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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! I told you she wasn't dead, but why was Wo Fat lying? Oh the mystery! Don't worry, Wo Fat's thought process through all of this will be revealed soon. As will a lot of those questions you've been asking, like how did Rowan leave Nahele behind? Keep in mind that for most of this (the Steve looking for her part) Rowan was very heavily medicated. She has been badly injured after all, and unlike the five-0's her tolerance is less and she'd doesn't bounce back as fast. As for why she leaves him behind later… well… that too will be explained. Did you guys notice the first timeline change in the last chapter? That's right, Adam won't be going to jail. That's the #1 thing I've changed in the original plot so far. There will be more to come. So please enjoy this chapter of Steve going through Tokyo trying to find Rowan, don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!

Chapter 210

Steve got off the plane in Tokyo, the last place Rowan had been seen by anyone, to a stiff and well needed hug from his mentor and father-figure, Joe. When he had called Joe to tell him he needed help, he had found out that Joe was on his way to him, having heard about Rowan and figuring that Steve would need all the help he needed.

It was then that Steve realized that everyone knew just how much Steven McGarrett had loved Rowan Pierce. The only one who didn't know it was Rowan.

"I've done a little digging," he said after he pulled away. "From what my contacts say, Wo Fat went dark after he knocked off Riku Sato. I have confirmed reports of Rowan being alive and well… or not well, but alive, and him being with her. Then a few hours after killing Sato he goes dark. And I mean full dark. Cut ties will all contacts, all assets were emptied out, all after a single command went through the app."

"Do you know what command it was?" Steve asked, a streak of dread climbing up his spine.

"No," Joe said. "But that command only ran for a few minutes and then the app went down. Hasn't come back up, but you know that."

Steve nodded, he did know that. And now he wished he had asked Kong what commands had gone through the app before it went down, but once he was made aware that Rowan was dead he figured her app had died with her. It would have made sense, the whole point behind the app was to make sure that she was alive, if she wasn't alive, what was the point? But now that he knew that she was alive, the app being down had a more sinister meaning.

"He's trying to make sure I can't trace her," Steve told him. "But she's hurt. She's badly hurt, he'll need help, he won't be able to move her on his own. He'll have to have gone to someone, has to be working with someone."

"I think if he's going to such lengths to keep her from you, you better be prepared for one hell of a fight when you do find them."

Steve didn't care if he started a whole war. He wanted Rowan back and he didn't care what he had to do to get her back.

"Do you know where you want to start?" Joe asked him.

"Yeah, did you know that Wo Fat had a girlfriend?"

And not only did Joe know all about Wo Fat's girlfriend, he knew her address too.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Jian Hui opened the door to find two men staring down at her. One was an older bald gentleman with a grey and white beard. He had kind eyes and a soft smile but she knew that it was masking a hard exterior. The man beside him was wildly attractive if one liked men with deep blue eyes, perfectly styled dark brown hair, chiselled jaw lines and big strapping chests. He, however, was not smiling nicely nor did he have kindness in his eyes. This was the kind of man who usually was hard on the outside to hide the gooey exterior, but judging by the look on his face she wasn't going to see that soft center of his today.

"Hello Miss. Hui, I am Joe White and this is Steven McGarrett we'd like to ask you…"

"Where the hell is Wo Fat?" flew right out the younger man's face so quickly and so angrily that Jian was taken aback a bit.

The man beside him, Joe, sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward before saying: "I'm sorry for him, but he's lost something important to him and he has become quite unmannerly. May we come in?"

Jian was struggling to understand what was happening, but if she had to guess she had a feeling she was meeting Ro's Steven. Still, maybe they knew something about the situation with Wo Fat, and could give her some kind of light into what the hell had happened so she moved aside and let them come in.

Immediately Steven barged in and began looking through all the rooms. Jian turned back to Joe who merely shot her a pained look as he walked in. He offered her yet another apology, but Steven had gone through the rooms quite quickly despite the apartment being quite large and was back in the living room with them again.

