So after Valentine's Day, everything seemed to get a whole lot better. Go figure. Yet another fluffy chapter. No Jack in it (sorry. The kid's at school.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Zoe never realized how much she missed Bluebell while she was in New York. Wade made her let Brick take a look at her leg when it came time for the cast to come off, and, reluctantly, she agreed. So that's why she was sitting there on the examining table in Brick's office, waiting for him too take the cast off. She knew her leg was healed. She had examined it at her house besides the lake before she came. That's when Lemon walked in.

"Do you know where my daddy is?" Zoe pointed into the office that was separated from the examining room by a set of sliding glass doors.

"What is it?" She asked the blonde.

"I'm just going to wait," she said quietly, sitting down. Zoe blinked. She had never known Lemon to be quiet or patient.

"Lemon?" Brick asked as he stepped out. "What are you doing here? It's the middle of the day on a Saturday. I thought you and George were going to pick out meal settings or something for the wedding."

"George and I eloped!" she blurted out. Her dad dropped the stuff that was in his hands and Zoe's mouth dropped. "It was getting too stressful and everything was getting so crazy with picking out the bridesmaid's dresses and the flowers and so we went this morning and eloped. So we're going to take a short vacation for a few days so... um... I-"

"Congrats," Zoe interrupted her stuttering, smiling at her.

"Thank you." The tiny doctor elbowed Brick to get him out of his stupor.

"Er- um... uh..." Zoe looked sympathetically at Brick, studying him for a moment. She reached over to the table beside her, grabbing a small flashlight and checking both his eyes.

"Pupil response in normal. He's just in a bit of shock. He'll get over it." Lemon nodded. She hugged her dad, giving him a kiss on the cheek and said goodbye. She waved goodbye to Zoe and walked out of the practice. "You okay there, Brick?"

"My little girl got married without me," he muttered in disbelief.

"If it makes you feel better, you still have Magnolia." The man's expression darkened.

"She better not be gettin' married for a long, long time," he grumbled. Zoe laughed quietly, allowing him to remove her cast from her leg.

Zoe was over at Wade's house, watching his TV since he had the better television and Lavon was in some all day meetings. The rain was drizzling lightly. Rose was in school and so was Jack. Wade was at work, so she didn't have any company. Zoe stood up, holding herself silent as she heard a knocking, then a moan before a loud crash. She rushed outside as quickly as she could on her still healing leg to where the noise came from.

"Earl!" Zoe called to the man who was attempting to bury himself with the tackle boxes on Wade's porch. He had a flask in hand and was soaked. "Earl, are you okay? Do you know who I am?"

"Pretty lady." Zoe shrugged. He was close enough.

"You're freezing!" she cried as she helped him up. "You need to get inside."

"I'm not drunk," Earl told her, contradicting what Zoe thought. He exhaled heavily and Zoe shook her head. He was definitely drunk.

"Well it doesn't matter. You'll get sick standing out here. It's unnaturally cold for Alabama and you're soaked."

"Don't need people telling me what to do," he muttered, "You worse than Annaliese." The normalcy of the name made her think. Who was Annaliese? She had never heard the name mentioned before, at least not in Alabama. There had been an Annaliese at medical school, a real sweet girl, who had to drop out when her mom got really sick. "Where is she anyways? She said she was comin' straight home!" Earl stumbled and Zoe got a whiff of the alcohol on his breath. Earl definitely was drunk. "Anna Louise?"

"Okay, you definitely need to get inside. Come on," Zoe ushered him into Wade's house. He pulled out a bottle that she could hear was near empty, but she took the bottle from him and he cried out. "I'm going to go refill it for you."

"Okay," he said, "And get Annaliese to come inside too. She's gonna get sick. I don't need her gettin' sick." Zoe nodded, taking the bottle.

She dumped its contents into the sink, giving the bottle a good rinse before filling it with room temperature water. She knew the best thing for the hangover he would surely have when he woke up. She couldn't sing Earl down from any roofs, especially not after breaking her leg. When she came out, Earl was passed out on the couch that she had been occupying minutes before.

It was a few hours later when Wade walked it. His eyes looked to his father, passed out drunk on the couch and his girlfriend who was sitting in the chair besides the couch, watching the TV quietly. "Jack's staying over with one of this kids from school." Zoe nodded and he went to wake up his father. She shook her head.

"Let him sleep it off," she told him. Wade sighed, but let her have her way. She took his hand, giving him a tug towards his bedroom. She looked like she was about to drop on her feet, so he picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

"Good Lord, Zoe. You're so light! How does the wind not blow you away?" She rolled her eyes as he tossed her gently on the bed.

"Ha ha." Wade got ready for bed and when he came back, he found Zoe, dressed in only his t-shirt. He really appreciated how long her legs were for someone so short. A wave of possessiveness took over at seeing her there. He pulled back the covers and lay down in the bed, patting the space beside him for her to crawl beneath the sheets and join him. She did, curling up and laying on his chest. Her dark hair was sprayed out across his arm and the pillow. "Night," she muttered.

