Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hey guys, the fanfic app is having some issue with my story. It's saying that the story is only available up to chapter 466. So if you're getting updates but can't read what's going on, please try reading on the website. I know that's not ideal, and I have flagged the issue, but I don't know when anything will be done about it. Sorry about that guys, hope you still enjoy the update and see you guys next week!

Chapter 471

Steve didn't think things could get worse, that was, until the fire inspector came into the building. Rowan had set this up for them, to make sure that their building and their work was up to code. This was the first of many inspections that needed to be done. And it was already going bad. So, so bad.

I'm sorry… how… how many?"

"Seventeen," the man said. Steve knew the man had given him, his first name when they had first met when the investigation started, but it was gone now. He was now looking at the sewn E. Romero – Fire inspector in bright yellow letters above his breast pocket, trying to remember what the E stood for.

Eric? No. Edward maybe? Evan? Elliot? Enzo? Fuck. He couldn't ask him now, not when they were basically on the precipice of a fine.

"Seventeen fire code violations," Steve said turning an amused look to Danny. "You sure about that?" He nodded and Steve felt his blood pressure rise, the same sort of feeling he got when Wo opened his mouth or when Rowan was arguing with him. "I don't… it doesn't make any sense. What do you mean?"

"Yeah, are we talking about the same place? Chinatown, small, little Italian restaurant. Very small."

"The one you're trying to renovate?"

"Yeah."

"Yes," he said and Steve almost groaned.

"You mean small infractions, right? Like a dead battery in a smoke detector or the exit sign, you can't see it cause there's a thing over it or whatever?"

"Well, those are both issues, but you've got bigger problems, starting with your electrical work."

Now that was surprising. "Whoa, what's wrong with the electrical system?" Danny asked.

"For one thing, your breaker panel's dangerously overloaded. You've got open splices in the ceiling, frayed wires in the weathered head it's a mess."

Steve sighed, trying to act the part of contrite when what he really felt was vindicated "I don't know what to say."

"Do you know whose fault this is?"

"Yes, I do," Steve said confidently. So glad that Danny had brought this up. "Uncle Vito."

"Yours," Danny said as soon as Steve got Uncle Vito out of his mouth. "Not Uncle Vito, it's your fault."

Yeah, hadn't been expecting that one. "What do you mean mine?" Steve cried, honestly very insulted. "Uncle Vito has been systematically trying to destroy our dream since he landed here. How is this my fault?"

"You gave him the number to use for the electrician," Danny said.

"He's a great guy… and he's great…" Steve started only for Danny to cut him off with a shake of his head.

"This is the same electrician that Rowan refuses to use for the remodel at your house and told you, explicitly, not to use at our restaurant."

"Yeah but…" Steve stated and then faltered. "Well… that was just cause… she wanted something fancier then… I mean… look at the work he did in here. This place was torn apart by bullets. Look at it, it's perfect."

Unfortunately mentioning that got Inspector Romero's attention again. "Excuse me. Did you say the same electricians also did the work on these offices?"

Steve winced internally. Well. Fuck.

"What?" Steve asked hoping to go with the I didn't hear you ploy to move the conversation on.

"Was that work permitted?'

Danny pointed at Steve. "He'll tell you."

Danny was not a good friend. Rowan was right, he needed better friends, starting with getting rid of Danny.

"Well… I mean…"

"I think I need to look around," Inspector Romero said, moving away from them and meandering out of Danny's office.

Steve let his breath out in a weary sigh, bracing himself on Danny's desk. He could feel Danny's eyes boring into him but he refused to look back. He didn't want to hear it. He wanted to call his wife but he knew if he told her what he had done he'd get an I told you so and he didn't want to hear that either.

Maybe Wo would whack the inspector for him… then in the time it took the department to assign a new one to their restaurant they could get everything fixed.

"What are you stupid?" Danny asked quietly. "What's the matter with you?"

Yeah, he had a point. It was like the closer they got to Rowan's due date the more frazzled and spacey he became. Because he never should have said anything about the same electrician working on the Palace when he hadn't gotten the permit for the work.

"It just came out…"

"When your brain stops working you should shut your mouth," Danny said. "No wonder you and Rowan keep arguing."

No, he and Rowan argued because he was never home, and then because when he was home he hovered and smothered her. They argued about Adam's half-sister and when they could apprehend her. They argued about the plan that was clearly in place that neither she, Wo nor Con would talk about. They argued about what to name their baby.

He wanted John. She wanted a name starting with ST. He thought that was stupid… or at least… the names she had come up with were stupid.

