Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: So today's the last of the marathon (don't worry you're still going to get a regularly scheduled Monday post). I know I've had a really hard time posting during the day it's just because school started and I'm WAY too old to be doing 8am classes. I swear, too old. I hope you guys have been enjoying reading these chapters as much as I've been enjoying writing them. This chapter in particular is super cute and we've got some mildly angsty ones coming up that will be followed by probably my most favourite moment of this season. I swear, it think you guys will really like the scene I added. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Chapter 172

Their firebug, Duclair, which was eerily close to the Éclair Rowan said they were looking for, was not at his house. This man was crazy and set up to set another fire, on top of that he was getting bigger and bolder. They had done an extensive search and found a reservation for a hotel and figured that to be his next target. Steve had been forced to take Nahele to the original scene with him, as the kid wouldn't let go while he was suiting up until he agreed. Then he absolutely refused to be taken back to the palace, having shut himself in Steve's truck and refused to get out. So, he had already mastered Rowan's annoyance tactics when attempting to get his way.

He had left Nahele in the truck with a sworn promise that he was not going to move and then left Kathy, his rogue ATF agent, with him to coordinate fire and rescue with HPD and the Fire department. When Millwood went missing and their fire bug, Duclair, was found to not be in his room, there was panic as the team realized that Duclair must have taken Millwood to complete his vendetta against her. And that panic remained until Steve remembered the phone call he had with Rowan.

"Come on guys, room 1827," he had told his team.

There were looks of confusion, Grover asked how he knew. So, Steve told them the truth. "Rowan's dreaming again."

And that had been enough for his team.

They had rushed down to the room, where a convenient blood trail was waiting for them to follow. A blood trail that lead them, you guessed it, straight to door 1827. Steve had listened in at the door and heard Millwood's voice on the other side, talking to someone. Yep, Rowan was right. Millwood and Duclair were in there, and he had to make sure that he got her out before she got set on fire. He went to the room next door and knocked on the door. The person answered and Steve motioned for him to be quiet. And he nodded, and then followed Steve's finger as Steve pointed to the Five-0 part of his Kevlar, where his name and designation were printed. He then gestured to be let into the room. The man stepped aside immediately.

Steve moved through the suite carefully. He got to the balcony and silently crossed over. He just needed to find the right time to jump in. He could hear Millwood sobbing and when he glanced in Duclair was pouring oil on her. Okay now was the right time.

He let himself in and tackled him, grappling with the firebug, knocking the lighter out of his hand before he could set a fire and slamming him down to the ground. "I got him, Grover now!"

Grover broke down the door and then the whole team was barreling in. Grover helped him with the collar, while Kono and Chin got Millwood untied and up on her feet. He let Grover pull him up and then Millwood was squaring off with him.

"Look at me," she ordered but he kept his eyes down. "Look at me you son of a bitch!" she repeated and that time he looked up. "I promise you you'll get exactly what you want someday. You will burn in hell."

Grover took Duclair away, Kono had a hand to Millwood's side to keep her upright and to usher her out of the room and Steve, who had been holding his breath stood back and caught it, not sure why he was suddenly filled with this terrible anxiety. The pulsing ebbing worry that was both in his chest and his abdomen. He felt as if something were terribly wrong but he couldn't place what it could be. He had the bad guy, he had saved Millwood, why was the anxiety still there?

And then his phone rang. Danny. What could he want? Was he okay?

"McGarrett," he answered and then listened to Danny's frantic voice on the other end. It was all a scramble but he got the gist of it. Rowan. Stabbed. Hospital. "What, when? How bad is it?" Danny tried to answer but Steve cut him off. "Which hospital… I'm on my way."

And then Steve ran out into the hallway. "Chin, Rowan's in the hospital, take the kid home!" he cried as he rushed, not for the elevator, because that would take too long, but the stairs. He ignored all of his friend's shouts for him and an explanation and disappeared into the stairwell. He needed to Tripler as quickly as he could and nothing was going to stand in his way of getting to her.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny called Tripler Army Medical Center on the way to the hospital, so by the time they got there the team was waiting for them. They got Rowan out of the back of his car put her on the gurney and took her away. She was rushed immediately to surgery and a nurse came out to tell them a brief assessment of the situation. Moderately deep stab wound, evidence of a previous injury already in the area, unsure the amount of damage done, but, so far, the bleeding seemed about normal for a stab wound to the lower abdomen so they were operating under the assumption that nothing was internal right now. They'd have more as the surgery progressed.

