Like a promised, the final chapter is up on Halloween night!

Enjoy.

Three hours had dragged by tediously and now the once active and convivial street had dwindled in occupancy, leaving only a few remaining children waiting sleepily for their gossiping mothers to take them home. Various volunteers were scattered around, taking down the Halloween decorations and other festivities. The jovial night was officially coming to it's end. The wind continued to howl through the nearly empty and illuminated street, making Zoe silently grateful that Wade had lent his jacket to her.

"Hey, Doc? Could you come out here for a sec?"

Zoe placed one of the heavy beige boxes, filled with various Halloween ornaments from the booth, onto the ground with an exhausted grunt. Briskly, she headed toward the back gate and outside of the booth to see what Wade needed her for. Once she rounded the corner of the booth, Wade jumped in front of her wearing a hideously deformed mask.

"BOO!"

Zoe just stared at him with a look of boredom and annoyance as he removed the mask from his face and chuckled. "Damn. "

"You look better with the mask on." Zoe stated simply, folding her arms and mocking his usual smirk. "Why don't you just admit that you can't scare me?"

Over the previous three hours, Wade had tried to win their bet at every open chance he got. His first few attempts were certainly better thought out and creative compared to the mediocre tries like this one. One that was particularly clever was when he asked her to grab him some cotton candy - which she agreed to only because of the generous donation of his jacket - and some teenagers hid behind a line of bushes waiting to jump out at her. If she hadn't noticed the constant rustling of said bushes, perhaps it would have startled her. Then there were efforts like this to scare her that were utterly pathetic. It seemed evident - to her at least - that Wade was starting to get desperate.

Wade tossed the mask into one of the various open boxes around them and smiled triumphantly as the rubber material landed inside his targeted box with ease. "Simple, Doc. I still have time."

Zoe rolled her eyes dubiously. He was just dragging this damn bet out for no reason; except maybe just to agitate her. But if was his goal, then he had achieved it hours ago. She sighed unhappily, kneeling down to pick up a thick roll of duct tape laying by her feet on the ground. As she returned to her work of taping full boxes closed, Addy Pickett, the nurse from the office, strolled up to them.

"Have either of y'all seen Mr. Jenkins around?"

"The guy running the hayride?" Zoe asked, standing up with the roll of tape still clutched in her left hand.

Wade, who was currently working on taking down the foundation of the booth, stopped pulling up nails from the wall with his hammer an looked over to answer Addy while holding the tip of a nail between his teeth. "Yeah, I saw him goin' into the woods not to long ago. He didn't have any kids or anyone with him though. Figured he lost somethin' and was goin' back for it."

"Well his wife hasn't seen him for about an hour. She's startin' to worry. Mr. Jenkins ain't young after all. Is there anyway you two could go look for him, make sure he's alright?"

Wade turned to look at Zoe as if to give the decision over to her. In all honesty, she would much rather just say no and finish taking down the float so she could go home. However, she concluded that the best response would be to agree and go find old man. She sighed unhappily and nodded. "Yeah, let's go find him."

"Alright, old man couldn't have gotten far anyways." Wade insisted, going through a box and taking out two flashlight. "Come on, Doc."

Zoe nodded and attempted to toss her duct tape into one of the boxes, like Wade had done earlier, but the tape rebounded and fell flat onto the ground. Wade looked down at the tape then back up at her and started laughing. Zoe frowned then stalked over to him, grabbing his arm and tugging him away toward the path in the woods were the hayride had been entering and exiting from throughout the night. Addy watched the two leave with an amused smile before returning to her work packing.

As the two walked further along the wide path, the darkness of night became more defined and the lights of Bluebell's main street were fading slowly away. Wade flipped the switch of his flashlight on with a audible click and the blackness was illuminated a bit. Zoe did the same with her's and shined it from left to right to see the bare tree's along the edges of the path. She assumed that, were it spring or summer instead of late fall, the foliage would probably be quite thick. Wade started forward and she followed, lightly jogging a few steps to catch up with him.

They walked in silence, though she wasn't sure for how long. It had to have been at least fifteen minutes; probably more. She was silently thankful that she decided to wear flats instead of heels tonight, having not planned on walking so much. The farther they walked however, the more frustrated Zoe became and she looked over at Wade. "I thought you said he couldn't have made it far?"

Wade shrugged, still looking forward. "We've got to be getting close. I was thinkin' we would meet him further back, that he would be riding back toward town but..." His voice was lost as the wind sang loudly, almost as if in mockery of their misfortune. Zoe saw Wade cringe as the wind blew dust up from the path and hurled it toward them. She lifted her arm up to shield her now squinted eyes. Once the gust had slowed to a stop, she dropped her arm and they carried on in their search.

