Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: SURPRISE! Hello my wonderful readers. Because I love you guys so much, and to help season 7 go a little faster, I'm going to give you guys a bit of a Chrstimas Present. I will be running a 12 days of Christmas Marathon. So, this means that you guys will be getting 12 updates in a row (this is the first one) and a special Christmas Chapter on Christmas day! What do you guys think? Good?

Also! What do you think of Sin Nombre? Huh? Huh? He's going to be a lot of fun. For those of you who don't remember. Sin Nombre is NA, Wo Fat calls him Sin Nombre, but Rowan calls him NA. he was the one who got her out of the night club in Afghanistan, he was also the guy who shot up the NLM and he was the one who saved Kono and Adam in China. So yeah, he's been around a lot but now. For those of you who are annoyed about Steve not being around, I promise he will be back soon. As will the other Five-0's. Just bear with me. Don't forget to leave me a review, and I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Chapter 219

Wo Fat woke up to Rowan's howling and practically fell out of his bed to get to her. By the time he got out into the main area Sin Nombre was coming out of his room gun in hand, ready to attack whatever it was, but Wo Fat had a feeling what had Rowan up that night.

The door to her own room opened, her eyes wide and he swore he could hear some kind of electric crackle. She went straight to him.

"There's three bodies in suitcases," she cried frantically. "Three bodies, guns and vampires at a blood bank and… and… Steve's going to get stabbed by Dr. Frankenstein!"

He had realized her visions were coming back a few nights ago, had realized that her pain meds had been keeping them at bay but her last few nightmares, which he had sufficiently kept from Sin Nombre as she was in Wo's bed when she had them, had been very… psychic.

With her meds dwindling, they must have officially broken through. He had hoped that being away from Hawaii and Steve's cases would mean she wouldn't have them anymore but… he had been wrong.

"What is she talking about?" Sin Nombre asked, putting his gun in his waiste band but Wo Fat ignored him.

Instead he took a hold of Rowan's face and looked her carefully in the eye, they were foggy, and looking through him like he wasn't there, like she was still stuck in the dream. "Rowan, breathe, I need you to snap out of it."

"Three bodies. So many pieces," she said instead. "He's going to stab him, GET OFF HIM!"

That scream came with a kind of jolt, an electric current that ran up his arms. Wo Fat yelped and let her go and Rowan plummeted to the ground. Fuck he had forgotten visions came with electropulses.

Sin Nombre dropped to his knees beside her. "Hey, hey, kid, snap out of it," he said shaking her a little bit and Rowan turned to him her eyes narrowed at him. Great she had woken up.

She blinked her eyes at him and then turned up to Wo Fat. "I need to warn them."

Wo Fat sighed heavily, his eyes turning heavenward. "Rowan don't be ridiculous, they don't need you…"

"Steve's going to get stabbed. Soon. Someone needs to warn him."

"How does she know Steve's going to get stabbed?" Sin Nombre asked.

Yeah Wo Fat didn't want to get into that right now. "Kay, look, I'll deal with it, go back to bed."

"Girlie just woke up screaming about bodies in suitcases, and now she's talking about McGarrett getting stabbed. That's not normal. Someone needs to tell me what's going on."

"No, we don't," Wo Fat answered before Rowan could say anything about being psychic. He offered her a hand and pulled her up. "We're going back to bed."

Rowan half stuttered out a but to stop him, but Wo Fat wasn't listening to either of them anymore. He shoved her back into the room, shut the door and then ushered her towards the bed.

"Would you feel better if I stay?"

"No," Rowan growled. "I'd feel better if you let me call Steve."

Wo Fat sighed. "Why? Why does he deserve your saving, Rowan? He never listened to your visions before why would he listen to them now?"

Rowan hung her head and another stab of guilt hit his already guilt-ridden heart. "I have to at least try."

No she didn't but whatever. "Fine, you can try calling him in the morning. See if he'll listen to you. Though to be honest, he'll probably just track your phone to get me arrested, but alright."

Rowan sighed. "What about Sandy, what if we booted Sandy back up, just to track them? Then there's no chance of him tracking and arresting you."

