A/N: Excellent to see that some more people have found this story and are enjoying it - thanks so much for all those lovely reviews, folks! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 3

"Zoe?"

She jumped in her seat at the sound of her name and looked up to see both Lavon and Wade staring at her. Clearly, she had missed something, but she really did not know what.

"Something on my face?" she asked, her hand coming up around her chin, checking for crumbs from her breakfast muffin or similar, but there was nothing there.

"You really zoned out, girl," said Lavon, apparently concerned about the fact. "You feeling okay?"

"The irony of asking the doctor if she's feeling okay," she said, rolling her eyes and forcing a smile - the guys weren't buying. "I'm fine. I guess I'm just... well, the whole my father is not my father thing is still kind of sinking in. I mean, I've been a New Yorker all my life. Coming here to Alabama, I practically felt like an alien, except now it turns out that half my blood and DNA comes from Bluebell. That's a lot to process."

"I guess it would be." Wade nodded like he understood.

Though it was sweet that he would try, Zoe didn't really expect him to get it. She wasn't sure anybody who wasn't in a similar position ever could, really. Her life was a lie, or at least, the paternity part was, and that was a pretty big part, all told. Half of herself was different to what she thought, her heritage, even her own name. She wasn't a Hart. By birth, she was a Wilkes. It was enough to scramble her brain more than a little.

"He was a good man, Z," Lavon said then, clearly speaking of her natural father, a fact he confirmed in due course. "Ol' Harley did a lot for this town and all the people in it. He was a good guy. Kind, decent, trustworthy. Just an all-around stand-up Southern gentleman."

"That's something, I suppose." Zoe nodded. "But in some ways, it's also the part that confuses me the most. I mean, if my mom had kept my real dad a secret because he was a bad guy, that would at least make sense. Some kind of criminal or pervert or violent person, because who wants a guy like that around? But Harley was kind and decent, like you just said. He was a doctor, just like my da-, like Ethan Hart. Like I always wanted to be. Why would it have been so bad for me to know him?"

She looked from Lavon to Wade and back again, but Zoe wasn't really expecting an answer. Only one person could tell her the whole truth and she so wasn't in a place where she wanted to have another fight with her mom right now. She had told Candice that she would get back to her when she had calmed down. It had been a few days and Zoe still didn't feel able to make that call.

"I just wish I at least got the chance to meet him, properly. Not a thirty-second chat at my med school grad, where I didn't even know who he really was."

"Look, doc, I don't know if this'll help at all," said Wade then, "but, uh, the best I can do on the Harley front is offer to take you into town, show you where they laid him to rest."

"Wade!" Lavon snapped at him. "Come on, now. Zoe doesn't want to see his grave. She upset enough already."

"No, actually, that sounds good," said Zoe, getting up from her seat, then immediately shaking her head. "No, good is the wrong word, but it sounds like a plan, like something that would help me. Thanks, Wade," she said, smiling across at him.

"Alright then. I just gotta grab a couple o' things from my place. Meet you at the car in five."

He was gone before Zoe could blink and she wasn't aware she was smiling after him until Lavon called her on it.

"Somethin' going on there I should know about?" he asked, getting her attention. "I mean, you both live on my plantation. Prob'ly best I know if there's a romance brewing," he said with a sly grin, popping another piece of pastry into his mouth.

"Really?" she scoffed. "Lavon, I have been here for exactly four days. Four. What can happen in four days?"

"You'd be surprised, Zoe Hart," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Whole lives can be changed in a whole lot less time than that."

As the phone rang in the next room, Lavon went to answer it, leaving Zoe standing in the kitchen, mulling over what he just said. She supposed he did have a point. After all, her mother's life changed in as short a time as that when she went and got herself pregnant by a stranger. Zoe's life had altered significantly in the last few days since she came to Bluebell, not least because she found out about Harley Wilkes being her father.

When it came to Wade Kinsella, she had to admit they had become very fast friends in such a short space of time, but that was all there was to it. It had to be that way. He clearly had a reputation when it came to women and Zoe was so far removed from being the one-night-stand type. Besides, even if she could see potential for a longer-lasting romantic relationship with Wade, or with anyone in town, what would be the point? She was only staying for a year anyway.

