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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: And hello there my wonderful readers! Are you ready to find out what happens next? I know I am! I've been having a lot of fun planning out the next set of chapters, which includes season 8 which is going to be coming soon! Well, I hope you enjoy the update, don't forget to leave a review or drop a fav and follow and I'll do my best to see you guys next week!
Chapter 404
Steve knew nothing about what was happening. He just knew one second he and Rowan were sneaking in a quick make out session while their son was getting ready for work and the next she was gone.
There was no jolt on his end, but she had gone stiff, her eyes had widened, and then she had pushed him away and just vanished into thin air.
She said nothing to him, there was no explanation, nothing. Except, this strange feeling that took over him. It was kind of like the sensation he got when Rowan was pulling the void out of him, except… not. This felt less painful and more… fizzy? Like pins and needles but pulsing out of him in waves.
Steve had no idea what to think about that.
He had no idea what to do.
Actually he couldn't do anything. He could only wait.
He saw Nahele off to school, pretending everything was fine and Ro had been pulled into an emergency meeting about a song she was trying to sell. Then he just waited.
He didn't want to turn his phone of in case Rowan called him, but he also did. Because he wasn't allowed to not be available for a case. Especially since the Canada trip. If he got called into work, he wouldn't be available if Rowan needed him and he needed to be available.
If this was another void incident it would only be a matter of time before she needed him.
He had to wait a half hour for any sort of contact from her, and luckily work hadn't called him during that time. He had paced through the kitchen most of the morning though. He didn't even get a call, or a text from her, all that happened was the sound of static hissing through the kitchen and Steve rushed for the door.
Rowan didn't even get a chance to open it. Steve had practically charge that door, ripping it open before she could get a chance.
Steve came through the door and into Wo Fat's living room to unconscious man hog tied on the floor with Con sitting on his chest, and Jian kneeling in front of the freezer digging for something, she kept sniffing like she was crying.
Steve was just confused.
What the hell had happened here? And where the hell was Wo?
But firstly, what mattered most to him was his wife.
Rowan shut the door and Steve whirled around onto her.
"Are you okay?' Steve asked, his hands reaching out for Rowan's face. He seemed to drink her in carefully as if attempting establish if she was okay for real.
"I'm fine…" she started but Steve cut her off with a shake of his head.
"You were voiding, I could feel it, and it didn't feel right. Like you had power but I could feel every thing you were doing. I had never felt you like that…"
"I was angry… I think you felt the anger."
"She was demonic that's what she was," Jian muttered. She had gotten up to come towards them, or maybe to the door behind them. Rowan reached out to her, took a hold of the ice pack she had in her hands and put it into Steve's hands instead.
"Wo's the one who got hurt."
"He did?"
"He did," she said. She opened up the door again, no powers this time, and ushered him into the room. "Could you take care of him?''
"Me?"
"Yeah, just keep the ice pack on his head and make sure he continues to breathe. Come on now, Steven, it's not that hard, you do it for me all the time."
Steve's eyebrows shot up his face. "I mean… yeah, but I love you," he said carefully and then looked down to where Wo Fat was sleeping. "Are you sure it needs to be me?"
Rowan just pushed him towards Wo Fat, who was out for the count in his bed. He was lying on his side, curled up, the injured side of his face the side he was not sleeping on. He was still dressed as if he were going to be going out. Jian watched as the man Wo Fat called his nemesis actually rounded the bed, and the carefully put the ice pack to the bruise forming by his ear and then held it there.
He even took his pulse with his spare hand.
Together the two girls watched him for a minute before he looked up.
He very quietly said: "What exactly happened?"
"Her brother's an idiot," Rowan said with a jerk of her head in Jian's direction. "I'll tell you all about it later, right now me and Jian have to make a plan, when we know what it is we'll tell you. Okay?"
"Sure," Steve said absently. He glanced back down to Wo and then asked: "Does he need a doctor… you know, I mean in a hospital?"
"He should be okay," Jian said and Steve nodded.
Rowan took that time to push Jian back out of the room and into the living space where Con was still sitting on Hatachi.
"Alright, we have to do something with him. I vote throwing him in the ocean. My favourite place to throw people is just off of Oahu, but it's an easy distance to swim back. I think, if we go with that option we let me find a place infested with sharks."
Jian stared at her for a moment and then asked: "And how would we explain how he got there?"
Rowan blinked her eyes. "I unno, I unno what his travel plans are!"
Jian shook her head. "We're not killing my brother."
