Rewrite
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! The chapter we have here is a long one. 18 pages. Damn that's a lot. And we have a cross-over happening. MacGyver and his people are gonna be around a for a while, but they will not be sticking around if you know what I mean. I've also figured out what our Anniversary gift will be so that's exciting right?! I miss hearing from you guys so please leave me a review so I know you guys are still enjoying the chapters. Not much longer till they're together guys! See you on Friday!
Chapter 278
Wo Fat left Rowan who was currently throwing up into a garbage can to go into Ollivander's Wand Emporium.
That Hogwarts Castle virtual ride/roller coaster had been too much for her. Poor Rowan, who couldn't handle being on a rocking boat, had gotten motion sick immediately. He was lucky she didn't throw up while they were on the ride.
They had only been in Los Angeles for two days. They had one day to relax and settle in, and then, as he promised they came to Universal Studios to go to Harry Potter World. And I mean, she dragged him straight to Harry Potter World. She didn't care about anything else, no other rides. All she wanted was to be there. Already he had taken what had to be over one hundred pictures of her with all the famous things. She also had to have spent over a thousand dollars.
She had bought every piece of Ravenclaw clothing she could find. She had bought a Ravenclaw quidditch jumper, not that Wo Fat knew what that was. She also bought a tee-shirt, a scarf, a bag, a backpack a pair of socks and a banner, all Ravenclaw just for her. But she had also bought him and Conejo quidditch jumpers as well. His was a Slytherin one which was all green and grey while Conejo's was red and yellow, and apparently was Gryffindor. She said this was spot on. Wo Fat didn't get it, but it made her smile.
So when she bought them all house t-shirts to match their houses, he put it on when she asked him to. Good thing he chose to wear chinos that day. Otherwise he would have looked ridiculous in his suit pants and a Slytherin t-shirt.
They had done all that she had wanted to do. She had bought three different types of butterbeer and then had them take each cup, she, of course, taking the slushie. She tried each of theirs to see which one she liked best, surprise surprise, it was the slushie.
They ate first at the Leaky Cauldron for lunch and they were supposed to be going to the Three Broomsticks for dinner… if she felt better. In between they had tried every flavour ice cream, chocolate frogs, and pumpkin pasties. He was surprised she was still hungry, Conejo he understood, but Rowan never really ate that much.
They went into every store, and onto every ride. She had been fine on the Gringots Escape, the Hogwarts Express and the Flight of the Hippogriff. But the Forbidden Journey was the one that made her sick.
He had left Rowan with Conejo to go into this wand shop to get her the one thing she hadn't bought herself yet because she wasn't feeling well and he was hoping that this would cheer her up a bit after throwing up. Though now he understood why.
"So, you're telling me, I have to buy someone else's wand, not your own."
"We don't have the option…"
"Yes, but why? I will literally pay you triple to get a wand that's all hers…"
"Well maybe she'd like Hermione's wand instead."
He didn't know who that was but he was certain that Rowan wouldn't want her wand. She'd want her own.
"This was a completely pointless exercise. You should really look into that. You'd make a fortune."
He whirled around and away to find Conejo a little ways away from Rowan. She was drinking water and Conejo looked far from pleased for some reason. "I just paid six dollars for Gillyweed water, which, from my understanding is just regular water."
Wo Fat rolled his eyes. That probably had something to do with the whole Harry Potter theme, parks like these always amped up the prices of things. Slap a silly name onto it or a logo and then bam, it's six hundred percent more expensive. Just wait till she got them into Disney, it would be worse.
"Is she feeling better?"
Conejo nodded. "Yeah, she's a little better. She uh… she wants to go on another ride."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah Jurassic Park, she wants to go on the Jurassic Park ride, she spied the bridge and the giant Jurassic Park gate, so we have to go take pictures while she recuperates."
Wo Fat nodded, alright, fair. He went over to Rowan who was finishing off her six-dollar water bottle which wasn't even that big and then checked her over. Her face was still a little pale. This Jurassic Park ride better not have been another virtual one cause if so, they weren't going to go on it.
"Are you sure you're up to another ride?"
Rowan nodded animatedly and that was that nail in the coffin, they were gonna end up on that ride even if she wasn't feeling well.
Luckily the walk to the ride took a while, even longer since hey had to stop and take pictures of Rowan with everything. With the Jurassic Park sign, with the T-Rex chasing the jeep. With the dinosaur skeletons, with everything that she found interesting, alternating between taking pictures with Con and with Wo Fat.
The line for the ride was also super long which was didn't make the trip any shorter. But probably the worst of it was when they got to the front of the line they found a lazy river and a sort of boat.
"This is a water ride?" Wo Fa growled, luckily Rowan looked confused too or he might have actually gotten cross with her.
"It wasn't supposed to be…"
"You three going on or not?" the ride operator asked and Rowan moved immediately, alright, so they were going to go on the ride anyway, wasn't that just… wonderful. He let Conejo go in after her and then he took the other side. He wasn't wearing the shoes for this, he really wasn't, if they were ruined after this, she was going to have to buy him a new pair.
The ride got started and for the first little bit it was alright. Wo Fat kept his feet up against the front of the boat to keep his shoes from getting wet and then the plastic dinosaurs started popping out of the foliage. First a few vegetarian ones, you know the leaf eaters, then a raptor or two. Then something called a dilophosaurus jumped out of the bushes and a jet of water sprayed right into Wo Fat's face.