Then Danny had to do the thing he hadn't wanted to do. He had to call Steve to tell him what happened. Steve hadn't yelled at him on the phone, but Danny could hear the fear and confusion in his voice. That meant when the fear wore off, the yelling and screaming and how could you have let that happens would come out. But until Steve got there, until the doctors told them how Rowan was doing, Danny had nothing but time to kill and questions to ask.

He crossed to where Amber was standing, tears running down her face, and put a hand on her arms. "It's okay, you know, it's okay, this isn't even half as bad as some of her other incidents."

Amber turned her eyes up to him all red and watery. "Yeah?"

"Yeah? Did you know she survived getting shot by her own brother? She uh… she's hit her head so many times… one time she had to get her head drilled to drain the blood that was leaking, they had to induce a coma and thought she'd die, and she didn't," he said. "So yeah, this is uh… this is nothing."

"Jesus," Amber breathed out.

"But uh… Amber… I kinda need to know what just happened," Danny said. "Who was that guy? Huh?"

Amber looked down at the ground. "My… uhm… my husband…"

Danny blinked his surprised. "Uhm… I'm sorry… what?" Amber started to cry again and Danny forced himself to calm down. "Alright, okay, Alright, let's just… let's just calm down here. Why don't you… uh… why don't you explain it to me, from the beginning?"

She sighed at him, tried to wipe away her tears and failed. "Okay… uh… well… I didn't have much of a family as a kid and when I was nineteen, I met Frank. And he was older and charming, and he was the first man who ever made me feel special," she admitted and Danny nodded seeing where this was going. "A year later, we were married, and everything changed. He wanted to control every aspect of my life and when I stood up for myself, he got violent. One night, he, uh…. He almost killed me, so I left the city and ran as fast and as far away as I could. And then I met you."

Danny took that in. "I got lucky, huh? Right, babe?"

"Well I wouldn't call it lucky," she said looking around at where they were.

"No?"

"No… I mean, I was afraid you would think I was damaged goods. That you wouldn't want me with all that baggage."

Danny shook his head and held her hand a little tighter. "Baggage? Look, I got…uh… I got plenty of baggage myself, you know? I think between the two of us, we may be able to open up a luggage joint one day, you know?"

He got a few sniffling chuckles from her before they lapsed into silence and Danny felt the need to fill it again.

"Look, um, I say that part of your life is over with now. You know? It's finished. I mean, we can start over right now. What do you say?"

She looked surprised but she smiled that watery smile at him and nodded. "I'm… I'm Melissa Armstrong."

"Melissa Armstrong," he repeated. "Wait… Melissa? You mean to tell me that Rowan's been getting your name right this entire time and I've been giving her shit for it?"

He meant it as a joke but her smile fell and she glanced back to the door like she expected an angry McGarrett to appear immediately.

"About Rowan… how did she know my real name by accident? How did she know where we were?" Amber or Melissa now, asked.

"I'm going to admit something to you and you can call me crazy but I swear to you it's true… but it's like a Five-0 secret and you can't tell anyone," he said and she nodded. "Rowan's psychic."

It was the old fall back, because he figured she could take psychic better than Rowan's from another world.

"Psychic," she echoed almost in a disbelieving tone.

"Yeah, call me crazy but the girl's always right," he told her. "Her dreams haven't been working for a while but she uh… she clearly got her shit together in time for this."

"You know… that explains how she knew my name… I always thought she might have been taunting me… that she might have known all along that maybe… her app and her brother had told her about me. I was afraid of her, and that was part of the reason I didn't like her… but she… she was always so surprised when anyone corrected her. She hadn't realized she had said it. And she was always so nice to me, always trying to include me. And now… well… did say she drove all the way out to us because in her dream she saw both you and me getting stabbed."

