Rewrite
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! I'm hope you guys are enjoying the 7 day marathon. This is the second last chapter in this saga. I know this is going on FOREVER! But this has a lot of cute stuff for you guys to get excited over, like Rowan and Steve being reunited. And once this episode is done we get to look forward to Steve and Nahele's birthday which I promise will be adorable! Hopefully you guys are looking forward to this as much as I am. Side note, would you guys be interested in a smutty sex scene between Wo Fat and Jian? Tell me what you think! Don't forget to leave a review, and I'll see you tomorrow!
Chapter 183
Rowan had slept during the ride back to Armando's and Wo Fat didn't care. The poor girl had been nothing but stressed for the last 32 hours or more, he was surprised she didn't collapse earlier. The whole ride was reminiscent of the first day he had met her, where Rowan slept on his lap and he had an arm draped over her shoulder while she clung to his leg. He was still shaking. Still absolutely shocked he had managed to pull it off, but he limited his twitching to his fingers that played with the ends of Rowan's long, very tangled and dirty, red-blonde hair.
When they got back to the house, she was roused, put into a shower were she washed off 32 hours of dirt, and then she was put into clothes that he had picked out the day before for her. He had called McGarrett to check on progress and was informed that he had picked up the shipment and was on his way to Armando's compound. They were one step closer to ending this situation. One step closer to Wo Fat getting his sister back in his life.
When Rowan bounded out onto the back patio she was in dark blue denim shorts and an off the shoulder green sweater. She did like her baggy clothes, so he had more than delivered. He smiled happily at the girl he now lovingly called his sister and let her jump into his arms for a proper hug.
He smiled into her hair, fully remembering why it was he liked having her around. Because with her, he was normal, he was human, and he was loved.
"I've never been more happy to see you in my life," she whispered to him and the grin on his face widened.
He let her go to take stock of her. She had all her parts, a few scrapes, a few bruises but otherwise she looked to be in perfect health. It hit him again that this could have gone a completely different way. That had he not been called at the right time, something terrible could have happened to her. And that, of course, trusting Steven McGarrett with her safety had been the stupidest decision he had ever made.
"Alexander said Steve was doing something to get me out," she said to him and just like that that happy feeling was gone. "I don't want him doing the CIA's dirty work, can I call him? Can I tell him that I'm okay?"
"No need, I've done that for you," Wo Fat said, which was a complete and utter lie. Steve thought her to still be detained, but he was on his way with everything Wo Fat would need to get Rowan out from under the CIA and the murder confession.
"Really?"
"Well of course," he said calmly. "I've been in contact with him since you were extradited. The little hypocrite called me through your app the second he realized he'd need me…"
"Of course he'd need you, you took the drugs."
Wo Fat stared at her calmly. This had taken its toll on her, he could tell, by the way she stood arms crossed over her chest in a protective stance and the bags under her eyes. He took her immediately to the pool side lounge chairs where he sat her down and poured her what he hoped was just a regular lemonade and not one of Armando's heavy handed concoctions. He took a sip before handing it to her, yep no alcohol in that one.
She thanked him as he sat himself down in the chair across from her.
She carefully looked up to him, tears in her big blue eyes. "Not to be ungrateful," she whispered. "But… I told you to hide the body… not cut it up into ten pieces and mail it back to the CIA."
Wo Fat nodded. "Yes. I know."
"So why did you…"
"Because they sent Reyes down for a reason. And that was to put pressure on William's to put pressure on you so you'd put pressure on me. It was an indirect ransoming and I took exception to it."
She sighed and nodded and he nodded with her. "Granted it opened up the door to them directly ransoming you against me," he admitted. "But until you confessed, the plan was to once again put pressure on Williams, to put pressure on you to put pressure on me. You should have never confessed, imouto."
"Okay, you know what, I don't need this right now, okay?" she snapped. "You fucked up, I fucked up, let's move on huh?"
Wo Fat half smiled, but decided to take her advice. "Alright fine. Want to explain how to me how it came to be that you and Steven now have a fourteen year old child?"
Rowan's smile immediately widened and he found himself smiling too, because this kid made her happy and he liked his sister happy.
"So Nahele stole Steven's car…"
"Wait, the kid stole Commander Steven McGarrett's Silverado and lived to tell the tale?"
"No, his Marquis…"
"What? Why? That car is…" "A piece of shit," they said together and they both laughed.
