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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Alright guys, so this is the last of the marathon. I know, so sad. But how did you like how the last chapter ended? I hope it was cute enough for everyone. But there we go. The last of really big angst for the season, that is, until we hit season 6. All we have now is all the cute stuff. Seriously, they're going to be nothing but sickeningly adorable for the next couple of chapters. I'm personally looking forward to all the fluffy stuff. I can't wait for you guys to read it all. I hope you guys are excited as I am. Please enjoy this chapter of cute domestic adorableness and I'll see you all on Friday.

Chapter 149

Steve smiled as his Aunt Deb came off the gangplank and headed towards them.

"Aloha, Stevie!" she cried pulling him into a hug once she got close. She then turned to Rowan. "Oh and Aloha to you too, though I must say I'm not the least bit surprised to see you here."

Steve smiled and then pulled Rowan to his side, so happy he'd get to do this officially. "Aunt Deb, I know you two have already met, but let me formally introduce you to Rowan Pierce, my girl."

As Aunt Deb pulled her into a hug, he heard Rowan whisper: "Notice he won't add friend to the end of it?" and Aunt Deb laughed. "Talk some sense into him Aunt Deb!"

Steve pulled Rowan back and wrapped his arms up around her, her back to his chest and then dropped his chin to her head and just smiled as his Aunt Deb lit up at the sight of them.

"Oh, so you two…"

"Are officially dating, yes," Steve said loving the way Rowan dropped her smile into the hold he had around her, those lips twitching up against the skin of his arms.

"Well isn't that just wonderful?" she asked she then turned to Steven and added: "And, honey, before you ask, I don't know where your mother is. Your sister said that you called. She doesn't know where Doris is either."

"For the love of God Steve, I thought you let that go," Rowan hissed and Steve winced. Well they needed off of that topic like ASAP.

"Tell me about your trip, was it good?" he asked instead.

"It was amazing. Here I was a little worried because we booked it after my last round of chemo and I didn't know if it'd be up to the trip but, sweetheart, that sea air is just what I needed."

"Treatments were rough, huh?"

"Kiddo, rough doesn't begin to describe it but the doc says the tumor in my brain has shrunk half its size. So I guess the poison works."

Steve smiled but it was Rowan who said: "Well, you look great."

"A little makeup and a good wig hides a multitude of sins."

"Amen sister," Rowan said. She then leant forward and stage whispered: "Steve still hasn't seen my real face."

"And don't you show him until you're good and married," Deb warned playfully and Steve shook his head. He had seen that girl in the hospital, and naked countless times, which included in the shower, he had too seen her real face, and he fucking loved every inch of it, and her, and he was still struggling with not telling her that.

But he needed to get off of this topic like ASAP so he said: "Listen, I'm so glad you decided to fight back, Deb."

"Well you can thank Leonard for that. He's the one who talked me into getting into the ring," she said failing to notice Steve's face fall a little bit as she turned around. "Where is he by the way?"

She waved off to a nice man in a blue Hawaiian shirt giving a guy legal advice. Steve's eyes narrowed at him.

"I thought you said your boyfriend was a shop teacher? Why's he handing out legal advice?"

"Well he just likes to be helpful, that's all," she said before turning to Leonard and cooing: "Sweetheart" to him and sharing a kiss on the cheek once he came to her side.

Rowan squeaked with excitement in Steve's embrace. "Ah, I love it!"

Great. Good. Well he did not love it. He now had a bad feeling about this Leonard.

"Honey, this is Steve and his lovely… girl… Rowan," she said and Rowan waved to him as Steve still hadn't let her go and didn't plan to since they were this close to a dock and she could easily fall off or subject herself to some sort of other disaster. "Steve, Rowan, this is Leonard Cassano."

"Nice to meet you," Rowan said offering him a hand to shake. "Sorry about the restraints, Steve doesn't trust me with heights."

"You fall. You know this, we all know this, the state of Hawaii knows this," he said to her, letting go briefly to shake his hand. "Sorry, yes, it is very nice to meet you. Ignore Rowan, she thinks she's funny."