"Rowan's like that. She's a ride-or-die kind of girl. Once you're family that's it. She will stand behind you through anything," he said. "Though I think all of us would like it better if she'd stop getting hurt, it really upsets Steve and an upset Steve is a Steve none of us want to deal with."

She laughed again and then like he was conjured by his name being said so many times in a row, a door burst open and a frantic looking Steve was barreling towards them. Danny held out his hands to ward him off.

"She's fine, she's… she's going to be okay," Danny said. "She's in surgery, but they said it didn't look too deep and it didn't nick anything internal."

Steve let out his breath and thought all of that over before growling: "How the hell is it that she got stabbed huh? How Danny? Where the hell were you?"

"Ready to take the knife myself until she shoved me out of the way. I tried, Steven, you know what she's like."

Steve growled again, he paced a bit before asked: "Well how long until she's out? Huh? Can you tell me that?"

"I don't know," Danny said. "Any minute I'd guess."

Steve shook his head his eyes falling on Melissa who was crying. "I'm sorry. I'm so… I'm so sorry. I should have told you guys…"

And only then did Steve soften. "No, it's okay. I understand," Steve said letting her pull him in for a hug. Behind him someone called his name and they all turned to see Nahele rushing up to them, his bookbag hanging off his shoulder.

"What are you doing here? I told Chin to take you home!"

"But she's in the hospital again," Nahele cried. "Shouldn't we be here?"

"I am here," he said but when Nahele opened his mouth to protest Steve put a hand to his shoulder. "Look, I get it, I do, I really do. But it's going to be a long night and you have school tomorrow… and there's no telling when she'll wake up okay?"

"Then I'm definitely staying."

"No. It's a school night, 'Hele," he said. "Look, Danny's going to take you home, and he's going to stay with you okay? He owes me so he has no choice."

He added that so Danny knew that he was right, like Danny was going to argue with him. He got Rowan into this, he didn't protect her, the least he could do was babysit for one night. But Nahele stubbornly shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest.

"She'd be here. If it was me, if it was you, if it was either of them, she'd be here. So, I'm going to be here too."

Kid had a point. Rowan was that kind of faithful

Someone cleared their throat and asked: "Are you all here for Rowan Pierce?"

They all turned around and found a Doctor in a white lab coat and a clipboard was just standing behind them all staring at them. Steve practically shoved Danny and Amber aside to face him.

"Yes, she's my girlfriend," he said.

"Really?" came from all the people present but Steve just scowled and said: "What? We're going to do that now? Right now?" he then turned back to the doctor. "Is she okay? Is she…?"

"Yes. She's made it through surgery. She's in recovery. She's lucky, the knife didn't go that deep and she had scar tissue already in that spot, lessened the damage," he said. "It's definitely going to take some time, her ribs are still bruised from her previous injuries but barring and further injuries or infections we believe she's going to be okay."

"She's going to be okay?" Steve echoed and the Doctor nodded.

"See, see, I told you. She's tough as nails, our Rowan, she's going to be fine," Danny said as they all expelled their worried breaths and exchanged hugs.

The doctor then turned to Steve. "I don't know what you have that girl doing Commander but I suggest you keep her on bed rest by any means necessary," he warned and Steve nodded.

He got that, he did. He really did but this Doctor didn't know Rowan like he did. He'd have to handcuff her to the goddamn bed to keep her from running off when he told her not to.

"Can I see her now," he said and beside him Nahele cleared his throat. "Can we see her now, sorry."

"Yeah, I'll take you over," he said. Danny and Amber watched as the two trailed off after the doctor. Danny went to go too but Amber stayed behind.

Noticing that she wasn't with him Danny turned back around. "Hey uh… what's uh… what's going on?"

"I'm not… she wouldn't want…"

"That is absolute nonsense," Danny said. "Rowan likes you. She has always liked you. She didn't drive all the way up there to just save me, she did it for you too."

"Are you sure… after everything? Steve won't be…"

"Just come on," he said grabbing her hand and tugging her along. "I already said it. You're family, we don't give up on family, not Steve, not Rowan and not me. You are stuck with us, now come on."