It was a good idea but he acted like it wasn't. He acted like it was a big chore instead. "If that would make you feel better, sure, but I would rather not pay to track Steven. You know how I feel about him being deserving our time or care."

"Everyone but Steve then. That's a good compromise?"

He was surprised she even offered, considering how panicked she was about him being stabbed. But it was an option he was okay with so he grabbed onto it before she could chance his mind.

"Whatever you say my imouto." He went to leave but Rowan stopped him.

"Uhm… Oz… I… I lied," she said and he turned back to her a narrowed look about him.

"About what?"

"I would feel better if you stayed," she said.

Sighing Wo Fat returned to the bed and got into on the other side. "This is the last night I'll stay with you," he said to her, knowing full well that he was lying. Rowan just smiled at him, her eyes closing, proving just how tired she was. He watched her go to sleep. It was a gamble letting her call Steve, but he had a feeling that Rowan wouldn't be able to talk to him, and if she did, he wouldn't listen.

Sin Nombre on the other hand, was going to ask a lot of questions in the morning. He was going to be harder to deflect, and Wo Fat really didn't want to have to tell the man his sister was psychic. He'd think of something though. He always did.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

They didn't head to the next city until Rowan's arm was healed and the cast was off. Once her arm was good and free Wo Fat had sat her down and asked where she wanted to go next. The answer had come out of her before he even finished the question.

Venice.

And just like that it was set. Wo Fat put Rowan on a train and four hours later they were in Venice. He paid a crap ton of money to get them a tri-roomed room at the Hotel Danieli and he gave Rowan the master suite.

Rowan had apparently bought two big suitcases in Paris, which meant she was carting her life around in those. She had one for clothes and shoes, and the other for everything else. That wasn't including the guitar. It was going to get hard and very expensive having to take her places outside of Europe. Just in baggage fees alone.

For the first day they just stayed in the hotel. Rowan wanted to wander a bit, get her bearings, wanted to look around and to see what tourist stuff she wanted to do. And of course, as her bodyguard, Sin Nombre had to go with her. That walk ended up being forty-five minutes long and she came back with a stack of pamphlets. When they came back, she brought back food for Wo Fat, knowing exactly what kind of pasta he wanted and then sat herself down in the middle of their living area and unpacked her pamphlets and began to look through them.

Sin Nombre went for the minibar and then joined Wo Fat on the couch watching as Rowan began separating them into piles. There were a lot of questions Sin Nombre wanted to ask, but he wasn't sure how to go about them. Like her dreams and how she seemed to have nightmares about her friends back in Hawaii on the regular. Wo Fat always brushed them off but according to what he had seen on the app they had be coming true. How the hell was that possible?

But he didn't know how to broach the subject, so he figured he'd get Rowan alone at one point and ask her. That was not that time, though, so he went with a safer question.

"What is she doing?"

"She's sorting. She'll have three piles. Absolutely. Absolutely not. And maybe," Wo Fat said. "She did this in Paris too. She takes her touristing very seriously."

"Kay that's very organized of her," Sin Nombre said. "But uh… there seems to be 5 piles."

Wo Fat turned back to Rowan a confused look on his face and in that pause Rowan absently said: "I'm making two extra piles. Things I certainly wanna do with NA and things I certainly wanna do with Oz."

"Who the hell is Oz?" Sin Nombre snapped. "No one told me about a third person. I'm not babysitting two people, Fat."

"I'm Oz," Wo said just as Rowan said: "Wo's Oz."

"Oh…" "Yeah she has a nickname for everyone."

"It's true I do."

Sin Nombre visibly relaxed, leaning back into the couch. "Well… I'm pretty sure everything we're doing is going to be a certainly do with NA so I don't know why you're making a pile for me."

Rowan seemed to think it over before saying: "Also true," and taking a pile and dropping it onto a different one, probably her absolutely pile.

"What do we have for tomorrow?"

"Depends, you free Wo?" she asked turning around to face him with those wide hopeful blue eyes.

