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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers! We got another long chapter incoming. To be honest, I just didn't want to split it into two. That being said, this will be the last update for the month, so I hope you enjoy this update, don't forget to review and I'll see you guys in March!

Chapter 469

Adam was not having a good day.

It had started out like any regular day. Steve had called him and had asked what he was up to. When Adam had told him nothing, Steve had requested that he go stay with Rowan.

Apparently Jian was having another day where she couldn't handle being anywhere near Rowan, so Con was with her while Wo was at work. Steve needed Junior for a case and didn't want Rowan being alone.

Considering how stressed Adam had been lately, a little Rowan time probably would have been good for him. Rowan mostly just wanted to potter around the house doing chores and trying to bake. Obviously he'd help her with whatever chores she was working on, and then be rewarded with some of her baked goods. He wouldn't even mind if she wanted to go to the mall for pretzels and slushies but he never got chance to talk to her about what she wanted to do that day, because he never made it to her house.

Adam had been about half way there when he got pulled over. He had rolled his eyes when McNeal and whichever Agent he had dragged with him that day appeared in his mirrors. They had their guns out once again, they demanded him out of the car, which he had obliged. McNeal got him on his knees, hands on his head, all sorts of embarrassed, but all he could think was that he absolutely couldn't wait to call Rowan about this, or better yet Wo Fat, whom Adam was certain worked in the same office with McNeal.

There was no way McNeal had made Wo Fat aware of this arrest attempt. Wo would have talked him out of it or, at the very least, would have warned Adam about it. Well he hoped he would anyway.

Problem was, this wasn't just a routine stop where Adam would prove they were crazy and get to drive away. In fact, they found a dead body in the trunk of his car. A body he wasn't aware of, a body he had no idea was in his trunk. He didn't even know how it got there.

Best believe he had a lot of time to think about it though. They had put him in cuffs, shoved him into the back of their car and then taken him down into the bowels of the FBI field office in Honolulu.

He kept asking McNeal to go get Wo, kept saying that he wanted to talk to the man, but he wouldn't let him. Which meant that he was keeping Wo Fat out of the loop. Never a good plan.

McNeal had decided to interrogate him right away. He hadn't given Adam a phone call, he hadn't called for a lawyer, he hadn't even given him water. For some reason he kept asking about Jessie. Adam had made the mistake of mentioning that he had a CI, that she was could potential vouch for him and then all McNeal wanted after that was his CI's name and how to get a hold of them. Adam hadn't liked how the man had asked, something about the way he looked at him when he did it raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

But mostly he was feeling rather petty, so he'd rather not work with McNeal. He refused to listen to Adam when he told him that he was being framed, he refused to get Wo Fat, he refused to be any sort of reasonable, so Adam was going to match his energy.

It took them going around in circles for a good twenty minutes before McNeal decided to leave Adam to stew. Specifically he wanted Adam to think about it, think about what was happening, and give him something other than, clearly I've been framed. Well, Adam had already decided he wasn't going to cooperate unless someone went and either Got Wo Fat or Steve, so McNeal was bound to be disappointed when he came back.

The problem was, McNeal was gone only a moment before the door opened up again. Adam might have been surprised, but he was past being surprised when Rowan did the things she did.

She came in, waddling towards him a glass of water in her hands that she put right in front of him. He should have said thank you but he was too mad for that at that moment.

"What are you doing here?" he asked and then dropped his voice to hiss: "Did you… you know… in the door… cause Steve will kill me if…"

"Oh pish-posh, the man's busy," she said as she took a hold of the seat that McNeal had just vacated and dragged it across the concrete floor to his side of the table. The sound grating against his ears, a worse torture than McNeal's questions. "Besides, I'm not supposed to be alone, nor did I want to leave you alone with all of this going on."

"Why couldn't you have brought the brother who's a lawyer."

"Con never finished his degree… nor did he go for the Bar. And he's dealing with girlfriend drama, so he's out of commission."

Odd because he thought Con was with Jian. Who was with Jian if Con was dealing with girlfriend drama?

"You could have called Wo," Adam reminded her. Rowan just smiled patiently. She reached across his arms, put a single finger to the cuffs chaining him to the desk and they fell off him in an instant. "I did something better."

