Hello and welcome everyone to day 7 of Hanukkah.

Enjoy.

"Groceries?" Zoe asked, seeing Wade enter her kitchen, his baby doll in one arm, a bag of groceries in the other. "I have food, you didn't need to bring any over," she told him, taking the doll to help him out. She had wondered where he had gone off to after school. Normally he accompanies her home, today he was nowhere to be found after the final bell rang. It shocked her that he had been able to vanish from their shared class so fast.

"It's not food," Wade told her, taking the ingredients out of the bag. "Sort of," he amended. "I don't want to disrespect Harley by bringing my own food over," he informed her. He's not entirely sure if it would disrespect Harley, but he doesn't want to take any chances.

"Then what are we making?" She asked, making a bed for the baby doll. "Also what did you do to this baby doll?" She asked. Yesterday the thing wouldn't stop crying, today it's the opposite. "You didn't take the battery pack out did you?" She questioned, looking from Wade to the doll.

"Ye of little faith, Zo," he said. "After going home last night, I had to figure out how to do it on my own," he shared. "It wasn't as hard as it seemed yesterday. All part of parenthood, I think," he sighed. "We're making cookies," he shared, holding up a menorah and a dreidel cookie cutter. A few other cookie cutters lay on the table. "I looked up the perfect recipe, so you don't have anything to worry about," he informed her.

"This might very well turn out to be a disaster, but this is sweet of you," she smiled, kissing his cheek.

"It'll be our disaster," he smirked, sending her a wink.

Laughing, Zoe pulled the recipe from his grip, excited to make the cookies with him. With more flour all over themselves than in the bowl, Wade needed to take a break to take care of his baby doll. With Wade out of her way, she was able to get the dough made.

"Why make them?" She asked once he was done taking care of the doll and behind the counter with her. "You could have just as easily bought them," she commented.

"Where would the fun in that be?" He asked her. Really when he went in to buy the cookies, it was a toss up on what he wanted to do. Buying premade cookies felt like a copout to him.

"Eating them," she retorted with a smirk.

"Zoe," he growled out, making her laugh louder. "Are you saying that we can't make a simple cookie?" He asked, feigning hurt feelings.

"When has anything we've tried to cook gone right?" She asked, placing the cookie sheet in the oven. "You can't name a single time can you?" She asked amused, at his lack of a response.

"Excuse me, it's not my fault I've gotten distracted," he lamely told her as an excuse.

"It is your fault that I got distracted," she smirked in reply. Wade laughed because it's true.

"Someone got impatient?" Zoe questioned, dropping into a stool at the kitchen counter. "Was the store all sold out?" She asked, picking up a warm cookie, breaking it in a half.

"Are we talking about ourselves?" He questioned, pulling a sheet of cookies from the oven. "There is icing for them," he pointed out, using the spatula to point to the bowls with various colors of icing.

"I'm fine," she waved him off. "Work was stressful," she told him around a bite of cookie. "Thank you," she told Wade, pulling the plate of cookies he pushed her way closer.

"That explains why you're home late," he commented, moving the bowls of icing closer so he can frost the cookies Zoe hasn't eaten yet. "No, they weren't out of cookies. The plan had been to make them together, but I started them sooner than necessary," he told Zoe as an explanation to the mess she walked in on. "Do you want to talk about it?" He offered.

"I'd really like to eat cookies and cuddle on the couch after you've cleaned this mess up," she told him.

"Take your plate and relax," he lightly demanded of her. "I'll be in once I'm done with the cookies and the cleaning," he promised.

"Later, I'm going to stay and keep you company," she stated.

"Let it be known I offered for you to go rest in the living room," he quipped. Zoe nodded, biting into the soft goodness of the cookie. "What do you want to talk about, if it's not about work?" He inquired, drizzling icing onto a dreidel-shaped cookie.

"The results," she replied, dipping a piece of cookie into the bowl of white icing.

"The results, what results?" He questioned, furrowing his brow.

"Really?" She asked with a dumbfounded look on her face. "How long of a day did you have?" She asked.

"Longer than I thought," he frowned. He really can't place why they'd have to talk about the results of a test for. He had this feeling where he should know, but he can't place it.

"These results," she said, pulling the piece of paper from her purse.

Wiping his hand clean, he takes the paper, to read it. Seeing the confirmation, he laughs. Mostly at himself. He doesn't know how he could forget something as important as being a father.

"These results," he smiles, moving around the kitchen island. "We're really going to be parents?" He whispers, pulling Zoe into a warm embrace.

