Hello Dearie's, this is the story that had won on the poll. Please don't fret, the other choices will get published at some point in the future. I will try to update once or twice a week, but I make no promises as I still only have my phone and tablet to write on. (Not entirely sure when my computer will be fixed.)

A quick question, is anyone interested in a little Meatball oneshot? I've got an idea but I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in reading it. It will be an AU and it will be a MB/OC story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hart of Dixie, just enjoy writing about them. I mean no disrespect.

Enjoy!

Zoe sat on her couch looking over the invitation in her hand. With a sigh, she placed it back on the coffee table in front of her. She's been living her dreams for the past 10 years now. The school of her dreams accepted her, and she made the move, leaving everyone and everything she knew behind her. She was on her way of becoming the doctor she told everyone that she would be. Looking back at those ten years, there are a lot of things that she would change, but many of those things she would keep the same. There were times that she had begun to wonder what it was her friends were doing. She didn't live in the fantasy world long. For the first time within those 10 years, the answer to the questions that she kept asking herself could finally be answered, but did she want to go back there? She left everyone behind, cut them out of her life. Her family the only exception. She felt horrible for doing so, but it had been hard to juggle her current life with her old life and she could only do so much without getting anything in return. Why should she try when they weren't trying? Her effort was for nothing, if they couldn't do the same.

She got up arranging her time away. She had to do this; she had to put closure on that part of her life. She had to know if she had done the right thing. Walking away from your friends was hard, but walking away from the man you loved, the very man you thought you would end up married too that had broken her, she had to know that things were okay for everyone. She had screwed up, and she knew that it wasn't going to be an easy fix walking back into their lives. She could only assume that they were going to hate her, and she wouldn't blame them if they did. Part of her felt guilty for what had happened. The other part, not so much.

She ignored the questions from her friends and her boyfriend, telling them that she wanted to do this, that even though she dreaded what was going to happen, she needed to do this. That she had things that she needed to take care of there and no matter what she'd be home when the weekend was over with, because New York was now home and Bluebell was nothing but a small town that held memories for her. Joel had offered to go with her, but she politely declined saying this was something she had to do alone. It was her mess to fix not his.

A week later saw her in Alabama. The first place she went was to her cousin's house. Parking the rental car on the street, Zoe got out, leaving her sweater in the car. It was a lot hotter here than it was in New York, and that was one of the things that she had missed during the winter months.

"I wasn't sure you were going to make it," Vivian said, pulling the front door open for Zoe before she even got up the steps.

"I didn't think I was going to either, it does make sense," Zoe replied, making it to the door and hugging her cousin tightly. "I'm guessing that I have you to thank for that."

"I am one of the only few people that know your address, and it was a favor from a certain someone's brother," Vivian informed her, the smirk her cousin wore did nothing to settle the fear that was slowly creeping up on her. Zoe looked at her waiting for more, but she didn't say anything else, instead opened the door to let Zoe into her house.

Moving away from the door, they headed to the living room where Vivian left Zoe to get them some lemonade to drink. With a blink of an eye, she was back handing a tall glass of ice cold lemonade to Zoe. "Care to elaborate more?" Zoe questioned, taking a small drink of her lemonade.

"He's getting married next month, Zo," Vivian told her with a soft sigh. She knew that no matter how many times Zoe told her she was over him. It was a lie. She could see the pain cross her cousin's face. "Everyone thinks he's making this huge mistake; they don't love each other, not really."

"And you both think that with me coming back like this, will what? Make him call off his wedding? I have a boyfriend, a life in New York. This was a stupid idea," Zoe sighed, making a move to get up.

"Don't go, Zoe. Somewhere buried down you care about him, and I know you don't want him to make this huge mistake. Go to Bluebell. Do what you intended to do, leave Sunday night like planned, but keep an open mind, you might be surprised at all the things that you've missed that you didn't even know until coming back. You need to be here, Zo. Go see your Dad," Vivian told her.

"I don't like that you tricked me into coming here, but I'll do as planned," Zoe informed her. "I should be going, give Harley a big hug for me?" She asked, standing up.

"Of course, I will. Make sure to come back around before you leave to see us," Vivian told her.

Zoe smiled, hugging her cousin one more time letting her know that she'd be back over before she left to go back home.

