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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers. So in this chapter Steve's going to be looking for Rowan, and actually making some progress. Then, of course we have an update on where Rowan is. Guys in just 7 chapter they're going to be back together, isn't that exciting?! As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday.

Chapter 292

The first stop on his renewed search for Rowan was Kong Liang. He figured if anyone could tell him how the hell all known databases got Rowan's DNA wrong, or how she was sneaking past Interpol without her picture coming up, it was him. The plan was to be calm, approach him logically but somewhere between parking his truck and walking up to Kong's office, he sort of lost it.

He didn't break down his door like he usually did but he did knock quite aggressively and let himself in before Kong had even managed to respond.

"McGarrett," he said warmly. "I was just gonna call you. Nahele wants to go camping and after our last adventure, I'm down to just let you take him, what do you say?"

Normally Steve would have been happy to get a weekend alone, camping with Nahele, especially since Kong had not faired well with the hike and the camping. In fact, much like with Rowan, he too had sprained his ankle and Steve had to carry the man down the mountain.

He really had to stop taking beginners on more advanced hikes.

Steve slammed the picture of Rowan as Rory, the last existing surveillance still he got from Langford, down his desk and Kong stared at it before turning his eyes up to him. Steve didn't like what he saw there because it was fear shining in those eyes. Kong was afraid.

"He changed her name. It's Rory Wickerby now," he growled. "And she is not in Colombia."

Kong took a deep breath and sighed. Well that was the cat out of the bag, no point lying now. "You have to understand Commander, we were given clear instructions…"

"I was in this office, practically IN TEARS!" Steven shouted. "I asked you over and over again, and you lied to me!"

"Did you SEE what he did to Sato? What he had done to Gabriel? Sin Nombre is the most lethal, unforgiving, proficient assassin ON THE MARKET! That man is very picky with his assignments and he CHOSE to be her personal body guard! Do you hear me? He wasn't hired! He rescued her in Paris and chose to stay on! We were all EXPRESSLY told not to tell you ANYTHING and I wasn't about to chance what happened to Sato and Gabriel happening to me and my wife, no matter how badly I felt for you."

That was a lot. A lot right there. Rescued in Paris? Picky with his job but he chose to stay with Rowan? A mandate of not talking to McGarrett? There was a lot that he wanted to ask about, but he settled with the most important question.

"Where are they going next?"

"I don't know," Kong said and Steve actually felt that angry growl before it escaped him. Dear god, maybe everyone was right, maybe he was insane when it came to Rowan. "No, I'm serious. Rowan's app hasn't been actively tracking her since she got taken to Japan. Well… except for briefly when she was in California… but honestly. None of us even know how he's traveling anymore. They say they have some sort of new mode of transport but we don't know what it is."

Steve blinked his eyes. That would be the void stuff then, she had to be using the void to travel, but that didn't explain how he wasn't feeling her jump. And he couldn't say that to Kong because clearly he had no idea she had the power to do that.

"Then tell me what happened. How did she… become… this?"

He had gestured to the picture. The picture of Rowan that looked nothing like Rowan. Kong turned his eyes down to it and then sighed heavily as if the story hurt him.

"Look. Something went down in Colombia. There were no survivors of the incident except for Armando Diaz, Wo Fat, Sin Nombre, and your girl. Whatever happened, it put Armando in power, and it put Wo Fat on high alert. He changed her name to get her out of that country as a witch hunt was going down and they were calling for her blood. After that… she just stayed that way."

Steve nodded. "So, when I was sitting in this office and you were saying that she was in Colombia, and she was surrounded by handsome men…"

"I unno, I thought it would make you feel better."

"You thought that would make me feel better?" Steven thundered and Kong actually floundered a bit.

"Look man, I'm sorry. You want the truth? Fine she not in Colombia, she's traveling the world. She doesn't have a team of security because Wo Fat doesn't trust people with her. She's got two people, Wo Fat and Sin Nombre. And there aren't legions of guys, I just said that because you were so sad over that keychain and I thought it might help you get over her or something…"

Steve tried to hide his smile. So, her life wasn't as perfectas he thought it was. Maybe… maybe if she was still unhappy, he could convince her to come back.

"Yeah, about that. You said the man that washed up on my beach worked with Sin Nombre…"

"Oh my god, how did you find out about that?"

"MI6 had an extensive file," Steve growled.

