Le Bella

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Six

Buffy was as surprised as she would have been if Giles had referred to pop-tarts as “brain food,” when Willow arrived at the house with three fourths of the Fang Gang in tow. She recognized Bella as well as the impishly pouting child the girl was holding.

“Hopie!” Buffy said happily, having fallen half in love with the little girl the last time they had met. Like Angel, Connor and Cordelia, Buffy was a part of Hopie, their essences melded together in the young child by the ancient Shanshu magic that made her a Galactic Copy Machine in a four year old body.

Hopie didn’t say anything, still pouting over the scolding she had been given for kicking Wes. Her foot was itching to kick him again.

Anni wasn’t pouting, because it wasn’t at all the thing for almost-teenagers to do, but she was pretty darn close. She kept shooting Wesley disgruntled looks, reminding him that there was a reason that most people happened across mid-life crisis while raising teenagers.

Connor and Dawn were greeting each other a little too enthusiastically for Spike’s tastes. “Oh, bloody ew,” he said, earning an elbow in the ribs from the blonde slayer. “Come on,” he said, “somebody back me up here.” Connor pulled away from Dawn reluctantly, and the two of them made with the diffusing to another room in the house,

Angel made his way inside to a safely dark part of the room and shed his blanket. “Hopie, aren’t you going to say hi to Buffy?” he asked. Hopie thought about it a moment.

“Hi Buffy. Hi Mr. Spike.” The child smiled at them and then shot a glaring look at Wesley. Wes, well aware of the contrast, rolled his eyes. It seemed somehow fitting that Cordelia and Angel’s child would have taken such a dislike to him, but the fact that she was mad at him for scolding Anni when she had richly deserved it didn’t sit well with him at all. The fact that he wasn’t completely sure that Anni trusted him enough to stay put sat with him worse.

“Hi Dawn!” Hopie bellowed, knowing that Connor and Dawn were in another room. They heard a pause and then Dawn yelled back a greeting. Hopie sighed a very adult sigh. “Everyone but me gets special grown up time,” she said sadly. “Momma and Daddy get a lot of it, and Mr. Spike told me last time that he and Buffy do too.” Everyone glared at Spike.

“Well, she asked,” he justified himself. “And we do.” Buffy elbowed him in the ribs again, half mortified, half playful.

Faith shot Lindsay a knowing look, relishing in the excitement of their relationship. No one else knew that they weren’t together that way, and the secrets and unique passion they shared made the connection taste that much sweeter to Faith. Lindsay smiled down at her, feeling a tug of possessiveness as he looked at her dark tresses and the impish smile on her face.

“Don’t worry, Hopie” Anni comforted the child softly. “I don’t have special grown up time either.” She shot Wes a pointed look. “Yet.” He tried to calm himself, knowing that she was striking back at him because of her anger at his having abandoned her years before. If he wasn’t off his mark, he guessed that she was also still nervous about the situation with his parents and the Council. Worse by far, she wasn’t sure that she trusted him yet, as a brother, a friend, or a guardian.

Anni, well aware of the limits to which she was pushing her brother, laid off a bit. She was, after all, a very intelligent girl.

“Maybe we can find people to have special grown up time with,” Hopie suggested. “Then we can scream without someone telling us to use our inside voices.” Angel actually blushed at that comment, and Cordelia quickly took Hopie from Anni, hushing the child, her own embarrassment clear.

“How about you stay my little girl for a while longer?” Angel asked. Hopie shrugged.

“When do we get to play on the Heckmouth?” she asked.

“Heckmouth?” Spike said, raising an eyebrow,

“She’s four,” Cordelia explained. “It seemed a little more appropriate.” She directed her next comment toward Buffy. “Do you have someplace Hopie can sleep? She’s had a long day, and I think it’s just about time for an N-A-P.” Hopie looked at Cordelia suspiciously.

“You just wait until I learn how to spell, Momma,” she said seriously. Buffy took Cordelia to her bedroom and they got Hopie fixed up in the bed. The tiny warrior was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. Buffy and Cordelia both looked at her. Buffy smiled as Hopie wriggled and mumbled in her sleep.

