*-- turning flames to embers

[Magdelena "Maggie" Corinthos]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, LUCA’S LOFT, DECEMBER 2007

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-----it was safe to say that all hell had broken loose. maggie had no idea that stopping things and admitting to the fact that she was unprepared for what could have happened last night would lead to luca tossing in the towel and just disappearing. but typical luca. she should have expected such a reaction from him, especially at that moment. after what they’d gone through, getting shot at, outrunning an opposing mob force, sneaking in undercover and getting said cover blown. it was a lot to handle for one day. to come back to the apartment thinking you could just relax and get hit with relationship issues had to be difficult. poor little luca. as if life wasn’t hard on maggie too? as if having her father riding her ass day in and day out about being a failure and about wanting her dead wasn’t bad enough? like being saddled with a cranky piss-poor partner who had little to no faith in her unless she was taking her clothes off. or maybe that same partner who liked nothing more than to tear her down every chance he got because he was unhappy with the fact that he was stuck with a teenager smack out of high school who seemed to not know what she was doing. the same high schooler who had saved his ass from a bullet or two the very night in question. oh yeah her life was just sunshine and fucking rainbows. ”stupid asshole.” maggie said with a grumble as her foot rested just a tad heavier on the gas pedal of luca’s precious effing ride. he’d just left it with her last night, disappearing and leaving her without so much as the leftover rattle from the door which he’d been contented to slam so hard shut it nearly fell off its hinges. who was the immature one here? who was the one with a few boundary and sensitivity issues that needed to be put in his or her place? it couldn’t possibly be maggie, the girl who couldn’t go through with a night like that simply because her head wasn’t in it. of course luca would have rather she stayed quiet. he would have rather just had sex with her despite the fact that she wasn’t as comfortable as she could have, or wanted, to be. yeah that sounded like luca alright. everything on his terms. no. questions. asked.

----- ”bet he would have loved it.” she sneered as she passed the big green road sign that told her nearly every tenth of a mile that the exit to head back to valkyrie was just a little bit away. she knew okay! she fucking knew it already! it seemed like everything and everyone in her life was trying to rush her. her father wanted to rush her through life entirely waiting for the one moment when she was unprepared and would falter simply because he wanted that excuse to rip her head off. luca wanted her to rush because the bastard just wanted to get his rocks off. the damn sign wanted to rush her just to get her off the road so it could deal with other, more important people. yeah she knew that feeling and she knew it well. maggie had to admit that she wasn’t happy about all this crap that had happened lately. she would have figured luca to be more sane than that, than to just flying off the handle, but she guessed she gave him more credit than he was worth. after all what man couldn’t keep it in his pants. must have been wishful thinking to think that he would care enough about her to just respect her decision. it wasn’t like she’d intended on revving him up just to knock him down. it wasn’t a power play. maggie had serious doubts and she was allowed to make her own decisions based on those doubts and even though luca disapproved he would have to suck it up and take it like a man, something that apparently was a bit of a challenge for him. luca must not have been used to the word no. that was funny in itself though coming from the man who had told her no so many times she’d figured it was the only word in his vocabulary. honestly how hypocritical was it to chastise her and get so angry when he himself had said no time and time again. she would have liked to think that luca knew that he was wrong and would have come back that night, but when she woke up the next morning and luca was nowhere to be found, well it was obvious that immaturity won out. that shouldn’t have surprised her. from the very beginning luca had dropped hint after hint that he was one of those assholes who didn’t like the word no and who only liked getting their way. he certainly hadn’t painted a decent picture for her to argue against.

-----truth be told she felt like she should have expected it but after hanging out with him for so long maggie just wanted to see past it. god she was like those pathetic girls who got beat for a living and blamed it on themselves for not making their man happy. only one difference between those losers and maggie, maggie packed on hell of a wallop when she fought back. because maggie wasn’t the type to let herself get smacked around and do nothing about it. like last night. luca thought he was getting away from everything when he just up and walked out on her but he was nowhere near past any of this. he was going to face it, along with maggie, and he was going to shut up and deal with it. luca had to remember here that he was dealing with no ordinary woman and maggie needed to remember that she was no ordinary woman. she was in fact the daughter of the leader of a drug cartel. she was the brilliant child who had outwitted her father at an early age and had never really stopped giving him the proverbial kick in the pants as far as his pride went. she was a girl who when smacked down would raise all kinds of hell on her way back up. she was maggie freaking corinthos for christ’s sake. men didn’t get to work her over. she worked them over with a perfect manicure and a smug little smile on her face. she was better than this, better than him, and she was now determined to scream it to the world.

-----the exit for valkyrie came quickly after that and maggie welcomed it wholeheartedly. she was going to show luca and thing or two and now that she was looking forward to it she wanted to be in the shaks and at his loft yesterday. she made it to the main road in no time, easily cutting around traffic and making it to luca’s with excellent timing. as she pulled off the road, maggie was surprised to see a little redhead pushing off the wall where she’d been waiting. london. the little bitch. maggie wondered as she pulled in if the skank was simply begging for trouble or if she’d been beckoned here. be it maggie’s ‘good’ luck that luca would get fed up with maggie’s apparent games and call in his one-nighter to kiss it and make it better. of course she would be here. like icing on the freaking cake. the one little element on her side was the fact that the windows were blacked out and london couldn’t really see who it was in the car she was smiling and waving at. since it was luca’s car it was natural to think it would be his ass in the driver’s seat. surprise surprise. she pulled in and parked the car, waiting a moment to…gather her thoughts before she faced off with london. she really didn’t need this crap right now. facing luca was one thing. that was a battle she knew she had the guts for, and the anger for, to put up a decent fight. going up against london was a whole other matter in itself. it wasn’t something she was necessarily prepared for. besides, where had the bitch been anyways. she decided now was some grand time to show her face? what did she have some “relationship’s weak” radar or something?

-----with an audible grumble maggie opened the door, stepping out where london could see, her gaze ready to rip a hole straight through the bitch. ”not who you were expecting?” maggie said as she watched london’s steps stutter to a stop. ”i’m sorry but you missed trash pickup day. come back some other time when we’ve gotten all our shots.” maggie closed the driver’s side door, walking around back as she popped open the trunk. ’where’s luca?’ alright well apparently she really wasn’t getting the hint. ”not here sweet cakes but i can guarantee he doesn’t want to see you. why not take your skanky little ass home. you’re stinking up the parking lot.” london still didn’t seem to catch the hint since she wasn’t turning around and leaving with her tail tucked between her legs like maggie would have preferred. ’you don’t know that. he’s expecting me.’ oh now that was the last straw. maggie slammed the lid of the trunk down so hard she could see london jump out of the corner of her eye. she dropped the duffel bag she’d had in her hand to the ground, freeing up her hands. ”that so? why don’t you enlighten me. what possible reason would he have for beckoning you. we didn’t have a cat problem before but we just might if you stick around any longer. the smell of tuna will have them flocking here like muslims to mecca.” london fidgeted on her feet. she practically reeked of uncertainty and maggie practically fed off it. ’he’s done with you. i’ll be sure of that. what reason would he have for you anymore. i want him and i’m pretty sure he wants me too.’ as if she would know. but it didn’t matter. maggie couldn’t help herself for taking the bait. luca was a sore subject at the moment and london wasn’t helping her case very much. ”uh huh. and you’d know this because you’ve been around all this time.” maggie said with a glare. this bitch really was working her last nerve. ’he’s mine. you wait and see.’

-----that did it. a bright sheen of red coated her eyes, like an angry haze that she just couldn’t shake off. she didn’t register anything. not the sound of incoming footsteps, not the sound of cars passing on the street. all she saw was the smug look on london’s determined face. that was all it took for her to lunge, throwing everything else to the wind.

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status • finished
words • 2089
tagged • laggie !
clothes • click !
notes • because the locations are all over the place, it'd be safe just sticking it here.

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[Luca Giovanni]

----WHEN LUCA HAD LEFT THE HOTEL IN A FURY he had no idea where he was going. he was aware that he was standing in the lobby his button-up shirt exposed and a duffel bag in hand. he then realized he given maggie his keys to the car. luca was tempted to march back up to the room, grab his keys and leave again, but he knew going back up there wouldn't be a wise decision. it would probably result in more fighting, throwing things, and quite possibly getting physical with each other. instead, luca opted to just leave. he didn't know san francisco and well as los angeles or valkyrie, so before he left the hotel he went up to the front desk and asked where the nearest bus station was. ignoring the odd looks the women was giving luca's appearance she pointed him in the right direction. luca thanked her and took off. walking off the hotel's property he looked up at the hotel's facade. he scratched his head as he thought that she was somewhere up there in one of those rooms. what was she doing? he had no idea and frankly, he sort of didn't care. Swinging the duffel bag over his shoulder, he started walking towards the bus station with the directions the front desk gave him,

on the way, he did go over that last half hour in his head. he had no idea why he just snapped. he was so angry and he had no idea why. the more he thought about it the more he believed his anger was more than just the fact that she rejected him. it was a combination of various things. all of which, involved maggie. of course it did. he didn't like the person he was when she was around. what ever happened to the hot-headed cocky giovanni that got jobs done? he went away around the same time when maggie was assigned to be his partner. now, he was cautious. he had to look out for more than just himself. he was getting soft. his entire loft was a constant reminder of maggie and what his life was going to be like. her things were all over the place and suddenly it was becoming less luca's loft and more 'their' loft. they might as well get a cat or something. luca liked his independence, he liked his freedom. he was in no rush to get married or be in a relationship. work was his girlfriend and he was weirdly ok with that. maybe he hated maggie because he should. a forced engagement? maybe he wanted maggie without the strings. you know, nothing forced. what was so wrong with, oh, i don't know, taking her out to some nice restaurant. the traditional way. he hated that this betrothed bullshit sprouted real feelings. was it real, or was he giving in?

luca shook his head. no. it was definitely real. another solid fifteen minutes went by until luca got to the bus station. he opened the door and walked inside. the lights were that kind of bright white kind. rows of seats lined most of the floor. luca made his way up to the person seated behind a clear glass window. here, he didn't get as many weird looks for the disheveled appearance. "when's the next bus out to valkyrie?" the women barely looked at him as she typed something on the computer in front of her. with a bored look on her face like this was the last place she wanted to be, she pressed a button so luca could hear her through the speaker, "not until seven am" he kind of suspected he wouldn't be able to get on one now. still, he was a little disappointed, he just wanted to get home. "ok, yeah, that one." luca paid for the ticket and ducked into the bathroom to change. he sifted through his duffel bag, retrieving the clothing he was going to wear the next morning anyway. after he dressed, he stepped out of the stall and stood in front of the sink. his eyes reached the mirror in front of him and immediately, he felt ashamed. he was tempted to pull his phone out and call her. she probably wouldn't even answer, but it was the thought, right? luca realized then that this was bad. this was the worse they ever fought. he knew he would have to see her again. luca was actually admitting this fuck up. pulling his phone out he searched his contacts. he stopped. right above maggie's name was london's. london... the former flame, the one he considered getting back together with before the maggie curveball, the one his family was hoping he'd marry. yeah, that one. he had hurt her too. probably just as much as he had hurt maggie. luca didn't know why he hurt the women he liked. it just... happened. he made the split second decision to click london's name instead of maggie's. it rang a few times before it was picked up. "hello?" a groggy voice answered. "london. it's... luca.... yeah, i know it's late. look, i was wondering if you could meet me at my place tomorrow say around nine-thirty ten.... me? i'm in san fransisco right now... on business.... yeah. i'll be back in the morning. i just have a few things to tell you... uh-huh. yeah, bye." that was a little awkward and out-of-the-blue. well, for her at least. if he couldn't apologize to maggie the least he could do was apologize to london. he tapped his phone against an open palm before slipping it into his jacket's pocket. leaving the bathroom, he found a seat that wasn't by too many people. kicking his feet against the duffel bag, he slouched a little. nothing beats looking like a homeless person at a bus station.

