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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Alright guys, we're wrapping up the Aunt Deb Chapter here. Once again I finished this chapter today before posting it but I think that's what it's going to be like for the next little while until I get time to move dedicate to me just sitting at home and writing as much as I can. I'm going to guess that will be happening during reading week some time in Feb or March. After this we have at least two more chapters that will be Five-0 centered before we go back to Rowan. I'm gonna do my best to keep up with three posts a week but they might not be on the right days. Keep that in mind! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday… hopefully.
Chapter 241
Wo Fat sighed to himself. He lifted the coffee cup to his lips as he watched Conejo lay out the last of the birthday presents onto the breakfast table. He knew it had been a late night for Rowan, so when she ended up sleeping in till noon he hadn't been surprised. Was he surprised that he woke up early? Hell yes, last night had been late for him too and he hadn't quite realized how stressed he was over that party until he had collapsed into bed. Was he surprised that Conejo was up? No because the man had been on high alert and very invested in Rowan's birthday being a success, just like Wo Fat had been. And they weren't done yet.
The biggest surprise wasn't that Rowan's pile of gifts had seemingly grown overnight. It wasn't that the servants had already cleared away the remnants of the party. Nor was it that Rowan was up earlier than he expected and making phone calls through the app again, probably to save one, if not all, of the Five-0's again. No what surprised him was finding out that Kong had allowed Steven McGarrett to the viewing party they had in Hawaii.
What the hell had the man been thinking?
He immediately asked if Five-0 had hacked the broadcasting signal. He said no, all of them were forewarned about that. But Wo Fat wasn't sure he believed them. Especially since Steve was in attendance. But Kong said, other than Steve leaving early, the man had been well behaved. Hadn't pestered Kong once about what he knew about Rowan. He just wanted to be included.
Maybe Steve was moving on. Kong had relayed that McGarrett had moved on, dating other women now. One in particular. A blonde. Maybe he would forget about Rowan and Wo Fat wouldn't have to worry. Though something told him that Steve wouldn't be that easily dissuaded. Sooner or later he'd start looking again, and if he had enough reason, if he even so much as heard a whisper of the lies that Wo Fat had been spinning, he'd hunt them both down.
Steven was always very good at that.
The problem was, Wo Fat couldn't let that happen. Rowan wasn't safe with Steven. The Japan incident proved that.
"You look upset," Conejo said as Wo Fat reached for the coffee urn. "What's wrong?" Wo Fat shook his head, putting a splash of creamer into his cup. "Something's wrong. Did we hear from Diego? Is that it?"
"No. Heard from Kong though."
"Yeah? How did everyone like the party?"
"He invited Steve."
The present in Conejo's hand nearly fell to the floor in his surprise. His eyes found Wo Fat panic alit on his face. "I'm sorry… what?"
"You heard me. Despite my saying otherwise, Kong was guilted into inviting him by the other Five-0's. I'm guessing Williams' doing. He was in attendance last night. He didn't stay for the whole thing, however, he left part way through Think About Us."
"Fucking hell he saw my face," Conejo whispered.
"He's met you before, Con. Several times. Remember? Once on the football field after you dealt with the NLM. When you were the lawyer for Chin, didn't he almost corner you when you were last down to help Shioma? God rest his soul."
"Yeah, but I wasn't Rowan's security then! He had no reason to be interested in me back then," Conejo snapped. Wo Fat nodded he had a point. "And just judging by how rabid he was with trying to stop me from leaving the island when I was there last, I think him not seeing my real face is important. I unno how much of Rowan's app he had access to…"
"None of it. He never wanted her to use it. Kept getting mad at her for using unless she was using it to help him with one of his cases, but god forbid she use it to keep in contact with me…" Wo Fat trailed off realizing that he sounded quite… bitter. Still. He forced himself to calm down. He had won. He had Rowan now, not Steve. She was happier there with him than she ever had been with Steve. Or so he hoped.
"Man's a fucking idiot," Conejo snarled helping himself to his own cup of coffee which he immediately loaded up with sugar. "We already knew this. The more you talk about him, the more I'm proven right."
