A:N Hi guys. This is my first foray into the world of hart of Dixie. The show is my current obsession and after watching the season 1 eps again, the idea for this popped into my head. And boom it was in Microsoft word. Unusual as anyone who has read my oth fic would know how easily I get blocked when I'm writing, which is why my current oth fic hasn't been updated. Majorly blocked. I have a bunch of oneshots and the next chapter of ngl written but can't get any further. (I owe the readers of that mega apologies) Anyway back to hart of Dixie! I am majorly in love with wade. I mean I always had a bit of a soft spot for Jason Street but every ep of hod I'm all "awww wade!". I could watch him and his abs all day. Anyway back to the story this is a oneshot that I could turn into a three shot. And so there is no confusion this is AU. I have changed things and tried to keep the characters as true as I can so don't hate me! It's a bit of a what if? Scenario. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. And let me know if you want to see a continuation or the story to stay as oneshot. Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hart Of Dixie. Although I would be happy to enter negotiations for Wade... just sayin..

Fourteen Miles From Bluebell

Dr Zoe Hart gazed out the window at the landscape passing by. It had been twelve years since she had last seen the scenery, twelve years since she has been back here. Zoe spotted a small hand painted road marker. 14. She had never noticed the road marker and she had lost count of how many times she had travelled along this road. And here she was now reading it for the first time and that simple road marker hit her like a ton of bricks. 14. 14 miles to Bluebell, Alabama.

It was a year. 365 days in Bluebell Alabama. And it had been technically. Zoe had stayed for a year. 365 days. Lived in the town, done her duties and on the 366th day she had packed her bags and headed home to New York. Home it was a funny word. Four little letters that meant so much more. For most of her life home had been New York and after her year in Bluebell it was again. Although many would argue to the contrary. Addie with her home-baked cookies, and motherly advice; Rose with her childlike ideology, and well him. She tried not to think of him and home in the same breath.

She had successfully put Bluebell in her past and lived her life. Full scholarship to college followed by med school at John Hopkins and then her lifelong dream, residency in New York's most prestigious hospital. Her life plan had come together just as she had wanted. She was Dr Zoe Hart and Bluebell was no longer her home. Those who managed to get through the door to her apartment may question the postcards of the tiny gulf town stuck to the door of the refrigerator, the Rammer Jammer logo coasters on the coffee table, or the watercolour painting of a pretty town square in the living room. But to all intensive purposes Zoe was a New Yorker and Bluebell had been a small step on her path to get to where she was and she has no plans to go back.

That was until 24 hours ago. Well 27 hours 42 minutes and a few seconds but no one was actually counting. Especially not Zoe. Yesterday she was coming off a twenty hour shift in her final rotation of residency when her world was turned upside down, again. A relative stranger delivered news that would turn her world on its axis and bring her back. 14 miles from Bluebell Alabama and a past she had tried to forget. She looked to her left and the same stranger from the day before sat eyes focused on the road, one hand on the steering wheel the other resting on the edge of the rolled down window. They had hardly spoken a word after he said what he came to say. He dutifully carried her hastily packed suitcase and checked her in to their flight and now was chauffeuring her home.

Home. The word seemed foreign now when she thought of Bluebell. But it was always there pushed to the back of her brain only surfacing in quiet moments between college lectures, or early hours of sleepless nights in the oncall room. It had been a year, 365 days. Invisible to the naked eye, it was still there no matter how hard she tried to bury it. It had never left even if she had. His eyes were still glued to the road and her mind went back to the night 3 months after she left; the night he visited her in New York. Out of place and out of his depth she had been cold and distant and he had finally given in. New York was her home and she wasn't coming back.

Pangs of guilt hit her. She knew she had hurt him; broken his heart even. Not that he would admit it. A bit of fun he had called it. No biggie. But she knew him. Wade Kinsella would not go to New York for just anyone and he had done it twice. It seemed like only mere seconds had passed since she spotted him sitting in a hard plastic chair in the waiting room staring at the door. She stared at him again now. He still stirred something in her. A reaction she had never been able to explain. She was a woman of science and she was still dumbstruck the way she had been when they first met. He was a stranger to her now. Twelve years would do that. He hadn't changed so much physically. Older in ways that you would expect but still the same Wade that she had met all those years ago.

