Chapter Six

Rose had brought over some board games, thinking they would keep Zoe's mind stimulated without overwhelming it. So the three of them had played Candy Land and Four Square for a few hours.

"And, I think that's the third game in a row."

"That's hardly fair. You picked the game, brought 'em over, of course they'd be ones you were good at."

Rose laughed, "You, Wade Kinsella, are the sorest loser I ever did see."

Both of them had been tiptoeing around each other a little during the game, not noticeably, just a little. Both of them knew a talk was inevitable. There were certain revelations you did not stay quiet about.

Zoe's stomach growled.

"Hungry Doc?"

Zoe nodded, "Yeah, I guess a little." She got up, "I'm going to go make a sandwich. Anybody want one?"

"I don't mind getting' one for you if you want."

"No, what I want is for people to stop treating me like an invalid. Now, sandwiches?"

Rose nodded, "Sure, but I gave up meat last year, so just lettuce and tomatoes on mine."

Zoe nodded, then turned to Wade, "Uh, I guess ham on rye."

Zoe nodded, "Be right back."

Once she left the carriage house, an eerie silence fell over the place.

"So," Rose started.

"You know, maybe I should go help her find the ham. Lavon sometimes hides it so I don't clear him out and-"

"Zoe."

It was a simple word, but it was enough to shut him up. "What about 'er?"

"Zoe." Rose said again, matter-of-factly.

"Look, kid, if you got somethin' to say-"

"I hate it when you call me that."

"Yeah, well, it's what you are, and I ain't gonna stop."

"You always this moody when your love-life comes into the discussion?"

"I don't recall anyone bringin' up my love-life."

"So, is this why you two stopped talkin' and hangin' out after Zoe got engaged?"

"Rose, I don't know what you're after, but why don't you just lay off it, huh?"

"You are so into her. God, I cannot believe I never saw it before. I always wondered why you stopped with them one-nightstands of yours. This explains so much. She was the one you were talkin' about that night at the party. That's why you were out there drinkin', wasn't it? Because of her? I cannot believe-"

"Look, put a sock in it, okay."

"You can deny it all you want, but I know what I saw."

"Do I ever try to force you to talk about your love-life, huh? Have I ever confronted you about your obvious, immature, ridiculous, and oh, so annoying crush on me? No, I haven't. Because there's some thing's that are just one person's business. And whatever feeling I have or do not have for anybody is my business and mine alone, so I don't want to hear another word about it, all right!"

Rose looked at him. Her cheeks were red, her eyes were wide in shock, and, he noticed, they were also the slightest bit wet.

"Look, Rose, I didn't mean-" he said, stepping towards her. She took a step back.

"Stay away from me."

"I'm sorry. I was frustrated, angry, I shouldn't have-"

"Stay away. Do you hear me? Don't you ever come near me again! Zoe made the right choice, because you are a jackass. I never want to see you again. You hear me? Never!" with that, she fled from the gatehouse and ran. When she finally reached her house, she stood up against the door and collapsed, letting the tears flow.

When Zoe came back, Wade was sitting on her bed with his head in his hand.

"Everything all right?"

Wade looked up. "Yeah, I just did something stupid."

Zoe handed him his sandwich.

"Where's Rose?"

"I doubt she's gonna be hanging around me for a while."

"Anything I can do to help?" Zoe asked before taking a bite of her own sandwich.

Wade shook his head, "You might not remember this, but, I can be kind of an ass sometimes."

"I know." Wade looked at her, and she burst out laughing. It did not take too long for him to join in.

After they calmed down, Wade shook his head, "Nah, I gotta handle this on my own. But thanks for the offer Doc."

"Well, I guess I thought maybe I could save you for a change."

Wade froze up, "I'm not your hero, doc."

"You sat with me every single day I was in the hospital, for hours and hours; you brought me food, magazines, made me laugh. You drove me home, got me settled, caught me when I collapsed. What would you call that?"

He got up off her bed, "I don' know. Bein' neighborly?"

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Getting weird whenever I give you a compliment."

"Because you're not supposed to be complimenting me. I mean, you don't even really like me."

"I don't believe that."

Wade shook his head, "God, Zoe, why do you have to keep making this so hard?"

"What? What am I making hard?"

"Nothing. Just … just nothing." Wade said. He stormed out of the carriage house, shaking his head.

Wade heard a knock on his door, so he put down his bottle and headed over to answer it. "Well, if it isn't one half the happy couple. How ya' been, Doc?"

Zoe looked at him. She did not have time for his jokes, "My engagement party was tonight."

"Yeah," Wade said, nodding casually, "I think I heard something about that."

"Where were you?"

"Here." he said with a shrug.

"Did you not get my invitation?" she said, growing impatient.

"What, that pretty pink thing with the white lace?"

"It's crème colored."

"Whatever."

"So you did get it." Zoe said, hurt painted on every crevice of her face.

"Yeah, I think that thing's somewhere around here."

Zoe shook her head, "So, you just decided not to come then?"

"Was busy." Wade said with a shrug. He headed back inside and picked up his beer.

"I can see that." Zoe said sarcastically, looking around at the dirty clothes thrown everywhere and the bottles of empty beer.

"Look, Doc, I'm not one for engagement party's, all right."

"You're one of my best friends. You should have been there."

"Didn't no one tell you, when you get married, the husband becomes the best friend, replacin' everyone else." He picked up his beer and took a swig, "Good thing you picked such a perfect guy, else you might actually miss the rest of us."

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing," Wade said, taking another swig, "Guess I just ain't golden boy perfect, and I'm sick of pretending." Zoe shook her head, "Look, remember when we met, and you saw me as nothing but an immature, selfish Casanova? Well, I ain't changed, and I'm getting pretty damn sick of trying to be something I'm not. Fact is, this is all there is." He said, motioning to himself.

