A few people requested a second chapter so I thought I'd oblige with a short wrap up.

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Rayna finished the performance, gave a shout out to Willie sitting in the front row, and then existed stage left. She knew she was supposed to take her seat, but she had other things in mind. She wandered around the auditorium for a while searching for him, but if he hadn't left the Ryman Rayna knew exactly where he'd be.

She went out a back door, and there he was, standing on the fire escape staring out at Nashville. She walked over to stand beside him, but didn't say anything. Tears were still in both of their eyes.

Deacon continued to stare forward. "Why'd you do that Rayna?"

"I don't know. I guess it just felt like the right thing to do. I just miss you so much."

Deacon was quite for few seconds, and then he spoke in almost a whisper. "I miss you too, but I don't know if I'm capable of getting past this."

Deacon's hands were holding onto the railing, Rayna reached one of her own out and tentatively rested it on top of his. She thought he might pull away, but she was pleasantly surprised when he didn't. They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity.

"Ray, I…I just…"

He was clearly struggling to find the right words, but Rayna wasn't sure what he was reaching for. And then all of a sudden he turned to her, took her face in his hands, and very slowly kissed her. His breath hitched when he did it, and Rayna moaned a little in response. It had been so long, and the contact felt so good. When he broke the kiss he kept his hands on her face and rested his forehead against hers.

"It's not going to be easy, and I'm not promising anything Rayna."

"When has anything ever been easy with us Deacon Claybourne?"

Deacon laughed a little and once again grabbed her hand.

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that."

He pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it tenderly.

"Did you really just sing Always on My Mind to me in front of the whole goddam world?"

"Yep, I think I did that."

"You know that the girls and Teddy were probably watching at home?"

"Yeah, and the rest of my family, and my boyfriend, and your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend Ray, she's just someone I was involved with. Is Jeff really your boyfriend?"

"Well, we'd been seeing each other, enough that I'm sure he wasn't happy with that performance tonight."

"So much for being the apple in the executive's eye."

"Yeah, he's probably not too happy with me right now. I should know better than to ever date anyone else, I'm always throwing them over for you at the most inopportune times."

"Did you ever finish that album with Liam?"

"Yeah, we got it done. He's a big boy. I think almost dying helped to soften him up a bit though."

"And you and I were already broken up by then."

"Yeah, what are we now?"

Deacon got serious again.

"I don't know Ray, we can't just be what we were, I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to trust you the way that I did, but…I'm willing to try."

Rayna took a deep breath as if a gigantic weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Then she reached up and stroked his face. "I love you so much Deacon, as I said the last time we got back together, that's just never not true."

"I love you too Ray."

Then Deacon pulled her further into his arms, this time kissing her with more intensity. Then he took her hand and walked her down the fire escape.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

Rayna walked down the steps behind him. She didn't know where they were going, but she knew she'd follow him anywhere they were heading.