Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Wednesdays my wonderful readers. Guys. Guys! I'm FREAKING OUT guys! Do you know what Friday is? Friday's post will be the last chapter in season 5. Guys! I can't believe I've already rewritten two seasons and a half. I can't believe we're going into my third rewritten season. Can you believe that we've gotten this far? I'm still in shock about it. I hope you guys don't get too mad over the next 20 chapters… cause uh… they're pretty high on the angsty meter. Don't hate me too much for what comes up. We have been getting a few reviews about Steve's abusiveness. The whole Catherine feelings things will be explained in a further chapter (like somewhere in season 9) there is a sci-fi void explanation for that. And for the person who was wondering when Steve and Rowan get to be happy again, literally two episodes into season 7. So we got a whole season of this, but next post I'll go into more in depth about that. Don't forget to review, and I'll see you guys on Friday!

Chapter 202

Despite Rowan being uncooperative, Steve managed to find the shipping container that Hadad came to Hawaii in on and evidently planned to leave in too. He also managed to find and capture Bennett, the man behind it all. The problem was, by the time Five-0 got there, both Hadad and the Nuke were gone and no one, not Bennett, not homeland security, or naval intelligence could tell them where Hadad had gone or how he got off the island.

Steve needed help. He needed Rowan and the amazing Sanctuary Network. But Rowan was pissed at him, having completely forgotten to be reasonable the second Catherine showed up at their house, and she was refusing to help. Which was fair, he had told her, when all of this started, that he didn't want her on the app. What he should have said was can we save it for a last resort… which Steve had obviously reached. But that wasn't what he said and, if he knew his girl, she wasn't going to let him reword that morning's statement.

So Steve went home, intent on wooing Rowan into helping him find that Nuke.

It backfired.

They argued. They screamed. A lot of really mean things were hurled at both of them. Steve accused her of talking to Wo Fat again. Rowan accused him of regretting picking her over Catherine, of wanting to go back to her now that she was here again. And then Steve got stuck sleeping on the couch, he never found out where Hadad went with the nuke, and at no point in the night did Rowan come down to cuddle with him like she usually did. He had gone up, once he established that he couldn't sleep on his own, but she had locked him out of his own room. Yeah, he was really regretting installing that lock on his door now.

In the morning, breakfast was not made ready for him, coffee was not brewing and his kid was not at the kitchen island eating toaster waffles. Once he had established that his kitchen was empty, he went upstairs. Nahele was in his room getting ready to leave. And he was happy to find the door to his room finally open but surprised to find Rowan in the process of getting ready. She had the muted navy blue chiffon dress already on and was rolling on her stocking when he got there. Her hair was already done up in an elegant twist, her make up was already done, after this all she would have left was accessories and shoes.

He had stood at the door watching her, wanting nothing more than to cross to her, to derail her getting ready like he usually did, but before he could cross the threshold she snapped: Get out. And that was him banished to lower floor pretending it didn't hurt to have his girlfriend not want him near her. She left not long after that with Nahele in tow. She was in charge of wedding prep, being both maid of honor and wedding planner apparently. Nahele had gone with her, he said to help but Steve suspected otherwise. Since the arguments had gotten more explosive, Rowan and Nahele had gotten closer. Steve had a feeling if they were to break up, Nahele would let him know who he wanted to go with… and it wouldn't be Steven. He tried not to think about it because honestly it hurt to realize that the kid he thought of as his own would want to be with Rowan in the event of a break up instead of him. And for a long while he let that bum him out. You know until it was time to get ready.

Steve stood out on the beach in his nice suit, his bowtie done up elegantly just staring at the ocean as if it would answer all of his questions. Seriously where had this bomb gone? Why was he suddenly feeling things for Catherine again? He had a feeling it was because Catherine had come just as things with Rowan had gotten rocky, very rocky, but what if that wasn't it. What if he actually just had lingering feelings for Catherine? What if he wasn't over her? What would he do about Rowan? Did he want to end things with her simply because his heart was still torn between her and Catherine, especially when he knew Rowan held a larger piece of his heart? Factor in the fact that if Rowan went he'd loose Nahele too and he was doubly conflicted. He wanted to talk to Danny about it, to any of the Five-0's actually but he couldn't. They'd take it to Rowan, or call him crazy and that wouldn't help.

