Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: How are we doing on this nice Saturday? Are you guys ready to see a little bit of what Rowan is doing and why she made such a terrible decision? She had a reason. Not a good one, but at least there was a reason. We also get to see Wo Fat and Steve be a little bit more friendly with one another. There should be another D'aww moment at the end of this chapter, so tell me what you think when you get to it! And since the reviews are back don't forget to leave me one and I'll see you tomorrow for the last post of this marathon!

Chapter 331

Sandy had nothing to report, nor did the Five-0 team have anything to report once Wo and Steven had landed. Steve had called Nahele, informed him of where he was, asked how he was doing, and made sure that the kid knew that he was going to be coming back. That even if he didn't find Rowan, which wasn't going to happen anyway, Nahele wouldn't be alone.

Then he and Wo Fat drove down to Tokyo. Once in Tokyo they called for more information. Sandy, once again, had nothing to report, and Five-0 could only tell him that the thumbs in the envelope belonged to police officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. But that made no sense because they had nothing to do with Wo Fat nor a record of an arrest last night out on the bay. And nothing on a carbo boat raid either.

They were awaiting more info about these officers.

When that was done Steve sent Nahele a text.

Nothing on your mom yet. About to hit a CIA sting op, don't call, will call you when I'm done.

Wo Fat had Sandy knock out the cameras in the elevators before heading up to the apartment that the CIA was using to stake out Wo Fat.

The plan was Steve was going to go in first, talk to them all reasonable like and then threaten to bring Wo Fat in if they didn't cooperate. Then if that didn't work, he and Wo Fat were going to switch places and Steve wasn't going to intervene when he heard screams. Though, you know, he might forget to intervene right away.

However, things didn't go to plan at all. Steve got to that door and all reasonableness went out the window. And it all started when he kicked that door in.

"Where the hell is my wife!" he shouted at the three agents sitting in the small apartment. They had all been facing the windows, clearly watching something and none of them had been expecting a wild, angry Steven McGarrett to appear.

And they definitely weren't expecting Wo Fat, who slipped in after Steve even though he said he was going to stay outside as to not make them nervous.

"Uh… so when did you and Ro get married?"

"Married?"

"You just shouted where is my wife," Wo Fat said and Steve's eyes narrowed at him. No. that didn't sound like him. He turned confused looks first to Wo Fat and then to the three guys in the room with him.

"You did," the purported leader said.

"I did?"

"You did," Wo Fat confirmed. "So… did I miss something?"

"Nope… haven't even proposed…" Steve said though he was starting to think that he might have. He definitely didn't have any commitment issues, not if, in his mind, Rowan was already his wife… and she was. In his mind only.

He'd really need to fix that soon. Yeah he needed to get off of this topic right now.

"Right. Not important right now. You three are going to tell me where the hell Rowan Pierce is being held."

The three men exchanged glances. And then the defacto leader said: "We're CIA Secret agents and from what I hear there's chatter that you guys just hit one of our black sites."

Steve nodded: "Got any proof?"

"You got any proof that we got your girl?" When Steve only glared at him the man smiled. "Yeah, didn't think so. And besides what are you really going to do here? Huh? Commander? I'm assuming that's who you are. Rowan Pierce and her Commander Steven McGarrett."

"I'm going to leave you alone with him," Steve said jerking his head in Wo Fat's direction, who seemed to have forgotten about everything and was busy looking at the laptop on the table and then to his phone.

They all turned to him and then back to Steven. "You're working with him now?"

"Only where Rowan's involved."

"They got nothing," Wo Fat said interrupting all of them. "Sandy's gone through all their stuff and they've got nothing. Apparently, they're not even here for me."

Steve groaned. "And Sandy couldn't get that info before?"

"Sandy's looking for Rowan. Not… not… who is Sam Alexander. I know that name. I swear."

Steve sighed and turned back to them. "Agent Sam Alexander? The guy who arrested Rowan two years ago?"

"A lot of people have arrested my sister. You included. Now I'm supposed to keep a list?"

"Colombia."

That was all he needed to say and he visible watched the lightbulb go off in Wo Fat's head. "Ah. Right. Him. Tried to ransom her, it didn't go well for him."

"So, you're sitting on Wo Fat to try and find Sam Alexander? Why? They're not working together," he said and then paused and turned to Wo fat. "Right?"