"They're not here," Steve said sounding both surprised and disappointed at once and Joe sighed again.

"Well it would be rather foolish to go on the run and then hide out at his girlfriend's place," Joe told him but Steven didn't like that answer because he grimaced and looked away.

"I could have told you Wo wasn't here," Jian answered. "I haven't seen him in four weeks."

Both men took that in, before gesturing for Jian to sit down on her couch in front of them. As if they owned the place. But she sat down because Wo Fat had been unreachable since his last message to her, and she really wanted some kind of explanation for what happened. Granted she wanted him to explain it, but if Steven and Joe had answers she'd take them.

Once she was sitting Joe sat down, one couch cushion away from her to give her her space, which was quite nice of him. He must have picked up that she was nervous.

"When was the last time you heard from Wo Fat?" Joe asked. Steven had not taken a seat, but was instead looking around at her apartment as if Wo Fat would appear.

"Two weeks ago," she answered her eyes lingering on Steven. "He sent me an email."

"What did it say?"

"That something had come up. He wasn't going to be around for a very long time and that it'd be better if we broke up until things were settled."

"Did he say where he was going?" Steve asked. Jian shook her head. "Can I see the email?"

Jian retrieved the phone, pulled up the email she kept reading as if it would suddenly change and give her more than those three lines or some explanation.

Hello Jian,

Sorry for this, but I've had something come up. A family emergency if you will. I'll be out of touch until I can clear it up. Since I don't know when that is, it is only fair that I break things off until I know more about the situation. Will contact you when I can.

Warmest regards.

Wo.

Steven looked it over blinking at it and then handed the phone back to her. Since it seemed like he wasn't going to volunteer information Jian decided to take a chance and ask him.

"Are you Ro's Steven?"

Steven's eyes widened in surprised. "Oh he talked about me?"

"Not really, he mostly talked about Ro."

"Yeah?" he asked, he pulled out his phone and showed her an image. A picture of that red-headed girl the police had asked her about two weeks ago, and him. They were sitting on a beach, the girl was smiling into the camera while Steven pressed a kiss to her cheek. "You ever see this girl?"

Jian shook her head. Why was everyone so interested in this white girl? What did Wo Fat do to her? And why was Steven with her, she would have heard from Wo if Ro and Steve had broken up."I thought you were dating his sister…"

"That is his sister," Steven said. "That's Rowan Pierce. Wo Fat's unofficial sister."

Jian blinked her eyes and then stared at the picture on his phone a little longer not quite understanding what he was saying. His sister wasn't…? She glanced up to Steven obviously surprised. "Did you not know who Rowan was?"

"Rowan… he said her name was Ro."

"Ro is her nickname. Everyone calls her Ro," Steven said, he took the phone back and flipped through pictures before showing her another one. Of Rowan and Wo Fat. Both in fancy dress, their arms intertwined, while he fixed his cuffs. "She met him three years ago when he kidnapped her to ransom her against me. Not sure what went on while he had her, but uh, despite him shooting her to escape me… she kind of just adopted him and he sort of adopted her right back."

He had said he was adopted, but three years ago? Who the hell went around adopting their hostages? What kind of fucked up relationship did he have with this girl?

"Just a few days before you got this email, he rescued her from some basement here in Tokyo, faked her death and disappeared with her. No one has seen or heard from him since. This email is the only form of contact he's made since vanished. As you can see, I am trying to find them so if you have any information, I'd be greatly appreciative."

That's why he had left? That's why he had broken up with her?

"Wait, wait, wait, you're telling me he's with her? Hat he just ran off with her? Why? Why would he do that?" she asked. "I didn't even know he had come back to Japan."

"What do you mean?"

"Well five weeks ago, he got a call from one of his friends… uhm… Armando I think?" she offered and Steve nodded. "He called in a favour and Wo went down to Colombia to help him with something. And then about two weeks ago he told me he was going to be unreachable for a while because he was going into some area of the Colombian jungle that didn't have service and he'd message me when he was back and give me more info. But five days later he's breaking up with me over an email and now you're telling me it's because he's run off with your girlfriend?"