Before he could ask her what that meant the door opened. There was Agent McNeal, once more, coffee in hand, nothing for Adam, not that it mattered because, now that his hands were free, he had the glass of water Rowan had brought him to his lips. McNeal stopped short when he saw Rowan and the pretty smile she was flashing him.

"Good morning," she said cheerily as if she hadn't just broken into a government building and holding cell.

"What... what are you… how did you get in here?"

"I opened the door," she said. "I hope you don't mind that I took your chair. I'm pregnant I needed it more."

McNeal blinked his eyes and then turned to Adam who was now lounging back in his chair. There was nothing Adam liked more than watching Rowan infuriate and confuse people. He didn't even feel bad for McNeal. The man fucking deserved it.

"How did you get him out of the cuffs?"

"Magic," Rowan said, hitting him with jazz hands and wiggling fingers. McNeal frowned at him and then her.

"Miss. Pierce, I'm very close to charging you with hindering an investigation."

Rowan simply waved him off while blowing a raspberry at him.

"This isn't an investigation this is a misunderstanding at best and harassment in a worst case scenario… for you that is. And my name is Mrs. McGarrett. You're lucky my husband isn't here. He'd be so mad…"

"Yes, but he's not here. And neither is your brother."

"No, but he's in the building."

"Doesn't seem to know you're down here though, does he?" McNeal asked her, a smug smile on his face. Adam almost snorted, it was never wise to get like that with Rowan.

Rowan returned his smug smile with a glittering Ice Queen one of her own. "My brother always knows where I am."

And as if he were summoned, the door slammed open, revealing a very angry Wo Fat. He stormed into the small room, a secondary FBI agent trailing him. Adam didn't know this one, but he was nervously trying to calm Wo Fat down as he rapidly approached the table they were sitting at.

"What the actual fuck Ro!" he shouted. His eyes spotted Adam and if possible that anger grew. Eyes widening, nostrils flaring, until finally he turned a glare so dark onto McNeal that even Adam withered under it. "Why the fuck are they here?"

Agent McNeal stuttered, blustered, trying to square his shoulders to appear more intimidating. Though taller than Wo, Wo was so much worse than McNeal. The heavy heat of that glare was oppressive, and he was cracking under it.

"I don't know why you did this, we all got the briefing notes, we were all made aware of how rabid he is about his sister," the other FBI agent said softly.

"I didn't fucking arrest her she just showed up!" he cried and then turned back to Wo. "She keeps just showing up! I don't want her! I want him." He then pointed at Adam. "We found a body in his trunk. Explain that."

Wo blinked his eyes and then turned to Adam. "I thought you said we weren't going to kill your CI."

Adam sighed heavily, because that was such a typical thing for that man to ask, but it just had McNeal confused. "Wait… you two were planning a murder?"

"No, I was planning a murder, he said no."

"You can't be planning murders! You work for the…" "—I'll do whatever I damn well please," Wo snapped cutting him off before turning to Adam. "Who did you kill and why didn't you ask me to hide the body? Also, you never transport in your own car, that's the first rule of body removal."

"Why are you giving him advice," Agent McNeal hissed only to be ignored.

"I didn't kill anyone. I'm being framed Wo."

Wo nodded. "That makes more sense…" he then turned to his sister who had taken a plastic baggie of cookies out of her pocket. She gave one to Adam and then offered one to Wo Fat who snatched it from her immediately. She had recently made a new batch of everyone's favourite cookies, there was no way he was turning it down. "Why the fuck are you here then? Did he get arrested with you in the car?"

"No. Steve wanted Adam to stay with me, but they arrested him before he got to my house. I'm not supposed to be alone, as you well know, and they wouldn't tell you Adam was here, so he wasn't going to get out any time soon, so I thought I might as well come here. Cause it would be safer for me… and maybe a little bit because you'd probably find him quicker if I was here."

"You could have just texted me."

"I did."

"You texted me: Been arrested. Currently in your interrogation room R-101. Can you bring me some ice chips?"

"And I see you forgot my ice chips," she said. "Very rude considering I brought you a cookie."

Wo groaned loudly, a hand raising to pinch the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "How did you get here?"

For a moment Rowan just stared at him. "You know how I got here."

Wo groaned again, this one louder than the previous one. "Steve is going to kill me."

"Oh… I didn't text him… he's busy. There's a good chance he'll have no idea what's going on."

