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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! I'm glad that you guys enjoyed the last chapter. We've got some cute things happening in this chapter and a little bit of angst as well. We also get to find out what happens to Alex. After this we got some really, REALLY cute things coming and I'm really excited for you to read them. We're also getting closer and closer to season 6, or at least my writing is. I'm already 180 chapters deep y'all. Also I'm really happy that AlexLover is back. AJ and PJ if you're still there hit me up! I miss you guys! Don't forget to drop me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!

Chapter 157

The paintings Five-0 had rescued from Janssen's men had all been fakes. They found out that Emery had a safe. A secondary safe where he kept all the originals. But when they got to it, the place was empty save for one painting the one that started it all. Van Gogh's sunflowers. The painting that started it all. Clearly Nicole had known about this safe, had known about the paintings. Rowan had been right. Nicole Booth had played them.

And while that upset him, he still got to hand a reward cheque to their vic who took a bullet for that painting without knowing it. No what had him really upset was the app. The app Rowan had said was down. She kept saying that she didn't know what happened. She didn't know why it was active, let alone why it had suddenly evolved.

But it didn't explain why the fuck the app was still on her phone or why hadn't she deleted it.

Never gotten around to it, his ass. He had a theory as to why Rowan hadn't deleted the app. He was just too afraid to voice it lest it be true.

"I'm sorry we have to do this," Rowan said to him but Steve just shrugged at her. They were in his truck heading to the one person who could answer their questions about the app. Steve said nothing because he didn't know what to say, he didn't know what to feel, but mostly he was feeling betrayed. Rowan took in his silence with a heavy sigh. "I know you're mad at me… and I'm sorry… I am… I didn't know it was active again…"

Yeah but she had kept it on her phone. "I'm not mad at you."

"Well you're upset about something."

Yeah, that Rowan was getting sued. That Rowan had been in a hostage situation again. That her app was up and running again and worse than before. That she never deleted the app off her phone. That Nicole had played him like Rowan had said she would and even with Rowan telling him it was going to happen he was still taken by surprise.

But he couldn't say half of that to her without starting an argument so he went with the one thing he had left, and luckily for him it was actually the one of the main things that he was pissed off about at that moment.

"Uh… turns out… turns out the paintings are all fakes," Steve said to her. Rowan blinked at him but very luckily didn't hit him with the I told you so he so clearly deserved. "Emery had a secondary vault where he kept all the originals. Nicole didn't inform us about the vault so I had no idea it was there. But uh… she left us the Van Gogh and we gave the reward to our vic, who's uh… going to make a full recovery."

"That's very nice of you," Rowan murmured and Steve sighed again.

"Go ahead, hit me with it," he said. "I told you so, I know you want to say it. I fell for it, just like you said I would."

"I know… it's too bad someone didn't do something… because they knew you'd fall for her charms," Rowan said illusively and Steve turned to her.

"Oh god, what did you do?"

"Are you sure you want to know? After the day we had I don't know if you can take it," she said to him.

It was that bad? Fuck. "Just… just tell me. Rip it off like a band aid."

"Well as I mentioned, I used Wo Fat's name to get me in the door, right? Well, that's not quite all I did. What I did was call Emery earlier to say I was interested in seeing the pieces first. Which he was more than willing to do for the sister of an old friend who helped him collect a few of those pieces he was trying to sell. When I got there, we had a chat about how I had heard, while my brother was doing a deal, that the man he was selling to was going to come and rip Emery off. So, we agreed to a back up plan."

"Which was what?"

"Two sets of fakes and hiding the originals somewhere no one else would look for them," she said.

Steve continued to glare at her. "Which was where, Rowan?"

"In the trunk of my car," she said with a grin. "So both Janssen and Nicole got fakes, she left the one original behind for you to do a good thing with and I got to stick it to that red-headed British liar! HA!"

