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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. So we're back with a fifth installment of the 12 Days of Christmas Marathon. It's the magical Conclusion of the Steve chapters. We will be back with Rowan tomorrow, but I promise it'll be interesting. I did a lot of research about the places Rowan's going to be visiting so everything that's being mentioned, for the most part anyway. So I hope you enjoy all the little details I've been putting in. Don't forget to leave me a review, and I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Chapter 223

Steve had never wanted Sandy back more in life. He missed her computerized voice. He missed how useful she was, and right now, right now he would have loved nothing more than to announce that he was Captain America and he was activating the Sanctuary Network. It hadn't really worked the last time he tried that. He did know that Wo Fat had actually actively attempted to get him out of that shot up barber shop, the bad guys just ignored the app, which he knew rarely happened. He had a feeling that if it had been Rowan in that barber shop instead of him, they wouldn't have ignored shit.

He was sort of holding out hope that Kong had lied and Sandy was tracking him too, but, you know, after what happened with Rowan, he knew there was no way Wo Fat would send anyone to help. Rowan… maybe… but it was a hard maybe.

Steve was on his knees in the sand. Lynn, too was on her knees beside him. Neither of them had a choice, the men with the guns had forced them there.

The boat that had pulled up was literally right beside the shell of their burnt-out rental boat Steve was not going to get the deposit back on. It was much larger than theirs, and had a crew. Just three men that Steve could see. Steve figured they saw the boat on fire, and came to see what was going on.

But when he and Lynn raced out onto that beach waving their arms and crying for help, they had been met with submachine guns and assault rifles. He realized right away as he skidded to a stop, trying to shield Lynn from these men that he had not read this situation right, at all.

They were on their knees on that beach for five minutes before a fourth man came out from the below deck and carefully disembarked from the boat with a giant grin on his face. He was dressed in typical play-boy millionaire yachting clothes, all white and stripes and off-centered nautical themed ascot. He even had the typical fake captain's hat. His face was round and brown, and not just from sun exposure, he was shorter than Steven and slightly rounder. His eyes hidden by aviators, but a lovely smile was on his face that he didn't understand.

"Hello Commander McGarrett," the man cried his arms outstretched as if he was greeting a friend, but Steve had no idea who this was. But they knew his name? My god they knew his name. This could be either really good or really bad.

"Steve, do you know these people?" Lynn asked in a soft whisper, clearly still freaking out as she was shaking again. He couldn't answer instead he shook his head.

"Look… there's a man on the island… he's… he's trying to kill us," he said. "But if we… if we work together we'll outnumber him."

"Uh-huh?" the captain said not really listening. Instead standing strangely close to Lynn and looking her up and down with a strange look on his face. "Pretty girl you got there. Your uh… your other girl know about her?"

Other girl? What other girl? What was this guy talking about? He tried not to look at Lynn, he didn't know how to explain this, he just… he just didn't. This screamed of app and Rowan but he also knew neither gave a shit about him anymore. So what was happening right now? What the hell was going on.

Behind them came a round of applause. Steve turned to take in Logan walking up, a little banged up, a little damp but otherwise alright. Beside him was a woman, looking as rugged as him, she too sporting a nice piece of assault rifle. She clearly knew Logan, so he was guessing his wife. She had gone missing shortly after he did after all, she must have met him here.

He walked onto that beach with a swagger in his step and he took in Steve and Lynn on their knees with those men with guns around them. He probably figured himself saved. That he was with his own people, which… well… was starting to look more and more like the case.

This wasn't how Steve wanted to go. But he also didn't have a plan to get out of this. Would they let him make one last phone call? Just to… hear her voice one more time? To tell her he was sorry, that none of what happened had been entirely her fault and that she had been perfect.

"Thank you for catching them for us…" Logan said before halting as the men's weapons raised again. He took in the guns and took a step back, a hand out to ward his own girl away. "Now wait a second… I don't know what he's told you… but I've got… money… lots of it…"

Oh god. They were screwed. The captain of the boat tilted his head to the side "I've already made a deal," he said which was cryptic and weird. He smiled strangle at Logan and asked: "Just one question, Haole… you… uh… are you Dennis Logan?"

The man was stunned, and why wouldn't he be? Because he probably wasn't expecting them to know his name, Steve sure as hell wasn't.

He got half of: "Uh… yeah…" and then all the men started shooting. Steve threw himself over Lynn without a second thought, trying to shield her from any oncoming bullets. He kept his arms around her and his head down as the bullets continued to pop off until.

When they were done, when there was nothing but silence on that beach, Steve stiffly pushed himself up. Logan and the woman he was with were dead. The men with the guns seemed to think him not a threat because they had lowered their guns now that Logan was dead. He turned back to the captain, not sure what to do, not sure what had happened, not sure what was going to happen next.

"What did you… what did you do that for?" Steve asked. "What… what are you doing?"

"This is a rescue mission," the captain said. But Steve was silent for a moment.

