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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers! Are you ready for another fun chapter? The drama is going to hit next chapter and this chapter is nothing but fun. I promise. You're going to see a lot of bonding moments between our three favourite boys. So I hope you guys enjoy this cute, not so little chapter, and I'll see you guys on Friday!
Chapter 340
Despite the late-night festivities, almost everyone in the wedding party was actually up early.
Steve and Rowan had wanted to sleep in, and had managed to sleep in a little bit but their phones were blowing up with text from their friends. Mostly Danny and Kono.
Stag and Doe days, the texts had said.
Danny had set up a bachelor party for Steve, Kono had a Bachelorette set up for her. Attendance was mandatory.
That meant the first day of their honeymoon was technically going to be dedicated to their friends.
Rowan had texted Nahele, wanted to know if he was okay. Apparently, they had been set up with a sort of kids club for all the kids, they got to have fun by the pool. Nahele was interested in doing that so that made both her and Steve feel a little less guilty that they would be partying without him.
The newly wedded couple met down in the restaurant where the wedding party and their spouses were waiting for them.
There was a cheer and wave of clapping when they showed up in the restaurant with their hands intertwined between them. They were sat down to a wonderful breakfast where they were all congratulated as if none of these people had been
Rowan noticed right away that Wo Fat and Sin Nombre were sitting slightly apart from the others, and only talking to each other. They clearly felt out of place around all of Steve's friends so she abandoned her new husband to sit between them.
She glanced to Steve and found that he was smiling at her, so at least he wasn't upset that she had left his side. She smiled back and let him take his place across from her between Danny and Chin.
The groups all devolved into amicable chatting, they ordered their food and drinks, Rowan got her waffles and mimosas and made sure everyone was eating and happy before she turned to her eldest brother and asked: "So uh… what happened to my kid's face?"
Both Con and Wo turned to her, eyes wide with utter horror. When she turned her ice blue eyes onto Wo first and then to Con, her face clearly not a happy one, both of them turned to the other, clearly freaked out.
Steve looked up from his meal and glanced at the two men sitting beside her in an almost panic, Rowan's eyes narrowed.
"Wait a second, do you know what happened to my kid's face," she asked her perfect wonderful brand-new husband.
"He's our kid, Ro," Steve whispered and her eyes narrowed even more.
"Not yet he's not. Did they tell you what happened and not me?"
"Well they kind of had to, kid came into the ballroom with a black eye when we left him black-eye-less. Wasn't like I was going to let that go. And he is my kid and we're going to talk about making that official whether you like it or not."
Rowan scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Obviously we're going to talk about it, Steven, but that's not the point. I'm his guardian why was I not made aware…" she glanced to the other Five-0's and her scowl deepened. "So, like… does all of Five-0 know what happened and I'm the only one out of the loop?"
"You had Williams checking up on him, you know he's got a fat mouth!" Grover cried earning him an: "OI!" from Danny.
"They all saw me first, Ro. It was part of the surprise?" Steve cried and Rowan pinned him with a dry glare.
"My kid having a black eye was part of the surprise?"
Steve scowled at her, which was fair because she was being purposely difficult at that point. She sighed again and cried: "Oh my god, just someone tell me what happened please. Why does my kid have a black eye?"
"Okay so there was this bully," Con started and she groaned.
"Again? Why do people keep picking on my baby?!"
"Well because the world shits on nice people, look at all the shit you've gone through."
But that was different because she could handle it. And she didn't want her kid to go through that sort of stuff.
"Rowan, this isn't our fault. You didn't tell me he had a bully. If I knew there was a bully, I would have picked him up from school and dealt with it then."
Rowan almost put her head in hands. Oh my god this was a disaster. "Was it dealt with, though?"
"Sure was," Con said proudly and she turned bland eyes to Wo Fat who was supposed to be in charge.
"Please tell me you didn't kill a kid."
"Hell no," Wo said. "Con broke his arm though. And then beat up his dad in front of him and all the other kids in the school."
"Con broke his arm? Since when do you do kids?"
Con slammed his fork down and turned a glare at her. "The second my nephew, who had only been under my care for less than 24 hours, came home with a black eye and a split lip. It was not my idea to call the guy's boss up and have him and the kid moved off the island, that was all Big Bro, not me. I just handed both of them their asses."
"That's a little overkill isn't it?" Chin asked and was rewarded with a glare. From all three of them.
"Kid had his little shit friends jumping my nephew," Wo Fat growled. "They're lucky they're alive."
