Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers. I just got news that my city is shutting down for possibly 12 months so uh… guys not gonna lie, I'm probably gonna end up finishing writing this entire story at this rate. I mean, what else am I going to do for twelve weeks right? So this chapter here is a shorter chapter, but it's going to open it up for a lot of fun in the next few chapters. Don't worry we'll see the Five-0s again very soon! Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Friday.

Chapter 265

There was a couple of days between Rowan's request for answers and when she got them. It was just a standard morning, she had woken up, started to get ready when Wo Fat let himself into her room without knocking, as he usually did. He was fidgeting with his wrist, she had a feeling that he was not actually having issues with the buttons on his cuff again, but instead was nervous. Rowan stood and crossed to him. He didn't protest like he usually did, he simply offered out both wrists and let her fix it for him, but he avoided her eyes, so yeah, he was probably nervous about something.

"What are you going to do today?" she asked him because he wasn't dressed to go out sight-seeing with her.

"I have to meet with some potential partners, you?"

"More shopping for the house," she answered. Wo Fat having meetings meant that Conejo was going to be coming with her. That should be fun. Lots of picture updates for him to get during his meeting. "You know, since we have such varying tastes in all, it's really hard to shop for all of us…"

"Well you're the one who bought a house for all of us and then gave us the free reign to decorate as well please," he reminded her with a teasing smirk on his face. Rowan scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out at him and he just grinned happily at her.

There came a single knock on her door and then it flew open. Conejo came in and Rowan scowled.

"Why don't you people ever knock?" she asked.

"I did," he answered. Always with the clipped responses.

"Yes, but then you immediately opened the door," she reminded him hands on her hips. "One of these days one of y'all is gonna walk in on something neither of you want to see."

Both Wo Fat and Conejo stared at her unphased by her warning. Abruptly Wo turned. "Yes, Conejo? Did you need something?"

"The Intel you requested came in," he said and pulled a rather large envelope out from his leather jacket.

He handed Wo Fat the envelope and then turned his attention onto Rowan. He looked her up and down and said: "Tell me when you want to go." And then he just walked away. At least he was somewhat dressed for tourist activities.

Rowan watched Wo Fat pull out a few pictures and one single paper out of the envelope trying not to be nosy. He didn't like it when she pried into his business, which was unnerving because it made her feel like whatever it was he was doing was Illegal. She watched his face furrow with concern and immediately she was nervous too.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

Wo Fat's eyes found hers, his frown deepened. "Uh… you may want to sit down."

Rowan felt the dread fill her veins. She took a seat on her unmade hotel bed and scrambled to think of something that could upset her. Had something happened to her family? To Nehele? To Steve?

"Remember how before we went on your train trip you asked me to look into Steve's last phone call?" he asked. Oh… oh god… oh no… she forced herself to nod even though every inch of her was shaking with a nervous dread. "Well, I think I've figured out where the miscommunication happened."

He handed her the pictures and a small card. A wedding invitation. Pictures of Steve in his dress blues, all medals and gold accents, Catherine in a white wedding dress looking like a damn cupcake.

Everything in her chest shattered.

"If I had to guess, I'd say it was a touch of cold feet," he told her. "They got married a week ago."

So… like a two and half weeks after she had called.

Rowan just stared at the card's stiff surface. At the golden calligraphy and the date scrawled underneath with the request to R.S.V.P. Her eyes turned to the photos. She took in Steve's stiff shoulders, dressed up in his dress blues, and Catherine's loose smiling face. Nahele beside him looking just as dapper in his matching suit, minus all the medals. Steve had gotten married. To Catherine. He had actually married Catherine. Catherine Rollins was officially Mrs. Catherine McGarrett. That wasn't true, she was probably still Catherine Rollins, the bitch probably wouldn't even take his last name.

"I'm sorry Rowan," Wo Fat said to her. She looked up to him. She looked to see if there was any sign of him lying to her and then back down to the pictures that proved that he wasn't.

"It's okay," she whispered, her voice shaking softly. "I mean, he told me he was going to do it, right? If you don't pick me, I'll marry Catherine. I don't know why I'm surprised."

Wo Fat rested his hand on her shoulder, rubbing it softly, trying to be comforting. "Do you need me to stay?" he asked. "I can make the meeting tomorrow, if you need me."

Rowan shook her head. "No. No, I'm okay, really," she told him. She was struggling to keep her tears from falling down her face. She didn't want to cry. Not over this. Not in front of him.

"Alright but if you have an issue, if you need me at all, you call me, okay?" he said. He waited until she was looking up at him before adding: "Seriously. Anything at all."

