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 and their dad and Cobalt and Jess and so many other things... Not really... But yeah...

Author Notes: Important flashback and (gasp!) Faith opens up. To Spike, of all people. I would've guessed it would've been Angel if you'd asked me previously but the situation with Spike was just too perfect. Review if you want a say in Spike's path ahead.

Chapter 14: Job Well Done

"I guess Miss Unlucky-meant-to-be-the-thirteenth-killed is alright then?" Faith asked and Hope grinned widely.

"Hell yes. She kicked his ass." She said, making it as if every word was in a new sentence of their own, just to stress exactly how much kicking of respective asses happened.

"Nice." Faith said and they gave each other a high five, "Go her."

"Totally, you should've seen her. Bam, bam, jab, bam. Whoo! That guy is gonna be out of the game for a while." Hope said, clearly on a high over the triumph of Potential over mean guy who wants to destroy the world.

"Hey, a thought occurring. If this super vampire's still killed by sunlight then doesn't that mean that I can kill this guy with one shot?" Hope said, getting both her guns out in one quick fluid movement and twirling the two of them on the respective hands like in the Westerns. Then she demonstrated by miming shooting Angel and Spike and making 'bang, bang' noises along with it.

"Uh yeah sure," Spike said pushing the barrel of the gun away with his forefinger, "If you can get to him. He's gonna have more armies that any previous army."

"Bigger than the First's?" Faith asked, incredulously.

"This guy can make the dead rise and use their bodies as armies, so yeah." Spike said and they all really weren't looking forward to that fight if they ever had to come to that bridge.

"I should take you back to Buffy's." Angel said and Hope looked at him, completely deflated.

"What?" She asked him with the big doe eyed look that Willow had so down pat. Angel nodded to the next room and they both left for it.

"What? Why?" Hope asked, a completely hurt expression on her face.

"You asked for help and now you're better. Although, not really getting the why of that."

"The dust settled again. You know how I said that memories had been stirred, well they've settled. Thanks for the reminder." Hope said, hurt laced through her words and marring her face. She continued with unshed tears weighing heavily on her voice, making it quieter and deeper, "Please, don't leave Ace." Angel looked at her, unbridled sorrow playing across his features.

"I'm sorry Hope..." Hope interrupted him, getting close to hysterical.

"You don't understand. Everyone leaves me, please... don't." Tears threatened more and Angel found that he couldn't talk and Hope rushed on, "Jess, Cobalt, my dad." She sobbed. At this Angel couldn't take it anymore and stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. She turned her head sideways and continued, her head resting in his chest.

"We were in the hospital. I can remember it now as if it was yesterday..."

Flashback-

Hope was sitting in a chair by her dad's bedside. Her feet were up on a chair that was in front of her, both of them sideways to the hospital bed. Her dad was asleep and the little heart monitor beeped away in a steady pace. Hope felt her eyelids grow heavier by the beep. Her head dropped and she woke up instantly. She looked at her dad and was alert again... For about a second. She felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier and heavier...

She was standing in a cemetery. It was a funeral. She saw herself crying silently, tears making their way down her cheeks and joining the others that were already there. A black veil covered her face, her attempt at hiding her grief. It didn't work.

The funeral finished and she was the only one left. She saw her other self kneel in front of the grave and kiss her finger which she then pressed onto the recent grave. One more silent tear escaped her eye and made its way to her jaw and then dropped onto the grave, next to her finger.

Up till this point Hope hadn't been able to see the head stone and then she saw it. It read:

William Peter Winters

25 December 1964-13 April 2001

Beloved Father, Friend and Teacher

Hope was woken up by a long beep that filled the room. All of a sudden it was filled with people, doctors nurses. Too many, too many people. She stood up and was pushed to the back of the room. She struggled to get a glance of her dad. Just a glance. A glance of the hospital bed. Of her dad lying there.

In one single second she knew. She knew what she'd seen was true. In one second a tear ran down her face silently as she kept being jostled back. In one single second her world fell apart as she watched the one person that she loved try to be revived again and again but to no avail. In one second she lost all of her senses and slid down the wall that she'd been shoved into and let them come.

Let the tears come.

End Flashback-

Hope sobbed into Angel's chest and moved her head so that she buried herself in his chest. And she just let herself cry freely into the vampire's expensive black shirt and he let her.

