"Zoe" Wade shouted desperately as he banged on her door. "Doc, are you okay?" He paused for a moment and looked around for any signs of Zoe or George, but all he saw was the smashed in window and he grew even more frantic. Something was very, very wrong and he was terrified of what that something was. "Zoe, if you can hear me open the door" he pleaded. When there was still no reply he knew what he had to do.
He took a step back and kicked the door as hard as he could. It flung open after one strike, and he quickly ran inside.
He was quickly met with the image of Zoe standing near the door, no physical injuries were apparent to him and he felt a huge sense of relief. "Zoe" he sighed. "Are you okay?"
Zoe was standing frozen staring off into the distance. "Of course I'm okay, Wade" she said coldly. "Why wouldn't I be?"
The way she was acting scared the hell out of him. She was completely emotionless, like a robot. She seemed traumatized, even worse than before. "I know Tucker came here" he said softly as he put his hand on her arm.
Zoe jerked away at the contact and looked at Wade with terror in her eyes. "How do you know that?" she asked shakily.
"I talked to Tansy" he answered. "He told her he was coming to see you."
Zoe looked down at the floor and pulled her bathrobe closer to her body. He could see that her hands were shaking and it looked like she was choking back tears.
"Oh God" Wade said as he closed his eyes and griped his fists tightly. "He did something to you, didn't he?"
Zoe shook her head slightly, but still didn't make eye contact with him.
"You can tell me" he said gently. "Please tell me. I want to help you."
"It's bad" she said as a tear ran down her face. "Really, really bad."
"Oh God" he sighed. He feared the worst, but he was still holding on to hope that he was wrong. That Tucker didn't… God, he couldn't even think the word.
"I can't tell you" she said as a sob escaped from her throat. "You're going to hate me."
Damn it, he was right. He had hurt her again. He felt a million emotions at once anger, sadness, guilt. He wanted to kill Tucker worse than anything, but as he looked at Zoe again and saw how terrified she looked he knew his first job was to take care of her. "Hate you?" he scoffed. "Zoe I love you. Nothing that animal did to you will change that, baby. I'm going to help you; we're going to get through this."
"No" she cried.
"It's okay" he said gently as he put his arm around her. "It's okay, I promise."
"No" she whispered. "It's not okay. It'll never be okay again."
"Nonsense" he whispered as he held her tight. "I'm going to take care of you Zoe, but there are some things we have to do now."
"What do you mean?" she asked as she pulled away from him.
"I'm going to take you to the hospital" he answered. "They'll take care of you there. And I won't leave you, not for any of it. They'll collect evidence, that way we can make sure everyone knows what a son of a bitch he really is."
"What are you saying?" Zoe asked as her face paled. "You think George raped me?"
"That's not what happened?" he asked, as his eyes widened.
"No" Zoe answered shaking her head. "No he didn't rape me."
"Thank God" he sighed. He had never felt so relieved in his entire life. But Zoe was still acting strange. Something had obviously happened. "Tucker came here?" he asked.
She nodded in response. "Yeah" she whispered. "He was here."
"And he broke the window?" he asked.
"Yeah" she said shakily. "He-he wouldn't leave."
"Did he hurt you?" Wade asked as he swallowed a lump in his throat.
"Tried to" she shrugged. "He grabbed me a few times."
As images flew threw his head of Tucker putting his hands on Zoe again he had to hold back his rage. He had to know more before he did anything. He had to get her to tell him more."Then what happened?" he asked, terrified of the answer.
"I can't tell you" she whispered as she hung her head in shame.
"Baby" Wade said as he took her hand in his. "You can tell me anything, I promise. I'm not going to be mad, I'm not going to hate you, I just want to help you. Please let me help you."
"I'm so sorry" she cried.
"For what?" he asked. What could Zoe possibly have to be sorry for? This wasn't her fault, none of it. It was Tucker's fault for laying a hand on her in the first place. It was his fault for letting her out of his sight. But Zoe hadn't asked for any of this.