Stellan, Steele, Stryker, Stone. All her choice, all crazy. She didn't want normal names either like Steven Jr, or Stuart or Stetson. She seemed to really like Sterling and while that wasn't any worse than Stone or Storm, he didn't want his kid stuck with a name like that. He didn't want his kid getting teased cause they had given him a shit name.

But Rowan was adamant on the ST name, and he was adamant on something normal, he had no idea why it was taking so long to agree on something, other than stubbornness. And Rowan had not been impressed when he suggested calling their son "Stubborn" after the two of them. He thought it was funny, and so had Danny when he had told him.

At this point he just wanted to get through the day without getting fined, though he'd take just not getting the Five-0 office shut down.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Adam hadn't had much planned that day outside of probably babysitting Rowan. He hadn't been asked to yet, so he was guessing she and Jian's temporary truce was holding a little stronger than the boys thought it would. But he was bored and he figured he'd check in on her, make sure that things were still okay over there, maybe give Con a break.

He had just come out of his house, had been approaching his car when McNeal made his presence known. He had wanted Adam in his car, kept saying that they were going for a drive, but Adam wasn't going anywhere with him, not of his own free will. He asked if McNeal was arresting him, but he wasn't, instead he pressed his gun into Adam's side and told him to get in the car.

Right, so that drive was nonnegotiable, apparently. McNeal let himself into the passenger side of Adam's black Challenger, kept his gun on Adam the entire drive, giving him directions out into the middle of nowhere.

The house they pulled up on out in Kaulukano Place in Waimanalo, was beautiful. It looked like it had been recently renovated and had an absolutely stunning view of Hawaii jungle. It also had no visible neighbours for miles.

Walking in he realized that the house was empty. There was no furniture he could see, everything was in neutral colors, easy to paint over. He was forced into a room, stepping down onto a concrete floor that had been covered in plastic. There were many windows in the walls looking out onto Hawaiian greenery, and a simple bar cart sitting against a white wall. Two glasses and a bottle of Japanese whisky sitting there.

The plastic was a problem. He knew what this kind of set up usually ended in, so it did not bode well for him. And he definitely would have been more worried if he wasn't certain there was no way Rowan would let him go to his death.

"Gonna go out on a limb here and say this is not an official FBI meeting," Adam said to McNeal who had followed him in.

He knew that Wo Fat was aware of a mole, he wondered if he knew it was McNeal. He had a feeling they were probably all aware and they just hadn't told anyone. It would explain the look Rowan and Wo Fat had shared when she had announced how interested McNeal was in finding out the identity of Adam's CI.

"Yeah, that's a good guess," McNeal said entirely too casually.

"So, what is this? You finally going to tell me who's behind all this?" McNeal obviously wasn't expecting that. His eyebrows shot up. "Would it help if I told you I already know?"

Rowan had told him to act surprised when his half-sister showed up, but honestly he wasn't in the mood. He was done playing games with all these people. Rowan included.

"You already know?" a feminine voice asked and when he looked behind McNeal a woman was walking into the room. She had two goons waiting in the hallway for her, watching carefully, hands on their pieces, as she walked across the room towards them. "How surprising."

His half-sister looked somewhat like him. She had the height their family was known for, though that could have been the six-inch heels she was wearing. She was in a navy-blue blouse tucked into a red pencil skirt, looking a little like Rowan when she went for royalty meetings. Her hair was dark brown and she had the family's brown eyes. He was guessing she got her facial features from her mother, who must have had a petite nose and a rounded chin, the full lips looked like the ones he had inherited from his dad though.

"Hello Noriko," Adam said with a wry smile and she too indulged him with a pair of eyebrows raised in surprise.

"You… you know who I am? Your dad told you about me?"

"My dad told me nothing. But Wo remembers you."

She scoffed at him, a sneer touching her lips. "I'm not surprise he never mentioned me. But he spoke about you. You were a presence in my life ever since I was a child. I always knew one day we'd come face-to-face. I just never imagined it would be under these circumstances."

At that Adam frowned at her. "You ordered me here, these circumstances are on you. Don't know why you didn't just come forward like a normal secret half-sibling, not sure what you thought I'd do…"

"Brother, you and I have led very different lives. You were given everything. I learned from an early age if I wanted something, I have to take it. And if anyone gets in my way, if anyone even poses a threat…" she turned at that point, one of her goons handed her a gun. This was a scare tactic, but he wasn't scared, he knew there was no way Rowan would let this woman kill him. "I have to eliminate them."

