Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The CW is the owner of Hart of Dixie. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Chapter 1 – Reflections

Zoe Hart buckled her seat belt in first class and prepared for landing into Mobile, Alabama, shoving the in-flight magazine she'd been flicking through into the seat pocket in front of her.

After three months living and working in NYC honing her cardiothoracic surgical skills under her father's expert tutelage, she was actually happy to be coming home. To her great surprise she'd missed BlueBell. She'd missed the quirkiness of the town events and its residents; she'd missed her medical practice, her patients and even her business partner Brick Breeland – the country doctor who'd become a mentor to her; and not least, she'd missed the friends she'd made during her two year tenure in small town USA. And yes, she'd realized one drunken night swilling martini's with Gigi, she did indeed have friends in BlueBell, Alabama.

Zoe mentally ticked them off her fingers: Lavon Hayes, the mayor and ex NFL player was her landlord, confidante and best friend – even more so now than Gigi, and she'd known her since kindergarten. Rose Hattenbarger at nearly 16 was her youngest friend, and weirdly, she exhibited more maturity, insight and intuitiveness than most of the adults in Zoe's circle. Zoe was good friends with AnnaBeth Nass, southern belle extraordinaire and best friend to Lemon Breeland, the woman who blamed her for the break-down of her relationship with George Tucker, Zoe's onetime (she sighed) okay, long-time love interest.

With help from her few true friends in BlueBell and those she reconnected with in New York, Zoe had come to the belated conclusion that her professed love for George Tucker was nothing more than an unrequited crush that she never really wanted to pursue anyway, because if she had, she would have taken up with George the minute he'd left Lemon at the alter and offered himself up on a platter. Zoe had turned him down, spouting some nonsense about not wanting to be his rebound girlfriend. Like that was so much worse than being the other woman, even if she'd never done anything more than kiss George Tucker despite what Lemon and the rest of the town believed.

Zoe owed a lot of people an apology for her thoughtless and selfish behavior these past two years – Wade, George, Tansy, Lavon and Lemon. Notwithstanding that first dreadful introduction to Lemon Breeland, Zoe thought that maybe they could have been friends, of sorts, if she hadn't gotten in the middle of Lemon's relationship with George.

Apart from being diametrically opposed in their fashion sense, she and Lemon had a lot in common – what with their parental abandonment issues, and Lemon actually listened and gave good advice when she got off her high horse. Zoe admitted to herself that she should have bowed out gracefully when she found out that George Tucker was engaged to Lemon Breeland.

He hadn't been available and she should have considered the advice of Lavon and Wade and been less friendly with George Tucker until her attraction died a natural death. But, she hadn't. She'd shunned their advice and egotistically befriended George using their New York connection as a reason to interact with him at every possible opportunity. Maybe if she'd made better personal decisions, most of the town wouldn't hate her as much as they did.

Luckily, AnnaBeth Nass, who was currently in a hot and heavy relationship with Lavon didn't hate her and had agreed to collect her from the airport in – she glanced at her diamond encrusted wrist watch; a thirtieth birthday gift from her mother – fifteen minutes. AnnaBeth was great fun, friendly, outgoing and caring, and she subscribed to the girl code that Zoe had conveniently forgotten: you don't go after the love interest of a woman you know, without squaring it with her first! AnnaBeth held fast to that belief for nearly a year, resisting her growing feelings for Lavon (Lemon's ex lover before her engagement to George Tucker) until Lemon relented and gave AnnaBeth her blessing.

Zoe hoped to enlist AnnaBeth's help in finding her southern belle girly side but with a New York edge when she got back to BlueBell. Harley Wilkes was her natural father, a born and bred Alabaman, so Zoe supposed that her own southern roots were buried inside her somewhere – deep, deep, deep, deep down inside her. Her Aunt Maureen thought so, and Zoe wasn't about to argue with Aunt Maureen – she kind of scared Zoe – and it was Aunt Maureen who'd given Zoe her Belle ring and told her she was a BlueBell Belle by birthright – a legacy.

Zoe posited that if she'd spent some quality time with Harley in Alabama from early childhood, her own character might be a little less flawed and she might have been a little more tolerant of southern traditions when she arrived in BlueBell two years earlier. To that end, her Mom, Candice had given her some unasked for advice, since Zoe insisted on staying in BlueBell and making a life for herself.

