Part 9

Buffy lay awake in her bed, staring up at the ceiling as if an answer would befall her any second. She'd gotten home a while ago; there really had been no point in actually going to the party once Donnie had left and her evening been ruined. The whole scene with her yelling at Faith and Faith running after Ren was repeating itself over and over again in her head. Almost like instant replays, except for the freezing of the picture frame and some sports-guy drawing yellow arrows all over it: "Now, this is where Buffy made her move and…oh she lost!" She sighed and rubbed her eyes, hoping to maybe wipe away the images, but no such luck.

The blonde wasn't even tired, but she had opted to go to bed instead of listening to her mother questioning her about the evening any longer. Buffy hadn't even thought about what her mom would ask when she returned from the party less than half an hour after she'd left. And the excuse 'it was a really bad party, mom' hadn't seemed to sit well with the woman, somehow she'd figured out Buffy wasn't exactly being honest about what had happened. So, after muttering another bad excuse about being exhausted, the blonde had quietly gone to her room, knowing that she most likely wouldn't be able to sleep. But how could she be expected to, when the scene at the party was still clinging tightly to a spot in her subconscious?

Sighing, the blonde turned onto her side and let her eyes wander around her room. It was messier than usual, some clothes and schoolbooks lying in a heap on the floor, but in the past few weeks Buffy just hadn't been too interested in keeping an immaculate room. She remembered how she'd always blamed Faith for making a mess of her room in the past, an accusation that hadn't been too far from the truth since Faith just seemed to be a messy person. But now Buffy almost wished she'd never yelled at the brunette to stop leaving her clothes and other stuff lying around in Buffy's room, maybe it would've saved their relationship.

Scoffing, Buffy shook her head. Nothing would've saved that relationship, except for her not cheating with Donnie. She wondered whatever had happened to 'fight for your woman'; her mind seemed to have almost forgotten that little sentiment. It just wasn't like her to give up this quickly, losing the battle without some commotion. Maybe there was a way for her to win back Faith, no matter who she hurt in the process or what it cost. She couldn't just give up. Finally relaxing a little bit, Buffy was determined not to let anything get in her way. Sure, tonight had been a bust pretty much, but it didn't mean that she didn't have a chance. Faith still loved her, and she had no doubt about it.

Turning back onto her bed, Buffy caught a quick glance of the clock on her bedside table. Widening her eyes she leaned over, tapping the button to illuminate the numbers and closed her eyes as she leaned back into the pillows. It was already past 3 am, and Buffy had little doubt that Faith wasn't going to come home tonight. And somehow that made her feel a little uneasy.

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Both women turned their heads at the same time when the door opened. The brunette girl walked into the living room with an almost relaxed look in her eyes, but upon seeing their stern faces she looked more like a deer caught in the headlights. Taking off her jacket and dropping it onto a chair, her eyes never wandering in fear of a possible attack, she walked up to the sofa the two women were sitting on. She wasn't sure if she'd done something wrong and if that was the fact, if she was supposed to say something. All her childhood memories about doing something wrong and the response she'd been supposed to give she hoped didn't apply here. Or the punishment for doing something against the rules, though she didn't think Joyce was an abusive woman.

"Faith, where have you been?" the woman's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and the brunette looked at her dumbfounded. What kind of question was that? They knew where she'd been, she'd called them some time while watching the movie and said she was at Ren's. Sure, she hadn't mentioned a sleep-over, but it wasn't like she'd been anticipating that.

"Uh…what?" she shook her head, hoping that someone would be able to clear her confusion about what she'd really done wrong. Hadn't she covered all the bases of making sure she did everything right? Called her family, came home as soon as she'd woken up, didn't smell like smoke or sex or both…Faith was confused.

"We've been worried sick about you…you never came home last night," Buffy answered, a sweet smile on her lips as she studied the look on the brunette's face. If she hadn't been able to prevent Faith sleeping at Ren's this time, at least she could prevent future happenings of that sort.

"But I…called…I told you I was at Ren's, mom. What'd I do wrong?" Faith looked at the woman, hoping that someone would shed some light on what was going on.

"Well, you never did say anything about sleeping over at her house…," Buffy interjected again and watched as her mom nodded, seemingly in thought.

"We were watching a movie and just fell asleep…I'm sorry, I didn't know…I didn't mean to fall asleep," the brunette looked at the older woman, a pleading tone in her voice and it almost made Buffy feel a little guilty.

Joyce shook her head, looking at the girl as she walked around to the front of the sofa, "It's not that Faith, I had figured as much. But I don't appreciate being lied to."

