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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Are you guys ready for the drama? Because of course it's going to happen in this chapter with Rowan and the girls. We are almost out of the fillers and to the episodes again, only one more filler chapter after this and then we go to episode 8. I know this season is filled with all sorts of detours but it's going to be worth it. I will say this is probably going to be my longest year yet because this season is already over 500 pages. That's crazy. As always please don't forget to review, I'd love to hear what you guys think and I'll see you guys on Friday.

P.S. High Guardian and Falling-Right-Side-Up, I sent you guys private messages again, if you haven't read them yet, please check them out.

Chapter 341

The first half of the day was great.

They went to their respective spa appointments. She got literally just gotten her hair done the night before, so she wasn't about to do it again. So she scheduled facials, and then a hot stone massage. She had gotten her nails and toes done the previous day so she didn't need to get them done again. So she went for a few more treatments while the other girls got their nails done.

Catherine had tagged along and gotten her own massages and spa treatments. She had been well behaved, not that Rowan was really interacting with her. She didn't like the way Catherine kept looking at her. But she figured, if Catherine didn't say anything, Rowan wouldn't say anything. There wasn't anything stopping them from having a normal friendly relationship if they both let the past go.

And that almost worked. Everything was going so well until they got to lunch. The specialty cocktails were what did it, because everyone basically got drunk on them. Especially Catherine.

And that might have been fine too if Catherine hadn't decided she was going to be a spiteful drunk, because that was when the fighting started.

And it all started when she said: "Y'Know what I keep thinking about?" In that stupid slurred voice of hers. "That all of this should have been mine."

"Gurl," rolled out of Renee. It was one word but it was clearly a warning. A keep your mouth shut if you will. But Melissa shushed her. "Shhhhhh… the bride will hear you."

As if Rowan couldn't hear them.

"I don't care!" Catherine cried slamming her hands against the table. She then pointed across the table to Rowan, who was sitting beside Jian. Luckily Jian was not paying attention because for every side glance that Catherine gave her Jian openly glared at Catherine. But as Jian was too busy trying to fish an ice cube out of the bottom of her glass using only gravity and her tongue she seemingly hadn't noticed that Catherine was attempting to verbally attack Rowan. Oh if Wo could see her now. He'd either be embarrassed or turned on.

"Catherine… stop it!" Kono warned but Catherine did not stop.

"You ruined everything!" Catherine wailed. "If you hadn't come here I'd be the one marrying Steve."

Rowan rolled her eyes. She had watched all the way up to season seven and Steve and Catherine never managed to get back together. There was some rumors of them reuniting in season 8 but they never did confirm what was going to happen or who Steve was supposed to end up with. It might not have even been Catherine in the end. Though she was really regretting telling Catherine that she was supposed to end up with Steve when Rowan had never been sure if that was the case.

Jian groaned and then slammed her glass down to the table, her eyes pointedly glaring at Catherine as she crunched savagely on the ice cube from her glass. Great so she had noticed and as soon as she was done with that ice she was probably going to spout some shit.

Was it bad that Rowan was kind of hoping she would?

She had to diffuse this someone, she didn't really want to argue but she was going to. "Everyone knows Steve has commitment issues. Knowing him he probably wouldn't have married you at all. He might have…"

"He bought me a ring ever before he bought you one."

Rowan scowled at her. "Out of spite. An out of spite proposal means nothing."

"Why did you even invite her," Jian suddenly asked coming in between their argument. Melissa and Renee were no help. Melissa kept shushing them, and Renee kept saying gurl in different tones for different meanings. Kono kept saying her name and putting a hand to her arm, but it wasn't really helping.

"Catherine I'm serious. Stop it now or we'll kick you out," Kono warned but Jian didn't think that that was enough.

"You're ruining the party, yatsume!"

Rowan wasn't certain what that meant but it couldn't be good.

"She knows it's true!"

Rowan winced, she did know it was true.

