A/N: So, the original idea for this fic came to me last September, when I was first watching late S1/early S2. I made notes, thought it'd be cool to write someday, then later I read the amazing '5 Summers and a Chance' by rainonmonday. I wondered if I should abandon my story idea because there were similarities, however, there were also major differences. I've been adding to my notes on-and-off all this time, starting the story, changing my mind, etc. but now I've decided to just go for it. I know there are several other stories around here with similar concepts but I have avoided reading them so that I'm not influenced any further. I only hope now that someone wants to read this as much as I want to write it, because I think it could be pretty epic (in length, at the very least! lol).
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters from Hart of Dixie belong to Leila Gerstein and other folks who aren't me.
Prologue
On Zoe Hart's ninth birthday, she blew out her candles and wished, one day, to be a doctor, hopefully a surgeon, just like her daddy.
Unfortunately, before the year was through, Zoe would discover that Dr. Ethan Hart was not her father at all. That honour belonged to another doctor, a GP that Zoe had never met before in her life, by the name of Harley Wilkes.
When she did meet him, he seemed like a nice man. There was no way she could call him 'daddy' but he smiled and told her that 'Harley' would be just fine. He visited a few times and she got to know him, as Ethan showed up less and less.
It wasn't so bad. Zoe cried because her parents couldn't live together anymore and because she saw so little of either of her fathers, but she had started to adjust a little by the time her tenth birthday rolled around.
She was surprised by the gift that Harley sent her. Not by the fact that he sent one at all, because he had promised he would, but by what that gift actually was.
"What a beautiful trunk. Wasn't that thoughtful, Zoe?" her mother said with a smile.
Little Zoe unclasped the catches and prised open the lid, almost falling inside as she reached for a note at the bottom of the old-fashioned travelling trunk. Her eyes took in the words written on the card and her mouth dropped open at their meaning.
'Dear Zoe,
I thought you could use this when you come visiting this summer.
Can't wait to show you Bluebell.
Happy Birthday, honey.
All my love,
Harley.'
"We arranged it just the other day," Mom told her fast. "I mean, you know I always have so much to do and so many places to go in the summer and you only get bored. So, when Harley asked me, I agreed. From now on, Zoe, you get to spend your summers in Bluebell, Alabama, getting to know your real father."
Zoe heard the words, but struggled to take them in. Alabama. She knew where it was, could pick it out on a map, but it was just one coloured piece in a patchwork of other similar pieces that made up the United States on one side of her globe. It might as well be on the moon for little Zoe Hart, who had been born and raised, her whole ten years, in New York City.
"Summers in Bluebell," she said to herself, turning over the note from Harley and finding it was written on a postcard.
The picture on the front was so pretty. Green trees, a blue sky, and a town square with a perfect white gazebo in the centre. It almost looked like something from a fairy tale land, but fairy tales were far away from the city streets and everything that Zoe knew.
"I'm sure you'll love it, sweetheart," said her mother with a tight smile. "You'll have a wonderful time there."
"I guess so," said Zoe, nodding her head, half-excited and half-afraid just thinking about it.
If nothing else, she supposed, it was bound to be an adventure!
To Be Continued...
A/N2: My plan is to write a whole summer at a time and then break it up into 3-4 chapters to post, so posting-wise there will probably be smaller gaps between chapters but slightly larger gaps between summers, if that makes sense. That said, I have already started writing, so Chapter 1 should be up in the next few days, with the rest of the first summer following fairly quickly after :)