that internal clock everyone had woke luca up around six thrity. the sun was shining brightly through the floor-to-ceiling windows. luca sat up, untangling his arms that were crossed across his chest. there were a few more people in the station than he last remembered. getting up, he took his ticket out of his pocket and picked his bag up. he saw a line forming under a board that said "bus 57." he got in line quietly, at the end, not really in the mood to talk to anyone. after another five minutes of waiting, they were allowed to board the bus. luca, sat by himself, not quite in the back or the front. he wasn't looking forward to the ride home. mainly because he had no one to talk to, therefore, he'd get to think about everything. and everything.... he wasn't ready to think about. he wasn't use to the state of being he was currently in. he didn't feel like the usual luca. he felt... i don't know, regretful or something. was this the feeling people got when they know they messed up big time? he wasn't looking forward to talking to maggie. their meeting would be inevitable. he knew he would just have to talk to her. though, he would prefer to just pretend that little scuffle last night didn't happen. what were the chances that she would accept to forget it too? by now, he knew her too well and knew she wouldn't let this one go. ah fuck.

somehow, he was able to fall asleep on the way back. even if it was only for a couple hours, it was enough for him to just relax. besides, the bus' seats were a step up from the hard seats at the station. he woke up when they were on the outskirts of valkyrie. thankfully, the bus stop was downtown, near his loft. it occurred to him then that he had indeed called london last night and she was going to be there at his apartment when he got there. ah, how should he word what he wanted to say? she deserved at least an explanation of what was going on. it wasn't fair. when the bus came to a complete stop and people started getting their things together, luca was the first to pop up and walk up the aisle with his bag in his hand. it was a little chilly, but that was probably because it was still in the morning. luca turned in the direction of the loft and headed towards it. he was actually not far from it. perks of living on main street. it was just up a few blocks from where the bus stopped. as the minutes flew by, and luca was walking quickly, he decided to cut across and go in the back way instead of going in the empty art gallery's front door.

once he crossed, he saw his car in the parking lot. hm, maggie beat him back to valkyrie. luca didn't even think that she could have arrived just moments before. he guessed that maggie came back the previous night instead of this morning. however, as he got closer, he heard some shouts. oh... shit. turning the brisk walk into a run, he got there just as maggie launched herself on london. luca dropped the bag by the car's front wheels and rushed up to the two women going at it. what pissed him off more was that maggie was clearly the stronger of the two, and she knew that. and here she was, starting shit. "hey!" he uselessly shouted at the girl, who just ignored him. then, luca grabbed maggie's arm and yanked her away from london. not being soft, he squeezed her arm with what would be his regular force with anyone else. he didn't even care is he was hurting her. there was a little effort to push the two away from each other, so luca just tried to get in between of them. one he wedged a way between them, he pulled maggie in the direction of the car and let her go at the front of it. he looked at her with a hard, serious look. "stay here," he said with such venom that she better betray her usual stubbornness. he turned and went over to london, "lon, i am so sorry, are you hurt?" he asked her. london looked a little frazzled, but it wasn't like she broke anything. she was just rubbing her face. london shook her head, "i-i think i'm ok." luca nodded. "ok, just stay here for a minute." he turned around and walked back towards maggie. "what the hell, maggie," he said to her. "what are you doing?"

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STATUS, complete CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, around valkyrie, dec 2007 LYRICS, "black and blue" carter husley CLOTHES, here TAGGED, maggie! I SAY,big!plot! can't believe it's here
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[Magdelena "Maggie" Corinthos]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, LUCA’S LOFT/VALKYRIE SHIPPING DOCK, DECEMBER 2007

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-----maggie considered herself to have more will power than to just up and lunge at someone who had pissed her off. maggie was more calculating then all that. she was the kind of person who could work her way into your head as easy as breathing. she could pick out your weakness with one look and have you writhing on the floor with your mental anguish before you’ve have your first drink. at least that appeared to be the person she was when she’d first showed up in valkyrie. that person seemed to be lost on her now, unfortunately. maggie said it often that being here had changed her. being in valkyrie and being around luca had changed maggie. it had changed her tolerance for crap. he rode her last nerve to the point where maggie would fly off the handle. she seemed unrecognizable compared to who she used to be. maggie was no longer that outwardly quiet type. she was no longer the kind of person who could handle herself with an idiot. no now she would fly off the handle. she beat up people who pissed her off, she couldn’t handle being around people who drove her nuts, all of it. the person who stood here now wasn’t the same as the calculated teenager who had sat in a club and mouthed off to donny’s little barbie doll, visibly getting to her. she wasn’t the type anymore who could look you down with an emotionless expression until your sense of self worth was torn to shreds, only smirking as she turned away from you and walked out the door. god where had that person gone? maggie complained about it more than was probably good for her health and yet here she was still living in this situation. luca rode her last nerve and yet she was living with him. their relationship was about as unhealthy and unhealthy would get, something maggie knew and had even verbalized, and yet she was still here. she was still driving his car back to his loft where she had intended on talking to him about what had happened. honestly she wondered if she was stupid or just a glutton for punishment. she wouldn’t lie, maggie had feelings for him and it was clouding her judgment and blurring the line between sanity and a lack thereof.

-----things hadn’t been like this in the beginning. the sad part about that was that maggie realized it, she knew how to change it, and yet she’d still done nothing. maybe there had been an unconscious part of her brain that thought trying something knew might work out in her favor. maybe, just maybe, subconsciously she’d thought that getting out of her normal patterns might help her to get what she wanted most out of life. maybe that was why when she’d seen the warning signs maggie had continued to just plummet straight ahead at a hundred miles per hour. because what had the same routines gotten her? the was on the outs with her father (something she’d never even been in on from the beginning). maggie was just another unaccredited tool in juan corinthos’ arsenal. he’d never liked his daughter, hell he’d never even wanted her, so there was no sense in trying to hope that he would one day see the errors of his ways and embrace his daughter as the eager worker she was. maggie might have been raw, she may need all the training the world might have to offer her, but there was no doubt that she had the heart for this business. there was no doubt that a gun and drugs business called to her any more than some dream of being a horseback rider or ballerina. maggie didn’t dream of those things as a child. she didn’t want some outlandish and overplayed childhood dream. she didn’t want to be a veterinarian and save the world’s animals from a wrongful demise. no, maggie sat outside her father’s office listening to whatever she could gather from beyond the door. she liked to train with the bodyguards learning any kind of trick of the trade they had to teach her. she was a machine born especially for this business and simply because she was a in fact a she, she was forbidden from doing anything with the business. at least that was the way it appeared from the outside. juan had made a good show of keeping maggie out but the fact of the matter was that the moment he’d given an inch in an attempt to scare her away, he had seen that she was more valuable to the business, to his business, than he’d ever realized. over the years maggie had finally clued into the fact that her father was useless without her and yes she’d let him use her simply for the fact that though she didn’t get the credit or any recognition, maggie was doing what she loved. there would always be the possibility that she would get fed up with the crap in the future and it seemed like juan had realized that day was close at hand. otherwise why else would he be working so hard to give her the boot, not only the boot, but the man wanted to silence her forever.

-----maggie was short on father figures, and the list of male figures in her life that she could respect seemed to be growing shorter by the day. she didn’t want to become that bitter woman who would undoubtedly be left with nothing more than an empty house and twenty or so cats but this sad and pathetic road she was travelling looked to be leader her there faster and faster and faster. she couldn’t stop herself from reacting to london’s bullshit and that wasn’t for a lack of trying. though the eighteen year old had done better jobs of holding her temper in the past, the mixture of a lack of sleep, stress, and frazzled nerves were just too much for her to take. london’s crap was just the straw to break the camel’s back or the last drop a cup could withstand before the liquid could do nothing more than spill over the edges. there was simply nothing she could do to stop herself. she lunged at london with no hesitation whatsoever. the scrawny little brunette really didn’t know what she was getting herself into. for all london knew maggie was just the girl who’d stolen luca from her or something equally pathetic. she didn’t know that the girl now plunging her shoulder into her gut was in fact trained in just about every method of fighting one could imagine from a simply drunken brawl to actual martial arts. she was outwitted. she was outmatched. she was certainly out of luck. maggie didn’t hold back in the slightest. everything she’d felt over the past few weeks just seemed to flow down her arms and out through her hands. every bit of pain and anger, resentment and hostility, every bit of loathing and disbelief seemed to just fuel her body further. it wasn’t until she was practically ripped off the ground that the blinders had come off and maggie realized she was putting all of her pent-up rage to use. she wouldn’t deny that it felt good. even if it only lasted her a moment, feeling that skin on skin contact, that brush of pain against her knuckles as she connected with cheekbone just seemed to calm her like a drug. too bad the effects didn’t last. the moment she was on her feet again the world kind of sank in around her. it was luca’s hands ripping her away from her…well her prey. it was his condescending voice that both spoke to her like a child and felt wholly cruel all at the same time. her fists balled at her sides as maggie watched luca turn away from her to tend to london. it was at that very moment that maggie was struck with the realization that this wasn’t what she wanted. and just like that the anger was back in waves, this time amounting so much and so fast that her hands shook at her side, resonating pretty much throughout her entire body. that son of a bitch was picking someone else over her. that pretty much said it all. he didn’t have her in vegas the way he’d wanted to and under his terms so he’d called someone else in to take her place. suddenly it was like all of the feelings she’d grow to have for him had just fallen away. like a crust of some sort that had formed on her body, forcing her into this one state of mind, everything seemed to break away until maggie was left standing there, watching luca check on london. standing there left with nothing.

-----she watched luca turn away from london and tucked a stray piece of hair back behind her ear. something told her that for no reason should she break eye contact with him. something told her that these last few moments were going to be something she wanted an unhindered view of. she glared death at him (if there was ever such a thing) as luca walked up to her demanding some kind of explanation. of course maggie would be the one in the wrong here. of course maggie couldn’t possibly be an innocent party to this. of course london was blameless. god maggie must have just seen her waiting at the entrance to the loft in her little angel’s outfit and just attacked right? of course. it couldn’t have possibly been that london had instigated a thing. poor, little, innocent london could have possibly said anything that would have set maggie off right? the outrage of it all wasn’t written on her face, but you could definitely see the disbelief in her eyes. ”it’s my fault isn’t it.” maggie said, feigning remorse for a moment. she paused allowing luca to think that now would be the greatest of all times to agree with her and start berating her, but boy was he mistaken. without warning maggie wheeled around, bring a balled fist around to connect with luca’s jaw with a power she’d never seemed to possess before. well, because maggie hadn’t ever done anything like this to luca before. of all the times they’d ever fought or ever gotten into any fight, maggie had never hit him outright. well that stopped now. maggie watched him with dead eyes as luca plummeted to the ground. giving him no room to retaliate she took a quick step forward and kicked him in the stomach. kneeling down before he had a chance to recuperate, maggie grabbed the short strands of his hair into her hand until his face, ridden with pain, was looking dead at her. ”so quick to judge.” her voice faltered for a minute and a slight twinge of hurt shown before maggie masked it, throwing everything she felt for him behind the highest wall she’d ever built. any show of pain that may have flashed over her features were gone in the next instant. almost like it had never been there to begin with. ”if i ever see your face again…” she paused to make sure his eyes opened when she said this. somehow that made it feel like it would reach through that thick skull of his. ”i’ll kill you.” her voice was as soft as ever. like the voice you’d hear a mother use when speaking to her child. hers was a voice that should have comforted and yet her words could never have been more serious than they were now. maggie let go of his hair, letting luca fall back against the ground as she stood, walked past her duffle bag, her cell phone vibrating in her pocket as she and turned the corner and disappeared.