"Don't tell him I said that, it was his father's and well… he loves that car," she whispered. "But yeah, Nahele stole it, Steven found him, heard his back story and was gonna let him off with a warning but then I met him and thought… you know… I could make this child's life better so I went through the steps to become a foster parent, and he's my foster kid now."
"Wait… your foster kid?" Wo Fat asked picking up that she hadn't included Steve in that. When she gave him a wide eyed guilty look he knew he had heard that correctly. "Wait… so… wait… Steve's not… he let you do that by yourself?"
"Well… you know… you know how he is with commitment…"
Wo Fat scowled at her. "You've got to be kidding me, you're telling me that man still hasn't locked you down and let you take on a foster kid without him? What… what the hell is wrong with him?"
"Now wait a second!" Rowan cried. "I chose to do this by myself, because I didn't want Steve to freak out. He's been very supportive and very helpful, he's a foster parent in every way except on paper. And he did too lock me down. I'm his official girlfriend and everything now. He even gave me a promise ring."
She flashed him her fingers, her empty, ringless fingers for a few seconds before realizing he was looking at nothing. She lowered her hand sheepishly and muttered: "I forgot they confiscated my things. But I did have a ring, I swear. It's a tiara, with a little sky blue sapphire…"
But Wo Fat was far from impressed. Instead he rolled his eyes and asked: "And what exactly is he promising to you with that ring?"
"Well that eventually we'll…" "I doubt its marriage, because if he was promising to marry you one day why not call it an engagement ring?" he interrupted and Rowan scowled at him. It took 8 months to get a label, she wasn't going to push him on a marriage, or propose. The man was an emotional flight risk and they both knew that.
"Okay, you know what, enough about me. What about you, what have you been doing?" she asked him.
Wo Fat shrugged. "I haven't been doing anything…"
"Lies," Rowan said shooting him a prim look. "You showed up on Hawaii, after being done with me, and set up several date like activities for two in the art world. Who's the girl and how long you been fucking?"
Damn she was observant. He had hoped that when she stole his reservations she hadn't wondered why they were in sets of two. No point lying to her now though. With her there, maybe she could help him with his dilemma.
"Her name is Jian, and I've been… or, well, I was dating her."
Rowan squealed excitedly and grabbed his hand. "You were dating?!" she cried. "Okay, so like, how did you meet her? What is she like? What does she do?"
Oh Rowan and her questions. "She's a doctor, that's how I met her, I got shot and she tended to me," he told her. A flash of panic crossed Rowan's face and he put a hand out to her to calm her down. "I'm fine, it was a flesh wound at best. She owns a small clinic, and she's a mob doctor. Not by choice though. She's a very practical pragmatic kind of woman, she's often stoic and unfeeling, sort of like me, but she has her moments where she is a bit like you."
"Like me? Why would you want her to be like me?"
"Well… that's not what I meant. I mean in the sense that she makes me feel emotions and like she doesn't try to… it's just a natural sort of reaction with her. Or in the way she is unflappingly supportive of everything I do, and accepting of me no matter what I do. You don't have to worry, she looks nothing like you, she sometimes has similar mannerisms, but I assumed that to be me missing you and seeing things that remind me of you everywhere. I'm told that that is a frequent side effect of a break up."
That seemed to lessen her worry because she was suddenly bouncing and crying: "Awww, I bet she's pretty, is she pretty? Can I see a picture?"
All the pictures of him and Jian were on her phone. He shook his head. "No, I don't have one," he told her causing her to frown. "But she is pretty, very pretty. Not classically pretty, she's very tall and very lean, but her hair is just a little past shoulder length, and pin straight and her eyes are these pools of amber gold, you know if the light hits her right… and she's got this smile, you know? Just like a… why are you looking at me like that?"
Rowan had gotten this smile, this soft like smile like she was in absolute awe of him, but her eyes had started to water and he couldn't fathom what he had said to cause her to cry.
"You just… you sound really happy, like you really like this girl, like real emotions and everything and I just thought that… maybe… you'd never have that and I'm just really happy that you found it," she said smiling at him and he smiled too because he was glad it made her happy, she then pinned him with a serious frown. "Now tell me why it's a past-tense relationship. What happened? What did you do?"
Wo Fat's eyebrows raised up in surprise. Goddamn he had forgotten how good she was at reading him.
