Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I don't even own the computer I'm typing this on. 'Tis my parents'. Technically, I don't even own the clothes on my back since my dad's money paid for it... Anyway. So don't sue me. I don't have anything to give you, anyway. Except maybe a pack of sunflower seeds. I think I paid for those.

A/N: This is a Dan/Zoe romance. As with any story, don't like it, don't read it. But I do, to a measure, enjoy flames. Particularly misspelled ones with incorrect grammar, so I can laugh insanely at the ignorance of the writer and use them to practice my English skills. But this is only my second fic, so I'd appreciate some gentleness. It's also my first Wild Card fic, and I'm a newbie to the world of Wild Card, so I probably got a lot of little details wrong. I don't remember the exact conversation at the end of the episode this fic deals with ("Dr. Sidney Loses a Kidney"), and I don't know a lot of the details about Zoe's life, so yeah. Just pretend it's all right. Thanks, and happy reading!

Debt Repayment

Dan's POV
Dan Lennox stood outside the door, champagne in hand. He took one more deep breath to calm himself, and knocked on the door. What he expected to see was Zoe Busiek, all alone in the house. What he got was Zoe, with three kids in the house.

When she opened the door and greeted him warmly, he felt the usual breathlessness that always occurred around Zoe. But Dan was used to it by now, and taking another deep breath, stepped inside the house and announced, "I come bearing gifts to rescue you from late-night loneliness!"

Then he noticed the kids. They were all three standing in the kitchen, staring at him. Of course they knew him, but not well enough to be accustomed to his visiting their home late at night. All three of them looked a bit uncertain, but Hannah looked mostly curious. The eyes of the older two, however, kept darting from their aunt to Dan and back again, Cliff's almost skeptically, Taylor's... well, her expression was hard to place. As Zoe relieved him of the champagne, Dan tried to conceal his disappointment at the kids' presence and greeted them with a nervous smile and, "Oh, hello kids.."

He turned to Zoe, "I thought they were all out tonight." Yes, he thought to himself peevishly. They were supposed to be gone, and I was going to save the day by keeping Zoe company. We could have had a bit of fun together, gotten a bit closer, talked over some things, maybe gotten serious, a white wedding...

His thoughts were interrupted by Zoe, replying, "Taylor's techno-party-thing turned out to be a dud, Cliff's game got canceled and Hannah's friend's bunny died. We're just about to have a demonstration of Hannah's prize-winning volcano. Would you like to watch?"

"Sure..." he said. It might not be so bad. The kids seemed to be warming to him. And he really did like volcanoes. As Zoe switched off the lights and set up the volcano she asked, "Is
everyone ready to see the fiery end of civilization as we know it?" With as much enthusiasm as he could muster, he replied, "I am ready to see the fiery end of civilization as we know it!"

With that the volcano on the kitchen table erupted into sparks of red, blue
and white. As usual, Dan's gaze went straight to Zoe. She looked so childlike, jumping up and down and clapping her hands in excitement. The colorful lights from the volcano played across her face, which was already glowing with pride in Hannah's creation, making her seem even more radiant than she normally was. Her bouncing curls, some of which were escaping from
their ponytail, were tinged with the changing hues, framing her face prettily.

The scene reminded him of a line from a song:
"I want to see your face in every kind of light...
In fields of gold and forests of the night..."

He chuckled to himself. Only Zoe Busiek could make him play love songs in his head. But the lyrics were true. He had seen Zoe in pretty much every imaginable situation. Not so long ago they had both been sitting in a hallway covered in fire extinguisher foam, for instance. Even in such circumstances, she was beautiful to him. Yes, he had seen her in every possible setting, except the ones he wanted to see the most. Zoe in his arms. Zoe walking towards him down the aisle. Zoe with him on their honeymoon. Zoe holding his baby.

Suddenly he was jolted out of his reverie by Zoe standing beside him and waving a hand in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Dan?" He blinked. "Hmm? Oh, what did you say?" She smiled brightly. "I said, 'Isn't it beautiful?'" Dan gave a thoughtful little smile. "Yes. Yes, you are," he
answered her softly. She shot him a questioning glance, but before she could say anything the sparks from the volcano petered out, the lights came back on, and Dan moved off to congratulate Hannah on the success of her project.

Zoe's POV
Several hours later, Cliff and Taylor had excused themselves to finish some homework, leaving only Dan, Zoe and Hannah in the living room watching the ending of the old black-and-white whodunit movie on the TV. Well, actually Hannah wasn't watching it. She was asleep, slumped on the couch between Dan and Zoe, with each of them holding one of her hands.

