196A/N: I was supposed to finish 'Growing Up Kinsella Style' before I got into this but, you know, what? When it comes to new fic ideas, I have next to no willpower! lol So, I have to give Long Live The Hart some credit for this idea. She suggested to me, quite a while ago now, that I could (should?) write a story where Wade & Zoe first met in New York and so, that's what I decided to do. Hope you like this beginning, peops! :)
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters and any recognisable dialogue from Hart of Dixie belong to Leila Gerstein and other folks who aren't me.
Chapter 1
Zoe Hart wasn't really much for the club scene. With the hours she put in at the hospital, the crazy shift patterns and all, it wasn't normal for her to be able to go out late into the night most of the time, even if she wanted to, but tonight was an exception. Today her best friend, Gigi, turned thirty and that required some serious celebrating. It was why Zoe had allowed herself to be dragged here, along with half a dozen other women, to drink and dance and have a good time.
Despite a big speech on sister solidarity and such when the night began, most of their group had started to wander off and hook up with guys they met at the bar or on the dancefloor. Zoe wasn't judging but she really wasn't the one-night stand type. She could be, she supposed, if she put her mind to it, maybe. It just wasn't something she wanted to do. The opportunity never came up in high school or college, she was just too dedicated to her studies. Any guy she dated and eventually slept with was a boyfriend or at least real steady dating material. Zoe couldn't say it was the way she was raised since her mother was a little too often to be found with somebody else's husband in her bed, but she just wasn't the type to fall for whatever guy sidled up to her at the bar and turned on the charm. It was a shame that wasn't plain to some of those guys, so that they didn't waste their time or hers.
"Zoe, come on!" Gigi urged her, pulling on her arm. "You can't just sit here like a stick in the mud all night, come dance with us!" she said, grinning big.
Beside her, the guy she had been making out with in the middle of the dancefloor for the past half hour was also smiling, perhaps a little too much.
"Gigi tells me you two girls like to do everything together," he said with a significant look that Zoe recognised too easily.
"Not everything," she said pointedly before looking back to Gigi. "You go, honey. I'll stay here with my drink a while longer."
Though she complained about it, Gigi eventually led her guy away, leaving Zoe to her appletini. Honestly, she might just make this her last drink, call a cab and head home. She was pretty tired, this being her first night off from the hospital in more than a week. She should've stayed home and got a good night's sleep, and yet.
"Refill?" asked the bartender, tilting her head towards Zoe's now empty glass. "Um, no thanks," she said, reaching for her cell. "I'm fine."
Before the bartender had a chance to even move the glass away, her attention was being called for by a guy who leaned on the bar a little too close to Zoe. He ordered a beer but didn't seem all that keen on moving himself out of her personal space.
"Excuse me!" she said snippily, shooing him with her hand. "Could you just back up a little? Seriously, I know New York is crowded but you do not need to be that close."
"Wow. What crawled up your butt, sweetheart?" he asked her, complete with full-on Southern drawl, the kind of which was rarely heard in NYC.
"I was starting to think you were trying to, cowboy," she said, tossing her hair. "There's about six feet of room that way," she pointed out.
The guy held up his hands in mock surrender, smiling too much as he shifted over a little bit.
"Sorry 'bout that, princess," he said, turning that same dazzling smile on the bartender as she gave him his drink. "Thank you, sweetheart," he said as he handed over his cash, getting a hold of her hand in the process. "Wade Kinsella," he introduced himself. "I am, as they say, with the band."
The bartender was smiling even as she rolled her eyes and extracted her hand, turning away from him. Wade watched her go, still grinning, his eyes mostly on her butt, Zoe noticed. She didn't mean for the snort of derision to come out so loud, but it did, and of course, he noticed.
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Wade, turning her away again. "You don't want me within six feet of you, but you also don't want me lookin' at other women? Well, make up your mind, sweetheart," he told her, sipping his beer as he stared at her.
"Okay, first of all," Zoe told him crossly, "my name is not sweetheart or honey or babydoll or any of those other cute pet-names that would suit a child or a poodle better than a woman. My name is Zoe Hart, Dr Zoe Hart," she said with emphasis.
"Is that like Bond, James Bond?" asked Wade, grinning yet.
Zoe rolled her eyes. "Why am I even talking to you?" she asked, eyes going back to her phone and the task of calling for a cab.
She didn't notice that Wade had moved over again until he spoke too close to her ear.
"Tell me you're not leavin' already," he checked, peering at the screen of her cell. "Not when we're just gettin' acquainted and all."
"Please! Why would I want to get acquainted with you?" asked Zoe, turning her phone into her chest so he couldn't see anymore. "What makes you so special? Because you roadie for some two-bit country band?" she said, gesturing towards the stage that was currently empty while Sippin' Whiskey took a break.
Wade was laughing when she looked back at him, though he didn't seem willing to tell her what the joke was. Zoe frowned at his weird behaviour, watching him drink down the rest of his beer and then wipe his mouth with the back of his wrist. Before Zoe could ask what his deal was, a hand appeared over Wade's shoulder, tapping for attention. He turned around to face a younger woman, all blonde hair and boobs hoisted up to her chin, Zoe noticed. Without a word, the girl threw her arms up around Wade's neck and pulled him down, kissing him long and hard on the lips.
"Ugh!" Zoe grimaced, hopping down from her stool and trying to move away.
She had ordered her cab but the wait time was at least 30 minutes. There was no point her going and standing outside in the cold for all of that time, so instead, she went in search of Gigi and her other friends, on the off chance one of them might actually not be severely drunk and/or completely attached to a member of the opposite sex.
