A/N: Thanks for the latest reviews, folks. It never occurred to me that anyone would think Earl & Wade wouldn't want to move in with Harley & Zoe. I think they'll be such a happy little family myself...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 33

"Baby, how many times do we have to tell you not to carry stuff around?" asked Wade, rushing to take the load from Zoe's arms.

"It's a pillow," she told him, even as he grabbed it from her. "Seriously, I can manage one whole pillow, Wade."

"Hey, we are not takin' any chances with you or this kid, am I right, Harley?"

"You won't hear any arguments from me, son," Zoe's father agreed without hesitation. "Sweetheart, I wish you would just sit down and let us get this done. You really should be gettin' all the rest you can right now."

At thirty-five weeks pregnant, Zoe didn't even have the energy to argue the point, though a part of her would like to. Honestly, at this stage, it was a very small part, but still.

It seemed wrong to be sitting idle when there was so much to be done. Wade and Earl didn't have so very many possessions, but it was still a fair amount to be moved into the Wilkes' house. They had been shifting boxes and small pieces of furniture around for hours and hadn't let her do one single thing yet, even though half the house now looked like a bomb hit it.

"Okay, can I at least get you guys a drink?" she asked, watching them all sweating. "I can make tea or get some lemonade from the fridge or something, please?" she practically begged, looking from Wade to Harley and back again in the hopes of one of them agreeing.

It was her father who eventually sighed and gave in. "Fine. You can fetch some bottled water from the refrigerator," Harley told her. "But you watch your step on these stairs and you take your time, you hear me, sweetheart?"

"I hear." Zoe huffed as she trudged off on her journey. "Like I could go any faster, even if I wanted to," she complained, just as she reached the hallway.

Earl came in through the front door then, a lamp in one hand and a bag dangling from the fingers of the other.

"Well, hey there, pretty girl," he said, looking Zoe over. "I swear, you get any bigger, you're gonna bust."

"Thanks, Earl," she said, smiling because it was hard not to find his phrasing amusing. "That's just what a girl wants to hear."

"Oh. Sorry 'bout that," he said, looking guilty then. "I guess all that boozin' I used to do, it's kinda messed up my brain some. Sometimes, I say things, don't really think 'em through."

"Hey, it's fine," Zoe promised, her hand briefly on his arm. "I know you didn't mean any harm. Honestly, a not-small part of the time, I feel like I really might just burst, but no, there are still five weeks to go yet," she said, heaving a sigh. "I swear, I don't even know why women choose to do this, and multiple times too!"

"I promise you, little Zoe, when you see that baby of yours, you'll know that all this trouble was worth it." Earl smiled kindly at her. "I know that's how me and my Jackie felt anyhow, first with Jesse, then with Wade."

There was a glassy look in his eyes and a shake in his voice when he spoke of his wife and the family they had built together. Immediately, Zoe wanted to take back anything she might've said to hurt him, but she knew she hadn't really, any more than he had really insulted her when he talked about her being so big.

"You know, I can't think of better people than you and Harley to be grandfathers to this baby," she said with a soft smile. "I just know she's going to love her Grandpa Earl."

Wade's father had to clear his throat pretty hard before he could answer her. "Well, I'll be just as proud as punch to have her look to me that way," he said definitely. "And I will do my best by her, I promise you that."

"I know." Zoe nodded.

"Hey, Dad?" Wade suddenly called from upstairs. "You bringin' that stuff up here or not, old man?"

"Be right there, son!" Earl yelled back before hurrying up the stairs just as fast as he could.

Zoe laughed at the sound of the Kinsella men bantering back and forth as she finally made her way to the kitchen to get some water for the guys. Taking a hold of the handle on the fridge, she started to pull and then suddenly let go, a pain shooting right around the middle of her body.

"Wow," she gasped, bending double for a moment and trying to breathe through the pain and shock.

She waited for something else to happen, another spasm, further pain, any other symptoms that might be cause for concern. Nothing happened. Standing straight again, one arm went around her bump, as if to cradle the baby inside. She felt the little one kick against her hand and smiled.

