Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my lovely readers. So this is that chapter is a lot longer. It's sitting at 14 pages, but it's cute. It's cute and it's Christmasy and I hope you guys like it. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Friday.

Chapter 152

Rowan hadn't forgotten what it felt like to have the wind whipping through her hair, she hadn't forgotten how much she loved to go fast, how there was something about the wind her face that made her feel calm and secure, like nothing could hurt her because she was too fast for her problems to catch up with her. But she had forgotten what it felt like to feel all of that on the back of a horse.

A very fast horse.

With a truck trailing behind her, trying to run her and the horse off the road… or at least spook him into throwing her, which so far hadn't happened.

The car swerved at them again and the horse she was on swerved too, but didn't correct, running off the path and into a field. Rowan just held on for dear life, the horse knew where it was going, Rowan just didn't want to fall off.

Until she did.

The car swerved right in front of them and the horse reared to a stop to avoid hitting the hood. Coming up on it's back legs and swinging around. Rowan tumbled right off the back, hitting the ground. Oh wow… that one hurt. That one hurt a lot.

She got up to find the horse sort of standing over her kind of in a protective stance as Mokuau got out of the truck and approached them.

"You stole my horse…"

"You stole him first!" Rowan snapped back. "He's not yours… and you're gonna kill him!"

Probably not the smartest thing to say, because that gun in his hand, the one he brought for the horse and not for her originally, was pointed at her.

"You're not gonna shoot me," she said in a soft voice.

"And why not, I've killed two people already what's a third?"

"You poisoned those people… you didn't shoot them," Rowan whispered and his eyes narrowed at her.

"You know way too much!" he whispered pulling the hammer back on the gun.

Rowan cringed. There was a loud gunshot, the horse did scream, but Rowan felt no pain. Above her Mokuau grunted and dropped his gun and Rowan scrambled away just as Grover and Kono came up to them and Danny went to Rowan.

"Mokuau you're under arrest," Grover snapped, coming towards him, cuffing him instantly.

"She was stealing my horse!"

"Funny, seeing as you stole him first," Danny said and Mokuau stared at him surprised. "Yeah, that's right, we know who this horse really is."

"Okay… okay… but all you really got on me is stolen property."

"Oh! And animal cruelty he was gonna shoot this poor guy!" Rowan cried, but Danny swept her back again. He turned to her and growled: "Stay with the damn horse," and Rowan finally walked away.

"See, that's where you're wrong. On the way over here, we got a phone call," Grover growled. "Local crime lab, seems they found a travel mug inside Keone's truck. Still had some coffee in it. So they tested the mug and the coffee, and guess what they found. Traces of Liquid nicotine. So now we're thinking that he got dosed when he came by your ranch this morning."

"Lab also found a fingerprint on the mug. And I'm guessing, once you give us yours, it'll match."

"Oh and might I add, when her boyfriend finds out you pointed a gun at her, he's going to be less than kind," Danny said pointing to Rowan who just waved.

Grover scowled at him. "It was a gutsy play. You know, you steal Urban Myth, bring him way out here, putt him out to stud."

"I think it probably would've worked if Keone hadn't recognized this horse," Danny said.

"He was gonna blow the whistle on you and somehow you got wind of it. And you took him out before he had a chance to," Grover snapped.

Kono stepped up and added: "And then you went over to his place and you discovered he'd already contacted Harrison. So now, Harrison had to go too."

Mokuaua looked to Rowan and the horse she now knew was named Urban Myth and then to his bleeding shoulder and then back to Grover with a sigh.

"Keone always went on about how much he loved horse racing. When I saw him on my security feed sneaking around, taking pictures of him, I knew he recognized Urban Myth. Why couldn't he just leave well enough alone? No one was looking for that horse anymore. Urban Myth got to retire to a big ranch while the owners they got their insurance payout. Everyone had moved on. No one cared."

"Except Keone," Grover finished for him.

As Grover grabbed him Kono turned back to Rowan who was soothing the horse by running her hands up and down it's neck as it hung it's head over her shoulder and nibbled on the back of her shirt.

"Great she's the goddamn horse whisper," Danny snapped but Kono just smiled.

"Do you think they'll let me keep the horse if we can't find the owner?"

"Oh I am not telling her," Danny cried walking away. "I had to call Steve you guys get to tell her about Harrison!"

