A/N: Thanks for all the latest reviews. Y'all seem pretty sure we're headed down to Bluebell soon. Well, maybe ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 21

"Where is your head at, Kinsella?"

He barely heard the words, but the smack on the back of Wade's head made him pay attention, as well as lash out at Clayne for daring to mess with him.

"I ain't in the mood, man, okay?" he told him with a glare. "Not today."

"Well, that much is obvious," his friend and band-mate agreed, hands held up in mock surrender. "Seriously though, what is the problem? You had a face on you like a thunder cloud since we got here, and you didn't say a word, even when Mark here piped up about dropping your song from the set list for our next round o' gigs."

Wade sighed heavily and put his face in his hands. He really could've used not having to have this meeting with the band today, but it was decided almost a week before and he knew cancelling on the guys wasn't really an option.

Still, Clayne was right enough when he called him out for not paying attention. Wade's brain was pretty much on another planet or at least in a very different place to his body. He wanted to be with Zoe, he needed to know she was doing okay, though he was fair certain she was not.

As if it hadn't been bad enough when she caught Wade in a clinch with her mom, though Zoe seemed to take that shockingly well, not blaming him even a little. Then she seemed to discover that Harley Wilkes, small-town GP from none other than Bluebell, Alabama, Wade's own hometown, was her biological daddy. Hammer blow followed hammer blow, as Zoe heard first that Harley was dead and then, shockingly, that he knew about her all along and left her his half of the practice back in Bluebell when he passed on.

It was so much to deal with, way too much, as far as Wade could tell, but Zoe had to find a way. He wanted to help her with that, he really did, but words had never really been his strong point, not unless he was writing lyrics anyway, or charming women in bars. He didn't know how to be comforting, supportive, and certainly not clever, though he did his best.

"Look, I ain't exactly feelin' it today, okay?" he told the band, running a hand over his face. "Maybe we should just call it a day and I'll go clear my head or whatever."

Before anyone could agree or disagree, he was out of the door, wincing when he heard footsteps hurrying after him. He really did not want to fight with any of the guys right now, sure he'd end up saying or doing something regrettable if anyone started anything. They'd do better to just let him walk away and they all ought to know it by now too.

"Hey, Wade?" Jordan called behind him.

He looked back with an expression that ought to let his buddy know now wasn't the time, but to be altogether fair to Jordan, he seemed like he was genuinely trying to be helpful.

"Look, you obviously have stuff on your mind, and I ain't pryin' or whatever, but if you want to talk about it or just have somebody to drown your sorrows with...?"

"Thanks, man," said Wade, finding his friend half a smile. "I appreciate that, but honestly, you're not the one I need to be talkin' to right now," he admitted, shaking his head.

"I get it," said Jordan easily. "No problem here. I hope you get whatever's messing you up all figured out."

"Yeah, me too." Wade sighed as he raised one hand in a kind of wave and walked away.

Zoe knew she should go into work. Honestly, she really wanted the distraction, but ultimately, she knew she would not be able to concentrate. In her profession, that was just dangerous. She could literally kill someone if she made the wrong choice, prescribed the wrong drug, made the wrong diagnosis. She was much safer staying at her apartment, but that meant dealing with all the muddled thoughts in her head on a constant loop that she just didn't know how to stop.

It wasn't as if she didn't have anyone she could call or talk to about any of this. There was her mom, who caused the whole debacle in the first place. There was Gigi, who she was sure she could trust. There was even Jonah Breeland, who apparently knew more about Zoe's natural father than she did, thanks to a string of coincidences. Then there was Wade.

Of all the people Zoe most wanted to have with her right now, her boyfriend was top of the list, but she knew he had a meeting with the guys from the band today and that was important. She couldn't call him, at least, not now. She wanted to, but she couldn't.

Picking herself up off the couch, Zoe wandered through to the kitchen and searched the cupboards for something she might want to eat. Finding nothing that appealed, she tried to fridge instead. The half bottle of white wine tempted her, and even though it was barely two in the afternoon, she gave in to that temptation.

"Why not?" she asked herself, pulling out the bottle, finding a clean glass and pouring herself an unhealthy measure.

She barely got the glass to her lips when suddenly the intercom buzzed. Zoe turned to look at the phone with an accusatory glance. Did she really want visitors? Well, that depended on who was at her door, and hey, it wasn't as if they could get in without her say so.

"Hello?" she said into the hand-set.

"Hey, Zoe. It's me."

She had her finger on the button to let him up before he hardly finished speaking and was by the apartment door long before he ever finished the elevator ride to her floor. Maybe she was pathetic, but honestly, Zoe was okay with that, just for today. She needed someone, she needed him, and here he was.

"Wade," she said, wearing her first genuine smile of the day as she went straight into his arms for a hug.

"Hey, baby," he said as he held her tight. "You doin' okay?"

"No," she admitted, words muffled against his chest. "Actually, I'm doing pretty darn crappy," she told him, looking up into his face then. "What is happening to my life?" she asked in earnest.

"Wish I knew, sweetheart" said Wade with a sigh, reaching down to tuck her hair behind her ear. "You know, I was at my meetin' with the guys and I just couldn't concentrate. Kept on thinkin' about you, how tough this all had to be on you and everythin', and I know I can't really make anything better-"

"You can," Zoe assured him. "Trust me, Wade, by just being here, you're making it better," she told him definitely.