"That is what the test says," she replies quietly. "Are you ready for this?"

"I'm not that 17-year-old kid. My life is figured out. I'm having a baby with the woman I love," he answered, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. "I'm ready to rock being a father," he declared, resting his forehead against hers. "I swear to you, that I want to build a family with you, Zoe."

"I believe you," she assured him. "The spare room that's been collecting junk will make the perfect nursery," she smiled giddily.

"I'll get right on that," Wade promised.

"Don't even start," Wade warned. Getting the last of the cookies out of the oven as Zoe opened the windows in the kitchen to air it out.

"I wasn't going to say anything," she told him a bit defensively. "Knew it," she muttered under her breath.

"I don't even know what went wrong," he sighed, turning the oven off, looking at the charred cookies.

"You are a single father for a few more days, and we shouldn't have been playing tonsil hockey, maybe then we would have heard the timer, instead of smelling burnt cookies, just a suggestion," she shrugged.

"You make some valid points," he pointed out, tossing the oven mitts to the counter. "And you were right about us being distractions," he sighed, caving to what she had said earlier.

"I really did enjoy the time together making these cookies, even if only a select few are edible," she commented, holding up a thin, burnt cookie.

"It's an experience you won't forget," Wade smirked, picking up what he thinks is supposed to be a menorah, but it looks more like a blob.

"Or want to recreate," she smiled sweetly, making herself a cup of tea.

"Your jokes really hurt,' Wade pouted, holding his hands over his heart. "In here."

"I'm sorry," she told him, taking a few of the edible cookies and her tea. Kissing his cheek, she told him, "You're cleaning this mess up."

"On it," he chuckled. "Can you save a few of those for me?" He asked, looking at the mess they made. "And help me out by looking after my baby?"

"I can look after the baby because I don't want you to fail, and the cookies, I'll see what I can do," she answered sweetly, taking her tea and cookies to the living room. "I make no promises," she told him, picking the sleeping doll up.

"Good to know where I stand in your eyes," he teased her.

"Wade, you'll always be my best friend," she smiled, turning on her heel, heading to the living room.

Wade doesn't know if he wants to laugh or cry at the statement Zoe used to describe what they are. She isn't wrong. They are friends. And he wants to change that, and he's running out of time to make it happen. The window to make Zoe his is closing, he can feel it. He didn't need any time to figure out what they were, feeling things out was for Zoe's benefit, not his. She knows what she wants to do with her life. Has it all planned out, he doesn't. He doesn't want to drag her down.

Zoe might say she wants more with him, but he can't be certain and giving Zoe time to realize that, may have been wrong of him. He asked Zoe to trust him and here is doubting Zoe. Talk about a real hypocrite. What he should do is go into the living room and ask her to be his girlfriend. He would if he didn't have things planned out to be a bit more romantic.

"We've gotten better at making the cookies," Zoe commented, grabbing a second cookie.

"We?" Wade asked with a huff. "I believe they turned out because you weren't home to distract the real baker," he teased, nudging her knee.

"Yeah, that's why it's a we," she remarked. "If I would haven't been home, they would have been burnt and you'd have to break out the store-bought cookies," she stated, with a knowing smile.

"Who said anything about having bought a pack of cookies?" He asked, playing it cool. He learned early on to buy a pack of cookies. There had been days where they didn't have time or the kitchen to make homemade cookies, leaving him to buy from the store. The times they got to be in the kitchen baking cookies, were always better.

"You don't have to say you did, but I saw them sitting on the workbench in the garage, half-eaten," she informed him, biting her lip.

"Who ate them?" He questioned frowning. They should have been in a cabinet in the garage unopened.

"Guilty," she confessed meekly. "I was craving cookies in the night and I know you buy some for a backup plan," she explained.

"Was that all?" He asked, hoping the panic he felt inside wasn't showing on his face.

"Was what all?" She asked back. "I only had a few cookies. Do you have more junk food hidden out there?"

"No," he sighed, feeling relieved she didn't find anything else. "Tomorrow's gift is hidden in there, and I didn't want you to find out and ruin the surprise, is all," he explained to her. He doesn't hoard junk food.

"And what if I don't want it to be a surprise tomorrow, then what?" She asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge to him.

"Then I say too bad," he retorted, smirking. "You only get one gift a day."

"Hear me out," she said, folding a leg underneath her as she moved to face him. "I didn't get to help make the cookies, I've always considered that a huge part of the gift because I'm spending time with my boyfriend, making memories we get to share with our kids one day," she explained what she felt was the best part of making cookies for a gift. "The cookies have always seemed like a delicious bonus."