Wo Fat shook his head. "Got a meeting in the morning kid, not sure how long it'll go," he said. Rowan turned back away from them to hide the disappointment on her face. "But I've got you for dinner. I have reservations and an opera."

"Really?!" Rowan cried turned towards him once more, suddenly much more excited. "Which one."

"A special request," Wo Fat said. "I've booked the whole theater."

Holy shit, this man was balling out for this girl. He was really taking the keep her happy at all costs condition seriously, too bad he wasn't taking the within reason part as seriously.

Rowan's eyes narrowed at him. "You didn't have to do that."

Wo Fat stood and stooped over her to pinch the tip of her chin in what had to be a loving way. "Anything for my imouto," he said softly before straightening. "You should get your rest soon. I'll see you in the morning before I leave."

"Okay, I'll go to bed soon I promise," she said though both of them knew that wasn't true, because as soon as she fell asleep, she was going to have nightmares and probably wake the both of them up with them. Sin Nombre continued to drink from his little bottle of tequila. He had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be a very long, very annoying day for him.

In his pocket his phone went off and Sin Nombre picked it up. Just a single text.

You'll need a suit for tomorrow. Tailor will see you while her and I are at dinner.

And then an address was posted at the bottom. Sin Nombre scowled. Yeah. Annoying.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan had tried her very hardest not to annoy NA, but she had no idea that he didn't like boats and therefore, he'd be upset that she had booked nothing but boat tours for the day. One to Murano, the other to Burano.

He went with her and almost died of sea-sickness. The only reason she wasn't dying was cause she had purposely bought a Gravol and taken like three, and put a bunch in her pocket for if she got sick later. She offered them to NA but he turned her down. That meant while she watched a glass blowing demonstration he had thrown up in the washroom and drank down fizzier then usual ginger ale. He calmed down a bit once she was shopping and she picked a beautiful glass blown picture frame with fish floating around for Nahele, and a few glass blown charms for herself, Grace and Kono.

The boat ride to Burano sat with him a bit better. They had gotten fish and chips, NA had the fish and she had the chips. He felt a bit better after food which meant Rowan got to wander around and shop. She bought a lace bookmark for herself and a fancy lacy hanky for Wo Fat's suit pockets.

The boat ride back to main land Venice, however, was not as good as the ride to Burano. In fact Rowan had to hold onto NA's leather jacket as he threw up over the side, she pet him on the back and held his Styrofoam cup of water so he could take a sip between hurling.

Good thing the last stop put them out right in front of their hotel cause after that NA was out of commission. Rowan had busied herself in picking a picture of her and Nahele and putting it in the frame while she waited for Wo Fat to get back.

When he did, he had been surprised to find her alone in their living room area. And even more surprised to hear that not only was NA out of commission but it was a boat ride that did it. And here he was thinking that NA had no weaknesses.

But Wo Fat turning up meant it was time to go to dinner, which they did almost immediately, which was just dinner in the hotel. Nothing too fancy, but nothing that needed reservations anyway. After Dinner, Wo Fat took her back up to their hotel room and told her to get ready for their opera at the Gran Teatro la Fenice. Getting into her room she found a beautiful dress waiting for her. Damn he knew how to pick out clothes for her.

He put her in a deep purple, A-line, V-neck, long sleeved, floor length Chiffon and lace evening dress. The sleeves were made of nothing but sheer fabric, elbow length with lace accents, there was a crystal studded accent piece at the waist and this beautiful soft flowing fabric made up the skirt. With it came a silver fox stole to wrap around herself, despite it being October and warm in Venice. She had never felt more fancy in her life, except her hair and makeup didn't match the caliber of the dress.

She had said as much to Wo Fat, but he had waved it off and told her that he had that sorted for her all she had to do was trust him.

So she had put on the matching shoes, tucked his lace hanky into his breast pocket to decorate his black tuxedo and then they were heading out to the Gran Teatro la Fenice, which was a fifteen minute walk away. The sun had already descended, NA had disappeared while they were out, but she figured the man could handle himself and with Wo Fat walking beside her, with her on his arm, there was no way for anything to have happened to Rowan. They walked in amicable silence, Rowan let Wo Fat lead the way, trusting that he knew where they were going.

