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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers and welcome to day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas Marathon. Just so you guys know, I'm going to be posting the next couple of chapters from the Bahamas, so if they're a little later then they normally would be it's cause of the time change! So we do have another chapter about Rowan, but it ends with a bit from Steve. We're also going to have a full two chapters about Steve for the next two chapters. Just so you guys know, since I'm bouncing back and forth, these parts with Rowan happened the week before the last chapter. If you need any confirmation about the time line please send a review. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the chapter, please remember to leave a review and I will see you tomorrow.

Chapter 221

Conejo had to hand it to Rowan, when it came to planning trips she was the absolute best. On their second day in Venice, she spent half the morning arguing with the owner of a Gondola to reschedule her ride for when Wo Fat said he would be free so Conejo didn't have to go with her. First on the phone, and then she tracked him down to yell at him in person until he finally agreed.

Once that was dealt with, they started walking. First to the Rialto Bridge where he was forced to take a million pictures of her on that bridge and then pose for a bunch of selfies of them together. While they walked to their next stop, which was a bookshop called the Aqua Alta, she sent off her favourite pictures to Wo Fat.

Once they got to the bookshop more pictures happened and she picked up a bookmark for herself. As they walked back towards St. Mark's square they stopped for street food, which was more pasta, and she looked at all the souvenir stands looking for something for her friends.

They were going to run out of room in those suitcases of hers at this rate.

Getting to St. Mark's Square meant buying tickets to go to all the museums. The Doge's Palace, the art museum, the archaeology museum, the clock tower and the bell tower. Just… everything.

She had told him up front that they didn't need to do them all in one day, they just had to be done within the next three.

Fine. Great.

They took more pictures and selifes by the Bridge of Sighs, and then they got to go into the Doge Palace. They were having fun wandering around, Rowan was taking pictures of all the architecture and he was just watching her, knowing that at some point she'd want to go into the gift store behind him. And it was because he was watching her that he noticed the man that was a little too close to her.

His first thought, or worry, was that this was law enforcement, or one of Wo Fat's enemies. But the more he watched that man hover around her, a better idea for what he was doing came to Conejo's head. The man was a pick pocket. Pushing off of the column he was leaning on Conejo approached them, Rowan barely noticed him do it she was so fixated on taking pictures. So Conejo slipped in between them, smiling warmly at the man hovering behind Rowan, grabbing the hand that was in her purse and squeezing the wrist.

"Let whatever you have let go," he ordered in a low hiss and when he did, Conejo moved the man a bit back and away from Rowan. "What else did you take?"

"Look man," the pickpocket started only to have Conejo twist, the man jerked trying not to cry out and he relented. "Okay, okay."

He handed back Rowan's wallet, and the hotel key and Conejo pocketed them. "What else did you take?"

"From her? That's it man," he said.

"No, what else did you take in general?" he said. "I want first dibs."

"What… come on…?"

"Fork it over," Conejo twisted again with as he growled those words.

When he finally returned to Rowan's side, he was 800 euros richer and quite proud of himself. Rowan smiled up at him as he smiled down at her. "You could have just let him go."

Wow, she knew she was getting pick pocketed, what a dumb ass. "Yeah, I could have, but then he wouldn't have learned a valuable lesson."

"Which was what?"

"Don't fuck with my mami," he said, slinging an arm around her to lead her deeper into the palace. A sort of warmth seemed to fill him when Rowan tucked her head into his side as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if he didn't just extort money from a pickpocket. As if he wasn't a renowned assassin.

God, what if Wo Fat was right? What if she was getting under his skin after all? He couldn't let that happen.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

She hadn't wanted Conejo to notice, but she had walked by that Salvadori Diamond Atlier jewellery store three times since they got to the St. Mark's square and it kept winking at her from the display.

It wasn't an engagement ring per say… but it was the ring she would, one day, want to be proposed to with. Lot of good it would do for her now that she was single and would never see Steven again.

In fact, looking at it reminded her that Steven would probably propose to Catherine now.

The ring in question was gold, the band made to look like twigs of Ivy, the leaves had small diamond studs and form one of the branches hung a tear-drop fire opal, which was her favourite stone.