Steve blinked his eyes and it was Joe who said: "There was an incident with… uh… Ro. We think she's badly injured." Jian blinked her eyes. Yes she had fiured that out when they mentioned Wo had to rescue her again. "We think the five days between his last point of contact with you and the email, is when he found out Rowan had been kidnapped and was being tortured."

"And somewhere between rescuing her and sending you this email he decided he wasn't going to give her back to me but instead go on the run with her," Steven growled.

"Well why would he do that?" Jian asked past exasperated. This was so like him, though, to run off with his sister. He always did care more about her wellbeing then Jian's. Rowan had always been his priority. Jian watched as Steve looked away from her. She remembered all the times Wo Fat had complained about Steven's inability to take care of Ro and then asked: "He doesn't trust you with her anymore does he? He blames you for what happened!"

"Okay, it is not my fault! I didn't know she was there! Okay? She was supposed to be with him! And might I add that he had no idea she was in that situation either, okay? So it's not all my fault!"

He was shouting startling Jian. She didn't understand why he was so angry at her. Joe put out a hand to ward him away from her. "You shouldn't yell at her when you're actually mad at Wo Fat, Steven."

Steve shook his head and took a step back. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm just… she's injured you know, and that video… what they were doing to her… I just…"

"Can I see the video?" Jian asked. When both men stared at her she added: "I'm a doctor. And I'm… I'm in the Yakuza world. It was how I met him… I patched him up… maybe if I could see her injuries maybe I can tell you who he would have taken her to, because he didn't bring her to me."

Joe looked up at Steven and said: "Leave the phone and wait outside." But Steve shook his head and instead handed her his phone where a video started to play.

As soon as she heard that girl's screams Jian understood why Wo Fat would do what he had done. If he really did care for this girl as a sister, even if it made no sense to her that he did, he would have definitely reacted badly to this. And she would have been stupid not to see the way Steven flinched at every one of her cries, but when Rowan screamed his name it looked like the man might be physically ill, or was possibly feeling her pain through the scream itself.

When the four minutes were done Jian handed the phone back to him. "If they were doing that to her for a long period of time there's only one man he would have trusted to bring her to, to handle this level of injury and that's Shiro Hinohara. If it was bad he may have outsourced to Dōsan who's much more capable but Wo's never liked him. But I've seen how he is when it came to… her… wellbeing and I fully believe he'd bury the hatchet with him if she needed him to."

Steve nodded and headed for the door. But Joe stayed behind to apologize once more. "We're sorry about this and I'm sorry about him," he had added. "He just uh… he really cares for her, you know?"

Jian had nodded to him because she knew that Wo Fat cared for her just as much and that was why she was single right now.

Joe shot her a Thank you for your time as he headed towards the door. She thought they might answer her questions but she found, instead, that this had just raised more.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

*Trigger warning – Sexual assault is talked about in this part

Steve had wanted to go after the Doctor's right away. But Dr. Hinohara was out of town. Steve had wanted to go straight to Dr. Dōsan next but he didn't have the proper authority to just burst into the man's office. So he was given a time in which Dōsan would be available to meet with him and the he had to wait. Since Steve was getting antsy Joe took him to the Tokyo police precinct, promising him that he had something lined up for him.

The something he had lined up was a contact, a contact Joe had met them outside the precinct with a file Steve knew he wasn't supposed to have access to. Conflict of interest, everyone kept saying, but he didn't have time for that bureaucratic bullshit. The contact, an austere Japanese man that was both round and covered in sagging wrinkles, said nothing to either of them, but put the file in front of him, said: five minutes and left them there with it.

For a second Steve just stared at it. As if he were too afraid to open it and to be fair… he kind of was. Still he swallowed down that ball of anxiety curled up in his stomach and forced it open.

It was nothing but blood. So much fucking blood. Throats slit, bullet holes gaping up at him. God, Wo Fat had gone right back to that psychopath he used to be. No one in that house made it out alive. He got the wife, the kids, the body guards, the servants. Everyone. The notes weren't in English so he snapped a few pictures and sent them off to his team and then waited for someone to translate it for him.

