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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Happy Friday My wonderful readers. So this hopefully isn't a surprises but let's give Steve the Jerk a lukewarm, if not downright icy, welcome back! For this run he's only going to be around for about four chapters, then we get a break and we get to see some really, really cute things, and then he's back but that's only for about three chapters. So at least it's not going to be a full season of it right? And I promise I got some cute stuff coming up, like the Nahele chapters, oohh I hope you like those! Anyways, don't be too hard on Steve, he's got a girlfriend who's hiding things from him and he's trying his best with his limited, untrusting emotional capacity. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Monday!
Chapter 138
Steve always got dressed up to visit his dad. Normally the act of getting dressed up excited him, because Rowan loved his suits. Except this time he had purposely waited for Rowan to leave before getting ready. They had been at odds since the Matty situation. Danny and Rowan had briefed him on what happened, but he knew they were hiding something. Especially since Rowan kept having strange nightmares and not the vision kind that she refused to tell him about. In fact she hadn't had a proper vision or dream since Reyes was killed.
Steve couldn't help but feel jilted. Rowan hid the fact that she saved Matty almost a year ago, and then hid him for months after in a safe house that Wo Fat owned. He got why she hadn't told Danny, he even got why she didn't tell him when it went down because they were far from alright at the time, but he didn't understand how they had gotten together and she still didn't think to tell him.
And while he was angry, he felt it was fair that she was angry at him as well. She was angry that he never told her that Reyes was on the island. That in an attempt to keep her separate from the Five-0 drama he had told everyone, even Wo Fat not to tell her he was there. When, if he had mentioned what was happening, she could have easily told him that she had Matty and all of this could have been avoided.
But they didn't really argue about how Steve felt jilted that she had called Wo Fat to help her hide a body instead of him. They didn't argue about how she was worried about Chin who was in for an IA shit storm down the lane for asking Gabriel to help. They didn't argue about how Rowan and Danny were clearly hiding something from him and it was nagging at him that he didn't know what it was.
They were quiet. They were awkward with each other and nothing had been the same since it happened. Steve wasn't comfortable with her anymore. He couldn't trust her anymore, and she felt like he didn't like her for who she was… and that he never trusted her in the first place. And could she blame him? Look at who her brother, by choice, was?
So he went to his father's grave alone, which he figured was fine, because Rowan had a meeting anyway. He had watched her get ready, not daring to get ready with her because then she'd ask where he was going and they'd get in a real fight. She still took his breath away, standing there, skirt on, in nothing else but a bra and his dog tags. She still sent his heart beating wild and set his body ablaze with desire, but he was too afraid now, afraid that he'd get burned. And to make matters worse, he was used to getting attacked while dressing up so he put his suit on and got hard in anticipation for what usually came and got nothing but frustration of his own creation.
Steve got to his dad's grave, carefully took his sunglasses on and brushed the leaves off of the cool and smooth marble.
"Hey dad," he started and then fell silent. He never knew what to say, his throat would get clogged with emotion, and he couldn't handle that. His dad wouldn't want him to cry, not over him, not over anything. He sighed, what would his dad like to hear about? "I spoke to Aunt Deb last week. Looks like she's gonna give chemo a shot. She, uh… she said to me: the McGarrett's are fighters. And Mary… Mary's good. You wouldn't believe it, dad, but she has… she's become such a strong woman. And she's such a great mother to that little girl. She sends me videos, like, every other day. I'm getting to watch Joanie grown up. It's amazing. Kid's starting to take her first steps."
He broke off there, he couldn't help it. He cleared his throat before moving onward.
"And uh… that girl? The new one I told you about? Well… it took three near death experiences, two for me and one for her, for me to really smarten up about her. We're uh… we're officially dating… sort of… it's complicated. Everything about her is still complicated… but… I unno… you should see me with her. Everyone says there's a real difference. I'm really different… and I think… it's because I'm happy… like she makes me really… really happy… when we're not arguing. I… I really wish you could have met her… she… she's definitely a trouble maker but I think you would have eventually learned to like her. She grows on you. Like mold, you know?" Steve half chuckled at his own joke and then sighed again. "I just… I really wish you were here for all of this. I think you would have liked being a grandfather… I think you would have loved Rowan."
