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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers. Sorry, I got distracted writing a spin off for this fiction and completely forgot to post. We got a special something coming up on Wednesday so get read for that. But right now, buckle in for another long chapter, this is the feels part of the episode. I hoe you guys enjoy it! As always don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!

Chapter 373

Steve had a lot of clean up to do. Like… a lot of clean up. He had to explain how it came to be that Madison Gray died on his watch when she wasn't armed at the time. He had to explain how Benton had died riddled with bullets when none of them had a high-powered SMG. All because he couldn't have Sin Nombre, the wanted assassin found at the scene.

God this was a mess.

And Sin Nombre wouldn't apologize for putting him through all that. He kept saying that Steve didn't have to cover for him but then Steve would have to explain how an assassin ended up in that cabin with them.

The shot had been close contact, there were muzzle burns on her forehead. There was no way Steve could have pretended that was a sniper shot and Sin Nombre knew it.

Now Steve was half way around the world, away from his wife and kid, and stuck with a logistics nightmare because the assassin Rowan made him take with him had killed Gray without getting permission.

He wasn't going to sleep tonight. He wasn't going to sleep on the plane home either, if the cops ever let him leave. He wasn't going to sleep until he was home, he never could sleep without Rowan.

He pulled out his phone and then, without doing the mental math he called his wife.

"Hey babe! How did it go?"

Okay so it wasn't late at night.

"Let's not talk about something so complicated right now, what are you doing?"

That was the wrong thing to say, because now she knew that something was wrong and she wanted to ask what it was. But after a paus she did as he asked and changed the topic.

"Okay. Well, we just finished up dinner, did you want to talk to Nahele?"

"Maybe in a minute, what did you have for dinner?"

"We had spaghetti," she said softly. "Are you okay? Did something happen? You're not hurt, are you?"

He heard his son cry out and then ask Is dad okay? And his heart practically burst in his chest. Oh how he wanted his wife to open up a portal to him so he could hug his kid.

"I'm fine, tell him I'm fine." And then he waited for his wife to do that before saying: "If I'm being honest, I'm pretty pissed off at your brother and you for making me take him."

Except it wasn't entirely true.

"My brother… what did he do?"

You don't know what your brother did?"

"No Steven, I haven't heard from you, or him, how was I supposed to know?" she asked. "He's not… he's not alone, is he?"

"Rowan! He caused me major trouble today, and you're only worried about him?"

"Well… yeah, Steve, it's the 18th. He shouldn't be alone today of all days!"

Again with the 18th. He still didn't know what the 18th meant.

"Okay, you know what, Rowan. I'm sick of this, I'm sick of you, and I'm sick of your brothers and I'm sick of always being out of the loop," he snapped and then immediately regretted it, he just couldn't take it back now. "You can call me back when you've decided to loop me in."

And then he hung up the phone.

Then he threw it to the bed.

And he just stood there. Hands on his hips staring at the blank screen.

Why had he done that? Why had he done that when he wanted to hear her voice? Why had he done that when he had wanted to convince her to come see him, to hold him for a little while just so he could fall asleep.

He hated fighting with Rowan. And yet, there he was picking a fight with her. God, what was wrong with him?

The door opened and Rowan came in, and his heart practically stopped in his chest. He crossed to her right away, slamming that door shut and closing her portal behind her, then he crushed her to his chest.

For a brief moment she let him hug her and then she shoved him away from her. "What the hell was that Steven?" she cried as if he she didn't hang up on him all the time. He didn't have portals to run through when she did that, he just had to hope that she'd be home when he got there so he could apologize.

He should have apologized. But the second she shoved him away the anger came back to him.

"He shot her, Rowan! Do you have any idea the story I had to spin, the lies I had to tell to NOT arrest him?!" Steve thundered.

She blinked her eyes.

"Wait… what? Who did he shoot? Gray? Did he shoot Gray?" Steve nodded and she kind of winced like she almost expected it. "He shot her? Just like… out of nowhere shot her?" Steve nodded again. "Did she uh… did she threaten someone… like you… or…?"