Every time she walked past that store, she saw it. Every time she saw it, she wanted to buy it. She had the money, why not?

Because there was no point. Rowan knew, if she didn't marry Steven, she wasn't going to marry anyone. And, sure, maybe that wasn't true, maybe her heart would heal and she'd meet someone else and settle down, but right now, at that moment her heart belonged to Steve and it hurt thinking about him being with someone else or eventually marrying someone that wasn't him.

"What are you looking at?" Conejo asked appearing beside her. The whole reason she had wandered over to the shop window again was because he was buying food for them and she figured him reasonably distracted. She should have been watching him a little more closely.

"It's jewellery, Con," she said quickly. "I'm a girl, it's a window filled shiny objects."

He stared at her as she took the cup of noodles from him and began to tuck in with gusto. Which was a bad idea because that was a bunch of hot spaghetti in her mouth.

"You uh… you keep looking at that one ring," he said to her. "I'm not stupid Ro, I can tell you want that ring, why not just buy it?"

Rowan scowled but got over her disappointment at being so transparent. She shrugged at him. "I unno, no point."

"Girls like shiny things, and you light up whenever you see it," he said. "That's a good enough reason for most girls."

Rowan just shook her head and moved away. "A ring is a ring, I have plenty of rings," she reminded him and hoped that would be enough. Conejo gratefully dropped the conversation in exchange for shovelling his own larger portion of pasta into his mouth but she knew he wouldn't just let it go. Sooner or later he was going to make her tell him what it was about that ring that made her look at it so often. And honestly, she wasn't looking forward to it.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat finished up with his associates later than expected, which left him rushing through the cobblestone streets, dodging groups of tourists stopping in odd places to block the area to look at shops or take stupid pictures. He stopped, only to pick up the surprise he wanted to give her, and then practically sprinted the rest of the way.

When he finally got to the meet point, he was happy to find that Rowan and Sin Nombre were still there, though their Gondolier looked far from pleased with them. He'd just have to tip him a little extra to shut him up.

"Sorry," he said once he got close, he noted that Sin Nombre was a fraction of a bit too close to her, but it was also crowded so that could just be Wo Fat being paranoid.

Still he shot a knowing glare at Sin Nombre who glared back at him as he said: "I've got this now."

"You say five-fifteen, it's five-thirty," the Gondolier said. "Shorter ride…"

He came to a complete stand-still when three pairs of eyes swung to him. Rowan's eyes were wide and fearful, worried that she'd miss out on a portion of her Gondola ride. But Wo Fat and Sin Nombre were both shooting deadly glares at him and those were the stares that froze him.

Wo Fat carefully held Rowan's hand as he handed her down into the Gondola all while staring their Gondolier in the eye.

"The ride will be the same time as all your others," he said carefully. "And I think you'll sing us your best songs too."

The man blinked his eyes and then nodded, allowing Wo Fat to get into the Gondola after Rowan. They waved bye to Sin Nombre, whose cold brown eyes followed them until they were gone and then Wo Fat returned his attention to Rowan.

"I trust you had a good day?"

"I did. We did the Doge Palace today," she said. "Tomorrow is the clock tower and bell tower. How did your deal go?"

"Good, I am now in charge of the ice trade route coming through Venice, which will link up nicely to the export route I have going up to Paris and beyond."

"Wonderful," Rowan said though he knew she didn't think that. She wasn't comfortable with his profession but she never put it down or asked him to stop.

Her eyes fell to the brown paper bag he had and Wo Fat pulled it out from under the seat he had stashed it under.

"I thought it prudent for you to have the full experience, so I have a cheese platter and some bubbly…"

Worry crossed her features at the word bubbly but he knew better than to put champagne in front of her. A laugh escaped her when he produced the glass bottles of ginger ale and she grabbed hers quickly while he put the cheese plate on his lap for her to grab whenever she wanted.

"Look at us being so fancy."

It wasn't fancy at all, but that was what Rowan was like. The fact that he put the effort in at all was what made this fancy, and he loved that about her. That a simple cheese platter and two bottles of ginger ale could make her smile like that.

