Deacon awoke to the sound of the alarm on Rayna's phone. He looked over at the clock. It was 5 am.

"Babe," he whispered, smoothing her hair away from her face. "Time to get up."

Rayna rolled toward him and gave him a sleepy smile. "Why is it so early?" she asked.

Deacon leaned in and kissed her. "Because you need to get home and act like you slept there all night. Now, hop in the shower and I'll make you some coffee."

"How about you get in the shower with me and I'll stop at Starbucks on the way home?" Rayna countered.

Deacon laughed and kissed her again. "Much as I love that idea, I know how long that shower would take and you need to get moving, babe."

Rayna reluctantly rolled out of Deacon's bed and headed for the bathroom. "Hey, any worries I'm going to run into anyone here?"

Deacon shook his head. "No sign of Scarlett's car...the bus was supposed to get back last night, but I'm thinking she made a stop off to see someone before coming home."

"Good to know," Rayna answered as she stepped into the small bathroom off Deacon's bedroom. She stopped and stuck her head back out. "Last chance to get in here with me."

"Next time," Deacon replied as he slid his jeans up his legs and reached for a t-shirt. "Now get moving. I don't want to be busted by Daphne again."

Rayna walked out of Deacon's room, her hair wrapped in one of his bath towels. She crossed to the kitchen and walked up behind him, putting her arms around him as he stood in front of the stove scrambling eggs.

"That smells amazing, babe," she said as she tightened her arms around him.

Deacon turned toward her and kissed her. "I love having you here in the morning, but that reminds me-how exactly did you get in my house last night?"

Rayna smiled at him. "Deacon, you still keep a key under that flower pot on the porch. I mean, how many times did I tell you that's the first place a thief's going to look?"

"Guess it just depends on who's gonna come stealin' into my bedroom," he replied, smiling at her. "Okay, eat up these eggs and let me get you a cup of coffee and then you better get out of here."

Rayna took the plate from Deacon and sat down at the table. "Thanks, babe."

Deacon handed her a mug of coffee and sat down with his own plate. "I've missed having you here."

"I notice you didn't change out your bed," Rayna teased. "That has to be the same mattress as the one we had when I lived here. I remember the lumps."

"Didn't want to get rid of our bed," Deacon replied, his voice quiet.

Rayna took another sip of her coffee, then reached her hand across to take his. "I can't decide how to think about the past. We can't change it and I don't want us to spend all of our time now wishing it away. We need to own our story, our truth and be stronger here, together."

Deacon nodded, then leaned in toward her, kissing her.

Rayna slid her hand around his back and pulled him closer, kissing him deeply. "I love you, Deacon Claybourne."

They finished the kiss and she smiled at him. "So, the girls are going to have dinner with Teddy tonight, so you and me...how about a date?"

"A date?" Deacon asked. "Aren't we a little old for that?"

"Be ready at 6 pm," Rayna instructed. "I'll pick you up. And dress smart."

"Smart?" Deacon asked as Rayna stood up and grabbed her purse.

"No flannel," she explained.

Rayna looked up from her computer at the sound of Bucky knocking on the glass door to her office.

"You ready to talk about those demos I sent over last week?" Bucky asked as he sat down in the chair in front of her desk.

"Uh," Rayna started, her eyes going again to the screen. She looked back up at him. "Sorry, Buck, I haven't gotten all the way through them. Things are...can you give me another day or two?"

"Sure, Rayna," Bucky replied. "Is everything okay? Is it the girls?"

Rayna pressed a smile across her face. "It's...I'm just gonna need a little time, Bucky. And for now, can I ask you not to ask more questions? Can you...can you cover things for me for a bit?"

"Sure, Ray, anything," Bucky replied. "But you let me know if I can do something to help, right?"

Rayna nodded. "Of course."

Bucky got up and walked out of the office, closing the door. Rayna quickly returned to the website she'd been reading when he walked in a few minutes ago.

LIVER CANCER STAGES

Her eyes traveled down the page filled with words she either didn't understand or didn't want to understand. T groups and N groups and M groups. What was the stage of his cirrhosis?

POTENTIALLY RESECTABLE OR TRANSPLANTABLE CANCERS

What if his disease progressed before they could find a new liver? Her head dropped into her hands and she sat that way for a moment, then pulled out her phone and slid a card from her purse.

"I would like to speak to Doctor Caleb Rand, please," she spoke into the phone. "Please tell him it's Rayna Jaymes calling."

"Welcome home," Deacon said, looking over his glasses at his niece as she walked in the door. "How'd the tour go?"

"It's been...interesting," Scarlett replied as she set her suitcase down. "I am in serious need of doin' some laundry, though."

"Not so serious you raced home last night, though," Deacon replied as he slid his glasses off and set down the guitar he'd been restringing on the couch next to him. "You make a house call?"

Scarlett smiled and blushed. "Maybe. How about you-how're you feeling?"

"Uh...better, I guess," Deacon said.

Scarlett came over and sat down on the chair across from him. "I saw that you played at the Opry. With the girls. And Rayna. How'd that go?"

