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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Anniversary my wonderful readers! It's officially been two years of me posting and writing this story! I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be here, that I would have written this much or have this much support! So, ontop of getting an early post this week, I do have an announcement. This month I put myself to work and wrote up at least 20 chapters. With that many chapters done, I can start posting three times a week again. This week I will be posting Sunday, Wednesday and Friday but next week we will be going back to our normal Mon, Wed and Fri posting schedule. This will get us to Steve and Rowan getting back together even quicker!

I would like to thank everyone who reads this mammoth of a fanfiction, all my favouriters, Followers and all the people to review, without you this story wouldn't be here! Thank you for all your continued support and here's to what I hope will be another productive year of writing!

Chapter 280

Rowan open the portal already! He's catching up!

Rowan tried to focus on all the strings but it was hard, they were all jumbled up. All she could see was a forest of red that was trying to circle her up and cut her off and she was too panicked to actual pulse any of them away. She and Conejo just kept running, he held her hand tugging her along, helping her hop over raised roots and duck lowered branches all the while Steven brayed behind her.

Her heart hurt. He sounded so… so upset. His cries for her, they sounded like the ones he used to make when he was afraid for her. The cries were the same ones that she used to run to him for, would wrap her arms around him and soothe him. It was hard to remind herself that the only reason he was trying to get her was because he wanted to use her as bait to arrest Wo Fat. It was hard to remember that he took the family that was supposed to be hers… theirs… and had given it to Catherine.

Rowan came to a stop, the pain of it all wrapping around her like the red strings had once done. Conejo turned to her, ripped his mask to the side so he could see her properly.

"We can't stop Rowan," he told her, grabbing her hands again. He took a good look at her. He could see it. The tears. Her tears. Everything inside her heart. Her poor heart couldn't take this. Behind her came the crashing of the man chasing her. The man who didn't love her, who didn't want her, who had replaced her with Catherine without a second thought.

She took all that anger in her body and did what she did best. With one huge scream she took that anger channelled her powers and expelled them out into the world. She felt the shockwave of power leave. Felt it as it ripped those troublesome red strings apart it paved the way for her to find her way out of this situation. She ripped the void open under their feet and together her and Conejo dropped.

Right out of Hawaii and into her apartment in California.

She must have had them up in the air because they didn't land on their feet. They dropped and collapsed to the floor. Together they lay there. Conejo breathless and panting on his back still holding her hand.

"That… that was way too close."

Rowan just lay there, not her back but on her front, her tears still silently streaming down her face. Conejo turned to her again.

"Did you hear me? I said that was way too close."

Rowan forced herself to roll over and onto her back. She then nodded to him. "I heard you."

She felt his eyes hone in on her. "Are you… crying?"

Rowan put her hands to her face to cover it. Why couldn't she stop hearing Steve's screams for her? Why did she want to go back and run to him? To wrap him up in her arms and take away that desperate fear she swore she could hear in his voice.

She felt Conejo sit up, and she didn't struggle when he pulled her up and into his arms and onto his lap. She just collapsed into him, crying into his shoulder as he held onto her. He didn't ask her anymore questions, he didn't ask her to explain, he just held her until the tears finally stopped and she was too tired and spent to move.

For a long while they were quiet. Rowan eventually got herself off of Conejo's lap, where she pulled off that stupid red and blonde wig she put on whenever she went to Hawaii and tried to wipe her face and fix her running mascara.

"We're not doing that again, Rowan." Rowan found herself looking at Conejo with surprise but was not entirely surprised to find that he was being completely serious. "That was the last time I will go to Hawaii to help those people. Those people are not your friends. You saved that man's life and his kid and did he thank you? No? He let his crazy boss chase us through a damn jungle. And look what bumping into McGarrett did to you? Not only did he manage to mess with your powers, he made you cry. And I mean full out ugly cry. Rowan that's not… I'm not… I'm going through that again. I'll tell Wo Fat about your trips to Hawaii and I'll have him ground you. You got me. Never again."

Rowan merely nodded. Conejo shook his head. "Nope, you gotta verbalize it. Let me hear it."

"I understand."

Conejo nodded. "Alright," he checked the time on his phone. "I gotta get back, your brother is gonna be worried. Are you gonna be alright?"

