Rewrite
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Well hello there my wonderful readers. I know this one is late, and I'm sorry but my writer's block is still hitting me pretty hard. I think in this chapter we have some fun shenanigans, and there will be more next week too! I'm going to do my best to get the next chapter up in a timely fashion too, so see you guys then!
Chapter 401
High Tea was normally something Rowan enjoyed.
She had never had a bad time when at High Tea, it was usually rather relaxing.
She'd get to drink tea, eat little finger sandwiches, and little desserts. She'd feel fancy and happy and… well… that happiness high would last the rest of the day at minimum.
The Empress was her favourite place to go to High Tea. Every year for her birthday she'd demand to go, or whenever she achieved something that her parents wanted to reward her for. She had already been to the Empress for High Tea in this universe with her brothers, and it had been a wonderful time for her. Another memory to add to all her others at the Empress.
This time she was joined by Nahele and Steve and while that was supposed to be another new happy memory to add to the collection, it very quickly became… not.
It had started out wonderful.
She dressed up and so did all of her boys, even Con. She wasn't sure how Wo Fat got him into those black dress pants with the grey polo shirt, but he had and she was grateful.
Steve looked so hot in his dark green polo and black dress pants, and Nahele looked like an adorable mini-Steve, in a matching outfit, with a polo that was a shade lighter than Steven's.
They had ordered their tea, let Rowan take pictures of the food, let Con wolf down his platter like the heathen he was and then they all devolved into arguing.
About the dress shopping appointment Rowan would be going to.
Well, the three boys were arguing, Nahele and Rowan had been trying to enjoy the atmosphere of the birth place of High Tea in Canada, but failing. Because Steve, Wo and Con could not agree, and they wouldn't let Rowan interject to help them decide.
"She obviously can't go by herself," Wo said for the millionth time as if that would solve their problem.
"Yes we know!" Steve cried. "But as I've already told you, I can't go with her."
"Oh you could, you so could," Con cried. "I mean she's your wife!"
"He's got a point," Wo said with a deft nod.
Once again, Rowan rolled her eyes. This was ridiculous, that they were still arguing over who would accompany her to the dress appointment. She understood that they didn't trust this version of her family, and she understood that, as men, they wouldn't want to spend all day shopping with her, but this was actually kind of hurtful.
Because none of them wanted to go with her. They were arguing over who had to go, and it was clear that none of them wanted to.
And while that was fair, and, originally, she hadn't wanted any of them to come with her anyway, it was still hurtful to sit there and listen to them arguing about going somewhere with her like it was the worst possibility in the world. They hadn't realized that, of course, but it was! She had tried to tell them that she hadn't invited any of them, but unfortunately that just had them arguing with her about how she wasn't about to go to that appointment on her own when none of them trusted her family.
She hadn't brought it up since.
"I've already told you, Nahele wants to go on a whale watching cruise," Steve growled.
"You can go whale watching at any point in time McGarrett."
"No, I can't. Nahele already booked the trip, and its smack dab in the middle of that appointment. It's booked and paid for, and it's today! Okay? So there's no rescheduling."
At that Nahele put his tea cup down and said: "That's true… uh… sorry. I booked them before we went to dinner yesterday. I uhm… I have an extra ticket now that mom can't come. You know… if one of you wanted to come with us?"
At that Wo Fat turned to Con. "Well, you hate boats so…"
"Ugh! No! Why?!" Con cried. "This isn't fair, I don't want to sit in some stuffy dress shop. I don't even care about dresses." He then scowled at Wo Fat. "You're the one who knows fashion better!"
"You're the one that knows all her sizes and the stuff that she likes!" Steve cried.
"Hey!" Con snapped. "Listen here. Knowing what size she wears and what her aesthetic is, does not mean I know fashion or like shopping with her. It just means I know your wife better than you do."
Steve frowned at that, he didn't like it when Con threw stuff like that in his face. Probably because it was true. Steve tried, of course, but he didn't really retain important information like that. His head was too full of his cases and all the stuff the Navy taught him.
"Or, hey, what about this?" Rowan asked interrupting the boys again. "I just go by myself."
The three men groaned. "We talked about this Ro," Wo Fat said in that soft but stern voice of his. "We don't trust them, so one of us has to go." He then turned back to Con. "And it's going to be you."