Zoe turned away from Wade and he was afraid that she was going to take off. But, instead she walked to her bathroom door and opened it slowly. Wade gasped as he saw what was was blood everywhere and George was lying on the floor motionless.
"I didn't mean to" Zoe cried, shaking her head. "He wouldn't leave, and I thought he was going to…"
Wade didn't say anything he just stood in shocked silence.
"I didn't want to be a victim again" she explained as she began to cry harder. "So I tried to fight him off. I didn't mean to hurt him that bad, I just wanted him to leave me alone."
"Shh" Wade soothed her as he ran over to her and pulled her into his arms. "You didn't do anything wrong. You did what you should have. You protected yourself." They stood there like that for a long time before Wade pulled back and gazed into her eyes. "Zoe, is he dead?" he asked gently.
"I don't know" she answered. "I was too afraid to check."
"I'm going to do that now" he said as he moved away from her. "It's okay" he reassured her as he walked away. After a moment of looking George over he turned his gaze back to Zoe. "He has a pulse" he said solemnly.
"Thank God" she gasped in relief. "I thought-"
"What happened?" he interrupted. "I want you to tell me everything."
"He broke in the window" she said pointing to the shattered glass. "I came out and saw him. I tried to make him leave, he just wouldn't listen…"
"Then what?" Wade asked as he walked back over to her and placed his hand on her back reassuringly.
"He was talking crazy, and then he grabbed me. He kept saying all this stuff about how I was his, and he was going to show me how we'd be together."
"Dear God" Wade cringed. "If he wasn't already out cold…."
"I struggled with him, and I broke away and ran in the bathroom, but he caught up with me before I could close the door. He fought me to the ground."
Fought her to the ground? So that was what he was after. He was going to hurt her like that. Thank God she was able to knock him out. As far as Wade was concerned he deserved a lot worse than that. "Then what?" he asked tearfully.
"I hit him over the head" she said through tears. "With the hammer you left in here, under the sink."
"I was going to fix this place up" he remembered.
"I never got around to getting it back to you" she shrugged. "I kind of forgot it was in here until I was lying on the ground and I needed it."
"I'm glad you used it" he said as he imagined what could have happened.
"I hit him really hard, Wade" she said frantically. "He hasn't moved."
"He isn't dead" he repeated reassuringly. "I think you just knocked him out."
"But what if it's worse than that?" she asked, her eyes wide with fear. "What if there's head trauma, he could still die. I could go to jail for murder."
"That is not going to happen" Wade scoffed. "This was self-defense you didn't do anything wrong."
"What if no one believes me" she cried. "I mean, it's George. Everyone loves George."
"Not everyone" Wade said heatedly. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, okay? You ain't going to jail."
"You don't know that" she said as she stood to her feet. "I need to face this" she said as took a deep breath. "I have to tell them what happened. George needs an ambulance, and-"
"No" Wade said as he stood to his feet. "No, I'm not letting you get in trouble for this."
"It really isn't up to you" she said teary eyed.
"Where is it?" he asked urgently.
"Where is what?" she replied.
"The hammer, where is it?"
Zoe pointed to the corner of the room and Wade quickly ran toward it and began rubbing his hands on it.
"What are you doing?" Zoe asked, moving closer to him.
"Fingerprints" he answered. "We're gonna say I did this."
"What?" Zoe gasped. "Wade, no! I'm not going to let you-"
"Don't fight me on this!" he snapped. "I'm a bartender, no one but my drunk of a father is going to miss me if they put me away, but you-"
"That isn't true!" Zoe protested. "So many people care about you…Wade, why would you do this?"
"For you" he shrugged. "I'd do anything for you. I love you."
"And I love you" she cried. "I'm not letting you go down for something I did!"
"And I'm not letting you go down for protecting yourself" he yelled back. He took a collective breath before looking at her again. "Do you trust me?" he asked gently.
Zoe nodded in response, struggling not to cry again.
"Then let me handle this" he insisted. "I'm going to make sure everything's okay. I'm going to take care of this for you."
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