve sat beside Rowan who happily put her head on his shoulder.

"We had a great idea," she told him. Amber nodded molding into Danny's side. "We're going to switch partners."

"Switch partners?" Steve echoed.

"Yeah! Cause we're always with the same people," she said. "We thought it might be nice to change it up get to know people."

Steve was already nervous because everyone at the table currently was very, very competitive… well… except for Jerry and Amber. And Steve was looking forward to playing with the girl who could count cards and cheat at everything. He was basically guaranteed to win.

He glanced around to the women who were all excited for this prospect and the men who didn't give a shit and asked: "Well how would we decide who gets who?"

"We'd draw names from a hat," Rowan said. Ah the luck of the draw, he could get someone good, he could still get Rowan.

"Alright baby, if that's what you guys wanna do then we'll switch partners up, okay?" he said pressing a kiss to her head. Rowan smiled and immediately ran off to get slips of paper, a pen and a hat. Steve just smiled at watched her go. As soon as she was gone AJ slid a little closer to him and whispered: "So does she like random games of chance then?"

Aww fuck. What if Danny was right? Huh? Steve might have been screwed.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

After everyone arrived they were immediately put into pairs different from their original pain. Steve got Chin, Amber got Lou, Kono got Jerry, Renee was with Danny, and somehow, and Steve could tell that both women were not happy with this, somehow Rowan and AJ got paired.

Everyone was so off put by their matches, claiming that none were a good fit, that they had all agreed on the bet. The team with the most points got to choose a dare for the team with the least points to complete.

And everyone had assumed that AJ and Rowan, the worst matched of the bunch, would be at the bottom but while neither of them had been impressed they sure as hell came together to dominate the games.

They had crushed at Pictionary; they had destroyed them all at charades and they had damn near slaughtered everyone at a card game called Kemps before they remembered that Rowan could fucking count cards.

They had quickly taken away everyone's points for the Kemps games they had played but that still left Rowan and AJ in the lead with an astounded 15 while everyone else was below 7, except for Danny and Renee and Chin and Steve who were both below 5. At this point all Steve needed to do was beat Danny and Renee.

"Okay so what can we play now?" Amber asked.

"How about Monopoly?" Renee answered.

"NO!" Steve, Danny, Chin and Kono shouted.

"What… what the hell do you people have against Monopoly?"

"NEVER play monopoly with Rowan, she has no mercy and takes no prisoners," Kono warned her.

"It was one game…"

"And by the end of that game she owned most of the board, had like five hotels on each piece of land and had bankrupted everyone!" Danny snapped.

Rowan huffed at them. "Aw come on now," she chided. "Monopoly isn't about making friends, it's about making real estate deals. Not my fault you guys didn't take it seriously, I told you I was going to."

They all shook their heads at her. AJ just laughed. "Wow, a girl after my own heart," she crowed which just won her a suspicious glare from Rowan. "How about we go outside and play grounders? Or do prissy-princesses like you not climb?"

She had addressed that question to Rowan who merely smiled coolly at her. They had been doing this all night, it was miraculous that they had managed to team up at all through all the shade they had been throwing at one another. But it was that question there that got Rowan, it was like right at that moment Steve saw something on her face change, like she had decided that that was enough.

"Or, how about we play truth or dare!" Rowan cried turning to Ajax with a sudden cool grin on her face. "Okay Amanda Jean, Truth: Did the FBI send you down here to see how much I know about Wo Fat?"

Ajax went a white color. As Rowan added: "Secondary Truth: Is it true that you took this assignment because you knew your friendship with Steve would get you through the door?"

Steve scowled at Rowan, she already knew all this was true or she wouldn't be doing this. He should have listened to her when she said she had a bad feeling but it never occurred to him that Ajax would betray him… he had thought they had been such good friends. Though, to be fair, it had been such a long time since he had seen her, people did change.

"Must be a career changer. Being the one who catches Wo Fat, probably gonna get that promotion you're angling for. What did he say it was? Senior analyst?" Rowan asked.

"You called Wo Fat about me?"

"Yep. Got your name and file back in twenty minutes," Rowan said proudly picking up her phone. "You wanna talk about your fuck up on the Budapest project?"

