Garcia Lovelace stood at the barred and locked window of the room he'd been thrown in. Though he was undoubtedly a hostage, at least Jesus had left the young master unrestrained in a bedroom, as opposed to bound in a basement. He looked out over the compound to get his bearings, though there wasn't much to pinpoint. He knew they hadn't gone far from where he was taken, but clouds had rolled into the night sky, and the few lights throughout the compound were switched off this evening. A rumble in the clouds and a flash of lightning broke the stillness in the air, finally bringing Garcia to step away from the window.

His fingers tended to his bloody lip, and just as he fell onto the bed, the door opened bringing him to get to his feet, ready to defend himself if need be. However, no danger was to fall on him, Jesus' men were simply throwing Rock into the room with Garcia. As the door closed behind him, Rock pushed himself off of the floor, and as he looked up, he caught his first glimpse of the young master. "Senor, Rock?" Garcia asked.

"Garcia?" Rock asked with his surprise written on his face. "Revy was right; sometimes it really just doesn't pay to be optimistic."

Garcia made his was over to Rock and helped him to his feet. Once standing, Rock asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know I'm afraid. One minute I was standing in the Captain's office at the dock, the next a Police officer hit me and threw me into his car. What about you? What are you doing here?"

Rock flinched slightly, not entirely comfortable with the fact that he and the crew were on a job moving drugs. He tried to cover things up as he spoke, "We were…" unfortunately he was more than a bit disheveled and couldn't quite get something out quick enough, "…doing a job for a Cartel in Roanapur."

"The people that hired you to kidnap me?" Garcia asked, somewhat nonchalantly.

"Sort of," Rock replied sheepishly.

"I see."

Garcia walked back to the bed and took a seat. Rock followed him, and stood across from his hunched over form. Clearly there was something on Garcia's mind; Rock just wasn't sure how far he should pry. He gently placed a hand on his shoulder and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm afraid for Roberta."

While he was terrified at the prospect of seeing Roberta again, just the mention of her name calmed him slightly. In the moment, your whole life can go blank, but just hearing her name brought Revy and the rest of Lagoon back to mind as well. A confident grin appeared on Rock's lips as he asked, "Why are you afraid for her? She's traveled much further to find you."

"I'm afraid because I don't want her doing the things she'll be forced to do, in order to bring me home."

Rock took a seat beside Garcia and asked, "You really care for her, don't you?"

Garcia's cheeks turned a light shade of red and he too grinned, "You could say that." He turned to face Rock for a moment, before turning back to face the floor, and asked, "Senor Rock, is it okay to fall in love with someone, you know is wrong for you?"

"What?" Rock asked, flinching halfway across the bed. Garcia's asking was completely innocent, but the parallels he immediately drew between Garcia falling in love with Roberta, and him falling for Revy were undeniable. Rock collected himself just enough to ask, "Are you in love with Roberta?"

Again Garcia turned to face Rock as he asked, "Are you in love with the crazy lady you work with?"

"Nice place, four-eyes," Revy muttered as she followed Dutch and Benny, who followed Roberta into the Lovelace home. After phoning Balalaika from the dock, Dutch and company used the time Balalaika needed to gather information, to stock up on supplies. Lucky for them, Roberta kept a rather well stocked armory, safe from the young master's eyes of course.

Roberta turned back to Revy, not requiring much in the way of motivation to get into a fight, when Dutch warned, "We're guests in her home, Revy; try to show a little respect."

"Right," Revy replied. She'd been working so hard to remain calm after Rock was taken. She might never understand the void he somehow filled in her life, but since his life had become a part of hers, she wasn't ready to let him go just yet. Dealing with those feelings though, it brought her actions to become even more unpredictable.

As they walked through the lavish home, Fabiola appeared in one of the doorways, catching a glimpse of Roberta first, "You've returned, Matron. Is everything…" Dutch, Benny and Revy rounded the corner behind her, immediately bringing Fabiola to draw a pistol from beneath her apron, "…what the hell are they doing here? Where is Master Garcia?"

While Revy almost instantaneously thought of nearly a dozen derogatory or negative things to bark at Fabiola, she somehow kept herself quiet. Perhaps a part of her knew this wasn't the time for jokes. Maybe she just didn't want Dutch to yell at her again. Or just maybe, she was too worried about Rock to concern herself with the trivial quips that entered her mind.

"It's alright, Fabiola," Roberta reassured. As she felt herself having to speak what happened aloud, it only became more real to her. She finally worked up the courage to explain what had happened, "A Cartel has taken Master Garcia."

Panic washed over Fabiola and she asked, "Taken? But how-"

Roberta smiled just slightly as her head sank in disappointment with herself, "It would seem that the harder I try to protect him, the greater I manage to fail him."

"Matron-"

"No," Roberta interrupted. "We've taken the steps necessary to find him. Now all there is to do it get armed, and pray to Santa Maria."

