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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Guys I'm not gonna lie. The new work schedule is like… 100% keeping me from writing and posting chapters. It wasn't that I didn't post this chapter on time, I straight up didn't have this chapter ready until last night. Which is ridiculous. I shouldn't have done the marathon cause it wiped out the reserve bank of chapters I had and now I have none. And with the three a day posting schedule combined with my school schedule I don't have enough time to catch up. If I have another week of struggles, I might take the posting down to twice a week. I hope that's okay. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you again on Monday.

Chapter 240

By late afternoon, Rowan was ready. On top of all the wonderful salon treatments she got in the comfort of her own room, she had gotten her hair done as well. She had the red retouched, so it was a vibrant red and had her hair bleached and treated with purple shampoo to get this beautiful ashy white blonde at the tips. She was in her wonderful sequined dress and her beautiful red-heeled stilettos. She had her make up done in beautiful smoky and glittered tones. She was wearing her golden bracelet from Wo Fat with her name on the front and the coordinates of where they met the first time on the back. She had her nails done a glittering gold and blood red to match the bottom of her shoes and her toes matched.

She felt sexy, gorgeous and just…... perfect. She hadn't felt this good about herself in a long time.

Rowan got down the steps to the foyer and found that the foyer table was no longer sporting a tasteful centerpiece but instead a pile of gifts. Rowan approached them and found that all the ones she could see had her name on them.

"What are you doing downstairs?" Wo Fat cried and Rowan jumped, as she hadn't been expecting him. She turned around and found him smiling widely as he came towards her. "Aww, look at you! You're stunning, I'm going to have to keep the men off you."

"Keep the men off of me? Wo it's only Armando and JC…"

Wo Fat got to her and pulled her close to press his lips to her cheek. "No, we've also invited the vendors from town and the servants, and a few of JC's friends…"

After being on lock down post-kidnapping, she was surprised Wo Fat was allowing to many people in through the gate. "Geeze, why so many?" Rowan asked.

"Because you're putting on a concert, my little imouto, and I wanted you to have a crowd to sing to," he said. "Also Armando's wife and girls are here, so keep it PG."

"And they all brought me gifts?"

Wo Fat shook his head. "No, no, well yes. Most of these gifts are from the people attending. A lot of the vendors and servants brought you gifts. But uhm… quite a few of these are… uh…from all your friends… in Hawaii," he admitted and Rowan's eyes whipped back to the table. Was there something from Steve in there? "And of course, there's something from me, Conejo and the rest."

Rowan smiled at him, loving just how quick he was to remind her that his present was in there as well. He probably knew exactly who her mind turned to the second that he mentioned Hawaii.

"However… I'm not quite done with the preparations, I was going to come down around 5:30, would you mind waiting? I could send someone to sit with you until then? I'd say Conejo but he's running the new guards through protocols, and I don't think he's gonna take a break…"

"No, it's okay, I can just sit and read or something, I'll be fine, don't you worry," she said waving it off. "But uh… you might have to help me get up the stairs though."

She briefly looked up to the stairs as if contemplating the daunting challenge while Wo Fat stared at her with a great smile on his face.

"Well, I do have one thing to give you before you go," he whispered. "Just… uh… stay right here."

He rushed away from her and to the front door where he ushered in Raul and her fleet of little ex-pick-pockets.

And of course, they were all in the best dress. The girls in fancy poofy dresses, boys in little suits, they all looked so wonderfully adorable. They all clamoured in with Lupita at the helm, a box in her hand. All of them ooohhhed when they saw her. All the girls exclaiming something about beautiful Rowan looked in her dress and Rowan almost burst out into tears at the sight of them.

"They have a curfew," Wo Fat said, "So they can't stay for your birthday party, but….."

He clapped his hands and the servants all came out, each helping to carry a giant tree of cupcakes out. The kids all rushed up to tree, to grab a cupcake, with a candle in it. Lupita went to her and put the box in her hands before rushing to get her own cupcake.

