Hey everyone, welcome to day 22 of the Hart of Dixie countdown to Christmas!

Enjoy!

Wade

"You didn't have to throw me under the freaking bus," Wade grumbled, flopping on his bed. It may have been a family vacation over Christmas, but they didn't get any presents as what little they do get have to wait until they get back home, as the main gift was the trip to Denver and the ski resort. "I haven't done anything to you on this vacation," he stated irritated.

"I didn't throw you under the bus, little brother," Jesse smirked, making himself comfortable on his bed. "I was only curious as to what happened to my dear brother, I would have hated for him to get himself into trouble," Jesse nonchalantly said, shrugging his shoulders.

"No, you wanted the heat off yourself, with all the extra lessons you've been given by various ski bunnies and employees," Wade corrected for his brother. "I'm not the one that's going to get a call in 9 months saying I'm going to be a teen father," Wade retorted, all teasing gone from his voice.

"I didn't get anyone knocked up, can you say the same?" Jesse asked, giving his brother a smirk. "I didn't think you had it in you to put the moves on Zoe," he tossed out.

"I didn't put any moves on Zoe. Everything we did, is because we both wanted it. I didn't talk her into anything and made sure she knew we could stop at any point. Being friends with Zoe was more than enough, can you say the same about all the so-called friends you made?" Wade asked, raising an eyebrow at his brother. "Zoe is my friend, not a holiday hook-up."

"They knew what they were getting into, I didn't have to spell it out for any of them. I wasn't going to waste my vacation being shoved in this room with you. I saw fit to do what I wanted with my time, much like you had done with Zoe," he commented. "How sure are you that she won't be getting a hold of you in 9 months' time handing a baby over to you?" Jesse questioned.

"The proof of how safe we were is in the trash, can you say as much?" Wade asked, nodding to where the small trash can sat.

"Yes, I can say as much. I've been doing this a lot longer than you," Jesse smugly stated.

Wade rolled his eyes, throwing a pillow at his brother. "Dude, it doesn't matter how much practice you have, accidents happen, ya doofus," Wade said, ducking from the pillow Jesse threw back at him.

"You don't say?" Jesse mocked asked. "I know how it all works, Wade. Have known for years. "I'm getting my fun in before I can't," he shrugged.

"What do you mean before you can't?" Wade asked. "I know it has nothing to do with getting married, giving you plenty of time to keep having as much fun with whoever you want back in Bluebell," Wade commented. There was something his brother wasn't telling him. Something a bit more serious.

"It's not that," Jesse sighed. "I don't think I want to get married. The whole family life isn't very appealing to me," he shrugged. What teenage boy thought about settling down and getting married, and having kids? It doesn't sound very appealing to him either. He doesn't see anything wrong in living the bachelor lifestyle for a while.

"Then what are you talking about?" Wade asked, when Jesse grew quiet, deep in his head. "Whatever you have to say you can tell me. I'm not some weak little boy, that can't handle the truth," he stated. "Are you dying?" Wade asked the first thought to come to mind.

"No, I'm not dying," Jesse chuckled, shaking his head. "Why would you think that?" Jesse asked. "You know what, I don't want to know," Jesse told him.

"It's not like you're being straightforward as to what's going on," Wade shrugged. "What else am I to think?" He questioned. "You're not telling me what's going on, and it was the first thing to come to mind," he shared.

"I'm healthy," he told his brother. "I'm enlisting," Jesse sighed. "They didn't want you to know until after the New Year. We're having a family vacation because they want to have family time to remember if anything happens," Jesse confessed.

"Let me guess you wanted to run off and not even tell me?" Wade asked, hurt seeping into words. It screamed like a Jesse thing to do.

"It's not like we're close anymore," Jesse pointed out. Wade scoffed, ready to fight his brother on why they were not close anymore.

"And whose fault is that Jesse?" Wade asked, getting up. He tried to hang out with Jesse over the past year, but Jesse wasn't having it. They used to be best friends, and Wade can't figure out what he had done to make his brother hate him. "Huh?" He asked, heading to the bathroom to take a shower. His thoughts were one huge tangled-up mess.

"Wade," Jessed called out, following behind his brother, stopping him from shutting the bathroom door. "I wasn't going to just run off without telling you," he shared. "And I know it's my fault for the divide we have going on here. I thought it was best," Jesse shrugged.

