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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! How did you guys like Christmas special Chapter? I hope you enjoyed it! So from now on we'll be back to our regular scheduled posts. Three times a week. Not gonna lie I've hit a bit of writers block. I know what it is I want to write but I'm writing anything I'm proud of or I think is good enough. Some encouragement would be nice! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you on Monday!

Chapter 231

Wo Fat came into the mansion with Armando by his side. His friend, though he didn't have to, had been insistent on following Wo Fat through the steps of his plan.

Last night they had torched a growing op that Diego had recently started. It had been making good returns, now it was a just a shell of itself, the fire having hollowed it out. It was a good plan, a good way to put a dent in Diego's growing empire. So far, Wo Fat had managed to destroy three warehouses, and the relationship Diego had cultivated with very important people in the business and country. He had also personally killed Diego's second in command, and had wiped out the entire faction Diego had based in Bogotá.

The problem was, Diego had been quick to respond to this attack, and Wo Fat and Armando had gone on their own as to not raise suspicion. This left them out numbered and out gunned. They had spent most of the night hiding, and trading stories.

Armando had told him of his family. His two little girls and how they were obsessed with Ballet and princesses. That it had been very upsetting to have someone wave a gun in their faces. He was lucky, he had said, that his wife had shot the man before the two girls could get hurt. He understood why his wife was mad at him, but his work had never followed him home before. Since partnering with Wo Fat, since having Rowan's name to throw around no one had dare crossed him. He didn't know why Diego was so foolish as to continue coming after him if he knew that Armando was with them. Wo Fat chalked it up to stupidity. The same kind of stupidity that Waincroft possessed. He wouldn't have been surprised if the two were in league.

In return, Wo Fat had told his friend of Rowan and her mental state. He had explained what he had been dealing with and Armando had given her state a name he felt he aptly described what had been happening. She was yo-yoing. One moment she would be fine, the next she'd have a mental break down.

Wo Fat knew that it was because she was trying to deal with trauma by pretending that it wasn't there and it wasn't helping her at all. She kept saying this was how she dealt with everything else that had happened to her in the past, but Wo Fat had noticed a lack of coping long before this. It also opened up the door to Rowan's past and how it was apparently fraught with nothing but traumatic events. Like a car crash he hadn't known about that an culminated in a broken leg and a dashed skating career. He hadn't known she could skate, though that did explain why he got reports of her He had asked her again why, if she remembered her past, why she hadn't established her real identity? But that lead to her clamming up about the past, and lying to him about it again. He also asked why, if she was about to go to the Olympics as a figure skater, there wasn't a single shred of evidence of her either on the skate circuit or in the news.

Rowan had responded to that question by literally jumping out a window and onto the roof so she wouldn't have to answer.

It was a problem. That she was that tight lipped about her past. It was clear now that she knew exactly who she was, she just wasn't looking for herself. And the more she slipped up and told him of herself the more he realized that Rowan Pierce never should have been missing. So what was going on?

He wanted to push her for more answers. He wanted to know more about her and what she was so clearly hiding from. He wanted to know what it was that was so bad that she thought he of all people wouldn't understand, but he hadn't had the time. He had been working non-stop on this plan, and to ensure secrecy he had been acting out all the steps himself. This meant that Rowan had been on her own.

Well that wasn't true, she was with Sin Nombre. He had told Sin Nombre to keep him updated and for the first few days he had done just that, but he had gone silent five days ago. He figured that his silence meant that Rowan had been quiet, no nightmares, no terrors, and no bouts of spontaneous crying.

She had been writing songs about Steve when he last spoke to her. He didn't get why she was doing it, but singing and that guitar always put a smile on her face, even if she did cry over the lyrics so he let it happen. He even shelled out more money to get her time in a recording studio. Money that he really didn't have, but she was his sister and he would do anything to keep her smiling.

But sitting in an empty warehouse waiting for the men combing the area to disappear so he could sneak Armando and himself back to the Audi they camouflaged in the bush, he began to think that maybe it was a bad thing that he hadn't heard from Sin Nombre or Rowan for five days.

