First, sorry this has taken so long to update. I've been feeling uninspired about Season 3. But, this is the next to last chapter. Hope to update by the end of the week!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and support.

Chapter 13

"Every other week?" asks Deacon, unsure if he heard Rayna correctly.

"Yep. I was surprised too, but the doctor says that I'm using appropriate coping mechanisms for my grief. He says that I've made a lot of progress in terms of communicating with you and interacting with Maddie."

Deacon couldn't disagree. She was leaps and bounds ahead of where she was a few months ago. Of course, Rayna would pull herself up by her boot straps and fix all of her problems in one big swoop. She was always amazing at everything she did. Now, she was even working through her grief and putting her life back together in a quick time frame.

It had taken him five times in rehab and countless nights in county jails, emergency rooms, and on the couch for him to get his life together. Even then, he credited Maddie and nearly losing Rayna for keeping him on the straight and narrow.

Deacon tell her how proud he is of her and she smiles sweetly in response.

"You know, without you I would never be where I am now," Rayna admits.

(())

Deacon happily hands over another clean bowl from Rayna's soapy hands and runs the towel around the inside. Thanksgiving was always an eventful family tradition at the Claybourne house and this year was no exception.

But now everyone was gone except for Tandy who was passed out in the guest room after one too many glasses of spiced wine, and Maddie who was already making her list for Santa Claus.

Rayna and Deacon were forty five minutes into the clean-up process. The leftovers were put all in Tupperware containers, the fine china was up, and the dishwasher was loaded. All they had left was the silverware and glasses that needed to be hand washed.

While Deacon was focusing on drying off the very last fork, he feels a large splash of water hit his chest. Deacon looks down to see a wide, wet mark down his shirt a second before he hears a loud giggle from beside him. As Deacon looked up, he spots Rayna holding the sprayer a second before he feels another long spray hit him in the face.

Without thinking, Deacon scoops water out of the sink and flings it towards his wife, causing her to squeal. Rayna pushes the spray nozzle again, soaking Deacon before wrestles it away from his wife.

"Truce?" Rayna yells loudly as she puts her hands up in the air.

Deacon nods for a moment before blasting Rayna with the nozzle, soaking her shirt and hair. Rayna squeals again, laughing and squealing as she holds her hands up to her face to block the water.

"Whatcha doing?" asks Maddie as she comes into the kitchen with wide eyes and a box of crayons.

Both of her parents stop, wet from head to toe, and look at Maddie. The two adults share a knowing look a second before Deacon turns the nozzle towards Maddie who lets out a scream. Maddie runs towards her parents, unsure of what is happening, but loving that it is now okay to soak each other in the kitchen.

Five minutes later, all three of them are rolling around on the kitchen floor, soaking wet and taking turns tickling and spraying each other.

Tandy stumbles into the kitchen, one hand on her head and another on her side. She takes a look at her sister, niece, and brother-in-law and stumbles back towards the guest room.

(())

Deacon steps back from his handy work and admires the three new pictures on the bedroom wall. There is one of Maddie from Halloween, one of the three of them from late summer by the pool, and Rayna and Maddie with Santa Claus. It is the first time that he's hung new picture since Jack was born. Everyday, slowly and surely he and Rayna are becoming themselves again. The pain is still there, still sharp as ever but they aren't drowning in the pain anymore.

Last night, lying in bed Rayna mentioned she wanted to do something different with the nursery. They'd discussed turning into another guest room but neither liked that idea. He'd suggested putting Rayna's old piano in there but Rayna liked it in the music room. Rayna suggested making it into an actual playroom for Maddie, separate from her bedroom. But Deacon wasn't a fan of that idea. Maddie had one huge bedroom, toys in practically every of the house and pool house. She didn't need a second room to claim as hers.

Right now the most likely idea was turning it into a separate office. As Maddie was growing up, it was increasingly hard to use the kitchen table to have meetings. Plus, now that Deacon's career was headed up on the up-swing it would be nice to have his own place.

(())

"Two million dollars?" asks Deacon, clearly shocked by the number his wife threw out.

Rayna nods slowly and repeats the figure. Her husband's eyes are wide, his eyebrows high in disbelief. He breaks out into a wide grin and starts to laugh out of pure shock.

"I would be obligated to four commercials here, two in Europe, and two more in Asia. Then there would be print campaigns to go along with the commercials." Deacon's expression doesn't change. Instead, Rayna adds that in total, it would probably be about 8 or 9 days of work total."

Deacon shakes his head, "Two million dollars for 9 days of work? For 9 days of making commercials and getting your picture taken?"

Rayna lets a smile form. Fifteen years ago, they ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches for days at a time. More than once, they'd paid for a gallon of gas with change in the console. Now the cabin was paid off and their home in Nashville was half paid off.

