One More Time: Breaking up the Girl
by Sulks
Rating: PG-13

Author's Notes: The title is ripped off from the Garbage song of the same name, which is a wonderful song off their record, "Beautiful Garbage." There are vague allusions to the Series 6 finale, and the Series 7 opener, nothing concrete though, so they aren't *really* spoilers. *unproofread, pardon any of my mistakes.

"She hates feeling trapped," Buffy whispered as she watched Cordelia tie Faith down to her cousin's bed. None of them wanted to do it, but they also didn't want Faith to fly off into an impulsive rage, and so they decided that they would explain themselves first and see what happens from there.

"I know," Cordelia said, grimacing as she tied her friend's wrists to the headboard. Buffy had been unable to do it, the moment the blonde Slayer had tried, her hands had started shaking. "We'll let her go, if she just gives us a chance to explain...I don't *want* to do this either."

Buffy nodded, "I know," she said. "I know you don't, but she'll freak out when she wakes up."

Dawn bit her lip as she stared down at her friend, unconscious on the bed. "She'll be Faith again, right?" Dawn asked. "Whatever they did to her...it's reversible?"

Buffy smiled reassuringly. "We'll get her back," she said simply, hoping that she sounded certain. She was a little unsure herself, knowing that whatever magic Ms. Merrill and her compatriots had done, it was very powerful if it had been able to overrule the spells that Giles and the Watcher's Council had cast in an attempt to find Faith.

Buffy sat down heavily in a chair by the bed, while Dawn sat in a corner, with her knees drawn toward her chin. She gazed at the figure lying in the bed, wondering why her life could get so fucked up. 'Oh, yeah,' she thought, 'I'm from *Sunnydale*.' Cordelia sat on the window seat, alternately gazing at her nails and gazing at Faith. Eventually, each of them were lost in their own thoughts. Cordelia wondered when Angel would call her back with some news on how to deal with the situation. A low groan interrupted each of them from her thoughts, and they all stood up hastily and rushed to Faith's side.

Faith's eyes flickered open slowly, her vision was slightly blurry and she wondered why her face hurt. Buffy's face came into view first, and she instantly remembered what had happened. She tried to sit up, and realised she couldn't, fury and panic were instantly written across her face.

"Untie me," she commanded harshly. "You fucking--"

"Faith," Buffy started to say.

"Don't call me that! You fucking lied to me! Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm your girlfriend," Buffy said softly, "I love you--"

Faith snorted, "I guess you liked kink then," she said, "but we're not going to play today, so let me go!"

"We'll let you go, I promise," Buffy said, "trust me--"

Faith snorted in derision, but said nothing.

"Just listen to us, okay?" Buffy said, her voice beginning to quaver.

Faith rolled her eyes, and looked stared directly up at the ceiling, refusing to make eye contact with any of them.

"Look, Faith--"

The dark-haired girl's lips tightened upon hearing the name, but she continued to remain stoic.

"Your name is *Faith*," Buffy said firmly, "*Faith* Frances Lohane, and you were born in Boston. You're *not* married to that guy, you're *my* girlfriend. Your husband, and that woman in the kitchen, along with some of their other friends are ex-Watchers. They *hurt* you, Faith. They're trying to *use* you."

"Shut up," Faith spat out, "Shut the fuck up. No one uses *me*, you fucking bitch. What, you think I'm stupid or something? You think I'd just follow anyone? Chris had our marriage license, he had photographs of our wedding and photographs of me in the hospital when I had Carrie. He had my diploma from Penn, *everything* checks out with *him*. Now here you are telling me that I'm *your* girlfriend? You don't have any PROOF."

"I have pictures too," Buffy said soberly. She grabbed her wallet from her bag, and showed Faith the pictures she carried. There was a picture just of Faith, a couple of Buffy and Faith together and then a series of photo booth pictures with Faith, Buffy and Dawn together. Buffy glanced at Cordelia, "did you bring them?"

Cordelia nodded and dug into the duffel bag she'd brought, she took out a cigar box that Angel had given her. She pulled out several pictures. "This is you and me," Cordelia said, as she showed Faith various pictures of the two of them.

Faith's eyebrow furrowed, before she glared at them with a steely gaze. "Pictures can be manipulated, I'll give you that. But Chris had *documentation*."

"Documents can be forged too," Cordelia said gently.

"It's more than you have," Faith snapped.

"We love you," Dawn whispered, finally finding her voice.

"Yeah, right." Faith yelled. "That's why you have me tied to a bed!"

Buffy sat down on the bed, and tenderly placed her hand on Faith's stomach. Faith tried to wrench away, but Buffy held her still. She placed her hand over Faith's scar, and spread her thumb and middle finger several inches apart. "Your scar is right there," Buffy murmured. "I have it memorised. I have everything about you memorised."

Faith stared up at her, and Buffy could recognise fear and confusion in brown eyes that were no longer as familiar to her as they had once been.

"You have a tiny scar, right here," Buffy said, placing a hand under Faith's right armpit. "From chicken pox. And one on your knee from when Tracey Lowenstein pushed you off the jungle gym in the third grade..."