Rowan put the box down to accept the cupcake that Wo Fat handed her. The only pink one with gold sparkles on it. A big 30 candle on it.

Once everyone had their cupcakes, they all rushed back to where Raul was standing. He smiled at Rowan as one of the kids handed him a cupcake to hold.

"We called a holiday and closed the stall down for today. With Armando's approval of course," he said. Like she would have cared if they closed without approval. They were allowed to have sick days. "We were told that children were sorely missed by the tourists."

"That's wonderful. Didn't I say that you guys would become a marketplace staple?"

Raul nodded and then turned his eyes down to the children. "Alright kids, like we practiced." He counted them in and then they were singing happy birthday to her in Spanish.

When they got to the end of the song, they all blew out their candles with her and the kids began to clap and cheer the best they could with their cupcakes. Rowan smiled down at all of their happy faces while Wo Fat stood beside her and clapped to get their attention.

"Alright, alright, eat your cupcakes, spend some time together and then you can go home to your parents before it gets too late," he said as he snatched her candle out of her cupcake so she could eat it. she noted that the servants had stayed behind to collect the used candles and cupcake wrappers, being sure to go to each child to get the candle from them.

Rowan had only managed to get a one bite into her own cupcake before Lupita skipped up to her with a few of the other children. All of them were missing cupcakes so they must have hoovered those cupcakes down.

"Open it up, open it up!" she cried. "We wanna know if you like them!"

Rowan nodded, putting her cupcake down, and quickly trying to swallow down what she had been eating. "Alright, give me a second," she said. She took a hold of the box and looked at it carefully. It was a patchwork quilt of many different types of wrapping paper and they hadn't managed to wrap it well. The paper was torn in places, probably used before but it was all these people could afford so she was very careful with it.

"Just look at this pretty paper," she said. "I unno if I could open such a prettily wrapped package!"

"Then I'll do it!" Lupita cried reaching out for the box. Rowan had to hold it out of her reach. She waiting for Lupita to put down her hands before she indulged them by open it up. Inside the box, nestled in what had to be real live hay, was two figurines.

The first was a cat, painted as a traditional sugar skull, all pink and blue details, with a realistic looking skull. Beside it was a unicorn done also like a sugar skull, except all of it's details had been done in light purples and golds.

"We picked a cat and a unicorn cause they're your favourite. And the boys painted the cat and the girls painted the unicorn!" Lupita cried. "I had my sister help with the lines cause she's got really good lines and, we pooled up our money to put real gems on them too!"

And they were real gems. The eyes of the cat were real emeralds, whereas the unicorn had amethyst in its sockets.

Rowan looked them both over, carefully assessing each line and decoration. "You do like them, don't you?" Lupita asked a worried pout on her face.

Rowan smiled happily down at her, trying ever so hard not to cry as she had just had her make up done. "I love them. I absolutely adore them. These are so beautiful… I… I can't believe you guys did this all by yourself. This… I'm… I'm going to cherish these forever."

The children in front of her let out a loud squeal and all swarmed forward to give her a hug. Something the other kids quickly picked up on. Rowan took turns hugging each and every one of the children feeling so blessed at that moment.

This was shaping up to be one of the best birthdays ever. And after being worried about how it would be, especially with her losing Steven and Nahele that year, this was everything she needed.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Mary was letting Joanie color in the living room. She was probably coloring more on Steve's coffee table than the paper but she'd just buy him a new one. Or give him the money for a new one, knowing him he'd want something he couldn't buy at a regular Ikea.

Steve was up in his room getting ready for the party. She had been there, when Danny called him and told him that he got permission from Kong to bring Steve to the party… if he still wanted to go. Steve had feigned disinterest while on the phone. He hmmed and hawed but he had accepted his invitation and second he hung up the phone he broke out in this big grin.

Mary had almost teared up over it. Just the very look on his face, his utter excitement… it made her day. Even if it had illuminated just how strong a hold Rowan still had on him. But once the party was upon them, Steve was suddenly nervous. He had been up in his room struggling to pick an outfit. And poor Aunt Deb, who was too tired to have Steve pacing about his room struggling to find an outfit he deemed acceptable, was moved into Mary's room for her nap until Steve left.

