This is going to be something really different. You may know that Chip Esten puts out new music #EverySingleFriday, which is pretty cool. One of his songs really resonated with me – Same Damn Road. It's about a young guy from a small town who wants to leave and does, leaving behind the girl. But eventually he comes back, hoping they can find their way back to each other. I couldn't help but think about it being Deacon and Rayna in a parallel universe, and I couldn't lose the idea, so here is a really AU Deyna story. Actually AU is probably an understatement, because this turns their history on its head. There will be many of the characters we know from the show – at least those that are part of Deacon and Rayna's story – but their lives will be very different. Storylines will track generally with backstory we know, but timing will be different. I'm intentionally not identifying when this all takes place because some of it will be out of order. Hope you'll indulge me.

Same Damn Road

It ran right by the house I grew up in
Right through the town I knew I was stuck in
Took Mama to church, and me to the high school,
Daddy to work and then to a barstool
There was a stretch a Chevy could fly on
Gave us a gravel shoulder to cry on
I found you, girl, and then I let you go
On the same damn road

But the same two lanes that let me leave
Are 'bout to bring you back to me
I got out, but I want back in
I'm prayin' maybe I could be your baby again
And these four wheels that got me gone
Can turn around and drive all night long
I got lost, but I know my way back home
It's the same damn road

Flat and dusty, cracked and crooked
A one-way ticket and this boy took it
Mama cried, Daddy drank
She filled my belly, he filled my tank
Crossed my heart on those railroad tracks
And swore to God I wasn't comin' back
But oh, I guess you never know, 'cause...

I was born to run
So here I come

There's a sign
Just two more miles to go
On the same damn road
It's the same damn road

~Deacon~

It was the first day of school at Natchez High School. Deacon heard the car horn being laid on out front. He rolled his eyes. "Deacon, get your ass out here!" his sister Beverly called out. "That Jameson jackass is gonna wake up the neighborhood!"

Deacon laughed to himself and put aside the guitar that was on his lap. What neighborhood? It ain't like there's anyone else out here in the sticks. He picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, as he got up and walked towards his bedroom door. He headed cautiously down the hall, not sure if his father was home or not. He assumed not, since Beverly wouldn't have yelled otherwise, but he'd learned to be careful.

Beverly was sitting on the beat up couch in the tiny living room, the TV on but reading a magazine. She looked up when he walked in. He raised his eyebrows and she lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "They're not here," she said, referring to their parents. It was not uncommon for both of them to be at one of the local dive bars all night long, although Lula Mae typically made it home. She might have already gone to work, he decided. He and Beverly had practically raised themselves, keeping a low profile as much as they could.

Deacon relaxed. "One day they ain't gonna come home," he said.

Beverly shrugged again. "Might not be a bad thing, ya know?" she replied. She sat up. "Don't be late coming home from school. We need to practice." She sighed. "I wish you'd just quit school. We could go ahead and head out and not have to worry about this place anymore."

Deacon knew it was more having to worry about their parents than the place. He and Beverly had been playing around town, singing covers anywhere that would let them in. It had been a good escape for both of them. Music made them forget their parents were drunks, their father routinely getting into nasty fights that more often than not would earn him a few nights in jail. Deacon was pretty sure their mother drank to dull the pain of being knocked around when Jed Claybourne got angry. He and Beverly protected each other, but they were ready to put it all behind them. "I'll think about it," he said.

Vince laid on the horn again and Deacon headed for the door. "Don't be late!" Beverly called out after him as he walked out, slamming the door behind him.

"You gonna practice with us today?" Deacon asked Vince as they crossed the student parking lot, headed for the school.

Vince grinned and jerked his thumb back towards his truck. "Got my guitar in back of the truck," he said. "So, how's it gonna be seeing Betsy?" he went on, changing the subject.

Betsy Randolph had been Deacon's girlfriend all of junior year, but he'd broken up with her over the summer, much to her dismay. He'd been avoiding her as much as possible, unnerved by her tortured neediness. He rolled his eyes. "I hope she leaves me alone," he said. "I ain't seen her in a couple weeks, so I'm hoping she finally got the message. She's so damn clingy. I just wanna play the field. It's senior year, buddy! Time to party!" He raised his hand and he and Vince high-fived.

