A/N: Y'all really love a 'Wade with a baby' fic, huh? Well, that's good, and thank you very much, once again, to all those who leave reviews. On we go!
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 3
Going into practical doctor mode, Zoe had wasted no time in making a list of all the things a baby of John-Thomas' age might need and heading out to the store to get them. Thinking ahead about the gossips in Bluebell, she promised she would go out of town for the supplies.
"Like it'll make a difference." Wade rolled his eyes. "You know how it is around here, doc. The whole town'll know about him by sun up."
"Not necessarily," Zoe assured him. "We should really establish some facts before anybody else finds out. Anyway, nobody is going to hear anything from me, okay? If I do run into anybody who asks any questions about my buying baby supplies, I will just tell them I am helping out a patient," she said definitely. "It's not a lie. You are my patient, right?"
"Right." Wade nodded, recalling the time she stitched him up in a heatwave some months back with a smile he couldn't control. "Thank you, Zoe."
"No problem," she said, smiling back before she finally left.
A couple of hours later, she returned with bags aplenty, to find that the baby was, miraculously, still fast asleep and the guys were talking in low voices on the couch.
"-like Mr and Mrs Smith haven't seen or heard from their girl in a long while. You may even have seen her after they did," Lavon was explaining to Wade, who was rubbing his hand across his forehead. "I'm fair certain they have no idea that they're grandparents."
"You didn't tell them, right?" asked Zoe, creeping past the sleeping child towards her friends.
"Not my place to break the news, Z," he told her definitely. "You get everything?"
"Enough for a few days, I think." Zoe nodded, flopping down into the armchair surrounded by the bags. "Everything from formula and diapers, to clothes and pacifiers, and all I know for sure is that babies are so expensive."
"Right." Wade nodded, suddenly standing up from the couch and reaching for the wallet out of his back pocket.
"Oh, no." Zoe waved her hands at him. "I wasn't saying that so you would-"
"He's my kid, doc," Wade reminded her. "Least that's how it's looking, so all this stuff is mine to pay for."
"Wade, seriously. I just charged it to my card," Zoe explained. "When the bill comes in, we'll figure something out, but not tonight."
He looked set to argue for a minute, until he realised that funds were distinctly lacking after all. If Zoe really had insisted on him paying for the bags full of stuff, Wade doubted he could've covered it anyway.
"Thanks," he said, sitting down again. "I appreciate it."
Zoe only smiled and nodded.
"So, I'm thinking we should probably all get some shut eye while we got the chance," said Lavon then, eyes catching on the clock. "Gettin' kinda late and I gotta feeling when he wakes up, we're all gonna know about it," he said, tipping his head towards the baby sleeping soundly in the kitchen yet. "You wanna stay here in the house tonight, Wade, that's fine by me."
"It might be better than moving him right now," Zoe considered, "plus there's two of you to tag-team it if things get rough."
"Rough?" Wade echoed. "Rough, how?"
"Well, it's just... I'm guessing you don't have much experience with kids?"
Wade shook his head in the negative.
"I got some," Lavon admitted, "but I ain't so sure I can take point on this. I'm no expert."
"I did a paediatric rotation," Zoe admitted. "You want me to stay too?" she asked, mostly looking at Wade.
He had that awkward, kind of bashful look on his face again. It was almost as adorable as John-Thomas.
"Seems like maybe it'd be a good idea," he said, peering back at where the baby slept on in his seat. "Unless you wanna come back in the morning and find a catastrophe waitin' on you."
"Hey, what happened to being a natural?" Zoe asked him with a smile he just about managed to return. "Look, we can do this," she promised, her hand on his knee. "I'm not denying, taking care of a child of any age is not a bowl of cherries for anyone, but John-Thomas seems okay so far. He's not old enough to run off when we're not looking but he's passed the really fragile new-born stage. I'm pretty sure between three of us we can deal, at least for a few days until we figure things out."
Zoe wasn't sure exactly what she meant by that and was glad nobody asked her. In her head, she was sort of assuming that they would track down Carrie-Sue Smith and she would come reclaim her kid. At the same time, there was every chance that wouldn't happen, and even if it did, John-Thomas was as much Wade's son as Carrie-Sue's, apparently. He would probably want to be in his son's life no matter what now, at least, Zoe would've thought so.
Choosing not to get into that discussion until she had to, Zoe and Wade headed back to their respective houses to grab overnight stuff, leaving Lavon to watch over John-Thomas. Within the hour, everybody had arranged themselves around Lavon's home, with Zoe in the guest bedroom, and Wade downstairs on the couch with John-Thomas close by.
Zoe couldn't entirely explain why she couldn't sleep even though she felt tired. The bed was equally as comfortable as her own, maybe more so, and she was perfectly happy to be in the house with Lavon and Wade. It was only perhaps that her mind just wouldn't stop racing with possibilities regarding John-Thomas.
It was still kind of a shock to realise that Wade was a father, though she supposed given how many women he slept with, the odds were stacked in favour of a child showing up somewhere along the line, even if he was always careful. It was still strange for the kid to show up without the mother though. For all that Zoe never really considered herself naturally maternal, she could not imagine just abandoning a baby, even if he was being left in the care of his father.
A banging sound made Zoe sit up fast. It was swiftly followed by the baby crying and she threw her legs out of bed, quickly pulling on her robe and rushing down the stairs. She reached the kitchen and flipped on the light to find Wade sat on the floor, his back against the counter, and John-Thomas in his arms.