Then both men turned to Rowan but it was Con who heavily sighed. "Had we known the bullies were a thing we would have intervened, but he didn't tell us, he just came home that way. We dealt with it from there."
"Yeah, he likes to try and deal with things on his own, wonder where he gets that from?" Rowan asked pinning Steve with a dry look.
"Excuse me, you do that too, Ro, and you spend more time with him so it's probably from you."
"Yeah and if you're adopting him that better change, you better spend more time with what will be your kid if you adopt him."
"Of course I'm going to spend more time with him, and it's not if, Rowan, it's when, which is what we're going to need to talk about, at some point."
Rowan nodded deftly. "And we totally will, whenever our wedding party decides to let us have some alone time."
"Y'all don't use alone time to talk," Con said. "So don't blame us for you two not talking."
Rowan just shook her head and finally the table went quiet.
"So, what is the plan for the day?" Steve asked ready to get off this topic.
"Girls are doing a spa day, with massages, manicures and pedicures and custom cocktails," Kono said causing all the women at the table to ohhhh in excitement.
"Boys are going fishing," Danny told him. "I booked us a lovely boat, rented all the equipment we need and we have someone who's going to take out to the best fishing spot. Even got snorkel gear cause I know how much you like going in the water."
Steve smiled at him letting Danny sling an arm over his shoulder and then rubbing his hair. "I'm just so happy you're married! You shmuck!"
"Thanks buddy."
Rowan smiled happily at Steve's friends, they probably figured they'd never figure themselves out. But they had proven them all wrong.
"Right, if we're done with breakfast, we should head out," Danny said. "Gotta meet at the dock in like an hour and we still gotta figure out how we're getting there."
"Yeah, and we have our first appointment in like thirty minutes," Kono told the table.
As everyone nodded Rowan glanced to her two boys wondering what they were going to do with the day. She sort of felt bad, she would have to organize something just the three of them so they wouldn't feel left out, though by the looks of it they didn't seem to mind that they were going to be left behind.
"I'm down for a massage. Rowan's always getting hot stone massages I've been sort of interested in trying them," Wo said. "But I draw the line manicures."
"I'm down for a manicure, just clear gloss though," Con told him and Wo Fat hit him with a look that basically said: I mean that's weird but do you.
Rowan blinked her eyes, oh they were coming with her and the girls? Well she wasn't going to force them to do that but if that's what they wanted she wasn't going to say no.
"Uh… no, you guys are with us," Danny said and both men turned to him with wide eyes. "Yeah, figured you'd rather do guy stuff with us then spa stuff with the girls."
Both of them paused looked at Danny and then to all the encouragingly smiling faces of all the other men they'd be going with. Each trying to look supportive and nice so the two boys wouldn't panic, but it was clear as day that they hadn't been expecting this and didn't know how to react.
"Wait… hold on, we're going with them?" Con asked pointing at the group of men on the other side of the table.
"Well he's right, I doubt you want to do spa stuff with me."
"Yeah," Chin said. "We thought you'd like to join us, get to know us better. Since we're going to be around each other more."
That was true, but both boys just stared at the men across from them and then turned their eyes back to Rowan as if they hadn't said anything at all.
"I'm going to go on the ocean?" Con snarled to her. "Really? Me?"
"Yeah I don't like this Rowan, this sounds like a body dump. This is something I'd do when I want to get rid of someone."
Rowan half sighed but it was Danny who raised his hands in mock surrender. "Hey! We're not all out to get you! I for one enjoy all the hassle you put Steve through and I'm looking forward to some sort of frustration on this fishing trip."
Wo and Con stared at Danny, both of them looked unimpressed they then turned a slightly more panicked looks onto Rowan.
"Just uh… give me a second," she said to the table before pulling her brothers up and pulling them aside.
"I know you don't like the ocean," she said to Con before turning to Wo, "And I know you don't trust them. But… do you guys really wanna do girly spa stuff with me? Like really?"
Both men exchanged glances and then turned to her. They said nothing but she knew they weren't going to say yes.
"So it'll be fine. It'll be one day, I'm sure you can handle the boat for one day. I have sea sickness meds for you…"
"I don't feel comfortable with this," Wo Fat repeated while Con grimaced.
"I think it's great that they're inviting you. It means they're trying to include you, to be friends."
Wo turned to Conejo who sighed, looked back at him and said: "Yeah, that's probably what this is." He then turned back to Rowan. "But I don't wanna go on the boat."
"Manicures, pedicures or massages and probably a lot of girly squealing and gossip. That's your other option."
"I already told you I'm fine with that."
