A/N: Thanks sooo much to the fab people who keep sending me amazingly positive reviews - you're all very kind :) My aims for this fic are pretty much 1) cuteness overload of the Wade + baby variety, and 2) Zade love that happens much faster than in canon. That's cool with y'all, right? ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 4

It was mid-morning before Zoe, Wade, and Lavon had really got themselves together. It had been a heck of a night, all told, and there was still plenty to figure out now morning had come. Lavon planned to make breakfast, but that meant moving as much of the baby stuff as possible out of the kitchen. Zoe and Wade set John-Thomas up in the living room, finally pulling all the supplies that she had bought last night out of the bags and getting some organisation in place.

"I don't know if Lavon really meant for us to make the living room into a nursery but, hey, it works for now." Zoe shrugged. "You liking the new view, kid?" she asked JT who was sat on the couch watching everything with wide eyes.

"He's concentrating real hard." Wade frowned some as he noticed it.

"Yeah, probably not how you think," said Zoe, wincing a little. "That's more than likely going to lead to a diaper change," she explained with a look.

"Great." Wade looked less than impressed. "Well, I've been in worse situations."

"Really?" Zoe checked.

"Trust me, doc, all you've seen of Crazy Earl ain't as bad as he can get sometimes," said Wade in explanation - Zoe chose not to ask any further questions.

"Okay," she said, turning to the door. "So, I'll let you handle that and I'll just..." she trailed off, heading back through the kitchen.

"You right on time." Lavon smiled, spreading his hands to show off the counter filled with the usual Danishes, fruit, pancakes, and cereal. "Is Wade not eating with us?" he asked, watching Zoe take a seat and dig in alone.

"He and JT are having a situation," she said, making a face. "He's probably going to lose his appetite in there."

"And that's all the information I wanna hear about that," Lavon assured her. "So, I'm thinking we need a real plan where this baby is concerned. I know Wade says he's his kid so he'll step up, that's all admirable and everything, but we're talking a real live baby here. You know, as much as I love Wade and respect the hell outta him for what he's tryin' to do-"

"It's a lot to take on." Zoe nodded. "Especially this suddenly. I mean, most people have up to nine months to adjust to the idea of parenthood. This has literally been handed to Wade out of nowhere. He really does seem to be taking to it pretty easily though," she said with a smile that got Lavon's attention more than a bit.

"You know you got this really weird look on your face, right?" he said, smirking some.

"What look? There's no look," she said, shaking her head and putting all her focus back on her breakfast. "Anyway, regardless of what Wade does or doesn't want to do regarding JT, we do need to figure out what the situation is here. You said you couldn't get a number or address for the mother, and her parents don't seem to know anything," Zoe recapped. "The only real proof we have that Wade is even the father at all is the birth certificate that Carrie-Sue left with the baby."

"And the fact that kid is the absolute spit of his daddy," said Lavon, gesturing with his fork as Wade came through to the kitchen with the baby in his arms.

"One cleaned-up, happy little man," he said proudly, presenting JT for inspection.

"Which is great." Zoe smiled. "Except his T-shirt is on backwards and his pants are inside out."

"Are you kidding me?" Wade checked.

"Nope. Oh, Wade, don't worry about it," Zoe told him. "Have some breakfast, we'll fix the outfit later. Come on, JT, come sit with Aunt Zoe," she said, happily taking him into her arms.

"I don't think Wade is the only natural when it comes to the baby whispering," Lavon noted. "You got a knack, girl."

"I told you, I did a paediatric rotation. Besides, this kid is just the cutest, most well-behaved little bean I ever met," she said, voice turning decidedly babyish as she fussed over JT, kissing his forehead and making him giggle. "How can you not love him?"

The guys shared a look and then went right back to their breakfast. Women and babies. It was just one of those things they didn't entirely get.

"So, as we were saying before," said Zoe, moving her breakfast further away before JT could put his hand in the syrup, "we really need to come up with some definite plans about how we're going to deal with this situation. I mean, we have some supplies and there's space here for a kid, sure, but it can't be permanent, right?"

"I'm guessing the little guy bein' with me has to be pretty permanent. I mean, especially since we can't find Carrie-Sue." Wade shrugged.

"And you're okay with that, man?" Lavon checked. "I mean, you just got handed a life-time responsibility."

"Lavon, if he's my kid, which he obviously is, then he's already my responsibility whether I was expectin' it or not. Okay, I did not know this was gonna happen and I have no clue how I'm gonna deal, alright? But I gotta try. What choice do I have?"

Zoe was surprised at first about Wade being so gung-ho when it came to taking on JT so readily, but then she recalled what he said in the other room about Earl. In a lot of ways, she supposed, Wade had been learning to parent for a couple of decades now, thanks to his father's usually drunken state. The inebriated had a lot in common with helpless children, that much she knew for sure. Still, it was going to be a lot of hard work for Wade to raise JT all by himself.

"Okay," she said, adjusting the baby in her arms when he wriggled around too much. "So, first things first, you need to talk to Wally about work," she advised Wade. "I mean, you're probably going to need some time off to figure out how everything is going to pan out, plus you're going to need babysitters for any time you are actually working."