"Oh, you got a look at that before I shredded it?" Steve hit him with a dark glare. He thought it was Langford who had destroyed the file. Apparently, he had sourced that out too. Kong took in Steve's glare and cleared his throat. "Look. When an international assassin looks you in the eye and says Steven McGarrett can't know who was really in his house, you fucking lie."

"So, his real name is Conrad?"

"No."

"Well she's calling him Con…"

"It's not short for Conrad."

"Then what is it short for?"

"Not his real name that's for sure. It's a pet name. From my understanding Rowan calls him Conejo. Means rabbit. And only Rowan get to call him that," Kong said. "God knows if I tried it, I wouldn't be living after."

Steve nodded. "And the profiles you corrupted?" When Kong just stared at him Steve added: "Her DNA and fingerprints were corrupted on every, single, database. And when she goes through TSA she's not popping up. How did that happen?"

"Okay… I got paid a lot of money for that," Kong said. "That order came in when the doctors cleared her for traveling. Took all of June to come up with something that would work, I actually managed to rig a piece of code that scanned her fake passport and by passed all no-fly lists and bolos that were out at the time. The computer showed her passport info but what was logged in the system was someone else. I'm really proud of that one, took me a while to get that one up and running. The DNA profiles were a simple hack and switch. Barely charged him for that one."

Steve just glared at him and the wistful proud smile faded off of his face. He cleared his throat and changed topics.

"I guess you're gonna go looking for her now?" he asked and Steven just glared at him. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell Kong he was, because what if he told Wo? "Uh… well… I can tell you one thing… Wo Fat… he's been doing a lot of lying. If she runs, it'll be because he lied to her. But uh… I'm thinking she won't."

"And why do you think that?"

"Because everyone knows that girl is heartbroken over you," he answered and Steve straightened as he took that in. "Look I can't give you much but uh… you know she's still writing songs yeah?"

"Yeah, I know, so what?"

"Well… did you know she's selling them too?"

If it was possible, Steven went even straighter. She… she was? Kong stared at him as if waiting for the lightbulb to go off. It already had, because if she was selling songs there was a paper trail, somewhere for the money to go.

"Why are you still sitting here Commander?"

Yes, why was he still sitting there? "Thank you, I won't tell him a thing."

And then Steve was out of that chair chasing that next lead.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Pete was on cloud nine.

Rowan's latest single had been delivered only a few days ago, and he had already sold it. The girl group she had written it for had been more than happy when he called them to say that Rowan had another one for them. They even offered more than Rowan was asking. Pete hadn't even had to argue. He loved those kinds of sales. He got a lot of those sales with Rowan's repeat customers.

This son was yet another break-up song in a long list of break-up songs. This one was called Shout out to My Ex, and it was the song she had sung earlier that month at a concert. Alex Lockman had been livid that she had hijacked it but it put both of them back on the map. Rowan's sales doubled and all of a sudden Alex was back in demand again. Though they were getting more requests to have Rowan in concert than Alex. If he ever got a hold of her, he'd be pressuring her into turning singer, because they'd make a killing.

He had just finished up the paperwork, and was about to forge her signature when the door opened. He looked up just as his assistant buzzed him to say: "There's a Commander McGarrett here for you."

Pete forced himself to smile up to Steve as he let himself in. Well he had not missed this at all.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Steven?"

"Cut the crap I know you've been talking to Rowan."

Pete blinked his eyes. There was no way that man could know that.

"I have not been talking to Rowan…"

Steve took the seat across from him and continued to stare him down. Already Pete was dangerously close to breaking, he could feel it and he could tell that Steve knew it too.

"I know you've been getting songs from Rowan."

Pete blustered. "Getting songs from… Ro… are you crazy? You think… if I had a way to…"

"So, play me your latest song. Your secretary was telling me all about the new single you got. Said you sold it in record time too." Pete blinked his eyes, he was gonna kill Charlize for telling him that. "Play the song Pete."

McGarrett had him trapped and he knew it. With no other choice, he pressed play on the sound systems and the song started play.

This is a shout out to my ex. Heard he in love with some other chick. Yeah, yeah, that hurt me, I'll admit. Forget that boy, I'm over it.

And there was Rowan's silken voice. It was unmistakeable and Steven would know it immediately. And the dry glare he had on his face told Pete that he had recognized it.

"Don't feel bad, Pete, I'd have known this song even if it wasn't her singing. I was at the concert, heard her singing it. What does she call this one?"

"Shout out to my Ex," Pete told him. "She's gotten really bad at names."

"How long has this been going on?"

Pete sighed. "Since before Christmas. But I wasn't lying, McGarrett, I've literally have had no contact with Rowan."