"Hell, yeah!" Vince hollered and some of the other students looked at them, laughing and responding in kind. Vince pumped his arms and smiled around. "Seniors!" he roared.

Deacon had to laugh. Vince could be loud and obnoxious sometimes, but he was his best friend. They'd been buddies since grade school, thick as thieves. They shared a love of hunting and fishing and music, buying old used guitars back when they were twelve and teaching themselves how to play. Vince was going with him and Beverly, when they left Natchez to chase their dream. The three of them picked up gigs whenever they could, although Deacon and Beverly were the ones out front, Vince merely backing them up.

When they got to the school entrance, they separated, headed for different homerooms. "Catch ya at lunch, buddy!" Vince hollered as he jogged down the hall, chasing after the head cheerleader. Deacon waved and headed in the opposite direction. As he walked, he thought about what Beverly had said.

Life in the Claybourne house had never been easy, but as the years passed, Jed Claybourne was drunk more often than not. He was in and out of jail, mostly for petty things. He worked on cars, was a handy man and general fixer, but these days he had a hard time bringing in steady money. Lula Mae worked at the local WalMart, trying desperately to make ends meet. When she wasn't following Jed to a bar, hoping to keep him out of trouble, she was working, so almost never home. It was a hard life and Deacon and Beverly had spent their lives figuring out how to avoid their father's violent tendencies as much as they could, never being able to depend on their mother to take care of them. Getting out of the house – and Natchez – was their shared goal.

Beverly was the bold one of the siblings, Deacon content to be in her shadow. She was the one who stood up to Jed, although she often paid the price for that. But she'd always seen herself as Deacon's protector, although as he'd gotten older he was better able to take care of himself. She had always been the bubbly, enthusiastic one of the two, a quick smile on her face in spite of the darkness they lived with. Deacon was always the brooder, silent and introspective.

He was getting fidgety though. He had promised Lula Mae he would graduate from high school, but now that he was a senior, he found himself wondering why it mattered. His dream was to be a musician, an artist, to perform in front of big crowds. He'd gone to see Merle Haggard in Jackson and had been spellbound. Even though he sat in the nosebleed seats, he'd been filled with the music and the magic of the performance. That's what he wanted to do – be like Merle, up on stage, performing for a crowd of enthusiastic fans.

His and Beverly's plan was to leave Natchez and head north, probably to Memphis, and start playing clubs and bars, hoping to catch on with a regular gig. Their goal was to get noticed by someone who could help them get their career started. He kind of wanted to go to Nashville, but Beverly thought Memphis would be a better starting point. Too many people just like us trying to catch on, in Nashville. We'd get lost in the crowd, was what she'd said. He wasn't sure he completely agreed, but she was so certain and he gave in. But his goal still was to get to Music City.

He rounded the corner and saw, out of the corner of his eye, Betsy Randolph, standing at her locker. Too late he realized she'd seen him too, but, to his surprise, she'd just looked at him coolly and then turned away. He breathed a sigh of relief. No entanglements for him this year. Just playing the field. He smiled to himself.

Deacon was waiting for Vince in the cafeteria. Just as his friend sauntered over with his tray and plopped down in the chair opposite him, he saw her. She looked a little lost, standing there with her tray in her hands, dressed in a prim little white sundress. She had light auburn hair that, as she stood in exactly the right spot where the sun shone down on her, looked like spun gold. She was too far away for him to see every detail, but he was sure she had freckles running across her nose and that, when she smiled, it would be a dazzling one and her eyes would sparkle.

"Hey, Deke!" Vince said, snapping his fingers in front of Deacon's face. Deacon turned and looked at him. Vince twisted around to see who his friend was looking at. He turned back and smiled. "The new girl," he said, with a chuckle. "She's got some country name. Reba, Reena, something like that."

Deacon frowned. "How do you know who she is?"

Vince shrugged. "She's in my history class. She seems like a princess, Deke, so probably too good for you."

