Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: I Wish I wasn't such a disaster my dearest readers. I'm sorry this update is late, I've just hit a rough patch at work and it sent my motivation down the toilet, it really did. I'm going to do my best to be better for the rest of the month so I hope you guys aren't too mad at me. As for this chapter, it's the end of the whole Formal disaster where we get to see how Nahele deals with the fact that his mother has powers, I tried to not repat the whole story all over again, cause we all know it by now, but we are going to get some answers to some lingering questions. As always, don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Monday. (Hopefully.)

Chapter 347

Bad men with guns.

Gun shots.

Hostages.

Gun shots.

Grace's fingernails in his arm.

Gunshots.

So many fucking strings.

Gunshots. Head pain. Gunshots. Grief. Gunshots. Strings. Head pain. Strings. Gunshots. Gunshots. Strings. Gunshots. Strings. Head pain. Gunshots.

"MOM!"

Nahele bolted up in bed as the nightmare that had its claws in him finally started coming loose. There was the sound of feet on the wood flooring and then his mom had the door open.

"You okay?"

He wanted to ask her that. Why did he remember her head blowing up? Why did he remember Steve's head blowing up? Why did he remember his own head blowing up?

Which one was real, which one was fantasy?

Steve poked his head in behind Rowan. "Is he okay?" he asked her before pointing his eyes in Nahele's direction. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, just a… just a nightmare."

And it would have had to have been. Because if his mom was alive, and his dad was alive, and he was alive, then no one's head had blown up.

So why did he remember it so vividly? Why was that dream feel so damn real? All the way down to the blackening pain behind his eye, and the horrified grief as he watched one of his parents buckle.

"Okay, well uh… your uncles are downstairs and I'm going to have to send them home soon, so maybe come down, if you're feeling up to it that is, just to say good-bye."

Both his Uncles had come to help rescue him yesterday, which was a little weird cause he swore that Uncle Oz was in Japan and Uncle Con had gone somewhere else, Nahele wasn't sure where, but he wasn't on Hawaii either. How had they gotten to him so quickly?

Also, if he hadn't been afraid of them before he sure as hell was afraid of them now. Well not really but he could definitely see why everyone else was scared of them.

Uncle Con had practically become a different person once he had that mask. He had slit two people's throats without a second thought and then shot the rest. Granted the mask covered any apprehension that Uncle Con might have been showing but Nahele had a feeling that he killed people with no problem. He was a world-renowned assassin.

Uncle Oz, however did not need a mask at all. He walked into a hostage situation and didn't give a damn about the men with guns, he hadn't been afraid, he had looked calm, he had looked angry. That anger had not been the red snarling kind, but a dark twisted something that lived under Uncle Oz's skin. It was probably his second nature, the version of him that he was before Nahele's mom came in and turned him half way to something good.

You have something that belongs to me. That was what he had told those men. That something had been Nahele. And he had meant to get Nahele back by any means necessary, just like he had told him he would.

But none of that changed anything. He still loved them, he was just going to take them a little more seriously now. Especially his Uncle Con.

"Yeah, I'll be down in just a minute," he said and his mom nodded.

"Alright, take your time," she said before shooing Steve out and then disappearing behind the closing door.

For a moment Nahele sat there trying to sort out his memories from his dreams but it just made his head hurt. Maybe he was concussed. Auntie Jian and the EMTs had said he wasn't, he was just lacerated, but that was it. He didn't need stitches, he wasn't showing signs of concussion.

None of them were, though they had a similar bleeding laceration in the exact same spot on their head, no one in his family was actually concussed. But maybe the signs and symptoms started later.

He got up, headed towards the stairs and heard the middle of an argument going on between his parents.

"I still can't believe you took that deal," his mom was saying.

"It told me that it would save both you and Nahele," Steve snapped back.

"Yes, by getting you shot!"

"Yes! And that is fine! I would rather have it be me than your or him."

"And that is exactly how I felt!"

"That's ridiculous Rowan, you're more important than me!"

"That's not true at all!"

Nahele got down to the bottom of the steps and heard a cry of: "Hey Champ!" from his Uncle Oz and the argument died on his parents' lips.

"How yah, feelin'?" Uncle Con asked him and Nahele tried to smile and not remember that blood flecked white rabbit mask that used to be where his Uncle Con's smile was.

"I'm uh… I'm good," he said letting him pull him in for a hug. Once he was done his Uncle Oz did the same. It was the first time the man had hugged him voluntarily.

"I'll be more careful next time," he whispered though Nahele didn't know why.

"I made pancakes, how many would you like?" Rowan asked, but honestly food was the farthest from Nahele's mind at that moment.

"I don't want food, I want to know what happened," Nahele said softly. "I woke up and dad was covered in red things… and your eyes were purple and you were talking funny."