"Maybe after we take the guys their water, we should take a break," she said to the baby, reaching for fridge door one more time and opening it without incident this time around.

Zoe took the bottles of water as far as the bottom of the staircase, only for Wade to reach the bottom step and hold out his hands for the drinks.

"I could've brought them up," she told him with a look.

"You could also sit your butt down and take a little pressure off your pretty little ankles that are tryin' to be as big as your head right now," he told her smartly.

Zoe opened her mouth to argue but already knew it would do no good. Actually, she found it weirdly sweet that Wade had even noticed something like that. Of course, there was every chance Harley had told him, but that was okay too.

"Fine!" she huffed, like it was the biggest convenience. "I'll sit, but only for a little while," she told him, pointing a finger into his chest. "Then I am coming back up to our room to check everything is okay. No neon signs over the bed, okay, cowboy? And no moving my tchotchkes around either," she said firmly, wondering at the ridiculous grin he was wearing even then. "What?"

"You said our room," he pointed out, wrapping an arm around her. "Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"

It didn't take much for Zoe to give in and grin right back at him. "It actually does," she admitted, meeting his kiss.

"Okay, now go sit your butt down a while, beautiful. We'll handle the rest of this stuff that needs movin' and we'll yell for you when we're done."

"Don't yell too loud," Zoe advised as she manoeuvred herself into the living room. "There's a good chance that the second I hit the couch, I'll fall asleep."

It was almost scary how good the idea of that kind of rest seemed to Zoe when it wasn't even noon yet. Still, she figured Harley had a point about her getting all the rest she could while the going was good. Once the baby came, things were going to get seriously intense. Of course, it helped knowing that she didn't have to do any of this alone.

Settling down on the couch with her feet up, Zoe had a smile on her face as she let her eyes close a while. To think that when she first found out she was pregnant, she was so panicked about how she would deal. Now she had a father who loved her to pieces, a boyfriend who was completely devoted, plus his father who doted on her too. Most of the townsfolk of Bluebell seemed more than willing to rally around, as needed, to pitch in and help. Zoe was pretty sure she had never felt so safe or so loved in her whole life.

It wasn't that Wade wasn't comfortable in Zoe's bed. Truth be told, he had been there before, and he was never once sorry to have spent the time, but things were real different now. As of today, it wasn't just Zoe's bed, it was his own too. This house that used to be the Wilkes place was now home to four (and a half, he supposed), including himself and good old Earl.

Wade really never saw that coming. Thinking about it too much had him chuckling enough to get Zoe's attention, though he was pretty sure she had been half-asleep with her head on his chest until then.

"What's so funny?" she asked, peering up at him through a curtain of her own hair.

"Nothin' really," Wade told her, pushing said hair aside so he could better see her face. "Don't look so worried, sweetheart, I was just... well, I guess I was thinkin' how I never saw myself endin' up here."

"Here?" she checked. "As in this bed? Because you've been here before. Sure, not so much for a sleep over, but-"

"That ain't what I meant." Wade shook his head. "Well, not exactly," he corrected, pulling her closer and kissing the top of her head. "Truth is I was just considerin' where life's twisting path has taken me this past year. Hell, this past six months or so. You realise that this time last year, we didn't even meet yet?"

"Huh. You know, I hadn't actually thought about it, at least, not lately, but you're right," Zoe considered. "Wow. This time last year I was in Yale. Last semester of Freshman year. I was worrying about finals already and..."

When she fell silent, Wade wondered if somehow she had managed to fall back to sleep on him, though it seemed unlikely when she was mid-sentence. Looking down, he realised Zoe very much had her eyes open, but she was biting her lip and seemed to be feeling every kind of awkward somehow.

"Zo?" he said, nudging her shoulder. "You okay there?"

"I'm okay," she confirmed, tilting her head back to look at him again. "I was just thinking about who I was dating back then," she admitted softly.

"Uh-huh." Wade nodded, a familiar kind of angry rearing up inside him when he was then forced to think of Zoe's ex too.