She had ruined things. Steve very much did have a red string that used to be intertwined with Catherine but the red strings between her and him were greater and strong and clearly meant more. And that to her meant that maybe, simply, that Steve was always meant to be hers. And maybe, the reason Steve had settled with Catherine was because this world, his reality, didn't have a Rowan.

Jian clocked her uncomfortable stare and, just like Wo Fat would, went straight into fight mode.

"Orokana meinu o damara seru!"

Yeah rowan didn't know what that meant either but again, by tone alone, Rowan was sure that it wasn't good.

"Say it in English!" Catherine shouted standing up. Jian went to stand up too but Rowan stopped her.

"Okay enough!" she cried. "Catherine, you're cut off. No more alcohol, no more arguing, only fun. If you can't do that then leave, okay?"

Catherine didn't sit down though, she was too far gone and too angry to care about being rational or nice at this point.

"He loved me. He was going to propose…"

"Gurl… she already told you," Renee cried, finally getting more than gurl out of her mouth. "He bought you that ring to piss off Rowan. It wasn't you he was crying over last year. He stopped caring about you the second you left."

Melissa nodded. "It's true. Steve was a mess without Rowan. He's always a mess without Rowan. He seems to function perfectly fine without you."

Catherine turned a betrayed glare to the other women at the table before turning that glare back onto Rowan. "But it was me he wanted before she dropped into this world…"

"Catherine…" Rowan interrupted, because Renee and Melissa didn't know about that yet.

But Catherine was undeterred. "And I bet you anything if she went back to her own world he'd be in love with me again."

They were all staring at her like she was crazy, except both Rowan and Jian knew that she was right. Well about the other world thing at least. And well… maybe Catherine had a point. If Steve was away from Rowan his feelings for Catherine came back, so maybe… if she left this world, or broke up with Steve permanently he'd find himself in love with Catherine again.

And just thinking about that made her sad. Because she loved Steven. He was her husband now and she didn't want to be made to feel bad because she had fallen into the wrong reality and fallen in love with someone who hadn't been hers at the time.

She had actually gotten a bit weepy and that right there put Jian back on the warpath but it wasn't until Catherine said: "You're not even that pretty. I'm way prettier than you," that Jian really lost it.

"That's it!" Jian cried shooting to her feet. "You're uninvited! Get out… off…" she looked around trying to establish what she was kicking Catherine out of and then just shouted: "Just go away!"

Catherine glanced around to all their faces but it was Kono, with her arms crossed over her chest that her eyes stayed on. "Actually, you know what, she's right. You've gone too far, please leave. Or not even please. Just leave. Leave Catherine."

That might have been the end of it if Jian hadn't said: "See no one wants you here! So exit this party and Steve's life while you're at it! I bet he doesn't want you here either!"

Catherine was already moving, getting into Jian's face. "Yeah? You gonna make me leave? I was in the Navy! I'll destroy you!"

Jian wasn't intimidated in the least. "I'm a doctor, I can kill you with one hit!"

Melissa was gasping in horror, Renee was shaking her head and hitting them with a million lamenting gurls.

Great so it was going to be up to Rowan to get them to disengage.

Rowan got up quickly. "Come on, guys. No fighting."

But the two women were squaring up to fight regardless of what she was wanted. This was not how she wanted her bachelorette to go.

Kono stood up with her. "I'll grab Catherine, you get Jian," she said. But the two women had just managed to stand as the first of the shoves began. Rowan shouldn't have but she put her hands out to try and push them apart, hoping to step between them before a real fight started.

Problem was she stepped between them just as the fists start to fly.

No one knew who exactly hit her, they only knew when Rowan went down.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

All in all it had been a good day.

They had pictures of everyone with their fish. Which included Sin Nombre who got a turn on the rod once Wo Fat established that he didn't like fishing. Something that was established literally right after he reeled in his first and only fish.

They spent the rest of the time going between asking Wo Fat and Sin Nombre questions about the Year of Deceit, and trading Rowan stories.