"Are you sure?" Con asked. "Cause I can kill him and make it look like an accident. That's if we need a body, I can also just have him disappear… forever. No void powers, just… ingenuity."
"We're not killing my brother!" Jian near shrieked and the two siblings fell quiet.
For a moment she stood there seething. It was stupid, so was usually so much more in control of herself, but honestly she was sick of this. Sick of being blind sided by her brother, sick of him showing up to hurt her or the people she cared about. So annoyed that she had seen this coming.
Because if Rowan hadn't shown up she would have been in trouble.
Hatachi hadn't been there to beg for money, he had come with the distinct purpose of hurting her and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why.
"I'm sorry," Rowan said after a moment. "Do… do you need a hug?"
Did she? Yes, but she wanted her hug from Wo Fat and he was down for the count.
She had thought, since Rowan had better formed emotions than Wo Fat that she would be a better comfort but, just like Wo Fat, Rowan, so far, had been nothing but death and violence.
And here she was thinking the siblings weren't similar.
When she didn't answer Rowan moved in right away and hugged her. She wrapped her arms around her and then pet her back three deliberate times. Which was exactly how Wo Fat did it. So that's where he got that from.
When she let go she took a step back and asked: "What would you like to do?" Jian just stared at her, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Her silence told Rowan that. "Alright, don't think about. I'm going to ask again, you say the first thing that comes to your mind, okay?"
Jian nodded and she asked again: "So, what do you want to do?"
"I want to know why he did this," she said, because that was true. Under all the anger and the hurt, there was the morbid curiosity to know why the hell her brother had done this to her.
"Oh, you want me to torture him? I'm positive I could get it out of him in less than ten minutes, all I need is a knife and some vinegar…"
Jian turned her glare from Con to Rowan who was wincing. "Sorry… he's been missing being the big bad assassin and I just took him from a job so he's overcompensating…"
"The guy knocked my brother out, threatened my sister-in-law and threw a knife at my sister…" "—Wait what?" came from Wo Fat's room from the very confused Steven who was clearly eavesdropping on their conversation. But he was ignored by Con who just kept talking. "… he deserves some pain, you know?"
That was true he did. She just wasn't sure she could do it. Hatachi may have deserved it but he was still her brother.
"Rowan! Get in here and tell me what happened, right now! Someone threw a knife at you?" Steve cried. It was followed by a groan that didn't belong to anyone in that room, or Steven. That groan was followed by Steve going shhh which meant he was disturbing Wo Fat's rest and Rowan sighed.
"Right, I'm gonna go calm him down before he wakes up Wo, try to figure out what you'd like to do," she said and then turned to Con and pointed at him. "Stop suggesting violence, she's not comfortable with it and you're freaking it out."
Con blew out a raspberry at her but otherwise didn't say anything else, but as soon as she was gone he turned to Jian and said: "Listen, we're going to do whatever you want. You want violence, fine, you want to go all pacifist about this, that's also fine. But Jian, he's never going to stop. Even with consequences, he's going to try this, over and over again, because you're expendable to him. And neither you, nor Wo deserve to be always checking over your shoulder for a crazy brother who seems to think it's up to you to fix all his mistakes."
It was true, of course. She had always assumed that if she was looking over her shoulder it would be because of Wo Fat's past, not because her brother refused to take responsibility for his actions.
And besides, after what happened last time… how could he think that this would go well for him?
Still, she didn't want to make a decision until she knew what was going on, no matter how strange that seemed to her boyfriend's bloodthirsty siblings.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Turned out, Hatachi didn't need to be threatened to tell the truth. He came to to Con's white plastic rabbit mask and he literally wet himself.
Like puddle on the floor that Jian was going to have to clean. That Rowan delegated to Steve because they were heading off to enact their plan and didn't have time to clean up after pee-pee-pants-Hatachi. That was Rowan's new nickname for him.
Steve had argued that Con should have been the one that should have cleaned it up, but he needed to go with them to keep Hatachi in line and he wasn't about to touch that puddle even if it was his fault.
Either way, they got their answers from Hatachi right away and it allowed Jian to make up her mind.
Hatachi had come, not to kill her, but to kill Wo Fat. He was then, going to hand her over to a relatively new Snakehead in the area who wanted a doctor on the payroll.
He was doing this because he wanted out from under Wo Fat's debts and because he had new debts with this Snakehead that he needed to clear and he figured Jian wouldn't go quietly this time, even with their parents pressure. That and because he knew if he tried to guilt her Wo Fat would probably either beat him up or kill him, so he had to do it this way. Take out the major problem, and force her into Triad servitude so he could go back to gambling without worry.
