If I had to give this a title, it would be called the one where the town finds out, and is suitably surprised. I know everyone wants them to kiss and get their shit together, especially after the marathon that was season 3, but in this story they're still in the "I don't like you even if I am attracted to you" stage, so it'll take time. That said, it's still going to be faster than canon, because obviously being married is forcing them to be a lot closer than they otherwise were.

It's midmorning when they finally pass through Bluebell on their way to the plantation. After a full day of interviews at the Immigration and Customs offices in New Orleans and a night of driving, Zoe is exhausted. Yet she still can't sleep, her mind keeps going over everything, worrying.

'Do you think they bought it?' Zoe asks Wade as he turns off the road and onto the driveway.

'Course they did. Look at me, who wouldn't believe that you'd fall head over heels for all this?' Wade smirked, winking at her. Zoe rolled her eyes as Wade parked outside of his gatehouse.

'Yeah, you're totally irresistible. With your huge plaid wardrobe,' Zoe murmurs, sliding across the seat to get closer.

'and your beer breath,' Wade felt said breath hitch as Zoe's eyelashes flutter and she rakes her fingers down his chest, getting closer and closer…

'and that charming pigsty you call a home…' her hand stops at his waist, Wade doesn't have a chance to be disappointed about that because the next thing he knows her lips are on his and it's bringing back all those great memories of her first night in Bluebell.

Wade's just about to pull her onto his lap when she breaks it off. 'I have to say, that did not go where I thought it would.' Wade remarks, Zoe rolls her eyes again.

'Oh, my! I'm terribly sorry, are we interrupting?'

'Yes, actually. What do you want, Lemon?' Zoe snaps, glaring at Bluebell's leading belle through the open window of Wade's car. Wade looks outside and finally notices half the belle's standing there staring at them.

'Morning ladies,' Wade mutters, Zoe's sudden kiss makes sense all of a sudden.

'We came around to ask Wade if he'd seen where Mayor Hayes has gotten to this morning. Although clearly Wade wouldn't know, as he's clearly far too busy seeing other things.' Lemon remarks with poorly disguised delight.

'Okay so obviously we don't know where Lavon is. You can go now.' Zoe insists.

Just when Wade thinks that's the end of it, Lemon then spots the ring on Wade's finger and gasps. 'My lord, did you two get married this weekend?'

'Not that it's any of your business, but yes. We got married.' Zoe replies, at this point the belle's forget to pretend they haven't been listening intently and start to whisper amongst themselves.

'Well then, congratulations to y'all. We'll just be going.' Lemon twirls around and marches down the driveway with the rest of the belle's.

'No need to put an announcement in the paper. By sundown there won't be a soul in Bluebell that don't know we got ourselves hitched.' Wade declares, dropping his hands from the wheel. 'I assume that display of wifely affection was for Lemon's benefit?'

'Well the town needed to know, what better way than just using the gossip circuit? They were gonna talk about us anyway.' Zoe replies in a businesslike tone as she pushes away from Wade.

'Okay, but how could Lemon have seen your tongue in my mouth? Not that I'm complaining, I just didn't expect you to show that level of commitment Doc.'

'Ugh, you're a pig and ass.' Zoe tells him as she gets out of the car.

'And your husband, don't forget.' Wade yells through the window, Zoe just flips the bird at him as she stomps back to her carriage house.

Zoe had kicked off her shoes and her jeans when Wade walked in with her suitcases. 'Hey! What happened to knocking?'

'I was just bringing your bags, if I'd known about the free show I'd have waited another minute.' Wade grinned, Zoe grabbed a shoe and threw it at him, but he ducked underneath it easily. 'I guess that's my cue to leave. I gotta go to work, which should be real productive now the cat's out of the bag. But it's homecoming, so I can't really stay away.' Despite his words, Wade just stood there grinning at her.

'Get out!' Zoe yells, grabbing her other shoe.

'Come on, it's the same as those damn shorts of yours.' Wade grumbles as he stomps out. 'This is gonna be the longest two years of my damn life.' He mutters to himself, adjusting his jeans.

As Zoe walks into town to go to work, Lavon rolls by in his SUV. 'Hey there, Mrs Kinsella, need a lift?'

'It's Doctor Hart! And yes on the lift.' Zoe snaps as she climbs into the passenger seat. Lavon just stares at her as she waits for him to drive. 'I think it would look better if I sat around doing nothing in my office, rather than your car.'

'I just… you and Wade, married.' Lavon shakes his head in disbelief as he pulls back onto the road.

'I told you this was happening two weeks ago.'

'Yeah, but I didn't really see it actually happening. It's a pretty drastic step.'

'You're telling me, this morning I had to kiss Wade. Again.'

'Again?'

'Well you know, we also had to kiss at the courthouse. It was important that we had it documented so I paid a guy there for DUI to take pictures of the whole thing.'

'Oh, you have got to share those.'

