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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! We got a long chapter this time around. It's 14 pages long and it has some drama but it ends quite nicely if I do say so. And while Con isn't around very much this chapter (sorry High Guardian) he is mentioned. He's got a very small part but you find out why in the chapter. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!

Chapter 320

As per usual Steve had woken up before Rowan had.

Only because he had that ridiculous habit of waking up early to go for a swim or for a run.

She wasn't sure which one he had gone for that day, but either way he'd be coming home wet. In through the front door, covered in glistening sweat, if he went for a run, or in through the back door, hoodie on, towel around his neck if he went for a swim.

Rowan was working on breakfast. Nahele had gotten into a real hipster kick now that he was officially a teenager. That meant regular old pancakes, or eggs and bacon didn't wow him for breakfast anymore. He wanted things like eggs benedict, or todays special, Avocado Toast.

She had been scooping the avocado out of its shell when Steve came back into the house from the back door.

"How was your swim?" she asked him as he leant in to kiss her. She took the kiss from him greedily. She wanted so desperately to grab him and just let that kiss run wild in the kitchen, but her hands covered in avocado and she didn't want to get him all acocado-ie.

That and Nahele couldn't walk in on the two of them about to get it on again. At this rate she'd scar the poor boy for life.

"What's going on there?" he asked as Rowan went about putting all that was needed into the bowl with the avocado. She did the usuals, the salt, the pepper and the lemon juice, but she also added in some chilli flakes for some extra flavour for him.

"Nahele wants Avocado Toast for his breakfast."

"What… that's a thing?"

"Yep, could you possibly get the toast going cause this is going to be ready soon," she told him as she took the fork and mushed up the mix in the bowl.

She heard the toaster go and she smiled to herself. It was so very nice to have help in the kitchen, especially if that help was her amazingly sexy boyfriend. She glanced over her shoulder to smile at him, just to see what he was doing, and found him leaning against the counter just staring at her. Like he was just appreciating the view. She wasn't wearing anything special that morning. She was dressed to go to the office but she had made sure to pick out something less fancy as to not throw Steve off. So she was in sensible black heels and a pant suit combo. All black, with a lilac blouse. There was only one designer on her and that was her shoes. They were Choos.

The toast popped and she offered Steve the plate. Though he probably burned his finger tips he gingerly got the toast out of the toaster and onto the plate. Then she turned back to the kitchen island to put the finishing touches on this avocado toast.

"Hey so do you… do you have anything today?" Steve asked breaking the silence and setting up the toaster to make his own breakfast.

"Mmm, I have that royalty meeting today. We expect it to run short and uh… it's the only thing I have set in my calendar, why?"

"Well… how about… you know, since I have the day off today… I was thinking…" he was nervous. Rowan stopped spreading the avocado mush onto the toast and turned to him trying to establish what was wrong. He was purposely not looking at her for this, that didn't bode well for her. "That we… you know… go the court house today and get married. You know, since we have a free day."

The fork in Rowan's hand clattered to the counter. Had he just said what she thought he said? That was how he was going to propose to her.

"I'm sorry. Are you suggesting we get married?" "Yeah." "Like… right now? Just fill out some forms and get married in a little government office?"

"Yeah?"

"Without Nahele?"

"No, of course not, uh… he could skip a day of school, right? And I can get Danny to come as a witness and… you know…"

Rowan scoffed at him. Really? That was how he wanted to marry her? In some little office with only their son and his best friend? Then what? Go for a drink or for shrimp at Kamekona's?

It wasn't that she didn't want to marry him, and of course if that was how he wanted to get married, she totally could have gotten okay with that, she just needed more time. For starters she wanted the white dress, it wouldn't be as poofy as she wanted if they were marrying in a government office, but she also wanted all their friends there. Maybe not in the room with them but at least waiting in the lobby so they could all go out for dinner.

But call her old fashioned, but Rowan wanted a ring. Yes, he had given her a promise ring, but she wanted an engagement ring. It didn't have to be a diamond but she wanted the proposal with a ring labelled as an engagement ring. He could have taken the promise ring and proposed with that and she would be okay with that too.

He had been willing to do the whole proper proposal for Catherine why couldn't she do that for her? Wasn't she worth it?