Kono shook her head, telling Rowan they already had the owner on the island would be nothing compared to Danny having to tell Steve that they had lost Rowan and she was in the middle of a high-speed chase on top of a stolen horse. She merely put an arm around Rowan's shoulder ready to burst her little bubble.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Harrison recovered quite quickly, only needed a night to recover. A night that Rowan spent relaxing in a hotel with small bottles of rum poured into a can of coke while Kono sat beside her in the hot tub drinking something strong and sprite. Danny and Grover ended up joining them with their own beers but once Rowan got a little too tipsy they had her quarantined to the room she was sharing with Kono. Especially once she and Steve got on the phone. No one wanted to hear them baby talking to each other about how much they missed each other and none of them had wanted to hear the phone sex that started up almost immediately either.

As soon as Harrison was cleared to leave they all took him to the ranch where they had Urban Myth penned up until it was time for him to go home. As soon as they got there, they found Alawa and Rowan waiting for them. At least this time she hadn't rose off with the horse.

Harrison approached them to lean over the railings like Rowan was to see the horses as he explained why he never gave up on finding his horse.

"Urban Myth was just a foal when I started working with him," Harrison said approaching the pen. "I've trained a lot of horses over the years, but Urban… well, let's just say that some mean more to you."

He leant a little closer to get a better look at him and Urban Myth looked up. As soon as that horse saw Harrison, he nickered and galloped across the pen to meet him. They all watched it, it was a nice sight to behold, and beside them Rowan was just letting it all out, sobbing quietly to herself.

"Geezus," Danny sighed. "What is going on with you today huh?"

"I'm fine, it's just… it's just so sweet you know?" she sniffed.

"And you were hoping you could keep the horse," Kono added and Rowan sighed but nodded.

"Yeah… I was hoping I could keep the horse."

"Where would you even put it Rowan?" Kono asked. "I doubt McGarrett's going to let you keep a horse on the beach… or in the garage."

"Well… since I can definitely afford stabling now, I'm confident that I could totally afford to buy a horse," she said wiping her eyes.

Well that got everyone's attention. Danny turned to her, his curiosity clearly piqued. "You can? Since when?"

"It's impolite to ask a lady about her income, Danny," Rowan answered primly and that was that conversation shut down.

Grover was ready for a new topic, however, because he nudged in between Danny and Rowan before the two of them could devolve into an argument that may or may not have ended in a physical altercation. "How did you even know that horse was stolen? I mean…"

"I got a vision," Rowan said. "I was petting the horse and I got a vision that he was going to get shot and buried. I even got his name."

She looked at them smiling proudly. "Looks like I'm finally back in business."

"Great, that's all we need."

Harrison approached them with Urban following closely behind him. "So which one of you is the infamous horse rustler Wild Rovin' Rowan?" he asked with a teasing grin. Rowan raised her hand.

"That's me, though I'm not that good… I did get thrown… and caught…" she admitted.

"Well… every cowgirl needs practice, even the infamous horse rustling ones," he said smiling warmly. "I just want to say thank you, I'll be indebted to you for a long time to come. Your friends mentioned how fond you are of him, so the next time he sires a foal, I'll let you have first pick."

"He's going to let her buy a horse from him?"

"No, I'll give it to her for free. Call it a finder fee," he said.

Danny nodded. "Oh that's worse."

"Well… maybe one day I'll take you up on that… you know… when I have my own place. And more spare time than I have now."

He handed her a card. "Hit me up if you ever want a foal, or if you just want updates and pictures."

Rowan practically snatched the card out of his face. "Yes! Love it! You have just opened yourself up to a lot of annoying emails."

"Well emailing me will open you up for a weekly, sometimes hourly, horse pictures… so… we'll be even."

Rowan hugged him reaching over the bar and pulling him up close to hug her. Well, at least Rowan's Christmas had gotten better. Now if only they could get home in time for Christmas, then all their Christmases would be saved as well.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

They were finally going home. Finally and on time. Steve was waiting for Rowan at the helicopter pad for her. Danny and Grover were arguing over who got shot gun when Dr. Dhawan came barrelling up to them in a little red cart like thing.

"Hold on, wait, wait," he cried putting it in park. "Hold on. Just a moment."

"Oh here we go, round 15," Danny sighed.

