Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! I know I said I'd get this chapter out yesterday but I had so much more to write than I thought! Anyway, here it is, this chapter has a wonderful little twist and it opens up to the next MASSIVE lie that Wo Fat is going to tell Rowan. However, for the next couple of chapters we're going to be leaving the Five-0's behind for a little while and we're going to be following Rowan's shenanigans and trust me... she's going to get up to a lot. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Monday. (if I finish writing that chapter that is)

Chapter 255

Abby had resigned herself to losing her job. She was so resigned to it that she had thrown her badge into the ocean. Coughlin be damned she wasn't about to let him corrupt her in that way. She'd rather go back to work as a regular beat cop then work for his dirty operation, for his witch hunt. She had just gotten back to the hotel, was part way through packing when there came a knock on her door.

She went to it, checked the peep hole and saw Steve on the other side. Damn, he must have confirmed that Rowan's intel was correct. He was here to yell at her clearly. And not only did she know he'd probably kick down the door to talk to her, she also knew she deserved it. So she opened the door.

His smile seemed warm, his eyes creased with worry. He offered a simple: "Hey."

Abby smiled back as confidently as she could. "Hi, come on in," she offered. Might as well get this over with.

He slipped in past her, looked around at her room and then turned back to her. Abby shut the door and steeled herself for a very angry confrontation but he didn't say anything, he just stared at her, his hands on his hips, looking altogether too calm for someone who just found out that the woman he swore in as temporary Five-0 was actually there to take him down and spy on him for a man with a grudge against Five-0. Well if he wasn't going to start with the lecture she might as well start him off.

"I'm sorry Steve," she said. "When I found out what this was about, I told Coughlin I couldn't do it anymore. I lied. To you, to everyone."

"Yeah, you did, but you had an assignment. You were following orders," he said. "No one blames you for that. We all understand how it works."

She half scoffed and Steve paused. "No, I actually… I really mean that, Abby. By now, I'm pretty sure I know what type of person you are. I can see your integrity, and on top of that, I think you're an outstanding cop."

"You know the crazy thing about it? The whole cover story they made up, shadowing your unit, seeing how you do things, why you've had the success you've had, it worked, because it's the truth. And what you're doing with Five-0, you're making a difference."

Steve took that in with a casual nod of his head as if he already knew that, or maybe he didn't quite believe that. Either way he opted for a topic change. "What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. "I was under Coughlin's supervision San Francisco P.D. considers what I did an act of insubordination. If I go back, they'll take my shield and reassign me to patrol. "

"I guess you better stay here, then, help us."

Abby was dumbfounded, she had no idea what to say and when he just smiled. "Why don't you think about it?"

As he moved towards the door, Abby called out for him to wait, she figured if he could give her such a big gift, she could do the same.

"I think we should get to why you're really here," Abby said. "You want to know what Rowan said."

Steve's smile was a wry one. "That transparent huh? I guess you figured Chin told me that she made contact. That's uh… that's quite the honor, she hasn't made contact with any of us since… well since she left…"

Taken more like it. she had heard the story, and with just how fiercely she protected her five-0 friends she had a feeling there was some sort of extenuating circumstance that was keeping her from coming home. And she had a feeling it lay with that criminal brother of her.

"I don't know her Steve," Abby said. "I don't know her tones or her mannerisms. I know that she knew things and I didn't know how she knew them. I know she sounded… uncharacteristically chipper…"

"Yeah she does that. It's this thing she does when she's afraid. Her voice pitches up makes her sound more… unintimidating. I unno I'm not sure she realizes she does it."

"She didn't say much to me, just that she understood that I was in a tough situation, and then she asked him to hand Robert the phone, the rest of the conversation was between she and him, but… she had pictures of his family and someone took a shot at him, narrowly missed him. He's understandably pissed."

"And have you told him that Sanctuary has been active with us?"

"I did, but I haven't seen any of you use it. All I've seen it do is appear. It's never something you seek out which is the problem. Rowan's taking all of the blame onto herself to clear you guys."

"Yes and if I'm correct, if Robert keeps digging he's going to have to deal with her," Steve said. "You have to understand she's not usually this bad… it's just that… when she's with her brother that ruthlessness…. It's like she doesn't have a conscience."

"Well, she didn't kill me," Abby said. "I was worried she would."

"Yeah well… that's another thing Rowan does, she kinda ride or die for her family."

"But I'm not family."

Steve smiled. "Yeah, about that," he said as he opened the door revealing Chin. "See, though I'm pretty sure we'd all like you stay, there's one in particular, who happens to be Rowan's immediately ohana who has a decided interest in you staying. I'm going to guess that swayed her decision on the whole killing you or not matter."

