Only Hope

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Nine

Willow looked up from the book, her mind floating briefly to Tara. It was one of those moments when she could almost feel her, smell her close by. Then again, Willow was hyperaware of the coupling off that was taking place at rampant speed in the Hyperion.

Spike and Buffy were quickly becoming more openly cuddly special friends, and ever since Hopie had started calling Cordy Momma, Cordelia had felt closer to Angel romantically than ever before. They seemed, even to Willow who had known them both when they were different people, like a family. Anya and Xander were definitely being suspiciously special friendish, even though they claimed that they weren’t involved that way any more. Fred and Gunn were clearly an item, and even Dawnie had a developing relationship with Connor. That left Willow with approximately…

“A whole lot of nothing,” she said out loud. Giles looked at her speculatively. Willow closed the book. “There’s no use,” she said, “I can’t find any information regarding the missing section on Hopie’s personal destiny, or Connor’s role as her champion.” Giles looked into the young woman’s face, seeing how bone tired she was. Giles excused himself momentarily from the room. When he returned, he had a self-satisfied look on his face. Willow, entranced in another volume, didn’t notice.

“Willow,” Cordy said, poking her head in. “Do you think you could take Hopie for the afternoon? I have a headache from the last vision, Angel can’t go outside and neither can Spike, and Buffy is too busy playing chaperone to the teenage duo.” Of course, Cordelia was lying about the headache, but she was in total agreement with Giles that the Wicca needed to get away from the books.

“Sure,” Willow said, “but I’m not really way with the knowledge when it comes to little kids. I’ve never had any around, except maybe for Xander being sorta kidlike, and that hardly counts.” Cordelia smiled at her.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “I can handle Hopie and I wasn’t even that good with Xander.” Giles raised his eyebrows and Cordy blushed just a bit. “Just take her out for a little while. Have fun, go shopping, or to the park, or wherever.” Hopie ran into the room.

“Slow down there, fireball,” Cordelia said laughingly. Hopie obligingly came to a halting stop. She eyed all of the pretty books on the table but didn’t touch any of them. Momma said that Mr. Giles got mad when people played with the books, and Hopie was a little scared of Mr. Giles because he was old, older even than Momma and the rest of her friends.

Hopie tilted her head and looked at Willow. Out of all of the people staying at the Hyperion, she had spent the least amount of time with the book crew, seeing as how they weren’t really into playing battle or spar. “What are we doing today?” she asked in a cute voice.

“What do you want to do?” Willow asked until she got the oh-don’t-ask-her-that head shake from Cordelia. “I mean,” Willow restated in her so-called authoritative voice, “we’re going to the, uh… the uh, zoo.” Hopie smiled, and Willow relaxed a little bit. What could go wrong at a zoo? She asked herself, refusing to think about Xander’s hyena situation.

The two of them set out, alone, leaving Cordelia behind feeling like she had just sent her baby off to the first day of school or something. She had to get over her Hopie separation anxiety.

“They’ll be fine,” Giles assured her. “Willow is quite powerful enough to protect Hopie if she needs to, and for that matter, Hopie is quite capable of protecting Hopie. We’ve been discovering the most remarkable things about her will and the power it exerts over the Shanshu-Itzca magic.” What neither Willow nor Cordelia knew was that Hopie and Willow were not alone.

“The zoo?” Lindsey asked, wondering about Faith’s sudden desire to see monkeys and snakes. Faith nodded, not telling him that she was going to watch over Hopie from afar. For some reason, she felt a deep seeded need to protect the child, from everyone and everything, including herself. Lindsey put two and two together but kept quiet. If Faith wanted to pretend that she didn’t care about the child the way she did, that was her business. Faith in general, on the other hand, was his business, and seeing that Wolfram and Hart didn’t do anything to Faith to get to Hopie was quickly becoming his number one priority.

Angel walked into the study room, and seeing the longing expression on Cordelia’s face, guessed that Hopie was off with another one of her newfound friends. “Who has the little monster?” he asked, quite aware that he would kill anyone else who dared to call his little girl a monster. From him, it was a term of endearment.

“Willow,” Cordelia replied running her hands softly down Angel’s back.

Angel wrinkled his forehead. “Are you sure she can handle Hopie? I mean Hopie’s pretty strong and you know how she runs off and…” Cordelia kissed Angel on the lips, quieting his worrying. “I’m babbling, aren’t I?” he asked when she finished. Cordy nodded, and Angel kissed her again.

Giles cleared his throat, sending out the clear I’m-still-in-here message. “You’re just a worried Papa,” Giles said when the twosome had stopped with the lip locking. “And I assure you, Willow is quite capable of taking care of the little girl.”

At that very moment, Willow was thinking that taking care of Hopie wasn’t so very hard. “What animal do you want to see first?” she asked Hopie.