Either way she needed more time in advance before getting married. Just so they could figure out a compromise so they both get what they wanted. So, she picked that fork back up and went back to the toast.

"No."

"No?" Steve echoed. "You don't… you don't want to marry me?"

Rowan put the finishing touches on the toast and then turned back to her boyfriend, just knowing that this was going to be another argument. "I don't want to marry you like that."

"What's wrong with getting married like that? I'm sorry if I don't want to spend all that money on some big huge grand gesture."

"I'm not saying I want to spend all our money on a wedding. But I would like some kind of wedding. And I really want that! I've been dreaming my whole life about getting the ring, and the white dress, and the family and friends…"

"You don't have a family Rowan!" Steve snapped. "Your family doesn't know who you are and the people you consider family are criminals. Sorry but I don't think they'd be able to make it into the country let alone manage to be civil around my law enforcement friends."

Rowan just blinked her eyes at him that was actually really hurtful. "Okay, Steven, I wasn't turning you down, there's no need to get so… mean with me?"

Steve seemed to realize what he had done but an apology didn't come out of his mouth. Instead he took a deep breath and set a determined look upon his face.

"Look, I guess… I guess I don't quite get why it matters. I love you, and you love me and I want to marry you and with my schedule I don't know, I just thought it would be a good idea."

Rowan nodded. "And that's fine, and while I'd be willing to compromise there are somethings I'd like. Like the white dress and… well the ring."

"I already gave you a ring."

That was true, he did. But it was a promise ring. "I know but I want a real ring."

"That is a real ring, it exists its there, isn't it?"

"You know what I mean Steve."

"Okay, but why? Why do I have to give you a diamond ring huh? Why isn't that one good enough? Why do I have to spend more money?"

She didn't need a diamond, and this one was good enough but this was the second time Steve had brought up money.

"Is that what this about? A little office wedding is cheaper?"

"Well it's a major plus," Steve snapped and Rowan shook her head.

"Wow, okay, well don't worry about it, I'll pay for everything. There… better?"

"No!" Steve thundered. And Rowan struggled not to groan at him.

"Then what, what is your problem?"

"I don't want a big wedding okay? I'm not… I'm not even sure I want to get married."

What, since when? "Okay, but… since when? I mean, you said that… and you said one day and I haven't been pushing so…"

"No, I know, it's just… I guess I just said what I thought would make you stay and…" That knocked the air right out of Rowan. So… he hadn't meant it when he said he saw her as his forever, or he did he just never planned on marrying her. Well that was a big issue.

"Okay, so let's clear this up now," Rowan said. "Do you ever plan on marrying me?"

Steve blinked his eyes abjt her before looking down and saying: "Well if we're not going to the court house today… then… uh… no…"

"Really an ultimatum, that's where you're going to take this?"

"God Rowan, I don't know. You know I don't do well with commitment and honestly I'm worried that, with the way we are, getting married will be a pretty stupid move and if we do the big wedding a waste of money, you know?"

No, she didn't know.

"Okay, well… I'm a girl who wants the big proposal and the big wedding but I'm willing to compromise if a smaller wedding is what you need. But if you don't think that you can do any of that, then maybe I should be looking for another place to live and a new boyfriend to date."

Now that, that did damage. She saw those words land on him and she turned away before she could recant them. She put Nahele's toast into a container to pack up, to make him eat them in the car, ignoring how he said her name, how he put a hand to her arm to stop her from leaving.

She tried to tug her arm free but he wouldn't let go. "Stop being unreasonable," he was hissing to her as her struggled grew more frantic.

"Stop Steve, let me go," she ordered but he merely turned her around, both hands to her arms now struggling to pull her to his chest. She had both her hands on his chest struggling to keep that space between them. Only because she knew if he managed to hug her and she felt a mirrored ache ebbing from him she knew she'd cave and she couldn't afford to do that.

She took all the anger in her and pulse a bolt of hot electric power into Steve's chest, startling him and knocking him back. His eyes widened at her as he realized that she had turned her void powers onto him again and she found that she might just start crying.

"Stay away from me," she warned and instead of reaching out for her again his fists balled up at his sides.

"I'm going to take Nahele to school. I will see you some time tonight after I've thought everything over. So, don't follow me, don't stalk me and don't trace my phone."

