A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers.


Chapter 9

Maddie and Daphne sat on the couch looking between Deacon and Rayna who stood in front of them holding hands. They had said they wanted to talk to the girls about something, but now neither one of them was doing any talking.

"What's this about?" Maddie finally asked.

"Uh, we are just searchin' for the right words to say this." Deacon rubbed the back of his neck.

"Before we say anything else I want you two to know that you are very much loved and wanted and how special you both are to both Deacon and me." Rayna tried to find the right words.

"Is something wrong?" Daphne asked concerned.

"No, there's nothin' wrong. This is good news. Ya'll might not think so at first, but it is." Deacon reassured her.

"Deacon and I are havin' a baby. I'm pregnant." There Rayna had just said it to get it out in the open.

"Ya'll are gonna be big sisters. Well, in Maddie's case she's gonna be a big sister again." Deacon added.

"So, you decided that I wasn't enough for you and you had to have one that was yours from the beginning?" Maddie asked her eyes tearing up.

"Hey, that's not true at all. I didn't even know that you were mine when your momma got pregnant. I didn't even know that she was pregnant until after I found out 'bout you." Deacon kneeled down in front of her with his hands on her knees. "I want you to listen to me good. This in no way changes how I feel 'bout you or makes you any less mine. I know that we are still gettin' to know each other and learnin' how to navigate these waters together and that this makes it a little more complicated. You're the one that made me a daddy though don't you ever forget that."

"Wait, you two have known this long and you're just now telling us? Doesn't how we feel matter?" Maddie got mad and stared him down.

"Maddie, before you get mad you need to let us explain. When I woke up from that coma the doctors told me that I lost the baby. Do you remember how I seemed really sad for awhile? That was why. I didn't want you girls to know or to be upset. When I went to the doctor for a checkup a couple weeks ago I found out that I didn't actually lose the baby." Rayna explained calmly.

"So, how pregnant are you, mom?" Daphne was easier to appease and she would just go with the flow unlike Maddie.

"I'm about seventeen weeks give or take a few days." Rayna smiled at her.

"Do you know what you're having?" Maddie asked. She was excited, but at the same time she was jealous.

"I'm glad that you asked that." Deacon stood up. He took a pink guitar pick and a blue guitar pick out of his pocket. "Which one do ya'll think?" he made a game out of it.

Daphne picked the blue guitar pick and Maddie the pink.

"Who is right?" Daphne asked.

Rayna sat a wrapped box down in front of each of them. "I'll let Deacon tell you that." She couldn't deny him that. He was so proud of himself that she had to let him tell them.

"Ya'll are gettin' a baby brother." Deacon just beamed from ear to ear.

"What is in the boxes?" Maddie was getting a little more into this. She was secretly relieved that it wasn't a girl.

"You're gonna have to open those to find out." Rayna winked at her.

The girls both opened the boxes that he been sat in front of them. They'd each gotten a picture frame with guitar picks and music notes on them. Inside there was a copy of the latest ultrasound picture with the words World's Best Big Sister Love Your Future Baby Brother.

"So, how 'bout it you two gonna help me out? I'm in over my head here and this little boy is gonna need a whole lotta love." Deacon held his arms open and both girls gave him a huge hug.


"Oh, I know, baby I know. Just get it all out." Deacon held Rayna's hair back while she threw up in the bathroom of her dressing room.

"I fucking hate you, Deacon. This is your damn fault. You did this to me." Rayna got up off her knees and rinsed her mouth out.

"I know, babe. It's all my fault. You get to blame me as much as you want to right now." He spoke to her soothingly. He was surprised that she'd made it through their performance without throwing up. She'd look like she was going to be sick for hours.

"Don't patronize me, Deacon. I am not in the mood for your bullshit right now." She glared at him. Her hormones made her moods turn on a dime. One moment she would be happy and telling him how amazing he was the next she was cussing him out and blaming him for everything that was wrong with the world.

"Sorry, maybe it would be better if I didn't talk to you at all." He threw his hands up in a sign of surrender.

"That would be a damn good idea." She snipped at him.

Deacon went to answer the door when there was a knock. He had learned that in this situation the best thing to say was nothing at all. He didn't want her to bite his head off if he could avoid it. "Hey, Wheels Up, come on in." He greeted Luke warmly.