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-----about a half an hour later maggie found herself at valkyrie’s shipping docks. the call she’d gotten was from a client she hadn’t spoken to in ages, someone who didn’t know she was supposedly out of the business and working with giovanni scum. maggie had agreed to meet because getting the stuff was no problem at all and because…well after what had happened maggie was pretty sure any deal between herself, her family, and the giovanni family was moot. she’d given her father exactly what he wanted, a reason to kill her. what better excuse than retribution for the giovanni family for the way she’d treated one of their prized possessions. there was no doubt in her mind that juan would offer maggie’s head on a spit as a formal apology for her actions against luca and the disrespect she’d paid to a business associate. yada, yada, yada. instead of running off to the docks to give a high to some junkie, maggie knew she should have instead been heading to her apartment to say her final goodbyes. after all the only family members who’d even mattered to her were living in her house and they didn’t even know what was going on. maggie told herself that she would head there after this one deal, just having a glimpse of the old life that she gave up in the hopes that a second chance would get her something more, but she was lying to herself. maggie wouldn’t run, she had nowhere to go, and she certainly wouldn’t give her father the satisfaction of hunting her down like a dog. her heart sank slightly at the idea that she would never see j.r.’s overbearing brother smile or her sister bella’s rants about the new american schools with that airy freedom of cluelessness. the girl was lucky she never had to experience this life. maggie wouldn’t hurt them that way, by showing up in their lives for a moment to be taken away the next. better they never know. the quietness of the docks seemed to sink in deep, to the whole left behind by what had happened earlier. somehow this place felt and looked just about as lonely as maggie felt. the gray clouds looking overhead, keeping out any ray of sunlight that would have brought a little cheer to the industrial looking wasteland of crates and boxes she saw before her. hell maybe maggie deserved a place like this for her last memories. she turned onto the corinthos dock, one she knew was the dock she’s acquired specifically for her father’s business though it wasn’t common knowledge that this dock was indeed hers via blackmail. ”you certainly are a bitch karma.” maggie said aloud, her quiet voice still somehow managing to reach the walls of the outlying buildings and bounce back at her. she stood there waiting. waiting for her last client. waiting for whatever fate this would bring her to. waiting for whatever cosmic fuck you karma had in store for her. just…waiting. about five minutes into this quiet, profound thinking, maggie’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a car rolling into the shipping grounds. seeing as how everything about her method of thinking was a little fuzzy, maggie didn’t realize that something about this should have felt off. it wasn’t until she saw the black car pulling up with its blacked out windows and plates, that maggie knew she was in trouble.

-----maggie pushed off the crate she hadn’t realized she was leaning against, finally noticing that she was cornered. out behind her, around this crate and a few others was nothing more than a small stretch of dock that dropped off into the cold, choppy waters of valkyrie harbor. with the water at her back at the strange car at her front, maggie had nowhere to go. she palmed her two favorite blades. the two trusty tools of her trade that, now thinking about it, maggie had been surprised she didn’t pull on london. it was obvious that some part of her had known what she was doing otherwise london would be dead instead of simply being a glorified punching bag. aside from the series of bruises london was without a doubt going to be left with, maggie knew she was unharmed. if she’d truly wanted her dead…there was no question that the bitch would have been dead. she felt the cold hilt of her blades absorbing the heat from her clammy hands as the back door to the black car opened up and out from the shadows of the cars innards came none other than jose castillo, the man maggie’s father had despised since before maggie was born. ”i should have known it was you.” maggie said as she watched two other bodyguards unload behind jose. ”what a shame you haven’t been dead all these years.” a shit-eating grin swept it’s way over jose’s face. no doubt he’d worked up a few snide things to say for this “momentous piece of history.” ”yes magdelena, it’s been quite a long time this…oh how do you say…hiding like a dead man. i’ve been working on this moment of revenge for a very long time.” hiding for almost twenty years hadn’t done a thing to jose’s accent. he still sounded like he’d come from the belly of tijuana. ”too bad you waste your efforts on the wrong kid.” maggie said with a chuckle. ”you picked the one offspring juan corinthos doesn’t give a shit about. you killing me will be nothing more than a favor to that son of a bitch.” ”son of a bitch, eh? sounds like you and your papi are not on the best speaking terms si? but your point is moot. whether juan love you or not, he still hate that i get to you first. it will eat away at him and i will still get my revenge. everybody end up happy. well, except for you. i assumed you would not come quietly so i brought a few men to…handle my affairs.” of course jose wouldn’t get his hands dirty. not even in his moment of triumph. ”you’re gonna kill me right here on the dock? honestly i thought you were smarter than that.” maggie said with a sneer all her own. she watched as jose simply laughed, his meatheads chuckling away as well. ”how great would my revenge be if all i do to you is kill you right here and now. of course i want to make you suffer the way my brother suffered all those years ago. speaking of brothers. you should thanks yours for putting you in this situation. if it wasn’t for his anger and spite i would not have known how to get you here and take you without anyone being the wiser.” now that had maggie stopped in her tracks. spiteful brother? oh god. her heart sank. she could practically hear it fall out of her chest and hit her feet. ”raoul.” she said in a whisper, but the smile formed on jose’s lips nonetheless. ”bingo.” he said. ‘bingo’ must have been the codeword for attack as jose’s muscle stepped around him and toward maggie. betrayed by her own brother, alone on a dock fending for herself, no one the wiser as to where she could possibly be, and a slew of people out to see her dead including the four assholes standing before her. this was not maggie’s day. she watched ready and waiting to defend herself as the three men converged on her.

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status • finished
words • 3334
tagged • laggie !
clothes • click !
notes • sorry for the length. it’s a tad outrageous.

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[Luca Giovanni]

----HE WAS SEEING RED. HE WAS FURIOUS. HE WAS FURIOUS AT MAGGIE. he had never felt this angry before in his life - and that was saying a lot. above all, he was disappointed. disappointed in maggie. with all the emotions and feelings waging a war within himself, he was so confused. oddly enough however, maggie's attack on london only brought him to a realization he never wanted to face. him and maggie could never work. as much as maybe they thought they could work. that, just maybe, it was different. they were different. but, even luca knew you couldn't expect to have a loaded gun and not use it. he couldn't be with someone he was so different from, yet more alike than not. it pained him. she rejected him, attacked his ex-girlfriend, and even if he was livid at her, it sickened him that he still wanted to brush her wild hair out of her face, kiss her, and tell her everything was going to be ok. see what she did to him? maggie was luca giovanni's drug. the italian angel face had a weakness for once. he didn't know how that happened. when did seeing her as a liability to him change to being the one thing an enemy could use against him? when did he start to care?

if maggie was his drug, what did he have to do? he had to get rid of it. of her. they couldn't be partners, let alone fiancees. he'd have to tell his uncle. for both of their safeties, it would be better if they didn't work together. it would be better if they didn't get married either. even if they did get married, maggie wasn't the type to stay home and do the housework. she'd still be out there, on the streets, doing her thing. married or not, luca hated to say that he would worry, but he would. if they just didn't communicate it was a out of mind, out of sight thing. what he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him. ”it’s my fault isn’t it.” he was hovered above her. fire was ignited in both of their eyes. it was quite possibly the deadliest glares they ever gave each other, which was saying a lot. they both knew they weren't going to back down. "of course it's your fault! you attacked her." he yelled at her, definitely not using an "inside voice." and then maggie caught him off-guard. suddenly her fist connected with his jaw, sending the most painful explosion of sheer pain through-out his face. it caught him so off-guard that he fell to the floor and before he could recover, he felt her foot in his gut. he might have heard london gasp or shriek, but he was having a hard time hear as pain rang like bells in his eardrum. he saw maggie's shadow bend down to his level and yanked his head up by the hair. shit, he should just stand up, grab her, and hurl her on top of the hood of the car. cracking the windshield would be easy to fix and give luca great satisfaction. her voice was low, as they both locked eyes. it rolled off her tongue like a knife cutting through ice. if she ever saw him again, she'd kill him. flinging him loose, if luca didn't immediately started coughing, he would have started laughing. if he wanted her dead, she would have been after she nearly broke his nose. if he wanted her killed, he'd do it himself. he'd be the one to pull the goddamn trigger.

maggie walked away and london must have waited until his crazy psycho fiancee was a safe distance away, because then she came running up to him. "oh, luca are you ok?" last thing luca needed was to get babied, he pulled himself up, ignoring london's gestures of aid. "i'm fine. i'm fine." he said, putting a hand to his jaw and moving it around, making sure it wasn't broken. "so... you and maggie? done?" he grimaced. he didn't want london telling him his relationship with maggie was over. if they even had a relationship. no. it didn't end like this. he just didn't have an answer for london. he opted to change the subject. "i think maybe it's best you just go home." he decided not to look at her. he didn't want to see her. "but, you asked me to come. i mean, last night, you seemed pretty eager to tell me something." luca headed towards the elevator entrance of his loft. "well, as you can see, i have to clean up this mess. things have changed. i can't tell you anything. it'd just be best if you went home." he didn't hear footsteps behind him. here he was, hurting another girl. "always with your secrets..." london said, trialing off. she didn't say anything else, and luca whipped open the door and closed it behind him, not even knowing if she was still there or really did turn to go home.

once he got up to his apartment, all he wanted to do was scream and throw something. somehow, he managed to keep his cool long enough to pull some frozen peas out of the freezer to put over his jaw. everything was ridiculous. he still hadn't talked to fausto. oh, but right now, it seemed like a great idea to call him up. he clenched the cellphone out of his pocket and speed dialed fausto's number. it was picked up on the second ring. "i was starting to wonder if something happened." fuck, so much shit had happened in the past twelve hours than his uncle even knew. "are you ok?" luca was sick of people asking him that. "i have a bag of frozen peas over my jaw," luca stated. but before fausto could respond luca continued with, "because that crazy bitch you set me up with is a fucking lunatic!" the other line was silent. luca knew that not getting an immediate response clearly showed that for once, luca surprised his uncle. "what happened?" luca scoffed, which could be audible from the other line. "the two of us happened. i was stupid enough to think..." luca couldn't finish. he instead let out an angry sigh of frustration. "the job. how did the job go?" fausto asked, clearly changing the subject. though he was changing it, luca knew he would be going back to it, since clearly, luca had some blanks he needed to fill in. "oh the job? fucking great. all the way up until nikolas orloff found out who i was. yeah, this is a russian thing. maggie and i got shot at and we had to make a quick exit." if fausto was surprised the russians were behind it, he hid it well, "i assume your exit wasn't a scene?" luca sighed. "if you consider through the kitchen with flying bullets and out the alley, then yes. barely a scene at all." his sarcasm was evident, another point fausto decided to ignore. "the russians... hm." luca could see fausto rubbing his chin in thought, wondering what this could mean. "but it's the novikoffs. when did we ever worry about them, right?" his tone was upbeat, almost like it was a joke. "yeah, whatever," luca responded. he heard his uncle's chuckle over the line. what was so fucking funny? because luca wasn't seeing it.

"nipote," fausto started, saying 'nephew' in italian. "whatever happened between you and maggie can easily be fixed." luca was about to ask his uncle if he was on drugs because this fausto, luca was not recognizing me. "she told me if she ever saw me again, she'd kill me," luca informed. he heard fausto let out an 'oo' on the other end. "she won't do it." eh, luca wasn't sold like fausto was on maggie not stabbing him to death with her butter knives. "ok, well, i'm pretty sure she will." he could see fausto pacing back and forth where he was in los angeles. "oh, she wouldn't. you two are in too deep already." luca pulled the peas off his face and put it on the counter. "look, if you're talking about your spring dream wedding, i don't think -" "i'm not talking about the wedding," fausto said, cutting luca off. "i'm talking about the two of you. look, luca, i don't know what happened, nor do i really care what happened between the two of you. what id do know is they you two are in too deep to give each other up just like that." his uncle's words stung him. how come fausto always appeared to know everything? "now, go buy her some diamonds and apologize. even if you don't know what you're apologizing for. works everytime. i have to go right now. i'll call you if i need something." the phone line clicked even before luca could say anything. maggie wasn't really the type of girl you could woo with diamonds. or maybe she was, but the thought of luca wooing her with diamonds was a recipe for him to get made fun of. he had been the one that just handed her the engagement ring, handing it off like it was some chapstick or something. but the talking? he could possibly manage that. maybe the sooner he talked to her, the better?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

it didn't take long for luca to figure out where she was probably hiding out. he ruled out her apartment almost immediately. if she was that pissed, she probably wouldn't go there. there were a few other places he ruled out. the clubs weren't even open yet. he knew her old dealing place was down by the pier, on the shipping docks. it was a long-shot, but luca was just going to run with it. leaving without his gun, luca went back outside, saw their two duffel bags and tossed them in the back as he got in the driver's seat. from his loft, it was a short drive. he parked the car on the curb and started heading towards the docks. he stopped short at a black suv. hiding himself behind some tall crates, he saw the scene more fully in front of him. about four, maybe more men, all belong to some gang most likely. and then, maggie. cornered and in the middle of it all. he reached behind him, but was grabbing for nothing. shit. he left the gun back at the loft. he knew he kept a spare in his car, but he wasn't able to run back, get it, and come back. it could be an entirely different scene. maggie could be gone. then, the three men that were surrounding her lunged at her. luca immediately sprang from his hiding space. fists were gonna have to be his weapon of choice today. he barely got five steps before he heard the familiar sound of the cocking of a gun. he looked to his left and some mexican henchman was pointing it at his head. was this part of the corinthos family? the man pointing a gun at luca's face said the name 'jose' and muttered off some spanish that luca easily translated as something along the lines of 'he was hiding in the crates. i think he's with her.'

to luca though, 'jose' could only mean one thing. it was the castillos. luca remembered maggie saying they were after her. that night she was drunk, wearing only his shirt, and mauled him on his own couch. luca slowly raised his hands to his shoulder level, signaling he was unarmed. the man with the gun gestured for him to go forward, near jose. luca slowly walked forward, seeing maggie already trapped with two men holding her arms tight. there really was no way out. jose was looking at him, probably sizing luca up. trying to find the story behind him before even asking. luca didn't waver once. expecting a question, he didn't receive one. instead, jose nodded and the men with maggie started shoving her towards the suv. jose then looked at luca again, then at the man with the gun still pointing it at luca's head. "dispose of this when we leave." great. that's all luca needed to hear to know he has some work cut out for him. luca caught maggie's eyes as she passed him. all he did was nod. showing her that even if she wanted to kill him, he was going to take care of this. he was going to find her. he was going to save her. she could kill him afterwards if she truly still wanted to. jose passed him next, giving luca another up/down before getting into the same suv. luca was left standing there with about five seconds to decide what he was going to do before a bullet was laid into his head.

