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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: And here we go, it's another late update. I'm sorry, my wonderful readers, I'm sorry I've been so disastrous this year. It's cause of all the work I have. I'm dying. I really am. But I'm gonna keep trucking! I think it'll be a little better for at least tomorrow, because tomorrow's chapter is done. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Chapter 253

Rowan woke up the following morning before her boys did. Both of them had ended up in bed with her. Something she took to mean that both of them missed her. Neither of them wanted her to leave.

But she was desperate to try again. Now that she had the idea in her head she wanted to try and get home. She started by using her powers to void off of the bed and onto the couch. Essentially she opened a hole under her and dropped away from them and onto the couch. It hurt a bit but once she was free of the boys, she went to each one and pressed a kiss to their temple.

This would be her last attempt. If she failed this time she wasn't going to try again. She'd stay with her boys. But she owed it to herself and her family to at least try one last time.

She took the energizer gun that Wo Fat had made Conejo steal from the lab after their last void incident. She hit herself with a ray twice as powerful as she was used to and then opened the void and disappeared inside.

Once the portal closed behind her she eyed up the stupid wall of red strings. She already knew she couldn't go through it, but would she be able to go over it?

She looked up and willed herself to move upward. But the more she floated up the more agitated the strings became, and the more she realized that these strings seemed to go on forever. It didn't really thin, it didn't weave out in patches, it was just… on going?

She tried moving a little closer to get a look and that was the worst mistake ever because the stupid red strings grabbed her again. God they were always grabbing her, and even though she had extra power, no amount of pulsing behind her motions did it stop them from ripping her out of the void and throwing her right back into the water.

This time she knew it was Hawaii. Because it spit her out closer to shore this time. She swam towards the beach, pulling herself out of the water, already knowing exactly where the void had sent her and she was livid.

Why? Of all places, why the hell did it have to send her here?

Still she forced herself to walk up the beach towards the house she had left behind. The backyard was empty, the house looked silent, she wasn't certain what time of day it was, other than daytime, maybe no one was awake yet. She knew she should have voided away from this place by now but she couldn't bring herself to.

Rowan looked at the house. The back yard. The beach. Oh how desperately she wanted to go to the door, to maybe just… see them. But Catherine had her family now and it would kill her to see Catherine in her place.

Why would she do that to herself?

And knowing her, she'd start crying, and screaming and causing a scene. She might have even thrown a punch at Catherine's stupid smug face. But she didn't want to do that, she didn't want to be that person, and she was certain, even with all the extra training Con had been doing with her, that Catherine could more than take her. And she was embarrassed enough about what happened, about losing Steve to Catherine. She didn't need more things to be embarrassed about.

She was standing between the two chairs, the one that was his and the one that used to be hers and was now probably Catherine's. It must have been morning because Steve's towel and his blue hoodie lay waiting for him on the back of his chair. She couldn't stop herself from picking it up, putting it to her nose and just deeply inhaling. God his scent, how she missed that warm spicy scent of his. She just missed… everything. Maybe she could… steal the sweater, take it back with her. No… she wasn't that pathetic… was she?

She shouldn't stay. She couldn't try to go home either. Traveling through the wall was clearly impossible and every attempt was going to drop her back here. Her father would have a theory, she knew, probably something to do with her entry point being set to Hawaii for some reason, but she had a feeling she was returning to where she had left her heart. With Steven.

She slowly put the hoodie back to the chair. He'd need it when he came back from his swim. And she needed to be gone before he got back. She'd have to jump obviously and she needed to do it before Steven came back. He, out of everyone, was the one she both wanted to see and didn't. She missed him, with all her heart, but she knew, if he saw her, if he saw her and he then arrested her to get to Wo Fat it would kill her inside. She couldn't take another blow like that.

Behind her came a series of quick splashes, like someone was swimming towards her, dolphin diving in the surf. Yeah that wasn't good.

She knew, if she turned, if she saw him, she'd do something pathetic, like throw herself at him. And she couldn't do that with Catherine in the house a few feet away. Not when he told her not to come back. Not when the only interest he had in her now was as a tool to take down and hurt Wo Fat.

