Ariel Vargas

Ariel Vargas is a recurring character in the TV series, Hartman.

Biography
Born in San Diego, California in October 1995. Ariel is the only child of Ellis and Diego Vargas. Her parents divorced when she was six years old and her father died in a car accident not long after.

When Ariel was eleven, her mother began to dating Gordon Fontana, who Ariel never truly liked. They got married two years later and Ellis become pregnant with Gordon's child (Ariel's half sister, Angela) the year after. Shortly Ariel's 15th birthday, things took a dark turn for Ariel when Gordon turn violent and raped her in her bed one night and threatened to kill her if she told anybody afterwards.

Ariel attempted to act nothing happened, but Gordon continued to secretly abuse her for years. When she was 18, Ariel moved out of her family's house for college. Years later, she joined the police academy and was put on she was put on uniformed patrol duty. Despite moving out, Gordon still routinely abused Ariel and forcing her to sleep with him, under the threat of doing the same abuse to Angela as well.

In the eighth season, a newly promoted Ariel got involved in a case where two police officers were accused of raping a female colleague. Ariel caused trouble at first when she insults Detective Beth Greico and Mike Ramsey after seeing them together at crime scene. Ariel and Beth got into a squabble, which resulted in Beth forcing Ariel to leave under threat of arrest, not knowing at the time that Ariel is an undercover detective.

The squad detested her meddling until Sergeant Chloe Hartman discovered that Ariel is D.A. Fontana's daughter and also a witness to the rape. Ariel testified against the officers along with other civilian victims who came forward, resulting the rapist officers' convictions and imprisonment. Captain Thorne decides to keep Vargas on until the detective she filled in for, Linda Young, returns from her leave of absence.

In Ariel's first case with the MCU, the squad investigated the brutal stabbing of a woman in her own home. While the squad and the D.A.'s office suspected the victim's abusive ex-husband as a killer, Vargas did her investigation and listened to a couple of 9-1-1 calls which the victim made and realized that the ex-boyfriend of the victim's close friend is the killer.

Ariel and Hartman track the victim's friend, finding her just as her ex turned up and was about to kill her. Ariel bursts in and stops him and she and Hartman arrest the killer. Ariel finished her day and returned to her apartment where she found Gordon waiting for her. Ariel wasn't happy to see him; Gordon said he just wanted to talk, but then made a sexual advance towards and began touching and kissing her. Ariel, out of fear, ended up ultimately gives into Gordon's unwanted advances again.

Personality
Despite being a police officer, Ariel secretly struggles with her stepfather's ongoing abuse of her which has been on-and-off over. Ariel is scared of telling anybody, worried about her mother and half-sister's safety and fearing her own life, due to Gordon threatening to kill her twice in the past.

Relationships

 * Diego Vargas (father, deceased)
 * Ellis Fontana (mother)
 * Gordon Fontana (step-father)
 * Angela Fontana (half-sister)

Trivia

 * Service weapon: Glock 17