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A/N: And here we are on day 2 of the 12 days of Christmas Marathon. How are you liking things? Are they getting a bit better? We saw a bit of Steve last chapter and I got another little surprise for you as well… BAM! We've got the other Five-0's appearing in this chapter. In fact this chapter is ALL about them. We get to see what's going on with all of them. From here on in it's going to alternate between the two groups, but now that we're in the episode portions we're going to see more of Steve's group. That means every other chapter (some times more) will be all about Steve and what's going on with his cases and all that jazz. So I hope that pleases a few people. Don't forget to leave me a review and I will see you guys tomorrow!
Chapter 220
He had gotten the call right after he got out of the shower. No number. Just a simple Private caller. No area code, nothing. The kind of call he got from Rowan's app, except it used to say her name.
Still he had picked it up, answered in his usual way and then waited. All he got was silence. But when he asked if it was Rowan, the call ended.
It wasn't the first call like that, he doubted it would be the last either.
At first he hadn't wanted to tell anyone about it, but Steve couldn't hold it in. He wanted someone to know that he was getting mysterious phone calls from someone who was probably Rowan and he wanted to know what that meant. She had told him to leave, why was she calling him now? Did she… did she miss him?
Was that why she had sent him a picture of her in Paris?
Cause if that was why, she should have made it easier for him to find her after.
He had told Danny originally when they first got out of the car, that he thought that the calls he was getting were from Rowan, but that had gotten derailed almost immediately as the walk had proven to be a long one and well, everyone knew how Danny liked to freak out.
"What makes you think it was Rowan?" Danny asked him once he was done his freak out over the severity of the case being proportional to how far you have to walk to it, and how he was going to miss Halloween with Charlie.
He had changed the topic, Steve figured, because he realized that Steve was going to miss out on having his first Halloween with Nahele who would have probably ditched trick or treating for parties but he wouldn't have cared. Steve was just grateful for the conversation change.
"Because it was no number. Like her app," Steve said. "Plus… I keep getting calls like that… all at odd hours. Like they're from someone… say… 11 hours ahead of us."
"You alerted Interpol and they combed Paris, Steve, they couldn't find her."
Yes, Steve knew that. Didn't mean they hadn't missed her. Wo Fat was a master at staying under the radar.
"Okay, well what if it was Doris, or Catherine."
"I don't know, maybe," Steve said. "But those would have been satellite phone calls, those look different. It doesn't matter, I can't trace the call anyway, so there's not much I can do to figure out where she is."
The conversation ended there, thankfully, cause he really didn't want Danny to read into comment, to announce to the world that maybe Steve just wanted the calls to be from Rowan because he wanted her to want to come back to him. But the conversation ended because the call for one suitcase filled with body parts had become three suitcases and he was forced to begrudgingly admit to Danny that his theory about the farther you walk the worse the case is, was right.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Every year on Halloween, Jerry went to the Blood bank off of Dillingham to donate blood. He always did so dressed as Dracula because I thought it was hilarious play on Dracula's core theme. That instead of sucking blood he was giving it. He thought it was funny and he knew that this was a joke that Rowan would have appreciated, But with the pretty and unimpressed nurse that he wanted to impress and possibly get the number off of, completely unimpressed by the witty play on the costume, he had never wished for Rowan more.
She could have made him look cool. She could have given him lines to play, but now Rowan was gone and no one could get a hold of her. He got that McGarrett and her were done, but he didn't think she'd cut everyone out of her life. It was a little hurtful that she had done that.
But at that moment, his hand was hurting him more.
"I'm losing the sensation in my hand," Jerry said to the cute nurse. He wanted to seem a little more manly. He was dressed as Vlad the Impaler after all, the actual reference for Dracula. But she ignored him and he was worried. "That's normal right?"
She turned a dry glare to him and he tried to calm down. "I'm sure you know what you're doing," he said quickly which earned him an even dryer glare. Oh that was a misstep. That was a bad thing to say. "Of course you do," he said to mollify her and while she went back to her job he could tell she was mad. He probably should have shut up but: "If blood doesn't get to my fingers, it could turn them gangrenous, right?" was coming out of his mouth before he could stop himself. That didn't go so well for him either.
He lowered his eyes and said: "I'm just going to let you continue…" and was cut off by the sound of… gunshots?
What the hell? Both of them jumped up and pressed themselves to the wall. He was going to say something amazing, like he was with Five-0 and therefore would be able to get her help but he was interrupted by a computerized voice out in the lobby.