But the splashing stopped and she could feel his eyes on her. God, she hoped he didn't recognize her, maybe he wouldn't with the new hair.

"Uh… hello?"

Rowan couldn't help her self. His voice. God how she had missed his voice. She should have run by now, she should have voided away. She was terrified of seeing him, so why was she still standing there? She turned and there he was. Her Steven. Standing thigh deep in the water, glistening in the morning sun, squinting at her, probably not able to see her right with all the salt water and high morning sun in his eyes.

He froze where he was standing, seemingly struck dumb by her. He blinked his eyes again and held her gaze. "Rowan?"

The second he said her name she whirled around and immediately bolted. Sprinting for the house, the closest door. She needed a door to somewhere she new, she needed not to be panicked cause if he caught her, she was fucked.

"Wait!" came after her but she didn't stop. "Wait… Rowan!"

God how had he recognized her? She had changed her hair, she had… okay not much else had changed, but the change of hair had thrown off a few people at first. She couldn't stop now though, she didn't want Steve to be able to use her against Wo Fat, she didn't want to see him with Catherine, she didn't want to see him at all.

She got to the back door quickly. She put her hand to the door knob and though she was panicked she didn't have any trouble pulling a portal to that door frame. She opened the door to rush through it, slamming it behind her and disengaging the portal so Steven couldn't follow her. She then sighed and leant against the now closed door.

She was safe. She had thought of the hotel the boys were staying in, pulled the right strings to land her in their hotel room. She had used the bathroom door and, if she had walked through it right, she would have let herself into Wo Fat's section of the suite.

But the second she opened her eyes she realized that in her panic, she must have opened the portal the wrong way. Instead of ending up in the suite, she was in the washroom, where Con was sitting on the toilet staring at her with horror on his face.

He scrambled to cover himself, hunching over his lap while Rowan forced eyes away and scrambled to turn around and away. "WHAT THE SHIT?!" he screamed.

"Sorry," Rowan cried, opening the door, normally this time and then shutting it behind her. She found Wo Fat on the other side, carton of ice cream in one hand, in his nice suit pants and a white undershirt. Staring at her in utter surprise as if he was dumbfounded by Conejo's outburst and shocked by her appearance.

What the hell? Had the two of them turned into disasters the second she left? Maybe she hadn't gone to the right reality after all.

"You're back again? I thought… I mean when we woke up and you were gone…" he started but Rowan cut him off with a quick nod, knowing she was home for sure now.

"Yeah… I uh… I don't think I can go home," she told him. Then, as if uttering the words made it real, Rowan felt the weight of that realization hit her right in the chest. And just like that she was crying.

And as always, as soon as the tears started, the second she was back in her brother's soothing embrace. So, you know, at least she hadn't lost that.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Trenton Pierce was having a rough week. Since the last incident, he had not seen Rowan, A.K.A. Wick, and he hadn't seen her two brothers either. Though he did realize that they had clearly stolen from him. They had taken the energizing ray with them when they took Rowan's unconscious from out of his lab.

He had been so upset by the turn of events that he had called in sick to all his lectures and chosen to stay home. He had stayed in his office the first few days, waiting for her to return, but when it was clear she wasn't going to be coming back he retired to his specious Queens Park loft apartment to drown himself in hot cocoas with more than a hint of baileys in them.

He was a bit of a cocoa connoisseur, he always knew how to make the best hot chocolates for a person. And it started by making each person's cocoa personally. It took longer but it always came out better.

To make himself feel better, Trenton had tried calling Trevor. Trevor had been shockingly hard to get a hold of, but he kept calling, multiple times a day until he finally got a hold of him.

He thought Trevor would have been surprised to find out that Rowan was in Toronto. He figured that he would be happy to hear that Trenton had managed to talk to her, and managed to gather enough evidence to prove that Trevor was right. This Hawaiian Rowan was their Rowan. She was the one that Trevor had pulled into their world.

