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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the chapters so far! For all of those who are worried about Wo Fat and Rowan and whether or not cute brother and sister moments will be happening again… don't worry. For those who are worried about Wo Fat's obsession with getting Rowan away from Steven… well… you have good reason to worry. This chapter is going to include one wild ride and hopefully you guys are up to it. Steve's gonna say something mean in this chapter, but I promise in the next chapter it's explained so don't worry too much about that one. Also it's brought to my attention I got a little factoid wrong. I'm so sorry everyone, I had absolutely no idea that Alex had only been married the one. I'm not as OCD about him as others are so I'm sorry but I swear I checked that before I put it in. Either Wikipedia lied to me or I just read it wrong. My bad. We can just chalk this little mix up to Rowan not realizing that either, hopefully that reduces a bit of the OCD triggering there. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you tomorrow.

Chapter 187

Once the gate was down and Steve had double checked the back barricade and that there were no other ways to get into the shop, he turned his attention back onto the kid. The kid was bleeding badly and he had to do something, so he had Odell find him a styptic pen, which was usually just used to deal with small nicks one would get during a shave or a trim, but would have to do. He had told Eran that this was going to hurt, and then jabbed the pen into his bullet wound. The kid had groaned, had cried out in pain, had almost fainted, so Steve endeavoured to distract him.

He got him talking about what happened. How he had gone to work at the bakery, gone outside to throw out some garbage and witnessed a few men shoot another one, execution style. They had spotted him, he had ran, and Odell's barber shop had been the only thing open so he went inside looking for help and that was how this had all happened.

But it wasn't until he mentioned that the guys behind the execution, the same guys who had them pinned in here, were Armenian gangsters that ran his neighbourhood, did Odell pull him aside. You know, once Steve had plugged up the leak in the kid's leg and duct taped a towel to him.

They went over to where the front desk used to be and they both lowered their voices so the kid couldn't really hear them.

"You, uh, ever hear the name Garig Dobrian?" Odell asked.

Steve shook his head. "No."

"Used to be a major player in the Armenian Mob in LA," Odell explained. Okay, good for this guy. "He moved down here a few years ago to hang his own shingle. Word is he's ruthless. Drugs, shakedowns, insurance scams, got his hands in all of it. He owns the Rainbow Valley Supermarket over on Palolo Avenue, but, uh, that place is just a front."

Steve glanced back to the kid before turning to Odell and asking: "You think Dobrian had something to do with this guy getting killed?"

"Well, kind of like your girl's app, nothing gets done without him giving the order," Odell said. "And if he's the one who told these guys to come after Eran, they ain't gonna stop till he's dead… or they get orders from some a little… higher up on the food chain."

Steve scowled. "We already talked about this, I don't have my phone and they're ignoring Sanctuary," he snapped. "I'm not sure how you expect me to get a hold of her to fix this."

"Well what are the chances her app will tell her that you tried to activate it?" Odell asked.

But did Steve want that. He didn't want his girl flying into this situation blind. And he had a sneaking suspicion that Wo Fat might… you know, not alert her to this situation to get back at him for not allowing him to contact Rowan on a regular basis. He wouldn't put it past Wo Fat to be hoping that this situation killed him so he could swoop in to snatch Rowan up again.

But Odell was panicking, and Rowan and her app were like this little silver lining of hope that he was holding onto. Steve didn't want to take that away from him.

"I unno how it works, but I don't think we should hold out for that… you know?"

Odell nodded and then focused on something over Steve's shoulder. "Oh that can't be good," he breathed out and Steve turned. On the little CCTV feed he had running on a black and white TV. They can clearly see one of the guys heading over towards them.

"He's coming over here," Odell said almost panickedly as if Steve couldn't tell that. "I'm going to open the gate you shoot him."

"What am I gonna shoot him with? I don't have any bullets."

There was nothing they could do except watch as he cut the wires and the CCTV screen went black. Great. Now they had no view of the outside. They had just been blinded.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

It was a day that was supposed to be filled with tragedy, not for other people but just for him. Now he was dealing with a kid who was supposed to be dead by now, a hostage situation that had Five-0 involved, and now that Sanctuary had been activated he was dealing with an old friend who was very, very angry.

