I got the idea for this after reading Once Upon A Someday's wonderful Collisions. So thanks! I just wondered what the conversation was like with Tandy (who I assume was driving) after Rayna got back in the car after talking with Deacon. It's a bit of a therapy session. Not sure if this is a one shot or I'll continue it.

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Rayna climbed into her sister's SUV, shut the door and told her to drive. She trained her head straight ahead so she wouldn't look at him just standing there looking sullen and heartbroken by the side of the road.

"That was quick. Everything ok?" Tandy asked.

"Fine, I gave him back the ring. I told him it was over, over for good. I'm moving forward. Never to look back again."

Tandy laughed a little, and Rayna got a horrified look on her face.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, I'm just…Rayna, you are my baby sister, and more than anything I want you to be healthy and happy, and I do think that you're better off without Deacon Claybourne in your life, but not for one second do I believe that you two are over with."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

Rayna turned her head to look out the passenger's side window at the cookie cutter McMansions signaling that they were entering back into Belle Meade.

"It's really over with Tandy. This time it's different, I almost died! I can't go through this anymore. I can't put my kids through it."

Tandy looked over at her, then back at the road. "See, that's the funny thing, that you think that this is any different than previous times. This is the same thing Rayna. You two go through these cycles. You claim that the two of you are over with. You don't speak to him for a couple of weeks, a couple of months, then you just check on him to make sure he's ok, make sure he's still on the wagon. Then you see him and he's on the wagon, and you tell me how proud you are of him, that he's looking so good. That it really was better for the two of you to be apart. It's done wonders for him.

Then you start thinking what would it hurt to play a gig with him. You're just singing a song, he's just picking his guitar, there's tons of people around, it's not dangerous, there's no intimacy, but while you're there you start chatting, remembering how good it feels to talk to him, how he makes you laugh, how he understands you. Soon you're calling him up and meeting him by the river or in the park."

Rayna flashed a surprise look at Tandy.

"What? You think I don't know about that, after all these years. I'm your sister Rayna. I know he's whom you still run to."

Rayna was incensed, "Have you been having me followed?"

"Nothing like that, but people see things, they whisper. You're a fool if you think you'll ever hide anything in this town."

Rayna swallowed hard and turned back to the window.

"So you meet with him and it becomes comfortable, reliable, he's your rock. No harm being done. You're not together. He's doing so well, you're doing so well, why can't you just be friends?

Of course then there's the day that you're at the recording studio or at The Bluebird and he's telling you a story and you laugh and he puts his hand on yours, and it's a brief touch, but it's enough to start the slow burn again.

You start to fantasize about him, remember what it feels like when you're laying in his arms, the weight of his body on top of you, the taste of his lips. It consumes you and you think of nothing else for weeks. You try to deny it, but every time you see him it's there, and you know he's thinking the same thing. And then it happens, in a hotel room on the road, in a utility closet at Sound Check, a dressing room at the Opry, you're kissing and touching and tasting. Clothing is flying everywhere and you're thinking how have I lived without this for so long when it feels so right."

The tears start to come to Rayna's eyes as she thinks back to all the times that this very thing has happened, before she'd married Teddy, after the split, even variations of this during the 13-year marriage. Times she would barely admit to herself.

"You come to me and you tell me that it's different this time, that he's changed, you've changed, the two of you have changed. That you're so happy, and you are, you're on top of the world, and you ask me why I'm sad, why I can't be happy for you. I smile and say that I am, but you're right, I'm not, because I know that this is the high, the high before the fall, and soon he'll see a male friend put his arm around you, or he'll be jealous that you're spending more time with the record execs than with him, or he finds out that you've been lying to him, and the crash is so severe and so devastating, filled with slashed car tires, busted fists, wood from splintered furniture, crushed metal wreckage of a 20 year old SUV. You cry and you say it's over, that this is it, but it's not over, it's the beginning. It's never going to be over. Not until you admit that it never will be over with him and start dealing with it that way."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, as much as I hate hearing these words come out of my mouth, you have to accept that he's never not going to be in your life. I've never seen two people more tied together than the two of you. You don't need to find a way to live without him Rayna, you need to find a way to live with him. You need to break the cycle. You two need to learn how to communicate, how to work through your problems without exploding."

"He's the one that explodes Tandy, not me."

"Yeah, but you need to stop doing things to make him explode."

"That's ironic coming from the woman who talked me into keeping Maddie a secret from him."

"I know, and maybe me, and daddy, and Cole, maybe we're part of the problem. Maybe we have to realize that we'll never understand the two of you, and just let you be."

"Maybe you should. Maybe everyone should realize it's none of their business."

"I've talked to Bucky about this."

"You've done what?!"

"We care about you, and we want the best for you. So we've been trying to figure out where you guys go wrong."

"I thought you just told me you were butting out, how is this butting out?"

"Well, maybe just Cole and daddy should butt out."

Rayna gave her older sister and exasperated look. "Fine, tell me what sage advice you two have for me and Deacon."

"We both think that part of Deacon's problem is that he never feels like he's good enough for you, so he keeps doing things that reinforce that idea. He feels that way because he grew up with an alcoholic for a father who always told him he was no good, because he likes to beat himself up, but mostly he feels that way because you make him feel that way."

"What? I do not."

"Look at your history Rayna. I remember how the two of you were back in the day. He was always saying how you loved him much more than he deserved, and you were always saying yep, that's true."

Rayna felt attacked and lashed back. "I was joking when I said that. He knew that!"

"Maybe he did, and maybe he didn't, but you tell someone that enough and they start to believe it's true."

"No, you're twisting the facts. You're not in our relationship Tandy. I was saying that to tell him how much I loved him, not to make him feel like he wasn't worthy."

"Rayna, the man has followed you around like a puppy dog for over a decade. He stood by for nearly 14 years while you were married to someone else. Of course he doesn't feel good enough for you. You've always made it seem like you were doing him a favor by letting him stay, and the moment he messes up at all, like back in the day when he was drinking, or at the country club at Teddy's rally, or now when you'd just dropped huge news on him and he slipped up for a day what do you do? You leave him, you tell him he's not good enough for you."

"Why are you saying this to me? You know he almost got me killed."

"Rayna, you almost got yourself killed. I know he was drinking and distracting you, but you were the one driving, you were the sober one, you were the one who should have known better. Sometimes I wonder if after mom died I spoiled you too much. Made you think you could do no wrong. Maybe I protected you too much, didn't make you take responsibility when you messed up. Daddy and I would just come through and clean up any mess you got yourself into."

"I haven't asked you or daddy for anything for a long time. You know that, and I clean up my own messes."

"Yes, the ones you see, and I'm proud of you for that. But I think there are those you just don't want to see, and with those you're just living in denial. The problem with denial is just because you don't want to see it doesn't mean it's not there. If you want this cycle with Deacon to stop you're going to have to take some responsibility for your part in the cycle."

Tandy pulled into Rayna's driveway. "I don't want to talk about this anymore Tandy. I'm moving forward, without Deacon, and everyone just has to accept that. Including me."

Tandy sighed and leaned out the window as her sister climbed out of her car and started to head towards the house.

"Alright, but don't tell me I didn't warn you when the next explosion happens."

Tandy pulled away and Rayna stood in the driveway. She thought about what her sister said for a moment and then pushed it away. She was a new person, and no matter how strong the past was, it wasn't going to pull her back this time. She unlocked the door and entered back into the safety of her Belle Meade house, her fantasyland.