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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello there my wonderful readers! So, guess what I can finally tell you when the big chapter is happening. That's right, I finally know the wedding chapter will be. So in between chapters 337-340 we have the prep, the proposal and the wedding and then the honeymoon/stag/doe night or day in this case. It'll all make sense when we get there I promise. But isn't that exciting? Very soon (only twenty chapters) we're going to see the two of them get married! What do you guys think about that? So in this chapter we have some really cute things happening before we get to a little bit of drama, but don't worry it'll all end okay. As always, don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!

Chapter 317

Jian had been having a great month. Everything had been going to very well for her. Her practice, which Wo Fat helped her move to eliminate that Yakuza late night clients, was booming in her new building. Wo Fat had moved back in and had been nothing but a gentleman… except in bed, he was a downright cad in bed and she lapped it all up.

But best of all, he hadn't been in contact with his precious Rowan and he was doing just fine. In fact, she'd go as far as to say that he was happier not worrying about his troublesome sister. And sometimes, when she was feeling particularly proud, she let herself believe that he was simply just happier with her.

This day, however, was special. It would mark 2 months of Jian and Wo doing this "trial run" on their new and improved Rowanless relationship. And, though she told herself she'd wait longer to make absolute certain that he had dropped Rowan completely (she did have her doubts), she was ready to take the training wheels off of their relationship.

Yes, Wo Fat had got frequent phone calls from blank numbers, and text messages that he'd delete from his phone right after reading them, that could have been work related. And then there was that one time when she came home and their apartment had the faintest smell of roses and vanilla, that mostly lingered on him and he had received a letter from his father who was being held somewhere in the middle East by the CIA. A letter that had no post marks. But maybe someone hand delivered it to him.

But that didn't mean he was with Rowan again.

No, no. This could be work related but if that wasn't what was going on and maybe he just had other women. That was fine too because Jian hadn't officially gotten back together with him, so it would only make sense that he would carry on with someone else behind her back. And it was part of the reason she wanted to officially get back together with him so she could officially get the other girls away from him.

She knew that Wo Fat was going to be home that night because he had texted her saying so. He was even attempting to make her favourite meal, which was altogether too cute. Was he making other girls their favourite meals? Probably not because the man could barely cook and she had a feeling that he wasn't putting that much effort into anyone else.

She had just seen the last client of the day and was finishing up the paperwork in her office when the door suddenly opened and shut. She glanced up simply to tell the person who came in that she was done for the day and the paused.

"Hatachi, what are you doing here?" she asked in their native tongue. She hadn't seen her brother in years. In fact, that last time she had seen him he had been asking her for money, and not two days later she was employed by the Yakuza as a doctor. He didn't even bother to come forward when he sold her to be a sex worker.

Hatachi looked a lot like her and usually he looked quite handsome, but something clearly was wrong with him. He had grown a patchy scratchy looking beard, his hair was greasy and combed back, he wasn't dressed well like he usually was, in fact he looked homeless in baggy sweatpants and a large stained grey sweater.

He very clearly needed money again. "However much you need now, Hatachi, I won't be giving it to you. I'm tapped out as is…"

She felt him move, his hands coming out of his pockets. She had glanced up out of habit but once she did, she trailed off and just stared at him.

Hatachi was holding a gun.

"You may be broke, but your boyfriend isn't."

Dear god. He was going to call Wo Fat and ransom her to him? Did he not hear what Wo Fat did when people were that stupid?

Despite the seriousness of the situation she couldn't help it, she started laughing, because Hatachi was so clearly out of his league. She laughed so hard she doubled over, which was how she missed Hatachi storming right up to her. It was also why didn't stop him from slamming the butt of the gun against the back of her head.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

"Do you know what was supposed to happen today?" Rowan suddenly asked interrupting the nice five-way date with the whole Five-0 family. Chin and Abby, Danny and Amber, Lou and Renee, Steve and Rowan and Adam and Kono.

"No, what was supposed to happen today?" Kono asked her humouring her while shooting Steve a playful smile.

"Adam was supposed to get out of prison."

Beside Kono, sipping on a mimosa that Rowan had ordered for the table because she wasn't going to be the only one day drinking, Adam choked on his drink.