Welcome to the Sanctuary network. Please wait while I analyze situation.
Jerry blinked his eyes had he heard what he thought he had heard?
"What was that?" the cute nurse hissed.
"That's not right, she's not supposed to be running," he said fishing his phone out of his pocket. The screen was just plain red. "Oh Geeze. It's never done that before."
"What is wrong with your phone?" the nurse asked but Jerry didn't have time to answer.
"Okay… uh…" he said trying to remember what Rowan's codes were. "Uh… Sandy… if you're there, can you put me in touch with Five-0?"
That is an unrecognizable command. If you are attempting to contact someone, please tell me who.
"Oh uh…" he said, who should he call? Who did he want rushing to his rescue? "Call Steve."
That command is not recognized.
"Then call Chin?"
Command not recognized.
"Danny?"
The command is not recognized.
He needed a codename. Clearly. His was Elvis, he knew that. But he couldn't remember anyone else's code names… the panic of the situation was really getting to him.
"Oh, Kono… oh… no Codename Kickass, video call Codename Kickass."
Connecting you to… Codename Kickass.
Luckily Kono picked up on the first ring, he had never been so happy to see her.
"Hey Jerry. Great costume." She said with a grin. "Mind if I call you back? I'm in the middle of something."
"Yeah, you and me both!" he whispered. "I'm at the Hawaiian United Blood Bank on Dillingham."
"Of course you are. I'm sure they love the costume," she said. Yeah it did not go over well but that was least of his worries at this point.
"No, listen. There's something going down," he tried to tell her only to be stopped silent by the sound of more gunshots. He glanced to the door, ready to throw himself against it if someone tried to open it. "You hear that?"
"Is that what I thought it was?"
"Yeah. Its bullets hitting wood and glass and metal. Hopefully not people, but I don't know. Some guys just stormed in here and took over the place. And that's not all that's here," he said. Just as Sandy said: Three Armed Assailants from Local Samoan gang. Low level thugs with minimal aspirations. Good for grunt work, and as patsies and enforcement.
"Is that Sandy?"
"Yeah! And she's tricked out my phone, it's all red right now."
Outside the room came the sound of feet against the floor. Someone was coming towards them. They all went quiet, Kono included. Everyone except Sandy.
You have entered the vicinity of an ally of Professional with the intent to harm either by accident or on purpose. If harm is to come to Codename Elvis this network is authorized to terminate all involved. Choose next steps wisely.
There was a beat of silence, the sound of scuffling and then silence hit the room, but Jerry dared not move.
"Okay, we'll it sounds like that did the trick, but hang on tight, Jerry, we're on the way," Kono said and then hung up the phone. But Jerry wasn't worried, Sandy had scared them off, he knew it. He smiled down to the red screened phone in his hand.
"Wow… thanks for the service, Sandy."
My Pleasure, Codename Elvis. I have detected that emergency services are on their way, making any further activation unnecessary. It's time to go night, night. Sweet Dreams.
And just like that she powered down and his phone went back to normal. But Jerry couldn't help but wonder if he could use it to get a hold of Rowan… since clearly… she still cared.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Danny had gotten a call from Rachel. Another frantic one. This time about Grace. She had lied about where she was and as it turned out she was at some party in the middle of nowhere. Danny, while panicked, promised Rachel he would go get their wayward daughter. He hadn't wanted to leave Steve, not when he was clearly getting delusional over some mysterious phone calls. Though if it was Rowan calling him, that girl had some fucking nerve. Making Steve go through all of that, telling him to leave, and then calling and hanging up.
Fucking hell, make up your damn mind Rowan!
And why hadn't she at least called one of them to check if they were okay after her faked death. He thought she'd at least call Kono but she hadn't. That was bullshit.
Danny had gotten to the party and found Grace waiting for him outside. He was surprised, but the second she saw his Camaro she scowled at him and stalked to the car. Well… at least he didn't have to go into the party to drag her out… that would have been… worse.
But Grace had been giving him the silent treatment since they had started driving back home. She was mad and he got that, but she was just a little girl, she had all her life to grow up and go to parties like that one.
"You know, Grace, um, I know that you think you're are mature enough…"
"Auntie Ro would have understood," she interrupted and his heart nearly stopped. Because she was right, but her Auntie Ro also would have been at that party somehow supervising without her knowing. And he didn't know how to argue with that.