He snapped his fingers. "I don't hear any singing," he called and immediately their Gondolier indulged them in some form of an Italian aria.

Rowan smiled and leant back looking all around her and up to the stars above her. It was at times like these that the guilt sort of ebbed away, and for a moment he could feel like he did the right thing for her. He would just have to hold onto it when that guilt came back.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Doing the clock tower and the bell tower on the same day had been a terrible idea. So many fucking steps. Now Conejo was in good shape, but fucking a million flights of stairs, all around in tiny circles, had him out of breath and his thighs complaining. Rowan had been so tired after the two tours she nearly had to be carried back to their hotel. Thank God it was only a four-minute walk away. When they got back to the hotel Rowan collapsed to her bed and demanded room service of fries and tea so he threw himself down on the couch with the phone in his hand and the menu looking at his options while hoping the pain in his legs went away.

They were waiting for the food to arrive when Wo Fat came back to the hotel. A slight burn to his regular scent, the kind of gunpowder burn that signalled a gunfight had taken place.

Conejo craned himself to look up at him as he untied his tie.

"You good?" he asked. He knew that Rowan was supposed to be his main concern but he wasn't going to get paid if Wo Fat got killed.

"Yeah," Wo Fat said. "Got a little heavy this afternoon, but I'm good. Gonna have to send a message… you up for a little revenge?"

"Always," he said. "Just maybe not right now. Your girl had me go up and down two fucking towers today, can't feel my legs right now."

"Is that Wo?" Rowan called from her room.

"Yeah, you tired too?" he called back and got a grumble back in response.

Wo Fat threw himself down on the couch beside Conejo and then sighed. He too as tired as the other two people in the room. There was blissful silence for a moment, they might have fallen asleep, had Rowan not interrupted it.

"Con is the food here yet?" Rowan called. Wo Fat's accusing eyes found him.

"Who the hell is Con? Does she have a boy here?" Wo Fat hissed while Conejo shook his head.

"If you didn't hear a knock its not here," he called back tossing Wo Fat the room service menu as he too was probably hungry. "I'm Con, she wanted a new nickname for me, we settled on Conejo. Which she has shorted to Con for some reason."

"Conejo? She's calling you Rabbit? Really?" Wo Fat teased.

"Yeah, laugh it up Oz," Conejo hissed. "She gets to call me that, you don't."

Wo Fat just shook his head at him, clearly unimpressed and uncaring. "I may need you tomorrow, so she'll have to stay here."

"I don't like the idea of leaving her alone in the hotel," Conejo said immediately, because it was true.

"She'll be fine."

"Yeah and I'm sure you thought that before she got grabbed in Paris," Conejo reminded him and the half shrug half nod that Wo Fat gave him told him that the remark hit home.

"I'll talk to her then."

"Fine, but uh… I have a request then," Conejo said. "She keeps stopping by this store over in the Square, she seems to want this ring, but won't buy it. I thought it might be nice to pick it up for her. I'm prepared to forgo payment for whatever extra task you need me to do tomorrow, if we get it."

"You got a picture?"

Conejo pulled out his phone and pulled up the photo he had taken when Rowan had been distracted a different shop with picture frames. Wo Fat looked at it with a furrowed look about him as if he didn't understand what he was looking at.

"Why is she looking at an engagement ring?"

Conejo looked at the leafy looking thing again. It wasn't a diamond how could that be considered engagement ring of any kind? Especially since it looked like an elven piece of costume jewellery.

"Uh… but it's not a diamond…"

"Ro doesn't like diamonds. Her stone of choice is a fire opal, which that is. If she'd want this for anything it'd be an engagement ring. So why is she looking at an engagement right when she just broke up with her guy?"

Conejo was just surprised that Wo Fat knew Rowan well enough to know what her favourite stone was. Not many guys knew that about their own girlfriends. But there was something else he had said that piqued Conejo's interest.

"I thought he broke up with her."

"That's not what's important here," Wo Fat snapped and Conejo jumped cause he wasn't expecting it. "Granted… if she does find someone she decides to settle down with this ring will make a good advantage for him to have. And I'd love to see her settled with anyone other than Steven…"

Conejo wasn't sure where this conversation was going. By the look of it Wo Fat was having the conversation by himself. At that point he didn't care so long as Rowan got the ring.