"You know… this theater has burned down three times," Wo Fat said softly as they walked the cobblestone streets together. The dress had come with flats, she figured so she wouldn't be too tall for him. "They named it the Fenice for this theater has been built in the same place every time as if rising from the ashes."

"That's a pretty story," Rowan said.

"It's not a story, it's all fact, I was in Venice for the third fire. I remember thinking it a waste of something beautiful," he said bringing her to the door of the grand theater, ever the nerd Rowan's throat clogged a bit in her excitement ready to be enthralled by the architecture and the history, but it wasn't until she was inside that she noted that no one else was there with them.

"Where is everyone?"

"Don't worry about that," he said taking her by the shoulders and smiling at her. "It's your time to rise from the ashes okay?"

"What?"

"Just go with that lady she's going to fix you up," he said and then pushed her towards a woman, who pulled her quickly into the backstage area where she went to work on her face and someone else fixed up her hair.

"Do either of you know what's going on?" she had asked but they had shushed her and then shoved her out into a darkened corridor. Rowan bounced a bit where she stood, she knew a stage when she felt one, but why was she on a stage. From the other side of the curtain came a deep booming voice.

"Gentleman and… Gentleman… for a limited time, one-time-only event, please welcome the esteemed soloist… Rowan Pierce."

And then the curtains pulled away and that spotlight was on her. But even through that spot light she could see Wo Fat and NA up in the balcony clapping and cheering for her.

She wasn't going to watch an opera she was the opera.

"For godsake Wo, I don't sing opera," she called to him. "And why are you all the way up there?"

"Best acoustics and view in the house!" he called back. "And we don't care what you sing. It's your concert sing whatever you want."

"OH hit me up with some Country!" NA had shouted back which earned him a smack from Wo Fat.

"Anything but Country!" he shouted over NA's disappointed groaned. Rowan smiled but the gesture didn't last long. She didn't want to sing she hadn't been able to sing a note since she had left Steven or aptly… since he had decided to end things with her to date Catherine.

She glanced down to the orchestra pit and found real live actual people standing there as if awaiting her cue. Rowan stepped away from the limelight and towards them.

"Hi… uh… what music did he give you?" she asked the conductor and he produced a pages, clearly photo copies of her song books.

He began to list out songs. "I've got… Rewrite the Stars, Fall on Me, Salute, Bad Liar, Holiday…" those were all love songs, or happy songs, and Rowan didn't feel like any of those things, nor did she want to write a song that reminded her of Steven… which was all her songs. "Uh… Never Enough."

"Oh… that one!" Rowan said quickly. Yes, it reminded her of Steven, but it was the most operatic one she had written, for a musical she and her brother Trevor had been writing back in her world. He would have loved to see her sing it here, even if it wasn't a true opera. And while it reminded her of Steven, it wasn't really about him. She could get through that one, right?

The music started, Rowan took her place center stage, and Wo Fat and NA took their seats. When the right moment hit, Rowan opened her mouth and let the words surround her.

I'm trying to hold my breath.

She paused to dramatically take a breath as part of the song. She had forgotten how much she liked to sing, how it made her feel. And it was ten times more exhilarating being up on a major stage like this one, even if she was singing just to her brother and bodyguard.

Let it stay this way. Can't let this moment end. You set off a dream in me. Getting louder now. Can you hear it echoing? Take my hand. Will you share this with me? 'Cause darling without you… All the shine of a thousand spotlights. All the stars we steal from the night sky, will never be enough, Never be enough…

Rowan let the music take her away all the way through the crescendos and her high noted solo. When she finished breathless and panting, she was grinning, ear to ear. Her first, real genuine smile since she and Steve had ended things. Wo Fat and NA were in the balcony cheering and clapping for her and she finally noticed the cameras filming her at all angles. She wasn't certain why Wo Fat had wanted to make this a video but she was glad he did.