But then Wo turned to him. "If he's not going I'm not. I'm not going alone with those people."
Rowan turned a pained look onto Conejo who sighed and then groaned like she was asking him to dress in drag and do the hula.
"Fine, fine, I will go with them for the boy bonding time but only because I know if Wo goes on his own someone's going to get shot."
"Thank you so much for trying," she said taking time to hug each of them. She then looked at Wo. "You might want to change."
Wo looked down at the polo and dress pants he was wearing and then back up to Rowan. She had a feeling he hadn't packed anything else.
"Steve, can Wo borrow your shorts or something? Oh or maybe Chin, Chin looks more your size."
"He's not that much bigger than me Ro," Wo growled but she shook her head.
"His hips are wider, you're more narrow," she said and then Steve was scowling.
"Did you just say I have fat hips?"
"I like your fat hips," she said to him blowing him a kiss that begrudgingly made him smile.
Chin smiled at him. "Yeah, I've got some extra shorts, and probably a better shirt if you're interested."
Wo shot a glance at Rowan who smiled and said: "Just try."
Jian stood up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Be brave," Rowan heard her whisper. "And send me lots of pics cause I bet you're gonna look sexy as all hell."
Wo actually blushed. Like a little bit of color hit his cheeks but he followed after Chin who was going to give him clothes to borrow and Con went with the rest of the men, sort of standing on the outside edge but letting them pull him closer.
Then Rowan turned back to the table full of women who were all waiting for the guys to officially leave.
Once the boys were gone Renee cried: "Thank heavens, let's start drinking ladies!"
Rowan half laughed and then Kono came to her side while Renee flagged down their waiter to get their drink orders in.
"I hope you don't mind, but uh… Catherine's still here and she wanted to hang out…"
She had invited Catherine to her bachelorette? Aw come on.
"You can say no," Kono said quickly.
Was it bad that Rowan wanted to say no? She was always the nice one when it came to Catherine, bending over backwards to make sure that she felt included, and when had Catherine ever done that for her?
"I… I know this is going to sound bad but uh… I'm not sure I'm comfortable…"
"Hey Kono!"
Both women turned to watch Catherine walk in. She rushed in to hug Kono and then turned to Rowan and pulled her in for a hug.
"Congrats! Not gonna lie I'm surprised that you managed to get him to settle down, he was a major commitmentphobe."
Rowan wasn't sure if that was a jab or not, if she meant that in a bad way or if she just meant it the way it sounded. But before Rowan could say anything Catherine pulled away and smiled at her.
"Thank you so much for letting me tag along. Billy's got a work thing today so I would have been on my own."
Aw come on. Hitting Rowan with the guilt trip right out of the bat. God, she didn't really want to agree but now she felt like she had to.
Rowan took a deep breath, forced herself to smile, and reminded herself that Steve had married her, which meant that she had automatically won.
"Yeah it's no problem, the more the merrier," she said. She then turned back to the table. "Uh, guys, Catherine's going to be joining us for the day."
Everyone left at the table nodded at her but Jian looked confused.
"Wait… Catherine, like Steve's ex Catherine?" Jian asked and Rowan nodded. Jian turned a dark glare back at Catherine and hit her with a very long and drawn out: "I see…"
Great, Rowan had a feeling that Jian was going to be just as good at solidarity as Wo was.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Sin Nombre took his sea sick meds with a shot of tequila. They all told him that it was probably a bad idea but he wouldn't listen.
Wo Fat had changed into a pair of Chin's board shorts, which were green with pink flowers and then had given Wo Fat the matching shirt, which was a simply navy-blue cotton tee-shirt. It was the most casual Steven had ever seen him and he almost didn't recognize him.
Once the boat was out on the water though, they noticed that Sin Nombre was looking pale. They had all gathered around him, but Wo had chased them off, took Sin Nombre down below for a moment and when he came back up, he was wearing a life preserver. Like a straight up orange lifejacket.
"Uh…"
"He doesn't like the ocean and can't really swim," Wo said narrowing his eyes at Danny who had been about to ask what the hell was going on.
Wo then very carefully announced to the whole boat: "I've never fished before so like… what am I doing here?"
Steve recognized immediately that he had done that to get the spotlight off of Sin Nombre, that the subsequent asking a million stupid questions and getting help putting his own bait on the hook, was to distract everyone. And it worked.
With the attention off of Sin Nombre and onto Wo Fat who just kept repeating that he never had anyone to teach him how to fish so how was he supposed to know how to do this redneck hobby, the man calmed down a bit. In fact, he did most of the helping, Sin Nombre apparently spent a lot of time fishing.