"Excuse me?" he sputtered

"Yeah… well… the whole reason why I got myself involved in the whole Waincroft-Shioma thing in the first place was because if I didn't, Waincroft would steal your money, Shioma would have gotten mad and his goons would have tried to kill you. Then you know… you would have killed them back and felt so bad about it that you turned yourself in. You were going to get 18 months and then paroled out by 13 for good behaviour and because you helped the team catch convicts after a bus turned over."

Rowan then sat back and took a long sip while everyone sat there and digested everything she had just said. It was Adam who recovered first.

"Wait… so you did all of that… got tied up and beaten and then kidnapped and tortured… for… me?" Adam asked.

"Well yeah, you're 'ohana and we have each other's back. That and Waincroft was going to have some guy pull out Kono's teeth and I wasn't going to let that go down."

Adam sat there for all of twenty seconds and then blurted out: "But I betrayed you!"

Once again the table went quiet and then Rowan just sat there blinking her eyes at him. "Uh… what?"

"It was my fault! You getting caught and tortured… it was all my fault!"

"Oh, no, that's not the point of the story. The point of the story was that in another world we'd be celebrating Adam getting out of jail. I'm not sure how you missed that."

"No. I mean it was literally my fault. I told Steven the truth. I told him you were talking to Wo Fat and that you and Kono lied to him and then the two of you fought and you…"

Kono put a hand to her husband's arm. "Adam, is that why you were so upset after? Is that why you went to Shioma after she got taken?"

"Well he did still owe Shioma money. It took Wo four days to figure out which holding I transferred it to. Which was paramount to the deal he had with Shioma in the first place," Rowan said with a flippant wave of her hand. "He was so angry when he realized me saying I sent the money to the cleaners meant that I had transferred it to the laundromat's accounts. But then again, he was pestering me about it while I was high so you know, I don't know what he expected from morphine me."

"The laundromat where he tortured me?" Steve asked.

"Yeah I thought it was fitting. I figured no one would ever look there."

And she was right, not even Five-0 had thought of that one.

"And it's not your fault," Rowan said, turning to Adam once more. "Something was going to happen, I just you know… accidentally made it so it was me who got it all. Sometimes things have to happen, and while it was terrible and traumatic, I think I came out stronger on the other side."

She had been saying that a lot but none of her friends seemed to think that was true. Probably Steve's doing.

"Oh, I have a question," Abby asked. That was the other thing they were doing that day. They all got to ask Rowan one question about her year away and she would answer it. No lies, just honesty, if it was a question she couldn't answer, she'd tell them and then give them the chance to ask a different question.

So far Steve had asked her favourite part had been. Easy Euro Disney with Wo Fat in Paris, followed by skating under the Eifel Tower.

Danny had asked her what was the thing that frustrated Wo Fat the most. That one she had to think about but settled on playing the floor is lava at the wrong time. And it really had been the wrong time, he knew all about that little heist now too. Wo even hit Rowan with her full name.

Lou had asked when the Rabbit got involved and she said after a kidnapping attempt in Paris. Something she still wouldn't tell Steve about.

Now Abby was asking her question.

"If Wo Fat took Sanctuary down, how did you ever convince him to put it back up?"

Rowan nodded. "I woke up screaming about a body in a suitcase and vampires at blood banks two nights in a row and since I wouldn't shut up about it he agreed to get the app up and running again but to reverse it, instead of tracking me it would track you guys."

"Except Steven," Abby whispered.

"Yep. Couldn't get him to budge on that. Not sure why. At first, I thought it was cause he was hating on Steve in solidarity for breaking my heart. Now I think he was just being petty."

Steve scowled at her. "Or he hoped I'd die and stop looking for you."

Rowan shrugged. "Yeah that too."

"Wait didn't you guys actually have a case where there were bodies in suitcases?" Abby asked.

"Yep last Halloween," Danny said. To that Abby looked confused.

"The girl has visions," Renee said to Abby. "You get used to it." She then turned to Rowan "You know what I've always wondered. How in the hell you managed to get to that island and find us in the bush?"

"Easy. Sandy tracked you."

"We didn't have our phones."

"Yeah… but the bad guys did."

"But how did you get to the island?" Renee asked.

"Magic," Rowan said dryly which was true, but Renee didn't know about that side of the powers yet and neither did Abby or Amber. Rowan then smiled prettily, her eyes flashing a light blue for a moment. "Hotwiring a boat is a lot like hotwiring a car."