He was startled for all of three seconds and then he was just mad. As soon as the ride started up again he turned to the two companions in his row and found that both of them were stifling their laughter. But all that laughter faded when they went into the dark tunnel. Soon there was a looming T-rex and a giant waterfall of a drop.
Needless to say, they came off that ride soaking wet. It wasn't just his shoes that were ruined, his pants, his new shirt, okay maybe the new shirt was fine but his twill chinos sure weren't. He was going to be cold and clammy for the rest of the day and now they were going to dry out of shape.
The ride let them off in a gift shop, shocker. Actually, a very good advertising decisions since most people came off that ride wet. The second they were off Rowan was looking for a new shirt to wear as hers was absolutely soaked. Conejo was desperate to get out of his wet t-shirt a she was getting stares from the women around. To be fair it was showcasing his abs.
The two boys left to stand outside, where Wo Fat realized he was getting some of those looks as well, guess his abs were getting showcased as well. When Rowan came out she had a bag and Wo Fat knew, just knew she had bought them all new shirts.
Beside him Conejo groaned. "Oh come on! Not another costume change."
"You're getting ogled," Rowan said handing him a shirt, she then handed an identical shirt to Wo Fat. Who didn't even have to unfold it for him to know that it was going to be the same as the new shirt she was wearing. A grey shirt with the Jurassic Park logo.
Wo Fat glanced to Conejo who was already taking his shirt off to appease her. And despite the wolf whistles that Conejo got and Wo Fat would get too, Wo Fat did the same. There now they were all wearing Jurassic Park shirts with soggy bottoms.
"Can we go for dinner now?" Conejo asked, no doubt wanting to get this day over with, or maybe he was just hungry again.
There was a slight wince on Rowan's face when he snapped at her and immediately Wo Fat jumped to her defence. "Now, come on, we said we'd spend the day with her." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "What did you want to do next?"
"Well there's this uhm… candy shop that we didn't go in back at the Harry Potter side of things…"
"Alright, well we can go in there before we head over to that broom closet place for dinner, what do you say?"
Rowan nodded. "Yeah, good, except it's actually the Three Broomsticks and it's…"
"I don't care what it's called Rowan," he said quickly. "Let's just go, hmm?"
Rowan nodded and scampered off while both he and Conejo were left to shake their heads. Wo Fat knew that he wasn't a theme park kind of person, but it was nice to know that Conejo was the same in that regard. It was going to be funny to see how he handled Disneyland when they finally got there.
Dear god the lengths he'd go to keep his sister happy.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Rowan got her brothers for only two days before Wo Fat got some frantic call from Armando about a missing shipment. They only got to do Harry Potter World, then Rowan had to throw Wo Fat and Conejo to Colombia so they could help Armando figure out the mix up.
Was she bitter? Hell yeah? She didn't like being alone, and while her mother had been helping her to work on a lot of her flaws and tendencies, they hadn't quite managed to catch a break on the being alone thing yet. She had also promised not to leave the hotel. Not because her brothers wanted to share in the touristing experience with her, no they just didn't want something to happen while they were gone. When she reminded them that the last major incident had literally blown up whilst in the hotel, they chose to ignore her.
But Rowan was determined to prove herself. She had told Wo Fat that she would listen to him, and it was a major big deal for him to take her anywhere after the last disaster that landed them separated in different countries. The problem was, Wo Fat had been gone for three days with no sign of him coming back any time soon and she was already bored.
She had left the hotel once, while on the phone with Wo Fat the whole time, simply to buy books to read. She was almost done her last one. She had bought eight.
On top of that, she was certain she was being followed. There was this man, a drop-dead gorgeous man, the kind that got her motor running, that kept bumping into her. The fact that he was attractive was part of the problem. Someone that got her that hot and bothered had to be either a criminal or a cop, as apparently that was her type, and she didn't have Sandy up and running to tell her whether or not he was.
My god was this man attractive. He was shorter than Steven though he had his build. Large chest, sturdy shoulders, a jawline not sharp enough to cut glass but pretty damn distinguished. He had dark blonde hair, almost a light brown. He liked leather jackets, particularly a worn light brown jacket, and blue button downs, despite the heat. He also alternated between jeans and navy-blue slacks. At least he wasn't wearing cargo pants.
He was either stalking her or staying at her hotel, and he kept finding some reason to bump into her, sometimes simply by knocking her body with his. But without her boys there to act as doorman in the morning, or to do a background check, she didn't want to engage in anything with this man. But it was getting harder and harder to ignore the man that kept hovering just out of sight as if dithering on what to say to her. If he came up to her again, she was either going to make out with him or lecture him. She'd decide when it happened.
Angus MacGyver had lucked out. Wo Fat and the body guard had disappeared a few days ago and Rory was left alone and unattended. His first plan was to go right up to her, and he had tried, but she had raked her surprisingly ice-blue eyes over him and then walked away without letting him utter a single word. It was then that he realized that this girl was the kind of cold ice queen that scoffed at him in high school.