Damn he really wanted to call his mother.

"Yo!" Danny said appearing beside him and startling him out of his thoughts. "What's up? You ready?"

This could be the moment where he got his advice. Danny would steer him right, right? He also couldn't keep his mouth shut either, so Rowan would know that Steve was thinking of going back to Catherine within the hour, and he didn't want that because he was more than 85% certain that that wasn't going to happen.

Steve sighed deeply. "Catherine spoke to naval intel," he said. "There's been radio silence on Hadad."

But not Sandy silent. If Rowan would just look for him, he'd have an answer. But Rowan was being selfish and being petty. She wasn't thinking of the greater good of everyone in the world, she was thinking of herself and one-uping him and Catherine.

"Yeah, well, look, we pinged his cellphone. Last signal we got was 3 miles out," Danny told him and Steve shook his head. The man was already off the island. "That was yesterday. Navy did a grid search. The guy is gone, Steve."

Yeah but that didn't make him feel better. That terrorist was out there somewhere with a nuke. It was only a matter of time before he detonated it somewhere.

"We locked this island down, okay? We locked this entire island down," Steve reminded him. "How did he get out? How did he get past us?"

"How does Rowan ever get past us, huh?" Danny asked. That was a dangerous path to go down, because Rowan got past them using her app and her own ability to be unseen and undetected. Danny also could be implying that she used her app to help Hadad, but Rowan wasn't that petty, was she? "Look, I don't know, I don't know, but every intelligence agency on the planet of Earth is looking for this guy, okay? When they find him, we will have our moment with him. And if you've made up with Rowan by then, maybe she'll let you put a few orders in through the app huh?"

Steve sighed again and Danny turned back to the ocean view. "Can we just take this time to be happy about something? Like the fact that we got Bennet and his crew. Can we take that win?"

The fact that Pessimistic Danny was lecturing him about finding the silver lining was ironic but Steve just nodded, he did have a point. Shockingly.

"Yeah, let's take the win."

"Yeah? Okay, good, things better with Rowan this morning?"

Okay not talking about happy things anymore. "I slept on the couch. She locked me out of my own room. She didn't make breakfast for me this morning, she got ready with out me and took Nahele with her…"

"Okay well most of that could just be wedding related. She's taking Kono's ceremony very seriously and I hear she has a lot to set up. Not sure what that means but she's been very stressed about it," Danny reminded him and Steve forced himself to nod, because if he didn't he'd have to tell Danny what he felt and why he felt it and he didn't want to do that.

"Okay, well I'm gonna go get Grace. She's getting ready over at Rachel's. See you at the wedding," Danny said to him.

"Hey, listen, if things are weird with you and Rachel, let me go get Grace," Steve offered, cause maybe some Uncle Steve time would help him feel a little bit better. "It's not a problem."

"No, no, no, nothing, uh… nothing's weird. It's fine."

"You're lying."

Danny didn't even pause before saying: "Yes, I'm lying to you, okay? She lied to me and didn't tell me I had a son. I don't think I will be forgiving her anytime soon. But I got Grace to worry about, and I don't want her to see us arguing. She went through that before the divorce and I don't wanna put her through it again."

"Hey listen, speaking of your son, how is Charlie? How's he doing? What are the doctors saying?"

"Well… like Rowan said I would be, I'm the better match for bone marrow. Also, apparently since Rowan got Rachel on it, they caught it really early on. So, procedure's gonna be next week and the doctors are saying good things. They're optimistic."

Ah his Rowan. Helping out Danny. Wasn't helping him at that moment, but at least she was helping someone.

"Well, that's great new, Danny."

"Yeah. I'm making Rachel tell him that I'm his father. Sticking to that."