Wo, who had come to stand beside him, had originally had his arms crossed over his chest and a glare pointed at the three men in front of them. But the second Steve asked for clarification, he turned a dry glare onto him.

"I know who's working for me Steven."

"You sure, cause you had a guy in Hawaii you didn't know the name of," Steve reminded him. "Are you getting old? Can't remember names anymore?"

Wo Fat shot him a withering glare but turned to the three men. "No, I don't have contact with Sam Alexander. The last time he came across me I blew up the room we were all in and put a bullet in his shoulder. I know he's not intelligent but… not even he could be that stupid to come after me again after going through all of that."

"IA has been after him for a while. Something about him possibly being on the take in Colombia. They need the proof… proof we heard you have. He went dark when he heard that we were closing in. Last we heard of him he was in Japan. We assumed sooner or later he'd make a move on you for whatever you had. And since dealing with Rowan was… well the words he used were traumatic, we figured he'd go for your other pressure point."

"Jian."

"Rowan did give him photocopies of Reyes' black book," Steve reminded him and Wo Fat nodded.

"Yes."

"He must be after the originals. She told him that you had them squirreled away somewhere, somewhere she couldn't access them."

Wo Fat laughed. "That's not true. She has them."

Steve turned to him. "Excuse me."

"Yeah, she has them. They're not even in a safe. She has them in your house."

Oh my god she was just like his mother. Did she have a loose floorboard and a hidden safe too?

"We uh… we would be willing to trade you know," the leader said. "If you can help us apprehend him, and hand over the evidence she has… we'll uh… we'll help you find where he's stashed her."

"Do you really think that he would take Rowan again? After what he did to him the first time?" Steve asked. It was a fair question. Wo Fat and Rowan had humiliated Sam Alexander, why would anyone chance going through something like that again?

"Well… we thought no," the leader said. "We thought he'd go for your girlfriend, but if Rowan is missing…"

"And he's using Yakuza connections? Is that what you think?"

"Yes… why…"

"Because the head of the Yakuza in my area is Michelle Shioma and I specifically told that foolish woman if she fucked with Rowan again I'd kill her," he said and then turned to Steve and said: "What part of the year are you on with Rowan?"

"Uh… BC?

"Oh, then I can't tell you what happened then," he said and then just turned away like Steve wasn't going to ask about that later.

"So, both of these people were expressly told that you'd kill them if they went near Rowan Pierce again and they just… they just… grabbed her anyway?"

It seemed like a pretty dumb idea but people were always doing dumb things where Rowan was involved. Steven included. Sometimes he just completely forgot just how lethal he was when it came to protecting Rowan.

"I always knew he wasn't a smart man, but Michelle should have known better," he said and then he just shrugged. "Oh well, guess they'll learn the hard way."

The other three men paused and exchanged glances.

When the leader asked: "How tight of a leash do you have on him?" Wo Fat started to laugh.

Steve sighed and shook his head. He had no leash on Wo Fat and he didn't even want to leash him either. He wanted his Rowan back and Wo Fat was the quickest most efficient way to get that done. It would just happen to be the bloodiest.

Wo Fat smiles at them and Steve can see that the three CIA agents have realized this as well.

"We need him alive," they all tried to tell him. Steve could only shrug and Wo Fat said nothing. Every man in the room knew that if Sam Alexander and Michelle Shioma ended up being behind this, Wo Fat was going to kill them both.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan had made a lot of stupid choices in her life, but when she chose to stay on that boat and use the last of her power to save Wo Fat instead of herself, that was probably the stupidest. She had simply thought that these were regular cops, a typical raid. If they find her, they're confused as to how she got there, but she wasn't a wanted criminal they'd send her back to Hawaii. But If they found Wo Fat, he'd be arrested, and they'd grab her to find out what the two of them were doing. So she figured sending away Wo Fat would mean that neither of them would get arrested. But when she realized that these people weren't good cops, they were corrupt cops and they hadn't been looking for Wo Fat but for her instead, she knew that she had made a bad choice.

And they wouldn't say her name.

They kept calling her Fem. Target One.

And when they had her surrounded, cuffs didn't come out, because they knew, they said, that they wouldn't work on her. So, they hit her with a stun gun and that was the last she remembered.

When she woke up everything was hazy and two people were above her. She was certain that she sort of recognized one of them, but the other… the other she knew for certain was Michelle Shioma.

"This isn't what you promised me," she seemed to be saying. "You never said you'd bring… her."