The drive to Bluebell plagued her more now knowing some of the information that she knew. Staying in New York was starting to sound good to her as easy as it would be to turn the car around and fly back home, she couldn't do that. She'd show up in Bluebell shock everyone because they didn't know she was going to be in town, make amends, and she'd leave Sunday night like planned and what they did when she left was up to them. She couldn't stop a wedding even if the idea of it made her heart clench, made her want to cry until she couldn't cry any longer.

Parking the car in the driveway of her childhood home, she went toward the door. It didn't feel right to walk into the house, not after so many years, but knocking on the door, that was weird to do for her. So she pushed the wrong feelings to the side and entered the house. She could smell a hint of cinnamon floating through the air, and that brought a smile to her face.

"Hey, Dad," Zoe said, leaning on the kitchen counter. Harley looked up from what he was doing a grin plastered on his face.

"Hi baby girl," he said, walking over to Zoe, pulling her in for a hug. "They said that you'd be coming, but after the last few years, I wasn't so sure, I had hope that you would. I love that you're back home."

"It wasn't easy to make the call in coming here, not after I stopped in to see Vivian." She looked out the kitchen window her mind drifting to all the times that she had made cinnamon rolls with her father. When a certain best friend turned boyfriend tried to help but made a bigger mess of things.

"Yes, such a shame," Harley spoke breaking his daughter's thoughts away from the past. He didn't like this woman who was marrying the guy whom his daughter should be marrying. If they weren't too damn stubborn for their own good, they'd see that. "How's New York? Joel? Didn't he want to come to see where you grew up at?"

"New York is as amazing as ever, Joel is good, and he did want to come, but I wanted to come alone. This is something I need to do myself," she explained. She had told Joel some of the things that happened in her past but there were things that she wouldn't tell him because she refused to bring those feelings back to the surface. Everything she had buried, deep down, belonged where it was, she had no room in her life for them now. "What do you mean such a shame?" She questioned suddenly curious.

"Don't you worry about that dear," he brushed it away hoping she'd leave it be, but that wasn't in his daughter's nature, and it was never that simple.

"I can't do that, Dad. Vivian, Jesse and now you wanted me here for a reason, and it had nothing to do with this high school reunion. I can see now it had to do with Wade, but don't you get that I've moved on? That I'm happy with where I'm at in my life? If Wade wants to marry this woman, I can't do anything to stop him because I love Joel," she told her father.

"I get that, I do," Harley sighed, figuring out how to word what he had to say because he didn't want to hurt his daughter. "I'll support you in anything and everything but the love you, and Wade shared that doesn't go away."

"No it didn't, I will always love him, but I've learned that he was part of my past and with the way things look now the most we'll ever be is friends in the future, and I'm okay with that, I have to be fair to myself and everyone else. We hurt each other to ever move on from that." That was the truth she faced every day, regrets she had to live with.

"It can be fixed, Zoe; everything can be fixed if you truly want it to be," Harley told her, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

With a deep sigh she walked up to her old room, sitting on the bed, she leaned back looking up at the ceiling slowly closing her eyes. She was here for a school reunion and that she was fine with, it was the fact that her family and the one friend she still had in town were using this time for their own ulterior motives. She wasn't the type of person to ruin a relationship.

"Letting you go is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but we both know it needs to be done. Holding on it's easy to do, but it's not good for either of us. I won't be; I CAN'T be the reason you miss out on things in life. You've wanted this since we were little, and I can't be the reason you don't follow your dreams. I'm letting you go because I love you. You will be the doctor you desire to be, and I will be proud of you, Zo. You told me once that love was forever and no matter where life takes us, remember that I will always love you."

The words easily slipped from her mouth, words she knew by heart, words that were burned into her mind because she had read them countless times after she left.

She angrily wiped the tears from her face and stormed from the house. One destination in mind.

"Fancy seeing you here?" She spun around narrowing her brown eyes at him.

"It is my home; my family is here," she quipped at him, crossing her arms over her chest, ready for a fight. She refused to look at him directly not wanting to get lost to the feelings that were always there for him. She wasn't here for that. She was willing to fix things, so they could be friends but that was it.

"Coulda fooled me, Doc," he smirked, turning to walk off. "While you're in town you should meet my fiancé," he smugly told her, but when she looked at him, she could see the hurt he had been holding onto.

She wanted to scream you're the one that let me go but thought better of it. "Yeah, maybe," she told him suddenly shy. This was the first step in moving forward in the direction of being friends.