The final week before Christmas flew by and things between Zoe and Wade had only gotten better. Noelle was more than thrilled to see both her uncle and doctor so happy. All she wanted was for her uncle to be happy. She was tied of seeing him so sad all the time and now he didn't have to be. With her uncle's happiness out of the way she could focus on he dad. She did want a mom, but her dad was all she needed right now and he wasn't sad, he was happy, he told her himself when she would ask him so really all she really had left to worry about right now was what everyone else had gotten her for Christmas.

Zoe had gone with Wade to his family's Christmas dinner. Christmas morning had been spent with breakfast in bed with a side of a beautiful bracelet. She had loved it, felt bad that her present to him wasn't anything as good as what he had gotten her. But he had told her that he loved it because it came from her.

"It must be a Christmas miracle," Earl chuckled as they sat around the living room, the presents untouched under the tree. Noelle wanted to open them up but she wasn't allowed until after they ate dinner.

"Why's that?" Zoe asked, snuggled into Wade's side. Going to his parent's house to meet his parents had left her a little on the nervous side. She had met up with them a few times in town, she had first met them when they came to New York to visit with Noelle but this was different and scary, she wasn't a doctor or new in town, no now she was their son's girlfriend.

"You shouldn't have asked that," Wade mumbled into her hair.

"Because my youngest boy brought a date with him to Christmas dinner," he replied with a soft chuckle. "You are a pretty lady doctor," Earl smiled. "You've taken such great care of my granddaughter and my oldest son here; I just hope you can do the same for my youngest one. He does have a temper at times, but I don't doubt that you can't handle him," he went onto say.

"Pop his temper is no match for hers," Jesse said, joining the conversation. "If she's on a mission you best stay out of her way."

"What? I learned a long time ago that I can't let anyone walk over me, I stand up for what I want and what I believe in, if you have a problem with that then I don't need you in my life," Zoe told them feeling like she had to defend herself.

"Oh yeah she'll fit in just fine," Earl laughed getting up to check on the ham.

"Where's your Mom at dear?" Jackie asked, studying the woman that Wade wouldn't let out of his grasp since they walked through the door. She liked that Wade had found someone that he could spend his time with and she wanted it to work out if her son didn't become stupid and ditch her some where down the road because things got too serious. She knew Zoe on more of a professional level than a personal level.

"I'm guessing somewhere in Italy. The last I knew she was making plans to surprise my father. She misses him and wants to make amends," Zoe said. She didn't mind, it was nice to have a low key dinner rather than having a party with people she barely even knew. If her mom and Ethan wanted to get back together that was for them to decide, she was no longer a factor in what they did relationship wise.

"Wait Candice Hart is going to fly halfway across the world and tell the man she kept this huge secret from that she misses him?" Jesse asked. Zoe had often talked about her mom and the man that wasn't biologically her father when they would get a cup of coffee in the hospital's cafeteria. "That's one huge gesture."

"What secret?" Noelle asked, taking her eyes off the biggest present under the tree. "Is it the one about you having a different daddy and you don't know who that is?" Noelle asked looking at Zoe. "Because that's really sad, everyone should know their daddy." It was one of those times that Zoe and Jesse were talking after Zoe's shift had ended and it looked like Jesse could use a friend. They had thought that Noelle was asleep, but it turns out she had woken up and was just laying there letting the adults finish what they were talking about.

"That would be the one, sweetie," Zoe confirmed for her. "I agree every little girl should know their daddy and you Miss Noelle are very lucky," Zoe told her. The less they could talk about her past the better she felt about it all. Today wasn't talking about not knowing who her father was, it was about spending time with the ones that you love and making memories that were going to last a life time.

"I agree," Jesse said, tickling the little girl.

Jackie excused herself to check on Earl and make sure that he wasn't making a mess of anything. With Jesse and Noelle goofing off on the floor left Wade and Zoe alone. Hearing that she didn't know who her father was left Wade to realize that he didn't know much about Zoe. He knew the little things that they had talked about or what he asked Noelle about. But when it came to the bigger things in her life he was left out of it.

"What?" Zoe asked, feeling his eyes burning a hole through her.

"I've just realized that we know very little about each other," he told her. Zoe smiled and kissed his cheek.

"Of course," Zoe told him. "We've only been together a short amount of time Wade. Not nearly enough time to learn about everything. But one day we'll get there if we last," Zoe told him. "What is it you want to know?" Zoe asked him.

"Everything," he told her with a serious expression. "Like this whole thing with your dad, how come you don't know who he is?" He asked, his finger tips running along her arm.