'You sound like a real girlfriend there, Lavon. Here I was hoping that the one advantage to having a linebacker for a best friend would be the total absence of wedding talk.'

'Everyone loves a wedding, even linebackers.'

'Well this wedding is going down as one of the darkest days in my lifetime, so be a friend and stop asking, okay?'

'So you just want to forget about it?'

'Pretty much.'

'Then how about a distraction? I usually host a party before Homecoming every year. But the coach's mother is ill so I've stepped in to coach the team. It would be so great if you could help me out with the party.'

'Sure, it's not like work's ever busy for me.' Zoe replies with a shrug. Lavon grins as he parks in front of the practice.

'Great, here's my usual shopping list to get you started. Make sure you get enough crab dip, they love my crab dip. Don't get picky with the beer either, whatever's on sale will do.'

'Right, okay.' Zoe says, taking the list.

'Hey, why'd you have to kiss Wade this mornin?'

'Oh, Lemon and the Belle's were watching, so I thought I'd give them a show and then I wouldn't have to announce my new status to all of Bluebell.'

'Well you're right about not needing to tell Bluebell.' Lavon murmurs. 'You know what, maybe I should handle the party. You gonna have a long day.'

'Not likely, I don't even get patients with Brick out of town.'

'Girl, half of Bluebell will be in there today wanting to see rings. They will pay for the pleasure.'

'That's insane. Don't worry, I'm gonna handle this party, you go do your coaching thing.'

'Uh huh, you'll see.' Lavon calls after her as Zoe leaves the car. Zoe just shakes her head as she climbs the steps to the practice.

Her attitude changes as soon as she steps through the door. All her years in busy, crowded New York have trained her to recognise the sounds of a large group of people, the sound of many voices blending into one large noise reaches her from the waiting room. Zoe quickly darts into her office and closes the door. She dumps her bag and picks up the phone to call Addie.

'Girl, where the hell are you? I've got a dozen people here wanting to see you, and about a hundred questions of my own.' Addie shrieks when Zoe identifies herself.

'I'm in my office. Are all those people really here to see me?' Zoe whispers, but there's no reply. 'Yo Addie!' she calls in a slightly louder voice.

'I'm right here.' Addie replies as she closes the door to the office behind her.

'Oh, okay.' Zoe hangs up the phone. 'Are they really here for me?'

'Yes, though they all appear to be of good health.' Addie replies as her attention fixes on Zoe's left hand. 'Good lord, it's true ain't it?'

'I know gossip in this town spreads fast, but whoa.' Zoe mutters as Addie takes her hand to get a better look at the rings.

'Weddings are big gossip, especially secret weddings between couples that no one knew about.'

'Well my desire to have this whole conversation twelve times over is at a zero, so do you think you could just weed out the ones who aren't sick and send them on home?'

'And then you and me will talk, right?'

Over at the Rammer Jammer, Wade's day was also extremely unproductive. Between the jump in customers that always came along with Homecoming and the extra-large booze order that needed putting away, Wade was rapidly falling behind. Every five minutes he'd get interrupted by a man wanting to congratulate him on landing the hot lady doctor, and then they'd ask him not to make her retire her short shorts.

Shelley wasn't speaking to him. She'd taken the whole thing as a huge betrayal by both Wade and Zoe. Whenever Wade tried to speak with her she made noises about how she thought they were friends but obviously that wasn't true. He'd given up trying to reason with her well before lunch rush.

Wade was just starting to make progress on putting away the stock when he looked up and spotted him. The years had been good to Jimmy Praboo, he still had his good looks and he hadn't grown a gut yet. Wade's blood boils as he watched the guy walking around like he owned the joint. Wade dove under behind the counter as he calls up Tucker.

'You'll never guess who just walked into the Rammer Jammer.'

'Wade, I've been wanting to talk to you. Did you and Zoe really get married this weekend?' George demands, Wade just sighs in frustration.

'I'm getting mighty sick of talkin bout my marital status. We got more important things to talk about, Jimmy Praboo is here for homecoming!'

'Wade, I wasn't born yesterday, okay? I can put two and two together.'

'Yeah, homecoming is a perfect time to get revenge. I still got the list.' Wade hisses as he peers over the top of the bar.

'Wade…' George sighs. 'Okay, bring the list to dinner at Lemon's tonight. There's always extra food. And you should bring your wife too because I need to talk to the both of you.'

'I'll ask her. But just remember what's important here, okay. Revenge.' Wade hangs up, feeling angry and annoyed at the world and Zoe Hart in particular. The little bit of him that was still thinking reasonably told him that he'd known better than Zoe what they were getting themselves into. But still, he was feeling annoyed, and frustrated. And maybe life would be better if there was even a chance of sex in his future, but there wasn't and it was his own damn fault. He needed a distraction.

Wade's reverie was broken by Jimmy Praboo's loud laughter. Wade's face transformed into an evil smirk as he fixed on his distraction.