A/N: Okay, I'm back, and with a fic that I hope y'all will enjoy! After going way outside of canon with my last Zade story, I decided I wanted to try something deep within it this go around. Specifically, there was a part of Season 2 I've been itching to fix, starting right around here...

Disclaimer: All recognisable characters and/or dialogue from Hart of Dixie belong to Leila Gerstein and other folks who aren't me.

Chapter 1

"You know, it's a real shame you're thinking about leavin'."

Zoe was so startled by Wally's statement as she passed him on her way into the Rammer Jammer, she really believed she must have misheard him.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You headin' back to New York and all," he said, as they turned to face each other. "That's a real shame."

"Seriously?" Zoe shook her head. "You're the second person to say something like that to me. Wally, I am not going back to New York, at least no time soon," she confirmed. "Why would you think that?"

"Oh, well, just somethin' Wade said," he told her, making a vague gesture with his hand, "but hey, maybe I heard wrong," he added fast, exiting stage left before she could ask any further questions.

Zoe wanted to. She was so confused right now. Clora Tucker making allusions to her heading back to New York was one thing. George's mother really didn't know anything, even though she thought she did. Hers was more wishful thinking than anything, she supposed, but when it came to Wally, that was apparently something that Wade had said.

There was a frown on Zoe's face as she headed for the bar, meeting Wade as he came out from behind it, ready to join her for lunch.

"What's up, doc?" he joked, clearly having noticed her expression.

"I don't know," she admitted, "but I think we need to talk about some things."

"Okay..." Wade looked nervous with a side of shifty, which confirmed to Zoe that something strange was going on.

They moved over to take seats at a table, but before they had a chance to get into anything, George and Tansy appeared, causing just one more awkward situation. It wasn't so bad in the end, with the four of them all agreeing that they should be adults and as friendly as possible. Zoe was happy to get along with George as well as she ever did, without the worry that he was still pining for, and certain now that she wasn't pining for him either. Actually, it would help to be on friendly terms with Tansy too. After all, she and Wade managed to get along pretty well together and they were a divorced couple!

For a while, trying to all be friends took the focus away from Zoe's confusion about the whole New York thing. In fact, she didn't think about it again until hours later, when she and Wade were home for the evening, getting close to horizontal on her bed at the carriagehouse.

In between heated kisses, he muttered something about being glad to have her all to himself, reminding Zoe of all the back-and-forth about their relationship before. It sparked in her mind that she had something she had to talk to him about. Something that couldn't wait.

"Wade," she said, pulling away, "we need to talk"

He wouldn't argue with her, she was sure on that. He knew better than to try. The look on his face suggested he recalled her saying as much before and that he felt a little put out that she remembered at a moment like this. Still, he didn't try to fight her on it. With a sigh, he moved to sit down on the edge of the bed.

"What did I do now?"

Zoe rolled her eyes as she joined him. "You didn't do anything, at least not anything terrible," she assured him, before an unpleasant thought pricked her mind. "Did you?"

Wade shrugged his shoulders. "Not that I know of."

"Fine." Zoe nodded once. "Then I just want to know what you said to Wally to make him think I was going back to New York."

That comment really did seem to catch him off-guard, though he recovered pretty fast.

"It was nothin' much," he told her easily. "Just asked him about tending bar up there, you know, how much I could make and all."

"But why would you...?" Zoe was halfway through the question when suddenly he met her eyes and a light dawned in her mind. "Oh my... You would want to come with me? If I went back to New York, you... That's why you were asking?"

"Come on, Zoe, it shouldn't be all that much of a surprise," Wade told her with a look. "We're together, doin' this whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing. If you were gonna up and leave, I figured I'd go with you. You know, unless you wouldn't want me to-"

She hoped her hands on his face guiding him to her as she kissed him hard on the lips answered that question before it was hardly asked. Want him to go with her? Of course, she would want that. Zoe was so certain that if she had plans to leave, it would be him that she would miss more than anyone. She could hardly believe Wade didn't realise that, but then, hadn't she been just as surprised to hear he would be so willing to do as much for her?

"Wade," she said softly, as they finally parted, "if I was going to go back to New York - which, as I said before, I am totally not, but hypothetically-speaking - I would absolutely love for you to come with me. I guess it just never really occurred to me that you would want to do that."