"Well, your Auntie Ro had a very messed up childhood where her parents basically let her do whatever she wanted and as you can see it turned her into a complete and utter…"
"Don't you dare call her a psychopath," Grace warned. "Auntie Ro never forgot what it was like to be my age, unlike you. She always cared, she always told me that I was smart and I was brave and she trusted me to make good decisions and that if I ever needed her I could call her and now she's gone cause Uncle Steve chose Catherine…"
"That's not the whole reason she's gone, Grace. It wasn't all Uncle Steve, that brother of hers helped." He argued before he realized that they had gotten WAY off track. "Look. I'm not trying to ruin your fun Grace. I want you to have a good time, but I always want you to be safe? Okay? And one day, one day you will be able to make your own decisions but…"
"DANNO!" she cried and he finally noticed the pig in his way. In his panic, in his desire to not end that poor little piggie's life prematurely and mess up his car he had swerved, but he had swerved a little too quickly and a little too violently, and his car ended up crashing into a barrier.
Obviously he asked if Grace was okay, which she was, before he went out to check his car. It was less okay, it was going to need a tow. His phone had no service, Grace's phone had no service, which meant they were going to have to work until the found it.
Which lead them walking through a creepy field at night. At first Grace wanted to walk a head of him, still mad at him for keeping her from the party, not knowing that it could have been worse, cause his plan was to go into the party and drag her out.
He let Grace storm ahead, keeping her in his sight, and as he predicted, as soon as she got somewhere slightly creepy his daughter wanted to hold his hand. He was glad that she still came to him for security and support, even if she was mad at him at the moment.
They walked quietly for a few minutes before Danny turned to her and said: "You know, you were outside waiting for me…"
"Yeah, I got a warning."
"A warning? Who called you, your Uncle Steve?" Cause it would just like Steve to play up the cool Uncle so Grace would like him more.
Grace shook her head, she pulled out her phone and let it play a message. Why was he surprised when it was Rowan's voice coming out of her phone. "Hey Gracie, I hope you're having fun at that party and uh… I hope your costume turned out great! But uh… your dad's on his way to get you, so if you want to minimize the damage go to the front of the house now... oh and that hot Roman gladiator guy is too old for you. Miss you kid."
There was a beat of silence while Grace ended the call and put her phone back down. She hit him with a smug smile as she let those words sink in.
"See, Auntie Ro always understood," she said. She had a point. Her Auntie Ro always understood, but that wasn't the hot ticket at that moment.
"When did you get this?"
"I unno. It just showed up. I don't have a missed call or anything. Just a voicemail."
That screamed Sanctuary at him. Sandy was involved in that 100%. But it raised questions. Like if Rowan's app was up and running again would it tell them where in the world Rowan was? And why the hell would she care so much about them if she chose to leave? Why was she only reaching out now? A whole five months after the fact? Something wasn't adding up, and while he wanted to go to Steve with this information, he wasn't sure if the man could take anymore bullshit from Rowan Pierce. He wasn't sure any of them could.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Chin and Kono went to the Kalihi Pet Clinic where they were certain the blood bank thieves had holed themselves up. After assuring themselves that Jerry was alright, they had looked around and realized that before Sandy had scared them off, the guys with the gun had grabbed nothing except blood, a rare type, and made off with it.
That meant they were either going to sell it, or they needed it. Chin and Kono had come to the conclusion that they probably just they needed it, but they had gone somewhere to else to use it, just not a doctor clinic. What was near-by was a vet clinic so they figured that they'd start there, just see if their hunch was right. If not, they'd go on to the next lead, which was the bad guys trying to sell the rare blood.
But Kono could only think of one thing. Sandy was up and running again, and it clearly was monitoring them. It wouldn't just be checking on Jerry, she figured, it was probably monitoring all of them.
"You know what this means right?" Kono asked Chin as they got out of his car.
"That these people probably should have just did this all at the blood bank?" Chin offered but that wasn't it.
"If Sandy's up and running and following Jerry around that means someone had to tell her to do that."
"She chose not to come back, Kono," Chin reminded her. And that was true. But she also knew that Rowan had always felt like if she had lost Steve they would all be on his side and therefore her friend would have abandoned her. She would have thought that, since Rowan and her were besties, that she would have at least contacted her. But cutting them all out because her and Steven broke up was kinda… insulting.
"I know what she chose, but she obviously still cares…" she said but Chin just stared at her. "Well… what if she thinks she can't come back. You know? She never came to any of us before when her and Steven argued. What if she feels like… because she broke up with Steven, we don't want her?"