Her mind then drifted back to that time. The time of Zoe and Wade. Wade and Zoe. Or "Zade" as Annabeth like to call them. Wade would grumble that it was "too Dawson's Creek for him and he was Wade and a one man, man" but she knew secretly he liked having that connection to her. She had seen a side to him that he didn't show to anyone else. And that was special to her. He had been special to her. He had been officially the first person she had met in Bluebell. She had been walking in to the local high school trying to hold her head high as the new girl when he had roared into the student lot in his beat up old pickup almost running her over when she couldn't get out of his way fast enough. She had yelled at him, he had hit on her, she had sprayed him with her mace and they both ended up in the principal's office before homeroom.

Wade Kinsella and Bluebell Alabama had not been on her to do list. But Wade was on a one man mission to change her mind. It had been a rough transition from her Upper East Side prep school to this, but she hadn't had a choice, and Wade had been the light in it all, even if she had refused to admit it. Zoe had lost her mother young. Drinking and partying the way she did it was only a matter of time before her lifestyle took her. Her father unable to cope had sent her to whatever expensive school was closest leaving her in their apartment under the care of whatever nanny was employed at the time. But then her world had crumbled. Her father had been killed in a plane crash. He had left her a trust fund and a letter. He wasn't her father. A man named Harley Wilkes had fathered her. And without access to her trust fund until she was 25, Zoe had little choice but to live with a father she didn't know she had in a town she had never heard of.

And then she met Wade. He had stuck by her through those first few weeks when head cheerleader Lemon Breeland used every trick in her southern playbook to ostracise the new girl until Wade convinced her that Zoe wasn't trying to steal her boyfriend George Tucker by being his lab partner. And that considering Lemon's fear and repulsion of blood and bodily fluids she should probably let someone else help him dissect rodents and amphibians. Wade claimed he had no choice to intervene before there was bloodshed and destroyed pom poms. Zoe still maintained putting itching powder and food dye in the homecoming queen's tiara like she planned would have worked if not been hilarious.

By the winter break Zoe had settled into Bluebell in a strange sort of way. She had begun to accept Harley in her life and she made peace with Lemon by promising not to make direct eye contact with George, and to stop calling her lemon lime and bitters at least to her face. The belles had somewhat embraced her thanks to her legacy as a Wilkes. Even if Zoe had no desire to be a belle and Lemon said she was only tolerated in the circle, Lemon's two best friends Annabeth and Cricket had other ideas. They invited Zoe everywhere and to everything the belle's did, much to Wade's chagrin. Whatever free time she had she would hang out with Wade at the old mayor's plantation where he worked as a handyman on weekends and after football practice. It was an easy arrangement. Wade pretended that he didn't like Zoe. Zoe pretended not to like Wade, and they both pretended that they didn't makeout any chance that they could.

Zoe smiled at the thought of Wade sneaking into her bedroom above the doctor's office where Harley worked and trying to sneak back out past the patients in the waiting room in the morning. Wade had had a 'mysterious' football injury that caused him to be at Dr Wilkes office early in the morning alot that year. As much as they had fun they also knew how to fight. She once dumped an entire pitcher of juice over his head at the Rammer Jammer for a reason she couldn't remember. And he had stormed away from her a time or two. Usually after she had unintentionally or sometimes intentionally insulted his band, his clothes or his truck which he insisted understood everything she said and broke down to prove how important the truck was in the greater scheme of things, not because she forgot to fill the tank after borrowing his truck for the umpteenth time.

They both had a jealous streak. She, of the football groupies that would swarm after him after every game for a piece of the handsome and cocky tight end. And he, of the guys who were enamoured by the girl from somewhere as far away and glamorous as New York. But everyone knew Wade Kinsella and Zoe Hart only had eyes for one another. Well they did after Zoe slapped Joelle Sugarbaker in town square after she tried the naked girl in the truck trick. A week later Wade threw the tantrums of tantrums after fresh faced freshman Tom Long proposed marriage to Zoe via the morning school announcements. George Tucker had been the one to confiscate Wade's 16 gauge despite Wade's promise "I'll give Tom a running start to be sportin". He had been almost contrite when he finally saw Zoe but every time he saw Tom a little vein would bulge in the side of his neck. Everyone else in town thought that Wade was being Wade, but Zoe knew better. There was more to the blue eyed blonde than most saw.

