A/N: Thanks to those who continue to send reviews - always appreciated :) I'm glad to know you like these versions of Wade & Zoe. They're a little different to canon, I know, but I hope still enough like themselves that it works :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 4

"You know, sweetheart, you really need to take better care of yourself," said Candice, holding Zoe's chin in her hand and inspecting her face. "All that work and that awful fluorescent lighting at the hospital, it's starting to show in your skin."

"Mom, please," she said, pulling away and taking the take-out containers through to the kitchen. "I have way more important things to think about than night cream right now," she explained when she returned, picking up papers from the table and putting her focus back on them instead. "You know I have that big surgery tomorrow and I need to be prepped and ready. No screw ups."

"Oh, come on, Zoe." Candice sighed. "I know your career is important-"

"It's not just about my career, Mom," she cut in fast. "A person's life depends on this operation going well and I'm leading the surgery. This is literally a life and death situation."

"You think I don't know that?" her mother checked with a look. "After all those years of being married to a heart surgeon? I do have some understanding, Zoe, so please don't treat me like a fool."

Zoe sighed. "I'm sorry. I mean it, I am," she insisted when Candice looked doubtful. "I'm just stressed out about work right now, I can't help it."

Candice shook her head. "You know, sometimes, I just wish your life wasn't all about your work. And before you say it, yes, I know," she said fast, hands held up in mock surrender, "it's important to you and you're saving lives, but still, come on, Zoe, you need more."

Zoe knew what her mom was going to say next. She was going to start pushing about dating again. It wasn't that she was even really getting on Zoe's back about marriage and producing grandkids or anything, she just wanted her daughter to be seeing a guy, going out, having fun, experiencing a relationship. That shouldn't be so hard, and yet.

"I don't really have time to date right now," she said eventually. "Come on, it took the two of us almost a month to find a night when we both free to meet up for dinner and even then, it was so last minute, we've had take-out on my couch on a Sunday night," she said with a look. "Let's face it, even if I did have more free time, it's not exactly easy to find a guy that understands the way my life works, unless I date another doctor and, well, that would probably be worse actually," she said, considering it. "It didn't help with me and Zack anyway."

"Zoe, you're talking about a boy that you dated in medical school," said Candice, rolling her eyes. "I'm talking about you finding a man," she said with a kind of emphasis that made her want to squirm.

"No offence, Mom, but I think you've had enough men for the both of us," she said with a look, just as the door buzzer sounded.

"Well, at least I know how to enjoy myself." Candice sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if you even have a libido anymore."

"Mom!" Zoe gasped in horror, seconds before she answered the intercom. "Hello? Oh, okay, come up."

"Do we have company?" her mother asked.

"Just a delivery guy." Zoe frowned. "Funny, I'm not expecting anything."

Moments later, she answered the tapping on the door, expecting to see a guy carrying a package of some kind. She got a real surprise when she couldn't even see the delivery person for the large arrangement of flowers that got between them.

"Wow, okay," she said as he pushed the blooms into her arms.

"Sign here please?"

"Sign where?" she said helplessly, unable to see past the roses and orchids and other flowers she couldn't even name, glad to hand them off to Candice just as soon as she came over to help.

Zoe had soon signed for her flower delivery and then headed back to the couch where her mom was inspecting the gift on her behalf. She had the card in her hand and was no doubt about to read it when Zoe managed to intercept.

"Thank you," she said smartly, whipping the card from Candice's hand and reading it.

She had no idea she was smiling until her mother called her on it.

"So, there is someone special after all."

Zoe wiped the grin off her face for all of a few seconds before her eyes went back to the card and the giddy smile began to slide back onto her lips. It was tough not to be happy when a guy sent you flowers, especially a sizeable arrangement like this one. The fact it was from one Wade Kinsella certainly didn't hurt at all.

"No-one special," she insisted anyway. "Just someone I met."

Tucking the card into her pocket, she retrieved her flowers from her mom and took them to the kitchen. Putting some water into the sink, she carefully placed the flowers in there and went in search of a vase she already knew she wouldn't find. She never had needed one up to now.

"You're not going to tell me, are you?" asked Candice from the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. "Honestly, Zoe, what kind of woman cannot talk to her mother about a guy she's dating?"

"I'm not dating anyone!" Zoe insisted, peering out at her from around a cabinet door, having no luck at all with the vase search, as she suspected she wouldn't. "I met a guy at a club and... well, he was nice enough, but nothing happened. I saw him again the other night when I was out with Gigi and Vic, and now, he's sending me flowers. That's all there is to it."

"Oh, honey, that is not all there is to it." Candice shook her head. "Men do not send bouquets of flowers like that one unless they have a reason. Besides, how does this man even know where you live?"

"Because... his driver brought me home from the club," she said awkwardly, knowing she was squirming and hating it. "And yes, he has a driver, but no, he is not a socialite or a business magnate or anything. Actually, he's... well, he's in a band."

She wasn't entirely sure how her mom was going to take that particular piece of news. Candice dealt with a lot of famous and semi-famous people in her work as a PR specialist, so a rockstar of any kind should not be that big of a deal. On the other hand, she might make a fuss, not least because Zoe was usually so anti getting caught up with the rich and pretty people that her mom worked with.

"He's in a band," said Candice, smiling as she considered it. "Front man?"

"Lead guitar."

"That's not so bad."

Zoe laughed at the way she said it. "Oh my God, Mom, do you have to?"

"What?" Candice asked with faux-innocence - as if she didn't know!

"You don't know anything about this guy, except for the fact he has a driver, he plays lead guitar in a band, and he sent me flowers, and yet, somehow, you already decided he's a suitable match for me?"