How had she known that? "Uh… yes… yeah. She threatened you…"

"Yeah, that's why. He doesn't do well with threats," she said. "It's a thing… Usually I can talk him down but I wasn't there and… it being today probably made it all worse."

"Fucking riddles, you're talking in riddles again, Rowan! What are you talking about?!"

Rowan looked to him, glanced back to the door and then back to him. "Is he here? In the hotel?"

"Yeah, I checked him in, he's next door. And he's not talking to anyone. Trust me I tried."

"Mmm, and you put his room on your credit card?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh boy, maybe we should give them mine cause… he's gonna bleed you dry through the mini bar," she said. "Right give me a second."

She turned back to the door, opened a portal in the doorway and then disappeared. Steve had to wait a couple minutes but when Rowan opened the door again, she had a bouquet of flowers.

He looked at them, then up to her and she sighed. "This is not my story to tell," she said and then offered him a hand.

Steve took it without a second thought and then pulled him through the regular old doorway and to the next room.

She used her powers to unlock the door and Steve was shocked to find Sin Nombre lying on the floor surrounded by little bottles. He had only been alone thirty minutes at best but he must have drunk everything alcoholic in that minibar.

He looked broken. Steve had never seen him that way. Just lying on the floor like a discarded rag doll, empty brown eyes just staring at the ceiling.

It became clear that Sin Nombre was clearly suffering, some emotional injury, that Steve hadn't known about, hadn't sensed.

"Come on, get up," Rowan said nudging him with her foot. "Come on."

Sin Nombre groaned. She went to nudge him again and he caught a hold of her ankle.

"Kick me again and I'll snap your leg."

Steve grabbed her by the shoulder right away and tugged her right out of that assassin's grasp. He didn't think that Sin Nombre would actually hurt Rowan, but injured animals lashed out and people were no differed. He just didn't want to take the chance. Rowan brushed off his hand and then glared down at the drunken assassin at her feet.

"You get up right this instant or I'll drop your ass right on them."

Sin Nombre propped himself up and looked up to her. "You've got a few hours of the 18th left," she said. "And I know you want to see them, so get up, freshen up and I unno… try to sober up?"

Sin Nombre pulled himself to his feet glanced to Steve and then back to her. "You're gonna make me take the boy scout, aren't you?"

"Do you want him to stop bugging us? Cause he won't stop until we tell him."

"I can always just punch him," he growled and Steve scowled at him.

"Just get yourself ready please."

Sin Nombre managed to wobble off, but was still rather steady on his feet considering the amount he had drank.

"Is he really going to tell me what's going on?"

Rowan nodded. "He should. But this… this is big, so try not to push him okay?"

Steve nodded in silent agreement and then the two waited for Sin Nombre be ready. He took his bag into the washroom and then locked the door. They heard the water running, they heard him gargling, and then after a considerable silence, he was back.

When he came back, he looked like a completely different person. His hair had been combed back in a more conservative style. He was in a nice grey button up with a tie, Steve hadn't even realized that Sin Nombre had other clothes in his wardrobe.

He looked at Rowan carefully and then asked: "How do I look?"

Rowan straightened up his tie and dusted off his shoulders. "You look great," she whispered and then put the flowers in his hands. "Tell Mari I say hi."

Who the fuck was Mari?

Sin Nombre nodded as Rowan went over to the door. Once she had it open, Steve could see that it led to a grassy patch… somewhere in the world where it was night time. Great.

"Come on, McGarrett," he said as he stepped through the portal. Steve glanced at Rowan who he figured wasn't coming after all and then he followed after him.

Once he got through, he realized right away where they were. It was a cemetery.

Oh my god. This did not bode well at all.

He followed Sin Nombre to the gravestones. It was the dead of night, they were alone, there was barely any light but Sin Nombre knew where he was going.