He had been the one to show her how to lose her inhibitions. Zoe had been grounded by Harley after she and Wade got plastered on box white wine and had written a song to sing at the gala presenting Harley with the town MOTY award. Apparently the lyrics "Dash is here with cash cause the winner is pretty flash, getting his award at tonight's gala bash. The moty is held by Harold Tucker who now is the sucker that has to give it up to Harley the winning motherfucker..." were deemed inappropriate. To add insult to injury Zoe had thrown up in the man of the year float off stage while Wade stood on stage doing a rockstar guitar solo on his acoustic.

She remembered her first Bluebell heatwave when Wade took her to the plantation and convinced her to go skinny dipping. She had freaked out when something slimy had touched her leg. Wade had kissed her to snap her out of it, and that night she had lost her virginity to him in the old gatehouse. Although she had freaked out and made him set her up a romantic night with candles and flowers to make up for the "redneck nature" of their first night. He had laughed at her antics but then had realised she had been serious. She had confided in Annabeth, who then made it her mission to make sure Zoe got her night of romance. Even Lemon had gotten involved with the other belles to transform Zoe's bedroom into a New York hotel room. Zoe never did get to see the result of all their work because Wade had snuck her away back to the plantation where he had cleaned up the old gatehouse into a south pacific island claiming he "had seen it in a movie once" before they spent most of the night arguing over which island they were on. It hadn't been the last time they had been there. It was their place.

She remembered their tutoring sessions. Usually ending in one or both minus a shirt; and Zoe smacking Wade for giving her a hickey. But he had his moments when he would cover for her when she would go into her own world of study. Locking herself away for days at a time. He got that she had wanted to be the best. To go to medical school and be a doctor. She still remembered the first time he called her Doc. "It's only a matter of time before everyone's calling you their doc. Just means that you have to remember who said it first" he had said with his signature smirk. She had kissed him silly after that.

Zoe remembered holding in a laugh in the hallway when Lemon had stalled her on her way to the janitor's closet to meet Wade. She had been frustrated trying to listen and nod while Lemon ranted on about George's mom calling her high strung. Zoe had tried in vain to hide her laugh as Wade stood ten yards behind Lemon just outside the door to the closet doing over exaggerated hip thrusts while smirking at her. Lemon had looked over her shoulder to see what had the petite brunette's attention, and had lost the plot completely. Yelling how she couldn't understand how someone as refined and "borderline socially acceptable as Zoe Hart could see anything in that backwards redneck hick". Lemon had unfriended her on facebook for an hour until there had been some kind of emergency with the spirit squad bake sale and had needed Zoe's help. After all no one had ever been able to get the freshman and sophomore boys to spend their allowance on cupcakes like Zoe Hart. The bake sale itself made her smile. Wade marking his territory by attaching his lips to her neck while she served, leaning around her to steal a cupcake from the tray. When she tried to stop him, he danced out of her grip, smacked her ass and drawled "Thanks for the grub Doc...and the house call last night" before sauntering off chuckling. She had stared after him open mouthed while Lemon muttered about what was acceptable to discuss in public.

Then there was the time he had finally convinced her to go under the bleachers with him during the JV football game. Zoe had maintained she was not that sort of girl. She still carried mace with her for christsakes. But Wade wouldn't give in. And during the last game of the season she finally caved. They snuck down there and Zoe still wished she hadn't. It seemed Lemon and George had the same idea. Lemon had screamed about invasion of privacy and peeping Wades. Zoe had wanted to bleach her eyeballs after that but they had all been too busy trying to convince the principal they had no idea why the pregame fireworks were aimed at the Bluebell water tower and not the sky.