That time, Wo's groan was slightly muffled by the hands he put over his face. After a moment lowered those hands, his face as passive as it usually was, turned to McNeal who had stood there his eyes nervously darting between them all, looking like he might have been too afraid to intervene. To have that attention back on him.

"Okay, I'm going to take my sister and my… fuck I don't know what he is… my other responsibility I guess and we're leaving."

"Now wait a second, we found a body…"

"For the love of Christ. I don't care what you think is happening. You're letting him go. You're letting her go. And if I come back here and you have Adam again you'll deal with ME. And I don't mean in the polite HR sense," Wo snapped. He reached for Rowan first, pulling her out of the chair. For Adam he snapped his fingers at him, signifying for him to stand up and follow him. "And while we're at it, if bodies are dropping and you don't know who it is, it's probably me. It's almost always me!"

"It's not supposed to be you!"

"When has that EVER stopped me," Wo cried pushing Adam and Rowan out of the door. "I will not be having this conversation with you again."

"Are you not going to ask who it was?"

"Don't know, don't care."

"It was Hideki Tashiro," McNeal called, having not left the interrogation room.

Wo stopped and then turned back around, appearing once more in the doorway. "Hideki?" he echoed.

"Oh yeah. And as you well know he and Adam had a run in recently, now didn't he? That's motive in my book."

"Motive?" Wo echoed again, this time with a scoff. "I wouldn't call it a run in. Man got snatched out of his house and tortured. I went and got him back from Hideki personally. I embarrassed the man heavily. Adam would have no reason to go after him, not after what I did."

McNeal blinking his eyes. "Yeah… well…"

"How was he killed?"

"Preliminary findings say three gunshots. Once to the head, twice to the chest."

Adam knew what that was right away. A professional tap. The kind Wo Fat used to do when he was in the MSS. Something he continued even after he left the organization.

"Hmm… that's my M.O, not Adam's," Wo said musingly. McNeal's eyebrows drew together.

"What does that mean?"

"That this a message. The body being in Adam's car. Hideki being killed the way he was. This is a message for me."

"Oh yeah? And what are they trying to tell you?"

"It could mean anything really. That they know I'm still looking for them. That they know I have the money they're looking for. That they're going to start coming at me. I'm assuming they'll tell me when they finally reach out, which it seems like they're finally going to do." He seemed to think it over a bit before eventually adding: "I'll look into it and get back to you."

"Now wait a second…"

"No. This message is for me. Adam is not the culprit, but I will have one for you very, very soon. Now we're leaving."

That was the conversation over. Wo Fat joined Rowan and Adam back in the hallway, no longer interested in McNeal, his only priority was getting them home. McNeal, however, was not done with the conversation and followed them out into the hallway.

"I said stop!" he shouted, causing Wo to pause. He turned back to McNeal, a single eyebrow cocked at him. "I'm in charge here, not you. You don't get to swan about doing whatever the fuck you want. You have to listen to me, and I'm ordering you to leave him in that room."

Wo took that in. Then he calmly and slowly walked back towards McNeal. McNeal had actually backed away, but he didn't go that far, nor did he actually get away from him. Eventually Wo Fat came to a stop in front of him. He raised his hands, noting that McNeal flinched at the motion but still reached out and brushed imaginary lint off his shoulders.

"You know… I once took out an entire faction of the Yakuza in one night," he whispered. "I was very mad that night, a lot of it was done on adrenaline and spite alone." He then reached down, seemingly smoothing out his suit before he quickly gripped his tie. He had it wrapped around his fist in an instant, yanking McNeal down closer to his face. "You're dangerously close to making me angry."

McNeal gulped, his Adam's apple bopping with the motion. Wo let go of the tie and then tapped the man's face twice almost lovingly, another motion that McNeal flinched at.

"I will deal with it. You'll get to take the credit. Don't you worry about a single thing."

And then he just turned around and walked away. That time, McNeal didn't stop him. He simply let Wo Fat lead Adam and Rowan away. He got them into the elevator, the doors whooshing shut, before Rowan leant into him, bumping her shoulder against his.

"McNeal is very, very interested in Adam's CI. Really wants to know who she is."

Wo turned a cocked eyebrow to Rowan, taking in that comment. It clearly meant something to him. To both of them. But Adam didn't know what.

