Let's just start this off by saying that the angst was calling me... and I'm really mad at Zoe.

Parts of this are inspired by spoilers for the finale but most of it is what I really want to happen. (besides my previous notion that Wade didn't actually cheat afterall)

before we continue I'd like to thank you all for your SUPER kind reviews on my other one shots, they sure make a girl feel happy. I enjoy sharing my HOD world with you all and it makes me smile that people are responding positively to it, especially when I'm not a writer at all and this is really just a fun hobby for me! I haven't quite figured out how to reply to reviews yet but I do read them all!

finally, I don't own Hart of Dixie or any of the characters but I do own an unhealthy love for Wilson Bethel.

Enjoy and please review :)

"Where is she Lavon?" Wade said as he burst into the kitchen of the plantation.

"No Wade, this is not your time to meddle"

"You know what, and I say this in the nicest way possible, but screw you... screw all of you" his heart was racing, he was panicking he knew it but he was so sick of it all.

"Calm down" Lavon replied, but trying to defuse a fired up Wade especially when it came to Zoe Hart was no mean feat.

"No Lavon, I will not calm down, I've done exactly what y'all told me, no warned me to do. I stayed away, I let her be, I gave her space, I never explained myself, didn't try to be her friend... I did exactly what you and the rest of this town told me to do."

"but that is exactly the problem Wade you just couldn't leave her be could you" he barked

"no and you no why Lavon? because I'm in love with her, always have been, always will be. Last night she came to me, ME. I know sleeping with her was wasn't for the best, don't you think I know that and seeing the person you care about most in the world look at you in such regret isn't exactly something to shout about."

Wade was almost dizzy with anger, ever since he'd bumped into Dash who couldn't wait to share the latest town gossip that fresh from the embarrassment of sleeping with her ex boyfriend and a confession of love to George Tucker which has subsequently lead to his break up with Tansy, Zoe Hart was shamed and leaving Bluebell. He'd ran since then, first to the Rammer Jammer, then to the practice and now he was here, ignoring the gossips talking crap about her on every corner... he just had to find her.

Calming himself he continued;

"And I don't care if she hates my guts, or thinks I used her... again and regrets ever coming near me, last night or otherwise, but I will not let her be run out of town because I screwed her up so bad that she has made a few bad choices. I will not stand by and let her think this is all her fault and watch her lose everything she has worked so hard for because that sucks, trust me... so please Lavon for the last time, where is she?" he pleaded.

"But you know how I feel about you George" she tried to explain or convince herself. She wasn't entirely sure anymore.

"No, I know how you think you feel about me, but be honest with me Zoe, with yourself... I don't know tell me about your best memory in Bluebell"

This was so stupid she thought, all she wanted was George to tell her he loved her and they would live happily ever after in New York after she had accepted the job offer and it would all be so easy and nice. Sensing he wasn't going to back down she thought about her answer before responding.

"New years Day" she said.

"uh-huh why's that?" George questioned.

"I was feeling a little homesick, there really is nowhere better to be for New Years than New York yano, plus I don't really like New Years, full of expectations, I always get way too reflective and get stuck in my own thoughts. Lavon and I were eating lunch when Wade swoops in with a picnic basket, some fishing gear and a smirk and decides he's taking me fishing. To cut a long story short, we just spent the whole day on this small ass boat laughing until the sun started setting it was the first time Bluebell ever really felt like home."

George just stared at her. Realising telling a story about her ex boyfriend probably wasn't they way to convince a guy he should be with her she tried to retreat before George got in first;

"Zoe, I care about you, you know that. But me and you, we're not what you want. Maybe you don't know exactly what it is you do yet but I think you know it's not this. I can't be your back up plan, I can't be the safe guy and I don't want to be. I love Tansy and I think a part of your heart still loves Wade"

"I don't love Wade" she denied.

"Stubborn as ever Zoe Hart" he laughed as he pulled her into a friendly hug.

"I'm so sorry George" she said as she turned and left the little boat on the river just as confused and lonely as she'd entered it.

After leaving a sorry note to Lavon and hiring a rental car to mobile Zoe had grabbed as much of her stuff as she could in 10 minutes before heading off onto the road. About a half a mile out of the plantation she freaked out and pulled up onto the side of the road, jumping out of the car and running towards the open field. Taking a seat up against a fence overlooking the blue Bluebell sky she sank into her own thoughts before she heard the engine of a car she knew too well. As he approached her, her breath hitched in her throat as it always did when he was around, she stood to his level before he broke the silence;

"About last ni-"

"My old chief offered me a job... in New York" Zoe interrupted.

"what?" he replied.

"he wants me to go and talk the offer over with him this weekend, it's funny isn't it, how two years ago I would have been out of here before he'd even ended the call, I was so different I didn't want to be here but I had nothing anywhere else." she sighed

"but now" Wade asked.

"now I want to stay but I have nothing to stay for." she was pushing him, pushing him to say something...anything. Sure it was not her finest moment but she knows Wade Kinsella and that boy plays his cards even closer to his chest than she does, so what if she was using a slice of good old fashioned guilt trippin' she really didn't have much to lose.

"Zoe I-"

"Hmm"

"I think you should hear him out" he confessed.

"y-you do?"

shrugging he replied "sure, you deserve the world doc, always have maybe this is your chance, maybe Bluebell and all the drama, it was just setting you on your way to greatness... you said it yourself you had nothing nowhere else, now you do."

"but Wade" she questioned, almost unsure she was hearing him right? was he really telling her to leave? after last night, after everything.