Steve's mouth was set in a solid frown but he said nothing. "And you better tell me you understand, because if you do any of those things Steve, I really will activate the Contingency."

"Who's throwing down ultimatums now?"

"That wasn't an ultimatum, that was a threat," she snarled. "At least mine are effective."

The two stared at each other for a moment before she whirled around. It was a hollow bluff but she knew Steve wouldn't call her on it. He would be too afraid to.

That time when she turned away Steve let her go. Rowan knew where she was going to go once Nahele was at school, but first she had to drive him there without him realizing that something had gone down between her and Steve again. She didn't want him worried at school, now that it had started. This was going to be a tough next couple of minutes.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The door to the warehouse slammed and Wo Fat went straight into kill mode. He had been waiting for a shipment to come in and for someone to let themselves into the warehouse now when he was expecting no one, meant that this was a shakedown. This was someone trying to muscle in on his run and steal his merch.

He had his gun out immediately, moving through the shadows towards where he could hear someone working their way thorugh the crates to get to him. But it wasn't a competitor.

It was Rowan who turned the corner.

"Jesus," he huffed going to hide his gun again. "You scared the crap…"

And then he really looked at her. He wasn't sure how he missed it but Rowan was sobbing. Her chest was heaving, her tears were cutting marks through her foundation. He immediately looked her up and down for any sort of injury, he tried to remember if Sandy had reported any threats but he was wracking his brain and coming back with nothing.

"Are you okay?" he asked her and she threw herself at him. For a moment he just stood there, with his arms around her letting her cry it out. Usually she's cry a bit, pull her head out of his chest, wipe her own tears and then he'd be able to talk to her calmly and rationally.

Today, however, she just kept crying. Her sobs were shaking her body, loudly at that, and he wasn't used to that. He waited, wanting to fix it but not knowing how. Was this what Con went through? Was this the type of tears he saw that had him convinced that he needed to put Steve and Rowan back together?

"What's going on?" he whispered. "I can't fix it if you don't tell me what's wrong."

But Rowan didn't answer she just sobbed even louder and Wo Fat sighed. "Okay so is this a… call Steve situation?"

"NO!" flew out of her so quickly "I had a fight with Steven!"

Wo Fat nodded. "You did?" Rowan pulled her face out of his chest to look at him as she nodded. "What was it about?"

"He… he." And then she just broke out in loud sobs and dropped her face back into him and continued to sob in earnest.

Okay not good. He had never seen her that upset before, what the hell had Steven done to her?

Well, he couldn't call Steven so he would have to go to the next best person. He pulled out his phone and called Con who picked up on the third ring.

"Hey! You okay? You need me to come down?"

"You're in California, so no," Wo said.

"Then why are you interrupting my lunch?" Con snapped and Wo Fat fought the urge to not get mad at him.

"Cause I need help with something, stupid."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Rowan's here…" "—In Japan?" "…No, Russia. Of course, I mean Japan." "—There's no need to get snippy, the girl can open portals, it's a fair question." "Look she's crying and I have no idea what the hell is going on with her, she's not speaking English, can you help me?"

"Yeah hand her the phone."

Wo nudged Rowan until she turned to look up at him. "It's Con," he said as he offered her the phone. Rowan, who's sobs had subsided, took the phone with a sniff.

"Hi," she whispered into it and then listened to whatever he had to say. "No," she said in response to whatever he had asked and then the tears started again. She started to talk to him her words garbled and marred with hiccupping sobs, and Wo Fat just stood there, his arms still around her, patting her back to try and soothe her. After a long quiet moment where Rowan just listened to Con on the phone.

"He wants to talk to you," she whispered as she handed it back to him. Well it looked like her tears were going to subside. She moved out of his arms and leant against one of the towers of crates behind her.

"So uh… did you uh… understand that?"

"Yep."

Wow, really? He needed to take that class, learn that language.

"Okay, what's going on?"

"Yeah, apparently he proposed," Con told him and a streak of surprise and concern ran through Wo Fat.

"I uh… I thought that would be a good thing," he said to Con and then turned to Rowan. "Ro? Don't you want to marry Steven."

"I do... but…"

"She doesn't like, how he proposed," Con explained and Wo Fat sighed.