"That is… very interesting to know. Thank you for that Rowan," Wo said softly before turning back to Adam. "We're going to go to my desk, I'll give you my car keys. I'm want you to take her back to McGarrett's. You are going to stay there and make sure she doesn't wander through anymore… doors." He then turned to Rowan. "You are going to call Steve, tell him to pick me up here. Okay?"

Rowan nodded immediately going for her phone. The elevator doors dinged, and he led them off the elevator towards the desk they had given him. He got the keys out of his suit jacket pocket and handed them to Adam but didn't let him leave.

"Any chance your CI's mad about the other night and did this."

"Nope," Rowan answered for him. "And her boyfriend's dead too. I'd start there."

Wo sighed at her, realizing that she probably knew a lot more than she was letting on. He wasn't going to argue with her though.

"Right, let me know when you get home… and when Steve's on his way."

Rowan nodded happily, getting up on tippy toe to kiss him on the cheek. She left him with the last cookie, before linking arms with Adam and leading him back to the elevator. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Adam found that he wasn't panicking at all. He had Five-0 and the Chaos Siblings behind him. He had a feeling he was going to be just fine.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

When Steve had called her and Junior into his office for their daily tasks, she hadn't expected the day to turn to shit, though it quickly had. Steve had started with Junior, telling him that he had earned his Five-0 badge early, but he still had requirements to fill before he could be considered officially on the team.

That requirement?

Well, the final step to becoming a cop, before graduating, was to walk a beat. Junior was going to have to walk a beat. He'd have to wear the cop uniform and everything.

She had thought that was hilarious, so much so that she had teased him about it. That had not been a good idea.

Junior had reminded Steve that Tani hadn't actually finished Police Academy, and therefore hadn't fulfilled the qualifications that Steve was levying on him. Steve had nodded, that was correct. And guess who was on a beat now?

Tani and Junior, that's who.

They were both in an HPD uniform, they ahd been giving an HPD cop car and they were driving around dealing with every day cop stuff. Domestic disturbances, helping little old ladies cross the road, helping kids find there ways home, that sort of stuff. Nothing too dangerous, but nothing too thrilling like when she was working a Five-0 case.

Tani was definitely bored.

On top of that she had to put her phone on Do Not Disturb because her boyfriend kept calling her. Normally it would be endearing, having a boyfriend who was so worried about you and what might happen to you that he kept calling and texting asking for updates. But it wasn't because she knew that wasn't the real reason Con was upset.

He was upset because he didn't like Junior. Didn't trust his motives with Tani. He had gotten the sense that Junior liked her, that their relationship was a little too close, and didn't like that she was spending a whole day with him, cooped up in a car. Something she found entirely ironic when his relationship with his adopted sister was all the shades of inappropriate.

She also hated that he wouldn't admit that that was the reason. Because she kept shooting him down, telling him that Junior was a friend and a coworker, he had resorted to using the more reasonable excuse of being worried about her being safe. Which was also stupid, seeing as the Five-0 give was much more dangerous than walking a beat.

And so Con had been silenced, for almost the whole of the morning. She hadn't even bothered to check her phone when they hit their lunch break. She was annoyed as it was she didn't want to add arguing with Con. She was already dealing with loosing out on picking where they got to eat.

"You know, nothing against musubis, but it's a snack food, it's not a meal," she announced into the silence.

Both she and Junior were leaning against the hood of their borrowed cop car, munching on their rice and spam.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who suggested we rock, paper, scissors over where we get lunch, okay?"

Yeah, he had her there. Tani took another bite and then groaned, mostly out of boredom. "Six hours down, six hours to go."

Junior chuckled at her. "Hey, you do realize that this is what you'd be doing every day if you hadn't been kicked out of the academy, right?"

"Yeah, I'm aware," she said. "You don't become a cop because you're psyched to chase down public urinators and get shot at. Joining the force was never about me being happy."

"Yeah? What was it about then?"

"Well, before my dad died, it was really just the three of us, because, you know, we moved so much so it was hard to make real friends. And Koa and I were actually really close. Yeah we had a lot of fun. We got in a lot of trouble. And, uh, somewhere along the line, I realized that I'd been setting the wrong example. And I decided that it was time to set the right one. And the irony is that now that I'm a cop, our relationship's never been worse."

Junior was silent a moment, absorbing what she said, probably not sure how to respond to something so unintentionally heavy. "Sucks being the good guy, huh?" he eventually offered and she struggled not to laugh right in his face.