"That's alright, I have the exact same problem."

Steve offered to carry their bags but they declined and as they walked away Steve let them walk in front of he and Rowan, he still held Rowan's hand, loving her fingers intertwined with his. They were walking for five minutes before Leonard very loudly whispered: "Honey, we've been on land for five minutes when are you gonna give him the news?"

"Uh-oh," Rowan said, shooting a grin up to Steve but he ignored her. "What news?" he asked.

Both Deb and Leonard paused and turned back to him. She glanced to Leonard before turning to Steve and saying: "Well, short version. Leonard popped the question and I said yes.

"YESS! LOVE IT! I call dibs on maid of honor, unless Mary's coming then I call dibs on music. Actually, either way I call dibs on music!"

"You're engaged?" he asked his aunt but as soon as Rowan started going on about planning a wedding he rounded on her. "They're engaged not getting married right this fucking second," he snapped to her before turning calmly back to his Aunt Deb and try to smile encouragingly to mask his growing concern. "You guys have only been dating for a couple of months. What's the rush?"

"Oh Steven, some people jump right into things," Rowan said coming to stand beside Deb. "Unlike you who only jumps into danger and terrorist plots." She turned to Aunt deb. "Seriously, we've been living together for five months and he still won't call me his girlfriend, I mean… how slow does this boy need to move."

God. Fucking. Damnit. Not this again.

Aunt Deb turned to him. "Oh, my pragmatic nephew. Never one for romance or the grand gesture…"

"Hey that's not true, I'm romantic with Rowan all the time, Rowan, Ro tell them!" he ordered but Rowan just went eh and shrugged. Okay well fuck her, no more romance for her then.

"Honey you know that country western song, Live Like You Were Dying?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, it makes more sense when you're actually dying," she said. "I've got my tumor. Leonard is stage four leukemia. We've got no time to waste."

"And I knew Deb was the one. The moment I saw her at that cancer support group."

"Okay, so you're gonna have a nice long engagement though, right? Make some plans…"

"Plans are made. We're tying the knot tomorrow at 6 pm," she said turning away from Steve who looked about ready to have an aneurysm.

"Whoa, whoa, now wait a second. You can't… because Mary will be devastated…" "Your sister gave us her blessing already. And besides she can't come cause little Joanie has an ear infection."

"Yes! LOVE IT!" Rowan crowed again following after them. "Not the ear infection, that sucks. But the tomorrow thing, that we can swing. I've already got some planning started for Kono's wedding that we can use to our advantage. I have some friends in the photography world that can do all the video taping so little Joanie and Mary can see too. Oh! Oh! We need to go dress shopping. Like ASAP."

Wow what a help his girlfriend was… his girl was… fuck he had to stop slipping up with that.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve let Rowan take control of the wedding as he didn't want to think about it. He went back at the Palace to talk theories about the case trying to figure out who out of 250 people would want their victim's dead, while Rowan took his Aunt and Leonard out around town to help set everything up. They were just establishing who had the most motive out of 250 people when the doors opened and in a flurry Rowan was there throwing her arms around him and Steve was devouring her in kisses. His girl. God his girl and what she did to him.

"Okay so we're not stopping in long," she said to him once she managed to pry his lips from hers and at that he looked up from her and found his Aunt Deb and Leonard looking at them both with knowing smiles.

"Oh hey, hey guys," he said to them. Trying ever so hard not to blush and failing miserably. "Uh… what are you doing here?"

"Sorry to pop in unexpectedly, but we were across the street at the courthouse getting our license and we thought we'd come by and say hi."

Steve's smile must have faded a bit because Rowan nudged him between the ribs… hard. "Oh that's great, I'm glad you did. And Rowan's still with you, with shopping bags, babe, shopping bags? I can't fit any of my clothes in my closet as is…"

"Oh it's just a dress. Well it's two dresses, but it's my dress for the wedding, and you know Aunt Deb's dress, that Leonard is not allowed to see right now," Rowan told him and he nodded, oh great.