"Good morning!" Rowan cried skipping onto the patio. She threw her arms first around Wo Fat and then onto Conejo, pressing big smooching kisses to their cheeks. She had removed her make up before bed, but her hair, which had been doused in hairspray to keep in still, had been messed up.
"I know I look a right mess, but uh… I figured you two wouldn't mind," she said putting a hand absently up to her hair.
"Nope, you look fine, if you're that worried about it Con can get you a hat."
Rowan just smiled at him, letting him reach out and try to smooth down the hair that had flattened out on one side but had also seemingly gotten pushed up so it stood a good six inches off of her hair.
"Why are all the gifts out here?" she asked.
"We thought you'd like to open gifts while you ate," he answered. Her eyes found the small tripod with the camera on it and he added: "Your friends in Hawaii would also like to see your reaction."
Rowan nodded. "Did… did they like the party?"
He hadn't told Rowan what the camera crew was for until he absolutely had to, which ended up being at the end of her three songs. A necessity. As a result, it had kind of unnerved her to find out they had been watching. She hadn't asked about Steve last night but he knew he wouldn't be able to avoid it forever.
"And… everyone was there?"
"Yes, Kong invited everyone. Nahele, The Noshimuri's… uh… the Asian one?" "Chin…" "The food truck boys, the coroner and his girlfriend…" "Kamekona and Flipper. The Coroner is Max…" "I don't care what their names are, Rowan. If I did, I would have bothered to remember them."
Rowan half smiled and then lowered her eyes. "And Steven?"
"Yes, I hear he was there too, though he left early."
"Oh… did they say why?"
"No."
"Probably Catherine then," Rowan whispered and Wo Fat nodded unable to voice that lie with Conejo right beside him.
Instead he picked up the gift that was supposed to be from him and offered it out to her. "Maybe we should tackle this pile of presents hmm? You open, I'll load up your plate with all your favourites."
"Why does she have to open yours first?" Conejo snapped, snatching up his own gift and offering it out to her. "Open mine."
Wo Fat had only checked the Five-0 gifts. Now, looking at the size of Conejo's he wished he had checked everyone else's. "That's not the ring again is it?" he asked as Rowan put down his gift to take Conejo's.
"No! It's not even the same size…"
While they had been arguing Rowan had already gotten the paper off. "Oh!" she cried, taking it out of the box to look at it. It was a leather box, in pastel purple, with custom embossing of her initials, RP, in gold. It wasn't very big, but when she opened it, a bunch of strange looking compartments were revealed.
"So you don't have to carry your jewelry in a plastic bag anymore," he said.
A travelling Jewelry box. Yes that had been on the list of things he had sent out to people who didn't know what Rowan would want for her birthday. He was surprise Conejo pulled from that. Especially since he spent so much time with her, he figured he would have known all her secret wants and desires by then.
"I love it," she said. "This is great, this is perfect for my jewelry!"
Wo Fat slipped her plate in front of her while Conejo smiled widely and then handed her another present to open. Purposely not Wo Fat's gift, her realized, probably to get back at him for offering his gift for her first. Well Wo Fat wasn't about to fight over the order of present opening, and he didn't have time to do it anyway as Armando was frantically gesturing at him.
"Alright my little imuoto," he said as brushed by her. He ran a hand over the top of her head as he went. "Keep opening gifts I'll be right back, okay?"
Rowan nodded and then turned back to her gifts. The camera was still running, not a live feed, but instead something to send Kong so he could see her reaction to her presents, and more importantly show the Five-0's how their gifts went over.
Wo Fat moved into the house where Armando was waiting for him. "What is it?" he asked because he couldn't imagine why the man looked so panicked. His family had returned to their own safe house so logically wo Fat wondered if something had happened to them.
"We heard from Diego…" Wo Fat sucked in his breath. He was about to tell him that Diego kidnapped his family and he was going to have to leave Rowan to help him get them back. "He's called for a truce."
Okay. Wo Fat hadn't expected that.
"Okay… and uh… what would this truce entail?"
"Sharing," Armando said. Wo Fat shook his head, yeah he didn't like that idea. Diego crossed a line and he needed to pay. "He wants to meet to discuss terms."