"I'm proud of you, Danny."

"You're proud of me? I'm not doing anything. Look, I got the easy part. I go in, I'm in and out I a couple hours. This kid's got some kind of recovery, you know? I'd trade places with him in two seconds."

Yeah Steve got that too, because if Nahele was that sick, and neither he nor Rowan could help him, best believe Steve would ask Rowan to pull a string and put him in Nahele's place.

Luckily their somber conversation was brought to halt by a woman in a bright royal blue dress.

"Hey!" Catherine said as she came towards them while Steve smiled and appreciated her for just a moment. Yes Rowan always looked good in her glossy, glittery, fancier get ups. But there was something about Catherine's simply plane A-line dress, and her simply straightened hair, that one single silver pendant and her subtly done make up that looked just as beautiful, if not a bit better.

"Wow," was all that could come out of him.

Across from him Danny shook his head while Catherine just stared at him. "Oh, so you approve?"

"Yeah, no, I think what my ape-like friend meant to say is that you look great, right?"

"Wow," Steve repeated because he couldn't get anything else out of his mouth.

"And he said it again," Danny said with a dejected sigh like Steve was some major disappointment. "Okay, well I'm gonna let you two talk. Maybe he'll come up with more than one syllable."

He took two steps away from Steve before turning around and adding: "May I remind you that your girlfriend has told us all to be punctual and she's in a bad mood so none of us want to make it worse. Oh, she's also told me to make sure you're there on time even if I have to strap you to the hood of the Camaro to get you there. So you know… I've got the rope in the back…"

"Just go get Grace, Danny," Steve ordered and only then did his friend leave him.

Once he was gone Catherine approached him, reaching out to smooth out his suit much like he was used to Rowan doing. She even gripped his lapels as she smiled warmly up at him. God, why did he want to kiss her right now? Fuck he should have pressed Rowan for a quickie before she left. How long had it been since they had fucked? A week, maybe ten days. Too long. That's why Catherine was affecting him… right?

"Wow. You look very, very handsome. Rowan's very lucky."

"Thank you, you look very beautiful and I'll uh… I'll be sure to remind Rowan of that when I see her."

"She's not here?" Catherine asked almost innocently. Steve wasn't stupid she knew Rowan wasn't home, that was how she got in in the first place.

"Naw, she uh… she took on a big role for Kono's wedding…" "She's only the maid of honor." "—And the wedding planner, and in charge of the music and… yeah, I unno she's just taking this very seriously. She uh… left this morning to make sure set up was happening."

Catherine nodded but didn't move her hands and Steve didn't move them for her either. "So, after the wedding… how long you planning on staying?"

Catherine smiled coquettishly up at him and asked: "How long do you want me to stay?"

And just like that there was ice in Steven's veins. She was flirting with him. That meant she had assessed what was going on between him and Rowan and guessed that things weren't good, probably heading for a crash and burn break up. And she had decided to swoop in on him before the relationship was even over.

Telling Catherine he wanted her to stay indefinitely would mean that he was accepting that his relationship with Rowan was over. And he didn't want that. He didn't want that at all. But he also didn't want to tell her like a week or something and have her go, not when he wasn't sure what he was feeling for her.

Luckily he didn't have to answer because his phone rang. While Catherine laughed at his luck, and the bad timing of his call, Steve answered it.

They had found Hadad's body washed up on the beach. Beyond dead. So, if Hadad was dead, where the hell was the Nuke?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Once Steve shot the man they were interrogating in the leg, Danny knew he had to do something. Anything to get this man back onto the road to sanity. He wasn't sure if it was because Catherine was back, or because Rowan was driving the man crazy, but something had derailed Steven and he was twice as aggressive as he usually was.

So, despite knowing that Rowan didn't want to help and had been ignoring both Steve and Catherine's requests for help or any form of communication from them, Danny had sent Rowan a text.

Steven's having a meltdown. Palace ASAP.

