A/N: Wow, nice to see such a positive reaction to my new fic - thanks to all those who left reviews on Chapter 1. I'm glad y'all enjoyed the meet cute of this version of Wade & Zoe. I hope I manage to keep them in-character in this altered setting/timeline, but feel free to let me know (politely) if I don't manage it and I'll try to fix it :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 2

"My birthday rocked, didn't it?"

"Are you kidding?" Zoe asked incredulously, laughing at Gigi's expression as she poured out smoothies. "You don't even remember half of what happened that night."

"Which is how I know it rocked!" she insisted. "Besides, you should've seen the guy I woke up next to."

Zoe fought not to make a face and failed miserably. "If it was the same guy I saw you with at the club, you're lucky it was just the two of you when you woke up."

Either Gigi didn't hear all of what she said or she just didn't care. Sometimes, Zoe had trouble knowing exactly how she and Gigi were so close. They had similar tastes in a lot of things, but their life choices and such varied pretty dramatically. Zoe just wasn't the end-up-in-bed-with-whoever type. Also, she liked to remember when she had a good time on her birthday.

"I think I'm doing pretty well." Gigi sighed. "The hangover only lasted four days this time. As of this morning, I am fully back to my fabulous self."

"Four days? Wow," Zoe said, eyes deliberately wide as she sat down on the next stool over by the kitchen island. "That's... great."

She resisted the urge to explain the damage Gigi was actually doing to her body with that kind of alcohol abuse. People rarely appreciated it, even when they were patients and needed to be told. She knew from experience that her friends definitely did not want to hear it.

"So, you never told me what happened with you at the club," Gigi said then. "I saw you talking to some hottie, right?"

"You may have done," Zoe considered, her mind immediately going to Wade Kinsella, though she suspected Gigi meant some guy from earlier in the night - after all, she was pretty far gone by the time Zoe met the guitar-playing Southern gentleman. "There was nobody special for me."

"They don't all have to be special, Zo." Gigi rolled her eyes. "They just have to be hot and available."

Her cell rang then and she excused herself to take the call. Zoe smiled as she watched her go then drank down plenty of her smoothie. Hot and available. She supposed that described Wade pretty well. From everything she read about him, he certainly didn't seem to let himself be tied down at all and hot worked on so many levels. The guy was very good looking and apparently one of the hottest up and coming talents on this side of the US.

Not that Zoe had read a lot about him. Maybe more than was strictly necessary, but somehow, she just couldn't help herself. Though he came off as the typical bad boy rockstar type from the articles she had dug up, he had been gentlemanly enough to her at the bar, dealing with the lowlife who tried to carry her off. It was at least a little flattering to know she had his attention even before that, because Wade certainly wasn't limited in choice when it came to women. Some of the comments about him online were frankly obscene from a vast number of females, and some males besides, who really, really wanted to know him better in a myriad of ways.

Picking her cell up from the counter when it beeped, she realised it was just her mom telling her she would have to rearrange their dinner tonight. Zoe sighed and clicked from her incoming messages to the browser history, staring too long at the long list of Wade-centric searching. Maybe she had spent a little too long reading about the guy. That had to be unhealthy.

"Who is Wade Kinsella?"

Gigi's voice suddenly near her ear made Zoe jump terribly, her hand covering her heart as she took a deep breath.

"Don't do that!" she said, swatting her friend away even as she continued to try to read over her shoulder.

"Is he one of your mom's clients?" Gigi asked as she retook her seat. "Because he is smoking hot."

"He's... nobody." Zoe shrugged, putting her cell face down on the counter again. "He's just a guy. He was part of the band playing at the club, you know, on your birthday."

Gigi frowned a little, clearly trying to dredge up any memories she could. It was much tougher than it should've been apparently, but eventually she smiled in some kind of triumph.

"The country band!" she said suddenly. "Yeah, they were weirdly cool. I'm not much for country rock usually, but I got into it. Wasn't Vic totally making out with the bass player?"

"Drummer," Zoe corrected her. "Wade plays lead guitar."

"Ooh, lead guitar." Gigi grinned. "Good choice. So, you and he were...?"

"Nothing happened," said Zoe definitely, wondering why she could feel her cheeks heating up even as she spoke the truth. "We just... we talked, he flirted, I didn't, and then when this other guy was getting handsy, Wade kind of... stepped in," she said, shrugging her shoulders like it was no big deal.

That was a little unfair, making light of what he'd done. Nobody else had bothered to make a move to really help her out of what could have been a really bad situation. After the event, Zoe knew Wade could've played the hero card to his advantage, but he didn't, just went back to his band to play his set. Of course, he had arranged a car to make sure Zoe got home safely and that was very sweet too.

"Earth to Zoe!" said Gigi, prodding at her shoulder with one pointy-nailed finger. "I think more happened than you're telling me," she said accusingly, the moment she had Zoe's full attention. "Come on, spill!"

"There's nothing to spill!" Zoe assured her, playfully smacking her hand away when Gigi continued to poke at her. "I'm telling the truth. We talked, he was just... being a rockstar," she said, rolling her eyes. "He probably hits on any woman that gets in his line of sight. I mean, yes, it was cool that he dealt with a guy who was being seriously out of line and that he made sure security helped me out and everything, but it is still no big deal. I'm sure he's met, and probably slept with, at least a dozen other girls since he met me. He wouldn't even remember my name."

