Okay, it's a real chapter, just like I promised it'd be! Sorry it took so long. Now that HOD is back on, the updates should be getting back on a semi-regular schedule.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the half of a second that Jack's in here.

Previously on Where We Begin:

"Hello Brick." No, he hadn't heard that voice in years, well over a decade.

"Alice."

There was an awkward, still silence in the room that made Brick feel uncomfortable. Slowly, he shifted, unknowingly, as if to block Alice's view from their daughter.

"What- what are you doing here?" The words were choked at first, but then came through at last. What did she want after all this time? Hadn't she hurt his family enough?

"Well, I heard 'bout Lemon and I came to make sure she was okay."

Brick had disliked Zoe greatly when she first arrived in Bluebell. That dislike gave way to a grudging acceptance of each other, and later, a comfortable work reliance that held both him and her in a check and balance. Right now, he couldn't me more grateful to her for walking in when she did.

"Hey Brick. Results are in. She should be fine." Like an ever-present shadow, Wade stood in the doorway behind her.

"Well looky what we've got here," the bartender drawled, through Brick had to mentally correct himself. Wade wasn't just a bartender anymore. The fact that Wade wasn't talking to him or Zoe didn't go unnoticed. Lavon stepped in the room, glancing down at the woman.

"Seems like someone rolled into town unexpected, lookin' to be welcomed with opened arms."

"Dr. Hart, in your professional opinion, wouldn't you agree that stress an' tension ain't any good for a coma patient?" Zoe glanced at her husband. She had kept Hart as her professional name, but it still took her a second to respond to it.

"Yes, I would. Everyone out of here now." It never ceased to amaze any of the three men in the room how pushy Zoe could be when she wanted to be. Like a scolding mother, a barely pregnant Zoe Kinsella née Hart shooed everyone out into the hallway, closing the door with a resounding click behind her. Maybe things would be better with someone like Zoe there to mediate.

Of course, things could only go from bad to worse on a day like this.

At Mobile's airport, George's plane touched down. As he climbed into the rental car– Eliza was having his truck sent back to Bluebell, though she didn't say how– he was overcome with a wave of anger. How long had Lemon lied to him? And Lavon... Lavon had lied to him too. He thought they were better friends than that.

He clenched his fists as he pulled into a parking spot. He might as well go now, before he lost his courage. A sharp clap of thunder struck the air... and George just sat.

The air was too cold, yet too warm. It seemed heavy, like it was pressing down on her, making it hard to breathe. The noises were too loud; everything was too bright, too hard. A blurred shape shifted, one she recognized. A hand clasped hers. "Zoe?"

The doctor snapped out of her thoughts, glancing down at the blonde on the bed. She smiled slightly. "I see you're awake."

Lemon tried to shift up, but one small, but strong hand pressed her shoulder down again. "Am I gonna be okay?"

"You're going to be fine. Just focus on getting better." The blonde nodded, weakly. "I'll go tell everyone that you're awake."

Zoe had no soon stood and turned before the Belle shot upward, gasping at the pain from where she guessed she had surgery. "No!" The brunette turned back, confused, "They'll want to see me and talk to me and they'll expect me to be together and happy and I'm a mess."

"Lemon, they don't care about that. They'll just be happy that you're awake."

The words hit through her, and she wondered if they were really true. Of course they had to be. Zoe Hart never lied to her, the two always preferring brutal honesty which could make the other sting like they had just been electrocuted. Still, it was no shock when she spoke, her voice shook, "Really?"

"Yes. Now lie down and relax. I'll only get Brick and Magnolia." She nodded, for once, obeying the Doctor's orders.

Everyone shot up straight as they heard footsteps coming down the hall. They all slumped as they saw an old man with graying hair and a lab coat on, not the tiny brunette they expected. Only Alice remained sitting straight, reading a book, after declaring the New Yorker a feminist freak, who should let the men practice medicine and stop giving women a bad name. Wade had tried to step in, but Zoe, angry from the insult and over exaggerating on hormones, gave Alice a piece of her mind. She not only said that the woman should be unfit to be a mother, but that she was probably the worst parent in the history of all parents and it was backwards thinking like hers that kept her daughters from learning that this was the twenty first century, where women could vote, drive a car, and run for any public office, by the way, until she had come to town. After that, Alice found fit to simply ignore the female doctor.