Rowan nodded. Her breath was already hitching. The pictures were trembling in her fingers. They were going to fall, she couldn't hold onto them. She didn't want to hold onto them. As soon as the door closed behind him Rowan broke down. The sobs broke out of her throat, the tears flooded her face. She curled up into herself, trying to quell the bleeding from her heart but it filled her, it drowned her. The pictures fell from her hands and she fell to the bed trying to stifle her sobs in the pillows.

It mustn't have worked because she heard the door open. She could feel Conejo behind her. He said nothing to her, but he got onto the bed behind her. He didn't ask her to explain. He didn't try to tell her everything was okay. He merely put a hand on her back and rubbed it up and down in a soothing fashion.

Rowan rolled over and hugged him, even though she knew he hated intimate contact. She cried into his soft cotton tee-shirt. Conejo merely hugged her back, still saying nothing and let her cry, on and on until there was nothing left in her. Until Rowan was as empty and broken as she felt.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat came out of his meeting, happy with the price he negotiated. Happy to have unloaded those guns. Happy that he was slowly making his way back to the top. Happy that Rowan would finally stop asking questions about McGarrett.

But all that happiness faded when he saw who was waiting for him by his car. Rowan didn't look okay. She didn't look happy. She had tear tracks running down her cheeks looking like big red gouges in her skin. There was a dullness in her eyes that worried him. Why was she here? What had happened? She hadn't called had she? He didn't feel his phone vibrate, and he had checked several times in the meeting.

But it was Conejo and his dark glare that worried him the most. The way that man stared at him with such unbridled rage and hatred made him wonder if Conejo had told her what he knew about McGarrett. Granted he could easily talk her down from that, but that didn't mean he wanted to.

He approached her, ready to fight, ready to argue his way out of this. But Rowan surprised him. As soon as he got close, she just opened her arms up and started crying. Wo Fat immediately took the hug, pressing her to his heart wishing he could take the pain from her. It hurt him to have to do this to her, but the point was that she didn't go back to McGarrett. He was trying to save her from a man who'd never appreciate her.

And, really, if McGarrett was so in love with her, he wouldn't have bought Wo's lies so easily. He would have fought to keep her, would have searched a bit harder. But he didn't so Wo was going to keep her… all to himself.

"It's going to be okay," he whispered into her hair. "Don't you worry. Everything is going to get better, you'll see."

Rowan cried a little bit as he hugged her, stroked her back and whispered encouragements into his ear. He purposely avoided Conejo's eyes as they were practically burning with his anger.

When she was all cried out, she straightened, wiped her eyes and looked up to him. "I want a makeover."

Wo Fat just stared at her for a second. She had just sheered her hair short, just dyed it back to a dark brown. What was she going to do now? Give herself a mohawk? "Another one?" he asked. How many times could one girl re-do her hair?

"I don't mean getting my hair done," she snapped. Which surprised him, she wasn't usually that snappy with him. "I want a full clothing and personality makeover. I want to look and be more like you."

Wo Fat looked down to what he was wearing. He was always in nice suits, but he had to look presentable, it was part of the image he had. Rowan just wanted to sight see she didn't need a nice dress for that.

"You want me to burn half of your face off?" he asked flashing her his teasing smirk. But Rowan didn't smile and Rowan didn't laugh so that smirk faded off of his face. He sighed instead and stared at the girl whose heart he had shattered that morning. The least he could do was buy her a few new outfits. "Will it make you feel better? I mean truly?"

When Rowan nodded, he knew his fate was sealed. If a few new outfits was going to make her feel better than Wo Fat was going to give her all the outfits she wanted. No matter the cost. It was the least he could do.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

They had jumped to several stores to get the new look she wanted. They started in New York for Saks Fifth Avenue, and then went to London for Harrods and then to LA for Rodeo drive. By the end of the day she had spent thousands and had a completely new look. She had fancy shoes, more than one pair of red-bottom heels, and Tory Burch Boots. She had purchased silky blouses, fancy business-like dresses and pinstriped a-line skirts. She was going to look like the female version of Wo Fat in nothing but skirts and blazers.

They returned to the house, both Wo Fat and Conejo helped her unpack all of her new clothes and then she sat down on her bed where the scattered remains of the evidence were waiting for her to sweep them back up and jam them back into the envelope that they came in. Rowan sat there quietly and both Wo Fat and Conejo just stood there both fidgeting as if trying to think of something to say to her.

Once the pictures were all back in the envelope she asked: "Do you have any jobs coming up?"