"Night."

A door opening the next morning woke him. He pulled himself out from under Zoe's tiny body, finding that she was practically laying completely on top of him. He ran into the living room, finding his father walking out across the lawn. Wade chased after him, but his father stopped at the lake, looking over it. "I met your mama one summer when she was in a boat with her brothers and I was swimming out in that lake out on the edge of town." Wade knew the lake that he was talking about. It was the lake on their family's piece of property out on the edge of Bluebell. "Take care of the little lady in there."

"I will," Wade promised, "I love her." Earl nodded.

"She dumped out my liquor," he complained, holding up the flask filled with water.

"That's Doc for ya."

"You hide yours," his father stated.

"I have Jack living with me now. Uncle Res died and his mother didn't care about him." Earl looked down at the ground regretfully.

"I messed up with you boys. When your mama died, I shouldn't have abandoned you like that."

Wade shook his head. "You loved her. Weston and Wyatt didn't understand. Still, they turned out alright. Weston's up in Montgomery and Wyatt's stationed overseas." Weston was a police detective. Getting that job in Montgomery was a great accomplishment for him. Wyatt had enlisted the minute he had graduated high school. Now it was just him and Earl left in Bluebell, but now, Jack was here too. For a while though, he was sure that he'd be the only one that would be left in Bluebell, doomed to a life of drinking cheep beer, playing his guitar, bartending, and different girls, especially once Earl died. But now Zoe was here. She was with him now, at least for the time being, but they weren't taking about what was going to happen if she got her fellowship up in New York.

"You stayed here." He looked over at Earl. "You used to hate it. What changed?"

Wade studied him hard. "Who else is gonna make sure you're okay?" he asked his father. His father pulled something out of his pocket, a small pouch, putting it into Wade's hand before he clapped his son's shoulder.

"I should've given you this early." Earl shrugged, "It's yours to do as you want. I'll see you around. Take care." Wade watched his father walk away before he opened the pouch. It was a key with a keychain, the key to the old house. He looked up to where his father had disappeared, then back to the key and gave a small, sad smile as he squeezed it.

"Morning Lavon!" Zoe called to the mayor as she entered the kitchen a few days later. Wade had dropped her off at the big house. "How are you this morning?"

"I'm good, Big Z. What's up?" he asked her as she took a seat before him on one of the stools.

"Do you know who Annaliese or Anna Louise is?" she asked. Lavon looked at her funny. "Earl came around last night drunk and was calling out those names."

"Lavon Hayes is not at a liberty to disclose such information."

"But-" Zoe whined.

"Sorry Zoe." Zoe pouted, but smiled when Lavon put a pancake on her plate. When she finished, she stood and immediately grabbed onto the chair as the room shook. "Zoe!" Lavon called, his voice sounding like he was at the far end of a tunnel. He grabbed Zoe around the waist and arm as she felt the first wave of nausea wash over her. She brought a hand over her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. Lavon helped her over to the couch, and she sat. "Ney, are you okay? You got really pale there for a second."

"I feel fine now, sort of," she said, laying her head back on the armrest and closing her eyes. She was still pale enough to look like she had just passed out. "I feel a little sick. We had most of Bluebell in the office the last two days with colds and flues. I probably just caught it too." Lavon nodded, not completely convinced. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Can you give me a ride back to my house, please?"

"Are you sure?"

"I don't want to be held responsible with getting the mayor sick." Lavon nodded and the moment Zoe was inside her house, he pulled away and called Wade.

Being in the house was like stepping through a time warp. Though his uncle, his father's brother, had lived here for a while, the house had been mostly abandoned through the two thousands. Still, it had been his home.

It had been built in 1832 as a large cotton plantation. It had around nine hundred acres at that time, give or take some. There was a large lake towards the edge of these nine hundred ages, and several outer buildings. During the Civil War, a number of the slave cabins had been burnt by the Yankee army, but the Kinsellas of the time made up a militia of their own and hand been able to preserve most of the land. After the Civil War, several hundred acres were divided up and given to the newly freed slaves, and work was offered to some of them back at the main house.

At the end of the First World War, there was two hundred acres of land and it had stayed that size ever since. The lake became shared by the wealthy houses that popped up around it during the late fifties and early sixties. It was beautiful there, and a number of wealthies had made it a vacation spot during that time. It was during this time when his father had met Annaliese Friedrich Starr.

She was beautiful, a golden girl. Her parents were German immigrants and her father owned a booming periodical. They fell in love, and got married years later, after they were reunited when she returned hoping to see him again. When his mama died, Earl had bought himself a small piece of property, a narrow thing in town, to get himself away from the memories. Ethan became the boys' caretaker, but he worked in Mobile, so taking care of Wyatt and Weston fell to him. From time to time, Uncle Moe, his father's older brother would stop in, teaching Wade to cook recipes that had been in their family since before the Civil War and some of his own creations.

