A/N: Thanks for the latest reviews, peops, I always appreciate all the kind comments :) I know it's kind of frustrating that just when it seemed as if something really Zade-like might happen, it didn't, but there's method to my madness, reader-peops, just trust me ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 7

"I know this is going to sound awful, given the circumstances, but I'm really glad you needed a doctor's appointment, Annabeth. It's been fun getting to know you better," Zoe told her, settling back on the couch with a pastry in her hand.

"Well, at least you didn't find anything wrong exactly." AB shrugged, selecting a pastry of her own from the Butter Stick box on the coffee table. "Of course, if we never can get Lemon to break the curse..."

"AB, come on." Zoe rolled her eyes, reaching for her coffee to take a sip. "I already told you, it's way more likely to be stress than a curse. Curses are not real."

"So you say," Annabeth grumbled, taking a big bite off her cruller. "Let's just talk about something else. How are things going with Wade Kinsella?"

"Oh, pretty good." Zoe smiled. "I know he seems like the least likely candidate for Father of the Year, but honestly, he has really stepped up. It's amazing. JT is a lucky kid, considering the way he was just abandoned by his mother."

"Well, that's all just wonderful to hear, but not exactly what I meant," AB admitted, leaning in a little closer to Zoe. "I was more asking after a few details on how things are going with you and Wade Kinsella?" she said with a significant look.

Zoe bit her lip, narrowly avoiding spitting coffee in her new friend's face. Grabbing up napkins, she quickly wiped her chin and tried to regain some composure.

"AB, me and Wade... I mean, that's not... I help with the baby," she said definitely when she could finally find the right words. "There is nothing going on with me and Wade in that way."

"Oh, okay." AB nodded then frowned some. "Then I have just one question for you; why in the heck not? I mean, I myself, being a married woman and all, am really not supposed to even notice when men are attractive, but I've known Wade Kinsella an awful long time. Now, he may have a reputation, and Lord knows, nobody is surprised that he got some girl into the position Carrie-Sue Smith found herself in, but the man is built like a Mustang and if I was you, I'd be inclined to check out what's under the hood, if you know what I mean."

The last part came out fast and practically in a whisper, in spite of the fact the two women were completely alone in the carriage house. Zoe couldn't help but laugh at how obvious AB was about the allure of Wade, and yet at the same time, she seemed mortified by the idea of anyone knowing she thought about such things. Southern folks really took some getting used to.

"Okay, so, I can't deny that you have a point about the way Wade looks. He is attractive, and then some," she admitted, wondering why she could feel her cheeks heating up just thinking about him that way. "And as much as he can be a little bit of an ass sometimes, he can also be really sweet too."

"So...?" Annabeth asked, shaking her head. "Zoe Hart, you just told me every good point about the man but not one word about why you haven't... you know?"

"I'm going to choose to believe that by 'you know' you mean date him and nothing else." Zoe smiled. "But the truth is, I'm not entirely sure that Wade would want that. I mean, he doesn't really seem like the monogamous type, and I am so not the one-night-stand type. Honestly, even if we both wanted something like that to happen with us, how could it? The guy has a son that was pretty much just dropped in his lap out of nowhere. I think maybe for the first time in his life, Wade is not thinking about dating."

"Hmm, I wouldn't be so sure about that," said AB with a look. "I'm just sayin', I have seen the way you two are together, and like I said, I've known Wade an awful long time. He's just different with you to how he is with anybody else."

Zoe didn't have anything more she could really say to that, so she said nothing at all. After concentrating on eating her pastry for a while, she then managed to think of a new topic of conversation, steering AB towards picking out a movie they could watch and promising she wouldn't tell anyone if she chose something that contained nudity or curse words.

Still, even as they discussed other things and even when they eventually settled down to watch the movie, Zoe couldn't keep her mind from wandering on the subject of Wade. He was different lately, he had to be when it came to doing his best for JT and everything, but in a lot of ways he was also just the same, as sweet and kind and helpful as he had ever been. He had definitely been paying Zoe a lot of compliments too and going out of his way to let her know she was appreciated, all this with very few comments made about getting her into bed or similar.