"You didn't like how he proposed?" she shook her head. "Did he give you the ring he bought for Catherine?" She shook her head again. "No? Did he want it on a gun range? Am I not invited?" she shook her head twice more and then he sighed. "Then what? What is the matter?"

"He just… he turned to me in the kitchen this morning and just… he just… said let's get married at a court house today." Oh. Ew. Yeah, that wasn't romantic. Even Wo Fat knew that was a bad more. "And I said no and he got mad."

"Well did you explain?"

"I did or well I tried, but then he called me selfish and said I was a materialistic girl and…"

"Well that was rude. You're entitled to get married anyway you want. And if you didn't want to go to a courthouse then… yeah…"

"He said that he never actually wanted to marry me, he said that he only said that he would so I wouldn't leave."

Wo Fat blinked his eyes. He looked to the phone and then said: "I think I got this from here, I'll call you back with an update later." Then he hung up.

Once his phone was put away, he reached out for Rowan and pulled up the hand with her promise ring. He gave her a hard look and the tears welled up in her eyes again.

"Then what the hell was this for?" Rowan just sniffed and he sighed. "I was right, this was his version of proposing to you and marrying you, wasn't it? He figures that giving you that ring is the same thing as marrying you."

"I just don't know why I'm not… worth it…"

"Not worth it?"

"I mean, he was going to propose to Catherine but not to me, so maybe I'm not… worth it to him," Rowan said with a sniff. Wo Fat must have been confused because she added: "I found the ring."

"So, he actually did buy her a ring?"

"You told me he bought a ring," Rowan complained.

"Well yeah, the Five-0s left a message saying that something like that he had but I never got proof of it, you know? They could have been lying to get you to come back."

Rowan shook her head and he just sighed once more. "Okay so… so… he doesn't want to marry you? But he wanted to go get married at a court house today? Is it possible he said that because he was mad you turned down his shit proposal?"

Rowan blinked her eyes it was clear she hadn't thought of that. At that Rowan straightened and then put her back to the crate again, crossing her legs at the ankles. "Do you think that's it?"

It fucking better be. "I would think so. I mean, isn't that what men in love do, right? They marry the person they love?"

Rowan half shrugged. "I unno… maybe he doesn't want to anymore."

Oh, uh-oh. "What did you say to him?"

"I mean… not much… just that I wanted the wedding and the proposal. I told him I was willing to compromise on how the wedding was, but I still wanted it and if he didn't ever want to marry me then I should be looking for a new boyfriend."

Wo Fat blew a raspberry at her. "Well that's a completely reasonable response. I don't see…"

"Then I told him that if he didn't leave me alone, I'd activate the contingency plan," she whispered and Wo Fat nodded. "You know… after I used my powers to shock him away from me."

Wo Fat's mouth dropped. "You used your powers on him? Rowan!"

She had never turned her powers onto either of them before he was shocked she had turned them on Steve a second time now that things were good between them.

"He wouldn't let me go, he kept trying to hug me to keep me from leaving and I couldn't let that happen, you know?" she cried but Wo Fat didn't know. He didn't understand at all. Rowan sighed at him. "It's because if he hugged me I would have stopped arguing and… and… I couldn't do that, I couldn't give him what he wanted cause I would have been unhappy…"

"Really, a hug?" he asked. "A single hug from him and you'd crack? Really? His hugs are that good?"

"It's cause I can feel his emotions, I can feel it when his heart hurts and that makes me feel bad…"

"You can feel Steve's emotions?"

"I can see them too."

"You can… really? Like… you could… could you see mine?"

"Yep."

Wo Fat went quiet. Well that was fucking terrifying. How did she not notice all the guilt he felt during their year away? He wanted to ask her if she could see how he felt for Jian but he wasn't sure if he was ready to know that he loved her too. The implications of that was… well… frightening. He barely had a handle on the love he had for Rowan and that love wasn't even remotely romantic.

Though if he ever did ask her one day, she'd be able to tell him if he was capable of loving two people.

Wo Fat immediately needed to go back to the Steve topic before he spiralled out of control. "Okay, alright, so you used your powers on him, threatened him with the Captain America Contingency Plan and then left and came here?"

