Title: Five by Five
Summary: Faith's long lost twin sister Hope has come to Rome in search of her sister. When two sisters meet everything seems to brighten but does something supernatural threaten to end this new reunion of sisters? And the question of whether Hope is a Potential is overpowering but will she bow down to the ways of the slayer?
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for Hope.
Author Notes: Okay, this is set (in the Angelverse) between Destiny and You're Welcome of Season Five. Angel doesn't have many lines, he's a supportive guy who takes more in that he dishes out. Spike and Hope have this great connection. They are so incredibly close and friendly, I love their relationship cos they're like brother and sister only even more friendly. Not much I can note here... Oh yeah, Freezyboncoolipants, sorry for not responding, I don't usually respond see? But thanks for not insulting me and being all nice and stuff.
Chapter 11: Railroad and Ace
(The twins are named by personality)
"Hello?" Angel answered and Hope sighed heavily in thanks. It had taken fifteen minutes for her to convince the person who first answered the phone to pass her onto Angel, eventually just getting pissed off and telling him to call Angel and ask him himself. It took even more time to convince him to do even this but, finally, she managed it and was put through immediately.
"Hey Ace. How are you?"
"Hope." Angel said, a trace of surprise in his voice.
"It's nice to know that you're Hope." Hope said with a smile in her voice. Angel chuckled at this and Hope just grinned into the phone.
"You don't sound yourself."
"No I don't."
"You sound like..."
"Faith. Yeah, it's a complicated story. Cliff notes are that we switched bodies in a mystery way that Willow, Kennedy and Dawn are researching." Hope explained and she heard his chair squeak slightly as he leaned back on it, in thought.
"Well that's..." Angel began but paused as he tried to find a word that fit.
"Pretty damn normal for our lives eh?" Hope suggested.
"Well... Yeah." Angel agreed and Hope chuckled.
"So, are you in Rome?" Angel asked in a casual tone.
"Yeah I am." Hope said and knew by Angel's casual tone that he was feeling out exactly why she was calling him.
"How are you Hope?"
"Five by five Angel. Five by five."
"Alright, meet me outside the Rome Wolfram and Hart in two hours."
"Angel?" Hope asked, knowing that he would not, not come but only had one request.
"I'm coming Hope, no matter what you say. I know what five by five means to you sisters..."
"No, you can come, I'm fine with that."
"Oh. Then, what?"
"Bring Railroad." You could practically hear Angel's shoulders sag and his non-anticipation towards bringing Spike but he still complied.
"Of course." Hope grinned at the fakeness of the compliance but she didn't say anything.
"Thanks Ace." She said, she owed him. She knew exactly how much Spike pissed Angel off.
"Always." Then it was over and Angel and Spike were officially on their way to Rome.
Faith opened her eyes slowly and winced slightly as she did. She realised that she was being carried up stairs and opened her eyes totally quickly. Buffy realised that she was awake and she looked down at her as she continued to carry her.
"Faith?"
"Unnh, yeah." Faith said and felt the shooting pain in the back of her head.
"Are you okay?"
"Five by five." Faith grunted and then added, "Except for the whole shooting pain in the back of my head."
"Yeah, that'd be the head wound that's making you bleed all over my favourite jacket."
"Well then." Buffy walked into the bedroom and set Faith down on the bed gently. She sat up and Buffy got a bandage roll from a potential carrying a first aid box. The potential then scurried out of the room and went to do some of the things that they had to do. Not all was peaceful in the house, there was a roster or chores and this particular girl had to wash the dishes. How innocent does that sound?
Anyway, getting back to the two slayers, Faith took the bandage from Buffy's hands and started to try and unwrap it.
"What was wrong with Hope?" Buffy asked and Faith stopped struggling for a few minutes to look at Buffy and reply.
"I can't tell you." She said.
"Why not? I trusted that you would tell me later on when I stopped questioning her. That's why I stopped."
"What, have you gone all old gossipy woman on me? It's something that you don't need to know about." Faith then started fiddling with the bandage, concentrating completely on it but still not able to unwrap it.
