Only Hope

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Two

It was a beautiful day outside, Angel was sleeping, Connor was out, Cordelia was cooking lunch, and Hopie was in a bad mood. Over the past months, she had become more and more like a little girl and less like a miniature adult, all quiet and serious like. She had also started taking on the characteristics of her protectors.

She loved dressing up like Cordelia, and Cordy loved seeing the little girl dressed fashionably, even if Hopie did tend to get clothes to a new level of dirtiness just by wearing them. She was a fighter, like Connor, brutal and without mercy in every tickle war of epic proportions. She babbled like Fred, acted cool like Gunn, and called people sweet cheeks like Lorne. Unfortunately, she brooded like Angel.

“Where’s my Connor?” she demanded of Cordelia, in a voice that made Cordy wish it was nap time. Unfortunately, Hopie kept odd hours because, living in the Hyperion, it was hard not to.

“He went out, sweetie,” Cordy explained for the fourth time in twenty minutes. “He’ll be back later tonight.” Cordelia had to admit that Hopie was right, Connor’s habit of taking off and not coming back until night time was vastly annoying, but she didn’t want to concede that to the four year old currently standing with her arms crossed over her chest.

“How about a picnic in the park before your doctor’s appointment this afternoon?” Cordy asked. Hopie made a face at the mention of the doctor’s office, but she readily agreed to going to the park. The two of them, Fred, and Gunn loaded the car with food and drove to the park. They hadn’t been there an hour when Fred and Gunn slipped off, leaving Cordy sitting on a park bench watching Hopie play with the other children.

“Your daughter’s adorable,” a voice came from beside her. Cordy looked over and saw a tired looking woman. “She’s playing so nicely, not like my two,” the woman tilted her head, indicating a set of carbon copy twins currently fighting over a swing. Cordelia didn’t bother to correct her. At times, she could almost picture Hopie as her daughter. She had the same long, dark hair that Cordelia had donned as a child, the same deep brown eyes.

“What’s her name?” the woman asked.

“Hopie,” Cordy replied, distracted. An older boy had just displaced the twins from their swing, and they were both crying. Somehow their mother didn’t notice, but Cordy was about to give the older child a piece of her mind when she saw Hopie doing it for her.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Hopie said, looking the older boy, who was at least twice her size, straight in the eye. He laughed at the solemn child. The next thing he knew, he was sitting on the ground, and Hopie was standing above him. “You should be nice to people who are smaller than you are,” she said.

“You hurt me,” he said. She shook her head.

“I helped you,” she replied. “To be nice.” Cordelia laughed, not bothering to wonder how Hopie had managed to throw the older boy to the ground. She knew that Hopie wouldn’t have hurt another child, even a very mean, very large little boy.

“Five minutes, Hopie!” Cordy called out, figuring that it was a good thing to let your child know a little ahead of time that it was time to leave the fun for the not so fun. In parts of her mind, it really wasn’t at all hard to think of Hopie as hers. At other times, it was difficult to think of the child as a child at all. She’d be so obviously four one minute and adult and wise the next. She was a protector.

“Don’t make me call your father!” she heard a woman from across the playground shout. Cordy grimaced. What kind of threat was that? ‘Don’t make me call your father,’ had this person even heard of women’s lib? She looked at her watch. They had just enough time to make it to the doctor’s office ten minutes early for Hopie’s checkup. Cordy was almost as nervous as Hopie was. What if something (anything) was wrong? She cleared the thought from her mind.

“Hopie,” she called, “time to go.” She expected to see a little black haired fireball racing, or at the very least trudging, towards her. What she saw was…nothing. Well, of course she saw the twins playing with slash hitting each other and some kid she didn’t know eating dirt, but she didn’t see any Hopie. Great, she thought, I’ve lost her again. She waited for a convenient vision to emerge in her mind, and when nothing happened, she sighed and got up, thinking that she was going to have to get a leash for Hopie if she kept running off like that.

“Hopie,” she called again, unable to keep the worry from her voice. The boy Hopie had removed from the swing earlier pointed towards the jungle gym on the other side of the playground, a massive piece of play equipment only meant for the older children. Cordy should have known. If there was one thing Hopie loved more than brandishing fake weapons, it was a physical challenge. Definitely gonna have to think about the leash thing, thought Cordelia.

She jogged across the playground until she stood directly underneath Hopie, who was sitting on the very peak of the jungle gym. There were no other kids around. “Time to go, sweetie,” Cordelia said. “And you have got to stop running off like that.”