So when they got back to the mansion in the early hours of the morning the first thought he had was to find Rowan.

Rowan hated early mornings, so he figured her asleep. But she wasn't in her bed, and when she wasn't there he went to Sin Nombre's room across the hall, but it his bed was empty as well. At least Rowan's bed looked slept in, Sin Nombre's was made like he hadn't been in there at all. He better not have been sleeping in her bed.

That was a very important rule that he didn't want broken. Sin Nombre was already too attached, already too invested in Rowan and her wellbeing. He didn't want to know how bad it would be if they got together. Though… anyone would be better than Steven at this point. He wouldn't be able to control Sin Nombre in the way he wanted to for Rowan's next beau, but he'd be wonderful in the way of protection. She would be much safer with him.

Okay so maybe he'd consider Sin Nombre as a protector. He'd need a new body guard for her though. That would be hard to arrange. There weren't many he'd trust to take care of her. He had to find her first though.

Wo Fat stormed down the stairs again, not sure where Rowan was, and getting more and more flustered. She hadn't been grabbed right? He would have heard, Sin Nombre would have told him that if that was the case… right? Also, who would have grabbed her from Armando's compound out from under Sin Nombre's nose. If they had somehow managed to grab her… it would have taken Sin Nombre five days to get her back… right?

It was the sound of the guitar that got him. He slid to a stop and turned. It was coming from the veranda, someone was playing the guitar on the veranda.

He rushed out into the backyard where he found someone swimming laps in the pool and Rowan sitting under a giant umbrella by the patio table, a platter of pancakes and toppings in front of her, including two pots, one coffee one tea, while she strummed her guitar, her note book open and beside her half eaten plate of pancakes, eggs and bacon.

The tension unwound from his shoulder immediately. He breathed a deep sigh of relief and found himself smiling. She was fine, she was just up early.

He merely had to announce his presence with a soft hey for her to turn around. A giant grin donned her face and that guitar was put down and she then she was hugging him.

He found that he had missed this. Her arms around him, her smile in his neck and his nose in her hair. It was the best reminder that she was still okay, because so long as she was with him things would always be okay.

"Why do you smell like weed?" she asked and he shook his head.

"Never mind that, what are you doing out of bed this early?" he asked instead to get her off the topic.

"JC has a very strict schedule. He always has to do his morning laps, so he made me come out with him," she answered and then turned back to the table. "Do you want a pancake?"

Wo Fat narrowed his eyes at her, why the hell was his girl doing what JC said? She never listened to anyone. Still he joined her at the table and helped himself to a few of the pancakes with fresh fruit as she loaded her plate up with more whipped cream than pancakes.

"Uh… where's your body guard?" he asked.

"Swimming," she answered and Wo Fat turned to where JC was still swimming laps. Sin Nombre never would have been preoccupied while having Rowan in his care. He didn't like the service JC was providing, it was subpar and he was unaware why it was JC providing it when it should have been Sin Nombre.

Rowan smiled warmly at him. "I'm writing a new song, you wanna hear?"

Another new one? Damn she had some kind of inspiration recently, he was kind of curious as to what it was that brought it on. Rowan went for her guitar but Wo Fat put a hand out. "You know how much I love it when you serenade me, but we have a more pressing issue at the moment."

For a second concern passed over her features. "We do? What's that?"

Wo Fat stared her down, trying to establish if she was about to lie to him. "Where the hell is your real bodyguard? Where is Sin Nombre?"

Rowan blinked her eyes as if surprised. "Oh is that all?" she asked with a simple. "Huh, I guess I figured he'd tell you. He's in Hawaii."

Wo Fat had been helping himself to coffee, something to keep his eyes open and nerves from twanging. Rowan had a habit of doing that to him, he was sure she was giving him grey hair. But the second she told him where Sin Nombre was that coffee pot clattered out of his hand and shattered against the cobblestone of the patio.