In the other room the uncomfortableness was reaching boiling point. The slayer and vampire looked at each other before looking at the ground. Both of their hearts had broken for Hope when she told the story of how her father had died, that day in the hospital room.

"So your last name's Winters huh?" Spike said, not really sure what to say so saying something that had no real purpose to it seemed to be the best thing to say.

"Yeah." Faith said quietly and Spike nodded.

"It's a nice name. Faith Winters." He said, desperately trying to bury any of the sorrow and potential tears relating to the story that had made him aware of Faith's last name in the first place. Faith looked at him, catching onto the why of the conversation and playing along. Anything to hide the pain, something that Faith knew a little about. Hiding pain, that was. And, although she didn't know it, she knew nothing about it. She always managed to offload it onto Hope when it was too much for her. One of the reasons that Hope was more open with the crying, she had more to deal with.

"Yeah, it is."

"Polar opposite to Buffy in more'n one way, hey?" Spike said, growing bolder with the amount of flippancy he put in his speech.

"I reckon we're polar opposites in all ways." Faith said, chuckling slightly and smirking and Spike joined her almost immediately. Then, all of a sudden she stopped.

"What are we doing Spike?" She asked and sighed. He looked at her, concerned at her sudden change.

"What? What? What are we doing?" Spike asked, playing the lost person very well.

"We're avoiding the subject. We're talking about completely unimportant things to cover up... Y'know... Stuff." Faith explained and Spike caught on about halfway through and sighed heavily himself.

"I know, we're doing the same thing that normal people do when they see a vampire. We're trying not to think about what just happened... What we just heard." Spike said, still treading lightly.

"And we're not normal people. I'm a Slayer and you're a vampire. We shouldn't shy away from things like normal people. Face your demons right?" Faith said and Spike nodded.

"Right." He said and then asked, "So, we gonna talk this out or stand here uncertainly?"

"I was thinking standing here uncertainly for a few minutes and then rush into talking with me all of a sudden talking about my dad." Faith said, nodding and Spike nodded. Then they stood there in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, standing there uncertain of how to start it off for real and then Faith started it off with talking about her dad.

"I didn't even know him that well. He and Hope left when I was ten. It was the middle of the night and he'd already taken Hope into the car when he came back for me. When he said that we were leaving mom behind I refused to go, made such a racket that he had to leave cos my mom was getting up. He kept trying to come and get me a few weeks later but I always refused to go. He finally gave up when I said that I didn't want to see him or Hope ever again and that I hated them both. My mom died not too long after that and I was taken in by my Watcher. Abby." A slight smile came to Faith's face when she said her watcher's name and continued to talk about her,

"Abby was your standard watcher, stuffy English snob," She looked at Spike apologetically, "No offence," He raised his hands, none taken, and she continued, "The sorta person who grows on you. After the first couple of years we were as close as anything. We were like mother daughter, you know what I'm saying? We were that close. Not that my actual mom and me were that close. Kakistos killed her five years after I'd met her. If you can call it killing. He..." Faith didn't have the words to continue so she diverged back to the topic at hand, "She was the second person who I ever truly loved. The first was Hope."

"Wow," The two of the people in the foyer of the hotel room turned to see Hope and Angel standing in the doorway to the other room, Hope being the person who was able to actually say something in her state of blown-away-ness, unlike the other two. She continued with a slight smile and red puffy eyes from previous crying, "I didn't know you could be so corny sis."

Faith looked at her for a second and then walked across the room and wrapped her arms around her in a hug and, after a moment of just silent hugging, said into her hair, "Comes with the job descrip." To this Hope chuckled into her sister's hair and replied,

"Job well done sis. Job well done."

TBC

Okay, I knew I said there was going to be action and everything but I figured that since I'm having all of these other flashbacks I should have one to one of the most heartbreaking things in Hope's past. Also laying down some more information for y'all to reference back to when I choose to make something that you all believe completely wrong and something else entirely. If you wish to submit the fact that I'm evil, get in line. Not sure when the incredibly sad and heartbreaking Angel Buffy chat will happen. Unfortunately Spike will not be meeting up with the Buffster, I'm trying to decide if I should set him down another road altogether. I will consult everyone who reviews this chapter what they think I should do, informing only them on the path that I'm wondering if I should take him down. So review if you want a say in Spike's future. Later.

JB