Steve sighed. "How you getting the singles then? How do you know how much to sell them for? You have to be talking in some way?"

Pete went into the drawer he usually kept locked and pulled out the stack of CDs he had gotten over the months. He dropped them onto the desk, letting them spill out and Steve just glared at him.

"Only since before Christmas, huh?" he asked as he reached out for one.

"Sometimes she sends more than one," Pete cried. "You know what the girl's like. When inspiration hit, there's no stopping her and let me tell you this break up has her creative mojo on overdrive."

Steve had been picking up the CDs carefully like he thought he might break them to look them over. But Pete saw his face when he mentioned their break up, because his eyes flit up to him. For a brief second he wasn't looking at the man who commanded Five-0 fearlessly, he saw a man with a broken heart who was probably as badly hurt by their break up as Rowan was.

He never did get the full story about went on there. He wasn't sure who broke up with who, but it clearly wasn't mutual in anyway if McGarrett was as heart broken as Rowan was.

"What are all the numbers on the bottom?" Steve asked showing Pete one of the CDs as if Pete didn't know what they were. He had been told, expressly, that McGarrett could never know and he didn't want the man in the mask to come back and punish him. "They're account numbers aren't they. This is how you pay her?"

Well he couldn't fucking lie, could he? Pete nodded and Steve shook his head again. "How is she sending these…"

"Mail."

"Oh my god."

"I told you McGarrett, I haven't had any contact with her."

Steve sighed and then growled at him. "Then how did this start? If she didn't contact you…"

"She sent some guy. He showed up in the office when I was working here late one time, and he handed me a whole sheaf of singles. Said Rowan would mail me more as the months went. I get anywhere from 2 to 4 singles a month. He explained that she was going to have bank accounts for me to transfer her money into, which is what I do whenever I get the next set of singles. The number changes with each package I get."

"And let me guess, he told you not to tell me."

"He was very specific on you not knowing about our deal, yes."

"And what did he look like?" Steve whispered.

"No idea. You're not going to believe this but he was wearing a white plastic…"

"Rabbit mask."

Pete blinked his eyes. How had Steven known that? But before he could ask Steve the man surprised him by asking: "Could I take these? To listen to I mean?"

"Oh yeah, yeah, sure. Did you want to know which ones are most recent?"

"I'm gonna assume Shout out to My Ex," Steve said and Pete turned to eject that from his sound system. He let Steve take it from him, to put into the CD case.

"You uh… you trying to find her again?" Pete asked.

"Well I'm trying," he said. "It'd be a lot easier if people would stop lying to me."

"Hey, the first time you asked if I had heard from her, I really hadn't."

Steve looked down to the stack of CDs he had and then back to Pete. Yeah like that look alone would make him feel guilty. He was rolling in it because of those singles. He was too rich to feel guilty at that point.

"Okay well if you get her back stateside let me know, I'd love to get her on a stage," he called out, which was a mistake because Steve was almost out of the door.

"What does that mean?"

"That impromptu concert she put on…"

"No, the other thing. How do you know she's not stateside?"

"Uh… well… it's just that the postmarks on the packages that came in weren't, you know, American…"

"Where did you get packages from?"

"Uhm, Canada. Colombia, Europe. I think I got a few from California which I guess is stateside. Oh and Spain."

Steve took that in thanked him for his time and left. Pete sat back, feeling a little bit like maybe he had dodged a bullet. And that he definitely should have told him he'd want those singles back.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve got the CDs home and then put a boombox in front of himself so he could go through them all. And as he listened to the different songs, all sung in Rowan's voice, Steve thought about what he had learned today.

For starters, Rowan was probably lonely. She wasn't surrounded by people, she only had Wo Fat and Sin Nombre. Rowan didn't like to be alone either, so that meant, she probably didn't want to leave their sides. Or, she did what she usually did, which was get herself into some sort of trouble the second either man was away. That would explain how Rowan ended up on heists. Wo Fat most likely took her along either to appease her or because he didn't trust her to be on her own.

Finding out that her DNA had been corrupted in the systems all along had been jarring as well. It seemed like right from the get go Wo Fat was playing this game hard, with the intention of Steve never finding Rowan again. Steve would have to hope that Wo Fat had gotten lax over the year otherwise getting her back was going to be much harder than he thought it would be.

Then there were the songs. Rowan loved writing and singing, so even if she were upset, sooner or later the songs would have come out. But why sell them? Why not just give them away? If she felt the need to work, maybe she needed money. But why would she if Wo Fat had been footing the bill all year?