"Don't ask," Grover added once it was clear that Rowan and Kono were desperately out of loop.

"I… uh… just wanted to thank Max for… uh… his assistance on this case," he said quickly coming up to them.

Max stepped forward to meet him.

"Your skills as a wingman are unparalleled," he added.

"Happy to assist, Sanjeet."

"Hey, you know, us working together, it's given me the opportunity to make things right between us," he said going into his side satchel to pull out a hastily wrapped gift for Max.

"Merry Christmas," he said offering it to them and suddenly Max was rushing over.

"Wait… is that…?" Max hurriedly ripped it open and then showed them all.

"OH HEY! A Janice Rand doll," Rowan said and just like that Max and Sanjeet were staring at her like she was a goddess.

"Well to be a bit more specific it's an original limited-edition 1974 Yeoman Janice Rand action figure. Rowan, I have to say, I'm quite surprised you know what this is."

"Really? Why? Because I'm a girl? I know my Old School Star Trek," she said. "Come on guys, my dad's a cosmologist, he was all over Star Trek, it wasn't scientifically sound but he loved the creativity about it. Now wrap this up I wanna go home."

She then left them to climb into the helicopter.

"So uh… let me get this straight here, this whole beef between you two… this whole time… was about a Barbie doll?"

"It's an action figure," came at him so fast from three separate people. Max, Sanjeet and Rowan, all at the same time.

"Ah, okay. I'm done," he said and then turned to the helicopter where he found Rowan in his seat. "What the… move!"

"No," Rowan answered primly.

"McGarrett ain't here to save you," Danny said. "I called shotgun now move."

"The rules of shotgun are simple, Danny. You can't call shotgun until you're touching the vehicle." She said and then Rowan put her hand on the outside of the helicopter, looked him dead in the eye and said: "Shotgun."

Danny stared at her for a few seconds before starting forward. "If you put hands on me, so help me I'll kick your nuts right up into your throat," she snapped and just like that he chose to take the back seat.

Max was unphased by all of this, of course. His eyes were on Grover and Kono who were still listening to him, barely. "You see for many years I have been collecting the original Star Trek: TOS action figures and Janice would have completed my collection."

"But then, you know, I swiped him in an internet auction. I should've been the bigger man, but I had a thing for the actress, and in this instance, I kind of thought Max should've you know, stepped aside, but… it's fine."

Kono couldn't take it either choosing to leave Grover alone with the two nerds.

"You do have a point. I mean…" he said staring at the doll in his hands. "If you wanted her back…"

"No… no… I insist. You should have her."

"But it's..."

"No seriously it's meant to be," he said and then turned back to the helicopter "Any way, enough about Janice, you can get me her?" Sanjeet asked his eyes pointed in Rowan's direction.

Max followed his gaze and shook his head. "She is currently engaged in a romantic relationship with Commander McGarrett of Five-0 who is quite… possessive of her. I wouldn't recommend attempting to begin any courtship with Rowan Pierce."

"Yeah, he's a real animal when it comes to her. Look this has all been very touching, but it's time to go. Dr. Dhawan, thanks for your help, we couldn't have done it without you," Grover said silencing whatever else could come out of their mouths and like that they were on their way home.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

As soon as the helicopter had touched the ground, Rowan was out of it and rushing towards him. Steve didn't even care if it wasn't safe for her to be running around before the helicopter had killed its engine. He just wanted her to be in his arms again, he wanted to hold her and never, ever let her go again.

She got within range and she jumped into his arms and he held her tightly happy to see her like she was happy to see him. But it turned out her excitement wasn't just for him.

She pulled her head out of his neck, for what he thought was a kiss, but she just stared up at him with that excited grin on her face and cried: "I had a vision! Steve, I finally had a vision!"

Steve, of course, was not happy about this. He didn't want her getting visions and running off into danger and trouble, he didn't want her nightmares plagued with terrible things that could happen to him or his friends. He wanted her happy, he wanted her sleep patterns normal, he didn't want to wake up to her screams and then spend the rest of the night soothing her while he tried to calm his own worries. He wanted her to be normal.

But when she saw that stricken look on his face her happy smile fell right off of her. Steve felt his heart lurch, she had been so happy and he had just ruined it for her. He was a ruiner, not just of Christmas but of happy emotions. She dropped her hold on him, her arms coming away from his neck as she fell back to her feet and took a step away.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "Why did I think you'd be happy for me? That was stupid… you hate my visions."

