Thank you for beta'ing, MsSchneeheide!

"Hey…I thought you would be done." Blanca doesn't see the soft smile on Diablo's face.

"Lo siento," she mumbles with a small shake of her head as she continues washing a stain out of Raiza's shirt. "I...I meant to be. I'm almost…I didn't know I needed to be done this soon. Spaghetti's just…" Her gaze stays down on the floor as she mentally tries to prepare her body for the blow. Stop it, this isn't Dean, he won't hurt you, her mind is chastising her. You are being silly. "Messy."

"You mean you're not done ironing my pants?" Dean asks.

She falters. "I...I didn't know I had to be?"

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? I thought I told you to…you're useless!" He grabs the hot iron from her and then she shrieks bloody murder; the sounds of her unbearable pain reverberate throughout the whole house.

"Shut the fuck up!" he growls through her high-pitched screaming. There's a few knocks on the door. "You're getting a bit too loud." He pushes her battered body away. "Leave the room while I talk to this person."

Blanca hobbles off to the kitchen and secretly listens to him open the door to a neighbor. "Everything okay here, sir?" the woman asks in a concerned voice.

"Yeah, my wife's acting a little crazy, that's all," he lies smoothly. "I think she had a few too many last night, if you know what I mean." They both laugh. "I'll see you at church next Sunday?"

"Yes, for sure. Tell her I hope she'll feel better soon."

"'Course."

"Have a nice day."

"You too."

She feels him take a step closer. She sees his shoes in front of her. She flinches as his hand comes up to brush tears off her face. She's shocked and dismayed that she was crying. Oh, come on, really?! Blanca, ay dios mío, cállate. Por favor.

Oh my god, shut up. Please.

"You don't, no te preocupes. Please, look at me." His request and tone match his caress on her face.

Don't worry

Her gaze slowly trails up from his feet, to his legs, past his crisp blue button up, and finally resting on his own clear brown eyes.

"I only meant, I thought you'd be done getting ready so I can take you out." His eyes glance around the room before falling back on her. "How about I make the reservation for seven and I can help you with anything you need done around here?" He is patient as he gives her time to make up her mind.

"Okay."

"Sorry I startled you, querida." His eyes widen in surprise as he looks at her. "I just didn't realize you hadn't finished yet! What can I do to make this easier for you?" He brushes her hair away from her face with his hand. "Let me help you. ¿Quieres mi ayuda?"

Want my help?

"No gracias."

"Okay." He kisses the top of her head and lets her get back to her work.

¿Ves? He's the sweetest guy ever.

See?

With that thought, Blanca smiles happily and starts humming a romantic Spanish song to herself-Te Amo by Franco De Vita.

After their dinner date alone, they end up meeting two of their best couple friends at the Monte Carlo Room for a fun night of dancing and more drinks. When everyone sits down to relax, they start chatting. Gloria is in high spirits since Fahri had gotten her another cute headband as a just because present. She's in a green polo top and long jean shorts and they're holding hands. He's also dressed casually, khaki shorts and a white shirt. Karla leans her head on her husband's shoulder and he puts his arm around her. Blanca is perched in Diablo's lap. She and Karla are wearing cute low-key dresses and the men have on nice short-sleeved shirts and slacks. Blanca's taken off her red jacket and black scarf since she's so hot from moving around so much.

"My mami had me in high school; she's fifty now. She was also abused by her husband and ran away with me and raised me as a single mother. Then, when I was a teenager, she called up my tía Lourdes in New York to ask her to take me in while she went to college," Gloria explains at the triple date as her smile turns to a frown.

"It does make sense that the child of domestic abuse would be abused by their partner later in life," Blanca murmurs.

"Sadly, sí. My papi was abusive and I was so gutted when I dismissed my mamá's warnings and later, Lourdes'!" Gloria says. "Another reason why I don't believe in love-I was convinced Arturo was different! I was let down by my dad's behavior and refused to talk to him. It's a Mendoza family tradition for the ladies to get abused."

"Well, it's a Basara family tradition to respect women. It's been passed down to us men for generations."

"You're breaking the curse, ya know?"