Then there was the time they had gone with everyone to the Bluebell carnival. Wade and George had gotten sublimely drunk and had ended up getting into a fight over something stupid like who had the cooler truck and could win the biggest prize and ended up in a competition which started on the shooting arcade, escalated in the hammer throwing contest and ended up with both on stage competing over who had the best rendition of 'Sweet home Alabama'. Zoe ended up getting a ride home with Lemon while George and Wade slept it off spooning in the bed of his truck. Whilst being mad at his immature behaviour, Zoe definitely got the mileage from her 'spooning leads to forking' jokes for the next month. Even going so far as to give him a set of silver cutlery as a stocking filler at Christmas.

She glanced over at Wade again. His left hand was now resting on the steering wheel with his right and he was gripping the steering wheel tight. He looked as tense as she felt. It was almost as if he could hear her going through the Zoe and Wade catalogue in her head. It was door she didn't want to open. She couldn't. She was on her way back to Bluebell for a reason. But that didn't mean that everything was going to be the same. Twelve years was a long time, and judging by how much she changed herself there was no way Bluebell would be the same as when she left it.

She bit her lip as she thought back to her last days in Bluebell. She had never hidden the fact that she was only in Alabama for a year. Wade had been proud when she had told him she had been accepted to NYU with a full ride. That was the beginning of the end. They carried on like nothing had changed, although both knew everything had. As graduation loomed and everyone discussed their plans for the future and Zoe got ready to be valedictorian of a school she couldn't have imagined only months prior, and as she made plans for her move back to New York she knew things would not be the same. Wade had been a great football player and had been offered a scholarship to a junior college in Alabama. But he never wanted to discuss it. His brother Jesse was due home soon from his tour in Afghanistan and she put his stress down to that, and did what she could to make their last days as great as possible. Lemon, Annabeth and the belles had her busy with all of the graduation events and before she knew it she was packing her suitcases and boxes and readying to say goodbye.

Zoe knew deep down that wasn't exactly how it all played out. But she tried to push down her guilt and memories of Wades face the day she told him she was leaving, the next day. Wade knew she was due to go and Zoe reminded him and herself that she was only staying for a year. But that didn't mean it hurt any less. Or that she hadn't thought of staying. Or staying with Wade. On her 366th day in Alabama, Zoe left Bluebell.

They stayed in contact. At least she tried. That's what she told herself. Wade called when he was supposed to. He wrote her twice a week as promised. But after a few weeks she found herself dodging his calls. Not ripping the envelope open the second she had opened her mailbox. Telling herself that it was easier. At the time she thought it was. And when he came to visit her after three months she told herself it would be better for everyone involved if that was his first and last visit. She wasn't coming back, and Wade needed to know. After three awkward days he packed his duffel and said goodbye on the sidewalk before climbing into a taxi and driving out of her life. She cried herself to sleep with the toy stethoscope she found in her suitcase on her second day back in New York. The small note Every doc needs one xo W clutched in her hand.

Zoe buried herself in her studies and the career she had always wanted. Eventually the days turned to weeks, then to months and then she was at her college undergrad graduation, then her med school graduation. Then walking in for her first day of residency. Harley came to visit her every year on her birthday. He would fly in for two days. They would go to Barney's and buy her a new dress before heading out to dinner followed by cupcakes and a show on Broadway. They didn't discuss Bluebell other than a quick catch up of the practice, what was new with his nurse Addie and her family, and how big his goddaughter Rose was getting. And they definitely didn't discuss Wade. Zoe's only news from Bluebell for the past twelve years had been her semi-regular postcards from Annabeth and annual Christmas card from Lemon and George. And now she was about to enter Bluebell again.

Zoe looked back at the window as the buildings got closer together and the road started to widen as they got close to the outskirts of town. Only two more miles. Zoe started to think of those she left behind. She didn't really know much about her old neighbours. She emailed Rose from time to time but she had been only two when Zoe left. It was difficult to imagine her as a teenager. Her old friends were now strangers. Were they happy? Were they married? Children? Families? Careers? And Wade, they had been together for the past 28 hours or so and she didn't know anymore about his life than she had 29 hours ago. They were about to drive right back into his town and she wasn't prepared. "Stop the car" Zoe leaned forward all of a sudden slamming her hand on the dash board.

Wade slammed on the brakes startled before pulling to the side of the road.

"You kay?" he asked when he turned the engine off.

"Yeah" she leaned back against the seat closing her eyes.

