A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers.

Chapter 14

Deacon checked his watch with a loud sigh. This wasn't his idea of a good time at all. He could think of hundreds of things he rather do than this.

"Look, Deacon, what about this one?" Daphne held up a blue sleeper with a bear on it.

"That one is really cute, Daph. I'm sure that he will look good in it." Deacon smiled back at her. They were baby shopping and they had both wanted to include the girls in it so that they didn't feel left out. Seeing all three of his girls so happy almost made up for the fact that he had been sucked into one of his most hated activities.

"Aw, Deacon, we have to get him this he will look so adorable." Rayna held up a little preppy looking outfit. It consisted of a powder blue polo and plaid shorts.

"Ain't no son of mine wearin' anythin' that looks like that. He'll look like a little banker or somethin'." Deacon put his foot down.

"No he won't. He will look so damn cute." Rayna argued with him. "Maddie, tell him."

"He will look cute in that." Maddie agreed with her mother.

"He'll look like one them little boys that's just beggin' to get beat up on the playground if you dress him like that." Deacon countered.

"Deacon, you're being ridiculous. He's your son I don't think you're gonna have to worry about anyone beating him up. If they even try it I'll sure he'll be able to hold his own. I'm getting him this outfit." Rayna's tone left no room for argument.

"Alright, if that's how you wanna play it, Ray." Deacon went off in search of an outfit that he would like. He returned a few minutes later carrying an outfit that met with his approval. It was a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Really, Deacon? Are you trying to make him look like a miniature version of you?" Rayna hooked her eyebrow.

"So what if I am? This is a little boy's outfit. They gotta be dressed for bein' all rough and tumble. You can't dress 'em cute and expect that they are gonna stay clean." Deacon replied.

Rayna walked over and stole a kiss from him and laughed. "I think you're right. He's gonna be so damn adorable dressed like his daddy. That is the outfit that we are gonna bring him home from the hospital in. I'm of course gonna need a bunch of pictures of you two looking alike."

Deacon dropped his hand down to her rapidly expanding belly and rubbed it. He just couldn't get enough of her changing body. Every little change excited him. This was his first time experiencing this and he was enjoying every moment of it. "You wanna be dressed like a man don't ya, Bubba?" He spoke to his unborn son. "Of course ya do. Daddy knows. You gotta stick with him and he'll protect ya from these crazy womenfolk."

"You are downright sexy when you talk to him like that, but you're also adorable as hell. Darlin' you're fannin' a fire in me you better be careful." Rayna whispered in his ear.

"Good thing that we are droppin' the girls off with Teddy after we finish up here and then we are free to be as loud as we wanna be." Deacon whispered back.

"As much as I like the sound of that you know that we have dinner with my daddy and my sister later. I don't think we have time for a little break in between now and then." Rayna reminded him.

"Oh, I just remembered that I have a gig tonight and I can't make it." Deacon tried to get out of dinner with Lamar and Tandy. He rather be stuck shopping than have to deal with those two.

"Nice try, babe, but you aren't getting out of this. I do appreciate the effort though." Rayna pinched his cheek.

"I had to give it a try anyway." Deacon shrugged his shoulders.

"Come on, let's go pay for all the stuff we've got. I don't wanna have to rush around." Rayna linked her arm through his.

"You know we still have to buy furniture for in here." Rayna was in the process of putting the baby's clothes away in the spare dresser she had in the room.

"I know. We need to sit down and pick out somethin' that we both like. If this goes anythin' like decoratin' our first place did then it's gonna be a battle." Deacon walked up behind her and kissed the back of her neck.

"Mmm, if I remember correctly you know all the right ways to win a battle with me." She leaned back against him.

"I'm sure I could come up with somethin' to get my way." He put both his hands on her belly and then started to move them lower slowly.

"You better behave yourself, boy. Those girls are still here and this is the baby's room." She warned him playfully.

"Mom, dad's downstairs if you wanna talk to him." Maddie stuck her head in the door.

Rayna gave him a look that said see what I mean. "Yeah, baby girl, I'll be right down. You go on ahead." She turned and smiled at her.

"You are both gross. I don't know why you can't go a minute without touching." Maddie rolled her eyes at her parents before she headed downstairs.

"Rayna, I ain't gonna lie I don't like it that he just let's himself into the house. He don't live here anymore. The least he could do is knock." Deacon frowned.

"I'll talk to him about it. I know that you're not entirely comfortable living here and him walking in here like he owns the place doesn't make it any easier on you." Rayna assured him.

"Thanks, babe, I ain't tryin' to be difficult. I just need to feel like this is my place too." He replied.

"Now, come on downstairs with me so we can tell those girls bye." She took his hand and led him down the steps.

Teddy stood by the front door waiting for the girls to gather their stuff up.

