Disclaimer: I do not own Nashville or any of the characters – they belong to Callie Khouri

Author's Note: This is my first Nashville story, it's set in Season 1 but deviates from the storyline somewhat. Hopefully people will like it. I would love to hear your thoughts and reviews are always hugely appreciated. Please enjoy.

RAYNA

Hey. I really like Stacey. I'm happy for you.

Rayna was having a difficult time understanding what had possessed her to say that, because it wasn't the truth, not even close. It wasn't really about Stacey. Stacey seemed like a very nice, very well adjusted, normal person. She was friendly and smiled at all the right people and interjected at appropriate times in conversations. She was intelligent and well educated and seemed to be supportive of Deacon's music, even though she appeared to know nothing about country per se. She was a sweet, wholesome and pretty uncomplicated girl. She was possibly the least offensive girlfriend Deacon had ever had. But that didn't make Rayna feel any better about it. As much as she knew she should just be happy for Deacon – that he had found a nice, pretty vet to settle down with, she just wasn't.

It wasn't that long ago that Deacon had pressed her up against an elevator wall and kissed her, like he meant it, like he wanted it to go somewhere. In reality, she had wanted it to go somewhere, and it might have, had Teddy not shown up at her hotel room to ask for a divorce, or if Deacon had replied to her text. She had been excited and nervous all at the same time when she heard the knock on her door, just a couple of minutes after she sent Deacon the text inviting him to 'talk'. She had fully expected to find Deacon on the other side of her door, ready to finish what he'd started in the elevator. She had not been expecting her husband. The irony of it was that she'd been fully prepared to cheat on Teddy, and whilst she was waiting, he turned up to end things.

Whatever the kiss in the elevator was supposed to have meant, it was well over by now. Deacon hadn't tried anything again, and he'd been mostly annoyed with her until his birthday party. She wished she'd told him about the divorce sooner, or at least told him instead of Liam. Not that she didn't like Liam, or appreciate his kindness, she did. Liam was hot and fun, and he'd actually been very kind when she'd ended up a crying mess on his bathroom floor instead of enthusiastically partaking in recreational activities in his bed, as he had clearly expected. Liam had been kind, but Deacon was the person she'd really wanted to talk to. She was going to tell him too, but then that damn magazine printed a double page spread of almost entirely lies about her, a small section on her and Teddy getting divorced, and what turned out to be a not so untrue story about Teddy's involvement with Peggy Kenter. That was not how she would've chosen for Deacon to find out, especially as the article had insinuated that she had slept with both Deacon and Liam whilst still with Teddy. Neither of which were true.

She had always been faithful to Teddy. Teddy had always been uneasy about her relationship and history with Deacon, and she'd spent some of their earlier years having to convince him that she'd chosen him and that there was nothing going on between her and Deacon. The problem was Teddy knew he hadn't been Rayna's first choice and there was always a part of her that wondered if things would've been different if she'd told Deacon about Maddie. If Deacon would've gotten sober for a baby, if he could've stayed sober for a baby. Deacon wasn't a violent drunk, he'd never laid a hand on Rayna, but all the times he turned up at a gig too drunk to play, or didn't turn up at all. All the times she'd had to pull him out of a bar where he'd drunk himself into a stupor or a hotel room where he'd passed out. She couldn't trust him to be a father. She couldn't risk him being around a baby when he was like that. Teddy wanted to be a father, and wanted to be her husband, and he was a good father, and he had been a good husband, until he wasn't. But regardless she had always been faithful. There had been times, like before she found out she was pregnant with Daphne, or after a particularly bad argument with Teddy, when she'd wanted to go to Deacon, but she didn't. She owed it to her daughters, to keep their stable home stable, and going to Deacon would've destroyed that.

It was clear Deacon felt hurt that she hadn't told him about the divorce. That he had to find out, like everyone else, in the press. It was made worse that he was being accused of having something to do with the breakdown of her marriage. She knew Deacon wasn't exactly going to be upset that she and Teddy had split up, Deacon liked Teddy about as much as Teddy liked him, which was not at all. But she and Deacon had always retained a closeness, an ability to share things with one another, and something as big as this – a divorce – was exactly the sort of thing she would share.

So, things had headed south pretty quickly. She'd thought maybe they might be able to repair things a little after she'd spoken to him at his surprise birthday party. But then Juliette had gifted him a puppy - enter Stacey. Things with him and Stacey appeared to have moved very fast. In fairness, it wasn't like she'd ever known Deacon to waste time in relationships. After he actually got sober and settled back into life, it was a while before he started dating. He seemed to jump from woman to woman, and they never seemed to stick around for long. On tour, they'd often last no longer than a night, such was the nature of constantly being on the road. But he hadn't ever brought a girl on tour with him, he'd had flings with crew or the odd musician on the same tour, but he'd never brought someone from outside the music world with him. She'd always seen his romantic entanglements as relationships of convenience – until now. She hadn't really considered how she felt about it. She supposed there was a kind of safety in the way Deacon never seemed to get tied down. She knew he wasn't hers anymore – she'd made that blindingly obvious when she married someone else. But, she liked knowing he was there, and that there was nothing too serious going on. She didn't want to feel jealous – but she did all the same.

So here she was at three o clock in the morning, staring at the ceiling of her lavish hotel room, wide awake. She let out a long sigh and shuffled a little under the duvet, she could feel herself scowling.

