Hello all! Welcome to this years Hart of Dixie Christmas story, or you know the Zade Christmas story. I like to think that it will be a bit different from what I have written in the past. The Idea came to mind after watching a preview for All Rise, I haven't watched the show, just seen Wilson Bethel in the preview clips and the idea sparked and came to life. I don't know when the next chapter will be posted as I still have to write it, nor do I know how long this story will be.

Enjoy!

"You!" They yelled in unison, the second he opened his door, to see the one person he thought he had escaped from New York.

As for Zoe, she was equally shocked to see the one guy she thought she was done with only to find him as her neighbor in a town very few people know about.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, her annoyance coming out. Whoever thought this was funny, needed to pay, because of all the people in New York, the one that shouldn't be before her in the south, is the very man that is standing in front of her, shirtless at that. Sure her mouth watered at the sight of his toned stomach, licking her lips as her eyes traveled further down seeing how his jeans hugged him in all the right places.

"Me?" He questioned outraged. It was the voice that brought her attention; her very annoyed focus back on his face. "What are you doing here?" He wouldn't say that he left the city to escape the woman standing on his porch, because he only knew her for a few hours, the worst hours of his adult life, he would say. But really, it was the date from hell with her that told him everything he needed to know, that the city wasn't for him, and he needed to follow in his friends' footsteps and return home to a much slower pace of life.

"Oh no, see I asked you first," Zoe retorted, pointing at him. There was no way that she was going to give him any information. Yeah, okay, it wouldn't take him long to figure it out, though she wasn't about to make it that easy on him.

"What are we in second grade?" He asked with a chuckle. "And frankly, it isn't any of your business on what I am doing here," he smirked, shutting the door in her face.

"Same goes for you," she yelled. "It's none of your stupid stinkin' business," she huffed, storming off to reset the breaker box, that her very rude neighbor had blown.

She muttered to herself, walking around the carriage house, picking her clothes up off the floor and getting the small space put back into order. Anyone could have been her neighbor; she never thought in a million years that she'd be neighbors with the one blind date she had let her mother talk her into going on. Though, it was just her luck for that to happen. She didn't even know that Lavon knew Wade, not that she made a habit of asking her friend who all of his friends were.

Across the pond, Wade sat staring at his TV his video game paused, his half-empty bottle of beer dangling from his fingers; his left hand curled up in a ball. For anyone's life to go from bad to worse in a night, it would be his. First, he got into a fight with his brother that got him kicked out of the Jammer, and then the worst blind date he's ever had the pleasure of being on shows up at his door, informing him that she's now his neighbor and in a town as small as Bluebell, there's no way to avoid her. The option of staying in New York seemed better and better, maybe he could still get his old job back. Sure there'd be a lot of graveling to do, he could suck it up. Right? No, he couldn't.

"Don' be babyin' me, I don' need to see any doctors, especially, stuck up, snobs from New York," he huffed out, trying to calculate his best chance on making an escape in his fuzzy meddled head. If Dr. Breeland wasn't in, he wouldn't be seeing a doctor.

"Don't be stupid," George muttered, afraid to leave him unattended, knowing his friend would ditch him. Most nights he wouldn't mind, but tonight when his friend clearly had enough to drink and started a fight with a guy twice his size, he couldn't afford for his friend to skip out on being seen. He feared that his friend had at the very least a few bruised ribs and a concussion. "I am not about to let you go on home for Lavon to find you in the morning dead," George told him.

"Then take me to Mobile, it's for the best," Wade demanded from his best friend.

"Not gonna happen," George told him, leaving no room for Wade to argue with him. "You may have a problem with the new town doctor, but dude grow the hell up and let her do her job. We're not little kids holding a grudge over a stolen crayon. You can't avoid her," George stated, close to being done with his friend. The more he heard from his friend being put off about the new town doctor, the more he had to wonder if his friend liked her a little more than he was letting on.

"If I walk out of her exam room worse for wear, I'm suing you," Wade huffed.

"I'll get my counter sue sorted out," George chuckled, shaking his head.

Wade gave his friend a glare, which had his head hurting a little more than previously. He groaned, closing his eyes, tipping his head backwards. He silenced his second groan, hearing the exam door open and her voice trail out grating on his nerves.

"Apply the cream 2-3 times daily, and I will see you next week," Zoe said, giving Mr. Thompson a smile as he nodded and headed out of the practice.

Zoe's smile faltered seeing the two men sitting in the small waiting area the practice held. She gave them, or more like George a small nod of acknowledgement, as Wade still sat with his eyes closed.

With the late hour of the night, for Bluebell, as it was barely 8 at night, it was just Zoe working, and before she could see who needed what, she needed to get Mr. Thomson's file and appointment set up for next week. That hardly took her 5 minutes to accomplish. Taking one look between the two men she could see which one needed to be seen, so grabbing his file had been easy to do so.

"Come on through, Mr. Kinsella, and we'll see what's going on," she said, startling the two men as it had been quiet in the main area of the practice while she worked behind the reception desk.

"How'd you know it was Wade?" George asked, remaining in his seat, he really didn't need to go in and hold Wade's hand, well he did hope that his friend could control his animosity towards the doctor.