"Mr. Jenkins?" Wade called out loudly, his voice echoing through the desolate forest. There was no answer, so he tried again and still there was nothing. The two groaned in unison as they kept along the path.

It wasn't for another ten minutes or so that a large shadowed object came into view. At first, Zoe assumed it was simply her exhausted mind playing a cruel trick on her, then Wade took off sprinting ahead toward the object. "Mr. Jenkins!"

Zoe gasped and raced behind Wade until he stopped at the front of what was revealed to be the hayride, the horses responsible for pulling the cart pounded the ground with their hooves anxiously. As Zoe peered around the side of the hayride, she saw an elderly man laying on the dirty ground unconscious and she quickly got to her knee's next to him.

"What's wrong with him, Doc?" Wade stood behind her, looking down at the man with a blank expression.

Zoe lightly tapped the back of her hand to the old man's cheek to check if he would stir, but nothing happened. "Mr. Jenkins, can you hear me?" She took her finger and snatched the man's wrist up in search of a heart beat. "He's got a pulse." She sighed in relief and leaned over, putting her ear to the old man's chest in search for a sign that he was breathing. Suddenly arms flew up and crushed her to the old man. Zoe let out an ear piercing scream and instinctively shoved away from where her hands rested - one on Mr. Jenkins chest and the other on the hard ground - and stumbled backwards, flinging herself at Wade and wrapping her arms around him in fear.

She was prepared to take off running all the way back to town at any given moment. Silently praying that her life wouldn't end tonight. The sound of laughter was heard and she slowly peaked open one of her tightly closed honey eyes and looked down at Mr. Jenkins who was cackling hysterically. Then she opened both of her eyes and looked up at Wade who was also in his own fit of laughter. Slowly she released her arms' secure hold from around Wade and backed away, trying to slow her rapid breathing down."Wh-what are you laughing about?" She looked down at Mr. Jenkins with a look of absolute shock, "And what the hell is going on?"

Mr. Jenkins wheezed a breathless laugh, taking Wade's outstretched hand to be pulled up to a stand. "I owed Mr. Kinsella here a favor, young lady."

"Consider the favor returned, Mr. Jenkins. Thank you." Wade smirked giving the aged man a pat on the back.

Zoe shot Wade a look of complete disbelief that quickly morphed into one of outrage and vexation as she pieced together what had happened in front of her. Wade had convinced Mr. Roberts to scare her by faking serious injury in order to win their bet. He made her think a man was nearly dead to win a goddamn bet. Without another word, she turned around and started walking off in to the woods, blindly deciding to take a separate route back to Bluebell so that she wouldn't be tempted to do something she may regret to Wade. With her flashlight clutched tightly in still shaking hand she stalked through the rough shrubbery that scratched at her legs and stumbled over various tree roots sticking up from the ground. Unfortunately, her plan to get away from Wade was proving to fail because she could hear him not far behind, calling out her name in foolish belief that she would actually answer. "Doc? Come on, it was a joke! Doc?"

She kept her pace up, not looking back or slowing down. Her eyes were focused simply straight ahead, no clue to what direction she was actually going in. All she knew was that she wanted to get as far ahead of him as she could. However, as she had predicted, he eventually caught up with her, and rather quickly she may add. He must have ran at some point, she assumed.

"Doc, will you stop walking and just listen to me?" When she kept walking and ignored him, he ran up to her and grabbed her arm gently as he cut in front of her. She turned her head and looked down at the ground, refusing to meet his eyes. "Why are you so pissed off?"

Zoe finally looked at him with a look of incredibility. "Why? That little 'joke', was not funny!"

"Okay-"

She cut him off and continued, wearing her anger proudly. "That was a serious situation. That isn't something you joke about! Especially not for a stupid fucking bet!"

"I know that now-"

"And what was that suppose to mean anyways? You basically made a mockery of my profession. I'm never going to be taken seriously in this place, was that you're message, Wade? You know what-"

And then his lips were on hers.

His lips crushed to hers almost startling her as much as Mr. Jenkins had only minutes ago. Her heart beat picked up rapidly and she would have been more concerned that it would breakout of her chest if she could even thinking beyond that fact that Wade's lips were now connected with her own and that she was actually kissing him back. Her legs felt like they would have given out if it weren't for the support of Wade's hands on her waist. It wasn't until she started lacking oxygen, that she broke out of her trance - at least that's what she would like to call it - and she pushed away, gasping for air. "What was-"

"You were freaking out," A smile lit up his face and she instantly knew what he would say next. "I thought I'd snap you out of it with my generic beer breath."