He let out a big heavy sigh. "I unno, it was just a fucked up situation," he said. "Jian, she wanted me to move in with her and, I just, that scared me you know? I mean, we had only been seeing each other few months and I… I didn't want to do but she was insisting so I was willing to cave. Then she got arrested in connection to something I had done, because the local law enforcement had, I guess, figured out that we were connected and I… well… I got scared. I realized that, well, while I liked her very much, I was dangerous for her…"
"Oh my god, you McGarrett'ed her!" Rowan cried.
Wo Fat straightened and blinked his eyes. "Excuse me?"
But Rowan was too busy laughing at him. He didn't find it funny at all.
"Oh. My. God! You two really are related! You pulled a McGarrett!" Rowan crowed. Wo Fat scowled, no, no he was not like McGarrett, he was more sophisticated, stronger, he was suave and debonair, while McGarrett was nothing more than a caveman in cargo pants, no, she was wrong.
"Take that back," he said frowning at her but Rowan just laughed louder. He let her laugh it out, glaring at her until she was calm enough to talk to him.
"Look, you did what Steve did to me. Your emotions got too real and you ran. You ran all the way to Colombia."
"No! I didn't… I didn't want to go to Colombia, I merely proposed a break, just to lay low until law enforcement got off her back and then I was going to come back. Jian was the one who said move in with me or get out of my life."
Rowan blinked her eyes. "I mean, okay, I get what you're saying. She could have been a bit more supportive of the situation, you were trying to keep her from getting arrested, so that was definitely her being unreasonable, but it doesn't change the fact that this all started because you caught feelings a little too quick and you ran away cause they scared you and you couldn't handle it."
Wo Fat blinked his eyes at her. That was what he had done in a sense, the realization must have been on his face because Rowan was smiling again. "You, my friend, pulled a classic McGarrett," she said that smug grin on her face, a smile he thought he'd never miss but clearly had. "I am glad to see that it runs in the family."
Wo Fat shook his head. "I'm going to ignore that vicious attack on my character, and I'm just going to ask you what you would do to fix it?"
"What would I do?" she echoed. She didn't even think about it, he didn't even complete the nod, she immediately spit out: "I'd apologize."
"Okay, what would you do to apologize and not damage your pride?" he rephrased.
Rowan hit him with a condescending smile. "Yeah… there's no saving your pride for this one…" she said. "Oh, oh, you could go for a joke? Something corny, like oh… how about: hey Doc, you got a cure for a broken heart?"
Wo Fat couldn't help it he let out a scoff of derision and shook his head. "See!" Rowan cried. "So corny it put an instant smile on your face. It should do the same for her, and then you can hit her with an explanation of what was going on in your head, kinda like you just did for me, apologize for being stupid and either knuckle under or come up with a compromise."
Wo Fat nodded. "So… like every time Steven fucked up and you would accept his mediocre apology and then knuckle under for him?"
"Okay, don't be mean, we're talking about your fucked up relationship not mine," she said shoving him playfully.
"Hey, as long as you know it's fucked up, eh?" he offered and she shoved him again. As they devolved into play fighting, as they usually did, the smile on his face grew larger. Because he had missed having his sister in his life and he was very glad to have her back in it.
When they were done wrestling, which coincidentally was when Sandy hit him with a message that Steve was on the road and getting closer, Wo Fat pulled her up to her feet to get her inside.
"I was hoping to use the phone to call Nahele," she said softly and he nodded.
"I can definitely set that up for you, but first I've set up a surprise for you," he whispered, taking her back into the house and leading her towards the ballroom. The surprise was essential as he had a plan of action for when McGarrett got to the house that was meant to keep the two of them apart until he was done.
"You do? Why?" she asked, her tone as suspicious as the narrowed look on her face.
"Just thought it would be nice to have something to perk you up since I know you've been anxious, and to keep you busy while I finish things up," he said. He opened up the doors to a darkened ballroom where there were flashing lights, a punch and snack table, and an uncoordinated JC was already dancing to the loud music.
Wo Fat had created this little dance/rave thing because he needed her suitably distracted, and he needed her unable to hear Steve when he eventually went wild and started shouting for her. She had always had a flirtatious sort of thing with JC and he was sort of hoping if he left the two together again it might start up again. He may not have liked JC but he could control the boy much better than he could control McGarrett.
Rowan squealed with happiness and rushed to hug Juan Carlos who was equally as happy to see her. Wo Fat smiled, already the plan was working.