Con frowned at him and then turned to Rowan. "You really want to trust those two to go out on a boat together?"
Rowan glanced between Wo Fat and Steve, normally no she would not have trusted them. This time however she shrugged. "I mean… Steve's not going to do anything with that many witnesses around, and Wo Fat's not going to do something that will upset me so… I think we're good."
Con groaned and Rowan put out a hand to him. "I'll let you be as sassy as you want to my mom," she said and he kind of perked up a bit.
"Promise?"
Rowan nodded and Con sighed. "Fine, but we better be going to one of the fancy ones that serve champagne."
Rowan just rolled her eyes. "I'll see what I can do," she said and then turned her eyes to the other two men. "Are we good now, can we stop ruining this beautiful atmosphere?"
She could tell right away that Steve was not good, he had this thing about Rowan and Con being alone together and an even bigger thing about being alone with Wo Fat. She could tell he wanted to argue, but Wo Fat leant forward. "Why does it sound like you're upset?"
"Because, you guys legit just argued about who gets to go somewhere with me, like it was literally the worst possible thing to do today. Call me crazy, but that doesn't really make me feel good about myself. Especially when I just wanted to have a nice and calming experience before going somewhere with this version of my mom, because I'm super fucking nervous about it."
The three men sat there for a moment, exchanged glanced and the turned back to her.
"You're right, I'm very sorry, that was very inconsiderate of us," Wo Fat said and then shot a commanding glare first at Con and then Steve, both of them apologized and he nodded. "There, we're sorry. Shall we enjoy the rest of our tea?"
"Yes please," Rowan said primly and he immediately reached out for her tea pot to pour some more tea into her tea cup.
And for the rest of the time that they were in the Empress's tea room, they didn't argue… thankfully.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
When Rowan showed up with Con in tow, she saw her mother's disappointment in her eyes.
Clearly, she had hoped that Rowan would be on her own. Well, she greatly underestimated the over-protectiveness of her family.
She had messaged her mother after the high tea to ask which store they'd be going to, and if that specific store would have champagne. She probably should have mentioned then that he would be coming with her then, but her mom had said that Riviera Ladies Fashion didn't have a champagne option and that was when Rowan realized she had a completely different problem to worry about.
Riviera Ladies Fashion was a very high-end store, it had a lot of mid range to high range name brands, it was where Rowan had bought her prom dress back in the day—she had gone for Vera Wang. The problem was it was off island.
It was on the mainland in Vancouver.
She didn't tell Con until they went to meet her mom and Trevor.
She did this for two reasons.
One, because in order to get to Victoria they had to take a Ferry and, two, if she told him then, he'd tell Wo and Steven and they'd come back from the whale cruise.
So yeah, her mother wasn't happy when Con showed up, and Con wasn't happy that he was going to have to get on the Ferry again. She had brought sea-sickness meds for both of them, and the ride itself was only going to be about forty-five minutes. It wouldn't be that bad.
But she was wrong.
As soon as Con could he texted Wo, which meant she got spammed with messages from both Wo and Steve.
All demanding she not get on that ferry.
Well, jokes on them, because Con had messaged them when they were already on the ferry. She shot them both messages telling them to enjoy their day on the sea with Nahele, and that she'd do the same. She promised to keep them updated with pictures, cause they were going to have to vote on which ones they liked.
She also mentioned that if Nahele told her, at the end of this day, that the two men ruined the day for him, she'd never forgive the two of them.
Luckily, they took that threat to heart, because they stopped bothering her.
Now if she could only get Con to stop bitching.
He bitched on the Ferry, he bitched when they got off. He bitched in the car ride over to the dress shop, and now he was bitching while in the damn dress shop.
About everything.
How small the chairs were, how there was no food or drinks, and how the selection of dresses sucked. She kept telling him to stop but he was relentless.
Especially when it came to her mother.
Yeah she said he could be sassy with her, but this was not what she meant at all. The two of them seemed to be competing with one another.
For each dress her mother suggested, Con suggested a different one. Usually the exact opposite of the one her mom was suggesting.
Her mom kept showing her a-line dresses with massive slits or mermaid dresses, which were nice but not really her style. Con kept showing her glitzy, bedazzled poofy as all hell dresses, which were the kind of dresses she usual wore.