Maybe he did really like her. She had been wondering about it off-and-on since before Christmas, but as she told Annabeth, with the way things were now, with JT to take care of and life so completely turned on its head, Wade would have no room in his life for any kind of dating and Zoe couldn't expect that. She wasn't even sure she really wanted that... except honestly, maybe she kind of did.

The door to the gatehouse flew open the moment Zoe reached up a hand to knock. She stepped back, startled by the sudden movement, and the yelling that followed.

"Tucker, I do not have time for this crap!" said Wade angrily, as JT screamed and hollered at his hip.

"What is going on?" asked Zoe, daring to step into the fray.

"George is just leavin'," said Wade, glaring daggers at his so-called friend for a moment before turning his attention back to his son.

George sighed, shook his head, and turned away but he didn't seem willing to leave even as Zoe looked on.

Wade attempted to calm JT down but nothing seemed to be working. If Zoe had to guess, she would say the poor kid could sense the tension in his father and that was only making him more antsy, but now didn't seem like a good time to tell Wade that. She was pretty sure she had never seen him so mad before.

"Doc, I just can't settle him," he said eventually, moving to hand JT to her.

"Okay, I got this," she promised, taking the baby into her arms. "Hey, JT. Hey, sweetie, what's wrong? Is it those dumb old teeth hurting you again?" she said, rubbing his back and gently kissing his head. "Okay, okay. It's okay," she promised, heading for the mini-fridge where she was glad to find the teething ring that was usually there. JT calmed down fast once he was away from the anger and had something cold to bite on for a while.

"See, it wasn't me, it's his teeth," said George smartly, clearly having been accused of causing JT's upset before Zoe arrived. "You know that kid likes me."

"Yeah, well, he's the only one that does right now," Wade told him crossly, hands on his hips. "Now, get lost, Tucker, or I swear to God, something worse than words are gonna get tossed around if you don't!"

George glanced at Zoe, now sat on the end of Wade's bed, holding JT protectively. He seemed to decide none of this was worth it right now and moved towards the door.

"Fine, I'll go, but think about what I said, please," he told Wade before he finally left.

Wade slammed the door closed behind him and Zoe and JT both winced at the sound.

"It's alright," she told the baby, stroking his head. "It's okay, you're fine," she promised, hoping to keep him calm.

It seemed to work, but Zoe had an idea it would be much tougher getting Wade to calm down. He was pacing back and forth like a caged animal when she looked up. She really had never seen him like this.

"If I ask what happened are you going to bite my head off?" she asked carefully.

Wade stopped pacing, took a deep breath and visibly tried to find some semblance of calm. Zoe appreciated the effort, even if it didn't seem to help much.

"Goddamn George Tucker thinks he knows what's best for everybody, that's what happened," he said crossly. "Seems he's been runnin' around town tryin' to get everybody he can to agree not to let Large Mart build a store or a road or some such on any land they got, which is all fine and dandy, I couldn't give two hoots about his pet project."

"And yet you seem like you're really giving a whole bunch of hoots," said Zoe, smiling a little just because it sounded so silly.

Wade ran a hand over his face and sat down on the back of the couch, facing Zoe and JT. She deserved an explanation and she and his son both deserved for him to stop being so mad and upsetting everybody else.

"There's this nothin' strip o' land, right smack dab in the middle of all this other land that Tucker's tryin' to keep away from Large Mart, and it belongs to one Earl Kinsella."

"Your dad owns land?" Zoe asked, eyes wide with surprise.

"Like I said, ain't much of a place, just mud and a few trees, and the little shack he's called home these past ten years o' more," Wade explained. "Thing of it is, it could be useful to Large Mart, so Tucker came asking me to talk to Earl about it and when I didn't get around to doin' exactly that, he went ahead and did it himself."

"Which made you mad." Zoe nodded in understanding.

"Some days the man is so drunk he barely recalls his own name," said Wade pointedly, "and there's Tucker, gettin' him all twisted up about a land deal? That ain't right."

"No, it's really not."

If Wade looked surprised by Zoe's agreement, it was because that's just exactly how he felt. Nobody was in any doubt that the pretty little doctor had the googly eyes for old George Tucker, so to hear her say something he'd done might just be the wrong thing, well, that was a real shocker.

