A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers.
Chapter 28
"Paul, if I leave you alone with him for a little while will you be able to handle it? You can't fight with him or upset him in any way. He's really crabby and you're just gonna have to take it." Rayna stood outside Deacon's hospital room talking to Paul.
"I think I can handle that. He's my son I'm pretty sure I can deal with him." Paul replied.
"I mean it, Paul. I know your track record with him. I just have no other choice right now. He's comin' home tomorrow and I need to go get some things ready for him." Rayna warned him.
"Like I said I have it under control." Paul assured her.
"You say that now, but you really don't understand how mouthy he is when he's sick. You have to not react to that." Rayna explained.
"I can ignore the attitude. I'm the one he got it from. I promise not to fight or argue with him. You can trust me with him." Paul swore.
"Don't make me regret this, Paul. I just don't want him to be alone. You were the only person I could call. If I'd had another option I would have taken it. All you have to do is entertain him a little bit. With any bit of luck he won't want to talk anyway. He will probably just want to sit there, watch tv, and nap." Rayna gave him the run down.
"That sounds good to me. I can work with that." Paul nodded his head.
"Alright, good luck. You're gonna need it. I will be back as soon as I can." Rayna stressed to him.
"It'll be fine. He's my little boy. Give me a chance to treat him like my little boy." Paul squeezed her shoulder.
"You're right it'll be ok. If not I'll hear about it later." Rayna agreed with him.
"I'm headed in now." Paul gave her a smile before he walked in to be with Deacon.
"Maddie, do you have any clue why mom called us all here?" Daphne showed up at the house with Joel. The two of them had been attempting to spend some time together.
"Your guess is as good as mine on that one. The only thing I know is she told me to make sure that Jimmy was here. There's no telling with the woman what she wants." Maddie shrugged her shoulders.
"Hey, man, it's good to see you again." Joel offered JC his hand.
JC shook his hand. "It's good to see you again too. You treatin' my girl right?"
"Do you think she'd still be spendin' time with me if I wasn't?" Joel arched his eyebrow.
"You make a very good point on that one." JC laughed.
"Daphne, I like him. You need to keep him around." Maddie grinned.
"That's the plan for now anyway." Daphne retorted.
"You're still on probation, buddy. You better be on your best behavior for a while yet." JC punched his shoulder in a gesture of friendliness.
Joel retaliated by pretending to punch JC in the gut. "I know. I'm lucky that she even looks at me."
"I'm pretty damn lucky too. Have you seen how hot my fiancé is? She's totally outta my league, but that hasn't stopped her from stickin' with me for ten years." JC smiled proudly.
"So ya'll are basically high school sweethearts." Joel observed.
"Pretty much even though he was out of school when we started dating." Maddie confirmed.
"Hey, ya'll, thanks for comin' over here. I'm sorry I'm so late. I had to get someone to sit with Deacon. Paul was the only one available and I had to give him instructions." Rayna rushed into the house.
"Don't worry about it, mom." Maddie reassured her.
"Joel, I'm glad that you're here. Jimmy is gonna need some help." Rayna smiled at him.
"I'll help in any way that I can, Ms. Jaymes." Joel replied politely.
"I think I told you once before to call me Rayna. Besides that, we aren't in public it's Mrs. Claybourne here." Rayna told him.
"Whatever you want, Rayna." Joel parroted.
"Mom, what are we doing here?" Daphne asked.
"I have a delivery comin' any minute now. It's a nice recliner for your father. He can't lay in bed for a while because he can't get up with his chest. It'll hurt him like a bitch. He's gonna have to sleep in a recliner. And there was no way in hell I was letting him take the recliner he got when we bought the house in East Nashville up to my bedroom. I even got it in a camo pattern for him even though it matches none of my furniture. He better appreciate me. What I need is these two to carry it up there. I'm weird about strange people bein' in my bedroom." Rayna answered her.
"I think that I can handle that." JC crossed his arms.
"That's no trouble at all." Joel agreed.
"Thank you, boys, so much. I really appreciate this." Rayna told them gratefully.
"Mom, they had nothing better to do with their time. You're probably keeping them both out of trouble." Maddie shook her head.
"Jimmy has been doin' an awful lot around here lately. I feel bad for askin' him to do anythin' else. You need to be nicer to him, Madison." Rayna scolded her playfully.
"I'm plenty nice to him when I need to be." Maddie rolled her eyes.
"Jimmy, you better keep track of the favors that she owes you and make sure that she doesn't try to get out of them when it comes time to pay up." Rayna advised JC with a straight face.
JC just started laughing.