So Mary was grateful when Danny rang the doorbell. She rushed to answer it smiling happily at Steve's partner and… the very cute guy he had with him.

"Hey Mary," he said, leaning in for a hug. "This gimpy mug is my brother, Matty. Feel free to give him a hard time."

Matty limped up to her, a suddenly roguish look on his face. "Hi. I'm Matthew Williams, the fun one."

Danny shook his head this was weird, and he didn't like Matty's jokes. "Right, where's Steve? We're already late," he said.

Mary tore her eyes away from Matty and his dazzling grin to say: "In his room," and then her eyes were back on Matty. The two were gawking at each other like they were trying to mesmerize one another. Danny couldn't stomach the stupidity so he walked away. He pounded up the steps to where Steve was getting dressed up. He had picked the grey suit, with the black dress shirt. No tie, chest partially revealed by low buttons, pointy shoes on.

"You know she's not gonna be there right?" Danny asked.

Steve startled as if he hadn't noticed Danny in the doorway. He looked down to what he was wearing and then up to Danny who was wearing a similar getup but in navy blue.

"You're dressed up," he snapped. "They said black tie… but I didn't want to be like…"

"No, I get it," he said. "I was teasing. You know. I was just teasing." Steve said nothing he just looked down at his clothes and Danny realized that he might try to change again. "You know we're late right? Chin says we missed a video of her coming down a set of stairs looking amazing, and then some kids sang her happy birthday. We're gonna miss the whole party at this rate."

Steve turned back to his mirror looked at himself once more and said: "I don't think I can do this."

Danny was flabbergasted. He was absolutely shocked that Steve even said it. Especially after how upset he had been to not be invited in the first place. "Okay… okay… so we don't go. Me and you… drinking, like I originally planned."

Steve said nothing, just a noncommittal kind of… yeah… that Danny knew meant that Steve wasn't sold on the idea.

"Okay," Danny said coming to stand beside him. "Here's what we do… you clearly want to see her and how she's doing, so why don't we go and if gets to be too much… we'll leave. You just tell me when it gets to be too much and me and you, we'll go… and we'll go drinking."

Steve nodded. "Yeah… yeah… I can… I can do this. I'll be okay, right? I mean… it's just a party… and… and I mean… I do want to see if she's okay. She'd be okay right?"

"Well I mean… I doubt Wo Fat's gonna show a video of her sobbing and begging to come home…" Danny said. "So maybe… don't except something like that."

Steve scowled at him. "That's not what I was talking about, Danny."

"I know, I know that. I just… I don't want you to get the wrong idea, you know? I don't want you to get your hopes up thinking that she'll… you know… turn to the camera and give you all your answers," Danny reminded him, like he needed the reminder. Danny wasn't expecting this to go well, but if he could minimize the damage he would.

"Alright, we good then. We good to go?" he asked when Steve didn't respond. His friend merely nodded. The two of them headed down the stairs where they found Mary on the couch with Matthew on the floor with Joanie. He had taken off his suit jacket and traded it for a pink feather boa and a plastic crown.

Danny opened his mouth to shoot some kind of witty comment at his brother but Steve was shuffling around like a zombie and he realized he didn't have time for any of that.

"Kay, time to go," Danny said heading for the door but Matthew didn't more.

"Uh… yeah, no, I'm going to be staying here. Y'all go on without me," he said.

Danny stopped at the door and glared down at his baby brother, hands on his hips looking like a scolding mother. "You've gotta be kidding me," Danny snapped. "This is her birthday celebration… you know for the girl who saved your stupid life?"

"Yeah I know, but it's a one way viewing. We can see her but she can't see us. She'll never know the difference," Matty said with a shrug. "Besides, Joanie here has invited me to a tea party, so…"

"You're absolutely ridiculous," Danny growled. "Fine, stay here, but if either Wo Fat, who spent a lot of money taking care of you, or Rowan, who saved your life, asks why you came all the way here but didn't show up for her party I'm throwing you under the bus."