After that every time he tried to talk to her, he clammed up and got sweaty in awkward places. Damn it he had been in battle, he had seen combat, defused bombs and did crazy things all the time, how was he getting thrown off by this girl? His best friend Jack Dalton would be dying of laughter if he had been there to witness this, hell if he ever found out Angus would never live it down. Which was why he hadn't called him for advice.
But they were going onto the third day of attempts and he still hadn't managed to say anything to her, and he had to. He couldn't return to Patricia and tell her that he got nothing because he couldn't talk to her. That would just get back to his dad and then they'd have some awkward conversation he didn't need to have.
So he bumped into her… again. When she was coming back from the pool. She was in short shorts and some criss-cross looking bikini top that showed off an aquatic themed under-boob tattoo he didn't think she'd have but was staring right at him now. He had knocked the book she had been reading out of her hands and the sunglasses off the top of her head. He was surprised she hadn't fallen right over.
"Oh gosh, I'm sorry," he said, forcing his eyes off of her chest area to stoop down and snatch up her book and sunglasses. "I didn't see you…"
He made the mistake of looking up to her. Those blue eyes were almost ice they were so cold staring into him, freezing him in place again. She was appraising him again, looking him up and down with that frozen narrowed look. Except instead of walking away from him she merely cocked her head to the side and donned what he knew was a dangerous smile.
"Okay, this is the sixth time in three days you've bumped into me," she said taking her book and sunglasses back from him. "You're either really persistent or you're a stalker."
"Let's go with persistent," he said with a soft chuckle. He offered her a hand to shake. "Hi… I'm Angus…"
The second he said his name she straightened a gleam appearing in her eyes as if a light of recognition had gone off in her head.
"MacGyver right?" she asked with a grin and his smile faded. "Yeah. Yeah. You work for the… oh what was I call… the Phoenix people. You're always creating things to get out of trouble and you always fiddle with a paperclip, right?" He just stared at her while her smile remained unchanged. "Yeah I love your show, we used to watch it on Friday nights."
Show? What the hell was she fucking talking about.
She took in his shocked and confused face and she frowned too. "Oh no. No… I wasn't supposed to know that… I… I'm sorry."
Yeah, she sure as hell wasn't supposed to know that but Angus couldn't let her go now. "No, wait a second… how did you… did you say you saw me on a TV show?"
Rory paused, mainly because he had a hold of her wrist and was keeping her there. "Yeah, I unno, I guess. Not really it's hard to explain."
"Yeah, well you're going to have to explain how you knew all of that."
"No, I don't. I want you to let go now."
Angus shook his head. "Nope, nope. You know who I am, you know who I work for…"
"So, I bet you know who I am and who I work for."
"You don't work for anyone." She hit him with a dry glare and he sighed. "You work for Wo Fat according to your official file but we're pretty sure that's a forgery."
"And that is why I need to go."
"Now hold on a second, Miss. Wickerby. Now, I'm not here to arrest you I'm only supposed to get information and now I'm worried that you're…"
Rory turned onto him and there was an ice in her eyes that he hadn't seen before but now that he had he was worried that maybe she was exactly like her boss after all.
"Why? Why do you want information from me? Is this a request similar to the one MI6 put in?"
She meant arresting her and taking her to a remote location for questioning. "No… I don't want to arrest you…"
"Then what was the plan here? Show up with the debonair grin and the brown leather jacket and hope I find you attractive enough to sleep with you? Then what… you go through my stuff, see if I left anything incriminating out?" Actually yes, that had been his plan. It must have MI6's plan too, they did report that they had sent a man in for recon but he had turned up nothing, hence why they arrested her. "Did you know I have a world-renowned assassin as a bodyguard? He's in charge of kicking my lovers out in the morning."
Now that was a nice image. She had a personal evictor, she never had to deal with the morning after. Good thing he knew that the man wasn't at the hotel at that moment. "After MI6, now if I sleep with cop he just shoots them." She slid a little closer to him, close enough so he could smell the sweet of her perfume on her. "Still wanna try it out?"
Angus kept himself very, very still. "I just want to know how you knew about me. That's all. Then I'll go away, I promise."
She thought about it for a long while then she seemed to give in. "My brother and I… we were observing your team for a while. Our version of reality TV. There, you happy?"
No, he wasn't but she had answered his question. Too bad he was certain she was lying. It was in the way her lips twitched both before and after she told that lie. But he figured he wouldn't get the truth out of her, so maybe he'd tried to get a little bit of information out of her, seeing as this had all gone belly up.
"Your brother… Wo Fat?"
"You got your answers. Now let me go or I'll scream. And you would not want me to scream."
Angus couldn't help but laugh. "They pegged you as an innocent bystander. You're nothing but."
"Yeah, I'm a regular Capone. Let me go."
Angus finally let her go but Rory didn't move. "Are we done?"
He smiled at her, that smile she had called debonair. "Yes… unless you'd like to go for a drink."
"Are you kidding me. You just told me you're only interested in me to get information. Information on Wo Fat, which you are not getting from me…"
"Exactly. I got what I came looking for. You've got nothing I can use on Wo Fat, though the jury's out on whether or not you're Rowan Pierce…"
"Who?"
"And that answers my last question, now doesn't it? That means I'm not investigating you anymore."
The ice in Rory's eyes melted, if only a little bit, as she looked him up and down. "Well, if you're not investigating me anymore, why could you possibly be interested in little old me?"