When he finally came to a stop he was standing at a family plot. Just staring at the head stones. There was an emotion on his face that Steve recognized, for he had worn it himself. At his father's grave.

Steve stared down at the gravestone.

Marisol Garcia-Rodriguez, died at 24 and Emilano Falcon-Rodriguez, he was only three years old. He watched Sin Nombre get down on bended knee to brush away the dead flowers and weeds and replace them with the bouquet Rowan had made him take.

"Uh… I know you ask a lot of questions so I might as well tell you," he said as he sat himself down in front of them. "So, uh… this is my uhm… my family. My mom and my sister are over there." And then he pointed to the gravestone over. Steve noted that they all died on the same day.

February 18th 2010

His family had all died on the same day? Probably not of natural causes.

Steve too sat himself down in front of those head stones, right beside Sin Nombre. He looked at the names on that stone. Marisol was clearly the Mari that Rowan referenced. Made sense, Rowan would know about this, he wondered how she got him to tell her.

Emilano was just a child.

But Sebastian Falcon-Gonzales had been twenty-four when he died. He was a year older than Rowan, just like Sin Nombre was.

"Your name is Sebastian," Steve breathed out.

"Yeah, and if you use any of this information to figure out who I really am, so help me McGarrett, I'll kill you. I swear, I odn't care how made Rowan will be…"

"Okay calm down," Steve said. He stared at the grave a little longer and then asked: "Does Rowan know about…"

"My past? Yes. But she earned you. You haven't."

Yeah, and judging how things were going, he'd probably never end up earning it.

"What… uh… what happened?"

Sin Nombre swallowed something back and avoided his eyes. For a moment Steve thought he wouldn't tell him, but he actually did.

"Emil… he had just turned three, he was walking and talking and learning new words. Marisol and I were discussing wedding options cause I was gonna be graduating from Law school at the end of the year and I always said when I graduated I'd marry her. I mean, I had proposed before I even got into to law school…" he said and then cleared his throat. Whoa, so he really had gotten the lawyer training. Steve had thought he was making it up. "We were strapped on cash and… I got into it with a cartel… became a bag man… but Marisol she found out, she wanted me to get out… so I told my boss and… and…"

"He murdered them?"

"I came home from what I thought was going to be my last job and found them all laid out in my front foyer, throats slit. There was all this blood… and they had been like that for… for hours… probably since I had left for that job…"

Steve put a hand to Conejo's shoulder.

"After that… I didn't care if I lived or died. I buried my family and I killed off the whole Cartel. But… the pain was still there and I didn't know what to do anymore. I couldn't go back to my old life… seeing as I had faked my dead… and I was good at it, killing I mean. I was good with guns and I was good with death and I just… I didn't care anymore. I didn't care what I did, or who I was, or what job I took. All that mattered was having enough money to drink and numb the pain."

"Okay, this is going to sound callous, but how did this turn into your thing with threats?" he asked. "Rowan mentioned…"

"Course she did," he said with a sigh. "The boss threatened my family. When I told him I wanted to quit, he said families were a dangerous thing, caring for people was a dangerous thing because they could be used against you. I told him I had enough evidence to put him away, but if he let me go, if I did one last job, I'd give him all I had and we could part ways as friends. I thought that it was over, I thought it was enough, but I handed that bag over, shook his hand, and came home to a massacre. He had slaughtered them all and left them in the foyer of my house so I'd find them first thing."

Steve inhaled sharply, he couldn't imagine that. Coming home to Rowan and Nahele's lifeless bodies on the living room floor, left for him to find. He'd probably loose it much like Sin Nombre had.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"After that… I guess I just started taking threats as well… reality. Instead of me worrying about whether or not it will happen, if they'll actually do it… I just…"

"You just kill them," Steve whispered. He got it, he'd never have to worry, threat nullified… permanently.