He didn't want to tell his dad that he was having problems with her even though they were together. He didn't want to tell his dad that he saw a little more of that sociopath in her by the day and it was getting harder to distinguish the two of them. He didn't want to tell his dad that he was so afraid of the growing feeling taking over his chest that he was trying to push her away before she became anymore important to him. She already had enough power to wield against him to hurt him, he was certain if he lost himself to her even a little more, she'd have the power to shatter him. And he couldn't take another shattering. His heart was too battered as is.
He took a quarter out of his jacket pocket. That was enough for now, he couldn't take anymore of it. So he pressed a kissed to the quarter and then placed it in the middle of the cross engraved in stone before finally standing up.
"I miss you dad," he whispered before putting his glasses on.
Steve had managed to walk all the way back to where he parked his car swallowing back the emotion in his throat, without crying. He forced himself to call Mary and sound fine.
"Hey, Mary. Yeah, it's me. No, no, no I'm here now. I just… I wanted to call you guys and just check on you, see how you're doing," he said. He listened to Mary patiently and sighed at her next question. "No, I'm not arguing with Rowan… I mean… okay, I might… a little bit be arguing with her, but it's more of an awkward feeling and less of an actual fight. Can we change the topic?" luckily she obliged him and he was nodding again. "I know. Four years. No, it's crazy. Yeah."
He glanced out at his father's grave, just one last look and… who was that blonde woman putting flowers on his dad's grave?
He was so surprised by it that he missed Mary's question and had her asking if he was there. "No, I'm right here," he told her. He watched the blonde woman talk to his dad's grave, to stroke it lovingly and Steve frowned. Who the hell was this? How the hell did she know his dad? "Hey, Mary, listen, let me call you back, okay?"
He didn't wait for the good-bye he just hung up and then got out of his car. Quickly jogging after the woman in the nice-looking skirt suit to catch up to her.
"Excuse me. Hi," he called out getting her to stop before she got to her car. "I'm sorry to bother you. I saw you at John McGarrett's grave. Did you know him?"
The girl looked him up and down for a second before hesitantly asking: "You're his son, aren't you?"
She had an accent Steve couldn't quite place, but he was more surprised that she knew who he was. He nodded. "Yeah…"
"You have his eyes," she said with a warm smile. Okay this was getting weird. "Ellie Clayton."
"I'm Steve McGarrett," he said shaking the hand she offered. Even though she probably knew that. "And I'm still at a loss, I'm sorry."
"I can see that," she said with a laugh.
"Uhm… do you mind telling me how you knew my dad?" he asked.
Her smile faded and instead of answering his question she asked one of her own: "How do you like your coffee"
The answer was black with a shake of sugar and a spoonful of butter, but that wasn't what was important and that wasn't why he agreed to go with her either.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
They went to this little Tiki coffee bar on the beach, despite his unsure attitude towards being near what he called the Atlantic Towers but she knew as the Pauahi Tower, even though she knew Atlantic Records had their offices and private studio up there on the top floor. They were sitting under a picnic structure with their drinks. Both she and Steve had taken their jackets off. He was a very handsome specimen, Ellie couldn't help but notice. But she knew enough about men like Steven McGarrett to know that if they weren't spoken for at this stage they were too broken to fix. But she had a feeling he was spoken for because he checked his phone periodically as if waiting for something and she couldn't help but notice that his background image was of him and a girl with red-blonde hair, with their arms around one another in very fancy evening wear.
But Ellie couldn't worry about Steven McGarrett and his relationship status. He wanted answers and she was going to give them to him because maybe he'd be able to get her answers of her own.
"When I was a kid my dad owned a bar. One night, someone came in to rob it and he was killed. Your father investigated it."