Deacon made a face. Just then another classmate walked up to this new girl and spoke to her. And just as Deacon imagined, her smile was beautiful, lighting up her face. He felt a strange, unfamiliar quiver in his chest and he found it a little hard to breathe. He watched as she started to follow the other girl and then she glanced over his way and he thought his heart might stop beating. He imagined her skin was soft and that she would smell pretty, that her laugh would be like tiny bells, and her lips would taste like the finest whiskey. Her eyes had a dream-like quality as she looked at him. He fell in love with her without even knowing her name.

~Rayna~

Rayna looked at herself in the full-length mirror. She smoothed her hands over the white eyelet sundress and then she ran her fingers through her shoulder-length hair. She could feel butterflies in her stomach. Everything about this place felt strange and uncomfortable. It wasn't that she'd never been here before – she and her sister Tandy had visited their father here on several brief occasions – but now it was permanent. She sighed then, feeling a lump in her throat. When her mother had died, her father had come for her and brought her back to his home in Natchez, Mississippi. She had wanted to stay with her Aunt Eleanor, but her father had told her, in no uncertain terms, that she was coming home with him.

So she was in a new home, going to a new school, where she knew no one. Actually, she knew one person, the daughter of the local bank president, who offered to show her around. Cassie was a nice girl, a cheerleader, so she was popular and assured Rayna she'd make friends easily. Rayna hoped so, because not only did she really miss her mom, but she felt so lonely and homesick for Austin, where she'd lived with her mother.

"Rayna!" she heard her father call out and she turned away from the mirror, picked up her purse and notebook, and ran down the stairs. Lamar Wyatt was standing in the foyer and he smiled as Rayna skipped down the steps. "Don't you look pretty," he said.

She blushed. "Thank you, Daddy." She hoped she looked okay. She didn't want to stand out or call attention to herself.

"Samuel is out front, ready to drive you. Bill Sommers promised his daughter would be waiting for you in front of the school," he said. "I'll see you tonight." He leaned in and pressed his lips lightly against her forehead. Everything felt so formal with him. She hoped it was just because they hadn't spent much time together and that it would change soon.

She nodded and then headed for the front door. Samuel was standing outside the rear passenger door of a dark gray Cadillac with tinted windows. She was a little embarrassed to be chauffeured to school, but she was grateful the car wasn't any more ostentatious than that. She smiled at Samuel and he nodded. Then she slid into the back seat, laying her notebook and purse on the seat beside her. She fastened her seat belt and sat back.

As Samuel glided down the long driveway, she gazed out the window. Her father had a large, bluff-top mansion, overlooking the Mississippi River. She wondered why he'd kept such a large house when he was the only one living in it. The grounds were lush and green, with large oak trees shading the drive. She knew this had been the house he and her mother had lived in, back before Virginia Wyatt had left Natchez with her two daughters and headed to Austin, Texas, following her lover-of-the-moment.

She felt tears burning behind her eyes as she thought of her mother. Virginia had been a free-spirited woman, both flighty and exotic, but also incredibly loving with her daughters. Rayna had a hard time imagining her and Lamar Wyatt together. Virginia was warm and engaging, Lamar so closed up and formal. She and Tandy had both been born in Natchez, lived in Lamar's mansion, but she had no memory of it. Virginia had taken them away when Rayna was three and she had only sporadically been back to visit her father.

Life with Virginia had been both exhausting and exhilarating. Most of the time she exuded energy and enthusiasm, with periodic times when she would hide away, in her darkened bedroom with the covers pulled up to her neck and the door closed. Rayna and Tandy had learned to embrace the highs and tread quietly during the lows. Virginia tossed aside the man she'd followed to Austin early on, but she never lacked for male companionship. Rayna closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the echoes of lusty lovemaking as they echoed through the small cottage they lived in, in a fashionable area of Austin.

When she got older, Rayna learned that both Lamar and Virginia came from wealthy Mississippi families. Lamar had been born and raised in Natchez, where the Wyatt family reigned over the area through Wyatt Industries. Virginia's family was from Jackson, earning their money in oil and gas. She was a high-spirited debutante and Lamar had been swept off his feet by her beauty, her enchanting personality, and her bank account. But something had happened and Virginia had fled, although she'd never divorced Lamar.

Tandy and Rayna had felt a little adrift as they grew up. Their father rarely saw them and their mother would often leave them in the house alone at night, while she frequented music halls and dive bars, drinking in the music and bedding her favorite musicians. The sisters were incredibly close, with Tandy taking on a motherly role towards her younger sister.