"You know… the thing about Rowan, is she just gets it, you know?" he said. "I told her that story and she understood perfectly how that shaped me into what I am today. And she loved me. She loved me anyway. It didn't change her view on me at all. She's like that with everyone, you know? She loves everyone not for what they are but for their potential. For what they could be. So it didn't matter how cold or how cool, or how hard I tried to keep her distanced from me, she understood why I was doing it and just showered me with unwanted affection."

Yeah his girl was like that.

"That's why you can treat her like absolute fucking shit and she'll stay with you," Conejo said. Okay Steve didn't like where this was going anymore. "She loves you no matter what you do because she knows you can do better, she knows you have the potential to be perfect, but I can tell you that she thinks the reason you're not like that with her, is because she's done something wrong, and we both know that's not true."

Steve hung his head.

"I'm sorry I shot your Dr. Gray," Conejo finished. "But Rowan's all I have now. Rowan and Wo Fat are the closest thing to a family to me… and you may have been okay with chancing it… but I wasn't. I wasn't about to let that bitch even attempt to go after Ro. Because I can't lose my family again, McGarrett. I just can't."

They were quiet a bit and then there was a hissing sort of pop and a door opened out of the thin air.

Steve expected Rowan, he was not expecting Wo Fat to come through the portal with his own flowers in his hands.

"Hey!" he said. "Ro said you guys are having a wake."

That was not what was happening but Steve said nothing. Instead, Wo Fat put the flowers in the same urn Sin Nombre had put his own flowers in and then sat down on the other side of him. In his fancy suit and everything.

He looked at the names on the stones and then turned to Sin Nombre.

"So… how do we know them?"

Wow, so Wo had no idea about this either. This was just a Rowan and Sin Nombre secret. Wo was going to be pissed that Steve found out about this first.

"Uhm… you know how... how Rowan mentioned that I had a kid?"

Wo's eyes crinkled a bit, his face turned back to that headstone, took in the birthdays and deathdays, did the mental math and then hissed out a low: "Shit."

"Yeah, she should have warned you before sending you in," Sin Nombre said.

"Yeah, that would have be nice," he said. "So, wife, kid… brother? Twin brother, since you two have the same… that's you, isn't it?"

Sin Nombre nodded and Wo just stared at the headstone. "Sebastian? Really?" Sin Nombre nodded again. "I never pegged you for a Sebastian."

They all sat there a little quietly taking in the kind of pain that Sin Nombre must have gone through. It was still choking Steven, he just couldn't imagine that, but it completely explained how Sin Nombre became what he did, because Steve might have gone the same route if that had happened to Rowan.

"So uh… all on the same day, huh? That's uh… that's cold."

"Uhm, yeah. I was uh… I was working as a bag man for a cartel boss and uhm… I tried to get out. He uhm… he threatened my family and I threatened to turn in all the evidence and turn snitch if he even dared. I did one last job for him, we parted ways friends, I thought. Came home and found them. He uhm… he had em massacred to punish me."

Wo thought for a minute before turning back to him.

"That sounds like something Perez would have done," Wo said. "Yeah, he went down around the same time too. Maybe a six months later…" he glanced to Sin Nombre and nodded. "Was that you? You're the one who took down Perez?"

Sin Nombre nodded and wo nodded too. "Tragic. I liked Perez, he was a complete psychopath but a good ally, but uh… taking down Perez was how I met Armando, so… I guess thank you?"

"You're welcome."

"Well, hello, Mrs. Falcon or whatever. It's very nice to meet you. I'm Wo, the new older brother, you probably hate me," he said addressing the grave. "I'm uh… I'm sorry I haven't got him on the straight and narrow like you probably would have wanted. I'm working on keeping him and our sister alive and if you've been watching that's a full-time job in itself. Plus I'm a pretty shit person too, you know, professional smuggler and arms dealer and what not…"

"What are you doing?" Sin Nombre asked.

"I'm talking to them," he hissed and then turned back to the gravestone. "I hope you like the flowers. Ro said they were your favorite and I'm going to trust her judgement. Uhm… cause you know her and Sebastian talk about everything but you know, leave me out of it. She said hi by the way, Ro I mean."

