She didn't know when she had started to care for Wade Kinsella when there were so many things that she hated about him, he was needlessly cocky, perpetually horny, but most of all, it was his stupid front. He pretended not to care about anything, he …. but she could tell that somewhere deep underneath there was a kind, caring sensitive man that he was afraid to let out because it might cause people to like him, to get close to him, to make them care about him and then eventually abandon him once they knew every secret of his and how to exploit his vulnerabilities. Maybe Zoe was just projecting, but she was pretty sure that he had similar abandonment issues. They were so similar, which is probably why they fought all of the time. In Wade, Zoe saw parts of herself, parts she didn't like. Being around him was like looking in a mirror-and she didn't like what she saw.

She was a catalyst in his life. A woman who torn like a hurricane into his small, peaceful Southern town where everything stayed the same, and she changed things. She made him feel things that he hadn't felt since he had learned to store everything away, in a little box in the darkest, most remote corners of his heart. He had locked the box up tight, and thrown away the key, but somehow, Zoe had found it and opened him back up to all of those painful feelings that he had locked away for a reason. He had been strong, and she had made him weak. She had brought back all of his vulnerabilities and used them to manipulate him whether she realized it or not. He wished that she would just leave and let him heal from the affect her presence had on him. Let the scars close back up over the wounds that Zoe had reopened. At first he had been able to trick himself into thinking that he was just attracted to her, that she intrigued him because she was the only woman who had turned him down. He wished that he could go back to those days, when his typical cockiness had shielded him from a painful truth, a truth that he could barely admit to himself let alone anyone else. The truth that he was in love with her.

To distract himself from a truth that he wasn't yet ready to face, Wade did what he did best, (besides pleasuring women, that is) he got drunk. He was lucky that he wasn't one of those sad drunks whose pain became intensified by alcohol, he was one of those few people who could actually numb their pain with alcohol. He was starting to drift off to sleep when suddenly, his power burned out, yet again.

"Zoey!" He yelled angrily, but got up to fix the fuse box anyway. He stumbled around in the dark, using walls as a guide. He thought that he had found the way to the door, when he drunkenly tripped over a rolled-up rug and went careening through a window. Even though he landed on the glass that he had broken through with his head, he didn't cry out. He was too drunk to feel the pain yet.

"Oh my god! Wade!" Zoe came running over in her tiny negligee, but unfortunately, Wade was too out of it to appreciate it. "How could you be so stupid Wade?!" She shouted at him. She whacked him lightly, then ran off to get her first aid kit. She came back with a scowl on her face, but started picking the pieces of glass out of him and sewing his skin back up. "You are so lucky I'm a doctor, otherwise your moron ass would still have glass buried in it!"

"I appreciate your help doc, but I'm fine." Wade slurred through the haze of alcohol and the pain he was starting to feel.

"You're such a man." Zoe sighed.

"Last time I checked, that was a good thing." Wade replied.

Zoe whacked him again, then apologized when he winced.

"It's fine, I've been hit by worse than tiny female doctors."

"Well, in that case, I might have to hit you again." Zoe raised her hand to whack him, but before she could, Wade grabbed her arm and pulled her into him.

"How did you do that? You're drunk off your ass!"

"I have very good depth perception."

Zoe rolled her eyes and leaned in closer to kiss him. He was an amazing kisser, even better than the last time. She thought his kisses would be sloppy and heavy, but he was surprisingly gentle, yet passionate. They stayed like that a while, neither one of them wanting to pull away, but eventually, Zoe reluctantly did. "You're amazing," She smiled down at him, and he smiled back at her. She walked away to get more bandages for his cuts, and by the time she got back, he was asleep. She knelt down and stroked his hair. "I love you Wade." She told him, knowing that he wouldn't remember a thing in the morning.