But Trevor was not impressed. He wasn't interested in hearing that she had powers to manipulate the void. Or that the whole reason that she survived in the first place was because her version of Trevor had hit her with an energizing ray the night before they attempted the first experiment, which not only helped her travel the void it was probably the reason why she got pulled out of all the different Rowan's in all the different realities floating around.

Trevor had just yeped and mhmmed him over and over before claiming a work emergency and ending the call. Trenton was a little put off. Trevor was the one that a better relationship and he was now the one acting as if he didn't have time for his own father.

His plan was to finish making enough cocoa for the rest of the night and then he was going to curl up with one of his physics books and fall asleep in his reading chair. But life had a different plan for him.

"Uh… hi…" someone said and Trenton jumped. He turned to find Rowan at the door to his kitchen. He blinked his eyes surprised. She had never shown up in his home before. "I'm sorry… I know I usually wait to see you at the lab but I had a situation and…"

"How did you get in here?"

"Hmm?" she said quickly. "Oh. Yeah, I popped a portal into the kitchen doorway."

She had told him that she could only do that with places she had been before and even with all their experiments she had never been able to open a portal, both in a doorway or not, to a place she had never been to before. So that meant she had been in this apartment before. He'd bet dimes to dollars that she had been there in a different reality, not this one.

This would have been the perfect time to tell her that he knew who she was seeing as her brothers weren't around. But Rowan looked jumpy and he didn't want to spook her. Especially since this was the first time seeing her since in the incident. "You said you had a situation?" he asked. "Is this situation separate from the first one? Uh… the one three days ago?" Rowan nodded. "Alright… what is it?"

"Well… I tried to go home, to my reality," she whispered and a streak of panic ran through Trenton. He couldn't help it. He had just found her he didn't want her to leave.

"And that… didn't work?" he asked, which was stupid because she was still there. "Was there something stopping you?"

"Yes, a giant wall of red strings."

Trenton blinked his eyes. Dear god. Considering those strings went all the way back to Steven that was a very… frightening bit of information to learn. "A giant wall…" he whispered and she nodded and finished with a very serious: "of red strings, yes."

"Like the red strings that connect you and this… Steven ex of yours?"

"Yep, those are the ones."

"Like the same Steven who rescued you from the vortex you created in my lab?"

"I'm sorry what?" she asked.

"Did your brothers not tell you that Steven appeared in the vortex?"

Rowan scowled. "Nom, they did not."

"Well he did," Trenton affirmed and then he paused. "Did you… love him? Steven I mean?"

Rowan sighed and looked down. "Yeah… I do… did… why lie, I do. I love him. That's it isn't it? I love him and now I can't leave."

Well it was probably a lot more than that. "Well, to create a whole wall I would assume you'd need more than one person. Judging by his appearance, and the amount of strings that appear, I'd say that he has feelings for you as well."

Rowan shook her head. "No, Steven… Steven… he left me. He picked someone else. He doesn't… he doesn't want me back."

His eyebrows shot up to his forehead. Bullshit. His daughter was beautiful and amazing and ten times better than any girl Steven could find. Steven was clearly an idiot. But he had a feeling that Steven knew he had made the wrong choice, because those red strings were still going strong. He had a feeling that Oz had taken Rowan away before Steven could figure that out and was keeping her away so he couldn't get her back. And well, Trenton figured, that was Steve's loss.

But Trenton didn't know how to say that to her so he instead he said: "Well alright, I can hypothesize different reasons why it happened, but it's clear that until I figure out how to manage those strings, that you can't go home."

Rowan nodded clearly having come to that conclusion as well. "Did you get hurt trying to go through?"

Rowan nodded again. "It was like the were suffocating me… and… and… they ripped me out of the void."

Ripped her out of the void? That was new. "Where did they take you."

"Hawaii. Both times they took me to Hawaii," she said. Hawaii with Steven. The strings were trying to tie two broken hearts together. "And it's done that before too. Every time I try to go home it drops me in Hawaii… or in the ocean off of Oahu."

The ocean off of Oahu. Where he had predicted their object had fallen. "That must be your… exit point," he said. "I assume that's where you fell your first time?"

