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: Shortish chapter… Sorry about that. This is the chapter that pays homage to Joss Whedon's words. Nuff said…

Chapter 18: Helicopter Ride

Hope woke up slowly, painfully. Her whole body ached, that probably had something to do with the fact that she'd spent the night lying on a stone coffin. She got up slowly, and stretched. Then everything that had happened the previous night came rushing back and she felt her body sag from sorrow. She had some doubts about what she did, but deep down, she knew that she did the right thing. Better to hurt him now than later. When it might be too late.

But that didn't stop the tears from flowing. Even when she thought she'd exhausted her supply they just kept coming. She quickly left the crypt and started jogging. Not for any reason in particular, just for the feeling of freedom it gave her. The feeling that for once life wasn't just passing her by, she was passing life by. Or at least matching its pace.

When the tears flowed more she ran faster, not wanting to catch the looks from the people around her. Soon enough everything was a blur to her, not only because of the tears, and the only thing she could feel was the wind on her face. And that was a good feeling. One of the best she'd had in a while. At least, since last night, anyways.

Then her freedom was interrupted when she crashed down onto someone of similar height, build and just about everything else. Faith. Hope rolled off Faith and got up slowly, trying to get her senses back. Faith shook her head from the ground and looked up at her sister, squinting, possibly because of the good knock that disoriented her very much.

"Sorry." Hope muttered and quickly wiped away the tears that were streaming down her face but not quick enough for Faith's keen eyes.

"What happened?" Faith asked, concerned, and Hope looked at her with puffy red eyes.

"I broke it off with Spike." She said, unshed tears making her voice thick.

"You what? I'm sorry, you whatted what what with what what?" Faith asked incredulously, figuring it was the huge whacking togetherness that had screwed with her hearing. Hope seemed to blush slightly and Faith figured that her vision had been screwed with too.

"I broke it off with Spike." Hope repeated quietly and winced automatically.

"I hope you meant that chastity belt you've been wearing since... Ever." Faith said in a threatening tone.

"No, and how did you know about the-?"

"I'm your sister Hope. I know."

"What do you know?"

"I know that your last time was such a long time ago that you can probably be classified as a virgin again."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"I was hoping you would."

"And all those guys at the clubs?"

"Tests. So you broke it off with Spike and you still haven't gotten down and dirty. If you weren't my twin I'd wring your fucking neck Hope. I mean, how could you? You were so perfect for one another! What did he say something really bad like how you should tell B about you two? Cos that's the only thing that could give you any reason to do it." Faith did a gradual build up to a yell and looked like she'd imploded.

"I couldn't. I love him and he loves me. That's how people get hurt. Love makes you vulnerable." Hope said and then went for a shot below the belt, "That's how you got hurt." Faith managed to look incredibly angry and incredibly hurt at the same time and Hope regretted her words. Wood had been hard enough for her to get over without Hope sticking her foot in it.

"Spike would never hurt you Hope." Faith said sombrely, trying not to show the pain that the previous jab had caused her.

"But I could hurt him." Hope said quietly and this fired Faith up again.

"And now you have. Don't you realise that when you love someone you'll be alright as long as they're there beside you and that you know they love you back. Life is too short to be scared about hurt and pain. You fall, you cry and you get back up Hope. At least knowing that you've loved someone and that they loved you with the same passion gives you the strength to get back up. Death means nothing when you love someone. I thought you would've figured that out by now." Faith said and Hope was slightly blown away by this speech. She just stood there looking down at her twin, dumb founded.

"So are you ready to throw yourself into something that could change the rest of your life? Something that'll make you laugh, cry, love, hate, feel. Or are you a coward? Life isn't about playing it safe Hope, it's about the decisions we make and the risks we take. Ball's in your court Hope, you gonna take a risk or just sit back and regret it for the rest of your life?" Faith asked and Hope just looked at her. Then she gave Faith her hand and heaved her up to her feet. Faith brought Hope's face within a centimetre of her own.

"Come on little sis, I dare you." Faith said, a glint in her eye as she knew she'd pressed the right button.

"Have you ever known me to back away from a dare?" Hope asked and Faith shook her head so she continued a grin on her face, "Well let's continue that streak shall we?" Then Hope took off in the direction she'd come. Faith grinned like her sister.

"Someone's gonna get some." She said in a sing song voice and then walked off with a bounce in her step.

