Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanfics

A/N: Longer note today. Today's my birthday so I'm once again posting early. For everyone who liked jealous Steve get ready for a chapter fraught with a very Jealous Steve. I got a wonderful review from someone only named: Guest. To whoever that person is thank you for the review, it made my day a little bit brighter. I hope you continue to read and review! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter too, and I'll post again next week.

Chapter 4

This Halloween was not going the way he wanted it to. For starters, Kamekona had nearly intruded on his alone time with Catherine. Then, after finally getting Kamekona out, Danny let himself in and started ranting about Grace picking going out with her friends over going trick or treating with him. And it didn't help that since Steve had gotten Rowan a phone she had not gotten off that thing and he had a feeling he knew exactly who was texting her nonstop and making her laugh in that way. Because, sure she texted him every now and then, especially pictures she found funny, she wasn't blowing up his phone, or giggling and smiling over his text messages.

He was still standing at the open door trying to hint at Danny that he wanted him to leave but Danny wasn't get the hint. And then Rowan pounded down the stairs and dashed past him calling: "Don't wait up!" to him.

He caught sight of a low cut shirt and a short skirt and that was enough. "Wait a second," Steve snapped reaching out a grabbing her by the scruff of her shirt and practically ripping her back over the threshold. "Where the hell are you going? And what the hell are you wearing?"

She was wearing a uniform, and a suggestive one at that. The white dress shirt was lowly buttoned and tied at the midriff bearing her now tanned skin, she had a loose grey cardigan on too that was doing nothing to cover her sensuous curves. The skirt was a black pleated skirt, she had white socks up to her thighs and a pair of platform black shoes. Her hair was in braided pigtails and was curling up somehow as if it were defying gravity. He was drinking in the sight of her he couldn't even stop himself.

"I'm Britney Bitch!" she cried wiggling her hips in a seriously seductive manner. "You know: Hit me baby one more time."

Yeah, her singing the song wasn't making the situation better. "Okay, that explains the outfit, but where are you going?"

"Alex invited me to a Halloween party," she told him. Okay well that changed everything.

"Dressed like that?" Steve thundered. "Hell no, you march up those stairs and change, Ro!"

"Why? What's wrong with it?" she asked looking down at her outfit.

"You look like a tramp, that's why!" Steve snapped

"Well, duh," she said. "That's what I was going for!"

"Get up those stairs right this second and change, Ro, or I will carry you up there myself!" he warned which caused the younger girl to roll her eyes and sigh.

"Uh, okay dad," she snarled stomping back up the stairs. Steve watched her go with his hands on his hips. The sound of her door slamming behind her was what had him turn back around.

"Can you believe her?" Steve cried.

Whenever he got too bossy she called him dad and he hated it. But the trade off was he was allowed to use her nickname now, so whenever he never called her Rowan unless he was really angry with her. But at that moment he wanted his… whatever Catherine was… and his best friend to back him up but both of them were staring at him in surprise.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"What's wrong with the outfit? She's a grown woman, Steve, she can dress slutty if she wants," Catherine shot back and Steve frowned.

"It was too suggestive. I don't want Alex getting the wrong idea," he argued.

"You don't think she just gave in a little too easily though, do you?" Danny asked. "I mean… she's gotten really good at climbing out that window now hasn't she?"

Steve blanched because Danny was right. She had been sneaking out the window whenever he tried to ground her from seeing Alex. "Son of a bitch!" he cried rushing towards the lanai to catch her in the act or catch her if she were to fall. As soon as he was gone Rowan scampered out of the shadows of the hallway on the second floor and rushed down the stairs.

"I'll be back at a decent hour I promise," she said hurriedly making a beeline straight for the door.

"Steve, she's going out the front door!" Danny called which caused Rowan to gasp.

"You little snitch!" she cried as she ran out the door which just won her a giant grin from Danny. Steve practically thundered into the room trying to grab her before she got out, but by the time he got to the door she was down the drive and gone.