When Weston and Wyatt had both taken off, Wade had left the place to Ethan, and took his father's example, moving into town more, taking up residence on the mayor's plantation as a handy man. The former mayor before Lavon hadn't minded, and Lavon didn't either. When Ethan died, he couldn't make the trip out to travel to fix the place up. Parts of it had been updated, other parts, like the crown molding and the ornate banister that went up the grand staircase, along with the staircase.

Inside the living room, the was a parlor grand piano. As a boy, he remembered his mama and his father's mother playing beautiful tunes on it. One night, while the baby sitter was on the landline with her boyfriend, he had snuck in to try to play it. His parents had gotten home, and after that, his mama started teaching him how to play. Now, the piano was covered with a thick layer of dust.

He pulled back the heavy curtains that covered the windows, revealing the sunlight to the room that hadn't seen it in years. He'd loved this room as a child. It seemed so magical, like he had stepped through from another time. There was a painting of a woman dressed in early eighteen hundreds style of clothing hung about the mantle. Everything in the room was pasted down through the generations. Hundreds of Kinsellas had passed through this house. That fact had comforted him when his mama had passed away and he took care of his brothers long enough for Uncle Ethan to get back to them. They had all made it through the worst of things, he could too.

He sat down at the piano after brushing the dust from the seat. He hoped he could remember the tune his mother used to play. He tapped the first key and hearing it sound funny, he stood again, reaching under the lid of the piano. And there was something there, something that seemed to have fallen through. He reached in, grabbing the object, and pulling it out. It was his mother's engagement ring.

Wade knew perfectly well that his mother hadn't been buried with her rings. They were supposed to go to the eldest son to give to his fiancé, as they had for the past hundred or so years. Every thing in his family seemed to be passed down. As he studied the ring, a garnet, surrounded by diamonds. He had remembered this ring, every memory of his mama had her wearing it. Losing track of time just looking at the ring, he heard his phone ring.

"Hey Lavon, what's up?"

"You need to come back here now. It's Zoe." And just like that, his insides froze up. His mouth went dry.

"I'll be right there."

Zoe sat on the bathroom floor, right over the toilet, emptying her guts into it, or so it felt. "Zoe?" she heard Wade call and she let out a soft groan. She didn't want him to see her like this. She looked awful. Wade came through the bathroom doorway.

"Go away," she mumbled, "Don't wanna get you sick too," she moaned as another wave of nausea hit her. Wade walked behind her, dropping down behind her, pulling her hair up off her shoulders with one hand, rubbing soothing circles on her shoulder with another hand. He pressed his lips to her shoulder. When she finished, he stood, leaving the room. Zoe looked after him in disbelief and she heard the front door shut. She didn't actually want him to go away. A few minutes later, Wade reappeared in the bathroom, a cup in hand. "What-?"

"It's flat coke. My mama always used to give it to us went we were sick. It's supposed to help sooth your stomach." He sat down on the edge of the tub and handed Zoe the cup. Cautiously, she took a sip.

"Do you have more?" he held up the rest of the can, pouring it into her cup.

"Ya gotta drink it slow or you'll make yourself sick again." Zoe nodded, lowering the cup from her lips and laying her head on his knees. Wade brought his fingers to her hair, running them through it.

"I feel awful," she muttered. Wade snorted quietly.

"I'll bet."

"I don't remember the last time I was this sick." Wade nodded.

"You done?" he asked her, "'Cuz you should be getting' yourself back to bed, Doc."

"Oh," Zoe said slyly, looking up at him with doe eyes, "On whose orders?"

"My orders. Unless you want to order yourself to bed rest." Zoe giggled as Wade slapped her behind as she stood. "Get this cute butt of yours to bed now." Zoe walked out to her bed.

"Hey Wade?" she called as he walked out, "Will you stay with me?" He nodded and kissed her forehead, laying down in bed with her.

"Of course I will." She curled up, using him as a pillow. She was beautiful, he realized, he had always known that, but right now, as sick as she was, she was still the most beautiful woman on earth to him.

One hand reached down into his pocket, fingering his mother's ring. Someday, he was going to give it to her. Someday very soon.

See, cute and fluffy. I'm in a way better mood now that things have gotten a little brighter around here (but only figuratively. It's been storming here the past few days.) Ha!

Yes, I made Lemon and George elope. No, I'm not showing them get married. Yes, I will admit that I shamelessly took that idea from last week HOD where Lemon's telling George that they should elope.

So I was looking through floor plans for about a month. The pictures of that will be up later today on my website (link on my profile.)

Review! I appreciate the reviews. I like knowing that people are reading. So review. 90 reviews to next chapter.