A/N: Okay, so, it isn't that I'm not enjoying writing 'New York State of Mind', because I absolutely am, but then I had this idea as well and it just won't leave me alone, so it seems I'm going to have to write both at once. Sorry if that means a slightly bigger gap between chapters on each story, but overall, you will be getting just as much Hart of Dixie fic content from me, so I hope that's cool. Now, who wants to travel back in time with me to 2001? ;)

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

Chapter 1

Most people probably didn't know that this was where he came to hide when times got tough. It wasn't easy having secrets from the rest of Bluebell. So many busybodies and all, most everybody knew every other person's business, but at nineteen years old, Wade Kinsella already had a reputation for being just so cocksure and altogether full of himself. Probably true that not one amongst the folks of Bluebell suspected he felt much of anything anymore. Nobody would think he would take it to heart when some careless remark or other was made about him being the son of a drunk father and a long-dead mother, with no ambition or smarts to speak of. Nobody would know where he went to cry about it either.

"I guess I ain't doing too much with this life you gave me, huh?" he said to the gravestone, swiping at his eyes that watered yet. "I'm sorry, Momma. It's not like I don't try, but with things the way they are, you know, with Earl and all..."

He trailed off, shaking his head, not knowing how to explain, knowing it would do no good even if could find the words. Maybe it was foolish, sharing his problems with a chunk of granite that bore the name 'Jacqueline Kinsella' but he did like to believe maybe she could hear him, knowing for sure that if she could help him at all, then she most definitely would.

Sighing heavily, Wade moved to pick himself up from the ground, brushing off the seat of his pants as he contemplated his mother's headstone a moment more.

"I love you, Momma," he told her softly, the slightest smile curving his lips.

He turned to go then, almost running headlong into somebody else coming around the nearby tree.

"Well, hello, Wade," said the older man with a kind smile.

"Hey, Dr Wilkes," he said, nodding his head politely. "Uh, should you be out here all by yourself?" he checked. "Last I heard, you weren't doin' so good."

"Not dead yet." Harley smiled at him. "Though I'll admit, for a while there it didn't look too good," he confessed, one hand going absently to his chest. "There was a little while there when I figured this might be the very place I ended up, and way too soon," he said, eyes flitting around the cemetery that surrounded them.

Wade looked away, hand rubbing at his face that he knew very well was tear-stained yet. He noticed as he looked back at the doctor that Harley was now gazing past him at the very grave he just left.

"Oh, son, I am sorry," he told Wade, putting a hand to his shoulder. "I didn't mean... You know, your momma was a fine woman. Yes, sir, Jacqueline Kinsella was one of the best there was in this town."

"Yes, she was," Wade agreed, finding a smile for the glowing report given in his mother's name. "For what it's worth, I'm real glad you're doin' better. Too many folks go outta the world too soon, I should know. It's a miracle to me that old Earl is still here after everything, but you? Clean livin' doctor like yourself, don't seem right."

"Don't go thinkin' I'm as perfect as all that, Wade." Harley chuckled. "I've had my share of fun in my life, and my share of vices too," he admitted, moving past him to sit down on the nearby bench with a sigh. "Yes, my life has been interesting to say the least, and I'm glad to say that I don't have too many regrets. That's something you think a lot about as you get older, what you might regret, 'especially when you come as close to the end as I just did."

Wade wasn't really sure what old Dr Wilkes was trying to say exactly. He wasn't sure he ought to ask, but walking away from the guy when he was talking so strange didn't sit well with him either. Wade followed him over to the bench and sat down beside him.

"I know what happened was bad," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, I may not be the brightest guy in town, but even I know a heart attack is a real serious thing. Still, you came through it, and you're a doctor, so you know what to do to be okay, right?"

Harley chuckled at that. "Yes, I suppose I do know what to do. Eat better, get some exercise, avoid stress," he recited, shaking his head right after. "I could go on for a good long while yet, that is true, but... well, I do wonder if this wasn't a wake-up call about more than just my health."

Wade shook his head. "I don't think I understand what you're trying to tell me," he admitted. "You thinkin' of leaving Bluebell maybe?"

"No, not really." Harley sighed. "It's the only home I've ever known. My family is here, and friends that are as good as family too. I just... well, there is one person out in the world I had a mind to go visit. Of course, I'm not sure how she'd take it if I just showed up."

"She?" Wade checked.

"Yes, she," Harley confirmed, turning to him with a smile. "I think I can trust you to keep a secret, can't I, Wade?"

"Yes, sir," he agreed, wondering what it was he was about to hear, if anything at all.

For a minute, it seemed as if maybe Dr Wilkes changed his mind about telling him whatever he was thinking of. Then all of a sudden, he took a deep breath and the truth just came out.

"I have a daughter, Wade," he confessed, seemingly relieved to have said it out loud at last. "She would be... well, I'd say about your age by now."

"You have a...? Wow."