Zoe had figured out how the movie would end 15 minutes before, but she had refused to tell Dan, who was still watching with rapt attention So rather than turn it off, she just sat there, watching Hannah's chest rise and fall rhythmically, and thinking about things. About how much she missed her sister. About her sister's children, and how much they had changed her life. How much they had changed her. She looked around at herself, Hannah, the room they were in, the stairs that lead to the rooms where Taylor and Cliff now slept (or whatever they were doing), the house where her sister had raised these kids, and where she was now doing her very best to finish the job. And then she looked to the other side of the couch.

What was it about that man? They hadn't known each other for very long, but already she felt like they had a special connection, as if they had worked together for years. Certainly, there was sexual tension between the two of them, but that wasn't it. They had great chemistry- anyone could see that- and they worked well together. But that wasn't the connection either. She had affection for him. He had become one of her best friends. Did he have the same affection for her? She couldn't say. She felt sure that he would say he felt more than affection for her, but of course he was just flirting with her. It didn't mean anything... At least, she didn't think so.

...But what if it did? For the first time, she allowed herself to entertain the notion that he wasn't just being his usual charming self with her. That all his flirting actually meant something. Could that mean that..? What? He liked her? Or even loved her? That he was serious about those kisses and those compliments and all the innuendo?

Zoe heaved a sigh and settled back onto the couch pillows. Did she love him? She didn't know. She admitted that she enjoyed the flirting and the banter, but did that mean she wanted something more? After the recent breakup with Marcos she didn't even want to think about a new relationship. Yet she now began to picture herself with Dan. Allowing those little kisses during private moments. Holding his hand as they walked into the office together every morning.
Getting dressed up every other evening for a date with him. She had to admit, the thoughts didn't seem quite as out of place in her head as she'd told herself they would.

But what about work? she chided herself. What about the kids? Work.. she had no idea how a relationship with her partner would affect her job, but she figured that M. Pearl Mcguire wouldn't like it too much. And as for the kids- well, they seemed to be forming their own opinions of Dan. Cliff would probably need some convincing. Taylor had been trying to play matchmaker with the two of them all night. She'd have a field day with this. And Hannah... well, one look at the little girl told the story. She'd been completely won over by Dan's enthusiasm about her project, and the way he'd half-held her as she fell asleep helped, too. Zoe didn't know how Dan felt about the kids, but he had seemed to enjoy Hannah's company tonight. He was still uncertain with the older two, though. That would take some work.

Suddenly she realized what she was doing. She wasn't just imagining a relationship with Dan... she was planning it out in her mind! She shook her head and gave a little groan of frustration. That caught Dan's attention and he turned to look at her. Zoe's gaze quickly darted from him back to the child sleeping between them, and she smiled when she heard Hannah's
soft snoring over the blare of the television. Dan kept staring at her penetratingly, and when she finally glanced up to meet his eyes, he did a most unexpected thing. Without letting go of the girl's hand, he bent down and kissed Hannah softly on the forehead.

Zoe raised an eyebrow, and Dan just shrugged and, with a smile, turned back to the TV. Zoe shook her head slowly, then slipping her hand from Hannah's, she stood up, collected the kids' popcorn bowls, and headed for the kitchen. She needed to think. Dan followed her with his eyes and when she started to leave asked in a hushed tone, "Before you go, will you please tell me how it's going to end?"
Zoe replied peevishly, "Keep watching, you'll find out soon enough." And she turned and walked briskly into the kitchen.

Dan's POV
Dan watched her leave and pondered what had just happened. Why had he kissed Hannah? That was totally out of character for him, yet he'd done it anyway. Was it to impress Zoe? Yeah, probably. It had seemed like a good way to show her he cared at the time. But for a split second, as his lips brushed against the girl's feathery soft hair, he experienced something truly un-Danlike. It was like... a spark of affection. Not the love he felt for Zoe- he'd long past stopped writing that off as mere affection- but something almost... fatherly. The thought made him laugh. He- Dan? Feeling fatherly? Sure, someday. But now? And with Zoe's kids? This was something new entirely.

Shaking his head to clear it of these... well, to be honest, not entirely unwelcome thoughts, he stood up, gently extricated his hand from Hannah's, and followed Zoe soundlessly into the kitchen. Upon entrance, he saw her place the popcorn bowl into the sink. She turned and he ducked out of sight, already formulating an excuse for just standing there staring at her, but he was saved the effort by a fork that chose that specific moment to fall from its precarious perch on the counter and skitter to the floor. Groaning, Zoe bent down and picked it up. While she rinsed it off at the sink, Dan watched her, marveling at the effect she had on him. Moonlight shone through the windows into the kitchen, outlining her body in a silvery sheen. It reflected off of her golden-brown hair, turning it a sort of magical silver-gold, a nearly indescribable hue. A soft sigh escaped him. Everything about her- from the way she moved to the way she argued with him to the way she cleaned a fork- delighted him, excited him, and made him fall deeper in love with her every day.

