Rayna was shocked as hell when Deacon came in the house at nearly midnight, practically dragging the stumbling Rhett Harper with him, and dropped him on the leather couch.
She didn't know whether to be relieved just to have Deacon home, or disturbed by the unexpected inebriated guest.
"Um, Deacon?" she said calmly. "Can I see you in the kitchen please?"
He followed her, hands up immediately in defense. "I didn't really know what else to do with him, Ray, but I couldn't leave him there. He's drunk off his ass."
"I thought you were just going to see him play, not bringing him home!"
"Didn't seem right to let him drive…you know?"
He was shook up, by all of this, she could see it in his eyes.
Her irritation immediately dropped away, and she slid her arms around his neck and hugged him. "I'm sorry, I understand. You okay?"
"Not really," he said slowly. He sank into a kitchen chair, running his hands through his hair. "I mean, Rhett makes it sound like Vince knew Sarah was pregnant before we left. I just can't imagine that he'd do that. That he would have never told me. Maybe he really didn't know."
Rayna bit her lip. "Maybe it's time to look at the facts here, Deacon."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He got a little defensive.
"Well you've….always put Vince on a pretty high pedestal since he died. But he wasn't perfect either. Maybe a lot less perfect than you thought."
Deacon clearly didn't like the sound of that, and Rayna was sorry she'd even brought it up, but it needed to be said. Vince had been a loyal friend to both of them for the six years Rayna had known him. He'd also been an excellent musician, played in her band for awhile. But he'd also been a drunk, a user, a womanizer, and sometimes a flat out damn liar.
"Vince was a good guy, Ray. Don't even go there."
"I'm not trying to….go there," she said softly. "He was a good friend to you. But he was young. You said it yourself, the two of you were only 19 when you left Mississippi. 19 year olds make a lot of mistakes."
He pulled Rayna down onto his lap, and she laid her head against his shoulder. "I just keep thinking…you know….about Maddie. If I would have known, I never would have done that. Just left you on your own. I mean, I know it took me awhile, but….."
"Hey," she said softly. "Let's not go there, okay? Ours was a different situation. He can stay tonight. It's fine."
"Thanks, Ray. I'd like to, you know…talk to him sober once."
He saw something of himself in that kid, Rayna could see it already. Making the same mistakes Deacon and Vince had made. No wonder he was hell-bent on getting the kid in line.
The sounds of a guitar came from the living room, and Rayna walked to the doorway with Deacon close behind her.
Rhett had picked up Deacon's Gibson from the corner and started to play. It was a little off, clearly the result of his drinking.
And they listened.
"He changed the words," Deacon murmured, as they listened to him softly play a little of an old song.
And he was talkin 'fore I knew it
And as he grew
He'd say, "I aint gonna be like you, dad"
"You know I ain't gonna be like you."
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoons
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
When you comin home, dad
I don't know when
We'll get together then…..
"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard," Rayna said troubled, leaning back against Deacon.
His arms tightened around her. "I gotta do something, Ray. He reminds me so much of us. Me and Vince. Trying to drink everything away…."
She sighed. "You can't save everybody, Deacon."
"Not everybody," he said in a low voice. "Just that one."
###############################################
"Mom, we're home!" Maddie and Daphne came into the house, dropping their stuff by the front door, and making their entrance known in a thunder of footsteps.
They stopped in their tracks at the sleeping form sprawled out on the sofa with his boots on and his unbuttoned flannel shirt.
"What is that?" Daphne whispered.
"I don't know, but I hope we're keeping it," Maddie murmured.
"Girls!" Rayna scolded, coming out of the other room to usher them into the kitchen. "Stop staring! He's just a friend of Deacon's who needed to stay for the night."
"Darn, I always wanted a big brother," Daphne said with a snicker.
"Well, he's not staying," Rayna said firmly. "So you just don't bother worrying about him, and sit down and have some pancakes."
Rhett wandered into the kitchen a little while later, stopping in his tracks at the sight of the family sitting down to breakfast.
He looked like hell, Rayna surmised. And she wanted to take a scissors to that long hair immediately.
"Hey, I just uh….gotta use your bathroom, and then I'll be outta here," he muttered. "Thanks for the couch."