"I do," Fahri says, and they grin at each other giddily, looking like a romance novel come to life.

Gloria's pleasant expression drops all of a sudden, yet again. "My first boyfriend Rodrigo was just…ugh! He got me pregnant. My tía Lourdes saw that I was...I was responsible enough that she wasn't too upset, but she demanded to meet the guy. He talked to me about how we'd start a family, but to Lourdes, we just said we were giving it up for adoption. I was falling out of love as the months went on and once I gave birth alone, I held my baby girl Ceci, but he came in and took her from me, saying I didn't even want her, and to go off to college and abandon my daughter, and he told me that I got what I'd been praying for all this time, 'you've done your job now leave, that wasn't so hard right?' and then he drove off! I didn't even really get to see her much, or even name her...I just wanted to hold her, but I couldn't…" Tears glisten in her eyes. "Sorry for this trauma-dumping, I'm so drunk!"

"No, it's okay, darling." Fahri holds her closer and rests his lips on her cheek. She snuggles into him.

"Let it out, chica," Blanca tells her, patting her hand encouragingly.

"What an asshole!" Karla comments and the others nod in agreement.

"Yeah, my tía found me in the hospital bed after my senior prom, crying...she knew I'd regret putting Ceci up for adoption! He didn't even let me abort her, and that was a red flag I totally missed! I didn't know it was because he wanted to use me as a baby maker and nothin' else. I think he used a broken condom on purpose, or he secretly removed it during foreplay. I told her, 'you called it, Lourdes, good job!' about Rod the Clod…that's what I named him after it happened." She lets out a dry chuckle and the others smile sadly. "I was disappointed, and I wasn't surprised to find out he was a cheater, too. I never had one of those before. I remember that night, she was wearing a long red skirt…white blouse…lots of jewelry…" Gloria trails off with a sniffle. She blows her nose, dabs her eyes with another tissue, and then continues. "She was there for me. I thought she'd disown me for saying I wish I never listened to that fucker and just aborted my child. She just said it wouldn't have solved anything, he still would've left me. I thought about him while Arturo was beating me…at least Rodrigo never hurt me physically."

"No, but he was a Grade A jerk in another way," Fahri tells her. "He's probably more like Kubra, my old boss…I didn't buy a burner to make calls on, and Kubra was pissed! Some people just give you a bad feeling; I felt that way about Kubra. He was always complaining about some rat who betrayed him. All the bad people were connected through him…Arturo, Carol, Barb, to name a few. All I did was cost Kubra money and leave him exposed."

"Babe, you were lucky to get out of that bullshit alive," Gloria tells him.

"I know."

"Te amo mucho, I don't ever wanna lose you." Gloria strokes his beard and then squeezes his hands tightly.

"Me neither, sweetie, I love you too." Fahri cups Gloria's face and the group beams as they kiss tenderly.

"Aaawww!"

"Aleida would've probably bitch slapped Arturo if he were still alive, and gotten Leon on his ass for mistreating her best friend," Gloria says with a smirk. "That woman can handle anything, so much better than me."

"Nah, you're a strong mujer too. It's been years, maybe you're better at telling people off now. Even still…Arturo was just like Dean, impossible to control, no matter what," Blanca points out.

"Bastard men who hit and choke ladies they're supposed to love and protect, usually are. You can't change 'em, you can just leave their asses when the moment is right," Diablo adds.

"Yeah, and you know what I noticed…Fahri, you have quite kind eyes, whereas Arturo's were darker and his beard made his mouth look angry too. My ex also had harsh features."

"Mm-hm, and I'd never do what he did, even if I was mad at you, Glo."

"Sí, lo sé. So...my backroom's door locks from the inside at the bodega. I always wished Arturo could just lock himself in the backroom! When he did one time, he later blamed me for locking him in, but it's like he didn't take the keys! Magic just happened. I'm a brrruja!" They all laugh. "Cazador means hunter in Spanish. God, he lived up to his last name. He could track me down like…a fucking animal. You know, Benny lost a tooth during the Arturo era and Arturo physically pulled his tooth out, stuck it down my little boy's pants, and yelled at me that Benny was bleeding out his mouth. He of course apologized and took him out for ice cream and stole from me to give him money. Benny also had longish hair, so Arturo had demanded for me to have him cut it, so he wouldn't look like a girl, in his words. I told him that Benny's just a kid, and he likes his hair, I'm fine with it...but that's one of the things he always got irate with me about!"