And amazingly, Rowan had come. Though he didn't want to, he had excused himself from the interrogation room to go and get her. He took Rowan down to the basement floor, letting her ask him over and over again whether or not Steve was alright and how bad it was, without answering her.

What he said instead was: "Look, we need you. Ice Queen you right now. So, put on that war mask of yours and let's scare the crap out of a terrorist."

And then he shoved her into the room.

It was an utterly ridiculous plan. To shove Rowan, who was done up in a navy blue knee length, chiffon dress with an empire waist decorated in little silver ivy branches and a pair of matching navy blue high heels that were crystal studded all down the heel, into that small room, hoping their bad guy would recognize her and shout out the location of the nuke.

Steve had put a gun to the man's head and it hadn't worked, why did he think putting Rowan in the room would?

But Steve took Rowan's appearance in, as she stared at the man, cuffed to the chair in front of her, with blankly rapt interest. Her face betrayed no emotion, but her head was tilted to the side as she took him in, seemingly ignoring Steven who was staring at her like she was the answer to all their problems. He reached out for her, his hand gripping her arm and then put her right in front of Bennett.

"Meet Rowan Pierce," Steve said. "I believe you know her brother. Wo Fat."

"Wo Fat knew Hadad not him," Rowan snapped. She then looked at him and then back to Danny. "He's not having a meltdown, why did you bring me here?"

Danny sighed and shook his head. "Because we need you."

"I don't see why you would. You've shot him in the leg and he hasn't cracked, my network isn't going to do shit."

"Okay, then do the shocky thing. Where you electrocute him and get a vision. Do that."

"What's the matter, McGarrett, couldn't your precious Catherine get the intel for you?"

"Rowan this is a nuclear warhead, not a petty game!"

"Well it's kind of a game… of hide and seek," Rowan said with a shrug. "And you picked a loosing team. So No, Steven. I will not be doing the shocky thing for you."

Steve whirled onto Rowan, completely forgetting that his gun was out. "Rowan. We have a nuke on the island that this psycho is going to detonate. Do you understand me. This isn't about me and you. This isn't about me and Catherine. This is about the hundreds of thousands of people on Hawaii who is going to die, innocent people, women children, families… everyone! They're going to die if I don't find this bomb. You are always in my way, you are always interfering and now that I actually need you to be do something and you're refusing. Why? Because you didn't get your way? Because Catherine's here and I wanted legal help and not whatever black market shit your phone has? Well I'm sorry Catherine's kind of intel comes from legal channels and you're a black market knock off. Are you happy now? Stop being a brat and DO SOMETHING!"

Steve had no idea he had been gesturing at her with the gun until Danny stepped half into the way and put his hand out to put it down. She blinked her eyes at him, as if she couldn't understand what had just happened. That mask of Ice Queen indifference was still on her face but something akin to hurt and agony shone in those wavering blue eyes of hers.

"Calm down," Danny urged.

"Yeah calm down, I don't need a vision I already know where they put the nuke," Rowan said.

Steve blinked his eyes. "I'm sorry… you already know where it is? What did you dream it up last night?"

"No, I got it through the app," Rowan said. "He may not have been working with him, but Sandy monitors all incoming threats. She's been watching that nuke since it touched down on the island. She doesn't report the small things but I can look them up if need be which is how I figured out where they were holding it on the island. She upgraded the threat to orange yesterday when they set it and armed it. Went red this morning when she finished calculating the blast radius and the estimated time of detonation. She's advising we get off the island."

Steve stared at her, almost too calmly. "You've known where that bomb was the entire time… and you didn't tell me?"

"You told me not to use the app, Steven. You wanted Catherine to help you, not me," she reminded him and something ugly passed over his face.

"Where is the bomb, Rowan?" he growled darkly.

Rowan actually took a step away from him, and he realized it was because he had raised his gun up again. That time, Danny took it right out of his hand.

"It's on a Waikiki Shopping trolley. Pink line. Heading down Kalakaua street straight into the heart of Waikiki. Cart number 34."