"Good...hard...stirred a bunch of stuff up, that's for sure," Deacon responded. "I...I went up to the cabin and she followed me up there."

"Did you tell her?" Scarlett asked, leaning forward.

Deacon nodded. "I did. It was hard. Hardest thing I've ever done. And then we told the girls."

Scarlett got up and moved over next to him. "I'm proud of you-I know it was really hard, but you needed to tell them."

Deacon raised his hand up to brush away the tears that had formed in his eyes. "I know...but it's been really hard. I mean, Rayna's been real upbeat, but I can see in her eyes it's breaking her heart. And Maddie...Scarlett, she won't even look at me. I can't believe I'm doing this to her."

Scarlett put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry she's takin' it hard, but I"m so glad you told them. Maybe...maybe it'll get to be easier, tellin' people and such."

Deacon shrugged. "I had to tell them, but I don't know about other folks. I just...I don't want to see that pity in their eyes."

"It's not necessarily pity, Deacon," Scarlett replied. "Sometimes it's love. Sometimes it's concern. Sometimes it's worry."

"I told Teddy," Deacon replied. "Believe me, it wasn't love or concern or worry on his face."

"I get it," Scarlett replied. "Anyway, I'm real glad you told Rayna and the girls. And it's gonna be okay, Deacon. I know it is."

Deacon reached over and picked it guitar back up. "I hope so, cause the alternative just ain't that great."

Rayna walked down the hallway of the hospital. Even though she'd only been there the day before, Deacon had led the way and she had to admit she hadn't paid a lot of attention to where they went.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" a nurse asked as she stood at the corner of two hallways.

She looked down at a slip of paper in her hand. "I'm looking for Room 235, uh, Dr. Rand's office."

"It's right down this way," the woman pointed to her left. "Just follow the signs to Hepatology."

"Thank you," Rayna said and headed that direction. Hepatology. She didn't even know what the word meant.

Finally things looked familiar and she found the office. She knocked on the door and was greeted by Deacon's doctor.

"Thank you for finding some time to see me," Rayna said as she walked into the office. "I'm sure you're very busy."

"I'm glad it worked out. You said you had some more questions?" the doctor said as he took a seat behind his desk.

Rayna sat down and pulled out a small notebook. "I spent a little time online this morning and I guess I just got overwhelmed by all of the information and not knowing what was relevant to Deacon's condition and what wasn't."

Caleb Rand nodded. "Yes, the best and worst thing right now is the internet. It's very tempting to go out there and find all the information you can and in some instances, that can be very helpful, but there are also some things that may not be relevant here."

"So, I read about different stages, about what happens with cirrhosis, but what I don't understand is why this would be happening now, so many years after Deacon stopped drinking."

The doctor looked down at the chart in front of him and then shrugged. "The problem is we can't ever know for sure. I've looked back at his medical records and there were some indications of potential liver issues but honestly, nothing that I would have probably picked up on either. According to Deacon, he was sick last fall and that virus probably exacerbated an underlying issue. But we can't go back and change any of that, so at this point we need to look at what is possible and right now that's a liver transplant."

"And what's the chances of that?" Rayna asked.

"It's not impossible, that's for sure," Caleb replied. "For a variety of reasons, the wait in this region is lower than in others, so we have a better chance of finding a donor liver than, say, if he lived in California."

"And what could go wrong before the transplant? What should I be watching for?"

"He may begin to retain fluid and then we would need to drain it. He might have neurological symptoms like a few weeks ago. His energy is probably going to start to diminish and you do need to watch that because my sense is that Deacon isn't going to be willing to show any weakness."

Rayna nodded. "You got that one right. What else? He said something about a special diet?"

"We want him to avoid salt, eat more protein, make sure he's getting enough nutrients. He's going to not always want to eat, so watch for that. But honestly, the most important thing…"

"What?" Rayna asked.

"You need to stay positive for him, make sure he's keeping some hope. This waiting, not knowing...it's one of the hardest things I see people go through and it's easy to give up. Making sure he doesn't give up is the most important thing you can do for him."

Rayna looked up and smiled at him. "Okay, I can definitely do that."

Rayna pulled the Escalade up in front of Deacon's house and smiled. She had a perfect evening planned for them. She got out of the truck and headed up toward Deacon's door. As she reached to press the bell, she looked in the window and saw him,on the couch, asleep. She stood there for a moment, then pulled her phone from her purse and pressed redial.

"Hey, Cindy, can we change the location?" She listened for a moment, then gave her Deacon's address. "Yeah, maybe in an hour or so-there's a patio in back, just set it up there."

When she had finished the arrangements, she reached under the flower pot where she'd replaced the key that morning and let herself into his house.

Deacon was sound asleep and as she stood there, she could see some of the signs of the illness that for whatever reason she'd missed before. She felt a tear come to her eye and quickly reached up to brush it away. She had heard everything Dr. Rand had said and she wasn't going to do anything that would give Deacon a reason to give up. Not one thing.