Rowan yelped but Wo Fat was not surprised or deterred. "He's where?" he cried. "Why the hell is he there? I didn't approve that!"

And he wouldn't have either, because Wo Fat had fed the same lies to Sin Nombre that he had fed Rowan. It was easier that way, safer. Less of a chance for Sin Nombre to go soft and tell Rowan the truth. The only reason he was certain that Sin Nombre hadn't told Rowan that Steve had both gone to Japan and then to Geneva looking for her was because Wo Fat had told him that the only reason he was doing that was to get to him. As in Wo Fat. Sore loser, he had called Steve. Sin Nombre had believed him, had agreed not to tell Rowan because she would have returned to him and gotten her heart broken again when he left her for Catherine in person. But if Sin Nombre went to Hawaii and figured out the truth, Wo Fat was certain he'd tell Rowan and then they'd be screwed.

"No, I sent him," Rowan said looking around, first at the ground and then at the house no doubt for a maid. "You're ruining your good shoes."

He'd buy more. "Rowan," he snapped snapping his fingers at her until she turned to look at him. "Why the hell is Sin Nombre in Hawaii when I'm paying him to take care of you?"

"Because I wanted him to kill Gabriel," she said so nonchalantly and Wo Fat sighed. Great she had dreamed something again… and it had turned her ruthless. That couldn't be good. "Gabriel's going to go after Goro, take out some other heads of crime families on Ohau and put himself in charge. I figured if he succeeded he'd be a more formidable foe, so I dispatched Con to put a few bullets in him before he can get too powerful."

Wo Fat was actually impressed, that was a pretty good plan. If they were lucky Sin Nombre wouldn't be coming into contact with Steven. No questions would be asked everything would be okay.

"And I asked him to drop a few things off."

Okay that was not good.

"Rowan," he growled.

"Okay, calm yourself, it's just demos," she said. "I sent him to talk to Pete so I could start selling songs again."

Wo Fat sighed, no that was a complication he didn't need. A paper trail for Steve to follow. "Ro, why are you worrying about that stuff?" he asked. "You don't need to sell your songs."

"Course I do, our emergency Vault is empty," she snapped. "Why didn't you tell me this trip was getting to be that expensive?"

Wo Fat blinked his eyes, damn, he had hoped she wouldn't realize he was strapped for cash, but he should have figured that she would have found out.

"I didn't want you to worry, I had things under control."

"Yeah sure you did," she said drily. "Well, I felt bad. So I figured, since we're in this together, that it's only fair that I pitch in. I put some money in the Emergency Vault and started writing songs. Might as well continue making money. I've had the people at the Vault set up a roving off shore account, switching banks every month. Every month I'll give Pete the new account number to put my profits into, and at the end of the month that account will transfer everything to my vault and close…"

He knew what a roving off shore account was. And it was quite ingenious of her to have set something like that up. Maybe she was picking something up from him after all.

"And my suitcases are starting to get heavy so he's dropping off all of the souvenirs I picked up for everyone…"

Oh my god he really was going to have to get in contact with Five-0. Sin Nombre was going to figure out that Steve was single, the kid wasn't with him, and that Wo Fat had been lying. That was not good at all.

"Don't worry, he knows to not be seen. He's just going to leave them in the mailboxes," she said taking in his look of worry for something else entirely.

Okay that might minimize the damage but Wo Fat was ready to prepare for the worst. He had to change the topic or stop looking so panicked. He knew that if he continued to harp this subject she was going to start asking why it mattered.

"Alright, but did his replacement have to be Juan Carlos?" he asked glancing to the pool where the man was still swimming. Damn was he training for a marathon?

Rowan shrugged. "Con seems to trust him, and I did promise to behave while Con was gone. With you being so busy and us being in a bad area I figured I would uh… listen this time."

How nice of her. He was actually sort of impressed. Not only was she proving herself to be a little bit more mature, but she had also, without realizing it, but in motion the end of this very trip. His girl certainly was something. How had Steven handled her on a daily basis?