Steve laughed at her. Really? The originals were all in the trunk of her car which was currently parked in the Palace's parking lot? Fuck, that was amazing, that meant… that meant that he could return them to their rightful owners after years of being lost to the world of illegal art trade and Nicole Booth wouldn't profit from it. Teach her a lesson or two, now wouldn't it.

He parked the car in front of Kong's warehouse and then turned in his seat to grab her and kiss her. He had spontaneously doing that a lot since he getting her out of that house. He was still trying to establish if she had betrayed him or not, but even if she did he couldn't keep his hands off of her and his lips away from her.

Rowan kissed him until she had had enough and sat back, turning to silently regard the building. "I don't know how this is going to go," she said. "I don't know if I'll be allowed in."

"Well… either he lets in you or he deals with a Five-0 raid," he said. "I'm sure he'll pick you."

Rowan smiled stiffly, and he tried to smile encouragingly at her. He didn't want to do this either but he also wanted answers.

They got out of his truck and walked to the door.

"Hi Andre," she said. "I uh… I brought you protein powder to make up for my last… uh…" she handed him the package of powder which he ripped out of her grasp. "Can I see Kong, please? I've had a bit of an emergency and I was hoping to ask for help."

Andre continued to scowl at her, but he let her by. As she walked away from him she added: "I'm really sorry I punched you." But he ignored her.

"You punched him?" Steve asked, keeping his voice at a hush as they walked through the hallway towards his office.

"Yeah, uppercut to the underarm, he went down immediately," she answered. "Try not to remind him of it, huh?"

Steve just stared at her, wondering if her eyes were that Ice blue he was used to seeing when the Professional in her came out to play. But she wouldn't look at him, so he didn't get a chance to figure it out, though if she pulled the Ice Queen out of hibernation he'd be greatly appreciated.

Rowan knocked on Kong's door and waited for him to tell her to come in before opening it. Which was much better than what he had done the last time her was there, he still owed Kong for the door he had broken down. The invoice was still sitting on his desk back at the palace. She tried to smile at him but he just glared at her.

"I don't a see a sushi bag," he said and Rowan winced.

"I didn't have time to stop," she told him as he took a seat across from her.

"Andre says you have an emergency. Must be huge if you've brought the Commander with you," he said.

Rowan nodded to him. "I met Sandy today."

Kong took that in carefully no doubt gauging where in that statement was the question. After a moment's silence he bowed his head to her and said: "Yes I heard about the hostage situation, nasty business, but then again, Janssen never was very smart."

Rowan glared at him. "What the fuck, Kong? My app's supposed to be down."

"Yes, I'm aware of what Wo Fat ordered me to do."

"Okay, so you were told to take down her app… and instead of doing it, you… you upgraded it…?"

"I made the necessary adjustments to have it run without needing her prompting," he said.

"Why the hell would you do that?" Rowan cried. "He told you to…"

"He told me to take it down, yes, but both he and I have worked very hard. Me on this app, and him on keeping you safe. A lot of time, a lot of effort and quite a bit of money went into this. While I was content to leave you to your devices, McGarrett came in here in a panic demanding that I put him in touch with your brother and it became clear that we couldn't entrust your wellbeing to him. Not when he lost you in the span of the two days you were out of the app's care and then failed to find you for a full 72 hour period when it took my contacts less than four."

Steve scowled at him. What the hell did that mean? Kong and Wo Fat had known where Rowan was the whole time. The only one that had been out of the loop had been him? That was why this had happened? He had come to demand help and they had upgraded the app.

"Your brother was quite ambiguous about the whole matter, but I took it as he wanted me to make it so you couldn't directly access the app but still be able to run it if you came into certain issues," Kong explained. "The Newly upgraded Sanctuary network, or Sandy as I've called her, monitors your state through the microphone on your phone. She is set up to stream herself through any connection to keep up with you, which includes downloading herself onto any mainframe. She is a firewall chipper except she has a sledge hammer instead of a chisel, and she has been programmed to detect certain codes and sounds and to react accordingly. Though anything big will be sent to your brother for confirmation."