Rowan was quick to tell him that his debt wasn't owed to Wo Fat, it was owed to her. She also mentioned that if he had succeeded in this plan, it would have just meant that she and Con, whom she called Sin Nombre in front of Hatachi, would have come down on him. Hard.
It was clear from his face that he had not realized that and that he might have acted differently had he known that these two would have shown up.
Jian had then asked the final question. She figured she knew the answer, but she still needed it confirmed.
"Did our parents know about this?" she had asked.
And yes. Yes they had.
Even after all that had happened, even after Wo Fat proved that Hatachi would sell them out for money to save his own neck, they still favoured him.
She was never going to be good enough.
She knew then, that she was going to do the one thing her parents were never going to forgive her for.
She relayed her plan to both Con and Rowan and the two of them just nodded like it made sense. They didn't question it, they were really just as supportive as could be about it, which was a completely different experience from what she was used to.
So they all got into Wo's Audi.
Con was sitting in the back with the sobbing Hatachi. Rowan got to drive and Jian got to think about what she was going to say to her parents. When they got to the house, Jian asked Hatachi for the key to the place.
Jian didn't have one anymore, she hadn't for a while, but apparently Hatachi hadn't come with his keys.
"We don't need keys," Rowan had said as she unbuckled her seatbelt. She then turned back to Con and handed him the phone she had taken from Wo Fat. "You know what to do."
He took the phone with a nod and then Rowan got out of the car. She didn't wait for Jian, she just walked up to the front door.
Her parents lived in a simple bungalow with a strip of green space in the front. Their neighbours were all jam packed beside them, barely any space between them. They were a gossipy neighbourhood, which meant they saw Hatachi drag her unconscious body into the house and said nothing to the authorities, just to each other. It also meant they watched Wo Fat go in with a giant bag and then come out some time later without the bag and with her instead.
They also didn't tell the cops about that either, even though they must have heard the fight between him and her father and the gunshots that had rung out not moments later.
She wondered what they'd say after this.
Jian had to jog to catch up to Rowan who was just standing by the front door to her childhood home waiting for her. She waited for Jian to catch her breath and then put a hand to the door.
"You ready?"
Was she ready?
This was a long time coming. It was something she used to dream of doing, but now that the time had come she wasn't sure she could do this.
But then she remembered that Wo Fat was back at her apartment, laid up with a concussion being tended to by the man he hated most and she knew this had to be done.
She nodded and Rowan simply turned the knob to the door, with it came that static hiss that Wo Fat was always talking about. She had never really been paying attention when Rowan used her powers, but now that she was she could see all the little things that he pointed out.
The door opened and Rowan gestured to Jian to walk in. Which she did.
Both her parents were in the kitchen, which was the room just off the front door. They looked up from what they had been doing, her mother sewing, her father reading the paper, confused at her appearance.
Rowan then deftly shut the door behind her.
Their eyes swung to Rowan, even Jian turned back to her. Rowan said absolutely nothing, she just crossed her arms over her chest and leant against doorframe and then hit them with the glare that Wo Fat called her Ice Queen mask.
It definitely was intimidating.
Jian hadn't expected her to come in with her, but it was nice that she had.
"What are you doing here, Jian?" her father asked in Japanese. He was keeping it light as if he were excited for a visit from his daughter. "Would you like something to eat for you and your friend?"
"No," she said and then turned to her mother and said: "Are you surprised to see me?"
Her mother had looked surprised. Many would assume it was because she hadn't been home in such a long time, but no. She knew why her mother was surprised.
"Well you never come to visit."
"Or maybe because I was supposed to be handed off to a Snakehead by now?"
Her mother scoffed at her. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Hatachi told me everything. About what he wanted, what he was going to do…"
"That doesn't mean I knew about it…."
"That both of you knew about it," Jian finished and her mother frowned.
She looked at Jian, then looked to Rowan then put down her sewing. "What have you done to him? What have you done to my boy?"
"Is that all you care about?" Jian cried. "He had a knife pointed at me. He was going to hurt me! He was going to kill my boyfriend…"
"Your boyfriend is a criminal, and he deserves what's coming to him," her mother said with a huff being sure to ignore the part where she told her mother that her brother, and her mother's precious baby boy, had threatened her with a weapon. "And he better not have hurt my baby boy or I'll…"
"No, Wo didn't do anything. I did. I hurt him. I knocked him out with a frying pan, and best believe I'm going to make sure that he gets what he deserves."