Rowan nodded. Alright that wasn't too bad. They could fix that. "Okay, so uh… just go back and talk it out with him. See if you can come to an agreement and try very hard not to threaten him again."

Rowan's lips twitched. "But he's being unreasonable."

"And so are you. Besides, I'm completely certain that he only said he doesn't want to marry you because you shot down his shit proposal."

"What if it really is his commitment issues though?"

"He doesn't get to have commitment issues after all the bullshit he put me through trying to get you back. You know? If he didn't have a future planned for you then he shouldn't have put you several no-fly lists and have you arrested by TSA to get you back."

Rowan made no move to move away from him, instead she just hung her head. From the the other side of the warehouse he heard a completely different door open, great his shipment was coming in.

"Look, my uh…my boat's come in and I'm going to have to go check the cargo…"

"You should let me check the area for cameras…"

"No I'm pretty sure…"

"Wo, I swear to god every law enforcement agency that has picked me up has surveillance photos of you."

"Right, alright, you deal with cameras and here's what we're going to do. I'm going to get the shipment in, we'll do inventory. You're not allowed to touch anything. I'll send one of my guys for tea and sushi okay? Would that make you feel better?"

Rowan nodded and he reached out to pinch the tip of her chin.

"Okay, you'll be good in here until we're set up?"

Rowan nodded again and there was a shift in the atmosphere where he could tell she was looking at strings to determine if he had anyone surveilling him. He left her, certain she would be okay, already reaching for his phone to call Con. He'd need him to tell him what else he could buy to cheer her up before he sent her back to Steve.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny opened the door to Steve and a panicked face and he knew right away what had happened. He just didn't think that it would start up to damn soon in their new relationship.

"Okay, so how bad was the argument?"

"She threatened to activate the contingency plan," Steve said as he walked into Danny's place. "She said she's only thinking about it, but I unno, after what just happened, she might be in the market for a new boyfriend."

Danny blinked his eyes, goddamn it what the hell had Steven done? "Okay… I mean… that's definitely not good… and do you know where she is?" Steve shook his head and Danny realized that part of the panic was not knowing if Rowan had left the island again or not. "Is she uh… charged?" Steve nodded his head and Danny sighed. Yeah not good, she could go anywhere if she was primed to use her powers.

"She… she used her powers on me, sent like some pulse through me to knock me back," he whispered.

"Fucking hell, Steve," Danny cried. "What the fuck did you do?"

Steve collapsed to the couch, confusion clear on his face as if he had no idea how he had gotten to this point.

"I proposed."

Danny stared at him as that sunk in. "I'm sorry… you… you proposed? How did… did she say no?" Steve nodded and Danny collapsed to the chair across from the couch in shock. "Wait… she said no? That girl fucking loves you, what excuse did she have?"

"She didn't like my plan."

"Your plan?"

"Yeah, she didn't like how I proposed…"

"Okay, well… how did you do it?"

Steve narrowed his eyes at Danny but he had a feeling that Steve had fucked up, he had a feeling that Steve knew it too. "I uh… I came in from my swim and I was just… I unno she looked so pretty and I was thinking about how MacGyver wanted to take her from me, that she was better off with him and… and… I unno… I just… I said why not go to the court house today and get married and she freaked out."

Danny tried his best not to crack a smile, dear god Steve was stupid. "So, you just turned to her and was like me, you, courthouse, married, let's go. That's what you said to her?"

"Yes Danny, I mean, there were more words than that…"

"So remember how when you were gonna propose to Catherine and I joked about how you had this thing planned to a strategic op… yeah, Steve it was a joke, a joke. No girl just wants to go down to a court house and get married, that's a fucking shot gun wedding. That's a fucking elopement, that's I got my girl pregnant and I gotta marry her right now. That's what that is. No girl wants that. Why would you do that to Rowan?"

Steve huffed. "Why did I think you'd understand?"

"Well come on Steve. Rowan's a romantic lady, and you know that. She is always on you to be more romantic. Come on Steve, you had to know that she wasn't going to say yes to that in a million years. How fucking stupid are you?"

Steve just sighed and hung his head. "I know but… I mean… I just… I'm worried."

"About what?"