"Freakin' Deacon, hell of a performance as usual, brother." Luke clapped him on the back.

"Well, hey, Luke." Rayna had a smile on her face now.

"Rayna, I just dropped in to touch base with ya'll." Luke hugged her.

"Good lord, Luke, did you bathe in your aftershave or what?" She pulled away from him quickly. She took a few deep breaths to calm her rolling stomach.

"No I didn't bathe in it. You feelin' ok? Did Deacon let you drink so much on the way over here that you're hungover?" Luke asked.

"I wish this were a hangover that would mean it would go away soon." She groaned.

"No, she ain't doin' no drinkin'." Deacon took her hand.

Luke looked between both of them. "What exactly is goin' on here?"

"Well, since you're our friend we might as well tell you before you hear it second hand." She mused.

"Tell me what?" Luke looked even more confused now.

"Ray's pregnant. As it turns out she didn't lose the baby. That's what's been up with her lately." Deacon grinned.

"I'm happy for ya'll. You look really happy together." Luke smiled at them.

"We are really happy together." Rayna smiled back.

"Right now anyway. Give it five minutes and I may have done something to piss her off. Or you know a commercial sends her on a cryin' jag." Deacon teased.

"It's not ok to make fun of a pregnant woman's hormones. I get that it is pretty entertaining for you, but until you have all these excess emotions and things going on in your body that you can't control you won't understand what it's like." Rayna's bottom lip quivered.

"Hey, it's ok, I wasn't laughin' at you. I know it's not funny and I don't think it is for that matter." Deacon hugged close to him and bit his lip to keep from bursting out into a fit of laughter.

"Deacon, I'm gonna wish you luck and I'm gonna head on down the road. I'll see ya'll again in Nashville." Luke knew when to stick around and when not to.


Maddie was playing at a kids open mic thing. Rayna as usual was running late. She wasn't late per say as she just hadn't shown up early. Deacon was standing in the back of the room holding up a wall when she got there.

"What are you doing standing all the way back here by yourself?" She asked.

"It's Maddie's big day and I didn't wanna cause a scene. She knows that I'm here. I promised her I'd be here and I ain't broke a promise to her yet. I'm ok to hang out back here and watch her." He shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, that's just too damn bad. You have every right to come sit with me. She's your daughter too." She took him by the hand and drug him along with her. She fought the urge to roll her eyes when she saw Peggy sitting next to Teddy. She'd never liked her and she never would.

"Rayna, there you are. I saved you a couple seats for family." Peggy was as phony as ever.

"Thanks, Peggy." Rayna plastered a fake smile on her face.

"Deacon," Teddy nodded in the other man's direction.

"Teddy," Deacon replied in kind. He sat down beside Rayna and put his arm around her.

"I didn't realize that you two were back together." Peggy was fishing for information.

"Deacon and I are just running our label together." Rayna replied. What went on between her and Deacon was theirs it wasn't for anyone else to speculate about. They were dodging the reporters as it was.

"That means we do pretty much everythin' together. Even when we don't have to." Deacon chuckled lightly. He was perfectly alright with her not opening about their relationship to Peggy. He'd heard a mouthful about her while Rayna was still in school. He knew that she couldn't stand her or any of her little friends.

"It's nice that you're exes and you can work so well together." Peggy observed.

"Sometimes it just works out that way." Raya's facial muscles were starting to ache from the fake smile she had to put on. Her smile turned genuine when Maddie took the stage and she saw how Deacon lit up with pride.

"Today I'm going to play a song that my guitar teacher wrote and I'm going to ask him to come up here and play it with me. Deacon, come on up here." Maddie waved him up to the stage.

Deacon looked surprised that she wanted him up there with her.

"Go on, don't keep her waiting." Rayna urged him.

Deacon got up and joined his daughter on stage. He picked up a guitar and sat next to her.

Teddy frowned deeply and clenched his jaw.

"I didn't realize the two of them were so close." Peggy whispered to Rayna.

"He's been around her for her whole life. She was with him on a tour bus for the first four or five years of her life. He's been helping her with her guitar playing." Rayna whispered back.

Maddie and Deacon played through A Life That's Good. He hugged her when they got off the stage.

"That was amazin'. I'm so proud of you, baby girl." He kissed her head.

"Thanks, Deacon." She smiled up at him. "Uh, so I know that I have the option of staying with you whenever I want and I was hoping that maybe I could stay with you tonight."