Wade really did not know what to think about that. Of all the secrets Dr Harley Wilkes might have been harbouring, he was not sure he ever would've guessed it was the fact he was the father of some teenage girl.

"I know what you're thinkin'," Harley told him with a smile. "I'm mighty old to have a kid your age."

"I wasn't thinkin' that." Wade shook his head. "I was mostly thinkin' how in the heck have you managed to keep a secret like that all this time, in this town?"

That seemed to amuse Harley more than anything, but Wade knew the question was valid. It was almost impossible to keep anything quiet in Bluebell, even when you really wanted to, and this was no small secret. This was genuinely huge.

"Well, I met the girl's mother on a cruise, twenty years ago now. It was... well, a love affair, I suppose," Harley explained, a faraway look in his eyes. "I would've married her, if she'd let me, but I don't think that was at all what she was looking for. Anyway, I came home, thought maybe I could just move on, let her go, and I did for a while. Then, all of a sudden, about five years ago, I get a letter from her, from Candice, telling me she had a baby all those years ago and that she was mine."

"She didn't tell you sooner?" Wade asked, wide-eyed with shock. "That ain't right."

He knew for sure that Harley was the type of stand-up guy that would definitely have been there for a child given half the chance. He always did come off pretty fatherly for a guy that never had kids of his own, except apparently, he did have a daughter after all. The whole thing kind of blew Wade's mind.

"Candice had her reasons. I don't blame her exactly." Harley sighed. "To be honest, I blame myself, especially now. I had my chance to meet Zoe when I first found out she was mine, but I... well, I chose to stay away, thinkin' it'd be better that way. She had a daddy, Candice's husband, she didn't need a foolish old man like me hanging around."

"But you're her daddy, her real father." Wade shook his head. "Shouldn't she know that? Shouldn't you and her both get a chance to know each other?"

"Maybe," Harley conceded. "But I guess it's all a little too late now. Come on, Wade, would you want some other man to show up in your life, telling you he's your real father?" The awkwardness and pain that caused must've shown on Wade's face because Harley immediately looked sorry he said it. "Well, I don't think Zoe would be too happy about it and... and as much as I'd like to know her, I just can't bring myself to do that to the poor child."

Wade wanted to tell him that was wrong, he had a mind to, and yet he kept his mouth shut. Wasn't really any of his business what other folks did with their own family, their own secrets, their own lives. Times were that Wade didn't even entirely know what he was doing with his own and he sure as hell didn't take kindly to people trying to tell him how he should be. It was half the reason he was here today in the first place.

"You're a good listener, Wade Kinsella," Harley told him then, "and I appreciate you taking the time. You know, you didn't have to."

"Seems to me you don't really have anybody else to tell this stuff too." Wade shrugged. "And it's not like I had anywhere else better to be," he added with a smirk.

Harley laughed. "Well, just you think on now. You ever need someone's ear to bend about anything at all, my door is always open, son," he said, patting Wade on the shoulder. "I mean that."

"Thank you, Dr Wilkes." Wade nodded once, probably appreciating that more than the older man could ever know.

"Seems to me you're grown up enough now to be my equal, Wade. How about you start calling me Harley from here on out? That sound okay?"

"Sure," he agreed easily, smiling as he took the man's offered hand and shook it. "Thank you, Harley," he said pointedly.

"You're welcome, Wade," he replied in kind. "Now, I guess I should be getting myself off home again. You about done here?"

"Almost." Wade nodded, watching Harley rise from the bench and prepare to leave. "Think I'm gonna hang around just a little longer."

Harley left him to his own devices then and Wade watched him go, letting his mind wander over all that the doctor had shared with him. It still stretched his mind more than a bit to think of old Dr Wilkes having a daughter his own age out in the world, and to think she didn't even know about him. Still didn't seem right to Wade, not right at all.

Most people probably didn't know that this was where she came to hide when times got tough. Not that Zoe ever thought too many people would even think to look for her when she disappeared for a while. If they did want her, they'd try her dorm first, then probably the library, or any other place a person might study until their head exploded. On the rare occasions when Zoe just needed to get away, she headed off campus, right down the street to this one particular bakery, where she hid herself in the corner with a latte and a pile of doughnut holes until she felt better. Unfortunately, today, the idea of eating turned her stomach, and what was on her mind could never be solved by a couple of hours alone with her thoughts.

"How could you be so stupid?!" she asked herself in muttered tones, hoping right after that nobody heard, and looking around to check just in case.

Thankfully, there weren't so many people around anyway, and those that were there were deep in their own conversations, paying no mind to Zoe. She sighed, reaching for her purse and staring down at the ziplock bag inside, containing the evidence of what she saw as her own stupidity. The blue lines glared back at her, mocking somehow, if blue lines could even do that.

Less than two months into her second year at Yale and Zoe Hart had found out she was pregnant. She had absolutely no idea what she was going to do.

To Be Continued...