Rowan nodded and he got up off the floor. "Great you gotta open me up door back to him though, think you can do that?"

Rowan nodded again, waving her hand to the right so the portal opened for him.

"You sure you're alright?" he asked one more time.

"I promise I'm fine," she said to him and only then did he walk through the portal she had opened. But she was lying. Rowan wasn't fine at all.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

There had been this shockwave of what Steve knew had to be void power. He heard Rowan's scream, this angered anguish roar and then something took him straight off his feet and knocked him back. After that… no matter how hard he looked he couldn't find Rowan.

But… it couldn't have been void power, because… his chest hadn't ached or tightened. He hadn't felt anything at all. And… and Rowan couldn't use the void without Steve feeling it. Right?

"She's using her power's Steven."

Steve had called out HPD to comb that stretch of jungle were Rowan and Sin Nombre had gone missing. They hadn't found them. Steve had almost stayed in the jungle himself to go looking but Danny had dragged him home and then stayed there. Refusing to leave so Steve couldn't sneak back out to find her.

God, he wished Danny would shut up.

"No, she isn't."

"Really? So you can explain how she got into Hawaii without us knowing? Or how she vanished in that jungle? Or how about Chin huh?"

Yes, what about Chin? He said he heard a pop and then gunshots and then Rowan was there doing something weird with her hands. Steve hadn't felt that twinge either. He always felt her twinges. Each and every single one. If she pulled form the void, he felt it.

"She put her hand over his wound and the doctors say the bullet just… changed directions in him. That bullet should have hit his kidney but it veered off in his body. We both know that doesn't happen. Chin said she did something to him, she must have moved the bullet!"

Yes, she must have. Chin had said he felt like she had been electrocuting him, that his whole left side had gone up in flames. She had mentioned how she was… changing outcomes and manipulating strings, was that what she had done for Chin?

No, because Steve hadn't felt it so it couldn't have been her powers.

Steve shook his head again. "I don't know what happened Danny but it's not her powers."

Because… if she had powers that she could use, without alerting him… then she could have gotten off the island by now. And if she had left, he'd feel very stupid to have sent HPD units to every exit point on the island to look out for her.

"She can't use her powers without me feeling it. Alright Danny? I didn't feel anything, so drop it!" he shouted and Danny threw his hands up in frustration.

Steve wasn't stupid he knew Danny wasn't going to drop it. The two of them were going to be arguing about this on and off until one of them was proven right.

Luckily the argument was interrupted by his phone ringing. He'd take any phone call over the stupid conversation he was stuck in. The caller ID said Joe and inwardly he sighed of relief, because he'd love to hear from his mentor at this moment. Not that he could really tell Joe all his concerns for Rowan.

"Hey Joe!" He was a little too eager but he was very happy for the distraction.

On the other side Joe let out a few breathy chuckles. "Hello Son, is this a bad time?"

"No," he said sending Danny a dark glare. "It's a perfect time. What's up."

"You uh… you heard anything about Rowan recently?"

Steve felt his heart stop. This couldn't have been a coincidence, that his mentor had been helping Steve out with the search for Rowan, would be calling about her now.

"I… uh… last I heard she was in Colombia but uh… I might have spotted her here…"

"Oh Hawaii?"

"Yeah, why… what did you find?"

"Okay, now, this could be nothing, so I don't want you to panic but uh… maybe two weeks ago a plane went down in North Korea. There was a Naval Special Ops team posted a few clicks away and on of their last reports came in maybe an hour after the crash. They had found a girl." Steve found himself holding his breath. That wasn't Rowan… was it? "The company that owned the plane is a fly-by-night operation with Yakuza ties. No manifest other then a heading for Moscow, everyone died in the crash… except for two people."

"The girl and…"

"At the time they thought he was just a man. He was going after the girl, they shot him before he could kill her. What we learned about the plane and it's cargo was that the men on the plane were Yakuza enforcers which means he most likely was as well. We don't have actual proof but there was a rumour that the girl had been kidnapped, was going to be handed off to a mafioso in Russia to be ransomed to her brother."

That sounded like a bad idea if it was Rowan. Wo Fat would have been livid, he had been livid when the Colombian's had tried it.