Deacon kicked out the chair across the table with his foot. "Have some breakfast."
"Nah, I'm good."
"Sit," Rayna said gently but firmly, getting up to grab another plate. "We can't have you leaving hungry, now can we? That wouldn't be good manners."
"Deacon makes the best pancakes ever," Daphne said tentatively. "Maybe you want some."
With a sigh, Rhett sunk into a chair. "Alright, I guess."
After about five minutes, he realized the two girls had stopped eating and were watching him.
"Why are they staring at me?" He asked Deacon in a low voice.
Rayna sighed exasperatedly and shot Maddie and Daphne a look.
Deacon smirked at him. "Just eat your pancakes. We got somewhere to be."
"We?"
"Yep."
#################################
"You can drop me off back at the Alehouse," Rhett said, staring out the passenger window of Deacon's truck. "My truck's there. Appreciate the hospitality and all, but I gotta keep movin."
"You got a place around here?"
"Nope."
"So what, you just sleep in motels and sleep in your truck, or what?"
"Somethin like that. You probably remember what that's like."
"I sure as hell do. It sucks."
"Yeah, well….I don't like to be attached to anywhere," Rhett muttered . "You can pull over. I'll walk from here."
"We got somethin we're gonna do first." Deacon said firmly.
"Somethin?"
"Yep."
He pulled into the church parking lot.
"What the hell is this," Rhett said with a scorned laugh. "Is Jesus gonna save me from my sins now?"
"We're not going to church services," Deacon said as they sat there staring at the big red building. "It's an AA meeting. You know what that is?"
"Yeah, I know what the hell it is," Rhett said, not even bothering to his displeasure. "No thanks." He got out of the truck and started walking the opposite direction across the parking lot.
"Hey," Deacon reached out and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Would you just listen for a goddamn minute?"
Rhett shook off his hand, and kept walking, head down, hands in his pockets.
"You know, you're going down the exact same road he did," Deacon called from behind him. "You don't wanna be like him? Well, you know what I saw last night? I saw the spittin image of your dad sitting on that barstool. You're going down the same road, kid. I've been down that road. It'll take everything you have, and it's damn hard to turn around and find your way back."
Rhett's shoulders stiffened, but he stopped walking.
He turned around. For a split second, Deacon almost thought the kid was gonna take a swing at him. The last conversation he'd ever had with Vince had earned him a right hook in the face.
"You don't know a damn thing about me," Rhett said angrily. "He wrote me off when I was literally a speck in his eye."
The pain in the kid's eyes was heartbreaking.
"That sucks," Deacon agreed, his voice just as loud. "But I'd like to think if he'd had a little longer on this earth, maybe things would have changed."
"You keep thinking that," Rhett said, shaking his head. "And let me know how it goes for ya. So far thinkin things will change ain't got me nowhere. He's gone. It's too late. My ma waited 25 years from him to come back, and he never did. She didn't even know he was dead. Do you get how pathetic that is?"
"You think she'd want you to keep living your life, like this?" Deacon said quietly. "All I'm asking you to do is walk in there and sit down for thirty minutes. You wanna walk out after that, and we never see you again, I can accept it. But me and Ray will always be here if you need anything. Remember that."
Rhett squinted at the church building, watching other people walk in.
With a heavy sigh, he shook his head, muttering to himself. And he started walking towards the building.
#################################################
Rhett parked himself in the back corner of the back row, behind everyone else, and slumped in a chair trying to look inconspicuous. This was the last damn thing he wanted to be doing, but if it would get Deacon Claybourne off his back, he'd sit there for 30 minutes and then hit the road. He really didn't get why the guy even gave a damn, and this seemed as pointless as hell.
He looked around at the collection of men that had gathered. He didn't know why, but he'd been expecting a bunch of drunk homeless men with bottles in paper bags, and it wasn't the case. Some of them were in business suits, there were a couple kids who didn't even look old enough to get in a bar, and a couple guys who looked older than death.
The guy leading the meeting started spouting a bunch of stuff about making changes and the twelve steps of something or another, and then Rhett was surprised to see Deacon go to the front of the room. Well damn, he thought. He better not think he's callin me up there, or I'll be outta here faster than you can shake a stick. Deacon started talking.