"And she was such a dear helping me pick it out. And she got us into this really chic spa, where we got treated like royalty."

"Deb insisted we both get "mani-pedis" before the ceremony," Leonard chimed in. "I got one with her on the boat, but apparently we both needed touch ups."

"Oh yeah, and where did she get you in?"

"The Grand Hyatt or something… was that's its name?" she asked Rowan who nodded in confirmation.

"Wait, she got you into The Kauai Resort and Spa?" Steve thundered. He put his hands on his hips and glared down at Rowan. "That place is hella expensive and really hard to get into… not without the right connections … how did you get them in there last minute?"

"I write songs for Atlantic Records, I had Pete's secretary call in the appointment and tell them that they were wining and dining the next new talent. They gave your Aunt Deb the star treatment," she told him pinning him with a sultry hooded stare. But he caught the double meaning there. That she used her own connections and not Wo Fat's because they were still not speaking. Were never going to talk again.

"So that explains the soft hands," Danny said to Steve and he almost leant over and slapped him.

"Don't let Danny bust your chops," she said quickly and Leonard smiled and Aunt Deb laughed.

"Well, I don't care. This is our one and only wedding and I just figured we ought to look our best, hands and feet," Deb proclaimed.

"Oh and massages, I got them in for massages," Rowan added. "I'm like the wedding fairy! I swear to god this should be my side racket."

"Wow, could she have made that sound anymore criminal?" Danny asked from the other side of Steve and Steve elbowed him so hard he almost fell over. He turned a glare to Steve and then smiled at Deb brightly. "Well that makes perfect sense, doesn't that make perfect sense, Steven?"

"Complete sense," he agreed.

Leonard smiled at them both and then tapped Steve. "If you're free for lunch, I'm buying," he offered.

Rowan turned a bright smile up to him. "Aw, please, I know you have a case, but… maybe they can spare you? Just for lunch? Please?"

"Oh, I'd love it for my two favourite guys to get to know each other better, huh?" Deb added. Wow the double whammy.

Luckily for him Grover came over with a lead. "Aw, see, I would love to, but I'm in the middle of this case right now, and we got a lead…"

Rowan's smile faded. And his heart sunk. He belated realized that it looked like he was trying to avoid her, but what he was really avoiding was this impromptu wedding that was making him nervous. He just didn't want to have anything to do with it.

But Rowan lowered her eyes away from his face. "Of course," she said obviously trying not to seem disappointed though it was clear she was.

"I really want to, I do," he said to her. "But work…" "It's more important. Yeah I know…"

"That's not what I…" he tried to say but Rowan shook him off dawning a very fake but very bright smile. "You're gonna love this dress. Trust me. Just you wait until you see me in it. Maybe I'll give you a preview tonight?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," he said. "You'll keep me posted… you know what I like."

Since the network went down, the hourly texts were something he wanted, just to always know where she was. She nodded, smiling at him in that sad way she had when he disappointed her. He hated that look, but she'd see him that night, and he'd find a way to make it up to her. He always did.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

He thought he hated it when she woke him up screaming over her dreams of an always bleak and bloody future, but that was nothing compared to what was waking her up now. Whatever it was… it wasn't dreams of the future, it was just straight nightmares and they were just like the ones she had on that camping trip she had.

But Steve was better at them now, he knew how to duck her hands, to trap them to him and keep her still, shaking her until reality came back to her. Until the dreams let her go, when her cloudy blue eyes would focus on him and fill with tears, and her arms wound come around him neck and she'd sob into him.

The dreams he hated the most were the ones that made her shake, her tears wouldn't stop for hours after, and she'd always ask him if he thought her monstrous, if there was anything that could possibly change his mind. He said no. Every time she asked. But when he asked what they were about, she never answered. Sometimes she was so distraught by what she saw she wouldn't be able to stomach him touching her, she wouldn't be able to sleep.