"Okay, okay," Rowan said quickly. "Why don't you… why don't you sit down at the table, I have to send your Uncles home and then we'll talk."

The phrasing was really weird, in fact his mom was acting super weird. She had agreed to talk about things, she never did that.

Then she walked to the back door and opened it, right so was she leaving? Gonna just walk out and disappear because Nahele was asking hard questions?

"What do you see?" she asked him.

Nahele looked out to their lanai with a frown. "It's uh… the backyard."

"And you're sure?"

"Yes, I know what our backyard looks like, mom."

"Okay," she said shutting the door. There was a fizzle and then she said: "Right Con, you first."

His Uncle Con stooped in to ruffle his hair before going to Rowan to wrap her up in a hug. By then she had the door open and outside the door was no longer their backyard but a room he didn't recognize. Just a standard barely furnished apartment. He could see a table with a plant in a white flower pot and beige walls.

Wait… what?

"Always a pleasure McGarrett," he called to Steve who just nodded and then turned to Rowan. "Seriously, please don't need me for a while."

She just shook her head at him as she shut the door. She then smiled to his Uncle Wo and said: "You next."

"Wait… where did… where did Uncle Con go?" Nahele asked but he was ignored.

Uncle Oz walked to Steve first and awkwardly pat his shoulder three times, which made Steve's eyes narrowed.

"Do you wanna… do you wanna hug this out or something?" he asked but Uncle Oz shook his head.

"No thank you," he said turning away leaving Steve bewildered. He too went to Nahele to ruffle his hair before turning to his sister and saying: "Uh… next time… next time maybe just pull from Steve and go in hot. And when I say go in hot, I mean just drop all the bad guys in the ocean. All of em. We'll deal with repercussions later."

"I mean that sounds dumb, but okay," she said but still let him pull her in for a hug, and even let him press a kiss to her forehead.

She opened up the door and this time it was a different room, all greys and sterile looking. It definitely wasn't their backyard or the other room that his Uncle Con had disappeared to.

"Honey, I'm home!" Uncle Oz called as he stepped through and then there was a cry of: "Don't shut the door, don't shut the door!"

Rowan poked her head into the other room just as Jian came into view.

"I just wanted to say how annoying it was to have my boyfriend vanish and to be thrown across the room by some invisible explosion," she said to Rowan who immediately stopped smiling.

"I panicked. It was an accident. Are you okay?"

"Yes, luckily I only hit the couch, but uh… try not to do that again," Jian ordered and then turned her eyes onto Nahele. "Hello Nahele how's your head?"

"I… I'm pretty sure I have a concussion."

At that all the adults turned concerned eyes onto him. "Really?" his Auntie Jian asked coming through the door and towards him.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm hallucinating."

"You are?" she asked as she reached him. She took his head in his hands. And made him tilt his head back. "Your pupils don't look dilated. Do you have a headache?"

"No…"

"Okay are you dizzy or unbalanced, nauseated maybe?"

"Uhm… No…"

"Are you having a hard time with light or any noises?"

Nahele shook his head. She was really touching him, he could feel her fingers, but he wasn't sure he could believe that his Auntie Jian was really in his kitchen because she was supposed to be in Japan.

"So just hallucinations?"

"I don't know," he said putting his hands out and touching her elbows. "I mean you feel real."

Jian kept a hold of his face but turned back to Rowan. "Have I missed something?"

"Yep," Rowan said. "You wanna head back to Japan with your boyfriend or am I leaving you here?"

His Uncle Oz was immediately half in the doorway to keep Rowan from shutting the door. He outstretched a hand to Jian that she dropped Nahele to grab.

"Always nice see you, Rowan," Jian said and then said: "Steven," as she nodded her head.

Then, once they were through the doorway Rowan shut the door, waited a moment and then opened the door again. This time when she did, it was truly the backyard once again. And then she shut the door for good.

Nahele turned wide eyes to her as Rowan held his gaze, how… how the hell was she going to explain this?

"So uh…. I have magic powers."

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

They had moved Nahele outside on the lanai to get him some fresh air and for the rest of the story but he had just sat there listening to Rowan and Steve explain the story with his head in his hands. She had no idea if he had actually heard her or if he was in such shock he had shut down.

"Are uh… are you okay?" Rowan asked him.

Nahele looked up to her and she could see that he really wasn't. He was past freaked out. And that was fair. She had just dropped her whole origin story on him, he had every right to think that all of this, and his mother was crazy.

For a long while he said nothing and then…

"So… you're… not… not…"

"From here? No."

Steve was still silent, leaning against the wall of the house arms crossed over his chest. Rowan had done most of the explaining, he had interjected bits and pieces of situations from his perspective that she hadn't quite known about, but other then that he had been silent. Like this whole conversation was upsetting him.