Finally, Revy found herself incapable of keeping quiet, "Pray to whoever the fuck you like; none of that bullshit is gonna do us any good once we find the fuckers that took our people."

"Your people?" Fabiola barked.

"They took Rock too," Revy replied. "You remember Rock, right? The guy who helped you find your precious Matron, 'the biggest piece of shit in Roanapur'?" Fabiola was stunned to silence, and Revy asked as she advanced further into the house. "Roberta?" Revy properly called grabbing everyone's attention. Roberta locked eyes with her for the first time since their confrontation at the docks, but as she observed Revy's smiling face, it hit her all at once; they weren't all that different after all. "Where do you keep the bullets?"

Roberta too smiled, a grin not all that dissimilar from Revy's most twisted smiles, and replied, "Follow me."

Just as they walked off to the supply closet, the phone in Dutch's pocket -Captain Cantillo's phone- rang. He pressed it to his ear and answered, "Miss Balalaika."

"I must apologize, Dutch. If I hadn't given that job to the Italian's, you never would have had to deal with any of this, and I wouldn't have to explain to Chang why his weapon shipment arrived light."

"Business is business, ma'am. Our rates are higher than the Italian's-"

"And your work commands that premium," Balalaika finished for him.

"Like I said, if you managed to get us what we needed, that work is on me next time."

"You're too kind, Dutch. Frankly, I'm amazed Two-hands let this happen in the first place. Her and Rock seem to be almost inseparable lately."

Dutch watched Revy walk into the supply room with Roberta as he commented, "Sometimes I wonder just what the hell happens when the two of them are alone."

"And?" Balalaika asked with more than just a hint of curiosity in her tone.

"I figure it's probably in my best interest to stay out of it. If whatever it is becomes a problem down the road, I'll cross that bridge when the time comes."

"Truly you are wise beyond your years, Dutch."

"What can I say; a boy can learn a lot in his dealings with someone such as yourself," Dutch replied, sure to grease the wheels ever-so-slightly.

"Oh come now, you're making me blush."

"So, about that information I asked you for?"

"Ah yes, back to business," Balalaika sighed. She opened a folder on her desk and continued, "Your target is a man by the name of Jesus Escamillo. Like Rosarita, he too was a former member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia."

"So how'd he end up in the drug trafficking business?"

"He became addicted to pain killers during his tenure with FARC. After failing one-too-many drug screenings, he was dishonorably discharged, and has since become a slave to the drugs that humiliated him. His drug addiction and training have made him one of the most feared men in all of South America. He has nearly half-a-thousand subordinates under his immediate command…"

Dutch smiled slightly as he thought to himself, "Not quite after Revy's little shooting gallery."

"…and his compound is well fortified. Once inside, I'd imagine Two-hands and Rosarita should have little problem dispatching everyone in their way; getting in however stands to be the problem."

"I see," Dutch replied. After a few moments, he took down the coordinates of Jesus' home, and said his goodbyes, "I appreciate your help, ma'am."

"My pleasure, Dutch. While I do feel somewhat guilty about all this, the promise of a free job on behalf of your crew leaves me feeling quite nice."

Dutch smiled, "It'd be my pleasure, Kapitan."

"Good luck, Dutch."

Balalaika hung up and as he took the phone from his ear, Benny asked Dutch, "Well?"

"We got our coordinates, but she says his place is like a fortress," He turned to a clock in the hall, the time: 12:30pm. "We're going to need backup."

In Roberta's supply room, she and Revy managed to speak a language they could both understand quite simply; guns. Surrounded by munitions, Revy wasn't exactly well behaved, often bringing Roberta to scold her, "Put that down, please."

Revy shot her a glare and returned the bolt-action rifle she had picked up, to the wall from which it came. She looked all around as Roberta loaded up a backpack and asked, "Nine-two mags?"

Roberta turned and nodded towards a drawer, which Revy promptly opened. The drawer was loaded with magazines, immediately bringing her to smile. However, when she picked one of them up, her smile quickly became a frown; the magazines were emblazoned with a "Taurus" logo. She slowly turned to lock eyes with Roberta and before she could speak, Roberta explained, "In South America we have Taurus. They're not my guns of choice in the first place, and those guns you use are virtually identical; the magazines are interchangeable."

"Fucking hell," Revy remarked as she slipped several magazines into her pockets. The argument of comparing her Cutlass to a Taurus would wait for another time.

Roberta discreetly looked to Revy as she armed herself, and turned back to her work as she asked, "Do you love him?"

Revy heard her loud and clear and knew exactly what she was asking. Her eyes narrowed and she turned to face her rival, "What was that?"

"The young man in your crew, I remember how he looked at you," Roberta replied. "Do you feel the same?"

Revy offered no response; she simply continued to stare at Roberta, her eyes devoid of emotion, and her pointer fingers begging for a trigger to squeeze. Just as she might have offered an explanation, Dutch entered the room, "You ladies just about ready?"