"Alright, you enjoy your dance party, I will call for you when Steve gets here, alright?" he said, though he knew if he could swing, she'd never know that Steve came. "Just uh… promise me you'll stay here? I don't want a repeat of the karaoke night incident, okay?"
Rowan waved him away already going for the snack table, poor girl was probably starving and he shut the doors behind him. But he was smart enough to wait for the music to start playing before locking her inside. Just to be sure, of course, that she would stay where he told her to. He checked his phone again, in a half hour this would be over, in a half hour he'd get what he'd want, or Steven McGarrett would never see Rowan again.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
They were pulling into the driveway when Joe got a call. He took it out of the van, as men with submachine guns came at them to get the drugs out of the back. Steve and Danny stood with their arms raised as these men took their weapons and then pointed them in the direction of the giant Tuscan looking mansion standing before them.
Where the hell had Wo Fat sent them? It looked like a Colombian Playboy mansion.
Joe came back, no longer on the phone looking all sorts of suspicious. He too had given his guns to the men surrounding them but Steve had a feeling that wasn't what had him so frazzled at that moment.
"What was that?" Steve asked because if Joe had sold them out, to get the drugs into the hands of the proper officials, before he got Rowan back he was going to lose it on his mentor, no matter how much Steve saw him as a father figure.
"Got some intel that's gonna… well… as Danny calls it… set you off," Joe said.
"Then I vote we don't tell him," Danny said interjecting as usual.
"What kind of intel?" Steve asked ignoring Danny and expecting Joe to do the same.
Joe turned to Danny who was shaking his head and said: "I gotta tell him. He's gonna find out regardless," he said and then turned back to Steve and said: "That prison they were holding Rowan in… uh… were either of you aware that it was uh… male?"
Steve stared at him as that digested, panic quickly taking over him. "I'm sorry… they took Rowan, my Rowan, to a male penitentiary?!" he thundered.
"Okay, so you didn't know that…"
"Did HE?!" Steve cried pointing off to the house clearly meaning Wo Fat.
"I unno, son, but that's not the big issue here," Joe told him. Steve recoiled because how could there be a bigger issue than Rowan being arrested, extradited, and then held in a male prison? "Son… it blew up this afternoon. Countless dead, even more missing. Rowan's one of the missing."
Steve stood there the words digested in his brain and then he entered some sort of fugue state. Somehow he went from standing in the courtyard surrounded by men with automatic weapons to standing in an office holding Wo Fat by the lapels of his shirt. He had him half pinned to the desk and a larger Colombian man with an open button shirt, many tattoos and his thinning brown hair slicked back, had his hand on Steve's shoulder effectively holding him back.
"Get your boy off of me before I call off this deal," he growled and Danny rushed forward to pry him off. When he had let go Wo Fat fixed his dusty blood flecked white dress shirt and glared at him. "Anyone want to tell me why he attacked me like that? Thought we were on the same team McGarrett?"
"The prison, it blew up," he growled. "You waited too long and it's blown up! Rowan's listed as missing."
Wo Fat leant back against the desk and appraised Steve and his heaving chest and the fact that he was disastrously on the verge of tears. "Did it?" he said. "Interesting."
Steve's eyes narrowed at him. Why wasn't he more freaked out about this? Did he really just not care about Rowan? "Did you bring the ledger?" he asked and Steve nodded pulling it out of his jacket.
Wo Fat's smile was wickedly sharp. "Very good. I'm assuming the drugs are in the courtyard?"
"You already have her, don't you?" Steve asked as Danny nodded in answer to Wo Fat's question. "That's why you don't care about the explosion. That's why she's listed as missing. You don't care cause she wasn't in the prison at the time."
"Oh no, she was in it when we had the tank roll through the barbed wire fences and blow a hole into the side of the building," he said taking the ledger to a printer where he started photocopying pages that were dog-eared. "Fear of me and my associates got us in the door, but once in the building… well… I knew they wouldn't just let us walk out no matter how afraid they were of us, not after I killed the Warden. The explosion was a necessary distraction."
Steve froze. "Wait… did you know it was male… did you know the whole time that she was in a male prison?"
"Of course I knew…" "— For god sake why didn't you get her out of there when you found out?" "…because I made it very clear when they took my sister that if she went into a cell, if they let anyone interrogate her, I'd decimate them. I figured that would keep her reasonably safe but not only did they let her go into a cell with that American idiot, I found out that they let her go into general population without any sort of protection…"
"Wait… wait… where… they put her… they put her…" Steve stuttered suddenly so fucking afraid for her that his heart might have stopped in his chest. His girl. All alone. In an all-male prison in Colombia. What… why… was she okay?