"Well, maybe because little old you is a very… beautiful young lady and I'd at least like to get to know her?"
Rory's eyes narrowed but this time in a more playful manner. "If you arrest me Angus MacGyver, you won't have to worry about Fat or my bodyguard cause I will bury you so far in the ground that the heat from the earth's core with incinerate your body. You hear me?"
Wow. That was… that was a heavy-handed threat, and he had a feeling she would be able to follow through without batting an eyelash. So, he nodded his head. "Perfectly."
"Cool beans. I drink Rye and Gingers and anything that comes as a slushie."
"I will keep that in mind."
She shot him one last coy glance over her shoulder before she whirled away to sashay her way towards the bar.
For a second, he wondered what the hell he was getting into but then decided that, you know what, with a girl as pretty as her, it didn't really matter.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
It took Wo Fat ten days to find out what happened to Armando's little shipment and get it back. Two days to track it down, four to get it back from the rival cartel, and four days to recuperate from the gun fight. It was harder to get into those fights without Rowan there to deflect. Granted both gunshots he sustained were flesh wounds at best, both to the same portion of his arm, but he used to be better than that. And poor Conejo had almost gotten stabbed in the face. He had a deep cut slicing through his right check, right under his eye now. The knife had gone through the mask and everything.
To be honest, Wo was certain that someone went at Conejo with a machete. Not their smartest plan, of course, but if it had worked it would have been genius.
When they returned, it was to Rowan's awaiting arms and her panic over Conejo's stitches and Wo Fat's bandages. But that only held her attention for so long. Ten days she had stayed in the hotel, except for her two jaunts out to a local bookstore. Trips she was on the phone with him for the entire time so he knew she was safe. Yes, she kept up with the on the hour updates, and the daily pictures but it wasn't the same and she couldn't go sight-seeing without them and she frequently complained about boredom.
Which meant on the day after their return they had to take her some where, and one could guess where she wanted to go. Disneyland. He not sure how this was different from the one in Paris, but it was and she was demanding to go.
She had her princess make-over already paid for and they were going to have lunch in Beauty and the Beast's castle again. Everything else was going to be
It would be nice to have Conejo with him this time. He'd feel a little more manly standing beside him. Though he was 100% going to take pictures with Peter Pan and Captain Hook again, no matter what Conejo said, or how he contorted his face.
The problem was, as soon as they got there, she dropped a major bomb on them.
"I met someone."
Dear god, how? They were only gone ten days, she stayed at the hotel, where had she met the man? In the hotel bar like she had met Harry Ford? Yeah that had gone well, hadn't? Beside him Conejo was groaning.
"Jesus, do you ever just… chill? I swear? How do you keep finding all these guys?"
"Look, I know how you guys probably feel about another new guy, but this one is different."
"Different how?" Wo Fat asked her.
"As in, I actually like this one. As in, I want to see him like, more than once. Like… of my own free will, no random bumping into him, I actually enjoy spending time with him and have sought him out for a second date, not the other way around."
Wo Fat turned to Conejo who knew more about Rowan's sex life than him, waiting to see if this was true or not. The look on his face told Wo Fat all he needed to know. Rowan seeing this man more than once was a big deal.
"Okay, that's great. Mazel Tov. Why are you telling us this, right now, before we go into the happiest place on earth, which I hear is strictly PG?"
"Because he's meeting us here and we're going to spend the day together."
Up until that point they had all been walking together, Rowan sandwiched between the two boys. But at that announcement both had come to a complete halt. Rowan took a few steps away from them before turning back around to see what the problem was.
She took in both of their faces and then put her hands on her hips. "You two better be nice."
"Be nice? You invited a stranger that neither of us has vetted to a personal day in a theme park, are you out of your damn mind, we don't know if this man is a cop…"
"Not everyone I've been interested in has had some sort of ulterior motive!"
But Conejo was not having it. "You have a type Rowan, and it's either a criminal or a cop, so which one is he?"
"I'm not doing this with you two. You two just left me, for ten days to play Bad Guys without me and that wasn't fair. And you know it! I behaved while you were gone, I didn't leave the hotel, not even on my date with him. So the least you can do is be nice and you better be nice because I can see him and he's coming over…"
She turned to where this blonde man was walking towards her. He wasn't the exact same but he was quite similar to Steven McGarrett. The same sort of breed as him, Wo Fat could tell that this man was most likely in some sort of law enforcement. So that meant Conejo was right, he was on the other side of Rowan's spectrum.
He hugged her tightly, his worried blue eyes sweeping over Conejo and Wo Fat as he did so. The smart man didn't move in to kiss Rowan though the option was there, in the way she coyly tipped her head.
She turned back to the boys with a warning smile on her face.
"Boys, this is Angus, Angus this is my boss, you can call him Oz, and his bodyguard Conrad."
He offered Conejo his hand to shake first which Conejo took in a strong grip that actually made the man wince. Thank god she had told him code names, which meant that she hadn't told him she was Rowan, she had gone by Rory.
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Angus MacGyver."
The man offered his hand to Wo Fat that he forced himself to take. He couldn't, however, keep his smile from cracking a little. "MacGyver? That's a very uncommon last name."
