What's In A Name?

Spike had a very sad look on his face as he watched the others threw the window of the hotel. They all looked so happy. After watching everyone get ready to go to LA about four months ago he had made his decision. He was going to go through the trials and win back his soul. Maybe then Buffy would treat him with the respect he deserved.

The one thing that he forgot to even really consider was the pain and suffering that he would go through for his sins. When he got his soul back all of the memories of everyone he had killed came rushing back to him. The difference now was that he cared. The pain was so great that he couldn't even leave his huddled spot in the corner of his crypt for weeks. It was only now, four months later, that he even got the courage to come to LA at all.

As he watched them through the window he realized he wasn't ready. He decided that he would hang out in LA for a while and when he was ready he would talk to Buffy. As he turned around to go find a place to stay he could sense that someone near by was in trouble. He ran to the alley behind the hotel and saw a young guy run past him. Shortly after the boy he saw what was chasing him, a werewolf.

"Oh bloody hell," he said to himself as he started running after the werewolf. Now that he had a soul he couldn't just let something like this happen when he knew he could stop it. He just couldn't bear the thought of letting this poor guy face the wolf alone.

He ran as fast as he could after the werewolf but it was too fast. When he realized that he had lost it he started to track it. After a few minutes of tracking he heard the boy yell. He ran as fast as he could in the direction of the yell. When he reached the teen the werewolf had his arm in his mouth.

Thinking quickly Spike picked up a two by four that was lying on the ground and hit the wolf as hard as he could. "Drop it, bad dog," he said as he finally got the werewolf to let go. Now the wolf's attention was on Spike. "Bloody brilliant," the vampire said to himself as the wolf readied for attack.

The wolf lunged at Spike and knocked him down. They were now both on the ground wrestling it out. Spike threw punches and the werewolf bit him in several painful places. Finally Spike got the wolf by the neck and snapped it like a twig. As Spike got up and brushed himself off the werewolf changed into its human form, the form of a very raggedly looking old man.

Now Spike's none beating heart sank. He had been spending so much time just trying to protect the boy that he had forgotten that this werewolf was also a human. "Looks like I'm going a great job helping people," he said sarcastically to himself. He brushed himself off and walked over to the very scared looking teen.

He was huddled up against the wall bleeding heavily from his arm. He looked as if he couldn't be any more then 18-years-old and he looked terrified. "What the…what the hell was that?" he asked shakily.

"That's not important," Spike responded. "Are you alright, mate?" He stuck out his hand to help the boy up.

The boy hesitated at first and then took Spike's hand and slowly stood up. "I think so. My arm hurts a lot."

"Yeah, you better get that checked out," Spike suggested. And that's when it hit him. The werewolf had bitten him. He thought back and remembered what he knew about werewolves. He remembered that when they bite people they become werewolves as well. He looked up at the moon. "Full moon."

"Almost," the boy said as he looked at his arm in disgust.

Spike looked at him with confusion. "What do you mean?"

"The full moon isn't until tomorrow," the boy answered.

'That's right,' Spike thought to himself, 'the werewolf comes out the night before and the night after the full moon.' Now he didn't really know what to do. This boy was going to need some serious help and not just for his arm. He was going to become a werewolf tomorrow and he would have no idea what was going on.

He knew that the kid was going to need help but he didn't exactly think he would be the best person to help. He didn't even know how he would be able to help. For now he knew that the first thing that needed to be done was to get this kid bandaged up. "You should probably get to the hospital and get that fixed up."

"I'll be fine," the boy said with a look of pain on his face.

Spike almost laughed at his attempt at being macho. "No you won't," he said commandingly. "You need to get that cleaned up or you'll bloody well bleed to death."

"Me…what about you?" the boy said as he looked at Spikes wounds with awe.

"Don't worry about me," he responded. "I heal quickly. Now get to the hospital before I have to take you there myself."

"I…I can't go to the hospital," the boy admitted with shame.

"Why's that then?" Spike asked.

"Because…because I…I don't have any money ok," the boy admitted. "I don't have a home, I don't have a job, I don't have any money. I live on the streets ok."

Spike sighed, he should have known. The kid was extremely dirty and looked like he hadn't had a decent meal in weeks. Again he was finding his soul getting in the way of just walking away. "Come on then," he said as he sighed again and started walking away.

The boy started to fallow him with a half smile on his face. "Where are we going?"

"Back to my place," Spike said as he rolled his eyes at the thought. "I've got some antiseptics and gauss there to get that wound cleaned." He had actually been in LA for about two weeks. He knew that Buffy would be there with Angel but he wasn't ready to see her yet so he got a small, dank basement apartment for the time being. He knew that facing Buffy wouldn't be easy so he was taking baby steps. Tonight was the first night he had actually even gone to the hotel to look.

"Cool," the boy said with a smile.

"Got a name kid?" Spike asked as he tried to make conversation.

"Connor," the boy answered. "My name's Connor."

