Le Bella

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Three

Anni was biding her time until she could sneak off. She ignored Wes as he picked up the phone. She had to walk a thin line, being sullen enough that he wouldn’t be suspicious that she was up to something, but sweet enough that he wouldn’t suspect her of wanting to leave as badly as she really did. More than anything, though, she wanted to want to stay, but she knew she couldn’t.

Wes hung up the phone. “What are you thinking?” he asked her. “I know that look. It’s the same look you had on your face right before you decided to put the Crenshaw’s trampoline in their swimming pool.” The Crenshaws had been their closest neighbors, but they had moved before Anni had even turned five, so she didn’t remember the incident Wes was referring to. She was more than surprised that he did.

“I don’t feel like talking about it,” she replied coldly. He narrowed his eyes, not willing to press her. If Anni at three had been formidable, Anni at almost thirteen was a force to be reckoned with.

“What do you feel like?” he asked gently, knowing that she felt betrayed.

“Like you care,” she muttered.

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t,” he replied. Anni paused for a moment.

“Well,” she said. “Since it looks like you’ll be shipping me back off to England soon (tortured look on her part), maybe you could show me a little bit of the city. I hear you have some fabulous malls.” She smiled wickedly. Wesley had a typically male aversion to shopping.

He groaned. “All right, if that’s what you want.” Anni stood up, and he placed his hand on her shoulder, making her face him. He looked her straight in the eye. “I know you’re up to something, baby girl, and I’m warning you right now, don’t do it. You may not have noticed, but I’m not the same man I was when I left England, and you do not want to mess with me.” He had a deep suspicion that she wasn’t taking his threat seriously, but he figured he’d keep a close eye on her in the mall and cross that bridge when he came to it.

Angel, desperate for something to take his mind off of the scared look Hopie had given him that morning, turned on the television. There was nothing on except for children’s shows. He shrugged and settled into watching Sesame Street. Cordy played it all the time for Hopie, and he was becoming secretly addicted. Sure it didn’t have action or adventure, but there were bright colors and songs, and those funny happy creatures. Everyone was getting along. Nobody tried to, for instance, stake the Cookie Monster, just because he was a monster.

Angel chuckled at the counting antics of the Sesame Street children. He loved this show.

“I’m the Cookie Monster!” yelled one little girl at snacktime.

“Indoor voice,” reminded the teacher. She had only been teaching for two years, and this year’s class looked like it was stacking up to be a hand full.

“Monster?” Hopie asked, wrinkling her forehead. “You don’t look like a monster to me.”

“Don’t you ever watch Sesame Street?” the little girl asked curiously. Hopie shrugged.

“My daddy does sometimes when he thinks no one is watching, and my momma puts it on for me sometimes, but I don’t really watch it. I like Xena better.” The teacher raised her eyebrows. A four year old watching Xena? Hopie, sensing the look, turned and gave the teacher her patented adorable smile. The teacher’s heart melted. She was such a precious little girl. A bit odd, really, but precious nonetheless.

“Real monsters don’t look like that,” one little boy scoffed. “The have horns and ugly tales and spots.” Hopie rolled her eyes.

“Some monsters look just like us,” she said. “Sometimes you don’t even know they’re monsters except they feel all wrong.” Then she remembered that she wasn’t supposed to talk about that.

The teacher looked at her, and wondered what human monsters the child had seen. She sounded old, like all of a sudden a million years worth of wisdom was crammed into one four year old body. Hopie smoothed down her dress, glad that she had let Cordelia buy it for her.

Cordy was taking her mind off of her mother anxiety splendidly. Connor, on the other hand, was in the pits of misery. Cordelia piled shirts of all different colors into his reluctant arms. He eventually managed to escape to the dressing room, but Cordy was such a tenacious shopper that even that didn’t offer much in the way of sanctuary.

Anni fingered a blouse, loving the way the fabric felt in her hands. She had never actually been shopping before. She had read about malls, in the magazines her parents hadn’t known she had, but she had rarely been outside the walls of her home and the homes of her parents’ friends. She knew the world of demonology better than perhaps anyone else in the world, but the real world, the teenage world, was a complete mystery to her.

“Do you like it?” Wes questioned, realizing that perhaps his sister had had a valid reason for running away. She was looking at the mall as if it was El Dorado. He had never been so shut in. Then again, his failure had forced his parents’ hands with Anni. Because of him, she had been denied any freedom, any life outside of her duty to preserve the legacy. Wes had no doubt that his parents were planning on sending Anni to the Watcher’s Academy when she turned seventeen, but he wondered if perhaps he could talk them into allowing her to attend a normal boarding school until then.

“I love it,” Anni said, allowing the light to shine through her eyes. If she was going to trick him, she needed him to feel confident that she no longer wanted to leave. A feeling in her stomach told her to run now, even as her brain commanded her to wait until evening.

“Try it on,” he suggested. She took the shirt, and several others, into a dressing room. She recognized Cordelia Chase and surmised that the young man standing with her had to be The Destroyer, who she had read much about the past few months. At first sight, her preteen heart fluttered. He was so… dreamy wasn’t even the word. She forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand.

Connor looked at Anni uncomfortably. She was staring at him with an unequivocally adoring look, what Hopie referred to as fluffy eyes. To him, she was just a little girl, barely older than Hopie. He thought about Dawn and smiled in his mind at the memory of the girl he hadn’t seen for several months. She still called him once a week. He was planning on taking the first excuse to visit Sunnydale.

Cordelia started when she saw Wesley. “Hi,” she said shortly. Seeing Anni, he expression softened.

“Bella,” she said. “I see you found him.”

“Yes,” Anni said curtly. “I did. Thank you for your help.”

“Wait a minute,” Wesley said. “She came to the hotel, and you let her leave? For crying out loud, Cordelia, she’s only twelve years old.”