Steve nodded, he too knew what it felt like to lose a father, she could sense that sort of sadness about him which was why she wasn't surprised when he said: "I'm sorry"
"He never found who did it, but your dad, he stayed in my life," she told him. "Every few weeks, he'd check in, and on the anniversary of my father's death, he'd take me to lunch. We'd get a shaved ice, we'd take a walk along this beach. It meant a lot to me. It made a difficult day a little bit easier. I'll always be grateful for that."
She looked down briefly and aware for the piercing gaze Steve had on her and cleared her throat before looking back up. "So now, on the anniversary of his death, I come to pay my respects, honor his memory."
Steve nodded like this all made sense. "When was the last time you guys spoke?"
"It was shortly before he died, actually," she admitted. "He called me to tell me that he might have a new lead in the case."
"Did he say what it was?" Steve asked suddenly less serious and more… interested. Oh, he was a curious one… just like his father.
"No." A short and simple answer. The truth. "He followed a lot of leads over the years. None of them ever came to much." Steve frowned and she immediately moved to sooth him. "You know, no matter how many setbacks, your dad, he never gave up."
Steve laughed, finally something other then grim seriousness. "Yeah. He was stubborn like that."
"Well I'm really glad I got to meet you. He talked about you a lot. He was really proud," she told him liking the way his eyes lit up when she did.
"Steve!" someone cried and Steve turned like a man haunted to the voice. Ellie followed the motion and there she was, the girl from the phone. She didn't look like much, compared to Steve, but she was pretty. Especially in the get up she was wearing. Her smile seemed to quiver as she came forward, and Steve was lost to her, statue stiff and looking her up and down like she was some goddess who had appeared from the surf.
"Steve… what… what are you doing here, I thought you had the day off?" she asked. She leant in for a brief awkward and stiff kiss as he whispered babe mostly in surprise cause it was clear that he hadn't expected her to be there. Her eyes kept travelling to Ellie but Steve was too busy staring at her with these strange eyes, like he was torn between pulling her down to his lap and pushing her away, to notice that. It was like he had become lost to the world the second she graced him with her presence.
She too was dressed nicely, flowing pearl blouse, pin straight black skirt with sensible but moderately high heeled shoes. Even under the shirt she could see the outline of what was probably a necklace. Probably sentimental that didn't go with the outfit, otherwise why hide it? Behind her was a table of suited men and it didn't take long for him to figure out what she was doing here.
"Business lunch again?"
The woman nodded glancing back to wave at the men who all waved at them and had Steve waving lamely back at them. "Discussing royalty rights for the new song," she answered. When she realized that Steve wasn't going to introduce them, she offered her a hand. "Hi, I'm Rowan, his… partner?"
Oh, with the way she had said it you would have thought she wasn't sure. Didn't she know what they were? Interesting
"I'm Ellie Clayton," she said nicely. "I'm a deputy prosecutor."
"Oh? Are you prosecuting one of his cases?" she asked. "I didn't know you were going to be pulled into court…"
"No… uh… nothing like that. She uh… she knew my dad, she was one of his cases… I'm going to help her solve it," he said. Oh… he uh… he was?
"Oh… uh… how did you two… uh… I mean… I guess I just don't understand how you two… connected?"
Steve opened his mouth to answer but Ellie beat him too it. "It was actually just a coincidence. I went to visit John's grave, as I do every year on the anniversary… and this year we uh… we bumped into each other…"
Rowan didn't let her finish, instead she turned her eyes to Steve signalling that Ellie had been dismissed. Steve was frowning and avoiding both of their eyes and suddenly Ellie realized that she might have caused a bit of a problem.
Rowan, lowered her eyes, donned what could best be described as a watery smile and asked: "You went to your father's grave… well no wonder you're dressed up then… but uh… you said… you said we were going to go together…"
Oh. Uh-oh.