"Ooh, and that bothers you," said Gigi with a look.

"It does not bother me," Zoe insisted, though she wondered why there was a voice in the back of her mind yelling that she was a liar the whole time she was talking. "He was just a guy I met and that I'll probably never see again for the rest of my life, and that's just fine with me," she said, lifting her half-empty smoothie glass as if to toast her declaration.

"Sister solidarity," Gigi said definitely, clinking her glass against Zoe's own, before they both drank.

They didn't need men anyway, Zoe was sure on that. Of course, that didn't mean Zoe didn't sometimes think it might be nice to have a boyfriend again. It might even be nice to see Wade Kinsella again, though not for a dating reason, just to thank him for everything he did for her the other night. Yes, that was all it was. Probably. Maybe.

"Hey, Wade! You even listenin', man?"

He looked up to see his band-mate staring at him like he had two heads and forced a smile.

"Sure, I'm listenin'," he replied, though it was an out and out lie and they both knew it.

The truth was, it happened a lot lately, him zoning out into his own world and all. It had started a few days back when they played some club in town, one of many that they were being pushed to and from most nights, but this club had been different, or at least, Wade had a very different experience there.

It wasn't that he expected every woman he approached to just fall into his arms, although, for the most part, that was exactly what happened. Even those that hadn't seen him on stage or heard his music could be dazzled by his good looks and charm. Wade had always been good with the females, no question, but it happened occasionally that he struck out. Very occasionally. Most often when a woman preferred the company of other women, or when they were the seriously committed to their husband or boyfriend type. It didn't bother him too much. Wade would just move on to the next prospect and that usually worked out just fine. This one girl, strike that, this one woman he had met at the club the other night, she was just different.

"Your head has been some other place for a while now," said his buddy Mark, the lead singer for the band. "Tell me you ain't homesick or somethin'?"

"Nah, that ain't it" Wade shook his head, setting his guitar aside and running a hand over his face. "It's just... I guess I'm just tired is all. Long days in the studio, long nights on stage, and not a whole lotta sleep even when I hit the sack," he said with a salacious smile. "Life of a rockstar, right, man?"

"Yeah, man!" Mark agreed, slapping Wade's hand in a high-five.

The next moment, Mark's cell rang and he moved away to take the call, leaving Wade alone with his own thoughts again. It was so stupid to keep up the charade, to talk like he was fine and just getting a little exhausted from the thrill of the new found success Sippin Whiskey had found. It wasn't about the long hours or nights spent entertaining certain fans more privately. It was just her.

Dr. Zoe Hart. He actually Googled her name, not really expecting anything to come up, but it did. Seemed she wasn't just any regular doctor but a real fancy kind, some supersonic space surgeon or some such. Wade forgot the actual words that made up her job title, but she was smart, no doubt about that. Brains and beauty, and the good sense not to be bowled over by any guy who walked up to her at a bar and turned on the charm. Wade might actually like her all the better for not being easy than if she had immediately fallen at his feet when he smiled.

Usually, he would've just shaken off the rejection, or tried a little harder to see if he could change her mind, but thanks to the handsy blonde at the bar who had apparently been dared to see how far she could get with him without saying a word, Wade hadn't exactly got much opportunity to get to know Zoe better.

He had been looking out for the good doctor in the moments that followed and found her in the crowd in time to see the asshole who decided to be a caveman with her. Saving her hadn't been about winning her favour so much as being the good guy his momma would want him to be, but Wade didn't mind the idea that Zoe would like him better for stepping in too. The way she looked at him after, he was pretty sure that was more than gratitude, least he hoped so. Not that he supposed he would ever see her again, not outside of the pictures in his head, and they were there a lot.

"Hey, Wade!" Clayne called to him from across the room. "You got the music for this thing?" he asked, waving a piece of paper around.

"I don't know what you..." he began, frowning some until he suddenly realised what his friend and bass player was looking at. "That ain't for the band," he said, suddenly on his feet and striding across the room, whipping the page from Clayne's hand.

"Geez, man, what's with you? You leave lyrics lying around, people are gonna assume it's a song."

"Yeah, well, you know what they say about folks who assume, right?" said Wade with a look, storming out of the room and into the hall, not knowing where he intended to go after that.

He leant up against the wall and slammed his hand against it for good measure, eyes running over the words he himself had written. It was a song, sort of. The music only lived in his head so far and even then, it wasn't exactly finished, but the words had come easy, all about dancing green eyes, dark hair, and an amazing smile. All about healing hands and kisses only dreamed of as yet.

"You're a fool, Kinsella," he muttered to himself, balling his hand into a fist and crumpling the paper up into so much trash.

Still, he didn't throw it away, instead flattening it out a little in the very next moment and shoving it deep into the pocket of his jeans. Maybe he could rework it into a decent song for the band, Lord knows, they could use some more original material for the crowds and more so for the record company, if they wanted to make this whole thing work.

These were the things Wade should be concentrating on - his music, the band, their careers in the industry - not some New York City doctor that didn't want to know him anyway. Sure, it might be nice to see Zoe Hart again, but not for a dating reason or anything, just to see if she was doing okay after the other night. Yeah, that was all it was. Probably. Maybe.

To Be Continued...