"Okay, what does this have to do with Rowan?"

"Well, one of the men on that team was Roger."

"Calvin Roger?"

"That's the one."

Calvin was the marine in Afghanistan who was supposed to help Rowan infiltrate a terrorist hub in a club. If it was Rowan, Roger would have recognized her.

"He's also the only survivor."

Oh that did not bode well. "Excuse me? Only survivor."

"Well, Rogers put the girl in a truck to drop her off to the nearest Naval base." That was something Steve had stipulated in the note on Rowan's no-fly ban. "And while he was gone the compound they were hiding in… got hit. Hard. Unknown assailants."

"What about Roger… and the girl?"

"The girl got away, he says she did a… magic trick, got the cuffs off of her wrists and onto his and he doesn't know how. She ran back to the compound, he thinks she ran off with the assailants."

"They were probably there for her," Steve whispered. "It… it was Rowan, wasn't it."

"Rogers was almost 100% certain that it was Rowan. Except she was calling herself Rory Wickerby."

"What… well… what do you think?"

"Well I've seen the pictures and… I mean there are some similarities chiefly ties to Wo Fat. But uh… she's not a DNA match. Nor is it a match with her fingerprints."

Steve let out his breath. This was not what he wanted to hear.

"But… I know what Wo Fat's like with his tricks and I was wondering if you heard anything about her recently. Maybe… about her in Japan?"

Steve shook his head though Joe couldn't see that. "No, no… I don't even know how she got to Hawaii…"

"Okay… well I'll keep an eye out, see what happens. I'll uh… I'll keep you posted."

Steve thanked him before hanging up and then stood there for a little bit. Danny waited a bit before asking him a million questions but Steve was lost in his head.

Two weeks ago when that plane had gone down had also been when that man had turned up in his house and stolen the last bit of Rowan that Steve had. That was awfully… coincidental. He just didn't know how the two events were linked though in his heart he was certain they were. Though he did do a sweep of people entering Hawaii in the last two week and Rory Wickerby was not one of them. Which meant that this Wickerby person wasn't Rowan and definitely not worth Steven's time.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Angus came home to find that Rory was in a… a real mood. A mood he had never seen before. He got a text from her earlier in the day saying that she was back, a full day and a half after she vanished. She asked if he wanted to swing by for dinner. Which he did. But when he got to the apartment, Rory was completely scattered.

The spaghetti she usually made flawlessly was on fire. Her hair was spilling out of a side ponytail. She was shudderingly crying but a large smile on her face. She looked… crazy.

"I'm sorry… I can't seem to…"

Angus just looked around, he had no idea what was happening but it didn't look good. "Are you okay?" he asked her dropping the flowers he brought her on the table and trying to approach her. He watched Rory throw a pot of water on the burning spaghetti and Angus grabbed her to avoid the plume of billowing smoke that had erupted from the pot.

"I… I'm fine," she said though he didn't believe it. "I just… I forgot to put water in the pot."

"You're crying though."

Rory's hands went to her face. He thought she'd ask if she was but instead, she asked: "Still?"

"Okay, okay, you know what? How about we sit down, and I'll… uh… I'll see what I can do to fix this."

Rory sat her self down at the table, and Angus put on the kettle to get her some sort of tea to calm her down. He pulled out a carton of her favourite ice cream and put it in front of her. Then he came up with an idea.

He knelt down beside Rory. "Can I see your phone?" he asked her. "I think… I think we should call your brother."

Rory shook her head as the tears started to fall once again. "No, no he'll be mad."

Yeah, Angus doubted that. "Come on, Ro, I need his help."

Rory eventually relinquished her phone and he scrolled through her contacts for a good few minutes before she finally said: "It's under aniue."

He wasn't sure what that meant but it wasn't the time to ask her that. Instead he just pressed dial and waited for him to pick up.

"Fat."

"Hi… it's uh… it's Angus…"

"Who?"

"Uh… Angus… MacGyver? I'm dating…"

"Oh you. Why are you using my sister's phone?"

"I... there seems to be a little problem," he told him and a brief silence ensued. "She's crying and I can't seem to get her to stop. I was hoping you could talk to her."

"Put her on."