"No! No! I don't hate your visions, I hate that you get hurt over them. I hate that they keep you up at night and that they scare you and I can't protect you from them," he whispered.

Rowan's lips twitched and he whispered: "Is that why you went to Hawaii Island then? Because you had a vision, was that the emergency?"

"No," Rowan answered sulkily and Steve frowned. "If you're not upset about the vision then what are you upset about?"

Steve frowned at her. "You know I don't like it when you have an emergency and you don't come to me… it makes me feel…"

"I couldn't go to you because it was about you."

"Me? But babe… if you had picked up your phone when I called we could have had lunch! So there's no way you could be mad at me for jumping into a case…"

"What?"

"Yeah, I was done the meetings early and I was gonna blow that case to spend time with you, cause there was no point me jumping in half way, but you didn't pick up and I…"

"What really? Fuck me… I mean that wasn't my emergency but… wow really?"

"Seriously babe, what is this emergency, what did I do?"

"It's not that you did something, it's just… your gift… your big ticket… it got lost in the mail and I wanted to get you a replacement but everyone's already got you everything you want and I only had like… less than a day to figure out a replacement…"

"That's what this has been about?" he asked. When Rowan nodded he smiled and hugged her again. "Babe, I don't care about that. I get to spend Christmas with you, that's what I care about."

Rowan turned her sparkling eyes up to him and his heart melted. It amazed him that that was what she was worried about. That her gift for him wouldn't be coming on time. No wonder none of his friends had briefed him, it wasn't really an emergency.

"You're really not going to care?" she asked. "You promise?"

"Of course baby," he said kissing her again. "At the risk of me sounding cliché… all I wanted for Christmas this year was you."

Rowan smiled happily up at him while trying to smother her laughter. He didn't even care that she was laughing at him. He just tugged her to his side and got her to his truck. He just wanted to take her home and take them to bed before they had to show up to Danny's for a Christmas Eve decorating party.

But as soon as they got home, Rowan clocked someone waiting for them, hidden in the shadows of a neighbouring house. Someone she recognized as one of Wo Fat's general workers. But he wasn't on the island anymore… was he… was that mad at her that he had sent someone to get back at her? A little late though… it had been almost a full month since she had seen or heard from him.

She got into the house, realized the man had moved towards the mouth of their driveway and Rowan frowned. She wanted to deal with this, but she didn't want to chance Steve getting hurt.

"Hey, I forgot something in the truck, give me a second," she said letting him toss the keys at her and catching them with only one fumble and then a triumphant smile. She wasn't good at catching them but she was getting better.

As soon as she got out the door she rushed to the end of the driveway and pushed the man behind a bush.

"Okay buddy, the head of Five-0 is just inside, so you better not be up to anything stupid," she warned. "Cause if he finds out you're up to shit you're screwed."

"I'm a Rowan-gram."

Rowan blinked her eyes. No he couldn't be. Her app was down and she hadn't put an order for anything in months. "Uh… excuse me?"

"I'm your Rowan-gram or at least… delivering it."

And then he handed her a package. A nicely gift wrapped package. He was delivering her a gift? For a second Rowan just stared at it, and as if sensing that she was confused, he moved on. "I was told to inform you that it was purchased before, he said you'd understand."

Ah.

Well that explained that.

But… what was she going to do about it? Was she really going to accept a gift from Wo Fat? To be honest, she really wanted to see what he got her. And it was nice of him to send it anyway when they were on such bad terms right now, though she was certain it was for practical reasons not sentimental ones. He probably just wanted it out of his closet. But if he was going to give her a gift she couldn't just leave him empty handed right?

"Okay, wait here," she said and then took off, but she didn't go in to the front. She rushed around the perimeter, in through the back and then scaled up the trellis. Something she hadn't done since Steve had told her to leave a year ago. She got herself into her old room and then listened to make sure that he was still downstairs before sneaking into the room she shared with him. She opened up the closet that she had slowly taken over and reached into the back of it where Wo Fat's Christmas gift, something she had purchased long before she had cut him out, was hidden in one of her other purses.

