A/N: Lovely to have so many lovely readers - thanks if you reviewed, I appreciate it! This fic will have it's share of drama, but please be assured there will be happy times before too long. If this one ever does get too angsty, please look to 'New York State of Mind' for more of a fluffy, fun time (for the most part, anyway). Glad to know I'm bringing y'all some good distracting reading in these trying times!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 2

"And everything is okay? I mean, it's not that I don't love to hear from you, sweetheart, you know that, but... well, you just seem a little... Is something wrong?"

Zoe knew her mother was struggling to understand why she had called her up like this, supposedly just to talk. They didn't really do this much. Conversations had a purpose, for the most part, especially when calls were being squeezed in between her classes and Candice's appointments and such. It wasn't easy to find time when they were both free to talk, so they tended to save up their news for when Zoe was home, or tagged it onto more important things when they called for what they might term real reasons. The fact was, Zoe really did have a very good reason for calling her mom, she was just having trouble finding the words to explain it.

"Um, well, things are a little intense here," she said after a while.

"Isn't that what you expected?" her mother checked. "You're a Sophomore now, Zoe, you knew the workload would increase, that the work would get harder."

"I did. That's true." Zoe nodded pointlessly, since Candice couldn't see her via the phone. "It's not just that. I don't know what's the matter with me, I guess maybe I'm just homesick, which is crazy because it's only been a few weeks and I'm not exactly a million miles away."

She laughed at herself, mostly so she wouldn't cry. Zoe really didn't know how to do this, how to tell her mom that she was pregnant. She wasn't even sure what reaction she was expecting. Somewhere between disappointed and angry maybe? It was hard to tell with Candice sometimes. Still, she knew she did have to tell her, sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, she might not get the chance today, after all.

"I'm so sorry, Zoe, I have a call waiting and I think it's the one I've been expecting. I really do have to take this," her mom said urgently. "If there isn't anything specific you needed to talk about...?"

"No, no. Nothing that won't wait until next time," she said quickly. "You go, I'm fine."

"Okay, sweetheart. Well, take care of yourself and I'll talk to you soon."

Zoe opened her mouth to reply, but her mom was already gone. Pulling the phone away from her ear, she stared at it for a moment and then tossed it down on the bed, silent tears trickling from her eyes. She had no idea what to do next.

"Well, hello, Wade," said Harley, ushering the young man into his office. "I don't have your file here," he said then, checking the pile on the corner of the desk. "Did you make an appointment?"

"Uh, actually, I didn't," Wade explained, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked back to the door. "I just thought if you weren't busy right now, maybe I could talk to you about somethin'?"

This was awkward to say the least and Wade almost considered saying it didn't matter and taking himself off home again. Still, he had a feeling he might regret that decision and since Harley wasn't exactly throwing him out or anything, he figured it didn't hurt to at least try and go with his original plan.

"You need to talk, son, then I am here to listen, just like I told you before," the good doctor insisted, getting up and moving past Wade to close the door against any eavesdroppers or intruders. "Take a seat, tell me all about it," he said kindly.

Wade did as instructed, shifting awkwardly in the seat. "You should know before we start that this ain't medical or anythin'. In fact, it's probably none o' my business at all and I'm already wonderin' if I should even be here."

"Well, now you have me all kinds of curious," Harley admitted, sitting back down and folding his hands on the desk. "Come on now, Wade, spit it out. What's on your mind?"

Heaving a sigh, Wade finally did exactly that. "Your daughter," he admitted, watching Harley's eyebrows rise at the admission. "And I know that sounds weird, but just hear me out, okay? After you told me that you had a kid out there in the world that didn't even know you were her daddy, well, that's pretty big news to hear. Like I said at the time, seems to me she oughta know who you are, because that makes a difference to who she is, right? And I know you think she's better off without you 'cause she has this whole other life and everythin', and maybe you're right, but I just keep thinking... well, I think about my folks, you know? I lost my momma, I got a father who thinks a liquor bottle is the answer to his prayers, not to mention a brother who cut out years back who we don't see for months at a time," he explained, even though he was well aware that Harley knew all the details already. "The fact is, if there was some other person out there who was a part of my family, that I didn't know about, well, maybe they'd think I was better off without them, but the truth is, I would love to find I had some other person I could go to with my troubles. You know, somebody else to turn to when things got rough and all? How do you know that your Zoe wouldn't be just as glad to know you?"

