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Detective Juliana Vasquez was walking beside Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba and the rest of her squad at SVU the next morning, after another session in the court, extremely disheartened after the Alex Muñoz's case, especially Rafael Barba. It was definitely a difficult one. Rafael Barba had just lost one of his oldest friends, and perhaps maybe even his only other one. Juliana couldn't stand to see him in pain. "I'm not feeling so good, Rafi. I think I should go get some air," Juliana told Rafael. He nodded. "Of course, mi vida. Take your time. Just catch up with us later, we're headed to the steakhouse. I love you," Rafael reminded her. "I love you," Juliana replied quietly.
Both of them knew exactly what Juliana had meant by that. That was their code for Juliana's smoking cigarettes. She walked away, separating herself from the group. Both she and Rafael Baba knew exactly how detrimental the nicotine in the cigarettes was for her health, but both knew that Juliana had been through quite a lot, and she had to find some less destructive alternative for coping than her previous habits. It was sort of a gray area, a middle ground. It was just the reality of the situation. Reality was just messy that way, and everyone knew it. Juliana walked away from the courthouse, where absolutely no smoking was allowed anywhere near it. She headed into an abandoned and dirty alley. The only other person there was an unconscious and shaggy looking homeless man. Normally something like this wouldn't be safe, but Juliana knew that she could handle anyone who could possibly challenge her, and she wanted to be completely alone. Nowhere near the meaningless rushing about of the New York human traffic. She put a cigarette in her mouth, pulled a lighter out of her pocket, and lit it. As she slowly smiled, savoring the feel of the smoke filling the air surrounding her as well as her lungs, she turned it back and forth in one of her hands, handling the very old lighter gently, as if it were worth a fortune. To Juliana Vasquez, it was worth more than that. It was worth almost everything to her. The lighter had been a gift from her late older brother, Chris. Juliana continued to smoke, unbothered for the time being. Until, the man on the ground woke up, screaming in agony. "Oh! Oh! Oh, my God, miss! Miss," he gasped,"Can you please help me! My leg, it's bleeding so bad, ahhh!"
Juliana rushed over to help, even if she was exhausted from her day in court. She sat down and knelt beside the man, whose leg was flat on the ground and loosely and sloppily wrapped up in a bandana. Juliana could see the blood. "Okay, um, I think it's infected, I think there's something buried in it. Let me take a look, okay? I'm NYPD, Detective Vasquez," Juliana announced herself. "I'll call this in right now."
Juliana leaned in to examine the wound, until the man shoved her head down into the bandanna. The already depleted Juliana realized what was on the bandanna, but it was already too late; chloroform. "Oh, f**k!" she cried out.
She then soon began to feel herself losing control of her motor functions, then feeling her eyes drop, and before Juliana even realized, she had fallen unconscious. The man was able to stop the outgoing call on her phone. He was told not to involve police, or anyone else. "Well done," another man nodded, pointing a gun at the homeless man he had stabbed. "Yeah. Now where's my money?" he growled. "You stabbed me! And I just knocked out an innocent woman!" "That is true," the man nodded. "I'm sorry, but.... I think we're done here. Or at least.... one of us is."
He fired the gun, and the man was dead. The only one left alive was the unconscious Juliana Vasquez. "Hello, beautiful," the man grinned sadistically as he knelt beside her. "Juliana Vasquez, is it? Well, I'm glad to meet the woman who's been keeping my old friend Mr. Barba happy. You're going to my doorway to him, little girl. Come, now."
The man easily lifted Juliana up, hiding her unconscious body inside of a covered wheeled cart. There were hardly any people around. It was a perfect abduction, and the perfect crime. The man behind it knew that this would indefinitely get to Rafael Barba, that it would hit him right where it hurt.