Once she had it she snuck back to that musty room that had once been hers, scaled down the trellis, luckily not falling off of it again and rushed back to the bush she had shoved the delivery guy behind, being sure to avoid all windows and move as quietly as possible. As soon as she was on the ground she rushed back to where she had left him and handed him a gift.

"Please deliver that to him… with uh… the same message. He'll get it."

He took it from her with a sigh and then she watched him leave. Rowan then caught her breath forced herself to smile and then made her way back into the house shoving her new gift into her bag.

When she got in Steve was on her immediately. "That took a while…" he said.

"Yeah, I hid it good."

"Hid what?"

Rowan reached into her bag where luckily Steve's replacement gift was also hidden. "Well… because your main gift is going to be late I uh… I got you a runner up…"

Steve snatched it out of her hands before she could even finish the sentence. "Babe you didn't have to do that."

He went to open it and Rowan stopped him. "Wait a second Mr. McGarrett, it's for Christmas."

"Aww come on, you can't tell me you got me something to make up for my big gift and expect me to not want to open in it," he said with a boyish grin and already Rowan was dithering. "Aw come on… just one?"

Rowan scowled playfully at him. "Okay, but everything else… tomorrow you might be…"

"No, I won't, babe, I won't," he swore to her and she sighed.

"Fine, but only if I get to open up one too!" she bargained and he smiled. "And you have to pick which one you want me to open."

"Deal."

The two of them went to the tree, Steve picked out a small wrapped box and put it in her hands. They then sat together on his couch. Rowan waited, her gift unopened in her hands, waiting to watch Steve open his, nibbling on her lips and hoping it was enough.

Steve got it open and then looked at the box. "A digital picture frame?" he asked.

"Uh huh… uh… I know you got me something absolutely wonderful… so I hope it's not too disappointing for you… I thought it would be good for your desk… uhm… cause it's getting kinda cluttered with all the frames. I uhm… I already put the pictures on… I chose some of my favourites and some of yours… I hope it's… okay?"

As she blabbered he had opened it up and started it up staring at the pictures that slid across the screen. "The uh… the instructions are inside… if you don't like any of the pictures you can use the cord to connect it to your computer and switch it out."

Steve stared at it, his eyes focusing on each picture that came on the screen. Rowan couldn't tell if he liked it or not… until he suddenly frowned.

She winced at him. "Oh, oh no, you don't like it… oh, I'm so sorry. I thought it was cute… your real present is…"

"What are you talking about? Rowan! You got me the gift of family for Christmas, how could you think this wasn't good enough?" he asked. "I'm only wondering how my real gift could be any better than this."

Rowan grinned at him. "Really? It's okay? You do like it?"

"Mine's going to seem stupid in comparison."

But Rowan didn't care she immediately went about tearing the wrapping paper up. A little Tiffiany's box as staring up at her.

She knew it wasn't a ring. They weren't ready for that yet. But she had a feeling that whatever was in this was going to be expensive.

Rowan carefully opened up the box and found a golden charm roughly the size of toonie staring up at her. It was a Nautilus shell, like Ursula had used to steal Ariel's voice.

"It's a locket," he said, reaching over and opening it for her. It fell open and on one said a fire opal was glinting up at her and on the other was a picture of her and Steve from one of their selfies at Halona. "I uh… I picked the fire opal cause Kono said it was your favourite… and… it represents your voice and how beautiful I think it is… and uh… on the back uhm… on the back…"

Rowan flipped it over and on the back was his last name, his naval ID and their Anniversary.

"I've noticed that uhm… that my dog tags clash with the fancy outfits that you wear for your meetings at Atlantic so I uhm… I thought that this would be a good compromise. You can wear that instead, have it match your outfits and still have a piece of me with you…. Uhm… you know… if that…"

Rowan launched herself at him, kissing him before he could finish the sentence. "I love it, thank you," she said against him as he held her back. "Though I don't care if your tags don't match my outfit. I will wear them with anything."

"You're just too good to me," he said to her, but Rowan was too busy kissing him to care. Right now, she was about as happy as she could have been.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

After exchanging the Christmas gifts, Rowan and Steve retired to his bed, where they made love, and then promptly passed out. And since neither of them had intended to do that, neither had set an alarm. Which meant they didn't wake up on time for Danny's party and when they did it was a mad dash for the door.