"Hmm, yeah, merecía encerrarse en la trastienda de tu bodega y también morir calcinado," Blanca mutters.

he deserved to lock himself in your bodega's backroom and also burn to death.

"Sí…surprisingly enough, Benny never had night terrors. His nightmares are actually starting now, because of Fahri coming into our lives. It's probably bringing back a ton of bad memories for him, even though he loves Fahri like a dad in his waking life."

"Yeah, I always play this game with the boys, like I pretend to look around for them and ask where they are, when they're actually standing directly in front of me! I search and they tell me they're right there while jumping up and down and giggling!"

"I do that too, with Raiza. She loves it!" Diablo exclaims and everyone beams with delight.

"Yeah, so do Benny and Julio." Fahri strokes his chin and gazes up in thought. "Arturo used to make videos, using a ski mask as his disguise, he was part of Kubra's cartel and the boss said that was excellent work, so nobody would know what Arturo looked like and it wouldn't link to him, so he was doing a good job, people just thought he was camera shy or in a costume!" He turns to Gloria with concern etched onto his features. "I wasn't looking for anything other than whether or not he exposed Kubra or the drug cartel, but I stumbled across a video of you...and I was kinda worried since I saw Benny playing with a gun in the background...and Arturo was being sadistic to you…and you had a bruise near your hairline on the left side, another mark on your head, and I might have been looking too close, but was that a damn scar next to it? I just noticed you had a scar on the left side of your cheek and a bruise or mark on the left corner of your mouth! It was also summertime when he posted it, and you were wearing long sleeves and pants, which can indicate abuse if you're doing that on a hot day."

"It was nothin' yeah, I guess we were playing around, we got drunk, you know how that is. It was actually cold that day, and it was so many years ago! I'm over it. I know your heart's in the right place, but you don't gotta worry about me. I'm safe now."

"You don't ever have to be over it, baby. You still sometimes apologize if your kids cry about anything and I always assure you it's okay."

"Yeah, he used to hit me if my sons cried about anything…it's an involuntary reaction." Gloria winces. "Sorry."

"You don't have to say you are."

"I know."

"I would've bailed you out for food stamp fraud had I been around back then," he says.

"Sí, lo sé."

"Dean once was so angry that he put me in a noose and kicked the chair out from under where I was standing when I was least expecting it, but five seconds later, he got me out and strangled me. He'd drive alongside me walking and yell at me to hurry the fuck up and he didn't care how tired I was, or he'd have someone else follow me if he was busy, mostly Carlos, and Carlos offered me a ride in his car, but I would've rather just walked since I didn't want to be anywhere near him, he looked extra disgusting with his shirt off! He once took me and the girls to an abandoned amusement park and Maritza commented that the place was so dead, literally," Blanca shares with the group. It's a little easier to talk about her dark past with her closest friends and her boyfriend while being drunk.

"Lo siento mucho, mi amor," Diablo murmurs and winds his arms around her comfortingly.

"Estoy contenta de estar segura ahora."

I'm just glad I'm safe now.

"Yo también," he whispers into her hair and then kisses her cheek and then lips softly. She melts at his gentle touch.

"The first time Arturo hit me was when I told him I was pregnant, he said, 'one more brat I gotta take care of, isn't two of 'em enough?'. After that, I wasn't very shocked whenever he hit me, I just took it. I hadn't been worn down yet. I used to have gangbangin' friends I thought of as brothers, they could've helped me, but I stopped bein' close to 'em once I had Arturo invading my life. Joe Caputo tried to help with the Arturo situation, but I refused it, I said Lourdes could protect us just fine. Joe then went back to Lisa, who was pregnant with a girl from his co-band member Hank. She left him like a bitch, even though he supported her throughout her pregnancy, and all that time, until Fahri, I regretted that I didn't take his help."