“Grrr. Arrrg,” the sleeping child muttered. Buffy simply laughed silently. Cordelia felt the desire to stay and watch the sleeping child a little longer, but the sound of raised voices from downstairs had her deciding that she was needed elsewhere.

By the time Cordelia had reached the room, Wesley had calmed himself. He knew exactly what Anni was trying to do, and he wasn’t about to fall for it. She was trying to aggravate him enough so that he would be willing to let her leave. She was trying desperately to find support for her secret belief that he didn’t care about her. He wasn’t going to give it to her. She was with him and she was safe, he could deal with the rest of it as it came. It kept on coming.

“Your slut is in town,” Anni said casually, waiting for Wesley to tire of her. She knew he would. Everybody did. She simply wasn’t worth the trouble. All she was good for was translating ancient texts, and there didn’t seem to be anything worth translating. All he needed was a good push, and then he would realize that she wasn’t worth it, that she wasn’t worth anything at all.

Wesley mentally counted to ten. “It won’t work,” he said. He stared at her evenly. “No matter what you say, I’m not letting you leave here. We’re going to sort this out, and we’re going to do it together.”

“Lilah’s in town?” Angel asked curiously. Wes glared at him.

“I don’t know whether she was looking for a future slayer or a way to ensure her next lay, but…” Anni started.

“You don’t want to finish that sentence,” Wes interjected conversationally.

Anni shut her mouth, figuring that the damage would have to be done bit by bit. She had come to accept the fact that she couldn’t run away again. Something in the pit of her stomach told her that Wes would find her, and she wasn’t ready to face him on his terms again. If things were going to come to that, she would be the instigator, not him. Buffy and Spike watched the play by play, equally entertained by the girl’s show of bravado and Wesley’s new persona. He stood more confidently, looked more rugged, and had an air of rough appeal that had been absent in the former Watcher they had known.

“So,” Buffy said, “the Council wants your sister.”

Wes nodded. “That seems to be the gist of it. Needless to say, they’re not getting her. Perhaps you can be of service in that department, Buffy?” Buffy nodded.

“How about you and me mosey on over to the phone and make a little collect call?” she asked.

Everyone stared at her. “Mosey?” Angel asked incredulously.

“Whimsy,” Cordelia reminded him underneath her breath. Faith hummed the Rubber Ducky song.

“I retract my incredulous mosey,” he said quickly.

Wes took Anni’s chin gently in his hands, making sure that her eyes met his. “We’re in agreement that you won’t try to leave here,” he commanded softly. She shrugged. Wesley and Buffy left the room to make the phone call, but Wes returned moments later with a stack of paper and a hand full of pens and pencils. Everyone looked at him puzzled.

He handed the pens, paper, and a Post-It note to Anni. She read the note: I will not recklessly endanger myself. Beneath it was written the number 1000. Still confused, she looked back at Wes.

“I told you we weren’t finished with all of this,” he said. “I need you to trust me that I will figure this out, that I will protect you, but more than that, I need you to realize that regardless of what happens, you cannot and will not do anything so stupid as what you did this afternoon. You throw all the nasty comments at me that you want to, but if it kills us both, you’ll learn something today about taking care of yourself. I want to see that sentence one thousand times before you even think of doing anything else.” His voice left no room for argument.

“That would take hours,” Anni said, trying to make him see reason. He lowered his head next to hers and whispered something into her ear. After shooting him a death glare, she picked up the pen and started writing.

He kissed the top of her head, and the display of affection struck her as odd. No one had ever done that before. “Later,” he said, “after I’ve sorted this out, we’ll talk. I love you, Anni-girl.” She didn’t respond. He sighed and left the room.

“Well,” Spike said, “somewhere in this house, the Bit and the Boy are making out, and I for one feel that it must be stopped.” He took off, whistling, knowing how much he’d actually enjoy breaking up the love fest. He half hoped that Connor would put up a fight when he pulled him up for air.

