Rayna looked over at Deacon's sister sitting in front of her. Talk about what? "Okay, shall we go down to the waiting room?" she asked Beverly.

"I think we can do it here," Beverly replied. "I've been discussing this with Deacon's doctors and I think that what we need to do now is give him time to rest and recover. Maybe stop with so much of the parade, the singing, all of the hovering."

Rayna looked at Beverly, not sure she understood what the other woman meant. "Hovering?"

"You," Beverly shot back. "I'm Deacon's sister, his next of kin and I'm saying, I think you need to leave it alone, Rayna. All of this," she swung her hand around in a circle in front of her, "it's distracting Deacon from getting better. So, why don't you go home and I'll call you when we need you."

"What?" Rayna asked. "I'm not leaving, Beverly. I know what Deacon needs. I'm the one who's been here, with him, through this illness, through the other times. I'm the one he loves."

"And I'm his sister," Beverly replied, her voice cold. "So, in my role as his medical proxy, I'm telling you you're not welcome and I've instructed the staff that Deacon is not to be disturbed. Got it?"

Rayna looked up to see a hospital security guard had appeared behind Beverly.

"You're kidding, right?" she asked, her voice getting sharp and louder.

"No, I'm not, Rayna. You may be the queen of country, but you're not Deacon's wife and I guess right now, that's what matters," Beverly responded. "So, you can wait here while Security gets your things from Deacon's room and then head for home or your office or some concert hall-I know your life is very busy. Didn't I see your ex-husband got arrested?"

"Just let me go say goodbye to him," Rayna answered, her voice now quiet.

"I don't think so," Beverly responded. She pushed her chair forward toward the door of Deacon's room. "I'll handle it from here."

"Don't think that this is going to work," Rayna shot back at her. "I'm calling my attorney as soon as I walk out of here."

"Go right ahead," Beverly replied. "And I'll call the press. I'm sure it'll make a great story. I know they loved the tip last week about Deacon's illness."

Rayna shook her head. She had been pretty sure that it had been Beverly who had slipped the news of Deacon's illness to the press before the night she showed up at the Bluebird, but Deacon had been so happy about Beverly's change of heart that he hadn't wanted Rayna to question her.

She stood against the wall, waiting as the security guard followed Beverly's directions to remove everything that she had put in Deacon's room to make him know they were there for him. It was so petty, so hurtful-to both her and Deacon. But then again, that's how Beverly had always been. Willing to hurt everyone around her, just for spite.

Rayna looked over at Deacon, sitting in a chair across from her. "You look really good, babe," she said. And he did-healthier than he had in a couple of years. The time in Minnesota had done so much good for him.

Deacon sat, his eyes fixed on the door. "Did she say that they would come?" he asked Rayna, his eyes moving over and settling on her.

She nodded. "I talked to your mom and your sister yesterday. They were booked on the flight coming in at 2 pm from Biloxi."

She looked over at the clock on the wall. It was almost 7 pm. They should have been here by now.

"You want me to check and see if there are any messages?" she asked.

Deacon shook his head. He got up and walked over to the window, looking out into the woods filled with tall, thin pine trees. After a moment he turned back to Rayna. "It's okay. I'm sure something came up."

She wanted to say the right thing. It had been such a big breakthrough for Deacon to ask them to come and be here for family therapy. And when she'd called to offer to pay for the tickets, Deacon's sister had been cool, but had been willing to come and to bring Deacon's mom. It just felt like maybe, somehow, things would be different this time-that maybe he'd be able to put one or two of those family demons behind him.

"Excuse me, Deacon?"

They looked up to see one of the staff standing at the door.

"It's your niece on the phone. If you want to come to my office, I can give you some time to talk to her."

Deacon got up and followed the man into the hallway. Rayna waited a beat, then followed them, standing outside the office while Deacon spoke with Scarlett. After a few minutes he hung up and came back out.

"They're not coming," he said, his voice dull.

Rayna reached up to take him into her arms but he stepped away from her, shaking his head.

"Sorry, Ray-I just don't think I can do that right now," Deacon said.

"Did she say why they didn't come?" Rayna asked.

Deacon looked over at her. There were tears in his eyes. She had never seen that emotion from him.

"Scarlett said that her momma said she just wasn't up to it-not this time. Not any time."

