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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Well it's another late chapter but at least it's here. You guys will be getting a new one tomorrow as well. So you know, that's good. In this chapter we've got some carguments without the car, and some of Rowan being a badass, and next chapter we're going to get a cargument in the car and her one of her brother's being a bad ass. So you know, lots to look forward to. As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Chapter 364

"Uh… dad your license is expired."

That one sentence ruined his life.

Not just because it was true, but because it opened the door to everything that ruined his life.

Originally it only opened the door to Danny's teasing. But then the worst of it hit him. He was no longer allowed to drive his kid to work, or anywhere for that matter. In fact, Rowan started freaking out about how he shouldn't even be driving himself.

As if he wasn't an amazing driver. As if he wasn't better than her. A license didn't determine whether or not he was a safe driver, it only told people if it was legal for him to drive. And alright, so technically it was legal for him to drive right now, but he was a good driver and she didn't have to be worried.

To shut his wife up, and Danny, he had scheduled a drive test for as soon as possible.

He had wanted Rowan to come with him but she had a meeting that she couldn't reschedule so he had been forced to ask Danny to come with him. And Danny had agreed, but only to

To be fair, Danny was also letting him use the Camaro for this test drive, because it would be easier to do a lot of the maneuvers without the bulk of his truck. Not that he couldn't do them, but he wanted an easy pass here.

He had been leaning against the Camaro while Danny stood across from him by the bench where he was supposed to wait. Steve had gone in to check in and was just waiting on the person who would be testing him. He had been told to wait by the car, but he had wished he hadn't because Danny had been needling him the whole time and he was getting progressively more annoyed.

However, the second he saw a woman with a clipboard walking up to him, he straightened.

"Hi,"

"Good morning," she said, without a hint of a smile on her face.

"Good morning," Steve said back, because clearly the hi had not been enough. And it was echoed by Danny.

She looked down at her clipboard and read out: "Commander McGarrett?"

Yeah, he had made sure they knew that so they wouldn't get too mad at him. "Yes, ma'am," he said using is best Navy-boy voice.

"It says here you've never renewed your license since returning from active duty," she read out. Yeah that didn't sound good when he had been back seven years now.

"That is correct," Danny said happily because he was greatly enjoying this. Because legally he could keep Steve out of the driver's seat. "Seven years this man has been driving without a license. I would say that hat is grounds for permanent suspension or expulsion. Don't you think so?"

The woman was staring first at Steve and then to Danny clearly confused. "Are you are?"

"I am uh…" "—annoying," Steve finished for him. Because he was. He really was.

Danny just nodded. "And annoying, yes, but also very excited to see if you survive this man's driving test."

As Danny devolved into dry chuckles Steve said: "This is my partner, Detective Danny Williams. Uh, I don't even know why he's here." Easy, Steve wanted to use the Camaro and Camaro belonged to Danny, and because Steve wanted moral support because his wife couldn't come and he stupidly thought Danny would be supportive. "If you could, uh, do me a favour, ignore him. Maybe we can get started."

"Hold on, I got some questions. Just a quick thing before you get started," Danny said and Steve almost groaned aloud. "Uh, you guys are gonna go over speed limits, correct?"

"It's a comprehensive road test covering all the driving laws in the state of Hawaii."

"Good, comprehensive meaning, uh, like driving on sidewalks, hopping curbs, going under semi-trucks, stuff like that?"

This woman was now wearing horror like cheap Halloween face mask. He had to get Danny to shut up.

"Shut up!"

"Is he serious?" she asked turning to him.

"No, he's not serious. He's not…" he said reaching out to grab her and get her in the car before Danny fucked this up further. "Well, kind of. But look, I wouldn't… I'd never do anything like that unless I absolutely had to."

He opened up the car door for her, like a gentleman should, hoping to win himself brownie points at this point.

Danny just shook his head. "He would never do anything like that," he said sarcastically.

Once he got her in the car he hissed: "Hey, would you go away? Please go away!"

"Hmm," he said because, at first, he didn't get it. "No, I will not go away."

"Would you get out of here, please! And call my wife cause you're… you're making this worse," he hissed but Danny just smiled at him and he knew he wouldn't call Ro like Steve wanted.