By that time that call came in the cop had come back and taken the file away from him. Fair, he had pictures so he wouldn't need it anymore.

"McGarrett," he answered crisply.

"Hey! So I translated the pages for you, they're basic crime scene notes but the page at the back, it's the autopsies," Kono told him and Steve wondered why that mattered, he could see what had killed these people it wouldn't be a surprise. "Riku Sato's wife was raped quite brutally before her death apparently, they think multiple men as there were multiple DNA samples found. They think that everyone Wo Fat brought with him had a chance at her."

Steve couldn't find it in him to answer. He could barely breathe, because all he could remember was Wo Fat's promise of a threat, the same one Rowan repeated ad nauseam to anyone who dared to put hands on her. Everything that happens to her will happen to you, ten fold.

Had he told them to rape Sato's wife because that had been done to… to… no he couldn't even think about it.

"Uh… I know you're probably busy so I'll be quick here, but I uh… I finally got permission to look into Rowan's financials. Specifically her bank account to see if there had been any activity."

"Okay? And? Did you find something?"

"Hell yes. It's been emptied. Everything went to VD Charities, after that it got closed down."

"What the hell is VD charities?" Steve snarled.

"Well… remember when Coughlin wanted Chin, and Rowan had said she took the money from Gabriel's off shore account?"

"Yes?"

"But the lawyer said that Gabriel transferred it to an exclusive underground banking ring, called the Vault?"

"Okay yes, what does that matter?"

"The Vault is an exclusive banking system in the criminal world. It's a money laundering ring, with onsite banks hidden around the world. You get in by invite only, Adam knew about it but he also knew that his father wasn't exclusive enough to get in, none of the Yakuza has been exclusive enough, which includes Oyabuns…"

"Kono get to the point!" Steven snapped and she sighed.

"The Vault, on transcripts, goes by many different names, which are set up by the person banking with them. Rowan's code for the Vault is VD Charities."

Steve felt the breath left his body. Rowan was banking with an illegal bank? Rowan was banking with money laundering ring. Fucking why? Well that explained why she wouldn't tell him what VD charities was. There was no way he would have let that continue if he knew about it. But now they had transferred out her money so she could use it and not set off any flags with him. What the hell was happening, didn't she want to be found?

"According to Adam, Wo Fat is with the Vault, he most likely invited her into it and she's been putting half her paycheques in for about eight months," she told him. "And the rest just got deposited."

"Great, so between the two of them they've got fucking millions."

"Most likely."

Fuck, they had enough between of them to be on the run for years. If he didn't find her before she got better enough to really travel he'd never fucking find them.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

*Trigger Warning – Sexual assault mentioned in this part too

By dinner Dōsan was ready to see them and very unimpressed. Like with Jian Hui, Steve went about tearing apart the back room of the small clinic looking for anything that might lead him to Rowan while Joe stood stoically by the doctor's desk. Both men watching him as he did so.

"Sorry," Joe said for the millionth time today. "We're…"

"Looking Wo Fat," he snapped. "Where is he?"

Dōsan was an older gentleman. He looked like he had been doctoring for years, like he was born with a stethoscope in his hand. His wrinkled tan face still managed to convey a sense of confusion as he squinted at Steve with narrowed brown eyes.

"I don't know."

"When was the last time you saw him?" Joe asked.

"Are you two law enforcement?" he asked.

"We are," Steve snapped just as Joe said: "Naval intelligence and he's Five-0."

Dōsan blinked his eyes clearly not impressed by their credentials.

Steve was about ready to start getting physical with this man when Joe stepped forward taking the reins for him. "We're looking for a woman we think he had with him… we think you might have treated her…"

"Ah, you mean that poor little girl he brought to me so broken we thought she wasn't going to make it through the night?" he asked. "Pity what they did to her. Broke more than bones on that girl. I didn't get to spend much time with her but I could tell… he saw a difference in her and it affected him. I have never seen that man look so upset before."

