Here is my response to the current fic challenge.. I'd like to thank Shiny Jewel for the awesome prompt of Maddie giving Rayna and Deacon a gift. Oneshot. Enjoy!
Maddie sat on the edge of her bed, delicately placing one last piece of tape over the black and silver striped wrapping paper. She grinned to herself as she sat back, admiring her work. Gift-wrapping had most certainly not always been a strong suit for her, but the night before she had Googled different techniques and practiced with newspaper until the early hours of the morning. She had spent so much time on the project itself; she wanted even the smallest details, down to the wrapping, to be perfect.
She sighed, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious. They have to love it, she thought. She knew they would, but there was also a nagging sensation in her stomach trying to convince her that the gift may be too painful.
It was too late to turn back now, though, and she knew it. She was either going to sink or swim.
Her thoughts were broken by a soft knock on her bedroom door. Just seconds later, Daphne's small blonde head peeked inside.
"You ready?"
Maddie nodded, smiling at her little sister and waving her inside.
"Yeah, are you?"
Daphne smiled widely and nodded furiously, proudly lifting a jumbled mess of tape and newspaper comics with a massive red bow.
Maddie giggled.
"You know you could've asked me for help wrapping that if you needed it. And where did you get that bow?"
"The Christmas box. It's one of the ones mom always hangs outside by the garage. I think it looks pretty good. I'm just a kid, you know." Daphne shrugged, admiring her work.
Maddie smiled again, shaking her head.
"Whatever. Let's go. I think they have to leave soon."
"Where are they going, anyway?" Daphne asked, running her small fingers over every inch of Maddie's meticulously wrapped present.
"Italy."
"I wanna go there! Why don't we get to go?"
Maddie grabbed her gift from the bed and stood up.
"Because it's their honeymoon, stupid. Come on."
Daphne raised her eyebrow at her sister, seriously considering throwing a spit wad at her later for calling her stupid, but even more so running the idea of a honeymoon through her head. She wasn't exactly sure what it was, but Aunt Tandy had explained to her briefly that it was a very special vacation two people go on to celebrate their wedding.
She shook her head and followed Maddie out of the room and down the hallway, failing to see the point of such a trip.
Rayna and Deacon sat on the couch, eyeing each other peripherally and trying to hide their smirks. They'd been in the bedroom packing when Daphne busted in and demanded they come downstairs. She and Maddie had "the most awesome surprise," she had said.
Rayna grabbed his hand in anticipation, the 2.75-carat Tiffany yellow diamond gleaming brightly from her finger as she did so.
Maddie knelt on the floor in front of them, while Daphne swayed back and forth beside her.
"We know you are busy packing for your trip, but we wanted to give you your wedding presents from the two of us."
Maddie smiled shyly, looking to Rayna and Deacon for their responses. Rayna smiled, bringing her free hand to her lips.
"Aww, girls," Deacon smiled. "You didn't have to get us anything."
Maddie nodded.
"We know, but we wanted you guys to know that we're really happy for you," Maddie brought her eyes to Deacon's. "And we're both very glad you joined our family; especially me."
Deacon looked down to his lap for just a second, quickly bringing his eyes back up to meet Maddie's. He nodded his appreciation to her, gripping Rayna's hand tightly.
Daphne, chomping at the bits, was literally jumping up and down.
"Can I go, can I go, can I go?!"
Maddie grinned at her sister, somewhat relieved that she wanted to go first. She knew the emotional impact her own gift would have and didn't want to steal Daphne's thunder.
Daphne squealed, handing over the newspaper comic catastrophe to her mother and newly minted step-father. Rayna let go of Deacon's hand, readily accepting the gift.
"Oh my gosh," she said, her eyes bulging at the precious display. It was clearly wrapped by her ten year old. "I can't wait to see what this is!"
Daphne bounced up and down on the chair across from them.
"Open it, open it! I spent three allowances on it!"
"Three?! Oh my gosh." Rayna grinned, beginning to pull at one of the pieces of tape.
Deacon cleared his throat, raising his eyes at Rayna.
"You gonna steal the present like you steal the covers?"
"Sorry, babe," Rayna chuckled, allowing him to take one side of the gift. "On three?"
He nodded.
Daphne excitedly counted them off, trying unsuccessfully to stifle her squeals as they ripped off the paper to reveal a rustic, wooden, whitewashed photo frame. Inside was a black velvet backing, on top of which lay a copy of Rayna and Deacon's Hatch Show Print wedding invitation. It was black and white and typical Hatch Show fashion, blending perfectly with the elegance of the velvet and the blue-collar craftsmanship of the frame.
"Wow," Deacon said, running his calloused fingers over the frame. "That's awesome, Daph."
Rayna extended her arms to her youngest, engulfing her in a bear hug and saying over and over how much she loved it.
"Where'd you get it?" Deacon asked, rubbing his hand over the top of her head.
She clung to her mother, turning her head to face him.
"Aunt Tandy took us to the craft show and I saw one like it there. She said it'd cost three allowances so I saved up and she called the lady for me."