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STATUS, complete CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, around valkyrie, dec 2007 LYRICS, "black and blue" carter husley CLOTHES, here TAGGED, maggie! I SAY, this is really late. i hope the gm was ok. i didn't want to give you nothing.
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[Magdelena "Maggie" Corinthos]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, VALKYRIE PIER/UNKNOWN SHACK, DECEMBER 2007

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-----it was a cold day in hell when maggie lost the upper hand and boy had the temperature fallen a hundred degrees or so. maggie made a living by always having that leverage and that power over other people. it was how she’d been so successful despite her father’s attempts to keep her at bay, it was how she’d gotten her father just about every contact since the day she’d joined up with his business, and it was how she’d stayed alive all this time after according to her father she’d “outlived her use.” ah yes it was so nice to hear such kind words coming from the mouth of her father. ha. there would never be a day that maggie would hear a kind thing come out of that bastards mouth, this much maggie was certain of. it was more likely that he’d smile at her as he pulled the trigger to a gun whose muzzle was pointed at her head or her gut, or better yet it was more likely that she’d see him smile as he used her favorite knife to slice her throat open, watching her twitch on the floor in sanctimonious joy. little did juan know that supporting his daughter would have killed her. oh definitely the shock of it all would have done her in. but that wasn’t the case and unfortunately maggie’s outlook on life was just a tad dismal. it wasn’t because she’d wanted things to be that way. maggie just went with what she was given. her father wanted her dead…well who’s father didn’t? her soon to be husband of an arranged marriage was likely to want her dead now as well after the stunt she’d pulled but could you blame her? maggie hadn’t handled herself well. call it the story of her life. it seemed like no matter what she did, maggie never did handle a situation right. black mailing her father for one into keeping her around? not such a great idea in hindsight. she would have been better off taking what she knew, learned, and had acquired and going to someone else, someone she was more likely to trust. in all actuality had things not blown up between the corinthos and castillos, it would have likely been jose that maggie went to with all the juicy details. you had to at least have a bit of respect for a man who, like a cockroach, survived what should have been his death only to reappear at a time that was completely inconvenient and choose said time to raise a little hell.

-----needless to say the fact that jose had caught her off guard made her skin crawl. how long had it been now since donny had showed her pictures of jose and his rag-tag bag of dim-witted henchmen? how long had she known that he was in town and running about. all in all maggie knew she would have been infinitely more prepared had she not been weighted down by giovanni drama. honestly if you took one look at her today in comparison to the creature she was back before she’d come to the states, one would hardly recognize this new maggie. something about luca’s influence was like a frayed wire in her brain. he zapped any portions of self control that maggie had been so proud of on her voyage to the states. she’d been so happy to be let loose somewhere where her father couldn’t touch her and yet, look at the effect he’d had. sure luca hadn’t been hired by her father to catch her off guard, that was just a damn perk! luca was doing all of juan’s work for free and he hadn’t the slightest clue that he was even doing it! strike that, luca had to know by now that he made her haywire but that was never the intention in the beginning just like luca never thought he’d be wanting to get down and dirty with a girl who was, regrettably, still in high school. it sounded so dirty when said that way but maggie was a consenting adult and had been for a few months now. she’d always been the mature child anyways. it wasn’t until now that she started acting irrationally and doing stupid shit that was likely to get her killed. and she thanked luca up and down for bringing out that side of her. what was she? human? was she actually some animalistic and primitive kind of creature just like the rest of the knuckle-dragging specimens she scoffed at after all this time? she couldn’t possibly be. maggie was a cold, unemotional, analytical, diabolical, killing and scheming machine! she was damn it, and she would say that up until her very last breath. because being that cold, strategic person was what had set her apart from every other joe schmo out there. she refused to think that that could even be a possibility. she was one of a kind and she would always be that way and anyone who said otherwise could scream it aloud as she ripped their throats out with the help of the dullest blade maggie could find.

-----maggie did however have much more pressing matters as she faced down three of jose’s men. this was no picnic and maggie knew she was in for trouble the minute she’d recognized jose getting out of the van but this? yeah this was hard and she was sure it was going to get much worse. jose’s plans for her didn’t involve some kind of happy ending. it didn’t involve jose making juan nervous or anything. in was intended for juan to pay, and that always meant that it was at the expense of one magdelena corinthos. how did she always manage to get the shit end of her father’s stick? because this was not the first time things like this had happened. usually the cold feel of her blades would give maggie a little comfort but today she really wasn’t feeling it. she’d gotten too used to luca at her back, another pair of hands that could help her if need be. she’d been partnered up with someone for far too long and she was starting to grow dependent on that partnership. maggie paced her breathing, trying to calm her body as she watched the men circle. in the back of her mind maggie knew she could do this. she’d faced off with people before, when she’d been alone, and she’d gotten through just fine. this would have to be just like any one of those times. she needed to rally. now was a better time than ever to prove to herself that she didn’t need a man or anyone else for that matter to save her. she wasn’t some damsel in distress. she was a damn lioness. as silly as it sounded, maggie considered it to be pretty darn true. she wasn’t one of those girls who needed rescuing at every turn. she was the one who did the rescuing but only when it was necessary. had she not saved luca one or twice already? that didn’t mean that maggie wanted someone to return the favor. no, she would take these three guys and if anything else she would go down swinging. her eyes were glued to the men, watching to see who would strike first. she held her blades more so against her arm so they weren’t detectable but as the first man lunged at her, maggie changed her grip so that the dagger blades pointed perpendicular to her hands. as her first attacker rushed her, maggie crossed her arms in front of her, making a slicing action that she could feel connect with something. the man staggered back, gripping his stomach where maggie’s blades had cut him both from the left and right but before maggie could make such an attempt on anyone else, the two men grabbed her, forcing her arms backwards until her hands involuntarily loosened and the knives fell from her hands.

-----her arms were wrenched back as the two men forced her toward the car. maggie of course didn’t give up that easily. she threw her weight around, letting her legs give out and taking her two chauffeurs with her until she bent her knees and kicked off, hurting her arm but bashing them in the face in the process. still the men didn’t let go as they escorted her past some crates and toward the car. it was then that maggie caught sight of luca and in that one moment maggie felt a chill unlike anything else she’d ever experienced. she was in trouble and her fate lay in the hands of a man she was pretty sure didn’t give a shit about her anymore. boy was that reassuring. but that one glimpse of a familiar face at the same time seemed to give her a boost of…well something. suddenly there was just a little more fight left in her, enough to make her throw up her feet on either side of the car door, preventing the two men from easily getting her inside the vehicle. maggie pushed and fought but eventually the two men muscled her into the car. before maggie could get a chance to get to her feet and make another attempt at escape, BAM!*@&! the butt of one of the men’s guns collided with her temple sending her into a spiraling black out. the men rearranged maggie’s limp body, zap tying her hands together as the rest of the men clambered into the car and the black suv sped away.

-----when she came to, maggie found herself tied to a chair, her hands bound together with those zap ties while her feet were tied to both front legs of the chair. maggie blinked a few times, slowly opening her eyes as the sharp pang of light and her sensitive head really got to meet one another. god her head was throbbing. it felt like a ton of bricks too as she finally lifted her head, her blurry vision finally focusing as she took in her surroundings. the tiny, insignificant shack could hardly be called a building. it was standing on what looked to be it’s last legs. like if you breathed too hard the walls would simply give way, slamming the roof down on top of you like a pile of rubble. it wasn’t all too reassuring. maggie groaned as a beam of sunlight caught her eye, bringing her to the attention of all four or five men in the room. maggie hadn’t taken the time to count how many they were. ”oh good. you’re awake.” maggie heard a voice say from behind her, a voice that was unmistakably jose’s. ”i thought you were going to miss all the fun.” maggie rolled her eyes but regretted it a moment later when the dizziness hit her. ”and to think you could actually have fun with all these men around. jose, is there something you want to confess?” maggie said with a sneer. she was goading him and she knew it but why not have a little fun if this would indeed be her last day breathing. jose chuckled like he’d enjoyed the joke before a fist slammed into her face, busting open her lip. maggie didn’t say a thing as she took the hit, happy to spit a little blood at jose now that she had the ammunition. ”so sensitive. be careful. you keep it up with that temper and people will think it’s true.” this time jose didn’t retaliate, but maggie wasn’t done. ”after all you’ve only been in hiding like some little bitch for, oh, say twenty years now. maybe you needed a little personal company.” this time what flew at her was a boot, catching maggie in the chest and knocking the wind out of her as the chair tipped back on its back legs and crashed to the floor, maggie’s head hitting in the process. ”pick that bitch up.” jose demanded and two men quickly obeyed him.

-----once upright, maggie noticed jose passing a few bags of powder being handed to one of his men, this powder likely being the drugs that maggie had gone to the pier with the intent to sell to the bastard who had called her there in the first place. her blood ran cold as she watch the men take out the powder and start manipulating it, even colder when she saw the syringe coming into play. the one thing that maggie feared was drugs. it was the one thing she’d never even dreamed of experimenting with, the one thing she’d kept her distance from other than when she was selling. maggie went nowhere near any of her father’s product at any point in time. she saw what it did to people and how useless and pathetic it made them. she saw people at their worst, shaking and barely able to control bodily functions, and she’d swore to herself that she would never find herself in that position. now she was definitely afraid. ”you know what i’m going to do.” jose said with a sneer of his own as one of his men handed him the needle, loaded with a piss-yellow liquid that, to maggie’s eyes, had death written all over it. ”first, i’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine and give you some of your papi’s fine product. then, while you’re out, i’m going to show you just how i got through those years underground. and then if you’re lucky enough to live, i’ll show you it all over again before i slice open your throat with your very own knife.” maggie tried to hide it, but there was no way to hide the way her face drained of color. did jose seriously intend on drugging her, then raping her, then repeating the process all over again if she lived through her overdose? wow she really was screwed. maggie thrashed against her ties in a futile effort to escape as jose approached. two henchmen grabbed her shoulders and held her in place as jose jabbed the needle into the vein in her arm. maggie screamed as she could feel the liquid rush into her system, her wide eyes watching the plunger descend through the chamber of the syringe. the effects were immediate as maggie’s world swirled around her. her ears rang, her pulse beat like a jackhammer, her chest rose and fell with each rapid inhale and exhale she took, her skin crawled. nothing felt right but worst of all, maggie had near to no function of any portion of her body. so all she could do was sit there in a fit as she felt jose’s hands over her body, heading for the buttons of her jean shorts. she drifted out of consciousness as a crash rang out throughout the room…

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status • finished
words • 2529
tagged • laggie !
clothes • click !
notes • --.

