A/N: Okay, so I'm back, and with something sort of different. I guess you'd call it an AU, but I also think of it like a rom-com movie style of story. It'll probably be 8-10 chapters long, so by no means an epic, but I hope it's as fun as I want it to be, for me and for y'all :)

Summary: Zoe Hart just woke up from the most intense dream... except maybe it wasn't a dream. Maybe she did just break her own rules and have an amazing one-night stand with the last guy she could ever have expected to want, but how in the heck did it happen, and what does it mean for the future?

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

Chapter 1

Zoe Hart woke up gasping, a sheen of sweat on her skin, and a dull thudding in her head. Her eyes were wide as saucers as broken images tumbled through her muddled mind. Memories? Maybe some parts, but the rest had to have been a dream, she was certain. Looking quickly around the room, she found no evidence that any of the passionate, torrid affair she was picturing could have actually happened. She was alone, as she ought to be.

"Just a dream," she muttered to herself, though the drinking she had done had to have been real, given how her head protested every tiny movement and her tongue was fuzzier than the plush carpet of the hotel room. "All a dream..." she repeated softly, wondering at her own words, as she shifted to get out of bed, muscles pulling in places she would rather not think about.

It all stirred up more pictures in her head that were starting to seem too much like memories to ignore. Memories of extreme pleasure, she had to admit, but still, she would have been a fool to have done what it seemed like she might have. If she had, then she wouldn't be alone, right? Right, she realised, just as the bathroom door swung open, startling her into a yelp. Immediately, she pushed herself far back under the covers, pulling them up tight under her chin, in spite of everything.

"Hey there, doc." He stood there grinning like the cat that ate the canary, water from the shower he clearly just took trickling down across the planes of his chest and those perfect abs, to the towel that was slung low on his hips. "Wondered when you was ever gonna wake up, but then, we did give each other quite the work out last night, huh?" he said, running a hand over his hair, sending more water flying.

Zoe's jaw worked without any sound coming from her mouth. It wasn't a dream. Not any part of it. She realised that now, though for the life of her, she couldn't quite piece together the events that had led her to here. After all, three days ago, she had never even met Wade Kinsella...

72 hours earlier

(Thursday morning)

It was probably too early to be headed to the airport to pick up a friend. It was definitely too early to be going anywhere to pick up a stranger. Still, Zoe had made a promise to her best girl-friend and she wasn't going to back out on that.

Annabeth Thibodeaux was, without question, the nicest person that Zoe had ever met. They had become the best of friends at med school and that hadn't changed as they went on into their working life. Not only was Annabeth a great nurse at the hospital, where they both spent most of their time, but an excellent and supportive friend as well. When she had explained how she and her boyfriend were getting married, Zoe had been entirely happy for her, even if she was a little reticent about the idea of marriage as a whole.

"AB, that's so great," she had enthused, hugging her friend so tight. "I know you two will be so happy together. I mean, you already are, obviously, but out of all the couples I have ever known, you and Joel are absolutely the one I could honestly see getting the happily ever after, fairytale ending."

She meant it when she said it. She still believed it now. Nobody was as in love as those two. No couple could be more devoted to each other. It made total sense to Zoe that they would want to get married. She was just a little confused when Annabeth explained quite how fast it was happening.

"Two weeks? You're getting married in two weeks?" she had checked, eyes feeling so wide, she might have expected them to roll out of her head, if she didn't know, as any doctor should, that that was physically impossible. "AB, that's... I don't... Why?"

"Well, for lots of reasons." Annabeth had shown every sign of being awkward, embarrassed, and uncomfortable to boot, which only made Zoe worry more, at least until she actually explained. "I mean, we're in love, that ought to be reason enough to want to get married just as soon as possible, but also... Well, the truth is, I am pregnant," she admitted, grinning even as she continued to squirm.

That earned her another hug and further congratulations from Zoe, who knew only too well how much Annabeth wanted to be a mother. She would certainly make an excellent one, no doubt about that.

"And yes, I am traditional enough to wanna be married before the baby comes, but still, we should have more time to plan a wedding, you know, if Joel hadn't just signed a contract that means he has to be in LA before the month is out," she explained, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, I couldn't be more proud that his book is being made into a movie, but the timing is just so darn awful!"

Zoe understood where her friend was coming from, but she was still a little bemused by the short-notice wedding idea. After all, Annabeth always seemed like such a traditionalist.

"But don't you want to get married from home, you know, back in Alabama?"

"Oh, I would love a big wedding in Bluebell." Annabeth admitted with a sigh. "And someday, I'm sure we will absolutely have a blessing of some kind back home, but for now, honestly, I just want to get this marriage done and be Mrs Annabeth Stephens. Not that I plan on running off to the courthouse, just me and Joel, or anything. No, ma'am, I want a real wedding, just smaller and faster than some. That's why I was kinda hoping you would help me out..."

The awkward was back in her voice and the wringing of her hands as she started to tell Zoe just exactly what type of help she was looking to get. The list was pretty long, not least because Annabeth was hoping to save up a lot of her leave for when she was a lot more heavily pregnant. She also happened to know that Zoe had an awful lot of leave that she could take herself.

"I know I have a real nerve asking you..."

That just wasn't true. Annabeth never had a nerve to ask any favour of Zoe, or anyone, because she was always so quick to do for other people. It was why Zoe could find no way to refuse every request her best friend made. In fact, she didn't even want to find a way to get out of helping. She was happy to be as big a part of this wedding as she could possibly be. It was why she had taken those days of leave from working at the hospital in a doctoring capacity and instead thrown herself into all the wedding arrangements that a Maid of Honour was supposed to take on, plus more besides.