At that her mother gasped. "Jian! How dare you treat your family this way?"
"Family? You think we're family? After everything you done? After everything he's done, that you've let him do? You think this is a family? Or that it's a family I'm a part of?" she screamed back and both her parents jumped to their feet to argue with her.
The only reason they didn't devolve into screaming at one another was because of Rowan.
She just stepped up, made sure she was shoulder to shoulder with Jian and said: "I don't know what's happening but y'all fucking suck… and my mom used to call me a monster!"
While the support was appreciated it wasn't needed at that time. Though it did defuse the screaming match that was brewing up between her and her parents, which was nice.
"Not helping, Rowan," Jian said.
"Sorry," Rowan said right away. "I'm just saying… I know shit families so…"
"Not about you right now," Jian hissed back.
"Right, yep, sorry, backing off," she said raising her hand in surrender and actually backing away.
Jian turned back to her parents, a glare on her face. "It's never going to matter, is it?" she asked them. "It doesn't matter how successful I am, or how much I love you or take care of you. You're never going to care, will you? It's always going to be about Hatachi."
They both just stared at her, but it was her father who scoffed and said: "Stop being so dramatic."
And that answered her question. She had always known, but hoped it wouldn't be true.
"This is never going to stop. You're always going to see me as the scapegoat, the pawn to use to save Hatachi," she said. "Well… no more. I'm going to make sure that it never happens again. From now on, you have one child, and it's him. It's gonna be up to you to save him from now on, because I'm washing my hands of him and of you. I never want to hear from you or see any of you ever again. Do you understand? I'm done being in this family. I'm just done."
Both her parents moved to argue with her. Her father shouted something like: "How dare you speak to us this way!" while her mother was shouting: "You better give me back my baby!"
Jian wasn't listening to any of them though. She had turned away and opened the front door just as the cops arrive to arrest her brother and her parents.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
When Wo had woken up he had been alone in his apartment, except for Steven.
That's right. He had been abandoned by his girlfriend, his sister and his brother, and he had been left with the man who hated him.
To give him his credit, Steven had actually taken rather good care of him. He had sat there the whole time, holding an ice pack to the throbbing bruise on his temple. He had apparently even switched out the ice packs at one point, and was sure to keep a cloth between his bare skin and the ice pack so he wouldn't get frost bite. He had checked his pulse, monitored his breathing, and apparently had not complain.
Which is more than Wo Fat could say about himself had the roles been reversed.
Luckily, though, Steven had known what was going on, and had told him the second he asked.
The three had left, with Hatachi, to go confront Jian's parents. Jian had also decided the punishment for her family, which was to have them all punished for being involved in this whole plot to kill Wo Fat and have her working as a doctor for the Triads.
Best believe he was going to be eradicating the Snakehead who had thought this was okay. Oh yes. It would be bloody… because he was going to let Con do it.
He needed an airtight alibi of being working for the CIA when it happened.
He had demanded that they go to them, right this second but Steve had said they couldn't cause Rowan had taken his car.
Rowan behind the wheel of another one of his Audis did not make him feel better.
He also mentioned that it wouldn't be good for him to show up at the scene where the cops were arresting both of Jian's parents and Hatachi.
And well, that was news to him.
Apparently both her parents had been in on the whole plot, so they were going to be charged as accessories, Hatachi was going to be charged with assault of a deadly weapon, conspiring with criminals and attempted kidnap. They were all going to be going away for a while, but Hatachi would be go away the longest.
So Wo Fat had to wait until they all came back to the apartment. It took an hour.
As per usual, everyone was through the door before Rowan was, she had this thing about being last through a door, which was weird. Wo Fat was most interested in Jian, who looked red-eyed and weepy. He wanted to hug her, but he didn't get to.
Con was first through the door and the second he saw Wo Fat up and waiting for them he threw himself at him.
He latched onto Wo Fat like some sort of deranged octopus, crying: "You woke up!" like he had been in a coma or something. Wo Fat hugged him back, pat his back three times before trying to push him off and failing.
"Seriously, let go," he had to say before Con finally dropped his hold.
"Sorry," he said sourly. "I was just worried about you."
Yes and he was appreciative that the man cared, but at the same time, he had bigger issues to deal with at that moment.
Still he pushed Con aside and went for his girlfriend. Jian had gone into the kitchen, normally when she had been through something like this she drank Tea. Wo Fat had already made her a green tea, but she wasn't reaching for that. She was going for his bourbon.