So when Rowan bolted up in bed, coughing sputtering and crying out, not in words but just these painful unintelligible sounds, Steve was ready. But it wasn't one of her monstrous dreams, this… this was something else, something new. She had gone quiet, ramrod straight in his arms, her body vibrating beneath him. Her eyes wide but unseeing and rolling back into her head, her teeth clenched together, jerking like she was having some sort of seizure.

"Rowan, snap out of it," he ordered trying to shake her out of it, but whatever had grabbed her was stronger then both of them tonight and he was helpless. All he could do was watch as her body shook in his arms and hold onto her for dear life, praying to any god that could hear him for this to let his girl go.

When she finally went limp he cradled her to him, repeating her name. He had turned his face back to his, but her eyes were closed, and though her mouth was open she wasn't breathing.

WHAT?!

"No, Rowan, Rowan, breathe goddamn it!" he shouted, struggling to wake her up. He dropped her to the bed, he'd have to CPR on her, he'd have to start her breathing again. Oh god she was going to die in front of him.

But when he bent over, ready to seal his lips over hers to breathe into her for her, she suddenly gasped and started coughing. Steve let his relieved breath out in a few shaking chuckles, he tugged her to him and held her tight.

He pressed kisses to the side of her head, his cheeks, her hair as her fingers gripped his arms and she whimpered against him.

"Are you okay?" he asked but she shook her head.

She suddenly threw his arms off and ran off, he knew what was going to happen next. As she threw up, he knew enough to grab her a ginger ale. She he quickly went down the stairs, grabbed a can for her, and one of the blankets from the couch for her and then headed back upstairs.

When he returned to her side, she was sitting on the floor by the toilet, staring off into space the back of her hand to her mouth. He handed her the can of ginger ale that she took but didn't open and he settled himself down behind her, draping the blanket around her.

He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her back to his chest and inhaling her scent. Glad that she was live, glad that she was okay, glad that he wasn't starting his morning by taking his girlfriend to the hospital in the middle of the night.

"I'm fine, really, really, I'm fine. I'm sorry I woke you up, you can go back to bed."

Steve held onto Rowan a little tighter, making sure the blanket was around her keeping her warm. "No, no don't apologise, I'm just glad you're okay."

When she just nodded, Steve pulled her a little closer to him until she was all the way against him, trapped between his legs. He brushed a tendril of that silky red hair behind her ear and carefully thought over the can of worms he was about to open.

"You gotta tell me what's going on, Rowan, cause that one… that one was really bad," he whispered.

"It's not important."

"Rowan you stopped breathing after that one," he complained. "I mean… that's like the textbook definition of important!"

Rowan shifted, her eyes pointing everywhere but at him. "It was just a bad dream."

"A bad dream that stopped you from breathing?" he repeated. "Rowan. Please. That one really scared me. I don't know how to help you if you don't tell me what's going on. I told you I'd help you with your visions if you told me what they were, I promised I'd listen, but you won't… you won't talk to me."

Rowan sighed and closed her eyes. Maybe she was tired, maybe he shouldn't have been bothering her about this now.

"I haven't been dreaming about the future," she whispered. "I'm stuck in the past."

"Yeah? Dreaming about Stepanov again?"

"No. About you," she said and Steve frowned. "He water boarded you, right?"

"Yes," he answered softly.

"And then electrocuted you a few times?"

More than a few times, but he didn't tell her that. "Yes… is that… is that what you're dreaming about? About what he did to me."

She nodded softly and his heart went out to her. He dreamt about that too but it made more sense if he did it, he was the one that lived through it.

"Why are you dreaming about that, baby?" he whispered and though she shrugged he had a feeling he knew why she was dreaming about it.

"I guess… I guess I feel… guilty…" she replied after a moment's silence. "I… I should have done more to stop him. I should have… when the dreams started again, even if they were just flashes, I should have known it was because he was planning to grab you… but I stupidly believed he wouldn't break his promise to me… I stupidly believed that he wouldn't… I don't know why I would, not even my real brother kept his promises to me, why would my fake brother? A confirmed sociopath who has a history of torturing you. I'm an idiot."