“Tigers,” Hopie said decisively, “and then lions and snakes and leopards.” Willow smiled. The child wanted to see all of the hunters.

“What about the monkeys?” Willow asked, as she had always been a Rhesus Monkey person herself. Hopie shrugged.

“Okay,” she said, “but tigers first. Please.” Under Cordelia’s conditioning, Hopie’s was becoming quite well mannered, aside from the whole aggressive tendencies type thing. Then again, Connor and Angel weren’t much for the non-aggression school of action, and neither was Buffy, so Hopie’s little warrioresqueness was to be expected.

Faith and Lindsey walked slowly by each of the cages, Faith thinking about her time spent in a cage, and for the matter, her time spent as an animal. She had done so much wrong, and the burden lay heavy on her shoulders. Lindsey, knowing deep inside what the slayer was thinking, brought his hand to massage the tension out of her neck. Faith jumped at his touch, but settled down and allowed herself to enjoy the massage.

“And Hopie is a relatively well behaved child,” Giles continued in his soothing voice.

“Relatively?” Cordelia asked, insulted.

“The whole running off thing,” Giles said, smiling at the young woman’s mother reflexes. “It’s a bit of a problem, but I know you all can handle it. The impetuousness is not surprising, considering Buffy was never very good at waiting until she had been given permission to charge into battle.” Giles looked directly at Angel. “And I seem to remember you were always skulking off without a word, mysterious and all.”

Angel glared at him. “I never skulked,” he insisted. Cordelia laughed.

“Right, and you never brood either,” she said, poking Angel in the ribs. He tickled her back and she screamed with laughter until Giles again cleared his throat to reannounce his presence.

Willow smiled at the monkeys. Cute little monkeys, looking straight at her. “Aren’t they neat, Hopie?” she asked. “Look at that one, he’s dancing.” Willow looked around. “Hopie?” The little girl was gone. Willow took a deep breath and decided not to panic. Hopie had probably just wandered over to the tigers.

The hairs on the back of Faith’s neck stood on end, and she quickly looked away from Lindsey in time to see Hopie wandering away from Willow who was pretty darn entranced with those monkeys. Faith silently tracked Hopie through the crowd, and moved to follow the child. Lindsey spotted Hopie too, and wished momentarily that someone would put a leash on that child. Faith had been about to open up, and now she was distracted again. Lindsey sighed and followed Faith through the crowd, because he, too, was found of the little Shanshu.

Hopie stood next to the panther exhibit, her nose on glass and her breath fogging up the display window into the panther habitat. She watched them, silently, completely entranced in the beauty of their sleek movements. I want to move like that, she thought. A female panther walked up to the edge of the habitat, staring back at the child. Hopie didn’t so much as blink or make a sound. A hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her trancelike state of fascination.

“Hi Faith,” she said brightly. Faith knelt down next to the child, her face even with Hopie’s and glared at her. Hopie shrank back a little, recognizing the warning signs that somebody was about to yell at her. Faith’s voice was surprisingly quiet.

“You don’t wander off like that,” she said. Even though her voice was gentle, Hopie shivered. Faith was serious and her intensity was like nothing Hopie had ever seen. The little girl nodded seriously. “Don’t let me catch you doing it again,” Faith said evenly, and after giving the little girl a quick hug, she disappeared back into the crowd just as Willow spotted Hopie.

“Don’t run off like that,” Willow scolded the little girl. “You scared me.” Hopie looked up at Willow with sad little girl eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said. Willow softened immediately. She was a pushover for little sad eyes, just ask Xander. Willow looked at the panther exhibit and noticed the panther staring at Hopie. “Hopie,” Willow said conversationally, “why is that panther staring at you?”

“I dunno,” Hopie replied, sounding very much four years old. “Maybe it wants to eat me.” Willow didn’t think that was it. She looked around and made a quick decision.

The spell was a simple one, to see through someone or something else’s eyes for a moment. “Ex Erito Combun,” she murmured softly. The flash she saw was so brilliant that it knocked her to the ground, unconscious. Hopie stared, scared, at Willow, lying on the ground, looking for all the world like she had just fallen asleep.

She knelt down next to her. “Willow,” she whispered, patting the older girl softly. “I don’t think this is a very good place for a nap.”

Faith reappeared instantly on the scene. “I don’t think she’s napping,” Faith started to say, but Lindsey cut her off. “Willow is really tired,” he said, picking the little girl up and shielding her from the truth. Faith nodded, deciding that he was probably right on not telling the little girl that the Wicca was unconscious. Faith knelt down beside Willow and slapped her face lightly. Nothing happened. Lindsey handed Hopie to Faith and bent over Willow.