Wo Fat made a face of disgust and Armando frowned. "You don't think that it's a good idea?"
"I think it's a trap," Wo Fat said.
"A trap?"
"Yes, Armando, I'm more then 100% positive that the man is trying to trick us. It's what I would do if I were him. It's what I have done…"
"You've faked a truce to get your way?"
"Yes, yes I did. Lured the idiot into a false sense of security and then I slaughtered him and all his people…"
"Not everyone is like you though," he reminded him. Wo Fat had to concede that that was true. "And I don't think that Diego is that smart enough to come up with that detailed and sophisticated of a plan?"
Well he had him there too. Because he didn't think he was that smart but he might be that desperate.
"Fine. If you're sold on this, here's what we should do. We should draw up our terms and see what he response with."
Armando nodded and Wo Fat nodded with him. "Was that all?"
"Has she opened them all yet?" Armando asked nodded to where Rowan was still ripping free her birthday gifts.
"No, but I'm sure she'll be done soon," he said. "And she's looking happier by the day…"
Armando stared at him briefly before lowering his eyes and asking: "You think she's happy?"
Wo Fat turned back to where Rowan was laughing and tossing pieces of crumpled up paper at Conejo who was refusing to go on camera now that he knew Steven was involved.
"You don't think she's happy?"
"I think she's acting. For you." Wo Fat turned to him with eyes of wide surprise. "I think, she's happy on the outside, she's happy when she's distracted, she's happy because you want her to be. But that sadness is still there. I can see it in her eyes. And if the right trigger hits her, it comes out."
That was true. Except, since starting with her therapy, she had not been as volatile as before. Hence why he thought that she was getting better.
"It's not that bad. It was worse before," Wo Fat argued. When Armando only stared at him Wo Fat scowled. "You wouldn't know, you weren't there. Just… why don't you go to the library and draw up your list of demands… just… just go."
Armando hit him with a look that he could only describe as pity. He probably thought him in denial, and maybe he was, but was it really all that bad to want one's sister to be happy?
He turned his back Armando to join them out on the patio again and Rowan smiled up at him almost immediately.
"Look!" she said brightly as she showed him what was in side one of the boxes. He wasn't sure what that pastry really was, but she seemed excited about it. "I got like fifteen boxes of cocadas which I'm guessing is from the towns folk cause they know how much I love them."" Rowan told him.
He smiled patiently at her. She knew better than to offer him one, he wasn't as crazy about sweet things as she was. "Yeah? Wonderful. What else did you get?"
"So many things!" Rowan cried. "Kono gave me these loose plastic bottles for traveling with liquids. Danny gave me this pretty make-up case, see, see, it's purple and gold just like Conejo's jewellery box. Oh and Grace got me all these travel sized versions of my favourite fragrances. I got this scan blocker slash GPS tracker that I attached to my wallet or purse and it will keep people from stealing my pin information and will help me find it if I loose it…"
"Who gave you that?"
"Jerry."
"I don't know who that is," he murmured. Rowan opened her mouth to tell him and then figured it didn't matter at that moment.
"Friend of mine, the conspiracy theorist" she said instead and let Wo Fat nod like he knew that reference. "Chin got me this black blanket sweater, it's super fuzzy and warm."
"Did you open up mine?" he asked.
"Yes," Rowan said, her hand going to her neck where the little medallion with her name on the back and the Aquarius constellation made up of small diamonds on the front. She loved the proud smile that touched his face when he saw that she had put it on.
"What about those two, the two there," he asked pointing to the two things she had barely looked at because it was just so painful.
"Oh… these? These are… uh… well this is a custom designed passport holder," she said holding up the pastel purple and gold embossed wallet for her travel documents which had been embossed with her initials just like the jewellery case had been. "And these things are the uh… matching suitcase tags."
Wo Fat nodded. "Who are those from?" he asked. Rowan was surprised he didn't know, she would have thought that if the Five-0's sent her gifts he would have torn them apart looking for little tracking devices or something.
"The passport cover is from Nahele and these tags are from… uhm… they're from Steve."
