Disclaimer: I do not own Hart of Dixie

9. Recovery

"Hello there, Zoe. How are you doing today?" Mrs. Long asked as she walked towards the reception desk at the medical practice.

"Oh, I am just fine, thank you. Brick is with a patient right now but my father is available if you want to see him instead"

"I'll just wait, Brick might get offended, you know how he is"

"Yeah" Zoe said and the two of them laughed.

"So, what's the latest gossip with the teens today?" the middle aged woman asked as she took a seat in the waiting room.

"Oh, I don't know. It's been kind of low recently, I guess my breakup with Jonah is still one of the main topics, and of course this whole Hannah thing" Zoe said, her voice turning low and her eyes going blank as she stared off into space.

It had been a week since Jack Hunter was arrested. At first Brick and Harley had tried to convince Hannah to stay, but she couldn't, she felt responsible for Zoe and Wade being attacked. So she'd taken her bag and gone out of town to start over somewhere else. Zoe still couldn't go anywhere without people suddenly going quiet and staring at her, but she'd managed to mostly ignore it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad, you shouldn't be thinking about it" Mrs. Long said, standing up and walking over to Zoe, clearly waging a war on whether she should hug her or not.

"It's okay. Really. Or at least it will be, it gets better every day" Zoe said, smiling at Mrs. Long reassuringly.
"Alright, dear. But you know, you have every right to be sad, for as long as you need"

"Thank you, Mrs. Long, you are too sweet"

Just then Harley walked out of his office.

"Oh, hello there Mrs. Long" he said, as he walked over to them.

"Dr. Wilkes, it's nice to see you. How are you today?"

"I am fine, thank you for asking. How about you, everything alright? And your little Tom is fine I hope."

"Yes, he's fine, and I am to, just coming in to see Dr. Breeland about my arm, I think I pulled a muscle"

"Well, I could've seen you, but I understand that Dr. Breeland is your doctor" he smiled at her and then turned to Zoe. "Honey, I think I'll call it a day, I haven't got any more patient and I think Mrs. Long here is the last one for Brick so we should be able to head home"

"Ok, let me just grab my stuff" Zoe said as she started to pack her books.

When they were turning into the driveway at their house Zoe's eyes met Wade's for a moment but then he quickly turned away and headed for his car, started the engine and drove off without so much as a backwards glance. They hadn't spoken since that day at their secret hideout. She'd barely seen him except for in class, and then she tried not to think about him, not to sneak a look back at him, because she needed to focus on the teachers. It was even worse than before. Yes, they'd hated each others guts, but they'd been open about it and said what was on their minds. Zoe sighed and got out of the car.

Wade was driving aimlessly. He had had to get out of his house, even though Jesse was gone, he still felt he was suffocating in there. His dad had been out of it for most of the week, but when he was somewhat alert, he'd been sour, spitting at Wade at every chance.

He was driving around town, he didn't know where to go. He wanted to go to his spot by the pond in the woods, but he couldn't risk into her. He'd been avoiding her as hard as he could this last week. She didn't need him around, bringing up memories. But he wanted to be so bad. He watched her at school, surrounded by her so-called friends, but he could see that she was miserable. But there was nothing he could do about it. He was stupid to think that last week's events had changed anything. That girl saw him as her stupid trash of a neighbor. He wasn't the kind of guy she hung out with. Yeah, sure, she'd gone out with his brother, but let's face it, they were like black and white, had absolutely nothing in common except for the genes.

Wade felt the anger starting to build up inside of him. He got irritated and angry at himself whenever he thought about her, and that had been happening a lot lately.

Just then he saw Amy, a junior that he'd hooked up with a couple of times, walking by. He slowed down and pulled up beside her.

"Amy, how are you this fine evenin'?" he called out to her.

"Hey, Wade" she said, stopping in front of him. "I'm good, what about you?"

"Just fantastic" he said, in a mockingly cheerful voice.

"So, what's up? Any particular reason you're delaying me?"

"I'm bored. Was just drivin' around, lookin' for somethin' to do when my eyes caught your fine ass, thought maybe you wanted to go for a drive" he said, with a suggestive smirk.

