Title: Gamble Everything For Love

Author: Sasusc

Fandom: The Cleaning Lady

Spoilers: S01E07 (Our Father, Who Art in Vegas)

Pairing: Arman/Thony

Characters: Nadia, Marco, Arman, Thony

Summary: Takes place during s01e07 "Our Father, Who Art in Vegas" and could be considered canon. Snippets POV from Nadia, Marco, Arman, and Thony. This was written before episode 8.

Notes: This was the first thing I actually wrote for this fandom. I still adore it even if some of my beliefs about Arman and Nadia was shattered in the next episode after this. I might expand on this and turn it into a bigger story but I usually try to stay close to canon especially with a character's back story. And with this fandom so new, alot of assumptions are being made and changing each week.

Title is inspired by Ben Lee's song "Gamble Everything for Love". It influenced these snippets.

NADIA

Nadia slammed the office door behind her. She knew there was more to her husband's sudden willingness to defy Hayak than he had told her, and now she knew the truth. He was doing this because he thought himself in love. Oh, Armando might not admit it but she knew him better than he did. His heart was always quick to form attachments.

It was his fiery passion that drew her to him all those years ago. And it was his big heart that had her gamble her life on him. He had seen her behind the walls she had built around herself to survive the life she had grown up in. He was quick to pull her out of that life and into his. Everything they've been through since had been to survive and rise up above the stations they had been born into.

She wasn't going to let him ruin it all for this woman and her sick child. She didn't spend years climbing and scratching her way to the top just for her husband to topple it for her . She wanted to laugh in his face when he called her jealous. They were married, but they didn't have that kind of a relationship that involved jealousy. Theirs was an open marriage and had been from the start. The passion they had in the beginning had burned bright and fast and now was more used for comfort and familiarity. She never cared about who he slept with. He could have all the distractions he wanted, but at the end of the day, he stayed focused on their end goal.

Thony was wiping a table when she found her. One look had Thony following her down a hallway and into an empty private room. She stared at the woman, trying to find what Arman found so irresistible about her. It was the steel behind the other woman's eyes, the backbone that kept her moving forward in difficult times. Thony De La Rosa hadn't crumbled under all the weight the world tossed at her. Arman couldn't help but want to be the post she leaned on. He always had a thing for a woman who would do anything to protect her family. They reminded him of his mother who worked herself to death to give her children a better life and of the sister who died when she had no one to lean on.

"Your husband…he suspects you're involved with my husband," she finally said.

Thony pressed her lips together. "It's not like that."

Nadia smirked as she saw something flickered through her eyes. A lie. "No? Why else would a man promise that much money to help a woman out if she was only his employee?"

"We're not sleeping together," Thony told her. She lifted her chin up in challenge. "Your husband is a nice man. He just wants to help out a dying five year old boy."

She leaned into the table behind her. "You and I both know he's not a nice man. He works with Hayak. He's his right hand man. And I don't care if you're sleeping with him or not." She waved her hand around. "It doesn't matter to me who he brings to his bed. But you are going to ruin everything he and I have worked on. It took us years to get right here, on the cusp of being equals with Hayak--to become partners with him for this hotel." Although, Hayak had made it clear recently that he still only thought of her and Arman as the hired help. She had thought that was what had jumped started Arman on making moves against Hayak.

"I'm sorry about your child, but Arman can't help you if he's not thinking clearly. You make him not think clearly. You're going to get us all killed if Hayak starts becoming suspicious about what he would do for you." Nadia watched the emotions wash over Thony. She pursed her lips. "And you're not going to stop going to Armando if he keeps helping your son." Thony didn't have to say anything. They both knew the answer. She pointed a finger at her. "You control your husband. I won't have him coming in here and causing a scene. If it comes back to Hayak that he can't control you, he'll deal with you and your family himself. Armando won't be able to save you again. We're already having problems with the FBI. You're distracting him and making him reckless. You protect your family, but Arman is all the family I have left. I'll protect him even from himself."

Thony nodded. Good. They understood each other. Nadia left without another word.

She took a gamble on Arman Morales once a long time ago, and she'll have to do it again…gamble that he knows what he's doing with Thony De La Rosa. They couldn't afford for him to lose it all over his sudden want to change.

MARCO

It wasn't hard to find. He knew his wife and he knew where she liked to hide things. He was angry that Thony had refused to send him money…money he needed not only to get here to his family but also to pay off some loans he acquired since they left for America. If his wife had sent him money earlier, he wouldn't have had to take out some loans and find his old haunts to gamble. And here was the money she had gotten "working" for another man…a man that wanted her…a man who was a criminal. She lied when she said she didn't know what he did. If she was cleaning up after him, she had to know at least a little bit of what he did. This was some kind of mob operation…something that needed to launder money through a business like the club. If Thony was willing to accept blood money from her boss, what difference would it be if they got the money through his gambling. At least his gambling was more legit than blood money.