But this….this was different. This wasn't royalties for songwriting or sales from concert tickets. This was Rayna with eye shadow and blush.

"Any right to our songs?" asks Deacon to which Rayna replies, "Nope, just me."

She smiles and square her hands around her face, creating a frame.

Deacon looks around the kitchen smiling. "After taxes and paying Buck his portion, it probably isn't even that much, maybe a million-one. At most a million-two."

Rayna smiles. "Do you think I would be a complete sell out for doing it?"

Deacon narrow his eyes. Since the early years Rayna had been criticized for being too pop, too new, and too non-traditional. Her critics often forgot about her Bluebird performances and the acoustic portion of the show. They assumed when the song was written by Rayna Jayme and Deacon Claybourne, it was his song and she served as his muse. Of course, having her long-term boyfriend being a drunk and getting her knocked up didn't help anything. Nor did Rayna's broken engagement to a different man while she was pregnant. It was something that always bothered Rayna. She wanted people to hear her voice and take her seriously. But some in the establishment still saw her as a wannabe-pop star with boots.

But in the last five years, her critics had moved on to younger, juicier artists to criticize. Truth was, doing a makeup contract would probably be met with some negative press.

Deacon smiles and walks over to his wife. As he places one hand on her hip and another in her hair he whispers, "They will all think how damn lucky I am to be married to you."

Rayna smiles and kisses Deacon lightly, "Just for that I might let you get lucky tonight."

Deacon raises an eyebrow and leans in to kiss Rayna again. Soon, they are discussing what they want to make for dinner and listening as Maddie sings a song about a frog and a log and a dog that she learned in school today.

(())

Rayna watches from the window as Deacon and Maddie stomp around in the ice and throw out reindeer feed. Of course reindeer food is bird seed, nuts, dried cranberries and sugar. In the moonlight the mixture shines and sparkles like fairy dust.

Rayna walks back to the kitchen and pulls out the cookie dough, Christmas cookie cutters, and a red platter. Tonight was one of her favorite nights of the year. After Maddie was in bed, Deacon and she would put out the presents from Santa.

Then they would sneak upstairs. Every year, Rayna and Deacon would exchange one present. Deacon always gave her something romantic and sweet. And every year, Rayna would give Deacon something sexy that she would change into. Then they'd come back down the Christmas tree and have some adult quality time with the lights glistening.

Maddie runs back into the house, not bothering to take off her shoes or jacket.

"Mama we gotta make the cookies!"

Rayna smiles at her daughter's enthusiasm and then rolls her eyes at the ice and dirt now covering her kitchen floor.

(())

Rayna licks her lips and makes a satisfied moan as Deacon goes to throw away the used condom. Rayna pulls the blanket off the back of the couch and smiles at the twinkling lights from the Christmas tree. A moment later Deacon returns with the plate of cookies and one large glass of milk.

"Merry Christmas babe," Rayna smiles as she leans over to kiss her husband. He captures her bottom lip between his and tugs gently. The kiss is slow and easy. Eventually Rayna pulls back to catch her breath.

Deacon grabs a cookie before turning to Rayna and offering her one. His wife gladly takes the cookie and leans in for another kiss. She looks over to see Maddie's presents spread across the room and feels her eyes well with tears. Deacon catches her expression change but before he could say anything, Rayna shook her head.

"I'm sorry, it just hit me all of a sudden."

Deacon looks at his wife with concern and brushes her hair back from her face. Rayna wipes a few tears away and then whispers that it just hit her that last year at this time they were planning Jack's first Christmas.

Deacon nods, remembering all too well the stocking with Jack's name he'd left in the box this year. Rayna leans her head into Deacon's shoulder and asks if he thinks it will ever stop hurting.

"I don't think so, but we are handling it better."

Rayna smiles at the ability of Deacon to always make her feel better. She feels tears prick her eyes again, this time because she realizes how much she loves her husband. Deacon recognizes the look in her eyes and tells her that he loves her too.

"Do think other people are lucky like us?" asks Rayna as she looks up at the Christmas tree.

It isn't the first time they've had this conversation. They've seen other friends and family who've fallen in love and then broken up for seemingly no good reason. They had neighbors who treated sex with their spouse like something they were forced to do twice a month, not something they enjoyed. Artists are their labels arraignments with their spouses to look the other way at one-night stands.

Deacon smiles and affirms how lucky they are. Rayna rest her head on Deacon's shoulder, breaking a cookie in half. She eats her half, before feeding Deacon another the rest.

Rayna admits there is nobody else in the world that he would rather share a cookie with. Deacon laughs quietly and grabs another cookie.