Wade gave her a winning smile for that and a kiss too. "So, I'm guessin' you've been sat in here by yourself all day, with some full-on gymnastic routine goin' on in your head about your mom, Ethan Hart, Harley, all of that stuff?"

"Oh, you have no idea," she insisted, dragging him over to the couch where they sat down together, their arms around each other and her head on his chest. "I mean, I have all this new information about where I come from and who I am, it's so overwhelming, but at the same time, it's like I know nothing at all," she explained. "I had a father that I never met, that I can never meet now, and that is so sad and so wrong, but then there's the whole part where he left me half a practice in his will. That's pretty crazy, right?"

"Crazy as all get out," Wade agreed without hesitation. "Of course, if you don't want the practice, I guess Brick just gets to keep the whole thing, which wouldn't bother him, I'll bet. Beats me how he got Old Man Bryant to keep quiet about it all. I mean, they should've come lookin' for you, right?"

Zoe frowned at that. She really hadn't got as far as thinking about it in that way. She knew little about the law of wills and such, after all, she was a doctor, not a probate lawyer, but surely if somebody was listed in somebody's will as a beneficiary, they should be sought out.

"It's not like I'd be hard to find," she considered aloud, sitting up to face Wade. "Hello, surgeon in New York, daughter of a world-famous cardio-thoracics expert. Well, kind of," she said, frowning some more as she recalled again that the whole point of this was how she was not the offspring of one Ethan Hart after all. "They really cannot have tried very hard to look for me."

"Doesn't seem like it to me." Wade shook his head. "So, how about we tell 'em you're here? I could get George Tucker to-"

"No," Zoe said fast, shaking her head so hard her eyes almost rattled in their sockets. "Wade, I cannot just... I mean, Harley and... and Bluebell... it's way too much!" she declared, suddenly on her feet and pacing.

Wade watched her go back and forth, realising she was beginning to lose it just a bit. He couldn't exactly blame her for feeling out of her depth. Like she said before, she had a lot of information thrown at her in the past couple of days and none of it made a whole lot of sense. The coincidences alone were pretty incredible, and yet, here they were, in the middle of a tornado of crazy. All Wade could say in the positive about that was at least they had each other to cling to.

"I mean, what am I even supposed to do now?" Zoe asked, pacing back and forth yet. "I don't even want to deal with my mother, the father who raised me couldn't care less, and my real father is dead, and-"

"Hey, hey, hey," said Wade, getting up fast and stopping her wild movements. "Sweetheart, you gotta breathe," he advised, ensuring she did just that. "I know this is all real confusin' and everything, but gettin' yourself all worked up this way, it's not gonna help any, right?"

Zoe heaved a sigh. "I know, you're right," she agreed, letting her head fall forward onto his chest. "Oh, Wade, why is nothing ever simple anymore?"

"I'm not so sure anything ever is," he admitted, kissing the top of her head and hugging her as she hugged back in silence for a while after that. "Hey, Zoe?" he said after a minute or two. "Now, I know you have a lot to think about and you vetoed my idea about talking to Tucker about all this pretty fast, but... well, I was just thinkin', what if we got out of New York for a while, away from your mom and work and all? What if... well, how about if I took you down to Bluebell?"

Her head came up off his chest so fast and her eyes were so wide, it was almost funny, except there really wasn't anything about this situation that was amusing.

"I couldn't just go." Zoe shook her head, before seeming to reconsider. "Could I?"

"I don't see why not." Wade shrugged. "I mean, if you told the hospital you had, like, a family crisis or whatever, wouldn't exactly be a lie, and I could talk to Brad about taking a few days out. If I told him it was for you, well, he likes you well enough, I don't reckon he'd argue much."

Zoe opened her mouth to tell him no, to tell him he was crazy for suggesting it, but quite honestly, the more she thought about it, the more she thought maybe it wasn't such a bad plan. When Wade told her about Bluebell before and she said she would love to visit someday, she had meant it. Of course, she was thinking of the place as his home then, never as somewhere she was really connected too, but apparently, she was. That gave her more reasons to want to see the place, not less.

"You wouldn't tell Bradley the details, right?" she checked.

"Not if you don't want me to," Wade promised. "You know, we don't even have to tell the folks back home who you really are for a while. I mean, nothin' about Harley or anythin'. George Tucker knows, but he's as straight as they come. He won't tell a soul unless I tell him he can. You could just come along with me as... well, my girlfriend, I guess," he told her with a grin.

Zoe laughed and she wasn't even sure what was funny. Maybe she just felt suddenly felt a little bit of happiness creeping in, after a lot of confusion and gloom. Wade did make it sound very simple and almost like a fun adventure. She supposed it really didn't have to be anything else if she didn't want it to be.

"Okay," she said eventually, nodding her head.

"Okay?" Wade echoed, tilting his head as he looked at her. "That's a yes?"

"It's a yes," Zoe agreed happily. "If we can figure things out with work and everything, then yes, I think we should go to Bluebell, as soon as possible."

To Be Continued...