Disclaimer: I don't own Casualty or Ruth and Jay would be back together already! (as would Zoe and Nick!)
Hey everyone! I have been promising to write a Zoe/nick fic for ages so finally I had an idea so I decided to write it up! It starts from a day or so after Series 23 episode 33 and will be AU from then on sort of answering the question What if Zoe went on to adopt Sharice!
Rainbows and Butterflies
Chapter 1 – Cupcakes and Sunshine
Five years ago if anyone had asked Zoe where she thought she would be now she would definitely not have said covered in flour wearing an apron and dancing around the kitchen to the cheesiest pop music she had ever heard with a seven year old!
Zoe had never even imagined herself as the motherly type. Even when her brother had had his daughter she hadn't felt her maternal urges suddenly forcing her to want her own family and children, she never knew what to say or do around them and the children themselves always seemed to take an instant dislike to her no matter what she did anyway. She had long ago abandoned the idea of settling down and becoming a mother so the fact that she had just signed the adoption papers to make her the legal guardian of seven year old Sharice was a bit of a surprise, even to her.
"Zoe! Zoe! Look!" Sharice held up the cupcake she had just finished decorating covered in pink icing and multi-coloured sprinkles.
"Wow now that is a work of art!" Zoe found herself beaming proudly as Sharice delicately placed the cupcake on the plate.
"What colour are you doing?" Sharice asked excitedly
"Purple." Zoe smiled showing her the icing
Not every day with Sharice was cupcakes and sunshine. Zoe had met Sharice when she had treated her mother, Abby in the emergency department after her father Finn had beaten Abby senseless, she had tried to help Abby but she had proved that she could not be trusted so Zoe had had to cut ties with the troubled young mum. Then Sharice turned up to see Zoe at the department, Zoe had thought it was one of Abby's games so sent the seven year old on her way but it hadn't been, a worried Abby had turned up after finding Sharice missing. Zoe couldn't help but feel guilty for not believing the seven year old but as Abby hurried off to find her with Finn in tow Zoe had to get back to work. Two hours later and a bloodied and beaten Abby was being dragged through into the emergency department. No sign of Sharice. Zoe had no idea what happened, it appeared there had been some sort of fight between Abby and Finn but before Zoe knew it Abby had arrested and she was desperately doing chest compressions trying to bring her back, ten minutes in Nick took over and kicked her out of resus so she decided she had to try and find Sharice for Abby. She got a lift from the police to the scrap yard where they had been found, they had hurried around the scrap yard hunting for the little girl and to Zoe's pure relief she had found her in the back of a car – out cold but alive.
By the time they had gotten Sharice to Holby Abby had gone. Zoe could hardly believe her ears when Nick said those words. She had told so many relatives the same thing, she had never been on the receiving end and it hit like a blow to the chest. Nick had ushered her out of paeds resus whilst he treated Sharice.
Zoe felt a sense of duty, of responsibility towards the little girl who no had no one from that moment on. Sharice had recovered well apart from missing Abby, Zoe guessed that she was going to take a long time a long time to stop mourning the loss of her mother. Sharice had initially been resistant but eventually Zoe had befriended the devastated little girl again, gained her trust back and found herself saying that she was going to look after her.
God knows where that idea came from. Zoe didn't have a maternal bone in her body but Sharice seemed to have found her way into Zoe's heart and Zoe couldn't get her back out again.
"Ok trouble." Zoe smiled as the last of the cupcakes were decorated "You can watch an hour of television and then it is time for bed!"
"Ok Zoe!" Sharice smiled
For a child that had been through so much Sharice was surprisingly cheery. Zoe said she was a little fighter and Sharice proved her right on a regular basis.
It was surprisingly how well Zoe had settled into life as a 'Mum' she enjoyed Sharice's company and her flat seemed so much more welcoming with the addition of a small child however Zoe's job meant that she had to rely on babysitters. Just as things had settled down the day before Sharice's babysitter had to stop looking after the other children and focus on her own daughter leaving Zoe in to lurch completely. She had managed to get a day off today to look after Sharice but tomorrow the only option she was looking at right now was taking Sharice into the emergency department with her.
"Zoe come look at the kittens!" Sharice's voice cut through Zoe's thoughts as she put the last of the bowls in the washing up.
"Don't you be getting ideas!" Zoe joked as she pulled off her apron and wandered over to the living room area of her flat where Sharice was staring intently at the television.
Sharice felt like the missing piece in her life and having gotten used to having the small girl in her life Zoe couldn't imagine her life without her.
"Can I have one?" Sharice looked up at Zoe with her big innocent blue eyes
"Definitely not! You create enough mess on your own!" Zoe laughed as ruffled Sharice's hair over the back of the sofa.
"Maybe when I'm bigger? Like when I'm 8?" Sharice suggested
Zoe laughed at her persistence
"Maybe." She agreed with a small smile.
Coming around the edge of the sofa Zoe settled down on her favourite end, Sharice immediately shuffled over and snuggled up against her. It was strange but this was the happiest she had ever been. Sharice was everything Zoe had never imagined her life becoming but at the same time Zoe couldn't bear the idea of her life without her, it seemed almost pointless. Zoe smiled happily, she may never have believed it but looking after Sharice was turning out to be the best thing that had ever happened to her.