"Did… did he have to confirm todays actions?" Steve asked noting that Rowan had a strange look on her face that was purposely turned away from him.

"Yes. He had to confirm the activation of the Force Field Protocols and activating the nearest players because he had to approve payment," Kong said. Steve remembered how Rowan had said that the reason she had gotten into the auction and the private party had been because Wo Fat's name was on the list. He wasn't on the island, was he?

"And he can do that from anywhere?" Steve asked, a sinking feeling in his stomach, and it got worse when Kong carefully looked at Rowan and then back to Steve.

He sighed. "Uh… yeah, he can do it from anywhere in the world," he said. Okay… okay… so he didn't have to be near-by to use her app, to confirm anything. He could be anywhere, he wasn't on the island, Rowan was probably acting weird because she was worried. Worried about how he was going to take this.

Fair.

But he was going to take it graciously because it had saved Rowan's life and it got his bad guys. And it was clearly done without her knowledge.

"Okay. Well thank you for all of this… but uh… turn it off," Rowan said and Steve turned to her surprised that she had said it and not him.

"No can do…"

"Okay, yes. Yes you can do. You programmed her, you can turn her off," she snapped.

"I could, but I take my orders from your brother and not you, and he wants it running… sooo…"

"Kong it locked me in a panic room with the bad guys," Rowan growled.

"Yeah… uh… I can try to program that out of it but she was simply trying to isolate you…"

"KONG!" she shouted and the man actually flinched. "Stop! I didn't ask for this… when he left, I knew… I knew this was going to go down, I knew I wouldn't have an app anymore and I am FINE with that. Now please… this was all just so… and he's going to be… and Alex… being tied to a criminal network is going to make it easier for him to… god will you please?"

Steve put a hand to her arm finally realizing what it was that upsetting her. It was him. She was upset about him and whether or not they'd argue over this. And of course… about Alex, but he had a plan for that… or at least, he did now.

"Alright," Steve said. "Okay, it's okay. I'm not… I know you didn't… ask for this… and by the looks of it he's not going to shut down, but that's okay… you know… cause he's right, I lose track of you a lot and that app uh… it kind of… you know it definitely saved you today."

Rowan turned to him. "You're not mad at me?" she asked her chin warbling. "Cause with everything with Alex I really just… I can't have you mad at me on top of that…'

"That's the second time you've mentioned him. What did Alex do now?" Kong asked.

"It's none of your business," Rowan snapped.

Kong sighed and rolled his eyes and Steve just pulled her into a tight hug. "No Rowan, I'm not mad at you," he said to her, kissing her hair. "But uh… I know what you're like with that app so if you could possibly… uh… limit your interactions with Sandy that would be greatly appreciated."

Rowan nodded, hugging him tightly. Steve glanced over to Kong who was not paying attention but was instead looking carefully at his computer, his eyes clearly reading something.

"I uh… can you give me a second?" he said to her. "I want to confirm some things." When Rowan hesitated he added: "I'm really not mad, I just want to know what we're working with here, okay? Can you please, uh... meet me at the car?"

Rowan sighed but did as she was told, leaving the room and as soon as she was gone he turned to Kong and said: "How much would I have to pay to convince you to set up Black Cat Protocols on Alex?"

Kong half smirked. "What's the matter, McGarrett, can't figure out how to get rid of the lawsuit by yourself?" he taunted and when Steve just glared at him he scoffed and looked away from him. "I can do something much better and much quicker than Black Cat Protocols, besides, you wouldn't be able to afford Black Cat Protocols, not on your salary. Just uh… you head home and wait for the call."