Then there were the places that Pete had mentioned. All the places he got singles from were places from Rowan's bucket list and that Langford said the MI6 had traced Rowan's travels to. Except for one place. Spain. Rowan's bucket list didn't have Spain on it, and MI6 had never tracked her there.

So why were packages coming from Spain?

Steve had to figure that Wo Fat must have had some kind of safe house somewhere in the country. It would explain why he intervened in the Prague. If the nuclear fallout had happened, and Wo Fat was in Spain with Rowan, then they would have been affected, killed even. It was close enough to have sustained some kind of damage. Wo Fat would have only intervened if he thought Rowan in danger, unless Rowan asked him to intervene herself, but Langford would have told him if he had spoken to Rowan instead of Wo Fat… wouldn't he?

God, this was all so much. He had started writing it down just to keep his theories straight in his head. He had called Danny for some help with theories, to see what he thought, or if Steve was just being crazy.

Danny had sounded exasperated when he called but he had still come. He knocked once on the door before he let himself in, Steve never locked the door when he knew Danny was coming over. Locked the door once and Danny walked right into it. Steve was still hearing about it.

Danny came in, clocked him sitting on the couch beside a bunch of CDs and sat beside him. "What's going on with you?'

"I uh… I talked to Pete, got all the songs she's sold him this year," Steve said which won him an apathetic yeah from Danny who clearly didn't see why that mattered. "Remember that song, the one that always made me cry?"

"Uh. Why Her or something like that. Yeah, what about it?"

"Rowan wrote it."

Danny took that in with surprised eyes but what he said was: "Wow don't know why I was surprised."

"In fact, each and every song that sets me off, was written by her," Steve said. "Every single one. And every single one is about a break up. She's been writing about me the whole time."

"See… I told you, I told you she wants you back…"

"Every song is about my breaking up with her. She must think I ended things," he said. "I don't know how Wo Fat could have possibly convinced her of that though."

Danny winced and Steve glared at him. "What was that face? No, don't say nothing, what was that face?"

"Well… you got back together and almost proposed to Catherine…"

"But how would he have known that?"

"Well Sandy tracks everyone right? I'm sure he could of…"

Yeah, except Sandy wasn't tracking them all back then, not actively. Not unless Rowan asked it to. And the guilt on Danny's face had him thinking that it was something else. "You guys texted Rowan, didn't you? But I had her phone…"

"Chin left a message on Wo Fat's contact through the app," Danny admitted. "Told him what was happening and asked him to get Rowan to call you. If Wo Fat was looking for any way to get Rowan to give up on you the way you gave up on her, he'd've used that."

Steve instantly remembered when they were hiking in the jungle and Danny had announced Steve's terrible plan to propose to Catherine. Chin had gone straight to his phone. Steve had thought he was texting Kono, but what if he had been pulling up his version of the app to call Wo Fat instead?

He couldn't even be mad at them. They had just been trying to help and at the time he had been being extremely unreasonable. He had been blinded by the pain and desperately trying to cover it up. It didn't work though.

Danny picked up one of the CD covers and read the name out to him. "All the Good Girls Go to Hell?"

"Yeah, that would be the one she was singing to Gabriel in the mirror maze," Steve said. When Danny just stared at him Steve whispered: "Apparently her songs naming skills have been very off. It's also one of the only songs that isn't about a break up."

Danny nodded. "And uh… what's all these notes on it?"

"Suggested price, genre, or in some cases who she wrote it for, and the numbers on the bottom are account numbers."

"So, you can track her banking…"

"Nope, number changes with every package she sends. I've already checked the newest ones. Pete had already transferred her the money from last month's royalties and sales, the account was emptied and closed yesterday."

Danny sighed. "They're uh… they're really playing this smart, huh?"

That was an understatement. And now Wo Fat knew that he knew about Rowan's new identity. How long before he made her a new one? It would take forever to find her if that happened.

"Okay, so let's look at the bright side here," Danny said, even though it really didn't look like there was one. "There's two stops left on the bucket list, right? As soon as she hits the Disney cruise, we'll be able to get them."

That was true, Wo Fat didn't know that he knew about that. "True, I have been looking into that."

"Alright, see, good, how many cruise ships do they have?"

"Four."

"Okay, okay, that's not that bad."

"There are 74 ports that they can board at, around the world. With her powers she could board at any one of them. With the work that Kong did on her passport, TSA will never know it's her."