"Teddy, can I have a word with you really fast?" Rayna plastered a smile on her face.

"Sure," Teddy agreed.

She walked into the kitchen knowing that he would follow her.

"What's up?" He asked.

"In the future can you knock before you just walk in? I know that it's a force of habit, but we need to set some boundaries." She explained to him patiently.

"Yeah, I can knock. I guess that's because Deacon lives here now. You never had a problem with it before." He grumbled.

"Hey, you wouldn't want him walking into your house unannounced either. It's a respect thing. We all gotta learn to respect each other." She went on.

"That makes sense. Hey, can I ask you a question?" He ran his hand over the back of his head.

"Of course you can." She answered.

"How far along are you?" He crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm twenty-two weeks. Why?" She rubbed her belly.

"It's just that Peggy should be about as far along as you are and she's not showing at all and well with you it's obvious." He pointed out.

"All women show differently, but she's as thin as I am. So, yeah, she probably should be showing by now. If you think there's something you need to ask your wife though you need to talk to her. You know how I feel about her and I'm gonna be inclined to see the worst in her whether is true or not." She shrugged her shoulders.

"I'll do that, thanks for the advice." He nodded at her.

"I should let you get to the girls now." She ended their conversation.

"I don't want to keep them waiting." He smiled.

Both the girls had their arms around Deacon hugging him when they walked back into the other room.

"Ya'll be good and I'll see you in a week. I love you and I'm gonna miss you so much. Your momma secretly abuses me when you ain't 'round." Deacon kissed both their cheeks before he let them go.

"Love you too, dad." Maddie kissed his cheek.

"I love you too, Deacon." Daphne kissed his check as well.

"Come here, my girls." Rayna held her arms opened to her daughters.

Both girls rushed into their mother's arms.

"I love you girls so much. Ya'll have fun with your daddy and behave yourselves." She kissed them both on the head.

"Love you too, mom." They said in unison.

Daphne bent down and kissed her belly. "I love you too, Bubba. I'm gonna miss you. Don't you kick while I'm gone."

Maddie touched her mother's belly. "You just stay in there and keep cooking. We will be back next week and I'll ready to you about how much you've grown then."

"Alright, you two ready?" Teddy asked them. They didn't act like this over Peggy's pregnancy. He couldn't help the tinge of jealousy that bubbled to the surface. Then again he didn't know if he should be getting them psyched up about Peggy's pregnancy.

"We're ready, dad." Daphne answered for her and Maddie.

"Let's get going then." Teddy led them out of the house.

"Alone at last." Deacon grinned and bit his lip sexily.

"With just enough time to spare to get ready for this dinner. I don't wanna go any more than you do. Daddy has insisted on having it at his house and you know how I feel about going back there." Rayna sighed.

"Hey, you just keep yourself calm and relaxed by thinkin' 'bout everythin' I'm gonna do to you the minute I get you home. That's how I plan on keepin' myself from stranglin' Lamar." He winked at her.

She kissed him and rubbed his shoulders. "Just be on your best behavior that's all I ask for. I don't want you to take the bait when he tries gettin' you to fight with him. You're my choice and that's the only thing that matters. He doesn't get a say and his opinion doesn't count."

"I'll keep that in mind, babe." He agreed. He didn't want to do anything that was going to put any stress on her or the baby. He could clearly see that she wasn't relaxed, so he decided to do something about that. He moved his hands down her body and undid the snap on the front of her jeans.

"Deacon, what are you doing? I told you we don't have time for this." She argued.

"I'm relaxin' you, so chill out and let me." He pushed his hand down the front of her panties.

"We really need to get goin'." A moan caught in her throat as he slid two fingers into her.

"We have time for this. We ain't gonna worry 'bout me right now. We can take care of me later." He pumped his fingers in and out of her and he circled her clit with his thumb.

Instead of arguing with him some more she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.

He hooked his fingers inside of her in the way that he knew she loved and nibbled on her bottom lip.

She pulled her lips away from his and buried her face in his neck. She made soft mewling noises as she felt him work her closer and closer to the brink of orgasm. She bit and sucked on his neck trying to contain her pleasure. She didn't want him to know that he had been right about her needing help to relax.

He felt her clit pulsate against his thumb and her walls contract around his fingers. "Come for me, Ray, I can feel ya gettin' there." He whispered huskily in her ear.

She let out a loud moan and bit down hard on his shoulder as her orgasm tore through her body.

"There you go, baby." He wrapped his arm around her waist to help keep her upright. He kissed on her neck softly.

"Oh God, Deacon. I don't know how you do this to me." She panted.

"Feel better now?" He chuckled.

"Much better, baby, thank you for always knowing what I need to make me feel better. You better believe that you are getting rewarded for this later." She kissed him softly.

"I'll be lookin' forward to it." He smirked against her lips.