"I get your point and I'm sorry I took that away from you this year. We can go make more," he suggested. There's plenty of ingredients leftover.

"As great as that sounds, can you just give me a foot rub?" She asked. "It can be an extra part of the gift this year," she added on.

"Want some tea to help you relax further while I give you a foot massage?"

"Can't," she answers, shaking her head. "Most of them have too much caffeine for this late at night, and a few of them aren't safe to drink with our little one," she informed him.

"I didn't know that," he said, frowning, he has a lot to learn in such a short amount of time. "Do you want anything to drink before I get started?" He asked, trying to push the overwhelming feeling away.

"I'm fine," she replied, moving to stretch out, feet in his lap. "It's a learning experience for both of us. Together we're going into the deep end. I've got you if you've got me."

"Always."

"When did you have time to go to the store to buy Hanukkah cookies?" Zoe inquired, when Wade joined her in the living room, carrying a dozen store-bought cookies.

"I bought them when I got the ingredients," he informed her. "It wasn't just you that didn't have faith in our baking abilities when together," he confessed.

"Smart idea to have a backup plan,' Zoe nodded, taking the cookie from his hand.

"Hey!" he protested, trying to get the cookie back.

"What? I have to see what cookie is the superior cookie," she commented, after swallowing the bite she took.

"And the better cookie is which one?" He asked, getting himself a new cookie.

"Ours, no questions asked," she replied, finishing off the store-bought cookie. The cookies from the store were good, but there was something extra about the cookies they made that made them taste ten times better.

"Let me be the judge," he commented, taking the offered cookie from Zoe.

"Well, I'm waiting," she said, sipping her tea, tapping her fingers against the ceramic cup.

"The store-bought cookies, are a bit dry," he commented. "Ours are a bit chewier," he tacked on, dragging it out as long as possible, earning an eyeroll from Zoe. "But I say ours are the better cookies, because of the effort put into making them, even the ones that got burnt," he informed her, taking a cookie from the container.

"Is that why you keep eating the cookies you bought?" She asked.

"No," he responded shaking his head. "I'm being a good friend and letting you have the good cookies," he informed her.

"Regardless, thank you for today," she smiled, placing her teacup on the coffee table, curling into his side. Wade didn't waste any time wrapping an arm around her. "Baking the cookies wasn't the worst thing we could have done today and the memories made are going to last a lifetime. I'll be able to look back on today and smile and that's the best gift you could give me," she seriously told him, placing a kiss to the underside of his jaw.

"You're telling me that all I have to do for all the years to come is spend time with you making DIY projects," he suggested. Not that he would actually do that, but he will file it away for a later date in time.

"It wouldn't be the worst time spent together," she commented. "Woodworking should be a fun little hobby."

"Until someone loses a finger," he commented, squeezing her arm.

"Why do I have to be the one losing a finger?" She asks taken back at how easily he tossed her under the hyperbolic bubble.

"What do you know about woodworking?" He questioned. He doesn't really believe that she would cut a finger off, he believes that she would grow bored of the project. Woodworking isn't for everyone. Knitting wouldn't work either.

"What do you know about woodworking?" She tossed back at him.

"I know enough," he commented. "What are we watching?" He asked, ending all talk about the woodworking they're not going to be doing now or at any point in the future.

"I was waiting on you," she told him, grabbing the remote.

"My lucky day," he retorted, kissing the crown of Zoe's head.

"Thought I would find you in here," Zoe said, startling him. "Come back to bed," Zoe told him, hiding her yawn with her hand. "There's plenty of time to clean this room out, and get it ready for our baby," she says, standing in the doorway of the room, hands on her stomach.

"I know it seems that way, but I want to have a head start," he told her. "Cookie?" He asked, holding the container of homemade cookies out for her.

"I'll take one, but what I really want is for my boyfriend to come back to bed," she informed him, taking a cookie.

"I will," he assured her, looking around the room, he's barely made a dent in. "You're carrying and taking care of our baby, and I feel like a chump because you're doing all the work, so the least I can do, is get this room cleaned out for our baby," he explained to her.

"I didn't know you felt like that," she told him quietly. "I'll let you get back to work," she informed him. "I know that I'm doing the brunt of the work making sure we have a healthy baby, but you being here makes all the difference, I need you, every step of the way," she told him.

"I'm your man," he assured her, pulling her down, to land in his lap. "I love you," he whispered against her temple.

"I love you," Zoe smiled, cupping his face. "Always," she whispered, pressing her lips against his.