A/N: Okay, so I need to start by clearing up some confusion. I will need to put this story on hold when we get to December, because I have too much other stuff going on to write/update it regularly, but it's not December yet, so updates are still ongoing for now. Apologies if that wasn't clear on my last update. Now, thanks so much for the reviews and here's a little ficcage :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 27

"Brick, I promise you, you're going to be great," said Zoe with perhaps a little more confidence and enthusiasm than she really felt.

Quite honestly, if she had to hear him fight his way through 'Modern Major-General' even one more time, there was a chance she was going to scream, but she was so determined to be supportive. They really had become something akin to friends lately and it was a nice feeling, especially since Zoe had decided she definitely wanted to stay in Bluebell longer than originally planned. It had come as a surprise to her when Brick seemed genuinely pleased to hear her decision. The last thing she would want to do is jeopardise their new-found working relationship. Hence the encouraging him in his performance for Dash's 'Gilbert and South-ivan' event.

"There are just so many words," Brick complained, rubbing his forehead.

"Did you try listening to it over and over and trying to sing along instead of just repeating it off the page? Sometimes that works better," she suggested.

Brick snapped his fingers and smiled. "That's not a bad idea. Now, I wonder if they have a copy of Pirates of Penzance at the record store..."

"Uh, Brick?" Addy called behind him. "You do know you have patients in... twenty minutes?" the last part came out disjointed as she clearly realised he was already out the door and not hearing her anyway.

"It's fine, Addy, I'll see everybody," Zoe insisted. "We may have to move some things around, but I'll get it covered."

"At least somebody in this place has their mind on their job." Addy rolled her eyes.

Zoe was smiling as she stepped into her office, though the look faded when she was out of sight of her colleague. She was concentrating on her work today, for the most part anyway, but it was tough to keep her mind from wandering every time she put her hand in her pocket and felt the folded envelope lying there.

Carrie-Sue's letter from a few days before shouldn't matter much to Zoe. It was Wade's business, after all, not the responsibility of his new girlfriend to deal with. Still, when she found it on the table at the gatehouse this morning and casually asked what he wanted to do with it, Wade had shrugged and said she could throw it in the trash if she wanted, even burn it for all he cared.

Zoe could understand his attitude, given the way Carrie-Sue had just upped and abandoned JT like she did. At the same time, the whole letter thing just made her curious. She wondered more and more why Carrie-Sue sent it, what she really meant when she said goodbye. She asked Wade if maybe they should keep the letter, if only so they had something from her for JT in the future. It might make it easier to explain when he was older, about where Carrie-Sue was and what happened, or so Zoe thought.

"Do whatever you think is best, doc," Wade had told her. "File it away if it makes you feel better, just so long as I don't have to look at it."

That was when Zoe had shoved the letter in the pocket and there it had stayed, feeling as if it were burning a hole somehow. In a quiet moment between patients earlier, she had pulled it out and looked it over again. The postmarks weren't American but rather European. No return address, but Zoe studied the stamps and markings and deduced it had originally come from France.

"That's a long way to run away from your responsibilities," she muttered to herself, shoving the letter back in her pocket as Addy stuck her head in and told her that her next patient was ready.

Time flew by, one illness and injury after another, until finally Zoe got a chance for a lunchbreak.

"You have a window of about an hour if you want to cut out for a while," Addy told her.

"It's fine." Zoe waved away her concerns. "You go if you want, I'll man the phones."

Addy didn't need telling twice and was soon hurrying out of the door, calling Bill on the way to see if he could meet her. Zoe looked around the empty waiting area then returned to her desk, pulling out Carrie-Sue's letter again on the way. There was something about it that just kept taking her attention.

Wade was right about the way she said goodbye. It seemed so permanent, which didn't necessarily mean she planned to end her life. It could just as easily be a plan never to come back to the States, never thinking to make contact with Wade or John-Thomas again. That made no sense to Zoe either. To leave an ex was one thing, but to leave a child? There had to be a bigger reason than an opportunity for an acting career, surely. As dedicated as Zoe had always been to her own career as a doctor, she could never imagine choosing it over a baby. Of course, everybody was different. Maybe Zoe just wanted to believe that JT's mother had a better reason than that for leaving him behind.

Glancing from the letter to her cell as she thought for a moment, then picked up the phone and speed-dialled. Zoe bit her lip as the line rang once, twice, three times. She almost changed her mind and hung up before she got an answer, but didn't quite get the chance.

"Hey, Mom," she said when Candice finally took her call. "Listen, I need your help with something. Do you still have the number for that really good PI you used to know?"