He had shot a little bit of a glare at Sin Nombre when he brought up that he had been left out and Steve had almost snorted, but that would have been disrespectful so he hadn't.

"Next time I come I'll bring a truck for you Emil… can I call you Emil or do you prefer Emiliano?"

"Okay that's nice, but you can stop," Sin Nombre said. "They're not really there you know?"

"Yeah, since when do you believe in ghosts?" Steve asked because if this was something that he believed in he was going to pair him with Danny who didn't believe in ghosts but believed in psychics

"Well I don't, not really, but I also didn't believe in super powers and alternate dimensions and now I have Rowan and all of those things are true so I'm just not going to chance it." Wo Fat looked around again and then back to the graves.

"I'm so very sorry I dropped in on you that one time. Ro kinda got confused and sent me to the wrong place and I hadn't been made aware of you yet… so I'm sorry I didn't say hello. But uh… thank you for the soft landing."

Steve turned to Sin Nombre. "What is he talking about?"

"You landed right on em?" he asked Wo instead.

Wo nodded. "Used the headstone to pull myself up," he admitted. "Sorry."

"Oh, she sent Wo here when you guys got split up," Steve interrupted having finally caught up, but both men ignored him.

"Well it's not your fault, you didn't know. I'm sure you thanked them."

"I did."

Sin Nombre smiled at him and Wo smiled back and then his face fell into a frown.

"Uh… I know this probably isn't the time, but uhm… I'm rather annoyed you told McGarrett about this before me. And before you try to lie to me, Ro told me that she sent him here to get a story, and he's annoying, so I know he got it out of you."

"He did. It was not intentional," Conejo said immediately. "I was going to tell you first but situation sort of put me here. Next time I have a secret dead family I'll tell you first."

"You better."

"You realize… you'd be the secret dead family, right? You and Ro, right?"

"Let me have this McGarrett," he snapped as he reached over to shove Steve. It wasn't that strong of a shove, so Steve didn't go anywhere but it made Sin Nombre laugh.

"Right, as fun as this is, I don't want to stay here. Haunting hour is upon us and I'm not chancing meeting a real ghost without Rowan," Wo Fat said moving to stand up. He offered Sin Nombre a hand to help him up but it was up to Steve to get up on his own.

By the time Steve was standing, Wo Fat had pulled out his phone to text Rowan. "Did you guys deal with Gray?"

"Yeah, I shot her," Sin Nombre said. "Steve's pissed off about it though."

"Why?"

"Because he shot her while she was in my custody and unarmed," Steve explained.

Wo then turned to Sin Nombre. "Well, that would be why he's upset."

Sin Nombre shot Steve a scowl like he had just tattled on him to his big brother, which, he guessed that was kind of what happened. He then turned back to Wo to say: "She threatened Rowan."

Wo then turned to Steve. "And that would be why he shot her."

"Yeah, I know Wo," he said. "Thanks for explaining it though."

The door opened again and there was Rowan's smiling face waiting for them. Wo Fat moved first, and Steve was going to follow except Sin Nombre pulled him back. "Uhm… you can call me Con now. If you want. Or Conejo. That's what it's short for… uh… up to you."

And then he just walked away, rushing to get back to Rowan and Wisconsin, leaving Steve in Colombia. Frozen in shock but grinning ear to ear.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan sent Wo Fat home first and then there was a big discussion about what was going to be done with Con. He was free of Gray that much was sure, and Rowan didn't have any other tasks for him.

She had asked what he wanted to do, and he had asked for a vacation. So, Rowan threw him back to LA so he could close up everything there and from there he was on his own.

Rowan could pull him whenever needed, but he was a free agent again. And Steve could tell, right away, that he was super excited about that.

With both brothers gone, Steve was left with Rowan. He knew she had to go home to their son, but he wanted her to tire him out. He wanted his borrowed bed to smell of her so it was easier for him to sleep.

