Title: Behind Bars 2/6
Author: Mandi
Characters: Faith and Cruz
Summary: Faith and Cruz bond under unusual circumstances
Disclaimer: They are not mine
Authors Note: Here goes another chapter.

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"Yokas," Cruz whispered, turning on her side as she lay in bed, she just couldn't fall asleep. "Yokas!" She hissed leaning over the side of the bed slightly while holding her breath and listening for a reply from Faith. After waiting a few seconds she felt Faith moving around on the bed beneath her and she tried again, "Yokas! I swear to God, wake up!"

"Dammit! I'm up—why the hell'd you wake me up for," Faith replied, frustration quite evident in her tone. She rubbed her eyes with her palms and adjusted herself so now she was laying on her back, looking up at the bed above her.

"Well, I figured if I couldn't sleep because of your damn snoring, why should you?"

Faith let out a snicker, "I do not snore."

"Oh, yes you do." Cruz assured her, leaning over the edge of the bed to look down at Faith. Faith in return met her eyes in the dark cell and Cruz couldn't mistake the spiteful glare looking right back at her. "How can you sleep so easily?"

Faith sighed and closed her eyes, "Well, they say a guilty conscience keeps you up at night," she shot back, opening one eye to see Cruz's reaction.

This time it was Cruz's turn to snicker, "hey, wasn't it you who killed the guy whose murder we're now in prison for?"

For the first time ever, Faith couldn't muffle a laugh that escaped her lips because of Cruz's sarcastic come back. Which Faith had to admit that she had nothing whatsoever as good to counter Cruz's comment. Cruz herself, though caught off guard by Faith's sudden burst of laughter at first, joined in and suddenly, both women couldn't stop laughing over the irony of their current situation.

"I think being in here with you is driving me crazy." Faith gasped trying to regain her breath from laughing too hard.

"And to think it's only our first night." Cruz responded, but soon found her smile beginning to fade and a short while after the laughter between them died down, and complete silence once again darkened the mood. Cruz's eyes remained wide open, staring up at the ceiling, debating whether or not to say what's on her mind. A few minutes went by before she sucked in a deep breath then spoke up, "Yokas?"

"Hmm?" Faith said, her eyes still closed, trying to fall back asleep.

"If it's worth anything now—I just wanted you to know that—I'm—."

"I know—," Faith interrupted, not letting Cruz finish, "me too."

Cruz was astonished that Faith had known what she was talking about, but she was grateful in a way because she didn't actually have to come out and say she was 'sorry.' Cruz nodded to herself.

"Tomorrow's gonna be hard."

"I know." Faith was not only preparing herself mentally for tomorrow but also trying to do so physically as well, but that was hard when Cruz wouldn't let her go to sleep. "We'll survive."

Cruz was taken a back slightly by referring to her and Faith as a 'we'. If they weren't under these current conditions, Faith would never refer to them as a team, never, but Cruz found a new source of strength when being assured she wasn't in this alone. No matter how much shit had gone down between the two of them in the past two years, Cruz felt she was willing to forgive and forget if Faith did the same. Still holding on to their hatred for one another wouldn't help them with their present situation. They both had enemies in here, both had to watch their backs, but Cruz began to think maybe they'd even start watching each other's backs. Who would have ever thought, Faith Yokas and Maritza Cruz would finally reach a common ground?

"We'll be good—as long as we stick together." Faith was half asleep as she uttered her words to Cruz. She said them half-heartedly, but she knew that deep down, she meant it. Cruz was really all she had in here, it was time to be mature about this and push their differences aside.

"As long as we stick together," Cruz repeated softly before she drifted off to sleep.

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"Break it up, hey! Stop! Break it up! Whose behind this!" Numerous prison guards were hurrying quickly into the cafeteria, heading to the center of the room where a group of inmates were creating quite a hysteria, swearing insults at each other, pulling hair, throwing punches. When the guards were finally able to break through the crowd of women, they grabbed the two main catalysts for the violent commotion.