"Yeah, of course you can stay with me anytime you want to. You know that." He smiled brightly. He was so happy that she had been the one to initiate it.

When Rayna had Maddie's birth certificate changed and established Deacon's paternal rights. They'd made the agreement that since Deacon was so flexible and good about doing what was best for Maddie that he could have her whenever he wanted to no questions asked.

"Can I have the keys to the truck to go put my guitar up?" Maddie asked when she walked back over.

"Yeah, it's parked right out front. Just let me grab your momma and I will meet you out there." He handed over the keys.

"Deacon, what the hell was that?" Teddy demanded.

"I'm not doin' this here, Teddy. You ain't gotta like me and I ain't gotta like you, but we gotta learn to get along. All that matters is that little girl's happiness. Just remember I could've cut you out. I could have made you nothin' just like you decided it was your place to do to me, but I didn't I put her first." Deacon replied calmly.

"What did you think you were doing getting up on stage with her like that? You don't think that's going to raise questions?" Teddy kept spouting off at the mouth.

"She wanted me to and there isn't a thing I wouldn't do for her." Deacon kept walking out to his truck.

"Should I be scared that she has your truck keys?" Rayna waited for him at the back of the venue.

"She's comin' home with me." Deacon replied.

"Over my dead body. Do you know how that looks?" Teddy asked.

"Teddy, I told you now is not the time for this." Deacon cautioned him. He walked outside to where Maddie was waiting for him in the truck.

"Got my guitar all packed up." Maddie reported.

"Now give me the keys back. I trust you with my keys 'bout as much as I trust your momma. Ask her someday what I think 'bout her drivin' skills." Deacon teased her.

"Is that why you always pick her up when you guys go out?" Maddie started to climb into the passenger seat.

"Maddie, come on let's go home. Tell Deacon bye and that you'll see him later." Teddy just didn't know when to leave well enough alone.

"I was just gonna go with Deacon." Maddie replied.

"You're just coming home with me. It's my week, now come on." Teddy said more forcefully.

Maddie looked between Teddy and Deacon unsure what to do.

"Sweetie, for the sake of keepin' the peace just go on home. We will do somethin' together some other time." Deacon didn't want to make things difficult on her.

"But, I want to go with you now." Maddie's eyes started to tear up.

"Let me talk to her for a minute." Rayna stepped in. She had Maddie scoot over into the middle seat of the truck. "Sweet girl, you do what you want it is up to you. The choice is totally yours. You get to come and go as you please as long as Deacon is ok with you bein' with him."

"I don't know why it has to be like this. Why dad has to fight it. I have every right to want to be with Deacon too. Sometimes I think I'd be better off if I didn't see either one of them." Maddie sighed.

"I think that you would be missin' out if you did that. Now who do you want to go with tonight? It's your choice, baby girl." Rayna kissed her head.

"I really wanna go with Deacon." Maddie admitted.

"Then that's what you'll do. Have a good time with him. I love you." Rayna kissed her forehead again.

"I love you too, mom." Maddie replied.

Rayna got out of the truck. "Deacon, get in the truck and go. I will handle this and I will talk to you later."

Deacon didn't put up any arguments. He just got into the truck with Maddie and drove away.

"Rayna, what the hell was that?" Teddy seethed.

"That was me stepping in before you could make a scene." Rayna stared him down.

"I can't believe that you just let her go off with him like that it's supposed to be Teddy's week." Peggy stuck her nose in where it didn't belong.

"Teddy didn't give you the full story then." Rayna shrugged her shoulders.

"Rayna, can't you be on my side for once?" Teddy asked.

"Teddy, we are both extremely lucky that he didn't sue us for what we did to him. Need I remind you that the only reason that you still have a week with her is out of courtesy to Daphne? Whether you like him or not you need to get used to him bein' 'round. 'Cause he ain't goin' anywhere." Rayna leveled him with a cold stare.

"Rayna, you and I both know what he was like back then. You know better than anyone. You tell me that he was in the position to take care of a child. The answer to that is no. I stepped in and did what he couldn't. And now you're just letting Maddie forget about the man that's been there for thirteen years." Teddy whispered harshly.

