Bucky contacted the label and they sent their plane to Des Moines the next day to pick us up. After reviewing pages of instructions, which boiled down to eat frequently, drink lots of water, and rest – and that meant no touring – the doctor let me leave. We were back in Nashville and at my doctor's office by mid-afternoon. After getting the same message from Dr. Norris, Deacon took me home.

Tandy had come to the airport to pick up Maddie, so that I could rest. After drawing me to her in a fierce hug, she had winked at me and whispered, "I think he just wants a couple days of you naked in bed, without distractions." I had turned red and she smiled. "Just take care of yourself and that baby, sweetheart. Don't worry about Maddie for the next few days. I'll spoil her rotten."

It turned out Tandy wasn't far off on either comment. I knew she would let Maddie rule the roost at her house, which meant she'd be impossible once we got her back home. And once my doctor said I was fine, Deacon couldn't wait to get me home and into bed. With him in it, of course. I was worried about press coverage of what had happened, but Bucky was able to hold it off initially and defer most of it to the label. So we were able to get home without having to answer a lot of questions. As soon as we were in the house, Deacon hustled me into our bedroom. It didn't take long for him to bury himself deep inside me.

"Oh, God, babe, I missed this," I groaned, even though it had just been one night. Afterwards, as we lay there, breathing hard, I thought about missing the rest of the tour. I was disappointed, of course, but glad that my fainting spell hadn't been anything more serious. I really wasn't sure I could completely take a step back; in my head, I was already planning how I would fill the time until the baby came. But I decided that I wouldn't talk to Deacon about that just yet.

He snuggled up to me and nuzzled my neck. "I'm not letting you out of this bed for the next three days," he said. "Or maybe the next five."

I laughed. "I have to get up some time. To eat that food and drink that water that Dr. Norris told me I had to eat and drink."

He ran his hand over my cheek. "I'll bring it to you. All you have to do is stay here all naked and gorgeous and wait for me to get you going again."

I leaned in and kissed him. "A girl could get used to that. Being waited on and having unlimited sex with the sexiest man alive."

He chuckled. "Just like the old days, Ray." He put his arms around me and then ran his hand down over my stomach. "Except maybe for this." He kissed me again. "But I like this."

I took a deep breath as his fingers made lazy circles over my stomach. I still felt a little self-conscious about my growing size, but he never made me feel anything but loved and desired. As though he knew what I was thinking, his fingers trailed down and found their way between my legs. I sighed deeply as he started again to give me what I craved.

Later that evening, as the sun started to set in the sky, Deacon and I actually did get out of bed and wandered into the kitchen. He helped me get up on one of the stools at the counter and then he brought me a big glass of water. He leaned on the counter across from me and frowned at me. "I just want to remind you that you need to follow the rules. I know you don't like not doing anything, but just for a few days, for me, please, let me take care of you, Ray."

I rested my elbows on the counter and rested my chin on my clasped hands and looked at him. His hair was a little messy and I wanted to reach out and push it back off his face. His eyes looked tired and weary, but I knew they were really full of concern for me. I smiled at him. "I promise, Deacon, I'll let you take care of me. But just for a few days. I'm not an invalid and Dr. Norris said I am fine. I am not restricted from doing anything" – I could see him tense up and get ready to protest – "except for the tour. I get it." Deacon relaxed. I leaned my head to one side. "Now, babe, I'm hungry. I want something to eat."

He pushed himself up and smiled at me. "Eggs and bacon ok?" I nodded. "Good," he said. "Since that's all we have." And then he went about the business of scrambling eggs and frying up bacon and it was the most delicious food I'd had in a long time.

The next day I was craving peanut butter and saltines and we surprisingly had none in the house. So Deacon went out to get some for me, while I took a long shower and got dressed. When he came back, he had a dark look on his face. "What's the matter, babe?" I asked as I took the bag from him and carried it into the kitchen.

He scowled. "Well, of course, it's out now that you cancelled the rest of your tour and that you fainted in Des Moines." I nodded. I knew as soon as word was out about the cancellations, it would be all over the news. "So there's press outside. Not many, just a couple, taking pictures and video for TV." I wasn't completely surprised, but I thought most of it would be handled at the label. "But there's, I don't know, stuff out there."

I frowned. "What do you mean by 'stuff'?"

"You know, like when you drive by someplace on the highway where there's been an accident and there's a little cross or some memorial?" I nodded. "Well, there's stuff out on the sidewalk in front of the house. Not a cross or anything, but like stuffed animals and things like that."

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh. For the baby, I bet." I put my hand on his arm and rubbed it, smiling at him. "I'm sure it's fans, leaving things for the baby. I think that's kind of sweet."

"I don't know, Ray. It seems a little creepy, knowing that people are coming by our house, leaving things. That they know where we live."

I thought about that. We had never moved from the East Nashville bungalow we'd bought years ago, even after I got to be a major headliner. We had bought the house a couple years after Deacon had bought the cabin, because that was just too far away to live full time. We loved this house. I had planned to sign it over to Deacon after he got out of rehab that last time, but then I had left Teddy and moved back in. It was big enough for the four of us, when the new baby came, but it did mean that we were right in the middle of everything. I knew that the tour buses that drove past the country stars' homes drove by here, but I'd never really thought much about it, since we were gone as much, or more, than we were here. But we weren't typical of the others in our circle. Most of the top acts lived a couple counties out on big estates or in gated communities around Nashville. So the fact that we were so accessible meant that people could get close. Whether we liked it or not. It was kind of part of the deal here. But the locals were very respectful typically, letting the country music community live their lives as normally as possible.