"You should be." She grinned back.

"Thank God you two showed up semi on time for a change." Tandy opened the front door to Lamar's house before Rayna could knock.

"He's being that bad already?" Rayna arched her eyebrow.

"He's in a fairly good mood for a change. I was afraid he was going to get started if you were any later." Tandy gave her a quick hug. "Deacon," She nodded at him.

"Tandy," Deacon returned the greeting in kind.

"Where is he?" Rayna asked.

"He's in his study." Tandy led them back to where Lamar was.

Lamar stood from behind his desk. "Rayna, I was starting to think that I was going to have to send a search party out to find you."

"Daddy, we aren't that late. I've been a lot later than this before. You can blame your future grandson. It took me forever to find a pair of shoes that would fit because I'm so swollen." Rayna explained to him. It didn't matter what she did she just couldn't seem to please her father. Though things had gotten better between them since he'd had his heart attack.

"In that case I think I can forgive you." Lamar replied.

Deacon stood up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He was just trying to stay on his best behavior and avoid a fight with Lamar if at all possible.

"That's so generous of you, daddy." Rayna fought the urge to roll her eyes at him.

"That's our father Saint Lamar the Giving." Tandy quipped.

Deacon just chuckled at that. "Tandy, how much have you been drinkin' tonight?"

"Less than you on a bender, but enough to be able to stand this dinner." Tandy retorted.

Rayna gave Lamar a pointed look for not speaking to Deacon.

"Deacon, how are you doing?" Lamar asked politely.

"I'm doin' good. How are you, Lamar?" Deacon replied just as politely.

"I can't complain." Lamar was having a hard time being civil to Deacon.

"Hey, babe, what do you say we go upstairs and go through mom's stuff?" Rayna was going to force her boyfriend and her father to get along whether they wanted to or not.

"Why would I want to do that when I could stay down here and watch this?" Tandy picked up her wine glass.

Rayna gave her an exasperated look. "Because, I'm pregnant and very hormonal and I wanna go through our momma's stuff, but I don't want to do it alone. Plus, this will give daddy and Deacon a chance to talk." She hoped that her sister would read between the lines.

"Fine, but I'm bringing the bottle with me." Tandy grabbed the bottle of wine.

"Thank you," Rayna grinned at her.

Deacon shot her a pleading look. He didn't want her to leave him alone with her father. All he got for his troubles was a kiss on the cheek before she left him alone in the wolf's den with the wolf himself.

"Deacon, have a seat. I'd offer you a drink, but we both know why that would be a bad idea." Lamar reclaimed his seat.

Deacon sat down in the offered chair. "The first one wouldn't be a bad idea, but the ten others that followed sure would be."

"So, you must be excited about having a son." Lamar mused. He knew that he was excited by the prospect of finally getting a male heir.

"I'm excited to be experiencin' this at all. Though I'll confess that I'm happy to be gettin' some backup. Those three women sure know how to do a number on me." Deacon replied a little uneasily.

"As long as we're on the subject I happen to think that Wyatt would be a very respectable name for a boy." Lamar told him.

"She's wantin' to name him Deacon. I'm against it, but she's never not gotten her way with me so we will see who wins this argument. I guess it's her way of tryin' to make up for keepin' Maddie from me and givin' her another man's last name." Deacon shrugged his shoulders.

"She would want to name him after you." Lamar snorted.

"Look, Lamar, I know that you don't like me and I don't particularly like you. The thing is your daughter loves the both of us and that's a fact. Don't put her in a position where she's forced to choose. We both know that she'll choose me she's done it before and she'll do it again if she has to. I don't want that and neither do you. The way I see it is we have to at least learn to be civil to each other. Cause I certainly don't wanna have to fight with ya all the time." Deacon looked the older man dead in the eyes as he spoke.

Lamar cleared his throat and took a sip of his drink to hide the fact that he was a bit taken aback at being spoken to that way.

"So, how do you think daddy and Deacon are getting along down there?" Tandy sat on the side of the bed in Rayna's old bedroom.

"Well, I haven't heard either of them screaming yet so I will take that as a good thing. They need to get whatever macho posturing bullshit they need to do out of the way so we don't have to sit down there and revisit the Cold War." Rayna shrugged her shoulders.

"It's a good idea I'm just not sure that it's wise. Those two are like oil and water together they just don't mix. Daddy is a well-bred southern gentleman and Deacon is well Deacon. They have absolutely nothing in common and only a fool could think that they could make them get along." Tandy advised her.

"I don't expect them to get along I just expect them to find some common ground. Even the most bitter enemies can manage to be civil to each other if the occasion calls for it. I know that Deacon loves me enough to at least try. I'm not so sure about daddy though." Rayna mused.