"Stop panicking. She's fine. It went swimmingly, couple of Armando's boys recognized her, took her under their wing. She sang a few songs, braided a few heads and worked on her tan I'm told. They generally waited on her hand and foot, but when she got put into that room with Alexander… well he wasn't being all that nice and made her cry, so… I followed through," he snapped. He then thought it over and said: "Well I was going to kill the warden either way, putting her in gen-pop even if she was taken care off, was never supposed to happen and he knew that. But uh… taking out Alexander was technically unnecessary, but he pissed me off so he had to go."
Steve groaned. "You killed… you… god… you blew up a prison while she was inside it? Are you insane?"
He probably should have cared more that Wo Fat had killed Alexander, but he didn't cause Steve understood how Wo Fat felt. If he could have killed Alexander, he might have.
"I was in there with her to make sure she didn't get hurt," Wo Fat answered as if that made it okay. Steve groaned again, he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and then glared at Wo Fat who was still calmly perched on the edge of the desk like this was just a regular old day for him.
"Where's Rowan?" he asked. "Just… where is she?"
"As I told you on the phone, she's detained," Wo Fat snapped handing the ledger off to a man he didn't recognize.
"What do you mean?"
"Did you know… in my short time knowing Rowan, I have had to rescue her from several hostage situations, killers, robbers, terrorists while you swan about doing whatever it is you do. Quite frankly I think you provide little to no support, absolutely no protection and, if I'm going to be honest, McGarrett, you're a god damn hazard. Rowan will be safer with me," he said and then scoffed, "Which is laughable because I'm a wanted career criminal."
Steve growled at him, he wanted to slap the man, hit him, pound into him. He wanted to shout that it wasn't true but some of what he said did ring true. He hadn't saved Rowan from going to prison, Wo Fat had to get her out. It was Wo Fat's contacts she called when she needed help, not him. What if Wo Fat was right and Rowan would be safer with him? Could he really be all that selfish about Rowan and her safety?
Suddenly the side door opened and Rowan came rushing in. She had clearly been cleaned up, she was in a different outfit then when she left but Steve couldn't have cared less. Rowan cried his name but he couldn't get anything out of his mouth other than a strangled noise as she rushed across the room and launched herself into his arms.
He held her tightly, his heart beat returning to normal, thanking every god he could think of for her safe return to him and then clung to her as she gripped him so hard her finger nails broke into his skin through his shirt. He could safely say that he could be that selfish, because he wasn't letting her go, and there was no way in hell that Steve was going to let Wo Fat keep her.
Behind her Wo Fat sighed. "Uh… Rowan where did I tell you to stay?" he snapped.
The door slammed open again and a younger Latin male came sprinting in all breathless and huffing. "Sorry boss, she got away from me," he told Wo Fat who was glaring daggers at him. "She's much wilier then I remember."
"It doesn't help that she's not injured this time," the other man said and Steve realized that it must have been Armando. And if that was Armando then the younger man was Juan Carlos, the Colombians who had helped Wo Fat detain Rowan the first time.
Rowan pulled herself away from Steve, she turned but he didn't let go, his arms encircling her waist and tugging her back to his chest. "You told me to stay in the ballroom," she answered. "But Steve's here…"
"How did you even know he was here?" Wo Fat snapped.
Rowan shrugged. "I don't know, I just did," she said and then turned back to Steve who was hungrily awaiting her kisses. Her hands came to his jaw, softly bringing him down to her so he could cover her lips with his, just once before he pulled away and forced her away from his chest.
He looked her over, she was covered in jagged little cuts, small ones that were already scabbing over. As he did that her fingers went under his shirt. "Are those my tags?" she asked already pulling them out. "They are my tags!"
She quickly got them off of him and put them around her own neck and he smiled, because that was where they belonged. But when she turned her face back up to him he could see a little bit of the damage she had incurred. God, why was her face that red color? His fingers probed the larger of the forming bruises, the split in her cheek and she winced. Oh god, it hurt her, those would bruise bad then.
"He wouldn't stop hitting me," she whispered.
From his spot leaning against the desk, Wo Fat said: "Bastard got what he deserved."
"Which was what?" Steve asked.