But after a long day of being out on the ocean, drinking beer with his buddies and his new brother-in-laws—or one Brother-in-law and one Brother-in-law/Step-Brother combo—what he really wanted to do was see his wife.

He wasn't sure why but sometime around lunch time he had gotten this feeling of anxiousness. Like Rowan needed him, but she hadn't texted him or her brother so he figured she was fine. Then they found out that Sin Nombre had eaten the party sub that had been meant for all of them, by himself. The man was sea sick how the hell had he kept the fucking thing down?

This, of course, started an argument, and it might have escalated if Wo Fat hadn't put a call in and had five pizza's airdropped to them. They had all stared at him as the pizza descended from that helicopter but both he and Sin Nombre were apparently fine with it.

And well, they got food so they pretty much all decided to let it go.

But now he was back on shore and he wanted to see his wife. And the more he thought about seeing her the more that anxiousness grew in his chest. Something was wrong, he didn't know what, but something was wrong.

Steve found himself power walking through that hotel, leading the group of ambling, still mostly drunk men, through to where he knew in his heart Rowan was. And that was out at the patio by the sea.

That feeling of anxiousness had not left him at all during the day, more like it ebbed and flowed like the tide. Coming and going, giving him tight pains in his chest but then fading to nothing. He rather got the idea that maybe she wasn't having a good time and oh how he wished that wasn't true.

Steve got out onto the patio and spotted Rowan right away. Sitting with Kono, Melissa, Renee and Jian and the children. Nahele was right beside his mom, attentively staring at her. In fact they all seemed altogether too interested in Rowan who had a hand to her face and her head tipped back.

He knew right away that he had been right, something was wrong with his wife, but nothing prepared him for the black eye he found marring her face. His stomach sunk the second he saw it.

She had looked to him, the second she sensed him. He hadn't even said her name, he just moved in her direction and she knew, she knew right away that he was there. She smiled when she saw him, so that was good, but Steve was just so shocked about what was on her face.

When he didn't smile back her smile faded and she turned a glare onto the table. "You guys said it wasn't that bad!"

Steve was on bended knee beside her in a flash, his hands going to her face to frame it so he could properly assess the damage. It was very dark already which was not a good sign, and the corner of her eye was red, like some capillaries were broken but it didn't look like she would have lasting damage. But still. Either someone had decked his new wife or something had hit her and neither of those things were good!

"What the hell happened?"

"Kono invited Catherine."

Steve turned a glare to Kono who was wincing at them. Steve felt Wo move his hands, taking a hold of her chin to turn her face up to him. He regarded it silently before turning very angry eyes onto Kono.

"You invited the ex to her post-wedding-bachelorette? Are you insane?"

"I didn't really invite her!" Kono cried. "She came up at breakfast, because she saw us all together and asked what we were doing because Billy is looking into getting some contract here or something and she didn't have anyone to hang out with. I said I'd ask Rowan if she'd be okay with her joining us and then… you know… she kind of just invited herself along."

She paused and looked to all the faces glaring at her which included the two very dangerous criminals who no doubt thought that they had left their sister in capable hands while they were off fishing.

"Right, I'll be back," Sin Nombre said moving to walk away and Rowan groaned.

"Grab him!" she ordered and Wo Fat reached out in time to grab Sin Nombre by the back of the shirt and tug him back.

"I don't care what you say mami, no one hits my sister on the day after her wedding. So I'mma find a bitch and then I'mma cut a bitch," Sin Nombre told her and Rowan just rolled her eyes.

"Cool it Tonto," she ordered which just made Conejo sigh. "We don't know who hit me."

She then turned a dry glare to Jian who had had her head in her hands throughout this whole conversation. She finally looked up, looking quite weepy.

"I keep telling you, if it was me who hit you I'd have a mark on one of my hands."

"NEITHER OF YOU HAD MARKS ON YOUR HANDS!" Rowan thundered and then pointed to her own face. "And this is still here! So unless I spontaneously grew a black eye, one of y'all bitches hit me!"