She couldn't wait to see it. Couldn't wait to show Nahele. Couldn't wait to go back to her hotel and start playing again.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Sin Nombre was exhausted. Between that bitch taking him on not one but three separate boat rides, and the late night opera, he just wanted to curl up and sleep, but Rowan had other ideas. She had gotten back from the Gran Teatro la Fenice pulled out that guitar and hadn't stopped playing since. This had been going on for hours and poor Sin Nombre couldn't fucking sleep with all that soft twanging. How the hell was Wo Fat not doing something about it by now?

The sun started peaking up out of the water when Sin Nombre lost it. He left his bed, stormed across the hallway to her room and threw open the door.

"Okay, you need to stop. It's four in the morning again…"

She looked up to him tears in her eyes, tears hitting her guitar, a book in front of her, scribbled to all hell

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked. "We went to bed and you were smiling and happy what the hell brought you back down again…"

He caught sight of the phone, the phone with the picture of Steven and her on it and he snatched it away before she could stop him. "Why the hell would you look at this if it does… this… to you?"

"Because this is my process," Rowan snapped reaching for the phone that he kept out of her reach. "In order to write it I need to feel it."

"Okay, but why do you need to feel it that much? Can't you feel it a little? And can't you feel it at a decent hour of the day?"

Rowan sat back and shrugged. "I unno, I didn't feel like doing it before, it all came back tonight."

Yeah because of the concert Wo Fat had made her put on. Great. Still, despite being cranky he found himself craning to read the book upside down. She watched him for a minute before asking: "Would you like to hear what I have so far?"

Her scribbles looked unintelligible and he couldn't help but be curious. So he sat down on the edge of the bed with a casual shrug and said: "Sure."

Rowan smiled and played out what he was certain was the opening chords to a sort of rock ballard and then she started singing.

Here comes the rain again, falling from the stars. Drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are. As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost. Wake me up when September ends.

She finished, put the guitar down and then just stared at him. "So uhm… that's the chorus…"

"It's pretty good," Sin Nombre whispered. "Rock ballad, sounds nice… good thing it's not September… if you don't mind me asking… what does uh…"

"Well, beginning September would have been when I first called Nahele and I realized that Steve had… uh… replaced me in all aspects… it kind hit me that I would probably never end up going back there…"

"Fuck McGarrett did a number on you, didn't he?"

Rowan lowered her eyes from him. "I guess… I unno… I try not to think about it…"

"What so great about him anyway? From what I saw the man was pretty useless," he said leaning back on her bed and staring up at her with a smile.

Rowan his that half grin. "He wasn't all useless."

"Rowan, that man let you go to Afghanistan. He let you go on an active op. You. How does that happen Rowan? How does a man who claims to love you, let you go anywhere near a terrorist operation?"

"He never said he loved me…"

"He never said he loved you? ROWAN?" he cried. "Why were you with him?"

"Look… Afghanistan was messed up. He went to help his ex find some boy and he got caught by insurgents and they beat him really badly and were going to cut his head off and I went to help get him out but I stowed away on a plane to do that and they were going to arrest me and send me to military jail if I didn't…"

"That man never said he loved you but you went into an active warzone to save him?" Sin Nombre asked her clearly not understand what she was trying to say. "That boy up and used you…"

"No, he didn't…"

"Well it wasn't like he was in that building trying to get you out."

"He was injured he couldn't come…" she said.

"That boy was always running around like a chicken with his head cut off," Sin Nombre told her. "Like all the time. How about when you got sent to Colombia? That boy had a damn near heart attack. But he wasn't the one who got you out, was he? See, to me, if you love someone, laws shouldn't matter, protecting them, keeping them safe…"

"But Steve's not a criminal…" "No, Steven McGarrett just didn't love you. Not right anyway."

He turned back to her to find her looking at her hands, twisting her fingers about. He pegged it for a nervous thing before, but now he knew it as something else, it was what she did when she was upset.

"Hey, hey," he said softy. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset you it's just that… Look, that man, he didn't deserve you, you know?"

"I know… but I… I loved him, you know?"

"Well that's stupid," Sin Nombre said. "Cause he ain't worth a dime of your time, you know? And that girl he's with now. She's a straight up, droopy eyed dog. Like he downgraded… hard."