The biggest issue was Sin Nombre. He had a feeling if Sin Nombre found out the truth of what was going on with Steven McGarrett, Rowan finding out too wouldn't be far behind.

And he figured once Rowan knew, she'd never speak to him again. Wo Fat wasn't about to lose his sister like that. Not after all he did to save her life. No. Wo Fat would go down swinging. So if Sin Nombre came back asking questions, well, Wo Fat would just have to put him down before he got to Rowan.

He'd find her another bodyguard. Tell her Sin Nombre had picked up another contract and chose to leave. He was already spinning a million lies around her, what was a few more?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Pete had been wrapping up for the evening when the man showed up. He hadn't even noticed him. He didn't hear a door open or hear an elevator, just one second he was alone in his office and the next he was staring down a man wearing a white rabbit mask.

"You Pete Ganbarg?" he asked.

The guy was decked out in tactical gear. All black outfit, Kevlar, guns, knives a utility belt. He looked like a spy straight out of a spy movie. Or an assassin. Fuck he was going to die. This was it, he was dead.

"No?"

"Well you're in his office ese," the man said coming into the office and shutting the door. "I'm guessing you're worried cause of the get-up?"

He could smell smoke on him, and not cigarette smoke, like regular fire smoke. He had a feel that the darkened patches on his black clothes wasn't water either. Pete tried to smile, tried to make light of what was going to happen, because the guy didn't seem ready to take out another hit. Maybe he just wanted a music deal?

"Well I mean, you've come in here like a trick-or-treating assassin, you know Halloween was in October, right?"

The man laughed. "Fair. Sorry, I had some business to look into tonight so I wore my full outfit. Figured it'd be better to keep it on. Make sure you can't see my face, give you some kind of alibi if McGarrett finds out I came here."

McGarrett? Steven McGarrett? What the hell did that asshole have to do with this? What had he done now?

The man in the Rabbit mask took in his look almost let out a low whistle of appreciation. "That's an interesting face. Got bad blood with McGarrett?"

Steven McGarrett who went four months before finally informing Pete that his star song writer hadn't actually died in Japan. Steven McGarrett who, when asked, was forced to admit that Rowan was not only alive, but not coming back because his stupid ass had fucked up. Pete hadn't quite followed the whole situation with McGarrett and Rowan, something about another woman, something about being kidnapped. All Pete knew was that it was stupid and now he was down the most profitable song writer her had ever worked with. In the six months since she had left his execs had been asking why the profits took such a hit in his department and he was forced to admit that he had lost Rowan Pierce as a writer. All because McGarrett couldn't stabilize his relationship with Rowan.

"Yeah who doesn't at this point?" he muttered bitterly and he swore behind the mask the man was smiling.

"Yeah, man's a douche," he said approaching the desk, he took something out of the back pocket of his black cargo pants and put it on his desk.

It was CDs, homemade ones by the look of things. He really was trying to get a music deal.

"A spy with a demo tape."

The man laughed. "Naw, just a delivery man. I'm your Rowan-gram."

Pete's eyes whipped up. Rowan? Did he just say, Rowan?

"Wait. Rowan Pierce?" he asked reaching for the CDs to look them over. The cover for the cases held the song's name, the genre of song it was, and how much she wanted it sold for with a note for her usual writer's fee. 9-12% royalties depending on the bidding war for the song. Some of the CDs even had who he should sell them to. He was surprised to see "Give to Alex" on one of the covers. He thought the two of them still had bad blood over that stupid lawsuit he had slapped onto her.

Oh my god, she was dropping singles again. But why all the subterfuge. Why send a spy to drop off her songs, why not send them herself?

"Rowan Pierce the one and only," he said. "Look, we know this looks sketchy but she's got a situation with a crazy ex with immunity and means." Fucking Steven McGarrett ruining things for everyone, that's why she hadn't given him the songs himself. "We have a plan to outsmart him. All you have to do is make her profits payable to the account we've written on the bottom of the CD cover. It'll change every month, and every month we'll give you a new code. That way Steve can't trace it."