Nahele's eyes were swinging back and forth between them, but now his eye were on Steve who had let Rowan explain it all to their kid.

"And you, you knew this?" he asked him.

Steve nodded. "I was there when she fell."

Nahele's eyes narrowed. "And you believe her?"

Rowan's eyebrows shot up her forehead, wow, so even after all the evidence he didn't believe her?

"Yep, I do," he said. "I know it sounds crazy, trust me, I do. But… I've been dealing with this longer…"

"So you're telling me that she's from a different reality?" Both adults nodded and once again Nahele was quiet. "So… so… she could leave? Go to a whole different reality and never come back?"

Rowan sighed. "Oh my god, you and Steven are like carbon copies," she growled. "No, Nahele, I will not be just leaving you, I'm not cruel or heartless or…"

"You left last year," he reminded her.

Yeah, she was never going to live down that one it seemed.

"Okay, give me your hand," she ordered. Nahele blinked his eyes at her and then turned his eyes once more to Steve who gave him a nod. "Come on now."

"Go on, it'll be fine, she knows what she's doing."

Nahele slowly got up and then hesitantly reached out for. The second he took her hand she opened the void and swallowed them up. Nahele immediately grabbed onto her as he frantically looked around. The void was overwhelming to beginners. So, she wasn't surprised that he was freaked out.

"Each string takes me somewhere new. Whether it be a different outcome, or different places in the world."

Nahele continued to look around, his eyes blinking over and over. She then pointed out to the red wall. "My way home is through that, and I cannot get through it."

"You can't?"

"Nope, every time I try your dad rips me back."

Nahele narrowed his eyes at her. "What do you mean."

So, she opened their little protective bubble and right away the red strings began to react. Red strings appeared from her own chest to mingle with the ones outside their little bubble. She then opened a secondary portal, one that was more window then a portal so he could see that all those red strings led straight back to Steve.

Then she showed him the others. The pink strings that bound Nahele to her, to Steve and then Wo Fat and Con.

"What does it all mean?" he asked after a second.

"It means that I love Steve, and he loves me, and that love is keeping me here. Pink strings mean family. I love you, you're my son, so we have a pink string, just like I have one for Wo and for Con and they have one for me…"

"Do I have one to Steve?" he asked craning past her to look into Steve's window. She widened his view so he could see that there was in fact a pink string binding him to Steven. She absolutely adored the little smile that her son tried to hide when he could clearly see that little pink string leading to straight from Nahele to Steve's heart.

"And you said other places?"

Rowan changed the views, focused on Con and popped open a portal. The man had been sitting at the kitchen table he had seen the first time, with the beige walls and the sad little white planter. He had been eating cereal but the second the portal open and the two of them were walking through he had jumped pointing that spoon at them like it might have been a weapon. In anyone else's hands it wouldn't have been, but Rowan was certain that he could kill someone with a spoon if he wanted to.

"Jesus!" he cried throwing himself down into his seat now that he knew it wasn't an emergency. "I just left you what could you possibly need now?"

"Demo," she said. "Usually you adapt better."

Con bristled at that, luckily Nahele was too busy rushing to the window to confirm where they were.

"I do adapt… I mean I did… you just… you startled me. I'm allowed to be startled!"

"Are we in LA?" Nahele asked.

Rowan felt a slight twinge, she had to grip Con's shoulder to keep herself from flickering, but even though she had a hand on him she still jerked back a bit.

"Whoa!" Nahele cried. "What was that? What just happened?"

"It's Steve," Rowan said. "He's got limited control and we're worrying him. He's trying to pull us back. Probably not on purpose. You ready to go?"

Nahele nodded, stopping only to hug Conejo before heading back to her.

"Thank you for the…"

"Yeah, yeah, just go before that animal learns to portal to find you," he snapped waving them away and returning to his cereal.

Once again, she opened the void and the two of them dropped out of Conejo's borrowed kitchen and back onto the lanai, where Steve was waiting for them.

He was trying to fix his face, to hide the nervousness and the relief that had crossed his face at their return. He wanted her to think that he trusted her, he hadn't wanted her to go know that was worried. And it was so nice of him to try that she just didn't say anything.

"How was that?" he asked putting his hands out to Nahele who was suddenly beaming.

"Oh my god it was great!" he cried. "We went and saw Uncle Con in LA!"

Steve seemed to look Nahele over as if trying to determine if he was okay, like he thought maybe Rowan had gotten him into trouble or the trip had hurt him.

"No dizziness or anything?"

"No," Nahele said before turning back to Rowan. "Is that how you guys were going back and forth in Japan, is that how you guys got home so fast."