"He's her father, Teddy. She has every right to want to get to know him and spend time with him. There's a custody agreement that says Maddie and Deacon get to be together whenever it's agreeable to both of them. I only have so much sway with him. You fight him too much harder on this and I can promise you that he will go nuclear on you. There ain't a damn thing I'll be able to do to stop him either. Let it go, Teddy. If it weren't for him she still wouldn't be talking to either of us." Rayna whispered back.

"Fine, I'll let it go. But when he screws up with her. I get to say I told you so." Teddy retorted.

"He's not gonna hurt her, Teddy. She could hurt him a hell of a lot worse than he'd ever hurt her." Rayna put her hand over her mouth to fight off the wave of nausea she felt bubble up.

"Think whatever you want. No one can ever get you to see reason when it comes to him anyway." Teddy rolled his eyes.

"I'm not gonna argue with you, Teddy. I've gotta go. I'll see you at your music festival thing in a few days." Rayna said as she walked to her SUV. She climbed behind the wheel and sighed. "You can't do that to momma, little boy. I get it I ate something that you don't like. You don't have to voice your displeasure the way that daddy does." She rubbed her hand over the baby bump that had really started to form.


"Maddie, don't laugh at me this ain't funny." Deacon was trying pretty unsuccessfully to use a pair of chopsticks to eat the Chinese food they had picked up for dinner on the way back to his place. Normally he stayed with Rayna or she stayed with him when she didn't have the girls, but sharing a bed with them under the same roof wasn't a line they were ready to knowingly blur.

"From where I sit it's pretty funny, Deacon." Maddie laughed even harder.

"Alright, that's just fine. I'm gonna remember this." He winked at her.

"Thank you for not fighting with my dad earlier. I know that that couldn't have been easy for you. If I were you I wouldn't have let him act that way. I don't know why he can't accept that I can love both of you. He makes me not want to go around him sometimes. If it weren't for Daphne, I wouldn't. He doesn't understand me the way you do. He thinks that because he's the one that's always been there that that entitles him to my unquestioned forgiveness. I understand that you're an alcoholic, but he still didn't have the right to decide to lie to me my whole life." She gave a loud sigh and let out all her pent up frustration.

"Sweetie, I'm just as pissed off and frustrated as you are with the situation. It's not supposed to be this way. I'm so beyond relieved that your momma and the baby are ok that I haven't even begun to address the fact that she lied to me 'bout you. You are so much like me. You and I we both feel things deeply and we wanna hang on to the hurt and the pissed off and basically just rage against all humanity. We gotta keep that in check though. I'm not gonna tell you how to feel or how you should feel. I'm gonna tell you that you get to feel whatever you need to feel. I'll always be here to listen." He replied the only way that he knew how. He wasn't trying to poison the well, but he was allowed to tell her how he felt too.

"Do you ever feel like you just have this fire inside of you that's ready to burn you alive at any second if you don't do something to help put it out?" She asked.

"That's exactly how I feel a lot of the time. Like I'm hurlin' a hundred miles an hour towards a brick wall that I'm either gonna crash into or I'm gonna grab the wheel and correct course at the last second. That's part of the reason that I write so many damn songs. It's one of the only things that makes the crazy in my head go away." He explained to her.

"Do you think that we could write a song together right now?" She asked him.

"I think that we better get the guitars and some paper. This could take awhile." He replied.

"What about dinner?" She inquired.

"We can eat and write at the same time. You have no idea the number of times your momma and I have done this." He moved their food to the coffee table and grabbed his guitar.

"Can I ask what's going on between you and mom?" She sat down beside him.

"You can ask, but that doesn't mean I have an answer for you either way. I'm not sure that your momma and I even know what we are right now. There is a conversation that we need to have. I love her and she loves me that I know for a fact. I guess you could say that we are together right now, but I don't know that you could call it that either. I'll tell you what though the best thing that could have happened is us runnin' that label together it forces us to talk and not do what we do best. And you are way too young and too damn innocent for me to get into that with you." He chuckled.

"I'm thirteen I know where babies come from and just I don't want to think about it." She shivered at the thought.

"Good I don't want you thinkin' 'bout it. It's just as gross for me as it is for you, so don't bring it up again you little sicko." He pushed her shoulder playfully.

"Don't call me a sicko, I'm not the one who doesn't know what protection is for." She laughed at the disgusted look that came to his face.

"This conversation is over." He put his foot down.