But his mind was filled with questions, and his heart was filled with turmoil. Terrible images were rolling around in his mind, and he needed more than her body to soothe him. He needed her words, he needed assurances.

He pulled his head out of her neck, the same side of her neck that Con had been burrowed in that morning.

"You have a mark here," he whispered. "Is that from Con?"

Rowan's hand went to her neck. "It shouldn't be," she said. "You leave marks on me all the time, Steven."

This was true, and Steve had a feeling that this mark had been left by him too. But there was a jealous possessive streak that was burning through him and he needed her to douse it.

"Who's the seventh guy, Rowan?" he asked softly and she just stared at him.

She looked lovely, with her dark brown hair splayed out across that white pillow. Those big blue eyes staring up at him. Those lips of hers were pink and swollen from his kisses but they were in a frown now.

"Steven…"

"I know there's a seventh guy. Your repeat. Berlin-slash-Venice. Who is he?"

"…Steven…"

"It's one of your brother's, isn't it?" he asked. "That's why you don't want to tell me, right?"

Rowan froze beneath him, her eyes widening. Yep, he was right.

"Are you serious right now?" she asked, going for the lie. But Steve wasn't going to let it go.

"Well, Wo is adamant that it was only you, him and Sin Nombre through Venice and Berlin, but I know there's a seventh guy, because you said it yourself. You had a guy in each new place, except for the repeat. I'm guessing it's Con. Right?"

She was just staring at him. Wide eyed and white. But those eyes, they were ice queen blue.

"So… it's gotta be one of them, so is it him? Please tell me it was him cause if you slept with Wo, I don't know.. I don't know how to… like that's just… come on, which was it?"

"Neither…"

"No you slept with one of them, so which is it? Please don't say Wo."

"Steven," she whispered softly, pressing the softest of kisses to his lips. "I know you like getting answers, but I don't have one to give you right now. Now… before this line of questioning… we were kind of heading somewhere…."

Sex, they had been heading to sex. That was why she was on his bed, that's why he had been on top of her. That's why he had been kissing her that insistently.

"Are we going back to that or do you want me to head home?"

Steve answered her by sliding his lips back onto hers.

She was everything he needed.

Sweet, soft, clinging. No nails, no biting, just soft wandering grips, heads bowed to one another and sweet honeyed kisses. She held him to her while he shook, she took away all his fears and worries with her plying kisses and those soft twitching fingers of hers.

And when it was done, he caged her in his arms, held her to his heart, refusing to give her up again.

He wanted her to stay. He didn't want her to leave, but their son was back in Hawaii and he was in Wisconsin.

So when it was time, he forced himself to let her go, he let her put her clothes back on, walked her to the door that she'd open that portal in, but before she did he took a hold of her hand.

"He beat me to it, you know."

Rowan turned back to him clearly not understanding, so he tried again.

"Con. He beat me to shooting her."

Rowan blinked her eyes and he could tell right away that she didn't believe him. "Really?"

"Yeah. She… she said she was going to put you back into a basement… like Waincroft did and… god baby I wasn't going to let that happen… If he hadn't shot her when he did, I would have."

Rowan was standing before him now, his hands in hers. She was staring up at him with those eyes, those beautiful, perfect, all-together-too-blue eyes, and he could see, she still didn't believe him. She still didn't think herself worthy enough to chance him going to jail, losing his job, or compromising his morals.

"I'd do anything to keep that from happening again, I'd do anything to keep you safe…"

She got up on her tippy toes to press a kiss to his lips, and he grabbed her instantly, crushing her to his chest.

"Please don't tell him… I gave him such a hard time…"

"Your secret is safe with me," she whispered and then she lowered herself again. "I gotta get home, make sure Nahele is okay."

Steve nodded and forced himself to let her go.

"I'll see you soon, I promise," she whispered and Steve nodded.

And she was right. Because when he got off the plane in Hawaii the following evening, Rowan and Nahele were once again waiting for him at the arrivals gate.

And he had never been happier to see them. He even may have cried a bit.