Chapter 1

Rayna Jaymes was sitting in the passenger seat of her boyfriends truck and she had just dropped a bombshell that would change their lives forever. It had been a little over a year since she had met this boy and what once started out as innocent flirtation and a strictly professional relationship - quickly turned to more and more eventually lead to days and nights that still replayed over in her mind every single day. Never in her wildest dreams did Rayna think she would have found herself in this situation before her career had even taken off. Ever since she was a little girl, she had a 5-10 year plan. She was going to do what she loved more than anything - make music, then she was going to fall in love, get married and have kids - one boy and one girl. Her dreams were to continue to write, and make music all while watching her kids grow up with her husband on their front porch overlooking the water of her mother's lake front property.

Unfortunately for Rayna, people plan and God laughs, because her career was no where close to being off the ground. She wasn't married but she was entangled with a bad boy that made her heart flutter and skip a beat all at the same time and now, well, now Rayna was the one thing a teenage girl didn't want to be.

"What did you just say?" Deacon asked as he stared blankly at her,

"I said I'm pregnant"

"No, no way."

"I took 3 tests and they were all positive." Rayna looked down at her hands in her lap and sighed.

"Shit. We need to get rid of it, Rayna." Deacon put his face in his hands

"I don't even know how this happened, I thought we were careful"

"I'm serious Rayna. We need to get rid of it. I don't want this baby. We're too young."

Rayna shook her head over and over again and pleaded with Deacon with her eyes. She didn't believe in abortion. She was scared, terrified even. Scared of what her life would be like if she kept the baby and scared of losing Deacon if she did and he truly didn't want to be a parent. They had only officially been together for a few months but she was already absolutely head over heels in love with him. The attraction was stronger than it was when they first met and Rayna's feelings were more than they had ever been.

"I don't think I could get rid of it,"

"If you don't then I'll be stuck with a baby I don't want just to be with you."

Deacon had no desire to become a parent. He knew deep down that he would end up screwing his kids up just like he had been growing up. While Rayna made him want a different life and he desperately wanted it with her - he knew that he wasn't ready to call himself someone's father and he didn't know if he ever would be ready. Ever since he had laid eyes on Rayna he knew that she was the one. The one that he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with if she could accept him for what was and for what he didn't have. The future was something that hadn't talked about in depth aside from their dreams. He knew she wanted the career, the house, the kids and all of that but he never told her that he wasn't that guy.

"I don't fuckin want it Rayna! Just do what's right for both of us and get rid of it!"

Rayna jumped a little in the seat at his outburst and looked down and bit her bottom lip as she tried to hold back the tears. "Will you just take me home?"

"No, I'm not taking you home until we figure this out. I want you to get rid of this fuckin baby. I do not want it not now and maybe not ever." He gripped the steering wheel tightly and exhaled loudly in frustration. "This will ruin our lives."

"Then I'll keep the baby and we can just go our separate ways since you don't want this and never will. I'm not going to force you to be here if you don't want to be." Rayna said sadly,

"I want to be with you but I don't want this. Can't you give it up after?"

Rayna looked up at him and shook her head, "I can't carry this baby, your baby for 9 months and give her up. I'm giving you an out here. We didn't mean for this to happen. It was one night of unprotected sex, I told you that we should still be using condoms."

"I don't want the out. I'm not gonna walk away. You know why we stopped using the condoms. I couldn't feel a damn thing, the sex wasn't good for me when we used them. " He started the truck, "I'll just take you home."

Deacon threw his truck in drive and he drove across town and dropped Rayna off at her apartment she shared with her sister. They didn't speak before he sped off and Rayna made her way into the house where she dropped her things by the front door and began to sob, unsure of what to do or if he would even come back.

Vince was sitting on the couch drinking a beer when Deacon came charging into the apartment and snatched a beer out of the fridge. Vince watched him and gave him a weird look. In all the years he had know him, he had only seen Deacon like that a handful of times and it was usually after he had a run in with his dad.

"Where you been?" Vince asked,

"Out. Rayna is pregnant and I wanna be drunk"

Vince sat up on the couch and spit his beer out across the living room, "No shit?"

Deacon downed the beer and grabbed another one and sat down on the couch next to Vince, "No shit. She just told me"

"Don't you know what a condom is? Her daddy is gonna have your ass. She's underage. What are you gonna do? I didn't even know you were hitting it, thought she was gonna make you wait until she was 18."

"Shut up. I know she's underage, which is why I told her to get rid of it. She wants to keep it, I guess." He drank his beer, "She wanted to wait but we didn't. So, I guess I'm gonna have a baby since she won't get rid of it."

"Damn, you ok?"

"Nope but I will be"

Vince grabbed the rest of the beer from the fridge and the whiskey off the counter and sat it in front of them on the coffee table. He knew that when Deacon wanted to get something off his mind and be drunk, that he would do whatever he needed to make that happen as fast as possible.