"On your stomach! Get the hell on your stomach! Now! Down!" One guard shouted, grabbing Faith by the back of her neck and slamming her down on to the table in front of her, twisting her arms painfully behind her back. Another guard soon after slammed Cruz face down next to Faith on the table, also twisting Cruz's arms behind her back. Both women looked like they had gone to hell and back.

"So much for sticking together, huh?" Cruz teased, a smile spreading across her slightly bleeding lips. Faith just rolled her eyes, one of them turning slightly purple in color from being blind-sided by a rather large fellow prisoner. Faith rested her cheek against the cold steel of the table as handcuffs were applied to her sprained wrist from when she hit the rather large fellow prisoner back.
"You two are headed for isolation." One guard informed them harshly.

"You just couldn't keep your temper could you?" Faith scowled as two guards roughly pushed her and Cruz out of the cafeteria and down a long hall. From behind them, many of the inmates were still shouting death threats from the cafeteria but both Faith and Cruz ignored them. Cruz had actually planned to get thrown into isolation, at least that would ensure their survival even if it were only for a week.

It had all worked out perfectly really. After receiving their meals, Cruz scanned the room full of inmates, searching for the biggest and meanest looking woman in there. When her eyes fell upon a 6'6", 275 pound woman, she knew she found the perfect match. It was an added bonus that the woman looked very much like a woman named Betty that Cruz had locked up not too long ago. Cruz gestured toward the woman and Faith followed her to the table, they took a seat on either side of the woman. Much to Cruz's delight it turned out that the woman was Betty and she immediately recognized Cruz and began to taunt her saying she was gonna kill Cruz for getting her sent to prison.

Her plan definitely wouldn't have worked if Cruz wasn't one hundred percent sure Faith would have her back. After a few minutes of listening to Betty scream threats into her ear, Cruz stood up, picked up her steel tray and, much to Faith's chagrin, slammed it right into Betty's face. Betty's head snapped back, blood spurting out from her nose. Cruz was sure she had broken it but she didn't time to make sure because soon after she attacked Betty a huge mess of inmates rushed her. Soon following, everyone was screaming and fighting with one another.

While being under a large pile of women scratching and clawing at her, Cruz was almost certain she was wrong about Faith helping her, but the next thing she knew, Faith was there, pulling off numerous inmates, trying to get to Cruz. That surged Cruz's adrenaline and when she got to her feet, she just started throwing punches trying to take down as many people as she could. Faith did the same before she actually got thrown up against a wall by Betty, who's face was nearly all covered in blood. The ordeal was total chaos, but Cruz couldn't help the smile plastered to her face as the guards threw her and Faith into a confined cell somewhere deep within the prison.

Faith plopped her broken body onto one of the beds in the cell, laying on her back and covering her eyes with one of her hands, "please tell me why you're smiling?"

Cruz sat on the bed opposite Faith and propped her elbows on her knees, "I just can't believe how well that worked."

Faith lifted her hand off her face and turned her head to look at Cruz, "you planned this?" she asked in disbelief. Cruz nodded with a sly smile on her face. She was seriously close to breaking out laughing.

Faith just stared at the other woman with completely astonishment, "I'd kick your ass right now if my body wasn't so damn sore." Was all Faith said before turning her head to look back up at the ceiling.

"Hey, we're in isolation, no one can touch us here. We're safe."

"Whatever you say—," Faith acknowledged, closing her slowly swelling eyes.

Cruz smiled as she too laid down on her back. The first 24 hours had gone by and they were still standing. Only 29 more 24 hours to go. Cruz turned her head to look at Faith, "you gotta admit, though—that was pretty fun."

Faith opened her eyes to look back at Cruz. Seeing the glimmer of excitement in Cruz's eyes made a wicked smirk form on Faith's face and soon the two were once again laughing together. Both beaten and sore, they laughed till their stomachs hurt and their eyes filled with tears.

Maybe Faith was right, being in prison together was driving them both crazy.