Deacon looked at me closely. "Maybe we ought to think about moving."

"Really?" I wasn't sure I wanted to move. I loved this house. I had been born and raised in Nashville and I wanted to stay here. But I understood his nervousness with people being able to get to us so easily.

He shrugged. "Maybe. We can think about it."

"Maybe. But right now I want my peanut butter and saltines," I said, grinning at him. I got a knife from the drawer and set to work spreading peanut butter on my crackers.

For three days Deacon took care of me. If I wasn't in bed, I was laying on the couch, while he waited on me hand and foot. To be fair, it wasn't all sex all the time, although, happily, there was a lot of it. But he forced me to relax, not letting me do much of anything, until I finally rebelled.

Three days after we'd come home from Des Moines, Deacon came back from the grocery store to find me on the front porch stoop, dressed, hair done, and makeup on. He rushed up the steps with a frown on his face and, putting the bag down, sat next to me.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

I smiled at him. "Deacon, this has all been great and you've taken wonderful care of me. But I've got cabin fever. And I want my daughter back home." He pouted and I leaned over and kissed him. "Take me to lunch and then let's go by Tandy's and pick up Maddie." I rested my hands on my stomach. "I need my whole family together."

He sat there for a moment, thinking about what I'd said. Finally he put his arm around me and pulled me in close. He kissed my cheek. "I'm really glad you let me take care of you, Ray. I feel like I have so much to pay you back for."

I turned to look at him and frowned. "It doesn't have to be tit for tat, babe. It all evens out in the end."

He rubbed my shoulder and looked at me. "I was so scared, Ray," he said. "I was right behind you and when you started to fall…" He stopped, his lip quivering just a bit, his eyes suddenly red.

I took his face in my hands. "Babe, I'm sorry I scared you. But I'm glad you were there."

He worked his lip. "All I could think about was how much I wanted a drink," he said quietly. "I really think if I hadn't stayed right there with you the whole time, I'd have gone to a bar." I reached for his hand. "I really thought I was past that," he went on. "I was so close to screwing all this up."

"But you didn't. You stayed strong. For me. For both of us." I smiled at him. "I couldn't do any of this without you. I really needed you that night. Not just to catch me, but to hold me up and tell me what to do."

He pulled me against his side. "I don't want to disappoint you, baby. Ever again."

"You won't. You're so much stronger now. I trust you, babe."

He turned his head toward me and pressed his lips against my hair and then he sighed. "I keep waiting for this to be easy. When I won't think about it so much. Most times I think I've got it beat. I don't think about a drink, I don't even want one. But there's still times…"

I wasn't sure what to say. I'd never had a drinking problem and, although I had lived through this with him, I'd never really truly understood that all-consuming need for a drink that he'd had. He didn't talk about what went on in his meetings, so all I knew was that they were his lifeline in the tough times, and kept him accountable the rest of the time. "Deacon, I would guess that any time there's stress, it might be harder. But that's why you have meetings. And Cole. Right?"

He nodded. "I know this is my last chance with you, Rayna."

I looked away. He was probably right about that. Of course, I had thought his last chance ended that morning at the cabin when he'd gotten drunk and blacked out and couldn't remember asking me to marry him. I'd given him this chance because of Maddie. But with another baby coming, I knew that if he fell off the wagon again, I couldn't stay. It was too much to put children through. I didn't think about it as much as I used to, but it was always there in the back of my mind. I just had to trust that he could do it. He'd made it one thousand, nine hundred and thirty two days. And we'd been through a lot that had tested him and he was still strong.

And then it occurred to me that this time, Deacon had taken charge. The old Deacon would have let me take care of everything and make the decisions and probably would have gone off and gotten drunk. Even though we were truly partners, he had always talked about me being the "responsible one." In Des Moines, and since we'd been home, I was seeing a different Deacon than I'd ever seen before, more confident and able to be his own man. It had happened slowly and kind of under the radar, but now it was so apparent. I leaned my head into his shoulder and hugged him. "Babe, you're stronger than you know. I don't think you're as close to falling anymore as you think you are. You aren't in the same place where you were four years ago," I told him. He looked at me, took a deep breath, and then put his arm around me.

It actually turned out to be the next day before we went to get Maddie. Sitting there with him on the stoop, and realizing how far he had come, was an incredible turn on. Right then I'd needed desperately to be with him, skin on skin, hands everywhere, tongues and arms and legs entwined. This Deacon was the man I always knew was there and the one I'd been waiting for and I needed to tell him in the way we knew best just how glad I was that he'd succeeded. And at the end of the day, as dusk was approaching, we sat in bed, naked, me sitting between his legs with my back leaning against his chest, a notebook in my hands, and we wrote. A pretty love song about hope and dreams and struggle, but still hanging in there, that we called "Tryin' to Love You." When we were done, I dropped the notebook on the bed and leaned my head back against his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around me and leaned into my neck, leaving little kisses there. As I felt his need grow, so did mine, and we came together yet again to celebrate in the way that we always did.

A/N: "Tryin' to Love You" is an actual song, recorded by Trisha Yearwood.