As Steve left, Chin came into the room. Pulling Abby in for a hug. She apologized to him again but he silenced her with a debonair smirk and a joking: "It's a good thing we're dating huh?"

Yes they were still dating! Yes, wonderful! She had been worried that her confession had shattered her chances for them but he still liked her still wanted her. She kissed him quickly, more than glad that he was here, and already leaning towards staying with Five-0. Anything to get more kisses from him.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The arrow hit the man in the leg and he went down immediately.

Danny approached him carefully, he started by firsts ripping the arrow out of the man, who howled in agony when he did so. The second thing he did was kick the gun away from him. The third was a swift kick to the arm and a gruff snap of: "Don't fucking move," then he was moving forward again, restringing the bow and arrow as he did. There was one other guy for him to find.

Danny was not having a good day.

All he had wanted to do was have a nice lunch out, at a new food truck with the best chicken on Hawaii, out in the country side of Koala Moa in Haleiwa. He wanted it to be a phoneless day, where they all left their phones in the car and had good old fashioned family time. Grace had pouted, apparently unable to function without her phone while Charlie seemed more interested in wearing his chicken instead of eating it.

The first problem, other than Grace's attitude, was when they went back to the car they found out that his car was gone. Not gone. Stolen. Someone had stolen his car. Now, could Danny have borrowed someone's phone to call this in, hell yeah. He could have killed two birds with one stone and called Steve. Would have gotten him a ride and called it in all in one. But there was no way, no way, he was going to tell Steve that his car got stolen out from under him. He'd never live it down.

So they had decided to take the bus home. Or well, that's what Danny said. And on that bus, he got more attitude from Grace, Charlie decided to lick a bus seat, they bumped into their old friend, or well, Steve's dad's old friend, Mamo who was apparently also a bus driver as well.

But it was on that bus ride that they witnessed his car peeling out of what he assumed was an armed robbery at a gas station. Just a hunch by all the shouting, the waving arms, and the way they had raced off practically burning the rubber off his new tires. He had pulled a Steve and commandeered that bus immediately, forcing them to follow his Camaro and the thieves inside. He told Mamo to follow at a safe distance, like a bus normally would, but the idiot turned onto a dirt road to follow them, which alerted the thieves to well… to a bus following them.

Once Danny realized that, he got everyone off of the bus, leaving his children with Mamo for the rest of this. He gave chase in his bus, looking for the car, and found it abandoned a few blocks over.

The car was empty, they had his work gun, they had his badge, they had his extra gun he thought he had hidden in the trunk. They had even taken the phones. Of course they took the phones. Not that it mattered because he had no fucking signal. Couldn't even call Steve. And right now he really wanted Steve. Or Sandy. But he didn't know if she could run without service. Nothing had popped up on the phone or the car's built in GPS either so he was guessing no.

He wasn't sure how he was going to take on an unknown amount if assailants, he wasn't Steven McGarrett who had gotten twice as reckless since he had lost his family. Luckily he flagged down Vance, a boar hunter who, not only had a giant dead board hogtied to the top of his jeep, he had a secondary bow to offer to the hunt and was willing to help him track the guys.

This was wonderful because without his own personal pathfinder Danny was lost. And in case you missed it, he meant Steve. Steve was his personal pathfinder. Though this guy was better than Steve, just as good at tracking just not as cocky and nicer.

But that was how he got here. Vance was off calling 911 from the landline while Danny had gone after the two assailants who were shooting at him with his own gun. He had taken one down, he got the arrow to his leg, and now he was looking for the other.

And he didn't have to look far because the other guy had come around the corner. No doubt to avenge his fallen friend, by shooting Danny with his own service gun.

"Stop! Don't move," Danny ordered his bow up and ready to fire. But, while the guy momentarily paused, he didn't actually stop. This guy looked like a tough Hawaiian native. Low hanging khaki shorts, black jersey, black ball cap on his head. But Danny could take him, he had no doubt.

"Well, this is a situation," the guy with the ballcap said. Gun up and ready to go.

Danny tightened his grip on his bow. The fact that he was going up against a guy with a gun with a bow and arrow was so stupid. "Put down the gun," he ordered

"Or what? You gonna shoot me in the leg too?" he taunted. "From what I seen, your aim ain't too tasty."

There was a beat of silence and then they both fired at once. The bullet glanced off of Danny's upper arm whereas Danny's fired arrow hit the man straight to the chest. Both men fell, Danny knocked off balance by the hit to the arm, the other guy essentially just fell down dead.