Lost in his musings, and bewitched by the effect of the moonlight on the already beautiful Zoe, he gave in to his desires and moved to stand right behind her, and without thinking, wrapped his arms around her waist. Only then did he realize what he had done, and grimacing, prepared himself for the onslaught.

Zoe's POV
Zoe grumbled to herself as the fork clattered to the floor. She bent down, noticing as she did so that the joints in her back creaked a bit. She winced, thinking to herself, 'Jeez, I'm getting old!' Rolling her eyes, she turned on the faucet, squirted a drop of detergent onto her finger, and began hand-washing the fork. A few moments later she finished and switched off the stream of water, then suddenly she stopped cold. For a split second she thought she heard a footstep behind her, but before she could turn around she felt a pair of strong arms encircle her waist. She yelped, and dropped the fork back onto the floor. Her body stiffened and her heartbeat raced as the fight-or-flight response took over, but before she could whirl around and punch her assailant, she realized who exactly her assailant was and relaxed.

"Hello, Dan," she said dryly. He responded by leaning down and intonating entirely too close to her ear, "How'd you know it was me?"
She shook her head to get rid of the shiver going down her spine, and replied matter-of-factly, "Well, it was obviously a guy, and it had to be you since Cliff's not that strong." Oh, boy. That could be taken as a compliment, and that would mean that she was complimenting him without an ulterior motive, and that brought up all sorts of connotations.

And to make matters worse, Zoe had just turned around in his arms and now found herself in an altogether more compromising position than she'd previously been in. Dan's face was inches from hers and their bodies were pressed together in some of the most inappropriate places. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that she was essentially trapped, pinned between his chest and the counter behind her. The only way to relieve the bodily contact was to rest on the counter, which had a rather sharp edge and dug into her back painfully. So, she had a choice- lean back into the discomfort of the counter, or forward into the bliss of... Wait a minute! What was that? That thought had no business in her head! And already she could see a bemused expression spread across his face at the array of emotions displayed on hers. So, reigning in her inner floozy, Zoe composed her features and steeled herself to berate him for taking liberties with her person.

"What are you doing?"

Oh, wow Zoe. That was masterful.

He smiled charmingly and replied, "Just repaying the debt I owe you for not
taking you to the Cubs game."

She retorted indignantly, "What, by grabbing me from behind and nearly giving me a heart attack?" Suddenly finding herself wondering what to do with her hands, she rested them on his arms. She didn't realize it, but she was already tilting her head up to meet his.

Dan gave a small, enigmatic smile and, pulling her closer to him, whispered, "No... like this." With that he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was slow, tender and very, very sweet. He held her close, trying to convey all his thoughts and feelings with that one gentle kiss. When after a few moments they pulled apart, he put a finger to her lips to silence any words she was about to say, and offered his excuse with a little shy shrug, "You wanted to know what was up with that soft, passionate kiss in the elevator." He paused and cocked his head, looking at
her a bit sideways and added, "I thought you could figure it out for yourself."

Zoe almost snorted. Figure it out, indeed. As if she could manage any semblance of coherent thought after a kiss like that. Somehow she forced
her tongue to string together a question, "Are you trying to tell me something?"

He replied simply, "I'm trying to tell you whatever you're ready to hear."

She caught her breath at that one. Whatever she wanted to hear? Whatever...? What did she want to hear from Dan? She couldn't say. At that moment, she was so confused about her feelings that she didn't know which way was up. But one thing shone through the muddle of her thoughts, like a beacon of hope. Dan. Whatever she was feeling, whatever the ramifications, she knew there was something special about Dan. A part of her had always known it. And she knew that she had really enjoyed that kiss.

So, she took a deep breath to calm herself and said the only thing she could say.

"Dan... I don't know what I'm feeling right now. I'm so confused... but
there's one thing I know. Right now... I'm ready to allow you some more debt repayment like that in the near future." At this his face lit up, and she added, a tiny bit shyly, "And you can teach me a little more about that kiss. But remember- no multiple tongues."

"I told you, there was no tongue involved. You must have dreamed it."

"Are you insinuating that I dream about you, flyboy?"

And they were off, filling the kitchen with some more of that banter that they both loved so much, soon to be silenced by a little more debt repayment. Then:

"Uh... Zoe? I think we missed the end of that movie, so... could you tell
me now how it ended?"

"Dan!"

Finis