"I think I... freaked out."

They're sitting next to each other near the water, the fishing rod forgotten for now.

"Do you mean because of... us? Is it going too fast? Meeting my sister and—"

"No, no, no, it's not that. The memories of my time in Nashville, they're all... tainted. My last year there was also the worst year of my life, and after I got sober, I left and started over, here. At the thought of going back... I freaked out for a second."

She can't believe it hadn't occurred to her before she'd asked him to come with her. "I'm sorry, babe." After everything he'd told her that night on his porch, how did she not think of that?

"I'm the one who's sorry. I made you miss your flight."

She waves her hand as to say it's not important. "I'll book another one. And if you'd rather stay here, it's more than okay, Deacon."

"No, I think I wanna go."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

She leans over for a long kiss, her forehead resting against his afterward. "We'll make new memories for you, the best kind," she promises. When they pull apart, she looks at the fishing rod. "Did you catch anything?" she asks.

"Nope."

She gets up and picks it up. She smiles when she remembers Scarlett trying to show her how to do this. She brings the rod back, holding the line with her finger, then letting it go when she whips the rod forward. When the line ends up in the water as it should and not stuck in a tree, she lets out a little squeal of satisfaction. Deacon chuckles and gets up to join her.

"Am I good at this or am I good at this?" she jests.

"You are."

"If I catch anything, we're going to have to take a pic for Scar."

He doesn't answer, and she can tell his mind still isn't fully here with her.

"Deacon?"

"Yeah?"

"You disappearing like that... it freaked me out."

—

Tandy was right when she'd said things had calmed down. No one bothers them at the airport, and no one's waiting at her front gate. It's her sister who picks them up and drops them off at Rayna's house. She has filled her fridge, and if Rayna were to judge by what's in there, she would suspect Tandy is hoping she's going to stay for more than a few days.

After Tandy's gone, Rayna proceeds to show Deacon around the house. She starts with the bedroom, though, and somehow, they never make it to the rest of the house. They're supposed to have dinner at Watty's house that evening, and when it's time to get ready, Deacon has to drag a playfully reluctant Rayna out of bed. He'd rather not get on Watty White's bad side on his first day here.

—

They pull up in front of Watty's house at the same time Bucky does, and Rayna's barely out of the car before she walks straight to her manager. They hug for a long time before either of them say anything. It's obvious they've missed each other.

"You look good, Rayna," he remarks, as they pull apart.

"There's someone I want you to meet, Buck." She turns to Deacon. "Bucky Dawes, this is Deacon Claybourne," she introduces them.

The men shake hands. "Welcome to Nashville," Bucky says with a large smile.

It's a warmer welcome than the one Deacon got from Tandy this afternoon. She was polite enough, but when it comes to her baby sister, she tends to be overprotective. She's been this way since their mom died. Tandy is the only close family Rayna has left now that they have both cut Lamar off their lives.

While they're talking, another car pulls up next to them. Adria gets out and all but leaps into Rayna's arms. "You're back! Finally!" She sighs exaggeratedly then, feigning to be hurt. "I suppose your postcard got lost?"

"We talked on the phone at least a dozen times, Adria."

"Still, it's nice to get mail," she jokes. She turns to Deacon. "I don't know you. Adria," she introduces herself, holding her hand out.

"Deacon."

She checks him out. "Now I understand why Rayna didn't want to come back."

"Behave, Adria," an amused Rayna warns her.

—

Deacon and Adria spend a good part of the dinner talking guitars, while Buck and Watty get Rayna up to date on what's been going on around town. The atmosphere is light and cheery, and Rayna is happy to note everyone is trying to make Deacon feel comfortable.

By the time they get to dessert, she's in the best of spirits.

Her mood changes, though, when Adria mentions she can't wait to get back on stage with her. She'd thought they would all avoid the topic. "I don't know when that will be," Rayna sighs.

"Well, it will be on... Friday," Adria points out, confused. Rayna looks at Adria like she doesn't understand, and Adria looks at Bucky like she doesn't understand. "I thought you knew since Bucky asked me to gather the band together for rehearsal tomorrow."

"What's going on here?" Rayna asks Bucky.

He and Watty glance at each other before Watty answers. "We want you to perform on Friday."

Rayna is baffled. "And y'all decided that without asking me first?"

"It would be the perfect occasion," Bucky finally says. "It would be one song, at the Opry. People miss you, it's a fact."

"I messed up so badly, I can't just come back like nothing happened."

After that, it turns into a bit of shouting match between Adria, Bucky and Rayna until Watty interrupts them.

"Ray," he says, calm but commanding enough that everyone shuts up and looks at him. "You only mess up if you don't get up, dust yourself off, and go back on. It's time. We all know you will step on a stage again. Better sooner than later."

—

Rayna is pissed.

She doesn't say a word the entire drive back, and Deacon figures it's best he keeps his mouth shut too.

"This wasn't a dinner, Deacon, this was a trap," she complains as she throws her purse on her kitchen counter and Deacon closes the front door behind them. "And I'm so sorry, it's not how I wanted you to meet them."

"I think the dinner went great. It's the dessert that got a little... awkward," he jokes, and when he smiles, she can't help but do the same.