"According to Lavon, after several weeks of the cold shoulder, George Tucker has finally allowed his ice to thaw," said Lemon, smiling widely. "When they ran into each other at the Butter Stick around lunch time, there was a reasonable conversation, in which George told Lavon he no longer saw the point in holding a grudge, and there was a hand-shake that was so monumentally significant, a picture was taken and displayed proudly on Dash's blog," she explained, turning her cell phone around so Wade could see the picture in question.

"Well, how about that?" said her friend with a smile. "'Bout time those two got things figured out."

"I agree." Lemon nodded. "Of course, I did also hear that George's change of heart was in large part due to a conversation that he had with you," she said, looking up to meet Wade's eyes then. "Thank you for that."

"No problem." Wade shrugged like it was no big deal. "I just told Tucker he didn't exactly come outta that whole situation squeaky clean either. Holdin' grudges never did anybody any good."

"I'm still grateful, Wade," Lemon insisted, patting his hand on the bar. "I mean it."

"Yeah, well, you keep from tellin' folks I'm gettin' softer as I get older and we'll call it even," he told her with a wink.

Lemon laughed. "I don't think I need to tell anybody for them to know that is true, Wade Kinsella," she told him definitely. "Every person in town has seen you with that son of yours, and I might say with the good doctor too. You become any softer and I do believe you'll collapse into a great pile of marshmallow fluff right out there in town square," she said, grinning wide. "However, I happen to think that becoming a father and falling in love like you have might just be the two best things that ever happened to you."

Wade hadn't really been aware of the fact he could still blush, but he had a feeling he might just be by the end of Lemon's little speech. Not that he could exactly argue with her assessment of the situation. He was an absolute fool for his son and his girlfriend these days, and actually, he was okay with that.

"Let me tell you somethin', Lemon Breeland," he told her then. "I am not ashamed to say that I have found two people who I love more than anyone or anything else in this whole damn world, and if that makes me soft or stupid or crazy enough to get a legacy nickname like my daddy used to have, then so be it. For the first time in a very, very long time, I'm just about as happy as a person can be and I'm hangin' onto that."

Lemon smiled all the more at the sound of those words, even seeming to tear up a little bit as she looked at him.

"I'd think you were a whole lot crazier if you did anything else," she told him definitely. "Those two have been the making of you, Wade. My only concern is... Well, isn't it Zoe's plan to someday go back to New York?"

"It was her plan," Wade confirmed. "Seems she changed her mind some since then. Told me herself, she's fixin' to stay. Apparently, there's enough here worth stayin' for," he said with a grin, knowing Lemon would understand his meaning entirely. "You know, it seems to me that if you find the kind of thing that me and Zoe have, you don't let that slide on by. You hang onto it."

He gave Lemon a pointed look and was sure she wasn't so dumb she wouldn't realise what he really meant by those words. The fact she would no longer look at him proved that she did.

"It's not always so easy," she muttered, focusing on sipping at her iced tea.

"No, it ain't," Wade agreed, plucking the near-empty glass from her hand so she couldn't hide in it anymore, "but nothin' worth having ever is. Now, I know how you and the mayor feel about each other, so what exactly is stoppin' you from just gettin' it together already? I mean, for real this time."

Lemon shook her head, seemed to check on who may or may not be listening, then leaned in closer across the bar to speak to Wade.

"It's not that I don't... that I don't care for Lavon," she admitted, "or that I don't believe he cares for me, but I... I have a certain standing in this town, and with George and the break-up and... There's not much that scares me, Wade, you've known me long enough to know that, but this? I am just terrified."

She meant it, every damn word, and Wade could see it clearly in her eyes and all over her face. Much like her, he made certain nobody was paying any mind then covered her hand with his on the bar.

"Lemon, you're right, I have known you a long time, maybe too long," he said with a smirk designed to lighten the mood, "but sweetheart, you cannot be any more scared right now than I was. You don't think it scared me half to death, finding out I had a son? Realising I could actually love somebody as much as I love Zoe? You just gotta make the leap, Lemon, 'cause trust me, it is absolutely worth it."

Zoe picked up JT right from work, an easy job since his sitters that afternoon were Shula and Delma who were hanging out on one the benches in the square, proudly showing off their young charge to everyone who passed.