Garig had explained the situation to Wo Fat. The man had patiently listened and then sighed. It was out of his hands, he had said, his sister was emotionally attached to the man protecting Eran. That man wasn't going to give the kid up, and his sister, the notorious Rowan Pierce, was practically lethal when it came to protecting Steven McGarrett. And Wo Fat, despite having nothing but respect for Garig, would back her in every way, would come down hard if told to do so to avenge any accidental deaths or injuries, and would come down twice as hard if that accidental death or injury actually happened to Rowan.

Garig had thought that fair, so he had calmly told him to send the girl over. He promised to be nothing but courteous, as his only intention was to explain the situation and try to convince her that this was what needed to be done. Wo Fat had told him that he would get in touch with her, give her the option, and then they could speak, but if Rowan remained unconvinced Wo Fat would take matters into his own hands.

Garig had thought that to be fair as well, agreed to the terms, and then waited to hear if she would accept the invitation to meet.

She had and now he was just waiting for her to arrive.

There was a screech of tires, the sound of small feet pounding against the pavement, the bell tinkled above the door of his super market and then: "YOU!" was hurled at him with such deadly aim and aggressive loudness that he knew that could only be one person.

He knew that Wo Fat's little terror was coming, the man had said that she was on her way to speak to him, and he thought himself suitably prepared to handle a monstrosity such as her. But when everyone spoke of Rowan Pierce, no one every mentioned how she looked. Probably because she was so… cute looking?

The girl practically looked harmless. Her red-to-blonde faded hair was up in a pony tail, she was wearing black leggings and a loosely fitted graphic tee-shirt that simply read: Run? I thought you said Rum. The only sign of the dangerous and lethal woman everyone proclaimed her to be was the ice in her blue eyes and the glare on her face.

"You Garig Dobrian?" she asked him

"Yes," he answered calmly.

"Kay cool. Call your guys off and you can go to sleep alive tonight."

He bowed his head to her. And there were the threats she was famous for. "As much as I would like to do that… I cannot," he said and that glare on her face got worse.

"Listen here, asswipe, that's my boyfriend you got trapped in that barber shop, and I want him the fuck out of there and I'm not particularly happy that your guys ignored my warnings," she growled. When Garig opened his mouth to try and talk to reason with her, she cut him off. "And don't try to tell me it didn't happen either."

She slammed her phone down on the counter where he could see her app, alerts were running down the screen, but he could tell it was fully active and clearly running some sort of program, he just didn't know what it was doing. Instead he read the alerts.

Yellow level warning: Shots fired.

Captain America is being shot at, no active case on file, not a work event. Threat level raised to Orange

Captain America has activated Sanctuary. Threat level promoted to Red.

Captain America is unreachable.

Captain America is locked in Moki Cuts with codename Surfer Dude and one unknown friendly.

Hostiles are Armenian. Contracted under Dobrian. Master has contacted Dobrian to confirm situation.

Hostiles ignoring repeated attempts to warn them away from Captain America.

No chatter to suggest hit is on Captain America.

Lost closest visual to situation. Acquiring closest feeds to keep tracking situation.

Awaiting further instructions or contact with Captain America.

"You did this. I want Steve out of there. I want my barber out of there. I want the unknown person out of there. I want all three of them out of there. Call your guys off. NOW!"

Garig would have been foolish to not hear the fear in her voice, to not see the silver tiara ring on her ring finger. She loved the man who was in there, the man who was protecting the wrong person, he could use that to his advantage. "I do not want your Captain America, or your barber. I merely want the boy."

Rowan leant back and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well tough shit cause you can't have him."

He was starting to get frustrated with her, she was being so unreasonable. She didn't know the situation, hadn't been able to make contact with her previous Steven, but she was still backing him, blindly at that. "You don't understand. You have to let them finish the job."

"Why?"

"Because he is a monster!"

That seemed to get her attention because she tilted her head to the side, a narrowed calculating look dawning on her features. "Oh yeah and how would you know that?"

"Because that boy is my son, and only a father would know their child that well. What kind of father would call their own son that?"

And then he stood there and watched as she thought that claim over.

Rowan thought back to her mother, who called her a monster constantly, both as an insult and as a pet name. Normal parents didn't say that about their children, or at least that's what Rowan had been told. She didn't know how it was in criminal's families. Maybe monster was a pet name. But she had a sneaking suspicion that this was about something else. Because most of the time when Sanctuary got activated people knuckled under, they didn't request a meet up.