A smile lit up on Rowan's face before it fell. "How would you know?"

"I stole your shit out of his house, I saw things I didn't need to see," he said. "And that bitch was a dog. I don't know why he's slumming with that shit when you are the prettiest motherfucker around. You know? Like he had you, and mami best believe he ain't gonna get anything better than you."

"Yeah?"

"Hell yeah! You know how many dudes would kill for a girl as loyal and gutsy as you?" he asked and that smile got a fraction wider. "Steven McGarrett is a dumb ass. And he's gonna rue the day he dropped you, you know? He's gonna rue it so hard."

He leaned back again, happy that he could have put a smile on Rowan face. And actually meaning it. He had always found Rowan attractive, physically, it was the personality he couldn't stand. That upbeat chatty hyperness that annoyed him, but she was growing on him now, endearing herself to him and that was worrying to him. Especially since he promised, after his last loss, that he wasn't going to ever get attached to another person again.

The problem was, Rowan had other ideas. One minute they were just smiling at one another and the next she was on top of him, kissing him, her hands wandering under his shirt. That night, condition number two was broken and he didn't feel a single shred of guilt over it.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Either she was getting better at being emotionally detached, or she was just getting better at pretending she was. Either way, when Rowan woke up that morning, she was comfy and cozy, and only half aware that it wasn't Steven curled up behind her, holding her to his chest. It was a position that so similarly mirrored her mornings with Steven that her chest tightened a little more. Well… so much for being emotionally detached.

"I can hear your brain whirling."

Rowan scowled into the pillow she was holding. "Nonsense, you're not that light of a sleeper."

His nose pressed a little closer to her ear, a motion Steve used to do. If he pressed a kiss to that spot behind her ear she'd loose it. Instead he rolled away from her.

"Yes I am, so what are you thinking about?"

"My brother's gonna kill you," she sang in a soft sing song voice, rolling towards him.

"Oh you know about that huh?"

"I know about a lot of things," she said. "Like Riku Sato's family being murdered… about Goro Shioma being put in Sato's place… about you beating the crap out of Gabriel again… I hope you killed him this time…"

But nothing about Steven clearly, and he wasn't supposed to talk to her about that. "I tried, but your uh… Five-0 friends snitched on me."

"Oh… sorry about that?"

"Wait is that Noshimuri boy Five-0? I was never sure…"

"No, he's just married to one. Why? Was he the one who snitched?"

"Well he was the only one on there so probably the only one who knew so…" "Damn, he's turning into a straight up Daniel Williams, and I was so good to him you know? You'd think he'd show some kind of respect."

NA shook his head. "People these days, so ungrateful."

Rowan smiled again. He looked nice in the morning sun. "You locked the door, right?" she asked him. "Cause Wo likes to walk in unannounced."

Nope, he hadn't, she could tell by the way his eyes bugged out. He slipped out of the bed easily, the sheet still wrapped around him as he flicked that lock shut and then jumped back in bed.

"Done, next we just gotta sneak me out of here."

"Should be easy he's got a meeting today," Rowan said with a shrug. "I think we have a bigger problem…"

He turned those liquid gold eyes to her, honestly with the sun hitting them they looked less like that normal hardened brown, and more like pools of warm honey. "And what's that, mami?"

"I need to call you something other than NA," she said. "So you gotta tell me your name."

"Oh I do, do I? Why? What does that matter, NA is working so far?"

"But will it work in bed?" she asked and he turned that smile onto her.

"That implies we're doing this again, which I wouldn't suggest," he said. "I shouldn't fuck where I work, or fuck my work, you know what I mean."

"Well, I mean, I wouldn't mind, we don't have to like… marry each other, but fucking you is better than you having to screen potential partners."

"Okay fair," he said. "But do you really need a name, I mean, you called me Steven like eight times last night."

"Damn did I?" she asked him and he just smiled lazily at her as if it didn't matter. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I get it, I've been there," he said.

"Yeah? What was her name?"

At that his eyes opened again and like that those warm honey brown eyes turned into the dark brown she figured that she wasn't going to get a name, he wasn't going to tell her anything.