Ajax visibly jerked like Rowan had slapped her. "Okay you two, up and in the kitchen. Now!" he ordered.

Both of them followed him and when he turned Ajax was all ready for the lie. "She's got it all wrong."

"Here's a tip you probably didn't get in your file. Rowan's never wrong."

"This isn't a vision," Rowan whispered and he nodded. "Okay, that changes things…" "Wo Fat has a contact in the FBI and the forward me over the unredacted file… wanna see?" "Okay no it doesn't. Really AJ?"

AJ had the decency to lower her eyes, it was the first time he had called her by her initials all day. "Look. He just walked out of a supermax and then showed up on Hawaii and went under ground. We have no chatter on him, except for one incident where he ordered his men to kidnap her. And somehow she ended up not ransomed for information, but handed right back to you at apparently no cost. And now, now she's proven that she has direct access to him."

Steve realized what had happened immediately. She wasn't here because she thought she could get info from Rowan, she was here to get info from Steve about Rowan. The FBI had sent someone to get info about his girl from him.

"No reason… I wasn't kidnapped!" Rowan snapped. "I mean, technically yes, but that was cause he knew we were being surveilled and he didn't want them to think I know where he is."

"So, you're telling me you don't know where he is?"

"Of course not. Steve would have gotten it out of me by now if I knew."

"She has a point I'm really good at guilting her," he added. "But that doesn't change that you thought you could use me for information. I thought we were friends AJ."

"We are!"

"Then how could you…"

"He's an international criminal who kills people, all the time. He has absolutely no sense of morality," she argued. "How are you okay with letting him walk free? Why are you okay with letting your not-girlfriend-but-sort-of-is-your-girlfriend help him evade the law?"

"You've killed just as many people," Rowan added. "What makes you any different? The fact that you have a badge? You still killed people who had families, with people who would miss them. You're no better than him just you're on the other side of the morally grey law. It doesn't make you any less of a murderer."

Steve turned to Rowan horror painted all over his face. Was that… was that what she thought? That he was still a murderer… he did what he had to do to keep people safe, he killed murderers and terrorists, he killed people before they killed him. He was more than justified in every person he had ever had to shoot and she knew how, even though it was justified, sometimes it still haunted him. How could she say that to him? Or in front of him? Just to protect her psychopath of a brother?

"Notice she avoided the evading law question," AJ snapped pointing at her.

"How nice of you to avoid the whole point of this argument, which is that you inserted yourself into Steve's life again to spy on me!" Rowan shouted.

"Okay… both of you stop it! AJ I need you to tell me the real reason you're here. And Rowan… why the hell would you even think of going to your brother about this?" Steve snapped, needing them to stop bickering ASAP.

"I got suspicious about her showing up out of the blue," Rowan told him. "Especially after Kono warned me that she did nothing but ask questions about me, where I come from and what I do for work. So I sent her name off to Wo and he came back with a file like twenty minutes later. Even has a paper trail and an informant that confirms she got sent here to sniff him out, sniff out how much I know about him and how often I'm meeting with him."

Steve turned to AJ with hurt in his eyes. "Is that true?"

AJ's mouth floundered. "I mean… after Budapest… I had to do something and they were thinking of ways to get close to her without him figuring out… I didn't want to but I also fucked up really bad and I've been trying to make that better… and… I really deserve that promotion you don't know how hard it's been, how hard I've had to work just to get this far?"

But that didn't make things better with him. Not only had he lost his bet to Danny, his oldest childhood friend had become a snake.

"How could you?" he hissed. "Just how… God…"

He stormed away, leaving Rowan and AJ in the kitchen as he rushed out into the night. He didn't go far, he couldn't go far… he just needed to hear the lull of the ocean to calm him down.

He wasn't out there for ten minutes before Rowan and AJ had joined him, each taking a seat beside him in the sand, each on opposite sides of him. He sat silently waiting to hear what they had to say to him and he wasn't disappointed.

"Okay so me and AJ have talked it over and I may have gotten a tad aggressive…" Rowan said to him and Steve turned to her. She was on his left, closest to his heart. He couldn't believe what she had just said. Really? She had talked it out with the traitor? "I'm definitely angry about you ditching me today and I may have unnecessarily taken it out on her…"

"But you were right. The only reason she came here was to get information. Information about you."