"Okay, you're going to stop dancing around the subject. You tell me what's up and if I believe you… I'll help you. But if I don't, I'll activate counter measures that no one is going to enjoy, you got me?"

"I can do one better… I can show you."

And even though she was untrusting and worried, she agreed because right now, she had no other option. And Steve was running out of time.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The kid wasn't looking too good. Steve wasn't feeling too good either. He didn't like being trapped in there, he needed a way out, like ASAP.

He had gone into Odell's back office, while Odell paced the place taking stock of everything that was broken or damaged. There was a vent in the ceiling.

"Where does that lead to?" Steve asked interrupting the philosophical rant he was going on about how this was all things, so Eran wouldn't feel bad about being the reason half of Odell's shit was broken.

"The AC unit," Odell said. "I'm telling you, there's only two ways out of here."

Not helping. Way too much pessimism, just like Danny.

"Listen to me, alright? It doesn't look the HPD is going to be coming anytime soon. I can't get a hold of Rowan. I activated Sanctuary and they didn't back down. We are on our own," he snapped. "Waiting, in here, any more is no longer an option. The longer we stay there, the better the chance we all end up dead."

Harsh but necessary truth.

"Okay, what are you gonna do? Crawl through the air duct?" Odell snapped back. Actually that was exactly what he was going to do.

"Yes, if I have to, yes," Steve explained. "There's a store next door, right?"

"A florist," he confirmed.

"Okay, well I'm thinking this connects to the florist and if I can get over there, maybe I can use their phone to call 911…"

"Or the Pitbull…"

"Call her a Pitbull one more time, and so help me, Odell, I'm going to call her just to have her come here and kill you herself," he growled, roughly tugging the small desk away from the wall. Odell was right of course, if Steve got to a phone the first person he was going to call was Rowan, let's see how smug that man's face was gonna look when she fucking rolls up with her own little personal army. She still had one of those right? Like if she asked, she could get access to one, still, right?

Problem was, when he tugged the desk away from the wall something clattered off of it. Odell shook his head and sarcastically said: "Careful. Please."

"I'm sorry, okay?" he said stooping down to pick the picture frame up, and was shocked to find that it was a fucking certificate for a law degree from Fordham Law school. Odell was a lawyer?

"What is this? You're a lawyer?"

Why had he never told Steve that before?

"Yeah, I'm a lawyer. Is that so hard to believe?" he asked. Actually… looking at him. Yeah it fucking was.

"Well, I mean, it's a barbershop, so yeah, kind of," Steve admitted.

As Steve went about clearing the little side desk off so he could stand up on it Odell asked: "I just blew your mind, didn't I?"

Steve just sighed. "I mean, most people hang it on the wall," he said. With the desk clear he climbed up on it to start unscrewing the grate to the vent.

"Yeah well, I'm not too fond of mine and I just haven't had the nerve to toss it in the trash where it belongs, okay?"

"There's a story there," Steve answered absently. Clearly Odell wanted to talk about it, damn he was a lot like Danny.

"There's a long and boring story there one that ends up with me owning a barbershop on a rock in the middle of the Pacific."

"Do me a favor, you got a Philips?" Steve asked after examining the grate. He'd need one of those to get the screws off.

Odell nodded, going into the back where the back door was to find his tools before coming back with the screwdriver in question.

When he came back Steve asked: "So what you spend 100 grand on a degree but you realized you like breaking the law more than practicing it?"

"I think we're done talking about this," Odell said in way of answer. Well that wasn't like Danny at all. usually Steve could goad him into shouting his feelings at him. It felt odd that it didn't work this time.

"What are you talking about, I told you about my mother," Steve reminded him.

Odell shot him a look of narrowed confusion. "You didn't tell me anything about your mother."

Steve thought about it a moment, well, that was true, maybe he hadn't gotten to that part yet. "Okay, well she aided and abetted a man who was trying to kill me for years and then she went into hiding so I couldn't call her out on it. Your turn."

Odell blinked his eyes. If he asked him if this was the same man who also called himself Rowan's brother, he was going to get thwacked with a screwdriver handle. Instead he got he story he asked for.