Danny was on the ground for all of two seconds before he heard someone calling his name. Someone who sounded like Steve but how did he… how did he know that Danny needed help, or where he was. Unless Vance had gotten a hold of the Calvary and someone had called Steve, but then how did he get here so fast? Did he teleport?

Danny carefully got himself up as Steve, with gun in hand rounded the corner past the guy that was downed originally and then skidded to a stop beside Danny.

"Danny! Danny I heard the gunshot are you okay?" he cried, his hands going to the injury and then to his shoulder to hold onto him and look around.

Danny sighed. "Yeah… yeah, I'm good," he said.

"You're bleeding, you get hit?" Steve asked which was stupid cause of course he did.

"It's just a graze," Danny said and then turned a soft stare to Steve. "Sorry to worry you on your birthday."

He had asked Steve to come with him and his kids out for chicken that day. But Steve was determined to stay home and punish himself. It was like he was certain that he wasn't allowed to be happy. So he had planned to be alone for his birthday, alone in an empty house. Wouldn't even let his friends take him out for a beer.

"It's fine," Steve said. "So what uh… what happened here?"

Danny looked at the two guys, both downed by an arrow. He half laughed. "First time I aimed for his head and got him in the leg. The second time, I went for… uh… the leg… and got him in the chest."

Steve, who was busy taking his shirt off to rip into pieces to patch Danny up glanced to the body and then back to him. God why did he have to always take his shirt off, there were no girls he needed to impress so what the hell?

"Did uh… did Vance call in the cavalry?" he asked.

Steve shook his head. "I got here while Vance was making the call. Calvary is on their way though."

"Oh… uh… then… how did you find me?" Danny asked.

"Ro," Steve said holding up his phone. "She uh… she sent me a text."

Danny peered at the screen all it said was: Danny in trouble. Go ASAP. And then a bunch of numbers which he assumed were coordinates.

"She's getting coordinates with her dreams now?"

"I unno, I unno what's going on, but they're getting terribly accurate all of a sudden," Steve whispered. And like the phone decided to start ringing out of nowhere.

"McGarrett," he answered but was met with silence.

Danny sighed. "I'm bleeding out he picks up the fucking phone."

Steve shot him a glance and turned back to his phone. He was about to say his name again when he heard a soft whisper of: "Hi."

His body went still. He knew that voice. He'd recognize it anywhere.

"Rowan?" he whispered back.

"Yeah. Uh. Hi," she said. She sounded nervous. Like she expected him to be mad at her. And maybe he was a little. "Did uh… did you find Danny?"

So it really was her texting him and not just a message from the app. "No… yeah… I did thanks… uh… thanks for that," he whispered and for a second Rowan was silent and he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to say to her that wouldn't sound crazy or pathetic. He was disastrously on the verge of telling her that he loved her and he wanted her to come home.

"Well that's great! Uhm… so yeah, the uh… the real reason I was calling is cause… uh... I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. So uhm… Happy Birthday!"

She had remembered. She was calling him to wish him a happy birthday. That was standard wasn't it? So why was his heart beating wildly out of control in his chest?

"Thanks," he answered. He couldn't find the words to say anything else. He knew if he started talking he'd start begging and he was too proud to beg Rowan to come home.

"Are you having a good day?" she asked. God, this was what they had become? A pair of strangers unsure how to talk to one another so they were resorting to small talk.

"Yeah, it's been good," he replied, he noticed that Danny was staring at him so he quickly got up and walked away from him. This needed be a private moment. Rowan murmured "good, good" to him and then he couldn't keep it in anymore. "Are you happy, Rowan?"

"Yeah, I mean… uhm… yeah. I've been doing all sorts of cool things," she said but she didn't sound happy. He longed to ask her where she was, but he knew if he had the information he'd send authorities to go get her and he wanted her to be happy.

"You know you can come home, if you want," he said before he could stop himself. "I know you said you didn't want to see me again, but everyone else misses you, I'm sure they'd love to have you come visit. I won't arrest you or Wo Fat if you're worried about that."

God he sounded so pathetic. Practically begging her to come home. Lying to her too. The second she set foot on this island he'd be all over her. She'd never leave again. Wo Fat would be leaving in a body bag. She'd hate him forever but he wouldn't care.

There was silence from Rowan's side for a few seconds before she whispered: "I never said I didn't want to see you again, Steven."

Steve felt his eyebrows furrow together with confusion. "Yes you did," he told her. "You called me and told me you were done with me and you wanted me to stop looking for you. That I picked Catherine, you picked Wo Fat and I couldn't change my mind again."