He opened the car door for Steven with a mockingly British Sir and then he leant in against the open window.

"Hey, hey, you be safe, okay?" h e said and Steve almost smiled because that was super nice of him to say. And then he pointed to Steve's tester: "And you, the best defense would be two hands up on the dash at all times"

Then he stood back and sung a Hebrew blessing song which was bullshit because Danny was not Jewish.

"I swear to god. Go away Danny or I'll use one of my favours to have Sin Nombre beat you up," Steve hissed.

"Dominus hibiscus or whatever they say,"

Great he was trying to bless him in Latin now. God, could this get any worse?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Yes, it could, it could very much get worse.

Every time he did something, she made a mark on her clipboard but wouldn't answer any of his questions about what she was writing down there. Whether it be good or bad.

It was like he was dealing with the Motor and Transit version of Brenda Dean.

God, he hoped he didn't yell at this woman the way he did at Brenda the first time he met her. That didn't go well the first time and it wouldn't go well with this woman either.

He went in through a yellow light that went red through the intersection and out of the corner of his eye he watched her lean forward to watch the light change and then sit back to write onto her clipboard again.

When he tried to get a glimpse she said, for the millionth time: "Eyes on the road, please."

Steve turned right away but he wasn't going to let it go. "That was a, uh, yellow light that we just went through for the record."

Just focus on the road. Don't' even worry about what I'm writing," she said. Also, something she had been saying on repeat, whenever he tried to pre-emptively argue whatever she might have been writing on that paper.

"I'm not worried," he said but that was a lie. He was worried. Very worried. Cause he wanted to be able to pick his kid up from school today and if this woman failed him it wasn't going to happen.

"Luckily, I'm used to be judged from the passenger seat of this vehicle, so it's fine," he said hoping to distract her by bitching about Danny and how he was when they drove together.

But she just looked at him and then went back down to the paper and wrote something down and the blew the air of her mouth like she was a horse. What… what the hell had he said now?

But he didn't get a chance to argue because his phone began to rang.

That could have been anyone. His wife, his son… He picked it up and looked it over. Okay, so it was work which was just as important.

But he caught his tester's eyes the second he had the phone in his hand and she immediately gave him wide judgemental eyes and then went back to writing on her clipboard.

Son. Of. A. Bitch. What now?

"What are you writing? What did I just do?" he asked.

She didn't even answer him, she simply showed him the back of her clipboard where there was a no cellphones symbol.

She tapped it twice. "Okay," Steve said not liking this at all. Not when Duke was calling him.

Yeah, this test was over.

He immediately kicked the car into the right gear and sped off. Hopping curbs and weaving in and out of traffic before finally peeling into the lot where he left Danny.

He put the car in park, tried to tell the woman that he could finish his test another time, but she was already getting out of the car. Shakily at that.

She stopped by a pole by Danny to collect herself, to maybe keep herself from throwing up and Steve saw an amused smile on Danny face.

"You okay?" he asked her, but the woman shook her head and fled back into the building and Danny just watched her go.

"Very nice. You failed already?"

"Duke called. Get in."

Danny took in Steve's dark glare and moved quickly to the passenger side of the car. This had better be good.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

All of this was about Kanuha Noe.

Kanuha Noe who was thought to have killed Lance Akemoto.

Lance was a former locksmith from Waimanlo and he and Kanuha used to be partners in the burglary business, until they got caught red handed inside someone's house.

At the trial, Lance skated free on a technicality, Kanuha went to jail for seven years.

Clearly HPD wanted to question him about this, because he had just gotten out of jail 6 weeks ago. Having his old partner and the one who got to go free when he did, was a little suspicious. Problem was when they went to question him last night he ran.

He was somewhere on the land that belonged to the Nation State of Hawaii, independent and Sovereign. It was like it's own little country inside Hawaii. And they were harbouring Kanuha.

Now, Steve could have easily gone in and demanded him back. But if he were to forcibly make his way on his onto that land he would be essentially invading a different country.

Their leader, Bumpy, believed the man was innocent, but he said that if Steve could prove that the man had murdered Akemoto like HPD thought he did, he'd give up Kanuha himself. Steve had tried to talk him out of it, show him that the guy was just using him for refuge, but Bumpy wouldn't budge. So, Steve had to accept his terms.