Hearing it confirmed by her doctors hit him like a freight train. He had been operating under the assumption that Wo Fat's response was directly proportional to how bad Rowan had been when Wo Fat had found her, but he was hoping that maybe the man had just overreacted. Like Steve, Wo Fat was prone to overreacting when it came to Rowan.

"It was… it was that bad?" Steve found himself asking.

Dōsan seemed to think that over a second before saying: "Yes… you could say that. We were pretty surprised that she was alive. Even more surprised when she managed to roll in and out of consciousness, most people just stay out. We took it as a good sign, a sign she would eventually pull through."

Everything tightened in Steve's chest. He still couldn't quantify it, the pain she must have been in, must have endured. He was strong and he had barely been able to handle it, how had his girl managed to weather through it?

"Would she have been hard to move?"

Dōsan nodded again. "She had badly fracture ribs which were giving her trouble breathing. We had to set her arm and put her shoulder back in place. The fractures in her skull were the worst but there was nothing to do about those except medicate her. We gave him enough pain meds to knock out a horse for a year, we figured it would be enough to keep her under."

Steve was suddenly doubled over, unable to breathe himself, thinking about her injuries, about her being in so much pain they just wanted her to be asleep for it all.

Dōsan watched him calmly before saying: "Ah so you're her Steven, then. Every time she opened her eyes, she'd ask for you."

The guilt hit him even harder than before. She wanted him, she wanted him and he wasn't there. God, he was never going to forgive himself. He'd never forgive Wo Fat for keeping her from him.

As Steve struggled to regain control of his raging emotions, Joe was the one who asked: "Why did you want her under?"

"The pain made her cry, he couldn't stomach her sounds. None of us could," Dōsan answered and a strangled sort of noise escaped Steve. This was getting to be too much for him. He couldn't handle thinking about Rowan in that much distress, it filled him with this longing to wrap her up and take it all from her which he couldn't do with her missing like this. "And despite our warnings he was adamant on moving her. Seemed to think her in some kind of danger. Was practically frantic to get her out of Japan."

Steve's eyes whipped up. Out of Japan, not Tokyo, out of Japan. They had jumped countries? Already?

"Did he tell you where he was going?" Steve asked but Dōsan just shook his head.

"All I know is she woke up, coherent enough for them to have a conversation, and then all of sudden he wanted her set up to move even though we didn't want him to. Moved her out that night."

Of course he didn't say anything to the doctor. Of course it wouldn't be that easy for him. He swallowed down a lump of bile and asked: "Did he ask you to do anything else? Anything out of the ordinary?"

When Dōsan shook his head Steve turned his pained eyes to Joe who understood what it was that Steve was too afraid to ask.

"We heard what happened to Riku Sato's family and knowing how Wo Fat is with Rowan…"

"Ah that," Dōsan said. "Shame really. I knew the Sato family well, was his personal doctor since he was a child, same as his children. Also knew the Fat's once upon a time. Riku should have never played with fire…"

"Yes but Wo Fat is very particular with his vengeances when it comes to Rowan, and he did something very out of character to Sato's wife so we were wondering…"

"He did ask me to do a rape kit on your girl," he answered and Steve sucked in his breath not sure that he could handle this answer. "There was evidence of sexual activity…."

Everything went static then and there. He was right he couldn't handle the answer. He flew out of that little doctor's office and out to the street. He couldn't keep it in, that roiling ball of anxiety and guilt living in his stomach had had enough. It ejected everything out of him, and that was where Joe found him. Hunched over an alleyway's garbage can heaving his guts out.

Joe absently pet his back while he got the rest of it out and when he was done, Joe calmly asked: "Son… when was the last time you and Rowan… had sex?"

Steve whirled onto his mentor. How could he ask him that? "Are you fucking kidding me right now, that man up there just confirmed that she had…"

"Son, answer the question," Joe snapped interrupting him

Steve sighed in a frustrated way before rolling his eyes and saying: "I don't know… uh… it had been a while… because you know the wedding and the arguing… wait, no, no, no she got me away for a quicky at the wedding."