"Kay, fine, but make sure you buy it. She won't want it if it's stolen," Wo Fat finally conceded. "But you bring it back to me…"

"We could just go together… tomorrow…" he said and Wo Fat nodded again.

There came a knock on the door and cry of excitement from Rowan's room, but she didn't appear which meant they were going to eat there. With a groan Conejo pulled himself off of the couch to answer it. Food was always a good distraction and it always made him feel better, though it made him feel even better to know that he had managed to snag Rowan the ring of her dreams. Now he just had to figure out how to get it to her without it having to come with a proposal.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat's act of revenge was a small case of arson, a little bit of beating to extort information and then a little bit of murder. It was actually quite fun to be blood splattered and violent once more. It was a refreshing change of pace from all the girly touristy things Rowan had been making him do.

Though for the whole seven hours he was apart from Rowan, a sort of worry pressed on him from the back of his mind. Worry that while he was gone, she had done something, had wandered off or had gotten in trouble or hurt. So, he was more than happy to arrive back to their hotel to find that Rowan had, in fact, not wandered off. In fact, she had room service ready for them when they got in.

The seafood platter for him, steak for Wo Fat and a burger with fries for her. She had asked about their day and Conejo had blanked. He wasn't sure what he could tell her, what he was allowed to say.

"Standard business. A bit of extortion, and the like," Wo Fat had said. He didn't seem to go into too much detail and Conejo figured that safe. "Nothing you need to worry yourself about. What about you, what did you do today?"

"Well… I know you said not to leave the room, but I got bored of writing music after the first couple hours… and I got a few noise complaints," she said and both men had frowned at her. "So, I went down and had high tea for lunch. Thing was massive, I put the left overs in the fridge. I saved all the salmon stuff for you, Con."

"That's it?" Wo Fat had asked her and she nodded. Okay, good, so she had just gone down to the hotel restaurant for high tea, that wasn't that bad. It wasn't like she left the hotel which he figured she might do if the two of them had left her alone.

After dinner Rowan had curled up with Wo Fat for what she called movie night, which was the two of them watching a kid's movie, and Conejo had gone to bed early.

It was the wee hours of the morning when he had been made aware of someone in his room, but he didn't go into defensive mode, he knew who it was. He had turned, arms ready to envelope Rowan as she came to him. She pressed to his side and for a moment he just let her find safety in his embrace. When she finally fell asleep he made sure she was tucked in and comfortable before, he too, found himself asleep once more.

But in the morning, when the sun was up and he knew she'd have to sneak out of there, he woke up to a girl on top of him and he was more than willing to indulge her in whatever sort of activity she wanted. Which lead to glorious morning sex with a girl who was becoming more and more dear to him by the day.

When they were done, and he was lying beside her trying to catch his breath, the silence began to weigh a bit too heavily on him. It always got like this when things felt a little too… good… for him. Like he didn't deserve it. Usually it meant leaving, giving up whatever it was that was making him happy to continue to punish himself. But for the first time in a long he didn't want to give this up. Not just because he was starting to grow quite fond of Rowan but because she needed him and he was afraid if he left, and something bad happened to her, he'd never forgive himself.

"Only called me Steven, five times this time," he said stretching out beside her. Anything to break the silence, anything to get himself out of his own head. "I call that progress."

Rowan murmured some sort of apology to him but he didn't care about because he knew what it felt like to want to do anything to numb the longing for someone that was no longer available. She rolled off of her back and half onto him.

"You're one to talk. Who's Mary?" she asked and his blood ran cold and his own heart fractured at the sound of the name that belonged to a ghost he was trying to outrun.

"No, no, I was saying mami," he lied and Rowan murmured something else like: Fine don't tell me. And Conejo scrambled to change the topic. "So uh… gotta ask, what's all this dreaming about Hawaii? And suitcases, and stuff?"

"I worry about my friends," she answered stiffly.

"Yeah I don't think that's it. Like… why did I have to say to a guy: Rowan Pierce is always right?"