"Well, I was goin' to meet up with my mama, but she can wait" Amy said as she slid into Wade's car.

"Alright then" Wade said as he sped off.

Zoe was laying in her bed, staring into the ceiling, when her phone rang. She didn't move, just lay there, trying to ignore the phone. It was probably Claire or Emma. She didn't want to answer them. They'd spent the first day after the attack talking about it, comforting Zoe, and that had been nice, but then apparently it was time to move on. After that first day it had been straight back to talking about what they were going to do after graduation, and if anyone brought up the attack Claire just rolled her eyes and asked if the subject hadn't been thoroughly discussed already, in such a bossy tone that no one could defy her. It's not like Zoe liked to talk about it, but she'd thought that her supposed friend would understand that it took more than a day to get over it.

The phone had been ringing for two minutes now, so she decided she should answer it.

"Hello" she said, her voice drained of all emotion.

"Zoe, thank the Lord, I was starting to think that something had happened" It was Annabeth.

"Well, Annabeth, something has happened. I got dumped by my boyfriend, then a psychopath nearly raped me, my friends decided that a day was all I needed to forget it and move on, my father decided to be his overprotective self and demand that I come into the practice everyday after school and stay until closing and then my stupid neighbor is ignoring me" Zoe snapped at her, surprising herself with all the pent up anger.

"Wade? Why do you care if he's ignoring you or not? I thought you hated the guy?"

Crap! Why on earth did I say that, Zoe thought. I don't care if he's ignoring me. And I'm not entirely sure that's what he's doing, it's not like we spent any time together before.

"Hello, Zoe, are you there?" Annabeth said into the phone. Zoe had forgotten she was there, drifting into her thoughts.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, what were you saying?"

"Wade?" Damn, Zoe thought, she'd hoped Annabeth had moved onto something else.

"Oh, I don't know why I said that, I don't care about him, I totally hate him" Zoe said, not convincing anyone.

"Mhm. Then why does it sound like you care? O.M.G., Zoe, do you like him?" Annabeth said, filling with excitement.

"No, I do not like him, it's just, you know, he was there, I thought that maybe he'd wanna talk about it, or something"

"Oh, Zoe, I'm sorry, I'm such a fool. Of course you aren't thinking about guys right now, not after what you've just been through."

Zoe didn't say anything, she didn't really know what to say.

"Listen, Zoe, I am coming over. Screw Lemon, I like you, we are sort of friends, and you are hurting and do not need to be alone"

Before Zoe could respond Annabeth had hung up the phone. Zoe put the phone down and lay back down on the bed.

A few minutes later the doorbell rang, followed by footsteps and a knock on her door. Pauline stuck her head in and asked if Annabeth could come and see her. Zoe just nodded and then a few moments later Annabeth appeared at her door.

Zoe sat up in her bed and looked at Annabeth. She just stared back at her for a moment, then walked over and pulled Zoe in a hug and Zoe couldn't handle it anymore, she burst out in tears. They sat like that for minutes, just holding each other and Zoe crying.

"I'm sorry, I don't know where that came from" Zoe said when they finally broke apart.

"It's fine, sometimes you just need to cry" Annabeth replied.

They started talking and soon just got caught up with it, until a knock came on the door.

"I'm sorry girls, but I think it's time for Annabeth to head home, after all it is a school night" Harley said as he opened the door.

"Oh, we just got so caught up, didn't look at the time" Annabeth said as she stood up. She pulled Zoe in for another hug. "I'll see you tomorrow" she said as she walked out the door.

Wade continued to stare into Zoe's window long after the lights had gone out. He'd been sitting in his tree, thinking. Somehow it was easier to think up here, looking into her window. He'd been sitting there for hours, just thinking. His hook-up with Amy had been nice, but ever since that night, that night when he'd found Zoe in his hideout, he hadn't been able to enjoy other girls as much as before. When he realized that he decided to stop what he'd been doing, stop ignoring Zoe. He needed her, to be with her, to hold her, just to talk to her. Yes, he was going to go after her, if she'd shut him down he'd be able to move on and if she didn't, well, then he'd just wait and see what happened.

I had real trouble writing this, didn't really know how to move on, hope it isn't all bad :)