This was written for the September "fluffy fanfic" challenge. My thanks to KarenES for the beta.
"This can't be Scarlett! Well, I haven't seen you since you were a teeny teeny tiny thing!" Rayna exclaimed as Deacon stood next to his niece at the Grand Ole Opry.
She was right, Deacon thought. Scarlett had been a teeny teeny tiny thing when Rayna last saw her.
"What do you mean the babysitter cancelled?" Deacon said as he opened his front door up to find his sister standing there holding the hand of his two year old niece. He looked out and waved at his brother-in-law sitting in the front seat of their Chevy Celebrity.
"It's exactly what I said, Deacon," she replied. "You know that we got these tickets to the Grand Ole Opry nearly a year ago, that we are staying in a hotel for the weekend for the first time since the beautiful little thing arrived two years ago and I bought a new nightie for the occasion."
Deacon looked across at his sister and then down at the curly blonde haired toddler standing there. "But you're coming back in the morning?" he asked.
"We're stayin' in a hotel for the weekend, Deacon," she stated again. "That is tonight and tomorrow night and we're meetin' you for brunch on Sunday just like we planned. Six months ago. When you told me you would not be on tour."
"And you didn't call me from home before you drove up here with her?" he asked.
His sister leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Cause I knew there was no way you could refuse me when I was standin' right here with her." She handed the small suitcase to Deacon and then kneeled down to face Scarlett. "You be good for your Uncle Deacon. Sing him those songs you've been singin' for me and Mama and Daddy will be back to pick you up before you know it." With that, she leaned forward, kissed Scarlett on the forehead, stood up and turned back to her brother.
"Good luck, brother-and thanks."
"See you on Sunday," Deacon replied.
Deacon's sister walked down the steps, then stopped halfway to the car and turned back. "Oh, and sorry-I really thought we'd get her toilet trained before the weekend, but I'm sure you know how to deal with potty training, right?"
Deacon was sure he could have caught her before she ran to the car and they pulled away, except Scarlett had grabbed his leg and gone completely limp.
It's like they'd practiced it.
It went okay at first. Okay, it went okay for the first five minutes.
Thirty minutes and one dirty diaper later he was cursing his sister's name when there was a knock at the door.
It took him a minute and then he remembered.
Rayna was coming over to work on a song for open mike.
They'd sung together a few times at the Bluebird, he even thought she might like him a little bit-but it was hard to tell.
He liked her a lot, but she made his palms sweat a little bit. The only thing that really calmed him down around her was making music with her.
"Stay on that couch, Scarlett," he instructed as he went to the door to let Rayna in.
"Deacon, do you have something to tell me?" Rayna asked as she walked in and caught sight of the little blonde haired girl sitting on the couch clad only in her clean diaper.
"Uh, yeah?" Deacon started.
Rayna stopped and looked at him. "You do?"
Deacon walked over and sat down next to Scarlett, slipping a clean t-shirt over her head. He pulled it down and then looked back over at Rayna standing by the door, looking pretty nervous. "Well, first of all, that I'm a pretty understanding brother and uncle and that a very cute toddler has an incredible capacity to make a mess of herself."
Rayna watched as Deacon walked away, his arm slung around his niece, now all grown up and she smiled.
It was hard to remember some of those early days with Deacon, before all the hard stuff started and to be honest, she'd forgotten about that day with his niece.
But it was the day she knew she had fallen in love with him. Remembering it brought back that good memory, then watching as Deacon walked away, made her sad all over again.
FIN