Disclaimer: I own Hopie, Anni, the evil Elf, and the savior Bunny. Everyone else belongs to mutant enemy, Joss, et al.
Author's Note: Finals are done!!! One happy gidgetgirl here! I'll try to write some more on my plane ride home tomorrow so that the fic will be done in time for Christmas, but you know… reviews always help with the update motivation, so let me know what's going on.
A Very Hopie Christmas: Chapter Four
Cordelia's head itched from the inside. It felt wrong, as if someone was taking a wet sponge and tickling it against the inside of her skull. She shook her head.
"Cordy?" Connor asked.
Cordelia tried to respond and couldn't. She looked at Connor like she was dying.
"Cordy?!" he said more urgently.
As the elf knew she would, Hopie came running out of the pet store, bunny in hand, barreling through the traffic like a girl on a mission. Angel followed behind her, getting caught up in the mall traffic along the way. He slowly lost sight of Hopie as the small child maneuvered her way through the crowd.
"Momma!" she called out, seeing Cordy's pained expression. She knew that the elf was behind it, knew somehow that he expected her to do something for him in order for him to leave her momma alone.
"No," she said firmly. "You leave my momma alone, you bad elf." Connor looked at her like she was insane. She stomped her foot, giving Connor an impatient look.
"Go get the bad elf," she instructed him firmly. Connor looked at the four-year-old as if she was speaking gibberish.
"Connor, go get the bad elf!" Angel yelled at the top of his lungs from across the crowd, drawing many strange stares in his direction from the other shoppers.
Connor headed for Santa's workshop.
Cordelia started losing the sight in her eyes, the tickling in her head so intense that she was overcome with a dark dizziness.
Hopie tugged on her shirt. "Sit down, Momma," she said. "Sit down quick." Cordelia fell unconscious to the ground, a pool of blood forming from a cut on the back of her head.
Hopie, holding tight to the bunny, looked frantically around for Angel. "Daddy!" she cried, wailing in the manner typical of a frightened child. "Momma's hurt."
Connor stormed Santa's workshop, looking for the so-called bad elf. He saw four elves: one holding the camera, one talking to children in line, and two milling around. He would have bet money on one of the milling elves, because milling seemed like an evil quality in an elf. He looked at the two elves. Both were dressed in holiday garb. Both stared at him wide eyed.
Connor's eyes darted back and forth between the two elves. Which was the evil elf? He didn't know for sure.
"Which one's the evil elf?" he hollered.
Angel made it to Cordelia's side.
"I wouldn't give the bad elf what he wanted," Hopie wailed. "So he hurt Momma. She's hurt, Daddy, hurt bad."
Angel looked on in horror as blood continued seeping from the cut on Cordelia's head.
Hopie heard Connor holler his question. "The evil elf is the evil one," she hollered back, wondering why her brother couldn't see the obvious. She turned her attention to Angel. "Turn her over, Daddy," she said, carefully wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, trying to be brave.
Angel looked at Hopie. "I don't think we should move her, baby. Someone will have called an ambulance. We just have to wait for them to get here."
"Turn her over!" Hopie shrieked. Angel did as he was commanded, carefully turning Cordelia onto her stomach. Seeing the wound, he winced. She was losing so much blood.
Connor groaned at Hopie's answer. Sometimes, she was so obviously four. Connor stalked over to Santa, picking the kid off up his lap with one hand and grabbing Santa by the beard with the other.
"Which one's the evil elf?" he asked. Santa, terrified, didn't answer.
The boy Connor was holding in his other arm did. "The evil one?" he asked.
Connor nodded.
"He's right there," the boy said, pointing to the elf wearing the red shoes with the little bells on the end.
"Are you sure?" Connor asked.
The little boy nodded. Connor looked at the line. All of the children in the line were nodding. It was very obvious to them which one was the evil elf, because, as Hopie had so eloquently put it, he was the evil one.
Connor let loose of his grips on Santa and the child and stalked up to the evil elf.
The elf grinned at him. "Hurt me, and no one will be able to save your mother," he said. Connor didn't correct the elf about his relationship to Cordelia. Instead, he picked him up with one hand and carried him to the spot where Cordelia lay on the ground.
The elf called out to Hopie, "Are you ready to agree yet?"
Hopie glared at him. "You're in big trouble, mister," she said, glaring at him with her wide eyes.
"I knew we shouldn't let her watch Full House," Angel commented, wishing that Cordelia could hear him. He felt completely helpless.
Once the body was completely turned, Hopie sat the bunny down on Cordelia's back. "Go on, bunny," she encouraged. "You can do it."
The little baby bunny twitched his whiskers and hopped up Cordelia's back until he was just inches away from the injury. Angel watched, astounded, as a white-tinted, sparkly purple light traveled from the bunny's eyes to Cordelia's injury, sealing it with a soft chiming sound.
Cordelia still didn't wake up, the elf's invasion of her mind too much for her.
Hopie turned to glare at the elf, and he got the distinct feeling that he had messed with a power far, far over his head.
She looked at him and took a step toward him. He tried to take a step backward, but as Connor was holding him off the ground, his feet just moved around uselessly in the air.
All of a sudden, the elf felt all of his magic being sucked out of him. All he had wanted was for the Shanshu child to release his inner powers of dark magic, and she had somehow managed to take from him even his basic powers.
"How did you do that?" he asked amazed.
"Don't mess with my momma," Hopie commanded firmly as Cordelia began to wake up. The little girl picked up the bunny.
Cordelia turned over and, seeing the bunny, sighed. "You let her get a bunny?" she asked Angel, exasperated. Angel nodded sheepishly.
"I don't think we can keep it, sweetie. What happens when Spike comes over and gets hungry in the middle of the night?" Cordelia asked.
"Mr. Spike won't eat it," Hopie said. "This is a special bunny."
Angel nodded, feeling a bit slow. "I think we're going to want to keep this bunny, Cor," he said, bending down to pick up his love. Out of impulse, he kissed her, and he knew in that moment exactly what he wanted to get her for Christmas.
The elf, stripped of his elf powers, disappeared into nothing.
"Hey," Connor said. "Hopie, where did you put his powers?" The Shanshu child could "borrow" powers and transfer them to others temporarily, but Connor didn't understand what had happened. Hopie looked pointedly at the bunny.
"He's even more special now," she said, giggling.
TBC… One more chapter: Christmas day goodness, or maybe two more with Christmas eve goodness too. The whole gang, Anya's reaction to the bunny, Angel's gift for Cordy, and flamethrower-y goodness eminent, I promise. For a quick update, please review!
Author's note: Yes, I know the bunny/elf thing was kind of weird, but it's a fluffy ficlet, so I didn't put too many limits on it, and somehow, my inner writer wanted to write about a magical, healing bunny. Besides, now they conveniently have a healing bunny around for all of those pesky injuries. Hope it wasn't too weird to enjoy.