It looked like Steve might have gone in pursuit of her, he certainly dallied at the door for a bit, but then his phone started ringing. "McGarrett," he answered quickly, he listened patiently to the other side before saying: "Be there in ten. Oh and call Duke, tell him to pull a APB out on Rowan and Nurse Alex's car, tell him to pull her in by any means necessary."

Before Catherine and Danny could say anything Steve hung up the phone and merely said: "Come on, we caught a case," and then stormed out the front door.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

To say Rowan was angry was an understatement. Rowan Pierce was furious. So was so angry she was certain her body temperature had raised. They could have fried an egg on her forehead she was so mad at him. She had been perp-walked back to Iolani Palace, in her Britney costume, her hands in cuffs, a gentle hand from Duke on her arm and then deposited in Steve's office.

After an hour of waiting he finally had the grace to appear. He was sporting a stupidly smug grin on his face that she just wanted to slap off. So it was a good thing that her hands were still cuffed. She glared at him until the smile on his face faltered and maybe because of that he didn't come to the office right away.

But that didn't stop her from continuing to glare at his back as if the act alone may stop his heart or, at the very least, burn a hole through his shirt. When Steve finally elected to join her in his office she was ready for him, but that meant he was ready for her too.

"You complete and utter asshole!" she snarled at him.

"What's the matter? You didn't enjoy your party?" he asked innocently. As if he wasn't the one who set HPD on her.

"No! I didn't even make it to the party! You made sure of that!" she cried. "You realize HPD pulled us over and ARRESTED ME, right? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is? Do you think Alex is going to ask me out again?"

The answer was probably a heavy hell no and that made her angrier than anything else. She needed Alex, he kept her mind off of feelings that she shouldn't have been having. Steve just shrugged with a knowing smile on his face so he clearly wasn't upset by this revelation.

Rowan frowned at him. Clearly the guilt line wasn't working on him so she'd have to try a different angle. "Okay, look. You cannot use your immunity and means to arrest me whenever you feel like it. This is a free country, a democracy if you will, and I am not your child!"

Steve crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her. She hated this pose, he looked so handsome with his flexed muscles leaning against his desk as if he were posing for a magazine cover.

"Uh… this is absolutely not a democracy, it's a benevolent dictatorship," he said pointing a finger in her direction. "And secondly, if you're living with me than you're abiding by my rules…"

"So just a regular dictatorship," Rowan growled.

"It doesn't matter. If I say you're not going out looking like that then you're not," he finished.

Rowan scowled at him. "God what do you have against Alex?" she snarled. "If you're this worried why don't you just run a background check on him?"

When Steve winced and looked away from her she knew that he had already done just that. "No! No, no you did not run my potential boyfriend through criminal databases!" she cried.

Steve scoffed. "Well I had to see what kind of guy he was."

"And what did you find?"

"What did I find?" he echoed.

"Yes. What did this background check turn up?" she demanded to know.

Steve went an uncanny red color. "Oh… uh… well…"

"You found nothing, right?" she asked drily.

Steve made a face. The one where he scrunched up his nose like the smell of the truth was offensive to him. "Okay… well…"

"It's nothing. You have literally no reason to be doing this do you?" she argued.

"Fine, yes. We found nothing on him but some parking tickets. Is that what you want to hear?" he finally admitted.

"Oh my god! Then what is your problem with Alex?" she shouted.

"I don't trust him, alright?!" he suddenly thundered. "Guys like that don't go for girls like you, especially ones straight off the psych ward!"

For a minute Rowan just stared at him. She had prided herself on being thick skinned when it pertained to Steve's comments or behaviour towards her, especially when they were arguing. But that one just plain hurt. A stab straight to the heart.

"Ro…" he started but she cut him off.

"No." she snapped.

"No?" he echoed. "No what? I can't call you Ro anymore, or what? … Wait, what are you doing?"