"You lost?" asked a voice as Zoe searched.
"No, I'm fine," she said like a reflex, well aware that letting strangers know you were alone and missing your friends was a bad plan. "Just heading for the bathroom," she lied, turning to smile briefly at the clearly drunk guy at her back.
"You look lost," he persisted, following her through the crowd.
"Well, I'm not," Zoe insisted, making a definite beeline for the ladies' room now, knowing she could at least hide there in safety for a while. "Bye bye now!" she said pointedly, trying to shove her way through all the writhing bodies on the dancefloor.
Zoe wasn't really sure how it happened. One minute she was up and the next she was down. Either she slipped in a spill or the heel of her shoe had to have broken, but the moment she hit the ground, Zoe was disturbed to find herself rising from it under something other than her own efforts. Thick arms around her waist made Zoe panic and she writhed in an attempt to get away.
"Put me down!" she insisted, smacking the stranger in the back, to no avail. "Just put me down!"
"You heard the lady."
She couldn't see who was talking now, but Zoe was 90% sure she knew exactly who was challenging her attacker. After all, he had that same Southern drawl from before. In a second, she was being placed back on her feet in front of the drunken idiot that had been following her, now facing Wade Kinsella, who was apparently with the band.
"You want to start something with me, hillbilly?"
"Are you kiddin' me?" asked Wade, wide-eyed. "That's the best insult you got, I don't think God favoured you with an overabundance o' brains."
"Yeah, well, I don't need brains to beat your ass..."
Zoe was about to scream that they should both back off and let this drop, she really did not want anyone starting a fight on her behalf, but she didn't get a chance to worry about it much. Her attacker took one step towards Wade and got a fist in the face for his trouble. The sucker punch brought him easily to his knees and in the seconds that followed security were all over the guy, dragging him from the bar.
"You okay, Mr Kinsella?" asked one of the burly security guys.
"I'm just fine, Cas," he told him, shaking out his hand. "Won't stop me playin'. Never has before," he said with a grin. "You doin' okay, doc?" he asked Zoe then.
"I'll live," she said, nodding her head as the security guy, who was apparently named Cas, seemed satisfied and walked away to make sure the drunken idiot was being properly dealt with. "Uh, thank you for that," Zoe told Wade then, making a vague gesture with her hands.
"No problem, ma'am," he told her pleasantly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I got somewhere I gotta be."
Zoe opened her mouth to say something, though she wasn't entirely sure what, turning to watch Wade cross the floor. He talked a moment with Cas, slapping the security guy on the back, before climbing right up onto the stage. The next thing Zoe knew, she was surrounded by screaming fans, all eager for the next set by Sippin' Whiskey, lead guitarist, Wade Kinsella.
"Oh my God!" She face-palmed. "He wasn't kidding about being with the band."
Zoe moved on shaky legs back to the bar, ordering a shot with a view to calming her nerves after the events of the last ten minutes. Victoria, one of the other girls from Gigi's party, appeared at her side, pulling herself awkwardly onto a seat.
"Hey, Vic. What happened to your guy?" Zoe asked conversationally, even as she helped her friend keep balance on the stool.
"He had to go play," she said, gesturing towards the stage. "You know, drummers get a bad rap. That guy is so hot."
Zoe turned towards the stage and tried to get a look at the one Victoria was talking about. Honestly, he wasn't that good looking in her opinion. Before she could look away, Wade moved into her view, shooting her a grin and a wink when he realised he had her attention. Zoe looked very deliberately away, though the smile on her lips seemed impossible to quell.
"Should've gone for the guitar player." Victoria sighed. "Now he is beyond hot."
"He's not bad," Zoe admitted, unwilling to elaborate on having met him or how he saved her - it wasn't as if Victoria would remember what was said even if she tried to tell her about it, she was so drunk. "I think I'm gonna head home now. You wanna share a cab? Vic?" she prompted when her friend seemed to be half asleep on the bar now.
"What?" she asked, barely lifting her head from her arms.
"Okay, you're definitely coming with me. I'm not leaving you alone like this," Zoe insisted, helping Victoria to her feet and starting to make attempts to walk her out.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" asked a voice, making Zoe wince with panic until she turned and realised it was Wade's security buddy, Cas.
"Oh, thanks," she said, allowing him to take some of Victoria's weight as they headed for the door. "I think we have a pretty long wait for our cab," she said worriedly as they got outside.
Cas got on his comms then, muttered a few things, and then smiled.
"A car will be with you in a couple of minutes, take you anywhere you want," he told her easily.
"Um, thanks." Zoe shook her head. "I didn't know the club did that."
"The club doesn't," he assured her, as the very car he spoke of appeared from round back. "Compliments of Mr Kinsella," he insisted, moving to open the car door and helping Zoe manoeuvre Victoria into the back.
She soon joined her friend and the guy closed the door behind her, just as the driver asked where to. Zoe gave the address of her own apartment on automatic, her mind wandering yet. Checking Victoria was mostly upright and unlikely to choke on her own vomit if the worst happened, she put her attention on her cell, Googling Wade Kinsella and reading avidly about his burgeoning musical career.
"A rock star with manners and decency?" she said with no small amount of wonder, before clicking onto another article. "That has slept with every willing woman who ever crossed his path," she said, shaking her head. "Guys, huh? What are you gonna do?" she asked Victoria.
"Huh?" her friend moaned, head lolling against the window.
Zoe sighed and shook her head. It really had been quite a night.
To Be Continued...