"A what?" he echoed. Standing up to face him.

The captain blinked his eyes as if he didn't understand. "Uh… well I thought it was rather straight forward. This is a rescue mission. We're here to rescue you."

"Rescue me? Why would you… why would you want to rescue me?" Steve thundered but when the man couldn't answer he rounded on him. "Why did you do this?" Steve shouted into his face. He didn't know why a bunch of apparent criminals would just show up and rescue him if they knew exactly who he was. "Why are you here? Why would you help me?"

But the captain just stared at him, at first a little bit like Steve was crazy and then his face changed, settling into a passive mask of calm as he said: "We're your Rowan-gram."

All the air left his body. A Rowan-gram. Rowan had sent him a Rowan-gram, why would she do that? Why would she do that? She was supposed to not care, he was supposed to be getting over her and then she does something this.

"What's a Rowan-gram?" Lynn asked.

Steve almost answered but he didn't know how to explain that an ex he had never told her about sent a crew of pirates to save him.

"The app's not tracking me, that's what he said. Everyone but me."

The man shrugged. "All I know was the orders came today. Come out to the island. Shoot the escaped mob guy, let you take the boat back."

Oh god that was so like her. She had info that no one else could have known and instead of calling him like a normal person she went and sent a crew of criminals to act on her knowledge. She was still having visions, so much for being normal when he's not around. "Show me."

The man produced his phone and showed it to him. It wasn't the app though.

The first was a text message: Hey Chico, got a job off the app that has to stay on the DL. Got Five-0 involved but it's a PRO request and she's willing to shell out 1.4m on it. Interested?

1.4 million dollars. That's how much rescuing him was going to cost Rowan. Seeing as it hadn't gone through her app he figured she was shelling out her own dollars for this. That's how much his life was worth to her, 1.4 million dollars. That… that was more than he made in a year.

But what the hell did that mean?

He scrolled down through the rest of the conversation. Once Chico, or the captain, had said yes, another text had come in.

It was just a simple text with the coordinates and a bit of a description. Told them where on the island Steve was, that Logan would try to buy them off, and they were to identify themselves as a Rowan-gram. The PRO request was the first clue but the Rowan-gram solidified it. It really was her, but it wasn't coming through the app, which meant… which meant she did this without Wo Fat's knowledge. But why? She left him, why was she still doing this?

"Do you know where Professional is?"

"Nope. No one knows that," he said.

"What country code is this?"

"I unno… I aint no expert…"

"Well you know who this is, whoever this is didn't just text you out of the blue, they've contacted you before…"

"Okay… yeah… That's Sin Nombre's contact. We uh… we've heard that he's her new personal body guard. Didn't think it was true cause Sin Nombre picks his jobs carefully, and that doesn't seem like his thing, you know?"

Sin Nombre was with Rowan? Really? Who was Sin Nombre. "Who is that? What are you talking about?"

"Sin Nombre. He's this bad ass assassin, never failed a job. And he'll whack anything except kids. He's picky though. You gotta pay him a lot of dough or have something real interesting to get him on your job. We all heard that Fat's got some money issues right now, so it's probably not money that's keeping him on your girl." Steve glared at him. What the hell did that mean? What other reason would a skilled assassin who only took interesting or lucrative jobs want a job where you literally had to babysit Rowan?

Also… if Wo Fat was having money issues how was he paying to take care of Rowan?

"You can track it if you want but it's a burner. And you can't use the app to access location either, you know in case you wanna avoid her, that was a useful function once upon a time."

Steve stared at the Captain. He had obviously taken that silence as a bad as Steve attempting to come up with a plan. But he still didn't know what to say to the man he had in front of him so instead he handed the phone back.

"Says he'll pay you extra if you get arrested."

The man grinned. "Yep."

"Then clear off."

"As much as I'd like to, Commander, I can't. Because if I do clear off I'm taking the boat which leaves you stranded. And I don't get paid till you get back on the mainland."

Well son of a fucking bitch. He was going to have to hitch a ride with criminals.

"Fine! Fine, we will accept the ride, but that's it, you got me? That. Is. It!"

"So, you don't want any of the ice cold water we brought or the first aid we got below…"

Okay he was going to shut up now cause this man was about as smugly obnoxious as Wo Fat. He turned back to Lynn, he didn't know how to explain this so he just offered her a hand and said: "It's safe, trust me."

She put her hand in his without a second hesitation and then he handed her up into the boat. As soon as he was up there with her she leaned against him, probably more for protection and comfort and less because she was hitting on him.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Lynn asked but Steve couldn't bring himself to answer her.

"I… it's… you know it's a long story and uh… it's for another day," he said. "Let's just… let's just go home."

And my god did he really, really want to go home.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Surprisingly, despite everything, Lynn had agreed to go on a second date with him. Why was beyond him, but she had decided that this first date was eventful and she'd love to try a normal date… where they weren't trying to outrun gunman. Just coffee for the second date. Nice and easy.

