My apologies for the long delay in this chapter-life got in the way! But I am back to writing and will have more chapters shortly. Thank you for reading and for your reviews. I deeply appreciate you taking the time to tell me what you think about the story. - RW

Rayna pulled into the driveway. She had wanted to get back to the hospital, but between the hours at the hospital and that feeling she had after she left the jail, she needed a shower. She had no more put the car into park when a black SUV pulled in behind her. She sighed and got out of the car.

"What do you mean you're suing me?" Juliette shouted as she climbed out of the truck.

Rayna sighed again and shook her head. "Juliette, I've got less than no time for this today. If you or your manager want to come to your senses and honor your contract, then make an appointment with Bucky and we can talk. Otherwise, I'll see you in court." She turned and began walking to the house when Juliette came up and grabbed her arm, pulling her back.

"Why not just let me go? You know you have no interest in serving my needs as an artist," Juliette ranted.

Rayna pulled her arm free. "Because, I don't think you're yourself, Juliette. And as someone who Deacon cares about, I'm willing to give you another chance to save yourself, but I'm telling you, I just don't have any energy, physical or emotional to deal with your shit. So, make your choice-keep going down this path and I'll fight you to the end or come back and we can make a reasonable plan."

Juliette stood for a moment, then turned and headed back to her vehicle. As she opened the door, she paused. "Then I guess you can expect to hear from my attorney. Cause, friendship or not, no way in hell I'm going to play second banana to any of your drama, Rayna."

Rayna paused, opening her mouth to say something about Deacon's condition, then decided it wasn't worth it, turned and walked into the house. Closing the door behind her, she sank to the floor, the stress of everything that had happened in the past couple of days suddenly washing over her.

"Deacon," she choked out as the tears ran down her face.

A few minutes later, hearing Tandy's car pull up in the driveway, she pushed up off the floor and walked into the kitchen, attempting to clean up her face before her sister walked in with the girls.

"Mom," Daphne said as she crossed to Rayna and threw her arms around her.

"How's Deacon?" she asked the girls.

"Still asleep," Maddie replied. "But Aunt Beverly was with him and said we should come home and spend some time with you. I'm sure he's feeling so much better having her there, too."

Rayna nodded, not trusting what she might actually say if she was forced to respond to Maddie's observation.

"Did you talk to Dad?" Daphne asked quietly. "Is he okay?"

Rayna nodded as she leaned across the counter, reaching out to take the girls hands as they sat on the tall kitchen stools. "I did go see him and we both want you to be able to go and see him as well."

"Is he okay?" Maddie repeated Daphne's question.

Rayna took in a deep breath and looked over at Tandy. Her sister nodded slowly.

"So, your dad-you know he loves you both so much," Rayna started. "But, he made some bad choices."

"Like what?" Daphne asked.

"Is he going to jail like Paw Paw?" Maddie asked.

Rayna squeezed their hands a bit tighter. "He did some things he should not have done and yes, he's going to go to jail like Paw Paw did. But unlike your grandfather, he's taking responsibility for those decisions. He's admitting what he did wrong and promising to not do it again."

"How long will he be gone?" Maddie asked, her voice quiet.

Rayna looked over at her oldest, her eyes filling with tears. "He's gonna go to jail, for a while."

"But we can see him?" Daphne asked.

Rayna nodded. "Yes, they're going to let you see him tonight before they take him from the county jail."

"But that's when they're gonna wake Dad up," Maddie said quietly. "I wanted to be there…"

"I know, baby," Rayna replied. "And you can decide what you want to do, but I think it would be really good for you to go with your sister and see Teddy. Then you can come and see Deacon. And we don't know that he'll wake up right away, this is just when they're going to stop the hypnotherapy. It will be fine if you come check on him a bit later after you've seen Teddy."

"Please come with me," Daphne said quietly. "I think you should come."

Maddie looked at her mom first, then at her younger sister. "Okay, I will."

Rayna stepped back onto the floor where Deacon's room was located. She found herself slowing as she got closer, hoping that some kind of a miracle would have happened, that Deacon would be sitting in his bed, smiling and listening as Beverly reminded him one more time that Rayna had derailed his sister's career.

But as she stood outside the room, she could see that he was much as she'd left him a few hours earlier, with all the tubes and monitors, the ventilator breathing for him and the cooling blankets covering his body.

"Where is he?" Rayna asked as she ran into the emergency room.

"Miss?" the clerk at the admitting desk called after her as she rushed down the hall, desperately looking in room after room.

She pulled up in front of the trauma room where she could see Vince's bloodied body on the table. A nurse came out of the room.

"We can't have you in here. Please, you need to go back to the waiting room."

"My boyfriend, Deacon Claybourne-he was in the car with him. Where is he?" Rayna demanded, pushing the nurse's arm off of hers. She gasped as the doctor working on Vince stepped back and called a time of death. "Where is he?"

"Give me a minute, and I'll find out," the nurse responded. She led Rayna to a chair in the hallway. "I'll find out, but you need to stay here. Will you do that?"

Rayna nodded wordlessly. How had this happened? Deacon had just gotten back from rehab. Again.

She sat in the hallway and watched as they pulled the sheet over Vince's body and the medical team left the room. She knew she was supposed to stay in the chair, but she just couldn't. She had to look at him, see him, see what had happened. She found herself walking into the room and pulling the sheet back, seeing his face with cuts all over it, bruises all over his chest…

"You shouldn't be in here."

She turned to find the nurse again. "Did you find him? Is he...is he dead?"

The nurse shook her head. "He's in surgery. He's pretty banged up and it was touch and go down here, but he had a seat belt on unlike his friend. They think he'll make it."

She led Rayna upstairs to another waiting room outside the operating room. Rayna had waited there for nearly six hours. After Deacon finally made it to his room, she waited another twelve hours for him to wake up. But then he woke up, he smiled at her and seventy-two hours later she was helping him out to their car, taking him home-broken-hearted at Vince's death, but so grateful that Deacon was alive.

"We're just about to take the blankets off," Caleb Rand said as he came up next to her. "You can come and be in the room, if you want."

Rayna followed him in wordlessly, stopping to kiss Deacon's cheek before moving into the corner where she was out of the way of the medical team. She watched as they removed the cooling treatment, then adjusted Deacon's still body in the bed.

"What happens now?" she asked Caleb as the rest of the team left the room.

He looked over to Deacon and then back to her. "We continue life support and we monitor him. At 72 hours we will reassess based on his response."

Rayna looked up at the clock in the room. It had been 24 hours since the end of the surgery. It had felt like forever-she could only imagine what the next three days would feel like. And why did it feel like this time there might not be a happy ending…