And they had been working on it. Steve, Grover and Danny had gone back to the palace to go over leads. Kono eventually joined them, but Chin stayed behind. And it was Chin who called Steve to tell him that the US Marshalls had shown up and taken over and now Steve looked like the bad guy.

Deputy Marshal Wes Lincoln had shown up and taken over everything. He brought a whole army of men with him too and as soon as he got there he put up extra barricades to stop people from getting close to the Sovereign territory. They set up a command tent, and gave Chin attitude.

When Steve got there he figured he could tell him what was going on and the guy would back off. But he wouldn't AND he upset Bumpy. Which put Steve in the middle. Bumpy on one side, angry that they people were threatening to charge onto his land, and the Marshals who were all upset that these people were harbouring a fugitive.

They wouldn't even let Steve drive through the barricade.

Then to add insult to injury Deputy Marshal Lincoln gave Steve until sundown to figure this out or he'd charge in there and if that happened Bumpy would never forgive him. So, Steve called the Governor to try and get this under control.

Chin and Danny stood away from Steve who was still on the phone and pacing back and forth clearly not being told what he wanted to hear.

"His mouth has not moved in three in a half minutes," Danny said, his voice low so Steve couldn't hear him. Up until that moment he had been playing with his phone.

"You know, maybe she's got him on hold," Chin whispered back.

"No, no," Danny said, watching as Steve paced back and forth. "His nostrils are flaring. He's pacing like a maniac and he's just switched the phone from his right hand to his left hand which means he wants to punch something."

Chin just nodded. "Well, you know your boy well."

"Yeah and it's a good thing I know him well, too," Danny said ominously as Steve came over.

"Governor says it's out of our hands and the marshals are in charge now."

"Well you seem to be taking that well," Chin said but Danny was still smiling.

"Well it's a good thing I called in the cavalry."

"What does that mean?" Steve asked and then he just changed. He went from focused on them to pivoting, a look they all called the pointer on his face. Because, just like a pointer dog, he was now fully attuned to Rowan, and pointed right in her direction.

"You called Rowan?" he hissed as he moved away.

She had parked her purple GTO just behind his and was coming up to where the Marshals were, and already they were warding her off.

"get your hands away from her," he growled, as he shouldered in way into between the two agents. He offered her a hand that she took right away and then the two of them were walking back to where Chin and Danny were waiting.

"So, babe, how was your driving test?"

"He tanked it," Danny called.

Rowan put a consoling hand to his back. "Aw, babe," she said and he almost pulled her in for a hug, but then she turned to Danny and said: "I mean are we surprised?" and just like that he didn't want to hug her.

"Ro, shut up, you drive just as bad as me! And I am not a bad driver," he shouted at her. "And besides I didn't tank it. It was interrupted so I got an incomplete, technically, but I didn't tank it."

"The woman survived, so I guess it did go okay," Danny said.

Rowan just turned a glare onto Steven. "You're not driving me or our son, anywhere, you hear me? I'mma text him right now tell him he can't get in a car with you under any circumstance."

See now that was stupid, because what if it was an emergency? What was Nahele going to do wait for a bus?

"Rowan, could you, just please, for once in your life, side with me?" Steve thundered and Rowan glared at him.

"Our son's safety, is more important than me siding with you, Steven," she said which was, one hundred percent a low blow. "And besides, we want him to obey laws right and not be like me, as you keep saying. So, shouldn't you be a good role model and not drive until you get your license?"

Steve put his head in his as he tried not to growl at her, god he didn't need this today.

"Okay, you know what, just tell me why you called me Steven? Why do you need me here?"

"I didn't call you Rowan!" Steve shouted and she frowned and then turned to Danny.

"You said he wanted me here."

"No, but I did," Danny said and Steve groaned one more time.

"Hold up, give me a second," Rowan said stopping Danny from explaining the situation to her. "Why are you so mad at me Steven?"

"Mad at you? I'm not…"

"No, you're mad, I can tell…"

"I'm frustrated Rowan! I'm frustrated!"

"With me?" Steve shot her a glare and she sighed. "Okay fine, if not about me, what? what is it Steven? I can't help you if you don't talk to me. So what is it? What are you frustrated with?"