Steve brushed her hair back behind her ear again, and then tilted her chin to him. "You are not an idiot. You put your trust in someone who let you down, that's not your fault," he whispered to her. "I don't… I don't blame you, you know? You thought you had protected me from it, from him and he lied to you."

"I should have known better."

"No. Up until then, he had been keeping his promises, he treated you differently and we all saw that. And you… you like to see the good in people, it's one of the things I lo… like about you," he admitted hoping she didn't hear the little slip up. Well he knew she heard but she had this wonderful habit of never asking him about it. She knew he still wasn't ready and never questioned him about it.

She sat silently his arms around her, letting him press kisses to her shoulder through the blanket. He waited, watching her, wondering what was going on her head.

"That's not all is it?" he asked after a heavy silence between them. She opened her mouth seemed to think over what she was going to say and then fell quiet again. God no, not this again. "Please… please don't hide things from me, don't shut me out, okay? I can see you're hurting and all I want to do is help you…"

Rowan half turned to him, she regarded him with those big blue eyes for a moment before she bowed her head and whispered: "Sometimes… sometimes it's not you. Sometimes it's a different basement, with different people… and it's me in the chair."

Steve felt the air leave his body, because that explained the coughing, the sputtering like her mouth was filled with water and the way her body had been spasming. She had been living through his pain… and not wearing any of the scars to prove it. For fuck sake. His poor girl, and to think… to think he might be the reason she was dealing with that.

"That… uh… that actually might be my fault."

"Your fault? You don't control what I dream, Steve."

"No… but… we are connected right… and when I was scared before I pulled a little bit of you to me… what if I'm pushing a little of my nightmares out and into you?"

Rowan turned fully, straddling him to the floor. He was hard for her immediately, but this was not the time to be thinking about that.

"You dream about me getting tortured? Why? As… punishment?"

It was interesting the places her mind went. It scared him that she thought him so mad at her that he would want to see what was done to him done to her. Especially since he wasn't mad anymore, he hadn't been mad for weeks.

"No. Of course not, how could you say that? No, it was something that woman…" "Eris." "Yeah, that cunt. It was something she said when I was being uncooperative. That… that they should have grabbed you. I guess it kind of stuck with me."

"Well that's silly, what would grabbing me have done?"

"I would have cracked Rowan."

Rowan blew her air out at him and he realized that she didn't believe him. "No you wouldn't have. You didn't have anything to give him. And besides I'm not…"

"Don't you finish that sentence," he snapped. He hated it when she told him that she wasn't important, she was everything to him. Everything was nothing without her. "Rowan. I don't know how you don't already know this, but you're important to me. Very important. And if I came to after one of their druggings and found you in a chair in front of me, with them threatening to do even half of what they were doing to me to you, I would have cracked instantly. You hear me? Instantly, Rowan Pierce. I would have agreed to partner up with Wo Fat to find his father if they took you. So yes. Those are the nightmares I'm having, they're not punishing anyone but me and it seems like I might be sending them to you which makes no sense cause I don't want that happening to you, I don't want anything to happen to you… at all..."

When she just stared at him, he pressed his lips to her neck and she murmured in appreciation. They were quiet a moment, his arms around her waist, her hands holding him in place, just resting against his neck, her fingers running through his hair in a soothing fashion as he pressed soft kisses to the skin of her neck and shoulders.

After a while, when his heart finally slowed down, and she seemed to be calmly resting against him he asked: "You okay now, babe? Do you wanna go back to bed?"

Rowan nestled closer to him and his arms tightened around her instinctively. He took that as a yes and hoisted her up in his arms to carry her back to his bed.

"I'm gonna try not to dream about you in… that situation can you try not to dream about me… like that?" he asked.

"I can't control what I dream Steve," she whispered to him and he bowed his head to hers.

"We'll work on it," he said settling down beside her. "Just try to remember that we're both safe. You saved me from him, just like I'd save you from your own basement, okay? But right now, let's just try to sleep, okay?"

She murmured again, pressing a kiss to his forehead before tugging him to her side and wrapping her arms around him. That time when they fell asleep, the only thing that woke them up was his phone ringing.