Everyone around them nodded, taking Rowan's lie at face value, and Rowan went back to her Mimosa. They had all finished brunch and were finishing up their mimosa's, coffees and teas before heading out. But it seemed people were still going on about Rowan's year away.

"I had a question, if you don't mind, Rowan," Amber said quietly. Rowan turned to look at her. "During the Year of Deceit…"

"I'm sorry, the year of the what now?"

"The Year of Deceit, that what Danny calls it."

At that point both Rowan and Steve exchanged glances, both instinctively knowing that that was what they were going to call that year from now on.

"Anyway, during that year, why didn't you just call Steven yourself?"

"Oh easy. I was too proud. But I did call him on his birthday."

"Oh? Yeah?"

Steve turned a dry glare to Rowan and folded his arms over his chest. "Why don't you tell Amber what happened?"

"Wo Fat tackled me to the ground to end the call and a few months later he faked a wedding so I thought Steve married Catherine and they adopted Nahele together."

"And you're going to forgive him?"

That question came from Kono and all eyes turned to Rowan who tactfully lowered her own. "I know it sounds silly but… I get why he did it. He pulled me half dead out of a basement after Steve and I had a huge fight and Steve got back together with Catherine and he just decided that he didn't trust Steve with my safety anymore. I guess… I mean, I'd totally be more angry if he had done it because he was mad or he wanted to hurt Steven, but he didn't. He just made the wrong decision… set of decisions I guess… but he thought he was doing what was right."

She took in everyone's faces and she could tell right away that everyone was going to argue with her about that.

"Okay, no one gets to say anything. None of you said anything when Commander McStalker over here, hired a PI to follow me for eight months, or when he drugged me and took me on a trip to Japan, coincidentally to save you, Adam, or when he arrested me for things that weren't crimes!"

"No, we all said something, Commander McStalker doesn't listen to anyone but you," Lou said with a huff but none of them complained about Wo Fat.

"I have a question for Rowan," Chin said. "Not related to the Year of Deceit."

"Thank-God," Rowan said with a groan. "Hit me with it."

"You went to Colombia, right? You spent like four months there."

Rowan's smile faded. "I can't believe you just looked me in the eye and bare faced lied to me."

"No, this has a follow up question. I promise."

She rolled her eyes but answered. "Kay, yeah, I spent four months in Colombia, why?"

"Did you ever meet the Morales family?"

"I was in a compound in the middle of the jungle with a security team, a staff of servants and Conejo. So unless they fall into that category I don't think I did."

At that Steve turned to her. "I thought Wo was with you."

Rowan shrugged again. "I mean, yeah, but not really. He and Armando were off on their 10-step foolproof plan for ruination so he was gone a lot."

"Would Armando have heard of them?"

"I unno. Morales is a common last name. He probably knows a Morales family, but they might not be your Morales family. Why?"

"Well, because I heard back from Coughlin about them, and no one is saying a word about them, so I don't know if they're connected to anything dangerous…"

"Are they rich?"

"Yeah."

"Then they probably are. You don't get rich in Colombia without being connected to something criminal," Rowan said. "But why do you care about these Morales people?"

"Well they're Sarah's aunt and uncle and they're petitioning to adopt her…"

Rowan broke out laughing. "Oh them? They don't adopt Sarah, you do," Rowan said reaching for her mimosa again. At that everyone turned to Rowan and then back to Chin.

"I do?"

"Why are we still confused about that? Yeah. They never get Sarah, they're…." and then Rowan went quiet and suddenly then could see her thinking. "Unless I forgot to intervene… did I forget to intervene?"

"Uh… depends, what were you going to do?"

But Rowan was already pulling out her phone, and frantically scrolling through something. Probably her app. "God I knew I was forgetting something. And I was upset about something too… god what was it?" she then turned to Steven who had his hand on the back of her chair and snapped: "Stop touching me."

Steve retracted his hand immediately and then watched as Rowan seemingly searched her faulty memory for whatever it was she was forgetting.

"Kay well I'm not going to get anything with your negative vibes suffocating me," Rowan growled getting up, she took her wallet out of her purse and slapped down a couple hundred bills. "That should cover everything, I'm going to make a call."

Steve shook his head. "I swear she loves to remind me that she makes more than me," he said.

Everyone laughed. "That's enough for the whole table," Danny snapped watching as Steve scooped up the bills. "Hey! She said she'd cover…"

"Herself Danny!" Steve cried. "She meant that this should cover herself! And now me."