And the more he explained what Wo Fat was to do and expect the more a southern twang seemed to coat his words.
"You uh… you're sounding awfully southern there, Con," Danny said. "Where did you grow up again?"
Sin Nombre glared at him, said: "You don't get to call me that. You have to call me Sin Nombre," and then Wo Fat purposely dropped his rod into the ocean to get them off the topic of Sin Nombre's past.
They had all stared at Wo Fat as he just stood there staring them all down with an apathetic: "Opps."
"What the hell?!" Danny had cried. "I have to return rentals!"
Wo Fat didn't even look phased. He simply held Danny's gaze and said: "My bad. Guess I can't fish now."
"You dropped the rod in the ocean so you wouldn't have to fish?!"
But that wasn't it. Steve could tell. Wo had done it because Sin Nombre had been uncomfortable. Wo had done it to protect him. Kind of like how Steve did things to protect Danny and make him feel better. So not only were these two men brothers to Rowan, they were brothers to one another.
"It's fine, we can cover the cost of the rod," Sin Nombre said. "And since you never fished before you can have my rod, I don't mind sitting out… I'll just be…"
He went to walk away and Wo Fat grabbed his arm. "You're not leaving me alone with these people," he growled, just quietly enough for Sin Nombre to hear but Steve heard him anyway. "We'll share," he announced and though Sin Nombre was annoyed, he stayed put.
Then the awkward silence kicked in. Steve wasn't sure what to say. He still couldn't believe that he was on a boat, with his ex-arch-nemesis, the man who had killed his father and caused him so much grief, fishing. Like spending quality time with him and everything. It was… it was ludicrous to think that they had gotten to this point, but here he was.
Luckily Grover bailed them out of their awkward conversation.
"We should trade Ro stories," he said and then turned to where Wo Fat and Con where huddled, shoulder to shoulder watching them all with distrustful eyes. "I bet you two have great stories."
The two of them exchanged surprised glances and if possible huddled together even closer together as the rest of the group seconded that comment.
"You do, don't you? Have funny Ro stories?" Grover asked them with an encouraging smile.
Both men just stared at them, and then Sin Nombre turned to Wo Fat clearly for direction. "Uhm… I mean… maybe… I'm not sure if what we have constitutes as funny?"
"Yeah!" Sin Nombre said. "Why don't you guys go first and we'll see if we have anything that matches."
"Okay uh… I got one," Danny said. "My first ever interaction with Rowan, after the dropping out of the sky and this animal trying to choke her…"
"Wait, what?" Wo Fat cried.
Steve sighed and rolled his eyes. "Kay this girl dropped out of the sky, told us she was dreaming and that she'd turn into a mermaid or something, then when she realized she wasn't dreaming she told us this was a TV show and to prove it told me stuff about my mother the CIA had just proven to me and I put her in a choke hold thinking she was a spy or some shit…"
"That girl! A spy?" Sin Nombre asked.
"It was the first day meeting her, I didn't know her yet!" Steve argued.
"And she stayed with you?"
"He even arrested her, held her in one of our cells for 8 hours or more…"
"WHY THE HELL DOES SHE LOVE YOU?!" Sin Nombre shouted and Steve winced.
"I thought she was crazy, or some government agent… I didn't know her yet!" Steve argued but Danny put a hand out.
"Let me fucking finish my story." The three men gestured for him to finish and Danny nodded. "Kay, so we get off this boat, and she's like trying to make a run for it, and Steve's like not having it cause she knows secrets about his mom and he needs to know why or how she knows so he chases her. And for the first time ever, I'm watching some evade him, not by running fast or fighting him, but straight up faking him out. Like he can't get his hands on her at all. At one point he scratched her and they stopped what they were doing so he could apologize to her."
"Yeah that sounds like Rowan."
"Okay yeah, and then Steve got so frustrated he tackled her off of the pier and into the water."
Now Sin Nombre and Wo were glaring at him again. "There's something wrong with you, you two are fucking toxic as shit," Sin Nombre growled.
"I don't do that kind of stuff anymore. We've grown out of it."
But neither of Rowan's brothers seemed to believe that.
"Oh! I have another good one," Chin cried. "So when Rowan was crashing at my place after she broke up with Alex, she used to wake me up sporadically perched at the end of my bed like some creepy owl. And she'd have a hold of my ankle and she'd shake me awake to tell me of her dreams."
"Mm… she does that to me too."
"She just jumps on my back," Sin Nombre said. He then turned to Wo Fat. "We have good stories like that, tell them about the grenade!"