Steve nodded to him and then turned a left. He could never tell Rowan what he had done, not when he got mad at her for using the app. But he figured, the best way to get Alex off her back for good, would be to use the app to shut him and his lawsuit down.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve wouldn't tell her what it was he talked to Kong Liang about. But he wasn't distant or mad with her. They unpacked the art out of the trunk of her car, ready to send off to where they needed to go, and then he and Rowan went home. Home for a long needed bubble bath, where he had her put back in that dress so he could purposely strip her off it and she made him wear his suit without his tie, his dress shirt partially unbuttoned.

For the night they were high class, rich as fuck, pretentious lovers. Celebrating the purchase of their newest piece of art.

They had really gotten into roleplay as of late. But nothing topped the naughty prostitute who'd do anything to keep from getting arrested and the dirty (in more ways than one) officer who had put the cuffs on her. And damn did Steve like putting cuffs on her.

The following day was the shrimp fest, where Rowan had agreed to go to support Kamekona and that was all. All the others got to eat unlimited shrimp and Rowan got a shaved ice. But Kamekona had won and she was glad to be there to share that victory with him.

Since Rowan hadn't had a chance to eat anything, they had all decided to pick up burgers from the Side Street Grill and then go back to the palace where they could finish up paperwork and physically send off the paintings Rowan had single handily rescued. None of them were eating much but they all had a little bit of something so Rowan didn't feel too bad about devouring an entire burger, large fries and chocolate milk shake.

They were all laughing and having fun when Steve got a call. A strange one judging by the look on his face. And when he was done, he turned to her with a frown to say: "I've been called out to the airport by TSA, not a full team thing just a me thing which is weird, but it shouldn't take long. Are you good to stay here while I deal with whatever that was?"

"Sure," she said with a shrug though she didn't really want him to leave. "Just uh… don't take too long."

He swooped in to kiss her, before promising to not be that long, and then he left her there. After that, though everyone was still trying to have fun, Rowan wasn't as into it as before. She knew that Steve had to work and that it could call him in at any time but she would have loved, if for once, just once, he could have said that he'd pass it off to someone else to stay with her.

But she also loved that Steve was off rescuing people all the time, she was very proud of him and his team of what they did and how good they were at what they did. So she always did her best to put on her best and bravest face and just go with it.

Besides, he always made it up to her somehow. Maybe this time she'd get breakfast in bed, or they'd swing by Halona for some hot and heavy make out sessions as the water drifted down on them. He'd make it up to her, she knew, he always did.

And then she got a phone call of her own. Private number. One guess who that was.

"Give me a second guys," Rowan said. "Music emergency."

She then quickly rushed out of the offices and into the hallway, looking for a corner she could hide in that wouldn't echo and they wouldn't notice her if they came looking for her, or if Steve came back faster than expected.

She answered the phone with quick: "Hey." There was silence on the other end and she sighed. He must have been too afraid to talk to her… her poor brother. Her heart went out to him. "I know it's you Wo."

"I know," he whispered back to her. "Are you… okay? How did… he… take it? The app's resurrection, I mean."

"Surprisingly well… considering neither of us knew it was a thing…" she whispered. "Why… why did you do it? I thought… that… we… we weren't…"

"Yes. I know. That's what I was going to… uh… do… but then he lost you again and I realized that I couldn't trust him to take care of you and you're…. uh… you're still my sister even if I'm mad with you and I…"

"Wait a second? Mad at me?" Rowan echoed. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Yes Ro… yes…. I'm…"

"You're mad at me? Wo… you kidnapped my boyfriend and tortured him!"

"He's not your boyfriend. He refuses to give you that label. I on the other hand was more than willing to give you any label you wanted. Which has graduated all the way up to sister…" he snapped. "I've done a lot of things I didn't want to do for you. I put up with a sub-par potential mate who has a long history of stalking you, arresting you, making you cry and pushing you away. I put together a network to protect you and you use it to solve cases, and alienate me from the people I try to do business with, and I said nothing about the damage it was doing to me because it made you happy to help your so called friends, who are still more than happy to sell you out to McGarrett the second they need to. And the thanks I got for doing all of that for you, for taking care of you, for listening to you cry about a man I'd rather put a bullet in then let anywhere near a fucking dog let alone you, was having the only family I considered myself to have tell me to get out of her life!"