Danny sighed and Steve followed suit. It really did feel like finding Rowan was going to be impossible.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

This was the first time she was travelling with Wo Fa that she wasn't having a good time.

Wo Fat had made her take a flight to Port Canaveral, a place she had never in her life wanted to visit. He spoke of some huge surprise he had planned for her, and then he had gotten a call, had a panic attack and took her straight down into a safe house.

This was not the vacation that Rowan had wanted but he had sat on her like he was certain someone was going to come break down that door and try to take them both by force.

Even before coming down here, Rowan hadn't been entirely swayed on the idea of this trip. Wo Fat had done all the planning, something he had never done before, and he refused to tell her what it was. Not that she didn't like surprises, but Wo Fat had very different tastes from her. Then, of course, he announced that they were going together for some Brother Sister Bonding time, and Conejo would be staying behind.

Rowan had reminded him that he was her brother too and then Wo Fat had made a face like the very thought disgusted him.

But after four days in the safe house, where Wo Fat made constant phone calls and left at all hours, eventually he let her leave the safe house.

"So, are we going back to Spain?"

"No."

No, of course not, because Wo Fat had not let her take the energizing gun with her.

"Then where are we going?"

Wo Fat shot her a side glare and she tried to feel bad. She couldn't help it. She knew he had tried hard, but if this was the trip he had planned, it was a complete bummer. She just wanted to go back to Andalucía and cuddle up with her two boys and a movie. She'd even let him pick the one they watched.

"Well, I didn't spend all of that money on your surprise for you to miss it completely," he told her. But so far, he hadn't driven her anywhere of interest. They parked in a giant car park, where he left the keys hidden in a wheel bed for whoever was coming to pick up the car, seeing as it wasn't his. Then he took his luggage and most of hers and lead her through a sort of terminal.

Rowan wanted to argue with him. She wanted to throw down her bags and threaten to used the red strings to get herself home, unless he told her what was going on, but he got her to a dock and she could see, quite clearly where they were going.

There, waiting for her to board was the jewel of her bucket list. The one thing she hadn't had a chance to do yet.

It was a Disney Cruise Line ship.

"Oh my god!"

Wo Fat turned around. "And you thought I planned something subpar."

"Oh. My. God."

"I know it's pretty cool right? You should see all the activities I have booked for you. I know how much you like activities."

"OH MY GOD!"

"Okay, Rowan, take it down a notch."

But she couldn't take it down a notch. All her life it had been her dream to be on a Disney Cruise ship. It combined all her favourite things. Disney. The water. Boats. Okay so she didn't love boats but she figured on a massive cruise ship she wouldn't even notice.

"What if I…"

"I have so much anti-seasickness medication in my bag," he said and Rowan squealed again. So, this was why Conejo wasn't coming, not because Wo Fat didn't want to share, but because he didn't like boats or being out on open water. Or water in general. She really needed to talk to him about why that was, it was a weird fear for someone like Conejo to have.

"Oh gosh, this is so exciting!"

"So, I've booked us both private rooms with ocean views, we're obviously above water. Oh, and my room is right next to yours," Wo Fat listed as they walked up the gang plank to board. He had the tickets out and everything was ready to go, she had a feeling he had spent a lot of money on this, it would definitely explain why she was missing money in her account. Maybe not this much, but if Wo Fat needed to borrow money, she figured it was for a good reason.

The man had his pride so she wasn't going to pry.

They got up to the top where stewards and a man in a white suit were greeting people. That white suit reminded her of one of Steve's Navy uniforms. And it looked just as good on this guy. This man with his bronzed skin, caramel eyes and what she could tell was probably a thick head of wavy chestnut brown hair under his white Naval cap. He had broad shoulder, chisels in all the right places though he did look to be quite a bit older than her, she didn't mind.

He took a hold of her ticket and smiled as he looked her up and down. "Welcome aboard Miss. Bastian. I'm Captain Johnny Spatas, you let me know right away if there's anything I can help you with."

That was weird, she had a different name. Rowan looked down to her ticket and saw that it read Rosie Bastian. But she was too busy flirting back with him to worry about that at that moment. She flashed her brightest grin at him and flipped her hair before thanking him.

Wo Fat should have been busy with his own steward checking over his ticket, but he caught the flirtatious look she was pinning on to Captain Johnny and he quickly pulled her away.

"So, help me Rowan, I will not play doorman like Conejo does. If you sleep with that man, you're kicking him out in the morning, not me."

Rowan didn't even care, she was just so excited. She had a feeling that this was going to be the best trip ever.