"The struggle is real," she whispered and Junior laughed at her. She straightened for a moment, drawing a glare onto her face. "Hey! Did we say that you could stop?"

The tagger who they had caught earlier turned to them. He gestured to the wall and the patch he had just finished painting.

"I already covered my tag," he cried. Junior responded by bringing over a second bucket of paint for him. The kid's mouth dropped when he saw it. "Why do I have to paint this whole wall?"

"Because it's better than getting booked for vandalism. And under section 708 of the Hawaiian Penal Code, it's a misdemeanor charge, so you can get charged up to a thousand bucks. You got a thousand bucks?"

The kid shook his head and then admitted defeat. He turned back to the wall to get ready to paint more.

Junior walked back to the cop car, joining her in with the leaning once more. She waited for the kid to start painting again before she bumped his arm with hers.

"Somebody's read the manual," she whispered to him, hitting him with a playful smirk.

"Yeah, I kind of improvised a little bit on the section number but who cares?" Junior whispered back. His eyes drifted over to a spot in the distance before he nudged her with his shoulder. "And uh… have you noticed the uh… the stalker you've uhm… got?"

Tani followed his eyes to where there was a bit a movement, just a little bit past where the kid was painting. For a moment she swore she was a familiar mop of black hair retreating behind a wall. She had a feeling she knew exactly who was peaking around that corner and, honestly, was not going to be very impressed if it actually was him. She groaned, ignoring Junior's teasing smile.

"Yeah… give me a minute," she said to Junior, pushing up off the hood of the car and heading towards the corner.

Con hadn't even bothered to run. He stood there, hands in his pockets waiting for her to round the corner. She thought he might seem bashful, or at the very least remorseful but he showed none of that. In fact, he seemed a little bit too much like Wo Fat. There was little to no emotion on his face. The only difference was that he was taller, and instead of being in a suit, Con was in his black jeans and white tee-shirt.

No leather jacket today and no guns hidden in under arm holsters. She wasn't sure what that meant.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she hissed to him.

Con casually shrugged like she had just wandered up on him on the street and not in an abandoned warehouse area where there wasn't any foot traffic.

"I'm just checking up on you. I can be your back up if something heavy goes down."

"Something heavy?" she echoed. "It's a typical beat. Domestic disturbances, helping little old lady's cross the street. This is nothing like any of the other much more dangerous stuff I regularly do for Five-0."

"I guess… but you never know what's going to…"

Fine. If he was going to lie, she was going to poke holes in them.

"You're out here cause you don't think I can hack it," she snapped and he frowned at her.

"No, I know you can hack it…"

"Well, I don't need back up, Con and I already have it so…"

His nose crinkled at the reference. Like it always did when Junior came up. "Yeah. I know, that's the problem."

"Yeah, you keep mentioning, except you can't give me a real reason as to why you're so threatened by him."

"Cause I can see the way he looks at you," Con said. "I can see it and I don't like it and I don't know why you refuse to see it. Until I see you doing stuff like this and I realize that you like it. You like his attention…"

"He's my friend."

"Maybe you're his friend, but he doesn't want friendship with you. And I think you know that."

Tani leant back on her feet. "I think that's rich coming from you."

Con stared at her. If it were Wo Fat staring her down, his eyes would have darkened. Con's didn't do that when he got mad. When he got mad, when he got into one of his killing moods, when he slipped back into that Sin Nombre persona, his eyes lightened. Honey brown eyes stared at her now and she realize he knew exactly what she meant.

"Rowan is my sister. She is married and very pregnant. She is not trying to fuck me."

"Yeah, a sister who is not related to you, and hates me. Hates sharing you with me, and frequently tries to undermine me and our relationship."

Con huffed, turned away, his jaw pulsing away in his anger. "She's not doing that cause she wants me, she's doing it because our relationship is going to implode at some point and she doesn't want you to hurt me."

Con had never admitted that before. She was even sure why he would say that, how would he even know? But she had a feeling she knew exactly why he thought that.

"Let me guess, your sister had a premonition." She watched Con sigh again, his eyes still looking anywhere but her. "Do you hear how that sounds? How crazy that is? That you're basing all this animosity on a premonition of a self-proclaimed psychic? Con, come on, you can't believe this. She doesn't like me, fine. But a psychic vision? Really? Don't you think it's more logical for us to conclude that she doesn't like me cause she wants you to herself?"

"No," he said sharply.