He could almost hear the confusion on Rowan's end too. He heard her take a deep breath and he knew that she was going to say some shit. "No I didn't. I called you and you told me you weren't coming to get me and that you didn't want me to come home because you were with Catherine now."

Steve blinked his eyes. "No I didn't," he told her. "Rowan, what are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?" she snapped. Steve felt that same sensation of apprehension on the back of his neck, stiffening his shoulders and making him nervous. That stone of worry in his gut sinking further. Had they been lied to?

"I did come to get you but I couldn't find you," Steve told her. "You called me and told me to stop looking."

"No. I. Did. Not," she cried. "Wo said you never even came to Japan. He said you were on a case and you sent him to get me. So I called and asked if you were coming, and you said no. Then I asked if you were going to meet me at the airport and you said no. And then you told me not to come home."

Steve's mouth ran dry. She thought he didn't come to Japan. She thought that he hadn't come to look for her. She thought he told her not to come home? WHAT THE HELL?

"Rowan, I never said any of those things," he told her. "I wanted you to come home. I wanted to find you. Didn't you get any of my messages? Rowan, I didn't pick Catherine I picked you. I wanted you. Do you understand? I wanted you!"

Rowan was silent for a second as he stood there breathlessly clinging to the phone. Willing her to hear the truth in his voice. Willing her to believe him.

"Steve… I don't understand," he heard her whisper.

"Just tell me where you are. Where are you Rowan? I'll come there, we'll straighten it out," he told her.

"I don't know…" she whispered and then she paused. "Hold on a sec…. What? I'm talking to Steve."

He wasn't sure what happened but he heard Rowan yelp, heard a sort of scuffle and then the line went dead. Steve looked at his phone. At the number he didn't recognize because it wasn't hers. It was the first time that a number had come through, it wasn't just blank. He didn't recognize that area code either. 416? Where the hell did that area code belong to?

Steve dialed Chin and then waited for him to pick up. "Hey. A call just came in on my cell phone. Can you figure out where it was calling from?" he asked. Chin agreed and then hung up the phone and Steve sighed.

What the hell was going on?

"What was that?" Danny asked. "Was that Rowan?"

"Yeah. She called to wish me a happy birthday," he told him.

"And then you guys argued?" Danny asked. He tsked at him and sighed: "Typical"

"Uhm, yeah. I don't know. Something doesn't seem right," he whispered.

"What are you going to do?" Danny asked watching Steve carefully.

"I don't know," Steve replied, because he didn't. If they had been lied to, it was done by Wo Fat. But he had no idea where in the world Rowan was. How was he going to figure that out without her? No he'd just have to wait to hear from her again. But at that moment he had to worry about getting Danny's gunshot wound patched up and then back to his kids. Rowan would have to be on the backburner until then.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan groaned from where she lay on the floor after he had tackled her. Wo Fat was on top of her, having pulled the phone she borrowed out of her hand to end the call. She couldn't get that panicked look on his face out of her mind. All she had said was that she was on the phone with Steve, why the hell did that scare him so much?

"What the hell, Oz," she growled and she propped herself up. Wo Fat got off her breathless.

"Why did you call him, Ro? Why?" he asked. He sounded so frantic, so upset, so terribly disappointed in her.

"I just wanted to wish him a happy birthday," she muttered. Wo Fat got up and looked at the phone.

"Five minutes?" he cried. "You talked to him for five minutes? Why did happy birthday take five minutes Ro? You realize he was probably tracing the call?"

Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. Why the hell would Steve trace the call? It's not like he cared. It wasn't like he wanted her back. Unless he wasn't lying to her when he was on the phone with her. Unless he really didn't say any of those things before and he really did want her back.

"Why would he trace the call if he doesn't want me?" she asked him. Waiting for his answer. If Wo Fat had been lying to her about Steve's intentions, she'd see it now, wouldn't she?

"Because I'm a criminal Rowan. And everyone's still trying to find me. Or because McGarrett is a sore loser and no matter what I do, he and I will always have bad blood," he said and she lowered her eyes. Okay so that was a good reason. She had forgotten all about that. Mainly because since taking her he had been keeping her separate from that world… and after Colombia he didn't want her anywhere near it again. "Did he ask you to tell him where you were?"

"No," she grumbled and then paused. "I… uh… I may have forgotten to block the number when I called him though."

Wo Fat swore and she winced. "Great so he'll know we're in Toronto." He helped Rowan up and then sighed at her, clearly defeated. "We're going to have to leave now," he told her. "Pick where you want to go next and I'll set it up."

"England," she answered without thinking about it. It was where they were going to head before they came to Toronto. "Actually no… let's do a train trip."

"Another one?" Wo Fat asked.