"I'm good at what I do," Zoe told him, shutting the door as she entered the exam room, seeing Wade laying back on the exam table. "What can I do for you?" She asked, taking a seat, flipping his file open to have a look.

"Because I picked the wrong friend to spend the night with," Wade smirked at her. Zoe gave him a look, telling him she wasn't amused with what he was saying. "A fight," he said, holding his hands up, to show her how his knuckles were starting to bruise, with a few cuts on them.

"Anything else?" She asked, pulling gloves from the box to put on, to clean up his knuckles.

"Ribs hurt," he told her. "Here," he let her know pulling his shirt up to reveal his toned stomach. "And my head could be less fuzzy," he said, relaxing under Zoe's touch as she took great care of being gentle while cleaning the cuts on his knuckles.

"Okay, I'll check for a concussion once I finish getting your knuckles and ribs taken care of," she informed him.

Back out in the waiting area of the practice with George, he kept looking at his phone to see the time, not that it changed as many times as he looked at it. He didn't know if he should be relieved that there was no excessive noise coming from the exam room or be frightened that all seemed to be quiet. He never did get the full story out of his friend over what happened the night he had gone on a blind date, the most he got was a rant that was extremely unpleasant and one that he couldn't decipher, the very one he still can't figure out. He had stopped trying to figure out a while back, but maybe he should get to the bottom of it for the sake of Bluebell.

George scrambled out of the chair seeing the door to the exam room open. He looked his friend over but saw nothing that suggested anything other than him minding his manners and let Dr. Hart fix him up.

"Go on home Tucker," Wade told him, making himself at home in a chair.

"Aren't you coming with?" George asked him with a frown, looking up to see Zoe with her back to them.

"Nope, the good doc, says I need to stay for observation," Wade smirked, tipping his head back and closing his eyes.

"No, I told you that you need to have someone stay with you, or you need to stay with someone, for the next few hours," Zoe stated, shutting the file cabinet a little harder than necessary as it made a loud bang in the quietness of the practice.

"What better place than the practice?" He questioned, his smirk growing. "Grade 2 concussion," he informed his friend. "You've got plans and well I didn't want to burden anyone else with this," Wade stated, sending a wink in Zoe's direction.

"My lucky night," Zoe mumbled, loud enough for them to hear, heading into the exam room to sterilize it.

"Dude if you're doing this to piss off Zoe, might I suggested not doing so," George sighed, sitting down in the chair he had abandoned a few minutes prior.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, now get out of here," Wade urged him, completely tuning his friend and business partner out.

"I can make him go, and he can stay on my couch," George said, turning to look at Zoe. His plans for the night could be changed; he wasn't too thrilled about going out on a double date with his ex-fiancée and her new boyfriend, who just happened to be the mayor of their town all while he dated the best friend of his ex, and who happened to be the ex of the mayor, talk about complicated relationships in a small town. The more he thought about it, the more appealing it would be to stay home and take care of his friend seemed to be the better choice.

"As appealing as that offers sounds, I would hate to ruin your plans over this, so him staying here is fine; he'll be out of my hair anyway," Zoe told him. She would have him camp out in the waiting area well she worked in her office.

"Oh alright," George reluctantly agreed, grabbing a pen and a small piece of paper, scribbling his number down. "Don't hesitate to call if he gets rowdy on you," he told her, before giving his friend a look.

"Hey now, don't give me that look, I ain't gonna do a thing other than sleep while dreamin' of a certain doc," he winked, sending Zoe a cocky smirk.

"I hate to admit, that Wade's right, he's going to be out here sleeping while I'm working, so I really won't need to bother you," Zoe assured George, making sure to slip the piece of paper with his number in the pocket of her doctors' coat, to be on the safe side, one could never be so sure with Wade freaking Kinsella around.

George sighed defeated and left his friend alone in the practice with the one women who happened to be under his skin. George knew it was only going to end one way out of various ways. Either they were going to leave the practice needing to see doctors of their own, or it would do some good for them both and learn that maybe just maybe all the hate they feel towards each other, happens to be something else entirely.

"Doc," Wade nodded, making himself comfortable on the couch in her office. Zoe moved her attention from the computer screen to look at the smug face Wade was making. Green eyes meeting brown eyes in an intense stare down.

"Wade," Zoe sighed, forcing herself to look away from his memorizing green orbs, needing to get her thoughts from drifting off into dangerous water.

"Zoe, the chairs out there are making my back hurt, this couch will do. Bricks is like sitting on well bricks," he shrugged. "I am the patient after all," he smirked.

"Fine," she sighed, going back to work, trying her hardest to ignore the man across the room. "How's your head? Any dizziness?" She asked, watching the blinking cursor on the computer screen.

"I feel fine," Wade nodded. "Dizziness would be a big no, though walking in here did make me a little light headed. Am I gonna die?" He asked with a worried expression, a hint of a smirk hiding underneath, something that hadn't gone unnoticed by Zoe.

"You'll be just fine, if you rest," she told him.