Candice suggested that fitting in wasn't always about participating in town events, or being a brilliant doctor who involved herself in her patients problems, though that was certainly part of it. She'd speculated that perhaps the high fashion Zoe paraded around in, and her slightly abrasive personality - a natural by-product of Zoe's upbringing in cutthroat New York – was out of place in a small town in the deep south. Maybe, Candice said, Zoe's fashion choices were intimidating and isolating. Southern men liked seeing her legs and body on display in her short, tight, trendy clothes, but the women involved with those men – not so much.

After picking her jaw up from the floor – that had been the last thing Zoe ever expected her mother; the queen of high fashion, Park Avenue apartments and limousines to say – Zoe had gone home to her one bedroom midtown east apartment, poured herself a glass of chilled Sav Blanc and watched two of her favorite chick flicks growing up: Steel Magnolia's and Sweet Home Alabama.

At the end of the double movie marathon and a bottle of wine later, Zoe accepted that there was more to fitting into a small community than just being fashion forward and brilliant at what she did professionally. Maybe that was all she needed to do, to be accepted in New York, but it struck the death knell in BlueBell, Alabama. Zoe then did what all city women did in a crisis – she went shopping for a new wardrobe.

The MD 88 aircraft touched down with a bump and a screech of brakes onto the tarmac of Mobile's regional airport at 7.30 pm on the last Saturday in September, jarring Zoe loose from her reflections. She'd chosen this day of the week to return to Alabama figuring that Wade would be working at the Rammer Jammer and she'd have some time to settle in at her carriage house before she sought him out.

She owed him a response to his declaration of love outside that roadhouse she couldn't even remember the name of, on the road to Atlanta last June. For three months, Zoe had resisted contact with Wade even though he'd pursued her relentlessly. She felt bad about it, but to preserve her emotional sanity – or so she'd told herself before the recent epiphanies about her own character, she'd ignored his text messages, declined his phone calls, deleted his voicemails and trashed his emails – all sixty two of them. She had, however, sent him a text message before leaving New York at lunchtime, telling him she was on her way back and they need to 'talk'.

She switched her phone from flight-mode to receive-mode to download her messages, now that the plane was safely on the ground, but there were no texts or voicemails from Wade. Sighing, Zoe stood up after the plane parked at the gate and the pilot turned off the seatbelt light, announcing to the cabin crew to disarm the doors. There was a flurry of movement as every passenger on the packed flight out of Atlanta collected their belongings from the overhead lockers and hurried to the front of the aircraft, eager to deplane after a long day of travelling. Zoe was third in line at the door, exiting quickly into the gate lounge where AnnaBeth was waiting for her.

Zoe walked right up to her, dropping her bags unceremoniously to pull AnnaBeth into a fierce hug. Releasing her, Zoe stepped back to greet her friend. "Hi, AnnaBeth, it's so great to see you. I've missed you." She smiled widely at the elegant, auburn-haired woman.

AnnaBeth stared at Zoe, looking her up and down with wide eyes of disbelief. "Zoe! My goodness, you look different. What happened to you?" she asked.

Zoe's grin slipped as she looked down at her outfit. "What's wrong with it?" she blurted worriedly, chewing on her lip. "The saleswoman in Atlanta assured me that this dress was perfect."

AnnaBeth fluttered her hands. "No, no, Zoe, your ensemble looks wonderful," she assured hurriedly, "I just never expected you to be wearin' a sundress and a floral one at that. It's so … so … not New York," she said diplomatically, reaching out to squeeze Zoe's wringing hands.

"Phew," Zoe uttered with relief. "I thought for a minute I'd have to fly back to Atlanta and give that saleswoman a piece of my mind. I need this outfit to send the right message to the right person. It's crucial to the success of my plan," Zoe declared frankly. AnnaBeth's eyebrows quirked, as she contemplated the intent behind Zoe's statement.

The other woman bent down to pick up her fashionable purse and her carryon bag stepping away from the crowd of deplaning passengers toward baggage claim and the exit. AnnaBeth followed, jogging a little to catch up to Zoe. She may be tiny, but her legs were long and she powered along the concourse at a New York clip, perfectly balanced in her designer heels.