"Yep another one but you don't need to rent out the whole train for this one," she repeated. "We take a cross country train all the way to B.C. and we stop off at all the cool places to see in the provinces. I've always wanted to do one but when we were going back and forth it was for championships and we couldn't stop off. And we always took planes."

"Okay. I'll get everything set. Pack all our stuff up, say good bye to your father. We'll leave as soon as we can," he told her.

Rowan nodded. He moved to walk away, being sure to take the phone with him. "Uhm… Wo?" she called out causing him to pause. Wo Fat turned back to her. "Steve said some things… some things that don't make sense."

"Yeah? Like what?" he asked. He didn't look like a guy who's carefully laid lies were about to be discovered. He seemed genuinely interested in what Steve could have said to her.

"He said he did come to Japan to look for me. He said that you wouldn't tell him where I was. That… that he wanted me," she told him. She purposely avoided his eyes because she wanted this to be true. She wanted Steve to want her. But she didn't know who was lying to her anymore.

"Rowan… I don't know why he told you that, but I can assure that that it's not true," Wo Fat told her. "You heard him when he called you. Not me. Remember?"

Rowan hung her head. That was true. When she had called him all those months ago it had been from a clone of her own cellphone as the real cellphone was lying dormant at the bottom of her bag in case any of the governments after Wo were trying to trace it.

"Why would he lie then?" she asked.

"I don't know," Wo Fat said. "I can do some digging, figure it out if you'd like?"

"Could you?"

"Course. Anything for my imouto," he told her lightly and lovingly pinching the point of her chin like he always did. And then he left the room.

Rowan couldn't help but feel a bit crestfallen. It wasn't that she didn't love travelling the world with Wo Fat. She did. She really, really did. But she missed Steve. She loved Steve. And she just wanted him to want her to. And she wanted Nahele back. She wanted Nahele with her. All the things she was doing, she wanted them both with her to share the experiences.

But she didn't want to get hurt by him again. So she'd wait until Wo Fat could tell her what was going on. And while she waited, maybe she'd look for some clues to figure out which of her boys was lying to her.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat closed the door to Rowan's suite and let out the nervous breath he had been holding. Dear god, he was screwed. How was he going to cover this? She had talked to Steve and now his lies were unraveling around him. How was he going to explain the confusion? How was he going to look his sister in the eye and tell her that he had been lying this whole time?

Conejo came out of his own room, his mouth filled with whatever he had taken out of the minibar this time and took in Wo Fat's concerned face and realized that something was wrong. Concern dawned on his own face as he looked him up and down.

"She still in there?" he asked around the mouthful of whatever he was eating.

"Yeah," Wo Fat whispered. "Yeah, she's still there… she uh… yeah… start packing."

"Packing?" Con echoed after he forced himself to swallow. "Why? What the hell happened?"

"She called Steven," Wo Fat told him and Conejo groaned. "Call was unblocked and lasted over five minutes."

"What? Come on she knows better! Why did she call him? What the hell did they talk about?"

"I unno… he uh… he said somethings that were confusing but uh… she called to wish him a happy birthday."

Conejo shook his head. "That girl, I swear, she's a straight up kindness. She's got way too much heart, you know?

Wo Fat sighed. "We uh… we obviously have to move. He has more than enough to track us, and I uh… I can't afford to have him find us. Also she wants to do a train trip across the country…"

Conejo groaned again. "Again. Trains? What the hell is it with this girl and trains?"

"Well apparently it's beautiful, you know?" he asked and behind him he heard a pop. Wo Fat groaned, turned and opened up the door to Rowan's room and found it empty.

"She's gone isn't she?" Conejo asked and Wo Fat nodded.

"I know where she's going though, her dad's lab," he replied.

"I'll go get her," Conejo said. "You're still pissed at him over the experiment. She just wants to say good-bye you know. So uh… can you pack us up? Most of my shit's in, just you know, toss all you can into the minibar if you could."

"Yeah you gonna pay for it?"

"Why? It's your credit card," Conejo shot back with a grin. As he went towards the front door he picked up the leather jacket he had abandoned when the first came back from breakfast. As soon as he was gone, Wo Fat pulled up his phone.

He figured he had a relatively good lie he could feed Rowan to explain what had just happened. But first… first he needed evidence to give her.

He dialed Kong's number and then waited him to answer. When he did, Wo Fat immediately said: "This is gonna sound crazy but uh… how good are your photoshop skills?"

Kong sighed but eventually said: "I know I'm going to regret this but uh… I have a photoshop whiz on my current team. What do you need now?"

This was good. He might just be able to make this work.