The gun pointed at him and he stared at it a moment. Fear was an involuntary reflex, as was the urge to step away, to beg for his life.

"Okay, before we shoot me, have you thought this through?"

"You mean your connection to Wo Fat and his troublesome sister?" she asked. "Of course. They're not nearly as threatening as you seem to think they are. They're not even here."

Adam sighed again. "Yes… except… you haven't been stealing from me. Everything you seem to want… it's Wo Fat's. And I don't think you should underestimate him or his sister. Both are very terrifying in their own ways.

"One is pregnant. The other is a washed-up has-been operating on old world respect."

"And I'm sure he'd love to hear you call him that. Do you want me to call him? You can talk to him yourself. He'd love to talk to you. In fact, he keeps extending the invitation." Noriko's jaw pulsed for a moment and Adam shot her a smirk. "But you don't want to talk to him, do you? That's why you keep messing with me. Because you're too afraid to go up against Wo Fat yourself."

"I've taken everything that was his and made it mine. I'm not afraid of that old man."

Wow. Washed-up has-been and an old man, she was really going for Wo Fat's throat.

"Fine, then what is this really about? Because that money, it's not mine. The half that was mine… it's… it's not even close to what that was anymore. Do you feel like… like it should have been yours?"

She stared at him, a look of utter disgust. "I was eight when I discovered my father had another family, that I had two brothers. I was ten when I realized I was never gonna meet them. Our father would make sure of that."

She moved away from him at that point. Moving towards a little cart with the whisky and the glasses, she poured up two before turning back to him and offering him one.

"My mother and I were his dirty little secret, and he intended to keep it that way. So he kept me in the shadows. For much of my life, that was painful. But it turned out in my line of work, being in the shadows has its advantages. Wo Fat taught me that."

Adam nodded at that, understanding the meaning. She was messing with him because she resented him for being forced into the shadows by their father. Like it was his fault that he was the child that got to go out into the sun. And yet, she had no idea that he would have never begrudged a half-sister if he had known about them because she had never gotten the chance to get to know him.

He may not know her motives for going after Wo Fat and his lines, but it was clear as day that her anger at their father, at her circumstances, was the reason why Adam had been dragged into this mess.

"Now that I've been forced out of the shadows, I'll need to disappear again. And as Wo Fat also taught me, in order to do that I'll need resources."

"What resources?"

"The money, Adam. The 20 million payment that Shioma took."

"I've already told you, it was 10, half went to me… the other half…"

"Yes, yes, but now I want both. Your half and his."

"You think I'm going to be able to make Wo Fat give you the money?" Adam asked. "That man listens to no one."

"He listens to his sister," Noriko said and Adam paused because that much was true. "Why don't you go and ask her?"

"Uh… to be honest, Ro's not your biggest fan right now. Not sure she'd be up to helping you, even if it was me who asked."

At that Noriko smiled at him, a smile that might have been considered pretty if it there wasn't an entirely vicious aura around her. "In that case, could you give her a message from me?"

One of Noriko's goons moved forward, this time handing her a tablet that she then tapped on for a moment. Eventually she handed it to him. On the screen was a building, white walled, red roofed, two tiered, he could see stars, numbers on doors, greenery he didn't recognize. It looked like a hotel, why would he care about a random hotel?

"Do you recognize that place?"

"No, should I?"

"That's a hotel in Amarillo, Texas."

For a moment Adam froze because he finally understood why that hotel mattered. "How do you know where my wife is?"

"Is that important?" she shot back, but it was, because she shouldn't have known where Kono was. Her movements weren't broadcasted, she went where the lines took her, surprise was part of operation. Her knowing where Kono was meant they had been following her for a while. "What matters is I have people there right now waiting to hear from me, as are my men in San Francisco." At that point she reached out and pressed next on the slide show revealing a video of Chin Ho, Abby and Sara at a café. "You'll be happy to know that Chin Ho, Abby and Sara had a nice breakfast at the Seven Seas Diner this morning. Chin doesn't think it holds a candle to the Wailana coffee House, but Sara love sit. Sweet little girl. Not to mention your CI… would hate for something to happen to her…"

Instinctively Adam started to get defensive, fear started to build up. The urge to scream for Rowan on the tip of his tongue. As was the desire to regale Noriko with all that Rowan had done in Colombia when a Cartel had kidnapped Sara.

"You tell Rowan that I am giving you six hours to get me the money or I start giving the orders to kill," she said. "Now, if I were you, I wouldn't waste any more time standing here lying to me."