AnnaBeth admired her friend's silhouette as she followed behind her. Zoe looked different, but at the same time, not. The dress was the biggest surprise since it was a pale yellow, floral patterned sundress with accents of cream and black – and Zoe did not wear sundresses, or the color yellow for that matter, but it really suited the smaller woman. She looked southern chic with a city vibe, and the young woman carried off the style with panache.

She'd teamed the dress with a pair of black and white striped, wedge sling back heels and a black and white designer purse. Zoe's hair was shorter, but still long and she'd let the natural brunette waves frame her face, which was made up with a lighter hand than usual. Zoe had pulled the front section of her hair back over the crown, securing it with a black cloisonné hair clip, completing her fresh, feminine appearance.

AnnaBeth grinned. Wade was gonna lose his mind when he laid eyes on Zoe. He always was a sucker for a beautiful woman in a pretty dress and Zoe fit the bill perfectly. He wouldn't resist for long she determined. He'd told Lavon that he got a text from Zoe saying she was returning to BlueBell, but he also insisted that he didn't care whether she came back or not. She'd ignored his efforts to stay in contact for three months and he was done!

"DONE!" he'd yelled, before storming off, muttering, "She's nothin' but a selfish bitch who could care less what anybody thinks about her, least of all a dumb shit like me!" Lavon's door had rattled in its frame as Wade slammed it behind him.

Lavon had told AnnaBeth one night a few weeks ago while they lay in bed, that Wade had laid his heart on the line and chased after Zoe, declaring his love to her, and all he'd gotten in return was a tepid 'wow' and silence for the next three months. Lavon knew his best male friend better than anyone – even better than Wade knew himself – and he'd assured AnnaBeth that Wade was a broken man inside. He'd confessed, somewhat guiltily, that he, Lavon Hayes, hated that Zoe had been the cause of so much heartache for Wade these past two years.

Lavon loved Zoe, but he was bitterly disappointed in her. He'd warned her repeatedly not to play with Wade's affections, but she hadn't listened. Big surprise – she rarely ever did. Yes, Wade had cheated on Zoe when he was in a dark place and confused about his future prospects and where his relationship with Zoe was headed, but he'd come clean and was torn up about it. Lavon honestly believed that if Zoe loved Wade at all, she'd forgive him for his infidelity this one time and try to make a go of it. In his opinion, Zoe Hart would never do better than Wade Kinsella. He was her perfect match in every way, since they say that opposites attract. Even her parents liked Wade, while he, well, he simply adored her.

Lavon told AnnaBeth that he knew for a fact that Wade had remained celibate since the breakup and over the long, lonely summer. All he'd done was work day and night getting the Rammer Jammer back on its feet, so he'd have something more to offer a heart surgeon turned small town GP, other than living in a dilapidated shack on a property they didn't own and probably never would. He'd been determined to put his ass in gear and get on with improving his ability to make a decent living - for Zoe.

AnnaBeth's intuition told her that Zoe Hart's makeover was her way of saying that she was back in BlueBell to stay and she was embracing her southern roots, albeit in a small way. AnnaBeth thought hell would freeze over before Zoe became a clone of Lemon Breeland or even herself, but her fashion concession was a huge improvement and spoke volumes.

Zoe Hart was coming back to claim her man and AnnaBeth was gonna make damn sure her friend got him. Yep, Wade didn't stand a chance against Zoe Hart and AnnaBeth Nass once they got a chance to scheme and plan his downfall.

AnnaBeth came to a stop beside Zoe at the baggage carousel, where the smaller woman was tapping her expensive shoe impatiently as she waited for her luggage. Not everything about Zoe had changed - she was Zoe Hart after all – a brilliant New York surgeon running about in four inch, hideously expensive shoes, with a penchant for interfering and getting herself into hot water. But she was the woman Wade fell in love with.

Now, first things first, how to neutralize Lemon Breeland? She was gonna be the biggest obstacle in this love story. Oh, the irony of it all, AnnaBeth thought wryly, suppressing a giggle.

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A/N: Photos for the chapter (Zoe's dress and shoes) are on my blog at jkazziefanfiction dot wordpress dot com

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