"Oh my god he's being cheap with Rowan's money," Lou growled, but Steve wasn't about to let Rowan pay for everything even if she could afford it.

"Steven James McGarrett take my money out of your wallet and pay for the brunch!" was shouted from across the restaurant from where Rowan was at the door, phone to ear about to go outside. "Don't be stingy, we can afford it!"

Steve sunk in his seat God she was embarrassing. It was a good thing he loved her.

"You heard the girl. Cough over the money,"

"She's only doing this because she feels bad," Steve growled. "All of you should pay her back."

Though the whole table just nodded in agreement, Adam said: "What does she have to feel bad about?"

"She feels like she abandoned us…"

Kono blew out a raspberry. "The girl was lied to. And we all know that when you and her fight she thinks she can't come to us because we wouldn't be on her side," she said. "And besides, she may not have reached out but she got us all really cool souvenirs."

Steve couldn't help it, he found himself sulking. The whole reason the "only one questions about the year I was away" stipulation came up was because Rowan had gotten everyone at the table a gift while she was gone. And each gift came with a story on how she found it. Everyone got something except him.

"What did she get you boss?" Kono asked. "I'm guessing she gave you your stuff already."

Steve just smiled, what was he supposed to say?

Rowan chose that moment to come back to the table. "Okay so I have Armando on it. I'll let you know when he gets back to me."

Though Chin thanked her, everyone could see the wheels in his head turning. Rowan had planted some sort of seed in his mind and no one knew what that was going to mean for the future.

Steve's phone rang and everyone turned to him, including Rowan who growled a threatening: "Don't you dare," to him but he still answered it.

"Sorry guys, we have a case."

"Typical," Rowan said with a sigh. "So, ladies and Adam, wanna do something with our days as these guys go off to work?"

They all agreed while their Five-0 counterparts got up from the table. Steve pressed a kiss to Rowan's cheek, a lingering one that betrayed a lack of actually wanting to leave, but he did. He always did.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo had worked hard on preparing this dinner. Like, literally the hardest. He had waged a gang war in Colombia and that was easier than making this meal. Next time he was just going to buy it. He loved Jian and all but he just was not a chef. Or at least not a gourmet one. He could make basic dishes, if she wanted him to cook form now on, she was going to have to be okay with basic food.

He had just gotten everything plated and ready to go, he was just waiting on Jian to come home from work, when his phone rang.

He figured it was just Rowan asking how dinner went since he had asked her a bunch of questions about cooking. But when he checked the phone it was Jian which meant she was just calling him to give him an ETA on when she'd be home.

He smiled softly to himself and then answered quickly. "Hey babe, dinner's ready what about you?"

"Jian's going to be late for dinner."

That was not her voice.

Immediately Wo Fat went from light and breezy to stiff and clammy. Something was wrong, he could feel it in his bones.

"Who is this?" he asked trying to keep his voice level. He needed to sound uninterested, if this person could sense weakness they'd pounce.

"It doesn't matter who I am. All that matters is that I have your girl and you have something I want."

Another fucking ransom?! What the hell was wrong with these people? Didn't they know what he did when he got ransom calls?

"And what is it that you want?" he asked carefully, though he was slowly getting angrier and angrier at this point.

"110 million yen."

That was a million dollars. He didn't have that kind of cash lying around nor did he have the ability to withdraw that from the vault. Firstly, his vault was dangerously close to being overdrawn and he'd need Rowan to access the emergency vault – a stipulation he put in when the two of them were always together to keep one another from spending too much, something he should have removed but he had forgotten. And maybe had purposely forgotten because he was hoping that he'd get her back in his custody if McGarrett fucked up again.

Except the man had told Rowan that he loved her so… that should have been when he took that restriction off the account.

"Is that all?" he asked sourly.

"I'll give you an hour to get it together. Then I'll call you back with the rest of the instructions."

And then the man hung up. Wo Fat stood there that anger burning in his chest. This person either didn't know who he really was, or he knew and he was prepared for anything Wo Fat could do. And he didn't want to go in blind with Jian involved. He needed more information and he knew exactly who to get it from. So, he pulled up the contact of the one person who he knew would help him.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The Five-0 counter parts had all gone for massages because it was something that Adam could do with them. Then they all sat in their spa robes, drinking tea and cucumber waters as they talked about the hardships of having Law enforcement agents as romantic partners. It really helped Rowan hearing them talk about what they had all endured, it made her feel like she wasn't the only one. That it wasn't that Steven wasn't interested in her, he just really cared about his job.