The voice was steely and strained. It denoted a certain amount of caring that Wo Fat had for her, a caring Angus was certain only belonged to Rowan Pierce. But again, he had bigger issues at that point. He handed Rory the phone who took trying to reign in her sniffles.

From there he didn't get much of the conversation. All he heard was Rory's yeses and okays. And after five minutes of those she just hung up the phone. Angus, in the middle of making her tea paused everything he was doing and just stared at her.

"So uh…"

"Wo said he's going to come over."

She got up from the table and headed towards the front door. There was absolutely no knock but she opened it anyway and both Wo Fat and the bodyguard, Con, walked in.

Wo stayed by his sister's side while Con walked over to Angus. "Come on, they're going to chat and we're gonna go pick up dinner since she set that stuff on fire."

Angus left, only because he knew better than to argue with Con. As he walked by, Rory, mid hug with Wo Fat, reached out a hand to just squeeze his as he walked by. It made him feel a little better to have helped her a little and the trip to pick up tacos from Rory's favourite place meant he could bug Con for answers about what he had walked in on. But he was wise enough to wait to start asking questions until they were waiting for their order to be ready to pick up.

"So… that melt down…" he whistled lowly. "Is that… I mean… is that normal?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I thought she was okay but I guess not."

Okay so Con knew about her little upset. Well that was more than he knew.

"Okay… but uh… what set her off?"

Con shot Angus a look of confusion but it definitely looked like he didn't want to tell him. "She had a bump in with Jamie today. He's uh… law enforcement… and a stalker. He's trying to get Wo Fat but using her. Hence why we don't trust you."

Ah, so the girl had her heart broken by a man who used, and was still trying to use, her to get to Wo Fat. That would 100% explain why they didn't like him or trust him with her. And Angus did know that Jamie had the habit of setting her off. It was something that Wo Fat had mentioned in passing before they went their separate ways at Disneyland that day, but Angus had never seen it. Well today he had.

"Did he hurt her? Is that it? Was that the family emergency was?"

He got another strange look from Con but he said: "Uh… yeah, that was it, Jamie showed up again. He never physically hurt hers though, just emotional." Yeah, Angus was pretty sure that was a lie. He had a feeling that Jamie had nothing to do with this.

"Alright, so I'm guessing you told Fat what happened and you guys were on your way when I called?"

"No, we were in Santa Monica dealing with a competitor who got a little too big for his britches," Con said absently.

But that made no sense, because Santa Monica was a 20-minute drive or more depending on traffic and they had gotten there in minutes. Con seemed to realize his mistake because he shot Angus a large smile.

"Yeah, we were on our way. She's usually okay when we bump into Jamie but he uh… said some things this time around and I figured she'd have some sort of break down."

Once again, he was lying but Angus wasn't about to call him on it. Not when he was certain that Con was some sort of assassin. Either way they collected the thirty tacos that Con had ordered, most for him by the way, before putting Angus back into the Audi they had borrowed, clearly Wo Fat's car.

When they got back to the apartment Rory was feeling better. She got up when they came in, moving in to hug him. She whispered a soft apology to him that he didn't need from her. He just hugged her back happy that she was feeling better.

It wasn't until the following morning that Angus heard all about the massacre out in Santa Monica. One he now knew that Wo Fat was behind. And that was something he got to tell his supervisors so they'd stop accusing him of being blinded by Rory and failing in his directive for information. It would buy him a little more time with her, but he wouldn't definitely need a new plan if he wanted to keep this up with Rory. He just didn't know what he was going to do.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan came to gasping loudly. She bolted up in her bed with Angus beside her, also jolting up.

"Wha? What? What's happening!"

It was a dream. A bad dream. A really, really bad dream. Gabriel Waincroft going to die and he was going to take all of her friends down with him. She could still see parts of the dream flashing back in front of her eyes. Red splattered bloody visions of her friends slain in different ways, of Steven riddled with bullets, his lifeless eyes staring up at her.

Rowan turned a shaky smile onto Angus. "Sorry, I had a nightmare."

"Aw… baby…"

He pulled her to him and held her tightly. It was an echo of Hawaii. Every nightmare she had ever had, Steve had been there to wrap her up and keep her safe. And under that Hawaiian echo was the all the ones with Wo and Con, who had, since her departure from Hawaii, taken Steven's place.