That time when he pulled her, she went with him willing with a big watery smile on her face.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

When Rowan woke up, her mouth was fuzzy, her eye sight blurry, her head pounding and her side in painful fiery agony. Well… that meant that she… she had been… what had she been? Oh that's right. Stabbed. She was stabbed by Amber's husband Frank. She had been stabbed…. Uh… uh… she had been stabbed…

Forcing herself to sit up she threw off the blankets and pulled up the dress. She found the gauze taped over half of her figure skate tattoo. Son of a bitch. She carefully pulled the gauze back and sure enough she had been stabbed in the exact same place that Irina had stabbed her.

"AW come on!" she moaned and a hand slapped into her shoulder followed by three soft shushes.

Rowan turned and Nahele was curled up to the other side of her. Awww, the kid must have stayed the night… wait. What time was it? Wasn't he supposed to be in school? Turning to the other side of her she found Steve, half propped up on an elbow resting on the arm of a chair, completely asleep.

"Steve," she hissed, trying to get his attention without waking up Nahele but he merely mumbled in his sleep. So she tried again, but louder. "Steven!"

When that didn't work she groped around until she found another one of those get well teddy bears. It was a tradition, if Rowan was in the hospital Nahele bought her a bear. But today it was going to be used for something else. She picked it up quickly and then tossed it at Steve, the bear hitting him right in the face.

"Jesus!" he yelped awake immediately. She smiled at him as he blinked his eyes blearily at her but he didn't seem to realize that she was awake. He picked up the teddy and lobbed it back at Nahele. "What are you throwing things for?" he snapped. Nahele yelped too when the bear bounced off his head and he sat up. His eyes bleary and narrowed into a sleepy glare right at Steven's face. He glanced back and what hit him and then gasped at Steven.

"What are you… did you throw her bear?"

"I didn't throw it, you threw it!" Steve cried.

"Throw the bear I got her? I am not that disrespectful! Now stop it, you're gonna wake her up!" Nahele hissed.

"No you're going to wake her up, what did I tell you! Get out of her damn bed!" Steve hissed back.

"Actually, I threw the bear," Rowan said raising her hand. "Cause you wouldn't wake up, and if you didn't want him in the bed, Steven, you should have sent him to school."

Steve sat up straighter immediately a cry of her name falling from her lips. But it was Nahele who cried: "MOM! You're awake."

Rowan's eyes widened. Had he just… did he just… Nahele had called her mom. When she just stared at him with wide eyes and his sleepy eyes narrowed at her. "What?" he asked.

"You just called me… mom…" she said and the smile fell off his face.

Nahele's eyes glanced between her and Steve. He let out a shaky laugh as he shook his head at them. "No I didn't… I said Rowan…"

Steve's eyes were narrowed at him. "Nooo… I heard it too… you said mom," Steve said which just made Nahele more flustered.

"No I didn't… you know what… stop… she got herself stabbed saving Uncle Danny, yell at her," he said pointing into her face. Steve merely stood up and shoved him right off the bed.

"He's right, I should yell at you," he said leaning over her and kissing her softly on the lips. "But I'm just happy that you're alive." He kissed her a little more before softly whispering: "When you get out of this hospital, and Nahele goes back to school, so help me, Rowan, I'm gonna lecture you so goddamn hard."

Rowan just smiled against his lips, she was happy she woke up to her two boys there with her.

"Whoa, hey there sleeping beauty," a familiar voice cried and both her boys turned, or in Nahele's case popped up like a gopher, to shush the incomers.

Danny and Amber stopped in the door, but Grace, who had come with them, rushed forward, another stuffed animal in her hand, this time a plush tiger.

"Thank you!" she said hugging Rowan tightly pressing into her stiches. "Thank you for saving my Danno."

Rowan only had to grunt before Steve grabbed Grace and pulled her off. As soon as she could breathe again, she said: "You are welcome," and then turned to Danny. "Did you know I got stabbed in the exact same spot as the last time I was stabbed?"

"When was the last time you were stabbed?"