"Well… she's unreachable, so how are we going to know if that's true or not?" Chin asked. They got to the door and then he paused. He took his phone out of his pocket. "Is your phone screen red?" he asked.
Kono pulled her phone and saw that it too was red. Just like Jerry's had been when Sandy had taken over.
"Well I guess that answers that question," she said smiling down to it. To her, this was undefinable proof, that Rowan still cared about them, and the only reason they couldn't get a hold of her was because Rowan thought breaking up Steve meant that her and the Five-0's were no longer friends.
It also meant that they were entering an area that Sandy deemed dangerous. She'd bet money that they had found their bad guys.
They knocked on the door and a very stressed looking woman answered it.
Chin smiled warmly at her. "Good evening. Five-0," he said carefully pushing the door a little further out of her grasp. "Sorry to bother you, but we're doing a routine sweep of the area, looking for any signs of suspicious activity."
The woman was shaking like a leaf. He didn't need to hear her answer, he had a feeling he knew exactly what was going on.
"Why, is something going on?" she asked. Yeah, she was being held hostage, but he had a feeling she couldn't say that to him. He had a feeling there was a gunman somewhere making sure she said the right things and didn't blow this.
"It's Halloween," Kono told her, obviously getting the same vibe that Chin got but was willing to play along so this woman didn't get shot in front of them. "We're just checking out the neighbourhood. You know how kids are."
"Yes, I understand…" she started, but Chin had had enough. He said absolutely nothing did nothing but just held out the phone. Showing her the red screen. For a few seconds the woman at the door was confused until the phone started talking.
Hello and Welcome to the Sanctuary Network. You have entered the vicinity of an ally of Professional with the intent to harm either by accident or on purpose…
God it felt good to have an easy take down again.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Sandy was back. Which meant only one thing in Steven's mind. Rowan was trackable again.
He had a hard day. A really hard day. The suitcases for one, had been trying. Finding the would-be Dr. Frankenstein and his bride had been really… frightening, but not more than that guy almost getting the upper hand on him. The only reason he was alive was because a shot had come through the basement window and got the guy in the back, enough for Steve to knock him off of him and finish him off.
At first he thought it was Grover, but Grover had been upstairs when the shot hit. This was so reminiscent of Rowan and her app, but since losing her he had started seeing her everywhere. This was probably only an echo of her brought on by longing. That's what this was. Just his longing bringing back a ghost of her.
He was no better than their Dr. Frankenstein.
But then Jerry told him about Sandy popping up on his phone when the gunmen broke into the Blood bank. And Chin and Kono told them that Sandy appeared on their phones and helped make their takedown smooth. And Danny had Grace play a phone message left where no phone call had come in to leave it in the first place. He knew then that it wasn't just his longing, it wasn't just an echo. Rowan had been reaching out, had been taking care of them from afar.
And if she was taking care of him too that meant she still cared and there was still a chance. All he had to do was find her.
So he went to the person who created her app, knowing full well he'd be able to tell him more and he could force him to do so. Especially since he knew that Kong had to lie to get the CPS to give him a child, and Steve wasn't above revealing Kong's less than crystal clear past if he wasn't cooperative.
However, after letting himself into Kong's warehouse again he knocked politely, waited for Kong to tell him to come in, and then purposely didn't kick down the door. Just to prove that he didn't always kick down doors.
If Kong was surprised to see him he didn't show it, but instead let Steve sit down across from him and then waited until Steve was ready to talk.
"So her app is back."
"Yep, got the request… nay the order, to bring it back online a week ago. I've added new features, how do you like them?"
He didn't get to witness them, and at that point he didn't care. "Where is she, Kong."
Kong looked up to him clearly unimpressed, but now that he knew it was an option, possibly locating her and taking her back by force alone, at least to get Nahele back, he wasn't going to let it go. "I don't know, Commander."
"Lies. It's up and running…"
"It's not tracking her."
"You're lying."
"No I'm not, Steven," Kong snapped finally standing up. It was the first time Kong had called him by his first name and it startled him. "You wanna see, here, this is the dash board."
He turned the computer so he could see it. This pinging red dots along Hawaii ten dots in total for the 10 people Rowan wanted tracked.
"That's all there is."
"No but it can't be…"
"It is Commander," Kong said. "Rowan's not mobile, alright? She's still down." Injured, he meant injured. She still wasn't well enough to be up and about. Then how did he get her Eiffel tower, or to Paris for that matter? "He's watching her alright, my guess is that he figures, so long as she's with him she doesn't need to be tracked. Or maybe it's cause her phone is switched off and at the bottom of her suitcase…"
"You've been talking to him…"
"Yes, Commander, I've been talking to him," Kong finally admitted. "I run this app because he's paying me too, he's my boss, essentially. He gives me updates, I feed them to the kid, keeps him happy."