"She's awake," Zoe declared, "Brick and Magnolia only. The last thing she needs is to be stressed out by her mother."

Eyes widened. Rose and Jack looked up at his cousin-in-law with excitement. Lavon smiled. Brick stood, hugging his younger daughter, as they both began walking towards her room. Zoe sat down, tired, and curled into her husband's side. "I could sleep for a decade," she muttered to him. Wade ran his hand up and down her arm.

"Well just close your eyes and relax for a while. Should be no more surprises today." She sighed and laid her head on his shoulder.

"We're going to go down to the café," Jack informed Wade, his hand intertwined with Rose.

"Okay," Zoe muttered, half-asleep, prompting the two cousins to burst into laughter.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Wade called after him, causing the boy to stop short and turned with a half-disgusted look on his face.

"You want me to marry her?" The two teens laughs could be heard down the hall after that comment.

"Sounds like you're going to have your hands full," Lavon told his friend, "That's boy's a little too much like you. Let's hope the kid doesn't end up that way."

"Let's hope he just sleeps through the night," the brunette murmured off the bartender's arm. The men chuckled.

"What'd I miss?"

Zoe groaned, sitting up. "No one's going to let me sleep, are they?"

"Tucker?" Wade stared at him, "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean what am I doing here?" the lawyer countered, stepping closer up to Wade.

Wade stood, standing right up in George's face. "What I mean is where were you when your wife was havin' surgery? Or why are you even here now if you don't care 'bout her?"

"Hey, Wade, calm down," the level-headed mayor stepped in between the two, "I'm sure George had his own reasons for leaving so... abruptly."

"Lavon, can I talk to you outside?"

"Why can't you just say it in front of everyone, Tucker?"

"Alright, I will." With that, he hauled back and punched Lavon squarely in the nose. Zoe covered her mouth, laughing in shock at that.

Alice looked up from her book, appalled. "Why I never!"

"What was that for?" the former linebacker yelled, clutching at his nose.

"I think you know!" Wade stepped back from the two of them.

"Well, I think the two of you have somethin' to talk 'bout and I really don't feel like getting' hit tonight." He sat down next to Zoe, who was going to stand up, pulling her into his lap. "Okay, I take it back. There should be no surprises starting now."

There were two sets of rushed footsteps that came down the hall. Brick and Magnolia burst into the room. "Lemon's not in her room."

"Or now," the tiny doctor muttered back, standing up, her husband following her. The father hand daughter had caught everyone's attention with the news. "Where could she have gone?"

"I don't know. No one had seen her." He glanced at his son-in-law. "George? When did you get here?" Then he noticed the mayor's nose. "What happened out here?"

"Still trying to figure that out ourselves, Brick," Wade said, slapping the older man's shoulder. "Guess we'll split up an' look for her."

It was George that found her, standing bare foot in the middle of the grass just outside the hospital, the rain pouring down, and lightning lighting up the sky. "I came as soon as I heard," he told her, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know if you'd want to see me after what I had done," she muttered back, her tears mixing with the rain as they streamed down her face.

"I'm sorry, Lemon." She looked up, panicked.

"No, don't be apologizing. It's my fault. I shouldn't have-" she swallowed hard, "I shouldn't have cheated on you, George, but I didn't mean for it to happen."

"I know."

"I should have told you sooner, but I was so scared. I didn't want you to leave me, but you did anyways."

"Lemon-"

"I don't know what happens next," she replied, "I just know that everything seems clearer now in the rain."

Up until the minute I uploaded this chapter, the working title was 'Rainstorms and Reunions', because I honestly expected Lemon's mom to be reunited with her daughter. I'm hoping that now that I'm over the hard chapter, that it'll move along much quicker. I tried to make this chapter longer to make up, but then realized my longest chapter has over three thousand words and they just weren't flowing out like they should.

The last scene is actually inspired by the Disney movie Pixel Perfect, from the only part I even remember about that movie where he chased the girl from the hospital and she dances around it her hospital gown in the rain. I'm sorry there's no dancing. Maybe next chapter...

Please review! 180 to next chapter. :)