Texting Wade to let him know they would be at the carriage house when he came home, Zoe took JT to her place where they hung out together, playing and talking. Well, Zoe talked, JT babbled nonsense with the occasional sounds that almost seemed to be words. He definitely did say something that sounded suspiciously like 'dada' when she talked to him about Wade, making Zoe wonder if her boyfriend had been right all along on that. Still, it was as close to real words as JT had gotten yet and though he pulled his standing trick on a semi-regular basis, no steps had happened so far. Zoe only hoped that when it did occur, she and Wade were both there to see it.

A knock on the door got her attention and Zoe scooped up JT, carrying him on her hip as she went to see who was there.

"Is it Daddy already?" she asked him as they went. "Nope, just Uncle Lavon," she said as she gestured for him to come in.

"Just Uncle Lavon?" her friend checked, one eyebrow raised. "I think I'm offended."

"You know I didn't mean it like that." Zoe rolled her eyes, leading him into her home. "We're always happy to see Uncle Lavon, right, buddy?" she said to JT.

The little boy did some kind of happy dance in Zoe's arms, reaching out to Lavon who gladly received him and hugged him close.

"It is the day for bein' happy, little man," he said, grinning big at Zoe over JT's head. "Lemon just came by. Seems she really wants yours truly to perform with her in Dash's Gilbert & South-ivan extravaganza next week."

"Wow," said Zoe, smiling back at him. "That is... wow," she repeated, hoping to keep the happy expression on her face even though she knew it was failing her. "So, things are finally happening with you two?"

"Pretty much," Lavon agreed, adjusting a wriggling JT in his arms, "but I'm not buyin' that smile on your face, Big Z. You ain't happy for me?"

"No, of course, I am," she insisted, making 'no way' gestures with her hands. "Lavon, while I'll admit, Lemon and I are never going to be best friends or anything, if she makes you happy then I am happy for you, both of you, I promise," she insisted.

Lavon narrowed his eyes at her. "Zoe," he said with a tone that was at the very least big brotherly, maybe even fatherly somehow. "What is goin' on?"

Zoe let out a big sigh. "I may have done something... a little crazy," she confessed, fingers lacing and unlacing in front of her.

"No, no, no, no," Lavon intoned even as he moved to put JT back down on the floor with his toys when he wriggled more than a bit to be free. "Zoe, please tell me this has nothing to do with George Tucker."

Her eyes grew wide at that suggestion and Zoe shook her head. "It has nothing to do with George," she said definitely. "Why would you ask me that?"

Lavon stared at her for a beat or two, almost as if he wasn't sure if she was telling her the whole truth. When he sighed and looked away, she guessed he must've decided she was.

"Word is good old George got himself a motorcycle and was headed on out to New Orleans to have a real good time," he explained, keeping an eye on JT as he crawled around, collecting up building blocks that had scattered in their last fall. "Apparently, it's something he always wanted to do but never did, prob'ly thanks to Lemon."

"Oh, well, that's good." Zoe nodded, joining the guys on the floor and hoping JT would prove distraction enough that Lavon wouldn't ask her what crazy thing she had done - no such luck.

"Z, what did you do?"

Zoe winced at the question, even though she had invited it in the first place. A part of her really wanted to share the secret, to use Lavon as a practice run maybe, so when she came to telling Wade what happened, it wouldn't seem so hard. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now, suddenly, with Lavon staring at her, Zoe felt she had done wrong.

Contracting with a PI to look into Carrie-Sue Smith's life in New York, post-Bluebell, pre-Europe, it seemed like the right thing. To have the truth, for JT's sake, if nothing else, but Zoe was becoming increasingly aware that it was none of her business and not her place to get involved.

"Zoe?" Lavon prompted. "Come on now, please don't tell me after everything you said to me and what you promised Wade that you got some fellowship or other and you're about to run off back to New York?"

"No," Zoe insisted, shaking her head violently. "No, I'm not going anywhere, Lavon. I said I was staying and I am, not because I feel like I should, but just because I really, really want to," she promised it.

"Alright then." Lavon nodded, though he looked confused and concerned yet. "So, if it wasn't runnin' around with George Tucker and it's not you decidin' to leave us all, what is this crazy thing you did?"

Zoe took a deep breath and opened her mouth to reply. "I... I just..." she stammered. "I agreed to let Susie try out a new hairstyle on me, so next time you see me I'll probably look pretty wild," she said, forcing a laugh.

Lavon seemed to sigh with relief when he heard that, and then that relief turned into hearty laughter. JT picked up on the sound and soon joined in, giggling and clapping his hands madly.

Zoe laughed too, glad to have avoided sharing the real truth for now. Of course, she would actually need to get Susie to do something pretty crazy with her hair in the next couple of days. That ought to be interesting.

To Be Continued...