"The grenade?" Grover echoed. "You gave that girl a grenade?"
"I don't want to tell the grenade story."
But they all stared at Wo Fat whose face was getting more and more set in that frown by the second. Sin Nombre nudged Wo Fat's elbow and the man sighed.
"Fine. When we were in Colombia, she decided she wanted to make our Christmas gifts. And she was going to make homemade flash bangs, and, of course, she didn't tell me that. I just woke up one morning and she's got these weird bottle contraptions and she says she wants to try them out. Con's in Hawaii on an errand for her, I was staying closer to the compound to, you know, keep an eye on her as I didn't trust JC. So anyway we're out in the back, she throws the thing and ducks. Nothing happens. She pops back up, looks confused. I still have no idea what's going on so I figure, maybe this is a game, so I go to pick it up. Just as she says it's a dud. I turn to ask her what she's talking about this goes off at my feet. I'm thrown back, I have powder burns, luckily no shrapnel has hit me but I'm definitely stunned. Come to find out that she's making homemade flash bangs out of household items and she must have got the ratio wrong cause it was more bang than flash."
A round of chuckles was awarded and Wo Fat shook his head. "And she says she failed chemistry."
"Says she failed math too, but she can sure as hell calculate trajectories and count cards."
"I swear, she's lying about how smart she is, it's gotta be a long con of hers, make herself seem stupid so that when she does feats of genius, we don't fucking expect it."
"She does like long cons," Danny said and they all nodded.
Then it was Grover's turn.
"My favourite moment is when she showed up in Chin's car, tried to run our bad guys off the road. Accidentally threw this animal from his horse and then he handcuffed her to the car."
Wo and Sin Nombre were glaring at him again. "Seriously what is that matter with you?"
"Keep in mind this is only a couple hours after we touched down from his Japan stunt," Chin added and then Wo Fat shook his head.
"Oh that's another favourite moment," Grover cried. "This man's face when he realized it was you who filed a complaint with the Governor."
Sin Nombre turned to Wo Fat with a smile: "You snitched on McGarrett?"
"She should have filed that fucking complaint," Wo Fat growled. "And yes, yes I fucking did snitch. I got woken up to the older version of her network telling me she was in Japan literally only a few days after that same network confirmed that there was a lot of chatter from the Yakuza about her. I immediately assumed she was taken to get to me."
Steve hadn't realized that the Yakuza had been threating Rowan around that time. Maybe he should have asked her more questions.
"Then I'm fucking calling her, trying to figure out what's going on, because Sandy hasn't managed to locate any Yakuza but she knows that Five-0 is with her but Five-0 doesn't have an active case nor do they have any reason to be in Japan and when I finally get a hold of her I find out that you fucking drugged her and took her to Japan just so you could have her threaten Sato with me. You were fucking lucky I was in Colorado cause if I was out at that time I would have stormed in and shot you myself."
"Ro wouldn't have let you do that. She might have let you punch him but she wouldn't have let you shoot him," Sin Nombre said but Wo Fat just shrugged.
"I said I was sorry."
"Maybe to her, but not to me. And I didn't believe you then, and I don't believe you now. Yes, I called the governor and demanded that you be reprimanded but that was because Rowan refused to do so. She let you get away with a lot of things. But I was in a state of panic for over four hours trying to figure out what the hell was happening to my sister and you acted like I had no reason to be upset with you for doing that to me, or to her."
"Fine. Wo, I'm sorry. I lost my mind when she picked you over me and I didn't… it was just bad. It was really bad. Okay? It was bad of me, I crossed a million lines, I still have no idea how she let me get away with it, or stayed with me anyway, but I thank my lucky stars that she did, because I'm much worse without her than I am with her."
Danny nodded so did Chin and Grover but it was Adam who said: "It's true. Man's a disaster without Rowan."
"And what about everything else?" Wo asked. "Everything you did to me?"
"You know what, no, I'm not sorry for tormenting you, not after everything you did. But I am sorry that I used Rowan to cause that torment, that I made her cry and made you fix it."
Wo Fat nodded. "Fair."
"Okay? Are we good now? I mean, I've made it right, right? I married her. Can we move on please, can we fucking let it go?"
"No, my turn for a question," Wo said. "I'd love to know the thought process behind you drugging her and taking her to Japan."
Steve just stared at him for a moment before saying: "I just… I just thought she was being stubborn. Saying no cause I was the one who asked… and you know… Adam was missing…"
"Kay… kay… so she said no to going to Japan and you thought she was being petty and your first thought was… drug her?" Sin Nombre asked. "And none of you said anything?!"