"I don't know, I guess I'm worried about getting cold feet. You know how I am with commitment. What if we wait too long to get married and then I fuck it up again?"

"So don't fuck it up again. Its not this hard Steven. You remember how bad it was last year, when you two were separated and you said you'd do anything get her back? How you'd change if you did, you'd be better. Well this is it. This is where you be better."

Steve just sighed. "Why do I have to give up everything I believe in…"

"Because you love her, right?" Danny asked and Steve nodded. "And we both know if you talk it out with her, you two will come up with some sort of compromise, right? She's not unreasonable, you just gotta say the right things to her."

"She threatened me too Danny."

"I mean true, but did you do it first?"

"Well… no…"

"But you did something."

Steve nodded. "I gave her an ultimatum."

"Well come on, Steve, you know how she reacts to those," Danny cried. He then looked Steve up and down. The man was practically quaking, this was really hitting him hard. "Just explain yourself. She's not unreasonable. Just tell her how you feel."

Steve blinked his eyes and then glanced up at Danny. "What if she doesn't come back."

"Well, we both know if she's leaving, that car and the kid are going with her, which means she'll be easier to find."

"She has void powers, Danny."

"Yeah and you know how to tap into them which means you can figure out where they went and me and you we'll go down to where they are and then hit them with everything we got," Danny said. "But I don't think she's gonna leave you. I think if you go home and wait it out, she'll show up."

Steve nodded but made no motion to move. "You wanna hang out here a bit, maybe calm yourself down?"

"Could I?" Steve asked softly and Danny smiled as he nodded.

"I'll go get the beers," he said as he got up. As he went to the kitchen, he tried to keep his sighs to himself. Who would have thought a proposal was going to be the thing that took them down. They really better not break up cause if they did, Rowan was certainly going to vanish again and Danny wasn't sure she could fix Steven again.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve had gone home as Danny had suggested to wait for Rowan to come home. But it was the waiting that got him, that hurt him more than anything. The problem was he didn't know where in the world she had gone and if she was coming back.

So when he heard her car he was up and out of the seat on the couch to open the door and wait on the porch for her to come up towards the house. He waited on baited breath for her to appear but she wasn't alone.

She had Nahele, fresh out of school, with her. "Hey da… Steve," he said as he got closer. Steve offered him a fist bump instead of the hug he wanted to give him that the kid took right away. He knew if he hugged his kid as tightly as he wanted to, Nahele would realize that something was wrong. How as he to explain that the problem was that Rowan could vanish with his kid and he wouldn't be able to find them again if she did.

Steve moved out of the way so Rowan and Nahele could walk into the house. He watched them both kick their shoes off, Rowan sinking four inches when she did.

"Okay, get started on homework I'll start dinner," she said and Nahele nodded going to his room. "Steve's going to come up and check on you in ten minutes and if you're not working, I'm moving you down to the kitchen table for the rest of the year, you got me?"

"Yes mom," Nahele said with a weary sigh as he and his backpack disappeared up to the second floor.

Once he was gone, Rowan turned a patient smile to him and then headed for the kitchen where coincidentally all of this had started.

Steve followed after her and before she could go to the fridge, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. She turned back to him, her face impassive and the nerves hit him full force again. "Can we pause whatever argument we're having for just two seconds? I… I really need to hug you."

Rowan didn't even question him, she simply opened her arms and then he had crossed to her, wrapping her up and holding her to his chest. For those few minutes while he held her, he could feel his heart return to normal. She had come home. She hadn't left him like he was worried she might have.

When he finally let her go, Rowan still said nothing, she simply stared up at him as if waiting for him to say something and well, that worked for him.

"Okay I'm going to try to explain myself, and maybe you can just try to listen and maybe see things from my perspective?" Rowan nodded and he continued. "Okay so, I'm scared of commitment, right? And that's always going to be a problem. I know you said were willing to compromise on the whole wedding venue thing and that's great, but part of my problem is that proposal because I know for a fact I'll freak out about the impending commitment…"

Rowan, who was leaning against the counter by the fridge, merely cocked an eyebrow at him. "Okay, but you were willing to do it for Catherine."

"Out of SPITE, Rowan. Spite. I didn't want to marry Catherine, I didn't even love her. I was going to propose to her just because I was mad at you. That's not the same!"