Though, none of their partners worked as hard as Steven. They all got the odd day off where they could spend time with their partners, they got all the holidays and birthdays. Steve was a workaholic and all of them seemed to realize that too.

When they were done with their spa day, and Rowan had dropped Amber off back at her place, she went home to see how her son was doing only to find that he had gone over to his friend's house.

Rowan still wasn't too good alone, but she couldn't fault the boy for wanting to spend time with his friends. His summer was almost over. School would be starting soon. She knew he wanted to spend the last little bits of his summer hanging out with his friends and she had no right to take that from him.

She also knew better than to call Steve. He was in the middle of a case and the distraction would not be welcome. She knew that. She couldn't call Wo because he would probably be in the middle of dinner and she didn't want Jian to guess that the two of them were still talking. She couldn't call any of the Five-0s because they were all with Steve. Couldn't call Conejo cause he was busy haunting Dr. Grey in California.

Then Rowan's phone rang with Danny's contact on the screen, she lunged to answer, glad for the distraction. "Hey Danny, is everything okay?"

"No everything is not okay. We've got a bulletproof bulldozer that just hit a gun and ammo range and Steve's got that look in his eyes."

Rowan sat a little straighter. "Put him on."

She heard Danny say: "It's for you," and then she heard Steve's distracted: "Hey hun, uh… he's over exaggerating as per usual." Yeah, she somehow doubted that. "Where's uh… where's your brother?"

"Japan why?"

"And that assassin of yours? He's on island, right?"

That was a strange question, was the bulldozer heading for their house? She quickly got up to lean over the back of the couch so she could see out the window. Nope no bulldozer coming up the street.

"No, he's in California."

At that Steve paused. "What? Why is he there? I thought he was staying on to protect you?"

"Who told you that?" she shot back. Because there was no way she could tell Steve that she had Con haunting Dr. Grey. He'd want to know where she was and the strings wouldn't let her die yet, so that was going to have to wait.

"Okay, so it's not one of your contacts driving a bulletproof bulldozer into gun ranges?"

At that Rowan scowled. "Are you telling me that you think my brothers would do something that stupid? We have a little more finesse then that, thank you very much."

For a moment Steve paused. "Brothers? Plural? You have more than one brother?"

"Yeah, Con. We recently brought him in…"

"The assassin?" Steve thundered. "The assassin is your brother now too? What the hell Rowan? Who are you going to adopt next? Fucking HITLER?"

"Okay, Hitler is dead, Steven, I'm not going to adopt a corpse," she snapped. "And besides, Con and I got very close…"

"Yeah, I'm sure you did. I'm surprised you didn't try to adopt me instead…"

"Well with the rate you're going I just might."

He must have taken the phone away from his ear because for a long while she didn't hear anything. After a moment he came back and growled: "Okay, as much as I'm enjoying this I have to go."

In the background she heard Danny asked: "Is that a flashbang? What are you going to do with that?" and just like that more flashes of words came at her. Steven saying: "Cover me" and Danny asking: "Cover you how? With what?" and then images of an empty cockpit and a hole in the ground.

"Mmm, babe, that flashbang you have in your hand. It's not necessary, they're not in the truck," she said. "It's parked on top of sewer. They're gone."

"And when did you dream that up?"

"I didn't. Just got it now."

"Fine. You and I are going to have a chat about this when I get home, I'm just getting comfortable with Wo, you can't just add a new criminal sibling into the mix."

"You don't get a say on who my family is, Steven."

"Uh, well if you're just going to induct family members at random, maybe I should get a say."

"You're being ridiculous, I'm hanging up on you now," she snapped and then did just that.

Second later her phone rang again, well it better not be Steven trying to call her back to apologize because she wasn't going to accept it unless it was paired with something sweet. Like malasadas or a shaved ice. She'd text her demands once she had let him stew for a bit.

But when Rowan looked down to the phone number, she realized that someone else was calling her at that moment, and though she should have been mad at her brother she picked up the phone. "Hey, look, I'm in a bad mood so this better be good."

There was no hesitation in her brother's voice though she heard a slight waver instead that made her slightly nervous. All he needed to say was: "I need a favour," and she knew it really was serious.