"Uh yeah… I guess," he said softly. But all introductions were done the second Rowan wrapped her hands around his arm.
"Enough chit-chat let's get into this park! I've got a princess makeover appointment to make."
She dragged them all to the line where they engaged in idle chitchat, and Angus told them a lie about how he was visiting from Mission City, which was a farther part of California and had met Rowan by the pool. Though he knew something was off he was still forced to let Rowan go off with him to get her princess make-over done. He wasn't sure which Disney Character she was going to do now that the red didn't match that princess.
Once they were gone Conejo turned to him, huffing loudly.
"That man is law enforcement. Look at him."
Well at least he hadn't said so to Rowan, she would have been devastated. Wo Fat was actually uncertain as to what to do, this was the first man she showed any real interest in since Steven and he was certain this was a good sign. He didn't want to ruin it by telling her that the only reason that man had any interest in her was because he was a cop and most likely there to investigate them.
So he stuck to what he was pretty sure he knew. "If he's who I think he is, he's with an anti-terrorism organization."
Conejo sighed. "Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me."
Wo Fat found himself laughing despite how bad this was. "It's remarkable really."
"What is?"
"Every single man she attracts that's on the cop side of her type-spectrum, is a part of some elite special force. I don't know how she finds them or why they're always the one that grabs her attention, but it's an interesting parallel."
Saying it out loud he knew exactly why she was always subconsciously attracted to men like that and it all boiled down to her desire for Steven McGarrett. She wanted him back, so all the men she put in his place, when it came down to it, were made of the same stuff as him. But he wasn't going to say it and hopefully Conejo wouldn't either.
"What do we do?"
"We get through today and then break her heart tomorrow morning."
Conejo nodded. It was a nice plan and he was certain he could play nice with this under-cover agent just for the day. Focusing his attention on Rowan made that easier for him.
She had come out of the princess makeover dress as Belle. He did not know that at first as she was in the plain white and blue day dress that Belle had and not the yellow ball gown. They went to meet Ariel, and get their picture with her, they met all the characters that Wo Fat wanted to meet, and the ones that Conejo wanted a picture with, apparently, he was a fan of the Jungle Book, the man nearly fainted when he saw Baloo.
They went on the rides Rowan wanted to go on, had lunch at the Beauty and the Beast castle again. Let her buy all that she wanted to buy, and then the plan changed.
Wo Fat would have been completely content to sit there and play nice with the agent, except for the fact that he kept pulling out his phone to text someone. This wouldn't have meant anything to Wo Fat, except Angus always pulled out his phone after Rowan told him stories. They weren't incriminating, per say, but he must have been relaying them to someone. That wasn't good at all.
So, they waited for Rowan to go to the washroom then they grabbed her new boytoy, dragged him into the shadows of a small alleyway between a stage and a fake building and threw him up against the wall. Both he and Conejo had their arms over his chest to keep him from moving, their faces way too close to his.
Wo Fat got right to the chase. "Okay, what do you want from her? And don't you dare fucking lie to me. I don't care if we're in the happiest place on earth, I'll have Con here break your fucking legs."
"I… she just asked me to join her… it's… it's a date."
"Con." Wo Fat let him go and Conejo wound up and then punched him straight in the stomach. Once Angus was done hacking and coughing up bile Wo Fat grabbed him by the lapels again, got all together too close to him and continued with the interrogation. "Your last name. Very distinctive. Don't have to do much research on it. James MacGyver, head of the Phoenix Foundation. You're his son."
"Yeah so?"
"So, I happen to know you work for him. Now. What do you want with Rory?"
Angus looked between them, back and forth. Conejo's patience snapped first. He turned to Wo Fat with a quick: "I say we gut him like a deer."
"Jesus!"
Wo Fat shook his head. "And what are we going to use to gag him huh? Come on…"
"So, I slit his throat first…"
"Okay, okay, guys, guys calm down. I… I'm not… I'm not… I…" He took in both of their faces and he suddenly went quiet. "Alright fine, they have me investigating her to see how much she knows about…"
Wo Fat turned to Conejo. "Son of a bitch. Now I gotta kill him."
"Wait a second, Rory already knows all about that, we talked about it on our first date."
"Jesus Christ. She has the weirdest fucking dates," Conejo growled.
"No, wait a second, what do you mean she knows?"
"I mean she pegged me as an undercover agent right away. She… she read me the riot act."
Okay, good for her. But how did that end with her going on a date with this man.
"Then she told me what I needed to know, you know and that was it…"
Rowan gave him information?
"So then… you're not investigating anymore?" Conejo asked. "I mean, you're on date number two here, that's gotta be a conflict of interest."
Wo Fat shot him a glare. That's where his mind was going? This guy just told them that Rowan gave him information on them and all he cared about was Rowan's love life being free of conflict of interest?
"Well not officially. I mean I am on the case and it's still active…"
Wo Fat moved away and began to pace, letting Conejo take over the holding of MacGyver to the wall. "Why is she doing this to me?" he asked no one in particular. "No seriously, why? I swear I can feel my hair going grey. It's like she's doing it on purpose."
Conejo watched him for a bit before turning back to Angus. "He's just having a mental break down, happens every time Ro finds herself a new man. Just give him a second, he'll get back on track."