She picked up her phone, opening up messages and scrolling. She didn't know what she expected to see. Deacon hardly ever texted so he wasn't exactly at the top of her list. Her thumb hovered over the new message icon, before she grumbled, put the phone back down on the night stand and continued to scowl at the ceiling.

DEACON

He liked Stacey. Bringing her out on tour had seemed like a great idea at the time. If Stacey was on tour with him, then she'd be able to distract him from thinking about Rayna. Right? Or at least that was what he told himself. He had believed it too, until he ran into Rayna, Tandy and the girls outside of the hotel. She was smiley and friendly to Stacey, maintaining just enough professional distance. But seeing her again, especially after his birthday, simply reminded him why his other past relationships never seemed to work. He couldn't ever get completely over Rayna.

When she had married Teddy it had hurt – a lot. Her decision to keep him as her band leader and his decision to agree to it, had always been more about Rayna than the music. He loved music, obviously he loved music, and for a long time he never believed he would love anything – especially not a person more, then he met Rayna.

It wasn't love at first sight. He thought she was attractive and talented, and to be fair she did inspire a song, but it was gig to begin with. Watty had seen him play guitar and sing at an open mic and asked him how he felt about playing guitar for a new, young artist who he knew could go all the way. He'd agreed to meet with her, he liked her style and they got on and the rest was, as they say – history. It wasn't long before they realized they liked each other as more than just friends. He worked his way out of his relationship with his on again off again girlfriend for good, and soon after he and Rayna began dating. Things had probably moved quicker than they expected. She'd moved in with him a couple of weeks before she turned seventeen, when her father had thrown her out of the family home.

Deacon's relationship with Rayna had always been tumultuous. When they were first coming up in the business, things had been good. They were young and passionate, and as often seemed the case in young relationships, they felt like together they could take on the world. As Rayna's career began to really take off, they travelled to bigger venues and the parties were wilder. It hadn't been long before he was getting blackout drunk several times a week. He had missed shows and she'd ended up having to change her set to accommodate one of her secondary guitar players. Once Luke Wheeler had had to fill in for him. He'd wanted to be angry when he'd found out. Wheeler had come up in the business with them and it had been obvious from the first time they ever crossed paths he had a thing for Rayna. He'd wanted to be angry and jealous, but he knew that if he'd just stayed sober for that night, that show, Rayna wouldn't have needed Luke to stand in. In the end, it seemed like he'd let her down one too many times and it seemed like he'd lost her for good.

But all of that was ancient history, and now he was with Stacey. Stacey was good for him. She was intelligent, cute, fun and uncomplicated. Uncomplicated was exactly what he needed in his life. His life had, more often than not been a tangled mess of lost love and a past marred by his alcoholism. Stacey offered the opportunity of a clean slate. He'd been clean for years now and had more good days than bad with regard to that. He was playing guitar for Juliette Barnes, and whilst not all of her set list was music that he loved or created it was a good gig. Juliette could be dramatic but there weren't any complicated emotions there anymore. He was an ally when she needed him to be and a guitar player the rest of the time.

But he couldn't help coming back to the thought, the voice in his head repeating over and over – Stacey isn't Rayna. He felt bad to think it, but in all honesty, he couldn't deny it – he would rather be with Rayna. Other women were nice, attractive and good for some fun, but they didn't hold his attention the way Rayna did. He squinted at Stacey's sleeping form in the darkness. He knew he should stay put, next to his pretty, innocent girlfriend. He should close his eyes and sleep until morning. That was what he should've done.

He climbed out of bed and pulled on his jeans as quietly as possible. He picked up his boots and slipped out of the door. Once outside the room, he roughly pulled his boots on and headed to the elevator.

He knew which room she had. She always stayed in a penthouse suite and he'd heard Tandy mention the room number as she cajoled the girls upstairs earlier that day as Maddie whined about wanting to go to Juliette's sound check. Rayna would always have Tandy and the girls share her room when they were out on tour with her. Ever since the girls had been born, she would forgo an after party if it meant more time with her daughters. That night hadn't been any different. She came on stage at the end of Juliette's set to finish with Wrong Song, but he hadn't seen her after that. So, he knew there was a good chance she'd be asleep by now, yet he still ended up exiting the elevator on the top floor and heading to her room.

He looked at the door. He knew he shouldn't really be here, and he also wasn't sure what to do now that he was. Perhaps if they hadn't been in New York, if Tandy and the girls weren't with her, he'd simply knock on the door. He wouldn't have to explain himself to anyone, except maybe to Rayna. He knew how it would go if he knocked and Tandy answered the door. He imagined Tandy, entirely dressed and put together, raising one condescending eyebrow at him. She hadn't ever made any effort to hide her disapproval of Deacon. Deacon could understand if her disapproval had started after his alcoholism, but Tandy hadn't liked him from day one. She loved Rayna and was a lot more supportive of her career than Lamar had been, but that was where it stopped. Tandy had always just seen Deacon as below them, from the 'wrong side of the tracks'. He didn't see the girls answering the door, but if they woke up, how could he possibly explain what he was doing visiting their mother at three fifteen in the morning. Deacon loved Rayna's girls, he'd known them both since they were babies. He hated the idea of causing any confusion or chaos in their lives. He sighed, and was turning to leave, when the door opened.