Following a night filled with dead men, drunken teens but no sleep, seeing her mother standing in her carriage house making the bed truly is horrifying. Once Wade's done putting thoughts into her mother's head about their "relationship" (Zoe already knows that she's going to have to have another long talk with her mother about her taste in men), it almost feels good to yell at her. Turns out ignoring her calls wasn't as satisfying as she told herself it was, because boy, she definitely had some anger saved up there.

Later, as Zoe is traipsing through the woods looking for the dead Leon Mercy, she can't help thinking about how flying all the way down to Alabama to have it out is definitely not her mother's style. Candice Hart has always been a master at ignoring the problem until it went away. It's part of the reason why Zoe decides to hear her out, after she and Wade find the not dead Leon Mercy (God, sometimes her life really is a soap opera).

For a brief, brief moment as Zoe sits next to her mother after they've reconciled, she actually feels pretty happy. Of course, it doesn't last. 'Well, now we're on speaking terms again. We should talk about your visa.'

'What? My visa, what about it?' Zoe asks sharply, sitting up. Her mother gives a small sigh and looks at her pityingly.

'Dear, your visa was only good for the life of your studies. When you lost the fellowship, you lost your visa. I've had a lawyer looking to get you a new one, but it was only going to be possible if you stayed on at the hospital in New York. Surgeons are very important and the US is always willing to grant them work visas, but a small town GP is a whole other matter.'

'So I have no visa? Am I an illegal immigrant?'

'No, of course not.' Candice laughs lightly. 'Not for another three weeks, that's how long you have until they will deport you. Of course, that's assuming that they can even find you all the way down here.' Candice remarks distastefully, glancing out the window as something flaps by.

'That's not fair! I've hardly even started to get to know Harley, and now I'm going to be forced out of here? I'll lose the practice, everything he left to me.' Zoe jumps up from the couch, pacing. 'I lived in New York for ten years, surely I can get a green card or something?'

'Oh honey, you missed the filing deadline. I tried calling you to tell you, but obviously you weren't picking up. Now you're going to have to leave the US for at least six months before you can petition for a new visa, or the green card.'

'Mom! Just don't.' Zoe snaps, she groans. 'I can't have this conversation with you right now.' Zoe storms out of the carriage house. Outside, she stops and looks around frantically. Bluebell was never in her plans, and frankly she spent a good deal of time wishing she was elsewhere. But the thought of being forced out is really upsetting her, for reasons she can't really articulate.

'Lavon!' Zoe yells out as she closes the door to his kitchen.

'I'm not talking to you, car thief.' He calls back from his office. Zoe sighs and enters anyway. Lavon has his feet propped up on his desk, a book propped open on his chest.

'Be mad at me later, I have a serious crisis. Like, huge.'

'Has the good doctor finally realised that seeing dead people is a sign of madness?'

'Uh, no. That is, I know seeing dead people isn't healthy, but Leon Mercy isn't dead. Wade can back me up on that. I have another problem.'

'What could be more important than a man returning from the dead?'

'Okay, so you know how I'm from New York? Well, I'm not actually from New York. Or at least, I've only been a New Yorker for like, ten years.'

'Your babbling is really not convincing me that you ain't crazy.'

'I'm Canadian.' Zoe announces, bluntly. Lavon's eyebrows shoot up.

'Okay, it's interesting news, but I'm still not seeing the crisis.'

'The crisis is that I'm Canadian! I moved to New York to go to university where my father went, so I had a student visa. That is, my father Ethan Hart, not Harley. I kept getting the student visa extended through med school and then my residency, before I knew it I was calling myself a New Yorker, it was my home. But when I didn't get the cardio thoracic fellowship, I stopped being a student. Which means I don't have a visa anymore.'

'Oh, so that means-'

'I'm getting deported in three weeks!' Zoe finishes. 'I have to stay out of the US for six months because I missed the filing deadline or something, that's two whole quarters where I won't be seeing patients in Bluebell. Even if I get a new visa in six months, I'll have already lost the practice to Brick.'

'Well okay, that is something of a crisis.' Lavon frowns, sitting up at his desk.

'Yeah!'

'We could always sit down with Brick, ask him to hold off buying you out until you get back, in the spirit of fair play...'