"With everything! I had Danny set me up for failure telling my tester that I'm a hazard, so she was against me from the start. I have to go back to do the test, and I don't know when I'll have the time to do that. I have this asshole making me look stupid, and making it look like I'm going to go back on my word and my promises," he thundered but Rowan just stood there staring at him. And he added: "Alright, fine, I'm also a little frustrated with you. You were supposed to be there, Rowan. I wanted you there. Not Danny, you. You and you bailed on me…"

"Steven you bail on me all the time," Rowan said with a scoff. "When I was going through the interviews to foster Nahele the first time you didn't even show up to the in-home walk through. You didn't even call me to tell me you couldn't come. And I needed you, Steven. I was nervous and I wanted you there to hold my hand, and you weren't."

Yeah except that was before he had been better since he got her back.

"And besides, the meeting was set before you scheduled that drive test, you should have asked me my schedule if you really wanted me there," Rowan said and he nodded because that was true. "And I offered you the support of both Wo Fat and Sin Nombre, either one could have gone with you today instead of Danny but you chose Danny so…"

That was also true. She had said her brothers would be happy to accompany him, but they would have been worse in the way of support. He could have used one of his favours for that support, but he wasn't going to waste it on that.

"Now do you want to tell me why Danny wanted me here for this?"

Danny clapped his hands, happy to get onto the matter at hand.

"Okay, so what we have right now, is good old fashioned stand off," Danny said. "Our murder suspect is in there and we can't go and get him because it's sovereign land and they're not technically the United States."

"Okay and what? You want me to call one of my brothers? Well what the hell do you think my brothers are going to be able to do, Danny? This isn't a criminal organization this is a sovereign state."

"No, not them," Steve said, having understood right away what Danny had called her for. He then pointed at the U.S. Marshal that was annoying him the most. "Them. He's got people in the FBI and CIA he has to have someone in the Marshal's office. Can you ask him please?"

Rowan glanced to the man. "I mean I could make a call but I make no promises."

"Okay, I have leads to chase down," Steve said. "I have till sundown to prove that this guy either has killed him or hasn't."

"Okay, I know you can do it babe," she said and he almost grabbed her and kissed her right then and there. See, that's the girl he loved, the one who always had his back and thought him capable of anything.

"If Wo can't help you can you just… keep them from causing Bumpy and the Sovereign state any issues?'

"I most certainly can," Rowan said and Steve nodded. He pulled her close and managed to sneak in one kiss.

When he left Chin there with Rowan he had nothing but confidence. Rowan was definitely ten times more annoying than the Marshals, and he hoped they were just annoyed with her as Steve was with them.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Kanuha had been lying to them.

He lied about talking to Akemoto, and how he was lending him money and his tools. About how he was back in the thieving business again.

They had found his storage locker with all the stolen stuff from all the heists he had done. And they had found the gun that had killed Akemoto inside. With his finger print on it. He had been confused, of course it would have his finger prints on it, he had stolen it, but it should have stayed in the locker, he hadn't taken it so someone else must have.

But there were things that didn't sit right with them. Like how there were no traces of Akemoto's DNA in Kanuha's car. Like how someone went into the storage unit after Kanuha holed himself up with Bumpy on the Sovereign state.

Something was up and they needed figure out what it was and Chin might have known what it was if the all he had been on hadn't cut out mid sentence.

Chin looked down to his phone, the second he lost the call with Kono. A big red, no service was flashing on his screen. Really?

He stormed right over to that little command tent that they had set up and glared down at Lincoln, the man in charge.

"What did you do?"

"Cutting off communications helps to contain the situation. If you need to a make a call, we have a sat phone."

"They cut off service?" Rowan asked and then looked down to her phone. "Really? Are you sure? Cause I have service."

Of course, she would, she had Sandy on her phone but the Marshals didn't know that. Lincoln sat a little straighter.

"She has service, she can't have service," he said pointing at her like Chin had no idea who he was talking about.

When Rowan had first showed up and asked who she was, she had told him she was going to be his worst nightmare. He had not been amused and then turned to Chin and asked the question again. Chin had told him that Rowan was Steve's wife and she was staying as a sort of liaison.

Liaison of annoyingness, she had said and Chin had struggled to keep his laughter in.