Wo Fat paced and muttered for a few seconds more before Conejo got impatient. "Wo!" the man paused and turned back to him. "Can we get to the matter at hand here. We have damage control to do."
"Damage control? Damage control?" Wo Fat cried heading back towards them. "What are you talking about there's no controlling this damage!"
Conejo turned back to him. "Okay, so how does this work? You're dating your suspect, what happens when she gives you enough information for arrest."
"Well, she doesn't know anything of use. She never knows what the two of you are doing. So…I'm… well I'm feeding them misinformation… I've been telling them that I don't have enough info, haven't gotten close enough to her yet."
"Why? Why would you be doing that?"
"Well… if I tell them it's a dead end, they're going to try to send someone else or tell me to pull her to get to you. So… I'm here instead and…"
That was actually fair. It was nice that he was being up front but it didn't make sense that this stranger would just cover for her like that. He had no attachments to Rowan, not the way he and Conejo did.
"Okay fine, but why would you do this for her huh?"
"Well… I unno… I… I like her… I want to…"
Yeah that was bullshit. Wo Fat turned away from him and focused on Conejo. "We gotta pull her. Now. Before he learns anything else."
"Actually, there is one thing that would be nice to confirm, to give them something. If you could either tell me where Rowan is or confirm if she is Rory so I can get it back to Hawaii…"
Wo Fat whirled back onto him, turned wild by the even the insinuation of McGarrett. "No one's going to contact Hawaii. No one's telling Hawaii SHIT!"
"Wo… Wo calm down."
"Calm down?" he echoed and then turned back onto Angus. "Do you know what's going to happen if you tell Steven McGarrett you have her here?" Angus shook his head. "He's going to fly down here, and he's going to take her from you. He's going to use her as bait, do you understand. Bait. To get to me. And when he has me, he's going to arrest her for things I did and stick her in a box. So, no, you are not going to call Hawaii and you're not going to tell her ex where he can find her?"
"Wait… okay… but… is she Rowan? That didn't really answer my question."
"It doesn't matter, though, does it? Cause you're not gonna call Hawaii."
"What the hell are you doing?"
All three men jumped but it was Wo Fat who yelped. They should have been looking at the time, they should have realized that Rowan would have come looking, but she hadn't come from the street, she had come from the other side of the alleyway, which would have been impossible if they didn't know she had void powers.
It was Angus who asked: "How did you get here?"
"Oh, I walked through the wall, I can do that," she said. It was a nice touch, the truth told in a sarcastic tone, there was no way that MacGyver would believe her. She then turned back to Wo Fat and Conejo who had jumped away from him to face her. "Seriously, what the hell, guys? I asked you to be nice!"
"He's an anti-terrorist agent Ro and you've been giving him information about us."
"That's not true, I told him I don't know anything and he's giving them false information."
"Dear god you've already slept with him haven't you!"
"I have not," Rowan cried with a stomp of her foot.
Conejo shook his head. "How good was the dick if it's clouded your brain this badly?"
"I haven't slept with him yet!" She repeated, she then shot MacGyver a look before lowering her voice to say: "That was supposed to be tonight but you two have up and ruined now, haven't you?"
MacGyver had the decency to blush, but he looked mighty pleased with that information. Wo Fat just didn't want to think about it.
"Wait… you haven't slept with him yet? But you always jump the guy like… right away…" Conejo asked which made Wo Fat groan.
"I don't need to know that about her… wait a second you've been sleeping with men on the first date? Like men other than Ares? Since when are you a slut?"
"WO!"
"Fine, liberal, whatever you wanna call it." Rowan glared at him. He glanced to Conejo who was glaring at him too and he figured that he was off topic again. "Ugh. Fine. Ro, you can't stay with this man. He's literally investigating you for terrorism."
"Oh, Wo, I had it under control."
"Having your new man feed his bosses misinformation, is not having anything under control."
"Actually," Angus said coming to stand beside her, he took her hand quickly and said: "I'm actually more like her boyfriend. This isn't our second date… I've been seeing every night for the last week. If things went well today, I was going to ask her to make it official."
"Aww," came out of Rowan's mouth like any of this was normal.
"I was hoping to get your brother's permission before I did ask though."
"You told him I'm your…" Wo Fat started and he groaned. "Ro, he already wants to call Steven…"
"We agreed no Hawaii!" she said, her pout turned onto Angus.
The poor boy looked a little bit like a deer in the headlights, but he turned to her and whispered: "I just want to give them something, Rory. If I could confirm whether or not you're Rowan, though I'm starting to suspect you are, it will help them think I'm not a complete failure… enough to keep me on and not pull me…"
Wo Fat groaned but Rowan put a hand up to shut him up. "No one's calling Hawaii, calm yourself." She then turned back to Angus. "Look, you call Hawaii and Wo's gonna flip, do you want that?" Angus shook his head. "Right, so we're not calling Hawaii. We're gonna stick to the plan."
"What plan? Ro this is an unmitigated disaster we need to…" Wo Fat started but Rowan put a hand out and silenced him.
"You are not ruining Disneyland for me, do you understand? We will argue about this once we get off the lot."