He didn't wanna listen, but it was kind of hard not to.
"A lot of things I guess you could say contributed to my drinking," Deacon said in a steady voice. "But I guess the one that hurts the most…I watched my best friend get into a car with a bottle of tequila in his hand, and I didn't stop him. He's dead because of that. I know I didn't make him do it, but I didn't stop him either."
He'd talked about a lot of things in these meetings over the years. But this was the first time he'd ever talked about Vince. Everything about the night it happened was still so ingrained in his mind, it felt sometimes like yesterday.
They were playing a gig at some hole in the wall bar in Murfreesborough that night.
Rayna watched Deacon after their show talking with the fans that had stuck around the bar. Everyone else around them was half-loaded. She'd been worried about playing a show in a bar, but he said he was fine with it, and she wanted to trust that. Deacon had been out of rehab about six months now, and he was doing amazing. Things were so much better, at home…with their music… She didn't want to say it was because Vince hadn't been around, but was. He'd left Vince behind in Oklahoma. Literally. They hadn't seen him in months. Things were good.
"I'm so proud of you," she said what she was thinking to him now, reaching out to hug him around the waist.
He grinned and leaned over and kissed her. "Let's go on home, huh?"
"Well, if it isn't the happiest damn couple in country music."
The voice from behind them made Rayna's heart sink.
Deacon turned slowly, and Vince was standing there in the bar with a beer in his hand and a crooked smirk on his face, in all his typical "Vince" glory.
"Hey man," Deacon said, unable to hide a little bit of relief to see him. "Where the hell have you been for the last six months?"
"I should ask you the same thing," Vince said. "You left me in goddamn Oklahoma, remember?"
Rayna watched uneasily as they joked around like guys do, fake-punching each other and messing around. It was clear Vince had already had more than enough, he could barely stand, and out of nowhere a tequila bottle appeared from his coat pocket.
"Come on, grab your woman and let's get out of here," Vince gestured towards the door. "We got catchin up to do, man."
Rayna put her hand on Deacon's arm.
He squeezed it, and gave her a reassuring look.
"I'm done with that, Vince," he said. "All of it. Rehab did me a lot of good. You might want to think about it."
Vince stared at the two of them, then just at Deacon. "What the hell, man? You know, you should really lose the ball and chain. We had big plans when we came here, 'member? We were gonna make it big."
"We were 19. And you'd be making it a hell of a lot bigger if you'd cut some of this shit out and go back to your music like you used to," Deacon said, no-holds barred. "You had a good thing going playing in Ray's band and you threw it all away."
"You know what," Vince said, waving the tequila bottle in their general direction. "Screw both of you. I'm outta here. Some friend you are," he muttered. "Ain't no fun and ain't no use to me."
"Don't drive," Deacon said, reaching out a hand to stop him. "Just give me a sec and I'll get the bartender to call a cab."
Vince pushed his arm away, and then pushed Deacon hard. "Get out of my way, man."
Deacon shoved him back. "I ain't kidding. Don't be stupid enough to drive."
Rayna bit her lip, watching the pushing and shoving match. "Come on, guys, enough already!"
Vince took a swing at Deacon, connected with his right eye, and knocked him against the bar.
And then he slammed his way out the door.
"Dammit," Rayna fumed, watching Deacon stumble to his feet.
She fussed over his eye, and he waved her away.
"I gotta go after him," Deacon said out loud.
Rayna grabbed his arm. "You are not going after him, Deacon. I know him, he'll pull you right back into that cycle."
"He's my best friend, Rayna." Deacon said, his voice rising a few notches. "We watch out for each other. That's what you're supposed to do."
"What am I, Deacon?" She said quietly. "Us? If we mean anything to you, please do not follow him."
"Ray, don't stand there and make me choose."
"That is exactly what I am gonna do," Rayna said, her eyes a little teary. "Not because I don't care about Vince, but because I love you, and I've seen how hard you worked in the last six months. Let's just call the sheriff, okay? They can go out and look for him. Let's go in and pack up our stuff, and go home."
With a sigh, he let Rayna lead him back inside. But he couldn't shake that feeling.