Rowan stood there in her corner absolutely horrified. She felt an awful lot like she was going to cry, probably because she already was.

"I'm sorry."

"No. don't do that. Don't you dare," he growled.

But Rowan didn't know what she was doing to upset him so she just repeated it again. Though she couldn't stop her hiccupping sob from accompanying the repeated "I'm sorry!"

"No! Stop it. Stop sounding so sad!" he cried. "I can't stay mad at you if I think you're crying. So stop it."

"I'm trying," she hiccupped and she heard his aggravated sigh. "I'm sorry, Wo, I really am. I'm sorry I made you feel like that. I'm sorry I ruined your rep. I'm sorry I made you deal with Steve so often. I'm sorry that I can't just forgive you."

Wo was silent a moment before he suddenly whispered: "Why not? What's so different about this? You forgave me for shooting you… so I tortured him a little bit… it wasn't nearly as bad as the time I nearly killed you…"

"Because it's different Wo. I don't care about what happens to me. But I care about Steven. I think… I think I'm falling in love with him and it kills me that you did those things to him… that you made him suffer like that. And he's just so… so mad at you for it… and you knew how upset I'd be if you did it, don't you tell me you didn't know. You never told me what you were up to, you hid it from me, you avoided my calls, you knew if I found out I'd be angry and you did it anyway. He was going to kill you Wo. If I hadn't got there when I did. Only one of you was coming out of that basement and almost every option led to you dying. We were doing so well… he had stopped asking me to choose between you two. He was finally at a place where he could accept you being in my life and then…"

"He blamed you for it, didn't he?" he asked. "That's why you ran isn't? Right after he got out of the hospital. I was gone and he took it out on you. He thought you were in on it, right?" when she was quiet he sighed again. "Rowan if he knew you… if he really knew you… cared about you in the same way you cared for him, he would have known that you would have never let me do that to him."

He was right of course. But looking at the evidence simply for what it was and add in Steve's untrusting nature it wasn't surprising that he came to that conclusion.

"Wo. Please. Please don't make this any harder for the both of us," she whispered. "I'm grateful for every single thing you did for me. I'm grateful that you care, that I'm that important to you. And I miss you. I do. I miss you so much. You're the only one who liked me the way I am, crazy psychic visions and sociopathic tendencies and all and I really wish there was a way to make this work. But I trusted you. I trusted you and you broke that trust. And I know, where Steven is involved… I'll never be able to trust you again."

They were silent for a moment and she wiped her tears away from her face. "Thank you for saving me again. Thank you for updating the app. Thank you for being my brother, no matter how short a time you were. But it's okay. You can let me go. You don't have to martyr your reputation for me any longer. You can shut the app down, and if something happens… it won't be your fault, okay? It'll be mine… or hey… you can just blame Steve if it makes you feel better. Just… it's okay. It's okay if you let me go. I'm not worth all this anyway."

"You know, you know that you're worth a lot more than that to me. But if that's what you want… Ro…" he said with a sigh. "Good-bye… my imouto."

She couldn't even whisper good-bye to him. She just hung up the phone and leant against the wall behind her. She slowly slid down it, crouching down behind one of the potted plants, rested her head on her knees and for a long while she just let herself cry.

And not a single one of her so-called friends came looking for her.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

When Steve got to the airport he found out that TSA had not called him because he was the head of Five-0 and they had a situation that needed to be dealt with. No. Steve got called down because someone had called him, the head of Five-0, down to help clear his name.

After getting briefed on the situation Steve walked into the holding cell/interrogation room and then smirked down at the young man who was holding his head.

Alex looked up at Steve, that forlorn puppy dog look on his face doing nothing but making Steve smirk a little harder.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Steve scoffed and Alex sighed and looked away from him.

