Hands Up, Baby Hands Up

Come on baby - Don't fear the reaper

Lucho paced about the room like a mad man. Jail had changed the man a tad for the worse, not that he was that great to begin with. Jail had ruined a lot of prospects for him - his family refused to acknowledge him and without their money - his friends did the same. Now he was a man with little to lose, and he decided to put his personality to good use by joining the rival clan. But there was something about his rambling manner - something that made people believe he was absolutely crazy. He tried to convince not few of Armenta's men that Juliana was actually El Caballero - but the men laughed him off. That girl from nowhere? Not likely. He had tried to storm Armenta's headquarters with that information once - and again - was thought to be insane. But Armenta could see Lucho's potential as a henchman. Deranged, unhinged - but certainly useful. Which is what made Lucho the perfect person to get his hands dirty for him.

"Lucho!" Armenta boomed as he stormed into the room, which made Lucho stop pacing, but his vibe did not show any signs of submission.

"The last time I met you - you begged for an opportunity to prove yourself to me."

Lucho eyed the man and nodded.

"Well - it's your lucky day: the day I need you to kidnap someone for me. Juliana Valdés"

At that Lucho flinched. Was this guy insane? How could he just kidnap the head of the rival cartel by himself? He was visibly surprised and scared now.

"Juliana Valdés?"

"Yes."

"But why?"

"To get to El Caballero, of course." At that Lucho snapped.

"BUT JULIANA IS - " Lucho's yelling was cut short by one of Armenta's bodyguard smacking him hard across the face.

"Boy - I'm giving you a chance to prove yourself. I don't need your input on it." Lucho clutched his face as his rage washed over him. Realizing that if he wanted to get into Armenta's good books, he had to do what he was told. He stood upright and nodded again.

"Good."

Val was lightly stroking the little velvet lining of the ring box as she stared at a picture of herself and Juls on her computer. The custom ring had arrived that morning and it looked absolutely perfect. With Sara being her assistant-slash-undercover bodyguard it was difficult to get a minute to herself. She risked discovering her plan, but she couldn't stop herself from checking the ring in a quick gap she had. As if on cue - Sara barged into the room and caught Val quickly shutting the box shut - but it was too late.

"Wow." Sara breathed, closing the door behind her. Val sighed in exasperation as she put the box in one of her drawers.

"If you dare tell Juls - " Val threatened, her face stern. Sara held up her hands in surrender and shook her head desperately. She had over time learnt it was better to piss off Juliana than Valentina. Juls' wrath she could manage - Val's was something else entirely.

"So - when's the big proposal?" she asked, putting her hands down and sitting down on the couch in Val's office. She considered the fact that both of them wanted to propose to each other - and decided to intervene a bit and set up an adorable scene.

Val's face lost its sternness as she thought of Juls. She smiled a soft smile - considering the prospect of proposing to the love of her life. She had planned it for a romantic weekend - but now that she actually had the ring - a nervous excitement caught hold of her.

"As soon as I see her, I think. I don't think I could keep it from her for long. And I know you - you're going to tell her anyway."

Sara normally would have quipped something sharp in retaliation - but right now she was the sappy director of this cute love scene - that she let it slide. She sat up and smiled hard considering her plan and she knew it would be perfect.

"What about tonight?" she suggested. Val looked up in surprise.

"Tonight?"

"It's perfect. You're going to the park - the place where you met. You could walk around the park - and then propose to her at the bench you first met her." Sara began picturing, more caught up in her imagination where the scene unfolded perfectly than in reality. Val was even more surprised hearing all this.

"And how do you know all this?"

Sara's eye's widened as she realized she had pretty much given away half of Jul's proposal plan and knew she had to salvage things - and a rare occurrence occurred as Sara made use of her one braincell. As casually as she could, without giving away too much her glee - she laid back and coughed a bit as she tried to sound disinterested - for some reason.

"Well - the woman never stops talking about you. And when she was looking for you when she thought you were missing, she waited at that bench hoping you'd turn up." Val was touched at the thought of Juls waiting for her, on that fateful bench. Sara, of course - once she started - couldn't shut up.

"Well - this was before she knew that technically she had kidnapped you." Sara rambled on, and Val snapped out of her romantic trance.

"Yes Sara, I remember. I was there."

" Yes - but then again technically that was my fault with the lack of the - "

Val shook her head and breathed out loud as Sara rambled on.

"Sara."

"Hmm?"

"Tonight then." Val confirmed with a small laugh, her heart filling up with joy and love at the thought. Sara smiled in return, nodding.

"Tonight." she agreed - trying to not sound too excited at the prospect of her idea playing out.

THEY'RE GOING TO PROPOSE TO EACH OTHER AT THE SAME TIME - Sara's singular braincell screamed internally - pleased at her handiwork.

Juls was busy planning her proposal that morning, doing her best to make sure their corner of the park wouldn't have people there in the evening so that she and Val could enjoy the park in their own little bubble. To no one's surprise at all - Juls was all alone in the park at this time. She had tried other bodyguards - several in fact but none of them actually worked. It was now that Juls truly appreciated how well she and Sara worked together - as insane as Sara's plans got at times. She crossed the bench where she met Val for the first time and smiled. There was an old couple sitting there at the moment - and Juliana took in a deep breath as she considered everything - the evening, Val's blushing face, the rest of their lives together. In her imagination - she was not the Don of one of the cartels, Val was not the editor of the Carvajal newspaper - they were just two girls absolutely in love. Jul's closed her eyes - thinking back to the first time she met Valentina, smiling as she remembered it. Even on their first meeting, when she had no idea who Valentina was - Juliana couldn't take her eyes off her. To think things had worked out so well almost made her tear up.

"Tonight" she softly whispered to herself as she looked at the old couple laugh at something.

Lucho eyed the park from his vantagepoint - surprised that Juliana was alone. He grunted to himself as he drove off.

"Tonight."