"Well, at least you got me now," Fahri tells her sweetly.

"You proved it to me that you'd treat me right, just as you promised, and I gave you a chance for a month like you asked for since Arturo fucked up after a month! You haven't failed me, and I doubt you ever will. The boys feel comfortable around you because I do. You soothe me from nightmares and panic attacks and really, you're my knight in shining armor, generally speaking."

"Of course, my darling." Fahri snuggles Gloria into his side and they press their lips together gently.

"Arturo set fire to Lourdes' friends Frankie and Rita's house since he thought I was staying there, they lost mementos, like treasured pictures, jewelry, and dishes. So Lourdes needed to be with me since she may have had a feeling Arturo caused the fire looking for me, since her friends had said some deranged fellow demanded to know where Lourdes and I were. It made me think Arturo could set my apartment on fire anytime, and if he did, I'd call Sophia and her firefighting squad to put out the fire! Her friend Pat wouldn't want her to join them since he's transphobic but she'd probably be like, 'I'm going to make sure my friend doesn't die and you can't do shit to stop me from coming along! Start the damn truck!' and they'd just do it to keep their jobs or to make sure innocent lives aren't in danger. I guess I thought being homeless could be better than putting myself at risk for that…he left the boys alone when they were with my mami and the girls, at least." Gloria sighs. "Gracias a dios he's fucking dead as a doornail now."

"Dean took us to visit all kinds of Republican states. He used to make my girls and I go to the all white churches, even though he said we'd taint it, he still couldn't trust us home by ourselves. A girl named Corinne would bully Maritza, but Dean encouraged their friendship and I wanted that girl far away from her. At one of the churches, we saw Sister Ingalls, who showed some concern, but Dean told her, 'don't worry about them, they're fine, they just don't like church,' so she wouldn't do any investigating. Maritza wanted to shout, 'I'm bisexual am I going to hell?' and then go running out at full speed. I wish she would have…but then again, it would've caused more punishment from Dean. The sister is now working with struggling students trying to do better; she used to lead a choir group and she recognized me from that church. She apologized for not seeing that we were in danger, but I assured her that she had no way of knowing the truth. Dean could put on a great show."

"Mm-hm," the others agree sadly.

"It's just… why'd I allow it even the first time? Or the second?" Blanca asks herself rhetorically and Diablo rubs her back soothingly.

"Second strike you're out is my motto, pretty much...first time I let it slide since Arturo apologized but then the second...I guess the second thing he did was being a pedophile. Actually, that was the third. Before that, he let my boys do shit I specifically told him they couldn't do…like stay up too late. The point is, he didn't respect my rules, and since they did that, they were cranky and exhausted the next day, plus he overfed them with candy and ice cream and they got sick. Also, he wasn't watching them closely and I couldn't find them in the house for a while since he wasn't paying attention to them."

"The next bad thing Dean did was accusing me of cheating and victim blaming me, but it wasn't as bad as talking like a pedo. There were so many red flags, though…I missed 'em."

"Well, you loved him, it was good at first. I guess it probably built up so slowly that you didn't realize the abuse was happening! Me being pregnant was a big motivator for me to leave though, but he wouldn't let me. Arturo didn't hit me when I tried breaking up with him the first time…but he manipulated me so much. The final straw was him talking like a pedophile about the thought of me having a girl."

"Ugh, barf!" Blanca exclaims. "Dean is seriously disturbed, too. He came into Maritza's room and tried to molest her and told her not to tell her mom or he'd get a gun out and shoot her little sister in the face. I went into my girls' room to check up on them and sometimes, I caught Dean there, rubbing his crotch as they slept. He was drunk and wanted to feel some 'brown thirteen year old pussy' because it's how old I was when he met me."

"Disgusting pieces of shit, I hate 'em both," Karla mutters.

The others murmur in assent. The men give their women comforting hugs and then the couples go back to dancing.

In an immigration detention center, Blanca and Maritza lay passively in bunks. They both look about ten years older. Maritza, now a young woman,stares at the ceiling, her eyes void of all emotion.

