Only Hope

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Ten

Angel sneaked out of the study, ready for a break himself, figuring that Cordy would be more than glad for some co-slacker company. Part of him wasn’t too surprised that she was in the midst of a huge crowd; something about that woman was absolutely magnetic.

“What’s going on?” he asked. Such a casual phrase sounded a little odd coming from his mouth, but by this time, no one in the group was surprised. Brood boy had become a little less with the brooding and a little more with the making of fluffy eyes at his very special friend.

“Connor and Dawn are role playing,” Anya replied seriously. Angel lifted his eyebrows.

“Is that a good idea?” he asked, fairly sure that current social protocol meant it wasn’t a good idea for teenagers of the opposite sex to be involved with something so… well, it just wasn’t a good idea.

Spike shot his sire a disgusted look. “It sure as hell isn’t a good idea, Sunshine,” he said, half sarcastically, half the worried Papa. “If your son touches one hair on her head…”

“Connor, that tickles!” Spike shuddered at the shout from the next room. He looked pleadingly at Buffy. She nodded her consent.

“Fine,” she said. “Go ahead and break up the love fest. It’s just about dinner time anyway.” Spike triumphantly entered the room, shooting Connor a do-you-want-me-to-eat you look which Connor promptly ignored.

“What’s for dinner?” Angel asked.

“How about pizza?” Cordelia replied, in a tone that made it very clear that she wasn’t about to cook for the entire crew. Lindsey came into the room, carrying a tired out Willow, and Faith followed him carrying a very energetic Hopie.

“Willow,” Xander said, alarmed, “are you all right?” Willow nodded.

“A spell took a little something out of me,” she replied weakly. “No big deal.”

Xander, as well as the rest of the room, had figured out that the quickest way to get the most information was to coax it out of the high energy little girl. “Hopie?” he said, knowing that that was all it would take.

“Well,” she said, enjoying her height in Faith’s arms, “we were looking at the monkeys, but that was boring, so I went to look at the hunter-animals ‘cause they’re really cool, and Faith found me and got all grumpy and then she disappeared and Willow came and she asked why the panther was staring at me, and I told her maybe it wanted to eat me, but it didn’t, and Willow said some funny words and then she was lying on the ground and all of you are wearing magical sunglasses.” The little girl took a deep breath.

“Anyone else think the small person is not making much sense?” Anya asked. Hopie stuck out her tongue at her.

“Hopie,” Cordelia chided, “that’s not very nice.” Anya stuck her tongue out at Hopie.

“Anya,” Xander chided, “that’s not very nice.” But somehow I like it, he thought silently.

“Willow cast an unveiling spell to see Hopie for the panther’s eyes. She saw her magic, the weaving of her essences, and she also saw…” Lindsey stopped, figuring that Willow deserved to announce her discovery herself.

Giles came running into the room, excited with his discovery. “You all will never believe it, but I found the missing scripts and…”

“Faith is Hopie’s champion,” Willow said quietly. Everyone in the group stared at her amazed, except for Giles who looked vastly disappointed.

“Well, yes,” he said. Looking very much like Hopie, he scuffed his foot against the ground. “I was going to tell them that.” Buffy and Cordelia were both equal parts astounded and unnerved. Faith, Miss Now Repenting of Trying to Kill You All, was Hopie’s protector, the one person who was prophesized to make sure that the Shanshu stayed alive and well until she could fulfill her destinies, or until the destinies had been fulfilled by their original bearers.

Buffy stared at Faith holding the child, who looked perfectly content to be sitting in the former rogue slayer’s arms. Somehow, Faith looked natural, as if her entire life had been built up to the moments when she would hold this child, this tiny miracle warrior.

“Faith,” Hopie said, “why are they looking at you with coupon eyes?” Faith stared at the child.

“Coupon eyes?” she asked, knowing that the mind of a four year old was a little something like a Where’s Waldo puzzle where Waldo kept moving around.