It was so stupid and Wade knew it. None of this was any of his business. It was why he hadn't said anything to Harley before this, but the more he thought on it, the more he realised that the day the doctor sat down beside him and told him the whole story about his daughter and everything, well then he kind of made it Wade's business.

A week later, and after giving it an awful lot of thought, he just couldn't help thinking how wrong it was for this girl not to know the truth. Besides, it didn't sit right with him knowing that a nice guy like Harley was missing out on knowing his own flesh and blood either, especially now, when he had come so close to the end and everything.

"Well," said Harley with a sigh, rubbing his chin. "I can't say that I haven't been giving it all some thought myself, Wade," he admitted. "It's a funny thing, but after my talk with you last week, I actually did give some serious consideration to going to see my Zoe and... well, introducing myself, I guess. I talked myself in and out of the decision several times over these past few days, but right now at least, the choice has kind of been made for me."

"How's that?" asked Wade, frowning some.

"Zoe lives in New York, which means the only sensible way to get to her would be by plane. After my heart trouble and all, there's no way I should be flyin' any place, not for a while anyway," he explained, shaking his head. "It's an awful kind of irony, isn't it?" he said then. "That the very thing that made me so thoughtful about the girl in the first place is the same thing stopping me from getting to her?"

"New York, huh?" Wade said thoughtfully. "That's a heck of a long way."

"Yes, it is." Harley nodded his agreement. "And I'm just assuming that's where I'd find her. It's where Candice lived, and Zoe along with her, but at nineteen, she could just as easy have left home, gone to college, anything at all," he said with a sigh.

"Yeah, I guess so," said Wade, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Dr Wilkes... Harley," he corrected himself. "I shouldn'ta come here telling you what to do or anything. I just thought-"

"I know what you thought, Wade," Harley assured him with a kind smile, "and believe me, I appreciate your point of view. Means a lot to me that you gave this much thought to me and my daughter."

Wade smiled, though his heart wasn't in the expression. He really wished there was some way to help Harley out more than this. All he seemed to have achieved here today was making the poor guy feel worse about his situation, knowing that even if he wanted to find his daughter, he wouldn't know where to look and probably wouldn't be allowed to get there either, at least, not right now.

Leaving the medical practice, Wade wasn't really paying attention to where he was headed as he crossed town square with his hands stuffed in his pockets. It was how he managed to plough right into his good buddy, George, coming the other way.

"Tucker? Now what in the heck are you doin' here?" asked Wade, shaking his head. "Aren't you supposed to be in some fancy college classroom right now, making yourself even smarter than you already are?"

"Technically, yes, that is exactly where I should be," George agreed, as they greeted each other with a handshake that turned into a brotherly type hug. "But then my momma called me up with some drama about my daddy's health which, thank God, turned out to be something and nothing," he said, shaking his head. "Family, always fun, right?"

"Ain't it just?" Wade agreed, turning to look back the way he had come. "Hey, uh, seein' as you're here, Tucker, any chance you got some time to do me a favour?"

"Sure," George agreed easily. "What do you need?"

"I was thinkin' maybe I could borrow that fancy computer of yours and a little of your smarts on the internet and all. There's somebody I need to find."

"Come on, Zoe, you're not seriously asking me to believe it's mine?" said Logan, practically laughing at her even as tears filled her eyes.