"I was born here, Mami, I dunno why I'm in trouble!" she says angrily from the top bunk. "I'm gonna prove it. They can't deport us."

"With Dean at the helm, sí ellos pueden."

Yes they can

Maritza points upward where a bird flutters about. "Yo, mira, that's a turtledove, it's a positive sign, like hope is coming…"

"Nah, it's a pigeon, mija. They shit on everybody eventually; we're indoors and there's no place for them to go."

"I can't even remember anyone's number by heart to call 'em, to let 'em know where we are. Not Flaca's, nor our friends', nor Gloria's…just nine-one-one or ones that got songs in 'em like that include pizza. I'm young, what can I say?" She looks down at Blanca, who looks offended. She goes on to recite a jingle for a lawyer. "DUI at night got ya moaning, call Kay Sprung, get off in the morning…it's one-eight-hundred get sprung."

"I thought there was some weird sexual innuendo behind it," Blanca murmurs.

"I slept with Jason in their legal office and did the wheelbarrow with him at that afterlife theme at the club. The number is totes free!" She hops down and then gazes up at Blanca. "No tengo dinero."

"Yo sé. I've got forty…now thirty." Blanca looks down at her out of the corners of her eyes.

Another detainee overhears. "Do you need help?"

Blanca twitches her jaw to one side and rolls her eyes and scooches forward to climb off the bunk. She puts her shoes on. "Sure, gracias."

Later, Blanca types a bunch of numbers but the screen reads service needed, please call. Maritza and her mother look at each other and Blanca calls it the machine of the devil in Spanish. She looks defeated.

They later approach a detainee, who Maritza says is pretty. The kiosk is broken and there's no more phone cards. The woman leaves after speaking Bengali to let her be, even though she does know English, Spanish, and French like Blanca asks.

Efua Onagbeboma, Maritza's childhood friend who Dean got in trouble, speaks Twi and then, after Maritza tells Blanca she wishes more people spoke English, Efua tells Maritza it's rude to say that. Even still, they have a somewhat pleasant reunion. Efua doesn't shake hands because she's a germaphobe, but Maritza thinks it's a cultural thing. She tells Blanca, who she calls the wild one, to pay back her thirty dollars because she's offering twelve bucks from her card. It's five dollars a minute and takes two minutes to connect; all they need is three minutes, but that's twenty-five minutes.

"Dude, take the card," Blanca tells Maritza.

Using Efua's phone card, Maritza dials a number as Blanca watches. Blanca nods as Maritza speaks on the phone, she says she was put on hold twice but asks to speak to Jason the paralegal, he was cute, she runs her hand down her hair and grins as she talks to him, stammering, she explains that they met at the funeral, the club with the afterlife theme, she was the first to do the wheelbarrow thing with him, she hides her face, she's so embarrassed to say that in front of Blanca. She bangs on the buttons when he hangs up on her after she says she's been detained by ICE; she ran out of minutes and the card is spent. She hangs up and her and Blanca's eyes meet.

Blanca angrily calls her a stupid, dumb Colombian Barbie and she turns away from her.

Blanca climbs up her bunk's ladder and Maritza is surprised she's giving up this easily, she reminds Blanca she stood on a table twice, protesting Dean's abuse, and peed herself a few times so she wouldn't get raped. Blanca says she's no longer like that. Her bruised forehead wrinkles and she calls Maritza dumb again.

"Just 'cause your idiot boyfriend decided to leave you and your ex took us here, doesn't mean you get to call me names! What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Maritza is now on the verge of crying. "I hate you! You're the worst mother in the world! How do you like that, huh?"

"You're getting our hopes up for nothing!" Blanca yells at her tearfully. "Stop it! You're being pathetic, depressing us both even more when every step you take doesn't work! Your positive attitude isn't helping! That thing circling above us is a dove, not a pigeon, nobody cares about pigeons! We're stuck here!" She gestures around the room full of portable toilets, guards, and millions of captive women in cages. "There is no getting out."