That seemed… illegal.

"It's either this, or no songs, what do you want?"

He wanted the money. He wanted the songs. And he personally had seen what Steven McGarrett was like with Rowan Pierce, he believed full heartedly that the man would arrest her for leaving him, he had arrested her for less in the past.

He stood and shook the spy's hand. "I want the songs," he said. "We've got a deal."

He went to retract his hand but the man held onto him a little tighter. "This goes without saying, ese, that McGarrett can never know about this," he growled. "You wanna keep making money, you want to see a profit, fucking McGarrett can't hear about this at all."

Pete nodded, he understood fully. But the man gripped his hand even tighter until Pete cried out.

"Verbalize it."

"I agree, damn it, I agree," he cried and only then did the guy let go.

"Good, pleasure doing business with you Pete, she said she'd send new songs on a bi-monthly basis. So look out for the package," he said heading for the door again. Except he paused before opening it, his hand on the doorknob. "Just for my own curiosity… is she any good at this song writing stuff?"

Wow didn't the guy know? "Yeah, I'd say so," he said with a shrug. "Actually, no that's not true, that's being modest."

Pete was met with silence until… "She write anything I'd know?"

"Depends, have you heard of Alex and the Doctors?"

"Maybe."

"She wrote both their albums. Heartbeats and the second one Stethoscopes. Her biggest seller was a single though. Cheap Thrills. She's still getting heavy returns on the profits for that one."

The man in the rabbit mask nodded, taking that in. Pete didn't know if the man was impressed or not. He should have been. Instead he just hmmed and then opened the door.

"Oh wait, I actually have something to give her," he said going for his drawer. The contract had come in before he knew she was alive again, it would have been perfect for her if he had gotten it to her. He handed it out to the assassin. "If she's interested, have her call me. I'll sort out particulars and everything."

The man nodded, taking the thick contact and folding it neatly before slipping it into one of the pockets of his cargo pants. He nodded his thanks to him and then turned around, finally leaving Pete alone in his office. Pete probably should have been more freaked out, but with four new songs in his hands all he could see was dollar signs.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan had promised Conejo to behave.

And she had.

And she had never, ever, been this bored before in her life.

That was a lie. She had been. In WITSEC, she had been this bored before when she was in WITSEC. God she had raised hell, to the point where her handler, Malcolm, had resorted to terrible counter measures to keep her from running off. At one point, coincidentally when she was in Stockholm, he had handcuffed her to a radiator.

But she had been young then, and Irina Stepanov hadn't put a knife in her side yet.

She also hadn't been kidnapped and tortured. Or kidnapped and taken to Sovana so some art theif could keep her as a personal concubine.

So she had been better behaved during this trip. Mainly because Wo Fat was busy and Conejo wasn't there. She figured this was not the time to get herself grabbed. Not with Conejo across seas and Wo dealing with his own stuff.

But this meant that she was spending all her time with JC, who, before Conejo named him as her bodyguard, was the fun one.

He was decidedly less fun when he got to boss her around. Mainly because he used his power to annoy her. To keep her from doing everything she found fun, and instead made her watch him do the things he found fun. Granted she could have done those things with him but Rowan didn't like gyms, or weights, or soccer. And he always wanted to swim in the morning when all she wanted was coffee and tea, never in the afternoon so she could lounge in the sun and drink mimosas.

But when he wasn't being bossy and making her do boyish things, he was still the fun JC she remembered. Together they had started working on another Spanish song, like Despacito. Another song for him to sell to his Spanish people, help his music get out there. Now that she was well known as a writer as well, putting her name on it would help boost him too.

But when they weren't writing music, they were singing, and singing led to dancing. And last night, dancing led to well… sex.

There had always been something between her and JC. The boy was cute, he made her smile. But the first time she had met him he was one of her captors. The last time she had seen him she was dating Steven, he had just given her that promise ring and she was absolutely one hundred percent head over heels in love with that man.