"She won't tell me and I've tried to find out myself but Ethan is my father on my birth certificate and I always come up empty handed, she refuses to tell me who he is because she's ashamed of what she had done, that at the end of the day it was Ethan that had been there to raise me, but after he found out the truth he took off," Zoe explained to him. At one point it had bothered her that she didn't know who he was but now she had let it go and she wasn't going to let the one little thing keep her from being happy. "I've tired numerous times but I come up empty handed every single time," Zoe told him.

"That's just a bunch of BS, you have a right to know," Wade said, feeling anger at Zoe's mom. He didn't know who she could justify herself from keeping something like that from your kid. He really wished that he could do something to help Zoe figure out who her father is.

"I've came to terms about it a long time ago. You're right she should tell me, but she won't and I can't do anything about that. I have to wonder what kind of a difference it would make now," she told him. "Can we maybe not focus on this right now?" She asked him.

"Of course," Wade told her, tightening his grip on her.

With the food being done they were summoned to the dinning room to eat. Stories and laughs had been shared as they ate. No one had any room left for dessert so they let Noelle open up her presents and she was more than happy when they were placed in front of her. Zoe was surprised to see that they had gotten her something. But her favorite gift came for Noelle.

"I made it myself," the little girl told her. "To help keep the memories we shared alive," she told her then going back to her own presents to finish opening up the few she still had wrapped.

Any chance to show of baby pictures of her son was a welcomed one for Jackie. So seeing the scrap book that Noelle had made for Zoe had Jackie searching for the baby album Jackie had made of Wade. Zoe smiled and couldn't wait to see what Wade looked like as a child. Wade on the other hand groaned and tried his hardest to protest, but his mom ignored him.

Zoe gushed on cute he was as a baby; it wasn't until a certain picture that she was looking at made her grow quiet. "Who is that?" She asked pointing to the man in question.

"That's Dr. Harley Wilkes," Wade told her. "Why?"

"I swear I've seen him before," she said, trying to think back on if she had seen him or not. It took a few minutes but it finally came to her. "He was at my college graduation. I barely talked to him before I was pulled away though," she told them. She swore that she had seen pictures of her own with him in them, but she couldn't be sure right now. Instead of dwelling on just who Harley Wilkes is, she went back to looking at the pictures of Wade and Jesse dressed up and running around the yard. Her favorite picture had to be of Wade holding a newborn Noelle.

"Thank you for letting me join you guys today," Zoe told Jackie as she helped her clean up from dinner.

"No need for that," Jackie told her. "You've really been such a wonder doctor and friend for Noelle and Jesse when they needed you, you even uprooted your life for her. I don't understand why you would do that."

"It wasn't just for Noelle; I needed the change in everything. New York was beginning to suffocate me, I had been trying to get a way for so long, I just hated to leave my kids behind and at the time I really only had Noelle, the others had gotten better and didn't need me or the cancer had been too much to cure and moving made sense at the time. Noelle was going on about missing me and I was going to miss her so I called Dr. Breeland and the stars just aligned from there," she explained hoping Jackie would understand.

"I guess I get that. About Wade, you're not with him just for Noelle are you?" Jackie asked. "I can't see my baby boy broken up if you're using him just to make Noelle happy."

"No," Zoe told her shaking her head. "That thought had never crossed my mind. I really like your son. He makes me feel so alive, so special. It's a feeling I've never felt with any other guy before and I don't want it to end," Zoe explained with a smile on her face. They may have moved fast over the last few weeks but it felt right to them and if they felt like things needed to slow down between them, then they could do that too. They had no plans of rushing out to get married or starting a family. They had plenty of time to discover things about each other. She just really liked Wade and he felt the same way about her. They weren't doing anything that they didn't want to do.

"Good, because I really like you Zoe and I don't want to hate you for hurting Wade," Jackie told her. Zoe smiled at the older woman and they fell back into a silence rhythm of washing the dishes.

The rest of the evening was a good one; it was when Noelle could no longer keep her eyes open they had all decided to call it a night. Zoe was curled with a cup of tea on Wade's couch as he was drinking a bottle of beer.

"That went better than expected," Wade said. "They really like you."

"Of course they do," Zoe smiled, taking a sip of her tea. "Did you think they wouldn't?"

"No," he told her. "I didn't know what to expect. I know you've met them before but now you were walking into the house not as their granddaughter's doctor but…"

"As their youngest son's girlfriend," Zoe finished for him. "I know that, Wade."

"What were you and my mom talking about in the kitchen?" Wade asked, finishing off his beer.

"She just wanted to make sure that I wasn't using you to make Noelle happy, and she wanted to understand why I would move here to be with Noelle for, I explained that it was more for me and that I could never use you because I like you way too much for that," Zoe told him, looking down.

Wade smiled plucking the cup of tea from her hands, making her look at him. "I really like you too," he whispered, his lips on hers.