As Wade started to blare his car horn outside, Zoe shook herself out of her thoughtful stupor and moved towards the door. She did not need to be thinking about this right now. There were more important things at hand, like visiting her late father's grave, and then, going back to the practice to prove to Brick Breeland she belonged there. It was going to be a long day, Zoe could just feel it.


Wade started to regret his offer to take Zoe to the cemetery about a minute after she got into the car. Though she smiled and thanked him again for taking the trouble, something in her expression was just a little off. Not that Wade really thought anybody would be all that happy about seeing a grave or whatever, but there really was nothing else much he could think of when it came to finding a connection to Harley Wilkes.

"You sure you wanna do this?" he asked, eyes on the road as he drove on into town. "I mean, it was just an idea, prob'ly not even a good one. If you don't wanna go-"

"I do want to," Zoe insisted, looking real determined when he got the chance to glance her way. "I know it's weird, wanting so badly to go see a person's grave when I barely even met the man when he was alive, but he was my father, apparently. I don't know, when you said it, it sounded like the right thing to do, and as much as I would rather be meeting Harley than reading his headstone, it's what I need right now."

"Well, alright then," Wade nodded his agreement and took the next turn, pulling up the car right outside the gates of the Bluebell Cemetery. "For what it's worth, I don't think it's weird that you wanna do this. I'm not... well, I'm sure as heck not the most religious person in the world or anything," he explained, one hand scratching the back of his head and eyes anywhere by on Zoe as he continued, "but I like to think that when my momma passed on, she went to a better place. I have been known to come here to talk to her sometimes, when things are real bad or real good or... well, it's somethin' that I do from time to time."

He felt stupid saying it and sure as hell didn't know why he was telling such tales to Zoe Hart of all people. He was pretty sure anybody in town that knew about his visits to his mother's grave were just those that maybe happened to see him there some random time or other. He didn't recall ever actually telling another person in all the twenty years since his momma passed.

"I'm sorry, about your mom," said Zoe softly. "Was it recent?" she asked carefully.

Wade shook his head. "I was all o' ten years old when it happened."

"Wow," Zoe gasped. "I can't even imagine..."

"Don't try," he advised her, clearing his throat before he could go on. "Come on now, let's do this. Ol' Harley's right over here."

He pointed in the right direction, getting out of the car to head that way. Zoe followed without further comment, which Wade was more than grateful for in the circumstances. It was a short walk to Harley's grave and there he stopped, Zoe stepping up alongside him, her overly high heels sinking into the ground a little.

"Dr Harley Wilkes, Beloved. 1942 to 2011," she read aloud from the stone. "Wow. Beloved. That's just... My father was beloved."

"That he was," Wade agreed without hesitation. "It's like me and Lavon was telling you, Harley was just a stand-up guy. He'd do just about anythin' to help anybody out. Brought a lot of us into the world, did his best by us all through our lives, and eased the pain the best he could for those that had to leave all too soon."

There were times when Wade wished he knew when to keep his mouth shut. He didn't have to look at her to know Zoe was staring at him, wondering things, wanting to ask questions that he wasn't going to want to answer. His mother was a sore subject, there was no hiding that, though he supposed given Zoe's situation, he could at least be glad he got to know his momma for ten years before she had to go away. Poor Zoe never even had that much of a chance with her daddy.

"Is she here too?" she asked then, catching his attention. "Your mom, is she...?"

"Right over there," Wade pointed across to the far corner of the cemetery. "Don't worry, doc. I'll bet when Harley got up to the top of that Heavenly staircase, Momma was there to let him know the ropes and all. He took care of her best he could when she was sick, right up until the end, when there was nothin' more to be done. Seems to me she'd be repayin' the favour now, if she can."

Zoe swallowed visibly hard, tears sparkling in her eyes even as she smiled at him. "Thank you, Wade."

"No problem, Zoe."


Brick wasn't exactly eager to have Zoe working alongside him, but even he had to admit he didn't have much of a choice. Apparently, Harley left a will and there was a partnership contract in place, so as long as Zoe could get at least a third of the patients of Bluebell to see her rather than Dr Breeland, he couldn't get rid of her, not even if he wanted to.

"I really don't know what your problem is with me," she told Brick plainly. "You worked with Harley for all those years, I presume you got along. Why would you be so determined not to respect his wishes and have me work here now?"