Now… well… now she was still head over heels in love with Steven McGarrett, but she wasn't tied to him, and JC wasn't one of the bad guys. So when he had spun her around on that dance floor, when he pulled her close and stared down at her like he was amazed by her sheer presence, she had decided that maybe he could be more than just her bodyguard.

So when he kissed her, she let him. And from there well… you can guess how it went. About as well as she thought it would. Sex was good, just like pizza, there was really no way to fuck it up, even when it was bad it still kinda felt good. But nothing was ever going to come close to the way sex was with Steven. But it scratched the itch that had been bugging her and now she wasn't all that interested in keeping this up.

She disentangled herself from JC who was apparently a cuddler and went about getting dressed. It was the latest he had slept, unfortunately, since he had gotten her used to waking up early so he could go for morning swims and still have her in his purview, she had gotten used to it. Him sleeping in meant that she could go about her morning routine at her leisure for once.

She was almost done getting ready for the day when he finally started to wake up. He stretched, first his arm across as if searching for her body, and then stretched his whole body out. Once he was done he finally opened his eyes. He looked first to the other side of the bed, realized she wasn't there and then bolted up.

At that point she was just standing at the end of the bed, brushing her ridiculously long red, blonde hair. Her dark brown roots were really showing now, she was going to have to do her hair soon. Get a trim and re-dye, maybe do something new.

"Morning," he said when he spotted her. "Why are you all the way over there?"

"Getting ready, you gonna swim?"

But instead of answering her a warm sleepy, languid smile spread across his face. A hand reached out for her. "Come here, mami," he ordered.

The nickname made her wince, cause that was what Conejo called her and she was starting to feel like she only liked it coming from him. "Don't call me that," she ordered turning away to put her brush back in her washroom and complete the finish touches on her look. Which was mostly just hairspray to keep her hair from frizzing before mid-day and a waterproof setting spray so she wouldn't sweat her make up off of her face.

"Sorry," he called. "But could you come here?"

Rowan left the washroom and moved to the suitcase she had half unpacked, she opened up the one pocket that held her jewellery and pulled out all she wanted to wear today.

"Whatever for?"

"I unno, maybe a good morning kiss. Maybe a little more of that hot loving before we get on with the day," he said smiling at her in that debonair way of his. It was a half grin, one would say it was almost crooked. It was the kind of grin, if it were on Steven's face, would have made her knees weak and the butterflies in her stomach go up in a tizzy. It had done it for him before, when she was trying to use him to replace Steven, when everything he did reminded her of him. That morning, it did nothing for her.

"Uh-huh, as fun as that sounds, I'm dressed, and my makeup's on. So I will not be chancing messing up any of this, thank you," she said to him. He opened his mouth to argue but Rowan shook her head. "Look, this was great, don't get me wrong. Last night, was wonderful. But we both know if my brother finds out, he's gonna cap you. Which I've learned means taking you out by your knees in very painful ways. So, while it was great, it's best if we don't repeat last night. Ever again."

JC took all that in and then let out a low whistle. "Damn, mami, that was cold."

"Call me mami, again I'll tell Con what happened last night." Now that got JC's attention.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry."

"You gonna go for a swim or what?'

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I can go for a swim."

"Good I put your stuff on the edge of the bed," she said. "I'm going to go see if breakfast has been started."

As she left the room Rowan felt a little bit more in control of her emotions. It didn't hurt as much to think of Steven, it felt less and less like cheating when she was with someone else. She reminded herself that Steve had moved on and it was perfectly fine for her to do so as well. She felt one step closer to finding a way to live without Steven, to be okay that he didn't love her, and maybe even finding someone who would love her right in the future.

But until then. Fuck buddies and one night stands were all she wanted, and there was nothing stopping her from doing anyone she wanted. You know… so long as her brother and bodyguard didn't find out that is.

In fact, for the first time in four years, Rowan felt a little bit like the old Rowan. The Rowan she was before she fell into the world. The cold, confident, Ice Queen, who never got hurt by anyone.