A/N: Wow, that was a heck of a reaction to Ch1. Thanks to all those who left lovely and encouraging feedback - much appreciated :) Now, updates on this fic might be a little bit random, because my main focus is still Summers in Bluebell, but I don't see there being any too-huge gaps between chapters on this one either. I'm pretty good at juggling my fics these days ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 2

"This is insane," Wade said loudly, and not for the first time, as he paced the kitchen floor. "We're talking off the chart, beyond crazy, insane."

"You can keep saying that but it doesn't make it any less true," Zoe insisted, waving the birth certificate around some more. "This piece of paper says you're a father, and you already admitted that you know Carrie-Sue Smith, so-"

"I said I knew a Carrie-Sue Smith," Wade reminded her, "but I haven't seen her in more than a year."

"Wow, you're really bad at math," Zoe told him. "Nine months for gestation, five and a half months since baby John-Thomas was born," she explained, "which means conception would've taken place almost fifteen months ago. So, let me guess, the last you saw of Carrie-Sue was... late October 2010?"

Wade stopped pacing, sitting back down on the stool with a thud, his face turning pale. Zoe might almost have felt sorry for him, but the baby now screaming and crying from the next room was there because of what he had done, along with Carrie-Sue Smith apparently.

"She took off the day after Halloween," he said, almost too quietly to be heard over the baby's noise, and Zoe moved closer so she could be sure she caught any other information he shared. "We had something going over the summer, off and on, then at the Halloween party at the Rammer Jammer she tells me she's heading out of town, that she got this opportunity. See, Carrie-Sue wanted to be a big-time actress someday. She could make it, I was pretty sure. Anyway, she, uh, she came back to the gatehouse for... for a goodbye kind of a thing," Wade explained, rubbing the back of his neck, looking just about as uncomfortable as Zoe had ever seen him.

It was strange, he wasn't usually so shy about his conquests, but then she supposed this was the first one that had ended in quite this way. Zoe turned to look when she heard what sounded like Lavon singing and the crying of the baby dying down. She had to admit she was a little impressed.

"This can't be happening," said Wade, running a hand over his face as Zoe looked at him again.

"Believe me, it can," she told him, hopping up onto the stool nearest to him. "As your doctor, I feel it's my duty to inform you that unprotected sex-"

"Doc, don't, okay? Please, just don't," Wade told her, making a cutting motion in the air with both hands. "I am not takin' a safe sex lesson from you, or from anybody else. I am not that dumb. I take precautions against... Well, I take precautions," he said definitely.

"Well, no method is 100% guaranteed except, you know, abstaining," Zoe reminded him of what he should already know. "I'm guessing whatever was supposed to prevent a pregnancy didn't entirely do its job."

Wade nodded his head absently, clearly still trying to recover from the shock. Zoe knew she shouldn't have any sympathy for the guy, but at the same time, she kind of couldn't help it. Wade was a player, for lack of a better term, but as far as she could tell, he was pretty upfront about it. He was also a really good guy, in spite of everything.

Over the last few months, he had helped Zoe out of a jam so many times, really being there for her when she needed him, then at Christmastime he had actually asked her out. At least, Zoe thought that was what Wade had done. More than once in the last couple of weeks she wondered if she should ask him about it. Actually, more than once she wondered if she had made a mistake giving him a raincheck. Now she had to think maybe she made the right choice after all.

"Okay, I think we re-established some calm here," said Lavon, wandering back into the kitchen with the baby in his arms, now quiet and mostly still.

Zoe looked from him to Wade and saw the guy turn even paler than before, especially when he realised Lavon was moving as if to hand the child over.

"No way, man," said Wade, getting up from the stool and backing up a step. "I never... You can't just hand me a baby."

"Well, I sure as heck can't carry him around for the rest of time," Lavon pointed out, "and if I try to put him down, he hollers."

"Okay, give him to me," said Zoe, reaching to take the little boy.

Carefully and gently, Lavon handed John-Thomas Smith over and Zoe settled the baby into her arms, smiling at him as he stared at her warily.

"Hey, little guy," she said, bouncing him slightly. "You're a real cutie, huh?"

He looked a little confused for a moment, trying to turn enough to see Lavon again. Once he was satisfied that the guy was still there, he seemed okay with settling against Zoe without complaint.

"You wanna say hi to your daddy, huh?" she asked him then, glancing at Wade who looked petrified yet. "Come on, let's say hi to daddy," she insisted, moving around the counter. "Wade, you really don't have to be scared. I know babies seem really fragile, but they're pretty resilient actually. He's old enough to support his own head, so you don't need to worry about that. Come on, just take him."

She held the baby out to him and Wade visibly swallowed hard before he reached out his hands to grasp the little boy under the arms. When Zoe was sure he had a good hold, she let go but stayed close, not really worried that Wade would drop the kid or anything, but she could see in his eyes that he was still concerned that he might.

"Hey, kid," said Wade, awkwardly holding the child. "Uh, apparently, I'm your daddy, so... yeah, sorry 'bout that."

"Here," said Zoe as she took a hold of his arms and directed him in holding the kid less like an unexploded bomb and more like the child he was. "See, much more comfortable for everybody."

"Speak for yourself," Wade muttered, staring down at the little boy in his arms.

"You know, even without the birth certificate, we shoulda known who's kid he was," said Lavon then, glancing between father and son. "I mean, just look at the two o' them."

Zoe focused on the baby first then looked up at Wade's face that was just now starting to look less panicked. Lavon definitely had a point. The little hair that John-Thomas had was distinctly blond, his eyes had a greenish tint in the blue already, and when he smiled a big beautiful smile he could easily pass for a de-aged Wade.

"You think he looks like me?" asked Wade himself.