She had never thought she'd feel comfortable after a nightmare without Steven or her brothers. But Angus MacGyver was proving her wrong. She felt so safe in his arms that instead of getting out of bed she fell asleep again.

In the morning, Rowan woke up, once again in a panic. This time because she was certain that they were getting closer to all her friends dying at the hands of Michelle Shioma's people. She thought it was stupid that the Five-0 team would try to save Gabriel from Shioma, the man deserved to die after all, but if they were fixing to do it there would be no stopping them. She would just have to try and intervene best she could.

Rowan made breakfast like she usually did. She tried to do the whole small talk think with Angus once he eventually woke up. She tried to keep her smile even and warm but she practically threw Angus out of her apartment so she could call on Conejo.

She kissed Angus good bye, maybe a little too eagerly. Then she waited until he was gone and then she jumped straight to where she knew Conejo to be.

In bed.

She jumped, literally, from her living room and straight onto him, landed square on the middle of his back, straddling him to the bed. Conejo yelped and then groaned. "Rowan!"

"We have a problem."

She got off of him so he could roll over. He shot her a dark glare. "Yes, you just broke my fucking spine!"

"No, a different problem. A Hawaii problem."

Now that glare was dark for a completely different reason. "Are you fucking shitting me? No. Rowan. What did I say? It was literally only three days ago. What did I fucking say?"

"You said we can't go back to Hawaii… but we have to."

"Why? You give me one fucking good reason why we have to go back that has nothing to do with your stupid Five-0 friends."

Oh, now see that was a problem because that was the only reason she wanted to go. He waited expectantly for her to give him an answer and after a moment she said: "Because if we don't, Michelle Shioma gets to have all the fun of killing Waincroft when, after everything he did to me, it should belong to us."

Conejo blinked his eyes. She knew by the way he stared at her that she had picked the right little point to bring up.

"I'm going with or without you, but you know I'd rather have you there… cause… we both know I don't do well killing people on my own."

Conejo shook his head. "If I let you go to Hawaii on your own Wo Fat will literally murder me. So, we both know I'm coming with you, but you, you are going to give me a moment to pack everything. Last time we went to Hawaii you had issues with your powers, we're not chancing that again."

Rowan didn't care what he brought with him at that point, just so long as they went to Hawaii. Especially since she was pretty sure they were running out of time. She needed to intervene as soon as she could, preferably before Five-0 found Gabriel. She'd deal with Gabriel and Shioma all at once, once and for all.

No more Miss. Nice Rowan. She was gonna go full monster and full void this time and no one was going to stop her.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Angus came back to Rory's apartment at the end of the day with a huge bouquet of flowers, her favourite ice cream and snack foods and sushi from their favourite sushi place. He had all of these things to cheer her up after her nightmare only to find that she was gone. He had no text from her this time and no note left. He called her but she didn't answer and after waiting for a while he finally got some sort of response. She didn't call him, she simply texted him. Another family emergency.

Angus wasn't certain how he felt about that. Not when the last time she had a family emergency he was certain she and Wo Fat were just up to something criminal together. Then he left her apartment and did something stupid. He went and complained to Jack.

Now Jack, Jack loved Rory. He thought Rory was great. What he didn't like was her association with Wo Fat. Especially since he was clearly very must still active. Now that they knew he was responsible for the massacre of a rival cocaine cartel out in Santa Monica. So, Jack was not the most supportive like Angus thought he would be.

"You gotta drop this girl Mac."

Angus sulked into his beer. He had thought Jack liked Rory, though it was clear that he had changed his mind at some point. Besides, he didn't want to drop that girl, he just wanted her to not be so damn… shifty. He wanted his boss to call off the investigation of her, but with Wo Fat still operating in their city there was no way she was going to do that.

"I've done some digging and you should see the things she got into as Rowan Pierce."

"We don't know if she's Rowan Pierce yet."

"She's Wo Fat's sister. She's Rowan Pierce he just must have done something to her DNA on AFIS, corrupted it or something."

It sounded like something that Wo Fat would do but knowing that didn't tell him why Wo Fat went on the run with Rowan on the first place. What happened with her ex to cause this is the first place?

