This is loosely based on some upcoming Rayna/Deacon spoilers I got through the grapevine. So beware if you're avoiding those.
##
Rayna sat in the center of her kitchen with Bucky and Tandy and the rest of her PR team. The girls were upstairs in their rooms, Daphne because she wanted to play her new Taylor Swift album, Maddie because she was grounded. Rayna knew she should have paid more attention to all the twittering and Facebooking that the kids these days were doing, but truthfully she didn't really get it, and tried to avoid it at all costs.
When she'd seen the video of Maddie singing Believing at first she didn't really understand. She'd just thought that Maddie had recorded herself singing, and had the video on her phone. But when she saw everyone at the venue playing it on their phones she realized that Maddie must have posted it Justin Bieber style on YouTube.
This had come on the tail end of a full month of Maddie begging not only Rayna, but also Teddy, and then finally Deacon to let her start playing local venues. All three said no, but it was mostly coming from Rayna's direction. "You're too young Maddie, you don't know what it's like out there," Rayna responded repeatedly. "I told you that when you finish high school you can play wherever you'd like, but until then you're not a professional."
Rayna wasn't pleased with Maddie's YouTube debut, but that's not why she was grounded. Apparently a pretty teen with a nice voice can only get so many views, where a pretty teen with a nice voice who's the secret love child of Rayna Jaymes and Deacon Claybourne can hit 250,000 views in under 5 hours. The press had been hounding them ever since, and Maddie had been confined to her room when she wasn't at school.
"You should make a statement," Tandy said. "They're not going to go away until you make a statement."
"A joint statement," one of the PR women followed.
"I think that's a great idea," Teddy interjected. "You and I will just get up there and explain the whole situation."
"Oh no, I meant with Deacon, it should really come from Rayna and Deacon."
"Oh, yeah I guess." Teddy sat back down on the couch slightly dejected.
Rayna stood up waving her hand. "Oh no, he's never going to agree to that. You know how private Deacon is. What would we even say?"
"You just tell the truth Rayna," Tandy started. "You and Deacon were together for 11 years, he had a problem with alcohol, you got pregnant, and you realized he wouldn't make a good father, so you married Teddy to give your daughter a better life."
"I can't say that Tandy. That's no one's business."
"The press has got the story Rayna, and none of the facts. If you don't tell people the truth they're going to imagine a lot worse, and most of that is going to be about you. You can't afford that as a woman who relies on fans for a living. Especially with a new business that you're trying to promote. I've already heard stories that you were cheating on Teddy with Deacon for your whole marriage. I even saw one story that claimed Daphne is Deacon's too."
"She's not, is she?" one of the PR chicks chimed in.
"I'm not even going to justify that with an answer," Rayna said exasperated.
"I know this is tough babe, but it's the best thing for you, and it's the best thing for Maddie," Tandy said. "The sooner this whole situation is defused the better for everyone."
Rayna sat back down and sighed. "I know you're right, but Deacon isn't going to be happy about going on national TV telling people he's an alcoholic."
"Do you want me to talk to him Ray?" Bucky asked.
"Thanks Buck, but I have to be the one to talk to him. I'm the one who got us in this situation all those years ago. I'm the one who has to deal with the consequences."
##
Rayna walked up to Deacon's porch and paused before knocking on the familiar front door. Even now, more than 14 years after she'd moved out of the house it still felt like hers, and it was odd every time she had to knock on her own front door. Part of her hoped he wasn't there and she could just tell her team that she couldn't find him and she'd have to do the press conference alone. She was about to turn back and head towards the car when she heard him shuffling inside and the door opened.
"Hey Ray." Deacon peered out cautiously looking behind Rayna out into the street. She guessed that the press had not only been camped out at her house this week. "Come on in."
Deacon showed her in and shut the door behind her. "So how's Maddie doing with all this?"
Rayna sat down on the couch dropping her purse on the table. "Well, considering she's the one who started it all, pretty well I guess. Just so you know she's grounded until further notice."
"Yeah, I figured something like that." Rayna looked up at Deacon. He didn't look like the upbeat version of himself that she'd seen the last few weeks. If she hadn't been able to tell the difference after over a decade of repeated practice, she would have thought that he was hung over, but she knew him well enough to realize that the bags under his eyes were alcohol free. He just hadn't been sleeping.
"Press hounding you too?"
"Yeah, until today. My friend Larry might have helped them decide to be somewhere else by leaving some presents in their cars."
"I won't even ask," Rayna said laughing.
"It's not that I care if anyone knows. I love Maddie, and I'm proud that she's my daughter, but you know me, I'm not the kind of guy who likes to drag my family business all over the papers."
"I know Deacon." Rayna paused for a minute fiddling with her sleeve before looking up into his big blue eyes. "That's why I know what I'm going to ask you isn't going to be easy for you, but I think it's really the best thing for Maddie."
Deacon looked at her, confusion covering his chiseled features. "What are you asking Ray?"
"Well my team thinks that the best way to diffuse this situation is to make a statement, a joint statement with me and you."
"What more is there to say Ray? It's already been announced that I'm Maddie's father."