She no doubt wanted them to stay home with her while she mourned. That was something he was more than capable of doing.

"I had a few potential jobs lined up but I can put them aside," he said coming to sit down beside her. "Is there something that you wanted to do tomorrow?"

Rowan shook her head, her eyes stayed on her hands, refusing to lift them up. "No… I… I was hoping I could go with you?"

"No, why would you… no," Wo Fat said but Rowan didn't move.

"But I'd rather…"

"What happened to touristy stuff, Ro? Huh? All the things you wanted to do…"

"I mean that's fun… but… but I want to learn…" "Learn what? What could I possibly teach you?" "How to not feel."

Oh, for fuck sake. This was about McGarrett. Fuck why did she care so much about this man? Just… why?

"Ro what are you talking about?"

"You and Con are just so impervious to everything. I want to be like that. I want to be serious and unflappable. I want to be more like you two. Can you please teach me to be more like you?"

"And you think you're going to learn that by being in my profession? Rowan, I'm trying to keep you from them, these are not nice people…"

"Just… please?"

Wo Fat glanced to Conejo who was not so subtly shaking his head. No, he wanted Wo Fat to say no, but he wasn't certain he could do that to her, not after everything else he had done.

"Alright, fine, we'll do this, I'll look at the potential offers I have and pick something suitable," he told her and she perked up almost immediately. "But if we do this you have to do what I say, at all times, do you understand me." She nodded quickly and he smiled. "Alright, do you want to make something for dinner or do you want to go and get something?"

"Ohhh, can we go to get Pizza? From Italy?"

"Of course, you look tired though, why don't you go get the energizing ray from the panic room and once you're recharged, we'll go."

Rowan hugged him, solidifying his choice to take her on some sort of op with him, and then she was heading for the door.

"Are you out of your fucking mind," Conejo hissed once she had run off. Yes, he was, but he didn't know how else to mollify her. He had just dealt another crack to that already shattered heart. At this rate the fucking thing was going to be nothing but dust.

"Her powers will be a great asset…"

"I thought we didn't want her to use her powers so much, remember? You said you were going to talk to her about the frequency in which she used them," Conejo snapped. It was true, he was going to do that, but it was kind of hard to ask her not to jump without them, to not use her powers for every little thing when both he and Conejo asked her to send them places and then pull them back.

"But if we can use them… I mean… you're the one that says that she puts out electobursts that takes out electronics near-by. She'd be great on a heist, she'd knock out all the security measures…"

"You want to take that walking disaster on a heist?"

"It's really all she's suited for, it's not like I can take her to a drug deal, they'd never take her seriously. Human trafficking, she'd feel bad for the victims and let them go. She can't be an enforcer she pukes at the sight of blood…"

"I've watched that a girl trip of her own shadow."

"That was one time and she was drunk," Wo Fat argued. "Look, she's been much more capable since you started teaching her self-defence, and she actually did very well with the Stepanovs."

"No, she didn't. Firstly, she didn't have to fight anyone, and secondly, it did not end well, remember? Nothing went to plan! For Christ sake they have a hit out on her right now."

"That's cause she killed Roman," Wo Fat waved away, as if it were perfectly fine. "This will be fine."

"No it won't…"

"Then we will make it fine," he snapped.

"Wo…" Con said softly. "This isn't going to fix her. I know you want a quick fix to her broken heart, but she loved that man and now he's married. I told you not to tell her…"

"I had to tell her. She wouldn't have stopped asking about him until I gave her something. And if I didn't, she would have gone looking and you know that."

"You could have lied to her!"

"I'm telling her enough lies."

Conejo paused briefly. "Wait… you are? Like what?"

Wo Fat froze. Conejo couldn't ever know about his lies, because if he did, he'd tell Rowan, he always sided with Rowan. Instead he sighed. "I've got to try something. Knowing Rowan she'll get bored…"

"You know, as well as I do, that she'll probably excel, and then what? That kid is too innocent to be in this world. She's naïve and she trusts too easily. I… I don't want to see her loose her halo."

"That halo has never been as shiny as you think it's been. That darkness has always been there, it's a part of her," he argued. "But if you're so worried, if it looks like it's warping her… I'll pull the plug."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

Conejo scowled at her but that was the end of the argument. Though not because Conejo had nothing else to say, but instead because Rowan had returned with the energizing gun. Wo Fat tried to smile. The truth was, after what happened in Japan he didn't want to bring Rowan back into his world. She got burned the last time she strayed that close. He would just have to hope that he could keep her safe, and proximity to him would help with that, and that sooner or later she'd get bored of this life and they could go back to the way things were.