"She scared?" He asked and Deacon nodded his head. "Not surprised, she's young."

"Yeah she is" He drained his beer,

Vince shook his head and handed him another beer and Deacon drank that one just as quickly. He watched as Deacon drained beer after beer in no time.

"Damn slow down"

Deacon reached for another and began to drink it. "Don't want to"

"You can't just drink your problems away man."

"Right now I wanna be drunk" Deacon shot him a look and they drank together for the next couple of hours.

Rayna eventually got up from the floor by the front door and made her way into the living room and sat down on the couch. By the time Tandy had gotten home from her date, Rayna was sitting there with red, puffy eyes from all the crying.

"What's wrong?" Tandy walked over

"Everything,"

Tandy had always been skeptical of her younger sisters relationship with Deacon Claybourne. It was a mixture of the age difference and the fact that they came from two completely different backgrounds and family dynamics.

"Did you have a fight with Deacon?"

Rayna shook her head and sighed, "Kinda."

"What about this time?"

"Because I'm pregnant" She cried,

Tandy sat there in shock for a moment before she pulled her close and hugged her tightly. "Oh babe. What do you wanna do? I'll help you or I can tell daddy and mom for you"

"Deacon wants me to get rid of it. I don't want to tell Daddy because I already know how he feels about Deacon and how you feel about him too. Plus, I don't want him to get in trouble since he's older than me. I know Mom will be disappointed but I'm not ready to tell her either,"

"What do you want?

Rayna shrugged, "I don't know. I just turned 17. I didn't even want to be having unprotected sex to begin with but he said it would be ok. I mean, he pulls out almost every time."

"That isn't 100% effective. If he pulls out too late you can still get pregnant." She paused, "I'll make you an appointment to get rid of it. Daddy never has to know."

"I don't want an abortion. I already told Deacon I wouldn't do it."

"Then we can handle that too but first let's get you to the doctor to get checked out." Tandy grabbed the phone and called and made a doctors appointment for Rayna.

Rayna sat there and nodded her head while Tandy made her an appointment with her doctor.

"Come on, I got you in for an appointment in an hour."

They made their way out to the car and towards the doctors office. Rayna sat in the passenger seat and sighed, "Should we have called Deacon?"

"I know you said that he didn't want it but is he gong to be involved if you keep it? Do you want him to be there?" Tandy asked as she drove,

Rayna hadn't even processed the fact that she was pregnant yet and she definitely hadn't thought about what she wanted if Deacon really didn't want to be apart of the babies life or her life anymore. She hoped that he would come around to the idea and that they could be a family but knowing what she knew about Deacon's past and his family. Rayna wasn't entirely sure that would ever happen.

"I think we should. I mean it's his even if he doesn't want it. I should still probably keep the line of communication open. Just so I can look back and say that I tried."

Tandy nodded and handed her phone to Rayna, "Call him, "

"Hello?" Deacon answered the phone,

"Hey, it's me. Tandy and I are going to the doctor. I know you said you don't want the baby but do you want to come with us?" She asked nervously,

"I know what I said, Ray and I do want to come but I need you to come get me."

"Alright, I'll come get you. We will be there soon."

Rayna hung up the phone and they drove to Deacon and Vince's apartment. Once they got there, Deacon walked outside and got in the car. The drive to the doctor was a silent and awkward car ride. Neither Deacon nor Rayna spoke to one another.

Tandy got out of the car and looked at Deacon when they got to the doctor's office. "Deacon you don't have to go in. I will go in with her." Tandy spoke,

"No, I'm gonna go in." He argued and got out of the car with them,

Rayna looked at him a little surprised, "You are?"

"Yeah I am,

Rayna nodded and they all three walked into he office. Where Rayna signed in and sat down. She was nervous and couldn't stop fidgeting with her hands while she waited for the nurse to call her back to the exam room. Deacon and Tandy both took one of her hands and they both tried to calm her down and ease her nerves.

"It'll be ok," Deacon told her as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze while he rubbed his thumb over the top of her hand.

"Will we?" She asked lowly and looked over at him,

He didn't respond but only nodded his head at her - before Rayna could say anything back to him - the nurse came out and called her back. Tandy waited in the waiting room while Deacon went back to the exam room with Rayna. Once the nurse had gotten her vitals, Rayna undressed and sat on the exam table and waited for the doctor. She watched as Deacon sat there and numbly stared at the wall. A small part of her was hoping that she read the tests wrong and that she wasn't actually pregnant - for the sake of not having to argue with Deacon about it anymore. Rayna knew that wasn't going to be the case though. She may have been young and she may have only ever slept with Deacon but she knew deep down that her body was growing something that they had created. They were going to be parents - whether they were ready to be or not.