"Uh… when I was twenty-three. Long story. All we gotta know is that when this is all done and over with I'm going to have to retattoo a blade on a skate," she told them after a moment of carefully consideration she turned to Steve. "Babe, how much morphine am I on?"

"A lot," he answered and then she nodded. Yeah that would explain the chattiness, and the fuzziness and why everything in the room seemed to have a vague white halo.

"Did we uh… did you figure out her whole thing?" she asked pointing at Amber. "I uh… not gonna lie I had it but it's gone now."

"That's okay. Her and I did have a chat and everything's out in the open," Danny said. "And I think, she has something she'd like to say to you."

"Yes, uhm… well… you see, I gave you a really hard time when we first met, and I know I played it off as a bit of out-of-place-jealousness, but uhm… you see, you kept saying my real name, and I thought you were taunting me or something…" she whispered. "The point is, I am sorry. I'm sorry I thought all of those terrible things, and complained about you to my coworkers. And thank you, thank you for driving all the way up to that remote cottage to save me and Danny, thank you for giving me the strength to stand up to that abusive jerk."

"You complained about me to your coworkers?" Rowan echoed.

"I did," she said with a nod. "But I am more than willing to do whatever you ask me to to make it up to you."

"Aww… I mean… that's not why I do… whoa, wait! Did you say I was getting your name right? Like really? Your name's Melissa? I've been right this whole time and her name's Melissa?" she cried and then turned to Danny. "And you gave me shit for being wrong!"

"I'm never going to live this down," Danny said shaking his head. "She's going to bring this up till the day I die…"

"And it'll be a part of your eulogy!"

"I'm sorry to interrupt," someone said coming into the room. They all turned and someone Rowan didn't recognize was standing at the door. A woman with curly brown hair and worry flecked hazel eyes carrying a bouquet of flowers clearly for Rowan. "I just wanted to come and see how your girlfriend is doing."

"Did she just call me your girlfriend?" Rowan asked with a big grin Steve opened his mouth and she pointed at him. "Don't you ruin this for me, McGarrett. I'm highly medicated and in a lot of pain don't you take this from me."

Everyone around them laughed as Steven just rolled his eyes at them but otherwise didn't correct her. He stepped forward to take the flowers from her.

"I'm uh… you haven't met me but I'm Kathy Millwood," she said to Rowan. "And I'm told that you dreamed up a tip that saved my life."

Rowan blinked her eyes. She glanced to Danny and then to Steven and then sighed. "We gotta stop telling people I'm psychic," she announced to the room. "I swear it's the worst kept secret in the world."

"Well if you stopped pulling shit like this, we wouldn't have to tell people why a crazy person appeared with a frying pan to take out a man who had knife when they hadn't been told where we were in the first place," Danny snapped.

"Wait a frying pan?" Steve asked.

"I said I'd brief you later, and I will, but now is not that time," Danny snapped.

Shaking his head Steve turned his eyes onto Kathy and tried to smile warmly. "So what's the plan? What are you going to do with yourself now that Duclair's crossed off the list?" Steve asked.

"Uh… walk away, retire, start over. Try to let go of all that guilt. You know, I spent the last two years of my life just existing but I don't know if I can start living again," she admitted.

Rowan pet the empty side of her bed. "Come on over," she said to Kathy who eventually, after some prodding from their friends, moved over to her side. As soon as she sat down beside Rowan she put her hands out and Kathy carefully put her own hands into Rowans.

As soon as she did, Rowan got a few flashes of the future but she wasn't concerned with that. She was concerned with all the strings that were floating around. As per usually she was surrounded by the red strings between her and Steve, she had a pink string that was new and flowing between her and Nahele, her and Steve and Nahele and Steve. She was surrounded by the yellow strings attaching her to all her friends. But what she was focusing on was Kathy Millwood and her strings.

This was going to be an experiment, but she figured, if she could pull on strings to make a reality where the door in front of her could unlock she could pull on strings to fix this poor woman.

"Hmmm… okay, so…" she whispered, almost humming to herself as she focused on the strings behind her. White for happiness, floating in the wind, she focused until it reattached to her and then watched the red string of love reattach too. That was probably enough for now. "I think… that you're going to find love and you're going to be happy. Very, very happy."