It took some maneuvering but Rowan was getting her arms out from behind her back. It involved sitting on her hands, pulling her knees up and then pulling her arms out from under and then up. Once she had her hands in front of her she stood up which made Steve stand up straighter. He reached out to her but she shied away.

"Don't touch me," she breathed out, her voice hitching and his hand dropped back to his side. He stared at her with a wounded look on his face like he had any right to be upset after the insult he had just hurled at her.

Rowan stormed out of his office and over to Kono ignoring the fact that Steve was following her. She offered Kono her hands but she just stared at Rowan confused.

"Can you uncuff me please?" she asked. But when Kono glanced back at something just behind her Rowan snapped. "No! Ignore your dictator and uncuff me or I will leave here bound and find another more illegal way out of them!"

Kono's eyes widened but she took out a key and obliged Rowan's request.

"Ro… come on… I didn't mean it like that," Steve tried to tell her. He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to turn her his way but she wasn't having it. She slapped his hand away and whirled towards him like a mad woman, he must have thought she was going to try to hit him because he took a step back and raised his arm to use some Navy block on her.

"No!" she shouted pointing a finger in his face. "You don't get to make excuses!"

Then before he could stop her she stormed away. He called out after her, asked where she was going but she didn't answer and she refused to look back. Not that it mattered. Five-O had a case and Steve was too busy to chase after.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

"So… let's try this again…" Danny said from the passenger seat of the Camaro. "You admitted that you ran a background check on the guy she's dating and when she made you admit that you found nothing on him you told her that you did it because a guy like Alex would never be interested in her?"

Steve shot a glance to Danny. "Yeah… that's kind of it… basically," he whispered.

Danny shook his head and tried not to laugh at him. "You're lucky that girl didn't cave your skull in with her platform shoe, you putz!"

Steve scowled in his direction. "Okay, it wasn't my proudest moment, Danny, but I do believe I asked you what I should do to fix it. I did not ask you to pile on the guilt," he reminded him.

"Okay, you're right, I'm sorry," Danny conceded.

"Thank-you, now what do I do?" Steve repeated.

"What should you do? You fucking buy her something pretty and expensive and beg her forgiveness," Danny told him. "And while you're at it pray to God that she doesn't decided to up and leave you."

Steve didn't want to admit just how much that comment had him rattled. The nervous guilt that had settled under his skin had suddenly come alive, beating wildly in his throat. "Leave me? Firstly, I'm not dating her, she's just my roommate—," "Yeah a roommate that you're obsessed with." "—and secondly she can't leave me where else is she going to go? To live with you? She won't fit in your apartment."

Danny thought for a moment before turning back to Steve. "Well, the only other person she knows is Nurse Alex."

"No. She wouldn't dare," Steve growled.

"You basically told her that the guy wouldn't want her. Even if she had somewhere else to go guaranteed she's so mad at you that she's gone there out of spite," Danny told him.

Steve thought about it briefly. Logically it made sense. Illogically it infuriated him. He bit back the string of curses that threatened to tumble out of his lips. He didn't have time to be this rattled, or this upset. They had a second victim to find before some psycho sacrificed him to some bi-boobed-goat-demon. He couldn't be worrying about Rowan, where she was, who she was with and what she was doing with that person.

So, Steve did the only thing he could think of. He dialed Chin. "Hey, I'm going to give you a number. Can you track it and then send Duke over to the address?" he asked.

"No. No. Steve. Don't. Do not, under any circumstances, send HPD to pick Rowan up again," Danny begged him, but that didn't stop Steve from listing out her number which he had sadly already memorized.

"Uh… boss, that's Rowan's cell. Are you sure you want to go down that road again?" Chin asked.

"Is she at Nurse Alex's place?" Steve asked. He knew he didn't really want to know the answer to that question but he held out hope that while Chin traced that number she wasn't actually at Nurse Alex's and had gone back to where they were cohabiting.

After an agonizing couple of minutes they heard Chin sigh. "Yeah, that's where she is," he admitted. The anger washed over him and he couldn't stop himself from pounding a fist against the steering wheel.