"Wh…what?" the younger girl managed to croak out…she'd just gotten even more lost than before. Something wasn't right and it scared her. She didn't want to know what was going on, she knew that she hadn't done anything wrong. Not if Joyce didn't care about her sleeping over at Ren's without actually telling her so.

"Pretending to be going to that party just so I wouldn't think you'd be going to a club…Faith, I'm really disappointed. And if Buffy hadn't seen you leave with those punk kids to go to that rambunctious club, well I might not have found out about your lie."

Faith's eyes widened and she didn't even dare to look at Buffy. She felt like throwing up, like crying and begging her mom to believe that she hadn't done anything wrong. But Faith also knew that no one believed you things like that, no one believed you anything when you were the dark child and the golden angel voiced her opinion.

"But I…I," she tried, reasoning with herself that Joyce wasn't like her real mom back in Boston, that she would understand if Faith tried to explain.

"No buts Faith. I really don't want anything like that to happen again, so I hope you'll learn from your punishment and not do anything so foolish again," Joyce said sternly, watching as the girl's expression changed from hurt to utter fear, and the woman could've sworn Faith even took a step backwards. "You're grounded for a week, Faith…if you can prove yourself in that time I'll leave it at that and hope we can forget this little incident, alright?"

"G…g…grounded?" the brunette stuttered, relaxing slightly as the fear left her body and her shoulders slumped.

"Yes, you're grounded. Please don't try and fight my decision…I think this is a more than fair punishment for what you have done."

Faith nodded slowly, pushing some strands of hair behind her ear and sighed, "Yeah…I…I'm sorry. I'll just…go to my room."

The two women watched as the brunette girl walked up the stairs quickly and Joyce sighed. She hadn't liked doing this, she wasn't a big fan of punishment and all that, but she just didn't want Buffy and Faith to think they could do anything without consequences. Turning her head she was surprised to find her daughter wearing an almost triumphant expression and couldn't help but wonder if she'd just made a major mistake.

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She sat down on her chair and scoffed. It was just typical for life to throw another stone in her way just when she was on her way getting somewhere good. Looking down at the papers scattered on her desk Faith sighed as she realized she didn't even have any homework left to do. And it was even worse that she was almost sad about that. Being grounded meant being bored, apparently.

Sunken deep in her thoughts, the brunette didn't even hear the door open and close behind her. She turned around as she felt another presence in the room and stared at Buffy, who was slowly walking over to her. The blonde stopped in front of Faith, cocked her head and looked at her expectantly.

"Buffy…what the hell did you do?" Faith asked, trying to keep the anger out of her voice but not succeeding all that well.

The blonde smiled softly and shrugged her shoulder, stepping even closer to Faith, "Just making sure I get my girl back. Is that so wrong?"

Faith almost shuddered at the low tones in her ex-girlfriend's voice, the way Buffy was looking at her, but she shook the thoughts away immediately and replaced her confusion with something resembling a stone-face, "Buffy…I…"

But before she even had a chance to finish that sentence a soft finger brushed across her lips, silencing her, and Buffy leaned down, bringing one knee next to Faith on the chair. The blonde was kneeling on Faith's lap within a split-second and captured the brunette's lips in a kiss, that started off sweet and soft but soon turned into a display of desire and passion.

Gasping, whether it was for air or from the desire running through her, Faith pulled away and stared at Buffy in disbelief, "Buffy…I can't…just…" She was way too confused to actually know what she was saying, but the blonde was already standing up, a gleam in her eyes that Faith hadn't seen in a while.

"Well, I figured if she gets a kiss…so do I. Come on babe…mom and I rented some action movie, I'm sure you'll like it," the blonde smiled and held her hand out to Faith for her to take it.

"B…but I'm grounded?" the brunette looked up at the other girl, her throat dry and she wanted nothing more than a drink and a cold shower.

Buffy laughed softly and pulled Faith up, "You're grounded yeah…you're not in prison, Faith. Come on already."

And with that the brunette let herself be lead out of the room by Buffy, the blonde holding onto her hand even when they'd reached the bottom of the stairs.

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"Tell me again why you're grounded," the girl asked, looking at the brunette incredulously.

Faith shrugged and rested her head on her hand, watching as the other girl picked at her dangerous-looking lunch, "Just 'cause I lied about going to the party, I guess."

Ren turned her head and looked at her sternly, trying to convey with her eyes what her words didn't seem to be able to get through the brunette's skull, "Faith," she gazed at the girl in disbelief, "you didn't lie about going to the party." She still couldn't believe the girl was just allowing someone else to lie about something she hadn't done and go along with it.