She sits down. "I can't do this, Deacon. It's not the same as The Landslide. The minute I get back on stage here, everyone will talk about it. And to be honest, I'm not sure what they're going to say."

He settles on the stool next to hers. "Wanna bail and go fishing?" he asks.

She smiles. God, she loves him. "That's tempting."

He clears his throat. "Can I ask you something, though?"

"Of course."

"Are you pissed because Watty and Bucky are trying to force your hand or because they're right?" It's bold of him, but... touché.

"I'm not sure I could live without the stage," she admits. "I guess it's inevitable at some point I will want to go back." She pauses, then smiles, a conspiratorial smile. "Will you do it with me?" she asks. "Will you play guitar for me and stand on stage by my side?"

He's taken aback. "I'm not sure what Bucky or Watty would think of that."

"I'm the one who gets to decide. Would you like to do it?"

He hesitates for all of two seconds. "I would."

"Good, then it's settled. We'll do it," she says. He chuckles to himself. "What?" she asks.

"No, it's just... life can be funny sometimes. I never thought I'd be Rayna Jaymes' guitar player one day," he confesses, shaking his head in amusement.

At that, she recalls there's something they still need to talk about. She's not sure why she has waited so long. "On that note... there's something I should have told you about already, but it never was... the right time."

He frowns. "What?"

She takes a deep breath. "After the first night I saw you play, I called Watty. I was certain we'd never met, but your name sounded familiar somehow, so I wanted to know if maybe he'd heard of you. And... he had. He said he'd contacted you at the time he was helping me look for a guitar player, back when I was sixteen and starting out."

Deacon is stunned. "You were the girl he wanted me to meet?"

"So... you remember?"

"Yeah, I remember. I had no idea how he'd even heard of me or found my number, but I got a phone call from him one day. He said there was this young artist who was looking for a guitar player, and he thought we should meet."

"Why didn't you come to the Bluebird?"

"Bev called because she'd fought with Doug, again. She was hysterical over the phone, and so I had to go to Natchez... and I didn't get back in time. And then I assumed you don't get more than one chance with someone like Watty White, so I didn't even bother to try to call him back." He pauses. "Watty really remembered me? I never thought he would."

"He did."

They're silent for a long moment, both pondering the implications of what they've just learned. They could have met nine years ago already.

God knows how different things would have turned out.

—

When Rayna and Deacon walk into Soundcheck the next morning, most members of her band are already there, chatting on the edge of the stage.

"Hey, you guys." With the exception of Adria, it's the first time she sees them since she left. She takes time to hug each of them before she turns back to Deacon. "This is Deacon Claybourne, he'll be joining us today. Deacon, this is everyone."

She lets them all introduce themselves and chat with Deacon while she takes her drummer Josh aside. "Hey, I wanted to thank you again."

He smiles. "You look like you're doing much better. Told you this place would help."

"It did. More than you can imagine."

He looks over at Deacon. "Oh, I can imagine," he teases her, and she bumps his shoulder. "We missed you, Rayna," he adds before he walks back towards the others.

Adria waits until Rayna's alone before she approaches her. "About last night—" she starts, but Rayna doesn't let her finish.

"I'm really sorry, Adria. It was my fault. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did."

"We're good, then?" she asks.

"Of course we're good," Rayna reassures her, and the two of them hug. "I'm going to need your help for something, and I'm going to need you to lend a guitar to Deacon."

—

Deacon is the one who is technically making his Opry debut, and yet she's the one who is nervous. For all he'd been anxious to come to Nashville, he's been more in his element than ever since they arrived.

She, on the other hand, feels a kind of panic she hasn't felt in a long time. As she's standing on the side of the stage, she's petrified. She's not a hundred percent confident her body will obey when her brain will tell it it's time to walk out there. They've decided to do Already Gone as it sounded like the safest bet for her comeback, and even though she's played this one live hundreds of times before, it feels like the first time all over again.

When the speaker introduces her, her band goes first. Before he follows them, Deacon looks her way, smiling. "See you out there, baby," he says, and she swears... her nerves disappear.

She walks on stage.

She doesn't freeze.

The audience doesn't boo.

After the song is over, what they do, though, is get up and give her a standing ovation. She looks at Deacon behind her. He's beaming. When they walk off stage, she feels his hand on her shoulder. "You killed 'em," he whispers in her ear.

And like that, Rayna Jaymes is back.

—

When they get back to her house, she's wired. She feels on a high she might never come down from.

"You were so good tonight, baby," he says, and she hears the same excitation in his voice as the one she's feeling.

"No, you were so good."

His mouth is on hers after that, and she doesn't remember his eyes having ever been this dark of a blue. They manage to strip each other naked on their way to the bedroom, knocking a couple of record plaques off the hallway wall in the process. She wants him with a force she barely comprehends, and he's inside her the second they hit the bed. She comes harder she's ever had.

They're in her kitchen afterward, getting ice cream out of the freezer, when she says, "This thing between us, Deacon, it has never felt like this with anyone else before."

Time stands still as she waits for him to answer.

"Not even close, baby."

Maybe she could have feared he'd said it not to hurt her, only because she'd said it first, but she knows better by now. Deacon Claybourne doesn't lie.

—

TBC