He didn't bother to count the money. Marco tucked the envelope into the back of his pants and made sure his shirt covered it. Thony had always been on top of tracking their money, especially after she realized he had been gambling their savings for years before Luca came around. Thony learned of the extent of his gambling addiction and the debt he had put them in when they needed the money for Luca's health. He had only seeked help for his gambling afterwards and his and Thony's marriage had been rocky since then. It had started getting better a few months before she left for the experimental trial Luca needed. The months they've been separated apparently hadn't made her heart grow fonder…not with a man like Arman Morales at her beck and call.

Marco kissed his sister on the cheek as he mentioned something about going to the store. He was going to get the money they needed for Luca's transplant. They didn't need that man's money. There was over $20,000 in the envelope and he only needed to get lucky once to triple it…maybe even get enough for the surgery in one fell swoop.

ARMAN

Arman wanted to hit something. He was letting Thony down… He was letting Luca, the little boy that saw him as a knight in shining armor, down. He hated the desolate look that painted Thony's face when he told her he wouldn't have the money to pay for the transplant. He couldn't move the guns while the FBI was watching them. He also needed to make some calls to ensure Hayak hadn't heard about his deal with Noah McPherson. He already took care of one man. He needed to know where else he needed to plug. Someone talked. The Feds knew about his deal with Noah. He knew it wasn't Thony. Maybe it was the same informant they had heard rumors about, maybe it was someone new. It could even have been one of Noah's men. He needed his crew to be airtight moving forward. Hayak wouldn't think twice about taking him out if he discovered his loyalty had shifted.

He needed to make plans but all he saw was Thony breaking down the other day crying. He would do anything to prevent it happening again. Luca needed this surgery done soon. He needed to find her the money to help him. Hayak wouldn't be bothered to loan him the money. He would try to convince him that they wouldn't be worth it or maybe even decide they were too big of a distraction.

Nadia needed to be told. She was already pissed off over Thony, and when he told her about the deal falling through, she'll throw it into his face. If the Feds knew, it wouldn't be long before Hayak finds out. They needed plans in place to pacify his boss. They needed plans for all of them to survive.

He had made a gamble on hiding Hayak's guns and trying to sell them. And he had lost. But maybe, he still had another hand to play. Not all was lost…not yet.

THONY

Thony had came to Las Vegas on a gamble. Not for money or power or anything else that typically lured people to this city. Her son was dying and this was the one place she could take him to get him into an experiment trial to save his life. And it was working, even with all the speed bumps she hit on her way.

She took a gamble on Arman Morales as well. He could have killed her the first time their lives intersected. He saved her life that night and again later when he could have let that explosion take her out as his boss had wanted.

She learned a long time ago, first from her father and then from her husband, that she couldn't count on a man to help her move forward. If she wanted something, she had to do it herself. She went and got herself an education and a career as a doctor…a good doctor that hospitals wanted her on their staff. Her father had said she wouldn't amount for much when he was deep in his cups before he vanish one day from her life. She had been devastated…hurt and angry…when her husband's gambling problems started tearing down the happy world she had built around herself. Her friends pitied her and turned their backs on her. Her career was already on pause while dealing with Luca's health and then she had to pause her marriage to Marco while he needed help getting through his gambling addiction.

Arman was different. He forged ahead and cleared a path for her to meet her goals. There was a weird trust between them she never felt with anyone else before. Was it only because he saved her life twice? Was it because it seems like he genuinely cared about help Luca despite the cost it took from him both financially and personally? She didn't know.

When Luca had gotten sick and she couldn't take him to a hospital, her gut had told her to go to Arman…that he would help her. If Marco had been around, she didn't think she would put that same belief on him. He couldn't help her and Luca as Arman could.

She took another gamble when she decided to defy Agent Miller and not hand over the evidence he wanted. And again when she told Arman about him and what she had done already for that man. Arman had every right to hand her over to Hayak or kill her himself. But instead, he still wanted to help her. She finally felt like she had a partner…that they would deal with whatever fate threw at them together--not alone or separate. It was wrong for her to think that about a man who wasn't her husband…a man that was married to another woman--a woman she probably would have been friends with in another life. And even with the disappointment and heartache she felt when he told her that he wouldn't have the money now for the surgery, she didn't feel like he let her down. The look they shared before she left, she knew Arman felt the same way she did. He might not have any plans made yet, but she didn't doubt that next time she saw him that he might have a suggestion to help. In the mean time, she'll find a way to get the money she needed.

Whatever it was between her and Arman, it could be considered cheating. It might not have been cheating in the physical sense--except for that kiss--but it was worse than it. This was cheating on an emotional level. Her own trust with her husband was practically non-existent and even with Nadia implying their marriage was open, she doubted Nadia would like how deep of a connection she held with Arman. And it sounded like he hadn't told her about Thony's connection with the FBI. Nadia wouldn't hesitate to strike her down if she thought she would destroy Arman.

It was time to go inside and have that talk with Marco. She wasn't looking forward to it. There will be yelling and anger and resentment. Hopefully Luca would be sleeping through all of it. She didn't want to upset him with their fighting.