It wasn't like he ever met this Logan fella, and honestly, Wade was glad. He might just have to knock him into next Thursday if they ever crossed paths and Zoe was quick to tell him that Logan was the kind of call the cops for that type of thing. Still, Wade instantly disliked any person who would hurt his Zoe. He also could not understand how anyone could just casually walk away when they knew somebody was having their baby. It never happened to Wade himself and he knew he shouldn't judge, but he loved Zoe so much, it was like a reflex to just hate Logan.

"Now I wonder what I ever saw in him," said Zoe then, heaving a huge sigh, "but the truth is, I can't ever regret meeting him, or dating him, or even having sex with him," she said, bluntly as she ever said anything. "Because actually, I have a lot to thank him for."

"Are you kidding me?" Wade yelped, moving over to better see Zoe's face. "If this is some kinda joke, Zoe, it ain't funny," he told her definitely.

"Wade, come on," she urged him to understand, propping herself up on the pillows now he was no longer holding onto her. "Think about it. If I never dated Logan, if we never slept together, I wouldn't be pregnant," she reminded him, one arm cradling her enlarged belly even now. "If there was no baby, maybe I never would've come here. Heck, I probably wouldn't have passed out when we first met, which would mean you never would've made it into my room or have got the chance to tell me about Harley. Even if I had listened to you, I can't say for sure I would've come to Bluebell, and even if I had, I can't imagine I would've stayed."

Wade wanted to argue with her. He really didn't want to have to be grateful to that dick from Yale for anything, but even he had to admit that Zoe did have a point. If not for her pregnancy, which Logan played a role in, maybe things would've gone very differently. Maybe Zoe wouldn't be in Wade's life right now, and man, would that ever suck.

"Damn it, Zoe," he complained then, rubbing his forehead. "Now you made me glad you slept with him too."

She laughed at that and he couldn't exactly blame her. It was pretty funny and all-out ridiculous, but there it was. If not for some piece of crap guy, Zoe and Wade might not even have got to know each other at all, much less be living together in her daddy's house, with his daddy staying there too.

"C'mere, girl," he said then, reaching to pull Zoe back into his arms, a place she went entirely willingly, her arm across his chest and her head on his shoulder.

"So, where were you a year ago?" she asked Wade then. "I mean, I know you were in Bluebell, but was your life pretty much the same as when I met you?"

"Pretty much," he told her easily. "I never had much in the way of plans when I got out o' high school. I figured I'd do the best I could up to eighteen, graduate and get the diploma and everything, then just use the time I used to go to school to get some more work done. We needed the money, especially when Earl was havin' a bad day... which was usually more like a bad week, most of the time."

"He is doing so much better now," said Zoe softly. "I know it's taken a long time, but he seems to really be trying."

"He is, and I gotta admit, I did not see that comin'. Must be a hundred times that ol' Earl told me he was gonna quit his drinkin'. Think the longest he ever lasted before was maybe a month."

"Well, he's already done better than that this time, right?"

"Yes and no." Wade sighed. "We had a couple of shaky days in there, but for the most part he's been sober as a judge from the day he told me he'd quit. Guess I have you to thank for that too, Zoe Hart," he told her, planting another kiss in her hair.

"You know, I've been thinking about that too."

"About me showin' you my gratitude for stuff?" asked Wade, shifting down in the bed so their faces were level. "'Cause I can think of all kinds of fun things in that area," he said with a salacious grin.

Zoe laughed. "Not what I meant," she told him, even though they both knew he was already well aware. "I meant... well, you calling me Zoe Hart. It's not really me, is it? Yes, it's the name I've had my whole life, but Ethan Hart isn't my father, he never was," she said, shaking her head. "Harley is my real dad and he's just the best at it now he's been given the chance."

"So, what?" Wade asked curiously. "You're gonna be Zoe Wilkes?"

"Maybe. You think Harley would be okay with that?"

"You kiddin' me, Zo? You do that, the man would do back flips if he could."

"I'd settle for a general sense of happy," Zoe told him, grinning yet.

"Why don't you come over here and I'll give you a real sense of happy?" Wade offered, glad when Zoe got as close as she could and they sunk into a good long kiss.

To Be Continued...