"Yes but you were willing to go all out for your spite proposal and for Catherine, so why not me?"

"Because I want to make things work with you! I want to do things right…"

"Well traditionally the right way is asking for my hand in marriage, which is a proposal. With a proper ring and you in a fancy suit on bended knee at our favourite restaurant."

"So I'm going to wear a suit to Rainbows? Yeah won't that take the surprise out of it?" Steve snapped. "It's also in tradition to ask for permission to marry you. So, I'm going to call Trenton and ask for your hand? Or Wo?"

"Well Wo would be the better option as I can't be around my dad right now," Rowan answered flippantly and Steve almost groaned. Great so… he also had to ask Wo for permission to marry her? There was no way the man was going to say yes to him. There was no way he was going to let Rowan marry him if he got the option to veto it before he could even ask her.

"Rowan," he groaned and she put a hand out to him.

"I'm sorry," she said and for a second, he paused. "But I've dreamed of what my wedding would be like since I was a kid. Most little girls are like that. And while I'm willing to look over the venue or the size. Nor do I need a big party after, or a ceremony in a church. But I do want some things. I want the white dress, I want my family there, and I want to be proposed to. And maybe that last one is too much, but it doesn't have to be a long wait between the proposal and the wedding. It doesn't have to be expensive, or overly romantic. But if you were willing to get down on one knee for Catherine when you didn't even love her then you should be able to do it for me. Especially since you claim to love me."

"Okay, but do I need to buy another ring?"

"Uh… yes, because I want a proper engagement ring. It doesn't have to be a diamond, and it doesn't have to be big, and if you're having trouble picking one, we can go ring shopping together. I'll even buy it since it seems to be something only I want."

Steve clearly didn't like that idea because his nose turned up at it. Then he slowly lowered his eyes away from her. "I'm… I'm not sure I'm ready."

"And that's fine too, Steven," she said. "You're the one that brought this up. You're the one who wanted to go to a court house, I was fine to wait."

He winced at that reminder. "I know."

"So why did you do it then?"

Steve sighed at her and then said: "Promise you won't get mad?" When she nodded he whispered: "It's because of MacGyver."

"What, really?"

"Yes, he, he said he was better for you than me and he was right, you know. That really stuck with me and this morning… you were just so pretty standing there and I just kept thinking about what I'd do if I lost you again and how I knew I'd never survive it. You're my everything and I want to be with you forever so even though I was terrified of that level of commitment at that moment I was willing to give it to you if it meant I'd always have you in the kitchen in the morning and…"

"Okay, okay," she said coming to him, her hands resting on his shoulders, already he was leaning down to kiss her again but she wouldn't let him. "Here's what we should do. You, you don't have to propose to me until you're ready. But if you do, or when you do, make sure it's romantic, and the ring is nice, and then I promise we will get married somewhere small and intimate as soon as we can okay? But at the very least I'd like a month to plan. Is that okay?"

Actually yeah that sounded fair. "Okay," he said softly and then she let him kiss her. "Just a question but uh… did you go off island today?"

"I did. I went to cry on Wo's shoulder."

"Well thank you for coming back."

Rowan smiled up to him. "Of course I came back," she said. "I only wanted a shoulder to cry on."

Steve had let her go, had let her open the fridge to start their dinner, but when she told him why she was in Japan he reached out and grabbed her, hugging her tightly to him. "I'm so sorry," he whispered into her hair. "I really didn't mean to upset you."

"It's okay, baby," she whispered. "I'm sorry I threatened you. I didn't mean it, I just… I was just angry."

"Not going to mention the little shock you gave me?"

"I panicked," she said. "Next time I say let go, let go."

Right, that was fair. She did tell him to let her go more than a few times before she shocked him. He'd be sure to listen to her the next time they got into an altercation like that.

He reached out to hug her again and she let Steve hold her for a moment longer before letting her let go to start on dinner. As he headed up the stairs to make sure that Nahele was actually doing his homework he reflected on how differently that day might have ended had she agreed. She would have been his wife, and for some reason, just thinking of her with that title filled his body with such a sense of longing and intense desire that for a few seconds he couldn't breathe.

Maybe he wasn't as afraid of that commitment as he thought.