Rayna felt the warm water sluice over her body. It was so relaxing as it ran down, washing away all the stress. She turned at the sound of the glass door being pulled open and smiled as Deacon slid in next to her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, smiling and then slipping from beneath the water so that she could kiss him.

"I missed you, babe," he replied. "Where were you? You just disappeared.."

Rayna sat up in bed, taking a minute to realize she was in her bedroom at home, the room dark despite the fact that it was the middle of the day. She rolled over, breathing in deeply, yearning for the scent of Deacon that still lingered in the sheets and on his pillow.

Her phone buzzed again and she realized that it must have been what had woken her up from the dream.

Where are you? was the text from Scarlett. Mom off deep end was the next message.

She pressed the call button to connect to Scarlett. The phone went directly to voicemail.

Can't talk. Come back to hospital now.

Rayna reached over, turned the light on and sighed. She pushed up from the bed, and walked over to her dresser, grabbing the first shirt that her hand touched and slipped it over her body. She pulled on a pair of jeans and slipped her feet into the shoes that were still at the end of the bed.

There was a tap at her bedroom door and Tandy opened it peeking her head into the room.

"I thought you'd sleep a bit longer," her sister said as she walked into Rayna's room.

Rayna shook her head. "I have to get back up to the hospital. I was going to just give Bev some time to cool off, but Scarlett texted and something's happening. Can you call Bucky and have him get my lawyer up there? I didn't want to make a scene, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let that woman do anything to hurt Deacon again."

"Of course, honey," Tandy replied. "Just go and I'll make the calls. You need anything else?"

Rayna took in a deep breath. "You think you can give Judge Larson a call? I don't know...get a restraining order or something?" She hated to keep trading on her father's dirty relationships, but in some ways, this time felt even more dire than the time Teddy has gotten an injunction to keep the girls away from Deacon.

How times had changed. Now Teddy was the one in jail and Deacon-Deacon had been there, had finally gotten that chance to have the family they had dreamed of for so long.

Rayna sucked in a deep sob.

"Oh, honey," Tandy said as she pulled her sister into her arms.

Rayna stayed pressed against her sister's shoulders, the tears now choking her voice. "I'm losing him, Tandy. I can feel him slipping away from me. And it's not fair. It's just not fair."

"He's still there, Ray. And you're gonna get him back. Everything's going to be fine."

Rayna stepped back and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Okay, so I'm gonna go."

Tandy leaned in and gave her a quick hug. "I'll get on the phone and have Bucky get the ball rolling. I love you, Rayna."

Rayna nodded, and headed for the door of the bedroom. She stopped at the door. "And, if you can, just make an excuse to the girls. I don't want them to know what's going on."

Tandy nodded. "Just go. I'll handle it."

Scarlett looked down at her phone. There had been one quick text from Rayna saying she was on the way and bringing the cavalry. Scarlett hoped so. Her mom had had that look in her eye-like she was going to roll Deacon's bed right out of the hospital, if she had to do it.

"Let's talk about this, Mama," Scarlett said, trying to keep her voice even and calm.

"There's nothing to talk about, Scarlett. I've made up my mind. Everything went wrong for Deacon when he came up here, when he met that woman. I just need to get him back to Natchez and I can take care of him there," Beverly replied.

"Oh, of course," Scarlett replied, trying to think of anything she could do to diffuse the situation. "But you're not really well enough to travel and I think we need to give these doctors here a chance to help Uncle Deacon wake up. I mean, we really need to wait at least 72 hours to give him a chance to heal."

"And if he doesn't wake up in those 72 hours?" Beverly asked. "I mean, don't you think that she'd probably just pull the plug on him?"

Scarlett put her arm on her mother's. "Now, why would you think that, Mama? You know that Rayna wants Uncle Deacon to get well as much as we do."

Beverly shook her head. "No, I've seen the way she's sitting in there, just watching him to see if he'll just stop breathing."

"She's waiting for him to wake up. She wants him to come back. She wants their family back," Scarlett tried to explain.

Beverly shook off Scarlett's hand. "And that's why I can't let her-he's my family."

Scarlett took a step back, watching. It was like the mother she'd known when she was little-starting out a little intense, then getting mean and then just irrational. Just like when she was sick.

"Mama, I'm just gonna go down here and freshen up a bit, okay?" Scarlett said. She needed to get more answers and soon.

"Fine," Beverly said as she turned back and put her full attention on Deacon, who continued to lay in his bed, still, his chest raising and lowering with the rhythm of the ventilator.

As Rayna pulled her truck into a spot in the parking garage her phone indicated a new text had arrived.

In Caleb's office. Come when you get here.

Rayna slipped her phone back into her pocket and headed into the hospital.

Rayna walked up to the door to Caleb's office and tapped on the door, pushing it open to find the doctor behind his desk and Scarlett sitting in one of the chairs in front of him.

"She's not right in her head," Scarlett was saying as Rayna walked in and sat down next to Deacon's niece.

"I assume we're talking about your mother," Rayna said. "It was pretty apparent that something was going on earlier-I mean, she hates me, but this seemed a bit much."

Caleb was looking down through a medical chart in front of him. "So, you said she had been taking a mood stabilizer?"

"If we're lucky," Scarlett muttered.

"What?" Caleb asked.

"Yes, she's taken for years-or she should be. She hasn't always been the most compliant about taking her medication."

"She didn't include any medications on her history when we did the screening," Caleb replied. "To be honest, it probably would have precluded using her as a donor."

"Is that what caused Deacon's heart to stop?" Rayna asked, her face going white.

Caleb shook his head. "No, I mean, we screened her-she didn't have any evidence of medication in her system."

"And when did you do that screening?" Scarlett asked.

"Last week, when she came back to town," Caleb answered. "We never got that far the first time."

Scarlett looked down at her hands, then over at Rayna. "That's why she said no-she must have known. So she stopped taking her medication until she could test clean."

Rayna shook her head. "Oh, Beverly."

"It's likely that the surgery and the change in the size of her liver is also having an impact," Caleb said. "If it's a hormone imbalance, it would be more pronounced in this situation."

"Oh, it's pronounced, alright," Scarlett said, letting out a big sigh. "I mean, I think I can trust that no one in this hospital is going to let her pack Deacon up in her car and drive him back to Natchez, cause that's what she was planning when I left her."

"I'm so sorry, honey," Rayna said, reaching over to take Scarlett's hand.

"Is this what Gunnar meant?" Caleb asked.

"What about Gunnar?" Scarlett replied.

Caleb shook his head. "He just said something the other night about your mom...I just…"

"We'll talk about it later," Scarlett interrupted. She looked over at Rayna. "So, I guess we probably need to do something about her."

Rayna nodded. "My attorney is coming up. I was going to ask for an injunction, but I don't know...honey, what if we had her declared, I don't know-something so that you are the one making decisions for your uncle."

Scarlett nodded. "She's not making any sense and I'm not letting her hurt Deacon, no matter what."

"Or what?"

Scarlett and Rayna turned to find Beverly standing in the door.

"You all plotting against me?" Beverly asked. "Cause believe me-you don't want to cross me."

Caleb's beeper started to go off. He looked down at it.

"I have to go-there's a code."

"Where?" Scarlett asked, standing up.

"It's Deacon."

TBC