Oh this was bad.
"Are you okay?" he asked her as she poured herself a glass. Her hands were shaking so he took it from her.
As he poured the glass out for her she whispered: "I should be asking you that."
"I'm fine. A little annoyed about the whole situation," he said as he offered her the glass. "You chose jail then?"
She gulped it down and said: "Yep," then offered the glass to him. Not because she wanted him to have some but because she wanted more.
Oh this was really bad.
Still, against his better judgement, Wo Fat poured her more. "Well, it's better than what I was thinking of doing."
Which was kill them all.
Or at the very least Hatachi.
She downed the second glass of bourbon, also in one gulp, and Wo Fat winced. Oh boy, that was not good at all.
"I just sent my whole family to jail. I'm going to have to get a lawyer, and go to court… and you're not even going to be here with me." She was starting to cry. Wo Fat moved to hug her but she pushed him away. "I've literally become the thing they think I am."
From across the room Rowan called: "I've been trying to tell her that she hasn't but she won't listen to me."
Oh. Great.
Wasn't that just wonderful to hear? Hmm?
He glanced to his sister and found that she was sitting on his couch all cuddled up into Steve's side. He had mentioned that Hatachi had thrown a knife at Rowan, he was very upset about that, and the fact that she had just up and vanished without a word to him, so that was no doubt to calm him down. Wo also noted that Con was gone which mean the had left to go back to his job. Though he wanted privacy, Wo Fat knew he there was no way he'd get Rowan to leave now. She was going to stay until she thought both of them were okay.
Jian was drinking straight from the bottle now. He reached out and pulled it from her grasp and then put it out of her reach.
When she tried to complain and go to it, he grabbed her face, held it between his hands and then just stared down at her.
This was a patented move he used on Rowan, though that was when she was distracted, because it brought her attention back to him. And right now that was where he wanted Jian's attention. On him.
"I've told Rowan this, and now I will tell you, because it is true and that is, your family sucks." Jian just frowned at him but he didn't let her go. "Your family sucks and they're liars."
"You don't understand…"
"No I do," he said quickly. "They've made you believe that you're less than and you always will be. That your purpose is to save them and Hatachi when they want you to and to go away when you're not needed. But that is not what you're here for."
"I know that," she snapped. "I'm upset because now, after this, they can say I'm a horrible daughter and be absolutely correct. I'm exactly what they always said I was, and that is the worst daughter… not even worthy of sharing the family name…"
"No, because that would imply that they think of you as a daughter, and let's be honest here, they don't." Jian jerked at that, but still Wo Fat wouldn't let her go. "I know you don't want to hear this, but family isn't just blood. Family is who you choose it to be, and you can choose it to be something other then them."
Jian half smiled at him, and he knew his words were starting to reach her. "I did tell them I never wanted to see them again. That I was done being in their family."
"See, good, that's a wonderful first step," he said. "Now you ready for something else? It's gonna be really annoying but I promise you, it's going to be the best feeling in the world."
Jian's eyes narrowed. "And what is that?"
"Ro," Wo Fat called. "Ro… it looks like Jian needs a new family…"
Jian gasped, knowing right away what was going to come next. Already Rowan was squealing and rushing towards them, with Steve following. Jian had managed to get free of Wo's grasp but she couldn't get away from Rowan.
"I know, I know! I've been waiting for you guys to figure it out," she said and then she took a hold of Jian's hands. "Do you want to be a part of our family?"
Jian glanced to Wo Fat and Rowan said: "Oh don't worry, he's going to propose in a year or so, so it'll be official then, but you can start being a part of it now!"
"Rowan!" Wo cried.
How had she known that? How had she known about the self-imposed time line he had given himself? To have a ring by six months, to propose six months later. Married six months after that.
"What? It's in the strings!"
Oh my god. Rowan and her stupid strings.
"And don't you think she'd rather have liked the surprise?"
"Why do you think I haven't said anything about it until now?"
Wait… how long had she known about this? Because Wo Fat had only decided recently.
Rowan turned back to Jian. "We're not asking you to move. We're just asking if you want to be a part of our family!"
"What… what exactly does that entail?"
"Uh… just being besties. Always having each other's back…" "—being in everyone's business," Steve added and Rowan turned around and wacked him one.
He was glad Steve was in on this, because the Five-0s were very big on loyalty and he wanted Jian surrounded by that.