Rowan nodded, and though her son had her entire focus and attention she didn't miss Steve whisper: "So it's only me."

Poor Steve, the void really didn't work well with him.

"Okay, I have a question," Nahele said. "How long have you been able to do this?"

"Uh… well I fell… I fell what, four years ago Steve?" she asked and he nodded. "Right, so four years ago, shortly after that I started portaling the first time. Then I lost the ability and I was electrocuting people instead. It's uh… it's where the visions come from too. So when I first met you and you got that static shock?"

"That's how you knew who I was?" Rowan nodded and her son breathed out: "Cool."

Well at least he thought about that was cool.

"The better control of everything started last year. I had an incident with your uncles, who, before that, had no idea I had powers, and uh… we worked on getting me better control," she said. "Now I can jump, hop, drop, throw, pull, and apparently change fate."

"So that's what you did at the party."

Rowan nodded. "You uh… you got shot first. And then I was trying to fix it…"

"Yeah, fix it so it was her that got shot," Steve snapped and Nahele turned horrified eyes at her.

That was why he remembered it both ways. Him getting shot and her getting shot.

"We weren't going to tell him that Steven," she growled.

As Steve rolled his eyes at her, Nahele looked at his mom. She had the same head wound as him because she had taken the bullet in a different reality and somehow, while saving them they had received the same injury. But… it wasn't just he and his mom that had the same head wound, his dad had one too. And now he had a feeling he knew why.

"But Dad got shot too, I remember."

Steve sighed, turning his eyes heavenward but it was Rowan who said: "Yeah, that would be because he decided that he was going to take the bullet instead to save the both of us."

Nahele blinked his eyes at Steve who was avoiding looking at them at all costs, the vein in his jaw pulsing away in his irritation. Steven McGarrett was going to take a bullet to save him and Rowan? He really did love him.

"I kicked up enough fuss and between the two of us we pulled enough strings to fix it so we all got out okay, though we all got the same slight injury. Sorry about that, not sure how that happened."

Nahele, to his horror, had started to cry again. "I can't believe you guys were going to take a bullet for me."

He was covered immediately in a tight hug, first from his mother than from Steve who had wrapped them both up in his arms.

"Of course," they both seemed to be saying. "Of course we would, we love you."

"Then why didn't you come home? Why didn't you come get me?" he sobbed and then Steve had backed away.

"What do you mean? I… I mean I came back to the dance… it's just that… I got locked out and I wasn't charged enough to use my powers…"

"No, last year," he said. "You got these powers last year, why didn't you come and get me, why did you leave me?"

"Aw honey, I thought you were with Steve and Catherine…."

"No. I know, but… why didn't you come get me!"

He had asked that rather shrilly. Rowan blinked her eyes again and then sighed. "Nahele, if I came to get you, I would have come in swinging." Now that caught his attention. "Steve… he's always been able to affect my powers, and I knew if I went to go get you, to move you out of a house with him and Catherine, because that's where I thought you were, it would have had to be an attack. That and I was using my powers to break into places and get me and my brothers in trouble and I wasn't ready to bring you to me."

Nahele sighed again.

"I'm serious. I bought a safe house…" "Wait, what?" "…and I had a whole room done up for you. By the time Steve had TSA arrest me, I was starting the process of coming to get you. I was going to wait for the school year to be done."

"Hold on," Steve said interrupting them. "Dial back. You bought a safe house?"

"I did."

"Wh… where?"

"I can't tell you. It's part of the contingency plan. It's untraceable, it's meant for you not to find it."

A darkness crossed Steve's face but Rowan turned back to Nahele. "I made a lot of really bad choices last year. Like really bad ones. I can't say I won't make anymore bad choices or mistakes cause no one's perfect, least of all me, but I can promise that no matter where I go, or what happens, I'm going to find a way back to you. And I literally have the power to bend space and teleport now."

Nahele nodded and then thought about it a moment. "Is the void how you knew about all the girls?"

"Yep."

"So, there isn't a Smart House Mode on my phone."

"No there is, that's just not what it's for."

"Then what is it for?" Nahele asked.

"I'm hungry now, let's go finish breakfast," she said heading straight for the door.

"We're not done talking about this, Rowan," Steve called after but she just waved him away.

Nahele turned to Steve as the older man sighed. "Well that's Rowan for you, she's not good at the hard questions," he said. "She'll uh… she'll tell us when she's ready."

"But what if she's never ready?" Nahele asked him. Steve wrapped an arm around his son's shoulders and brought him close to his side.

"Don't worry kid, she can't hide everything forever," he told him. "Now come on, let's go before she eats all those pancakes on us."

Steve then led them back to the door hoping that this would be the last time he'd have to explain to someone how the hell he had met his wife.