"Alright, that's good then," Joe said and Steve scowled at him.

"How is that good?"

"Because he said what he detected was nothing he'd estimate as recent or quantify as assault."

Steve straightened to turn to him. "What?"

"I think the sexual activity he detected was probably from her last romp with you," Joe explained. Okay that made him feel a bit better but it also felt a little bit like Joe was pulling something out of the air to calm Steven down.

"Then why do that to Sato?"

"Well, I guess I have a hunch. Just judging by what he's like. Wo Fat had a video, correct?" Joe asked and Steve nodded. "And he got here before you?" Steve nodded again. "Which means Wo Fat knew about the situation before you did."

Steve nodded again, that made sense. Wo Fat had tried to call him that was probably when he had found out about what happened, was probably trying to call Steve to get him to help. And Steve had hung up on him.

"So… and I'm just guessing here. Wo Fat went to Sato's to punish him for taking Rowan, but he probably didn't have the same kind of time Sato's people had with Rowan…"

"He had them rape his wife so he'd have to listen to her screams," Steve finished and Joe nodded. Wow. That was cruel. And so like Wo Fat.

"I mean we can't know for sure unless we find him and ask, so… you know…"

Steve nodded again. He had to get a grip on himself. This wasn't going to help him find Rowan.

"But I think I got a lead," Joe said. "Dōsan said that Wo Fat hadn't told him where he was going, but Rowan needed medical attention, and that she'd eventually have scars. Wo Fat was asking about getting those fixed for her, but Dōsan suggested getting her healthy first. He set her up for travelling, but only to be on the move for at least three days. He figured he was trying to get her out of Japan, but he couldn't have gone far, not in her state, so he'd probably choose somewhere close by. Somewhere to give her the medical attention she needs and not be asked a lot of questions."

"Just say what you're thinking."

"I think he took her to Switzerland."

Then that's where Steve would be going next.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve and Joe flew to Switzerland on the next flight out and on the plane they had narrowed down all the places Wo Fat could have possibly taken Rowan and prioritized which ones were more likely and which ones they would hit first. Luckily for them, while they were flying, Five-0 had pulled an all nighter and complied a short list of hospitals that had strange practices or exclusive clientele.

When they landed everything was closed so they went to the closest and cheapest hotel talked game plans for the morning and then Joe went to his room and Steve stayed in his. But Steve couldn't sleep without Rowan, and he definitely couldn't sleep knowing Rowan was out there somewhere, in so much pain that she was crying when conscious.

It wasn't the moving shadows that alerted him to the intruder coming out of the washroom. It wasn't the creak of the floor board either. It was the scent. The smell of lilacs and Roses. Rowan's smell.

He thought it to be her and if not her Wo Fat, so when he turned his gun was drawn ready to lower it in case it was Rowan standing there… or leaning as he figured she probably wouldn't be able to stand on her own. He was not expecting to see a white plastic rabbit mask looming over him.

NA? Nameless Assassin? Why the hell was he here?

Steve almost asked him that, but when it became clear that Steve wasn't going to attack him, NA did. Ferociously. The first hit, a spinning kick, knocked the gun from his hand and jarred his wrist. The second hit, another kick, hit him straight in the chest and knocked Steve off of the bed.

He felt more than he heard NA coming towards him and that time Steve was ready. He lashed out, kicking back at NA, but the man jumped up onto the bed to avoid it, and when he came off it again, he slammed into Steve who had been trying to get up. His elbow connected with Steve's collar bone and sent him back to the ground with stars in his eyes.

"You should have stayed in Hawaii, ese."

As soon as he said it, Steve knew why NA was there. He was there to stop him from getting to Rowan but he wasn't about to let this man keep him away from her.

With a roar he managed to get up to his feet and tackle NA. He pinned him against the wall and got a good couple hits to his chest before, NA managed to block and then the two were locked in a grappling hold each struggling to get the upper hand.