Wo seemed to have stopped being able to understand what was going on at that point. "Right so what happened?" he asked immediately moving to Jian's side. He put a hand to her shoulder and she pressed into his side seeking comfort immediately. He loved his sister, obviously, but even Steve knew that if they turned their anger onto Jian over this, he'd be there to protect her from them. Which was exactly why he was standing there beside her now.

"Catherine said some shitty things," Melissa started.

"And Jian here went to throw down for her, and Rowan stupidly got in between them," Renee finished.

"Well someone had to break em up!" Rowan cried. "And you three were useless!"

Renee just shook her head. "You should have let them scrap it out."

"That's not true, I was going to help you," Kono argued but Rowan picked up the cup of ice she had been holding and put it back to her eye.

Nahele just shot them all a smile. "I think it's great, now me and mom match." Rowan reached out and squeezed his hand and Steve tried to not feel too left out. Nahele turned big eyes to Steve and he knew the kid was going to ask him something. "Kay so, now that you're back do you think Grace, Will, Samantha and I could go to that bingo thing tonight."

"Whoa, hold on there, we said Grace?"

"I'm fine if the other parents are fine," Rowan said ignoring Danny's outburst.

"I already said it was fine," Renee said and Grover just nodded obviously not about to go against what his wife said. That just left Danny who clearly would look like an ass if he said no.

"I mean… I guess…" Danny cried and Grace smiled.

"Thanks dad. Kay Charlie, you go with dad!"

Steve looked at his perfect wife and tried to smile. "What about you? You ready to go back to our suite?"

"Yeah," she whispered opening her arms up to him. He had her up in his arms and walking away from the table without even saying good-bye. He just wanted to get his wife in bed so he could treat her to tea, dinner in bed, and then he'd cover with her with kisses to make her feel better.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve carried his wife all the way back to the Bridge suite, which would eventually have Nahele, Wo, Con and Jian in there with them. At that moment though, they were getting it all to themselves, and they did have their own room within the suite too so he didn't feel too bad about being in there while the others were still downstairs.

She kept telling him that she could walk but he refused to put her down. He knew something was wrong, he had felt it all day and he had been right. He hated that he had been right. He had had such a good day, he wanted Rowan to have one too. She deserved to have a good day.

He should have pushed them to go back earlier, he should have called her to check. But he had a feeling, even if he had called in to check on her, she wouldn't have told him what happened. She would have wanted him to have a fun day and not worry.

When they got into the suite, he put her down on the bed and started first by helping her get her shoes off.

"I can do it myself, Steven, honest," she said to him and he finally came to stop. He had been kneeling in front of her and he looked up at her so she could see the concern that was on his face.

"I'm not showing a single sign of concussion. Jian checked me out. I'm fine. I promise."

"Okay, well, when I saw Jian she was clearly very hung over. Which meant when she checked you over she was probably drunk."

"She was surprising adept at her job once the adrenaline kicked in."

Steve shook his head. "Why didn't you call me? Why didn't you tell me what happened?"

"I didn't want to ruin your bachelor party," she said with a pout and he sighed. Right so it was exactly what he thought it was then. She didn't want to worry him.

"I want you to worry me with these things, Rowan," he reminded her. "You shouldn't be afraid to tell me things…"

"I wasn't afraid I just… I wanted you to have a good day… and I knew if I told you, you'd tell Con and Wo and they'd get upset and I just… I wanted everyone to have fun."

Yes and the boys did have fun. It was the girls that seemed to have a shit day.

Steve thought about it a moment before taking a hold of her hands, staring carefully at the engagement ring and wedding band that he had personally slipped onto her finger the night before.

"What did Catherine say to you?"

"Hmm?" Rowan asked absently as if she had someone gotten lost in her own little world just staring at him. Probably thinking all sorts of naughty thoughts.

"Catherine. The fight started because Catherine said something, what was it?"

"Oh she said a lot of things."