"It's alright, little man," he was telling his son, rubbing his back and trying to bring comfort. "I know it was a big nasty shock and all, but you're fine, we're all good."
"What happened?" Zoe asked, pushing her hair out of her face with one hand and keeping her robe closed with the other.
Wade glanced up at her over the baby's head, squinting in the suddenly too bright light. "I tried to get some water from the fridge without putting on the light and waking him up," he explained, even as John-Thomas' crying eased down to a dull roar. "Apparently, I was closer to the damn thing than I thought and slammed right into it."
He winced when he said it and Zoe suddenly realised, he was trying to move his toes and regretting the action in a second.
"Accidents happen," she noted, coming closer and sinking down to the tile. "You seem to have handled the crying pretty well anyway," she said with a smile.
"Yeah, crazy kid actually seems to like me well enough," Wade agreed. "Even when I'm scaring him half to death. Geez, doc, what the hell you doin?!" he complained then as her hand made contact with his toes.
"I'm checking to see if you broke anything, you big baby," she told him with a look.
Though Wade wanted to tell her to leave him be, he knew Zoe was just doing her job. Besides, having her fuss over him wasn't so bad, he had to admit that much.
"Well, I don't think there's any permanent damage," she said eventually. "You'd need an X-Ray to confirm, but chances are good if you can walk on it, it'll be fine. You want me to...?" she asked, making gestures that she would take John-Thomas for him so he could try to get up again.
Wade handed the baby over carefully and Zoe took him into her arms, shushing him when he started to fuss and promising everything was just fine. She glanced from him to Wade and watched him pull himself to his feet, gingerly putting his weight on the foot that he had slammed into the fridge.
"I think maybe it'll be okay," he said, testing how well he could walk.
"It'll probably turn some impressive colours," Zoe warned him, "but see, no real harm done," she told the baby in her arms then.
Unfortunately, he didn't seem completely happy with that and started crying again within a minute. Zoe winced at the sound and then her eyes passed over the clock on the wall.
"He has to be hungry," she said, shaking her head. "Uh, Wade, the formula is in that third bag," she told him, gesturing as best she could while holding a wriggling infant. "I put the bottles in the steriliser before I went to bed."
"Yeah, you tilting your head and flapping your hand ain't gonna help me know how to do this, doc," Wade told her, having located the tub of milk powder and feeling no further forward.
With John-Thomas duly passed back to him, Zoe took over making up a bottle. The baby seemed less upset back in Daddy's arms but wouldn't completely settle until he got his food. Zoe worked quickly to prepare the formula and then encouraged Wade to sit down on the couch for the actual feeding.
"Okay, you wanna make sure his head doesn't tip back too much," she instructed, "but keep the bottle tilted enough so that he's not just getting air."
Wade did as he was told and before long John-Thomas was enjoying his bottle, much to the relief of both his father and Zoe. They sat in comfortable silence while the baby drank, Zoe's eyes drifting closed more than once in that time. It really was stupidly late.
"Well, that seemed to go down well," she said when the baby boy was finally done, taking the bottle from Wade and going to tidy up in the kitchen.
It was only when she turned back around, she realised she was being watched, which startled her just a bit. After all, it was just now occurring to Zoe what she must look like with her hair all over the place and no make-up on. If the way Wade was smiling at her was anything to go by, the view couldn't be so bad, she supposed.
"I'm glad you're here, doc," he told her as she came back towards the couch.
"Me too," she said, nodding her head. "Since, apparently, Lavon can sleep through anything." She rolled her eyes.
"I didn't mean... I meant to thank you," Wade explained. "You know, for helping out and all. Means a lot."
"Oh, well, sure," Zoe told him, still hovering in place at the end of the couch. "C'mon, look at the times you've helped me out since I've been here. Car rides, snake bites, Leon Mercy," she recalled with a smile.
"Not like you never paid me back, doc," Wade reminded her. "As I recall, you stitched me up real good that one time when I needed the help."
"That's just my job." Zoe rolled her eyes, knowing she had to make light of it, if only because so much as thinking about the events of last year's heatwave made her feel as if she was right back in it!
"This ain't your job," said Wade, shifting John-Thomas in his arms as the little one started to drift towards sleep again. "This is me bein' in over my head and you steppin' up to help me out," he said, gazing down at the baby at first then glancing up to meet her eyes. "So, thank you, Zoe."
"You're welcome, Wade," she assured him, wondering when her voice had become so soft and strange, and making herself snap out of it just as soon as she realised what was happening. "Um, but seriously, you're already doing so well. You figured out feeding, comforting, and bonding already. You are pretty much one diaper change away from being a master of the basics," she said with a grin.
"Hear that, JT? Your daddy is a natural after all," he told the baby.
"JT?" Zoe echoed, just mildly amused.
"What? I like it." Wade shrugged. "You think it's lame?"
"No, actually, I think it's adorable."
Then he was looking at her that way again and she was feeling all floaty and strange. Zoe literally shook her head to snap herself out of it, internally blaming the lack of sleep and surprise of a baby in their lives for her strange feelings. Now was so not the time to be contemplating Wade in those terms. She doubted if any time would be a good time, but now most certainly wasn't it!
"Okay," she said suddenly, clapping her hands. "So, diaper change for JT, and then we can all get back to bed."
That certainly broke the mood and would-be moment, but Zoe wondered how long it would be before the next one came up and how she might deal with it when it did.
To Be Continued...