Wo Fat peered at her very carefully, a gaze she was attempting to avoid. Which was she was quite relieved when Conejo brought up what they had been arguing before Wo Fat had come back from the house.
"Yeah, except he sent her three of them, when she only has two suitcases. She said that means she has to get a third, and I don't know about you, but I am not carrying a third suitcase."
As her boys argued about how many suitcases a girl like her needed, Rowan ran her fingers over the embossed edges of her initials on one of the suitcase tags. This was all Steve thought to give her. It was thoughtful but… it felt like an empty gesture.
"What's wrong? Don't you like it? It's your favourite color… it matches your aesthetic…"
That was true, it was light purple and gold, a simple circle shape. That was very much her aesthetic. Rowan turned a watery smile up to him, she didn't know how to explain why this one gift made her feel so damn bad. That weak smile was all she could manage for seconds later she burst into tears and the boys around her scrambled to hug her to try and make it all better.
But even in their arms, with their reassuring words, Rowan didn't feel better. She wanted more than luggage tags from the man she loved. She wanted him to come find her. She wanted to go home and get her family and friends back.
She wanted Steven to love her again.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
By morning Steve felt a little better. But not by much. Sober he realized that the reason he hurt so much watching Rowan being happy was because inside he was miserable. He was play acting at moving on, he was still operating under the assumption that Rowan was somewhere in the world missing him, wanting him to find her. He was just waiting for some kind of proof and he'd renew his search for her.
Instead he had proof that she was not only fine without him but thriving. Maybe she was acting too, maybe she was sad about their break up, but her attempts to move on were much more… active.
But waking up that morning without Rowan, even with having the reminder of her the night before, even though he dreamed he had her lukewarm body pressed against him, it didn't hurt as much as it had before. The pain was almost… muted. He just wasn't sure if it was starting to go away like Danny said it would, or if it was because he was getting used to it.
He got up when he became aware of Mary bustling about the kitchen. The smell of pancakes in the air. He could hear Joanie babbling in her half-words-half-baby-talk which meant she was up too. And though he was hung over and he was tired he got up to spend time with his family.
Though he knew he wasn't going to be eating any. He hadn't been able to eat a single pancake since Rowan left. None of them tasted good, felt like ashes in his mouth. His throat was getting thick just thinking about having to eat them.
Mary smiled at him as he walked into the kitchen to grab his French Press so he could start making coffee.
"Good morning," they said to each other, with Steve adding one extra for Joanie who garbled her way through the greeting. It was cute and she was trying so he let her have it. She was little after all she'd get it down sooner or later.
"So how was the party. I can't help but notice that you were in rather early."
"Really? Cause I couldn't help but notice that Matty was practically on top of you last night," Steve shot back.
Mary scowled at him. "Not in front of Joanie," she hissed. Like Joanie would have understood what he was talking about. Still he was willing to let go of that topic of Mary stopped asking about the party.
Steve glanced back to Joanie who was coloring and smiled at his niece.
"That is beautiful Joanie," he said as the little girl babbled back at him. "Yes. Do some spirals." She quickly indulged him. "Do another one!"
He shot a glance at Mary who was still watching the pancakes. He was desperate to not be on the topic of why he had come back early last night. So he focused on the pancake on the griddle. "Hey, you should flip that."
"Okay, well, I know my pancakes and I'll flip it when I'm ready."
"It's bubbling. It's just, when it's bubbling, it's ready to be flipped," he told her.
"Okay, bossy… you're the expert on pancakes now?"
"No, it's just… Ro… Rowan made pancakes all the time and you know… she'd flip them when they started bubbling and her pancakes where you know… perfect… so you know… I know how to make a good pancake… cause Ro…"
"Yeah but Rowan left your micromanaging ass!" Mary cried a big teasing grin on her face, while Steve's face fell. She immediately frowned. "Oh… oh… Steve I'm sorry. It was… It was supposed to be a joke."
"Yeah no, I know," he said softly. "There's uh… there's no need to get all Danny Williams on me, I was just trying to be helpful."
"I know, I'm sorry, here, I'll flip it," she said indulging him and he nodded, but the smile didn't return to her brother's face. "You really miss her, don't you?"