"Like what?"

In his grasp Rowan's fingers began to twitch no doubt a knee jerk reaction to her nervous habit to pull at her fingers. And those lips moving back and forth as she thought. She better not lie to him.

"I'll tell you but you're not allowed to get mad."

Steve was already mad, because there was a fifty/fifty chance that his ex had hit his wife. He couldn't promise not to get more mad seeing as the reason this fight had started was because the same ex wouldn't stop saying shit things to his new wife a day after their wedding.

"I'll try."

Rowan rolled her eyes but she didn't argue.

"Okay well… she uh… she basically went on a rampage about how…. If I hadn't shown up then you'd be hers and that we'd be celebrating you marrying her and that… well… that…" she sighed forcibly. "You know she's got a point, that maybe if I wasn't here you'd still be in love with her. I mean, every time she comes back your feelings for her do too, especially if I'm not like… right beside you… you know…"

Steve blinked his eyes absolutely horrified that his ex had said that to her. Horrified that Rowan thought that Catherine was right.

"Oh and she said that she was prettier than me."

What the actual fuck.

"And you… you think that's true?"

"Well I'm mean… she's like super pretty and I'm like regular pretty…"

"Rowan!" he snapped. "No, no, stop it. You are beautiful, alright, absolutely beautiful. Hands down you're going to win on that front no matter what…" "—you have to say that you married me." "… What I meant was that… you know… if you weren't here… that I'd…"

"Well it makes sense. The Rowan in this world is dead. I wasn't supposed to ever be here, so if I wasn't supposed to be here maybe you really were supposed to end up with Catherine."

Steve nodded. "Alright… and what if… what if you were supposed to be here?" Rowan blinked her eyes at him and Steve smiled at her. "Yeah. Think about it. Out of all the universes to fall into, you fell into mine. And look at all those red strings, which we already know are our feelings for one another. So like… what if you really were supposed to be here? What if you falling into this reality was because you were supposed to be with me? I mean, you did mention that your Steve… Alex… or your me or whatever is already married, right?"

Rowan nodded and then thought about it. "I mean… you have a point," she whispered. Yeah, he sure as hell did. "I never thought about it that way. And I don't know what's going on with our strings by the way, because they're not normal."

"No?"

"Not even close, everyone else has little regular sized strings, we constantly create more. And you did have a red string to Catherine."

"Course I did, before you showed up, I loved her. But feelings change, Rowan. And mine changed the second you fell into my world. You got me. I don't want you to ever forget that."

Rowan smiled at him, this happy, almost tearful smile, like before he said those words she had absolute no idea that was how he felt. Obviously, he would need to work a lot harder on making sure his wife knew just how much he loved her.

"Okay, so I'm going to trust you to get changed on your own. But I want you to get back into that bed. We're going to rest tonight alright?"

Rowan nodded eagerly and he finally got up off his knees to let her go about getting undressed. He moved away because he knew what his hands were like if he got close to her while she was undressing.

He had moved over to the suitcase to pick out his own sleeping attire which were probably just going to be his boxers cause he was hot but his mind was stuck on other things. Important things, things she had said that morning that he wanted to talk to her about.

"Hey Ro… can I… can I actually talk to you about something?"

Rowan who was in the process of stripping paused. She turned back to him and he made the mistake of turning back as well. She just stood there, shirt missing, completely bare from the waist up. He could make out the music notes and lyrics tattoo that traveled from her rips down to her hip. The skate tattoo on her inner hip bone. The underboob mermaid tattoo. It took all of his willpower not to drop this line of conversation and cross to her. To ignite their carnal fires and push her onto that bed.

"Sure," she said carefully before offering her hand out. "Can I wear your shirt to bed tonight?"

He had literally been sweating in it all day, but for some reason she loved to have his musk on the clothes she borrowed so she probably wouldn't care. And even though he'd prefer her naked, he took off his shirt and tossed it to her.