Rayna's memories of life with Virginia Wyatt were mostly good though. Virginia loved her daughters fiercely and they often spent hours on the banks of the Colorado River, in one of Austin's many parks, playing music and singing. Virginia instilled her love of music in her girls, primarily Rayna. More often than not, Tandy was their appreciative audience, claiming to have no musical ability at all. Rayna loved to sing, although she never felt like she was particularly good, and she loved writing poetry. She had brought notebooks filled with the poetry she'd written over the years with her to Natchez.

Tandy leaving for college in Houston had seemed to coincide with an uptick in Virginia's frantic lifestyle. Rayna still had many fond memories of time spent with her mother, but she also remembered the more frequent turnover of lovers in Virginia's life, as well as an increase in the dark episodes. When her mother was depressed, she would often crawl into bed with her and just hold her, praying that Virginia would throw off the heavy mantle of despair.

It had been late one night, after midnight, when a knock had come at the cottage door. Rayna had been anxious as she had been jolted awake and tiptoed past her mother's bedroom, but noticed Virginia wasn't home yet. She had peeked through the peephole in the door and seen two police officers outside and she had known in the pit of her stomach that something terrible had happened, even before she opened the door.

They told her Virginia had been in a car accident, a passenger in a car with a male driver. She always felt like there was something the police wouldn't tell her about the accident, but it really didn't matter, since the driver had crossed the center line, killing them both when he hit an oncoming car head on. They had taken her, shaking with sobs, down to the hospital. Virginia was already dead, so she sat and waited for Tandy to make the drive from Houston. Tandy was the one who'd called their father, who had sent his sister Eleanor to stay with Rayna, until he could make arrangements to bring her to Natchez.

Just then the car stopped and Rayna blinked, realizing she'd essentially blanked the whole ride out. She peered out the window at the school, a brick building that had an old plantation façade. She saw other students milling around the front walkways and she suddenly felt sick to her stomach. She'd been such a square peg in a round hole back in Austin and she wanted to fit in, not be seen as different or odd. Samuel started to open his door and she whipped her head around. "Don't," she said sharply. It would only make her stand out. She softened her voice. "I mean, it's okay. I don't need you to open the door for me." He nodded and she opened her door, stepping out.

She looked around again, frantically searching for Cassie Sommers' familiar face. When she saw the pretty blonde waving and jogging towards her, she looked back into the car. "Thank you, Samuel," she said.

"Yes, miss," he said. "I'll be here at 3:30." She closed the door and she heard the car pull away as she turned back and smiled at Cassie.

Rayna went through the lunch line and picked out a salad and some fruit. She had survived the morning classes. She sat in the front row of every class and watched her fellow students. Most paid no attention to her. The boys looked at her appreciatively, but then either headed for the back of the room or went and sat with other friends, loudly greeting each other. She was used to attention from boys, at least initial attention. But that usually quickly dissolved when they found out she was interested in country music and playing the piano, that she was socially very inexperienced and rather shy. The girls didn't look at her directly, but she could feel them cut their eyes over at her as they passed. That was normal too. They all saw her as odd, no matter how much she tried to be otherwise. She sighed, feeling like she wanted to cry.

Lunch would be better, she was sure. Cassie had promised to look for her and introduce her around, and she hoped that would help. She walked out the door and into the din of the cafeteria, filled with students. She stopped, waiting for Cassie to join her.

"Let's go, girl," Cassie's voice came from behind her and she turned to smile at her new friend. As she started to follow her, she could feel eyes on her. When she glanced over, she saw him. He had thick dark hair, just a little over his ears. Even from her distance, she could see he had bedroom eyes and those eyes were looking straight at her. He looked like he had a light fuzz on his face, but that just added to his rugged good looks. She thought his hands looked strong, but she bet they'd be gentle on her skin. She felt an unfamiliar warm curl deep inside her, just looking at him. She knew she should look away but she couldn't. She felt her lips curl in the tiniest of smiles and she was pretty sure she'd just fallen in love.

A/N: So what do you think? Like it? Love it? Not intrigued? I'd love to hear your thoughts.