There was no room for argument with that no. There was nothing she could say or do, she could tell. He wasn't going for logical with this one, he was going to believe his bat-shit-crazy sister.

"Honestly Con, if our relationship implodes it's going to be Rowan's fault," she said. "Cause I don't know how much longer I can put up with this insanity."

His eyes narrowed at that, like she had issued him a challenge. And maybe she had. Maybe there was a bit of a Rowan or Me in there that she didn't quite mean. Or maybe she did… a little bit.

"You know… Steve did what you're thinking of doing. Told Rowan to pick between him and Wo. Wo wasn't even a problem, he was just trying to be a good big brother and Steve got all butt hurt about… well actually he kinda had a good reason to be mad at Wo, but Wo never put Rowan in the middle the way Steve did. That night. Throwing that ultimatum down at her, it's what started the Year of Deceit. She got grabbed that night. And that never would have happened if she was home with him where she belonged. And then you know, Wo had to rescue her, he took her on the run, he sold all these lies to both her and Steve, all because he didn't want Rowan picking Steve. And look how that worked out for everyone. Whole year, no one was happy, and she ended up back here and married to him anyway. Wo did all of that for nothing."

Tani blinked her eyes, not sure she was following what he was saying. Was that… was that some lore of the McGarrett relationship she was certain wasn't as healthy as they pretended it was. Because if this was the back story, she too was very confused as to how the two of them ended up married.

"Sure, I won't go to that extreme, but you're right about one thing, I would always pick Rowan. I don't think you realize who I was before Rowan. That before her, I had no interest in trying to be good, tied down or even bothering to try to be in a relationship again. Rowan saw every little piece of me, the good the bad, the flaws, and she didn't care. She decided I was worthy of love, that I was going to make a great big brother, and that's what I am now. She has been there for me, in ways you will never understand. She has taken on gangsters, cartels… fuck she's taken on Steve for me. I will never turn my back on her, you hear me?"

There was a fire in his eyes, a gravel to his voice, and a dangerous aura around him that had her standing very still and staring at him in almost muted horror. She couldn't find her voice, so she simply nodded at him.

"I don't know how many times I'll have to remind you of this, so let this be the last time. Rowan is very fucking married to Steve. Very married and very pregnant. I helped get them back together, you know. Year of Deceit, it was two things. Rowan crying over Steve at every chance and me trying to talk Wo into letting them talk again. I was the one who came up with getting him to Paradise Island to get them face to face, well I planned a shotgun wedding, but still it was there. Now, if she was in love with me? Why would she marry Steve? Why would she want to go back? And if I were in love with her, as you like to insinuate, why would I have worked so hard to get them back together?"

"I don't know, maybe you wanted to be selfless?"

At that he cocked an eyebrow at her. "Come on now, Tani. You know me. When have I ever been known to be selfless?"

He had a point, he didn't really do stuff like that. If he wanted something he took it.

"Okay, well, can we stop now?" he asked. "Can we stop blaming Rowan for things? Can you maybe believe me when I say that man in interested in you?"

Her lips twitched back and forth, she wanted to say yes but she wasn't sure she could. Con seemed to realize that but decided he didn't want to argue.

"Fine. I've got Jian in the car anyway and I have to get her home before Wo realizes I left. I'm already due for a lecture from him, seeing as Rowan made her way into FBI lock up again without anyone noticing," he muttered. "I'll leave you and Junior to do your thing. Maybe tonight, when you're done, we can go for dinner, hmm? I'll get you something better than SPAM and rice."

"I'd like that," she said softly instead of instinctually asking why Rowan was fucking with the FBI again.

She wanted to lean in and kiss him, but Con was already moving away from her. She'd just have to make it up to him that night after dinner if his family didn't distract him again.

For the rest of the day she didn't see Con. That didn't mean he wasn't following her, he could have just been more careful with being seen. Though she didn't see him, later that afternoon when Junior got pepper-sprayed by a little old lady, she swore she could hear his laughter on the wind.

But then again she might have been daydreaming about that laugh when she would get to tell him the story later that night.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Much like Adam, Steve was not having a good day. He had not been happy to find out Adam had ended up in FBI custody again, even less happy to find out Wo was only made aware of the situation because Rowan was with him. Again.

And he wasn't even going to tell talk about how mad he was that he now had to team up with Wo Fat to clear Adam's name. As if he didn't have his own shit to worry about.