"None of that tells me what to do now."

"Well she's not retuning your calls and she's not here right now, so you're gonna have to wait for her to come back."

"Okay, yes, I know that. But what am I going to do?"

"Well… you know what I think? I think what we should do is do a little more research on this girl. You take that info and decide if you're gonna stay with a girl who is clearly lying to you and hiding something from you. And is probably just a big a criminal as her brother."

Angus sighed, none of that was true. Rory, Rory wasn't like her brother. She wasn't a criminal… he didn't think. Rory was kind and sweet and yes, she might have shown the slight tendency to be like her brother but she was practically harmless.

But he couldn't say that to Jack, because he didn't know Rory like he did. So instead he said: "Maybe you're right, maybe I do need to do some more research."

"Yeah and do you know where we have to start?" Angus shook his head. "We start with her Ex. You're in luck, I looked into and it turns out… I know him."

"You know Jamie?"

"Jamie? Who's Jamie? No, no, I know Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett. He's an ex Navy seal and the head of Five-0, that Hawaiian tactical unit that's looking for her. Turns out Rowan Pierce is his ex and had a habit of arresting her for things that weren't crimes when they were broken up. He's put one hell of a red flag on her file."

That was a little distressing to hear. Because everything except for the name sounded word for word like what Rory had told him about her ex-boyfriend Jamie.

Angus sighed. "There's no point calling him now, he'll be asleep."

But Jack was already throwing a few bills into the bar top and heading towards the door. Okay, guess he was calling this Steven person now. He led Angus all the way back to his car where they both got in and he dialed Steven's number.

Angus wondered why Jack had this man's personal cellphone. He wondered if this man would pick up but after three rings he did.

The: "McGarrett," that came from him was not from a man they had just woken up. And since he was so clearly wide awake, Angus felt a little less bad about calling so late.

"McGarrett. It's Dalton."

"Delta Force Dalton?"

"The one and only."

McGarrett chuckled. "You son of a bitch!"

Jack chuckled too. "How you doing? I hear you're heading up some special unit in Hawaii?"

"Heard that huh?"

"That's so like you. You always were over dramatic."

The laughter took them again. "I hear you're working with some spy organization. Just like you, all subterfuge and stubborn fly-by-night operations."

Oh that was right. Navy Seals and Delta Force always had some beef that Angus never quite understood despite being on a few missions with them, that was how he met Jack after all.

"So why are you calling me this late at night?"

"I have a case that you might be able to help me with, was hoping I could pick your brain."

"Shoot."

"What do you know about Rowan Pierce?"

And just like that the tone changed. For a second there was silence but even over the phone Angus could feel the electric tension vibrating through it.

"You have Rowan? You're in Los Angeles, right? She was just in Hawaii how did she…" Wait a second, Rory had been in Hawaii? No, how was that possible? "Okay you know what, if you have her in holding, you'll have to move her. Port Hueneme is what, an hour away from you? Take her there, I'm gonna call some people…"

"Whoa, whoa, slow your roll, I never said I had Rowan in custody."

And now that tension was replaced with disappointment and while Angus usually had a bleeding heart he didn't in this case. Firstly, how the hell did he know where they were? And why the hell did he want her transported to a Naval Base as soon as possible? Rowan wasn't the threat Wo Fat was.

"I have someone who might be connected to them, a body guard who isn't afraid of to get his hands really dirty and I wanted to know if…"

"An Assassin named Sin Nombre?" "Well No…" "Then Juan Carlos or Armando Diaz?" "No, Steven, damn you're jumping down my throat. No, we have someone called Conrad Bastian."

"No, sorry, I don't know him. But Wo Fat has a lot of people working Rowan's security detail… or at least that's what I'm told."

"Okay, well it was worth a shot. Uh… since I have you on the line, you wanna talk me through this red flag you got on this girl's file?"

There was a long pause in which they heard Steven sigh heavily. "She's a flight risk and Wo Fat isn't about knocking down government buildings to get her back. If your Conrad guy manages to lead you to her, take her straight to Port Hueneme it's the safest place to stash her…"

"Okay, and what exactly did she do? Cause I'm looking at her file and it looks like a lot of uh… domestic disputes…"

"She… okay so she isn't really the criminal but… if she's there, Wo Fat's not going to be far behind and neither will her body guard. Sin Nombre is a contract killer, extremely dangerous. If we want to nab either of those men… well Rowan is the easiest way to do that."