"Yeah, Mary, I do," he answered. "But uh, feeling sorry for myself isn't going to bring her back… or save this breakfast…"
He shot her a small smile and she narrowed her eyes at him in surprise. "Okay, you know what? If you want to be so helpful why don't you go wake up Aunt Deb and tell her that breakfast is ready."
"You mean burned."
"It's not going to be burned. You're gonna love it"
Steve walked past Joanie, whispering all too loudly that it was up to her to make sure that her mother didn't set the kitchen on fire much to Mary's dismay. He then jogged up the steps to his bedroom where he had graciously forced upon his Aunt Deb as Joanie and Mary were in Nahele's room and there was no way he was letting her sleep on the couch.
"Aunt Deb, good morning," he called after knocking on the door. For a minute she was quiet so he knocked again and called her name. When he got no answer he let himself in.
"Hey, Mary's burning breakfast downstairs if you're hungry," he called but she still didn't answer and she didn't move. A whisper of dread ran through him as he stepped into the room. "Aunt Deb?" he repeated as went around the bed to get to her side.
He looked down to her and said her name one more time. Luckily her eyes opened. She kind of half smiled at him, almost weekly. He knelt down beside her and smile his good morning back at her. She managed a little bit of a wave and then she slowly closed her eyes and softly exhaled.
What… what just happened?
Downstairs the doorbell rang and Mary went to answer it. Steve looked away and then back to his Aunt Deb. God if that was Matty come to court his sister he was going to kill him. He couldn't handle that today… not when… not when he was pretty sure…
"Deb?" he asked again, this time softer. She didn't answer him. He reached out to brush his fingers against her. She didn't move, she wasn't breathing and already she was starting to cool off. God good, it had really happened. She… she had died.
Below him Mary called his name and Steve panicked. He didn't know how to tell Mary that the woman who raised her, who was more her mom than their mother ever was, had just died in his bed. But when he didn't answer she came pounding up the stairs calling for him.
"Oh there you are," she said appearing at the doorway. "Steven, there's an ambulance here, they're insisting that they come check because the caller said that we wouldn't know…" She took in Steve and Aunt Deb and her face fell.
He had a feeling he knew exactly who had called an ambulance out to him that morning and he wasn't sure if he was grateful or just annoyed that she was still intruding on his life.
Mary burst into tears and Steve had to hold onto to her to keep her from buckling to the floor. The EMTs came to remove the body and both Steve and Mary went with them to keep their Aunt Deb with them for just a little longer.
Did she have a will? He wondered. Did she have a list of things for them to do to fulfill her last wishes? Did she know she was sick? Did she not tell them how long she had left purposely? Some of these questions would be answered some would not. It was all so daunting and Steve realized that he wanted, very much, to call his friends to get some sort of help to keep him calm and collected.
After the ambulance took her away, Steve returned to his room. Someone had died in his bed. He kind of wanted to burn all the sheets, but these were the sheets Rowan had bought for his place and they were super soft and hell of expensive to replace. It was while he was standing over them that he found Aunt Deb's bucket list.
He took the paper and unfolded it. Almost everything that was done, only one thing was missing. Climb a very tall mountain. But that wasn't all. To his surprise he found another piece of paper folded up inside.
This one had the heading: "Stevie's Bucket list," and in her writing underneath it read: "I started it for you."
Number 1. Get closure/back together with Rowan.
There were a few others underneath as well, but his eyes blurred over with his tears so he couldn't really read them. Well he wasn't sure if he could handle that one. But there was one that he could complete for his Aunt Deb. Folding up the papers Steve left his room to find Mary. They had a bucket list to complete.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
After the funeral and the cremation, as per Aunt Deb's Steven and Mary had one last thing to do for her. With Joanie on his back and the urn with Aunt Deb in Mary's backpack, the two of them climbed the highest peak in Hawaii that looked over the ocean. Together they took turns scattering her to the wind. Though it was a sad and somber moment, Steve couldn't help but smile, because he had helped his Aunt Deb complete her wish list.
The took a water break, appreciated the view, put the Urn with the rest of Aunt Deb back into Mary's backpack and then headed back down the mountain.