"Do you want me to call Kono back?" Rowan asked Chin, purposely ignoring Lincoln. And then she did just that, pressed a button on her phone and then put it to her ear.

And with that look of shock when Rowan started talking to someone on the phone, was also a laugh inducing. In fact, he was struggling to keep his laughter in at that moment.

"Hi Kono, Chin got cut off there," she said. "Yeah, they cut the service here, isn't that rude?"

Lincoln looked a little ashen, because clearly, she had managed to get a call out when logically she shouldn't have been able to. Lincoln was going to ask a whole bunch of stupid questions now and that wouldn't be good. Chin needed to get his attention back.

"You really think this is the best way to resolve things peacefully?"

"I can't let them call the shots. In 15 minutes, we plan on cutting water and power," he said.

Chin shook his head, not sure that he believed what he was hearing. "You said we had until sundown."

"And I plan on keeping my word but until then, I have other options and I'm going to use them."

"Options?" Rowan said handing Chin the phone that was still connected to Kono. "Options? What is he talking about, options?"

"He wants to shut down power and water…"

"Why? Why would you do that."

"Probably to provoke them, make them give you the excuse you need to throw them all in jail?"

"What the… really?" Rowan asked turning to him. "You said Steve had until sundown. Are you on like a different time zone, cause in Hawaii it's only a little bit past two!"

"I'm trying to get them to see that protecting a murderer isn't worth it."

"Whoa, hold on, he ain't a murderer yet. Innocent until proven guilty which is what we're trying to do," Rowan said putting her hand in his face and waving it around like she was going all sassy girl on him. "So, what, you just gonna come down here and take over and lie? That's what you're doing. You gonna lie to these people and cheat to get your way?"

"I'm doing what…"

"You're cheating, that's what you're doing. You're cheating and that's not fair, now stop it!"

"Okay, I don't need to answer to you," he said to Chin and then turned to Rowan. "And least of all some civilian who thinks she's got power cause she married your boss."

Oh see, now that was not the right thing to say.

Rowan stared at him for all of ten seconds before her eyes narrowed into that glare, that glare that meant she had just been challenged and she was about to accept it.

"Oh, please apologize before she does something we'll all regret," Chin groaned but Lincoln didn't apologize and Rowan was done playing nice.

Rowan snatched her phone back. "Kono we're going to call you back," she said as she continued to glare at Lincoln. "Bunch a fucking bullies, that's what you are," she muttered as she turned away heading straight for Bumpy.

"Hi, hey, you! You in charge?" she said to him and Bumpy glanced firsts to Chin and then back to her. "You don't know me, I married Steve and I'm not a cop but I want to help so can you like… can you let me in please? I know I can't without permission or something or I'm considered invading and I don't want to invade, so can I? Please?"

Bumpy just looked at her like she was crazy and she sighed as frustratedly as Steve had been sighing that afternoon.

"Look, you gotta let me in, cause they're going for water and power next. Don't you wanna level the playing field a little?"

Bumpy looked her up and down and then back to Chin who nodded and only then did he decide to let her in. The second she was on the other side of the gate she linked arms with Bumpy and then glared down at Lincoln.

"Right, I'm over here now. I'm one of them. And I'm telling all of y'all to clear off. Give us our service, get yourselves gone or I'm gonna level the playing field!" she called out.

Lincoln just laughed while Chin groaned. Not good, not good at all.

"Okay don't say I didn't warn you," she said as she looked down to her phone. She pressed one button, just one little tap of the screen of her phone and all of a sudden, the command post went down. All their computers, all of their tech, everything.

"Haha, SUCKERS!" Rowan screamed and then she threw her hands to the sky as if she were victorious. "LEVEL PLAYING FIELD!"

The Marshals all just stared at her, clearly not sure what to do.

"Hey Chin," she said and then tossed him the phone. "You'll need that more than me. See you guys at sundown!"

She then turned onto Bumpy and said: "Can I borrow one of your offices?"

As the two of them left, Chin pocketed her phone, and when he turned, he had Wes Lincoln in his face asking: "Who was that?" again. Having probably realized that she wasn't just Steve's wife.

Chin just smiled at him and walked away. He was going to let them figure out they pissed off Rowan Pierce the hard way.