That drew a crooked smile from his lips, his hand coming up to join hers at his cheek then.

"I don't know how well I'd get along up there," he admitted, "but you oughta know by now, sweetheart, I wanna be wherever you are. If that means New York, I figure we could make it work. 'Course, if you really weren't plannin' on goin' anyway..."

"I wasn't, I'm not," she assured him, "but thank you anyway. For liking me that much. It's still kind of amazing to me that you do."

"Well, it's kind of amazing to me that you like me all that much too," he told her, grinning as much as she was. "You seemed pretty set on it when you was tellin' Clora Tucker where to put her opinions."

"She made me so mad!" Zoe exclaimed, unable to help it, serious again in a second as she shifted to curl closer into Wade's side, his hand held in her lap by now. "But you know I'm sorry that it took all of that craziness for me to make it clear to you what you mean to me. You shouldn't have had to hear all that second-hand, when I was explaining it to Tansy or George's unbalanced mother. I should have told you properly."

"So, tell me now," he urged her, as close to coy as a guy like him was ever likely to get.

Zoe smiled at him. "I'm very happy being with you, Wade Kinsella," she promised, squeezing his hand. "I won't deny, I liked George a lot, and for a while, I did think maybe I was in love with him or something, but it wasn't real," she insisted, shaking her head. "He's a nice guy and everything, and I do like him, because seriously, is there anyone in this freakin' town who doesn't?"

"Prob'ly not" Wade rolled his eyes and Zoe couldn't blame him for that.

"But I don't want to be with George," she told him plainly, willing him to understand and believe her, because it really was the whole truth and nothing else. "I had a choice, more than once, between him and you, and I keep on picking you. If that doesn't show you how much more I like you than him or anyone else, then I don't know what will."

His eyes seemed to search her face then and Zoe didn't mind at all. He had a right to doubt her after the way she had treated him, after all the confusion and misunderstandings that went before. She also knew that all he would find in her eyes and her expression was truthfulness. She sincerely meant every word she said.

"Thank you," he told her, speaking softly, kissing her even more so. "I guess sometimes I just..."

"You just...?" she prompted when his voice trailed away entirely and his eyes went down. "Wade?"

He sighed and seemed to have to force himself to look at her when he explained.

"Sometimes, I guess I wonder what it is you see in me," he admitted. "You know, why it is you would pick me over Golden Boy George? You two have so damn much in common, and half the time, I don't know what you're babbling about to each other, with your foreign movies and your New York restaurants that I can't even pronounce. And I know, it's stupid..."

"It's not stupid," Zoe insisted, an ache in her heart from just knowing he felt that way, "and you are definitely not stupid, if that's what you're getting at. It's true, George and I do have a lot in common, but it's opposites that attract," she reminded him. "If we liked all the same things, how could we grow together as people and expand our horizons? If we did absolutely everything together, what would we ever find to talk about? And hey, if we agreed on everything, we would never, ever fight. Like you told me before, that's part of what brought us together. The driving each other crazy. The fighting and the making up," she said with a smile she knew he would understand.

Thankfully, it was a look he returned.

"Are we done talkin' yet?" he asked then, pulling her ever closer, a very distinctive look in his eyes.

"I think so, except..." she said, a hand up between them to keep him at bay just a little longer, "Wade, if something is on your mind, about anything really, but especially about us, please talk to me," she urged him. "I know it's not cool or macho or whatever to talk to your girlfriend about your relationship, but sometimes, you just have to. I do not want a repeat of that whole First Feast fiasco, and that was mostly caused by my bottling things up and keeping it all inside," she reminded him. "If there's something bothering you, you will tell me, right?"

"Cross my heart," he told her, miming the action and smirking some, until she cast a stern look his way. "I promise, okay?" he said more sincerely. "I will tell you if somethin' is botherin' me, you got my word."

That she most certainly did believe.

"Thank you," she said, pushing forward then to kiss his lips.

Naturally, one kiss led to two then three, their arms around each other as they laid back down together, rolling around like giddy teens caught up in the heat of passion. At least now Zoe could enjoy their time together, knowing that Wade understood he wasn't second choice and she really did care so much about him. With that agreed between them, their feelings for each other plain and a promise made to share whatever might be bothering them going forward, Zoe hoped that she was safe to think that nothing would go wrong.

To Be Continued...