“Faith and Lindsey tailed her,” Cordy responded.

“Oh, I feel so very comforted,” Wes replied sarcastically. “My little sister was wandering the dangerous streets of LA, but I shouldn’t worry about it because the rogue slayer and demon lawyer boy were watching her back.”

“Sister?” Cordy asked, seeing the resemblance around the eyes. Anni’s were far too serious for a girl her age.

“I’m going to try these on,” Anni announced, excusing herself. Connor returned to his dressing room as well.

Once in the room, she held her breath, concentrating. Her parents, Wesley, even the Council, were fools as far as she was concerned. How could any of them believe that she had studied magical forces since practically before she was born without ever picking up any of the tricks of the trade? She may not have been a powerful Wicca, but she could manage elementary glamours just fine.

The hairs on the back of Connor’s neck stood up. “Whatever you’re doing,” he whispered over the dressing room walls, “you probably shouldn’t be doing it.” Anni was startled. She was being silent. He shouldn’t have been able to tell.

“Don’t say anything,” she begged. “Give me a few moments. It’s all I’ll need.” Connor found himself frozen in place by the tone in her voice. He tried to move to stop her from leaving, but he quite literally could not. She had somehow mojo-ed him into place.

Concentrating, Anni managed a short relocation spell. She couldn’t relocate over distances, but she could manage within a mile radius. When she reappeared outside of the mall, she looked completely different to the casual observer: older, mid twenties, blonde hair. She walked briskly towards a cab, and pulling money out of her pocket, directed him toward the bus station. Something inside of her was telling her to run, because she knew that if she stayed any longer at all, she wouldn’t want to leave Wesley, even if he was on THEIR side.

By the time she reached the bus station, she felt her spell on Connor slip. Too bad, she thought, he was awfully cute to freeze in place. If he ever saw her again, he would be angry too.

Connor ran out of the dressing room. “Your sister,” he addressed Wesley, interrupting the little fun fest he and Cordelia were having. “She’s gone.”

“Damn it,” Wesley said. “I knew she was up to something.” He was, quite simply, going to kill her when he found her. Los Angeles was no place for a child to be running around in by herself.

“Wait a second,” Cordy said. “We’re standing in the only exit out of the dressing room. How did she manage to leave?”

Connor gave her a grim look. “The same way that she made me freeze where I was standing for several minutes.”

Wesley groaned. Magic. Of course, Anni would have picked up on what she was reading. Of course she would have begun practicing, and o f course his loving parents either wouldn’t have noticed or wouldn’t have bothered to care. “When I find her,” he said out loud, “we’re going to have a nice long talk about magic.” Cordelia smiled, sympathizing with Wes. It wasn’t easy parenting a magical child, and she was very glad that, at that moment, her baby was four and not thirteen.

“Hope,” the teacher said, trying to get the little girl’s attention.

“Hopie,” the child corrected. “It’s only Hope when I’m in trouble.”

“It’s recess,” the teacher said, prodding the little girl towards the playground. “Don’t you want to play with everyone else?” Hopie nodded vigorously.

“But I’m not supposed to play rough with people who are weaker than me,” she said, “and I don’t know how else to play.” The teacher smiled, still bewildered. She pointed to a group of children playing hopscotch.

“Why don’t you try that?” she asked. Hopie shrugged. She walked over to the girls, but soon found herself very bored with the little jumps and skips of the game. She could jump three feet vertically into the air… what fun was hopscotch?

Hopie wandered over to the boys. “Watcha doin’?” she asked.

“Playing soldiers,” one of the boys replied.

“Grrr Arrrg,” Hopie said.

“No, stupid,” one of the boys said meanly. “That’s monsters. We’re playing real soldiers, and real soldiers can’t be girls, so you can’t play.” Hopie looked at Sam. He shrugged, promising that they could play monsters later. Hopie dug her foot into the ground, frustrated. They wanted to play soldiers? She would give them a war. The Shanshu child went to organize her forces, the other little girls. Before their plan could be enacted, recess was over. Hopie smiled. She could wait until tomorrow. Maybe she could bring her new friends some cool big kid toys to play with.

Faith and Lindsey were laughing at a private joke when they opened the door of the Hyperion to see Angel sitting in front of the television, thoroughly engrossed by a children’s television program. Neither of them had the heart to interrupt him, but Lindsey had firm plans to black mail him later.

“Faith,” Lindsey whispered, pulling her into the office area. “Do you ever think about having kids?”

“Besides Angel?” Faith joked. Lindsey smiled, but his question still stood. “Sometimes,” the slayer said finally, “and then I remember what it was like for me being a kid, and I wonder how I could ever bring someone else into this world knowing nothing but that. What kind of mother would I be?”

“You’re great with Hopie,” Lindsey reminded her, doubting his own parental aptitude at the same time.

“That’s different,” Faith said. “I’m her Champion. Being a parent is a totally different ball game.” Lindsey tickled her ribs, and she giggled softly. They fell into a sweet kiss, the kind that sent waves through both of them, straight to their souls. Together, their souls were pulling themselves out of the trenches and onto a higher plane. Old wounds were closing.

They broke apart when they heard Angel laughing in the other room. “That Oscar,” he said. “He’s so broody.” Faith and Lindsey both dissolved into fits of giggles, falling on top of each other with laughter, rolling around on the floor holding their sides until the moment that their hands intertwined.

Cordelia put her hand on Wesley’s shoulder. He may not have been the old Wes, but he was still a friend, and her mother-heart ached for the worry she saw in his eyes. “We’ll find her,” she said.

“And what,” Wesley questioned, “am I supposed to do then?”

Anni settled back into the bus seat, relatively calm considering she was headed straight for the mouth of hell.

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