"Well how else was I going to get the documents?"

That was the voice that she didn't quite recognize. Well she did recognize it she just couldn't remember from where.

"You never said that they had them!"

"You can't be seriously upset right now. When this is done…"

"We'll be dead! Dead! Do you understand, I am on thin ice as it is! What is stopping me from turning you into him?"

"Because it was your men who pulled this little kidnapping stunt. Your corrupt cops. Your bad guys. And we're holding her in your house no less. So you go ahead, Shioma. You go ahead and tell him where we are, but if the past dictates anything, he's going to kill everyone involved. So wouldn't it be better if we minimized your contact with him?"

"Fine, but this better work, or so help me, I'll kill you before he even gets a chance."

And then Michelle was gone and she was left alone. She was cold, where ever she was, and she was on the floor. That wasn't a bad thing though, being on the floor made her feel better.

Or it would if she wasn't kidnapped and in trouble again. Fucking Yakuza. Well at least it sounded like Shioma had been tricked into this. Rowan would have liked to know who the one calling the shots was though. She forced herself to get up and the first thing she saw was a window. Like an interrogation window, large, bullet proof, hole ridden glass. Like she was fucking Hannibal Lector or something.

"Well good morning… what does your brother call you? His little Ro?"

It was Sam Alexander.

The fucking corrupt CIA agent that had arrested her and taken her to Colombia. He must have been after the pages, kind of weird that he'd be after them now after so long. She ignored his question and instead looked around. It was a little white box, a lot like the one Wo had put Steve in once. White tiles, white walls, no bed, no chairs or washroom. Just an 8 by 8 sterile white tiled box.

There was a door, she could see the outline of it, but it didn't have a doorknob or an opening. Nothing she could use to pull the strings to open it.

"That's right, you're in a secured cell. No way for you to get out. Until I say so that is."

Rowan half laughed, ah this wasn't good. He so definitely thought that he had her caught. Yeah, once she got her head straightened out she'd be using the void to get out of there, whether or not she'd have to pull from the red strings to get her power.

"So, you're going to have sit tight in there and then when I figure out a way to contact your brother and get what I want."

Yeah, Rowan wasn't about to do that.

"Did you know… in Colombia… they called me La Bruja?"

Sam Alexander cocked an eyebrow. "I'm aware of all the myths surrounding your mysterious time there, but it doesn't change the fact that I have you, and this time you're not getting away from me until I get what I want."

It hurt her do it, like physically hurt her head to do it but she forced herself to open up the void, to get a good look at the strings. This was going to hurt Steve too, but she figured that he was already aware she was in trouble and looking to getting her back. And judging by the strings he was somewhere safe in… in… Japan. He was here with her?

Well that made her feel better.

"Ever wonder why they called me that?"

Sam Alexander merely smiled at her but Rowan wasn't waiting for the answer. Her face must have changed, her eyes probably because the smile left his face when he clocked the change in her. She opened up that void as she laughed at him.

"You should have listened Alexander. Cause this time I'm not going to play nice."

And just like that the lights above them flickered and then burst. Painting the little basement in darkness and that glowing orange she was famous for just as the glass between them shattered.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Once they had a suspect it was easy to link all their evidence to Michell Shioma and then Sam Alexander. The cops Wo had taken the digits off of were all being investigated for Yakuza ties, specifically for working for Shioma's branch of Yakuza. Shioma was also now rumored to have a CIA operative on her payroll, one that had recently shown up in Japan, to help her with whatever they were working on..

He had been heading some big operation, some smash and grab that Shimoa needed done. They all assumed it was classified material, stuff to use as blackmail or the location of items that would fetch big money on the black market.

Steve was now operating under the theory that Rowan was the real target of that smash and grab, as the hit on the boat had been confirmed as a move from the CIA playbook. And if that were the case, they sure as hell were playing this smart. They hadn't mentioned her as their target once, and if they weren't saying her name that meant that they were doing this to avoid activating her app.

Steve kept glancing to Wo to see how much of this was affecting him but Wo had betrayed not a single emotion. So, he was either doing alright or panicking, Steve wasn't certain which it was.

And he wasn't about to ask him either.

The three CIA agents, who's names he learned were Gibson, Jasper and Falkowski, had told them that they were pretty certain that, if Shioma and Alexander were holding Rowan somewhere it would be at Shioma's personal house.