“Like they can’t believe you’re on sale,” Hopie explained. “Like when Momma sees a dress and she can’t believe it’s on sale or that she has a clearance coupon or can buy one get one free.” Cordy couldn’t help but proudly think that the child was a fast learner, even as everyone else laughed at the fact that her child was so well versed in normative shopping procedures.

“Faith!” Hopie said, impatient to get an answer.

“They can’t believe that I’m supposed to watch over you,” Faith explained to the child, telling herself that she couldn’t expect anything else. Lindsey sat Willow down on the couch and positioned himself next to Faith, clearly stating his allegiance to the girl. Angel remained happily clueless about the Faith-Lindsey dynamic. In fact, the only person in the room aware of their mutual interests was Hopie, who they had both carefully sworn to secrecy when she began talking about their fluffy eyes. Faith was a little confused about Hopie’s ability to read people’s eyes, but she figured if the eyes were the window to the soul and Hopie was a Soul Kinkos, then maybe she could navigate the emotions of the eyes more than a normal four year old.

“Everyone watches over me,” Hopie said, sounding quite put out. Angel smiled at the child.

“Why is that a bad thing?” he asked, knowing that the child was just waiting for an opportunity to pounce on the weapons chest or run after the bad guys without telling anyone. Hopie shrugged, having picked it up from Dawn and Connor, who both practiced shrugging religiously when they didn’t want to answer questions.

Cordelia’s mother radar finally turned on once she got over the shock of learning that she had to share Hopie with Faith in a way she had never imagined: when it came down to the wire, Faith would be Hopie’s last line of protection, even though Cordelia would give her life in an instant for her daughter. “Why did Faith get grumpy with you?” she asked the child. Hopie shrugged, and Cordelia directed her question at Willow.

“What happened, Willow? Did Hopie do the whole running off thing again?” Willow didn’t want to tell on the child, but she wasn’t exactly a master of deception. Hopie buried her head in Faith’s shoulder, refusing to look Cordelia in the eye. Giles shot Cordelia a what-did-I-say-about-the-skulking-influence look. Faith spoke up.

“She knows not to do it again,” Faith said, knowing that she would deal with the child herself if there was a next time.

“She knew not to do it this time,” Cordelia said sternly. Buffy carefully kept the smile off of her face. It was important, she thought, to present a united front to the child. Angel carefully took Hopie from Faith’s arms, and Faith took a step back, acknowledging that though Hopie was her charge, she wasn’t her mother. Hopie tried to avoid looking Angel in the face. He sat her down on the ground and knelt to look her in the face.

“You know not to run off,” he said, wishing that Giles had never pointed out his own running off tendencies. The child came by it naturally. Was it right to strip her of it? Hopie nodded in response to Angel’s question.

“But,” she started, stopping at a look from Cordelia. “I’m sorry.” Angel’s instinct was to instantly forgive the child, he was after all, a very forgiving father as testified in his dealings with Connor, but Cordelia shook her head. If Angel had been breathing, he would have sighed.

“When you do something you know you’re not supposed to do,” he said, “it means you get in trouble.” Hopie stared at him with big baby girl eyes, and he had to think of Wolfram & Hart, always anxious to circumvent protective measures and take the child, to keep from giving into the little girl cuteness that was Hopie.

He picked up Hopie and sat her in a chair far away from everyone else. “Don’t move,” he said, and Hopie had the immediate desire to squirm, but decided wisely against it. Angel returned to the group and was rewarded with a Good-Job-Daddy look from Cordelia.

With Hopie out of earshot, Angel muttered, “Why does she have to be so cute? It’s so hard to stay mad at her.” Cordelia chuckled, loving that Angel was a softy. She rubbed her hand on his back soothingly.

“You did such a good job,” she said sexily, “that I’ll order the pizza.” Angel smiled, glad that Cordelia hadn’t mentioned his secret phone phobia to everyone. It wasn’t using the phone itself, it was just that calling a restaurant always freaked him out.

Faith leaned into Lindsey, thinking for the first time that she wouldn’t mind having kids of her own, knowing that she didn’t and would never deserve them. She didn’t even deserve Hopie, but The Powers that Be had given her that much anyway.