"I was in hiding."
"I wasn't part of Five-0 yet."
"I was in Jersey."
Chin flinched. "I had no idea," was all he could offer.
"How did you drug her?" Wo Fat asked.
Steve turned to him and sort of sighed." I gave her a spike tea gave it to her with Malasadas as an apology for arguing with her. I caught her when she dropped and then went to the airstrip with her."
All eyes turned back to Chin. "I thought she was sleeping. Steve said she was a nervous flyer and she took something strong and she…. There was no sign of physical trauma, she wasn't tied up and she does this thing where she holds him, you know so she was gripping him the whole time. I just thought… I didn't know he drugged her until she woke up confused on the plane."
"Look, it worked. Alright. Sato shat bricks when he saw her…" "—Sato shat bricks when Rowan said she'd let Wo Fat think that Sato had kidnapped her." "…The point is that it worked and we figured out that Adam was alive somewhere and I said I was sorry!"
Wo Fat turned to Grover and said: "How long after she touched down on Hawaii did this animal put her back in handcuffs?"
"Like four hours."
Steve groaned with frustration. "I didn't take it well. Her turning me down. I didn't take it well, okay?"
"Turning you down?"
"After you shot her, Wo. I tried to tell her how I felt for her but she shut me down. Told me I was supposed to be with Catherine and said I needed to let her go so she could move on and get over me."
"Bullshit, that girl could never get over you, trust me… we tried."
"Well, she moved in with Alex and she got really buddy-buddy with you and…"
"You figured if she was with me then she was like me."
"I know it's stupid. I know it's how she is, but I never saw the real her before you showed up. I saw it as you corrupting her and… and… you can ask Danny my feelings for her have been strong and irrational since she dropped out of the sky…" "—It's true." "… and I wasn't very good at reigning them in, okay, but I've gotten the hang of it, I said I was sorry, I made up for it… can we move on please?"
Both Sin Nombre and Wo Fat didn't say anything, but Steve could also tell that they didn't want to let it go. He had a feeling that it didn't matter what he did, he might not get out from under the things he did before he and Rowan figured their shit out in the eyes of her brothers.
"Okay, I got one," Adam said quickly. "My favourite memory of Rowan is her laughing at Gabriel, mouth leaking blood cause he literally just punched her rapid fire in the stomach like six times and then sing-telling him to go kill himself. Which is closely followed by her asking him and how many people did you bring with you? Which was when you showed up."
He directed that last comment to Sin Nombre who nodded.
"I did. And I fucked Waincroft up that time too…"
"Didn't kill him though," Wo snarled and Sin Nombre glared at him.
"She wouldn't let me kill him. Man threatened her straight to her face and I almost offed him then and there but like… she wouldn't fucking let me."
"You should have just shot him," Wo grumbled and Sin Nombre turned on him.
"You were the one who said to do everything she said. Keep that in mind. That was your direction. Do whatever she wants."
"That was when we were travelling."
"Nope, you told me to sit on Rowan. Do as she says. I shit you not, direct orders through the app."
"Well Gabriel is dead now," Chin said. "Good riddance…"
They were quiet a moment and then Sin Nombre said: "I got one! Okay… okay… uh… yeah, so we're in Toronto, right? Her dad is doing mad scientist experiments on her trying to get her to use her powers for more… uh… battle like reasons…"
"Why?" Steve growled. "Why would you want to teach her that shit?"
"Girl needed to learn self-defence."
"Why? Why not just make her stop?"
Sin Nombre turned a dangerous glare onto him. "Because there is no making her stop, Steven," he snapped. "Rowan Pierce is going to jump into every dangerous situation she finds to take care of the people she cares about. So like… everyone on this boat. She attracts criminals, because the easiest way to hurt you or to hurt Wo and now to even hurt me, is to go for her. Do you understand? And we can't always be there, you know? So I'd rather her know how to protect herself then worry if whoever has her this time is gonna hurt her to hurt us."
"It's true. Rowan is also exceedingly annoying. Most people want to smack her around just to shut her up," Wo added.
"Can I go back to the story now?" Sin Nombre asked and they all nodded.
Except for Wo Fat who said: "It also might be good to note that part of the reason we were agreeing to this was because of what went down in Colombia."
"True, she used her powers in Colombia with no control and we really, really didn't want that to go down again."
There was the Colombia thing again. No one had explained that to him yet. He still wanted an explanation.