"And Wo Fat," AJ clarified. "And Rowan has given me information to take back to my superiors that won't get her or Wo Fat in trouble and still makes me look good. Which was pretty cool of her."

Steve turned between the two of them. "Wow, really? Why did you do that? You don't have to do that."

"Course I don't," Rowan said. "But she's a childhood friend. You guys used to play on the beach here together. And… well… she was put in a hard position, you know? That Budapest project… I mean… I get why she'd do anything to try and make herself look better. And I truly believe that she's sorry for it. Aren't you?"

"Oh, I am!" AJ cried. "Yeah we may have lost touch, but you're still my Stevie Wonder and I hated having to trick you like that."

Steve sat there momentarily.

"Okay now that that's settled were going to go back inside. AJ has her eye on Jerry so I'm going to try and give her tips and pointers on how to land him…"

"Just tell him you're interested and give him your number," Steve listed out and Rowan smacked him.

"No duh, but we're going to try to finesse it a little bit," she said. "Don't be long, we can't wait to beat you at another game, we already have the dreaded task for the losers picked out!"

Of course, they did. And despite the set back, AJ and Rowan still won. What was worst was Steve and Chin lost.

But at least AJ got Jerry's number.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan stood beside AJ with a big giant grin on her face. She couldn't wait for Steve and Chin to come out in the costumes they had picked out for them. Rowan had her camera ready and AJ was going to take a video of it.

"You know… this has been the most fun I've had in a long time," AJ whispered to her, smiling over to Jerry who had brought food from Kamekona's truck including shaved ices for them.

Yeah Rowan bet she had fun. She had gone home with Jerry last night. But she wasn't about to ask because then AJ might ask what she and Steve did and Rowan didn't want to talk about that.

"Hey, if you ever need a break feel free drop on in, no one's gonna bug you if you're with me," Rowan said to her with a big grin and AJ just smiled at her. Okay, so maybe things weren't 100% perfect with AJ but it was much better than before. Much better than things between Rowan and Catherine too.

Luckily they didn't have to continue with the idle chit chat because Steve and Chin came out of the Palace in the outfits Rowan and AJ had picked up that morning.

Red and white cheerleading costumes. Both men looked livid but everyone else was laughing.

"Aw, now do you two lovely ladies look nice!" Grover cried, he too taking pictures of them.

They were in the white and red pleaded skirts, white sports bras with a red Redskin's logo just to rub it in that Steve at lost. They were carrying red and white pompoms and Kono had done their make up with bright white glitters and black brave symbols.

They both posed for their pictures but after a while Steve was obviously not happy because he asked: "Okay, can we get this over with now?"

"Nope, we need pictures with you guys first!" Rowan cried and then she handed her phone off to Kono who took pictures of Rowan and AJ with the boys and then a few separate ones including one of Steve and Rowan where the annoyance left Steve's features and he just smiled down into Rowan's large happy grin with a look of absolutely adoration on his face.

"Okay, okay, now for the cheer!" she cried picking up her phone to take more pictures.

Both Chin and Steve sighed but got into position for it.

Our Team is what! Dynamite!

Our Team is what! Dynamite!

Our Team is tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick BOOM!

"DYNAMITE!" they all screamed together and then they all broke out in laughter.

"Okay, we're done we're going to change," Steve growled already turning away.

"Aw, no wait! Can't a girl get a kiss from her favourite cheerleader?!" she cried. Chin turned immediately to comply and Steve had to grab him by the back of his sports bra to pull him back with a deep growl of: "You know she means me". He then swooped in and kissed her deeply before turning around and saying: "You can get more once I'm change!"

Rowan watched him go, loving his ass in that uniform. Maybe she'd buy it and that would be their thing. She'd be the football captain he'd be the cheerleader and of course sometimes they'd switch rolls. Rowan returned to her friends, checked her phone and then secretly shot off a text to Wo Fat with a picture of Steve.

Steve would be super mad to find out she did that, but she figured, since Wo Fat sounded lonely these days that she'd give him something to make him smile. With any luck Steve wouldn't catch a case and they could all go off together. This was shaping up to be a great day. She wouldn't even mind if AJ came along.