"What?" asked Zoe when she caught Wade staring at her strangely. "Wade?"

"It's nothin'," he assured her, waving away her concern. "I just never thought I'd see a day when you were on a side that wasn't George Tucker's own."

Zoe opened her mouth to remark on that but then closed it again quickly. She looked down at JT as he leaned against her, his little hand playing with the ends of her hair. She smiled, hugging him closer and kissing his temple.

"Nobody can be right all of the time," she said then, glancing up at Wade, "and this time, I happen to think George was wrong. You're Earl's son, and George is supposed to be your friend. He should've respected your wishes and let you handle this. He also should've understood that coming here and causing a fight in front of a child that was clearly in distress was a bad idea, and trust me, when I see him next, I will tell him that," she said firmly.

The thought of Zoe railing on Tucker had Wade grinning so wide, his face felt fit to split in two. Of course, her agreeing that George had made the wrong call probably didn't mean as much as he wished it did. Wade chose not think about that right now. JT was still looking a little red-faced and the poor kid had not been having a good time of it today, one way and another.

"Thank you, doc, for giving me at least one thing to smile about on this crap ass day," said Wade then, moving to sit beside her and trying to get JT's attention. "You've been grumpier even than your daddy today, huh, little man? There's gotta be an easier way for kids to get teeth."

"Unfortunately, no," said Zoe, shifting JT in her lap so he could better see Wade. "We all have to suffer just the same, as much as it sucks."

"Between him cryin' over his teeth and Tucker making me mad, I have had better days," said Wade, shaking his head. "Plus, I guess I'm feelin' just the smallest bit o' guilt, 'cause old Crazy Earl still don't know he's your grandpa," he said to JT, lifting the little boy out of Zoe's lap and into his own when he fussed to go.

"Maybe now would be a good time to tell him?" said Zoe carefully, clearly concerned she was just going to make Wade mad again if she said the wrong thing. "I mean, I'm guessing you need to talk to him anyway, make sure he's okay after whatever George said to him, and then maybe you could introduce him to his grandson? You never know, it might be good for him."

Wade wasn't so sure he believed that. Putting a kid in Earl's hands sounded like a truly crazy thing to do. Still, there wasn't one single part of Wade that ever believed his dad would want to do harm to the kid on purpose. No, sir, Earl would probably just love knowing he was a grandpa. Maybe the real problem was that he had taken so long in giving him the news, Wade just felt bad about it now, wondering how he would explain keeping JT a secret from Earl so long.

"That a doctor's opinion?" he asked Zoe after a while. "Y'know, about it maybe doin' Earl some real good to meet his grandson?"

"Not exactly," she admitted. "Although, scientific trials have shown that people struggling with certain conditions can improve in a more positive environment. What's more positive and uplifting than half an hour with the Kinsella boys?" she said, smirking the way he usually would.

"Well, when you put it like that, doc," said Wade, smiling back at her, though unfortunately the sunny expression didn't last for long. "'Course the problem is never knowin' what kinda state I'm gonna find the old man in. I get there and he's in some big ol' mess when I've got this one with me," he said, shaking his head as he considered it.

"What if I came along?" Zoe suggested easily. "I mean, I don't wanna intrude in your private family matter, I'm just saying I could come to the house with you. I could stay in the car the whole time if you wanted me to, it's just if you need JT to be out of the way of anything, he could be with me."

When Wade looked at her then, Zoe was pretty sure she stopped breathing altogether. She was just so sure he was going to kiss her, and yet, it never happened.

"I ever tell you that you are some kind of amazing, Dr Zoe Hart?" he said instead.

"Maybe," she told him, putting all her attention on JT just because it seemed safer, "but you say a lot of crazy things, Wade Kinsella, so I probably wouldn't listen anyway," she told him, getting up in the next moment and heading for the door. "I just have a couple of things I need to do before we go over to your dad's place. We are going, right?" she checked, looking back at him from the door.

"We're goin'," Wade agreed, nodding his head, and then she was gone. "Well, kid," he said to JT then, "there was a time when I thought I could make sense of just about any woman on this planet, at least enough to get by, but then your Aunt Zoe went and walked into my life. You know, what, JT? She is just a whole other ballgame."

To Be Continued...