"My father's a big-shot defense attorney. Park avenue penthouse, summers in the Hamptons, first-class everything. But that's not where he came from, and he resented the fact that he was a barber's son. He didn't consider that a noble profession. All that matter to him is how much money you make. He sent me to all the best schools. Horace Mann, NYU, Fordham law. Didn't matter what I wanted. He was calling the shots."

Well that was shitty. Didn't explain how it was he came to be on Hawaii. Other then running away. Maybe he should have Odell talk to Rowan, Rowan knew all about running away from one's problems. Steve got the grate off and then looked into the duct, of course it was cylindrical and tight fitting. It couldn't just be easy, could it?

"After I graduated, I had enough, wela ka hao," he said proudly.

"Life's too short, huh?"

"Yeah and getting shorter by the minute," Odell remarked. He watched as Steve shut the grate back up and went about screwing the screw back in. "That is not encouraging."

"No, it's uh, too small a space for me to fit into," he admitted.

"So what are we going to do?"

Steve didn't have an answer, and in the silence of the absence of his answer they heard a horn honking.

"Did you hear that?" Steve asked, jumping off the table and heading for the front of the shop, towards that metal gate. He thought he heard it again, paired with a call. A call he swore he recognised. He heard Odell clamouring behind him, Steve raised a hand for silence. The silence was heavy around them until he heard a soft call of his name.

No. No it couldn't be. If the app had warned her… why would she come alone? Was it possible that Wo Fat had stopped the app from reporting to her? Was she thinking she was just visiting him at the shop? He had told her where he was going this morning and she did have a habit of showing up to surprise him. Was she here to take him to lunch? Did she not know what she was walking into?

He heard it again except louder. "Steven?"

Rowan.

Oh god. Rowan. No. No. No.

Despite Odell's cries of warning, despite knowing there were gunman somewhere outside, and he had no idea where cause the camera was down, Steve scrambled to the gate and pulled it open to get to her. Problem was, Rowan was heading back to her car, which she had left idling in the middle of the street.

"Rowan!" he hissed and she turned around surprised. She took him in, standing at the door, watching him as he tried to wave her forward but she didn't move.

"Oh hey babe. What are you doing in there, it looks closed, it's not closed is it?" she asked him. She clocked the gun on his hip but didn't seem to catch the frantic look about him. "Did you seriously take your gun into a barbershop but not take your phone?"

He caught sight of movement, a man coming out from behind one of the black SUVs and suddenly everything went white around the edges. Steve's mind went into autopilot, he had one directive, protect Rowan. He charged forward, and despite her cries of confusion or attempts to back away, he had grabbed her, pressed her to his chest and then whirled her away from the man with the gun. He held her, the woman he loved, and waited for the gunshots to rip into him.

But they never came.

Instead, Rowan's arms wrapped around him, wrapped around him tightly. "I'm so sorry," she whispered to him but he didn't understand why.

Until he saw the other men, the ones with bigger guns heading into Odell's barber shop. He tried to pull away from Rowan, only managing to take half a step forward but got tangled up in her. He tried to move Rowan to the side, but she had a tight grip on him. The men that had not gone inside, but had instead gotten in between him and the shop, all turned their guns on him and he froze. Despite being confused, despite being certain that Rowan was in on it, his arms came around her again to hold her, ready to shield her if necessary.

From inside the barbershop came shouts of worry and confusion and Rowan turned in his grasp, finally letting him go. She tried to step away from him but Steve wouldn't let her go, not with that many guns around her.

"The barber is with me," she announced and Steve felt the anger return to him, he dropped his hold on her entirely in his shock.

"Rowan what are you doing?" he hissed.

Rowan turned to him a strange sort of smile on her face. An urgently guilty one. "Can you get in the car, babe?" she asked. "Let's get in the car, hmm?"

"Get in the car?" he echoed. "I'm not going anywhere until I know what's going on. Are you… are you with them?"

"Steven, please, I know how much you like answers and I would love to give them to you, my darling, but you have to get into the car, can you do that? For me?"

But Steve shook his head. Odell was pulled out of the shop and brought to them. But Eran, Eran had not been brought out.

"There's a kid in there, Rowan, a kid who needs our help, and I'm not leaving without him…"

But Rowan, who had been carefully looking Odell over, turned back around to face him. Her eyes, oh god how light her eyes were. No. No this wasn't happening. "I'm sorry Steven," she whispered to him. "But this is part of the deal…"

"What?" he asked his voice low and full of surprise. "What do you mean… what deal?"