"I don't believe that." Zoe said. Her voice was quiet, but certain. She had faith in him, he could hear it, but he did not care. He couldn't care.

"I don't really care what you believe. Just go live you're happily ever after. Why waste all that great George Tucker bein' with time on me?"

"Because you're my friend."

"The only female friends I got are in the bedroom Doc, you should know that by now. Fact is, I'm only ever nice to girls I'm tryin' to do, and I ain't an adulterer. Guess even infants like me got their boundries."

"Wade-"

"Didn't you hear what I just said? We were never friends! Truth is, when you came to town, I made a bet with a friend of mine I could get you into be, so you just gone and cost me 250 bucks. Now get! Go on, get out a here!"

Wade shook his head as that night floated back to him, how hurt Zoe had looked, how angry he had been, how many beers he had downed. Wade made a point to be careful about his alcohol intake; he did not want to be his dad. That night though, he could have given his dad a run for his money. He had not given a damn. Yep, sometimes he could be a real ass.

The next morning, he had been so hung-over, he almost had not remembered what he had said to Zoe. He tried to apologize, a couple times, but she never wanted to see him. Maybe eventually she had forgiven him. He did not know. Fact was, they had not spoken since. Not until she lost her memory. Not until she started seeing him as her hero.

"Look, Doc, I ain't askin' for much, okay. But this is getting' really screwed up."

"I'm sorry Mr. Kinsella, but Zoe needs to remember her interpersonal relationships on her own. You cannot tell her."

Wade sighed, "Look, George is a close friend of mine, but that ain't the only reason I'm here." Wade paused. The doctor waited, "I think she might be startin' to develop feelings for me."

The doctor nodded, "That's not surprising."

"Wait, what?"

"Do you know the term transference, Mr. Kinsella?"

"Sure, transference, to transfer something, like, money in a bank, right? What's that got to do with anything?"

The doctor sighed, "I'm using the term in regards to psychoanalysis, Mr. Kinsella."

"Hey, don't go talkin' down to me. Only one doctor's allowed to do that, and thanks to your crackpot, half ass workin' medical techniques, she still can't remember how."

"Transference, Mr. Kinsella, is a term psychologists use to describe a particular phenomenon effecting patients. In regards to amnesia patients, it works like this. A person has a strong romantic attatchment to somebody. That attatchment is then wiped from their memory, but not from their emotions. They still have the feelings, but they do not have anybody to give them to. Often, they transfer these emotions to the person who spends the most time with them in their earliest memories and plays a big role in aiding them, i.e., their doctor. Knowing this, when an amnesia patient is known to the doctor to be deeply romantically involved, as your friends Dr. Hart is, we try to keep our distance. Unfortunately, in this case, the transference seems to still have taken place, fallen on somebody who goes as far back as her memories goes because she saw them when she first woke up, somebody who spent a great amount of time with her in that fragile first week, meaning you. It is perfectly understandable that she would come to see you in that role."

Wade just stared at the doctor. He did not know what to say. If what the doctor was telling him were true, that meant that any feelings Zoe seemed to have developed for him recently were really the feelings she had for George, just misplaced because she did not know. And he could not tell her.

"Well, what can I do about it?"

"Nothing. Just be her friend, a you have been, and give her the opportunity to remember who she cares for. Now, if you'll excuse me, I do have other patients."

Wade watched the doctor leave, and then stormed off, shaking his head. He had driven to the airport and flown all the way to New York for that. On the way back to he stopped by a bookstore and picked up some books on psychology and amnesia. There had to be a solution in one of them.

Lemon taped up another box. She had been repacking party favors and things over and over again for the past few hours.

"Honey," Lavon said, coming up behind and rapping his arms around her, "It wasn't your fault. You gotta stop blaming yourself."

"I don't" Lemon said, turning around, stepping out of his hold.

"Then what's with the obsessive packing?"

"I'm always obsessive. You should know that by now."

"Honey."

"Stop honeying me!"

"Sweetheart."

"That's not funny."

"I'm not trying to be funny. I'm just trying to help without getting' you more riled up."

"I am not riled up!"

"Lemon-"

"Are you gonna help me with these?"

Lavon shook his head in defeat. "Okay. Okay, I'll let it go. Give me the tape."

Lemon didn't. they stood there for a minute, "Why does this have to happen to her. You know, my whole life, no girl has ever been able to keep up with me, they either did what I said 'cause they were scared of me, or tried to crush me. Zoe is the first girl who has ever been more than that to me. What she did for me all those years ago, when we didn't even like each other, well, nobody else ever would've."

"Shhh." Lavon said, taking Lemon in a hug. "It's gonna be okay."

"I just want her back." Lemon said through tears, "I just want her back."

"Knock, knock." A familiar voice said.

Zoe looked up, and smiled, "George, hey, come in."

George smiled as he crossed the threshold, "So, how you been holdin' up?"

Zoe shook her head, "I don't know; as good as can be expected I guess." George nodded, "I wish Wade hadn't left. You know, he is the strangest man I have ever met … I assume."

George laughed, "Yeah, He is a character."

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

George nodded, "Shoot."

"Did Wade and I ever date?"

George looked dumbstruck, "Uh, what?"

"Look, I know you're not supposed to tell me anything, but there's this … I don't know, vibe, I guess, when I'm around him, like there's something there, or there was once. If you could just, I don't know, give me a little clue." George was silent, "I promise I won't tell anyone. Just a tiny clue."

Zoe looked up at George, pleadingly. He looked back at her, pain in his eyes, "I, uh, need some air." He said, excusing himself. Zoe watched as he walked out side, and could not help but notice the great effort he was making to breathe.