The Shioma house was a straight up fortress, situated on a cliff, they had their own personal beach to protect them. There was only one safe way in and that was through the front, which was where the CIA would be moving in through. Steve and Wo were waiting on a boat in the harbor, with a crew of Wo Fat's men, all armed to the teeth ready to go through the back way as a second wave of attack.

But Steven had a feeling that Wo Fat was looking at this as he was coming through the back to cut down the people who were trying to escape. No survivors or whatever. Steve was just so done with this whole situation that he was completely okay with letting Wo fat do whatever he wanted.

They were waiting for the signal, then Wo Fat would deploy his men, and Steve and Wo would go with them.

Steve had found Wo standing on the prow of the ship, his eyes on the mansion, smoking through an entire pack of cigarettes. So it seemed, like Rowan, when he was nervous he smoked. Except, un like Rowan, who only smoked the one cigarette, Wo Fat chain smoked.

Steve figured this was the right time to ask if Wo Fat was okay.

"Hey, how you holding up?" he asked as he came to stand beside him. Wo Fat shot him a glance.

"Fine. This isn't the first time I've been through something like this."

It wasn't Steve's first rodeo either but he was still anxious.

Wo Fat shot a glance to him and then offered Steve a cigarette. "She smokes them when she's anxious, how about you?"

Steve shook his head. "I am anxious though… I think most of it's her anxiousness…"

Wo Fat turned to him quickly. "Wait a second… you can feel her too? It isn't just something she can do?"

Steve shook his head. "No, it's me too. I uh… I don't think that they're hurting her by the way, I'd… I think I'd feel it if they were."

Wo Fat took that in for a second and then asked: "Did you feel Japan?"

"I did." Wo Fat just had to stare at him for him to add: "And not acting on that feeling is something I regret to this day."

"There's a lot about Japan that I regret."

Steve turned to him surprised. "You regret Japan? But you're the one who got her out."

"I'm also the one who got her into that mess," Wo Fat said but Steve couldn't see how that was true.

"I… I gave her too much power, I took her a little too deeply into my world and she got burned. I tried to blame everyone else, the Yakuza, Gabriel and you, but if I had just said no to her, if I had just got her not to meddle, she wouldn't have been grabbed. If I had just protected her instead of caving to her every whim she never would have gotten involved with Gabriel Waincroft in the first place."

Steve blinked his eyes. "But it wasn't your fault," he whispered. "It was theirs. The Yakuza never should have grabbed her. Gabriel should have learned, he should have just left her alone. And I…"

"How could you have not realized she was there, Steven?" Wo Fat suddenly asked. "I know you didn't… but you just said you could feel it and… you really thought I'd just keep her in a warehouse by the bay? I never did business with her around, she never would have come with me."

"I didn't know that, I didn't… I just thought that she… was…" he trailed off.

The two of them stared at each other. Maybe this would help him getting everything off of their chests.

"You're right, I should have known that something was off, even without the feeling. She never would have left Nahele, she never would have…"

"She never would have actually left you."

Steve turned back to Wo Fat to find him staring off at the mansion again.

"I had been trying to get her to drop you for years, she wasn't going to quit you Steve. She never would have left you, no matter the argument. She would have found a way to make it all her fault and then bend to your commands."

Yeah that sounded like Rowan. Something that he hoped to change with any future argument. He wanted them to work through things together. He didn't want her to cave to every demand he made, especially the ones that compromised her own needs and desires.

But there was something he wanted to ask Wo, something that had been bothering him for a long time.

"It… it was bad wasn't it?" Wo Fat turned to him surprised. "Don't get me wrong, I saw that video and the doctor you hired listed her injuries, but I unno. She looks fine now and… I've asked but she always plays it off… but I always thought… for you to have reacted the way you did that it had to have been bad, like… really bad..."

Wo Fat nodded. "Uh… well yeah. Because it was. You saw that video, the four minute one? The highlights? That was only the second day in. I got to her on the fourth and everything was just… she was just…" he trailed off and then turned back to Steven with a seriously look on his face.

"The guy in charge had been hitting her and he was left-handed so he hit her mainly on one side, and so all those breaks you were told about and the fractures, almost all of the bruising and swelling… all on the right side. When they were electrocuting her, she struggled so hard to get away she put a spiral fracture in her left arm and popped her shoulder out of place. She was covered in cuts and burns that were infected because her conditions were filthy. They were barely feeding her, the only water she got was from waterboarding… draining her lungs took… hours…" he whispered and a bile rose into Steve's mouth.