"Yes," Roberta replied.

Snapped out of her trance, Revy asked, "Big Sis call you back?"

"Yeah," Dutch replied as he observed the rather minimal armaments they were bagging. "You two might want to bring bigger guns."

They both stopped and asked in unison, "Why?"

"From what Balalaika told me, this guy's place is a fortress, and he's got quite a few men working for him."

"How many?" Revy asked.

"Could be as many as five-hundred. But, as we saw, he's got the military on his payroll. I'd bet just getting in is gonna be tricky," Dutch replied.

Roberta turned back to her work, her duress written on her face. At seeing her rival upset, Revy actually felt surprisingly good. So good in fact that she smiled and offered her, "Hey…" Roberta looked up, and Revy continued, "…cheer up, four-eyes; I think I've got an idea."

In Garcia and Rock's holding room, Garcia lay back on the bed while Rock sat at its foot, a smoking cigarette in his lips. Lucky for Garcia, his true first bout of guy-talk would at least be with someone he considered his peer, as opposed to one of his business associates. Unfortunately for Rock, while Garcia was a brilliant young man, he was a bit uneducated on the topic of birds and bees. While Rock wasn't necessarily a bad teacher, he wasn't about to get into details with the young master.

"You still haven't answered my question," Garcia spoke, breaking the silence that had filled the room.

"And which question was that?" Rock asked.

"You and that lady you work with."

Rock smiled slightly, "Revy…" Just thinking of her face brought a feeling of warmth over him, "…Rebecca…" Rock searched for the right words. He thought for a moment of their time in Japan, after Revy'd been injured. While they both knew what had happened between them was a mistake, it didn't stop them from repeating that mistake several times after returning to Roanapur. Finally Rock sighed and tilted his head back to finish his thought, "…I don't know what we are, Garcia."

"If anyone should know, shouldn't you?"

"I wish it were that easy," Rock replied. "But with Revy, there's just no right answer." Rock exhaled a mouthful of smoke and let his guard down a bit, though he was sure to carefully choose his words, "To tell you the truth, these past few weeks, I've gotten closer to her than I ever imagined she was capable of. I guess even a hardened killer can still need to feel like a woman every once and a while."

Garcia's head sank slightly and Rock asked, "So what about you?"

"I suppose I feel the same way."

For a moment, Rock wondered if Garcia and Roberta by some freak occurrence may have in fact known each other's intimate company. "Did something happen between you and Roberta?"

"When we were in the jungle in Roanapur, I kissed her."

Rock's eyes widened and he asked, "You kissed her?"

"Since we've come home, she's all I've been able to think about." Rock smiled as Garcia continued, "She means everything to me, and since my father…" He caught himself and finished his thought, "…Roberta and Fabiola are all I've got left in this world."

"But isn't Fabiola-"

"More my age?" Garcia interrupted. Rock nodded and Garcia continued, "She is, but Roberta-"

"Is special," Rock concluded with a grin. The young master smiled and nodded in reply. "Trust me kid, I know exactly what you're going through."

In the main hall of the Lovelace home, Revy held Captain Cantillo's phone to her ear, and was being passed around a switchboard. Every now and again, she was placed on hold, on her way to her intended subject, "Fucking hell!"

"Just what in the hell are you doing, Revy?"

"Relax, Dutch; this bitch owes me a favor," Revy reassured the boss. "That is of course is she ever picks up the fuckin' phone!"

"May I ask who's calling?" The woman on the other end asked.

"Tell her it's Rebecca from Mott Street." A pause while the woman on the other end spoke, "I don't give a fuck if she's meeting with the fucking Presi…" Revy's eyes widened, "…she is meeting with the President? Fuck, how much dick is she sucking up there?" Again a pause, "Just put me through on her fucking cellphone." She was placed on hold again, "Dammit!"

Dutch checked the clock again: 12:45pm. "Runnin' outta time, Revy. This better-"

Dutch was interrupted as Revy called out with a smile, "Muffintop! How's it hanging?"

"I might ask you the same question, Rebecca," the woman on the other end barked. Her voice was higher in pitch than Revy's, but scratchier, almost as if she smoked even more than Revy, "I could barely believe my message service when they told me it was you. So what do you want from me after all these years?"

"Remember that job I did for you and your boys, in '96?" Revy asked. "I'm cashing in the favor."

After a few moments explaining numbers, times and coordinates, Revy's friend spoke, "This is a lot of manpower you're asking for, Rebecca. You'd better be right about this."

"Say hi to Bill for me," Revy replied with a smile as she hung up the phone.

Immediately Dutch asked, "What the fuck was that all about?"

"Let's just say Uncle Sam owes me a favor," Revy replied. She tossed her camo backpack over her shoulders and ordered, "Now let's go, we've got ten minutes and that place is gonna light up like the fourth of July."