Willow sat down next to Anni, feeling a strange kinship with the girl. She recognized loneliness and despair, the kind that forced a person to unreasonable limits. She could feel the hurt radiating from the little body. This wasn’t something she could heal with magic, this was a weariness of the soul. She loved Wesley for trying to heal it with love and knew that she would help him any way she could.

Lindsey and Faith were both humming now, very softly. It was a simple hymn, one of the first songs she had been able to play. He grabbed her hand.

“They’re so small for slayer hands,” he commented for maybe the thousandth time.

“Not too small to hit all the chords,” she replied softly. Angel looked at them curiously.

“Two words,” Lindsey said calmly. “Rubber Ducky.” Wisely, Angel said absolutely nothing.

An hour and forty-five minutes later, Wes and Buffy were ending their negotiations with the Council, Anni’s hand was rebelling with throbbing pulses, and Hopie was just waking up from her nap.

She bounded into the living room. “Guess what, guess what guess what,” she said happily.

“What?” everyone in the room replied at once.

“There’s a monster outside my window,” Hopie tugged on Angel’s sleeve. “Where’s my crossbow, Daddy? I want to play eyesies closies with the monster.” Angel struggled not to groan.

“Is it a real monster?” he asked her seriously.

She shrugged as if the answer was unimportant. “Crossbow,” she reminded him sweetly.

“You know what you might like, sweet,” Spike said, feeling the compulsion to irritate Angel now that he had successfully separated Connor and Dawn, “a flame thrower. I think we have one around here somewhere.”

Hopie’s eyes danced. “Ooooh,” she said excitedly. “Fire.” She thought about it for a moment. “I have two hands” she said finally. “One hand for Crossbow and one hand for a flame thingy.”

“You say crossbow like it’s a name,” Dawn commented. Hopie rolled her eyes.

“It is,” she said very nicely. She still felt like being really nice to Dawn, since she had been kidnapped the last time they had seen each other.

“What are you going to call the flame thrower?” Spike asked, earning another death look from Angel at the mention of a flame thrower.

Hopie thought about it for a moment. “Bob,” she said finally. “I’m going to call the flame thrower Bob.” She bounded over to Anni, who was still sitting on the floor writing, barely halfway done.

“Watcha doin?” she asked the older girl. Anni rubbed the palm of her right hand with her left.

“Writing,” she replied. Hopie looked at the paper thoughtfully, and then put one hand on Willow and one hand on Anni. Then she smiled very widely. Anni looked down and found the rest of the sentences completed. How had Hopie managed that? Willow looked suspiciously at both girls.

“Done,” Anni said.

“Good,” Hopie said, pulling the older girl by the hand. “Now you can come play with me and Crossbow and Bob.” Hopie went to tug on the bottom of Spike’s shirt.

“Mr. Spike, where’s Bob?’

“The flame thrower?” he asked, wishing he had never put the idea in the child’s head. She nodded. He sighed and led the girls to Buffy’s weapons chest.

“What just happened here?” Angel asked Willow.

“The part where Spike has the foresight of a toothbrush or the part where Hopie managed to borrow my magic to help Anni?” Willow asked.

“The second one,” Angel replied.

“It looks like Hopie can activate her copy mechanism on a small scale at will,” the Wicca replied. “Nothing major, just enough to duplicate my powers for a few seconds.”

Angel groaned. “Kindergarten was tough enough when she just had super strength and occasional visions. What if she borrows some really crazy power?”

At the moment Angel said vision, Cordelia ducked her head, receiving the image of eight vampires converging on a group of young males.

“Oh boy!” came a shout from the other room. “Now we get to go play on the Heckmouth. Bob and Bella can come too!” The rest of the group heard the child turn on the flame thrower.

“Are you trying to singe my bloody eye brows off?” Spike yelped. Hopie giggled.

“You’re silly, Mr. Spike,” she said. Anni giggled as well. Wesley heard her as he hung up the phone and thought that it was a sound he would like to hear more often. With the way the situation had been resolved, he wondered if he was going to get his wish.

 

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