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[Luca Giovanni]

----NO MATTER HOW MUCH TRAINING YOU HAVE when you're thrown out into the field it's always a completely different story. no matter how many years you've been in the crime business, the barrel of a gun pointed at your head is something you couldn't control. it was strange. how one person can hold the life of another person in one bullet. just... so simple. luca never thought about this too hard, considering he too, carried guns. it was the weapon of choice for the giovannis. luca had been shot at, sure. however, it was at a farther, poorly aimed, distance. luca had been under his uncle's reign since he was eighteen. never once had he had a gun pointed at his head in a point-blank range. everyone but luca and the man were left on the docks as the black suv started slowly turning away. the man had already cocked the gun, it was any time now. just pulling the trigger and you're gone. "sorry, man, you just were in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said in a heavy mexican accent. luca looked up as the suv turned the corner. no way for anyone in the car to see what was going to happen next. "yeah, so are you."

luca maneuvered backwards, grabbing the man's wrist, (the one that held the gun.) he knew his opponent would start a struggle almost immediately. it was reflex. luca knew he couldn't waste one second because he knew he didn't have the upper-hand. the one with the gun did. luca drove his elbow into the back of the man's neck, making him falter. the gun shot off, straight up into the air. luca continued his squeeze on the guy's wrist, eventually making him drop the gun. with the man focusing on the fact that he lost his gun, he hesitated, giving luca an opportunity to drive his elbow into the back of the man's neck. as he doubled over from the impact of the blow, luca brought his knee up, getting him in the gut. the man stumbled for a moment before swinging his arms at luca, catching him in both the lip and the eye. pain ripped through his face. luca got another couple punches himself in, then kicked the feet out from underneath him. with that, the mexican henchman of jose catillo's fell flat on his back on the ground. luca kicked the gun out of reach as he bent over him, grabbing his collar and pulling him high enough for when luca punched him, his head flopped back. one, two, three more punches before luca decided to speak. "tell me where you bastards are hiding out." no questions. luca wanted straight answers. he brought the strategy of punch now, ask questions later. blood appeared from the man's nose and his lip was split. "i say nothing." luca rolled his eyes, repositioned his grip on the collar and brother his fist behind his head again. another couple of punches and his victim still wasn't willing to talk. luca had to admired the loyalty most gangs had with each other. it was a bitch to get around, but he knew if some giovanni was in this position right now, he wouldn't be talking either. it was like when violet was kidnapped. his poor cousin wasn't even involved in the crime business but she took the hits the irish gave her when she wouldn't speak. "you got one more chance. tell me where they took her." the man smiled, blood stained his teeth. this just irritated luca more. "fuck. you." luca smirked, raised his fist again and let it rip.

flinging the man's unconscious body back towards the ground, luca looked down at his fist covered in blood. and of course, the after effects of punching someone's face immediately hit him and his hand began to throb. he shook his hand though, hoping the pain would subside. luca grabbed the gun he kicked out of the way and check it out. seeing it was fully loaded, he put it back on safety and jogged back to the car. he had to hurry up and investigate what the hell was going on. once he was back in his car, he grabbed a towel he kept on the floor of the passenger's seat. wipping his knuckles off and applying pressure to the skin that split, luca reached in the glove department for his other gun and put it in the passanger seat next to the one he just stole. "dammit!" he yelled in frustration and hit the steering wheel with his good hand. what was he suppose to do? should he call fausto? say the castillos were in valkyrie and they just took maggie? as much as fausto had taken a liking to maggie, luca knew fausto wouldn't want to get involved with yet, another gang that would like to see them all dead. he wasn't going to tell fausto about it then. this was all going to have to be up to him. a solo mission, under the radar, and he was damn sure that he was going to find maggie and bring her back himself. now it was the question of how he was going to find her. luca ripped the towel as best he could and tied it around his knuckles. he jammed his keys into the ignition and shifted the car in drive. he knew exactly where he needed to go.

ten minutes later, luca was getting out of his car again. he was outside of a bar. or, at least that was what they qualified as because the did indeed sell alcohol. however, the crowd was rougher than nonsense and for guys like luca, it was crawling with narks, snitches, and low-life petty criminals that tend to hear things. he walked in, the lights were extremely dimmed. smoke from cigarettes wafted through the bar. luca had been here enough times for the bartender to know who he was. luca sat down at the bar, inbetween a few people. luca knew exactly how to play it. "luca, luca. what can i get you today?" randall, the bartender, said approaching him. luca folded his hands and put them on the bar's countertop. "you have any information about where jose castillo is hiding out?" randall shook his head, but randall always said that. it was the game they both had previously worked out. it was just bait. "thanks, randy. see you tomorrow." luca looked up and caught the eyes of a lanky guy. he looked right a luca and sharply looked away. guilty. luca got up, threw down a couple twenties for randall and started to follow the guy who was headed out the back door. the man paused for a moment, just to see that luca was indeed following him before continuing his trek forward. luca then turned around and proceded out the front door. he edged to the end of the bar's storefront, right before he hit the alleyway. the alleyway that was the only exit from the backdoor. on cue, the runner appeared, clearly looking behind him expecting luca to be coming through the door. think again. luca grabbed him by his jacket and hauled him into the alleyway with him. the runner jumped, clearly scared. "l-l-l-look man. i d-d-don't know anything. you got th-th-the wrong guy." luca pressed the younger guy against the brick wall. he couldn't be older than luca was. "look, man, quite frankly i am pressed for time at the moment and i need to find someone who might not have much time left. so i'm going to make this real simple on you, ok?" the scared boy nodded, too terrified to say anything. "for every question you answer correctly, you can keep a finger. rules clear?" luca could see the terror in the guy's eyes and he stammered out a, "ye-ye-yes." "first, i want your name." the guy looked down for a moment and luca tightened his grip on the jacket. "jake! my name is jake." luca nodded, chances were he was scaring the kid too much to not get lied to. "tell me. jake. why were you running away in the bar in there?" jake bit his lip for a moment before saying quietly, "because i heard you mention jose castillo." it was barely above a whisper. "and, jake, where is jose castillo laying low?" jake shrugged. luca didn't actually have any knives in his pocket to cut off a finger. he was just hoping jake would be too scared shitless to lie. instead, luca just took one hand off jake's jacket and grabbed jake's trembling hand. "ok, ok, ok. i might have heard of a few things." luca released the hold on jake's wrist. "tell me what i want to know. where is he hiding out?"

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his car bounced on the uneven road he was driving on. it was still light outside which was going to be slightly more difficult to hide against. oh well, night or day, this was still considered a suicide mission. luca knew that he was going to be outnumbered the moment he stepped foot in the shack jake directed him to. the shack was tucked down below a steep hill. the scattered trees there was on top let luca attempt his undercover hiding spot for the car. once in park, he cut the engine. he pulled on some leather gloves over his hands. easiest way of handleing a gun that wasn't his. he didn't know what was going on down there, so he didn't know if he'd have time to wipe the prints. though the gun he brought was unregistered, (thanks towards the giovannis who were involved in illegal distrubution of firearms.) he planned to ditch the gun he wrestled from one jose's men here. the police could link it back to the castillos. he was planning on being a ghost. if he was lucky, the police would rules this as the castillos turning on each other.

luca really didn't know what was going to happen in the next ten minutes. he didn't even know if maggie was here, if she was still alive. luca didn't even know if this was some sort of trap. virtually, no one from the giovannis knew what was going on. sure, fausto knew luca was going to go attempt to make things better with maggie. he'd know something was wrong when neither of them checked in, or word about maggie's kidnapping spread along the crime world. all luca knew that his number one priority at the momet was getting maggie out of harm's way... and killing anyone that stood in his way. luca knew killing came with the gig, but he wasn't a contract killer. he never went out with the intention of killing someone. had it happened? sure. maybe in an ambush, or a fight. when all those bullets are flying, its hard to tell where yours ended up. but now... luca knew he was killing every single one of those bastards. this was how the giovannis got violet back. they busted into the shitty house they were keeping her in and shot as many irish scumbags as they could. the only difference between that situation and this one was that luca was alone. he had no back up. if he was thinking rationally, he might try and contact some cousins, saying he needed help, but time was wasting and he had to act on this now. he opened the door and got out. to his luck there was trees spread throughout the hill, providing a nice cover as he made his way down tot he shack.

five minutes of ducking and hiding, luca edged himself to the building. he kept his back square against the rotting wood. this kidnap was poorly executed. where were the guards? guess jose was confident no one would find them? he got close enough where he was standing with his back against the wall. he peered inside the grimey window that was next to the door. inside, he saw a clear shot of maggie. from what he saw, she was tied to a chair. next, his eyes swept over what she was dealing with. he counted four guys plus jose. luca pulled out both guns, cocked them and looked back in the window. what set his blood boiling was when he saw jose put his hands on maggie, and from the looks of it, maggie seemed unconscious. luca turned around, facing the door. he had a good three seconds of an advantage since his gun were already drawn. he took a deep breath. do or die was right now. he lifted his leg and kicked the door in. first it was the man by the window on the opposite end of the room, next a quick shot at the man closest to him, to maggie's left was the other man. luca faltered for a moment as he felt something slice through the top of his arm. fuck. but he could tell it was just a graze. he shot the next one right in the chest, and lastly was jose, who he delibertily shot in the arm. jose looked at him. an actual look of confusion on his face. "you again." luca didn't move. he kept a gun aimed at jose. "ah. haha," jose said and staggered up. the thing about head bosses, it was rare that they carried guns, or weapons. they didn't want to be caught with something on them. that's why they had henchmen. "i see now. the one with the angel face. you must be a giovanni." that when he heard the cock of a gun. luca's other arm shot up and focused in on one of the men he shot early training his gun at the back of maggie's head. "am i an enemy fausto giovanni really wants to have?" luca didn't take his eyes off of the man with the gun to maggie's head. "you've been gone for twenty years, jose. i alredy know fausto will say 'jose who?'" yup, a shot to the ego. but jose had to know, he was no one here. he had been in hiding longer than osama bin laden.

"how about a deal?" luca kept both guns aimed at both men. "deal with you? what's the catch?" jose shook his head. "no catch. we all just part ways right now. hector won't shoot maggie. you won't shoot him. we all leave happy. of course, it's a matter of what you can do to save her. if a bullet doesn't kill her, the drugs coursing through her veins will." wait. she was drugged? luca knew she was unconscious, but she didn't know she was on something. "up to you, giovanni. what's it going to be?" well, the obvious choice was, "maggie. i'll kill you if you touch her again." jose grinned. nodded and hector removed his aim on maggie's head. "i look forward to it, angel face." luca kept his aim on the both of them, until the disappeared out the door. luca dropped the gun he stole earlier and hid the other one away. he found a knife on the counter and rushed back to maggie. his took his gloves off and lifted her face with his hands. "maggie, maggie. can you hear me? shit." he felt her pulse, and it was definitely still there, but it wasn't as quick. he used the knife to cut her free from the chair. wiping the knife, he left it on the floor. he pulled maggie up, hooking and arm around her waist he tried to shake her awake again. "maggie. come on now. don't die." he picked her up, her body falling limp against his. shit, this was not good. somehow, he had enough adrenaline to pull them both up the hill. to his surprise, his car's tires weren't slashed. guess jose and hector got out of there quick. he opened the passanger's door and put maggie in there carefully. he wasted no time into getting on his own side and speeding out of there as quick as he possibly could. he grabbed maggie's hand, squeezing it. "hang in there. i'm going to save you. i told you i would."

the thing was, he couldn't take her to the hospital. she not only would be against it, but it was kind of risky to just send her in the emergency room when luca looked like he walked through a slaughterhouse and he himself was partially injured. then, he had an idea. he pulled his phone out and searched through the contacts list until he came down to sarai montgomery's number. you might as why he had his uncle's... whatever they were... number. but that was exactly the point. he did because she was involved with his uncle. and, she was like a doctor or pre-doctor or something. he dialed her and waited for an answer. when he heard her answer he said, "it's luca giovanni. look... i need your help. i need you to meet me at my loft. i love on main street. where the old abandoned gallery is. go around back take the elevator up." he knew he was demanding this. and when she asked why, he said, "you're a doctor. i need your help detoxing someone that's overdosing on some drugs. i can't go to the hospital. please... sarai... i love her."

