Wade could hear his father messing about downstairs, he had left the comfort his room had to offer. Every step he took seemed to be heavy. He gulped seeing his father at the table. He gave his farther a nervous smile, sitting across from him.

"Boy, what kind of trouble are you in?" Earl asked in a barking tone. He wanted to deny that he was in any kind of trouble, but he needed to be honest with his father. His mouth suddenly felt very dry.

"I'm going to be a father in 7 months time," he replied with a shaky breath.

"Isn't that something?" Earl asked, keeping all emotions locked away. Wade nodded.

"I'm stepping up, I'm going to be there for Zoe and my child," Wade explained in a rush.

"Damn straight you are," Earl hissed. "You were stupid enough to get yourself into this mess, this is your responsibility. Every last cent you make goes to that kid. You're going to clean your act up before you have a second child," he demanded. Wade wanted to argue back, but what was the sense? His farther meant business. What seventeen year old wanted two kids? If he wanted a real chance with Zoe he had to change. He had to man up.

"I know," he sighed running a hand through his hair. "I said, I was going to step up and be a father. It's not like I'm going to run around and ignore my child," he yelled, feeling his anger start to boil over. Earl got up quickly, knocking over his chair in the process.

"This isn't some joke, Wade. You screwed your life up."

"I did no such thing," Wade seethed, quickly getting to his feet. "You screwed my life up!" He yelled, storming out. He couldn't believe the nerve of his father. Blaming him for screwing his life up. If anyone is at fault it was his father, who turned into the town drink, condemning him.

"You ok?" Zoe asked, seeing Wade enter the Rammer Jammer in a huff.

"Peachy freaking keen," he hissed, storming past her. Zoe sighed and followed behind him.

"I take it, telling your Dad didn't go over so well?" She asked softly.

"What gave that away?" He snapped.

"You don't have to be a dick!" She scoffed, turning to get back to work. "I was only trying to help."

"It's not as if you're important, just the mother of my child. A child I don't even want!" He seethed, punching a box, before kicking the fallen box.

"Good to know," she whispered, wiping at her eyes, walking off.

"Fuck!" He yelled, skidding down the wall. He didn't mean a single word he said to her, he was still pissed off at his farther. It was easy to take his anger out on others.

Zoe got back to work. Even with a full nights sleep, she was still tired and she had only been working for two hours. She got the hang of it fairly quickly. She was proud of herself for only messing up once. The food belonged at the same table, so did it really count as messing up? The smell of the food had her throwing up a couple of times. Wally had questioned her about it and the truth came out. He knew the right questions to ask. He made a promise not to tell anyone.

"These go to table 5, have you seen Wade?" Wally asked, handing Zoe a tray of food.

"Last I saw him, he was in the storage room," Zoe called over her shoulder.

After finishing her shift, she sat outside enjoying the sunny day. She wasn't sure if Wade was still going to take her to Mobile, but the least she could do was wait for him and find out. He had tried to approach her a few times, but she dodged him, not wanting to deal with him in public at work. She needed the job, she couldn't afford to lose it because of Wade.

"Ready?" Wade asked, walking outside, tossing his car keys in his hand. Zoe nodded, noticing that his tone had changed from earlier but he was still annoyed. She walked silently to his car.

Every 5 minutes Wade went to apologize for his outburst. She wasn't the focus of his anger. He didn't want her to be mad at him. It would only make things worse for them. He just didn't know how to say what he was thinking. Instead he turned the radio on and drummed against the steering wheel.

"Do you mind?" Zoe snapped annoyed.

"What?" He asked back, glancing at her at a stop sign.

"You're suppose to be driving, not playing the drums," she answered, looking at him. He shrugged making her sigh dramatically.

"What's your deal?"

"You!" She yelled making him cringe. "One minute you say you'll step up and the next I'm not important, just the mother of your unwanted child. It's not like I planned for this to happen or even tricked you. This is as much my fault as it yours," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, looking out the window.

"Zoe," he sighed, suddenly feeling like sit. "About that..."

"NO!" She spit, taking Wade by surprise. "I don't wanna hear it. Excuses, Wade. It's total bullshit. You can't take your anger out on me and think it's going to be an easy fix hours later. It don't work like that." He needed to know that he couldn't walk all over her feelings and get away with it. "You need to figure yourself out. Do whatever you need to do, but I won't be here to be your personal punching bag."

"I would never lay a hand on you, Zoe." He had never physically hurt any women. He didn't mean to hurt her. The words had slipped out.

"Words hurt worse than anything else, they stay with you long after a bruise leaves."

"I'm sorry," he told her honestly. She nodded, getting out of the car now that they had made it to the clinic.

She checked in and they were told to have a seat. The place didn't have many people waiting around. Which Zoe found as a relief, they didn't have to wait long.

"You okay?" Zoe asked softly, seeing Wade was bouncing his knee.

"If okay means, having your stomach so twisted it hurts, then yeah, I'm fine. Otherwise I'm a nervous wreck waiting to blow," he whispered back.

"Then that makes two of us," she whispered, slipping her hand in his. He smiled, gently squeezing her hand.

"Zoe Hart?" A nurse called.

"Ready?" She asked getting up.

"I gotta be," he answered, keeping a hold of her hand.

After the nurse finished with them, she let 'em know that the doctor would be with them shortly. Wade sat in the chair, looking in every direction, he had even read all the little posters that hung up in the room.

"It's like you're waiting for bad news," Zoe commented.

"I don't like hospitals," he shrugged, quickly pushing the unwanted memories away. Zoe didn't question him after that. They had sat in silence for what felt like a lifetime before the doctor entered the room with a knock on the door.

"I'm Dr. Hughes," a woman in her mid thirties said, walking into the room. "Zoe, hello."

"Hello, this is Wade, the father."

"It's not very often I see teen couples still together." Neither one felt the need to correct her. If she wanted to assume they were a couple, that was her opinion. "Wade the fact you came today, makes my job a whole lot easier, when it comes to medical questions of your family."

When she was done asking Zoe about her health and her family's health, she moved on to asking Wade the questions.

The nurse had already taken her height, weight and blood pressure. Leaving the rest of the physical exam and an internal exam, which had Wade squirming in his seat.

"I bet, you want to know when your little bundle of joy will be here?" Zoe nodded, glancing at Wade from the corner of her eye to see he was smiling. "June 19th." They'd be out of school for the summer, she wouldn't miss any schooling, as long as everything went smoothly and no bed rest was needed. "Prenatal vitamins?"

"Already on them," Zoe smiled.

"What exactly does our baby look like?" Wade asked.

"Your baby is nearly an inch long, about the size of a grape, and weighs just a fraction of an ounce." He listened intently; the shock of it all was starting to wear off.

Zoe sat in the car on the way back to Bluebell looking over the papers about a healthy pregnancy. Wade drove back home in his own world. He couldn't get the fact Zoe never corrected the doctor about them being a couple out of his head, but the fact this really was real. It is was real before, but now it was all put into prospective for him.