Shrugging again the older brunette yawned and picked a fry off of Ren's plate, chewing on it carefully, "Yeah, but it's only for five more days if I behave like a good little girl. It's not worth trying to fight it."

Trying not to sigh Ren looked away and down at her plate. She just wasn't feeling all that hungry anymore, in fact she was feeling kind of sick. Just when she'd thought that there was a chance for her to be with Faith, it was taken away. And she knew it was Buffy's doing, after all Faith had said it had been the blonde to lie about where Faith had been. Ren also knew what it meant for Faith to be grounded…quality time with Buffy. And that was all the reason she needed to be sick.

"Hey, what's wrong?" came the concerned voice from her side and Ren pushed away her plate, shaking her head.

"Nothing…just not very hungry," she mumbled, not even daring to make eye-contact. She hated how her love-life had turned into a goddamn rollercoaster.

"Hey…if it's about us going out, I'm real sorry. I promise I'll take you somewhere as soon as I'm off this grounded thing."

Ren sighed and looked into the other girl's eyes. The older brunette looked sincere and Ren had no doubt she was, Faith probably had no idea why Buffy would lie like that to get her grounded. Forcing herself to smile and failing miserably, the brunette rubbed a hand over her forehead and sighed again. It was hard looking at Faith, knowing that she'd been kissed by those lips, knowing that she'd slept in those arms all the while knowing that she'd probably never get to do it again.

"Don't worry about it…it's cool. I can wait, no problem…and we'll still see each other at school right?" the shorter brunette finally managed to smile falsely and stood up, picking up her tray to return it to the front.

But as Faith sat and watched her friend walk away, waiting for her to return she couldn't help but feel that everything was far from 'cool'.

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The blonde laughed softly at the look she received from the brunette upon walking up to the restaurant. It was Faith's favorite restaurant and Buffy hadn't forgotten, and she was definitely glad she hadn't. The excited look on the younger girl's face was definitely worth remembering. They were seated as soon as they entered the restaurant and the brunette threw her a cautious look this time.

"Are you really sure mom said it was okay for me to go out?"

Buffy couldn't help but grin at the serious tone and nodded; she never took her punishments this seriously, there were a lot of ways to get her mother to forget that she was grounded most of the time, but Faith was intent on following the rules. "Yes Faith…she said that since she had to go overnight on that business trip we could go out to dinner. Although that's it…but I figured we can just go and rent movies afterwards, okay?"

Faith nodded with a smile and relaxed visibly. It almost made the blonde smile again, Faith was just too damn cute. And this whole grounded-thing had given her a great opportunity to make them get a little closer again. True, Faith still refused any kind of romantic contact whatsoever, saying that she couldn't just jump into a relationship without being totally sure she wanted to be with Buffy, but the good mood between them had almost completely returned. It was already Thursday, which meant only two more days of the brunette being grounded and Buffy planned on doing everything she could to make the brunette realize how much she still loved Buffy.

She'd make sure that little geek didn't stand a chance when the time came for Faith to feel ready to choose.

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"You just gotta cheer up!" the girl exclaimed and rolled her eyes, sick of having her best friend all mopey and depressed.

"Yeah, easier said than done Ruby," the brunette girl sighed and put her hands into the pockets of her pants. Ren's fears had more than come true; Faith was hanging around Buffy most of the time due to be being grounded and not even the time they spent together at school could make up for that. Not to mention that Buffy had actually talked to Faith at school, had acknowledged her beyond a simple 'hi' in the hallway.

"Come on Ren…you are no fun this way!" the blonde girl whined and tucked on her arm, giving her a stern look.

The brunette was just about to reply to that, when from the corner of her eyes she saw a familiar brunette sitting at a table in the restaurant they were passing with a familiar blonde. Turning her head to get a good look through the restaurant's window, Ren couldn't help but feel disappointed and hurt. Faith was grinning at Buffy, making some joke that sent the blonde bursting out laughing as well. Picking up speed the brunette girl almost forgot about her best friend who was still following her. She just couldn't believe what she had seen. Faith was grounded, at least that's what she had been telling her since the beginning of the week. But if she was out for dinner, that could only mean two things: Either Faith had been lying to her about being grounded, or she wasn't grounded anymore and had decided to celebrate with Buffy instead of her. Ren wasn't sure which reason sounded better. All she knew was that either way she was going to get hurt. And the knowledge of that didn't leave her much room for cheering up, much to Ruby's dismay.

To be continued…