And with that she pulled MacGyver away. Wo Fat and Conejo stood there taking that in. Oh she was in for one hell of a rude awakening when they got back to that hotel. He was going to put an end to this, whether she liked it or not.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
After the disastrous date that was supposed to end in sex, but hadn't, Rowan was taken back to the hotel by her boys. Conejo immediately began to pack their things, but Wo Fat, Wo Fat took her aside to talk to her.
"I have a couple of questions," he started and Rowan couldn't help but laugh, which cause Wo Fat to pause and put his hands on his hips. "What is so funny?"
"You. You and Steven are so a like it's painful."
Wo Fat jerked as if she had slapped him. "Excuse me… like… like Steven?"
"Yeah, he used to ruin my dates too, even the ones with himself. And he always had questions. It was practically never ending."
Wo Fat opened his mouth to argue and then slowly shut his mouth. "You are not getting out of this interrogation by insulting me. Nice try."
Rowan sighed and then hung her head. Well it had been worth a shot. Wo Fat had her sit down on the bed and then stared down at her. "We have to discuss what happened and I can't help but have questions."
"Alright, let's have them."
"Tell me how you just happened to meet an agent from the Phoenix Foundation?"
"He kept bumping into me at the hotel, couldn't talk to me though. Eventually he did talk to me…"
"And you called him out for following you…"
"Yes, I did. Then he introduced himself to me and I recognized him…"
Wo Fat blinked his eyes. "From where?"
"A TV show from my world. It used to be our Friday night. MacGyver and then Hawaii Five-0… Five-0 is…"
"Steve's show," he finished for her. "Alright… so you, you knew who he was, and you what… you told him that, didn't you?"
Rowan nodded. "I can never quite shut up when I'm supposed to."
Wo Fat sighed alright. "So, the truth about him came out, I presume you came up with a suitable lie?" Rowan nodded and nodded back at her. "What does he know about you, Ro?"
"He thinks my name is Rory Wickerby. I told him that both of you were my brothers… that we're adopted. I told him that while I know exactly who you are and what you do, I don't know about your jobs or what you're doing on a daily basis. I told him small things, like about my parents and the obsessive ex and what Steve was like without telling him either Steve's name."
"Let me guess, he thinks Steve's name is Jamie?"
"You got it."
"Why do you always go with Jamie."
"Steve's middle name is James."
"You gave his middle name a nickname? Does your new guy have a nickname? How do you turn… that clusterfuck of a name into a nickname?"
"I call him Mackie."
"That's actually an improvement. Alright, last question, what is the angle here?"
"Angle?"
"Yes Rowan, what exactly do you expect to do here? He doesn't know your real name or who you really are, and if he does figure it out, you're as good as arrested, so what exactly are you doing here? What is the game plan?"
Rowan stared up at him. She hadn't actually thought about a game plan, or an end game. She had no idea what she was doing other then spending time with a guy who made her a feel a fraction of what she had felt for Steven. She hadn't quite thought past that, she had been living in the now, now that she was asked to look into the future of things she wasn't quite sure.
"I… I don't know. I like him…"
"You also liked JC, and Ares, and Harry and…"
"No, they were cute and once I got what I wanted I was done with them, they just… you know… hung around. And they had ulterior motives."
"Your Mackie has an ulterior motive too…"
"Not anymore, I gave him everything already."
Wo Fat held up his hand to stop her and she fell silent. "Alright, alright, here, look, let's say, maybe this guy might actually like you. For real. That doesn't answer my question. What kind of future do you and this man have if everything he knows about you is a lie?"
The answer was no future, but he already suspected that she was Rowan. Telling him that she was and explaining why she had to lie to him would be easy once she got around to it. She just couldn't ever tell him about the alternate reality thing… or well, not right away anyway.
Rowan looked down at her hands. "When I'm with him… I'm happy… like I was with Steven." She didn't dare to look up, she didn't want to see the pity in his eyes. "I just… it's not the same, obviously, I don't like him nearly as much but what if… what if I can… learn to like him… love him… the same way?"
When she did look up Wo Fat wasn't looking at her with pity in his eyes, instead it was with sadness. That was worse.
"It sounds like… maybe you shouldn't leave… for now…"
Rowan blinked her eyes. "You mean… stay at the hotel…"
"I'm thinking something a little more permanent. Like maybe, maybe we should look into getting you an apartment… close to your Mackie so you can explore this option without him figuring out you have magic powers…"
Rowan's smile grew. "Really? You think that's a good idea?"
"No. It means Con and I would have to leave…"
"Wait? Why? Why would you have to leave? Wouldn't be staying together?"
"Why? So, I can ruin another one of your relationships? No. We both know that his Foundation is interested in me, if I leave you behind when I move on, there's a chance that they'll leave you alone. Besides, I bet he'd feel better about getting to know you if both Con and I are not around to intimidate him."
Rowan just continued to stare at him and he tried to smile at her though she could see that he wasn't happy at all. "I'll be reactivating Sandy of course. I wouldn't leave until you're settled and she's up and running."
Rowan wasn't certain that she wanted her boys to leave her. But it wouldn't be fair to ask them to stay in California where it would be easier to track them, not when she could tell that they wanted to go back to their lives of crime without worrying about her.
"And… you'll be okay… without me?"
Wo Fat half chuckled, a hand coming to her cheek. "With your powers we'll never be far apart, will we?"