Wades breathing slowed down as he allowed himself to really look at her for the first time. He had waited in the hospital waiting room for four and half hours drinking bad coffee waiting for her to appear. And he didn't think he had started breathing again yet. She was still the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was so different to the girl he knew twelve years prior. In her place was a sophisticated woman. Worldly, elegant and graceful. But deep down he knew she was still the sassy, smart, sarcastic and stubborn girl he fell in love with.

"Do you need another minute?" he asked. He didn't want to push her but they needed to get back to Bluebell, and sitting here with her on the side of the road wasn't making him feel any less anxious. He glanced at her again she was looking downwards running both hands over the seat.

"When did you get the car?" she blurted out.

"What?" he snapped his attention back to her face, he had been busy staring at her hands.

"The car" she looked up at him

"What about it?"

"It's your dream car" she stated and he looked back at her surprised "Did you think I would forget? You had pictures of them in your room and taped up inside your locker. You and George would go and look at cars and talk for hours about a good old boy pickup versus your dream 67 Camaro." She mimicked his accent making him half smile half smirk. "You finally bought it"

"Yeah" he smiled back at her before she looked down at the seat again. "Can't believe you remember" She looked up and their eyes locked. Zoe felt the air shift around them. It had always been this way with Wade. Serious one minute, and then the next...easy and something she couldn't put her finger on. Electric? Crazy? She bit her lip and Wade's eyes glanced down to her lips before returning to her eyes. Oh no. She knew that look. That's not why she was back in Bluebell. But it was Wade. Nothing had ever been to reason with Wade. He wasn't her type. She could never explain the attraction except it was there. And she had never cared to explain it either. She never really wanted to. Before she knew what she was doing she leaned over and kissed him. She pulled back slightly in shock with herself before looking at him straight on for the first time in twelve years. Before Wade could question the way she was looking at him, she was slamming her lips into his. Wade met her intensity with that of his own. They were completely in sync within seconds, battling for dominance before he leaned over and pulled her into his lap. They continued to kiss for long minutes. Wade pulled her sweater down her arms then tugged down one strap of her tank top, leaving hot open mouthed kisses across the skin around her collarbone. Zoe gripped his shirt trying to pull it off of his shoulders, her only thought being "there's less room in here than his old truck". Zoe felt like she was eighteen again and nothing about the way Wade made her feel had changed. They were broken out of the moment when a car went flying past them.

Zoe pulled back to look at Wade before lifting herself from his lap, and back into the passenger seat. Wade sat back trying to catch his breath while Zoe straightened out her now mussed hair. Damn Wade he had always had a thing for running his hands through it when they made out. Something's definitely didn't change. When he was composed Wade looked at her and Zoe quietly nodded. Without another word he restarted the car and pulled back out onto the road. It was time to come back to Bluebell.

They drove for a few minutes before Wade pulled off into a side road.

"Where are we going? I thought we were headed into town?" she looked at the old familiar dirt road.

"Just gotta make a quick pit stop" he answered before he drove past the old plantation house. It looked as beautiful as she remembered. She looked at the gardens as they drove and through the estate up to the old gatehouse. It wasn't so old anymore it had a fresh coat of paint and had a small garden bed around it.

"Does someone live here?"

"Could say that" Wade answered as he cut the engine and climbed out. She slowly followed him. He opened the trunk and pulled out the luggage before climbing the single step and walking into the house, she followed him inside, he left her suitcase by the door and threw his keys on the coffee table before heading to the fridge and grabbing two bottled waters. Zoe looked around the room eyes wide. The entire space was Wade. From the stacked video games, huge TV, the guitars to the football trophies on the mantle. It all screamed Wade. Even the colours painted on the walls and the bedding. She grimaced at the dirty laundry on the floor. But that in itself was Wade. He had always been a pig. "You live here?"