"It also means you can call me any time you want to rant or to bitch, or to have me come over for tea or chardonnay," Rowan said. "We can do book clubs, baking days! We. Could. Go. Shopping!"
Rowan was getting super excited about this while Jian just stared at her.
"I… I think… right now… what I need to do is focus on this case and making sure I'm as untangled from my family as I can be."
Rowan let go of her hands. "That's okay too. Family is also good at waiting to the sides in case you need them."
That was another thing Rowan did. He knew, if he let Rowan take lead of this, she'd show up whenever Jian needed her, just like she did for him.
"Kay, thank you very much for that. Now, maybe I can have some privacy with my girlfriend?" he asked and Rowan nodded, taking a hold of Steven and then dragging him out onto the balcony.
Once the door shut behind them, Wo turned to Jian to find her weepy again but smiling. "You're right. It was annoying but it felt good."
Rowan had a way of doing that. Of making you feel loved and worthy to feel that way. He had never thought he'd be worthy but when she decided to love him like a brother he not only realized that he did deserve it but that he liked it as well.
"I'm going to try to come back for the trial okay?" he said. "If I get the dates I'm sure I can come back, and if I can't I'll send Rowan and Con."
"Thank you."
"And we'll get you a lawyer, a good one. I know of a few who could help us…" he started only to have Jian lift a finger to silence him.
"Right now, all I need is for you to hug me and tell me everything is going to be alright."
Wo Fat pulled her to himself right away, holding her tightly. "It's going to be alright," he whispered to her.
And for a long while that was how they stayed.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Try as he might, Wo Fat couldn't get Rowan to leave.
She had sent Steven back when it came to the time her son would be coming home work, but she wouldn't leave.
He just didn't know why.
She didn't impose on the couple, she kept her distance, kept quiet, but she wouldn't leave.
And Jian didn't ask her too.
In fact, Rowan being there seemed to keep Jian somewhat calm, and it was definitely making Wo Fat feel better, so he hadn't put up that much of a fuss.
Eventually it got to the time when he would have to leave as well. He got Jian in bed nice and tucked in and then he came out into the living area to find Rowan flipping through a magazine he knew she couldn't read because she didn't know Japanese.
"Thank you for coming today," he said as he came towards her. "You must have been really scared."
Rowan nodded to him. "I should have checked your strings," she whispered. "I had done it the night before and… nothing had been there… I mean… it was there, but it was like a distant possibility and then…"
"Rowan it's fine," he said. "I know what the strings are like, I know you wouldn't have thrown me into real danger."
"It's just you seem mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the situation," he said but then he stared at her and realized that she didn't believe him. "Alright, I'm a little mad at you. But not because of the strings."
"Okay, so… is it because of the proposal thing I mentioned?"
"A little, but that's also like you so I can't be too mad, besides I can still surprise her, it's not like you gave her a date or anything," he said. She stared at him a little harder and he sighed again. "I woke up to Steven holding an icepack to my face and staring at me. It was weird. I didn't like it."
She nodded, finally understanding. "I told him to watch you."
"It was creepy," he said. "Don't do that again."
What he should have said was that he had no idea how Rowan had even convinced him to go along with that plan in the first place. The two of them weren't supposed to be friends. Steve kept telling him that he didn't want Wo Fat in his life, or in his house. That they only put up with one another because of Rowan. He shouldn't have been okay with helping him.
"Okay. Next time it'll be Con."
"Thank you," he said stiffly. And then paused. "I mean it, Ro. Thank you. Thank you for coming to help me… I know you were probably very scared, and I'm sure you're mad that the strings didn't warn you but… the fact that you came… it means a lot to me."
"Of course I came…"
"I mean… you didn't come to save me, it was Jian he was really after…"
"I know that."
"So… did you come more for me or for her?"
"I came for both of you. I came because you were down and you needed me. You sent a pulse out you know. You called for me. Not just because you were in trouble, but because she was." He stared at her for a moment and she narrowed her eyes at him. "I'll always come when you need me. Just like you would for me."
Wo Fat shook his head. "No. I wouldn't come for Steven. Roles reversed, if it was Steve who needed me and not you, I wouldn't go to help him."
Rowan smiled patiently at him. "That's not true," she whispered. "Not any more."
Wo Fat glared at her. It couldn't be true. It couldn't be.
Luckily she didn't want to argue with him. "Come on. I've got to get you back to LA."
Wo Fat nodded at her, let her put her hand in his and lead him towards the door, fully aware that he was going to have to make up for this disastrous date too.
Maybe next time, they'd go somewhere where no one knew them.