They were late for everything these days, but Steve didn't care. He loved watching Rowan get ready to go out, he loved all the care and time that went into it. Though he found her beautiful no matter what. They got to the party with more tins of Piparkoogid for everyone, which were met with great excitement, and then he let her mill off to do her own this while he went over the Christmas music options with Grover. Rowan was at the Christmas tree, smiling as they all went about decorating the tree, in this black Home Alone sweater that said: Merry Christmas you filthy animal while he got stuck with a navy blue ugly Christmas sweater with a giant seal on it. He was literally wearing a Navy Seal, right at that moment. He was doing it for her. He just had to keep remembering that he was doing it for her, because with every joke he got he was less and less for these stupid sweaters.

Steve masked his distress about his itchy warm sweater with the minor inconvenience of finding out that Danny only had one Christmas album. What kind of heathen only had one Christmas Album?

"Hey, why do you have only one Christmas album?" he asked, in what he thought was the most polite way he could without insinuating that there was something wrong with Danny.

"It's Andy Williams, what more do you need?

"Wait… hold on there, chief. How about Bing Crosby? How about a little Nat King Cole?" Grover asked.

"Hey, Dean Martin's A Winter Romance is a good one!" Kono added.

"I've always liked Elvis. More specifically anything by Elvis," Rowan chimed in.

"I don't have them, I apologize," Danny said in the least apathetic voice anyone had ever heard.

"I we need additional accompaniment," Max offered. "I'd be happy to go home and fetch my keyboard."

"I can get my trumpet," Chin offered as well.

"Okay, if we're going to be going off the CD here, the only person allowed to try and make music is Rowan," Danny said with his hands up winning a scowl from Rowan.

"Why me?" she cried.

"Because you're the professional song writer, Ro," He said. "You're the only one qualified."

"Uh… excuse me… I'm not just going to serenade you for free and I don't come cheap, you know!"

"Oh how bad could it be?" Danny asked.

"Well my last song sold for 300 thousand," she said and just like that Steven was choking on a Piparkoogid

"Excuse me?" he coughed at her.

"What?"

"You made how much?"

"My last song… Bad Liar, I sold it to some punk band, Imagine Dragons I think. They paid me 300 thousand for the song up front and we're still trying to negotiate royalties. They don't want to budge of 5.4 and I don't want to budge off of 8.5, we'll see who caves first," she explained to him.

"You have 300 thousand dollars in the bank?" he asked.

Rowan seemed to think that over and then said: "It's rude to ask a lady about the state of her bank account, Steven, especially in front of guests."

"These aren't our guests, they're Danny's!" he thundered but Rowan merely turned away from him and refused to answer so it was up to Grover to save the party before Rowan and Steve got into an argument in front of everyone.

"You gotta tell me about these Estonia Gingerbreads," Grover said, shoving another one in his mouth. "Girl, where did you even learn how to make these?"

Rowan smiled softly. "Uh… my mom taught me how."

"You Estonian?"

"No… uh… well… she did a year abroad, as like a fun year. Did all her electives and easy courses over at Tartu University in Tallinn. And uh… there was one day that she bumped into this uh… this TA who was on loan to them… working in the astronomy department tracking some meteors and performing his own experiments on the side. And uh… he asked her out for dinner and she said no because she had to go home to help the family she was staying with make cookies, and when she got home that night, he was already in the house… helping them make Piparkoogid. And uh… well… she and that man started dating… and then she went back to Canada, and he stayed on and they did a long distance thing… uhm… and a year later he got a transfer back to Toronto, she went to meet him at the airport and he proposed then and there… and uh… they made Piparkoogid every Christmas ever since. They were also decorations on their wedding cakes. So yeah… that's how I learned how to make them."

Everyone around her nodded and Danny turned expectant eyes to Steve. And that was Danny proven right. Well damn. That meant the ugly Christmas sweaters were also a Family thing. Well, he was going to stop complaining about that.

"But uh… if it's easier for you, you can just call them pepper cookies," she announced and that won a couple of laughs and exclamations that it was easier

The doorbell rang and a smug Danny, assuming it was just more guests went to answer it. He wasn't expecting Pua to be on his door, simply because he hadn't been invited, in his uniform wearing a stern look on his face. He handed Danny a yellow ticked which he took and then looked over.