"And I thought you said you wouldn't lie to me anymore… so…"
Rowan's quivering smile fell into a quivering frown and Steve winced. "I didn't mean that…"
But it was too late Rowan had already taken a step back. "I'm sorry… I uh… I'm sorry, you're busy with a case and I'm yapping on about meeting your dad like it matters," she shakily laughed off. The blow hurt, Ellie could see it in the way his chest sharply inflated. It was clear he hurt her with his comment, so he deserved, but still... right in front of her? That was a bit uncalled for. Rowan turned her eyes to Ellie again and she could see clearly the crystalline tears in the woman's eyes, refusing to be shed and for a second she felt a little bad for Rowan. "I'll just… I'll just get out of your hair. I'm sorry about all this, Ellie. It was so nice to meet you."
Steve stood there watching her go with a frown so deep on his face he thought he was sure he could feel the wrinkles forming around it permanently.
"Okay… well…"
"Let's just move on," Steve said turning away from Rowan as she joined the execs she was supposed to be doing business with without a second glance at him. "Let's get started on this case. Why don't you take me to the crime scene?"
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Jerry had so many people helping him pack. Flipper and Kamekona, Max and Dr. Shaw, the intern Max was training up, and Chin. Jerry however, went upstairs when Dr. Shaw upset him over the diagnosis of OCD and everyone teasing him about being a hoarder.
Chin was hoping Rowan would show up soon, she was supposed to come, with Steve, to help out once she was done with her meeting. But Chin was hoping that Rowan would come without Steve, simply because they were so awkward and stiff around each other since the whole Reyes debacle that it made everyone else around them uncomfortable.
With Kamekona and Flipper wasting their tape and Chin being out he had gone upstairs to get more and found Jerry loafing around listening to something on his computer.
He snuck up on him and quickly put a hand to his shoulder startling Jerry entirely.
"What the hell?" Chin cried. "We're downstairs working and you're up here listening to…"
And then Chin heard the sound of someone else talking, from Jerry's computer. Chin turned to his computer, saw what he knew to be audio tracking software playing up on Jerry's screen and knew immediately what he had done.
"What are you listening to?"
"Nothing. It's a book on tape?" Jerry lied. Chin knew he was lying too. Though Jerry struggled, Chin still managed to rip the headphone out of Jerry's hands and put them to his own ears.
"You mean bookshop owner on tape?" Chin asked dryly.
Jerry was majorly obsessed with this bookshop owner, Farrow. So much so that he clearly had bugged the store trying to prove that he was a counterfeiter. He was so sure of him self that he had actually had an argument with McGarrett about it, in which Steve actually got so mad at Jerry that he snapped at him. Which led to Steve feeling so bad about how he treated Jerry that he ran a background check on him that came up empty. That had clearly not placated Jerry.
"Bookshop owner-slash-counterfeiter," Jerry snapped and Chin groaned.
I don't believe this," Chin cried throwing down the headphone to the table. "Is this live?"
"No. It's from a few days ago. I was just catching up between packing boxes."
Oh yeah, like that made this better.
"Jerry, are you aware that in the state of Hawaii, bugging someone is a felony, and carries with it a ten thousand dollar fine and a five-year prison sentence?" he cried.
"Are you aware of the consequences of flooding the market with counterfeit currency. This guy Farrow could crash a small economy if we don't stop him!"
"There is nothing to stop! The Secret Service already cleared Farrow."
"Secret service? What do they know?" Jerry cried and Chin internally groaned, oh here we go with the conspiracy theories. "They still believe that Oswald acted alone!"
"Jerry! Enough! I already know for a fact that McGarrett asked you to back off twice and you didn't listen!" Chin snapped holding up two fingers like a mother reprimanding their child as if that would get it into Jerry's head. He pointed to the computer. "How are we supposed to trust you now?"
Oh god… he sounded just like his mother. He needed off of this topic fast.
"How did you even managed to bug this guy?"
"Pulled a trojan horse move," Jerry answered proudly. And part of Chin was proud too, but that was not the part he was wearing on his face at that moment. "I hid the bug in a rare book and sold it to him via a third party. But don't ask me who because I'll never tell." Chin just had to glare at him and Jerry added: "It was Kamekona."
"Well I have to give you points for creativity. But you gotta get the book back," he ordered. "And you gotta shut this thing down!"