Kathy smiled at her, a sort of watery weepy smile. "Thank you…"

"And she's never wrong," Danny added and they all laughed.

"Y'all joke, but you forget I've been through something like this," Steve announced. "Look, just… don't look back, okay? You can't change the past, no matter how much you dwell on it, and if you're even half as lucky as me you'll land yourself something that eventually takes away the pain."

He glanced down to Rowan who reached up to hold his hand and for a moment the world disappeared in her man's eyes.

"Seriously though, the doctor's put her on bed rest, I swear to god if she ends up back in this hospital the doctors are gonna kill me so, we're all gonna go, and she's going to sleep so I can get her home ASAP," he said ushering everyone to the door.

"Steven?" she called out getting him to turn around. "You won't be gone long will you?"

"Course not babe, I'll be right back," he promised and then he left the room. And though her eyes were heavy and she soon fell asleep, with Nahele at her side and Steve due to return at any moment.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

For two weeks, Steve was off work. He drove Nahele to and from school, he made sure Rowan was in bed and entertained at all times and he was generally a very good stay at home dad/husband, for someone who wasn't supposed to be either of those things.

But there was something about laying back in his bed with Rowan pillowed against his side that seemed to just soothe him. There was something about waiting outside his old high school in his blue pickup truck waiting for Nahele to come rushing out that door to see him that had him grinning every time he saw him. And there was something about making dinners, helping with homework, and force feeding his girlfriend medicine that just made him feel a strange sense of pride that his life had become so goddamn domestic when he thought he'd never be suited for that kind of life, no matter how much he wanted it.

Of course, he had time off. He had hours where Nahele would watch Rowan and they'd bond some more and he go off and practice his golf swing with Michelle Wei, or go into the office to check on the team and the cases they had or, his personal favourite, go to Danny's for some bro time. But he liked coming back home where he got to had out stars for Nahele's chore chart, or pick up half drunk mugs of tea and cocoa cause Rowan was on morphine for the pain in her abdomen and forgot she had drinks and made new ones, or to the sound of his name being chirruped in happy welcome in two very different and distinct voices.

When the day of the tournament arrived Steve was nervous. For two reasons. Firstly, he wasn't a good golfer and he was afraid that he'd make a fool of himself. Secondly, Rowan had refused to stay home. She needed to cheer her boo on and there was no keeping her away from the Kapolei Golf Course to watch Steve compete in the HPD Charity golf tournament. He had got her to agree to stay in the club house and out of the sun, but she rarely followed rules. She had appeared on the three holes in. Leaning against Nahele who was carrying a chair for her to sit in that she was refusing to sit in.

He had messed up the shots for the third hole because spotting her in the crowd had unnerved him, well it had made him more angry than unnerved but that wasn't the point. When he was done, when they were supposed to be heading to the next hole, he had approached her immediately. He had asked her nicely to go back but she said that Nahele had wanted to watch him golf, and she wanted to watch too. Then she blinked those big blue eyes at him asked him every so sweetly to let her stay and cheer him on, just so she could be as supportive of him as he had been for her the last two weeks and his heart shot straight up into his mouth. He knew that he wasn't going to say no, he wasn't even sure why he had tried to send her away in the first place.

So, he made Danny watch her. Any sign of distress or fatigue she was to go straight back to the club house.

And that was how it was for the rest of the tournament. Like all the holes before this one, his eyes found his Rowan the second he got out of the golf cart, and stayed on her while he walked up the green with Michelle Wei who had agreed to Caddy for him and give him great advice, and Grover and his caddy, Samantha. There was Rowan, in that cute little white polka dotted and red dress, for his last shot, sandwiched between Nahele and Danny a big smile on her face. God his baby, she was supposed to be on bed rest. Instead she was driving him crazy. He waved to her and Nahele and the two waved back both of them smiling encouragingly which just made him beam with ridiculous pride.

His golfing outfit consisted of him in all blues. And just judging by her eyes, he could see how much she liked it. if she didn't still have stitched in her side he had a feeling after this game he'd be getting sex even if he didn't win. Maybe they still could if he was super, super careful with her.

