A/N - Lots of folks wondering about Zade, where are they? Here they are, hope you aren't disappointed.

Disclaimer: Me no own Hart of Dixie

Coming Up For Air Ch. 4

DAY 6

It was still early that Friday in Bluebell, but it was already hot. Rose Hattenbarger, accompanied by Elwood Freiburghouse, was collecting the cameras she had set around the Mayor's plantation. Rose wanted to pick them up before school, which was why she was there about 7am, and she was also hoping to avoid talking to Elwood, or least talking about cameras, focal length, and spy technology, which were the only interests Elwood had, apparently, other than working on all kinds of machinery. Rose had nearly given up hope that Elwood would want to talk about her, and if she wasn't the topic of conversation, and her feelings for him, then Rose decided she just didn't walk to talk, period. And why was it that the girls always had to do all of the work in the relationship, anyway?, she wondered, filing that away to ask Zoe the next time she saw her, which made Rose blush thinking about how she had spied on her friend, which made Elwood stop talking about optical zoom, in fact it made him stop walking entirely as he stared at Rose.

"Gosh, you're awfully pretty in the morning light," Elwood blurted out, as he too suddenly blushed, his eyes widening, as it began to sink in what he had just said.

Rose stopped walking and looked at Elwood, smiling her biggest smile. "Thank you, that's really sweet."

"You're welcome," Elwood said, as he stared at the ground and stuck his hands in his pockets, not knowing what else to say or do. As they resumed their walk toward school, in silence, all the cameras in hand, Elwood began to wonder if it was possible to love two women at the same time. At the same time, Rose began to wonder if Elwood had a crush on someone else because it always seemed to work out that way.

Across the square, Delma and Big Ethel were seated on one of the benches with their fans and umbrellas.

"Gonna be a hot one," Delma said.

Big Ethel nodded. "Take the skin right off yo' back."

"How you reckon Brick be feelin' this mornin'?"

"Like dyin' be an improvement."

"Poor man. It's the uncertainty gets to 'em. Brick's good under pressure, but he can't handle uncertainty."

"But Delma, mos' everything in life is uncertain!"

"Exactly, that's what makes it so hard."

Shula Whitaker joined the ladies on the bench. "Oo-ee gonna be a hot one, don't-take-your-shoes-off-cause-it'll-burn-your-fe et-up-to-your-knees hot."

"Shula, what's this I hear about that itty-bitty doctor and the CIA? That's just foolishness and you know it!"

"I'm just passin' on what I hear, and it could explain a lot of things," Shula said defensively.

"Just proves you got too much time on your hands thinkin' up conspiracies, next thing you know you'll have the birds conspirin' with the bees."

"That could explain a lot too," Shula insisted.

Over at the Rammer Jammer, Shady Hilson had stopped off to get a cup of coffee to go before heading to the hardware store. Lemon served him.

"Hey, Lemon, I heard about your Daddy, how is he?"

"Doubt he's up yet," Lemon said with a small laugh, "he's been working so hard this summer you know, no days off really, he needs to relax…"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Shady grinned, "say, I haven't seen Wade around, has he run off with our Yankee doctor?"

"Yes, yes, apparently he has," Lemon laughed gaily as she rang Shady up, gave him his change, and closed the register. She turned away from the dining room, leaned on the bar, crossed her arms and scowled. Where is he, she thought, and DAMN if it wasn't hot already.

It was Tom, of course, who brought the bad news, limping into the Rammer Jammer that afternoon favoring his knee. Lemon walked up to him with a worried look as Tom grabbed a chair and sat down.

"Please tell me that isn't what I think it is," Lemon pleaded.

"I'm afraid it is," Tom said.

"Rita Urban's rooster?"

Tom held his hands together next to his head like a pillow.

"Well," Lemon practically shouted, throwing her gaze, her head, and her arms skyward, "at least the heat'll break tonight." She headed back to the office with an air of defeat, while the bartender changed the TV to the Weather Channel so customers could watch the approaching Canadian cool front that would produce lightning, thunderstorms, and possibly hail and high winds tonight. Tom just shook his head, why did people need proof, the rooster was always right.