Rowan shook her head and let him pull her up so he could hug her. "I just want you to be happy," he whispered into her ear. "And if he's your chance at happy, then you owe it to yourself to try. Now, why don't you call your Mackie, I'll inform Con of the new plan."
Rowan broke out in a large grin, and rushed for her phone so she could call her new man. She couldn't help but be excited. This could be her chance, she could find real happiness again. She could finally get over Steve. And yes, her heart still hurt, but for the first time she also felt like maybe, just maybe it was starting to heal.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Angus got off the phone with Rory and found that he was an equal mix of excited and nervous. This… this was a game changer.
Did he like the girl? Hell yeah, she was beautiful and kind and sweet. Yes, there was an ice-cold dangerous streak in her but that wasn't nearly as prominent as the file had made it out to be. Was he happy that she was going to stay in California? That she would be renting an apartment close to him so they could see where this… thing between them might go?
Well he'd be a lot happier if he wasn't still technically investigating her and her two brothers.
He felt bad. He was lying to everyone. To Rory, to his boss, to his friends. What was he to do? He wanted to enjoy this. An older, beautiful girl, the same kind he wanted when he was in high school, was finally paying attention to him. He didn't want that to go away simply because she may or may not be a criminal, or she may or may not know what her criminal brother was up to.
He had to tell someone.
So he decided to tell his best friend, Jack Dalton.
Jack had asked to meet him as his favourite bar and Angus was too distracted to suggest a different place. Instead he met him there, to find that Jack was already at the bar at least two beers in.
He was wearing his usual jeans and tight black t-shirt combo. His salt and pepper hair was freshly shaved, which meant he had been stressed about something recently. Angus made a mental note to ask him about that once he was done with his own panic attack.
Jack stood to clap him into a bro-hug once Angus was beside him. "I heard Thornton called you in for a meeting. You should have told me she had reprimand you. I'm gonna go in tomorrow and straighten her out. You had no choice…"
"Oh no, I wasn't in trouble," Angus said quickly. "She gave me an op, but that's not what… actually it is it's part of it, but I have something bigger than that right now. A real dilemma."
"I'm not helping you with another one of your experiments, Mac."
"No, not an experiment." Geeze, accidently set someone on fire a few times and they never let it go. "No, I met a girl."
Jack nearly chocked on his sip of beer. He turned to Angus with wide eyes and eyebrows half up his forehead. "You met a girl? What does that mean? And most importantly what does she look like and do you have a picture?"
Angus pulled out his phone to show him one of the selfies he and Rory had taken at Disneyland. Jack whistled at the picture. "Now I know you're lying. That girl's too pretty to like you."
"Right?!" Angus cried.
"How much time have you spent with her?"
"Like every night this week, just dinner dates. Then today we went to Disneyland, I met her brothers."
Jack's eyes narrowed at him. "Why do you sound upset by this? Sounds like things are going well?"
"They are… she's actually thinking of moving here to see where this goes."
"That's wonderful."
"I know, that's the problem."
Jack chuckled. "That's the opposite of a problem, kid."
"It is when you see what Patricia gave me as an op," he said going into his jacket to pull out the pictures Patricia had given him at the start of this. He started first with Rowan's picture. Jack hmmmed at it.
"Looks like…"
"My girl. I know, that's because," he said fishing the other picture out. "We're pretty sure they're the same person."
Jack looked at the two pictures and then back to angus. "Red-head is Rowan. Brunette is my girl, Rory. Before you ask, DNA comparison doesn't match between the two of them."
"So, they just look freakily alike."
"I unno, she slips sometimes, I'm pretty sure she's Rowan. And if she is, I'm pretty sure she's hiding from some ex of hers. He's pretty controlling."
"Okay and what did she do that Thornton has you investigating her?"
"She escaped MI6 custody two weeks back," Angus said with a shrug and once again Jack chocked on his beer.
"That was her? Damn."
"Look, Thornton isn't really interested in her, she's interested in Rory's eldest brother. Wo Fat."
"Oh. My. God. I knew I knew the name Rowan Pierce. There's no way that girl isn't Rory if she's saying her brother is Wo Fat. The man was a sociopath before she came along and caught his attention, there is no way he just grew emotions for more than one person. Not enough to claim a whole second person as a sibling."
Yes, that was one of the reasons that Angus was certain that Rory and Rowan were the same, but until he got proof he wasn't going to budge on it. She wanted to be Rory, and he wanted her to trust him enough to tell him the truth.
"Okay we're off topic. The question is… what do I do?"
"Well, I guess if you take yourself off the case, Thornton will send someone in, or send you away."
"I'm more worried that she'll arrest Rory. The last arrest attempt didn't go well for the people who had her and I unno… I don't…" "Want her to leave." "Yeah that."
Jack looked down to the picture and then up to him. "Does she know?"
"Yeah she knows who I am and what I do and that I was investigating her…"
"And she's still here."
"Yep."
"Then it sounds like you gotta stay on assignment to protect her. And you need to let yourself enjoy whatever time you have with her, because this is a precarious situation that very much might explode in your face."
Angus nodded. That was what he was hoping Jack would say, it was what he was leaning towards anyway.
"Wait a second did you say you met Wo Fat today?" Jack asked. Angus nodded. "And you lived?"
Angus sighed, now that, that was a completely different story and he would need a beer to get into that one.