Jack avoided Angus' accusing eyes. "Alright I'll keep that in mind and I'll keep you posted, thanks for the info McGarrett! Aloha."

And then he hung up quickly before Steven could say anything else. For a moment they sat in the silence and Jack seemed to think it over. Angus turned to him. "You know what that sounded like right?"

"Yeah, Rowan and Wo Fat are very, very close. So, Rory has to be her."

That wasn't what it sounded like. It sounded like if Rory really was Rowan, she was running from Steven. They must have broken up and he didn't take it well. Even from around the world he was trying to snatch her up, by using her as a way to get Wo Fat. With Angus MacGyver and the Phoenix Foundation by her side now they'd be able to protect her from him.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

"TREVOR!"

Malcolm sighed and tried very hard not to shake his head as he watched Sarah throw herself over the barrier to hug Trevor. Malcolm knew they were best friends but they had only been separated for a few months, two at tops.

Malcolm sat idly back watching Trevor hug his friend, and then stooping down to pick up and hold close her daughter, Evolet.

They looked like a family, like they might belong together. Malcolm might have been jealous if didn't know that Trevor was gay, or he was gay himself… which he certainly was not. At least he didn't think he was. Spending a few months with an attractive man like Trevor had definitely had him questioning his sexuality at some points.

He was just glad to be home, well to be seeing Trevor off to his home. Malcolm was from a small town in Manitoba that no one ever knew. He didn't even have to see him home, but he had spent a lot of time and frustration on ensuring that Trevor stayed safe and away from the Stepanovs.

He had gotten news a week or so a go that Victor Stepanov had died. And that had been… shocking. The man had evaded the FBI, the KGB, and man others who wanted to either arrest him or worse. So to hear him taken down in his own club, in Moscow, while surrounded by his guards and people loyal to him had seemed… strange. He had refused to pack them up until he got undeniable proof that he was dead. And… well… he had got it. They had DNA tested the body, had watched the empire he build crumble. Yes, Irina was missing, but there was no way she would survive without her father's contacts who had all… for some reason that no one could explain to Malcolm, had all dropped their associations with him. That should have meant that Trevor was safe, but it made him nervous that all of Victor's associates had dropped him the second the man had died. Usually they just took over, but so far Victor's space in the arms market and drug market remained untouched.

So why didn't he want to leave? Why did he feel uneasy? Why did he feel like this had all ended too… easily?

Or were his confusing feelings for Trevor Pierce twisting things up and mixing him up?

"I know you wanted me to keep up to date on the whole Rowan Pierce situation, but I haven't heard anything about her in a year. It's like she dropped off the face of the earth."

At that both Sarah and Trevor turned their eyes to Malcolm. He knew what was going to happen next. Trevor had asked him on and off about this Rowan Pierce. This long-lost sister he was certain was being brainwashed in Hawaii. The problem was, Trevor's story had holes, and it all came unravelled when Malcolm started asking questions. The most prominent one being: "According to the database your sister was still born, so how is she alive and well in Hawaii?" Not that the holes were the only problem, even if Malcolm wanted to, according to his friend in the office, the last time they checked her file for the Pierce family, Rowan's file was locked down by a special unit in Hawaii and they refused to open it for them.

"Don't start this again," Malcolm sighed.

"Look, there holes in the story. Ones that I can't explain. You're right, but if you can help me figure it out… help me make sure that she's okay… I'll… I'll explain the holes. Okay? Deal?"

Malcolm couldn't help it. He was curious. He did want to know what it was going on, and why Trevor thought this random girl was his dead sister, and not just a girl that happened to have the same name. And, though he wasn't quite ready to admit it to himself, he didn't quite want to leave Trevor yet.

"Alright fine, I'll see if I can get her file unsealed. But if I do this, you have to tell me everything, you get me?"

Trevor and Sarah turned to stare at one another before silently coming to the same conclusion. "Deal," they said together and Trevor sighed, turning to pull out his phone.

This better be worth it.