"What are you talking about Faith? Why not?" Buffy said in a slight whine in her voice.
"It's about something that is in her memories and I'm not gonna just reveal her secret to you." Faith insisted but Buffy wasn't accepting it.
"Faith, one time you said that leading was hard and you gave the role over to me without hesitation. To be a leader I need to know people's weaknesses and this is a definite weakness. I need to know about this." Buffy said, trying to push the right buttons.
"No, you don't. It's not a weakness B." Faith insisted again but once again Buffy didn't accept it.
"She almost got me killed." Buffy said strongly, on the verge of yelling.
"She saved you." Faith said with fire in her eyes.
"I was about to die when she finally woke up."
"But you didn't die."
"I almost died because of Faith." Buffy yelled and then shut up as soon as she realised exactly what she'd said. Her eyes went wide and she looked shocked at herself for saying it and just looked at Faith reproachfully for a reaction. There was only one from Faith, that was that she just looked at Buffy as if she'd just been slapped. This stayed like that for a few moments until Faith finally moved by fiddling with the bandage again and threw it on the bed in frustration after a minute of not being able to unwrap it.
"Damn thing." Faith mumbled and Buffy picked it up gently before picking off the end and unrolling it slowly and motioned for Faith to move forward and started to gently wrap it around her head so the blood started to soak into it. When Buffy finished she tucked the end of it in and moved back. Faith lifted her head and glanced at Buffy before looking elsewhere.
"Thanks." She muttered under her breath, barely audible.
"You're welcome." Buffy said back, almost as an automatic thing, but also meaning it more than either of them could fathom.
"Yippee-ky-yo." Hope heard from the shadows behind her in the Wolfram and Hart and she grinned widely.
"Yippee-ky-fucking-ay." Hope said without turning around and she could feel the grin behind her. She turned and saw Spike standing there in all of his Spike glory.
"How are ya Railroad?" Hope asked and his grin increased.
"I'm a real boy again." Spike declared and Hope raised an eyebrow. So, to prove that he was a 'real boy' he leaned on the wall next to him and during this Hope's eyes widened. Spike just stood there leaning on the wall with a lazy grin on his face and Hope practically squealed in happiness and ran towards Spike and jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around him.
He staggered backwards slightly but he managed to steady himself with Hope giving him this massive hug. They stayed that for a few minutes always staying in the playful mood instead of sinking into the realisation of what it looked like. Then Hope got back onto her feet but still stayed close to Spike and moved to his side so they just had their arms around each other in a friendly way.
"So where's Ace?"
"Dunno, I got a different jet. I've made connections with people." Spike said, proud of himself. Hope snorted at this.
"Come on Railroad, you couldn't make connections if your life depended on it." Hope said and Spike tried to defend himself.
"That's not true. I can make connections..."
"Come on Spike, we all know you're hopeless at it." A voice said from the shadows behind them (There are a lot of shadows!) and they both turned, still arms around each other, to see Angel stepping out of the shadows with a smile on his face. Hope unwrapped herself from Spike and took a step towards the Brood Master, but still was a respectable distance away from the King of All Brooding.
"Ace." Hope inclined her head in Angel's direction in a very formal fashion.
"Hope." Angel copied the movement and sent it back to Hope. They stood there for a few seconds in 'formal' mode. Then Hope gave up and laughed her ass off. Then, when she got back up from doubling over laughing she drew Angel into a bear hug, in which he returned the warmness.
"I guess it's hugs all around then." Spike said as Angel and Hope separated. Hope smirked at him.
"What? Is wittle Wailwoad not feeling special anymore?" Hope said in a 'baby' voice.
"Now that you mention it..." Spike began in good humour sarcasm and Hope chuckled at the peroxidised vampire.
"Come on, let me show you around this beautiful city. My style." Hope added the last part when she saw the vampires about to object and say that they had come here before. Well, they'd never been shown around in 'Hope' style, obviously, and it should be interesting.