Rowan seemed to think it over. "Uh… yes… yes… I think that's where I fell in that first time."

"Yes, so that must be where it drops you, it's the initial point of entrance," he mused. "Interesting, I suppose the strings are sending you back to where they think you're supposed to be."

"In Hawaii? With Steven? Who picked Catherine and told me not to come home?" she asked. "Really? The man who arrested me for no reason, on multiple occasions, who drugged me and took me to Japan to intimidate an Oyabun? That guy? The strings want me with that guy?"

That was a lot to drop on him. It made him realize that he should have done more to fight Steven to get to her. He shouldn't have just given up because clearly, clearly Steven McGarrett had tortured his daughter and then dumped her.

"I can't begin to fathom why the universe would want you anywhere near a man like that, but I can tell you that… for your safety, you should probably stop trying to cross that wall until I know more about what we're dealing with."

Rowan nodded again. She seemed to sad and forlorn and Trenton wished to just hug her and make her feel better. "Well… I happen to enjoy working with you, even if your brothers are… a little intimidating. I would like to have you come back to the lab."

"Whoa…" she started and then paused. "Oz, isn't really into the idea, not going to lie."

Yes that sounded fair. "I had a feeling."

"I'll do my best though," she said. "I think we just need some time."

Trenton nodded, and then out of no where she hugged him. A quick grip and then she let go. She was already walking away from him. She shot a quick: "Thanks for listening, bye," at him before she opened yet another portal in his kitchen doorway and then she was gone.

Despite his classically logical approach to emotions, Trenton found himself tearing up a bit. For the first time in his life… he had gotten a hug from his daughter.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Was Wo Fat angry that Rowan left without saying goodbye the second time? Yes. He hated that he woke up to her already gone, because he hadn't wanted her to leave.

Did Conejo punch a hole into the door to the master suite of their hotel room when he realized that Rowan had left? Yes. Wo Fat got that he was angry, he understood that Conejo hadn't wanted Rowan to leave either but did he have to take it out on the door?

Was Wo Fat going to get his deposit back? Fuck no.

Was he happy when Rowan came back? Absolutely elated. Was he happy that she came back crying? No. Was he happy that Rowan was crying because, not only could she not find her way home, but her second attempt to get home and landed her on Steve's back yard beach? No. Did it scare him that she had actually seen Steven and that he had actually seen her and recognized her with the new hair? Fuck Yes.

Did that description of the giant wall of red separating her from the way home, sound an awful lot like Steve's feelings were keeping her stuck in this world? Yes.

Did any that mean that he wanted her to go visit her father, at home not even at his lab, to figure out why she couldn't pass the wall or why she kept ending up in Hawaii? Hell no. But she jumped before telling him and she came back with well… some kind of answer.

But after her second attempt to get home, after talking everything over with her father, Rowan had decided that she wasn't going to try again. Wo Fat had assumed that the wall was nothing but Steven's feelings for her, even when he wasn't with her he was keeping her from leaving. Where it came to Rowan, that man was selfish. And Wo Fat was almost grateful for it.

Dr. Pierce had blamed Rowan's emotions for the wall. Her own subconscious desire not to leave. Wo Fat didn't like the idea of blaming Rowan for what had happened, he was more inclined to blame Steve. Rowan was already feeling guilty enough about everything. She internalized criticism like that and took them to heart.

And on top of that he had told Rowan that Steven had appeared, had been the one to save her from the vortex. Which wasn't true. Wo Fat had pulled her from that vortex. Steven had just calmed her down… and possibly saved her from a gunshot wound. But he had just stood there hugging her, Wo Fat got her out. And he hadn't wanted to tell Rowan that Steven had appeared, but now she knew and he wasn't sure what she was going to do with that information.

He expected there to be issues, she had disappeared for a little bit afterwards, not a void jump this time, just simply walked out of the hotel room. He had been worried but Rowan came back and she… well… she had a box with her, and a request.