"Oh my God! Mom, you did not just say that." Maddie groaned.
"Daphne, your mom is awesome." Joel grinned.
"No she's embarrassing. I can't believe she just said that either." Daphne shook her head.
"Ya'll didn't know me before I was momma. I do have this whole side of me that you know nothin' 'bout." Rayna winked at them.
"Let's keep it that way especially in front of these two. We kinda like them and we don't want you to scare them away." Maddie begged her.
"Relax ya'll couldn't handle my wild side anyway. Also I don't think any of you are mature enough to handle it." Rayna laughed. She really got a sick sense of pleasure out of messing with her daughters.
"Does your wild side drink like Maddie?" Daphne questioned.
"The fact that you even think Maddie drinks a lot tells me that you couldn't have handled me at her age or your age for that matter. I could drink a lot more than I've ever seen your sister drink. Hell I still can drink more than I've ever seen her drink I just pay for it the mornin' after. As my sister will tell you I'm not as young as I used to be." Rayna laughed.
Elvis let out a loud bay to let them know that someone was at the door.
"Elvis, shut up!" Maddie and Daphne yelled at him in unison.
"Don't be mean to him. He was just lettin' you know that someone is here. I'll get the door." JC gave the pair a hard look and went to answer the door.
"That's why the dog likes Deac better than anyone. And the sad thing is the dog was bought for you two long before I found out I was pregnant with those boys." Rayna shook her head.
"Rayna! Where do you want me to have them leave this?" JC led the delivery men in.
"It's up to you. You're the one who has to move it." Rayna told him.
"Ya'll just leave it right where you are. We will take it from there." JC told them where to leave it.
"Jimmy, give this two them." Rayna handed him some cash to tip them.
"Sure thing." JC tipped them. "Joel, you ready?"
"Yeah, this can't be that heavy." Joel rolled his sleeves up. He wasn't even flexing and the muscles in his forearms were already bulging.
"Rayna, go on up to your room and then you can show us where you want this." JC got on one side of the chair.
"I'll see you guys up there." Rayna headed up the stairs.
"Daph, tell me that you cleaned up mom and dad's room." Maddie begged her sister.
"I didn't clean their room you were supposed to." Daphne argued.
"Shit, she's gonna kill us." Maddie groaned.
"Joel, you wanna do this on three?" JC did his best to ignore the other two.
"Yeah, that works for me. You wanna go backwards or do you want me to?" Joel replied.
"We're about the same size here so that makes no difference. I'll go backwards you guide us." JC stooped down.
"Lift on three." Joel stooped down too. "One, two, three." He counted off.
They both lifted the chair and carried it upstairs to Rayna and Deacon's bedroom.
"You two can sit it right there on my side of the bed. I wanna be able to keep an eye on him. If it's there he can get to the bathroom easier and he can still see the tv." Rayna showed them where to sit it.
"Jimmy, watch your fingers these rails on the bottom of this are sharp." Joel cautioned him.
"I got it, Joel. Set it down on three." JC replied. "Three, two, one," They sat the chair down where Rayna had indicated.
"Thank you, boys. I really appreciate you doin' that for me." Rayna gave them both a hug.
"You know that I would do anythin' for you that all you have to do is ask." JC told her.
"I was happy to help." Joel smiled.
"Jimmy, you can tell your bride to be to clean my room before her father gets home. I don't care that they were all laying in here watching movies. I care that they left a mess in here." Rayna looked around and shook her head.
"This wasn't even all six of them. This was just the girls. AKA Maddie made this mess. The boys were with me downstairs. I live with Maddie I know firsthand how messy she is. I have to clean before our cleanin' lady comes on Mondays and Wednesdays." JC didn't hesitate to rat Maddie out before she had the chance to pin it all on him.
"You think you're tellin' me anythin' that I don't know? I know how your fiancé is. Just kindly remind her that her daddy is a in a bad mood anyway and she really doesn't want him comin' home to a mess in the bedroom." Rayna patted his back.
"I wanna know how you get away with your cleanin' lady only comin' twice a week. There's only one of me and mine comes every day." Joel looked shocked.
"I clean up after myself that's how that works. And I actually clean I don't save all the work for someone else. It doesn't kill me to pick up a mop and broom." JC laughed at him.
"I have four kids under the age of ten plus two twenty-somethings that are in and out of here all the time. My cleaning lady still only comes three times a week. I don't wanna know what you're doin' to make that kind of mess." Rayna arched her eyebrow.
"You're right you don't. Football parties get a little out of hand sometimes. I think we are actually worse than musicians when it comes to that." Joel admitted.