"What's this?" he asked even though he knew what it was and he was far from pleased to see it in his hands

"It's a citation. You and Commander McGarrett stole a pine tree from a protected reserve," he explained. I have the evidence to prove it, and I also have a witness."

"This is uh… 1,200 dollars," Danny read out.

"That's the mandatory fine," Pua explained. "And I have to confiscate the tree."

Danny balked at this. "You're gonna take… are you serious?"

"I'm afraid so,"

"Tonight? It's Christmas eve, you're gonna take my tree?"

"Oh hey! He's back. I see you found Danny, wanna cookie?" Rowan asked a box of cookies in her hand and being offered out to him

Pua immediately went for his gun. Danny swept Rowan aside and shot him a glare of disbelief. It was one thing to be fining him and confiscating his tree on Christmas eve, but now he was gonna pull a gun on innocent Rowan? Had the power gone to Pua's head? "What the… why are you pulling a gun… it's a girl with a box of cookies?"

"Everyone knows Rowan Pierce and her criminal network,"

And just like that Rowan swept even further aside and Steve was standing there glaring at Pua from over Danny's shoulder. "Did he just try to pull a gun on my girl?" he asked in a low voice.

"I only asked if he wanted a cookie," Rowan's sad little voice came out at them and if it was possible Steve's glare darkened and Pua's face paled in fear at the sight of it.

"That, I'm assuming, was a misunderstanding. What's not a misunderstanding is that he's here because he's confiscating my tree," Danny said to Steve and that won him another scowl.

This was his fault, it had been his idea to cut down that tree for Danny. But as the two of them locked into a deadly glare before the inevitable start of their argument, Pua came a little further into the house, and saw all the happy Christmas faces. And just like that he stopped being a grinch.

"Well... you know… maybe I can take it back tomorrow," he offered. "So long as I get one of those cookies"

"Okay. Come in, you want an eggnog?" Danny asked. "But if you point your gun even remotely near Rowan, this Neanderthal here will literally strangle you with his own bare hands, you know that right?"

Steve continued to glare at him and Pua nodded. "Misunderstanding, that's all," he said coming in, Steve, who had Rowan's box of cookies for some reason offered it to him so he could take one and then they all congregated in the living room by the tree.

"Where's Rowan, Kamekona wants to start with the carolling," Grover said.

Danny and Steve looked around but neither of them could spot her. "Uh… she was just here."

Steve sighed. The pulling of the gun must have spooked her. "I'll go find her, give me a minute."

He was hoping that Rowan would be in the washroom but instead he found the back door slightly ajar. Fuck she better not have run. But when he got to the door he realized that she was just on the phone with someone. He had missed most of the conversation but he could tell from her tone that she was… well… sad.

"Well… I just wanted to say Merry Christmas, and thank you. Yeah… yeah… I miss you too. Bye."

As soon as she hung up she turned around and then jumped when she fond Steve in the doorway staring at her. "Christ Steve, you scared the crap out of me."

"Who was that?"

"What?"

"On the phone Rowan, who was on the phone?"

The thing about dating Rowan was that Steve was starting to learn her tells. Like Steve knew that when she was lying, her face would go blank, and her eyes would do this shifty thing as she thought about a good lie to tell. It never too her long to think one up, like her brain went into over drive when it came to thinking up a lie so it happened in warp speed.

So when she said: "Oh that was just Pete, wishing him a Merry Christmas," he knew she was lying.

"You miss Pete?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. That was another tell. Having a lie questioned so soon after spewing it always unnerved her. The blinking was her resetting. If she smiled he'd know she was hiding something that she knew he wouldn't like.

Rowan grinned at him. "Course, my negotiations would be done by now if he wasn't off in Colorado skiing," she said. But what sealed the deal was when she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Let's go back inside, the sooner I'm done singing, the sooner you can continue kissing me under the mistletoe."

That right there gave him all he needed to know. Rowan always got super affectionate when she felt guilty about the lie or if she thought the lie wasn't working and she wanted Steve off of it, because once she kissed him his brain went fuzzy. He knew this, she knew this, it was a problem.

As she withdrew her hands he caught sight of something glinting on her wrist. A gold bar bracelet he didn't recognize.

"What's that?" he asked.