"I love you... you must know that right? I mean because if you don't by now I was even more useless as your boyfriend than I already thought. You taught me how to be a good guy you know, the type of guy my mamma would have been so proud of and that is all on you. I screwed up, but you know waking up this morning to you making excuses to George Tucker... again. Well, it killed me and I know that is what I set myself up for last night and I knew that it would make everything so damn complicated but that is what you do to me, you've made everything so freakin complicated. I used to think I didn't deserve the white picket fence ending, so I convinced myself I didn't want it anyway, then when you gave me a chance everyone else did too, I loved being that guy, then I messed it up and right up until last night I didn't give a rats ass what anyone else thought, only you. So watching you run after George, apologising for being with me when you two aren't even...whatever... the point is, something stirred in me Zoe because I do care what people think, I want people to believe in me, believe I can turn the Rammer Jammer into something great and be that same good guy, with or without you."

"It meant more to me than that, last night I mean. I needed you." she explained the best way she could.

"I've needed you ever since you left me on that bench. But I stayed away because that is what everyone told me to do."

Confused she stepped back from the fence she was leaning on and started to slowly pace "What?" she asked.

"Everyone warned me Zoe, they love you... they told me to stay away and let you be, because apparently you should have never trusted someone like me to begin with... and I believed them."

Suddenly it was all making sense, why he'd been so distant up until a couple of weeks ago, how he'd just acted like everything they'd shared had never happened.

Trying to make light of it all Zoe replied "If it makes any difference I probably would have told you to get lost."

Wade laughed as he started out at the pink Bluebell sunset. "Of course I knew that Doc, but you know how the people in this town are. It just would have been nice to let you know that I hadn't forgotten you though."

"I knew." she replied gently.

Wade nodded. They stood in comfortable silence, something which had always come naturally to them, just being together.

After some time Wade knew he had to pick back up where they had left the conversation, it was going to hurt, but he knew in his gut that it was for the best, for both of them.

He turned to face her, nervously running his hand through his hair before breaking the silence in that calm voice she always loved.

"Zoe, this... us." he motioned between them. "Maybe you had your moment of clarity and you don't wanna be Mrs George Tucker after all but baby I don't want to be the back up plan."

she looked at him, eyes bulged before she laughed bitterly "It's funny he said exactly the same thing this afternoon." looking to the ground she begun kicking the dirt under the sneakers which in the past two years had gradually replaced her wardrobe of sky high heels.

Sensing her deflating, Wade used his forefinger to gently lift her head to look at him before speaking.

"You Zoe, are the single most important person in my world. I'm never going to love anyone how I love you, you must know that but I'm not so sure you feel the same, I'm not sure you even know how you feel. I could stand here and tell you that we can work this out together but I deserve better than spending every day waiting for you to change your mind again. I'm an absolute mess without you, so I need you to make sure you have really forgiven me before we do this again."

Wade swallowed hard to push away the lump sitting in his throat and caught a stray tear that ran down Zoe's cheek.

"So I do, I think you should get out of here, away from me and Bluebell...and George Tucker and find out who Zoe Hart is again, because I had you for a while and she was fiery and relaxed and really happy,but you seem lost and that spark in your eyes is out and it's all on me, so take this opportunity Zoe, don't stay around here hanging on the thought that you might be able to trust me enough to make this work again. Neither of us can live like that." he sighed. Not actually believing what he was saying, however right he was, pushing her away is the last thing his heart wanted.

'How does he do that' she thought as he stood in front of her and just proved how much of an idiot she had been all along, how he'd been there, reading her like a book, fitting with her like two halves of a whole whilst she so often let herself think there was better for her. Better than the electricity stealing, plaid wearing, dirty mouthed, perfect, everything that she had right there all along. She knew he was right, as he so often was.

"Wade, you need to know, that I love you too. You broke my heart and maybe I tried to fill it up with all of these delusional notions of happy ever after, spring break, online dating, even George. But when it comes down to it, you got under my skin, it's always really been you. I'm so sorry for ever making you think you weren't good enough and for this morning I re-"

"You don't have to say-" he interrupted.

"I'm so insanely proud of you." she said as she grabbed his hand and squeezed it with everything she had, like he might run how he had last time she told him.

Shaking his head he sighed "Zoe"

'Does he still not believe me?' she thought finally pushing all the hurt, the disappointment and betrayal from herself once and for all. She really just wanted him to understand.

"No Wade, look at you, you own a bar!... albeit with Lemon but still the Rammer Jammer has your name above the door and you are going to do so great. I would never have been able to get through two years here without you, you are the most important person I, you're just, y-you're my Wade." the tears were running freely now as he stood there motionless looking at her in that way he always did, the way that made her stomach do gymnastics. "So thank you for sticking by me when I've not deserved it and for making me feel so safe."

"This sounds a hell of a lot like goodbye Zoe Hart." he asked with his trademark smirk.

"Nope, just a see you soon" she smiled through the tears.

"Come here" he whispered in that way he always did and pulled her into his arms and held her how he had so many times before.

"One day ok" she whispered softly into his ear as he ran his hands through her hair.

"ok" he breathed. They stood lost in eac hother until he pulled her back into him and planted a gentle kiss on the top of her head. Before another word was said she had jumped back into her rental car and sped quickly down the dirt path before she could let herself stay.

phewww that's a doozy huh! Very unlike me but I couldn't shake this dialogue after seeing the preview of Zoe and Wade by the field. I hope you enjoyed it!

Please let me know what you think!