Hope ran faster than she did before and, not to be too corny but, she felt as if she was being powered by love. But there's more to Romeo and Juliet than the love, there's also the tragedy and this was what Hope was about to find out. But her mind was more on the fact that she was now ready for love for the first time in years and she was going to give her heart to the one guy who already had it before he ever asked or even before she ever knew. Spike.

Hope ran to the hotel and burst in the doors. Panting lightly, she sprinted over to the reception and caught her breath before talking to the maitre d' who looked at her as if she was something he'd scraped off his shoe. Hope flashed him a smile and then started.

"Hi, I'm a friend of Mr Spike who is currently staying in the penthouse apartment so if you could just give him a buzz for me..." Hope said and was interrupted by the mean maitre d' who was fluent in three different languages although in all those outside Italian he had an accent he was gradually trying to work it out although he secretly thought he sounded like a spy with it. Just a little titbit about my mean made up Italian maitre d' character.

"I'm so sorry," He didn't look sorry a bit, "But unfortunately 'Mr Spike' just checked out."

"Wh-What?" Hope said, all jokes, smiles and ability to speak aside.

"Yeah," The posh maitre d' allowed himself a moment of being an ill spoken dickhead (not that he wasn't usually a dickhead, he just usually did it with a posh Italian accent is all), "You just missed him. Too bad."

"Right." Hope said, not exactly caring about how much of an ill spoken dickhead he was being and concentrating on not falling to the ground and crying. She concentrated at a spot on the table and kept those damn tears at bay. But the receptionist saw them welling up in her eyes and a not often felt pang of sorriness crept through his emotional 'armour'.

"I'm sorry. He left a few minutes ago, he said he was taking his helicopter back to Los Angeles. He said that Rome wasn't sunny enough for him." Although for once he hadn't meant to, he actually hurt her more. Because of the inside joke that Spike had made and the overwhelming 'Spikeness' of the joke, it made Hope just hurt more. Hope grimaced at him, and the feeling that life was passing her by intensified.

"Thankyou," She said, on auto drive and turned to walk out of the hotel. Then the maitre d' called out to her.

"Miss, if you run you might be able to catch him. The traffic is always terrible at this time of the day." He said, and Hope turned to him with (pardon the pun) hope in her eyes.

"Really?" She asked and the maitre d' nodded, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"Wolfram and Hart office. Run as fast as you can." He said and Hope smiled thankfully and took off. The maitre d' just smiled to himself and then continued his job. Another titbit about this character, he had a younger sister who looked like Hope, so maybe this was the reason he ended up softening. He'd lost his younger sister in a car crash, and when he saw Hope tearing he felt his heartstrings tug. So he just followed the pull.

Wolfram and Hart wasn't that far from the hotel and since Hope had done track in high school (that was obvious from the running all over the place before, don't you reckon? I just wanted to mention it now), she had the ability to sprint the whole way easily. And she did so. She reached the offices and charged past the reception to the elevator. The guards then followed her and she turned to face them, in fighting stance. She so did not have time for this, when the elevator door opened with a 'ding' behind her.

"Hope?" A male voice asked behind her and she turned to see Angel, a slight frown of confusion on his face.

"Ace, where's Railroad?" Hope asked and Angel swallowed. Then he spotted the guards around her and he motioned with his head for them to leave. They left, grumbling. Hope just looked at him, waiting for an answer.

"Ace?" She asked again and he looked at her, pain in his eyes. Pain of what he was about to tell her.

"Hope…" He said and Hope's stomach dropped and her elation from getting a second chance plummeted.

"No." She shook her head as if her thinking it would change it, "No. Don't say it. Please. Don't." Angel looked at her, pity in his eyes. He looked down at his hands, trying to come up with something to comfort her with, something that would make it better. He failed. So he just used a well used line.

"I'm sorry, Hope." And it wasn't the line, but the sincerity in it that made Hope finally let the tears run again. Free.

She collapsed into Angel's arms and he held her gently. Her knees gave out and Angel fell to his knees with her, still holding her to him.

TBC

Aw, ain't Angel just a doll when it comes to comfort? Unfortunately the next thing he's going to do after the comforting isn't going to be giving out more comfort, and he sure isn't going to be comfortable. AngelBuffy angst coming right up! Right after the comfort, and exposition… So there may be a slight delay on that… Ahh well..

Have a good one

JB