She wasn't sure what ever possessed her to say it. Maybe it was talking to Wade about each of their personal losses or even just seeing Harley's grave that made her so determined about her heritage and her right to own it. She would probably always think of Ethan Hart as 'Dad' given the circumstances, how he raised her and everything, but if she was a Wilkes by blood, she saw no reason why that should be tossed aside so casually by other people, as if it meant nothing.

"She has a point, Brick," said Mrs H from behind the reception desk, not even flinching when he looked daggers at her. "I know, it's not really my place to say it, but you know as well as I do that she does have a point," she repeated, not backing down for a second.

It seemed to Zoe that Southern women could be just as fierce as New York women when they had a mind to. Given that, by DNA at least, she herself was actually both, it ought to prove to be a formidable combination. She hoped so anyway.

"Point or not, I don't have to like that Harley left her half this practice and I certainly don't have to be thrilled to work alongside a woman barely out of medical school, who not only allowed my future son-in-law to be ploughed down by a car, but also wouldn't know how to handle tick paralysis or a snake bite or anything of the kind if her life depended on it!"

When he stormed off into his room, slamming the door behind him, Zoe had to fight the urge to stamp her foot like a put-out four-year-old. He really was one of the most frustrating men she had ever met, and she had certainly known her fair share. Yes, what he said was true. She did get George Tucker run over, inadvertently, and she really would not be at all sure what to do if someone came in with a snake bite, but that didn't mean she was useless. She had skills of her own and she planned on telling Brick Breeland exactly that. After all, hadn't Wade's last words when he dropped her off this morning been, 'Don't fret too much over what Brick Breeland says, his bark is worse than his bite'?

"You know, you don't know everything about me," she said, bursting forth into her fellow doctor's office - he did not look thrilled about it.

"I know all that I need to know, missy, believe me."

"No, you don't, actually," she argued without hesitation. "You think that you do, but you don't. Now, I am more than aware that there must be a million things that patients present with in a small town practice in the South that I've never even heard of, thanks to spending all of my medical career up to now in New York City, but I can learn. I am an exceptionally quick study, and if you would just bother to take the time to work with me, to help me to get to grips with the ways things are done here, I don't see why we couldn't have a perfectly reasonable working relationship!"

She realised too late that she was yelling in something that was far from a reasonable way, but Zoe couldn't help it. She had been holding a lot of emotions in check, especially when it came to Harley Wilkes, and soon started to realise they were coming out at the worst possible time when she suddenly noticed tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Oh, for God's sake, don't cry about it," Brick squirmed, grabbing a handle full of tissue from a nearby box and proffering it at her.

Zoe took it, quickly wiping her face and blowing her nose. "I'm sorry, I don't... well, I actually probably do know where it came from, but that doesn't matter right now," she explained fast. "The point is, I want this to work. This partnership, I really would like for it to be something good. You obviously know much more than I do about the local diseases and conditions, but I also might prove to be useful in other capacities. I'm a surgeon after all and I think I more than proved myself with the pregnancy case the other day."

Brick sighed heavily. "I will admit, that was some good work you did," he said in such a low grumbly tone, it was barely audible, but Zoe would take what she could get. "I still don't see how a flighty New York surgeon could possibly be that much of an asset to my practice," he said pointedly, "but I guess, since it was Harley's wish for you to be here, and since you're probably not completely useless, we could try and make it work, on a trial basis, at least."

Zoe smiled, feeling happier about his acquiescence than she ever expected she could. After all, this was only supposed to be a temporary arrangement and she really didn't need Dr Breeland's approval to stay or anything. Still, it did feel good to have it, to know that he didn't completely hate her or anything.

"Thank you for your understanding" she said politely, nodding once before turning on her heel and leaving the office.

Behind the reception desk, Mrs H gave her a big smile and a thumbs up, mouthing, 'Good for you!' as Zoe walked by to her father's old office that was to be hers now. Sitting down behind the desk, she eyed the huge pile of patient files that Mrs H had advised her to read as thoroughly as possible. With a sigh, she pulled the top one from said pile, opened it up and focused her eyes on the reams of notes. Apparently, it really was going to be a long day.

To Be Continued...