"What happened to the Doc with the smart remarks?" He teased, kicking his boots off and crossing his feet on the couch, looking at the ceiling.

"She's at work," Zoe quipped out. "And she'd love to be working right now," she retorted, looking over the information on the screen to see where she was at.

"Don't be so pleasant on my account," he informed her. Zoe hummed, tuning him out. "Hey doc," Wade said, catching Zoe off guard with the soft tone he used.

"Yes?" She questioned in a soft cautious voice, giving Wade her full attention, no way able to keep working with him in not only her work space but that of her personal space as well.

"I was curious as to why you even agreed to the set up if you were going to be a such a…well you know; you were there in a very foul mood," he said, not wanting to toss names out.

"I didn't agree to it per se," she told him, biting down on the inside of her lip. Wade looked at her with confusion clouding his green eyes. "My friend," she said, remembering back to the night that it all happened and how she's positive that Wade would've hooked up with her in the lobby of the restaurant, not because of Wade and his player ways but for the lack of morals her friend has.

"No, I'm not going," Zoe sighed, sipping on her mimosas as she was having brunch with her best friend since they were in diapers. "My answer isn't going to change, so please drop it," she begged.

"Why not?" Gigi questioned, raising an eyebrow, looking at her fingers, totally over having this debate with her friend, when she's been asking and arguing about it for the better part of the last hour. One would think she was trying to make her friend break the law and became a criminal instead of going on one small blind date.

"Because there's no way that I need to be going on a date of any kind. I'm busy with work that I don't have time to date let alone entertain the idea of dating," Zoe sighed exasperated, moving the egg on her plate around. "Guys can't handle my hectic schedule, and I'm the one left heartbroken. Why would I put myself out there, to go through that hurt again?"

"Let's ask Mama Hart, shall we?" Gigi asked with a smirk, pulling her phone out. Zoe shook her head, trying to grab at her friend's phone to keep her from making that call. She failed. Gigi got where Zoe was coming from, to an extent, but she knew that Zoe wouldn't find her great love story if she didn't put herself out there.

"Hello Gigi, no I haven't seen my daughter nor have I been able to catch her," Candice said into the phone irritated, not wanting to take too much time away from her work.

"Oh no it's like that, I'm sitting here with your daughter," Gigi pointed out. Candice hummed on the other end of the line, Gigi putting it on speaker.

"It's nice to know she's still breathing," Candice quipped out.

"Hello to you too Mom," Zoe retorted, stabbing a piece of fruit a little too forcefully.

"Zoe dear, what is the meaning of this call? I have an important meeting to attend in just a few minutes," Candice informed them, wanting to move this whole thing along.

"I have this blind date tonight, but I got myself in a dilemma by accepting a date with this sexy model, and I am trying to make your daughter see that there's nothing wrong in going in my place on the date tonight," Gigi explained, giving her friend a smirk, only for her smirk to turn into a frown hearing her friend's mom talk.

"Gigi as wonderful as the guy might be, Zoe can't be going out on a date with any Tom, Dick or Harry," Candice stated. She wanted more for her daughter than some average Joe.

"See mom agrees with me, so you can go about and figure out what date to cancel on," Zoe stated, looking at her friend with a smug look, relieved her mom wasn't agreeing with Gigi.

"That's the thing; he's not some random guy off the street; he's a lawyer, and he works at Cravath, Swaine and Moore; he lives in Tribeca. Do you think that little of me?" Gigi gasped, faking a pout.

"Sweetie, any red-blooded male is your type," Candice snipped. "And Zoe he's a lawyer; you can make time for a small date; it's not like you need to exchange vows, though it'd be nice," Candice stated, muttering the last part of her statement.

"Gee thanks mother," Zoe retorted with an eyeroll. "Oh joy, he's a lawyer; I've got to lock him down," Zoe retorted sarcastically. "Can't a woman focus on her career instead of finding a man to take care of her?" She asked. "Mom, you didn't need a man to be a successful working woman, so why should I?" She asked.

"Zoe, dear, it never hurts to have a successful, strapping young man on your arm; it will merely help boost your imagine in the public eye. You want to be a surgeon so badly, you haven't taken the time to realize you'll be smoozing the higher-ups at Galas and charity events, and having a nice-looking man on your arm will purely help you out," Candice stated. "Go have yourself a work-free night and enjoy yourself, you won't be young forever, sweetie," Candice told her.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, mom," Zoe snapped, taking a deep breath. "But you might be right," she sighed.

"Honey, I was with your father for years; I do know a thing or two," Candice replied. "Now that we've fixed this crisis, I need to be going," Candice said, hanging up without so much of a good-bye.

"You know your mom is right; I know she's right, and we both know it won't kill you to show up to this date and have a little fun," Gigi giggled.

"Not going to happen. Dinner is all I am agreeing to for one night only," Zoe stated, caving in to what she really didn't want to be doing on her night off. Staying home, having some wine as she relaxed in a glorious bath filled with bubbles, was her once upon a Tuesday night.

"Yay!" Gigi cheered. "You won't regret this," Gigi smiled. "Let's shop," she smirked, signaling for the waiter to get the check.