"Look man…"

"No, you've got some nerve," Steve interrupted. "You're fucking trying to sue my girl for all she's got… which is not a lot… and you have the absolute gall to call me to get you out of this?"

"Because I didn't do it, McGarrett!" he cried.

"So you're telling me that your suitcase just spontaneously filled up with cocaine?"

"YES!" Alex shouted. "You seriously think I actually packed a suitcase full of drugs and decided to go across America with it? You think I'm that stupid?"

"I mean you're threatening to sue a girl who's tied to Five-0 and a criminal network… both of which could easily make you disappear and then you have the stones to call her boyfriend to get you out of jail time… so yeah… I fucking think you're stupid."

Alex narrowed his eyes at Steve. "That's what this is, isn't it?" he asked. "That maniac found out that she was getting sued by me and thought this would get me off her back, right?"

Steve sighed at him. "No. If she had told Wo Fat about this he would have just killed you. He's more of a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy. I on the other hand am more reasonable. So here's what I'm going to do for you…" he said bracing himself self against the table and glaring down into Alex's face. Loving that he was handcuffed to the table and unable to get away from him at that moment. "I'm going to figure out who did this to you. But whether or not this asshole gets booked depends on how quickly you can call off that lawsuit."

"Well I mean…"

"I'm literally not going to do shit for you unless that lawsuit is off the table. With a sworn affidavit that you won't be suing her again, you understand me?"

Alex stared at him. He sighed. "Look, do you know how much she makes?" he asked. He did not but he figured not enough for someone as famous as Alex Lockman of the Doctors to need her income, even if it was just some extra padding on the side. "I haven't been able to write a single thing nearly as good as the stuff she puts out and she's so pissed at me for my last stunt that she's refusing to write me anything else. At least… you know for free. I just wanted her songs, you know? A maybe at least a little piece of what she makes."

"You're a headliner in a band that's selling out stadiums… and you're telling me you want a piece of what she makes? She can't be making… that much… Alex I mean… come on, you're doing this to be mean, you're being a piece of shit and you know it."

Alex just stared at him. "Wow, you don't know what she makes," he said mostly to himself and then he shook his head. "Look, I'll sign whatever you need me to, just fucking get me out of this McGarrett."

Steve slammed a piece of paper and a pen down for him. "Write out a declaration, saying you'll never sue her again and sign it while I'm out," he ordered and then slammed down Alex's phone. "And call that lawyer. When everything's done shoot me a line and I'll get you out of this."

He then left Alex in that little room. He stepped out told them his suspicions and asked if he could look around. When he was out of their line of sight he glanced back to his phone. A single text read: "Sketched out guy. Grey sweater. Men's washroom. Terminal G."

Wow what service. Was this what Rowan felt like? Being ten steps ahead of everyone else because she had an app that told her everything, and people who could set up takedowns like this. How the hell had Kong even managed to switch out the suitcases? He had a feeling that he'd never know. Besides, he had a part to play.

He made sure a lot of people could see him as he walked around but until Alex called him he didn't go anywhere near the Terminal G men's washroom. The sketched out grey sweater man who had switched out the bags had given himself up to him way too quickly, but Steve figured the guy was getting paid a lot of money to go through with this.

He handed him off to TSA and then collected everything he needed from Alex before finally returning to his truck. He waited a few minutes before pulling out his phone and dialed the number he figured was Kong's.

He waited for the call to connect before saying: "It worked like a charm. Thanks."

Kong was silent for a moment before saying to him: "I don't know what you're talking about, McGarrett. Now please, do me a favour and leave me alone. God, if this is what you did to Fat every time you had relationship problems with Rowan no wonder he kidnapped and tortured you."

He let Kong hang up the phone and though the comment rang true and kind of hurt him a bit, he still smiled to himself. He had fixed his girl's problem, and she would never have to know that he got help from her contacts to do it. Could his day get any better?