"He should have lied," Danny muttered as Steve struggled to regain his composure.

"Okay. Please tell Duke to go pick her up. Tell him that he is to get her back to the Iolani Palace by any means necessary, approved by me. I'll come and get her when I get a chance."

Though Chin seemed trepid about the situation he agreed and hung up. Danny shook his head at him. "That girl is going to murder you," he muttered but Steve didn't care.

He tried to focus on the task at hand, and the thought of her being put somewhere where he knew she would be okay should have calmed him. But that turmoil that had his stomach rolling hadn't gone away and he wasn't sure he would until he knew that she had gone home. Where she belonged.

H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O

Duke knocked on the Condo's door praying to whatever God would listen that Rowan Peirce wasn't actually inside. The man who opened the door was the same man that had been driving the car she had been found in the night previous so already it looked like the Gods hadn't listened to his prayers. The young man didn't look too please to see him either.

Still Duke flashed his badge and sighed: "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for Rowan Pierce, she isn't here is she?"

Even if he hadn't heard Rowan groan from somewhere behind the boy, the fact that the young man threw a glance over his shoulder would have been hint enough that he had her somewhere in the house. Luckily Duke didn't have to go in after her. After a few seconds she appeared at the door looking less than pleased herself but at least she wasn't in the costume anymore.

"You have got to be kidding me," she cried. "I'm going to kill him."

"I'm really sorry Rowan, but Commander McGarrett was very clear. I have to take you back to Iolani Palace… by any means necessary," he told her.

"Any means necessary?" she echoed. "What am I? A fucking terrorist?"

Duke sighed. He didn't really want to do this but he more than owed McGarrett so he felt honour bound to. Though after this he wasn't going to get involved in any other arguments between Rowan and Steve.

"Okay. Let's be clear here. This is a waste of time and tax payer's dollars," she told him obviously trying to appear more calm than angry. "Because I'm not going anywhere. I don't care what he says, I haven't done anything illegal, you can't just take me. So, can call McGarrett and tell him to McSuck-It!"

There were no words to describe how badly he didn't want to relay that message to McGarrett. The man would have Five-O storming the place with extreme prejudice in seconds. Her boyfriend was clearly thinking the same thing because he suddenly stepped forward.

"Hey Rowan, look, you're lovely, but I really don't want Five-O on my back," he told her softly. "It might be best if you went with him… and if I didn't see you again."

Now Duke and Rowan were just staring at him. Duke assessed Rowan's response. It had been brief but surprise and hurt had flashed on her face before she put up a blank mask on her face. A face of uncaring and indifference. He had to admit, with Five-O as a threat hanging over him, Duke wasn't surprised that the young man chose to save his own skin but he still felt really bad for Rowan.

After a moment's silence Rowan blinked her eyes and merely said: "Yeah, that's fair. Just give me a minute, I'm going to go get my stuff."

Rowan disappeared back into the condo and Duke stayed at the door just glaring at the young man. At least the man had the decency to look ashamed over his actions. Duke couldn't help but wonder if this was what Steve had hoped would happen. It didn't seem like him but it sort of looked like he was trying to sabotage Rowan's relationship.

Rowan appeared with a duffle bag in tow and though her now ex-boyfriend tried to offer her an apology she merely shrugged it off and walked away. Duke, who had stayed behind to apologize for intruding on their evening, had to jog to catch up with her. He was worried she'd make a break for it but it turned out that he didn't have to.

Rowan was completely subdued. She sat in the back of the squad car quiet as a mouse. She didn't argue with him or struggle. He didn't have to perp walk her through Iolani Palace and she quietly let him put her in Steve's office and leave an officer to watch her. Though he pretended not to notice, he saw her covertly wipe away the few stray tears that leaked from her eyes. He couldn't help but be overcome by a terrible surge of righteous indignation for her. There wasn't much he could do but best believe that small thing he could do, he was going to do.