Just a short intro chapter based on some spoilers.

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Rayna rolls over and stretches out her hand for the warm body lying next to her, but only feels the cool sensation of the finely woven cotton sheets she purchased a few months ago when Deacon moved in. She wants him to be there so badly that she feels the absence of him in every inch of her body. It's been just over a month since she's made love to him, since he's taken her in his arms, pulled her close, and clung to her as their emotional intimacy reverberated through their joined bodies in a physical intimacy that was unmatched with any other person either one had ever been with.

All those months that they'd been waiting for a transplant, she'd been so afraid to lose him to the disease that had started with a bottle of whiskey and a beer chaser, and could end in a cold hospital room surrounded by she and the girls. Looking at the empty spot next to her, she wondered if this was almost worse.

She grabbed her phone off the nightstand and checked for messages but there were none. She was partially grateful for that. Grateful that the reporters had finally stopped calling her about the whole ordeal with Teddy. She knew it would stretch on in both her life, and the life of the girls for ages, but with all the despair going on right now she just couldn't handle another goddamn reporter asking her 'if Teddy saw prostitutes when they were married' and 'is that why she left him.'

The girls had been taking it particularly hard. Maddie was spending even more time at Colt's, and sweet little Daphne had become withdrawn. Rayna had even noticed that her school work was starting to suffer as well. This was just all too much for one family to take. They needed their father, they needed Deacon, and he wasn't here either.

Rayna picked up the phone and hit send on the name at the top of her favorites list. It rang nearly five times before a gravely voice touched by extreme fatigue and heartache answered on the other end. "Hey baby, what's going on?" he asked.

"When are you coming home? I miss you, the girls miss you." Rayna twirled a strand of her hair like she did when she was a little girl asking her father when he was coming home from his business trip, knowing full well that he still had 4 more days.

"I miss you too, but Bev really needs me right now, Scarlett too."

"No change?" Rayna asked, knowing, or at least hoping, that he would have called if there had been.

"Nope," Deacon replied. "Four weeks and she's still in a coma."

Rayna sighs, there is nothing she can really say to make this situation better despite all her efforts to find the perfect thing to say. "Well get some sleep babe. You just had major surgery a month ago. Remember you're still recuperating."

"I'm in a hospital Ray, I'll be ok."

"Are you going to sleep there again tonight?"

"I think so. They've been nice enough to set up a bed next to Bev's for me. Not the most comfortable, but it'll do."

"Alright, well I'm swamped today with these Juliette legal issues, but I'll stop by tomorrow. Call me if anything…well, you know, if you need me." Rayna wanted to yell into the phone that she needed him, that she couldn't handle all this without him and she certainly needed him more than a woman in a coma did, but she'd always been the strong one, and she wasn't going to let that slip now.

She heard the sound of Deacon's gruff voice say "I will," before once again he was gone and she was alone.