Maritza wakes up with a start, gasping in and out shakily while clutching her chest. She's no longer in that place, much to her relief. She never was; it was only a nightmare. She hopes it's not her seeing the future, since sometimes events that will happen later show up inside her mind while she's sleeping or daydreaming. She's not sure if it has anything to do with the lockdown drills held at hers and Raiza's schools recently, or the fact that a few of her many pink nail polish bottles spilled in her bag and made a mess, so she now has to buy a new purse. She remembers screwing the caps on tight, so she doesn't know what happened.

"You were the only one out of all those hoodlums who used my official title."

Elena spins around at the eerie voice, gasping in horror. It's the dirty cop himself, Herrmann. She's unable to find her words, feeling tiny under his stare.

"What, you're not gonna speak?"

She gives him a dirty look and makes an attempt at walking faster, further away from him, and out of the girls' bathroom at school, but he grabs her wrist. "I wasn't done with you, girlie. You never told me your name."

"Nah, and I ain't gonna!"

"You're playing games with me?" He draws his gun and points it at her. She backs away against the wall and her breath trembles as her whole body starts shaking. "Unzip your god damn backpack and give me some homework if you won't open that sexy little whore mouth of yours. I know you've written your full name on every assignment."

"No," she refuses. "I won't do shit you say. Anyone can hear if you shoot me or whatever, and I'll scream bloody murder."

"It's Friday, get ready to party." He pulls out a packet of Fentanyl and creeps toward her. "These are going into your panties if you don't comply with my orders."

Just looking at the weapon and drugs makes her shudder. She stammers to say something, but she can't. Even if she's just two inches shorter than Herrmann, it's like she's much smaller, like around Ceci's or Maritza's height. It's so annoying, almost humiliating, to have a five-foot-three older sister who's much braver than she is. Elena thinks taller people should be way more courageous to stand up against assholes like Herrmann.

"How'd you even find me?" She's barely able to get the question out. It takes so much strength.

"I'm a policeman." He guffaws. "At first, my son Natoli was going to pretend to date you just so he could bring you to me, but this is a lot better."

"You're a fucking stalker! Alana got pushed around by your son and Maritza tried to defend her, but she got pepper-sprayed herself…I know you taught him to do that evil bullshit."

"Please, don't touch her!" Maritza yells fiercely, stepping in front of Elena and staring up at him, baring her teeth.

"You dare to talk to me this way?" he growls.

"She didn't do nothin' wrong. Por favor, señor, leave her alone," Maritza begs him, her voice much softer and more sultry than it was a few seconds ago. "Look, I can give you whatever you desire…"

"Her full name, hottie. Or yours."

"Yessica Spencer," Maritza tells him in a seductive whisper right away. "The girl of your dreams."

"What are you doing?" Elena demands softly, frightened and on the brink of tears. "How did you know-"

"Just thank your lucky stars, dude." Maritza winks at Elena over her shoulder. She walks away, swinging her hips from side to side, and beckons him to follow her, and while pocketing his lethal weapon, he does.

Elena stands there in shock and a little disturbed. It takes her a minute before she can get her feet to move again. She has no idea how this didn't seem to faze Maritza.

What did she call herself again? Yessica…? That name rings a bell; she's heard it a few times before from former prostitutes.

"Oh, shit," she murmurs to herself, not really knowing what to do.

Then again, this doesn't prove anything. It's not like Maritza is an actual prostitute, either, it's just a fake name for herself. Elena feels like she has an angel watching over her. She discreetly follows Maritza and the disgusting bastard to the janitor's closet.

"Yo, ¡trae al director aquí!" Maritza exclaims just before Hermann pushes her down to her knees and unbuckles his pants.

get the principal over here

"I will, just be safe," Elena mumbles while looking at the ground.

"What the fuck did you just say?" Hermann asks gruffly.

"I told her to leave us alone," Maritza lies while shooing Elena away and closing the door. "Now let's get down to business."

Elena nods and runs off, trying to ignore the trembling through her whole body. It's almost like Maritza has had to do this kind of thing before, and it makes her absolutely sick.

Thank you for reading and reviewing, MsSchneeheide and Juliette45!