"So much." Zoe nodded definitely. "But you really didn't know Carrie-Sue was pregnant?"

"I just told you," said Wade crossly. "She left the morning after Halloween, I haven't seen her or talked to her since then," he confirmed, shaking his head. "How in the heck was I supposed to know about... about him?" he said, voice disappearing as he looked back at the baby in his arms.

John-Thomas tilted his head as he stared up at Wade in apparent wonderment, then the smile came back and he threw himself forward, trying to hug 'daddy' with his too-short arms.

"Oh my God!" Zoe gasped, one hand at her chest as the cuteness overwhelmed her.

"Now that is just every kind of adorable," Lavon admitted, chuckling at the scene.

Wade looked baffled but not unhappy that the kid seemed to like him. He held the little boy close and rubbed his back, a smile breaking out on his face, though he seemed to be trying to hide it.

Zoe couldn't imagine how mixed up he felt right now, but when her eyes landed on the baby seat and documents lying beside it on the counter, she realised somebody had to be practical in all of this.

"So, do you have any contact information for Carrie-Sue? An address? Phone number? Email?"

"Only address I knew was her parents place from when she lived here before." Wade shook his head. "When she came back visiting that summer, she was at the Whippoorwill, far as I know. I got a number somewhere maybe, but I'd guess she changed it by now," he admitted, daring to reach one hand around to his back pocket for a second to retrieve his cell and toss it on the counter.

"You want me to...?" Zoe offered, gesturing to the phone.

"Go crazy, doc," he said, bouncing the baby in his arms still.

"I could do some mayoral style diggin' into things if the number's a bust," Lavon said then. "See if I can't find a forwarding address for her parents if nothing else. They gotta know where to find our girl."

As he talked, Zoe had searched Wade's contacts for Carrie-Sue, finding there were way more girls names to comb through than even she had expected. It made her feel strangely uncomfortable actually. She hit the dial button on Carrie-Sue's number a moment before Lavon finished speaking and the guys both watched and waited as the phone rang once, twice, three times. The next thing Zoe knew she was getting a recorded voice telling her the number was no longer in service.

"No go," she said, dropping Wade's cell back on the counter. "Time to make use of your power, Lavon."

"I'm on it," he said, nodding once as he hurried to his home office.

Zoe watched him go and then turned back to Wade. A smile came to her lips without her hardly even being aware of it.

"You're taking to that pretty easily," she noted.

"Seems maybe I'm a natural," Wade told her, laughing when John-Thomas wriggled in his arms, making a happy gurgling sound before flinging himself forward for another hug. "You know who I am, huh, little man?"

"Babies have good instincts as a rule," Zoe explained. "He may not be aware that you're his father, but he clearly feels comfortable. He knows you're the good and trustworthy type."

When Wade looked at her then, with some mixture of confusion and wonder in his eyes, Zoe replayed what she just said inside her head. As awkward as it was to have complimented him that way, she couldn't see a reason to try and take it back. What she said was true. Wade could be trusted in all the ways that mattered. He never failed to come through for her or for Lavon. Sure, he could be a pain in the ass sometimes, but that didn't mean he wasn't a good guy, and the baby in his arms certainly seemed to know it.

"Aww," she said then, watching John-Thomas stretch and yawn in Wade's embrace. "He's so precious."

She reached out a gentle hand to the baby's head and smiled at him when he turned to look at her. He made an ooh of sound, one hand reaching out and catching in Zoe's hair for a moment as he stared at her. Then another yawn escaped and he flopped against Wade, his little eyes closing.

"He's probably due a nap or something," said Zoe thoughtfully. "I'm amazed he's not hungry actually, but then he could've had a feed right before..." she trailed off, her eyes moving over the baby seat again.

The poor kid had nothing else, no extra clothes, no food or drink, not even a teddy bear to cuddle up with. There was a blanket that had presumably been covering him when Lavon found him, but that was all.

"How could anyone do this?" she said out loud without really meaning to.

"I don't know, doc." Wade shook his head, holding the sleepy child close still, seeming to sway in place without even noticing he was doing it. "Carrie-Sue maybe wasn't the smartest girl, but I don't... Well, she wasn't ever a bad person. I can't believe she'd just abandon him like this."

"But she did," said Zoe pointedly, picking up the note that had been in the baby seat and reading it again. "She clearly trusted you to take care of him, even when she felt she couldn't anymore."

If Wade heard her, he didn't show any sign of it. All his attention was on the baby in his arms who was seconds away from deep sleep. Zoe wasn't sure what the feeling was that stirred inside her as she watched father and son together, but it was all kinds of warm and fuzzy.

Of course, being happy to hold onto a sleeping child for a while was very different to taking care of a kid 24/7. Zoe didn't need to ask Wade's opinion to know he was not exactly prepared for fatherhood, and yet, she wondered what choice he would really have if they couldn't track down Carrie-Sue.

"You should maybe lay him down now," she whispered, pulling the baby seat closer to Wade.

He silently nodded his head and gently put the little boy down, placing the blanket back over him and then stepping back, smiling.

"Can't hardly believe this," he said then, rubbing the back of his neck. "I got a son, doc."

"Seems that way," Zoe agreed. "You think you can deal with that? With being a father, I mean?"

"Hell if I know." Wade shook his head, staring at the baby still. "Guess I'm about to find out."

To Be Continued...

A/N2: If your math is strong and you were paying attention, you may have figured out by now that this story is set in January 2012, but I thought it was worth saying it, just in case :) Basically, we're starting in the break within Season 1, so after the Christmas of 'Hairdos & Holidays' but before 'Hells Belles' which aired towards the end of Jan...and I don't know how much canon is going to be in this and how much I'll skip out, we'll see ;)