He was so engrossed in holding Rowan's sultry gaze that he didn't even hear Grover's trash talking, but he heard Danny calling out: Yo, buddy, if you ever play golf again, which you shouldn't, the idea is to get the ball close to this little… uh… pin thing!"

"He means the flag!" Rowan corrected and Danny turned to her, he had a hand raised to smack her but all Steve had to do was shout oi and take half a step forward for that arm to drop. Melissa reached over and hit him for Steve and then shot him a thumbs up which he reciprocated. He really did love that Melissa seemed to be on his side when it came to the keeping Danny from hitting Rowan, no matter how playfully it was.

"You gonna tell me about them now?" Michelle asked and Steve sighed. He had been dreading this, cause he felt like bragging about it would take it from him faster, but he also really wanted to brag about what he had in his life now.

Steve turned to Michelle. "Yeah, the blonde guy, Danny, that's my partner and uh Ro, you know Ro, well she's my girlfriend, but don't tell her I said that."

"Ah, so you're the Steven she's constantly bragging about. Got it… and the kid?"

"Oh that's our kid, uh… not our kid, but our foster kid. Technically Rowan's foster kid but I'm helping… you know it's complicated?" Steve said and then turned back to Danny. "That's very funny! Well done! Why is Rowan here, you were supposed to take her back to the club!"

"Well I happen to know that the doctor told her to get fresh air and she and the kid wanted to watch you humiliate yourself on the golfing course here…"

"Wow, if these are you friends, I would hate to meet your enemies," Michelle said. And Steve sighed.

"Yeah one of them is her brother," he muttered.

"What?" she asked but Steve ignored her for Rowan who was also calling out to him.

"Don't listen to him babe! You're doing great for a beginner!"

Yeah that was not helpful. She meant well, he knew that but that wasn't helpful.

"She's right, you know. And I know it doesn't look like it but this is a very makeable putt. You got this," she said. Steve nodded, it was his turn to go first. And he was about to set up when his phone started ringing. Grover. What the fuck was he calling him for they were six feet apart, he was only a little way up the fairway from him.

"What?"

"Listen, I didn't want to shout this out and embarrass you in front of all these folks, but would you mind if I make this little short putt to win it before you miss yours?" he asked. Which was ridiculous because he was closer to the crowd which meant he heard everything. And while everyone else was laughing, Rowan was just scowling at him.

"That's rude!" she snapped but Steve, while annoyed didn't really care.

"Knock yourself out."

Grover went about doing his thing and hit the ball… and came up short. Rowan's grin was giant. "HA! KARMA!" she cried, and immediately every single Five-0 plus Nahele and Melissa put a hand out to calm her down.

"Oh I'm not going to bust my stitches, back off," she snapped to all of them which won her grins from all of her friends. Steve shook his head, it'd be funnier if she hadn't popped her stitches twice since getting home. Once by stretching too much after waking up and the second time while they were making love, in which she didn't tell him it had happened until he realized both of them and their bed were covered in blood. Since then he had been too afraid to have sex with her in case they popped again. God once those stitches came out he was going to fuck her so hard.

Steve turned to Michelle and said: "That's my girlfriend," with a big stupid, cheesy grin on his face. "Sorry. Excuse me a second."

He pulled out his phone and dialed Grover's number and got a "What do you want?" when Grover answered.

"Oh, hey, buddy," he said in a patronizing tone. "Listen, uh… from way back here, it was hard for us to tell, but did that go in?"

Grover just hung up on him nudged the ball in the hole and got a round of polite applause.

"This is it," Michelle said. "Last hole, last putt. You make this, you win."

God that was a plot of pressure on him. He needed something to take the edge off.

"Babe, can you… uh… can you come and help me?" he asked.

"It's a putt Steven, just hit the ball," she called back.

"Babe, come on, please? I want a good luck kiss," he said and Rowan sighed but trudged over to him. The second she got close he had an arm carefully around her waist, being mindful of her stitches. She got up on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek as the crowded awwwed at them and once they were done kissing, he leant in really close to her and whispered: "Any chance you can do that math thing? Cause it looked so cool."