Rayna stayed for the weekend with the other families, but she might as well flown home the first night. Once Deacon had opened that part of his head and heart up, it opened so much more pain, but she wasn't the one he needed to heal it. He stayed and finished the program, but once again, a few months later, she found him passed out on the bus, unwilling, unable to stop the demons with anything other than a bottle.

"Play through the chorus one more time," Scarlett said as Gunnar sat on the chair across from the couch.

I'm inside out shot through the center

Feel this scar of where you entered

Took my life and turned it upside down

I'm burned to ashes split down the middle

If anyone asks it hurt just a little

I died inside the day I let you go

But I will never let you know

The last chord trailed off and they sat staring at each other. Gunnar set his guitar down and moved to the couch, settling in next to her.

"We shouldn't do this," Scarlett said. "I'm with Caleb...you have Kylie."

Gunnar leaned in and kissed her. She didn't react for a moment, then opened her mouth to receive him. He pressed her back against the couch and she slipped under him. His hand moved down, slipping under the soft cotton on her blouse and onto her skin. She pulled him closer to her, feeling more like herself than she had in months.

Gunner continued, his hands moving across her body now when her phone began to buzz. He started to sit up, but she pulled him closer again. The phone stopped. Then started buzzing again.

Reluctantly, she broke the embrace and reached down into her bag.

"It's Caleb," she said, her voice quiet. She pressed the button to answer the call. "Caleb?"

They spoke for a moment, then she hung up. "I need you to take me back. Right now."

"Is it Deacon?" Gunnar asked, his face filled with concern.

Scarlett shook her head. "No, as usual, it's my mother. I should have never left her alone. She's up there ruining everything. Again."

Gunnar stood up and held his hand out to her. "Let's go and see what we can do to fix this."

She took his hand and stood up. "Gunnar…"

But she didn't say anything else. She turned and headed toward the door, and Gunnar followed. Whatever was happening, they would have to figure it out later.

Rayna was sitting in her car, still in the parking garage when Bucky finally found her. He tapped on the window on the passenger side. She looked over, pressed the button to unlock the door and he climbed into the vehicle.

"You okay?" he asked as he settled into the soft leather seat.

Rayna looked over at him, chuckled softly and shook her head. "No, I'm not okay."

"What can I do, Ray?"

Rayna looked straight ahead across the dash, her hands resting on the steering wheel. "How did I get here, Bucky? I mean, I've worked hard my whole life, I've tried to do the right thing when I could and I never intentionally tried to hurt anyone, but here I sit. Deacon is in that hospital, I'm out here. The girls are heartbroken about Teddy and Deacon. The label is a mess… I mean, how did this all happen?"

"Why are you out here?" Bucky asked.

Rayna looked over at him and smiled. "Because it turns out that Beverly is the one who has the say about what happens to Deacon and she has determined that I'm not helping, so she kicked me out."

"She what?" Bucky asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

"Yep-she had security go in his room and pick up my things and carry them out to me. Then they walked me out here. I'm kind of surprised they didn't just escort me the whole way down to the edge of the property."

Bucky pulled out his phone. "I'm going to call our lawyer. This makes no sense."

Rayna shook her head. "No, it makes no sense at all, but that's Beverly. I'm just...I'm tired, Bucky. I'm tired of fighting, of hoping, of trying to hard to make things work out."

Bucky looked over at her. "I don't actually think that's true, Rayna. But I do think you're tired and you're worried. Let's go home, try to rest a little bit and then we'll figure out what to do. Deacon's in good hands. Can you do that?"

Rayna closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She opened them and looked over at her manager and nodded. "Yeah, Buck. I can do that."

Scarlett marched off the elevator, Gunnar trailing behind her. She walked quickly down the hallway to her mother's room. She opened the door to find Beverly sitting in her bed reading a magazine.

"What exactly are you doing?" she demanded as she walked up to the bed.

Beverly looked over at her, laid down her magazine and smiled. "I'm doing what I think is best. I think all of this hovering is stressing Deacon out. I'm just looking out for my brother."

"You don't give a shit about him," Scarlett spat out at her. "If you did, you would have done the surgery right away and not made him wait so long so that he got so sick and this all happened."

"I'm never gonna be good enough for you, am I?" Beverly replied. "Well, you won't have to worry about me pretty soon."

"What do you mean?" Scarlett asked, feeling a cold fear wash over her.

"I'm going home," she said. "Today. And I'm taking Deacon with me."

TBC