"Can… can I take us somewhere?" Rowan asked. Wo Fat looked up from the whiskey he was drinking and the business section of the paper he was reading. He glanced to Conejo who had been lounging with the room service menu.

The two of them exchanged glances but it was clearly up to Wo Fat to figure out what was going on. "Uh… I guess that depends? Where did you want to go?"

"Well… well it's something I kinda want to be a surprise," she whispered. "It's… it's something I did before and I want to do it again and I'd love it if you two came along with me."

Well that didn't help, now did it? "Is it a surprise because neither of us will like it?" Conejo asked. Rowan winced a little bit and then his eyes turned down to the box at her feet. "And what are those."

"I uh… I actually bought myself skates. I want to go skating. And… well… do you guys want to come with me or not? Can you come with me? You don't have to skate, you can just watch?"

Yeah like Wo Fat was going to say no. Since finding out that she had a skating career, Wo Fat had wanted to watch her skate. He wanted to see how good she was at it. but he was still mad at her so he was going to act like this was a huge chore just to punish her. With a sigh, Wo Fat got up. He walked over to the closet where he pulled out his coat, expecting to go somewhere cold.

"Alright, I'm down to watch," he said. "I've been told you're pretty good, I'd like to see that in person."

"Yeah? And who says she's good?" Con asked, also getting up and reaching for his leather jacket.

"She did," Wo Fat said. "In her world she made it to the Olympics."

"No, I made it to finals. I might have made it to Olympics but uh… I got pulled here and well… yeah…" she said as she picked up her box. She reached out her spare hand and Wo Fat took it, almost instantly Conejo had the back of his jacket as well and then she popped open a portal in the door and took them through it.

There were a lot of things that Wo Fat expected. The top expectation being a rink, and he sort of got it, but he had a feeling they weren't in Toronto anymore. Already Rowan was sitting on a bench and opening up her skates. Black figure skates, traditionally those were for the men so it was surprising to see Rowan pulling them out.

Both Conejo and Wo Fat looked around. They were at an outdoor rink, and they weren't on the ground. And judging by the skyline, Wo Fat could tell that they weren't even in Canada anymore.

"Where are we?" Con asked but Wo Fat already knew.

"Paris."

"It's the Eiffel tower actually," she whispered. "I wanted to go skating here… again… the last time I was here was in my world."

"Your world," Wo Fat echoed, already Rowan was sitting to put on her skates tying them tightly and deftly.

"Yeah, I know this is crazy, but uh… I kinda wanna be able to say I've skated under the Eiffel tower in two worlds," she said sheepishly. "I… I had a pair of skates in Hawaii but uh… I didn't want to chance going back there to get them, not so soon after my last jump. I also don't know where they'd be. I'm not sure where Steve put the stuff I didn't pick up."

Wo Fat didn't know the answer to that either, so he just kept quiet. Rowan turned her eyes back up to him. "Did you guys want to skate with me?"

"Uh… maybe… do they rent out skates here, cause neither Con nor I have a pair," Wo Fat asked her and Rowan looked around.

"I'm not sure."

She turned her eyes back to the ice. Longing on her face. Wo Fat knew better than to keep her from it. "Kay, we'll uh… we'll see if we can rent skates but uh… you go on the ice and warm up and we'll be there momentarily."

Rowan smiled got herself onto the ice and then glided away while Wo Fat and Conejo turned away. "You can skate?" Con asked her.

"Hell no," Wo Fat whispered. "But to humour her I will try."

It turned out that they couldn't rent skates, but the two of them bought hot chocolates and croissants, one for each of them and one for Rowan and then returned to the ice. There in the middle was Rowan, twirling around and around in some fancy spin.

"Whoa," came out of Con as he watched her move like fluid around the ice. She wasn't even trying but she looked beyond graceful, like this was her home element.

Wo Fat had been running out of things to give her when the guilt felt a little too strong, or when he needed something to distract her from the questions she asked. But now, seeing her on the ice, he knew he had a new thing to offer her.

And he concluded that it was actually rather upsetting that his sister never made it to the Olympics. She surely deserved to go.