He purposely kept his pants on as he approached her, watching as she shimmied into that shirt and then out of her pants. This was his second favourite outfit. One of his shirts with that perfect little ass poking out.

"Okay, so number one, and probably the most important thing here. I want to adopt Nahele, like right away. I know we talked about it this morning briefly, but I wasn't joking. I'm serious. I want to adopt him. Like right when we get home," he said. Rowan's eyes widened briefly as if she were surprised. Though why would she be?

That commitment issue he had? Yeah pretty sure he was over it cause he married her. And marrying her meant getting the kid.

"I've married you, Ro. It doesn't get more permanent then that and I want him. So I'm going to… You know if he's good with it… are you good with it?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked him. "And why wouldn't Nahele for that matter?"

She had a point, he couldn't see why either of them would object, just a lingering worry that they might. Maybe that was the commitment issue rearing it's ugly head, but he was pushing past it, and he hope that those two acknowledged that.

"I uh… I actually had an idea for how you could tell him."

"Okay?"

Steve was thinking he'd just say: Hey kid, I'mma adopt you now, that okay? He didn't think he needed like a properly planned idea? Did this have to be like his proposal to Rowan? Really? Okay, good thing she had an idea because he had to get Wo Fat to plan her proposal.

"You can say no…"

"Just tell me."

"What if you waited until Christmas?' she blurted out and his eyes narrowed because why would she want him to wait? This felt a little bit like a trap. "You know, give him the papers as a gift."

Cute. But Christmas was a whole month and a half away.

"If you don't want to wait, that's fine too. I just thought it might be cute," she said with a shrug. "It's your decisions though, so don't let me sway you, I just thought… since I didn't make my offer to adopt him as cute as I could have…"

Oh she had a point there. Rowan and Nahele had all these cute little stories and moments between the two of them. Steve only had a few with Nahele. This was because he worked longer hours than Rowan did, and his hours weren't flexible like Rowan's were, which meant he wasn't home as much as he'd like to be. Didn't mean he didn't wish there were more cute moments with his kid. This was his chance to make his own cute story with his soon to be officially his kid. One that Rowan didn't already have because in her impatience to adopt him she hadn't planned anything cute.

"Okay… yeah… uhm… I'd like to think about it. Just uh… don't say anything until I know."

"Of course," Rowan said flopping onto the bed. She stretched herself out, his shirt riding up until he could see those baby pink panties she was wearing. He wanted to strip them out of her with his teeth.

"Was there something else?" she asked when he didn't immediately move to her side.

At that, he did he move, lying down beside her. His hands on resting on her hip, her hands against his chest.

"So… we're married… and… like I'm your husband now…"

"You really like saying that, don't you?" she asked with a grin and Steve found himself smiling too.

"Yes, yes, I do, but that's not the point. I need you to be more open with me."

Steve let that hang there for a second. Let her blink the surprise out of her eyes and then he continued.

"There are still a lot of things from the Year of Deceit that I don't know about and… as your husband… I don't want to be out of the loop anymore. I want us to be open about everything, absolutely everything. No surprises…"

"Steve," she started but he quickly shook his head.

"I have been remarkably patient, Ro. Or, at least, I've tried to be. We have been on your timeline for a while and… I just… there's still so much you haven't told me. I need you to just let me in on everything… please."

For a second Rowan just stared at him and then said: "Right, counter offer…"

Steve just nodded. He figured that would be coming from his girlfriend-now-wife, who had more secrets than the fucking CIA.

"Yes. I will loop you in on everything. Just not right now."

And now Steve was surprised. Wait… what? Had she just… agreed? He'd've been more impressed if he couldn't tell that she was stalling. And by the look on her face she knew he was going to call her out on it too.

"We just got married and we're on our honeymoon," she said quickly. "I just… I want only good memories and I'm already having issues with that."