She didn't want to tell her mom that, so she tried on all the dresses that were offered to her, even though it seemed to really piss Con off that she did.
She came out in this peach dress her mom had picked, that had white feathers around the hem of the dress. Her mom was immediately smiling and clapping her hands while Con groaned.
"You're too pale for peach," he said and Roselyn shot him a glare. "Why don't you try the black one I picked."
"Black is too somber."
"Black looks good on her," Con snapped back. "Besides, I know what colors she likes and that's purples, black, navy blue and hunter green. She doesn't like pastels!"
"I like pastels," Rowan said softly and Con lifted a finger to silence her.
"Correction, she likes pastels but they don't look good on her."
Wow, wasn't this just a great ego boost for her.
"Alright, well why didn't you tell me that before I handed her all those dresses?"
"Why are you even handing her dresses? She's a grown woman! She can pick her own outfits."
"I am her mother! This is what mother's do!"
"No. You're. Not!" Con almost shouted and that was enough.
"Hey!" Rowan snapped coming down off the raised platform that was used to show off the dress, specifically the train or skirt, and getting in between her mother and Con. "Now, listen here. You either behave or I send you on that whale cruise, you wanna go on a whale cruise?"
Con frowned at her. "Why are you mad at me?!"
"Cause you're embarrassing me! You're shouting in the middle of a dress shop. I just want to have a good time shopping with my mother that does end in a shouting match."
At that Roselyn said: "And do you and I end up in shouting matches often?"
Rowan turned back to her. She quickly looked at Trevor before turning back to Roselyn. "Uh… where I'm from... I'm not your favourite kid. We uh… we don't really get along."
At that Roselyn frowned. "Bet you got along with Trenton just fine."
It was more of a mutter than anything else but Rowan nodded. "Yeah, I'm a daddy's girl… when he's around I mean." She then turned back to Con. "Now, can you behave?"
He rolled his eyes. "Fine, yes, but if she gets sassy, I get to be sassy too."
"Fine. Now, why don't you two both pick me out one last dress, and if I don't like either of those, I'm going to start picking my own clothes."
Con immediately perked up. "Oh good! Cause I found one… well actually you found one and I saw your eyes light up and then you looked at the price and you changed your mind and put it back. But I sent a pic to Wo who showed it to Steve and Nahele and they think I'm right and it's your dress."
Rowan narrowed her eyes at him because she had a feeling she knew which dress he was talking about.
"Uh-huh…"
"Yeah, well I'm going to make you try it on, and if you love it, and I know you will, you're buying it. Wo said if you don't, he'll just come back here and steal and we both know you wouldn't like that."
"Oh, just go get the dress," Rowan snapped and Con practically sprinted away.
"Okay, well I don't have anything like that, but now that I know your colors, I think I have a dress too. It's one of the ones you already tried on, but in a better color."
"Sure, sounds great," Rowan said and then Roselyn nodded and she too scampered off.
"You know…" Trevor said from where he was sitting. "The more I hear about your version of us, the more I kinda get why McGarrett deported us. You know?"
Rowan half sighed. "Yeah. It makes sense. Though, let's be honest here, he didn't do it because of my version of my family, he did it cause he didn't want me to leave. He's kinda selfish sometimes."
"Aren't we all?"
Rowan and Trevor shared a bit of a secret smile. They might have made more conversation if it weren't for Con rushing up to her, a big grin on his face. He had the exact dress she was thinking about, the super expensive one.
She had loved this one the second she saw it but she didn't want to spend that much. This dress was a Vera Wang, made of expensive fabrics she couldn't pronounce and had a price tag with at least five zeros on it.
But it was beautiful, it was the kind of pink that she loved, and gold accents which she would love. And she knew that Con knew that she had a pair of matching red-bottoms back in Hawaii. She also had a lot of jewelry to go with it.
Her mom came back with a dress of her own, looked down to what Con had put in Rowan's arms and frowned at it.
"I thought you said pastels don't look good on her," she said which cause Con to scowl.
"That's not pastel, it's blush. Blush looks good on her, specially with her dark brown hair."
Roselyn rolled her eyes and then offered Rowan up the dress she had picked.
"I know you didn't like the pink version of this and it's a little too short for the event, but I thought you might like this for a different event… in this color."
