A/N: I had meant this as a one-shot but a second chapter somehow popped into my head.
Deacon doesn't need to open the door to know who's on the other side. The persistent knocking is enough of a tell.
"Tandy."
"Where is she?"
He moves aside to let her in. Tandy throws a wary look around as she unconsciously clutches her purse tighter. She's never been here before. Deacon wonders how she even found the address and got back in town on such a short notice but he's not going to ask.
Deacon knew that, if someone was going to show up today, it was going to be Tandy. Lamar would never have dignified them with his presence. He's too proud of a man for that but Tandy cares more about Rayna than she cares about any misplaced pride.
"Hello, Tandy." All Rayna is wearing as she emerges from the bedroom is his shirt and a defiant look and Deacon rapidly assesses his escape route. He quietly retreats to the bedroom as both sisters sit down at the kitchen table.
"I won't change my mind."
Tandy hadn't expected this conversation to start any other way. "Can we at least have a pragmatic, reasonable discussion about this?"
"We can."
Tandy pauses, not sure how to begin, even though she spent the whole drive back thinking about what the most effective approach would be. "So... you left."
"I did." Two syllables seem to be the best Rayna has to offer.
"You're not going to help me, are you?"
"Tandy, you know it was a long time coming."
"You're not old enough for anything to have been a long time coming."
"You know what I mean."
"And that's why you left without any shoes, any suitcase and, I suppose, any plan?"
"I do have a plan," Rayna counters, trying to sound resolute yet not defensive. It's only half a lie anyway. She does have a plan. More of a long-term one than a short-term one, if she's going to be honest.
"Becoming a coutry star is not a plan."
"Watty White is helping me. He already got us a paying gig."
"The kind of paying gig which will be enough for you to afford a rent, food or clothes?"
"I'll live here until I get a job and I'll devote all my free time to music. I'll devote my life to music. This is what I'm meant to do."
"Do you realize how insanely idealistic it sounds?"
Rayna doesn't answer.
"There are other ways," Tandy adds, more softly.
"There are not. Not with Dad. You know that."
It's Tandy's turn to stay silent. She knows Rayna is right but unlike Rayna, she knows why their dad will never support her choice of career. She read the letters. The letters she found after their mom died. She hasn't shown them to Rayna, she doesn't plan to, she knows how much her little sister looked up to their mom and she won't do anything that could potentially hurt Rayna's memories of her.
"You've really made up your mind?" she asks.
"Yes."
She gets up then and Rayna tenses up.
"That's... all? Don't you... don't you want to stay a little longer?"
"No, but... I'll go get you clothes and some of your things at Dad's house and I'll drop them here later."
Rayna is confused. "Thanks, Tandy."
She gets up too and joins her sister at the door. All of a sudden, it dawns on Rayna. It is real, then. There is no one to drag her home against her will this time, there's no turning back. She is on her own. It's what she wanted, wasn't it? In one quick move, she wraps her arms around her sister and holds her close.
"Don't worry about me," she whispers.
"I'll always worry about you. That's my sisterly duty, sweetheart."
She's reluctant to let go of the hug. It's Tandy who steps back first and gives Rayna's arm a gentle squeeze before she leaves. Rayna closes the door behind her and when she turns around, Deacon is standing at the bedroom's threshold.
"You're alright?"
She's not sure she's got an easy answer to that question at the moment. "Do you think I'm insanely idealistic?"
"I moved to Nashville with the same kind of dream as yours. If I say yes, that would make me an hypocrite."
"And it turned out okay, right?"
"If barely making a living but doing what I love is the definition of okay, I guess I'm doing okay."
She takes a long, deep breath before she looks at him fiercely. "You and me, Deacon, we'll do so much more than okay."
He's not an optimist by nature, life never gave him reasons to be, but this time he's inclined to believe her.
"I can hear you thinking."
"I would hope not."
His muffled laughter echoes in the dark and she rolls over in the direction of his voice. Her head lands on his bicep and her arm across his chest.
"You're worried about tomorrow?" he asks, shifting slightly on the bed so she can readjust her head to a comfier position on his shoulder.
"I'm not worried, I'm... wired."
He starts stroking her back slowly. "It's a good thing."
"Should we use a band name?"
"I believe Watty's plans are for you to play under a solo name and for me to be your guitar player. I'm fine with that."
"We could be a duo."
He grins. "Shoeless Girl and the Insanely Idealistic Fool."
"That's the worst band name I've ever heard."
"That's the best band name I've ever heard," he retorts, faking outrage.
"I'm going to stick with Rayna Jaymes."
"Sounds wise."
"Babe?"
"Hmm?"
"Are we living together?"
He chuckles. "So it would seem, for the time being."
"Thanks for letting me stay here."
He smiles, kisses the top of her head. "You're quite easy to live with, shoeless girl."
He's been looking for her everywhere and when he finally finds her, she's sitting alone on a bench a few feet left from the venue's main entrance.
"You're smoking now?"
"I'm making changes lately, haven't you heard?"
"Maybe you should give up on that particular one."
She coughs. "Probably." She drops the cigarette to the ground and Deacon stubs it out with his boot before he sits next to her. He's still buzzing from the gig. The room was packed and they left the stage 15 minutes ago to a rapturous response. He thought Rayna would be over the moon but she looks more pensive than euphoric.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing, it's just that..."
"Ray?"
Almost no one else calls her that. He's just recently started doing it and she loves how intimate and right it sounds when it comes from him.
"Tonight, on stage, it was... incredible."
Deacon can hear the excitement in her voice and he smiles because she sounds like the Rayna he knows again. "It was."
"I don't want to do anything else, Deacon. Not now, not ever. This has to work. I need this to work."
He puts a finger under her chin and guides her gaze to his.
"It will."