Back at Angel investigations the gang was all hanging out in the lobby discussing baby names. "I've always kind of liked the name Kara," Dawn said.

"Kara?" Giles said with a disgusted look on his face. "Why must you kids these days pick the strangest names."

"You have a better name?" Dawn asked with a sly smirk.

"I've always been partial to the name Ruth myself," Giles answered with a smile.

Buffy and Dawn looked at each other and almost burst into laughter. "Ruth?" Buffy said with laughter in her voice. "I think that's our grandmother's name."

"Well fine if you don't like my suggestions I won't give anymore," Giles said sharply.

Everyone was in the lobby and at the moment they were all discussing girl names for Dawn, Willow, Tara and Fred. "How about Sarah…or Michelle?" Buffy suggested, "I've always liked those names."

"Well I like the name Michelle…its nice…but I don't know," Dawn said.

"I've always liked the name Amy," Fred suggested.

"That's a beautiful name," Wesley said with a smile. It had taken a while but Wesley was finally getting closer to Fred in the way he had always wanted to. He and Gunn had been secretly fighting over Fred for quite some time now and Gunn was finally starting to give up his hold. Wesley was still a little too chicken to make his move but everything was starting to flow into motion.

"If I was having a girl I'd probably go for something more exotic like…Charisma maybe," Cordy added. "Now that's a good strong name."

"I kind of like the name Amber," Tara chimed in.

"That's a pretty name," Willow agreed with a smile as she rubbed her girlfriend's leg tenderly. "I kind of like Alyson."

"Amber and Alyson, has a certain ring to it," Gunn said.

"If I were having a girl I would call her Emma," Anya said. "That's been my favorite name for a girl since…well for at least a hundred years or so."

"Oh wow Emma is a really pretty name," Tara said.

"I don't know I think I'm going to have to agree with Cordy on this one," Faith said. "I'd prolly have to go for some weird sounding name like Eliza or something."

"I kind of like the name Hailey," Angel finally spoke up. He had been the only quiet one during the whole naming discussion.

They all looked at him with awe. "Hailey…I like it. It's cute," Faith finally said breaking the silence.

"I knew a girl named Hailey," Lorne said. "She had some amazing wind pips on her. She was a peach." The others rolled their eyes. This was about the fourth time that Lorne has referred to a name with someone that he knew.

"I think we should switch to boy's names now," Cordelia suggested with excitement.

"I'm liking that plan," Xander said as he smiled at his beautiful bride. "I've always kind of liked the name…Nick."

"Nick?" Buffy asked with surprise in her voice.

"Yeah, Nick…what's so wrong with Nick? It's short for Nicolas," Xander defended.

"Nothing…nothing at all," Buffy answered as she rolled her eyes.

"How about Shawn?" Dawn suggested.

The others thought about it for a second. "Shawn is nice," Buffy said.

"What about David?" Angel said as he looked deep in thought. Now that he was finally participating in the conversation he looked like he was genuinely trying very hard to think of names.

"Or Jason," Gunn suggested. "You could call him J."

"Because Jason is way too long to say," Faith joked.

"I've always liked the name Alexis," Wesley said with a bright smile.

Pretty much everyone burst into laughter. "You do know we're on boy's names right Wes?" Gunn joked.

"Ha ha very funny," Wesley said with a glair.

"How about Tony?" Giles suggested when the laughter started to die down.

The four girls who are having boys thought about it and then shook their heads. "Too mobish," Buffy said.

Giles rolled his eyes. "Well at least I'm not suggesting something stupid like…Joss or something."

"Yeah, that is a pretty loser sounding name," Faith agreed. "I kind of like Josh though."

"Yeah, Josh is nice," Buffy agreed.

"What about Andrew…or Andy?" Lorne suggested.

"Aww that's cute," Dawn said with a smile. "If I was having a boy I'd definitely name him Andy."

"What about Aden?" Willow suggested.

"That's cute," Cordy responded. "I like that one."

As the discussion continued and it started to get later one by one everyone eventually got tired and went upstairs to bed until there were just two people left…Buffy and Angel.

Dawn and Cordy had just said their good nights and went upstairs. "Well I think I'm probably going to head up to bed too," Buffy said to Angel.

"Right…umm," Angel responded. He was acting kind of strange like there was something he needed to say but he couldn't get it out.

"Is everything ok?" Buffy asked with a worried look on her face.

"Yeah…oh yeah sorry It's just that…" He said quickly, "Can we talk?"

To Be Continued…

Note: Hello all. Just wanted to clear up a few things to make sure there's no confusion. Yes the boy that Spike saved is the Connor we all know and love, Vincent Kartheiser, but he's not the same Connor we know. He isn't Angel's son and he's not super boy he's just a normal teenage kid that happened be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also the names that everyone is throwing around here aren't set in stone. No one has actually decided on a name yet. I also wanted to give a shout out to everyone who reviews my story. Thanks a lot guys it really means a lot to me. Hope you keep reading and enjoying.