"Well, honey, I'm not suggesting you marry him or anything like that," her mother insisted. "I just think that if he's this determined to get your attention, and you clearly don't object to it given the giddy smile when you read the card," she said with a knowing look, "why not give it a chance? You might even have some fun."

Somehow, her mom telling her to go for it with Wade made Zoe want to be all the more determined not to do it. At the same time, she had to admit, he was being kind of persistent. Not in a creepy way or anything, just in a flattering way that was actually very sweet.

"Okay, this subject is closed," she said, abandoning her pointless search for a vase and ushering her mom back through to the living room. "Tell me what's going on with you. Clients, parties, anything that is not my dating life!"

"You don't have a dating life for us to talk about," Candice grumbled, though she did change the subject after that, thankfully.

Wade turned over in his bed, reaching for his cell on the nightstand and checking the screen. It was past eleven, which wasn't so late if this was a night when he was playing a gig or whatever. As it was, the band had all been told to hit the hay early since they had a long day in the studio tomorrow that was going to start at the crack of dawn or similar. Unfortunately, Wade just couldn't sleep.

He had sort of been hoping he might get a text message or even a call by now. He put his number on the card that went with the flowers to Zoe Hart's apartment in the hopes she might get in touch. He even went to the bother of having them delivered on Sunday night, because she had mentioned she actually had some time off then, before a big operation she was supposed to perform on Monday. On the card he wished her luck and told her he hoped he got to see her again soon, adding his number in case she wanted to contact him at all. It seemed that maybe she didn't.

Wade still couldn't figure out why that bothered him so much. She was just a woman and he had had more than his fair share of those in his time. There was just something about Zoe, and though Wade was well-aware that part of her appeal was the fact she wasn't so easy to get, there had to be more to it than that. She was in his head all the time, her face, her voice, her laughter. It was like she was haunting him or something, but not in a way that Wade minded at all. If anything, he wanted more of her in his life, not less.

With a heavy sigh, he turned over in the bed, pushing his head hard into the pillow and trying again to get some sleep. This time, it might even have worked, if his cell phone hadn't suddenly started to buzz on the nightstand. Wade flipped back over so fast, he almost gave himself whiplash, grabbing for his phone and cursing when he only succeeded in knocking it to the ground. Scrambling to get it, he hit call without even worrying about the 'unknown number' written on the screen. Seemed his instincts were still good.

"Hello?"

"Um, Wade?" said Zoe on the other end of the line. "Oh, crap, did I dial wrong?"

"Nah, it's all good, doc," he told her, grinning wide as he sat up in his bed, back against the headboard. "You dialled just fine."

"Good, that's... good," she said with a sigh of apparent relief. "Most people probably wouldn't appreciate a random call past eleven on a Sunday, but I thought, you know, rockstar lifestyle, there's no way you'd be sleeping or anything."

"Of course not," Wade told her, biting his lip as he considered where he was and what he had actually been trying to do before she called - Zoe didn't need to know that. "So, I'm guessin' since I'm hearing from you, you got my gift?"

"I did," she said with a smile he was sure he could hear. "Thank you, Wade. That was very sweet of you."

"Not a problem, doc," he told her easily. "Figured that operation thing you have to do tomorrow, well, that's kind of like me scoring a major gig or something, right?"

"I guess, kind of," she agreed. "It is definitely a big deal, career-wise, for me, so I appreciate the support. Strangely, not everybody I know gets how important these things are to me, but somehow, the stranger from the bar does," she said, with incredulous laughter in her voice.

"Stranger?" Wade echoed. "Now, Zoe, I am just offended. I thought you and me were gonna be friends or something."

She laughed at that, which was what she was supposed to do really.

"You and me being friends, huh?" she said then. "Exactly how many female friends do you have, Wade Kinsella?"

"More than you'd think," he countered. "Back home, I happen to know a lot of women that I consider friends. Don't go thinkin' you know everything about me just 'cause you got your Google search on."

"I didn't... How did you...?" she asked, making Wade laugh himself this time.

"You know, your friend Gigi talks a lot when she's drunk," he admitted, still chuckling. "She mighta mentioned you did your research on me and the band after we met the first time."

The silence on the other end of the line bothered Wade more than a little. He thought he was just teasing Zoe, that was all he meant by what he said, but maybe she wasn't into that. The other night, she seemed okay with it, but he probably went too far.

"Zoe?" he said carefully. "Hey, I didn't mean to embarrass you or whatever. Come on, everybody looks up everybody online these days. I did."

"You did?" she gasped. "You... you Googled me?"

"Maybe," he said, smiling to himself. "How else do I know so much about what a fancy doctor you are?"

That made Zoe giggle some more, which seemed like a good sign.

"So," she said after a while, "how come you're not out playing up a storm or charming all the girls tonight, cowboy?"

"Maybe I was hopin' that if I stayed home long enough, I'd get a call worth waitin' in for," he said, charming as he had ever been, but truthful with it - he hoped Zoe knew that.

"You really have all the lines, don't you?" she said with a sigh.

Clearly, she didn't get it. "It's been said," he admitted, "but that doesn't mean they're all lies, doc. I've been known to mean what I say, and I happen to think this call was worth waitin' for."

"Okay, then I believe you," she told him eventually. "And thank you, again, for the flowers, but I should really go now. I need to be at my best tomorrow, for the surgery and everything."

"You'll do great, doc. You tell that patient of yours that he couldn't be in better hands, I'm sure o' that."

"You're a little crazy," Zoe told him, in that way that sounded like she was smiling again. "But you're a nicer guy than I first thought, I'll say that much. Goodnight, Wade."

"Goodnight, Zoe," he said with a genuine smile on his lips. "Sweet dreams."

To Be Continued...