"Call me whatever you want," he said, rolling over and away from her. "Just not Steven."

Rowan rested her chin on his bare shoulder and waited for him to shrug her off but it never came. She thought about it a moment, thought about his signature mask and figured she could play off of that. "I could call you bunny," she said.

"Don't you fucking dare," he growled. "You can call me Conejo if you absolutely have to."

"That means rabbit, it's the same thing."

"It's Conejo or nothing," he warned.

"How about Conejito?" she asked.

NA rolled over again. "I said don't call me bunny!"

"I didn't! I called you Conejito, you said Conejito or nothing!"

"That is bunny in Spanish and you know it, I said call me Rabbit. Conejo. Say it with me," he ordered.

"I unno my Spanish isn't very good…"

"Mierda," he growled. He was half rolled over, glaring at her, a hand was coming up to grab her, hovering dangerously close to her side. "I know you know it. Now say it."

"Fine. Conej…ito," she spat out and that was it, he was half over his hands reaching for her causing her to squeal, but the name that came out wasn't his name, she called Steven's.

Luckily Conejo was too distracted by it, he was too busy dragging her back to him, back under him.

"Call me Steven, one more time woman, see what happens," he warned rolling her over and kissing her thoroughly. Unlike the time with Ares, this was easier to get lost in. It was easier to close her eyes and pretend that it was Steven in that bed with her, to press into the motion and just let Conejo take over. But it was harder to pretend that she was okay, when really, she wasn't anywhere near it.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steven McGarrett had made a business out of pretending.

He pretended that he didn't miss Nahele. He pretended that he didn't drive by Kong's house just to catch a glimpse and was horrified to find that Nahele actually looked good there in that giant mansion. Like he belonged.

He pretended that he wasn't shattered over Rowan Pierce. That he didn't miss her smile, or her kisses, or the way her hair got caught on everything he owned, or how she always hogged up his shower and washroom time, or how he had put on 5 pounds in pancakes alone cause she always made him breakfast.

But while he figured his friends thoroughly convinced that he was fine, he knew better. He wasn't. At all.

He lived, breathed and slept work. That was what was getting him through this. Work and that was it. He was the first to arrive and the last to leave, usually because Danny had come back to the Palace to drag him out.

That morning, Steve had gone in early despite there not being a case for him to have to go in for. He just wanted to be at work. He wanted to take the pictures of Rowan out of the drawers he hid them in and look at them. To sit at a desk covered in her so he could feel, just for a little moment, like she was still there.

But as he walked past the smart table it powered on, all on its own.

He had no idea what was happening because Sandy was down. There should be no reason for this to be happening unless the table was being hacked. But why would anyone do that, he didn't have any active cases, and Rowan had left him so why would she care what they were doing at work?

The pause was enough. In moments the screen came to life and a video was loaded up. The thumbnail was of Rowan. He went to the table, she looked to be in a nice dress, to have been done up beautifully. Her cast was off, her hair was up, and she was looking down so he couldn't see her face.

What was this?

He shouldn't have. He knew that, but he approached that table and assessed his options. This could be a virus, a way to get information. But that made no sense cause they were already into the mainframe. Why hack in just to give him a video?

Despite his better judgement he pressed play on it and suddenly she was looking up at him, her beautiful blue eyes freezing him in place. And then she was singing. It was a song he didn't recognize but he could tell she was in an opera house. Her voice was as beautiful as he remembered and that longing flew right back up in his throat because he knew he'd never be able to hear it in person again.

All the shine of a thousand spotlights. All the stars we steal from the night sky, will never be enough, never be enough. Towers of gold are still too little, these hands could hold the world but it'll, never be enough, never be enough

Steve hadn't realized he was crying until his tears were falling on the table. He'd have raged if he had anything to throw. It wasn't fair. That Wo Fat was giving her everything she wanted, that she could look so good and so happy up on that stage where she belonged. Why would she ever want to return to him when Wo Fat could do that for her?

When his friends found him an hour later, Steve was in his office, the video playing on his own computer, his head in his hands sobbing and unable to stop. And nothing they could say could soothe him.