This dress was hunter green. It had sheer long sleeves and was decorated with lace decals. Those decals created a sweetheart bodice effect. The skirt was short and poofy, almost like a tutu. Her mother was right, she had tried on a pink version of this. The pink was more of a cotton or bubble gum color and less of a blush so it hadn't sat well on her skin. She had liked the actual shape of the dress, but not in that color and she didn't think it would be appropriate to wear to the red-carpet event.
But she thanked her mother and agreed to try it on. She figured, why not? If she liked it, maybe she would get it just for herself, save it for something special. Like a date with Steven.
She pinned both her mom and Con with a stern glare before leaving though.
"Okay, behave," Rowan ordered and then she disappeared back into the dressing rooms with their two selections.
With Rowan firmly in the dressing room, both Con and Roselyn returned to their seats. Usually, they ignored one another but this time, Roselyn turned to Con with a sort of smug smile on her face.
"You know… I know what's going on with you."
Con turned a dry glare onto her. "Excuse me? Going on with me?"
"Yes, as a shrink, it's hard for me not to notice when someone is acting… abnormally, and surmising what it is that's bothering them."
On the other side of her Trevor scoffed. "It's her version of Sherlock-ing and we all hate it. There were never any secrets when living with her. She knew all your deepest darkest secrets before you even thought to keep it secret."
"But she didn't figure out you were a gambling addict?" Con shot back and for a second Roselyn colored.
For a moment Con was sure he won, but when Roselyn snapped: "Well at least he's not in love with his sister," it was his turn to color.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Well… between you and your brother, you're more vehemently against McGarrett, not just in the sense of him being with Rowan, but being anywhere near him in general. You're oddly close to Rowan, so much so that your elder brother was upset with it. You have this way of looking at her that softens all of your features, you claim to know everything there is to know about her, and you have to be the person who knows the most about her at all times… so yes, I reasonably deduced that you have some sort of romantic feelings for Rowan that you're trying to suppress."
Con's nose curled in disgust. "She's my sister!"
"Not by blood!"
That was true, but that didn't mean he had feelings for his sister… that he wanted to admit to her pseudo-mother.
"You're disgusting," he growled turning away from her. "And you're wrong. I just don't like McGarrett. He's literally useless."
"Mmmm, I'm sure."
"No I'm serious. Man knows nothing about her. He keeps calling me and Wo for basic advice. If he just talked to, and listened to her, he wouldn't have to ask us, but the man's incapable. I just think she deserves better."
"Contrary to popular belief, that doesn't help you with your case."
Con sunk into his seat, arms crossed over his chest. He was going to refuse to say a single thing to her unless absolutely necessary, and even then he might not say shit. It might have been juvenile but the only other option was knocking her unconscious again. And he knew, there was no way he'd get away with doing that again.
Rowan would be livid.
But then Rowan came out in that dress he picked and she looked so beautiful and he completely forgot that he was mad at her mom and this whole situation.
"Wow, Ro… that's it. That's the dress."
"I agree," Roselyn said, which was surprising. "He's right, this suits you so much better."
Rowan kept twirling around the dress. That's how he knew when she liked an outfit the best because she would twirl in it. If she started to swish the dress around, he'd know for sure that it was the one.
"I do like it," she said. "But I unno… it's a lot of money…"
"You have more than enough for that dress."
"True…" Rowan said. She took her skirt in her hands and began to swish it back and forth, simulating how the dress would move if she were dancing. But that right there was the swish. Yeah. She liked this dress. "I guess I'm just worried about… what if we need the money for something else? Like Nahele, or… if Wo needs it… for something…"
"Ro… when do you get your next royalty cheque?" Rowan winced, because he knew it was soon. "And is there a good chance that that royalty cheque would more than cover the cost of this dress?"
Rowan sighed again, because, once again, he knew he was right. "Look, it's a lot to spend on a dress I may or may not wear to an event I may or may not go to."
This again? Did she really think that she wasn't going to that red-carpet event? Did he really think that they'd let her say no? Hadn't they argued this out and decided that she was going.
"Okay," Con said getting to stand up. "This is a big deal, right? Am I right?" he turned back to Trevor who nodded in agreement. "I know what your problem is. I can tell. It's Steve, you're worried about leaving Steve and Nahele alone for that long… right?"