Steve didn't want to hear about Nahele and how he was happy with Kong. Instead he growled: "I'm not going to ask you again…"
"You think he's stupid enough to give me locations?" Kong snapped. "He knows I've got you knocking on my door every other day and he knows you got something on me. He tells me nothing, though he did say he sent you a picture."
"From Paris, yes, but we were monitoring the exit points, they never left France."
"Yeah well, he's a smart man, I'm sure he's figured out a way to move her without getting stopped at the border."
Yeah that sounded about right.
"Who told you to bring it back online?"
"If you're asking if I've spoken to your precious Rowan, I haven't," Kong snarled. "But the request was hers. She wanted the app up, said something about body parts in suitcases, something about vampires in a blood bank."
Dreams, she was still having dreams. So she had sent someone to help him.
"And the guy who dealt with my issue?"
"What issue?" Kong asked.
"Someone shot my guy for me…"
"Naw, app's not tracking you. That was uh… that was a big part of it. She wants everyone else to be safe, but uh… Wo couldn't give a rat's ass about you. So she's tracking everyone. Except you."
Well… wasn't that… hurtful? Track everyone but him. So great… who had helped him then? Huh?
"And if I ask you to turn it off?"
"They'll probably ask me to turn it back on," Kong said. "Besides, she just wants to make sure none of you get shot… well… everyone but you anyway…" Why did he have to keep saying it like that? "Can't you just let her keep tab on her friends? Or do you just not want to share?"
Steve would have been stupid to not have realized that his friends felt slighted by Rowan's disappearance. Especially Kono, who had been called her best friend for months. He knew they all felt like it was his fault that Rowan had never reached out to them, because she had always felt like they were Steve's friends above being her friends, and that was because he kept forcing them into positions where it would look that way to Rowan. But to hear it from someone else shook him to the very core.
"No, of course, I don't mind sharing. Uh… thanks… thanks for telling me," he said. "Uh… how's…"
"He's good. He's settling in. He's at a party at a friend's house. Kai, I think, or Makani, I unno I can't tell them apart."
"Kai is the surfer, Makani has the tribal look," Steve told him and Kong nodded.
"Oh that's good, I gotta tell Brandi that," he said. "Thanks. Yeah, no, the kids doing really good. We're keeping up with the tutoring like you suggested, so his grades are much better, he aced summer school. He wasn't allowed to try out for the football team, cause of last year's failure, so he was pretty bummed but they'll let him try out next year. He's almost to a place where I think he'll be okay visiting you so maybe you two can work on a football throw cause god knows I don't know what I'm doing."
Steve half smiled, he struggled not to show his excitement because he really, really wanted that and he didn't want to seem too pathetically eager. He missed Nahele, he wanted to see Nahele again but he got it when Kong had asked him just to hang back a bit until Nahele was settled with them cause those first few weeks had been a hard transition for the kid. It had been just as hard for Steve too.
He thanked Kong for the update, excused himself and then headed out before he could do or say something that would make him look even more pathetic.
It was on the way out of Kong's place that he got the text. No number just a floating message appearing on his phone. Just like the last time when the phone appeared. This time however it was a video.
It was only ten seconds but it was more than enough.
It was of Rowan in bed, probably a hotel bed judging by the fluffy pillows and white sheets. She was sleeping, the camera facing her. Wo Fat's hand came into view, he could tell by the burns on the wrist, and he quickly just booped her nose.
Those blue eyes opened, slowly and languidly like they used to when he would wake her up with his kisses. A sleepy smile formed on her face like she was happy to see the man behind the camera. The man that wasn't him. And then that video was done and starting over again.
There were no identifiers, nothing he could see that would tell him where they were. Just like with the photo, even if there were identifiers, Wo Fat would be smart enough to be out of that area before sending it.
Here were the things he did know. She was in a hotel. It was morning judging by the sunlight streaming in. The window was somewhere behind Rowan, probably on the other side of the head of the bed. And not only did she look absolutely fucking stunning, she looked happy. Which just made all of this worse for him because he was an absolute disaster both inside and out.
And for a long time after he just sat in his truck, staring down at the video looping over and over again on his phone, missing her with every fibre of his being.