Steve stepped around her and went for the door. Danny watched her wince. "Steven…" she called and he actually came to a stop. "The driver's one of them. He's going to have a gun. I know I told you to get shot… but please don't get shot."

Steve came back to kiss her softly and lovingly before heading out the door. As soon as she was gone she turned back to Bennett and said: "If my family gets hurt over this, my app is set to kill your wife and kids. That's even if I get killed in the blast. So you better hope they find that nuke."

Well hot damn. And she said she wasn't going to do anything to help them. Rowan had done it all.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The bomb was right where Rowan said it would be. But Steve couldn't shut it off. Bennett had disconnected the Permissive Action link. Which meant there was no way to stop it. There was a team waiting at Pearl Harbour to defuse the bomb, but Pearl Harbour was a half hour away and they didn't have that kind of time. He had to get the nuke off the island right away.

He had decision to make, so he made it. Chin and Grover were left behind to deal with the body Steve had dropped. Which left the girls to act as an escort for the trolley. Kono too had come along. No wedding if they're not all there. Yeah, Steve got that too, so he didn't even bother arguing as she suited up. But he did like seeing Catherine working with the rest of the gang again, fitting in easily like a cog that just fit with their crime fighting machine.

Maybe he just wanted to work with her again. Maybe that was what all this confusion and butterflies was about.

Danny and Steve had stayed in the trolley to get the nuke to Kamekona's who had very graciously allowed them to use his helicopter had it ready to go for them just as they arrived.

They hadn't told him what it was for so he was very surprised to see a nuke come out of the trolley.

And no one had told him that Rowan was there until she was trailing after him as he and Danny carted the nuke as gently as they could towards the awaiting bird.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked her.

"Well, I thought I might help… like maybe I could…"

Oh now she wanted to help?

"No," Steve snapped before her hands could get past him. The last thing he wanted was Rowan in the blast zone of a bomb, or close enough to catch even a bit of radiation. She had enough powers thank you very much. "No void stuff near the nuke. Not when we don't know what it'll do."

Rowan fell back, leaving Steve and Danny to load the helicopter. Steve wanted to hug her goodbye. He wanted to at least kiss her once simply because he wasn't certain if he'd make it back, but he didn't have the time.

But he sure as hell had the time to notice that in this time of utter need, his eyes were only on Rowan. His heart, only wanted Rowan in his arms at that moment, and it was her embrace he wanted to have when he got back… if he got back.

"Alright, we're airborne. How far offshore do we need to be?" Steve said into his headset.

Chin answered him immediately. "Well, according to Los Alamos and Sandy, you gotta dump that thing 50 miles offshore and at a depth of 2,000 feet to neutralize any threat of radiation.

"That shouldn't be a problem, right?" Danny asked.

"No, but there's a tricky part. Based on the mass of the nuke and the rate that it sinks, you're gonna have to drop that package in the water with no less than two minutes to spare on that timer. That might not give you enough time to get out of the blast zone."

Steve didn't buy that though. Because Rowan's bomb dream never ended in him dying. It ended in Kono's wedding being postponed. But with all the arguing they had been doing lately there's a good chance she just might not have told him if she was dreaming about him exploding or getting knocked out of the sky by a jet stream of water.

Danny actually took that revelation rather well for a few minutes.

"Well I guess the good news is that dying would be better than looking at your bald head for the rest of my life."

"What are you rambling about now?" Steve snapped, so not in the mood for this right now.

"I got a nuke at my foot, okay? What am I rambling about? If we don't die, which is a gigantic if, I'm gonna be microwaving eggs with my finger, okay?"

"Nobody is gonna die, Danny."

"Oh, really? Look. It's Dr. Strangelove. Aren't you the one who said the residual radiation is not so bad, but it's the direct contact that is?"

"No, I didn't say that exactly."