"Oh for godsake, fine, fine, I'm psychic," Rowan told him and the silence hit his room again.

"Your…" he started before laughing. "Okay but like… you got yourself kidnapped…"

"I don't dream of anything useful. I dream about Steven's cases."

"You're right, that is not useful."

"Yeah, makes for great nightmares. Thought they'd stop if I wasn't you know… around him… or even on the island but uh… I'm still getting them and I can't even warn them…"

"Wait so like… you're serious about this?" he asked turning to her and Rowan propped herself up, got herself off of him and then kept herself up by her elbows and looked at him.

"I know. I know it's ridiculous. But… I walked into a hostage situation, a hostage situation that Sandy hadn't picked up yet, on my own, cause I knew he was going to take out my friend's teeth. It wasn't a guess, I knew if I didn't go he'd take her teeth out."

Conejo found himself sitting up to stare at her. "Okay… so… when I stabbed Coughlin with a pen…"

"I told him a year before that if he got Gabriel out of jail to go for Chin, he'd end with a pen in his eye. To be fair Gabriel was supposed to do it…"

"But I stopped him and I did it instead," he finished. "Huh… So… what was the last one about?"

"Oh, uhm… body parts in suitcases… I think it's a serial killer that's taking certain body parts to make his ideal girl," she said. "And he's going to stab Steve."

Conejo nodded. "You seem quite upset about that…"

"Well of course I do… I lo… I cared about him, you know?" she said avoiding his eyes now. Wow, she had said it before but it was really starting to hit him. She had really loved McGarrett huh? Guess getting over him was going to take even longer than he thought.

"Alright, do you uh… do you got a date for when all this is gonna go down or has it already or?"

"Usually I don't, but I do now, it's gonna happen on Halloween," she said. "I even know the address for the cabin. My dreams aren't usually that accurate, not sure why they're so strong now."

Though Conejo was just baffled by where this conversation had gone, he didn't question it. Girl was psychic. Deal with the information and move on. "Wow, that's good. So it's gonna happen in like three days? Did you put it into the app?"

"No, Wo doesn't want Sandy to track him," she whispered and he nodded.

"I mean, that's fair… he kinda… you know… jumped into it with another girl right after you got taken. While you were in that basement actually, and uh… he dumped you… so you know… maybe he needs a little stabbing. Maybe if he loses a little blood he'll smarten up."

Rowan carefully looked away from him as she said: "Just cause he didn't want me doesn't mean I want him to get hurt."

Well that was stupid. "I'm down for him getting hurt," he told her. Rowan's lips twitched but she said nothing and Conejo sighed. "I could… put one of my guys on him if you'd like. Make sure that uh… he doesn't get stabbed. Would you like that? Would that put a smile back on that face of yours?" Rowan was already smiling, turning it towards him he found himself smiling too. "There it is. There's that smile."

As she leant into kiss him, Conejo had to keep himself very still. He couldn't help it. She had said her name and it was like it had conjured her ghost into his room and it was always so hard to be with someone else with her memory lingering around him. Luckily all she wanted was that kiss, and right after that she was sneaking out of his room before Wo Fat could find out she was in there.

Conejo pulled out his phone to make that call she wanted him to make, to put someone on Steven McGarrett for the time being. God what was his life becoming?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan sat at the couch with her pancakes for lunch her guitar beside her, her music on the table. She had finished the song she entitled Cry Pretty and was working on another one. It was sad, but even apart Steven McGarrett was still her muse. She had never had so much inspiration in her life.

"Hey Ro," Wo Fat said coming in in a rush with Conejo hot on his heels. He had left with Conejo that morning, another bout of business which meant that Rowan was sequestered in the hotel again. She was actually contemplating going to the gym just to have something to do.

"Hey I thought you guys were gonna be gone all day?" she called as the two of them disappeared into their rooms.

"Pack, Rowan," Conejo barked at her. "Pack now and pack fast."

Wo came out of his room with a map and slapped it down in front of her. "Choose where you want to go next. It's not that big of a rush but it is a bit of a hurry," he said. "And definitely start packing soon."