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STATUS, complete CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, around valkyrie, dec 2007 LYRICS, "black and blue" carter husley CLOTHES, here TAGGED, maggie! I SAY, oh hot damn. hope it was ok.
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[Magdelena "Maggie" Corinthos]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, LUCA’S LOFT, DECEMBER 2007

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-----well this wasn’t a common occurrence. it wasn’t every day that a mobster called you on the phone demanding you help with a certain situation, but then again, since when had things been normal for sarai montgomery. from her mother forcing her to model to getting shot defending the honor of a molested little girl, it was safe to say sarai had been skating on the edge of crazy for a while. she was literally tying her shoe when the phone rang from her locker. her shift had been over for approximately fifteen minutes now and after she’d stuck around to say her daily hellos or goodbyes to the kids in the pediatrics wing, she’d finally made it to signing her last charts before she headed to the locker room to change into her street clothes. she’d just finished tightening the knot on one shoe when she heard her ringtone. of course she was skeptical when there was no number flashing on her phone but she answered it anyways. you never know when things are important right? so she answered. and she was talking to a mobster. oh goody. ”l-luca? holy…” she zipped her lips quickly shut. how in the hell did the giovanni’s get her number? ”um hi. wha? main street? yeah sure.” curiosity overtook her. why was luca calling her? how did the giovanni’s get her number? did this mean that nothing about her life was sacred? what was the emergency? the latter of the questions sarai actually voiced. she was indeed a doctor and she did need to know what she was treating. it wasn’t that much of a stretch to figure she might ask that kind of question. once she got the details sarai agreed and shut her phone. though everything screamed for her to not help this guy out, reality set in fast. she was a doctor and it was obligatory that she treat people in need of her assistance. at the same time she was at the mercy of a man who knew her phone number. if they had that then they had to have more on her and she really didn’t want to risk the wrath of a madman should she not go to help and this girl die. that, and he said he loved her. sarai wasn’t all too shy about the fact that she felt the need to help people find their happy endings. so despite the dangers, sarai slid on her other shoe and took a leap of faith.

-----she hit the medical supply closet first, digging through the emergency supply duffle bags that they usually took whenever a major even happened and doctors needed to be brought on site. it didn’t happen often but they were readily stocked and something sarai could just empty and leave with. in the middle of stuffing her own tote with a banana bag, sarai stopped for a minute to contemplate…would this be a danger to her career? would it really matter if it was when not going through with this could be a danger to her life or to the lives of people she cared about. the minute sarai realized that ainsley could be a target, it didn’t matter what this could cost her. sarai had never done anything remotely bad in the past and if, in worst case scenario, she did get caught, this would be a first offense. she had to hope that things would work in her favor should anything go awry. sarai stuffed the neon orange emergency duffle into the biohazard waste bin and prayed it would be enough. she hiked her tote on her shoulder and walked out the door like there was nothing wrong in the world. because god forbid you just have “GUILTY” written on your forehead. she could fake not being guilty apparently as she walked out the door with no problem. sarai hopped in her car and headed toward downtown, the opposite direction from her home. once at the loft, sarai hopped out and headed to the back door, just as she’d been directed. she could still hear the popping and crackling of the other car so she must have made it with good timing. lucky for luca she hadn’t been on the clock. she entered the elevator and rode it up. she took a deep breath as the bell dinged for the second floor, gearing herself up for whatever she would have to face.

-----all hell seemed to break loose when the elevator doors opened. luca rushed to her, grabbing her arm and hauling her in. by the look in his eye and the loud rush to his voice sarai could definitely tell he was terrified. ”okay i need a washcloth, a bowl of warm water, i need an empty trash can, and after you get me that i need you to sit down on that couch and count to one thousand okay?” sarai said as she shrugged out of luca’s death grip on her arm and crossed the room to where the bedroom sat. she took in the patient, unconscious, skin pale, clammy, shivering, her pulse was slow as was her breathing. this was definitely an overdose. sarai pulled out her gear as luca brought over everything, sloshing water onto the floor as he nervously put things within her reach. sarai grabbed the washcloth, wet it, and put it over the girl’s forehead before she grabbed her equipment out of her tote bag. she heard a few questions in the background, ”what’s that?” “what do you need that for? and such. she could understand that luca was scared but breathing down her neck wasn’t going to fix this girl any faster. ”you forgot something.” sarai said as she grabbed her stethoscope and listened to the girl’s lungs. no aspiration, so that was good. ”what? what do you need?” she heard in a rushed voice and luca jumped to action. ”i need you to go sit down. i can’t work with you hovering like this. pretend the couch is a waiting room and sit!” her voice was a little more demanding than was probably appropriate, but that was how you got through to people as nervous as luca was. once he was seated sarai went to work.

-----sarai heaved a sigh as she sat up and pulled her fingers away from the girl’s wrist. she checked the banana bag one more time before she stood and raked her fingers through her hair. ”luca?” she said as she turned away from the bed and walked into the living room. she stood next to the couch. she wasn’t about to make herself comfortable. ”now because she was injected there wasn’t much i could do other than make sure she stays stable. she’s going to have to work this out of her system on her own. i gave her an iv that’s good for this kind of thing. it’s got all kinds of vitamins and electrolytes so she should be fine. she’s asleep for now. she’s probably going to be unaware of her surroundings when she wakes up so it’d be good if you were nearby to talk to her and let her know where she is.” she grabbed her bag which she’d slowly packed as she’d finished with things. ”i have to go otherwise tony’s going to come looking for me and that’s the last thing you or i want. the iv will finish in about an hour but it’s my guess that she’ll be awake before that. just take it out, empty anything that’s left down the sink, and throw it away. bring her by the hospital in a few weeks so i can do a round of tests on her. i want to make sure she’s fine, std check just as a precaution. just call her in a check up or something and i’ll handle it. if anything happens while i’m gone, she starts seizing or vomiting, call me, but i highly doubt that’s going to happen okay?” sarai hiked the tote on her shoulder once again as she headed toward the elevator. she stepped inside, looking at luca as the doors began to close. ”and luca?” she said getting his attention. ”lose my phone number.”

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-----nothing wanted to move. from what she could remember jose was about to undo her pants and maggie knew, she just knew, that she needed to fight him off and damn it her arms wouldn’t work! she couldn’t remember anything other than what was happening before she blacked out. all she could remember was the needle. that god damned needle that dug into her flesh with that ungodly yellow liquid being emptied into her veins. all she could think was that she wasn’t going to get through this. god it was a terrible way to go, but ironic if you think about it. the drug lord’s daughter going out high. only this drug lord’s daughter never touched the stuff. had she been a junkie she might have taken to the drugs better but what kind of a trade off was that? live life as a shaking, pathetic mess just looking for another hit or being a sane, mature adult about everything. the latter sounded like a better option to maggie. she would have rather been without the stuff and automatically been rendered unconscious than to only get high and have to endure ever, little thing jose had likely done to her body. damn that bastard straight to hell! suddenly she could feel her fingers move. maybe anger helped her? all she wanted to do was open her eyes and fight in any way she had to. so she thought of everything that she could remember and let the anger from those memories surge through her body. she wanted to be awake, no she needed to be awake. finally, groggily, maggie could feel her arm move. her head may have been functional and reeling but boy were her limbs slow to function. she fought to open her eyes, finally pulling her lids open a quarter of an inch only to have the light blind her and make her groan, wincing as she blocked out every speck of light she could. her ears worked though. she could hear a familiar voice speaking her name. luca. why was it she’d figured he would have been dead at this point? was he strapped to a chair as well? ”maggie open your eyes.” damn it that was easier said than done. it was extra light outside today or something. she didn’t want to open her eyes.

-----somehow luca got the clue and twisted the blinds closed then maggie was a little less reluctant to open her eyes. she could feel his hand grasping at hers and then, as if in slow motion, everything seemed to come back to her. she moved her toes, she groaned, and finally her eyes opened. and…she recognized the ceiling? it took her a minute but maggie realized that they were back at the loft. well that was better than dying in some shack or better then dying in a gutter. at least the bed was comfortable. ”luca.” she croaked, as she opened up eyes all the way and took in the sight of him. ”oh thank god.” she said as she sat up and wrapped her arms around him. she nuzzled up against his neck before she felt the tug on her right forearm. with a curious gaze maggie pulled away and looked down at her arm. her immediate reaction when she saw the needle was to scream, and scream she did. from the moment she saw that hunk of metal wedged underneath a layer of skin all she could think about was the needle attached to the syringe, that yellow liquid, and watching the plunger fall through the chamber. scrambling away from luca’s grip maggie reached for the needle and ripped it out of her skin, tossing it aside (though it was attached to plastic tubing and was only flung across the floor), and digging her heels in as she scrambled to get away from it. her head hit the wall as her back connected with the baseboard of the bed but that was far enough for her. maggie hugged her knees into her chest and buried her head in the crook her knees made. she inhaled sharply, her whole body shaking. god she was a freak! ”get rid of it!” she screamed, not looking up until luca had picked up the needle and whatever it was attached to and come back giving her the all clear. maggie looked up sheepishly, finally a little more willing to relax. she scooted closer to luca again, hugging herself to him and pretty much sliding herself onto his lap like a child would when apologizing for doing something wrong. ”thank you” she whispered into his chest as she heaved a shaky sigh, ”i thought you were dead.”

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status • finished
words • 2459
tagged • laggie !
clothes • click !
notes • my god i love them so much! i just stuck sarai in there but since she's in and out i wasn't about to make her a banner or anything. yay for laziness!

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[Luca Giovanni]

----WHEN LUCA GOT BACK TO THE LOFT it was like a blur. he remembered pulling maggie out of the car, waiting for eternity for the elevator to come down to get them. he placed maggie on his bed. she looked like she was getting hot or something because her forehead was sweating a bit. luca pulled her hair out of her eyes, making sure nothing was on her face that didn't have to be. hesat ont eh edge of the bed next to her and held her hand. kissing the top of it, luca said, "hang in there, maggie. help is coming." at that moment, he heard the elevator creak to life. sarai must be here. luca left maggie on the bed and crossed the loft to the elevator, waiting for sarai to be on the other side. he barely greeted her when the doors opened. luca grabbed her arm and started pulling her towards where the bed was. "she's back here. i don't know what she's on. she was drugged." sarai listed off what she needed and luca ran off into the kitchen to gather the things. he grabbed a wash cloth from one of the kitchen drawers and filled a bowl up with warm water from the sink. he brought that over to sarai first before going back for the garbage can. placing that by sarai too, he lingered near the end of the bed and watched sarai pull various things out of her bag. ”you forgot something.” "what? what do you need?” he was sure he brought over everything she needed. ”i need you to go sit down. i can’t work with you hovering like this. pretend the couch is a waiting room and sit!”

if maggie's life wasn't in sarai's hands, he might have been more of a prick than he usually was. "sorry," he murmured and turned towards the living area. he couldn't sit though, he was too anxious. instead, he did the nervous pacing thing. he looked at his watch. it had been a few hours now since maggie had first walked out on him outside with london outside. and about a half hour since jose and hector took off. luca wondered if slowly, whispers were making their rounds around underground. did fausto know? if his uncle knew, he probably would have already called luca. but it was only a matter of time now. this wasn't just a petty drug dealer crossing paths with a giovanni. no. this was way bigger. this was what fasuto would say 'am amateur soldier trying to take down a king.' luca being the amateur soldier and jose being the king. even luca knew he was a little out of his league. he was good, but his arrogant cockiness knew better than piss off a head of another family. or, at least he thought he was. the backlash was going to be all on him. whatever was to come may not be good.

after a few more minutes, sarai called him over and started explaining what she did. so, maggie was going to be ok. well, if everything went well, and according to sarai, it would. she put an iv in maggie and it was pumping fluids in her to flush the bad stuff out of her system. "thanks, sarai. this means a lot. i owe you one. if you ever need someone taken care of..." he trailed off, a very slight smirk on his face, but with enough force in his tone for her to actually believe him. what? you do something for the giovannis, the giovannis do something for you. ”and luca? lose my phone number.” if only it was that easy. he didn't say anything as she turned and left. now, he just had to watch maggie until she woke up. it was still bright outside, the sun filtered through blinds and laid in stripes across the bed. this had been too close of a call. maggie was going to die. luca didn't even want to imagine what he would have done if he didn't see her down by the docks. deep down, luca always knew something like this would happen. this was always doomed from the start. it just had to happen like this. luca hovered next to the bed. his phone started buzzing in his pocket. he pulled it out, fausto's name flashing on the screen. so, the consequences of his actions were starting now.