"It sounds like you might be." Rayna agreed with him there.
"Mom, about the mess in here we meant to clean that up we just never got around to it." Maddie said from the doorway.
"I know it'll be clean by the time I get your dad home tomorrow. I don't wanna deal with him if it's not and you don't wanna deal with me if I have to deal with him." Rayna warned her.
"If we blamed it on Charlie he wouldn't fly off the handle. We all know how much his little Pistol gets away with." Maddie suggested.
"I promise you that it's not gonna kill you to throw some trash away and to vacuum the floor." Rayna looked at her like she had lost her mind.
"It actually may though." JC muttered.
"Jimmy," Maddie glared at him.
"Sorry," JC mumbled.
"That's what I thought." Maddie rolled her eyes.
"Joel, I apologize for those two." Daphne sighed.
"Daphne, don't worry about it. They are fine." Joel assured her.
"Ok, I need to get back to the hospital before Deacon and Paul have a chance to get into it." Rayna said.
"I still can't believe that you left those two alone together." Maddie didn't think that was a very good idea.
"I didn't have a choice or I wouldn't have done it." Rayna grabbed Deacon a set of clothes out of his drawer. He would have nothing to wear home otherwise.
Deacon sat in the recliner picking his guitar and Paul sat in a chair across from him picking a guitar. The two had been playing music together to help them stay off of each other's nerves.
"Are you supposed to be doing that?" Mike stood in the doorway.
"Nope," Deacon replied.
"Does it hurt to do it?" Mike asked.
"Yep," Deacon nodded.
"Are you gonna stop?" Mike chuckled.
"Nope," Deacon shook his head.
"If you're not in unbearable pain I'm not gonna make you stop either. You guys sounded pretty damn good. I've been listening in while I do my rounds." Mike pulled on a pair of gloves to check Deacon's incision. "This looks really good. It's not infected or anything."
"Good. I should hope that we sound good. I make a livin' playin' guitar and he's a songwriter." Deacon retorted.
Mike looked between them. "This your dad? You look a lot like him."
"Yeah, I guess you could call him that. Paul Claybourne, this is my doctor Mike Hutchins. Mike, this is my father Paul." Deacon introduced them.
"Nice to meet you." Mike shook Paul's hand.
"Nice to meet you too." Paul smiled politely.
"You still lettin' me out of this hell hole tomorrow?" Deacon asked hopefully.
"I sure am. I want you gone, the nurses want you gone, and your wife wants you gone. Though I feel sorry for Rayna. You're in one hell of a foul ass mood." Mike answered.
"It's mostly because I'm cooped up in here. I'll be better when I get outta here." Deacon told a little white lie. His mood would last for as long as he couldn't do everything that he was used to doing.
"Would two mind playing me a little something as long as I'm in here?" Mike asked them.
"We can do that." Paul answered. "You wanna start?"
"Yeah, I'll start." Deacon started picking a tune. "Cowboys ain't easy to love and they're harder to hold. They rather give you a song than diamonds or gold."
"Lone star belt buckles and old faded Levis. And each night begins a new day. If you don't understand him and he don't die young he'll probably just ride away." Paul picked up.
"Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Don't let 'em pick guitars or drive them old trucks. Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such. Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Cause they'll never stay home and they're always alone even with someone they love." Deacon and Paul sang together.
"Cowboys like smoky old pool rooms and clear mountain mornings." Paul sang.
"Little warm puppies and children and girls of the night." Deacon took that line.
"Them that don't know him won't like him and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him. He ain't wrong he's just different, but his pride won't let him do things to make you think he's right." Father and son actually smiled at each other when they sang that line. It pretty much described both of them very well.
Mike watched them with a smile on his face. This was as happy as he'd seen Deacon the whole time he'd been in the hospital. This was good for him as far as he was concerned.
"Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Don't let 'em pick guitars and drive them old trucks. Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such. Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Cause they'll never stay home and they're always alone even with someone they love." They finished in unison.
"Mike, you just got one hell of a treat. It's very rare that those two can get along long enough to play together." Rayna caught the tail end of the song.
"I thought that they sounded damn good together." Mike was impressed.
"The old man has one hell of a voice for someone his age. He plays down at the Mile Marker sometimes you should go check him out." Rayna agreed.
"I just may have to do that." Mike smiled. "He's all set to go home tomorrow. He's gonna be all yours. I just wanna keep him for observation tonight, but he is doing very well."
"Good that's what I like to hear. I miss my bed and I can't wait to sleep in it. And I will be really glad to have him home." Rayna sighed in relief.
"I can give him some happy pills if you think that'll make him easier to deal with." Mike offered.