"He'll try the best that he knows how, but I just want you to be prepared for the fact that he's never going to truly like Deacon." Tandy warned.

"I know that he'll never like him. Deacon will never like daddy either. Like you said they are just from different worlds." Rayna could grant her, her point on that one.

"You and Deacon are from different worlds. For the life of me I will never understand what attracts you two to each other." Tandy had long wondered about that.

"Tandy, if it makes you feel any better I don't think it's something that even Deacon and I understand. We just have this pull on each other that can't be explained. I was gone within minutes of setting eyes on him and I know that he feels the same way. We connect on this really deep level that transcends everything else. He knows me better than anyone myself included." Rayna offered the only explanation that she could give.

"That's a good enough answer for me. I know that you're happier now than I've seen you in years. If you tell him I said this I'll deny it, but sober Deacon is good for you. Being drunk aside his only other unforgivable sin was being born poor. The more I get to know him the more I realize what a good guy he is." Tandy hated to admit that she liked Deacon even a little bit. She had always been so dead set against him having anything to do with her sister.

Rayna gasped and clutched her chest with a grin on her face. "Be still my heart I didn't think I'd ever see the day those words came out of your mouth. I thought that you would go to your grave hating him just on principle alone."

"He has to be the most genuine honest person that I've ever met. The night you woke up he was just so vulnerable and open with me that it made it hard not to like him. I know that I've never seen a man feel that deeply before in my life." Tandy drank from the wine bottle she'd carried upstairs with her.

"He feels things very deeply. He's without a doubt the most passionate person I've ever met. That passion just doesn't always manifest itself in a good way. Or at least it didn't until he figured out how to control it. Now it comes out in his music. If you knew the way he grew up you'd understand why he is the way he is." Rayna told her.

"What do you mean?" Tandy was really interested now.

"His father was really mean drunk and nothing Deacon did was ever right enough for him. I think his mom was just kinda in denial about how bad his dad was and she didn't do much to protect him or his sister. You can never let him know that I told you that. He's an intensely private person and that's a part of himself he doesn't open up about ever." Rayna warned her.

"He won't hear about it from me." Tandy swore to her.

"He better not. And you can't look at him like you pity him. That's part of the reason he doesn't tell people. He's very proud in addition to everything else he is. He doesn't want or need anyone to feel sorry for him. He used to tell me that I shouldn't waste my time pitying people. The ones who want it aren't worthy of it and the ones who need it don't want it." Rayna went on.

"He's like a wise man or something. I swear he talks like a self-help book sometimes." Tandy shook her head.

"I know. Now you know why I've always confided almost everything in him when I have a problem. He gives the best advice." Rayna smiled.

"I hope you two aren't in here talkin' 'bout me." Deacon stuck his head in the door with a grin on his face.

"You aren't worth wasting my breath over. When I get her alone I wanna gossip about something good with her." Tandy dismissed his comment.

"I have a lot of memories in this room." Deacon looked around and took it all in. He chose to ignore Tandy. He figured out that she didn't get her happy feeling if he didn't engage her.

"Yeah and that's not something that we are gonna discuss with the mouth of the south in the room." Rayna really didn't want to get him started on the things they had done in this bedroom before Lamar had kicked her out. "Daddy isn't dead is he?"

"No he's not dead. He sent me up here to get you two for dinner. Don't worry so much, Ray. We had a nice little talk and I think we've come to an understandin' of sorts. Though I'm sure that's what you hoped would happen when you left me alone with him." Deacon arched his eyebrow at her.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I think you're just suspicious of me for no reason." Rayna hid a grin.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it. I would have no reason to suspect that you would ever be up to anything." He gave a sarcastic eye roll.

"Let's just get downstairs and eat. Tandy needs to get some food in her before she polishes off that bottle of wine all by herself." Rayna stood up and took his hand.

"That sounds like a damn fine idea to me." He laced their fingers together.

"You two are so cute that you make me sick sometimes." Tandy had to deal with them at work she shouldn't have to deal with them at home too.

"Peggy, I was thinking that I would go with you to your next doctor's appointment." Teddy broached the subject as he and Peggy laid in bed together.

"Teddy, that's really sweet of you, but you don't have to do that." Peggy smiled at him.

"I know that I don't have to, but I want to." He replied.

"No, really you don't have to come. I know how busy you are and everything is fine. If there was anything that you needed to know about I'd tell you." She rubbed his arm soothingly hoping to distract him.

"I'd like to come to at least one appointment. I don't want your doctor to think that I'm an uninterested father or something." He kissed the top of her head.

"In that case I'd love for you to come." She snuggled into with fake enthusiasm a fake smile plastered on her face. She didn't know how she was going to lie her way out of this one, but she would have to think of something soon.

A/N: Here is the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'm sorry for the long wait and I hope it was worth it. Until next time please review.