"hello." he said, walking away from the bed and across the room near the kitchen. "tell me. why am i hearing that you crossed paths with jose castillo." luca pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. "because i did." the other end was silent and luca knew he pissed his uncle off. "when did you get the idea you could make decisions on your own to this caliber? you went out, alone, and got mixed up with them are you looking for a death sentence or just plain stupid?" luca walked around the counter slowly. he felt similar to a teenager getting scolded by his father. "they took maggie. i had to get her back. they drugged her up, fausto, they-they were going to do stuff to her. i had to take matters into my own hands. simple as that." fausto snickered on the other end. "simple as that, huh? what happened to maggie in unfortunate, and i am glad she is ok now. but dammit luca, you have always been the loose canon of the family and now there are three bodies in a shack, jose castillo knows who you are. letting him get away was probably the stupidest thing you have ever done. the mexicans, luca, do not play fair. why the fuck do you think i allied with one?" luca shook his head. "i know you want me to apologize, but honestly, i'd do it again if i had to." another sigh from the other end. "you are foolish. i blame this blind love you have suddenly acquired. i have damage control to do. this isn't the last time you are going to hear from me today." the phone disconnected the call even before luca said goodbye. so, seemed like fausto was just as pissed at luca as he thought fausto was going to be.

he grabbed a chair from the living room and pushed it to the bedside. he just sat there. lost in his own thoughts of what was going to happen next. he just wanted.... he wanted maggie to wake up. he wanted to know the shit he just pulled wasn't just to bury some girl. seconds turned to minutes and luca got up from just watching her to the window where he stared out to main street below. if jose castillo didn't play fair, why could luca see some mexicans busting through his elevator and finish what the had started? he shook his head and noticed movement from the bed. it took him less than two seconds to be right next to her. ”maggie open your eyes,” he told her softly. the sun was hitting her right in the face and he got back up to close the blinds, but was right by her side again after he did it. "it's ok. i'm right here. you're safe now." she opened her eyes and said his name. he smiled slightly as she sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck. his arms were around her for only a few seconds before she recoiled. he thought something was wrong. he stood back up as he watched her rip the iv from her hand. what the heck? she scrambled up towards the head of the bed and buried her head in her knees. ”get rid of it!” she screamed at him. "ok, ok," he said and picked up everything, and threw in into the garbage can that was still near the bed. "everything's gone. it was just an iv. helping you. you... you overdosed, maggie." luca sat back down next to her. she fell back into his chest. ”i thought you were dead.”

he stroked her hair with one hand, and hugged her close with the other. "i had to save you. it was all my fault anyway. i shouldn't have walked out of the hotel last night. none of this would have happened." he lifted her head so they could look at each other. "i thought i lost you, maggie." he brushed some of her hair out of her face. "i realized even if we do fight... more than a normal couple, i just wasn't ready for you to walk away." he offered a small smile, resting his hand at the base of her neck and rubbing one side of her cheek with his thumb. "i'm sorry. for everything." he brought her face to his and kissed her. it wasn't like their angry, i hate you but want to rip your clothes off kisses. it was soft, it was gentle, and it let luca know that this was the real deal.

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STATUS, complete CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, around valkyrie, dec 2007 LYRICS, "black and blue" carter husley CLOTHES, here TAGGED, maggie! I SAY, oh hot damn. hope it was ok.
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[Magdelena "Maggie" Corinthos]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, LUCA’S LOFT, DECEMBER 2007

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-----all of this was a little hard to comprehend for maggie. this had been what she was asking for after all this time right? for a little involvement? she’d been wanting in on the game since she’d learned what the game was but never would she have imagined herself here. never would have imagined that she would have ever made it to the point where people were trying to take her life, yeah that was something new for her. it was simply because juan liked to do anything and everything in order to keep his daughter out of the business, and that much to his dismay she wasn’t easily swayed. so technically speaking it was maggie’s own fault that she had gotten into this mess. one, because she loved the business and wanted to be part of it, and two because she’d made herself known as a bit of a threat. shame on a girl for trying. well what could you expect. maggie was pretty much an adrenaline junkie. she sold not because she had to like a lot of other lowlifes out there. she sold because she wanted to and because she like the thrill and the secrecy behind it all. the late night rendezvous’ the dark, back alleyways, the whispers, the exchange of money, the amount of high profile people she had in her back pocket. all of that was one thrill for her after another. maggie hadn’t left the business simply because she never wanted to. she knew that this was the place she belonged and that came with knowing that her life could be threatened at any time. she just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. after all juan had made it pretty clear that he wanted her in the background. it wasn’t because he cared or anything. why care about the bastard child whose birth forced you into a miserable marriage you couldn’t stand to be a part of? yes because that was all maggie’s fault to begin with. no juan hadn’t kept maggie’s involvement secret because he cared about her. he’d kept her involvement secret because he was saving face, his to be more specific. juan didn’t want anyone out there knowing that an eighteen year old girl could run his business better than he could and in fact had been doing so for many years prior. if people figured that out then he would have been toast, both in reputation and as a whole. no one would see him fit to run a business so that would put everyone he loved in danger and no one would want to do business with him anymore simply because it was like playing with a middle man. why play telephone when you could simply go to the source. if it was found out that maggie had been running and knew everything about his business not only would people try to attack her in order to weaken juan’s new empire, but they would also make attempts to buy her off and everyone knew as well as juan that maggie had zero loyalty when it came to her father. the bastard never deserved loyalty to begin with and she wasn’t about to hand him something he hadn’t earned.

-----she was in the perfect place to do something about it now, maggie realized. she cared less and less on a daily basis about how she should hide herself simply to please her father. hell she’d gotten over trying to please her father a long time ago. it should have been juan begging at her feet for maggie to stay and help him run the business because juan simply would never be able to manage it on his own. he wasn’t creative nor was he imaginative nor could he plot out a shipping route that avoiding the police and border patrols to save his life. he would forever simply be just a waste of space. he was the poster child for his business, like a mascot at a sports event. he danced and he drew attention but when push came to shove he wasn’t out there on the field making plays and winning games. the star on the field was maggie and it was about damn time that she made it into the spotlight. before it had been all about pleasing juan because maggie had simply had nowhere else to go. she didn’t have anyone on her side so it was basically just her against her father’s business. under that circumstance she could do no more than just suck it up and play her father’s games which usually just meant dressing up in some tight, flashy dress and playing arm candy whenever her father beckoned because if she didn’t she wouldn’t be able to be involved. but now, ooh now things felt so different. now things felt like they were hers for the taking. she no longer had to face her father alone, or so she hoped. maggie would have liked to think that she’d proven herself to at least one giovanni, but even that was difficult. fausto didn’t know her. unless he’d had an in-depth conversation with juan about how he ran his business he wouldn’t know that juan hadn’t the slightest clue as to how his business was run anymore. but maggie could prove to him that she was the mastermind behind it all. she knew every contact by heart down to having their numbers memorized and having committed to memory any bit of leverage she might have on someone. she knew all the shipping routes because she’d designed them and had you asked juan those same questions, he wouldn’t know where to begin, because he hadn’t been in control in a long time.

-----juan figured he could skate by once he learned that maggie was smarter than he was and could plan these things out a lot better than he could. he took to sitting back and relaxing while maggie planned everything. when it came to meeting with the other families he was tied to, maggie would feed him his lines, tell him what to talk about and what not to discuss, and he came off looking like the mastermind that maggie was. but juan never held on to anything. maggie supposed that he figured he would always have maggie under his thumb and would always have her to play puppeteer to his pinocchio. he probably hadn’t thought that by the time she became of age that maggie would get a little more bold in her actions and that he would have to either teach her a lesson or take her out. it was about when maggie was seventeen that juan began trying to inconspicuously pick her brain. he would have her come to eat dinner in his office and they would just talk. but maggie never divulged anything and it was about that point that juan realized he had to get rid of her. of course he probably hadn’t seen an attempt to get rid of her blowing up in his face. because after maggie had gotten to valkyrie and after he’d paired her up with a giovanni hitman in the hopes that they’d drive one another crazy enough to either kill each other or give him a reason to kill her, well maggie had turned the situation all around. she’d attended galas where the two announced a wedding that would basically align the two families but juan had given maggie everything she needed to overthrow him, and she wasn’t about to let that opportunity pass her by. juan probably hadn’t expected her to last so long around luca. most likely he’d talked to fausto and handpicked the most volatile of people to pair her with but it hadn’t worked. instead they’d fought and they’d felt and they’d come to have something that was stronger than either of them would have imagined. and now juan was screwed because yes maggie could marry luca and align the two business, but he’d also given her the perfect support system that she’d never had back in tijuana. he’d given her the family she’d never had and a way into the business that he’d always been keeping her from. all maggie had to do was go to fausto with what she knew, prove to him that she was the one behind juan’s business all along, and partner up with fausto in order to take juan over. it was easy as pie and by now juan had been bound to realize the mistake he’d made. because if he hadn’t, well then the man truly was as dumb as maggie had always imagined.

-----it took till now for maggie to realize that she had everything she needed to be out of her father’s grasp forever. it was something she needed to do too. maggie was a smart girl. she was calculating and she was devious and she knew how hard to push the boundaries when she had to. she had all the makings to be a genius within this business and yet that wasn’t the reason why she almost died. maggie had almost died simply because she shared her father’s genes. she wasn’t threatened because she was a major crime figure. she was threatened because she was a girl in the corinthos household. now sure maggie didn’t want to go through something like this again, but if she ever did she wanted it to be because she’d caused such damage to an enemy business that they put a hit on her simply for revenge. she wanted to go out guns blazing. what had happened earlier in no way qualified for that. what maggie hated more though was the way she reacted to that needle. she couldn’t help but to flash back to the moment right before everything went hazy, right before she’d blacked out. jose had promised he would do a number to her and maggie, no matter how hard she focused, could not remember whether or not he’d followed through with his promises. she shuddered at the very thought of it. what had happened? the words swirled in her head creating a loud din that she could hardly hear anything over. then she realized the din was coming from her as she screamed, her head tucked into the crook of her knees. she was losing it over a damned needle. call is post traumatic stress disorder or whatnot, but maggie had a feeling that needles were going to give her the heeby jeebies for the rest of her life.

-----the effect of luca’s voice surprised maggie. she thought that after everything that happened today that she would bristle toward him and never want to see him again but instead his voice was soothing and she nearly craved it. maggie found herself scooting into his lap simply because it soothed her, something she wouldn’t have admitted to before. whatever this was it felt stronger than anything else she’d felt toward him in a long time. not even the angry fights that lead to passionate kissing had felt like this. it was like a need. a need to have him close. a need that it seemed only luca could satisfy. she could hear the guilt in his voice as luca held her close, rambling on about how he should have stayed in that hotel and everything. maggie was too preoccupied to agree. she wouldn’t add to his guilt anyways. what he was dishing out himself seemed to be even more than maggie thought he deserved, no matter how much she would have argued that point only a few hours earlier. she felt his hand brush her cheek and lifted her head, fighting but losing as her eyes welled up. she was struck with the harsh reality that it was possible she would have died hating him and that was something maggie would have regretted. she didn’t want to hate him. hell she couldn’t hate him. she…she loved him. ”i’m so sorry.” maggie said, finally speaking up. ”i’m not ready to let go.”. and then in a moment he kissed her. maggie kissed him back, her hand resting on the nape of his neck as she did so. the kiss felt completely different from before. where there was once skepticism there was now complete trust and where there was once only lust it definitely felt like love. she didn’t want to sound like one of those sappy chick flicks but words just didn’t sound like enough in the moment. she kissed him once again, freeing the hand that had been pressed against his body as she held him tighter. she didn’t care what condition she was in. she didn’t care that she’d just woken up from an overdose. all she wanted was him.

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status • finished
words • 2170
tagged • laggie !
clothes • click !
notes • i can’t stop writing novels for these two xD.