An hour later, as they were leaving the bar, he still had that feeling.
"I'm glad you didn't go," Rayna said, holding his hand across the console. "You're not responsible for Vince's choices, Deacon. Just remember that. I'm really proud of you for being sober."
He squeezed her hand. "Thanks, Ray. For lovin me more than I deserve."
Rayna was driving. Three miles from the bar, she saw the metal pieces in the road before she saw the car, and her heart sunk.
"Oh no. No no no….."
Deacon jumped out of the truck almost before it was stopped.
"Deacon, no, wait!"
She slammed it into park, and jumped out to run after him. God, please don't let him be dead, she thought. Deacon will never forgive me.
The car was pretty much cut in half by the tree it was wrapped around, and all she could see was Vince's arm dangling limply from the window frame.
"We need to get him out," Deacon was pushing her away as she tried to hold him back. "Before it starts on fire."
"Stop," Rayna said, tears blurring her eyes as she grabbed his shirt and yanked as hard as she could, yanking him away from all of it. Because in his incoherence, she could see what Deacon didn't. That Vince was already gone. There was no way he could still be alive, and no way they'd ever get him out without some heavy duty metal cutting equipment.
"Deacon," she said, choking back a sob. "we need to go back to the bar, okay? To call for help."
"I'm not leaving him."
She didn't know what to do. It was 2 am. It could be hours before another car came along.
"Deacon, please."
"I'm not goddamn leaving, Rayna!"
"Okay," Rayna said softly, reaching out to touch his face, streaked with tears. "I'm gonna go get help. You need to promise me that if this car starts on fire, you back up, okay?"
He was in some kind of daze, shock. Slumped on the ground leaning his back against what was left of the drivers side door.
She didn't want to leave him, but she had to.
When she came back a half hour later with the Sheriff, Deacon hadn't moved from his spot. His eyes were closed. In his hand, he had an empty tequila bottle.
Rhett raised his eyes, and Deacon's met his from all the way across the room.
"I couldn't save him," Deacon cleared his throat. "I blamed myself for a long time. Even blamed Rayna for awhile. But he was the one who got in the car, I didn't make him do it. I couldn't save him, but I found out a few weeks ago my friend has a son. And I'd like to think, maybe part of my penance is I'm supposed to make sure this kid stays in line, that he gets more out of his life than the 26 years his dad had."
Rhett forced away the pain that squeezed his heart in a vice, and the sick feeling that rose in his stomach.
He listened to the rest of the meeting a little closer.
When they walked out, him and Deacon didn't say a word to each other. But he didn't get in Deacon's truck either. He just stood next to it, hands in his pockets, staring at the ground.
"Well," Deacon said with a sigh. "I got my 30 minutes out of you, so you're off the hook."
Rhett swallowed hard around the rock that seemed like it had settled in his throat. "Yeah, thanks. That was uh….interesting."
"Think you'll come back?"
"I might. Depends."
"You got some place to go?"
"I guess I'll be finding one," Rhett said, his mouth turning up into a half smile. "Maybe I'll stick around Nashville for awhile after all. I don't got nowhere else to be."
"That'd be good," Deacon said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You call if you need anything. Me or Ray. Even if it's just a damn ride home, or a good meal or something."
"Well, uh…see ya."
Rhett put his head down and started walking across the parking lot.
Deacon watched him go, seeing the shadow of his old friend in the way his son walked.
He got in the truck, feeling a lot better after the meeting, after finally being able to talk about Vince, and turned on the radio to drive home. Couldn't wait to get back to Rayna and the girls. They'd been talking at breakfast about going ice skating this afternoon. He was all for it, Rayna not so much.
"I'll convince her," he thought with a smile.
A chill ran down his spine at the old song that hit him through the speakers. He could have sworn he felt Vince then, that if he looked over he'd be sitting in the passenger seat next to him saying "We're gonna make it, Deac. We're gonna blow the lid off that town, and it'll never be the same.
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoons
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
When you comin over, son, I don't know when
We'll get together then….
The song "Cat's in the Cradle" I borrowed from Harry Chapin, I don't own the rest of these characters except for Rhett Harper, I just borrow them for awhile, along with Tim Riggins' face ;) Thanks for reading!
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