Working with Wo Fat always raised his blood pressure and it didn't help that Wo seemed dead set on emulating Danny that day. From sarcastic quips to comments like: "If we get in a wreck, your wife is going to kill us BOTH and then Jian is going to resuscitate you kill you again," whilst in the middle of a car chase.

He had been looking forward to a relatively chill day, but now he had Danny but like… worse. Because it was Wo Fat and he was definitely doing it to piss him off. At least in Danny's case it was his default personality, he couldn't help it.

Wo Fat wasn't even impressed with anything Steve had done that day. Like single handedly running Jessie down. From shouting: "Don't you dare jump off that building," when he went to follow Jessie off a roof, to clothes-lining her when Steve was just about to tackle her. Wo Fat had simply just been a hinderance.

However, he had to admit that having Wo Fat with him when he took down Jessie was about the only good thing to come out of that situation. They didn't even have to take her to the interrogation room. Jessie was flat on her back, saw Wo Fat standing above her, a gun in his hand, not even pointed at her, and she just started talking.

She admitted that she knew people were dying, and when the two people you're closest to drop dead overnight, it's not hard math to figure that she'd be next. She was actually under the impression that Wo Fat was behind the killing, and if that was the case, he was definitely coming for her next, seeing as he didn't really like her.

Steve had turned to him, surprised at the revelation. He was unaware Wo Fat had even met Jessie let alone had left the impression that he wanted to murder her. He had tried to tell her that that was the aura the man gave off, most of the time he didn't mean to, but no, apparently the last time they saw one another, Wo Fat had wanted to off her. Had the gun ready to do so, the only thing that stopped him was Adam's insistence that he didn't want her dead.

And it helped that Steve was surprised that it worked. Normally Wo would have just shot her. In fact, he was surprised he hadn't shot her yet.

But because he was so surprised by that revelation, she must have figured that Steve had little control over Wo Fat. And while that might have been true, it was still annoying that she came to that conclusion, even if it led to her assuming that she needed to give them more information in order to keep Wo Fat happy.

She told them where the primary scene for Hideki's murder was. A trailer at a construction site where he was hiding out from Wo Fat, and the mysterious figure in the shadows, who was pissed he hadn't managed to turn up the money they were convinced belonged to them.

Steve had turned to Wo who simply shrugged and said: "It's money that I have. Don't know why they just won't come out and ask me for it."

"Probably cause you'll shoot them."

"Well, yeah," he had said like it made sense. "What else would they expect?"

After that Jessie had taken them to the construction site. The trailer was missing but with a call to a friend, Steve got access to satellite imaging that proved that Jessie wasn't lying, it was there and it had been taken away. By a company that was known to work with the Yakuza. Well, they tracked that trailer, only to find that the place had already been cleaned out.

Steve had been worried that they had lost the chance to clear Adam's name, but Wo had a different idea. The way he presented it to McNeal, there was no way that the Yakuza wouldn't get involved in the cleaning of this unless they were involved. And that had somehow been enough, though Steve had a feeling that it was more because it was coming from Wo and not anyone else.

That should have been it. They should have been done for the day, but the universe had it out for them. Steve and Wo had been on the way back to their home when Steve had gotten a call from the Lab. They had found foreign DNA on Hideki's body, now they didn't get an ID on it, but it came back as a partial familiar.

To someone they knew very well.

Steve had sighed at the results but Wo Fat had crowed a: "I KNEW IT!" when they were told.

So when they finally got to their street, Steve didn't drop Wo Fat off at his house, they went into his together.

Adam was sitting at the kitchen table, head in his hands, a beer before him. No clue where Rowan was. She wasn't who he needed to see at that moment though, Steve went to Adam.

He started by telling him that all was okay. They had cleared him, but the did have something to show him. Then he handed Adam his phone and let him read everything that had been relayed to Steve over the phone. After a moment where he absorbed the information, he eventually let out a string of wry chuckles.

"Damn… she was right…" he whispered and then turned his up to Wo Fat. "You were both right. I have a sister."

"A half-sister," Wo clarified for him. "Explains why I remembered her and you didn't. I doubt your dad told you about his mistresses."

"No," Adam said with a sigh. "No, he did not."

"I'm guessing you've met her," Steve said.