Rowan looked at the map in front of her. She couldn't focus on picking a place to go when her boys were running around all wild. Rowan got up off of the couch and scampered into Wo Fat's room to watch him throw everything into his own suitcase without carefully pressing any of his suits. Oh, damn maybe this was serious.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing," he said a little too quickly. "Have you picked already?"

Rowan blinked her eyes watching as he folded his favourite Armani suit into fours and threw it into his bag. Rowan immediately moved to rescue it.

"Something's happened if you're going to ruin your favourite suit with creases," she said only to have him rip it out of her hands and shove it back into the bag.

"I'm done, I'mma pack her up," Conejo called rushing out of his room and past Wo Fat's to hers no doubt to back. Rowan watched him go and then turned back to Wo Fat with an expectant glare. The man needed to stop lying to her. She put her hands on her hips and glared as he just held her gaze.

Groaning he said: "Alright, look, we may or may not have a situation that may or may not need us to run…." "—why the hell does she have so many fucking shoes? How do these all fucking fit in these suitcases?" Conejo cried from the other room and Wo Fat sighed. "Okay so we definitely need to run."

"What the hell did you do?"

"Uh… well… I may have killed an undercover cop," he said and then paused. "Okay I killed an undercover cop. So we gotta go, like now. Have you picked a place?"

"Uh….."

"Fine we're going to Berlin, I have business there anyway."

"ORIENT EXPRESS!" Rowan suddenly shouted which cause Wo Fat to jump and Conejo to swear in the other room and drop something. "Sorry," she said quickly. "Please, please, please can we go on the Orient Express? Oh please? Oh please?"

Wo Fat just stared at her almost exasperated. "The what?"

"The Orient Express, it's a train, it goes to Berlin, it's famous, it was in a Hercule Poirot book."

"Whatever, yes, fine I will look up particulars, can you please just uh… go help him pack?"

"Yep, yes, I can do that, thank you," she cried hugging him tightly before rushing off.

As she ran it occurred to her that she probably should have been a little bit more concerned about the fact that he had just confessed that he killed an undercover cop, or anyone for that matter. But she figured if it got her on the Orient Express, she just wouldn't care.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve came out of the shower to the chirrup of his phone getting a message. That same no number. This time it was sending him a video.

Steeling himself for another update on Rowan he opened up the clip. This one must have been old, because her cast was back on and he could see the faded bruising along her face and on the one bare shoulder he could see.

She was standing with her back to Trevi Fountain. Her face was still darkened from bruises, her arm still in a cast. For some reason, it looked like some of her bruises were fresher than others, but that wouldn't make sense unless someone had been beating her again and Wo Fat wouldn't have let that happen… right? She was wearing this flowing off-shoulder burgundy top and a pair of khaki green shorts and she was just standing there with her hands to her lips. The second he pressed play Rowan brought her hands away from her lips, she closed her eyes, clasped her hands to her heart and then tossed what was probably a coin over her head and into the water. When she turned her eyes back to the camera she hit him with a sultry gaze and his stomach dropped while his heart soared.

On the one hand he'd give anything to have her hit me with her come fuck me eyes on more time, but on the other hand he knew that this video was taken by Wo Fat and therefore she had been giving him the come fuck me eyes.

Why? Why would she look at him like that? She wasn't… she wasn't with him, was she? It would explain why he had a video of her in bed.

His heart cracked a fraction more, his chest practically caved in under the pain of it. He sat down on his bed, that video on loop, his heart in his mouth. He couldn't keep doing this to himself.

He couldn't keep himself in pain for ever. Rowan had moved on, she had moved on without him. Loving her was killing him, and he couldn't… he couldn't hold onto it forever.

Maybe it was time that he too, moved on. Maybe that would heal the damage dealt to him by Rowan Pierce. He wasn't sure it would, but it wouldn't hurt to try right?

Exiting out of the video, Steve toyed with the idea of deleting the video altogether… maybe he'd even delete her contact and all the pictures of them together. And though, ultimately, he found he couldn't delete her from his phone, he did decide that it was time he got back on the horse and maybe that would lead to him finally being able to delete her from his phone, his heart and his mind.