"You implied it," Danny accused and Steve sighed, yeah and he sure was regretting doing so now. "And now I'm standing on this thing…"

"Listen to me alright?" Steve cried cutting him off. "One kid is one thing, Dany, but two kids is something else, alright? And guess what, you got two kids now. You got two kids now, and one of them needs you to go home and do something really important for him, alright? So, you don't get to die today, even thought it would make my life a lot quieter."

For a minute Danny didn't say anything so Steve added: "And Rowan never predicted our deaths, you know? That wasn't ever something that worried her. She was just worried about the wedding running on time."

Danny nodded. Steve wondered if Danny would wonder the same thing. That Rowan thought the wedding running on time was more important than their lives. But he figured that not to be true, because Rowan would have told Danny to move up his procedure for Charlie if she thought there was a chance that Danny wouldn't be there to help him. And being mad at him was one thing, but if she knew Danny would be going in the helicopter with him she would have warned him. And Danny would have told him because Danny can't keep a secret.

They hit that 50-mile mark and Danny opened the door and shoved the fucking thing out of the helicopter and into the water. He shut the door, got into the co-pilot seat where he sat beside Steve bracing for impact.

"Say it again," Danny ordered.

"Rowan never saw our deaths," Steve said as behind them something began to rumble.

Back on land, watching the helicopter try to turn around in time, the three woman all stood there, hand out stretched to one another, interlacing fingers as they held on tightly. There was no bickering or fight. Catherine didn't pull away when Rowan offered her a hand to hold. They just held on, the girl giving them each a bit of silent comfort.

And then the bomb went off.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

They came out of that helicopter, and even though the blades were still going down and Rowan's hair had already been done up and she could risk it flying out of place, she let out a squeal of happiness and rushed him. Jumping into his arms.

"Oh look at you, a regular James Bond!" she cried and he couldn't help but smile. She kissed him solidly and Steve smiled into the gesture because having her back in his arms made him feel better, made everything in his body feel better. Like the mere act of holding her put everything back into place, putting everything back into perspective. In fact, he had no idea that Catherine was still there until she hugged Danny beside him.

"Thanks my brothers," Kamekona said once Rowan's feet were back on the ground and both Danny and Steve had exchanged hugs with Catherine and Kono.

"What? For saving your life you mean?" Danny asked, clearly expecting some sort of complaint to come out of Kamekona's mouth.

"For destroying my business."

And there it was.

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked the same time Danny echoed with: "Destroying your business? Thing's in perfect working condition!"

"Yeah!" Steve cried, he too gesturing to the helicopter just like Danny was.

"Yeah, but nobody's gonna wanna eat fish for the next three months." Okay, yeah he had them there. "But on the bright side, it allows me to concentrate on this."

He showed them a flyer of a catamaran with a giant red sail with Kamekona's face on it. Well wasn't that frightening? And it would be worse if there was a fleet of them out on the water, which no doubt would be Kamekona's plan.

"Huh, what is that? Fun Kine Catamaran Tours," Steve read out.

"Spread the word, twenty percent off for law enforcement, and any celebrities my favourite musical little sista wasn't to send my way," he said.

Rowan just shook her head. "On your maiden voyage you sink the ship and get stranded on a not so deserted island."

Steve just put an arm around her and tugged her to his side. He pressed a kiss to her temple loving the way Rowan's arm snaked around him as she half hugged him back. God he had missed this. How had he forgotten how much he loved having her near him. He didn't even care that she spat out a prediction that no one wanted. But he filed that prediction away, a reminder to never get on a boat with Kamekona.

He absently checked his watch and then balked at the time. He turned to the other two girls with his famous roughish grin spreading over his face. "Hey, uh… Kono… you're getting married in five minutes!"

Beside him Rowan straightened as if she had completely forgotten about the wedding she had been working tirelessly on for the last two months. The wedding all of them, including the bride, were currently late for.

"Oh yes! Yes! The wedding!" Rowan cried. "I worked way to hard on this wedding for us not to go!"

Steve let Rowan take his hand and pull him away smiling as she did so. Okay… so maybe he had been over reacting. Maybe he wasn't so conflicted after all.