Maddie grinned from her spot across the room, quietly drawing in her nervous breath as Daphne chattered on and on about buying the gift while Deacon and Rayna expressed on and on how much they loved it.
Just as Daphne was demanding to know where they were going to hang it, Maddie stood up and slowly approached with her gift.
She felt her hands go shaky as she spoke, still afraid deep down of the reaction her gift would receive. She had already started making it when she clued Tandy in, who had assured her that they would both love it. "They might cry a lot," she had said, "but there's nothing better you could do."
She'd vaguely explained it to Daphne, but she felt her sister was still too young to completely understand the gravity of it.
"Um," she spoke up, shyly holding the large square package out to her parents. "I made you guys something."
Daphne took her cue and went to the chair Maddie had been sitting in, once again beginning to bounce up and down with anticipation.
Rayna ran her hands over the gift, clearly impressed by the packaging.
"Who wrapped this?"
Maddie smiled.
"I did."
Rayna shot Deacon a look of complete and utter surprise. He grinned, not fully understanding the significance of it.
"She was as bad at wrapping as Daphne just two months ago," she whispered into his ear. He chuckled quietly.
Maddie scoffed.
"I can hear you."
"Sorry, sweetheart," Rayna composed herself, again inspecting the wrapping paper. "I almost don't want to open it. It looks so good."
Maddie smiled softly at the both of them.
"Please just open it. I'm dying over here."
Rayna took the lead, carefully unhooking the bits of tape rather than simultaneously tearing into the paper with her husband as they'd done for Daphne's.
Maddie held her breath. It felt like it was taking forever, but with each small rip of paper it got closer. And closer; and closer. She exhaled slowly when the paper was finally all removed and Rayna held in her hands a black bound scrapbook. On the front, a small antique photo frame holding a handwritten note was glued to the cover.
Rayna edged the book towards Deacon so they could read the teenage bubble cursive together.
"I love you both so much. I'm very proud and happy for you. Now we can finally have our life that's good. Love—M"
Deacon looked up at daughter with misty eyes. Rayna just smiled at her.
Maddie looked down, shyly.
"Open the rest of it," she urged.
And so they did.
Maddie had been given a number of electives to choose from her freshman year. She had to pick three, so she went with music theory, chorus, and scrapbooking. She thought the scrapbooking class would be an easy A, but she actually found it to be a lot of hours and a ton of hard work. She had spent a lot of time even just researching projects for the class, but she was proud that her hard work had paid off in the form of this wedding present for her parents.
It was cover to cover full of paper frames and paper folding that Maddie had done herself. She hand-picked coordinating stickers, hand wrote quotes and messages, and even protectively laminated all of the sacred material before she pasted it in.
She'd put it in order from the very beginning of the two of them up until now, starting with a photo Rayna didn't know she'd taken from her drawer. They were so young; Rayna couldn't have been a day over 17 and Deacon was barely 20. They sat together at what was clearly the Bluebird Café, smiling brightly at the camera. One of Deacon's arms hung limply over his guitar while the other was wrapped tightly around Rayna's shoulders.
Deacon laughed aloud, commenting on Rayna's 80's perm. Rayna just ran her fingers over the photo.
"Where did you find this?" She asked, unsure if she even remembered where she'd left it for Maddie to find.
"In one of your drawers. I was snooping," The couple raised their eyebrows, almost awkwardly. It wasn't lost on them what had happened the last time she snooped. "But it was for research! I wasn't just being nosey."
Rayna chuckled, running her fingers over the photo one more time before turning the page.
She always loved that photo and for so long had kept it as a torturous reminder of what was lost; they were so young, fresh, and happy. They had all the talent and all the love in the world and every bit of it had been severed on the shards of a bottle.
She grinned, knowing everything was different now and it was different for the better. She didn't have to be sad when she looked at that photo anymore.
They continued their journey through the scrapbook for what seemed like hours.
It went on to include clippings, photos, and CD sleeves from all points in both of their careers, private photos of the both of them, the few wedding photos Maddie could get printed, and what she considered to be the scariest part of all—an entire section dedicated to nothing but photos of her.
As painful as she knew it might be, she really wanted to make Deacon a part of it all. He'd proven himself to be an excellent father and she knew he deserved to have these treasures.
A single tear slid down his cheek at the sight of her ultrasound photo; he laughed at her falling asleep face down in her spaghetti; he and Rayna both beamed at her kindergarten piano recital.
The book pieced together every documented second of their nearly three-decade long odyssey. Maddie grinned through it all, seeing their faces light up at every page as they clearly traveled down memory lane together.
She figured she had done well, but the confirmation came when they got to the very last page.
There was a snapshot of the three of them—Maddie was six months old, Deacon was very freshly and delicately sober, and Rayna still wore her new mom glow. They were posing at a small (alcohol free, at Rayna's insistence) luncheon Edgehill had put on in celebration of "This Love Ain't Big Enough" selling 1 million copies.
Of all the things in the book to cry over, Rayna had let Deacon shed most of the tears. She finally lost it when she saw the message Maddie scrawled underneath the photo.
"I'll always be your platinum baby."