"You activated Sanctuary," she said softly. "You activated Sanctuary and they ignored our demands and you were running out of time and I… I didn't know what else to do…"

But that didn't answer the question. What was happening? What deal? Why was Rowan making deals with these people when normally she just had people storm in? What was the plan? She never did anything without a plan!

"Rowan what have you done?" he asked.

Bang

The scream of No ripped through him so quickly he was sure it burned his throat. Rowan winced at it, he didn't need it confirmed that Eran, the boy he had been trying to save all morning, had just been shot, had just been killed.

"No!" he shouted his eyes turning on Rowan. His heart fracturing in his chest. "No!"

Rowan put her hands out to him. "I know, I know, I'm sorry, but if you had gotten in the car…"

What and just not be there when the shot went off. He stared at her horrified. The men came out from the shop and Rowan shot a glare at the lead man with the smug smile. "I told you to wait for us to leave," she growled.

"I don't take my orders from you."

Rowan's unfeeling eyes stayed on him, they seemed to scare him so badly that the smug smile fell off his face and he actually moved away from her. He had wanted that exact reaction once, only a short time ago, but Steve didn't have time for that now, he stormed back to that shop, took in Eran's lifeless body, the bullet hole between his eyes and then stormed back to Rowan.

"What have you done?" he thundered to her and she had the good grace to wince at him "Rowan! How… how could you? That boy! Do you know what I've just been through for that boy, what I promised him?!"

"I do know, Steven," she said turning her tearful face up to him. But he wasn't having it.

"I went through hell for that boy! We've been here trying to protect him all fucking morning! I promised to save him, Rowan!" Steve shouted. "And you just gave him up? Why? Why would you do that? Why would you do something so vile when you're the one who so worried about everyone thinking you're a monster!"

He regretted it the second it came out of his mouth. He had been doing so much better at not saying hurtful things he didn't mean. The problem was, at that moment he meant it. Rowan flinched. She flinched and his heart, his wounded bleeding heart, was dealt another cut.

She lowered her eyes from him. "I have my reasons… I do… and I wish… I wish you would just trust me and my decisions. Because you know… you activated Sanctuary and she gave me a play-by-play. Do you have any idea what that meant to me? How terrifying it was to find out you were in a situation you were so scared of that you of all people activated my app? An app you hate? Created by a man you can't stand?"

Okay… she had a point there. That was probably very scary. But it didn't excuse this.

"Look… it's not… it's not my place to explain, and I know you're mad at me right now but can you trust me when I tell you that I can take you to your answers?" she asked. "You just have to get in my car…"

"NO!" Steven shouted again. "No, you tell me right now! Right now! You look me right in the eye and you tell me why you let this happen!"

Rowan winced again, her eyes narrowing like she had been dealt a blow. He must have emotionally wounded her, he'd give her that much.

"Steven. If I could have, if I really wanted to, do you not think I would have gotten all three of you out?"

"Okay… yeah…" he answered because it was true.

"So if I didn't there had to be a reason right?"

"Okay, but what is that reason, Rowan?" Steve cried.

"See, that's why I need you in the car. Because Garig Dobrian is going to tell you why this had to happen, and it's only going to make sense if he tells you… and he shows you what he showed me… okay?"

Steve stared at her, watching as she turned to Odell and added: "And I negotiated a lump sum for you for maintenance to your shop. But it looks like I got here before they tried to chainsaw their way in from the other shop and you guys had to make a molotv cocktail, so maybe don't tell him that… cause I said there was a small fire and building damage."

She just spit out a vision to Odell, who had no idea she was supposed to be psychic. But Odell didn't seem to care past the mention of a lump sum being given to him

"Aces, let's do this," he said heading for her car. Rowan turned back to Steven with a look on her face he hated. She looked so hurt, so upset, like he had no right to be mad at her. Yeah she had saved his life but at what cost? At the cost of another kid's life?

"I know you spent a lot of time today protecting that kid… but you didn't know him… you don't know what he did…"

Steve glared at her. She was alluding to something but he didn't know what and he knew she wouldn't tell him if she asked. "But if I go with you… it will be explained?"

Rowan nodded and he sighed but headed to the passenger side of her car. She better have a fucking good explanation.