It was a heavy guilt trip, but Matty grew up with Danny. He grew up with Danny's family. And he was not phased at all.

"Sounds good," he said with a chipper little wave. Steve had to practically drag him away from the house. Was it weird that Matty wanted to stay with Mary and Joanie? Hell yes. Did he need Danny ranting the whole ride to Kong's about how Mary and Matty were giving each other the come hither eyes and there was no way that Danny could survive the McGarrett family being a part of his? Hell no. But he got it anyway.

Steve would have argued more, except he was driving the Camaro and was starting to panic about this party. Why did he think this was a good idea? His chest was already tightening just thinking about seeing her again and it wasn't even in person. Why did he think he could handle this, seeing her. She was going to be happy, and vibrant, and that was going to kill him. Because he wasn't any of those things. He was still drowning. It may not have been a daily thing, but there were days where the pain of losing her would hit him like a sledge hammer.

And the littlest things could set him off. Though, most recently it was the songs on the radio. More and more they began to remind him of her. He couldn't listen to Why Her Not Me without feeling something. The first time he heard it, though, he cried, he could gratefully say that he no longer burst into tears when he heard it but those lyrics still hurt him. Like it was written to stab him straight in the heart. Problem was, the songs were written by Rowan. They were written by some guy named Wick.

It was pathetic that he had even bothered to check.

If Danny thought it was weird that Steve was quiet the whole ride, he didn't mention it. Too busy bitching about Mary and Matty. He didn't say anything until they got out of the car and Steve started to stall by doing up and then undoing the buttons of his suit jacket as he stared at the house in front of him.

Danny took in his posture, his fiddling hands, the look on his face and he sighed. "You okay?" Steve blinked his eyes and swallowed carefully. Danny sighed once more. "Hey, you can do this, okay?"

Steve nodded, fixed his face so he had his brave face on, and then followed Danny into the house.

He was greeted almost immediately by the servants. Each one dressed in these amazing penguin suits. Some were serving drinks, some had small hors d'oeurves, and others were posted at entrance ways to help people get around the house.

Danny and Steve both took the offered the bubbly from the tray. Steve's nervous stomach couldn't handle food, while Danny loaded up on all the little hors d'oeurves. When they got down to the basement, they found their friends waiting for them in a home movie theater. Each were dressed up quite nicely, just like Steve and Danny. They all welcomed them. There they found that Kong had set up a snow cone station, a pancake bar and popcorn maker. The walls were covered in fairy lights, there were purple and gold balloons and streamers. So clearly there was a theme here. All of Rowan's favourite things.

They were large lazy boys for seats, rows of them. The little group of mostly Five-0's was standing in the space between the screen and the chairs, where the food stalls lined up along the wall. The screen was playing silent videos of Rowan singing. Videos of Rowan and the gang. Of him and Rowan together.

Nahele left Kong's side and rushed to Steve's hugging him tightly. "You're here!" he cried. "Kong said you were coming but I didn't… I didn't think…"

Steve hugged Nahele back, having missed the boy as much as he seemed to have missed him, if not more. "Yeah, I'm here."

He tried his very hardest not to look at the videos before him. It was hard looking at his past. Because he was happy. They were all happy and he ruined everything.

"I heard uh… I heard I missed a whole video?" Steve asked. "Any chance that we could rewind that?"

Nahele turned to Kong who was standing quietly beside Brandy. He blinked his eyes calmly and then slowly looked down. "It was uh… a live feed. So, I unno… I unno if anyone recorded it…"

"Could you ask him?" Nahele asked and Kong sighed, clearly frustrated.

"I could ask, but I unno when he'll get back to me. He is… you know… at her birthday party. And he's, really, like I mean truly, invested in this party…"

But when Nahele just turned his pout onto Kong, the man sighed and pulled out his phone. "Don't hold your breath kid."