And with her threat hurled she turned around and walked away, leaving Adam with a terrifying deadline and the realization that the lives of everyone he cared about were on the line… because of him.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Adam didn't even bother calling Wo or Rowan. He had time to think about it and he figured since Kono was working for the CIA the only way for Noriko to figure out where Kono was to have him bugged in some way. And seeing as McNeal was the mole, he was guessing it was him who did it. He drove instead to Wo Fat's house, just like Rowan had told him he should once Noriko had showed herself.

When he got there, he knocked on the door twice and then let himself in. Like Steve, Wo had gotten into the habit of not locking his doors, seeing as Rowan and mostly Con were constantly coming in and out. Adam figured an ex-crime boss, who knew all about crime and the statistics behind it that he helped contribute to, would be more security conscious considering everything else going on.

He found Wo and Jian on the couch cuddled into one another, both were in lounge wear, her in pink sweatpants, him in grey, but they were wearing matching grey dinosaur hoodies. Honestly, it was a sight Adam was never going to get used to or be able to reconcile with the image he had of what Wo Fat used to be in his head. They were surrounded by bridal magazines, and they must have borrowed Rowan's multi-colored tabs, because many of those magazines and different colored tabs sticking out of the pages.

Adam only managed to get a: "Hey," out of him before Wo Fat was reacting.

"You look frazzled, what happened?" Wo Fat asked after looking him up and down.

"I've had one hell of a morning… I…" he started only for Wo to perk up suddenly and interrupt him.

"Oh, your sister has finally shown up? She's reached out to you?"

"Yes," he said. "We've got 6 hours to find the money or they're going to hurt Kono… and Chin Ho and…"

"Right, right, I get it. Gonna hurt everyone we care about, I get it," he said as he got up.

"No, not everyone you care about, she threatened everyone I cared about!"

"Well of course, Adam, she's not going to chance upsetting me further," he said with a scoff. Then his face fell a bit. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you again?"

"Well no… but… Wo…"

"Okay then we're okay so far. Six hours you said, to get the money?" he asked.

"Yes… but…"

"Right, that's doable, I'll have to pull a favour but I think Rowan's already on that."

"Wait… did you know they were going to grab me?"

"Yes, we knew that was how it was going to start, but Rowan's been monitoring your strings, she'd've told me if you were in danger. We would have gone to get you."

That had him feeling a little bit better. At least he hadn't been fully alone the whole time.

"Does Rowan know how this is going to play out?"

"There are several outcomes in motion, she's having a hard time pinning one down. We're going to go about this in what she says is the safest route for everyone involved. Everyone we care about, I mean."

"But… Kono and Chin… should we warn them?"

"I believe Rowan already has, but you can text her to confirm," Wo said and then clapped his hands. "Now, let's just give me a second to get ready and then we'll move, okay?"

He rushed off for the stairs, leaving him with Jian who was smiling patiently at him.

"Sorry about this," he said to her but she waved it away.

"I'm just glad you're not hurt this time. Wo was in such a tizzy when he found out that Hideki man had grabbed you. I got to listen to him lecture Rowan about not telling him right away, it was quite fun to watch."

Adam couldn't help but smile at that. Wo Fat never really showed him he cared, Adam assumed he did because the man came to rescue him a few times, but he hadn't voiced it, he rarely acted like it. Maybe Wo Fat just didn't know how to show it normally, maybe he really was Adam's friend, or at least trying to be.

He sat down beside Jian and had her show him what she was tagging. She had blue for dresses, Red for color schemes and themes, green for suits and yellow for location ideas. She was leaning towards a Blue Hawaii wedding, maybe with art tied in. She wasn't sure if she wanted a beach wedding or a venue in a hall of some kind, so she was flagging both.

Wo Fat was fine with whatever he chose, but double flags meant he had responded very positively to that suggestion.

Eventually Wo Fat came back down, now dressed in a light grey suit with a black button up shirt and no tie. He could tell the underarm holsters were on, something he had picked up from Con. Adam was pretty sure that Con had actually bought him the holsters as Wo hadn't liked the standard issue ones that the CIA had offered him.

He moved towards Jian, kissing her cheek quickly. "I called Con, he's going to bring Rowan over. Try not to overload him with wedding stuff like last time, poor boy looked like he was going to blow a fuse if he even saw another corsage again."

Jian shot him a bit of a smirk. "No promises, you boys have fun!" she called as they go for the door. "And be careful."

"Always," he said before shutting the door behind him. Already Adam could make out Con and Rowan leaving the McGarrett household, Wo raised a hand to wave to them and they waved back. Then he was heading towards Adam's car. "Right, let's go deal with your sister."