"Anyway… nothing that Dr. Pierce was doing was working. He was throwing things at her and she's just letting them hit her. He tried like balls of paper, nerf guns, he whipped a stapler at her once, she let it beam her right in the chest. She just wasn't getting it. So we come in and we all have our coffees… and yo, have you guys been to Canada? That Tim Hortons, Tims, Timmys, fuck that shit is the bomb! Like for real, best coffee, fucking love their donuts…"
"Okay you're not tell this story right," Wo snapped. "Anyway. We come in one day, we've done our obligatory Tims run because Rowan demands Tims in the morning. We have coffee, she has her tea, and her dad has a crossbow and it's aimed at me. I was the first through the door, we had gotten into the habit of sandwiching her between us cause we didn't trust her to walk straight or get left behind or wandering off. So it's me, then Ro, then Con, respectively."
Why was this important?
"And uh, he points this crossbow at my chest and fires. Ro's not even paying attention, I've got a literal arrow coming for my chest, I haven't even had a chance to yelp. That girl drops her tea, opens up a portal with one hand that the catches the arrow, and with the other hand opens a different portal and bam arrow's in the wall. Rowan's fucking livid."
"Oh yeah, she chewed him right out. It was marvellous."
"It really was. She went on a mile a minute about how dare he and what the hell was that, and how she would never come back there If that was the shit he was going to do."
Steve shook his head. "Yeah well Rowan has this thing about caring more about others than herself…"
"Absolute nonsense, if you ask me," Wo Fat growled. "You know why she's like that?" Steve just shrugged and he nodded. "Probably something that developed before me or you… Something her mother did no doubt."
Steve shot him half a smile and accepted one of the beers that Danny was handing out before offering one to him.
"Oh! Oh! I got another one!" Sin Nombre cried. "Just me and her, this guy wasn't with us." He nudged Wo who just shook his head. "So, kay, Ro and I we jumped to Hawaii right? To fuck with Gabriel…"
"I have a question," Steve said before he could stop himself. "Why did Rowan never do any of her jumps to Hawaii with you?"
"She did the concert," Wo grumbled.
"Yeah but all the others were with Sin Nombre, why is that?"
"Cause going to Hawaii was a no go in his eyes. She did all that shit without telling him," Sin Nombre said. "Cause Wo was all: you can't save Steven, we hate Steven, you're supposed to hate Steven, stop saving him. Blah blah blah."
"I don't sound like that," Wo snapped. "And we needed her away from him, you idiot. Firstly, he fucks with her powers, and secondly, I was lying to them both and if they ever really sat and down and talked about it we were fucked."
"Yeah well if I didn't go with her she was gonna go on her own so… yeah. I figured it'd be safer if I just went with her. You know, since everything she wanted to do directly correlated with a Five-0 case."
"Yeah, she uses the app and my connections to help you guys a lot. I feel like we're honorary members at this point," Wo said and then turned a serious look onto the group. "And by the way, none of you, that's right I said none of you, deserved her help or my app, have any of you ever said thank you to me or to her?"
"Wow, you're just really coming after all of us today aren't you."
Wo sniffed. "Well it's so rare that I have you all in the same place."
Chin glanced at the others and then said: "Thank you. Seriously, from all of us. Even though you literally only ever helped us because Rowan's told you to. Still. Thank you. And for our part in what happened when Steve was going crazy… we'll never do it again. We are 100% no longer involved in their drama, if it looks like he's going to do something crazy to her, we try to talk him out of it, or warn her."
"That's true, when he tracked Rowan's phone that last time, Chin wouldn't help him and even tried to get the results away from him," Danny said. "I was in Jersey so I couldn't help but Chin tried."
"And Kono refuses to side with Steven on anything," Adam said. "She says it all the time. If Steve and Rowan are arguing she's on Rowan's side. And that goes for me too. I still haven't forgiven myself for the part I played in her getting grabbed, I'll never snitch on her to McGarrett again."
Wo and Sin Nombre only stared at them. "I mean, I guess that makes me feel better," Sin Nombre said after a moment while Wo Fat busied himself with drinking more beer. "Can I go back to the story now? Do you have more questions?"
"His questions never stop," Wo grumbled but Steve waved him off.
"Right. So we're in Hawaii, we just fucked with Gabriel, and she gets this weird feeling. Says Steve's in trouble. So we go to check on you and this dumbass is taking on this indestructible suit without a weapon and it has you cornered behind a tree. And I'm like Jesus, this fucker's trying to get himself killed. But like, guy gets away and I'm like, solid. Steve's fine, we can leave. But no, Ro's all like, that thing's gonna kill him. And I mean, I'd say I wouldn't believe it but I just watched you walk up on that thing with a megaphone instead of a gun so I'm like… right, guess we gotta save this asshole's life cause he's not making rational decisions."