“Levantan,” he said softly. Willow opened her eyes. Faith’s eyes opened widely. “I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” he replied, shooting the slayer a look chocked full of flirty goodness. Hopie wiggled in Faith’s arms, wanted to examine Lindsey’s sleeves and see if Willow was all right.

“What happened?” Faith asked gently, holding firmly onto the squirming child. “Cut it out with the wiggling, Hopie” she instructed, and Hopie obediently settled into Faith’s arms, snuggling against her to get comfortable.

“I saw Hopie’s magic,” Willow replied. “It’s like us, all of us, we’re wearing magical sunglasses that shield our eyes from it, but that panther could see it, sense it. It’s so old and bright and powerful. I’ve never felt power like that before.” Hopie shrugged, completely uninterested in the grownup talk, which she thought was pretty boring.

Faith looked at the little girl in her arms, feeling the call to protect her once more. “All of that, in this little thing?” she asked. Willow nodded. Lindsey decided that he liked the way Faith looked holding a child.

Boring, thought Hopie. Why are grown ups so boring?

Why, thought Cordelia, is Giles so incredibly boring? Now he had Cordy and Angel looking through books. Cordelia couldn’t take it anymore and got up to leave.

“Visions? Yes. Shopping? Yes. Fighting? Occasionally. Book work? A world of no,” she said by way of explanation, leaving the room in search of a better distraction. She found Spike muttering to himself.

“Stupid bloody teenage hormone time bombs,” he muttered.

“Spike, you aren’t crazy again, are you?” Cordy asked. “Because you’re not making a whole lot with the sense.” Spike tilted his head towards the doorway to another room, from which Cordelia could hear the sound of a teenage girl giggling. She smiled knowingly, part of her whispering inside that she had held the boy-man for whom that giggle was meant when he had been just a baby. In many ways, he was hers just as Hopie was.

Cordelia stood outside the door silently. “Sickening, isn’t it?” Spike asked. “Angel Junior obsessed with Bitty Buffy and if he touches her, I will…” he trailed off as Buffy came into the room and gave him a we’ve-already-had-this-discussion look. “Stand here out of their way because they’re responsible teenagers and they deserve a little bit of privacy,” Spike finished, noting the slayer’s warning look. He sighed. Bloody hell, he thought.

Anya and Xander followed Buffy into the room. They too heard the giggle. “Is that a dirty giggle?” Anya asked, curious.

“No!” said Cordelia and Buffy emphatically.

“It sure as hell better not be,” Spike growled.

“Anya,” Xander started, then stopped, deciding it wasn’t worth the effort to explain the concept of tact to Anya another time.

“Oh yeah,” they heard Dawn taunt, “let’s just see how tough you are, Steven!”

Buffy was confused.

“Whatever you say, Gidget,” responded Connor. By this time everyone was confused.

“Steven?” asked Buffy.

“Maybe they’re role playing,” said Anya. Everyone ignored her.

“Connor’s first name in the other dimension,” Cordelia explained. “Gidget?”

“The Bit’s first name,” Spike explained as if he hadn’t only recently discovered that interesting tidbit himself. “Gidget Dawn Summers.” Cordelia was confused, but she figured that if her name was Gidget, she’d go by Dawn too.

“Would you like to call me Gidget during special happy time?” Anya asked Xander. Xander went all googly eyed for a minute. Buffy glared at him.

“Ew,” she said. “Just ew. We’re talking about my little sister’s first name here. It may be stupid, but it’s still her name.” No one was brave enough to comment on the lack of sophistication of the name Buffy.

“Gidget Dawn Summers,” Lilah Morgan said out loud, pacing the conference room as she talked to he subordinates. “What kind of name is Gidget?” she asked, before dismissing the question. “Never mind. The bottom line is to get Hope we need Connor, and to get Connor, we need bait. From what I can see of her personal history, this girl should consider bait as a profession.” Everyone looked at Lilah, and she thought about how much she loved being in charge. “Hence, Operation Gidget. Get the girl, keep your lives. Everyone understand?” Not surprisingly, everyone did.

Lilah thought that her plan was perfect. After all, Connor would be so entranced with the slayer’s little sister that he would forget all about his duty to champion the Shanshu. She, in turn, would allow herself to be captured if it would save Connor, and Lilah was certain, for once, that she could take care of Angel.

The only thing Lilah didn’t know was the very thing Willow had just discovered in looking at Hopie’s magic. “I saw Angel and Connor and Cordy and Buffy and Hopie all at once, but none of them were as bright as the magic, not even Hopie.” Her complete memory of what she had seen was returning, and she gasped.

“What?” said Lindsey, putting his had on Faith’s shoulder as she held the still-bored child.

“I saw Hopie’s champion, the magic pointed the way, and it’s not Connor.” Willow stared at Faith, disbelieving. “It’s you.”

 

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