"Best for who? You?" Wade asked, getting complete silence in return. "Thought so," Wade nodded. "Your brotherly duty is over," Wade hissed out, wanting his anger and not the hurt he felt to come out. "Excuse me, I'm going to shower," Wade said, emotionless, shutting the door in Jesse's face.

Zoe

"What's going on?" She asked, looking between her parents, who are having a conversation with a simple look. "I thought you couldn't make it?" She questioned, baring herself for the worst. As far as she knows no one in her family is dying or has cancer or anything as equally as horrifying. "Are you sick? Have a tumor or something as serious as that?" She asked, needing to take a deep breath to calm her nerves.

"No, it's nothing like that, Zoe," he assured the young woman before him. "I didn't think I would be able to. As it is I've got to leave bright and early tomorrow. I know how devastated you were about me not being here, and we," he said, motioning between himself and Candice. "Owe you an explanation."

"An explanation, for what, exactly?" Zoe asked, growing worried. "What's this big bad secret that I'm not in on?" She asked. Her stomach working overtime, making her feel like she needs to excuse herself to puke everything she's eaten today up.

"The reason I haven't been around, and why I've been doing everything I can to avoid coming home," Ethan sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Is this because you have a new family in Germany, or Turkey, or Paris, or London?" Zoe asked, rambling off the first few places she could think of off the top of her head.

"Where did that come from?" Ethan asked, getting a small shrug from Zoe. "I don't have another family in any country. Heck, I don't even have a family here," he muttered, just loud enough for Zoe to hear.

"What?" Zoe gasped, thinking it was some cruel joke for her father to say something like that on what is supposed to be the happiest time of the year.

"What your dad means," Candice started to say.

"She's old enough to know the truth. I don't want to keep being the bad guy here, Candice. I won't take the fall for what you did, any longer. Do you think I like being the one that has to keep breaking her heart, over something I didn't have a choice in?" Ethan asked, anger getting the best of him. "She needs to know the truth," he stated, getting up to pace around the living area of the hotel room.

"What she needs to know is that she has two parents that love her dearly," Candice snipped out, shooting daggers at her ex-husband.

"How about instead of arguing over if I need to know or not, I decide if I want to know this heartbreaking news for myself?" Zoe asked, raising her voice to be heard over her parents. "I have decided I want to know what is going on, so I can try to have a relationship with my father," she stated, looking between her parents.

"Remember when you broke your arm?" Ethan started to say, sitting on the arm of the couch. Zoe nodded her head. How could she forget the time she broke her arm, it was one of the worst times of her life. She walked away with a broken arm, while her dad walked away from them. A double whammy. "You needed a blood transfusion," he told her.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Zoe asked, looking at her dad. He is the one being honest with her, so he's the one person that needs her attention. All of it.

"It came back that I wasn't a match, that I am not your father," Ethan told her, feeling a weight being lifted off his shoulders.

"What? That's a lie!" Zoe exclaimed, jumping up to pace around the small space. "It can't be true!"

"It's true, before I married Ethan, I met someone on a cruise and he's your father, but that doesn't change anything," Candice stated with a pleading tone.

"It changes everything," Zoe said on the verge of tears. "Why did you leave me?" She asked looking at Ethan.

"I tried to raise you as my own, but I couldn't because you're not mine to raise, and I get that makes me selfish in that regard, and for that, I am sorry, Zoe. I never wanted to hurt you," he explained with an apology.

"You're the only father I have known, the only father that matters to me," she pleaded with him, harshly wiping away the tears that fell. "Can't you try to be there, it doesn't have to be as a father, but as a friend, or someone else. Maybe?" She asked with a broken voice, sniffling.

"I can only try," he told her. "I can't make a promise that everything is going to be okay, later on in life, Zoe," he said, being as brutally honest as he can be.

"That's all I ask," she told him, rushing to him for an embrace that still felt like one a father would give to his daughter. With time maybe he'll come around to the idea that he's the only father she's ever needed. That despite them not sharing blood, he is her dad. "Does this other guy, my father, does he know about me?" Zoe asked, looking at her mom.

"He does, but I can't make any promises that he'll want anything to do with you, Zoe. He has a life of his own, the last thing he wants is a 16-year-old daughter falling into his lap," Candice told her. Zoe couldn't tell if her mom was telling the truth or lying to her about it. She'd figure it out once they were back home in the city.