Willow sat up, feeling better. “Did you find out anything else?” she asked Giles.

“Well, yes,” he said, waiting for someone to interrupt him. No one did. “The champion protects the Shanshu child until all of the destinies, including her own, are fulfilled. Hopie’s destiny, independent of the ones she has of you people, is coincidentally enough, tied to Connor’s, which she now possesses as well. The prophesy said that the Shanshu child will give Angel his permanent soul and then grow to one day fight alongside her soul-sibling, that the two of them would develop a bond so close it extended past this realm.”

“What does that mean?” Cordelia asked bluntly, remembering her first vision of Hopie and Connor together and the way they had been together ever since. Connor was her big brother, and a doting big brother at that. It was adorable to see him soften for the child, to see her so eager to please the older boy she adored beyond all reason.

“It’s vague,” Giles started.

“Imagine that,” Buffy interrupted, “a vague prophesy. We’ve never seen one of those before.” Giles shot her a look that made her feel four years old.

“All I can say for sure is that Hopie and Connor are connected independently of the Shanshu magic, that they will one day fight together, and that their bond will grow to be very strong.”

At that moment, Spike was wishing that he had never come to break up the teenage fun time between Dawn and Connor, because he hadn’t really managed to break it up at all. Instead, they were being exceedingly polite to him in conversation, but kept exchanging private looks and giggles. Worse yet, Connor wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the peroxide tinted vampire. Spike groaned out loud. Dawn and Connor ignored him.

The surveillance team outside the Hyperion was becoming quickly intensely bored. They had already informed Lilah of Faith’s presence as well as Lindsey’s, and they were waiting for a moment to catch the bait-girl. Personally, the reconnaissance team wasn’t sure that one little girl could possibly be worth all of this effort.

Cordelia stuck her head into the room Dawn, Connor, and Spike were annoying each other in, deciding to give the vampire a break. “Hey Dawn,” she said, “why don’t you go with Xander and Gunn to pick up the pizza.” Dawn wanted to refuse, but she also wanted to make sure that Connor’s family liked her.

“Sure,” she said, leaving the room after casting one last look at Connor. He smiled back, shy now that Cordelia was watching.

“Momma,” Cordelia heard a call come from the other room. She left, forgetting that she was leaving Connor alone with a very miffed vampire with protective paternal feelings.

Cordelia approached Hopie, knowing that she shouldn’t let the little girl off easily. She put her hands on her hips, “Yes?” she asked. Hopie looked up at her with serious eyes.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Hopie whispered, not wanting everyone else to hear. Cordelia took pity on the child.

“Go ahead,” she said. “When you get back, we’ll talk.” Hopie groaned, knowing quite well that Cordelia’s talks didn’t translate into fun stuff for her. Xander, Gunn, and Dawn left for the pizza, none of them particularly wanting to leave their special friends. Wolfram & Hart trailed them away from the hotel, waiting to pounce.

Spike tackled Connor, and sat on his chest, trying to put some fear in the boy. Connor was laughing at him, moments away from fighting back nonetheless.

Hopie was washing her hands when the vision hit her. She calmly sat down on the ground even as Cordelia relayed the message to the others.

“Guys,” she said. “We have a problem.”

“What?” Angel asked her.

Hopie came running into the room. “What was that?” she asked Cordelia calmly.

“That,” Cordelia replied, “was The Initiative killing Spike.” Everyone looked at her and gasped. The subject of her vision sat calmly in the next room, trying to instill in Angel’s son the virtues of not taking advantage of impressionable young girls.

Hopie frowned. Mr. Spike hadn’t been in her vision.

Lilah Morgan thanked the warlock and paid him royally. He was doubled over in pain, the consequence of interfering with a powerful vision. He didn’t tell her that he had felt the true vision being rerouted. With any luck, no one would listen to the little girl, leaving the opening for Connor to come alone for Dawn and for Hopie to come willingly to Connor.

Their time was short. According to their analysts, the time of the revamping, no pun intended, of Angel’s soul was nigh. It was beginning.

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