"Of course, it's yours," she said, shaking her head and hating that she sent those same tears trickling down her cheeks unchecked. "Seriously, after all the effort you put in to get me in your bed, you should know I'm not that easy!" she said crossly.

"Yeah, well, just because you're not, that doesn't mean I'm taking responsibility for you getting yourself into trouble," Logan insisted, already backing away. "Your mom has her own business, right? Hangs around with the rich and famous? You can afford to deal with this. Stop bugging me."

Zoe was too shocked to even answer that. She wanted to beat the living daylights out of the guy who she had thought she could trust, who just made light of something as serious as her having his baby. At half his height and a fraction of his body weight, she didn't really stand a chance and knew it wasn't a bright idea anyway. Instead, she flew back into her room, threw herself on the bed and cried some more. It was all she seemed to do lately, but right now, she couldn't think of anything else.

"I am going to ask you one more time, Wade, and I want an honest answer," said George, looking his friend right in the eye. "Did you get this girl into trouble?"

"For God's sake, Tucker." Wade rolled his eyes. "I never even met her yet, okay? She's just... well, I guess you could say a friend of a friend, kind of," he explained. "I can't say more than that right now, but it is important, okay? I just need to find out where she is, either an address where she lives or a college she's at or something."

If anybody could find Zoe Hart, it was most likely to be George. He wasn't exactly the nerdy type, but he was smart enough, he had to be since he was going to follow in his daddy's footsteps and be a lawyer someday. Wade had no such plans to follow old Earl into the town drunk business, but right now, he was banking on George needing to prove he could be just as smart as his own father.

Wade looked on as his friend did some fast typing on the keyboard of his computer and it didn't take long before he seemed to have found something useful.

"Okay, it was not easy," George explained, "but I think I found her. There's a Zoe Hart listed as a graduate from Dalton Academy in Manhattan, Class of 2000, same as us."

"Sure, that sounds right." Wade nodded. "Where's she at now?"

"According to this, probably Yale. I mean, I can't say for sure, but this is a copy of her valedictorian speech and she talks about heading there in the Fall. Unless she dropped out or transferred or something, I figure that's where you'd find her."

"Yale?" Wade echoed. "That's in New York too, right?"

"Not quite," George told him, pulling up a map of the north east. "New York is right here," he pointed, "and Yale is over here on the right in Connecticut. New Haven, to be exact."

Wade let out a low whistle as George zoomed the map out some and he saw what a great distance it was from Bluebell to the kinds of places they were talking about. Harley wasn't kidding when he said the only way to get there was by plane.

"That is a heck of a distance."

"Yes, it is," George agreed. "Now, Wade, please tell me that the next words outta your mouth are not gonna be, 'George, can you lend me money for a plane ticket to Connecticut?'"

"Come on now, why would I say that?" asked Wade, rolling his eyes. "You got some weird ideas, Tucker."

"Oh, I have some weird ideas?" his friend echoed. "Says the guy who just had me search for a girl he never met who goes to college half way across the country and now, what? Now you know where she is, you're not even gonna do anything about it? Who is this Zoe Hart anyway?"

Wade wanted to tell him. Of all people in the world, he knew he could trust George Tucker, but he also made a promise to Harley Wilkes that he wouldn't tell a soul about his daughter. He couldn't go back on his word like that.

"She's just a girl." Wade shook his head. "But thanks for your help, Tucker. I appreciate it."

He got up to leave then, unsure where he was headed. There was a part of Wade that wanted to go right back over to the practice and tell Harley what he found. Another part was sure that was the wrong decision, dragging it all up over and over when most likely the good doctor just wanted to put it all out of his head. Wade couldn't even explain why it bothered him so much, why he felt such a need to have Zoe know about Harley and all. He supposed it was just like he told the doc before. His own family had been torn apart all too easily. He figured it was best for all other people to have as many folks around who loved them as possible. Could be this Zoe Hart really needed somebody right now, and if Harley was willing, he could be just exactly the right person.

To Be Continued...