"Well, there's plenty of folks in town that'd pitch in," Lavon considered. "I can use my mayoral powers, rally the troops, get together a list of trustworthy child carer types for you."

"That'd be great, Lavon, thanks." Wade nodded. "I guess Job One is cleaning up the gatehouse and trying to make room for all the stuff this one is gonna need," he said, tilting his head towards his son. "You're gonna take over my life, little man, you know that?"

"Kids have a habit of doing that from what I hear," Zoe agreed, bringing JT over to his daddy and handing him over. "But like we said, we'll help all we can, Wade. I'm sure everybody will."

"Well, one thing's for sure, nobody's gonna be too surprised this happened to me." Wade shrugged. "Come on, now," he said, looking between Lavon and Zoe. "A whole bunch of folks are even gonna be quick to say I got what I deserved. Can't run around like I have for so long without something like this occurrin' eventually, I guess."

"What do you know? He did listen in Sex Ed." Zoe rolled her eyes. "Maybe just not quite hard enough."

"Sweetheart, you wanna know how well I paid attention in Sex Ed-"

"You won't be demonstrating anytime soon," Zoe cut in. "Not to me or to anyone. Not with a baby's crib right there next to your bed."

Wade looked from her to JT and sighed. He supposed she had a point on that.

Zoe could say one thing for Bluebell - the people there always pulled together in a crisis. Lavon had been absolutely right when he said there would be plenty of volunteers to babysit and such. There was even a crib, a high chair, and various other items donated to the cause by various helpful neighbours. Of course, Wade was right too when he said that some of the townsfolk would be quick to judge, saying he deserved this situation he got landed in. Zoe didn't really know how to argue with that.

Still, she had promised to help in any way she could, for Wade's sake and for JT's too. She booked an appointment the very next day for the baby to come in for a check-up. It worried her just a little bit when it was ten minutes after that appointment time and Wade still hadn't showed.

"We're talking about Wade Kinsella, honey," Addy reminded Zoe when she came wandering out of her exam room for the fourth time, looking concerned. "He probably just lost track of time, or the kid just ain't co-operating today."

"I didn't want to leave them alone, but I had to come to work." Zoe sighed. "Lavon said he'd keep an eye on them, but I'm not so sure he has much experience with kids either."

"Well, seems nothing too disastrous has happened," said Addy then, nodding towards the door as Wade struggled some to get through it, carrying JT in his arms and a pretty large baby bag on his shoulder.

"Hey." Zoe rushed to help him. "I was starting to worry about you."

"Hear that, JT? We had the doc here all worked up." Wade smiled at the baby. "Truth is, we'd've been here on time if half the damn town hadn't stopped us on the way to fawn all over the kid," he explained.

"You can't exactly blame 'em" said Addy, smiling widely. "You got a real good-looking child there, Kinsella."

"Takes after his daddy," he said proudly.

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Okay, now that you're here, exam room," she said, gesturing that way. "I do have other patients to see, you know?"

Wade looked at Addy who mouthed, 'No, she doesn't', making him laugh. Carrying JT into the exam room, he dumped the bag into the chair and took a seat while Zoe fussed with her papers.

"Now, I kind of had a breakthrough this morning, information-wise," she explained. "The certificate had JT's birth recorded in New York, and since I have a whole bunch of contacts at the hospitals up there, I managed to do a little detective work and... ta da!" she said, grinning as she held up a folder for Wade to see.

"You magicked up a file?" he asked, seemingly underwhelmed.

"Medical records, Wade!" Zoe told him. "These are JT's medical records from New York. Now, I already tried the contact information for his mother and that was a no go, but this does mean we can confirm what shots he's had and that kind thing. Makes it so much easier to take care of him from a medical standpoint."

"Well then, that's good, I guess." Wade nodded. "Hear that, kid? You got a real bonafide file for the doc's fancy file cabinet. That kinda stuff makes her a weird kind of happy."

"Says the guy who gets excited by video games and generic beer." Zoe rolled her eyes.

"Hey, they ain't the only things," he assured her with a look.

"Okay, so not what you're here for," she told him, beginning her examination of JT.

Not long after, she was happy to tell Wade that he had one very healthy little boy on his hands. At least that was one less thing to worry about.

"Got the Kinsella constitution, I guess. We're a pretty tough breed," he declared, bouncing JT on his knee.

"Carrie-Sue had clearly been taking good care of him before she..."

"Abandoned him," Wade said coldly when Zoe seemed loathed to say the words. "'S what she did, doc. No gettin' away from that."

"I still can't wrap my head around it." Zoe shook her head. "Not just because he's adorable and such a good kid. I mean, how does a mother leave any child like that, on purpose? I can't understand that at all."

"That's 'cause you live up to your name, Dr Hart," said Wade with a hint of a smirk. "I'm not saying Carrie-Sue was a bad person, least not when I knew her. She had a selfish streak in her, I guess, but... yeah, I have trouble figuring on how she could just leave him like that too," he said, shaking his head,

He looked to JT when the kid made some random baby noise, and Zoe followed his gaze. Maybe Carrie-Sue had her reasons for what she had done, but that couldn't really matter at this point. What mattered was that JT was a part of their lives now. Wade had a son and that was going to change absolutely everything.

To Be Continued...