"I love you, dad." She just had to try it on for size and she really liked the way it sounded.

"I love you too, Maddie." He smiled at her proudly. His heart was about to burst out of his chest from the rush of love he felt for her.

"I bet you're really glad that you're not gonna have another one like me to deal with aren't you?" She teased him.

"You have no idea how thankful I am that this one is a boy. The world can only take one female version of me and that spot belongs to you." He tapped her nose with his index finger.

"Oh, yeah, it just makes you real manly, dad." She pushed his buttons a little bit.

"You know it. I made a boy that is an epically awesome feat. But you know what I made this girl that's pretty epically awesome too." He winked at her.

Rayna came in a couple hours later. There were sheets of paper all over the floor and food cartons on the coffee table. "It looks like someone had a good songwriting session."

"Hey, babe, what are you doin' here? Maddie just got into the shower." Deacon pecked her lips and then he bent down to kiss her belly. "How's daddy's boy today?"

"Your boy is being a pain in the ass just like his daddy. He's decided that he doesn't like anything that momma has had to eat today." She placed her hand on top of his on her belly. "I just really wanted to come by and thank you for not losing it with Teddy earlier. I know that he pushed you and you didn't push back."

"I did what I had to for that little girl. Don't think for a second that I didn't want to put my fist through his face." He replied with a sigh.

"I know you did I could see it your eyes that Maddie was the only thing holding you back from it. You showed a lot of willpower and I'm grateful, babe." She kissed him tenderly.

"Ray, I'm done with this bein' her father in secret shit. I'm done bein' Uncle Deacon or just her guitar teacher. I shouldn't have to go out in public and pretend that she isn't mine. It's none of the press' damn business. Let them jump to whatever conclusion they want to. That is my daughter and I'm damn sick of havin' to cover that up. I was so damn proud of her tonight and I didn't get to show it the way that I wanted to. It's like a knife to my damn heart every time I hear her referred to as Conrad. It should be my last name that she has and we both know that. I'm done bein' bullied and I'm done with the secrets. You need to find a way for me to be her dad in public." He told her in no uncertain terms. This was only part of the conversation that they had been putting off for weeks.

"Deacon, you know what the press is like. We need to protect her from that. It is none of their business, but they will make it their business. I know that you want to be her dad all the time and not just behind closed doors, but for that to happen we have to do it in a way that keeps her protected." She reasoned with him.

"The way to do it would have been to give me an option thirteen years ago. You had her birth certificate changed to reflect the fact I'm her father. You're just trickin' yourself if you don't think that some reporter could go dig that up. She called me dad tonight and that well that was probably the best damn thing I've ever heard. Forget your image and forget Teddy. What about me and Maddie? What about how we feel? Did you ever think 'bout the secret you're askin' us to live with?" He pointed out logically.

"I know, Deacon, I know ok? Can we just go to bed and leave this for another day? We do need to sort this out, but we aren't gonna figure it out in one night. This needs to be something we work towards slowly." She replied. She had no fight left in her she knew that he was right. He and Maddie both deserved better than what she was asking of them.

"What do you mean go to bed? Maddie's here, Ray." He looked confused.

"You say that you're tired of the secrets and the hiding. Well so am I. I'm done hiding this from the girls. I want my girls to see what true love looks like even when it's messy and imperfect and when both parties have made mistakes, but they are working through it. I love you, babe. I don't want to spend another minute pretending that that's not true." She took his hand.

"We can do that. I like that idea a lot. I got a t-shirt and some sleep pants with your name on 'em. You go on and get ready for bed while I clean up this mess in here." He smiled and kissed her hand.

"I'll be waiting on ya. Don't keep me waiting all night. Your son has done very interesting things to my hormones. You should know that I'm pretty horny all the time." She told him seductively.

"I ain't gonna keep you waitin' long darlin'. I'll be along shortly." He promised her. It felt good to finally get some things out in the open. They still had quite a bit that they needed to hash out, but they would get to it sooner or later.


A/N: Here is the next chapter I hope you guys enjoyed it. When everyone is carrying on about Deacon being a man because he made a boy it's just meant as a joke and it is in no way meant to imply he wouldn't be just as much of a man had he made a girl or that having a daughter isn't as good as having a son. Sorry for the long wait between chapters, but the current story line on the show is really killing my muse. Thanks for sticking it out with me. Until next time please review.