She meant her eye and everything that led up to it and he knew it. But he nodded, understanding where she was coming from. Was it bad that he thought it was kind of cute that she and Nahele had matching black eyes. Was it even worse that he was kind of jealous and wanted to ask one of her brothers to blacken his so he could fit in? He figured he'd ask Wo. He wouldn't even have to explain, that man would punch him no questions asked if Steve presented him with the opportunity.

"Here's what I'll promise you. I will tell you all about that year. Fill in every gap you ask for, just… when we're back in Hawaii. Okay?"

It was reasonable. If she kept her word. He just didn't think she'd keep her word. Rowan hid things, she had been programed to hide things before she ever showed up in his version of Hawaii. He just needed to work on breaking her of that habit.

"Do you promise?"

"I do. And when you ask me, I won't be able to say no. But uh… it's a lot to go through, Steve, so maybe take the day off when you decide to ask me about it."

Steve half laughed. "That's fair."

"Oh, and no Colombia. I'll give you minor details but that's a story you have to get from Wo."

Yeah, see, Colombia was the one story he desperately wanted and he knew Wo wouldn't give it to him.

"Was it really that bad?"

"No, not bad per say. I just… I don't remember most of it. I only remember what set it off and even then I only know part of it. I kind got brought in right at the end and well… its just an embarrassing story for him, so I don't want to tell you about it until he's ready…"

"More embarrassing than the flashbang story?"

Rowan turned wide eyes up to him. "He told you about that?"

Steve struggled to hide his smile as he nodded and said: "He did." He failed miserably in attempting to hold it back and just ended up grinning wildly at her.

Wo Fat could say all that he wanted about being intimidating or powerful, he was the still the guy who almost got taken out by a homemade flashbang.

Rowan winced. "It's not as bad as he makes it out. It barely blew up, it was just because he was standing like… right on top of it."

Steve couldn't help it, though he tried to hold it back soon his body was shaking with the laughter pent up in his chest.

"It's not funny," she cried. "He's banned me from all science experiments, for life."

"And I second that, and I will tell you right now, all I want for Christmas is you in nothing but a bow," he said being sure to kiss her solidly. After he was done kissing her he added: "Seriously do not make me a weapon for Christmas. Or my birthday. Or ever."

"Ugh fine."

And then they got lost in kisses again. After a moment of silent, panting, frantic wandering, he eventually pulled away and said: "I like the deal, Ro, but you better not renegade on it."

When Rowan hooked her leg over his hip, to bring them even closer together, he knew it was a calculated move to distract him. And it fucking worked.

"I promise I won't," she said. He didn't believe her but by then Steve didn't have the power in him to argue.

Even though he told himself that he would let his wife rest, seeing as she had had a trying day, with in moments he had his own shirt pushed up and off of her body. He felt absolutely no guilt as he went about thoroughly ravishing his wife.

Fuck he loved saying that.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve had left Rowan to properly rest once everyone was back in the suite. They were doing a movie night in, where they put on a pay-per-view movie and then all curled up on the couch together, with specially requested bowls of popcorn.

He felt a little bad about leaving her, even if it was only for a few minutes. Even if she had her brothers there with her, and Jian who was still so very apologetic and Nahele who was sitting beside her. He felt bad because he was lying about why he had to go, but he had to.

He had feigned an urgent phone call from Danny that he had to take out in the hall, because what he was really going to do was meet Catherine.

And he knew if he told them that was what he was going to do, all four adults in that room would have demanded to go with him. Rowan to make sure that he wasn't leaving her to get back together with Catherine. Wo and Sin Nombre to beat Catherine up. And Jian to end the fight once and for all.

Steve didn't want the distractions. What he wanted was to say his piece. To end this. Once and for all.

Catherine had been nothing but ecstatic to meet him when he asked her to. He had chosen to meet her on the beach because, now that the sun was gone, no one would be there. A nice secluded place for what he wanted to do.

He had gone down in a normal outfit. Board shorts and a different tee-shirt as Rowan was wearing still wearing his. Albeit she had put a pair of shorts on, sadly. Catherine, however, was dressed to impress. In a nice little black evening gown, waiting for him, partly in the water as if she were trying to be some siren or water nymph.