A reference to one of their past lip-locks; that time she had stalked into the gate house to drag him into helping her build that stupid float for Lavon and he had kissed her in an attempt to shut her up - or so he always said, anyways.

Zoe just stood there, dumbstruck and at a loss of what to say. Her mind still seemed to be blown out, much like the fuse box almost every morning. Saving her another second of awkwardness, Wade looked at her seriously and spoke, "If I had known that you would have gotten that upset, I wouldn't have done it. I swear." Zoe observed him and couldn't find anything but sincerity and honesty in his face or voice."I'm sorry, Zoe."

Zoe couldn't keep a shudder from going down her spine at the way he said her name. This had to have been the first time he ever called her by her actual name, and not simply 'Doc' - honestly she was beginning to question if he even knew her real name. He stared at her, with hazel eyes connected to her honey eyes, searching deeply for even the tiniest hint of forgiveness. Zoe cleared her throat to prevent her voice from coming out weak or cracked. "Alright, I believe you." Her lips twitched upward slightly in to a small smile.

And that was the end of that.

They walked back to Mr. Jenkins and hitched a ride with him into town. The start of the hayride back was silent as awkwardness danced around them. Zoe's mind was replaying the events that just occurred, trying to decipher whether it was real or just a dream. Thinking was becoming harder to do as she began feel a sense of drowsiness. It had been quite an evening after all and she had planned to be home a good while ago. After all the work setting up, running, and taking down Lavon's booth followed by walking about two or three miles through the woods, being nearly scared to death, and her encounter with Wade, she felt not only physically drained but emotionally as well. Stubbornly, for the entire first half of the hayride, she had been determined to keep her eyes open, but the smooth ride through the calm, quiet path was making things rather difficult. Eventually she surrendered and rested her head on Wade's shoulder, falling asleep to quickly to notice him gently put his arm around her.

The next thing she knew, her eyes fluttered open and she woke up sitting in the passenger seat of a familiar car. She lifted her head up and away from the window, looking over at Wade sitting in the driver's seat, staring intently at the road ahead. She blinked and sat up, causing him to loose his absolute focus on the street. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty." He attempted to sound teasing and alert, but his face betrayed him with a look of dreariness. He pulled into Lavon's driveway and turned the car off. "We're home."

Zoe sighed and yawned sleepily. "Yay."

Wade got out of the car and walked over to open her door. When he did however, she just looked up at him with her exhausted honey brown eyes and he instantly knew all to well what she wanted him to do. Normally she would insist on walking back - being the proud New Yorker she was - but she was so tired right then that she honestly didn't give a damn. He chuckled as she held her arms out and he bent down to pick her up bridal style, reminding her of the time that he had carried her back from being bitten by the copperhead snake a few weeks back. She slung her arms around his neck as he held her close to his chest. He kicked the car door shut and began the walk toward both of their homes behind Lavon's.

"Ya know, Doc? I could really get use to carrying you like this."

Zoe smirked slightly with her eyes closed and mumbled teasingly, "Keep dreaming, cowboy."

Once they arrived at her porch, Wade shook her sleeping body lightly in his arms. "Here's your stop, Doc. Time to wake up so I can get home."

Zoe's eyes slowly opened and he dipped down, putting her legs to the ground before helping her steady herself. A grateful and sleepy smile rose on her face. "Thank's Wade."

"No problem, neighbor." A grin appeared on his face and she shot him a wary look. "You know, technically I still won that bet."

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Big freaking deal."

"It is." Wade took a step closer to her and Zoe slowly begin to notice that there was maybe three inches of space between them. She could feel his breath hot on her face, making her flush - she silently thanked that it was late and he probably couldn't see. "We never decided on what the prize was, ya know?"

Zoe didn't answer or fall back, holding her ground. His hazel eyes locked with her brown ones for the umpteenth time tonight and she couldn't help but be drawn in by them. He slowly leaned forward, his lips now less than an inch away from her own. "You know what I think the prize should be?" She swallowed hard and shivered, her lips parting as his grazed past her's and moved to brush along her jawline, stopping only once he reached her ear. He answered his own question in a teasing whisper:

"Reese's."

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

You don't have any idea of how hard it was to finish this story with simply the word "Reese's." I wanted him to kiss her too, but I figured that it would be a bit much to have more than one kiss in this little bitty story.

AND THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR READING! I have to admit again, I was surprised at how much feedback I got. It was for that reason that I was motivated enough to finish this story up tonight (I had a really bad Monday :/). I apoligize if there are any mistakes, I only read through it twice for corrections. If there are any mistakes that you catch, message or review me so I can fix 'em.

I really hope you guys enjoyed this little story. I figured it would be nice to write a Halloween Fic for the holidays.

ZOE AND WADE FTW!