But Steve was done with this, done with these games. He smashed his face into that white rabbit mask, probably doing more damage to the mask than NA, forced him forward so he could shove his knee into the man's chest and then threw him to the ground.

"Where is she?!" Steve shouted as he got on top of him. But NA wouldn't answer him.

So Steve punched him, fist straight to the mask. "TELL ME!"

His second punch hit NA straight in that stupid mask so hard that it fractured and for a second he saw a pair of liquid golden eyes he swear he had seen before somewhere but couldn't place where. From the hallway came a cry of his name, Joe was coming great, and NA decided not to play fair anymore.

He started first with punching Steve right in the throat, and once he was off him, he got to his feet quickly, reared back and kicked Steve so hard he flew through the hotel door and out into the hallway where Joe was waiting to bend over him to ask if he was okay. When both looked up NA was gone but Steve knew he was getting close.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve didn't sleep for the rest of the night. He couldn't. Wo Fat had sent someone to beat him up, to scare him off. That could only mean one this. He was getting close, he was on the right track. And NA had been with Rowan, otherwise he wouldn't have smelled Rowan on him.

He just had to get to Rowan before Wo Fat tried to move her again.

When Joe met him in the lobby, Steve was ready. He was ready to hit the hospital in Geneva that he was certain would be the best place to hide Rowan. He let Joe take care of the bill and as he did he got a call. No number, odd, but he assumed it would be Wo Fat, probably taunting him, probably about to try to lead him astray. But Steve wasn't going to let that happen.

"McGarrett," he answered in a clipped tone ready for an argument.

"Steven?"

He knew that voice. Oh god, he knew that voice. "Oh my god. Ro? Ro? Is that you, are you okay?"

"No, no, I'm okay."

"Good, good, baby… baby where are you? You gotta tell me where you are. Wo Fat… he's trying to keep you from me, did you know that he send NA last night to beat me up?"

Good, good, proof, and if she didn't believe him he could send her pictures of his face. "Yes… I heard…" wait, she had? "You uh… you need to stop, Steven."

"Stop," he echoed. "Rowan what do you mean I need to stop. He took you from me, he told me you were dead. I... for the last week thought I was never going to see you again, that our last conversation was going to be… And you're telling me you want me to stop looking for you?"

"Yes, I want you to stop."

"Why?!"

"Well… you picked Catherine…" Steve sucked in his breath dear god she knew about the engagement. Son of a bitch. "You kicked me out… you left me to those… animals…"

"NO… no I didn't know you were there, Rowan, I didn't know that… and…. Please… baby…"

"No."

"No? Rowan please, I didn't mean it. I know what you're thinking about how if I didn't mean it I wouldn't have done it but I was just so mad, I never would have… I never would have actually married her. Didn't you get my message baby? I've been calling, they'll explain. Just please, baby, I need you. I need you to come home, please I know you want me…"

"I don't want you," she suddenly snapped. "I don't want to go back. I want to stay here, with people who love me."

She didn't think she loved him. He had never told her and now she didn't know the truth. "But I do love you, I do. More than anything. I love you. Anything you want me to do I'll do it. I'll propose, I'll marry you, just please, please, I love you and I can't lose you…"

"Go away… Steven… just… go… go home…"

And then the call ended. Steve stood there, numb. Numb to it all. All of that worry and fear that he was too late to save her, that she had died, that she was too hurt to see or understand what Wo Fat was doing, he never once thought that Wo Fat would just tell her the truth.

That while she was in a basement getting tortured and beaten, he was actively dating someone else and was so seriously contemplating proposing to that someone else that he had bought a ring.

Of course she wouldn't want to come back to him. Steve hadn't gone into that building guns blazing and pulled her out. When Wo Fat called him for help he had hung up. Steve hadn't found her, he had ignored the pull of the void that had been so heavily attempting to warn him that she was in danger.

He didn't deserve to get her back. He wasn't going to get her back. And there wasn't anyone he could blame but himself.