It was how she found herself at the airport, a couple of days prior to the big day, waiting on an incoming flight from Mobile, Alabama, which was supposed to be delivering the best man.

He was one of very few guests arriving from Annabeth's hometown. The others, Lavon and Lemon, were coming by car. It was a very long journey, but a necessary one if they were to attend the wedding, given that Lemon was also pregnant and currently in her third trimester of pregnancy.

Of course, Zoe had asked about Annabeth's parents, but was quickly advised that they wouldn't be in attendance.

"Much as I love them, if I told them about all this, they would make such a fuss. There would be no way to have a small, fast ceremony before my Joel has to go away so long. It's much easier this way, and I'll tell them after. Like I said, they can help me arrange some kind of blessing and maybe a party in Bluebell later on. It'll be fine."

She didn't look or sound entirely convincing when she said it, but Zoe let it go. After all, she knew what it was to have problems with parents. With her mother, in particular, it would be hard not to know! Still, Zoe was sure it would be nice to meet some of Annabeth's friends. She was more than a little curious about Wade, truth be told. The fact he had become Joel's best friend, and subsequently best man too, after so short an acquaintance, was intriguing.

Zoe had actually known Joel longer than Annabeth had. In fact, she was the one who introduced them. Zoe's mother, Candice, was Joel's agent, ever since his first novel started making the top of so many bestseller lists. It seemed a pretty safe bet that Candice was hoping to make a couple out of Zoe and Joel, but from the first moment, they both seemed to realise that was never going to work. They did hang out some, as friends, and on one of those occasions, Annabeth was there too. The rest was history.

Joel and Annabeth were perfect for each other. Both being so genuine and nice, smart too, which didn't hurt, and each of them so eager to be in a monogamous relationship that would really stick, it worked out so well. Within a couple of months of them starting to date, Annabeth had met most of Joel's family, and then, swiftly after that, had taken him down to Alabama to meet everybody she loved too. That was when Joel met Wade.

"So, they spent some time together across a two-week period, almost a year ago, and somehow, Wade is the best friend Joel ever had?" Zoe checked. "I don't mean this is an awful way, but that sounds a little crazy."

"Pssh, of course, it's not" Annabeth had waved away that idea in a second. "How long exactly did it take for you and I to become best friends in med school?" she asked with a look.

Zoe opened her mouth to say that was different. Unfortunately, she fast realised that the only way in which it might have been different was in the fact that she and Annabeth had become best friends in around two days rather than two weeks.

"Okay, so maybe it's possible." She had rolled her eyes for effect. "But you said Wade is a bartender and a heartbreaker. That's a million miles from the kind of guy Joel is."

"And don't I love knowing it." Annabeth had grinned. "Still, Wade isn't a bad person. He's just... Well, let me put it this way, I'm awful glad most of the wedding arrangements are with you and not him. That being said, he can be a real sweetheart when he wants to be, and he would do anything for a friend. I hardly think he would be making the trip up here, if that wasn't true."

Zoe couldn't argue on that point and didn't try. She accepted that perhaps Wade Kinsella would be an excellent best man, if he put his mind to it. Besides, if he was the heartbreaker type, he was probably very good-looking and Zoe couldn't object to that. Besides, she had no fears about him breaking her heart. She was way too smart to fall for the easy charms of a Southern less-than-gentleman.

Waiting by Arrivals, she checked the board and saw that the flight from Mobile was marked as On Time. That should have been a good thing, except it was now a full hour since that landing time, which seemed pretty excessive, and still no response to the card she was holding with 'Wade Kinsella' written on it.

"Maybe he can't read," she muttered to herself, immediately feeling bad.

People from the South may talk slow, but that didn't mean they were dumb. She remembered Annabeth telling her that long ago, something her high school boyfriend used to say a lot, apparently.

"Jake wasn't always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he had smarts enough, more than people gave him credit for because of the way he talked. We all get stereotyped from time to time, I guess."

Zoe shook her head. She wasn't about to stereotype anyone from the South, including the elusive Wade. She just wished he would show up already.

"Excuse me?" she called to a single man as he passed her by. "Were you on the Mobile flight?"

"No, I just got in from Albuquerque," he told her with a confused expression as he read her card. "I'm sorry to say I'm not the person you're waiting for."

"Oh, right. Okay, thanks." Zoe nodded, immediately looking back to the Arrivals board.

The Albuquerque flight had landed a half-hour before the Mobile flight.

"Did he miss it?" she asked herself, immediately rifling in her purse for her cell to call Joel - surely, Wade must have let his best friend know if there was a problem like that.

Zoe was about to start scrolling through her contacts when suddenly a voice yelled her name very loudly.

"Zoe? Zoe Hart? Hey, there a Dr Zoe Hart around here someplace?"

"Oh God," she groaned, literally face-palming, realising it had to be Wade. After all, she didn't know anybody else with a Southern accent that would be trying to track her down at the airport. "Over here!" she yelled then, raising one arm, but keeping her head down for as long as she could.

"Well, hey there, doc," said the same voice, much closer then. "Seems you're just the person I've been looking for."

Zoe had to look up then, and it was an awfully long way up too, into the face of a guy that could only be Wade Kinsella. Much as he had annoyed and embarrassed her, it was tough not to gasp at how truly gorgeous he was. Maybe hanging out with Joel's best man for a couple of days and not falling for his charms was going to turn out to be a little more complicated than Zoe Hart first thought!

To Be Continued...