"When I finally found her… when I had her… I thought… I honestly thought she was going to die. I could feel it, you know, each breath she took, I could feel the water gurgling in her, through her skin, she was so… she was just…" He took a breath as if seeing her in front of him in that condition again. Seemingly haunted by what he had seen. When he had breathed through it, he lowered his gaze to the cigarette in his fingers that had gone out.

"I remember looking at her, seeing all of the damage before me and thinking… god, how is she going to survive this? I had never felt fear like that before."

"Did they… she won't tell me… but did they… you know… sexually…"

"She never confirmed, but the doctors did a check and saw no signs of trauma there," he said.

"But they saw activity…"

"Yeah, figured it was you and her," he said with a shrug. "At least, she said you and her went at it before she left. That was true right?"

Steve nodded and Wo Fat let out a breath. Steve cleared his throat. "I just thought… because of what you did to Sato's wife…"

Wo Fat actually winced. Like he was ashamed of what he did.

"I was angry. I… I guess I wanted to be sure, just in case she had been lying to me… you know that I covered all the bases of what you do to her… you know? And I wanted him to suffer, I wanted to hurt him as hard as he hurt me," Wo Fat growled. "I… I went too far, I know I did. But I was just so… infuriated. I wanted him to hear her scream, because that's all I could hear. Sometimes… sometimes I can still hear her…"

Steve nodded. Yeah, he understood that. He had been furious too. Turned savage by the worry for her and the desperate need to save her. And her screams also still haunted him to this day.

"Did you watch the video? All fifteen minutes of it?"

"Yes. Multiple times," Wo Fat admitted.

"Why?"

"Well, originally I watched it because I just… I wanted to see how extensive the torturing was, I wanted to be prepared. All the other times… they were to punish myself… to remind myself why I was keeping her from you."

Steve turned to him surprised and Wo Fat turned, his face blank. "I blamed you McGarrett. I blamed you for putting her in that position. If you had just… gotten over your vendetta, if you had just loved her like you said you did, you never would have given her that ultimatum."

"The same could be said for you. If you had just left her alone…"

"Why? So you could take care of her?" Wo Fat asked.

This was not going the way he thought it would go. He didn't want to argue with Wo Fat about these things. It was like they had gone right back to last year, arguing about the same things all over again.

Wo Fat pulled that box of cigarettes out to get another one to smoke. He was going about lighting it when he turned back to Steve.

"Do you know what I've realized? No matter how much I wanted to, or how I wished I had intervened or pulled back the power I was giving her, it wouldn't have mattered. Because that girl was going to get in the middle of every single one of your cases, no matter what either of us wanted. And why? God, I wish I knew why, she can't even tell me why. She just says she wants to help, I don't know why that means throwing herself into the thick of it, but it does. And how do you respond, hmm?"

"I don't just leave her to her own devices! Come on now, Wo, you just spent a full year with her, you know what she's like, what lengths she'll go to get her own way."

"Yes, I do know. But I never put my business ahead of her welfare."

Wow really.

"Actually, now that I have you here, do you know how many times I had to run off after her cause she went and got herself in trouble? I only had her for a year and she got kidnapped like six times," he thundered. "How do you deal with that? I mean… I almost contemplated locking her up myself. Not that it would have worked with her powers, but still. You know?"

Together the boys chuckled. It was nice to hear that Wo Fat had been just as frustrated with Rowan's penchant for running off and getting herself into trouble. "But… unlike you and your cases... If I knew she was in trouble I dropped whatever it was I was doing to go and get her."

"Hey! Wait a second! I do that too! My work is not more important than her. I have told her that time and time again, and I will tell you too. Work is not more…"

"Is it not though? How many of Nahele's football games have you gone to? How many of Rowan's focus groups have you been to? How many dates and family nights have you had to reschedule because a case came through? Work is more important to you McGarrett, where my only concern is and always will be Rowan and her safety."

That wasn't fair cause he had only missed four of Nahele's games. Granted there had only been five but… I mean… both he and Ro were going to miss the next one due to this little kidnapping.

"Which is how she got kidnapped six times, hmm?"