"I guess" he answered scratching the back of his head. "I gotta make a quick call. You be okay for a minute or two?" she nodded before he grabbed his cell and headed out the glass doors out onto the deck she knew overlooked the pond. She looked around the room taking it all in. Wade lived in the gatehouse. Their Gatehouse. This had been their place. This room held so many memories for her, and she was a little shocked this is where Wade chose to make his home. She walked over to the small table next to the bed. There was two frames glass down on the nightstand; she looked over her shoulder he was still talking intently on the phone. She turned the first photo over it was the larger frame and it was cracked straight down the middle, it held a photo of Wade, his brother Jesse and Crazy Earl; all holding fish and smiling at the camera. Zoe smiled before replacing it on the nightstand. The second was a smaller frame and when she turned it over she gasped. Inside the old frame was a picture of the two of them. It was a self portrait Zoe had taken not long after they had met. She was tucked under Wades chin and they were both laughing. The photo was taken on the deck Wade was currently standing on. She remembered it like it was yesterday. She replaced the second frame when she heard the door creak open.

"That was George. He wants to see you before tomorrow, and he says he knows that Lemon will too. I said I'll let them know when you're ready to see people. He said he'll keep you being in town quiet for now"

"Thanks. I appreciate it' she hugged herself

"You must be tired, I can take you to your old house, or you"

"I want to stay here.' She cut him off as he looked back at her in surprise "I'm not ready to face Bluebell just yet, but I think I can be here. That's if it's okay with you?" She bit her lip.

"Sure, um I'm gunna go up to the main house and get some towels and stuff, and I'll be back. Make yourself at home" he gestured before heading out. "um ok" he waved as he walked out.

"Wait Wade" Zoe called chasing after him. "Is that it?" she asked as they came face to face again.

"Do you want something else?" he looked confused

"No, no I want nothing!" she replied frustrated.

"I'll get the towels" he turned on his heel and left. Leaving Zoe on her own outside the gate house. "Stupid Wade" she muttered as she headed back inside. She walked in to check out the bathroom, which as she suspected was disgusting. She looked around under the cabinets and found a bottle of disinfectant and some papertowels and began doing what she could to make it hygienic. She then stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower figuring that Wade wouldn't be too long. She washed her hair and got rid of the grime of the past day. When she shut the water off, she turned around and there were two fresh towels on the rack behind the door. She grabbed one for her hair and one for herself drying off before heading out. Wade wasn't anywhere to be found. She grabbed her suitcase and removed clean underwear and a tank top and shorts.

She had just finished towel drying her hair when Wade walked back in with sandwiches and cans of soda.

"Thought you might be hungry" he said

"Thanks" she replied before sitting down with her sandwich, smiling that he had made her turkey on rye, swiss cheese no cranberry. Just how she liked it. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Zoe cleared her throat. "Wade."

"Yeah"

"Why did you come to New York?"

"Your dad died" he answered without looking at her

"I know" she brushed her hair back. "But you could've called; I would've come back if you called"

"I know"

"So why the trip? I mean if you knew?"

"It's not that I didn't trust you not to come"

"You didn't?"

"No" he looked up at her. "Your Dad died. That's not something that you should find out over the phone" he answered "And it's not something you should find out alone" her head snapped up. "Harley loved you, and you loved him. And you shouldn't be alone; I didn't want you to be alone"

"Thankyou" she grabbed his hand. They looked at each other gingerly. "I mean it. You didn't need to do this for me, but you did anyway. I appreciate it, I really do." She squeezed his hand "Anyone else would have just called; you knew I would need you, after all this time you still know me Wade". She said with tears in the corner of her eyes

"You're welcome Doc" he answered squeezing back. Zoe smiling the first real smile she could remember in what felt like twelve years "So how about you fire up some Halo?" she wiped her eyes and smiled wider.

"Halo? Huh" he answered with a smirk" I hear that game makes people happy"

"An amateur expert told me that once" she giggled as she remembered those long nights in Wade's bedroom.

"Must have been; professionals in the happiness biz play strip halo" he winked

"Strip halo huh? Sounds complicated" Zoe feigned surprise

"No just fun" he smirked and her heart thumped in her chest

"Well I guess you always were the expert' she grinned back. They smiled lightly before they both visibly relaxed. Tomorrow would be a hard day. She would have to face the town at Harley's funeral. But for now she was with the one person who knew her best. It may have been twelve years but some things never change.

A:N There it is. Let me know what you think and if i should turn it into a threeshot. I cannot make up my mind! Thanks for reading!