After that, it was kind of, quiet. The screen continued to loop through videos of Rowan from before, Steve made small talk and kept Nahele by his side which, he was certain, was annoying the Liangs but he didn't care anymore. It was a long time since he had gotten to spend time with the kid, and with Rowan's visage on screen he could easily pretend that she was there with him and everything had gone back to normal. And he needed that right now.

The screen suddenly went blank and everyone went quiet. Beside him Nahele practically began to vibrate.

"It's happening again," he cried. "EVERYONE TO YOUR SEATS!"

Everyone quickly rushed to the row of seats closest to them, while Nahele turned and dragged Steve to sit next to him.

Once they were all sitting the screen began to flash and then suddenly the feed was live. The camera was pointing at a door, he could tell it was in a backyard, he could tell the house was big, but he didn't know where that house was and there was no identifiers that could help him pinpoint it.

Steve struggled to turn to his investigator side of his brain off, but the second the door opened it all turned off.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the birthday girl!

He barely heard the music or the announcer. All he could focus on was Rowan. In that beautiful black sequinned dress, it showed off everything, literally everything. Her beautiful tanned legs, her cleavage bared, her hair a voluminous wave of beautiful blonde and vibrant red pinned up beautifully, her eyes framed by this wide smoky cat eye. She looked healthy, she looked healed, she looked… so happy.

She smiled beautifully at the camera, at the people behind the camera. Steve was helpless to watch as Wo Fat jogged into view, to offer her an arm so she could step off the patio.

The second she did his heart stopped. She was wearing red-bottomed heels. She finally got those shoes she wanted so badly and he had a feeling he knew exactly who had given them to her.

The camera panned out so they could continue to watch as Wo Fat lead Rowan through the crowd of people who were all clapping. Steve couldn't keep his eyes off of her, he was sure he had stopped breathing. She looked ethereal. This out of touch goddess, being lead through a crowd of people and twinkling lights.

Wo Fat's party had the exact same theme as Kong's. Pastel purples and golds. There were streamers and fairy lights and a stage set up.

But he was leading Rowan to this giant cake, It had to be five tiers at the least, it was done up in purple pastel and gold fondant. It was covered in sparklers and candles.

And then they were singing her happy birthday. In the theater, everyone present began to sing with them, as if they were there. Steve couldn't find it in him to join in. Rowan's big giant gleaming grin reached each and every person but when it hit the camera Steve felt as if that smile was burning into him.

Rowan blew out the candles she could reach and a cheer went up and just like that the screen went blank again.

"Okay, I guess that's it's for the time being," Kong said. "Anyone want any refreshments?"

"I'd like a refresher for my popcorn, dear, no butter though," Brandy said.

"Oh! Can I get another lime snow cone," Nahele added.

"What, so I'm doing it for you? I'm the server now?" Kong asked.

But when both Brandy and Nahele hit him with a perfectly synchronized: "Please?" he groaned but got up to do as was asked of him.

As he was up the lights suddenly dimmed and the screen flashed again. Everyone went still and Kong practically tripped over himself to get back to his seat where he shoved the popcorn and snow cone into the correct hands. By the time he was sitting the party was back. The camera had moved, he wasn't sure where but he could tell that it was now farther away so they could see the whole dance floor and JC on the stage with the band.

But it was Rowan in the crowd that had Steve's attention. As she… tangoed… with Wo Fat. Why… why did she have to be tangoing with him? When the hell had she even learned to tangp? When the hell did Wo Fat learn? What was this man doing with her? fucking ballroom dance classes clearly? But most importantly, why did they have to look so good dancing together?

You shake like vibrato. A model or some kind of bottle. Well pour up, cause I want a taste… a taste oh!

Part way through the second round of the chorus Wo Fat passed her off to someone else. Someone he was pretty sure was the lawyer Wo Fat had sent to get Coughlin off of Chin's back. As soon as they switched partners the dance stopped being sophisticated and turned into something more carnal. More like what he saw when he was watching Latino music videos. There was gyrating and ass shaking a lot of other things that shouldn't have been happening in that short of a dress with that strange man that wasn't Steven.