Like he would even be tempted.

As soon as she spotted him walking towards her, a smile lit up on her face. He reached out a hand to her, and she put her hand in his. As he tugged her out of the water, he focused on the knuckles of that hand. It was her dominant hand, if she had hit Rowan the marks would be there.

"It wasn't me."

Right so she knew what he was looking for. And she was right. She didn't have any marks on her hands. But that just meant that whoever hit Rowan hadn't hit hard enough to leave a mark on her, but enough to bruise Rowan.

Well he knew from experience that Rowan bruised easily so he'd believe that they didn't actually hit her that hard.

But now that was out of the way he could broach the topic of why he had ask her to meet him.

"I'm sure Rowan exaggerated," Catherine said as she folded her arms over her chest, clearly not liking what this conversation really was. Well if she expected a moonlit romp on the beach she really put a lot of emphasis into those few texts he had sent her. "And are you really going to believe a criminal's girlfriend over me?"

"Jian is actual a respected doctor in Japan. I'm surprised she puts up with Wo Fat at all," he said. "And I highly doubt Rowan exaggerated anything because she's always, always protected you. Even when you didn't deserve it."

Something he would never understand because Catherine did not deserve it.

"Steven," she snapped. "Do you have any proof I hit her? I mean really? Did you even hear the whole story or did they just say it was me and that was it, you believe them?"

Steve was starting to get even more annoyed than he already was. "Kay look, so maybe I don't know if it was you or Jian who ended up accidentally punching Rowan, but I do know that what started it was drama from you."

Catherine frowned at him. "I'm dating Billy…"

"Yes, and telling Rowan that if she hadn't shown up, you'd still be with me."

Catherine defiantly stared up at him. There was no guilt at having been caught, no denial, nothing but straight determination on her face as she said: "Are you telling me that's not true?"

"I don't know if it's true Catherine, but let's look at what you've done, huh? You had the chance to get back together with me and you chose to go to god knows where to be a spy. And then you lied to me about it. Something tells me that you would have done that even if Rowan wasn't here! Because, just like I used to, you still value the job more than your relationships!"

Catherine winced and looked away but Steve wasn't done. "Now, I can't tell you what would have happened between us if Rowan wasn't here, but that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because she is. She's here, and I love her and I've married her, so you need to stop. Do you understand? Stop holding out for me, stop playing with Billy's feelings. Either you're with Billy fully or you break things off, because holding onto him while you wait for things to go south with Rowan and I is a shit move. And it's not going to happen."

"I unno, Steve, you and her are pretty volatile."

"Rowan and I are working on that Cath. And it doesn't matter even if we do go south. I'm going to love Rowan Pierce for the rest of my life, and I guarantee you if you didn't like living in her shadow while we were dating you sure as hell aren't going to like living in her shadow if I lose her."

"So that's it then… all of this… you and me… everything. It's over?"

"Catherine. We've been over since she dropped out of the sky," he said and hurt flashed over her features because for a very long time after he met Rowan, he and Catherine were still together.

"That's terrible to say and I know that, but it's true. That's not to say if there's an actual issue or case I won't help you. I'm still your friend, I would like to be there for you if you get in trouble, but I'm telling you right now, if you cause another issue with Rowan, I will drop you. You got me?"

Catherine nodded she reached out for him again and he took a step back. "Could I get one last…"

"No."

Definite, certain, she wasn't going to get another thing from him other than help on a case and that was it.

She nodded again and then turned a watery sort of smile to Steve. "Well… thank you for everything." Steve just nodded watching as she turned away from him. "And uh… good-bye."

Steve waved, refusing to say anything else to her. He let her walk away first, let her walk back to the hotel before slowly making his way back to his own hotel room. Now that it was done, he felt better, freer, lighter. From now on, Rowan wouldn't have to worry about a thing from his ex.

Or at least. She better not.