"If we're lucky, death," Rowan answered and silence hit the room. For a moment they all stewed in that silence before Rowan turned her beautiful tearful blue eyes up to him and said: "Can we go home now, Steven? Please?"
His heart broke a little bit but he nodded and Rowan molded herself to his chest again. God. He was never letting her go. Ever again.
"I need to speak to your precious Commander first, could you possibly go back to the ballroom?" Wo asked, his question obviously directed at her.
Steve looked up at him, a glare on his face, his grip on Rowan tightening. Rowan glanced at him over her shoulder, her cheek against Steve's chest. "But I don't want to go…"
"You're not keeping her, I'm not letting you," Steve growled.
"Keep me!" Rowan cried. "Oh no, Wo, please, I wanna go home."
God she kept calling his place home, and it was doing terrible things to his heart. He thought it might swell to the point of bursting.
"I'm not gonna keep you, I can't now that you both know each other is here. But that doesn't change the fact that I need to talk to him. It's important to me that I talk to him, so can you please go back to the ballroom with Juan Carlos. Please."
"You promise? You promise you won't run off with me?" Rowan asked him and Wo Fat raised his hand and said: "Scouts honour."
"Were you ever a boy scout?"
"No."
Oh wow. What a fucking liar. Steve looked down to Rowan as she pushed out of his grip. She rounded on Wo Fat and stuck a finger into his face. "Listen here, if you try to kidnap me again, I'll never forgive you," she warned. If Wo Fat was intimidated his face didn't show it, instead he smiled in a patronizing way.
"Why doesn't Detective Williams go with you? Hmm? Would that make both of you feel better?"
"No," Rowan said at the same time Steve said: "Yes."
"No, because I don't trust you two alone," Rowan said shooting a glance between them. "I don't want you two to fight."
"His mentor is here," Wo said indicating to Joe who was quietly standing by the door, having watched all of this silently.
"Oh, hi Joe!" Rowan said waving to him which got a little nod back from him
Wo Fat reached out for her, most likely just to poke her to gain her attention but Steven slapped it away before he could. Which ended up getting Rowan's attention anyway. When she turned back to him whatever negative emotions that had been coloring Wo Fat's face after Steve's disresceptful hand slap disappeared as he smiled at her.
"See, we'll be fine. Go with Williams, and I will see you soon, okay?"
Rowan nodded stepping away from Steve so that time when Wo Fat reached out for her Steven couldn't intervene. There was something oddly intimate about the way Wo Fat had stretched out a hand to pinch the tip of her chin. In the way Rowan had just smiled and let him.
"Oh wait," Steve said as she tried to move away. He dug into his pocket and pulled out the ring that had been taken off of her when she was arrested by the US Marshalls. "Here, I brought this…"
She snatched it up out of his fingers immediately. "Oh thank goodness," she cried putting it back on. She then turned back to Wo Fat, shoved the ring in his face and said: "See!"
"Yes it's very beautiful," he said in the most patronizingly dry tone ever. "The Ballroom. With Williams. You can continue to have your dance party."
She reluctantly joined the young man who had chased her in there, with Danny following after, leaving Steve almost alone with Wo Fat, who smiled warmly at Rowan until she was gone. Once that door closed behind her he turned an icy glare onto Steve that Steve merely returned.
"You're a hazard, McGarrett."
There it was again. That accusation. "Between you arresting, harassing, stalking, and generally fucking your relationship with her up, I've had to worry about hostage situations, Chinese Spies, the NLM, and now Colombians!"
"I was trying to keep track of her. You know that. She's… you know… you've seen her, she's hard to keep track of. Even you have trouble keeping track of her and you have an app connecting her to you."
"Yes. I understand the problems with her and her one-track mind and desire to protect you and your friends. But out of everything I worried the most about… you were the most dangerous factor in her life. You. Steven McGarrett."
"… Me?"
"Yes. You. How many alerts did I get saying she had been arrested by you? Hmm? How many phone calls did I take, Rowan in tears, scared, afraid, because you were acting strange or you were mad and she didn't know what you were going to do next? How many times did you throw her to the wolves for your cases? Shaking a psychic vision out of her, asking her to help, putting her in a situation where she would have to intervene? How many hospital trips has she taken because you didn't watch her correctly…"
"I haven't arrested her in almost a year. I apologized for all of that. I know that it was wrong and I have more than made it up to her. Rowan helps me and my cases whether I ask her or not…"
"But it wasn't you who saved her today, was it?"