Steve forced his eyes away, refusing to let his heart burn with jealousy. What did he have to be jealous over? Rowan left him. She chose to not come back. He was off dating other people, obviously she would date other people too.

Steve downed his champagne and reached for something stronger. He needed things to blur around the edges so that things didn't hurt as much anymore.

The next song was a duet and it had Rowan back on the stage. But a Rowan on stage was a Rowan in her natural element and seeing her center stage the lights haloing in that vibrant red aura as she belted out this song with JC burned just as much as watching her dance with that lawyer.

Yo sólo la miré y me gusto. Me pegué y la invité: "Bailemos?" hey. So now we dancing un reggaetón lento. Just get a little closer, baby, let go.

Her Spanish, her flawless Spanish, that voice he hadn't realized he had missed as much as he had. That voice he was used to hearing coming out of his washroom, in his kitchen.

Steve just drank a little more until the music stop hitting him, until he was fairly certain he could just swallow back the tears climbing up his throat. The sudden raw desire to tackle Kong to the floor and demand he tell him where this feed was broadcasting from.

But the next song. The song that was Rowan's solo. The lyrics hit him harder than he had ever expected.

When the music gets so loud and the girls are all around, do you think about us?

Yes. Yes he thought about them. He thought about them, about Rowan, about everything he would change if he could. And being here, watching her happiness wasn't filling him with any sort of reassurance like he thought it would. She was fine. She was happy. And she clearly didn't miss him.

Steve stood before anyone could stop him and made a bee-line for the door. He took the steps up to the main floor of the house, but didn't realize that Danny was on his heels until he got outside.

"Hey!" Danny called. "Hey, hey, it's okay."

Steve shook his head. "I thought I could… but I can't… I can't do it. I can't sit there and watch that and not…"

"Hey, I know, you know?" Danny said. "I know. I do. To be honest you lasted a lot longer than I thought you would. The second she came out in that dress I pegged you to be done with this. You did good. You know? Like really good!"

Steve shook his head, and tried not to pace. He shouldn't pace, he wasn't sober he'd just be wobbling.

"Did you want to go for a drink, me and you? Get this out of your system."

"No. Thank you, but no. I want… I just want to go home."

And Danny divulged him.

The drive was a blur. Steve might have passed out, he might have slept, he might have been crying but he wasn't sure. When he got to his house, he got out of the car. Danny following him up the path to the front door. The realization hitting him, for the millionth time, that when he came through the door Rowan wouldn't be jumping into his arms, she wouldn't be waiting for him in his kitchen or sitting on his couch with a mug of tea and a book.

It was stupid. It had been months since she had been home, since he had had her throw herself at him. But there wasn't anything in the world he wouldn't have traded at that moment to open that door and have Rowan there in front of him.

Instead he opened the door, threw his keys to the floor and found Matty and Mary tangled up on his couch, clearly in some kind of lover's embrace. All clothes were on, thank god but that didn't mean he wanted to see… that!

Behind him Danny swore but Steve was too tired, too drunk and too hurt to put to much thought into it. He just oved forward, grabbed Matty by the collar of his shirt and threw him at Danny ignoring Mary's cry of indignation.

"Just… just get him out of my house," he said to Danny who was already saying goodnight and strong-arming his bother through the doorway. Once the door was shut he turned back to Mary. Before she could say anything he said: "I have to sleep on that couch."

He moved away, hoping to tiptoe into the main washroom so he could get changed. He had been smart and left his PJs in there so he wouldn't have to wake Aunt Deb when he got home, since he predicted he'd come home late.

He ignored Mary's attempts to ask him how the party went and just locked himself in the washroom. Waiting for the tears to come but nothing came. Steven was officially cried out. But the pain, the pain was still there and he was starting to wonder if Danny was wrong. Maybe he'd always miss Rowan this badly, maybe this pain would never go away.