Rowan lowered her eyes. "I really, really don't want to leave them… I don't…"
Con sighed aggressively. "Right, I can't believe I'm going to do this but… Fine. Just, fine. I'll stay behind, and I'll make sure that McGarrett doesn't kill himself and Nahele is okay. Okay? Does that make you feel better?"
"It kind of does… yeah."
"Wonderful. I'm on babysitting duty again," he growled. But when Rowan winced he softened. "I mean, what else am I going to be doing? I live down the street, it's not like I'm going to ignore a situation if one does come up."
Rowan moved in to hug him. "Thank you."
"You're lucky you're my sister, cause otherwise you'd have to pay me."
"I can still pay you…"
"Oh fuck off." Behind them Roselyn cleared her throat and Con turned right away. "I'm doing my sister a favor. That's it. Nothing else!"
Rowan's eyes narrowed. "What was that about?"
"Nothing," Con snapped. "Just your fake mom being obnoxious." For a moment Con and Roselyn held each other's glares before Con turned back around and said: "Why don't you go try on the next dress? Hmm? Let's see if your mom actually picked a winner this time."
Rowan nodded, before heading back to the dressing room. Con and Roselyn went back to ignoring one another, which Roselyn sent Trevor off to find a matching outfit. He apparently had already bought a suit, he was just looking to get accessories to match. Like a tie, or maybe a shirt. Though, seeing as the dress was blush, he was probably going to go for a tie.
When Rowan came out again, this time with a little bit of a hop and skip, and a more playful smile on her face.
"I really like this one," she said, already starting to twirl. "I have matching red-bottoms for this dress too."
And she did, Con had been there when she bought that pair.
"And what would you wear it for?"
Rowan turned a mischievous smile to her mother. "Probably date night with Steven. He likes to peel dresses off of me."
As she turned away, Con couldn't hide his grimace of disgust. He hated hearing about her sex life, just as much as Wo did, but her mom caught that face he made and it made her smirk.
Ugh, he just wanted to slap it off of her.
Except he couldn't with Rowan right there.
"Right, so are we getting one dress or two?" Con asked. "And can we hurry up cause I'm starving and you promised me food before we get back on that ferry."
"Both," she said. "Where's Trevor?"
"Picking a tie that matches," Roselyn said going to stand up. "I'll go see where he is."
Rowan nodded, scampering off to get back into her regular clothes. Con took the two dresses, once Rowan was out of the second dress, and took them up to the register.
"She's going to be taking these two," he said and then just lounged back.
It wasn't that bad, for a day of shopping, it could have been worse. Rowan got to the check out desk just as Trevor and their mom did. Trevor surprised Con by picking out a blush dress shirt. Trevor had shown them all pictures, so it would look good with his black suit, so that was good at least.
They finished cashing out and then were heading back to the car.
"So we'll do lunch and then head back to the island," her mother said. Rowan nodded and then she asked: "Did you have anything planned for this afternoon."
Sleeping. At least, that's what Con wanted to do.
"Well, it depends on when Steve and Nahele get back from their whale watching trip," Rowan said softly. "Why, what are you guys doing?"
"Well nothing, except for the practice of course."
"What practice?"
"Oh, I'm just the head of this singing group and we have a practice today."
"You're still doing the choir?" Rowan asked and Roselyn perked up.
"Oh! I did the choir in your reality too?"
"Yeah! We were all in. Except for dad," Rowan said and then sort of half smirked in this cute but proud little way. "I was one of the soloists."
"Oh? You were that good?"
"Yeah, she doesn't just write songs, she sings them too. She'd've been so much more famous than Alex Lockman if she had kept her songs for herself!"
"Wait… Alex Lockman of the Doctors?" Rowan nodded and Trevor's jaw dropped in shock. "You wrote songs for him?"
"I've written almost all his songs," she said with a half shrug. "I dated him for a while too."
"WHAT?!" Trevor cried. "How did I not know that?!"
"Why don't we talk about that on the way home, hmm?" Roselyn asked ushering them all out of the shop. "Would you like to come to the practice dear?"
"Oh! Could i?" Rowan asked and Roselyn just nodded.
Behind her Con groaned.
Great.
They weren't ever going to get rid of Roselyn at this rate.