"Well… no… but I could have…"
"And how long do you think it would have taken you to get to her?" Wo Fat asked. "Do you know what he was doing to her?" when Steve couldn't answer because thinking about what was happening to her hurt his chest so badly he thought he'd might faint from it, Wo Fat continue as if that proved his point. "He was beating her, McGarrett. I got there before he got creative. She got a few hard slaps and that was it. If I had left this to you, what do you think he would have done to make her talk, here in Colombia where he could have done anything he wanted to to her?"
Steve blinked his eyes and looked away from him. He didn't want to think about it, but it was true. If he hadn't gotten Wo Fat to help, there was no telling what Rowan would have had to endure before he got her out of their clutches.
"You are the greatest danger to Rowan and not just to her safety, but to her heart. Not me and my network. You. You who tells her to leave and doesn't mean it. You who refuses to give her a label…"
"I gave her the label. She got the label… I gave her a promise ring…"
"It took you ten months to give her a label and a rinky-dink little ring." Wo Fat scoffed. "May I remind you that you also thought that she would actually let me torture you and it's you who lets her run amok in Hawaii, you who has severed the only safety tether she had…"
So that was what this was about. He wanted back into Rowan's life. He wanted Steve to stop imposing the end of their relationship on them. When she was gone and he was relying on Wo Fat to get her back he would have said yes in a heartbeat but now that he knew she was safe and he was staring that option in the face…
"No."
Wo Fat fell silent and stared at him.
"No. You tortured me. You killed my father…" "Hess killed your father. You really need to get that straight. It's been four years. You can't still be mistaken over this." "YOU ORDERED HIM TO DO IT!" "Okay… yeah… that's true…" "—You chased my mother away. I'm not letting you back into her life."
"Yes, except now you owe me."
"You're not keeping her. She won't let you. I won't let you…"
"You're being ungrateful. Considering what I did for you…" "You didn't do it for me. You did it for her!" "Considering what I just went through for both of you, I deserve at least some compensation. Asking to be allowed to contact my sister is a small price."
But it wasn't. It wasn't a small price. He and Rowan argued all the time over him, Rowan was a monster when she was with him. He wanted his sweet, kind, Rowan who wasn't throwing around hits like a mob boss. He liked the way they were now. He liked how much better he was when Rowan and Wo Fat weren't synonymous.
"No," he repeated.
Wo Fat sighed. "Fine. Then you owe me a favour McGarrett, and trust me, when I call it in, I will make sure it breaks every single moral code you hold… brother. Just to make you suffer."
Steve glared at him, but Wo Fat was walking away. Steve jogged to keep up with him. Wo Fat silently lead him through to the house where they found Danny in a ballroom holding a small cup of punch while Rowan and Juan Carols danced and sang Spanish songs in the middle of a ballroom that was set up for a prom. Steve took in the provocative moves he didn't think Rowan knew, slightly concerned that she was doing that with someone other than him… not that he could dance like that. But he didn't have to break it up.
"Nope. No. I don't like that at all," Wo Fat said stalking forward.
Steve found himself side by side with Danny watching as Wo fat slipped in between the two dancing fiends and pushed them apart, which lead to him being smushed in the middle of a dance party.
"You gonna go help him?"
"Nope, I wanna see how he deals with this," Steve said. "Uh… how long has she been…"
"Since she got here. Those lyrics she's singing… they're uh… they're real racy."
That's right Danny could speak Spanish. "Should I be concerned?"
"Nope. She'll dance like that with anyone, just look at her and Wo Fat."
To get her away from Juan Carlos Wo Fat had grabbed a hold of her and was in the process of waltz spinning her away and towards McGarrett. In one big flourish Wo had spun her out and then Rowan was right in front of him.
"Steve!" Rowan cried falling into Steve's awaiting arms. He noted Wo Fat's eye roll and he tugged her to his chest before he could change his mind on keeping her. "Can we go home now?"
Steve's eyes fell to the darkening bruises on her cheek and jaw line from the smacks she had gotten in prison. He wanted nothing more than to take her home. He glanced up to Wo Fat wondering if the man was going to let her go after all. He was a professional liar, he may not keep his word.
"Sure, let me set you up with your emergency package and then I'll send you on your way," Wo said and Rowan turned to hug him.
"You're the best brother ever!" she crowed and Steve tried not to feel guilty about denying them the right to be together. He just wanted this situation to be over. That's all. Was that too much to ask?