And that's when things got interesting because he didn't expect Danny to be waiting for him by the truck.
It was nice that Danny was there for moral support even though Steve had said he didn't need it. He let Mary take Joanie from him before he went to get a hug from Danny.
"How are you holding up?" Danny asked.
"I'm fine," Steve whispered even though that was only half true. So much loss in such a short amount of time was slowly taking its toll on him. HE was sure it was starting to show.
"Think you could uh… could handle a sensitive video?" Danny asked carefully.
"A sensitive… Danny what are you talking about?" Steve wondered.
"I have a video… of Rowan. Nahele sent it to me," Danny told him. "It's of Rowan… opening her presents."
Steve blinked his eyes. Why the hell would Danny want him to see that? "Thanks Danny, but uh… no… I don't… I mean I never got to send her anything, you know?"
"Yes you did," Danny said quickly. "And that's the part I want you to watch…"
"I sent her a gift?" Steve found himself asking, though he shouldn't have cared.
"Yeah, I picked something out to be from you, uh a set of monogramed suitcase tags. Pastel purple and gold. It was… uh… part of Wo Fat's orders, make sure to get Rowan a gift from Steve but under no circumstances tell him about the gifts or the party," Danny repeated as if he had the order memorized. At the look on his face was clearly not a positive one because Danny quickly added: "Not the point. The point is her reaction. You have to see what she does…"
He was fast-forwarding through the video on his phone. He got to the part that he wanted Steve to see and then turned the phone to him.
It was just a still of Rowan, sitting at a glass table outside. She had a plate of half eaten pancakes on one side of her, and on the other side was a box with the tags in it. She was looking up at someone standing beside her, but he knew exactly who it was, despite not seeing his face. Wo Fat was distinguished easily by the burn patterns going up the one arm.
While Rowan seemed to be in pjs. Flowing cotton t-shirt. Wo Fat was dressed to go golfing. He had a hunter green polo shirt on and white dress pants.
Steve didn't want to press play. Luggage tags. Why would Danny pick luggage tags? Steve would have picked something else to give her… like maybe her seashell necklace back or photo album to put all her travel pictures in.
"Did she… like it? The tags I mean…"
"Just watch the video, Steven," Danny ordered.
Sighing, Steve pressed play and then watched it all unfold in front of him.
What are those? Those there? That was Wo Fat talking.
The passport cover is from Nahele and these tags are from… uhm… they're from Steve. Rowan, that was Rowan's voice except he could tell that she didn't like them. Of course she didn't, they weren't enough.
Yeah, except he sent her three of them, when she only has two suitcases. She said that means she has to get a third, and I don't know about you, but I am not carrying a third suitcase.
Steve didn't recognize that voice, well actually… he kind of did recognize that voice but he couldn't place where he knew it from.
Well she is amassing more things every where we go, she might need three.
Are you going to carry three?
Well I mean… one for each of us. So long as it stays to that… what… what are you looking at? Ro? Rowan? What's wrong? Don't you like it? It's your favourite color… it matches your aesthetic…
Her face had fallen and she seemed awfully tearful. She turned her smile up to Wo Fat, who had put a hand to her shoulder. Rowan said nothing else, because she had suddenly just burst into tears, her hands hiding her face. Wo Fat immediately dropped to his knees beside her, a flurry words flying from him, real concern on his face. He tried to pull her from the chair, but when that didn't work, he forcibly turned the chair around and grabbed her, pressing her shaking form to his chest.
Whoever Wo Fat had been talking to before hand, came around the other side. He was in a white t-shirt and black jeans, pretty average. He too put a hand to Rowan's back. Wo Fat glared up at the other person.
Turn it off.
It was the last order they heard before the camera was turned off. The video stopped with Wo Fat on his knees and Rowan against his chest. And Steve wasn't wounded by it. In fact, he was emboldened by it.
"She… she cried," he whispered.
"Yes, yes she did," Danny said. "Do you know what that means?"
Yes. Yes Steve knew what that meant. Rowan was just like him. She was happy on the outside and miserable on the inside. She was just better at acting happy than he was.
That was more enough proof. It was time he went looking for Rowan.