It was really interesting hearing this from someone else's perspective. Rowan had told him a little bit about this but Sin Nombre's version… now this was comedy gold.
"It's like that all the time with this animal," Danny growled and Steve shook his head again.
"I gotta question, you follow my advice?" Sin Nombre asked and Danny turned to him. "He got half your liver, you better be holding onto those keys." Danny stared at him and Sin Nombre sighed and then leant over and smacked Steve's shoulder. "Really? Let the man drive his sharp ass car. Even Wo gets to drive his Audi's even though Rowan's the better driver."
Wo Fat frowned at him. "Not true, she only the better drive in a chase situation, all other times I'm the better driver."
Steve scowled at the two of them. He didn't think he'd have to defend this today. He got motion sickness… you know what he wasn't going to deal with this right now.
"Can we move on please?"
"Right. Sorry. So we track this thing down and I try to take it on by myself cause there's no way I was going to let her anywhere near that thing. Cause I know if I bring her back broken, this guy will literally freak out. And You," he said pointing at Steve. "You fucking show up the second she's in trouble, so like… I can't chance that either. And I figure, I'm good, you know? I can deal with this thing, but it's fucking bullet proof and headshots aren't working on it either so like what the fuck am I supposed to do? Die, that's what I'm supposed to do.'
"So it opens fire and I cringe expecting death and then all of a sudden I have a shield in front of me and I'm like… on the one hand very mad she didn't stay in the fucking car like I told her but also super fucking grateful cause she saved my life."
And then he just sort of left it there. They all waited to see what he'd say after that but he just stood there drinking his beer and looking out at the ocean.
"So… what happened?" Adam asked and Sin Nombre turned back to them.
"Oh uh… she told it to go to hell and dropped it into the void. Then I thanked her. Lectured her. And we went to HPD and dropped him on the front steps after she suffocated him in the void a bit. Kind sucked though, that suit was almost Rowan proof. Would have loved to keep it."
Danny had said something like that too. Except he thought it was Steve proof.
They all sort of chuckled and then Steve whispered: "I have too many funny moments to count with Rowan, but I can tell you the exact moment I fell in love with her."
They all sort of stood there staring at him, waiting and after a quiet moment he continued.
"We… When I woke up in Afghanistan, everything hurt, I was in pain, I was lucky to be alive. And… she was there. And I remember thinking that… you know… how did I get this lucky? To have a girl like that, chance everything to come and get me when I should have listened to her and never gone in the first place. And then she was kissing me and the light was behind her and she just… looked like an angel, you know? And that was it, that was the moment I knew it, even if I wasn't ready for it yet. I knew and then I spent the rest of the year fucking everything up."
They all stood there, Danny clapped a hand to Steve's arm but the emotion was clearly way too much for the two criminals.
That happy, emotional silence was immediately shattered with: "I watched her knock the great and invincible Sin Nombre out of a chair with a cookie cutter."
Sin Nombre turned to him immediately. "Hey! What the hell? Why you gotta tell em like that?"
"Really? You're gonna complain… after the flashbang story?"
"Okay… yeah… well… how about I tell them about Colombia then?"
"You were right there with me Con," Wo reminded him. "Right there in the dirt. Right beside me."
Sin Nombre stared at him for a moment and then said: "Yeah, you gotta point."
Steve huffed again. "Okay, seriously can someone please, please, tell me what happened in Colombia that was so bad that you took her to Toronto? Please?"
Both men turned to him again. "I'd rather not admit to that fuck up, thank you," Sin Nombre said and then Wo Fat turned back to his rod, completely confused.
"It's doing something weird," he said interrupting the argument Steve wanted to start.
"Weird?" Steve asked as Sin Nombre put a hand out to it. "Oh you got one!"
"I do?"
"Yeah, come on, reel it in!"
"What? How? With this stupid thing?"
As it became clear that Wo Fat needed all the help he could get the men all swarmed in. Sin Nombre put the rod in his hands, helped him reel a bit then let him go to it. Steve had a hand to one shoulder while Danny had gone around to the other shoulder. Sin Nombre was helping him keep the rod level and everyone else was cheering him on.
It took a while but Wo Fat eventually reeled in a whooping barracuda. Steve made him pose for the picture and he found that he had never been so surprised to see that kind of proud grin on Wo Fat's face. He kind of felt proud himself, that he helped put it there.