"They wouldn't or I would take you up on that offer in a New York minute." Rayna whispered back.
"Hey, I heard that." Deacon frowned.
"I meant for you to hear it." Rayna rolled her eyes at him.
"I think I'm just gonna go before I get caught up in the middle of this." Paul started to pack up his guitar.
"You're not just gonna get up and walk out like that. This is the first time you've visited him. I ain't lettin' you off the hook that easily. You stay and help deal with him." Rayna laid a pretty good guilt trip on him.
"I'll be back to check on him a little later." Mike patted her shoulder.
"Thanks, Mike." Rayna smiled at him.
"I need to call a nurse. I need my pain meds. My chest hurts. I think I'm done playin' for a little while." Deacon winced as he put his guitar down.
"But it makes you happy." Rayna kissed his head.
"I know that I've been in a bad mood and I know that you have been great. I really love you and I don't deserve you." Deacon smiled up at her.
"I love you and that's why I put up with your crabby ass." Rayna winked at him.
"Lean down here and give me some real sugar." Deacon tilted his head up.
"I can arrange that." Rayna leaned down and kissed his lips.
Deacon kissed her back and he put his hand on her ass. "Mmm, that's the best damn medicine in the world."
"You are so damn bad, baby. That's how I know you're feelin' better though you're already tryin' to cop a feel." Rayna rested her forehead against his.
"DJ, I ain't leavin' ya, but I do have to go down to the cafeteria and get somethin' to eat. I have to take my shot soon." Paul could feel his blood sugar starting to get low.
"Or you can just order my lunch and have it. I still ain't hungry at all." Deacon offered.
"That works for me." Paul agreed.
"Babe, is there anythin' that sounds good that you will even attempt to eat?" Rayna asked him. She was really worried about him not eating.
"No, not really." Deacon replied.
"Deac, please for me?" Rayna begged him.
"I'd like a steak and some fries. That's the only thing that really sounds good to me right now I'm sorry." Deacon thought it over for a minute.
"I'll call Maddie and have her get that for you. Paul, what do you want? I'm not gonna subject you to this hospital food." Rayna had a soft spot for the old man and she couldn't help it.
"I'm good with what DJ is gettin'." Paul replied.
"Ok, I'll let Maddie know then." Rayna pulled out her phone to text Maddie.
"I want you people to know that I have better things to do with my day than play delivery driver for you." Maddie walked in twenty minutes later with their food.
"No you don't. I happen to know that you pushed your schedule back." Rayna got her there.
"Doesn't mean I can't attempt to make the two of them feel guilty." Maddie grumbled.
"Thank you, Princess. Your daddy appreciates everythin' that you've been doin' to help out. Your momma and I couldn't ask for a better daughter and big sister." Deacon laid it on thick.
Maddie bent down and kissed Deacon's cheek. "You're welcome, daddy. I know that you're just saying that. I have my moments when I'm not so great and I'll admit to that. But it is nice to know that you think so highly of me."
"You're my baby girl I'll always think only the best things 'bout you." Deacon winked at her.
"I know what you are, cause you're part of me." Paul joked with her.
Maddie kissed the top of her grandfather's head. "Hi, Pa. You behaving yourself?"
"Never, you know me better than that. I'm always getting in trouble. You should know that by now." Paul grinned.
"I do know better than that. Like you said you're where I get it from. I'm surprised you've been in the room this long without needing a smoke break." Maddie arched her eyebrow.
"You need to stop before you get me in more trouble than usual." Paul scratched the back of his head.
"Unless of course your started spitting your tobacco like my fiancé does." Maddie made a disgusted face.
Rayna took the food out of the bags and got it set up. "Babe, do you want me to cut this up for you or do you think that you can manage?"
"I'm pretty sure that it'll make you feel better to do it for me, so I won't stop ya." Deacon didn't want to admit needing help.
"Mhmm, I'm sure you're just doing it for my benefit." Rayna cut a bite off of his steak. "Open," She ordered him.
Deacon opened his mouth and grinned after she fed him a bite of steak. "Thank you, Ray."
"I just want you to know how much I have to love you to do this for you." Rayna told him.
"I know, baby, and I love you that much too. You know I'd do this for you in a heartbeat. I'm just sorry that you're havin' to do it for me. You shouldn't always have to be taken care of my ass." Deacon apologized.
"Don't you dare apologize, baby. You couldn't help it. Now, shut up and eat your steak." Rayna kissed his head and fed him another bite.
A/N: Here is the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I wanted to get one out to you on Nashville day. The wait is finally over Nashies. Until next time please review.