Wo Fat turned a glare to him. "This coming from the man who let her get kidnapped by me, and then the NLM, the Yakuza, and then me again. Let's not also forget the time you let her get extradited to Colombia…"

"Okay, okay, fine, sorry," Steven growled turning away and then quickly turned back. "Can I ask another question?"

"If you must…"

"Who were the other guys?" he asked and Wo Fat turned to him.

"I'm sorry… what?"

"Well… Rowan's mentioned twice now that there were… you know… other guys. She said she had one for every place she went. I know that Langford was England and then there was Mackie in California. So, do you know the others? She said there was one guy in every place she went. So I don't know who Paris, Venice, Berlin, Colombia, Canada and I guess there must have been someone on the cruise ship, wait, no, I know who that was, it was the captain right? Were there more than that? Was there more than one guy in Canada? I just… I just wanna know who the other people were… so do you know?"

Wo Fat stared at him, his eyes wide. "I… you know I really didn't like discussing that with her… that was… I mean she's my sister… I don't want to know who she's fucking. And besides, she didn't have a guy in every place, I know for a fact she wasn't fucking anyone when we were in Venice, or Berlin."

Steve nodded. "So, you don't know or…"

"No, I know. She always told Conejo and Conejo would keep me updated much to my embarrassment and horror, but if she hasn't told you I'm certainly not," he said sniffing indignantly and Steve sighed. Alright then.

"Okay well…"

"Are you about to ask me another question?"

"Yes?"

"Jesus Christ you really are the energizer bunny of questions, I mean when she said they were never ending I thought she was exaggerating."

Steve stared at him blankly took a deep breath. "Okay, so this… this is uh… this a two parter," he warned him and Wo Fat just sighed and lit another cigarette. "So uhm… well… say I were to propose, would you know how she would want me to do it? And uh… would I have your permission to uhm... marry her?"

Wo Fat straightened and turned wide surprised eyes onto Steven. "Whoa. Whoa… you… are you planning on proposing to Ro?"

"Well… yeah… I just… I unno I'm not good at this and I want it to be perfect and well… I tried before and you know she shot me down because… I don't even know why…"

"I do," Wo Fat said crisply. "She wanted something more romantic."

"Why does everything have to be romantic?" Steven groaned.

"I don't know, it's a girl thing," Wo Fat admitted. "Girls love that romance shit. Anyway, I know that Rowan wanted more romance, I think she mentioned feeling… jilted over your original proposal…"

"What? Why?"

"Because you were willing to go the whole way, you know, the whole nine-yards for Catherine. And all you did for her was turn to her at breakfast and said: let's go to a courthouse today and make this thing legal. Who does that? Even I know not to do that. Jian may be practical, I may be able to get away with not getting down on bended knee, but I better ask her properly and with a ring or she's going to stab me… and she keeps surgical knives at the apartment…"

Steve blinked his eyes at him. "I mean, I know she said that but… I guess I don't see why that matters."

Wo Fat turned to him with narrowed eyes and Steve had a feeling he tread onto dangerous territory there.

"Okay, well there are several reasons why it matters. Starting with how she feels about herself," he said. "She's always sort of felt like she wasn't good enough for you, to be honest I think she doesn't think she's good enough for anyone, but least of all you. She's always sort of measured herself against Catherine as if Catherine were your ideal girl, so it really hurt her when you were willing to propose to Catherine but not her, you know?"

Okay yeah that made more sense. "What were the other reasons."

"Only one other reason," Wo said before take a long drag on his cigarette. He exhaled and a cloud of smoke billowed from him. He then turned onto Steve. "Rowan's a girl. Like a full blown girly-girl. She wants the proper proposal, the dress, and the whole shebang. You know? I mean, I doubt you'll have to shell out thousands on wedding, but I know she'll definitely want it to be somewhat special. At least something more special than you asking her to go to a courthouse over coffee and avocado toast. And she's gonna wanna ring, like a good ring. Don't even try to propose to her with Catherine's ring."

"Not a problem, I sold Catherine's ring back to the store, I have a store credit but I haven't found a ring I like for her yet," he answered. "But seriously, has she talked to you about what she'd want then? I mean she said she talked to you about almost everything so…"

"Uh, actually yeah, yes I did," he said as he went fishing for his phone. "She went into detail about the kind of proposal she'd want after your shit attempt at one. I made notes on it."