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[Luca Giovanni]

----MAGGIE KISSED HIM AGAIN, and even if he knew she should rest and regain her strength, all he wanted was to just kiss her back and hold her for the rest of the day. it had been non-stop for the past twenty four hours. how could they go from getting shot at in the city of san fransisco to kidnapping and killing the very next day? people thought mob life was fast and exciting but shit like this didn't happen every day. what did tomorrow hold? seriously. the mob life was always painted a dangerous and seductive life. but for mobsters like luca and the other giovannis higher in the rankings, the less you had to do. well, physically. luca still ran the streets but he also had people below him doing the dirty work. all this action really only happened in the movies. alone in the loft with maggie, it took her almost dying to reveal how he really felt for her. he did... love her. the feeling was at the pit of his stomach. it felt like the uncertainty of if he was going to live or die, it was the drop in the stomach when a gun was pointed at you. even if they did bitch at each other, he still wanted to come home every night to her. that was love, right? luca was twenty two and never really loved someone in this way before. the hard part was always saying it, wasn't it? and, this was luca. so it'd be even harder to wrestle feelings out of him. it was one thing to say to sarai, but to maggie's face? it was a whole other ball game. "don't worry. i'm not leaving this time."

when luca started moving his arm, he felt a sharp pain. he pulled maggie away from him and looked at his bicep. "oh, shit." he said. all at once, he felt the pain over his brow, his cheekbone, and the wound on his arm from where one of the bullets grazed him. his t-shirt was torn on the arm, dark blood stained around the edges. well, guess it's time to come off the high of saving maggie's life because he know realized he had few injuries too. "i'm fine," he told maggie before she could become worried. but, seriously? how could luca of gone over an hour without realizing he was bleeding, or that his eyebrow slit open, or his cheek felt like someone hit him with a brick? he touched the open skin where the bullet grazed. he retracted it quickly. damn, it stung like a bitch. he looked at maggie and gave her a smile. the more he thought about it the more he believed his face looked like shit. "i need to go clean up." luca stood up. "but, you need to rest. please just lay back down. i'll get you some water you're probably thirsty." he walked over to the kitchen, and took a glass out of the cabinet above the sink. he filled it up and brought it back to her. handing it to her he said, "i'm just going to hop in the shower real quick. don't get up for anything. if you need anything, just call my name." he kissed the top of her head and grabbed a white t-shirt and jeans out of the dresser before going back to the bathroom.

in the bathroom, he got a real good look at himself. his four knuckles were slightly split as well, his face wasn't as bad, besides the bruise that sprang across his left cheek and the dried blood from his right brow. luca took his shirt off, and turned sideways to look at the bullet wound. it looked worse than it felt and was, just some blood dried on his arm and around where the bullet grazed the skin. he turned the shower on. he wasn't going to spend long. just long enough to clean himself up, and put some bandages over the injuries. he didn't even want to spend that much time, he wanted to be back out there with maggie. even if she did fall back asleep, he could just sit in the chair, and just sit there until she woke up. he really didn't have anywhere else to be (though he wouldn't of even of gone if he did.) he just had to play the waiting game with fausto until he called him back. watching all the blood go down the drain, luca turned the shower off and got out. wrapping a towel around his waist, he got into the medicine cabinet and pulled out some gauze, tape, and band-aides. he put one over his eyebrow and placed some gauze on his bicep before using the medical tape to keep it in place. as he was smoothing it over, he heard the phone ring in the kitchen. he opened the door, steam rolling out, and said to maggie, "i'll get it."

he got to the phone on the fourth ring and answered it. not many people knew his landline phone, and anyone that mattered called him on his cellphone. that was the most efficient way to get a hold of him. "hello?" the line was silent for a beat before there was an answer, "i want to speak to my daughter." luca knew the voice. of course he did. it was the voice of juan corinthos sr. luca knew well enough that maggie's father wouldn't just call luca's phone to get a hold of maggie. oh no, juan knew what happened. which meant he knew maggie had been kidnapped by jose castillo. which also mean juan knew luca shot some castillos. luca had been so caught up in thinking what fausto would say, he never even thought about juan. "yeah, sure, let me get her." he walked over to the bed and handed her the wireless phone. "it's your father. he wants to talk to you." he didn't know if this was going to be a good thing or a bad thing for what juan was going to say, but luca sat down next to maggie again and held her free hand while also trying to listen in on the conversation.

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STATUS, complete CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, around valkyrie, dec 2007 LYRICS, "black and blue" carter husley CLOTHES, here TAGGED, maggie! I SAY, hehe, hope i surprised you. but sorry it's so short >.< it's almost three in the morning and i am spent.
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[Magdelena "Maggie" Corinthos]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, LUCA’S LOFT, DECEMBER 2007

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-----the newness of this entire situation was unsettling. maggie had been so used to the way things had been going so far, that to see luca like this now pretty much freaked her out. she didn’t want to say it aloud but it was nice. it was nicer than he’d ever been to her which was probably why it was so unsettling. she was used to butting heads with luca. she was used to him being tempted to hit her more so than what he was doing now. the kindness and sincerity maggie knew to be real but then again at the same time if you compared the luca who’d left her in that hotel room to the luca she was seeing not even twenty four hours later, well it probably would have seemed unreal or fake to you too. maggie wasn’t the type to take these whirling 180’s easily. she was used to combative and argumentative luca, the one who got her blood boiling at any hour of the day and usually for all the wrong reasons. she was used to the luca who always got her so angry that she couldn’t help being attracted to him more in a ‘push you up against the wall and tear your clothes off way’ than in a ‘this is a really caring moment’ way. the fact too that there now seemed to be some genuine feelings in the mix unsettled her. maggie had been denying for so long that she actually felt something, and then once she’d admitted to feeling something she’d been denying that it was any more than some common lust shared between the two of them. they still hadn’t ever been together so it was normal to think that they simply needed to bed one another and get it out of their systems, but now maggie couldn’t be so sure that that would be the way things worked out. with all that had happened, and with how they were acting now, was it crazy to wonder whether or not simply sleeping with one another would do the trick? god forbid they sleep together and it sparked something new. that hadn’t been maggie’s intention from the beginning. once she’d realized there were feelings here she had simply wanted to get it out of her system, but then they’d never gotten a chance to just put it behind them and instead they saved one another’s lives and actually made some kind of impact on an instinctual level. what the hell would it lead to now? love?

-----she couldn’t deny that she now had feelings, that much was a given. in fact she would have had to feel something to even want to be with him in the first place, but now it all felt like so much more. now it seemed like each word they spoke to one another had a different weight, each movement or glance had a new meaning. suddenly it was as if the situation they were in was so much more real that it had started as. let’s not forget that luca and maggie had gone into this ‘arranged marriage’ not only as skeptics, but as two individuals so dead set on never having to actually indulge their elders that they went along with it simply in an attempt to scare fausto and juan straight. after all juan could have never wanted this for his daughter. he could have never wanted to actually marry her off and give her more power than he could give her. no, the whole idea had been to drive them both so mad that they offed one another or gave them a reason to kill maggie. it was never to actually find her some kind of happiness. and of course the two kids involved here had never actually intended on winding up down the aisle. they had gone through with this to tax maggie’s father’s indecision and to make him regret doing this whole thing in the first place in order to take it all back. he hadn’t expected that they would feel so deeply for another that it was likely, had you asked, they might have volunteered to marry one another. boy was that a scary thought. was maggie in so deep that she would have simply agreed to a marriage as opposed to being forced into it? she didn’t want to say it aloud, hell she didn’t want to verbalize any thought at this point, but there was a very likely probability that she would have simply agreed. no one made her feel the way luca did, and that wasn’t just because they’d been so consumed in this lie that maggie hadn’t had much of a chance to go out and find some other guy. it had been because at one point she didn’t want to go out looking for some other guy. it had gotten to the point where she would rather argue with luca until they were both red in the face than to go out and flirt mindlessly with some asshat at a bar. boy she really was in that deep.

-----she knew that for safety’s, and sanity’s, sake that she shouldn’t have continued to kiss him, and quite frankly she would have let it go much further had luca not winced in pain and pulled away. maggie hadn’t really wanted to say it to his face, but he looked like he’d played punching bag to the castillos. she looked up at him as she sat back, taking stock of all of his injuries. as he spoke about himself feeling fine, maggie could only chuckle. ”i know you are.” she said with a smile. ”otherwise you would have noticed a lot sooner.” well the moment was over and maggie knew that luca did indeed need to go take care of himself. she sank back against the pillows, not completely laying down but allowing the soft cushion to prop her up as luca continued to rush around grabbing her a drink before he tended to his own wounds. ”go ahead, i’m fine.” maggie said as he kissed her on top of the head and turned away. she took a welcomed sip of water and sighed. the room fell silent after luca closed the bathroom door and it really gave maggie a chance to reflect on what the hell had happened earlier. she’d been kidnapped by her father’s archenemy. sounded like something out of a bad comic book but it was true. juan had stolen jose’s entire business back before j.r. was even born. he’d taken everything from jose including his brother, and when jose had retaliated, killing juan’s first wife, juan had gone to every length to exterminate anyone who had even looked at the castillo business funny. it was pure bloodshed at the time, spanning over a week or so as juan made a point to tie up every loose end he could find. the only one he couldn’t find was jose, who had escaped and apparently had been festering for so long that he needed one more bout of revenge to try and get back at the bastard who stole everything from him.

-----in a way, maggie felt his pain. juan had taken little bits and pieces from maggie since she was a child and she knew what it felt like to be screwed over by the dumb bastard, to her dismay. yes it did piss her off that though she was smarter than him he had gotten the upper hand a time or two. yes it did piss her off that after all this time he could still rattle her cage. and though she loathed jose castillo now for all he’d done, maggie, on some level, could see where he was coming from. had it been some other family in the same situation, maggie would have been in complete agreement, but since it had in fact been her life at stake she wasn’t about to go that far out on a limb and forgive him for what he’d done. he’d grabbed her, knocked her unconscious, and drugged her up. that little trifecta of fuckery was way past maggie’s point of forgiveness. she lifted her hand, reaching for her temple. she’d touched a massive egg first and winced in pain. that bastard couldn’t have even handled her in the car without beating her senseless. she shook her head in an effort to shake away the thoughts and immediately regretted it. the room spun for a moment until she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and simply waited for the room to stop spinning and for her stomach to settle. she was pretty sure this was what a concussion felt like which meant that sleeping was going to be fun tonight. having to wake up every hour to ensure that she actually did wake up as opposed to slipping into some kind of coma, was just the cherry on a shitty day. but it beat dying any time.

-----the sound of a phone ringing jolted her back into reality. she pulled away the covers and was about to try to stand when she heard luca call from the bathroom. she could have gotten it but since he would only insist, maggie pulled her feet back up and covered them with the blankets before luca stepped out of the bathroom. ”nice towel.” she said with a smirk before luca reached the phone. she hadn’t been concerned about who was on the other line until luca had looked at her and started walking her way. the only people who knew she lived here were her family and they didn’t know anything about this situation…right? the words “it’s your father” made her shudder. what the hell could he possibly want now. maggie took the phone and held it in her lap for a moment before closing her eyes and bringing it to her ear. she felt luca’s grasp on her free hand and somehow that helped. ”hello dad.” she said in a monotone voice. her father didn’t deserve any hint of emotion whatsoever. ”baby i’m so glad you’re alive.” she heard his mock? concern over the phone and her brow immediately furrowed in confusion ”baby?” she responded immediately, cutting her father off. ”i’ve never been your fucking baby. what do you want?” she heard silence on the other end for a moment before juan spoke again. ”i know i made a mistake and i’m sorry. i had no idea jose would come after you like that. magdelena, this shouldn’t have happened to you.” maggie scoffed into the phone, ”yeah ya’think? the only reason jose came after me was because i was blood related to you. had he known you wanted to kill me too, he probably wouldn’t have done anything knowing it was a favor to your sorry ass.” juan immediately retorted with ”i never wanted to kill you.” ”wow. it takes a lot of nerve to spit out a whopper as big as that one pops.” she was deadpan. her father hadn’t been wanting to kill her all this time? oh right and the pig population of the world just sprouted wings and took flight. ”stop wasting my time and tell me what you want. i’m tired.” juan’s toned seemed to revert back to concern in that instant. ”i want to see you mi hijo. can that bastard bring you to see me tomorrow?” maggie looked up at luca and sighed. ”that ‘bastard’ saved your daughter you ungrateful fuck.” she spat into the phone, practically ready to pitch it across the room. ”i’m sorry. i’m sorry. please, can i…can i just see you?” she gripped the phone so hard the plastic groaned but she finally relented. she needed to get this out of the way, and many other things in fact, and tomorrow was just going to have to be the day that it happened. ”fine.” and with that she hung up on him and let the phone fall into her lap. she grumbled, practically reeling with anger as she sat back. ”we’re going to see daddy dearest tomorrow. i’m assuming it’ll be wherever he’s been staying around here.” boy this was a taxing day, and maggie was exhausted. ”mind coming with me tomorrow? i don’t really know what he’s planning.” maggie asked as she looked up at luca, her face reading total exhaustion.

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status • finished
words • 2111
tagged • laggie !
clothes • click !
notes • we can stop here or keep going. i don’t mind.

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