She looked at him and then looked at the ball and then the hole and then back to him.

"Steven… you're like ten feet away, how much math do you need?" she asked but he just had to turn his pleading eyes to her for her to relent, but barely. "Is that even allowed?"

"I unno, Grover, do you mind if Rowan does her Rain Man-math thing?" he asked. "She won't hit the ball for me, so you know… not like it's really going to help me."

Grover just shook his head and waved it off and Steve turned to her with a grin while she playfully rolled her eyes.

"I mean alright, but it kind of takes the fun of out of the game, you know? Uh… what do we have riding on this?" she asked.

Steve stared her dead in the eye and said: "My pride."

"Oh… that's a heavy handed bet," she whispered and then looked around. Her hands came up, to put her hair back, once it was done she absently pulled his dog tags out from under her dress, her fingers fiddling with them as she just stared at the putt he was supposed to make. After a moment of silence she turned back to him. "Do you want me to talk you through the math or do you want me to just do it?" she asked.

Steve shrugged, "I unno surprise me."

"Okay," Rowan said and then licked her finger and put it up into the air. "Slight westward breeze, will have to curve to make up for it. But the ball is slightly uneven against hole so that might make up for the breeze," she whispered putting her foot just in front of the ball and lining her toe up against the hole. "About a 15-degree differential, maybe 10 feet away from the hole." She carefully walked heel to toe to where the pole was and then did some mental math as she walked back to him. "Alright, I was right, we're ten point three feet away from the flag. So, if we factor in your heavy hitting cause of those massive guns of yours… I'm thinking if you hit with a lob wedge at about a 20-degree angle at around 5 mph you'll land it in the cup."

Steve stared at her. He didn't understand a thing she had just said, was he supposed to pull out a protractor to measure? When he continued to just stared at her she rolled her eyes and stormed over to his bag of clubs. She grabbed a golf iron and put it into his hands and then pointed in a direction and said: "Hit it with that club, in a that-way direction and hit that ball like you're smacking my ass."

"Smacking your ass, huh?" he said.

"Yeah, a love tap, Steven, don't go all gorilla hands on it."

Steve sighed and Rowan and Michelle fell back, shoulder to shoulder. "I got this," he said. And just like Rowan said he gave the ball a love tap.

And it went in.

He had just won the charity tournament trophy!

Steve couldn't help it, he cheered. He lifted his hands above his head, club still in his hands and smiled widely at Grover who just looked horrified. And while he celebrated, he noted that his little family's smiles had fallen. He got a mix of cries. Some of his name, some for Rowan, but it was the soft grunt he knew belonged to Rowan that had him turning around.

She was hunched over her injured side and immediately he was done celebrating and was instead rushing to her side.

"God, Rowan what is it? What's wrong?"

"I think I got a little too overzealous in celebrating your win and I may… I may have popped my stitches."

"No! Again?!" he cried. "Rowan!"

"Don't yell at me! I was just cheering for you!"

"Okay, alright, I'm just going to take a look," he said dropping to one knee immediately and going for the skirt of her dress.

"Steven!" she hissed. "You can't go under my dress!"

He blinked his eyes at her not quite understanding what was happening or why she was complaining but he took in the red flush of her cheeks and realized that putting his head under the skirt of her dress on a fair green of a fancy golf club in front of all of their friends and other people who were there for the charity golf tournament was probably not a smart or appropriate thing to do. "Alright, I guess it's inappropriate, but it has to be checked out ASAP, if you have busted stitches again, I'm going to have to take you back to the hospital."

Rowan groaned, more out of annoyance instead of pain as Steve hoisted her up in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled down at him. "My hero. The HPD Charity Golf Champion."

Steve shook his head. Now if only his girl could be healed, cause he sure as hell couldn't fuck her tonight if she popped stitches. He just wanted her to be healthy again, but for that moment, he'd take having her head tucked into that soft spot under his chin as he carried her into the club house with Nahele trailing beside him asking her a million questions. Just that moment alone was worth a million trophies and he'd trade all the trophies in the world so long as he always got to have moments like this with Rowan and his new family.