'Now who's the crazy one, huh?' Zoe laughs bitterly.

'Is there any other way around it?' Lavon wonders as he slips a bookmark into the book and sets it aside.

'Not according to my mother and her lawyer…' Zoe stops. 'Maybe my mother lied about there not being a way! She's hated the fact that I'm here from the moment she found out. I need to get a second opinion.'

Lavon watches as the good doctor bustles out of his office without a backwards glance, he sighs as he thinks about the fact that he might actually miss the fact that he never gets a moment of peace to himself these days.

George is alone when Zoe surges into his office, she barely waits for George to tell her that he isn't busy before she tosses her handbag aside and begins to outline her problem. George watches her pace in front of her desk as she rants about how very unfair it all is for five minutes before she turns on him and demands to know if there is another way to get a visa.

'Uh, I've had absolutely no experience with immigration law, so bear with me.' George turns to his computer and looked up the relevant statutes. All the while Zoe watches him with a manic intensity. After five minutes he shakes his head.

'Come on George, there has to be something.' Zoe begs.

'Uh, well there's no way you'd qualify for the student visa or a tourist visa. And your mother's lawyer wasn't lying when he said that y'all need to leave for six months before applying for the green card or a work visa.' George shrugs his shoulders. 'All that's left is the spouse visa, but you're rather short on time.'

'So you're saying the only way I can stay is to get married?' Zoe looks at George who gives a nod, there's a look of longing in Zoe's eyes, before she sighs. 'Then I'm doomed. Toronto, here I come.'

George watches as Zoe collects her handbag from his couch. When she asks him how much, he waves her off. After a moment Wade walks in and tosses a bunch of papers onto his desk. 'I couldn't help overhearin' the Doc, she really a Canadian?' he asks.

'Yeah, but don't go tellin people alright? That's Zoe's prerogative.' George replies, flicking through the document. 'So Tansy finally signed, how'd you manage that?'

'Honestly, I ain't got a clue. I'm just happy it's finally over. So you'll file it?'

'I'll go to the courthouse right now, before Tansy changes her mind again.' George promises, placing the divorce papers in his briefcase. 'You can consider yourself a single man. Not that you haven't already, but now it's all official like.'

After her drink at the Rammer Jammer, Zoe returns home to find her mother waiting to say goodbye. 'I am sorry about this mess with your visa, but on the bright side, you'll get the chance to see all your old friends in Toronto.' Candice says brightly, Zoe sighs and opens up the cupboard where she keeps her wine.

'I don't want to look on the fucking bright side, okay? I am down here, trying to get to know my dead father, who I met once, for about a minute. And I didn't even know who he was. Who's fault is that, by the way?'

'I thought we got past this?' Candice snaps, annoyed despite herself.

'Yeah, that was before I found out I'm about to lose my last chance of knowing where I come from. Pardon me for being upset about this.' Zoe poured a large glass of chardonnay, scowling. 'There's nothing I can do about it either, because hell will freeze over before Brick Breeland backs down. The only visa I could get is a spouse visa, but where the hell am I meant to find an eligible bachelor in southern Alabama who will marry me within three weeks?'

'What about Wade? You two seemed close when I got here.' Candice asks, Zoe snorts and lowers her wine glass.

'About as close as the Union and the Confederates were back in the Civil War. He's an ass who derives joy from pissing me off. Yes, occasionally he takes a break from being annoying and fixes something, but mostly he's just irritating.'

'Really?'

'Yes!' Zoe insists.

Candice sighs and steps forward, pulling her daughter into a hug. 'I know it all seems bad right now, but I'm sure you'll figure something out.'

'If not, I'll probably call you in a couple of weeks for the keys to the Toronto house.'

After her mother leaves, Zoe settles on the couch with her bottle of wine. The sun sets and the bug zapper starts to spark as mosquitoes and moths come to a fiery end. Zoe tries to console herself by thinking of all the things she won't miss, like Wade and the local wildlife and the entire Breeland family, but it doesn't work.

I've taken liberties with Immigration Law, mostly because I don't know it. Fake!Married is one of my favourite tropes, I've always wanted to write a story for it.

Also I sped up Wade's divorce because there'll be enough stuff going on without it.