The door suddenly opened and Rowan burst in, threw her blazer jacket on the couch, and stormed past them. "Rowan?" Chin called but all her heard was sniffing and she ignored them. He glanced back at the door, saw her purple car in the driveway but no McGarrett. Uh-oh that wasn't good.
Jerry watched her go, a frown deep on his face. "Was she crying?"
It sure as hell looked like it. "I don't know," Chin said instead.
"Well it looks like she was crying."
"Just stay here, I'll go see what's going on."
Chin got downstairs, to Rowan shoving things into boxes and trying not to cry while everyone in the basement stared at her with wide eyes. Rowan cried over a lot of things, like movies, a good book, clips about baby animals, clips about any animals, but those were soft tears, the ones streaming down Rowan's face now were something else entirely.
As soon as he was downstairs all eyes turned to him. "Uh… why don't we take a break, guys," he offered
"Why would I take a break I just got here?" Rowan asked but Kamekona, Flipper, Max and Dr. Shaw all sprinted up the steps leaving Chin and the groaning Rowan alone. He inhaled, simply to ask her what was wrong but she snapped: "I'd greatly appreciate it if you didn't try to ask me what's wrong, cause we both know no matter what I say it's just going to go straight back to Steve."
And Chin let out his breath in one huge sigh. Oh that was a guilt trip and a half. Danny had sat he and Kono down earlier that month to explain that Rowan felt… well alone. Which saddened all of them, because they thought they were all friends. But when Danny explained that she felt like she couldn't trust any of them to keep her secrets from Steve well… they got it. And they had promised each other that they wouldn't do that to her again.
No one had conveyed that to Rowan though, and to be fair, if they had she probably wouldn't have believed him.
"So I guess you and him had another argument?" he asked. Rowan shook her head. "No? Okay… but he did upset you?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay," Chin whispered. "Except you're down here crying… Steve was supposed to come with you… and now you don't…."
"I said I don't want to taLK ABOUT IT!" Rowan suddenly thundered slamming her hands down on the newspapers. She must have been really upset because with that motion came a flurry of orange electric sparks and just like that the newspapers under her fingertips were ablaze.
Rowan yelped and scrambled back as the flames leapt up, the fire spreading down the stack very quickly. Chin rushed to sink nearby, filled up a small bucket and immediately doused the flames with it. The billowing smoke caught the fire alarm and it started beeping wildly as Rowan and Chin stared at the blackened, ashy aftermath.
"Don't tell Steve," came out of Rowan so quick Chin almost didn't catch it but that also could have been because he could hear Jerry scrambling to get to them.
Jerry came pounding down the stairs. Took stock of the damage and cried out in horror. "Wha? My evidence papers?! What… what did you do?" he cried.
"It was an accident…"
"OH! You've destroyed years of collecting… what did they ever do to you… you monster!" he groaned and Rowan inhaled sharply. Even Chin winced because he knew what Rowan felt like about that particular wording. But Jerry didn't know… he wasn't trying to be that malicious. Her eyes went heavenward, the tears came back and suddenly she was pushing past them both and storming up the stairs. Jerry immediately winced. "Wait! Ro! I'm sorry!" but it was too late, not seconds after she made it up the stairs came the bang of a door slamming shut.
Jerry winced again. "Ohh… oh dear… I didn't mean to upset her…"
Chin clapped a sympathetic hand to Jerry's shoulder. "It's not all you man, she and McGarrett are out of sorts… so both of them are kind of… on edge…"
Jerry looked back to the smoldering mess and sighed: "Well she didn't have to take it out on my stuff."
"It was an accident," Chin snapped as he directed him towards the stairs. "We better let this sit, we'll open up some windows and air it out."
They got to the top of the steps to Steve knocking on the door. Wow… what timing, he had literally just missed Rowan.
"Don't tell him about the bug… or that I made Rowan cry," Jerry whispered as Steve let himself in. "Hey there Commander! I thought you were supposed to be coming with Rowan?"