"It's a gift," Rowan said with a smile. "From me. To me. I unno weird, but yeah…" She showed it to him, in nice calligraphy writing it said her name and then she flipped it over to show him the coordinates on the back. "That's the exact coordinates to my house. I used the smart table to look it up. I just… I guess I miss my family and I thought it'd be nice to get me something as if they were giving it to me, I don't know it's stupid… lets go inside."

Steve let her walk away tried to smile. There were a lot of things wrong with that whole conversation. Starting with the only reason he could figure Rowan would lie about a phone call was if she had called Wo Fat. And ending with the coordinates on her bracelet weren't anywhere near Victoria, BC, they were on Hawaii and he had a feeling that if he ran with the Wo Fat theory, then they'd be to a spot that meant something to them. But he didn't know what, or how she would have received the gift let alone wear it.

But most importantly… she wouldn't betray him like that… would she?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

I'm just calling to say thank you for the gift and Merry Christmas. This doesn't change anything.

That was how that call started. He knew when he sent her that gift that it could have gone one of two ways. Unfortunately for him, it did not lead to the road to redemption, it led down the second path, acknowledgement but essentially nothing had changed.

He hadn't had a good day today. Other than Rowan's confirmation of nothing changing on their end, Jian Hu had opened up his Christmas gift early because she couldn't wait and hated the necklace he had picked out, and then he had opened hers to find floral multicolored tie that he detested. Granted that had a much happier ending. Tomorrow they would be going to the mall together to exchange their gifts and pick up ones that they would like better.

Now, with the phone call with Rowan ended, he sighed, put the phone down onto the countertop and then stared at the package they had expedited to him. Her gift to him. The very last Rowan-gram he'd ever order and pay for.

Jian, who had been patiently redecorating the tree by casually moving ornaments around, returned to his side.

"That sounded rough," she said pressing herself against his arm. Not in a sensual sense, she wasn't overly affectionate with him, instead she would just stand beside him, enough for their arms to be pressed together and right now that was what he needed.

"She's still mad at me."

She nodded like she understood. "I'm sure she'll come around. She accepted the gift AND called you to thank you for it," she added. "She didn't have to do that."

That was true, but Rowan wasn't the kind of person to turn her nose up at a gift, nor was she the kind of person to receive a gift and not say thank you. She did that because she was polite, simple, but it filled him with hope to think that maybe Jian was right so he let her have it.

"So, what did she get you?"

"I haven't opened it," he said not taking his eyes off of the package. When she was silent he turned a smile to her to show that he was teasing her. He got a scowl and a: "You're not funny."

Rowan would have laughed.

"I was going to open it tomorrow, or… maybe not at all," he said.

"Oh you can't do that to me. I want to see what she got you," she said going for the box. Wo Fat swatted her hands away and then, just for her, opened it.

He was looking at three novelty ice cube trays with a note that said: "Don't forget to have fun."

"Well that was disappointing I thought she knew you…" she started but Wo Fat cut her off by breaking off into amused laughter. More like soft chortles.

"Wait… you… you actually like these?"

Wo Fat shook his head, she probably wouldn't understand but he'd still try to explain it. "Well… uh… I drink a lot of whiskey on the rocks, and she got me these… so I'd remember to you know… have fun in life," he said. "Look, she got me bullets, little skulls and this nautical one is probably because we used to watch Muppet Treasure Island all the time cause it was the only one of her movies I could stomach so… yeah…"

"Remember to have fun…"

"I didn't have a very fun childhood, she tries very hard to remind me to not always be serious."

"Well… I see… so… wait… but wouldn't you have had the same childhood?"

He and Jian had only been dating a few weeks, a month if you asked her, but he never really went in detail about his own past, how he had met Rowan, or what he did for work. These were things he didn't want to talk about when he was with her.

"I… uh… I'm adopted," he said. It was partially true. She had adopted him just not while they were children. The thing with Rowan was already weird, explaining it would make it even weirder. And he wasn't sure if their burgeoning relationship could survive something like that. And would it really matter? Rowan was never going to forgive him so Jian would never meet her.

She finally brought her hand up to play with the hair above his ear, not once flinching against his scars, so he'd turn to look at him. "Did you want to fill them up so you can have fun whisky tomorrow?"

He smiled at her, it was great that she was just as willing to indulge him as Rowan was. It made missing her less painful. He was going to have a great Christmas this year, he just knew it. The first good one in years.