This story is about the Jaymes/Claybourne family. Other characters will figure here and there but no details on their future lifes other then they are all happy with their chosen partners. Juliette lives and just had to land in a different airport due to a heavy thunderstorm.
Deacon is sitting on the porch to the cabin lost in thoughts. It has been two months now since Maddie came home. Two months since he could reunite mother and daughter and see the life return to his wonderful wife. These past months have been hell, Rayna took it really hard of course. A weaker woman had shut down completly and would be totally heartbroken. But Rayna did managed her work at Highway 65, loving mother to Daphne, did a ten date tour. She did all that but not with her usually joy and spirit. His and Rayna´s marriage did really take a shaky road. He came so close to lose her again, way too close. He screwed up and let her down again. I wasen´t all his fault but his actions certainly diden´t help. After their first therapy session it got a bit better and they found sorts of back to each other. Not full intimacy but at least she allowed him to comfort her with closeness and hugs. On that day when he saw Rayna hugged Maddie so tight as she never would let go and their eyes met, he saw a little of the old Rayna in there. Then he knew they would be ok, that they would get past this hurdle also, as they had with all others that has goten in their way. He diden´t know how but somehow with time they would. Their love was gonna survive.
After the second therapy session they had a good talk, a really good talk. It took all evening and half the night, but it was worth it because they finally made love to each other after over two months. They had never gone this long without sex while beeing together before. It was not just the sex he missed, but the closeness, the special bond between them that was there from the moment he met her. He have never had that with another woman. He had his share of women during Rayna´s marriage to Teddy, nothing was really serious. The longest relationship he had besides Rayna lasted five months and the thought of marrying any other woman then Rayna haden´t even crossed his mind once. What he and Rayna have is very special, a deep connection between them that few people get to feel, less even understand. A love so strong and deep. Add the fact that Deacon has loved Rayna all his life, the only woman he ever loved. With that love and connection the sex between them is magical, amazing and breathtaken passionate. He wouldn´t even wanna guess how many times they have made love with each other, hell in the first year alone they would be at it three times a day. One in the morning, one after the show in the first empty dressingroom or restroom they could find and then when they got back to the bus or the good nights when they stayed at a motel.
Some times are more special then others and will always be inprented in his heart. The first time they made love Rayna was a virgin. He haden´t been with a virgin before and was terrified he would scare her for life. He wanted her first time to be wonderful and what any girl dreams of and deserve. They diden´t have much money to throw around so a fancy hotel was out of the question and he diden´t want it to happen in that crapy sorry excuse for a apartment he shared with Vince. So what he did was he bought food suitable for a picnic, throwed some pillows and sleeping bags in the back of his old truck and droved them to a beautiful location by a lake. There they made love for the first time in the warm summer night.
Second most treasured moment was when they got back together again after Rayna´s thirteen years of marriage, that night Rayna came to his house and told him him she loved him. After their amazingly hot kiss in that elevator in Chicago, several months before. What a kiss that was, the familiar feeling of her lips against his. He had dreamed about their reunion for so long, he had pictured it so many times. How it would feel to touch her again, feel her soft skin against his, inhale her scent, the unique fragrance of Rayna, that have always turned him on so incredible much. So when she kissed him in the doorway, he couldn´t believe that was happening. He hold her in his arms again. How much he had missed this, missed her, definitely missed making love to her. When inside they undressed each other and laid down on the couch to end up in the bedroom making love all night long.
Third time was their wedding night. Even if they made love the previous night before the wedding, you would think it would be the same the night after. But it was so much more. Making love as husband and wife increased all feelings, more intensity, more desire. Every touch every kiss was so sensual. Beeing married to Rayna and have a family with her is what he always ever wanted in his life. Besides making music nothing else matter to him and finally reached that after their long journey together, it made for a very hot passionate evening and night of making love.
Fourth special time was this time when they reconciled after their fallout from the trial that led to Maddie´s emancipation gone through. During these months of hell they have been so far away from each other that he thought they lost everything between them, the connection, the love, the desire. Even though they still lived in the same house, sleeped in the same bed, he feelt more alone and detached from her then he did during her marriage. At least then they did have the music. They have got past all that now, the two therapy sessions did help. He diden´t really think they would, that they would be like those he got in rehab. They diden´t do squat to help him, he only went to them so he would get out of there. Maybe if he had listen to them more closely things could have gone so different.
While he and Rayna now had worked things out and back to normal, he wished he could say the same thing about his and Maddie´s relationship. Maddie have been home two months now and they still haven´t talked about the situation alone, just the two of them. Neither one of them know what to say, how to begin so everytime they saw each other they both went silent and feelt the awkwardness built up in the room. When they did spoke it was just ordinary conversations. How are you? Did you sleep well? etc. They had a bunch of lawyers over to see what could be done about the emancipation, but it was a done deal, they couldn´t undo it. Rayna did everything in her power to make the contract with Lennox Hill void, she literally went to New York and begged at the managing director herself in person. But to no use, they wouldn´t let Maddie go and Maddie don´t have the money to buy her contract out. Cash and her lawyer had put in some consul that Rayna or Deacon can´t provide the money in any form. So Maddie have to spend a lot of time in New York for the forthcoming future. So here they are now at the cabin for some family time before Maddie has to go and start her album.