"Stop," Faith muttered, "I don't want to hear anymore."

Cordelia sat down on the couch next to Faith. "Remember when you told me the first thing you do when you enter a room is to look out the window."

The dark-haired girl glanced away, it was true that she did that, but so did plenty of other people. Buffy and Cordelia sat down on the bed together, telling Faith details of her life. It was futile, Faith stared defiantly up towards the ceiling. Dawn walked out of the room, and approached Ms. Merrill and punched the woman ferociously in the stomach. The blonde former Watcher shrieked through her gag. Dawn pressed on a pressure point in the woman's neck. "Tell me how to reverse what you did to her," Dawn ordered darkly. Her sister and Cordelia had decided earlier that it was futile to keep pestering the woman to tell them, since it was obvious that she wouldn't, or perhaps she didn't know how. She grabbed a kitchen knife and pointed it at the woman's throat, as she reached for the gag, "you tell me!"

"Piss off," the woman said, as she spat in Dawn's face.

Dawn's eyes widened with fury, and she pulled the knife back. A strong hand grasped her wrist. "Dawn."

Dawn turned around, and her eyes widened. "Giles! Willow!" She threw herself at them. Giles wrapped her into a protective, fatherly embrace.

"We're here to help," Willow murmured, "with the magicy side of things."

Dawn's forehead creased with worry, "are you sure that's okay? I mean, you and the magic--"

"It's a part of me now," Willow said, looking serene. "It's okay. We're here to help. The coven gave us what we need, and now we're here. Sort of anyway."

"That astral projection stuff sure saves on plane fare, huh?" Dawn joked weakly before she replaced the gag on Ms. Merrill.

Willow smiled. Giles glared at the handcuffed blonde woman. "Hello, Madeline, you're looking well," he said before he and Willow followed Dawn into the bedroom. The blonde woman merely shrugged in reply, but her eyes were a little more fearful than they had been.

"Look who's here," Dawn announced. Buffy's eyes widened and then she ran over to Giles and Willow, hugging the both of them.

"Hi," Cordelia called brightly. Her mobile phone went off suddenly in her pocket and she glanced at the caller ID and smiled wryly when she realised it was Angel. "Hi. Yes. Well, actually they're already here. Uh-huh. Oh, really? Yeah, okay. Well, thanks. I'll see you back at the office." She snapped the phone and looked perkily at the rest of them, "uhm, yeah. Apparently, Faith's so-called husband is part demon, one of those deal-with-the-Devil type things, and he has his own little agenda." She turned her attention to Giles and Willow, "so can you give her back her memory?"

They all stared at her in shock, "can we go back to the part about my husband being part demon please?" Faith sputtered.

"I'll explain it later," Cordelia promised, "Angel did a background check on him," she informed the rest of them.

"Get me Faith back," Buffy pleaded with Giles, "please. Right now?"

He and Willow glanced at one another, and then shrugged. Willow still felt some residual hostility towards Faith, but she didn't think she was in a place to judge the dark-haired Slayer. That didn't mean she liked Faith, because she was still Willow and being Willow, that meant that she could be prone to a little bit of self-righteous anger, but she was really trying to fix that, and the redhead had to admit that Faith made Buffy happy, and her absence made Buffy miserable. She couldn't stand it when she'd talk to Buffy on the phone and the blonde sounded so unhappy.

"She has to drink this," Giles murmured, taking a vial out of his pocket.

"I'm not drinking *anything*!" Faith yelled, trying violently to get out of her restraints. "Let me go!" she screamed. Buffy and Cordelia held her down, while Giles and Willow approached her. Giles gently held Faith's head down and forced the liquid down her throat, and yanked her head up swiftly, causing the liquid to go down her throat. Faith gagged and tried to expel the liquid, as tears ran down her face. Buffy and Dawn both began crying. Giles and Willow began chanting, and a blue light seemed to surround Faith who screamed. Buffy went to touch her, but Giles held her back. "She's afraid," he murmured, "but she's not in pain. She's just afraid."

The blue light dissipated, and Faith was left gasping and gagging on the bed. "Holy shit," the brunette muttered. She glanced at Buffy who had moved beside her to stroke her face. "What the fuck happened, B?"

"You're back," Buffy muttered, hugging Faith, "God, I missed you." She reached up and untied Faith, who brought her arms down around Buffy. "I missed you so much," the blonde repeated. Faith pulled away and stood up. She glanced around the room, shaking her head vigorously.

"What the hell happened?" she asked, shaking her head again. "There's like, this haze in my head--"

"It'll pass," Willow explained softly, "just give it a few minutes. You should sit down. You'll remember."

Faith glanced at her in confusion. "Red."

Cordelia and Dawn both hugged her, as they pushed her onto the bed. "She said to sit down, babe." Cordelia muttered, laughing slightly as she saw Faith scowl at her. Faith always did hate being told what to do, she was back.

"What a wonderful reunion scene," Ms. Merrill called from the doorway. She was standing with Christian Rowe and the other ex-Watchers that Cordelia and Buffy recognised from earlier. She smiled victoriously. "You're not the only one that knows how to astrally project, Rupert."

...continued in Free to Change Your Mind...