"I know, but there are a lot of lies flying around about it and I think it's better to tell the truth."
Deacon started to understand and all of a sudden his demeanor changed. Rayna could always tell when that switch was flipped inside of him and his gentle nature gave way to anger, and she was sure she'd just seen it. "Tell the truth? You mean tell everyone that I was a loser alchie who couldn't take care of my family, so you gave my child to some complete stranger to raise. Is that what you mean by the truth?"
Rayna could tell how upset Deacon was getting and tried to calm him down. "No Deacon, we wouldn't say it like that. We'd just say that you had some personal problems back then that stopped you from being the father that we both wanted for Maddie and so you and Teddy and I decided that he and I would raise her as our own."
"Are you kidding me? You want to make it seem like I chose to give up my daughter? That I chose to abandon her to another man for all these years?" As Deacon's agitation continued to grow it began to scare Rayna.
"I just think it would be easier for everyone that way Deacon, if everyone thinks it was a logical decision that we all came to. It's less scandalous."
"You mean it makes you look better that way. No one can know that you lied to the father of your child, the man you claimed to love, for 13 years, but the whole world should instead think that I'm a degenerate who abandoned my family."
Rayna panicked, this was going much worse than she could have ever imagined and she wasn't sure what to say. "Deacon, no I don't mean that. Wait, what do you mean claim to love?"
"All those years Ray, all those years I thought you loved me. You knew what kind of family I came from Ray, an abusive alcoholic father, my sister Beverly, and our mother in and out of mental hospitals. You knew all I wanted was a family of my own, something normal, like the Douglas' had who lived next door where the mom and dad came home and sat by the fire, and played music, and built snowmen. You knew I wanted that more than anything and you took that from me Rayna. You didn't even give me the chance to try to be a good dad. I would have been a good dad Rayna, I would of sobered up if you'd told me about the baby, hell I did sober up and I didn't even know about Maddie. All those years I was sober you could have told me, and you didn't. Not only didn't you tell me, you didn't even apologize when I found out. I didn't even mean enough to you to say you were sorry."
By this point Rayna was crying. She could see how much she'd hurt him and it killed her, but she wasn't sure what she could say to make it better.
"When everything in my life was complete shit Rayna, and it felt like I had nothing, the one thing Ray that I always thought was true was that you loved me…but you couldn't have loved me and done that to me Ray. You couldn't have loved me and lied to me all those years."
Tears continued to stream down Rayna's face. "I do love you Deacon. I love you so much. I know you don't believe that, but it's the truth. I never wanted to hurt you Deacon, I just thought I was doing what was right at the time for our little girl."
Deacon turned away so he wasn't looking at Rayna and started to fiddle with a guitar. "Why don't you go do the press conference with Luke. He'll probably be spending more time with Maddie then I get to anyway."
Rayna was a little confused as to why he was bringing up Luke. Obviously there were other things bubbling to the surface right now, but she had to concentrate on mending what she'd just ripped enough to get the two of them to the press conference in one piece. "This isn't about Luke Deacon. He's not a part of our family. This is about you, and me, and Maddie, and the two of us need you right now. We need you to be there for us. Show me that you'd do anything for us Deacon. Prove that I was wrong all those years, prove that you would have stepped up."
"So I'm the one who keeps paying, I'm the one who gets sacrificed? No thank you. I think it's time for you to leave Ray." Deacon walked to the door and opened it without looking at Rayna.
She wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve then picked up her purse before walking to the door. Just as she was about to walk out she paused. "Just think about it Deacon. Please just do this for me, for us." Rayna continued out the door and barely made it to the edge of the porch before the door slammed behind her. Rayna took a deep breath and headed home.
##
When she arrived at her house Luke was waiting for her there. He could tell that she'd been crying. He rushed over to wrap his arms around her, but she pulled away.
"What's wrong Rayna? What happened?" Luke asked.
"I tried to talk to Deacon, to get him to give a statement with me about Maddie, but he's so mad at me. I thought he was over it after the accident. He seemed to be past being angry with me, but I guess he was just pushing those feelings down, and this whole situation just brought them to the surface."
"So, you do the press conference yourself. You'll be fine. You're good at those kind of things, and if Deacon is mad at you forever, then he's mad at you. Why does it matter?"
Rayna looked at him with shock in her eyes. "He's Maddie's father Luke. I see him all the time. How could I do that if he was always mad at me?"
"He's an ex Rayna. You think my ex likes me? Every time I drop the kids off at her place I have to deal with the residual anger from our divorce being directed at me. You cope with it and hope that one day it will dissipate."
Rayna shook her head. "Deacon and I aren't you and your ex-wife. We've always been friends since we were teens, even through the worst of our fights. He's…I just couldn't take it if he hated me. It would be like a part of me hating myself."
Luke looked at Rayna lost in her own private hell thinking about life completely without Deacon. There was something gnawing at him from inside telling him that this right here, this conversation, was a bad sign of things to come for them, but he pushed it away while he softly stroked her hair. "It's going to be okay Rayna, I promise."