"So, how's the search?" Buffy asked as she walked into the 'research'/ library room on the first floor of the share house that was probably the biggest room in the entire house and was jam packed with books and artefacts. There were a few big cushiony chairs around that Willow and Dawn were sitting in. Kennedy was currently in the kitchen getting food/snacks. Buffy took a seat opposite from Willow and sunk into the cushiony goodness whilst Faith just stood in the doorway, her heels skirting the hall.
"I think we've got something. There was something that Faith had to do to get Hope back from the Land of the Lost." Willow said and everyone looked at Faith, who was leaning against the doorframe, expectantly. She nodded her head slightly, trying not to show the fact that the blood was seeping through the bandage wrapped around her head in the back. She didn't need people fawning over her.
"Yeah, to remember her memories." Faith said, cutting it short, preferring not to speak too much at the moment. Not really in the mood.
"Yeah, I think what happened was that they swapped memories. When Faith picked up Hope's memories her own were lost and Hope picked those up, while trying to hold onto her own."
"But, wouldn't they still have the same personalities? I mean memories don't always shape a person." Buffy asked and Dawn piped up before Willow could explain.
"That's what I thought. But Willow explained that because they're twins the environment and their personal experiences shaped their personalities so that they became different. I mean, a few things in their personalities didn't change but the most noticeable stuff has. And the fact that they react to the others' name is because of their memories of being called that." Dawn said, looking extremely proud of herself.
"So I'm still Hope, just with my... er, Faith's memories."
"It's really interesting actually, Freud says... Nothing that is important right now." Dawn trailed off after everyone shot her a Look.
"How do we reverse it Will?" Buffy asked and Willow shuffled forward on her chair to grab an open book next to her and started to explain what they had to do.
"So how've you guys been?" Hope asked and licked the ice cream that Spike insisted on buying for her from an ice cream stall that they'd passed.
"Better'n you pet, from what I've been hearing. What's been giving you the creepies? Besides the body swap." Spike asked and Hope sighed deeply.
"After the, y'know, body swap and all, memories got stirred up. A lot of them. Most of them not good. Faith wasn't the only one with the screwed up past, y'know."
"Hey, who here doesn't have a screwed up past? Please raise your hands." Spike said and all three present kept their arms firmly at their sides. They kept walking down the road and Hope stopped and the vampire on either side stopped and looked at her.
"I can totally trust you guys right?" Hope asked with big eyes and the two men both agreed instantly.
"Of course, completely." Angel said with a serious expression on his dead set face.
"Come on pet, d'you even have to ask?" Spike asked with a similar serious expression on his face. These two responses made Hope smile slightly and seem to glow because of the fact that there were two guys that were standing right in front of her that she could trust so completely.
"Something happened... A few years ago. There was this girl, called Jess, she was the daughter of my dad's best friend, though I didn't know it when I first met her. From when we first met we acted like sisters, totally ragging on each other and messing around with each other and teasing each other. But she, unlike her dad, was completely hopeless when it came to vampires. One time we went out to the movies together and we were walking home when four vampires surrounded us. I dusted three of them in longer than you would think, all I had was a stake. While I was busy with those three, the fourth came around behind us... And... He bit her. She screamed and I turned. I staked him in a second but she... She was dead... And I killed her, because I didn't save her. I should've been more careful, I should've looked around, or payed more attention, or I don't know... But I shouldn't have let her die..." Hope built up more and more emotion as she went on and then said the last sentence on the verge of tears.
Both of the men looked at each other and then pulled Hope into a big bear hug that was actually more of a group hug between the three of them. She sobbed silently into the hug and both of the vampires with souls felt the sobs start to dissipate and they hoped that she would be okay. They both knew just how bad guilt could be, not that Hope really deserved to have the guilt.
Then Hope seemed to tense up and the two vampires withdrew, feeling the change in her and looked at her in concern. Hope seemed to take an uncertain breath into her and then her eyes lifted themselves to a spot between the two vampires and all that they could see was confusion. Then she spotted the peroxidised vampire and stared at him, her eyes practically bugging out.
"Spike? You're alive?"
TBC
So, looks like Faith's back in Faith's body and Hope's probably back in hers. Hope the explanation wasn't too weird. Review and I'll update as soon as possible.