That was what he had wanted with Rowan once upon a time. Something nice and easy. But he knew, if Rowan was with him during that chase on the island he would have had to worry about her falling down or taking one of those gunmen on on her own. Though to be fair, she would have just activated her phone and then those guys would have run.

He gave her such a hard time but he missed it. And he still missed her. But he couldn't bring himself to keep missing her, not when she was around the world having fun without him, possibly in a relationship with Wo Fat.

He needed to let go of her to move on. To have a future with someone else. And in order to do that she would have to let go too. Because coming to his rescue, no matter how appreciative he was, merely reminded him of everything he missed and how he'd never be able to find her, no matter how hard he tried.

He showered the rest of the day off of him and came out of the shower to that phone ringing again. That empty blank number staring at him.

For a moment he couldn't move, too afraid to answer. He wondered if he'd let it go to voicemail, it would be good if it did, but he couldn't stop himself from lurching forward to answer it.

"McGarrett?" he asked almost breathlessly, knowing what was coming and still not sure if he was going to be able to do it. He waited for an answer but just got silence as per usual.

"Rowan?" he asked waiting for the click and this time didn't hear it. She was still on the line. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself as he made the most painful decision he had ever made in his life. "Rowan this has to stop. Thank you for helping us, thank you for saving me, but I need you to stop. I need you to let go. Can you do that for me? Can you let me move on please?"

There was a beat of silence and for a minute he thought the call had ended but then he heard the breathy: "I'm sorry," in her voice. It was the first time he had heard her voice since the phone call and he just couldn't handle it. A lump rose into his throat because before he could tell her that he didn't actually want to move on she had hung up the phone and the conversation was over.

Steve stood there looking at the phone in his hand. Now that it was done, he didn't feel free. It felt like the final end of their relationship. After this… he'd probably never hear or see from her again. And he didn't want that. But he couldn't fix it now.

He had made the wrong choice. Again.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Grover and Renee had argued all day. They argued about how the date was going to go, they argued about whether or not she was prettier than Rowan, and they argued about whether or not this was going to work.

Renee was certain that this was just a band aid fix and it would make Steve worse. But Grover was certain that this was a step in the right direction in making Steven better, I getting him over Rowan.

They argued so much that the two of them actually went to separate parts of the house, with Renee shouting that he was on the couch that night. Grover would have been more mad except he was certain that he was right, one hundred percent right… or at least there was a 75% chance he was right, and he couldn't wait to call McGarrett up and ask him how it went.

And then someone rang the doorbell.

Grover had answered assuming someone in his house ordered food without telling him and now expected him to pay for it. What he got was a very out of sorts looking McGarrett. The man may not have liked talking about his emotions but he sure as hell wore them on his face.

Tonight's look was a watery one. The kind of one that he wore before he had one of his outbursts about his heart ache over a girl who hadn't deserved a lot of the cards she was dealt, and in Lou's opinion one of those cards was Steven's heart. But that look on his face… that shot his 75% chance of being right right out of the water.

"Hey…" Steve started. "Uh…"

"How was the date man? I know you wanted to know how the argument ended but we figured the outcome of the date was the answer," Grover said but it was clear that Steve wasn't listening.

"Uh, yeah, bout that I'm actually here to see Renee."

"Oh, yeah, she's in the living room," he said. "Mrs. Grover you got a visitor!"

Before she could even call back to him, McGarrett had taken off, disappearing into the living room. Grover trailed after him not sure what the hell had gotten under his skin.

Renee had stood to greet him and got enveloped in this large hug. "Steve?" she cried in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

When he pulled away she saw the look on his face, and unlike Grover who didn't want to open that can of worms she immediately asked: "Oh, what's wrong?"

But Steve didn't answer so she sat down and pat the couch beside her and glared at him until he had no choice but to obey. He sat down beside her, clasped his hands between his knees and almost hunched over.

"Are you okay?" she asked again once he was settled.

"No."

That answer surprised her. Probably because she had asked a derivative of that question a million times this morning and he had been evasive. There was no pause, just complete and utter honesty about his feelings. That wasn't like McGarrett at all, his pride had been keeping him from telling anyone how he felt, from admitting that losing Rowan had damn near destroyed.

"Okay…" she whispered softly. "What's wrong?" she asked again. And Steve almost shrugged, but she pinned him with a knowing glare and he shrunk under it.

"You… you were right," he admitted. "I thought dating Lynn would make the pain go away, would mean that I was finally over her and ready to move on but… it hasn't worked… I'm starting to think that this is never going to stop hurting and I just… I don't know what to do."

Grover watched from the door as Steven crumpled against his wife, and she put an arm around his quaking shoulders. She turned to Grover a glare so dark he actually hung his head. They had argued, they had joked, but Renee had been right in the end. Problem was, neither of them wanted her to be proven right like this. Grover turned to get a pair of beers and to get his phone.

They needed Williams.