He smiled triumphantly at Steven whose eyes clearly must have been asking him why Wo Fat had made notes, because the man felt the need to defend himself. "What? I made notes on a lot of things. Some to help me out and some for her other guys. This time around I figured if I ever have to try and set her up with someone else, it might be a good thing to have notes to help him along… you know… give him an edge…"

Steve thought about this and then asked: "Did you ever give any tips to MacGuyver?"

Wo Fat paused for a moment and then said: "Who?"

Damn he was getting forgetful in his old age. "What do you mean, who? Cali guy. You know, Mackie?"

"Ah, right. Him. I keep forgetting his real name," Wo Fat said and then shook his head. "Nope, never did. I mean they weren't living together and to be honest, yeah she liked him but I didn't think that she was going to stay with him, you know?"

"Why not?"

"Well… he didn't know who she really was. She lied to him about everything. Can't have a relationship that's based on lies, right?" Steve nodded and Wo Fat nodded too. "Do you uh… do you wanna know about the proposal? Oh! I also have a ring. I'mma text Con, tell him to pick it up."

"Why the hell did you buy her an engagement ring?"

"Because, she picked it out in Venice and I figured…"

"Yeah, yeah, give the next guy the advantage…"

"Hey!" Wo Fat said sternly pointing at him. "I am clearly more than willing to give you the advantage, but only because my sister likes you so much, otherwise… ohh… you'd be on your own."

For a while the two boys were quiet before Steve turned to him again his mouth poised to ask yet another set of questions. Wo Fat just handed him his phone.

"That's everything she told me about a proposal," he said. "But somewhere in there should be notes about the perfect wedding too, if you wanted to get prepared. Or you know… when you decide to do things right, call me, I know everything she wants and I can make it happen… and I will be there. If you don't invite me to my sister's wedding I'll swear to god… I mean I won't be able to kill you but I can be just as annoying as Rowan."

Steve found himself laughing. "Ohh, that's quite the threat, right there," he said with a half smirk on his face that was mirrored on Wo Fat's.

They turned their eyes back to the night sky twinkling above the calm of the ocean. Then Steve cleared his throat. "You know… uh… you never did tell me whether or not you'd give me permission."

"To what?"

"To marry her."

"Why would you ask me for that?" he asked.

"Well, when we were arguing I said if we were going to go full tradition I'd have to ask her father for permission to marry her…" "—You can't call her father, he can't know where she is right now." "… yeah she said that too. But she said that I would have to ask you in his place if I was gonna do that…"

"So uh… you're really asking me?"

"Yeah, but keep in mind if you say no, I'm gonna marry her anyway."

Wo Fat half laughed. "No, no, I wouldn't say no, so uh… go on, ask me properly."

Steve had already done that but he sighed heavily and said: "Alright, Wo Fat, do I have your permission to marry Rowan?"

Wo Fat was sitting there all stiff and proper and with the most seriously look his face he gave Steven a clipped nod and said: "Yes you do." And then offered Steve a hand to shake that Steve took without a second thought.

In the distance came the sound of gunshots and both Steve and Wo Fat straightened. They hadn't gotten the signal yet, had they gone in early?

"Something's not right," Wo Fat whispered and Steve felt that too.

But then the pulse in his chest fired up, something was squeezing his heart and he knew exactly what it was. But Steve was in so much pain he couldn't breathe, and with a cry he ended up collapsing into himself.

Wo Fat took his eyes off of the mansion to turn to him, a hand went to Steve's back. "Hey! Are you okay, what's going on?"

Steve managed to croak out: "Rowan," and just like that Wo Fat left his side.

"Oh, oh, shit, shit, not good, not good…"

Steve looked up to see that streak of orange jumping through the dark of that back garden heading for the cliff.

No, no, don't, don't. He wanted to scream for Rowan, wanted to make her realize that he was there, and he needed her to come to him.

But people were chasing that orange streak that was his girlfriend and those people had guns.

They were trying to corner her. Trying to hurt her!

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" roared out of him before he could stop himself and a shockwave of pure orange erupted from Rowan.

It threw everyone chasing her away from her, but it also threw her back and right over the cliff.

Both he and Wo Fat yelped but with one last squeeze a portal opened up just below Rowan's falling body and then she was gone.

Silence hit their boat and then Wo turned to Steve. "Any chance you can tell where she's gone?"

Steve didn't even have it in him to shake his head, Wo Fat took in his look of horror and that was enough of an answer.

When Wo Fat breathed out a gruff shit Steve found that he wholeheartedly agreed.