“I’m sorry,” Hopie said, and she sounded so sorry that Cordy instantly forgave her.

“It’s all right, baby, but we have to go now.” Hopie shook her head.

“I’m sorry but we can’t go,” she clarified. Cordelia narrowed her eyes a little bit, giving the little girl her patented do-you-really-want-to-go-there look. Hopie apparently did want to go there. “I’m not going to the doctor,” she announced firmly.

“Yes, you are,” Cordelia said nicely. “Get down, now please,” she continued. Hopie shook her head. Cordelia sighed. She wondered if she had been this difficult of a child. Then again, if Miss Cordelia had refused to go to the doctor, whichever maid or nanny was taking care of her would have canceled the appointment. Cordy shook her head to clear the image from her mind. Look where that got me, she thought.

“Don’t make me come up and get you Hopie-girl,” she said. Hopie didn’t move. Cordelia sighed and started climbing the jungle gym. She felt just a little bit ridiculous, and she dreaded the talking to she’d have to give the little girl. As much as she loved having the little one, she still wasn’t sure about the whole parenty type thing. By the time she reached the top, Hopie had wound her arms and legs so thoroughly through the gym that Cordelia couldn’t get her loose.

“Hopie,” she said, “this really isn’t funny.” Hopie squeezed her eyes shut tight. “Open your eyes,” she commanded in a stern voice, looking at her watch and realizing that they were going to be late. Hopie’s eyes remained shut. “Do you want me to call Angel?” Cordy asked, mentally cursing herself for stooping so low. “You know he’s asleep and will be very cranky if we wake him. I don’t think he would be very happy if he had to come all the way out here to get you to go to your doctor’s appointment, do you?”

“Aunt Cordy,” Hopie said opening her eyes. “It’s daylight.” Cordy blinked. “Uncle Angel’s a vampire,” Hopie explained as if her first words had been cryptic.

“All the more reason he wouldn’t be happy,” Cordelia replied, rolling with the punches and ignoring the fact that Hopie had called her bluff. She tried to pry the child’s hands away from the bars, but to no avail.

“Hope Chase Angel,” she said, seriously annoyed, “you sit up right now.” Hopie blinked, and Cordelia realized that she had said out loud the name she had been calling Hopie in her mind for weeks. Except then, it was Hopie Chase Angel. The Hope part was because the little girl was in trouble.

“My last name is Chase Angel now?” she asked, not letting go of her death grip. “What’s Chase?” Cordelia explained that it was her last name, and Hopie nodded thoughtfully.

“That’s okay,” she consented. “I like Hopie Chase Angel.” Cordelia smiled. “But I’m still not going to the doctor.” Cordelia frowned and tried to explain to the little girl that she didn’t have a choice. Unfortunately, based on the death grip she had on the jungle gym, she did.

“Hopie sit up,” a voice came from below them. Cordelia looked down and saw Connor. She breathed a sigh of relief. Hopie sat up. Cordelia picked her up before Hopie could change her mind. She couldn’t help looking a little disgruntled. She had been practically begging the kid, and he showed up and boom, just like that, instant compliance. Cordy climbed down, carrying Hopie with one hand. Connor smirked. Cordelia gave him the look and then turned her attention back to Hopie.

“Tell me why you don’t want to go to the doctor,” she said, but Hopie just buried her head in Cordelia’s shoulder. Cordy sighed. “We’re going to have a long talk about this, Hope,” she said, trying to impress upon the little girl that she wasn’t happy. Hopie lifted her head and reached out for Connor. He easily took her from Cordy’s arms.

“Were you bad?” he asked her. She nodded, smiling. Connor smiled back. Cordelia informed Connor that he was coming with them to the doctor’s office.

“I really can’t,” he said, trying to explain, but she cut him off.

“That’s too bad,” she replied, and Connor understood that his name was mud with Cordy for encouraging the little girl. He nodded and carried Hopie to the car. “And you can explain to Hopie why she’s going to have a time out when we get home.” Connor looked confused, and Cordy wondered what Connor had been like when he was four. Looking at him holding the child, she remembered the baby he had been and felt, not for the first time, that he was hers as well as the girl he held in his arms.

In her mind, she saw strongly the bond between the two of them, brother and sister, and she wondered if the image in her mind was in her imagination or if the Powers that Be had allowed one more gift, to see this bond. She wondered what it meant. If Connor was the Destroyer, the Miracle Child, who and what was Hopie?

Hopie’s first words echoed in Cordelia’s mind. “My name is Hopie. They said I was their only hope.”

 

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