It wasn't the thunderstorms or high winds that awoke the Mayor at the plantation that night, though. It was something else, because the house was quiet, Annabeth breathing softly beside him. He got up, put his robe on and went downstairs. The kitchen light was on.

What Lavon saw in the kitchen doorway was a little hard to absorb, at first, and he had to blink several times to make sure he was seeing what he was seeing. There, in front of him, in matching white terry cloth robes, were Wade and Zoe, rifling his kitchen cabinets. They weren't just rifling his cabinets, though, it was the WAY they were rifling his cabinets that was kind of…amazing. Wade was looking in all the upper cabinets, Zoe in the lower, as they circled the kitchen towards each other, and their bodies were moving to some unheard music, swaying back and forth, rocking on their feet, all their searching movements were efficient and in tune, their heads bobbing in time, in fact, ALL their moves were in time, just subtle shifts of stance or facial expression as they looked and danced, in very small ways, around the kitchen. Lavon had this vision of perfect symmetry when they both turned and saw him at the same time.

"Oh, hey Lavon," they both said at the same time, same inflection, same wide smile.

"Hey," Lavon nodded, clearly mystified. "Nice to see y'all."

They both smiled and nodded, and Lavon clearly saw a stereo effect, they held their heads the same, it was same kind of smile, both sets of eyes were clear and warm and glowing.

"You know there's a pool out on when you'll be spotted first," Lavon said, "what time is it?"

Wade and Zoe just looked at each other and grinned and said "Hmph" in exactly the same way, then looked at the clock on the wall over Lavon's head and said, in unison, "Twenty of twelve."

Lavon glanced back and forth between his friends with an uncertain smile on his face. "Could you guys stop that…it's kinda creepy?"

"Stop what?" they both said, then laughed as Wade made a gesture to Zoe to go ahead and he looked at his feet. It was only then that they stopped being mirror images of each other in the kitchen that night.

Zoe looked directly into Lavon's eyes.

"We need chocolate."

Once again Lavon was caught off-guard.

"Um, the only chocolate I have is in my baking stuff, semi-sweet chips," he gestured toward a cabinet at Zoe's feet.

With a gleam in her eye, Zoe crouched down, opened the cabinet door, and seized the bag of chocolate chips triumphantly. She stood up, holding the bag high.

"Success!"

"Perfect," smiled Wade.

At almost the same moment, the first rumbles of thunder could be heard.

"Gotta get back," they both said merrily as they headed for the kitchen door.

"You know, it's a shame," said Lavon, stuck for anything else to say to his friends, "if it was only twenty minutes later, I would have won the pool, I was the only one to pick over on the over-under a week."

Both Wade and Zoe looked at Lavon and shrugged, and Wade said, "It's your call, man," as if to say it was entirely up to Lavon whether he would say he saw them at 11:40 or 12:05, and then they did what Lavon later would have a hard time explaining, describing, or understanding.

Wade held open the kitchen door with his right hand, bowing slightly, and holding his left arm up in the air as if he were a southern-friend Baryshnikov, Zoe pirouetted prettily underneath, they clasped hands and, like Fred and Ginger, were gone into the night as the first large raindrops began to fall.

Lavon remained in the kitchen doorway with a big smile on his face, stunned. The rain began to fall in earnest, big gushets of water cascading off the plantation roof like an Amazon waterfall. He thought of his friends, how happy they seemed, and how perhaps things could get back to normal around here, depending on how you define normal. He even thought briefly about mis-reporting the time he saw them so he could win the pool, but only briefly, for he knew above all else Lavon Hayes does not cheat.

He chuckled and turned to go back upstairs. As he was just about to turn off the light, he spotted Annabeth on the landing of the stairs. She raised her eyebrows and turned her head coquettishly, glancing at her watch to indicate she knew what time it was. Lavon laughed softly, she knew what he had been thinking about, and she also knew the decision he had reached, and equally important, she knew he knew she knew.

As Lavon walked past Annabeth up the stairs, trailing his fingers along her arm, she very quietly and surreptitiously pumped her other arm in victory and mouthed the word 'yes', for what Lavon did not know was that Annabeth had Day 6 in the pool.