"Briefly. She's a couple years younger than Adam, and Hiro kept her hidden mostly."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I didn't care," Wo said. He caught both men staring at him, and correctly assumed that they were appalled by his apathy. "What? It wasn't any of my business what he was doing. All I cared about was the illegal dealings and having him help me find Shelbourne."

Steve stared at him a moment, at the mention of his mother's old CIA codename, he flashed back to when he and Wo Fat were mortal enemies. It was a moment of jarring realization that they had come so far from those days.

But, seeing as Wo Fat wasn't going to be offer any answers that Steve would find satisfactory, he was going to have to get the one who could get him the answers.

"Rowan!" he called, his voice echoing through the house. A call so loud it had Adam and Wo Fat wincing.

"Fucking hell," Wo snarled. "Why are you calling her? What is she going to tell you that I can't?"

"Probably a lot more, Wo, seeing as she has the fucking strings."

He huffed but didn't argue, so they all waited for Rowan to come down the stairs. Adam stayed at the table, Wo Fat took a seat beside him, while Steve waited by the stairs.

When Rowan came into view, he moved up the steps to meet her, offering her a hand to help her down as if she didn't have the railing. HE preferred his grip on her, trusted himself more than the wood that made up his house.

"What's up?" she asked as they made their way down the stairs. "What's the matter?"

"We got info today," he told her. "We want to talk about it."

He led Rowan into the kitchen were the other two men were waiting for them. She took in their faces and then asked: "Is this about Hideki, or have we been proven right about the sister?"

"Half-sister," Wo clarified again. "And yes. We've been proven right."

"She calls herself The Ghost. Her real name is Noriko. You won't find much about her anywhere. She is exactly that, a ghost, because your dad made her that way."

Steve blinked his eyes, wondering how long it she had sat on that information. How long had she had a name, something they could have looked for her with.

"Okay… Rowan I think it's time you tell us what you know about the strings."

"Can't," she said. "Things have to happen first that haven't happened yet. Every time I send Con down to talk to her bad things happen, I've had to pull him twice."

Steve took a deep breath, the stress of the situation finally winding out of him. "Right, I feel a little better now."

"Why?" Adam snapped, clearly not feeling the same way as Steve.

"Because, if the strings aren't letting her intervene yet, there's nothing we could have done to change anything," Steve said, Wo nudged Adam and then nodded, confirming Steve's words. Adam took that in and seemingly decided that he trusted Wo Fat's judgement.

"We were originally putting pressure on them… you know, to try and speed the process up," Rowan said her eyes pointing to Wo Fat, who once again nodded to confirm her words. "But uhm… we have a different problem right now…"

"Which is?"

"The mole," Wo said. "Your uh… your half-sister has someone in the FBI field office. We're pretty sure we know who, but uh… it's been recommended that I have more in the way of evidence before I make any moves to rectify the situation."

Steve's eyes narrowed. "Another undercover OP? I'm not sure… this is getting very complicated…"

"Oh, don't you worry. I happen to know that things are going to get settled very soon," Rowan said. Steve turning to Wo who simply nodded.

"When it does happen, we're going to be ready," Wo said and beside him Rowan nodded.

"Would I be correct in assuming that you two have a whole plan that we're not in on?"

"Three," Wo said stiffly. Great so this was a Chaos Sibling thing.

"The important thing is that we're prepared. We're prepared and we know who's behind this. But she thinks that we have no idea that she exists and it needs to stay that way. So when she pops Adam… you need to be fucking surprised, you got me?"

He nodded at her, a look of steely determination on his face.

After that, everyone left the McGarrett homestead. Wo Fat walked back to his house, Rowan popped a portal to Adam's living room for him, and that left Steve alone with his wife.

She smiled up to him, this pretty little smile that made his heart flutter, no matter how annoyed with her he was. She opened her arms and he reached back for her, tugging her to him, doing his best to hold her carefully and as closely as he could despite the baby bump getting in the way.

After a moment he whispered: "Now, do you want to tell me how you got into an interrogation room in the FBI Field office today when I left you at home?" into her hair.

"Not particularly, no," she said. She must have sensed the burgeoning argument, maybe in the way he set his shoulders. "I'd much rather you take me upstairs and… punish me for being naughty… you know before Nahele gets home from Makani's."

Steve didn't even have to think twice. He simply took a hold of her hand and led her right back to the stairs. He could worry about the Noshimuri's and everything else later.