As it got later, Deacon told her to go home, to get a decent night's sleep in their bed, but Rayna knew it wasn't possible. Since Deacon had taken her home from the hospital, to their cabin, they had never spent a night apart. Instead, she accepted a blanket from the floor nurse and tried to get comfortable in the chair in the corner of the hospital room.

"Found you sleeping in a chair just like that once," Deacon said as she squirmed, trying to find any spot in the chair that would make it feel more like stretching out on her bed.

"Yeah?" she asked. At first, it frustrated her when Deacon remembered things that she didn't, but over time she grew to love it, like he was telling her a story. Now he was her memory.

"Your dad was sick, his heart attack. It was when we were touring with Juliette and you flew home. But you called me and I knew I had to come," Deacon explained.

"Ah, your Boys and Buses phase," Rayna replied, smiling. "And you found me here?"

Deacon nodded and closed his eyes. "Yep, I woke you up and we talked. You told me about finding out that Watty and your mom had been together."

"Uh huh," Rayna replied, nodding. "The only thing better than learning about your mom's affair with your mentor, is getting to learn about it twice. At least the second time didn't involve my daddy having a heart attack in the hall or hitting anyone."

"Why don't you come over here," Deacon said as he moved over on the bed and patted the open space next to him. "I think I can find room in here for both of us and it sure beats that awful chair."

"Thanks, Babe," Rayna responded as she got up, crossed the room, slipped off her shoes and crawled into the bed next to him.

"So, what's the plan, Ray," Deacon asked, quietly.

"What do you mean?" she replied as her hand reached up to brush his hair away from his face.

"I know the girls are with Teddy tonight, but do we tell them? Do we keep it between us for now? We've been really careful about being open with them, but Ray-I'm scared and I don't know if I want them to know that."

Rayna was quiet.

"Babe?" Deacon asked.

She rolled on her side and looked at him. "I think we need to find out what's going on and then we talk to them, we tell them-if there's anything to tell." Her hand slid down Deacon's chest, resting just below his heart. "Let's not borrow trouble until we know what's going on, okay?"

Deacon nodded and pulled her close. They lie there until finally they were able to go to sleep.


Deacon woke up to find Rayna standing next to the window holding a cup of coffee.

"My god, that smells good. Did you bring me some?" he asked.

"Nothing by mouth until the tests are done," Rayna reminded him.

"Right," Deacon answered. "And when is that starting?"

Rayna looked over at the clock on the wall. "I think we're waiting for Dr. Andrews to come up, she's the hep...something with livers. You know me-my short-term memory is still for crap!"

Deacon smiled at her. "Let's just call her the liver doc. Did you meet her?"

Rayna nodded. "She popped her head in earlier when you were still asleep and said she was going to do rounds and then come back up. They've got you scheduled for an MRI and they wanted more blood. She also mentioned a biopsy while you're here."

"Sounds like your short-term memory is just fine, Ray. Why didn't you wake me up if she was going to cover all that stuff?" Deacon asked.

"You had finally fallen asleep, so no, I wasn't going to wake you up. You need to rest, Deacon."

"Deacon Claybourne?"

Rayna and Deacon looked up to find a young man standing at the door.

"I'm Josh, with the lab. I'm here for some more blood."

Deacon sighed and pushed back the covers to expose his arm. "Well, come and get it," he offered. "And after this, I can have something to eat?"

Josh looked down at his orders. "Looks like there's a potential liver biopsy on here as well, so no, sorry, you'll have to wait until Dr. Andrews decides about that."

Rayna watched as Josh filled vial after vial with blood from Deacon's arm. "Leave some in there," she teased.

"Good job," Josh said as he undid the tourniquet around Deacon's upper arm. "I'm doing to take this down the lab and we'll get started on the tests. Good luck." He patted Deacon's arm, then headed out the door.

"This waiting is killing me," Deacon muttered.

Rayna walked over the bed, leaned down and kissed him. "We'll find out something soon. You just need to be patient, Deacon."

Deacon looked at her and gave a quick laugh. "I know you think you know me, Ray, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret-patience is not my strong suit. I just need to know what's going on."

Rayna sat down on the bed next to him. "We both do. And we're going to find out what's happening and then we're going to deal with it."

"Deacon?"

Rayna and Deacon looked up to see Scarlett at the door.

"What are you?" Deacon started. He turned and looked at Rayna. "Did you call her?"

Scarlett crossed into the room. "Rayna texted me and I'm glad she did. What is going on?" She leaned in and gave Deacon a hug.

"I just thought...I just thought we should wait until we knew anything," Deacon replied. "No need to worry until we have anything to worry about. We can just…"

Deacon's voice trailed off as a blonde haired woman in a white coat walked into the room.

"So, we ready to figure out what's going on?" she asked.

Rayna stood up and crossed over to her. "Deacon, this is Doctor Andrews. This is Deacon and his niece Scarlett."

The doctor shook hands with Deacon and Scarlett. "So, we should get on with the rest of the tests. I'd like to do an MRI and depending on what that shows us, we may do a biopsy."

"And what is this going to tell us?" Deacon asked.

The doctor looked down at her chart. "Well, as I said your initial tests were a cause for concern. Your liver function is very poor and with your history, I think we may be looking at cirrhosis."

"Even though Deacon hasn't used alcohol for so long?" Rayna asked, her face creased with worry.

"It's possible that the damage that was done earlier has been exacerbated by other things," Dr. Andrews replied. "Looking back at your bloodwork when you were here a year ago, it was borderline, so I'm not sure why more examination wasn't done. But then again, there was a lot of focus on your hand and the damage done to the tendons."

"And what would that mean, if it's cirrhosis," Deacon asked quietly.

"I'd like to talk about that when we know more," the doctor replied. "At this point I'd be guessing and well...let's cross that bridge when we know. To be honest, at this point the main thing I can tell you is to stay off Google. We are still at the point of diagnosis and planning. Then we'll talk about a prognosis. There's a lot of not knowing and without a biopsy, we really won't know anything for sure."

"What do you mean the tests were borderline?" Rayna asked.

Dr. Andrews looked down at the chart, again. "So, the blood clotting profile was abnormal which could have been an early sign of dysfunction. But it wasn't a definitive sign at that point. The problem is the liver is a bad organ to screw up. It has over 500 functions that we know, so when it's gone, there's no "dialysis" for all of that. The kidneys are important but dumb. They do like 2 things - filter and re-absorb. We can figure that out. Making blood clotting factors and digestive enzymes and regulating glucose metabolism and metabolism of lots of other medications and things that we cannot. But I'm getting ahead of myself."

"So, you will do a biopsy for sure?" Scarlett asked, looking up from the notebook where she had been taking notes on what the doctor said.

"Like I said, at this point, we're still looking for answers and I think we probably will do one, but I won't know. Please…" She stopped and smiled. "I know this is overwhelming and scary, but please, let's just wait and see what we find."

TBC

Many thanks to the readers and especially to Beth Pryor for her expert eyes.