"Sorry buddy I'm not here for the packing…" "Oh God! You know! I'm sorry I made her cry!" Jerry suddenly shouted and Chin turned a glare to him but nothing could shut up him now. "I don't know what set her off, though to be fair I think she was crying when she came in here…"
Steve blinked his eyes. "Wait… do you mean Ro… Rowan was here?"
"Not important," Chin brushed off. "If you're not here to help us, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, I came to ask you a few questions," Steve answered absently before turning his eyes back on Jerry. "You said she… she was crying?"
"Okay why don't we go outside?"
"Why?" Steve asked carefully.
"You said you wanted to ask me some questions, let's go outside so you can ask me them," Chin reminded him, trying very hard to keep off of the Rowan topic.
He ushered Steve outside and once they got on the lawn, and Steve seemed preoccupied with scanning the streets for signs of Rowan, Chin asked: "What's up."
Steve jerked like he was being dragged out of a trace. He turned back to Chin to address him. "Hey, listen, did my dad ever talk about a cold case back in '95? It was a robbery-homicide. Victim's last name was Clayton," he asked.
Chin took that in. That's what Steve had done on his day off? He had gone and caught a case? Is that why he and Rowan were at odds today? Because usually she just yelled at him when he did that, they didn't do… whatever the hell was happening now.
"Yeah. Yeah, that case haunted him," Chin admitted, figuring it would be easier to give Steve his answers then to withhold them, especially since he was going to be ignoring any questions about Rowan.
Steve sighed and handed him a green matchbook. "I found this in his toolbox. I never understood why. Then this morning, I met Clayton's daughter..." Oh was that what had happened? Steve was flirting with another girl in front of Rowan? "…It started making sense. My dad kept in touch with her. What happened?"
"Well, there had been a string of robberies in the neighborhood. And Clayton was closing up this place when the killer came in and shot him in cold blood. Grabbed the cash box and took off. Meanwhile the daughter was upstairs in the apartment that they shared when the whole thing happened. Poor kid heard the shot."
Steve sighed. "What about suspects? They ever have any suspects?"
Well damn he was in full investigator mode now. He wasn't going to come out of that until he figured this out. Which was not good because this was a cold case for a reason.
"Yeah, for a minute. Homeless guy. Uh… Ned Burrows. HPD found him during the canvass. Lab tested a sweatshirt he was wearing and it came back with traces of GSR. He claimed that he found the sweatshirt in a dumpster a couple of blocks from the crime scene. No one believed him at first. But then he alibied out. But after they let him go, your dad became convinced that Burrows knew more than he said. So, he went back into that neighbourhood every night for a month, looking for the guy but never found him. Even over the years, he kept up the search. They guy was a ghost."
Steve thought this over, Chin briefly thought about asking him why this mattered, but Steve answered the question before he could even ask it. "A couple of days before my dad was killed, he called Paul Clayton's daughter and told her he might have a new lead."
"Maybe he finally tracked him down," Chin offered.
"Do me a favour, go to my house, go through my dad's stuff. Tapes, journals. See if you can find anything on Burrows. In the meantime, I'm gonna call the property clerk at HPD have them pull up the evidence."
Chin narrowed his eyes at him. "You want to reopen this case?"
"Obviously this meant a lot to my dad. I owe it to him to try and solve it."
Chin nodded, Steve turned away and got two steps away from him before turning back. "Was she really crying?" he asked. Well, so much for getting him off of the Rowan topic.
"We agreed not to tell you stuff about her, anymore, remember? So she'd feel safer with us?"
Steve frowned and grimaced. "So that's a yes. Did… uh… did she say why?"
Chin sighed and looked away from him. "Look… you obviously got a guilty conscience, why don't you just call her and ask her to talk?"
"Because she's not going to pick up," Steve snapped. Oh shit, it was that bad?
"What the hell did you do?" Steve winced again and Chin's eyes narrowed. "Should I call Danny?"
Steve shook his head. "No, Danny's got his hands full with Matty's bargain… there's no need to bother him with this. I'll… uh… I'll figure it out. Uh… call me when you get to my place."
And then just like Rowan, Steve was gone.